A few weeks ago we began to make our way into the season of Lent. On Ash Wednesday we resurrected the practice of using ashes. We have put away the hallelujahs from our worship services. Our midweek worship series has been following the theme of the Suffering Servant song from Isaiah 53. This past Wednesday we talked about the appearance of Jesus that was disfigured by his suffering, by the fact that he was beaten beyond recognition to the point that people would have looked at him in horror if they would have looked at all. It seems that Lent is in full swing. We are all feeling appropriately mournful and repentant. We all have come to expect that the next few weeks are going to be a bit introspective and melancholy so we are just going to gut it out until we can though lent and back to easter – then we can get back to not feeling so guilty about being happy.
Lent is sombre. Lent is by its nature a bit mournful. We do talk about sin. We do talk about suffering. That is all a part of the preparation for easter as we recognize that it is our sin that sent Jesus to the cross. Doesn't it then seem a bit out of character to have an Epistle reading from Philippians. After all, the book of Philippians is the Epistle of Joy. It is Paul's letter of love to a church that had shown great care and love for him while he was in prison. One of the occasions of the writing of this letter was to say thank you to them for a gift they had given to him. The church at Philippi loved Paul dearly. He was grateful. In return he loved them. The book of Philippians is an expression of the love that was shared between the Apostle and these Christians. It is an expression of the joy that they brought to Paul. With that being the setting and context for these verses, doesn't it seem a bit odd to include them as a part of the readings for Lent?
Just look at the text. There is nothing about suffering in it at all. Certainly it talks about following Paul example and we might assume that has something to do with repentance or Christian living – but then Paul moves on to talk about our hope of the resurrection – about the promise that on the last day our sinful bodies will be changed to be like the glorified body of Jesus. Doesn't quite sound mournful.
At times we might forget this – at times we might not even realize it, but every season of the church year, in fact every day of every year for every Christian is a day of celebration. It is a day of joy. It is a day to remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a day to recall all that he has done for us as he died on the cross for our sin and as he rose again victorious over sin and death. In fact, as we remember the suffering of Jesus as we recall the seriousness of our sin that only serves to enhance our joy – it burns even brighter!! When we see the hopelessness of our situation and then when we reapply the gospel we see and appreciate and love it even more dearly.
Sometimes Christians have an unhealthy fixation on suffering. There are times that people can get too caught up in thinking about all of the actual pain that Jesus felt and experienced. There are times that people can get too caught up in their own suffering. Sometimes we get caught up in our feelings of guilt because of sins that we have committed. Sometime we get caught up in thinking that we can somehow help Jesus out in our salvation if we suffer along with him. Sometimes, we get so engrossed in our own feelings and experience that we loose sight of Jesus and all that he has done for us.
I once had a conversation with a man who said that he watched the movie The Passion of the Christ over 150 times. His feeling was that the more that he watched this film and the more he was so graphically reminded of the bloodiness of Jesus' death on the cross the more it would motivate him to live a Christian life. He felt that he needed the daily shock of that experience or else he might forget to discipline himself properly. He might forget to live the Christian life.
Martin Luther, when he entered the Monastery in the middle ages, felt that by living a life and by choosing a life of rigorous discipline and even suffering would help him to live a life closer to that of Jesus. The life of a monk was one of suffering; they slept little, they ate poorly, the dressed uncomfortably, they subjected themselves to extreme conditions all for the sake of disciplining themselves and sharing in the sufferings of Jesus so that they might make themselves more righteous.
Most likely we cannot relate to either of these examples. We don't sleep on cots in damp concrete rooms. We are well fed and comfortably clothed. Most likely no one here has become fixated on watching The Passion of the Christ. But that is not to say that we do not still spend too much time concerned with our own sufferings.
Have you ever caught yourself thinking or doing something, realizing that it was wrong and then wonder if anybody saw you? Have you ever wondered to yourself what people would think of you if they found out about it? Have you ever worried about what would happen to you if you lost your good name and reputation? Have you ever found yourself nervous and defensive because you don't want anyone to know about something that you have said or done?
Now wait a minute pastor, That isn't the same thing as fixating on suffering. You might think to yourself. And you would be right. It is not. But it comes from the same darkened place in our hearts. It comes from the place in our hearts that is concerned not with the law of God, not with doing the law of God but with having the appearance of doing the law of God. Often we don't care if we are righteous. We just want to appear that we are righteous before others. We want other people to think that we are righteous. We want other people to think of us as having done all that can be done in living a good and decent life. In that way the two are exactly the same. The two are fixations on our own righteousness. The two come from a belief that somewhere inside of us there is or can be or should be righteousness. The two come from a belief that we can and should have something to contribute to God's gift of our salvation.
That is why Lent and Joy go hand in hand. During the season of Lent we come face to face with sin. We see it in our selves as we confess. We see it in ourselves as we acknowledge our many weaknesses. We see it in ourselves as we are forced to remember that we are responsible for the sufferings of Jesus.
And don't you know that Jesus died? don't your know that Jesus saw that sin, he saw that wretchedness that you were so concerned to hide that you lied about it. Don't you know that Jesus has already suffered the punishment for it? Don't you know that you are free from having to put away your sins and from having to pretend that they are not there. Don't you know that you are free to live your life without the fear of your guilt and your sin hanging over your head? Don't you know that you can set aside your fear and your depression and your sorrow and you can feel joy – real joy. Don't you know that because of the suffering of Jesus our lives are filled with celebration and joy?
In our text Paul talks about being an enemy of the cross of Christ. He talks about those who are enemies of the cross and he says that their end is destruction. Their god is their belly. Their glory is their shame and their minds are set on earthly things. There were people in Paul's day just as there are people in our day who look at the cross of Christ and they cannot see forgiveness. They cannot see that God would do something that was for them, something that would be for them a free gift. They just can't accept the fact that heaven would be their and they would have no part in earning it. How could that be. It just doesn't make sense. That is because people have such a narrow focus. People get so caught up in themselves, in their own lives, in their own experiences that they can't see the goodness and generosity of God. They can't see all that he has done for them.
In Paul's day there were plenty of examples of this. There were those who followed a path of hedonism – a path that looked for fulfillment in the experiences of the flesh. Eat drink and be merry. Live it up and experience all of life's pleasures while you can. For them their god is their belly.
For others they felt that their glory was in their own righteousness. The felt that their glory was in their outward performance of good deeds. They fooled themselves into thinking that they could actually accomplish good, that they could be righteous. As Paul says, their glory (their “good deeds”) were in no way righteous before God and were therefore only their shame.
But not us. Our home is in heaven. Our bodies are filled with sin. Our flesh is wholly corrupt and we have no righteousness. And that is exactly the reason why we rejoice. That is exactly the reason why celebrate. We are on our way to heaven anyway. We have a guaranteed ticket to paradise that has been bought and paid for by Jesus himself with his own body and blood.
There was a professor at Wittenburg University who was a colleague of Martin Luther's, a man by the name of Phillip Melanchthon. Melanchthon was a man who lived with the guilt of his own sin and was incredibly burdened by it. He would wonder about his forgiveness and his salvation. He would wonder is he loved God enough or if the state of his soul and his sin should cause him to doubt his salvation.
Luther wrote to Melancthon to comfort him in his doubt. He told him Melancthon sin boldly knowing that your sins are forgiven. Knowing that they have already been washed away by Jesus knowing that you do not have to worry about whether they have been washed away.
Luther has been criticized for this statement. People have said that Luther was telling us that the gospel is a free ticket to sin as often as we would like. Not so. We struggle with sin. We put to death our sinful nature. Be we do not let our sinful nature put to death the joy that we have in Jesus.
Jesus has died for your sins. He has washed them away. Do not let the threat of your sin and the accusations of the devil get in the way of the joy that you have received in Jesus.
Amen.
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