Jesus - Period
Text: Galatians 3:15-22
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
There
is a peculiar characteristic of humanity.
We always like to have the last word, and we want to do things our way.
For
example, husbands and wives, when in disagreement, how many of you will fight
to the death to get the last word? Even when you agree to disagree, isn’t there
a profound temptation to sneak in the last word?
And
think about children and youth. How many children and youth get frustrated with
mom and dad saying, “let me do it,”
while pushing a helping hand away?
Furthermore,
consider all of the projects that you have worked on in groups as well. Isn’t
there a huge temptation to always tweak the final product, so that you are the
last one to touch the project?
It
seems that all of us like to Monday Morning
Quarterback. That is to say; we always believe that we can do things
better. We like to have the last word. We need to put our two cents in after
the fact. We just cannot let things be
but are always tinkering, always adjusting, and always adding to things.
Now, the
reason why this is so is that we have this peculiar need to be in control and
justify ourselves. In other words, we
like to be right. We want to be our own
masters. We want to make ourselves look
good. And we want to make our names
great. So, if somebody one-ups us, well…
we get the last word. When someone tries
to do something for us that makes them look better than us, we say to ourselves,
“I will give it a try; surely I can do
better,” and then we take over to make ourselves look great. When someone does a great project, well… we take
the final project and put ‘our’ finishing touches on it to make it our project. We do all of this to be in control, to get
the credit, to look good, and to be righteous.
We have a difficult time keeping our hands off of things but want
everything underneath our control, power, and name.
Tragically,
this mentality flows into the church and Christianity as well. This kind of
thinking is exactly the kind of thinking that corrupted the Gospel in the
churches of Galatia several thousand years ago.
In our
Epistle Reading from today, the Apostle Paul is addressing the Christians in
the Province of Galatia. And these
Christians had been going along smoothly in the Gospel until one day they quickly
deserted the Gospel. Yes, they deserted the
Gospel. They abandoned the simple
message of Christ-crucified for the forgiveness of sins.
Now, to
make sure that we understand what happened to these Christians, we need to
understand what they did. You see, these
Galatian Christians did not exchange the Gospel for a different message, and
they didn’t modify the Gospel, but instead, they actually ‘added’ to the Gospel. In other words, they thought that Paul’s message
of Jesus Christ as the beginning, middle, and end of salvation was too
simple. They believed that the message
of the Gospel was incomplete – that it was lacking. They believed that more needed to be said and
done than what was originally proclaimed to them. And so, they added to the Gospel, they
insisted on Jesus ‘and’ ceremonial
laws.
Think
of what happened in Galatia this way: the message of Jesus is a message with a
period. It is Jesus – period. The period, following Jesus, communicates
completeness and sufficiency. However,
the Christians in Galatia didn’t like the period. And so, they replaced the period following
Jesus, with a comma. But why? Well, it is relatively simple; they wanted to
justify themselves.
Dear
friends, in our reading from the Gospel of Luke, we hear about a lawyer who
wanted to justify himself as well. The
reason why? He tried to make himself
look good. He wanted to be his own judge
and to declare himself as good, right, and true because of what ‘he’ had
done.
That
is the problem with human nature; we want to be the ones who justify
ourselves. We want to be our own
Saviors. That is why we don’t like a
period after Jesus. You see, we trust
Jesus a lot, but we don’t trust Him alone, because we actually have an ungodly
idolatrous trust in ourselves.
Dear
friends, we must keep in mind that the sixteenth-century Reformation (that we
are descendants of) was not a battle over the Word, Faith, Grace, and
Christ. Everyone thought the Word was
important. Everyone agreed that faith
was needed. Everyone loved grace. And everyone upheld Christ.
So,
why the fight? Why the Reformation? Why did everyone get so worked up?
Well,
there was a no-name German Monk in a small town named Wittenberg that dared to
put a period after the Word, Faith, Grace, and Christ. Yes, Martin Luther said that we need the Word
and the Word alone, not the traditions, rules, and religious hot air of the
Roman Catholic Church at that time. That
no-name monk said that the Christian was justified by grace, through faith, on
account of Christ – alone. No
indulgencies needed. No religious pilgrimages
needed. No relics, for all of these were
additions to the Gospel. By putting a
period after the Gospel, Martin Luther was not only eliminating the comma but
everything that the Roman Catholic Church had placed after the comma. And as you know, when our projects, our
legacies, and our little empires are downplayed, well… we get angry and fight
to have the comma put back.
Dear friends,
it is quite simple, anytime that we add a comma after Jesus and start adding
things after Jesus, we are attempting to subtract from Jesus and His work of
the cross. When we add to the Gospel by
trying to add our religious endeavors, we are essentially saying, “Christ’s
cross was not sufficient enough. God did
His best; I will do the rest!”
It is
more tempting to add to the Gospel than you and I might think. You see, we live in an increasingly godless
society and so we like to look for evidence of faith in Christians. And so, we say to our neighbors that Jesus is
enough to be a Christian, but then we want to validate their Christianity
through something else other than Christ.
So, we judge a person’s Christianity upon the number of times we believe
they need to pray. Or we judge their Christianity upon how they vote or how
they dress or how they talk or how much they volunteer. The point being, when salvation is
conditioned on something else other than Jesus, well, we have stepped into the
disastrous mess of Galatia.
Frankly
stated, we are naïve fools when we try to devise some religious system for
getting by with our own efforts. We are
even bigger fools when we try to add to the Gospel, thinking that Jesus needs
our help or that our own efforts can contribute anything to salvation. And we dance with the devil when we judge and
condemn our neighbor’s salvation based upon something that we have devised as
necessary for salvation – something other than Jesus.
Baptized
Saints, repent of commas! Yes,
repent. It is Jesus with a period, not a
comma. We are justified by grace,
through faith, on account of Christ – ALONE!
Matt
Richard is and does nothing. You do
nothing. The only thing we contribute to
our salvation is our sin. Christ is your Justification. Christ is the beginning, the middle, and the
end – for you. Jesus saved us, Jesus
saves us, and Jesus will continue to save us!
As Christians, we need Jesus just as much today as we did yesterday and
the day before. And we have Jesus today,
just as much as we had Him yesterday and the day before.
Baptized
Saints, our Christian identity and our Christian assurance is anchored here at
St. Paul’s not in our building, not in our budget, not in our music, not in our
boards, not in our social media platform, and not in your pastor, but in Christ. Yes, as a church, our value, identity, and
justification are anchored in Christ – period.
The
message of Christianity is a message of Jesus with a period. Jesus is all that you need for forgiveness,
life, and salvation. And that is what you are given from the absolution and the
Lord’s Table today. You are given
Jesus! And with Jesus, you receive His
gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
And that is enough. Christ is
complete and sufficient for you.
In the
name of Jesus, Jesus alone, Amen.
CLICK HERE to 'Like' on Facebook
CLICK HERE to 'Follow' on Twitter
CLICK HERE to Subscribe on iTunes
CLICK HERE to Subscribe on Podbean