The Lutheran Hour
-
"What Will You Die For?"
- No Sermon MP3 No bonus material MP3
-
Text: Romans 6:8
-
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Those words, addressed to sinners, are the culmination of God’s ruthless love that wishes to take you from sadness to salvation, from horror to hope, from pain to paradise. Those words summarize God’s plan of salvation, which comes to sinners through the sacrifice of His own Son.
What would you be ready to die for? Answer that question about dying and you will find your priorities for living. I remember a story that a brother pastor told me many years ago. It was from a time before cars were equipped with air bags, seat belts, and child-seats weren’t even a dream. He had been driving home when he came upon an accident. The first thing he saw was a little girl, about five years old, covered in blood. It came from her mother. The little girl had hardly been scratched. Mother and daughter had been on a two-lane gravel road, when they were hit by a drunk driver who veered into their lane. In the last moment before the cars collided, in the final split second, when the mother knew avoiding the calamity was impossible, she had thrown herself across her daughter. It was the mother’s body that slammed into the car’s dashboard. It was the mother’s head that smashed into the windshield. It was a mother’s instinctual love that made her willing to give her all, even her life, so her daughter could be saved.
Loving sacrifice may show itself in a mother who throws herself between her daughter and the disaster of a car wreck. It may mean when a mother sees four pieces of pie and five people at the table, she must quickly confess, “I never did care much for pie, and anyway, I started my diet this morning.” When mothers look at their children, they see the future; they see possibilities; they see dreams; they see a chance to change the world for the better. And because of what they see in their children, many mothers would be ready to die.
But suppose we weren’t talking about someone as close to you as your own children–your own flesh and blood. For what would you be ready to die? Answer that question about dying and you will find your priorities for living.
Before World War II, when the Japanese were taking over China, the invaders were attacking a certain town. The Chinese had no tanks or any other weapons with which they could defend themselves. Rather than surrender, the loyal people of that town devised a plan. They took every kind of explosive they could find and tied those explosives around their bodies. As the Japanese advanced, the Chinese rushed upon them. The defenders were blown to bits, but so were some of their enemies. It was a sacrifice they were willing to make for their families, their town, their country. They made that sacrifice because they wanted to defend those precious things. What would you be ready to die for? Answer that question about dying and you will find your priorities for living.
I think Harold Kiner of Enid, Okla., had his answer. On October 2, 1944, Harold, with four other men, led a frontal assault against a German pillbox near Pallenberg, Germany. The Germans threw hand grenades at the GI’s, one of which landed between private Kiner and two of his comrades. Kiner threw himself upon the grenade, smothering the explosion. He gave his heart for theirs; his life for their lives; his future for their tomorrows. I have never been in battle, but those who have say the camaraderie which develops between those who daily face death, is a most rare and precious commodity. In such situations, a man might be ready to give up his life for a battlefield buddy. Would you?
But suppose we are not talking about a soldier’s kinship on bloody battlefields. For what would you be willing to die? Father Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish priest. Imprisoned for hiding Jews, he was sent to the Nazi camp at Auschwitz. In July 1941, a man from Kolbe’s bunker was imagined to have escaped. (The escaped prisoner was later found drowned in a camp latrine, so the reprisals were made without cause). The remaining men of the bunker were led out. “The fugitive has not been found!” commandant Karl Fritsch said sternly. “Ten of you will die for him in the starvation bunker.” Ten were selected, including a Polish resistance fighter. Hearing the news, he cried in anguish, “My poor wife! My poor children! What will they do?” Hearing his plea, Father Kolbe stepped forward, respectfully took off his cap before the commandant, and said to him, “I am a Catholic priest. Let me take his place. I am old. He is young. He has a wife and children.”
Kolbe’s offer was accepted. He was thrown into Building 13 and left there to starve. After two weeks only four of the 10 men were alive. But the cell was needed for more victims, so the camp executioner cleared the cell by injecting a lethal dose of carbolic acid into the arms of the four men. Would you, like Father Kolbe, have made that kind of sacrifice for a fellow prisoner? The answer isn’t coming as quickly, is it? If we had been residents of that barracks, we might have said, “I’m sorry for those who have been selected, but I’m glad I’m not one of them.”
For what would you be ready to die? Answer that question about dying and you will find your priorities for living. In January of 1978, Florida newspapers carried the story of James Michael Harper of Tampa. James was playing with his puppy on a train trestle over the Hillsborough River. The puppy got loose and James saw a train coming. He was determined to save his dog. He did. The dog was saved, but the train ran over James. No, James didn’t die but he lost both legs–for a puppy. What kind of love would motivate a boy to run such a risk of dying so a puppy might live? Would you do it? Be honest. Would you do it? No, of course you wouldn’t. If you had been there, you would have held James back. You would have stopped him. We’re sensible. We know that no dog, no matter how well trained, no matter how pure his bloodlines, is worth the legs or life of a boy. But James didn’t see it that way. James loved with a love that most of us cannot begin to understand. For him there was no “but” or “maybe” or “thinking it through.” With a ruthless love, James was ready to die for his dog.
Ruthless love–it may be a new concept to you. We can understand motherly love that makes endless sacrifices. We can comprehend a citizen’s willingness to sacrifice for his country and appreciate the camaraderie that exists between soldiers on a battlefield. We may even be able to understand why one prisoner would die for another. But to die for a dog? That’s hard for us to grasp. That kind of love is ruthless. Ruthless love sweeps to the side anything and everything that stands in the way of completion. It doesn’t count cost. It doesn’t ask questions. It doesn’t consider consequences. Ruthless love is single-minded in its purpose and cannot be diverted in its direction.
Would you like to know more about ruthless love? Listen to the words Paul wrote to the church in Rome: “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: ‘While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.'” That’s ruthless love. After the first six days of creation, our perfect God did a survey and said everything He had made was, well, perfect. The trees were perfect. The fish were perfect. The birds were perfect. The reptiles were perfect. The people were perfect. There was no asthma, cancer, colds, coughs, plague or malaria. There were no tears, sadness, loneliness, depression, or death. There were no oil spills, terrorists, child pornographers, drug dealers, floods or flat tires. All was as it was supposed to be. God’s verdict: It was all very, “very good” (Genesis 1:31).
You might say, “Hold on. The world isn’t that way today.” That’s because our first ancestors goofed. They sinned. God told them, “You can do pretty much anything you want, but don’t do this one thing.” Not surprisingly, they did the one thing they weren’t supposed to. Things changed–for the worse. Things no longer were very good. They went from perfect to pretty bad, to really bad, and, more often than not, impossibly bad. By the disobedience of our first ancestors, sin had entered into the world and death became as much a part of our inheritance as the strands of DNA in our cells. Every bit of injustice and inequity you have ever felt comes from that moment when humankind rejected God. Every bit of hatred and prejudice, pain and suffering, hurt and horror, you have ever experienced began at that second.
Sin had piled a plethora of penalties upon us. But imagine what sin did to God. He gave us perfection; we opted for pain. He offered knowledge; we elected ignorance. He gave us hope and happiness; we decided on horror and hatred. He extended a divine hand of Fatherhood and we slapped it away, spit in His face, turned our backs, and walked away. Who could blame Him if He did the same to us? He would have been right in doing so. It’s what we should have expected. But God loves His children with a ruthless kind of love. God didn’t allow our disobedient nature to determine what He was going to do. That’s why, beyond all reason and logic, God showed His love for us in that while we were sinners, He sent His Son to save us.
We’ve already talked about what you would die for. You might be willing to die for noble things, lasting things, applauded things, and appreciated things. You might be willing to die for family or country or compatriots. But God showed what He was willing to die for by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, into this world to live for, suffer for, die for, to be the sinners’ Savior. God showed His ruthless love for us by sending Jesus to be the sinners’ substitute. It’s not what you would do. It makes less sense than a boy running the risk of dying to save his dog, but that is what God has done. With ruthless love that swept aside His pride at being rejected and His loathing at our corruption, He gave up His Son to die for those who hated Him.
Look at every religion or philosophy this world promotes. You will discover God’s ruthless love is unique. Look as you will and you will find there are only two kinds of religions in the world. You can list every “ism,” every cult, every religion, every philosophy under one heading. They all say, “You must do this to please God.” Only Christianity says, “It is done by God’s Son.” Christ has shown God’s ruthless love by doing all that was needed for our salvation. And did we applaud Him? Did we thank Him? Was the voice of humanity raised in hallelujahs and hurrahs for this ruthless love? You judge.
Jesus entered this world to take our place in Bethlehem. The night He was born, no one was willing to open his home to provide Him shelter. The first night of His life among us was spent sleeping in an animal’s feed trough. While He was still an infant, His king tried to kill Him. When He began His ministry, He preached repentance and told about His Father’s ruthless love that wanted to give people hope in place of helplessness. Did He receive a standing ovation from those who heard? He did not. The people of the town where He grew up tried to kill Him. His own family, thinking He wasn’t playing with a full deck, tried to bring Him home. Jesus, with a ruthless love, kept on preaching.
“Of course,” you say, “the religious leaders would have been most appreciative. They knew that God, with ruthless love, promised to send His Son to die for them.” You might think that. But you would be wrong in your thinking. The religious leaders plotted against Him. They felt no man should upset the status quo (John 11:50). His own disciples deserted Him. One denied Him. One betrayed Him. In the last 24 hours of His life, He was sold for the price of a slave; He was beaten, whipped, lied about, spit upon, crowned with thorns and had to carry His cross. The very people He had come to save called for His death. Yet, Jesus would not be put off or pushed away. With a ruthless love, He continued on to death on the cross.
For what would you be willing to die? Certainly not this group. But God showed His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, while we still rejected Him, while we wanted nothing to do with Him, He, with a ruthless love that refused to be deterred by human sinfulness, wanted His Son to die for us. And so Jesus did. See Him hang upon the cross for you so the sins you have done might be gone; so your future might have hope; so you might be forgiven and learn to forgive. See Him rise from the dead and come out of His grave. See Him with His nail-pierced hands extended to you. His is a ruthless love that can and has swept aside sin, Satan, and death so you might never be alone again; lost again; fearful or hurting again. Christ shows a ruthless love that lets this world know God is willing to die for sinners. And because Jesus had this ruthless love, Christians live in a transformed world they haven’t made and give thanks for a salvation they couldn’t earn.
Do you remember at the beginning of this message, I talked about a mother who was willing to be injured so her child could be safe? If you had been that child, covered in your mother’s blood, how would you from that moment on have thought of her? Would you hold her in the highest regard? I know you would. Earlier, I talked about a Congressional Medal of Honor winner who threw himself on a hand grenade to save his companions. If you had been one of his pals, how would you have lived the rest of your life? Would you not give thanks each day for the man who had given you that day? You could do no less. I shared the story of Father Kolbe, the Polish priest, who was willing to die for a man so he might be reunited with his family. I can tell you the man for whom Kolbe died spent the rest of his life shouting the praises of his earthly savior. You would have done the same. Loyalty and love would demand it. But the dog for whom the boy lost his legs–well, he remained a dog; unchanged, unmoved and unappreciative of the sacrifice his master had made for him. It wasn’t in him to be or do anything different.
Sadly, I am forced to say people of the world, without faith, like that dog, remain unchanged, unmoved and unappreciative of the sacrifice the Savior made for them. People of the world without faith cannot understand. They remain as they were, living as if nothing had happened, as if no sacrifice had been made. Without Jesus, one day passes as the next. Without Jesus, each day is hollow and devoid of eternal possibilities. Is that your life? Listeners, readers, friends, Christ lived and died so your days and eternity could be different. See Jesus for what He has done. Like the mother in our story, He put Himself between you and death. Like the soldier, He gave His life so you might live. Like Father Kolbe, He volunteered to die the death that was yours.
For what was Jesus willing to die? He died to save you. God showed His love for you while you were yet a sinner. Jesus died for you so you could live. Believe it. Appreciate it. Stand in awe of such a ruthless, selfless, sacrificing love. Embrace it, hold fast to it, and rely on it. If you want to know more about this Savior, we stand ready to help you. Lutheran Hour Ministries wants you to know there is someone who thought you were worth dying for. Lutheran Hour Ministries wants you to know there is a Savior worth living for. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for March 16, 2003
ANNOUNCER: For more on the subject of “saving faith,” I’m Mark Eischer here once again with Pastor Ken Klaus. Pastor Klaus, you said when it comes to our salvation, Christianity is unique among all the other religions of the world. It is unique because it teaches that we can’t do anything to merit or earn salvation. Instead, we need to believe Jesus has done it all for us. You believe that. I believe that. But what about all those people who lived before Jesus was even born? Did they have a different kind of saving faith? Does God maybe have different deals for different groups of people at different times?
KLAUS: That, my friend, is an interesting question. I’ve thought about it a little bit. Let me answer it this way: No.
ANNOUNCER: In other words, no differences.
KLAUS: Well, there is a difference. It’s a difference in perspective. In the Old Testament, the people were looking forward to the fulfillment of the promise of a Savior God had made to them. They didn’t necessarily understand everything He was going to do. They certainly didn’t know all the details of His life or exactly the moment when He would come. But this promised Messiah was still the focus of their faith. To help them keep that focus, the Lord told them to sacrifice a lamb once a year around Passover time. That lamb was to remind them of the Lamb that was going to come and die to take away their sins, once and for all. In the New Testament, we have more information but the focus is still on Jesus, who fulfilled the Law. He is the One sacrifice. He is the Lamb of God who has taken away our sins (Hebrews 10:10).
ANNOUNCER: So nowadays, we don’t have to make sacrifices any more.
KLAUS: Certainly not in that way.
ANNOUNCER: Right now, we are in the season called Lent. Lent is a time for reflection and repentance. Some people give up certain things for Lent. Many of them think they are doing this and making some sort of a sacrifice. Do we have to give things up during Lent?
KLAUS: Repentance for what we have done wrong before God, and thanksgiving for what He has done right for us, is appropriate at any time of year. If someone wishes to deepen his appreciation of Jesus’ sacrifice by giving up something, I certainly would have no objection. That’s a gift of the heart that the Lord appreciates. But no one should think they can make a sacrifice that will make them more acceptable to God. That kind of “bridging the gap” only comes through saving faith by the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
ANNOUNCER: Last question. How does a person receive or obtain this saving faith in Jesus?
KLAUS: That’s an easy one. Martin Luther, hundreds of years ago, said it a lot better than I ever could. In the meaning of the 3rd article in the Small Catechism, he wrote, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” We get saving faith because the Holy Spirit gives it to us. He may use the Word of God. He may use the Sacraments, but they always come at God’s urging and call.
ANNOUNCER: That prompts another question.
KLAUS: Wasn’t the last question supposed to be the last question?
ANNOUNCER: It was, but this question is the new last question. Doesn’t God want everyone to have this saving faith?
KLAUS: And, my friend, for your last, last question, here’s a new last answer. It comes from 1 Timothy 2:4 where Paul wrote: “God . . . wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. With that we come to the end of our broadcast for another week. The next Lutheran Hour message is titled, “Stumbling Over the Savior.”