If you're anything like me, if you don't have to do something, you won't. Oh, sometimes we'll go out of our way but more often we'll take advantage of the fact that we're not required to do something. No sense doing it if we don't have to. Our selfishness often overcomes the desire to go above and beyond. Jesus, however, does exactly the opposite. When He DOESN'T have to do something, He does it for our sake. On the day He is presented in the Temple, Mary offers the sacrifices of the firstborn that the Law of Moses requires. The Law of Moses says that you have to redeem the firstborn; the firstborn is the Lord's but He graciously allows you to “buy back” your child for the life of a couple of turtledoves. But Jesus isn't under the Law. He made the Law. He gave the Law. He is perfect and sinless. The Law doesn't apply to Him. So why is He presented in the Temple? Because He came to do what He didn't have to do: whatever the Law says. Unlike us, who if we don't have to do it, usually don't. Jesus, who didn't have to do it, does it for our sakes.
But not only does Jesus do what He doesn't have to do, in doing so He's doing what we don't do. See, we ARE obligated by the Law. It demands of us that we love God more than anything else and that we love and serve our neighbor with no thought for ourselves. It's not just that you and I would not do something we didn't have to. We also don't do what we're SUPPOSED to do. We are born thinking our life is our own to do with as we please. If it pleases us, then we do it, with no thought for God's Name and glory or the cares of the people around us. We live our lives as if we are God and our the people around us are put here to serve and worship us. Idolatry. Adultery. Stealing. Trash-talking. We've got all the commandments. But we all know they only apply in certain times and when it's to our advantage. Otherwise we can quietly ignore them and do what we want. Our sin is that we don't do what we are commanded to do. Our salvation is that Christ does what He doesn't have to.
This festival today is all about seeing Jesus under the Law for our sakes. The reason Jesus came in the flesh is, as the book of Hebrews says, so that He could face death as we do and by that death He could destroy the devil whose power is death. Our salvation depends on Jesus putting Himself under the Law. He doesn't need to keep the Law. He hasn't broken it. But we have. The Law condemns us to death because we are born turned in on ourselves and we are haters of God and neighbor. So Jesus comes to fulfill the Law. To do what we couldn't do and have it count for us. In His life, He does what the Law commands Him to do: be circumcised, be presented and redeemed in the temple, to love His Father above all things. To love His neighbor as Himself. Jesus' whole life is one big work of doing what the Law commands. And His death too is the fulfillment of the Law. The Law's punishment is God's wrath and condemnation, so that's what Jesus faces on Calvary. The judgment of our sins. In His life, He did what we were SUPPOSED to do, lived how we are SUPPOSED to live. And in His death He was punished with the punishment WE were supposed to get. The cross is Jesus keeping the Law most of all: loving and obeying His Father above all things, even the pain of death; and loving His neighbor as Himself, even more than Himself by giving HIS life in exchange for ours. His resurrection then proves that He has done this saving work completely and once and for all. There's no question: Jesus has kept the Law and paid the price for our sins.
And that is the Blessed Exchange. Jesus trading with us. Jesus doing what He doesn't have to do because we don't do what we do have to do. Jesus keeping the Law because we didn't keep the Law. Jesus dying because we deserve death. By being united with Jesus in Baptism, His doing what He did becomes ours and we know that our sin has become His. That's the Blessed Exchange. His life for ours. His righteousness for our sin. His holiness for our transgressions. And in forgiving our sins and dwelling in us by His Body and Blood, our Savior Himself makes a Presentation. As He was presented in the Temple, so He presents us before the Father as pure and spotless and holy. By coming in the flesh and putting Himself under the Law, Jesus purifies and redeems your flesh and rescues you from the curse of the Law. Because He is presented in the temple as if He were under the Law, He presents you to the Father, free from the curse of the Law. This holy festival today reminds us of this Blessed Exchange in which Jesus, by trading places with us, gives us the highest place along with Him before the Father. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment