The Lord--Your God

 

Jesu Juva

Exodus 20:1-17                                                 

March 3, 2024

Lent 3B                                 

 Dear saints of our Savior~

        The Ten Commandments are on the table today, which is always a good thing.  Most Christians have something of a love/hate relationship with the Ten Commandments.  On the one hand, God gives us these commandments because He loves us.  The law of God is good and wise.  But on the other hand, the Law always accuses.  The Law always shows us our sin.  The Law takes no prisoners.

        For all the mixed feelings they generate, the Ten Commandments haven’t changed at all over thousands of years.  They have always been, if nothing else, a solid point of reference for God’s people.  They help us get our bearings in a complicated, fallen world.

        When I was on sabbatical in Germany a few years back, getting my bearings was a constant challenge.  Especially when I was on the move from city to city, I would wake up every morning asking the all-important question: Where am I?  Or when I emerged from a dark, underground subway station into the bright Berlin sunshine, it took a minute to get oriented—to get my bearings—to know which direction to start walking. But with the right navigation tools I knew where I was; I knew where I had been; and I knew where I was going.

        The Ten Commandments serve a similar purpose in the Christian’s life.  These Commandments—and especially that all-encompassing First Commandment—serve as a kind of spiritual GPS as we travel along life’s way.  They provide a center of gravity—a solid reference point—for us.  With one simple sentence—You shall have no other gods—God simultaneously shows us both the way we should be going and just how far we have strayed from that way.

        The Ten Commandments are utterly dependable and reliable because, as Moses makes clear, “God spoke all these words.”  Moses was just the tablet-toting messenger.  God spoke all these words.  No judge, no legislature, no congress crafted the Ten Commandments.  They are God’s own words.  They still hold and apply to us today.  No statute of limitations.  No sunset clause.  No expiration date. 

        Jesus fulfilled God’s law; but He didn’t abolish it.  If anything, Jesus took the Ten Commandments and sharpened them.  He brought them to bear on human conduct at the very deepest level.  Avoiding adultery, for instance, is much more than just avoiding sexual intercourse with the wrong person; for Jesus tells us that even our private thoughts must be pure and chaste.  Avoiding murder is much more than just refraining from plunging a knife into my neighbor’s back; for Jesus tells us that even hateful thoughts are a form of murder.

        It’s that First Commandment, however, that really gives us our bearings:  You shall have no other gods before me.  Don’t think for a second that this is simply God beating His own drum—declaring Himself to be the “big cheese” who needs to be catered and kowtowed to.  When He says that He’s number one, it isn’t for His own sake.  It’s for our sake!  Only He can be God for us. No created thing can take His place and pull it off.  As His creatures, our life and success can only come from Him.  There are no alternatives.  We are either walking according to His plan, trusting Him above all else, measuring and evaluating every step against this divine point of reference, OR we are dangerously distancing ourselves from the one, true God.

        Unlike every other god, the true God—the giver of these Commandments—He’s not a tyrant who wants to enslave you.  He allows for the option of rejection. You can love Him . . . or leave Him.  But if we persistently orient our lives to do without God—if we chart our own selfish, self-centered course—the Lord will finally say, “Have it your way then.  As you wish”—which, ultimately, means hell.

        Time doesn’t allow us to explore all Ten Commandments in one sermon.  You can be thankful for that.  Such a sermon would likely leave you feeling more than a little depressed.  For, the truth is, your commandment-keeping has been a colossal failure.  Your performance has been pathetic.  You have not measured up to God’s standards of holiness, and you never will.  God have mercy on me, a sinner.

        But for a bit of good news, consider this question: Why did God wait as long as He did to give His people these commandments?  Today’s text is from Exodus chapter 20—which puts us about seventy chapters into the Old Testament—perhaps seven centuries past the call of Abraham.  Why did God wait so long to write down the rules?  In many ways, God’s timing tells the whole story here.  There’s one simple sentence we dare not overlook.  For the Decalogue doesn’t begin with the words “You shall” or “You shall not.”  No, it begins with the words “I am—I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

        What took the Lord so long to scribble out those commandments?  Why the divine delay?  He first of all had to baptize a people for Himself in the waters of the Red Sea.  He first of all had to save and deliver His people from slavery and death—without any merit or worthiness in them.  Because only then—only after they could look back and see Pharaoh’s horses and chariots washed away forever under the waves of the Red Sea—only then could they know that this God . . . was their God.  Only then could they believe Him and trust Him—fear Him and love Him.  Only then could they see that the relationship with their God was ultimately governed by grace and mercy and love.  The commandments didn’t come first.  First, God acted.  God saved.  God delivered.  God rescued.

        Only then could the Israelites know that they were loved by this God.  And only in that love could they find a solid center of gravity—a reference point for life.  Only then could they understand that the words which followed—the Ten Commandments—were not just rules for the sake of rules—or rules by which to earn God’s acceptance.  They already had God’s acceptance.  No, these commandments were given in love.  It’s the very same reason God has given you these Ten Commandments:  Because He loves you.  He is your God.  You can believe Him and trust Him.  He has washed you and made you His own—not with Red Sea waters—but in the tide that flows from the pierced side of His beloved Son, Jesus the Christ.

        Israel knew her God because of what happened at the Red Sea; and you know your God because of what happened at Calvary.  How do we know that God is for us and not against us?  How do we know that His rule is one of grace and mercy and love?  We see it at Calvary.  There He makes it clear that He is your God, who has rescued and delivered you from sin and death.

        We’ve made a royal mess of God’s commandments; so God has sent His royal Son into the midst of our mess.  He is like us in every way—yet without sin.  And although His commandment-keeping was perfect, yet He takes your sin and He answers for it.  He takes your death and overcomes it.  All this He did for you, so that you might know Him by faith as your God—the God who forgives you, the God who makes Himself your brother, and who gives your life eternal meaning and significance.

        He is God; we are not.  You shall have no other gods.  He’s number one.  What He gives and says goes.  But we’re often reluctant to let Him have the final say.  We all have our personal idols that we like to bring into the conversation—to get a “broader perspective” on things.  But be careful relying on your idols.  God is in the idol-destroying business.  And when He’s through with you, He may just leave you with nothing—with nobody at all to rely on—but Him alone. 

        That’s the sort of love He shows to all of us from time to time.  And this is good.  For when He cleanses us of our other gods—when He cleanses us of all our attempts to play God—well then, what we are left with is the true God—the God in the manger and the God on the cross—a God you can rely on and love—a God you can touch—a God from whose nail-scarred hands we are given life that lasts forever.

        Week after week the people of God gather right here.  This church is a solid reference point for you—a place where you get your bearings—where you get reoriented to the Savior at the center of our universe.  In the Divine Service we take our place here in God’s throne room—with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.  We first remember the relationship we have with God—the one He forged—with the invocation: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  And that, my friends, is a solid point of reference—a very good place to be. 

        Here in God’s presence, we get things sorted out.  We see clearly where we’ve been and where we’re going.  We confess and get rid of everything that has gotten in the way—every idol, every false god, every sin.  We confess it all and ask forgiveness.  And that forgiveness is given in the name of Jesus.  Here we drink deeply from His Word.  We are fed from His altar.  We respond with prayers and praises.  And then we go back outside to the callings He has given us. 

        But as we take our leave from here, we have our bearings. By God’s grace, we know where we’re going. We know that one day we shall emerge from this dark land of shadows into the bright light of God’s presence.  No navigation tool can get you there; but that’s okay.  You know the way.  Just follow Jesus.

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.