IMMORTALITY

Scripture reveals to us that only one person ever born into this world was immortal and through his death on a cross and glorious resurrection gave us forgiveness of sins as well as a share in his immortality. We, however, are not born to be immortal. Our mortality was sealed the day that Man sinned by disobeying God's first commandment. You shall not put any other gods before me.

I was watching The Mummy: Tomb of the Red Dragon King last night and one thing that was in this movie that is in many of this type is the evil king looking for a way to become immortal and reign forever. The part that struck me was that there is always something which can take away his immortality. In this case it was a special knife that if stabbed into his heart would kill him forever.

Nothing can take away Christ's immortality. He even went through death as a human. Not just any death, but a death of indignity and humility at the hands of his enemies. This does not happen in these movies that Hollywood makes. No it is a King who wants to usurp power over everyone and does not care about anyone but himself. He will stop at nothing, including killing his right hand man to show his power to his people.

This man will only oppress the people, not free them from their oppression. His desire to be immortal is selfish and is just like the first humans God made when temptation came their way. They were lied to by the serpent that God was withholding his knowledge from them. The serpent wanted them to think that having this burden of the knowledge of Good and Evil would put them on a level playing field with God. There is no one who can be equal to God. He is the creator and his creation is an extension of his power, but it is not equal to him.

God created mankind in his image- Both male and female he made them. He created the proper environment for them to live in and plenty of food to sustain the life he had breathed into them. If he gave them all these things at creation why then did they want or need more? The serpents lie convinced Eve that God was not being fair with them. She wanted equality with God on all levels and Adam was right there keeping quiet which was his silent acceptance of all that was being said. He could have refuted what Eve said about not touching the tree, but he didn't.

They both took the bait hook, line and sinker and it plunged them down into the existence they and we all live. One of temporal mortality. We interited their sin through our birth and are destined to die just as they did. We can never achieve immortality on our own by any means of our own.

God knows this and has provided us a way outside of ourselves to become immortal. First our sins must be paid for by blood. THat is the way that God has chosen. Life must be sacrificed and blood spilled. Cultures all over the world have religions which have human sacrifice to appease their malevolent gods. Blood is spilled and flesh has been eaten all in the name of their religion. But no sinful human would have been a proper sacrifice to pay for the sins we all commit daily. In preparing his people for the ultimate sacrifice, he set up commandments which showed them what a proper sacrifice would have to be. An unblemished lamb without spot or wrinkle was the beginning. The sins of the people were put on the lamb who was sacrificed. The blood was spilled and sin was atoned.

Christ, the Son of God, became the final sacrifice for our sin. No more sacrifice is necessary or desired. In fact, God tells us that he desires mercy over and above sacrifice. Through this sacrifice, God's mercy and grace are imputed to us. Christ then defeated death through his resurrection on the third day. No grave could hold him and there is no way to take away his immortality by a special incantation or artifact made in this world. Hollywood is still working the side of the serpent by trying to convince us human beings that we can achieve our own immortality, but it is a false immortality because it can be lost. Christ's immortality is given to us as a gift of grace from the creator. Nothing in this world can separate us from it except ourselves.

It is through the means of grace which God has given to us to receive this immortality. These means of Grace are his Word and Sacrament which we receive as we attend church each week and not at the movie theater or your television.

In Christ we pray, Amen.