- Psalmody: Psalm 31:2b–3; 1; Psalm 77:14–15; Psalm 100:1–3; Psalm 119:12–13; Psalm 78:29–30a
- Lection: 1 Samuel 16:1–13; 1 Corinthians 13:1–13; Luke 18:31–43
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Having heard that it is by God’s grace alone coming to you in His Word alone that you are saved, what is the means by which you know that such great things are being applied to you unto salvation? How do you know that you have received God’s grace and word with a noble and good heart and are thus counted as righteous before God? It is by faith alone in Christ alone. Faith is never alone. Yes, good works flow from it, as we remember that there is much to be joyously done in the vineyard of God’s Kingdom as we labor on toward the End of Days. But more importantly, faith must have an object in which its trust is actively placed. The Augsburg Confession says that “People are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake.” Christ is our object of faith, the One in Whom we trust. He must be the object of faith, the One to whom faith looks for salvation, or else that faith is useless. Is your faith useless? If you say, “no,” then how is it that you came to have real useful faith? Do you believe that it is by your own wisdom or effort; that it is you who have been good and clever enough to claim Christ as your own and to come to where His pure doctrine is proclaimed? As one who was dead in sin when faith was given to you, you must see that every ounce of faith that you have is God’s doing first, to which you respond with a regenerate good and noble heart, as we confess in the explanation to the third article of the Creed: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit (that is, God alone, God Himself alone) has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” True faith is one that saves. And if it saves from sin, death, and the devil, that means that it will also ultimately deliver from all perils of this life; pain in body, pain in mind, pain in heart.
Jesus used encounters with saving faith as opportunity to deliver delightful foretastes of that which is to come such as sight being restored as we have heard this morning about when He was coming near Jericho on His way up to Jerusalem. We hear that the blind man asked for mercy that he may receive his sight, but understand that even though blind, he beheld with the most important sight any one could have. He saw Jesus for Who He is and called upon Him in hope. It is true faith in Christ as Savior that will ultimately deliver us all from every peril of sin, including death itself, because He, as the Object of our faith, is truly faithful.
As we go with Jesus later this week into another season of Lent, being exercised, necessarily refined in faith in Him, as we grow deeper and stronger in preparation for the Last Day, we remember why it was necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into His glory. Man was lost to sin, in need of being reconciled by grace through faith and had to be redeemed by God Himself. The Son of God had to come. He had to come in our flesh. He had to be born of a virgin and eventually make His way up to Jerusalem after 33 years among us in order to pay the price of redemption. He had to give true eternal sight to all of us who are blinded by sin so that we become not distracted by pursuit of temporal relief in place of the eternal reward.
Our Lord took His disciples, set their minds once again on the City of David, and told them the third and final time that He must go and be delivered over to the Gentiles and be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon and flogged and killed and then rise on the third day. These are the things that He would do and thus everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets would be, as translated here, accomplished, or as how Jesus would later use this same base word from the cross, finished. It is finished and the link is beautiful and is blessed detail of Who this faithful One is and what He has done. Yes, He was going up to suffer and die, and in doing so, all that needed to be accomplished, all that needed to be finished would be finished and stay finished for eternity. You have eternal certainty by which to now joyfully repent of your sins and be forgiven. To see this, to believe this as most important above all else of this life is to have the sight of faith that He desires for you. In all His ministry years, in all His earthly life, and even before He was incarnate, His love for you that suffers long and is kind was already set in a steel gaze toward Jerusalem.
If we view this Christian life of love, fear, trust, fasting, prayer, and worship, whether in Lent or out, as a gloomy burden, we may also mistakenly see Jesus in our mind’s eye as walking the dust-covered road through Jericho with His own divine head down, dragging His feet in disappointed step, all with the universe’s grandest frown because He was unhappy and discontent with the Father’s will to save you from eternal destruction. Such was never the case. He indeed wept over Jerusalem and lamented at the truth of the situation and what our redemption cost and that so many would reject their gracious Savior, but it was a price that He wasn’t irritated or loathsome to pay, because to be so wouldn’t be of the godly love with which He is perfectly filled. Since God is love and Jesus is God, that means that He wasn’t resentful in laying down His life for your sake, for doing what needed to be done even at the expense of His own life. Jesus’ prediction about His suffering, death, and resurrection revealed His heart to the disciples and to you. Behold, your God! It is a blessing to hear the Lord describe how it was by His own divine will and design that your salvation would be won. For when Good Friday would eventually come in a week’s time, what their eyes would see would lead them to think that all that had been seen, heard, and gained was lost; that defeat had happened in place of hope-for and expectant victory. It would appear in the trials and on Calvary as though Jesus was powerless, helpless, and at the mercy of the Jews and Gentiles who sought and gained His death. But, three times at this point He had tried to comfort the disciples through His passion prophecy, showing that the events are ones done according to His and His Father’s will, not in spite of it, and this Good News is now given for you to cling to, to believe in for salvation, and to trust by faith.
He suffered the cross to pay for your sins so that you would not have to and because you couldn’t cover the debt. Yea, be remorseful over sin. Beat your chest. Plead for your sight and for mercy from Jesus. Fast and get into spiritual shape this Lent, and beyond. Get frustrated with the evil thoughts that dash through your mind, the distractions of this world that seek to sow distrust of God within. But, don’t punish yourself for them. That part has been handled. Confess. Repent. And Embrace the sure forgiveness that you have in Christ Jesus your Lord. Accompany all remorse over sin, all your heart’s contrition, with the belief God has gifted to you full pardon of sin in the Son of Man Who did go up to Jerusalem, up to Calvary, up to the cross to die for you. It’s a package deal in the Christian life; repentance and forgiveness. Burden and eternal relief. Being brought up from a deep burial under the realization of your sin makes the deliverance of the Gospel an increasingly more joyous experience. Because, those who are forgiven much, love much the sweet sound of that forgiveness and the One Who by Whom it comes by faith. Make good use of Lent and the benefits it has for you. Struggle against your flesh, both the spiritual and physical, praying for self-control and a life more sanctified than before. The road leading up to Jerusalem is one full of eye-opening truth about our sinful condition and the price our precious Lord paid for all of us making it now and forever finished.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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