March 1, 2023 Text:  John 13:21-30

Dear Friends in Christ,

King David’s life was filled with more drama than Game of Thrones.  One of his confidants was his nephew Joab.  Joab was fiercely loyal to David when he sent Uriah to the front to be killed so that David could marry Bathsheba.  This loyalty took a U-turn when Joab backed Adonijah instead of Solomon to succeed David as king.  David lamented betrayal when he wrote in Psalm 41, “Even my close friend, someone I trusted, who shared my bread, has turned against me.”

Is there anything that hurts more than betrayal?  We might expect office politics or someone to slam the door when canvassing the neighborhood, but we expect loyalty from our friends.  That is why they are our friends.  If a friend shares a secret, manipulates a situation or steals a spouse, the betrayal burns like the sun.

David wasn’t the first person to be betrayed and he won’t be the last.  Like Joab, Judas was close to Jesus.  He was part of the inner circle.  He broke bread with Jesus. . . and Judas lifted up his . . .

“HANDS OF BETRAYAL”

Since the 1940’s nobody names their child Adolph.  Since biblical times nobody names their kid Judas.  Was Judas instinctively evil from the womb?  Why would he do this to Jesus?  He was evil from the womb but just like we are, and Andrew was or Philip was.  Jesus called 12 sinful men to follow and to serve.  

We know from earlier in the Book of John that Judas was a thief.  As the keeper of the money bag, he took for himself instead of giving the money to the poor.

This love of money was just what Satan needed to get him to change teams.  “You’ve already stolen, how about 30 pieces of silver to hand over Jesus?”  His greed unrepented and unchecked corroded his soul over time, and eventually put Judas’ betraying hands at the table.

Betrayal hurts because it is personal.  Judas’ double life even fooled the other eleven disciples.  They didn’t see the greedy darkness in his heart.  But Jesus knew.  “One of you is going to betray me.”

For many of us when we get together for Thanksgiving or Christmas, we check our baggage at the door.  No politics, no news that we might see differently.  Husband and wife put on the happy face even if a fight occurred the night before.  Siblings clean up their act.  There are certain expectations, and it is a celebration after all.  Jesus is with his disciples having a celebration.  His accusation of a betrayer brings tension.  These men get defensive.  They deny.  They deflect.

My family has seen this tension.  People fought and stormed off to their rooms.  There was silence.  Nobody knew what to do.  Our family of four will never forget that incident.  It made everything uncomfortable.

That is what the disciples experienced.  Tension.  Uncomfortable.  In Matthew it says they “stared at one another.”  Jesus gave no names.  He gave only a clue – “One of you will betray me.”  That set off all kinds of thoughts.  “Is it me?”  “What does he see in my heart?”  “Am I capable of this?” 

Well, are you?  What secret sins are you hiding?  Ever sold-out Jesus for money?  Is there something unrepentant in your life that it is corroding your soul?  Greed?  What is the devil waving in your face?  We are all capable of any sin, if left unchecked or unaddressed.  

As the accusation hung in the air, they are all scrambling to avoid blame.  Peter wants John to ask Jesus who He is talking about.  “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread, when I have dipped it.”  Jesus had exercised pastoral care with Judas throughout these three years.  Now He is trying to jar his conscience by calling him out publicly.  He is trying to encourage repentance in Judas.  It is too late.  The public shame will not change his heart.  His hands except the morsel and the betrayal is set.

Judas would go ahead and identify Jesus with a kiss.  It must have hurt.  Jesus went to the cross and uttered these words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  God treated Christ as though He had committed Judas betrayal, as though He had turned traitor like Joab.  God banished Christ to suffer hell’s punishment for our greed, our self-righteousness, and for every secret sin we insist on hiding.  They have been punished in full.  They have been paid in full.  “By his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

How could Jesus love Judas?  Well, He did love him and did forgive him.  Judas thought Jesus would return the betrayal.  In an act of unbelieving despair, Judas took his own life.  The Gospel teaches that God doesn’t betray sinners; instead He turned His back on His Son.  He reconciled the world.  Banish the thought that God will banish us for our sins, and don’t let Satan or anyone else convince you otherwise.  God made peace with man in Christ.  Ask not how God could love and forgive a traitor like Judas.  Ask “How could God love and forgive a traitor like me?”  In Christ alone.

Amen.             

February 26, 2023             Text:  Genesis 3:1-21

Dear Friends in Christ,

Back in 2020, a new board game hit the shelves.  It was created by Jeopardy champion and now host Ken Jennings, along with well-known game designer Richard Garfield.  The game gives you a category like, “World record holders weighing over one ton,” or “Queens of Egypt.”  It lists six possible answers.  Three are correct, three are wrong.  The name of the game?  Half Truth.  I love trivia games and it sounds like an enjoyable evening.  Want to join in playing the game of Half Truth?

Don’t we already play the game of half-truth quite consistently?  It is not a fun party game.  It is you and I trying to level the playing field of our sinful lives by offering half-truths about what we are doing.  It is not a game by Hasbro or Milton Bradley.  It is Satan’s game.  It doesn’t bring smiles and witty banter, but tears and heartache.

The devil is quite clever in our text for today.  He is spewing half-truths.  But if we lay all the blame on him, that is only a half-truth.  Eve and Adam give in to the half-truths.  We thank God for His truth in keeping his promise that day in the garden to send a Savior for our sins.  

“SAVED FROM OUR HALF-TRUTHS”

We try to cover our sin with half-truths.  “Lord, I know I messed up with those words I used back there, but look at all the other good I have done today.  I opened a door for a fellow citizen, gave my wife some love and read my devotion this morning.”  We try to compensate for our shortcomings.  God must really be impressed, isn’t He?  We try to cover our backsides just like Adam and Eve did with their fig leaves.  “Who told you were naked?”

Instead of compensating maybe we look for the easy mark.  “She had it coming, she is so difficult to get along with.”  Who me?  We start redefining our relationships as adversarial, like Adam did with his wife.  He doesn’t just blame Eve, he blames His Creator, “The woman whom you gave to be with me.”  

Here is where we have a hard time handling the truth.  As with the first man and woman, our intimate knowledge of evil brings shame of which we cannot overcome.  You’ve felt that shame, haven’t you?  Red-faced, tense, knowing what you did.  It hurts.  We can’t fool God by trying the end around play where someone else is responsible.  “Must have been my brother, he is always getting into things.”

Our half-truths leave us crying, “Officer, I know I was speeding but I’m late for my massage.”  Our half-truths leave us indignant, “Come on, do you really think I would do that to you?”  Our half-truths leave us in pity, “I’ve had a hard day.  I’m tired.  I’m sick.”  Our half-truths leave us seeking new prey, “Who can I tell on to get me out of this one.”  We can be quite pathetic at times, can’t we?  Do you think God had the same thoughts about two people who had the whole earth and couldn’t get along?

We need someone to cover our half-truths.  How about the Truth Incarnate – Jesus Christ?  Yes, we need the whole truth of Jesus who is going to cover our sin by taking the full responsibility of our sin.  He is going to crush the serpent’s head.  Christ was crushed on the cross for us.  He truly paid the whole price to compensate.  He covers our shame with Himself.  Come out from behind the couch.  The Lord forgives our blame and our excuses and our pity and our fake emotions.  He does it because we are His.

His own Adam and Eve received the same cover for their half-truths.  In verse 21, “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”  He clothed and covered them, and men and women have been covered and clothed ever since.

This Whole Truth brings life.  Like Adam and Eve, we have to leave the garden, but life comes in Christ.  Amid death that would now come into the world because of these half-truths, the promise of life comes through the first female – Eve – “the mother of all the living.”  Amid death, the promise of unending life will come through the seed of the woman.  

For now, then, the life we lead is a life of repentance.  I have an inkling our half-truths aren’t over just because we heard them in a sermon.  Daily we need the Lord’s cleansing.  Daily we need the covering of His righteousness.  The Truth Incarnate works faith in us so that we know we have life.  Forgiving life, sanctified life, life eternal.

Telling half-truths might be a fun game to play but it won’t get us any closer to life.  Only Truth can bring life.  Only Jesus in the flesh is the Whole Truth.  That is the right answer.  Please advance to the heavenly kingdom.

Amen.