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Jesu Juva
“More Than a Guardian”
Text: Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 2:21; Numbers 6:22-27
In the Name of (+) Jesus. Amen.
Since it is New Year’s Eve, you - like many people - might have made a resolution or two for the coming year.
But what is a resolution? It is law you make for yourself. A rule you want to live by. To keep you from things harmful for you, and to form a habit, a way of life, that will be good for you. And maybe it works - for a while or for a long time. Most don’t, but you never know! That’s why people keep making them. Maybe this time . . .
But you can make a resolution only for yourself. You cannot make a resolution for someone else. You don’t have that authority. And a resolution is also a law without consequences. If you break it, nothing happens. You might get disappointed in yourself, is all. But resolutions are good and meant for good. And I hope that if you made one or two resolutions for this coming year, they turn out good for you, and for your good.
There are people, though, with the authority to make and enforce laws for us. The government is one, and God is the other. Now, with the laws the government makes, maybe they’re good and maybe they’re not, and we might disagree about that. But with God, there is - or least there should be - no debate: His Law is good. His Law is to keep us from things harmful for us, and to form a habit, a way of life, that will be good for us. In this respect, God’s Law is, as Saint Paul told the Galatians, a guardian for us. And you can hear the word guard there. The Law is to guard us and protect us, and to direct us to what is good for us. And it does.
The problem, like so often with our New Year’s resolutions, is that we break them. Now, with our New Year’s resolutions, as I said, there are no consequences for that, because they’re laws we made for ourselves. But with God’s Law, there are consequences for breaking them. Grave ones. Namely, eternal death instead of eternal life. That’s what God told Adam and Eve with the very first Law He gave: Don’t eat from the tree, for if you do, you will die. Well, they did, eat, and they did, die. They died spiritually, and they would die physically. And we do, too.
So while God’s Law is good and acts as a guardian for us, we need more than that. And, the Apostle Paul is telling us tonight, we have more than that! For, we heard, the law was our guardian until Christ came. And now that Christ Jesus has come, we have a new guardian, a new protector, a new guide, and that is Christ and His Spirit. The Law of God is still good and we should listen to it and do it. But Jesus came to do what the Law could not. The Law instructs and threatens, but Jesus justifies and saves and gives us a new life to live as sons of God.
And He did that by putting Himself under the Law for us. That was God’s resolution after Adam and Eve sinned - that He would come and fix what they broke. So the Son of God becomes one of us. He is born for us, as we celebrated seven days ago. And on the eighth day after He was born, Mary’s baby boy is circumcised and given the name Jesus, which means: He will save. And He will save by doing two things: keeping the Law perfectly for us, and taking the consequences of our Law-breaking for us. He will die.
Now, Jesus didn’t have to do any of that! Because the Law wasn’t meant for Him but for us. He wasn’t under that Law, just as you’re not under the resolutions I make for the New Year. But He took that upon Himself. I’ll do it; I’ll fulfill it for their good. To bless them and keep them and give them peace. So that we have not just a year, but an eternity, of blessing and good.
And that is given to you, Paul says, when you are baptized. For in Baptism you put on Christ and are given His Name. And with His Name, you have all that is His - His life and salvation. That’s what the Lord told Moses and Aaron in the reading from Numbers we heard tonight, that when God’s Name is put upon you, you have His blessing and keeping, His grace and His peace. Blessing, keeping, grace, and peace for this life, and forever. For with the Name of the one who defeated death upon you, you too will rise from death to eternal life. Death cannot stop His life, or His life that He gives to you.
Which is a good thing to remember on this New Year’s Eve, which is also the Eve of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus. For no matter what the New Year holds for you, no matter what happens in our world, no matter whether you keep your resolutions or not, you have this assurance: that you belong to Christ. And when you belong to Christ, you have the forgiveness of your sins, and the promise of blessing and life. Not an easy life, but a life that cannot end.
So as tomorrow is the eighth day of Christmas, tomorrow is the day we officially remember Jesus’ circumcision. Today is the eve of that. So that means that the first day of our New Year is marked with the first shedding of Jesus’ blood. And I pray that be the pattern for the rest of the year. That each and every day, you not only remember your resolutions and keep them, but remember that you are a baptized child of God, washed clean in His blood, and keep that in your heart. For while your resolutions may or may not make a difference in your life, the blood of Jesus definitely does. You’ve been marked. His Name has been put on you. You belong to Him. As does this New Year before us. A New Year He will fill with blessing, keeping, grace, and peace.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
