Posted On: March 04th, 2006 at 9:27 am
First Sunday in Lent Trinity Lutheran Church 5 March 2006 Murdock, NE
+ Jesu Juva +
St. Mark 1:12-15
So there you have it. A thrown out into the desert by the Holy Spirit Jesus. A forty days in the desert Jesus. A tempted by Satan Jesus. A with the wild animals Jesus. A served by angels Jesus. A preaching the good news while John rots away in prison Jesus. The sermon? “The time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel!”
This isn’t Jesus the idea. This isn’t Jesus the concept. In your hearing of the sermon is Jesus Himself. The God-man. The Word made flesh. DOING SOMETHING! What’s that?
Doing the climax of all history. The most important time of all cosmic history. Doing the reign of God on the earth in His Body. Preaching the Gospel. This is why He has come. To do the kingdom of God. Kingdoms have kings. And kings reign. They rule.
King Jesus does just that. Reigns. Rules. With mercy. With forgiveness. He does mercy. He speaks and does forgiveness. For you. Behold: “The time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” And then off preacher King Jesus goes. Trucking with traitors, feasting with prostitutes, outcasts and every kind of riffraff while John rots behind bars and then loses his head.
We defend ourselves against such a Jesus. Throw up our defenses. Our protests. Put our “buts” into His kingdom of God preaching. “Forgiveness is a nice idea Jesus. So is mercy. BUT you just can’t throw this kingdom of God mercy and Calvary forgiveness around to just everyone! I mean . . . really! We can’t survive on free forgiveness for all! That’s just crazy. I’ve built a nice religious life for myself. Got my religion under control. Worked really hard at getting what I deserve. And now you come along and want to take it all away. Jesus, you’re just stuck on stupid!”
A Jesus who forgives and mercies every kind of schmuck and sinner without any strings attached is dangerous. Downright scary. The world doesn’t work that way. Our lives don’t either. Free forgiveness will just be an excuse for more chaos. More sinning. So we have to defend ourselves and our precious way of religious tit for tat living. We cry out: “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Jesus must go so that we can live out the quid pro quo religion we want. That’s where we believe we’re safe.
But it’s not Jesus who’s crazy. We are. We’re stuck in sin. That we would protect ourselves from such a Kingdom of God Jesus shows just how deep the sin goes in us. So deep that we pay no attention to His 40 days in the wilderness. So deep that we ignore His bitter temptations and triumph over Satan in that wilderness. See deep goes the sin in us that we willingly crucify the Savior.
Today, to us sinners, the crucified Jesus preaches once again: “The time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.”
You are forgiven. Totally. Died for by Jesus. Baptized into His death. Given to eat His Calvary Body. To drink His Calvary Blood. King Kingdom of God Jesus. Extending His mercy and forgiveness over you today.
Why would you still want to defend yourself against that Jesus? Why would you want to go all out to protect yourself from His forgiveness? I don’t think you want to do that anymore. Why? Because you’re dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus.
So all that’s left today is trusting in Him. Eating and drinking. Living in the at hand kingdom of God at this pulpit and this altar: Jesus reigning forgivingly for you. “The time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.”