John 6:24-35 Sermon

Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

“I Am… the Bread of Life”

John 6:24-35

24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.  25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” 28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”  30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”  32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (NIV)

Apparently Da Vinci’s image wouldn’t grab as much attention.  Neither would William Shakespeare’s.  And, even as despised as he was, a picture of Hitler would not garner as much interest.  In fact, the second-most popular historical figure – Mohammed – had only about half as many searches as Jesus did in a recent list of most popular historical figures searched for on Google.  So, the chances are as good as any that if you happened to leave one of these business card invites with Jesus’ image on it on a table in a restaurant or coffee shop over the last couple of weeks, more than likely, the person who picked it up next probably at least took the time to flip it over and check out the other side.  Love him or hate him, people always have been, and always will be curious about Jesus.  No other individual will ever reach the same level of popularity. 

The sad irony, of course, is that while Jesus may get a lot of hits on Google, people in our society at least are not beating down the doors of churches to learn more about him.  The reality of our society today is a clear disconnect between Jesus and organized religion that we haven’t seen before in our lifetimes.  In other words, there’s interest in Jesus, sure enough; just not in the religious institutions that used to be closely associated with him and even respected because of it.

That leaves us in relatively unfamiliar territory.  It means that the days of the church, believers like you and me, being able to sit back and wait to welcome the curious visitors on a Sunday morning are fading fast.  It means that if we truly believe that Jesus has something to say, not only to us, but to all people, then we want to shift our game plan to a more offense-minded strategy.  Why?  Because I think we can all agree that Jesus has more than enough to say about the things that really matter.

The series we’re beginning this morning is a perfect example of that.  Today we begin a series in which Jesus will reveal himself to us each week as he builds on the foundation of the simple, yet powerful words, “I Am.”  What does Jesus mean when he says, “I Am?”  In a nutshell, everything.  Think about it.  I Am doesn’t demand further description.  I Am doesn’t have a beginning or an end.  I Am cannot be explained.  Most profound of all, perhaps, is the connection Jesus is making with the name for God given in the Old Testament: Yahweh.  I’ll give you one guess what Yahweh means.  Did you by any chance guess, “I Am?”  Then you’ve connected the dots in an eye-opening way to see that with his “I Am” statements, Jesus was claiming nothing short of the identity of God himself.  Each week, Jesus, the great I Am, God in the flesh, will reveal to us the unique characteristics and qualities of that name as he sheds light on his person and work.  This week let us listen to Jesus as he tells us, “I am the Bread of Life.”

Google is one thing, but the lengths to which the crowds of his day went in search of Jesus is another story.  John told us in the Gospel this morning, “Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus” (v.24).  A Google search takes seconds, and then a few minutes longer if you find anything worth reading.  But how long does it take to secure enough boats to enable a crowd to chase after Jesus by traversing a lake?  These were people who were committed to seeking out Jesus, which sounds very flattering… 

…until we see the true intent of their hearts revealed to us by Jesus.  After they finally stumbled upon Jesus, he pointed out to them, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill” (v.26).  Ah, the truth comes out.  Why was the crowd so passionately pursuing Jesus?  He had just shown that he was capable of miraculously feeding thousands upon thousands of people; he had just shown that he could provide food for their stomachs.  Yes, they had big things in mind for Jesus, as John informed earlier in his Gospel, right after Jesus had fed the 5,000+.  “After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, ‘Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself” (Jn. 6:14-15).

So Jesus was not taking issue with their chasing after him; rather, he was taking issue with their reason for chasing after them, which was, as Jesus put it, “work[ing] for food that spoils” (v.27).  He was trying to straighten them out and help them to see that focusing on the temporal blessings Jesus could provide meant missing out on the spiritual blessings he came to bring.

Instead of “work[ing] for food that spoils,” Jesus encouraged them to focus on working for “food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (v.27), but all they heard was the word “work.” So they asked, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” (v.28), presuming there was something they could do to receive the gift Jesus was trying give.  It wasn’t about what they did or didn’t do, but about what Jesus came to give, which was something far and away more valuable than any temporal provision.  They, like all mankind by nature, were stuck on this ridiculous notion that compiling a sticker chart of enough good works and good intentions would merit something from God.  Inevitably, when man takes that approach, he ends up seeking God for all the wrong reasons.

That is important for us to remember too, isn’t it?  It wasn’t only those crowds at that time who looked for Jesus for the wrong reason; we’ve fallen into that habit as well from time to time.  Hasn’t each of us shown our self-serving pursuit of Jesus when our primary concern has been the moldy bread that we know Jesus can provide?  Jesus becomes my Wealth-builder, my Job-finder, my Spouse-fixer, my Addiction-breaker.  Yes, Jesus is certainly able to be all of those things, but if spiritual tunnel vision leads us to see only those things, then we, along with the crowd, are merely working for food that spoils.  What’s more, even though Jesus is certainly able to be all of those things, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll choose to be in our lives.  And, if we’re content with Jesus being in our lives only to provide the moldy bread of food that spoils, then we run the risk of eternally forfeiting the greatest of gifts he came to bring.

And what is that gift?  Jesus spelled it out as clear as day when he told them, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (v.29).  Did you notice something?  Remember how the crowd thought there was something required of them?  Look at how Jesus carefully pointed out how wrong their point of view was.  With his response Jesus squashed any semblance of work or effort required on their part.  Instead, Jesus pointed out that what is required is “to believe in the one he has sent.”  And he wasn’t done!  Notice whose work that is: God’s!  “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”  It was such a foreign concept to the churchgoers of Jesus’ day.  The examples set by the religious leaders of the day were all about work – do this work, not that work; work on this day, not that one.  Religion was not about something that was given, but about working for something that could be earned.  So Jesus’ words, that religion and belief were God’s work, didn’t sit well with them.

That’s why they wanted proof that Jesus actually had the authority to speak such unconventional truths.  “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?” (v. 30).  What sign will you give?  What will you do?  If only they knew then what Jesus would do to carry out the work of God.  What he would do was continue to walk blamelessly through life for them.  What he would do was knowingly allow a close friend to betray him and another to deny him.  What he would do was patiently endure a sham trial with a predetermined guilty verdict.  What he would do was put up with verbal, emotional, and physical abuse.  What he would do was be deserted by his Father to die on a cross.  What he would do was smash the shackles of sin and death by his glorious resurrection from the dead.  All of those things – they are what Jesus would do.

With that work on his mind, with that “doing,” Jesus made a claim with a significance that far-surpassed anything the crowd was looking for. When we give consideration to all the work of salvation which Jesus did, it gives the right understanding to his claim: “Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’” (v.35).  Stomachs were just the start; Jesus came to fill souls with the bread of life, with a meal of forgiveness and salvation that always satisfies.  He came to bring something of substance, something that wouldn’t run out, but would last.  He came to give us a gift that we cannot find anywhere else in the world, but through him, the “I am.”

Come to Jesus, as the crowds did, looking to him for whatever it is you think he should be doing in your life.  But be willing to listen when he tells you that he came for something more.  When Jesus says “I am the bread of life,” know that his work was and is more important than granting us temporary physical blessings – spoiled moldy bread.  His work was carried out to give you something that would last beyond this life for eternity, yet would also touch you in such a way that it completely alters your life here on earth for the better as well.  If you don’t know Jesus, get to know him.  If you’ve known him for the wrong reasons, get to know him for the right one – get to know him as the bread of life, who alone sustains you through his work and his Word with all that you need for this life and the next. Amen.

                                                          

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)

Luke 14:25-33 Sermon

Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

Warnings from the Word Series: “Discipleship Is Expensive”

Luke 14:25-33

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ²⁶"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

²⁸"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? ²⁹For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, ³⁰saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'  ³¹"Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³²If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ³³In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

For many of us there are a number of variables that come into play while shopping that will determine whether or not we’ll end up walking out of the store with any given item.  It may start off with which store we’re even willing to shop at; we may not even be willing to buy an item at certain stores or retailers.  And, when it comes to shopping, some may also give a lot of consideration to the color or model options available; if it doesn’t come in a certain color, or with certain features, then it may be out of the question.  Others will make a purchase based on name brands, because they have found certain brands have a better reputation or tend to last longer than others.  Yet even with all these variables, there may be one consideration that will be a bigger factor than all the others in determining whether an item will be purchased or not: price.  Quite simply, no matter what color or brand, no matter what store is selling it, if the item is more expensive than we are willing to pay for it, then it won’t ever make the jump from the shelf to our cart.  More often than not, it simply comes down to cost.

Cost is precisely what Jesus warns about in our final Warning from the Word: Discipleship Is Expensive.  The dropsy-healing dinner party had come to a close and Jesus was now traveling about, but as was often the case, he wasn’t alone.  And, as Luke informs us, it wasn’t as if he had only a few fans following him around, but “large crowds were traveling with Jesus” (v.25).  Knowing that there were always a variety of reasons for which people expressed interest in Jesus, he made use of the opportunity with such large crowds to clarify the cost of being his follower.

Stop there for a moment and notice how Jesus used this opportunity, and what it reflects about him.  If Jesus’ life and ministry were to be about a popularity contest or merely how many followers he could rack up, having large crowds accompany him would have been a great chance to butter up the masses by saying whatever itching ears wanted to hear.  Surely Jesus could have smooth-talked his way into their hearts if he so desired.  But Jesus shows us that he is always interested only in speaking what needs to be heard, even if it may not be what the crowds want to hear.  His warning, Discipleship Is Expensive, was a blunt teaching that was not easy to accept.  Nevertheless, in full disclosure, Jesus was telling the crowds to count the cost before they committed to clinging to him as their Savior.

So just what is the cost of following Jesus?  How expensive is discipleship?  The quick and easy answer is that it could cost everything that one has, and that the follower of Jesus must be willing and ready to part with anything if it compromises his relationship with Jesus.  Jesus’ warning could be broken down this way: his disciples must be willing to reconsider relationships, carry their crosses, and part with possessions. 

To reconsider relationships is simply to prioritize earthly relationships and one’s relationship with Jesus.  On the one hand, it’s really quite simple: the relationship with Jesus is most important, and every other relationship imaginable comes after that.  In fact Jesus stated it more strongly, using the word “hate” to depict how strongly the follower of Jesus feels about keeping Jesus first in life.  If anyone – even family members – threaten the believer’s relationship with Jesus, then the believer is not simply indifferent toward them, but must fully guard against that relationship and the threat it poses.  Moreover, it isn’t just the love of others that potentially threatens one’s connection to Jesus, but even love of self.  To reconsider relationships is to accept the harsh truth that no earthly relationship must ever be allowed to drive a wedge between one’s relationship with Jesus.

In addition to reconsidering relationships, the followers of Jesus must be willing to carry their crosses.  “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (v.27).  A cross can be any struggle the Christian has that comes in one manner or another because of his faith.  Those with children about to be in high school bear the cross of agonizing over whether to send a child to CLHS – or even further away to one of our preparatory schools like LPS or MLS – versus sending them to public high school.  Such a struggle is unique to the Christian.  The unbeliever doesn’t agonize over a child continuing to receive a Christian education at the high school level, but it is a cross that many Christian parents bear.  The challenge and tension of living in a way that reflects God’s will versus living in a way that is acceptable to the world may be another cross the Christian bears.  Whatever the cross, Jesus says that it is something that his followers will lift up and carry, not hide away and bury.

Finally, the follower of Jesus will also be willing to part with possessions.  Admittedly, this would be a lot easier if not for one thing: God is so abundantly gracious to us.  God’s giving to us is not a “good-enough-to-get-by” type of giving, but a “here, take what you need… and then double it” type of giving.  Most of us, if left with even a fraction of what we now receive from the Lord, would still be wealthier than the vast majority of the world.  But such material blessings can potentially provide a snare, one that perhaps God allows in our lives to test our faith and see how willing we are to part with possessions for his sake. 

Discipleship Is Expensive, isn’t it?  That’s why Jesus continued with two stories to illustrate the importance of counting the cost before going “all in” with Christianity.  No one would embark on a building project without first figuring out how much it would cost and determining if he could afford it.  No one goes to war severely outnumbered, but makes sure he has a large enough army to give him a winning chance.  In the same way, how foolish one looks who is one day the most zealous Christian on earth, only to be ashamed a short time later because of an inability to part with someone or something in this world that seeks to trump Jesus in priority and importance!  Only a fool jumps into something without first considering what all it involves, and if any sacrifice is required, then he must be willing to make it.

Really what Jesus is illustrating in our verses today he also illustrated through the parable of the Sower and the seed (cf. Luke 8).  Remember that some of that seed fell on soil and immediately shot up out of the ground.  However, shortly thereafter, either because of a weak root system due to rocky soil, or being choked out by weeds that grew up right alongside, what sprouted quickly wilted and died.  The presence of worldly cares and concerns and a lack of a deeply established root system did not allow that faith to take off and bear an abundant crop.  That, Jesus said, is what happens when one fails to count the cost: there is a real danger that all might be lost.

Yes, Discipleship Is Expensive.  But you know what?  We haven’t even gotten to the real cost yet.  Yes, Jesus asks us to give up much, indeed everything, for his sake.  But even everything we have is nothing but a drop in the bucket compared to the real cost of discipleship.  Suppose we reconsidered our relationships and perfectly prioritized them so that God has top billing in our lives as he deserves.  Imagine if we readily carried our cross each and every time it presented itself, and willingly parted with all possessions that threatened to stake a claim on our hearts.  If we could do all of those things, and do them just as Jesus here warns us to, would we then have the security of heaven?  We wouldn’t, because our security doesn’t rest with us, but with Jesus.  You see, Discipleship Is Expensive, but not merely because of what God asks of us; rather, it is expensive because of what God gives to us. 

Discipleship Is Expensive because the price God paid to make us his was the life of his only Son.  It is estimated that on average, a pint of blood today goes for around $230.  Now if a person in an accident required several pints of blood, that could get pretty expensive.  The cost of a pint of blood though, is nothing when comparing it to Jesus’ blood.  His blood is priceless, so precious because it is pure and untainted by sin.  When he bled for you and me, the blood he shed was more valuable than the largest diamond, the purest gold, the most refined silver, indeed more precious than anything else in the world. 

And, making it even more valuable was the fact that it was one-of-a-kind.  Why are people willing to fork over millions of dollars for original works of art, when there are more than enough replicas, fakes, and forgeries that look nearly identical?  Because the original is a one-of-a-kind.  There may be replicas, there may be fakes, but there is only one original.  So also, there is only one Savior: Jesus.  That makes him even more precious to us, even though what he accomplished and achieved for us – forgiveness and salvation – doesn’t cost us a thing!  It cost a Father his Son.  It cost a Father his dearly-beloved Son.  How can we forget the Father’s expression of that love, full of pride as he voiced his love and approval from heaven at Jesus’ baptism and again at the Transfiguration?  Do not think of God as some cold, unfeeling, emotionless divine being who was indifferent to the plight of his Son – far from it!  We witness God’s compassion and love for others as he expresses them throughout the life of Jesus.  Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus.  His heart went out to the diseased and the downtrodden.  God’s heart beats with care and concern for others, and if for others, then surely also for his own and only Son.

Discipleship Is Expensive.  Yes, Jesus wants us to count the cost as we follow him so that we don’t have any unrealistic expectations about how challenging it will be.  But even more than that, Jesus wants us to know it’s expensive because the price for being called his disciples was his own death.  He paid that price.  He made us his.  Let that be enough to work in our hearts a willingness to give up everything for him who gave up everything for us first.  Amen.

                                                              

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)

Luke 14:1, 7-14 Sermon

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

Warnings from the Word Series: “No Room for the Proud”

Luke 14:1,7-14

1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (NIV)

When you heard the Gospel read a short time ago, did you wonder?  Did you notice the jump from verse one up to verse 7 through 14 and wonder what happened in verses 2-6?  Though one could take what happened in those verses and treat it entirely in a separate sermon, at least knowing the background provides some context to the dinner party at which Jesus was a guest.  In fact, verses 2-6 tell us there was another guest at this dinner party.  And knowing that the guest suffered from dropsy, a severe circulatory problem, helps us understand why Luke felt compelled to inform us that it was a Sabbath: because, more than likely, the reason the Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully was to see how he would handle the situation on the Sabbath.  It was almost as if they had set up an experiment to see if they could catch Jesus.  On the one hand, was Jesus the real deal; would he even be able to heal the man with dropsy?  On the other hand, if he did heal him, would he break the law by healing him on the Sabbath? 

So how did Jesus handle it?  Masterfully.  He turned it around on the Pharisees, asking them if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath.  While all of them knew the letter of the law, that no work was allowed on the Sabbath, they also knew the spirit of the law, that love should reach out and help those in need, even on the Sabbath.  Their response?  There was none.  Their silence had spoken volumes.  Jesus had turned the tables on them and avoided their snare.  He healed the man and reminded the Pharisees, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out” (v.5)?  Of course they would!  Now, having gotten their attention in such a powerful way, Jesus made the most of his opportunity to continue teaching them.  Class was now in session.  And his lesson for the day would be, there’s No Room for the Proud.

After the miraculous healing had taken place, it was time for the meal, and as the guests took their places for the meal, Jesus noticed something: “the guests picked the places of honor at the table” (v.7).  In Jesus’ day the guests reclined near the table, sometimes in a “U” shape, so the place of honor would have been the spot from which the one reclining was able to view all the other guests.  Not surprisingly, given that the Pharisees concerned themselves with receiving recognition for their righteousness, each of the guests was noticeably angling to get in and secure that most desirable spot, or at least one nearby. 

Jesus had something to say about their actions.  “When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited.  If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.  But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests.  For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (v.7-11).

There would have been no second-guessing what was behind Jesus’ parable.  The application to the present situation was obvious.  His parable was illustrating exactly what the apostle Paul would later write to the Philippians: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves” (2:3).  Pride was on full display at the dinner party Jesus was attending.  Jesus’ warning was not that far off from an expression we use today: “pride goes before the fall.”  In vying for the seat of honor, the Pharisees ran the risk of being humiliated when/if someone more esteemed would be asked to sit in the spot in which they had reclined.  There’s No Room for the Proud.

It really doesn’t take much work to figure out what Jesus is teaching.  He is warning against pride.  He is pointing out that humility is much more desirable.  What may not be as easy to figure out is the answer to the question “Why?”  Why is Jesus spending his time using this teachable moment to warn against pride?

We know why he wasn’t doing it.  He wasn’t doing it to show the other guests at the dinner party what was necessary for a right relationship with God.  He wasn’t advocating that a more humble life increased their chances of salvation.  Neither was Jesus pointing out another practice by which they could improve their image before others – if only they were more humble, they’d come off looking so much better to others.  And, Jesus wasn’t preaching the law to them with the ultimate goal of just making them feel bad, as if the goal was to make them squirm and put them in their place.

No, Jesus’ goals are always more lofty.  In fact, the purpose behind his parable, the reason he wanted to direct the Pharisees toward humility instead of pride, was to open their eyes to how impossible such perfect humility was to achieve.  And it wasn’t just humility that Jesus was concerned about, but that perfection in general was impossible to attain.  Remember he had just healed the man of dropsy and showed how too often the Pharisees’ hearts were more concerned about keeping the letter of the law than abiding by the law of love.  There, too, he was showing them that they haven’t loved perfectly.  And when he addressed the host specifically about the guest list at a party, he preached the law to point out that motives were not always pure, but often based on what a person gets in return, or how it makes him look to host such a grand party among the socially elite.

Jesus’ motive in warning us that there’s No Room for the Proud is the same.  He’s not telling us to seek humility because doing so will make us better Christians and improve our chances with God; rather, he’s commanding us to seek humility at all times and in all situations so that the light bulb goes on and it becomes clear to us that achieving perfect humility is impossible.  He wants us to evaluate our behavior and motives so that we see how foreign humility is to our hearts.  He wants us to see that generous giving, if only for the sake of impressing others, is still pride.  He wants us to see that even humility itself, if practiced to make a show of it for others, is nothing more than veiled pride.  It’s been written, “humble we must be if to heaven we go; high is the roof there, but the door is low.”  Indeed, the door is so low that we could never enter it on our own because our pride has disqualified us.

But again, Jesus doesn’t point that out this morning with the intent of making us feel bad and then leaving it at that.  No, instead he wants us to know that apart from him we’d have no hope.  Without Jesus and his work on our behalf, not just pride, but any sin would exclude us from heaven.  So Jesus’ warning, there’s No Room for the Proud, is intended to lead us to Jesus for his help and eternal hope.

In Jesus’ case, pride is one of those sins of which he was never guilty, along with every other sin for that matter.  Do you recall when the devil attempted to pull pride out of Jesus’ perfect heart?  At his temptation in the wilderness, Satan offered Jesus worldly riches and recognition, he appealed to his divine nature and called on him to let his pride make a stone edible.  But there was no pride to be pulled from his heart.  It didn’t exist, not at that time, nor at any time in Jesus’ life.  Not even as the incessant mockery of soldiers rang in his ears at his suffering and crucifixion did pride manifest itself.  There was no thunderous divine act of vengeance, showing those worthless wastes of space who he truly was.  At no point in his life did Jesus fall prey to pride, which was absolutely necessary in order for his perfect slate of righteousness to be credited to our accounts.  His righteousness, which is our righteousness, would not have been possible had Jesus not kept pride at bay his whole life.

But in addition to his giving us something – his flawless record of perfection; Jesus also had to take something away from us – our sin of pride.  So it was necessary for Jesus to offer up the perfect sacrifice on the cross.  Yes, he avoided pride on our behalf, but he also paid for our pride with his life.  His perfect record of righteousness would be of little value if our own pride remained lingering in our hearts like plaque.  When Jesus spoke the words, “It is finished,” he meant that our sins of pride and false humility had been paid for.  He meant that our salvation is not a matter of our going out and making sure that the remainder of our lives is filled with more humility than pride, but rather that our pride, past, present, and future, has already been forgiven.  When pride gets the better of me, Jesus already got the better of it and smothered it with forgiveness.  So the more I hear of that forgiveness, the more I remember it through my baptism, the more I taste it in the Supper, the more I become aware that Jesus, and not myself, is my pride and joy.

At the close of the Civil War, preparations were being made for the final grand march of the army.  Typically in such a procession, a general could expect to march at the head of his own corps.  However, in this case the commander-in-chief appealed to the Christian faith of General Howard and asked if he would graciously allow another general to march at the head of his corps.  Since the commander-in-chief had appealed to General Howard’s Christian character, he humbly obliged.  Then Sherman, as commander-in-chief, ordered that General Howard ride by his side not just at the head of a corps, but at the head of the whole army.  And in this way, having humbled himself, General Howard was exalted.

So it will be with you and me.  Jesus’ humbled himself and became obedient to death on a cross for you and me.  In doing so he has thrown open the storehouses of grace and given to us the best of all he has.  He has paid for our pride with his blood, purified our hearts and, planted the seeds of humility in our spirits, which he then nurtures and fertilizes our entire lives through his Word and Supper.  It is then his humility that we see at work in the lives of believers, which will be exalted, if not in this life, not on this earth, then in heaven, where through Christ we will be honored to be guests forever. Amen.

                                                              

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)