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

(Audio)

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

 

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

The Easter Gospel ended in fear and silence. 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.” And they were not alone. Today’s Gospel has the Apostles gathered together in the upper room behind locked doors in fear that what the Judaizers did to Jesus they would surely do to them. They were all filled with fear the night He was betrayed and arrested in the Garden, and when He was tried, convicted, sentenced, and crucified on Friday. But now that He is risen, why are they so afraid?

They were afraid because Jesus’ resurrection means something. Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed! And, that changes everything! You simply cannot go on living your lives the same as before now that Jesus is risen. Yes, it’s confusing. No, it doesn’t make sense to human reason. But it’s true! Jesus is alive. He lived and walked on this earth for forty days after His resurrection. He was seen by the women. He was seen by the Apostles. He was seen by over five hundred in a single day. He was seen by hundreds and maybe thousands more. The fact of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is simply incontrovertible. The evidence and the eyewitness testimony would be overwhelming in any court of law. So, why don’t more people believe? Why doesn’t everyone believe? Well, why didn’t the women believe? Why didn’t the Apostles believe? Why didn’t Thomas believe, and all those who had seen Him? Why is it so hard to believe that Jesus is risen and living? Because the resurrection of Jesus demands a change on our part, a change in our lives and how we live them, a change in what we live them for and how we treat each other, our family, friends, and our enemies.

They saw the angel. They heard his Gospel message, “He is risen!” They saw the empty tomb, the stone rolled away, the burial cloths folded and lying neatly at the head and foot where they had laid His body, but still the women fled in terror, and they told no one anything. The Apostles all told Thomas, “We have seen the Lord!” But, still, he refused to believe. Why? Because, if it’s true, if it’s true that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, then that changes everything. No longer can we live for ourselves and for our own selfish pursuits. No longer is the meaning of our lives the accumulation of possessions and wealth, the grooming of our reputations and names, the envy of our peers, and all the countless foolish, idolatrous things men and the world value. Truly, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.

It’s so much easier to believe that things simply go on as they always have: Birth, school, work, death; eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. The fallen world and our fallen flesh love this scenario; we love death, and we live in a culture of death. However, Jesus lives; He is not dead, but He is risen! And that fact demands a change from us. That fact demands that we see things differently. We are accountable and we are answerable for our actions, not to mention our words and our thoughts! And that’s terrifying, isn’t it? That fact makes your sinful flesh and your fallen reason want to deny the resurrection, to hide like cockroaches when the lights are turned on. That is our natural reaction, according to our sinful and corrupted sight, reason, and flesh. But Jesus calls us in His resurrection to see differently – to see, not with our eyes, but with our ears.

“I believe that I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified, and kept me in the true faith.” Mary beheld her resurrected Lord, but she did not recognize Him until He called her by Name, “Mary.” Then the Holy Spirit opened her eyes, and she believed, confessing, “Rabboni!” Our Good Shepherd Jesus knows His sheep. He calls them by Name. They hear His voice, and they follow Him. He leads them into green pastures, and He feeds them beside the still waters in the presence of their enemies who surround them. Likewise, Jesus called Thomas by name, inviting him to touch His wounds and believe. Then Doubting Thomas confessed, “My Lord, and my God!” Jesus didn’t only rise from death Himself, but He calls His people to rise from the death of sin and to live resurrected lives now, seeing differently, newly, and clearly for the first time.

Jesus invites you to see Him with your ears, to see Him in His Church, His Body, in His Word and in His Sacraments, His Word made flesh – seeable, touchable, tasteable. “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!” But do you see it? Do you see Him? Or do you see only a sinful man spouting too many words that make you wait an extra fifteen minutes to fill your bellies with food that doesn’t last? Or do you see only an aging and slowly dying congregation, and with it diminishing resources and worldly relevance? Or do you see only empty and unimpressive rituals that bore with their repetition and redundancy? Or do you see only archaic hymns with too many stanzas that fail to spark a flutter in your hearts or to inspire you to tell others? If so, then this word is for you today. See – not with your eyes, but with your ears! Can these dry, dead bones live? Well, can they? Pay no matter to what your eyes see! Pay attention to what your ears hear! “Behold! I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.” You will confess with Mary Magdalene, “Rabboni!” And, with no-longer Doubting Thomas, “My God, and my Lord!”

The resurrection of Jesus Christ has changed everything! You cannot continue to live as you did when you were dead, unless you choose to remain in death. You cannot continue to see things as you did before, unless you choose to walk in darkness and blindness. The Light is shining in the darkness; you can either live in it or attempt to hide from it in fear like a cockroach. “Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk therefore as children of the light.” We do not worship a God who is absent or far off, but we worship a God who is near, who in fact is present among you right now. And this fact demands something of us. How do we behave in the presence of the King of heaven and earth? What do we say in the presence of our God who has defeated death and lives? We say, forgive me, a poor, miserable sinner. We say, Lord, have mercy upon us. We kneel before Him in deep reverence, humility, holy fear, and awe. We stand before Him in boldness and make our petitions known to Him as our Heavenly Father has invited us to do. We seek to touch Him, to hold Him, to taste Him, to receive Him into ourselves. He is our life; apart from Him we are truly dead. The way we worship Him is a confession of what we believe about Him: He is here, really and truly here with us. He is risen and living, bestowing life to us still through His life-giving and sustaining Word and though His Word made flesh, the body and blood of Jesus who is risen!

Do you not see Him? Then repent, and have your eyes opened by His Holy Spirit and see Him with your ears. Every Lord’s Day, that is every Sunday, is a little Easter, a day of resurrection for you as our Lord breathes His life-giving Spirit over you and into you once again. Here, in this place, this Church, His body, you are the recipients of His life, His mercy, His grace, His forgiveness. Here He raises your dry, dead bones to life again and again. Here He puts sinews and flesh upon your lifeless bones once again that you may live, and live for Him by living for one another. Here He gives you anew the deposit and down payment of His Spirit, the promise that your resurrected life now is but a foretaste of the life He will bestow upon you when He raises your bodies from the dead on the Last Day when our Lord returns in glory.

If you eat His Supper too frequently it will not be special, you say? You are thinking wrongly. Open your eyes and see with your ears. The Supper is not fine China to be brought out only on Easter and Christmas, but it is your weekly, even your daily spiritual food and sustenance. If you are not hungry for it as often as you might receive it, check yourself to see if you are truly alive. Jesus Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! His life is your life now and forever. Apart from Him there is no life, but only blindness, darkness, and death. Do not disbelieve, but believe, and confess with Thomas, “My Lord, and my God!”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christian Funeral for Susan Joyce Heine

(Audio)

Psalm 103:1-8; Isaiah 40:31; 41:9-10, 13; Numbers 6:24-26; John 14:1-6

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

The name Susan is of Hebrew origin, shushan, which means “lily.” From this comes the biblical name Shoshannah, and the modern name Suzanne or Susan. The name indicates purity, beauty, and innocence, qualities that aptly describe our Susan whom we remember, give thanks for, and commend to the Lord this day. Anyone who knew Susan knew that she was kind, softspoken, caring, and compassionate. She was a very patient, loving, and forgiving soul. However, she was also fiercely protective of her children and she wouldn’t hesitate to correct bad manners. One time at a car race someone in the crowd brushed Cheryl with a cigarette and Susan scolded them. Another time she yelled at someone who had thrown garbage out on the ground; it was a bad example for her children. This is simply to say that, while Susan was a quiet and peaceful woman, she was also strong in her beliefs and convictions, and you would be wrong to underestimate her.

Faith and family were of most importance to Susan. Whether it was trips to Daytona for the races, trips to Branson for shows, hiking at Backbone State Park, or getting together with family to watch the Superbowl commercials, play games, and to celebrate the holidays and family milestones, Sunday was for church no matter where you were, and a prayer of thanksgiving was to be offered before meals. Faith and family, not even divorce could change that. Susan harbored no bitterness. She forgave and she maintained relationships with those who had hurt her in the past, just like a child of God is supposed to do. Susan made certain her children received a good Chrisitan education. She made the sacrifice to send them to Catholic school, which was quite expensive. Christian morality, values, and ethics were important to Susan and worth it. Every night family meals were eaten together, and there were prayer vigils at night as the family knelt around a cedar chest altar in the candlelight.

Why did Susan love in this way? Because she knew the love of God in Jesus Christ. Why did Susan forgive in this way? Because she knew the forgiveness of God in Jesus Christ. Why did Susan value faith and family in this way? Because she knew it was all God’s good gift to her: Love, family, faith, home, meals, life, all of it – Gift, pure gift – and she was grateful. “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Susan’s love, faith, and family expanded when she married Hank in 1995. Susan and Hank met at a Christian single’s group in Cedar Falls where they enjoyed potlucks, dancing, volleyball, softball, and all sorts of social activities and events. They dated nearly five years before finally getting married. All that while they enjoyed their friends and fellowship at the single’s group and spent time with their families, Hank’s brothers and sisters, Susan’s kids, over many meals and games and holidays, etc. After their marriage they visited the House on the Rock during a week-long honeymoon. They played bingo at the Electric Park Ballroom and attended many dances there where the waltzes filled the floor.

Hank and Susan joined St. John in 2001 where they became an active and vibrant part of the congregation. Susan was a member of the Dorcas Society and helped with countless mission events and funeral luncheons. She also sewed baby gowns for Diana’s Angels which provides gowns and comfort for the parents of stillborn children and children who die shortly after birth. In my tenure here at St. John Hank and Susan have been faithful every Sunday attendees of the Divine Service and Bible study, and when they moved to Bartels, they worshiped on Thursdays at the LCMS Divine Service and continued to share their faith, hope, and love with all they encountered.

Shushan, Shoshannah, Susan, lily, Easter Lily? Our dear Susan died the morning of Holy Saturday, the day Jesus rested in the tomb between His crucifixion and death on Good Friday and His glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday. How symbolic it is that Saturday she fell asleep in Jesus and not even a moment later she was awake and alive in His presence. Where do I get this idea, you ask? I get it from our Lord Jesus Himself who taught, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death” (John 8:51). “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).” “I am the resurrection and the life. […] Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:25-26). Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! The stone is forever rolled away. The tomb is forever empty. Christ is forever risen and can never die again. And those who die in the Lord, like Susan died in the Lord, are with Him. They are not waiting to be with Him, but they are with Him right now, immediately, and no one can take that joy from them.

Susan was ready to meet her Jesus. All she wanted was to close her eyes in sleep and then open them and behold His face. Susan got her wish, and we should be happy for her. I know that we are, we are happy for her, but we also miss her, and we are sad for that. And that is not bad, not in the least. We were not created to die, but to live with our LORD in His presence forever. Death is not natural, but it is the most unnatural thing in the world. In death, God’s good creation of an embodied soul, created in His image, is ripped apart; the body returns to the dust from which it was made, and the soul returns to its Creator who made it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Death is not good. There is nothing good about death. Your tears and your sorrow are justified. But death has been defeated. The tomb is empty. Christ is risen. Blessed are those who die in the Lord, for they are with Him. Susan is with Jesus, where there are no tears, no difficulty breathing, no Parkinson’s, no water-burdened heart, no pain, no suffering, no lack of any good thing, and no death.

Let not your hearts be troubled. In my Father’s house are many rooms. I have gone there to prepare a place for you, and soon I will come to take you to myself. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the way, the only way, to our Father. The Father gave His only-begotten Son over to death on the cross to purchase Susan, and to purchase you, for Himself to live with Him forever. This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

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 stone has been rolled away. The tomb is empty. Death has been defeated. Jesus is risen. You are no longer in your sins. That, dear Christian, and that only, is the “new normal,” inaugurated nearly 2000 years ago in Jerusalem. But it’s all too easy to forget that. It’s easy to doubt that when the economy is unstable, when the threat of war is looming, when anxiety is through the roof, and when there seems to be no end in sight. It’s easy to forget the “new normal” of the empty tomb and fear another “new normal,” one in which your retirement income is disappearing, where families and friends are divided by politics and ideologies, where more people claim “none” as their religion and congregations are aging and churches are less and less full every year. That’s the “new normal” of fear and unbelief, but that is not the “new normal” for you, O Christian.

In fact, there’s nothing “new” about that ‘new normal,” for that was also the “new normal” that enslaved the minds and hearts of the women who visited Jesus’ tomb early this morning. The “new normal” for them was that Jesus was dead. Their teacher, their King, their Messiah, their hope was dead, and surely those who killed Him would come for them next. The women visited Jesus’ tomb to anoint His dead body, to prepare Him for burial. Their greatest concern was not that they wouldn’t find Him there, but rather the large and heavy stone that sealed His tomb. That was normal even before Jesus’ death, but His death brought a newness and a finality to it, making it for them a dark and hopeless “new normal.”

When they arrived at the tomb, they were surprised, they were terrified, to see that the stone had already been rolled away. Still, they did not believe, however. The “new normal” for them, introduced by Jesus’ death, was simply too much for them. It stopped their ears to what they had heard, it blinded their eyes to what they had seen, how everything foretold by the Law and the Prophets, how everything taught by Jesus, had been fulfilled. Fearfully they entered the tomb to approach Jesus’ body, if it was even there and not stolen away by His enemies, when they were greeted by a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe. That was certainly not normal. “Do not be alarmed,” the angel said, “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here.”

The women approached the tomb in fear and, sadly, despite the angel’s announcement, they fled the tomb in fear as well, because they could not comprehend, and they did not believe the “new normal.” “Go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you,” said the angel, but “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.” That’s what fear does, it paralyzes you and prevents you from doing what you have been given and called to do. Fear imprisons you and every aspect of your life so that you cut off communication with others, even with those closest to you. This is the enemy’s strategy, as the prophet had declared, “‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered’.”

The historic Gospel for Easter Sunday ends, not with joy, but with fear, not with shouts of “Alleluia!” but with silence. The women are seized and silenced by trauma and fear so that they were robbed of hope and couldn’t remember the words of Jesus that had comforted them when He was with them. They were overcome with what their eyes saw now and with what their ears heard now, and without the sound mooring of God’s word, they were confused and frightened and they didn’t know how to interpret what they were experiencing. We are at risk of the very same at this moment in time. Apart from God’s word and promises we have no mooring and must succumb to despair.

The Old Testament patriarch Job had good reason to despair, had he not the sound mooring of God’s word and promise. Though he had lost his wealth, his health, and his family, and though he suspected, no, he knew, that the LORD had permitted it, Job confessed, “The LORD has given, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the Name of the LORD.” And, though his flesh had been reduced to ashes, Job was strengthened to persevere by the LORD’s promise of a Redeemer and the resurrection of his body so that he confessed, “I know that my Redeemer lives…, 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.” Job confessed this truth nearly 2000 years before the birth of Christ, because of the word and promise of the LORD. That this comfort and confidence might be extended to others, to you, Job deeply desired that these words were written that they would be inscribed in a book, that with an iron pen and lead they would be engraved in rock forever.

In these uncertain times, there is great temptation to give yourself over to fear, to take matters into your own hands, to make rash and hasty decisions that may prove harmful as time goes on. Thus, this Easter Day be reminded that everything the women and the disciples thought about Good Friday, based upon what their eyes had seen, and their ears had heard, unmoored from the Lord’s word and promise, was simply, plainly, and tragically wrong. What they fearfully believed was the “new normal,” that Jesus was dead, and their hope was ended, couldn’t have been further from the truth. Jesus’ crucified body on the cross was not the “new normal.” Jesus dead body lying in the tomb was not the “new normal.” But the stone rolled away and the empty tomb, that was, and is, and ever shall be the “new normal,” no matter what may befall you in this world and life. The stone has been rolled away. The tomb is empty. Death has been defeated. Jesus is risen. You are no longer in your sins. That, dear Christian, and only that, is the “new normal.”

Is the “new normal” a change in the way you live your lives? Good! The resurrection of Jesus Christ haschanged everything indeed! Jesus’ empty tomb is the “new normal” for you and for all who believe. As St. Paul teaches, the old leaven of sin and guilt has been cleansed from you in Jesus’ blood. You really are unleavened. You are a new lump. “Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Do not let fear paralyze you and keep you silent. Do not let politics and ideologies keep us from reaching out to each other in the ways that we can, and praying for each other more than ever before. Do not love your life in this world so much that you fearfully forget the words and promises of our Lord, fulfilled in Jesus’ own resurrection and the empty tomb, and so sacrifice the comfort and peace of God’s word and promise which proclaim and offer life that cannot die in Jesus Christ who is risen! The tomb is empty. That is the “new normal” in Jesus Christ. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! We go forth in peace in the Name of the Lord. Amen!

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.

This is the day that Abraham saw on Mount Moriah, and He was glad. Jesus is the Lamb, of God’s offering, caught in the thicket of your sins, even as you remember this day the thorns that crowned His sacred head and pierced His holy flesh. Jesus is your unblemished Passover Lamb who willingly lays down His life for you. Like the fiery serpent in the wilderness, Jesus is made to be the symbol and token of your poisonous sin and death, raised up for you on a tree that you may look to Him and live. Jesus is your Great High Priest who has entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

For generations, the Patriarchs and the Prophets had told of His coming, but you have not believed their word. Because He comes in lowliness and humility and poverty you do not receive Him, while those from afar, and those who cannot see, hear the Word and believe. And, because He preaches, not works, but forgiveness, you reject Him, insisting, “Just tell me what I have to do, and I’ll do it, if it seems good to me.” And, because He receives sinners and the unclean, even gentiles to Himself, and because He eats with them and drinks with them, you despise Him, and esteem Him not. And, when He is marred and disfigured, without majesty or beauty, a man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief, hanging upon the cursed tree of the cross, you hide your face from Him and consider Him justly stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God.

And you are right. It was the will of the LORD to crush Him; He has put Him to grief. But He did not suffer because He deserved it, but, rather, He Suffered because you deserve it. Jesus did not suffer for His own sins and guilt, but it was your griefs and sorrows that He bore. It was for your transgressions that He was wounded. It was for your iniquities that He was crushed. It was for your peace that He was chastised. And it was for your healing that He bore the stripes. For, the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. And so, you do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with your weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as you are, yet without sin.

Yet, all this He does willingly for you. No one forced Him to go to the cross and no one took His life from Him – Not the Sanhedrin, not Herod, not even Pontius Pilate, Satan, or even the LORD Himself – but Jesus went willingly, like a lamb to slaughter, silent, opening not His mouth. And, in death, He gave His soul as a guilt offering and He suffered the excruciating loneliness of abandonment by His Father. But, as a seed planted in soil, the Seed promised to Eve, reiterated to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, He saw His offspring, as countless as the stars in the heavens. And, for this, He gladly suffered.

Therefore, because your Great High Priest Jesus has redeemed your flesh from death and has atoned for your sins and guilt, you may in confidence draw near to the throne of grace and receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. That throne of grace is the cross of your crucified Lord and King Jesus from whence mercy comes and grace is offered. It is the mercy seat where the sacrificial blood is sprinkled on behalf of all nations. Do not hide your face from Jesus’ crucified body on the cross, for the crucifix is the image of God’s love for you. In His wounds and stripes you have healing; and, in His death you receive life. For, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Jesus is that holy grain and Seed; you are His abundant fruit.

“This is the day that the Lord has made,” sings the Christ in Psalm 118, “let us rejoice and be glad in it.”Though that day is the day of resurrection properly, it cannot be separated from this Friday which we also call good and in which we rejoice. As your substitute, Jesus prayed, “Out of my distress I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free. The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The LORD is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.” As Jesus faced His Passion and death for you, He trusted in the LORD and in His Word for strength, deliverance, and for salvation. He prayed, “I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD. The LORD has disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death.” Now, the crucified Christ has become the very Gate of Heaven that the righteous may enter through it. And so, we sing with Christ, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

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.

“And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you.” This is the Word of the LORD, and truly it says it all – I will pass over you. I will spare you. I will redeem you from sin, guilt, death, and from Satan, the grave, and from hell. I will do it all because I love you, and you will remember that I did it and that I do.

Oh, I know. You think that you did something by killing the lamb, by preparing it, by eating it, and by smearing its blood upon the doorposts and lintels of your homes saying, “I will,” “I did,” “I do.” But, don’t be a fool. The blood of the lamb only caused the LORD to pass over your sin and guilt because He attached His Word of promise to it proclaiming that it would, the very same reason the fruit of the Tree of Life gave life, and the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil brought death. Fruit trees do not bestow life and death anymore than do lambs, unless the LORD says that they do. And so, the Passover is the LORD’s work, not yours. Likewise, salvation, redemption, and justification are the LORD’s work, not yours. They are His work of love for you and for the world that you might be restored to Him and live with Him again, now, and forever.

Indeed, the entire sacrificial system of the Jews was a gift of the LORD’s love that there might be a way in which He could spare them the wages of their sin, death, for a time, in order that He might still abide with them in His holy Presence and love and not consume them and destroy them in His holiness and righteousness. The blood of bulls and goats caused the LORD to look away from their sin and guilt because He said so – period – but, only for a time, hence those sacrifices had to be repeated again and again, year after year. Of this the Preacher to the Hebrews proclaims, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” This is most certainly true. The LORD knew this, but He had a plan in mind, a mission: He would send His only-begotten Son, His beloved, into your flesh to become a man, to suffer and die as the true, only, and final sacrificial Lamb that would actually take away the guilt of sin forever and restore you to a right relationship with your God, your Father, forever – “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Couldn’t God just forgive and forget? Well, in short, no. It’s not a matter of will, but it is a matter of the LORD’s holiness and righteousness. You see, this is something that is, for the most part, lost on Christians today. Generally speaking, we do not understand, we do not remember, what it means for God to be holy and righteous. That God is holy means that He is utterly distinct, separate, other, and in a class by Himself. This really isn’t that hard to comprehend if you only consider what the LORD says about Himself: In the beginning there was God, and nothing else. All things that are arebecause of Him. This means that the LORD is before all things, distinct, the source, cause, and creator of all things. In the beginning, our First Parents were in complete harmony and unity with God in His holiness; they were holy and righteous. However, their sin, and our sin, have made us something other than God, separate from God, and thus unholy. God couldn’t just forgive and forget, for His holiness and righteousness and our unholiness are simply incompatible. Yet, the LORD demands that you be holy, as He is holy. Since God’s own holiness and righteousness will not permit Him to simply forgive and forget, if we are to be holy, then He is going to have to do something to make us holy once again. For this reason the Son of God became the man Jesus, that He might die for our sins and shed His blood to make us clean and holy once again and be restored to a right relationship, a relationship of holiness, with God.

Did God have to do this? Well, yes and no. No, by no right or force did God have to sacrifice His Son to make us holy. In truth, He would have been fully righteous to destroy us and to completely wipe us from His memory. However, God is love. Love is an essential quality of our LORD. God’s love is the reason there is something instead of nothing. God is love. And, greater love is not possible but that a man should lay down his life for his friends – and so, love is sacrifice. Therefore, God so loved the world in this way: He sacrificed His Son Jesus out of love for you to restore you to holiness and to Himself. And God’s Son, out of love for you and for His Father submitted Himself to humiliation, suffering, and to sacrificial death to make you holy once again.

In a final display of His love for us, Jesus instituted this Lord’s Supper for His disciples, and for you and I, before He suffered and died for our sins. In St. Luke’s narrative of the Last Supper Jesus says, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” The original Greek is more poignant: “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you.” It is that word desire that communicates the depths of God’s love Jesus poured out that night and in His subsequent Passion and death. It was the LORD’s passionate desire and love to restore you to holiness that carried Jesus through the terrible events of Holy Week.

As in love for you the Son of God humbled Himself to become a man, so Jesus in love for you took on the role of a servant. He removed His outer garments, tied a towel around His waist, and bent down and began to wash His disciples’ feet. It was customary for those who were otherwise clean to have their feet washed by a servant before eating, but not by a rabbi. The exchange between Peter and Jesus is revealing. Rightly did Peter protest Jesus washing his feet out of respect and reverence for His teacher. Likewise, when Jesus explained to Peter that He must wash him in order for him to have a share with Him, Peter zealously desired that His entire body be washed. But, Jesus’ meaning is that the cleanliness He bestows is not a matter of dirt being removed from the body, but of the stain of sin and guilt being washed away in His holy, innocent shed blood. Thus, Jesus answered Peter, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with Me.” Only he whom Christ washes and cleanses from sins can have part with Christ: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”

Then, after serving His disciples by washing their feet, symbolically foreshadowing His washing them in His blood on the cross, Jesus celebrated His final Passover supper with them. It was in the context of this Passover meal that Jesus interpreted the bread and wine to be His very own body and blood: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: ‘Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me’.” “In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them saying: ‘Drink of it, all of; this cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me’.” Through these clear, precise, performative, and creative words Jesus transformed the Passover Supper into the Lord’s Supper in which He, the Lamb of God’s own offering for the sins of the world, would cleanse and absolve, nourish, strengthen, protect, and send His disciples, His Church, for the life of the world. God so loved the world in this way: He gave His only-begotten Son. Jesus so loved you in this way: He willingly laid down His life in sacrificial service for you that you may live in Him. “And when I see the blood,” says the LORD, “I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you.” I will pass over you. I will spare you. I will redeem you from sin, guilt, death, and from Satan, the grave, and from hell. I will do it all because I love you, and you will remember that I did it and that I do.

And now He sends you bearing His love, to love one another, as He has loved you saying, “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jesus has washed you and made you clean. In your holy baptism you have been given a share in Him, in communion with Him. Now you may, indeed you must, love others with His love which you have received, give to others with the gifts you have received from Him, and forgive others with the forgiveness you yourself have received as a result of His boundless love for His Father, and for you, and for all the world. No, your love is not a work that you do, but it is Jesus’ work done for you, to you, in you, and through you. You share with Him, in communion and partnership with Him, this work of love for your brothers and sisters in Christ, for your neighbors, for your enemies, and for all. Do this in remembrance of Him, to the glory of God the Father.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Palmarum (Palm Sunday) - Sunday of the Passion

(Audio)

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

 

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

Each year on Palm Sunday we remember and we celebrate the coming of the Son of God Jesus Christ to be our King. We remember how the crowds received Him that day waving palm branches and laying down their cloaks before Him crying, “Hosanna,” “God save us!” “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!” Indeed, the coming of our King is so momentous an event that we remember and sing those very words, not only on Palm Sunday, but each and every Lord’s Day in the Divine Service as we prepare to receive our King who continues to come to us again and again in the Lord’s Supper.

However, this day we also remember how quickly the fickle crowd turned on their King. When He proceeded, not to Herod’s or Pilate’s palace, but to the temple, where He angrily turned out the money changers and those who traded in sacrificial livestock, they quickly became disillusioned and wondered, “What kind of king is this anyway?” By Friday of that same week, their cries of “Hosanna” and “Blessed” were replaced with shouts, “Crucify Him! Crucify!” Either by acclamation or by silence they all together handed over their King to be crucified. Wittingly or unwittingly, they confessed, “This man is not our King. We have no king but Caesar. Let Him be crucified.” And, He was. King Jesus was crowned with thorns, sentenced as the “King of the Jews,” and was mounted to His wooden throne for all the world to see.

Either way, indeed in both ways, He was their King. And so is He our King. This truth we confess in the Small Catechism, in the explanation of the Second Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy Kingdom come”: “The Kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.” The point is, as we confess each year in Advent with the same Gospel theme as today, our King is coming, ready or not, like it or not, whether you receive Him or not. Therefore, the question is only and always, “How will you meet Him?” Will you meet Him in faith to your temporal and eternal blessing, or will you meet Him in unbelief and rejection to your judgment and condemnation?” The King has come. He comes now. And He is coming again. He comes in blessing to those who receive Him. But woe to the one who rejects Him, who betrays Him, and will not receive Him as King. In Jesus Christ, God’s Kingdom has come. O, that it would be received by all His creatures. O, that we would receive His Kingdom amongst us and live under His gracious rule in love and obedience.

At the beginning of St. Matthew’s Passion narrative, Jesus said to His disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” The phrase “will be delivered up” in Greek is one word, paradidotai, which literally means “is betrayed.” This word was translated into the Latin as traditur, from which we get our English word traitor and its derivatives to betray, to hand over, and, perhaps surprisingly, tradition. The point that Jesus makes is that, in His Passion, He was being “handed over” by His Father to be the atoning sacrificial Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is the sacrifice of God’s self-offering, the Lamb that Abraham confessed the LORD would provide for Himself. Jesus is Isaac’s ransom, Israel’s ransom, and the ransom of you and I and all who receive Him as their Savior, Redeemer, Lord, God, and King.

As the Prophet has written, “It was God’s will to crush Him.” Indeed, it was God’s will to hand over His Son to suffer and die for the sins and redemption of men, but still, Jesus says, “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is [handed over].” Immediately the Evangelist tells us of the plot that the chief priests and elders of the people were putting together in the palace of Caiaphas the high priest. And then we are told of Judas who went to the chief priests and offered to hand over Jesus for a price, thirty pieces of silver. From that moment Judas sought the right opportunity to hand Jesus over and betray Him. On Thursday evening, when Jesus gathered with His disciples for a final Passover meal, Jesus took this opportunity to teach about His Kingdom and the kind of King He was and would be. Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man goes as it is written of Him.” The LORD’s Messiah and King was prophesied of old from that First Gospel was proclaimed by the LORD in the Garden after the Fall of our First Parents. Since then the LORD renewed His covenant promise with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, and David. The Prophets proclaimed it again and again in Word and Sign. The Son of Man Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all those prophecies, and He was about to pour out a New Covenant in His blood. Truly, this Passover celebration would institute a New Passover. Once again the Angel of Death would pass over those marked by the blood of God’s sacrificial Lamb, Jesus. But woe to the one who rejects Him and His Kingship in unbelief.

“The Son of Man goes as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born,” Jesus taught. Greatly distressed, the disciples each began to ask, “Is it I, Lord?” When Judas asked the same, Jesus answered him saying, “You have said so.” Now, Christian theologians and laity alike have debated for centuries the role of Judas and the nature of his betrayal. The questions they ask are typically these: Did Judas truly have a choice? After all, it was necessary that someone betray Jesus, right? Is Judas culpable for his betrayal? Didn’t God use him in this capacity? Wasn’t Judas actually being faithful in furthering Jesus’ mission and purpose? Etc. I say to you, all this is speculation. Truly, God’s will in this matter is a great mystery. We have only what He has revealed to us in His Word, which may not answer all our questions, but provides us what is necessary for faith, life, and salvation. In such cases, let us then consider simply what the Lord has said. When Judas asked, “Is it I, Rabbi?” Jesus answered only, “You have said so.” Should we conclude from this that Judas had no choice? That he was destined to betray Jesus? That he could not have done otherwise? By no means does the Word of God say any such thing! That is a reading that is forced upon the text by human reason and rationalism. What lies behind those words is the wisdom and will of God, which is a light too bright for man, His creature, to gaze into. What we have is His Word, and it is sufficient for all our needs.

What is clear, however, is that there is a “handing over” that is holy and good – the Father’s “handing over” of His Son to suffer and die – and there is a “handing over” that is sinful and wicked – the rejection and betrayal of God’s self-offering in His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to His disciples saying, “This is my body.” Then He took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and He gave it to them saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Herein Jesus instituted a new Passover, a New Covenant. He offered to mark all with His atoning blood that the Angel of Death might pass over and spare them from death. This covenant is for all who will receive it in faith, but woe to the one who rejects this covenant of grace.

That night in Gethsemane, Jesus prophesied to His disciples that they would indeed all betray and hand Him over. Though Peter insisted that he would never do such a thing, Jesus prophesied that he would deny Him three times before dawn the next day. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” We are all traitors. But, are you Judas or Peter? Do you believe that Jesus’ sacrifice is for you? Do you believe that it is finished, just as He said? Do you trust in the New Covenant in His blood shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins, the New Passover blood which marks and seals you that the Angel of Death may pass over? Judas did not believe; he fell into despair and hopelessness and took his own life in desperation to be relieved of the agony of his guilt. Peter, though every bit as guilty, trusted in Jesus’ mercy and forgiveness. After His resurrection, Jesus restored Peter, forgiving His sins, much like the Prodigal Father received his wayward son home again and restored him proclaiming, “This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”

Thanks be to God that He has handed over His Son as the atoning sacrifice that covers our sin and restores us to sonship with the Father. Glory be to Jesus who willingly handed Himself over as the sacrificial Lamb of God that His blood might mark us prodigal sons and daughters who have strayed far and wandered from the love of our Father that the Angel of Death might pass over us that we may live now and forever in His mercy, grace, and love. Let us not betray Him and hand Him over with sins and unbelief we treat as lightly as a kiss. For such sins and unbelief did Jesus shed great drops of blood in intense prayer in Gethsemane. For such sins and unbelief was Jesus’ soul in anguish and did suffer the separation from His Father’s grace and mercy that we justly deserve. For such sins and unbelief does Jesus hand over His precious body and His holy blood that we might eat God’s Passover Sacrifice and live now and forever.

This is the nature of God’s Kingdom, and this is how God’s King reigns: in selfless, sacrificial love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness. “Thy Kingdom come.” Though “the Kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, […] we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.” “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted” in bread and wine which are His body given and His blood of the New Covenant shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. How do you receive Him? Believe and receive; He is for you. He is your King, and He is for you. God has handed Him over for the life of the world. Take. Eat. Believe. Receive. Trust. Keep. Live.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Wednesday in Judica - The Fifth Week of Lent (Lent 5)

(Audio)

John 1:29-34; Hebrews 9:1-14; Leviticus 16:1-34; Psalm 110

 

Jesus Christ, My Lord: From Profane to Holy – Sacrificial / Lamb

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

God always interacts with us through means. He does not appear to us, speak to us, or commune with us directly. And that is a good thing, for, as Isaiah confessed when he beheld the glory of God in a vision, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts,” so are we a people of unclean lips, hearts, hands, and everything else. The righteous glory and holiness of the LORD would consume us if He did not, in mercy, approach us through means: His Word, His Son as an angel, His Son as a man, bread, wine, and water. So we confess in the Smalcald Articles that “God does not wish to deal with us otherwise than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. It is the devil himself whatsoever is extolled as Spirit without the Word and Sacraments.”

The tabernacle, and later the temple, reflected this truth: Cleanliness is next to Godliness, so it is said, and proximity to the glorious presence of the LORD demands a cleanliness and purity we neither have nor can obtain. The cleanliness and purity the LORD demands of us can only be the result of the sacrificial shedding of innocent blood. Thus, the LORD mercifully gave us the sacrificial system through which we could enter His presence by the means of innocent blood. However, only the high priest, and he only once a year on the Day of Atonement, could enter the Holy of Holies (the Most Holy Place) where the glory of the LORD was present above the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant in the midst of His people. And before the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place he had to wash and purify himself according to the law and then make sacrifice for his own sinful uncleanness. Only then could he enter the Most Holy Place to offer sacrificial blood for the sins of the people. Yet you must understand, no amount of blood of sacrificial lambs, goats, pigeons, or bulls ever took away a single sin, but they covered sins for a time, allowing the LORD to “look away” from our sins for a time, only because the LORD attached His Word and Promise to them.

The Preacher to the Hebrews explains that the first chamber of the tabernacle and the temple, the Holy Place, was symbolic of this present age. The priests carried out their daily tasks in the Holy Place where there was the table, the showbread, and the lampstand. In the second chamber, the Most Holy Place (the Holy of Holies), was the altar of incense and the ark of the covenant containing the Ten Commandments, a pot of manna, and Aaron’s budded staff. Above its lid, the mercy seat, was the glorious presence of God. Only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place, and not without sacrificial blood and cleansing for himself first before offering blood for others. “By this,” says the Preacher, “the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age).”

The first chamber, the Holy Place, and the service of the priests and the sacrifices offered there were a foreshadowing and a type, a placeholder, a means by which the LORD could look away from man’s sins for a time, a way in which God could dwell in the midst of His people and not consume them in His righteous glory until He would provide for Himself the Lamb He promised to Abraham who would take away the sins of the world. As the hymn confesses so simply and clearly, “Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain. But Christ the heavenly Lamb takes all our sins away, a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they.”

Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb of God whose blood actually takes away our sin. And Jesus is our sinless, righteous Great High Priest who has no need to make atonement for or to purify Himself and so can stand in for all unclean sinners as both our Priest and Sacrifice. “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”

Thus we confess: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.” “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

You have been baptized into Jesus. His death is your death; His resurrection is your resurrection; His life is your life – then, now, forever. To be baptized into Jesus is to enter into Him and all that He is. This is why Jesus’ teaches “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” This is why Jesus teaches “If anyone keeps my word he will never see death.” Jesus is the means through whom we have access to God and may approach His glorious presence. Jesus taught, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” And He invites you to address His Father as your true Father, and you as His true Son saying, “Our Father…,” trusting that the Father hears and answers your prayers as He does His own Son.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Judica - The Fifth Sunday in Lent / The First Sunday of 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.

Though we may not like to admit it, the LORD had every right to demand Isaac’s life. He had every right to demand Abraham’s life, the life of our First Parents, the lives of Peter and Paul and of all the Apostles, your life and my life as well. For, they, and you, and I, are sinners – conceived and born in sin, committing sins of thought, word, and deed daily, even this morning. And, the LORD explicitly warned Adam, “In the day that you eat of [the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil] you shall surely die.” And, St. Paul confirms, “The wages of sin is death.”

Thus, the philosophical conundrum called the Problem of Evil or something similar, typically expressed, “How can an all-powerful, all-knowing, and good God permit, or even demand, evil?” is truly no conundrum at all, if one only takes seriously God’s righteousness and holiness and the seriousness of our sin. After all, we’re not talking about human laws here, which are by nature imperfect and corrupt, able to be bent, annulled, circumvented, and enforced with inequity and injustice, but we’re talking about the divine, holy, righteous, and just Law of God which is of God before the giving of the Ten Commandments, before the creation of man, and before the creation and foundation of the universe. To put it plainly: God is good, and whatever is not of God or in alignment with God is, by definition and necessity, not good. Likewise, God is righteous, just, and holy, and whatever is not of God or in alignment with God is, by definition and necessity, unrighteous, unjust, and unholy.

However, coupled with God’s eternal, righteous, just, and unchangeable Law is His abounding patience, mercy, love, and grace. Though He had every right to demand Isaac’s life, the life of our First Parents, the lives of Peter and Paul and all of the Apostles, your life and my life, from the Fall of Man onward, God promised to redeem and to provide a substitute to fulfill the Law for us and to suffer its consequences in our place: “I will put enmity between you and the Woman, and between your seed and Her Seed; He shall crush your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Abraham knew of this first covenant promise and He trusted the Word of the LORD, and the LORD counted Abraham’s faith to him as righteousness. Thus, when the LORD demanded the life of Abraham’s son of promise, Isaac, Abraham trusted that the LORD would still keep His promise to provide him an heir from his own flesh whose descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens and the grains of sand upon the seashore, through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Therefore, as he and his son of promise journeyed to the mountain of sacrifice, Abraham confessed his faith in the LORD once again in answer to Isaac’s worried concern about the absence of a sacrificial lamb saying, “God will provide for Himself the Lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” And, the LORD did provide, not a lamb, but a ram, for the sacrifice so that Isaac’s life was spared. Then, over centuries and millennia, to and through His faithful people who, despite their personal sin, trusted in Him, the LORD reiterated His covenant promise until He provided His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The faith of Abraham was a gift given and created by God. There was nothing special about Abraham. He was a sinner just like everyone else. He was a pagan and an idolater, worshipping the household gods of his father and countrymen. But, when the LORD called to him, Abraham listened and believed, he trusted in the Word of the LORD. Even when the path was uncertain and unclear, Abraham trusted and believed. “We walk by faith and not by sight.” The faith of Abraham was in the Word of the LORD, and through it the LORD promised Abraham a Son who would be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. This Son was actually not Isaac, however, but He was the very same Son and Seed that was promised to our First Parents, and to Satan, by the way, Jesus. However, Isaac was a necessary link in the covenantal chain, as was Jacob and Judah and Ruth and David and Joseph and Mary and every descendent in between. Abraham believed the covenant promise made to our First Parents, as do all true children of Abraham henceforth. All who share the faith of Abraham, who trust in the Word of the LORD fulfilled in Jesus, the Seed Son of promise, are the true children of Abraham, the true Israel, sons and daughters of God, and the Bride of Christ, the Church.

Jesus came preaching the faith of Abraham, calling Abraham’s children to faith in the fulfillment of God’s Word of Promise and to repentance with the proclamation, “The Kingdom of God is near.” Very quickly, however, He met opposition from the Pharisees and scribes, the priests, and the religious leadership of Israel who had come to believe and trust, not in the Word of the LORD, but in their blood descent from Abraham. By the time of the accounts recorded in our Gospel reading today from St. John, Jesus had already had many confrontations with the Jewish religious leaders. In today’s reading, Jesus gets right to the point with them saying, essentially, “Who’s your daddy?” “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but He sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.”

Jesus laid it out straight for them: Either your Father is God, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, or your father is Satan, the father of lies, the antithesis of all that is righteous, good, and holy. Jesus said the same two weeks ago in St. Luke’s Gospel, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” Then, they accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan. Here, in today’s Gospel, they accuse Him of this once again. This is nothing other than the sin against the Holy Spirit, for it is calling the LORD’s good and holy work evil and sinful. If a person so blasphemes the Holy Spirit of God, there is no hope for him and he cannot be saved, not because God is unmerciful and unforgiving, but because it is by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God that faith is created. If the means of faith is rejected, then there can, and never will be, faith.

Jesus spoke the Truth, and He was rejected because of it. However, the Jewish religious leaders were not merely rejecting Jesus and His teachings, but they were rejecting the Truth of God, they were rejecting God Himself, and they were teaching others to do the same. That is why Jesus rebukes them so very harshly. They couldn’t convict Him of sin, of breaking God’s Law, but they could only accuse Him of breaking their laws, man’s laws. “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God,” Jesus answered them, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” “Now we know that you have a demon!” they shouted. “Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?”

It is interesting that the demons know whose Son Jesus is, and they reject Him, while the religious leaders of Israel do not, and yet, they reject Him because they reject the Word of God. They claim to be children of Abraham, and yet they reject their father Abraham’s faith in the Word of the LORD and His promise. That is why, at another time, Jesus told them that He could raise up children for Abraham from the stones on the ground. On the one hand, blood descent has nothing to do with being a son or daughter of Abraham. And, on the other, the Jews often referred to Gentiles as “stones.” This points to the greater sin of the religious leaders of Israel: Not only did they reject the Word of the LORD for themselves, but as the teachers of Israel they failed to teach it faithfully to the people they were called to care for and to protect. They were wolves in sheep’s clothing, devouring the sheep of the LORD’s flock. Whereas Abraham taught the faithful to trust in the Lamb that the LORD would provide, the Pharisees, scribes, priests, and religious leaders of the Jews rejected Him and sent the Lamb of God to the cross to die.

“You are not yet fifty years old, and have you see Abraham?” they protested. “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am’.” “So they picked up stones to throw at Him.” But, Jesus was before Abraham, before our First Parents, and before creation itself. For, Jesus is the Word of God, who was with God in the beginning, and who was God. All things were made through Him, and apart from Him was not anything made that has been made. And, Jesus is the great “I AM,” the Name of God revealed to Moses in the burning bush. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, the Son of God, and God Himself. He is the one that was promised to our First Parents after their Fall. He was the one promised to crush Satan’s head. He was the one promised to Abraham, in whom Abraham put his faith and trust. And, He is the one whom all children of Abraham confess still as both God and Lord.

And, Jesus is our Great High Priest who has “entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” “He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” And, though He had every right to demand your life, your LORD gave the life of His Son for you that you may live. And He is here for you now as both Priest and Sacrifice, Host and Meal, to forgive your sins anew, to strengthen your faith, and to preserve you in everlasting life in Him in the body of Christ, the Church. On the Mount of the LORD it is still provided for you. Believe, trust, and receive.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Wednesday in Laetare - The Fourth Week of Lent (Lent 4)

(Audio)

John 12:20-36; Ephesians 2:1-10; Jonah 2:1-10; Psalm 103

 

Jesus Christ, My Lord: From Death to Life – Creator / Life-Giver

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

There is a fundamental Christian truth that is the most difficult for us to admit and to confess, while being the most liberating at the same time: “We are all conceived and born sinful and are under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as His own.” What that means is that when we are conceived and born, before we’ve even had a thought, inclination, or desire, before we’ve learned language or spoken a word or done anything at all, we are dead, spiritually dead, D-E-A-D DEAD, dead like Lazarus, we “stinketh.” And yet it’s worse than that! Not only are we spiritually dead, but we are hostile and opposed to God and His Word, Commandments, and Will. Using our own reason and strength we cannot believe in, trust in, or make any movement towards the LORD or His Christ. All we can do is rot and decay in our sin, iniquity, and death, because that’s what dead things do.

It is so very difficult for us to admit and to confess that we are spiritually dead; and yet, it is the most liberating thing we can do. For, only those who have nothing of their own can truly appreciate the value of a gift, of grace. Only sinners can be forgiven, only slaves can be set free, and only the dead can be raised to life. Moreover, that’s why Jesus became a man. Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. Jesus came to call dead sinners like you and me and all of us to new and forever life in Him.

The scribes and the Pharisees demanded a sign from Jesus, but Jesus answered them saying, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” What is the “sign of the prophet Jonah”? Jesus continued, “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Now, it’s entirely clear to us that Jesus is referring to His death, burial, and resurrection. However, there is more to the “sign of Jonah” than that. The “sign of Jonah” means the death of the perfect man for all sinful men. This is nothing less than the harrowing of hell. As Jonah was swallowed up by the great fish and was in its belly three days and three nights in the depths of the sea, at the very root and foundation of the mountains, so Jesus was swallowed up by death and truly experienced its thrall, but death could not hold the righteous Son of Man and was burst open and destroyed, foreshadowed by the great fish expelling Jonah safely onto dry land.

In His Incarnation, Jesus not only took on human flesh, He took on all humanity. “God became man, so that man might become God.” When Jesus died, you died, I died, all humankind died. And when He rose, the promise and hope of your resurrection, my resurrection, and the resurrection of all who trust and believe on Him rose. St. Peter writes, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.” Jesus did not go to hell to suffer; indeed, all suffering was fulfilled, completed, and finished on the cross. What we confess in the Creed is that Jesus descended into hell to proclaim His victory over sin, death, and the devil, a death which affected salvation for those who believed in the promise of the Seed before the Incarnation every bit as much as for those thereafter.

Our resurrected Lord was still Jesus, the same Jesus the Apostles had known, but clearly more. While He passed through the stone that sealed His tomb as easily as through the locked door of the upper room, and He could appear and disappear at will and ascend bodily into the heavens, still the fullness of His glory remains yet to unveiled and revealed until His return, the day of resurrection and the judgment of all humankind. Now, and forever, Jesus is the “Lamb standing as though slain,” even now leading a host of captives back to Paradise through death into life that cannot die.

Jesus compared Himself to a grain of wheat sown in the soil of this Earth. A grain of wheat does nothing and is of no value unless it splits open and dies. “Truly, truly,” Jesus says, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Jesus is the grain of wheat who died, and you, dear Christian, are the fruit. Because Jesus died, you live. And because Jesus died, you live even though you die. Indeed, you must follow Jesus through death, first dying to yourself in this life and world, and living to God through Jesus, and then rising from death in and through Jesus who is the resurrection and the life.

Only sinners can be forgiven. Only the dead can be raised. In Jesus, the Greater Jonah, you are forgiven, death has been defeated, and you have already been raised to new life that cannot die through faith in Him and baptism into Him. You have literally, spiritually, been born into a new life, a new creation. Your new life in Jesus is nourished and sustained by the spiritual food of God’s Word and Sacraments, and it is lived in daily repentance through faith and trust in the Father’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ. You are a part of Jesus, a branch grafted into the True Vine, and the fruit you bear is Jesus’ fruit, good works which serve our neighbor and glorify God.

Our Lord heard Jonah’s cries. He forgave him his sins. God rescued him from the womb of hell itself. Like Jonah, we can remember with thanksgiving that God has brought us up from the bottomless pit and seated us in a safe place. The radical problem, our being dead, is solved by the radical solution, Jesus’ death and resurrection. Our sanctification is not just a change of attitudes or the introduction of certain habits, but it is a product of our being alive in Christ. Our new life in Christ is shaped to do good works. This too is the Lord’s doing.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.