Quinquagesima
Luke
18:31-43
2/26/17
Three times. Our Lord Jesus predicts his passion and
resurrection three times in the Gospel of Luke.
There are of course many other times when he alludes to his sacrifice. But on three occasions he just comes out and
says it to his disciples.
The first time, in chapter nine, we
hear, “And he strictly charged and
commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, ‘The Son of Man must suffer many
things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be
killed, and on the third day be raised.’” Peter has just confessed that Jesus
is the Christ of God. Now, our Lord
tells them that he is going to suffer, die and rise on the third day. Luke is very clear in telling us that this was
something directed only to the ears of Jesus’ disciples.
The next
time occurs just over twenty verses later in the same chapter. Jesus has just been transfigured before
Peter, James and John. Moses and Elijah
appeared with Jesus and only Luke tells us that they spoke with Jesus “of his
departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” Then when Jesus
comes down the mountain he casts out a demon that the other disciples were
unable to handle. It is an awesome
display of power and we learn that all were astonished at the majesty of God.
But then while
they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus speaks his second
passion prediction. Jesus said to his disciples, “Let these words sink into
your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” Immediately Luke tells us, “But they did not
understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not
perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.” We learn that the disciples don’t understand
what Jesus is saying because God has concealed it from them. However, while
they realize that they don’t understand, they are afraid to do anything about
it. They don’t ask Jesus about what it
means.
Shortly
after this – still in chapter nine – Luke tells us, “When
the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”
After twice predicting his passion and resurrection, Jesus now sets out on the
trip that will bring him to Good Friday and Easter. All that Jesus does and
says in the chapters that follow are framed by the Lord’s journey to death and
resurrection.
And now in our text today we have
the third passion prediction. We hear, “And taking the twelve, he said to
them, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about
the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered
over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.
And
after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.’ But
they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and
they did not grasp what was said.”
Our Lord spoke the first two passion
predictions just before starting his journey to Jerusalem. Now he speaks his third and final prediction
at the moment when they are arriving at the end of the journey. In the next chapter they come to Jerusalem and
then Jesus enters on Palm Sunday. Our Lord
provides the final passion prediction and it is also the most detailed – the
most explicit. Everything that has been written by the prophets will be
fulfilled in Jesus. He will be handed
over to the Gentiles; he will be mocked; he will be treated shamefully; he will
be spit upon; he will be flogged; he will be killed; and on third day he will
rise from the dead.
Like the second passion prediction,
the disciples don’t understand it because it is hidden from them. But this time, we don’t even hear that they recognized they didn’t understand. We don’t even hear that they know they need to ask Jesus, even if they are too afraid to do
so.
The disciples don’t understand what
Jesus’ talk about suffering, death and resurrection means. Not only is it hidden from them, they don’t
even think about the fact that they need to ask for an explanation. Our Gospel lesson sets before us this morning
the paradox that everything was explained before hand in the Scriptures of the
Old Testament, and yet it is only in the resurrection of the crucified Lord
that all becomes clear.
Jesus says
in our text, “See, we are going up to
Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets
will be accomplished.” The suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus did not
happen by chance. God had revealed in the Old Testament that this was the means
by which he would provide forgiveness and salvation. It was all there. As Jesus said to the two disciples on the
road to Emmaus after his resurrection, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the
prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these
things and enter into his glory?”
Jesus’ disciples
finally did come to understand. It
happened on the evening of the first Easter when Jesus appeared to them. He said, “These are my words that I spoke to
you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of
Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” And then Luke tells
us that, “he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them,
‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise
from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed
in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.’”
Living in
the last days inaugurated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you
understand. Or at least, you
should. You know both what happened in
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it means. That doesn’t mean we always act like it. We allow Satan – the adversary, for that is
what the word means – to nag us with doubts about whether God really does
forgive that terrible thing we did. Or we
allow Satan to convince us that since forgiveness is guaranteed, it’s really
not all that big a deal if we do what we want.
We want Jesus’ suffering and death to mean forgiveness for us, but don’t
want that to involve any difficulties for us because of Jesus.
This is an
ongoing struggle in the Christian life.
Through the work of the Spirit in Holy Baptism we are a new creation in
Christ. Created and led by the Spirit,
the new man in us understands fully. He
knows that because of the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christian now
stands forgiven and holy in God’s eyes – a saint. He knows that we have been made a new
creation so that we can live in ways that carry out God’s will for life. He knows that he is called to live according
to Jesus’ words, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take
up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
Yet while
Jesus’ resurrection has begun the Last Day, it has not yet arrived for us. And this “not yet” means that the fallen, old
man is still present too. Like the
world, he is on Satan’s side. He opposes
all that I just described. The old man
is the foothold within you that Satan wants to exploit in order to bring you
back under his control.
So, will we
allow this or not? Now faith wasn’t
something you did. As we confess about
the Third Article of the Creed, “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe
in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by
the Gospel.” And likewise preservation of faith is not something that we do on
our own. The Spirit who created faith is the only One who can sustain the
existence of faith.
But here –
and only here – you do have a role to play.
Through the Spirit’s power and leading understand that a struggle exists
and choose to take part in it. When
Satan nags with doubts about whether God really can forgive that sin, you tell
him to go to hell because God’s Word is more true and certain than any dumb
thoughts or emotions the old man can throw at you.
When Satan
whispers that forgiveness in Christ means you are free to do what you want, you
use God’s Word to answer the old man and his sin within you. You listen to God’s good word of the Law
which the Spirit uses to put to death sin and the old man; which he uses to
repress the old man so that the new man guides what you actually do.
When the
old man wants to avoid suffering and the cross that is part of the Christian
life you return to the thing that the disciples in our text this morning don’t
understand – but you which now you do
understand. You return to the fact
that Jesus Christ was delivered over to the Gentiles and was be mocked, shamefully
treated and spit upon; he was flogged and killed; and the third day he rose
from the dead for you.
You return
to Jesus Christ and the Gospel. It is
the same thing you do when you have failed in the struggle. Only in the Gospel – and in the continual
return to the Gospel – do we find forgiveness.
And only there do we find strength through the Spirit’s work to live as
what God has made us to be.
In our text
Jesus describes what he is about to do for us in his death and
resurrection. We understand because has
done it. He died for our sins! He rose from the dead! We live on this side
of Easter! And now, in order to receive
this gift we go to the means Jesus has instituted. We go to his Word. We go to his word of absolution spoken by the
pastor in his stead. We go to the Sacrament of the Altar where Jesus gives us his
true body and blood, given and shed for you. This is where we go because we do
understand what Jesus says in the Gospel lesson today. And this is where we go so that our lives may
show it.
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