Repentance and Life
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The rich man was in hell. He
deserved to be there, for he failed to love his neighbor, and, in doing so, he
failed to love God. So he was in hell, tormented as only one who resides in
hell can be tormented. Still, he was convinced that he had a way to save his
brothers from those torments of Hell that he was experiencing. All it would
take would be for this poor, dead Lazarus to make an appearance at the house of
the rich man’s father. Surely there is nothing like an appearance from the dead
to change the hearts of callous sinners into faithful believers! At least, that’s
what the misguided soul of the rich man dearly hopes.
But Abraham knows differently. It’s
not as simple as that. Even the appearance of one who is risen from the dead
will not be enough to change the heart of the unbeliever. That power is reserved
for Moses and the Prophets. Only the Word of God has the power to convert those
who do not believe. It is the Word of God alone that gives faith and life, and
this is a gift that can only be given by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our world has a problem with hell.
Our world has a problem with the idea that faith is an important thing. As much
as we might like to think that magical appearances of the face of Jesus on a
piece of toasted bread or some vision of the Virgin Mary will cause
nonbelievers to turn from their wicked ways and become Christians, it will not
happen. But more than that, anyone who believes in a heaven, even if they don’t
believe in Jesus, is convinced they belong inside those heavenly gates, resting
in Abraham’s bosom.
How could someone who claims to be a
loving God allow His children to be banished forever from His presence? How
could someone who claims to be a loving God allow His children to be tormented
forever in hell? Even representatives of our country think it is hateful, and
maybe even a hate crime, to believe that those who do not believe in Jesus as
the Son of God will be condemned by God to everlasting suffering. They blame
God and His faithful children for what they believe to be such horrible ideas.
But the truth is, those who do not believe condemn themselves; God just gives
the person what they want: an eternity without God. That’s the practice the
Church calls “excommunication,” when those who claim to be Christians but act
contrary to the faith exclude themselves from the fellowship of the Church. The
unrepentant sinner has excluded himself; the Church just nods its head and
says, “Okay. We hope you’ll come back to us.”
True repentance for our sin and true
faith can only come from the Word of God. It is the Word of God that points us
to Christ, whose death and resurrection alone bring us to the comfort of
eternal life. There is no otherworldly vision, no ghost, not even someone
rising from the dead, which will bring the unrepentant to faith. The leaders of
the Jews in our Lord’s day saw the evidence that the real Lazarus, the brother
of Mary and Martha, rose from the dead; it did not bring them to faith in Jesus
or repentance for their unbelief. Only the Word of God by the power of the Holy
Spirit can make repentance and belief come to the hearts of sinners.
And that’s exactly what the Spirit
does. The Spirit comes to the sinner in the waters of Holy Baptism, where the
Word of God in the water brings repentance and faith. The sinner is drowned to
die with Christ, cleansed in that holy flood, so that the new man emerges to a
new life in Christ. And the Spirit continues to feed that repentance and faith
in the preaching of the Word and in the body and blood of Jesus. Where is the
best place to hear Moses and the Prophets? You are already here, for God’s Word
is proclaimed in its fullness when God’s people gather together to receive His
gifts. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God
which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus
always. Amen.
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