The text this morning is from the Letter to the Hebrews, the third chapter:
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Jesus is greater than Moses was. That’s the message the author to this letter just gave to the Jews scattered throughout the land. That’s like saying Akeley’s Paul Bunyan statue is better than Bemidji’s. It's like saying the LWML looks better in pink. It evokes a certain amount of distaste, disgust, and is sure to ruffle more than a few feathers.
After all, if you’re a Jew, Moses is your guy. He’s the greatest prophet, the greatest Law-giver, the greatest everything. He’s the one who led the people out of Egypt. He’s the one who parted the Red Sea. He’s the one who prayed and manna and quail came to the people. He’s the one whose touch caused water to flow from the rock. He’s your guy. If you’re a Jew, Moses is The Dude.
But, to God, as the author here says, Moses is merely a tool, a servant, a slave. Moses was the person who certainly did all these things, but he’s no more responsible for them than a hammer is for putting a nail in the wall. Moses was chosen, set apart by God for the purpose of leading the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, but he only ever did what God told him to do. Therefore, though Moses was indeed great, there is one greater: Jesus.
Jesus is the one who directed all these things. Jesus is the one to whom Moses was faithful. Jesus is the one who had a plan of redemption for His people in Egypt. And Jesus was the one who set all these things up so that they would foreshadow, look forward to, a greater fulfillment in Him.
To the author of the letter to the Hebrews, Moses isn’t The Dude, Jesus is. And this is very good news. For indeed, we are not wandering, sojourning in the desert as the Israelites did, looking for the land that was promised. But we do sojourn through this life, hard under the yolk of aimless wandering, suffering, pain. Yet, in Christ, there is a greater Promised Land than the land of Israel. The land of Israel doesn’t matter any longer; the Promised Land for the Christian is far greater than a land promised to flow with milk and honey. Our Promised Land promises to stop the flow of tears and provide a feast that lasts for eternity. This Promised Land in Christ is the new creation, the renewed, recreated earth that we shall dwell upon for eternity.
This Promised Land which is to come is given to us an inheritance, a possession passed to us after the death of the Son of God. Through the Christ’s death upon the cross for all of your sins, Christ has willed His inheritance to you. He has given to you His righteousness. He has given to you His sonship. He has given to you all that He owns, including the earth and everything in it. This is more sure and more certain than knowing that Bemidji’s Paul Bunyan is better than all the rest.
This inheritance is given to you, and we have a foretaste of it now. Our Lord has given us the foretaste of this inheritance, a foretaste of the kingdom, in His gifts to His Church. For indeed, the forgiveness we find is but a taste of the joy we shall live in without ever sinning again. And the washing of Baptism is a small taste of the pure righteousness we shall have for eternity. And the feast of the Lord’s Supper is just a little bit of what we shall eat and drink for eternity with our Lord as both host and meal.
What Moses had in his day pointed forward to the fulfillment in Christ, and what the Church has now is pointing us forward to the day when we shall see the promises of God given to the Church totally fulfilled. That day is the day of Resurrection, the Last Day, the day when Christ bodily returns to this earth, raising from their graves all of the dead in their bodies, and giving to those who believe in Him everlasting life with Him forever.
Our bodies will be raised from the grave. Wherever you are, Jesus shall find you and He shall bring you forth from the grips of the grave, throwing wide open your coffin, and welcoming you to His re-perfected world forever. This is the great hope of the Christian life, the Resurrection. This, even though he may not be able to express it with his words today, is Jack’s hope, too. The Resurrection is the hope of faith, granted to us in our Baptisms. And without the Resurrection, we are most to be pitied.
After all, if there is no resurrection for me, then Christ was not raised either. And if Christ was not raised, if He’s laying dead in the sands of the Middle East somewhere, then we should all just get up and leave this place and never return. Everything that happened to Jack this morning, forget about it.
If Jesus is still dead, then maybe we should just turn this building into, I don’t know, some kind of government building. At least then it would have a small chance of doing some kind of good in the world. But Jesus isn’t dead. Jesus lives! He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! And because of that, our Jesus, our once-dead-but-now-He-lives Jesus does infinitely more than we could ever expect. For here, in this place, Jesus gives us that foretaste of the feast to come. He gives us His promises, as He did Jack, and He will fulfill them. And because He lives, and because He works here, there is no greater good that can happen anywhere else out in the world. This is His place, the place where He gives to you all that He promised, and there is no better place on earth to be.
But, just as the Israelites grumbled against, provoked, and tested Moses for forty years as he led them to the Promised Land, so, too, is the temptation there for us to do the same to the greater Moses, Jesus. This is why the author says, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” To leave the promises of God is to not enter the rest of the land that is given to us. For the Israelites, it caused God to not let any who grumbled against Him come into the land of Israel. But, for us, to forget the promises of God will lead us to not enter into eternity with Christ.
To forget that the point of our gathering together is to look forward to the day of the Resurrection is to forget the promises of God, which will certainly lead you away from the living God and towards gods who are nothing but dead, dying, and decrepit. Those gods do you no good, those gods of our own making. Our sins would set us up to believe that this is our best life now, that this world can be made in whatever image we like, that we’re here to satisfy our own desires, whether they be of the flesh, the belly, the mind, the heart.
When we seek after our sins as our gods, we lose sight of the Resurrection. We lose sight of the promise God made to us in our Baptisms. That is why it is so important that we come together as often as we are able, to join together with one another, to exhort one another into believing Jesus’ promises are true, to come together at His altar, to receive all the gifts that Christ would have to give us every time they are offered.
We should not work to harden our hearts against God. He has redeemed you through the blood of His precious and innocent Son. This should open us to always looking at Him and His work as the greatest value of all that we could ever possibly imagine. Yet, we do harden our hearts. By our sin, we lose sight of this more often than not, I think. Thank God for the absolution. Thank God for His gifts. Thank God for the gathering together of the saints. Thank God for inspiring the work of the hands of so many, so many who exhort and encourage as the LWML does. Thank God He works through them, and so many others, through their vocations, to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to you and so many. Because through these means, and most especially the means of grace, God brings our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths together to exhort one another to believing His promises, receiving them now as a foretaste of the greater inheritance that is to come.
That is what we should hold to forever and ever. That is our great confidence, and it is the only confidence that we have. All this life may fade away. You may die of cancer. You may live alone. You may feel depressed. You may be anxious, worried, addicted. You may live a long 100 years. You may live a short twenty. There is no confidence of anything in this world. Anything can happen. But there is confidence that we have in the world that is to come.
As long as today is called “today,” this world may come to any shape it chooses. Because this world, and those who live in it, are beset with sin, there is no confidence that we may have a tomorrow. If today is today, then remind one another of the day which has no end, the day which is in Christ Jesus, our resurrected Lord. If today is today, then this may be all that we have in this time. But, as long as there is our Jesus, the day is coming when the world needs no sun, for Jesus is the light of the world. There is no darkness in Christ, thus there will only ever be the day.
We are blessedly looking forward to the day when our Lord returns, bringing the New Jerusalem down from heaven, resting it upon the face of the earth, and dwelling with His people forever. That day is the first day of the New Creation, and it is the only day of the New Creation. That day when Jesus returns will have no end. It has no darkness leading into night. It has no pain turning to tears. It has no grief or sorrow or shame. It has no sin. And it has no dead, for all who live there will be alive in Christ Jesus.
You see, all of this is because our Jesus is greater than Moses. Moses gave quail and manna; Jesus gives His body and blood. Moses gave water from a rock; Jesus gives water flowing from His pierced side. Moses led the people through the sea on dry ground; Jesus leads His dead people through water into everlasting life. Moses led his people through forty years of wandering; Jesus knows the direction and brings His people to the Promised Land. Moses led his people to a promised place, a temporal place filled with strife and idolatry; Jesus leads His people to a land without borders, without enemies, without famine, death, and with eternal rest in Him.
Jesus is the greater Moses, for Jesus is the greater Lord, the one who rules and reigns over all things. We pray that He continues, as He already has done, to make our hearts not evil and unbelieving, but righteous and faithful unto death. This is why we gather together, that we may be found faithful now and unto the day of the Resurrection. Look forward to that day, brothers and sisters, look forward, and find that the taste of that day is here even now. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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