Readings: Proverbs 4:10-23, Galatians 5:16-24, Luke 17:11-19
Hymns: 500, 895, 713, 528, 923
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear Christians, a good question to consider is why do you go to church? Different people will give different reasons. Ask why go to church and people will reply: I go to be forgiven. I go to receive Communion. I go to learn more about God. I go to be uplifted. I go because it is habit.
All of these reasons are fine, but some of these reasons are clearly better than others. So if you only go out of habit, there’s a problem. You should expect to give and receive something. You should expect to offer your sacrifices of tithes, praises, and thanksgiving. You should expect to be fed God’s Word and Sacrament.
And if you only go to feel uplifted, there’s also a problem. Church is not a drug to merely give you a good feeling. Instead, God visits you with His grace, absolves you, blesses you, and grants you His peace. This is far, far more than a good feeling!
Now what if I told you that a main reason for why you should go to church is to be crucified? Crucified! Now that does not sound pleasant. It surely isn’t an effective method for evangelism or bringing everyone in who has become disenchanted. Just imagine it the conversation you could have. “Hey, Tim! Want to go with me to church?” Oh, I don’t know. “Come on!” Why? “So you can be crucified!” Crucified? That doesn’t sound like fun. “Well, we don’t go to church to have fun.” OK, so church isn’t fun and you get crucified. That sounds awful! “It isn’t. Come and see! You’ll be happy you did!”
That’s not a convincing argument, is it? Yet, inspired by God the Holy Spirit, St. Paul writes in today’s Epistle, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24).
Think about crucifixion for a moment. On that first Good Friday, the enemies of Jesus shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” They declared, “Let His blood be on us and our children!” (Matthew 27:22-26) They hated Jesus so much they figured everyone would be better off if Jesus were dead.
To crucify a person means that someone has to tie or nail another person’s hands and feet to a cross. That cross must be raised up and inserted into a hole in the ground. The one being crucified hangs on the cross until he dies of suffocation. It’s incredibly painful. It’s gory. It shows how depraved man is for coming up with such a punishment unto death.
Yet, this act is part and parcel to the Christian faith. For just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so also the Son of Man had to be lifted up on that tree (John 3:14-15).
So now, we glory in this cross—in this symbol of torture and death. We have many crosses in our churches and hopefully also in our homes. Even at national cemeteries.
The cross is central to the Christian faith because Jesus died on that cross in order to set us free from our sin, to defeat Satan, and overcome death. So, we preach Christ and Him crucified, which is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles (1 Cor. 1:23).
Why is the cross so important? It is so important because it is there—on the cross—where Christ paid for our sins. It is there where He earned our salvation. It is there where He declared the world not guilty. It is there where He displays His compassion for us. It is there where He makes it clear of His deep love for us and His desire for us to live with Him forever. And it is there where our Lord is actually glorified.
He was willing to be sacrificed on the altar of the cross in our place so that we may live—so that we may be set free from eternal death and abide in Him.
When Jesus invites us to be His disciples, He calls on us to carry crosses and be crucified. Jesus said in Luke 9:23-24, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
You see, the Christian faith is literally a matter of life and death: death to sin and life in Christ.
Also consider this passage. Romans 6:23 states, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Our sins earn for us death, but Christ gives us life as a free gift.
Earlier in Romans 6 we hear, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-4). We die in baptism. We rise in baptism. Our sinful flesh is crucified, and we are raised in Christ to walk in the newness of life.
Dead to sin. Alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord as we also hear in Romans 6: “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11).
Colossians 2:11-13 states, “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses” (v. 11-13).
True life is found in crucifixion. What was once a symbol of death for vile criminals is now a symbol of salvation and life for us sinners. What the Jews meant for evil, God meant for good. They tried to eliminate Jesus by crucifying Him. God used the death of our Lord to eliminate our sin.
As children of God, our flesh is crucified with its passions and desires. Our own thoughts and feeling are to be crucified. We no longer listen to what we figure or the reasoning of other people, but we listen to God in His Word. We learn that we are not our own judges to determine our own values and morals, nor can we be our own referee. For our flesh is at war against the Spirit.
As Christians redeemed by Christ, our desire is no longer to live according to the lusts of the flesh, but to live according to the Spirit. As Christians we take no delight in sin. We do not encourage others to sin. We strive to do what is right.
But we still fail. The flesh is at war with our spirt. On this side of the grave, there will always be that tension between the flesh and the spirit. Our flesh is always telling us things opposed to Christ and His Word. Our flesh is always tempting us. Our flesh is always trying to get us to return to slavery to that flesh.
You heard the works of the flesh in our Epistle. Our flesh vigorously denies it. That’s why so many are tempted to say that deep down we’re good people. That’s why some try to pit the words of Scripture written by St. Paul against the words of Jesus. So then, listen to these words of Jesus: “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:20-23).
Our sinful flesh needs to be crucified. Daily. To crucify that flesh with its passions and desires is to hear Christ, repent of our sin, and eat the body and drink the blood of our Lord Christ. Because that war is always taking place in our own bodies, we need Christ, we need to feed on Him, we need to dwell on Him.
This is not a matter of want or when it is convenient; it is all the time. That’s why Christians go to church every Sunday. That’s why Christians hunger and thirst to receive the Sacrament frequently. That’s why Christians study the Scriptures at home. They desire to let the Spirit work in them. They want their flesh crucified. They want to live in Christ, enjoying His freedom and receiving the gift of salvation.
These are desires of our spirit worked by the Holy Spirit. And when God feeds us through Word and Sacrament, that same Spirit is at work in us to bear the fruits of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23).
The Christian life is the way of the cross. It is hearing Christ crucified. It is crucifying the flesh. It is life—life to the full. It is even being willing to suffer on account of the Gospel.
So, it is true. We go to church to be crucified. We bring our babies to the baptismal font so that this crucifixion can take place. In Baptism, we die and rise. Our sins are drowned. And we are raised righteous in Christ Jesus.
And what can we have in this life that’s better? Discipleship means we have eternal life, we are set free from our sin, and death is swallowed up in victory. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen