This week I did two things I never do.
a) I preached on the Epistle. (Couldn't get written what I wanted to preach
on the Gospel for some reason.)
b) I told cutesy stories.
Lord have mercy upon me a sinner.Romans 5:1-8 + Lent 3 + Rev. Charles Lehmann
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
Today Paul says to us, “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ
died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though
perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for
us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
This passage has never made sense to me. Why wouldn’t someone die for a
righteous person. They’re righteous, right? Then it finally hit me. In the
Bible a righteous person is a justified person. It is the kind of person I
talked about on Wednesday. It is the one that Paul talks about in the previous
chapter. It is the one whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are
covered. It is the one against whom the Lord does not count their sin.
It could be the most evil, wretched person you can imagine. In fact, it’s
the sort of person that Paul, in our text for today, calls weak and ungodly.
If someone who was clearly a murderer was acquitted because their lawyer
convinced the jury to return a verdict of not guilty, would you die for them?
Would you give your life to save a rapist? Would you take a bullet for a drug
dealer?
Most of us probably wouldn’t. Most of us would probably think that a
murderer, rapist, or drug dealer who got killed was just getting what they
deserve. We wouldn’t die for them. But there are people that are willing to
give their lives for others. There are at least a few of them in this room.
The willingness to sacrifice your life for your brother is at the heart of
being a soldier.
Here’s one example. On March 24, 1945, Private George J. Peters of the
17th Airborne Division dropped into a combat area near Fluren, Germany. He and
his company were immediately pinned down by a German machine-gunner supported
by riflemen.
Private Peters charged the enemy position, and, though he was mortally
wounded by enemy fire, he crawled close enough to destroy the machine gun
position and force the riflemen to flee for cover. The lives of his fellow
soldiers were saved.
What Private Peters did was heroic. It’s proper that he received the
medal of honor for it. But if you think about it, as good as Private Peters’
actions were, there are ways in which they were not that extraordinary. He was
saving men who had fought at his side for a long time. They had the bond of
brotherhood. They had risked their lives for one another as a matter of course.
Private Peters had learned courage. His act was certainly noble. It was
certainly heroic. But was it unusual? Not so much. Is it hard for us to
understand why he did it? Not really.
On January 13th, 1982 Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street
Bridge across the Potomac in Washington D.C. One surviving passenger, Arland
Williams Jr. continually refused to take the rescue line and instead gave it to
other drowning passengers. When all who could be rescued had been, the rescuers
tried to pass the line to him. But he had sunk to the bottom of the river with
the plane. Autopsies revealed that only he had died of drowning. He drowned
because he kept passing the rescue line to others. Saving the lives of
strangers was more important to him than saving his own life.
This is a bit more unusual. He didn't know the people he died to save.
Arland Williams is a hero in ways that a Medal of Honor winner is not.
But what if someone died for His enemies? What if He knew the person in
all of their sin and ugliness. What if He could see their very thoughts. What
if He could see into your mind, your heart, and your soul. What if He could
see not just your sins of action, but of thought.
There is nothing noble about our sin. In our standing before God we are
just as bad as a murderer, a rapist, or a drug dealer. But it’s not as if God
ignores that. He doesn’t say to us, “Oh, come on… it’s really not that bad.
You have good reasons for your sin. You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself.”
Not at all. He acknowledges just how bad we are. John says, “If we say we
have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Our God would be
just as deceived as we sometimes are if He ignored our sin. But He doesn’t
ignore our sin. He doesn’t leave us to our own devices.
Though we are God’s enemies, though it is our evil that nails Jesus to the
cross, God does an outrageous thing. He loves us. He sends His Son. Out of
his belly come water and blood. And He saves even the adulterous Samaritan
woman. He saves even Paul, the murderer of Christians. He even saves me.
Private Peters died for his comrades. Arland Williams died for strangers.
But Jesus did something greater than either of these. Jesus died for us. He
died for those whose sins sent Him to the cross.
On the day of the Preparation of the Passover, the Eternal Father
permitted Pontius Pilate to convict His Son, Jesus Christ, of a crime He had
not committed. He allowed Him to be tortured, mocked, spat upon, and beaten
with sticks. He allowed nails to be driven through His hands and feet.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief: and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we
esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of
our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath
put him to grief.
It’s really no wonder that Paul makes this point. Paul persecuted the
Lord’s church. When Jesus first appeared to him He said, “Saul, Saul… why do
you persecute me.” And so Paul writes of his Savior. He writes of Jesus who
dies for the wicked. He writes of Jesus who saves the ungodly. He writes of
Jesus who comes to save sinners of whom he, Paul, is the worst. Paul needs a
Savior who dies for the ungodly, the wicked, the very worst of sinners. That’s
the only sort of Savior who has anything to offer Paul.
“For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a
good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
In the sort of Savior that Paul preaches there is great joy. Though you
are troubled by your sin, though you know from God’s Word what you deserve by
your own lawless deeds, you know from that same Word of God that you are just
the sort of person that Jesus came to save.
It’s not shape up or ship out. You don’t have to rehabilitate yourself.
You don’t have to stop being who you are in order for Jesus to come and save
you. Paul talks about a Savior who comes to you while you are still a sinner.
If we could take care of our own problems and wipe away our own sins, we
wouldn’t need Jesus. We’d need a therapist. We’d need someone to give us a
jump start. We’d just need a little help getting ourselves pointed in the
right direction. But we don’t need a self-esteem coach.
We are dead and helpless, and we like it that way. We rejoice in our
misery. Left to our own devices we would stay there forever.
The dead don’t raise themselves. If the helpless could help themselves
they wouldn’t be helpless. That’s why our great joy is that we do have a
Savior. Our sins cannot keep Jesus away. He comes and forgives us. He washes
us in the waters of Holy Baptism. He gives us His body to eat and His blood to
drink. He holds us. He speaks tenderly in our ear. He gives us words of
comfort and life. Our hate disintegrates in the ocean of His love. He removes
our sin as far from us as the east is from the West.
It is a joy that the sort of Savior we have is really the only sort of
Savior worth having. No one else can love you with perfect love. No one else
can forgive you with perfect forgiveness. No one else can give you life that
cannot end, cannot fade, and cannot tarnish. No one else can wipe away your
tears, hold you in His arms, and take all of your pain into Himself.
Jesus didn’t die for you because you were his comrade-in-arms. He didn’t
love you because you were a stranger on whom He had compassion. Jesus died for
you knowing exactly who you are and how deep your sin was. He loved you even
though there was no good reason for Him to love you.
And He still loves you. He still cares for you. He still daily and
richly forgives you all your sins. He waits in eager anticipation for that day
that He will give you in all its fullness a life that can never end.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Charles R. Lehmann
Assistant Pastor, Youth and Education
Peace with Christ Lutheran Church
Fort Collins, CO
http://wickedbutforgiven.blogspot.com/
http://believeloveprayfight.blogspot.com/
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