Lent 5

John 8:46-59 - Judica Sunday - March 13, 2016
(Upon the Baptism of a new baby and the sudden death of a dear member.)
From Death to Life

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“Amen, amen, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death” (John 8:51).   Let us pray:

Thou hast died for my transgression,
All my sins on Thee were laid;
Thou hast won for me salvation,
On the cross my debt was paid.
From the grave I shall arise
And shall meet Thee in the skies.
Death itself is transitory;
I shall lift my head in glory. Amen. 

Dear Christians,

What have we just witnessed?  We have witnessed a transition — a transition from death to life.  We have.  Christ’s death and resurrection have made death transitory.  But this transition from death to life does not wait until we die.  It occurs in Baptism.  As St. Paul writes,

[W]e were buried with Him through Baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  (Romans 6:4)

This newness of life certainly embraces the new life of good works in which we walk as we follow Jesus – works that honor God and serve the neighbor as Jesus did – works that follow us into eternal life.  But because our good works are not the source of our new life (God’s grace is!), we do not find this new life in the things we do.  (Our works follow us; we don’t follow them!)  Rather, we find this new life in the things that God teaches us – in the things we receive.  This is what it means to keep his words.  It doesn’t mean merely to obey his words.  It doesn’t mean merely to hear them and give our nod of approval.  It means to treasure them.  That’s what the word means.  God teaches us how to treasure his word by teaching us first about ourselves (that is, how much we need his word!), and second by teaching us about himself (that is, how Christ has obeyed and fulfilled his word).  God’s word of grace teaches us to know him as our gracious Father who does not look at our sin, but to Christ his Son.  He is our High Priest who cleanses us with his own blood.  This is what God looks at when scrutinizing us sinful mortals.  He looks to Christ our Mediator who stands between us and God’s justice.  This is what a priest does.  But while a priest usually appealed to God’s mercy as signified by the many animal sacrifices on the altar, Christ our High Priest appeals to his own sacrifice on the cross whereby he made atonement for all our sin.  So, just as this is what God looks at, he also teaches us to look to what Christ has done — for by doing so, we see what God sees.  We see the holy life that God reckons to us by faith.  It is ours.  This is peace.  This is a good conscience.  This is beautiful.  

We are not born with this holy life.  Scripture teaches us quite plainly that we were born spiritually corrupt, with no powers of our own to choose God or obey him.  Indeed, we were born dead.  We need life.  We need life that is born from God.  And that is what God gives us.  As St. Paul writes so beautifully – and because it is so abundantly clear and simple and comforting, I’d like to quote it now at length from Ephesians 2 – with just a few of my own interjections: 

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air [that is, the devil who deceives], the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience [that is, those who are not of God, because they do not listen to Jesus], among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature [“by nature” – that is, conceived and born] children of wrath, just as the others.  

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us [that is, because of the love he has had from eternity in Christ], even when we were dead in trespasses [see?], made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) [there’s an interjection from St. Paul – it’s like he just can’t wait to say it!], and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus [notice that our resurrection and ascension to heaven is spoken of in the past tense! Talk about a transition.  This shows how certain it is even now.  As certain as Christ is raised, so just as certain has he made us alive by joining us in our Baptism, and so even more certainly shall we be raised to life in heaven to be where he is with God the Father!], that in the ages to come [that is when we are finally raised from the dead to live with Christ forever on the Last Day] He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus [“he might show” – that is, our very eyes shall see and behold what he has long since promised – and he will do this openly for all to see!].  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that [this refers to faith here – that] not of yourselves; it is [this saving faith is] the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:1-10)

In the Baptism of this little boy we see a transition from death to life.  We see life.  We see a child born to two excited and loving parents with family members eager to share their joy and identify whose eyes he has and whose nose he has and to celebrate the fresh life full of potential that so innocently lies in his mother’s arms.  But it is no question that he has what his father got from his father, and what his father got from his – all the way back to Adam.  His innocence is a mere illusion and you will soon see it.  He has a sinful nature, which the Bible simply calls flesh – to drive home the point how fleeting and temporary life is.  We are but flesh – clay and dust that whither and return to the earth like flowers and grass.  We were created to live.  But because of our sin, because our mother was deceived and our father rebelled, so we each have inherited a rebellious soul that is in constant danger of being deceived by the devil who promises false comforts and rewards that he cannot make good on.  Only God can make good on rewards.  

And that is why he sent his eternal Son to live an innocent life in the place of every man, woman, and child.  He obeyed.  Only he had something of which to boast.  He honored his Father.  No one could accuse him of sin.  But more than that (and for our sake there is nothing more precious than this!) he taught the truth.  He taught us what to boast in.  He defended what he spoke more than he defended his own person, because by defending what he taught he defended you, and by refusing to defend his person – by handing himself over to false accusations and cruel punishment of the cross for you – he fulfilled what his Father had spoken: “God will provide for himself the lamb.”  And so he did.  

At the same time that Jesus defended the saving truth of the gospel that you rely on, he also defended his Father’s honor.  Now consider this finer point of our text!  Think of this.  He defended his Father’s honor. And so defended you.  The honor of God is so bound up and joined to his desire to speak mercy and forgiveness to you that there is no greater honor that you can render to God than by believing what Jesus says: “If anyone keeps My word he shall never see death”  

In the Baptism of this little boy we see a transition from death to life.  And this is very important to know, because when he someday dies, all the world will see is a transition from life to death.  But despite what the world sees, despite what our eyes behold, here we all stand as witnesses of what God sees and what God has done and what every saint who keeps God’s word sees.  We see God make a promise so certain that he ties the life of his eternal Son to the hope he has here given.  As surely as Christ is risen from the death that exhausted God’s wrath, so surely shall you live who remain in your Baptism.  Here you have hope.  It is not hope in what you see – otherwise it would not be hope.  It is hope in what God sees.  He will show you eventually.  For now you live by faith.  But just as unbelief turned to faith when your Old Adam was drowned in Holy Baptism (a spiritually painful procedure to be sure!), so also faith is turned to sight when your Old Adam is fully destroyed in death (a physically painful procedure).  But our Baptism teaches us not only to rejoice in life, but also to have hope when life comes to an end.  As we pray in the same hymn with which I opened this sermon:

As the Son of God I know Thee
For I see Thy sov’reign pow’r; [that is, in his word and sacraments]
Sin and death shall not o’erthrow me
Even in my dying hour;
For Thy resurrection is
Surety for my heav’nly bliss,
And my Baptism a reflection
Of Thy death and resurrection. 

Abraham rejoiced to see the Day of Christ.  He saw it and was glad.  But did he not die nearly 2000 years before Christ was born?  What did he see?  He saw by faith what God had promised.  The world saw him die.  Isaac and Ishmael buried him and mourned.  But God had already shown him the one who would take his place like the ram that took the place of his only son.  “God will provide for himself the lamb.”  God had already shown him the life in store for him in Christ who would die for him.  God would give his only Son – Christ, the death of death our foe.  

I have always been critical of the saying, “Death is just a part of life.”  It’s not, technically.  It’s the end of life.  But really, if we rightly understand what we’re saying, not only is this true – that death is a part of life – it is also a very fine confession of our Christian faith.  Here we see new life.  And yet even in this new life with fresh skin and eyes so clear they can hardly focus we acknowledge that in him is the very seed of death.  Yes, there’s a bright future here.  But there’s also a sad ending.  Tears will fall one day for that boy who, God willing, will, on the day he dies, have boys and girls of his own who weep to see him go.  So there the world will see death end life.  That’s his future.  Who can escape it?  The wages of sin is death.  

But in Baptism, we see the transition.  We see the tracks of eternity aligned to carry this child through sin, death, and hell.  Because in the Baptism he was just given he has already passed through it all.  We see his earthly passage fueled and stocked by the word of God that Jesus defended and that he now commands this child be taught – that word that will return him to where God first claimed him today as his through water and the word.  He has in this here bath all his sins washed away.  He is made clean and robed in the innocence of Christ who lived and died for him.  He has in this here washing been joined to him who rose from the dead and who cannot die again.  He has here the answer to every temptation, every accusation of the devil, every thundering of the law that exposes his guilt.  He has what he needs to stand before his enemies tomorrow and what he needs to stand before his Judge on the Last Day.  He has a future.  He has a bright future because death has already been made a part of his life.  

So yes, death is a part of life.  That is if your understand it as the most important part of your life.  Because the death that we embrace when we boast of our Baptism is the death that swallowed death and defanged the devil.  It is that part of our life that made it new.  Whether you were baptized as a baby or an adult, whether you have since lived a praiseworthy life or a shameful one – your Baptism stands.  Christ is your faithful Bridegroom who is loyal to his Bride no matter how disloyal she has been to him.  He cleanses her by water and the word as often as he joins her and reminds her of their baptismal vows.  And so in jealous defiance of anyone who would reduce this Sacrament to a mere symbol of our own commitment, not only do we bring our babies to the font who can make no commitment of their own, but we regard our own commitment as but rubbish for the knowledge of Christ Jesus who is committed to us – to have his righteousness and not our own.  We see his commitment.  We see him guard what he means to give to us.  We see him lay down his life for his enemies to make us his friends.  We see him take it back again to speak peace to troubled sinners who denied him.  We see his day as Abraham saw it as often as the Lord teaches us what honors our Father and makes us his children.  

We are of God.  This means that we are born from above.  We are his new creation by water and word.  Being of God, we have what God has: eternal life.  And because we are of God, we belong to God – our true home is with him.  Because we are of God, we go to God.  That’s what Mason has done today.  And you his parents and godmother will make sure to keep bringing him where God sprinkles him with the blood of his Savior that washed him today.  God who makes us his in Baptism will by his precious word of grace and by his holy body and blood keep us his until we who are of God go to God to live with God forever.  Let us pray: 

For the joy Thy advent gave me,
For Thy holy, precious Word;
For Thy Baptism, which doth save me,
For Thy blest Communion board;
For Thy death, the bitter scorn,
For Thy resurrection morn,
Lord, I thank Thee and extol Thee,
And in heaven I shall behold Thee. Amen.