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HE CALLS THE
UNWORTHY AND THE UNWILLING.
EXODUS 3:1-15
In
the name + of Jesus.
Quiz time. Multiple choice. Which of these would you want to join this congregation?
A)
The first guy is a cheat who overcharges people in his business. But since he is the only one in town that
people can go to, there is nothing anyone can do about his theft.
B)
The second guy is a religious zealot.
He is a self-appointed crusader. He
does not merely spout off about his religious opinions, he attacks and vilifies
anyone who disagrees with him.
C)
The third guy is a one-percenter—wealthy and influential. Apparently, he thought he could get away with
anything. He killed a man in an act of
vigilante justice. He ran away from the
law and was in hiding for a long time. Now
he’s back.
Which of these three do you want to join
this congregation? How about all three? They are, in order, St. Matthew, the apostle
Paul, and Moses. Each one is highlighted
in the readings today.
The Bible never has any problem showing
that people are sinners. The point of
the Bible is not to show you one example after another of perfect people to
imitate. If that is all the Bible is, it
would feature no one but Jesus. And to
be sure, he is an example we should strive to live up to. Should; but we do not. No one does.
Jesus does not bring you into his kingdom because you are worthy. No one is.
And Jesus did not bring you into his kingdom because you were willing
and eager to belong. No one is.
This is what the Lord says: “Those who
are in harmony with the sinful flesh think about things the way the sinful
flesh does… For the mind-set of the
sinful flesh is hostile to God, since it does not submit to God’s law, and in
fact, it cannot” (Romans 8:5,7). So,
no one is worthy of God’s love. And sinners
do not willingly obey God’s word.
Nevertheless, he calls the unworthy and the unwilling.
When the Lord called Moses to deliver the
people of Israel out of the bondage of slavery, Moses was not interested in
going. That’s not to say that Moses
never had the desire to do it. Moses was
born to Hebrew parents who kept him hidden for some time, against Pharaoh’s
orders to kill the Hebrew baby boys.
After Pharaoh’s daughter rescued Moses from the Nile River, she sought a
wet nurse to care for him. He was taken
right back to his mother and father. No
doubt, they taught him about the Lord and his promises. But eventually, Moses was raised in Pharoah’s
house. “Moses was educated in all the
wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in his words and actions” (Acts
7:22). He learned how to be leader,
and he had hoped to put that to good use.
“After some time, … he went out to his
own people and observed their forced labor.
He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own people. After he looked this way and that, and he saw
that no one was there, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand”
(Exodus 2:11-12). Moses “thought
that his brothers would understand that God was giving them deliverance by his
hand, but they did not understand” (Acts 7:25).
Moses had taken the role of deliverer upon himself apart from God’s
calling. It failed miserably. Moses fled and spent the next forty years as
a shepherd. He was content to do that
for the rest of his life.
When Moses was 80 years old, God called
Moses to go back to Egypt and deliver his people. He called the unworthy and the
unwilling. Moses had proven his unworthiness
by usurping authority that was not his.
But once God granted that authority to Moses, Moses proved his
unwillingness. Now he did not want the
job. The Lord told Moses to go anyway. He calls the unworthy and the unwilling.
Our Old Testament reading does not include
the entire exchange between the Lord and Moses.
If you read Exodus 3-4, you will discover that five times Moses threw up
excuses why he should not do what the Lord told him to do. But the Lord calls the unworthy and the
unwilling. God’s call, God’s mercy, and
God’s love are never based on how worthy or willing we are. It is always based on who God is.
He calls the unworthy and the unwilling,
but few people believe that they are unworthy of God’s love. We tend to love ourselves. If someone does not like us, we are confused
by that. Our family and friends like
us. We like ourselves. Why would anyone think differently? But this self-centered love only proves our
sinfulness.
We love ourselves above all things. We love others who love us back. And we love God when he agrees with us. This reverses God’s command. Jesus taught us, “The most important
[commandment] is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your
strength.’ The second is this: ‘You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There
is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).
Note the order: God first, then others,
and yourself last. And we accept that to
an extent. But when God commands us to
do things that are hard, that’s when we prove our unwillingness. If you read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew
5-7), you will find many commands that are hard. And the Lord does not tell you to try
to do these things. He commands you to
do them. If you fall short, that is sin;
and sin incurs God’s wrath.
Consider just one of those commands. Jesus said, “I tell you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your
Father who is in heaven. For he makes
his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and
the unrighteous. Indeed if you love
those who love you, what reward do you have? Even tax collectors do that, don’t they? If you greet only your brothers, what are you
doing more than others? Do not even the
unbelievers do that? So then, be
perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:44-48). Do you willingly love those who hate
you? Do you gladly pray for those who
slander you? Do you faithfully do good
to those who do evil to you? Doing these
things isn’t easy, but it is godly. It
is what God himself does.
Doing what is godly usually means doing
what is hard. Fighting temptations is
hard. Standing firm on God’s word is
hard, especially when you are alone in doing it. It is easier to concede to your sinful
desires. It is easier to dodge
accountability for your sins than to own up to them and bear the consequences. We are more willing to do the easy thing that
we are the right thing. And if we are
unwilling to do the good God seeks, we are unworthy to receive the good God
gives. Repent!
Nevertheless, he calls the unworthy and
the unwilling. The Lord appeared to
Moses at the burning bush. “The LORD said,
‘Do not come any closer. Take your
sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy
ground.’ He then said, “I am the God of
your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’”
(Exodus 3:5-6). This was the first time that Moses had encountered the Lord
face to face; it was not, however, the first time Moses had ever heard of the
Lord. Moses believed in the Lord and in
his promises. Moses knew that God would
come and deliver his people to the Promised Land. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had
sworn by his very essence that he would bring their descendants to the Promised
Land.
If Moses felt he was insufficient to be
Israel’s deliverer, he was not wrong.
But when God called Moses, he added this promise: “I will certainly
be with you” (Exodus 3:12). Moses,
it’s not who you are; it is who I am, declares the Lord. God called Moses to do the hard thing, but
God would be with him to provide the strength to do it. He would even work in Moses the willingness
to serve as God directed. It never did
get easy, but Moses did the hard thing because it was the godly thing to do.
We have a God who also chose to do the
hard thing to save us. God Almighty took
on our humanity and chose to live in meekness and weakness among sinners. He suffered the insults of many. He was beaten and mocked by the wicked. He was falsely accused of all kinds of
wickedness by those who plotted his death.
“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his
mouth. Like a lamb he was led to the
slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent in front of its shearers, he
did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).
On the contrary, Jesus did the hard thing. He accepted the charges against every sinner
and made them his own. Jesus willingly was
cursed for our unwillingness to do the godly works which the Lord
commands. Although Jesus is worthy of
honor and praise, he was damned for the unworthy—for cheats like Matthew, for
persecutors like Paul, for murderers like Moses, and for every sinner, no
matter what they have done or who they have been. He calls the unworthy and the unwilling and
coverts them into godly people with godly desires.
Although Matthew’s thievery earned him scorn,
the Lord Jesus redeemed him from his past.
He sent him forth to freely gave away the riches of God’s grace. Although Paul had zealously hunted down
Christians for imprisonment and even death, the Lord Jesus redeemed him from
his past. Paul was sent forth with
redirected zeal. Paul hunted for those
who were not yet Christians to release them from the bondage to sin and
death. Moses tried to seize authority
that was not his when he acted as Israel’s deliverer. The Lord did not need the man who was bold. Instead, he called a humbled Moses and sent
him to deliver God’s people from slavery to freedom.
Perhaps your story is not as spectacular. Nevertheless, God has redeemed you from your past, whatever it was. He calls you to a noble life. He has set you apart for a greater kingdom and for godly works. He calls the unworthy and the unwilling. For, God converts the unwilling so that they find joy in doing what is good and right even if it is hard or mocked by others. And the God who is called “I AM” has promised, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20) to support you, to encourage you, to defend you, and to uphold you no matter how hard it gets. The Lord invested himself willingly and completely to save you. By this, he proves you have tremendous worth to him.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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