God’s Word Wins The Day
John 8:42-59
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. John 8:47 He who is of God hears God’s words.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… In the beginning, after Adam and Eve sinned against God, Yahweh God cursed that ancient serpent, the devil. And then, in His grace, Yahweh drew a dividing line between him and Eve, between the devil’s seed and the seed of the woman. You remember the verse: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Gen 3:15)
There has been a great ongoing battle between these two sides ever since: the devil’s side and the side of those whom God has graciously brought to His side. Today’s Gospel highlights the dividing line between those two sides.
On the one side, the devil’s side, are the Jews, specifically the Jewish leaders who had heard the word of Jesus and didn’t believe it, and who rejected Him as the Christ, sent from God to save sinners from sin, death, and the devil. On the other side of the line stands Jesus, the true Seed of the woman, the Son of God and Son of Man. And there with Him, on His side – there in Him, really – are all those who are joined to Him by Holy Baptism, linked to Him by faith. We could never stand against the devil or his seed on our own. But in Christ Jesus, we are victorious over them all.
You and I get to witness – we get to take part in – Jesus’ victory against the devil and his seed in today’s Gospel. There was a great back and forth. The Jews were hurling their accusations against Jesus, and Jesus leveled His own charges against them, stating His own claims about Himself and about those who believe in Him. It really is a beautiful sight to behold. Here is our Champion standing against the forces of evil and defeating them with the Word of God which always wins the day.
Jesus had been speaking nothing but the truth, for He Himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He always spoke in agreement with all the Old Testament Scriptures ever since He began His ministry, proclaiming the truth before the whole world. And the truth is this: all men are sinners. No sinner can keep God’s holy law in such a way as to be justified by it or to earn God’s favor by his works. But God is gracious. He has sent His Son, the promised Messiah, into the world, into human flesh, to save sinful human beings, by keeping God’s holy law for them and by laying down His life for them. The one and only way for anyone to be justified before God and saved from sin, death, and the devil, was and still is by trusting in Jesus the Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
Most of the Jews despised Jesus for saying such things. “We don’t believe You are who You say You are. We don’t agree with Your teaching. You must be a sinner!” But Jesus struck back at them: “Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?” Now, it is one thing to claim that Jesus is a sinner. It is quite another thing to demonstrate it, to show from the Scriptures where He has said or done something against God’s holy Law. Of course, the Jews couldn’t do that, which meant that Jesus was speaking the truth. But if He was speaking the truth, why didn’t they believe Him?
As Jesus explains, “He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.” What does it mean to be “of God”? It means to be on the side of God. Here again is the dividing line between the seed of the serpent and those who are “of God.” To be “of God” means to be “born of God,” either eternally begotten of the Father, as Jesus was, or reborn of Him by water and the Spirit. It means that, if you hear the Word of Jesus and believe in Him as God’s Son and trust in Him alone for the forgiveness of sins, it is because God has begotten you; God the Father has drawn you to Christ by His Holy Spirit, working through the preaching of the Gospel. He has brought you to repentance and faith and has thus given you His new birth.
But if you hear the Word of Jesus and don’t believe in Him as God’s Son, if you don’t trust in Him as the one Mediator between God and Man, it is because you have rejected the Holy Spirit’s working; you have rejected the truth and chosen to believe a lie. In that case, as Jesus told the Jews, you still have the devil for a father.
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Boy, did that anger the Jews! “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” The Samaritans, remember, followed a mixture of the Jewish faith and pagan religion. It was a demeaning religious slur for a Jew to call another Jew a Samaritan. And accusing someone of having a demon, well that was a huge deal!. “We are the owners of the Jewish faith, Jesus, not you. You disagree with us; therefore, You must be wrong. You must be on the devil’s side.” This is what practically every false religion does; it claims to be the true religion while the others are false. In the depraved times in which we live, a lot of supposed “religious” people are happy to believe that all paths are equally good and eventually lead to heaven. This is truly a demonic teaching.
Well, again, it is one thing to claim something. It is quite another thing to back up your claim with proof. And here the only proof that will do is the unchangeable, always-dependable truth of God’s Holy Word. The Jews couldn’t even begin to back up their accusations against Jesus from Scripture.
“I do not have a demon,” Jesus replied, “but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges.” You see, God the Father invites mankind to honor Jesus, to give Him the glory He deserves, the glory of the Son of God who became Man to be the Savior of mankind. The Father seeks glory for His Son and will most certainly judge all who refuse to give it. The dividing line is real, and it is clear. To oppose Jesus is to dishonor the true God. That is why every religion that does not recognize Jesus Christ as true God and true Man, sent by God to be the only Savior of the world, is a godless, worthless, demonic religion. Oh, they may sound “bible-ey,” but in the end they all lead away from Christ.
The Christian faith claims to be the only-saving faith, with everyone else lined up on the side of the devil. That is a rather unpopular claim, but we make it nonetheless, not with pride, but with joy, because in Christ we have a Savior who can actually save. Jesus promises in the Gospel, “If anyone keeps My word, he shall never see death!” (Jn 8:51) The Jews recognized what a bold claim that was. They knew that death was God’s curse upon mankind for sinning against Him. The only one who can undo death is the Lord God Himself who first imposed it. If Jesus is claiming to be able to undo death, then He must be claiming to be God.
And, of course, He was. “Before Abraham was, I AM.” (Jn 8:59) The name that God claimed for Himself at the time of Moses was: I AM WHO I AM. The Jews were right; Jesus wasn’t yet fifty years old, not according to His humanity. But according to His divinity, He is the Word who was with God in the beginning, and who was God. That is why He can claim to undo death, to have the authority to bring sinners onto His side, to protect them against sin, death, and the devil.
But Jesus didn’t just snap His fingers and make death go away. Our sins demanded our death. Justice demanded our death. Christ Himself had to taste death for us all. Christ came to shed His blood – the priceless blood of God, as we heard in the reading from Hebrews earlier. Christ came to suffer what we deserved, so that we might inherit what He deserves. To those whom He graciously brings onto His side by Baptism, by faith, He offers eternal life; He offers forgiveness; He offers salvation. And He seals it to us in the Sacrament of the Altar where He gives us His true body and blood, once given into death, but now made alive again forever and ever, and with the power to make us live forever, too.
Yes, those are bold claims, unpopular claims. Yes, they fly in the face of human reason. But they are God’s words, and we Christians believe them. That is why we are not afraid to call Jesus our Lord, even though it pits us against the majority of mankind who are still on the devil’s side, even though it paints a big target on our back, even as Jesus had one painted on His. That is also why we continue to invite all people to repent and to believe in Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, while there still is time for them to cross over from death to life, from the devil’s side to the side of God.
Thank God, dear fellow redeemed, that during this present unpleasant situation in our world that we are not forbidden to “have church.” Thank God we can use technology – at least temporarily – to His glory and our good so that we can see and hear these services. Be assured, dear Christian, that God is in control, and He has nothing but the best in mind for you during this time.
And even though we may not be able to gather together as we have been doing and as we most certainly will do again, I encourage you to keep the faith, cling by your God-given faith to Christ alone. Only Christ and His Holy Word win the day for us.
Fear not; your sins are paid for by Christ. You are blessed. You are free. You are His.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
