The text this morning is from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, the 11th chapter:
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew…
Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
…As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
So, if you’re paying attention to the readings for today, you find this familiar theme that the Lord welcomes into His salvation, into His mercy, the foreigners, the Gentiles, the dogs, even those who were idolaters at one time. Yet, He does all this, not to the exclusion of those who He loved and made His covenant with, but including them, on their backs, so to speak.
After all, we have to remember that it was the Israelites whom God chose to make covenant with, not because they were the greatest, but because they were the least. Through what the world would deem unworthy and lacking glamor or size, God would provide for the world the Savior of all mankind. God had chosen this people group to bring about His salvation, and all that He would then do would be for them, through them, so that Jesus would come into the world as He had ordained.
Here’s how we should think about it: David is in the Bible because He is Jesus’ great-great-whatever grandfather. The story of David, his life, his reign as king is integral to understanding the life and ministry of Jesus, even to see how the Lord would undo the sins that David committed and, ultimately, in the reign of Christ, reunite the kingdom of Israel. Ruth is there for the same reason. Rahab. Isaac. Abraham. Noah. This cloud of witnesses of the faith are included in the Holy Scriptures, for through them, through their loins, through them having children and grandchildren and so on, the Lord Jesus Christ would be given to His mother, Mary, through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.
God had planned it through the ages that it would be so. He knew that Mary and Joseph would end up betrothed to each other, this young woman of Jewish descent, this man who also would be in the line of David. God chose this woman to bring forth the salvation of the world through her womb. God loved His people, He loves His people. What He always told them, however, and what they didn’t seem to understand, is that He had people, He had flocks, that were not of the Jewish flock.
God, in this way, through the protection of the line of Adam that would lead to Mary, He loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son to die for them. He died for the Jews. And even though His Jewish flesh, through His human flesh, Jesus died for the Greeks. He died for the Canaanites. He died for the Germans. He died for the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians, Pontians, Asians, Phrygians, Pamphylians, Egyptians, Libyans, Romans, and every other group you could think of. Jesus died for them all, and so He welcomes them all into His fold.
God did not reject the Jewish people because He had a better plan in mind. He loved those Israelites, He loved them because He chose them through their forefathers. But, no person, no matter where they’re from will be rejected if they do not have faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ welcomes all men and women, all boys and girls, to be His brothers and sisters, and so children of God. Paul is the Jew of Jews, and he is welcomed. So, too, are you.
Yet, it absolutely is to the Jews that Christ is held up in an effort to make them jealous for the love of God. It’s not as if they were only to blame for the crucifixion of the Jesus, but God had been revealing the plan of their salvation to them for generations, millennia, and they rejected the Son of God, throwing Him to the Roman wolves. So, in welcoming the Gentiles into the fold, the Apostle Paul here is jumping up and down in his excitement towards them in order to make the Jews realize that they are missing out.
It’s almost as if Paul is doing the Tom Sawyer thing, where he’s showing how fun or good something is to bring the other boy, Ben Rogers, in to do it for him. Instead, in Paul’s case, the love of Jesus Christ is too real, and too awesome, and too saving to really let go, or be let go, and anyone who comes joins the congregation with Paul.
Paul wants the Jews to be a part of salvation in Jesus Christ, because Christ is the fulfillment of all the promises of the Old Testament. Yet, it is not for the love of this ethnic group that God would save them, but only account of Christ, in whom they should have faith. If they do not, God would reject them.
The reality is that God loves the entire world and wants all people to be saved. So, He saved them all through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Jews were chosen only because of the reasons given in the Scriptures: they were small, they were the least of the nations, through them, God would show how He uses the rejected to bring about true acceptance. All people can plead, by faith, the blood of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins. Yet, many reject that gift. Be not one of them.
In disobedience to God’s Law, we find ourselves standing in opposition to God. The Law isn’t evil. The Law tells you what to do and what not to do. And when you disobey it, it cries out to God like the blood of Abel accusing Cain before God. It cries out that you are not good, you are not holy, you are not righteous, and there is nothing you have done that can save you. If the Law of God stands in accusation, and there is nowhere else to turn, then the only result is eternal condemnation, for the Lord is a jealous God and cannot allow sin in His presence.
Without the blood of Christ, without being welcomed into the family of God through the forgiveness of sins, there then is no hope for you. But through your disobedience, and more specifically, through the knowledge of your disobedience, through your confession of your sins, the confession of your disobedience, the desire to seek mercy, mercy flows freely to you. While the people of the world are beloved by God through the death of the Savior, Jesus Christ, only those who belong to Him, who are baptized in His name, who grasp onto that gift of faith, are welcomed into the merciful arms of their Savior.
The mercy of God is for everyone. The love of God is for everyone. The baptismal font is for everyone. The forgiveness of sins is for everyone. The Lord’s Supper is for everyone. The Church is for everyone. Jesus Christ is for everyone. Yet, there are those who will reject them, reject Christ and His means of grace. But for those who have faith, for those who have been given faith by the Lord and grasped onto it, they shall receive mercy.
And so you have. You have receive the flood of Christ’s blood through Baptism, and so you have received mercy. You have heard the words of absolution, forgiving your sins, and so you have received mercy. You had eaten and drank of the Lord’s body and blood through His Supper and you are invited back to His table, and so you have received mercy. You are strengthened through Word and Sacrament, and so you have received mercy.
Through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord, you have received mercy which will not fail. No matter where you come from, no matter the ethnic group, no matter what race the world calls you, you are of the human race, the race of sinners, the race which is unholy, and yet you have been made holy through Christ. You are welcomed. You are redeemed. You are washed. You are forgiven. You receive mercy forever and ever. 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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