Lent 2 - G - 2012 - Who do you say Jesus is?

The Second Sunday of Lent
March 4, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16             Romans 5:1-11            Mark 8:27-38

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 just read, especially these words, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”  Thus far our text today. 

Dear friends in Christ.  Jesus asks two questions in our text today.  First – Who do people say that I am? Second – Who do you say that I am?  Who am I?  What is my identity?  And if you get this question right, that you are blessed beyond all belief, but if you get it wrong, you belong to Satan, you are setting your mind on the things of man, and Jesus will be ashamed of you on the day he comes with angels in the glory of the Father. 

So… who do people say that Jesus is?  We have heard all the answers.  Jesus is a good teacher, he shows us how to live a life worthy of God.  He shows us how to have our very best life now, and how to get along with our neighbors.  Jesus is my rich uncle who wants me to be rich as well, so long as I follow him correctly.  Jesus is a role model who shows us how to organize our community to accomplish things that benefit the greater good.  Jesus is a great prophet who gave us the 40 steps to live a purposeful life.  Jesus is an idea, a person we use to defend our own beliefs to people and places he is the person we can make say whatever we want.  Jesus has been defined as all sorts of things to all sorts of people. 

Dear friends, it is the same in our text.  When Jesus asks the disciples “Who do people think that I am?” they respond, “Some say John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.”  Everyone had a different opinion.  And none of them are completely right.  Yes, there is some truth to it, but only half truths.  Jesus is a prophet, in that he proclaims the very word of God, but he is also more than a prophet.  Jesus is like Elijah in that he performs miracles, but he is more than that as well.  Jesus is a teacher, he is a role-model, he does want to share his riches with us – but it is impossible to peg Jesus by using one of these terms alone.  There is something more about Jesus, and we have to know and understand that first. 

So Jesus asks the disciples “Who do you, you twelve, you followers, who do you say that I am?”  And Peter answers right away, “You are the Christ”.  He hit the nail on the head.  Jesus must of smiled!  You’re right Peter, you got it!  You understand!  I’m the Christ!  You win the prize!  And when we hear it, we join the chorus right along with Peter!  “Duh Pastor!  Of course Jesus is the Christ, everyone knows that.”  But I ask you, what does that mean?  Who is the Christ?  What exactly does that mean? 

Peter didn’t know either, so Jesus starts to explain it.  “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.  And he said this plainly.”  Wait a minute, that’s not the Jesus I want.  That’s not my friend, that’s not my role-model, that’s not my idea of who Jesus is.  What’s the deal with the death and dying business?  That’s not who I want for my Christ!  Cool down your talk Jesus, lay off your rhetoric! 

Or so Peter says.  And dear friends, so too do we.  “Cool down this death of Jesus business.  Don’t talk about bloody deaths and all that baloney.  Just leave be quiet and tell me how to make my family get along better, and tell me how to live my life in a worthy way.  Tell me what I must do to be saved, because that’s the Christ I want.  Tell me, so that I can do it all by myself.  That’s the Savior I want.”

Dear friends, Jesus only has one answer for this kind of talk, only one response to us who would reshape the Christ into who we want him to be – “Get thee behind me Satan!”  Get out of the way because the Christ must die.  He must suffer many things at the hands of unbelievers.  He can’t leave your sin behind for you to do what you wish with, he must take it upon himself, set his eyes on Calvary and bleed, ooze, thirst and die for your sins.  That’s what the Christ does.  That’s his job.  That’s why he comes, and the first and primary reason.  To save you from sin. 

People hear this, and they laugh at us.  People hear this, and they criticize us Christians, they call us hypocrites and religious fanatics.  They say we are lunatics for believing in all this Jesus and resurrection stuff, but friends that’s who your Christ is – not just a teacher or role model, but a savior who saves by dying in your place.

Any “Jesus” that avoids the cross is not the true Jesus.  Any Jesus who doesn’t suffer is just a shadow of the true Jesus.  Any Jesus who is just a regular guy, or only a friends fails to fulfill the roll of Christ. Your Jesus, the Jesus of scripture – not of popular opinion – wants to teach you about his death.  He wants to make you rich, not with the things of the world, but with the things of heaven where moth and mold cannot destroy.  He wants to be your role model so that you follow him to the cross in your baptism, and rise with Him into eternity apart from sin.

So, dear friends in Christ, “Who do you say that Jesus is?”    Is he just a teacher?  Is he just a role model?  Is he just a man?  No, He is the Christ – the sacrifice for your sin.  He is the one to take you from this world to the next.  He is the one… who dies to save you from sin.  Amen.  

Lent 1 - O - 2012 - The Sin Sacrifice

The First Sunday of Lent

February 26, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline

Genesis 22:1-18          James 1:12-18             Mark 1:9-15

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today is the Old Testament lesson, especially these words, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”  Thus far our text.

Dear friends in Christ.  Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins.  Scripture is clear on that point.  Adam and Eve, Noah, Terah, all the patriarchs knew this fact.  For this reason, they had killed countless animals, pouring out their blood in bowls and burning the animals on altars to God – to forgive all their sins.  To be made right with God by the death of another creature.

So when God tells Abraham what he must do, it is a tall order.  Abraham had seen sacrifices before, he had performed sacrifices before, but never one that would be as difficult or as gruesome as the one God commands him to do on this day.  God tells Abraham, “As a burnt offering, as a way of forgiving your sins, your Son must die at your hand.  And when you have killed him, when you have drained his blood out of him, he must be laid on a pile of wood and burned as an offering to me.  By his death, you will be forgiven.”

His own son must die.  He has to kill his own child, whom he loves, the one through whom he hoped to have descendants that numbered of the sand on a beach, that numbered as the stars of heaven.  His child must die, God has commanded it.

What must Abraham have done wrong?  What sins must he have committed?  Did he doubt too much?  What sin could be so great that his children had to die?  But even as he asks these questions of God, Abraham gathers the supplies, he gets the fire, he gets the wood.  They saddle up their donkey, and they head to the mountain God will show them. 

They travel for three days, riding on the donkey, when finally Abraham sees the place, Mount Moriah.  Abraham stops, gets down from his donkey, and loads the wood of the sacrifice on the his own son, his beloved son, the one who pleases him, and they begin the final journey.  Isaac carries the wood up the mountain to the place where he must die.  Abraham carries the knife and the fire, dreading what must be done.  Isaac stacks the wood upon the altar, and notices something is missing.  “Where is the goat?  Where is the Ram?  Where is the creature we are going to sacrifice father?”  Abraham’s only answer is “The Lord will provide the sacrifice.”  Isaac lays on the wood, Abraham raises the knife, mustering all his strength to bring it down on his son, his own Son, whom he loves. 

And God stops him.  Abraham wait, Abraham don’t kill your Son!  Stop!  Don’t do this!  For you were right in your confession, I will provide the sacrifice for your sins.  I will provide the lamb to be slain and burned.  I will provide, for it isn’t your son, but my Son that must die.  Its my Son – it’s Jesus, he’s the one who will die for your sin Abraham, for Isaac’s sin, and for all mankind’s sin. 

God stops the death of Isaac, and in the same way, dear friends, he stops your death as well.  For just as Abraham, just as Isaac, you too are sinful.  You too are guilty.  You too have broken God’s law, and have not trusted enough, haven’t loved enough, haven’t done enough.  You fall short by what you have done and by what you have left undone.  And dear friends its your fault, your own fault, your own most grievous fault.  That sin threatened to separate you from God, just as it did for Abraham, for God demanded a sacrifice from you to make things right. 

But you don’t have enough to fix your problem.  There isn’t enough you can do to fix it, even your own death can’t save you.  So as Abraham confessed God will provide the sacrifice – His own Son, born of the Virgin Mary, to die for you.   Hear the words of our Gospel lesson, "Behold my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."  Its that one, who will die for you.  

And so here we are in Lent, looking ahead to the sacrifice of Christ for you and your sins.  We are looking ahead, to Jesus, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, just as Isaac rode to Moriah with his Father on a donkey.  We are looking ahead to Jesus carrying a cross up to Golgotha, just as Isaac carried the wood of sacrifice p to Moriah.  We are looking ahead to Christ willingly suffering and dying at the will of his father, just as Isaac was for his father Abraham.  And as Abraham was willing to drive a knife into his own son, so too is God willing to drive nails and spear into his son. 

And its all for you.  Its all for Abraham.  Its all for Isaac.  And dear friends, on the cross, its all done.  The blood for forgiveness of sins is shed.  All of it pours out on to the ground.  Jesus suffers the death you deserve.  And with his very last breath, Christ shouts out “It is finished.” No more does God demand sacrifices from you for salvation.  No longer does He ask for your death, but instead he gives you life forever.  Instead, you walk safely down the mountain, just as Isaac did.  Instead you are free as God’s own child forever. 

Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins.  And blood has been shed.  But its not Isaacs.  Its not Abraham’s, its not even yours.  It is Jesus blood.  And it means your life.  Amen.  

  

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.