The Lutheran Hour
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"The Abundant Life"
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Text: John 10:10
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! In a world where thieves come to steal, kill, and destroy the peace and happiness of humankind, the living Lord Jesus stands as our protector and friend. May all who meet His sacrifice be brought to faith in Him who gives life and gives it abundantly. God grant such faith to us all. Amen.
Jesus said it, “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.” The Savior was right in what He said, of course; but a person might be almost as right if he said, “There are some very, very bad thieves out there.” For example, there was the thief in Anaheim, California, who tried to hold up a bank. His plan might have worked, but the bank had been shut down and the only people who were in the building were the ones moving out the furniture. Yes, there are some bad thieves. I assume you’ve heard about the thief whose getaway took him on a route where he bumped into his mother? She knew what her little boy was up to and she turned him in. You know, if your own sweet mother is going to turn you over to the police, it’s time to start looking for an honest job.
Jesus said, “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy,” but some of these thieves just aren’t any good at it. In Kentucky, two men tried to pull the front off an automatic teller machine by attaching a chain from their truck’s bumper to the front panel of the machine. Instead of pulling the front panel off the machine, they ripped the bumper off their truck. Scared, they left the scene of their crime and drove home, leaving the chain attached to the machine – and their bumper attached to the chain – and the truck’s license plate attached to the bumper.
Those fellows aren’t very bright, but they don’t take first prize. In New York City, a thief got himself really psyched up for his next robbery. Thirty-three year old Jermaine Washington was so focused on robbing someone – anyone – that he didn’t bother to take a look at his victims. Without looking, or thinking, he pulled a fake handgun on the two armed police officers as they walked through Riverside Park – two armed police officers who were in uniform. After Washington allegedly pulled his fake gun, the two officers responded by drawing their real guns and Washington surrendered. It was the only smart thing he did all day.
Some criminals just aren’t very bright, Should I go on? Should I talk about the crooks who broke into a Dallas store which sells expensive security equipment? Their robbery was caught on tape by no less than 17 video cameras hidden throughout the store. The store owners also gave the police a photo of the crooks’ getaway car. The store’s outside security camera had managed to get a good shot of the vehicle and its license plate number. There’s a bunch of not very bright criminals out there. There’s the criminal who stole a car, drove it into a ditch, got stuck, and then flagged down a patrolman to pull him out. There’s the man who went into a drug store, pulled a gun, announced a robbery, and then, when the robbery was well on its way, yanked a Hefty-bag over his face to hide his identity. Silly? You bet. But it gets sillier – he hadn’t cut any eyeholes in the bag to let him see where he was going.
I could tell of the not-very-smart, albeit skinny, thief who managed to squeeze his way through a miniscule basement window at a bank; cut himself when he wiggled through. Then at almost the same moment the not-very-bright thief realized three things: first, he realized he couldn’t get to the money from the bank basement. Second, he realized he couldn’t climb back out of the same window through which he had come; and third, he realized he was bleeding pretty badly. He ended up calling “911” to get some help.
Of course, not all thieves are silly, stupid, or dumb. Not all thieves are good for a belly laugh or to have their stories told for your amusement. There are some very good thieves out there – smart, shifty, sneaky thieves who are so skilled, so successful they almost always manage to get away. There are spiritual thieves out there. Thieves like sin and Satan who consider it their job to steal souls; to kill faith; to destroy hope, happiness, and heaven for the people Jesus came to save.
Like most successful crooks, these shoplifters of souls make it their job to study on how they can best accomplish their purposes, or how they might succeed with their plans. They are willing to spend days, weeks, even decades studying you, casing your soft spots, defining your weaknesses. Do you remember when somebody in kindergarten made fun of your hand-me-down clothes? The thieves were watching on how you reacted. Do you remember when someone broke your heart? What did you do? You may not remember, but they do. They keep a very accurate, very complete file on you.
Do you recall the times you were tempted to steal, to lie, to ruin someone else’s reputation? Can you think back on all the times you acted less than admirably; they do. They know when you say swear words and when you think them. They know when you lust physically and when you lust in your heart. Even though you may pretend to be nice to others, they’ve got a pretty good idea when you’re acting. They’ve studied you; they know you. They have recorded how you responded to the death of someone you loved, or how you have treated those whom you might think are inferior to you. They know if you lose your temper in traffic, or if you speed when you think the police are taking a break. They know. They know you. They know your weaknesses, your fears, your pride; and they know what to throw on your path to make you slip, stumble, tumble, and fall.
They know how to be patient, to wait until that particular moment when they can do you in. That’s when they make their move. That’s when they blindside you. They hit you unaware. When you’re not looking, that’s when they sneak up on you and mess with your mind, your heart, your soul.
Years ago there was a Chicago boy named Walter Elias. Although he had been born in the city, one day his parents moved to the country – to try their hand at farming. It wasn’t a bad move. For a boy like Walter, a boy with a great imagination, the farm was the perfect spot to get in touch with dreams and possibilities. One day, as he walked through the apple orchard of his farm, Walt was shocked to see an owl – an owl who was sitting, sleeping on a tree branch. He remembered what his father had told him about owls – about how they rested during the day and hunted through the night. Walter remembered a lot of things of what his dad had told him about owls. And then Walter had an idea of his own: he would make this owl his very own personal pet. Quietly, silently, avoiding cracking twigs and rustling leaves, Walter crept up. The owl never heard the boy; he never noticed when the lad stopped beneath him.
Walter slowly reached up and grabbed the owl by the legs. Gently, firmly, his hands closed. And then, in a rush, without any warning, the air around Walter’s head was filled with shrieks and colored by a blur of feathers. The owl responded violently to Walter. The more the owl struggled, the harder Walter held on. The owl got in a few wing-strikes and terrified, Walter threw the owl to the ground. Then Walter stomped on the bird. Killed it. The struggle was over and things became silent and still. Walter looked at the dead bird and he began to cry. He ran back to the barn, grabbed a spade, and buried the owl underneath those apple trees.
Now you may think, “What a horrid little boy.” Whatever you may think, Walter thought worse. His nights were filled with dreams of that owl. That bird haunted him. Years passed, but Walter’s remembering of what happened in the apple orchard remained with him. It affected him. It changed him. It could have destroyed him. The thieves had waited until the right moment and then they acted without kindness or compassion, without hesitation or let-up. The thieves came into the boy’s life. They came to kill, to steal, to destroy a boy’s peace.
Which leads me to ask: How have the thieves come to you? Think back. Take your time. You didn’t always feel as you do now, did you? There was a time when you felt pretty good about things, about yourself, about your future, about love, about where your life was going. Then something happened. Maybe a series of somethings happened. Did the thief come to you as a two-faced friend who said one thing to you and something quite different to others? Did the thief come as a promise broken or a dream shattered? There are men and women listening to this message who have never talked to anyone about the thieves who have touched their hearts. A relative, someone who should have been safe, who should have been your protector, took advantage of your naiveté, your innocence, and made your life a bitter thing.
How has your thief come? Is your thief a public figure who proved himself to be a sinner and not the saint his campaign promises indicated? How has your thief come? Did he come because of some indescribable evil which arose from within your own sin-blackened heart or your covetous mind? How has he come? Please don’t dismiss me and say he hasn’t. You know he has. He has come into your life to kill, to steal, to destroy. And although you may have survived, at least until now, you know your life is a poor thing, a pale shadow of what you once hoped it would be.
The thief has come. That is the terrible tragedy of this wicked world. Sin, Satan, and death all come and rob us of our hope; murder our dreams; destroy our peace. The thief has come. Truly this would be a sad, sorrowful sermon if we ended with the arrival of these thieves. But it does not end here for there is more, much more, to tell. Today, by the grace of God I can share that Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, the Redeemer of the world, has also come. Your Savior from sin, your defeater of death, your subjugator of Satan, has come so you might have life and have it abundantly. That is what Jesus said about Himself: “I have come so they might have life and have it to the full.”
The presence of Jesus makes all the difference, means all the difference to us – we who have found ourselves taken advantage of by humanity’s arch-villains. “I have come so they might have life and have it to the full.” Those are bold words, brave words, but are they true words? You who have been burned so badly and completely in the past are understandably skeptical, cynical of the Christ’s commitment and promise. You are not so ready to be taken advantage of again; you are not overly eager to risk your heart, your mind, your eternal destiny – not without assurance, some guarantee that Jesus is different.
I do not fault you for your reluctance or hesitation. On the contrary, I welcome your challenge. The question which calls for an answer is this: Can Jesus give life, a full, complete life? If that is your question, here is the answer: Yes, Jesus can do this and He can do more! “Oh, pastor, that’s just your opinion, isn’t it?” No, not at all. It is the truth of Scripture. Let me introduce you to a man – Matthew is his name, collecting taxes is his game. Because he is one of those men who worked for a foreign government and gouged his own countrymen, he was hated, despised, not allowed to associate with respectable citizens. One day Jesus stopped at Matthew’s table and said, “Follow Me.” Matthew did and he received a new life – a life of forgiveness which saw him received into the Christian community and adopted into God’s family of faith. Here is another man, a man possessed by demons. He has been driven from his home, family, friends, and lives in a cemetery. He is dangerous, frightening; and he is alone. His days would have ended that way if it had not been for the day he met the Savior. Within moments the Savior made him healthy and whole; and by the end of the day, able to return to his family. Jesus had kept his promise to give the man life and give it to the full.
Over there you can see some lepers, actually ten ex-lepers. They once had a disease considered to be so vile, so contagious, they had been sent away from wives, children, church, and society. Special laws had governed their existence: they must wear rags; they must not get close to others; they must call out “unclean” if someone approached them. They were doomed to die slowly; they were doomed to die alone. They had no hope. The thieves had come and taken everything from these men except for black days and darker nights. Lonely lostness would have been their fate if Jesus had not healed them, restored them, given them life and given it to them in fullest measure.
Walk with me through Scripture. Meet a woman, a widow. She is in mourning. Her only son has died. She is, with her friends, on the way to bury this boy who was her pride, her future. Scripture relates how Jesus met the funeral procession, stopped it, brought the young man back to life and gave him back to his mother. Look there! There on a skull-shaped hill is a special case, a unique situation. Crucified by Jesus’ side is a man. He is a thief by trade, but he remains an amateur when he is compared to the thieves which have destroyed his life. Condemned to death, the man has but a few short hours to live. If ever a person has faced a hopeless future, it must be him. Listen as he speaks. He confesses his wrongdoing and proclaims the innocence of Jesus. Then he turns and says, “Remember me when You enter Your kingdom.” And to this hopeless, helpless, dying criminal Jesus speaks, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” The man died, but he died rich. His last moments on the cross had an abundance his entire life had lacked.
The entire New Testament is filled with such stories. When John the Baptist languished in prison; when death seemed near, he sent emissaries to ask Jesus, “Are You the One we’ve been looking for, or should we keep on looking?” John’s request for reassurance, like yours, is a reasonable one. To John’s question, Jesus gives this answer, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.” Jesus was saying, “John, I have come so you may have life and have it to the full.”
It is the same thing he says to each of us, if we will only hear Him. Do you remember the little boy, Walter Elias, the lad I talked about earlier in this message – the lad who killed the owl? Do you remember how we left him? The thieves had used that single event to haunt the young boy, to rob him of sleep, to point a gnarled finger of guilt at his heart, his conscience, his life. They came to kill, to steal, to destroy. But Walter, because of his parents, also knew Jesus. I will not say the Lord appeared to Walter on some country road and they had a miraculous talk. No such event was ever mentioned or recorded. But I can tell you the Lord didn’t let the thieves have the final word in Walter’s life. Yes, the event changed Walter. As an old man, Walter confessed he never killed anything ever again. But Walter was changed in more ways than this. Walter’s mind started to think of animals differently. His fertile imagination gave them personalities and character; his pen brought them to life. By God’s grace, Walter Elias, who changed his name to Walt Disney, was forgiven and redeemed by the Lord from his pit of despair. By God’s grace, Walter was given an abundant life, a full life, a life so full it spilled over and has touched our lives as well. By God’s grace, a forgiven Walt Disney was able to give birth to Mickey and Donald and Goofy and a whole world of cartoon characters. Yes, I know in recent years the Disney empire has been criticized for many things. Whether there is truth to those criticisms, I cannot say. I can say God took a guilty conscience and through His Son gave forgiveness and a full life to Walt Disney.
And He will do the same for anyone who will acknowledge Jesus as Savior. Jesus, who kept the laws we have broken, offers forgiveness; Jesus, who resisted the devil’s temptations to which we have succumbed, offers hope that tomorrow in Him will be different. Jesus, who conquered death, has offered powerful, positive proof that with faith in Him, our time, our lives will be blessed. When He says, “The thieves come only to kill, and steal, and destroy,” you can believe Him. But you can also believe Him when He says, “I have come to give My life as a ransom for you.” You can trust Him when He says, “I have come to seek and save the lost.” You can hold fast to the confidence of Scripture which says: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through our Lord and Savior, Jesus.” A crucified Christ, a risen Lord, will keep this promise to you. Believe Him when He says “I have come so you might have life, a full life, in this world and the next.” If you need to know more of this Savior whose blood forgives your sins and restores your days, please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for April 13, 2008
Topic: The Savior of All?ANNOUNCER: Now, Pastor Ken Klaus answers questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer. Pastor, a listener is confused by a story in the New Testament where Jesus is approached by a non-Jewish woman who needs His help. But Jesus, in effect, tells her, “Well, why should I help you? You’re not one of My people.” The idea here seems to be that Jesus had originally come only to save the Jews but after they rejected Him as their Messiah only then did He offer salvation to anyone else who would believe in Him.
KLAUS: The simple answer is, “No, Jesus wasn’t only interested in saving the Jews.” The story we’re talking about is found in Matthew 15. Jesus was met one day by a woman who hailed from the Greek cities which had once been run by the enemies of the Jews. She was not of Jewish faith or descent as far as we can tell. When she asked Jesus to help her demon-possessed daughter, He replied, “I’ve only been sent to the lost sheep of Israel.” She persisted, however, and Jesus further tested her faith by saying, “It’s not right to take the children’s food and give it to the dogs.” The woman showed her mettle in her reply. She said, “That’s true Lord, but even the dogs get to eat food which falls from the household table.” Jesus commended her faith and He healed her daughter.
ANNOUNCER: In fact, doesn’t it say He marveled and said He had not found such faith in all of Israel? She even put His disciples to shame!
KLAUS: If I may, Mark, I’d like to point out something Jesus said, but you missed in your question.
ANNOUNCER: What was that?
KLAUS: Jesus said He had come for the “lost” sheep of Israel. At that moment Jesus considered many of the Jews to be lost.
ANNOUNCER: Why?
KLAUS: Let me try and explain. When Adam and Eve sinned, God promised to send a Savior. That promise was specifically given to Abraham. Abraham was told that the Messiah would be born to his descendants. With that promise, the Jews became God’s chosen people – God’s people who believed the redeeming Messiah would be born from their family.
ANNOUNCER: That was a promise God kept in Jesus.
KLAUS: Yes, He did. But we need to remember God’s promise was twofold: first, He promised the Messiah would be born from Abraham’s seed, and second; all nations of the world would be blessed by that Messiah.
ANNOUNCER: So, right from the beginning we see that Jesus was promised as the Savior for all people.
KLAUS: Exactly. That’s what John says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son…” That’s what Psalm 72 says: His name shall endure forever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed.
ANNOUNCER: But doesn’t the Bible mostly show Jesus dealing with the Jews?
KLAUS: Almost exclusively. He should have. They were the chosen people. But when an outsider – a non-Jewish person – came to Him, Jesus responded appropriately. He healed the woman’s daughter; He healed a Samaritan leper; He healed a Centurion’s servant; He ministered to the Samaritan woman at the well. Having ministered to the Jews, at His ascension He commissioned His disciples to take the Word to all nations – to everybody – and teach them the Good News of all that He had done.
ANNOUNCER: Now, the fact that the Jews hadn’t listened to Jesus bothered Saint Paul, didn’t it?
KLAUS: It bothered all of the disciples, I think. That’s why they battled so hard with the questions concerning which rules from the Old Testament were to be kept by Christians. That’s why Peter initially had a tough time preaching the Word of salvation to non-Jews.
Eventually, and by the Spirit’s power, they concluded it was faith in Jesus – and only faith in Jesus – which saved.
ANNOUNCER: And Saint Paul wrote about the Jews’ rejection of Jesus?
KLAUS: Often and frequently. Look at Romans 9 and 10. In those chapters Paul defines what it means to be one of God’s people. He wrote: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:8-13). God’s people are people with faith in the Savior.
ANNOUNCER: This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“The King of Love My Shepherd Is” arr. Henry Gerike. From Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice by the Concordia Seminary Chorus (© 1993 Concordia Seminary Chorus)
“The King of Love My Shepherd Is” arr. Alfred Reed. From Rejouissance by the Concordia University Wind Symphony (© 1999 Concordia University-Chicago) C.L. Barnhouse & Co.
“All the Earth With Joy Is Sounding” by Herbert Howells, arr. Walter Pelz. From Joy Is Sounding (© 2001 Association of Lutheran Church Musicians) Melody © Novello & Co. Ltd; setting © Concordia Publishing House