Lent 5, Judica, 2023

Sermons

John 8: 45-59

Lent 5, Judica, 2023

Ex. 3:14

 

“Who do you think you are?”    This is the challenge the Jews leveled at Jesus towards the end of His ministry.     I bid you to remember these words as we examine the debate between Jesus and the Jews.     On Facebook the other day, someone posted a phrase on the reader board of a Lutheran Church.    The sign read, “We believe in the separation of church and hate.”    I wanted to ask the Question, “What does this mean?”   But I held back because I already know what people mean by this comment.    This comment stands in the context of same-sex “marriage.”

 

The thought behind the above phrase is to suggest that anyone who claims that “same-sex marriage” constitutes a horrible perversion of God’s institution of holy matrimony is homophobic, intolerant and hateful.     But that is the work of Satan.   He takes what God intended for good and our enjoyment in the institution of marriage, and turns it upside down.

 

He takes the truth and turns it into a lie, namely, if you are a “good Christian” you will support those who wish to engage in sin and give them your “loving approval” and acceptance of their life’s choices.     The devil is very good at what he does.    Think of where we have come in this nation in the last 50 years.

 

The devil was hard at work the day of the event we are considering this morning: the dispute between Jesus and the Jews.    The Jews who had listened to Jesus tell them of God’s grace for months, not only call Him a Samaritan, but possessed by a demon.    It is this challenge Jesus meets head-on.   Jesus tells them the truth and they cannot receive it: “I tell you the absolute truth, if anyone keeps my Word, he will never see death.”

 

It is this statement that also leads up to the discussion about Abraham.     In their blindness, being possessed of the devil themselves, they reply, “Are you greater than our father Abraham?   He died and the prophets died.   Who do you think you are?      Yet, in their blindness to the truth, they were asking the most important question of eternity.   It is a question we also consider this day:

 

WHO IS JESUS?

 

JESUS IS THE “I AM” OF ETERNITY.

 

Let’s pursue the eternal question of the Jews.    In answer to their question, Jesus gives an astounding answer: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”   It is time for a short Greek grammar lesson.   In Greek, as in most Indo-European languages, the subject and verb are a single word.   In this case “I AM” is the single Greek word, eimi.   But Jesus places the personal pronoun egw, that is “I” before He says, “I AM.”

 

In other words He is pointing the Jews back to Exodus 3:14, “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.   Tell the people of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.”     With these two words, Jesus is not merely pointing to Himself as a special person or a great prophet, but Jesus is establishing the most important theological doctrine in Holy Scripture: Jesus is the God of all Creation.   With the use of the term “I AM” Jesus is giving you and me the comfort that He is true God.     Jesus will use this term again and again in the chapters of John as He speaks to His disciples telling them:

  • I am the Bread of Life.
  • I am the Light of the world.
  • I am the Door for the sheep.
  • I am the Good Shepherd.
  • I am the Son of God.
  • I am the Resurrection and the Life.
  • I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

 

With the use of each I AM, Jesus gives us the comfort that He is the LORD God of Creation; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

 

Jesus further tells the Jews, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day.   He saw it and was glad.”   Abraham “saw” Jesus with the eyes of faith in the birth of Isaac.   This was the pledge to Abraham of the fulfillment of the Promise.    In and with the birth of this son, the history of salvation, intimately connected with Isaac’s birth was unfolded to Abraham.     Abraham lived for Christ.

 

Jesus reveals Himself to us as the God of all Creation in a similar way: in Word and Sacrament.    In these means, He is comforting and assuring you that when He hung on the cross for your sins, it was God Himself who died in your place.   When Jesus said over your sins, “It is finished,” It was God who made the final decree that your sins can not be held against you.    When God speaks, all heaven and earth and all creation must obey.     So who is Jesus?    Who does He think He is?   He knows and is the Lord God who took your sins and made them go away forever.

 

JESUS IS THE ONE WE ARE TO HEAR.

 

However, as we learn once again that Jesus is the God of all Creation, we need to ask: “Why is this so important?”   Now, I am going at this a little bit backwards as far as the text is concerned, but Jesus makes a logical deduction from the truth that He is God.    That deduction comes in verse 47: “Whoever is of God hears the Word of God.”    The specific “Word” Jesus wants us to hear this day comes up in the dispute with the Jews, “If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste death.”

 

The Jews took that phrase and ran with it accusing Jesus of blasphemy: “Are you greater than our father Abraham who died?   Who do you make yourself out to be?”   Jesus had told the Jews many times what kind of death He was talking about.    With superficial blindness, the Jews substitute physical death for eternal death purposely perverting the words of Jesus.

 

Christ has set up an inheritance for you signed with the blood of God on the cross.    In contrast, the devil wants you to enter in to a contract signed with your soul.    If you want to contract with the devil, you had better read the fine print.     The fine print, which many ignore says, “The one who agrees to this contract agrees to sell his soul to the devil for all eternity.”   He who sows to the flesh, will from the flesh reap everlasting death.     You know the works of the flesh.   They should not be a mystery to us.   But let’s look into the mirror of God’s Law just as a reminder of what angers God bringing down His eternal wrath of hell.

 

  • Do you doubt God’s Word in any way or your Christian creeds?
  • Have you used the name of God to swear or curse others?
  • Have you brought dishonor to the Name into which you were baptized?
  • Out of discouragement, apathy or sloth, do you fail to attend church on Sundays and read the Scriptures at home during the week, privately or with your family?
  • Are you having or desiring illicit sex (i.e. outside of marriage)?
  • Have you been angry and/or hateful in thought towards anyone?
  • Have you failed or refused to forgive and be reconciled with anyone?

 

Now let’s add to this list something we often do not think about.    One of the biggest challenges for Christians is self-righteousness, that is, thinking that we are less sinful because we are not involved in outward and manifest sins such as homosexuality.    This was the attitude of the Jews.    We are still saddled with the Old Adam in this life.

 

The Old Adam cannot refrain from proudly looking at his own righteousness saying, “I am glad that I am not like other people, or like that pervert who wants to be married to someone of the same sex.”    Nor can it shift that gaze to the righteousness of Christ.     You see, no matter how “good” you think you are, the remnants of sin still cling to our flesh.   So far as the flesh is concerned, then, we are sinners even after we have received the Holy Spirit.”

 

So if you want to see the Old Adam in your life, simply recall how you have treated others this last week or last month.    Remember what Jesus says, “Whatsoever you do to others, you do to me.”    If we have been angry with our wife, husband, the cashier at the store, the man who cuts us off in traffic, we have been angry with our Savior.     There lays before us once again only one course of “action:” Repentance.

 

In light of the ugly fact that sin still clings to our flesh, there is wonderful news: Jesus, who is God, wants you to be of God, not of the devil for the devil means to destroy your faith and with it your inheritance of eternal life.    This means that He wants you to hear His words about eternal death.   This is why Jesus, who is God, instituted Holy Baptism.      Through Baptism, the Holy Spirit brought you into the Kingdom of God and made you a child “of God.”

 

Think about these words of our Savior, “If anyone” is universal and opens the door to all the sinners in the world.   The words of Jesus here are pure Gospel.    Jesus does not want you to see death, but see, know, experience life with Him forever.   The blessings of salvation now and forever are bound up in the person of Christ.

 

When Jesus tells the Jews, “Whoever is of God hears the Word of God,” He was inviting them to listen to the words of forgiveness bound up as they were in the person of Christ as true God and in the Cross.      For our comfort, Jesus wants you to know through the Word of God that God died on the cross on that Good Friday.   Jesus wants you to hear the Word of God because He wants you, the one who still has sin clinging to his flesh, to know that Jesus cancelled out the debt of sin against you.     In Word and Sacrament, your Savior makes the promise to you: “If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste death.”      Come again to the Table of the Lord set for you and taste of the elixir of Life.   Go in peace.   Amen.

 

Soli Deo Gloria