Judica - Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 17th, A+D 2024
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
The Truth Is
Genesis
22:1-14, Hebrews 9:11-15, John 8:42-59
Audio of this sermon is available HERE.
The Truth is, everything the Lord has ever
said to us is true. God cannot lie. So, understanding and living within His Word
should be easy. We have the Word of God,
we have ears to hear, eyes to read, and wills to follow the Truth. But of course, it is not easy for us to
discern, accept and live within the Truth of God. This morning we will reflect a bit on
understanding the mission of God from the perspective of knowing the Truth, the
Truth of Christ, which is true for the Black Hills, and for Bangladesh, true
for everyone, everywhere.
A bit before our reading, Jesus spoke these
famous words to the Jews who had believed in Him. “If you abide in My word, you are My
disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set
you free.” Through the centuries,
many speakers have borrowed the end of our Lord’s saying, “The Truth shall set
you free.” Many have used it for their
own unique purposes. And this is
understandable, since even in this broken world, truth is better than
lies.
It is remarkable the varied range of voices who
have appropriated this saying:
Antislavery crusaders and civil rights leaders from the 1830s through
the 1960s used it to fight against slavery and racism. Today’s Constitutional Conservatives use this
saying as they seek to revive the principles of America’s founders. It has been appropriated by boxers, and door
to door salesmen, by communists, by anti-communist freedom fighters, and by
Hollywood stars. So many different
voices have appropriated Jesus’ words; they cannot all be referring to the same
truth.
We are Lutherans, excommunicated cousins of
Roman Catholics. We were thrown out
because we did not accept the idea that the “truth” was whatever the Roman Pope
declared. Most people in most places
have suffered under similar delusions, the idea that the Truth is determined by
what some fallible human told you. Maybe
it was a King or Queen, maybe a high church official, a presidential candidate,
or the U.N. Panel on Climate Change. It doesn’t matter if you agree, or if the math
adds up. The truth is as they say, or
else.
The demand by the powerful to be obeyed
without question is a perennial problem.
But much worse for all of us has been the assault on Truth itself. The very idea of Truth has fallen on hard
times. It is a widely accepted “right”
that any person can demand to define the truth however they want. If you dare to object, you risk being shouted
down as a bigot, or worse. Whatever you
do, don’t point out contradictory facts.
And so, a boy is a boy, and a girl is a girl, unless they feel their
truth is the opposite, or something in between.
The truth about God is whatever you want it to be, just so long as you
don’t say your truth about God is more correct than anybody else’s
version. Take care if you dare to defend
the Truth today, lest they pick up stones to throw at you.
Well, I have good news. Bracing news, but good, in the end. And my good news is that the Truth is. Period.
Truth is real, and Truth is not malleable; it is not subject to our
whims. The Truth has unchanging content,
and substance. We poor miserable human
beings can rail all we want about our truths, but the Truth is
not going away. Because the Truth is a
Person, who meets us in the Liturgy, that is, in the assemblies of God’s people
gathered around His Word, and His Font, and His Table. This Person who is the Truth has revealed His
Truth to us through His Holy Word, recorded for us in the Old and New
Testaments.
Hence, we are not free to interpret that
Truth however we would like, twisting God’s Word to suit our preferences or to
deflect the criticisms of the world.
When we misuse and twist God’s Word, we do not really change the Truth, because
the Truth is Almighty and Eternal. If we
reject the truth, all we are doing, sadly, is separating ourselves from Christ
and His Life. We need to accept Jesus at
His Word, because at the heart of that Word is the Truth made flesh, Jesus
Christ, come to save, lifted up for the Life of the World.
But oh, how we struggle to accept God’s
Truth, because it is full of so many hard truths.
The Truth is, the Lord’s demand that Abraham
sacrifice his son Isaac was not unjust. From
the moment of our conception in sin we are naturally enemies of God, and each
time we sin, we demonstrate our rebellion.
We deserve nothing but wrath and punishment. Abraham and Isaac deserved nothing but wrath
and punishment. No one is just, no one
is without sin, and the wages of sin is death.
This is the harshest of Truths, too hard to bear, except that God
intercedes, providing a substitute sacrifice, for Isaac, and for you.
The truth is, God has no eternal use for
our sacrifices for sin. Isaac’s death
would have served no purpose. Neither
the blood of Isaac, nor the blood of bulls and goats in the Tabernacle and
Temple, nor your resolutions and efforts to amend your life, none of these can
make up for your sins and your sinfulness.
The Truth is, justifying, that is, making you right with God, and also sanctifying,
making you holy, both of these do require blood. They do require death. But a much better blood and death, a blood
and a death of infinite holiness and power.
Abraham told Isaac the Lord would provide
the sacrifice. And He did. The Truth is, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, has
been provided. He has made the necessary
sacrifice, once and for all. God was
using that strange encounter we heard in our Old Testament reading to prove the
power of the faith He had created in Abraham, and to provide a picture of His
ultimate salvation plan, the plan to provide a better Sacrifice, the Lamb of
God, similarly trapped in thorns. Jesus
was lifted up, for Abraham, and Isaac, and even for the men who drew His blood,
nailing Him to a cross. The Truth is
Jesus was lifted up, for Custer and Hill City, for all the world, even for
those who want to twist His Truth and declare a way of salvation that leads to
nowhere. This is especially Good News
for us, that Jesus’ sacrifice is for all those who have sought to follow
and declare a different truth. Because
all of us have, at one time or another, maybe just yesterday, all of us have
twisted God’s Truth to suit our sinful desires.
And so, truly and humbly confess your
errors, your sins, your falsehoods, your guilt.
Confess it all before the Truth of God, and the blood of Jesus will
cleanse you from all sin. This is not
some mere conceptual cleansing, restricted to the realm of ideas. The Truth will not set you free abstractly,
somewhere, someday, but rather you are set free right here, right now.
The Truth is that blood of Jesus cleanses
you from all sin. It enters your ears,
regenerates your heart, and cleanses your soul with the Word of Forgiveness. This gracious Word even enters into
you in the Holy Supper, to give you strength for the road ahead.
This is the Mission of God, here in the
Black Hills, and all around the world. You
and I by grace through faith are caught up in God’s Mission, as the Lord goes
with us, and even in us. Through our
vocations, through the efforts of our congregations, and through your everyday
life, God is at work, through His forgiven children. This is the truly blessed life, that Christ
goes with you, to speak His Truth to a world trapped in errors and lies.
God grant His Truth to sound forth, in
South Dakota, across America, and around the world, for the salvation of many,
in the Name of Jesus, Amen.
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