Mark 12:28-37 - Significant Questions - March 3, 2021

Questions. They’re a big part of our everyday lives. Many of them aren’t all that important: “What’s for dinner?” “Did you check the laundry?” “Did you see the game last night?” And yet, there are those times in life when the questions we ask – and their answers – can be life-changing: “Did you get the job?” “Is the cancer in remission?” “Will you marry me?” Tonight, however, we aren’t focused on either of those categories of questions – either the unimportant or the life-changing. No, tonight we’re focused on two questions of eternal significance, one asked to Jesus and one asked by Jesus.

Just before our text, Jesus had been involved in a discussion with the Sadducees, the elites of the Jewish clergy, whose most notable belief was that they rejected the resurrection of the dead (which, if you ask me, makes religion kind of pointless) (Mark 12:18-27). As Mark tells us, one of the experts in the law approached after he heard their discussion. Apparently, he was impressed by Jesus’ answers and decided to pose a question of his own. Before we get to his question, however, we should come to a better understanding of what an expert in the law was. Experts in the law were responsible for two things: 1) making copies of the original manuscripts of the OT Scriptures – as well as other writings of the rabbis; and 2) interpreting these words for the people, who were, by and large, illiterate. Sounds like a pretty straight-forward job, right? Study the Word of God and teach and preach it. However, the experts in the law had made their job far more difficult than it needed to be by dividing God’s Law into 613 commandments, known as the mitzvoth. Instead of simply repeating God’s Word, the experts in the law endlessly debated which of these 613 commandments was most important. And, unfortunately, like today’s Supreme Court justices, these experts often referred to the precedent, the opinions, of other rabbis rather than the written Word of God. Therefore, this expert in the law was most likely just searching for another opinion, another precedent, another interpretation to refer to in his own work.

But, in spite of that baggage, he asks a good question: which commandment is the greatest of all? Jesus gives a two-part answer: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ Jesus answers him with a verse this expert undoubtedly knew very well, it was the most basic Jewish confession of faith, from Deuteronomy 6. Do you know what’s most interesting about Jesus’ answer? He doesn’t begin by directly addressing the expert’s question, that is, what we should or should not do. No, he begins with the identity of the one, true God: The Lord, our God, the Lord is one. Why start here? Because if, as Paul says in Romans 13, love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:10), then your love had better be directed to and directed by the one, true God! He’s making the point that if your love is not directed at and by the one, true God, then whatever love or worship you are showing is utterly worthless. (This is extremely relevant to our world today, where many wicked behaviors and beliefs are defended and justified under the blanket of “love.”) The one, true God is the only God we should love with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength – anything else is idolatry.

Then Jesus expands, going beyond the teacher in the law’s question: the second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. Here again, Jesus is quoting directly from the Old Testament, specifically, Leviticus 19:18. Why include the second table of the Law – that is, commandments 4-10? Because love for God and love for neighbor can never be separated. The Apostle John writes: if anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar (1 John 4:20).

As the expert recognized, Jesus is right. These are the greatest commandments because if you do them, you will live (Leviticus 18:5; Luke 10:28)! If you fear, love, and trust in God above all things; if you never use God’s name to curse or swear and instead use it to regularly pray, praise and give thanks; if you always – daily and weekly – gladly hear and study God’s Word. If you always honor your mother and father – not to mention your pastor, governor and president; if you not only never commit murder but you never lose your temper; if you keep both your body and your thoughts free from lust; if you never steal – not by “massaging” your taxes or by skimming time from your employer; if you never gossip on social media to do anything to hurt anyone’s reputation; if you never have a sinful desire for something God has given to someone else – then you can punch your own ticket to heaven. So there you have it; there is Jesus’ perfect answer to the question of the expert in the law: which commandment is the greatest of all?: love the Lord your God with all you have and love your neighbor as yourself.

The expert in the law commended Jesus on his answer: well said, teacher. But Jesus’ closing words are curious, aren’t they? The lawyer agreed with him, then why does he tell him you are not far from the kingdom of God? What’s getting in the way? Two things. First, instead of simply patronizing Jesus by complimenting his wise answer – he should have fallen down on his knees and confessed: I haven’t and I can’t do these things and asked – “how then can I be saved?” Secondly, he didn’t yet recognize that Jesus is the Messiah, the only one who could save him from his sins against God’s Law. In other words, the expert in the law had a totally backwards understanding of how a person gains access to God’s kingdom. This man, and, sadly, most people believe that a relationship with God is based on our doing something for him – when the reality is that the only way we can have a relationship with God is by him doing everything for us! This is called divine Monergism – that God alone must do everything for our salvation.

In other words, while these two commandments are great, they’re not good; that is, they’re not good news. It’s one thing to know God’s will. It’s a completely different thing to do it. And I can state with absolute certainty that none of us here – myself included – have kept either of the two tables of God’s law perfectly. That’s why even having a clear understanding of what the greatest commandment of all is, is not gospel – because it will never help you get to heaven (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16).

So where’s the good news to be found in this text if it’s not found in Jesus’ answer? In the one giving the answer…in Jesus. The good news is that the one who gave this answer to the expert in the law is the one, true God. He is the one who came to do what we could never do. He came to keep God’s law – both the first and second tables of the Law – perfectly. He alone loved God with all his heart and soul and mind and strength. He alone loved his neighbor as himself. In fact, in regard to both, he most fully loved God and his neighbors (including us) by giving up his life on the cross. In that one act Jesus showed perfect love to God by submitting his will fully to his Father’s will and he loved us even more than he loved himself, by laying down his life for our sins (John 15:13)! And because of that one act, you and I now possess perfect righteousness before God in regard to both tables of God’s law. Jesus’ righteousness has become ours (2 Corinthians 5:21). And believing this good news – and not obeying or doing anything – is the only thing that can bring sinners like us into the kingdom of God.

But now Jesus has a significant question of his own; a question that gets to the heart of the issue that enraged Jesus’ opponents and led directly to his crucifixion: How is it that the experts in the law say that the Christ is the Son of David? David himself said by the Holy Spirit: the Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool under your feet.’ Like many lawyers today, the experts in the law were expert at quoting Scripture – but because of their unbelief, they were blind to the fact that the Christ had to be both true God and true man. They would agree that the Messiah was the Son of David – that is, true man – but they believed that he would come to set up an earthly, not a spiritual kingdom. However, rather than giving them the answer, Jesus asks leaves them hanging with a question, David himself calls him Lord, so how can he be his Son?

There is only one answer to this question, and the answer was standing right in front of the crowd in the temple on Tuesday of Holy Week. The only logical answer is that the Christ had to be both true God and true man. The only logical answer is that Jesus is the Christ. His humanity was obvious to the so-called experts – but so was his divinity. He proved all throughout his ministry that he was divine. He is the one who was there at the creation of the world and with God and was with God in every way (John 1:1-4). He is the one who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He is the one who commanded the wind and the waves to be quiet, and they listened (Mark 4:35-41). He is the one who healed all types of physical diseases and problems, removing them instantly – as if they never existed (Mark 3:1-11). He is the one who demonstrated his power over life and death by raising three people from death to life (that we know of!) (Luke 7:11-17; Luke 8:49-56; John 11:1-44). And, as we will celebrate in a few weeks, he is the one whom death and the grave could not hold. He was and is David’s Son and David’s Lord. He is the one, true God come to earth to singlehandedly save his people from their sins. It’s no wonder the crowd was delighted, is it?

Tuesday of Holy Week presents us with two eternally significant questions: which commandment is the greatest of all? And David calls [the Christ his] Lord, so how can he be his son? In reality, the greatest commandment of all isn’t any of the ten commandments, the greatest commandment of all is that we believe in the name of [God’s] Son, Jesus Christ (1 John 3:23). Only through faith in Jesus, who is true God and true man, David’s Son and David’s Lord can anyone enter the kingdom of God. Which just goes to show us once again that Jesus is the answer to all of our most significant questions. Amen.   

Mark 8:31-38 - The Peter Principle - February 28, 2021

In 1969 an author by the name of Laurence J. Peter developed what is known as the Peter Principle. This principle asserted that in any organization employees tend to rise through the ranks until they reach the level of their incompetence – that is, to the point when their talents and skills are no longer sufficient for the job. [1] Today, we observe the Peter Principle at work in none other than the apostle Peter himself.

So what do we see in Peter today: competence or incompetence? Well, both. Right before our text, in response to Jesus’ question who do you say I am? (Mark 8:29) Peter was the only disciple who answered without hesitation, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). That’s Christian competence at its highest – confessing that this humble carpenter’s Son from Nazareth is truly the promised Savior, the Son of God. But the moment Jesus began to speak plainly about what it meant to be the Christ: rejection, suffering and dying – Peter revealed his incompetence. He dared to rebuke Jesus!

For that reason, Peter often becomes something of a whipping boy during Lent. He’s trotted out as the bad disciple, the weak disciple, the cowardly disciple, the denying disciple. You’re told to see how awful Peter is; to repent of being a Peter; to give thanks that Jesus redeemed you from being a Peter. That’s the typical Lenten Peter Principle, but today, at least at first, we’re going to prove that part wrong; that Peter really displays that he is more competent to be a disciple of Jesus than we often are.

Peter, at least, listens carefully to the words of Jesus. Even though Jesus says if you remain in my word, you are really my disciples (John 8:31), how well do we really know our Bibles? Can we recite the 10 commandments? The books of the Bible? How carefully do we listen when God’s Word is preached? If I were to ask you tomorrow what today’s sermon was about, would you have an answer? Luther picked up on this all-too-common Christian incompetence in his commentary on the 3rd Commandment in the Large Catechism. He criticized those who “listen to God’s Word like it was any other trifle and only come to preaching because of custom. They go away again, and at the end of the year they know as little of God’s Word as at the beginning” (LC 3rd Commandment: 96). This is the sin of indifference. It’s the sin of thinking that you’ve done your duty as long as you sit here for an hour a week. Never mind that you don’t really listen; never mind that your mind begins wandering the moment you sit down. You think you’ve done what God wants just by being present where God’s Word is read and proclaimed. But faith doesn’t come by proximity but by hearing (Romans 10:17). At least Peter listened to Jesus’ words. You can tell how closely he listened by his reaction. Sure, it was the wrong reaction, but a wrong reaction is better than no reaction – it’s better than letting the Gospel go in one ear and out the other (Revelation 3:16).

Before we tie Peter to the whipping post this Lent for daring to rebuke Jesus, for tempting him to walk away from the cross, let’s at least admit that Peter takes the horror of the cross seriously. Peter is utterly appalled that the Christ, the Messiah the church had waited thousands of years for, would be crucified by the very leaders of the church he came to save. Peter could possibly understand the elders, the chief priests, the experts in the law grumbling about Jesus the way their fathers grumbled about Moses (Exodus 16:2), but for them to succeed in murdering him – no, that was too much! The thought of Jesus being nailed to a tree, hanging there slowly bleeding out and suffocating until he died, was too much for Peter to stomach because Peter took those words seriously. How about us?

As Lutherans, we’re kind of spoiled. The cross is everywhere in our worship: it’s in our architecture, in our hymns and liturgies, it’s in the creeds we confess together and front and center in the sermons we hear. And what’s our reaction to this regular diet of Jesus’ rejection, suffering and crucifixion? I’ll confess that, for myself at least, my reaction was often: “Meh. Been here, heard this.” We know we’re supposed to take our Savior’s suffering seriously, but do we? If you’ve seen Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, you may have for a couple of hours had an actual, visceral reaction to Jesus’ suffering and death. I’ve talked to grown men who said that they walked out of that movie with tears running down their faces. But what happens the second, the third, the fourth time you see it? The reaction is dulled. “Been here, seen this.” That’s why one confessional Lutheran pastor called that movie “spiritual pornography.” And the same thing can happen here. Week after week we hear about how Jesus, the Christ, was rejected by the church, humiliated by the church, and executed in the most excruciating manner possible – and it can become old news. “Yeah, yeah, we know all that. Tell us something we don’t know; make us feel something I haven’t felt; surprise us; entertain us.”

For all that Peter does wrong, at least he understands the injustice of it all. He knows that Jesus doesn’t deserve what he says will happen to him. Peter has lived with Jesus for three years. He knows this man. He knows that Jesus never spoke an evil word about anyone, and that he not only never hurt anyone, but he healed and helped many. And that’s really why Peter dares to rebuke Jesus. He knows that neither the church nor the government have a legitimate case against him. He’s competent enough to understand that it would be nothing less than the greatest crime in human history for the church and the government to collude to execute the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16).

How about you? Is your reaction ever: “Why should I be shocked, this is what’s supposed to happen. This is what the prophets said must happen (Isaiah 53). It’s Jesus’ job to die for us.” It’s not that we’re too competent in our faith to rebuke Jesus; no, it’s that we take it for granted that Jesus should suffer and die for us. You don’t rebuke birds for flying or fish for swimming – why should we rebuke Jesus to saying that he is going to do what we expect him to? How would you react if your own child enlisted in the military and was killed in battle and someone said – “Why are you so shocked? Isn’t that what they signed up for?”

I think I’ve got your attention now. I think I can actually hear the contrition and repentance rising from your hearts. Now you’ll listen to Jesus’ words; now you’ll take his suffering seriously; now you’ll confess that Jesus didn’t deserve to die. Be careful! You know where this path leads, don’t you? Right where it took Peter, from competence to incompetence. Yes, Peter was competent enough to actually listen to Jesus’ words; he was competent enough to be horrified at the thought of Jesus’ crucifixion; he was competent enough to know that Jesus didn’t deserve to die; but he reveals his incompetence in failing to understand the bigger picture, the things of God, why Jesus had to suffer and die.

Peter listened Jesus’ words, but he didn’t receive them as divine necessity. To Peter, Jesus was just being a ‘negative Nancy,’ looking at the glass as half-empty rather than half-full. Jesus was trying to prepare Peter for what he would certainly experience, but Peter preferred to hold out hope that there might be another, easier way. He reacted like we often do to the serious warnings the Bible gives us about what it means to follow [Jesus]. The Bible gives these guarantees: we must go through many troubles on our way to the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22); everyone who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12); and dear friends, do not be surprised by the fiery trial that is happening among you to test you, as if something strange were happening to you (1 Peter 4:12). And yet how do we react to these guarantees; especially in the relative religious freedom we enjoy in America? We are surprised – and sometimes angry at God – when the very things he said would happen do happen.

Peter heard Jesus’ prediction of the cross as horrible but not as reality. For that reason, he couldn’t see the resurrection as a reality either. He couldn’t see the glory of Easter’s crown hidden behind the gore of Calvary’s cross. The awful thought of Jesus being rejected and executed was all that he could see. To Peter, Jesus’ cross was especially horrible because, without Easter, it seemed so meaningless.

Are we any different? Don’t we often regard the crosses we carry as pointless and meaningless? The crosses we carry in our vocations as sons and daughters and mothers and fathers and husbands and wives; the crosses of intolerance and ridicule and persecution. Don’t those crosses often seem so meaningless – that they are just getting in the way of living life to the fullest? In Peter’s mind the rejection, suffering, and dying that Jesus spoke about could only get in the way of Jesus truly being the Christ, the Son of the living God. The truth is that these things are precisely what it meant to be the Christ, the Son of the living God. In the same way, the crosses we bear are not things that get in the way of living life – they are the very essence of what it means to live as Christians.

But we’ll never see that until the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see what Peter couldn’t. As Jesus noted, Peter’s concern was limited to this life, to the things of men. He could only see how meaningless it would be for Jesus to be rejected, suffer and die. “Couldn’t Jesus do so much more good alive than dead?” What Peter didn’t see is why Jesus had to suffer and die. This wasn’t some tragic accident; this was God’s eternal plan. Jesus was going to suffer for Peter, for me and for you and for the world (Matthew 20:28). What Peter couldn’t see is that from God’s point of view, if we were to be saved from the eternal damnation we deserved – Jesus was going to have to endure it in our place. We necessitated Jesus’ cross. Therefore, the good news of the cross is, as the banner says the punishment that brought us peace was upon him (Isaiah 53:5). This is what Peter didn’t understand. But if you take nothing else away from this sermon, I hope you take this: the shame Jesus endured at the hands of men means that I no longer have to be ashamed for all of the shameful thoughts that have passed through my mind. The torture that Jesus endured means that I won’t have to endure the never-ending torture of hell for the times that I have tortured the people I’m supposed to love. The death Jesus endured means that I won’t ever really die – that is, I will never, ever be separated from God in this life or the next. That’s what Jesus wants Peter and us to see in his cross. From that perspective, Jesus’ cross doesn’t look so meaningless, does it?

And…neither do our crosses. Eventually, Peter saw this too. Today, Peter was repulsed by the cross. During Holy Week he denied and ran away from the cross (Matthew 26:69-75). But many years later, he embraced the cross. He wrote rejoice whenever you are sharing in the sufferings of Christ (1 Peter 4:13). Why? Why in the world should we rejoice when we suffer for following Jesus? Because our suffering, our crosses are no less meaningful and purposeful than Jesus’ suffering and his cross. Jesus was rejected, he suffered, he was killed in order to rescue us from sin, death and the devil. We face suffering and trials and pain because we’ve been rescued from sin, death, and the devil. This means that the pain, the suffering, the crosses you and I carry during this life are anything but meaningless and pointless; they are proof positive that we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters and beloved children of God. They also serve as the guardrails God uses to keep our focus on Christ and his cross and on the narrow road to heaven (Matthew 7:13-14). Think of it this way: when is your mind more on the things of God – on Christ and his cross and the salvation he won – when life is great or when its terrible? If God uses our suffering, our crosses to keep us close to himself – that’s not meaningless at all, is it?

Does this clarification make it any easier to embrace the cross of suffering in this life? Probably not. That’s because of the Peter Principle – we’ve reached the point where we’re in over our heads. No Christian can fully comprehend how God uses the cross for our good. That’s why we don’t fix our eyes on the things of men, our own crosses; but on the things of God, on Jesus and his cross, where through the greatest evil ever perpetrated by mankind God orchestrated the greatest good of all: our salvation. Amen.  

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle

Mark 11:15-19 - Significant Action - February 24, 2021

Because we go through the life of our Savior each and every year, I’m pretty confident that we are all familiar with the major events that took place on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. But how familiar are you with what took place on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of that holiest week? These days are well worth our time, because these days contain some of Jesus’ most significant words and actions. Starting tonight and throughout the rest of this Lenten season, we will explore what happened on the three days between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday.

Tonight’s text takes place on Monday of Holy Week. The day before, Palm Sunday, Jesus had been welcomed into Jerusalem with shouts of Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! (Matthew 21:9). But the day ended on a rather ominous note. Mark tells us that Jesus went into the temple courts in Jerusalem and looked around at everything (Mark 11:11). The next day, Jesus would do a whole lot more than just look around. On Monday, Jesus, disgusted with what he saw going on there, took significant action.

On Monday, Jesus went into the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the temple courts. Jesus justified his actions by quoting Isaiah and Jeremiah: My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations (Isaiah 56:7) but you have made it ‘a den of robbers’! (Jeremiah 7:11) Without a doubt, this is a pretty shocking scene. This is not the meek and gentle Jesus we’re used to. So what’s really going on here? Each year during the Passover festival – a festival God commanded his people to celebrate every year to remind them of his deliverance of their forefathers from Egypt (Exodus 13:1-16) – thousands of Jews would come to Jerusalem to celebrate. Many came from far away, and the practical reality is that it was much easier for them to simply buy the animals they needed for their sacrifices and offerings right at the temple rather than try to transport them dozens or hundreds of miles. To make the process even more convenient, the vendors just happened to have animals that had been preapproved by the priests for use at the temple. Of course, these preapproved animals came at a premium price. There were even rumors that some of the purchase price was kicked-back to the priests and that some of the priests rejected any animals that weren’t purchased from one of their “approved” vendors. In other words, there was clearly unethical, if not criminal, collusion going on in the temple, enabled and even initiated by the very leaders, the priests, who were supposed to enable and assist the Jewish people in worshipping God (Hebrews 5:1) during the highest festival in Israel’s church year.

And that’s not all. The pilgrims who came to Jerusalem with foreign currency in their wallets had to exchange it for the currency that was acceptable to pay the temple tax (which, wouldn’t you know it, was a shekel that was minted only in Jerusalem and nowhere else). You can guess what this led to – in fact, if you’ve ever traveled internationally, you know that currency exchangers charge you to exchange your money. Knowing that they had a virtual monopoly on the currency exchange business right at the temple, the money changers could charge exorbitant fees. All in all, the situation Jesus found in the temple area during Passover week wasn’t focused on God, prayer and sacrifice – but on the “business” that had to happen before there could be any focus on God, prayer or sacrifice. The focus had shifted from the spiritual to the secular; from the things of God to the things of men (Mark 8:33).

As bad as these collusion schemes were, there was something even worse taking place in the temple courts. It was no accident that Jesus quoted this specific verse from Isaiah: my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. The temple was to be a house of prayer not only for ethnic Jews but also for Gentiles. That’s why God designed the temple with a court for male Jews, a court for female Jews, and an additional court for Gentiles (1 Chronicles 28). Of course, when a marketplace needed to be constructed for buying and selling – which court do you think was utilized? The court of the Gentiles. The temple, which God had intended to be a place of prayer for people of all nations had instead become a money-making machine for the religious leaders and their cronies – to the exclusion of pious people – including Gentile converts – who had come to worship and pray. This is the main reason why Jesus launched into action, clearing out the temple area.

Jesus’ actions sent a clear message to the chief priests and experts in the law. But that’s not all it does. It sends a message to us, too. We, too, can be tempted to turn God’s house and the Gospel ministry into little more than a utilitarian operation. No, I’m not suggesting that any of our leaders are lining their pockets with your offerings – although there are many false teachers out there who have and are fleecing God’s flock in order to enrich themselves. No, I’m saying that we can be tempted to view two of the most important elements of Gospel ministry – evangelism and church discipline – as little more than a means to an end. I’m grateful that I’ve never heard this sentiment here, but it’s certainly been said in many congregations that “we need more members to take the financial burden off of us.” But I have heard, from unfaithful members I’ve reached out to, “I know I don’t come to church, but I’ve used the PayPal link on your website to give my offering.” Is the reason we reach out to the lost and to the wandering just to ensure that we end up in the black at the end of the fiscal year?

Even apart from – and, I believe, more dangerous than – the financial temptation, is the temptation to believe that the main reason to engage in evangelism and church discipline is for the survival of the church. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again because I believe it is an insidious attitude that has taken root in our own church body – we don’t seek the lost for the survival of the church. Why not? Quite simply, because it’s not our church – it’s Jesus’ (Matthew 16:18). He’s the head (Ephesians 5:23), he promises to provide for her (Matthew 6:25-34), he guarantees that even the gates of hell cannot overcome her (Matthew 16:18). If we ever view Gospel ministry as simply a means for preserving our church, then we’ve reversed the roles. God didn’t put people into our families and office spaces and neighborhoods to serve his church – he put his church in your life and in this neighborhood to serve and save our neighbors with the means of grace. Christ will provide for the maintenance and upkeep and survival of his church – that’s not our main concern. Our main concern should be maintaining this house that Christ has given us as a house of prayer for all nations.

But even those concerns are secondary to the main problem. The problem in the temple courts on Monday wasn’t really that there were salesmen selling doves and bankers exchanging money – those things did have to be done. It was that they were placing an obstacle in the way of both Jewish and Gentile pilgrims to be able to do what they had come to the Temple for: to worship their God. Self-examination time: are there any obstacles in the way of our true and sincere worship of God our Savior today? Is there anything that prevents you from studying God’s Word and praying on a daily basis in your own home, with your own family? When you come here, where do you expect the spotlight to be: on you or on God? Why don’t more of our members come to these Lenten services? Is it because it isn’t convenient enough? That’s the argument the Jewish leaders would have made – we need to make it convenient. Really? Since when is worship supposed to be convenient? Since when is it supposed to be easy? Since when is it not supposed to interrupt your plans too much? Are there all sorts of things running through your mind during your time here, all sorts of obstacles that get in between you and truly hearing God’s Word and receiving his gifts? I know it’s not comfortable to ask these questions, but we aren’t here to be comfortable – we are here to be confronted with our sins and confess them so that they can be forgiven by Jesus’ blood.  

The good news is that clearing the obstacles out of the way of true worship is not really up to us – it’s up to Jesus. Jesus – and not one of his disciples – is the one who took action in driving the vendors and money changers out of the temple and he’s the one who takes action to drive the obstacles out of our lives so that we worship and receive his gifts through Word and Sacrament. While Jesus’ action on Monday was certainly significant, his mission of salvation required him to take even more significant action on Friday of Holy Week. On Friday, the Friday we call “Good,” he didn’t just drive vendors and money changers from the temple, he drove sin, death and the devil from their throne in our hearts and the world. He removed the main obstacle that separated us and others from God – namely, our sin (Isaiah 59:2) – the permanent removal of which was symbolized by the tearing of the curtain in the temple from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). Now we can enter the presence of God in worship and prayer – because Jesus has cleared every obstacle out of the way with his blood (Hebrews 10:19-23).

And, having removed the obstacle of sin objectively – that is, for the world – Jesus also took significant action to apply this redemption to you personally. You may not remember it – I don’t – but nonetheless, when we were baptized Jesus worked through water and the Word to pour the Holy Spirit on you, to call you to faith, to wash away your sin, to claim you as a child of God, and to make you an heir of eternal life in heaven. It would have been fascinating to be there on Monday of Holy Week to see Jesus drive all those obstacles out of the temple. But what we should really focus on is that day in our own lives when Jesus drove all the obstacles out of our hearts that kept us away from God. For you and for me, that’s really the day of Jesus’ most significant action in our lives.

As you might expect, the religious leaders were not exactly pleased with the action Jesus took that Monday. It was not good for business. They were afraid of him – afraid of his popularity and afraid that he was ruining their cash cow; and out of their fear they were looking for a way to kill him. By the end of the week, they would get what they wanted. But, for tonight, give thanks for the significant action Jesus took on your behalf on Good Friday and the day of your Baptism – clearing out the sin that kept you from worshipping the one true God in spirit and in truth (John 4:23). Amen.

Mark 1:12-15 - The Heart of Lent - February 21, 2021

You may or may not be aware of the fact that our church follows a lectionary – that is, a list of Scripture readings appointed to be read for each Sunday of the church year. We are currently following a three year lectionary – one year in Matthew, one in Mark, and one in Luke – with selections from John’s Gospel scattered throughout all three years. We don’t have to follow a lectionary, but this practice does ensure that over the course of the year we cover the whole life of Christ and the whole counsel of God – and not just whatever happens to be on my mind on any given Sunday. The reason I bring this up is that in each of the three years, Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is the appointed Gospel for today, the first Sunday in Lent. And if you compare the three accounts from Matthew, Mark and Luke one thing pops out immediately: Mark’s account is incredibly brief – just two sentences. There are probably two reasons for this. First, Mark is likely assuming that his readers are already familiar with the details of Jesus’ temptation from reading or hearing Matthew and Luke’s accounts. Second, and more importantly for us today, Mark is eager, almost impatient, to answer that Lutheran question: what does Jesus’ temptation mean for us? The answer is the simple but profound heart of Lent: repent and believe.

Repent. What does that little word mean? It means simply “to change your mind.” What do we need to change our minds about? You may be surprised by the answers to that question this morning. Repent of thinking that God throws you aside after your baptism. We’ve all had that feeling before, haven’t we? If you were baptized as an adult, you probably had a sense of closeness to God. Even if you were baptized as a baby, when you were young you probably remember feeling that God was on your side; that you really felt like “Jesus’ little lamb.” And then life happened. Then some of the things Paul described in our second lesson happened to you (Romans 8:35). Not just life happened but death; not just angels but demons were your companions; not only the problems of the present but the problems of the future terrified you. You felt like the Psalmist did when he wrote: for your sake we are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered (Psalm 44:22, quoted by Paul in Romans 8:36).

There are two problems with believing that God has abandoned you; thrown you away. First, it appeals to our sinful nature; it makes us feel very righteous; it feeds our ego to believe that we are on our own. Second, there is hardly anyone in the world who will call you to repent of this sin. Which of your friends is going to blame you for feeling like God has abandoned you when your life seems to be falling apart? Which of your family members is going to tell you you’re wrong – and need to repent – for accusing God of being neglectful when you’re sick, suffering or dying? If you see a dirty, bruised, hungry child you have no problem concluding that the parent is neglectful, so why shouldn’t we conclude that about God?

How dare we! How dare we ever believe that the God who adopted us as his children in baptism would ever abandon us as orphans (Isaiah 49:15-16)! How dare we believe that the God who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all would ever neglect us (Romans 8:32)! How dare we imagine that the God who promised I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you (Hebrews 13:5) would ever break that promise! It’s the height of unbelief; a sin against the very first commandment to allege that God doesn’t love us like he says he does; like he’s proven he does in Jesus (Romans 5:8). When we’re suffering, we need to repent of thinking that it means that God has abandoned us; instead we should change our minds and understand that God uses even suffering and trouble as an instrument to keep us close to himself (Romans 5:3-5).

Repent, Jesus went to Galilee to preach. Repent, is also what Jesus sent me here to preach (Luke 24:46-49). Repent of thinking that Jesus’ temptation is nothing more than an example for you to follow. This sin usually arises when the gospel for the first Sunday in Lent comes from Matthew or Luke where Jesus defeats Satan by quoting three bible passages. Now, don’t misunderstand, the Bible does say resist the Devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7) and that we should hold up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. Also take…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:16). But if you’ve turned Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness into a “How-To” guide for defeating the devil yourself, you must repent.

The Spirit didn’t send Jesus into the wilderness to show us how to defeat Satan. The Spirit sent him out onto the battlefield to do what we can’t do; what even Adam and Eve in the perfection of Eden couldn’t do. In a lush garden, surrounded by food, without even a molecule of sin in their nature, even Adam and Eve quickly fell to Satan (Genesis 3:6). Eve tried quoting God’s Word against Satan and he ripped the sword out of her hand and stabbed her with it. Repent of thinking that you can overcome temptation on your own (which is why Jesus taught us to pray lead us not into temptation (Matthew 6:13).

Closely related to this sin is the sin of promising to do better next time. I see this most often when I confront people about their unfaithful church attendance. When I say “Do you know that neglecting the means of grace is a sin against the 3rd Commandment?” it’s uncanny how often they respond, “I promise to do better next time.” Here’s the thing: God isn’t looking for promises. He’s looking for repentance. Remember, to “repent” means, first and foremost, to change your mind. Repentance is an act of God, the power of the Spirit, a miracle (Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25). Actions will follow, but you can’t change your mind by changing your actions. In fact, everyone knows that you can change your actions without changing your mind. That’s called hypocrisy.

Lent is a season of repentance – so…Repent! Repent of thinking that God has cast you aside; repent of thinking that you can overcome Satan’s temptations on your own; and repent of thinking that you are in charge of building the kingdom of God. This is another sin that feels so righteous when you’re committing it. It makes us feel big and important to think: “Jesus came and did his work; now the rest is up to us!” But look at our text. Jesus didn’t say: “I’ve brought the blueprints for you to build the kingdom of God!” He preached the kingdom of God has come near! In Jesus, the kingdom of God has arrived.

This shouldn’t be a difficult sin for we Lutherans to repent of, for we confess with Luther in his explanation of the Second Petition, that “God’s kingdom certainly comes by itself even without our prayer” (SC Lord’s Prayer, Second Petition). For example, as you were driving here this morning did you pray that God’s kingdom would come here? Of course not, you took it for granted that where Jesus is, there is his kingdom. Jesus is wherever his Word and Sacrament are, so Jesus’ kingdom is here, even without our prayer, apart from any effort on our part. Repent of thinking that Jesus is quarantined up in heaven just hoping and waiting for you to build his kingdom.

Repent, Jesus preached after his baptism. But that’s not all he preached. He also preached believe. Believe that while God will never throw you out, he did indeed throw Jesus out after his baptism. Our translation doesn’t fully capture the essence of the original Greek. The Greek literally says that “the Spirit cast (or threw) him out into the wilderness.” (It’s the same verb used later of Jesus casting out demons (Mark 1:39; 43; 3:15; etc.)). Why would God do that to his Son? Well, frankly, he didn’t have a choice. At his baptism, which immediately preceded our text, Jesus was burdened with all of our sin and guilt and shame. Saddled with our sins, the sins we blush to remember, the sins we can’t forget, the sins we don’t even know about (Psalm 19:12) – God had to cast Jesus out of his sight (Isaiah 59:2). Believe that God threw his only Son out into the wilderness – so that he might never, ever have to throw you into the fire of hell.

Believe that while carrying the sin of the world Jesus entered into battle with Satan; and he did it all alone. Believe that Jesus took on Satan using only the Word of God as his weapon. Believe that Jesus held onto faith in his Father’s love through every temptation. Believe that he never gave an inch to any sin of doubt or despair or unbelief. Believe that while Satan can lead us into all sorts of sin and unbelief – he couldn’t trap Jesus. And believe that Jesus did this for you. Don’t let Jesus’ victory over Satan in the wilderness go to waste. When you believe that your salvation depends on your ability to overcome temptation or do better in the future, you are wasting what Jesus endured in that wilderness. Don’t think you have to endure loneliness and hunger; that you have to overcome temptation in order to be saved – because you can’t! Instead, believe that Jesus did it for you!

Above all, here’s what you are to believe: you are to believe what Jesus says. What Jesus says – not what you see, think or feel; not what’s happening in your life right now – is real. When Jesus says, as he does today, that the time is fulfilled…the kingdom of God has come near you are to believe this with all your heart, soul and mind. What is the kingdom of God? Paul tells us in Romans 14: the kingdom of God [consists] of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Isn’t this what you have right now through baptism, absolution and communion? God himself promises that these gifts are yours through these means of grace whether you feel or see them or not. In other words, the kingdom of God is unconditional. It isn’t only present if everything is going right in my life; if I have perfect health; if my conscience doesn’t bother me; if my faith feels strong. No, the kingdom is here not because of what is going on my life but because of what Jesus did in his and what he gives us through Word and Sacrament.

You can be sure of this, you should believe this because Jesus brought the kingdom of God to us by dealing with the two things that kept the gates of the kingdom locked to us: the law and sin. First, Jesus dealt with the law. From the moment of his conception Jesus spent his life actively keeping, obeying, fulfilling God’s law perfectly. That’s what he was doing in the wilderness; that’s what he had done as he grew up in Mary and Joseph’s house; that’s what he did day in and day out every day of his life.

And then he dealt with sin. Contrary to what many believe today, God takes sin seriously. He demands that sin be paid for in full. God isn’t some cosmic Santa Claus who laughs and winks at sin. No, his wrath had to be satisfied. Only God could satisfy the wrath of God – but because God wasn’t angry at God but at man, it took God in human flesh to get the job done. Jesus suffered for our sins by bleeding, sweating and crying human blood, sweat and tears – and because his blood, sweat and tears were the blood, sweat and tears of God, they satisfied God – and, therefore, they should satisfy you too! Jesus bled and died to pay for your sins; they are forgiven! Believe it! This is what you are to believe: you are to believe this gospel, this good news, that by his life, death and resurrection Jesus has opened the kingdom of heaven to you and all believers.  

The first Sunday of Lent takes us right to the heart of Lent: repent and believe. Repent of thinking that God could cast you out and instead believe that he has cast Jesus out in your place. Repent of thinking that you must overcome the devil in order to enter God’s kingdom – instead, believe that Jesus overcame the devil to bring the kingdom to you. These two little words – repent and believe – are not only the heart of Lent, they are the heart of our lives as Christians today and tomorrow and every day until we see the kingdom of God with our own eyes. Amen.

Genesis 3:19 - Significant Problem - February 17, 2021 - Ash Wednesday

Why are you here this evening? That may sound like a throw-away question, but tonight, I’m serious. Why are you here? You could be at home watching Netflix or eating a quiet dinner or helping your children with their homework. But…you’re here. Why? There must be a pretty significant reason, right? You may think you’re here because you just come to church whenever there is a service out of habit or because you love singing Lenten hymns or because you feel obligated to be here for one reason or another. But you’re not really here for any of those reasons. This day, Ash Wednesday, pulls off the mask of any superficial reasons we may have to come to church. There is really only one good reason for you to be here in God’s house tonight – or any other day, for that matter. And that reason is the direct result of events that took place on one incredibly significant day thousands of years ago in the Garden of Eden. On that day Adam and Eve created a significant problem for humanity – and that’s why we’re here tonight.

For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Those were God’s last words – last curse, really – to Adam after he and his wife had eaten fruit from the forbidden tree. God had warned them that if they ate the fruit from that one tree that they would surely die (Genesis 2:17) – but they didn’t listen, they didn’t believe, they didn’t trust God’s Word and trusted the words of Satan instead. And from that day on, death became the inescapable end of life for Adam and Eve and all of their ancestors – just as God said it would.

For you are dust, and to dust you shall return is a loaded sentence, packed with meaning. First, it recalls the origin of human life, that God formed Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed the breath of life into him to give him consciousness and life (Genesis 2:7). Second, it acknowledges that because of his sin, Adam’s body would return to dust and his soul would return to God, what we call temporal death (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Third, and most importantly for us tonight, it acknowledges the spiritual death that Adam and Eve had brought into the world by their rebellious actions. Adam and Eve would from that point on be banished from the presence of God, separated from his love, mercy and compassion. Adam would have to live the rest of his life remembering those words of God; longing for his presence; wishing that he could travel back in time and reverse what he had done. But he couldn’t. The dirty deed had been done and could not be undone. Adam and Eve’s fates were sealed: You are dust, and to dust you shall return.

This is no myth nor is it just some interesting piece of history. This story has a direct impact on our lives here and now. Because you and I are conceived and born facing the same problem Adam and Eve did. The Apostle Paul writes: Just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned (Romans 5:12). Worse than, as has been alleged, some scientist in some lab in Wuhan, China somehow getting infected and spreading Covid-19 throughout the world – Adam’s sin infects each and every human being – including you and me, my children and yours – so that it could rightly be said at the birth of a child: you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (How’s that for a greeting card?)

It’s a significant problem, to put it mildly. But it’s a problem that we will go to great lengths to avoid thinking about, to prevent, to delay, to pretend that it doesn’t exist. Why are some of the biggest buildings in our country hospitals? (They’re kind of like the cathedrals of the modern western world.) Why do you think we’re still wearing masks – and now, doubling and tripling them up – even though it is highly debatable what, if any, impact they have on minimizing the spread of Covid-19? Why has our nation poured billions of dollars into developing a vaccine, why do we gobble down prescription pills like candy, why do we spend hours each week running and biking and exercising? Because we suffer under the illusion that by doing those things we can prevent – or at least delay – the onset of death. (I’m not saying that we shouldn’t do what we can to live healthy lifestyles, but the truth is that God has already picked the day you and I will die, and there’s nothing we can do to change his timetable (Hebrews 9:27).) The point being that in spite of our best efforts, in spite of thousands of years of medical and scientific advancements, God’s curse still stands undefeated today: you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

That’s the first reason we’re here this evening. We’re here to agree with God’s proclamation that we are dust. We’re here to confess our sin to God and to one another – which is the root cause of death. We’re here express our sorrow over our sins. We’re here to ask God for forgiveness. We ask God to help us leave our sinful lives behind and to give us the strength to live according to his will.

And yet, there’s something even more important for you to remember this evening than the fact that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Do you know what that is? It’s that God remembers that you are dust. David says in Psalm 103: [God] knows how we were formed. He remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:14). In fact, God didn’t say those words to Adam just to scare him but to comfort him. God wanted Adam to know that he knew he was dust and promised that he had decided to act on that knowledge. Just four verses before this, on that same significant day, God spoke to Satan and swore that he was going to send someone to crush his head and destroy all his wicked work, including death (Genesis 3:15; 1 John 3:8).

And, as we know, this was more than an empty threat. We know that God has taken action for us on the basis of his knowledge that we are dust. He sent his Son to take on human flesh – to assume our dust, if you will (John 1:14). In terms that even the secular, ungodly world around us could understand, God developed and sent Jesus to earth as the vaccine – not just for a single, mutant virus – but for death itself. Jesus is our vaccine for death because he absorbed all of our sin into his own flesh and suffered the punishment sin deserves. He endured the penalty of eternal death on the cross as he was separated from God’s love, mercy and compassion; separated and abandoned from his eternal Father – which is hell itself – a death he declared with that haunting cry: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46) And when he was done, he went into the earth, into the dust of the ground, when he was buried in a tomb (Matthew 27:57-61).

But here’s the good news. Here’s why we’re really here tonight. You don’t really need me to tell you that you and your children and mine and everyone else in the world is going to die. You know that – even if you try your best to forget, prevent and delay it. No, you’re here tonight because you need to hear me tell you that even though Jesus was laid in the dust, he didn’t stay there. Three days after his burial he rose from the dust to life – just as he said he would (Matthew 28:6). And, because he did, so will you (John 14:19). When he returns in glory, you and all who believe in him will rise from the dust of the earth with new, perfect, glorified bodies. Bodies that are imperishable and immortal, no longer bound by sin or enslaved by Satan or doomed to die (1 Corinthians 15:35-49).

That’s why you’re here tonight. You’re here to gather before this cross because on a cross Jesus earned your forgiveness and your salvation and your life – life after death, life without end. You’re here because by God’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s power (1 Corinthians 12:3) you believe that what is more vital than wearing a mask (or two or three) or receiving a vaccine or staying 6 feet away from “folks you don’t live with,” is to receive this promise, this gift of eternal life through Word and Sacrament. You’re here to stare death in the eye and spit in its face and to shout: death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory?...Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! (1 Corinthians 15:55-56) (And, trust me, shouting that is much more satisfying than shouting at someone for not wearing their mask properly!)

There’s no denying the truth that we are dust, and to dust [we] will return. We know it – but far more importantly – God knows it. And he has not left us to waste away into dust. He came here as a helpless baby, a powerful preacher, and a crucified and risen Savior to guarantee that one day we will rise from the dust of the grave to never-ending life in heaven. This is Lent. We don’t need Lent to remind us that we are dust – those reminders are everywhere; we need Lent to remind us that God has not left us in the dust. Amen.

Mark 9:2-9 - Last Stop Before Lent - February 14, 2021

When you’re on a road trip, you’ll occasionally see signs issuing rather strong advice. “Last exit before toll road” tells you to get off the road if you don’t want to pay. “Last rest area for 92 miles” tells you if you have to go, stop and go now. “Last gas for 200 miles” tells you to fill up if you’re running low. “Stop here before going on” is the message these signs convey. Well, if we see the Christian church year as a road trip, then Transfiguration is a sign telling us to stop, to pause before we enter the season of Lent.

The question is: why? Why stop here on this mountaintop? There’s no question that this is a pretty fascinating scene. Jesus is transfigured in front of his disciples, revealing his true glory as God. And Moses and Elijah, the representatives of the law and the prophets respectively, are there. These two details combined tell us that this mountaintop is a sample of the resurrection life. It appears to indicate that in heaven we will recognize each other – even saints we’ve never met. It gives definite proof that there is no such thing as “soul sleep” or “conditional immortality” – the false teaching of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and other false religions that when a person dies they drop into an unconscious state until the end of time, [1] because here Moses – who died and was buried (Deuteronomy 34:5-6) – and, Elijah who was taken to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2), are both fully alive and fully conscious. Here we see what the believers who have gone before us are enjoying now and what we look forward to enjoying in the future.

And yet, as interesting as all this is, why does our Lord stop us here before he begins his final journey to the cross? Why in the world do Moses and Elijah show up now, just before Lent? The answer is that this scene connects what Jesus is about to do with the OT. As we read in the last verses of the OT in Malachi: remember the law of my servant Moses, which I commanded to him at Horeb to serve as statutes and judgments over all Israel. Look! I am going to send Elijah the prophet to you before the great and fearful day of the LORD comes! He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with complete destruction (Malachi 4:4-6). Here on the Mt. of Transfiguration these words are fulfilled. Moses is here to remind the disciples (and us) of the law. Elijah is here in power to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. In other words, right before Jesus offers up the New Testament in his blood (Matthew 26:28) we are reminded of where we would be if the story ended with the Old Testament. And it’s not a pretty picture.

We are to remember the Law of Moses, summarized in the 10 commandments. We are to remember how Jesus’ clear and forceful preaching of the law throughout his ministry proves that no one, not the disciples, not the Pharisees, not you and not me have kept God’s law perfectly. We are to remember that no one will be declared righteous in his sight by works of the law, for through the law we become aware of sin (Romans 3:20). Well, what about Elijah, what does his presence mean? Elijah was the preeminent preacher of repentance. The disciples didn’t really understand it at the time, but Jesus told them as they’re coming down the mountain: Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they wanted, just as it was written about him (Mark 9:13). John the Baptist was this Elijah, this forerunner. Like the first Elijah he issued powerful calls to repentance accompanied by the sign of baptism. But like, Elijah, John faced nothing but hostility. Herod did with him what he wanted by chopping off his head (Mark 6:14-29). This travesty only served to guarantee that the Lord would eventually come to strike the land with complete destruction.

What does this mean for us? The Lord wants us to make a last stop on this mountain and look back to the Old Testament and come to the sobering realization that if the story ended there, we’d all be lost and condemned. All the laws of Moses cannot save us; all the powerful preaching and miracles of Elijah cannot turn or convert our hearts from unbelief to faith. We need something and someone better. That’s why at this last stop God takes Moses and Elijah back to heaven so that the disciples would stop looking to them and look to Jesus alone. Transfiguration teaches us to stop with the Old Testament, to understand that the OT cannot save us.

Imagine if at the last stop before an especially barren portion of highway they siphoned the gas out of your car and took the water bottles out of your cooler and that all the restrooms were out of order. That’s kind of what happened to Peter. Six days before the Transfiguration Peter had confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). And once the disciples had a handle on Jesus’ identity, Jesus proceeded to inform them of his work. He taught them the theology of the cross: that [he] must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the law; be killed; and after three days rise again (Mark 8:31) – and that anyone who wanted to follow him must similarly take up his cross, and follow [him] (Mark 8:34). And Peter’s gut reaction to this theology was the same as mine: “No way! Jesus, you can’t suffer and die and neither can I! There’s got to be a better, easier way.” (Mark 8:32) Well, Jesus turned around and called him Satan and told him to get his head out of you-know-where. No, really. He told him to get his mind off the things of men and set it on the things of God (Mark 8:33).

Peter’s revulsion to the theology of the cross is probably why he wanted to keep Moses and Elijah in tents up there on that mountain. These heroes of the OT were the cavalry who could save Jesus and him from any kind of cross. At Moses’ command the earth swallowed up his enemies (Numbers 16:31-35); by Moses’ word Egypt was plagued and God’s people delivered (Exodus 7-11). And now he was here. And so was Elijah the prophet who had slaughtered hundreds of prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18) and called fire from heaven down on enemy soldiers (2 Kings 1). The cavalry had arrived and Peter intended to keep them around by putting up tents for them. No more of this talk of being betrayed, rejected, and crucified – not with Moses and Elijah on your side. With these reinforcements, Jesus could become the powerful, glorious Messiah he was longing for. But then – poof! – they were gone. And all he was left with was Jesus, Jesus alone. Some rest stop; some last stop before Lent.

Transfiguration impresses on us that we need to stop being like Peter. What was Peter’s real problem? He wanted a shortcut to glory. He wanted to avoid suffering and the cross at all costs. He wanted to stay there in that little slice of heaven with Moses and Elijah and not have to descend the mountain to watch Jesus be arrested, abused, tortured and crucified – and to endure suffering and temptation himself. And he’s not alone. That’s the original sin, isn’t it? Satan led Adam and Eve to seek a shortcut to godly wisdom by eating the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6). In a way, every sin is a shortcut to God’s will. And we still take these shortcuts with frightening frequency. Why do people fabricate false gods? Because they want the glory of believing they can achieve their own salvation without the humble confession that we are lost and condemned sinners. Why do we fail to praise Jesus’ name before family and friends? Because we want a shortcut to the glory of acceptance, not the long, hard road of mockery and ridicule – or perhaps even being “canceled” from our career or friend group. We seek the shortcut of escape from stress and depression in substances and distractions to avoid the hard work of repentance and prayer. We cohabitate or secretly lust after images on our devices because we seek the pleasure of marriage without the effort and commitment. And the list could go on. But just like on a road trip, these shortcuts always end up in disaster. Just ask Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:16-19). Just ask Peter, who tried to take a shortcut out of a difficult situation in the temple courtyard by swearing up and down that he didn’t know Jesus, only to end up outside the city weeping bitterly (Matthew 26:75).

Transfiguration means that we need to stop being like Peter as we enter Lent. We need to stop following the seductive shortcuts offered up by Satan and promoted by the world. There are no shortcuts to glory for Jesus or for us. Just as Jesus had to leave that mountain to be arrested, tortured, and crucified, so we must pick up the cross of self-denial and repentance and follow him. And it’s healthy for us to do so. For as we struggle and strive against the sinful nature – and fail again and again – we better understand why we don’t need more laws and we don’t need miracles, we need Jesus, Jesus alone.

What do we get in Jesus alone? The voice from heaven tells us. It says: this is my Son; whom I love. Listen to him. First, this is my Son. The poor man that we will see beaten and bloodied, overwhelmed with sorrow, crying and crucified and forsaken by God is none other than God’s Son. This is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through him all things were made” (Nicene Creed). Why do we have to remember this? Because unless God kept the law for us, it’s not kept well enough and unless God shed his blood on the cross there is no way that our sins can be covered and our curse removed. Unless Jesus is God, Lent and Christianity itself are a complete waste of time.

Second, whom I love. The Father is saying more than that he just loves his Son. The Greek literally says that Jesus is the beloved. God doesn’t just love Jesus, he loves him exclusively. How could he not? He was perfect. The rest of us, we’re terrible disappointments. How could he love us? Why, when we look in the mirror, would anyone love us? But God does. God loved us so much that he sent his beloved Son to bear the curse of sin – the never-ending torment of hell – on the cross, all so that he could turn towards us in love. This is why we need Lent every year. This means that Lent is very personal for each of us. We can’t view Lent with a cold and detached disinterest, as if we were just watching a movie. The hatred, the suffering, the death we will hear in our passion history readings over the course of the next six weeks is the hatred, the suffering, the death that we deserved. But Jesus alone, the beloved Son of the Father, will endure it so that we never will. Lent is for no one but sinners. Lent is for you and for me.

Third, listen to him. Don’t listen to the accusations that Moses’ law levels against you that tell you that you deserve nothing but death and damnation. Listen to Jesus who suffered death and damnation in your place. Don’t listen to the devil’s false promises of glory without the cross; listen to Jesus’ promise that the way of the cross is the only road to glory (Mark 9:34-35). Don’t listen to the world which tries to distract you with earthly things; listen to Jesus who keeps your focus on the never-ending glory of life that awaits you in heaven (Philippians 3:20).  

And where can you listen to Jesus? Not in your heart – your heart is deceitful above all things and incurable (Jeremiah 17:9). Not in the world. The world is under the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). We listen to Jesus in His Word. Once again this Lent we’re going to hear Jesus say some beautiful things: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34); Today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43); My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Mark 15:34); It is finished (John 19:30); Father, into your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46). These are words that Moses and Elijah never spoke. These are words you will never hear from the devil, the world or your sinful flesh. These are words that Jesus alone can and does speak to you. These are words spoken from a cross to people living under a cross that lead to true glory. These are the words of Jesus. As we begin Lent this week, it is well worth our time to make every effort to listen to him.

This is Transfiguration. This is our last stop before Lent. Let’s not waste it. Let’s stop thinking that salvation can be found in either the laws of Moses or the miracles of Elijah. Let’s stop being like Peter, hoping to find a shortcut to glory without the cross. Let’s stop, look, and listen to Jesus alone – for hidden in his cross and ours we find true, lasting glory. Amen.

[1] https://www.namb.net/apologetics/resource/soul-sleep/

Mark 1:21-28 - Who Gets the Last Word? - February 7, 2021

The last word. Everyone wants it. Husbands and wives want it when we have our, what shall we call them…differences of opinion. Children want the last word when arguing over who’s faster or stronger or better at video games. Politicians definitely want the last word – and if they can’t get it on the floor of the house or senate they run out to the media to try to get it. Even Christians can be found trying to get the last word in meetings and Bible classes. Getting the last word is a sign of power and authority. Today, the question is not: who wants the last word – because everyone does. The question is: who gets the last word?

Everyone who wants the last word fits into one category: they are all sinners. What’s interesting is that there are two ends of the spectrum when it comes to how sinners believe they can get the last word. On one end, you have the person who says “No one tells me what to do! I’ll decide what’s right and wrong and what is true and false.” This might be called, for lack of a better term, “libertinism.” Libertines demand to be free from all outside power and authority. Then you have those who claim an elite, highly intellectual philosophy. They believe that no one can definitively have the last word on anything. For them, one person can say that boys are girls; someone else can say that unborn babies are nothing more than a disposable tissue mass; and a third can say that gender and life itself are simply social constructs – so that nothing anyone says is absolute. These are “postmodernists”; relativists. Do you see what the irony is about both ends of the spectrum if taken to their logical conclusion? In the end, I, the sinner, get the last word, and no one can tell me otherwise!

Whichever end of the spectrum a person is on, all sinners want the last word in life. We want to have the last word on what is and isn’t sin, what is true and what is false, what is necessary to believe and do and what is not. It’s part of our human nature – inherited from Adam and Eve. The question is: does it work? Does demanding the last word get it for you? No. In fact, both libertines and postmodernists will have to one day admit that they don’t have the last word. Why not? Because of the great equalizer: death. No sinner has authority over the grave. That authority belongs to God. In Deuteronomy, God says now see that I, only I, am he, and there is not a god comparable to me. I put to death and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand (Deuteronomy 32:39). Death puts to sleep any idea we may have that the last word will ever be ours.

In Greek mythology, there’s a story about a demi-goddess named Echo. She had a talent for gossip and the King of the gods, Zeus, used her talented tongue to distract his wife Hera while he engaged in affairs with other demi-goddesses on earth. Well, soon enough Hera discovered this scheme and cursed her to be unable to speak anything other than the last words spoken to her. [1] “You shall still have the last word, but no power to speak first.” [2] She was doomed to be nothing more than an echo of what others said to her. This is us. We think we’re speaking the last word but in reality we’re just echoing what the devil, the world, and our flesh said first. Most of the time it doesn’t bother us because what they say is flattering, what they say agrees with our fallen reason, what they say inflates our egos; telling us you can live life your way; you don’t have to answer to anyone; you get the last word. But what does living that lie get you? Just one thing: death – both now and eternally.

Sinners want the last word, but God has it. And the good news is that God has given us his last word in the flesh and blood of Jesus. That’s what the writer to the Hebrews told us in our second lesson: In the past, God spoke to our forefathers by the prophets at many times and in many ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of the divine nature. He sustains all things by his powerful word (Hebrews 1:1-3). Jesus is God’s last word to us in these last days. What he says goes.

Jesus proves this today by exercising his authority over an unclean spirit. 12 months ago, I don’t think the term “unclean” would have meant as much to us as it means now. Today, if a contact tracer or your employer or an app on your phone tells you that you’ve been within breathing distance of someone who has tested positive for Covid-19, you are considered “unclean” and must quarantine yourself – cut yourself off from fellowship with others – for days or weeks. In much the same way, under God’s Old Testament Law, a person was unclean – and therefore excluded from religious and ceremonial fellowship – for any of a number of reasons: touching anything that was dead, giving birth to a child, having a skin disease (Leviticus 11-13). Because this man had an unclean spirit he was cut off from fellowship with God. 

Do you know what that’s like? To live with an unclean spirit? No, maybe, by God’s grace, we’ve never been physically possessed like the man in our text – but we’ve all lived with unclean spirits nonetheless. We are living with an unclean spirit when we believe that the accusing voice of conscience and the haunting sins of the past are more powerful than the cleansing words of absolution. We are living with an unclean spirit when we think that our pet sins, our sinful habits and addictions, are more powerful than the Holy Spirit’s power to grant new life through the rebirth and renewal of Baptism (Titus 3:5). We are living with an unclean spirit when we think that any disease or virus or cancer is more powerful than the medicine of immortality that our Lord offers us through his body and blood. When we do that, we are allowing Satan to have the last word. We are agreeing with him, that our sinfulness is more powerful than the righteousness Jesus freely gives us through the means of grace. We are giving him, not Jesus, the last word. And living with these “unclean spirits” of doubt and disbelief and despair cuts us off from fellowship with God.

And nothing but the authoritative Word of God can expose and expel these unclean spirits. Did you notice that in our text? Where would you expect to find a demon-possessed person? Skulking in a cave somewhere? Howling at the moon in the forest? Living with farm animals? This man was in church. By all appearances, this person man was a member of the synagogue in good standing. He was sitting in church just like you are. Apparently the unclean spirit could put up with the so-called experts in the law droning on about which scribe says this and which rabbi says that in regard to how thoroughly you had to wash your hands or how much you had to tithe out of your spice cabinet (Matthew 23:23-24). That kind of legalistic, work-righteous sermon didn’t bother the spirit at all. Sadly, there are millions of people in our world today sitting in synagogues and mosques and even heterodox churches who are suffering from unclean spirits of guilt and shame and fear and addiction – and they are finding no relief because unclean spirits aren’t exposed or expelled by rules and laws fabricated by men. Demons love man-made laws because they know that the law leads only to hell (Galatians 3:21-22). It wasn’t until Jesus showed up and taught as one who has authority – that the unclean spirit was exposed and expelled. It cried out, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked the spirit, saying, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit shuts up and with an unholy scream comes out of the man. Jesus got the last word.

That’s amazing, but do you know what’s even more amazing? How Jesus earned the right and authority to have the last word – even over the demons of hell. He didn’t accomplish our salvation by exercising his absolute power and authority but by giving it up (Philippians 2:6-8). He wasn’t born and raised in royalty but poverty. He wasn’t praised but despised by the masses. He didn’t prove his authority over an apostate church and a wicked government by leading a rebellion against them but by submitting to them. He didn’t assert his equality to God by coming down from the cross but by crying out My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46) He didn’t show his power over those who crucified him by calling down fire from heaven to consume them, but by praying for them: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). He didn’t crush sin, death and the devil by calling upon the legions of angels at his disposal (Matthew 26:53) but by gasping with his last breath Father, into your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46). And, while his shameful crucifixion was visible to all, his glorious resurrection was hidden from the sight of all but a relative few eyewitnesses.

Why? Why did Jesus cloak his power and authority in humility and shame? He did it for us! He became our sin so that we might become his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). He endured the curse of God (Galatians 3:13) so that we could receive his blessing. He was cut off from fellowship with his Father so that we could be reconciled to God as his children. And having given up all authority to bring us back to God, Jesus took up his authority again so that just like with that possessed man he comes to us and says “Be quiet and come out of them. These people belong to me. I kept the commandments on their behalf. I suffered the punishment they deserved. I rose to life and I will raise their broken, disease-ridden bodies to life when I return!” Just as easily as Jesus freed that man from his unclean spirit with just a word he can free you from whatever unclean spirits afflict you today. Whereas living as if you have the last word gets you only doubt and despair and death; letting Jesus have the last word leads to peace and freedom and life.

To put it another way, Jesus has “the say.” You know about “the say,” right? When it’s your birthday you get “the say” on what everyone eats for supper. The head coach gets “the say” on whether to go for it on 4th down or kick the field goal. The officer has “the say” on whether to write a ticket or not. In the same way, Jesus has “the say” on right and wrong, on sin and guilt, on life and death – even on whether you and I will go to heaven or hell.

And today, right here and right now, Jesus gives his “say,” his last word, to you. He says that baptism has ripped you out of the devil’s kingdom and adopts you into God’s family – and so you are God’s child today, tomorrow, and every day (Galatians 3:26-27). He says whenever you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven (John 20:23) – and so you are forgiven! He says that by eating his body and drinking his blood with a believing heart you receive the gift of eternal in heaven (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) – and no virus or disease or sickness or death can steal that gift from you. He sends you out of this house into this dark and confusing world with his blessing (Numbers 6:22-27) – and so, wherever you go from here – you are blessed!

From the moment the devil led Eve to believe his last word over God’s Word to the end of time – people will fight over who gets the last word. Today, Jesus proves that the last word is his and his alone. By giving up all authority to come to earth to suffer, die and rise Jesus has in fact won authority over all things: including sin, death and the devil. Let the devil, the world and your own sinful flesh scream all they want; in the end, Jesus will have the last word, and his last word to you will one day be: come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34). Amen.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_(mythology)

[2]https://riordan.fandom.com/wiki/Echo#:~:text=Echo%20was%20an%20Oread%2C%20a,last%20word%20in%20all%20conversations.&text=You%20shall%20still%20have%20the,'

Mark 1:14-20 - Repent, and Believe in the Gospel - January 24, 2021

“What’s the problem in this text?” That’s one of the first questions our seminary trains us to ask when we approach a portion of Scripture as we begin the sermon-writing process. Technically speaking, it’s called the malady of the text. You find the malady and then you can look for the solution to the malady the text provides. So, what’s the problem or the malady in this text? Is it that John the Baptist was put in prison? Is it that today there are too few people who respond to Jesus’ call to discipleship like Simon, Andrew, James and John did? Is it that we don’t have enough “fishers of men” to evangelize those who need to hear the Gospel? While all of those are problems, they aren’t THE problem – at least not in this text. No, the problem in this text – and its solution – is revealed in just one phrase repent, and believe in the gospel.

Repent, Jesus commands. What’s the problem with repentance? It’s that we are often too specific when we should be general. We think our problem is limited to a specific sin or sins. We’ve failed to do this good thing or we’ve done this bad thing. Our problem with others is that we have a short temper or that we are quick to speak instead of quick to listen. Our problem with our spouse is that we don’t love them the way we should. Our problem with our kids is that we don’t have enough time for them. Our problem with our government is that we could do it better than those in authority. Our problem with life is that we drink too much or give in to lust or rage or greed or that we read our Bibles too little.

If that were true, if it were just a case of failing to do the right thing or actively doing the wrong thing, then the solution would be easy: just do the opposite: start doing what is right and stop doing what is wrong. If my temper is short, I’ll just count to ten; if don’t love my spouse enough, I’ll just start loving more; if don’t have enough time for my kids, I’ll make more time; if I’m filled with lust, I’ll stop visiting those websites; if I can’t say anything nice about the government, I won’t say anything at all. If only it were that easy! If only we could become better people, God-pleasing people, just by changing our behavior. If we only had a couple of superficial flaws, it would be so easy to find the solutions. And that’s the real problem. The real problem is that we delude ourselves into thinking that it is that easy. We think that our problem is so specific, so limited – that if we just change a few specific attitudes or behaviors we’ll have solved the problem. But our real problem is so much bigger than that.

Where is this in our text? In one word: repent. Notice that Jesus doesn’t say: “Repent of your bad language or your lustful thoughts or your loveless actions.” By not mentioning any specific sin, he’s teaching us that our problem is much bigger than what we do, think or say; Jesus is showing that the problem is us, our fallen, sinful nature.

Then why are we so prone to thinking that we only need limited, specific repentance? Because by nature, we can’t possibly comprehend the depth of our sinfulness. We’re like a person suffering from stage 4 lung cancer who thinks that giving up cigarettes will solve the problem. We’re so sick we can’t see how sick we are. God must reveal it to us. And he does it through passages like Jeremiah 17:9 the heart is more deceitful than anything. It is beyond cure. Who can understand it? And Romans 3: there is no one who is righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who searches for God. They all turned away; together they became useless. There is no one who does what is good; there is not even one (Romans 3:10-12). Without the Word of God, we can delude ourselves into thinking that we’re basically good people who only have a few flaws here and there. But God’s Word reveals the truth: we aren’t inherently good; we are evil and unrighteous and godless to the core.

To put it another way – we’re not sinful because we sin; we sin because we’re sinful. Jesus uses the illustration of a tree and its fruit in Matthew 7: every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce good fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit (Matthew 7:17-18). Our fallen, natural thinking reverses it. We think that a basically good person kills someone and becomes a murderer; a mostly faithful person has an affair and becomes unfaithful; an honest person steals something and becomes a thief. But that’s not how it works in God’s eyes. The problem is much bigger and much deeper. The problem is the heart. It’s not that we’re basically good, moral and honest until we do something wrong – no, there’s a murderer, a thief, an adulterer living inside each one of us – and sometimes it comes out. When Jesus calls on us to repent, he is leading us to a blanket, general confession like Paul’s: I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my sinful flesh (Romans 7:18).

Do you see how big the problem is? It’s way too big for us to handle. We can modify our behavior all we want – coming up with all sorts of routines and techniques to try to adjust the way we live – but until we admit that our real problem is our rotten, rebellious sinful hearts we have not really repented and none of our marriage, family or personal problems will be solved. And, to make matters worse, there is nothing we can do, no strategy we can employ, no vaccine we can take to change our hearts.

By now, you’ve probably already guessed that the solution is found in the words believe in the gospel. Which is true – the only way we can be saved is through faith (Mark 16:16) – but even here we have a problem – the opposite problem. With repentance, our problem is that we’re specific when we should be general. With faith, the problem is that we’re general when we should be specific.

We can be led to think that a general, generic faith is the answer. We might look at Simon and Andrew and James and John and think “Wow, what great faith they had to leave everything behind to follow Jesus. If I had faith that strong, I could do that too!” Beware of this trap. If you fall into thinking that generic faith is the answer – all you’ll do is beat yourself up because you don’t have enough faith. You’ll start telling yourself: “If I had more faith, my marriage would work, my job would be better, my children would behave. If I had more faith, then I wouldn’t commit this or that sin. I would be able to change my behavior.” Do you see the problem? When you focus on faith as the answer to your problem, you always come back to changing your behavior, to something you must do as the solution. And, as we proved before, that’s no solution.

Our problem isn’t that our faith isn’t strong enough; it’s that it’s not specific enough. Everyone believes in something and often their faith is strong. But generic “faith” can’t save anyone. I’ll give you a couple examples. For months now we’ve been told to believe that social distancing and wearing masks can solve the pandemic – and yet, according to the numbers provided by the very same people who told us that, it’s as bad as it’s ever been right now – faith in masks has not saved anyone. If blind faith saved, then Muslims who blow themselves up for Allah would be saved; then Mormons who have so much faith that they spend two years of their lives on mission trips would be saved; then the Bears would be headed to the Super bowl because their fans have believed for decades. Faith can excite, motivate and even comfort – but no one has ever or will ever be saved just because they had faith in something. Faith that saves has a very specific object.

Jesus teaches this. After commanding us to repent generally he commands us to believe, specifically to believe in the gospel. So the question is: what is this specific gospel we’re supposed to believe? The word “gospel” was not originally a Christian word. It was instead the “good news” of a military victory. Picture it. An enemy army is bearing down on your city. You’re huddled in your home with your family in your barely defensible city. Your army is outside the walls – as a last line of defense. If they are defeated, the enemy will easily charge through the gates and you’ll be killed and your family will be sold into slavery. There’s no CNN, no nightly news or daily papers – and, mercifully, no Twitter. Everyone in that city is waiting on edge for word from the front. The watchmen at the gates would see him first and then turn to announce his arrival to the entire city. The entire city would gather at the gates. The runner, exhausted, if there was victory to announce, would gasp: “I have gospel / good news (εὐαγγελίῳ)!”

The gospel is not just any good news, but the good news of victory. Specifically Jesus’ victory over sin, death and the devil. This is a victory that only Jesus could win. Being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, he was not born with a sinful nature like we are and therefore he was able to keep all of God’s laws perfectly. He picked up all Ten Commandments and was a perfect father, mother, husband, wife, child and citizen in your place. Then he picked up your sins and suffered God’s wrath to pay for them on the cross. He rose again to declare you justified, “not guilty” before God (Romans 4:25). And he delivers his victorious life and death to you through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament. And the result is that through faith in this very specific Gospel, Jesus cures you from the inside out. As Paul said in our second lesson: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17) And he didn’t do all of that just to turn around and tell you that all he did was make it possible for you to save yourself; that his life is nothing more than an example for you to follow; to show you how a tweak here or there can solve your problems. That wouldn’t be good news. Anyone who thinks that Christianity is about behavior modification doesn’t really understand the gospel. The gospel is not about us, it’s about Jesus living a perfect life and dying an innocent death for us. That’s the gospel. That’s the solution to all of your problems – especially your biggest problem: you. That’s the very specific thing that you are to believe, the only specific thing that saves.

What’s amazing then is that once you have this cure, your life, your behavior, your attitudes do change as a result. (Remember: make the tree good and it will bear good fruit!) Did you notice how it changed the people in our text? Jesus came to everyday, ordinary people – fishermen who were just like us: struggling with sinfulness, with difficult jobs and complicated lives. And he announces to them that things are different now. No longer is God or his kingdom far away from them because of their sinfulness. He doesn’t say that the kingdom of God is near – he says the kingdom of God has [already] come near. It has arrived! In other words, Jesus is telling them to repent of thinking that they can reach God by being better, by sinning less, or by doing more good works – and to instead believe the good news that Jesus has come to win the victory and bring the kingdom of God to us.

And this message changes these men instantly. Jesus says, come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they go…immediately. Simon and Andrew instantly leave their livelihoods behind to follow Jesus. James and John leave their father standing in his boat to become fishers of men. This gospel, this good news, had an instant and dramatic impact on their lives. By first changing their hearts, by creating saving faith – it also changed their behavior, it changed their lives for the better. This is the power of the gospel.

During the season of Epiphany, we get to peek behind the curtain to see who Jesus really is. Today, we see him as one who brings a message so profound and so powerful that it could only come from one who is the Son of God in human flesh. Repent, he says – not just of the things you do but of who you are: a natural born sinner. And then: believe in the gospel – don’t believe just anything, believe that in his person Jesus has brought the kingdom of heaven to earth; that he has come to win the victory over sin and sinfulness once and for all by his death and resurrection. For a problem as big as ours – nothing less will do. Amen.

John 1:43-51 - "Come and See" Evangelism - January 17, 2021

Benjamin Franklin is famous for many things. He was one of the founding fathers of the United States. He invented the lightning rod and bifocals. He was the first U.S. ambassador to France. He founded the Pennsylvania Gazzette and the University of Pennsylvania. He’s on the $100 bill. But did you know that Ben Franklin created a revolutionary evangelism program? Yep. When he was a colonel in the Pennsylvania Militia during the French and Indian War, one of his chaplains complained that his services were not well attended. Franklin advised him to arrange for the soldiers’ weekly rum ration to be distributed from the chapel after the end of the service. The chaplain followed his advice and from then on the services were packed. [1] If our goal here at Risen Savior is to simply pack the place, then we might want to think about trying Ben Franklin’s evangelism program. But if our goal is to gather the Lord’s disciples, as he commanded (Matthew 28:19), we should use our Lord’s program – called “Come and See” Evangelism.

The biggest benefit of this program is that it is clearly, undeniably Biblical. In our text, Jesus finds Philip and Philip finds his friend Nathanael and says come and see! In fact, the day before, John the Baptist saw Jesus and pointed two of his disciples to follow him, including Andrew, who immediately found his brother Peter and said we have found the Messiah! (John 1:35-42) Within two days of its implementation, this “come and see” program grew the NT church from zero to five – a 500% increase! But there’s a problem with the “come and see” Evangelism Program. You know what the problem is? There’s just not that much to come and see here at Risen Savior. What do we have? A guy in a black gown standing behind something called a pulpit. A bowlful of tap water. Some bread and wine. That’s not much to see. You know what attracts people as well as I do. If we had big miracles going on here: people being healed of their diseases, demons being cast out, people babbling in tongues, now that would be worth the price of admission If we had marriage building, child raising, and stock investing classes, retirement and substance addiction seminars – then we’d have something worth seeing! Or if we had an impressive praise band and professionally produced videos and lighting – then we’d really have something for people to see. But, we don’t have any of those things. In fact, what we have here are things that are downright embarrassing to those on the cutting edge of religion and to our technologically advanced society. We don’t have a Theology of Glory that promises earthly comfort and prosperity in exchange for your commitment to Jesus; we have a Theology of the Cross; we preach Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2) and that all who follow him will need to pick up and carry their own crosses (Matthew 16:24). And that’s the real problem. Because most people don’t want to follow a path of humility and shame but a path of glory and prosperity they aren’t attracted to a Savior who lives and dies in humility and suffering.

But that begs the question: was it any different when Jesus walked on this earth? Philip invites Nathanael to come and see Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Does it get any more ordinary than that? Philip didn’t invite him to come and see Jesus, the Son of God or the miraculous son of the virgin Mary. Philip asks Nathanael to come and see the painfully ordinary Jesus, the carpenter’s son. Actually, it was worse than that. Jesus wasn’t just ordinary, he was below average. He was from Nazareth. Even Nathanael knew that nothing good could come from there. Anyone worth seeing wouldn’t come from Nazareth, but somewhere exciting, like Jerusalem. Those first disciples were faced with the same problem we are: God cloaked in flesh and blood is no more attractive, no more worth seeing than God cloaked in water, words, bread or wine. The Jesus they invited people to come and see was no more inviting, no more attractive, no more powerful, no more entertaining than the Jesus who dwells among us in Baptism, Absolution and Communion. Whether He wraps himself in flesh and blood or in bread and wine and water and words, God can easily be despised as ordinary, as nothing worth rolling out of bed to come and see.

And so you know what the temptation is, right? The temptation is to dress up the ordinary Jesus. To transform Jesus into what the world – and, honestly, part of each of us – wants him to be: glorious and powerful, granting health and wealth and happiness and social status to those who follow him. It can be so tempting to dismiss a Jesus who comes to us in objective means of grace for a Jesus who subjectively touches our emotions and makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It can be so tempting to exchange a Jesus who brings the forgiveness of sins, deliverance from death and the devil, and eternal salvation in favor of a Jesus who brings a boost to your self-esteem, peace to your marriage or success to your career. And this is exactly what the devil wants us to do. The devil, even when Jesus walked on this earth, led people to demand that Jesus prove himself with visible and extraordinary signs and miracles (Luke 4:23). But Jesus didn’t do it then and he won’t do it now.

Which means that we are to invite people to come and see the same ordinary Jesus that the first disciples did. But do you know what’s good about ordinary? Ordinary is approachable. Ordinary is personal. Have you ever heard someone who met a celebrity and commented: “I can’t believe how ordinary, how down to earth he or she was.” Did you notice how Jesus went out of his way to find Philip? Philip wasn’t left to find his way to Jesus – no, Jesus went out of his way to round up his sheep. And did you notice how intimately Jesus knew Nathanael? “Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Jews of the day often found the shade and solitude offered by fig trees as a good place for devotion and prayer. Jesus gives a flash of his divinity by telling Nathanael that even before Philip found him, Jesus saw him and knew him through his prayers and devotions.

And isn’t this type of personal touch exactly what so many people today are really longing for today? In this age of zoom meetings and virtual learning, of big tech companies that know everything and nothing about you – the fact that Jesus knows his sheep, knows them by name (John 10:27), is something worth seeing. In a strange time when nearly all human contact is prohibited by health departments, Jesus still sends his flesh and blood pastors to preach his word, he gathers real human people together to worship and pray together, and he comes among us in words we can hear, water we can touch bread and wine we can taste. This kind of Jesus, a very approachable, personal Jesus, is exactly what the people of the 21st century need to come and see.

Furthermore, this Jesus, according to Scripture, knows us better than we know ourselves (Psalm 139:16). Modern life is incredibly complicated. People get themselves into jams and caught up in messy situations without every understanding how they got there. We have a Jesus who knows the most intimate details of your life; a Jesus to whom your life is not just a jumbled mess; a Jesus who knows how to lead his sheep out of the most complicated, confusing situations. Of course, that’s because he knows that the messes, the jams, the impossible situations people find themselves in are always related to sin. Whatever challenges, issues, conflicts people are facing today, sin is the source (Genesis 3:14-19). Sadly, too many think that they can only come and see Jesus once they have their lives straightened out. The truth is that we have a Jesus who invites sinners, real, dirty, despicable sinners, to come and see him. He invites a naïve nobody like Nathanael (John 1:45). He invites self-righteous Pharisees like Nicodemus (John 3), immoral people like the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4), tax collectors and prostitutes and fishermen – people who were despised and scorned by the society of their day.

He invites guilty and downtrodden and depressed people like that to see what great things he has done for them. Jesus tells Nathanael you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that!” Then he added, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” This is an obvious allusion to Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28 when he saw angels ascending and descending on a stairway to heaven (Genesis 28:10-17). The point Jesus is making is that Nathanael would see a place where there is no barrier between heaven and earth, between a holy God and sinful people. Where is this place? It’s wherever Jesus is. Because wherever Jesus is, the barrier of sin has been removed and sinners are reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:19). That place is right here where Jesus carries out this work of reconciliation week after week through baptism, absolution and communion.

People need to know – people you know need to know – that this place exists. Because the natural human setting is to believe that heaven is shut to sinners. Sure, they may believe that you can reach God if you have enough love, faith and good works. They may believe that you can approach him if you are clean enough, religious enough, or faithful enough. But most people – and people you know – don’t know of a place on earth where heaven is wide open to sinners. They don’t know of the place Jesus guarantees to be with his people (Matthew 18:20). They don’t know of a place where sin is fully and freely forgiven week after week (John 20:23). They don’t know of a place where Jesus invites the weary and burdened to come to him for rest (Matthew 11:28).

But before you start thinking about who you’re going to invite to come and see this Jesus, make sure that you come and see him first. Did you notice that? No one invites others to come and see Jesus until they’ve seen him themselves first. If you leave here today with nothing else – I pray you leave with this: that you see Jesus clearly first.

He’s NOT a Jesus who is desperate to have his church filled. Nowhere in the NT do you find a hint, a suggestion of the fear that haunts the church today (that, sadly, comes from the highest levels of our own synod): that if we don’t get more members the church will die. Give me a break. If the gates of hell can’t overcome the church (Matthew 16:18), declining membership can’t. Furthermore, Jesus commanded the church to feed his sheep (John 21:17), not count them. We don’t invite others to come and see for our sake, for the sake of the church, or for Jesus’ sake, but for their sake. We invite them to come to see the powerful Good Shepherd who knows his sheep before they know him (John 10:1-18), not a Jesus who stands here wringing his hands, hoping and pleading that someone, anyone would pay attention to him. A whiny, needy, pleading Jesus – now that’s a Jesus who’s not worth going and seeing.

The Jesus you should see today is not a needy God, but a God for the needy. He promises to not only meet our needs but to exceed them. Jesus told Nathanael that he would see greater things than that. What were those things? He would see Jesus bring heaven to earth in his preaching and teaching, his healing and his miracles. He would see Jesus tear down the barrier of sin that stood between us and God by his death on the cross. He would see Jesus crush death and the devil by his resurrection. He would see Jesus ascend into heaven where he lives and reigns forever. He would see this good news transform the hearts and lives of thousands of sinners. And this is the same Jesus that you get to see here week after week.

We don’t need rum to attract people to church – because we have something so much better: we have Jesus, we have a Savior, and we have the means of grace through which he promises to be with us, forgiving and saving us. And when you see Jesus’ presence clearly in water and the Word, in bread and wine, then you realize that evangelism isn’t complicated at all. It’s as simple today as it was for Philip 2000 years ago – come and see! No offense to Benjamin Franklin, but that’s our evangelism plan. Amen.

[1] https://www.massar.org/2019/02/17/rum-and-religion-benjamin-franklins-contributions-to-behavioral-psychology/

Matthew 2:1-12 - What Appears at Epiphany? - January 10, 2021

By now I’m sure we’ve all seen the video and pictures of those experiments where scientists use a UV light or a laser to show just how far the particles from your mouth and nose travel when you speak, sing or sneeze. With the UV light and high-speed video, they can see microscopic droplets that are hidden from the naked eye. While these experiments are nothing new, they’ve taken on new importance lately as scientists attempt to figure out just how the coronavirus spreads from one person to another. It’s pretty gross actually – one of those things you’d like to un-see if you could. Now, we’re not here to discuss the principles of droplet distribution. But just like that ultraviolet light, Epiphany reveals what would otherwise be hidden from human sight. The word Epiphany means “appearing.” So the question is: what appears at Epiphany?

The first and most obvious answer is: the Wise Men. And that’s true. The Wise Men did appear. They followed the star from the east to worship he who has been born King of the Jews. Who were they? Our best guess is that they were kingly advisers and astronomers like Daniel in Babylon (Daniel 2:48). Where did they come from? We don’t know – Arabia? Babylon? Persia? In any case, based on the fact that Herod murdered all the baby boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16) – we’re pretty sure that they had been traveling for years and had come hundreds of miles. Why? That’s easy, they had heard a prophecy like the one we heard from Balaam in Numbers 24: a star will come out of Jacob. A scepter will rise up out of Israel (Numbers 24:17).

But do you know what else appears with the Wise Men on Epiphany? Shame. These Wise Men put you and me to shame. What? Why? Well, because I have far less distance to travel and far more to guide me to the King of the Jews and I don’t go; I don’t go to where he wants to be found. Jesus is as close to me as my Baptism, where he promises to cover my sinfulness with his righteousness – and yet I go around guilty and depressed because I go days and weeks without remembering that I have been baptized into Christ, that I no longer live but he lives in me (Galatians 2:20). He is as close as the words of Absolution in which God pronounces me “not-guilty” and yet I put more stock in what society or my conscience or the devil says about me. He’s as close as the bread and wine of Holy Communion which offers me eternal life, and yet I spend more time planning and preparing a normal meal that will just leave me hungry again in a few hours. The wise men had nothing more than a star in the night that drew them tirelessly through the darkness from hundreds of miles away; I have the brilliant and unwavering light of Scripture shining day and night, and yet I hardly ever crack it open to it to guide me through this dark world. The Wise Men rejoiced with overwhelming joy when they saw the star over Jesus’ house – I see coming to God’s house as a burdensome obligation.

The Wise Men put me to shame by their heartfelt worship. They saw in that humble, helpless baby in Bethlehem their King, their God and their Sacrifice – I am often less than sincere in worshiping him – even though I know him as my crucified, risen and victorious Savior. They came to find the king who would govern their lives and defeat their enemies – I prefer to rule my own life and fight my own battles. They came to find their God, I like to imagine that I’m my own god; I think that I should be feared, loved and trusted by all people above all things. They came to find the sacrifice for their sins; I figure that if I do a mediocre job in the various roles God has placed me in – God should be pleased with that.

The wise men shame me by the gifts they bring. These Wise Men knew so little about Jesus and all that he would do for them and yet they give him the very best they could offer: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I’ve never once risked a mortgage payment, a tank of gas, or even a single meal to give my best to Jesus. Have you? I take care of myself and give Jesus my leftovers. And, what’s more, I demand to be recognized. I want everyone to know and praise and thank me. And, the moment the stock market takes a dive or my job looks like it’s at risk, the part of the budget that goes to Jesus is the first one to get cut off. What appears at Epiphany is my shame. Like an ultraviolet light, it exposes all of the disgusting things that are hidden in my heart.

Thank God that’s not all that appears at Epiphany – my salvation appears there too. My salvation from the three things which would otherwise rule my life appears. Did you notice how Epiphany put big, bad Herod in his place? The birth of a tiny baby sent him into a frenzy. He frantically gathered his advisers, interrogated the Wise Men, and sent them out as his spies – only to have his assassination plan foiled by God in a dream. Epiphany reveals a Savior from politics. Do we need this Savior today? Well, a new president is going to be inaugurated in 10 days. No matter which media outlet you listen to, they all make it seem like everything in the world hangs in the balance: war and peace, freedom and tyranny, prosperity and poverty, life and death. But King Jesus comes along and says “No! I am the Alpha and the Omega…the one who is, and who was, and who is coming (Revelation 1:8); I hold the scroll of history in my nail-pierced hands and I unroll it for the good of my people (Revelation 5:6-14).” He sits in heaven and laughs as the kings of the earth gather together against him and his people (Psalm 2:2-5). Let the politicians in Washington D.C. and Madison pretend to be all self-important, let them give their speeches and write their laws – and pray for them as they do so (1 Timothy 2:1-2) – but Epiphany reveals my Savior from the madness, because on Epiphany baby Jesus appears as my true, eternal, conquering King!

King Jesus not only saves me from politics but also from the great idol of our age: science (or, more accurately, the false religion of scientism[1]). We live in an age where so-called “science” and her high-priestly “experts” control everything. They decide who you are and what gender you are and where you may go and what you must wear and what you must inject into your body. They decide if you may operate your business, send your children to school, and attend worship. They tell us which types of cars to drive and what types of food to eat and what kinds of behaviors are socially and morally acceptable. They claim that they’ve got our world figured out and our only job is to kneel in their honor and offer unquestioning obedience to their commands.

But the appearance of the God-Man smashes the scientific idol to pieces. He blows away the theory that science is the only objective means to establish societal norms and rules for everything and everyone. He destroys the laws of time by stepping out of eternity into human history. He annihilates the laws of biology by being born of a virgin. His miracles defy the laws of nature. And ironies of ironies: the best and brightest scientists of the time, the Wise Men, follow a star that obeyed none of the laws of astronomy to find him. It appeared and disappeared; it moved and then stopped and stood still over the non-descript house of the non-descript parents of a non-descript baby – and even though it made no scientific sense whatsoever – they bow down and worship him. Epiphany shows me that I’m not at the mercy of what science and her “experts” can know or predict or theorize; that I’m not at the mercy of the laws of time, space or nature; I’m at the mercy of a God who left heaven to become a man in order to become my Savior.

And that’s a very good thing, because politics and science have proven time and again that they are powerless to save me from the last and greatest enemy of all: death (1 Corinthians 15:26). The wise men recognized that in this little baby they had found a Savior from death. How? With myrrh. Myrrh was used for three things in those days: for embalming, as a sedative, and for the anointing of the high priest (Exodus 30:29). Jesus was offered myrrh three times in his life. Here, at the house in Bethlehem, as a confession that as high priest he would offer himself once for all for the sins of the world (Hebrews 10:11-12). On the cross, where he refused to receive it so that he could feel the full wrath of God’s judgment against our sins (Mark 15:23). And Joseph and Nicodemus used it to wrap his body after his death (John 19:39). Epiphany reveals that my destiny is not and will never be determined by the power of politics, science or even death itself. My destiny has already been determined by the holy life and innocent death of that baby in Bethlehem. He has given us the final victory (1 Corinthians 15:57)! Because of him my sins can’t damn me, death can’t really kill me, and the devil can’t claim me. He is my Redeemer and my Lord and no one and nothing else can rule my life. I can blissfully ignore everything the politicians, the scientific experts, and even death says about me – because my Epiphany Savior has declared: because I live, you also will live (John 14:19).

And, finally, one last crucial element appears on Epiphany: our guide through life. That’s a pretty major theme in our text, isn’t it? How God used divine GPS to lead the Wise Men to the cradle of his Son? And yet, while the star and the dream certainly played a role – let’s not overlook the fact that it was the Word of God that led them both to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We don’t need to look to the stars or to dreams for God’s guidance because we have his written Word in our hands. We heard a sample of this guidance in our second lesson from Paul’s letter to Titus. I’m going to provide a literal translation so you can hear it for yourself: for the grace of God has epiphanied, bringing salvation to all people. It trains us to reject ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope, that is, the glorious epiphany of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:11-13). Those who ignore Jesus’ first Epiphany don’t live like this. They can only live in and for the here and now because there is nothing after this life for them. Those who have no hope of salvation can’t renounce worldly passions because this world is all they have. For them to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives is not to live at all because to them our Savior’s second coming doesn’t mean life and salvation but death and damnation. They must put their hope and their faith in politics and science because they don’t know about the King who reigns over both.

But, by God’s grace, we know better. God’s Word guides and energizes us as we live each day eagerly waiting for him to appear again in glory. We eagerly and energetically live self-controlled, upright and godly lives here and now because we know we’re not waiting for Someone to shove our faces in our sins to shame us but to lift up our heads because our redemption is near (Luke 21:28). We aren’t waiting for the latest, greatest hope of our political system but for the One who rules over all political systems for the good of his people (Ephesians 1:22). We aren’t waiting for Someone who can do only as much as science says is possible, but for the One who does what science says is impossible like being born of a virgin (Matthew 1:23), rising from the dead (Matthew 28:6) and raising us from the dead (2 Corinthians 4:14). Though hidden from the naked eye, Epiphany reveals that God’s Word is our only sure guide through life until our Savior appears again.

So what appears on Epiphany? Yes, some Wise Men appear from the east. But Epiphany isn’t about the Wise Men. Epiphany is about Jesus. Today Jesus appears as my King, my God and my Savior; he appears to wipe away my shame, to win my salvation, and to guide me through the darkness of this world until he appears a second time in glory. Happy Epiphany! Amen.  

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism

Luke 2:41-52 - Twelve-Year-Old Jesus - January 3, 2021

For people like us, people who are deeply interested in the life of our Savior, Jesus – there’s one thing that can be somewhat disappointing: compared to many far less important historical figures – even other Biblical figures – Jesus’ biography is exceptionally short. So short, in fact, that we recite nearly all of it every Sunday in the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds. Jesus lived for 33 years on this earth. His life is recorded in the four Gospels. We are given a fairly extensive overview the last three years of his life: his public ministry, his suffering, death and the days following his resurrection. But out of the 89 chapters in those books, only four (Matthew 1 & 2, Luke 1 & 2) give us any insight into the first 30 years of his life.

As Jesus’ disciples, that might leave us hungering for more. Wouldn’t you love to know what kind of child Jesus was? Did He go to bed before his parents told him? Did he ask for extra vegetables at supper? What about his education? Did he know the answer before his teacher asked the question? Did his classmates resent him? How did he handle adolescence? When he joined his father, Joseph, in the carpentry business, was he exempt from the rule of measuring twice and cutting once? As a 20 something, was he a first century Jeff Bezos: did he grow his father’s business into the hottest thing since unleavened bread? Wouldn’t it be helpful for us to know more about Jesus’ life before his public ministry; wouldn’t it be filled with countless examples of how to do life right?

Since the first century AD, many authors have set out to satisfy those desires. One of the more famous is the Gospel of Thomas which contains all sorts of bizarre stories from Jesus’ childhood. (However, this Gospel dates no earlier than the 2nd century AD and was most certainly not written by Thomas.) But there are other, more modern authors who undertake the attempt to make Jesus into more of a practical example than Savior. You can find their ideas on Amazon and YouTube. They make Jesus into little more than a social justice warrior, a radical reformer, a model of leadership, a wise teacher, a marriage counselor, etc. These notions may sound good and helpful, the problem is that you won’t find Jesus as any of these things in the inspired Word of God. God didn’t give us his Word to satisfy our curiosity but to save our souls (John 20:31). So today, instead of speculating about the things we don’t know about Jesus’ life, we’re going to stick to the words of Luke’s Gospel and learn why he wanted us to know about this incident in his Son’s life.

The story itself is pretty straightforward, but it’s helpful to briefly review the background. Every year his parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. When he was twelve years old, they went up according to the custom of the Festival. Every culture has its traditions and customs, but this was different. In Deuteronomy 16 the Lord commanded: Three times a year all of your males are to present themselves before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, at the Festival of Weeks, and at the Festival of Shelters. (Deuteronomy 16:16) Jesus’ parents were devoted believers. Even though the law didn’t command Mary to attend these Feasts, she did. As for Jesus, we can’t know for sure whether he attended the feasts prior to this. But the fact that he attended this Passover Feast is important – because at the age of twelve a Jewish boy was considered a ben hathora, a son of the Law, and became responsible for keeping the ceremonial aspects of the Law of Moses. Now, the age of twelve wasn’t prescribed anywhere in God’s Law, it was simply Jewish tradition – thus we have no reason to establish 12 or any other age as the age at which a child suddenly becomes accountable to God.

As the story continues, think about where you would point the finger of blame. When the days had ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it. Since they thought he was in their group, they went a day’s journey. Then they began to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. Who do parents blame when their children get lost? Their children. But as parents, we know better. We know that children are our responsibility. We know that when we lose track of them – it’s our fault. And that’s exactly the conclusion that Luke leads us to with his emphasis on Mary and Joseph’s lack of unawareness, presumption, and failure to check on Jesus. Maybe it sounds cruel to blame Mary and Joseph for losing the Son of God, but according to Luke, that’s what happened.

That Jesus was totally innocent in this situation is emphasized when we see where He was: not at the market drooling over the latest toy or with the other 12-year-olds playing pin the tail on the donkey. No, he’s in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Don’t picture Jesus standing on the broad temple steps, teaching hundreds of people. Rather, picture him in one of the surrounding areas, maybe a smaller classroom-type area, where the Jewish men and rabbis gathered to discuss Scripture. But even though Jesus’ goal wasn’t to amass an audience, that’s exactly what he got, because all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. It is amazing, although perhaps, for us, in a little different way. How does the Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6) ask and answer question from sinful, human teachers? How can the Creator of everything learn anything (John 1:1-4)? How can the perfect Son of God grow in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with people? It’s utterly beyond our comprehension.

But more important than how is why. Why did the holy, sinless Son of God have to go to Jerusalem for the Passover and spend an additional three days learning in the temple courts? We aren’t the first ones to ask that question: when his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us this way? See, your father and I have been anxiously looking for you.” Mary seems to be on to something there, doesn’t she? Wasn’t Jesus obligated to honor and obey his parents as part of the 4th commandment? Well, yes! And he was – as his response demonstrates: Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be taking care of my Father’s business? We’ve already established that Jesus was perfectly innocent in regard to his being left behind in Jerusalem – that was his parent’s fault. But did you notice how Jesus cut right to the chase? It wasn’t really about him being lost or Mary and Joseph’s neglect. It wasn’t even about where Jesus was but what he was doing. By studying and learning and growing in his knowledge of Scripture, Jesus was obeying the 4th commandment: he was obeying his heavenly Father. Luke tells us that they did not understand what he was telling them. Do we?

Do we understand why Jesus had to be in the temple carrying out his Father’s business? Why he had to leave there and always be obedient to his parents? We’ll take the second question first. Most of us here have already experienced life as a twelve-year-old. I don’t know about you, but for me, most of it is a blur of school, grades, sports, getting into trouble, trying to get out of trouble, piano lessons, and countless other growing pains. I certainly did not spend my days in deep discussions of God’s Word and church was often the last place I wanted to be. I was not the perfect 12-year-old. Were you? Our nation’s laws and culture have conditioned us to think that children are not responsible for their actions – that for some reason, nothing you do before the age of 18 should count. But before God, that’s not true. The Ten Commandments apply to the one day old infant and the 90 year old great grandmother equally. Every time you and I talked back to our parents or cheated on a test or fought with our friends – we broke God’s Law and earned his eternal anger. And, apart from Jesus, we are still liable to pay for those sins with eternal death in hell. Jesus had to be in the temple that day, obeying the 3rd and 4th commandments perfectly in order to save us from our sins.

But there’s an even deeper, more profound answer to why we need this account; one that can be illustrated by our thoughts and actions during this past Advent and Christmas season. Did you eagerly take every opportunity to be here in God’s house to gladly hear and learn God’s Word over the past month – or did you place work and family and rest over and above God? Did you come, but only grudgingly – questioning why we need to have so many services? And I’m not just pointing a finger here; I’ll confess that I wasn’t always glad to be writing and preaching twice as often as usual. But how does that explain why Jesus had to be taking care of [his] Father’s business in the temple? Simple: because we haven’t. We haven’t – not as 12 year olds, not as 72 year olds – recognized that our obligation to God is far more important than our obligation to our families and friends and traditions and rest and relaxation. The fact that we haven’t taken care of our Father’s business, that we make up reasons not to, that often we really don’t want to, reveals that 12 year old Jesus possessed three things we won’t possess until heaven: perfect fear, perfect love, and perfect trust in God. Jesus was in the temple those days because his will was perfectly in line with his Father’s; he wanted only what his Father wanted and never wanted anything except why his Father willed. In that way this incident isn’t really about the 3rd commandment but the 1st – Jesus feared, loved and trusted his Father perfectly – and demonstrated it by his life – because we haven’t.

And so while it might be tempting to apply this account as nothing more than an example of what God expects and demands in the 3rd and 4th commandments; that’s not really what this text is about. By inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Luke is showing us that from the moment of his birth, through tween and teen and adolescent years and into adulthood, Jesus feared, loved and trusted God perfectly. Even set aside the full use of his power and glory, his wisdom and strength, to be born and to experience growing up as boy; even though he faced every challenge, every temptation, every excuse not to do his Father’s will – he did it, and not just as a twelve year old boy in the temple but as a thirty year old man who offered himself up to death on a cross. And he did it for you and for me – because we haven’t and we can’t.

We call this Jesus’ active obedience. And here is what gives us joy even as the lights and gifts of Christmas fade: before you were born, before you could ever decide to obey God, before you were ever taught one of the 10 Commandments – Jesus obeyed them for you. Even though we never asked for it, wanted it, or knew we needed his perfect life – Jesus lived it for us. And when he took us by the hand to the waters of Baptism – he said to you “here, dear brother or sister, here is my perfect life, the life my Father demands of you – take it as my free gift.” When we think back to being twelve years old – or twelve hours ago – we can hardly claim innocence and perfection. But because of Jesus, when God sees your 12 or 32 or 62 year old self – he see only the perfectly obedient life his Son lived and freely gave to you. And in a few minutes, Jesus will come to you with his true body and blood to assure you that now, for his sake, you, too, have God’s favor.

That is why Luke included this story in his gospel. That is what sustains our Christmas joy even as the others parts of the season begin to fade. That is why Jesus went to the Passover. That is why He stayed behind at the temple. That is why he was studying God’s Word. That is why he returned to Nazareth as an obedient son. That is why Mary treasured up all these things in her heart. He was conceived and born, he grew and obeyed, he suffered, he died, he rose, and he rules – for you. Amen.

Romans 8:31-39 - The Eternal Date Line - December 31, 2020

In 1522, the Victoria, a Spanish ship originally commanded by Ferdinand Magellan arrived in port at Cape Verde, Portugal. Three years earlier, it had left Seville, Spain and sailed to the west. It crossed the Atlantic Ocean, skirted past the tip of South America, traversed the Pacific and Indian Oceans, rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the horn of Africa, and returned home to Spain. This storm-beaten ship had just become the first vessel to sail around the world. But there was a problem. By their careful accounting, it should have been July 9th when they landed. But to the citizens of Cape Verde, it was July 10th. It seemed to them like they had lost a day. It left them scratching their heads. This mystery continued to prove problematic for world travelers for centuries, all the way until 1884, when representatives from all over the world gathered together to solve the problem. They did so by establishing the International Date Line – an invisible line which runs from the North Pole to the South Pole through the Pacific Ocean – a line which helps makes sense of time in every corner of the globe. [1]

In an even deeper and more profound way, we need a base line, or a date line, spiritually. Why? Well, because we live in times that don’t make much sense. Do you have the stomach for a brief review of the past year? The President was impeached by the US House of Representatives (and acquitted by the Senate). Kobe Bryant and his 13 year old daughter died in a helicopter accident just outside of Los Angeles. Jussie Smollet lied about being the victim of a hate crime in Chicago. Actress Laurie Loughlin pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to a college admissions scandal. George Floyd died in police custody – igniting riots throughout the country. The Washington Redskins became the Washington Football Team. That’s not even to mention the pandemic and the election. And those are just the global headlines. On a personal level, you may have experienced troubles with your car or your job or your family or your finances. You may want to describe 2020 the way Paul described his times: Trouble, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. Just as it is written: For your sake we are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Yep, that about sums up 2020, doesn’t it?

It doesn’t make any sense, does it? Especially for us. Aren’t we God’s people? Isn’t he all-powerful and all loving? Shouldn’t he be there to rescue us before our lives fall apart? Shouldn’t he prevent pandemics – or at least protect his people from them? Where is he when the simple act of coming to church is made to feel like an illegal act of rebellion? Where is he when law-abiding people are punished and rioters are praised? Where is he when government officials advise us not to celebrate Christmas with friends and family? [2] Where was God in 2020 and where will he be in 2021?

Questions like those illustrate our need for something solid, something definite, a date line that can help us navigate the perils of the present and the uncharted waters of the future. Because, to be honest, in all likelihood 2021 will contain just as much trouble and distress and persecution and danger for us. As we look ahead to the New Year, it would be very easy to be afraid – especially with so many voices telling us that the darkest days are ahead of us. Will the lockdowns continue? When will you be able to visit your elderly loved ones in nursing facilities? When will children go back to school in person? Will there be more rioting and looting this year? Will things ever go back to “normal”? With so many apparent reasons to be afraid in 2021, what we need most of all is something solid, something objective, something to make sense of it all.

Thankfully, in the words before us this evening Paul points us to the date – and more importantly, the person – who can make sense of our times. We might call it the “eternal date line.” It is the reference point for all of history. And you know what that date is. It’s the date we just celebrated. It’s Christmas – not Christmas 2020 but the original Christmas that took place in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. While the devil and the world have done their best to obscure the real meaning of this date with reindeer and fat men in red suits, they haven’t succeeded. Christmas is still about one thing: the incarnation of our Lord. Christmas marks the date that the eternal God broke into human history, to begin executing his grand plan of salvation by doing the unthinkable: by taking on human flesh. Even our calendars recognize the supreme importance of this date: every year before that first Christmas is identified as BC “Before Christ” and every year after, until the end of time, are AD, anno domini, “The Year of our Lord.” The world around us may misuse and abuse and ignore what God did for us on Christmas – but even they can’t ignore the fact that all of history revolves around Christmas.

The question is: how does birth of a baby boy, to a poor virgin mother with no human father, in a manger, announced by an angelic army to a bunch of dirty shepherds make sense of our times and provide the solution to all of our problems – past, present, and future. The answer is that the eternal Son of God didn’t just enter our time and space as a tourist, to explore our planet – he did it to take upon himself all of our sins, the senseless rebellious things we’ve done – past, present, and future – and to suffer their eternal consequences on the cross. Paul puts this profound truth very simply: God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. Isaiah elaborates, and his words are well worth pondering: surely he was taking up our weaknesses, and he was carrying our sufferings. We thought it was because of God that he was stricken, smitten, and afflicted, but it was because of our rebellion that he was pierced. He was crushed for the guilt our sins deserved. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all have gone astray like sheep. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the LORD has charged all our guilt to him (Isaiah 53:4-6). Christmas marks the date that God kept the promise he first made to Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:15) to send a Savior from sin, death and the devil. That’s why Christmas matters. That’s why Christmas is the most important event that has ever happened – and will ever happen – in this world – yes, even more important than Magellan’s ship circumnavigating the globe and even more important than the development of a vaccine for Covid-19. Christmas isn’t just the baseline for our calendars – it’s the bedrock of our eternity.

But still, how does that really help us as we step into 2021? Can Christmas help us understand what the New Year holds? Well, yes and no. No, Christmas doesn’t tell us what 2021 holds for our world, our nation, our state, or for you personally. But Christmas does tell us where God will be in the New Year: what then will we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also graciously give us all things along with him? Who will bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies! Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus, who died and, more than that, was raised to life, is the one who is at God’s right hand and who is also interceding for us! Christmas has profound implications for us in the New Year. Do we fear new restrictions on our freedom to worship or some other form of religious persecution? God is for us – it doesn’t matter who’s against us. Are we concerned that our economy or our personal finances are going to be ruined? We shouldn’t, because the same God who gave us his Son promises to give us everything we need for life in this world. As we turn the calendar over, do sins of the past haunt you? Do you lay awake at night sweating through the accusations of the devil and your own conscience? Those are empty accusations, because God has already justified you – declared you “not guilty” – for Jesus’ sake. Do you fear that 2021 might be the year God calls you or someone you love home to heaven? There’s no reason to fear death, because Jesus rose from the dead, is interceding for you and will greet you by name at heaven’s gates.  

Now, don’t misunderstand, this doesn’t mean that 2021 is guaranteed to be a wonderful year. It doesn’t mean that it will be free from pain, loss, hardship and suffering…or lockdowns and facemasks and virtual learning. This world is still broken. You and I (and all the people around us) are still broken, fallen sinners. There’s no reason to believe that the political and racial and economic divisions in our nation will be healed. There’s no reason to believe that Covid-19 will suddenly vanish. There’s no guarantee that things will ever go back to “normal.” In 2021 we may experience sickness and suffering, injury and illness; we may have family, financial and health issues. We will make bad decisions and suffer the consequences. But Christmas proves that those problems – problems which may appear to separate us from God’s love – will not prevail. God’s love will prevail. No matter what the New Year brings, you can be sure that it is filled with God’s love for you – and for proof you need look no further than Bethlehem’s manger and Calvary’s cross – there God proved his love for us by giving us and then giving up his only begotten Son.

There’s a story about the 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon when he was traveling through the English countryside. He passed by a barn with a weather vane on the roof, and on the weather vane were inscribed the words “God is love” (from 1 John 4:16). Noticing this, Spurgeon stopped and pointed to the weather vane and commented to his companion: “Does he think God’s love is as changeable as the weather?” His companion replied, “Of course not! You miss the point. Those words are on that weather vane because no matter which way the wind is blowing, God is still love!” Yes, he is. And so, in closing, I would ask you to join me in reading Romans 8:38-39 – which can serve as a fine motto for us as we embark on a New Year: I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are living in senseless times. But Jesus makes sense of our times and all times. He’s the reason that no matter what happens 2021 will be a Happy New Year! Amen.  

[1] https://www.timeanddate.com/time/dateline.html#:~:text=Drawn%20up%20in%201884,D.C.%20where%2026%20countries%20attended.

[2] https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/coronavirus/midwest-governors-release-holiday-message-urge-residents-to-avoid-travel-amid-pandemic/2395518/

Luke 2:22-40 - Savor Your Christmas Freedom - December 27, 2020

As our lives move faster and faster bringing more and more obligations and as technology has left little room for escape, it’s no wonder that people are searching for help to deal with it all. This help can be found in “life management” books and seminars and advisers. We even had a seminar at the Seminary which covered the general techniques you can use to help you better manage your life. It consists of organizing your obligations and your time into a series of various boxes, endlessly dividing and subdividing them until every moment of your day is scheduled on paper. I’ve never been able to fit my life into a series of boxes, so I’ve never found this technique helpful – maybe you have, and more power to you. But one thing I am sure of is that no matter how efficiently you organize your life on paper, you’re still the one responsible; you’re still obligated to get everything done. And any time we are obligated to do something, it’s a manifestation of the law – and no manmade scheme can free you from the law. That’s why we’re going to savor Christmas today, because Christmas means that we are free from the many obligations, the many arms, of the law.

What’s the first thing you think of when you think of “the long arm of the law”? Government, right? No matter who you are, the long arm of government reaches into your life. If you own a business, you have mountains of red tape to cut through just to keep operating. If you have children who attend a government run school you have been involuntarily pressed into service as a teacher and tutor and study hall monitor. If you drive a car you must purchase a license, registration and insurance. We all have to pay taxes. And, as if that weren’t enough, this past year has seen government reaching into our lives in an unprecedented way – with officials dictating when and if we can leave our homes, how many people we can have in our homes, and what we must wear on our faces. This year I’ve come to better understand why my grandfather always used to say that some of the most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.”

But it’s not just the long arm of government that reaches into our lives and seeks to control us. We all have a vocation – which is just a big, fancy term for our role or place in life – as fathers and mothers, as sons and daughters, as employers and employees, as husbands and wives, as brothers and sisters, as friends and acquaintances and church members. How can anyone keep track of and perform all of the demands those various vocations place on us? How do you fit all of those obligations into neat little boxes?

And then there’s the longest arm of all: the Ten Commandments. Fear, love and trust in God above all things. Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. Honor your father and mother. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not give false testimony. Do not covet. And do all of those things perfectly, all day, every day (Matthew 5:48). There’s no cute, color-coded organizational spreadsheet that can possibly enable you or me or anyone to obey God’s Law as he demands. There is no escape from the long arm of the Law. And that’s why people who don’t stop at the manger at Christmas are so stunned when the mystical Christmas spirit suddenly vanishes the moment the last gift is opened. These are the people who Isaiah described as lifting up their idols of wood and praying to a god that cannot save (Isaiah 45:20). Every year they’re shocked to realize that you can obey the unwritten laws of the Christmas gods with all your heart and time and energy and yet that will never change the fact that on December 26th you’re still nothing more than slave to government officials, credit card companies, spouse and children, and, above all, to a holy God.

And that is why it’s good for us to be here today; that’s why we must not leave the Christmas manger so quickly; that’s why we need to stop all our frantic doing and organizing for at least one more hour today to savor Christmas. Because on Christmas, God reached the long arm of his grace out of heaven to us here on earth. To do what? Well, at the risk of sounding hokey or cheesy, to wrestle the long arm of the law into submission.

Arm wrestlers are usually big, muscle-bound men. Well, in this case, God sent a baby. But even as a baby, Jesus began wrestling with the Law on our behalf. Just eight days after his birth, Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple to have him circumcised and named (Luke 2:21) – according to the Law (Genesis 17:9-14). But it didn’t end there: when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. (As it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male will be called holy to the Lord.”) And they came to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” However, even as Jesus was presented at the Temple in accordance with the Law (Exodus 13:12), just like every other first born male, his presentation was different in one very important way: he wasn’t presented in order to be redeemed – for he had no original sin to be redeemed from. No, Jesus was presented at the temple as the Redeemer, the One who would take upon himself the full obligation of the Law and the guilt of our sins and failures (Isaiah 53:4-6; John 1:29). Jesus is presented in the Temple as the new Adam, the new representative of the human race, who had come to rip the long arm of the law out of our lives once and for all.

And Jesus’ identity and work didn’t go unrecognized at the Temple that day. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, waiting for the comfort of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was customary according to the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God. Now, I fully understand that parents and families rejoice and praise God at the birth of a child, but some random old man? I’ve brought four newborn children here to present them to the Lord for baptism (and while ladies have passed them around like a hot cake) but never once has an old man asked me to hold the child. What got Simeon so excited? This: He said, “Lord, you now dismiss your servant in peace, according to your word, because my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel. Simeon grabbed up baby Jesus and praised God because he knew that no matter how righteous and devout he was, he could never satisfy the demands of God’s holy law. But by inspiration of the Holy Spirit he recognized that in his arms he held the baby who could and would – not only for himself but for all people, both Jews and Gentiles. It’s no surprise that Joseph and Mary were amazed at the things that were spoken about him.

But what is surprising is that apart from Simeon and Anna, the rest of Jerusalem couldn’t be bothered to stop to notice the baby this poor couple had brought to the Temple. If there was someone who could free you from your obligations, who would do everything you never could, wouldn’t you expect the whole city to be there, waiting their turn to hold the child and praise God? What gives? Wise Simeon explains: listen carefully, this child is appointed for the falling and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too. In baby Jesus, Simeon saw a polarizing figure, one who would not unite but divide, who did not come to coddle and pamper but to pierce and expose. And while Jesus certainly did that during his ministry – separating desperate sinners from self-righteous Pharisees, the Peters from the Judases, the two thieves on the crosses beside him – he still reaches into our hearts today. Today, a forty day old infant reaches into our neatly packaged and organized lives and reminds us that no matter how much we do, we can’t do enough – by virtue of the simple fact that he wouldn’t have had to come if we could. So 40 day old Jesus forces us to make a decision: are we going to pass by him and keep on futilely wrestling with the law on our own, or are we going to stop and savor the freedom he came to bring?

Today, this first Sunday after Christmas, is a minor fulfillment of Simeon’s prophecy. Today, the thoughts of many hearts [have been] revealed. There are those who are spending this morning taking down Christmas lights and tossing trees to the curb; those who are sleeping in and those who are getting a head start on the coming week. By those actions they have revealed their hearts – that, unlike Simeon, they don’t recognize that Jesus is the gift, the comfort, the solution they really need; that he’s the only one who can free them from the hamster wheel of life under the endless demands of the law. Those who have already kicked Christmas to the curb have been exposed as having no more use for Jesus than as an excuse to decorate, give gifts, and party. Those who darken the door of church once a year on Christmas Eve reveal their ignorance of the fact that while a little baby might make them feel all warm and fuzzy inside, what they really need is for those little hands to grow up and be nailed to a cross to suffer and die for their sins. They reveal that they don’t recognize that they need more than for the long arm of God’s grace to reach into a manger in Bethlehem; they needed the long arm of God’s justice to crush him in their place (Isaiah 53:4-6) and then three days later raise him to life as proof of our justification (Romans 4:25). In that way, this first Sunday after Christmas is something of a preview of Judgment Day, when the thoughts of every heart will be revealed for all to see (Ecclesiastes 12:14). And those who have revealed their hearts today by simply passing by this Christmas Gospel have revealed which side of the courtroom they will be standing on when Jesus returns in glory (Matthew 25:31-46) – and when that day comes, they will finally and sadly realize that they were so busy trying to wrestle the Law on their own that they missed their only chance to escape the long arm of God’s law.

But, thank God, the long arm of God’s grace has proven long enough to reach you and me. Unlike the masses in Jerusalem who took no notice of that little baby boy; unlike the millions today who have better things to do today than gather to hear the Christmas Gospel again – you are standing where Simeon and Anna once stood, in the house of God, to hear and see and receive the salvation and redemption God gives to you before you go back to the endless hamster wheel of life. The longer arm of God’s grace has reached into your heart and revealed to you that no matter how hard you work, no matter how efficient and organized you are, you can’t please God – but that Jesus has for you. While many speak against this baby – you kneel in awe at his cradle and praise him as the Son of God and the Savior of sinners. And, just like Simeon and Anna, none of the credit belongs to you (that would just be one more obligation). The credit all goes to the long arm of God’s grace which reached down in the waters of Baptism to call us to faith (Romans 6:1-7); which reached into our ears with the sweet words of the Absolution; with the assurance that no matter how badly or how often you have failed – YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN (Luke 24:46-47); which reaches into your mouth personally through Holy Communion to strengthen you in faith and prepare you for life eternal (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). The arm of God’s grace is so long that he doesn’t only do everything for you, he has even given you the willingness and desire to stop and receive and believe it.

Life management books may help you to organize your life and attain peak efficiency with your time and energy – but they can’t release you from the demands that all of the different arms of the law place on you. But because Jesus’ powerful arm of grace has wrestled the long arm of the Law into submission for us and given us the faith to believe it, we, like Simeon, can depart here in peace. Amen.  

Galatians 4:4-7 - The Time Has Come - December 25, 2020

If I were to ask you what the best Christmas gift you’ve ever received was, I would expect that, at least here in church, you would probably say “Jesus.” And, while that’s true, that’s really only half of the story – the first half of the gift that God gives you on Christmas. We can and we must celebrate God’s gift of his Son to us, but if that’s where Christmas ended, we would still be lost and condemned sinners. Today, the time has come for us to not celebrate merely a coldly historical Christmas but to receive Jesus as God’s warm and personal gift to us.

Paul says that God gave this gift when the set time had fully come. What does that mean? Well, from a cosmic (that is, God-like) perspective, it simply means that the 1st century was the time God had always planned to send his Son to save the world. And he has not revealed precisely why he chose that place and time. But it is interesting to consider how God had shaped the world to receive his Son. A perfect storm of seemingly uncontrollable variables all came together at once. Roman rule established peace (the Pax Romana) throughout the inhabited world for the first time in centuries. Roman technology brought civilization in the form of roads and plumbing. Greek culture brought a common language and a love for learning. It wasn’t the “golden age” of Israel under King Solomon, but it wasn’t half-bad either. Protected from her ancient enemies by the Roman legions, Israel was pretty much free to carry out her business as usual (provided she paid her taxes…some things never change). The synagogues were thriving under the rabbinic teaching of the Pharisees. The temple was humming along under the Sadducees and Herod was busy renovating it to secure the loyalty of the Jews.

The people were in a watchful mood; waiting, expectant, hopeful. They had a sense of being on the threshold of something big. God had been strangely silent for over 400 years. There had been some bright spots, such as the Maccabean revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes – the event that continues to be celebrated as the festival of Hannukah. But the glory had long departed from the Temple. There was no ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies (Jeremiah 3:16). The priesthood had become a family business operated more for political power and personal gain than the reconciliation of sinners to God (Luke 3:2). It all combined to give the sense that God was about to act. Simeon, an elderly prophet in the Temple, had even been told by God himself that he wouldn’t die until he had seen the Messiah with his own eyes (Luke 3:26).

This was the set time of which Paul speaks. All the pieces of the puzzle were in place. That’s when the eternal Father said to his eternal Son “now” – and in that moment everything changed: the Ruler of history entered human history, the Creator became the creature, the Word became flesh, and the Son of God was born of a woman. This is how it had to be. Everyone has a mother, and our Savior is no exception. In order to become like [us] in every way (Hebrews 2:17), he had to be conceived in a woman and born like us. His Father, of course, is another story. In that way he is not like us, but in that way he is the perfect parallel to Adam. He is humanity’s second Adam, it’s new representative (Romans 5:12-21). He was born without the original sin of Adam, and yet he is born of a woman and therefore is like us in every other way. That’s why you can’t say, “To sin is to be human.” It’s not. It’s un-human. God didn’t create humans to sin (Ephesians 4:24). In that way, Jesus is the only “true” human – he’s bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh and had to be nursed and changed and burped just like every other newborn baby – except that he was sinless.

But he was, as Paul says, born under the law. This is part of his state of humiliation. Jesus, the Lord of the Law (Matthew 12:8), humbled himself and became obedient to it. He did this actively; he kept the Law perfectly. He did this passively; he suffered the punishment we all deserved for breaking the Law – to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). That’s why he didn’t just suddenly appear on earth out of thin air. He had to be born under the law – to be obedient to a father and mother and governing authorities. He had to experience the trials and temptations of life in a fallen world. There was no cheating. No divine hand tied behind his back. He had to do it our way; the hard way. He had to live our life the way we live it and die our death the way we die it.

Why? In order to redeem those under the law. To redeem means to buy back. Not from the devil – the devil doesn’t own us. Not from sin and death – they hold us captive but they are illegitimate captors. No he came to redeem us from the Law. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15: the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56). The Law not only stirs up our sinful desire to sin; it not only exposes our sin; but it condemns us to death. The Law can’t give life, it can only kill (2 Corinthians 3:6) – and that’s exactly what it did to Jesus.

And that’s perhaps the most remarkable thing about Christmas. Jesus’ humiliation wasn’t limited to being born of a woman in lowly circumstances under the law, it consisted in him becoming our sin for us. It would be like someone today intentionally becoming infected with Covid-19 in order to save others (if that were possible). Jesus didn’t sin but he became our sin so that the sledgehammer of God’s wrath fell on him instead of on us. He redeemed us by becoming sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). This means that you are free. The Law has no claim on you anymore. It cannot accuse or condemn you anymore. Jesus has traded his birth for yours, his life for yours, his death for yours. Your sins are forgiven in Jesus. The wrath of God is quenched. Death has lost its sting and the grave has lost its victory (1 Corinthians 15:55). Jesus is victorious and you are victorious in him (Romans 8:37).

And when you know and believe that, then God’s gift to you this Christmas shifts from a cold 2000 year old historical fact to a very warm and personal gift to you today. Jesus did all these things so that we would be adopted as sons, sons of his own heavenly Father! By virtue of your Baptism you are sons of God – and this includes you women and girls, too (Galatians 3:28) – because you’re sons in the sense of heirs. Jesus gave up everything he rightfully possessed as God’s only begotten Son in heaven so that we could inherit heaven as God’s adopted sons.

That’s why this Christmas, Paul wants us to treasure the second part of God’s Christmas gift to us: he gave us his Son so that we could become his children and his heirs. Now, I know what you’re thinking. This is one of those gifts that has a time delay. It’s like getting a savings bond. I remember getting one as a child. I said, “Great, can we go to the store so I can use it to buy something?” My mom responded, “No, but in 20 years you’ll be able to cash it out for 50 dollars.” “Great…thanks.” But this inheritance isn’t like a savings bond; you don’t have to wait for it to mature because you don’t receive an inheritance when you die; you receive it when someone else does. Jesus was born…and he died. Which means that this inheritance is already ours. Paul explains: Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to shout, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if you are a son, then you are also an heir of God through Christ. Paul lists four specific gifts that are yours now, to open and hold and cherish today.

1) First, in a world full of people who are struggling with identity crises, you have an identity. Where people search for their identity in their career, their appearance, their family, their gender or their gender fluidity, their skin color or political affiliation, you don’t have to do that. Whatever your line of work, whoever you are married to, whatever your politics – you are first and foremost a child of God – and that won’t ever change, even if everything else in your life does.

2) Second, you now have the right to pray to God, to call him your “Abba, Father.” Just as I don’t respond to calls of “Daddy” from anyone other than my own children, so God doesn’t hear or respond to anyone who is not his child through faith in his Son (Isaiah 59:2). Many people view prayer as nothing more than a meditative exercise – and understandably so, because anyone who does not come to the Father through Jesus is just wasting their breath (John 14:6). But you, you, dear child of God, have your Father’s promise that he will always hear you and always give you what is best for you (Matthew 6).

3) Third, you are no longer a slave, but a son. Do you know what the difference between a slave and a son is? A slave must work to gain and retain status in a household; a son already has status and thus acts appropriately. In other words, this gift of freedom from the Law completely changes the role of the Law. No more do you see the Law as a means of gaining access to God’s family – an empty promise it can never grant; now you see the Law as a guide for how the children of God want to live. Obedience for you is no longer an obligation but a privilege – a way of responding to God’s love and of witnessing to the world: I don’t belong to you anymore, I am God’s own child.

4) And, last but not least, if you are a son, then you are also an heir of God through Christ. As we age, I think we all begin lose interest in receiving gifts that can be wrapped in paper or sealed in envelopes. Why? Because eventually what we need most is not another sweater or a new fishing pole – but relief from pain and sickness, from sore backs and meaningless jobs and, let’s be honest, escape from life itself. This is a gift that isn’t found on Amazon but in a manger. And that is the last and greatest gift that God gives you this morning through the birth of his Son in Bethlehem: the promise of freedom from life in this fallen world and the full inheritance of eternal life in heaven.

How can you be sure? Because you’ve been baptized. Your baptism is your birth certificate. It tells you who your mother is: the Church, which gave you new birth into God’s family through water and the Word. It tells you who your Father is: God himself who sent his Son to take your place so that you could take his. Your baptism, more than anything else in the world tells you who you are, it tells you who your Father is, that you are free, and where you are going. Baptism is your own personal link to that baby born in Bethlehem. Through baptism, Christmas becomes God’s very warm gift to you personally, a gift you can begin unwrapping now and will enjoy throughout all eternity.

So, as you unwrap your gifts today and reflect on the meaning of Christmas, don’t forget that this day isn’t really about gifts or family or food but that 2000 years ago God told his only Son “the time has come” for you to become a man so that sinners may become my heirs. The world may be done with Christmas by tomorrow – or, heck, later on this afternoon. But you, dear children of God, your celebration of Christmas is just getting started. Merry Christmas! Amen.

Luke 1:26-38 - The Mary Problem - December 20, 2020

You know the Beatles’ song Let It Be? There’s a line in that song that used to trouble me: “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” It troubled me because I assumed that Paul McCartney was referring to Mary, the mother of Jesus, as the one who came to speak to him in times of trouble. It turns out, however, that McCartney saw his own mother, also named Mary, in a dream and it was she who advised him to “Let it Be.” Today we confront what might be called the Mary Problem – and we will find that the answer to this problem is none other than to “Let It Be.”

First, what’s the Mary Problem? One side of it is making too much of her. That’s what Catholics do, for example, in the famous Ave Maria – the Hail Mary. You’ve probably heard it before: “Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death.” While Mary certainly received God’s grace and her Son Jesus is to be blessed, nowhere does the Bible tell us to pray to the saints or that they can pray for us (1 Timothy 2:5). The last part was only added in the 15th century and declared to be authoritative in 1568.

The unicorn can show us another aspect of the Mary Problem. If you’ve ever been to or seen St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, you may have noticed a unicorn and wondered what a mythical creature has to do with Christianity. It’s a symbol of the Mary Problem. Mythology says that the only way a unicorn can be caught is for a virgin to go into the woods and sit on a stump. The unicorn comes and places its head in her lap and then it can be captured. The unicorn is said to represent the unapproachable and unreachable 2nd person of the Trinity and the virgin who caught him is Mary. Now the problem isn’t that Mary wasn’t a virgin; our text affirms it three times. The problem is thinking that Mary’s virginity is what attracted Christ to her. [1]

Rather than simply assuming that Mary was obedient to the 6th commandment and that virginity is the normal state of an unmarried woman, Catholics assume that Mary was especially holy. This really complicates the Mary Problem. First, how could Mary be holy herself if she was born of a flesh and blood mother and father just like everyone else? Jesus told Nicodemus that whatever is born of flesh is flesh (John 3:6) – that is, sinful, as David confessed in Psalm 51. How did this one girl escape the stain of original sin that infects every other human ever born? Catholics argue that somehow Mary was “redeemed” before she was even conceived – thus she was never infected with original sin. That’s what the Immaculate Conception is all about – not Jesus but Mary’s conception – which was made official Catholic doctrine in 1854 (why it took so long to recognize this as true is anyone’s guess). [2]

But that leads to a second problem, doesn’t it? The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). We don’t die simply because of age or disease or accident – we die because we’re sinners. At the same time, if you don’t sin, you won’t die. Mary died. Do you see the problem? The Catholic church solved it this way: “Finally, the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 252, 966). [3] While the Bible does record that God took Enoch and Elijah home to heaven apart from death (Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5; 2 Kings 2), we are told nothing of the sort about Mary, the mother of Jesus – which is a significant problem!

Now, as confessional Lutherans, we might think we are immune to this Mary Problem. We’re not. However, our problem typically isn’t making too much of Mary, but not enough of her. We usually picture Mary as a young, innocent, beautiful and rather naïve girl. Now, she was probably young (14-16 or so); she was no any more innocent than you or I; I can’t speak to whether she was beautiful or not – but from what the Bible tells us about her, she doesn’t appear at all naïve. When you read through the words of the Magnificat (the Song of Mary) later on in Luke (Luke 1:46-55), you see that while these words were certainly inspired by the Holy Spirit, Mary knew her Bible and her theology.

Of course, that’s not what caused God to choose her to be the mother of his Son. No, as Gabriel told her, she was chosen only because she had found favor (literally “grace”) with God – grace is always only given and never earned. And yet, we should acknowledge her piety and humility. She was obedient to the 6th commandment. Even though she was going to be the mother of God, she refers to herself as the Lord’s servant. Although she did have parental authority over Jesus, the times she overstepped her bounds – when he was 12 and at the temple (Luke 2:41-52) and at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-12) – she graciously accepted his rebuke. Even though she knew Jesus better than anyone and was present at his crucifixion (John 19:25-27), after Jesus’ Ascension we find Mary in the upper room with the rest of Jesus’ disciples as just another sinner saved by Jesus’ suffering and not her own (Acts 1:14).

And yet, while not recognizing Mary’s piety and humility is sometimes a problem for us, there’s a bigger problem. We have a Mary problem when we don’t see that even though she was visited by an angel, she didn’t base her faith or actions on what she saw with her eyes but on what she heard with her ears. This becomes clear in Mary’s response to all of the amazing and impossible things Gabriel had told her: See, I am the Lord’s servant. May it happen to me as you have said (literally: according to your word). Mary believed the angel because he spoke the Word of God, and she responded and acted appropriately. That’s the real Mary Problem, isn’t it? It’s not that we make too much or not enough of her – but that we aren’t enough like her; that we fail, regularly, to respond to God’s Word by saying may it happen to me as you have said. And that’s where Paul McCartney’s advice comes in: when God speaks, our proper response should be: let it be.

Let it be God’s Word about your sin and sinfulness that you go by – not what you feel in your heart or are told by our secular society. So much of what goes on this time of year gives the impression that the real problems we have are that we don’t have the enough time, enough money, enough health, enough energy, enough freedom, or enough Christmas spirit. Why is it so dangerous to believe that those things are your real problems in life? Because if these are your real problems, then you don’t really need Christmas; you don’t need Jesus. No time? Start earlier next year. Not enough money? Get a side-gig driving Uber. Not enough health? Go get vaccinated. Not enough energy? Will five hours work? You can find that at the gas station. Not enough freedom to do what you want when you want? Don’t worry, no one else is obeying the health department’s advice either. Not enough Christmas spirit? That’s nothing that a few Christmas gifts, a good meal and your favorite adult beverage can’t fix.

The thing is that those aren’t your real problems at Christmastime or any time. No, when you go by the Word of God, you discover that your real problem is that you are the offspring of sinful parents who was conceived and born with a sentence of death and damnation hanging over your head (Ephesians 2:1-3). Your problem isn’t just that you don’t have enough money but that you couldn’t possibly scrape together enough silver and gold to buy back your soul (Psalm 49:7-8). It’s not just that you don’t have enough energy to do everything you should – it’s that deep down you don’t really want to do God’s will, you’d much rather do your own. It’s not just that you’re chafing against mandates restricting your freedom – it’s that you aren’t free at all, in any sense of the term; you are by nature a slave of sin and death and the devil. It’s not just that you’re sick or chronically in pain – those are simply symptoms of your looming death. And good luck finding solutions to those real problems with a little extra money or a little extra time.

So what’s the solution? Let it be! Let it be God’s Word that delivers you from the lie that you can make everything merry this Christmas by better preparation, with more money or energy or freedom. Find the solution to all of your problems in the promise the angel made to Mary: you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The real solution to the Mary Problem isn’t making less or more of her – or even trying our best to imitate her – but in recognizing that God in his grace has solved all of our problems by sending his Son to be conceived and born of this young virgin. Not enough time? Jesus spent every moment of his life tirelessly obeying God’s Law as your substitute. Not enough money? Jesus didn’t use silver or gold but his holy, precious blood to redeem you (1 Peter 1:18-19). Not enough freedom? Jesus has freed you from your slavery to sin, death, and the devil by taking your place under God’s wrath in hell’s prison (John 8:31-32). Not enough energy? Because in Jesus God nailed your ugly, lazy, disgusting sinful nature to the cross and put it to death you can now put on the new self, which has been created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24). Not enough joy? While it’s true that there’s not much to be joyful about these days, because Jesus lives, you too shall live forever (John 14:19), and heaven will exceed all your expectations, even if this Christmas doesn’t.

And so, while we shouldn’t pray to Mary or expect her to pray for us, we can strive to be like her. Let God’s Word guide your life, not your thoughts and feelings. Learn from that Word not only about your sinfulness and your Savior but also about the signs God graciously gives to assure you that it’s true. Unlike Zechariah (Luke 1:18), Mary didn’t ask for a sign, she accepted the angel’s words; she just had some logistical questions – like how she was going to have a baby as a virgin. But Gabriel gave her a sign anyway: listen, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age even though she was called barren, and this is her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible with God. Just as God gave Mary a sign to validate his Word, so God gives us signs, visible, tangible, objective signs to validate his Word and anchor our faith – baptism, absolution, and Holy Communion.

God gives us these signs because just as Mary asked how will this be? we may be tempted to ask: How can a baby born 2000 years ago in Bethlehem have any real effect in my life today? How can I be sure that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are my life, death and resurrection? And the answer for you is the same as Gabriel’s answer to Mary: the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit conveys to you, here, today, the gifts Jesus lived and died and rose to win for you. So let Mary’s miracle be yours! Let it be as God’s Word says that you have been baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-5). Let it be as God’s Word says that when I or any other Christian forgives your sins, they are forgiven (John 20:23). Let it be as God’s Word says that this bread is Jesus’ body and this wine is Jesus’ blood which conveys to you personally the gift of everlasting life (Matthew 26:26-29).

Don’t make too much of Mary and don’t make too little of her – but do be like her; let your final and most important preparation for Christmas this year be a readiness to receive the Son God has given you. Let it be to you, like it was to her – that God is good to his Word and is fully capable of doing the impossible. He who can conceive his Son inside a virgin’s womb can certainly create faith in hearts like ours to believe and to confess: I am the Lord’s servant. May it happen to me as you have said. Amen.  

[1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/unicorn

[2] https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p122a3p2.htm

[3] https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_P2C.HTM#84

John 1:6-8, 19-29 - Where's the Joy in John? - December 13, 2020

On the third Sunday in Advent we light the third candle of our wreath, the pink one. Beside the center Christ candle, the pink one is the only one where there is general consensus over what it symbolizes. The three blue (or, in some cases, purple) candles represent repentance in general. But we get a bit of a reprieve on the 3rd Sunday in Advent, this Sunday has a theme of joy. This theme is a struggle for me. Do you know why? The 3rd Sunday of Advent also traditionally focuses on the words and work of John the Baptist. And if you know anything about John the Baptist, you know that joy is probably the last sentiment you would associate with him. Repentance, yes; forgiveness, yes; baptism, yes; calling people the offspring of vipers (Matthew 3;7), yes; but joy? Ever heard a Christmas carol on the radio about John? Ever seen a Christmas card with John on the cover? Where’s the joy in John?

Is it in his lifestyle? We read about it last Sunday in Mark 1. He wore a camel’s hair robe and a leather belt – which I don’t believe found its way into this winter’s edition of Vogue magazine. His diet didn’t consist of prime rib and lobster but grasshoppers and wild honey. He lived in the wilderness. His life was ascetic, Spartan, austere, harsh. John’s lifestyle couldn’t be more different from the kind of overeating, overdrinking, overspending, overindulgence that most Americans associate with Christmas.

Is there joy in the strict life of John? Many have thought so in the past. Luther and his fellow monks would dress themselves in rough woolen clothes just to make themselves uncomfortable; they would nearly starve themselves through fasting; others would live nearly their whole lives in self-imposed isolation as hermits. And while some Catholics may exchange their prime rib for a fish fry during Lent and groups like the Amish forgo many modern conveniences, in general, following a strict and disciplined lifestyle is pretty much unknown in American Christianity. But it is still a prominent part of other religions. Some Hindu priests starve themselves, sleep on the floor, and do nothing but pray for days at a time. Legend says that Buddha survived on nothing more than a single grain of wheat and one sesame seed a day. [1] Why? To get close to God, to find joy. Is that what John was trying to do by his austere lifestyle? Did he think that he could get closer to God by his meager diet and uncomfortable wardrobe? Did he think that would bring him joy? Clearly not, because he never once mentions it.

Joy is definitely found in God, but you don’t get to God by imitating the lifestyle of John. You don’t get to God by making yourself suffer. You cannot find joy by restricting your diet or by dressing in uncomfortable clothes or by isolating yourself from others (no matter what the CDC says). Those who do are in a terrible place, because the god who waits at the end of a self-imposed life of suffering is not the true God (1 Timothy 4:4), but a harsh, demanding demon who won’t be satisfied until he takes everything from you; up to and including your soul.

Well, if joy can’t be found in John’s lifestyle, then maybe we can find it in his faithfulness, right? John was sent from God to be an eyewitness and he was faithful in that vocation. The priests and Levites asked him five times who are you? and John witnessed faithfully each and every time. He refused to take any glory, repeatedly shifting the focus away from himself. He denied that he was the Christ, Elijah, or the Prophet. In fact, he apparently didn’t even consider himself a person, all he considered himself was a voice; a voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’ But as that voice, foreseen by Isaiah, he was faithful to his calling. He was a faithful witness to the Light, to Jesus Christ. And do you know what the single most important job of an eyewitness is? To not talk about yourself! To get out of the way and keep the focus on the Light, Jesus Christ. And John did that job well.

So, can faithfulness to one’s vocation lead to God, the source of all joy? Well, let’s just consider that for a moment. Are you as bold as John – fearlessly testifying to the truth in the face of intense questioning or criticism? When you’re gathered around the table (or, this year, the computer) with family will you boldly testify that the real reason for Christmas is not just so that we can exchange gifts or share a fine meal – but because 2000 years ago God’s Son was born in a manger in Bethlehem in order to save the world? Will you, as John did, steadfastly testify to your friends and family that the most important preparation we can make for Christmas doesn’t involve shopping or baking but repentance – including the commitment to leave our sinful lifestyles behind? Are you prepared to commit that at 9a on December 25 you won’t be sitting around a Christmas tree in your pajamas opening presents but here or in another church, sitting around our Lord’s altar, to really celebrate Christmas and to receive his true body and blood with your lips? Or, let’s just consider the everyday vocations God has called us to, just like the Catechism encourages us: “consider your place in life according to the Ten Commandments. Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, employer or employee? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you hurt anyone by word or deed? Have you been dishonest, careless, wasteful, or done other wrong?” (SC, Confession, Part 3) No, you haven’t been directly called by God like John to be a voice in the wilderness. But you have been called by God to be a father or mother or son or daughter or husband or wife or employee or retiree – and above all: a Christian. How faithful have you been to your calling? Can you find joy in your faithfulness? Can you find God there?

We all know the truth: if God can only be reached, if true joy can only be found if I am always faithful to the vocation to which God has called me, then I’m always going to be miserable. While John never changed his message out of fear or a desire to be accepted, sometimes I do. While John was willing to lose his head for preaching the Word of God (Mark 6:14-29), I duck the moment I think I might be embarrassed. I’m a husband, father, pastor, son and friend – and I’m a failure in each of those roles. I can never get to God and I will never find joy in my faithfulness. The good news is that neither did John!

John (the author of the Gospel, not the Baptist) tells us why. He begins by literally writing: there came a man sent from the side of God. John didn’t have to strive to reach God…he started out there. Luke explains that John was filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15). John didn’t live where he did, the way he did, preaching what he did to find joy – to get closer to God. God was with him before he was even born.  

And that’s why we don’t find joy in John’s lifestyle or faithfulness but in his…finger. John’s finger is why Jesus said that among those born of women there has not appeared anyone greater than John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11). No one before John had a finger like his – not because they were sticky with honey and covered with locust guts – but because no one before John had ever pointed to that lowly carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth, as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. No one before John had been able to personally point to Jesus as the source of forgiveness, life, and salvation. There is joy in John, not because of who he is but because of who he points to. If I had a Christmas card company, I would depict him with one of those big foam fingers pointing to Jesus in the manger.

Follow John’s finger, because with just one finger, John points us to the source of true joy. He doesn’t point you to the temporary and deceptive joy of parties and lights, eating and drinking, but to a far better kind of joy. The joy of knowing that the holy God didn’t send his angel armies to this earth to destroy you, but his only Son as a baby to save you. The joy of knowing that God credits Jesus’ perfect life to your account. The joy of knowing that your sins have been paid for once and for all. The joy of knowing that one day your grave will be just as empty as Jesus’. The joy of knowing that Jesus rules all things in this world for the good of the church. The joy of knowing that when he returns in glory he will make everything right, punishing his enemies and saving his people. And we desperately need to find our joy in the one John is pointing to; because while this is supposed to be a season of light and joy, I know that many of us are suffering under a shroud of pain and loss and darkness and grief. On those days, our only hope, our only source of joy will be to follow John’s finger to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Now, admittedly, I am not John. I can’t point you to Jesus walking in flesh and blood by the Jordan River. But, like John, I must relentlessly point you outside of yourself. I cannot point you to the fuzzy feelings in your heart or the hope that things will get better to find joy and find God because things might not get any better. I must – and you must hold me to this – point you outside yourselves and your circumstances to Jesus. So that when you’re frustrated and angry and tired of all the evil and immorality you see in this fallen world I don’t point to you or to me but to this font, where God himself gave you citizenship in his glorious and never-ending kingdom. When you’re suffering with a guilty conscience over all the ways you’ve failed in your callings, I don’t point you to yourself, to tomorrow, to opportunities to do better – but rather to the Absolution, where Christ himself declares you forgiven. And, when you eventually confront death itself, I don’t point you to yourself or to your doctor or your diet – but to this altar where you receive the true body and blood of Jesus, which is the only divinely authorized and approved vaccine for death. The source of joy is not going to be found in your lifestyle or your faithfulness but only and always in Jesus.

And here’s the funny thing, when you find your joy in Jesus, then you start to look and behave more and more like John. When you follow John’s finger and receive Jesus through Baptism, Absolution and the Lord’s Supper, it will produce the same fruits of this joy in your life as it did in John’s. You deprive yourself of money, money you could use to renovate the house or buy a newer car or take a vacation, and you instead give it away to support the preaching of the Gospel and to those less fortunate. You deprive yourself of time and energy and sleep to carry out your vocation in God’s name whether at home, at the office, or here at church. Your lifestyle is odd to the world around you (getting up on a cold morning to drive treacherous roads to church – when the devil and the government have given you countless reasons not to – it’s still stunning to me every Sunday) – and you don’t do it because it is the source of your joy but because you have found your joy in Jesus. And, while you may never be called to the carpet to explain yourself like John was, you are faithful witnesses like he was. You confess your sins in public. You confess out loud your faith in Jesus as the only Savior every Sunday. When you step forward for communion you proclaim both Jesus’ death for sinners and that he will come again (1 Corinthians 11:26). And you live in this strange way, like John, not in order to find God or find joy, but because you know and believe that in Jesus you have God and the joy of his salvation.

“But I don’t do any of these things perfectly.” Of course not; neither did John. That’s why John point to Jesus and not to himself. Your joy is not found in how much you sacrifice for Jesus or how faithful you are to Jesus. Your joy is found in how much Jesus sacrificed and how faithful he is to you. See, there is joy to be found in John; not in his person but in the person he pointed to: Jesus. Amen.

[1] http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/pbs2_unit03.htm

Mark 1:1-8 - Do You Have the Christmas Spirit? - December 6, 2020

It never fails. Every single year, no matter how determined we are to be ready for Christmas, it always seems to sneak up on us. Christmas is only 19 days away. Are you ready? Are you in the mood? Do you have the Christmas spirit? That’s one of the annual seasonal requirements, isn’t it: that you have the Christmas spirit? This allusive Christmas spirit was the inspiration for three of the most famous Christmas movies: the Grinch doesn’t have it and he tries to steal it from others; Charlie Brown searches high and low for it, but he can’t find it in the midst of Christmas’ commercialization; Ebenezer Scrooge thinks he doesn’t want it, but three ghosts show him how much he’s missing out on without it. The world has an infinite number of ways to tell us that we need to have the Christmas spirit. Fine. But what is it and how do you get it?

Well, although this is a fairly complicated recipe, most would agree that the main ingredient is family, right? “I’ll be home for Christmas,” Bing Crosby croons. Being home for the holidays creates the Christmas Spirit. It’s immortalized in Norman Rockwell paintings. It’s reliving and renewing and creating family traditions. And no matter how many experts tell us that you can be just as close with your family by computer as you can in person – we all know that it’s not the same thing. Once you’ve gotten the family gatherings scheduled, then you need to add a dash of a Christmas cheer. You need to be humming “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” until your throat hurts. The spirit of Christmas is kind thoughts toward others and a warm, cozy feeling inside.

Of course, even if you have family and Christmas cheer, you’re still lacking something, something big; something important. What is it? Charity! Giving gifts to others in order to help them to find the Christmas spirit is widely considered to be the most important ingredient in achieving the Christmas spirit for yourself. Why would that be? Well, because it’s not only advertisers and celebrities and food pantries that urge and encourage charity – even the church does. Saint Nicholas, the inspiration for that fat guy in the red suit, was a real bishop in the church in the 4th century, and he’s famous because he gave money to poor people. The Salvation Army – a so-called church – reminds you (or maybe, guilts you) to be charitable every time you go grocery shopping. Heck, even Risen Savior is encouraging you to give Christmas gift to those in need. Although, if I may be cynical, I’m not sure that giving to others in order to make yourself feel good is exactly a pure motive.

How dare I mock charitable giving at Christmas time! What kind of a Grinch am I? Well, I could have said bah-humbug to the other two ingredients as well. I could have pointed out that there are many people who don’t have any family to gather with or will have an empty spot at the table or that there are many who can’t stand the family they have to get together with at Christmas. To those who believe that the Christmas spirit = Christmas cheer, I could have pointed out that suicides and depression go up this time of year.

Nonetheless, family, cheerfulness and charity are all but universally viewed as essential ingredients to summoning the Christmas spirit. Anything else? Ah, yes, Christmas music. How can you have the Christmas spirit without Christmas music? Songs that have been sung for decades and hymns that have been around for centuries are played all day in the mall, 24/7 on the radio, and every year some pop-star comes out with their own Christmas album. Even if family, cheer, and charity are out of reach – at least you know that Christmas music will always be there to summon the Christmas spirit.

Hmm, we’re still missing something. Oh yeah: shopping. What would Christmas be without shopping – with spiced latte in hand? But it’s also intrinsically linked with family and happiness, too. How can you show up at a family gathering empty handed? What could possibly illustrate the Christmas spirit more than watching a child’s eyes light up at opening the gift – the perfect gift – that you bought them? Whether you do it on Amazon or Farm and Fleet (or, let’s be honest, Walgreen’s at 8p on Christmas Eve), no shopping = no Christmas spirit. Just consider how many people put themselves in debt just for the sake of being able to give the perfect gift.

And last but not least (especially because they are forbidden this year): Christmas parties. It’s sinning against the spirits of Christmas to not go to Christmas parties. You’ll be called a Grinch or a Scrooge if you don’t. The spirits of Christmas are to be found in food, drink and friends. You’ll be guaranteed to catch the Christmas spirit (among other things) if you can mix up this Christmas cocktail in the proper proportions.

What a killjoy! So, now I’m not only against family, cheerfulness and charity – but now music, shopping and parties, too?!? Not at all. I’m just pointing out that the seasonal spirits of Christmas we’ve been indoctrinated to believe in all have to be pursued, paid for, or drummed up. It’s hard work to obtain these spirits – especially during a pandemic – and it’s all but impossible when tragedy strikes your family during the Christmas season; when your Christmas cheer is dampened by chronic pain or disease; when you don’t have much to spend on shopping and giving because you’ve been furloughed. That’s because the spirits of Christmas we’ve been led to regard as holy and necessary are all products of our own doing; that is, they are based on works. You get these spirits of Christmas by doing or not doing certain things. Woe to you if you fail to dot every I and cross every t of the sacred Christmas laws – because then the Christmas spirit won’t come. Life under the Law, even the holly, jolly laws of Christmas, is heavy, depressing and burdensome.

But I have good news; that is, I have the Gospel. There is a Spirit of Christmas – and, imagine this: he actually has something to do with the true Christmas story. In fact, his role is so essential that without this Spirit there would be no Christmas. The angel Gabriel told Zechariah that John the Baptist will be filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15). Six months later Gabriel told Mary that the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). When Mary travels to see Elizabeth, John leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41). Later, when John was born, we’re told that Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:67) and sang a song of joyful praise. The true Spirit of Christmas is none other than the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

Ok, so how do you get the Holy Spirit? Not through giving, shopping or partying, but…through Baptism. On Pentecost Peter promised: repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). Paul calls Baptism a washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Jesus himself says that rebirth comes by water and the Spirit (John 3:1-18). Getting this Christmas Spirit, the real Christmas Spirit, couldn’t be easier: you receive it when you are baptized.

Preparing people to receive Jesus, by giving, not demanding, was really the point of John’s ministry, but that fact often gets lost in the details. Mark writes that John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. That’s precisely what is received today when people are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:20; Acts 2:38). Some get confused – or even try to deny that John’s Baptism had this power – by pointing to the last verse of the text where John says I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Some argue that John is saying that his baptism is just plain water and that only Jesus can baptize with the Holy Spirit. Well, if that were true, then, one, John’s baptism could not give the forgiveness of sins – as the text clearly says. Second, as the context makes clear, John is not contrasting his baptism and Jesus’ baptism, but rather his identity and his work versus Jesus’ identity and work, just look at the previous verse: one more powerful than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals!

In other words, John is using the word baptize (which simply means to apply something) in two different ways: one literal, one metaphorical. John applies with water for forgiveness – as he was commissioned to do by God. Jesus, however, has both the authority and the commission to apply the Holy Spirit to people – which he did in dramatic fashion on Pentecost (Acts 2:1-41). John was sent to apply water for the forgiveness of sins to prepare the way for Jesus’ first coming; Jesus was sent to apply the Holy Spirit through the means of grace to prepare the way for his second coming.

This is made clear in the very next verses of Mark’s Gospel where John baptizes Jesus. Then and there the Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove and God identified Jesus as his beloved Son (Mark 1:9-11). Endowed with the Spirit, Jesus immediately went to work, going to war with the devil in the wilderness (Mark 1:12-13), battling disease and death by healing and resurrecting (Mark 1:21-45), calling disciples to follow him and calling out his opponents for their hypocrisy and unbelief (Mark 2:13-17; 2:18-28), preaching the good news of free salvation throughout Israel until the time came for him to earn that salvation by suffering and dying, by rising and ascending. The results of Jesus’ work are the priceless gifts the Christmas Spirit gives during Advent: because Jesus cried out it is finished (John 19:30) on the cross, your sins have already paid for in full – you are debt free, you owe God nothing; because Jesus drained the cup of God’s wrath if there is anything that dampens your Christmas joy this year it cannot be because God is angry with you; because Jesus fulfilled the law by keeping it perfectly, no law, not even the sacred seasonal laws of Christmas, can accuse you or demand that you obey them in order to have a conscience free from guilt.

Because Jesus won the right to send the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, and because you have been baptized, you have the Holy Spirit; the true Christmas Spirit. And the true Christmas Spirit doesn’t point you to Christmas lights and gifts and parties, that is yourself and your own efforts, for hope and joy – he points you to Jesus, to his completed work on the cross; to his crushing of sin, death and the devil; to the assurance that because he lives you also will live (John 14:19) – which gives you a joy that can’t be taken away by sickness, sadness, death – or even a blue Christmas.

So go on and celebrate with your family (whether you want to or not); give, give, and give some more; turn the Christmas music all the way up; shop till you drop; party like it’s 1999 (just don’t get caught). But as you do, don’t forget this: the Spirit of Christmas is not something you need to buy up, drum up or gin up. The Christmas Spirit was given to you in your baptism. He is there to assure you of your forgiveness even when you face conflict in your family; to give you fellowship with the Triune God even when you’re isolated and alone (1 John 1:3); to provide joy even when you’re feeling blue; to give you the gifts of forgiveness, freedom from death and the devil, and eternal salvation even if there aren’t any other gifts under the tree this year.

The seasonal spirits of Christmas that this world cherishes come and go with your emotions, your health, your wealth, with governmental mandates – and by and large are gone by December 26 – because they’re not gifts. The true Christmas Spirit, the only thing that can really prepare you to receive Jesus both on Christmas and on the Last Day, is a gift. It’s a gift no one can take from you; a gift that will never break or go out of style; a gift that is yours whether this Christmas is holly and jolly or sad and lonely. Whether you feel the Christmas spirit this year is irrelevant; you have it, just as surely as water was splashed on your head in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus’ gift to you. Amen.

Matthew 25:31-46 - Judgment Day Surprises - November 22, 2020

For two weeks we’ve been focusing on the end times, especially on the fact that because we do not know when Jesus will return that we need to be prepared for his return at any moment. Today, the last Sunday of the church year, our attention shifts to what will happen when he returns; when all the nations will be gathered in his presence. And today, Jesus reveals that Judgment Day will bring some surprises.

The first surprise – which may come as a shock to us as confessional Lutherans – is the important role that works will play on that Day. “What? No, no, no. We are saved by grace alone, Pastor.” Well, the evidence regarding works is kind of overwhelming. In the Athanasian Creed we confess “at his coming all people will rise with their own bodies to answer for their personal deeds. Those who have done good will enter eternal life, but those who have done evil will go into eternal fire.” Then we have 2 Corinthians 5:10 which tells us that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he did while in the body, whether good or bad. And right here, doesn’t Jesus say that the sheep will enter eternal life because they did good things and the goats will go away to eternal punishment because they didn’t?  

So…surprise! It really does matter how you live and what you do or don’t do. Specifically it really matters if you fail to do good. That’s kind of surprising, isn’t it? The goats were convicted and condemned, not because they were Muslims or Mormons; not because they were pedophiles or rapists or murderers or thieves or that they dared to celebrate Thanksgiving. No, the evidence that they belonged in hell was what they didn’t do; that they didn’t feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or visit the sick.

If that’s the criteria for judgment, where does that leave us? When you look at your life, which side of Jesus do you belong on? How many hungry people have you fed lately? When’s the last time you gave a cup of cold water to anyone? What about the beggar on the on-ramp to the beltline – did you give him anything the last time you went shopping? Have you ever visited anybody in prison? “But pastor, I picked up a gift tag for the needy in McFarland, I give blood to the Red Cross, I toss a few coins in those red Salvation Army cans, I might even throw a few dollars in the ammo can in the back for the LMSG.”

Be very careful in asserting those sorts of justifications. Why? Well, who tries to justify themselves by what they’ve done on Judgment Day? Not the sheep but the goats. It’s not the sheep but the goats who think that their works can justify them in Christ’s courtroom. Jesus exposes everything they have failed to do for all the world to see and what do they say? “When did we see you and not help you? (We helped all sorts of people, we did all kinds of good deeds.)” That’s the tell-tale sign of someone who’s getting ready to spend eternity in a furnace. The person who claims that they have done their best, tried to be nice, and helped anyone they saw in need. The people who point to their charity, to their selfless acts, to the fact that they have loved their neighbor as themselves – those will be the goats bleating in dismay as they are dismissed from Jesus’ presence.

The sheep on the other hand…what do they say? “When did we ever do any of those things?” Why would they say that? How could they not? They have examined their hearts and their lives under the brilliant light of God’s Law, just like we did in our first hymn and the confession of sins, and – no surprise here – they don’t find anything good; nothing but sins of doing things they shouldn’t have, sins of not doing the things they should have, and a sinful nature that wants to keep right on that same path of sin. They confess that they don’t deserve to enter eternal life according to the demands of the law. So the real question is not “why will so many be damned?” but rather “how can anyone be saved?”

You know what the problem is, don’t you? It’s our innate tendency to read these words as Law. Perhaps no text has been more twisted and abused than this one in support of the social gospel, that is, that Christianity’s greatest goal is community service. In other words, if you want to find yourself on the right side on Judgment Day, then you had better go volunteer in a homeless shelter, you better visit the sick, you better invite perfect strangers into your home – here and now. The underlying assumption that these words are primarily Law couldn’t be more wrong. Let’s correct that assumption by getting these words back in their proper context. These are some of Jesus’ last words to his disciples before his suffering and death. Over the course of the next three days the disciples are going to be exposed as horrible sinners. They will fail Jesus in every way possible. They will fail to volunteer to wash his feet (John 13:1-17), they will abandon him (Matthew 26:56), betray him (Matthew 26:49) and deny him (Matthew 26:69-75), they will watch him die without even offering him a cup of water (John 19:28-29), and when he had given up his spirit they were too cowardly to take his body down from the cross to give it a proper burial (Matthew 27:57-60). Jesus knows all this. Do you think that he’s going to take some of his last moments on earth to institute a community service program? Do you think his greatest concern is that they would set up a food pantry or homeless shelter after he’s gone? More importantly, do you think Jesus wants to leave them with the Law ringing in their ears? Imagine you have just a few minutes to speak to a relative who is dying in an ICU somewhere where you can’t go, are you going to give them a dose of law or gospel?

And that’s the next Judgment Day surprise. This text is really good news, genuine Gospel, not the social gospel. It starts with the identity of the Judge. Who is it? The Son of Man. The same Son of Man who did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). And that’s why he doesn’t need a shred of evidence to separate the nations, because it’s on the basis of his sacrifice for sinners. He does it as easily as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. Now, I’m no shepherd, but even I know that if you’re separating sheep from goats you don’t do it based on what they do; you do it based on who they are!

In fact, those are the very first words out of the Judge’s mouth, aren’t they? He identifies his sheep: come, you who are blessed by my Father – those blessed to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16) – inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world – again, more good news, more gospel – not only is an inheritance a free gift but it was prepared long before the sheep had done anything, either good or bad, in their lives. And only then, only after the separation has taken place does Jesus present the evidence that the sheep are indeed the righteous: you fed me, gave me something to drink, welcomed me into your home, clothed me, took care of me, and visited me – when you did these things for other believers. This is where so many get this backwards: they define the righteous as those who never fail to feed the hungry, water the thirsty, take in strangers, clothe the naked, look after the sick, and visit the imprisoned. They make works the source rather than the product of saving faith. Show me where the Bible teaches that we become righteous by what we do, and I’ll be the one who’s surprised! I’m only aware of passages like Isaiah 64 and Romans 3 which say that all our righteous acts are like a filthy cloth (Isaiah 64:6) and there is no one who is righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10).

Well, if we can’t become righteous by what we do, then how do we get it? I quoted 2 Corinthians 5 before. If you keep reading in that chapter you come to verse 21, where Paul writes 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). Here’s the key: the righteousness the judge credited to the sheep – the righteousness you can claim for yourself right now – is not really theirs or yours. It’s Jesus’ righteousness, freely credited to you by God’s grace, received by you through faith. In other words, if you wonder where you will stand on Judgment Day, don’t think of your life, but Jesus’. Don’t point to your paltry good works but Jesus’ perfect life, death and resurrection. If you ever wonder where your righteousness comes from, don’t look in the mirror, look to the cross!

“Then why does he go into such detail about works if he isn’t trying to motivate us to do more good works here and now?” Courtrooms need evidence. However, in this courtroom, the evidence isn’t for the benefit of the Judge but for ours. Remember that Jesus is trying to assure his disciples – who will fail to do anything good for him as he dies for them – that their salvation is sure. And, he’s also assuring us, people who live in a world filled with shades of gray – where you usually can’t see the difference between the sheep and the goats. Right now, the righteous don’t look any different than the unrighteous. In fact, the unrighteous sometimes even look a whole lot better than the righteous. There are billions of people who couldn’t care less about God’s Word, the Absolution, Baptism, or Holy Communion – but they put us to shame with their good works. And it could make us wonder: do we really have this right? Can we really be sure that we will end up on the right side on Judgment Day if we make our highest priority simply receiving Christ’s gifts here instead of doing good for others out there? And so Jesus is comforting us: “Don’t worry about what you see right now; everything will be properly sorted out on Judgment Day.”

Remember, this is a courtroom. The evidence is what matters. And what is the evidence that the goats are in fact, goats, deserving of hell? The evidence proves that they didn’t do a single good thing in this life because they didn’t do a single thing out of faith in Christ. As Paul says, everything that does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). A life lived in unbelief, no matter how good outwardly, is a life worthy of hell.

Ah, but now it’s your turn. Think of the evidence as a video of your life. Everything you’ve ever thought, said or done is on there for all to see. Jesus calls your name and orders that your video be played on the biggest screen you’ve ever seen. You hide your face; you try to shrink into the ground. Before God and all creation your entire life is about to be exposed and you know exactly what it will show. Surprise! None of the filthy thoughts, loveless words or selfish actions that you know you’ve done are there. Why not? Because your life has passed through the filter of Christ’s blood in baptism; been wiped clean by Absolution; and been rerecorded with the perfect life of Christ in Holy Communion. As you dare to peek between your fingers to see what everyone else is seeing in your life, you nearly faint in shock. None of the disrespect you showed as a child, none of the wild and reckless behavior you showed as a teenager, none of your lustfulness or covetousness or hatefulness is showing up. Instead, all the video shows are the good things you did – including all of the good things you did that you don’t even remember doing. The video ends and Jesus slams down his gavel. “See, world, here’s the evidence that this is my sheep who will spend eternity with me in glory.” So surprise! Judgment Day is about works, only not yours, but Jesus’ for you.

No more surprises. Jesus is fair and impartial (Romans 2:11). He judges all by the same standard. He exposes the faithless goats by their failure to do anything through faith in Jesus. He reveals the sheep by failing to find any sin and revealing the evidence of faith in their lives. this is Gospel! This is what the disciples needed to hear just before they failed to feed, water, clothe, deny, betray and abandon the One who came to die for them. This is what we, who know exactly how badly we have failed to serve and love our Savior for yet another church year, need to hear today. Because while this text is about works and you don’t have any, this is good news, because you won’t be judged on your works but on Jesus’ perfect life, death and resurrection. Therefore, all you really have to know about Judgment Day is that the sheep who listen to his voice today (John 10:27) will hear his gracious invitation to glory on the Last Day. Amen.

Matthew 24:15-28 - When You See It, Don't Believe It - November 15, 2020

The saying always used to be “I’ll believe it when I see it” – so that when you see something then you can believe it. I’m not sure that saying holds true anymore today. Sadly, between the recent election and the ongoing pandemic, you see and hear an awful lot of things that you shouldn’t believe. But as Christians, this shouldn’t surprise us. In fact, Jesus tells us today that as the end draws ever nearer, there are some things you will see that you must not believe.

Jesus spoke these words on Tuesday of Holy Week. As they walked past the temple, his disciples were oohing and aahing at its size and magnificence. Jesus burst their bubble by telling them that soon every one of the temple’s magnificent stones will be thrown down (Matthew 24:2). Understandably, the disciples were curious. And they ask Jesus two questions: when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world? (Matthew 24:3) It’s important to understand that Jesus is answering both of these questions simultaneously. And the first thing we conclude from Jesus’ answer is that he is not, in verses 15 through 22, describing the end of the world.  

Perhaps you’ve heard or thought otherwise. Perhaps you need proof for this assertion. Ok. Jesus tells his disciples that they will see the abomination that causes desolation, that was spoken of through the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place. Luke adds context to this cryptic phrase, saying when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near (Luke 21:20). This literally happened in 70 AD when the Roman army led by Titus surrounded and proceeded to raze Jerusalem to the ground. That’s the positive proof. There’s also negative proof. If Jesus were referring to Judgment Day, what good would it do to flee to the mountains? What difference would it make if you ran back into your house to get your valuables or come from the field to grab some extra clothes? How could Judgment Day be harder on pregnant and nursing women than anyone else? What difference will it make if Jesus returns to judge in winter or on a Sabbath Day? At that point, none of those things will matter because no one will be able to escape Judgment Day (2 Corinthians 5:10).

Don’t believe that these words are a literal description of the end of the world. They’re not. They’re about the fall of Jerusalem – and that certainly was a great distress, unlike any that has happened since the beginning of the world until now, and unlike any that will happen again. Jerusalem was under siege for roughly five months. Soldiers scraped the leather off their shields for food. Women were driven to cannibalizing their own children. When the Romans finally did breach the city, the bloodshed was unimaginable. The first century Jewish historian Josephus estimated that over 1 million Jews were killed (Josephus is well-known for his exaggerations. But even half of that is still shocking.) [1]

And yet, while Jesus here is describing the literal fall of Jerusalem, it is also a type, a shadow of the world’s end. Just as the fall of Jerusalem brought suffering for Christians, so will the end of time. However, Scripture makes it clear that the sign that the End is near is not primarily physical but moral and spiritual. Again, we turn to other Scripture to help us interpret Jesus’ words here. In Luke 17, Jesus describes what the days before his return will be like. He says just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it also be in the days of the Son of Man. In what way? They were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark…likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building (Luke 17:26-27). Yes, the flood which drowned the earth (Genesis 7-8) and the fire and brimstone that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah were terrible (Genesis 19). But the days leading up to them were, apparently, great! People married, partied, ate and drank, bought and sold without a care in the world while the whole time false doctrine was spreading like a virus. Spiritual apathy, widespread immorality and false doctrine, not physical suffering will mark end of the world. So don’t believe it when someone tells you otherwise. Don’t become complacent or lazy just because you don’t see severe physical persecution today in our land.

Second, when you see Jesus anywhere but where he promised to be, don’t believe it. At that time if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There he is,’ do not believe it…So if they tell you, ‘Look! There he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out there, or ‘Look! Here he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. Don’t believe that Jesus will return in secret – or that only a select few will know when and where to find him. Why not? Because just as the lightning flashes from the east and shines as far as the west, so it will be when the Son of Man comes. Wherever the carcass may be, there the vultures will gather. Jesus’ return will be as clear and obvious to everyone as a bolt of lightning or as a dead animal is to a vulture.

But hasn’t Jesus promised to be with us right now and until the very end of the age (Matthew 18:20; 28:20)? Yes. That’s not the question. The question is: where can we find him? Jesus says that false Christs and false prophets will arise and will perform great signs and wonders. Don’t believe them! Why not? The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan, with every kind of miracle, that is, with false signs and wonders, and with every kind of unrighteousness that deceives those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10). Don’t believe that every miracle, sign or wonder is from Jesus. Don’t believe that just because a person can apparently heal the sick, speak in tongues, or gather a following that he or she is from Jesus. You will see false Christs and false prophets – and you will be tempted to follow them. Their enthusiasm, their charisma, their popularity will be magnetic. They will claim that they and they alone have a direct line to Jesus. They will boast of their joy, their peace, their love, their confidence – and their outward success and popularity will seem to verify their claims. Don’t believe them.

Well, if we know that there are imposters and imitators, how can you be sure where the genuine Jesus is? What is the proof of Jesus’ presence? You look for him where he’s promised to be. He promised to be where sins are being forgiven in his name (Matthew 18:18-20) – Jesus is present wherever Absolution is announced publicly or privately. He promised to be present in Baptism (Matthew 28:20) – he said, through Paul, that as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ (Galatians 3:27). And does it get any plainer than Holy Communion? This is my body…this is my blood (Matthew 26:26-27)? If you want to find Jesus today, look to where he has promised to be: Baptism, Absolution, Communion. You have his own word that where these things are he will be. How could anyone miss this?

Well, billions do. They do because from his ascension until his return Jesus has chosen to clothe himself in weak, ordinary things. The absolution is weak and ordinary compared to someone who claims that his babbling is a secret revelation from God. Baptism looks like nothing but plain water – but exorcisms, where priests splash holy water and speak in Latin to drive out demons, that’s pretty impressive! The Lord’s Supper looks like nothing but plain bread and Mogen David wine – how can that compete with healings, miracles and visions? In the end, our only hope is to become unbelievers – to not believe that Jesus is anywhere but where he has promised to be; and, finally, to not believe that our faith will preserve us in the end.

What? I’m not supposed to place any trust in my faith? Nope. As we get closer to the end, things will grow worse and worse morally and spiritually. In 1 Timothy Paul said: the Spirit clearly says that, in later times, some will fall away from the faith, because they devote themselves to deceitful spirits and the doctrines of demons (1 Timothy 4:1). I can say that I don’t want to or intend to fall from the faith, but I can’t comfort myself by saying: my faith will never fail. If you doubt that about yourself, just remember that the apostle Peter said even if all fall away because of you, I will never fall away (Matthew 26:33), and we all know how that ended up.

So if we can’t trust our own faith, then what can we trust? Well, how did Jesus comfort the Christians who were facing horrifying days leading up to the fall of Jerusalem? Did he point them to their faith, saying, “Don’t worry, you believe, so you will be spared and saved?” Did he point them to their understanding of Scripture or their good works? No, the comfort Jesus offered them was something that happened long before they were born, something clearly outside of themselves: their election. He said if those days were not shortened, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened. And one verse later he says that it is impossible for the elect to be deceived (Matthew 24:24).

As the end nears, I can’t comfort you with your faith because your faith, like mine, is weak. I can’t comfort you with your understanding of Christian doctrine because your understanding, like mine, is lacking. I can’t comfort you with your life of love toward God and others because your life, like mine, is more often than not lacking in love for anyone but myself.

But, as the end draws ever closer, I can comfort you with your election. I can comfort you with the fact that God chose you in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). I can comfort you with the fact that the reason you have been baptized and are hearing the Gospel right now is because of God’s election; as Paul says that those he predestined, he also called. Those he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified (Romans 8:30). I can comfort you with the fact that even though you haven’t kept God’s law perfectly, Jesus has in your place (Matthew 5:17-20). I can comfort you with the fact that even though your sins separated you from God (Isaiah 59:2), Christ has reconciled you to God by his death and resurrection (2 Corinthians 5:19). I can comfort you with the fact that by means of Baptism and Holy Communion God has placed his seal on you, marked you as one who will be spared and saved no matter how evil and immoral this world becomes (Revelation 7:1-8).

For the sake of the elect God shortened the horrifying days of Jerusalem’s destruction. For your sake God has shaped and continues to shape all of history leading up to the end. Everything in this world, everything in your life – the good, the bad, and the ugly – work together for your eternal good (Romans 8:28). As the terrible signs of the End reach a climax in this world, I can’t promise you that your faith won’t be shaken. But I can repeat Jesus’ promise: I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand (John 10:28).

So when you see these things happening – as they are even now all around us – don’t believe them. Don’t believe that this description of the fall of Jerusalem is how this world will literally end – that will only lead to complacency and false confidence; don’t believe that Jesus is present anywhere but where he promised; and don’t believe that your faith will preserve you in the end. Instead, believe that God will preserve his elect to and through the end to eternal life in heaven. Amen.

[1] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2850/2850-h/2850-h.htm#link2HCH0006

Matthew 25:1-13 - Keeping Watch - November 8, 2020

The gist of this parable is pretty simple, isn’t it? Keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. It’s not exactly a novel concept. Keeping watch is a routine part of life. We watch our porches for packages to be delivered from Amazon. Parents watch to make sure their kids stay out of the street and are home before curfew. Investors watch the stock market; politicians watch the polls; doctors watch for test results; farmers watch the weather. Everyone keeps watch for something. In a world full of people keeping watch, however, Christians are unique; for only we are keeping watch for the Lord’s return.

What does that mean? What does it mean to keep watch for our Lord’s return? Does it mean always staying awake? Being constantly vigilant every moment of every day? If it were, what grade would you get? We’ve all had times when we’ve had to force ourselves to stay awake. You try to force your eyelids open, you may slap yourself. And yet, what ends up happening? The more you try to make yourself stay awake the sleepier you become. Forcing yourself to stay awake usually has the opposite effect. It’s nearly impossible to make yourself stay awake for extended periods of time. That’s why, even in Biblical times, militaries rarely assigned overnight guard duties for periods of longer than a few hours (Matthew 14:25). Commanding someone to stay awake for an entire night is to command failure. But whether staying awake is possible or not is not the question. The question is: is that what the Lord is suggesting here? Does he want us to be constantly awake, constantly looking to the sky waiting for his return?

What would that look like? Every time you see a flash of lightning you’d have to jump up because it could be the first sign of the Lord’s return (Matthew 24:27). Every time you hear the tornado sirens tested you’d have to react like it’s the sound of the last trumpet (1 Corinthians 15:52). Every time you see the news of wars, earthquakes, disease and false doctrine you’d have to behave like Jesus is only minutes away from his arrival (Matthew 24). You’d also have to reject every occupation, recreation and relationship which would threaten to distract you from keeping watch. Try to force yourself to do these things and one of two things will happen: either you’ll find yourself on State St. marching around like a madman with a sign that says “The End Is Near!” – or you will be overcome with guilt because you can’t be that watchful. It’s simply impossible to spend every waking moment in constant vigilance for the Lord’s return.

Thankfully this parable makes it clear that keeping watch doesn’t mean staying awake. There are two pieces of evidence for this. First, in the parable Jesus says that they all [all ten virgins] became drowsy and fell asleep. You know how that goes. You’re committed to staying awake for something: a movie, the announcement of election results, a sermon – but no matter how hard you try, you slowly nod off. And the virgins had a significant advantage: while they maybe didn’t know the exact hour the groom would come, they at least had a rough idea and they knew the day – because they knew that the bridegroom was delayed. They could only know that the groom was delayed if they had some idea of when he was originally supposed to be there. But we have no idea of when the Lord is going to come – either for us personally or for this world in general (Matthew 24:36; 44). We not only don’t know the day or the hour, we don’t know the year or the decade. So how could we possibly stay awake?

Second, if Jesus is commanding us to stay awake here, it would contradict his teachings about his return. The Bible says repeatedly that he will come like a thief in the night, when we don’t expect him (Matthew 24:43-44; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10). Jesus says that if a homeowner did know when the thief was coming, he would be on the alert and not let the thief break in. Since we do not know when the “thief” – Jesus – will arrive, it’s impossible to be on constant alert. Keeping watch isn’t about staying awake.

If this parable isn’t telling us to stay awake, then what is it about? It’s about being prepared. Jesus tells us right away that of the ten virgins – which represent all who are, outwardly, members of the Christian church – thought they were prepared; they all took their lamps and they all allowed themselves to nod off to sleep because they were confident they were ready to meet the groom whenever he arrived. The question this parable urges us to ask, then, is not “are you awake” but “are you wise or foolish?” This is the self-examination question we need to ask today precisely because we don’t know when Jesus will return. The one thing that is very clear from this parable is that it is foolish to try to get prepared once he’s already arrived – as the five foolish virgins discovered.

So how can one be prepared to meet Jesus? Are you prepared? Our natural tendency is to look inside ourselves to check for preparedness. To ask “if faith is what it takes to be saved (Mark 16:16), then do I have enough of it to last until Jesus arrives?” Those sorts of questions only lead to paranoia and doubt, don’t they? You would constantly be checking, constantly trying to measure your faith. How would you even do that? How do you know if you have enough faith to last until Jesus returns? Where’s the measuring stick for that? Being told to look inside yourself and measure your faith could only lead to one of two outcomes: either self-righteousness or despair.

The amazing truth that this parable teaches is that being prepared is actually pretty easy. How? With oil (in all probability, olive oil). Olive oil was not an especially rare or precious resource in ancient Israel. Olive trees were plentiful. If you cooked or had a lamp, you had olive oil. Thus, in the context of the parable, it was not an especially difficult task assigned to these virgins – all they had to do was bring a lamp and oil – which they, in all likelihood, already possessed. And that’s what makes the foolish virgins so extraordinarily foolish. It wasn’t just that they didn’t take enough extra oil – they didn’t take any at all (Matthew 25:3)! What could be more foolish than to pick up a lamp and not notice that it’s empty; to not fill it with oil; to see five other virgins carrying lamps full of oil and not think, “Hmm, maybe I’ll need some of that too!” The real sin, the real failure in this parable then is thinking you’re prepared to meet Jesus when you’re not.

It’s not about staying awake but about being prepared. How can we be prepared to meet the Lord? What qualifies sinners to get into the wedding reception of the Lord? It can’t be remaining constantly awake, ignoring the day-to-day occupations of life to watch for his return, because in the parable none of the ten did that. It cannot be a matter of having enough faith because each of us are plagued with doubts, fears and worries; every one of us must confess with the father of the demon-possessed boy: I do believe. Help me with my unbelief! (Mark 9:24) Nor can being prepared consist of never sinning. There will never be a day that we don’t have to cry out God, be merciful to me, a sinner (Luke 18:13). So what can prepare us for something that we cannot prepare ourselves for? Only God!

God alone has the means of preparing sinners to meet his Son. And what are these means through which God prepares sinners to meet him? We call them the means of grace. By means of Baptism he fills us with the Holy Spirit and ignites the flame of faith in our hearts (Ephesians 5:25-27). By means of the Absolution, God sends our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). By means of Holy Communion, God guarantees that we are his heirs who have the same claim on heaven’s inheritance that Jesus himself does (Matthew 26:28). See? Being prepared is easy! Water is more plentiful than olive oil – and wherever you have water and the Word, you have the tools to prepare disciples from every nation on earth (Matthew 28:19-20). Absolution is so powerful that it can declare even the worst sinner “not-guilty” in God’s eyes (1 Timothy 1:15) Communion is so potent and powerful that when you receive the true body and blood in faith, God looks at you and sees Jesus.  

Now you might be thinking: “That’s too easy. That can’t possibly be enough! After all, we’re Lutherans who confess sola fidei – that we are saved by faith alone (Mark 16:16; Galatians 2:16). Where does faith fit into this equation?” Good question. Where do we see faith in this parable? The foolish virgins believed they were ready to meet the bridegroom; they weren’t. The foolish virgins believed that they could get what was needed to enter from those who had it; their request was rejected. They believed that when they showed up later and shouted ‘Lord, Lord, let us in’ that Jesus would the door; they believed wrong. The foolish virgins had plenty of believing going on, plenty of trusting, plenty of ‘faith.’ So what was the problem? Their faith was rooted in nothing more than their own imagination. The point is this: it isn’t those who think or believe that they are prepared to meet their Lord who will be welcomed into heaven – but those who know they are prepared.

And for that what we need is not some weird, abstract, circular or emotional faith in our own faith – we need faith that is rooted in the things of God. God promises that Jesus died for your sins because he died for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2).God promises that baptism saves us (1 Peter 3:21). God promises that the words of absolution spoken by a man actually forgive sins (John 20:21-23). God promises that the body and blood of Jesus are truly present in Holy Communion for the purpose of forgiving our sins, confirming and strengthening our faith – which is really nothing more or less than trust in his life, death and resurrection for us (Luke 22:19). When your faith is rooted in the words, promises and sacraments of God – then you can be sure that you are prepared to meet Jesus whenever he returns.

In the end, while our natural tendency, when thinking about the end of time, is to ask “when will this happen?” This parable teaches that we aren’t supposed ask when but who? In the parable the virgins don’t go out to keep watch; they went out to meet the bridegroom. Meeting the groom is the point. The groom, not the oil, got the five wise virgins into the wedding reception. And what got the five foolish virgins locked out was not their lack of oil but because the groom did not know them. The groom is everything! Those who meet him are saved; those who don’t aren’t! And Jesus tells us that we can meet him now until the end of time in the water, words, bread and wine of Baptism, Absolution and Holy Communion. Only a fool would refuse to keep watch by rejecting or neglecting these God-given means of preparation. Amen.