Second Sunday of Easter
April 7, 2013
Dear friends in Christ.
What would you do if you were
suddenly jolted awake by the screaming of the smoke alarms ringing all through
the house? What would you do if you
found yourself coughing from the acrid smoke pouring in through the door? The billowing black clouds growing thicker
and thicker forcing you to the floor to find clear air to breath! Trying to find your way to the door, you find
yourself lost in your own bedroom, your house suddenly becoming a traitor to
your safety as you are unable to make the simple 10 foot trip to your
children’s bedrooms! You grow weaker and
weaker as you worry about your family, you begin to lose consciousness and
realize that death is only moments away for you and your children. A tear carves a trail through the soot that
has accumulated on your face as you come face to face with your own inability
to do anything to save yourself or your children. But then, just as all hope is lost you hear
the sound of breaking glass. You feel
someone lift you off the floor and carry you outside into the cool, crisp,
clean, breathable air. Later, as you
begin to recover, you move your head from side to side and see your entire
family is there! They are safe and
sound, recovering just as you are. How
would you feel? What thoughts would be
on your mind? How would you react when
you met the person who risked his life to save your family from perishing in
that terrible fire?
In so many ways, this is exactly
what Jesus, our Savior, did for us! At
the beginning of Lent, way back on Ash Wednesday, we heard the screaming of the
smoke alarms waking us up from our slumber.
We saw the billowing clouds of our own sins surrounding us, and very
quickly it became very clear that there was nothing we could ever do to make
ourselves right before our God. We knew
that eternal death was the only thing in our future, until Jesus ran to the
cross and gave his life in our place; until Jesus suffered the punishment that
we deserved and died the death that should have been ours. Though we knew that eternal death was in our
future, when Jesus died on that cross and rose again on the third day, he
rescued us! He ransomed us from the
Devil! He redeemed us! He paid the price of our sins with his own
blood so that we could be his own and live to serve him! This is why we have gathered in worship
today! We have come to give thanks to
the Lord Jesus who redeemed us!
On this Second Sunday of Easter,
we have gathered, just as we did last week, to give thanks to the Lord Jesus
who redeemed us by making us his own through the blood he shed for us! This, in fact, is the very thing of which the
Apostle Paul reminds us when he writes in Colossians, “When you were dead in
your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive
with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code,
with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took
it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and
authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the
cross." (Colossians 2:13–15, NIV84)
And again in 1 Corinthians, “Do you not know that your body is a temple
of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not
your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your
body." (1 Corinthians 6:19–20, NIV84)
If you’ve ever owned a pet, then
you know the bond of loyalty that forms between that animal and its
master. Regardless of what type of
animal it is, dog, cat, bird, fish, etc, that animal belongs to you because you
bought it. You are the master and you
are the provider. Your pet relies on you
to care for it and provide for it. In
many ways this is a picture of what Paul is telling us in the passages we just
read. We are no longer our own, we have
been bought at a price. Because Jesus
redeemed us by his death and resurrection, we now belong to him, and we rely on
him to provide for us, which is exactly what he does. He provides for us by forgiving our sins, by
standing by our sides and even carrying us through our troubles. He blesses us with everything that we need
for our bodies and our lives, and gives us even more than we could ever use or
need. Because Jesus redeemed us, we do
belong to him in the same way that children belong to their parents. In the same way that parents teach their
children to honor their family through their words and actions, so also Paul
calls on us to honor our God in all that we say and do. Just as he writes in 2 Corinthians, “Christ’s
love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore
all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for
themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." (2
Corinthians 5:14–15, NIV84)
How would you react if as you
began to recover from that fire, you move your head from side to side and see
your entire family is there! They are
safe and sound, recovering just as you are, even as the night is illuminated by
the blaze that is consuming your house.
How would you feel? What thoughts
would be on your mind? How would you
react when you met the person who risked his life to save your family from
perishing in that terrible fire? What
would be the first words out of your mouth?
Would you try to spring up from where you laid with tears streaming down
your face profusely thanking the person who rescued you? Wouldn’t you want to do something for that
person? Can’t you just see yourself
grasping the person’s hand, not ever wanting to let go, as you hear yourself
saying, “How can I ever repay you?”
Though so often rescuers humbly decline any type of compensation, how
would you react if your rescuer suddenly said, “I just love strawberries, and
if you every have any extra ones…”
Wouldn’t you immediately try to run off and collect every single
strawberry you could to give to the person who saved your life? Wouldn’t you take his name and address so
that you could deliver strawberries to him to say thank you? Might you even make sure to bless him with
strawberries every year, on the anniversary of the fire, for the rest of your
life?
As Christians, this is how we
seek to live, since Jesus redeemed us through his death and resurrection. We seek to live our lives for our Savior
because we understand that our lives no longer belong to us! They belong to the one who redeemed us and
delivered us to be his children. We seek
to live our lives according to our God’s commands and our Savior’s will not
because we have to, but out of love and thankfulness to the one who redeemed
us, and made us his own by washing us clean with his blood. Because Jesus has redeemed us we cry out with
Isaiah, “I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has
clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of
righteousness, " (Isaiah 61:10, NIV84)
Because our Savior has redeemed us and made us his own we praise him as
the Psalmist did when he said, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter
than honey to my mouth! 104 I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore
I hate every wrong path. 105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my
path." (Psalm 119:103–105, NIV84)
In recent years the “Above the
Influence” campaign has challenged and encouraged young children, teens, and
even adults to live above the influence of drugs. Through a simple series of commercials of
kids speaking about how they live above those influences, thousands if not
millions have been inspired to do the same.
As Christians who have been redeemed by Jesus, our Savior, we seek to do
the same. We seek to live above the
influence of sin by delighting in the Lord and his word. We seek to live lives of thankfulness to the
Lord by living lives that lovingly reveal the robes of righteous that the Lord
has bestowed upon us. We seek to indulge
in the honey of God’s word so that we might gain wisdom and understanding from
his precepts so that we, too, might turn away from every evil path. This, in fact, is the very thing that Paul
encourages us to do as he writes in his letter to the Ephesians, when he says,
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old
self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in
the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like
God in true righteousness and holiness." (Ephesians 4:22–24, NIV84)
Since we have been redeemed by
Jesus, who covered us with his blood and made us his own through his death and
resurrection, we seek to do this very thing for him. In the same way that we daily change from our
work clothes and put on our night clothes, so also we seek to put off our old
self as we turn to the Lord in repentance, and then put on the new self, the
robes of righteousness as we seek to live for him. This is what we do out of love and
thankfulness for the one who redeemed us!
For in the same way that we would be eternally grateful and thankful to
the one who saved our lives by pulling us out of our burning homes, so also we
are eternally grateful and thankful to the Lord Jesus, who as redeemed us by
his death and resurrection.
Though we did hear the screaming
alarm of Lent seeking to wake us from our slumber as the billowing clouds of
our own sins surrounded us and made it very clear that there was nothing we
could ever do to make ourselves right before our God. On Easter we heard the good news of salvation
that is ours through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Though we knew that eternal death was the only thing in our future, we
have seen the salvation that Jesus won for us when he went to the cross and
gave his life in our place, paying the punishment that we deserved and died the
death that should have been ours. Though
we knew that eternal death was in our future, we also know that when Jesus died
on that cross and rose again on the third day, he rescued us! He ransomed us from the Devil! He redeemed us! He paid the price of our sins with his own
blood so that we could be his own and live to serve him! This is why we have gathered in worship
today! We have gathered to give our
thanks and our praise to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior; Jesus, our Savior,
who has redeemed us!
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
GraceEvangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
