Because I Live

Christ is risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In today's Gospel lesson, Jesus promises us, “I will not leave you as orphans.” With these words, our Lord invites us to believe and trust that He will never leave us alone in this world, no matter how forlorn or difficult things appear to be. For we know that regardless of appearances, our God is always with us.

Contrary to what many might think, and in contrast to many other religions of the world, our God is not an absentee deity. Despite what the philosophers of the 1960s and on have said, God is not dead. Our Lord has died, but is now living. And our God is not simply a clockmaker who wound up the system, set it in motion, then wandered off and forgot about us. The Scriptures declare that our God made the heavens and the earth, and He directs the movement of each and every particle in the cosmos. He knows the beat of every heart of every living thing, and He daily and richly provides for all our needs of body and soul.

Likewise, our God is not some abstract “force”, like that in Star Wars. Our God did make everything there is, and without Him nothing was made that is, but He is not everything. Our God is not a tree, nor a spaceship, nor a stream of consciousness. You are not God, and neither am I, much though our hearts might try to tell us otherwise.

Our God is not absent, and neither is He an abstraction. Rather, He is the Creator of heaven and earth, the seas and the dry land, and all that is in them.

And He is our Father. Our God, the Father Almighty, has not set us and forgotten us, like some discarded plaything, but is right here with us, among us. He is our dear Father, and we are His dear children. And because He is our dear Father, He provides for us in every need of body and soul.

As part of His gracious provision for us, our heavenly Father has sent us His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to secure our place as sons of God. Through Christ, you have been adopted as sons and daughters of God by the shedding of His blood for you.

While you were yet sinners, while you were yet far off from God Jesus Christ died for you and shed His holy, innocent blood, that He might redeem you from sin, death, and the power of the devil. He died to pay the price of your redemption, and then He rose again to proclaim to you, and to all who were sitting in darkness, the forgiveness of your sins and your adoption as sons and daughters of God through His Son Jesus. And therefore, being brought near by the blood of Jesus, you are made worthy to be called sons and daughters of the promise, and you will not be left as orphans, since you have the Father of all goodness.

However, Jesus says, “Yet a little while, and the world will not see me.” In the midst of all this discourse about love and not leaving us alone and sending a helper to show us the way, Jesus says that the world will not see Him. Why? Why will they not see Him? After all, He died for everyone, right?

Yes, Jesus did in fact die for everyone, and salvation is freely given to all. However, some people go looking in the wrong places, and therefore they cannot find what they seek, no matter how hard or how earnestly they search.

Jesus is not to be found inside yourself. The quest for personal holiness and purity, while certainly a part of the Christian life, is not the be all to end all. You will not be saved by the purity of your lifestyle. Temperance is only a godly virtue when it restrains drunkenness. Abstinence is only godly when it prevents adultery. Modesty is not a show in itself, but a protection of that which only your husband should see. All these sorts of disciplines are beneficial in their places, but none of that will show you Jesus, unless you fast yourself into delusions. Jesus is not to be found in the exercises of your own heart, however pious you think yourself to be.

These past few weeks have provided a wonderful example of how the world fails to see Jesus. Harold Camping and his disciples claimed to be able to predict the Second Coming of Christ, which of course did not happen on schedule. Every so often, someone or some group pops up with similar claims. Through this, that, or the other method, we have figured out when the end of the world will be. If it does not happen this year, on Mr. Camping's schedule, the end of the world is supposed to happen in December of next year. However, when a human mind sets the date, you can be fairly certain that it will not happen then. God certainly reveals Himself in the times and seasons, but the end of the world, and a great many other things, are beyond our knowing. To discern how or when is beyond our ken, and slides too easily into idolatry. To paraphrase St. Augustine, before the world began, God was creating hell for those who pry into the secret mind of God. Just as God will never forsake His children, He will not come whenever we snap our fingers.

If not those, the world may try to find God in another way – by the supposedly charitable and pious service to others. Works of charity in themselves are certainly commendable. Christ our Lord commands us to heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, comfort the dying and the bereaved, and many other works of mercy. St. James says that if you call yourself a Christian but fail to help the needy, your faith is dead.

However, these works themselves are not the way to Jesus. The Gospel is not a message of liberation from what ails you. The Gospel is the message that you have been rescued from sin, death, and the power of the devil, and that you have been liberated from bondage to guilt and shame. The Gospel is a free gift of God that secures your salvation beyond a shadow of a doubt. The Gospel is the proclamation that your sins are forgiven and the gates of heaven stand wide open to you. The Gospel is the proclamation that you have been transformed by the renewal of your mind and your body into one who is free to serve your neighbor. Christ may be in your neighbor, as the Scripture says, some have entertained angels unawares. But you will not find the God who forgives your sins in the face of the starving children in Africa. Your salvation does not consist in your service to others, but in Jesus' service to you.

Despite all these pitfalls and red herrings, Jesus gives this promise: “But you will see me, because I live.” The original text here allows us to read this verse as one sentence, so that Jesus says that the reason you can see Him is not because He is hidden somewhere for you to discover Him, but because He lives.

Jesus comes to us precisely because He is living. If Christ had not been raised from the dead, we would see Him lying dead in the tomb, but He would not come to us. He might come to us in memory, but not in the flesh. However, He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and He comes to us in the flesh. He appeared to the disciples in the upper room, and He told Thomas to put his fingers in the nail holes and his hands in the spear wound. Unlike the popular conception of ghosts and spirits, Jesus has feet and He walks upon them. On the shore of Galilee, Jesus ate with the disciples. They saw Him because He is living in the flesh.

While we today cannot handle Jesus in that way, He nevertheless comes to us in real, tangible ways. He comes to us in His Holy Word, where He shows Himself by the declaration of Himself and His creating and saving work for you. The Word of God incarnate dwells with us because He has given Himself to us in His Word. The Word of God is and does what it says. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God said, “Let us make man,” and man was made. God says, “This is My Body; this is My Blood,” and it is. God says, Your sins are forgiven, and they are. God says, “You are my beloved son,” and you are. The Word of God is living and active, not chained to a page in a book. By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the Word of the Lord the salvation of the world was accomplished.

Likewise, you see Jesus where He attaches His command and promise to real, physical elements and gives them to you. You find Jesus in the water of the font, because He has promised to be there to forgive your sins and make you a child of God. You find Jesus in the mouth of the preacher, humble though it be, because where the Word of God and the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed, there Christ is. You find Jesus in the hand of the pastor that lays on your head the forgiveness of your sins and declares you free from guilt and shame. You find Jesus on His altar, where He gives His real, physical Body and Blood in and with the bread and wine to feed you body and soul with the forgiveness of sins and the guarantee of life everlasting in His name. In these humble elements, Jesus comes to you and reveals Himself to you. You need not seek Him in any other place, because this is where He has promised to be. You may always find the God who loves you and forgives your sins in these places, through these means, because here is where He has said that He will be.

Jesus says, “You will see Me, because I live, and you will live also.” Jesus is living in the body, and just as surely as He is living, ascended to the Father, and reigns to all eternity, so also will you live in and with and through Him. You live in Christ because He has given Himself to you, and He gives you His gifts. He has sent the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, to give you all good things, and to work faith in your hearts. Because the Spirit of God dwells within you, you live in Christ. Because the Spirit of God dwells with you, you will never be left as orphans. For where the Spirit of God is, there are the Gifts of God for the people of God. The Holy Spirit proclaims to you Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of your sins in His name, and therefore you see Him who died and is raised for you. And because He lives, you also will live with Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christ is risen! Alleluia!