Easter 6
1
Tim 2:1-6
5/25/25
President Jimmy Carter died on
December 29 this past year at the age of one hundred. Carter is remembered for
being a very decent man, and for not being a successful president. Carter was unable to deal with the
stagflation that afflicted the economy – the combination of high inflation and
low economic growth. His efforts at addressing the energy crisis were not well
received and proved ineffective.
Carter entered office saying that
one of the United State’s problems was an “inordinate fear of communism,” only
to see the Soviet Union promote revolution around the world and then invade
Afghanistan. His response to the turmoil in Iran led to the Islamic revolution
there and the hostage crisis as the U.S. Embassy was overrun and 52 Americans
were taken captive. The latter event paralyzed his presidency for more than a
year, while the Islamic regime has turned out to be one of the must
destabilizing forces in the Middle East.
However, President Carter did have
one undeniable and remarkable success – and that was in his role as a mediator
between Israel and Egypt. These two nations had fought wars in 1948, 1956,
1968, and 1973. During many of the years in between they fought an undeclared
war of aerial combat and raids.
But Carter worked to bring the two
nations together in order to establish peace. In September 1978 he brought the
Israeli leader Menachem Begin, and the Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat to Camp
David. There, during the course of
thirteen days, he helped the two sides to negotiate the Camp David Accords,
which was then signed in 1979. It
established a peace between Israel and Egypt that has existed to this day.
In our epistle lesson this morning,
St. Paul describes Jesus Christ as the mediator between God and man. Although we were trapped in sin and were
opposed to God, Jesus is the Son of God who became man in order to reconcile us
to God. He is the mediator through whom the peace of God with man had been
established.
Paul begins our text by writing, “First
of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and
thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high
positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified
in every way.” The apostle tells Timothy that Christians are to offer prayers
for all people. He especially notes that prayer is to be made for kings and
those in authority.
Again and again, St Paul emphasizes
the importance of prayer in the life of a Christian. He told the Colossians,
“Devote yourself to prayer.” Naturally,
this prayer often is offered on behalf of the Church and Christians. Paul
expressed to the Thessalonians, “We give thanks to God always for all of you,
constantly mentioning you in our prayers.”
But here we note that the apostle
says that we are to pray for all people – and in particular he mentions
our leaders. In his grace, God has called us as his own. Through baptism our sins have been washed
away and we have become part of the Body of Christ. We have been given a new
status. St. Peter says, “But you
are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the
excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light.”
We are the royal priesthood of the
baptized. Set apart by God, as priests
we serve. Jesus has offered himself once
for all as the sacrifice for sin. So unlike the priests of the Old Testament we
aren’t involved in offering animal sacrifices. Instead, we offer ourselves as
the sacrifice in service to God and others. Paul told the Romans, “I appeal to
you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your
bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual worship.”
We offer our priestly service in the
things that we do. In our text, Paul identifies prayer on behalf of others as
an important part of this service. We do this every Sunday in the Prayer of the
Church. We also do this in our daily prayers. So as you pray, include the needs
that you know about in the world. In particular, pray for our leaders – for the
President and Congress; for the Supreme Court; for our Governor and state
legislature, and those make and administer our laws.
Paul says that we are to offer
prayer “for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a
peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” We pray for
our leaders in the recognition that they serve in a role provided by God. Paul
told the Romans, “For there is no authority except from God, and those
that exist have been instituted by God.” He said that they are “God's servant
for your good” and went on to say, “For he is the servant of God, an
avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.”
We recognize that God’s rule in this
world occurs in two different ways. This is often described by Lutherans as his
right hand rule, and his left hand rule. God’s right hand rule occurs through
the Gospel – the proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. This takes place through the
Church. We do not use force to make people confess Christ. Instead, we share
the Gospel by which the Spirit works faith and delivers the forgiveness of
sins.
God’s left hand rule occurs through
the law. This is carried out through the institutions of the government that
God has established. Note that this is God’s rule – is God at work –
even when those carrying out these roles don’t believe in God. This is the
means by which God restrains sin and evil so that we can lead a peaceful and
quiet life. This is a very great blessing. If you doubt this, look at a places
in Africa where civil war has brought chaos and crime, and continues to be a
threat. More literally, Paul says in our text that we are to offer “petitions
of thanksgiving” on behalf of those who rule. He teaches us to see the
governing authorities as a blessing for which we should give thanks to God.
Paul states that we are to pray for all
people. Then he goes on to say in our text, “This is good, and it is
pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be
saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” We are to pray for all people because
this reflects God’s own loving attitude towards all people.
The apostle describes God as “our
Savior.” He is the God who saves. This is what he wants to do. Paul’s words could not be any clearer. God
desires all people to be saved. As God
said through Ezekiel, “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and
live.”
God wants all people to be saved,
and yet we see that many do not believe in Jesus Christ. Many die rejecting
Christ. We know that God is the all powerful God. He is the One who has elected us from
eternity. The logical conclusion is that if people don’t believe in Christ,
then it must be because God caused it. He elected them to damnation.
This explanation – the idea of
double election in which God has chosen from eternity to damn people – is the
one that St. Augustine and John Calvin famously advocated. But as our text shows, it is clearly wrong. Scripture teaches that God wants all people
to be saved. When people don’t believe and receive judgment we find the cause
in the sinful fallen nature of man himself that rejects God. The question of
“Why some and not others?” is something that we are not capable of answering
and explaining. What we can say for sure
is that God is not the cause of people who are lost. And our job is simply to tell
people the Gospel – to tell them what God had done for us in Jesus Christ.
That Gospel is what Paul expresses
in our text. He says, “For there is
one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony
given at the proper time.” The concept of a “mediator” involves two sides
that are experiencing division or opposition.
In this case it is sinful man who
rejects the true God, even as his sin provokes God’s wrath and judgment. St Paul describes our spiritual condition
apart from Christ when he tells us the Ephesians, “And you were dead in
the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this
world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is
now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived
in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the
body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like
the rest of mankind.”
Our sin is not merely the violation
of some abstract rules. It is in fact always committed against God himself.
David confessed, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is
evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and
blameless in your judgment.” And this brings the wrath and judgment of God
against all who sin.
It is God’s will to save, and so in
response to this God sent his Son into the world. Paul says that there is one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Jesus was indeed a man who lived in
first century Palestine. But he was also more than that. Paul told the
Philippians about Jesus, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not
count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself
nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of
men.”
True God and true man, Jesus Christ
is the mediator between God and man. He is the mediator who carried out the
action to reconcile us to God. Paul says
in our text that he “gave himself as a ransom for all.” Christ offered himself as the sacrifice on
the cross. Though without sin, he took ours as his own, and received the wrath
and judgment of God in our place.
Adam had brought sin and death. The
man Jesus Christ – the second Adam – was the means by which sin was forgiven
and death defeated. On Easter, God
raised Jesus from the dead with a body that can never die again. And then as we will celebrate this Thursday,
Jesus was exalted in his ascension into heaven. Paul says in the next chapter
about God’s work in Christ, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of
godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the
Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed
on in the world, taken up in glory.”
Jesus Christ is mediator between God
and man. Because of Christ’s suffering
and death for us, we now have forgiveness before God – we are saints. The
crucified and risen Lord is the reason that we can now come before God in
prayer. All of our prayer is offered in Jesus’ name – he is the reason that we
can approach God the Father in confidence
No comments:
Post a Comment