Midweek Lent 5 – Pr. Abraham Faugstad homily
Text: St. John 19:25-27
In Christ Jesus, who perfectly kept God’s law in your place, so that you could be regarded as saints, dear fellow redeemed!
Jesus summarizes the Ten Commandments when he says, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ (and) ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37, 39). Love God; love your neighbor. Oftentimes, we think of keeping God’s commandments as simply not doing things we shouldn’t—you shall have no other gods, you shall not misuse the name of the your God, you shall not murder or hate your neighbor, you shall not steal, and so on. But to keep God’s commands is more than just not doing something—it also means to fulfill his commands. Not only are you not to murder or hate your neighbor, you need to help and befriend him in every need. To keep the seventh commandment doesn’t mean just not to steal from your neighbor but also help him to improve and protect his goods and means of making a living. To keep the eighth commandment doesn’t just mean not lying or slandering your neighbor, but excusing him, speaking well of him, and interpreting everything in the best possible way. For every “you shall not,” there is a “you shall.”
As we think about our life it’s easy for the many good things we have left undone to weigh on our conscience. As we look back upon our life and our day, it’s easy to find times where we could have been a better spouse or parent, child or friend. I should have said or done that! It’s easy for us to feel remorse and guilt for failing to fulfill God’s command to love him and our neighbor. Because it’s true. Not only have we broken God’s law and sinned, but we have also many times not done what we could have or should have done. We let opportunities that God place in front us go to waste.
That’s why tonight, as we focus on Jesus’ great love and mercy from the cross, taking care of his own mother, I want us to focus on the great comfort of Jesus’ active obedience for us.
When we speak about the saving work of Christ and his obedience, we distinguish between his active and passive obedience. By his innocent sufferings and death, Jesus suffered, in our stead and for our benefit, the punishment which we deserved according to the law of God. We call this his passive obedience. Though he was completely innocent, he suffered for the sins of the world so that we could be forgiven. He took our sentence of death so that we could go free. “Chief of sinners though I be, Jesus shed his blood for me.” The other part of Christ’s obedience was his active obedience. By his holy life, Jesus has perfectly fulfilled the law in our stead and for our benefit. Jesus loved God above all things and his neighbor as himself. He did this throughout his life, so that we who were unable to obey God’s law perfectly, might be credited a righteous life on his account. And we have a wonderful example of how Christ perfectly fulfilled the Lord’s command to love in our lesson tonight.
These were the last few hours of Jesus’ life. As the only innocent man to ever live, he was scourged and beaten, lied about and betrayed, and sentenced to crucifixion. The Roman’s didn’t invent crucifixion, but they did perfect it—ensuring it to be the most painful form of death at the time. Jesus now hung from the cross. We know from Scripture that a few women and a disciple watched this all take place from a distance, but now we are told they stood by the cross. Mary the mother of Jesus, his aunt, Mary Magdalene, and John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. They would have seen first-hand Jesus’ aching body, the sweat, the wounds, the blood, and the tears. They had come to grieve and mourn and offer what support they could to Jesus who was not only in extreme physical pain, but in spiritual affliction as he bore the weight of the world’s sins.
Yet instead of them offering him what little comfort they could, Jesus offered it to them, specifically, to his mother. He knew he would no longer be able to fulfill his obligation as a son. But as her Lord and Savior, he ensures that his mother, likely a widow, was cared for by his beloved disciple. John would later write of Jesus, “having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). He loved them to the end. Surely, the Psalmist is right when he writes that God is “A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows” (Psalm 68:5). God does not forget his people. Jesus shows us this.
When we are in pain, it is normal for us not to think about anyone else. It’s natural for us to be selfish and want others to care for us. A couple weeks ago I was rinsing out a tin can and sliced my finger as I was washing it. I stomped my foot in pain. But it made me think, “how would I have responded if my wife in that moment would have asked for me to change our daughter’s diaper?” I am not too optimistic about how I would have responded. Of course, she didn’t ask for help but offered to help me.
Here hangs Jesus, at a time when anyone would understand not thinking about others—but still he loves. He perfectly cares for his neighbor, fulfilling the law of God for us. We are told that John took Mary to his home that hour, he made her part of his family. John took care of Mary until the end of her life.
John, perhaps better than anyone else, understood what it means to love our neighbor. Here, Jesus laid before John his own opportunity to show love—by caring for Mary as his own mother. To help her in her grief and support her in old age. We often call the apostles saints. Like St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. John. Why do we do that? Is it because they lived a holier life than most? Or performed certain miracles? While they lived fine Christian lives and did amazing things through God, that is not why we call them saints. They are regarded saints because they believed in Jesus. As Scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3).
Even John as he cared for Mary couldn’t have done it perfectly. John himself writes by inspiration, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” But John believed in Christ. He confessed his sins and trusted in Jesus. And he says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:8,9).
You and I have sinned. We have broken God’s law. What’s more, we have often failed to live up to the life that God demands of us. Yet we know that Jesus has not only paid for all our sins and failures on the cross, but that he also lived the life that God demands in our place. Jesus left no good deed undone. Our Savior did all things well for you.
Maybe you’re feeling guilty for your failure to love your children, your spouse, your parents, or your coworker the way you could or should have. Maybe you missed opportunities to show love. Don’t let the devil cause you to despair. Look to Jesus. See how in his agony he still loved. He perfectly fulfilled God’s law. And he did it for you and for your benefit—so that his perfect life could be credited to you.
In willing and loving obedience to his Father, Jesus laid down his life and freely offered himself as the spotless Lamb of God for you. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). By his willing obedience, active as well as passive, Jesus has fully atoned for our sins, reconciled us to the Father, and made us children of God and heirs of eternal glory.
Could anyone accuse Jesus of failing to live up to God’s command to love? No. Here’s the amazing thing: through faith in Jesus, neither can anyone accuse you. Because his life is your life, his death is your death, and his victory over death is your future. Yes, you are a sinner, but by God’s grace through faith, you are a saint fit for heaven. God has declared it. Behold your Savior! Amen.
(picture from “Crucifixion, Seen from the Cross,” by James Tissot, c. 1890)
The Fourth Sunday of Easter & Saude Confirmation – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 1 Peter 2:11-20
In Christ Jesus, who suffered for our salvation and calls us to faithfully follow in His steps, dear fellow redeemed:
No one really likes the idea of being “called out.” To be called out is to be accused of some sort of wrong. This often results in the accused person feeling angry—angry that his sins have been revealed, or angry that he has been misrepresented in a public way. But the apostle Peter used this term in a different way—a very encouraging way. In the words just before today’s reading, he wrote, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
He says that you have been “called out” by God. But these are not words of condemnation; they are words of salvation. The Lord “called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” He called you out of the sinful state you were in that could only lead to death. And He called you into His marvelous light.
This is the “marvelous light” of God the Son who took on flesh to save you. It is the light of His righteousness, His perfect keeping of the Law which is credited to you. It is the light of His forgiveness, the removal of the darkness of your sin. It is the light of His salvation, your redemption and justification through His death and resurrection. You have been called into this marvelous light by the Holy Spirit who has worked faith in your heart.
You live in this light. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Joh. 8:12). Because you live in this light, you see everything around you differently. In today’s reading, Peter writes that the people around you should see you differently too.
He says that we are “sojourners and exiles.” We are just passing through this world. We are like those who stay in a hotel room for a night—temporary quarters—and take nothing with us, or like those who eat at a restaurant but make no claim on the tables, plates, or silverware. What we have in this life is meant to be used for the glory of God, for the good of our neighbors, and for our own needs. We can’t take our possessions with us when we die; they are only for the here and now. Far better riches and treasures are waiting for us in heaven.
So the people around us should not see us full of greed, unwilling to help others. Neither should they see us indulge “the passions of the flesh” like unbelievers do, passions “which wage war against [the] soul.” These are the passions that violate the holy Commandments of God, passions that put any number of desires and pursuits in the place of God. The unbelieving world is ruled by these passions and does nothing to rein them in.
We who walk in the light of Jesus are called to live differently—with self-control, discipline, making sacrifices for others. Then when unbelievers call us out, “when they speak against [us] as evildoers,” as our reading says, “they may see [our] good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” But our good deeds will not stand out if we do not stand up for what is right.
That is difficult to do. Our culture today is turning more and more against the teachings of the Bible. Shining the light of God’s truth through our words and actions is jarring in this world of darkness; it is blinding and offensive to unbelievers. The effect is like one person wearing a Cyclone jersey to a Hawkeye rally or the other way around. We stand out as Christians, and this is not welcome. The world tells us to be silent, to change our beliefs, to get on “the right side of history.”
We could respond to these attacks in an obnoxious way, returning “evil for evil or reviling for reviling” (1Pe. 3:9). We could feel superior on our high ground and pat ourselves on the back like self-righteous Pharisees, thanking God that we are not like all the bad people (Luk. 18:11). But that is clearly not the approach that God calls us to take.
As we pass through this world, Jesus calls us to shine His light into the darkness. He calls us to humility, to patience, and to sacrifice. We find this in Peter’s words inspired by the Holy Spirit, which he wrote at a time when the governing authorities persecuted the Christian Church. Peter writes that we are to be subject to the governing authorities, respect them, honor them, and pray for them. This is the teaching of the Fourth Commandment, which demands respect for authority beginning in the home and going outward.
Now your parents may not always seem worthy of your honor and respect, but you are to honor them because they are over you, put in place by God. The same goes for the governing authorities. They may not always seem worthy of your honor and respect, but they have been put in place by God for purposes that might not be clear to you but are clear to Him.
This principle also applies in the workplace. Peter writes that servants are to be subject to and respect their masters, whether they are “good and gentle” or “unjust.” Then he adds, “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.” Now this does not come naturally to any one of us. If we suffer unjustly, it is often the case that we do not endure these sorrows with patience. We think how unfair it all is, how heavy the burden we have to carry, how we don’t deserve to be treated like this.
And that shows us how different we are than Jesus. Just after today’s reading, Peter describes our Lord’s righteous attitude and actions—a bright Light shining in the darkness: “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1Pe. 2:22-23). This was Jesus’ active obedience, His active keeping of the holy Law, which He kept perfectly.
We often have let our sinful passions get the best of us, but He did not let the devil tempt Him from His mission. We have dishonored and disrespected our parents and authorities placed over us, but He obeyed His Father’s will without faltering. We have not endured our trials with patience and humility, but He willingly suffered for the sins of others. Everything that we have failed to be and do, Jesus lived that perfectly for us.
And He let Himself be accused and crucified in our place. This is His passive obedience, which Peter also describes: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (v. 24). The blood He shed cleanses us from all of our sins. Our bad behavior, our disobedience, our impatience—all of it is forgiven, washed away by His holy, precious blood.
This is what Jesus has done for us. This is the light of righteousness and salvation that we have been called into by the power of God the Holy Spirit. This is the light we remain in by His ongoing work. The Holy Spirit works in us and has promised to work in us in no other way than through the Word and Sacraments of God.
When God speaks, He does. That’s how it was at the beginning when He said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3), and that’s how it still is and ever shall be. God speaks the light of Jesus into us through the Gospel message. He replaces the darkness inside us with His own holiness and love. As we are filled and strengthened through His powerful Word, we are also equipped to shine His light toward others and bring Him glory. Jesus said, “[L]et your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mat. 5:16).
What this means is that your life is not really yours anymore. It is not about you. You have been claimed by the God of all glory, majesty, and might. He called you out of darkness and into His light. He chose you, and since He chose you, He will not leave you to fight the enemies of darkness alone. He will not leave you to fend for yourself. He will not let the darkness overcome you and fill you like it did before.
The light you have been called into is a brilliant, powerful light. Just as it has changed your heart, it is powerful to change the hearts of others, and so it has. You do not journey as a sojourner and exile by yourself. You go forward along with all who have been called into the light of Jesus. We press on until God calls us out again, out of this short life of trouble and trial to a light still brighter, the light of His glorious presence in heaven.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Jesus Discourses with His Disciples” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)