The End That Is The Beginning

For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. (Romans 14:9 ESV) In the end, how are we to get along as fellow redeemed? Paul concludes his words of encouragement to the sisters and brothers in Rome with this powerful truth: Jesus is Lord of the dead and the living! How is this to help us in our struggle to live in harmony with one another? Romans 14 helps us to understand judgement from a new perspective. We are not independent islands to ourselves, but we are rather an interconnected tapestry of faith and action in life and death to the Lord.

Here at International Lutheran Church, we finally come to the end of our journey On the Roman Road. Like all good endings there is an opportunity to look back to see where we have gone and to marvel again about what it all means. This evaluation can sometimes sound a bit threatening. What change might be needed? What adjustments are coming? This is why we don’t often like to look too closely into the final outcomes.

But this is just the beginning. We can’t move forward without considering where we have been. But that can seem scary. It certainly was for Joseph’s brothers. At the death of Jacob, their father, the brothers got worried that Joseph might take this as an opportunity to repay them for all the evil they had done him (Genesis 50:15-21). After all, they had thrown him into a pit and sold him into slavery. Because of their jealousy, Joseph rotted in an Egyptian jail, forgotten and alone for years. Would the tables now turn against them? We can certainly understand their plan to come up with yet another command from their father from the grave - “Forgive them all the evil!”

What we don’t expect, and what doesn’t make much sense, is Joseph’s and ultimately Jesus’ response to the question about forgiveness. Where does it come from after all? In the end, who pays and makes things right? Joseph says, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” Jesus tells Peter a parable about how God has, in His mercy, not only released us from His wrath but has even forgiven our entire debt (Matthew 18: 21-35). How can we live a forgiving life? Jesus, the true and rightful Joseph, would suffer and die to pay all our debt. We forgive because He forgave us. We are not our own, and neither is our sister or brother. We are all His. His death and His resurrection make this fact clear. All belong to Him. Every knee will bow, and every mouth will confess. We don’t have to worry about setting things right, because He has already made all things right. In His body on the tree, He took our evil, our actions, our jealousy, our spite and our rage and turned it into God’s grace and mercy.

The end is truly the beginning. Even what we eat and drink can bring glory to God. Every day can be holy to the Lord. We are freed from judging our brother and sister and can now love and care for them in the same way that Joseph looked at his life in a completely new way. Yes, Jesus’ death and resurrection is the heart and soul of our life of faith lived out in light of God’s mercy as we are reoriented in our minds and behavior to show His forgiveness and love to all. God grant us His willing Spirit to live in such a way that would lead others to Him.

Pastor Carl