Behold, Your Redemption Comes :: Luke 21:25-36
Straighten up and lift up your heads because your redemption comes near (v 28).
Last week we crossed the threshold of a new church year, and stepped into the monthlong season of Advent. The special emphasis of Advent, as all of you should know, is the truth that Christ comes near. It’s not just that he came once to us in the past and will come again in the future to judge the living and the dead, but that he also continues to come to us today in Word and Sacrament. Behold, Christ comes: yesterday, tomorrow ... and even today!
This is great news and the root theme for our observance of Advent this year. We recognized that last week when we heard that behold, your savior comes to you. Answering how and why he does this is what I plan to have us focus on today and the next two weeks.
The Lord of Heaven and Earth inspired all of the prophets and apostles to proclaim this message to you ... this Gospel ... this Good News ... that God loves us in this way: He comes to live for you, die for you, rest for you, rise for you, and ascend into the heavens where he is preparing a place for you before coming one final time. But just as importantly, the Word of the Lord today tells us something more.
IN COMING, HE BRINGS REDEMPTION ... NOT ONLY THROUGH THE CROSS, BUT IN WORD AND SACRAMENT UNTIL THE END
This is our theme.
I To make your redemption possible, our Lord first had to do something we couldn’t do, which is, of course, Come.
What a miracle that is: God becoming one with us in the flesh. God is with us in the flesh! And he comes with purpose ... he comes to redeem.
Remember, we couldn’t come to him. Sin has created a great divide between us and God … a divide as wide as darkness and light. Because sin is that black, because we are lost in such darkness, we couldn’t find God, even if we wanted to. We can’t see without light. As Saint John tells us in his Gospel ... which we’re exploring during our midweek services this year ... even when he came the first time, we didn’t recognize him. Nor did we know him, or receive him. Instead, we denied him and killed him.
That sin alone should appall you. Your sin killed Jesus ... our pride in our works ... for the wages of sin is death. That alone should terrify you now.
But even though we now believe in Jesus … you do, don’t you? … our sin still doesn’t terrify us as it should. We cover it up. We rename it. We try to minimize and soften it. We deny our idolatry. We do everything we can to make it less evil than it really is. We act like it doesn’t affect us. Sometimes, we won’t even allow our brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for us. We aren’t interested in allowing others to have compassion. We say we don’t need God to come.
Worse, we tell ourselves that it’s OK to live in this sin. We convince ourselves that our hate isn’t murder. We rename adultery as freedom, and perversion as our way of life. We try to convince ourselves it’s OK to live together out of wedlock, and that being open minded isn’t turning our backs on God. We make ourselves too busy to even consider who Jesus really is ... the God who comes when we need him most. We convince ourselves we are providing for our family, but in reality we are doing nothing but worshiping and relying on ourselves ... on our feelings ... on our thoughts ... on our works ... and on our prosperity ... as if those provide us evidence that God comes to us.
In the name of Jesus, repent everyone of you.
Then heed the Word of our Lord, who tells us today: Pay attention to yourselves lest your hearts become burdened with self-indulgence and drunkenness and the cares of [daily life]. ... Lift up your heads because your redemption comes.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, have confidence in what God has done for you in your baptism: Giving you victory over death and the devil, and delivering to you the forgiveness of sin, God’s grace, life of Christ, and the Holy Spirit with his gifts of Word and sacrament (Rm 6:3-6, Acts 2:38, Titus 3:5-6, 1 Cor 6:11, Mt 26:26). You can then share God’s love for you by seeking forgiveness and reconciliation with each other. And you can believe the Gospel, turning to the Lord for the rest of his means of grace, and the redemption they bring.
II So what is this redemption that comes and how does it come?
In the Greek, redemption is literally a word that means “from ransom.” In other words, Jesus paid a ransom to set us free ... he redeemed us. He released us from the debt and burden we brought upon ourselves. Christ redeemed from the empty way of life handed down from your forefathers with his precious blood (1 Pt 1:18-19). He died for you.
Our Lord Jesus provided the sacrifice we could never provide ... a sacrifice of perfection ... his own life, his own blood, his own death, his own rest in the tomb. This is why he came the first time. He provided a sacrifice of innocent suffering and death. And through it we have life. ... so we can come to God.
What happened at the cross was the satisfaction of God’s demands. Your sin cannot haunt you any longer. Christ put your sin to death. He took our sin ... carried it to the cross ... and bore the wrath of a just and righteous God. We can now wait for the blessed hope (to come) ... the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good (Titus 2:13-14). Now you who believe in Jesus, who trust him, were once lost and condemned ... have been saved by his redemption.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is a gift of God’s grace to you (Rm 3:24). It is apprehended by faith in Christ.
And until he comes on the clouds in glory ... you will see it come no other way than through Word and Sacraments. The redemption he delivers through baptism, absolution and the supper provide us with the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:14). His redemption leads to our sanctification ... making us holy just as he is holy. His redemption provides us with an invitation to the feast that nourishes us, preserving us until that final day Jesus describes in our reading, so that we can escape all the things that are about to happen, and so that he can stand us up before God on judgment day in confidence knowing that we are one of the saints, holy and blameless.
III So why do we not long ... yes, long ... for Christ’s redemption?
It’s because too often we have the wrong idea about how, when, and where Jesus comes to bring us redemption.
When we examine the response of God’s people to our Lord when he spoke the words of our Gospel for the first time, we recognize that there were two reactions: Some people ignore the Word of Christ and his miracles. They convince themselves Christ won’t come this morning to serve us. They convince themselves they don’t want to be served by Christ.
But we NOT ONLY believe in Jesus ... that he is true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity and also true Man, born of the virgin Mary ... We NOT ONLY believe he came, and that he will come again ... But we believe, teach, and confess that he continues to come, personally delivering his fruit of his redemption ... the forgiveness of sins ... in means of grace which he delivers to us in the Divine Service. Behold, your redemption not only has come ... it continues to come in his means. We are saved by his grace not by our works (Eph 2:8-9).
So, brothers and sisters in Christ, as the evangelist to the Hebrews wrote, Let us cling to the confession of our hope without wavering, for the one who promised is faithful (Heb 10:23). His redemption is coming ... even today ... there on the altar. Let us pay attention to one another for the purpose of stirring up love and good works, not neglecting being gathered together, as is the custom of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day coming near (Heb 10:24-25).
That day is here. The signs of the times certainly are. The nations are consumed with uncertainty. The echoes of the sea and the waves (v 25) ... that is, sin in the world ... consume them. People all around us continue fainting from fear and expectation of the things coming upon [them] (v26). ... They do that because they refuse to see and hear the truth of how Jesus comes.
Lift up your heads and look no further than the Altar! Here we gain the treasure of the forgiveness of sins, the redemption provided by Christ himself! Here Christ comes to us every time we celebrate his Supper that proclaims the Gospel. He comes and asks us to eat and drink so that this treasure may be our own and may benefit us as a sure pledge and token of his love. As Luther tells us in the catechism, the Sacrament is given (it comes) as a daily pasture and sustenance that faith may refresh and strengthen itself (Ps 23:1-3) ... and ... become ever stronger and stronger. (LC V 24).
As Luther once said, We ought to write these things upon our hearts with gold letters for they are immeasurably comforting to all who believe in everlasting life that was secured with our redemption. Even as you see the world growing more vile and coming apart at the seams, we will know that Christ’s redemption is yours. You are his disciples ... you have been redeemed.