Today is Palm Sunday. Today is the day we remember and celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. In years past, the text and the emphasis for this Sunday were centered around Jesus’ last entry into Jerusalem where He came to die. But, because our culture and even our Christian culture has so deteriorated so that too many people no longer see the importance of being in divine service on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and hearing the passion of Christ and looking forward to our Easter celebration, let alone years ago when Christians celebrated an Easter Eve Vigil, today our church body has moved to using Palm Sunday as the Sunday of Passion in preparation for our Easter celebration next Sunday, after all, how can you celebrate Jesus’ resurrection unless you remember His suffering and death, His passion. Oh yes, and today is the day we are celebrating the rite of confirmation for one of our young adults.
In our Epistle Lesson for this morning, which is considered to be a part of an early Christian creed, we confess Jesus, true God, taking on human flesh, humbling Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross for our forgiveness. And our text from Deuteronomy reminds us of how our Lord deals with His creatures.
Our text begins with reminding us how the Lord deals with His own people. We begin at verse thirty-five, “35Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly” (v. 35). We would do well to remember that it was the Lord who chose the children of Israel to be His people. The Lord chose Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and so on and promised that the Savior of the world would be born through their family line. God’s promise was that if they would be and would remain to be His people, He would be their God.
The problem is that the children of Israel strayed. They did not live as God would have them to live. They did not obey the laws and commands the Lord had given them, laws and command that were given for their own good, to protect them and to keep them as His people.
Because of their sin, the Lord allowed for the children of Israel to be exiled. The Lord used other nations to discipline His chosen nation. The Lord allowed for the children of Israel to be punished so that they might see their sin and their need for a Savior so that He might bring them back into a right relationship with Himself. And this is how the Lord deals with His own people.
Our text continues by reminding us how the Lord deals with unbelievers. Picking up at verse thirty-six, “36For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining, bond or free. 37Then he will say, ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, 38who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you; let them be your protection!” (v. 36-38).
Those nations used by the Lord to discipline His own people were heathen nations who were godless and idolaters. The Lord does not desire punishment for punishment sake, but for the purpose of discipline and growth in faith. Thus, when the discipline has had its effect, when the children of Israel repent, the Lord acts quickly to restore them to His grace and favor.
And then the Lord will deal with the unbelievers. The Lord mocks the false gods and idols of the heathen nations, because truly they are not gods at all, only idols.
Our text concludes reminding us how the Lord rescues His own people. We pick up at verse thirty-nine, “39See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand” (v. 39). Ultimately, the heathen cannot stand before the Lord. As we celebrate Palm Sunday we may see some foreshadowing of the events of this week, Holy Week, as Jesus came to give His life, to defeat sin, death and the power of the devil.
God will deal justly with the heathen. The price for sin is death, physical death and apart from Jesus and faith in Jesus, eternal spiritual death. The reason Christians are so hated by the world is because of this exclusive claim of the Gospel, that is that there is one way and only one way to eternal life in heaven and that way is through Jesus Christ alone. Which means that for the heathen there is truly no hope.
Yet for God’s people, He will deliver His people from the heathen. He will deliver His people from sin, death and the power of the devil. He will deliver His people to eternal life.
What does this mean? As we were reminded last week, the Old Testament points to Jesus, the New Testament points to Jesus. Jesus is the center of the Word of God. As we read through the Old Testament, especially as we read the history of the Children of Israel we notice that although these people had been chosen and called by God to be His people, they were sinners. Time and again they rebelled against God, disobeyed Him and went chasing after other gods and idols. Thus, time and again we see how the Lord disciplined His people, allowing for them to be punished through other nations even heathen nations, even allowing them to be carried into exile. The point of such punishment was in order to help them to see their sin so that they might repent and be brought back into a right relationship with the Lord. And this happened time and again through their history.
As we look at their history, and if we are honest with ourselves, we see that their history mirrors our own history. God has called us to faith. His usual way of calling us to faith is through His Word and through the waters of Holy Baptism. Unfortunately, simply to be called to and given faith does not make one perfect. We live in a world of believers and unbelievers and we are tempted by the luring of the devil, the world and our own sinful flesh. We are tempted to disobey God, to rebel against Him and to follow after other gods and idols which are not God. And because of His great love for us, the Lord disciplines us as well. Now, He may not send us into exile into other lands as He did His chosen nation, Israel, but He does allow us to suffer some of the consequences of our actions. The point of such temporal punishment is to help us to see our sin so that we might repent and be brought back into a right relationship with the Lord. And just as the Lord used unbelievers in Old Testament days, so the Lord may use unbelievers even today in order to chasten those whom He loves, us, His children, believers in Jesus.
Today we celebrate Palm Sunday. We celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. This is Jesus’ last entry into Jerusalem because this is the beginning of the end, this is the beginning of the week that we call Holy Week. The high points of this week are the giving of the Lord’s Supper out of the Passover meal which the Lord will celebrate with His disciples on Thursday, Maundy Thursday. And the low point for Jesus will be His suffering, His being beaten, tortured, stricken, smitten and afflicted from Thursday evening until His death on the cross on Friday afternoon. Yet, this low point for Jesus is a high point for us, because it is through His death that He defeats death.
Completing the thoughts of Deuteronomy, which points to this ultimate killing and making alive, because of Jesus’ perfect life, perfect obedience, perfect fulfillment of all God’s laws and promises, God will judge. God will judge the unbelievers to eternal spiritual death. In other words, God will kill with an unquenchable fire, thus, although the unbeliever may wish he or she were dead because of the torment of the fires of hell, they will live and suffer that torment forever.
And God will judge the believer. He will judge us. Those who have been given faith, those who have not refused and rejected the good gifts and blessings the Lord has to give, they will be delivered, by God, through Jesus, to eternal life in heaven. They will be made alive, truly alive.
We might, in somewhat of a simplistic way, say that all of the Bible, all of God’s Word, all of the world, all of history boils down to the events and the outcome of the events of this week and the last days of this week. In the Garden of Eden, immediately after Adam and Eve sinned God promised to send a Savior. This promise pointed forward to the events of this week. In the New Testament, the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and St. John write of the events to this week. They give evidence, proof if you will, that Jesus is God in flesh the one promised by God to be the Savior of the world. The epistles, the letters written after Jesus death and resurrection all point back to this point in time. And even today as we look at history, we look back and we see Jesus is the center of history. We see Jesus is the One, the only One who can bring us from death, eternal spiritual death, to life, eternal spiritual life with Himself in heaven.
Now, a few words for our confirmand and a few words of reminder for all who have been confirmed. First, confirmation is not graduation. One never truly graduates from being a disciple, a learner of Jesus. I have been at this learning game for many, many years, and I have discovered that the more I learn the more I see that there is so much more to learn. Second, as you profess the faith that God put in your heart at your baptism please understand that the devil does not like you and your profession of faith and now more than ever he may try to tempt you and lure you away from the very thing you profess, that is his nature after all. So, when the devil comes a tempting, remember that Jesus is always there to help you as He has already defeated the devil. Third, now that you are professing the faith given to you, I would encourage you to begin taking the initiative in your faith life. What I mean is that you take it upon yourself to get up and get ready and desire to be given the gifts of God through Bible Study, Sunday School and Divine Service. Do not depend so much on mom or dad to motivate you because one day will come and no one will get you up and tell you to get ready, but you will have to do it yourself. This morning we rejoice with you and pray God’s blessings on you.
Finally, I want to point out that included in your bulletin is an insert listing each day of this week, Holy Week and what was happening in Jesus’ life, the Bible verses that tell us what was happening. I urge you to use this as a guide to help you as you follow Jesus to the cross this week so that when next Sunday arrives you will be even better prepared to celebrate what our Lord has done for us because of His great love for us. God loves you so much and He had you in mind as He walked each step to the cross, as He suffered and died on the cross and as He rose and came into His kingdom. And His promise is and continues to be, as He gives you faith, so when He returns or when your last hour on this earth arrives, He will take you to be with Himself in heaven for eternity. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.