✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Psalm 43,2b.3-5; Psalm 43,1-2a 2017
Judika (5. Sonntag der Passionszeit) 028 „Vindicate me“
The Martyrs killed in the church on Easter Day by King Genseric of the Vandals & Alans, 459
2. April 2017
1. O Christ Jesus, our Deliverer from our enemies; teach us trust in You so that we hope in You who rescues us from the man of violence. Amen. (Gradual).
2. Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause! For You are the God in whom I take refuge. Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Send out Your Light and Your Truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I will again praise Him, my salvation and my God.
3. Psalm 43 is a psalm of lament, [1] and today’s Introit petitions God: »Vindicate me, and defend my cause! For You are the God in whom I take refuge.« The Psalmist laments that ungodly people, deceitful people and unjust people vex him; he wants God to set thing right. This attitude is foundational across humanity. We want to establish order from chaos. We prefer laws, not anarchy. The wicked should be punished, and the upright vindicated. None of these are guaranteed in our fallen, sinful world, but we instinctively know in the depth of our conscience that some things are right and others are wrong. This stems from imprint of our being created in the Image and Likeness of God. And yet, the wisdom of Solomon gnaws at us: »I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was injustice, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness« (Ecclesiastes 3,16).
4. Is the sum of our life one of vanity and folly? »Should we go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?« Is there wisdom in the proverb: »Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die.« (Ecclesiastes 8,15; Isaiah 22,13)? Jesus reminds us that »Life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Seek God’s reign, and these things will be added to you« (Luke 12,23.31).
5. »O Lord, send out Your Light and Your Truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your dwelling!« The temple was built on Mt. Zion. But when Solomon began construction on the temple, Zion was also called Moriah. The Lord had told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mt. Moriah. Isaac and the many animal sacrifices on that mountain typified the greater sacrifice to be performed by the Messiah. The Light and Truth that God sends out is that a sacrifice needs to atone for mankind’s sin. Today’s Gospel pericope informs us the Jews were ready to stone Jesus to death in the temple courtyard. (John 8,59). The Jews simply wanted to execute Jesus for blasphemy. God the Father wanted to crown His Son as the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.
6. »Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy,«. We enter into the presence of God every time we worship Him. We may not always do so with exceeding joy. We may be burdened by our sin, mournful, anxious or simply burdened by the cares of this world. Yet we enter God’s presence with the hope of joy. Later this morning we will kneel before the altar to receive the body and blood of Jesus. That Sacrament gives us the forgiveness purchased by Jesus. All our troubles may not be removed, but we are reminded that we are atoned and that Jesus bears our burdens alongside us. That same Jesus went up to His altar with exceeding joy. His altar was His cross on Mt. Calvary. He did not walk that somber path smiling and laughing, but there was joy in His heart because He knew at the end of the day He would have redeemed all men and women back to His Father.
7. The Introit asks: »Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?« The answer to this question is: O soul, there is no reason to be cast down. God the Father is our Provider. Jesus is our Savior. The Holy Spirit is our Paraclete (Comforter).
8. »Therefore we »hope in God; for we will again praise Him, our salvation and our God.« Many of the Jews did the opposite. Oh they claimed to hope and trust in God, until He arrived in their midst and did not live up to their preconceptions. The discussion Jesus has with His fellow Jews in John 8 is but one example of many in the Gospels.
9. Jesus said to them: »If God were your Father, then you would love Me, for I arrived from God and I am here. I arrived not of My own accord, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear My word?« (John 8,42-43). The Pharisees respond with: »Jesus, you are a Samaritan and have a demon« (John 8,48). They have called Him unclean and a lying heretic. It was their attempt to shut down the conversation by calling Jesus two names that epitomized the worst character traits imaginable in a person. It’s the same tactic used in contemporary political debates when people call others Hitler and a Nazi. Their goal is to delegitimize what their opponent is saying before even attempting to make a valid argument by calling their character into question with the most vile names they can muster.
10. Jesus says: »I am the God of Abraham.« The Pharisees respond: »No, you are a lying devil.« Jesus claimed to be greater than Abraham and all the Prophets. The Pharisees respond that you clearly are possessed.
11. John 8 is one of many dialogues in the Gospels that show the folly of only speaking of Jesus as a great great moral teacher instead of God Divine. C. S. Lewis’ famous trilemma of lunatic, Lucifer or the Lord is found in his Mere Christianity: „I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. … Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however stage or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God“ (Lewis 36-37).
12. Our Lord indeed vindicates us. He was willing to challenge the false preconceived religious presuppositions in His day. He was willing to be called the vilest names by Pharisees and rabbis. He was willing to go to the cross, and do it with joy knowing that His terrible suffering would merit our redemption, and it was that redemption of mankind that brought a him joy as mankind’s vicarious sacrifice. We thus hope in Jesus for He is our salvation. Amen.
13. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou Son of Man who arrived to serve; send the Holy Spirit to help us in our meditation as we draw nigh unto Your holy passion where You gave Your life as a ransom for all people. 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, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12. Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Lewis, C. S. The Complete C. S. Lewis. Signature Classics. Copyright © 2000 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd.
[1] There are 15 community lament psalms and 39 individual lament psalms.
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