Quinquagesima + Luke 18:31-43 + February 11, 2018

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Jesus tells His twelve disciples privately, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.” Jesus is blunt about it but He has always been quite to the point about His purpose. Why does He tell the disciples this one more time as He makes His final approach to Jerusalem? To fortify their faith so that in the coming days they may not fall away when they witness the scandal of the cross. He wants to teach them first that it is His will that He enter into these sufferings. The events of Passion Week are not haphazard or coincidence. Jesus is not the unwitting pawn of sinful men with unjust desires. Jesus is not purely passive as evil men work out their evil schemes. This has all been written down beforehand. “All things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.” The prophets foretold that Messiah must be mocked, spat upon, beard pulled, smote on the cheek, betrayed by false brethren, have his clothing divided, hang emaciated for all to see, be numbered among the sinners, and that Messiah must die for the sins of many, the entire world. Reading through the prophets we hear that the Messiah has quite the bill to fill, that His cup will be one of divine wrath and suffering which He must drink to the dregs in order to atone for the sins of the world. Jesus is familiar with the prophets. He is the one who gave them utterance by the Holy Ghost, for He is the Word of God in human flesh. He knows full well what will and must happen to Him in Jerusalem. Anyone else would say, “If all that is written of me, then I will go anywhere but Jerusalem!” as Jonah did. But this is the greater Jonah who would not shrink back from His divine assignment. He goes willingly and willfully.

He says, “Behold, we are going up to the Jerusalem.” St. Luke records in Luke 9:51, “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.” By this the evangelist wants to show us the absolute determination and resolution which our Lord Jesus possessed. This language is reminiscent of the prophet Ezekiel, who was commanded, “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them.” (Ezekiel 6:2) He was not to waver in His prophecy no matter the multitude set against him. It is also written of the Messiah in Isaiah 50:7, “For the Lord GOD will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.” Jesus willfully and willingly goes up to Jerusalem, knowing full well what will happen to Him. This is a great comfort to us Christians. Your Lord Jesus knew what He was getting into, the full extent of it. This is why He prayed so fervently in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42) He knew what would happen because He is the one who inspired the prophets by the Holy Ghost to write such things. Your Lord Jesus knows what it must take to win your salvation and to appease the wrath of God the Father against sinners. He knows well the cup of divine wrath and judgment which He must drink for you. And He goes to do it, not in sheepishness and or reluctance, but with determination, a face set like flint, eyes filled only with His true purpose. Your salvation is something Jesus desires to win and something He wants to give to all men.

We also see the love of Jesus for sinners. The coming passion and death does not deter Christ or turn Him aside. This love of Christ for sinners is the love which St. Paul writes about in the Epistle lesson this morning. The love we are to have for our neighbor is at best a poor reflection of the love which Christ Jesus shows us by His passion and death upon the cross. The love of Christ for sinners that drove Him to the cross is the love which “suffers long and is kind; that does not envy; that does not parade itself, that is not puffed up; that does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; that does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.” The love of Christ bears all things, even suffering and death. The love of Christ believes all things so that He can commit His spirit into the hands of the very Father who has abandoned Him as THE sinner upon the cross. The love of Christ hopes all things, which is why He knows that the Father will vindicate Him by raising Him from the dead and giving Him the name which is above every name. This love of Christ endures all things for you so that you might believe and be justified.

This is the Holy Gospel. Jesus wants your salvation and willing to die to atone for your sins. This is why St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:23, “we preach Christ crucified.” That alone is our message. That is the Gospel. Every other article of the Christian faith has something to do with this Chief article, that we are justified by grace through faith on account of Christ’s innocent, bitter sufferings and death. Every other article of the faith, no matter how obscure or how periphery it may seem, flows into this Gospel or flows from this gospel. That is why we fight for every article of the Faith, because it is God’s doctrine and not ours, and because it all has to do with Jesus and His cross one way or another.

This is why the focal point of this sanctuary is an altar, which reminds us of Christ’s sacrifice because that’s where sacrifices happen. Upon this beautiful altar, at its center, is a crucifix, a cross with a corpus. A simple cross just won’t do, not for this holy place. The empty cross has been stolen away by pop culture and can be made into decorative wall art or even be worn by the pop-singer Madonna. And empty cross can easily take on whatever meaning people want it to because it is empty and crosses are meant to hold something. But a crucifix is different. Pop-stars can’t wear that. Homes aren’t made more comfortable by a man dying hanging on the wall. Crucifixes are so unpopular these days, even within the church, especially within the church, because you can’t assign new and subjective meaning to the crucifix. It has only one meaning: Jesus dying for the sins of the world, better yet, Jesus dying for your sins, to earn your forgiveness, because you are a sinner who needs that forgiveness.

It is in that crucifix, on the cross, that we see the fullest extent of God’s desire that we be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. It is here we see the fullest extent of the love which God has for everyone in Christ Jesus. “We preach Christ crucified.” In this crucifix you also have the promise that God is for you and not against you. He wants your salvation and is willing to go the furthest lengths to win it. He wants your best, your good. The thing you need most isn’t financial relief or worldly security. The thing you and I need the most is a clear conscience before God that rests on faith in the forgiveness of sins through Jesus. Even in suffering, persecution, sickness, trial, hardship, and tribulation of every kind, your Lord is blessing you. In all of these things He is conforming you to the image of His Son. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8:29) In your suffering your Heavenly Father is making you more like your brother in the flesh Jesus. You are to suffer as He did, committing yourself and your cares to God, praying for those who persecute you, and remaining faithful that is God alone who saves and relieves the cross. As St. Peter writes, “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.” (1 Peter 2:21) This is why we are to forsake the ways of the world and why St. Paul tells us in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” You are no longer to conform to the thinking of this world because you are being conformed to the image of your Lord Jesus through your suffering and through your faith in Christ, so that you willfully suffer whatever cross and hardship He lays upon you, just as your Lord Jesus willfully suffered on your behalf for your salvation.

Finally, and almost parenthetically, this brings us to the second part of today’s Gospel lesson, the healing of the blind man outside of Jericho. In this healing Jesus shows us how He desires faith in Him and His work, especially His work on the cross. The work of Christ is of no befit to you if you don’t use it by faith, that is, if you do not receive His promises and cling to them. The blind man shows us how faith works. First, the blind man expects Jesus to help and heal him. He is confident that Jesus can offer consolation and that He will. It is faith in Jesus willingness and willfulness to save. The blind man knows the will and the heart of Jesus, as we spoke about a few moments ago. Second, the blind man calls to someone whom He has never seen. This is more than an obvious point, the man being blind and so being unable to see Jesus. It is a picture of us, for we have never seen Jesus in the flesh. Yet God the Holy Ghost creates faith in our hearts through the preaching of the Word and through a right use of His sacraments, so that like the blind may we seek out Jesus though we’ve never seen Him. Of you and me it is was spoken, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) Thirdly, the blind man is not deterred by others around him that say, “Don’t bother Jesus, He wants nothing to do with you.” He is not deterred by the evil conscience which says, “Don’t bother Jesus, you don’t deserve His help.” Instead, faith cries out all the more, “Lord, have mercy,” because faith is confident in WHO Jesus is and that He desires to help, save, forgive, and restore. May God grant us each of us this faith so that we do not shrink back in our belief, but be strengthened in our faith that Jesus has the will to help us and the love to help us, as He shows us by going up to Jerusalem to fulfill all that was written about Him in the prophets.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + of the Holy Ghost. Amen.