MAKING THE GRADE WITH AN "F"
We have just completed a ritual recently. Many families have undergone an honored tradition that usually occurs twice during each year. This tradition is known as "final exams." Many of us have endured this ritual at several levels as we were or are being educated and with varying degrees, pardon the pun, of success. Isn't it reassuring to know that Christ endured examination in a more important manner? Indeed, we are reminded that some people test well and there are others that simply do not. I find myself in the "do not" category. As a matter of history, Jesus was tested in a very rigid and unforgiving way and still received a perfect "A." Our Scripture reading in Hebrews this morning calls our attention to this divine effort. The wonder of this season and this story are inextricably intertwined. Now this goes against what one minister said recently in an interview. He maintained that Easter was the more important celebration for Christians exceeding Christmas in its impact on ourselves. I have a different opinion and it resides in what Hebrews has to say. The Book of Hebrews comforts us with the revelation that our teacher never considered failing us in the only real test that we should be concerned about. As a matter of fact, he has already taken our test and we passed with a perfect "F." Thankfully, the eternal teacher, Christ grades "on the curve." Christ passed for all of us with that perfect "A", as in Atonement. And it is important to remember a simple definition for this word being "at-one-meant." We should remember that Christ was just like each of us. Jesus was human and all that is included in humanity except for one major attribute. Christ never sinned yet he took all of ours and the accompanying burdens. Truly, Hebrews reminds us that Christ says, "Here I am and the children whom God has given me." We all belong to Christ through this wonderful sacrifice as he underwent every test and grief thrust upon himself and passed it out of existence. This ultimate test that we all will face was atoned for and everyone passes with a perfect "F." The "f" of failure equates in our story as sin and with his redeeming passage; everyone's in! We all sin and Christ has taken out the sting of the entrance exam that is death. Yes, this exam is extremely different from those which we are more familiar and it is infinitely more personal. He literally broke the stranglehold of that unbeaten end and breached the last barrier for any of us. This final exam had never been passed until Christ arrived to exonerate any that would repent. Indeed, many scholars believe that the Apostle's Creed holds a key understanding when we consider the answer to this previously impassible test. When we affirm that "Christ descended into hell" in that Creed, it was because he exempted the final exam for believers who had already died before his birth and their chance for redemption. I would ask the aforementioned minister to consider that we must have both celebrations of Christ in unequalled measure to comprehend what he offers. We must celebrate both of Christ's accomplishments to understand the magnitude of eternal salvation. The mystery of a "virgin birth" and resurrection from the dead are amazingly wonderful and transfix us in continuing efforts to ponder these great gifts.
Today, we are called to study in a different vein. For atonement is the free gift; sanctification is the study that we are called to pursue. We may have passed the exam, yet we are to pursue a path toward holiness and purity from sin. We will never succeed, yet Christ exempts our perfect "F" with his own purity. His grace allows us to study and serve him as we follow the only perfect human example that will ever come. As Hebrews says, "For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father." We may never fully attain the grade, yet we are guaranteed success. How can we refuse to serve one that has faithfully served each of us and then completed God's purpose to offer us eternal life?
If we stand within the community of Christ, we have already passed the only requirement that we have to meet. If we are part of God's family, we just skipped the only exam that we should have to consider very important. Indeed, it is comforting that our Creator considers us family. The same passage in Hebrews in the translation, The Message, says it well, "Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin; Jesus doesn't hesitate to treat them as family. I'm here with the children that God gave me." So the perfect family allows us an "A" for atonement. The promise of covenant that began with Abraham saves everyone. Christ didn't come to save the angels he came to allow each of us to become one with God. To be exact; At One 'ment' with God is exactly that. We are within God when we repent. Yes, in atonement for sins, we become as one with God through Jesus Christ and are exempted from that humanly impassable test. Emmanuel, God with us, takes the test for all of us that recognize him as Savior and Lord. He opens the door to freedom for the family of God. The Message reminds us Christ endured the entire plight of humanity, "By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil's hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death." He underwent everything himself to offer himself, complete in his suffering and having been thoroughly tested.
The KJV righteously deems this beyond mere significance, it is absolutely essential; "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham." Christ could have accomplished this divinely, yet he took it faithfully in a fully human stature to deliver every son of Abraham spiritually. If we are the spiritual descendants of Abraham, and we are through the divine inheritance of David; we are that seed and are planted within the palm of Almighty God. We have been given the unbelievable gift of salvation by believing in the Son of God. Christ ignored his divine nature and dedicated himself to his human nature to loosen the bonds of death for everyone. This brings us to the second ritual tradition that we have recently passed through. In our reading from Matthew this morning, we see another of Abraham and David's heirs as he received an amazing visit. Evidently, Joseph didn't get much rest with all of his nightly visitations by Gabriel and his friends. I wonder if he ever got cranky as more nights were interrupted with angels delivering the latest travel information and destination. However, the immediacy and importance could not be ignored. Mary and Joseph and Jesus have to flee a tyrant. And three wise men are told to provide a ruse to allow the King of Glory to avoid the King of Israel. Another angelic visit brings Christ back to the throne that Herod so desperately and despicably tried to save for himself. And the terrible "slaughter of the innocents" is horrible to consider. Yet this newborn Savior enters the world and is delivered by the same sacrifice as the original deliverer Moses had to endure with the Passover in