1.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The message from God’s Word is taken from 1
Samuel 24:1-20 (READ TEXT). It’s entitled,
“Forgiveness Stronger than Death,” Dear
brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Christ brings nothing short of life
from death. This news is too good to be stuffed into only one day. Every Sunday
is a “little Easter,” and today is
the second Sunday of the Easter season. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. He
has defeated death! Like sin, death
makes for a separation. No wonder that in Eden the Lord predicted death as the
big result of sin! Elsewhere he tells us that death is the wages of sin (Romans
6:23). The Bible says that “sin when it
is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15). The devil is always
promoting both, sin and death. It is especially appropriate in this Easter
season for us to see that the Lord’s answer to sin and death is forgiveness,
forgiveness stronger than death.
3.
By the time of our text, David had
come a long way since we last saw him fighting against Goliath. He became a
soldier in King Saul’s army in addition to being Saul’s personal musician. He
had married one of Saul’s daughters and struck up a close friendship with
Saul’s son Jonathan. But King Saul had grown jealous of David and attempted to
take his life. David fled. He had sought help from Samuel. He even tried to
seek refuge from Saul with the countrymen of Goliath, the Philistines. On more
than one occasion there had been a “close
call” in which Saul nearly succeeded in his goal of killing David.
4.
As this text begins, the tables
seemed to have turned. Saul and a force 3000 strong had pursued David and his
much smaller band of men to the region of Engedi, an oasis on the western shore
of the Dead Sea where there were many caves. Saul entered one of these caves to
answer the “call of nature,” not
realizing that David and his men were hiding in that very cave! Saul was by himself and for the moment
defenseless. Might we say he was caught with his pants down? This looked like
too good an opportunity to pass up, as David’s men whispered to him. It seemed
to them that the Lord was putting their enemy Saul into David’s hand, so they
urged David to kill Saul outright. This one act would solve so many of their
problems. The way would be opened up for David to become king.
5.
For his part, David knew that the
Lord had anointed him through Samuel to be the next king. Then, too, there was
no denying that Saul had been sinning by all his attempts to murder David up to
and including the present moment. As David crawled toward Saul in the darkness
of the cave, his temptation to do what his men wanted must have proven
strong. At the same time, though, David
remembered that Saul also was the Lord’s anointed. He should not lift his hand
against the Lord’s anointed. David was faced with two things God had said that
seemed to conflict with one another. On one hand, David was the Lord’s
anointed, yet on the other hand Saul was also the Lord’s anointed. These two
facts did not quite add up.
6.
Despite the fact that David had very
little time to “do the math,” he
arrived at the right answer. He would not use one of these words from God to
cancel out the other. Instead, David held onto both of the seemingly
conflicting things and let the Lord work matters out. In this case, he was
going to wait upon the Lord to work out the timing of his accession to the
throne. David refused to take matters into his own hands by killing Saul. Instead, David showed forgiveness. This
forgiveness was stronger than death. Rather than stabbing Saul, David merely
cut off a corner of his cloak. Then it bothered David that he had even cut off
a piece of the king’s clothing.
7.
When Saul got up to leave, David
followed. The king heard a voice calling from behind him. He turned. There was
David, bowing. As they talked, David showed Saul the portion of cloth he had
cut from the cloak. Saul realized that David had acted toward him in kindness
even though he himself had been going all out to kill David. “You are more righteous than I,” Saul
said (1 Samuel 24:17). The younger man could have killed the older king, but he
didn’t. David had indeed shown forgiveness stronger than death.
8.
It always proves difficult to love
the unlovable and forgive the unforgivable. When we relate to other people,
sometimes it seems we would rather avoid the entire subject of forgiveness even
when it is desperately needed. Maybe we fear that we won’t find a good enough
reason to forgive other people, or that they will not be able to come up with
adequate reason to forgive us. Sin separates, and sometimes we sinners despair
of finding a bridge to re-establish the connection anywhere in this world. Hard as that can seem, though, how do you
connect across the enforced separation of death? All our attempts at love
cannot prevent it, and none of our loving intentions can bridge it. Therefore,
when loved ones die, we can end up harboring great regrets over things we let
go unsaid. Now we will not be able to get these words across to the one who has
died. Sin separates, and death separates with a vengeance. Vengeance, of
course, is the Lord’s. Separation from him looms as the ultimate horror, and he
solemnly says the soul that sins shall die.
9.
Can we really believe in a
forgiveness stronger than death? There
is One who has defeated death, the crucified and risen Christ. Any lasting
forgiveness stronger than death has to come from him, and it does. Christ beat death at its own game. Yes, in
our sins God’s law has us dead to rights.
But, there is help in the fact that the Man Jesus Christ has come and
has assumed and borne our sin and death, which we had justly deserved, and that
he now steps forth in our behalf, confronts the Law, sin, and death and says: “I am of the same flesh and blood; these are
My brothers and sisters. What they did, I did; and I paid for it. Law, if you
want to condemn them, condemn Me. Sin, if you want to bite and kill them, bite
Me. Death, if you want to consume and devour, devour Me.” (AE 28:210)
10.
This is what Christ our Lord says. He
has defeated death and all his other enemies. For they failed to accomplish
what they had intended to do. For through the very event by which they expected
to kill him and to win the victory, he emerged again and said to the Law, sin,
and death: “Do you not know that I am
your Lord and God? What right do you have to accuse and to slay your Lord?
Therefore you shall do this no more; but rather I will accuse and condemn you
and dispatch you so thoroughly that you will henceforth have no claim on anyone
who believes in Me.” (AE 28:211).
11.
When Christ rose from the dead and
showed himself alive to his disciples, he came right through the wall of their
locked room and said, “Peace be with you”
(John 20:19). Jesus gave them his peace, the peace that comes from his
victory. A bit later he “breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive
the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you
withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld’ ” (John 20:22–23). Here you
have it: a word of forgiveness, stronger than death! This word comes from the
risen Christ. It is accompanied by his Holy Spirit. This word packs all the
power that raised Christ from the dead, all the power that made the world in
the first place.
12.
This forgiving word brings about
what it says. It gives forgiveness that endures, now and forever. It proves
stronger than death, for it takes away death’s power to kill us and, behind
that, the law’s power to accuse us. It bridges the separation between God and
sinful people, totally from God’s side. For it brings us Christ the Mediator
and his forgiveness, which is stronger even than death. We need this forgiveness otherwise nothing
looms on the horizon but death. When we look around ourselves, we see a world
of sin and death. We see sin in ourselves, too, and God’s law finds that sin
unfailingly. Is there an adequate basis for us to be forgiven before God? His
law has us dead to rights. Unpleasant as this condemning word is, we dare not
minimize it, for it is God’s.
13.
Yet God has another word for us,
too, the word of forgiveness from none other than the risen Christ. “By this we shall . . . reassure our heart
before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart”
(1 John 3:19–20). Like David, we let the Lord work matters out. Anything we
might try to add would turn into a disaster!
Jesus worked out the matter of our forgiveness and salvation in his life
and death. So it was finished. Then he was raised from the dead. “What the Son had given the Father on
Calvary, the Father now in the garden of the tomb gave to the world.”3
14.
When Christ rose, the treasure of
his atoning work was offered to everyone in the word of forgiveness that is
stronger than death. It is offered to you right now. Christ’s forgiveness becomes the basis for us
to forgive others. For my neighbor’s sin is no longer his, for me to hate him.
Nor is it mine to hold against him. God has placed that sin on the shoulders of
the Lamb of God, who carried it away with the rest of the sin of the world. In confirmation class you have learned that
you need God’s forgiveness within the Church all the years of your life for we
daily struggle with sin all the years of our lives.
15.
That’s why
confirmation is not graduation! You’ve heard me say it. Today simply begins
another part of your journey, or your pilgrimage, that our Lord has set before
you. For that journey, that pilgrimage, you’ll need strength. When you go on a
hike, you might walk ten miles the first day, but without rest and food, the
second day will bring only eight or nine miles. So it is with faith. It needs
to be fed. If it’s not, it will weaken to the point of death.
16.
That strength,
that endurance for the pilgrimage, is yours in the receiving of God’s gifts to
you. It began at your Baptism, when he washed away your sins. That faith is
strengthened as that spiritual food is poured into your ears through the spoken
and sung Word proclaiming Jesus and his life and salvation; it’s yours as you
hear those comforting words of his Absolution. Your sins are forgiven in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That strength will
soon be yours as our Lord pours and places into your mouth his very body and
blood, given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sin.
17.
In the text
David showed his faith. He had not yet been enthroned as king. He was hardly
experiencing the kingship at this point. To the contrary, he was on the run
from Saul. Still, David already was the king by God’s anointing. At this point,
he could participate in this reality only by faith. So also, you and I
participate in the reality of Christ’s forgiveness, and everything else that it
brings, by faith. In faith, we say with the apostle, “If God is for us, who can be against us? . . . It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn?” (Romans 8:31, 33–34). In the risen Lord Jesus Christ we
have forgiveness stronger than death. In him, nothing can separate us from
God’s love. Now the peace of
God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus
until life everlasting. Amen.
