Being Like Christ

​3rd Sunday of Easter – B                                                                                LSB #’s 476, 672, 491
Text – 1 John 3:2
 
Beloved, we are God’s children now, & what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. 
 
BEING LIKE CHRIST
 
 
An old man going a lone highway,   Came, at the evening cold & gray,    To a chasm vast & deep & wide.  Through which was flowing a sullen tide     The old man crossed in the twilight dim,  The sullen stream had no fear for him;   But he turned when safe  on the other side   And built a bridge to span the tide. 
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,  “You are wasting your strength with building here;   Your journey will end with the ending day,   You never again  will pass this way;   You’ve crossed the chasm, deep & wide,     Why build this bridge  at evening tide?” 
The builder lifted his old gray head;   “Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,   “There followed after me to-day   A youth whose feet must pass this way.    This chasm that has been as naught to me   To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;     He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;    Good friend,   I am building this bridge for him!”[1]  
That poem is titled The Bridge Builder, & it’s earliest known printing was in 1898.  The author, Ms. Dromgoole, wrote over 7,500 poems,   5,000 essays   & published thirteen books.  Even as someone who has written well over 1000 sermons in my years of ministry, her work is an amazing accomplishment.  And, in my opinion, the poem speaks to the heart of God’s love. 
John’s 1st epistle highlights the love of God at 4:8 where he writes, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  (ESV)   As we continue our celebration of the Easter season, Good Friday is still only 16 days ago.  Before the sun set that evening, our Lord came to His chasm deep & wide.   He too crossed in the twilight dim, & the sullen stream also had no fear for Him.   And in the death & resurrection of Jesus Christ He also was turning, when safe on the other side, to build a bridge that would span the tide.   God knows that you & I   must also cross that chasm deep & wide. 
As John recorded in his Gospel: “…for an hour is coming  when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice & come out,   those who have done good to the resurrection of life,   & those who have done evil to the resurrection  of judgment.”  (5:28-29 ESV)   Our heavenly Father knew that not a one of us could cross that chasm of our own accord. 
So He sent His only Son to build a bridge.   Our sinful nature, if it has resigned itself to being religious, always defaults to the belief that you & I must do something   to earn God’s reward.   Our sinful nature wants to take some credit for gaining eternal life.    And arrogant Christians cannot believe that God would just give salvation away with no strings attached. 
Slogans like ‘What Would Jesus Do’ sound well-meaning enough – until Satan gets ahold of them & twist them into words of condemnation because we have not done what Jesus would do.   If we devoted our entire lives to doing what Jesus would do, we could not accomplish even one thing, because Jesus does everything 100% perfectly, 100%   of the time. 
The Great I Am has no slack standards for sinners.  He is eternally holy & therefore He cannot fail to render justice, at all times & in all places.   The only solution for offering salvation to all sinners, was to sacrifice something holy in payment for our sins.   Then, we could be offered a 2nd chance.   For that reason, the Triune God sent the Son to build a bridge. 
The chasm that was as naught to Jesus to us most certainly a pitfall would be.  So Jesus built that bridge for you & for me.   In John’s day, he wrote his 1st epistle letter to the house churches in what is now, roughly the Muslim nation of Turkey.  John aimed that letter at false teachers who were promoting themselves as an elite type of Christian.  They would have been the equivalent of the arrogant Christians of our day who claim that you have to do something, at least make some kind of decision or commitment, in order to really follow Jesus.  That is how a person goes about being like Christ.  That’s the kind of mindset St. John was speaking against. 
He spoke against that mindset because it destroyed the comfort & the peace of Christ’s good news.  From the cross Jesus said, “It is finished!” & by that Jesus meant the work of our salvation.  The gift of eternal life is already ours.   Now, all that we can do is to lose it, but even that the Holy Spirit strives to prevent us from doing. 
Being like Christ is a gift that we receive in Baptism & through hearing the Word of God.  Both means are miracles, worked by the Holy Spirit, to our eternal benefit.   John writes this epistle letter for the purpose of encouraging the followers of Jesus even in the midst of the false teaching that was apparently rampant in their day. 
Living in our time, we have an idea of what that’s like.  Independence & freedom have taken on religious status in our country, but it’s no longer just freedom from being ruled by an earthly king.   Americans are increasingly declaring their freedom from the heavenly King.  Being in God’s house, or accepting His wisdom are being rejected as colonial & racist. 
In Africa, where colonialism & racism have done massive damage, millions of people have been flocking to the King of kings.  Many of their churches are ashamed of their American counterparts who have declared their freedom from God’s teaching.  Americans are rejecting their Creator in favor of themselves & their own arrogant self-understanding. 
Rather than getting angry, God knew this was coming for our nation, as for all the others that have left Him throughout history.   Thus the 3rd stanza of The Bridge Builder appropriately speaks to us today: “The builder lifted his old gray head;   ‘Good friend, in the path I have come,’ he said,   ‘There followed after me to-day   A youth whose feet must pass this way.    This chasm that has been  as naught to me   To that fair-haired youth  may a pitfall be;     He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;    Good friend,   I am building this bridge  for him!’”   
God is love, & His greatest longing is to restore the relationship that mankind had with Him in the Garden of Eden.  Being like Christ is not our project & it is not for today.   It is in heaven that God’s children will be like Christ, & making us like Him is the work of the Holy Spirit.   Jesus built the bridge to heaven & the Holy Spirit is striving to bring us there. 
Yes, the world does reject its Maker in favor of itself & its arrogant self-understanding.  As a result, it does not comprehend or tolerate the children of the heavenly Father.  That is a sad & difficult contrast to the wonder of being the children of God by grace, & we live that out contrast daily under the shadow of the Cross. 
God’s promise is that the glory of heaven will make all our time here worthwhile.   The glory of heaven, & being like Christ, are teachings that motivate & strengthen us for the journey.  And just as the women found the stone rolled away from the tomb on Easter morning, Christ has already built the bridge for us to cross over death & arrive at our own resurrection. 
For much of our lives, while healthy or young, words like those are very abstract & seemingly distant.   When death is near, the words of God take on a far more concrete reality.  One day, we shall be like Christ, we shall be love, we shall be pure & true & patient.  We long for that time when we shall be like Christ, the devil, the world, & our flesh completely gone.  
In this life we must be on our constant guard against letting our sinful flesh rule us.  We must be on constant guard not to let our emotions get away with us, even good emotions.  In John’s 1st epistle, our eyes are drawn out from behind the shadow of the Cross, & this perishing world, to the light of the promise of eternal life – the joys of Heaven.  “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.  The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb at the center of the Throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to springs of living water.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”  (Revelation 11:16-17)   Then, we will be like Christ – forever!  Amen. 
 
 
Jerusalem the golden, with milk & honey blest – the promise of salvation, the place of peace & rest – we know not, oh, we know not what joys await us there:  the radiancy of glory, the bliss beyond compare!       Around the throne of David, the saints, from care released, raise loud their songs of triumph to celebrate the feast.   They sing to Christ their leader, Who conquered in the fight, Who won for them forever their gleaming robes of white.       O sweet & blessed country, the home of God’s elect!   O sweet & blessed country that faithful hearts expect!   In mercy, Jesus, bring us to that eternal rest with You & God the Father & Spirt, ever blest.  Amen.  LSB 672:1, 3-4.


[1] Father: An Anthology of Verse (EP Dutton & Company, 1931)