The Second Sunday After the Epiphany Behold! Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. In today’s Gospel, John points to Jesus and declares, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Dear Christian friends, In what way do your sins and regrets interact with you? Do they sleep quietly in your past, or do they still visit you, making themselves repeatedly known to you? · For some Christians, the memory of an evil past haunts them on a daily basis. Certain events in their personal history bother them more today than when those events first occurred. The vivid details of regrettable things seem to be painted on the insides of the eyelid, springing back to life with nearly every blink. · Other Christians have found a way to stuff their sorrows into a closet, so to speak. Most of the time, the trauma of memory is safely tucked away, out of sound and sight. But you know what happens when you pile things into closets and forget about them. Open the door and everything dumps out on your head. The experience of remembering your sin might be somewhat comparable to my old friend Otis Boeck: The guys at work used to have a mannequin that they liked to hide in a closet or some other place where they knew Otis was headed. Otis would open the door and get scared silly. The same thing often happens to me when I unwittingly open certain closets in my mind: not only do I find things I thought I had hidden, but they frighten me. · Other Christians walk around with the weight of the world on their shoulders. The memory of sin and regret has settled like rheumatism into their bones. They feel so injured by the sorrows of the past that they can barely handle their existence in the present, much less the thought of the future. A good amount of depression occurs because of chemical imbalances in the body, but I wonder if some of the depression we feel in life can be attributed to sorrow over sin—either the sins we have committed of the sins that other committed against us, or perhaps both. Some Christians weep in contrition; others simply nod their heads in silent assent. Some Christians feel bowled over by their sin; others do not take their sin seriously enough. King David would grow poetic about all the regrets that afflicted him (e.g., Psalm 32:3-5, 42:12). When we gather together here as a group, we make monotone confession of everything we do not want to talk about. We admit that we have “sinned against God in thought, word and deed” (LSB, 151)—even when we cannot remember every sinful thought or word or deed (Psalm 19:12). We confess that we are poor, miserable sinners (LSB, 184), whether we actually feel miserable in that moment or not. In what way do your sins and regrets interact with you? Whether the memory of your sin creates trauma for you, or whether that memory hangs quietly present like graffiti on a wall, God wants you to think of those memories as His gift to you. That might seem strange to you, that God would want you to think of the memory of your sin as His gift and blessing upon you. You might find it easier to think that the regrets of your past are more likely the tool of the devil, designed to torture you and afflict you and overwhelm you. Make no mistake about it: the old, wily foe certainly does want to drag you into despair and great shame, and he will not fail to use your memories against you. But your God is greater than the devil. That was proven once and for all in the death and resurrection of your Lord Jesus. And you also know that your Lord Jesus has done more than simply live and die and live for you—as if that were not enough. Your Lord Jesus has also come personally to you, in order to live with you and remain inside of you, with all of His resurrection power. That is why God has written concerning the Christ, “He who is in you is greater than He who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Your God is greater than that maggot-ridden devil, and your God certainly makes greater, more powerful, and more blessed use of your memories. That is why–whether the memory of your sin traumatizes you or silently accuses you—that is why God wants you to think of those memories as His gift to you. God uses the memory of your sins and regrets as a way of making you able to listen to the voice of His prophet and to look in the direction that the prophet’s finger is pointing: John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” [Then, so that none of us will miss the point,] the next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Take especially to heart that Word “world”—“Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the WORLD.” I think a lot of Christians doubt whether Jesus has forgiven all their sins, individually and personally. These Christians know and believe that Jesus forgives sins in a general sense, but they wonder whether Jesus forgives THEIR sins, individually and personally. I have become aware of this doubt by visiting to shut-ins, to bring them Holy Communion. When I serve the Holy Communion at home, I have a series of questions that I ask the people, by way of confession and absolution. · The first I ask: “Do you believe yourself to be a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness? If so, answer, I do.” When I ask this question of Christians, the answer is always quick and bold and clear: “I do.” It does not seem difficult for Christians to believe that they need forgiveness from God. · A bold and clear answer to my second question is not nearly so common. Here is the second question I ask: “Do you believe that the heavenly Father has, for the sake of His Son Jesus, forgiven all your sins and pardoned your offenses? If so answer, I do believe.” Sometimes there is choked silence. Sometimes the answer comes, “I think so.” Sometimes I need to repeat the question and admonish them to answer according to the faith: “I do believe.” God does not want you to doubt that all your sins are forgiven by Jesus! God inserted the Word “world” into today’s Gospel precisely so that you will not doubt that Jesus the Lamb of God carries your sins along with everyone else’s! “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the WORLD.” If you delude yourself into thinking you are NOT part of this world, we might need to lock you up. Look at the ground underneath your feet; draw in a few lungfuls of air; feel your whiskers or your heartbeat or the edge of your fingernails. Take all of these sensations as good evidence that you are truly part of the world and undeniably in it, then listen to what the prophet has said: “the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the WORLD.” Look in the direction of the prophet’s “Behold!” and believe. Stop doubting and do the math: I am in the world; Jesus has taken away the sins of the world; therefore Jesus has taken my sins away. · Those vivid memories of regret that you cannot escape? Jesus strapped those memories upon Himself like a backpack. Those memories died when Jesus died, and He left them behind in the tomb when He rose up from the dead. · Those skeletons that you have stacked up in all your closets? Jesus has borne them in His body, from the moment of His Baptism to the moment of His obedient death—“even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). · Do NOT carry any longer the weight of the world on your shoulders. God wants you to know in today’s Gospel that His Son Jesus already took the full weight of the world upon His own shoulders for you. John the Baptist uses a present participle in today’s Gospel, and he uses it with earnestness and seriousness: “Behold the Lamb of God, the one right now carrying—the Lamb now lifting up and holding and lugging around—the sin of the world.” When your sins and your regrets interact with you and come back to you, welcome them! Do not welcome them because of any condemnation they might attempt to lay upon you. Thus it has been written by God, “There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Welcome the memory of your sins and regrets because of good and beneficial way your God chooses to make use of your memories, turning your eyes toward Jesus—so that you will like what you see and welcome Him with relief. “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
