Lent

by Pastor Lenae Rasmussen

Like Advent, Lent is a season of repentance and anticipation. However, the Christmas shopping and baking that somehow sneak into Advent as we prepare for the birth of our Lord are starkly absent in Lent. After we supposedly eat up the fat and meat in the house on Shrove Tuesday, we’re “supposedD to lay off all the goodies until Easter. Admittedly, marshmallow eggs and chocolate bunnies have a way of slipping into our homes before Holy Week, but for the most part, there is a noticeably different aura to Lent. We hold off on celebrating Easter and the Resurrection of Our Lord until we have made our journey through five weeks of Lent, and Holy Week.

Now we are getting to the heart of the matter regarding Lent: Holy Week includes Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, the day that Jesus died for our sins. The Crucifixion of Our Lord for our salvation is indeed bittersweet. Theologically, it is the “joyful day” when the Happy Exchange takes place.  It is “the day” of our atonement and reconciliation to God (2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13). 

Yet Jesus’ grisly death outside the city gate is not the kind of thing most people like to dwell on. We much prefer the while lilies and daffodils of Easter to the mutilated, dead body of our Lord hanging on the Tree. In fact, the offense of the cross made Paul’s preaching of Christ crucified utterly foolish to both the Jews who demanded signs, and the Greeks who sought wisdom. But here—on the cross—the Good News is hidden in the sign of the opposite. “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1 Cor 1:21).  Here is the rub...the cross and the crucified Christ are not wise by worldly standards. In fact, Jesus’ whole walk to Jerusalem after His Transfigur ation was quite foolish by human standards: “If He had just stayed away from that town, the Temple, and the Sanhedrin, Pilate couldn’t have done anything to Him!”

Now, we clearly see that God’s ways are not our ways, and His foolishness is wiser than anything we can dream up. None of us were much to write home about, Paul says, until God called us; we were neither rich nor noble nor powerful, “but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord’.” (1 Cor 1:27-3 1).

In light of Christ’s resurrection, His preaching and healing in Galilee start to pale. It was wonderful for the blind, lame, deaf, dumb, leprous, hemorrhaging and otherwise diseased and crippled people who came to Jesus to be restored to health, but that wasn’t the point of God’s incarnation. The miracle of Jesus’ birth and life in the Gospel of Mark is not about the super-duper things He did—the colossus marching across Galilee and walking on water—the miracle is Jesus’ death and resurrection to make you and me believe that we are sinners—big sinners—but God forgives our sins for His Name’s sake.

Now, looking backwards, in faith we can “see” and “know” what Jesus’ public ministry and His walk to Jerusalem to hang on a cross outside the city gates is all about: the kingdom of God is at hand; it is right before you; believe the Good News that you are a sinner and your sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake; turn away from striving to be like God. Believe the Good News and be reconciled to your Father in Heaven. You, who once had nothing, now have everything in Christ. Atonement is yours by faith alone in Christ alone, the Living Word and the Good News.

Now, in cleansed in Christ’s gift of faith in His Gospel of the Forgiveness of Sins, we are truly prepared to enter the season of Lent assured that “I am Christ’s, and He is mine.” In faith, we poor sinners are at last set free to confess our sins and repent. In Christ, we can actually turn to God instead of our self-justifying devices because He does it for us. In Christ,He gives us faith to believe the Good News announced to us in the absolution in Christ’s stead: “I forgive you all your sins. Go in peace.”  Now, believe it!

Preaching to the Captive Will

From a chief of sinners for whom Christ died. 
That you may know that "to live is CHRIST."(Phil. 1)

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SOME THOUGHTS ON THE GOSPEL

For the 1^st Sunday in Lent, March 1, 2009

Dick Smith, Bismarck, ND

PREACHING TO THE CAPTIVE WILL

 

Mark 1:9-15:  Jesus is baptized by John, driven into the desert by the Spirit, 40 days tempted by Satan, and ministered to by angels.  After John is arrested Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee, “preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand (Greek: has drawn near); repent, and believe in the gospel’” (RSV).

 

In all three series of the Gospels (Series A, based on Matthew; Series B, based on Mark, and Series C, based on Luke) the Gospel for the first Sunday in Lent is the narrative concerning Jesus’ 40 day stay in the wilderness and temptation by the Devil.  The 40 day period is echoed in the structure of the Season of Lent, namely 40 days, Ash Wednesday to Easter (not counting the Sundays, which technically are not a part of the Lenten Season, thus are called Sundays “in” Lent.) 

It is an appropriate Narrative because it sets the stage for the redemptive event of the cross.  Jesus is confronted by Satan.  The old story of the Garden, Adam, Eve, and the serpent (Satan), the Fall into Sin, that event that has enslaved every person since then in the prison house of sin and death, is replayed here but with an astounding variation.  Instead of Satan winning the day, Christ defeats the Evil One.

This establishes the basic underpinnings of all the Scripture, namely, that humans have no free will but rather are bound in sin and are unable to do ANYTHING to free themselves.  CHRIST ALONE confronts Satan and defeats him.  And it is in this context then that He begins his ministry in Galilee declaring that NOW, because of his presence the kingdom of God has drawn near. 

But not only has the kingdom drawn near but, Jesus declares, the kingdom now incorporates us into it, so that sin, death, and the power of the devil is overcome for us.  “Repent, and believe in the gospel” are the words Jesus speaks.  It is immediately here that we confront the reality of our enslavement to sin or we delude ourselves.  If we are enslaved then we are not free to do.  Rather we are bound by Satan. Therefore the words are expressive of what is to be NOT expressive of a command that we can fulfill. 

Herein we confront the great chasm between Christianity and Religion.  Religion is built upon the principle that humans are free agents who can choose between good and evil.  Christianity declares that humans are enslaved to sin and CANNOT choose between good and evil.  This means, “repentance” is not an option nor is “believing” an option.  Rather they are a work of the Holy Spirit who works “where and when he wills, in those who hear the gospel” (Augsburg Confession, Article V).

This is a crushing truth to the Old Adam in every person.  It is crushing because no matter how much we talk about being enslaved to sin, helpless within ourselves, we still want to hold to the delusion that we aren’t really that enslaved after all.

In reference to the two words: “repent” and “believe,” it should be noted what these words mean.  In the Scriptures, “repent” means “to die”(Regin Prenter, Spiritus Creator,” page 193.)  The best description of repentance is found in Romans 7:7-24.  Here Paul describes his and our condition, namely, that we CANNOT DO THE GOOD BUT ONLY THE EVIL.  That is a terrifying truth that hits American Folk Religion right between the eyes.  We can only do the evil?  WELL, OF COURSE!  We are enslaved and as such we do what the prison master commands.  This kills us, St. Paul writes.  The 10 Commandments are NOT A MORAL COMPASS but a condemning judgment on every person.  It kills.  We die. 

The second word of Jesus in the beginning of his ministry in Galilee after “repent” is “believe.”  After we die then out of nothing God creates NEW LIFE and that life is CHRIST HIMSELF living in us as a redeeming reality (Regin Prenter, “Spiritus Creator”, page 50).  “Belief” or “faith” is CHRIST HIMSELF.  Or to put it another way the believing that is in us is CHRIST’S FAITH.  It is NOT your faith or my faith.  It cannot be because we are DEAD.

St. Paul’s writings are infused throughout with this remarkable reality.  He continually uses phrases like, “in Christ,” “Christ in us,”  “through Christ,” “the faith of Christ,” “Christ for us,” “for Christ.”  (It is not unusual for these references to be blurred in translation into English because of failure on the part of the translators.  I would refer you to the Greek and recommend the original King James Version as the most faithful in translation.)      

You catch a flavor of this in Romans 7:25. Right on the heels of his description of “repentance” he cries out in verse 24: “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of DEATH?”  Then in verse 25, we have a “through Christ” reference.  “Thanks be to God THROUGH Jesus Christ our Lord!”

A fine passage that speaks directly to Jesus’ declaration of the kingdom being near: repent and believe in the gospel, is St. Paul’s declaration to the Galatians: “I through the Law DIED (Jesus:“Repent”) to the Law that I might live for God.  I have been crucified with CHRIST.  I DON’T LIVE ANY LONGER!  IT IS CHRIST WHO LIVES IN ME!  And the life I now live in the flesh I live BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD (Jesus: “believe in the gospel”)who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:19-20). (The Greek reads “by the faith of the son of God” as does the correct translation by the original King James Version.  Most English translations read “by faith” which can imply that it is of our doing, as if we were still alive!)   

  

All this is by the work of the Holy Spirit.  No person dies to the Law, that is “repents,” and no person has Christ has their life, that is “believes,” unless the Holy Spirit has worked it in them. He is the one who uses the Law to kill and mediates Christ as our new life. 

“…the ungodly does not ‘come’, even when he hears the word, unless the Father draws and teaches him inwardly; which He does by shedding abroad His Spirit.  When that happens, there follows a ‘drawing’ other than that which is outward; Christ is then displayed by the enlightening of the Spirit, and by it man is rapt to Christ with the sweetest rapture, he being passive while God speaks, teaches and draws, rather than seeking or running himself” (Luther, “The Bondage of the Will,” page 311).

Through Christ’s death and resurrection we have been redeemed.  In our baptism we were united with him in his death and as he was raised we have been given a new life, CHRIST HIMSELF (Romans 6:3-4).  “For you are DEAD and your life is now hid with Christ in God. When CHIRST, WHO IS OUR LIFE, appears you will also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4).