Grace,
mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen. Our text today is from the Gospel lesson,
especially these words, “(Jesus) set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Thus far our text.
Dear
friends in Christ, Jesus has come for one reason and one reason alone: To go to Jerusalem, to get nailed to the
cross and to die for all sin, shame, guilt and wrong. That’s what he has set his mind to do in our
text, he is focused on Good Friday, because that’s where your forgiveness is
earned and won. And that’s what he cares
about, forgiving you your sin. And
nothing will distract him from that. He
won’t get distracted turning to the right or the left, as we so often do in
this world. He won’t make excuses, or
complain. He’s on his way to die for YOUR sin.
Jesus can’t
be like Elijah, hiding in a cave when the threat of death arrives. No, Jesus faces it head on – rebuking those
who would distract him. He must rescue those who believe in in Him, even if
it’s just a small remnant, and the way he rescues is by the cross. Jesus can’t be like Elisha, stopping to kiss
his parents good-bye, and feeding some hungry people with the oxen he was recently
plowing with. No, Jesus sets his face
towards Jerusalem and torture. After
all, he’s on his way to die for YOUR sin.
And Jesus
won’t be distracted by those who have no time for the cross, like those of the
Samaritan village, who turn him away, our text says, because his eyes were set
on Jerusalem. Yes, there are some who
want a cross-less Jesus. One we can
praise, one who always smiles, one who fits our expectations, one who is our un-bloody
friend, an example and that is all. But
Christ won’t have any of it. His eyes
are set on the cross to die for YOUR
sin. So he avoids that Samaritan town
all together, and goes somewhere else.
And Jesus
has no time for the self-righteous either – the disciples who want to call down
fire and punish that Samaritan village, as if they were more holy than those of
that town. They aren’t, they’ve sinned
just as much. No, Christ knows the
punishment for sin must be upon his own shoulders – no one else’s, because he
alone is the spotless lamb of God. He
must die for YOU, and he means to,
in Jerusalem when he arrives. So he
rebukes the disciples who decide it’s their job to punish sin, and continues
onward.
He runs
into a man who shouts out, “I’ll follow you Jesus, wherever you go.” But Jesus has no time for those who think
they can “Decide to follow him.” He
knows the truth, that the sinful hearts of humankind won’t allow them to keep
that promise, that they are so sinful as to not be able to “Decide for him,” so
He replies curtly, “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but I have no place
to lay my head.” Well, except in a tomb
in Jerusalem, for that’s where he’s going, his face is set. He goes to lay His head in a tomb for YOUR sake.
On the
other hand, Jesus calls out to another man, “Follow me.” His call doesn’t come with earthquakes, not
with fire, not with wind, but with the small still voice of His Holy Word. The same word your pastor preaches to
you. But the man replies, “Yes, Lord,
but first let me go and bury my dead family member.” But Jesus has no time for waiting – the
judgment of sin comes soon, upon the cross.
So He replies, “Leave the dead to bury their dead, my eyes are on
Jerusalem where I go to die for all the dead, Go and proclaim this
message. The message of Christ crucified
and risen so that YOU too will rise
from death because of me.”
And finally
further down the road, Jesus runs into an Elisha copycat who says, “I will
follow you Lord, but first, I must say good bye to my family.” And Jesus looking only ahead to his own fate,
replies, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the
kingdom of God. I’m not looking back,”
Jesus said, “I go to my fate, to make all things new for YOU AND YOUR SIN.”
Dear
friends in Christ, do you see the pattern?
Jesus is focused on the cross for your sake. You can’t add to it, you can’t subtract from
it. You can’t change it in anyway. You can’t distract him from his mission – to
save sinners. He has come to rescue you,
and sets his face to accomplishing that goal.
And it is
good that the Lord is focused in such a way.
For your sin IS great. And perhaps I’ll be in trouble for saying so,
but even you LWML ladies have great sin.
And yes, even pastors, LWML members, leaders of the church and world sin
daily, and greatly. You sin in thought,
in word and in deed. You get angry at
your husband or spouse. You borrow
without asking – or as God calls it stealing.
You find other things you need to do first – before church. You make excuses for why you can’t be in
church on Sunday. You want Jesus to come
to you on your terms your timing.
“First, let me do xyz…” You gossip
and spread rumors, breaking the 8th commandment – in fact, let’s be
clear you break all the commandments, all 10 of them. So do I, so does everyone.
And then we
self-justify it. We say, “Well Lord,
this only happened because of life circumstances.” “We won’t worry about that will we God? After all, I served treats at the last LWML
meeting.” “That sin, well it’s not
really my fault.” “I didn’t mean to,
after all, I’ve promised to follow you.”
But in all our excuses and our self-justifying, we lose sight of the
great cost that Jesus is paying for our sin – we forget that his eyes are fixed
upon our salvation in Jerusalem.
Christ will
have none of your excuses. His face is
set towards Jerusalem, towards Golgotha, towards the cross FOR YOU. He won’t swerve
away. He won’t change his mind. He won’t be diverted. He is absolutely set on forgiving you all
your sin. It will be done by his
beating, bleeding, suffering, nailing, crucifixion, death, burial and
resurrection. All those things which he
does, he does in your place, for your sin, without any excuse, without any
payment due. It’s all for you and for YOUR SIN.
He gives
that forgiveness earned by His cross and empty tomb to you in the preaching of
His word. In fact he has given each one
of you a pastor whose job it is to give you that Word, not on their own terms
or times, not with their own opinions or understandings, but only as Christ
gives it to the church in scripture.
Jesus gives you that forgiveness through Baptism where Water and Word
washed away your sins and marked you as forever belonging to Jesus Christ. And, to top it off Jesus gives you the
Sacrament of the Altar, where he gives you his own body and blood to eat and
drink ON HIS TERMS, for YOUR
forgiveness, life and salvation. And by
these gifts – you are saved from your excuses, complaints and sin.
And so,
dear friends in Christ, you go forth today in the forgiveness that Jesus
gives. So put away your excuses, your
complaints, your terms, and your understandings, and live in the Word and
promise of Jesus Christ. For he will not
be distracted from saving you. He will
not swerve from his grace. He will be
where he has promised, and do what he has come to do. His eyes are set on Jerusalem, on your
salvation. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
