Church of the Holy City

To Take It Up Again

To Take it Up Again
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 21, 2013

2 Samuel 5:1-5 John 10:11-18 Psalm 23

In our John reading, we have the comforting image of Jesus as our shepherd. Jesus is in an intimate relationship with all of us. Jesus says, “I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” When we look to Jesus, we “will come in and go out and find pasture.”
Some use this John passage to argue for Christianity’s sole power to save. However, I see this passage differently. Some emphasize Jesus’ words, “I am the gate for the sheep.” They take this to mean that only Jesus saves. They support this belief with another line from this passage, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved” (John 10:7, 9). They take these lines to mean that if you do not come to God through Jesus you will not be saved. But reasoning this way is committing a logical fallacy called denying the antecedent. In logic you can say, “If you come to Jesus you will be saved. I was not saved, therefore I did not come to Jesus.” But you cannot say, “If you come to Jesus you will be saved. I did not come to Jesus, therefore I was not saved.” And this is exactly what they are doing who use this passage to say that Christianity and only Christianity saves. These two lines of reasoning sound similar, but they are very different. We are saved if we come to Jesus. But this does not mean that if we do not come to Jesus we will not be saved. That way of arguing is called denying the antecedent, and it is a logical fallacy. So those who use these verses to say that everyone is damned who is not Christian are making a logical fallacy.
But make no mistake, I am a Christian, and I follow Christ’s way in regard to my own salvation. However, I think that Jesus’ life and Jesus’ words show an inclusiveness for everyone. In His life, Jesus befriended the despised tax collectors, He allowed a sinful woman to anoint Him with perfume, He spoke with a Samaritan woman and offered her living water, and, let’s not forget, Jesus ate dinner with a Pharisee. Jesus’ love extended to all. He did not discriminate according to race, or a person’s place in life, nor by the way society looked at the individual. In this morning’s passage from John, I emphasize the words, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. But they too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
Who are these sheep who are not of this fold? Maybe they are not Jews. Maybe they are not favored by society. Maybe they are the marginalized and despised of the world. Maybe they are the Gentiles. But Jesus reaches out to those sheep who are not of this fold. He envisions a time when there is one flock and one shepherd.
I take these verses to mean that God reaches out to everyone: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and all believers of every faith. From a Christian perspective, maybe these are the sheep who are not of this fold. But God reaches out to them, too. Swedenborg tells us that God wishes to save everyone, to give everyone everything that God has, and to make everyone happy to eternity.
Jehovah, or the Lord’s internal, was the very Celestial of Love, that is, Love itself, to which no other attributes are fitting than those of pure Love, thus of pure Mercy toward the whole human race; which is such that it wishes to save all and make them happy for ever, and to bestow on them all that it has; thus out of pure mercy to draw all who are willing to follow, to heaven, that is, to itself, by the strong force of love (AC 1735)
We affirm this idea in our faith, which we say every Sunday,
As the God-Man who lives with us He is present to save all people, everywhere, whose lives affirm the best they know.
This brings up another point from our John reading. And that is the issue of the God-Man who lives with us. This is a reference to the resurrected Jesus Christ. And Jesus’ resurrection is what is meant by John 10:17-18:
The reason the Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.
For this church, this passage tells us about the complete union between the Father and Jesus. When Jesus lay down His life and took it up again, He rose body and soul and was completely one with God. That is why we call Jesus the God-Man. God’s soul was in Jesus, when He was begotten of the Virgin Mary. And that Divine Soul became completely one with the Human Jesus when Jesus rose from the grave. That union of God and Jesus is what gives God power to come to all of us, wherever we are spiritually, through the risen Humanity of God. That is how we understand Jesus giving His life for the sheep. He lay down His life so that He could rise in full union with God the Father. This gives Jesus the power to reach everyone, the sheep in the fold and those outside the fold. He is the God-Man who is present to save all people, everywhere.
Others interpret this passage differently. Others interpret this passage according to Paul’s atonement doctrine. The atonement doctrine teaches that Jesus took all the sins of the world on Himself when He was crucified. His crucifixion is seen as a sacrifice of atonement like the Jewish animal sacrifices were. So Paul writes,
But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came through Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood (Romans 3:22-25).
Paul sees Jesus’ crucifixion as a sacrifice like the Jewish sacrifices of atonement we read about in Leviticus. The sacrifice of atonement is described in Leviticus 4:27-31:
If a member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, he is guilty. When he is made aware of the sin he committed, he must bring as his offering for the sin he committed a female goat without defect. He is to lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering . . . and the priest shall burn it on the altar as an aroma pleasing to the Lord. In this way the priest will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.
It is according to this ancient ritual that some interpret Jesus’ words, “I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15).
Nearly every Christian church has a doctrine of atonement. And recently, the Catholic Church published a statement saying that their doctrine of atonement is in accord with the Lutheran doctrine of atonement. This is a great step toward Christian unity.
But this church teaches that one person’s sins cannot be transferred to someone else. That means that the sins of the human race cannot be transferred to a goat or to Jesus. We are responsible for our own sins. Jesus lay down His life for us in the sense that He would take it up and unite Himself with His Father. This is for us, in that through His Divine Humanity Jesus has a form we can see, relate to and a form that God can come to us in.
One thing that we can all agree on, is that in Jesus’ life, we have a story of complete self-sacrifice. In this sense, Jesus certainly gave Himself for the sake of humanity. Jesus came to save the whole human race, and He dedicated His entire ministry to humanity. He healed, He taught, He fed, He gave Himself to the human race that He loves unconditionally. Paul teaches that in Christ,
There is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all (Colossians 3:11).
I like this teaching in Paul. And it seems to agree with Jesus’ saying that there are sheep who are not of the flock who also hear His voice. Paul’s vision is remarkable in its inclusiveness. He includes Jews, barbarians, Greeks—in short, the whole world. And this teaching agrees with our understanding of the God-Man who is present to save all people, everywhere, whose lives affirm the best they know.

PRAYER

Lord, we give you thanks for your unfailing love for the whole human race. While you were here, you showed us by example how we are to act with our neighbors. You embraced all humans, and you showed no partiality. You embraced Samaritans, tax collectors, those who were thought sinful, and Pharisees, too. May we follow your example, and embrace our neighbors whether different from us, or like us. May we, too, show love for all members of society, the rich and prosperous as well as the marginalized and downcast. Your heaven is composed of infinite varieties of peoples, and our world is composed of great varieties of peoples. May we find room in our hearts for all of your creation.