“A Cry of Deliverance” (John 19:28-29)

S-1423 5MIL/3A 4/02/2014 Hymns: (O) #149 vv 1-2; S #184; (C) #149 vv 3-4

Texts: Psalm 69:13-21; Isaiah 55:1-3; Revelation 21:5-7; John 19:28-30

Theme: “A Cry of Deliverance” (John 19:28-29)

Question: “When was the last time you cried out to God to help you?” Armour, SD

Faithful followers of the Savior, the text is from the Gospel lesson “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to His mouth. (John 19:28-29).

INTRODUCTION: In Nomine Iesu.

Close your eyes for just a few moments please. It is pitch black in the middle of the afternoon. The Man is hanging on the tree. Breathing is labored. Eyes swollen. Lips are cracked. Blood is pouring down and gawkers are standing by. Every nerve is crying out for freedom from the pain. The anguish and agony are overwhelming. But don’t forget this is not just a Man hanging on a cross; it is also God on the cross. (Open your eyes).

The Son of God and Son of Man is on the cross to taste the bitter wrath for the sins of all of humanity. The Prophet, the Miracle worker, the Teacher and the long expected Messiah has been condemned to die. The Lord of Creation is enduring hell on behalf of His creation. The Rabbi from Galilee is about to die. The time is approaching and the devil is laughing and counting the seconds.

In heaven the angels are weeping. They are waiting for the command from God the Father to send them to bring about deliverance to the Man on the cross. But there is no movement, no command; just total silence. They can’t understand it. God is always willing to bring about deliverance; but not today. God is always willing to listen to His children’s cries; but not today. God always rushes to bring help and hope; but not today. Today the battle rages and death will commence. And God will be dead.

We often think of God as the mighty One who can do all things and He does. But tonight we see another side of God that we often don’t think about, though we teach it and confess that He is both God and Man. 100% Divine and 100% human. But somehow we forget that He is human. We forget that at times in His earthly pilgrimage He was tired, so He rested while the disciples went on to get food for Him (John 4). We know that He was so exhausted that He fell asleep in the boat while the storm was raging (Matthew 8). We know He got angry when they turned the Temple into a market place, and that with His fists He drove them out of the Temple (Matthew 21). PAUSE.

We want to thank Matthew, Mark, Luke and John for these pictures of Jesus’ humanity. These pictures help us understand that our God is not One who is distant or uncaring that doesn’t know what we experience. On the contrary these images remind us that He is truly God in the flesh. John put it this way, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14). Don’t forget that. He is Human. He had flesh and felt hunger, pain, thirst, temptations, anger and everything you and I experience.

So when we go to Him with our needs He understands. He knows when we tell Him we would like another day between Saturday and Sunday to get things done. He knows your anguish when you pray to Him in the hospital on behalf of the one you love. He knows your deepest sorrow and deepest hurt. He rejoices when you come to Him confessing your sins.

But we are thankful mostly to John for painting this picture of Christ’s humanity with the text for our meditation this evening. John put it this way: “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst!” That’s not the Messiah who is thirsty. That’s the carpenter from Nazareth. And those words are human words in the midst of the Divine.

Yes, the carpenter is thirsty. The Teacher is tired. The Rabbi is in anguish and agony. The Lord is dying and He is crying for deliverance. He withstood the 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness without water; He endured the weight of it all in the Garden of Gethsemane; He took the abandonment of His closest friends; He suffered the mockery and shame by those who egged Him on; and He outlasted the lashes of the soldiers. But tonight in the midst of darkness—His tongue is stuck to the top of His mouth and He wants deliverance. PAUSE.

You can hear the cry can’t you? This is no ordinary cry but a cry of deliverance. Deliverance from the raging thirst that the fever brought and the torment experienced on the cross. His lips were parched and dry; His mouth was like an oven, His tongue, like a fire-brand. Most literally could He say, in the words of the psalmist: “I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; it is melted within My breast; My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue sticks to My jaws” (Ps. 22:14-15). “They gave Me poison for food, and for My thirst they gave Me sour wine to drink” (Ps. 69:21). These words spoken 1000 years before Christ by David evidently has reference to fulfill the Scripture as Jesus stated, “I thirst.”

But these words of Jesus, “I THIRST!” have also a deeper and spiritual meaning. Jesus on the cross was suffering from a thirst that is even greater than physical thirst. He thirsted for the restoration of communion with His Father, for the return of God’s favor and the smile of His countenance upon Him, who for a while had forsaken Him. Now Jesus could say, in the words of Psalm 42, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, or the living God” (1-2). And again, from Psalm 63 “O God, You are My God; earnestly I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon You in the sanctuary, beholding Your power and glory” (1-2).

But there is more, Jesus’ thirst is not only to be reunited with His Father, but He was thirsty for our salvation. He thirsted for the salvation of the world, as He endured these afflictions to bring about with great joy of knowing He has finished His mission of redeeming mankind. It was a thirst for the salvation of souls, for your soul and for mine. That burning desire is what moved Him to endure all that suffering for you and me; so that you and I will never be thirsty again.

In this act on Calvary’s cross we see the fulfillment of Scripture and the irony around the ministry of Christ. In the beginning of His ministry He turned water into wine—sweet wine, but at the end of His ministry He is offered sour wine. He does this for you.

The Cry of Deliverance is not only for Him, but for you and me so that we might be delivered forever from all suffering. No wonder we rejoice when we are offered the cup of blessing to drink to eternal life. So in your thirst, come to the fountain and drink abundantly and freely, because Jesus has delivered you now and always. Amen.

Now the peace…

SOLI DEO GLORIA

“Asked to Care and Get Involved” Sanctity of Human Life Sunday (Jonah 3:1-3)

S-1292 SAE/3B 1/22/12 Hymns: (O) #729; #664; (S) #750; LS #633; #629; #623; (C) #737 LSB

Text: Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

Theme: “Asked to Care and Get Involved” Sanctity of Human Life Sunday (Jonah 3:1-3)

Question: “How concerned are you?” Armour, SD.

Faithful followers of the Savior, Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia! The text for the Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is the O.T. Lesson: “Then the Word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.’ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the Word of the LORD.” (Jonah 3:1-3a).

You who are loved, cherished and sought after, in 1985, a young couple Bob and Pam moved from Gainesville, FL to the Philippines, where they served as Christian missionaries. Hoping to expand their family, they prayed for a fifth child. Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite found in contaminated food or drink. She went into a coma and was treated with strong antibiotics before they discovered she was pregnant.

Doctors urged her to abort the baby for her own personal safety, and told her the strong medicines had caused irreversible damage to the fetus. She refused the abortion, and cited her Christian faith. Pam said the doctors didn’t think of it as a life, they thought of the child growing inside her as a mass of fetal tissue. While pregnant, Pam nearly lost the baby four times, but refused to consider abortion. She recalled making a pledge to God with her husband: If you will give us a son, we’ll name him Timothy, and we’ll make him a preacher of Your Word.

Pam ultimately spent the last two months of her pregnancy in bed, and eventually gave birth to a healthy baby boy August 14, 1987. Pam’s youngest son is indeed a preacher. He preaches in prisons, makes hospital visits, and serves with his father’s ministry in the Philippines as they return each ear with 50 of their employees to care for the orphanage.

This woman and her husband cared enough to keep the baby because it is more than just a blob of tissue—He is a GIFT from God Himself. Timmy as Pam calls Him went on to play football for the Florida Gators and in 2007, was named the Heisman Trophy winner; and now is the Quarter back for the Denver, Broncos.......... Pam’s son is Tim Tebow.

On this day, as we observe Sanctity of human life Sunday, the Holy Spirit reminds us as God’s redeemed and forgiven children of our role and responsibilities to care enough to get involved in the lives of others. We are called to speak out and stand out against every human injustice—to defend, rescue and deliver (as the picture on the bulletin shows) those who have been held in the bondage of sin and share the Good News that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

The Christmas story is nothing short of the greatest CARE story ever written. Our loving and compassionate God cared enough to send His Son, Jesus Christ to the manger of Bethlehem; to live the perfect life as He walked the dusty roads of Palestine and be led to Mt. Calvary on the gallows of the Cross to bring about deliverance and rescue and give us hope of eternal life with Him.

After His mission of winning the victory over Satan, sin and the grave, the Savior of mankind, before leaving the world commissioned His disciples to care enough and get involved by taking the Gospel to every corner of the globe. PAUSE.

Today’s Word from Jonah 3 shows us the God of love who cares deeply and passionately and gets involved in the lives of His people lest they be destroyed. It is a story of love and life, rescue and redemption, deliverance and salvation.

Jonah, somewhere between Chapter 1:3 and Chapter 3:1 realizes that he was dead wrong and disobeyed God. Jonah was called by God to go and preach to the people of Nineveh that God was going to destroy the city because of its evil and wickedness. Nineveh is wicked, and powerful, so Jonah is afraid for his life. Instead of taking the next camel train to Nineveh, he jumps on a ship and heads for Tarshish, which is at the exact opposite end of the then known world. He is running from God, but God runs after him with a huge storm that threatens to break up the ship. The sailors figure out that Jonah is the problem, they ask him what they should do, and he says that they must throw him overboard into the raging sea. They don’t want to do it, but the storm is so bad that they finally throw him over. The storm stops as Jonah sinks to the bottom. God doesn’t let him drown, but sends a fish to come and swallow him. Jonah is three days and three nights in the belly of the fish. While he is there he prays, and admits his wrong.

The fish spits him up on to dry land, where God calls him again to go to Nineveh. This time he obeys, and he goes and preaches to them. By the Spirit’s power we see the care and concern of these lost people. And in this story we see the power of the Word in two great examples of repentance; first in the life of the prophet Jonah and then in the Ninevite’s that he is prophesying to.

Repentance is brought about when the Word—the powerful Word of the Lord is preached and proclaimed in all of its purity. Repentance causes us to realize that we have sinned against our holy God and we need His grace to forgive us all of our sins. Repentance causes us to call upon God to Defend, Rescue and Deliver us from that which holds us captives—sin. And repentance is offered in the name of the caring Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Today, my brothers and sisters in Christ, we too, are called to care. We are called to stand up and speak out and defend the weak and helpless. We are called to rescue from the abortion mills, those who would be destroyed because they are not life, but a blob of tissue as they are often considered. We are called to teach and preach against the lies of the devil that has benefited many through the abortion industry; and today, you and I are called to care and get involved.

Sadly, we who are precious in God’s sight—the blood-bought, don’t ALWAYS do all we can to defend the weak and helpless. We don’t care enough to get involved. We say, “I don’t have enough time. My schedule demands too much of my time.” We don’t pray enough. We don’t support pregnancy crises centers with our time and treasures. Oh, yes, we as Lutheran Christians have a great record on cherishing life. The fact that for the past 14 years you have supported the Bike For Life ministry through prayers and financial aid speaks volume that we are pro-life. By the grace of God we say “Thank You Father for allowing us to care.”

But we can do more. We can go against the tide and speak the truth in love that all life is precious in the womb or out of the womb. We can stand up and speak up and support with our time and efforts those who have made one wrong choice so that they don’t make more bad choices. We can care enough to teach, preach and reach in the name of the caring Christ to those in need.

I’m reminded of my experience when I came to this country. Even though I was born in Nazareth, grew up on the slopes of Mt. Carmel, swam often in the Sea of Galilee, and visited Bethlehem and Jerusalem many times, I didn’t know much about the Savior, His grace and love for me the sinner; until a young lady invited me to church. Sue cared enough about me, took the time to ask me to join her. I was happy to go but happier to hear the Good News that Jesus came to save me—ME no good bum. My father was amazed when I returned home, so much that he said, “Son, I don’t know what happened to you! You left as a devil and came back as an angel!” Someone cared. I read someplace: “People don’t care how much you know, until they know that you CARE” PAUSE.

Today, beloved in the Lord as we gather around Word and Sacrament I remind you to be bold and courageous as Pam and her husband were. I exhort you to look to Him who gives us the power to speak for Him and care in His name for others. But above all, I point you to the One who cared enough and got involved in YOUR life—Jesus the Christ.

Unlike Jonah, Jesus didn’t take the first camel caravan out of Palestine, but heard His Father’s call, went in His name and did what God called Him to do—offer His life as a payment for all sinners—Jonah’s, the Ninevehite’s, you and me. And by the grace of God and His Spirit we leave this place empowered to care and get involved. Amen.

Now the peace…

SOLI DEO GLORIA