Like Newborn Infants
1 Peter 2:2-3 (Introit)
March 8, 2018 – Redeemer
“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.”
So here we are, one week after Easter, and God’s Word addresses us as newborns. For a newborn child eating is life. If your baby isn’t eating there’s trouble. After eating comes growing. Parents are always looking for growth – in ability, in height, in weight. He rolled over today. She crawled. He started walking. She said, “Daddy.” You have that doorframe or wall where you mark the name, date, and height of your children. And if growth is slow or stops before it should – that is something to examine.
Saint Peter encourages us baptized Christians to be like newborn babies, to long for the pure spiritual milk so that we might grow up in our salvation.
Long for the pure spiritual milk, but what is that milk? Immediately before the text Peter writes, “The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you. (1 Pet. 1:24-25) The pure spiritual milk by which we have life, keep life, and grow is God’s Word, the Good News preached to us. And what is that good news? Jesus Christ died for your sins, but He didn’t stay dead. He rose again and that means your sins are forgiven. If your sins are credited to your account death has you. If your sins are forgiven death must let you go. Death had to let Jesus go because the sin of the entire world was forgiven at the cross – your sin is forgiven and that means you’re alive.
That brings us to the Gospel reading for today. The disciples aren’t living. They are dying. They are afraid of the world. They are afraid of death. They’ve locked themselves up in a little room, double dead bolted doors, doing their best to keep death and the world out. Why? They thought Jesus was dead and if He was dead they were dead. They had heard the women’s report from the empty tomb – Jesus wasn’t there. He is risen. John believed. Peter wasn’t sure. They did not understand the Scriptures.
As Jesus came out of the tomb before it was open He came into that room while it was locked tight. He preached the good news to His men – “Peace be with you.” Peter, you’re forgiven for your denial. Mark, you’re forgiven for running away. James and John, I forgive you your arrogance. In case you doubt that you are forgiven, fearful that My death did not work, see I am risen – look at my hands and see the wound in my side. Then in that upper room there was gladness, the joy of new life. The disciples believed and Jesus gave His men this good news to preach, to bring sinners to life all over the world, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” Forgiveness is the life of the Christian.
Thomas wasn’t born from above yet. He wasn’t hungry for the pure spiritual milk. He skipped church that week. Who knows where he was? The RV show at the Civic Center in Jerusalem. Maybe the Sunnies were biting strong on the Sea of Galilee before the ice went out. Maybe it was just too cold or dark to go out that evening. Or maybe he lost his faith because Jesus was dead. His friends wanted Thomas to be born from above – so they preached the Good News to him, “We have seen the Lord.” Jesus who died is risen from the dead. Thankfully Thomas showed up for church the next week and the risen Jesus was there. Thomas saw Jesus, heard Jesus, received forgiveness and was born into life.
Thomas did not believe the Word. The disciples did not understand the Word. There also we learn of our newborn life. The instinct for an infant to nurse is inborn. Only in rare instances does a newborn not have that instinct. Sadly, because of sin, not one of us hungers for God’s Word. Because of sin we won’t turn to God’s Word, but turn away. What are you hungry for? Will you run all over town to save $1 on cereal? Save and scrimp and borrow money to buy your latest toy or gadget or car? Do you have that same desire and will for God’s Word? For church? For the offering plate? For being here on Sunday or Monday? Thanks be to God, that by God’s Word when He gives us birth into eternal life, He also creates in us the hunger for His Word. The Word calls us to faith and gives us the appetite to taste that the Lord is good.
Think how strange the appetite of Christians – we have tasted God’s Word and found it good to worship on Lord’s Day, to honor our parents, to stand up for life, to rejoice in the gift of male and female, to reserve sex for marriage, to respect the property of others, to speak the truth in love, and to help our neighbor by not coaxing or coercing away from him what is his.
With an appetite for the Word, longing for the pure spiritual milk, Peter urges us to grow up into salvation. St. John in the Epistle tells us what this growing up looks like, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 1:8–2:1, ESV)
Think about that young child who just broke his dad’s brand new fishing pole. What happened son? I don’t know. Did you break my pole? No. That son doesn’t know his father. He’s afraid that his dad’s love is based on what he does or doesn’t do. In his attempt to cover his sins he’s lying about himself, but also denying his father’s love.
As you grow up in your salvation you tell the truth. You don’t call evil good and darkness light. You confess you sins. You are not afraid of God’s Word exposing what you have done wrong, because you trust God’s love in Christ Jesus. Christians don’t want to sin – why would you love the very thing that brings you death, the very thing from which Christ saved you? And, when you do sin, you don’t despair, because you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Finally, the reading from Acts gives us one more encouragement to grow up. If God has given you children then you know the eagerness of waiting for him to speak his first words. Usually his first two words will be “No” and “mine” which is a pretty good testimony to the truth that we are born sinful – curved in on ourselves. But see how the newborn Christians of Acts grew up in their salvation. Their possessions were no longer theirs for the keeping, but a gift of God to be used – in service to the church, in love toward their neighbor. Growing up in your salvation means loosening your grip on God’s gifts to you. Growing up means a Christian husband sacrifices for his wife and a wife for her husband. It means Christian children sacrifice for their aging parents, and young parents sacrifice for their children to teach them the faith. It means you look at your paycheck as gift from God, not “your” money, to use for Him, for your family, for your neighbor.
Like newborn infants – indeed that is what we are. Newborn infants with a long way to grow, but thanks be to God we have the pure spiritual milk of His Word, along with the solid food of Christ’s body and blood in the Supper, to feed and nourish us, that we may not sin, that we might be forgiven when we do sin, and that we may grow up into our salvation. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
March 7, 2018 anno Domini