Communion Meditation II

EX 24:8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."

The covenant –a covenant of blood. Blood speaks to us about life, it reminds us that we depend on God alone for our life. Blood speaks to us also about death, that death is the penalty for our sin. Blood speaks to us about sacrifice, because sacrifice is God’s means of forgiveness.

But here is a question: what possible connection could there be between the blood of animals and heaven? On the one hand we have something which is very material, very earthly, very limited: the blood of animals, which was spilled in an earthly ritual, and sprinkled on the people. On the other hand, we have a spiritual crisis of cosmic proportions: the alienation of man from God. What possible connection can there be between the two?  Before trying to answer this question, let’s read what happened next:

EX 24:9-19 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself.

After the covenant was announced, and the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the people, God called Moses and elders up to the mountain. And there they saw God. How can this be? The Bible says no one can see God.

I believe that nobody can truly see God in all His infinity; God is beyond the comprehension of any of His created beings. There’s only one who truly knows God in all His infinity--it’s the Son who came from God. But here the Bible tells us that Moses and the elders saw the God of Israel. So, they must have seen God in some measure, as God allowed Himself to be seen. What is interesting, though, is that the Scripture here doesn’t explain what God Himself looked like; instead of that, there is an amazing description of something under the feet of God, something like a pavement of sapphire, and clear as the sky. What that was, we don’t know, but clearly it was something not of this world. I can’t interpret it for you, except to suggest that it tells us that God is not part of this world; He is the Creator, He is not part of the Creation. And again this forces me to ask: how could earthly sacrifices be  effective in closing the spiritual rift between man and such a God as this? But before we answer that, let’s read the end of this account:

11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

Here is the mercy of God. No man can see God and live. But these men saw God and lived. Again, as we said, no man can see God, no man can comprehend Him in all His infinite nature. But God somehow allowed these men to see Him, to see a true representation of Him, let’s say a  “side” of Him, and even to eat and drink in His presence. He did not raise His hand against them: this speaks to us of the mercy of God, it reminds us that the true desire of God is to freely fellowship with man, without any hindrance, without any alienation.

This is a  wonderful picture. But of course, Moses and the elders came down from the mountain. They lived the remainder of their lives, they died and were buried. And what then? That glorious moment on the mountaintop was only a moment. But what about eternity? There were only about 70 men up there on the mountain. For them it was wonderful. But what about all the rest of the people who ever lived in human history? What hope do they have to fellowship with God, to eat and drink in His presence? Who can truly bring heaven and earth, God and man, together?

Yes, it was a wonderful vision, but it leaves us with these questions: What possible connection can there be between earthly sacrifices and the eternal God? How can the alienation between God and man be solved once and for all?

Let’s look into the New Testament, at one place where the writer deals with this problem, the problem of the terrible distance between the earthly and the heavenly:

HEB 8:1-2 The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.

Jesus Christ is our High Priest; He is not like the other high priests – why? Because he doesn’t have to offer a new sacrifice every day for his own sins and the sins of the people. He has no sins himself, and His sacrifice is the perfect sacrifice accomplished once for all. His sacrifice is actually that one true sacrifice that all creation was waiting for. All the other sacrifices were only representations, they were like photographs which cannot be the actual thing itself. But ultimately, just as there is only one true God, there could only be one true sacrifice, there could only be one true means of reconciliation between man and God.

Jesus became that one true sacrifice, offering up His own blood in the sanctuary of the one true God. He doesn’t serve as high priest in an earthly  temple, which is only a representation; he serves in the true sanctuary of God. What is that sanctuary? Where is it? How can we possibly say? I am sure only of this: the true heavenly sanctuary is the place of closest fellowship with God. Perhaps it is God Himself.  Jesus  doesn’t bring the blood of animals to God. He offers his own blood as the price of our salvation.

And so we ask: how could an earthly sacrifice could solve an eternal, spiritual problem? How could physical blood seal the spiritual rift between man and God? In Christ the answer is miraculously revealed to us: It’s because He who died on the cross was the One from Heaven. In the cross we see heaven dying so earth might live. The blood of Christ was the blood of the incarnate God. His death was the sacrifice of God for the forgiveness of sins. In Christ, God Himself exhausted the pain of our sin, and released us from our debts. If you really stop to think about it, there was no other possible way. That was the only way God could have forgiven our sins: He suffered the consequences of our sins Himself.

This is the amazing revelation of Jesus Christ – what no one could have imagined; that in Christ, God Himself was reconciling the world to Himself. This is how an earthly sacrifice could reconcile man and God.

I think that’s what the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews is trying to tell us. He says that the earthly sanctuary is only a representation. The priests and the animal sacrifices are only a picture. But Christ is the actuality. A weak analogy would be to compare when we were little children and we played house, pretending to be the papa and mama, and real marriage. Real marriage is the thing itself; there is no more picture. You cannot even compare children playing house to real married life.

It is like this with our Lord Jesus Christ: His life is our true salvation; His death is our true forgiveness; His blood is the true price fully paid.

And the deeper we unite our hearts with this truth, the better we understand reality itself.

Jesus said, “I have come to bear witness of the truth.” Jesus knew about all reality. When he gathered his disciples for the Last Supper in the upper room, He knew perfectly what was about to happen, and why, and what it would cost Him to carry it out. 

MT 26:26-30 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples,  saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom." When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Remember Moses and the elders up the mountain top, sitting in the presence of God Himself, and eating and drinking. Here again, God has called his servants to sit with him, to eat and drink. And as Moses sprinkled the people, with the blood, sealing God’s holy covenant with them, in the same way, Jesus presents the blood of the covenant to his disciples.

But there are differences. Moses sprinkled the people with the blood of animals. It was external, and temporary. But  Jesus says, “Drink.” He also says, “Eat. This is my body, this is my blood.” With these few simple words,  Jesus reveals the true depth of the sacrifice He will make. He will give himself up totally for our life. He will make Himself our true spiritual food and drink forever and ever. “I am the Bread of Life”, Jesus says. But the bread must be broken before you can eat it. Jesus was ready to be broken. He longed for the fulfillment of the Father’s plan; He looked ahead to the ultimate joy of His Father’s kingdom, when people from east and west, north and south would come and sit down at His table and fellowship with Him forever-- not only 70 elders on a mountaintop or twelve disciples in an upper room.

When we look at Jesus with His disciples around the table, we see a picture of God’s kingdom, the kingdom which is coming. Jesus gave Himself up to the cross and death, so that you and I could join Him at His fellowship table forever.

In the book of Revelation, we are allowed to catch a glimpse of this unimaginable glory, in chapter four when John was taken to heaven and he saw the throne of God. Someone was sitting on the throne; the one sitting there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian; a rainbow the color of emerald encircled the throne. And around the throne were 24 other thrones, with an elder sitting on each of them, all dressed in white and wearing golden crowns. Lightning and thunder came from the throne and seven lamps burned in front of the throne, and there was something like a sea of glass in front of the throne, as clear as crystal. Again we see elders sitting in the presence of God. Do you think that when God called Moses and the elders up to the mountain, that by this God let them understand a little bit what heaven was really like? I think so. And when Jesus gathered his disciples together for the Last Supper, was that also a picture of God fellowshipping with His people? I think so.

But there was only way to realize this reality.

(Read Revelation 5:1-14)

Today we are called to the table of the Lord, to share His body and blood, to recognize the price of our salvation in the death of  Jesus Christ, and to confess Him as our true Savior and coming King. The Lord Himself is with us when we obediently observe this ordinance. God is with His people, and He is worthy of all glory, honor and praise. This table is a representation of reality, of deep spiritual reality that exceeds our comprehension, and yet God invites us to take part and understand. When we participate in this supper, we taste in a small way the future exultation when people will come from east and west, north and south to sit at the table of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Christ's Ascension

This sermon approaches the event of Christ's ascension a bit indirectly. As I assumed the other preachers would start with Acts 1, I decided to take a different route.

It's easy to guess that, when a sermon is on the ascension of the Lord, the Bible text will be Acts 1. Therefore, I decided to take a look at other places that either indirectly or directly talk about the ascension of Jesus Christ. The first of these is Matthew 28:16-20 (read).

The ascension isn't mentioned here, but this is the last "act" of the Gospel of Matthew—the most important, significant words of Jesus Christ just before he ascends to the Father in Heaven. This is the commandment to the Church from the One who was eager to return to where he had come into the world from. Here Jesus isn't talking anymore about what villages to go to together with the disciples, he isn't teaching them in parables, he isn't healing anybody, he's not rising early in the morning to go out and pray alone, with his disciples rushing around anxiously to find out where he has disappeared to. Those days have passed! This is the risen Lord, the Conqueror of death, the Eternal Word/Logos, whose gaze is fixed on reunion with the One Whose redeeming will he has perfectly carried out. A sense of anticipation permeates everything Jesus says here. These are more than "parting words"; these are words spoken from a whole different viewpoint already. Even though Jesus is still on the earth while he speaks, the words sound just like what we could expect to hear from the ascended Christ seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. The Great Commission says, in brief, that the light of the risen, ascended Son of God illuminates life's whole purpose here in this world. The Great Commission is not only an assignment to us on earth; it is Christ's own "job description" in Heaven through us.

 I'd like to direct your attention to a mysterious element in this event – (read v. 17: "…but some doubted").

This perplexes us for two reasons. First, why did they doubt? Or actually, what were they doubting? And secondly, why does Matthew mention it at all? And so abruptly, just dropping it as soon as he mentions it? "Some doubted" – no elaboration. It's a bit like someone explaining principles of algebra to you and suddenly announcing, "You know, I just adore pickles", then going right on with the algebra.

It's a bit like that here. We call these final words in Matthew "The Great Commission" because Jesus, having appeared to the disciples, commands them to preach the good news everywhere in the world. And as a rule we practically never even pay attention to that odd little "glitch" in the text about how some doubted. But it must be there for a reason!

Here's a useful secret for Bible interpretation. When you bump into a phrase, or statement, or verse that doesn't seem to… "correlate", seems odd and out-of-place, sometimes the thing is that you shouldn't be trying to understand the difficult spot in the light of its context; instead, try understanding the context in light of the difficult spot! Quite possibly, as a result you'll find that the difficult spot throws the whole context into a new light and becomes clear at the same time itself, too. If we try that approach here in Matthew, what do we discover?

The eleven disciples have come to the mountain. They've seen Jesus, very likely from a distance at first. Some of them immediately start "worshipping", as the text says. What does that mean? Possibly they started shouting, "It's Jesus! It's the Lord! He is risen! Praise God!" But others doubted. What does that mean? Maybe they weren't so sure who they were seeing in the distance. I can imagine them saying, "Wait a minute. Not so fast. What are you saying? Who is that? Is that really him?"

And in response to this, what does Jesus do? Verse 18: He approached them. He came up to them. He came close to them. Did you ever wonder why it says that? Maybe it's precisely because he was far away from them at first, when some started worshipping while others... didn't. But I don't think that when Jesus did this—that is, when he walked right up to them—I don't think any of them were doubting any more. 

Jesus not only came up to them—to all of them, to the worshippers and the doubters—in order to dispel any doubt, but he also pronounced words of assurance. The "Great Commission" isn't only a "commission"; it's a word of assurance precisely to those who were doubting. Jesus assures them all: "All authority has been given to me". That is, "You don't need to doubt. It's me, who the glory and power have been given to forever. It's me, who died and destroyed the kingdom of death with my invincible life—I am alive forever. Be confident, because it's me—I will always be with you to do the Father's will through you."

When we read the Great Commission in the light of that one, odd, troubling phrase in verse 17, suddenly we sense the deep mercy of Christ, the grace of Christ, in what he tells the disciples. The doubt makes more sense of the Great Commission. Jesus doesn't condemn the disciples who, after all, came to meet him on the mountain according to his instructions! They didn't come here, after all, in order to doubt! They came to see and believe. Some didn’t want to be reckless, they were hesitant to jump to a conclusion, to believe that the person up there on the mountain was the One who died on the cross. But Jesus, the risen Lord of life, approaches them all, assures them all, promises always to be with them all, and hands them all the highest calling, to proclaim His news to the whole world. This is the calling of Heaven itself; there is no higher honor. And, yes, Jesus handed this honor even to the ones who had doubted, who maybe said, "Hold on, not so fast; let's make sure that's him." And, having given this honor to the disciples, Jesus returned to the Father.

Now let's look at another place in Scripture that doesn't pop immediately to mind in connection with the Ascension. It's Matthew 3:14-17 (read).

I preached on this passage before and suggested that in Jesus' baptism you can see the whole history of redemption. Take a look – there's Jesus, identifying with the people, taking part in the same "Baptism of Repentance" as they did, just like later he will carry their sins to the cross, and there he is going down in the water, just like later he'll be buried in the earth, and now he is rising from the water, just as later he will emerge from tomb alive. And then the heavens open, just like later they will open to receive him in the ascension and then the Holy Spirit descends upon him, just like the Spirit will descend later on the Body of Christ, His Holy Church, and then the voice of the Father in Heaven exalts Jesus, just like later God the Father will exalt the Lamb, His Only-Begotten, before all eyes in the eternal kingdom. This is a stunning enactment that prophesies everything our Creator and God intends to carry out with this very Jesus who, one fine day, quietly walked up to John to be baptized. It's no surprise, therefore, that Jesus said to John, "We have to do all this in order to fulfill all righteousness."

Every element of his baptism serves to fulfill the perfect righteousness which is God's salvation. God's salvation is God's righteousness carried out to the very end. In salvation God's righteousness itself is totally realized. We usually think that Jesus is talking about human righteousness here, when he says that "all righteousness" must be fulfilled—the perfect righteousness God demanded of Man but only Jesus could fulfill. But I think that when Jesus says, "all righteousness", he really means all righteousness; that includes the righteousness of God that was manifested to the uttermost limit in the accomplishment of redemption.

And how does this relate to the ascension? Here's how. Just like all of God's acts, the ascension of Christ also fulfills God's righteousness, just like Jesus baptism prophesied. The whole story fulfills "all righteousness." It is right and good and... needed for salvation that Jesus ascended to the Father. It was right, and good, and loving and merciful that Jesus came up to the disciples to say, "Look, it's Me. I truly have all the power and authority, I truly will be with you always." It was perfectly right, and good, and needed, and righteous, for Jesus to return to where we can't see him, at the Father's right hand, where he intercedes for us ceaselessly, and from where he mysteriously, miraculously remains with us here at the same time, together with the Father and Holy Spirit: "Whoever loves me will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." And this also was right, good, needed, and righteousness—the righteousness of God that would never have been fulfilled if Jesus had not returned to the Father.

In conclusion, let's look at one direct account of Jesus ascension, in Mark 16:19-20. (read)

In the Gospel of John, Christ told his disciples, "It's good for you that I'm going away, because if I don't go away, I cannot return to you to be with you." Here in Mark the meaning of this is clear: Jesus, now received into heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, is working with us, confirming his work in us, establishing our work in himself, magnifying the fruit of our service for him, yes and its eternal meaning and glory in the Father's sight. By leaving to return to the Father, Christ made our life a part of heaven. The apostle Paul says, "He has blessed us in the heavenlies." And again, "He has hidden our life with himself in heaven." We are in him, and in him we have a heavenly inheritance. We have a heavenly inheritance precisely because God's Son, Christ, chose to approach us, to come close, when we were far away and doubting. He chose to walk right up and meet us in our doubts, our weaknesses and faults. He came closer. He picked up our guilt and shame and carried it in himself to the cross in sacrifice. Yes, and raised our souls in himself in resurrection. Yes, and brought us with himself right to the throne of God, and hid our life with himself there, in anticipation of the day when we shall appear with him in glory.

And that is how the only Savior fulfilled all righteousness. As for us, we mustn't doubt but trust, follow, and aim for the works that the ascended Lord will fulfill through us to his glory.

Before he ascended, he approached his disciples in love, right where they were. Who does he want us to approach in his love, that a soul might be saved?

First Sermon Back in Ukraine 2011: "Let Us Make Man in Our Image..."

This is the first sermon I preached in Ukraine after returning in January 2011 from my Aug-Dec 2010 furlough in the States. The sermon can be considered a highly condensed "take" on the series of sermons I did several years ago, "A Holy Place, A Holy Purpose", which is also posted on this blog. The advantage of this one is, of course, that it gets the gist across in one convenient bite-sized piece.
A particular stylistic touch in this sermon does not, sadly, translate from Russian to English. The very last word of the sermon in Russian is "sotvorim", which means "we will make", from John 14:23 which, in the exact Russian word order, reads like this: "Who loves me, that one will observe word My, and Father My will love him, and We will come to him and {an} abode with him… SOTVORIM." It works beautifully for "sotvorim" to be the final, dramatic conclusion in Russian, because the same word, with its implications, plays a key role almost from the sermon's beginning. Unfortunately, this element of sermonic suspense and climax is lost with the English word-order, with "we will make" rather swallowed up in the middle of the sentence. Besides which, it doesn't even echo "Let us make (man in our image)" in English the way it does in Russian, where it's one and exactly the same word in both places: SOTVORIM. So, having made this something-of-an-excuse, I hope that there is still plenty of worth in the sermon, even without the fine linguistic nuances.

(There is also a slight wordplay at the very end, in Russian, that disappears in English. When the text says, "thanks to His grace", in Russian it sounds like "blah-gah-dah-RYA  Yivo  blah-gah-DAH-tee", the word for "thanks (to)" coming from the same root as the word "grace.")

By the way, "let us make" is one word in the original Hebrew, too, if I remember correctly.


(Read John 5:39-47)


On the basis of this passage I want to take a look at the first chapters of Genesis, the narrative about the creation of the world, of man, about the Fall, and try to specify there, even if a little, the testimony about Jesus Christ, about who he is, what he's like, what the eternal mystery of God's being and love is, and about how one and the same Person radiates through both the narrative in Genesis and the words of Christ in the Gospel of John.


Before opening Genesis, highlight the following key words from John in your mind:
Scripture
Life
Testify
Glory
Love
Father
Believe

And now we open the first page of Holy Scripture, where it says, "In the beginning." And this is a testimony, testimony to the inscrutable uniqueness, the singularity of God. In the beginning of everything, when nothing else was yet, God chose to commit the act of creation. This was God's choice, God's affair, God's intention and aim. Without our advice, without our participation, commentary, observations—yes, even without our existence before the sixth day! Only God is acting here.

And yet, in this testimony about the unique, singular, sovereign deed of God, we bump into unexpected words in verse 26: "Let-us-make [sotvorim] man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."


In this plural "Us" can be heard testimony about Jesus Christ, who said, "I have come in the name of my Father", who spoke about the glory that is exclusively God's, who once prayed, "Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the creation of the world."


"Scripture testifies of me", Jesus told the people, and precisely so the Scripture here, in the words "Let us make", hints at the eternal love that was in God and which God was before the creation of the world: "Let us make". You can't mention the plurality of Persons existing in the one eternal God without speaking of love, because love, which God is, consists precisely of the eternal interrelation of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.


It's a remarkable fact—and I consider it not only a fact but also an essential part of the sense and significance of this revelation—it's remarkable that the first time in Scripture where God says "Us", when Scripture first testifies of a plurality in the one God, it's right where God is pronouncing his intention to create man. Think about that. The very concept of "We" first materializes in Scripture in connection with the creation of man. Only here does God say "We"—not when He said, "Let there be light" on the first day, not on the second day, or the third or fourth day, not on any day but the sixth, when He says, "We will make…."


Why? Because only man will be made in the image of God, and the essence of that image is relationship in love. Scripture says that God said, "We will make Man", and then it tells us that He created them, man and woman, and gave Man the right to rule over creation in subjection to no one other than God alone. Being a created reflection of God's nature, Man was endowed with the capacity to choose, to be responsible, to think, to strive, to imagine the future, to develop as a person, grow in love, be in relationship with Man and God, and to peer into the mysteries of his Creator. "We will make man in our image."


Only the eternal God could pronounce the word "We, and He exclusively endowed with this capacity the Man created in His image. He endowed Man with the capacity to love.


But Jesus says with grief in his heart (John 5:42), "But I know you. You do not have the love of God in you." Imagine this. The very Person who once, in the shining glory of God, spoke the word "We", says here in the Person of the Incarnate Son of God, "There is no love in you."


No love? But then what about the image and likeness of that eternal love which God IS? What's left of that image and likeness where… there's no love?


But the eternal Son, whose whole life's meaning—the whole meaning of Life itself which subsists in him—this eternal Son lives for the Father's glory, the glory of the Father with whom he says "We." His whole life's meaning is love. Love is glory with God His Father. And this same Son says in grief, "How can you believe when you receive glory from each other, but the glory that comes from the only God—you don't seek?"


Human glory—yes, there is such a thing—human glory consists in the fact that the One God endowed Man with the image and likeness of the eternal living Creator. To seek a different glory is to strive towards death.


It's no accident, therefore, that when Man fell in sin, he did it looking for another glory. (Genesis 3:6) "And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and was pleasing to the eyes, and desirable because it gave knowledge…"


(Genesis 3:5) "You will be like God, knowing good and evil." Man wanted that knowledge. Man, the only creature in the whole world created in God's image, wanted to become "like God", as if he wasn't already "like God"! He was! In his capacity to love, to communicate, to exert himself for the good and glorious, Man was already "like God", since God invested His image and likeness into him exactly for that. That was God's gift, to man alone.


But the devil fooled Man, deceived him into seeking a different, somehow "better" glory—the glory of the knowledge of good and evil, rather than the glory of the knowledge of God Himself.


And having known evil, Man became evil. That's what the Deceiver hid from Man when he said, "You will know good and evil." Man couldn't know evil without experiencing it in himself. Receiving the words of the Deceiver, our first parents instilled into their entire race the inclination to receive deceptive, seductive words. So Jesus says to those who were rejecting him (John 5:43), "I have come in my Father's name, and you don't receive me, but if another comes in his own name, you will receive him."


The One who eternally says "We" in love with the Father, came to us in the name of the Father, but they didn't accept him. But if a deceiver comes, they’ll accept him. Imagine what grief that is to the One Who once said, "We will make Man in our image and in our likeness."


The second time in Scripture when God speaks of Himself using "We", is after God has declared the punishments to Adam, Eve and the snake. (Genesis 3:22): "And the Lord God said, 'The man has now become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat and live forever.'"


It's no accident that when, yet again, the eternal God speaks in the plural, about "Us", the word is pronounced in an event directly tied to the very nature of God and man's likeness to Him. There was a grain of truth in what the snake said to Eve; tasting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, Man really did find out what evil means, similar to how God knows. But the difference is that God, understanding what evil is, doesn't experience it but remains holy. But unholy Man, having become sinful, mustn't live forever in that kind of condition. That would be an utter distortion of the marvelous original idea of all creation. It would be not only an offense to God but grief to all humanity and creation itself.


Therefore, God—yes, the very same God who is love and who created Man in love—this same God says, once more in the plural "We", that Man mustn't live forever in such a state, in the disfigurement of sin.


By punishing and exiling Man, God saved Man from an eternity of sin, an eternity of life in sin. For when God said, "Let us make man", in His love He intended better for His children – unimaginably better. So even punishing and driving Adam and Eve from the Garden, God is being a Savior.


In the fifth chapter of John, Jesus asserts: "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." (vv.39-40)


Compare: in Genesis we read how God forbade Man to touch the tree of life. And that was mercy on God's part. But here in the Gospel we read how the same God, "having taken the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man," doesn't forbid at all. On the contrary, He practically begs the people, with love, to come, take, receive perfect life from Him, life bought at the price of His own life in our place. But they don't want to. They don't believe.


"If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?" (Jn. 5:46-47)


But God , who says "We" within Himself in eternal love, so loved the world that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have real eternal life in freedom from sin and the joy of pure fellowship with his holy Maker. God, who once revealed His love in the creation of Man, and revealed it again by excluding Man from the tree of Life, displayed the whole essence of His saving love in the sacrifice of the Son, in the sacrifice of the One with Whom He said, "Let us make man in our image", the One who is "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being", the One who thirsted for the glorifying of His Father by the sacrifice of His own life for the redemption of Man. So loved us God. So intent was the Maker to carry out everything to return us to His fellowship and knowledge, to the knowledge and fellowship of the eternal, holy God—so we would be "like God, knowing…" love and holiness.


Jesus Christ offers this new fellowship, thanks to His grace, when he tells his disciples these words (Jn. 14:23): "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and [we will] make our abode with him." (and our abiding place with him we will make.)


(IN RUSSIAN, THE ECHOS OF BOTH THE "WE" AND "WILL MAKE" FROM GENESIS MAKE A PERFECT POETIC AND DRAMATIC ENDING TO THE SERMON, AS THEY ARE THE FINAL WORDS IN THE SENTENCE.)

Something New

The only thing I’ll say about this sermon is that I did get a few grossed-out looks from the congregation when I talked about where the water we drink has been.

Today I felt like talking about something new. So that’s the theme of today’s sermon: Something New!

So let’s start by looking at what it says in 1 John 4:15: “God is love”. Now wait: that’s nothing new. That’s an ancient, an eternal truth! Yes, I agree—this is an ancient, eternal truth, but I say nevertheless that this is something new. New, because God’s love constantly makes everything new, constantly opens up new possibilities, again and again restores and refreshes and revives and renews.

Here’s a good analogy: when somebody offers you a glass of pure cold water on a very hot day, and you drink it, you never say, “Phew, that’s old water!” Even though, in fact, it is… very old water. That water has been here on the earth from the very beginning of the world. Nowhere on earth is there any such thing as “new water”; no new water is being created. All the water located on our planet has already been drunk by countless people, animals, insects, trees, plants and has also been returned over and over again into the ecological system where it’s purified and refreshes and revives us yet again. And every time you pick up a glass of that fresh, clean, cold water, especially on a sweltering summer day, it seems to you that you are the very first living being in the whole universe to taste this particular glassful of crystal clear life-giving water, and it fills you with satisfaction and gratefulness. That “old” water is just about as “new” as anything you could ever wish for!

Of course, this is a limited, physical analogy for a spiritual truth. In fact, divine love unimaginably exceeds this analogy because, unlike water, God’s love actually does increase and grow; there is more and more of it; it unceasingly comes into new being, in God’s desire to bring about good for the objects of His love. It is always new, and… it has always been. It never grows old, and yet… there’s nothing older than it! God’s love is always able to open a new door for us in life, especially when we feel worn out, empty, useless.

In the Gospel of John 13:34, Jesus Christ speaks this command: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” This is a new command precisely because the life of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ unceasingly makes us new and capable to love in a whole new way, in unity with His desire to love through us. (Verse 35) “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

If we go back to the first epistle of John, in the fifth chapter we read the following words: (5:1) “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.” The whole secret of love—if it really is a secret—unfolds itself in this verse. In this one short verse is exposed the whole Gospel, the news of salvation, the meaning of life, new birth, even a glimmer of the eternal mystery of the Holy Trinity—from which proceeds all divine love. Imagine: all that in one verse! Let’s take it apart….

“Whoever believes...” Here’s faith, the key to reconciliation with God. For us it all starts with this, when by faith we receive God’s gift of eternal life.

“…that Jesus is the Christ...” Here’s the content of our faith, the central fact of history that changes our whole past, present and future.

“…is born of God.”   Here’s new birth; it’s an enlivened spirit, a new, living relationship with the living God in mutual knowledge.

“Whoever loves the father…” Here’s love for God; in the heart of the born-again person love is born for the Father who bestowed the new birth. This is love, born in the image of the eternally loving God, and the proof of that love is love towards His children, as it says, “…and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well” and we read further (v.2) “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.”

I hinted that a lesson about the Holy Trinity is found here, so what is it? The lesson is that our new birth arises exclusively thanks to the only-begotten Son of God. Thanks to the Only-Begotten of the Father we become “begotten” of God. Moreover, thanks to the eternal love ceaselessly communicated within the Holy Trinity, without beginning or end, the possibility is made real for us to taste and know and generate genuine love. Genuine love will always be love in the image of Him who loved and gave Himself for us, Jesus of Nazareth. Genuine love will always be a response of joy toward God the Father, with that same joy with which the eternal Son of God unendingly exults in the presence of His Father. And genuine love will always be the cause for obedience to the Father’s will, the natural consequence of a desire to bring Him pleasure. (Verses 3-4) “This is love for God: to obey his commands, and his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”

The psalmist says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” “Taste!” “See!” That means, “Find out for yourself! Experience it!” Taste the fresh, clean, enlivening water of God’s love; it is water for the soul. This water is always new.

In Samaria on one hot day, Jesus, tired after a long journey, asked for water from a woman whose sins and griefs were totally open to him. Encountering her suspicion and curtness, and still not having gotten even a drop of water, God’s Son Jesus in all love offered her living water (read Jn. 4:13,14). These words sounded out to this woman on that miraculous day when she found God’s love and forgiveness, sounded out from the lips of Him whose love redeemed God’s creation, of Him whose Father one day will say, “See, I am making all new” and in His incomparable love He will wipe every tear from the eyes of His children. That’s the kind of love that sounded from the lips of Jesus to that poor woman on that hot day so long ago in Samaria.

Let that love sound in our hearts every time we draw near to God and each other. Let it reveal itself through us to those around us, in forgiveness, in patience, in help, in compassion and joyful fellowship. And let God's always-new love become for many the refreshing, enlivening water of new life in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

CATASTROPHE!

This one speaks for itself. I’ll just add that the approach here is one I find useful on rare occasions, i.e., where I mostly lay it out first in my own words and only then “cinch” it with scripture passages, left (mostly) to speak for themselves at the end. Oh, by the way, some reflection on Tolkien’s “eucatastrophe” played some role in prompting me to compose this sermon.


Every catastrophe has a future... and the future is God's.

A number of recent events have me thinking about the meaning of “catastrophe”. We all know about the worldwide economic crisis that’s been going on for over a year now. We see that the nations of the world are in turmoil over what’s going on: the riots in Greece, the threat of total financial collapse in countries from Spain and Hungary to Japan. And as for America, the so-called richest country on earth... the reality is that America is essentially bankrupt. America can’t exist at this point without borrowing massively more than it actually has. I call that bankruptcy. A report last month on the generation of new jobs in the economy seemed very encouraging at first. 441,000 new jobs were created! Everybody said hooray! But then reality struck: 400,000 of those jobs were temporary jobs created by the government hiring people to collect the 2010 census! It turns out there were only 41,000 real new jobs last month. To make clear how bad that is, 150,000 new workers enter the job market every month. That means there were jobs for less than a third of them, not to mention the other 8 million officially unemployed and millions of others who don’t even show up on official records. That’s catastrophic.

And now there’s the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. The southern coastline of America is turning red like blood. The fish and birds are dying. The water is turning into poison. They still can’t stop the oil that is spreading farther and farther. And it’s not only floating on the top of the water. It’s also forming a thick layer on the bottom—and that’s killing the sea creatures that depend on the ocean bottom for their food. It’s already a catastrophe and we still don’t know what else it will lead to.

Recently we had a catastrophe in my church denomination in America. Our “Bishop”, that is, the president or senior officer of the whole denomination, was killed in a car accident. Just 53 years old, with a wife and four grown children. In fact, he was planning to go to Canada the next day on a fishing trip with his sons. An overwhelming, heart-breaking shock—a catastrophe for his family, friends and a whole church denomination with thousands of members.

Catastrophes come into our lives, whether physically, emotionally, financially.... And people’s reactions to catastrophes include fear, anxiety, doubt, anger and loss of faith. And that brings me to the main idea of my sermon today, which is this:

If I don’t have a faith that’s prepared for catastrophe, I don’t have a faith that’s prepared for life.

Let me repeat it: If my faith isn’t ready for catastrophe, my faith isn’t ready for life.

Why? Because catastrophe happens. That’s reality. So if I don’t have a faith that’s prepared for reality, how can I have a faith that’s ready for life?

We don’t want our faith itself to suffer ruin, collapse, catastrophe. Therefore, we always need to be assessing our faith. Do I have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter what happens? Or am I hanging my faith on a particular scenario that I expect Him to produce in my life? That’s a critical question.

Why is it critical? The obvious reason is that it could decide whether or not your faith stands strong in the day of catastrophe. But I’ll quickly add that I’m not so naïve as to think that some stark, terrible “day of catastrophe” absolutely comes into the life of literally every single Christian. We don’t all lose loved ones in their youth. We don’t all suffer long-term, debilitating illnesses, or bankruptcy, or a broken home or public disgrace or injustice or persecution. Some people live comparatively peaceful lives from cradle to grave. But listen carefully: even if you’re in that category, the question I asked is still a critical question for your life: Do you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ no matter what? Or is your faith faith in a pleasant, preferred scenario you expect him to arrange for your life?

Why is that a critical question? QUALITY. The quality of our faith will determine the quality of our lives, the quality of our spiritual being and growth, the quality of our joy, our peace, our hope, our relationship with God, our existence. If we have a faith that’s ready for catastrophe—a no-matter-what faith in Jesus—then we have a faith that grows, grows deeply in the knowledge of God whether or not the catastrophe comes. If I don’t have a faith that’s ready for catastrophe in the future, then I don’t really experience the quality of life in Christ now. And if future catastrophe destroys my faith in Christ, I probably never had it to begin with.

I recall a woman I knew long ago, who went through possibly the worst catastrophe anyone can: the loss of a child. Her 18-year-old son was killed in a motorcycle accident. As a result she gave up her faith, saying she could no longer believe in a God who would let something like that happen to her.

Now I have to ask the following question, even if it sounds cold and cruel: Didn’t this woman know, before her son was killed, when she was still “believing in God”, that there were other mothers in the world whose sons were getting killed in motorcycle accidents?

Of course she did—how could she not? We all know it. It means, therefore, that, on a certain and very real level, she was content to believe in a God who let other mothers’ sons get killed in motorcycle accidents... as long as it wasn’t her son.

So, she didn’t really lose her faith, because she never had it to begin with. It wasn’t real-world, ‘no-matter-what’ faith in the Person of Christ; it was faith in a Preferred Scenario.

I know. I sound cold, cruel, unsympathetic: “You can’t know the agony in a mother’s heart, so you can’t judge!” No, I’m not unsympathetic. The pain I feel for her tells me I’m actually full of compassion. But I know that other mothers and fathers, and husbands and wives, and sons and daughters, and dearest friends, have gone through catastrophes just as awful but have come out of it with a living faith. Why? Because they had real-world faith, faith that works in the real world where terrible things like this happen. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ no-matter-what. As a result they came through the pain with God’s peace, hope, strength, joy—in short, a good reason to really live. “I have come”, Jesus said, “that they might have life and have it abundantly.”

If I speak what sound like hard words about that poor woman, it’s not from a lack of compassion but the opposite. It hurts to see her stuck in despair and bitterness, with no way out. I want to see her really know the comfort of God’s awesome power, the healing comfort of the living Christ. But as a rule that happens only when we have faith that’s prepared for catastrophe ahead of time.

And, I think, especially in these times we need faith like that! We need to check, evaluate our faith, and make sure it’s firmly fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ—no matter what happens. Because then our faith won't fail us—for He is "the same yesterday, today and forever". The future and eternity belong completely to Him.

“Heaven and earth will pass away”, Jesus said.

Catastrophe? You bet it is!

“But my words will never pass away.” In the midst of catastrophe—unshakeable assurance, a rock-solid ground to stand on.

In 2 Peter 3:10-13 the apostle writes (read).

The earth and all that is in it will be burned up and dissolved. A catastrophe? Absolutely! But can you believe Peter says this is something we’re actually looking forward to? How can that be? Catastrophe and hope: how can they exist side-by-side? It’s impossible, isn’t it? No, not when we are in Christ. Because our whole faith is founded on a catastrophe and a glorious hope.

(Read Mark 15:22-26.)

“And it was the third hour, and they crucified him.” Catastrophe. Personal, physical, torturous catastrophe, lived through, moment by moment, drop by drop, to death.

(Read Luke 24:25-26.)

The Risen Lord is telling his disciples: No catastrophe... no faith! No suffering... no glory! And if you stop to think about it, Jesus is also saying: “No past... no future!” Because every present catastrophe, just like every passing second, is obviously, logically, going to immediately become a past catastrophe—a past catastrophe caught up in the rushing stream of time towards the future that finally belongs to God and His promises. “O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken...” If the catastrophe of the cross hadn't happened, there’d be no future.

(Read Luke 13:34-35)

The heartbreak of Jesus Christ: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem....” A past catastrophe, a future certainty. Your house is left to you desolate, but the time will come when you say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” No-matter-what faith in Jesus perceives every Past and every Present in the light of the glory of a coming day. Yes, even when we perceive it through tears, just as Jesus wept.

Our faith is based on a catastrophe: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Maybe it seems obvious why I would call such a terrible death catastrophic, but... the resurrection? That's not a catastrophe, is it? Isn’t that something wonderful? Well, yes, it is – truly wonderful in every sense: great, amazing, miraculous. But it’s also catastrophic. A catastrophe is a total change of order, the turning upside-down of everything familiar; it’s an earthquake, an upheaval, a revolution, an end and a beginning. And the resurrection is certainly all those things. And we know the resurrection was really catastrophic for the devil: it obliterated, demolished, shattered the power of sin and death forever. Definitely a catastrophe, and what a glorious one—hallelujah! Without catastrophe we’d have no salvation, no faith.

Finally, I want to amend, to adjust a little bit, something I said before. I said that some people seem to get through life without major catastrophes. But please listen carefully: If we have this no-matter-what faith in Jesus—faith that sticks to Him no matter what else may happen—then I guarantee you we will suffer and catastrophe will come.

You might be thinking that if I worked for an advertising company they’d probably fire me, judging by the advertisement I just made for faith in Jesus.

Alright then, let me clarify what I’m talking about: If we have that kind of faith, then we will suffer because we share the sufferings of Christ, and we will experience catastrophe because, for one thing, Jesus will revolutionize our lives. (Philippians 3:8-10) “I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord... that I may win Christ... that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings”, says the apostle, and I trust we can say the same.

Need I add that none of us can escape catastrophe in any case, because each of us has a date with eternity, the physical catastrophe of death. But if we’re in Christ, death is something we’ve already come to ultimate terms with, thanks to Jesus: (Gal. 6:14) “...God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world,” says the apostle Paul, and I trust we say the same. (Gal. 2:20) “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me: and the live 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.” So says the apostle, and so says No-Matter-What faith in Christ.

At his own approaching appointment with eternity, when nearly everybody had abandoned him and the state was going to execute him, the apostle wrote to his dear son in the faith: (2 Timothy 4:7-8) “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith”—not “lost the faith”; kept the faith!—“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

When he could have protested that it was all unfair, and his friends were traitors, and God had failed him, instead Paul lived and spoke faith, no matter what: (2 Timothy 4:16-18): “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Our faith was born in catastrophe and glory. Faith in Jesus, no matter what, will turn every catastrophe into an expectation of glory. Every catastrophe has a future, and the future... belongs to the Risen and Returning Lord Jesus Christ, “to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen!”

Two Questions on Forgiveness

This one essentially boils down in sermonic style key theological ideas I wove into a paper that I presented at a Dorothy L. Sayers Society convention some years ago. There I spoke on an article Sayers wrote, “On Forgiveness”, during WWII. That paper wove together Sayers’s views with thoughts from Charles Williams, William Blake, C.S. Lewis and others. Oh yes, and me. My small contribution there is distilled into the sermon here.

   (Read Ephesians 4:32)

   The apostle Paul tells us to forgive one another just as God has forgiven us in Christ. That naturally raises the question: how has God forgiven us in Christ? The better we understand that, the better we can forgive one another like God has forgiven us! We find a very helpful clue in Matthew 26:28 (read).

   So, God in Christ has forgiven us by suffering and dying, spilling His own blood for the “remission of sins”. That word “remission” means “putting away”, getting rid of them, making them gone, like they never existed to begin with.

   This raises two difficult questions, and in essence my whole sermon will circle around these questions.

   The first question: If we must forgive similar to how God in Christ forgave us, does this mean we must suffer and die every time we forgive?

   The second question: If not, and if we forgive simply by not blaming the one who offended us, and saying, “I forgive you”, then why was God not able to forgive the same simple way? Why the cross, the suffering, the blood and death?

   Two difficult questions. But in my opinion the answers to these questions happen to disclose the very essence of our faith. If we ignore these questions, we allow the very meaning of forgiveness and the sacrifice of Christ to slip out of sight.

   I will discuss these two questions in reverse order, because the first one will remain unclear until we figure out the second. So again, the second question went “If we forgive simply by not blaming the one who offended us and by saying ‘I forgive you’, then how come God couldn’t forgive the same simply way, without the cross, the suffering, the spilling of blood and death?

   An important question!

   It will help us to look at Matthew 6:12, very familiar words in the context of the “Our Father” (read).

   “Debts”. The key word is “debts”: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

   What do we owe God, by rights? By rights, we owe Him our life , and all that is in it. This is love, faithfulness, holiness, truth, obedience, worship—that’s what Man owes God, since the very creation of the world! For all his belongs to God; it is all from Him and for Him.

   But what is sin? Sin is the violation of this order, the order in which we freely pay our debt of life to God with joy—sin ruins that order. When Man first sinned, he stole from God what belonged to God, which is life itself and everything in it, as I already listed—love, obedience, faithfulness, etc. Here’s a paradox-question for you: Can you steal from yourself? Can you steal from your own self what belongs to you? Can I steal my glasses from myself? As a rule the answer is no. But here’s the paradox: when Man sinned, he stole his own life! His life was his but he stole it. Stole it from whom? Stole it from God, because ultimately everything belongs to God. But not only from God, because Man couldn't steal his life from God without also stealing it from himself—depriving himself of it, forfeiting it.

   (Read Genesis 2:17)

   From his very creation, Man was a debtor to God for his life—for the life that came from God. And interestingly, there were two ways to repay God this debt: either to live, literally live this life for God, in love and the knowledge of Him, or to die, to forfeit the life that he couldn’t properly manage for God. In any case, life belongs to God and exists only for His glory’s sake.

   And so I return to the second question: Why couldn’t God simply say “I forgive” without requiring the suffering and death of Christ?

   I think the answer will be easier to understand, now that we’ve talked about “debts”.

   By not demanding from us the life we owed Him, God essentially relinquished the life that was owed Him, that belonged to Him. And this reality concretely materialized in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Because, you know, forgiveness doesn’t consist of words alone. Forgiveness is an act. Moreover, it is an act of forfeiture, of loss.

   If you owe me five dollars and I forgive you the debt, that’s all very well and good for you, of course—but I’ve lost! What have I lost? Five dollars, of course!

   Even if someone offended me in a more abstract way—let’s say it’s not money we’re talking about; let’s say someone was spreading gossip about me. If I forgive that person, what do I lose? I lose the right to expect moral compensation, to expect that he will somehow undo what was done, rewind time itself to make it so that the wrong never happened. By the way, who can pay off a debt like that? Who can rewind time? Nobody! And so it turns out that, by forgiving, I am actually liberating myself from the expectation of the impossible!

   And do you know how that expectation of the impossible manifests itself in life, what it’s called? Bitterness. Or, as one lady responded in a church where I asked that question: “Torture!” That’s right. It is. It’s bitterness and torture absolutely worth getting free of, because that’s just no way to live.

   And so, forgiveness is an act of forfeiture. Even if such forfeiture liberates the forgiver, all the same it's a loss. Forgiving us the life we owed Him, God Himself lost. He gave up, in the very Person of Christ, the life that was His by right, the life we owed Him. He carried Himself the full weight of the offense that no one could possibly have made up to Him.

   And there’s the answer to the second question. God so loved us that He gave His own life in Christ, to make up our debt, and this is forgiveness. That's "why" the cross, the suffering, the death....

   And now I think we can very briefly and simply answer the first question, which went: “If we must forgive one another similarly to how God forgave us in Christ, does it mean we also must suffer and die in order to forgive?”

   The answer is... “Yes”.

   Maybe not literally, and of course not to the salvation of the whole world, inasmuch as it’s not against us the whole world sinned or to us the whole world owes life itself. But, inasmuch as our Savior materialized all forgiveness and the source of forgiveness Himself, by His death, in love, and made us (as the apostle Peter says) “partakers in the divine nature by the power of His resurrection”, we have power—yes, and a debt!—to forgive in imitation of His forgiveness: by relinquishing, giving up, what’s ours by right and not expecting impossible recompense, by carrying, absorbing, the whole brunt of the offense and loss and so extinguishing it, and by trusting everything, with thankfulness and  total release, into the hands of Him who is faithful.

   Doing that, we liberate ourselves from the debts of our debtors; by the power of the Risen Life of Jesus Christ we die to the offense and live to God, in the freedom of forgiveness. Forgiveness frees the forgiver. That’s the great secret of forgiveness, and what a tragedy that it is a secret! Forgiveness frees the forgiver—yes, even God! God who’s forgiven us is now free to love His children without ever again recalling the sins that He has put away: “...This is my blood, shed for the remission.. the putting away... of sins....”

   So let us likewise free ourselves through forgiveness from every wrong done to us, in imitation of our God and Savior.  

   (Read Ephesians 4:32-5:2).

Easter Sermon IV: Two Conundrums

In spite of this being “Easter Sermon IV”, it is actually a very old one I preached, years ago, in our church as well as our college chapel. It is, in part, an extended reflection on an observation by C.S. Lewis, that only a sinless person would be capable of incarnating the perfect “repentance” (i.e., return to God, the Hebrew “shuv”, which means “returning”) of which, paradoxically, he was in no need personally (being perfect, repentance is inapplicable to him). The evil person, on the other hand, being in desperate need of repentance, is incapable of performing this good work. That is one of the “conundrums”. The other is the odd sort of distinction Paul makes in Romans 4:25 with regard to the “parts” of Christ’s redemptive work, i.e., which parts accomplished what. Finally, an observation of my own on the Baptism of Christ, an observation that arose in the course of my teaching the Gospel of Matthew at our college—to the effect that the Baptism serves as a depiction, in symbolic form, of the entire redemptive act of God in Christ—helps me to tie these two “conundrums” together theologically and resolve them... in a way that seemed appropriate for an Easter sermon....

   First conundrum: (Romans 4:25) “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”

   Usually we think of salvation as one whole; we say, “Jesus died and rose to save us.” But in this verse, Paul seems to divide salvation into two parts. He says that Jesus died for our sins, but was raised to justify us. Now what can that mean? Why is the resurrection especially connected to “justification”? Paul said it, so it must mean something!

   Second conundrum: How can a bad man do a good thing? What I mean is this: Repentance is a good thing; it means giving up your sins and returning to God. But who needs to do this good thing? A “bad” person, of course. And the worse he is, the more he needs to do it! But the worse he is, the less he can do it. Now, a perfect person could easily do it... but he doesn’t need to. So there’s the paradox! The worst person most needs to repent, and he can’t. The perfect person can easily repent, but he doesn’t need to! And even if the best person did, in some sense, repent, what difference would that make for the worst person? It doesn’t help him, does it?

   So those are our two conundrums. And now, even though our focus today is Easter and resurrection, I want to spend a few minutes reflecting on the baptism of Jesus Christ. Why? Because there is a theological picture in this baptism. And I think the picture will help us to solve the conundrums I’ve laid out and at the same time help us more deeply celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection  and all it means for our lives.

   (Read Matthew 3:1-17)

   In this baptism we can see the whole story of salvation concentrated in one moment and one person. The story is acted out symbolically, concentrating on Jesus as he embraces this “Baptism of Repentance”. Now, John the Baptist was horrified that Jesus would do such a thing. Right before this, John was announcing that the Messiah was coming to baptize with fire and the Spirit! But here Jesus appears on the scene and what do we see? Do we in fact see the terrifying Lord of hosts radiating fire on His enemies, like John’s words would lead us to expect? Not in the least. Instead we see a simple man at the riverbank, humbly waiting in line for his turn. You know, it reminds me of Revelation where the elder tells the apostle John, “Look! The Lion of the tribe of Judah!”, but when John looks, what does he see? A Lamb.

   John the Baptist did his best to stop Jesus. He knew exactly what this baptism meant, and what it meant was: Jesus didn’t need it! Because it meant repentance. He seriously tried to stop Jesus from going into the water, probably several times, saying, “You mustn’t do this; it isn’t right; I can’t baptize you– you should baptize me!” (Just think about what that means....)

   But Jesus says, in effect, “Come on, John, let’s get on with it! This is the way it’s meant to go. We’re supposed to do exactly this, to accomplish the total fulfillment of God’s righteousness.” And with that Jesus goes into the water and... repents.

   Now you’ll tell me, of course: “Wait! Jesus didn’t repent, because he never sinned. Besides, the text doesn’t say that he repented.”

   In answer to the first objection: yes, I know Jesus never sinned. We’ll talk more about that in a moment.

   In answer to the second objection, the Scripture clearly says that this mass baptism John was holding out there on the Jordan River was a baptism of repentance. It was “Repentance Baptism”; in other words, if you do the baptism, you are repenting. You can’t separate them; that’s how John preached it, that’s how everybody took it. And when Jesus submitted to it, neither he nor John stopped to make a preliminary announcement: “Attention, everyone! Let’s make it perfectly clear that in this one special case this is not ‘Repentance Baptism’! There’s absolutely no connection in this case between the two ideas!” You see, to say that repentance wasn't implied when Jesus got baptized is practically the same as saying he wasn’t baptized at all. Because “Repentance Baptism” was the only kind of baptism going on out there that day. And that’s the one Jesus took.

   In front of everybody and without clarification, explanation or modification, Jesus submits to exactly the same baptism as all the others. Others are going down into the water confessing their sins, “I stole from my brother! I told lies about my neighbor! I had adulterous thoughts!” And now Jesus goes into the water, too, like the rest. Perfectly natural for anybody watching to assume Jesus was a sinner like them. Why wouldn’t they? They didn’t know who he was. Maybe they noticed Jesus didn’t confess any sins before he went into the water; maybe they noticed that John didn’t want to baptize Jesus; maybe they thought that was rather odd.... Nevertheless, Jesus goes down into the water, like a repenting sinner.

   Now imagine John’s total bewilderment. What in the world is going on here? It’s all upside-down, all wrong.... It makes me think of Jesus’ disciples later, when to their horror they witnessed Jesus hanging on the cross – their feeling must have been similar: “This can’t be happening; it’s all wrong.” But here’s the thing: it wasn't wrong. Precisely so Jesus was supposed to “fulfill all righteousness”. The only one who never needed to repent, the Perfect One, does a “Repentance Baptism”. But for what? For whom?

   In our imagination, let’s look and watch that Baptism story again and see the story it tells: Jesus comes out of the crowd, heads for the water, goes under it, comes up, heaven opens, the Spirit descends, a voice speaks. I believe that Jesus is telling John, and us, that this very picture itself is fulfilling all righteousness. But how? In what sense? Let’s take the picture in parts....

   Jesus comes out of the crowd, steps forward as one of the people, participating in their Repentance Baptism – but more than “participating”, he will actually do the perfect Repentance Baptism for them, like they can't. He steps forward as one of them; He won't stand aloof from the people. To the contrary, he will in a sense be them, for them—but on a level and dimension beyond anything they, or we, could conceive. Jesus will carry their guilt in a repentance and surrender to the Father’s will like no one else could. And why? So he might make them new, in himself. This will fulfill all righteousness. This will make righteousness real in every single person Jesus carries in his heart down to the waters of repentance.

   So Jesus stepped out of the crowd, and then headed straight for the water. Nothing would stop him. This was what he came for....  “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.” “I must do the works of my Father”; “He set his face toward Jerusalem”. Exactly like Jesus headed straight into the water, that’s how he headed straight to the cross. John couldn’t stop Jesus from getting into the river; nothing could stop Jesus from fulfilling the Father’s will. nobody could stop Jesus from going to the cross. No one ever obeyed the Father like this before. This also fulfills all righteousness; this also makes righteousness real. Real, in Jesus.

   Then Jesus went down under the water. Just like God will bring Jesus’ soul down into the very depths of death, on that day when Jesus cries from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”, breathes his last breath and dies, the day he is buried in the earth. This also fulfills all righteousness.

   Then, Jesus immediately came up from the water. Just as three days after his death, he came up from the earth, out of the grave in glorious resurrection. “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here. He is RISEN!” Death couldn’t hold God’s Holy One. This also fulfills all righteousness.

   Then heaven opened. Just as heaven opened to receive the Son of God 40 days after the resurrection. In Jesus’ ascension, heaven and earth are united, and we have access to the Father through Him. This also fulfills all righteousness.

   Then the Spirit descended. Just as the Spirit descended again on Jesus’ people, the Church, in fulfillment of Jesus’ promise: I will send another Comforter; I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you; I and the Father will make our dwelling place within you. This also fulfills all righteousness.

   Then the voice spoke from heaven: “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God blessed His Son, openly announced His perfect pleasure in Him before all the people. There will be another day when the whole creation, the whole universe will recognize God’s Son. And at His Name, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This also fulfills all righteousness.

   You know, when Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden, righteousness died. The right relationship for which God created man— died. Ever since then, God in His grace has labored in human history to restore—yes, to fulfill—this righteousness, make it real again.

   The crowning conclusion of this divine labor was righteousness’ ultimate materialization in Jesus. And in the Baptism this stunning story is portrayed in miniature—it’s acted out; it’s announced to the entire creation. It all happens and “comes true”—in Jesus’ personal identification with the people, in His self-sacrifice for them, in His resurrection, and in His renewal of them; they become a new and righteous people by Him, and this surely fulfills all righteousness.

   No wonder Jesus wouldn’t let John stop him but said “We have to do this....” The heart of God couldn’t settle for less.

Romans 5:16 “Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”

   In verse 19, Paul talks about the obedience of the “one man”, and I can’t help picturing the one man Jesus stepping out of the crowd, to do it all, the one man Jesus on the cross, paying for all, the one man Jesus coming out of the tomb, having won it all.

   It makes me think of Matthew 7, as well, where Jesus says we must “enter by the narrow gate and the straight path.” I know we usually picture a long straight path – that’s our earthly life – leading finally to a narrow gate – that’s the gate of heaven. But I truly don’t think that’s what Jesus is talking about. If you read it carefully, you’ll notice that Jesus talks about the narrow gate first. Only then comes the straight path. First we enter the narrow gate, and why is it narrow? It’s narrow because, ultimately, it all boils down to one man. The gate is Jesus, and the righteousness he fulfilled. Over all the millennia of human history, God was narrowing and narrowing this gate down to one man—through Noah, Abraham, Israel, then one tribe of Israel, then one family from that tribe, then one child from that family. God brought the whole eternal work of redemption to fulfillment, finally, in this one man—the one who stepped out of the crowd that day, and said to John the Baptist, “Let it be so, John, because this is exactly the way we must fulfill all righteousness.” We enter the kingdom only through the narrow gate, the One Man, surrendering to his will like he surrendered to the Father’s will. And then, after entering through him, we walk the long, straight path—with its sacrifices, tests, temptations, purification and sanctification. And that way, “all righteousness” continues being fulfilled, continues happening, in us.

   So this finally brings us back to the two conundrums we started with: why is it the resurrection of Christ, specifically, that justifies, and how can a bad person do a good thing; i.e., how can a sinner do the right thing and repent the way he should? Perhaps you already realize that these two conundrums are really one.

   And the answer should be clear now, especially if you remember that the verb “justify” means “to make righteous”. It’s only because of the resurrection that Jesus can bring the righteousness fulfilled in his life into our life. No resurrection—no justifying! Only because he is alive can Jesus’ righteousness live in us. His righteousness lives because Christ lives. In His earthly life, Jesus incarnated the truest repentance and self-surrender to God, he lived out unwavering obedience that presses forward, every step closer and closer to God, no matter the cost, through every fire and test. Which is what every sinner ought to do; which is what no sinner can do. But Jesus did it. And now He can do it, and does do it, again: in you and in me... because he lives. “Because I live, you also will live”, Jesus tells us. “Living”, for Jesus, is nothing else than living for God. That’s perfect repentance, that’s righteousness, that’s sanctification, that’s life in the risen Lord.

  And when does this life, this righteousness, this sanctification happen for us? Not just on the day we become a believer, but every day of our life. The whole Christian life is a life of repentance, in the sense of return to God. It’s a continual returning, ever closer and closer, from imperfection to perfection, from darkness to light. This is the life Christ made real for us when we couldn’t. This is why Jesus stepped out of the crowd. This is why Jesus rose from the dead. This is why the Risen Lord lives in our hearts: to fulfill all righteousness.

Romans 6:8 “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”

   God made man to be righteous. Thanks to God’s great love and grace, man will be righteous. Because Jesus lives, you and I can live—really live. Because he returned to God, you and I can return to God, every day. He lives in us to make it happen. As the apostle writes, “the life he lives, he lives to God.” The life he lives in us, we live to God. Paul writes, “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus”. We can do this, for Christ is risen! He lives in us to do what he has always done: the will of the Father. We show we are his when we let him fulfill that will. To save us He died, to justify us He rose. And in the power of His resurrection, He invites each of us to enter by the narrow gate, the gate of His own risen life, and walk the straight path with him, in a life of return to God, in his strength, no matter what the cost. Let us glorify the risen Lord Jesus Christ by surrendering our life to him, so that in us and with us he can go on fulfilling the righteousness that glorifies the Father.