St. John 14:1-14
“Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me,” Jesus says. Jesus proceeds to promise the disciples he will, in fact, come again. Jesus says, “I will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” The gospel certainly brings to mind the thoughts and the “buzz” of the media this past week. Jesus will come again. No doubt. We confess this fact in the Nicene Creed every Sunday: “And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead.” St. Mark makes clear that no man can know the exact day and hour of Christ’s return. Mark records Jesus as saying, “But of that day and hour no man knows, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father”(St. Mark 13:32). When a person steps up, though, and makes such a bold claim as “the world is going to end tomorrow”, the thought creeps into the brain-- “What if he is right?” “What if the world really is going to end tomorrow?” Then, because a man speaks, the inclination is to doubt the holy scriptures. Why? Because the voice of a person speaking in our midst in today’s world seems more credible than something written nearly 2000 years ago. Then comes the thought- “Is Jesus real?” And suddenly you find that everything starts to unravel unless you go right back to the holy scriptures. This is not only a modern day problem. It is a perennial problem. In the 1500’s there were two men by the name of Simons--Menno Simons and his brother Peter. The Mennonites hail from Menno Simons. These two brothers had rejected the efficacy of the Word and Sacraments and began to focus on their own conversion and power--they focused on their feelings and felt needs. Peter Simons joined a group of people who began to prophesy that Jesus was going to come to Munster, Germany and establish an earthly kingdom. So they took over the town established their own government and began to kill and run off the people who would not listen to their prophecy. Jesus did not come, but the revolutionaries were scattered and killed by the official military and Peter himself was later put to death. The problem of misunderstanding Jesus and the scriptures can be seen in the disciples’ response to Jesus saying he must go away. Thomas replies, “We do not know where you are going and how can we know the way?” Thomas’ question comes up again later when he says he will not believe Jesus has resurrected unless he sees the nail marks. Thomas wants to see to believe. Perhaps behind all these false prophecies is a desire to “see” with the result that “believing” will in some way be made easier. We see with the enemies of Christ in the gospel that this is not the case. Part of the incarnate One’s point in the sermon is to teach the disciples that He must go away in order that the Holy Spirit may be given to the church in order to sustain her. Jesus tells them near the end of the sermon in chapter 16, “It is for your sake that I go away: unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you”(St. John 16:7). What is this sermon of Jesus leading us to but the doctrine of the church--what it means to be the body of Christ. We might be in agreement with the disciples that having Jesus around to journey with us might be easier for us to believe (as we see in Peter’s rebuke of Christ’s passion prediction-St. Matt. 16:22), but we must remember what the prophet Habakkuk says, “The just shall live by his faith”(Habakkuk 2:4). The great apostle, St. Paul expands upon this when he writes to the church in Rome: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith”(Romans 1:17). In other words, the righteousness of God is revealed in and amongst those who do not see yet believe. Put another way, the righteousness of God is revealed in the church. Jesus had to leave us--and He tells Thomas later, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”(St. John 20:29). Why? Is it because there are better works in those who have not seen yet have believed? By no means is this the case. Rather, those who have not seen and have believed are more blessed because of what Jesus is telling them concerning the sending of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. This is all about the church. To become Christ’s children and a part of the body of Christ, we had to give up our own life and be so transformed that we would begin to live an entirely new kind of life that would be pleasing to God. This could only come about by the sharing of the Holy Spirit. St. Peter makes a very important statement in this regard in 2 Peter 1:4: “whereby are given to us great and precious promises, in order that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” What it all means is this: Some great irony lies in the fact that Jesus leaves, gives His Holy Spirit to the church and thereby unites Himself to the church in a mysterious way rather than face to face. Through the word and sacraments we are joined to Jesus and united to Him in a way that wasn’t possible when he was walking with the disciples. “The just shall live by faith” is a demonstration of the care, promise, and nurture of Jesus through the Holy Spirit rather than the strength of those who have not seen and yet have believed. This truth is at work in our lives today. The funny thing about all of this end of the world stuff and the coming of Jesus for judgment is that hidden under all of their noses is Jesus under the bread and wine in the sacrament (This is why the cup is lifted up by the pastor after it is consecrated). All the world is “abuzz” at one man’s statement that Jesus is coming, all the while, Jesus truly comes to us in the sacrament, bringing His forgiveness, mercy, and strength to people who struggle, grow weak, and falter from their sins in this journey of faith. The truth remains that the Holy Scriptures speak of a merciful and loving Savior Who was incarnate, lived, died, and rose from the dead breaking open the tombs and sepulchers, setting you free and opening heaven to all who would believe. The righteousness of God is revealed in the church, in and amongst the word and sacraments, in the midst of Christ’s baptized and forgiven children, where the Holy Spirit does His work. Jesus comes to you in this blessed sacrament while all the world continues to look up at the sky, but you look at the cup and you find Jesus for you. Amen. -- Rev. Chad Kendall Trinity Lutheran Church Lowell, Indiana www.trinitylowell.org http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=243282012833
