LISTEN TOT HE AUDIO HERE.
Jesus speaks to you today, saying,
As you approach a red light in your automobile, you
encounter another car in front of you, also turning right. Traffic from the
left is preventing that car from making a safe turn. You get anxious waiting as
he searches for an opening and when there’s an opening, that space begs the
question, “Who’s next?”
You’re on a date at an amusement park. You’ve spent the day
standing in line after line, waiting for “your turn”. As the ferris wheel slows
to a stop, the operator reaches for the door of the next empty car and shouts,
“Who’s next?”
Empty seats, empty spots in line, and the like all point to
your chance. If you were waiting, now its your turn. Your turn to take a seat.
Your turn to get a chance. Your turn to be your turn. This could be anything we
are waiting for, really; job offers, school applications, or even medical
treatments. There is nothing better a child loves to hear more during a game
than, “Its your turn.”
However, not all empty seats are pleasant and eagerly
anticipated. “It’s your turn to change the baby”, “It s your turn to take care
of mom, this week”, or “It’s your turn to tell them he died.” We’d rather not
have to pull duty for these types of situations, for obvious reasons: they’re
unpleasant and downright depressing, but necessary no matter what we think of
them.
Abraham was given an unpleasant “seat” to take. He had been
called righteous. He followed his God to a far away land to begin making a
great nation. He was promised a miraculous son, begotten in his old age. He was
promised this son would make him the father of many nations.
Then he was told to kill this son. Having fulfilled and
believed all these promises, Abraham is brought to a point in his obedience
where he would rather not be. He is told to travel three days to a mountain. He
is told to build an altar. He is told to prepare a fire. At this point, the
wood is cold and the altar is ready for a sacrifice. “Who’s next?”, it calls.
Jacob also had a son named Joseph, whose brothers threw him
in an empty cistern, faked his death, and sold him into slavery. Joseph was
pulled out, but when it was empty it cried out to anyone else who would oppose
the brothers, “Who’s next?”
When the Egyptian soldiers ransacked Hebrew houses in search
of male children to kill, one soldier had no job to do, because Moses was hidden
away. His clean sword asked, “Who’s next?” As Babylon
rose to power and razed all of Israel
to the ground, the smoldering ashes of the city rose to the sky signaling,
“Next”.
As you walk into the casket room at the funeral home, you
see many caskets. You only need one, but there are so many open and waiting.
Who will be the next to need one of those? Then we secretly give a silent “thank
you” that it wasn’t our turn, even though it will be someone we know and love
in the casket we will buy, it won’t be our turn.
Empty caskets are not comforting, no matter the context.
Everyone knows they are for people, not things and everyone knows what you do
with them: bury them with a body in it.
In the same way, Jesus approached Golgotha
and found an empty cross. It wasn’t a sign of rescue, it wasn’t a sign of
comfort, and it sure wasn’t a sign of pleasantness. It was an empty spot and He
was next. There were other crosses there, empty crosses, waiting for others to
take their turns and the Romans always left them out, just in case anyone
needed reminding of what it meant to disobey.
Empty crosses are joyless crosses for this reason. They
stare you in the face and demand with deafening authority, “Who’s next?”
Just because we know the rest of the story, does not make an
instrument of torture and capital punishment any less threatening to you.
The cross is full. Full of Jesus. There is no “Who’s next”
from the cross if Jesus is on it. There is no threat from that full cross,
because there is no room for anyone else on it, much less you.
Now, you say, what about the tomb? The tomb is lying empty
now, so isn’t that asking the same question? The short answer is no. Because
the cross is full and because this tomb was forced to produce life, even if
another were to be placed in it, he would simply come out alive.
Because Jesus is on the cross and has been raised from the
dead, the grave may stare at us and say we’re next, but because of the
resurrection, there is another side to the grave. Now it is simply a way-station
to eternal life, instead of a last stop.
Thus, when Jesus tells us that "a little while and you will
see me no longer", He is not only speaking to His disciples about His death and
resurrection. He is speaking to you and your flimsy flesh, where when you find
emptiness in Church you fill it with worldly things, thinking you see one thing
or another, with your mind wandering to laundry lists and scorecards.
But, again little
while and you will see Him. We do not fill this church, Jesus does. Jesus fills
this church with all the fullness of the Godhead, bodily. Jesus fills this
church to overflowing. No matter what we may do to it or think of it, the
Gospel purely preached will fill any space to the brim.
Jesus does not leave our imaginations in charge. He gives us
time, date, place, who, what, why and how. He specifies that forgiveness
received from a pastor is forgiveness received from Him, which fills the space
of where we find forgiveness from Jesus.
He details the Font with promises of salvation in the water
and the Word, regardless of where or who. Jesus fills that space with His
salvation, so there is no mistaking who is next. He specifically maps out that
His Body and Blood are to be taken and eaten and drunk, leaving no room for
doubt or speculation as to where life and light are to be found.
Jesus fills His Church with His Goodness in this way in
order that His Name be great upon the earth, but also that we not mess it up in
adding something in that’s not supposed to be there.
In unbelief, I am on the cross and I am in the grave and
there is no comfort or salvation there for the entire world, there is only
great pain for me and it has nothing to do with anyone else. We didn’t see
Jesus in any place or maybe we saw Him everywhere, but either way it meant He
was nowhere.
Faith sees Jesus, not everywhere, but here where His Word
promises. It is easy to see Jesus in miracles and good feelings. Faith sees
Jesus on the cross. Faith sees Jesus in baptism. Faith sees Jesus in His Word.
Faith sees Jesus in bread and wine.
Now the question remains, “Who’s next?”, but it is no longer
asked with blind eyes. For now, in Christ, we eagerly anticipate our turn as
children once again, because we believe His promise of forgiveness and we know
that the call is not to emptiness of death and grave, but fullness of life and
light.
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