Right smack dab in the middle of our Old Testament reading the Spirit says, “And the Lord came down…” Few phrases in Scripture capture so concisely the entire message of mercy and grace found in God’s word. From the Holy Spirit hovering over the deep at Creation’s beginning, to the Lord seeking shameful Adam and Eve hiding in the Garden; from the Lord’s visit to the Tower of Babel, to the Glory of the Lord filling the Tabernacle and the Temple; from His Incarnation in the womb of the Virgin Mary, to the Holy Spirit descending upon the Church; everything God does involves His coming down into our lives. He enters into the daily walk of people to love us, protect us, redeem us, forgive us and give us eternal life. That is the Good News in the Bible readings for this Pentecost Day.
That Good News of God’s mercy goes all the way back to the beginning of human history, right after The Fall. It was not long after sin filled the hearts of Adam and Eve that the fruits of sin filled the world bringing heartache, pain, and death. Genesis 6:5 puts the enormity of that evil this way: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” So terrible was this evil that the next verse says, “The LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” That was when the Lord cleansed the earth with water. He drowned the flesh that rejected God, while preserving eight righteous souls that trusted God and His Word: Noah and his family.
Yet, not long after the family of Noah began repopulating the earth, sin sprouted forth again. This time man’s wickedness united to build a tower testifying of his own fame and glory. “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves…” This tower was a ziggurat, a stepped pyramid of great height that held atop it an altar for worship. There man would flaunt his wickedness against heaven in grossly immoral spectacles, prayers to demons, and human sacrifices to the prince of this world. No longer did men and women call on the name of the Lord, as did the righteous man Noah and his sons. By the time of Babel, the evil of men was in full force again. And when these men united, it meant that “nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” Do not color those words with Pollyannaish hopes and dreams. When the Spirit speaks here of the purposes of men, He clearly means the evil purposes of men.
That is when the Lord came down. He came down in love and mercy to destroy the works of Satan by frustrating the works of men. The Lord confused the tongues of men, thereby confusing the power of Satan who used men’s hearts, minds, and language to serve his deadly ways. At that time, too, the Lord scattered people all over the face of the earth not only to punish them for their rebellion, but to prepare them for the coming of His Son.
“When the fullness of time had come,” said St. Paul, “God sent forth his Son…” In our Gospel lesson, the Son of God said to His disciples in the Upper Room, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” Stop and consider the magnitude of that verse. The incomprehensible and omnipresent God who made the heavens and the earth, the Father of an Infinite Majesty and His Adorable, True, and Only Son will dwell in and with anyone who loves Jesus. Imagine just how unbelievably fantastic is that claim! The most beautiful palaces of the world would be shacks in the slums compared to living and abiding with God. But that is the promise our Lord makes here. And all we have to do is love Jesus.
Wow! How easy is that? Just love Jesus. And if we love Jesus, then, of course, we will keep His word. If we love Jesus, then He and His Father are first and foremost in our lives. We never doubt His love, or ever do anything to displease Him. His Name is the first thing on our lips in the morning; His praise follows us through the day; and every night before we fall asleep, we bless His Name once more. And never do we curse, or lie, or profane His holy Name. And that Word of His! We always hold it sacred; we rejoice to hear it; we do all that we can and give all that we have to support its proclamation. And, of course, only sickness or the noblest of good works keep us from church on Sunday and other holy days. That’s how it is if we love Jesus.
Oh, if only it was that easy. What else did Jesus say? “He who does not love Me does not keep My words.” The fact of the matter is, in our sinful flesh we do not love Jesus. We do not keep His words. Our flesh hates and rebels against God just like the people who built the Tower of Babel, and the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, and every sinner who was born in the image of Adam. We were all born under the power and rule of Satan. We were his willing slaves.
Into this same flesh came Christ, down from heaven above to earth below once more to confuse and confound Satan. Jesus spoke the words of our Gospel lesson the night before He was betrayed. The Passover meal was over; the Lord’s Supper was instituted. Judas had slunk out to conspire with the Jews to arrest Jesus. So the Lord took time to comfort His disciples—the same ones that He said would forsake Him. He comforted them with the promise of redemption, forgiveness, and peace. He had come down from heaven to walk this earth in human flesh as the second Adam—the faithful and obedient Son of God. He came to do all that the Father commanded, all that the first Adam would not do, or any of his descendents. The Lord came down to fulfill the Law completely for us. To love God fully for us. To give Himself for us as the paschal Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. To save us by His suffering, crucifixion, and death. To free us from the power and rule of Satan.
And when it was finished, Jesus would ascend back to heaven; not to leave His disciples alone, but paradoxically to be closer to them. He ascended to the right hand of the Father to fill all things—even in His flesh; to rule heaven and earth as Christ, the Lord; and to send down the Spirit upon His Church so that He and His Father may take up their abode with anyone who would believe on His Name.
Thus Peter, quoting the prophet Joel, said, “God declares, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.” So, again, the Lord came down. And with the outpouring of the Spirit, God reverses, or rather fulfills, the mighty work He did at Babel. Then He confused the tongues of men; now He proclaims His mighty works in those many tongues. Then He dispersed men over the face of all the earth; now He gathers men together into the Body of His Son. Then He brought to an end the building of the tower of rebellion; now He begins to build the Temple of His Spirit, the Church.
In this Church, the Holy Spirit forgives our sins of enmity toward God, all for the sake of Jesus. He cleanses our souls by drowning the old Adam in the waters of Holy Baptism, and by the Word and forgiveness in Christ He raises us up from death to life. He works faith and hope in Christ in our hearts, and by His grace and power we may believe in and love the Savior. That is why Jesus calls Him our Helper and Comforter. He helps us in our greatest need by forgiving us our sins. Then He comforts us in our new life in Christ by strengthening our faith and working God’s love in our hearts. All of this the Holy Spirit brings to us through His means of Grace: the proclamation of the Gospel, the waters of Baptism, the Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper. All these are the mighty works of God that the Spirit does right here in our midst, making the abode of the Father and Jesus to be with us and in us.
And now we are no longer slaves of Satan or of the world or of our flesh. Just as Jesus said that the prince of this world had no claim on Him, so neither does the devil have any claim on us. On the contrary, we now fight by the Spirit against Satan and all his evil hosts. We are clothed with Christ’s righteousness; we are outfitted in the full armor of God, as Paul says in Ephesians 5; and we wield the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. In that valiant array, we stand as part of the Church Militant. A Church that preaches the mighty works of God in many tongues to every tribe, and nation, and people all over the earth. And our message is one: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Amen.
