Lent 5—Judica
Beloved. Today we enter the final two weeks of Lent. These are the most intense weeks as we focus our attention to Jesus’ rejection and suffering and death. These final, two, intense weeks of Lent are known as Passiontide. It begins with today where, in the Gospel, we see Jesus rejected and slandered by the religious leaders of the Jews as they call Jesus a Samaritan—one outside of the people of God—and claim that He has a demon. Passiontide continues into next week when we see Jesus entering into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday—to the joy of great crowds, but also crowds that would at the end of the week cry out for His blood: Crucify Him! We see next week our Lord’s agony in Gethsemane; His betrayal and arrest; His trial and beatings and crucifixion and finally His death and burial.
This theme of Passiontide—passion meaning “suffering”—is struck right away in today’s Introit, words from the psalm but a prayer that certainly depicts what was going on in the heart and mind of Jesus: Vindicate Me, O God, and plead My cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. Jesus is the holy and righteous One, the very God Himself who does nothing but the will of God and speaks nothing but the word of God. And yet He is being accused by the religious leaders—the very ones who should know better—of being in league with the devil and having a demon. Also another psalm, which certainly depicts Jesus’ thoughts during this time, says [Ps 69.4]: Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of My head; they are mighty who would destroy Me, Being my enemies wrongfully. In today’s Gospel, Jesus points out the foolishness of and even how irrational this rejection and hatred of Him by this ungodly nation is. He asks: “Who of you can convict me of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?” They could certainly reject Jesus and claim He has a demon or is in league with the devil if they could point to even one sin. Certainly if they could accuse Jesus of a sin, they would have jumped on it as a reason or cause to reject Him.
Even this little statement of Jesus is one of great comfort for the Christian because it points to His sinlessness: Who of you can convict Me of sin? That was part of Jesus’ work as our Savior: to live for us, in our place, a holy sinless life and so obey the holy commandments and will of God for us. And not even His fiercest enemies could accuse Him of a sin. Simply hurling accusations like the Jews here did do not create truth. And our Lord’s fiercest enemies here also accidently do us another favor. They ask the question: Who do think You are? For them, that was a question of contempt. But this same question in a good and honest heart can serve well the person who is really trying to find out the truth and lead them to the truth. And for us today entering the final two, intense weeks of Lent, it does us well to consider that question: Who do think You are?
What was it said in response to? It was said in response to Jesus’ statement: Amen, Amen, I tell you: If anyone holds on to My word, he will certainly never see death. What is Jesus’ claim here? He claiming that He has the power over life and death because whoever holds on to Jesus’ word will never see or taste death. So Jesus’ word has this power to keep us from death. So what does it mean to hold on to [Jesus’] word? It means to guard and keep and treasure His word—what His word says and gives. To hold on to [Jesus’] word does not just mean simply seeing it as a fact of history, merely to accept with the mind that yes, there was a historical person Jesus of Nazareth, that He lived in Roman Palestine in the 1st century, that He preached, that He even performed miracles, that He died or even that He rose again. Just accepting that as historical fact accepted by the mind, is not hold[ing] on to [Jesus’] word. But holding on to Jesus’ word is faith; it is trust that Jesus is the Son of God who became true man—that’s what His preaching and miracles show; it is the firm conviction that while on this earth He lived a holy life for me, obeying all of God’s commandments—those very commandments that I break day in and day out—fulfilling God’s demands of righteousness; it is that certainty that when He died on the cross, He died for my sin, taking on Himself my sin and guilt and their punishment; it is the certain trust that Jesus rose from the dead and that my sins are all forgiven me. We keep/ guard Jesus’ word in the heart by faith. We hold on to Jesus and His work, the blessings of His work, and put our confidence/ trust in Him for the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. We regard Jesus’ word If anyone holds on to My word, he will certainly never see death as the most glorious promise and hang on to it. Precisely when we sin, precisely when we feel the burden of our sin and guilt, we run back to the word and work of Jesus and in faith receive and hold fast His word of forgiveness; we run to the holy absolution: I forgive you all your sin; we run to the Holy Supper: This is My body. This is My blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sin. This is holding on to Jesus’ word! And so precious is that word to us, that we don’t ever want to lose it; we don’t ever not want to hear it. That’s why we find ourselves gathered in church to hear it; that’s why we study Scripture and read solid devotional books; that’s why we strive to fight against sin and live a life of holiness, lest we lose the Holy Spirit and faith.
The glorious thing is that when Jesus says: If anyone holds on to My word, he will certainly never see death, He is saying His word has power. It is a power that frees from death, that gives power over death. As we hold on to Jesus’ word, not only are we receiving now the fruit and blessing of Jesus’ work—the forgiveness of sin —but even at the moment of death, we go from life here on earth in the Lord to life in heaven with our Lord forever. That’s because in Jesus, our sins are forgiven us; they no longer separate us from God; in Jesus God is our dear heavenly Father and we are His dear children and heirs of heaven. So, unless Jesus returns first, because we are sinners, we will all die, but what makes death so horrible and wretched is dying outside of the grace and mercy of God in Jesus where there is nothing but God’s wrath and damnation in hell. But, If anyone holds on to My word, he will certainly never see death, the Christian, the one dying in the faith, in the forgiveness of sin, in the grace and friendship of God, does not see/ taste the power and might of the bitterness of death.
Who do think You are? Jesus is the One with power over life and death. He delivers us from spiritual and eternal death. Our text: So the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets. Yet you say, ‘If anyone holds on to my word, he will certainly never taste death.’” There’s a difference between spiritual and eternal death—eternal wrath, punishment and condemnation in hell—and physical death. When Jesus here says, If anyone holds on to my word, he will certainly never see death, He is speaking about eternal death. But the Jews here refer to physical death—the death that all, because we are sinners, will experience. They twice in short order say that both Abraham and the prophets died. Physically, yes, both Abraham and the prophets died—but not spiritually. Spiritually they are alive! Their souls are alive in heaven with all our Lord’s dear saints. This Jesus makes clear elsewhere [Mt.22.32]: Have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. The point? –Although Abraham—and the prophets—died, they were still alive. They did not see/ taste what makes death truly horrible because they looked ahead and saw the day of Jesus, rejoiced and were glad—that is, they believed the promise of the coming Savior who would crush sin, death, devil and hell, who would bring about the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Jesus puts it this way in the Gospel: Your father Abraham was glad that he would see my day. He saw it and rejoiced. They put their faith in the coming Savior, Jesus, and His work. If anyone holds on to My word, he will certainly never see death.
We have Jesus’ answer to the Jews’ question: Who do think You are? In effect, in our text, Jesus says: I am the one with power over life and death. He brought us the forgiveness of sins and eternal by His life, suffering and death. He gives it to us in His word, thus: If anyone holds on to My word, he will certainly never see death.
There is a further Passiontide thought here as well. Since Jesus is the one with power over life and death, it means that He is not subject to it. It means He doesn’t have to die like we do because we are sinners; Jesus had no sin of His own. That means Jesus entered death/laid down His life willingly for us. Later He said [Jn 10.18], No one takes [My life] from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. And He did—He laid down His life on the cross and took it back again at Easter. Jesus, the true God, entered death willingly in order to destroy it so that we can go from life here to eternal life in heaven.
Again the question: Who do think You are? Not only is Jesus the one with the power over life and death, but He is the one God the Father glorifies: “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, about whom you say, ‘He is our God.’” Since the Father glorifies the Son, Christ Jesus, He is putting His mark of approval on Jesus, that He is the Son of God and Savior of the world; that He should be listened to; that whoever holds to His word/ trusts in Him will never see death.
All throughout His life the Father was glorifying Jesus. Certainly we have the angels praising Him at His birth from the virgin; at His baptism, the Father announces Jesus as the Son in whom He delights; each of His miracles showed the Father was standing by Jesus and confirming His preaching as the Son of God and Savior of the world; at the transfiguration not only do we have the Father again announcing that Jesus is His beloved Son but also we are given the command [Mt. 17.5]: Hear Him. Jesus doesn’t glorify Himself—the Father glorifies Him all during His earthly ministry, giving Him His “stamp of approval.”
Even in His crucifixion Jesus is glorified by the Father. Here what looks likes the greatest shame and contempt, and God’s greatest rejection of Jesus is actually the Father glorifying Jesus. Jesus told the Holy Week crowd [Jn 12.32]: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” By this very means of most shameful torture and contempt, the Father will draw people to Jesus and to His saving work. The apostle writes [1 Cor. 1.18]: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Jesus is glorified as His death for the sins of the world is proclaimed and the forgiveness He won given out. The heart of the penitent sinners is turned to Jesus, trusting in Him and His work, and here Jesus is glorified.
Of course, the Father’s great glorification is Easter Sunday, when beyond any shadow of a doubt the Father glorifies Jesus, raising Him from the dead, giving His stamp of approval of all that Jesus had done. In the resurrection, the Father glorifies the Son by accepting as complete and perfect all of Jesus’ work for the salvation of the world. Our salvation is in Jesus perfect and complete!
As we ponder the Jews’ question to Jesus, Who do think You are? we are greatly comforted. We see that Jesus is the One with power over life and death, glorified by the Father. We see that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. INJ Amen.