“ACCOMPLISHED”
Saint Luke 18. 31-43
Quinquagesima Sunday: 26 February Anno Domini 2006
Fr Watson
As Christ took the twelve aside to proclaim the Gospel, so too are you here this morning to hear the Lord speak. You are here in Jerusalem, the City of Peace, and all things that have been written by Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Solomon, Jonah and the rest, have been accomplished. The Good News is that Jesus has accomplished all; receive His gifts.
Because of what you do every day, you, not your neighbor, not your enemy, and not your pagan, heathen, Muslim, atheist adversary, but you, there is no peace and no safety. Because of what you think deep down; because of the words that roll off the same tongue which the Lord God has placed in your mouth, the same tongue which he feeds with all manner of good food and drink; because of the physical things which your legs, hands, and eyes do every day, everything is at risk; everything is destroyed and dead; everything is in a constant state of warfare and blood. Because of what you are, nothing is accomplished but rather everything is chaos.
The only way things could be set right again, the only way things could be restored, was for the Lord Himself to come and make things right. This is what all the prophets wrote about. All the Scripture was testifying to the Son of Man, the Messiah. The Savior would come and save. He would save by doing two things, each of inestimable effort and worth. The Savior would Love God perfectly to make up for your daily lack of love. The Savior would love all your neighbors perfectly to make restitution for your constant hatred and murder. The Savior would work, do, finish, complete, perfect, and ACCOMPLISH all that must be done to fulfill the Law.
Secondly, the Savior would also pay the ultimate price for all the shedding of blood, all the murder, rebellion, and destruction wrought by you and yours. The Savior would be the Blood Sacrifice, the Condemned Prisoner, the Convicted Sinner, and the final Lamb of Expiation. This, and this alone, is what all the prophets wrote about. This is what the Evangelists, Paul, James, and Peter wrote about as well. The Good News is that Jesus has accomplished all; receive His gifts.
Because you know your sin, its depth, its depravity, its darkness…you despair…of yourselves. Because you know how blind your own efforts and works really are you cry out to Jesus from the heart which He’s given you, the heart He has set pumping again: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” When you call Him “Jesus” you really mean it; you believe it. “Jesus” means Savior, one who saves, and you grasp onto Him tightly as the only One who can help you. You can only really call Him Jesus by the power of the Holy Ghost. When you call Him “Son of David” you are confessing the Faith; you are making the heartfelt claim that He is God, begotten by the Father from all eternity, and that He is Man, born of the Virgin Mary, lineal descendant of King David. When you plead through tears, sweat, heartache, and pain, “have mercy on me!” you are acknowledging that you are totally miserable (i.e. a “poor miserable sinner”) and in desperate need of His mercy.
Mercy is both forgiveness and life. Mercy is love in action; love which heals, fixes, binds, restores, feeds, and sets at peace. All these things have been written by the prophets and apostles. This Mercy has been accomplished.
Where there is Forgiveness of Sins there is also life and salvation. The Small Catechism is correct because Scripture is true. Scripture is reliable because Christ Jesus is the heart and core of all Prophecy and Apostolicity. Wherever Jesus is for you, for the sinner, for the desperate miserable, there is Forgiveness. It is accomplished. Wherever Jesus is for you, for the sinner, for the Blind Men sitting in the road, there is life and salvation. The Life comes now in one form or another, the salvation comes to fruition at the last trump; the reward waiting through the gates of splendor.
But that day, at Jericho, life would come to Bartimaeus in and with the “loosing” of his eyes. There at Jericho, its own forbear the town which had been destroyed by the Word of the Lord at the speaking of the first Joshua, the “greater Joshua” had come not to destroy bricks, stone and mortar, but rather sin, death and the power of the devil. “Receive your sight.” See again says Jesus, have life, for I your Savior have had mercy on you. I have kept the Law which you break. I will now go to Jerusalem to be your replacement on the gallows.
Why was the blind man forgiven? Why are you absolved? Why was Bartimaeus given his eyesight back? Why are you given life in Baptism and Supper? There is forgiveness and life because He is “Jesus,” not just then but forever. There is eternal salvation because He is the “Son of David,” the Son of God, not just then but forever. Because He has Mercy, not just on the dusty roads and Calvary back then, but in the font, from the pulpit, and at the communion rail today: all accomplished!
Why are you saved? Why do you have peace? You have both because you have Jesus. You have all His gifts because He was delivered to the Gentiles, and was mocked, insulted and spit upon. You have His mercy because for you He was scourged and killed. You have your “sight,” your faith, in the receipt of His gifts here and now through His living Word because He rose on the third day to be with you forever. All things which the prophets wrote have been accomplished in Him, for you. Receive Him. You are forgiven. His life is yours.
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost