Sermon manuscript:
The way that we are saved as Christians is that we are
united with Christ so that there is a sharing that takes place between him and
us. We share what belongs to us. Christ shares what belongs to him. We hold all
things in common. The result of this sharing is that Christ receives our sin so
that it becomes his own. He dies in order to atone for the sin that we could
never rid ourselves of otherwise. He shares with us his righteousness, life,
and status. Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. We receive the status of
divine sonship when we are baptized into him.
All these thoughts are prominent during this Christmas
season. At Christmas we think about how the Son of God became man and was born
of the Virgin Mary. In this way he joins us in our condemnation and misery so
that he could lift us up and help us. It is an amazing thing, that we don’t quite
understand, how God intertwines himself with human beings so as to bring about
their eternal happiness. Since God has joined himself with us human beings, and
he will forever be intertwined with us in Jesus Christ, we may know that our
salvation is certain.
Christians find hope and joy in this sharing that God does
with us. Our Christmas songs all ring out with this message: Joy to the world,
the Lord has come. Hark the herald angels sing. Away in a manger. Gloria in
excelsis Deo. Go, tell it on the mountain. All these songs announce the Gospel,
the good news, that in Jesus God and sinners are reconciled. Unto us a Savior
is born. Immanuel, God is with us. Jesus is the best gift at Christmas. One
thought of the shame of our sins or the punishments of hell must quickly convince
us of that.
But it is good for us to see how this gift is different than
other Christmas gifts. With all other gifts the recipient of the gift can
choose to either take the gift or leave it. If you like some gift you can
treasure it and be entertained with it. If you don’t like some gift you can
toss it to the side. You can toss it in the trash. The one who receives the
gift maintains absolute control.
That’s not how it is for those who receive the gift of
Christ. First of all, for anyone to truly receive the gift of Christ, it is
necessary for the Holy Spirit to perform the miracle of faith. If it were left
up to any of us, as far as we are by nature, we would not welcome Christ the
King, but would see him as a threat to our dark plans. All Christians are
converted despite themselves by the power of Almighty God. Jesus says, “You
did not choose me. I chose you.” So this is very different than any normal
gift.
The gift of Christ is also different in the way that it does
not allow those who truly receive him to remain unchanged. If the person
remains unchanged, then that is proof that the gift was either not received, or
the person believed for a while but then fell away.
Jesus’s parable of the sower of the seed helps us here. The
seed that the farmer sows is the Gospel of salvation—the promise of sharing of
all things together with Jesus. Some of it falls on the path and it never
sprouts. Some of it falls on certain types of soil where the person believes,
but then falls back into their old ways. Some of it falls in good soil and the
life of that seed is transformed so that it bears much fruit.
God’s gift of salvation in Christ is such that it cannot be
something that you tuck away in a cupboard somewhere, and you pull it out
whenever it might be convenient for you to use it—at Judgment Day, for example.
You cannot remain in your happy relationship with greed or lust or pride or
lying or manipulating or domineering or ambition or any of the other things
that seem to hold out promise for giving us happiness. The old values get
overshadowed by the new values that we receive together with Christ so that the
old values lose their glory entirely.
The new values that we receive in Christ are the ones that
he teaches us in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere in the Gospels. Blessed
are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for
they shall inherit the earth. Do not do your good works before others, to be
seen by them. Do them in secret and your heavenly Father will reward you. Do
not fear those who can only kill the body. Fear God who can throw body and soul
into hell. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. Do not resist
evil. Do not return evil for evil, but bless those who persecute you. And so
on.
Here you see that the sharing goes further than a mere
pardon. We often, and rightly, emphasize the gift of pardon and peace that God
gives us. He forgives us. All this he does without any merit or worthiness in
me. But he also doesn’t leave us unchanged. He doesn’t leave us with our evil,
unloving heart. He teaches us what is really good instead of what the world and
our flesh regards as good. We share in the divine life of love. We share in the
life of dying on the cross. We share in the sufferings of Christ. All this is
done in love for the neighbor, and therefore in love toward God.
This is assuming, of course, that such a person actually
wants to be a real Christian who shares in what God gives in Christ. There are
a lot of people who are satisfied pretending that they are Christians. They
claim allegiance to Christ. They go to Church. They follow the rules. But if
ever they are faced with a decision between Christ and their friends, or Christ
and their family members, or Christ and their livelihood, they go with whatever
seems to offer more promise for happiness or success in this earthly life. They
will not suffer.
Therefore Christ’s words apply to them: “Whoever loves
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up his cross
and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and
whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Unbelievers declare such devotion to Christ fanatical and
evil. How could anyone choose religion over flesh and blood? Unbelievers will
also say that it is dangerous for people’s psychological wellbeing. The life of
loving sacrifice supports and furthers victimization. The values Christ teaches
hamper the progress that we should be making as a society. Jesus’s teachings
can even be viewed as a threat to the successfulness of the church
organization. People won’t want to become Christians if this kind of thing is
taught. Congregations will shrink. Synods will lose their revenue.
Thus the Christian is opposed from within and from without. This
is no surprise to Jesus. Jesus summed up his beatitudes this way: “Blessed
are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil
against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward
in heaven.” Jesus knew that his divine life of love, shown forth in his
Christians, would be opposed just as he was opposed.
It is Christians, and only Christians, whom the apostle
Peter is comforting with our Epistle reading today. But he is inviting the rest
of us along for the ride too, with our stubborn flesh that prefers not to
suffer. He is teaching us a new grammar for our life. The basic rules for life
that come naturally to us is that we have to look out for ourselves, that we
should only do those things that will benefit ourselves, and we should
carefully avoid anything that we might not like.
The new rules that Peter is teaching us is that we should
not think that it is strange if we have a fire burning down on us. This is not
something strange. It is something that is literally familiar to us, because we
have become family with Jesus. We have all things in common with Jesus. Jesus
is opposed by this unbelieving world, and so, of course, we will too. But just
as Jesus overcame with his sufferings, so we will too. If Jesus had not risen
from the dead, and only endured suffering, then those sufferings would have
been stronger. But through that very suffering Jesus overcame and brought about
a new and better world.
This is what happens when Christians join in and share in Jesus’s
suffering. If there were no resurrection from the dead, then this would be the
most foolish and miserable thing to do. Paul says in 1 Cor. 15 that if
Christians are not raised from the dead, then they should be pitied above all
people. If there is no resurrection from the dead, then of course it would be
better to just live for yourself, making the most of every opportunity for
happiness, and letting everybody else fend for themselves.
But since there is a resurrection from the dead we are
dealing with a new grammar for life. As Peter says, when you suffer, do not
think that something strange is happening to you. “Instead rejoice whenever
you are sharing in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may rejoice and be
glad when his glory is revealed.” When Jesus comes again we will see that
our shared life in him was good not only for ourselves, but also for others who
benefit from the evil that we are called patiently to endure and overcome.
“If you are insulted in connection with the name of
Christ, you are blessed,” Peter says. That is something that we cannot know
unless God teaches it to us by his Holy Spirit. We assume that being blessed is
a matter of having good health, lots of money, and so on. Being insulted
because of your devotion to the name of Jesus is not something we would
naturally recognize as being a blessing.
However, again, it has to do with our shared life with
Jesus. As you know, Jesus was insulted all the time. His own mother and
brothers one time were trying to get him to stop. At Jesus’s trial and while he
hung on the cross he was insulted viciously. They made fun of him without mercy
while he hung in shame.
When this happens to us, then, as Peter says, “the Spirit
of glory and of God rests on you.” Here again we have something that we
won’t understand naturally. A naked man hanging on a piece of wood with nails
pounded into his hands and feet does not appear glorious to our natural senses.
Glory to us is winning in sports, winning in business, winning in life. God’s
glory is being made lower than everybody else. Although Jesus was God he
humbled himself and took on the form of a servant. He took the lowest place.
And why? So that through him love would be poured out for the whole world.
This is what happens when Christians, likewise, are humbled.
The Spirit of glory and of God rests on them. They, the disciples, are becoming
like their master, Jesus. That, indeed, is a tremendous glory. In fact it has
so much glory that all other glories will have no glory in comparison. This
will be made clear when Jesus comes again. At the name of Jesus every knee will
bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. So, as Peter says, “If you
suffer for being a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God in connection
with this name.” The name of Jesus will be victorious.
You can see that Peter is not saying that we Christians
should duck and cover. He is not saying that we should stoically put up with
the suffering, as though it is something shameful, that will hopefully quickly
go away. Just as Peter is not ashamed of the cross of Jesus Christ, so also he
is not ashamed when he or any other Christian is reviled, persecuted, and all
kinds of evil is spoken against them falsely for Jesus’s sake. Following Jesus,
being a disciple of Jesus, is the path to victory. Jesus was victorious, so we
will be too. Jesus was judged and vindicated. We are judged and vindicated
too—not by unbelievers, but by God.
It is a blessed and holy thing when Jesus brings it about
that you should suffer for the name of Jesus. It is a sharing in the suffering
of Jesus. Not everybody is worthy of such an honor. Rejoice and be glad If God
should choose this for you.
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