Dear saints, this morning we enter the third and final stage of Lent: Passiontide. On the Gesima Sundays, we introduced a period of penitence. With the first four Sundays in Lent, we intensified that penitence and began examining ourselves. This brings us to this morning. We explore and begin to commemorate the suffering, the Passion, of our Lord. The lessons from today through Good Friday highlight the enormity of our sin and iniquity. They show us the tremendous Sacrifice for the ugliness of our sin in light of the holiness of that Sacrifice. Thus, as we rightly tremble under the gravity of our sinfulness, we should still have a quiet joy in our redemption as we gather and worship. Even on Good Friday.
The lessons from Genesis and the Epistle to the Hebrews build to the Gospel. In the Old Testament, Abraham, the man who was reckoned righteous before God because he believed what God had promised him, is told to sacrifice his son on a mountain. Isaac, who would also know what had been promised through him, was to be the sacrifice.
On the third day of their journey, Abraham tells the young men with him, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” Let me be clear here: Abraham is not lying to them. He is confident that he will return with Isaac. When they come to the appointed place of sacrifice, the altar is built. The wood is laid out, Isaac is bound to it, and the knife is raised to fulfill what was commanded of Abraham.
Realize this also: Abraham is an old man. Isaac is a young man. If he wanted to, Isaac could have easily kept himself off the altar. But he did not. He feared, loved, and trusted God. He honored his father. He was willingly laid on the altar as a sacrifice. Sounds familiar, does it not?
But before the knife could strike, the angel of the Lord halts everything. “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” The angel of the Lord here is none other than the Second Person of the Trinity. It is Christ before His incarnation. He says, “I know,” and, “from Me.”
Abraham then lifts his eyes and sees what had been hidden from both him and Isaac until that moment: A ram caught in a thicket by his horns. Three days of anguish is now relieved. Willing to sacrifice his only son, a substitute is given. The ram was the sacrifice offered on the mountain and, just as he said, he and Isaac returned to the young men. He names the place, “The Lord will provide,” for on that mountain it shall be provided.
That it that shall be provided is none other than Christ our Lord. He is the perfect Lamb that all the blood of bulls and goats sacrificed in the sacrificial system pointed to. He is the substitute that atones for our sins and suffers the just penalty that we deserve. And as He does this, He enters the Holy of Holies not made with hands as our Great High Priest. He carries in His hands His perfect blood as our Sacrifice. Christ Jesus, as both Priest and Victim, purifies our consciences from their dead works and enables us to serve the living God. And as we heard in the Epistle, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgression committed under the first covenant.
This brings us to the Gospel for this morning. It is the final half of a conversation between Jesus and the Jews. He again wrangles with the Pharisees and just before our lesson, it is reported that some of the Jews believed in Him. But the confrontation ends as stones are picked up to stone our Lord.
Jesus uses strong rhetoric here. He says these genetic children of Abraham are, in fact, no children of Abraham at all. He tells them their father is the devil, the father of lies. Our Lord says that they do not love Him because they do not love His Father. That they do not understand what He says because they cannot bear to hear what He has to say.
The Jews respond with blasphemy. They slander Jesus, saying that He is a Samaritan and has a demon. He denies having a demon and tells them that all who keep His word, that is, guard it in faith and obey what it bids, will never see death. Demonstrating that the Jews do not understand Jesus, they charge that He must have a demon because Abraham and all the prophets died. They do not understand that all the saints live eternally even though they die. Even if their bodies have returned to dust and they await the bodily resurrection on the Last Day. Finally, they ask if Jesus thinks Himself greater than Abraham.
Jesus answers them saying, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
The Jews are incredulous at this. “You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?” Of all the things Jesus does and says that they do not understand or comprehend, they do understand Jesus’ response: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” They understand that Jesus is claiming to be their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of the living and not of the dead. And because they do not believe Jesus is the I AM, they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
He leaves the Temple because His hour has not yet come. But the hour for Jesus is coming soon. He will soon be delivered over to the Pharisees and run through a sham trial. He will be brought before Pilate and the crowds will coerce Pilate into turning Jesus over to be crucified. Just as our Father intended.
Jesus is the Pure and Holy and Patient One. Pure in that He was sinless. Holy in that He is God Incarnate. Patient in that He does not condemn or smite the people of His day, or ours, for hardheartedness, faithlessness, or ignorance. Rather He suffers and is rejected. That suffering and rejection is not confined to the cross but is throughout His earthly ministry.
The Latin name for this Sunday is Judica. It means ‘judge’ or ‘vindicate.’ It is what we hear in the Introit: Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me! For you are the God in whom I take refuge.
Our Lord will soon be vindicated. He will be judged as pure and righteous. And He will be condemned and crucified on the cross. Beginning today, many congregations with crucifixes and small to medium-sized crosses have them veiled with a black veil. The cross is the place where our Lord sorrows and suffers. Ultimately, it is where he gives His life for us. Why cover that? Because the cross also reveals our Lord’s divinity. It is where we see Him winning our salvation. It is where He bestows to us His Body and Blood in the Sacrament. At the cross are beauty and joy. And we are unworthy to look directly at it. So, in humility, these congregations deny themselves those depictions so that their attention would be drawn to it and remember that we currently see dimly in a mirror. But also rejoice that one day we will see Him face to face.
The next two weeks are the most solemn days in the Church Year. In them, you will see just how much and in what way your Lord loves you. Indeed, the God of heaven and earth submits Himself to death that you might be delivered from your wilderness exile and go into the Promised Land He has prepared for you in heaven. May God bless you as you traverse Passiontide and approach our Lord’s death and burial, rejoicing in His Resurrection. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller
Peace Lutheran Church
Alcester, SD
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