Easter 5
Beloved. St. Peter tells us in today’s Epistle: in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Here we see three continuing effects of Easter—because remember: Easter is not just a one day event, nor is it just a seven week long season of the Church Year; instead, Easter has an effect on our daily lives as we ponder it and take to heart its simple but yet power message: Jesus rose from the dead! And in these words from St. Peter, we see three effects Easter has. The first is: regard[ing] Christ the Lord as holy; the next is: hope: a reason for the hope that is in you; and the other is: make a defense, that is, not to be afraid but to speak about Jesus. The thing is, as we live out our lives as Christians, we will be noticed—not because we’re trying to make a scene or to stand out—but the fact that we are Christians/ different from the unbelieving world will be obvious as we simply live our lives; and people will notice that! And they will wonder why and will ask us, and that’s when we can share the good news about Jesus in a sincere and natural way. We can tell about the hope that we have because Jesus died and rose again: we have hope because things are right between us and God and we know He is our dear, loving heavenly Father; we have hope because our sins are forgiven us; we have hope of a glorious eternal future as hell is shut to us and heaven is opened to us. As we tell the good news about Jesus to those who ask us, that is explaining, defending our faith, mak[ing] a defense.
Dear Christian, we have that hope because the Holy Spirit has worked that faith/ assurance in our hearts. By His work we believe Jesus’ resurrection. The Holy Spirit brings us to this faith and keeps us in this faith as He works through the word and Sacraments. Why is it that the Holy Spirit comes to us and brings us to the hope? Because Jesus sent Him; our risen and ascended Savior sent the Holy Spirit to us so that we believe His resurrection and so have hope.
What does Jesus promise in today’s Gospel? And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever…the Spirit of truth…You know Him, for He dwells in you. By the working and power of the Holy Spirit in us we not only believe in Jesus, not only have hope by His resurrection, but we also then can make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; we can tell the good news about Jesus.
That’s what we see St. Paul doing in today’s first reading. He is on a missionary journey in Athens where he walks around and sees all the idols of the Greeks. Seeing these idols, it says his spirit was provoked within him. Here were all these idols of false gods when it was the true God who alone is to receive all honor, glory and worship. There are so many idols that, in case they miss one, they even have one “To the unknown god.” And so here, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, St. Paul proclaims the true God; He preaches Jesus and His resurrection.
It is the power and the fact of Jesus and His bodily resurrection that propelled St. Paul and the other disciples to go out into the world to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen. If Paul hadn’t been convinced by the Holy Spirit, if he hadn’t seen the resurrected Jesus, if Jesus wasn’t truly alive from the dead, would St. Paul and the rest have gone out into all the world to proclaim Jesus? If Jesus hadn’t truly risen from the dead and by that confirmed all that He had done and said about Himself —that He is the Son of God and the Savior of the world—would St. Paul and the other apostles have suffered so terribly for proclaiming the resurrection; would they have laid down their lives for a lie; would they have suffered and laid down their lives if just Jesus’ memory was alive in their hearts but He was physically/ bodily still dead? This is the power of the fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. The resurrection today still gives us hope and still leads us to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, to tell the Good News about Jesus. And what do we read in today’s first reading? Paul was preaching Jesus and the resurrection so some of the Greek philosophers took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Talk about mak[ing] a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you!
Now notice what St. Paul does here. He was kind to them, and like St. Peter writes: he did it with gentleness and respect, even though his spirit was provoked within him. But he doesn’t respect their false ideas. Instead, he shows them the foolishness and irrationality of their idols, of thinking that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
He begins by showing the dignity of God by highlighting the dignity of humanity. St. Paul preaches here: Being then God’s offspring. God created the first man, Adam—and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth. And so all people are God’s creation and offspring. Since that is true, God has to be greater than the ones that He created. The greater creates the lesser—not the other way around. So if there are all these idols formed by the art and imagination of man, these people must have a low conception of god—man is greater than god. What kind of god is that?
But as St. Paul points out: man, being then God’s offspring, must be great. So how can he worship as a god an idol that is a product of his hands? Isn’t that beneath human dignity? Idol worship is unworthy of the lofty descent of humanity. Isn’t worshipping objects of stone or silver as a god thinking too little of the One who made us? In place of these gods, St. Paul is saying, put the infinite greatness, power and glory of the one true God who has revealed Himself in the creation and who is revealed in us His offspring, the crown jewel of His creation!
Also notice how closely St. Paul connects the dignity of God with the dignity of humanity. That means, though, that where one is gone or has gone askew, the other will follow. We see that in our society today with abortion and euthanasia, for example: People have a low view of God or even reject Him completely; so if there is no God or if God is whatever we make Him, how can there be human dignity, humans being then God’s offspring? Where there is no respect for God, there will be no respect for human life. And where there is no respect for the sanctity of human life, there will be no respect for the One who created humanity.
On top of that, how much more should we Christians show love, respect and honor to our fellow Christians? –For not only do we have that dignity that belongs to all people as God’s offspring, but in the Christian dwells the Holy Spirit as Jesus says in today’s Gospel: You know [the Holy Spirit] for He dwells with you and will be in you. The Christian is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
The true dignity of humanity is seen in Jesus. St. Paul in our text: [God] has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead. On the Last Day a Man has been entrusted with the Judgment—and that Man is Jesus, the God-man. What a glorious dignity man has. When we sinned and fell away from God, did God just leave us to wallow in our sin and leave us to damnation and hell? Did He just forget about us? Absolutely not! Instead, God Himself became also true man—entered into and suffered in this world of sin—to save a rescue us from our sin, death and hell. And now Jesus, the God-man, having saved us from our sin and its consequences, will also be the Judge on the Last Day.
What a glorious dignity humanity has—and how much greater is the God, the holy Triune God, who gives us that dignity as His offspring! God has shown us great dignity by becoming one of us to be our Savior/ to suffer and die for our sin; and on the Last Day He will judge the world also in His human nature.
The thing is, because of Easter, the resurrection declared Jesus to be the Son of God and therefore the One entrusted to judge. That’s what Jesus said earlier [Jn 5.21, 22], For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The resurrection of Jesus is central/ key in showing us who He is and what He will do—Judge the world.
St. Paul writes: Though [Jesus] was by nature God … He emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant. …He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. That is, because Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world and offered that perfect once for all sacrifice for sin, God also highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Come the Last Day, as Jesus is Judge, all will have to recognize and confess that Jesus is the true God and the Savior of the world; but for those who reject now, it will be too late in the Judgment.
Jesus died for the sins of the world and rose showing His sacrifice brought the world forgiveness and showing that He is the Son of God who will be our Judge! Easter shows us, then, that there will be a Judgment and Jesus will be the Judge. Our text: [God] has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead. So what does this mean for us and all people? –Repent! Our text: The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. God is patient and long-suffering but He had the Gospel brought that day to Athens and through St. Paul called on the people to repent. He does the same today. He has His word go out into the world—He had it come to us—and calls on us to repent: to recognize our sin, to sorrow over our sin and to put our trust for forgiveness of that sin and our hope of heaven in Jesus, who died and rose for us as our Savior.
Dear Christian, in our day and age when our faith is being attacked, when we are tempted to exchange our priceless Christian truths for those of earthly progress acceptance, ease and gain, let us see that that is really the new idolatry for us today—a new form of that idolatry that St. Paul confronted in Athens that day. Let us see that it is beneath our dignity as children of God to keep our gaze and focus on the things of this world; instead our gaze and attention is to be on heaven, [Col 3. 1,4] where Jesus is and awaiting/ looking for His coming as Judge and so when Christ who is our life appears, then [we] also will appear with Him in glory.
Easter teaches us there will be a judgment, as St. Paul tells us in our text: and of [the Judgment God] has given assurance to all by raising [Jesus] from the dead. So what is happening now between Easter/ ascension and the Judgment? God is having His word go out into all the world and not only calls on us to repent of our sin but He offers and gives in the word and sacrament all of the gifts and blessings that Jesus won for us on the cross and which His resurrection proclaimed. Again, remember: the glorious thing is that [God] has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed. Our judgment will be based on righteousness—the very righteousness that God demands of us in His Law which we cannot do, but which Jesus fulfilled and as our risen and ascended Lord, the God-man, and our Judge on the Last Day freely and fully gives us now in His holy word and Sacrament. What a glorious Easter message: Jesus, true God and also true man, the Resurrected One, is also our Judge. INJ Amen.