Jesus speaks to us today, saying,
“They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming
when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.”
In this verse, the weakness of English comes out. To be sure
there are the actions of putting out of the synagogues, and killing, and
thinking incorrectly. But what is actually being conveyed here is a recreation
and there’s a lot to unpack.
What’s happening here is that a second church is being
erected inside God’s own Church. A church that excommunicates God’s Elect and
kills them, all during their own “divine” service. This is the strength of the
words St. John
is using today and we can say this because his word for “service” is the same
word used to refer to the Passover.
Thus, as we approach our 5th Commandment from
God, we run into an apparent contradiction that there is to be no murdering,
but not only is there killing in the Old Testament, but from that it seems as
if His followers can understand His commands and actions as demanding human
sacrifices, if only to keep this church pure.
This is our blind, sinful way of understanding sacrifice and
purity. That because men can be killed that they should be killed or because we
can be angry with them, we should be. However, all this does is reveal our own
state of depravity. What we are really trying to kill is God and since we can’t
get at Him, we go for the next best thing: His chosen followers.
We must not only not kill people around us, but neither hurt
nor harm them in any physical way. However, include anger in the mix and this
commandment quickly becomes impossible, especially with sacrifices needed to be
made and with enemies close at hand.
So we come to an impasse. God does not murder, but He kills.
There must not be murder, but there is murder. There must not be death, but
there is death and there is no understanding it. Philosophers have been at it
for centuries and the best they’ve come up with is, “Suck it up”.
What makes sense of all the Old Testament murder and
violence is the cross, because it is God’s work, not ours. All the deaths in
the Old Testament were for purity’s sake; the purity of God’s people, whom He
chose and whom He is very jealous for. “From
the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered
violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Mt. 11:12)
By the letter of the Law there must be sacrifice and we
think, “What better to sacrifice than the unbelievers?” However, this is not an
unblemished sacrifice, but a cheap one, cheapening God’s promise by its
impurity. Maybe, we say, a true believer will suffice. Yet, afterwards nothing
is different. Still not an acceptable sacrifice to alleviate God’s wrath.
With this, maybe you can begin to see a little clearer.
There must be a death, but it is not to be meted out by your hands. Yet, when
you judge God as too slow, you take God’s commands as the go ahead to create
your own rules in Church and begin the purification by Law, for it is by Law
that purity must be achieved, but it is by that same Law that we all deserve
nothing but temporal and eternal punishment.
Repent. All we understand of murder, killing, and violence
is through the Law and when we try to pierce into God’s mind with His Law, we
find nothing but more murder, killing, and violence. We come to a warped
conclusion of Who God is by using our sinful minds to wrap our heads around it.
The command to not murder comes to completion and perfection
at the cross. All the seemingly murderous intent we assign to God is poured out
upon the Son of God and its not even that somehow God has to learn about
suffering or how not to murder, its that in Jesus God suffers on your behalf.
To prove to you that He suffers because of your murdering.
Thus, Jesus is murdered for the murderers. To prove to the whole
world for all time that it is sin and the devil that murders, God is murdered
on the cross. You could almost say that God changes here, at the cross, because
now the killing and the violence stops. But, He doesn’t change, of course, for
it was always the plan to stop anger and death in all forms.
Jesus suffers and dies to purchase His Church and He does so
with a death and resurrection. A death and resurrection which you must share in
or be lost forever. Even in this New covenant there must be murder, but this is
now a satisfied murder; a completed murder the Christian encounters in Christ
and what does that look like, but a bit of water and the Word.
In our vile pit of murder, Jesus comes to us with His help
and support. But the 5th command is too physical for Jesus to simply
offer a spiritual help and support. Jesus helps us by murdering murder in the
flesh. His absorption of all the violence and anger plays out in His scourged
and pierced Body, for you.
Now, in this light of lights, the 5th Commandment
is also about the cross. Though on it sinful man murders God, this produces a
greater revelation: God can not be murdered and murder does not accomplish one
thing, for its ultimate end, death, could not hold Jesus in its icy grasp.
Robbed of its purpose, murder and anger now are a fruitless
tree, marked for termination. True life; a life full of wellbeing, help, and
support is now found in Christ, Who will never die again. And since Christ
attends Service every Sunday, the completion and fulfillment of the 5th
Commandment is also at hand, here, for you.
This plays out in the Confession and Absolution. By all
rights, you should get what you deserve, standing here smug and proud in sin.
However, by all rights, Christ has taken what you deserve and the murderous
sinner is set free, in Christ.
Just like Barabbas, the Word of Christ pardons the guilty
murderer. Just like grumbling Israel ,
the Red Sea covers all sin. Just like the
thief on the cross, the condemned criminal Christ, gives the freeing word of
the cross. And just like the wavering Apostles, the Supper helps and supports
in every physical and spiritual need.
No longer are we to be confused as to what God demands from
us. No longer are we to take purification into our own hands. No longer are we
confused by wickedness or sin clouding our judgment, for the judgment has been
cast on Christ. After the cross, nothing is left except the forgiveness of sins
and new life in Him.
Though violence still plagues the world, there is no
violence, murder, or anger in the true Church. Though the same murderous spirit
of the devil harasses and assails us, day in and day out, we are not his, but
Christ’s, baptized into His death and resurrection, having undergone our own
death in baptism and being raised again to new life. A life without sin. A life
in the Church.
The only place in the world God is not angry with you, as
you suppose, is here where the sacrifice of His Son is given and shed for you.
The only place in the world where death is but a sleep, is here in the
continued proclamation of the Lord’s death. The only place in the world where
help and support from God are readily and abundantly present, is at the Table
the Lord sets in front of His enemies.
True Service done to God is done by God Himself. God creates
the Service, God kills and offers the sacrifice, and God serves everyone in the
Service. The spiritual and physical sign that God is working, defines the
Divine Service over and against that false service where man is working. And
where man works, sin and death work.
Where God works, there is forgiveness, life, and salvation.
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