"Are you the Son of God?"

FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT -- Accepting the divinity of Christ. TEXT: Luke 22:70:

We all have questions, from time to time, about many things --our world, ourselves, and about the forces beyond our control and understanding--especially our questions about God. What is God like? WHAT DOES GOD THINK ABOUT ME AS I LIVE MY LIFE EACH DAY? Our questions about God are complex and unanswerable because of the limits of our minds to understand the great and wondrous nature of the one and only God--like how he came to be, and why, in the midst of all our expressions of broken being he continues to reach out to creation with love and healing?

When it comes to Jesus we have questions too. LOTS OF QUESTIONS-QUESTIONS THAT FLOW FROM OUR SIMPLE INABILITY TO UNDERSTAND JUST HOW OUR GOD COULD BE AT THE SAME TIME THE SON OF GOD, WITH ALL THE POWERS OF GOD, AND TRUE MAN, BORN, JUST LIKE US IN EVERY WAY EXCEPT, AS THE SCRIPTURES TELL US, EXCEPT SINNING-- SOMETHING WE CANNOT EVEN IMAGINE IN OUR FALLEN STATE. Our minds cannot contemplate how the creator could become part of His creation. It does not make sense. IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE-ILLOGICAL. WE WANT TO FOLLOW THE THINKING THAT WOULD SIMPLY RATIONALIZE AWAY CHRIST. IF I CAN'T UNDERSTAND IT, IT JUST CAN'T BE--THE MIND SET OF THE SINFUL MIND THAT SETS ITSELF AT THE CENTER OF CREATION RATHER THAN GOD. But our delusions trip us up. Many times there are things we cannot understand but they are none the less true. The question before us today is one of those questions: ARE YOU THE SON OF GOD? A QUESTION THAT DEALS WITH WHETHER WE ARE WILLING TO ACCEPT GOD BEING GOD IN CHRIST OR NOT. That Jesus, the carpenters son, was at the same time, in a way known only to God, both God and a human being, has and always will be the greatest stumbling block in the way of understanding who Jesus is, that is, apart from the spirit inspired, Word motivated, gift of faith. When we confess, I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, Son of the father from eternity and true man born of the virgin Mary is my Lord, we are uttering the impossible, yet the truth as we witness again in the Gospel the message of the cross and resurrection. The facts of the church, the empty tomb, the power of the risen Lord in the world today, all testify to the divinity of Jesus, but such was not the case for those who were Jesus' contemporaries, who lived during his earthly ministry.

ARE YOU THE SON OF GOD? The context of this question is powerful. It was the night of our Lord's betrayal. He had been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and in the house of the High priest he had been ridiculed, mocked, and disowned by his own inner group of disciples. The elders, with Caiphas, and Annas, had put him through the mockery of the trial in order to discredit him in the eyes of the crowds, and eliminate him through the most sure way possible--death. Just before this question was asked Jesus had responded with great understanding and insight to a related question about whether he was the messiah, long awaited. His answer reflected the blindness of those questioning him: IF I TELL YOU, YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE ME, AND IF I ASKED YOU, YOU WOULD NOT ANSWER. Jesus' response had been that they wouldn't understand the truth even if he told them. BUT FROM NOW ON THE SON OF MAN WILL BE SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE MIGHTY GOD. Jesus used a favorite term for himself, "son of man", to describe who he was. The one seated at the right hand of God, wielding the power of God, is God. If they put 2 and 2 together, and they did, they could draw only one true conclusion--that Jesus was the Son of God, or one false delusion--that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy-- and like true sinners they chose to ignore the truth and claim the delusion. They knew Jesus: they knew of his questionable birth, his history, his poverty, his powerlessness before them. They simply couldn't believe that this man, before them, was God--the great God of the universe and history. GOD SIMPLY DOES NOT DO THINGS THIS WAY, OR SO THEY THOUGHT. God doesn't slum with the dregs of the world, associate with the left-overs of society, anymore than the high priest would. God was holy, powerful, aloof, mighty, glorious, pure and white, not dirty, ordinary, near people and weak with people. Don't we even today have mental limits of what God can or can't do, what he should or shouldn't do, who he can love or not love, where he is or can't possibly be? THE PROBLEM WITH JESUS WAS THAT HE DIDN'T CORRESPOND TO THEIR IDEAS OF MESSIAH, OR GOD, NOR COULD THEY TOLERATE THE GREAT CHANGES THAT ACCEPTANCE OF HIM AS THE SON OF GOD WOULD MEAN FOR THEIR WHOLE EXPERIENCE OF LIFE AND THE UNIVERSE. Responding to Jesus they asked:

ARE YOU THE SON OF GOD? And Jesus answer was: YOU ARE RIGHT IN SAYING THAT I AM. One of the abiding experiences of life is that Jesus' enemies identify him with their words, but do not accept their words with their hearts. When Jesus responded they discounted the truth and said quite strongly that ;THIS MAN IS GUILTY OF BLASPHEMY, AND THEY LED HIM OFF TO PILATE TO BE CRUCIFIED. ARE YOU THE SON OF GOD? Is the Jesus of the Gospel, of history and our faith really God? Throughout history this is the central attack on the message of good news and the point at which Christians diverge from all heresies and false religions. The attack on the divine nature of Jesus who died on the cross, confronts our intellect and yet it was only because Jesus was both God and Man that he was able to do what he did, and make it apply to us, mortal, human, sinners, in need of God's redeeming power and grace. Are you the son of God is the key question of the Gospel. If he was not god's son, he was a fake, and truly little different from those with whom he is lumped as just another prophet by so many false religions today. But Jesus wasn't a fake and the response of those questioning him shows us both why Jesus is divine and how even today, sinners can delude themselves into thinking that he isn't. Are you the son of God? Jesus in our lesson simply states that what they have said about him was true, but to another, asking what amounted to the same question, namely John the Baptist he said look at what is happening, the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the dead raised--all examples of divine power, that God alone has, acting through Jesus, the Christ. Jesus' miracles identified him, but he could do something only God could do: forgiven sin, the real issue that confounded his opponents. Only God could deal with the real issue behind disease, and brokenenss--the power of sin. And this he did with his words, and by his death on the cross. The apostle Paul understood this well when he said to the Colossians: In him dwells all the fulness of the godhead bodily.

IS JESUS THE SON OF GOD? At a time when new religions are talking about gods, and goddesses, about humans being god's equal to Jesus and skeptics deny the historical fact of Jesus' existence, or at best relegate him to simply someone who had a good idea. In these mixed times the passion of our Lord calls us as Christians to see through all those who question who Jesus is to proclaim clearly the mystery that is Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ is true God and true man. There are no other Gods. In Bethlehem we have revealed clearly to creation the heart of God and the love of God. At Calvary we see the wisdom of God that acts for our good beyond human wisdom and understanding. Jesus is God. That is why he rose from the dead, or could rise, that is why his victory can be given to us, through the Word and Sacraments, that is why he can forgive sins, that is why he can be present in bread and wine to strengthen us, with his living presence. That is why our baptism is so powerful, for in baptism we too were united with Jesus, by his divine power, to share his victory won for us, within our world, by his human suffering and death--mysterious, incomprehensible, but real, and powerful to Christians.

Is Jesus Christ God to You? To many the answer is no and that is our challenge as we share the good news. But to many it is yes, a powerful yes, that sees in him, new life, new hope and salvation. Dear friends in Jesus, Lent is a time when we focus on the human sufferings and death of Jesus, but never lost in the events so tragic and clear, is that our God so loved us that he gave up so much to take our place in our world, to redeem us in this world forever.

As we meditate on it, this love, this sacrifice, shows why this question is still the key question of creation. May this season of lent show you again what it means to know Jesus as the son of God, your Lord and savior. May we be enriched as we realize just what we are saying when we confess: I BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST, TRUE GOD, SON OF THE FATHER FROM ETERNITY, AND TRUE MAN, BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY IS MY LORD. WHO HAS SAVED AND REDEEMED ME A LOST AND CONDEMNED PERSON, WHO HAS FREED ME FROM SIN, DEATH, AND THE POWER OF THE DEVIL, NOT WITH SILVER OR GOLD, BUT WITH HIS HOLY, PRECIOUS BLOOD AND INNOCENT SUFFERING AND DEATH, THAT I MAY BE HIS OWN, LIVE UNDER HIM IN HIS KINGDOM AND SERVE HIM WITH EVERLASTING RIGHTEOUSNESS, INNOCENCE AND BLESSEDNESS, JUST AS HE IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD AND LIVES AND RULES ETERNALLY, THIS IS MOST CERTAINLY TRUE. A MEN.

QUESTIONS OF LENT

Introduction (first in the series)

Invariably, as the season of lent goes on, there are in the media, those who come and ask questions that challenge the message of Jesus and of Easter. The questions, no matter how they are phrased have the underlying agenda of making fun of the Gospel and challenging the basic teachings of the Christian faith. The week we call Holy will be marked by another story that says Jesus was not real, Jesus didn’t die, Jesus had six kids, 2 wives and a condo in Bermuda, or any other of those questionable questions that media writers try to fly in order to catch the attention of their readers and watchers—as if the real events, fairly investigated, would not on their own be newsworthy. In this constant barrage of questions, we as Christians sometimes get a bit paranoid about questions, as if all questions reflect either ignorance of the gospel or a challenge to those who proclaim Jesus as Lord. Yet questions are a critical part of our Christian faith, especially as we grow in faith, and especially during this Lenten season when the issue is not the questions we raise, or skeptics raise, but not surprisingly, the questions that the text of Scripture raise as they speak to us, leading us to a deeper understanding of the Gospel. A few decades ago now, as I, as most pastors do before lent, struggled with a thematic approach to the many services of Lent and Easter, I read the many texts again and again because as usual the prepackaged, predigested stuff from the many publishing houses didn’t seem to meet my needs. It’s a good practice to read the texts all at once–you begin to see things you never saw before when you only read individual pericopes. That year I kept seeing something over and over again: Questions? Not just one or two, but lots of them — the Passion of our Lord, the narrative record questions: of onlookers, of the faithful, of the unfaithful, and of Jesus himself and each of those questions seem to draw us, as all good questions do, to seek an answer, an answer that in the finding draws us to the true quest of Lent — a deeper understanding and relationship to the cross, the resurrection and our Living Lord Jesus. Though we don’t have weeks this morning I’d like just to share some of those questions with you this morning? Think about them, remember where they came from and as they come together take a moment to ask which ones are those that touch you where you are today and call you, in their answering, There are the questions that come from Jesus’ enemies, those who, in the smugness of their questions hoped, as people still do, to discredit Jesus. “WHY THIS WASTE?” Jesus critics said when the oil was used to anoint him at Bethany. Why waste such a prescious oil and action on someone you saw as only a threat. But Mary didn’t and she was praised. Even on Palm Sunday they called his actions into question when they questioned Jesus: Do you hear what the Children are saying? For they could not join the hymns of Hosanna that ushers the King into his holy city. The ones who were his own followers asked questions to, not all bringing a good answer. Judas asks: What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you? And who of us has not struggled with what we would give up Jesus for – or have–to our sorrow. Other disciples when Jesus mentioned betrayal responded with a rhetorical question: Surely not I Lord? Asking jesus to tell them no. The one who asks the most questions, the most deeply though provoking questions is Pontius Pilate — and he asks a lot, and how we answer them says a lot about where we are with God. What Charges are you bringing against this man? Addressed to Jesus enemies it brings forth a response: If he were not a criminal we would not have handed him over to you. But Pilate asks more questions of the crowds: Which one do you want me to release to you - Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Christ? Pilate upset Jesus’ enemies with his questions, not for their answers but for how he addressed Jesus as a King, as the Christ? Are you the King of the Jews? You have said so Jesus replied. Finally Pilate enters into a conversation with Jesus that ends with the most insighful question of all when addressed to Jesus: What is truth? Jesus too asks questions, he was a good teacher and would have used questions as a means to bring forth insight from his followers like: Who do the people say that I am? Who do you say that I am? Still the critical questions of the church and of the world in any age. On Maundy Thursday when betrayed and in the process of being addressed it is Jesus who utters the question to his disciples trying to defend him. DO YOU THINK I CANNOT CALL ON MY FATHER AND HE WILL AT ONCE PUT AT MY DISPOSAL MORE THAN 12 LEGIONS OF ANGELS? Followed by a question that we kneel in answering: How then would the scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way? Even on the cross the questions continue: Two thieves speak: Aren’t you the Christ? Save youself and us? - truer words could not describe what really was taking place. The other said: Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? His enemies questioned him even in his death, revealing the truth in their skeptical words: Come down from the cross, if you are the son of God? But the two greatest questions are left for Jesus, the first uttered to his father: My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? So much is revealed in the question, about our sin, about Jesus sacrifice, about what it meant for him to bear the weight of our sin–only this one comes in the native tongue, as if to underline it’s sorrow, it’s pain, and it’s centrality to ansering the reason for Jesus sacrifice. . The questions seem to point again and again to sin, how it works, how it separates, distorts, and yet in their answering we see our Lord standing in love, in grace, in love, not answering the questions with words, but with his actions. But the best questions are left for last, the ones we hear not on Good Friday, but a few days later, in the garden. Woman, Why are you crying? Captures all the sorrow for sin, the lostness, the hopelessness of life without God in the face of death. But my favorite: Why look for the living among the dead? Which is the great question of invitation which leads to heaven’s great reply: He is risen, he is risen indeed. A lot of questions that reveal the journey of lent. Each Lent they challenge me to think anew about my Lords’ sacrifice for my sin, Each lent they call me to see anew his love for me, and the power of the sacrament we share today. I hope next year to spent a few months writing more about them but I pray today, that kneeling at the cross, they give you chance to survey the wondrous cross and be changed by that cross, so that in years to come, you also, may be able to lead congregations, families, and others through this wonderful season of reflection on God’s great love for us in Jesus, who is our Lord and savior forever and ever amen.