"No Better than My Fathers"
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 9, 2009
John 6:35-51
Elijah was in despair but he was right, he was no better than his
fathers. How many times had he seen the hand of God in his life and in
the life of the people of God, and yet, there he was, wanting to give
up on it all.
The people in dialogue with Jesus in the Gospel reading did a pretty
good job of showing that they, too, were no better than their fathers.
They just couldn’t get their minds adjusted to the fact that this man
they knew, the son of Joseph and Mary, was God and the only one in
whom there is salvation.
It would be easy for us to sit here today and content ourselves with
the notion that we know better. We have seen with our own eyes the
Scriptures which tell us of the death and resurrection of Christ for
salvation. We have been Baptized, we have the assurance that we are a
new creation in Christ. We believe what our Lord tells us in the
Gospel reading “that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him
should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Does this mean that we are better than our fathers? Have we come to a
point where we can say that we are better than those who have gone
before us? It’s easy enough for us to look around us and compare
ourselves to those we know, thinking of ourselves as better because we
don’t use profane language like they do, and we don’t treat others
condescendingly like they do, and we are here every Sunday, unlike
them. And, well, we could go on and on, couldn’t we?
We do think we’re better than others, don’t we? But how does Paul talk
to the Ephesian Christians in our Epistle reading? They are distinct
from those who “are darkened in their understanding, alienated from
the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their
hardness of heart. [Those who] have become callous and have given
themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of
impurity.” Why then does Paul go on to exhort the Ephesians to live
like they are distinct? Why does he have to tell them to live the way
God commands us to live and not live in the way He commands not to?
The answer is simple: they are no better than their fathers. And we
must hear the words of Paul in the same way they did, as the Word of
God to Christians who are always on the verge of despair as Elijah
was, because there is never any hope of ourselves but only hope in the
one who has made us a new creation. That’s why we must continually
confess that we are no better than our fathers.
Jesus is blunt because He tells us what we need to hear. He says in
the Gospel reading: “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and
they died.” I don’t mean to sound morbid, but this is a great verse.
They were fed bread from heaven. God gave them manna so that they
could live. And yet, they all ended up dying, didn’t they? Food will
keep us alive only in this world. The Bread of Life will ensure life
without end. There’s really no point in trying to fool ourselves.
Elijah was right. He was no better than his fathers. The people in the
Gospel reading were no better than their fathers. All those in the
church at Ephesus who thought they could be Christians and keep living
in the way of the world were no better than their fathers.
Jesus has no interest in helping us get better than those who have
gone before us. He has one goal in mind and that is to slay our sinful
flesh. Beat it down and bring it to an end. His work is to bring us to
life eternal. To give us life in which we are a new creation. To free
us up so that we may freely serve.
All this talk in the Gospel reading about fathers was going nowhere so
Jesus turned things in a new direction. He would talk to them about
the Heavenly Father. Jesus is equal to the Father. His claim to be so
irritated them to no end. And yet, Jesus’ claim to be God, His
declaration that He and the Father are one, did not detract Him from
submitting to the will of His Heavenly Father. He did not consider
Himself slighted in the least that He would give Himself up for the
life of the world.
He had no problem stating straight out that He is God and that
salvation is only in Him. He’s not simply better than our fathers, He
is the only one born of a woman who is without sin. The only one in
whom there is no guile. The only one who has lived in accordance with
the perfect and holy will of the Heavenly Father. The only who can
stand and not need fear to fall.
His purpose is not bragging rights, as if to say, we’re no better than
our fathers and He is better than we are. No, His purpose is simply to
make clear that it’s not that we’re no better than our fathers, it’s
that we stand before God condemned, in a state of spiritual death.
That our only hope is in Him but that our life is wrapped up in Him so
that we may have hope. That He who is without end chose to die so that
we who deserve eternal death may live forever.
Today, take a page from the life of Elijah, and realize and confess
that you are indeed no better than your fathers. You are by nature
sinful and unclean. But realize also that you need not despair as he
did, because confessing your sin is for the purpose of repenting. Your
confession is responded to by your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with
Absolution. He forgives you all your sins. Elijah needed to be lifted
up, to be fed. So that’s exactly what God did for him, He fed him.
It’s what He does for you as well. He forgives you. He feeds you with
His Body and Blood often in His Holy Meal. He strengthens you for the
journey ahead, which ultimately leads to eternal life in heaven. Amen.
SDG
--
Pastor Paul L. Willweber
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS]
San Diego, California
princeofpeacesd.net
three-taverns.net
It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything
except where the marks of the Church are concerned.
[Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian]
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