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Jesu Juva
“God Became Man for Life”
Text: John 10:11-18; 1 Peter 1:3-25; Psalm 1
In the Name of (+) Jesus. Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] Alleluia!
Yesterday was the day of commemoration for Anselm of Canterbury, who lived in the eleventh century and whose most famous work was Cur Deus Homo, or, Why God Became Man. The answer to that is both simple and mind-boggling. The simple is that God Became Man to die. The Son of God takes on human flesh to die for human flesh. The Son of God takes on human flesh to take upon Himself the sin of all human flesh and atone for it. The Son of God takes on human flesh to give our human flesh hope. The hope of life now and life forever. That’s the simple answer. Jesus as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for us.
But that’s also the mind-boggling part! That God would do that for us. For a world and people who ever since Adam and Eve said to God and His creation: Thanks, but no thanks. We’ll do things our way. We don’t need you. Yes, we know what You said, but we disagree. We’ll take what we want, use our sexuality as we want, end our marriages when we want, love myself, not my neighbor, and anyone who gets in my way . . . yeah, they’ve got to go. The elderly, the inconvenient, the bothers, the troublesome, even the baby You gave in the womb.
That’s the world into which the Son of God came. A world definitely in need of His love and saving, but completely undeserving of it. And He came anyway. Because that’s who He is. A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (Exodus 34:6, et. al.). He saw His good creation taken captive - captive to sin and death, and did not stand idly by. He acted. He invaded. To battle for us. To battle sin, death, and the devil. To rise from death victorious. To undo death. All death. All the death caused by sin. And not just the death of people, but also the death of families, marriages, and faith. To give us new life and hope.
Which is what we heard from Peter this morning. That we have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And Peter knew a little something about that. He knew the struggles of life and hope and toil; of working all night and catching nothing. He knew the fear and threats of a creation gone wild. He knew rage and spite and lashing out - both against him and from him. He knew despair, he knew failure, he knew death.
And because Peter knows all that, he also knows joy. The joy of Jesus’ victory. The joy of salvation. The joy of forgiveness. The joy of hope. The joy of having an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us. A joy that can last even when grieved by various trials, because we are being guarded by God - by grace through faith.
So we gather today in hope and joy. Hope that by the Word and Spirit of God, hearts will be changed and we will change from being a culture of death to a culture of life. Hope that every life will be valued and wanted. Hope that those in positions of authority and responsibility will use their vocations for good and for life.
Such hope is not easy. It is a struggle. It’s not easy to endure when there is so much death around us, and contrary to what we sang in the Psalm, when the way of the wicked does not seem to be perishing.
At such times, though, we know where our hope and strength will come from. Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord - the Word of the Lord. Who drinks deeply of the words and promises of God and so is that tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season and whose leaf does not wither. And, we could say, whose hope does not die. So even if we do not see the way of the wicked perishing now, we know that it will. It must. Just as the darkness perishes in the light, so will all wickedness and evil perish at the coming of Jesus.
Knowing this, Peter exhorts us to prepare our minds for action. To be holy. To conduct ourselves throughout the time of our exile in fear and faith, knowing the struggle, but also knowing our future, and knowing the victory of Jesus. That we have a Good Shepherd who died for all and wants all as His children and in His flock - even the littlest boy or girl in the womb. And if marching today means even one baby saved, one heart changed, one more person hearing the Word of God and repenting, it is worth it. The Good Shepherd knows each and every sheep. He leaves the ninety-nine in search of the one.
Peter knew what it was like to be that one. Hopeless and lost. And so he knew the joy of being found and born again to a living hope. A faith and hope tested each day by fire, but a faith and hope also renewed each day by the love and forgiveness of Jesus.
So Peter doesn’t blow smoke - he speaks the truth. And so must we. For only from the depth of sin comes the joy of forgiveness. Only from the depth of the grave comes the joy of the resurrection. And from the deception of the lie comes the joy of the truth. The truth that the Author and Giver of Life is also the lover of Life, who in love laid down His life for your life. He is the man who is blessed, and gives that blessedness to us.
That is Why God Became Man. That great sinners, grave sinners, all sinners . . . that the deceivers and the deceived . . . that the abortion provider and the abortion user . . . that those blinded by sin and those who see sin and welcome it . . . that all those and all that and more - be subsumed in the love and forgiveness and cross of Jesus. That all be dead and buried with Christ, and rise to life with Him. To a new life, a living hope, a genuine faith, a steadfast love, and an endless joy.
Joy, for Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]
In the Name of (+) Jesus. Amen.
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