Judica – John 8.42-59

 

Strong words from Jesus today; He calls His hearers children of the devil. That’s a pretty good way to not grow your church. At least, not growth in numbers. But if the church is going to grow, if you and I are going to grow spiritually as this season of Lent enters the last stage, we need to hear and believe that those words apply to us. We are by nature children of wrath. The desires of our father the devil we wish to do. What are those desires? St. Paul puts desires into two categories: of the flesh and of the mind: “we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath” (Eph. 2.3).

These desires, which destroy us, are desires for personal gratification, whether the gratification of the flesh (through lust for sex, lust for food, lust for drink – all lust for pleasure), or gratification in the mind (the desire for revenge, desire for prosperity, desire for personal glory and exaltation). All these sinful desires assault and hurt the soul, because they drive us further away from the love of God, and God’s will for us in loving our neighbor.

Set before each of us, in every action, is the will of God and our own natural inclinations. As Christians, each action, each word, each decision must be measured not by what feels good to us, but by what the Word of God says. St. James puts it this way: “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” (James 1.14). It was lust, desire, passion that led our first parents into sin. It is lust, selfish desires, foolish passions, that lead us into sin. And although nothing good comes from it, do you not find yourself doing the same thing again and again? It is corruption and leads to corruption. So the Apostle Peter reminds us that in the Gospel of Jesus, there “have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Pt. 1.4). And again he says, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Pt. 2.11).

The sad thing about the passions, our lusts and desires, is that while we may think we are commanding our own destiny and making our own choices, in following the passions we show ourselves to be enslaved, to be a servant of the flesh, to have our belly as our god, to set up our own ego as an idol to be worshipped. The Word of God describes the Christian’s former life like that: “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another” (Titus 3.3). But when you were baptized, all that drowned and died; “Therefore,” says the Spirit, “do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts” (Rom. 6.12). So this is the first important teaching from today’s Gospel: sin is obeying lusts, obeying desires, that are contrary to God’s Word. But as Christians, we do not let sin reign, we do not let the passions rule us. 

By ourselves, we cannot achieve this. But we see this perfection in our Lord Jesus Christ, who seeks nothing of Himself, but is perfectly, in every way, obedient to the Father. After they say to Christ horrible, slanderous things, suggesting that he is a child of fornication and demon-possessed, He replies, “I do not seek My own glory.” That is a summary of our Lord’s work. He did not take on human flesh to seek His own glory. He did not forgive sins to seek His own glory. He did not suffer on the cross to seek His own glory. In every respect, He obeyed His Father’s will and sought our good. That is the second important teaching in today’s Gospel: Christ came to seek His Father’s glory and our good, not His own glory.

And the third teaching is this: the One who suffers for us in the flesh is God. The words of Jesus make plain His claim to be God. When Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” He is not only saying that He precedes Abraham, but is saying that He has existed from and before all time. The same words were spoken to Moses at the burning bush: I AM. Because of this, the Jews seek to stone Jesus.

But this doctrine is our highest comfort, to know that in Jesus it is God who came in the flesh, whose incarnation in the womb of the virgin we just celebrated last Wednesday; God has come for us, Himself to die for us and rise for us. 

That is why Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ. He saw it prophetically when he said “God will provide for Himself the Lamb.” God demands, according to the Law, everything we have. For Abraham, the most prized possession he had was the son born to him in his old age. God demands the death of Isaac, and even that would not, could not ever be enough to atone even for Abraham’s sin, much less the sin of the whole world. So Abraham rejoices to see the joy that in Christ, all sin will be atoned for, the dead in Christ will rise, and we will live in God’s kingdom. There is nothing greater or more full of joy.

Because of all this, they seek to put Jesus to death. But He is hidden from their eyes, showing also the power of the divine nature: unlike us, Jesus is able to walk on water, pass through a locked door or the wall of a tomb, and in this case be hidden from the eyes of those who would stone Him. All this shows us that when Jesus is crucified, He will be crucified willingly. He chooses to go to death for us – but at the right time, at the time and under the circumstances appointed by the Father.

So what should you take away from this Gospel today? You should cling most fervently to these words of our Lord: “Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.” Not seeing death means not feeling it or experiencing it eternally. The Christian dies believing Christ’s Word of forgiveness, and so you “will pass from this life as in a sleep and live forever” (Luther). So what have we learned today? Flee the passions, your lusts and desires; cling to Christ, who did not seek His own glory but was obedient to the Father; and remember that it was God in the flesh who died for you willingly. Hold on to this Word, believe it, and you will never see death.” +++In the Name of Jesus.+++

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