Sunday, March 03, 2019

Sermon for 3/3/19: Quinquagesima

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You Are the Beggar

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.


He’s blind. He is poor as dirt and completely helpless. He’s stuck on the side of a country road. He doesn’t even have the good sense to do his begging in the middle of the city, where there are more people. No matter how hard he tries, he can do nothing for himself. His very life depends on the generosity of strangers. How degrading is that? Doesn’t he have any self-respect? Maybe if someone just gave him a good start, he’d be able to do it himself. But he can’t. He keeps trying and trying and trying, but there is no hope for him on his own. He is stuck alongside the road with no hope of redemption on his own. All he can do is beg for the gifts that will come to him. That is his only salvation.
You are that beggar. You are blind and poor and helpless in God’s sight. You can’t get yourself out of the trap that has befallen you by sin. Certainly there may be times when things go better than others. There may even be months or years when you can forget that you wear the filthy rags of sin. There may be times when you can ignore your blindness, unable to see what sin has wrought in your life. The hardest thing in the world for a human being to do is repent and recognize that you are helpless without God’s love and mercy. But this is the truth: you are that beggar. Consider Luther’s last words upon his deathbed: “We are all beggars. This is true.” Repent of your self-made life and your fantasy world where you don’t need God. Repent, and live.
Now look at that beggar once again. He hears the voice of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and cries out for all he’s worth: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Ah, that great word of faith: mercy. This beggar recognizes that he has no hope and no life apart from the mercy of Christ. That is what drives him. It is in Christ that his very lifeblood can be found.
The crowds around the beggar want him to be quiet and go away. The Old Adam within you wants to be self-reliant, and the world demands rugged individualism. “Don’t trust in Christ! Trust in yourself! You can do it. You don’t need Him. And even if you need Him, someone as important as the Son of God doesn’t have time for your problems.” But the more the world tells this beggar to be quiet, the more this man of faith cries out: “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stood still at the beggar’s cry of faith, listens as he cries for mercy, and heals him. When this beggar, who has nothing and offers nothing, cries out for mercy, God gives it to him.
Now look at that beggar. He once was blind but now can see. He once was dead to the world, but he is now alive in Christ. And if you look a little closer still, you can see this beggar eating at the Master’s table, dressed in the finest of clothes, consuming the finest of food and the richest of wines. This beggar has become a lord. He has become everything he could not by his own power—all because of the mercy of the Master.
You are that beggar. God hears your cry for mercy. He forgives your sin, opens your eyes to see, and lifts you up to the highest place. It is no accident that we kneel to receive Christ’s body and blood at His banquet. That is the proper place for beggars. But God, who is rich in mercy, lifts you up and gives you His greatest treasure: His own Son, dead and alive again.
Our bags are packed. The Sundays of Pre-Lent are done. We begin our journey to the cross with Christ on Ash Wednesday. This blind beggar shows the rest of us beggars that, when we beg at Christ’s feet, He will always come through for us. Come, you who are beggars. Come on the journey of salvation. Come to the cross. Come to the tomb. You will never be the same again. 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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