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| "The Joyous Exchange!"
Sadly, the news these days seems to be dominated by celebrity deaths. Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mays. And while memories and tributes pour in for these individuals about their talents and careers, whether in music, acting, or pitching a product, a great deal of focus has been placed on their bodies due to their untimely deaths, (both the deterioration before they died, as well as the autopsies). All in all it's a bit of a macabre subject. Let's face it: As Christians we hear regularly about our life in the Spirit, about the work of the Holy Spirit in us, about faith, grace, righteousness, justification, and truth, ...but deep down, what are we really thinking about? That's right: our bodies. We want to know what's going to happen to our bodies, that mug we're so familiar with every time we look into the mirror in the morning. We think about it especially as our youth begins to fade and our physical prowess begins to wane, and the aches and pains start to set in, and things begin not to work the way they used to, and then the more frequent hospital visits begin, and we would like to find the guy who coined the phrase that our later years are "the golden years," and give him a piece of our mind, because the only ones who seem to be making the gold are the doctors and the pharmaceutical companies. So let's talk about our bodies, or more specifically, Christ's body and why it has everything to do with us. Many of you have heard me preach before about what Martin Luther called "the joyous exchange," sometimes also referred to as "the glorious or marvelous exchange." The Bible teaches us that on the cross Christ took our sins upon Himself and gave us His righteousness in return. He made the exchange: our sins for His righteousness. He made the ultimate switch. We now have God's righteousness. We can no longer ask: "Am I righteous enough for God?" I AM God's righteousness for Jesus's sake. I don't just have it, I AM it! St. Paul proclaims, "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me!" So I don't just HAVE faith. I AM faith. I am the faith of Christ! HIS faith! In Galatians 2:20 Paul writes: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith OF THE SON OF GOD, who loved me and gave himself for me." [This is mistranslated as "faith in the Son of God" in most English Bible's, but in fact it's the faith OF the Son of God."] But what does that mean? It means that I, of my own accord, have no faith at all. All faith comes from Him. He is faith itself. Thus I can never again wonder, "Do I have enough faith? How can I get more faith?" Christ already IS my faith, He is faith itself. But back to the body. What about my body? Well, that has everything to do with the "joyous exchange." This joyous exchange takes place in 3 places, in the past, the present, and the future. 1) It took place on the cross: Christ exchanged the sins of the world, everyone who ever lived and ever will live, for his righteousness. That's all of humanity! (John 3:16) The righteous or the unrighteous! 2) It took place for you and for me at our baptism, and the daily exchange is the continuous action of the Holy Spirit throughout our lives: whenever and wherever unbelief occurs in our lives, the Holy Spirit snatches it away and replaces it with faith and the forgiveness of sins. Sin occurs? The power of sin is snatched away and exchanged for Christ's righteousness, replaced by faith and forgiveness before we can even be conscious of it. 3) It takes place at the Lord's Supper (and here is where the body comes in). In Holy Communion, Christ replaces your body with His! That's the whole point of Holy Communion! Every Easter the congregation shouts, "Christ has died, Christ has Risen, Christ will come again, He who will never die again!" If you have Christ in you, as St. Paul says, you possess HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, HIS FAITH, and because he will never die again, neither will you! If it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, then I too will live forever. Having received His forgiveness on the cross, having received His faith in baptism, I now receive His body at Holy Communion. I hear and believe the words, "This IS my body, this IS my blood. Take and eat. Take and drink." Jesus says in John 6, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me HAS eternal life." "I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, they will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you; but whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day." "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; but whoever eats of this bread will live forever." The German Luther scholar Heiko Oberman asks, "But what does one find 'here' in the Lord's Supper? The bodily Christ, the one everyone needs because we are more than mind and soul." He gives Luther's answer: "The mouth, the throat, the body which eats Christ's body should profit from it so it will live eternally and be resurrected on the Last Day. That is the heavenly power and the profit of Christ's body going into our body during the Lord's Supper." This was so important to Luther that he would not compromise it, even to the point of putting the entire Reformation at risk and with it thousands of lives. When Prince Philip von Hesse, for the sake of uniting the Lutherans and the Reformed for a common defensive front against the Catholic armies, sought to have Luther and the Swiss reformer Zwingli finally agree on whether the bread "is" Christ's body, or merely "represents" His body, he had them meet across a table and discuss the matter at great length. Zwingli argued that the Lord's Supper is merely a memorial service done "in memory" of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Luther insisted that Christ's word's at the Last Supper are clear; He said "this IS my body, this IS my blood," and not "this symbolizes or represents." (The word for "is" in Greek and Latin is "est.") Finally when it came to crunch time, Zwingli demanded Luther's final answer on the subject. Saying nothing, Luther took a piece of paper, wrote something on it, and then passed it across the table to the Swiss. On it was one word: EST! Though empires stood in peril and armies were about to march, the Word of God could not be compromised! Christ said, "This IS my body, this IS my blood," "shed for you [i.e., for your body/your blood, for all that makes you, you], the perishable putting on the imperishable, mortality putting on immortality. Through Christ's joyous exchange, first on the cross, then in our baptism, and now in Holy Communion, he preserves us body, mind, and soul, so that in Him and through Him we may have the fullness of joy on that great and glorious day, the Last Day, and that our joy may be complete! Thanks be to God in Christ Jesus for His "joyous/wonderful/marvelous exchange!" Amen. Pastor Kris Baudler |