We are on a journey through the wilderness. On this journey we are challenged with temptations from many directions to follow a path of self deliverance- to find salvation within. Lutheran theologians have called this man’s worship- the attempt to justify ourselves by our actions without the help of God. Man’s worship is seeking to understand the world and somehow control our future destiny through this understanding. Man’s worship always ends in death.
God’s worship contains the truth. The truth is that God so loved us that he gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life.
In our Introit we heard words from one of the favorite Psalms of God’s people Psalm 27. “The LORD is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear”
These words in the Psalm speak to the predicament we all face on this side of eternity, we walk through darkness and we are on a journey through the wilderness of a fallen world.
In our time of wilderness we ask for Jesus to lead us by the light of His truth. This is what Psalm 27:4 asks:
“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD an inquire in his temple.” For this season of Lent it is especially meaningful for us to pray that we may gaze upon the beauty of the LORD.
Lent is a time to look to Jesus and see the beauty of the LORD. “Come let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of God.” But as we fix our eyes on Jesus, what is the beauty of the LORD? Is it a beauty in the sense of a clean and perfect appearance? No, we are told in the book of Isaiah about the appearance of the Messiah: he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
Instead, the beauty is in Jesus’ selfless love toward us. The beauty is seen in the gory picture of the Son of God humbled to the point of death on the cross. What revolts us, blood and gore- is also what shows the beauty of God’s love toward us. When see him lifted up on the cross, we truly are gazing on the beauty of the LORD.
In our world today you cannot count on seeing beauty everywhere you turn, it seems more often you see ugly things related to the fallen nature of the world and man’s rebellion against God. Life on our wilderness journey often involves going forward without anything beautiful right in front of you to encourage you onward.
In our Old Testament reading we see a vivid image of the dangers of life in the wilderness and the means of salvation. The people of Israel grew impatient along the journey to the promised land. They questioned of Moses why should they even be there. Did you bring us out into the wilderness only to die?
They implied they were better off in slavery to Pharaoh. They were ungrateful for the food that the LORD provided for them. Earlier in the book of Numbers we learn about the Manna that came from the sky in which they collected and ate. “We loathe this worthless food.”
The people saw only their own complaints and did not see the deliverance that was right before them. In not seeing the promise of deliverance, in ignoring the promise of a Savior the people departed significantly from God’s favor. They were lost in their sin.
We see in our reading from Numbers that the punishment for their sin was quick and severe. They complained about bread from heaven from the Lord, and now they have something truly worth complaining about from the Lord.
The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and the bites were killing the people. This is a terrifying picture of the consequences of sin. The pain and the fear the people experienced was unbearable so that they asked Moses to pray to the LORD to take away the serpents.
There in the wilderness the people could no longer pretend they could save themselves. When they complained to Moses they thought they could make things better for themselves, but now they saw fully how perilous the journey is without the LORD’s help.
The LORD was merciful to them and provided a unique means of deliverance. Moses was commanded to make an image of the very fiery serpent that was killing the people and put it on a pole, and simply looking at this bronze serpent the one who was bit would not die but instead live.
The visual symbol of the people’s sin would by God’s grace serve as the people’s deliverance.
Jesus himself verified this meaning when he spoke of how just as Moses lifted up this bronze serpent it was necessary that he be lifted up on the cross for people to live and have eternal life. Jesus on the cross was a visual representation of the price of the sin of the whole world.
And looking at Jesus’ death on the cross in faith we live. We live because of God’s free gift of grace. As our reading from Ephesians highlights, we were dead in our trespasses and sins- we had nothing to commend ourselves before God that we should be saved. We were like the people of Israel overcome with fiery serpents with no way to protect ourselves.
“But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
Because Jesus was raised up on the cross, and because Jesus rose from the dead we are also lifted up high. We are raised from the depths of our sin to the heights of heavenly places.
How do we make it through the journey of this life? We can see life as a struggle in which we must fight our way through tooth and claw day after day- or we can see our life as depending entirely on God’s mercy. We can see our life as safe and secure in God’s faithfulness. We can look to Jesus and see the path of life.
Yes, there are many things we can look upon with our eyes that cause us discouragement. Whether it is neighborhoods in disrepair or the imperfections of our own lives that discourages us- what we see does not tell the whole story.
Although we see evidence of our fallen world all around us and evidence of the results of our sin- we also see clear evidence of God’s mercy and love toward us. We see that Jesus is for us as we sit in church and see the jeweled cross and see on the altar the elements of bread and wine through which we will see Jesus body and blood given to us.
We see also that we are not alone on the journey. The inside of a church worship space has been called the Nave, which is a maritime name for the heart of the ship. We are traveling together in this ship of the church toward the glories of eternal life. And just like on a ship at sea during a storm, it is all hands on deck. Everybody has a role to play in keeping the ship traveling the seas as well as it is designed.
We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand. Because of the great news that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, because we can look to the Savior and be saved, we are free to do our best workmanship.
Instead of just trying to survive in life, as our perspective helps us see that we are already saved, we can relax and do the works God has made us to do. Works of kindness and patience, works of courage, works of creativity and hope, labors of love.
We are on a journey through the wilderness of this world, a journey where we support one another, as His workmanship. Looking to Jesus and believing in faith that He is our way, our truth and our life. Amen.