The Man in the Middle Said I Can Come

[00:00:08] Speaker A: Well, it hasn't escaped my notice that there's a cemetery right next door. You and some people driving past might think, well, this is just like, you know, back there in the Midwest, where there's a church and a cemetery, and all the people who go to that church when they die, they go, they go and they're buried in that cemetery. That's different here, of course, we don't have anything to do with this one that I know about, except it's right next door. And it also occurred to me it's kind of a neat little symbol of, well, with us being next door, death and life. Do you ever think of it that way? Now, I know some people will drive past and they will look at that cemetery and maybe even they buried a loved one there. And they will say that that's a place where memories live on that in that way, it's a place of life. And as they continue to drive, they might look at this place and say, oh, yeah, that's a. A place where they focus on death. Some guy named Jesus who died on a cross. Of course we know the opposite is actually the truth. That what is next door, next yard, is really a place that focuses upon death and that we here, week after week, focus upon and celebrate life. When I was in high school, I worked at a cemetery. It's how I got through college every summer. And during the school year, sometimes evenings or weekends, I saved up everything. And that's how I was able to pay my tuition at that same time, when I was in high school, because I had grown up in a Christian family and went to a Lutheran school and was steeped in the kinds of truths that we saw in that passage that we had today from Colossians, that Jesus was the creator of all things and the one who holds all things together. And yet I tottered off to public high school where I heard about the purposelessness of everything. That my teachers, who were not believers, at least they didn't profess any belief in God or in Christ, taught me more of a godless philosophy. Maybe because they didn't believe, but also maybe because that whole philosophy at that time was just coming onto the forefront. You know, God is dead. And of course, my teachers were steeped in evolution, which taught that everything is here by chance. And the philosophy of the day, from my Latin teacher, we didn't learn anything Latin, but we learned everything about existentialism. So that was all going on over here. While over here, in my own mind and in my own training, there was conflict. And already, since Second grade, I had told everybody that I was going to be a parish pastor someday. And I even told my classmates in high school. And I thought, this is going to be pure hypocrisy if I go into the world of work and go into congregations and believe this one thing that I've been taught through high school and this other thing that I grew up believing. And it was so overwhelming to me that one day I grabbed a stake of wood about this long and a hammer, and on that stake I wrote, I am following Jesus no matter what. And I went out into that cemetery and I found an open plot, and I hammered that stake into the ground. It was a death to life decision. Would you pray with me, Lord, teach us about the death to life decision you have made for us. Amen. Well, as Pastor Vanderheide pointed out this morning already, this text that we have today is really more suited for Good Friday. In fact, it is a Good Friday text. We'll visit that in a few months, won't we? And so I had to ask myself, what were they thinking putting this Lenten, this Holy Week text, this Good Friday text in front of us for the last Sunday of the church here? It just seemed strange to me. But I think the focus of it all and the focus that we have had really all through Pentecost and before that, the Lenten season and before that epiphany, and before that Christmas and before that Advent, which we're going to turn to next Sunday, all of the focus has been really upon the cross. The cross that has been called the Axis, moon day, the axle of the world. Because you see, it is that everything revolves around the cross in our world today. The revolution, the turning around, if you will, of everything like religion and scientific discovery and business and arts and music and justice, all of it that is in our world today. If you stop and think about it, we could go on and on about what the cross of Christ has revolutionized in our world. But most importantly, it's revolutionized for us how we view death and life. Colossians 2 says, you who were dead in trespasses and sin, God made alive, together with him, having forgiven us all all of our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. What of that cross? Here's what we heard today from that cross. Jesus said, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And at that cross they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by watching but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, he saved others. Let him save himself if he's the Christ of God, his chosen one. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the King of the Jews, save yourselves. Now let's just step back and survey that scene one more time. Here Jesus is spiked to a cross, callously hanging there like a butcher hangs a side of beef. He's flanked by a couple of ne' er do well criminals. The eyes of some are aflame with rage. How dare you crucify my friend? And others eyes are full of smug satisfaction. And the religious leaders are scoffing and the soldiers are mocking. And taunts are building up like waves at a football game. Save yourself, Save yourself. And the wave of taunts rises until it hits its peak in this exasperating cry of one of those thieves. Save yourself. And us. And us. He says, see, Israel sought deliverance. Pardon me just a minute. Just have all kinds of trouble with this thing. I'm back. Right, thank you, folks. Israel sought deliverance from her enemies. Save us, they said. But their enemy was never the Philistines or the Amalekites or the Romans, that they lived around at that particular time. Just like our enemy isn't China or terrorists or wrinkles or back pain or even cancer. Israel's true enemy and ours is death. Not just physical death, but spiritual death, which is the same as saying, eternal separation from the Father. And on that cross, it looked like Jesus was just another sad victim, some supposed king beaten by death. Our reading from Malachi today says as much to us, the people that Malachi is writing about there, at first he's saying about them, God is not worth following. And Israel, they had utterly rejected God as their king. Israel crucified him, as have we. For we too have sought security in all kinds of other places. All the wrong places, and certainly not with God. We moved to the suburbs, we tightened our locks, we padded our bank accounts, we guarded our reputations. We have popped our pills, we have sought and found all the quick fixes. Mockingly they. And we cry to Jesus, Save us. Save us, say the rulers. Save us, say the soldiers. Save us, say the thieves. Save us, says Israel. Save us, cries all humanity. And Jesus, with blood running down his cheeks, body bruised and broken, impaled on a splintery cross, Jesus looks down with warm eyes and he says, I am saving you. Sure doesn't look that way though. Does looks more like defeat. It looks like this king has been conquered. It looks like. Well, There goes any hope. On this last Sunday of the church year, the Holy Gospel shows us our king on his throne. Don't look for any jewels on this throne. He had a manger for a crib. He had a carpenter for a father. He grew up in Nazareth, that's his hometown. Fishermen and other tradesmen for followers. And no riches. Well, that's not quite true. He owns all the riches of the entire world because he created them. The Scriptures point out to us that a cattle on a thousand hills belong to him. But he doesn't covet for any of that. He covets only you. Your life, your soul. You're good. He only has eyes for you, as the song goes. Do you remember that passage? That account where Jesus is visiting Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus has just passed away. Recall that. And Martha, in the midst of that account, she takes Jesus to task because her brother is dead and has been dead for four days. Martha listens as Jesus says, you, brother will rise again. To which she quips, I know he'll rise again at the resurrection of the last day. And Jesus says to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. And then he asks Martha this question. Do you believe it? John 5:24. Truly, truly, I say to you. Whoever hears my words and believes him who has sent me has eternal life, and he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to Life. Or Ephesians 2. One, you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Him. By grace you have been saved. See, only God knew what it would take to appease his wrath. We didn't know. Only God could decide how his own infinite holiness, his intense hatred of sin, and his inflexible justice could be perfectly satisfied without destroying us sinners in the process of making that satisfaction. Or only God knew how to solve that dilemma. And so bringing us from death to life is entirely God's work, solely his achievement. All other religions, all other religions can be summed up in two words. Human achievement. People going about their lives busily trying to appease a wrathful God. Of course, we know that no person, no person can appease God's wrath over sin. Only God can appease God's wrath. And that's exactly what the God man, Jesus Christ, did see when you believe in Christ, you're transformed from death to life. You're alive to God. You hear his Word. His voice comes through his word. The natural man, the unregenerated man, mankind. He's dead in trespasses and sin. He's a corpse. You can scream at a corpse until you're blue in the face. He's never going to hear you. So that on the cross, Jesus took our sins and gave us life. His cross, the very center, the axis mundi. There were three crosses, though sometimes we forget that Luke went to the trouble to point that out. Jesus and two others, one on his left, one on his right, who deserved death. What's interesting is Luke records for us a conversation between the three. Of course, the one was insulting Jesus, mocking him, taunting him. The other, very interestingly, repents of his sin. Did you see that? And then he confesses his faith in Jesus. He says, jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And of course, Jesus answered, today. Today you will be with me in paradise. Have you ever wondered what that must have been like for that fellow? How it went when that man got to eternity? Let's watch. [00:18:56] Speaker B: Without the preaching of the cross, without preaching the cross to ourselves all day and every day, we will very, very quickly revert to faith plus works as the ground of our salvation. So that to go to the old Fort Lauderdale question, if you were to die tonight and you were getting entry into heaven, what would you say? If you answer that and if I answer it in the first person, we've immediately gone wrong. Because I. Because I believed, because I have faith, because I am this. Because I am continuing. Loved ones. The only proper answer's in the third person. Because he. Because he. Think about the thief on the cross. What an immense. I can't wait to find that fellow one day to ask him, how did that shake out for you because you were cussing the guy out with your friend. You'd never been in a Bible study, you never got baptized, you didn't know a thing about church membership, and yet you made it. You made it. How did you make it? That's what the angel must have said. You know, like, what are you doing here? Well, I don't know. What do you mean, you don't know? Well, Cause I don't know. Well, you know. Excuse me. Let me get my supervisor. They go get the supervisor. Ranger. So, just a few questions for you. First of all, are you clear on the doctrine of justification by faith? The guy said, I never heard of it in my life. And what about, let's just go to the doctrine of Scripture immediately. This guy's just staring. And eventually, in frustration, he says, on what basis are you here? And he said, the man on the middle cross said, I can come now. That is the only answer. That is the only answer. And if I don't preach the gospel to myself all day and every day, then I will find myself beginning to trust myself, trust my experience, which is part of my fallenness as a man. If I take my eyes off the cross, I can then give only lip service to its efficacy, while at the same time living as if my salvation depends upon me. And as soon as you go there, it will lead you either to abject despair or a horrible kind of arrogance. And it is only the cross of Christ that deals both with the dreadful depths of despair and the pretentious arrogance of the pride of man that says, you know, I can figure this out and I'm doing wonderfully well. No, because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free for God that justice satisfied, to look on him and pardon me. That's why Luther says, most of your Christian life is outside of you. In this sense that we know that we're not saved by good works. We're not saved as a result of. Of our professions, but we're saved as a result of what Christ has achieved. [00:22:56] Speaker A: The man on the middle cross said I could come. It was true for him. It's true for you. See, as Pastor Bag said to us, it's not how much you know or how religious you are or how involved you might be, or how much you have given away. Although all of those things are important, they have nothing to do with our salvation. Colossians 1. As we heard it today, he's delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Don't you see? You are loved, you are forgiven. You're given life surely, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the man on the middle cross, what joy that brings. Amen.