Lent 5—Judica
Dear friends in Christ. Today we enter the final two weeks of Lent. These last two weeks are called Passiontide, "Passion" meaning "suffering." They begin the focus on Jesus’ suffering and death for the sins of the world. The earlier weeks of Lent showed Jesus’ battles against the devil and Jesus’ defeat of the devil. Last week was a Sunday of “refreshment” as we saw Jesus’ care for the people following Him as He fed that crowd of 5000 men, plus women and children. But now the tone and mood of Lent shifts and becomes more somber as Jesus’ work comes to its climax and fulfillment.
Today’s psalm, Psalm 43, sounds that somber tone as we hear the first verse: Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people. As we enter these final weeks of Lent, our attention focuses on Jesus being rejected, betrayed, suffering and dying. Who cannot hear Jesus praying the words of this psalm these final weeks of Lent: Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people?
The beauty of so many of the psalms is that they either are prophecies of Jesus, prophecies of Jesus’ very words—like we will hear on Good Friday from Psalm 22: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?—or they are words that we can see reflected in Jesus’ life and very easily hear Jesus praying, like today’s psalm: Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people.
What is today’s Gospel reading? Jesus in a confrontation with the religious leaders of the Jews who rejected Jesus: “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” accusing Jesus of being a possessed heretic. That rejection is total as Jesus plainly tells them that He is the true God, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” And what happened? So they picked up stones to throw at him. Who now cannot hear Jesus praying today’s psalm: Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people?
As we examine our text today, we will see a two-fold judgment: first we will see the world judging Jesus but their verdict is wrong; and then we will see Jesus correctly judging the world. The world incorrectly judging Jesus leads to God “reversing” that judgment with Jesus’ resurrection. But Jesus wants people to use His correct judgment on the world to lead them to repentance and faith.
Our text begins in the midst of a heated discussion the Jews are having with Jesus. Jesus asks them why they are rejecting Him: Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Jesus here points to His innocence in what He says and does. If they could point out where Jesus is wrong, then certainly He could be rejected; then certainly His credibility would be shot and they would have every right to reject what He says—and in particular who He says He is. What reason do they have for rejecting Him?
Dear Christian, the same holds true today. Why do people reject Jesus today? Is it because He simply isn’t credible? Is it because His words and deeds do not go hand in hand, that we discovered that He was some gross sinner or some immoral slob? No! People reject Jesus because they do not like what He says and what He stands for. People do not like to be reminded of the fact that they are sinners and so they are not good enough on their own before God, for heaven—the fact that Jesus is the Savior from sin is a constant reminder that I need a Savior.
It is part of the fallen corrupt sinful nature of us all that people want to be their own gods. They want to be the final judge of what is right and wrong. They do not want to be held to an absolute, divine, moral standard—God’s perfect and holy Law. Every claim of Jesus that He is true God means that there is a divine moral absolute outside of us. Disbelieve, discredit Jesus and each can be his/ her own god/goddess. That’s a reason why down to this very day there are attacks and ridicule of Christ and His Church.
But what Jesus said that day still stands: Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Even the times the Jews accused Jesus of sin, for example, by breaking the Sabbath laws by healing the sick, Jesus not only showed them that what He did was not sin, but He showed them their sin. If Jesus had even once sinned, the Jews would have been all over it and would here and elsewhere have accused Him of it, pointed it out, reminded Him. On Good Friday, three times, the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate publicly said [Jn. 18.38; 19.4, 6], I find no fault in Him.
How vital that we always keep in our hearts and minds the simple fact that Jesus never sinned—not even once. Not only do we have these accounts from the Gospels but the holy apostles [2 Co. 5.21; Heb. 4.15; 1 Pt. 2.22] also testify that Jesus is the One who knew no sin, and that Jesus in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin; and this, too, was already prophesied by the prophets: he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. This sinlessness of Jesus is part and parcel of Jesus’ work to be our Savior from sin. Not only was Jesus’ work suffering and dying on the cross for the sins of the world—that was to appease and assuage the wrath of a holy God whose perfect holiness was wronged by each of our sins; but Jesus’ work also meant that from the moment of His conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin and going all the way to His final breath on the cross, Jesus was keeping/ obeying God’s holy Law perfectly for us, never once sinning because a holy God demands that His law be kept perfectly. Since we do not/ cannot Jesus did it for us. Here—by their silence—even His enemies admit Jesus’ sinlessness.
Jesus’s sinlessness is the guarantee and proof of His truthfulness. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Here is the irrationality of the world’s hatred of Christ. What reason do they have to reject Him? Jesus tells them/ us: Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. By rejecting the clear evidence of who Jesus is and that what He is saying is correct and true, by hating Jesus with this irrational hatred, these people Jesus is talking to and people down through the ages who hear but reject Jesus are making clear that they are not the children of God but are themselves of the devil. So spiritually irrational are these people that not only do they not look at the evidence and give Jesus a fair hearing, but they go right on the attack: The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” They harden themselves against Jesus and anything He would say or do by trying to discredit Him by name calling.
So what finally happens, the people’s rejection of Jesus is made official and complete as we hear on Good Friday [Mt.27. 22-25]: Pilate said to [the people] “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!” Then the governor said, “Why, evil has He done?” But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified…And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”
Precisely then, at this greatest rejection, here and on the cross, we can certainly hear Jesus crying out our psalm: Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people.
Here in our text, when Jesus is rejected: “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”; what does He say? “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge.” And then later: Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’” God the Father glorifies the Son, Jesus. Not only does Jesus show who He is—the Son of God and the Savior of the world—by what He says and what He does; not only does His sinlessness confirm it, but also God the Father will glorify Jesus. Jesus simply goes about carrying out His work of saving the world from its sins and reconciling it to God. He is not seeking His own glory. And what happens? It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ When was Jesus glorified by the Father? At the cross, with His death, and with His resurrection. As Jesus, the holy, sinless perfect, once for all sacrifice, was on the cross, loaded down with the sins of the whole world and enduring the entire wrath of the Father for those sins and by that reconciling the whole of lost sinful humanity to the holy God, that was the moment of glory. That was the Father glorifying the Son, accepting His sacrifice. Because Jesus offered that perfect sacrifice and because it was holy and accepted by the Father, the Father glorified the Son by raising Him from the dead Easter Sunday. Now Jesus, true God and true man, is glorified in heaven, sitting at the Right Hand of the Father and ruling all things.
2. The sinful world rejected and still rejects Jesus. But by the resurrection the Father vindicated and glorified Jesus showing that His word is true and that what He said about Himself is true—He is the true God and the Savior of the world. The Father vindicated/ glorified the Son by undoing the verdict on Jesus, as St. Peter preached to the Pentecost crowd [Ac. 2.36]: Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now Jesus by His true judgment on the world wants to lead sinners to repentance and faith.
Our text: The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Who is Jesus? That’s the most vital question that we must answer truthfully. Jesus, by His words and miracles, by His life and work honors the Father; and the Father glorified the Son, Jesus. Earlier Jesus had said [Jn. 5.23]: All should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Jesus’ honor and the Father’s honor is one and the same; dishonor the Son, dishonor the Father. And then Jesus goes on at the end of our text and says that He is JHWH, Jehovah, the great eternal I AM, the God of the OT saints: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” The Jews knew very well what Jesus was saying—that He is the one true eternal God because they picked up stones to throw at him.
All this means what? Jesus is the true God. He is the center and focus of it all. Our eternal salvation depends on how we regard Jesus—is He the true God who became also true man, who is my Savior from sin, death, devil and hell? Do I look to Him alone for my salvation and eternal life in heaven? How does my life reflect it? Especially now as we enter the deeper penitence of these final two weeks of Lent, let us examine our heart and life and not only seek to discover, sorrow over and root out sin, but also let us examine our faith: who is Jesus?
Your faith is right and true when you recognize your sin, you don’t try to minimize it or rationalize it away but sorrow over it instead; when you strive, by the power of the Holy Spirit given you at your baptism, to live your life in accord with the holy will of God; when in your sorrow over sin, you run to Jesus and rejoice in and hold to His vindication—that the Father indeed declared Him righteous on the cross and raised Him and that Jesus is your righteousness before God; and you glorify Him and the Father as you in Spirit-worked faith receive that forgiveness, righteousness, reconciliation He gives you fully and freely in His word and Sacraments. With Jesus and the psalmist we pray: Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people. INJ Amen.