To
Him who loves us and has washed us from our sins by His blood and made us a
kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever
and ever. Amen.
There
are really only two options. The first
is to resort to name calling and fighting.
The second is to run and hide.
This
was how Adam and Eve handled things in our Old Testament lesson and it is the
way that the religious leaders handled things in our Gospel reading from today.
What
am I talking about?
I am
talking about mankind’s reactions to the Lord.
Mankind’s flight or fight reactions when the Lord draws near.
First,
let’s look at mankind’s flight response.
In the
first book of the Bible, Genesis, (our Old Testament Lesson from today) Adam
and Eve were in complete harmony with the Lord, each other, and their conscious
was at peace: no shame, no guilt, no fear, no restlessness, and no
blaming. However, all this changed. It changed when Eve’s teeth bit down on the
forbidden fruit. This was the Devil’s
plan all along: to distance Eve from God’s Word.
After
Eve ate the fruit, Adam being the head of the family, should also have trusted
God’s Word, put Eve over his shoulder, brought her to God, confessed her sin,
and said, “Now take my life.” However, Adam went the route of a deadbeat loser by
taking the fruit as well, disobeying and distancing himself from God’s Word. Yes, our first parents tragically believed
Satan contrary to God’s Word.
After
sin fractured everything—and I mean everything—the Lord God came to the garden
to draw near to Adam and Eve. But like a
bunch of frantic scurrying cockroaches hiding from the light, Adam and Eve
covered themselves with fig leaves and hid from the Lord.
In
case we begin to snub our noises at Adam and Eve, we must admit that we are no
different. We hide from the Lord, so at
least we try. Like a four-year old
child, we cover our eyes while standing in the corner behind a curtain with the
lower half of our body totally exposed.
We think we have made ourselves invisible to this seeking God of
ours. However, “God is all knowing and
He's present everywhere. Therefore, He
knows us better than we know ourselves and He sees deeper into us than we are
able, or, even willing to look. So, like
Adam and Eve, we play our games with God.
We hide from Him. We bob and
weave in a fruitless effort to escape His piercing eye and His angry
judgment. And maybe worst of all we
pretend that we aren't as bad as we really are, or, that our sins, our
failings, really aren't our fault.”[1]
If
the flight tactic of running and hiding from the Lord doesn’t work—because it
really doesn’t—we typically have a backup plan, we fight. This was the tactic of the religious leaders as
we heard from today’s Gospel reading from Mark.
In other words, the scribes from Jerusalem were the ‘heavy hitters’ who
had come down to assist the local religious leaders in challenging Jesus. They couldn’t deny the miracles of Jesus, so
they accused Jesus of using the power of Satan to cast out demons. They concluded that Jesus’ power was evil,
thus rendering Jesus as someone that could be written off, disregarded, and
marginalized.
This
is all starting to make sense. When the
Lord gets too close to you and me, too close for our comfort, we feel the heat
of being exposed as failures. We don’t
want to be caught red handed. We don’t
want to be proven wrong. We don’t want
to be told that we are sinners in thought, word, and deed. So, we run.
We hide. We
cover ourselves and our shame with fig leaves.
If we are cornered by the Lord and our sin is brought out of the shadows
and there is nowhere to turn, that only leaves the option of pushing back. More often than not, we push back towards the
messengers of the Lord, those who are merely speaking God’s Word to us.
That didn’t sound too
loving!
That was mean!
You can’t judge me!
You are a hater!
Jesus would never say that!
My Jesus is all about love,
not all that negativity!
You are of the devil and not
of God!
We
use these aggressive fighting words when the Word of God challenges us. These words attempt to push the conviction
back.
This
then leads me to ask, when we are convicted of our sin, do we repent or do we
accuse God’s Word and His messengers of being divisive?
Furthermore,
how often do we complain that we are not heard when it is we who refuse to
listen to God's Word? “How often do we
accuse others of arrogance when it is we who want our way rather than what
God's Word clearly teaches? If we are
honest, we will confess that we have often been like the scribes in today's Gospel. When God's Word convicts us, we attack God's
Word instead of repenting of our sins.”[2]
All
of our efforts to run from the Lord and to fight the Lord—to duck and punch—are
really our attempts to avoid His authority and avoid being judged. If we aren’t running from the Lord and if we
aren’t fighting the Lord and if we are not blaming others for our sins, we are
most likely holding up our own supposed righteousness as a defense, a shield
against the Lord’s anger and wrath. “And
the thing is, this is probably the greatest temptation of the children of
God. Having been given God's grace in
preaching and the Sacraments, having been made right by God's work and by His
grace, we continually want to hold up ourselves as enlightened people, people
who know what is best for us.”[3]
All
this points to our sinful nature, that our sinful nature doesn’t love the Lord,
but loves itself.
Since
we are such sinners, with our running and fighting, how on earth can we
possibly be saved?
Oh
dear friends, listen now. The Lord is
not content to let us run and fight. He
is not content to let you hide in your sin, leaving you to fend for
yourself. No, He condemned the serpent
in Genesis chapter three, He held Adam and Eve responsible, He exposed the
logical fallacies of the scribes, and He holds you and me accountable as
well.
You,
who have ears, hear. After the fall into
sin, the Lord did not abandon His creation and He is not content to allow you
and me to hide behind our fig leaves and rationalize His judgment away.
Rather
than running from your sin and rather than doing what would’ve been rational,
to leave you in the dark condemnation of your sin, the Lord did something
completely contrary. He came towards
Adam and Eve. He confronted them and
clothed their nakedness. He also gave them the promise of a Savior who would
make all things right—Jesus Christ bleeding and dying and rising for
mankind. Ever since then, God the Holy Spirit through
the Word has invaded the world of sinners breaking through rebellious hearts,
weakening clinched fists, chasing down the ragamuffin, and continually exposing
that which is sin in order proclaim,
“Truly you are forgiven of
your sins. It is finished. Do not be afraid. Be of good cheer it is your Father’s good
pleasure to give you the kingdom. There
is no condemnation for you are in Christ.
Let us celebrate for you were dead, but are now alive.”
Blessed
Saints, when Jesus suffered and died on the cross, He not only bound and
plundered Satan’s stronghold, but also forgave you of your running and forgave
you of your fighting as well. You are
redeemed. You could not out run the Lord.
You could not mount a defense strong enough to keep His forgiveness at
bay. You have been called out of hiding
and will commune with Him. Your blaming,
your fighting, and your antagonism are completely forgiven. Here at the altar He makes all things right
again.
Christ
is the victor and He shares this victory with you. Shame is taken away, as you are covered with
the very righteousness of the One who bore evil on your behalf.
No
hiding; no fighting.
Forgiven;
redeemed: loved; declared righteous for His name sake.
The
peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Rev. Alan
Taylor, “God Brings us Out of Hiding,” LCMS Sermons,
http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=2803 (Accessed June 6, 2015).
[2] James T.
Batchelor, “Second Sunday after Pentecost” LCMS Sermons,
http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=2804 (Accessed June 6, 2015).
[3] Ibid.
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