Thursday, March 16, 2017

Lenten Midweek II

Lenten Midweek II
March 15, 2017
“Dear Christians, One and All Rejoice: From the Father’s Heart”[1]
Text: John 12:27-36; LSB 556:4

            God had seen our wretched state before the world’s foundation, before the beginning, before the first tick of the clock inaugurated time and history.  He knew what would happen.  He did not will it to happen this way.  God does not will sin, and He did not will the fall of humanity in the Garden.  But He foreknew it.  And He foreknew your sin, your wretched state.  And from all eternity He was determined to do something about it, for from all eternity you have been in His heart.  God so loved the world, God so loved you, that He did not choose the easy part.  He gave His dearest treasure.  He sent His Son.  Jesus came to bear your sin.  Jesus came to suffer your punishment, that God “might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26; ESV).  Jesus came to die.
            “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour” (John 12:27).  For this purpose I have come to this hour.  What hour does He speak of in our Gospel?  The hour in the Gospels is the divinely appointed time when the Son of Man is sacrificed for our sins.  Jesus came for this purpose, to be lifted up on the cross and die for the sins of the world.  And this isn’t just some Plan B because things went tragically wrong in Eden.  This has been God’s plan from all eternity.  It has always been in His heart to redeem you in a manner most costly to Himself, the blood and death of His Son.  And in this way, Jesus’ prayer is answered, that the Father’s Name be glorified, the Name Jesus bears and reveals to us, that God is our Father who loves us and longs to be reconciled to us by the forgiveness of sins.  And in this way also the Father’s Name is glorified, for in the lifting up of the Son on the cross, the Judgment of this world is complete, being poured out on Christ; the ruler of this world (Satan) is cast out; and our Savior draws all men unto Himself.
            Jesus is the answer to the question, “How is God toward me?”  Is He a God of wrath, justly angered by my sins, poised to cast me into the abyss of hell?  Or is He a God of mercy, determined to win my salvation and bestow on me His eternal Kingdom?  In Jesus, we know the heart of God.  If you ever wonder what God thinks of you, how He is disposed toward you, look on a crucifix.  Consider the man, beaten and bloody and dead, nailed there to the wood.  Remember that this dead man is none other than God, the eternally-begotten Son of the Father, become flesh for this very purpose, so that He could die.  For you.  Look at the wounds.  His sacred head encircled with thorns for your sinful thoughts, your fantasies, your premeditation and nostalgia for sin.  His hands pierced with nails for your iniquitous actions, His feet likewise impaled to atone for your feet which have carried you places you should not be.  Look upon His side, thrust through with a spear.  See the water and the blood poured out for you.  A crucifix is a helpful piece of jewelry or décor.  It helps you meditate on your Lord’s Passion.  It keeps Christ crucified before your eyes.  How is God toward you?  Here you have your answer.  He is the God who sacrifices His own Son to save you and make you His own.  He turns to you a father’s heart, the heart He has had for you from eternity.  God loves you, and He will not forsake you. 
            In addition to our hymn, Luther writes of the Father’s heart toward us in the Large Catechism.  In his discussion on the Creed he writes, “For here in all three articles God has revealed Himself and opened the deepest abyss of His fatherly heart and His pure, inexpressible love [Ephesians 3:18-19].  He has created us for this very reason, that He might redeem and sanctify us.  In addition to giving and imparting to us everything in heaven and upon earth, He has given to us His Son and the Holy Spirit, who brings us to Himself [Romans 8:14, 32].  For… we could never grasp the knowledge of the Father’s grace and favor except through the Lord Christ.  Jesus is a mirror of the fatherly heart [John 14:9; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3], outside of whom we see nothing but an angry and terrible Judge.”[2]
            Jesus is a mirror of the fatherly heart.  On the cross you see the heart of God, “laid open, broken and bleeding for you” (Pless).  All God’s just wrath over your sin is poured out there, on God’s Son, lifted up on the cross.  All God’s tender love for you is poured out here where the risen Jesus speaks into your ears and heart and feeds you His true body and blood.  In Baptism you are made God’s child.  The Spirit opens your lips to pray, “Our Father”…  God in heaven hears and answers for Jesus’ sake.  Again, Luther writes in the Large Catechism, “whenever a godly Christian prays, ‘Dear Father, let Your will be done’ [see Matthew 6:10], God speaks from on high and says, ‘Yes, dear child, is shall be so, in spite of the devil and all the world.’”[3]  So, how is God toward you?  He is your Father, and you are His child.  The proof of it is Christ crucified for you.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.            



[1] The theme and structure of this sermon are from John T. Pless, “Dear Christians, One and All Rejoice,” Lenten Preaching Seminar 2010, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN. 
[2] LC II: Article III:64-65 (McCain).
[3] LC III:32 (McCain)

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