Jesus Saves Us from Sin
Sunday, December 15, 2024
Third Sunday of Advent
Zep 3:14-18a/Phil 4:4-7/Lk 3:10-18 (Lectionary #9)
What keeps me from “rejoicing in the Lord always?” Is it mostly things outside of me that take away my joy or things inside of me? Are these things under my control? Does God have power over them?
Advent is dedicated to looking forward. This third Sunday of Advent is called “Rejoice (Gaudete) Sunday.” The Entrance Antiphon tells us why: it is because “the Lord is near.” If the Lord is with us, nothing can really harm us. No matter how sick or sad or set upon we feel, if Jesus is with us and within us, we have everything we need for the fullness of joy — forever.
Jesus is God. God is everything that is good and desirable. If we are united to Jesus and God through grace, we have within us right now everything we can possibly desire for all eternity. Anything we are suffering right now is like the pain of standing in the cold for a few minutes waiting for the door to open to a party.
During Advent we “look forward to the birthday of Christ” and also to “look forward with longing to his return at the end of time.” This puts our focus on the “wedding banquet of the Lamb,” when we will celebrate his birth, life and ours, his nuptials and ours for all eternity in the party to beat all parties. Before Communion, in a defiant response to every suffering, persecution, and death itself, the Church places us in the “end time.” The “marriage of the Lamb has come.” The Lamb has “taken away the sins of the world.” The Church is “coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Then the presiding priest proclaims in the words of the angel, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” “Blessed are those who are going to die!” Anyone who kills us is simply ushering us into the “wedding banquet of the Lamb.” This is reason to “Rejoice in the Lord always.” (Revelation 19:7-9; 21:1-3)
No more evil to fear
Zephaniah 3: 14-18 gives an answer to one source of our sadness: the sinfulness within us that we are all too painfully aware of.
Zephaniah says: “Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart.”
Why? Because “The Lord has taken away the judgments against you.” If God is not judging us, why should we judge ourselves so despondently? God inspired Zephaniah to tell us, “Fear not… be not discouraged!” Why? Because “the Lord, your God, is in your midst” as a “mighty savior.”
There it is: Jesus is the Savior. The name “Jesus” means “God saves.” And although being “saved” involves much more than deliverance from sin, this is the first thing the angel called Joseph’s attention to when he told him to give Jesus this name:
She [Mary] will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)
This is our first reason for rejoicing: Jesus saves us from our sins. If we are depressed because of our sinfulness, this means one of two things: either Jesus is calling us to a deeper conversion that we are resisting; or we don’t understand (or believe) what it means to say he “saves us” from sin.
Jesus does not just “pardon” us or “win” God’s pardon for our sins. Being pardoned doesn’t change us. Forgiveness takes place in the heart of the one who pardons, but those who are forgiven remain whatever they were before. Not so with the pardon Jesus gives. He is the “Lamb of God” who “takes away the sins of the world.”
Jesus saved us by taking us, with all of our sins, into his body on the cross. Then, when he died, we died “in him” and our sins were annihilated by death. This took place for us at our Baptism, when we went down into the waters of death and life with Christ and rose again with him, completely pure of sin, to live as his risen body on earth. This is the mystery of our redemption: our sins are not just forgiven but taken away by the Lamb of God, who was led to the slaughter to die so that we might die in him and live.
Every time we sin after Baptism and repent, our sins are incorporated into Christ’s body on the cross and annihilated. So, whenever we become aware of sin, we simply need to look at Christ on the cross and give our sins to him. Then forget them. He died to free us from sin. He has earned the right to do it. We are unjust if we hold back from him the sins he suffered to annihilate. He has earned his title to our sins. We need to give them to him and take our hand off the checker. They are his. Leave them to him. Let him have what he died for. Our past sins should not diminish our joy.
Rejoice and be glad. Always.
The Responsorial Verse tells us, “Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.” God has “drawn near” in Jesus and has united us to himself so that “in him” we might be “great” and “holy “too. Jesus tells us: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Paul repeats it:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.
This is what Jesus does for us as Savior: he makes it possible for us to be “holy and blameless” before God our Father — and before the scrutiny of our own conscience as well.
A concrete measure
The key to being “holy and blameless” is love. And love is not some far-away theoretical ideal. In Luke 3: 10-18 John the Baptizer makes it very concrete: “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” Share your resources. Share your time. Share your skills and energy. Share. This is love.
Luke’s Gospel is called the Gospel of “daily living.” Mark is stark: writing to persecuted Christians he says their suffering is their proof of love for God. Matthew, writing to Jewish Christians, shows Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophecies. John carries us constantly into mystery. But Luke shows John calling each category of people to convert to Jesus by changing the way they deal with money. Officials and politicians should not use their position to skim and profiteer. Soldiers and police should not use power to exact bribes or favors. Nor should governments use military force to foster economic interests. And all of us should share.
Jesus made this the condition for salvation: “Sell everything… and give the money to the poor… then come, follow me.” John Paul II saw this text as giving the key to love of neighbor. The principle is that nothing on this earth should be more important to us than our love for others. To “sell all” means we put all we have and are at the service of others: our time, energies, possessions, talents, “all we possess.” (Mark 10:17-20. See John Paul’s letter The Splendor of Truth (1993, nos. 18-20).)
This is the radical sharing Jesus empowers us to do by “baptizing us in the Holy Spirit and in fire.” “Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.” As Savior Jesus empowers us to love — in down-to-earth, radical ways.
Dismiss all anxiety
In Philippians 4: 4-7 Paul identifies Christian witness with unselfishness: “Everyone should see how unselfish you are.” What makes us able to be unselfish is that “God is near.” In him we have everything. So, we have no reason for anxiety — about anything. “Present your needs to God.” Freedom from anxiety about our own needs frees us to look to the needs of others.
But for this we need to enter into deep awareness of God and of the gift God is for us. We do this through “every form of prayer and in petitions full of gratitude.” If we confront the reality of God, and do so deeply, “then God’s own peace, which is beyond all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Insight: Do I have any real reason for sadness? For anxiety? What is God for me?
Initiative: During Advent focus on unselfishness and “random acts of kindness.”
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