Don’t forget…
- Order of Service: Word and Sacrament (CW, p26)
- Lessons: 1 Kings 19:9-18, Romans 9:1-5, Matthew 14:22-33
- Hymns: 384, 433, 315, 415
In the Name of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.
It’s easy to forget what Jews are. Perhaps you mostly think of Jews as people going to church on Saturday. Or people who live in Israel. Or people who eat kosher. Or people who suffered through the Holocaust. Maybe you think about the Jews that opposed Jesus – Pharisees and Sadducees. Maybe you think of Jews as enemies, because they don’t believe that God is Triune – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because they don’t believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised Savior of God. Maybe you don’t think about them at all.
Paul gives us a refresher. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen (Rom. 9:4-5). Earlier: What advantage, then, is there is being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God (Rom. 3:1-2).
Paul hasn’t suddenly become an American Evangelical rabidly supporting the state of Israel, convinced of the need for rebuilding a Temple in Jerusalem and the central role that Israel will play in the rapture, tribulation, rise of Antichrist, and millennium. Paul doesn’t view Israel as still God’s chosen, covenant people and that we all must become Jews. Paul doesn’t agitate for Israel’s right to land based on Old Testament promises.
Rather, he uses this to talk about how sad he is. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel (Romans 9:2-4a). Unlike Elijah, who seemed ready to say, “A pox on both their houses,” who looked for God to send down more fire to consume Ahab and Jezebel and the wicked Israelites who hounded him, who made him “the only one left,” Paul says, “Take me instead.”
It kills him to look at Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons. God picked them, starting with Abraham. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you….all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Gen. 12:2-3). Then, Mt. Sinai: You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exo. 19:6).
Theirs the divine glory. God showed Israel His glory. He walked before them as a Pillar of Fire. He rested upon them in the Tabernacle and the Temple. He went before them into the Promised Land as the Hornet. He dwelt among them between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant. He made this tiny strip of land into His kingdom, defeating nation after nation, army after army. He promised them the devil-crushing Seed.
Theirs…the covenants. Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah. All Israelites. For Israelites. Read your Old Testament and count how many times God says, “I’m making a covenant with you.” Just read Genesis.
Theirs…the receiving of the law. On Mt. Sinai God spoke to Israel and no other nation. He gave them and no one else the great laws. He roped off no other nation for Himself. He set apart no other nation to enwomb His Messiah, His Anointed One, the Savior from sins. He entrusted to no one else the words of Scripture. Every book of Scripture, both Old and New Testament, revealed to Israelites, written by Israelites.
Theirs…the temple worship. God built His one house among this people. He made Himself present with them and with no other nation in this way.
Theirs…the promises. The Seed of the woman promised to Adam and Eve. A covenant of salvation and no more floods made to Noah. Great nation and world-wide blessing made to Abraham. A son to rule forever promised to David. A son born of a virgin promised through Isaiah. A new covenant of forgiveness announced through Jeremiah. The arrival of the Messiah spoken by John the Baptist. Israel did not stand on the outside looking in. They stood inside. First for the Jew, then for the Gentile, Paul said (Romans 1:16).
Theirs are the patriarchs. Read Hebrews 11, it’s a who’s who of Israel. Adam. Abel. Enoch. Noah. Abraham. Isaac. Jacob. Joseph. Moses. Gideon. Samson. David. Samuel. Daniel. We look back with pride and say, “My Dad was…” or “My Granddad did….” If we can find one or two of those in our line that’s great. If that line is known outside our family, impressive. But every Israelite could claim all these men, this entire nation. Names taught to billions of children for thousands of years.
And from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ. The big one. Jesus was born a Jew. He comes from Abraham to bless all nations. He shoots up from Jesse’s stump and creates a new tree. David’s Son. How wonderful for us to claim our Olympic champions as Americans, or to celebrate that Americans won the Little League World Series, or that the Rangers went to the World Series and the Mavericks hoisted the Larry O’Brien. Great. They’re ours. But that’s nothing next to Christ. “He’s one of us.” And not just any one, but God over all. David’s Lord.
And Israel threw it away. Jesus approached Jerusalem just before Palm Sunday, looked at the capital of God’s chosen nation and cried. Why? If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you (Luke 19:42-44). He saw the rejection. He saw the arrest. He saw the trial. He saw the cross. More than that, He saw the end of Israel. He saw Roman armies besieging the city 30 years later. He saw the end of Temple sacrifices, the end of the Temple itself. He saw what the historian Josephus recorded so vividly in his histories – not one stone left on another and every stone drenched in blood. Because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in enmity, in hatred, in competition, rightly, over false doctrine, whether Jewish, or among the family of Christians. It’s easy to do all that and forget the heights from which the Jewish nation fell. It’s easy to forget the heights from which the various sects of Christianity fell over the years. It’s easy to forget the heights from which we fall. It’s easy to say, “They deserved it.” It’s easy to treat discipline antiseptically. It’s easy to look at the removal of members or excommunications as just clearing the books.
But Jesus didn’t. Paul most certainly didn’t. I speak the truth in Christ – I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers (Romans 9:1-3). “Take me instead, Lord. Send me to hell, let them into heaven!” Perhaps you would say that for your son or daughter who’s drifted from church, or some other close family member, but what about someone else’s son or daughter? What about for an entire denomination? What about for a race of people who reject your New Testament and your God? What about the Muslims who call you infidel and laugh at you for believing in Christ? What about the Catholic Church that excommunicates you for following Luther and the Scriptures? What about…you fill in the blank? Would you say about them, “Curse me, Lord. Condemn me, Lord. Take me instead.” Or, would you say, “I’m the only one left, they want to kill me! Wipe ‘em out!”
Rightly does false doctrine concern us. Rightly do we point out the errors of other religions and other denominations. Wrongly do we do it without tears in our ears and sadness tearing apart our hearts. How can you look at those who have “unelected” themselves with anything but terror for their souls and sadness for their current situation? How can you remove or excommunicate someone without tears and anguish, speaking the necessary truth in love, and yet wishing it could be you instead?
Marvel that this is the Christ you have. Paul merely wished, “Take me instead.” Christ loved His enemies. Christ prayed for those who persecuted Him. You too, don’t forget. For all the things said about Israel can be said about you. The adoption. The glory. The covenants. The reception of the Word. The worship. The promises. The patriarchs. All yours. And it was not just for Jerusalem and Jews that Jesus wept. It was for the world, that world that turned its back upon Him, the world that heard His Words, that heard His call, and hung up the phone. The world more concerned about itself than about anyone else. For that world Christ came, Christ whose heart burned with sorrow and soaked in anguish. He didn’t just wish to be a curse, He became the curse. To the Galatians Paul said, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’ (Galatians 3:13). Earlier this summer you heard Paul say to the Romans, You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly….God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6, 8). God bought the Church with His own blood (Acts 20:28). God bought you. He uncursed you.
Don’t forget what Christ has done for you. Don’t forget that Christ did that for the world and entrusted you with that message. A message that creates the faith. It matters not who they are, for in Christ there are no more differences, not ethnic, not socio-economic, not even genders. Just Christians. The only solution to the heartbreak of unbelief is to apply the Spirit’s power, the power of the Word that proclaims the power of Christ, God over all, forever praised! Amen!
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