Mediation
NL Year 1 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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How many of you watched the coronation of King Charles III and Camilla? I did not watch it but I did read some articles about it and see a few short video clips. I bet we could all tell that it was well orchestrated from start to finish and that at every turn only those people who were supposed to be in each particular area were allowed there. That sense that only certain people were allowed was based on either that they were needed because they had a specific role, or they were invited to be present based on their status or connection to the royal family or the government. I very seriously doubt that there was there without the express knowledge of all those who were coordinating the coronation.
I am also sure that very similar things happened back when kings and queens held royal court. No one was in the throne room without people knowing why they were there and the purpose they had to be there. People weren’t just allowed to come and be with royalty. There was no need for them to come and hang out or associate themselves with these people of power and influence. Even though we don’t have royalty in our own country, there is no way to get to the president or anyone in the White House or Congress without the proper clearance. The same was true for caesar during the time of Paul and the early church. In fact, not only was caesar their emperor, but he was also considered the son of the gods, so there was the added level of care to this person who was so important to the function and status of the empire.
This elite status was even something that made sense to the Israelites because, as someone pointed out in our Bible Study, only the high priest could enter the holy of holies in the temple. It was understood that God was there and everyone else was outside that space becuase no one was good enough or holy enough to be in the presence of God.
On the surface it may not seem like it, but this idea of status and who has access to certain people and places, plays a very important role in what Paul is trying to share with the Romans in this portion of his letter we just read. In verse 2 we have language that talks about how we have access by faith into grace and that we stand through him. That word access in the Greek can have this very specific imagery of having the right and privilege of being in the throne room and being able to hold court with the king or queen. It is also reinforced by the word stand. It goes on to say that we are able to stand there which continues to affirm that language of being in the presence of someone very important.
The other part of this passage that has this throne room and status imagery is when Paul talks about dying on behalf of a righteous or a good person. I bet that there were plenty of security at the coronation of King Charles and Camilla and all those other courts and national leaders we talked about. The whole reason for these service men and women is to protect these people that we call important in the eyes of the world. These are ‘good’ people that others are willing to die for, but there are many instances that other good people and especially righteous people that people wouldn’t even consider dying for them.
We have this whole conversation about world leaders and powers and the status they have in this life. People are willing to die for these important people and yet the godly and righteous people are doing all these important things on behalf of God and no one gives a second thought about that. Not only that, but Paul says that most of the world doesn’t even give God a second thought, let alone a person who speaks up on behalf of God. That is why Paul talks so much about being weak, lawlessness, sinners, and being enemies with God. He wants us to see the kind of state we were in, and the kinds of things we were focused on and who we felt was most important in this world.
He does that to show us just how important it was for God to send Jesus into this world and why Jesus had to die and rise from the dead. Not only that but then God sent the Holy Spirit so that we might receive the love of God. In fact, Paul uses the word ‘through’ and ‘by’ 12 times in those eleven verses to show us that everything that we have and all the love, grace, forgiveness, righteousness, peace and everything else that is good and holy is through the work of Jesus Christ, not by our own doing or by our following the law. It is through Jesus that have access to enter into the throne room and see our God and know our God. It is by the gift of the Holy Spirit that we receive the love of God poured out for us. It is through the death of the king’s son that we are no longer weak, or lawless, we are no longer sinners or enemies with God, but we have been made right by Jesus and given the gift of God’s kingdom both here and now, and in the life to come.
Paul’s ultimate point is twofold: First, he wants us to understand that all of this was done through and by Jesus and that it is nothing that we can ever do on our own. On our own we have continued the path of sin, so Christ came to make it all right. That is why when we picked up in our reading today Paul is advocating that it is not the adherence to the law that will save us because we aren’t capable of salvation. It is only by Christ and through Christ that we can approach and be in a restored relationship with God. Second, he wants us to understand that we do have full access to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. There is no temple, there are not secret service, or anything that can stand between us and the one who created us. God’s love for us is so deep and profound that Jesus wants us to know that there are no barriers or obstacles that will ever stopping us from having access to the love of God as found in Christ Jesus.
In God’s court everyone is welcome. In God’s court we are all equal in God’s eyes. It doesn’t matter if we are weak or strong lawful or lawless, sinner or saint, for Christ came for all of us and by his sacrifice we have been made right. It is God’s love for us, not our love or God that makes life, righteousness, reconciliation, forgiveness and salvation all possible. Live into this day and the rest of your days knowing that you can freely enter into the throne room and be loved by the king of all creation all because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen.