"Better Than I Deserve!"
#92-32Presented on The Lutheran Hour on April 6, 2025
By Rev. Keith Haberstock, Guest Speaker
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries
No bonus material MP3
Text: John 12:1-11
Do you see things in your life as occurring because of luck or chance or have you been brought to the realization that you truly have received better than you deserve? Today's message is titled "Better Than I Deserve!" based on John's Gospel, 12:1-11.
Have you ever been speeding along in your ride, and in the act passed a police officer, and immediately looked in your rearview mirror wondering if those given the authority to uphold the law were going to turn on their lights and siren and chase you down? If they didn't, you might have been tempted to think, "Wow, I got away with one, there!" If that was your response, I would encourage you to reflect upon and then daily take up the following mantra: "Better Than I Deserve!" As in, "Wow, I just received way better than I deserved!" I should have been made to make a $250 donation to the state and yet, here I am, driving along with my heartbeat now coming back to normal and no further in debt. Lord, please help me slow down!
Or maybe you don't have a license yet and you just finished an exam at school for which you chose not to crack the books and thus prepare. A few days later, the teacher hands back the marks and you receive a way better mark than you deserved. You could've been way better off had you taken the time to study and refresh that which is stored in your grey matter! So the mark you truly received is way better than you deserved.
Here's one more scenario, from a few years back which I myself did not pen: "When the time came to go to school, I joined my siblings by attending Belmont School. It was about three-quarters of a mile from our house. About half a mile was along the paved highway, and the rest was a dirt road. Belmont was a two-room schoolhouse, covering grades 1-9. ... One of the things I remember from grade three was when I borrowed some books to read from the school. It was winter time, and on the way home a farmer with a big wagon load of hay passed me on the road. I still had a ways to go, so I 'hitched' a ride without the driver of the horses knowing it. I sat on one of the runners and when I got to our gate, I just jumped off and started walking to the house. Only then did I realize that I'd forgotten the books under the wagon. I was in quite a panic, so I ran as fast as I could to catch up with the wagon, hoping that the horses wouldn't start running, or I would never have caught them. Eventually, I caught up with the wagon and retrieved the books."
That boy could very well have said, "Things sure turned out better than I deserved!" In fact, that grade three boy grew up and lived and often shared those very words! As I think of the statement, "Better Than I Deserve," I think of my father-in-law whose remains we laid to rest a few days before Christmas last year.
As so many of you will understand, who've helped a brother or sister in Christ prepare to breathe their last breath, here in time, and with all the bitter sweetness which that brings to us who remain, their soul is being prepared to be ecstatic upon their first breath in God's timeless paradise, in Jesus' physical presence!
Dad, my father-in-law, allowed me to call him Dad for some 35 years. Rev. Dr. Edwin Gerhard Lehman was a man of very humble beginnings whom God used as a pastor and then district president whom our church body, Lutheran Church—Canada chose as its first president back in the late 1980s. He was one of the wisest and most gentle men I've ever known and with all the tributes that have come to his family, from across Canada and around the world, many, many others thought the same.
About four years ago Ed published his memoirs, a feat that his family had been encouraging him to write for some time. Why did we get on his case about writing them? Because Dad had a plethora of stories to share about how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had led him, his family and our church. And so, he recorded some of those accounts and he titled it, "Better Than I Deserve!"
As I think about the stories he included, and the fact that we as a family had been reading it before and after his death, it's not a stretch for me to hear, in my mind's ear, Lazarus very much using the same words. Do you know the Lazarus of whom I speak? He's a close friend of Jesus, brother to Mary and Martha of Bethany, whom Jesus, in the chapter just before today's text, called back to life from the dead with a loud voice, saying: "Lazarus, come out!" Jesus brought Lazarus back from a stinky four day recline in the grave. I love the words Jesus used! "Lazarus, come out!" Almost as if Lazarus has gone into the wrong room and Jesus is reprimanding him! Or Jesus is saying to him, you have no business being in the grave! All of which, as God's adopted kids, is so very true!
So with Lazarus alive, Jesus says, "Unbind him and let him go!" Kind of like saying, "Can't keep a good man down" or "Let's get some real clothes on my friend and let him live." And Lazarus' first words—or second—could have been, "Wow, this is totally better than I deserve!"
Truth is, Lazarus and Ed, and you and I, and all of humanity can and should daily say aloud, "I have truly received from God better than I deserve!" Why? Because it's the absolute truth! We all deserve death! We don't deserve life! We deserve eternal separation from the One True God of the Universe!
Why? Because God, in absolute love, hand crafted humanity on day six of His six-day creation plan as the crown of His perfect creation! He made us and gave us an unending faultless physical relationship with Himself! He made us and gave us everything. We are blessed for all eternity! Talk about wow! And how did we choose to thank God for everything He'd given us?! We humans threw it all back in His face and said we would rather hang out with the newcomer, a slippery, slithering snake, and receive this thing of which God had warned us, this death thing, rather than hang out with God! That's what we did! So, the absolute truth is you and I, and all of humanity, now deserve death, hell, and Satan, daily and for eternity! It's the choice we humans made, that God-forsaking choice!
But God also made a choice! Actually, He made His choice even before we made ours! God, being all-knowing and the like, knew we would ditch Him and the perfect life He had made for us, and that we would choose death and hell by consciously choosing to listen to a smooth-talking, fork-tongued liar! And so, even before we royally messed up, God had a plan to rescue us from ourselves, from death, from Satan, and all the disorder we had and would bring upon ourselves and God's perfect creation! He already had a plan to send one Person, in our stead, to fully pay the price to win back from the deceiver, and to thus give us hope to us amidst all the lies this tempter spouted and spouts, this one who made himself the self-imposed king of this now crumbling castle and our fallen wretched lives!
God already had a plan to send Jesus, His only Son, who, though He deserved immensely better, never received the better He deserved! In fact, Jesus, as you'll hear over the next two broadcasts, came to die in your place. He came to conquer death for you, me, and for all! The One who deserved the best from us and all creation and the Father, yet received the worst of all! Why? All so that we and all creation could receive far better than the hell and destruction we now rightly should have coming to us!
Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from death, and for it, gained even more ire from the Jewish ruling council (all of which God saw from eternity, saw how it would unfold, that we humans would do to His Son). And with it came a prophesy from Caiaphas, high priest that year, who said, "You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish."
So Jesus, after giving Lazarus better than he deserved, left the area with His followers and went to a region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephriam, until, that is, the day of which our text addresses.
Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for Him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with Him at table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples (he who was about to betray Him), said, "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, "Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have Me." When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of Him, but also to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus."
In my 35 years of shepherding, I don't ever recall preaching on this text. Maybe I just have a bad memory! I do remember preaching a few times on similar texts from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where Jesus is invited to a meal at a Pharisee's home, Simon the leper, where Jesus is anointed with a very expensive perfume by a sinner, and then the complaining begins! Simon quips: "If this guy really were a real prophet He'd know who is touching Him." In those accounts, the disciples all pile on this woman for the disgusting waste instead of helping the poor! But in this text John writes that it is Judas who gets in on the act and jaws about how the expenses could have been used much more responsibly; though Judas conveniently leaves out the fact (though John adds it in) that Judas says such because of his own sinful habit of stealing from the kitty. Our text is not the same account as those in the other three Gospels! Yes, it's about a meal with an anointing and someone sinfully spouting their selfish opinions about the poor use of the extravagance! However, this meal is clearly a celebratory meal! A celebration of the fact that Jesus is back in town after giving a very dear friend way better than he deserved!
In this text, John writes of a Sabbath meal, that Jesus is invited to, for a real good reason. He's back in town, as you may hear next week, in Palm Sunday worship, for a very special procession and the beginning of the last week of his life, for hard work on our behalf, before His final work at the cross! Jesus is back in Bethany for the first time after raising Lazarus from the grave! Talk about a good reason for a celebration meal! What better reason could there be to invite your Savior to a Sabbath meal (the last Sabbath meal, in fact, that Jesus will celebrate here on earth, that is, until we celebrate together with Him on this, His earth, in eternity).
So they celebrated! Setting up in a very real way what only Jesus, around that table in Bethany, knows is about to transpire! Truth is: death and resurrection are very much in the air. But not only the death and resurrection of Lazarus. Can you imagine hanging out with Jesus, being next to Him, alive again, at a meal? Lazarus truly received better than he deserved! And so do you and I, every single time you come to God's altar to receive the very body and blood of your Savior Jesus—in, with, and under the bread and the wine, a holy mystery for all of God's baptized and instructed kids, to properly partake of, and to be utterly blessed in faithfully receiving Him! Truly, this is better than you and I deserve!
Truth is, the forgiveness of all of your sins comes to you by the very One who hung upon the cross to give Himself for you and to be the very meal He instituted of Himself on Maundy Thursday, saying to His first disciples, "This is My body, this is My blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins." Man, what an undeserved gift to each of us!
This Jesus allowed Mary the honor of anointing Him in preparation for His burial to come. She didn't know when Jesus' death would come; the others in the room didn't know either. Oh, they may have heard the Jewish ruling class ratcheting up the rhetoric, but only God Almighty knew from eternity what we would do to His Son, and exactly when we would do it, and so He sent Jesus right on time, to live and suffer and die in order to give you and me, Ed and Lazarus, Mary and Martha, and Judas, better than we all deserve!
As our brother Lazarus received the blessing of life again from Jesus, so have you and I, and Dr. Lehman and all others who have received faith in this world's one and only Saviour! For Jesus is the only Savior there is and ever will be! The only Savior this world has ever or will ever know! We received life again at the waters of holy Baptism when Jesus' own baptismal formula was spoken over (us): baptize "in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." At those very waters, you were given—or, if you are not yet baptized in God's Triune Name, please ask Lutheran Hour Ministries to connect you to a congregation near you, that you may receive what Jesus won for you at the cross. And what is that? Full forgiveness of all your sins! And, through holy Baptism, you receive the gift of faith—faith in Him who gave His perfect life for you and your imperfect life upon the cross of Calvary! At that cross, Jesus chose to forgive you! He chose you, not you chose Him! And with His gift of faith to you, He promises that when you breathe your last breath, believing in His cross-work on your behalf, your soul will be taken by God to be in Jesus' ascended presence, until we, as His kids, all receive the true upgrade of incorruptible bodies at His final return.
All of this is 100 percent beyond what you and I deserve! But there's more! And then we'll be with Him at his banqueting table, invited to a meal forever, here on His remade earth. Better than we deserve doesn't even begin to proclaim it all, but it's a good start. You and I have truly received better than we deserve. In fact, that's our daily reality as children of the Heavenly Father. He keeps giving and giving, better than we deserve.
One day, the last day, whether we breathe our last in faith here before Jesus returns or are alive in faith when He does return, He'll in a sense say to us, as He said to Lazarus, "Come out! Enough of all of this death you chose! Death, be gone! New clothes forever! You, my brothers and sisters, will be with Me, alive forevermore, the way I first intended for you, and first gave to you, back in the garden! Though you tossed it all, I give it back to you! Paid in full by Me! Now, let's truly celebrate!"
Our text says that those who planned to put Jesus to death were also planning the same for the newly resurrected Lazarus. He would face a second death-not the second death talked about in the book of Revelation—but another, last-breath event. To which, I pray our brother learned to say, "No big deal. Jesus had me the first go around, He has me now and forever! For in Jesus I have received way better than I deserved."
May those also be our words—yours and mine. May we look at death as something Jesus totally has control of and therefore be emboldened to live for Him, led by the Holy Spirit to others that they might see Jesus and, therefore, because of us—really because of Jesus living unmistakably in us—be drawn to Him, their Savior and Lord, the only One this world will ever, ever know!
Dr. Lehman ends his memoirs with these words: "At various times during my active ministry and more often in retirement people would ask me, 'How are things going?' They might have been referring to the issues I was dealing with as the ABC District president, the development of Lutheran Church—Canada, or in my recovery after removal of a kidney. My usual answer was always the same: 'Not as well as they should be, but better than I deserve.' Most took it as an attempt at humor, but I meant it to be taken at face value, because my response was one that could be applied to so many circumstances in life. God has indeed been very good to me. And in spite of my many mistakes and failures, His blessings have continued to be better that I deserve." Though Jesus is the only One among us who could ever say He didn't receive better than He deserved, He joyfully faced all that we threw at Him, conquered it all in His death, and came back to life to prove our forgiveness! He faced it all so that you and yours can always say with me and mine—and my father-in-law: "Better than I deserve!"
Tune in next week and the weeks after that to keep hearing the truth about our Savior Jesus who faced all our mess, cleaned it up at Calvary, and then rose again to prove that in Him, in Jesus, all of humanity has received better than we deserve! Amen and Amen!
Reflections for April 6, 2025
Title: Better Than I Deserve!
No reflection segment this week
Music Selections for this program:
"A Mighty Fortress" arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
"Jesus, I Will Ponder Now" courtesy of The Hymnal Project of the Michigan District, LC-MS. Used by permission.
"My Song Is Love Unknown" arr. John Leavitt. (© 1991 Augsburg-Fortress Publishing)
"Crucifer" by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
"My Song Is Love Unknown" From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.
