Assertions that must be vindicated

Sermon for Judica

Hebrews 9:11-15  +  John 8:46-59

You see the picture on the front cover of today’s service folder? There’s Jesus, walking away from the crowd of Jews who were picking up stones to throw at Him. That’s how angry they were. But why?

If you listen to the modern scholars (and politicians) talk about Jesus and His message, you’d think Jesus had come to get rid of strong statements, to get people to stop talking about things like sin and God’s commandments, to stop talking about divisive things like doctrine and religion, and to focus just on doing good deeds and improving human society, or maybe to focus on rising up against the oppressive government and implementing social justice.

But you who have actually read the Gospels know the truth, that Jesus was always making strong statements, bold assertions that dealt with the very truths that get at the heart of the matter of man’s relationship with God. He told the truth about God’s commandments, man’s sin, God’s condemnation of sinners and God’s mercy toward sinners, and about Himself as the Savior from sin, the one and only Reconciler of man with God. He spoke of faith in Him, and He spoke of showing love in this world, not as the goal, but as the preparation for the goal of eternal life in the presence of the God of love, eternal life that is reserved for those who believe in Him and only for those who believe in Him. Strong statements!

But that’s why He was hated. Listen to some strong statements Jesus made in the words leading up to today’s Gospel:

I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.

It was that last statement that came right before the words of today’s Gospel, and it’s followed by several more:

Which one of you convicts Me of sin? That’s not a statement, obviously; it’s a question. But it’s a question with a clear implication: I am sinless, and you all know it. Now, Jesus wasn’t even talking here about His perfect holiness as God and man. He wasn’t talking about His pure, sinless heart and desires and motives, which no one else in all of history can claim. He was talking about outward sins, sins that other people can see and recognize and condemn. But He hadn’t committed any of those sins either.

So why did the Jews hate Him? Why didn’t they believe in Him? Jesus gives us the answer: You do not hear Me, because you are not of God. A powerful, damning assertion and accusation. Oh, these Jews were religious. They worshiped God with their lips, but they rejected Jesus. And Jesus’ assertion is this: You can’t worship God while rejecting Me. It’s like trying to go north and south at the same time. If you reject Jesus as God and Lord, then you reject the Father and the Holy Spirit, too. And the only way to hear and believe Jesus is for God the Holy Spirit to give you faith, and with it, new birth and new life. The Holy Spirit of God has to make a person to be “of God,” because by nature, none of us sinners is “of God.” We all belong to the devil by nature.

The Jews came back at Him with an accusation of their own: Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and that you have a demon? The Samaritans did have false beliefs about God. But instead of trying to instruct the Samaritans in the truth, the Jews grew haughty and loveless toward them, viewing themselves as both doctrinally and racially superior.

Well, Jesus blew off that insult of being a Samaritan. In fact, Jesus was, in a sense, a Samaritan, the Good Samaritan of His own parable. But He doesn’t get into that here. He does deny having a demon, though. I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it and who judges. The Jews claimed Jesus dishonored God with His teaching that all men are sinners, and that salvation is by grace alone, through faith in Him. Jesus claimed to honor His Father. And more than that, He claimed that God the Father sought honor for Jesus and would judge all those who failed to honor the Father’s Son. What an assertion! If you don’t honor Me, God will judge you! It sounded crazy. It sounded extremely arrogant. And it would have been, if Jesus weren’t the very Son of God.

Jesus goes on to make a strong statement and a promise so bold, so incredible, that He must either be insane or He must be the very Son of God: Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. The Jews mistook that to mean physical death, as if Jesus were promising that no one who kept His word would physically die. They laughed. The prophets died, and they kept the Word of God. Abraham died, and he kept the Word of God. What they didn’t understand is really the heart of the Gospel: that Jesus, the innocent Son of God, would willingly taste death for everyone, that He would make atonement for the world’s sins, that He would pay for sins once for all, so that all who believe in Him will live, even though they die. They will never experience the torments of hell. They will never suffer God’s abandonment or wrath or condemnation. They will never cease being alive in their soul, even when their lungs stop breathing and their hearts stop beating. And on the Last Day, those who kept the Word of Christ will take part in the glorious resurrection of the righteous, when death is swallowed up in victory for all who believe in Jesus.

That’s what He meant. That’s what He was asserting. That He had authority over sin, power over life and death. That He was the High Priest of the good things to come, as you heard in today’s Epistle, that His blood is able to purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God, that He is the Mediator of the New Testament.

Oh, they hated Him for that! Because they were so in love with their Old Testament. Well, not the real Old Testament. The real Old Testament agreed with Jesus, that man can’t save himself by doing good deeds or being a good person or being of the right race. The real Old Testament pointed to the coming Christ and to the New Covenant or the New Testament He would institute, a testament of forgiveness, of redemption from transgressions under the First Testament.

The Jews thought the First Testament, the one God made with Abraham, was all they needed. They were Abraham’s children, after all. What more did they need? Surely not this latecomer, this young man named Jesus. But now Jesus makes the boldest claim of all: Your father Abraham was glad that he would see my day, and he saw it and rejoiced…Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Jesus claimed to be greater than Abraham, greater than the Old Testament, greater than the temple, greater than King David, and certainly greater than the Jews who confronted Him that day. “I am” is the holy name of God, the LORD, Yahweh, He who is, and it’s exactly who Jesus claimed to be. I can’t think of a stronger statement than that. And it’s why the Jews started picking up stones to throw at Jesus, because He was claiming to be their God, and they refused to believe that He was.

They weren’t successful in killing Him that day. His hour had not yet come. It would be a few more months until that final Passover, when their God would allow Himself to fall into their hands, to be mistreated, condemned, and crucified. But the Son of God would be vindicated by His Father, as we sang in today’s Introit, Vindicate Me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. He was vindicated by God, in two ways, by the Word of God itself, which Jesus fulfilled to the letter in preaching, and in His suffering and death. Even more, He was vindicated by the Father in His resurrection from the dead. But the final vindication of Jesus, the ultimate “proving Him right,” will come on the Last Day, when He shows Himself openly to the world to be the very God He claimed to be, the great I AM.

Now, if you would follow Jesus, if you would be His disciples, then you also have to echo His strong statements and bold assertions. I believed, therefore I spoke, says the Psalm. You already make those strong statements here every Sunday. Your very presence here in a Christ-confessing Christian church is a statement to the world. The entire liturgy that you say or sing is a bold assertion of truth, culminating in the great Nicene Creed, “I believe…,” and again in your participation in the Supper of Him who died and rose again. Outside these walls, the life you live and the words you speak must also reflect the bold claims of Jesus as you speak the truth about all things, but especially about mankind’s sin and God’s grace in Christ Jesus.

You know how you’ll be treated when you speak like Jesus spoke. You’ll be hated like Jesus was. You’ll be lied about, slandered, falsely accused, and maybe worse. And the devil will tempt you to feel like you’re all alone in the world, like there is no hope for your vindication.

But your vindication will come from God. It already comes through His Word, which proves the Christian faith right against all who deny it. It often comes in other ways, too, as God supports His people and never lets the righteous fall. But sometimes, God does allow the world some temporary victories over His people, as even Jesus was allowed to be crucified. In the end, you will see, all will see, that God has loved you and that you were right to believe in Christ Jesus. In the end, you will vindicated, just as Jesus was. Until then, may God preserve you in faith and inspire you to keep confessing Him boldly, no matter the consequences. Amen.