Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Gospel, which was read earlier.
When it all comes down to it, you are either for something or against something. We can’t toe the line, walking that fine line of neither agreeing nor disagreeing about something. At some point, we will be required to give an answer, either in the affirmative or in the negative. In looking at our Gospel for today, the disciples are in for a rude awakening when it comes to the work of Christ’s kingdom.
Everything starts out with John, one of the disciples, tells Jesus they saw someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name and they tried to stop him because he was not a follower of Jesus. More than likely, the disciples probably felt pretty good about what they had done, knowing they had done the right thing. However, that is not how Jesus interprets their actions. Instead of praising them for what they had done, He chastises them. That the man drove out demons in Jesus’ name proved he was a believer, unless of course there would have been specific evidence to the contrary. Such a man would be rewarded by the Lord even if a person’s deed was no greater than giving a cup of water in Jesus’ name to those who were His.
What this means is that we will never seek to prevent others from preaching and proclaiming Christ, even if they are not Lutheran. We must leave the final judgment to Christ Himself. However, we must be watchful lest by word or deed we lead anyone astray, or we are led astray by someone else’s preaching and teaching. Christ here even includes the little ones who believe in Him in this category. We must always ask ourselves: does my word and deeds lead others to Christ or lead them into sin? If it is the latter case, then Jesus gives a strong warning to us: it will be better that before we ever lead anyone into sin that we forfeit our lives. To sin is indeed dreadful with consequences all of their own, but to lead someone else into sin is far greater.
Our Lord uses very graphic expressions to teach His disciples and us how important it is to fight sin. Sin leads to death, just as it did for Adam and Eve; just as it does for all of us. Death is that eternal separation of man from God. Sin leads to hell, and that is what Jesus tells the disciples. He gives them graphic displays of how it would be better to be maimed, crippled, and half-blind than to be thrown in hell.
There are no words in any earthly language that can exaggerate the horrors of hell. Language, while it can be very descriptive in defining emotions, people, places, and things, also has it short comings when defining emotions, people, places, and things as well. The limits of language mean that any description of hell must be an understatement. That is the reason that Jesus is so serious about sin. Sin is more serious than simple death on this earth. Sin leads to eternal death in hell, a hell that Jesus describes with horrible words: “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” It is a wretched existence where death never ends and an eternity without God. And as horrible as this all sounds, it is an understatement of the eternal tortures of hell.
As Jesus is describing hell as the results of sin and the disfiguring of limbs, we ask ourselves if hacking off body parts really keep us from sinning. Does sin really originate in the hand, foot, or eye? Can we prevent sin by drowning in the sea? The answer to those questions are no. There is nothing that we can do this side of heaven to prevent ourselves from sinning. Sin does not originate in our limbs. Sin originates at our very conception. The psalmist David writes, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” There is nothing that you and I can do about our sin. We were doomed from the moment of our conception to a life of sin and ultimately death as a result of our sin. Our only hope must come from outside of ourselves, for we are not capable of saving ourselves from our sins.
That’s where Jesus comes in to the picture. It is through Jesus taking on human form and living that perfect life in our place that we are able to have life. It is by Jesus and His death and resurrection that you and I are able to stand before God with sins forgiven. St. Paul writes, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” You see, it was Jesus who did the work of salvation, not you. Praise be to God that it’s not us who does the work of salvation or else hell would be a very crowded place, as that would be where we all would be.
Jesus carried our sins to the cross. Through His perfect life without sin, His sacrifice means something. It means that He could offer Himself up to God for our sins and that sacrifice would be accepted. It means that through His death we have forgiveness. It means that by His resurrection, we have everlasting life with God in heaven.
Christ Jesus went to the cross for you. He went to the cross and died to atone for all of your weaknesses and all of your failings. He took all of your poor behavioral examples, all of your indifference, all of your lacking, and nailed it to that cross. He hung a great millstone around all the things you do as a sinner to cause His little ones to sin, and has cast them into the deep.
Our Lord not only sacrificed Himself to save us from hell, but He also promises a new eternal life with Him in His resurrection. Even though Jesus said that it was better to enter heaven crippled than to enter hell with all our body parts, He promises to raise our bodies in perfection. He promises to raise our bodies so that sin is the only thing that will be missing.
Try as we might, we cannot fully understand the total depravity from God that hell is. What we do understand is that hell is a destination to be avoided at all costs. Because of our sin, we have done everything we could to earn an eternity in hell. We were conceived in sin. We were born in sin. Every day of our lives we sin. We die as a result of our sin, but we are not left in our sin. For us, we have a Savior. For us, we have Jesus, the One who took our sins upon Himself in order to give us everlasting life in heaven. We are justified by God alone; that is, declared righteous and holy by God, because of Christ alone. He has promised to raise us and He alone is the only one who can keep such a promise.
Rejoice this day and always in the joy that comes in knowing that you are a baptized and redeemed child of God, and that because of Christ and His sacrifice, you have the gift of everlasting life in heaven. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.