READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 12:1-6
James 1:16-21
- St. John 16:5-15
Grace to you and peace from Him Who Is and Who Was and Who Is To Come: Jesus Christ. (Rev 1)
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“now I am going to him who sent me. [and] None of
you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’”
Thus far from God’s Word, in the Bible in order that we understand the importance of using words honestly, but also that we turn to God for meaning. That is, when we are confronted with something that seems like it goes against God’s Word, but everyone else says it doesn’t, we should be very careful to let God do the talking there.
You might think it self-evident that words should have meanings, but our country is growing to believe words can mean anything the speaker wants. With God, He chooses His words carefully and purposefully. Such that we can trust Him to speak truth, when all men are liars.
For example:
One of the biggest sham words in our country today is “democracy”. It is a sham word, because it is thrown around without meaning. Someone says it, but if you ask them to define it, they cannot. Or worse, when they do define it, they use it to confuse rather than clarify. Meaning, they’ll take a definition they like that suits their purposes, instead of one everyone can use.
For example, in the 1984 presidential election, Ronald Reagan’s first reelection, he won every state except his opponent’s home state. It was a landslide victory, the media reported. Unprecedented! Absolute! Regan won with 54 million votes. Yet, in 1984, there were 170m registered voters and 235m people living. He won with less than 1/3 of the total votes. That’s an epic landslide? That’s consent of the governed??
“Democracy” is typically used, not in its proper sense, but as short-hand for “legitimate” or “the government has the consent of the governed”. In this way it is twisted to fit a pre-written narrative that one group wants to impose on another and not about actual governance.
Democracy is not found in the founding documents of our country, so why make it seem like it is?
Distraction. From what? From the Truth. For now, because of similar situations involving gender, abortion, and war we do have a democracy. A democracy of words. Meaning, who’s ever in charge or has the biggest mob, gets to define the words.
Democracy, socialism, gender, patriotic, justice, fascism, climate change. All of these have several different meanings which cannot be reconciled, on purpose. The people who use them are consciously dishonest and wish only for division, that their team win, and that faith be destroyed.
The Blessed Dr. Luther already was a prophet in this subject, in his day. For he was fighting the same battle, but in Church. Sin, grace, faith, and Scripture were all words that had been hijacked, dishonestly, not to promote truth and unity, but to push propaganda. Dr. Luther also knew the way to dispel such nonsense.
This we find in our Small Catechism when it asks, “What does this mean?” That we stick to the word in question until its defined. We “call a thing what it is”. If its good, we call it good. If its evil, we call it evil, no matter what.
Dr. Luther says:
“A theology of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theology of the cross calls the thing what it actually is. This is clear: He who does not know Christ does not know God hidden in suffering. Therefore he prefers, works to suffering, glory to the cross, strength to weakness, wisdom to folly, and, in general, good to evil.
These are the people whom the apostle calls “enemies of the cross of Christ”, for they hate the cross and suffering and love works and the glory of works (Phil. 3:18). Thus, they call the good of the cross evil and the evil of a deed good. God can be found only in suffering and the cross…therefore the friends of the cross say that the cross is good and works are evil, for through the cross, works are dethroned and the “old Adam”, who is especially edified by works, is crucified.
It is impossible for a person not to be puffed up by his “good works” unless he has first been deflated and destroyed by suffering and evil until he knows that he is worthless and that his works are not his but God’s.” (AE 31:39ff)
Dr. Luther is not safe from conscious dishonesty either. There are those who call themselves “lutheran” today who say things like: Martin Luther said that the theology of the cross is about “calling a thing what it really is.” The theology of the cross is an honest theology, a humble theology – unwilling to speak for God or claim more than one knows; unwilling to gloss over sin, doubt, evil, or despair; unwilling to explain suffering away with sayings like “everything happens for a reason” or “it’s all part of God’s plan.” To call a thing what it is the beginning of liberation. We can name what the doctrine of discovery did, what Christian nationalism is, what the legacy of white supremacy continues to do. We can name how human greed is intricately related to a climate in crisis.
To which we say, “What does this mean?” Not anything Lutheran or Christian, for sure.
In our Gospel today, Jesus is being pointedly and consciously honest. He is begging us to ask Him, “What does this mean” when He says, “Why are none of you asking me where I’m going?” It is unthinkable to Jesus that He be miscommunicating. It is not in His agenda to bark orders. It is unfathomable that the conversation between God and man would stop.
Thus, Jesus is the Word of God Incarnate, in the flesh. The Word that creates all things. The Word that makes covenants. The Word that threatens and makes promises and that Word Who holds discourse stands before you today, taking questions. So why don’t you ask Him something?
Ask Him why life is so hard. Ask Him why your family and marriage are falling apart. Ask Him why no one gets along with you. Ask Him why the wicked prosper and you have to struggle, grasping at threads.
Ask Him and He will say I am going to the Father Who sent me. It means God the Father is His source. Jesus proceeds from the Father, is sent by Him. Jesus is going ahead to prepare a living place for you. So that, where He is you may remain.
Ask Him and He will tell you that He is going to the cross. And it is at the cross that all definitions, words, and theology rests. Jesus goes to the cross and the Theologian of the Cross asks why? Sin, death, and the devil.
As our Gospel said today, Sin takes Jesus to the cross, because we don’t believe His words and substitute and distract from the true work of Jesus. Jesus goes to produce faith and faith comes by hearing. Death is the fight of Jesus. He goes to the Father and the Father demands sacrifice for sins. Jesus wants plenary justification for the sinner, but must buy it with His holy, precocious blood and His innocent suffering and death.
Judgement comes upon Jesus for our sins, as the devil’s constant accusations twist and mar the Law of God, until it is all meaningless and he alone seems to be the winner, excluding us. However, right and wrong, true and false, good and evil are for the Judge to decide, not the prosecution. The devil is judged and the world is next.
Is it a judgement of guilt that defeats the devil, the world, and our sinful nature? No. It is a judgement of not guilty. And “Not guilty” is not in our dictionary.
Yet. How do we get it there? We go back to the basics: what does this mean? We go back to our catechism, sort ourselves out, then return to the world with the same scrutiny.
So we ask: why is Jesus going to the Father? One, He was sent by Him and two because He came from Him and was returning. He was returning, because He had humbled Himself, not His theology. He humbled Himself to redeem me a lost and condemned man.
What does this mean? He took my guilt and punishment upon Himself and freed me from the slavery of sin. “Through the obedience of One Man”, Romans 5:19 says, “many will be made righteous”.
Christ is king. Christ is Substitute. He took my place under God’s judgement against sin.
And on the third day He rose again. What does this mean? Christ is the Son of God, His doctrine is the truth, the Father accepted Christ’s sacrifice for the reconciliation of the world, and all believers in Christ will rise to eternal life.
In Jesus, not only does God hold Himself accountable for His promises, but allows us to hold Him accountable as well. For He gives His promises to us, to have and to hold. We have them to lift them up and say, “Remember Your promises, Your Word, O God!” (Ps 119:49)
Indeed, remember Your Word as He hangs on that cross, suffering and paying for the sins of the world. Remember Him as He comes into Your kingdom to intercede for me. Remember Him as He said His yes was yes, and His no was no.
“For”, says 2 Corinthians 1:20, “all the promises of God find their Yes in [Jesus]. That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His Glory.”
There is no promise made, no “Yes from God”, in anything else. Not democracy, not gender, not abortion.
The only word worth anything in this world is “Christ” and the only thing that means is “Christian” and the only way to get there is “Baptized into Christ” and the only response to that is:
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
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