|
 |
 |
My Only Plea Text:
John 14:1-12 There is seeing, there is knowing, and then there is believing. In today's Gospel Jesus begins with the goal of faith, saying, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” Disciple Philip asks the question of the skeptic, asking, “Lord, show us the Father.” Jesus replied, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Disciple Thomas asks the question of the doubter, asking, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.” Jesus said, “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” There is seeing, there is knowing. But only faith will do. Jesus invites us to faith, saying, “ Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” The comfort is for faith. “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”
Troubled hearts. What did we do before Jesus came, that is, before he came to each of us and confronted us with the claims of his Word and in our baptism? What do others do who do not see him, know him or believe in him? Without him, apart from him, we can do nothing (John 15:5), we can see nothing (2 Peter 1:9), we can know nothing (Job 8:9), we can believe nothing (John 3:12). Hence the exclusive claim: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
In these words Jesus was preparing his disciples for his leaving them by way of the Cross of his death. “Where I am going you cannot come” [John 8:21 (ESV)]. To post-resurrection disciples, eyes still a glaze, still “disbelieving for joy” (Luke 24:41), he prepared them for his leaving their sight at his Ascension. All this happened for us that we may see, that we may know and that we may believe that, as Peter wrote, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” [1 Peter 1:8 (ESV)]; or as Jesus himself said to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” [John 20:29 (ESV)]; or as John said of the entire purpose of his Gospel: “Jesus did many other things that are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31 from memory).
All the evidence around us suggests, implies and even accuses us that our faith, our hope is misplaced, nothing but a fantasy. The world “believes” only what it can see, dissect, measure, calculate, advertise, market, sell and prove by empirical evidence. In fact, it's worse than that. Today's world sees Christians not as merely misled religious fools. No. Today's world increasingly views Christians and their faith and morals as antagonistic to social progress, to the human rights and “freedom” of others, to their moral relativism and libertinism.
Today our eyes are lifted beyond sight, beyond human knowledge, to faith—real, authentic, God-inspired faith. As such our eyes are given spiritual vision to keep before us “the hope to which he has called you…the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” [Ephesians 1:18 (ESV)]. It is the hope of the resurrection as we sing in the hymn: When from the dust of death I rise To claim my mansion in the skies, This then shall be my only plea: Christ Jesus lived and died for me. [LW 362:5]
My only plea is not based on any worthiness or merit of my own. For all our righteousness is as filthy rags in God's sight. Yes, God loved the world so that he gave his only Son the lost to save. So it is only as you come to confess your lostness, not your ingenuity or loveableness, but that you are, as you said earlier, truly a beggar, sinful and unclean, that you have taken the first step of faith.
“Christ Jesus lived and died for me” is my only plea before the judgment throne of God. Many will allow that Jesus lived and died. Some will even consent to calling him the Christ. But that his life and death has some significant “for me” takes another step, indeed, a leap—the leap of faith.
Who is not willing to admit that his first disciples saw him, heard him, maybe wrapped their arms around him in times of joy, laughed with him and even cried with him; who witnessed his miracles and then his death and burial? Even more, the Apostle Paul tells us that, after his resurrection, “he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” [1 Cor. 15:5-8 (ESV)]. St. John confesses in his first epistle, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us” [1 John 1:1-2 (ESV)]. So seeing is important. We must acknowledge the testimony of the eyewitnesses.
But now, how does one “know,” that is, have confidence and certainty in their witness? The only way is through the Word recorded for us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “If you continue in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” It is the Mighty Word that we pray for in the Lord's Prayer. “Hallowed be thy name” happens when the Word of God is preached in its truth and purity. “Thy kingdom come” happens when the Holy Spirit gives us faith to believe God's holy Word. “Thy will be done” happens when God breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh, which do not want us to hallow God's name or let his kingdom come, that is, to preach and hear and live his holy Word and to believe it. How can we know that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God? Only by the powerful Word of God through which the Holy Spirit works faith in the heart when and where it pleases God in those who hear the gospel.
So we believe that the witnesses have seen the truth as history records. And we can know the details and the facts of sound doctrine and theology based in the divine revelation of the Word of God. The only thing left is to believe it.
When our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ says to us, “let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me,” he bids all hearts to believe—to believe, first, that you are a sinner and cannot save yourself; then to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, incarnate of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary; that he lived a perfect life for us, in our behalf; that he was crucified for us, in our behalf, for our sins; that he was raised again from the dead for us, providing our longed for victory over death and the grave; believe that he has adopted us into his family, his body which is the Church; believe that our Lord is coming again to judge the living and the dead; believe that the judgment already happens now depending on whether you believe and have received him as your Savior or have rejected him. The final deliverance from sin in the day of the resurrection of our bodies and the life of the world to come is for those who believe in Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life.
Based on the eyewitness testimony of the apostles, our eyes enlightened to know and understand the scriptures, faith comes alive and grasps the promise. This then shall be my only plea: Christ Jesus lived and died for me.____________________
| |
