1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word today is taken
from Joshua 7:1-6 & 10-15 (READ TEXT).
It’s entitled, “The Domino
Effect,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Around 1970
or so, people outside the Church, and not a few inside, were claiming that
something had to be done about Lent. They wanted to see it shortened, if not
abolished altogether. Aren’t you glad their ideas didn’t catch on? To them, Lent seemed too morbid and gory.
They thought that Lent devoted excessive attention to the suffering and death
of Christ. But how can too much attention ever be devoted to the work of our
Savior? While we’re dwelling upon the saving work of Christ, we need to put the
emphasis in the right place. Yes, it’s important to be aware of what Jesus went
through with things like the crown of thorns, the nails, and the cross. We
should also keep in mind the big picture that goes beyond the physical
sufferings anyone would sustain in such a case. For THIS Sufferer is none other
than God become Man. It’s with his holy, precious blood and his innocent
suffering and death that he redeemed you and me. Seen in this light, Lent looks
still more dreadful, yet better for us sinners for whom Christ died.
3.
This leads
to a second reason why people wanted to shorten or abolish Lent. They figured
that Lent focuses too much on sin. To be sure, Lent is a penitential season in
which we give special attention to our sin. If sin isn’t so serious, then Lent
overemphasizes it, as does the Bible itself. But, sin stands out as our major
problem. It forms the barrier between us and God. It would be terrible to
emphasize sin during Lent if we only ended up wallowing in our sin, not getting
rid of it. But Lent is for us to get rid of sin, for Lent is about Christ. And
Christ is for us to get rid of sin. I need Lent, and I’m sure you do too.
4.
Have you
ever driven a bent nail into a piece of wood? It doesn’t make the kind of hole
a straight nail would make. The bent nail slices into the wood in unwanted
ways, due to its own misshapen shape. Human beings were created to give God the
“straight glory.” That’s what the
word orthodox means. In our sin we
have turned in on ourselves. The natural shape we have as sinners is not one
that points to God. Instead, we point to right back to ourselves. “As little as a crooked nail can make a
clean, straight hole when it is driven into a board, but cuts and gouges
the fibers in accordance with its own twists and bends, so little can bent man
move through life without causing the sorrow and grief that he himself suffers.”
5.
Every time
we break one of God’s commandments 2–10 we’re showing a symptom of our real
disease, that we don’t fear and love the Lord our God as we should. Our text takes us to the aftermath of the
great and miraculous victory over Jericho that was brought about for Israel by
the Lord. Jericho and everything in it was “devoted”
to the Lord. All the people were condemned, and all the silver and gold, bronze
and iron things were to go into the Lord’s storehouse. Here was one more way in
which the Lord was pointing out who he was and is. Despite these orders,
though, an Israelite soldier named Achan took a robe, some silver, and a bar of
gold for himself and buried them in the ground under his tent.
6.
Israel’s
next military target was puny Ai, against which Joshua sent a force of only
three thousand. This should have been plenty of manpower. But the Israelite
army was routed, and some thirty-six of its soldiers were killed. The defeat
threw Joshua into a panic, for it seemed that the Lord had abandoned his
people, leaving them surrounded by enemies. However, the Lord told Joshua that
someone had taken some of the devoted things. He instructed Joshua to find the
culprit by holding a parade of sorts. Israel would pass in review before the
Lord and before Joshua first by tribes, then by clans of the appropriate tribe,
then by families of the appropriate clan, and finally by individuals. The
culprit Achan was thus identified. The Lord said he was to be burned with
everything he had, including his sons and daughters.
7.
One way to
think about Achan’s sin is to ask which commandment he broke. Really, we should
ask which commandments Achan broke. For every time we break one of God’s
commandments 2–10, it forms a symptom of the fact that we have broken God’s
first and most basic commandment. If we were fearing and loving God as we
should, we would have no problem with any of his other commands.
8.
So, consider
Achan’s sin. He saw the robe, the silver and gold. Even though they were not
supposed to be his, he wanted them. In other words, he coveted. Then he did something.
He took what was not his. That is, he stole. But this was only the beginning.
In addition to these obvious infractions of God’s law, Achan broke the Fifth
Commandment as his misdeed caused the death of some thirty-six Israelite
soldiers. He was not loving his wife and family as he should have when he got
them into trouble along with him. So much for the Sixth Commandment. Achan’s
military commanders had told him not to take the devoted things. When he took
them anyway, he was violating the Fourth Commandment. Behind the commanders’
words stood the Word of God, which Achan also did not heed. So he broke the
Third Commandment. He brought dishonor to the Lord’s name when Israel lost the
battle at Ai, and thus he broke the Second Commandment. Remember, every time
Achan broke any of the other commandments, he was also breaking the First. Of
course, Achan bore false witness by covering up his crime. There goes the
Eighth Commandment, and once more the first with it. Like dominoes in a row,
the commandments each fell in turn until Achan had left none standing.
9.
Put
differently, Achan was so bent in on himself that he ended up gouging
everything around him. You and I are the same way. We never break one and only
one of the Lord’s commandments. Every time we break any of the commandments
2–10, it shows that we have broken the First. Usually we end up breaking still
more. Sometimes, like Achan, in one move we pretty much manage to break them
all. It’s like one domino hitting another and another and another. The Epistle
of James says if you keep the law but
offend in but one point, you are guilty of all (James 2:10). This statement
shows how seriously God takes sin, but it is strictly hypothetical. We never
offend in only one point.
10.
Lent isn’t
for us to wallow in sin but to get rid of it. The Bible does not tell us in so
many words whether Achan went to heaven or hell. But, it does give what might
be called a hopeful hint concerning him. Although Achan lied at first, he
finally confessed his sin when Joshua said, “My son, give glory to the LORD God of Israel” (Joshua 7:19). Achan would give God glory by making his
confession of sin. That is, Achan did not want to keep his sin. He didn’t want
to hold on to it or identify with it. It was too late for Achan to do anything
about his sin—the damage had been done—but he wished to distance himself from
it.
11.
Now, Achan’s
wish didn’t bring about such distance between him and his sin. But Christ does.
God sent his Son so a sinner like Achan can off-load sin on him, on Christ. We
sinners should learn to “wrap” Christ
in our sins, for he has already wrapped himself in them. He shouldered our sin
all the way to his death on the cross.
12.
In a
paradoxical and profound way, Achan was giving the Lord glory by his confession.
For it is the Lord’s great glory that in Christ he saves sinners, people like
us who gouge everything around us, people capable of breaking all God’s
commandments at one time. He paid for all of your sin, every bit of it, and so
he frees you from it. God in his grace arranges things so that even our sins
bring him glory.
13.
One more
point becomes especially appropriate on this first Sunday in Lent: it is not
only the death of Christ but also episodes like his temptation by the devil
that become nearer and dearer to us when we see the dominoes of sin. For in
Christ’s temptation, as throughout his life in this world, he was doing
everything right. He was loving God and his neighbor as he resisted and
defeated the devil’s temptations. In this way, too, Christ was fashioning the
robe of righteousness that he places upon us. That is why pastors traditionally
wear white robes, even during the penitential season of Lent: to show the status
that every Christian has before God in Christ. Our sins, which were as scarlet,
have become white as snow.
14.
A young
lawyer moved to a new town and started practicing law. People came to know him
as a good and capable attorney. So, they could not understand why they would
see him walking to his office every day with his shoulders stooped, his head
down, and a frown on his face. Finally, one of the townspeople, a Christian and
an artist by trade, asked the young lawyer why he seemed so glum. The lawyer
said that right after he graduated from law school he had done something
terribly wrong. It was still bothering him. He had done the best he could to
set things right. Still, though, he could never seem to get away from this
wrong. It dogged his steps every day.
15.
The artist
decided to paint a picture for the young lawyer. After a few weeks, he unveiled
it. In the foreground of this painting was the lawyer, standing straight with
his shoulders back, a smile on his face and eyes looking brightly toward the future.
In the background there was a series of boxes—huge boxes, the kind
refrigerators come in— knocked down, one after another like a row of dominoes.
The last of the boxes was the biggest one. The artist told the lawyer, “If you like, think of this biggest box as
containing your sins. But mine are in another of these boxes, and everyone else
in town has a box here too.” The
biggest box in the painting had fallen against a cross. It would have crushed
anyone nailed to that cross, but the cross was now empty.
16.
The point of
the painting is clear. The dominoes of sin come to a stop at the cross of the
crucified but now risen Christ. Every
Sunday in Lent provides a little celebration of Christ’s resurrection victory,
the victory he now shares with us through his Word. Lent is for the removal of
sin and its guilt, since Christ is for the removal of sin and guilt. He took
all the dominoes of all sin, and lived to tell the tale! He took them for you. Amen. The peace of God that passes all
understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life
everlasting. Amen.
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