Judica, the 5th Sunday in Lent + John 8:46-59 + March 18, 2018

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

Today’s appointed Gospel lesson begins near the end of a dispute between Jesus and the Jews. They had sought to kill Jesus for some time now. Ever since Jesus healed an infirmed man at the pool of Bethesda they wanted to murder Him. They claimed He sinned by healing the infirmed man on the Sabbath, that that was a work which violated the commandment. But Jesus puts them in their place by pointing out that the Jews circumcise their children on the Sabbath. They do the work of God even on the rest day. He said, “If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?” (John 7:23). He didn’t sin against the commandment. Yet they sin because they desire to kill Him, a clear violation of the commandment! That hatred boils over in today’s gospel lesson because they are unable to convict Him of sin. There’s no cause to call for His murder. Yet they are compelled by their hatred to try. They tried to arrest Him in John 7 while He was preaching in the temple but they were unable. Here they pick up stones to stone Him in the temple itself, but He escapes, “going through the midst of them and so passed by.” Their murderous attempts are frustrated and will continue to be frustrated until the Passover when they apprehend Him through Judas’ betrayal and then get Pilate to do their dirty work for them. They eventually succeed in their plan to murder Him, but not because they can convict Jesus of any sin.

They must murder Jesus because they are not “of God.” He tells them, “He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.” Unbelief drives these men to hate Christ and to despise the salvation He earns and offers to all men. They aren’t “of God” so they don’t hear His Word. Instead they reject the word and what it tells them about Christ.  Jesus had told them in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” The Jews didn’t hear God’s Word because they had God’s Word backwards. They sought eternal life from the Scriptures, especially from the Law. They imagined that if they did the works commanded in the Law they would be righteous in God’s sight. But the Law was not given so that men could prove their righteousness. The Law was given to sinners to condemn them and confine them under the Law’s captivity so that they sought the promised Messiah. St. Paul describes them in Romans 10:3 as “being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.” While the Jews were busy laboring under the delusion that they were righteous by their works, the Scriptures were testifying to the Messiah promised long before the Law was ever given to Moses. But they were not “of God” therefore they did not hear the Law and the prophets witness to the righteousness of God that is not of the Law but of grace through faith.

Jesus lays it out for these men. You are not “of God” therefore you do not hear God’s Word correctly. But repent and hear God’s Word. “Most assuredly I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.” This is the result of keeping God’s Word, of hearing it, believing it, practicing it, and treasuring it one’s heart. When a person hears the Word of God and keeps it that one won’t see death. The Jews scoff at this. “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.” The Jews were carnal. They had assumed righteousness could be gained through works of the Law. They assumed the Law only governed the outward behavior, not the inner thoughts and motivations of the heart. It’s not a surprise that they thought only of the first death, physical death that happens to all men. Jesus isn’t talking about bodily death though. He is the One who completely and truly keeps the God the Father’s Word. He says of God the Father, “I do know Him and keep His Word.” Yet He dies a gruesome death at the hands of these murderous Jews. It’s not bodily death from which Christ promises rescue, but the second death, everlasting death, the death which all mankind deserves for its sins and unbelief. Keeping the Word of God, believing it, trusting it, holding it fast to your heart and in your mind keeps one from eternal death.

The Jews want to know who Jesus makes Himself out to be. He has claimed that His word can save men from death. “Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead?” Yes. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.” This is nonsense to the Jews who despise God’s word and the prophecies about the Messiah. Micah taught that the Messiah was “from everlasting” (Micha 5:2). The prophet Isaiah asked, “Who will declare His generation?” (Isaiah 53:8), that is, his beginning. They had the Word but did not hear it. They despised it and thought little of studying it and taking it to heart. Of course they despised the eternal Son of the Father, the Word of God in human flesh standing in front of them. Again they think Jesus speaks bodily. “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” they ask mockingly. “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” The murderous fury ignites with these words. Jesus has made Himself equal to God with these words. This is the name the Lord gave to Moses when he asked, “When the Israelites ask me the name of the God who sent me, what do I say?” God, from the burning bush replied, “I AM WHO I AM. Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” It was Christ who spoke to Moses in the bush that burned but was not consumed, just as Christ was the spiritual rock who followed Israel in the desert, providing for all their needs of body and spirit. But the Jews cannot understand any of this. They’ve separated themselves from the Word of God because they are not “of God.” They are “of Satan” instead, for the god of this world had blinded their hearts.

This conversation was recorded for our learning. It shows us how the hatred of the Jews directly led to the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Their murderous desire was thwarted this time. But at the appointed time they would succeed is crucifying the Author of Life and killing the Lord of Glory. St. John depicts this conversation to teach us the nature of unbelief and how it is the result of despising God’s Word. To despise something doesn’t necessarily mean to spit upon something and treat it with utter disdain. It also means to think little or lightly of something, as if it’s not a big deal. Jesus warns us by today’s Gospel lesson not to despise God’s Word. Don’t think little of it so that you put off reading it. Don’t think it’s not a big deal if you don’t hear it when you have opportunity. The Word of God recorded in Holy Scripture testifies to Christ, His full divinity, His full humanity, and the blessings He earns for you by His innocent life, sufferings, and death. Too many people assume faith is like geometry. Once you get the knack of it, you don’t have to go back and keep reading the textbook and hearing the theorems over and over again. The Scriptures are not a textbook. The gospel is not geometry. God’s Words are not mere information to know, they are the workshop of the Holy Spirit by which He works on our hearts. The Holy Spirit works through the words of Scripture to piece our hearts when we sin so that we can repent. He works through the Word to fortify our faith in Christ against the daily assaults of the devil who reminds us our many sins and our own flesh that wants to keep sinning. Jesus’ warning is stern. If anyone thinks they are “of God” but despise the Word, then they’re kidding themselves. In our day and age, this is the state of most who call themselves Christians, making this warning all the more important for us to heed.

Jesus also gives us a great comfort as well in this text. He doesn’t warn us without giving us hope as well. He promises, “Most assuredly I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.” You will still die, that is, unless Christ returns before your death, in which case you won’t taste death. But we should all plan on tasting death and live our lives with that in mind. But death is not to be feared as a final end. When that day and hour comes since you “of God” you won’t see everlasting death. In death you will be following in the steps of your Lord Jesus Christ. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). He is a pattern and model. He went through death to atone for our sins and was vindicated on the third day when He rose from the dead. He tasted the bitterness of death but He did not see everlasting death. All who follow Him in faith, trusting the promise that His merits are our righteousness before God, will not see the second death but will pass into paradise. “If anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.” He promises this to you again in John 11:25-26 when He tells Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”

This is a wonderful promise. It is only found in the Word of God. Those who despise the Word judge themselves unworthy of such glorious promises of the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. Dearly beloved of God, may this not be so among us, but may we ever, by God’s grace, keep His Word, and by keeping His Word in true faith and devotion, prove ourselves to be “of God.”

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