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If we see ourselves in light of King Nebuchadnezzar's vision--in the light faith furnishes--ours is not the head of fine gold. Ours is not the breast and arms of silver. Ours is not the belly and thighs of bronze--not even the legs and feet of iron--though we be no less brazen idolaters! Rather, ours are the feet of clay.
Insofar as we're descendants of Adam and Eve and heirs of their legacy of Original Sin, we have feet of clay. And we're mired deeper and deeper in the muck that mud bath makes of actual sin. Whereas they were tempted only by Satan, at least, prior to the Fall, we're tempted by him and what he's corrupted, namely, the fallen world and our fallen flesh.
Whereas, prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve, being made in God's image, had free will and could have chosen not to obey Satan and disobey God, and not to have sinned but to have remained righteous, we as their heirs are subject to the same depravity they were after they sinned.
Which is to say, being conceived and born sinful and unclean, we have no such freedom--no free will and no free choice. We are creatures of necessity. And such necessity! Bound by our sinful nature, we are bound to sin. Sin is our necessary evil. Being sinners, we must necessarily sin, even if we're bound and determined not to. Like Adam and Eve, propped up on feet of clay, we don't remain propped up for long.
Coming forth from the womb dead in trespasses and sins, first step out of the hatch we stumble and fall. That is why the world, made up of clay people propped up on feet of clay, is at all times tottering on the brink of ruin.
The stone cut out by no human hand in our Bible story is cut out by God. Therefore it smites us on our clay feet and we cannot stand. We topple. We collapse. We're more like the Tower of Babel than we are like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. For though the latter appears to defy gravity and stay standing when apparently it ought to fall, we, like the Tower of Babel, succumb to the gravity of our situation.
That is to say, we cave in to our sinful flesh and the sinful world. And we capitulate to what they are heir to, namely, the devil and his wiles. And we fall. Yet, though this stone is intended to bring about our downfall, insofar as we're men of clay propped up on clay feet, ultimately it is destined to effect our reclamation.
For this Stone, which is cut out by no hand but God's, is none other than the Rock of Ages cleft for us; the Rock that makes feet of clay stumble and clay men fall; nevertheless the Rock God cleft for us that we fallen men might cleave to Him and find refuge in His hands and at His feet and in His side, nail and spear pierced, wounded for us.
For this is no Tower of Babel God is building in reclaiming us clay men from the dust heap but His tower of power, His holy house of living stones. Cleaving to Jesus our Cornerstone, we're like the Leaning Tower of Pisa after all, not the Tower of Babel. Rather than succumbing to the devil and his wiles--our sinful flesh and the sinful world--by the power of God's Spirit at work in the mortar of Christ's body and blood and active in the water and Word of Holy Baptism, we resist them. And in Christ, by the main strength of His Spirit, we overcome. We may lean, but we lean unto Him and not our own flimsy devices. By His grace, we defy the gravity of our sinful surroundings and stand fast in Him.
The devil may still appear to be the odds on favorite. But rather than caving in to him and his odds makers, rather than capitulating to the odds stacked against us, we defy them. And in Christ, who evens the odds inasmuch as He evens the score, we come out on top. Not bad for clay men who start out with feet of clay! That's because, though we totter and topple and fall, Jesus our Rock reclaims us and builds us up.
(I bet you never dreamed that the biblical account of King Nebuchadnezzar and his vision would have anything to do with Lent and its themes of redemption and sacrifice and atonement in our Redeemer Jesus Christ and His sacrifice of atonement, or their derivatives--confession and absolution, repentance and forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration--which are the substance and themes of Lent because they are the disciplines of the baptized life, the new life in Christ through faith in Him! But such is the case with all clay feet and men of clay planted firmly in Him.)
- Pastor Erickson