Why Listen? A Meditation on 1st John 1

Among all the noises and sounds of modern life, the voice of the Prophets and Apostles are significantly out of tune.  They don't sound like the wise purveyors of academic theory, or the sage disciples of political cohorts.  They don't sound much like philosophers seated on either university steps or bar stools.  They don't sound like entertainers or novelists or businessmen or advertisers.  In fact, they don't sound like anything this world would create or promote on its own.  But that's precisely why they are worth listening to.

Everything that people think or dream up on their own, is bound up in their human experience.  It arises from their passions and their fears, their hopes and their desires.  It starts from within them, and can only ascend as high as their own intellect.  To be sure, people have come up with beautiful works of art and thought, but they arise no higher than themselves, because a person cannot be more than he is... and any group of people cannot be any more than the sum of the individuals assembled.  Man is man-- finite, limited, and fallen.  And while he may have been created to do great things, some of which remain within his power, he is also capable of great evil, having lost his created purity.  But for all that man is, he is only capable of bringing forth out of his own resources, that which he is.  The world, awash in the ideas and ambitions of man, reflects him.

This reflection is not so endearing.  Ultimately, for all the wealth man accumulates, and all the power he amasses; for all the passion he pursues and all the dreams he brings to light; for all his works of art and literature, politics and philosophy; for all his great and terrible aspirations, man still dies.  From the earth we were taken, and to the earth we shall return, for we are bound in the death of our fall.  No one escapes it, from intellectuals to fools, kings to paupers.  As Solomon noted 3000 years ago, and wise people have observed ever since, death makes equals of us all.

This is why the words of the Prophets and the Apostles strike our ears so strangely.  They aren't really of this world.  They come through all too human people and languages, but the word they carry is not their own.  Those Prophets and Apostles were called by One who is above heaven and earth, beyond death and the fall, beyond time and space.  The word of Him who was here before the beginning, and will be here after the end, who is Himself the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  His word sounds strange and alien to our fallen ears, because He is from above, and we are from below, fallen and broken and dying.  The One from whom all life comes speaks, and those who are slaves to death find hearing Him hard.  He speaks words that curtail our passions, limit our aspirations, and guide our thoughts away from depravity.  He speaks words that convict us of our brokenness, and words of love that surpass our every attempt at love.  He tells us where we come from, how we came to be in this deadly state, and what our fate is apart from Him.  And most importantly, He tells us of the salvation He has been working out for us ever since we corrupted ourselves.  He tells us of His love and mercy poured out through His Only Begotten Son, His very Word Made Flesh, who bore the sins of the world, conquered death, and rose from the grave to save our fallen world.  He tells us of forgiveness, life, and salvation that death and hell cannot contain, and a hope that cannot fail.  He tells us of Jesus.

Why should we listen to the Prophets and Apostles?  Because they have fellowship with Jesus, living in Him by His grace through faith in Him.  And Jesus, having called them by His Word, sent them with His Word, to give that same fellowship of forgiveness and life to all who would hear and believe that Word.  Jesus sent His Word to seek and to save fallen, lost, and dying people, so that they might receive His eternal life.  The Prophets sealed the people of their day by the promise of God's redemption which was yet to come in Jesus, and the Apostles sealed the people of their day by bearing witness to the redemption which Jesus accomplished on His Cross.  Jesus the Word sought out the Prophets and Apostles to bear witness to Him, so that all might share that blessed fellowship with Him forever.

That same Word comes to you today, written by those Prophets and Apostles in Holy Scripture so many centuries ago, and born anew by the lips of His saints and martyrs in every age.  His Word comes to rescue you from brokenness and death, bringing to you forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation.  His Word of Law and Gospel may strike your ears as hard, alien words, but that is because they are.  They are not human words, bound to rise no higher than this broken and fallen world.  They are the Words of the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier-- of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, One God now and forever-- which come from above this world, calling everyone to a life beyond this world.  This is the Word of Life which accomplishes the purposes for which the Lord of Life sends it, calling you to life by faith and repentance in Him.

Hear His Word, strange as it may seem.  Hear the Word which heals and makes alive, which retrains evil and promotes holiness, which forgives and blesses and loves without measure.  Hear the Word of Jesus, who conquered death for you, that you might live in Him forever, bound together in the whole household of faith, which lives forgiven and free in His Eternal Word.  Amen.