Laetare, the 4th Sunday in Lent + Galatians 4:21-31

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

The prophet tells us to rejoice. “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her” (Is. 66:10). In our day many Christians would interpret this to mean that we should rejoice in the modern nation-state of Israel. While there’s nothing wrong with having them as our ally, the New Testament is clear that Christ’s holy church is His true Israel. The prophet would never tell us to rejoice over unbelievers who reject His only-begotten Son and seek their salvation in themselves, their works, or their genealogy.

This is what St. Paul writes about in today’s epistle lesson. Abraham had two sons by two different women. Each woman corresponds to a different covenant. The sons born to each woman correspond to a different type of people. “For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic.” The bondwoman, or to put it more literally, the slave woman, was Hagar. The freewoman was Abraham’s wife, Sarah. The Lord promised Abraham a son who would be his heir. Through this son the Lord would make Abraham into a great nation as well. Sarah knew she was past childbearing age so she convinced Abraham to take her maidservant, Hagar, and conceive the child with her. Ishmael was the fruit of their union. When St. Paul says that Ishmael was born “according to the flesh,” he means that he was conceived in the natural way that everyone is conceived. There was nothing special about his birth. Even more so, it was “according to the flesh” in that it occurred without the word and promise of God. Ishmael came to be in the natural course of things, according to the will of Sarah and the working of man apart from God’s promise.

Isaac was a different story though, “he of the freewoman through the promise.” Isaac was the child of promise. His birth was foretold by the Lord and it happened in spite of the natural order of life. Sarah, being far past the age of conception, wasn’t mother material from a worldly point of view. But Isaac’s birth was by the word and promise of the Lord. The Lord told Abraham after the birth of Ishmael, “Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him” (Genesis 17:19). Ishmael was born “according to the flesh,” in the natural ways of things. Isaac, too, is born according to the flesh in that he was conceived in the natural way. Isaac was born through the promise of God.  His birth was preceded by God’s word and promise, and that is what made him the recipient and heir of God’s covenant with Abraham.

These two woman symbolize two covenants, Paul says. Hagar symbolizes Mt. Sinai and the law given to Moses there. She symbolizes the Jews and all those who want to be saved by works of the Law, who want to earn and merit God’s favor. This is what Paul means when he writes, “For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.” The Jews were sons of God, just as Ishmael was truly a son of Abraham. But they were not children of promise because they sought their everlasting inheritance by works of the Law. 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.” As long as they wanted to earn their righteousness by works of the Law, they were children of the slave woman, without the promise, and therefore could never be heirs.

The Jews and all who want to be righteous by their works are of Mount Sinai and the earthly Jerusalem. “But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother us all.” This is the Jerusalem over whom we are to rejoice. The Jerusalem from above is Christ’s Church. As the Law only gives birth to slaves, so the heavenly Jerusalem only gives birth to free sons. And this woman, Sarah, the heavenly Jerusalem, gives birth to sons not according to the flesh but through the promise of the Gospel. Paul tells the Galatians, and you, “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.” The Gospel is not another Law to fulfill. The Law says “do all these things continually and always and you will be heirs of life.” But the Gospel says, “All things necessary have already been done by Christ. Simply believe in Him, that His righteousness is yours by faith.” Isaac was conceived “through the promise.” So too all who believe the promise of the Gospel are conceived and reborn as sons of God, sins forgiven and full heirs of all the heavenly blessings.

Paul tells the Galatians this because they wanted to be children of God through the Law. They wanted to earn their righteousness before God by their own good intentions and works. But the Law only gives birth to slavery. There is no righteousness to be earned by the Law. That’s not even the point of the Law. It’s the same today. Most people want to be righteous by what they do, what causes they support, and by where they volunteer. They want to be God’s people according to the flesh, by their own works and doings. But there is no righteousness to be found in the Law. No one can outwardly do everything the Law commands continually each day. Nor can anyone fulfill the law in their heart, truly loving their neighbor as they love themselves. Trying to be a son of God this way only enslaves you to the Law, and the Law brings death to all who lives by it.

Paul corrects this faulty view of the Law in Galatians 3:24, writing that “the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” So the Law is to show us our sins and increase our trespasses in our eyes, so that we see just how unrighteous we really are, both in what we do and what we think and feel. It shows us the depths of our sinful heart, not so that we can try harder, but so that we can flee to Christ for mercy and believe the promise that for Christ’s sake we have a gracious God who forgives all our sins and causes us to be born from the Jerusalem above not by works but faith. All who believe the Gospel of Christ Jesus are children of the free woman. All who trust that Christ is their righteousness before God are heirs of everlasting glory. All who are reborn through the promise of the Gospel are members of the true Israel, not a tract of land in the Middle East, but Christ’s holy church where He daily and richly forgives us all sins.

The false church and the world both teach men that they can earn righteousness by their works. All who are born from above through faith will be persecuted by the world and false church, spoken against and reviled, just as Ishmael taunted and persecuted Isaac. And at times the church may look like Sarah did for so long, old and barren. But do not be deceived by your eyes. “Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband!” Though the church look barren and old, “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her” (Is. 66:10). She is continually giving birth to sons of God and heirs of everlasting life through the preaching of the Gospel. You are her children, righteous not by your works but by faith which believes Christ’s promise and receives what He freely offers.

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