Sermon manuscript:
The original temptation held out a promise to Adam and Eve.
The serpent said, “You will be like God.” That promise achieved the
serpent’s desired effect and has continued to be attractive up to the present
day. Deeply seated within us is the desire to be recognized as the greatest. If
it were possible we would all like to be the greatest in absolutely every
aspect of life. We would all want to be the most charming, the prettiest, the
smartest, the fastest, the strongest, the richest, the one with the most
authority, so on and so forth. But most people are smart enough to realize that
they cannot excel in every area of life. Some people will never be the prettiest.
Others will never be the smartest. And so we all pick for ourselves certain
areas of life where we have a better chance of being recognized as the
greatest.
I attribute this to that seed which was planted in our
hearts in the Garden. We all want to be like God. We all, in a sense, want to
be worshipped. That is, we want everybody to turn their heads to look at us
when we walk into a room. We’d like it if they’d cover their mouths in awe,
just being in our presence. Whispering to their neighbor they might say, “There
goes that magnificent human being!” I might be exaggerating a little bit.
Perhaps you don’t think you’re that vain. But isn’t that just one more feather
in your cap? Not only are you so outstanding, but you’re modest to boot! The
desire to be the greatest is in our blood.
Therefore, since Christians also have flesh and blood, this
desire will also always found in us too. We are no different from the people we
read about in the Bible. Perhaps you remember that on the night when Jesus was
betrayed, on the night when Jesus instituted the Sacrament, the disciples were
arguing with one another over who among them was the greatest. Also in the
congregation at Corinth, it seems that the members of that congregation were
competing with one another over who was the most talented and the most gifted.
Our epistle reading today comes from Paul’s letter to this
congregation. He intends to teach them about a different kind of greatness.
This is the letter where he says, “The Jews seek signs and the Greeks seek
wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified—foolishness to the Greeks and a
stumbling block to the Jews.” Christ the crucified was Paul’s model for
greatness. In fact he went so far as to say that he was determined to know
nothing among them except Christ and him crucified. Christ and him crucified
was the sum and substance of his message. He had nothing better or higher to
tell them.
So what does Christ and him crucified mean? We cannot easily
grasp this truth. Paul says that it is foolishness to our old Adam. We also won’t be able to grasp
it all and master it, for we are dealing with the most holy act that has ever
been done. But let us take up just one aspect of Christ and him crucified that applies
to what we have been speaking about today.
The serpent’s lie in the Garden was that we would become
like God by being obedient to him. What actually happened, though, is that we
became utterly unlike God. We became self-conscious and self-absorbed. This is
where each striving after his or her own greatness began. This seems as though
it should be no big deal. The world urges this as a great virtue. But a great
many church fathers over the centuries have called pride the “queen of sins.”
Far from being a virtue, as the world would have you believe, it is an impenetrable
roadblock for entering the kingdom of heaven. Over and over throughout the
whole Bible God says that he has mercy on the humble, but the proud he sends
empty away. We most certainly did not become like God when we fell into sin. We
became rebels and enemies of his will. We wanted our will to be done rather
than his.
But in Christ and him crucified we are given an opportunity
to truly become like God. Unlike that other promise in the Garden, this one is
not a lie. In Christ and him crucified we first of all see what God is really
like. How can we become like God if we do not know what God is like? And the
way that God really is, is that he loves. Love is a word whose meaning almost
gets destroyed through overuse. No doubt the arch-liar is behind that. But if
you want to know what love really is, then look to Christ and him crucified.
There you see that he is poor, sorrowful, gentle, hungering
and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker, and
being persecuted for righteousness sake. Blessed be he! This was all
foreordained by God. As Jesus said in our Gospel reading, it was necessary for
him to go to Jerusalem, to be turned over to the Gentiles, to be mocked,
mistreated, spit upon, flogged, and killed. And on the third day he would rise
again.
This was necessary to fulfill the prophecies in the Old
Testament. Those prophecies spoke about the glorious reign of the coming Savior.
And so it was that by his bloody sweat, by his cross and passion, by his
precious death and burial, by his glorious resurrection and ascension, and by
the coming of the Holy Spirit the comforter, he was going to help us.
The lie in the Garden that brought about our bondage was thereby
defeated. Here, in the fruit of the cross, given to us to eat and drink, we
have something of a do-over. The tree of the cross is both the tree of life as
well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. By Christ’s cross we are
given eternal life. Also by that cross, we truly learn what is good and evil,
instead of being misled like our father and mother were in the Garden when they
tried to grasp these things for themselves. In Christ and him crucified we are
redeemed and given the right to be called the children of God, and so we are.
So, do you wish to become great? Truly great—and not just a
fake greatness that passes away? Then listen to Jesus’s teaching. The
disciples once came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven?” Jesus called a little child, had him stand in the middle of them, and
said, “Amen I tell you: Unless you are turned and become like children, you
will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this
little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives a
little child like this one in my name receives me.”
On the occasion that we have already mentioned, on the night
when Jesus was betrayed, in the very midst of instituting the Lord’s Supper,
the disciples were arguing with one another over which of them should be
considered the greatest. Jesus responded: “The kings of the Gentiles lord it
over them, and those who have authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But
it is not to be that way with you. Instead, let the greatest among you become
like the youngest, and the one who leads like the one who serves. For who is
greater, one who reclines at the table or one who serves? Isn’t it the one who
reclines at the table? But, behold, I am among you as one who serves.”
If you want to be great, if you want to become like God,
then do not say things like: “I’m too good or too important to do something
like you-name-it.” Jesus says that the one who gives a cup of water to a child will
not lose his or her reward. And do not wait for the other person to shape up
before you will treat that other person kindly. Did Jesus wait for us to shape
up before he was kind to us? Do not just love your friends. If you do, then
you’re no different than the Gentiles. Love your enemies and do good to them.
Consider how Jesus was while he was being mistreated by his
enemies. He did not rage and fume and curse and swear. Like a Lamb he was
led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent in front of its shearers,
he did not open his mouth. But we must also pay attention to when he
actually did speak to his enemies. He didn’t say much, but whatever he did say
was the truth. He was not vindictive and mean-spirited. His truths were spoken
for the benefit of those who heard them.
Love, true love, is always outward directed. It does not
consider one’s self, but is concerned with the well-being of the other. That
means there might be times when sharp words are to be spoken—as Jesus himself
sometimes did. But this was so that those who heard them could be turned from
the broad and easy way that leads to destruction to the way that leads to
eternal life.
But these rebukes and warnings are not always welcomed, to
say the least! No doubt a goodly part of why the Jewish authorities hated Jesus
so much that they shrieked for him to be crucified is because his words had hit
home with them and stunk like the dickens. They didn’t repent; they got even.
And so it is up to our own day. The only thing that should
get us into trouble as Christians is our mouth. We should use our mouth to call
to repentance anyone and everyone who is on the path of destruction. It
shouldn’t matter if the person is high or low, if they are a bum or a pillar of
the community. All are thrown together into one heap, and, like John the
Baptist always said: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven draws near!”
If you begin to do this, and do it vigorously, I can
guarantee you that the cross will not be long in coming. But then you can apply
to yourself what Jesus says at the end of the beatitudes: “Blessed are you
when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil
against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in
heaven. In fact, that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
All the prophets, that is, all those who have spoken God’s
genuine Word, have had a rough go of it, beginning with Abel who was killed by
his worldly brother Cain. The enemies of God are real. And they fight. The
devil, the world, and our sinful flesh will not give us any peace day or night.
These enemies of God wittingly or unwittingly want to keep everyone in bondage
to the devil and his lies. They do not want anyone to know the truth and
thereby to become children of God. They want everyone to keep chasing after
those things that moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal.
Love enriches and serves the other. Our love can be and must
be demonstrated with earthly things where we give and forgive, bless when we
are cursed, and so on. No unbeliever is going to complain about this. In fact,
with their evil hearts, they might even look forward to trying to exploit us. God
himself, of course, will put a limit as to how far they might go in that.
But when we are dealing not just with earthly riches but
heavenly riches, not everybody is going to be so happy about that. When we
testify so as to turn people away from damnation, this is seldom welcome—even
among those who think of themselves as Christian and want to be Christian. But
love still requires this of us nonetheless.
The greatest weakness among us, and it has been around us
for a long time—well over a century, is that we have not loved people enough to
warn them of the coming judgment in which they will most certainly fall short
with their unbelief and sin. We’ve acted this way because we love ourselves. We
don’t want the tension. We’re afraid of how people will react. Instead our
churches have busied themselves with things that are not the Gospel. It is no
surprise, therefore, that we are weak and in decline.
Beloved, let us love one another. Let us love one another
enough to stick our necks out for those we love. The world won’t applaud you for
this. In fact, the world will denounce you for it. But the true and almighty
God will help you if you ask him to. Jesus has made a specific promise that our
prayers for the Holy Spirit to be granted to us will not be denied. That is a
mighty thing, for the Holy Spirit is God.
Let us also take in hand one more passage. When we think of
those we love who are estranged from God and living in rebellion against his
will, the thought of speaking to them about it makes us anxious. But the
apostle Paul directs our hearts to someplace else besides our feelings. He
would have us lift up our eyes to the one who made the heavens and the earth.
He says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus.”
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