Jubilate - The Fourth Sunday of Easter (Easter 4)

(Audio)

John 16:16-22; 1 Peter 2:11-20; Isaiah 40:25-31

 

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

Last Sunday we sang, “The earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.” This is most certainly true! However, as good as this earth and life may be, for the LORD has truly blessed us richly in many and various ways, this earth is not our home. Therefore, we must not become too comfortable and complacent in it, nor complicit with it, but we must live our lives as pilgrims and sojourners, as though in a strange land. Thus, on the night in which He was betrayed, in midst of His Last Supper with His disciples before His suffering and death upon the cross, our Lord Jesus shared these words with them and with us, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.”

How could our Lord Jesus speak of joy in the full knowledge of what He was about to suffer at the hands of sinful men, knowing that even His closest disciples and friends would betray and abandon Him? In a word: faith. Jesus had faith, which is trust, in His Father. Jesus’ faith was, as the Preacher to the Hebrews defines it, “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Because He had faith and trust in His Father’s goodness, righteousness, and love, Jesus did not despair of what He was about to suffer but, “for the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame.” What joy was that? It was the joy of returning to His Father in the full knowledge that He would fulfill His Father’s will to redeem and restore us to a right relationship with Him once again. In His ministry, Jesus taught that there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Our justification, repentance, and restoration to the Father causes Jesus, and all the heavenly host, inexpressible joy, and for this reason He laid down His life for us, in love for His Father, and in love for us.

Out of love for His Father and for us, Jesus became the Prodigal Son and left His Father’s home in heaven to squander His love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness upon us. Though He was the Son of God, He did not consider His Father’s will to be a slight against Him, but He emptied himself, becoming a servant, born in the likeness of men. As a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And He counted it all joy. Jesus became the Prodigal, but you and I, we are the prodigal. All we sons and daughters of Adam are one, huge, rebellious, prodigal son. We have squandered our Father’s love and kindness on the idols of fleshly passions, desires, and lusts, material possessions, and the praise of our fellow men. In sinful rebellion, we disrespected our Father and treated Him as if He were dead or did not exist, and we lived for ourselves and for our own selfish pursuits. But all the things we thought we wanted failed to satisfy. Their joy was fast, ephemeral, and fleeting. When spent, it was gone, and we had nothing. When we came to our senses, we found we had no father, no family, no way to satisfy our hunger, our thirst, and our desire to be fulfilled. There was no joy, but only loneliness, emptiness, and the gnawing suspicion that we were meant for something better, but no longer remembered what that is.

Jesus compares the sorrows and sufferings of our lives to a woman in the throes of childbirth. When the pains of labor are upon her, they are all consuming, her only thought and concern. But, when they have passed and the child is born, she knows only joy – joy unlike anything one can imagine who has not suffered and labored through childbirth. “She no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.” “So also, you have sorrow now,” says our Lord, “but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” Our Lord Jesus bids us to take up the crosses that have been appointed for each of us, and to follow Him in His cruciform way. The only way to life is through suffering and, ultimately, death. We cannot live forever in this flesh and this world – this is not our home! – anymore than the infant can live forever in his mother’s womb. The womb is not the infant’s home, though it is certainly comfortable; similarly, this world is not our home, though creature comforts and pleasures tempt us to settle for slavery and for the food of pigs.

That is why we must be born again of water and spirit in Holy Baptism. We must die to this life and world, and we must die to this flesh with its fallen passions, lusts, and desires, and live to God in Jesus Christ. And so, our Father uses the crosses He gives us to chasten and to discipline us, to slough off the dross and burn off the chaff that keeps us impure. Though we cannot always see it, and often we do not feel it, our sorrows and sufferings are both necessary and good for us, just as the pains of labor are both necessary and good in bringing forth the joy of new life. Thus, St. James says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” And so, we have sorrow now, but we will see our Savior Jesus again, and our hearts will rejoice, and no one will take our joy from us!

St. Peter urges us, as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against our souls. Such things are food for swine; they may stave off hunger and thirst for a time, but they can sustain life neither temporally nor eternally. Rather, let us eat of the Bread of Life of which a man may eat and live, and let us drink deeply of the Spring of Living Water that, even though we die, we will live and never die. We will weep and lament while the world rejoices, but our sorrow will be turned into joy when the birth pangs have passed and we see our Lord again.

The world hates us because we are in Jesus and Jesus is in us. Therefore, how we live in this world matters. Let us not be gloomy and despairing, for our hope is in the Lord of Heaven and Earth who has conquered death, who reigns now at the right hand of God the Father, who is returning to raise us up from death to life that cannot die. Let us heed the exhortation of St. Peter: “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.” “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.” “This is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”

It is but a little while until we see Him again, until the sons of God are revealed in the sight of all the world. Already we are sons, adopted in Jesus Christ, but our glory has not yet been revealed. But it is there, hidden in humility and lowliness, just as Jesus’ divinity was hidden in the humility of His human nature, just as the infant is hidden in his mother’s womb, just as Jesus is really and truly present with us now in His Word, Water, and Supper. But, when He comes, then every eye will see Him, and every knee will bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and confess Him as Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Then, our glory, too, will be revealed, and our hearts will rejoice, and no one will take that joy from us.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Misericordias Domini - The Third Sunday of Easter (Easter 3)

(Audio)

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

 

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

If you are a sheep, you are meant either for the sacrificial altar, or for the dinner table. That’s what it means to be a sheep. To be sure, while you are alive, your wool is valuable and will be shorn from your body to make clothing and blankets, and your milk is valuable for men to drink and to make cheese, but still, you are a sheep, and you are meant to die. And, when you have been killed, you will become food for men, or for animals, or you may become a sacrificial victim on the altar of God, or gods.

Throughout your sheepy life, your trust is in your shepherd. You trust in your shepherd to lead you to food and to water. You trust in your shepherd to protect you from thieves and from wild animals. You know your shepherd’s voice and his call, and you listen to and follow your shepherd wherever he leads you. However, even the best of shepherds – those who feed you well and who give you clean, clear water to drink, even those who fend off the wolves and seek you when you go astray – even the best of shepherds still shepherd you to your death – either to sacrificial death at the altar or to the dinner table.

A shepherd knows this. A shepherd knows this ironic truth that he will, ultimately, lead the sheep he has so devotedly cared for, nourished, and protected, to slaughter, to death. A hireling shepherd will gladly do this – it’s his job, it’s what he’s paid for, it’s what puts bread on his table, clothing on his back, and a roof over his head. It’s not that he hates the sheep, or that he despises the sheep, but the sheep are a means to an end, and he cares nothing for their welfare beyond that end. Thus, he will not sacrifice his own welfare for the sheep. Certainly, he will defend them, if he can, but, not because he cares for them, but because he cares for himself – it is not in his own best interest to let the sheep die before their time. Therefore, when the wolf comes, he will not put himself in the beast’s jaws in order that a few sheep might live, but he runs and flees.

That’s the way it goes with hireling shepherds. They may not be bad people, bad shepherds, but they’re working for a wage and they’re not going to risk more than they expect to reap in reward. They’re not fools, and they’re not shepherding for charity. However, there are bad shepherds. Such scoundrels not only care nothing for the sheep, but they care nothing for their master for whom they work. A bad shepherd will exploit and fleece the sheep for his own benefit. He will take a sheep and shear it for himself and then slaughter it to feed his belly. He will abuse the weaker sheep and pit sheep against sheep for his pleasure. A bad shepherd will not lead the sheep to pure water and good pasture but will allow them to eat and drink what is not good for them. He will not seek them when they go astray, and he will not defend them from the wolves and thieves.

Not so the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd actually lays down His life for His sheep – for one or two sheep, and for all the sheep. He places Himself between you and the wolf. He lays Himself, willingly, into the beast’s jaws for you. The Good Shepherd does this because you are His Father’s sheep, you are His sheep. You belong to Him, and He loves you, and He loves His Father who has given you to Him.

The bad shepherds are the ruthless King’s of Israel described in Ezekiel’s prophecies, they are the scribes and the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, and they are the pastors, religious leaders, and false teachers today who fleece the sheep, the people they are called to shepherd and to care for, by promising them blessings for money, by embezzling their charitable gifts, and by squandering their donations on wicked, fleshly indulgence and depravity. They are those shepherds who keep the sheep in bondage and abuse them by teaching righteousness by works according to the Law, while ever raising the bar of what they must do. They are those shepherds who will not defend the sheep from false teaching predators who would lead them into apostasy or complacency, so that they no longer repent of their sins and, therefore, do not receive absolution. They are those shepherds who kill and devour the sheep themselves by teaching them lies and deceptions and by withholding the Gospel grace and mercy of God revealed in the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ. They are those shepherds who care nothing for the sheep and do not serve the sheep but desire only to be served by, and make a feast of, the sheep. And often they are not shepherds at all, but they are wolves who infiltrate the flock by coming in the guise of sheep’s clothing, deceiving the sheep in order to lead them astray or to devour them.

Not so the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd, Himself, seeks out the sheep that the wolf has scattered, and He rescues them. The Good Shepherd brings them together into the fold from all the places they have been scattered and have wandered, and He feeds them and gives them drink in good pasture, in their own land, in their own country. The Good Shepherd leads them to rest from their laboring to provide for themselves righteousness by works according to the Law, and He binds up the injured and He strengthens the weak. The Good Shepherd is not a hireling motivated by self-interest, but He is the Father’s seeking love incarnate. He is not a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but He is the Good Shepherd in sheep’s clothing. He is God in human flesh, become what you are that you may become what He is.

The Good Shepherd seeks you and lays down His life for you precisely because He is the Good Shepherd, and you are His sheep. He does it because He is good. And He is not good because men judge Him to be so, but He is good, and He is the measure and judge of all goodness. Through the mouth of His prophet Ezekiel He says, “It is not for your sake, O Israel, that I am about to do this, but for the sake of my holy Name" (Ezek 34:36). You belong to Him, and so, He takes back what is His. This He does for the sake of His Name and because of the kind of God and Shepherd He is.

The Enemy, the predatory wolf, Satan, has sought to scatter and devour God’s people since their creation. He was successful with our First Parents in the Garden. He was successful as the children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt. He was successful as the kings of Israel served as wolves in sheep’s clothing to lead the people into apostasy, idolatry, and unbelief. He was successful as the Babylonians and the Assyrians scattered the people in exile. And he was successful as the scribes and the Pharisees, the shepherds of Israel, lead the people astray into complacency or despair by withholding from them the Good News of God’s salvation in His Shepherd Messiah who was coming into the world.

On a day of clouds and thick darkness, on a Friday that we now call Good, it appeared to us that the Enemy had finally won once and for all. The Good Shepherd gave Himself into the jaws of the wolf and died. But, in His death, Jesus broke Satan’s jaw and crushed his teeth, and on the third day He rose again having defeated death and having removed the stone of sin and guilt that kept you in your graves. The Good Shepherd takes back what is His for the sake of His Name. To God, you are His precious sheep. You are worth sacrificing for. You are worth dying for. To lose you or to give you up to a usurper is to be something other than who God is; it is to not be God at all. God is love, and the greatest possible expression of love is self-sacrifice, laying down one’s life for another.

And “to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps. 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. 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.”

On a day of clouds and thick darkness, our Good Shepherd, Jesus, was raised up in death that He might draw all men to Himself and to life. He has sent forth His Spirit to call, gather, and enlighten all His sheep whom the false shepherds have scattered all over the face of the earth so that there is one flock and one Shepherd.

But still, you are a sheep, and death is part of what it means to be a sheep. Therefore, your Good Shepherd Jesus came as a sheep that He might lure and be attacked by the satanic wolf and so defeat him by His sinless and guiltless substitutionary death. Now you follow your Shepherd through death into His eternal life in His Father’s House. Death has lost its sting. It can no longer hold you. But it has become an open door into life that cannot die. Because He has blazed the trail before you and has been raised the firstfruits of those who die in faith in the Lord, He is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.

Even now, as you pass through the valley of the shadow of death, your Good Shepherd leads you and guides you, cares for you, and protects you. He has prepared a meal for you in this life and world, in the presence of your enemies, that you might persevere. And He leads you through death and the grave into His Father’s pastures where sheep may safely graze.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christian Funeral for Eugene Louis Matthias

(Audio)

John 14:1-6; 1 John 3:1-2; Isaiah 43:1-3a, 25

 

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

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” These words from Psalm 116 are at once mysterious and comforting. They are mysterious because there is truly nothing precious about death. Despite what the world may feign, there is nothing natural about death either. Our Lord did not create us to die, but to live with Him in His gracious presence forever. No, death is not natural, but it is the most unnatural thing there can be. Death is tragic and it is sad, but death has been defeated by our God who died, who lives, and who is coming again to raise us from death to life that cannot die. Thus, the words of Psalm 116 are also comforting. They are comforting because, though we cannot fully understand them, and though we grieve and our hearts are heavy this day, and our eyes are filled with tears, they are true words, and we know them to be true. Eugene knew those words to be true as well. And because of that, Eugene did not fear death, for he knew where he was going, that he would be with the Lord.

In that respect Eugene had prepared some handwritten notes some time ago in preparation for his future death, an obituary of sorts. You can do that thoughtfully, intentionally, and happily when you know that death is not the end of your life, but a new beginning of a sort. With faith and hope in Christ who died, but who is risen, for a Christian, preparing for death is like packing for a trip you are looking forward to. You know where you’re going, and you know that it is good, and you know that, ultimately, you’ll get to enjoy it with all those you love, and that joy will never end. Eugene listed the basics in his notes: Birth, baptism, confirmation, education, military service, marriage, children, community service, hobbies, retirement. And, at the end of the list Eugene wrote these words: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” – Psalm 23:1. It was his confirmation verse.

“The Lord is my shepherd” – I am not alone. My Lord Jesus is with me. Moreover, He has passed this way before, and so His guidance is expert and invaluable. Jesus traveled through the valley of the shadow of death that is our human life on this earth, and He knocked down the gates of hell that would have kept us in our graves. Indeed, the gates of hell fell before Him, death was defeated, and it has been transformed into an open passage to His Father’s house where He has prepared a place for all who will believe and trust in Him. Eugene knew where he was going. He believed in God, and he believed also in God’s Son Jesus Christ His Good Shepherd, Savior, and Redeemer. “Jesus lives! The vict’ry’s won! Death no longer can appall me; Jesus lives! Death’s reign is done! From the grave will Christ recall me.” “Jesus lives! And now is death but the gate of life immortal; This shall calm my trembling breath when I pass its gloomy portal.” Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” I shall not want. Think about that! To have no want, no need, of anything at all. How freeing and liberating that would be! The thing is, Jesus offers you that freedom, contentment, and peace right now, not only at the end of your earthly life. From what I’ve come to know about Eugene, I think there’s little doubt that he knew that also. When Jesus is your shepherd, what is there to worry about or to fear? If God is for you, who can be against you? That’s right, no one. Therefore, Eugene could focus on the things that he enjoyed, the things that he loved: Family, farming, hunting and fishing, community, faith and church. For 87 years Eugene was blessed by the Lord; he was blessed to be a blessing. And he was a blessing.

Eugene grew up on a farm outside of Readlyn that was homesteaded by his Great-Great Grandfather in the 1800’s. It was designated a century farm and Eugene was immensely proud of it. Though he achieved a bachelor’s degree in biology from Wartburg College, the farm called Eugene and became his career until he retired in 2020. But it was perfect. He was at home with his family in a tight-knit community where he could serve as a trustee for the Maxfield Township, a director for the Readlyn Savings Bank, and in numerous positions here at his beloved Immanuel Lutheran Church of Klinger. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Eugene loved the outdoors. He was so very happy to be tending to the livestock, tilling, planting, and harvesting the corn and beans, trapping fur game, hunting pheasant, deer, and moose, and caring for his watermelons in the garden. He also enjoyed making his famous caramels and attending his children’s and grand-children’s 4-H and sporting events. All of this flowed from Eugene’s fear, love, and trust in his Good Shepherd Jesus who freed him and blessed him to serve in so many vocations. After his retirement, Eugene took advantage of his free time to watch other farmers bringing in the harvest and weighing their crops. Eugene was blessed by the Lord with numerous vocations, holy callings, and he served them all in love, peace, contentment, and joy in fear, love, and trust in His Lord and Good Shepherd Jesus Christ.

Eugene met Jan at Wartburg and they were married on August 27, 1961. They were blessed with four children and seven grandchildren, a beautiful and loving family. Eugene saw that his children were baptized and confirmed and instructed in the Christian faith and confession. Eugene and Jan prayed devotions together daily and attended services here at Immanuel weekly. The family prayed together, offering thanks to the Lordat meals and celebrated the milestones of a life lived in Christ. We’ll be saying a table blessing giving thanks to the Lord for His gifts at the end of this service so that no one eats today without giving thanks to the Lord. Eugene would not approve of that. “Jesus lives! For me He died, hence will I, to Jesus living, pure in heart and act abide, praise to Him and glory giving. All I need God will dispense; this shall be my confidence.”

Jan, Laurie, Michael, Gina, Mindy, grandchildren, friends, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Baptized into Christ 87 years ago, Eugene followed his Good Shepherd Jesus all the days of his long and blessed life, through this valley of the shadow death, to his Father’s house where Jesus has prepared a place for him. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Jesus who has gone to prepare a place for you in His Father’s house as well. You know the way, just as Eugene knew the way, for Jesus is the way. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” “For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” “Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on.” “Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided; Great is they faithfulness, Lord, unto me!” “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

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.

I like Thomas. Thomas is a realist. Thomas calls a thing what it is. Thomas believes that things have meaning in and of themselves, meaning endowed in them by the very God who created them. Thomas believes that, if he observes and studies real things in the real world, he can know something about them, and thereby he can know something about the God who created them.

Do you see how radically different Thomas’ view is than the view commonly held by people today? Today, as a people, as a culture, we do not believe that things have meaning in and of themselves, and we certainly do not believe that things are endowed with meaning by God or by any other supernatural being. Rather, we assume that things only have meaning insofar as we, human beings, ascribe meaning to them. We have become like the scoffers of whom St. Peter warned us saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” Truly, this is the only way that you can arrive at a biological, chromosomal, anatomical male “identifying” as a female and legislators, lawyers, judges, the media, corporations, and all the world agreeing that this man is a woman simply because he says he is, thinks he is, or feels that he is. Somewhere in time there was a seismic shift in thinking, in common philosophy, in worldview, in common sense, away from realism, calling a thing what it is, to nominalism, calling a thing what you think it is regardless of what it really is.

Thomas is not a nominalist who calls a thing what he thinks, feels, or desires that it is, but he is a realist: Thomas calls a thing what it is, what it is endowed by God to be. “These things did Thomas count as real: The warmth of blood, the chill of steel, the grain of wood, the heft of stone, the last frail twitch of flesh and bone.” Thomas needed to see and touch and, presumably, smell, taste, and hear, in order to believe. So do I, and so do you! God created our bodies and our souls, our reason, and all our senses, good. And so, it is not a bad thing that we need to experience real things in order to believe – God made us this way – but it is only a bad thing if, after having experienced other real things that proved to be true in accordance with the Word of God, and upon hearing the testimony of trusted friends who have also experienced those same real things, also in accordance with the Word of God, we do not believe them. That is where realist Thomas goes wrong saying, “Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.” Now Thomas has shifted from being a realist who calls real things what they really are as God endowed them to be, to being a materialist who only counts as real material, physical things. Thomas believed in Jesus, to be sure. He believed Jesus to be dead. Thomas had seen his Lord scourged, whipped, and torn. He had seen the cruel thorns driven into His holy head. He had seen his blessed hands, feet, and side pierced with nails and spear. He had seen His lifeless body taken down from the cross and placed into a tomb. He had seen these things and he called them what they were: He called them death.

However, it was not the case that Thomas had only seen and touched His Lord in the past, but he had also seen the signs He performed, more than mere miracles, but signs confirming and fulfilling Messianic prophecies of God’s Word that he had heard with his God-given ears and comprehended with his God-given reason. Thomas had good reason to believe, not only that his Lord had died, but also that He had risen and was alive, just as Jesus had said before His crucifixion, just as his trusted friends accounted to Him that Sunday evening in the upper room. “The vision of his skeptic mind was keen enough to make him blind to any unexpected act too large for his small world of fact.” Just like that, faced with the certainty of death, Thomas became a Modernist and a Materialist. Though Thomas knew that Elijah had raised a widow’s son from death, and that he himself had witnessed Jesus raise a widow’s son from Nain, Jairus’ daughter, and his good friend Lazarus, nonetheless “His reasoned certainties denied that one could live when one had died.”

And, so it is with much that passes as science today; it is a close-minded ideology, a “small world of fact,” not an open search for truth. Only consider the debate on global warming, Neo-Darwinist evolutionary theory, novel untested gene therapies masking as vaccines, gender orientation, and identity politics. To be on the wrong side of these ideological issues is to be labeled anti-science, anti-intellectual, bigoted, sexist, and racist. But, true science requires critical thinking and intellectual honesty, the ability to admit that, when the findings disprove your hypothesis, then what you had believed, no matter how strongly held a viewpoint, is wrong. Those who truly want to support science should defend the right of all scientists — including dissenters — to express their views. Those who stigmatize dissent do not protect science from its enemies. Instead, they subvert the process of scientific discovery they claim to revere.

However, our Lord is gracious and merciful. He comes to us in our weakness of flesh and raises us up to faith and life. He breathes His Holy Spirit upon the dry bones of our unbelief and causes sinews and flesh to come upon us, and He fills us with His life and Spirit. The following Sunday, the disciples were gathered together again with the door bolted behind them. But, this time Thomas was present with them. Once again, our resurrected Lord Jesus came to them where they were. He passed through the barrier that kept them in and He spoke directly to Thomas saying, “Peace be with you. Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Then Thomas’ “fingers read like braille the markings of the spear and nail,” and Thomas believed and confessed “My Lord and my God!” If you think about it, Thomas’ confession is even greater than was Peter’s who confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God. No longer doubting, Thomas confessed Jesus to actually be God Himself. Jesus gently and lovingly rebuked Thomas for His foolish unbelief saying, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Thomas had everything he needed to believe, but, like we too often do, he became enslaved by his desire for visible and physical proof so that he forgot that God had also given him ears to hear His Word and Promise and believe.

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.” Which book is that?  It is first the Gospel of St. John, but that book is also the entirety of the Holy Scriptures, all of which testify of Jesus. “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name.” This is the reason you have the Holy Scriptures. This is the reason you have as Church and a Pastor. This is the reason you have preaching, teaching, and exhortation, the proclamation of your sins forgiven, Holy Baptism, and Holy Supper – that you may believe, and keep believing throughout your life until Jesus comes again. These things come to you from outside of you. You can see them and hear them, touch them, smell them, and taste them. “May we, O God, by grace believe and thus the risen Christ receive, whose raw imprinted palms reached out and beckoned Thomas from his doubt.”

By all means, use your God-given senses to observe and study His creation, and derive its meaning. By all means, use your God-given reason to know and understand and believe. However, use also your God-given ears and listen to His Word, the Holy Scriptures, for they are the revealed Word of God and they are Truth. That which you perceive finds its meaning in God’s Holy Word, “which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” For, “if we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. For this is the testimony of God that He has borne concerning His Son.” Don’t be a nominalist, believing that things are essentially meaningless until you give them meaning, but be a realist like Thomas, believing and confessing that all things that are are and are sustained by the creative Word of the LORD and thus testify to their Creator and to Jesus, the Word made flesh, crucified, died, risen, reigning, and returning in glory today, tomorrow, or the next day. And, to preserve you in faith until that day and hour, your Lord Jesus is present with you now that you may believe, and that believing you may have life in His Name, to the glory of God His Father. 

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.

Zechariah had prophesied that the LORD would strike His own Shepherd and scatter the sheep. Jesus had warned His disciples of precisely that after celebrating the Passover with them Thursday evening when He said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night.” And, though they all denied it vehemently, shortly thereafter, in the Garden of Gethsemane, came the betrayer, Judas, with a crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, and they arrested Jesus, and, just as He had foretold, all the disciples left Him and fled.

Can you imagine the terror and the confusion of that night. The band of disciples had seen and heard many wonderful and miraculous things, and they really did believe Jesus to be the Messiah, even God’s own Son. However, they didn’t really understand what that all meant. When they listened to Jesus’ teaching, their faith and their understanding was increased, but, then the devil would come and twist the meaning of Jesus’ words in their hearts and minds, and tempt them to vie for power and glory, to covet material wealth and earthly prestige, and to grumble and to despair when things didn’t go the way they had imagined or hoped. So, the reality that Jesus was arrested, and that one of them had betrayed Him, wasn’t really something that they were prepared to handle. They were terrified for their own lives, and they, perhaps, began to think that maybe they were wrong about Jesus all along. After all, they had their families, their occupations and livelihoods, their homes, and their positions in the religious and civic communities that they had given up. What were we thinking? The man that they thought was God’s Messiah had been arrested, and whatever was going to happen, it surely wasn’t going to be good. They were terrified, and so they ran.

The LORD struck His own Shepherd and He scattered the sheep. It was the LORD’s will to crush Him. Who’d you think was responsible, the devil? Impossible! The devil has no power over God, nor over the Son of God in human flesh, Jesus. The devil only has power over you. Long ago, he came knockin’ on the door of your heart, and you let him in! And, before you knew it, he’d rearranged the furniture, painted the walls, and hanged up new curtains so that everything you thought, everything you spoke, and everything you did bore his imprimatur. He corrupted your will, he corrupted your passions, and he corrupted your desires and then he used them against you. He used you against others. He said that you would not surely die. But he lied. You die. You die because you rejected Life and chose death. God is the only LORD of Life; any other god brings only death.

It was because of death that the LORD of Life had to die. It was necessary. It was the only way to raise you from death to life again. So, the Father sent His Son in the form of a man, in human flesh, born of the Virgin, without sin, so that God could die, and you could live. However, so corrupted by sin and death we were that we could not see it; we could not understand it or receive it. Jesus had taught His disciples about His death and resurrection several times, and they, who so boldly confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, rebuked their Lord when He said such things. But Jesus knew who was behind their words and deeds. What did Jesus say to Peter, “Get behind me Satan.” So, when it became apparent that Jesus was going to die, they acted out in violence at first, Peter cut off some poor man’s ear, and then they all ran away in fear and left Jesus alone. Jesus had prayed in Gethsemane that there might be some other way, but there was no other way possible, and so He submitted to His Father’s will, and He submitted to arrest, trial, scourging, mockery, crucifixion, and death, because it was necessary, it was necessary to raise you from the dead.

When Jesus died Friday afternoon, there were only a few of his disciples present, most of whom were women, including His mother Mary, Mary the wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalene, Salome, and the wife of Zebedee. There was also a centurion present and some other gentiles keeping watch. And then there was John, the only Apostle recorded to be present. All the others had fled in fear. Perhaps this meager band of faithful women and gentiles, along with the young Apostle John, represented the firstfruits of what Jesus had prophesied, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” Regardless, the faithful few were sorely grieved and wracked with sorrow, confusion, and fear and doubt. After all the horrors of the day, it was now approaching sundown and the Sabbath was soon to begin. So, they hastily took Jesus’ body and laid Him in the tomb, and then they departed to their homes where they observed the Sabbath in bitter tears.

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint Him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” They came to finish their work of Friday evening, preparing Jesus’ body for burial. Once again, despite Jesus’ teaching about His suffering, crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection, the women believed Jesus to be dead, yet another casualty of that lying serpent Satan. They expected to find His body there in the tomb, just as it had been laid there Friday evening.

In some ways, they were not so unlike the Prodigal Son as he was returning home, prepared for and expecting the worst. “Who will roll away the stone for us? It’s impossible, they thought.” But, before the Prodigal Son even caught site of his home, he saw His father running towards him with his arms open wide. And, before he could recite his carefully prepared speech and offer his labor as a servant, his father had restored him fully as a son and an heir and showered his love upon him. So too, the fearful and anxious women found that their fears and anxiety were without warrant as the stone had already been rolled away. And, an angel, a messenger of God was there, and he said to them, “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. But go; tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.”

In somewhat stark contrast to the struggling faith of the women at the tomb and of Jesus’ disciples and Apostles, we also heard this morning of the bold and confident faith of a man named Job. God permitted Satan to afflict Job – and, again, we must remember that Satan has no power at all that God does not permit him to have – and so Satan took from Job his children, his wealth, his home, and, finally, he afflicted his body just short of killing him. Yet, even in the midst of all his suffering, Job proclaimed his faith in the resurrection of His Redeemer, God’s promised Messiah, and he proclaimed his own bodily resurrection saying, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” And, with all that being said, add to it that Job lived as much as two thousand years before Jesus’ birth! Stripped of everything that men are tempted to put their fear, love, and trust in, Job was left with two options, curse God and die, as his so-called friends and even his wife tempted him to do, or cast all his fear, love, and trust upon the LORD and Giver of Life. Job’s confession of faith demonstrated where He put His trust.

Indeed, worldly fears, loves, and trusts keep us from placing our fear, love, and trust in the LORD of life, so that we return again and again to the bondage of sin and death. “Who will remove the stone?” Sin and unbelief is the stone that would keep us in our tombs. It is the leaven that St. Paul says that we must cleanse from our hearts, minds, hands, and lips, the leaven of malice, evil, and sin, for Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the festival with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Even after seeing the stone rolled away, the empty tomb, and the angel who told them that Jesus had risen just as He had said He would, the women were astonished and filled with fear. They fled from the tomb and said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. Indeed, as Father Abraham told the rich man who was in torment in hell, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” It is always the Word of the LORD to which we must listen. The angel didn’t simply pass along information to the women, he preached to them, and what he preached was Christ and Him crucified. That was what was important. Jesus died. He was laid here in this tomb. But He is not dead anymore, He is risen, just as He said. And that has changed everything! That same truth was what Job put his trust in so many centuries before, and that same truth is what we put our trust in today.  If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. There is no need to struggle and to strive for worldly power and glory, to covet material wealth and earthly prestige, and there is no need to fear the loss of these things, nor even death itself, the old and evil leaven. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. It is finished. The stone of sin has been removed. You are free to live resurrected lives in His love, grace, and mercy, sharing these with all as they have been richly and abundantly shared with you.

So let us keep the Feast of freedom gallantly; Let alleluias leap. Let love grow strong anew, and great, let truth stamp out the lie. Let all our deeds, unanimous, confess Him as our Lord who by the Spirit lives in us, the Father’s living Word.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. 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.

“If a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.” Such was the Law of the LORD given in Deuteronomy 21:23. And, such was the death that Jesus died for you. The charge against Him, nailed atop His cross, read “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” Though it was the truth, and though Jesus was truly innocent, the Jews considered His claim to be the Son of God and the great “I AM” to be blasphemy. They had been building their case against Him for some time. They challenged Him when He absolved the sins of the paralytic saying, “Only God can forgive sins.” They accused Him of casting out demons by the power of the devil. And, later, they accused Him of being possessed by the devil. The charge they leveled against Jesus was blasphemy, a crime punishable by death. And, because of this, they considered Him cursed by God, stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God, for His sins. For, “cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” However, Jesus was precisely whom He claimed to be. Jesus cast out demons and healed the sick, not by the power of the devil, but by the authority of the Holy Spirit. And so, it was the scribes and the Pharisees who were the blasphemers, because Jesus was innocent of their charges, and because Jesus is the holy, righteous, Son of God, the great “I AM,” and the true King of the Jews.

The scribes and the Pharisees were cursed by God. The children of Israel were cursed by God. You and I, and all humanity were cursed by God for our sins and guilt, rebellion, and blasphemy. “Because you have done this,” said the LORD, because “you have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat,” “cursed are you;” You shall “return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” You were reminded of that curse forty days ago on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of our Lenten pilgrimage this year, when ashes and dust marked your foreheads as the words of the curse were uttered, “Remember, O Man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” You are a sinner, the child of sinners, and the wages of your sin, what you earn and merit for your sin, is only and always death. However, remember that those ashes which marked your foreheads were not merely a smudge, but those ashes were in the shape of the cross. They were in the shape of the cross because, while the curse was not abolished or taken away, it was paid for, satisfied, and thereby broken in Jesus’ death upon the cross for you and for all humankind.

“For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” We were all under the curse. There was no escape. Everyone who dies dies because of the curse in his own flesh, for his own sins, both inherited and actual. Therefore, no man’s death could atone for his own sins and break the curse, let alone for the sins of others. Thus, it was necessary, it was the only way, that God Himself must die, the sinless for the sinful, the righteous for the guilty. God the Father sent His only-begotten Son into our flesh to suffer and die for you and me and for all humankind. Jesus “has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Jesus “was wounded for our transgressions,” “crushed for our iniquities.” “The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” “Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.” “One has died for all, therefore all have died.” For as by the one man Adam’s disobedience all men were made to be sinners, so by the one man Jesus’ obedience, even unto death upon the cross, all men have been declared to be righteous. “It is finished.” “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Fixed upon the tree of the cross, Jesus was raised up the accursed one for all the world. The fullness of God’s righteous wrath against your sin, my sin, and the sin of all humankind, was poured out upon the sinless One, His Son, until there was nothing left. All we, bitten by the poisonous Satanic serpent, cursed to die, have been redeemed by Jesus as Satan sunk his venomous fangs into His heel. Now, all who gaze upon Him, high and lifted up, in faith and trust, receive in Him forgiveness, righteousness, holiness, and life that cannot die. Do not search inside yourself for this redemption and righteousness. Do not trust in your reasoned decision or choice, your pious feelings and emotions, or even your faith itself, but trust only in Jesus who died upon the cross for you, the objective standard, wholly outside of you, who died for you and your redemption whether you believe it or not, whether you exist or not. This is the LORD’s work, and it is glorious in our eyes.

“Behold! The life-giving cross on which was hung the salvation of the world.” That is why we can call this terrible, cursed, black Friday good. This day is good for you. This day is good for me. This day is good for all the world. Jesus’ death is your death, for you and for all the world, but He did not remain dead. Death could not hold Him, because He was innocent, sinless, and righteous. Therefore it was death that died this day. Whoever believes in Jesus, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Jesus shall never die. For, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come!” “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself.”

Therefore, from now on, “we regard no one according to the flesh.” That is to say, how can we regard anyone as unforgiveable, forsaken by God, undeserving of love, mercy, grace, and charity? For, we were no better, we were cursed, and likewise we and all have been forgiven by Jesus who became the curse for us to set us free. Truly, no man is our enemy, for we all share but one and the same enemy, Satan and his demonic horde. What we have received from the LORD in forgiveness and redemption, let us not withhold from others and all for whom Jesus also died. For, we have been given the ministry of reconciliation, the Gospel proclamation that, in Christ, God has reconciled the world to Himself. “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us.” Let our attitude and message to our friends, our neighbors, our enemies, and the world be thus: “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

If not even death can hold you, then of what have you to be afraid? Oh, your enemy, Satan, tempts you with many temptations to rob you of your confidence and trust in Jesus. What do you fear not having? What do you fear losing? What is it that the devil has convinced you is more important to have than Jesus? Is it wealth and possessions and creature comforts? Is it the success of your children in sport, college, career, comfort, and worldly security? Does your fear of loss, or not having, does your fear of suffering and death, tempt you put your trust in men or money, the government, or yourself? Do you, in your mad striving to get, to have, and to keep the things of this world, sell your Lord Jesus and your salvation for a pot of stew? Do you fear and hate your neighbor, no matter who he or she is, because you fear not having, or losing, what you have? If so, repent. Such fears and emotions and motivations are the curse from which you have been freed. To permit them to rule you is to sell yourself back into slavery once again, and to make Jesus’ suffering and death in your place foolishness. Jesus “died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”

No, but you are a new creation in Christ, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died. […] From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. […] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” All those born again and made new in the blood of Christ in holy baptism are nourished and sustained by His Word, His body, and His blood. These are the life-giving fruits of Jesus’ crucifixion upon the tree of the cross, become for us now the Tree of Life. Jesus became accursed for we who were cursed that we might become the blessed of the LORD once again. He, who knew no sin, the LORD made to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God. Truly, this Friday is good for you, for me, and for all humanity. Don’t keep it to yourself.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Holy 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.

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples.” By how much you go to church? No, that’s not it. By how much money you give to the church or to your favorite charity? No, that’s not it either. By how “churchy” you appear outside of church, even in very “unchurchy” places? Nope, wrong again. Well then, what is it? What is it that Jesus declares will be the definitive characteristic you must display that will cause all others to know that you are His disciples and follow Him? Are you ready? Here it is: Love. All people will know that you are Jesus’ disciples when you have love for one another.

“It can’t be that easy,” you say? Don’t worry, it’s not. Indeed, there’s nothing easy about love. In fact, love is hard. Love hurts. Love is sacrifice. Jesus commands you to love your enemies and to do good to those who hate you. That’s hard! However, even when it’s considerably easier to love someone, someone who’s kind to you, someone who loves you in return, even then love is hard, even then love is still a sacrifice. You always sacrifice and give away a part of yourself when you love. And that’s why love is the definitive characteristic of the Christian. By this all people will know that you are Jesus’ disciples, when you give away a part of yourself, when you think more of others and their comfort, safety, needs, and salvation than you do of yourself and your own, when you sacrifice yourself for one another.

It’s always been about sacrifice because it’s always been about love. God is love. He created this world and everything in it, He created humanity, He created you out of divine, holy, perfect, selfless, sacrificial, love. God walked with Man in the Garden, and Man with God. God provided everything for the Man He loved, even a woman for him to love and to return love that Man would know God better still by experiencing and sharing His love for another. And God blessed the Man and the Woman that they would be fruitful; He blessed them with the fruit of life that they might together love and sacrifice themselves for another, an extension of God’s sacrificial love once over again.

For a time, God only knows how long or short, all went along swimmingly. Man lived in accord with God’s will and loved with His love. It was Paradise. But then, one of God’s creatures who refused to love set about teaching Man to do the same. “Did God really say?” he asked. Man knew what God said from His very own voice! “You will be like God,” he said. They were the hand-made creatures of God, the very crown of all He had made, made in His own image and likeness! Lies, damned lies and deceptions, that’s all that ever came or that ever comes from that hateful creature’s voice. But the deception took, and the seed was planted. Doubt began to grow; faith and trust began to weaken and die. Man now knew the difference between good and evil. Man knew a will that was distinct from God’s will; he knew his own will and He willfully acted upon it. Love had begun to die, for self-centeredness and self-interest are the very antithesis of love. Me, myself, and I don’t much care about you, you, and you.

But what did your God, who is love, do? He did the loving thing; He did the sacrificial thing. God made a covenant promise that He would send one from woman’s seed who would crush Satan’s head. However, God also said that this Seed would in turn likewise receive a serious, even fatal blow. That was His Word, His Promise. Then He gave a sign of that promise until it was fulfilled; God made a sacrifice of animals, shedding their innocent blood that Man’s nakedness might be covered. It was a sign, a symbol, of the sacrificial shedding of innocent blood God would provide in that Seed of the woman, His only-begotten Son, whom He would send, and who would willingly go, to be the Passover Lamb of God’s self-offering to take away the sins of our First Parents and all their sinful progeny forever.

That initial blood, the blood of innocent animals, was a sign, a symbol. There was no power in the blood itself to forgive sins or take them away. The only reason the blood covered sins was because God said so. When the blood was shed, God lovingly and sacrificially looked upon His sinful people as if they were not sinful. God so loved the world and the men He made to love that He did what was necessary to restore that relationship. In the wilderness, God set Himself to dwell with His people once again. However, sinful men simply couldn’t bear being in the presence of God’s holiness. It would literally destroy them. Therefore, once again, He did what was necessary in order to show His love to His people. He lovingly and sacrificially gave them the tabernacle and the sacrificial system that the blood of bulls, goats, and lambs might be sacrificed so that the people could live in the presence of God for a time, but only for a time. Indeed, as these sacrifices never took away sins, they needed to be repeated regularly and annually. They were signs and symbols pointing toward the sacrificial Lamb of God’s self-offering whose shed blood would take away the sins of the world forever.

The tabernacle was literally a moveable tent. The people were nomadic at the time, and they needed to move from time to time. God promised to go with them. Thus, He did not have them construct a permanent structure, but a moveable one. When they were on the move, God went before them as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. But, when they made camp and set up the tabernacle, the Glory of God filled the inner sanctuary of the tabernacle and remained there until it was time to move again. Again, the tabernacle was but a temporary means by which God could dwell with His people and bless them with His presence. The tabernacle was not the fulfillment God had promised. There was something greater still to come. “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling amongst us.” This passage from John’s Gospel refers to the Incarnation of the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. The words translated as “made His dwelling amongst us” literally mean “tented” or “tabernacled.” In the Incarnation of the Son of God, God literally “pitched His tent” amongst the men He created. The Word literally became flesh and blood that He might be pierced with nails and shed His holy and innocent blood and become the sacrifice that truly takes away the sins of the world.

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Love is sacrifice. On the night in which He was betrayed, that is this night, Jesus ate one last Passover with His disciples whom He loved. “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” In His words and actions, Jesus both loved them and instructed them in the way of love. First, He washed their feet. Washing the feet was a humble activity typically done by servants. Here, Jesus serves His disciples and washes their feet. It was a loving and sacrificial thing to do. When Peter objected, then Jesus got theological saying, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” This washing meant more than removing filth from the feet, it meant communion with Jesus. You are washed clean of your sin-guilt through faith in Christ and the sign and seal of His forgiveness, Holy Baptism. In Holy Baptism you are washed clean in Jesus’ blood and are covered in His righteousness and holiness. In the Last Supper, Jesus connected this washing to the blood He would pour out for you upon Good Friday’s cross. In that Passover meal, Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb of God who willingly and lovingly laid down His life for all mankind. He washed them, then He fed them, and then He sent them to love others as they had been loved.

He gave them the bread to eat saying, “This is my body which is for you.” Then He gave them the wine to drink saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” All that He is He gives for you in selfless, sacrificial love. He gives His blood for you, not merely to cover your sin, but to take it way. Man was commanded to not drink the blood of animals, not even the Passover lamb, for life is in the blood, and man receives his life from God alone. But, the blood of Jesus, who is life, He commands you to drink. Jesus brings a New Covenant, for He is the fulfillment of the First. Jesus is the Seed of the woman promised to our First Parents in the Garden. On Friday, He would crush Satan’s head even as that worm sunk his venomous fangs into our dear Lord’s flesh and He died.

Jesus’ self-sacrifice on the cross for you was the ultimate gift of love that can be given. “Greater love has no man than this, that He would lay down His life for His friends.” After His resurrection and Ascension, His disciples would remember His words, “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.” But how can you lay down your life for others? Do you have to sacrifice yourself and die? Well, maybe, in extreme cases. But what do the Scriptures say? “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Love others as you have been loved by God in Jesus Christ; love with His love. Give to others as you have been given to by God in Jesus Christ; give with His gifts. Forgive others as you have been forgiven by God in Jesus Christ; forgive with His forgiveness. But first and always, love, for love is the fulfilling of the Law, and love is the fruit of the Gospel.

Jesus is the tabernacle and temple of God. While in the flesh on earth, the Man Jesus was the dwelling place of God with men. Now ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven, Jesus is Man abiding with God. In His death and resurrection, Jesus restored Man fully to God – “It is finished.” Now a Man sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Yet, because of His loving sacrifice, shedding His holy and innocent blood to cleanse you from your sins and guilt, where He is He has promised you shall be also. It was the loving, sacrificial will of the Father to restore you to a right relationship with Him. Jesus is the love of God poured out for you to cleanse you of all your sin. He has made the Tree of the Cross a new Tree of Life that you might eat and drink of its fruits and live in the Garden of heaven with God, Father, Son, and Spirit once again and forevermore. This is His gift of love to you. Eat, drink, receive, believe, share, live – now and forever.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Palmarum (Palm Sunday / Second Sunday of 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.

It was indeed the Father’s will that Israel have a king, but not a merciless earthly king like Saul and his successors, but a gentle king of peace and mercy, of selfless love and sacrificial service. But, since the children of Israel cried out to God for a king like those of the pagan nations around them, God permitted them to have what they asked for. He gave them a king and He commanded His prophet Samuel to say to the people: "These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day." Indeed, it seems that the Lord knows a thing or two about kings. How much more does He know the prideful, selfish, greedy, and murderous hearts of men.

Yet, it was indeed the Father’s will that Israel would have a king – a king who would not take, but who would give; a king who did not come to be served, but to serve; a king who would not rule by power and force, who would not murder, but a king who would rule with love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness, and who would lay down His own life into death for His subjects. The king the Father gave to His people was Jesus, at whose birth the choir of angels sang in praise, whom gentile sages from the east honored with precious gifts, whom God Himself anointed and christened with His Holy Spirit at His baptism in the Jordan, ordaining Him for a kingship of sacrificial death upon the throne of the cross, crowned with thorns of cruelty and mocking. This is He of whom the prophet wrote, “and the government shall be upon His shoulder” and “of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.” The people were right to receive Jesus as their king, but they had it all wrong about the kind of king He would be.

John the Baptist had prepared His way, preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He was like those servants of old who went before their king to prepare his way for safe travel by filling in the low places in the road and by removing stones and leveling the high places as the prophet had said: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” Only, John prepared the way for King Jesus to enter into your hearts and your lives by removing your mountains of pride and your valleys of despair by the preaching of the Law and the Gospel. It is a kind of surgery, this preaching, that heals you by wounding, by cutting, by crushing, and by killing. That is to say that the Law has to have its deathly way with you, convicting you of your sin, showing you your uncleanness and death, slaying your adulterous and idolatrous self, that the Gospel may then be given to you freely, by grace alone, and heal you and raise you up to new life in the King who first died for you and was raised to life, victorious over sin, death, and the devil.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem, the City of David, the City of the Great King, the people received Him as their King. They laid down their cloaks upon His path before Him. They cut palm branches and they waved them in the air, crying out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” By all appearances, they truly believed Jesus to be the promised Messiah, for they received Him with all the Messianic accolades and titles. They cried out to Him “Hosanna,” which means “Save us, we pray”. They called Him the Son of David, the title and designation of the Messiah given in prophecy. They confessed Him to be the Blessed One of the Lord God Himself. Yet, with all that positive confession, with all that faithful praise and adoration, before the sun sat on the day we call Palm Sunday, the religious leadership of the people were becoming disillusioned with Jesus and the kind of King He was showing Himself to be.

Immediately upon entering the City of the Great King to the pomp and circumstance and the crowds, though He entered riding, not upon a war horse or chariot, but upon a lowly colt of a donkey, a beast of burden, King Jesus proceeded, not to Governor’s headquarters in order to throw him out, but He proceeded to the temple and He began to throw out the money-changers and the peddlers of pigeons, crying out, “It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.” These people were using the temple for dishonest gain by exchanging the people’s money for pennies on the dollar and extorting the people by overcharging the poor when they purchased their sacrificial victims. Is it any surprise that women and children, the poor and the sick and the demon possessed, and all the other unclean or disenfranchised people flocked to Jesus? But, when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to Him, “Do you hear what they are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” Jesus then left Jerusalem and returned to the temple the next day and taught in many parables which the chief priests and the Pharisees perceived were about them. Though they wanted to arrest Jesus, they could not, for they feared the crowds because they held Him to be a prophet.

As the week that we call Holy continued, however, the chorus of those setting themselves against King Jesus grew. Many who believed in Him were scandalized by His teaching. By Thursday, even His closest disciples had become conflicted. When Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus’ head with costly ointment, the disciples were indignant at the waste. It was likely then that Judas decided to betray Jesus to the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver. After celebrating the Passover feast with His disciples, Jesus and they went out to the Mount of Olives, to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. There Jesus told His disciples that they would all fall away from Him that night. Peter insisted that he could never betray his Lord, but that he would die for Him if necessary, and the rest of them said the same. Yet, before sunrise the next morning, they had all abandoned Jesus in fear and confusion and unbelief in fulfillment of the prophecy, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.”

Jesus’ trials before the Jewish Sanhedrin, before Herod, and before the Roman Governor Pilate each focused upon the confession of the people that Jesus was the Messiah, the God-given King of the Jews. Jesus was careful to not make this claim Himself directly, but He did not deny the claims that others made about Him. When He was handed over to be crucified, He remained innocent and guiltless, but He was charged, convicted, and executed for the claims, the guilt, and the sins of others: for the crowds, for the disciples, even for Judas, and even for the scribes and the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, Herod, and for Pilate himself. Indeed, your God and Lord does not force Himself upon you or upon anyone – He is not that kind of a King – but you must receive Him as your King, your Lord, your Savior and God. He comes in humility and lowliness, not to be served, but to serve. He comes, not to bring you health and wealth, power and influence, but He comes to bring you forgiveness of your sins, eternal life, and salvation. He comes, not to defeat your enemies, but to restore you prodigal enemies of God to sonship with your heavenly Father.

Jesus is your King, the only true King ever to have lived, who served you, His subjects, His people, in selfless, sacrificial love, even laying down His life into death that you would live. He is your substitute ram caught in your thicket of sin and death. He is your scapegoat bearing the load of the world’s sin upon Himself to face death and the devil in the wilderness. He is your Passover Lamb whose blood marks you as His own so that the Angel of Death passes over you. And He is your Great High Priest who has entered into the Holy Places once and for all, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own sinless, holy, and innocent shed blood, securing for you an eternal redemption from your sins.

Jesus is the King your Father wills for you to have – a King of boundless mercy and compassion, forgiveness, and selfless, sacrificial love for you and for all mankind. Jesus is the King your Father wills for you to receive and confess; Jesus is the King whose reign your Father wills for you to share in by so loving others as He has so loved you. Jesus is your King, who has claimed you and named you as His own in Holy Baptism. Jesus is your King who provides for your sustenance, comfort, and protection in this life and world. Jesus is your King who gives you His body to eat and His blood to drink in intimate communion with Him for forgiveness of your sins, strengthening of your faith, eternal life, and salvation. And Jesus is your King who comes on the ‘morrow to crown you as kings and queens with Him of heaven and earth. But, already you have been called to kingly service of your neighbor in his need with the promise that when you serve one of the least of your brothers, you serve your King and Lord Jesus. You learn this service best by being served by your King Jesus – by being in His Word and in His Wounds as the recipient of His grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness. Then, you live this service by showing this grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness to your neighbor, to your brother, as it has been richly and abundantly showered upon you.

Today, eight young kings and queens will receive their First Communion, their first reception of King Jesus’ holy body and precious blood given and shed for them for the forgiveness of their sins. In receiving this precious gift they receive their King and they confess Him to be their Messiah, their Lord, and their God. They sing with all the faithful, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest.” Into the mouths of babes their King is received, and out of the mouths of babes is His Name confessed.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.