April 30, 2012 - Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Today's Reading: Isaiah 40:25-31
Daily Lectionary: Leviticus 9:1-24; Luke 9:18-36
To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?" says the Holy One. (Isaiah 40:25)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Christ is risen! When you think of God, who do you think He's like? To whom do you compare Him? Is He like that friend who always sticks by your side no matter what stupid things you do? Is He like that person who's always keeping score, always certain about how much you owe and how much you have to pay back? Is he more like Gandalf or Dumbledore? Jim Carrey or Steve Carell?
On the one hand, Jesus is not like us at all. Perfect. Sinless. He has united to His human nature the divine nature of the Son of God. He made all things. He is the one by whom all things were made. All things exist because of Jesus.
On the other hand Jesus is just like you. True man. A true human being. He was tempted. He suffered. He bled. He died. What saves us from our sins is not that God made Himself equal to you but that He made Himself lower than you. Covered with your sins. Nailed to the cross by your iniquities.
Which makes Jesus like no other god out there. We heard it last week and we hear it again: Only the true God became man for you, died for you and was alive three days later for you. The whole Christian faith into which you have been baptized and which you believe is a faith which clings to a God who is nothing like the gods we invent for ourselves — reflections of our own sins and selfishness.
No, this God creates. This God saves. This God redeems and sanctifies. This God is born. This God lives and dies and lives again. This God washes and absolves and feeds. No, there is no one like Jesus, who being nothing like us became like us so that we might become like Him: holy and precious and righteous in the Father's sight.
To whom shall we compare God? No one really. Jesus is who He is. True God. True man. All Savior. Christ is risen! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Praise be to Him who, Lord Most High, The fullness of the Godhead shares; And yet our human nature bears, Who came as man to bleed and die, And from His cross there flows our peace Who chose for us the path He trod, That so might sins and sorrows cease And all be reconciled to God. (LSB 538:3)
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