Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus is teaching confirmation
class today. It’s a review of the second table of the Law which speaks to our
relationship with our neighbor. Don’t murder, commit adultery, steal, slander,
or fraud anyone and honor your parents. These are the specific examples of
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
The young man who speaks to Jesus
says he’s kept all of these since childhood. We might nod along with that
assessment. After all, at face value, we’re pretty good at keeping the
commandments, too. Murder – nope. Haven’t even been in a fist fight. Stealing?
Well, there was an unfortunate incident involving some Christmas cards at
church when I was a kid, but that was an accident – they were on the same table
as “free – take one” items. Adultery? You won’t find any scarlet letter on my
shirt, thank you very much. Fraud? Never! Why, I did a little project for a
lady who wanted twelve boxes. I gave her a baker’s dozen, just in case one
broke. Honor my parents? I call my mom weekly…well, maybe every other week.
That’s my list. You have your
list, don’t you? You can go down the list of commandments, checking them off,
one after the other. We’ve been doing these things since we were kids. We’re
certainly not like those other people we see on the news…
That was the young man’s logic
who ran up to Jesus. Unlike the scribes, pharisees, and teachers of the Law who
were intent on tripping up Jesus and catching Him in a snafu of legality, he
asked a sincere question. “What must I do to inherit eternal life? I’ve done
all these things. What am I missing?” From his perspective, he feels justified
– self-justified to be sure, but still, worthy of receiving this inheritance of
heaven. I’ve done this all, Jesus: thumbs up, right?
He’s expecting an attaboy, a
blessed assurance that he’s on the right track. Then Jesus turns the tables.
Well, the Table, really, from the Second Table of the Law to the First. The Second
Table has to do with our relationship with our neighbors; this is the
horizontal realm. But the First Table has to do with our relationship with God;
this is the vertical realm.
Jesus does this subversively.
Elsewhere, He teaches the summary of the first three commandments as, “You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.” A god is
anything you fear, love and trust. Jesus, who is able to see into this man’s
heart, knows that man’s god – lower case g – is his wealth. Jesus loves the man
– He doesn’t want to see the young man perish into eternity by chasing after a
false god. Subversively, Jesus teaches the man something about who his god
really is. He calls the man to repentance, to stop worshipping the false god of
his wealth and love the Lord your God instead. “Go, sell all you have and give
it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.” It’s as if Jesus is
asking, “Where does your fear, love and trust rest? Is it in me, or in your
wealth?” The man’s actions serve as the sad conclusion: “Disheartened by the
saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”
When you ask a law question –
what must I do? – Jesus gives a law answer – here you go. Do this. And the law,
in the face of our failures and our shortcomings, always accuses. It accuses
doubly so when Jesus strips away any aspect of the Law that we think we can
hide from. Love God? Of course I do. No, Jesus says, do you love God more than
anything else, fearing and trusting Him above all things. The rich young man
realized his god was his wealth, by extension, maybe also his prestige in the
community, his reputation, his own name, but his god was not the God who stood
in front of him. What must I do? Fear, love and trust God, the true God, not the
bank account, more than anything and anyone else. Get rid of anything and
everything else that vies for that number one spot. In fact, stop thinking of
it as one-of-many; God is one of one. Nothing else comes close.
In reality, if we take that same
approach and go back and look at the second table, we realize we’re not as
perfect as we first thought. Maybe that struck the young man, also, as he
walked away. True, I haven’t taken another man’s life, but I’ve wished ill on
someone else, even calling them hurtful, harmful names. Jesus teaches that is
just as guilty as physical murder. Even if you never touch the woman who is not
your wife or the man who is not your husband, if you even have lustful thoughts
in your mind and heart, Jesus says you deserve the Scarlet Letter A of
adultery. Even if you never take a penny that does not belong to you, but if you
fail to help your neighbor protect and preserve that which is his or hers, you
are complicit in stealing. The law always accuses; the law never lets up.
And so the Old Adam tries even
harder. It’s part of our selfish, sinful egocentric nature. “What must I do?” Surely,
there is something? It’s a loaded question, one we must be very careful of
asking. The Old Adam and Old Eve is incredibly selfish and arrogant. We’re
number one! Even Bob the Builder taught out kids – we can do it, yes we can! We
set ourselves out to be god, or at least, equal to Him. What can I do? Let me
tell you…
Careful…It’s one thing to ask
your spouse or your parent, what can I do to make you happy. It’s a whole
‘nother thing if we think we can approach God with our grocery list of good
deeds, as if we can somehow negotiate our way into God’s good graces. We’re
quick to make our suggestions: I gotta go to church, I gotta give my offering,
I gotta be a better parent, I gotta be a better student, I gotta be better in
my Bible reading, I gotta pray more, I gotta…” Have you noticed that list
always grows? There’s never an end. There’s always something else we think we
gotta do: I gotta watch my mouth, I
gotta keep my eyes from wandering, I gotta stop whispering…” The list never
ends; the list is never accomplished; the list is never perfected. The list
tells the tale.
What must I do? Repent. Repent of
the ways we disobey the commandments, both in letter and in spirit. Eternal
life is not yours to earn. It’s God’s to give. You know what God wants from
you? Your sins. That’s all. When you fear, love and trust Him, you surrender
all of your sins to Him. Only He can take them from you. He doesn’t want your
perfection, or your best of intentions. He wants your sins. That’s what He sent
Jesus for, to be your Savior. Jesus came to trade His perfection for your
imperfection. Don’t put Jesus out of a job! He came to take your sins from you.
Instead of trying to do better, and then when you fail try even harder – as if
you could somehow attain perfection that way – instead, confess your sins.
Surrender them all to Jesus: all of the I gottas, the I wouldas, the I couldas,
the, shouldas turn them all over to Jesus and trust that His once-for-all death
on the cross pays for your sins. You do nothing; Jesu does it all. You have
nothing to negotiate with, so out of His great love for you, Jesus speaks for
you with His Father in heaven. Jesus says, “My life for his; My life for hers.”
The answer to “What must I do to inherit eternal life” is this: I must do
nothing, for Jesus has done it all at the cross. At the cross, in His dying
breath, Jesus declares: There is nothing left for you to do. “It is finished.”
I started this sermon by saying
that the man’s question was an honest one. While it may have been an honest
one, it was a misguided question. Go back to the question with me one more
time: “What must I do to inherit eternal life.” What must I do to inherit? Answer: you do nothing to
inherit anything. Inheritance is something that is given by the head/s of the
household to those who in the family. You don’t earn inheritance by something
you do. Inheritance is a gift. You don’t buy it, you don’t negotiate for it.
Last Sunday, I watched a baby
receive her inheritance. She had nothing to bring, nothing to give, nothing to
offer. If she could have asked, “What must I do – what can I do?”, the answer
would have been “nothing.” In fact, she couldn’t even come to the font by
herself. Her mom and dad brought her. And in the washing of water and the
proclamation of the words of the Lord, she received her eternal inheritance.
Inheritance is yours by nature of
who you are: a son or daughter. Inheritance is yours by nature of whose you
are: a son or daughter of the giver. Inheritance implies family. Inheritance is
yours be birthright. When you are born into a family, the inheritance is
already yours. But, the inheritance isn’t delivered, usually, until someone
dies.
This is what God has done for you
in Christ Jesus. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and
into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is
kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded
by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed
in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5).
Your inheritance, your eternal
inheritance, is delivered to you through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Last
Sunday, that little baby received her eternal inheritance because God, rich in
mercy, delivered it to her through the death of His Son, Jesus. You do nothing
to inherit it, but you receive it by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ.
Who is your God? Easy. He
introduced Himself to you in your Baptism with His Triune name, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. The sign of the cross was placed on your heart and your forehead
in token of being redeemed by Jesus. Through the washing of water and Word, you
are made His beloved sons and daughters. So there is no doubt in your mind of
your adoption into the family of God through Christ, you are given Jesus’ name.
You are called “Christian,” which means “Little Christ.” It’s not something you
negotiated with God.
What must I do to inherit eternal
life? Nothing. It is yours, by grace through faith. God has declares it; you
simply respond in faith: Yes, Lord, I believe.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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