Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Hebrews 13,12-14. Judica

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Hebrews 13,12-14 2114

Judika (5. Sonntag der Passionszeit) 028 „Judge“

Coelestine, Bishop of Rome, ✠ 432

Lucas Cranach, ✠ 1553, Albrecht Dürer, ✠ 1528, Michelangelo, 1564, Artists

6. April 2014

1. We, beseech Thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon Thy people; that by Thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer 94).

2. »So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to make the people holy through His own blood. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.«

3. In today’s Introit, we cried out with the Psalmist: »Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people; deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God in whom I take refuge« (Psalm 43,1-2a). Our first thought here may be that of someone standing before a judge to hear his verdict. There are only two possible decisions: 1. the judge declares you guilty, or 2. he pronounces you not guilty. If we stand before God the Father who is the Divine Judge without an advocate or a defense lawyer, then our verdict would be certain and unbearable. If we stand before the Judge with all our sins upon us, we stand before the Judge guilty and condemned. Yahweh spoke His covenant to Israel at Mount Sinai, and began by giving His people the Ten Commandments. In the First Commandment He thundered from the mountain: »I Yahweh your God am a Jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments« (Exodus 20,5-6). After these Commandments had been spoken, Israel’s response was: »Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses: „You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.“« (Exodus 20,18-19). This is what it means to stand before Yahweh the Judge, for His Commandments reveal our utter sinfulness.

4. Yet, the Psalmist exhorts Yahweh to »Judge me and defend my cause against an ungodly people; deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!« The verb „to judge“ can also mean „to vindicate me and clear me of guilt“. How can we get from the Condemning Judge to the Vindicating Judge?

5. Our Gospel Lection for this morning provides the Bridge as it concludes with this statement by Jesus: »For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for everyone« (Mark 10,45). The Epistle to the Hebrews expounds upon this service of Jesus by saying: »Jesus suffered outside the gate in order to make the people holy through His own blood.«

6. This act of redemption carried out by Jesus should not be a surprise for people who read and know the Holy Scriptures. The Prophet Isaiah devoted chapters in his book where he described the Christ as the Suffering Servant who redeems His people. We can go back even farther, such as to Abraham in our First Lection for today. Yahweh had told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and offer him up as a burnt offering to Him. Abraham was devoted to this course of action because he knew that Yahweh keeps His promise, and Yahweh had promised Abraham that through Isaac he would build a great nation; since Isaac had not married or begotten children as of the events in Genesis 22, Abraham firmly believed that Yahweh would raise up the ashes of Isaac back to life because Yahweh fulfills His promises. But at the very moment Abraham is about to slit Isaac’s throat, the Angel of Yahweh appears and commands Abraham to stop and instead offer up the ram caught in the nearby thicket. That Angel was none other than the pre-incarnate Christ who Himself would 2000 years later be the New Isaac, the ram offered up for sacrifice and the Only Son of God the Father who this time would not stay His hand as Jesus offered Himself up as the sacrifice for the world’s sin.

7. The Apostle Peter explains what this means in his epistle: »For Christ also suffered once for sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones (that would be all of us), so that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit« (1. Peter 3,18). What Peter so profoundly preaches in his epistle is that the whole weight of the sin of the world comes down on the Christ (Nagel 103,7). Jesus is one lump with all sinners (Nagel 103,7). He is slave to all sins’ enslavement—judged and damned (Nagel 103,7). But what comes of this horrible suffering and condemnation experienced by Christ Jesus? Salvation comes of it: yours and all the world’s! Jesus has unshackled us from the chains of sin, death and hell that once bound and restrained us. Jesus has now vindicated us and opened up everlasting life in His glorious presence! This is nothing else than redemption.

8. Jesus said He would give His life as a ransom for all people. Ransomer is Redeemer, go’el, and the price is His life (Nagel 103,8). For everyone, as in Isaiah 53, Jesus speaks His disciples into that everyone, as He does also when He gives His body to eat and His blood to drink into our mouths this morning (Nagel 103,8). His blood is shed for the world for the forgiveness of sins (Nagel 103,8). Jesus’ own last will and testament promise is: »This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for everyone« (Mark 14,24).

9. Our liturgy follows Luke at this point and says: »For you« (Nagel 103,9). The phrase »for you« evokes faith (Nagel 103,9). „Amen, we say, as Jesus gives into us His body and His blood. Those to whom our Lord gives His body and blood can pray, »Judge me, O God.« If He tosses you out, He is tossing out the body and blood of His Son—and He cannot do that“ (Nagel 103,9).

10. „God did the judgment on you when He did the judgment for your sins on Jesus. That death for your sin was given to you. It is yours at your Baptism. His cup, His Baptism—yours. There was a putting of you to death in your Baptism by words and water and a new „you“ was born, a you no longer enslaved to sin. »I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me« (Galatians 2,20). It is no dead, inert stuff that the Lord gives into your mouth this morning. As He forgives and enlivened you with His body and His blood, His body and blood are alive in you in the same way when He spoke of them as the ransom for many, for you, not to be served but to serve“ (Nagel 103,10).

11. The apostolic preaching rings loud and true: »Jesus suffered outside the gate in order to make the people holy through His own blood.« Now that we are holy, we are heirs of Christ Jesus. Our inheritance is the city that is to come, New Jerusalem that will descend from heaven, the very dwelling place of the Triune God and His host of angels and Christians where we will dwell with them in unending light and salvation.« Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Jesus Christ, the Son of Man who serves mankind; help us to trust Your precious gospel that teaches us that You gave Your life as our ransom from sin so that we may endure the rants and ridicule of this world toward those who believe in You as their Savior. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, April 7, 2014

Hebrews 13,12-14. Judica

No comments:

Post a Comment