Every week there is a great cleansing in our neighborhood. I see its beginning as the first trash bins begin to show themselves on our street. That’s the signal that trash day is coming. We each dutifully collect the trash from our homes, place it in the bin outside, then move it to the street for pickup. By the morning of trash day, the street is lined with bins, all waiting for that truck to come along and lift all our waste into its giant bin, where it is smashed down to make room for more. When the truck is full it makes its way to a transfer station and dumps its load. Trash from many trucks is compacted and loaded into “tipper” trailers – large semi-trailers – which are then driven in a constant stream to a hill outside the city, east of the metro area, where it is “tipped” to dump its haul into a 2,364-acre landfill. There the trash is again carefully compacted and eventually buried. The methane produced as the waste decays is even siphoned off to power a small generator. The electricity produced is enough to power 2,500 homes. It takes a lot of coordinated effort to get rid of all that trash from our 3-million-person metro area!
Some trash is more hazardous than other. In the 90’s, we replaced our house siding. In 1951, when our home was built, asbestos impregnated panels was the siding of choice. Who knew that asbestos would turn out to be a dangerous material that could cause lung cancer and death? Disposing of our siding would not be simple. We pulled a permit downtown, and followed their instructions for the careful and safe removal of the siding. We bundled the siding panels into packages which we triple wrapped in heavy plastic, carefully taping each seam with heavy duty duct tape. Each package was then labeled with our name and address and taken to the landfill. The bundles of asbestos were stored away, but they will remain our property forever!
Thank God for good government that arranges for the weekly collection of our household trash! What would it be like if we each had to do something about it ourselves (burn it, burry it, toss it into our neighbor’s yard?). It would prove to be quite a nuisance!
We’ve recently held services commemorating and celebrating Christ’s death on the cross, His three days in the tomb, and His resurrection from the dead on Easter morning. The Church has placed quite an emphasis on these events with forty days of Lent, Holy Week, and seven weeks of the Easter season afterward.
But why the great fuss? Why give so much attention to these two events? Well, what happened on Good Friday and Easter was, in a way, a great house cleaning, though immensely greater than that.
The sin in our lives is like a constant stream of trash. And it’s not just an annoyance, it’s not just something that we need to handle ourselves, to bury it or hide it or try somehow to cleanse ourselves of it. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). And not death when the pile of sins becomes too large, or becomes a nuisance, or exceeds some objective measure. The wages of sin is not dependent on the “severity” of the sin. It’s not like asbestos waste versus a crumpled piece of paper. Any and all sin is a breaking of God’s commandments. James 2:10 says, “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” To transgress God’s law in one point, however “small”, is to break the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.”
We sin daily, and multiple times each day. We sin because we are sinners, a state inherited from our parents going back all the way to Adam and Eve. In Psalm 51:5 David writes, “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” He was not saying that his conception was sinful, but that he was conceived sinful. Romans 3:23 states that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Our sin is death to us. It poisons our relationship with God and with one another. We have no recourse, no way to undo it, dispose of it, make ourselves right and clean before God. So, He did it for us. He sent His one and only Son to clean house for us, to rid us of all of our sin. God the Father placed every one of our sins on Jesus. He became the great “Sin-bearer” for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “[God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” God imputed the sin of mankind to His Son, so that Jesus, who was sinless, “became sin for us.” That sin (our sin) was nailed to the cross. God’s wrath for sin fell on Jesus that Good Friday. All of the punishment, death and hell that should have been ours, Jesus took on Himself.
Jesus died on a hill outside the city and His body was placed in a tomb. A great stone was rolled into place; the tomb was sealed and a guard was set. Was Jesus who He said He was? Was His sacrifice enough. Did His death really mean the death our sins? Is it true that our sins no longer can accuse us?
Yes! Absolutely! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! The tomb was empty when the angel rolled away the stone! “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” he asked the women. His resurrection was proof that our sins were atoned for. Romans 4:25 tells us that, “[He] was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” The great house cleaning had taken place. The soil of our sin and our brokenness has been removed from us. The packages of asbestos siding still bear my name, but God put Jesus’ name on our sin, and Jesus paid what was due. Isaiah writes, “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” In Jesus’ suffering and death, payment for each sin was made. It is finished. You and I are clean, pure, holy, by faith in our crucified and risen Savior.
The next time you take a bag of trash outside or take the can to the street, think about what God has done for you in taking away your sins, in offering to you each week forgiveness in the Sacrament of the Altar as He gives into your mouth the body and blood of our Lord. And thank Him for the forgiveness He gives to you each day as you repent again of your sin and turn to Him in faith. And when you bring the empty can back up to your house, thank and praise Him once again for the miracle, for the gift of Good Friday and Easter. That gift is yours through all eternity!
God’s peace be with you,
Pastor