Lent 5 + Judica
Text: John 8:42-59
While much of the world sees March 17th on the calendar, they know it’s St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a day of green rivers, beer, and leprechauns.
However, we continue to travel through the season of Lent today. We observe the fifth Sunday of Lent, Judica Sunday.
The tone and character of the season take a hard turn from the rose-colored stole of last Sunday. This is highlighted by the black veils that now adorn the crosses and crucifixes of the church and sanctuary and the omitting of the Gloria throughout the service, such as at the end of the introit and Nunc Dimittis. As your vision is shielded from the cross and your voices are stripped of the praise you are so used to singing, you now have nothing to do but listen to the Word of God and meditate on what Jesus has done for you.
The attention of the Church is now solely on our journey to Good Friday and our Lord’s Passion.
Judica Sunday gets its name from the introit. In the King James translation of the introit, we hear, “Judge me, O God.” This is where the historic name for the Sunday comes from. However, this morning's ESV translation of Psalm 43 is, “Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against ungodly people.”
But what is it you need to be defended from? Who are these people you need defending from?
It’s interesting that if you look back at the Gospel readings over Lent, the Devil or a demon is mentioned in all of them. Still, last week, we saw a reprieve from the intensity of Lent and heard of the feast we enjoy at this altar. We looked forward to eternity with all the company of heaven.
But as we set out on this Lenten journey this year, we set out in the first week, hearing the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Lent highlights this battle of temptation and spiritual warfare with the devil and his minions, his foot soldiers. Thus, today, we shouldn’t be surprised to hear again of this evil foe in the words of Jesus as He says to the Jews, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.”
How do Jesus's words strike you today? “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.”
What a statement.
It cuts to the core of a person. You might think to yourself, “Well, I wouldn’t blame them for wanting to stone Jesus. Maybe you would have wanted to join them and pick up stones yourself.”
“You are of your father the devil.”
This is the kind of stuff that might get you hurt if you said it to someone. Not only that, today this would be seen as offensive and just plain hurtful speech.
But you are of your father, the devil. His lies and speech fill your mouth when you communicate with your brother or sister, your mother or father, your son or daughter. You rebel against God and do not love Him as you ought. Your relationships can be seen crumbling; they suffer from the strain of turmoil and discord. You trust in the ways and workings of the devil rather than in the ways and Words of God, the words of peace and reconciliation.
Why? Because the devil lies. He’s a liar.
Just as Jesus said, “He is a liar and the father of lies.” And the devil doesn’t just lie; he tells the lie that God is not good, that He will not care for you, your family, or your life – do not trust in the Lord your God.
The lie of the serpent is what drove our first parents to grasp what was not given to them in the Garden. It brought your first father to ignore God’s Word.
The devil is a liar and a murderer, and so are you.
But you say, “I haven’t murdered anyone.”
St. John writes, “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” (1 John 3:15)
However, the opposite of the lie is the truth.
The whole creation narrative is one of love, care, and compassion. God created out of love; He desired to bestow His benefits on man. Even after the fall into sin and man’s embracing of the lie, God provides; God clothes and feeds Adam and Eve as they depart the Garden as He clothes and feeds you today. God doesn’t take the sacrifice of Isaac from Abraham, but instead, He sends His own son in a manger to live as you live, to breathe this poisoned air that you breathe, so that He, Jesus Christ, would be the sacrifice for you, to die in your place.
As Jesus said in the Gospel of John, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
It’s this blood of Jesus shed upon the cross that vindicates you and grants you forgiveness. It’s this blood shed upon the cross that brings peace among neighbors, peace among siblings, peace amid family, and peace into the darkness and turmoil of your lives. It’s the blood of Jesus that brings you into the Father’s eternal presence.
If you look at the baptism rite we use, it’s the rite developed by Luther. In many ways, the language seems out of place, kind of like the words of Jesus today, but it reveals how the battle of this life begins at the font. The battle to resist the devil and all his ways and live as a child of God. It’s for this reason the baptismal rite (and Confirmation Rite) has historically had what is known as renunciations; you’re familiar with the three that are present in our baptismal liturgy: “Do you renounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways?”
The response to these questions is, “Yes, I renounce them.”
But how do you continue renouncing them today?
One of my seminary professors, Dr. David Scaer, wrote, “A secular age requires not only belief in God, but the awareness that the world remains under the sway of the prince of darkness. Certainly, we cannot renounce Satan by our own power (We are sinful), but only because Christ by His Word has forced him to flee.” (Scaer)
For this reason, when we prayed in the introit, “Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against ungodly people,” we are praying for Christ Jesus to take up this battle for us, to defend and protect us from the powers of darkness – it’s His Word and life that defend and keep us safely in His Church.
So, return to your Baptism where Christ promises to be for you. Take up the prayer of St. Patrick as he wrote in his great baptismal hymn,
I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three,
Of whom all nature has creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word.
Praise to the Lord of my salvation;
Salvation is of Christ the Lord!
Keep these words upon your lips and in your ears as we journey to the cross, as our Lenten fast of the eyes and the quieting of our voices set in; allow yourself to meditate on Him who keeps you.
We cannot defeat Satan or this world, but in our Baptism, Jesus’ work and His victory claim you as His own. He now gives you His Word to assure you; cling to it, abide in it, and cherish it. For it is this Word that vindicates and forgives you; it brings you resurrection and life everlasting. +INJ+
