Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent: April 3, 2022 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝
Judge me, Lord! Prove me. Try me out. Test and verify that I am faithful. Be my vindication in the time of trial. That all sounds good and right. It’s what you know that God will do from time to time throughout your life. You know it’s good for you to be tested. Until the time of testing actually happens. Then, that becomes the last thing you want! Thank you, O God, for giving me the gift of faith and trust in You alone. But when that faith comes to the test, and something happens that makes me think, Lord, what were you thinking? I wonder, are you still there for me? I thought you always wanted what was good for me. I thought you made promises to your beloved children and kept them. So often, I have to struggle at my work, or my relationships. Temptations sneak up on me. I was about to get into a good rhythm and then something else happens to upset the balance in my life once again. Lord, I love your gifts of faithfulness to me, but the times of testing that seem to sneak up on me? I can do without.
No one could have felt that pain of faith-trial more than Abraham. He finally had a son, Isaac, who fulfilled the Lord’s own promise that he would become a father of many nations. You can’t be father of anything without a son. Without offspring. And so with Abraham and Sarah both in their 90s, Isaac arrived and the Lord’s promise came true. He was their whole world, the laughter, the delight of their old age. They would do anything to protect their little boy from harm, even from the teasing laughter of half-brother Ishmael, whether it was vicious or just a joke, Abraham and Sarah made sure nothing was going to touch this boy.
Then came the command from God, kill your son, your only son, whom you love. Offer him as a sacrifice to Me. Abraham, I am testing you, proving you. You don’t know it now, but I am doing this to vindicate you before all the other ungodly nations. Not only will I prove your cause and give you your son back, as if he had risen from the dead, I will also prove My cause at the same time and display to all the world how I, your God, I am going to come into My world and save it for eternity.
I, your God, will one day undergo and pass my own test, and send My own Son, My only Son, whom I love, and order Him to be sacrificed for the sake of the whole world. Him I will not spare or remove from the cross at the last minute. The ram with horns tangled in a bush would take the place of Isaac that day, but Jesus, with hands and feet nailed to the cross on a hill nearby, would take your place and mine on Good Friday. That’s the day Jesus knew that Abraham saw and rejoiced. Abraham rejoiced when he dropped his knife and took his beloved son off of the wood and the altar. He also rejoiced when he saw the day when the crucified Son of God would be removed from the wood of the cross, laid in a tomb and raised to life on the third day. That was the day when not only Isaac was back in Abraham’s embrace, but you also would be part of that heavenly bear hug from Father Abraham.
Jesus testified to Abraham’s rejoicing when He was undergoing a trial Himself. He was questioned before the official religious leaders who were clearly by this time trying to find a way to stop Jesus, even if it meant putting Him to death. As our Lord answered the questions put to Him, He was not looking for a way out of their traps. Instead, His responses were the very cords that were beginning to bind Him like Isaac was at first tied up as if he were a lamb about to be slaughtered. Jesus testified to His status as the Son of God walking around in a human body and did not hold back the truth, even pointing out the liars who had the power to destroy Him. This was no insult, like these leaders had thought. Jesus could prove that they had constantly misrepresented the truth and corrupted their spiritual official capacity. He didn’t have the demon possessing Him; they did!
They should not have gotten away with their plot to get rid of Jesus. Our Savior should have been vindicated and cleared of all these frivolous charges against Him, from destroying the Jerusalem temple complex all the way up to the ridiculous implication that Jesus wanted to unseat the Caesar himself! But it was the Father’s will that Jesus would not be vindicated by man. He wanted the grossest injustice and greatest evil imaginable to happen—He wanted it to happen to Jesus, that is. God loved you, so that He took the wrongs you have done, all the evidence in your life that says you have not passed His test, and placed the entire blame on Jesus instead. The Son of God was directed to be judged as though He were the Sinner and allow Himself to be punished to the fullest extent. His blood, which poured out in the whipping, beating, nailing, suffocating of Jesus on the Cross, is your cleansing flood that was washed over you in your baptism, and is continually cleansing you to forgive your sins and purify your life, as long as God allows you to take your breaths of earthly air. Then, He’ll call you home to the rejoicing of not only Abraham, but all your fellow saints and the angels too.
Jesus was judged, you were vindicated. You were proven true and faithful in the time of trial, not because you had the stamina to withstand the attack, but rather because Jesus took your place and He was faithful to the heavenly Father for you. For Christ your Savior who died in utter blood and pain, has been raised to life, and when He was raised, not only was He acquitted, proven true, vindicated; you also were acquitted, you were accepted into God’s forever kingdom. Nothing that afflicts you, that sorely tries and tests you while you are still here in the flesh on earth, none of that will ever be able to separate you from the Love of God that has been forever extended to you through Jesus Christ. Follow the example of your fellow Good Shepherd members who recently proved to our observation that they were not fearful of death or painful trial, because they knew what you also know, that every day is one step closer for us to see Jesus face-to-face.
For a little while, you will still have occasional tests. God is going to verify that your complete trust and hope remains in Him alone. Your loving Savior assures you that these tests do not hang your faith or your eternal destiny in the balance. No uncertainty there. These instead are all tests of love, even though they still smart and prick your soul at times with spiritual pain. Death is still a scary enemy, but if it tries to bare its teeth at you, then you will find that Jesus has knocked out all of its teeth! The grave will not hold you away from the open arms of God, because you have been judged, and Jesus assured your verdict to be life forever more.
In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Readings:
Gen. 22:1–14 where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
Heb. 9:11–15 Not with the blood of goats and calves
John 8:42–59 before Abraham was, I AM.