Matthew 17:1-9 - What Does This Mean? - February 23, 2020

Our world is filled with countless different churches, denominations, and non-denominations – almost all of which claim to be Bible-believing. Because of that, people often wonder, what’s the difference? Because many churches today don’t actually publish a written confession, it’s gotten a lot harder to distinguish the differences. But one way to identify the differences is to identify the questions they are looking for answers to. Many TV and YouTube evangelists seem bound and determined to answer the question: what is God trying to tell us in the daily news – and what can it tell us about the future? What is the divine meaning behind a plague of locusts invade Africa and the corona virus infects thousands around the world? [1] Another strain has sought to answer the question: what makes sense, how can we logically explain the mysteries of God and what can we do to remain in God’s grace? Broadly, we know them as those of the Reformed tradition. If you happen to know someone who attends a generic big-box church, they will probably be asking: what can the newest book or hottest, hippest preacher teach me about my finances, my marriage, my destiny in life – and how can they help me manipulate God into helping me realize my best life now? A person who is wondering how they can “feel” God, can find a home in the charismatic, Pentecostal tradition. Finally, every year around Lent, you hear about this denomination, because many are wondering what new rules or exceptions to rules the church is going to hand out this year? [2] These are Roman Catholics. Did you notice anything missing from those questions? Sadly, many Christians look for authority and answers in any and every place except the one in which God has promised to give them: the Bible. Which brings us to Lutheranism. What is the Lutheran question? The uniquely Lutheran question, the one that we ask before and above all others is: what does this mean? (with “this” referring to God’s objective, black on white, Word.) Today, our Lord’s Transfiguration grants us a wonderful opportunity to put this question into practice, because there are several aspects of this account that invite and almost demand us to search the Scriptures for the answer to the question: what does this mean?

The first question is so obvious that we might miss it: what does it mean that Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a high mountain by themselves? Why them? Why only three out of 12? We could guess at why Jesus chose Peter, James, and John, but we are not in the business of guessing, so we’ll just admit that we don’t know. But we can say with some certainty why Jesus chose three. In the OT, by God’s command, the testimony of just one eyewitness wasn’t enough to press charges or convict a crime – two or three were necessary (Deuteronomy 19:15). This is still the case in the New Testament – where Jesus states that 2 or 3 witnesses are needed both to properly practice church discipline (Matthew 18:16) and to bring an allegation against a church leader (1 Timothy 5:19). We aren’t told exactly why Jesus picked Peter, James, and John – but we do know why he chose three disciples to witness this event: so that we can be sure beyond all reasonable doubt that this actually happened (2 Peter 1:16-21).

The second, more obvious question would be: what does it mean that Jesus was transfigured? The Greek word for “transfigured” is our English word metamorphosis. It’s what happens when a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. In Jesus’ case, what changed was not his shape, but his appearance. Jesus glowed with the glory of God; glory that he had hidden for 33 years under poverty and humility, under human flesh and blood. Why? Why now? What does this mean? Jesus wanted his disciples, and us, to see who he truly is right before he descends into the valley of death and any hint of glory is covered by pain and shame and suffering and crucifixion. On the brink of Lent, Jesus wants us to be assured that he is the Son of God. But also, and more importantly, that his true glory, his true power and his true mission, wasn’t fully revealed on the mountain where he pulled back the curtain covering his glory, but on the mountain where he ripped the curtain separating us from God in half by offering his life as the payment for our sin (Matthew 27:51). Jesus’ glory on this mountain prepares us to endure the dark days of Lent and to see the glory behind his suffering on Calvary, which Paul described in his second letter to the Corinthians: you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus’ transfiguration is visible theology. It is a simple summary of the gospel: Jesus is truly God, and he is GOD FOR US.

Next: what does it mean that Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Jesus? Moses was God’s instrument for the transmission of the Law on Mt. Sinai. Elijah was one of the most famous OT prophets. Both had their own unique mountaintop experiences of God’s glory and power (Exodus 19-20; 1 Kings 18). Together, they appear to be endorsing Jesus as the One promised and predicted by all of the OT prophets. Just as importantly, their presence testifies to the fact that God is good to his word, that after death there is life, that through faith we – and all who believe – will go on living in God’s glory forever. In other words, we don’t need some fraudulent and fictional book to tell us that Heaven Is for Real [3], we only need to look at this mountain and see Moses and Elijah walking and talking on this mountain. Even more interesting is what these two biblical heroes were talking about. Luke writes: [they] were talking about his departure, which he was going to bring to fulfillment in Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). If these residents of heaven weren’t talking about whether the fish in heaven’s ponds were biting or what was on the menu for the next heavenly banquet or how the angelic choir sounded especially good last week – but were talking about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus – does that give us a hint as to what we, who are still waging the war of faith in this life, should be talking about? They were talking about Jesus – his life, death, and resurrection! So should we!

But one of the men on the mountain still didn’t get it. Peter, clearly star-struck at the presence of these heroes of faith comes up with a plan: Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you want, I will make three shelters here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. What does this mean? What was Peter trying to accomplish here? Well, just six days earlier Jesus had told his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised again. And Peter replied, “No!” This will never happen to you (Matthew 16:21-23). Peter had his own plan for how things should be – and his plan involved prolonging this glorious moment on this mountain – without the suffering, without the pain, without the cross. And we know what that’s like, don’t we? Seeking joy, happiness, glory apart from the cross. We sometimes imagine that God’s glory can be found in health, in wealth, in happiness and self-fulfillment. We often expect God to reveal his glory in our lives now, rather than patiently and faithfully waiting to experience the glory of heaven. Just as bad, we seek God’s glory in places he has explicitly said we shouldn’t go looking. We want to feel God in our hearts rather than receive him in Word and Sacrament. We search for financial peace in our salaries and savings rather than in God’s promise to provide (Matthew 6:32). Rather than cherish the spouse God has given us – because, let’s be honest, marriage is hard work, it’s often a cross to be carried – we look for easier routes to satisfaction through flirtation and pornography. We imagine that if we just “do church right” we can make it glorious and acceptable to the world when Jesus promises that the church will always be hated by the world (John 15:18) as long as it preaches the foolishness of Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:18-25). The truth is the same for us as for Jesus: there are no shortcuts to glory. First comes humiliation, then glory. First the cross, then the crown.  

There’s a bright cloud and a voice – what do those mean? Just as happened several times in the OT, the cloud indicates the presence of the only true, almighty God (Exodus 13:21; Exodus 24:17; 1 Kings 8:11). But what about the voice: this is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him. What does this mean? This is both a non-so-subtle rebuke of Peter and a divine endorsement of Jesus. In other words, God the Father is calling Peter to repent of his attempt to turn Jesus into the glorious, earthly Conqueror he wanted him to be and instead receive him as the crucified Savior he – and all of us – truly need. Peter should not have rebuked Jesus when he said he had to die nor should he have tried to build tents on this mountain. He should have listened to, and believed, Jesus’ words about the necessity of the cross. So should we. How do we listen to Jesus? Open your Bible. Compare everything you hear (including everything you hear from this pulpit) to the Word of God. It’s been said that if you stick a knife anywhere in the Bible, it will bleed red with the blood of Christ. When you read your Bible begin by asking “what does this mean?” followed by “where do I see Jesus, my Savior?” He’s there, on every page. Don’t do it because I told you to, do it because God told you to.

Finally, Jesus issues a somewhat strange command: Do not tell anyone what you have seen until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead. Why not? Well, Jesus had already had many people following him for all the wrong reasons. They wanted him to be their warrior to defeat their Roman overlords, their bread-king to fill their bellies and bank accounts, their private physician to heal all their diseases (John 6:15). But that was not Jesus’ mission. Jesus’ mission was not and is not to fix all the symptoms of sin in this world. Jesus came to take away the cause of all of those symptoms; to take your sins and mine and the sins of the world, carry them to the cross and suffer and die to pay for them. And after Jesus’ resurrection, Peter, James, and John could give powerful testify to the world that this was no ordinary criminal who was brutally beaten and hung on a cross to die; this was God’s Son, the promised Messiah, who came to take away the sins of the world. When asked how they could know this, they could say: we heard God’s divine testimony from heaven, we witnessed Moses and Elijah speaking with him on the mountain, we have seen his glory (John 1:14)!

And now that we know what these nine verses mean, we may ask the question: what does this mean for me? Why spend an entire Sunday on an event that most churches don’t recognize and many Christians are unaware of? It is placed here, on the last Sunday before Lent because this is the point at which Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:51) and begins his descent into the valley of the shadow of death for us. The Transfiguration tells us that he was fully prepared to face the doom we deserved. It assures us that he was the one the prophets had foretold; the one chosen by God to carry out the job no one else could perform. It tells us that Jesus was in total control when he walked into Jerusalem to be betrayed, denied, tortured, crucified and buried. And it assures us that through faith we are truly pleasing to God, because in Jesus every last one of our sins has been punished and paid for – that through Baptism and through faith we are now God’s sons and daughters with whom he is well pleased. The Transfiguration means that your sins are forgiven. You are saved. Heaven is real and you will spend eternity in heaven’s glory with Peter, James, John, Moses, Elijah and Jesus. The Transfiguration proves that Jesus is true God and that God is here for us. The comfort of sins forgiven and the confidence that heaven is ours is finally the answer God always wants to give us when we search his Word for the answer to that uniquely Lutheran question: what does this mean? Amen.

[1] In short, the daily news is nothing less than evidence that Jesus was right: this sinful world is spiraling into destruction – see Matthew 24

[2] https://time.com/4705034/st-patricks-day-corned-beef-lent/

[3] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004A90BXS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1#ace-g8881249860

Matthew 5:21-37 - Jesus Takes Aim at the Heart - February 16, 2020

Last week, Jesus proclaimed that he had not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets…but to fulfill them and unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees…you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:17, 20). And today he shows us what that means. He shows us what kind of righteousness God demands from us – in order to be saved. And to do that, Jesus teaches the Law like it had never been taught before – and is rarely taught since. He takes the safeties off and unleashes it. He sharpens the blade of the Law to a razor edge, pulls it back, and takes aim directly at our hearts.  

Did you notice the refrain Jesus repeats throughout this section? You have heard that it was said…but I tell you. Unlike the rabbis and teachers of the time – who always had to refer to another, older, usually dead rabbis to support their interpretations – Jesus is interpreting the Law on his own authority. It doesn’t matter what the world says, what the religious elite say, or even what your own reason tells you – this is the Lord speaking. He doesn’t need references or footnotes. He’s the Lord (Matthew 12:8). It’s his Law. He can define and apply it however he wants.

And what he wants to do today is take the Law and amplify it. He pulls it out of our catechisms that have been gathering dust on our shelves somewhere and turns its volume way up to the point that it causes our ears to bleed. He does this by shifting the focus from action to attitude, from outward obedience to inward motivation, from your life compared to others to your life compared to God. And over the course of these 16 verses, Jesus makes it undeniably clear that the problem isn’t merely superficial, it isn’t just that we do bad things, but that we are rotten to the core right from conception (Psalm 51:5). Sin is like a malicious virus that has infected the hardware of our humanity to the extent that no matter how hard we try we are not able not to sin (non posse non peccare) even in the good things we do (Isaiah 64:6). [1] Well, that’s not good for our self-esteem, is it? Doesn’t he know that we feel bad enough about ourselves already? Why would Jesus speak this way? Jesus’ goal in this section of his Sermon is to drive us to despair of ourselves; to drive every last ounce of self-righteousness out of us – and drive us to hunger and thirst (Matthew 5:6) for the righteousness that comes from outside of us, the righteousness that God wants to freely gives us (Romans 3:21-22).

He starts with the 5th commandment: You have heard that it was said to people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.’ “Well, I dodged that bullet. I haven’t strangled, stabbed, shot or poisoned anyone. I’m generally kind, I hold the door for strangers, and would never do any real harm to anyone.” But then Jesus turns up the volume, shifts the focus from what you do with your hands to the thoughts in your heart and the words on your lips. But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be subject to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ will have to answer to the Sanhedrin. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of hell fire. That’s right. If you’ve ever been angry with someone – personally, not according to your office or vocation as employer or parent – according to Jesus, you are a murderer. So the way you talk about those who hold opposing political views, that flash of road rage at the guy who cut you off on the Beltline, that simmering resentment you feel towards a coworker is more than enough to get you convicted of murder in God’s courtroom. And do you know what it cost to cleanse your murderous heart and save you from suffering hell fire? Jesus took your sentence on himself. He allowed himself, who had never hurt anyone, to die a murderer’s death and suffer hell fire on the cross. That’s what it cost Jesus to cleanse your depraved, murderous heart.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ And we think: “I’m faithful in my marriage. Never had an affair or a one-night stand. I’ve never sent a suggestive text or flirted with a coworker.” And Jesus turns up the volume but I tell you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. All it takes is…one look. Whether in person or online. At the beach or the gym or at church. It doesn’t matter. I’m guilty and so are you. The Law has no loopholes, no exceptions, no mercy. You can live your entire life as celibate as a monk, you could interact only with members of your own sex, and just one stray look, one filthy thought will nail you. Oh sure, you could try gouging out the offending eye or cutting off the offending hand, but your eyes and hands aren’t the problem, your heart is. And so before you start mutilating your body, remember this: no one will be declared righteous by works of the law, for through the law we become aware of sin (Romans 3:20). Jesus isn’t teaching a course on self-improvement. He’s making us aware of just how depraved we really are. He’s reminding you that if he hadn’t become an adulterer in your place, your whole body [would] be thrown into hell. The good news is not that if you try real hard, if you watch only PG television and get all the right filters on your phone, you can keep this commandment. The good news is that Jesus allowed himself to be thrown into hell to cleanse your depraved, adulterous heart.

He continues with one of the most sensitive issues of his day and our day: It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ According to the ancient rabbis and authoritative teachers’ of Jesus’ day, God wasn’t so much concerned with whether divorce was right or wrong as much as he was that you got your paperwork properly filed (Deuteronomy 24:1). There is probably no other area in our lives where the inherent depravity of our hearts rears its ugly head than within the institution of marriage. And there is no more fertile field for self-righteousness, either, a field where there are infinite opportunities to keep score and to pass the buck. We hear the Law say “do not divorce,” and we either take pride in the fact that we’ve toughed out our marriage for decades (even though we’ve frequently dreamed of the escape divorce would provide) or we try to justify divorce by blaming the other person for being unloving or unfaithful or unromantic. The state has tired of listening to the finger-pointing and has invented what is called a “no-fault” divorce, so that no one’s feelings are hurt. There’s only one problem: it’s a total lie. Divorce is never no one’s fault; it’s always at least one – and usually both parties’ fault.

Again, Jesus’ authoritative but I tell you cuts through the noise: Whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, causes her to be regarded as an adulteress. And whoever marries the divorced woman is regarded as an adulterer. Jesus is likely addressing the issue from the perspective of men because in 1st century Israel men held all the power in marriage – but the same would hold true for women. In either case, Jesus makes it clear that no piece of paper can legitimize the dissolution of the one flesh relationship established by God (Genesis 2:24). Divorce is simply not part of God’s plan. According to Jesus, divorce and adultery are two sides of the same coin. One always leads to the other. Either adultery causes divorce or divorce causes adultery. It’s unavoidable – no matter what the courts say. The larger point is that you can’t justify yourself before God in regard to marriage – whether you’ve been divorced three times or happily married for 50 years – we’re all in the same boat here. But there is a marriage that does justify. In Baptism, Jesus bound you to himself in a marriage that he will never give up on, no matter how hard you try. He didn’t marry us when we were beautiful, but filthy; not so he could benefit from us but so that he could pull us out of the gutter of sin and present us before God holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:25-33). That’s why Jesus married us. He married us to take our adulterous and faithless hearts and cleanse them with his blood.

Jesus addresses one final symptom of our depraved hearts: Again you have heard that it was said to people long ago, ‘Do not break your oaths, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ And you’re thinking, “I think I’m ok here. I’ve never been to court, but if I were, I’d tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I’ve never (intentionally) lied on an official document. I don’t use God’s name in vain – at least not regularly.” And along comes Jesus but I tell you, do not swear at all…let your statement be, “Yes, yes,’ or ‘No, no.’ The very fact that we would ever have to swear at all – when it is not required by God or his representatives – means that we are not good to our word, that we are all natural-born liars. And who of us would argue with that accusation? If someone could actually verify all of the fantastic stories we spin, who of us wouldn’t be guilty of perjury? History gets rewritten in our minds so that we always walk away the hero or the victim. We’re liars to the core. Half-truths and lies slip out so easily we don’t even notice them anymore. But again, just as Jesus has exposed our depraved hearts, he has also come to cleanse them. He became flesh and dwelled among us…full of grace and truth (John 1:14). And even though he spoke nothing but God’s truth, He suffered the false accusations and lies of humanity – both in court and in church. By suffering the death penalty for blasphemy (Matthew 26:65-66), the One who is the truth (John 14:6) became the lie in order to rescue liars like us from the Evil One, the Father of lies (John 8:44).

This part of our Savior’s sermon might feel like the doctor’s visit everyone dreads – the one where the doctor says “there’s nothing more we can do, it’s terminal.” This is the deeper diagnosis of the Law, the one we don’t want to hear. Sin isn’t shallow and occasional, it’s deep and chronic. It’s not a cold or a flu but a cancer that has metastasized from our heart to our every thought, word and action. It’s not that we sin every once in a while, it’s that we are sinful to the core. It’s not simply murder but anger and hatred; not simply adultery but lust in the heart and trashing of marriage; not little white lies but big black stains against God’s holiness. This is the sermon no one wants to hear. No one left that mountain happy that day. No one left feeling self-justified. No one left thinking, “Hey, I’m doing pretty well here; God must be pretty happy with me.” And that’s the point.

The way Jesus preaches the Law doesn’t leave any wiggle room, any room for self-justification. His preaching forces us to make the confession we would never make on our own: “I am a murderer, an adulterer, an unfaithful spouse, a liar and a perjurer.” To play games with the Law is to play games with the Gospel – the life and suffering and death of the Jesus – the One who came to fulfill the Law for us. When we justify ourselves, when we think we are good all by ourselves, we are, in effect, saying, “Thanks, but no thanks, Jesus. I’ve got this covered.” Every loophole we invent in the Law, every letter we erase, every self-justification trivializes Jesus’ death on the cross. He came to fulfill the Law completely – not just the places where we need a little help. He died for depraved sinners (Romans 5:8), not people who were doing “pretty well” or “better than average.” And if you don’t recognize how depraved you are to the heart, you won’t recognize your Savior.

Because it’s only when we realize that we are depraved right to the bottom of our hearts that we appreciate these words of Paul: God shows his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). While we couldn’t keep one word of the Law in a million years, Christ is the end of the law…for everyone who believes (Romans 10:4). Jesus didn’t just come to nail us with the Law, he came to keep the Law to the last letter in your place and die under the Law to rescue you from every commandment, every letter that would condemn you. He came to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). The righteousness God demands in order for you to be saved is not something you can do, it is only and always a gift of God through Jesus.

That’s why, like it or not, we need to hear both the Law and the Gospel. In fact, we need to hear the Law so that we appreciate the Gospel. So when the Law comes and exposes the depravity that lives in your heart, run to Jesus, whose blood cleanses your depraved heart from all sin (1 John 1:7). Amen.

[1] https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/augustinewill.html

Matthew 5:13-20 - All or Nothing? - February 9, 2020

All or nothing. It sounds like something a coach would say when he’s trying to pump up his team; a gambler would say as he pushes all of his chips into the pot; like something that a military commander might say to his squad before a mission. But the question is: does it sound like something Jesus would say?

Let’s start with different question: how can we possibly reconcile the words of Paul we heard this morning and the words of Jesus? Didn’t they directly contradict one another? Listen again to what Jesus said: Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy them but to fulfil them. Amen I tell you: until heaven and earth pass away, not even the smallest letter, or even part of a letter, will in any way pass away from the Law until everything is fulfilled. So whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. So that sounds good, right? We would agree with that. Anyone who believes that the Bible is God’s Word would agree with that. Every word of the Bible is important. We must believe and obey it down to the letter – or else we cannot be saved (Revelation 22:18-19).

What was Paul thinking then? Did he invent a new religion? Paul wrote I had no intention of knowing anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). Really Paul? Nothing except Jesus and the cross? What about all the other letters and words and sentences in the Bible? What about the Law? So which is it? Who’s wrong here? Is Jesus wrong or is Paul? I’ll give you the answer first, then the explanation. The answer is: it’s all or nothing.

This time of year we’re all getting our W-2’s, our 1099’s, our mortgage statements in order. And that means that we will soon begin the process of calculating deductions, exemptions, and credits. And at some point – especially if you do your own taxes – you come to the realization that our tax code is really complicated! 20 years ago, a billionaire by the name of Steve Forbes ran for president, and he proposed an idea that would simplify things: a flat tax. [1] No matter how much you made, you would be taxed at a flat rate of 17%. Sounds great, right? Except for one thing. Critics and analysts said that it wouldn’t work. At least not at a rate that low.

People often try to apply a flat tax – an attempt to smooth out – what God says in his Word. They do this in many ways. Some simply flatten out certain difficult teaches of the Bible, deleting them altogether: the creation of the universe in six ordinary, 24 hour days (Exodus 20:11); the Exodus and the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 12-14); the virgin conception and birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:18) – to name a few. Others argue that many of the Bible’s teachings are archaic and need to be updated: while homosexuality may have been bad in the past because it involved abuse, today it can be good in a loving relationship (Genesis 19) or that the Biblical prohibition against women serving as pastors was relevant in the first century but not the twenty-first (1 Timothy 2:12). But easily the most common way people – including me and you – flatten out God’s Word is by carving out exemptions for ourselves. 3rd commandment – God won’t mind if I skip worship just this once. 4th commandment – our elected leaders are fools, they deserve to be mocked and disrespected. 5th commandment – hatred is a virtue if you use it for motivation. 6th commandment – it’s ok to look as long as you don’t touch. 7th commandment – it’s only stealing if someone catches me not scanning every item at the self-checkout. And we could go on. It’s easy, isn’t it? Just simplify, smooth out the tough areas of God’s Word – like a flat tax.

There’s just one problem. Jesus says it won’t work – not at such a low rate: whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. In other words, any lowering of God’s standards won’t work. Keeping the Law 17% of the time won’t work. In fact, even keeping it 99.9% of the time won’t work (James 2:10). If we think that God will accept partial obedience, we’re only deceiving ourselves. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its flavor, how will it become salty again? Then it is no good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people. So much for the lawless, gutless, tolerant, post-modern 21st century Jesus that is often presented today. Jesus is not giving us suggestions or a buffet of options to pick from, but commands. We must be salt to season the world around us. We must let our light shine. We cannot keep quiet and blend in. We must obey every letter – and every part of every letter – of the Law. Jesus doesn’t give any exemptions or exclusions. With him, it’s all or nothing.

Let’s be honest, if we didn’t know better, we might assume that these words were spoken by a Pharisee or teacher of the Law – not Jesus. We might even find that we prefer Paul to Jesus. Paul’s message seems a whole lot simpler: just Christ and his cross (1 Corinthians 2:2). According to Paul, the cross is the whole message. Paul would have been great at children’s sermons, wouldn’t he? Simple, to the point, and the answer to every question would be “Jesus died on the cross for our sins.” Next to Jesus, Paul was probably the most brilliant theologian of all time. But he says that the simple message of Christ crucified is IT; all of it, there’s nothing more. We confess the same thing every week. Jesus’ died for us. Jesus’ death saves us. The question is: is that really all there is? Does the cross say it all – every letter and every part of every letter of God’s Word?

What did Jesus say? Until heaven and earth pass away, not even the smallest letter, or even part of a letter, will in any way pass away from the Law until everything is fulfilled. It sounds like Paul…and Martin Luther…and every Lutheran pastor after him might be guilty of what’s called Gospel reductionism – that is, reducing God’s Word to a few simple things, maybe even one thing, like the cross of Christ. [2] Gospel reductionism sounds like this: “Jesus loves me this I know…and that’s all I want to know.” And if you reduce Christianity to just the Gospel, then anything else goes; do whatever you want, live however you want, deny anything else in the Bible, especially the Law – especially the Law, because the Law is hard to keep. Just focus on God’s love and Jesus’ cross and then nothing else matters.

How do we reconcile the two? Paul and Jesus; Calvary and Sinai; Law and Gospel? It’s simple: it’s all or nothing. But perhaps you would like a further explanation. Yes? Ok. Here it is: Christ crucified is the fulfillment of every letter and every part of every letter of the Law.

In other words, preaching Christ crucified is preaching the Law. That’s why we can’t skip over the small details. Allow me to illustrate with just one of the seemingly small that we spend a lot of time on: the fact that Jesus was born of a virgin and therefore was truly human. What does that matter? It matters because Jesus’ humanity placed him under the law – yes, the law that he himself gave. In Galatians Paul explains: when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law (Galatians 4:4-5). Jesus was born to obey the whole Law, down to the last letter, to redeem us. That’s why the little letters do matter; they matter for our salvation.

And then on Calvary, there is no clearer preacher of the Law than the cross. After all, that’s the sinless Son of God on that cross! That’s God the Father turning his back on his Son, handing him over to the hatred of men and the damnation of hell just because two people took a bite out of some fruit they weren’t supposed to thousands of years earlier (Genesis 3:6). But that’s not the only reason he hung there. God’s perfect Son hung there because of the one loveless thing you said to your spouse yesterday; over the frustration you had with your child two days ago; over the horrible thought you had about your boss on Monday; over the fact that each of us has failed to love God above all things and love our neighbor as ourselves. The cross demonstrates God’s refusal to lower his standard. He demands 100% compliance or full punishment. He accepts no excuses. He lets no one off the hook. In Christ crucified we see that every sin against every letter – and every part of every letter – of the Law must be punished, to the full extent of the Law. God hung his Son on a cross – that’s how serious he is about his Law. That’s how serious God is about sin. That’s how serious God is about my sin…and how serious he is about your sin. Indeed I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and experts in the law, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

What hope do we have, then? Here it is – and listen very carefully: Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy them but to fulfill them. When you know Christ and his cross, you don’t only see God’s seriousness regarding his Law, you see his mercy, his grace, his love – for the cross shows you that Christ has fulfilled the Law for you – every letter of it. Through his 33 years of life Jesus obeyed every letter of the Law perfectly for us and on the cross he suffered the full punishment of the Law. Every letter of the law has been fulfilled and every letter of the punishment demanded by the Law has been paid – not by us but for us.

So back to the question: is it all or nothing? What’s the answer? It would seem that the Law and the Gospel give us two different answers: if you want to be saved by the Law you must keep it all, if you trust in Jesus you don’t have to keep any of it. And that’s true, but really, the answer is even simpler than that. The answer is Jesus. Jesus is not a legalist. He’s not going to explain the Law to us over the next few weeks so that we would try to earn salvation through our obedience – but so that we understand what God demands of us and how desperately we need him. Nor was Paul a Gospel reductionist. He wasn’t dismissing the importance of every other word of Scripture, including every demand of the Law. He was summarizing it all in its perfect complexity and simplicity when he preached Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

It’s still the same today. We must maintain both Law and Gospel as the unchanging Word of God and embrace the tension between the two. We cannot and do not diminish God’s commands: to let our lights shine, to be the salt of the earth, to obey every letter of every word of God’s Law. At the same time, we cannot and do not diminish the fact that when we cling to Christ and him crucified in faith, God considers us as having kept his Law, down to the last letter (Genesis 15:6). The better we know Jesus the better we will understand just what the Law demands of us and the better we know just how much love it took for God to send his Son to earth to fulfill it for us.

In the end, it is really very simple. It’s all or nothing. You either have Christ and him crucified for you – and then you have it all, all the obedience and righteousness you need to stand before God; or you don’t – and you wind up with nothing. Amen.  

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2014/03/07/the-tax-code-make-it-flat/#6dc418837e0e

[2] https://www.patheos.com/blogs/justandsinner/the-danger-of-law-gospel-reductionism/

Matthew 5:1-12 - You Are Unconventionally Blessed - February 2, 2020

Have you ever found yourself “blessed” in a way that you or the world at large doesn’t normally consider a blessing – red hair, freckles, greater than average height or smaller than average feet? In time you may come to see how God has blessed you with these characteristics, but still, they remain unconventional blessings – they are blessings precisely because most don’t see them as blessings. They make you unique, special – they often lead to both unconventional challenges and opportunities. At first glance, that’s how we might see our Lord’s blessings in the Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the poor, who mourn, who are gentle, who hunger and thirst, who are merciful, who are persecuted and insulted. You’re blessed if this describes you? Really? That’s, by definition, unconventional. The dictionary defines unconventional as “not based on or conforming to what is generally done or believed.” [1] As we receive our Lord’s blessing this morning, we will grow in our appreciation of our blessed status before God, especially since they seem so unconventional and backwards to the world.

Jesus begins with a single word: Blessed. In Greek, makarios. It’s not an emotion. It’s not “being happy.” It’s a condition, an umbrella under which you live. You are blessed, Jesus says to his disciples, and he repeats this word 9 times, each time looking at it from a different angle – like turning a diamond to view its different facets. The first four relate to our relationship with God. Blessed are the poor…those who mourn…the gentle…those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Luther summarized these thoughts well in a note found next to his death bed. Before God: “Wir sind alle bettler. Hoc est verum.” “We are all beggars. This is true.” [2]

Ah, but that’s not what the world wants you to believe. Even more terrifying, that’s not what pop Christianity teaches. Their message is quite the opposite. Blessed are the rich in spirit. Blessed are the glad and the happy. Blessed are the strong and powerful. That’s the conventional message, isn’t it? That’s the core message of every religion other than orthodox Christianity. The whole point of God is to use him to become a winner. Placing faith in God is like hiring a consultant to improve your life. God is only useful if he helps you get your life in order, maximize your potential, raise your self-esteem, help you be all that you can be.

That’s conventional. Follow the rules and God will reward you. Believe in Jesus hard enough enough, work hard enough, “name it and claim enough big things” – and it can all be yours: health, wealth, happiness, love. After all, it worked for the mega-pastor on the stage, didn’t it? He’s the picture of success. Nice suit, luxury car, pretty wife; squeaky clean, honor roll kids. The message is clear even if no one says it out loud: God is on the side of winners. The Super Bowl is tonight. Isn’t it funny how God will only be found on the side of the winning team? “I’d like to thank God for helping me make that game-winning catch or last second field goal.” You never hear anyone say “I’d like to thank God that I missed the tackle that could have sealed the game; for allowing me to drop the game-winning catch.” But from a human perspective, those are the types of blessings Jesus is giving us today.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Not poor, financially speaking, but the poor in spirit. The spiritually bankrupt. Blessed are those who have nothing to offer God but their sin, their messed up lives, their broken hearts, their dysfunctional families. Blessed are those who understand that they can’t please God. Blessed are those who realize they haven’t kept a single commandment perfectly. Blessed are those who, like the tax collector in the temple, can’t even lift their eyes to heaven but beat their breasts and can say nothing but God, be merciful to me, a sinner (Luke 18:13).

Blessed are those who mourn. We saw a nation in mourning this past week, didn’t we? Mourning over the loss of the “Black Mamba” – Kobe Bryant. You mourn when someone has died. Blessed are those who experience the pain of death? Yes. Those who weep over the awful results of sin in their lives and the lives of others – up to and including death. Why? Why is a grieving person blessed? Well, consider this: when is person most likely to come to church to receive the Word and Sacrament? When everything is going great in their lives? When their career is on cruise control and their families are perfectly Instagram worthy? No. It’s when sin intrudes and ruins everything; it’s when someone they love dies. When they are grieving the effects of sin, then they are ready for the Gospel, then they are prepared – like soil that is plowed up and turned over (Matthew 13:8) – to be comforted. Blessed are you when you mourn, for the comfort of the Gospel is yours!

Blessed are the gentle. No, that’s not the way it is. Blessed are those who rant and rave in order to get their agendas pushed, their expectations met, their way or the highway. Jesus’ logic is obviously backwards, isn’t it? If you want to make the world your oyster, you’ve got to squeeze it; demand your rights to it; trample others to get it. But Jesus says that you get the earth by inheritance, as a gift. It’s so unconventional. It cuts against the grain, the way we run our lives. We want to be strong, in charge, in control. Gentle? When have the gentle ever won?

Well, if you’re here it’s because you believe that Jesus is the ultimate winner – and he was not only gentle, he wore it as a badge of honor. Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29). Jesus is gentle – and that’s where his strength lies. It’s the unconventional kind of strength – that turns the other cheek (Matthew 5:39), that blesses the persecutor (Matthew 5:44), that lays down his life for his enemies (John 15:13). And here we get the hint we need to properly interpret these Beatitudes: these blessings are first and foremost about Jesus. None of these blessings are ours by nature. But they describe Jesus perfectly. And through faith we receive these blessings that rightly belong to him.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. No, it’s not just being hungry or thirsty. You can fill yourself with food and drink – and many of us will tonight during the Super Bowl. But you can’t fill yourself with righteousness. You can’t make yourself holy. Oh, you can do outwardly righteous things, but you can’t make yourself righteous. You can’t cleanse your own heart or your own past. We are only blessed when we hunger and thirst for a righteousness that is not our own. When we hunger and thirst for Jesus, as Paul says God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). What we hunger and thirst for as sinners, what man-made religions and philosophies and virtue signalers are really looking for – even though they don’t know it – can only be found in Jesus. He’s the only one who can fill us with the righteousness we crave.

The next four beatitudes turn us to others. To our relationship with our spouse, children, parents, neighbors, etc. Blessed are the merciful…the pure in heart…the peacemakers…those who are persecuted. In these ways, we are imitators of Jesus, our merciful, pure-hearted, persecuted, peace-making Savior.

Blessed are the merciful those who love the unlovable, who take time for their enemies, who set aside their goals and aspirations for their spouse, their children, their fellow believers. Do you know what the most important expression of mercy is? Especially in marriage, in the family, in the church? Forgiveness! As we pray forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us (Matthew 6:9-13). God has shown mercy to you, by not punishing you as your sins deserve (Psalm 103:10). How could you not reflect his mercy to others – not holding grudges, not demanding a pound of flesh, not waiting for a chance to get revenge? Only believers can understand this verse. Unbelievers cannot understand mercy…not really. Only the forgiven can be forgiving. Only those who know God’s mercy in Christ can be merciful to others.

Blessed are the pure in heart. “Ignorance is bliss,” we say. Is that true? In this verse it is. To be ignorant, unfamiliar with evil is to be blessed. The person who leads a “Leave it to Beaver”, sheltered, naïve lifestyle is blessed by their distance from evil. That’s unconventional. I’ve heard Christian parents say that they don’t want to send their child to a Christian school because they don’t want them to be sheltered and naïve to the evil of the world. What sense does that make? What parent would say “I let my child drink spoiled milk because I don’t want to shelter them from toxins”? At the same time who can claim such purity? Proverbs asks who can say, “I have purified my heart. I am cleansed from my sinfulness” (Proverbs 20:9)? I can’t. Can you? Well, yes. Yes, you can, but not on your own. On your own all that comes out of your heart are evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimonies, and blasphemies (Matthew 15:19). Only the blood of Jesus can purify your heart (1 John 1:7).

Blessed are the peacemakers. This isn’t an inner peace; this is making peace, bringing it to others. They shall be called sons of God because they are chips off the old block; clones of God’s only-begotten Son, Jesus. But that’s no who we are by nature, is it? Who wants to get in the middle of a fight between coworkers? Who wants to step into the breech between couple whose marriage is on the rocks? Who wants to mediate between fellow church members who are quarreling? You know what’s likely to happen if you do that, right? They’re both going to turn on you. Yep, but you do it anyway – because that’s what Jesus did. He stepped into the breech between God and us and we crucified him and God abandoned him to hell. But by his death he brought you peace.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. There are two important qualifiers in there: 1) blessed are you. You the disciple. You the baptized believer. This does not apply to unbelievers. And 2) because of me. Because of Jesus. No, you’re not blessed when people insult you because of your political beliefs, because you cheer for the Vikings or Bears in Packer country, or because you boldly assert your constitutional rights by your social media posts or use of firearms. You are blessed when you are insulted because you speak the truth of God’s Word to the world’s lies about abortion and homosexuality and transgenderism. You are blessed when you confess the true God as the one who will graciously take believers to heaven for Christ’s sake and will send unbelievers to hell – even when people like Aaron Rodgers mock such beliefs. [3] When those things happen – and they will happen – don’t be sad; rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven! When you face that kind of persecution for the name of Jesus, you are following in the footsteps of Moses, David, Peter and Paul.

These are unconventional blessings, aren’t they? They turn our whole world upside down. Why should we risk living in such an unconventional way? It’s not because by doing so we earn our reward in heaven. That’s conventional thinking. We risk living this way because our reward is already safe and sound in heaven. Remember, these beatitudes are first and foremost about Jesus. He is the one from whom all blessings flow. He is the One who became poor to make us rich. He is the one who left the glory of heaven to mourn with us in our sin. He is the gentle one, the one who turned the other cheek, who went as a Lamb to the slaughter. He hungered and thirsted for our righteousness, and by body and blood shed on the cross we are filled. His mercy knows no bounds. His heart is pure. He is the peacemaker, the One who brought peace between God and us by bleeding and dying. He is the one this world can’t help but persecute, who is hated to this day despite the fact that he died 2000 years ago.

Jesus is the Blessed One described in these verses. And because you are baptized into him, so are you. These are not commands. This is not a “to-do” list. This is who you are through faith in Jesus. You are richly, if unconventionally, blessed! Rejoice and be glad! Amen.  

[1]https://www.google.com/search?q=unconventional+definition&oq=unconventional+definition&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l7.4477j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[2] Kittleson, James A. Luther The Reformer Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 1986. (296-297) – LW 54:474

[3] https://people.com/sports/aaron-rodgers-opens-up-about-religion-to-danica-patrick-i-dont-know-how-you-can-believe-in-a-god/

Haggai 2:6-9 - What Is God's Plan for This Building? - January 26, 2020

Let’s cut right to the chase this morning: what’s the purpose of this building – both this church and the new addition? If you were involved with the planning at any stage of this project, then you probably remember that many people had many different hopes and dreams for this new addition. Many talked about how nice it would be to have a larger kitchen to serve snacks, soup suppers and potlucks. Some talked about how much we need more space for our growing numbers of Sunday school children. Others have looked forward to having a large multi-purpose space in which Bible classes can be taught, meals can be eaten, and fellowship can be had – all without constantly bumping elbows with one another. I’ve overheard many conversations about how people want to use our new addition. Many have great plans for this building. But what we want is the wrong question to ask; the real question is: what is God’s plan for this building?

To help us answer this question, we turn to the prophet Haggai. In this text God is speaking to the people of Israel roughly 500 years before Jesus would be born and about 90 years after the Temple had been destroyed and the people carried away to exile in Babylon. Now they were back, but Jerusalem was still in ruins, and so these people were also wondering: what is God’s plan for this temple? In response, God gave them three remarkable and unexpected promises.

First, he – referring to himself as the LORD of Armies, a title which indicates that all creatures in heaven and on earth are the LORD’s servants, who – whether they know it or not – carry out his will. This LORD of Armies says once again, in a little while, I myself will shake the heavens and the earth, the seas and the dry land. What is this “shaking”? “Shaking” refers to the political and social upheavals the LORD would bring about in order to carry out his plan of salvation. For example, the humbling of proud Egypt by the ten plagues (Exodus 7-12) and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21-31) are described in the Psalms as a shaking of the heavens and the earth (Psalm 68:7ff; Psalm 77:18). Here, however, the LORD is not reminiscing about the past but is revealing his plans for the future. Long story short, the LORD through Haggai was foretelling how he would shake and shape the world politically and socially in preparation for the establishment of his NT Church – which would begin with the birth of his Son in Bethlehem and extend to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8; Luke 24:47).

Second, he says I will shake all the nations, and the desired of all the nations will come. What are the “desired of all the nations”? As Paul explained in our lesson from Ephesians, it’s not a “what” but a “who”? It’s you [who] were without hope and without God in the world…you who once were far away and now have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:12-13). The desired of the nations is every single person whom God knew and predestined before the creation of the world and who in time he calls and justifies and finally, on the Last Day, will glorify (Romans 8:29). In other words, here the LORD is predicting and promising that one day in the future – from Haggai’s perspective – he will call people from every nation and bring them together in one glorious Church. That day is today. You and I and are the fulfillment of this prophecy.

Third, he says the glory of this second house will be greater than that of the first one. “How could this possibly be true,” Haggai’s original listeners would have wondered. Solomon’s temple was a glorious wonder of the world, made with the finest materials available and constructed by the best craftsmen in the world. They were building this new temple with their own unskilled hands, they were always short on resources, and they were under constant threat of attack from enemies who didn’t want to see Israel reestablished. How could this new temple be greater? Many ways. 1) The OT temple was built of stone and wood and gold – dead material, no matter how precious; the NT Church is built of living stones, people in whom the Holy Spirit dwells (1 Peter 2:4-8). 2) In the OT, God’s dwelling was limited to one nation, the people of Israel; in the NT it includes members of every nation on earth (Revelation 14:6). 3) God’s OT people was mixed, consisting of both believers and unbelievers (1 Corinthians 10:1-5); the glory of the NT Church is that it is only composed of believers, those who have been washed, sanctified and justified through faith in Jesus (1 Corinthians 6:11). To people wondering what God’s plan for his OT temple was, he makes three promises: 1) he will “shake” the universe; 2) the desired of the nations – elect believers – will come to this new temple; and 3) the glory of this NT Church will far surpass that of the OT temple. The fact that God has fulfilled those promises is the only reason any of us are here today.

But that still doesn’t answer our question, does it? What is God’s plan for this church, this building here in McFarland, WI? God reveals his plan for this new temple in the last sentence of our text: For in this place I will provide peace, declares the LORD of Armies. Peace is what the OT temple was all about (1 Kings 8). Peace was why God commanded the Israelites to rebuild the temple. Peace is what God wanted to give his people through the temple. And the proclamation and distribution of peace is also what God plans to do with this church and this addition more than 2500 years later. That’s why we have pooled our energy, our effort and our resources to construct this building…so that God would come to us here and give us peace.

But what does that mean? How does God give us peace here? Perhaps the best way to answer that question is to give you some examples. You know that look brand new parents have? The look that is a mysterious combination of joy, sleeplessness, and of being completely overwhelmed at the reality that they now have to take 24/7/365 care of another human being; a human being who for years won’t be able to do anything for themselves? Yeah, you know that look. You probably remember seeing it on my face. And you parents, you probably remember tip-toeing into your baby’s room at least a dozen times those first few nights and placing your hand on their back and your ear by their mouth, just to make sure they’re still breathing. It’s terrifying to be responsible for a newborn baby. But then they bring their newborn here to God’s house to have them baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And they realize that as much as they love their child, God loves them even more, to the extent that he sent his only Son to die for that child. And you can see the peace of their heavenly Father’s promise of protection calm their terror-stricken hearts.

Or picture the families who have and will continue to gather here to say goodbye to a loved one who has passed away. Perhaps picture your own family gathering at your own eventual death. They will gather with tears in their eyes and grief weighing heavily on their hearts. But as they sit in this house, they will be reminded of Jesus’ promise that all who believe in him will live, even though they die (John 11:25). They will be reminded that those who die in faith are not really dead but only sleeping (Luke 8:52). They will be reminded that they don’t grieve as unbelievers who have no hope but as believers who look forward in hope to the grand family reunion in heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). And as they remember these things, something happens. Their burden of grief begins to be lifted. Joy and hope replace sadness. Their sorrow over their loss is matched and surpassed by hope for the future reunion to come. That’s the peace this place will offer. That’s the peace God brings here to grief stricken hearts.

A man no one recognizes walks into church at 9:01. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t make eye contact, just comes in and sits down. He doesn’t really feel worthy to be in God’s house, not sure that he should be sitting with people like this, not after what he has done. He hopes no one recognizes him, but more than that, he hopes that no one rejects him. He knows that God should reject him, he’s been unfaithful, he’s a cheater, an adulterer. His wife of 20 years found out and left him. He hurt his children deeply. They no longer speak to him, much less look up to him or respect him. He destroyed his own life for a few hours of immoral pleasure. He sinned against that other woman, against his wife, his children, his family – but the heaviest burden he feels is knowledge that he has sinned against God. He cannot forgive himself and he certainly doesn’t expect God to forgive him either. But for some reason – a reason he can’t explain – he came to church this morning. And when the congregation stands and joins together in confessing their sins, this man readily join in. He was in 100% agreement that he was a poor, miserable sinner. And when the pastor turned around, he was expecting the worst – a scolding, a stern lecture – or at the very least of list of ways to correct the wrongs. And this man knows that if he hears that, he’s going to walk out those doors and never return – because he’s heard it all before, he’s tried it all before – and none of it works. But then the unimaginable happens. The pastor turns around and instead of launching into a lecture, he announces that as a called servant of Christ and by his authority, he forgives everyone’s sins – yes, including the sins of this stranger in the back (John 20:23). The strangest thing was that while he was hearing the voice of a mere man, he knew that the message was really God’s. And an immediate and inexpressible joy entered his heart. His wife hadn’t forgiven him, his children said they could never forgive him, heck, he couldn’t even forgive himself but here in this place…God forgave him. Because of the death of Jesus, God forgave him – forgave all of his sins, even his sin of adultery. And through the forgiveness of sins this sinful man received God’s peace.

I could go on and on, but those are a few examples of the sort of peace that God wants to give us here in this place. This is a place where God comes again and again and reads his love letter to us – a love letter we call the Bible. This is the place where God invites us to lay the burden of our sins on Jesus in confession and receive the peace of forgiveness in the absolution; the most unfair exchange ever made. This is the place where Jesus comes and offers himself, his own body and blood, to assure us that we are forgiven and we are his dear children, no matter what we have done. This is a place where we get a foretaste of the glory that is to come in heaven.

But this peace is far too precious to keep to ourselves. As Solomon dedicated the first temple in Jerusalem, he talked about how God wanted to use the temple as a light on a hill for everyone in this sin-darkened world. He talked about God’s goal that all the people of the earth would know that the Lord is God and there is no other (1 Kings 8:60). God wanted to grant peace not only to those who already believed, but also to those who had not yet believed. The temple was for both believers and unbelievers.

The peace that God provides in this place isn’t just for us, it’s for our unbelieving friends and family and neighbors too. God wants to use this building and this congregation to grant peace to the lost around us. God wants to use this building to breathe his forgiveness on those who can’t find forgiveness anywhere else, to proclaim the truth in a world filled with lies, to give joy and hope to sad and despairing people. May we never forget that! Yes, we built this addition to serve our own growing church family, but we also built it to serve those who have not yet found their place in God’s family. In fact, that’s part of the reason we built bigger than we needed right now – to serve those who have not yet found God’s peace. And – strange as it may sound – part of our prayer today is that this new addition would soon become too small – because if we start to feel crowded in worship, if five classrooms aren’t enough for all the children, if we start bumping elbows at every potluck – that will mean that this building and this congregation are fulfilling God’s purpose and plan.

In ages past, when a railroad company built a tunnel, they also cut small clefts into the tunnel on the sides of the track just in case someone was caught in the tunnel when a train came roaring through. They weren’t big. They weren’t comfortable. But in the moment that a train was bearing down on you and death seemed near, only one thing mattered: cling to the rock – and you will be safe! That’s what this building is – a cleft in the Rock in a world controlled by Satan, a train bearing down on us which would destroy us body and soul. To we who already believe, he says “Stay close to the Rock.” And to those who do not yet believe, he says “Cling to the Rock!” Jesus is the Rock. The wise man will build his life on the Rock (Matthew 7:24-27). The wise man will cling to Jesus as the source of peace in life and in death. God is here in this place to proclaim the Gospel of Christ crucified so that all may know the peace of his forgiveness and love. That’s the purpose of this building, the purpose of this congregation, the purpose of this addition.

We may have our own plans for this building – and that’s fine; but may we never forget God’s purpose for this building. May we come here regularly to receive God’s peace through the forgiveness of sin in Word and Sacrament. And may God continue to use us to carry out his mission of granting true, unchanging peace to people who don’t yet know it and desperately need it. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

John 1:29-42 - Look, The Lamb of God - January 19, 2020

We are in the season of Epiphany. Epiphany means the appearing or revealing of something that we could never have discovered on our own. There are many words, phrases, and doctrines found in the Bible that are and will remain total mysteries unless God reveals them to us. For example, we could never have known that the baby born in Bethlehem was born to be our Savior, the Savior of the Gentiles, too – if God hadn’t revealed it through the example of the Magi (Matthew 2:1-13). We would never understand, much less believe big difficult doctrines like justification, sanctification and the vicarious atonement unless someone taught them to us. Another example is the phrase – or more fitting, the title of Jesus – we will meditate on this morning: Lamb of God. If the Holy Spirit hasn’t granted you knowledge and insight through the Word, this title would make about as much sense as if I were to point at someone and call them a cow, a pig, or any other barnyard animal. But there’s a good reason that we sing or speak this title nearly every single Sunday in worship. This title directs us right to the heart of Christianity. This phrase points to our Savior, Jesus, who came into this world as our sinless substitute and sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. When by God’s grace we learn to see Jesus as the Lamb of God, we will be compelled, like those first disciples, to follow him and bring others to him.

As we catch up with John the Baptist, still preaching and teaching in Bethany beyond the Jordan (John 1:28), he found himself under interrogation by some men from Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders were jealous of this desert prophet’s popularity, so they sent several priests to discredit him before the people – not so different from various protest groups today. “Are you the Christ? Or Elijah? Or one of the other great OT prophets raised from the dead?” they asked (John 1:25). In other words: who or what gives you the right to baptize and preach? It’s interesting to note how John responded to these accusations, because it guides us when people question or criticize our faith today. When John was questioned, he didn’t take it personally, he didn’t take offense or get angry. Instead, he did what every Christian should do when questioned about their faith: He pointed to Jesus. In John’s case, he simply made it clear that whether you like me or believe me or not is irrelevant – but the one who is coming after me, He is the one you need to listen to and believe (John 1:26-27). John knew that his ministry was not about himself but Jesus. And the next day, He had the opportunity to not only talk about Jesus, he had the chance to point him out in the flesh.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘The one coming after me outranks me because he existed before me.’ I myself did not know who he was, but I came baptizing with water so that he would be revealed to Israel.” Now, Jesus and John were cousins, so you may ask: “how can John say that he didn’t know him?” Here’s where that idea of Epiphany or divine revealing comes in: John certainly knew Jesus, but he didn’t know who Jesus was and what he had come to do. Nor could he, because Jesus’ true identity and purpose were hidden. But when God the Father spoke over Jesus and the Holy Spirit appeared as a dove at his baptism, then John’s eyes were opened (John 1:32-34). God had revealed to John that this man, his cousin, was no less than the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

The obvious question is: why did John call him a Lamb? Why not the Messiah or the Christ or the Savior? While worship for us in the New Testament revolves around four basic essential elements: God’s Word and water, bread and wine, worship for God’s Old Testament people revolved around the bloody sacrifice of animals – especially lambs. God foreshadowed this practice already in the Garden of Eden when he slaughtered an animal to cover Adam and Eve’s shame after the Fall (Genesis 3:21), but it didn’t become the formal focus of Israel’s worship until after the Exodus, when the Angel of the Lord passed through the city, killing all the Egyptian first-born sons, while sparing the Israelites who had painted their doorposts with the blood of thousands of lambs (Exodus 12:1-13). This occasion, known as Passover, became a yearly festival for the Israelites – when they would recall God’s miraculous liberating work by eating bread without yeast and roasted lamb. On top of the annual Passover festival, each day two lambs were sacrificed in the temple for the sins of the people (Exodus 29:38-39). These daily sacrifices would amount to over 700 lambs sacrificed in Israel each year. This type of bloody, sacrificial worship might seem cruel and even offensive to people today, but God designed this system of sacrifice to emphasize a very important and clear message: sin is serious. Sin must be paid for and the cost is death (Leviticus 17:11; Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:22). Either we must die or someone or something must die in our place, as our substitute.

That’s what makes the title, Lamb of God, so important. Jesus has taken every ounce of the guilt that drips from our hearts, and the threat of eternal punishment that guilt deserves and put it on his own shoulders. This is the meaning behind the festival of Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement – when the high priest would lay his bloody hands on the head of a goat, known as the scapegoat – and lay the sins of the people on him and send him into the desert – never to be seen again (Leviticus 16). Every time you hear, sing, or think about the Lamb of God – as we will sing in the Agnus Dei right before Communion – that’s what you should be picturing. Picture God lifting the burden of sin and guilt off of your shoulders and placing it – and the sin of the whole world – on Jesus. This is the essence of the Gospel – God sacrificed his own Son in our place. We deserved to die forever in hell, but Jesus did it for us.

And…you’re all still just sitting there. I just announced that Jesus died in your place, to give you life – and no one is clapping, no one is shouting, no one is jumping up and down for joy. A Packer’s touchdown this afternoon will probably generate more of a reaction than this sweet Gospel message. Why is that? Why does a football game create more excitement than the Gospel? If we are apathetic to the Gospel it’s likely for one of two reasons: pride or despair. Pride, in that the devil has succeeded in convincing us that we don’t need Jesus, we don’t need his sacrifice, we are pretty good people all by ourselves. But what did John say? Look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. If you’re breathing then make no mistake, you have sin that needs taking away. Despair, in that the devil might convince you that you don’t deserve Jesus’ sacrifice, you don’t deserve to have your sins forgiven. Every page of Scripture reveals Jesus as the Savior of the world, but the devil whispers yeah, but it’s not talking about you, not this time, not after all the horrible things you did, not after those filthy thoughts you had, not with all the people you’ve hurt. Is he right? Are we undeserving? Are we unworthy to come forward to eat and drink the body and blood of the Lamb? Well, yes. We aren’t worthy to be forgiven. We don’t deserve to receive the Lamb’s sacrifice for our sins. But that’s the point. NO ONE DOES. This sacrament is not for good, holy, righteous people – it’s for bad people, wicked people, damned sinners – people like you and me. As Jesus himself told the self-righteous Pharisees those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Mark 2:17). If you feel the weight of your guilt and shame, if you know your sin and wish to be free of it, if you realize that standing up and coming forward doesn’t number you among the saints but publicly labels you as a confessed, miserable sinner – then this sacrament is for you. Here Jesus invites you to lay your sins on him and receive his forgiveness – and don’t let Satan convince you otherwise. And if that’s not better than a touchdown – I don’t know what is.

How should we respond to such undeserved kindness, such unspeakable love? Apart from giving high fives and jumping up and down,  the first and most important thing we can do to thank Jesus for his sacrifice is exactly what Andrew did – follow him (John 1:37). When Jesus asked those two disciples what are you looking for? They could have said, wealth, health, and happiness – like many today do. But John didn’t call him the Lamb of God who takes away the pain, sadness, hardship, or poverty of the world. He’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That’s why you follow him, why you first sit at his feet in worship and Bible study and Sunday school and private devotions – and why you then follow him with every thought, word and deed every day of your life. He’s the Lamb of God who takes away your sin. Follow him!

But it doesn’t stop there. What’s the first thing Andrew did after he followed Jesus? He found his own brother Simon Peter and said to him: we have found the Messiah! John pointed Andrew to Jesus and Andrew brought Peter to Jesus. If you’ve ever wondered what witnessing or evangelism or outreach – whatever you want to call it – actually looks like, this is it! I find this description so refreshing. There are so many myths out there about evangelism: 1) First, you have to be reaching out to total strangers; 2) you need to have a carefully crafted message that panders whatever identity group you’re targeting (as if “millennials need one thing…gen Xer’s another and Boomers, well who cares about them, they’re old”); and 3) outreach is often focused on us, the programs we operate, what we say and how we say it – not to mention that the most important thing is the numbers – individual souls get lost in the desire to boost the numbers. Andrew’s example dispels those myths. Evangelism doesn’t start with perfect strangers, it starts with the people you already know – often people living under your own roof. (For example, parents, your mission field is your children; etc.) And you don’t have to have a carefully curated message that panders to the exact profile of person you’re talking to – all you need to do is invite them to come and see. Because evangelism is not about you or how clever or well-spoken you are. It’s about Jesus. It’s about leading fellow sinners to Jesus. And where is Jesus? If you don’t know that by now, then I have utterly failed you. Jesus has promised where two or three have gathered together in my name, there I am among them (Matthew 18:20). In other words, he is present wherever his Word is preached and his sacraments are administered in line with his commands and promises. We can say without a shadow of doubt that Jesus is present here. In recent years, some people have set evangelism against worship. In fact, some have given the impression that worship gets in the way of outreach, that the real work of the church happens outside of the invocation and the blessing. The truth is that gathering together around Word and sacrament is the whole point and goal of outreach! Here is where Jesus is. Here is where you follow Jesus. And here is where you bring others to follow him too.

Now, I understand that thinking about the Lamb of God who had to bleed and die on a cross to take away your sins may not be as exciting as a Packer game, it may even be a little offensive that the innocent Lamb of God had to die in order to save you. But this good news will still be true whether the Packers win or lose tonight. Jesus died so you could live. And even if you don’t give anyone a high five as you walk out of church this morning, there are two things you can do: first, thank God for the John or Johns’ in your life, those people who pointed to Jesus, who revealed him to you as the Lamb of God who has taken away your sins; and, second, think of just one person in your own life who needs to hear this message, who you can point to Jesus and say “follow him.” It doesn’t have to be complicated, it can be as simple as inviting them to church or Bible class. You know who Jesus is and you know where he is. He’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Follow him and bring others to him. Amen.

Matthew 2:13-23 - Find Peace in God's Providential Plan - January 12, 2020

Doesn’t it seem like these verses could have been pulled right out of the recent news? Maybe from Hong Kong or Iran or Venezuela where violence and death threats are common occurrences? Just think of the splashy headlines: I. Petty and paranoid tyrant hunts down supposed child challenger to his throne; II. Family forced to flee in the middle of the night to seek asylum in foreign country to escape death; III. Outsmarted and enraged, petty tyrant retaliates with bloody slaughter; IV. Village mourns the tragic and senseless loss of life. These could be headlines from our world today, but they’re not, they are headlines from the first century AD and they are recorded in the Bible. These are the headlines that detail what baby Jesus went through only months after his birth in Bethlehem. As we meditate on these headlines, God will help us find Peace in His Providential Plan.

Providence is the fancy theological word we use to describe God’s continuous care of his creation and his creatures – and his special care for believers like us. It’s the Bible’s teaching and our confession that God is still actively working in and preserving his creation. The first thing we need to understand about God’s providence is that sometimes God permits his children to hurt. In our text, God allowed his only Son, Jesus to hurt. Here is the baby whom prophets had foretold for thousands of years, whose birth was proclaimed by hosts of angels, who had been worshipped by shepherds and mysterious wise me. This was the King of kings and Lord of lords and yet he had to flee to a foreign country to escape the murderous wrath of a petty tyrant – it certainly doesn’t seem right, it doesn’t seem fair that God’s own Son would have to face such hardship and suffering. But no matter how it seems to us, God in his wisdom allowed his own Son to hurt.

And what was true for God’s only begotten Son is also true for the rest of his children. The Bible declares over and over that those who follow Christ should expect to suffer like he did (1 Peter 4:12). Consider Mary and Joseph. Don’t you think the parents of Jesus might have expected better? After all, the angel said their son was God’s Son (Matthew 1:23). If the Son of God was living in your home, wouldn’t you imagine that your life would be pretty smooth and worry free? Wouldn’t you think you had the ultimate insurance policy against pain and suffering? But the reality was just the opposite – Jesus brought nothing but trouble to Mary and Joseph. First, they had to have that uncomfortable conversation about how Mary was pregnant and it wasn’t Joseph’s. Second, they had to travel to Bethlehem for a census with a very pregnant Mary. And finally they had to flee in the middle of the night to keep Jesus safe. And the suffering didn’t stop there. Enraged that he been outwitted by God and the wise men, Herod ordered the senseless slaughter of Bethlehem’s baby boys. These were children of God, they had been received into his family through circumcision, and yet they were murdered for no reason other than that they were about Jesus’ age.

We immediately ask, “Why?” Why did God’s Son have to suffer like this? Why should any of God’s sons and daughters have to suffer? In Jesus’ case, the Bible’s answer is straightforward. Jesus suffered like this for us. This was part of his humiliation for us. When Isaiah writes that the Savior would be a man who knew grief, who was well acquainted with suffering (Isaiah 53:3) – this is one of the ways he became familiar with suffering. Hebrews says that he had to become like his brothers in every way including experiencing pain and sorrow (Hebrews 2:17). Jesus had to humiliate himself, to undergo pain and suffering as a helpless infant, a despised teacher, and as a crucified criminal to save us from our sins. Why did God’s Son have to hurt like this? That answer is as simple as it is sobering: it part of the price he had to pay to free us from sin, death and the devil. It was part of the cost of our redemption. It was for our eternal good.

We can grasp that, right? At least in theory. But it’s one thing to understand and believe that Jesus endured pain and suffering for our good – it’s another thing to trust that God permits us to suffer for the very same reason: for our good. How can we be sure of that? How can the pain, disappointment, the physical and psychological and emotional hurt we endure in this life – how can it be for our good, how can it give us any peace? There is one detail in our text that gives us peace even in the midst of pain, hardship, and sorrow. Did you notice that Matthew quoted the OT in both stories – the flight to Egypt and the slaughter of infants? Matthew quotes from Hosea (11:1) and Jeremiah (31:15) and says that these prophecies were fulfilled by what happened to Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and these innocent baby boys. In other words, God knew that these things would happen long before they did.

What? He knew ahead of time and did nothing to stop it? Where’s the comfort in that? The comfort lies in knowing that in this world nothing happens by chance or by accident. Everything happens according to God’s plan. There are few places in the Bible that demonstrate God’s complete control as right here, in Matthew 2. Satan was working hard through Herod to root out and destroy the Savior and our hope of salvation, but God was working behind the scenes to frustrate him at every turn. Jesus was indeed destined to die, but on a cross, not as a toddler in Bethlehem – and God used both natural and supernatural means to guarantee his safety. Remember that the next time pain, sorrow, or hardship come into your life – it’s all part of God’s plan for you. God uses suffering to humble us, to draw us closer, to purify our faith and for many other reasons – but it’s all for our good. It may not feel good, you may not be able to see how it could possibly turn out for good, but when you hurt, when you suffer, when you are in pain – you can still have peace, because you know that God is in control and in his eternal wisdom, he permits his children to suffer.

And yet, even though God allows his children to hurt, he also protects them from any true, eternally permanent harm. Yes, it was terrifying and humiliating for Jesus and his parents to have to flee to Egypt. There could have been nothing easy or pleasant about having to pick up in the middle of the night and run for their lives. But through the angel’s warning and this midnight flight to Egypt, God protected his Son so that he could grow up and die on a cross. And now you’re thinking – “yeah, but what about all those innocent babies whose lives were snuffed out by Herod’s soldiers? Clearly God didn’t care enough to keep them safe.” And it’s true, if we look at this story through the lens of reason or emotion all we see is senseless, meaningless suffering. But when we look at this story through our God-given eyes of faith, we can see that even this tragedy was part of God’s plan. The prophet Isaiah teaches us that God’s mercy is really behind the seemingly premature death of even young believers: the righteous one perishes, but no one takes it to heart. Men of mercy are being taken away, but no one understands that the righteous one is being spared from evil. He will enter into peace. They will rest on their beds. (Isaiah 57:1-2) These baby boys, who were the first martyrs to die for Jesus’ name, were also the first to realize the fulfillment of their Savior’s promise: be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. (Revelation 2:10) Yes, Herod had ended these infant’s lives on this earth prematurely, but he couldn’t rob them of the eternal life God had freely given them. In life and in death, God protects his children from true, eternal harm.

Remember that as we march into this New Year. Because if we know anything about 2020, it’s that this world will continue to be a dangerous and deadly place. And even though we are believers, we will not be immune from pain and harm and danger. Freak accidents will strike, awful crimes will happen, natural disasters will destroy property and lives, wars and epidemics and disease will lead to terror and panic. And yet, through it all, we can live in peace, because we know that God will always protect his people from real, eternal harm. Every day and every night you can carry this promise with you: The LORD will watch to keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life. (Psalm 121:7)

How will he do this? Maybe he will keep harm away from you. Maybe the multi-car pile-up will take place a split second after you clear the intersection. Maybe this will be the year that you don’t get the flu. Maybe He will send one of his angels – or a fellow member – to take your hand as you navigate a treacherous, icy parking lot. Or maybe the LORD will keep you from harm by turning evil into good. Fleeing in the dark of night must have seemed evil to Mary and Joseph, but in the end it resulted in Jesus going to the cross to pay for theirs and the world’s sins – there has never been a greater reversal of evil to good in human history. So you might get in a car accident or experience a life-threatening sickness or lose a job or have your identity stolen in 2020. God can turn these evils into good by using them to humble you, to lead you to repentance, to strengthen your faith, to deepen your trust in his promises, to assure you that all things work together for the good of those who love God. (Romans 8:28) Yes, even if the very worst evil that sin brought into this world happens – even if you or someone you love dies, you can have peace, because not even death can harm those who are children of God by faith in Christ, for Christ has removed the sting of death by his death and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:56-57).

After Herod died, God again sent an angel to Joseph who told him: get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to kill the child are dead. And again Joseph obeyed God’s command, leaving Egypt to make the long journey back to Israel. However, guided by a dream he passed by Bethlehem and settled in Nazareth. Again, this was not by accident, this was all according to God’s plan and under his providence. Matthew tells us that this was the fulfillment of prophecy: He will be called a Nazarene. In the end, this entire story happened just as God had mapped it out. From a midnight flight to Egypt, to the slaughter of innocent infants, to Mary and Joseph’s return to Nazareth – God was behind the scenes directing everything so that his Son would live in the home he had prepared for him.

And the same is true for us. God has a home prepared for us too. In fact, that’s why he allowed all these events to happen. Jesus had to be born in a lowly manger, he had to suffer as an infant and be crucified as an adult because we have sinned and forfeited any chance at heaven. Because we have failed to trust in God’s wise providence, because we have complained about his mysterious ways, because we have doubted and been discontent with the life God has given us – Jesus had to demonstrate perfect trust in his Father’s plan in even the most painful circumstances. Jesus came and suffered and died to open heaven to us once again and returned to paradise to prepare a place for us there. The night before he died, Jesus showed his disciples the key to finding peace in this world of pain and suffering: Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am. (John 14:1-3) Just as God prepared a home in Nazareth for his Son, he has prepared a place in heaven for you and me and all believers – and no amount of pain or suffering will foil God’s plan.

I have a prediction to make for the year 2020 and the new decade that has just begun: once again people will search high and low for peace but won’t find it because this world is filled with suffering, pain, tragedy, and sorrow. But we will have peace. We will find our peace in God’s providence because even though will never know precisely what direction God has planned for our lives, we do know this: we know that God’s plan is for our path to end in heaven – and that gives us peace no matter what we face in life. Amen.

Matthew 2:1-12 - What Does This Mean? - January 5, 2020

Out there in the world, Christmas is history. No more Christmas music on the radio; the trees are on the curb; the stockings are down; many stores already have their Valentine’s Day displays up. Baby Jesus is safely packed away until next Thanksgiving when he’ll be let out for another month or so. But in the Church it’s still Christmas. For Christians, the Christmas season doesn’t end until tomorrow – January 6th, the Epiphany of our Lord. But because I think I would have a really hard time convincing you to come to church on a Monday night in January, we are going to celebrate Epiphany – the Christmas of the Gentiles – today. We’re going to apply the classic Lutheran question to the account of these mysterious wise men, asking: what does this mean?

The first thing (that should be obvious – but often isn’t) is that we can’t answer the question “what does this mean?” based on what we don’t know. And there’s a lot we don’t know. We don’t know how many wise men there were. All we know is that there was more than one because the plural is used. Christian artists and hymn writers have generally settled on three because they presented three gifts – but we have no idea. Not only do we not know the number of wise men, we’re not even sure who they were. In OT times wise men (μάγοι) were experts in astrology, medicine, and dream interpretation. Daniel was a leader of such an order (Daniel 2:48). In later times, the word “wise men” was used of scientists in general. So we don’t know precisely who the wise men were nor do we know precisely where they were from. The text says they came from the east, but what does that mean? Some think they were from Arabia, others from Babylon, others still from Persia. Again, who knows? The Bible doesn’t say so it’s not worth the time it takes to speculate. So we don’t really know who the wise men were, how many of them there were, where they were from, or even what the star was that they followed. Some say it was a comet, others an exploding star, and still others a rare alignment of planets. All that we don’t know about the wise men is intriguing, it makes for interesting discussions and reading – not to mention many misleading songs and artwork – but in the end, none of it matters. It is a major and all-too-common mistake to focus on what the Bible doesn’t tell us. It can’t help us answer the question “what does this mean?” Instead, we should focus on what the Bible does tell us. So what does God tell us in Matthew 2?

The Bible tells us that wise men followed a star for roughly two years (Matthew 2:16) that led them from somewhere in the east to Jerusalem and then from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. What does this mean? It means that God leads his people by means of things that are often at odds with science and reason. The only thing that makes sense is that the star first led them to Jerusalem. Kings are found in capital cities, but the star apparently didn’t identify the precise location. So the wise men did the very unmanly thing and asked for directions. Which Herod’s advisors provided by quoting Micah 5:2, which they followed to Bethlehem. That’s amazing enough, but even more amazing is that the star reappeared, and went ahead of them, until it stood over the place where the child was.

These wise men were intelligent enough to know that stars don’t stop and go, they don’t go on ahead of you, and they certainly don’t stop and beam down like a spotlight on a single house. The movement of the star did not make scientific or astronomical sense, but they followed it any way. Neither was it wise to go to Jerusalem and ask the king where a potential rival to his throne was, but they did that too. What does this mean? Well, don’t we do the same thing? Don’t we cast aside what we think, what we know, what we feel, what science tells us and instead go where Scripture points us; following where God leads us? There are all sorts of issues where society and so-called experts point in one direction and yet, led by God, we go in the opposite direction. For example, gender identity, abortion, homosexuality, the roles of men and women, the discipline of children, the origins of the universe. No, he doesn’t put stars in the sky to lead us to Jesus today, but he does still show us where Jesus is. We call them the marks of the Church. Do you know what they are? The Gospel preached and taught in truth and purity and the Sacraments administered in line with Christ’s command.

These are foolish signs that many if not most people – even many who call themselves Christians – ignore. Many, supposedly wise people, today think that Jesus is to be found where the greatest number of people are gathered, where the gathering feels the most spiritual, where the pastor has published multiple books or at least has an active Twitter or YouTube account, where there are the most programs for youth, for singles, for elderly, for couples. To suggest that Jesus can be found in the simple preaching of forgiveness because he kept the law and died to pay for our sins is, to many, unimpressive and not worth their time. To find Jesus in the plain water of Baptism is weak. To find Jesus in the bread and wine of communion is not only weak but unreasonable. But these are the ways God has ordained to lead people to himself today. If only we would have the eagerness and tireless determination to see baby Jesus in these means, instead of making up excuses, like Herod and his advisors, to avoid him – then we would truly be wise men and women and children.

The wise men followed the star to Jesus. And what did they do when they got there? Our translation says they bowed down and worshipped him. The Greek isn’t nearly so elegant. The original has them falling on their faces before Jesus. Imagine that! Wise men from the east – probably pretty important men in their own right – are brought to their knees by a child, a toddler, who hadn’t yet cast out a single demon, preached a single sermon, healed anyone or raised anyone from the dead. They fell down and worshipped a child who may have had a stinky diaper, drool on his face and dirt under his fingernails. It had to appear extremely foolish for these fully grown men to be worshipping a child.

What does this mean? They worshiped Jesus not because he looked different than other children, not because a halo hung over his head, not because angels hovered over his house sweetly singing. They worshiped him because the Old Testament had predicted this child (Numbers 24:17; Micah 5:2), had promised that God would stoop down out of heaven, would become a man – all in order to save sinners from eternal damnation. It was the fulfillment of these inspired words that made them fall on their faces and worship – even when their eyes and their reason might have been saying “move along, there’s nothing to see here; it’s just a child.” The Word, not sight, not science, not reason makes wise men out of fools; believers out of unbelievers.

So it is with us today. We meet our Savior in the three holy means he has given us: Baptism, Absolution, and Communion. Though they look ordinary, plain and weak, though there appears to be no power in them at all, we treat them as the holiest things in the world – just because God says so in his Word. “Baptism is not just plain water,” the Catechism says, “it is water used by God’s command and connected with God’s Word.” That’s why we steadfastly confess that “Baptism works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare” (SC Baptism I, II).

The same is true of Absolution. It is holy and precious to us – even as it is mocked by and offensive to the world. It is the voice of God through the lips of a man. When your sins are forgiven here they are also forgiven in heaven (Matthew 18:18). And when your sins are sent away, you stand holy and righteous before God – whether you feel it or not. The Absolution is the pronouncement by the Judge of the universe that you are not guilty in his courtroom – the only courtroom that matters. Absolution is a holy work, a holy event, an awesome privilege and gift from God that should bring us to our knees in thanks and praise.

And what’s true of Baptism and Absolution is also tangibly and visibly evident in Holy Communion. Here is Jesus on earth for us. But, as with the wise men, he conceals, he hides his glory. We don’t see Jesus’ glory in Communion any more than the wise men saw it in that child, but it’s there. When we sing Glory, Glory, Glory and O Christ, Lamb of God we can’t hear the saints and angels in heaven echoing those songs of praise – but we know they are, because the Bible tells us (Revelation 4:8; 5:12-13). Just as the wise men saw nothing but a toddler, so we see nothing but bread and wine, but like them we fall down in worship because our faith is not based on what we see but what God said.

After the wise men had worshipped, they opened their treasures and offered him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What does this mean? The simplest interpretation is also the most profound. Gold was given to kings to acknowledge their rule and authority. Frankincense was offered to recognize the presence of God. And myrrh was used to embalm dead bodies. So by their gifts, the wise men confessed this child, Jesus, as their King, their God, and the Sacrifice for their sins. It doesn’t get more profound than that!

What does this mean for us? Is Jesus your King? Do you find relief and escape from the political madness in our country bringing your daily petitions to the King who ruled from a manger and bloody cross 2000 years ago and who rules today invisibly from heaven and visibly through Water, Words, Bread and Wine? Don’t we still bring him our gold? Do you realize how foolish that appears to the wise men of the world? What the rest of the world treasures as the most important thing, we freely give back to our King. By our offerings, faithfully and cheerfully given, we are giving the very public confession that He, not money, rules our lives.

The wise men confessed child Jesus as true God by their gift of incense. What does that mean for you and me? Is Jesus your God, above, besides, and beyond which there is no other? In our world today that’s quite a confession to make. It’s blasphemy to Jews and Muslims. It is considered hateful and intolerant in our pluralistic culture to insist that your religion is the only true religion because your God is the only true God. And yet it is our confession (John 14:6) – foolish though it may sound to the world. Jesus is our God even though he is rejected by every other religion in the world. We know of no God, we worship no God apart from the flesh and blood of Jesus.

Finally, what kind of a gift is myrrh for a child? It would be like giving your child a shiny little urn or a nice solid wood casket for Christmas. What does this mean? It means that above all else we must see Jesus, even the child Jesus – cradled in his mother’s arms – as the one who would bear our sins and the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). We don’t give him myrrh, but we do give him our sins by confessing them to him. We give them to him rather than try to justify them or make up for them. And when we believe that he has washed them away in Baptism, sent them away in the Absolution, carried them to the cross and paid for them with the very body and blood we are about to eat and drink – we are worshipping Jesus as Savior just as sincerely and truly as the wise men did at that house in Bethlehem.

And so, while the rest of the world has packed Christmas away until next December, our joy and our faith are burning as brightly as ever – because our faith and joy are not built on emotion or reason or speculation about what the Bible doesn’t say. They are firmly grounded on what the Bible does say – which we get to by asking that simple question: what does this mean? Epiphany means that once again we get to see the light of the Gospel reaching to the ends of the earth making wise men foolish and foolish men wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15). Amen.

John 1:1-14 - The Real Reason for the Season - December 25, 2019

I’m not going to pretend to be able to read minds, but…I’m pretty sure I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that with a theme like The Real Reason for the Season you already know what this sermon is going to be about. You’re thinking that we’re going to spend the first 10 minutes decrying the culture around us, the unbelieving world that thinks that this Christmas season is all about gifts and family and food while either intentionally or unintentionally ripping Christ right out of Christmas. And then we can spend the last 10 minutes kneeling as faithful believers at Jesus’ manger, pretending to be one of those shepherds, and invisibly patting ourselves on the back for coming to church on Christmas Day – because everyone knows that only the very best Christians come to church on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Well, as you can probably guess, that’s not the way this Christmas sermon is going to go. John does give us the real reason for this Christmas season, but it’s probably not what you think and it’s better than you would have ever imagined.

“Jesus is the reason for the season.” You’ve seen the bumper stickers, the coffee mugs, the t-shirts, the Facebook posts and hashtags proclaiming that message, haven’t you? It seems like a good message. One that would remind people that Christmas is not really about maintaining family traditions or giving gifts. There’s only one problem. It’s totally, completely, absolutely wrong. Jesus is not the reason for the season of Christmas. Think about it. Jesus didn’t need to come to earth, to take on flesh and blood for his sake. Jesus was not unhappy, not unfulfilled, not bored in the glory of heaven reigning at his Father’s side. John makes that clear when he writes in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. “In the beginning” is a reference to Genesis 1:1, the beginning of time, the beginning of human history. But before there was time, matter, or space; before there was an earth, a single man or woman or angel – there was God the Son, and things were just fine with him. John says in him was life. Jesus wasn’t just alive; he was life itself. He needed nothing. He wanted nothing. He had everything.

Of course, Genesis 3 records how shortly after creation the darkness of sin and death fell like a disease infested blanket over all creation. But don’t think for a moment that this darkness reached Jesus in heaven. No, the light went right on shining in the darkness. Darkness is no match for light. We experienced that truth for ourselves again last night. Did you notice how, even after all the lights were turned off as we heard the Christmas Story from Luke 2 and sang Silent Night, this room was still glowing brightly? Just a few dozen candles chased the darkness out of here. In the same way, Jesus, who is the Light of light, went right on shining in spite of the darkness of sin and death. So it was not necessary for Jesus to come here to take care of the darkness for his own sake. Darkness is powerless against him.

Jesus is not the reason for this season. What we celebrate last night and today are not for his sake at all. Jesus didn’t need Christmas. He didn’t need to be conceived in the womb of a virgin. He didn’t need to be born in a stable or laid in a manger. He didn’t need the praise of angels, the visits of shepherds or the gifts of wise men. He certainly didn’t need to be persecuted and mocked, beaten and crucified to save the world. As the second person of the Trinity he could have simply decided to scrap the whole mess and start over again. You know he gave that option to Moses in the wilderness. Several times the Lord told Moses to step back and he would wipe the Israelites off the face of the earth and start over with him (Exodus 32:10; Exodus 33:5; Numbers 14:11-12; Deuteronomy 9:13-14). If Moses had that option, then surely the Son of God did, too. God the Son didn’t have to have this season. Jesus isn’t the reason for this season at all.

The darkness was not a problem for Jesus, but it was and is for us. The darkness had overcome us. We were the people Isaiah referred to as walking in darkness (Isaiah 9:2). You know about walking in the darkness of sin and death, don’t you? How most of our time and energy are spent repairing the damage done by sin and concocting schemes to prevent it from doing further damage. We know how many broken hearts, broken homes, scars both visible and invisible sin has left in its destructive wake. And this darkness is more than just physical, it’s more than just out there. The darkness lives within, too. What can you do to stop yourself from being a 24/7 sin factory? What can you do to control your sinful words and actions, much less your sinful thoughts? We refer to some of our sins as our “pets” – as if we have them under control. When the reality is that our “pet” sins have us locked under their control. What can you do to stop death from grabbing your loved ones away from you? What diet or exercise plan or lifestyle change do you plan to implement to keep death from grabbing you? Add this all up and you finally reach the truth: we are the reason for the season.

Then why do so many think Jesus is the reason for the season? Because the world, in its blind arrogance, has convinced itself that we all but have sin and death all but licked. Medicine has made remarkable strides in recent years. It can replace organs. It can stop cancer…sometimes. It can make the blind see and the deaf hear. Even the slavery of habitual sin is often dealt with in terms of medicine. If you have a problem with anger or depression or addiction or violence or you can’t sleep because of your guilty conscience – no problem! There’s a pill for that. And death? Ha! Death is no match for gene editing and organ transplants and stem cell therapy. The message of our highly scientific and highly secular culture is that you don’t really need this season of light and life. We’ve got sin and death under control. If anyone needs it Jesus does. He might start to feel bad if we don’t take a few moments out of the year to remember just how cute he was when he was born in that stable 2000 years ago.

But the truth is that the world has it all wrong. It’s not just a matter of trying your hardest not to sin and trusting in medicine to keep you from dying. Because the truth is that the moment Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they died and as a result we, their children, are born dead (Ephesians 2:1). So what if medicine can keep us alive 70, 80 or more years? Death is still at work in us (2 Corinthians 4:12). Death still reigns as the heavyweight, undefeated champion of the world. And do you really think that any pill that treats symptoms like anxiety, depression, addiction, anger – can really treat the underlying, systemic disease of sin? Do you think that if you can just keep the resolutions you make this year that you could earn a ticket to heaven? Not a chance (Romans 3:20)!

Man’s best medicine is no match for sin and death, and neither are the petty and invented manmade “miracles” of Christmas. Do you think that throwing a few bucks at the person ringing the bell by those red canisters at the grocery store can really make poverty and hunger go extinct? (They’ve been ringing those bells since 1891 and haven’t been successful yet![1]) Do you think that gathering together as a family to eat together and exchange gifts can heal broken relationships or white wash the fact that some at your cheerful gathering are living in unrepented sin or unbelief – and thus have all but spit on baby Jesus? Do you think that a fat guy in the red suit can just “ho, ho, ho” death away?

“Yeah, but December 25th is Jesus’ birthday and he’s our Savior and Lord and so he really is the reason for the season.” First, we don’t actually know what year, much less what day Jesus was born on – so we can forget about that. Second, you know as well as I do that we have other national holidays to celebrate the birthdays of some of our nation’s most influential leaders. Turning Christmas into nothing more than a birthday party trivializes it, robbing it of its eternal and universal importance. Christmas is not about Jesus’ birthday, but about God’s incarnation. It’s about the fact that in a manger in Bethlehem God parachuted out of heaven like a Navy Seal to rescue us from the sins we could never pay for and the death we could not avoid.

Christmas is about Jesus. But Christmas is not for Jesus. Jesus didn’t need Christmas – but we certainly needed Jesus. He’s the only one who could stand fast against the darkness of death and the guilt of sin. Jesus was the only one sin couldn’t enslave, couldn’t put in its cage – just think about his victory over temptation in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11). Death buried its fangs in Jesus on Good Friday, but come Easter morning it was death that lay crumpled in a heap (Isaiah 25:8). Jesus didn’t come for his own benefit, he came to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3:8), John writes. And do you know what the devil’s work is? Our sin and our death! Jesus didn’t come on Christmas so that we could give each other gifts as a way of celebrating his birthday; he came to give us the priceless gifts of forgiveness and eternal life. Christmas is about nothing less than God breaking into human history in order to reverse the hell-ward spiral mankind was on.

That’s why I say that Jesus is not the reason for the season. I am. You are. Christmas is one of those golden summaries of the Gospel message because Christmas is for us! So we don’t dare celebrate this season like the people John describes in these verses: he came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Do you know what the Greek word for “his own” is? ἴδιοι – from which we get our English word idiot. We don’t dare celebrate Christmas like idiots – that is, thinking that we somehow have sin and death on the ropes and don’t really need a Savior. We don’t dare celebrate like Christmas doesn’t make any difference – that we must continue to live under the bondage of sin or the cloud of guilt that haunts us from the past. While we may certainly shed tears over the empty spot at the table this year – we don’t dare forget that the Christmas being celebrated by our faithful departed is the best they’ve ever had! Finally, we don’t dare give in to the Christmas blues of depression and despair this year – because whatever problems may still be plaguing us today, this truth remains unchanging and undiminished: the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us to destroy the power of sin and death over us once and for all!

THAT is why this is a day to celebrate, a day for singing and smiling and laughing and eating and drinking and yes, even gift-giving. God has fulfilled his promises! He has given us his Son to save us. He has changed everything. God has come to earth to win our fight against sin and death for us so that we might go to heaven to live in peace and glory forever. If that doesn’t call for an annual day of celebration, I don’t know what does.

You are the reason for the season. You are the reason the Word became flesh. Your salvation is the reason you should celebrate today. But you knew that, didn’t you? because that’s what the angels told the shepherds: I bring you good news of great joy…today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:10-11). This Christmas sermon was not what you were thinking, was it? But is it better than you imagined? I sure hope so. You are the real reason for this season – your forgiveness, your life, your salvation. It’s Christmas and Christmas is for you! So get out there and celebrate. Amen.

[1] https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/red-kettle-history/

Isaiah 7:14 - Christmas Is a Sign - December 22, 2019

Just three short days until Christmas. Is that good news or bad news for you? I’m sure for all the children here, they may be wishing it were tomorrow. But for the rest of us, maybe not. Maybe you’re even dreading Christmas this year. You haven’t had as much time as you’d like to buy the gifts and clean the house. You have projects at work that need completing and you can’t really afford to take time off. Maybe you’ve suffered some kind of loss this year and the last thing you want to do is try to gin up the “Christmas spirit.” If you’ve ever found Christmas to be more of dreaded inconvenience than a celebration, then you are in the same boat as the man who first heard these words from the prophet Isaiah. His name was Ahaz. He was the King of Judah. His kingdom was under siege by two allied armies and seemed likely to fall at any time. The Lord had come to him pleading with him to trust him for protection and even offering to give him a sign as proof (Isaiah 7:10-11). Ahaz, in unbelief – and, preferring to trust his own ingenuity – refused. The Lord ran out of patience and decided to give him a sign anyway. It’s the sign at the center of Christmas: a virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Christmas is much more than an annual event, it’s a perpetual sign, a sign to people like Ahaz in the 8th century BC; a sign to people like us in the 21st century. The question is: a sign of what?

A good, one-word summary of Christmas is Immanuel. Immanuel means “God with us.” Christmas means that God is with us. This means that Christmas is bigger than a holiday. It’s bigger than a reason to exchange gifts. Christmas is fundamentally theological. Christmas is the historical event that sets Christianity apart from any and every manmade religion. Every manmade religion is built on the same basic framework: man must struggle to climb a ladder up to God. The best plan mankind has ever come up with to redeem our race ultimately depends on us – whether we do enough, pray enough, give enough, meditate enough – to satisfy God and climb into his good graces. Christmas tosses all of that out the window. If your celebration of Christmas is sincere, you are making an open confession that you cannot climb up to God (repentance) – and that you don’t have to, because at Christmas God descends to be with us (faith). Long after the presents have been opened and the trees tossed to the curb and the echoes of carols have faded – this glorious Christmas truth remains: “God is with us.”

For Ahaz, however, this sign, the birth of Jesus, the coming of God to earth, was a sign of judgment. Because of his unbelief, within 100 years, Ahaz’ kingdom would be, for all practical purposes, annihilated. After being taken into exile in Babylon and released, Judah was never the same, never really free. And when Jesus was born, Judah – and all of Israel – was subject to the Roman Empire. Because Ahaz didn’t believe the words and promises of God, Christmas was a sign of judgment; a sign of worse things to come.

What was true of Ahaz is still true for those who reject God’s Word in 2019 – Christmas is nothing less than a sign of judgment, a sign of worse things to come. How can that be? How can Christmas be bad news? Because Christmas is proof that God keeps his Word; a perennial reminder that God is with us. He’s with us whether we want him to be or not. In the book of Jeremiah the Lord asks Am I only a God nearby...and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? (Jeremiah 23:23-24) Christmas means that even if we were to blast ourselves into the expanse of space or sink into the depths of the sea – we cannot escape God’s presence. We can’t even hope to hide from God in the deep, dark corners of our minds, for the Lord says through the same prophet: I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind (Jeremiah 17:10). Yes, Christmas, God with us, is a sign, for many a terrible sign – since it means that God is so close that he can judge not only our words and actions but the very thoughts of our hearts. For many, that’s not good news. You’ve noticed that dread of Christmas in our culture, haven’t you? What is the cultural movement away from wishing people a “Merry Christmas” and toward “Happy Holidays” other than a futile attempt to suppress the truth that God is with us? Where it’s fine if you keep the season light and cheerful – all about reindeer and sugar cookies, but don’t you dare bring God into it. And yet in spite of the secular world’s best attempts, Christmas still stands as an annual sign, a sign of judgment; that God keeps his Word and for all who reject it, the worst is yet to come.

But, thank God, it’s much more than that, as the children will proclaim in moments. We celebrate Christmas, instead of hiding from it, because this sign: that the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel is above all a sign of divine love. Here is God’s love in tangible, physical, non-threatening form, in a baby lying in a manger. It means that God didn’t come to stalk us, shaking his finger at us like an angry judge – he came to be one of us. It’s what you might call a divine defection – God crossed the battle lines to take our side, to wear our uniform of weakness and mortality. More than that, this little baby would grow up to be a man who would serve mankind, to preach forgiveness and teach the truths of God, to heal the sick and feed the hungry, and ultimately to suffer and die and rise to save us. This is the heart of the good news the angels proclaimed to shepherds in that field and these children will proclaim to us today – that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself…not counting men’s sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:19). Yes, Christmas means that God is here; he’s here for us, for us and our salvation! Christmas means there’s no reason to fear! Christmas is the ultimate gift, the ultimate sign of God’s love. God in a manger means that God’s love is so unconditional that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:12). God in a manger means that God’s love is so wide that no one in the world is exempt from his forgiving and saving love (John 3:16). God in a manger means that God’s love is so deep that he suffered hell for us so that we might go to heaven. Yes, for all who believe this good news, Christmas is a wonderful sign, an enduring sign of God’s divine love for us.

Now it may still be true that Christmas is going to be an inconvenience for you this year. Perhaps it’s the timing. Perhaps it’s the pressure to be cheerful. Perhaps it’s the stress and strain it puts on your mind and body and budget. But the good news is that even though God knew the kind of mess we have made of our lives and his creation, he sent his Son to be born into it anyway. Christmas means that God doesn’t expect you to climb up to him or clean yourself up to be accepted by him – it means that God has come to you just as you are. Don’t be afraid of Christmas! Yes, Christmas means that God is near enough to judge you. But that’s not why he came; he’s here to save you. That’s why, convenient or not, Christmas is always a day to celebrate. Amen.

Matthew 11:2-11 - Advent Questions - December 15, 2019

Things really changed quickly and drastically for John from last week, didn’t they? It’s like two totally different lives. Last week he was the talk of the town, with crowds flocking into the wilderness to hear his preaching of repentance and receive his baptism of forgiveness (Matthew 3:1-12). This week John is in prison. Why? Because he had the guts to tell King Herod that he was sinning by taking his brother’s wife as his own (Matthew 14:3). Then again, we know just how quickly things can change. I would argue that just stepping through those doors makes for a pretty big change. Out there, these days are all about parties and gifts and good cheer. But in here, we are continuing our season of repentance, preparing not our homes or budgets but our hearts for Christmas. The Lord prepares our hearts today by answering three questions to remove any doubts about who Christ is and what he is coming to do.

Our first question is quite seasonal, since Advent means coming: Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? Why would John have asked this question? The one to come was an Old Testament title for the Messiah, the Christ (Psalm 118:26). John had already pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God (John 1:29). But as we noted last week, from John’s perspective, he was supposed to come as a fierce and vengeful Judge. He was supposed to strike at the root of every impenitent tree and sweep the chaff of unbelief into the unquenchable fire of hell. But he didn’t. While John is locked up in prison Jesus is freely roaming through Israel doing unthinkable things: eating and drinking with sinners and giving them forgiveness. He’s calling people to repentance, sure, but he’s not carrying an ax around, he’s not cutting down any trees, he’s not confronting immoral kings, he’s not trying to get John released. What gives, John (or his disciples) wonder? Is Jesus the Coming One, or should they be looking for another?

Do we ever wonder the same thing? We believe that God will not be mocked, yet he is (Galatians 6:7). We believe that the wicked will be punished and the righteous rewarded (Psalm 73), but the wicked seem to thrive in their wickedness and believers seem to suffer. We believe that Jesus rules the world for the good of his Church (Ephesians 1:22). But maybe we got it wrong. Islam seems more of a force in the world today than Christianity. No one dares to mock or antagonize Muslims. But Christians? Christians are mocked on every front. We who believe that God’s Word is truth (John 17:17) are labeled as bigoted and intolerant and accused of having a phobia to every lifestyle or religion God calls sinful. We believe that Jesus is always with us, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20) and yet so often we feel alone and abandoned, that no one is hearing our prayers or cares about our struggles. Have we made a huge mistake? Should we be looking for some other religion? Some other Savior?

What’s the answer? The answer is the same today as it was then. Go back and report to John what you hear and see. What had John’s disciples seen and heard? Well, they had seen Jesus, fulfilling one OT prophecy after another: healing the blind, the lame, the leper, and the deaf (Isaiah 35:5-6). They saw Jesus raising the dead. And they heard him preaching to the Gospel of forgiveness to those who were stuck in the bankruptcy of sin. Because Jesus is fulfilling Scripture, John should be convinced that he is the One.

What do you see and hear today? How many blind, lame, lepers or deaf have you seen healed? How about dead men raised? That’s the hang-up, isn’t it? John was in danger of falling away from Jesus because he didn’t bring the judgment John thought he should bring when John thought he should bring it. Today, many risk falling away from Jesus because Jesus doesn’t seem to intervene in the world and our lives in the physical, tangible ways we’d like him to. But we do have one very important thing in common with John – one unchanging truth to hang our faith on: we both hear Jesus preaching the Gospel of free forgiveness to sinners who cannot afford it.

But we have even more than that. We have much more than John. We have 2000 years of history. 2000 years of millions of serious and sober-minded people taking what Scripture records as real, reliable, historical fact. We have Jesus’ death and resurrection, never disproven, witnessed by hundreds. We have baptism, a personal sign from God that you have been adopted into his family and made a citizen of his Kingdom. We have absolution, the proclamation that the King himself has covered our debt of sin with his blood so that we are free to live in peace. And today we have the clearest sign of Jesus’ enduring presence and blessing: his own body and blood. As Jesus told John: blessed is the [one] who does not fall away on account of the humble and unassuming ways that Jesus reigns in this world. Jesus is the one who is to come. He’s come for you. Only don’t look for him to be writing or enforcing laws or ruling from a White House. Instead, look for him where he promises to be: conceived in a virgin, lying in a manger, hanging on a cross, present in water and Word, bread and wine.

Question #2: What did you go out into the desert to see? Jesus asked the crowd as John’s disciples were leaving. They hadn’t gone out to the desert to see a reed swayed by the wind – a spineless, pandering preacher whose message changes right along with the winds of culture. They went out to see a prophet who preached an unchanging message, who called everyone – even kings – to repentance and offered baptism for forgiveness. They hadn’t gone out into the desert to see a man dressed in fine clothes – that is, a trendy, hipster type of man who lived a life of luxury, like those in kings’ palaces. No, they went out to see a man whose appearance and lifestyle proclaimed the unspoken message that there are more important things than earthly comfort.

Why did you come to this desert? Yes, we have a brightly lit tree here, but our main focus remains on what Adam started at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and what Jesus did to fix it on the tree of the cross. We don’t sing about how white snow or a red-nosed reindeer or a little bit of good cheer can make everything in the world right. We sing about how our only hope for peace is for God to send his Son to die for us. We have wonderful snacks provided by the ladies, but the main meal here consists of nothing more than bread and wine. We don’t have egg-nog or apple cider here, only plain water that is poured over sinners’ heads in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Why have you come to this place that seems so out of line and out of touch with the world all year long – but particularly this time of year? Why have you come to this place that doesn’t find any lasting value in the sappy, greedy, gluttonous “Christmas spirit” that the world so cherishes?

Let’s be honest: there’s better food, better drink, jollier music and more good cheer out there than in here. So, what have you come here to see? They went by the thousands and thousands into the wilderness to see a prophet, but Jesus says, he was more than a prophet. He was the one sent to prepare the way for the Lord (Malachi 3:1). That’s what they went out into the desert to see. What about you? People come to this place not by the thousands, but by the dozens. Not to find a fortune teller but a truth teller. Not a “vision-caster” but a preacher of Gods’ Word. You come here to be served by one who has been sent and called by God for a few very specific purposes: to preach, teach, baptize, and commune. You didn’t come here to have your body healed, but your soul; not to be made rich in this life but to be made filthy rich with eternal life; not so that you can be successful in this world, but so that you may prosper in the world that will never end. Like John, I’m not the one who was to come, but I will do everything in my power to point you to him. And finally, that’s why you’re in this desert place. Jesus is here. You’re drawn to this place to worship not before a Christmas tree but before a cruel cross because of the one who died on that cross for you. Because his pain speaks to your pain; his suffering speaks to your suffering; his sorrow speaks to your sorrow; his death gives you life.

One more question. One that will clarify the other two. This one isn’t explicit but implicit. Jesus says he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than [John the Baptist]. Who is the least in the kingdom of heaven? Is it you? Me? Children? Shut-ins? Who is it? Maybe you want it to be you. Maybe the attacks of the devil and the world might lead you to think it is you. But it’s not. I don’t care how miserable your life is – the least in the kingdom of heaven isn’t you. It isn’t me. It wasn’t John. Jesus says this about John: among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.

The least in the kingdom, any kingdom, is the one who has to do everything for everyone else, right? Just think of the sins you committed in the past week. The sins of commission and omission. The bad things you did and the good things you failed to do. However many you can think of, the reality is far worse. The reality is that you and I are not even aware of a fraction of the sins we commit day in and day out (Psalm 19:12). And in order for you and me and any other sinner to go to heaven, all that we failed to do, didn’t want to do, couldn’t do, had to be done. God’s holy standard for us had to be met and our sins had to be paid for. Who was going to do it?

Who is the least in the kingdom of heaven? It’s got to be the one who did everything right (Luke 23:41) and yet gets the blame and punishment for doing everything wrong. That isn’t you or me or John. That was Jesus. Paul tells us that God made him to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). God held Jesus accountable our sins of unbelief, greed, gossip, lust, complaining, doubt and despair. When God saw his only Son so completely covered with the sins that disgust him, all his wrath was poured out in that moment on the man on that cross on the hill outside of Jerusalem. And Jesus, by pouring out the very last drops of his blood, sweat, and tears did what we could never do: he put out the flames of God’s wrath so that now there is peace on earth between God and man (Luke 2:14).

That’s why you’ve come to this desert today. You’ve come because you know what it’s like to waver in faith, to doubt God’s love and presence, to be locked up in a prison of guilt and shame, to lack any joy in life. But don’t doubt this, Jesus is the One who was to come – and he’s come for you. That’s why you’ve come to this place that continues to talk bluntly about sin and grace – even though it’s probably politically incorrect to do so this close to Christmas; it’s why you bring your children here to sit at Jesus’ feet instead of plopping them in the lap of a fat man in a red suit. Because while you may have doubts out there, here those doubts are dispelled. Here you are reminded that Jesus’ perfect life flowed through the water of Baptism to cover you in his righteousness. Here is where you listen to the word of his forgiveness which sends your sins into the depths of the sea, never to be seen again (Micah 7:19). Here is where the body and blood he offered up as the perfect payment for sin 2000 years ago is distributed to assure you of your forgiveness. Here is where God the Son humbles himself to serve you as the least in the kingdom so that miserable sinners like you and I might become the greatest in the kingdom. That’s why you’re here. You’re here because the Holy Spirit has led you to recognize that the source of true peace and lasting joy isn’t wrapped in paper under a tree but in cloths and lying in a manger.

There are two seasons going on right now. There’s the season of reindeer and lights and gifts out there. And there’s the season of repentance and faith and preparation in here. By all means, celebrate both. But never forget that only one can dispel your doubts, only one can bring you peace and joy and certainty that will last beyond December 25th and into eternity. Amen.

Matthew 3:1-12 - 'Tis the Season for Repentance - December 8, 2019

“’Tis the season.” The question is: the season for what? The season for shopping? Baking? Parties? Working overtime? Expanding waistlines and shrinking bank accounts? Maybe out there. But not in here. Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending (CW 29), isn’t about shopping, it’s about Jesus’ second coming. The other Scripture lessons this morning didn’t speak about a Holly, Jolly Christmas but about the call to repent in light of judgment. Even Christmas itself, the fact that it was necessary for God to send his only Son into the gloomy darkness of this world to save it from itself, doesn’t exactly lead you to think about Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, or a fat man in a red suit. Unlike Advent out there in the world, Advent in the Church is a season for repentance.

You know it’s Advent when John the Baptist shows up. He’s going to be our Advent preacher for the next two Sundays. But I need to warn you…you may not like him. The good, church-going, religious people of his day didn’t. He called them a brood of vipers, so I guess you can hardly blame them. And that wasn’t all. His appearance was odd – with the camel’s hair tuxedo, locust guts on his breath, and honey running down his beard. If he walked into church this morning, you might mistake him for a homeless man. In a sense, he was homeless. He was a man of the wilderness. John grew up in the wilderness, likely raised as an orphan after his elderly parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, died. There’s speculation that John was raised by a group called the Essenes, who were preparing for the coming of the Lord in the wilderness. Why? Well, they understood Isaiah 40:3 to be telling them to go into the desert to prepare the way for the Lord. So they did. And so did John. Luke tells us that he lived in the desert until he began his public ministry in the desert (Luke 1:80).

The question is: what, if anything, is behind John’s strange appearance and strange location and strange message? I suppose people today might ask the same question about a guy who wears a weird black dress and preaches behind a piece of furniture called a “pulpit” and claims that his words are actually God’s. But the point of all the oddness surrounding God’s spokesman then is the same as now. It’s not about the man. As Isaiah predicted he was nothing more than a voice in the desert. John’s appearance made it clear that it wasn’t about him, it was about his message and the one to come after him. He was the warm-up act, not the main event.

What about his preaching location – in the desert? Well, the Desert of Judea, a barren wilderness on the eastern side of the Jordan River, was rich in biblical history. It was the place where God had carried Elijah to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:1-18). It was the place where Israel had crossed the parted waters of the Jordan from the wilderness to enter the Promised Land (Joshua 3-4). And now John was calling Israel back to the waters of the Jordan, back into the wilderness. He was calling them back to their roots, back to the basics, away from the man-made rules and institutions that had gotten between them and God, back to where it was abundantly clear that what stood between them and God was their sinfulness and all that stood between them and death was God’s grace.

In that sense, John was a throwback. A refreshing change from the worldly, pandering, superficial religion practiced by the Pharisees and Sadducees. He did not pander. He preached Law and Gospel. He called people to repent of their sins and be baptized for forgiveness. That was his message. That is how he prepared the way for the Lord. And…that is the only way that hearts twisted by sin and corrupted by unbelief are ever made straight to receive the Lord. He came preaching and baptizing. Sound familiar? It should. That’s what the Church should still be doing today. The Christian church today is to be the NT version of John the Baptist – calling the world to repentance, urging the world to be baptized for forgiveness in order to escape the coming wrath.

What do you think John would say to us if he were here today? He would certainly approve of the baptizing we do here. John was all about baptizing. He is called “John the Baptist” after all. And he would certainly applaud our public confession and absolution. But, at the same time, John wasn’t naïve. The Lord had blessed him with the gift of seeing right through a person to their heart – as he did with the Sadducees and Pharisees. What would he see if he were looking at your heart when we were confessing our sins earlier? Would he have noticed that your mind was wandering to other things? Would he see that you didn’t really mean what you said – that you just said it because that’s what we always say? What if he followed you around this week, would he notice you committing the same sins you just confessed? Would he give us the same look he gave the Pharisees and Sadducees, who hid behind their heritage and say, “You bunch of Lutheran snakes! Talk is cheap. Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Show me some fruit. And don’t try to hide behind Martin Luther or brag about how pure your doctrine is or how much good you do or how nice your potlucks and soup suppers are. God doesn’t need you or anything you can offer any more than he needed the Israelites. He can raise up all the children he wants from a pile of stones.”

I warned you, didn’t I? You that you might not like John. John makes it clear that genuine repentance produces fruit; if it doesn’t it’s not repentance and it doesn’t matter what you said. We get this, right? We know that the child who says “I’m sorry” for splashing the bathwater on the floor three times, isn’t really penitent when they do it a fourth time. We know that that neighbor who blows their leaves and throws their snow onto our property isn’t really sorry when they do it 6 years in a row. On a more serious note, we know that the couple that’s living together outside of marriage aren’t really repentant when they don’t do anything to change the sinful situation; that people aren’t really repentant when they neglect Word and Sacrament for weeks or months; when the 8th commandment tells us to take others’ words and actions in the kindest possible way – and yet we repeatedly hurl criticism and blame at our fellow believers. Repentance produces fruit; if it doesn’t, it’s not repentance. And without the fruit of repentance, we deserve the fate of that fruitless fruit tree: to be cut down and thrown into the fire. We get that too, don’t we? Wouldn’t you do the very same with a tree you planted and watered and yet it refused to produce fruit. You would feel justified in cutting it down and throwing it away. That’s judgment and judgment is all that Christmas brings to all who pretend to repent and yet bear no fruit. Christmas might be the night when churches are fullest, but to all who think that appearing in God’s house once or twice a year will save them – John would ask the same question he asked the Pharisees and Sadducees: who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. In other words, those who don’t recognize their sin with repentance cannot recognize their Savior in faith.

That was John’s message. John preached the Law. John preached the wrath and judgment of God. He even viewed Jesus through the lens of the Law. Like many of the Old Testament prophets, John was looking beyond Christmas to Judgment. He saw the Messiah as the Judge who has his ax in hand and ready to strike. He’s coming to chop down the unfruitful trees and throw them into the fire. You can understand John’s confusion, then, when Jesus actually arrived on the scene; how he wasn’t preaching in the desert – preaching fire and brimstone, but among the people – preaching grace and forgiveness even to known sinners. “Where is your winnowing fork? Where is the ax chopping at the root? Where is the fire and wind to separate the wheat from the chaff, believer from unbeliever?”

Those will come. Judgment is coming, but there was something that Jesus needed to do first. And this is the good news. First Jesus had to undergo the judgment, by dying and rising. That’s the part John did not see and could not see. John could see justice and judgment, but he couldn’t see how God would bring about his merciful and gracious redemption. John could not see God’s grand plan of salvation played out in Jesus’ life because no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9).  

So John wasn’t wrong, he just didn’t have the full picture. Before Jesus would come in judgment he had to do his work of redemption. He had to be baptized as a sinner, a sinner who had never sinned. He had to take the place of sinners – take my place and yours – to become our sin, to shoulder and take away the sin of the world. He had to be cut down as an unfruitful tree. The fire of God’s wrath had to burn against him so that he might pour out the life-giving fire of the Spirit on the world. He had to become our curse, be hung on a cursed tree and hurled into the cursed depths of hell to remove the curse of sin from us.  

Preaching Law and Gospel: this is the way that God has always chosen to work, to convert sinners, to build his Church. It might not be the method taught by church growth experts or seem to appeal to the masses – especially when everyone is pandering to you in these days before Christmas, but it’s the way the almighty God has chosen to prepare a human race lost in sin to receive his Son. John prepares the way for Jesus. The Law always prepares the way for the Gospel. The commandments lead us in repentance to Jesus for forgiveness. And where Jesus is, the Law is silenced. Jesus is the end of the law for all who believe (Romans 10:4). Where the Law screams “do” and “don’t do,” the Gospel proclaims the glorious truth that in Jesus it is finished (John 19:30).

So follow John, this voice in the wilderness. Don’t be offended by how he looks or what he eats or where he preaches. Listen to his message. Follow where his finger is pointing. Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). John is your Advent reminder that you need baby Jesus. You need him even more than you think you need him. You need him as much this year as you ever have. You need him as more than just a figure in your nativity scenes. You need him to save you. You need him to die and rise for you. You need him to be chopped down by the ax of God’s justice, you need him to be picked up like chaff and thrown into the fire of hell in your place. So, as strange as John might be, as strange as faithful preachers today may be, thank God for voices like John’s. They cut through all the secular and sentimental junk that fills these days before Christmas and go straight to the heart; to our sinful, rebellious, wayward hearts. They prepare our hearts for Christmas by calling us to repentance and pointing to Jesus as the only one who can save us from the coming wrath.

Yes, ‘tis the season. Not the season for shopping or baking or decorating but the season for repentance. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. And don’t let repentance simply become Sunday morning lip service. Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Let the Law knock down the high, prideful places in your heart and the Gospel raise you up from the valley of despair and then you will be ready. You will be ready to receive God’s gift of a Christmas Savior. More importantly, you will be ready to welcome the Judge when he returns. Advent is a season of preparation. Not the kind of preparation that takes place in the kitchen or at the mall – but right here, in the heart. Advent is a time for preaching repentance and producing the fruit of repentance. Amen.  

Luke 23:27-43 - A Portrait of Judgment Day - November 24, 2019

This is a strange reading for the last Sunday of the church year, isn’t it? Ordinarily we’d expect a vivid description of Judgement Day like the separation of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) or the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids (Matthew 25:1-13), or at least a vision of the King coming with the clouds in glory (Revelation 1:7). Instead we get Luke’s account of the crucifixion. So what’s the link between Good Friday and Judgment Day? What does Jesus’ crucifixion as a criminal have to do with his second coming as King? Everything! Good Friday, Jesus’ crucifixion is a shadow, a preview, a portrait of Judgment Day.

Jesus gives a grim introduction with his chilling response to the women who were weeping and wailing for him: daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” Jesus is looking roughly 40 years into the future, to 70 AD, when the Romans would besiege and destroy Jerusalem – a time when it would be better to never have had children than to watch them be starved or slaughtered.  

But that’s just the beginning of the end. For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? What do these words mean? Well, if God allowed men to put Jesus, an innocent man, a green tree to death, how much worse would it be when God unleashes his wrath on a guilty world on Judgment Day? As horrible as Good Friday and the destruction of Jerusalem were both will pale in comparison to horrors that will be unleashed on earth in the days leading up to Judgment.

And yet, in the midst of the chaos, there’s Jesus, an island of peace, praying: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. That’s Jesus’ prayer, not only for those who crucified him, mocked him, and gambled for his clothing – it’s his prayer for us. We may not have held the hammer or hurled our insults – but it was our sins nonetheless that drove those nails through his flesh and held him on that cross. We put Jesus to death and yet he prayed Father, forgive them.

And how does the world respond to Jesus’ unconditional love and forgiveness? Led by the chief priests (Mark 15:31), they sneer he saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One. They represent everyone and everything that calls itself “religion” and yet mocks Jesus to this day. If you’ve attended our study of world religions you’ve seen that while some speak of human sin and God’s love and heaven and hell, they unanimously reject salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. This includes certain segments of Christianity which accept Jesus as a good example or a gift-giving genie but reject him as the Savior of sinners. But the chief priests weren’t alone. Pilate offers his parting shot, mocking Jesus’ claim to kingship with a sign posted above his head. His soldiers pick up on that theme and provided mock service to him: They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” The church and state had conspired to murder God’s Son. Power and glory they might have respected, but they have no use for a crucified King. They always mock him, scorn him, run him out of his church and legislate him out of society.

And that’s so sad because it’s right here, right here on the cross where we get our clearest view of the kind of King Jesus is. Here we see that Jesus is the Christ of God, the Chosen One – the King of all kings – because here we see that Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). This is the last picture the world sees of Jesus: bloody, beaten, mocked, scorned, defeated, dying. Oh yes, five hundred would see him risen from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:6), but not the general public. His disciples would walk with him on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), would be startled by his sudden appearance on Easter evening (Luke 24:36), and eleven of them would watch him ascend into the clouds (Acts 1:1-11) – but not the world. All the unbelieving world sees, all the world can see is a broken, beaten, bleeding, miserable excuse for a human being. They see a criminal to be spit on, a madman to be pitied, a prophet who must be killed – but certainly not a King and Savior to be worshipped.  

Are you beginning to see how Good Friday is a portrait of Judgment Day? In Jesus, God’s fiery wrath has already come; in him, the world is already judged. The two thieves separated by Jesus are the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46), the wise and the foolish bridesmaids (Matthew 25:1-13), the saved and the damned (Mark 16:16). It’s ironic, isn’t it? James and John had fought for the right to sit at Jesus’ right and left when he came into his kingdom (Mark 10:35-45). But God gave these seats of honor to two guilty, convicted criminals.

Remember that last point as you consider Judgment Day: just as both criminals were guilty, so both groups on Judgment Day, both those on his right and his left, are guilty. It doesn’t matter who you are, how much good you’ve done, if you’ve never been caught, even if you’ve been a Christian your whole life – we all stand guilty as charged under the law, guilty of insurrection against our King, guilty of idolizing people and things – even ourselves – in place of God, guilty of willfully and intentionally violating God’s holy will. The Bible is unequivocal: There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:22-23). But that is where the similarities end.

For one thief, even as he hangs there dying, can’t help but join the crowds in heaping scorn on Jesus: aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us! Little did he know how ironic and prophetic his words were – for it was precisely by not saving himself, by not coming down from the cross, that Jesus saved the world from death in hell. But that’s not the kind of Savior he wanted. He wanted a Savior for this life, a Savior to bring him down from the cross and extend and enhance his earthly life. This man embodies the most insidious form of unbelief of all places and all times. All those who would challenge Jesus to save their health, their relationships, their career, their finances – all are as guilty of blasphemy as this unbelieving thief because Jesus didn’t die to save us for this life but from this life. Like this thief, all who reject the salvation their King died to bring will in turn be rejected by him.

The contrast with the other thief couldn’t be starker. Even though he’s no less guilty, he’s a Christian. More than that, he’s a Christian preacher. His sermon is the best you will hear this morning. He preaches the law, he preaches repentance from his cross: Don’t you fear God…since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. This sermon isn’t just for his fellow criminal – this sermon is for us. The wages of sin is death, Paul writes (Romans 6:23). Whenever you see a cross, remember that: This is what I deserve. I deserve to feel God’s blistering wrath on a cross for my sins. It’s no use hiding it or denying it…all we can do is confess it.  

And he preaches the Gospel. But this man has done nothing wrong. He confesses Christ to a hostile world. He is innocent. He is sinless. Then why is he there? Why is he hanging on a tree? That’s the mystery of the Gospel, isn’t it? Jesus is there because God made him who had no sin to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus is convicted for the sins we have committed. The lies. The hatred. The greed. The lust. The sins against our spouses, our children, our parents, our pastors and teachers, our elected leaders. Our sins of despising God’s Word, rejecting his will, of failing to confess Christ to friends and family and coworkers, of failing to fear, love and trust God above all things. All of those sins, every last crime of thought, word and deed are hung on him. This is Judgment Day. This is the judgment of humanity. On Calvary God judged the sins of the world in the death of his sinless Son. This man has done nothing wrong and yet this man dies as the One who has done everything wrong, rejected by the world, condemned, mocked, ridiculed, forsaken by God, and damned to hell. He gets what we deserve so that, in the end, we get what he deserves.

How can we respond to such unimaginable grace, such selfless, boundless love? The believing thief isn’t done preaching: Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. This is how faith prays. He doesn’t demand a sign. He doesn’t ask to be taken down from the cross, to be spared his suffering, to be granted a last minute pardon – much less to be made healthy, wealthy, and happy. He asks for nothing but to be remembered by Jesus. Faith sees through the present sufferings (Romans 8:18) of this life to glory that is to come. And when death comes, faith embraces it with the prayer Jesus, remember me.

Remember me. Familiar words, aren’t they? Do this in remembrance of me (Luke 22:19) Jesus said as he distributed his body and blood. Do this, eat this bread which is my body and drink this wine which is my blood, in remembrance of me he says to all Christians of all time. This remembrance works in two directions. Faith remembers him, what he did as our King to win forgiveness, life, and salvation for us. And he remembers us with his body and blood given and shed for our forgiveness. Now, you may argue, that the thief was neither baptized nor did he receive the Lord’s Supper. And that is true. Baptism had not yet been instituted. That comes after Jesus’ resurrection (Matthew 28:19). The Supper had been given only to the Apostles, not yet to the world. But this dying thief had the ultimate Sacrament, the ultimate Sacrifice – the Chosen One of God dying on the cross next to them. He saw the body given for him and the blood shed for him dripping down that ugly cross. And from Jesus’ own parched lips, the faithful criminal heard this Gospel promise: I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise. And just like that, the man found guilty by the world is declared innocent before God. Justified for Jesus’ sake. Though the Roman government had found him worthy of death, and rightly so, the Son of God declared him fit for life in paradise. Though his sins have earned him eternal death; Jesus has given him eternal life.

But Jesus didn’t say anything to the other man, and neither do we. Jesus prayed for those who crucified him and mocked him. He asked for forgiveness for a world of sinners. But he says nothing to the unbelieving thief. Why not? Wasn’t he included in Jesus’ prayer? Didn’t he pay for his sins, too? Didn’t he want him to be saved? Yes, of course. But he would not believe, he would not believe that Jesus was dying on that cross for his sins and therefore he would be damned for his unbelief. Just as Jesus refused to comfort this unbelieving criminal as he faced Judgment, so all who reject Jesus as their King, who scorn his coming in humility through Word and water, bread and wine – will be left without comfort on Judgment Day. Their own words and lives will condemn them: they rejected Jesus as King, their King will reject them eternally. They may cry and scream and plead for mercy, but all they will hear is awful, deafening silence.

But you have no reason to fear. You have been baptized into Christ’s death. You have heard his Word and received his body and blood. You have no reason to fear Judgment Day because for you, Judgment Day has already come and gone. You were judged on Good Friday. Your King was judged guilty so that you might be judged innocent. More than that, the King who will judge you one day comes to you today to serve you with the grace and forgiveness you need to stand before him innocent and guiltless. Hanging on a cross, bloody and beaten, Jesus may not look like a King, but he’s the King we need. To the King who died for us and who will return to judge the living and the dead, there is no higher praise than the prayer of faith: Jesus, remember me. And, thank God, his answer is always and ever the same: I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise. May we live and die with that saving promise of our King in our hearts and on our lips. Amen.

Luke 20:27-40 - Jesus Deals with a Question of Life after Death - November 17, 2019

Hypothetical questions. They’re the kind students love and teachers…don’t. They don’t deal with reality but theory; with impossible or highly unlikely scenarios. Usually they’re not looking for the answer the Bible gives but rather an answer from reason or emotion. Often, they don’t spring from curiosity or a desire to learn, but from a desire to trap, discredit or humiliate the teacher. That’s the picture you should have in mind as you imagine the scene in our text: a group of Sadducees gathered around Jesus with what they think is the perfect hypothetical question; a question that will trap and humiliate and discredit him. And yet, as far as traps go, this one backfired, because Jesus deals perfectly with this question of life after death.

First things first, who were the Sadducees? The Sadducees were the elites, the 1%, the super-rich and super-powerful of Jesus’ day. They controlled the temple and ran the Sanhedrin, the governing body of Israel (Acts 23:6). They were also “fundamentalists” of a sort, meaning that while they may have paid lip-service to the entire Old Testament, they really only considered the books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy, to be authoritative. That’s why they didn’t believe in an afterlife or the resurrection or angels and demons (Acts 23:8). They didn’t think there was anything in those books which supported those doctrines. Thus, they set out to destroy Jesus’ teaching about the resurrection and confirm that this life is all there is.

Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. So far so good. They were merely paraphrasing what was known as the “levirate law” from Deuteronomy 25:5-6. This law obligated a man to marry his brother’s widow if he had died and left no heirs. Today, that practice might strike us as a bit strange: that if your brother dies childless you must marry your sister-in-law. But in the Old Testament, there were at least three good reasons for this law. First, it would preserve the deceased man’s name and genealogy (no small matter when everyone knew that Savior, the seed of Abraham, was going to come through one of Israel’s families (Genesis 12:3)). Second, it would keep that man’s land and property in the family. And third, it would also be a way of caring for the widow, who, with no children and no social safety net, would be left alone and vulnerable.

But the Sadducees didn’t ask this question to hear Jesus’ opinion regarding marriage or the levirate law. They have much more sinister motives, they want to trap Jesus into either looking foolish or denying the reality of the resurrection: “What do you think, Jesus? There were seven brothers, each of whom was married to this woman, doing their obligatory duty for their brother, until they all died. And then she died. In the resurrection, whose wife will she be?” The scenario is absurd on its face. There’s no remotely similar scenario recorded in Scripture. And in sheer practical terms, while the second and maybe even the third brother might follow through, the rest would probably run for the hills because apparently marrying this woman was akin to a death wish. In any case, the Sadducees figured they had Jesus caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, if Jesus said that in the resurrection she would be married to one of the brothers, that would be unfair to the other six. On the other hand, if Jesus admitted that the “levirate law” didn’t consider the possibility of an afterlife, he would be agreeing with their position, that not only does Moses not teach a resurrection, but that this law assumes that this life is all there is.

It seems like Jesus is caught, but of course, he cuts right through the ridiculous and far-fetched hypothesis and takes aim at the hardhearted unbelief behind the question: the people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die. The Sadducees had a wrong understanding of marriage. Regardless of what the Mormon cult teaches, marriage is for this life; not the next. Marriage is only necessary in this life because of death. God blessed us with marriage here and now so that human life could go on in spite of sin and death. In this life marriage is essential. It is the context in which children are conceived and raised; the foundation of the home; the basic building block of the church and state. But where there is no sin, no death, no need for the individual estates of home, church and state – there is no need for marriage. In the resurrection they will neither marry nor be given in marriage.

Instead, they are like the angels. I want to be sure you heard that right. Jesus doesn’t say that we will become angels. So you can shake the images of floating around in the clouds and halos and wings and harps out of your head. He says we will be like the angels. Meaning that 1) we will not die; and 2) we will no longer marry. “Well, what if I kind of like my spouse? What if I’ve gotten used to be married and like having children? Does God intend to tear marriages and families apart in the resurrection?” While those questions may seem innocent, they actually come from a heart of unbelief, a heart that doubts God’s goodness and love. God wouldn’t do away with marriage without a good reason and Jesus gives us the reason: They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. In heaven we won’t miss marriage because we will all be members of one family, God’s family. In heaven all things will be made right, everything that disrupts and destroys our relationships in this life will be gone (Isaiah 65:17). More than that, even if death made it necessary for a hypothetical woman to marry seven hypothetical brothers – it wouldn’t matter. Because through faith they would enjoy perfect unity in God’s family where the only marriage that matters is the marriage of Christ and his Church (Ephesians 5:25-33).

To review, Jesus has debunked the false premise of the Sadducees, exposed their unbelief, and he has described what eternal life will actually be like. And now he pulls out his trump card. Not from thin air but from one of the books the Sadducees held as authoritative: the book of Exodus. In the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ What does that prove? Well, when the LORD spoke to Moses from the burning bush (Exodus 3), Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been dead for around 400 years. In spite of that, he doesn’t say I was their God. He says I AM (Exodus 3:6) their God. They are just as alive to him now as they were when they walked this earth.

So you see the very practical lesson Jesus is teaching us here, right? Whenever we have questions about life after death, about heaven and hell, where must we go for answers – where did even the Son of God go? To the Word of God. We must not turn to books written by people who claim to have seen heaven in a near-death experience. We can’t and shouldn’t trust the logic or theories of mere men, no matter how well-intentioned and reasonable they sound. Nor can we trust science because science can only describe things that are observable and no one alive has observed life after death.

But neither should we dismiss these questions as dumb or foolish, either. These questions about life and death and resurrection – they are much more than issues of theoretical, hypothetical interest, more than fodder for discussion, more than theological musings. These questions deal directly with the most important thing in the world: what will happen to us and our loved ones when we die? Certainly there are a lot of questions that remain concerning the resurrection. What will we look like? How old will we be? What kind of bodies will we have? Will we recognize each other? What will the new heaven and new earth be like?

The answer to those questions is that we don’t know. We will know one day soon, but not one day sooner. As Paul said now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12). But for now, we don’t know – and we don’t need to know the answers to those questions. They would only be a distraction from the things we should be focused on here and now. For now, we have sins to repent of and a Savior to believe in. We have work to do, children to raise, marriages to maintain, vocations to carry out, neighbors to love and the Gospel to proclaim. All we really need to know now is that Christ has died and risen, and in his dying and rising has conquered sin, death and the grave once and for all.

We don’t have time to debate silly theoretical questions about life after death, and neither did Jesus. Remember why Jesus was here in Jerusalem on this Tuesday of Holy Week. He wasn’t there to debate death, he was there to go to war with death. He understood even better than we do how evil death is. He hated death with every ounce of his being. He not only saw how it destroyed marriages and ripped apart families and leaves empty places at dinner tables and gaping holes in people’s hearts. Jesus saw death as the wages of sin (Romans 6:23) which threatens to separate us from God now and forever. He saw death as the ultimate enemy of everything God had created, everything good. Which is why he didn’t come to earth merely to debate hypothetical questions about death, he came to destroy it; he came to put death to death by his life, death and resurrection.

If the Sadducees had believed the Scriptures, had believed Jesus, they wouldn’t have been looking for a way to trap him and discredit him with silly, hypothetical questions about some made-up woman married to seven brothers. Instead, they would have asked how they might be considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead. Because in the end, that’s the really important question, isn’t it? Heaven and the resurrection of the dead are real, Jesus proved it both from Scripture and by his own resurrection. But how can we be sure that we will be part of it? Thankfully God doesn’t leave us guessing about this answer. He tells us that Jesus is the resurrection and the life…whoever lives and believes in him will never die (John 11:25-26). He tells us that through the water of Baptism we are inseparably united to Jesus’ death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4) and receive adoption into God’s eternal family (Galatians 3:26-27). He tells us that the Lord’s Supper is the medicine of immortality, the true fountain of life, because where there is no sin there can be no death (Matthew 26:26-28). He tells us that our loved ones who died in faith aren’t dead, but are feasting and rejoicing with their Lord in paradise (Revelation 7:14). Which all means that while we may not have every answer we would like, if we have Jesus we have the answer to death, for he has destroyed the one who holds the power of death, that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14).

There are many questions in life that we don’t have answers to. But Jesus doesn’t want us to wonder about life after death. He has forgiven the sins that haunt us and defeated the death that waits for us. Through his Word he gives us faith to believe that this world is not like the next – there will be no more need for marriage because there will be one, glorious, harmonious family of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God to [whom] all are alive. This answer that Jesus gives left the Sadducees speechless. But it can’t leave us speechless. No, it fills our hearts and our lips with that glorious refrain of faith: “Yes, it shall be so. Amen.”

Luke 19:11-27 - The Calm before Judgment - November 10, 2019

In Wisconsin, we know all about the calm before the storm, don’t we? During the summer months the calm consists of a strange stillness in the air, a strange tint in the sky, and dark clouds billowing on the horizon. It’s the calm before a thunderstorm. And it’s a time for action: put the deck furniture away, gather the outdoor toys, close the windows and keep an eye on weather alerts. In winter, it’s the ominous, hazy, cloudy, eerie, stillness before a snowstorm. And we know what to do: skip out of work early if you can, check for cancelations, stop by the grocery store for the essentials (like beer and wine), then get home, hunker down and stay warm. The calm before the storm is a time for activity, for preparation. In these last three weeks of the church year, our focus turns to the end of time, to the storm of judgment that is coming for the world. And in the text before us, Jesus urges us to be busy, to be active putting his money to work during this calm before judgment.

When the Holy Spirit records why Jesus tells a parable, that means it’s important and we should pay attention. Luke reports that he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. Many Israelites thought that when Jesus entered Jerusalem he was going to immediately establish his earthly kingdom, by expelling the Romans, restoring an independent Israel and creating a prosperous economy. (Not so different from those today who understand the coming of the kingdom to be visible prosperity, social justice or an end to poverty and war.) Certainly Jesus was going to Jerusalem to win his kingdom by his suffering and death, however, not in the sense they were thinking; it wasn’t going to be an earthly, visible kingdom – not yet. The great theme of this section is that Jesus’ kingdom won’t come until he has left and later returned. But this delay, this pause, this calm is not a time for laziness but for activity.

The first thing the nobleman does is call ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’ The nobleman is clearly Jesus. His “going to a distant country” is prophetic of his Ascension where he would receive all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). But prior to his departure he leaves his servants, the Church, his treasure. What is this treasure? I’ve heard and you’ve heard that the mina represents the time, talents, and treasures the Lord has given us. Thus the sermon should be about proper stewardship of these gifts. Well, this is a stewardship text, but not about your time, talent or treasure. How can we be sure? Because unlike the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25, all the servants receive the exact same amount. What does Jesus give to everyone in the church in the precise same amount? Not talents, not money, not possessions, not spiritual gifts. Right here in this room is a dizzying array of these gifts. What Jesus has left every one of his servants, every one of us, in equal amounts is nothing more and nothing less than the means of grace: the Gospel in Word and Sacrament.

This is the great treasure Jesus has given us to put to work. The waters of baptism that wash away sin and provide rebirth into God’s family. The Gospel that proclaims absolution, forgiveness for every last sin. Bread and wine that is his body and blood to nourish our faith. He wants us to baptize all nations (Matthew 28:19) and to daily remember our Baptism (Romans 6); to hear and preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:2); to forgive and be forgiven (Matthew 6:12); to eat and drink his body and blood often (1 Corinthians 11:25). This is the business of our Lord. This – so aptly illustrated here by font, altar and pulpit – is what his servants are to be busy doing.

But this treasure is nothing in the eyes of the unbelieving world. That’s what’s being illustrated by the mina. A mina was worth 100 days wages. At $15 an hour that would be roughly $12,000 today. It’s nothing to sneeze at, but it’s also not much for the King of kings to leave his servants. And the world is unimpressed. The world is impressed by the power of the almighty dollar, not by the cleansing power of water; by words that criticize and cut down not words that forgive sins; by a King who sheds the blood of his enemies, not a King who sheds his own blood to save his enemies (Romans 5:10).

And so, even as the Church is diligently putting these treasures to work, Christ’s enemies work against him. Jesus puts it this way: his subjects hated him. “Hate” is a strong word, but when Jesus tells parables he exposes what’s really in people’s hearts rather than what they show to others. Even though one day every knee shall bow before their King (Philippians 2:10), during the calm many reject his rule. There is no such thing as neutrality towards Jesus. How could there be? Jesus makes exclusive and eternal claims on people’s lives. He demands absolute fear, love and trust. For the most part in our culture, unbelievers usually put on a show of being polite towards Christ, but the awful truth is that anyone who rejects Jesus as King are also rejecting him as their Savior.

It’s fascinating how they do this: [they] sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’ What are they doing? They are appealing to what they believe is a higher authority; an authority, a god, above and beyond Jesus. The Jews did this very thing when they claimed to have no king but Caesar (John 19:15). The Bible says that, no one is above Jesus, that is King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Revelation 19:16). But unbelievers believe that there is a god over Jesus. He’s the god on our money, the god who supposedly has a special place in his heart for America. He’s the god that Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Buddhists can all pray to together in times of tragedy. He’s the “higher power” that virtually everyone acknowledges – but this god has no name, no identity, no moral standards, no revelation of himself, no power to condemn – and, most importantly, no power to save. This is the god of those who insist on calling the pine tree in the capitol rotunda a “holiday” tree and not a “Christmas” tree – because this is a god whom all religions, and no religion, are welcome to celebrate.

The obvious question is: why such hatred for Jesus? Because Jesus’ enemies believe that his rule is harsh and tyrannical. He is unloving because he doesn’t allow women to kill their babies or boys to mutilate their bodies to become girls. He is intolerant because he forbids individuals of the same sex to get married and adopt children. He is mean because he forbids rebellion against his representatives but instructs his representatives to discipline wrongdoers. He is unreasonable because he insists that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). All of this is unacceptable to Jesus’ enemies and so during this calm before Judgment Day they rage against his rule.

And so we shouldn’t be surprised when they do just that. Jesus tells us this parable so that we won’t be surprised when his enemies rage against his reign – or against his Church. But perhaps the most surprising thing he is telling us is that some of those who call themselves Christian, who are in the visible church, are really his enemies. This is the third servant. Actually, Jesus doesn’t actually call him the “third servant.” He calls him, literally, “the other one.” The Greek word is ἕτερος from which we get the word heterodox. You’re orthodox if you rightly teach and practice God’s Word. You’re heterodox if you don’t.

This heterodoxy can either corporate or private. Corporately, churches or even entire church bodies bury the means of grace under man-made laws and wisdom and rituals. Baptism is replaced by an altar call. The Word of God is replaced with the wisdom of a man (or woman). They deny that Jesus gave his servants the authority to forgive sins on earth (John 20:22-23). Holy Communion is nothing more than bread and wine. They have the treasure Jesus left them, but by false teaching and practice they effectively keep it wrapped up and hidden away. Individually, this is the person who belongs to a church, but who either has a distorted view of the means of grace – that they something we do for God, rather than his gift to us – or neglect the means of grace completely. Both fall under the category of the other, heterodox servant because they do not use Jesus treasure as he has commanded.

And just like Jesus enemies’, these heterodox people blame Jesus for their own failure. Just as the third servant in the parable justifies his laziness out of fear, so the heterodox claim that the reason they don’t use the means of grace is because they are afraid of Jesus. Is that true? I had some scary football coaches, but that fear didn’t lead me to disobey but rather to do what they said. The reality is that people who won’t use Baptism, Absolution, or Communion are so unafraid of Jesus, and his impending judgment, that they feel free to ignore his specific commands to do these things (Hebrews 10:24-25). In the end, the heterodox, hypocritical, lazy church or church member is no different from Jesus’ declared enemies. They think he’s a hard, harsh ruler. They hate him and rage against his rule – the only difference is that they do this secretly, claiming the title of Christian while inwardly hating their King.

Why the rage? Because when you think that the means of grace are something you “have to” do to earn God’s favor, they stop being Gospel and become Law. Instead of being God’s work for us, they become our work for God. This misunderstanding of the means of grace is the most common reason people don’t come to church regularly. They don’t see an opportunity to receive forgiveness and mercy, they see nothing but burdens and laws and rules. They don’t see a Lord who says come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28), but a harsh taskmaster who expects them to “pay their dues.” There is hardly a greater blasphemy than believing that Jesus invites us to worship to earn his favor rather than to give us his grace and forgiveness.

The good news is that this calm will eventually come to an end. Eventually, according to this parable, Judgment Day will come and everything will be made right. People who have been pretending to be servants of Jesus but who really have buried or neglected the means of grace will be exposed as the hypocrites they are. Even what [they] have will be taken from them. And on Judgment Day, Jesus enemies, even the really nice ones who think that all religions lead to heaven will be slaughtered right in front of him. The punishment is so harsh because their sin is so terrible. Regarding the God who loved the world so much that he suffered, bled, and died to redeem it as a wicked ruler deserves instant judgment.

But here’s the really good news – when Judgment Day arrives not only will hypocrites be exposed and Christ’s enemies slaughtered, but his means of grace will be proven to be as powerful as Jesus said they are and their faithful use will be rewarded beyond anything you can imagine. Notice how when the two faithful servants speak they both say your mina has earned and not “I have earned.” All the glory goes to God’s mina. It’s Baptism that saves us. It’s Absolution that forgives us. It’s Communion that feeds our faith. We don’t give them power or meaning, they give us God’s powerful grace.

But while we receive none of the credit, we will receive the reward. I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given. This is the real reason to put Jesus’ treasure to work, to eagerly and faithfully receive his grace in Word and Sacrament. In the parable, faithful use of one mina leads to a 1000% and 500% return, respectively. When Jesus returns, he is promising to reward faithful use of his gifts of grace with even more grace. Grace upon grace (John 1:16 EHV). I don’t know what could be better than full and free forgiveness of sins and the sure hope of eternal life – but it’s got to be good. Well worth eagerly and actively waiting for.

We are living in the calm before Judgment. It’s a time to be busy carrying out the work Jesus has given us. Jesus didn’t tell this parable so that we would shudder in fear of Judgment, but to make faithful use of his Gospel and Sacraments during this life – not because we have to to earn his favor, but because he promises more where that came from when he returns. Therefore our prayer today and every day is: Come, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20) Amen. 

Romans 3:19-28 - The Source of Salvation - November 3, 2019

Today we celebrate the 502nd anniversary of the Reformation of the Church. I looked, but I couldn’t find a prescribed way to celebrate the 502nd anniversary of the Reformation. But that’s not important. What is important is what you think the Reformation and our commemoration of it is all about. What do you think the Reformation is about? How a lowly German monk spoke truth to power – like a certain civil rights leader who assumed his name? How it’s important to stand by your convictions, no matter the cost? Or perhaps today is the day Lutherans pat ourselves on the back and brag about how we have it all right and everyone else is wrong. If our commemoration of the Reformation were about any of those things, we would be better off not doing it. But the Lutheran Reformation was about much more than social justice or moral convictions or denominational distinctions – the Lutheran Reformation was all about saving souls by clearly identifying and maintaining the source of salvation.

What is the source of salvation? Your salvation. It doesn’t get more important than that, does it? When you close your eyes at night, when you are lying on your deathbed, how can you be certain you will be saved if you don’t wake up? Some point to their repentance. You’re a sinner and in order to get rid of those sins and be saved you must repent. There’s no arguing with that first part. Paul declares that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable. Like it or not, by virtue of birth in this world we are under God’s Law; and the verdict isn’t pretty: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

I fall short of God’s glory every single day and so do you – and so repentance is a daily necessity. This was one of issues at the heart of the Reformation. In the first of his 95 Theses Luther wrote: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” [Matthew 4:17], he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” [1] He wrote this because the Roman Catholic Church of his time was teaching people that they could skip repentance by purchasing an indulgence – a piece of paper that promised release from punishment. They taught this even though the Bible testifies that all the money in the world can’t pay for a single sin (Psalm 49:8; 1 Peter 1:18).  

So repentance is necessary. But is it the source of salvation? It’s rather naïve to think so, isn’t it? Think of the child, the driver, or the celebrity who gets caught doing something wrong. There will be a confession, an apology, maybe even some tears. And then it’s just human nature to do something to make up for it, to make it right. The child will promise to never do it again, the driver will swear to keep it under the speed limit, the celebrity will make a generous donation to a politically correct charity. Why? Why do all that? To escape punishment, to avoid the consequences of sin.

The question is: does it work? Can repentance save anyone from punishment? Can repentance save the child from a spanking, the driver from a ticket, the celebrity from losing their career? No. So can repentance save us from hell? No. Repentance cannot remove either the reality of our sin or its consequences. If you’ve ever thought that your repentance saves you, it’s probably consumed you, driven you to the brink of despair. All you can think about is how sorry you are and how you will do anything to make things right. Like Luther, you might even torture yourself, beating yourself up mentally or physically in a foolhardy attempt to pay for your sins yourself. But even a child can tell you that no matter how sincere, no matter how complete, no matter how sorry you are – repentance can’t save you from the consequences you deserve.

Well, if repentance can’t save us, then it must be faith, right? Isn’t that what Paul says? This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe…For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. There we have it. The righteousness we need to be found innocent on Judgment Day comes to us through faith. That’s sola fide – faith alone. We are saved by believing in Jesus.

Faith was another one of the issues at the heart of the Reformation. The formal response of the Roman Catholic Church to the teachings of the reformers, known as the Council of Trent, declared “If anyone saith, that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ’s sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified; let him be [cursed].” [2] Even Catholics believed that Lutherans believed they are saved by believing.

Are we? We had better hope not. Why? Well, do you believe enough? Saying that you believe every word in the Bible implies that you’ve read every word – have you? You know that the Bible commands us to believe some things that are pretty hard to believe, don’t you? It says that the universe was created in six normal days by God’s command (Genesis 1), that Jesus was born of a virgin (Matthew 1:34), that he physically rose from the dead (Matthew 28), that Baptism saves (1 Peter 3:21), that his true body and blood are really present in, with, and under the bread and wine on this altar (Matthew 26:26-28), and that Jesus will return in glory to judge the living and the dead (Matthew 25:31-32) – can you honestly say that you’ve never doubted those things? Would any of us dare claim to be better believers than the man who cried I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief! (Mark 9:24) Are you willing to bet your salvation on the fact that your faith is stronger than Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who all tried in their own ways to circumvent God’s plan because they didn’t believe his Word and promises (Genesis 16; Genesis 27)?

You might be a little confused at this point, and I wouldn’t blame you. For 500 years, Lutherans have taught sola fide, that we are saved by faith alone apart from observing the law. It’s true, we are saved by faith alone (Romans 3:28), but that’s not the whole story. The phrase “saved by faith” is really shorthand for “saved by grace through faith.” Follow Paul’s words (especially the prepositions) in Ephesians 2: It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). Faith is the open hand through which we receive Jesus’ righteousness as our own. But faith IS NOT the cause or source of our salvation because 1) no matter how much you believe, your faith can’t remove sins and 2) our faith is never perfect. It is plagued by doubts, fears, and worries. If you’ve ever really examined your faith, you know this. You might try to pump it up by saying “I believe; I believe; I believe” but all it takes to pop that balloon is the devil’s whisper: “Do you? Really? Even the parts about Baptism really saving and Jesus’ body and blood being truly present?” Faith cannot be, and thank God, is not the source of our salvation.

We Lutherans do repent. We do believe. But neither is the source of our salvation. Then what is? Grace. Grace is at the heart of these verses. After Paul says those dreadful, damning words: there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God he continues and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. There you have the entirety of Scripture, all of the Law and Gospel boiled down into one sentence. We have sinned and rightly deserve damnation. But instead God freely justifies us by grace in Christ.

The grand theme of the whole Bible, the golden thread that ties it all together, from Genesis to Revelation, is salvation by grace alone: sola gratia. And unlike repentance and faith – which are activities of God inside of us; grace is outside of us. You can’t look inside yourself to find grace. If you do you will find what Jeremiah found: the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9) You will see what Jesus saw: out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander (Matthew 15:19). If you’re honest, you will confess along with Paul: I know that nothing good lives in me (Romans 7:18). Even when we are repenting and believing with everything we have, it will never be enough. Don’t believe me. Believe your own heart. Or better yet, believe Jeremiah, Jesus and Paul.

But God’s heart is different. Remember how Jeremiah described salvation in our Old Testament lesson? The new covenant is not about us doing anything, but rather God doing what we could not: I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more (Jeremiah 31:34). Even though we cannot forget our sins, we cannot pay for them, we cannot erase them, God can. And he does, for Jesus’ sake – before and apart from any of our repenting or believing. That’s grace. That’s God’s undeserved, freely given, love and forgiveness.

Repentance and faith – no matter how sincere, can’t free you from the punishment your sins deserve. If your salvation was based on your repenting you would always have to wonder “Have I repented enough? Did I forget to confess any sins?” – which, incidentally, is the very thing that drove Luther into near despair and then deep into God’s Word. [3] The same goes for faith. If your salvation was based on your faith then you would always have to wonder “Do I believe enough? Do I really remember everything from catechism class?” Some days you might possess super-hero faith, but then your life falls to pieces or the devil whispers did God really say (Genesis 3:1) or your pastor says you should believe or do something that you don’t want to believe or do and you can’t help but wonder – “do I really believe?” But it all boils down to this. Imagine you’re lying on your death bed. You’re helpless, tubes and needles sticking out of you, doctors and nurses poking and prodding you, you can’t feed or clean yourself. At that point, do you really want to put your hope of salvation on something in you – the comprehensiveness of your repentance or the heartiness of your faith? How certain of your salvation would you be, if that were the case?

That’s what the Reformation was really all about. That’s why, neither Paul nor Luther pointed to repentance or faith as the source of salvation. Where do they point? Jesus. Jesus is God’s grace in historical, preaching, teaching, living, dying, rising, human flesh and blood. If you want to be certain about your salvation, look to Jesus. Why? Because Jesus kept the Law perfectly in your place. He never had to repent; never once had to apologize. He didn’t fall short of God’s glory. He earned his Father’s approval by his perfect, sinless life. And he gave his perfect life to you in Baptism. And he also took care of those sins you’ve spent a lifetime repenting of. He carried them, all of them, even the ones you forgot to confess to the cross and he paid for every last one of them with his precious blood. And he gives you proof of that forgiveness right here, by giving you his true body and blood. And, perhaps the part we might tend to overlook, Jesus also believed perfectly, for you. He never doubted his Father’s Word, not even when it meant suffering starvation and temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11) or into a garden to drink the cup of God’s wrath (Matthew 26:36-46) or to a cross where his own Father turned his back on him (Matthew 27:46) – Jesus believed perfectly, right to his last breath (Luke 23:46) – and his perfect faith is now yours. Because of Jesus you can be sure of your salvation even if your repentance is spotty or your faith is weak – because he took away your sin and gave you his righteousness. He – not Martin Luther, not the denomination named after him, not your repentance or your faith – he – God’s grace in the flesh – is the source of salvation.

That’s why Paul says that boasting is excluded. We cannot take credit for our salvation because our salvation is not in our hands. It’s in the heart of God and the bloody, outstretched hands of Jesus on a cross. And that’s a good thing. It means that your salvation is secure. And if you believe that, then you should celebrate today, because you are a Lutheran, an heir of the Reformation. Amen.  

[1] LW 31:23

[2] http://www.thecounciloftrent.com/ch6.htm

[3] Kittleson, James M. Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career (Minneapolis: Fortress Press 2003) 84

Luke 17:1-10 - The Right Combination - October 27, 2019

“The right combination.” Meteorologists say that when atmospheric conditions are just right for a tornado or snowstorm. Sports commentators say that when in their judgment a player has the right blend of speed, strength and talent to become a superstar. You might hear it around election time, when analysts predict that there is just the “right combination” of sinking poll numbers, economic turmoil, and social unrest to replace an elected leader. But today we’re talking about something far more important than the weather, sports or politics. Today, Jesus describes having the “right combination” to be a Christian.

While at first glance this text may seem like a series of random, disconnected statements, there’s one thread that ties everything together: things that are (or at least seem) impossible. Its starts already in the first verse. In our translation we read: things that cause people to sin are bound to come – but a more literal translation would be it is impossible that death traps will not come. It’s impossible to avoid temptations and pitfalls in this fallen world, but we can never be their source. In fact, it would be better for you have a millstone hung around your neck and be thrown to the bottom of Lake Michigan than for you to cause one of these littles ones to sin. Some Muslim nations still cut the hands off thieves. Several states still execute capital criminals. But only mob bosses and drug lords have ever decided on drowning as a fitting punishment. Yet here, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, is suggesting that just this type of cruel and unusual punishment would be better than leading another Christian to sin. Why? Because leading someone else to sin is putting their soul in danger of hell. Certainly we would be better off dead than leading someone to sin.

Then what should we do when sin inevitably raises its ugly head? If your brother sins, rebuke him. Such a simple, straightforward command isn’t it? If a fellow believer falls into sin, confront him firmly but gently and call him to repentance. But in a culture where it’s considered politically incorrect to question the right of anyone to do anything – rebuking sin often seems all but impossible. “What if they get mad? What if they never talk to me again? What if it ruins our relationship? It’s not my place; let someone else do it.” So that begs the question: how many of us actually obeyed Jesus’ command – even once – much less consistently? When’s the last time you called a family member – or fellow church member – to repentance? And yet, Jesus says that it’s impossible for sins not to happen, so there should to be plenty of cause for rebuking. Have you loved someone enough to rebuke them? If not, why not? More importantly, if we can’t obey this simple, straightforward command, can we really consider ourselves to be Christians?

And we haven’t even gotten to the really hard part yet. Rebuking sin is only a preliminary, preparatory duty. Just as God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:17) so our primary duty as Christians is to forgive. And Jesus makes this duty very personal: if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him. (It’s interesting to note that whereas rebuke him is a command, forgive him is in the indicative, it’s a promise. When a brother sins against you seven times in one day and all he does is come to you and say “I repent; forgive me” you will, every time.) Again, in a world that loves to dredge up sins from the past and use them to damage careers and reputations today, where holding on to rage seems like a political virtue, where marriages and families and churches are regularly destroyed by the refusal to forgive even once – this sounds impossible. The more cynical part of us might suggest that Jesus must not know what it’s like to be married or to have children or belong to a church with other sinners. If we’re honest though, we might confess what Jesus is commanding is beyond our ability.

And we’re not alone. The apostles recognized how impossible these commands were. They realized that the duties of discipleship required something they didn’t think they had enough of: not clarity, not direction, but faith. They realized – and so should we – that it takes great faith to rebuke and forgive. So they say increase our faith. “Lord, you must increase our faith if we’re to do this!” And how did Jesus respond to this request? “You have enough faith.” If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. Mulberry trees are troublesome. They have massive root systems. There is as much mulberry tree below the surface as there is above. It’s hard enough to get rid of a mulberry tree, much less plant it in the sea. It’s impossible. But Jesus is saying that if faith the size of a mustard seed can accomplish this impossible task – then faith the size of a mustard seed is more than enough to enable us to carry out our duties of rebuking and forgiving sin. Then why does it still feel so impossible to do what Jesus asks? Why does discipleship seem relatively easy when all we have to do is show up and sit down on Sunday mornings – but impossibly difficult when it comes to properly dealing with sin?

Clearly, Jesus’ point is that it’s not impossible. Maybe a better way to describe it would be “unnatural.” Not causing people to sin, rebuking others when they sin, and forgiving sins against us only appears impossible because it seems so unnatural. An example from recent headlines bears this out. If you happened to see any of the coverage of the sentencing phase of the trial of Amber Guyger, the Dallas police officer who shot and killed a man in his own apartment, you saw a rare and unnatural scene: the victim’s younger brother, Brandt Jean, forgave Amber from the stand and then asked for permission to step down from the stand to give her a hug. Needless to say, even the usually heartless media was struck by this unexpected demonstration of grace and forgiveness. Why? Because it was so unnatural. Because demonstrations and protests are the way people deal with sin today, not grace and forgiveness.

Why does it seem so unnatural and nearly impossible to deal with sin the way Jesus commands? Because we often do what the apostles did: we try to measure our faith. We try to measure if we have the strength, the courage and boldness to do what Jesus commands – and if we feel that we’re short, we use that weakness to justify our failure. That’s a problem. Not a lack of faith problem, but a focus of faith problem. Here’s where Jesus’ little illustration of the mulberry tree applies. His point is that even small faith in the almighty Word of God can do impossible and unnatural things. If God’s Word commanded you to uproot and replant a mulberry tree, you could do it. But God’s Word doesn’t command or promise anything about mulberry trees. It does, however, clearly and frequently, command us to rebuke sin and promise that we will forgive it.

Do you have that kind of faith? The mustard seed size kind of faith that dutifully rebukes and forgives sin simply because God’s Word commands and promises it? No, I don’t either. That’s because discipleship is like a combination lock: two numbers are never enough. You need at least three. Jesus has covered two parts: duty and faith. There’s one more thing needed for the right combination, and that’s grace. That’s where his little parable about plowing, shepherding, and serving comes in. (Worthy of note is the fact that the Bible will later use plowing (1 Corinthians 3:6), herding sheep (1 Peter 5:2), and serving (2 Corinthians 3:6) to describe the work he will give the apostles.) The parable teaches that the only way we can do the impossible, unnatural things Jesus is commanding is by God’s grace.

Wait a minute…where is that in this parable? If we could all read Greek we would see this. In verse 9 Jesus literally asks “he would not give grace (χάριν) the servant because he did what he was told, would he?” By the way Jesus asks the question he’s expecting a “no” answer. No, a master doesn’t give grace to his slave because he does what he’s been told. That’s both unnatural and impossible. You can’t get grace by doing anything – if you could, it wouldn’t be grace (Romans 11:6).

So follow Jesus’ line of logic here: faith is needed to carry out your unnatural and impossible duties as a Christian, but where does faith come from? Grace! And where does grace come from? Grace comes from God, not from you. Look for it inside yourself, look for it in the worthiness of the person or in your thoughts and feelings and you won’t find the grace, the fuel, to do what you’ve been commanded. Grace can only be received from the outside. You can’t merit grace; you can’t win it; you can’t deserve it. At the end of the day, even if you imagine that you’ve done everything God commanded, you couldn’t say you deserve grace.

I said a couple weeks ago that you can often find the Gospel in the part of the parable that seems “off”, that doesn’t seem right, that doesn’t make sense. The Gospel in this parable is that God shatters all the norms of a servant / master relationship. God does what no earthly master ever would. He gives us grace even though we haven’t done what we’ve been told. That’s the part that doesn’t make sense. We don’t do even the small things we’re supposed to do as Christians, and yet, God is still gracious to us. Why? There’s an acronym that tells you everything you need to know about grace: Grace Received At Christ’s Expense. God gives you grace only because of Jesus. He’s the only One who always did what his Father commanded him to do. He never rolled his eyes, never muttered in protest, never argued that it was impossible – he never once failed to rebuke or forgive sin, and he certainly never caused anyone else to sin. He was the perfect person, the perfect disciple. And what was his reward? It was even worse than death by drowning – his reward was death on a cross. God didn’t hang a millstone around his neck – but he did hang all of our sins, every last one of our failures to do duty on him. That weight didn’t drag him to the bottom of the sea, but it did drag him into the depths of hell – where God held him until he had satisfied his righteous wrath. But when he said it is finished (John 19:30), it was. Jesus had drained every last ounce of God’s wrath against us (Romans 8:1) – so that all that’s left in his heart for us now is simple, beautiful, undeserved grace. That’s why, I can say without hesitation that whether you have been dutiful or disobedient, whether your faith is the size of a mountain or a mustard seed, the only thing God has for you is rich, boundless, impossible grace.

Doing our duty as disciples is impossible. It’s impossible for us to perfectly rebuke and forgive sin – no matter how big we think our faith is. But, we can be unworthy, can’t we? And when we confess that we are unworthy servants then we’re right where God wants us. That’s why we call the main things we do in church the means of grace. Baptism is grace poured out on infants who can do absolutely nothing for God. Absolution is the grace of forgiveness applied to self-confessed, guilty sinners. Communion is the gift of Jesus’ own body and blood offered to sinners who can never be worthy to receive them. You can’t deserve to be baptized, absolved, or communed. And yet, through these instruments, God gives you his grace for Jesus’ sake.

So I’ll ask one more time, do you have what it takes to be a disciple, do you have the right combination? Note well what Jesus does and doesn’t command us in this text. He is not commanding us to plant mulberry trees anywhere, but he does command us to rebuke and forgive sin; and he does command us to say we are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty. That’s a confession you can live with and, more importantly, die with, because it is the most basic confession of faith: that we can be disciples by God’s grace and not by our own effort. While our efforts will always fall short, God’s grace in Christ never does. You have God’s grace, and with that gift, you do have the right combination, just what you need to do the impossible and unnatural, to be and remain and do the duties of a Christian. Amen.  

Luke 16:19-31 - Four Myths from Beyond the Grave - October 20, 2019

I don’t believe it’s on TV anymore – but there used to be a show on The Discovery Channel called Mythbusters. The name says it all. The hosts would take a myth, an old wives’ tale, an urban legend and put it to the test using scientific methods. For example, they tested the Hollywood theory that a car can break through a locked chain link fence (it can), whether elephants are really afraid of mice or not (they really don’t like having them around!), and last but not least, whether it’s actually possible to take someone’s hat off with a bullet – like you see in the Westerns – (yes, but with the caveat that you tend to also put a decent sized hole in the person’s head, too!). Whether or not such a show interests you, the premise is undeniably true: you can’t believe everything you see. While most urban legends are fairly harmless, there are many myths regarding religion, heaven and hell floating around in our world that do real, eternal damage. Today we’re going to bust four of those myths – not with science – but the inerrant Word of God.

Myth #1: everyone goes to heaven. Let’s face it, most people believe that – apart from terrorists and pedophiles – virtually goes to heaven when they die. The generic, American religion teaches that there is life after this one, it’s better than life here and all but the worst people go there. That’s why when someone dies you don’t ever hear “well, they died in unbelief, and now their suffering has just begun” – no, you always hear, “now they’re at peace,” “now their suffering is over,” “they are in a better place.”

But it’s a myth, as Jesus demonstrates in this story. (Incidentally, despite the fact that this is often labeled a parable, it’s probably not. A parable is an earthly story with a spiritual meaning. Here, while Jesus does speak in earthly terms – the spiritual meaning is not at all hidden.) Not everyone goes to heaven; some, like the rich man, are in agony in the fire of hell. What’s striking is that it’s Jesus who is giving us this awful description of hell. Most people think that Jesus is too nice, too tolerant, too loving to send people to hell for all eternity. But the fact of the matter is that Jesus talks about hell more often and in more vivid language than anyone else in the Bible. Here he describes hell as a place of torment, where people burn alive without any hope of death, a state of permanent separation from God and his love. Of course, he’s using earthly language to describe the horrors, but his point is clear: it’s a myth that all people (like all dogs) go to heaven. Some don’t. Some go to hell forever.

Myth #2: outward appearances matter; that you can tell where a person will end up simply by looking at them. The false belief that prevailed in Jesus’ day still survives today – and it sounds like this: if you’re happy, healthy, and wealthy God loves you, and if you’re not, he’s angry at you; wealth equals God’s favor and poverty equals his wrath. And, if you are blessed in this life it’s almost guaranteed that you will be blessed in the next life, because we all know that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Jesus seems to be playing off this myth as he describes two men whose circumstances couldn’t have been more different. At a time when people rarely ate meat the rich man enjoyed a 5-star dinner daily – while Lazarus’ stomach ached for the crumbs that fell from his table. While the rich man dressed in purple and fine linen – which, incidentally, served no practical purpose other than to broadcast how rich you were – Lazarus’ body was only covered in sores. Lazarus died like a beggar. No mention of a funeral. His corpse was probably unceremoniously tossed into the same mass grave as countless other beggars. But the rich man was buried. Ever been to a rich person’s funeral? Flowers upon flowers upon flowers – always with a little card so that the family knows just who to give the credit to. People fall over themselves to make themselves seen and heard at the funeral of a rich person. Even pastors, for some reason, often feel indebted to talk more about the rich, dead person in the sermon than Jesus Christ. Which of the two would you think would end up in heaven?

But then Jesus pulls back the curtain to let us see what’s really going on. What was the most notable thing about Lazarus? Not that he was a beggar – that was common – but he has a name! For the one and only time Jesus names one of the characters in his stories – and that name tells us everything we need to know. Lazarus comes from the Hebrew Eleazar which means God is my help. The rich man may not have helped Lazarus, but God did and wrote his name in the book of life (Revelation 20:12). The rich man, on the other hand remains anonymous, for the damned are not known by God (Matthew 7:23). Second, God dispatches angels to carry the Lazarus’ filthy, sore-covered body to heaven. No angels are sent to fetch the rich man because the damned need no help getting to hell. Finally, Lazarus finds eternal peace and rest at Abraham’s side while the rich man winds up screaming his lungs out in the never-ending torments of hell. Certainly appearances can be deceiving.

There’s a warning here for us. Don’t think that you can tell who will go where based on outward appearances. Stop thinking that wealth equals heaven and poverty equals hell – or that poverty equals heaven and wealth equals hell. To use a crass example: stop thinking that if a drunk driver kills himself he’s going to hell or that the person he kills is automatically going to heaven. Stop judging God by your or anyone else’s outward circumstances. Because the fact is that outward appearances can be deceiving.

Myth #3: church is no big deal. You might be thinking – where did this come from? This is just pastor justifying his existence and his job. No. One myth that is very popular among many Christians – and which, has sadly seeped into Lutheranism – is a mystical doctrine of faith. It’s the idea that we can find God in our feelings and emotions, that he comes to us directly. And so when seeking certainty for their salvation, people are directed to look inside themselves. “Is your faith strong? Have you felt God’s touch or heard his voice?” Or someone will say “I felt God’s presence in that sunrise. God spoke to me in that movie.” Do you ever hear that? I do. When people find out I’m a pastor they often feel the need to justify themselves and sometimes say “Oh, well I think about God all the time.” When I contact members who don’t come to church the very first thing they say is “Don’t worry pastor, my faith is strong!” The problem is that as a result of sin we are already turned in on ourselves far too much. By nature we are self-centered rather than God-centered. But the fact is that a mystical, baseless faith is no faith at all; it’s faith in faith and faith in faith doesn’t save anyone.

Where do we see this in our story? Well, why did the rich man go to hell? Many people believe it was because the rich man was a jerk to Lazarus, he didn’t share any of his wealth or food with him to help him. But the text doesn’t explicitly say that, does it? We aren’t told that the rich man spit on Lazarus, or yelled at him to get off his property. Nor are we told that the rich man went to hell for any number of other obvious sins; that he was a murderer, had committed adultery, got his wealth fraudulently, or that he was guilty of giving false testimony. In fact, we are probably safe in assuming that he was a Jew in good standing from the fact that he called Abraham Father. No, the only sin specifically named in this lesson is a sin against the third commandment: not [listening] to Moses and the prophets. In other words, while this rich man may have received a Jewish burial, he apparently never made it a priority to listen to Moses and the prophets, that is, the Word of God, preached and taught.

Now please don’t misunderstand. Faith in Christ certainly does save because faith is the open hand that receives the forgiveness, life and salvation that he won on the cross (Ephesians 2:8-9). But don’t for a second believe that this faith can exist apart from hearing the Word of God. Faith can no more live in the heart apart from the Word than your body can live apart from eating food (John 6:53). Going to church is important because church tears your attention away from yourself, your feelings, your circumstances and places it on the Word and Sacraments. And you might say: “I read my bible at home,” “I pray.” Good, I hope you do. But the Bible teaches that faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). Not to mention that God hasn’t given the sacraments to us as individuals but to the Church. Faith is a miracle but God has decided to not create or sustain it mystically but through totally ordinary means: water and Word, bread and wine.

And, if you’ve ever wondered about your faith, that’s great news. Why? Because it means you don’t have to search for God in your heart or the world around you. Instead you can find him in the clear, objective means he has given us. Were you baptized? Then your name is written in the book of life (1 Peter 3:21). Were your sins forgiven moments ago in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? Then the gates of heaven are open to you (Matthew 16:19). Will you be eating and drinking Jesus’ true body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins? Then God is strengthening your faith in Jesus, whether you feel it or not (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) Church is important because church is where the Word is preached and the sacraments are administered. The rich man went to hell not because he neglected Lazarus but because he neglected the means of grace.

Now I know where that last myth leads many of you. You worry about the people you love who also neglect and despise Word and Sacrament. You wonder “if they die like that rich man, what’s going to happen to them?” You want them to be saved so badly that you run the risk of falling for myth #4, of believing that if only God would just do something miraculous in their life, they would repent. That’s the fourth myth from hell we have to bust: miracles convert people. Even in hell the rich man still labors under this myth. He’s concerned about the fate of his brothers who apparently were accustomed to despising the Word just like he was. He asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to earth to warn them. He thinks like a whole horde of Christians do today: that you need more than the Gospel to save people – you need gimmicks and programs and emotional music and practical sermons.

Is that true? No. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to Abraham. Abraham states point blank that if they reject the Word of God, even if Lazarus were to suddenly show up on their doorstep and shouted “Hell is Real!” they wouldn’t even be convinced – that is, convinced that they weren’t hallucinating or dreaming. Miracles don’t convert people. There are plenty of miracles recorded in the Bible: 6-day creation, the Flood, Jesus walking on water – but most people in our scientific age regard these miracles as myths. Even more, Jesus did raise another Lazarus from the dead (John 11:38-44) and it only made the Jews more determined to kill Jesus (John 11:45-57). And when Jesus rose from the dead, they paid the soldiers to keep it quiet rather than repent and believe (Matthew 28:11-15).

Don’t fall for the myth. Don’t think that God isn’t doing everything possible to save the people you love. He is. He’s still sending his same powerful, faith-creating Word to every corner of the earth. The same Word that created the universe (Genesis 1), changed a murderous Pharisee like Saul into the missionary named Paul (Acts 9), that calmed stormy seas (Luke 8:22-25) and fed thousands (John 6:1-15) – is still being proclaimed. God is still working the extraordinary miracle of repentance through the completely ordinary Word. And you have this Word. The Word of God spoken by you to people you love is far more powerful than any miracle – even someone rising from the dead – because miracles don’t change hearts – the Word of God does.

Hell is no myth. Jesus has busted that myth. People do go there. But no one has to. The gates of heaven are open today for the rich, the poor, the obviously sinful and the secretly guilty. No one is so good that they can get into heaven without hearing the Word of God, but no one is so bad that the forgiving Word of God can’t bring them to repentance and faith. Mythbusters bust myths in order to entertain. Jesus busts myths in order to save souls. Don’t believe the myths. Believe the Words of the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Amen.

Luke 16:1-5 - The Bottom Line - October 13, 2019

Today we’re going to talk about Money. I know…nobody wants to talk about money – especially at church. Church is supposed to be for “spiritual stuff.” But today we can’t escape it – Jesus doesn’t give us a choice. In addition, Money is very spiritual. Why? Most simply because all Money belongs to God. But that’s not the only reason. It’s no secret that Money is one of the most important things in our lives. It keeps us busy during the day and awake at night. It guides our choices and decisions. As Paul made clear, the love of Money lies at the root of all sorts of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). The love of Money has destroyed marriages and families and churches and led people to wander from the faith. Humanly speaking, it’s hard to argue with Oscar Wilde’s assessment: “When I was young, I thought money was the most important thing in life; now that I’m old, I know it is.” [1] Today we’re going to talk about Money, but not in the way you think. We’re going to get right to the Bottom Line. What’s the bottom line? You cannot serve both God and Money.

First, I want to make sure that you heard this right. Jesus isn’t giving a command. He didn’t say “do not serve both God and Money.” He’s stating a fact: “You cannot serve both God and Money.” It’s not a choice but an impossibility. The only question is: which do you serve? Here’s the lesson we all need to learn – sooner than later – about Money. It’s a merciless master. No, it doesn’t appear that way, at least not at first. Money looks like those glamorous celebrities selling the newest credit card that gives you all kinds of free miles and cash back, like a well-dressed investment advisor who guarantees to make your money work for you, like the dream job with the dream salary that promises to make all your material goals come true. But that’s only half the story. The dark side is that when you don’t make your payments on time, you don’t get any miles but you do get an astronomical interest rate. The investment advisor can’t do much for you unless you regularly give him large sums of money to work with. The dream job may leave out the fact that receiving this salary will demand your heart and mind, your body and soul. Stick around for the quarterly meeting and you’ll see that even in the church, the laws of money can’t be broken. What goes out must first come in. Every penny must be accounted for. Budgets can’t be balanced by faith alone. Money is merciless.

Why? Because Money is a matter of the Law. And because Money is a matter of the Law we can always, always be accused of mismanaging it. We see that in our parable. The manager was only accused of wasting [his master’s] possessions. We aren’t provided with any evidence and the parable doesn’t even state whether he was actually guilty or not. It simply shows how easy it is for the Money to make accusations.

Allow me to conduct an experiment to prove this. Just see how easy it is for me to make you feel guilty by merely questioning your spending habits; without a shred of proof. The average American spends 5% of their income on entertainment and the average WELS member gives 2.5% of their income in offerings. Where do you stand? What does that reveal about who or what has first place in your heart? Or how about this: did you know that if you saved just $20 a week – by eating out one less time, by making your own coffee instead of stopping at Starbucks, or however – you’d have an additional $1000 each year to give to God? We live in relatively nice homes, drive nice cars and take nice vacations. Just imagine if, instead of spending those thousands of dollars on ourselves, how many missionaries could be sent, how many churches could be funded, how many pastors could be trained. See. I have no proof that you’ve mismanaged your money, yet you’re squirming anyway. But that’s not even the point. The point is that no matter how you spend your money, no matter how frugal you are, no matter how much you give, you could still be accused of fiscal mismanagement. Money is a merciless master because serving Money is slavery to the Law.

Sadly, if we’ve never thought of Money that way, as a merciless idol, it’s probably because of the church. At some point the church decided that it could help people navigate the impossibly narrow road between serving God and Money; teaching that there is a way to find peace in money management, that you can serve both at the same time. You’ve heard the sermons, right? “God commanded his OT people to give 10% of their income and if you do too, then you’re off the hook.” “If you just prioritize your spending in this order: 1) Church; 2) Family; 3) Taxes; 4) Charity – then you can relax, you’re good.” In general, the impression is given that as long as you give God his cut, as long as you serve Money under God’s rules, it’s ok. Then nobody can accuse you.

But it’s a lie. Money management is part of the Law and the Law’s purpose is not to give us peace of mind but to cause us to sweat and squirm by revealing our sins (Romans 3:20). You can’t stand before God’s all-seeing eye audit and be found innocent based on your money management no matter how you’ve spent your money. (For example: you could sell everything you own, clear out all your savings and give it to God, and you still wouldn’t be justified. Why? Because all you would be able to think about is how much you would like it back!) If you think you can satisfy God’s justice by the way you manage your Money, then you need to remember that the greatest sin of all is called “self-righteousness.” If you hope to stand before God and say “I’ve given enough, spent my money wisely, never wasted it, spent every penny perfectly,” then you’ve placed your hope for salvation in yourself. You are lost now and will be damned on the Last Day. But, you may ask, what’s the alternative? If I admit that no matter how much money I make I’m not content; that my giving is often motivated by self-righteousness; that financial worries keep me up at night – then I have to live in perpetual fear of God’s final audit. See what I mean about Money being merciless? Do whatever you want with it: keep it, save it, invest it, spend it, give it, burn it – it will never justify you before God.

So what’s the answer? How do you escape Money’s tyrannical hold on your heart and life? Through repentance. By repenting of ever giving Money the place in your heart and life that belongs to God alone. Money is an inanimate object; it is not God; it cannot accuse you; it cannot damn you; it cannot forgive you; it cannot justify you. Recognize that Money is merciless and in the end, powerless, because it is an idol.

So what’s the good news? Here’s where I’m supposed to say that the good news is that Jesus died to free us from our slavery to Money so that we can now serve the Lord with our Money – and then send the offering plates shooting down the rows. After all, that’s how the Church is often portrayed, isn’t it? God needs us to come here so that he can get our money and our time and our energy in order to make his Kingdom come. Is that true? Does God need anything from us to carry out his will? Is God angry with us until we give him a few bucks to get him off our backs? Do you understand how arrogant it is to suggest that God’s grace depends on something we do, that God needs our help to accomplish his mission? God didn’t have much patience for that kind of arrogance in either the Old or New Testaments. In Malachi God begged someone to close the doors of the Temple so that the priests would stop offering their sacrifices – because they thought that by merely going through the motions they were going to win God’s favor (Malachi 1:10). Paul told the idolaters in Athens point blank that [God] is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything (Acts 17:25).

So what’s the real bottom line, then? Remember that Jesus told parables to teach spiritual truths, not moral behavior – or here, proper money management. In parables, earthly things stand for heavenly things. So the point of comparison is not between the right and the wrong way to spend Money, but between the shrewdness with which unbelievers use the means at their disposal to give themselves comfortable lives in this world and how believers, the people of the light, use true riches to ensure their eternity. This interpretation is confirmed by the last two verses: The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight. The Pharisees thought that if they could just figure out the right equation for serving God with their Money, they could justify themselves and earn eternal life. They sneered when Jesus definitively declared that it’s impossible to serve God and Money.

So where’s the real good news? Having studied parables over the past several weeks, one helpful hint I’ve found is to look for the part of the earthly story that doesn’t quite seem right, that seems odd or out of place. Is there anything like that in this parable? Wasn’t this master pretty stupid for a rich guy? He heard that his manager was wasting his possessions, but he didn’t immediately have him thrown in jail. He allowed him to go free to settle his accounts. It doesn’t work that way today. If you get yourself fired, security tosses your stuff into a box, walks you to your car and your access to anything financial is immediately cut off. That’s how things normally go. In fact, spiritually speaking, that’s how it should go for us. When we leave here with God’s forgiveness and continue to feel guilt and shame over past sins, when we fail to be strengthened in faith by the Sacrament, when we hear God’s promise to provide our daily bread but continue to lay awake at night worrying about money – we are wasting the true riches God has given us. We deserve to have them taken away. But God doesn’t do that. Like the master in the parable, our Lord lets us go free, demonstrating an almost foolish level of mercy to us.

And our only hope for passing God’s final audit is that he will remain merciful. That was the only hope of the shrewd servant, too. And so, far from suddenly toeing the line, he doubled down on spending his master’s money to secure his own future. And how does the master respond? [He] commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. This manager had forced his master into a corner: either drag his former manager in for punishment and then demand the full amount from his debtors – and be known as a tyrant – or allow his manager’s actions to stand and be known throughout the community as a merciful and gracious lord. Of course, the punchline is that it will cost him a significant percentage of his revenue to be seen as merciful. But apparently, he figured that this loss to his bottom line was worth it to maintain his reputation.

Here’s the thing about mercy: it doesn’t cost the recipient anything, but it costs the giver dearly. The master in the parable had to suffer a significant financial loss to be merciful. God is merciful and he will continue to be merciful to us, but it came at a steep price. It didn’t cost him 20% or 50% but 100% of his only beloved Son. Rather than send us to destruction, he sent his Son to earth. Rather than demand a perfect, flawless life from us, he demanded a perfect life from his Son. Rather than demand that we maintain hearts free from greed and covetousness – which we could never do – to earn heaven – the LORD demanded that his Son be content to live in poverty for 33 years on this earth. Rather than send us to hell to pay off our debts, the LORD sent his Son to the cross to pay our debts in our place. The LORD, your real master, would rather suffer loss himself and be merciful than be just and lose you forever in hell. So be shrewd – serve him by relying on his mercy – trust his Word with all your heart, live in his forgiveness, let your heart rest in his peace.

This parable isn’t really about how to spend your Money but about who your Master is. The manager in the parable was commended because he knew his master’s mercy and shrewdly spent his master’s money to ensure his future. How much more should we freely use and spend the true riches God has given us – the Gospel in Word and Sacrament – the only wealth which can secure us a place in eternal dwellings. I know this hasn’t been your typical “money” sermon, but here’s the bottom line: You cannot serve both God and Money. Money is merciless – the best it can do is buy a nice piece of ground to put your body in; but God, God would rather suffer the loss of his Son than lose you – that’s a merciful Master, that’s the only Master worth serving. Amen. 

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5nxMx7d1K8S6nhjkPBFhHSM/withering-wit-and-words-of-wisdom-oscar-wildes-best-quotes

Luke 15:1-10 - This Man Welcomes Sinners - October 6, 2019

You may have noticed a trend over the past several weeks – that our sermon texts have all dealt with Jesus’ parables: his earthly stories with spiritual meanings. Parables aren’t what they seem to be. Just as the parable two weeks ago wasn’t really about dinner parties and last week’s wasn’t about how to build a tower or go to war – so the parable this morning isn’t really about how to find lost sheep and coins. Then what is this parable about? What spiritual truth is Jesus teaching us? Sadly, too many preachers see parables as an opportunity to serve their own agendas. For example, if you’re trying to raise money, you could talk about how precious even one coin is to God. Or, even more popular, is the notion that these parables are Jesus’ commission to the Church. That we are the shepherd and the woman and that it is our responsibility to get out there and beat the bushes and find the lost and save them. Now, I’m not saying that the Bible doesn’t say anything about stewardship or outreach; but the context should make it crystal clear that Jesus is not talking about those things here. This parable is Jesus’ response to the Pharisees’ grumbling complaint: this man welcomes sinners.

Clearly then, this parable is about the seeking, searching, tireless love of Jesus. He is the main character. But how do we get there? Well, in context of Luke 15, the “lost” are the tax collectors and “sinners” who were flocking to Jesus. Throughout his ministry Jesus made a habit of welcoming and associating with these social and religious outcasts. He even called one of those hated tax collectors – Matthew – to be his apostle (Matthew 9:9-13). And later in this same gospel, he invited himself to the home of another tax collector named Zacchaeus where he declared that the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:10). As the Good Shepherd, as the Creator and Redeemer of these poor souls, it was only natural for Jesus see them as precious and go out of his way to find and save them.  

But Jesus’ natural love for the lost filled the religious elite with disgust. The Pharisees and teachers of the law – who were supposed to be the spiritual shepherds of God’s flock on earth – didn’t care at all about the lost. They didn’t preach about God’s grace but his wrath; they emphasized Law not Gospel. Their message was inherently work-righteous: that you need to clean yourself up, stop sinning and reform your life before God will accept you. They despised and ignored these poor, lost sinners; figuring that they were simply getting what they deserved. In fact, the Jewish historian Alfred Edersheim even records a shocking saying of the Pharisees: “There is joy before God when those who provoke him perish from the world.” [1] It’s hard to imagine a greater blasphemy than alleging that heaven rejoices when the wicked perish in hell. (Ezekiel 33:11)

In this parable, then, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law are the ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. It’s not that they didn’t need to repent, they – like everyone else on earth – had fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:22-23) – they didn’t think they did. They thought they were right with God because outwardly they were better and holier than these open sinners. The real tragedy in this text is not that Jesus was associating with open sinners but that these self-righteous Pharisees didn’t see their need to join them!

Jesus drives this point home by asking the crowd to consider two familiar situations: Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? What shepherd wouldn’t abandon his flock to search for one wandering sheep? Here’s the twist: no good shepherd would do that! You can almost picture the shepherds in the crowd whispering to each other, “That Galilean carpenter doesn’t know bunk about shepherding! You don’t risk your entire flock to save one. You write that sheep off as dead and cut your losses.” Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? Do you put your life on hold and turn the house upside down if you lost one coin even though you still had nine in your pocket? “Well, maybe for an hour or two, but there comes a time when you forget about it and get on with your day. Maybe it will turn up later, but my time is too valuable to waste it looking for one lost coin.”

So what’s the point? The point is that Jesus doesn’t see people the way the religious elite did. His ways are not our ways; his thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). Jesus didn’t come to earth to seek out the good, the righteous, the powerful – those who appear to have their lives together, the good who are getting better, he came to seek out the weak, the sick, the lost. He doesn’t weigh the cost vs. benefit of abandoning the flock to seek out just one lost sheep. Again, this parable is not really about shepherding, financial stewardship, or even outreach. It’s about Jesus’ irrational, outrageous grace that seeks and saves the lost without regard to the cost or the logic. He seeks those who don’t want to be found. He loves the ungodly, the unrighteous, those who are lost in sin and cannot find any way out. He dies for sinners, not saints; for his enemies, not his friends (Romans 5:10). Jesus is the Good Shepherd who doesn’t stop searching; he’s the one who turns the whole house upside down, moves the furniture and tears up the carpets until he finds that lost coin. The lost are the sole object of his attention. Nothing else matters to him.

While this parable applied most directly to Jesus’ ministry to the tax collectors and “sinners” of his day, the truth of this parable transcends time and space. In a way, it takes us all the way back to Eden. The lost sheep is Adam, the representative of mankind, who brought sin and death into the world (Romans 5:12). He is the lost coin, the worthless asset in God’s bank account, the one who wasted the perfect life God intended for him, who was so lost in shame and guilt that he tried to hide behind fig leaves in the bushes. And yet, God searched for his wayward child and didn’t give up until he found him and brought him to repentance (Genesis 3). And, like it or not, we are all like Adam. We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way (Isaiah 53:6). We are all the lost children of God. We fall for Satan’s deceptions daily. We reach for things God doesn’t want us to have. We have strayed from the path of life and stumbled onto the wide road that leads to destruction. Left to our own devices we are and would remain lost.

You sense this lostness in the world around you, don’t you? You see people trying desperately to “find” themselves, to find meaning for their lives in their careers, their treasures, their accomplishments, their fame and popularity and good deeds. You can see it in the addictions and distractions mankind has invented for itself – all designed to silence the voice of conscience, to dull the ever-present drumbeat of guilt and shame and fear of future judgment. And yet, after it all, they’re still lost – because they’re still not right with God. But it’s not just out there in the world, either, is it? We feel that lostness too, don’t we? Yes, even believers feel it, perhaps more acutely because we know better: we know we should be perfect – and we’re not; our consciences agree with the Law’s verdict that we deserve pain and punishment; we know that addictions and distractions can’t really take our guilt away. Most of all, we long for the peace and safety our Father’s home but we can’t get there. And some days, we just want to sit on the ground and cry like a lost child, our lost condition leaves us depressed, despairing, weak and helpless.

And that’s what makes this chapter – which some have called the heart of Luke’s Gospel – so beautiful! We got ourselves lost. We have no one but ourselves to blame. Jesus would have been perfectly justified in writing us off as a lost cause, as not worth his time or effort. But he didn’t! Jesus came to our wilderness, leaving behind the righteous hosts of heaven to seek and save our lost race from sin and death. He came as the second Adam (Romans 5:19), taking on our flesh, wandering in our wilderness, suffering our temptation, dying our death. He lost himself, his blood, his life to find us. To be clear: Jesus found us, not the other way around. He wasn’t lost, we were. Jesus didn’t come to earth to be welcomed by righteous and powerful leaders, he came to dig through the gutters and search through the trash to find his sheep who didn’t even know they were lost. So great was his love for us that he didn’t care what condition we were in when he found us. He wasn’t worried about what he could gain or benefit from us. He didn’t wait for us to meet him halfway, to make a decision for him, to shape up and straighten up our lives before he would welcome us. He found us like Hosea’s harlot and loved us anyway (Hosea 3:1). He found us in the filth of our sin and brought us to his house to clean us up with his forgiveness. He searched for us with his Word and Sacrament before we even knew we were lost; often, when we didn’t even want to be found. And every time Jesus finds another lost sinner all of heaven rejoices over the ridiculous, irrational, outrageous love of a Good Shepherd who loses himself to find the lost.   

Which leads to our final question: what does it mean to be “found,” what is it that causes the angels in heaven to rejoice? Is it your commitment to living for God? Is it when you bring him a generous offering? When you do good and avoid evil? That’s not what Jesus says. He says there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. We don’t see it in translation, but in the original Greek repents is a present participle – which means that heaven rejoices when sinners are continually repenting, repeatedly coming to Jesus for forgiveness and peace. Here, it’s not your good works that give joy to God but the confession of your sins. But that all sounds backwards, doesn’t it? What is more pleased with a child when they confess that they broke the lamp than when they report that they’ve done their homework and cleaned their room? Again, Jesus doesn’t see things the way we do. Heaven rejoices when we come regularly and repeatedly to lay our sins at Jesus’ feet because that’s why he came. As Paul says Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15) – NOT those who think they have done enough, served enough, given enough to please God on their own. There are no parties in heaven for the proud and self-righteous who don’t think they need to be in God’s house to receive his forgiveness. Jesus didn’t come for them. He came for sinners.

And so, if you heard this text and figured that this parable is about the people out there who don’t go to church, or perhaps a member who hasn’t been here in some time, you still don’t understand. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: Jesus’ parables often invite us to find ourselves in them. Where do you and I fit? Are we the owner of the sheep and coins? No, Jesus claims that role for himself. This text is not about us seeking and finding the lost! Are you the lost sheep and the lost coin? You might not want to think of yourself as lost – but here’s the thing – if you don’t see yourself as the lost sheep and coin, there’s only one role left. Then you’re one of the ninety-nine righteous persons who don’t think they need to repent. If that describes you, then I have only bad news for you: you’re still lost, you’re still in the wilderness. If you’ve become so comfortable in yourself, your goodness, your lifestyle compared to others that you don’t think you need to repent, then you’re no different than those Pharisees sneering at the tax collectors and sinners. If you think repentance is for other people, then it’s my responsibility to warn you against coming up to this table to eat with Jesus, because the hymn was right: Jesus receives sinners, lost sheep, not self-righteous saints (CW 304).

It’s become fashionable in some Christian circles to teach that Christians aren’t sinners anymore and that they shouldn’t call themselves sinners. Heretics like Joyce Meyer openly declare that they are no longer sinful and that to suggest otherwise is a lie from hell. [2] They would be horrified by our confession of sins, disgusted that only confessed sinners are welcome at this table. She would say that we need to think like winners if we want to attract winners and if we keep talking about sin we will only succeed in drawing this world’s losers. The fact is that heaven doesn’t throw parties for winners, but losers; those who are eager to lose their sins in Jesus’ outrageous, irrational mercy and forgiveness. So if that’s you, a lost, despised, miserable sinner – then step forward confidently, because Jesus has fixed this meal just for you. Amen.

[1] Edersheim, Alfred The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (U.S.: Hendrickson Publishers) 652

[2] https://carm.org/joyce-meyer "I am not poor. I am not miserable and I am not a sinner. That is a lie from the pit of hell. That is what I were and if I still was then Jesus died in vain. I'm going to tell you something folks. I didn't stop sinning until I finally got it through my thick head I wasn't a sinner anymore. And the religious world thinks that's heresy and they want to hang you for it. But the Bible says that I am righteous and I can't be righteous and be a sinner at the same time." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dmHJdM63hk)