Misericordias Domini - The Third Sunday of Easter

(Audio)

John 10:11-16; 1 Peter 2:21-25; Exodus 34:11-16

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The image of Jesus as our Good Shepherd has suffered greatly in contemporary Christian imagination from an overly romantic sentimentalism and from Gospel-reductionist pietism. From the pastel-colored Precious Moments figurines of Christian kitsch to the airbrushed Sunday School and church bulletin artwork depicting a smiling Jesus holding a young lamb over His shoulder or surrounded by a flock of innocent enough seeming sheep, the popular Christian image of the Good Shepherd is a soft, gentle, kind, and often effeminate, young man who lives a happy, simple and pastoral life with His greatest joy being young children and social outcasts. Now, that image is not entirely wrong, mind you, but it is a far cry from the fullness of what it means that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and from the Church’s historic understanding of that office of Jesus Christ.

That Jesus is the Good Shepherd does not mean that He is kind, gentle, happy, loving, etc. any more than it means that He is merely a competent practitioner of animal husbandry. The adjective good here (kalos in the Greek) doesn’t mean that. Rather, Jesus is the Good Shepherd in the same way that God proclaimed each day of His creation and work to be good: Jesus is good in the sense that He knows the Father and the Father knows Him. He is in complete agreement and harmony with His Father’s will. He loves what His Father loves, and He does what his Father commands. Jesus’ goodness is an innate goodness. Therefore, in calling Himself the Good Shepherd, Jesus is referencing His inherent goodness, righteousness, beauty, and unity with His Father. Jesus conformed perfectly and completely to His Father’s will, even laying down His life unto death for His Father’s sheep. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He dies for them. For this reason the Father loves His Son Jesus, because He lays down His life for the sheep. Therefore, Jesus is the Good Shepherd because He saves us, not because He plays with us and rolls with us in the grass.

The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. He does not flee when the wolf comes, but He places Himself into the beast’s jaws and teeth that His sheep may live. This is the Father’s will, and the Father loves Him because of this, and the Son loves His Father and you in this way. This is the way in which the Father loves you, His sheep: God so loved the world in this way, He gave His only Son. The Good Shepherd protects and defends His sheep. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. The Good Shepherd dies for His sheep. This is what it means for Jesus to be the Good Shepherd. In contrast to the Good Shepherd then is the hired hand. The hired hand is not a shepherd. The hired hand does not own the sheep, does not love the sheep, and most certainly will not die for the sheep. When he sees the wolf coming, the hired hand leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. Not so the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd knows His sheep, and they know Him, and He lays down His life for the sheep.

From man’s perspective Jesus is not a good shepherd, but a fool or a lunatic. From man’s perspective, a good shepherd raises his sheep for their wool or their meat. A good shepherd most certainly will not die for his sheep, but rather, he will raise his sheep so that they die for him, for his profit, benefit, and good. Not even faithful pastors are ultimately good in the sense that the Good Shepherd is good, but, despite their best intentions, they are still hirelings. Undoubtedly, however, Jesus had the scribes and the Pharisees in mind, who were the teachers and shepherds of Israel. Instead of leading the flock of Israel to the cool waters and wholesome food of Jesus, they slaughtered them with legalism and false teaching, directing them to works under the Law, rather than to the life-giving grace of the Gospel. And, sadly, too many hireling shepherd pastors continue to do the same today.

The problem with hireling shepherds and pastors is that they are afraid of the wolf and flee, or they do not believe that the wolf even exists. But the wolf is real; Satan is real, and as St. Peter warns, he prowls this earth seeking sheep to devour. Satan prowls in the Church disguised as works righteousness, which falsely comforts the flock by causing them to put their trust in their works, in being good, fair, and tolerant people. Satan prowls in the Church tempting pastors and parishioners to misrepresent and misunderstand God’s Word and commands so that they do not fear His holiness and righteousness but minimize and deny their sins, believing that God only wants them to be happy and prosperous, but not obedient. Hireling shepherd pastors preach “Peace! Peace!” where there is no peace, because they do not preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins but exhort the flock to keep on doing as they are doing with the false assurance that God is love and doesn’t care about sins so long as you are loving and tolerant and kind. And so there are prosperity preachers teaching the power of positive thinking and self-improvement instead of repentance, humility, and true love, which is sacrifice and selflessness and service to your neighbor to the glory of God

Through His prophet Jeremiah the LORD has said, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” “You have scattered My flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. Then I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.” “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: The Lord is our righteousness’.” That is a direct messianic prophecy of the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ. “I Myself,” says the LORD, “will be the Shepherd of my sheep.”

Hence Jesus proclaims, “I am the Good Shepherd.” This is one of seven great “I AM” statements of Jesus in St. John’s Gospel. “I AM,” in Greek ego eimi, is a rendering of the LORD’s Name given to Moses in the burning bush. Thus, Jesus at once communicates that He is the LORD’s promised Good Shepherd, even the LORD Himself. Jesus is the fulfillment of the LORD’s prophetic promise to seek, gather, and rescue His lost sheep Himself from all the places they had been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. That dark day was, first, the day our First Parents fell in the Garden and, second, Good Friday, yet another instance in which good means something substantially other than pleasant, competent, or kind. In Jesus, God Himself sought and gathered and rescued His sheep from the Satanic wolf by laying down His life unto death. “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep.” By dying, He destroyed death and broke the wolf’s jaws so that now he is a toothless, wounded, defeated, but furious, dangerous, and still powerful enemy. No one took His life from Him – indeed, no one could possibly do that – but Jesus had authority from His Father to lay it down and authority to take it up again. Indeed, the Father loves Him because He laid down His life in love for His Father and for you.

This day in the Church’s Year of Grace is called Misericordias Domini, the merciful goodness of the LORD. No one made the LORD lay down His life for you. He did so because of who He is, not because of who you are. God is love. Love is sacrifice. And, God so loved you in this way: He died for you that you may live for Him and in Him, not for yourself. And, you honor, thank, praise, and obey Him by laying down your life in love for Him and for others. He promises, “I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” Your pastor shepherds may be hirelings, they may be sinners themselves in need of mercy and forgiveness, but they are called and ordained by God through His Church for you and for your sake, that you may be fed and nourished, protected and defended from the attacks of the Satanic wolf and his demons. Follow where they lead you. Eat and drink what they feed you. Heed their warnings and exhortations, all the while listening for the voice of your Good Shepherd. They are called and placed under holy orders to care for you in the stead and by the command of Christ the Good Shepherd, and they will called to account for their shepherding.

However, you have a call as well: “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps.” You are called to suffer, to lay down your lives for others as Christ suffered and laid down His life for you. “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly.” You are not to fight with the weapons of men and with violence, but remain steadfast in His Word and in the confession of Christ crucified and risen. This may very well mean maintaining the good confession before family members, neighbors, your employer, lawyers, judges, and people who will revile you and mock you and curse you and hate you, even fine, imprison, torture, or kill you. “He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” Truly, this world is still very dark and dangerous, and the Satanic wolf still prowls, but do not be discouraged, and do not be afraid. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The earth is full of the merciful goodness of the LORD! “Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love, that He may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Quasimodo Geniti - The Second Sunday of Easter (Easter 2)

(Audio)

John 20:19-31; 1 John 5:4-10; Exodus 37:1-14

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Then, why are you so afraid? Jesus is risen! The tomb is empty! But the women were astonished and afraid. They told no one anything. The disciples were gathered in fear behind locked doors because they were afraid. And too often you are silent and don’t tell anyone anything about the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection and the forgiveness of sins. Why? Because you are afraid. Because you are afraid of what people will think of you. Because you are afraid of what people will do to you. Because you are afraid that you won’t know what to say. Or, perhaps, because you are afraid that you don’t really believe as much as you think you should? But take comfort, and do not be afraid, O you of little faith. For, you are not so different than Peter and the apostles, than David, or Moses, or Abraham before them. And you are not so different than Thomas, who refused to believe that His Lord had risen until he could see and touch His wounds with his own hands and fingers.

Still, Jesus comes to you, as He came to them. Still your resurrected Lord Jesus Christ comes to you to absolve you of your sins, to comfort you with His presence, to strengthen you in your faith, and to bring you His peace which is beyond human understanding. Still your living and ascended Lord Jesus comes to dissolve your fear and to replace it with faith and contentment and peace, that you may, not avoid, but face all those things you fear, and persevere and endure. Still your resurrected, ascended, and glorified Lord comes to you and shows you His wounds, the living proof of His death for you, and His resurrection for you. He is the Lamb standing as though slain – standing, because He is clearly alive, victorious over death and the grave – yet bearing still the marks of both spear and nail forevermore, the living sign of our pardon for His sake. He invites you to gaze upon those glorious scars and to find confidence, comfort, and confirmation in them. And God the Father gazes upon those scars and He sees His suffering servant who loved Him and His Word and His Law perfectly in holiness and innocence for you and He is satisfied and at peace with you because of Him. Still, He comes to you, and still He invites you, not to put your fingers into the marks in His hands and His feet, your hand into His side, but His flesh and His blood into your mouth in Blessed Communion with Him now until He returns. And, lo, He is with you always, even to the end of the age.

He came to them in the evening of the day of His resurrection. He came to bring them peace – peace with God, which is the only source of peace with man. They were gathered in fear. They were afraid of the Jews who murdered Jesus, that they might do the same to them. And, they were afraid of their own guilt and sin, that they fled and abandoned their Lord in the hour of His greatest need, choosing to save their own skins and let Him perish. Satan had them right where he wanted them – locked away, isolated from the community and the world, hiding in fear and guilt, not telling anyone anything. That’s what Satan wants for you as well. He spoke to them His peace – His performative and creative Word, at once proclaiming and actually producing the peace that He spoke. And then, He gave them a sign, “He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld’.” Not only the Word does Jesus give, but the Word and the Sign. Though the Word is sufficient, indeed all that is necessary, He who created you body and soul graciously ministers to you according to both natures. The Sign is a gift to you that your faith may be strengthened, that you may be confident in forgiveness, and that you may not be afraid.

But Thomas wasn’t there. He skipped Church that first Easter Sunday and He missed out on the gifts. The others were now overjoyed to tell Him they had seen the Lord, risen from the dead just as He had said. No longer were they reticent in the silence of their guilt and fear. But Thomas didn’t believe them. In fact, the Scriptures say that Thomas refused to believe unless he saw for himself in Jesus’ hands the mark of the nails and placed his fingers into the mark of the nails, and placed his hand into Jesus’ side. For Thomas, the Word of the Lord was not enough, but He demanded a sign. Now, throughout His ministry, Jesus often refused to grant a sign to those who opposed Him in hardhearted unbelief, such as the Pharisees and the religious leaders of the Jews. However, to those “bruised reeds” and “smoldering wicks” who struggled to believe, even His disciples, Jesus would often grant a sign, along with a mild rebuke, to those of “little faith.”

And so He did the following Sunday. Once again, Jesus appeared to His gathered disciples, showed Himself, breathed upon them, and proclaimed to them His peace. Indeed, a pattern was established, recounted in Acts 2:42, that the disciples would gather together on the Lord’s Day for the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers, in the belief that the Lord would be with them as He had promised in His Word. The Lord appeared to His disciples once again, as He does to you now, and He invited Thomas, and you, to behold and to touch and to handle His wounds, the proof and sign of His resurrection from the dead and of the absolution of your sins. He comes to you with His Spirit-Word-Breath, which is sufficient and true, but also with His flesh and blood body, with water, and blessing, and touch that you may believe and be confident and trust and have comfort and peace. He comes to you to absolve you of your sins, to remove your guilt and your fear, to strengthen your faith, to equip you for good works, and to send you to tell everyone everything about the Good News, the Gospel, of Jesus’ resurrection victory on behalf of all the world.

To all you Doubting Thomases, Jesus mercifully and graciously gives you these signs, these Sacraments – the preaching of the Gospel, Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Supper – that “you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name.” Whereas Thomas was blessed to see, to hear, and to touch Jesus in the flesh, nevertheless, Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you are they. You are the ones who have not seen and yet have believed, thanks be to God. To you Jesus has given the sacramental signs of water, blood, and spirit that, by their witness, you may believe and overcome the world. The victory over sin, death, and Satan is yours in Christ. Jesus Christ has died for your sins and has been raised for your justification. Now He shares His victory with you. Of what is there for you to be afraid? Are you afraid of what others will think of you or do to you? “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell,” and that One is God. Or are you afraid that you will not know what to say, or that you do not believe strong enough? Well, you don’t. But do not despair, but rather cling all the more to Christ and His Word of Promise. Receive His gifts and be forgiven and strengthened and equipped through them.

Confess that you are a fearful sinner. You stand in good company, for so were the Apostles, the Patriarchs, and the Prophets before you. For, the Church of Jesus Christ is not a memorial for saints who need no forgiveness, but it is a hospital for sinners just like you. The Church is a mouth house for the forgiveness of sins. Do not be afraid! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! And that has changed everything! After beholding His Lord and His Wounds, doubting Thomas no longer needed to see and to touch, but he believed and he confessed, “My Lord, and my God!” a confession even greater than that of Peter. Yet, still, your Lord Jesus is present for you with His Words and His Wounds that you may hear and see and touch and taste and believe and confess, with Thomas, and with all the saints in heaven and on earth, “My Lord, and my God!” “Do not disbelieve, but believe,” and by believing, you have life in His Name.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christian Funeral for Mary Lynn Cain

(Audio)

John 10:11-18; 1 John 3:1-2; Isaiah 40:9-11

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

God’s children. That is what we are. Now, we didn’t choose to be God’s children, – no one chooses to be born – but we are God’s children born of the Holy Spirit through water and faith. Being God’s children was not a decision that we made, but it was a decision that the Lord made who formed us in our mother’s wombs. We are not God’s children because we are so very good and never sin, nor because we attend church every Sunday, nor because we believe all the right things, but we are God’s children because He chose us in Jesus Christ and created faith in us by His Holy Spirit through the Word of God and sealed us in His Name through Holy Baptism. That is why we are God’s children now. That is why Mary Lynn is God’s child now. And what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The Father’s love is seen in this: He gave His only Son over to death on the cross that we should not perish but have everlasting life in Him. That is what we just remembered and celebrated on Easter Sunday. Greater love has no man than this, that he should lay down his life for his friends. Such love is selfless and sacrificial. Such love is exemplified in the love of the Father for His Son, and the Son for His Father, and the love of the Father and Son together for us, His children. Such love is also exemplified in the image of a shepherd tending his flock.

Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. The Good Shepherd has laid down His life for His sheep, including His dear lamb, Mary Lynn. Our Good Shepherd has passed through this valley of the shadow of death where we live our lives and He has secured for His beloved sheep good pasture, safety, and life in His Father’s house forevermore. And, because He has traversed this deathly valley already Himself, He knows it intimately and He is well prepared to shepherd His sheep safely through it. Our Good Shepherd has faced our greatest enemy, death, which threatened to keep us in our graves. Jesus defeated death by taking away its sting, sin. He took our sin, He took all man’s sin, He took Mary Lynn’s sin upon Himself, and He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become righteousness in Him. “He will tend His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arms; He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”

Amongst Jesus’ final words to His disciples is this New Commandment: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, when you have love for one another.” I know that “love” means many things in our language, but what Jesus means is agape, a selfless and sacrificial love that serves others without counting the cost. It was agape love that Jesus demonstrated in His own selfless and sacrificial service to us, laying down His life to set us free from sin and death. We show that we have received His love when we return that love to Him by sharing that same love with others. Christians share the love of Jesus in their lives, words, and deeds primarily through their vocations.

Mary Lynn was a nurse for forty-four years. I can hardly imagine a vocation that embodies the Christian virtues of love and service, selflessness, and sacrifice better than nursing. Shortly after she graduated high school, Mary Lynn began her nursing career serving the most vulnerable and helpless of humankind, newborn babies born premature or with health complications in Iowa’s first NICU in Des Moines. Then she worked for many years at the hospital in Waverly, showing love, care, and compassion serving others in their time of need. Perhaps her favorite experience in nursing, however, came near the end of her career when she served as a traveling health care nurse. It was then that she came to realize what had been true all along, that she had a God-given passion for providing exceptional care to her patients whom she considered family. Mary Lynn ended her nursing career in 2014 after forty-four years. Well done, good and faithful servant.

Anyone who knows Mary Lynn and Jack knows their love and support for the Waterloo Black Hawks hockey team. Mary Lynn and Jack have been season ticket holders for eighteen years and traveled the country in support of their team. What a gift it is to share something you love with someone you love. Mary Lynn was even watching a hockey game the night her Good Shepherd called her home, making her, literally, a lifelong fan. Mary Lynn loved crocheting and was also a gifted seamstress. She made Jen’s wedding gown and bridesmaid dresses. Mary Lynn was also known to make clothes for both Jen and Emily – the very same clothes, mind you, having the very same patterns and made from the very same fabric – a frugality she seems to have inherited from her mother who did the very same for Mary Lynn and sister Bonnie.

Life wasn’t always easy and full of laughs. Life never is. But with the trials and the tribulations, those who trust in the Lord have faith and hope to see them through. Many Christians somehow have the idea that, if you are a believer, then things will go well for you. That most certainly is true over the long haul, but that does not mean that a Christian will not experience sorrow, hard times, and suffering in their lives and in the lives of those they love; in fact, they most definitely will. Jesus said, “If you want to be my disciple you must take up your own cross and follow me.” The way of Jesus is the way that leads through the valley of the shadow of death, which is this life, not around it, and into the Father’s house forevermore. Our Good Shepherd Jesus has traversed that valley already and has defeated death which barred our entrance into the Father’s house, and now He accompanies His children, His sheep, as they make their own way through that valley. Mary Lynn understood this. She understood Jesus as the Suffering Servant and the Man of Sorrows depicted in Isaiah, and she could relate to Him, and her own life to His, as one “acquainted with grief.”

Mary Lynn was a child of God, born of water and the Holy Spirit. In Holy Baptism our LORD named her and claimed her as His own child and promised her, “I will never leave you,” “I am with you always,” and “nothing can separate you from my love in Jesus Christ.” Jesus lives! And because He lives, we believe that we shall live also. Because of the promises of God in Christ Jesus we can take comfort and have hope that Mary Lynn is with Him and that we will see her again on the day of resurrection. Then there will be joy that will never be taken from you and peace and comfort without end.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord (Easter Sunday)

(Audio)

Mark 16:1-8; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8; Job 19:23-27

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The women “went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” Kind of an anticlimactic Gospel for Easter Sunday, don’tcha think? Imagine if this had been the response of everyone to the resurrection of Jesus, that they were afraid and didn’t tell anyone anything. How very few would believe. Truly, only a very few could be saved. After all, Jesus’ body could have been stolen from the tomb. Then, where would be the proof? All those sightings of Jesus raised from the dead, and other believers raised from the dead too? Only the hopeful psychotic delusions of the distraught, the naïve, and the superstitious.

And yet, here we are, two thousand years later, gathered in this sanctuary at the same time millions of others are gathered in their churches throughout this nation and, at one time or another this day, throughout the world, to remember, and to celebrate, and to praise and give thanks to God for the resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, from the dead. Apparently, someone believed. Obviously, a whole lot of someones believed. They believed and, afraid or not, they told everyone everything. In fact, they most often did so to their great risk and peril, which lends credence to the truth of Christ’s resurrection rather than doubt.

For, consider the zeal of the Apostles and the early Christians in the years and decades following Jesus’ death. Each of the Apostles, save John, were martyred because of their belief in Jesus’ resurrection and their refusal to be silent, but, rather, to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all without concern for their personal safety or well-being. Tradition holds that Peter was crucified head downward, humbly considering himself unworthy to die in the same manner as His Lord. Tradition also holds that St. Paul was beheaded in Rome, that James the Lesser was thrown from the temple wall, stoned, and had his brains beat out by a fuller’s club, that James, the brother of John, was slain by the sword, that Thomas was run through with spears, seared by heated plates, and finally burned alive, that Judas Thaddeus was beaten to death with sticks, that Phillip and Andrew were both crucified, that Matthew was beheaded, that Nathaniel (Bartholomew) was flayed alive and was crucified, and that Matthias, who replaced Judas Iscariot, was stoned to death while hanging upon a cross. While John, the beloved disciple, remained alive and presumably died an old man, he was exiled by the Romans and lived alone on the Island of Patmos. Truly, martyrdom takes many forms. Further, subsequent generations of Christians until the early part of the fourth century were met with similar persecution and death for their witness to Jesus, His resurrection, and the Gospel. And there are still Christians today who are persecuted and martyred for their confession of the faith. There were the twenty-one Coptic Orthodox Christians who were executed by ISIS in 2015. There was the Indian Roman Catholic Priest Father Tom who was abducted in Yemen by ISIS around that same. Father Tom was released after eighteen months in captivity, but ISIS murdered four nuns that were with him. And there are countless Christians in China, the Sudan, and throughout the world who daily risk their lives and livelihoods for their Confession of Christ.

Why would any of them die for something they were not certain of? Would anyone suffer such horrendous torture and evil death, and subject their families to the same, if they were not absolutely convinced of the truth and the Gospel meaning of what they believed about Jesus, His death, and His resurrection? No, not likely. But, what made them believe so strongly? What evidence was there that Jesus had been raised, just as He had said? Undoubtedly, the greatest evidence was the empty tomb itself. Only consider the facts of Jesus’ burial: The Jews and the Romans had no motive to steal Jesus’ body. In fact, they were extremely concerned about that possibility and so set a Roman guard at the tomb to prevent such a scheme. Further, before His resurrection, Jesus’ disciples were too fearful and cowardly to attempt such a feat. Some skeptics have suggested that the women went to the wrong tomb. However, this does not pan out as the women knew where the tomb was, and the Sanhedrin could simply have produced Jesus’ body from the correct tomb and effectively falsified the account of Jesus’ resurrection. And then, there were the burial linens neatly folded and placed at the head and feet of where Jesus had lain, hardly what one would expect in the case of a hasty grave robbery.

Even the fact that the Gospels record women being the first eyewitness of the empty tomb and the resurrected Lord lends credence to the truth of the resurrection, for women were among the lowest in society in terms of respect and honor. Their testimony would not even be admissible in a court of law. Surely, if the writers of the Gospels wished to convince people of the truth of the resurrection, they would have recorded the accounts men of renown and honor, whose testimony would have been received with greater credulity. The fact that the Evangelists preserved the eyewitness testimony of women and did not change the facts to something that would be more socially acceptable lends to the veracity and trustworthiness of their report.

Likewise, our Easter Gospel’s rather abrupt and disconcerting ending, “they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” The earliest manuscripts and fragments we have of St. Mark’s Gospel all end in this way, with those words. And St. Mark’s account of Jesus’ resurrection has been read and heard in Christ’s Church on Easter Sunday since at least the seventh century. Truly, the Gospel reads and ends like a historical record of factual events rather than as a story intentionally constructed to lead the hearer or reader to a particular conclusion and belief. You have to acknowledge that the St. Mark could easily have ended his Gospel on a more upbeat note with an actual siting and even a conversation with our resurrected Lord instead of the women fleeing the tomb confused and afraid and saying nothing to anyone. However, St. Mark has recorded what actually happened. The preservation of these uncomfortable and often embarrassing facts lends credibility to the Gospels and the testimonies of both Jesus’ disciples and those who had no interest in lending credence to them at all.

Still, as interesting as all these signifiers to the veracity of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection may be, that is not why we are gathered here this morning, is it? No, it is not. We are here this morning because Jesus is risen from the dead, just as He said. He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Regardless of their response to the angel’s announcement, the women found the tomb empty, and they were astonished and filled with amazement and fear. As they approached the tomb, they fretted about the very large stone sealing its entrance. However, when they arrived at the tomb, they found that the stone had already been rolled back. You must understand that this was not for Jesus’ benefit, but your theirs and yours. Lutheran dogmatician Franz Pieper writes in his Christian Dogmatics, “Just as Christ came to His disciples clausa ianua (through closed doors), so He also arose clauso sepulchro (through closed tomb). The only purpose of rolling the stone from the door of the sepulcher was, according to Scripture, to exhibit the empty tomb to the women and to convince them by this very fact that Christ had truly risen.”

The stone was rolled away for you, that you might believe and trust and be confident in your faith that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead just as He said. Our Lord Jesus had already been raised from death, had visited the spirits in prison in hell to proclaim His resurrection victory, and was on His way to Galilee just as He told His disciples on the night in which He was betrayed. The stone rolled away was a sign for you. “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.” Jesus had predicted His death, even by crucifixion, His rest in the tomb, and His resurrection on the third day. Everything He had predicted has been fulfilled. The stone rolled away, and the empty tomb were the indisputable proof. Now, all there was left to do was to believe. If all that Jesus predicted had come to pass, then He must also be in Galilee just as He said.

What does this mean? Well, apart from Jesus and those whom He raised, who later died again, no one has ever been raised from the dead. That is because of the curse of our First Parent’s sin, which is truly our sin as well, the wages of which is only and always death. But Jesus’ resurrection means that our sin is atoned for and we are free. Jesus’ death was our death – the death of the sinless Son of God as a man in our place – and, therefore, His resurrection is our resurrection. The stone that sealed Jesus’ tomb can be understood metaphorically as our sin which keeps us in death and in our tombs. But it has been rolled away; our sin has been taken away and can no longer hold us in death and the grave. In fact, even if the stone were still in place, it could not hold Jesus, and it cannot hold you who believe and are baptized into Jesus. But, as I said before, the stone was rolled away for you, that you may believe and be strengthened and be confident in the truth that your sins are forgiven and that, even though you die, you will live. As the Lutheran dogmatician Johann Gerhard wrote in his Postilla, “True believers cannot be damned on account of their debt of sin – it has been adequately demonstrated by the resurrection of Christ that God the LORD has been paid a complete settlement.”

Yet, still, how often are we silent about this Good News, our faith, our forgiveness, our justification, and our hope of resurrection to never-ending life? How often are we like the women at the tomb – afraid? We have this incredible Good News of forgiveness, life, and salvation, and yet, we tell no one, we say nothing, and, too often, we live as though nothing has happened, nothing has changed. Fear keeps us from sharing the Good News. Fear of judgment from our peers, fear of judgment from our family, fear that we don’t really believe what we think we believe, or fear that we are not strong enough in faith to tell anyone else. Well, my brothers and sisters in Christ, fear died this morning. The tomb is empty. He is not here. He is risen, just as He said! He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Cleanse out the old leaven of sin and death and fear. You are a new, unleavened lump! For, Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed! Therefore, let us celebrate this festival, not with the old leaven of malice, evil, and fear, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth! This is the Feast of Victory for our God! Alleluia! Alleluia!

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Good Friday

(Audio)

John 18:1 – 19:42; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21; Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Quite rightly, a Good Friday homily is typically about Justification, how Jesus, in His suffering, death, and resurrection, restored us to a right relationship with God. Indeed, Good Friday is the culmination of Jesus’ fulfilling of the Law of God for all humanity, and His satisfaction in His blood of the Father’s wrath against our sin so that there is nothing left for those who trust in Jesus, but it is truly finished. But, then what? What impact does Jesus’ death and resurrection have upon your life? Does everything just continue the same as it always has? No, but, truly, the death and resurrection of Jesus has changed everything. Truly, the death and resurrection of Jesus has changed you. But, how?

In the Epistle appointed for Good Friday, St. Paul has much to say about the impact of Jesus’ death and resurrection upon your life. He says, “The love of Christ controls us.” Indeed, we heard the same from Jesus last night in the Gospel appointed for Holy Thursday, “A New Commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” However, this New Commandment is not a commandment of the Law, which Jesus has fulfilled for you, but you are to love with Jesus’ love, you are to permit Jesus’ love to fill you and to control you so that it flows out of you towards others. And, you are to do this, St. Paul continues, because “we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died.” What St. Paul is saying is that, Jesus has died for all, and, in Jesus, all have died: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” “Therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh,” for all are one in Christ. Rather, we regard fellow believers as brothers and sisters in Christ, indeed, even members of the same body as ourselves. And, we regard everyone as one that has been reconciled to God in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Of course, not all know this or believe this, and that is why you must love one another with Christ’s love, that others will know that you are His disciples. Indeed, as you have been reconciled with God in Christ, so God has given you the ministry of reconciliation. Truly, you no longer live for yourselves, but you live for Him who, for their sake, died and was raised. Yes, through Holy Baptism and faith in Christ, you are bound up with Jesus in His death and resurrection. His death was your death, now His life is your life. But, your life in Christ is not for yourself alone, but it is for the life of the world. In this ministry of reconciliation, you serve as an ambassador for Christ, and God is making His appeal to those who do not know Him through you. The message that you proclaim to all is that God has reconciled the world and every individual in it to Himself, not counting their sins against them, in Jesus Christ. For your sake, and for the sake of every soul that will ever be, God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for you, for all, that we might become the righteousness of God.

That is what Jesus’ death and resurrection mean for you and your life in Him. It is not only that you are justified and reconciled with God in Jesus, though it is surely that, but it is that you are a new creation, having received a new life and a new purpose and a new vocation. Yes, it was the will of the LORD to crush Jesus. It was the LORD who put Him to grief so that, when He laid down His soul as an offering for your guilt, and for the guilt of the whole world, He would see His offspring, you, and all who will hear this Good News and believe and place their trust and confidence in Jesus. Behold! He has made all things new! Even you! You cannot go on as you were before. To do so is to put off the robe of Christ’s righteousness and to stand naked in your sin and guilt on your own. No, His blood must mark you. There is no other way.

Indeed, all of creation responded in sympathy with Jesus’ death for the sin and guilt of the world. The sun failed to shine. The temple curtain veiling the Holy Presence of God was torn from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks were split open. Tombs were opened and the blessed dead were raised from death and appeared alive to many in Jerusalem after His resurrection. All this and more was in response to the death and resurrection of the Son of God, the Word of God incarnate, by whom, and for whom the universe and everything in it was created and draws its continued existence.

On the night of His betrayal, Jesus prayed what has come to be known as his High Priestly Prayer. In that prayer Jesus confessed that the purpose of His death and resurrection was to reconcile humanity with their God and creator. Jesus prayed that they, God and His people, might be one saying, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Then Jesus prayed also for those who would become one with Him and the Father through the preaching and teaching of the Apostles, the Church, and all Christians, even you, saying, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us.”

Jesus also taught His disciples the evening before His crucifixion and death saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” Truly, Jesus’ death has borne much fruit – you are the fruit of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The life you live, you live in and to Christ, even as Christ’s life lives in you. You are His branches; He is your vine and body. You are His hands, His heart, and His mouth and voice in this world, but not of the world. Through you, others will believe in Jesus and be joined to Him. This, too, is the meaning and purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, but each and every soul is a soul for whom Jesus died that they might live and that we might all be one in Him with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Holy (Maundy) Thursday

(Audio)

John 13:1-15, 34-35; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32; Exodus 12:1-14

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Tonight, you will remember how Jesus has made all things new: How He has given you a new Passover Feast in the Blessed Sacrament of His body and His blood. How He has given you a new example of love in His selfless and sacrificial service of His disciples. How He has given you a New Commandment, that you should love each other, your brothers, and your neighbors, as He has loved you. And of how, on the night when He was betrayed, He made with His Father a New Covenant in His holy and innocent shed blood, that the Destroyer would pass over you. Tonight, you will hear all this. Tonight, you will receive all this. And tonight you will do all this in remembrance of your Lord Jesus who has loved you to the end.

The Passover was the Feast of God’s deliverance of His people out of slavery and bondage in Egypt. It was a feast of remembrance – remembrance of the judgment God executed upon Satan and sin and death, symbolized by the nine plagues which befell the Egyptians and the tenth and final plague, the killing of all of Egypt’s first-born of both men and livestock. Judgment was executed upon all the gods of the Egyptians, even upon the son of Pharaoh himself. But the LORD’s mercy was shown to the children of Israel as He commanded them to sacrifice an innocent, unblemished lamb, and to mark their doorposts and lintels with its blood that the Destroyer would pass over their homes and spare their first-born of both man and beast. On the fourteenth day of Nisan, each household was commanded to take a one-year-old, unblemished, male lamb, from either the sheep or the goats, and, together, they were to kill their lambs at twilight, roughly between the hours of 3pm and sunset at 6pm. They were then to take some of the lamb’s blood and put it upon the two doorposts and the lintels of their homes and then eat the flesh of the lambs that night in their homes, roasted on the fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Every year thereafter, they were to do this in remembrance of the LORD’s mighty deliverance of His people out of the House of Bondage in Egypt.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, it was just before the celebration of the Passover. Jewish pilgrims from as far as 700 miles journeyed to Jerusalem to eat the Passover Feast and to remember God’s mighty deliverance. On the night in which He was betrayed, this night, Holy Thursday, Jesus celebrated one final Passover meal with His disciples. He told them that this was something He earnestly desired to share with them before His suffering, and that it was a meal that He would not eat again with them until it was fulfilled in the kingdom of God. It was during that Passover meal, near the end, that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and gave it to them saying, “Take eat. This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Then, in the same way, He took the cup, after supper, saying, “Take drink. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” In so doing, Jesus reinterpreted the Passover and the Passover meal in terms of Himself, His own body and blood: Though they did not understand then, He was teaching them that He would become their Passover Lamb, that His blood would mark them as chosen and favored by God so that the Destroyer would pass over them. He would lay down His own life unto death on the cross as the sacrificial Lamb, God’s offering for the sins of all men. From then on, in place of observing the Passover, Jesus’ disciples, then and now, are to do this in remembrance of Him, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. In eating His body and drinking His blood you proclaim to the world that Jesus is your Passover Lamb who was sacrificed for you to make you clean. And no greater expression of love is possible than to sacrifice yourself for a friend, for a brother, even for those who hate you.

After supper, in conjunction with His teaching, Jesus gave His disciples a concrete, hands-on example of what that kind of love looks like in action. He rose from supper, laid aside His outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around His waist. Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him. It was unthinkable that a Lord and Rabbi would wash His disciples’ feet, and Peter understandably protested saying, “Lord, do you wash my feet? You shall never wash my feet.” But Jesus lovingly taught Peter and the others about the nature of love and forgiveness. He told them that they were all clean, but the one who would betray Him, and that they did not need to be washed again, but only their feet. Then He told them that, in the same way, they should wash one another’s feet just as He had done for them. And, putting His teaching into a formula He summarized, saying, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

The New Commandment was not entirely new, for love had always been the summary and fulfillment of God’s Law: Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and love your neighbors as yourself. What was new about Jesus’ New Commandment was sacrifice and confession. The Law of God demanded perfect and continual love of God and neighbor, an impossible obedience for you and all men conceived and born in sin, sinning daily in thought and word and deed. But the love Jesus commands is a love that confesses its sin and unworthiness, that knows it does not deserve the love it has received and therefore, in humility and selfless, sacrificial love, cannot help but share the same with brothers and neighbors, even enemies. The New Commandment is really an invitation to die with Jesus to self and selfishness and to live in selfless, sacrificial service. You love as you have been, and are still being, loved. You forgive as you have been, and are still being, forgiven. You give as you have been given and are still being given to. There is no longer a compulsion to love in order to win favor with your God or to pay for your sins against Him, for Jesus Christ has fulfilled the Law of Love for you, in your place. Now you are the recipient of God’s love and forgiveness for Jesus’ sake – and that’s quite new! – freely, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, no strings attached.

Jesus has given Himself for you in every way imaginable. That you might no longer eat the bread of affliction, He gives you His body as bread that you may eat and live. That you might not be struck down in eternal death He has shed His precious and holy blood to atone for your sins that the Destroyer may pass over you. That you might not suffer in slavery and bondage to sin and death and the devil, Jesus fulfilled the Passover before making His Exodus out of this world of sin and death through His death upon the cross for you. And, that you may live in the freedom of His grace and love, Jesus has invited you to share His grace and live with your brothers, your neighbors, and even those who hate you, for in loving, in forgiving, and in giving you are truly free from the chains and bondage of hatred, fear, anger, selfishness, jealousy, resentment, and greed. This is the New Commandment your Lord Jesus has given you that you may live in His love forever.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Palmarum (Palm Sunday) - The Second Sunday in Passiontide

(Audio)

Matthew 21:1-9, 26:1 – 27:66; Philippians 2:5-11; Zechariah 9:9-12

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Palmarum’s Gospel lesson is the fulfillment of Judica’s Old Testament lesson: Jesus is Abraham’s Promised Son making His procession to Mount Moriah as the Lamb of God’s providing to lay down His life as the only pleasing sacrifice for the sins of the world. Like Abraham and Isaac before Him, Jesus begins His procession from outside of the Mount, now the City of Jerusalem, the City of God’s Peace. The Mountain stands before Him as the Mount of God’s Justice, where He will lay down His life in selfless sacrifice and substitutionary atonement for Isaac, for Israel, for the Gentiles who will believe in Him, and for you. The fulfillment of Isaac’s substitutionary ram, Jesus humbled Himself to become caught in the thicket of God’s justice and wrath against our sin that He might become our substitutionary and atoning sacrifice sparing us the wages of our sin, death.

Jesus processes into Jerusalem as our great Prophet, Priest, and King. As Prophet, Jesus fulfills the Old Testament Messianic prophecies, particularly those of Isaiah and Zechariah: “Behold, your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Jesus does not enter Jerusalem in order to fulfill these prophecies accordingly, but rather, the prophecies foretold what the Messiah would do. Thus, Jesus does not merely fulfill the prophecies, but He is, literally, their fulfillment. And, as the preacher to the Hebrews describes in rich detail, Jesus is also our Great High Priest who offers up, not the blood of bulls and calves, but His own holy, innocent blood as a sacrifice to cleanse us from all sins. In the City of God’s Peace, Jerusalem, Jesus would restore for us peace with God by shedding His blood and by dying the death we deserve. Jesus is both our Great High Priest and our spotless, unblemished sacrificial Lamb.

Yet, Jesus is also our King, the true King of the Jews and of heaven and earth. Undoubtedly, it is Jesus’ Kingly office that most Christians associate with Palm Sunday. Like so many kings of Israel before Him, Jesus rides into the City of the King on a donkey, the crowds displaying their submission and allegiance to Him by bowing down and laying branches of palm before His path. The crowds praised Him and God together shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” These were Messianic acclamations. They truly believed Jesus to be the promised Messiah, but they had long forgotten that the Messiah was to come in lowliness and humility, and not as a conquering warrior king. Like so many today, they were looking for a political savior, a powerful demagogue who would rally the hoi polloi to revolution and overthrow their occupying Roman oppressors, making Israel great again. However, Jesus the Messiah is not that kind of King. He does not enter the kingly city on a warhorse with a chariot and an army of soldiers, but in lowliness and humility upon a donkey with women and children and ordinary citizens welcoming him along. And, He would ascend, not a golden throne in the palace of Pilate or Herod, but would be nailed to a throne of wood, the cross, and His crown would be not of precious metals, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and other precious stones, but a crown of thorns adorned with the ruby-red droplets of his holy, innocent shed blood. 

Abraham called the name of that place “The LORD will provide,” and the people continued to call it “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided,” to that very day. Perhaps they believed that the priesthood and the sacrificial system were the means through which the LORD would provide. For, they had corrupted the meaning of these God-given signs of mercy and grace and made them into works that they could perform, believing that they earned or merited God’s favor. Instead of placing their faith and trust in the Word and Promise of the LORD, they placed their faith and trust in their works, their prayers, and their sacrifices. They had the priesthood, they had the sacrificial system in the temple, all they needed now was a king, and they’d have heaven on earth, a heaven of their own making. And so, they were joyful and excited on Palm Sunday when Jesus processed into the Holy City. They were ready to make Him their King – until they began to realize that Jesus would not be the kind of king they had imagined and hoped for. They cried out “Hosanna!” “God save!” thinking that Jesus was God’s Savior who would restore glory and greatness to Israel once again, but before the end of the week, they were shouting, not praise and acclamation, but cursing and condemnation, “Crucify! Crucify!”

Still Jesus processed on, willingly. He was their King, whether they understood what that meant or not. He is our King, and He does what a true and good King should do: He serves His people, protects His people, and dies for His people. He defeated our true enemy, Satan, in the wilderness, resisting the devil’s temptations through unwavering trust in the Word of the LORD. He upheld the LORD’s righteous Law, fulfilling it in perfect and holy obedience and love. Now He returns to His Kingly palace, not in Jerusalem, but in heaven at His Father’s right hand by means of Calvary’s cross and the Garden’s empty tomb, leading a victory march of those who die in the Lord unto life that will never end. No, His Kingdom is not of this world, and neither are you, His subjects, though you are in the world for a time.

At the beginning of our Lenten pilgrimage, on Ash Wednesday, we were reminded of Jesus’ exhortation, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Today, as our Lenten pilgrimage is nearing its climax, destination, and fulfillment in the Passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus our King, we are reminded that we are citizens of two kingdoms, the kingdom of this world in which we are physically bound for the present time, and the kingdom of heaven which we cannot see for the present time. However, our true citizenship is of the latter, the kingdom of heaven. Throughout His days on earth, our King Jesus remained faithful and obedient to the LORD and His Word, and at peace, showing patience and compassion, mercy, and grace to His kindred on earth. Yet, all the while, despising not His earthly residency and responsibilities, He knew that His kingdom was not of this world.

And, so it is with you: Heaven is your true kingdom and home. This is not a reason to despise this world, with it’s sin and brokenness, deceit and corruption, violence, wars, and what can be considered nothing other than simply evil, pure evil, but it is a reason to have hope and to find contentment in whatever your situation may be, and to endure and persevere in selflessness and humility. For, we know that we are citizens of a good and everlasting kingdom, even now, and that it is but a matter of time before we will return home. And, in the meantime, we are the King’s holy subjects, redeemed and purified in His holy, innocent shed blood that we might be His representatives on earth, even His hands, His heart, His mouth, and His voice in selfless, sacrificial service of our neighbor that, in all things, our Lord and King might be glorified. Indeed, this is the meaning of St. Paul’s creedal statement in Philippians two as he describes Jesus’ descent in humility to become a man and to suffer and die on the cross and His consequent exaltation to glory at the right hand of His Father in heaven – St. Paul exhorts you to “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” As our King Jesus has gone, so also do we go, follow, and serve. This is what it means to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven and Jesus’ disciple – to take up the cross the Holy Spirit has appointed for you and follow in the footsteps of your King.

And, as we together follow in the footsteps of our Servant King Jesus this Holy Week, we do so with the awareness that we are in Jesus, and that all that Jesus experienced and suffered He endured for us, and that, as we are united with Him in His suffering and death, so also are we united with Him in His resurrection. Thus, we prayed in today’s Collect, “Mercifully grant that we may follow the example of [Jesus’] great humility and patience and be made partakers of His resurrection.” Our LORD God hears and answers our prayer here and now in this Divine Service. Let us so, then, name this altar “On the mountain of the LORD it is still provided,” for here our holy and righteous servant King Jesus serves and cares for, forgives and protects you, His people. Here you commune with your Lord and King as His closest confidant, friend, brother, sister, and Bride. His righteousness and holiness He shares with you. His forgiveness and Sonship with His Father He shares with you. And, He sends you as His own ambassadors to a world and a human race that is dying in the thrall of sin, darkness, and death. He sends you with this message and proclamation: “Hosanna! God has saved us! Blessed is Jesus who comes in the Name of the LORD!”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Midweek Lenten Vespers in the Week of Judica - The Fifth Sunday in Lent

(Audio)

1 John 5:1-5; The Passion History – Part 5: Calvary

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

On the occasion of this fifth and final midweek Lenten mediation let us recap our theme: God is love. God has loved you in giving His Son over to death on the cross. For you to love God is to keep His commandments. The fulfillment of all the commandments is to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself.

If you think God’s commandments to be burdensome, then you must first examine your love for God. For those who love God, His commandments are not burdensome, for He has forgiven your disobedience and failure to keep them. No longer do God’s commandments threaten you with punishment, for God has poured out the punishment you deserved for your failure to keep them upon His Son Jesus who willingly suffered and died in your place.

Jesus’ self-sacrificial death upon the cross was the greatest possible act of love: Greater love has no man this – greater love is not possible than this – that a man should lay down his life for his friends, not to mention his enemies. God is love, and this is how He has loved you. His love is outside of you and yet it washes over you and through you. His love is outside of you just as Golgotha was a hill outside the walls of Jerusalem. His love comes from outside of you and from above you. You can gaze upon it as an object and be assured that it is real, that it really happened, and it really still matters. You don’t have to look within the morass of your conflicted feelings, your frazzled thoughts, your selfishly motivated words and deeds. To do so is to succumb to the world, your flesh, and your sinful desires. To do so leads either to despair or to delusional self-righteousness, both of which leave you dead in your sins. Instead, look outside of you to God’s love crucified, high on a hill for all to see. It is finished. There is no more. You are forgiven. You are free.

God is love. God has loved you in giving His Son over to death on the cross. You receive the benefit of God’s love in Jesus by being born of God: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him.” To be born of God is to be baptized and to believe that Jesus is the Son of God in the flesh. Baptism and faith also come from outside of you. They are the free gift of God’s grace by the Holy Spirit because God loves you. God came to you who could not, who would not, come to Him. He came in love to forgive you, to die for you, and to raise you to new life in Him. To receive this, to believe this, is to be born of God.

Your new life as a child of God is different. It feels different, it looks different, and it behaves differently. You can see it, and others can see it too, just as you can see your salvation standing on hill outside of you high and lifted up. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” To love God is to obey His commandments. “And His commandments are not burdensome,” for your new man born in baptism is a child of God, and the child of God knows his Father’s commandments, loves his Father’s commandments, wants to keep his Father’s commandments, and is able to keep his Father’s commandments, not out of fear of punishment, coercion, or compulsion, but out of love for God and for the children of God, just like God’s Son Jesus.

“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-- our faith.” How do you overcome the world? You have to be born. Now, think about that for a moment. Being born isn’t something that you do, or that you choose to do; being born is something that happens to you. You are completely passive in being born. The Scriptures, and Jesus Himself specifically, use natural birth as an analogy for faith Believing in God, believing in Jesus, is not a decision that you make or a choice of any kind, but it is something that comes from outside of you and the work of the Holy Spirit. That is why you can trust in it that it is true, and you can be confident of your justification, because you had nothing to do with it. You are a child of God just as surely as you are a child of your biological mother and father. Your sonship with the Father is the cause of your faith and is the cause of your victory over the world. The world is all the things that war against you to tempt you to sin: Your flesh and desires, pleasures, comforts, lusts, wealth, possessions, power, and more. Through Holy Spirit created and given faith in Christ Jesus the victory over all these is already yours. “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

And, just as you did not choose to be born, neither have you chosen your father or mother, nor your brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Truly, you were born into a family and a community wholly apart from your choosing. Each member of your heavenly Father’s family is a son or daughter just like you, born again of water and the Spirit, born of God. Your brothers and sisters in Christ are a gift to you for you to love as God has loved you – selflessly and sacrificially. By loving them you show that you love God: “Whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” This is the love Jesus showed for you in His passion, crucifixion, and death: “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” This is the love of God in Jesus that makes us His children, that makes us His family.

Almighty God, graciously behold this Your family for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and delivered into the hands of sinful men to suffer death upon the cross; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Judica - The Fifth Sunday in Lent (Lent 5) - The First Sunday in Passiontide

(Audio)

John 8:42-59; Hebrews 9:11-15; Genesis 22:1-14

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

We bring our sons and our daughters to Holy Baptism to kill them, just as Abraham brought his son of promise Isaac to Mt. Moriah to kill him. Now, I know that sounds shocking, and it might even offend some of you, but that is precisely what we heard and confessed moments ago in the liturgy of the baptismal rite: “We pray that You would behold Callahan […], that through this saving flood all sin in him which has been inherited from Adam and which he himself has committed since would be drowned and die.” Yes, we bring our sons and our daughters to Holy Baptism to kill them, so that they might be born again in Jesus and live in His new life that can never die.

The LORD commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. It was a test. God didn’t need to know the results of that test, but Abraham did. Abraham, whose faith in the LORD’s Word was once credited to him as righteousness, had since then failed miserably to trust that Word when the circumstances or the timeline didn’t meet his expectations. Abraham, the father of our faith, commanded his wife Sarah to lie to the Egyptians and say that she was his sister and not his wife, not to protect her, but to protect himself. Then, when the LORD did not fulfill His promise of a son within a period of time that seemed reasonable to them, Abraham and Sarah together conspired to produce a son, apart from their union, through Sarah’s Egyptian slave Hagar. In the first case, Abraham did not trust in the LORD to protect him and to provide for him in Egypt, and in the second, he simply didn’t believe that the LORD would keep His Word. The LORD’s command to sacrifice his son was a test of Abraham’s faith. God didn’t need to know the results of that test, but Abraham did.

Suffice it to say, Abraham passed the test. This time, Abraham did not waver. Now he knew that God was faithful and unchanging and that He keeps His Word and promise no matter what. If God demanded that Abraham sacrifice the son promised to him, the son of his own flesh through whom all the nations of the world were to be blessed, then Abraham believed that, somehow, in some way, God would keep His promise. Perhaps God would spare Isaac and provide a substitute. Perhaps God would raise Isaac from the dead. Whatever it would be, Abraham now trusted God without wavering. Abraham believed God, and God counted his belief, his faith, and his trust to him as righteousness. Abraham passed the test. And so did Isaac.

We seldom consider Isaac, what Isaac must have been thinking and feeling, what Isaac believed. We don’t know how old Abraham and Isaac were when this occurred, but it seems clear that Abraham was an old man well over one hundred years and that Isaac was likely a teenager or young adult, perhaps between eighteen to twenty-five years old. Suffice it to say, Isaac could have easily over-powered his elderly father and run. But he didn’t. In fact, we hear no protest from Isaac at all and he seemingly permits himself to be bound by his father and submits to his own sacrifice. This is of utmost significance. Abraham and Isaac were united in their faith and trust in God and His Word of promise. God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, and he was prepared to do it. God commanded Isaac to be the sacrificial victim, and he was willing to do it. Both men believed that the LORD would provide a lamb for a sacrifice somehow, sometime.

Abraham and Isaac both saw the Day of the Lord that day on Mt. Moriah. They saw the day of Jesus’ sacrificial death in the ram caught in the thicket by its horns. Abraham took that ram and sacrificed it in place of his son Isaac. Though Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son, and Isaac was prepared to be the sacrifice, Abraham was spared the loss of his son whom he loved, and Isaac was spared the loss of his life. The ram was a type, a foreshadowing, of the sacrifice the LORD would finally offer Himself. All the lambs, bulls, goats, and turtledoves that were sacrificed on Jewish altars were a type, a foreshadowing, of the sacrifice the LORD would finally offer Himself. None of them ever took away a single sin, but the sacrificial blood only covered over sin for a time and then it had to be repeated. The sacrifice that God would provide would not merely cover over sin for a time, but Jesus, the Lamb of God’s offering, has taken away the sin of the entire world: Abraham’s and Sarah’s sin, Isaac’s sin, Adam’s and Eve’s sin, your sin, my sin, Callahan’s sin, the sin of the entire world – gone, finished, no more.

“Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day,” said Jesus, “He saw it and was glad.” The day that Abraham saw was the day his son Isaac was spared as the LORD provided a ram as a substitute. But that day was fulfilled when Jesus, the Lamb of God’s providing laid down His innocent life unto death on the cross for the sin of the world. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” asks St. Paul, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” And so, we bring our sons and our daughters to Holy Baptism to kill them, so that they might be baptized into Jesus’ death and raised to new life in Jesus’ resurrection. We bring them, not in fear of the Law, but in faith and trust in the LORD and His promise that they will live, just as Jesus is risen from the dead and lives, never to die again.

Jesus’ opponents didn’t understand His meaning. “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” “So, they picked up stones to throw at Him.” They couldn’t understand Jesus’ meaning because they had made themselves deaf, dumb, and blind to the Word and promises of God. They were like Abraham in Egypt, when he feared men more than he trusted in the LORD and loved his own life more than Sarah’s, and when he failed to trust that the LORD would provide him a son. The LORD tested their faith and they failed. They went back to offering up their lambs, bulls, and goats which could never take away their sin and they rejected the Lamb the LORD provided, Jesus, whose sacrifice alone has taken away their sin and the sin of the world. The LORD promised Abraham a son through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed. Jesus is that Son of promise. God did not spare His only Son but gave Him over unto death on the cross for the life of the world. The Son, Jesus, submitted Himself in love to His Father’s will and went willingly to the cross as the sacrificial Lamb of God’s providing. This is how God has loved the world. This is how God has loved you.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.