The text this morning is from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, the fifth chapter:
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Pinch yourself. Go on, do it. Pinch yourself. Nice and hard. Did you feel it? Congratulations. You have flesh. But, that’s not what Paul is talking about when he mentions that we won’t regard anyone according to the flesh. Paul is talking about the idea that he, and his companions, the pastors he would set up in cities as he went on his journeys, would regard people according to God’s point of view, a point of view that sees a person through the eyes of faith.
Once, Paul saw Jesus as a mere man, a criminal who was hanged upon a cross so that He would be punished for His crimes against God. Paul saw Jesus as a blasphemer, a rebel, someone who needed to be sentenced to death. Yet, in Paul’s conversion, in the Baptism that was given him by God, Paul eyes were cleared. Something like scales fell from them, both literally and metaphorically. Literal scales fell from Paul’s eyes, scales that had blinded him to the entirety of life. And metaphorical scales went away as well, scales that blinded his heart from seeing Jesus for who He really is, God in human flesh, sent to take on the sins of the world.
So, when Paul says he will not regard anyone according to the flesh, he means that he will see them as a person for whom Christ died, with no division. There is no more Pharisee versus lay person, there is no Jew versus Greek, there is no more slave nor free man. There is only the person who believes in Jesus Christ or there is a person who does not.
For the Corinthians, these men and women were people who sought after Jesus as their Lord, yet there were still divisions among them. Even among believers, there were, believe it or not, divisions. Can you imagine that? Divisions within the church? I know, it’s hard to fathom. Yet, Paul cautions them to look at each other, not as divided, but as put together in Christ, reconciled to one another through the Reconciler of the World. In Christ, all believers are made a new creation. They are made the one body of Christ, without division.
After all, can a toe say to the ear, “I don’t need you?” Can an eye say to the finger, “I don’t need you?” Of course not. How dare there be divisions in the Church! We are all made one, we are all a new creation, and not for ourselves. We are each made a new creation, members of THE new creation, and we cannot survive without one another. The old flesh, the sinful self, is gone, passed away, drowned in Baptismal waters. The new flesh, in Jesus Christ, the one who believes and trusts in Him, has come.
If someone thinks they are special, if someone thinks their word means more than Jesus’ word, if someone thinks they are better than others, if someone looks down on another person, how dare they. They are literally tempting God. They are telling God, “I know you did some kind of work in me, but you have more to do on them.” At best, they are saying God messed up, and, at worst, they’re telling God Himself to go to hell for the work that He has done.
Of course, Jesus already did that. Jesus, literally God, went to hell for all people on the cross. He went and experienced hell, separation from God, for you. He died, apart from God, forsaken by His Father, so that you would never have to be. He was damned by God, experiencing all the wrath of God for you, so that you, you who deserve hell by your sin, you would be brought into newness of life in Jesus Christ.
This is what Christ was doing on the cross: reconciling the world to Himself. Jesus didn’t say, “Okay, well, Tommy is a better person than Ruth, so I’m going to make sure that Ruth gets a little more of my help. And God help her if she struggles.” Jesus didn’t die so that Tommy is able to second-guess Ruth, or look down on her, or judge her. Jesus died for Tommy and Ruth, Jesus died for you, because everyone deserves the punishment that He received and He wanted no one else to have it.
And if Jesus’ death isn’t enough to reconcile Tommy and Ruth and you to Him, well, then Jesus’ death accomplished nothing. And if Jesus died to reconcile everyone to Himself, then He certainly also died to reconcile us to one another. If you will not be reconciled to one another, if you bear a grudge, withhold forgiveness for one for whom Christ died, then God be with you, because you’re treating Jesus’ death like it didn’t matter for you.
Withholding forgiveness, the reconciliation of sinners, the forgiveness of sins from another person says more about you than it does another. It shows just how little you value Christ’s death, and may even be pointing out that you don’t actually believe Jesus’ words, that His flesh and blood are given and shed for you for the forgiveness of YOUR sins.
My sins are the greatest sins I know. I sin against my wife, my son, my family, my friends, even my congregation. And I need forgiveness. And I have it, and you have it, in Jesus Christ. He died to reconcile each and every one of us to one another. People leave churches because they cannot be reconciled to other people. People leave the Word of God and the Sacramental Gifts of Christ because they have been refused reconciliation with others. This is the great tragedy in the Church today. People who need the forgiveness of sins, people who need to hear Jesus speak to them through His Word, people who need Jesus to wash them of their sins, people who need Jesus to feed them and sustain them, leave because we act like unbelievers, we act like jerks.
And people leave because they don’t value that reconciliation and refuse to forgive. They separate themselves out from the work of Christ. This is also a tragedy, for they never took to heart Jesus’ words. May God have mercy on us all.
But all is not lost. We engage in this ministry of reconciliation in this place. This is the righteousness of God. Christ has made us righteous so that we may continue to live in the righteousness of Christ. He did not make us righteous to be lazy or judgmental. He did not make us righteous so that we may continue in sin and just get away with it. He made us righteous. And He made us to be together, to be here. In this place, we preach God’s Word, we deliver His Sacraments, that we all may be one in Jesus Christ, being found faithful on the Last Day even unto eternal life.
This is why we’re here. If it’s not why you’re here, then repent and be forgiven. But, if you come to this place seeking reconciliation with God and with all people, then welcome, this is the place for you.
This is where Christ is. This is where the body and blood of Jesus are given. This is where Christ’s reconciliation, for all time, by the death He died upon the cross, is. Here, the cross of Christ comes to you, for you. Jesus died upon the cross to reconcile you to Himself. He died that you may be reconciled with all people. And when we see people, not according to their flesh, not according to whether you can pinch them, hit them, beat them, yell at them, but you see them according to the new spirit that God gave to them in their Baptisms, the same one given to you, in the promise of forgiveness given even to them, then we are living as the one body of Christ, put together for all time.
God does not count your trespasses against you. He never does, He never will, not in Christ. Christ died for your trespasses, for your sins. Our Father is good and gracious to count all our sins upon the dead body of Christ. He looks at the broken body of Jesus and counts all sin, every sin committed in the history of the world, past, present, and future, and He does not count that against you. You are reconciled to God. Repent and be reconciled forever.
This is what Paul means. When the prodigal son, the son who spent everything wastefully and wantonly, on his own desires, when he runs out of the ability to care for himself, he runs back to his father, hat in hand, so that perhaps he might just eat some of the bread that the father’s servants eat. Note, too, the father was waiting for his son, keeping watch out for him and ran to him to bring him home. May we be the same.
When we realize that we have wantonly and recklessly wasted everything, when we realize that we are sinful and unclean, when we realize that we have left our original righteousness behind, and that we are even created in the sinful image of our parents, may we run to our Father so that He might bring us into His house. And we never have to go far; the Father sends His Son to run after us, to greet us where we are and to bring us to where He is and wants us to be, as well. We don’t come to God expecting feasts and festivals, we don’t come expecting parties and rejoicing, we don’t come demanding. We come begging, like the prodigal son. We are beggars, this is true.
But, what does our Father give us in Christ? Everything. And more. He gives us the party, He gives us the feast, He gives us every thing He has so that we know we are reconciled with Him. Where in the world is there a better feast than the Lord’s Supper? Where in the world is a better washing, a better shower, than Baptism? Where in the world are sweeter words than “I forgive you?” No where, but here.
We are the ones who abandon God and our inheritance, but He is the one who is constantly giving us more of what we do not deserve. He is the one who gives and gives and gives, and He is the one who rejoices at our return.
When we live as the family of God, the body of Christ, the Church, then we are truly in the party. God has brought us into the party and we rejoice. When we reject God’s gift of reconciliation, then we are the older son, the one who gets all ticked off at his father for welcoming the foolish brother. We’re outside the party by our choice, trying to punish our Father and brother by depriving them of our oh-so-high-and-mighty presence. But, we should be, should want to be as the foolish brother was, the one who returns to his Father. No matter your behavior before, no matter how foolishly, recklessly, you wasted God’s gifts before, He welcomes you again now. Come and join the party.
Pinch yourself. Do you feel it? Are you breathing? Are you seeing or hearing or feeling anything? Then the party is for you. God has thrown the feast for you because of what He did in Jesus Christ. Join the party. Forsake your sinful flesh, welcome Christ’s work for you. I’m begging you, imploring you. It’s all for you. God wants you here. He made you new, He bathed you, dressed you, and He will feed you here. Here you are made righteous, here you live in Christ’s righteousness. It’s what we do. And when we fail, we offer the same reconciliation Christ won for us to one another. Christ will always forgive you here, for you are always here, in this feast, in this Church, reconciled to Him. 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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