Vindication for Jesus and His people

Sermon for Judica – Lent 5

Genesis 12:1-3  +  Hebrews 9:11-15  +  John 8:46-59

If a sinless man were to walk the earth, helping everyone who came to him for help, doing everything right, showing perfect love at all times, toward God and man…If that sinless man were to speak nothing but the truth, according to God’s holy word, always with the best of intentions and motives…If that sinless man were the wisest man who had ever lived and freely shared his wisdom, his knowledge, and all his gifts…If that sinless man were God Himself, come in the flesh…How do you think the world would receive such a man? That’s not a hard question to answer, is it?, because that Man did walk the earth about 2,000 years ago. And the world hated Him, call Him evil, and crucified Him. Because the world, as Jesus reveals in the Gospel and in the verses leading up to it, does not love God, does not fear God, does not hear God. The world is not on God’s side. It’s on the devil’s side.

Jesus drives home that point with His question to the Jews in the Gospel. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? No one could convict Jesus of sin. No one could show from Scripture where He had made a single mistake, in word or deed. He was the sinless One. He was the truth-Teller. But they couldn’t handle the truth.

He told the truth about the requirements of God’s Law, centering on love and mercy. But it wasn’t the world’s kind of “love” where you encourage people in their bad behavior. It was the kind of love that loved God first, that acknowledged God’s creation, God’s design, and God’s commandments to be the perfection of love. It was the kind of love that told people who didn’t already acknowledge it that they were sinners who deserved death. But when people acknowledged their sin, He loved them by showing them mercy, by telling them how He, the eternal Son of God, had been sent by His Father into the world to save sinners. He offered them salvation for free, through faith in Him, and forgiveness to all who believed.

But most didn’t believe. They had dug in their heels in the devil’s kingdom and preferred to remain there.

He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God. This is what we heard St. John repeat in his Epistle on Wednesday evening. How can people be so twisted? How can they reject plain truth and common sense and all the miracles Jesus did on top of it? Because they were not of God. They were of the devil. And the devil lies. The devil deceives. The devil convinces his children that up is down and down is up, that good is evil and evil good.

But the devil’s children are famous for pretending to be God’s children, even as they pretend that God’s children are the devil’s children. Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon? We’re the good people, and You disagree with us. Therefore, you must be a Samaritan—a heretic, basically. You must be a monster. You must be evil. We’re the real “Christ-like” people, Jesus. Not you. Ironic, isn’t it?

I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death. Jesus isn’t the One working with the demons. It was those who rejected Him. And He warns them of the coming judgment. You won’t always be allowed to get away with mocking Jesus and dishonoring Jesus and opposing Jesus. For now, God doesn’t strike anyone down with lightning for such blasphemy. For now, the world is allowed to hate Jesus and His followers, because the world’s hatred of Jesus means He dies. And because He dies, He pays for the world’s sins and stands as the world’s Redeemer. And because He postpones His day of judgment—which means His people will be mistreated for a while longer—the Gospel is able to continue to be preached in the world, and more people will be rescued by it out of the devil’s kingdom. But the day will come when all who have opposed Jesus and His people will be struck down, not with lightning, but with everlasting fire, if they will not repent.

At the same time, even death can’t harm the one who keeps Jesus’ word. “He shall never see death.” The world’s opposition and the devil’s rage can’t do any permanent harm to believers in Jesus. Because the devil and the world may kill, but they can’t drag anyone to hell against the will of Jesus. And He wills that the one who believes in Him should be taken safely through death into His heavenly kingdom.

The Jews couldn’t stand that Jesus was saying such things, promising to keep people’s souls safe from death and to give eternal life. The greatest men who had ever lived—Abraham and the prophets—couldn’t escape death. So, to them, it was ridiculous that Jesus should promise such a thing. But at the end of our Gospel, He reveals why He has the power to make such promises: Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM. Jesus wasn’t just the greatest man to ever live. He was and is and ever shall be the eternal God who called Abraham, who created the world, who will judge the world on the Last Day, who holds the power of life and death, who condemns to hell and who justifies to eternal life.

This claim on Jesus’ part made the world hate Him all the more. But it’s the very reason why we dare to put our faith in Him, because His word has convinced us that He’s telling the truth. And so we know that, no matter how much the world may hate us or how much we may yet suffer in the world, Jesus, the eternal God, will be there on the other side of death, to “vindicate” us.

That’s the name for this Sunday before Palm Sunday: Judica, “Judge me! Vindicate me, O God!” Prove me right and grant me justice against those who oppose me unjustly. That was the Messiah’ own prayer in Psalm 43. And just as God the Father vindicated His Son on Easter Sunday, so He will vindicate all those who trust in Christ Jesus on the day of His appearing. Amen.