Pentecost 11
“He Gave All For You”
Text: Matthew
13:44-52; Romans 8:28-39
Grace, mercy,
and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
There are two
truths that we live as the
But there is
another truth that we live as the church and people of God. The first truth is
what we see; the second is what we believe. And that is that no matter
what the enemy throws against us, he
cannot and will not win. Because, as Jesus tells you
today, you are His treasure, His pearl of great price. And even though you
may be buried and hidden under the dirt and struggles and sin of this world and
life, He sees and He knows. Even more, He has given all that He is and has for
you. That you may be
His own. He came down from
Heaven and was incarnate as a man. He gave up His prerogatives as God,
willingly not using His divine power. He left His throne room and the unending
songs of the angels to be born in a stable. He became obedient to His parents,
and lived in the creation He Himself had made. He knew hunger and thirst and
sorrow. He was subjected to temptation. He knew rejection, even in His
hometown, even by His own. The all-powerful One allowed Himself to be arrested
and man-handled – whipped and spit on and punched. He did not fight back as His
hands and feet were nailed to the cross, as His head was crowned in thorns. He
experienced the complete and utter rejection of the cross, and then tasted
death and the grave. He exchanged His perfection for our sin, His place for our
place, His life for our death.
Or in other
words, there is nothing that He did
not give up. He truly and fully gave up everything
for you, His treasure. With single-minded devotion and steadfast purpose, with
a heart and love we cannot completely understand, Jesus purchased and won us from all sin, from death, and from the power of
the devil, not with gold or silver,
but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. (Small Catechism,
explanation of the Second Article) You belong to
Him.
It is important
that you know that and hear that – how precious you are. Because
the enemy does not want you to know and tries to convince you otherwise.
And so he gets us to look at ourselves and our sin and our constant
shortcomings and failures and says: Look!
You’re no treasure. You’re no prize. You’re a sinner! And no matter how hard
you try, you always will be. Why would God want you? You’re of no use to Him!
Or if he cannot get us to do that, he twists the Word of God and turns these
parables upside-down and says to us: So
you think you’re a Christian, huh? Well look here at what Jesus says! The
kingdom of heaven should be so valuable to you that you give up everything for
it. But you don’t, do you? And you won’t, will you? Look at all
the things in your life that you fear, love, and trust more than God! You ready
to give it all up for Him? Think you can do that?
And we must
admit, there’s a kernel of truth to all this. That’s what makes the attacks of
the enemy so effective. For based upon what we
do, he’s right – we are no treasures, but sinners – filled with selfishness and
pride, hurting others, wanting my own way, holding others up to a standard I do
not live up to. And we should be
willing to give up everything for the kingdom of heaven. We should. But not
only don’t we, and won’t we, we can’t. The sin that lives in us keeps weighing
us down and pulling us away. Even when we don’t want it to! As
But a kernel of
truth is not the whole truth! And while all this is true, there is a greater
truth, which we see not when we look at ourselves, but when we look to the
cross. There you see how much you are worth. There you see how much you are
loved. There you see that our God is not a God who sits up in heaven, demanding
that we make ourselves worthy of his love and make ourselves treasures! But a
God who came to dig us out of this world of sin and death; who came to find us
who were lost in a world of falsehood, rebellion and deceit; who came
not to be served, but to serve, and to lay down His life as a ransom for many. (Mt 20:28) To lay down His life for
you.
And in the midst
of the attacks and assaults of the enemy, and our struggles against sin both
without and within, how we need to hear that! Yet even more, how we need our
Saviour to still come to us today, with His forgiveness, with His rescue, with
His power. To raise us with Himself in His resurrection and
give us new life. To wash us clean again from the dirt and filth of this
world. To feed us and care for us and strengthen us.
To tell us that yes, He loves us still, and forgives us. Time and time again.
And so He does
come, in Holy Baptism, Holy Supper, and Holy Gospel. In simple water, bread,
wine, and words, our Saviour is coming to us and giving to us all that we need
and exactly what we need, that we be and live what we
are in His sight – His treasures. That we know and be confident that no matter
what the enemy throws against us, he
cannot and will not win. For he has, in fact, already
been defeated through the blood and cross and resurrection of Christ, and the
blood and cross and resurrection of Christ given to us here.
That confidence
is also what we heard from
Paul doesn’t say
there that a Christian will have only good, but that
all things work together for good. And notice in those verses that there is no
hint of uncertainty, no wavering, no doubt. For in Christ our hope is certain
and secure. In Christ, we have the promises of life, both now and forever. In
Christ, world and sin and death and grave can harm us none, because these He
has already overcome. “No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life,
nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And with such promises, do you see? You are free! Free to live – not in
fear, but in faith. Not in sin, but in service. Now, even though attacked, you
can live as Christ lived; as a son of God. A treasure no
longer dead and buried, but alive and glorious.
A pearl no longer hidden, but reflecting
the radiance of your Saviour – the radiance of His forgiveness and love. For
this is who you are. A treasure worth more than anything in this world. A
treasure purchased, won, and kept by your God and Saviour.
So come now and receive Him who comes
for you, and go and live as the treasure you are.
In the Name of
the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. Amen.