Sermon for 10/29/23: Festival of the Reformation

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Free in Christ

Revelation 14:6-7

 

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

The Lutheran Reformation was all about freedom. Now, it’s not about the civil and social freedoms we enjoy as citizens of our nation. As much as we may appreciate those freedoms, the Reformation was about something better. It was about the freedom Jesus addressed in today’s Gospel: the freedom that comes from being delivered from the guilt and punishment of sin. The Jews of our Lord’s Day were oppressed, not only by their Roman conquerors, but also by a religious life that was heavily burdened by law after law piled on top of God’s commands.

Luther’s day was very much like that. The Roman Church of that time was keeping Christians shackled by the Law. The people were burdened by guilt for their sins, and the emphasis of the Church was constantly on what they should do about it. So the Pope sold indulgences, a means of purchasing forgiveness of sins with money. You could pay for your own sins or even for the sins of your long-dead ancestors. Sacred relics, such as fragments of the cross or bits of the bones of the saints, were revered for their alleged ability to grant saving merits. The emphasis was on man’s duty to satisfy God. Even worship, the freest expression of the faith of a Christian, became an obligation.

When Luther and others rediscovered the sweetness of the Gospel, they began to taste real freedom! God did not want man to remain shackled with the burdens of the Law. He set them free from a religion of unending obligation to one of the free grace of God. No longer did men have to strive to be good enough for God to love them. When would that be? When would you know that you had done enough? Instead, they could believe the Gospel message: that God was fully pleased with them in His Son, Jesus Christ, because He had paid the price for their redemption—indeed, for the redemption of the whole world at His cross.

Luther and others like him had their eyes opened to the Biblical way of viewing the judgment of God. They had been taught to view God as an angry Judge who was constantly sniffing around, looking for sins which would merit the condemnation of sinners. But they had missed the other half of God’s judgment: the verdict of “not guilty,” which He freely gives to those who believe in His Son, Jesus Christ! For when the Father condemned His only-begotten Son at the cross, the price was paid in full by Jesus, who bears the burden, guilt, and punishment for your sin.

You have been set free by Christ’s sacrifice at the cross. So don’t re-shackle yourself with the burden of the Law. You would never do that, right? And yet, you do, and so do I. Whenever you try so hard to do what is God-pleasing, as if your life depended on it, you shackle yourself. If you think you can’t be forgiven, you are shackled. If you dread the judgment of God on the Last Day, fearing that you haven’t done enough to please God, you remain shackled. If you ever think that the things of the Church are primarily about what you do, you are shackled.

So we all shackle ourselves in one way or another. So what can we do to get ourselves free? Nothing! That’s the point! Getting us free of shackles is God’s job, not yours! That’s what worship is all about. Worship is God’s favorable judgment for you. You come each Sunday as a shackled sinner, and God forgives your sin and removes those shackles through His proclaimed Word and the Sacraments. He has cleansed you by water and the Word, freeing you from your sins in Holy Baptism. He has judged you worthy to come to the wedding banquet of the body and blood of Christ. If more Christians understood and believed that worship is not an obligation to be met, but the place where Christ is dispensing His gifts of salvation and eternal life, Sunday morning could not come soon enough, and the Divine Service could not last long enough!

You are those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. That is how the beginning of this 14^th Chapter of Revelation frames our text. St. John says: “Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. …It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb...” He washes you from your sins in your Baptism, and you are here! It is here that salvation is proclaimed to you, and you are present to hear it. You come with your heart heavy with the guilty burden of sin, and Jesus proclaims it forgiven through the servant He puts here for that purpose. The Lamb of God is really present with His body given into death for you and His blood shed at the cross for you, and you are here to receive it. You have no reason whatsoever to fear the judgment of God, because He judges you to be forgiven: set free from sin, death, and the devil by His victory at the cross! You are set free—free to worship Him without fear, free to live forever as a redeemed child of God. 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.