Jesu Juva
“Chosen, United, and One in Christ - Now and Forever”
Text: Acts 1:12-26; John 17:11b-19; 1 John 5:9-15
Alleluia! Christ is ascended! [He is ascended indeed! Alleluia!] Alleluia.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
I wonder how Joseph felt. Yes, you heard me right - Joseph, not Matthias. We often focus on Matthias, ‘cause he won. He’s the one who replaced Judas. But I wonder how Joseph, called Barsabbas, also called Justus, felt. You know, the loser. Was he sad? Or was he relieved? Was he happy for Matthias, or jealous? Was he really hoping to be chosen - and get his own verse in the hymn By All Your Saints in Warfare (LSB #517) that we’re going to sing again today for Matthias - or was he waiting for the result with much fear and trembling? Were his parents there, with their camera, so proudly waiting to take a picture of their son, the newest apostle? Or his wife, waiting to proudly embrace him? The seminaries had their Call Days a couple of weeks ago - Joseph was the guy who didn’t get a call. . . . So when the result was announced: Matthias, I wonder how Joseph felt.
Maybe you know. From that time when you weren’t chosen. For that promotion at work. For the team. For the school you applied to. For an award. They chose someone else. Your submission wasn’t good enough. You weren’t good enough. And as it has been famously said: No one remembers who came in second. Could you have named the one who wasn’t chosen to replace Judas before you heard the reading for today? Maybe. But I’m guessing not.
Of course, the world doesn’t always - and we don’t always - make good choices. Sometimes after an election, people have election regret and wish they would have voted for the other guy or gal. Maybe the job you chose or were chosen for turns out not to be exactly what you thought it was going to be. And the crowd on Good Friday chose Barabbas over Jesus.
Well, that last one . . . that one was a good choice. Even though the people didn’t realize it at the time. For in Barabbas being freed and Jesus bring rejected - and ultimately crucified - the salvation of a world plunged into sin because of the original bad choice of Adam and Eve to listen to the serpent and eat the forbidden fruit was accomplished. For Jesus was the one chosen by God to be the sacrifical lamb, to be the sin offering for the sin of the whole world, for the life of the whole world. Jesus was chosen to be the one upon whom all the sin of the world would be heaped, and all the wrath of God against sin would be poured, that we be rescued from our bad choices, from our sin and death, and set free. Jesus was chosen, not in a contest with others, but because He was the only one who could accomplish this for us.
And how did Jesus feel about that? Chosen to be the loser? Chosen to be the biggest loser, the biggest sinner, ever in the history of the world? He wasn’t sad or disappointed, but joyful. Not happy to endure all that He had to endure - the rejection and mocking, the whipping and spitting, the pain and torture, and the forsakenness of the cross - but joyful in knowing that His losing would mean your winning. His rejection would mean your being chosen. So Jesus dies that you might live. He is condemned that you be forgiven.
Which means that even if all the world rejects you, even over and over and over, God does not. Not because you’re good or good enough or better than the others, but because Jesus died for you. In Him you are blessed. In Him you are chosen. From loser to winner. From sinner to saint.
Which is what we have been rejoicing in this whole Easter season now drawing to an end as we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost next Sunday. But while the Easter season is coming to an end, its reality is not. For your baptism is your everyday Easter. Your baptism is your dying and rising with Christ. Your baptism is that daily reality that you are a child of God, chosen and precious. That your heavenly Father never regrets choosing you, but delights to call you His beloved - and forgiven - son or daughter. Even if no one else delights in you or chooses you, your heavenly Father does! And that’s no little thing.
And it’s what Jesus was praying for in the words of His prayer that we heard today. These words from the prayer Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane just before He was arrested and crucified. He’s praying for His disciples and He’s praying for you - for you who believe because of the apostles’ testimony. Keep them in your name, Jesus prays. That is, guard, protect, watch over all who bear the Name of the triune God. Keep them in the faith. And sanctify them - holy them - in the truth; your word is truth. The Word of forgiveness poured upon you in Baptism, applied to you in the Absolution, proclaimed to you in the Gospel, and fed to you in the Supper. In all these the truth that God chose you and is giving Himself and all that He is and has to you. That’s what Jesus is praying for. That’s how precious you are to Him.
Because while His time of suffering and death is almost here and will soon be over (when He prayed those words), He knows that while He will no longer be in the world, you will be. A world filled with words not of truth but of untruth. A world filled with sadness and disappointment. A world filled with sin and death. A world that will reject the disciples of Jesus (which includes you) in the same way that it rejected Jesus. A world filled with division and where the evil one will seek to divide you from your Saviour. A world that is not easy to live in. world that you are in but not of, and the world hates that. Hates that you won’t go along with what they want. Hates the truth that you believe and live.
So Jesus is praying for you. Not that you be taken out of this world, because you are needed in it. The world needs Christians; needs the salt and light you provide (Matthew 5:14-15). In your homes, in your neighborhoods, in your workplaces, in your schools. In all those places Jesus using you, His chosen ones, His children, to be a blessing to others. To provide for them what is needed in body and soul.
Which isn’t easy. And so maybe you find yourself hoping that someone else will be chosen. Not that you don’t want to be a child of God - of course you do! But to speak, to act, to love, to forgive, to give . . . well, where’s a Matthias when you need one! And maybe there will be Matthiases chosen instead of you. But maybe also, at times, you will be the one chosen. To speak, to act, to love, to forgive, to give. Maybe even to lay down your life. Which, according to sources, Matthias did, either by crucifixion or by being chopped apart.
I don’t know if that will happen to you or me. Maybe. But if you are so chosen, it is not the end for you - just the completion of your baptism. For in baptism you die and rise with Christ. And what has happened to you in the spirit will also happen to you in the body. When you die, you will rise. To life eternal. For to that you were chosen. Not just to live now, but to live forever.
And so the Father is sanctifying you, the Son is praying for you and laying down His life for you, and the Spirit is coming to you. Not bad! God choosing you, loving you, coming to you, saving you. And now the Body and Blood of Jesus for you. That whether you’re a Matthias, a Joseph, or one of the other 100 or so other believers there that day whose names we’ll never know, you rejoice in the life you have been given, and the vocations you have been chosen for. For all receive the same Baptism, the same forgiveness, and the same Body and Blood. And all are important and vital. Just different. But none unimportant. A mother and father raising their children in the fear and knowledge of the Lord just as important as a pastor teaching His flock. For the most important title you can have is not apostle, bishop, pastor, or martyr; not president, general, CEO, celebrity, or influencer; not the one with the most hits, likes, follows, or friends; but this: child of God. Reconciled, sanctified, and unified with God.
So while I don’t know how Joseph felt, or what happened to him after this day, and even though no one remembers who came in second, I do know this: Joseph’s name and identity wasn’t loser or the one not chosen, because even before this Joseph had been given a new name and identity in His Baptism. The name of the one who won the victory forever. The name of the triune God. Which is the name you, too, now bear. And with that name, in that name, there are not winners and losers, nor is there equality or sameness - things which seem so important in our world today - but something far greater and better: oneness and unity. Oneness in Christ and so unity with one another. As one Body. All in one for one is for all - that one in His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension. For you.To make us one. And He did. All is accomplished.
For Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]
And Christ is ascended! [He is ascended indeed! Alleluia!]
And one with Him, so are you.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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