Dearly
loved by God in Christ,
It is not uncommon for sons and daughters to
follow their fathers into the business. A recent article in the Star was about
women who owned car dealerships that their fathers had owned. The family name
followed by “and son,” or, “and sons” often adorns signs and the sides of
trucks.
We generally assume that in those cases the
children evidence the same personal qualities and ways of doing business as
their fathers. It doesn’t matter if you work with one or the other.
Jesus just had healed a crippled man on the
Sabbath. When the Jews heard about this, they confronted our Lord and accused
him of breaking the Sabbath law. Jesus’ response was “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”
In other words, when one is working you get the other. Jesus claimed unity
in essence and purpose with God the Father.
The Jews understood what Jesus meant and
hated him for it. “For this reason the
Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath,
but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.”
Jesus rightful claim of equality with the Father
sets the table for our theme on this second Sunday of end time, Last Judgment. The Father has Entrusted All Judgment to
the Son. First, so that all will honor the Son; second, the Son’s judgment
seeks only to please the Father.
Jesus had another father while on earth.
Joseph was Jesus’ legal father and a carpenter. How much carpentry Joseph
taught his son growing up we don’t know. We can suppose that Jesus did hear and
see a lot about that trade. Whatever Jesus did know and do as a carpenter, he
learned from his earthly father.
Jesus made the point to his enemies that
everything he knew and did as the one equal with God the Father, including this
work of love healing the crippled man, he saw and heard from his heavenly
Father. His heavenly Father “loves the
Son and shows him all he does.” What they had seen Jesus do was a great
thing. The Son had not done it independently from the Father but as one God.
The Jews soon would see the Father do greater
things than this through his Son. The Father raises the dead and gives life.
Now the Son would do the same. Jesus would raise those spiritually dead in
unbelief to spiritual life in him. In Revelation 20, the apostle John calls
this “the first resurrection.” Jesus
would proclaim God’s Word to lost and condemned sinners that he is their
Savior. The Holy Spirit would bring sinners to faith through that gospel.
In this sense, judgment already takes place.
He who hears Jesus’ word and believes that the Father has sent the Son “has eternal life and will not be condemned;
he has crossed over from death to life.” God the Father has entrusted this
judgment to the Son of Man, the world’s Savior. Jesus through the gospel gives
life to “to whom he is pleased to give
it.”
What a blessing of God’s grace that the Father
has chosen us in Christ for that spiritual life. God gave it to us through our
holy baptism. God keeps it alive through the gospel in Word and in the Lord’s
Supper. This is the common work among the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are
equal to one another in the one divine essence. They agree on the judgment the
gospel pronounces on us at Jesus’ empty tomb and that is ours through faith,
not guilty.
This is the reason why “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.”
The Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son so that all will honor the
Son. By honoring the Son as God, you honor the Father as God. To deny one is to
deny the other. That is why we call Unitarian religions idolatry. By denying
that Jesus is equal to the Father as God, they do not worship the true God.
Since the Father has entrusted all judgment
to the Son, Jesus judges to please the Father.
Jesus’ judgment through the gospel takes
place not only in the first resurrection to faith. It takes places also in the
second resurrection “when all who are in
their graves will hear his voice and come out.” When all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ, all others will see the evidence of their faith or
unbelief. Faith had manifested itself in good works. Unbelief had manifested
itself in evil works.
The Father bases judgment on solely on
Christ’s righteousness and not our own. This is his requirement. Jesus
indicates his agreement to this by using his favorite moniker, the Son of Man.
Jesus kept the law perfectly for us, then offered his innocent life in our
place on the cross. He who believes in Christ will be saved. He who does not
believe is condemned.
Jesus does not do this judging by himself. He
does it by his Father. That is why the judgment will be just, unarguable, and
irrevocable. This is why Jesus’ judgment will please the Father. There is
complete agreement, a working together between Father and Son for they are one
God with the Spirit.
Last judgment is nothing to fear for the
believer. Through faith we will stand before Christ covered in his blood and
with his holy works under the law credited to us. For the believer, Jesus says,
there will be no condemnation, literally, no judgment. Only unbelievers will be
judged as their evil works testify to their rejection of Christ’s work on their
behalf.
Judgment Day is not when God finally or
arbitrarily decides what to do with us It is not when we suddenly and finally
find out what will happen to us. The Father and the Son desire our salvation so
in full agreement they have called us into the family through faith. We live in
the new life the Son gives through the first resurrection by the Holy Spirit.
We will hear Christ’s voice at the second resurrection, and our glorified
bodies will unite with our souls. We will stand before our Judge, saints triumphant in heaven. More about that next week, God
willing. Amen. <SDG>