Lent 4 – 6 March 2016 – Year C

Lent 4 – 6 March 2016 – Year C

Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for our meditation is our Gospel reading recorded in Luke 15: Verses 1 – 3 & 11b – 
32:

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”³ So he told them this parable:

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

¹¹ And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. ¹³ Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. ¹⁴ And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! ¹⁸ I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’ ²⁰ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. ²¹ And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’^{3 22} But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. ²³ And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. ²⁴ For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

²⁵ “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. ²⁷ And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, ²⁹ but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ ³¹ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³² It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

Kellogg’s' Cornflakes for a time, ran an ad with the slogan, "Taste them again for the first time." It was aimed at people to whom the cereal was ‘boring’. Kellogg’s wanted people to taste their cereal all over again as if they had never had it before. I want you to do a similar thing with the parable of the Prodigal Son. You've heard it many times. It's so familiar, we don't listen to it. Be honest. How many of you tuned out when it was read? You knew how it would end. You knew the wayward son would come home. You knew the father would accept him. You know the parable's point....or do you? I ask, adjust your brain and let’s hear it again for the first time.

Human nature dictates that with whom you eat says something about who you are.  The religious types and theologians took note of Jesus’ dinner company - tax collectors and “sinners” of all sorts.  Not the kind of company a respectable rabbi would keep, much less a decent messiah.  Against the background of religious grumbling, Jesus tells them a parable, actually a trilogy of parables, the third of which is the subject of this meditation.

There was a man with two sons.  The older son, by law, stood to inherit the farm when his father died.  The younger son got cash and a bus ticket.  You know, many immigrants to Australia, America and Canada in the 19th century were 2nd and 3rd sons with no land to inherit.  Ordinarily, an inheritance changes hands when the father dies; but the younger son is in a bit of a hurry, so he goes to his father and demands his share of the inheritance up front.  It’s the equivalent of telling his father to drop dead - and the old man does, right on the spot!  He drops dead to his entire life, all that he owns, and gives BOTH sons their share - the older son gets the farm, the younger son gets the cash. In Jesus' society it was unheard of for a son to ask for his inheritance while his dad was still living. In all of Middle Eastern literature, from ancient to modern times, there is no case of any son, young or old, asking for his inheritance from a father still in good health. It was like saying, "I wish you were dead." Jesus' hearers would've expected the father to blow up at the request. The father does not. He divides the property between his two sons, according to the law.

Then the youngest son does the unthinkable. Not many days later, takes his portion of the family estate and moves away to make a name for himself. The Middle Eastern people to whom Jesus told this parable must have been shocked by this. Unfortunately, the name he makes is "prodigal." Prodigal means "recklessly extravagant" or "wasteful." Our biblical translation is squandered." He squandered all his wealth in what the literal Greek says "unsaved living." There is nothing specific here, “Unsaved living" means he held nothing back for tomorrow. He may have ate, drank, partied like there was no tomorrow, or he may have wasted his wealth on get rich quick schemes. In any event, it disappeared.

When he's stony broke a severe famine hits, but he doesn't get a job with local citizen as our translation implies. No, he literally "glued" himself to one. The citizen of that far country didn't really want him around. He conveyed this to the prodigal son by the job he gave him: Pig feeder. Here is the son of a noble Jewish family out in the fields feeding pigs! This puts him in the perpetual state of being religiously unclean. Moreover, he is so hungry that he tries to fill his stomach with the carob pods he's feeding the pigs. But that didn't work because the bitter tasting fruit had no nutritional value. So he is always hungry.

At last he comes to his senses, but don't think this means he came to repentance. What he came to was the very earthly realisation that he was at the bottom; even his father's hired men are better off than he is. He sees all the stupid things he has done. He is determined to go back home and make it up to his father. He is going to pay his father back. He wouldn't dare go back into his father's house, but he would become one of his hired hands, so he could earn his wages. He would return and tell, not ask but tell, his father how he had decided to make things right between them.

Friends, as you're hearing this again for the first time, can you see that we all may have been where the prodigal son was? At times, we've come to the end of our rope! We've seen how we have insulted God in our lives; how decisions we have made have wronged the people we love; how we have disappointed and let down both God and man; how we have made a mess of our lives and muddied up the life of others in the process. We’re much like the prodigal, in that we've determined that we would make it up to them whatever it takes. We would turn our lives around, go back to where we messed up, and make amends. We'd pay our Lord and others back. We'd make up for the hurt we've caused. We'd work and slave to pay back the debt we rightly owed.

Surely, you've felt that way before, I have, so we can see that when the prodigal heads back home it's not to be forgiven but to earn forgiveness. Hear again for the first time what the father did about the returning prodigal. The father is looking for his son. He sees him way off in the distance, and the text says that his inward parts were moved with compassion. You know that feeling when your heart goes out to your child.

Then in the presence of the servants, whom the text says were there, the father does a humiliating thing. He runs to his son. He whom his son wanted dead, he whose livelihood has been wasted by his son, he who had been disgraced by a disobedient, unloving, money grubbing son, runs in compassion to that son. Noble men did not run in Jesus' society. Aristotle, who lived long before this time, said, "Great men never run in public." Even though our culture sees nothing dishonourable about men running, we know that really the son should be running toward the father.

When he reaches his son, the father throws his arms around him and kisses him repeatedly. A dirt poor person in the midst of a famine, having just come from feeding pigs, wouldn't have smelled too good. But the father does not care. He loves this son just as he is, without one plea. Such love changes people. Such love changes this prodigal son. He can't bring himself to say, "I will become a hired man working outside of your house and I will repay you everything." The prodigal can see that his dad is welcoming back a son not a hired servant. He realises that the real issue was not the money he had lost but the fact that he had broken the relationship between himself and his dad. Repaying the money wouldn't repair the relationship. The only thing that could, was forgiveness from his dad. He saw he had this.

This parable reminds us that we always come to the open embrace of a father who’s ready to forgive, who’s forgiven us already, even before we confess your sins, who never disowns his children.  We make our little confession in the embrace of a Father’s forgiveness, while He’s putting the robe of righteousness on our shoulders, and slipping the ring of sonship on our finger.  Amidst this we realise that there is no deal to cut with a God who dropped dead to our sin in the death of His Son Jesus, who reconciled all things in the one Death that embraces all in their death.  All there is; the father’s embrace; the kiss; the robe; the ring; the sandals; the fatted calf and a party to end all parties; for no other reason than we’re home again.

Do you get the point you prodigal sons and daughters? We've wasted God's good gifts and sinned against Him. Like Job, we’ve always seen ourselves as ‘hard done by’. By putting ourselves first, we broken the relationship between us and the Father: How can you make things up to God? How can we mend the relationship that we’ve broken?

We can't; God can. The heavenly Father sent to earth His only beloved Son. This Son kept the holy Law perfectly and took our sins against the Law on Himself. For Jesus' sake, the Father runs to us sinners, filthy from wallowing in sins, and hugs and kisses us. He accepts us just as we are. He doesn't clean us off first. He doesn't wipe away the stench or dirt of our sins first. In Christ, the Father doesn't see the dirt, only sons and daughters. Just like in the parable, the Father is the One who restores the relationship.

Having restored the relationship, the father in the parable spares no expense in showing that all is forgiven, all is restored. He has the best robe, probably his own, put on the son. The father places the family signet ring; the seal of authority on his finger. The father commands the servants to put sandals on the son. This showed that once more the servants were under the son's authority. Finally, the father orders the prized fattened calf killed because he is rejoicing with a reception, professional musicians and dancers to show everyone, including his son, that the prodigal is all the way back in His house.

What of the self righteous older brother, well to him this is outrageous, prodigal grace that knows no bounds is offensive; people should have to earn their way back into favour. He is furious, and stalks off in a rage; The father runs out to meet his other son and begs “Won’t you come to the party?”; but the older brother offers up a rant of accusations against the father because he has favoured his brother. He amplifies his brother’s sins with accusations of prostitutes to make himself look good. How often we’ve built the cathedrals of our religion out of the specks from our brother’s eye?  God’s grace in Jesus is so prodigal, so outrageous; it riles the religious bookkeepers of this world.

The father is confronted by a jealous son who is more worried about himself than his father. It is true that he has never wasted his Father’s property, but he has wasted his love! Is his sin any less than that of his young brother, are not both sons prodigal? But the Father’s grace is boundless and he speaks tenderly to his older son.   “My child, you’ve always been with me.  Everything I have is yours.  But we had to celebrate because your brother was dead and is alive; he was lost and is found. 

Friends in Christ, in the same way, our Father deals with us. In our Baptism, the Father has put on us the robe of Christ's holiness. Though we are stained with sin and filth, the Father receives us as His child by covering our sins in Baptism. He has restored our authority in His house; we have access to all of our Father's possessions, and His trust as if we had never left. He has made His servants, the angels, our servants, to minister to us day and night. Finally, the Father has prepared a feast for us to celebrate and testify that we are His dear child. The Father does not kill a calf for us. No, He has killed His only beloved Son, and made a meal for us out of His body and blood. If a slain calf guaranteed acceptance to the prodigal son, how much more does a slain Son guarantee acceptance to us!

Dear friends, hear what the elder son would not; that the Father's love in Christ is boundless for all his dear children. Hear of it again for the first time regardless of how far you have strayed, how much you have sinned, how badly you have broken your Father's heart. In grace He welcomes us back for the sake of what His Son did on the cross. Amen

The grace and love of our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Lent 3 – 28 February 2016 – Year C

Lent 3 – 28 February 2016 – Year C

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 13^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 31 – 35:

³¹ At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” ³² And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. ³³ Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ ³⁴ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁵ Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”

There comes a time in each of the Gospel accounts when Jesus makes a transition in His ministry.  The beginning of His ministry is about getting the word out.  We see Him preaching, teaching, and healing.  Then, as the time of His death draws near, He focuses more and more on what He must do in Jerusalem to save us from our sin.  The Holy Spirit inspired Luke to describe this with these words: ^{[Luke 9:51]} When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Throughout our Lenten Meditations we have talked about how Jesus knew from the beginning of His ministry that His path led to Jerusalem.  We also discussed the devil’s effort to tempt Jesus away from that path.  In today’s Gospel, some Pharisees come to Jesus and warn Him that Herod wants to kill Him.  Is it possible that the devil used these Pharisees to tempt Jesus away from His path to the cross in Jerusalem?

It is difficult to determine the motives of these Pharisees.  They seem to have good intentions toward Jesus.  Is it possible that these Pharisees have a genuine desire to help Jesus, or is it possible that these Pharisees simply want Jesus to avoid their territory and they are using the Herod story as a convenient excuse to hurry Jesus on His way?  It is difficult to say.

What we do know is that whether the Pharisees had good or bad intentions, they were urging Jesus to abandon His mission to Jerusalem.  Whether their intentions were good or ill, they were agents of temptation – temptation to abandon the way that led to the cross.

The response that Jesus made to these Pharisees made it clear that He was on a schedule.  He had an appointment with the cross.  He would be on time for that appointment.  Jesus would take time out from His travels to preach and teach, but at the end of each day, He would be a little bit closer to Jerusalem – a little bit closer to the cross. 

Jesus knew that Herod would not kill Him.  Jesus knew because of His office as prophet.  It was not that, as a prophet, He knew the method and time of his death.  Rather, it was because Jerusalem is the place that killed prophets.

How ironic that Jerusalem means “city of peace,” for the history of Jerusalem has been anything but peaceful.  Jesus expressed His great sorrow over the rebellious nature of His own people:  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”  Over and over and over again, the Son of God had sent His messengers to Jerusalem only to have them die at the hands of the very people they were trying to save.  This is the great burden of the servant of God.

The Old Testament gives a primary example of this violence to the prophets in the ministry of Jeremiah.  Notice that the people were not interested in the truth of Jeremiah’s words.  They condemned Jeremiah because they didn’t like the message he brought from God.  The people refused to believe that Jeremiah’s message was from God, not because it wasn’t true, but because it was something that they did not want to hear.

Nothing has changed over the centuries.  If I were to ask any one of you about the value of the forgiveness of sins, no doubt all Christians would readily admit that it is beyond price.  It is worth infinitely more than a million, a billion, a trillion, or any amount of wealth this world could ever produce.  It is worth the life and death of God’s only begotten Son.  Friends we say that, but I ask the hard question; are we really sure we believe it?

The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write these words to the congregations in Rome: ^{[Romans 3:24‑25]} [All] are justified by [God’s] grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.  Then a little on in the same letter Paul wrote: ^{[Romans 10:17]} Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.  Paul is saying that we receive justification by faith and that faith comes by hearing the word of Christ.

These should be words that stir us up, these are words that should have us enthusiastic to hear and learn more of that Word of Christ.  If we are serious about building our Faith in God’s plan for our salvation, we should be seeking more opportunities to gather together around the word of Christ.

Friends, my experience is that some people will actually get insulted and angry when encouraged to put in a little extra time to feed their souls with the Word of Christ.  Think about it.  Forgiveness is beyond price.  We receive it by faith.  The Holy Spirit has promised to work faith by hearing the Word of Christ – and yet - the greatest insult and inconvenience that can be offered to some people is to encourage them to join others over the very Word of Christ that will strengthen their faith.  I ask the question - How can this be?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, It is in our own natural, sinful nature to reject God.  We inherited that nature from our ancestors all the way back to Adam and Eve who sinned and lost their innocence.  We are all born as enemies of God with hatred for His gifts.  That is the reason the people of ancient Jerusalem killed the prophets and stoned those whom God sent to them.  That is also the reason we find it hard to get to church on Sunday 8:00am when we can get to work or school much earlier during the rest of the week.  That is the reason we sometimes stay home to get a little work done around the house.  That is the reason we treat the priceless treasures of God like worthless pieces of junk.

Fortunately, God loved us even while we hated Him.  Jesus is God’s Son sent to rescue us.  The events of today’s Gospel happened while Jesus was on His way to complete that rescue.  He was taking His farewell tour of Israel before He went to Jerusalem to offer Himself up as a sacrifice for us.  That is the reason He said, “It cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.”  That is also the reason He had no fear of Herod.  He knew that His death would take place in Jerusalem, not in Galilee.

After He arrived in Jerusalem, His journey would continue.  At the end of that journey, He would carry a cross to Calvary.  He would also carry our sins.  Jerusalem is the place He would complete His journey.  It is the place where He would proclaim, “It is finished,” as He finished His mission to pay the penalty for our sins.

Jerusalem is also the location of an empty tomb.  It is the place where His friends laid Jesus’ body after He died on the cross.  It is also the place that the angels proclaimed, ^{[Luke 24:5-6]} “Why do you seek the living among the dead?  He is not here, but has risen.”  For Jesus did not remain in the grave, but rose to live again.  Jerusalem is the place of the resurrection from the dead that promises us eternal life.

How often do Christian ‘outreach programs’ fall flat and we are filled with frustration.  You know, it is so easy to be discouraged with the low attendance at Divine Service, the lack of interest in Bible Class, the lack of respect for the Sacraments, and a general apathy toward God’s Word.  There are times that we want to scream out, “Don’t you people understand the priceless nature of God’s gifts?  Don’t you understand that God wants to gather us together under His protection?”

When we have these feelings we can remember that we people don’t make Christians; the Holy Spirit does that.  Instead, God asks His church to remain faithful to His Word, proclaim the forgiveness of sins, administer the sacraments according to His command, and teach all the things that Jesus has taught us.  We can rejoice that God has blessed us with all these gifts and rely on Him to sustain His Holy Christian Church until the end.  That is certainly worth more than all the treasures of this earth.  Amen

The love and grace of our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Lent 2 – 21 February 2016 – Year C

Lent 2 – 21 February 2016 – Year C

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 13^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 1 – 9.

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. ² And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? ³ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? ⁵ No, I tell you; but unless you ^rrepent, you will all likewise perish.”

⁶ And he told this parable: “A man had ^ta fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. ⁷ And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ ⁸ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. ⁹ Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”

Today’s Gospel presents a very hard and very important question. In fact, it is so important that theologians have a special name for questions like this.  Theologians call this the Question of Theodicy.  The basic form of the question is, “If God is both almighty and good, why is there evil?”  There are all sorts of variations on this question: 1). Why do bad things happen to good people; 2). What have I done to deserve this; or, as in today’s Gospel, 3). Why did Pilate kill these men and mix their blood with their sacrifices?  Jesus Himself reminded the questioners of the tower disaster in Siloam that killed eighteen.

The cultural belief at the time of today’s Gospel was that that bad things did not happened to good people. (I still hear it today!)  They thought that if a catastrophe struck, it was because you had done something bad.  Likewise, they thought that if good fortune came your way, you had done something good.  They didn’t see God as a God of love, but as a God of justice.  He punished evil and rewarded good.

Other cultures dealt with the Question of Theodicy in other ways.  For example: the myths of the Greeks and Romans simply assumed that the gods were not totally good.  The gods had the same weaknesses of character that humans had.  Read the mythology and you will read about petty gods who were sometimes very selfish and immature.  Sometimes it seems as though their supernatural powers caused them to be spoiled brats.

Jesus taught that both of these ideas were wrong.  He showed that we ask the wrong question when we ask why bad things happen to good people.

You know we can begin to understand the mistake in this question if we just think about some words that we fundamentally use in the words of confession. Though confession of sins in worship services differ among parishes and denominations in actual wording; we all basically confess; (1)  “that we are by nature sinful and unclean”. (2) We have sinned against God in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. (3) We have not loved God with our whole heart. (4) We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. (5) We rightly deserve God’s present and eternal punishment.”  - Friends, with these words, we confess that we are not good people.  We are bad people.  We deserve misery on earth and torment in eternity.  How legitimate then is the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

We confess our sins in this way because God’s Word clearly teaches that we are sinful people.  Here are just a few of the many passages that teach of our sin. ^{[Psalm 51:5]} Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.  ^{[Romans 3:9-12]} We have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” ^{[Romans 3:23]} All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. ^{[1 John 1:8, 10]} If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. … If we say we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar, and his word is not in us.  These are but a few of the passages that teach us that we are sinners before birth and we only add to our sin every day.

We sometimes use theological words and forget what they really mean.  When we say that we sin, we are saying that we are bad people.  When the Bible tells us that all have sinned, it is saying that all people are bad.  They are not good.  It follows therefore that the question “Why do bad things happen to good people,” is neither helpful nor useful.

When we ask the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people,” we are assuming that there are good people out there somewhere.  The Bible clearly teaches that there are no good people.  In our confession of sin, we clearly confess that we deserve bad things now and forever because we are bad people.  So, the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people,” is not a question about real people.  We have no clue what would happen to good people because there are no good people.

Since we confess that we are bad people and deserve both present and eternal punishment, we should be very, very afraid to ask why God does not take evil out of the world.  If God were to take all evil out of the world, He would have to start with you … and me.  We are the sinners.  While the devil and his evil angels are the ultimate source of evil, we humans are a great source of evil in this world.  We should ask, “If God is both almighty and good, why doesn’t He destroy us for being so evil,” or, “Why do good things ever happen to us sinners?”

We have confessed that we deserve a bad day every day and yet, that is not what happens.  Our normal days are actually pretty good.  For one thing, we wake up.  If you think back through your life from birth until now, most of our days are pain free.  Although we get sick from time to time, there are many more days when we are not sick.  Once in a while, we put the key in the ignition and the car won’t start.  Most of the time, it starts just fine.  Think back through your life.  Yes, there have been some life changing tragedies, but for the most part, we have to admit that life has been pretty good.  We can be very thankful that, although God is almighty, and He is good, He is also merciful.  His justice demands punishment of evil, but He has worked out a way to punish evil without punishing us.

You see, while the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people,” is useless, the question, “Why did all those bad things happen to the one and only good person,” is very, very useful.  There actually was and is only one good person.  That person is Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is God’s answer to the question of evil in the world.  That is because Jesus Christ is both God and man in one person.

Many bad and horrible things happened to Jesus.  He was beaten, flogged, and crucified, but those were not the worst things.  In a transaction that we cannot even begin to understand, Jesus cried out, ^{[Matthew 27:46]} “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  From these words, we learn that all the bad days that we deserved and all the eternal punishment that should belong to us came down on Jesus as He hung on that cross.  In suffering that we can’t even begin to understand, God the Father forsook God the Son.  These are the bad things that happened to the one and only good person, Jesus Christ.  This is what the almighty, good, just, merciful, and loving God did in order to deal with evil.  He sacrificed Himself in order to show mercy to evil sinners.

Jesus Christ did not remain dead, but He returned to life.  He now offers the forgiveness of sin to us through the work of the Holy Spirit.  He and God the Father send the Holy Spirit to work repentance and the forgiveness of sins in us.  The Holy Spirit; gifted at Holy Baptism; works these things in us through faith in Jesus Christ, the one and only good person who was crucified and lives again.

Jesus Christ continues to intercede for us before God as the Holy Spirit inspired John to write, ^{[1 John 2:1]} “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”  Jesus illustrated that intercession with a parable.  Just as the gardener interceded for the fig tree with the owner, so Christ intercedes with God’s justice on our behalf.  Jesus intercedes for patience while the Holy Spirit works on us.  God is looking for the fruit of repentance in us.

Jesus intercedes, but there is a limit.  Two times, Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”  There is a limit to the amount of time God allows for the fruit of repentance to form.  There comes a day when it is our turn to leave this world.  Those who grieve for their sin, but rejoice in the forgiveness earned for them by the one and only God man, Jesus Christ will live in eternity with the good man who loved them enough to suffer for them.  Those who do not show the fruit of repentance will join the devil and the evil angels as they suffer forever in hell.  Jesus illustrates this in the parable with these words: “If [the tree] should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”  

There is one and only one good man, Jesus Christ.  The rest of us are all bad.  Jesus Christ, the one and only good man suffered the punishment we deserved for our sin.  Through that suffering, He earned the forgiveness of sins for us.   He now works through the Holy Spirit to offer that forgiveness to us.  Jesus lovingly and urgently calls for us to repent now and believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins whilst our tree of life is still standing.  Now is the time for forgiveness.  Now is the time of salvation.  ^{[Acts 16:31]} “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”  Amen

The love and grace of our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen