Grace to you all and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Christ.
Who speaks to you today, in your hearing, saying:
“Then he took him and healed him and sent him away.”
When
God becomes the devil, or devilish. That is the subject we are going to briefly
explore today. Of course God is not the devil, but when we undergo temptation
or testing in our own sinfulness, He can certainly seem like a devil.
To
start off, I want to talk about Adam and Eve again, because they present such a
stark example of what Jesus is talking about. We love to sing the not-so-old
song of the not-so-old days about walking in the garden with God. It is a seemingly,
beautiful picture of what Adam and Eve probably experienced in being able
actually walk with God.
It
was peaceful. The dew was on the roses. God speaks ever so gently and kindly
and we never want to leave. But what the song does not go on to sing about is
what happens after. Oh it hints at it, saying that He bids us go to woe, but it
only suggests that we’ll be sad. The song never tells us why.
It
doesn’t tell us because it would be too hard to explain and too dark, for such
a rosy song. The truth of the matter is, God bids us leave the garden because
He is about to do violence. Violence from which many will not return to believe
in Him.
Let’s
go back to Eden.
Adam and Eve walked with God. They sinned. They were kicked out. The first
thing that happens after that is violence. Violence that God commits. We are in
woe because now God is a God of woe. In Gen 3:21, God clothes Adam and Eve in
garments made of skin. Who’s skin? Some dead animal that God had to kill in
order to get its skin.
So
it is that the God of lovey-dovey dewy roses is now the God of the butcher
shop. The sweet whispers of God are now drowned out by the squeals of death.
Death brought on by the sin of Adam. But now that this is God, what are Adam
and Eve to do? Will He kill them next?
Fast-forward
to our Sabbath day of rest, in our Gospel reading, and the Pharisees being
silent for once. Yet their silence speaks volumes. For these decedents of Adam
know that God is
“a
hard man, reaping where He did not sow, and gathering where He scattered no
seed” as the single-talent-bearing man says in Matthew 25:24.
So,
they test Him again and again. Would God do this? Would God say that? Would God
eat with them? Would God talk with her? Would God touch him? These questions
frighten the Pharisees, though they ask them in other places.
They
frighten them because, in their minds, only two options exist. Either God
doesn’t associate with sinners, therefore He doesn’t care, therefore He doesn’t
exist or at least has left off caring for earth and its creatures. Or God does
associate with sinners and they are in for it.
There
is only losing for the sinner, because it is sin that makes God the angry God,
the wrathful God, the vengeful God. Sin cannot conceive of any other option,
for the self-righteous are always the victim.
But
Jesus, I’ve always been a good boy. But Jesus, those sinners could have gotten
real jobs. But Jesus, you gave us this law and told us to avoid those people.
God
becomes the devil for the sinner, making unreasonable, holier-than-thou demands
in His law, demanding mercy at unreasonable times, and demanding a
relinquishing of our special seat in front of God to someone at the lowest
place.
Temptations
will come and testings will come. It is not by reason that we will survive the
war with spirits of evil in the heavenly places
(Eph
6:12). It is not by reason that we will encounter God as He is and come away
believing. That way, we have no chance.
It
turns out, that we don’t have to go very far for rescue from this pharisaical
problem. It turns out that brooding over our sin and how special we think we
are in order to impress God, only makes things worse and will eventually make
us miss the main point.
That
is that God when God becomes devilish, He does so in order to rescue us. Look
at Genesis 3 again. Does God commit violence to threaten or to clothe? To
demand sacrifice or to show mercy? To rescue or condemn?
Jesus
weeps when violence is done, especially when He must do it to Himself. When He
kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden, it was not abandonment. He kicked them
out and went with them, lowering Himself beneath their level, and producing the
first death in the world with His own godly hands.
Showing
not only what He was going to do to sin, death, and the devil, but revealing
that He would get His hands dirty for His creation. In kicking Himself out of
the garden, Jesus went ahead of Adam and Eve, into the new land of corruption,
and took it all upon Himself, even causing His name to be taken in vain by
those who won’t believe.
In
covering Adam and Eve and all their decedents, Jesus has fallen into the pit of
hell. In caring for and taking responsibility for all of their acts of sin, He
has left His high, and mighty seat in heaven and taken the lowest place in
suffering and dying as a sinner, yet without His own sin.
The
God of Eden is the God of hell, for now all that awaits the sinner in the
garden is the Tree of Life, everlasting life of sin. The God of Life is the God
of death. Were the sinner to eat from the Tree of Life in his sin, he would
only receive eternal death. All things are in His hand and that is frightening.
Especially when He appears in front of so many people as a man. Our evil spirit
cannot stand it. We fall silent, as the Pharisees, with rage. We cannot contain
ourselves. God must die and now, as man, He can.
And
He does. And He suffers. The lowest seat turns out to be the seat of sinners,
but even worse, a God who appears to be a sinner Himself. Charged with claiming
to be the King of the Jews, He dies and is buried a guilty man, falling into
the well of the grave on a Sabbath day, unwilling to heal Himself.
But
only unwilling, because it would ruin His plan of becoming a curse on behalf of
His creatures. Unwilling to take the road of revenge and punishment, because He
would then leave all of His poor, wretched, sinful people behind. No, as we
have seen even in the first book of the Bible, God is willing even to die on a
cross to save His wayward sheep.
Now
the devilish God is the crucified God and there is no question as to what His
intention and will were from the beginning. Now we see the crucifix and know
that His wrath was not aimed at us, but at Himself that He might keep His
promise to save and not to curse.
In
our own trials and temptations then, we don’t seek dewy roses, but a
rose-colored soaked God, sacrificing Himself in order that we be covered with
His righteousness. And that baptismal righteousness goes with through all
testing and temptations, giving us hope.
And
it is in this hope that Faith walks in a manner worthy of your calling as
Christian. In the humility, gentleness, and patience with which God dealt with
you, by His Son on the cross. In love, Jesus bore you out of the baptismal
waters towards His own Body and Blood in which is the Spirit of peace and
unity.
In
Christ, the better Eden
is opened to us by His merit alone. His own Grace carries Him to the grave and
His grace alone brings Him back out. In His own Faith, healing is found in His
wounds any and every day of the week. In His holy Scripture, He describes for
us His invitation to us. To join Him at His own feast where He is both Master
and Servant. As the Master, He invites sinners. As the Servant, He gives us the
best of the best in Word and Sacrament.
When
God becomes the devil, it is solely to destroy sin and death and take the
punishment for your sins. For God is never the devil because He never lies.
Even though He may act devilish, His promise remains unshaken: Your sins are
forgiven. Peace is with you. Even in your darkest hour.
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