Jesus' One Purpose

Sermon Notes, Sunday, Lent 5, 2021 "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." But for this purpose I have come to this hour. We have watched and walked with Jesus as he inexorably travels toward Jerusalem and the cross. And one by one, all the varied reasons and accomplishments of his earthly ministry have been accomplished. His disciples having been chosen were discipled, taught at his feet, what it means to love. The hungry were fed. The lame made to walk. The blind to see and the deaf to hear. Even the dead were raised to life. If we reach back to his first Sabbath Day message preached in the synagogue, we remember that he spoke from the words of Isaiah. The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Lk. 4:18,19. Jesus' ministry fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. If he were to suddenly mount the chariot of Elijah and be drawn into heaven, Isaiah would be vindicated. The Spirit of the Lord walked in the world. His Father in heaven is well pleased. Yet none of those things are on Jesus' mind. John tells us some Greeks inquired about Jesus and want to see him. Somehow that request triggers Jesus' reflection and statement of purpose. There is one more thing, the only thing, yet to be done. Somehow those Greek inquirers, Gentiles, start the clock ticking toward Good Friday. They wished to see Jesus. And so they would, in the only way that matters: as crucified, resurrected, and ascended. But for this purpose I have come to this hour. The purpose: to save the world by the atoning sacrifice of his death and death defying resurrection. How can that be? There is a temptation here to set aside my sermon notes and open up any number of theological tracts to explain the atonement. The very depth and persistency of this debate ought to tell us there is no single right (orthodox) explanation for how Jesus' death and resurrection saves us. The Western church has largely followed the lead of Augustine in embracing the sacrificial substitution theory. Our reading this morning from Hebrews explains that Jesus stands as the High Priest on our behalf. His sacrifice, his death on our behalf, substitutes for the sacrifice we cannot offer and allows us to enter into the Holy of Holies, God's very presence. The Eastern Orthodox church sees it differently. Theirs is more a sacramental than a substitutional understanding. The resurrected Jesus changes us from inside out. We are new creations in Christ and he became like us so that we might become like him. This is closer to the reading from Jeremiah where the Lord promises to write his Law in their hearts, and they shall know the Lord and he will remember their sins no more. The how may be in dispute, but the what stands as unassailable truth. Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." So the Greek seekers open up Jesus' thinking, and his purpose, to go beyond God's chosen people and out to all the world. Actually, it is our thinking that needs to be opened up. We need to be woke to the breadth of Jesus' love and his call upon us. The collect for Missions from the Office of Morning Prayer says it very well. Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the Cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you, for the honor of your Name. Amen. We may not know how the atonement works, but one thing we do know: it happens at the cross. Death and life exchange positions. Life comes to death and death rises to life. This is the purpose for which Jesus came into our world. So we honor and revere the cross as the symbol of Jesus' death and the means of our salvation. But it is not just to watch and be reminded, it is to experience for ourselves the same death to life exchange. Eugene Peterson writes in his translation of Romans 8:9-11: "It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive and present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's." Rom 8: 9-11, The Message The only thing left to say is that we are all invited to both witness and experience the miracle of the cross. We begin next Sunday, Palm Sunday. No other day of the church year so dramatizes the life to death side of out transaction as Palm Sunday. We go from exalting the life and triumph of our King to demanding his death at our hands. Then on Maundy Thursday we sorrowfully feast with Our Lord for the last time. We strip the altar of all signs of his Presence. We prepare for a world without Jesus. Then on Good Friday we participate and witness the full measure of his sacrifice for us. Life to death as we end the day laying his dead body in the tomb. Holy Saturday. A day of misgiving and uncertainty, not knowing what tomorrow will bring. Then Easter and the triumph of life over death. I hope and pray that you will join us for the journey, for all of it. Because it is sacred and given unto us as both remembrance and first hand experience. And we need it now more perhaps more than ever before in our lifetimes. Amen.