The Lutheran Hour: Sunday, February 9, 2024

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
They only see a guy who is ruining their dream.
They see a problem. But Jesus he sees a person.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
When others see you as a problem to eliminate and
not a person to elevate. You need an advocate. Doctor
Michael Ziggler says we have that in Jesus Today on
The Lutheran Hour. Later more of our conversation with doctor
Leo Sanchez. I'm Mark Eischer. Welcome to the world's longest

(00:31):
running Christian broadcast. Now in our ninety second season, The
Lutheran Hour is listener supported. To learn how your gifts
and prayers help to bring Christ to the nations and
the nations to the Church, go to Lutheranour dot org.
Today's message is titled we have an Advocate now here

(00:51):
is doctor Zigler.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
In that moment, all I could see was the bonehead
who totaled my car. But he wasn't just a bonehead.
He was my brother. And it wasn't even my car.
It belonged to our parents. I've told a longer version
of this story on this program. You could go back

(01:14):
and find it in our archives. Send me a message,
give us a call, and I'll tell you exactly where
you can find it if you like. So. I've told
this story before, and i'll explain in a moment why
I'm bringing it up again, But first, let me try
to help you understand why this car meant so much
to me. But if you're roughly my age or older,

(01:35):
you already know why, because before smartphones and uber and
ubiquitous internet access, a car meant freedom and status and
access to the world. A key to your very own car,
or your parents' car that they let you use. That

(01:57):
was the key to unlock your teenage dreams. At least
that's how I saw things when I was sixteen and
shared a car with my older brother, Matt. So you
can imagine how I felt when I heard that Matt,
my own flesh and blood, was driving the car. That
Matt had hit a patch of gravel on the road,

(02:17):
that Matt had spun out of control and flew off
the road into a ditch, and he had rolled it
and been trapped inside it and hanging upside down in
a ditch covered and broken glass. Matt, you can imagine
how shocked I was, how alarmed, how concerned I was
about the car. My parents, oddly seemed to be more

(02:39):
concerned about my brother. He was fine, by the way,
just a little shaken, no broken bones, barely a scratch,
but he was driving like a maniac. The wreck was
totally his fault. But they kept hugging him and checking
in on him and telling him how much they loved him,
And I'm thinking, he's fine, what about the car. Sometime

(03:00):
after the wreck, I remember watching my brother and my
dad leave the house to go on a long walk.
I remember wishing that I could hear what they were saying,
wanting to be in on that conversation, wanting to make
sure that somebody was letting him have it, lecturing him
about how much of a bonehead he was. But I
suspect my dad said something fatherly like, we're so grateful

(03:23):
you're alive, so thankful that something worse didn't happen, because
you're really scared a son, and you've got to be
more careful, because we don't want to lose you, because
we love you, blah blah blah. Because when I looked
at my brother, I could only see him one dimensionally,
within the confines of my own schemes. He was just

(03:46):
the bonehead who lost the keys to my teenage fantasy.
My parents however, could see him multi dimensionally. My mom
and dad. They're not perfect, but they could see Matt
in a bigger story. They could remember the day of
his birth, the first time they held him, the first

(04:07):
night at home, when they buttoned him up in his
onesie and tucked him into his crib. They were there
for his soccer games and optometrist appointments and science fairs.
In the time he was a piece of cauliflower in
the school play, dressed up in a giant white cardboard box.
I was there for that one too, It was hilarious.

(04:28):
But they saw him in a bigger story and knew
what I didn't and couldn't, that he was their son,
but also that he is a wonderfully complex, flawed human
being whose actions have consequences, and has power to do
great harm to himself and to others, yet also potential

(04:50):
for many good things as well. And whether he did
well or poorly, they would be there for him. They
would be his advocates, They would speak up for him
and love him all the more. And maybe this could
be an illustration for us, an illustration of the difference

(05:12):
and how we see people sometimes or even how we
see ourselves and how God Jesus, how God chooses to
view us through the advocacy of his son Jesus. Now,
maybe you just stumbled onto this program or somebody shared
it with you, and you're not into religion, or you're

(05:34):
not part of a church, or you don't think much
about God or even believe in God. But what would
it hurt to give Jesus a hearing to hear how
he wants to advocate for you, Not to speak against you,
to condemn you like a self righteous sibling, but to
speak up for you like a loving parent would, like

(05:58):
a brother should. And if he's speaking up for you,
he's speaking up for others too, isn't he Maybe even
for that bonehead who's currently trying to ruin your dreams.
The popular Jewish dream in Jesus' Day, like a first
car in the nineteen nineties, also included freedom, access to

(06:21):
the world, and status within it. The Jewish vision of
the future was nothing less than heaven on earth. The
Jewish people had been waiting for the coming of the
Kingdom of Heaven, for things to be put right, for
peace between nations and peace between people, for God and
God's chosen King, the Messiah, to be on the throne

(06:43):
and everyone honoring him. Their dream wasn't all that different
from our modern dreams of freedom, access, and status, except
that modern dreams of progress would put human engenuituity on
the throne and or artificial intelligence on the throne rather

(07:06):
than God and his Messiah. Because the key to the
kingdom for them wasn't cars or supercomputers. It was sabbath keeping.
Sabbath keeping. Now, why was the Sabbath day so important
for starters. It was a holy day that happened every
week every Saturday, not just once a year, and it

(07:28):
was the only Jewish festival enshrined in the Ten Commandments,
and it was specifically about honoring God, thanking God for
rescuing his people back when they were slaves in Egypt,
and thanking God for providing for them as they wandered
through the wilderness. And therefore, the weekly Sabbath rest was preparation.

(07:51):
Resting each week for a day prepared God's people to
rest in God's presence for eternity, when the kingdom came,
when all wrongs were put right, when justice was served,
and the dead were raised because God has come. The
Sabbath prepared them for that greater Day. The Sabbath was
a time to set aside the work you do so

(08:15):
that God may work in you. But even not working
can become another scheme if you make it all about you.
For example, some ancient Jewish authorities said that if only
all Israel could keep the Sabbath perfectly for two weeks

(08:38):
in a row, the Kingdom of Heaven would materialize immediately.
If only if only they could do the right, not
working things, all their dreams would come true. And so
they added schemes to what the Bible said about the Sabbath.
They made thirty nine different categories of work not to

(08:58):
be done, which included not caring anything from a private
domain into a public domain. And the local authorities enforced
these schemes so that they can make the kingdom come
on their terms. But there was always some bonehead messing
it up. And that's how the Jewish authorities saw this

(09:20):
man described in the Gospel of John chapter five. They
see him within the confines of their own schemes. They
don't see him multi dimensionally. They don't know him or
ask about him, what he suffered or what he's seeking.
They only see a guy who is ruining their dream,
they see a problem. But Jesus he sees a person.

(09:45):
And what even is the coming kingdom about? If not
God and his people listen to how it goes. In
John chapter five, it happened when there was a feast,
a festival for the Jewish people, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now in Jerusalem, near the sheep Gate, there's a pool

(10:06):
of water, which an aramaic is called Bethesda, and it
has five open spaces, five porches surrounded by columns, And
in these porches a great many disabled people were lying
down and waiting. Apparently, sometimes the water would start to
bubble and churn, and it was said that the first
person in the pool would be healed. So there were

(10:30):
many people there waiting, those who were blind, crippled, paralyzed.
And one man was there who had been disabled for
thirty eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and
knew that he had already been there a long time,
he says to him, do you want to be made whole?

(10:55):
The disabled man answered him, Sir, I don't have anybody
to put me in the pool when the water is
stirred up, and when I try to go, someone goes
down before me. Jesus says to him, rise, pick up
your mat and walk. And immediately the man was made whole,

(11:19):
and he picked up his mat and started walking. Now
it was the Sabbath day, and so the Jewish authority
started saying to the man who had been healed, it
is the Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to
carry your mat. But he answered them, the man who

(11:40):
made me whole. That man said to me, pick up
your mat and walk. They question him, who is this
person who told you pick it up and walk? But
the man who'd been restored did not know who it was,
because Jesus had withdrawn into the crowd that was in
that place. After this, Jesus finds the man in the

(12:03):
temple and said to him, see, you have been made whole.
Sin no longer, so that nothing worse happens to you.
The man went and announced proclaimed to the Jewish authorities
that it was Jesus who had made him whole. And
on account of this, the Jewish authorities started going after

(12:27):
Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
And Jesus responded to them, my father is always working,
even to this very day, and I also am working
so because of this they were seeking him all the
more to kill him, because not only was he breaking

(12:51):
the Sabbath, but he was saying, God is his own father,
making himself equal to God. So Jesus answered and was
saying to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the
son can do nothing on his own, but only what
he sees is father doing. Because whatever the father does,

(13:13):
the son does likewise, because the Father loves the son
and shows him all that he is doing, and greater
works than these he will show him, so that you
all will be amazed. Because just as the Father raises
the dead and gives them life, so also the son
gives life to whom he will. Because the Father judges
no one, but has entrusted all matters of judgment to

(13:36):
the son, so that all may honor the son, even
as they honor the father. Whoever does not honor the
son does not honor him who sent him. Truly, truly,
I say to you, whoever hears my word and trusts
in him who sent me, has eternal life and will

(13:57):
not be condemned, but is passed from death into life. Truly, truly,
I say to you, the hour is coming and is
now here when those who are dead will hear the
voice of the Son of God, and those who here
will live. Because just as the Father has life in himself,

(14:17):
so also has he granted the Son to have life
in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment,
to do justice, because he is the son of Man.
Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is
coming when those who are in their tombs will hear

(14:38):
his voice and they will come out. And those who
have done good things to the resurrection of life. Those
who have practiced evil things, to the resurrection of judgment.
And for those who have done good works Jesus said earlier,

(14:59):
the light of that that resurrection day will make it
clear that what they have done was done by God.
And even Jesus says, I can do nothing on my own.
And also I say these things to you so that
you may be saved. The man that we meet at

(15:21):
the beginning of John five is described in a variety
of ways, but the authorities see him one dimensionally through
their own schemes. But listening to this account, we get
to meet the man through the eyes of his Messiah,
through Jesus. Jesus who goes on to explain his own
reasons for breaking out of their schemes, with the simplicity

(15:42):
of a parent talking to a teenager, it's not your sabbath.
These aren't your keys their mind. Only the creator of
the universe can say such things. And Jesus, God become
flesh to bring the Kingdom on earth. He says them
without compromise. And Jesus sees the man who is by

(16:06):
the pool, in all his complexity. Jesus doesn't see a problem.
He sees a person, someone who is disabled physically and spiritually,
someone who's been healed, restored and made whole. Someone who's
a sinner and still has terrifying power to do harm

(16:29):
to himself and to others, but also a proclaimer of
the Messiah, the one who made him whole. The man
in John five is all of that, and in this
way he stands for us, once dead, unresponsive to God,
absorbed in our own schemes, but raised already to eternal

(16:49):
life and rest in the presence of God in the
person of Jesus. Among ancient and modern readers of John's gospel,
there has been a long stand argument about this man
that we found by the pool in Bethesda. Some think
that it might have been his fault that he ended
up there, wrecked, upside down in a ditch. Some see

(17:12):
him as a victim of superstitious belief about magical healing
that's always out of reach. Some think he's so simple
minded that he doesn't even realize that he's getting Jesus
in trouble, or maybe that he's intentionally throwing Jesus under
the bus they get himself off the hook. Others see
him as a model disciple, someone who is proclaiming Jesus,

(17:36):
trying to persuade others to trust in him. I'm not
sure what to think about him. I don't know the
rest of his story, but here's what I do know.
Jesus sees him in all his mixed up complexity and
loves him, walks with him, advocates for him because he

(18:00):
wants to save him. As for us, as for you,
Jesus sees you. He notices you there in the crowd,
wherever you are, however you are disabled, broke down, trapped

(18:20):
upside down in a ditch, covered in broken glass, barely
hanging on. He finds you, singles you out, takes you
on a walk, and don't worry about the skeptics looking
on the bitter siblings and the short sighted critics caught
up in their own schemes. They don't know the whole story.
They don't know you like Jesus knows you, and he

(18:44):
will deal with them in time. But now he asked
questions for you. Do you want to be made whole?
Do you want to start over? Do you want to
stop seeing problems and start seeing people, to see them
in their unique stories and all their complexity in God's love.

(19:09):
Do you want to see them as I see them?
Jesus says, as I see you as a beloved brother,
a sister child of God. Okay, then rise, walk sin

(19:30):
no longer, so that nothing worse happens to you. That's
what Jesus says to you. And if anybody does sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus, the Messiah,
our brother. He will speak of for us because he

(19:53):
is the atoning sacrifice who takes away our sins, and
not ours only, but the sins of the whole world,
even the most boneheaded among us. Would you pray with me,
Dear Jesus, thank you for finding me and healing me.

(20:17):
Thank you for calling me to walk with you amen,
you're listening to the Lutheran Hour. You'll find free online resources,
archived audio, and more at lutheranour dot org. Now back

(20:42):
to our speaker, doctor Michael Zigler. Today I'm visiting with
doctor Leo Sanchez. He's a regular guest preacher on the
program and a professor of theology at Concordia Seminary here
in Saint Louis. Welcome back to the program, Leo.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
Thank you, Michael, Thank you all right. Leo.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
I asked you to come and talk today because I
want to talk more about these words we heard Jesus
say in the Gospel of John chapter five. The man
who's healed by the pool Bethesda, and Jesus finds him
later in the temple and he says, see you're well again,
or your whole again. Stop sinning, or maybe it's maybe

(21:19):
it's translated sin no longer, so that nothing worse happens
to you. Yikes. So Jesus seems to make this man
an example for all of us. You know, in some ways,
Jesus could say those words to every Christian, see your
whole again, you're made well in me by faith in me.
Stop sinning so that nothing worse happens to you. What

(21:41):
kinds of questions do you see this? Maybe raising for
us as Christians, as we hear Jesus speak in that
way to us stop sinning so that nothing worse happens
to you.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
Well, what comes to the mind right away is that
sin is not good for you, so stop. Okay, Yeah,
sin has consequences in other words, you know, I mean
I think of our confession of sins in church since
of thought word indeed right right, Yeah, there are consequences.

(22:14):
I mean, if you think you want to hit someone,
that's thought. But if you say to someone that you're
going to hit them, you know, that's a violent act
with your words. And then if you do it, actually
do it, that's a that's a crime. So sin has consequences,

(22:35):
and it can affect not only our own spiritual health,
but our neighbor as well.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
You know. So you mentioned our common confession that we
use in Lutheran churches. Other churches use it as well,
but it opens so it's part of it is don't
sin anymore. We do this because we want to stop sinning.
But then in that confession, which we take from First John,
is if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
So it's maybe there's a risk that we don't take

(23:02):
Jesus seriously when he says stop sinning because we're like, oh,
I know, I'm a sinner. I'm always going to sin.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah, yeah, And that that would be a problem. I mean,
that would be using the gospel or the forgiveness of
sense of justification for continuing in one's sin, you know.
And so one has to be careful about that. Here
is where Romans six is helpful, you know, and Luther

(23:30):
uses this in teaching us the daily use of baptism.
What does it mean to be baptized every day, die
to sind daily?

Speaker 2 (23:39):
You know?

Speaker 3 (23:41):
It can't just sort of wiggle your way around that,
you know, we all have to die to send daily.
And so that is taken sin seriously. That is confessing
that we are by nature simple and unclean. That's a
way of not deceiving ourselves into thinking that we're not sinning,
you know. But at the same time, we just don't die.

(24:05):
We also are raised to new life, right, So it's
a cycle. It's the daily return to baptism. So on
the one hand, we're all gonna die of something here.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
And on the other.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
Not to sort of dwell on that, but to be help,
to be restored, to be redeemed. In other words, we
have been given the spirit, and we have been given
the word of forgiveness, which has the power right of
transforming our lives. So believe it.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Act like it.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
You know, get up, walk, take up your mat.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
If we live by the spirit, let us walk by
the spirit. And what does that mean. That means to
live according to the fruit of the spirit. Love, self control, patience, kindness,
all of that stuff.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
You know, I think all this you talk about this cycle.
I think it's so it's captured so well in that
First Letter of John, he says, you know, little children,
I write you these things so that you will not sin.
That's the purpose. He doesn't want them to sin. It's
bad for you, it's going to hurt you. But if
anyone does sin, we know we have an advocate. We

(25:18):
have someone who's gonna forgive us, speak up for us.
It's Jesus Christ, the righteous one. He's the one who's
who's been the atoning sacrifice to take away our sins.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah, you want to avoid I think through dangerous one
is you're only dying and dying all the time, and
so that leads to a certain fatalism. You know. Oh look,
I'm a terrible sinner. There's nothing I can do, so
I'll just keep doing it or I'll just Yeah. The

(25:49):
other danger is the only think in terms of resurrection
all the time, so that you'll become sort of perfectionistic.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
Develop some blind spots.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
Yeah, you raise the holiness bar so high no one
can be saved. Yeah, and you tend to then sort
of avoid taken seriously your sins. So we don't want
to just be a fatalist or a perfectionist. We want
to die and be raised.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, that's really helpful. Die and be raised, Yeah, both
then crucified with Christ. Yet Christ lives in me. Yes,
all right, amen, Thank you so much for being with
us today. Leo my pleasure. Lord, remember us in your kingdom,

(26:40):
and teach us to pray our Father, who art in heaven.
How will it be thy name, Thy kingdom, Come, Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us
our trespasses, as we forgive those who trust. Pass against us,

(27:02):
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory,
forever and ever. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine on you, and be
gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with his

(27:23):
favor and give you peace. Amen.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
The Lutheran Hour is made possible through the support of
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(27:50):
Our theme music is by Peter Procknow, Emily Rogers and
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