Rescue

God is our refuge and strength, a helper who can always be found in times of trouble. That is why we will not fear when the earth dissolves and when the mountains tumble into the heart of the sea. Its waters roar and foam. The mountains quake when it rises (Psalm 46:1-3). Amen.

Three weeks ago, the Alpine Fire District rescued a Utah man whose side-by-side — and prosthetic leg — were trapped in the thick mud of Palisades Reservoir. The side-by-side got stuck. Then the man’s prosthetic leg got stuck when he exited the side-by-side. He had no way of getting himself to safety without getting his whole body hopelessly stuck.

Thankfully, the stranded man was able to send his coordinates to the Alpine Fire District, but getting to him wasn’t easy. When they located the man, Alpine Fire volunteers tried to walk out to him. It was quickly apparent how he’d gotten stuck. One of the volunteers said, “We couldn't even walk in that mud. We were getting stuck, too. It was past our calves.” When the team finally reached the man and his side-by-side his prosthetic leg was nearby, buried in two feet of mud.

Once they’d excavated enough mud with shovels and with their hands, they winched the side-by-side onto dry ground. They dug the prosthetic leg out of the mud and handed it to the man. Then, the man stepped on the gas and got himself back to the campground where he was staying.

The volunteers didn’t get the name of the stranded Utah man, but the man did share how ironic the situation was for him. One volunteer told his story, “He said that he's not used to calling for help because he's usually the one giving help. He said the way he lost his leg was helping two girls at a car wreck, and a semi hit him.”

That was a unique rescue that happened a few weeks ago in western Wyoming. Another unique rescue happened 509 years ago in Wittenburg, Germany.

On October 31, 1517, a 34-year-old Augustinian monk named Martin Luther walked up to the castle church door in Wittenberg and posted 95 theses penned in Latin for the purpose of theological debate. Martin Luther wanted to talk. He wanted to know why the teaching of his Roman Catholic Church did not square with what he had learned from Holy Scripture. He had felt trapped for so long in his sins. It didn’t matter how many nights he stayed awake praying, or how many floors he scrubbed clean, or how many times he whipped himself, he could not make himself be a better person; he could not make himself more pleasing to God. In fact, Luther grew to hate Jesus, because he only saw Jesus as a condemning Judge, not as a loving Savior. Luther felt overwhelmed, trapped in the darkness and crushing weight of his sins. He needed a rescue.

Luther wanted to know why, if the Pope had the power to spring souls from purgatory, he didn’t just do so out of the goodness of his heart. He wanted to know how a piece of paper, an indulgence letter, could supposedly reduce time in purgatory, as if God was a crooked jailer who could be bought with a bribe. Luther wanted know what all this had to do with Jesus who hung dead on a cross one good, dark Friday for the sins of the world.

Then the Holy Spirit opened the Scriptures to Luther, and he learned that though he could never please God, God was pleased with him because of what Jesus had done for Luther while on the cross. Luther was free! He was shown the light! Luther wanted others to experience that same freedom. He wanted others to see the light of Christ!

The Festival of the Reformation is about one word - rescue. St. Paul writes about that rescue this way, “There is no difference, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24).

All have sinned. Let that sink in. All have sinned. From the most senior of citizens to the infants still in the womb, we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. From the murderers on death row, to the preachers in the pulpit, to the teenagers on the athletic field, to the sweet grannies in the nursing home, we have all sinned and missed the mark of God’s perfection.

We may think we’re alright, that we’re fine, that we’re not all that sinful. We may mistake God’s patience over our sin for acceptance of our sin. Paul explains, “God did this (he was patient) to demonstrate his justice, since, in his divine restraint, he had left the sins that were committed earlier unpunished” (Romans 3:25). We may think we’re looking fine … until we look into the mirror of God’s Law and it forces us to “become conscious of our sin.” Look at what our sins do to us. Our jealousies corrupt our relationships with our neighbors. Our secret sins keep us hiding in the dark for fear of our children or spouse finding us out. Our sexual sins from the past continue to make us feel dirty and guilty. Our quick mind and our sharp tongue keep getting us into trouble at work and school. Our worry over our children, our fear over the economy, our anxiety over our next paycheck keeps us up at night, makes us irritable toward our family, and sinks us further into depression.

How do our sins affect our relationship with God? In his patience, God does not quickly bring judgment on us. God’s patience makes us believe that sin isn’t serious. But the truth is that sin is very serious. In fact, God says that the consequence for our sin is death. “The wages of sin is death.” That’s more than the death that gets us to end up in the cemeteries. The consequence of our sins – our inborn sins, our accidental sins, our intentional sins – is eternal death – everlasting condemnation in the unquenchable fires of hell.

You and I are like that stranded, one-legged man stuck in the mud. There we sat out in the open, nowhere to go, nothing we can do for ourselves, and no way to call for help. We were trapped. Our situation was hopeless. We couldn’t dig ourselves out. We couldn’t talk ourselves out. We couldn’t walk our way out. We could do nothing. Except wait … wait for our death.

But then a rescue came! So that we might be forgiven of every and all of our sins, our gracious heavenly Father gave a promise of a Savior to sinners of all ages: “The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant (promise) with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31). Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that long-awaited promise!

The Son of God entered our dark world. He found a way to get to us in our desperate need. When no one and nothing else could get to us us, he found a way. On the way to rescue us, Jesus spent his life fulfilling all the laws of God that we have ever broken. He resisted every temptation of Satan that we have ever fallen victim to. He carried upon his perfect shoulders the very sins that condemned us. Jesus shone the light of his salvation into our dark and depraved world. He covered our naked, shivering, sinful bodies with the white robe of his righteousness. He fed our starving souls with the Bread of Life which is his holy Word. He washed away a lifetime of filth and mud when he poured baptismal waters over us.

Finally, on the cross, Jesus completed all that had been asked of him, all that we needed of him, and he declared his work to be finished. He had taken our place – in his humble life, in his brutal death, and with his corpse placed into a dark hole in the ground. Three days later our rescue was completed when Jesus rose victoriously from the grave. Now we have been rescued. Released. Freed. We have been made alive in Christ. We have seen the light of his Easter resurrection.

That’s what it means when St. Paul writes, “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).

In his life as a monk, Martin Luther tried very hard. In the monastery, he dedicated himself to a life of religious devotion. But the harder he tried, the more he realized that he didn’t measure up to God’s standard of perfection. Luther couldn’t rid himself of sinful thoughts. He couldn’t bring himself to love God with his whole heart. Luther became painfully aware of his sinfulness, and he couldn’t shake it or overcome it. He was waiting to be punished for his sins. Luther only knew God’s Law. He had yet to be led by the Holy Spirit to know the good news of the Gospel in Jesus Christ.

Thank the Lord that God was patient with Luther. Thank the Lord that God is patient with all of us. When the Bible says that “in his divine restraint, [God] had left the sins that were committed earlier unpunished” that does not mean that God isn’t serious about sin. Rather, it means that he mercifully loves us. God’s patience means that instead of punishing us, God punished his Son. Though we may experience the earthly consequences of our sin, God has graciously removed the eternal consequences for the sake of Christ. God demonstrated his justice by putting his Son under our judgment. God poured out his wrath on his own Son, so that we might be declared to be sons and daughters of the heavenly Father.

The Reformation is about the Gospel of Jesus, and the Gospel of Jesus is about your rescue. It is your freedom. It is your justification. It is your declaration of innocence. “For we conclude that a person is justified by faith without the works of the law” (Romans 3:28).

This Bible verse needs to be engraved in our minds and burned on our hearts. It’s one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible, not for its poetry but for what it says. You – a sinner, a prodigal son and daughter of Adam who have no case, no defense – you are justified, declared righteous, holy, and innocent in God’s courtroom. You have been set free because of Jesus Christ’s living, dying and rising for you. You have been granted salvation through the gift of faith in Jesus, and not by your “good” life. Not your commandment keeping. Not your family values. Not your religious good works.

The unnamed Utah man was rescued. He was then able to walk away in freedom. Every day, you and I get to walk around in the freedom of God’s forgiveness. Forgiveness in the waters of Baptism. Forgiveness in the words of absolution. Forgiveness found in the pages of Scripture. Forgiveness proclaimed in our Psalms and hymns and today with the spiritual songs sung by Stephen Bautista. Forgiveness tasted in the Lord’s Supper. Forgiveness offered by the pastor. Forgiveness given between spouses, between parents and children or between siblings. Enjoy daily walking in the freedoms Christ won for you through your rescue.

It is the forgiveness and freedom that found Luther 509 years ago. It is forgiveness and freedom, that by God’s grace, has found you. You are free! You are forgiven! You are rescued!

Like Martin Luther, doesn’t that make you want to tell someone? Doesn’t that make you want to nail it to every church door in Casper? Amen.

The Lord of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is a fortress for us (Psalm 46:46).