Sermon - 1st Epiphany - “Senseless Love” - Luke 3:21-22 - 1/7/07
January 8th, 2007Click play to listen to the audio version of this sermon.
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Don’t you just love it when things make sense? Don’t you hate it when things don‘t? He had an accident on the highway because he was speeding. That makes sense so his trouble doesn’t really bother you too much. You were going the speed limit and this guy came speeding out of nowhere and hit you. That makes no sense and don’t you just hate it? There’s a spot on her lung. Makes sense, she’s a smoker. That you’ve never smoked in your life and now you have cancer makes no sense. There’s something really wrong about that. Makes sense that you got a A in the exam because you studied so hard for it. But the fact that he got an A in the same exam makes you mad because he never studied at all.
When bad things happen to bad people it really doesn’t bother us much because, after all, that just makes sense. But when bad things happen to good people, it really bothers us. Why? Because it doesn’t make sense.
I think that this explains why so many people are so bothered by the Christian faith. It doesn’t make sense, at least not the kind of sense that we would call sensible. Now, if the Christian faith were all about making people good people so that good things would happen to them, that would make sense and that would be a religion we could really embrace. And certainly, a lot of people think about the Christian religion in just that way. And certainly, the Christian faith makes Christian people better people than if they weren’t Christians. Or at least it should.
Sounds reasonable. But that’s just the fruit that falls from the tree. It’s not the tree. That’s not the Christian faith. The Christian faith really makes no sense. I can tell you what the Christian faith is, easy enough, and I will do that in just a second. But you’re going to laugh, you’re not going to like it. You’re going to say, “that doesn’t make sense.” And it bothers us when things don’t make sense. I think this is why its so hard for us to tell others about the faith. We know they’re just going to think, if not say, ‘that doesn’t make sense.’
But enough baiting you. Here it is. This is what the Christian faith is. THE INNOCENT IS PUNISHED FOR THE SINS OF THE GUILTY AND THE GUILTY ARE REWARDED FOR THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE INNOCENT. I told you, it makes no sense. No logical sense at all. And doesn’t that just bother you?
Isn’t that what bothers us so much about the Old Testament. All of those innocent lambs getting their throats cut for those guilty sinners. And all of those guilty sinners walking away scott-free like they were innocent lambs. What could be more illogical than that?
Other religions are far more logical that Christianity. Islam is more logical because with Islam, the guilty get their punishment and the innocent get their reward. Mormonism is more logical than Christianity because with Mormonism, the things you do in this life earn you a position in the next life and the better you do here the higher will be your position there. That’s logical. That makes sense. I like things that makes sense. Islam and Mormonism are the two fastest growing religions in the world. That makes a lot of sense too.
But Christianity says, THE INNOCENT IS PUNISHED FOR THE SINS OF THE GUILTY AND THE GUILTY ARE REWARDED FOR THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE INNOCENT. Which makes no sense at all. And that either means that Christianity is the most ridiculous of all religions there is or ever was and only a fool would put their trust in something so absurd. Or that God’s ways are not our ways. It either means that God is a fool, or “the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom.” (1Cor. 1:25).
I. The Baptism of Our Lord A. The Innocent One Comes to Be Punished The Baptism of our Lord is a great and glorious day for all who believe, trust and hope in the premise that, THE INNOCENT IS PUNISHED FOR THE SINS OF THE GUILTY AND THE GUILTY ARE REWARDED FOR THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE INNOCENT. On this day, God presents the innocent One who will be punished for the sins of the guilty ones so the guilty ones might be rewarded with His righteousness.
“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” says John as He introduces innocent Jesus to guilty mankind. This poor, innocent lamb is going to get His throat slit and the guilty sinners are going to walk away like innocent lambs. “The Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form” to mark Him as the One who will be held accountable for sin that He’s completely innocent of. He’s going to be punished for your sin and mine. “This is my Son, whom I love, with whom I am well pleased,” says God the Father who identifies the innocent One who will bear the wrath of His “unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3:17). And all so that we, who deserve hell might never feel its heat.
The first Adam brought sin into this world and now this second Adam is marked to be cut off from God and die for that sin. And the 1st Adam and all of his miserable descendants right down to you and men will be united to God as beloved sons and daughters. It doesn’t make sense. But that’s the way that God deals with the innocent One. And that’s the way the same God deals with the guilty ones.
B. The Law of Right and Wrong What really doesn’t make sense though is this. We insist that our religion must be more reasonable than that. Even though it all comes out in our favor and for our good, or as the creed we just spoke together put it, “for us men and for our salvation,” we insist that it must be more reasonable than that.
We want God to be reasonable with us and reward us for our goodness and punish us for our badness. Because deep down inside, each of us really believes that we’re really not that bad. We’re really pretty good. Okay, okay, we could be a whole lot worse – just compare me to some of those poor slobs you see out there. And this is the way we approach God. We appeal to God to be reasonable with us. When what we should appeal to God for is his senseless mercy.
C. Trinity In Unity So how does God deal with us? Thankfully, not according to our prayers. He hears our prayers, every one of them. But to some, He says, ‘that’s stupid, that’s insane.’ And He answers for our own good. And He knows what that is better than we do. He condemns us all according to the His law. “All have fallen short of the glory of God…” And then He takes the One man in all creation who always does the right and never does the wrong, the One, perfect man who keeps the Law perfectly, and Him He punishes for all the sins of all the guilty. And then He declares that all of the guilty “are justified freely through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24).
It doesn’t make any sense. But to the Triune God, it makes perfect sense, because He is love and this is what real love looks like and acts like. He is merciful and this is what true mercy is – the senseless love of God for you. “For God loved the world in this way, He sent His only Son…” “as a sacrifice of atonement…” (John 3:16; Romans 3:25). And the Son is delighted to do the Father’s will. “For I have come down from heaven… to do the will of Him who sent me,” He says. (John 6:38).
The Trinity in unity and the unity in the Trinity is clearly visible for us to see right here at the Baptism of our Lord as Jesus prays to the Father and the Father blesses His Son and the Holy Spirit anoints Jesus with His power to do the will of the Triune God. THE INNOCENT IS PUNISHED FOR THE SINS OF THE GUILTY AND THE GUILTY ARE REWARDED FOR THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE INNOCENT.
D. God’s Way To Deal With Guilty World This is how God deals with us. The sinless Son of God becomes the wiping boy for all who are guilty of sin. He embodies our sin. He takes it all into His body. And God the Father punishes the embodiment of all sin by nailing His body to the cross.
And then the Father turns right around and rewards the guilty with the righteousness of His innocent Son. “God made Him who had no sin be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.” (2Corinthians 5:21). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” (Galatians 3:13).
Christ is baptized in the Jordan River and there takes on our sin, only to be baptized again in His own blood on the cross. And we, through Holy Baptism are joined to Him, united to His death, united to His resurrection, united to His righteousness, innocence and blessedness.
He is stripped of His innocence and puts on our filthy rags and we are clothed in garments of salvation and robes of righteousness. He is beaten with fists and flogged with whips and by His stripes we are healed. He is cursed by heaven and earth and we are blessed by God. He is nailed to a cross and we are raised to new life. He embodied our sin and we embody His Holy Spirit.
So then, if this is the way it is, we do the sensible thing. It makes no sense at all to boast about your goodness and demand what you deserve. The sensible thing to do under these conditions is to confess your sins and repent. The sensible thing to do is receive His forgiveness and trust in His love and mercy towards you.
I don’t know if you recognize a good deal when you see it, but this is a good deal. I know that we don’t like it when things don’t make sense, but sometimes the best deals are so good that they don’t make sense. That doesn’t mean that you walk away from them. It means that you take the deal and walk away happy about it and never giving thanks and being grateful.
Related Entries:
» Sermon Index - Lutheran - LCMS» Sermon - Epiphany 4 - “Teaching With Authority” - Luke 4:31-43 - 1/31/10
» Sermon - 4th Epiphany - “The Authority Of His Word” - Luke 4:31-37 - 1/28/07
» Sermon - Transfiguration of Our Lord - Luke 9:28-36 - 2/18/07
» Epiphany A - The Visit Of The Magi - Matthew 2:1-12 - 1/6/08
» Sermon - Epiphany 6 - “You Can Make Me Clean” - Mark 1:40-45 - 2/15/09
