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

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Hebrews 13,12-14. Judica

Hebrews 13,12-14 2020

Judica 028

Eustace, Abbot of Luxeuil, France. Apostle to the Bavarians, ✠ 629

29. März 2020

1. O God, the Eternal Love, comfort us with Your presence during these final weeks of Lent, so that any oppressive fear we may have is driven away by Your omnipresent love. Amen. (VELKD Weekly Prayer for Judica 2020 § 1)

2. »Thus Jesus also suffered, so that He may simply sanctify the people through His own blood, outside the gate. Therefore may we continually go to Him outside the camp, bearing His disgrace. For here we have no lasting dwelling, but we seek the city that is about to arrive.«

3. Last week we heard how Jesus is the Bread of life who provides for our physical and spiritual life (βίος and ζωη) in the feeding of the 5000 starting with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. In today’s Gospel pericope Jesus teaches that those who believe in Him like Abraham are truly the sons and daughters of Abraham.

4. We are now 5 weeks into Lent and our vindication is drawing now; the omission of the Gloria Patri in the Introit helps draw our attention to this reality. Jesus is about to defend us. The apostle speaks of this in the Epistle to the Hebrews: »Jesus suffered so that we may be sanctified through His blood.« He connects this to the gate, that is, the entrance to the temple mount. At the temple, the Levitical priest offered sacrifices to sanctify the people of Israel. Jesus will enter Jerusalem and teach in the temple courtyard next week in preparation to fulfill the temple’s chief role of absolving sinners.

5. The world commonly envisions such redemption in heroic actions, epitomized many times by the action hero that is famous in a number of movies: the hero successfully fights off overwhelming foes and emerges safe and sound. Not so Jesus. The Epistle to the Hebrew reminds us that Jesus redeemed us at a great cost: He was humbled, disgraced and executed. He is not the atypical Messiah. The Jews in Jesus’ day expected and desired an action hero Messiah: someone who would ride in and drive the Romans and the Greeks out; they wanted a true, Jewish monarchy with the Messiah akin to King David the conqueror. What God gave them, and us, was a Suffering Servant.

6. Jesus reminds us that the Christian life will also have its suffering. He tells us in the Beatitudes: »Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the reign of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the Prophets who were before you« (Matthew 5,10-12). The Epistle to the Hebrews exhorts us to bear Christ’s disgrace. Paul assures us that bearing Christ’s disgrace is meant to discipline us: »We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us« (Romans 5,3-5).

7. During Lent we follow Jesus up to the cross. It’s not always easy; it becomes tedious. Jesus was born to be the Suffering Servant on the cross, and that is where His journey took Him. The Old Testament patriarchs and matriarchs caught glimpses of the crucified Christ. Jesus told the Jews: »Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad« (John 8,56). Abraham had some sense that the Messiah who descended from him would fulfill the great task he and Isaac typified when God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son (Genesis 22,2). Abraham knew this would involve a sacrificial death and a restoration of life (Genesis 22,5). He knew the death and resurrection of the Messiah would redeem all the world from sin; he probably did not know all the particulars but he knew the foundation: Messiah will suffer, die and rise again. He rejoiced in that; but his physical Jewish heirs in Jesus’ day did not for they looked for a different Messiah.

8. Those who look to the Messiah who dies and rises have the same faith as Abraham and thus are his rightful heirs. Abraham knows God, and we know God; He is our God, the God of Abraham. We know God because we know Jesus who has revealed God to us. As we draw a week closer to Jesus’ Passion, like Abraham we rejoice in that day for it the day Jesus redeemed Abraham and all of us from our sin. We see it and we are glad. Amen.

9. Last week we heard how Jesus is the Bread of life who provides for our physical and spiritual life (βίος and ζωη) in the feeding of the 5000 starting with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Today we have heard Jesus teach that those who believe in Him like Abraham are truly the sons and daughters of Abraham. Next week we will hear again the crowd acclaim Jesus to be the Son of David, for the Messiah has entered Jerusalem. Amen.

10. Let us pray. O Jesus, the Messiah, focus our hearts and minds on Your service to us; so that we trust in You who gave His life 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, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Hebrews 13,12-14. Judica

No comments:

Post a Comment