Ambassadors of Reconciliation: A Meditation on 2nd Corinthians 5, for the 4th Sunday in Lent

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;

that every one may receive the things done in his body,

according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;

but we are made manifest unto God;

and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

For we commend not ourselves again unto you,

but give you occasion to glory on our behalf,

that ye may have somewhat to answer them

 which glory in appearance, and not in heart.

 

For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God:

or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.

For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge,

that if one died for all, then were all dead:

And that he died for all, that they which live

should not henceforth live unto themselves,

but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

 

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh:

yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh,

yet now henceforth know we him no more.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:

old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,

and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,

not imputing their trespasses unto them;

and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ,

as though God did beseech you by us:

we pray you in Christ's stead,

be ye reconciled to God.

 

In St. Paul’s second letter to the Christians at Corinth, he made this appeal in chapter five to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.  Noting first that all mankind will appear before the judgement seat of God to give an account of their lives—all their thoughts, words, and deeds, things done and left undone—and that the only path to avoid condemnation is the death and resurrection of Jesus, he articulated again the doctrine of Imputation:  that by grace through faith in Christ alone, our sins are imputed to Jesus in His death, and the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us through His resurrection.  To impute is to count or to assign, so that Jesus was accorded the guilt of all the sins of the world, so that He could give His righteousness to all by the free gift of His grace as He triumphed over sin, death, hell, and the devil’s seething horde.  Now risen in Christ, forgiven and free, Paul described the Apostolic ministry of preaching Jesus to all people, that all people might be reconciled to God through Jesus.  In such a ministry there was no room for regarding the earthly condition of men either for good or for ill, but only as souls needing reconciliation through Jesus, who alone is the saving love of God incarnate.  This apostolic ministry Paul commended to the saints in Corinth, just as it has been commended throughout all generations, times, and places where Jesus has gathered His people in faith and grace, pleading through them to the world:  be reconciled to God!

 

It is always good to keep in mind the context of Scripture, particularly when expositing texts like this.  There was an Apostolic ministry which was unique to the Apostles in their time, just as there had been ministries unique to particular Prophets in times before them.  For example, just as there was one Peter and one Paul, there was one Moses and one Elijah; the Prophets and the Apostles had a peculiar ministry in that they heard and communicated the Word of God directly, so that we might have that Word recorded and passed down into every generation for which that Word was given.  St. Paul, as one of the Apostles chosen and sent directly by Jesus (like one born out of time, he would say, given his conversion on the road to Damascus,) his ministry of reconciliation is a primary reflection of the ministry of reconciliation Jesus first performed and then gave to him and the other Apostles.  Paul’s testimony to the Word of God Incarnate becomes part of the written Word of Holy Scripture, and as such serves as cannon, or rule, of the Church.  Or perhaps said another way, our own experiences in the years after St. Paul do not trump the witness of St. Paul, since the Prophets and the Apostles stand forever as unique, authoritative testimonies to the Word of God.

 

Even so, their ministry and testimony continues in the Church down to the present age because the Word they were given is eternal.  Now, as in the 1^st century AD, and in every age before and yet to come, mankind faces the judgment of God.  There’s no escaping it.  Just as everyone who lives in this world was born into it by the will of God, everyone will leave this world by the will of God, and stand before His everlasting throne to give an account of what they did with the life they were given.  Regardless of modern delusions of atheism, annihilationism, relativism, progressivism, materialism, etc., death and judgment come for all people as a 1-to-1 ratio.  All who live will stand before the judgment seat of their Maker, where every delusion will be wiped from the mind, every lie stripped away, every euphemism or rationalization evaporated, and only the inescapable truth of life will remain.  There, in the full glory of God’s immortal righteousness, virtue, beauty, and goodness, we shall see ourselves in the mirror of His Law for what we really are.  That perfect mirror brokers no deals, hides no defects, and distorts no blemish.  We shall all stand before it, and we shall all know ourselves as we are known by God.  The judgement God will render upon every soul in that moment will be just, and there will be no escaping it, as there will be no escaping the knowledge of the truth.

 

Apart from Jesus, this should be terrifying.  Any yet, for those who live by grace through faith in Christ alone, that divine mirror reveals something very different than we might expect.  Instead of our sins, our failures, our misdeeds, there is only the righteousness of Jesus.  When the Christian stands before that mirror, he pleads only the Blood of Christ which washed him, for he knows he cannot stand before that mirror on his own merit.  There in that mirror, the Christian sees his Savior sacrificed for the sins of the world, his own sins laid upon the Lamb of God as He died in unspeakable misery nailed to that Roman Cross.  But that is not all that he sees, for the Eternal Word rose again triumphant, burying our sins in His grave, and speaking the Gospel Word of reconciliation, forgiveness, and life to all who will abide in Him by faith.  There in that mirror, the glory of the Risen Christ envelopes the Christian, so that the Judge of the World only sees the satisfaction made on his behalf—the imputed righteousness of the Only Begotten Son, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the victorious King of the Kingdom of God.  The Christian is reconciled to the Father by the work of the Son, and this divine work can only be ours by grace, received only in faith.

 

This is the ministry of reconciliation which St. Paul commends to the saints at Corinth, and to every generation of Christians who shall come and go upon this globe until the end of days.  It is Jesus who has reconciled the world to Himself through His Cross, sent His Prophets and Apostles to testify of His great and saving work, then sent all of us to bear witness to Him through the power of His Word and Spirit.  We who know the salvation of God from the terror of judgment are called to breathe that life-giving Gospel to everyone who know, to bear the Word of God given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us, that all people might know Jesus as their Savior and Lord.  To us is commended the Word and ministry of reconciliation, that we might share what Jesus has done to save the world—including our friends, family, and neighbors according to our vocations in this life—from the judgement which inexorable comes to all.  Share that Good News with someone today, and rise up in the beauty of the Gospel ministry to which you are called.  Amen.

 

The Watchman Speaks: A Meditation on Ezekiel 33 for the 3rd Sunday in Lent

Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them,

When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land

take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:

 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land,

he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; 

Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning;

if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.

He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning;

his blood shall be upon him.

But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.

But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet,

and the people be not warned; if the sword come,

and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity;

but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.

 

 So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel;

therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die;

if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way,

that wicked man shall die in his iniquity;

but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it;

if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity;

but thou hast delivered thy soul.

Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel;

Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us,

and we pine away in them, how should we then live?

Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God,

I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked;

but that the wicked turn from his way and live:

turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways;

for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

 

Ezekiel was a Prophet called to speak God’s Word of faith and repentance to the people of Israel before the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians.  In chapter 33, God outlined the duty to which He had called Ezekiel, and declared to him that as a divinely appointed Watchman of Israel who was given to see the calamity which lay ahead due to the nation’s sin, any failure to speak the Word of God to the people would be laid squarely upon the prophet.  In this case, the call to faith and repentance was universal for the nation; those who repented would live, and those who did not would die in their sins.  The righteous judgment of God was coming upon the people, and the people would still bear their own guilt if they persisted in their evil, but the Watchman could only deliver his own soul by faithfully proclaiming the Word he was given.  600 years later when the Incarnate Word of God came to the same rebuilt Jerusalem, Jesus spoke similar words of faith and repentance that evoked a similar response.  Just as much of the nation ignored Ezekiel’s Word from God before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, so did many ignore Jesus’ Word before the Romans came and laid it waste again.

 

While Jesus fulfilled the work of the Prophets that came before Him and is now seated at the right hand of the Father until the end of days, He left His Word and Spirit among His people to enliven, enlighten, and sustain them until His return.  This is the Word which He spoke from the beginning, traced through antiquity to Moses, David, Elijah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Nehemiah, and into the Apostolic Age in which the New Testament was written.  This Word of Law and Gospel, of Repentance and Faith, continues to call all people into restored community with God their Creator, from the largest of nations to the humblest of individuals.  That Word of Life continues to call all people to turn from their evil, and receive the grace of forgiveness and salvation which comes only through the Vicarious Atonement of Jesus Christ.  And while we may not have prophets like Ezekiel walking among us today, the Eternal Word still calls Watchmen to declare that Word to the world, even as the various seasons of providence and judgment come upon the nations of the earth.

 

These Watchmen we call pastors in many of our fellowships today:  those who are called and ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament for the care of souls.  And while not everyone will listen to the Word which pastors are given to speak from Holy Scripture, the Watchman is not measured by the response of the people, but by their own faithfulness to the Word.  If the pastor knows by the Word of God that failure to repent of particular evils will bring destruction upon those who reject Jesus and His Word, and that pastor fails to speak the warnings of the Word to those souls, those people will die in their sins—but the blood of those people God will require from the Watchman.  If the pastor speaks the Word of Law and Gospel and the people reject it anyway, they will still die in their sins, but the pastor’s soul will be preserved.  Given the cavalier levity and apostasy which runs rampant in pastoral circles today, we all need to hear this warning from Almighty God, knowing that we will be held accountable for every word we have declared or kept hidden.

 

In a similar way this is also true of every Christian, according to the duties of their respective vocations.  Where we have received the Word of God as fathers and mothers, workers and business people, citizens and servants of our communities, we are also accountable for that Word we are given for the sake of others.  Those who have received the Word of the Lord are responsible for bearing witness of that Word to others, because God has declared that He takes no pleasure in the destruction of any person, but desires all people to be saved.  God has given His Word, His Only Begotten Son, to be the true and faithful Watchman of His people, so that He might work through His people to call every soul away from sin and perdition, and into the grace of His everlasting life.  Every soul stands on the precipice of eternal life or eternal judgment, with the only hope of mankind to be found in the Eternal Word of Jesus Christ.  No matter our walk in life, no matter our nationality or tribe or tongue, it is the Word of the Lord which endures forever, and only in Him is eternal life to be found.

 

Thus we also know, that it is not upon the merits of our earthly watchmen that our hope resides, but only upon the Word of the true and good Watchman, Jesus Christ.  It is Jesus who has been speaking the Word of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit from before the dawn of Creation, and it is He who will keep speaking that Word of life unto ages of ages.  In Jesus alone do we find our hope, our calling away from the works of darkness, and into the light of His righteousness, beauty, and virtue.  In Jesus alone we find forgiveness for our failure to faithfully and at all times bear witness to Him and His Word, even as we are called to rise up again in faith and repentance by that same Word.  Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes to you today, that you might believe in Him, turn from death to life, rising up in His love and grace so that His Eternal Word may shine through you forevermore.  Amen.

 

Receiving the Word: A Meditation on Luke 13 for the 2nd Sunday in Lent

The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him,

 Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee.

And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox,

Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow,

 and the third day I shall be perfected.

Nevertheless I must walk to day, and tomorrow, and the day following:

for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.

 

 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets,

and stonest them that are sent unto thee;

how often would I have gathered thy children together,

as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate:

and verily I say unto you,

Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say,

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

 

Jesus’ teaching in Luke’s 13^th chapter increased in urgency as He moved toward Jerusalem, reflecting both the grace of healing and salvation which come through faith in Him, and the destruction which awaits those who reject Him.  Now close to Jerusalem, the Pharisees tried to dissuade Him from continuing His ministry there by presenting a threat from King Herod, to which Jesus responded that He would continue His prophetic teaching just as He was sent to do.  Then came Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem, the City of David in which so many of the prophets had perished at the hands of unbelieving persecutors, and the destruction which awaited them due to their unbelief.  True to His Word, the city of Jerusalem fell to Roman vengeance within the lifetimes of many who heard Him preach in those city streets, and a small remnant of the Jewish nation was dispersed to the winds of the empire, forbidden to return to their land.  Even so, before that fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, several thousands of people around Jerusalem and Israel were preserved in the Church by faith after the glorious Easter resurrection of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit sent at Pentecost, and history still waits for the time when the people of Jerusalem will declare the blessedness of Jesus at His final Return.

 

The truth that Jesus preached then is still true today, and has real consequences in both this world and the next.  The Jewish state really did fall as a consequence of rejecting the Word of God which came to them, and Jesus really is the only narrow way of salvation before the Lord God Almighty.  In Jesus alone is hope and grace, mercy and forgiveness, because only in the Author of Life can life be found.  Across the centuries, empires great and small have learned this lesson, just as our own country continues to learn.  Evil will come and go, bringing destruction, death, and oppression everywhere it can, but the empires governed by wickedness are destined to fall, just as surely as fell the ancient Canaanites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Huns, Mongols, and thousands of others lost to history or glimpsed only through archeology.  Today’s empires face the same Natural Law as nations past, and despite the great harm any evil tyrant might inflict upon the world, their time is limited, and they will fall to the judgment of death in this world and perdition in the world to come.  Only the Word of the Lord endures forever, together with those who abide in it by faith.

 

What is true of nations, is also true of individuals.  The war of faith against unbelief rages as much within our own souls as it does on any earthen battlefield.  There are times when our fallen nature wants nothing to do with the Word of God, and when we yield to such unbelief, that nature takes us into paths of destruction and death.  Only by a return of faith in that Word of God, a return to Jesus, is restoration to life possible through His grace and mercy.  Only in Jesus, the Eternal Word of the Father, do we find the eternal life lost by our first parents in the Garden so long ago, and restored only through the Cross of Christ.  Apart from Him we have no hope, no peace, and even the life we think we have now will be lost to the fires of hell.  While cities, nations, and even empires come and go, the battle for our own souls has a much greater significance.  The works of man in this world, no matter how venerable or beautiful, are by nature only temporary, but the soul of every person lives forever.

 

Somehow, it is the battle for our eternal soul that seems so easy to forget in the daily errands of life.  While we are healthy, it is hard to think of when we will face disease; when we are full, it is hard to imagine ourselves hungry; when we are full of vigor, it is hard to think of our strength failing.  But the truth of life in this world is still just what Jesus said it was 2000 years ago, and has been true since the dawn of time:  life in God by grace through faith in His Living Word is eternal no matter what challenge we find in this world, while life apart from God is eternal destruction no matter how easy we find our current circumstances.  The battle for the soul is one of faith versus unbelief, of God’s Incarnate Word seeking and saving the lost, and of our response to that life-giving Word—whether we accept freely the gift which comes in Jesus through the power of His Holy Spirit, or if we blaspheme that Spirit to our own eternal condemnation.  This is the battle which matters, raging in your heart and soul and mind just as it does in all hearts, all souls, and all minds, irrespective of the material battles empires.

 

Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes to you this day, that the victory of Jesus over sin, death, hell, and the devil might be yours forevermore, by grace through faith in Him alone.  Trust Him, believe in Him, follow Him—and when you fall, get back up in faith and repentance, and trust Him again.  He moved all of heaven and earth to seek and to save you, that your life might not only be eternal, but blessed forever unto ages of ages.  Do not let your eye be distracted by lesser things, for the Word of the Lord endures forever, as will you, and all who abide in Him.  Share that good Word with someone struggling today, and enter the real war for the eternal destiny of souls, where the flowing banners of the Lord God Almighty wave triumphant over every evil, and Christ alone our Savior, stands victorious. Amen.

 

The Deception of Temptation: A Meditation on Luke 4 for the First Sunday in Lent

And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan,

and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

Being forty days tempted of the devil.

And in those days he did eat nothing:

and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

 

And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God,

command this stone that it be made bread.

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written,

That man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word of God.

 

And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain,

shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee,

and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me;

and to whomsoever I will I give it.

If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

 

And Jesus answered and said unto him,

Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written,

Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,

and him only shalt thou serve.

 

And he brought him to Jerusalem,

and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him,

 If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:

For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:

And in their hands they shall bear thee up,

lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

 

 And Jesus answering said unto him,

It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

And when the devil had ended all the temptation,

he departed from him for a season.

 

Lent is for Christians a time of honest reflection, of trusting in the Word of God, and turning from the evil ways which come so easily to fallen man.  This season of faith and repentance prepares the Christian to walk with Jesus through the suffering and persecution of His journey to Calvary, to witness His act of all-surpassing love in taking our sins upon Himself together with our duly earned judgment and condemnation, and rising again with His Gospel of Salvation by grace through faith in Him.  Just as the Gospel cannot be understood apart from the Law, neither can true faith in that Gospel be found without authentic repentance before the Law.  The devil knows this perhaps better than any living soul, which is why he spends so much time and effort tempting all people away from faith, discouraging repentance, and propping people up on lying promises that will fail them in both this world and in eternity.  Given the unfathomable riches of grace in Jesus and the unthinkable horrors of judgment apart from Him, we should take time to learn from Jesus how to navigate the devil’s temptations.

 

It is worth noting that the primary objective of the devil is not to bless or provide for humanity, but to draw them away from God so that they might share the same eternal hell to which he is destined.  There is no love in the devil or his evil demonic horde—only hatred of God, and hatred of man because man is loved by God.  The devil and the demons are indeed powerful, even though they are fallen, and they can cause great harm and mischief in the world, particularly through those who have rejected God and embraced evil.  We see their evil played out in the machinations of evil tyrants on a global stage, even as we see them played out locally where one person wrongs another.  The thief believes the lie that stolen waters are sweet, that fulfilling their lust and covetousness of the things God has not given them, will give them joy and contentment if taken by subtlety or force.  Likewise the murderer who takes another’s life, or the adulterer who takes another’s spouse, or the idolater who takes away the worship due to God alone, or the liar who robs another of their reputation.  The devil presents the Law of God as an impediment to human flourishing, knowing all the while that the path of evil is the path of destruction, suffering, and death.

 

What Jesus can see clearly through divine and human eyes, we often see through a glass darkly, because our own fallen nature wants to believe the lie.  When the devil presented Jesus with the false promise of using power for self-satisfaction and against the purpose for which it was given, Jesus dissolved the devil’s lie by pointing out the promise of eternal life through abiding in the Word of God.  When the devil offered to manipulate the world’s fallen kingdoms and riches to benefit Jesus in return for worship and deference, Jesus forcefully rejected him by declaring that the life-giving Word of God commanded worship of God alone.  And when the devil demanded that Jesus prove Himself by misappropriating the promises of God’s Word against their intent, Jesus shattered the devil’s false argument by declaring that no one was worthy of putting the King of the Universe to their own tests or trials.  Jesus resisted temptation of the devil by abiding in the Word of God, because He is the Word of God.  While the temptation was real, there was no way the devil could separate the Son from the Father and the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Trinity is indivisible, incorruptible, and all powerful.  Whatever tools the devil may have at his disposal, they crashed against the power of the Lord God Almighty, and failed.

 

This is good news to us, who so often are deceived and lured into dark paths by the inclination of our own fallen hearts, and the external influence of demonic forces.  Jesus knew that no man descended from Adam could survive the devil’s onslaught, which is why Jesus’ love and compassion for the world drove Him to endure all our suffering so that He might give us grace and life in return.  The victory is not by our own resolve, by our own strength, or our own cunning—indeed, all our fallen powers have been proven insufficient to resist the devil’s tyranny in every generation since the fall of man.  There is no piety or exercise or 12-step plan that can make us more powerful than our enemy, and only a delusional mind would reject the witness of God’s Word to rely on their own.  But for those who hear the Word of God, who trust not in their own wisdom, will, or understanding, but rather in the promises of Christ crucified for sinners like us, Jesus’ victory becomes our victory.  As Jesus suffered and died, so we join Him in our baptism, and as He rose again, we join Him in the promise of His resurrection.  For those who will abide in the Word of God by faith, there is the peace which passes all understanding in the grace, mercy, and forgiveness of sins won for us in the shed blood of Jesus.  As Christians, we do not celebrate our own victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil, but Jesus’ victory which He gives to us as a free and unmerited gift of divine love.

 

This is the mystery of Lent, where faith and repentance, Law and Gospel, meet in the hearts of those who abide in the Living and Eternal Word of God.  We are called to repentance, but do not trust in our own works or powers to save us; we are called to faith, but we do not rely on our own hearts or minds to redeem us; we are called to take up our crosses and follow Jesus to Calvary, but we do not hope in our own burdens; we are called to rise up as new creatures born of Water and Spirit unto eternal life, but we do not believe in our own power to rise from the dead.  For us, our trust, our reliance, our hope, and our belief is in Jesus Christ alone.  In the victory of Jesus we live, and living in Him, empowered by Him, we rise up to work in Him, to resist temptation in Him, and to bear witness to the world of Him.  May our eyes always seek our Savior, and our ears always hear His Word, that the deceptions of the evil one may crash harmlessly against us who reside in the bulwark of His Grace, just as they once surged in futility against the unfailing goodness of our Lord.  Amen.