Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text today is the Epistle lesson, especially these words, “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” Thus far our text.
Dear friends in Christ. Disobedience is our way of life isn’t it? From the moment we are born, can walk, can talk, can do practically anything, we are learning where the rules are and where we can break them. I can think of countless examples from my own life. My parents would say, “Adam, clean your room.” And I wouldn’t. My parents would say, vacuum the floor, and I would watch TV. My parents would say mow the yard, and I would ride my bike.
I know each and every person here did similar things growing up. Children are known for disobeying their parents. Don’t touch that, and you would. Don’t do that, but you would. Do this, and you didn’t! And when we were children we didn’t understand why we had rules, and why we had to obey. But our parents were always working on keeping us safe, always working on providing the best for us. The rules were there not just to bother us, but they were there for a purpose.
Dear friends in Christ, our text today tells us a similar thing, only not in relation to our parents, but in relationship to our God, and creator. The one who put us here on this earth to love us, and to give to us. But just like a child, almost from the very beginning, we began to disobey God’s word. Adam and Eve were the first people, and they were also the first to break a rule. “Don’t eat from that tree” God said, “or you will die.” Plain and simple, an easy rule right? But before too long, Adam and Eve had broken it, and brought a life of sinfulness, of disobedience to God for all mankind.
God consigned Adam and Eve to disobedience. That word, consigned means he turned them over to the imprisonment of disobedience. He allowed them to be surrounded by disobedience they wanted because that is what we wanted. Adam and Eve disobeyed God because they wanted to be in charge in their own life. And so God let them have what they wanted.
But it was not as good as Adam and Eve imagined. Their happy joyous life with God could not be replicated on their own. They had to struggle. They had to work hard so that they had enough food. And worst of all they had to pay the ultimate price, the one God promised would happen for their disobedience, death. 930 years after he was born, Adam finally succumbed to his disobedience.
Friends, you and I also disobey God. From the moment of conception in our mothers’ wombs, we already had turned our backs on God. Through out our entire lives, we do things that God doesn’t want us to do. We like to gossip about people around us, even if though God says we should not slander. We like to covet things those around us have. We like to use language we don’t want our mom to hear. We do all of these things, and in them all we disobey God in the exact same way that Adam and Eve did.
Friends, you and I are consigned to disobedience. We have been imprisoned in our sin so that all that we do is sin. All that we are is sin. All that we desire is sin, and on our own we cannot know anything else but sin.
But our text says that we were all bound into disobedience so that God might have mercy on us all. And he has had mercy on us in his Son Jesus Christ. For your disobedience, Jesus came to this world born of a virgin. For your disobedience Jesus healed the sick and the suffering around him, even those who we would judge to be unworthy (as in our Gospel lesson today). Jesus came and he submitted to mankind’s evil disobedience, allowing us to put Him to death on a cross.
Yes, it was our disobedience that killed Jesus. It was our disobedience that swung a hammer to pound nails through the hands and feet of Jesus. It was us that swung the whip and tore off his flesh. It was our disobedience that desired to put God to death.
But through it, through our disobedience, God has shown mercy to us. For the very death of Jesus which we desired in our sin destroyed that death forever. IN the crucifixion of Jesus we were finally rescued from disobedience forever. When Jesus died, he died the death Adam deserved. He died the death Eve deserved. And yes, he even died the death that you deserved.
And instead of what you deserved, Jesus gave you the keys to the kingdom. He did not stay dead in our disobedience, but leaving it dead he rose again forever and ever. And you too, in Him alone, will one day rise to everlasting blessedness, righteousness and innocence forever in heaven. God has had mercy on you poor disobedient sinners.
So now what, St. Paul asks, For if we have died to sin, can we go on living in it? Can we keep on doing whatever we want with out caring what God thinks about it. No friends. For you have died with Jesus in baptism. And when you were dead with him, your disobedience died as well. The old way of doing things doesn’t work any longer. In Christian love and out of the response to knowing we have salvation in him, we are no longer bound by disobedience, but we are free to do what God would have us do. We are free to help our neighbor. We are free to no longer covet. We are free to no longer disobey. You are free to be God’s Child, and to be in perfect relationship with him foreve.r
You once were bound over to sin. But now in Jesus you are free. Now through Jesus you have received mercy. In Jesus, you have countless blessings forever. Amen.
