THE
FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT - APRIL 1 & 2, 2000
St. Mark's
Evangelical Lutheran Church - Watertown, WI
JESUS'
PURPOSE IS CLEAR. LUKE 13:31-35
Have you always known what you were
going to do with your life? Have you
always understood and recognized the talents and gifts that God has given you
and what you should do with them? Today
young people are being told that they will make five to eight career changes in
their lives. That's not job changes but career changes. Our children in grade school will be doing
things when they grow up that aren't being done today. That's how fast the job market and the world
is changing. Those of us who have been in
a job for more than 20 years are often being eased out, bought out, downsized
or told that our services are no longer needed.
Why? Sometimes it is because we
cost the company too much money. We have
accumulated too many weeks of vacation.
We are paid handsomely for what we do and the company can replace us
with two people for what they are paying us.
The days of a person starting with one company after school and staying
with that same employer until retirement are over. This continual change and uncertainty can be
very unsettling for most people. We look
for stability. We look for things that
will last.
There is one place where we can find
stability, security and consistency.
That place is the Word of God and the person who never changes, is
stable and secure is our Lord Jesus Christ.
As our loving Lord says, "I the Lord do not change." (Malachi 3:6a) Today as we examine another incident in the
ministry of Jesus we note that JESUS' PURPOSE IS CLEAR. As we listen to Jesus' words to the Pharisees
who told him to run for the hills and leave where he was; we learn I) What His
Purpose Is. Then as we hear our
Savior's lament and sorrow over the people of Jerusalem we note II) Why That
Was His Purpose.
WHAT
HIS PURPOSE IS
What is your purpose in life? Our culture has been telling us that our
purpose is to be happy, to satisfy our wants and needs; to look out for number
one because if you don't, no one else will.
Why do you think that the issues of abortion, assisted-suicide,
euthanasia, infanticide and suicide are so popular today? All of these play into my being happy. What's good for me. What do I want. What's going to make me happy and satisfy my
wants and desires. Why are our families
falling apart? Because moms and dads are
no longer interested in taking the time, effort and money to train and raise
their children. Why not? Because they
are too busy doing their own thing. We
are losing sight of being concerned about others and are focusing only on our
needs and wants.
The Bible, however, tells us that
our purpose is to bring glory to God.
Now what does that mean? The
psalmist writes, "Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being praise
His holy name." (Psalm 103:1) What does it mean to praise the Lord? We praise God when we tell others how great
and wonderful our God is and when we tell our God how great he is. This past week we have heard a lot of praise
and honor given to the members of the University of Wisconsin basketball team
and its coach. You may have read or at
least heard comments on the news and sports about the players and the coach,
their talents and abilities. That's what
praise is. That's our purpose in life to
bring praise to God for all that he has done and continues to do for each of
us. Our purpose is also to live our
lives so that they bring glory and honor to God. The Bible tells us, "This is love for
God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not
burdensome." (1 John 5:3)
Now what was Jesus' purpose in
coming to this earth? Our Lord
understood his mission on this earth, even though we often forget ours and
don't understand it. His purpose was to
bring glory and praise to God. He came
to this earth to obey his Father's will.
He came to live, die and rise from the dead for each of us. He came to release us from guilt and shame
and to make it possible for us to live forever with the Lord in his heavenly
kingdom.
In our reading for today Jesus was
up north in Galilee or Perea which was under the rule of King Herod. This is the king who had beheaded John the
Baptist. Some Pharisees came to Jesus
and told him that he had better leave this place because Herod was out to put
him to death. Another distraction. Another attempt to try and get Jesus to
forget his focus and purpose on this earth.
But Jesus does not waver. He is not scared by the suggested attempt on
his life. Listen to what he says to
those Pharisees, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal
people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal. In any case, it is necessary that I keep
going today and tomorrow and the next day - for surely no prophet can die
outside Jerusalem!" (vv. 32-33)
Jesus understood his purpose. He
was to proclaim the good news, heal the sick, drive out demons and finally die
in Jerusalem. He knew that he would not
die until it was the Lord's time and he knew that he would die in Jerusalem.
Jesus understood his purpose and he
was not deterred nor distracted by other things to accomplish his goal and
mission in life.
WHY
WAS THAT JESUS' PURPOSE?
Why was Jesus' purpose to rescue the
human race? Because God loves each of us
and he wants all of us to spend eternity with him in paradise. As Jesus mentions that no prophet can die
outside of Jerusalem, he pauses to consider the fate of the residents of
Jerusalem and of the nation of Israel.
These people were God's chosen people.
He had chosen the descendants of Abraham as the people through whom he
would bring the Savior to the world. He
had blessed these people. And now they
had turned their backs on him. But
Jesus wanted these people to be saved. Listen
to his words of concern and anguish, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill
the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather
your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you
were not willing!" (v. 34) Jesus loved these people. He did not want to see them lost
forever. He still in love reaches out to
the Jews to this day. He wants them to
turn from their sinful ways and to him as their Lord and Savior.
We see Jesus' purpose of saving all
demonstrated throughout his entire ministry.
Even in the Garden of Gethsemane when Judas comes up to Jesus and kisses
him, our Lord does not strike Judas nor spit on him and call him "a dirty
traitor". Rather in love he reaches
out to this fallen disciple and says, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of
Man with a kiss?" (Luke 22:48)
Jesus had forgiven Judas and he wanted Judas to believe that. When Peter swore that he did not even know
who Jesus was, Jesus lovingly looked down from the balcony on Peter. Later after Jesus' resurrection from the
grave, he reinstated Peter as his apostle assuring Peter that he was forgiven
and commissioning him to go and preach this good news to the world.
These words of Jesus answer the
question why not everyone will be in heaven.
Why is it that some people do not believe? It is their own fault. They reject the love and forgiveness that God
freely offers them. As Jesus says of
many of the Jews of his day, "you were not willing". (v. 34c)
It is not God's fault. It is the
unbeliever's own fault. They have
rejected and turned away from the forgiveness that God offers to all people.
Many reject this forgiveness because
they see no need for it. If you think
you're wonderful and ok, then why do you need God's pardon? God should accept you because of who you are,
the wonderful things you have done in life and the fact that you at least tried
to do your best. But that attitude won't
cut it with God. God says we have to be
holy, without any blemish or stain, perfect.
And none of us are.
Others reject this idea of a Savior
because they have manufactured a God who is all loving and would never punish
anyone. They believe that God, if there
is one, accepts anyone and everyone, no matter what they believe and that there
are many different ways to God. They
view a God who would punish anyone as barbaric and certainly not in keeping
with the thinking of the 21st century.
You feel sorry for these people who
have been deluded by their own sinful ideas, the trickery of the devil and the
lovelessness of our world. When they
finally have to stand before their Maker and Judge, they will have no one to
blame but themselves. They rejected
God's free forgiveness in Jesus Christ the Savior of the whole world. As Jesus said, "Look your house is left
to you desolate. I tell you, 'You will
not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord." (v. 35) They have no hope
and will not be able to stand on that last day when the believers welcome Jesus
back as our great Lord and Judge.
But why do we believe all this? Can we take any credit for that? No. No
credit at all. It is only because of the
mercy and grace of God that we trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior and
Lord. We did not make some great
decision one day to rely on and trust in Jesus.
That is a miracle that God worked in our lives. He did that through the power of His
Word. For many of us that happened when
we were infants at our baptism when the Holy Spirit entered our lives and gave
us the gift of faith in Jesus as our Savior.
For others it has come later in life as you have heard God's Word
proclaimed to you or as you have read the Bible and the Holy Spirit has worked
faith in your heart. This precious faith
that we have is a gift of God. As the
Bible says, "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this
not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works so that no one can
boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) As the Apostle also writes, "No one can
say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit." (1 Corinthians 12:3) And Paul writes, "But because of his
great love for us, God, who is rich in
mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it
is by grace you have been saved."
(Ephesians 2:4-5) That doesn't
make sense does it? No, not at all. Our reason says that - "If I have the
ability to reject something, then I should have the ability to accept it." But that is not God's way. The Bible tells us that if we don't believe,
it is our own fault and no one else's because we have rejected the love and
forgiveness of God. However, the Bible
also says, if you do believe, you can't take any credit for that. Because that faith is a gift that God has
given to you. I don't understand
it. But I believe it because that's what
our Lord says in his Word and our God does not lie.
Since the power lies in God's
almighty Word, then how important it is for us to proclaim that Word to more
and more people. How important it is to
invite people to come and hear, to come and see what God has done for
them. How vital it is for us to be
reading God's Word daily in our homes and weekly gathering here in God's house
to hear that Word of Life which has brought us to faith and keeps us in the
faith. How important it is to frequently
and often receive our Savior's body and blood in the blessed sacrament for the
forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of the faith that God has freely
given to us.
Jesus carried out his purpose on
this earth. He accomplished what he came
here to do. He did not waver from that
purpose. Because Jesus was victorious,
we share that victory with him and our purpose is clear. When we wander and stray from our purpose of
giving glory and honor to God with our lives, thank
God that the blood of
Jesus Christ washes those sins away and assures us of eternal life in heaven.
Amen