The Lutheran Hour
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"Reformation Prepositions: In, Over, and Out"
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Text: Romans 3:28
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I bring grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ.
In any and every communication, it’s important to pay attention to the prepositions. A preposition is simply a word that governs another word, noun, or pronoun by expressing an action or direction. Such prepositions include the words such as before, on, under, beside, across, and the like. Oh, it’s very important to pay attention to the prepositions. To be under the gun on a deadline is different than being before the gun at a stick-up. To be over the hill doesn’t mean you can’t still be in the pink while completely off your rocker. I know you’ll agree with me: it’s important to pay attention to the prepositions. Certainly this is true for our celebration of Reformation Our Reformation text found in Romans 3:28 suggests three important prepositions today. They are: “In,” “Over” and “Out.” Paying attention to today’s text and the prepositions it suggests will bring immeasurable comfort and confidence.
Our text begins, “For we maintain a man is justified….” I love that phrase, “a man is justified…” Folks, because we are justified, that is, made righteous by the blood of Jesus, we hear echoes of the preposition “In.” Being justified means we’re in the kingdom, we’re in God’s family; we’re in God’s plan for our living in paradise forever!
Left to ourselves we cannot get in: in the kingdom, in the family, in heaven. In fact, because of our rebellion against God by our sinning and sinfulness we propelled ourselves away from God’s kingdom. We had alienated and separated ourselves from He who created and cherished us. But in His unquenchable mercy and grace, our Heavenly Father justified us by sending His Son Jesus to die and pay the penalty and punishment of our sins. Because we are justified by Jesus we are in: in the kingdom, in the family, and in God’s plan for living in heaven forever.
Jesus gave this ability to be “in” to a woman He met at a well one day. This woman, a Samaritan, came alone to the well to draw water, and St. John tells us it was the sixth hour of the day. It first needs to be noted that Samaritans were considered the outcasts of proper society. Secondly, drawing water was considered woman’s work in Jesus’ day, but what was unusual, even odd, is that she would come alone and at 12 Noon (which is the sixth hour in John’s timing). Women seldom went alone to the well. The well was outside the protection of the village and villainous and violent people would prey on a single woman. In addition, seldom would women go to draw water in the heat of the day. Drawing and carrying water was hot, heavy work. Being under the oppression of the noonday sun would make the job that much more difficult. But alone and in the heat this woman came to the well.
After sending His disciples into the nearby village, Jesus waited alone at the well. Certainly the woman was dismayed when she first met Jesus. She could tell he was a holy Jewish man and she could expect nothing but scorn and contempt from Him. She couldn’t live without water, so she came hoping for the best, but probably expecting the worst.
Jesus speaks to her first. He asks for her to give Him a drink. Stunned she asks why a holy man would even be speaking to her. Jesus then turns the conversation around and says she should be asking Him for a drink. He then explains the water He would give would mean she would never be thirsty again. Eager to never again come to the well alone and in the heat of the day, she pleads for this water. (Here’s where the account gets really good) Jesus says He’ll give her the water if she would go get her husband. She is stopped in her tracks and confesses she doesn’t have a husband. Because Jesus is God, because He has known her intimately and intricately, He knows all about her and then tells her He knows she has had five husbands and is living out of wedlock with a sixth man. Some scholars say Jesus is inferring the woman was widowed five times. The text doesn’t support this by the vocabulary used. Jesus knows she has been divorced five times. Five men have discarded her. Five men have left her alone. The sixth only kept her for obvious convenience with no real relationship in evidence. She has become an outcast of the outcasts. Certainly this is doubly true as she comes to the well alone at noon, unwelcome by the other women who had to draw water.
Indeed, this woman is an outcast of the outcasts, unloved, unsupported, uncared for – except by the One who was waiting for her at the well late that morning/early afternoon. Cast out, thrown down, beat up, this woman is welcomed in by Jesus. She’s welcomed into His presence, welcomed into His confidence, welcomed into deliverance from being alienated from other people and even God Himself! Read the account again in John, Chapter Four by yourself. Delight in seeing how the Lord Jesus brings In even the outcast of the outcasts!
A second preposition is suggested by the next phrase in our text: “… a man is justified by faith….” The preposition I glean from this second phrase is “Over.” We’re carried over sin, over death, over Satan, even over hell itself and do not have to suffer the powers or pains they possess. Because of our faith, our believing, first deposited in us by Baptism and reinforced by the hearing of the Gospel we don’t have to run and try to jump over sin, death, and the devil, we’re carried over by the power of Jesus’ loving sacrifice. Luther’s words fill me with confidence: “[Jesus] has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom….”
By faith we are carried over the clouds of blindness our sins created. By faith we are carried over the chasm of death our sins created. By faith we are carried over the barrier of our hostility toward God which our sins created. The hymn says it so well: “Nothing in my hand I bring/Simply to the cross I cling./ Naked come to Thee for dress/Helpless look to Thee for grace. /Foul, I to the fountain fly/Wash me Savior or I die!”
A final preposition is suggested in our text by its final phrase of our text: “…a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” I am reminded here of the preposition “out.” Having to do good works in order to be saved is out of the question, out of the equation, out of line for us to receive eternal life. Eternal life is all gift from the gracious heart of the Great Giver, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
When I was a little boy, I loved it when Grandpa Strege took our whole family out for dinner at the Grand River Inn in Grand Haven, Michigan. We’d sit at a big round table and Grandpa was the entertainment. Standing over 6 feet 3 inches tall, weighing over 250 lbs, this giant of a man loved His Savior, his family, and all who came into his orbit. I loved sitting next to Grandpa and would fight my brothers to do so during these gatherings. Although he often wandered around during the meal, using the men’s room, stopping in the tavern to catch a baseball score, or just well-wishing other diners, Grandpa was the center of the evening’s action. One particular evening I remember sitting at his elbow, basking in his charm. As the conversation turned to things beyond my interest I started eavesdropping on a young couple behind us. I could hear the fear and frustration in their voices as they realized the bill was more than the cash they carried in their wallets. I snickered to think they would get in deep trouble. Tugging on Grandpa’s sleeve, I told Grandpa that the couple behind us was going to get in trouble and told him why and thought he’d share in my delight over their misfortune. With a stern look Grandpa surprised me by saying, “Leave it alone, Billy.” Our food came soon after that and I sort of forgot about Grandpa’s scolding and the couple behind us. Grandpa wandered, we ate, Grandpa returned, we laughed, we enjoyed. It was a grand evening indeed.
Sometime later, eavesdropping again on the couple behind me, I heard the waitress talking to the couple. The man said in a sheepish voice he needed to tell the waitress something. The waitress cut him off by saying she needed to tell him something first. She then announced that someone in the restaurant had already paid the bill for the couple’s meal. The payment included coffee, dessert, and a tip. She finished by asking what would they like for their treat. Totally astounded the couple wanted to know who was paying this bill. Smiling, the waitress told them that she was sworn to secrecy and would never tell. I was shocked. I grabbed Grandpa’s sleeve and as he leaned down to hear my whisper, I told him the couple wasn’t going to get in trouble after all because someone paid their bill. Looking in my face, he winked and said, “I told you to leave it alone, Billy.” It was then I knew who paid the bill for the couple who couldn’t pay it themselves.
I tell you that, to tell you this – our Lord Jesus paid the bill of our sins which we could never have paid. We are justified by Grace through Faith for Christ’s sake and it is out of line, out of the question, and out of the equation for us to think we need to earn, work for, or merit God’s gifts of love, life, and salvation.
Our Reformation Day text is St. Paul asserting wonderful words, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” This text calls to mind prepositions that give great comfort: In, Out, and Over. May the Holy Spirit grace you with the assurance that you are In God’s family and kingdom forever, you are carried over sin, death, and the devil, and having to work for or earn salvation is out of the question.In the name of Jesus, Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for October 25, 2009
Topic: Jesus’ OmniscienceAnnouncer: And we’re back with Pastor Ken Klaus for our weekly Q&A segment. I’m Mark Eischer.
Klaus: Hi, Mark.
Announcer: As you know, our questions come to us from all over.
Klaus: That’s right. From all around the world. And where did this one come from, Mark?
Announcer: Actually, from about fifteen feet away.
Klaus: I don’t understand.
Announcer: This one comes to us from Brian, our recording engineer.
Klaus: Brian submitted this?
Brian: (on talkback) Yes, Pastor, I did.
Announcer: Brian cites John 1: 48 as a curious example of Jesus’ omniscience, His all-knowingness. In that verse, Jesus tells Nathanael that he “saw him under the fig tree.” For some reason, Nathanael is stunned to hear this.
Klaus: Not only that-he immediately concludes Jesus is the Son of God.
Announcer: And the question is, why? Was it because he was sitting under this fig tree and he was sure no one else was around? Or was he maybe in prayer to God at that moment-and only God would have known that? Either way, Nathanael knew right away that the only one who saw him under that fig tree, and knew what he was thinking, was GOD.
Klaus: Great observations, Bri. Let me sum it up. You’re asking, “Did Jesus use His omniscience, His all-knowingness when He spoke to Nathanael that day… when He said, “I saw you under the fig tree?” The answer to that question is simple: “Yes, He did.”
Announcer: Now, how would you answer to the next question: What was it that was understood between the two of them that gave Jesus’ words such great importance… to the point that it actually provided proof of His divinity?
Klaus: Ahhh, there’s the rub. What happened, I don’t know. Nobody knows.
Announcer: Doesn’t that sound strange?
Klaus: Maybe. But there are a lot of times when the people the Lord called might have found it difficult to explain what they had experienced. How, for example would Moses explain what had happened with that burning bush- or when he received the law from the Lord’s hand on Mount Sinai? How could Noah get his generation to understand the danger which prompted him to build an ark? God’s calls can be incredibly personal things and, I think that is probably the case here.
Announcer: Do you think you can you shed any light on what might have happened?
Klaus: Possibly. The story begins with Philip calling Nathanael to meet Jesus. Philip is already convinced Jesus is the Messiah, but Nathanael he’s unimpressed. That may well be because Nathanael knew the prophecies of the Bible. As far as he knew, Jesus was from Nazareth-and according to Scripture, the Messiah was supposed to be from Bethlehem.
Announcer: And, Nathanael then would have thought this disqualified Jesus as the Messiah?
Klaus: I think so. Still, Nathanael went to meet Jesus. As he approached, Jesus says of him: “Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
Announcer: That’s quite a compliment, don’t you think?
Klaus: Yeah, I think so too, but I also think there also may be a clue here.
Announcer: A clue? How so?
Klaus: Nathanael asks Jesus, he basically asks, ‘Where do you get your information that I’m not a deceitful kind of guy?”
Announcer: And that’s when Jesus says, “Before Philip called you; I saw you under the fig tree.”
Klaus: Exactly. And I think the key to the passage is in those two statements. A lot of scholars think it was Jesus’ knowledge of Nathanael’s private location, that is, under the fig tree, which made him into a believer. Me, I think it was more than just the location.
Announcer: Any guesses as to what it might have been?
Klaus: Yeah, although there are all kinds of possibilities, I come up with two. First, the public possibility. By using the word public, I mean Nathanael was interacting with someone. In that interaction, he took a stand for what was right. That Jesus also knew about this private event-that would have moved Nathanael. The second, that’s kind of a private explanation. Privately, Nathanael might have said to himself, something like: “If I ever meet the Messiah, I will be able to identify Him by letting Him say to me, ‘I saw you under the fig tree’ or ‘Lord, will anyone recognize the fact that I try not to be deceitful?'” I don’t know what, but I think Jesus, in His words, perhaps met some prior condition Nathanael might have set up.
Announcer:Anything else?
Klaus: Yes. Psalm 44:21, it says, “God knows the secrets of the heart.” That was the case here. Nathanael knew only God could have known this very private thing.
Announcer: Thank you Pastor Klaus and thank you Brian for that question. 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
“A Mighty Fortress” From Hymns for All Saints (© 2004 Concordia Publishing House)
“Agnus Dei” by Paul D. Weber. Text © 1975 International Consultation on English Texts, music © 2001 Paul D. Weber
“Reformation Fanfare” by Nicholas Stark. From If Thou Be Near by the Concordia University Wind Symphony (© 2009 Concordia University-Chicago)
“Salvation Unto Us Has Come” by Hugo Distler, performed by the choir of Concordia University-Ann Arbor.
“Oh, Bless the Lord, My Soul” arr. Henry Gerike. Used by permission.
“Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” by Helmut Walcha. From Cramer & Resch at Kramer Chapel by Craig Cramer and Richard Resch (© 2001 Concordia Theological Seminary) Henry Litolff’s Verlag, adm. by C.F. Peters Corporation, New York
“Es ist das Heil” by J.S. Bach. From Orgelbüchlein & More Works by J.S. Bach by Robert Clark, et al (© 1997 Calcante Recordings, Ltd.)