200329 Lent 5 Home Worship Order of Service Document <--click here for order of service
Our Gospel reading today comes from John’s Gospel. John is
one of the twelve apostles. His brother was named James. It is believed that
John is the only one of the twelve who died a natural death after living to be
an old man. All the others were killed for preaching that Christ is the Savior.
This does not mean that John did not suffer. He did. But perhaps God wanted
John to live out his days so that as an old man he could write a fourth Gospel
in addition to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which had already been written. Anyone
who is even remotely familiar with the four Gospels knows that John is
different than Matthew, Mark, and Luke. As an old man and as the sole survivor
of the twelve apostles, I believe that John wanted to speak of the things that
he had seen and heard as Jesus’s disciple that had not already been covered by
the other three Gospels. If the other three Gospels had already said what
needed to be said, then he left that be.
And so it is that we hear of many of the things that Jesus
said from John who was an eyewitness. Something that comes out very plainly in
John’s Gospel is that Jesus was very simple and clear in what he said about
himself. Let’s hear some of these simple declarations.
You are quite familiar with this one: “God loved the world
in this way, that he sent his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
God sent his Son to save, not so that the world would be judged and condemned.
God sent his Son to save because the world already was judged and condemned.
Or consider this declaration from a couple chapters later. “Amen,
amen, I tell you: Anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has
eternal life. He is not going to come into judgment but has crossed over from
death to life. Amen, amen, I tell you: A time is coming and is here now when
the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will live.”
Whoever hears Jesus and believes that God has sent him has eternal life. There
is no judgment. Such a one has crossed over from death to life.
Here’s another statement from the next chapter: “I have
come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. And
this is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has
given me, but raise them up on the Last Day. For this is the will of my Father:
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life. And I
will raise him up on the Last Day.”
I’m not out of passages. I could easily come up with some
more plain statements that Jesus is the Son of God who was sent from the Father
so that we may have eternal life in him. Those who believe will not be judged and
condemned. They will not perish eternally. They will be raised up on the Last
Day to a superabundant life where all evil has been put away. This is as plain
as plain can be. John reports what Jesus said.
John also reports that in spite of Jesus being exceptionally
clear, the Jews did not believe him—particularly the Jews in Jerusalem. Some
people believed in Jesus in Galilee and even in Samaria, but the Jerusalem Jews
were very hostile to Jesus. There were probably several reasons why the
Jerusalem Jews did not like Jesus. I’ll mention just a couple.
First of all, he was not from the big schools and big names
in Jerusalem. He was from Nazareth of Galilee. What good can come from there?
Jesus’s hometown is so prominent that it even gets painted as a mocking title
over his cross: “Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.” Jesus was from the
sticks. What would he know?
This is related to a second reason why the Jerusalem Jews
did not like Jesus: He didn’t know his place. He drove the money changers out
of the temple. That had to make some people angry. He healed people on
Saturdays, even though that was the Sabbath and no work was to be done on the
Sabbath. When the church officials told Jesus to stop doing this, he didn’t
stop. If he saw someone needed help on the Sabbath he helped them. This
convinced the Jerusalem Jews early on that Jesus was no good and he couldn’t
ever be good. He didn’t follow their rules, so he must be a bad guy.
The reading we heard today comes from the eighth chapter of
John. This means that we are a ways into the story. The Jews in Jerusalem are
getting fed up with Jesus. You can hear that in the reading. They say, “Are we
not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” They are
disgusted and repulsed by Jesus. As you heard, they would have stoned Jesus if
they could have. But the time was not yet right. Jesus hid himself and departed
from them. This hatred would finally come to fruition, though. Soon the
Jerusalem Jews would have enough. As you’ll hear in next week’s Gospel reading,
they became afraid that the whole world was going to be deceived by Jesus. For
the good of the nation he has to be killed. They conspire against him, falsely
accuse and condemn him, and nail him to a cross. The Jews’ hatred of Jesus that
we see in our reading today is a part of this larger narrative of hatred.
We’ve already considered a couple reasons why Jesus was
disliked by the Jerusalem Jews. Our reading clues us in to the ultimate
reasons. The fact of the matter is that Jesus and the Jews couldn’t be more
different from one another. Jesus comes from God the Father. He is true. As
Jesus says later, he is the way the truth and the life. Jesus says that the
Jews’ father is the devil. The devil is a liar. He is also a murderer. And so
we get three incredible contrasts. Jesus is from God the Father. He is true. He
promotes life. The Jews are from the devil. They are liars. They promote death.
Let’s not be deceived here into thinking that because Jesus
is talking to Jews that we, as Gentiles, are different. Jesus is speaking to
Jews. That is why he calls them Jews. If he were speaking to us as Gentiles he
would not change his tune. What applies to these Jews in Jerusalem applies to
all people the whole world over, for that is what it means to be conceived and
born in sin. All people, by nature, have the devil as their lord and master.
All people are therefore chips off the old block. They are liars. They are
murderers. Jesus is talking about you.
Perhaps you’d like to break in here and say, “Now you just
wait a cotton picking minute! I’m not a liar! I haven’t killed anyone! Are we
not right in saying you are a delusional religious fanatic?”
I’m not going to spend a lot of time trying to convince you.
If people want to believe a lie, they will do what is necessary in order to
continue to believe it. I’ll just point out one thing that might help you see
the truthfulness of Jesus’s words about you. It has to do with what is
advantageous to yourself. Perhaps you don’t always lie. But I’ll tell you when
you do—it’s when your own welfare is at stake. If you have to lie to cover up
some evil that you have done, then you will lie your head off. Nobody had to
teach you how to do this. You’ve done it since you were a little kid. And
perhaps you haven’t shot or strangled or poisoned anybody. Why? It’s because
you’d have too much to lose. You might get caught. You might get sent to
prison. You’d lose your good reputation. But how do you feel when someone you
don’t like has something bad happen to them? Is there some secret satisfaction?
What that shows is the violence that you’d like to do, but don’t, because you
care about yourself and your own welfare too much.
But again, I’m not going to waste my breath trying to
convince you if you don’t want to believe this about yourself. I’m fully aware
that the message that the world offers is the exact opposite. The world says
that people are basically good; that they are free, and have never been
enslaved to anyone. That’s not what the Bible says though. The Bible says that all
men are liars. It says that all people have sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God. No one is righteous—no not even one. This is why we are in such
desperate need of a Savior who saves us completely without any merit or
worthiness in us, without our contribution or cooperation. This, of course, is
what Jesus has done. Whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal
life.
The Christian message is as stark as it is simple. There are
two great truths. Truth number one: You are a sinner. Truth number two: God is
the justifier of sinners in Jesus Christ the crucified and resurrected Lord.
These two truths are under constant attack from enemies outside of the church
as well as within it. And we should be aware of the danger within ourselves too.
Our reading today gives us the opportunity to see this. How
do you feel when Jesus says, “Why are you not able to understand my message?
It’s because you are not able to listen to my word. You are from your father,
the devil, and you want to do his desires.” Doesn’t this make you cringe? It’s
not very diplomatic. We’re all inclined to give Jesus some preaching advice.
You catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar, Jesus. You’re just going
to make them mad, Jesus. It’s better to just ignore them. You should just
preach to an audience that is favorable to you.
But this is bad advice. Jesus is not inclined to take it,
and here’s why: He isn’t looking out for himself when he says such things.
Jesus is not an idiot. He knows what such harsh truths are liable to do to
people who don’t want to believe it. He knows that there will be blowback and
consequences. But he is not looking out for himself, but he does what he does
out of his love for his Father and out of love for those he is speaking to.
Because here’s the thing: Whosoever is a Christian is somebody who has heard
God diagnose him or her and said, “My God, you are right. I am a child of the
devil. I do love to lie and hurt other people if it somehow betters myself.” Or
we could put this same sentiment into a more familiar form: “I, a poor,
miserable sinner, confess unto Thee all my sins and iniquities by which I have
ever offended Thee. I have sinned against you by thought, word, and deed, by
what I have done and by what I have left undone.”
Here we have the first simple truth of the Christian
message. Blessed are you if you believe it about yourself. Grace has taught
your heart to fear. Even more blessed are you if grace your fears relieve. You
know this by familiar words too: “I pray Thee of Thy boundless mercy and for
the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved
Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.
Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die for you and for His sake
forgives you all your sins. As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by
His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
The amazing grace of God is that he has not held our sins
against us. He rather sent his Son, sacrificed him, and by his blood made
atonement. All who believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
This is the simple Christian message. Not everybody is going
to believe it. Some people are going to revile it and persecute it. As we enter
into Holy Week next week, it is good to realize that Jesus was killed because
of the saving truths he spoke. They were unwelcome to those who heard them. The
same thing is true with the apostles and martyrs who died. They did not die
because they were evildoers. They died because they spoke the truth and those
who loved the lie could not bear to hear it. This helps us know what we should
expect for our own life. But we also know that all who have suffered or
sacrificed for the truth have lost nothing. The truth wins in the end.
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