Jubilate Sunday

Longing for Heavenly Home

I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me (John 17:6-8 ).

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Dear friends! We’re still in the Easter time, between Pascha and the Pentecost. Generally we spend this time of seven weeks looking back at the all-important one-time event of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection. But today’s Gospel lesson takes us all the way back to Thursday of the Easter week — just a day BEFORE the Crucifixion.

I. THE SETTING

The tone for that day is set by the opening words of the 13th chapter of John:

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end (John 13:1).

For three previous days since His triumphal entry into Jerusalem our Lord freely shared his time with people. Although John does not record minute details of His life during these three days, we see Jesus interacting with Pharisees, Jews, Greeks, sometimes with whole crowds of people.

But Thursday… Thursday was different — Jesus saved this last day before His Passion exclusively for His loved ones. He spends this day with His disciples in seclusion of the Upper Room. Everything He does and says that day is permeated with the sense of completed work. It was finished. There was only one last thing left to be done — and that single thing was THE primary reason for His coming to Earth. But this last earthly path He had to walk alone, all by Himself. In fact, he bluntly predicted to His disciples that they would all scatter and abandon Him.

There was nothing else He could do for His disciples before dying in their stead. And thus in His last day He does two things: (1) He strengthens and encourages His disciples by washing their feet and sharing His Body and His Blood with them during the Last Supper; and (2) He says a long prayer, giving His disciples over to His Father:

I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me... While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition… But now I come to You… I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth (17:11-17).

This prayer of Jesus is often called the “high priestly prayer” because in this prayer He assumes the position of a High Priest who delivers his people to God’s mercy, knowing that there is nothing else he could do for them as a priest.

“Jesus’ ‘high priestly prayer’ is only about 650 words. It takes only 3 minutes and 30 seconds to read it aloud. But it will take all eternity for us to fully understand it!” (John Piper’s Blog)

 

II. THE TWO GRAND THEMES

Today’s Gospel text is found in the middle of this High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. If we look at it closely, we will see that it is primarily concerned with two of the greatest and most important articles of the Christian faith, namely:

•    The Article of Eternal and Unconditional Election
•    The Article of the Word of God as the Ultimate Sacrament, the Original Means of Grace

But according to our lectionary, the theme for the Jubilate Sunday is “Longing for Heavenly Home”. So what these articles have to do with our theme? Well, by addressing these important issues, today’s Gospel text addresses one of the most deep-seated fears that a man might have on his way to eternal home: HOW CAN I BE SURE THAT I DO HAVE A HOME IN HEAVEN? Obviously, when we get rid of this fear, our journey to the Promised Land will be much different. And much easier.

Of course, each of the two doctrines is too rich and complicated to be treated here and now as fully as it should be. Our task for today is much more simple: we will see how these doctrines give us comfort and confidence in our earthly walk.

III. UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION

First, let us consider the Election part. This doctrine is found in the v. 6 of today’s Gospel text. Let us see it for ourselves.

As you probably know, Jewish poetry was quite a bit different from the one we’re used to. Jews did not use rhymes. Instead they used different forms of parallels in meaning. One of the most popular patterns is called “chiasm”. This pattern looks like a ladder, when we go up and then down, repeating previous statements backwards: A-B-C-B-A. This was not done just to entertain listeners or out of stylistic concerns. For Jews this was actually one of their memorization tools, and so Jewish teachers would casually use chiasm. But here’s one important thing about chiasms: in n our Western tradition the main emphasis, the main idea is usually put at the end of a paragraph or a sentence. That is why we call it a conclusion. But in chiasm the most important thought is placed in the middle, at the top of the ladder:

 I have manifested Your name to the men

whom You gave Me out of the world;

they were Yours

and You gave them to Me,

and they have kept Your word.

What we see here is a pure monergy. Salvation flows from God the Father through Jesus to us. It is always one way. It is never from us through Jesus to God the Father. We do not choose God. God chooses us. In fact, He has already chosen us from before the foundation of the world and the Bible speaks clearly of that.

But this very doctrine becomes a stumbling block for many. When they learn that Bible teaches election and predestination they begin torturing themselves and their pastors with questions like “how can I be sure that I am chosen”, or “how do I know that my friend, or my mother, or my child is chosen”? These questions are natural, but they only show that the person asking such questions does not really understand the article of Election.

In fact, Jesus Himself has answered all such questions in a pretty exhaustive way when He said:

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out (John 6:37).

How do we know that someone is elected? There is only one sure sign: if one is elected by God, he or she will come to Jesus! Jesus’ invitation is open to all, as we see in Matthew 11 (“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest”), but only a few chosen actually come through the narrow gates. Someone has once compared the doctrine of election to a church bulding which carries on its front porch this invitation: “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden…”, but when you respond to the invitation and enter the church, you see another sign: “He chose you before the foundation of the world”.

Even though we don’t know who is chosen and who is not, this should not bother us at all. Because we know for sure that Jesus will not reject anyone who comes to Him for salvation. There will be and can be no one, who would come seeking salvation and Jesus will send him away. How do we know that? Jesus gave us a direct promise: “…and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out”.

To the one who truly understands what election is, this doctrine is the source of great comfort. Because God does not draw or call to Himself those whom He has not chosen. The very presence of Holy Spirit within you, the very faith that God has given you testify to your spirit that you are a child of God, and that He will never let you go:

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand (John 10:27-29).

Today our shout of joy is this: WE ARE HIS!!! And “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).

There is a very interesting nuance here. We all know that unbelievers are saved by grace alone. This is Bible. This is undisputed. But somehow along the way of our Christian life we begin to add more and more requirements until finally we come to believe that somehow Christians are saved by grace plus a good deal of works! This is nonsense. Just as unbelievers, Christians are saved by grace alone through faith alone! From the moment we repent to the moment we leave this earth for our eternal home we are saved only by the grace of God, and our works never have anything to do with it.

IV. WORD OF GOD

But how does this eternal election work itself into the lives of the chosen ones? We’re all born as sinners. When we come into this world we all are ignorant of God and are slaves to sin. How do the chosen ones become the saved ones? This is an easy question indeed for a Lutheran, as our Confessions teach that this cannot be accomplished in any other way but through the Word of God. And this truly is the teaching of the Bible, for St. Paul says:

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Rom. 10:17).

In other words, God never comes down in a pillar of light to tell you: “You are the chosen one”. He realizes His eternal choice by giving us living faith to accept the truth of the Gospel. This, again, is a perfect monergy, as we see in today’s Gospel text:

Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them…

The Word of God is God’s grace put in writing and available to anyone! But as it is with all Sacraments, the Sacrament of the Word of God, if it is not appropriated by faith, not only does not produce good fruit (“but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard” — Heb. 4:2), but also condemns those who hear it and do not obey it:

He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day (John 12:48).

But those who do believe and obey the Word of God — these truly are the chosen ones (“...and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me” — John 17:8). They are still ignorant in many ways. There are still problems and questions that this earthly life places before them and they don’t have any right answers or solutions. But they already have the map and the compass that will lead them amidst all storms and hardships to the safe haven of the Kingdom. This map, this compass is the Word of God.

In Acts 20 Apostle Paul says in his farewell speech to the pastors of the churches in Ephesus (and he specifically mentions that “night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one of you with tears”):

And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified  (Acts 20:32).

We don’t need to torture ourselves with painful questions like “do I really have a heavenly home”, or “am I really one of the chosen”. We need to stick with the word of God and remember that He never casts out those who truly seek Him.

We also need not worry about the election of our loved ones. Election is God’s mystery. God charged us with the task of preaching the Gospel to all creatures. And this is exactly what we have to do.

V. CONCLUSION

And today’s epistolary text wraps it all up perfectly well:

"THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART " — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED." (Romans 10:8-13)

Amen. This is the Word of God. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.