Exaudi (Sunday after the Ascension) – June 1, 2025Psalm 27; Ezekiel 36:23-28; 1 Peter 4:7b-11St. John 15:26-16:4a
In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ our Lord has much to say about the trials,
tribulations, and crosses Christians must bear on this side of glory. We can
sort these afflictions into two broad categories. First, there are those
afflictions that are the result of sin but are common to all mankind. Disease,
financial difficulty, depression, anxiety, emotional instability, uncertainty
about the future; these are the result of sin but they are the results of sin
that all mankind experiences. Although these afflictions are real and serious,
one does not need to be a Christian to suffer them. God may use these afflictions
to punish sin, chastise His beloved children, and draw Christians closer to
Himself, but they remain forms of suffering related to the sinful nature born
into man.
The crosses which Christ has called all Christians to bear
are of a different category. These are the result of being a Christian. They
are the reaction of sin against faith. This is the unjust suffering of the
Christian, patterned after the unjust suffering and death of Christ. To this
category belongs all forms of persecution, resentment, abuse, and hatred
endured by Christians for the sake of the name we bear.
Being still afflicted by the sin of our flesh, we know just
how easy it is to avoid these crosses. Deny the name of Christ and you will be
relieved. A little compromise here and a little deception there, and maybe your
persecutors won’t even realize you are a Christian. Keep your mouth quiet and
they will leave you alone. Each betrayal of the name of Christ makes life a
little easier on this side of glory, but I can tell you it will make eternal
life that much worse because it would have been better for the betrayer of
Christ not to have been born.
Our reading from the Prophet Ezekiel is set in the context
of the Babylonian captivity. The people of God had betrayed the Lord by allowing
for the worship of false gods in their land and worshiping those false gods
themselves. They had profaned the name of the Lord. God punished them by
delivering them into the hands of the Babylonians and scattering the people
among the nations. Our text includes the Lord’s promise to restore His people
by taking them out from the nations and returning them to the land of their
fathers.
In the verse just prior to our text, the Lord tells the
people that He will deliver them not for their sakes, but for the sake of His
holy name. That is, He will deliver them not on account of their righteous
deeds or their piety before God, but so that His name would be made known among
the nations. He would deliver them so that the nations would know that He is
the true God who upholds His word and saves His people.
This promise still holds true for you today. In Adam’s fall, we were all cast out of the land of our promised inheritance, the land of our fathers. We dwell in a foreign land because of our sin and our willingness to profane the name of God, the name of Christ. Yet while we were still in our sin, the Father sent His Son to die for us, to redeem His name among the nations.
And what did God promise, through Ezekiel, to do when He had
gathered His people from the foreign nations? Sprinkle them with clean water.
It is no accident that in Holy Baptism, the name of God is placed upon you. We
do not just invoke the name of the Triune God in Holy Baptism but in fact place
that name upon your head. You are sealed with the very name of God in the
waters of Holy Baptism. What did God say He was doing when He delivered the
people from Babylon? He was sanctifying His great name. Who bears the name of
God? The Baptized! Having been delivered from the nations, you now stand with
citizenship in the land of your promised inheritance, the land owned by your
Father who stands to give it to you. Washed clean from your filthiness and all
your idols, a new heart and a new spirit has been placed within you.
And so, as Christ says, ‘You also will bear witness.’ You
will bear witness to the name of Christ and the world will hate you for it. The
world is at enmity with God and you, baptized children of God, bear the name of
Christ.
Now the task of bearing witness to Christ is too much to
bear for man alone. Your justification and your sanctification are not for your
sakes but for the sake of God’s holy name. That is, neither justification nor
sanctification is on account of your merits or piety. They require the Helper,
the Holy Spirit, whom Christ has promised to pour out on His people. This too,
happens in your Holy Baptism. You are not baptized into the name of the Father
and the Son only to receive the Holy Spirit 14 years later at your
Confirmation. The name of the Triune God is placed upon you in the waters of
Holy Baptism that from your very first breath out of the waters, you begin to
bear witness of Christ.
And this is a lifelong task. It is the life to which you
have received new birth. It is not a burden to bear. In most of our hearts, we
imagine ourselves to be sinners striving to become holy through our manner of
living. Even as Lutherans, for whom salvation by grace through faith is so
important, we tend to think of our life of sanctification as something we are
trying to attain. This is utterly backwards. As the baptized, you ought to
imagine yourself as a holy saint who is striving to ward off sin. You don’t
need new skills, new habits, better time management to achieve a life of
holiness. You don’t need better people skills to convert the masses. You
already have the Holy Spirit. God is already on your side. Because Christ is
yours and you are His, you have everything you could possibly need.
What is left is to ward off the wickedness. How? By being a
witness of Christ in thought, word, and deed. Be serious and watchful in your
prayers, not as another thing you must do but as making use of what is already
yours. Have fervent love for one another not because “it’s the right thing to
do” but because you have the love of the Father, more than enough to share with
the entire world. You have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, make use of it
to minister to those around you, being a good steward of the gifts you’ve been
given.
And then, when those within the Church on earth put you out
of the church or murder you thinking they are offering service to God, you will
not be made to stumble. You can bear your cross because it has already been
borne for you. As you are conformed to Christ, the name of Christ you bear will
shine ever more brightly. It is not for your sakes, but for the sake of God’s
Holy Name.
In + Jesus’
name. Amen.
