Questions from the Passion

Sunday, March 14, 2004

Rev. Ronald Burcham

Typed from audio transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

It was about two years ago that I came home one spring day to find something rather unusual had happened. I knew something was up when I pulled in the driveway and I looked and saw my wife talking on the phone, but she's staring down into the window well from one of our egress windows. I thought to myself, "Now that seems a rather strange posture to take." So I get out of the truck and I decide to walk over to investigate, meanwhile thinking in my mind, "What possibly could have happened? Did one of the kids break out the window to the basement? I'm going to be irritated at that one. Possibly, is the basement so flooded that water is now coming up out of the window? Oh, I'm really going to be upset over that one." Nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see. For as I walked over and peered into the window well, what did I see? A baby deer. A baby deer had fallen into our window well. Now we've had lots of things in the window well. We've had balls. We've had Frisbees. We've even had baby rabbits in the window well, but we've never had a baby deer. This was a new one for me. So I stand there staring at it a little bit dumbfounded, looking at this poor little thing squealing and kicking. And I had two concerns, (1) that it was okay, and (2) that it didn't bust out my window. I'm looking at it saying, "Okay." So I look at my wife, and she looks at me. She says, "Well, what do we do?" I said, "I don't know. I guess we should call someone." She said, "Well, I just called the Johnston Police Department. Evidently, this is something new to them, too. They'd never run across a baby deer in a window well." They said, "Well, maybe you should try the DNR." So we called up the DNR. Well, evidently, the DNR is not too concerned about animals unless you strike them with your car. Then they're right there, Johnny on the spot. But it's there in the window well. They said, "Well, maybe you should call the Police Department." Okay. One more call. We'll try the Police Department again. They decide we're bugging them enough. They'll dispatch somebody out to us. A few moments later, the officer arrives, and he and I stand there staring at the baby deer about 7 feet down. He looks at me. I look at him. "No getting it out, is there?" "No, I don't think so." He said, "Well, maybe if we put a ladder in there, it would climb out." I said, "I don't think deer know how to climb ladders. I don't think that's going to work." He stood there for a few more minutes and finally he says, "Well, I'm going in." I agreed. So he slowly lowered himself down into the window well.

You see, the fact of the matter is that little fawn was completely helpless. He fell in, but he couldn't get out. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how much he wanted to jump out, no matter how upset he got, there was absolutely, positively no way this little baby deer was going to jump out of that window well. Somebody had to go in and rescue him and take him out of that pit and put him up on level ground.

Did you catch what it said in Romans, the 5th Chapter? It said, "When we were completely helpless, Christ Jesus came at just the right time to die for our sins." When we were completely helpless, unable to do anything about our situation, unable to do anything about our standing with God and what separates us from God, at just the right moment, the Father dispatched the Son. At just the right moment, the Son said, "I'm going in." At just the right moment, the Son came into our world to save us because we couldn't save ourselves.

As much as that fawn was helpless, when it comes to our spiritual life, you and I are helpless. You see, it didn't matter how much that fawn wanted to get out, it couldn't. And that fawn landed in that window well just because of one mistake. That's all it took. One mistake. It wasn't a series of events that led up to it, but that fawn made one mistake. And that mistake was, when he was running, he didn't look and so he fell right into the window well. But that was it. In one sense, it didn't matter what he did after that. It didn't matter how careful he was after he fell into the window well. He was there, and there was no getting out.

It just took one event for you and I to be separated from God. Just one event. It wasn't a series of events. And, if you will, it doesn't matter how hard we try after it happened, that one event happened at the beginning of time. Almighty God created a perfect world, and He created a perfect universe. And in this perfect universe and on that perfect world, He created a perfect place and He created perfect people. Adam and Eve were sinless and holy, and they reflected all of God's glory back to Him. And God said to Adam and Eve, "Everything is yours. The whole place. You've got the run of it. Eat anything you want." He says, "You have dominion over nature and over the animals. Have a great time. But there's one thing I don't want you to do. Just one. There's a tree in the middle of the garden. You can eat anything else, but don't eat from that tree." And in this perfect world and in this paradise, Adam and Eve did the one thing that God asked them not to do. The one piece of fruit He asked them not to eat, that's what they did. And at that moment, it was all lost. At that moment, imperfection came in. You can't just overlook it, because no longer is the world perfect. Even if it's just one mistake, that's an imperfection and that means imperfection spread throughout the whole world and what that means is that you and I, when we're born into this world, we are born into an imperfect place and we are born imperfect people. We're born into a sinful world, and we are born in the condition of sin, forever separated from God. Because sin separates us from God. Since we are unholy, He who is holy, He who is holy can have nothing to do with us. Just one mistake, one event. And it forever changed history.

But before we get too down on Adam and Eve, we probably need to take a little bit of a look at our own life. James writes in his book, the 2nd Chapter, "You can keep the whole law but if you stumble at just one point, you've broken it all." There's not one of us here who can look up to God and say, "Except for that Adam and Eve thing, I'm sinless." In fact, there's not one of us here that can go a day without doing something we know in our heart is wrong, something we've said to somebody else, something we've done, something we've thought. And sin, that disobedience to God, those wrong things we do, separates us from God. And there's nothing we can do about it. We are that helpless.

You know, that fawn that was in the window well really wanted out. And it tried really hard to get out. It kicked at the sides of the window well. It even kicked at the window a couple of times, and it jumped with all that it had several times. And a couple of times, it made it about halfway up. One time, it looked like it almost made it about three-quarters of the way up. But you know what? It didn't matter. Unless that little fawn could jump completely out of that window well, all of the other attempts meant nothing and they counted for nothing. Because when he came up short, he went right back down to the bottom and that's where he stayed.

You and I are that completely helpless. We don't like to hear that. It goes against our grain. It goes against the way we want to think. But the fact of the matter is, no matter how good of a person we are, no matter how hard we try, it doesn't count for anything to get us out of the hole we're in. We can jump up three-quarters of the way but, if we don't make it out, it's all for naught. That goes against our way of thinking. Our way of thinking says that if you try hard, if you work at something, you can succeed. If you don't succeed, at least you get credit for trying. At least you sort of get an A for effort because you tried to have a moral life, because you were a nice person, because you maintained your ethics in business. That should count for something. But just as much as each one of those jumps didn't make any difference, it doesn't make any difference with our relationship with God. God says what He demands of us is perfection. That's how He created the place. He says, "Be perfect as I the Lord your God am perfect." That's the threshold. So either we can make it out of the window well or we can't. Either we're perfect or we're not. And we know we're not. And that means we're lost. If we're left to ourselves, if no one comes along to help us, we are lost.

That little fawn, if left to himself, did not have a bright future. Eventually, he would have tired himself out. But you and I know his fate. No water, no food. Eventually, that little guy would have perished.

You and I, left on our own in our relationship to God, will perish. God says that the wages of sin are death. Now God is not trying to be mean-spirited. God is not trying to be cruel to us and judgmental about us. But God is a just and a righteous God, which means that He is fair. And He lives according to His standards, the standards that He set out for everyone and so all people will be treated equally. God says, "Be holy. If you're not holy, the wages of sin are eternal death." That is, an eternal separation from God. And in His justness and in His righteousness, He has to say that decree. You and I also instinctively know that when you do something wrong, there is a payment that needs to be made. There's a punishment that needs to be endured. We know that just instinctively inside of us and so does God. And so God, recognizing that we were helpless, that we couldn't do anything about it and that we were lost, the Father dispatched the Son and the Son said, "I'm going in." And so the Son jumped into our world. The holy one of God, the eternal God, the Almighty God, took on flesh and blood and He became one of us. He became a human being just as you and I are human beings but with one exception. He did not have a human father, and He was not born with original sin. The exception of Jesus is He is the only human being that was perfect in God's sight, that although He came into a sinful world, He was sinless. He was holy. He was perfect. He kept all of God's commands… never made a mistake… ever a slipup… did everything the Father asked Him to do. And yet, Jesus said, "I'm going in." And He decided that He would take our place.

In 1 Corinthians, it says, "He who knew no sin became sin for us." But although Jesus was sinless, although He was the Son of God, He came into this world with one mission and that one mission was to take your place. The punishment that you deserve, Jesus says, "I'll take it." The sins that you've committed, Jesus says, "Blame me." That's what the cross is all about. When Jesus cried out, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" that was the punishment you and I should have had, of God forsaking us, of God turning His back on us. But God has never forsaken us. God has never turned His back on us. Instead, He chose to turn His back on His Son. He chose to forsake Him, to blame Him instead of us. There's nothing we could do about it, so God came in to do everything for us. Jesus came into this world to die for you. We read all the time, and we say all the time, "Jesus died for the sins of the world and He did." But this morning, I want you to know that Jesus died for you.

Some of you might be a little bit afraid at that statement, a bit fearful. Just like that little fawn. That little fawn, when the officer first came down into that window well, cowered off into the corner and was just shaking, didn't know what to do, was trying to kick at the officer. But pretty soon, it calmed down. When it did, the officer went around and just wrapped his arms around that little guy and picked him up.

Some people get a little bit afraid of God. They think that all God wants to do is condemn them, make them feel guilty. In fact, I'd suspect there are a number of you who started tuning me out about 5-7 minutes ago because you didn't want to hear that. You figured it's just a preacher up there doing his "hell and brimstone" kind of thing, and he's just going to make me feel guilty. It's not what it's about. It's not what Jesus is about.

There's the other kind of fear of people that say, "You know, I've done some really horrible things. And looking at my track record, there's no way God can love me." You're not going to let anyone else here know that, but you know it inside your heart, so your temptation is you're not going to hear the rest of what I have to say because you've convinced yourself that God couldn't love you, that God couldn't accept the things you've done in your life. And you're wrong. God did not come into our world to make us feel guilty. God came here to remove the guilt. And when God looks at you, He sees all the sin and He loves you anyway. Scripture says, "While we were yet sinners, Christ Jesus died for us." While we were unworthy, while we were helpless, while there was nothing about us that made us loveable, God came into our world and He loved us. And He loved us so much He wanted to die for us. He's not here to make you feel guilty. He's here to remove the guilt.

So this morning, make it personal. It isn't that Jesus came and died for the world. Jesus died for you. Don't just know it intellectually, to know that I've sinned and I need forgiveness and God has forgiven me and, therefore, everything's okay. Know it in the heart. Experience it in the heart. Know that Jesus knows you and He knows what you've done and He loves you and He died for you. You can't explain that kind of love. You can't intellectually understand that kind of love because it's unexplainable. We can even hardly comprehend it. But that's what God says to us. While we were still sinners, He died for us. Jesus died for you personally.

You know, after that officer picked up that fawn and held him in his arms, there was no way he could climb out of that window well. So he handed him to me. It was pretty cool, I have to tell you. Here I have this little baby deer in my arms. And by now, he's still shaking and he's still shivering but he's starting to calm down. But the one thing I noticed, as soon as he got up and he could look around and realize he wasn't trapped anymore, there was just one thing on his little mind. He wanted to go home. That's all he wanted to do. He wanted to go home.

My friends, this morning, let Jesus pick you up in His arms. Let Him lift you above this world in all of its trouble and all of its sin. Take a look around at what He's done. And you know what He says, "One day you can go home. You can go home and be with your Father in heaven." Because, yes, Jesus died for you. Amen.

Copyright 2004 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church