First Sunday in Lent: Epistle, Romans 10:8b-13             

Romans 10:8b-13

It takes real courage to speak about certain things. In our own blessed land, the freedom of speech enshrined in the U.S. Constitution has been under blatant assault for some years. By our own government. Americans are not used to being told that certain things cannot come from their lips, aside from truly threatening speech. Ah, but there's the rub with the very epistle reading we have in our laps this week. We have brothers and sisters in many lands, even to our immediate north, who have felt the sting of tyranny in forcing them to withhold the proclamation of the Son of God. The early “thump” of tyranny has been felt here as well.

In St. Paul’s day, it was costly to name the name of Jesus as Lord of all. It went against all the power structures and political narratives that made the Roman world hum along. It doesn’t “fit” in our country either these days. Paul’s point in Romans 10 is that Jesus is all his people need, all they have been awaiting for centuries. And he desperately wants his people, the line of Abraham, to embrace Jesus as their Messiah. In order to do that, Jesus must be proclaimed in their midst and Paul is willing to be God’s mouthpiece.

Paul quotes their “prince” Moses and clarifies that Moses’ goal was the same as his. “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (10:8b). And just after, “that is, the word of faith we preach” (v. 8c). Jesus is the proclamation. Jesus is the fulfillment of their hopes. And Isaiah gives, by Paul’s interpretation, a necessary and confirming exhortation pointing to Jesus: “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame” (10:11). Paul is doing all he can to simply get his people to say it. “Jesus is our salvation. Jesus is our hope. Jesus … is … ours.”

Just say it. It was costly then. It will always be costly. And that’s alright. Paul would want us to say it, too. Jesus is ours. Because we are His.