Sunday of the Passion (Palm Sunday) March 28, 2010
Matthew 27:24 Unfaltering Grace
Dear fellow redeemed,
System failures can be much more than simply annoying.
To those immediately affected, they can be devastating.
1 A company’s computers all crash, losing years of valuable data.
2 A security system is breached and millions of dollars of merchandise is stolen.
3 A terrorist is allowed to board an American airline with some explosives which potentially
could cost the lives of hundreds of people.
This morning we may ask whether God’s system is prone to such failure.
I speak of how God’s servants maintain order in a world that’s imperfect and sinful.
* God’s system consists of his perfect Law and what the Lord teaches us about his will.
Built into his system are both threats and promises.
* In the words of Luther from his conclusion of the commandments, “God threatens to punish all who break these commandments. Therefore, we should fear his wrath and not do anything against them. But he promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments. Therefore, we should also love and trust in him and gladly do what he commands.”
* In short, sinners are punished. But the obedient receive God’s grace and blessings.
But how dependable is God’s system?
* We train our child in the way he should go, believing he will not depart from it.
But he soon disappoints us. Today the way is no longer a part of his life.
Apparently God’s threats have not been so affective.
* And as for the grace and every blessing God promises those who do keep his commandments, well, it seems pretty “hit and miss” in my case.
* Look at my sad life! Has my conduct under God’s law been deficient somehow?
Or is it his system that’s defective?
There’s a simple answer to that question.
* God’s system never fails, whereas man’s systems often do fail. Our systems fail when they don’t serve the purpose of upholding God’s System; God’s Law.
* When we seek blessings by substituting God’s ways with our own, sooner or later our efforts end in disaster.
For an example from Scripture, we needn’t look any further than Christ’s trial and this exchange between the accusing Jews and Pilate, the governor.
* From the beginning we can see a disaster in the making.
Pilate too would see it. Why didn’t they judge this apparent trouble maker according to their own Law? Why bring this man named, Jesus, to me?
* So they don’t have the authority to put a man to death. Well, if they want to kill an innocent man, they certainly don’t have to get me involved.
* But the trial progresses, and Pilate is not able to persuade them to change their minds.
Despite his efforts to reason with the Jews and free Jesus, he’s unsuccessful in appeasing this crowd which is becoming increasing angry. “What crime has he committed?” Pilate asks, “I have found no guilt worthy of death in him.”
* But it doesn’t matter. They have this law. “And according to the law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” What’s more, he’s declared himself to be a king, and has therefore set himself against Caesar.
* After a while, it becomes clear to Pilate that they had reached an impasse. The mob was getting out of control. There was no turning back as far as they were concerned.
* So Pilate took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd in order to declare himself innocent of their crime. He was not accountable.
* In Pilate’s opinion, the system had failed. They had convicted a man, who as far as he could tell, was guilty of nothing. And he was right about that. The trial was a sham.
* But why? Because neither the Jews nor Pilate were relying on God’s Law.
God’s Law never fails. When observed, only the guilty are punished.
* Furthermore, when those who love God heed his threats and do not act against his commandments, God gives his grace and every blessing just as he promises.
As Paul writes Timothy: “Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”
* But we want to take issue. For just as the Jewish system of law failed Christ, it seems that God’s system fails us.
The Law promises grace and every blessing to “all who keep these commandments”.
* Really? I’m not seeing these blessings today. All I see are exceptions to the rule.
1 I help and support my neighbor in every physical need, and he betrays me.
And I thought he or she was my friend!
2 I lead a sexually pure and decent life in what I say and do, and either I’m ridiculed, or I’m humiliated because my spouse decides to cheat on me.
3 I defend my neighbor, speak well of him and explain everything in the kindest way, and he slanders my good name.
4 I hold God’s word sacred and gladly hear and learn it, and what blessings am I seeing?
It’s just one crisis after another!
* We wonder whether we should try things our own way for a while.
That’s what Pilate thought.
* He certainly wasn’t going save the day doing things God’s way. He’d just be digging a bigger hole for himself. Besides, Jesus was going to be killed “any way you cut it”.
* So Pilate compromises, believing he was justified in doing so.
He washes his hands of the crime, fearing that something worse would otherwise occur.
Pilate was wrong of course. His self-washing was not a sign that he was now okay with God. Quite the opposite. Pilate remained guilty in his sin.
* Washing his hands was a sign of his lack of repentance.
He was unwilling to accept responsibility.
* And so it is for the rest of the world. Everyone who imagines that he can absolve himself of guilt by his own actions, remains guilty.
* “You who would be justified by the law” Paul declares, “you have fallen away from grace.”
None of us can justify ourselves. God’s system doesn’t permit such a thing.
Only he can justify us so that we may declare: “I am innocent!”
* But what does this mean? Is this to say that God’s system is bound to fail since we’re not going to come through anyway?
* God can promise all he wants to those who would keep his commandments, but “so what!” Not one of us is righteous. Not even one!
* What’s the bottom line? Is it just a matter of time before God carries out his threats in our case? Are we like the miserable criminal on death row who awaits his execution?
We know better! Our loving God will not allow his sinful creation to dismantle what he’s given us in order to serve us.
* Paul writes the Romans: “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son . . .”
* Although the law can no longer with success incite us to live a perfect life, God assumed our human flesh, so that he might live a perfect life in our place.
* And this is the message he’s worked into his perfect system.
By faith we’re blessed! By faith we benefit from Christ’s keeping of the Law!
* What God does, you see, is give us credit for having kept the Law.
Even though our obedience is always flawed and imperfect, by faith we receive grace and every blessing from God.
* Yes we’re sinners. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” However, all “are justified by his grace . . . through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3).
* Where sin causes us to falter and fall on our face, God’s grace never falters.
That means we don’t need to spend a life time trying to fix God’s Law and what he promises those who love him and keep his commandments. For there’s nothing complicating or magical about receiving God’s grace and every blessing.
* Our Lord doesn’t come into our livingroom highlighting some manual; telling us “here’s what to do if you think your life is plummeting to a point of no return.”
* No. He just talks to us in his Gospel. That’s how he refreshes and blesses our life.
Through the Word and the sacraments, he gives us Christ.
* He gives us his Son to convince us that nothing can come between God and the blessings he promises us. Through faith in Christ, it’s a done deal! We’ve kept the Law!
And therefore there’s no possibility we won’t be blessed!
* “For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
You know, there might be one thing worse than experiencing a system failure.
And that’s knowing you personally are responsible for the system failure.
* Coming to my mind is the disastrous fire started up north by a camper three years ago.
At the beginning, I’m sure he was convinced he was acting very responsibly.
There was no reason for concern. Just as there’s a system you learn for starting a fire, so is there a system you follow for putting out a fire.
* However, the system soon failed him. Within a few short hours and days many along the border of Minnesota and Ontario lost their property and their cabins.
It wasn’t only the Preuses on Gunflint Lake.
If I’m remembering correctly, 60,000 acres of forest was destroyed before fire-fighters managed to get the fire under control.
* Yes. Being responsible for a system failure may seem overwhelming.
I guess this same camper while he was in prison a few months back committed suicide.
Sometimes people who are accountable to other people, and perhaps many other people, do not see the way out of what appears to be a hopeless situation. As was the case with Pontius Pilate, they perceive that God’s way just isn’t going to work this time.
* However, while it is true that man’s systems often falter and collapse, in the Kingdom of God, no such failure is possible. Never is it necessary to give up on God’s Law or the duties he gives us to carry out in his place.
* For God placed himself under his own Law in order to fulfill it in our place.
And having lived according to the Law, he also in our place was condemned by the Law.
* That means when we fail God today, he isn’t obligated to fail us.
Or when other people fail us, or life’s circumstances fail us, we never need assume: “that’s all she wrote.” No, for “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Romans 5:20). Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.