"He Cares for You" (Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter)

“He Cares for You.” Yes, he does, God cares for you very much. St. Peter tells you this when he encourages you to be “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” So that’s what we want to do today. We will cast all our anxieties on God, and we will hear how, and how much, our God cares for us. What are your anxieties, and what is God’s care that deals with those anxieties? Those are the questions we’ll be asking.

The first and greatest anxiety that people have--or I should say, the anxiety people ought to have, if they’re honest with themselves--that anxiety is this: How do I stand before God? I mean, who is God, after all, what is he like and how does he regard me? What will happen to me when I die? How can I know that God is favorably disposed toward me? How can I know that death is not the end? These are the Big Questions, aren’t they, the ultimate questions.

People struggle and strain to come up with answers. It’s like they’re groping around in the dark, not knowing God, so they come up with answers of their own making, what sounds and feels right to them. They think that if they are good enough, or at least better than the other guy, then God or the gods--whoever he/she/it is or they are--then God will be pleased with me and will reward me in the end. That is natural religion, and it’s what all religions except Christianity believe. But that still leaves you with a lot of anxiety about the big questions, because deep down you really don’t know who God is, or if he cares for you, and you don’t ever know if you have done enough or are good enough to please him.

What some people do, then, is to simply try and block out the anxiety and not think about it. They dull the pain and numb themselves by escaping in various ways: drugs, alcohol, the pursuit of pleasure, fun, fun, fun--whatever it takes so I don’t have to deal with the big questions.

Even as Christians, maybe we sometimes revert to the old ways, the ways of the world, and we let those old anxieties creep in and try to take over. We forget who God is, and we forget how things are between us and God. We doubt God’s goodness: Does he really care for me? Or else we take his goodness for granted, and use it as a license to do whatever pleases us. Or maybe we push out the big questions, the life-and-death questions, because they’re too scary for us.

But God wants you to know the answers. He wants you to know who he is, and he wants you to know how things stand between you and him. He wants you to know how it is he is favorably disposed toward you, and why. He wants you to know how, and how much, he cares for you.

So in the Holy Gospel for today, Jesus, in his High Priestly Prayer to his Father--Jesus prays for you, that you would know the answers to these big questions. Listen to what he says: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

Here Jesus is praying for you, although at first glance it doesn’t sound like he is praying for you directly. He is saying things like, “glorify your Son,” and “glorify me in your presence.” Jesus is praying about himself there, but in so doing, he is really praying for you too. What he is praying about himself is for your ultimate benefit.

It’s the night Jesus will be betrayed that he’s praying this prayer. The hour has come, the hour Jesus had spoken of all along. The hour of his suffering, the hour of his death. The hour when he will be lifted up from the earth, lifted up on a cross. And Jesus knows it. So he prays to his Father, for now he is coming to the conclusion of the mission for which he came from the Father. This is what he came for. So he sees the hour of his suffering as really his being glorified. What Jesus is about to do, what he is about to suffer, will bring glory to his name, bring glory to both the Father and the Son. “Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”

Jesus had spent his ministry glorifying the Father, revealing God to people. By his words and by his deeds, Jesus showed what God is really like, so people don’t have to be groping around in the dark, wondering and wandering. You see Jesus, you see God. For the Son of God, who was with God in the beginning, comes from the Father’s side, comes in the flesh, and makes God known. Jesus was bringing glory to the Father in this way.

Jesus had work to accomplish, and now he was completing that mission. “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” And now the culmination, the completion and fulfillment, of that work is right at hand. It all leads to this. And in a few short hours, Jesus will cry out, on the cross, “It is finished.” The work is accomplished.

Jesus came from the Father, and now he is returning to the Father. The Father sent him on a mission, and that mission involved us. Again, listen to what Jesus says to his Father: “Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”

“To give eternal life to all whom you have given him.” That’s it! That’s the mission, that’s the work Jesus came to accomplish. To give eternal life. And he gives it to you! That’s how much God cares for you!

How does he do it? What does “eternal life” have to do with the hour of suffering Jesus is about to enter? It seems like a disconnect, life and death. But that is precisely how Jesus does it! By his death he gives you life. By his death he overcomes death, the power and the sting of death, and he gives you eternal life. He does it by dealing with the sin problem, which is the source of our death problem and the source of all our anxieties. We decided we knew better than God, and thereby we lost what we had: We lost the true knowledge of God. We fell into darkness, where we were groping around. We fell from life into death. And thus we fell into endless anxiety and uncertainty about the big questions. Who can rescue us from this pit of anxiety and darkness? Only Jesus can. Because only Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, can take away the sin of the world. Only Jesus can overcome the grave by his resurrection. Only Jesus, the only Son of God, who has life within him and is the source of life, can bestow this life on others. God has given his enfleshed Son authority, authority to give eternal life to all whom the Father has given him.

What is this eternal life? When we think of “eternal” life, maybe we think of this life, just a lot longer. Like for a bazillion days or a bazillion years. We think of quantity instead of quality. But Jesus defines eternal life in terms of quality, what it’s like: “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” The right knowledge of God, being in a right relationship with God--that is what defines eternal life. It is a new kind of life. Knowing who God really is, knowing that Jesus is the one whom God sent to accomplish our salvation for us--that is what makes eternal life what it is. Now of course it will also last forever, because Jesus has overcome death and the grave for us. This then is eternal life, and Jesus gives it to you, as a free gift.

Now do you see how much God cares for you? The big questions, the anxiety-producing questions, the ultimate life-and-death questions--Jesus gives you the answer. Jesus himself is the answer. God wants you to know him, to know that you have eternal life, to know that he cares for you.

But what about God’s care for all the little anxiety questions? Can we know that God cares for us in the midst of them? I mean the “death by a thousand cuts” that we suffer in this life. All our little anxieties, which may seem very big and looming at the time. Anxieties about finances: Will we have enough money, what with all the rising prices and our income isn’t rising to match them? Anxieties about health: How many more trips to the doctor can I make? It’s just one thing after the other. Anxieties about time: I don’t have enough of it, to accomplish all the things I have to do or want to do. And when I have the time, I don’t have the energy. Where is God in all of this? I lose sight of God. I’m distracted and preoccupied with all of my anxieties.

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” St. Peter takes us back to the basics. Know who you are, know who God is. He’s God, you’re not. You are his dear child, he is your dear Father. You know his care already, don’t you? You’re a Christian, aren’t you? God baptized you and took you as his own. God put his name on you. You know his care already on the big questions of life and death. For you know the one big answer, which is Jesus.

Therefore, if God cares for you in the big things, he also cares for you in the little things, which may seem big at the moment. He knows your suffering, whatever it may be. God is watching over you, to guard you in all your ways. For the greatest danger you face--the greatest danger is not the suffering itself, but that because of the suffering you might despair of God’s goodness and fall away from the faith. God is guarding you from that, he is keeping you in the faith by this Word and Sacrament he gives you to keep you strong.

Today remember this, my friends: God cares for you so much! He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be the answer to all the big questions of life and death. He gives you eternal life. Now you know who God really is. And therefore you can know for sure that God is with you also in all the little questions of life. Dear Christians, God cares for you so much! Cast all your cares, cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares for you.

John 17:1-5 (ESV)

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

1 Peter 5:6-7 (ESV)

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

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