Thursday, February 10, 2011

February 9, 2011 - Wednesday of Epiphany 5 - Genesis 18:20-33

We need to learn to pray like Abraham! The Lord planned on wiping Sodom and Gomorrah off the map and so Abraham pleads for his nephew Lot who lives there. Will you destroy the city if there are 50 righteous? No, it will be spared. Destroy it if there's 45? Nope. 30? No. 20? Nope. Just ten? Still no. It's like Abraham is bargaining at a car lot or something! But look at what's going on! Abraham in faith trusts that the Lord won't destroy the righteous with the wicked. So even if it means letting the whole evil city survive for the sake of Lot and his family, Abraham asks that. We need to learn to pray like Abraham! For one thing, we're so quick to pray and ask for something from the Lord and then give up when it doesn't seem our prayer is answered! See how Abraham presses God and why? He tells Him: You are the righteous Judge. You can't kill the righteous with the wicked. So we need to grab hold of God's promises in Christ and drum them in His ears with no fear, beseeching Him, pleading with Him, interceding for others based on what He has done for us in His Son.

Now here's the thing. God DOES destroy the righteous with the wicked. But He doesn't do it at Sodom. He does it on Calvary. Who is more righteous than the Son of God? Who is more innocent and holy than Jesus? And yet, who is more evil and wicked than that Lamb who is covered in our sins? When The Son of God dies for us on the cross, there is the judgment of God on the righteous and the wicked together. Christ is perfect and holy and yet He's covered with our sins and is guilty of them there. That is our salvation. That God does not deal with us WE deserve but deals with Christ as we deserve. When the Lord came to Sodom, He rescued Lot from that evil city. But when His Son comes to earth, the Lord allows His Son to be taken by wicked men and tortured and killed for the sake of the whole world. Always the Lord constantly rescues His people but when it came to the rescue of His own Son, He gave Him up into death as our sacrifice.

But Jesus rose from the dead. His righteousness overcame our sin and death and the grave were left behind on Easter. Now the Bible tells us that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father always INTERCEDING for us. What is interceding? It means doing what Abraham did: praying for the Lord to spare the wicked for the sake of the righteous. Jesus is righteous and has accomplished our salvation so He prays to the Father: “For my sake, spare them, Father and forgive their sins.” Think about it. We do all kinds of things every day that ought to rouse God's anger and have Him throw us into eternal judgment. But you are baptized. You are righteous with the righteousness of Jesus. When we sin, if the Father were ever to say, “I'm going to wipe that one out,” the Son intercedes, “No, Father. For my sake. Because I paid that price. Because I am righteous and have taken their sins away. You can't.” Jesus speaks to the Father even more boldly than Abraham for standing behind His prayers is all He did as the Father commanded to save us from our sins! Know this: because Jesus goes to bat for you, the Father will never destroy you along with the wicked. Your sins are taken care of and they can't cause God's judgment and punishment against you ever. As long as Jesus intercedes for us before the Father, our sins can never cause our doom.

There's something in there for us to learn too then for our neighbor's sake. Just as Jesus told His disciples not to go pulling up the weeds and so damage the wheat, and just as Abraham prayed even for wicked Sodom for Lot's sake, so we can learn to pray the Lord to spare those who are evil around us for the sake of His holy ones. Every day the Lord puts up with us for the sake of His Son even though we thoughtlessly sin against Him and others. So we ought to learn to pray for those who sin against us and trouble us. When we see the people around us sinning our first reaction ought to be Abraham's: Spare them, Lord, for the sake of the righteous. Since your Son has died for them too, don't hold their sins against them. Rather rescue them from their sins too and bring or keep them safely in your holy church. It is tempting to be offended at others and pray that they will just go away or leave us alone. It is much harder but more godly to throw the Lord's promises in His ear to have mercy upon them for Jesus' sake just as He has had mercy on us!

So what happened to Sodom? Well, I don't think there WERE ten righteous people there, ten people who trusted in God's promises. But the Lord was faithful. He led Lot and his family away from Sodom before He blasted it into ashes, never to be seen again. It's a reminder there WILL come a day when the Lord condemns and punishes those who oppose Him, who love wickedness more than righteousness and who persecute His holy church. Jesus says that day will come when the holy angels will gather up the weeds and burn them. But until that day, we live in the mercy of Jesus and we pray for the wicked as Abraham did, for the sake of the righteous. Always remember that your Lord stands before the Father, ever pleading for you, ever protecting you from judgment and wrath. And by His Word and gifts He will continue to keep you in the faith and remind you that He pleads for you and that for His sake the Father is always pleased with you. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

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