Luke 10:38-42 - The Problem with Mary and Martha - July 17, 2022

At first glance, this seems like a somewhat cute, innocent, almost funny story. Who of us who has ever lived with someone else doesn’t know the frustration of busting your butt doing chores while someone else is just sitting there? But the Holy Spirit wouldn’t have inspired Luke to waste the ink (2 Timothy 3:16) to record this account if all it was only a quaint, cute story of everyday family life. This story teaches some very serious truths. This story of Mary and Martha is well-known. But that doesn’t mean that it’s well-understood. That’s because there’s a problem with Mary and Martha.

What’s the problem? The first problem is that we fail to grasp the magnitude of Martha’s sin. I mean, really, what’s the big deal? If Martha was busy trying to burn down the Roman Governor’s residence in protest of some decision she viewed as unjust; if she was busy disposing of the knife she had used to murder someone; if she was busy in the bedroom with someone else’s husband; if she was busy hiding a bounty she had stolen from her neighbor – that would get our attention; then we would see her sin as serious. But what is Martha busy doing? Well, working…and worrying. What most people would consider at least innocent if not praiseworthy. But if we view Martha’s work and worry that way – then we have a problem. Because Martha’s work and worry are symptomatic of major sins against the first three commandments.

Martha is guilty of breaking the first commandment – she is guilty of idolatry. How? Well, Luke tells us that Martha welcomed [Jesus] into her home and that she recognized him as her Lord, that is, as God. The gospels don’t explicitly report that Jesus (the Son of God) visited an individual’s home all that often. He visited Peter’s house (Matthew 8:14), Simon the Pharisee’s (Luke 7:36-50), Matthew’s (Matthew 9:9-13), Zacchaeus’ (Luke 19:1-10), and, notably, he visits Mary and Martha’s home three times (John 11; John 12:1-11). Each time, the host was very careful to take the time to listen to Jesus. The only exception is here. Even though Martha welcomed [Jesus] into her home…[she] was distracted with all her serving. Martha had a different god. What should we call this god? Maybe the god of “hospitality”? And if you’ve ever run into this false god, you know that he is very demanding. Bathrooms need cleaning; carpets need vacuuming; food needs cooking; beverages need cooling – on and on and on.

Now, you may think that it’s silly to call hospitality an idol, but God’s Word says that whatever is most important in your life at any given moment is your god (Matthew 6:24; Jeremiah 17:5; 1 John 2:15). What’s the most important thing in your life right now? I’m not suggesting that you might be worshipping Allah or Buddha in place of the one, true, triune God – I don’t think you’d be here if that were the case. Nor am I suggesting that some evil, wicked thing might be the most important thing (although, it certainly could be). No, I’m asking you to examine your heart to see if some good thing has taken the place of the one, most important thing in your life. It could be your spouse, your children, your job, your health, your wealth, your schedule, recreation, the economy, your security, politics, that problem at work or at home. Whatever is at the top of that list is your god. That’s what you worship with your fear, love and trust, not to mention your time, effort and finances. Again, in and of themselves, those are all good things – but they make for terrible gods. Her Lord and Savior had come into her home, but for Martha, he came in second place behind the god of hospitality. (Incidentally, this wasn’t a formal church service. This was more like Bible class. But Martha didn’t attend. She had other things to do that were more important. When you walk out of here, is there something more important than sitting at Jesus’ feet for another 20 minutes?)

Martha was an idolater, but she was also a blasphemer. Our Catechism defines blasphemy as “to speak of God in an evil or disrespectful way.” [1] Did Martha do that? Let’s go back to the scenario again. As Mary sits there passively listening to God’s Word, Martha is busy. She’s zooming in, out and around the place where Mary sits at Jesus’ feet. Now, every household has a something I’ll call a chore code. Do you know the chore code? It consists of a passive-aggressive manner of doing the chores when you’re trying to get someone else to help you It doesn’t matter what the chore is, sweeping, dish-washing, vacuuming – everything gets louder and more obnoxious as they try to grab your attention. Apparently Jesus wasn’t aware of the chore code, so he goes on teaching – and Mary goes on sitting and listening. Finally, Martha gets so fed up that she came over and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone?” Tell her to help me. How is this blasphemy? According to the 2nd Commandment, the Lord has given us his name to pray, praise and give thanks (Psalm 50:15). Martha has misused the name of the Lord by using it to try to manipulate him, to tell him what to do. That’s a serious sin. We can ask God for anything – but we must never, ever think that we can tell God what to do or when to do it.

Why don’t we take Martha’s sin more seriously? Why would we find this story more interesting if Martha was guilty of insurrection or murder or adultery or theft? It’s because our nature is to assess sins against the second table of the law (4-10) more seriously than sins against the first (1-3). Those are visible, tangible sins. They’re sins that other people might see or find out about. They’re sins that even our fallen world recognizes as wrong. But just because the world sees those sins as the worst doesn’t mean they are. The worst sins are those against the first 3 commandments – that’s why they’re first. Martha’s idolatry and her blasphemy ultimately led her to break the 3rd commandment – which could, arguably, be considered as her greatest sin. Why? Because when you don’t listen to or despise God’s Word you’re sinning against the only cure for sin (Matthew 12:30-32). Apart from the Word how could Martha be rescued from her idolatry and blasphemy? If you or I despise God’s Word, how can we be saved from our sins against all 10 Commandments?

Underestimating the magnitude of Martha’s sin is the first problem with Mary and Martha. But it’s not the only one. The contrast that runs throughout this account is between one and many; between one Lord and many distracting idols; between being upset about many things and content to receive the one thing needed. Far from being merely quaint, cute or irrelevant, doesn’t this story speak directly to our lives in 21st century America? We’re all always in a rush, always busy, always behind and always tired. The harder we work, the less seems to get done. There really are too many things to do and too little time to do them. The devices and apps that were supposed to make life easier only create further distractions and obligations.

Contrast the frantic chaos of our everyday lives to Mary. Mary clearly understood the good, gospel-oriented goal of the 3rd commandment. She heard the divine command to “Stop and listen!” when Jesus came through the door. She put everything down. For her, nothing was more important than Jesus. Compared to Jesus all the things demanding our worry and anxiety and sleeplessness and endless busyness are not needed. Life today calls you to be worried about so many things. By sitting at Jesus’ feet, Mary was confessing the reality that worrying, working, planning and speeding can’t make your life one minute longer, sweeter or richer (Luke 12:22-34). Isn’t that magnificent? We are free to ignore the threats and commands of the idols of busyness and worry. “If you don’t do this, you’re in trouble.” “You better get this done, or else.” When those threats and commands come, remember the magnificent Gospel promise: your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things…seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:32-33). Or, as Jesus put it: one thing is needed.

Jesus’ Gospel message stands in stark contrast to what is proclaimed in most churches today. While the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone may be implied and even referred to – too often the main focus is on us and what we are to do and give or how we are to behave. Have you ever heard a sermon that went like this: Law – you’re a sinner; Gospel – you’re forgiven; and now, get out there and do a. b. and c. Now that kind of sermon is not necessarily wrong – but when that’s what you’re hearing every week, what part gets the emphasis; what part sticks in your mind? When a church’s main message is that you must be doing more to help the poor, giving or volunteering more, that you should be doing more to fight racism or sexism or any other “ism” out there – then the magnificence of the Gospel of Christ crucified gets dulled and obscured. Whether it’s intentional or not, the message given is that you can trust in Jesus for your eternity, but until then, it’s up to you. You can rest in Jesus on the day you die, but not today. Here’s the thing: I know I’ll have plenty of time to rest from work and worry when I’m dead, but I really need some rest here and now, don’t you?

To give rest is why Jesus was at Mary and Martha’s house. And it’s why he promises to be here with us in this house as we gather in his name (Matthew 18:20). It’s why he gave us the third commandment, to remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy (Exodus 20:8-11). It’s all designed to keep our attention on the one thing…needed. Jesus is that one thing. And he’s come. The one who never had another god, never misused the name of God, never despised the Word of God and, therefore, never worried once; paid the price for Martha’s sins and for yours and mine too. Jesus was holy, but he was punished for Martha’s idolatry, your blasphemous prayers where you tried to tell God what to do, and my despising of the Word. Those sins against the first three commandments are serious. They deserve punishment in hell that never ends. And that’s exactly what Jesus suffered in our place on the cross. He suffered for each and every one of our sins against the first three commandments until he could say it is finished (John 19:30). And, unlike us, who will all die with much unfinished business – when Jesus finishes something, it’s really finished.

One thing is needed, Jesus says, and he’s present to give it to you here and now. Jesus has come and he continues to come to give peace and rest to frantic, weary, worried sinners like us through Word and Sacrament. His Baptism doesn’t quickly drain to empty like your gas tank does – the well of grace you have in Baptism will never run dry. His Absolution isn’t like those bills you paid last month – only to have them show up again this month – the debt of your sin has been paid once and for all (John 19:30). Supply-chain issues will never remove Jesus’ body and blood and the forgiveness and strength they provide from this altar and inflation will not make them too expensive to buy (Isaiah 55:1). These are the free gifts Jesus dispenses to you every time you listen to his loving 3rd Commandment which essentially says “Stop! Listen! And find your peace and rest not in your work but in mine!”

Only when we take the time to stop, listen and rest can we realize the magnificence of the good news in this account of Mary and Martha – good news for all sinful, idolatrous worriers. Jesus says that Mary has chosen that better part, which will not be taken away from her. Do you realize what that means? It means that all the distractions, all the “things” of this life, all the worry and anxiety will eventually be taken away. That’s the peace of heaven that every Sunday service, every family devotion and every personal meditation points us to. And when we take the time regularly, weekly and daily, to turn away from the many distractions and worries of this life to focus on the one thing needed – Jesus, his life, death and resurrection – then the problem with Mary and Martha (and us) disappears – and we can finally rest. Amen.  

[1] 2019 WELS Catechism, 375

Galatians 5:1, 13-25 - Stand Firm in Your Gospel Freedom - July 10, 2022

Have you ever noticed that many of life’s biggest milestones are marked by the achievement of some level of freedom? From getting your first bike or your driver’s license – which free you from relying on your parents for transportation; to moving out of the house – which frees you from the house rules; to paying off your home – which frees you from monthly mortgage payments; to retirement, which frees you from the demands of the workweek. At the same time, when you achieve these freedoms, does that mean that you are then free to do whatever you want? Hardly. (Just ask any of the retirees here.) In fact, with freedom often comes greater responsibility. Up to this point in his letter to the Galatians, Paul has argued adamantly that salvation comes by grace through faith alone not by works of the Law. Now, Paul addresses the criticism hurled against all who teach and confess salvation by grace through faith alone: “It’s dangerous to say that people don’t have to obey the Law to be saved – because if people realize they are freed from the demands of the Law then they will just go back to their sinful ways.” And, logically, this criticism seems to make sense, doesn’t it? If you’re free from the Law – totally free – then you’ll just go back to sinning, right? In the face of this criticism, Paul doesn’t waver from his original premise:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not allow anyone to put the yoke of slavery on you again. Commentators are torn on whether this verse belongs with the section that precedes or follows. The chapter and verse numbers are not inspired, so there is room for argument. But at least one commentator suggests that this is a Janus verse. Janus was the Roman god of gates and doorways – he’s depicted as having two faces, one looking to the past and the other to the future. Before we look ahead to what it means to live as a liberated child of God, we must remember that we were slaves. Jesus said: Amen, Amen, I tell you: Everyone who keeps committing sin is a slave to sin (John 8:34). If we lie, lust, covet, hate, hurt or steal – we are slaves. Apart from Jesus we were enslaved by our sins because we can’t get rid of them, can’t remove them; apart from Jesus they control us, define us, and determine our eternity. Tragically, those who attempt to free themselves from their sins end up in an even worse form of slavery: slavery to the Law. Trying to overcome sin by trying to be a better spouse or parent or friend, by striving to be more honest and diligent and selfless is futile because try as hard as you might, you can’t do it. You can have the 10 commandments memorized and strive every day to keep them and you will wind up 6 feet under long before you actually do. As natural born sinners we can’t overcome sin nor can we keep the Law and so we were slaves to both – powerless to free ourselves.

But Christ has set us free. He set us free by virtue of his active and passive obedience. Actively, Jesus set us free from the Law by keeping it perfectly as our substitute – by lifting that burden off of our shoulders and crediting his obedience to us through Baptism (Galatians 3:27). And having kept the Law for us, Jesus turned toward Jerusalem and carried the burden of our sins to the cross, to passively absorb God’s wrath and sin’s punishment as our substitute. And, as of Good Friday, his work is completely, absolutely, finished (John 19:30). As a baptized believer you must stand firm in this message of freedom: you stand before God completely righteous, completely justified – free from the consequences of sin and the demands of the Law – through faith in Jesus. Don’t let anyone rob you of that freedom. Don’t let anyone tell you that you must do this or that, you must have this experience, you must be better to be saved. Don’t rob yourself of that freedom by turning back to your good works, your charity, your effort as your confidence for salvation – because if you do, you’re becoming a slave all over again. Instead, stand firm in the freedom Christ suffered, died and rose to give you. At the same time, this verse not only looks behind but it looks ahead. You are freed from sin and the Law but you are not free to use this liberty however you choose. In other words, the road of Christian freedom is narrow; and having warned us of the ditch on one side – the ditch of legalism; Paul now looks to keep us from slipping into the ditch on the other side.

Paul describes this ditch in detail: After all, brothers, you were called to freedom. Only do not use your freedom as a starting point for your sinful flesh…now the works of the sinful flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, complete lack of restraint, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, discord, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things similar to these I warn you, just as I also warned you before, that those who continue to do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. The ditch on the other side of the narrow road of Christian freedom is using that freedom as license to sin. Paul says that these works of the sinful flesh are obvious. Do you think so? I mean, they are clearly spelled out as sins in God’s Word. But is that the way they are regarded today? Half of American Christians polled in 2020 considered casual sex between consenting adults to be acceptable. [1] There are many Christians who secretly think that homosexuality is a defensible lifestyle, that living together outside of marriage or getting an easy “no-fault” divorce is ok because God just wants us to be happy. Then Paul mentions sins against the 1st commandment: idolatry and witchcraft. Whatever you fear, love and trust the most – that is your God. And as for hatred, discord, jealousy, selfish ambition – who of us can claim to be innocent? And Paul’s warning is clear: those who continue to use their Christian freedom as a license to sin will not inherit the kingdom of God.   

Because the freedom which Christ died to give us is not freedom to serve the sinful flesh but freedom of another kind: to serve one another through love. In fact, the whole law is summed up in this one statement: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I know it sounds paradoxical, but the Greek literally says that we are freed to be slaves – slaves to one another. So, Paul spends 4 chapters arguing that we are free from the Law, only to tell us now that we are once again slaves to the Law? How does that work? We are free from the Law – as far as our relationship with God goes. Jesus has satisfied God in our place. But we still owe a debt of love to one another (Romans 13:8) and the Law still serves the crucial role of defining and guiding what love for others looks like (the third use of the Law). In other words, while we are freed from the Law as a means of salvation – of pleasing God – that frees us to serve one another through love.

What does this look like? Paul says: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There are four things to note about this verse. First, Paul doesn’t use imperatives (commands) but indicatives to describe this life of freedom. He doesn’t say you shall do these things, he says you will do these things, naturally, inevitably. We don’t love others to become Christian or to remain Christian, we love others because we are Christians – because we know how God has loved and served us in Jesus! Second, note that in contrast to the visible works of the sinful flesh; the fruit of the Spirit consists of changed attitudes – because where the heart is changed, where the tree is made good, good fruit will inevitably follow. Third, these fruits are not the product of our hard work and effort, but the work of the Holy Spirit in us. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 by the grace of God I am what I am (1 Corinthians 15:10). And, lastly, against such things there is no law. That’s a major understatement – but you get the point, right? No law in the world forbids or restricts these fruits – you are absolutely free to be as loving, joyful, patient, kind and self-controlled as you want.

But here’s the rub: if we are free to produce as much fruit of the Spirit as we want, why do we so often find ourselves serving our sinful flesh? The reality is that the sinful flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful flesh. In fact, these two continually oppose one another, so that you do not continue to do these things you want to do. The fiercest war raging in this world is not in Ukraine, it’s not being waged in any courtroom or legislative chamber, it’s one that will never make the headlines – it’s the war going on in the heart and mind of every Christian between the Old Adam and our New Self. Unlike the rest of the unbelieving world which remains completely enslaved to the sinful nature, we Christians are torn – so that [we] do not understand what [we] we are doing, because [we] do not keep doing what [we] want. Instead, [we] do what we hate (Romans 7:15). And this war will not end until God kills this flesh once and for all and takes us to heaven.

But just because the battle rages on within doesn’t mean the outcome of the war is uncertain, because those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful flesh with its passions and desires. No respectable Roman would ever cast crucifixion in a positive light. Crucifixion was such a brutal, gruesome and shameful form of execution that it was reserved only for non-citizens, slaves and those guilty of the very worst crimes. So why does Paul cast crucifixion in a positive light here? His point is that there is no reforming, no rehabilitating, no reasoning with the sinful flesh – the only thing to do with it is kill it without pity or mercy. That’s what the Holy Spirit did for you through Holy Baptism. He nailed that sinful flesh to the cross to die (Galatians 2:20). But one of the most horrible things about crucifixion is that death doesn’t come immediately. The sinful nature will claw and struggle to get down, to regain control of your life – and Satan will tempt you to pull the nails out yourself. The only solution is to return to baptism through repentance. When you hold out your sins to God and cling to Jesus in repentance then the nails are driven ever deeper – and the sinful flesh loses more control over you.

This life-long process will produce visible results: if we live by the spirit, let us also walk in step with it. These are military terms. He’s picturing a military parade where a disciplined squad of soldiers marches down the street in perfect lock-step with one another. This is what the Church looks like that is standing firm in Christian freedom. We walk in line with the Spirit and with each other, not out of fear or guilt or obligation, but because we have been set free by Christ to serve one another. Yes, we will continue to stumble and fall along the way – but, freed by Christ from our sins of the past frees us to look forward in service to others – and that’s what it means to stand firm in your Gospel freedom.

Martin Luther summarized these verses beautifully when he wrote: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” [2] You are free; free from sin and the Law; you are free to serve others in love. Stand firm in that freedom because that’s the freedom Jesus died to give you. Amen.  

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/31/half-of-u-s-christians-say-casual-sex-between-consenting-adults-is-sometimes-or-always-acceptable/

[2] AE 31:344

Ezekiel 2:1-5 - A Different Kind of Vocation - July 3, 2022

It’s something you probably don’t think about too often as you go about your life. It’s something that you may have never really considered at all. But it’s something that every single one of us in this room (and in this world) have in common (Acts 17:26). Every single one of us has a vocation. (Vocation is a fancy word for the place to which God has called us in this life.) For example, being a child or parent, a man or woman, a husband or wife, an employer or employee are all vocations. And yet, even though God has given each of us a unique calling in this life, there is one vocation that is particularly unique. One which is not given to everyone and yet does have application for every Christian. As we consider a portion of the LORD’s call to Ezekiel to be his prophet this morning, we will see that the Gospel ministry is a different kind of vocation.

The first difference has to do with the origination. Most earthly vocations are chosen or applied for – they originate in you: you choose a career path, to get married, to have a child, etc. However, if you read through Ezekiel 1-3, there is no evidence that Ezekiel was seeking or had applied for the job of prophet. Ezekiel’s call did not originate in him but in the LORD who appeared to him on the shore of the Kebar Canal while he and many of his fellow Israelites were in exile in Babylon. The LORD appeared to Ezekiel in a glorious vision of his majesty which forced Ezekiel to fall flat on his face in fear (Ezekiel 1:28). Immediate destruction was what Ezekiel knew he deserved for his sin, but God gave him the opposite of what he deserved: Son of man, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. The Spirit entered into me as he spoke to me and brought me up to my feet. Then I heard him speaking to me. Clearly, Ezekiel’s call into the ministry originated in God and his grace and was delivered through his spoken Word.

Now, I’ve never been to the Kebar Canal and the LORD has never appeared to me or to any other WELS pastor in a majestic vision of glory (that I’m aware of). But any and all of you who have ever participated in the Call process (specifically the WELS process of assigning and moving pastors from church to church) know that the Call to a particular congregation does NOT originate in the pastor – it originates in God (every Call meeting begins with prayer and petition) and is mediated through you, the members of the congregation. This is comforting for both pastor and people. The pastor can be absolutely sure that this Call has come from God and the people can be absolutely sure that the pastor has not appointed himself but is sent from God.

And yet, while the Divine Call is clearly unique in many ways, the same is true for every Christian – no matter your vocation. Whether you were baptized as an infant or an adult – the sacrament which initiated you into the Christian faith didn’t originate with you – it was instituted by our Lord 2000 years ago as the instrument through which he promised to gather disciples from all nations (Matthew 28:19). Regardless of how you remember or feel you came to believe in Jesus, Jesus himself says definitively: you did not choose me, but I chose you (John 15:16). I don’t say this to be condescending but first of all because it’s true – faith is a gift of God, not the result of human effort (Ephesians 2:8-9); and then second, to comfort you with the knowledge that the Lord was thinking of you, wanting to save you, even when you couldn’t or wouldn’t or didn’t want to think about him – and the fact that you believe today is evidence of that (Ephesians 1:4).

The second difference has to do with the audience. While every vocation has its difficult people that we’d rather not serve, most vocations generally involve willing participants. Whether you’re a nurse, a salesperson or a mechanic, you’re generally dealing with people who want your help. Consider Ezekiel’s call: Son of man, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to disloyal nations, who have been disloyal to me. They and their fathers have rebelled against me to this very day. These children of mine are brazen-faced and hard-hearted. By way of contrast, in chapter 3, the LORD tells Ezekiel that if he were sending him as a missionary to a foreign people, they would listen (Ezekiel 3:5-6). But Ezekiel was called to preach to God’s chosen people – a people who seemed to have rebellion embedded in their DNA. They had rebelled and been unfaithful over and over and over – to this very day. What makes this even more tragic is that they had tasted and seen that the LORD is good (Psalm 34:8) in the Promised Land – and yet still rebelled and rejected him. They were stubbornly defiant of the LORD who had graciously chosen to save them. They were an audience which the Lord told Ezekiel beforehand would not receive or believe his message.  

I’ll let you in on a little “pastoral” secret: the LORD has revealed something to me about you that you either may not know or may choose to suppress or ignore: You are a sinner. You have been sinful from the moment of your conception (Psalm 51:5). You – like me – are incapable of not sinning (Romans 7:14-25). While I don’t think any one of us would put “rebellious,” “disloyal,” “brazen-faced,” or “hard-hearted” in our social media descriptions, that’s precisely how Scripture describes us (Romans 3:9-18). Even after our conversion, who of us doesn’t have to confess with Paul: what a miserable wretch I am (Romans 7:24)? The LORD knows this. Others around us know this. But we often try our best to ignore this fact. That’s why the LORD calls his ministers to preach the Law in all of its wrath and fury faithfully and regularly – yes, even (and especially) to “good” Christians. The hard truth is that you and I are natural born sinners and will remain so until the LORD buries this flesh in the ground and takes us to heaven.

According to God’s Word, I know this about you. But you are also know this about the people the LORD has placed in your life. No matter who you’re dealing with, you’re dealing with a sinner. Parents, don’t be surprised when your children rise up in rebellion against you – they are only being what you made them: original sinners. Children, don’t be surprised when your parents lose their tempers – that’s their nature as sinners. It doesn’t matter how wonderful your spouse seemed while you were dating, never forget that you willingly married a sinner. No matter your occupation, never forget that your customers, clients, coworkers and employers are all natural born sinners. And, while this comes as no surprise to those of you who know me, I, your pastor, am a sinner. And what do sinners do? The point is that whether you’re a pastor, parent, child or church member, you can fully expect that the people you’re dealing with are a rebellious, disloyal and hard-hearted people – people who by nature are opposed to God and his will. That’s the audience.

Now that we’ve ripped the ugly scab of original sin off, we can turn to the third difference: the message. I am sending you to them, and you are to tell them that this is what the LORD God says. As unappealing as Ezekiel’s call may have seemed – at least he could find peace in the fact his message would not be his own. And yet, the LORD’s message through Ezekiel to the people of Israel was not exactly what anyone would consider to be “good news.” The Babylonians had attacked Jerusalem and carried Israelites off into exile several times before the final destruction of the city in 587/586 BC. Ezekiel had been carried off in one of those earlier attacks. The LORD commanded Ezekiel to tell the people that they should not hold out hope for Jerusalem, that things would get worse before they would get better, that the people remaining in Jerusalem would starve (Ezekiel 4:17), that the land would be devastated and her people would be brutally and savagely killed (Ezekiel 5:17); that terror is coming. They will seek peace, but there will be none (Ezekiel 7:25); and that the Temple of the Lord will be desecrated (Ezekiel 8). This message that the people wouldn’t want to hear was precisely the message the LORD wanted them to hear through Ezekiel.

You probably didn’t wake up this morning hoping to be reminded of the original sin that you inherited from your parents. You probably didn’t expect to be called out as rebellious, disloyal and hard-hearted in public. Many in our world would consider such preaching to be repugnant and offensive. They would call me arrogant and bigoted. In fact, many pastors would never lay down the law in such a blunt fashion out of fear of offending his listeners. But here’s the thing: like Ezekiel, the LORD has not called me to preach my own ideas or a message that tells people what they want to hear, the LORD has called me and every other Gospel minister to preach only what the LORD God says – no more and no less (Revelation 22:18-19). While the dual truths that we are damned sinners who are saved only by the grace of God in Christ doesn’t seem to scratch itching ears (2 Timothy 4:3) – it is what the LORD God says. The fact that the message is not my own gives me comfort and confidence and it should for you too.

And the same is true of you who have been called into his kingdom of priests. No matter your vocation, the LORD does not expect you to come up with your own ideas, to tailor the message to your audience, to adjust your words based on your feelings – he expects you only to declare “what the LORD God says.” In other words, don’t talk about yourself or your faith; talk about God. And there is probably no simpler summary of who God is than what is found in what we refer to as the Conclusion to the 10 Commandments, found in Exodus 20:5-6: I the LORD your God am a jealous God. I follow up on the guilt of the fathers with their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren, if they also hate me. But I show mercy to thousands who love me and keep my commandments. Whether you’re a pastor, a parent, a friend or an employee, the call is the same: declare only what the LORD God says.

The final difference involves the measure of success. The world measures success in purely external terms: grades, income, likes, retweets, job titles, etc. How are we to measure the success of the Gospel ministry? One of the more common questions I hear when someone learns that I am a pastor is: “Is your church growing (meaning numerically)?” Ezekiel likely would have been tempted to judge the success of his ministry based on how many Israelites listened to and believed his message, but the LORD simply wouldn’t allow it. He told Ezekiel whether they listen or do not listen – for they are a rebellious house – then they will know that a prophet has been among them. There are two key points here: 1) first, when what Ezekiel proclaimed to the people came to pass – namely, the complete destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple – then the people would know beyond all doubt that he was a prophet of the Lord. And, second, 2) until then, Ezekiel was called not to measure his success by the response of the people, but by his faithfulness to God’s Word.

When someone asks me if Risen Savior is growing, do you know how I respond? I say, “Yes, every week we are proclaiming the Word of God and administering the Sacraments and God has promised that wherever his Word is proclaimed, it will achieve the results he desires (Isaiah 55:10-11).” The world measures success in visible, numerical terms – but not the LORD! Success in his Church is measured by faithfulness to his Word. When we baptize infants and adults, teach and catechize, preach and absolve, distribute and eat and drink according to God’s Word – then this little corner of God’s Kingdom is growing, whether it can be measured numerically or not. Faithfulness to his Word is what God demanded of Ezekiel, what he demands of all Christians, and what you should demand of me.

So where is Jesus in all of this? Everywhere! His vocation was and is the most unique and important of all! Where did Jesus’ vocation originate? His Father sent him to be the Savior of the world (1 John 4:14). Who was Jesus’ audience? To a world that preferred the darkness of unbelief over the light of the Gospel (John 1:9-12). What message did he proclaim? Not his own, but only what his Father commanded him to speak (John 12:48-50). Was he successful? Well, he got himself hung on a cross. Does that count as success? Yes! For those of us the LORD has called to faith through the means of grace, Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection are the only measure of success that matters – because through him we have been forgiven for all the times we’ve failed to faithfully carry out our vocations and can be certain that when this life ends the LORD will call us straight to eternal life with him in heaven.

How do you measure success in your life? How do you measure the success of a pastor or our success as a congregation? This morning God redefines success and replaces our standards and measures with his. The Gospel ministry is different not only in regard to the origination, audience, message and measure – but most importantly, in the fact that our ultimate success – our salvation – doesn’t depend on us, but on the fact that Jesus carried out his calling, his vocation as the Savior of sinners perfectly. Amen.

Numbers 6:22-27 - The Trinity's Blessing Leaves You Lacking Nothing - June 12, 2022

There are certain occasions in each of our lives when we speak and we must – more than usual – mean what we say. When you were confirmed, you vowed before God and man to “reject the devil along with all his lies and empty promises” and “to continue steadfast in this teaching and to endure all things, even death, rather than fall away from it.” If you are married, you again stood before God and man and promised “to be faithful [to your spouse] as long as [you] both shall live.” If you’ve ever been asked to testify in court, you swore to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” There are certain moments in life when we want everyone to know that we really mean what we are saying. There’s a problem though. Whenever we, as sinful humans, make a promise or take an oath or swear to tell the truth; whenever we speak – there’s always something lacking. Raise your hand if you’ve never doubted or wavered in your faith since you vowed to endure all things for the sake of Christ. Raise your hand if you’ve never been unfaithful to your spouse in thought, word or deed. Raise your hand if you believe you can ever really know the WHOLE truth. No matter how sincere we are when we speak, we are always lacking; lacking in commitment, determination or knowledge. In the end, our words are always lacking because we are fickle, sinful human beings. But the triune God is neither fickle nor sinful. When he speaks he always has the power to do what he says. And when God blesses you, he leaves you lacking nothing.  

I.                    The Father’s Providence

The words before us this morning are very familiar. In the course of the church year, you will hear these words dozens of times; with the result many of you have heard them hundreds of times, and a few of you thousands of times. There’s a danger in this familiarity though, isn’t there? The danger is that we might start to believe that these are just words; just words that mark the end of church; just words intended to give us a warm, fuzzy feeling as we leave God’s house. The law for today is this: if you have ever taken these words for granted or have found your mind wandering as these words are spoken or have left with this blessing but then allowed the worries and troubles of life cause you to forget them: repent. Repent for treating the blessing of the triune God as just empty words. Repent for failing to recognize that these words are God’s promise to you, his guarantee, his contract that he signs with his own name. Repent and be forgiven so that you may always treasure this incredible gift the triune God gives you as you leave his house.

These aren’t just words. God first gave these words to Moses and Aaron around 1500 BC as Israel was preparing to set out from Mt. Sinai for the Promised Land. At God’s command, Aaron and his sons were to speak this blessing over Israel every morning and every evening. For more than 3500 years God’s servants have placed his name on his children by repeating these words. Even though I’ve spoken these words countless times, I was reminded of something interesting as I was studying them this past week: these words allude to and spell out the work of each person of the Trinity. Not just in the threefold repetition of the name LORD, but in the particular blessings each part contains. The Israelites could not have seen this clearly, they were still looking forward to the fuller revelation of God in the person of the Messiah – but as NT Christians who have the fuller revelation of God in Jesus, we can see clearly how this blessing reveals what God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have each done and are doing for our salvation.  

The LORD bless you and keep you. In Hebrew the word “bless” means to bestow – to actually give – someone something. It’s more than a wish; it’s God the Father’s promise to act. We see an example of this in Genesis 1:28 where God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” God blessed Adam and Eve – and what happened? They were fruitful – today their descendants cover the earth (almost 8 billion of them!). They ruled over creation – and today we have more food than we can eat. The point is this. When God speaks, it’s not an empty wish. His Word carries the power to do what he says. Maybe this becomes even clearer when you consider the opposite: God’s curse. In Genesis 3, God cursed the ground – and even now our gardens are filled with thorns and thistles (Genesis 3:17-19). In Genesis 19, God cursed Sodom and Gomorrah and all that remains of them is scorched earth (Genesis 19). When God speaks, things happen. When God blesses you, he is promising to provide everything you need for life – your body, your talents, your abilities, your health, your home and job and family are the result of this blessing. But the Father doesn’t only provide for you, his promise to keep you means that he will watch over you every day of your life. Everything you are and have, your past, present, and future are in your Father’s hands – and he promises to use every moment of it – the good and the bad, the joy and the sorrow, life and death – for your eternal good (Romans 8:28). God’s blessing leaves you lacking nothing and the Father’s special work is that he will provide for you and protect you. We call this his gracious, undeserved providence. Let us thank the Father for his providence by confessing our faith…

II.                  The Son’s Grace

I’m willing to bet that among the many communications you receive every week are at least a few requests for a donation of time or money. When you receive those requests, see that there are people in need and decide to help them without asking for or expecting anything in return – that’s called charity. That thought of helping someone in need comes out in part two of the Aaronic blessing. The LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The first question is: God has a face? I thought he was a spirit (John 4:24)? This is called an anthropomorphism – that is, applying a human attribute to God. When you turn your face toward someone or something, you are giving it your attention. And that’s the point here. Even though our sins have separated us from God and prevent us from coming into his presence (Isaiah 59:2) he turns his attention to us. His gracious attention. When you hear the word grace you probably think of the classic confirmation definition: undeserved love. But the Hebrew uses a different word meaning “to grant a favor” or “help someone in need” [1] - much like you do when you give to charity.

How did the LORD most clearly demonstrate that we have his attention and help in our need? Here’s one place the classic Sunday school answer is the right answer: Jesus! We needed something and he provided it. We needed a perfect life to cover our absolutely imperfect lives; we needed the forgiveness of sins; we needed someone to save us from the fire of hell. We needed help, and Jesus was the only one who could give us what we need. When the virgin Mary conceived and gave birth to a baby boy long ago in Bethlehem (Luke 2:6-7), God made his face shine on the world. As that baby boy grew and learned and taught and healed and lived and loved –Jesus was weaving together the robe of perfect righteousness that covers all our unrighteousness. And when that grown man climbed Calvary and surrendered himself to the worst punishment that God and man could dish out, the Son of God paid the price for our sins with his blood. We were in need, we are still in need, and so as we leave God’s house we are assured that Jesus came and lived and died and rose again as proof of God’s attention and grace.

Too often when people think about receiving blessings from God they are only thinking of earthly, material blessings – in other words, our prayers tend to focus on 1st Article blessings. But when you set the first two parts of this blessing side-by-side, an interesting thing happens: you realize that the Father’s material blessings would be worthless apart from the spiritual blessings Jesus won for us. A job, a career, a steady income is a wonderful blessing, but no amount of work can earn the righteousness God demands from us. Only Jesus can. Jesus provided for our lack of righteousness by living a flawless life under God’s law as our substitute. A roof over our heads is a wonderful blessing; but it cannot shelter us from God’s wrath over our sin. Only Jesus can. Because Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath on the cross his blood shelters us from God’s judgment. It’s certainly a blessing to live in a country where we can speak and worship freely, but neither the constitution nor the judiciary can free us from death’s prison. Only Jesus can. Jesus robbed death of its sting when he burst out of his three-day prison and rose from the dead. When God blesses you, he leaves you lacking nothing; and the unique work of the Son is to give you his undivided and undeserved attention and grace that frees us from the eternal consequences of our sin. Let us thank him for his grace by confessing our faith…

III.                The Spirit’s Peace

You know how whenever there’s a mass shooting or a natural disaster or a political scandal, people always act shocked and surprised – as if these things have never happened in our world? It’s almost as if people assume that peace is the normal status quo in this world. You don’t have to be a history major to recognize that this is not the case. Peace is not the norm; war, violence, corruption, terror is. If we have a moment peace in our lives, we should never take it for granted, because it is a rare and precious gift.

Given the way that many people seem to coast through life without ever giving a thought to God or repentance or forgiveness or judgment or eternity – you might get the impression that we are simply born into a peaceful relationship with God. On balance, this is a far more dangerous mistake. Peace is not our natural relationship to God; by nature we are God’s enemies who are in open rebellion against him and his Word (Romans 8:7-8). That’s why it’s so remarkable that in the third part of his blessing, God promises us the opposite of what we deserve: the LORD look on you with favor and give you peace. Our world has a warped understanding of peace. To the world, peace is having enough money in the bank to pay the bills; peace is having a family that always gets along; peace is the absence of crime and war; peace is looking on the outside the way you feel on the inside. The dirty little secret is that you can have all those things – and still not have peace. True peace, the peace that Jesus died to win for you is the peace of forgiveness, the peace of a clean conscience and a heart free from guilt, the peace of knowing that this fallen world is not your real home – in short, true peace is peace with God.

Jesus created true peace between you and God once and for all when he died and rose, but because you can’t go to the cross or the tomb to pick up this gift, they must be delivered. The Holy Spirit is the delivery man. He first delivered this peace to you when you were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. On that day, the Holy Spirit transformed you from God’s enemy into God’s child. As Paul writes in Galatians: you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Indeed, as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ…And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:26-29). But the Holy Spirit’s work didn’t end there at the baptismal font. Daily and weekly the Spirit delivers God’s peace to you – in the words of absolution, in the body and blood of Jesus you receive in the Sacrament, in your own personal meditation on the Word of God – wherever and whenever the message of forgiveness in Christ is taught or offered or read, the Holy Spirit is delivering God’s peace to you – even (and especially) when your life is anything but peaceful. God’s blessing leaves you lacking nothing; and the Spirit’s special work is to deliver true peace; God’s peace, the peace Jesus earned, to you through simple human servants and the simple means of grace – the Gospel in Word and sacrament.

How can we respond to our God’s blessing of providence, grace, and peace? Before we close with Luther’s explanation of the third article I want you to take something to heart. How do we respond to the Aaronic blessing of our Triune God? With “amen,” a Hebrew word meaning “Yes, it shall be so.” Every Sunday, and every day for that matter, God promises to give you everything, leaving you lacking nothing, and what does he want in return? Only faith that believes and receives his promises. So whenever you hear this blessing, know that they’re not just words; they are the Holy Trinity’s oath to give you everything you need, so that you can sing and speak and live with the conviction that: “Yes, it shall be so.” Amen.

[1] Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, p 302

John 14:23-27 - Preparation for Separation - June 5, 2022

Preparation for separation. Is that how those of us with children think of parenting? Probably not. Being permanently separated from your children is not a pleasant thought. But it’s true nonetheless, isn’t it? Why do we teach our children how to read and write and add and subtract and balance a budget and, in general, deal with life in this world? In the end, because we’re preparing them for the day when we won’t be here to lead and guide and advise and care for them. And this isn’t only true of parents. This is true for all of us who are committed to sharing the saving Gospel with a world in desperate need of it. Why do we spend so much time and effort and money teaching the Gospel to the next generation and training pastors and teachers? Because the day will come when we won’t be around to do it; when preaching and teaching will be their job. We are preparing them for when we will be separated from them.

That’s what Jesus was doing in the upper room on Maundy Thursday. He was preparing his disciples for life after his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension; preparing them for a new reality (the only reality we know): life without his physical, visible presence. Here’s the context: he’s just told them that he’s going away (John 13:33). And the disciples are shaken to the core. They’re troubled and confused. They’re full of questions. Peter wants to know why he can’t follow Jesus (John 13:37). Thomas asks Lord, we don’t know where you are going…so how can we know the way? (John 14:5) Judas, not the betrayer, asks Lord, what has happened that you are going to show yourself to us and not to the world? (John 14:22) In answering these questions, Jesus prepares his disciples and us for life separated from his visible presence.

As the first step in this preparation Jesus brings up the dreaded “d-word.” The word that many find to be dirty and divisive today. That word? Doctrine. If anyone loves me, he will hold on to my word…the one who does not love me does not hold on to my words. Why is Jesus’ teaching, his word, his doctrine, so important – to the extent that a person’s relationship to his word indicates either faith or unbelief? Because the word that you are hearing is not mine, but it is from the Father who sent me. And not only that, but the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I told you.

Why was Jesus so adamant that his disciples hold onto his word when he was gone? Well, while Jesus was with them, he was their source of comfort and counsel; he revealed God to them. When some horrible tragedy happened in the news (Luke 13:1-5) Jesus interpreted its meaning for them. When the disciples were paralyzed with fear on the storm-tossed Sea of Galilee (Matthew 8:25), unable to understand his parables (Matthew 13:36), or worried about their daily needs (Matthew 6:25-34), Jesus personally counseled them. But now Jesus was returning to heaven. Troubling things would continue to happen. There would be tragedies, disasters, illnesses and deaths – and they would wonder what God thought about these things. Jesus here promises that they would never have to wonder what God is thinking because he would send the Holy Spirit to comfort and counsel them in his absence.

In the midst of problems, tragedies, sickness, when you don’t know what to think or where to turn for help, the Holy Spirit still brings Jesus’ comforting words to mind. Words like: come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28); seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33); surely I am with you always until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). We know these words. But the devil is always right there. He wants you to believe that Jesus’ words are insufficient; that Jesus’ words are “ok” but for real comfort you need to know what the Father thinks. He wants you to ask “did God really say?”; to doubt and dismiss the simple, clear, black and white words of Scripture and try to reach into heaven, into God’s unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16) to find out what he has to say, how he feels about you, what his plans are for you. This is why so many people are so drawn to preachers who claim a special connection to God, to books that claim to contain brand-new revelations, to searching for God in their hearts instead of their Bibles.

But what does Jesus say? How does he prepare us to deal with the temptation to separate God from his Word? He says, unequivocally, that his words are the Father’s words. Have you ever heard someone say that “God works in mysterious ways”? Did you know that that phrase is not in the Bible? Certainly, the Bible reveals that God’s ways and thoughts are far above our ways and thoughts (Isaiah 55:11) and it is true that God is hidden from our sight (Isaiah 45:15) – but the good news is that God has revealed himself, his heart, his mind, his thoughts, his will to us. Where? In Jesus! Jesus says the one who has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:9). God’s ways are only dark and mysterious if you ignore or disregard Jesus. So instead of speculating, feeling or trying to reason out what God is doing or thinking, bind yourself to Jesus’ words – because that’s exactly what the Father has done.

This truth is so important that it demands further examination. We’ve all heard of people who believe that God has spoken to them in some sort of dream or sign. Maybe you’ve wondered yourself: “What about my dream, my feeling, that coincidence in my life? Is that the Holy Spirit? If I don’t listen am I disobeying God?” Talk to anyone who has lived this way. This sort of thinking is downright demonic and leads to a fear-filled and anxious life. “If I don’t follow this hunch, this vision, this vague feeling I might miss out on God’s perfect plan for my life; or even worse, something awful might happen to me or someone I love!” That’s no way to live.

The best antidote for this sort of tortured existence is the sola Scriptura of biblical, confessional Lutheranism which forcefully declares: “We must firmly hold that God grants His Spirit or grace to no one except through or with the preceding outward Word (Galatians 3:2,5). This protects us from the enthusiasts (i.e., souls who boast that they have the Spirit without and before the Word)…Therefore, we must constantly maintain this point: God does not want to deal with us in any other way than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. Whatever is praised as from the Spirit – without the Word and Sacraments – is the devil himself.” [1] You don’t have to search your feelings, the strange coincidences of life, or your dreams for God. In fact, you absolutely should not – because as Paul told the Galatians: if anyone preaches to you any gospel other than the one you received – a curse on him! (Galatians 1:9)

Isn’t that arrogant on our part, though? How can we be so dismissive of dreams and feelings and visionary preachers when so many Christians believe that’s how God works? How can we be sure that we aren’t the ones missing the Holy Spirit? Because of how Jesus describes the Holy Spirit and his work. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Counselor. (Literally “paraclete” – “one who stands beside.”) This word can also be translated “comforter.” The Holy Spirit wouldn’t be very good at his job if he communicates in ways that can be interpreted a thousand different ways. That dream, that feeling, that urge may just be the result of a fever, the consequence of a spicy Mexican meal, a side-effect of some medication, or even the devil himself – and how would you ever know the difference? Where is the comfort in that kind of uncertainty? It’s like letting a fortune cookie determine your future. (Not to mention that much of what people claim to “hear” from the Spirit is contrary to Scripture!)

So what do you say to the person who says “God spoke to me…”? Tell them what Jesus said: the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things. And what will he teach? Jesus says that he will remind you of everything I told you. The only time we can be sure it is the Holy Spirit speaking (and not a demonic imposter) is when he is leading us to remember and consider the definite, clear things Jesus said while he was on earth. Things like unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5) (Baptism); whenever you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven. Whenever you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven (John 20:23) (Absolution); take, eat, this is my body…drink from it all of you, for this is my blood of the new testament, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:26-28) (Holy Communion). Jesus didn’t ascend into heaven to leave you mystified, struggling to decipher what God’s will for your life is. And so he promises to send the Spirit, the Counselor, to teach and counsel you with his own words.

The Spirit’s work leads directly to the second step in Jesus’ preparation for separation: his gift of peace. The peace Jesus gives is not of this world. The world equates “peace” to having what you want: money, family, health, home, security, etc. But we all know people who have all these things and yet still lack peace (for example: do Johnny Depp and Amber Heard – two of the richest and most famous people in the world – seem to be “at peace”?). And that’s good news for us – because that means that you could lack any or all of those things, you could be struggling financially, be laid off from your job, be sick or even near death and still have peace. The peace Jesus leaves is peace between God and sinners. Sin is our real problem, the reason we don’t have peace in our hearts and lives. Our sinfulness made us God’s enemies (Romans 8:7). Our sins separate us from him (Isaiah 59:2). But Jesus lived a perfect life in our place and died an atoning death to pay for our sins, to remove them from our record. By doing what God demanded and absorbing his wrath, Jesus has ended the war between heaven and earth; has restored peace between sinners like us and God (Romans 5:1).

If you’ve ever had someone mad at you – especially someone who has power over you – you know what this means. As long as they’re mad you’re looking over your shoulder, avoiding their presence, wondering and worrying if and when the other shoe will drop. That’s how many people view God. They believe that he’s angry, he’s bitter, he’s just looking for an excuse to crush them. By his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension Jesus guarantees that God is not angry anymore, he’s not looking to damn us – because Jesus was damned in our place. Because of Jesus you are in a right relationship with God right now; you stand justified and holy in his presence through faith. That’s the peace no one but Jesus can give and that no one and no circumstance of life can take from you.

That’s why Jesus says do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid. It’s not a suggestion; it’s a command. Why do you think Jesus had to command us not to be troubled and afraid? Because we’re so slow to believe that he meant it when he said it is finished (John 19:30). Because Jesus knows that we still tend to picture an angry, mysterious, threatening God standing behind every medical issue, family problem and economic crisis; that we tend to be troubled because we still think the Gospel is too good to be true, that there’s no way God could ever forgive us for what we’ve done; or, we still imagine that there’s something we must do to earn a ticket to heaven. When we forget Jesus’ words and work we are robbed of peace. Thankfully Jesus sends the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament to remind us that because Jesus suffered, died and rose again we have peace with God.

Day after day and week after week the devil, the world and your own sinful nature will work together to give you a fearful and troubled heart. They will make you anxious that you are separated from Jesus. The good news is that God is greater than our hearts (1 John 3:20). And today Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to remind you of his comforting words: peace I leave with you. My peace I give you…Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid. Amen.  

[1] SA VIII: 3, 10

Luke 24:44-53 - Where Can We Find the Ascended Lord? - May 29, 2022

There is one particular situation in life that has the ability to change people in an instant. It has the potential to make peaceful, upstanding citizens behave like raving lunatics. It can make even the most laid-back among us do things we wouldn’t normally do. It affects young and old, men and women, black and white, republican and democrat, rich and poor. What’s the situation? Losing something. The adorable sleeping baby loses her pacifier and suddenly turns into a midnight terror. The child who can’t find the last piece to his puzzle or Lego creation turns into an insufferable monster. The pleasant young lady loses her engagement ring and is transformed into a sobbing, inconsolable wreck. The employee who misplaces his car keys will tear apart the house frantically looking for them. Losing things flips a switch in our brains that changes us into completely different people. It makes us panicked, sad, angry, hysterical, frantic – and a whole list of other emotions. Losing things changes people.

On that first Easter evening, the disciples thought they had lost something. Something precious; something that couldn’t be replaced; something they couldn’t live without – they thought they had lost Jesus. They thought the Jewish leaders had succeeded in killing their friend, their teacher, their Savior. And they were right. Jesus did die on Good Friday and his body was sealed in a cold, dark tomb. But that wasn’t the end of the story. Dead Jesus didn’t stay dead. Lost Jesus didn’t stay lost. But even when the risen Lord appeared to his disciples that night, Luke tells us that they were frightened and thought they were seeing a ghost (Luke 24:37). Losing their friend had changed them; they had forgotten Jesus’ promise to rise from the dead after three days (Luke 18:31-33); they were panicked and frightened, worst of all – their faith was shaken. Jesus saw their terrified expressions and sympathized with their panicked hearts. And then he did something about it – he reminded them that he wasn’t lost and he showed them where they could find him. 

The first place Jesus directed them to look was back. These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Every word, every comma and period, every story and detail of Scripture was given by God to his inspired writers for one purpose – to point sinners to their Savior (John 5:39). With laser-like precision, God predicted the most important events in the life of his Son hundreds of years before they happened. Already in Genesis 3 God promised that Jesus’ death would bring about Satan’s destruction: he will crush your head and you will crush his heel (Genesis 3:15). In Psalm 22, David put on paper the words that Jesus would speak from the depths of hell: my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Psalm 22:1) And thousands of years before Jesus died Job knew what would happen three days later: I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the end of time he will stand over the dust (Job 19:25). It was all there in black and white: Jesus lives, Jesus dies, Jesus rises victorious. 

The disciples should have known that their Savior wasn’t lost – because Scripture said so. But they didn’t. They didn’t understand that their Savior had to die so they could live. And what’s worse – they couldn’t understand, they couldn’t find Jesus in the Old Testament on their own…and neither can we. That’s because every human is born with the terrible disease of spiritual blindness (1 Corinthians 1:18-19). We are blind to the eternal consequences of our sin and to the saving message of the Gospel. But that was something Jesus wouldn’t stand for, so he did something about that, too: he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 

Without that gift, we would see the Bible like so many still do; as an irrelevant and outdated book of myths and fairytales. But Jesus has opened our eyes to see, he has enlightened our minds to understand, and opened our ears to hear the repentance and forgiveness of sins [that] will be preached in his name to all nations. Repentance and forgiveness. Those are the dual operations God performs on us to cure our spiritual blindness. He stands us in front of the mirror of his law to see the sin that stains us (Romans 3:20). He shows us that on our own we are the ones who are lost. That image we see in the law’s mirror is not pretty; when we see our sins; when we see how we lack even a hint of the perfection God demands, we lose it, we panic. It’s a picture that leaves us no choice but to turn to God with empty hands, confess our sins, and beg for his mercy. That’s repentance. That’s the change of mind and heart God performs in us. But then the image in the mirror immediately changes. We no longer see our ugly, sinful selves looking back – no, we see Jesus’ smiling, merciful face; we see the nail-pierced hands and feet that endured suffering and death to wash away our sins. That’s forgiveness. That’s the good news that although we were lost, Jesus found us and saved us. That’s the message Jesus has opened our minds to understand and believe. That’s the Savior we still find in the pages of his Word.

But promises and prophecies are empty without fulfillment, and (like a tree falling in the forest) fulfillment is useless if no one is there to witness it. We were lost and would still be lost if Jesus couldn’t verify that he was the promised Messiah. But he did – as he reminds his disciples: you are witnesses of these things. “You’ve seen my miracles and heard my sermons and witnessed my resurrection. So be what I’ve made you: witnesses of my words and works.” What does a witness do? A witness testifies to what he has seen and heard – no more and no less. In fact, the entire NT is just that: a living witness to the person and work of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are all the proof we need that Jesus has fulfilled every one of the OT promises about him.

The disciples did their job – they faithfully witnessed to people of all nations that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah. Now it’s our turn. Now we are the witnesses. Does the thought of proclaiming repentance and forgiveness make you anxious or apprehensive? You’re not alone. Satan wants to prevent us from witnessing the truth of Jesus at all costs. He makes it seem like a job better done by someone else. He wants us to think that we aren’t smart enough or well-spoken enough or charming enough to tell others about Jesus. But what does a witness do? He testifies to what he has seen – no more and no less. It doesn’t have to be clever. Witnesses don’t have to deliver carefully formulated theological essays. Witnesses aren’t even bound to convince people that what they are saying is true: that’s the Holy Spirit’s job. Witnesses simply tell others what they have seen and heard. That’s our job – that’s the essence of the gospel ministry. That’s the second place we find Jesus still today: on the lips of his witnesses.   

For 40 days after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his chosen witnesses, he coached them, he gave them the words they should say and encouraged them to remain faithful. But now His earthly ministry was over. It was time for him to return to his Father in heaven and take his rightful place as King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16). The location Jesus chose for his Ascension is significant. He led his disciples to the hillside near Bethany called the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:12). From this mountain Jesus could look down on the high place where the devil tried to bribe him with all the kingdoms of the world (Luke 4:9). In the garden located on this mountain, Jesus struggled with his Father in prayer and was betrayed, arrested and hauled off to be crucified (Luke 22:39-46). That significance couldn’t have been lost on the disciples – the same place where it seemed like Jesus wouldn’t and couldn’t win was the very place he chose to demonstrate his ultimate triumph over sin and Satan by returning victorious to his throne in heaven. 

But before Jesus left, he gave his church one final gift: he lifted up his hands and blessed them. This was more than a symbolic gesture. This was Jesus’ promise to his disciples that he would always be with them, always watching over them. With this blessing, Jesus effectively bestowed on the church his blessings of joy and peace – bought and paid for by his death and resurrection. Notice also that Jesus continued to bless his disciples even as he ascended into the sky. It means that Jesus left this earth blessing us, when he returns it will be a blessing for us, and even now, even though we can’t see him, he is holding his powerful hands over us, blessing us with his guidance and protection. (Which we are reminded of every time we close a service with the blessing.)

With that he parted from them and was taken up into heaven. What kind of reaction would you expect from the disciples at this point? Wouldn’t we expect to see tears streaming down their faces? Wouldn’t we expect mourning and sadness from these men who appeared to have lost their best and truest friend? We get sad when loved ones depart after a reunion. Our hearts are heavy when we say goodbye to a fellow believer who has passed away. That first Easter evening, the disciples were distraught and inconsolable when they thought their Savior had been taken away from them in death. Now he is physically leaving them and they know they won’t see him or walk with him or eat a meal with him again until he returns in glory. We would expect to see sorrow; but we see just the opposite. They worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

Finally, the disciples understood. Now, they knew better, they knew that they had lost nothing and had found more than they could have ever hoped for. Now they understood that Jesus had to suffer and die in order to save them from their sins. Now they understood that Jesus had never intended to set up an earthly kingdom, but rather to rule in his people’s hearts through the Gospel. They had walked and talked and listened to Jesus for three years – and now he would be at their side forever. Jesus’ presence, which had been limited for a time to a single, physical location, would now fill the universe – so that wherever two or three people gather in His name, he would be there with them (Matthew 18:20). In other words, by leaving this earth Jesus is actually closer to us. He is present whenever a man, woman or child come to his font to be washed with water and the Word. He is present to offer his true body and blood every time we receive the Lord’s Supper. And whenever you hear the gospel proclaimed in Jesus’ name, the voice you hear may be that of a mere mortal, but the message is that of your risen and ascended Lord. Jesus is as close to you as your Bible and is ready to hear your prayers – wherever you are. No, Jesus isn’t lost; he is right here among us constantly blessing us by his presence in Word and Sacrament.

Losing something changes people. It can make perfectly sane people behave like lunatics. On Ascension it may seem like we’ve lost our Savior. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Jesus isn’t lost. He is exactly where he should be: at his Father’s right hand ruling the universe for the good of his church (Ephesians 1:20-22). The next time you find that missing pacifier or puzzle piece or keys, rejoice that God has opened your eyes to find your ascended Lord in the pages of scripture, on the lips of his witnesses, and in the joy of his blessing. Amen.

John 16:16-24 - Do You Understand the Kind of Joy Easter Brings? - May 22, 2022

It’s been six weeks since we celebrated the biggest festival in the Christian church year and the most important event in human history: Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Do you remember that day? The breakfast, the fellowship, the music…the fact that this building was packed with over 120 people? I have a question: where are all those people? Have you ever wondered why churches that are packed on Easter are not only six weeks later? Where did everyone go? What changed? Is Jesus not risen? Why is the joy of Easter lost so quickly? Actually, it’s not a mystery at all. Jesus explained it pretty clearly in the parable of the Sower. With some, the Gospel simply bounces off their hard hearts and then the devil steals it away from them. Some joyfully receive the Word but when trouble and persecution come, they fall away. For others the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke out their faith (Matthew 13:1-23). For various reasons, many are prevented from understanding the kind of joy Easter brings. But they’re not the target audience for this sermon. You are. Do you understand the kind of joy Easter brings?

Clearly, on Maundy Thursday in that upper room, the disciples did not understand. But it’s hard blame them. Put yourself in their shoes: they’re celebrating the Passover meal when Jesus tells them a riddle in a little while you are not going to see me anymore, and again in a little while you will see me, because I am going away to the Father. If Jesus intended these words to be cryptic, he succeeded. The disciples discussed among themselves whether anyone understood what this meant; finally concluding: we don’t understand what he’s saying. They didn’t understand. Do you? Given the benefit of 2000 years of hindsight, we can be pretty confident in identifying the two “little whiles” Jesus is referring to. 1) The first “little while” is the time between when he spoke these words on Maundy Thursday and his death and burial on Good Friday when they would not see him. 2) The second “little while” refers to the time – the three days – between his burial and resurrection, after which they would see him alive again. To disciples who would soon be overwhelmed with sorrow, Jesus identifies the first “riddle” of Easter joy: that it is joy delayed; it will only be theirs in a “little while.”

Just as interesting as this riddle is where this joy would come from: amen, amen, I tell you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. So Jesus explains one riddle with another? Jesus swears that his disciples will mourn while the world rejoices – but then, somehow, their sorrow will turn to joy? How is that possible? Jesus uses the familiar (especially recently here at Risen Savior) example of a woman in labor to illustrate. I wouldn’t dare try to describe the pain of childbirth to those of you who have experienced it first-hand – that would only get me into trouble. But I have been there to witness my wife experience the pain of child-birth five times, only to watch that pain (in a sense) melt away the moment she heard our children’s first cry. That’s what Jesus is describing here. That’s the kind of joy Easter brings; a delayed joy, one preceded by pain and sorrow. Jesus puts it this way: so you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

Enough with the riddles and illustrations. What exactly is Jesus talking about here? Again, in hindsight, it’s pretty clear. The world certainly rejoiced when Jesus was dragged out of the Garden of Gethsemane, wrongfully condemned by a gleeful Sanhedrin and a spineless Roman governor, hung on a tree and mercilessly mocked and taunted by soldiers, passers-by and criminals alike (Mark 15:29-32). We don’t know what the apostles – other than John (who was present at the cross (John 19:26)) – were doing or where they were hiding during Jesus’ anguish on the cross, but it’s not a stretch to assume that they were weeping and wailing at the thought of their Lord’s brutal crucifixion. But Jesus kept his second promise too: your sorrow will turn to joy. Jesus was not making some flippant statement like “time heals all wounds.” (Anyone who has been deeply hurt by sin or the death of a loved one knows that is not necessarily true.) No, he was saying that the very same thing that caused their deepest sorrow would become the source of their greatest joy. That is, once they understood that Jesus had to suffer and die to save them from their sins, they would rejoice in his death on a cursed cross. Still today we gather on Good Friday, to commemorate Jesus’ death on the cross. With tears, yes, not tears over Jesus’ death but over our sins which put him there. But also with joy – joy in understanding that Jesus willingly went to that cross in order to redeem us from death and give us eternal life – which is why we call that day “good.”

But back to our original question: do you really understand the kind of joy Easter brings? Do you understand why the Lord allows you to suffer and be sorrowful for a “little while” here in this world? Why he lets you struggle to pay your bills and fill your gas tank; why he allows the deviancy of homosexuality and transgenderism and the tragedy of abortion to not only be legal, but celebrated in our society; why, sometimes, pregnancies don’t end with the joy of a child but the tears of a miscarriage; why so many people you know and love have absolutely no interest in trusting Jesus as their Savior from sin; why instead of granting healing to your body and mind he allows them to break down in painful and frustrating ways; why you’ve had to stand there, tears streaming down your cheeks, as the body of someone you love is lowered into the ground? Do you understand those things?

If you don’t understand, then it’s my job to tell you that it’s not God that you don’t understand; it’s yourself. The root of those things; of all sorrow in this life is no mystery. It’s all rooted in sin. If you want to know why pregnancy and parenthood and providing for your family are hard, look no further than Genesis 3 (Genesis 3:16-19). If you want to know why nations invade nations, 18-year-olds open fire on grocery stores, perverse behaviors are celebrated, look no further than Matthew 15:19: out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimonies and blasphemies. And, if you want to know why it hits so close to home when you’re standing at the graveside of a loved one, just remember Romans 6:23: the wages of sin is death. There’s no mystery as to why there is so much misery and sorrow in this world and in our lives; the problem is you, the problem is me, the problem is that we are sinful, rotten to the core. The real mystery is not why we have pain and sorrow – that’s obvious and deserved; no, the real mystery is why sinners like us should have any reason to rejoice.

That’s really what Jesus wanted his disciples – and us – to understand. Where will we find joy during this “little while” of sorrow in this world? I will see you again. Your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. This is the real reason so many of the people who were here on Easter Sunday aren’t here six weeks later: if you don’t understand that the real source of sorrow in this life is inside of you; that it’s your sin, then you will never understand that the source of lasting joy must be outside of this world and outside of us: in seeing Jesus. Understand this properly. Yes, the disciples did see Jesus with their own eyes many times in the 40 days between his resurrection and ascension, but it would be a stretch to describe them as joyful on these occasions. Afraid, filled with doubt, anxious, confused – yes, but joyful? Hardly. When did the disciples finally rejoice? Not until Pentecost when the Holy Spirit opened their eyes to really see Jesus with eyes of faith: that he was crucified for their sins and raised to life for their justification (Romans 4:25). In the end, that’s why we’re still here six weeks after Easter – because Jesus died for our sins and rose to life to secure our forgiveness, our justification before a holy God, and – after a “little while” of sorrow in this world – a life of unending joy with him in heaven. That is the joy that no one [can] take away from you.

You still have questions, though, don’t you? You still don’t understand any number of things – like why Jesus would say in that day you will not ask me anything. What? The disciples wouldn’t have any questions for Jesus anymore? What does this mean? For these first disciples, after Easter and Pentecost he would reveal through the Holy Spirit exactly what his cryptic statements about “a little while” and joy out of sorrow meant. We know this too – that while Jesus’ suffering and death would cause sorrow for a “little while” – out of that sorrow would come the source of our greatest joy: his resurrection from the dead. In other words, neither those disciples nor we need to wonder anymore about Jesus’ identity or work; he is the Son of God, the Messiah who came to earth to purchase our salvation by his life, death and resurrection.

But Jesus knew that even though they wouldn’t need to wonder about him anymore, they would wonder about his plans for them. So he tells them: amen, amen, I tell you: whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be made complete. Don’t misunderstand, Jesus is not telling us that the Father will give us literally anything we ask for; this is NOT “name-it-and-claim-it” theology. Jesus limits our requests to those asked in his name. This is not some magic formula. He’s telling us to pray according to his name, his will – as revealed in his Word. In other words, he’s telling us to focus our prayers and requests on the things he has commanded and promised to give us. When we ask for those things he has promised us in his Word, we can rejoice because in Jesus, God’s answer to those prayers is always yes (2 Corinthians 1:20).

What do these types of prayers sound like in reality? Well, not coincidentally, it sounds a lot like the Lord’s Prayer. We pray to “our Father in heaven,” who loves us and is able to do whatever we request. We pray that his name, his Word, may be kept holy among us. We pray that his kingdom would come, to continue to change hearts and minds – especially when we see all of the deviant and perverse behavior that is celebrated in our world. When we suffer some personal tragedy or setback, we pray “your will be done” trusting that God works all things – even bad things – for our eternal good (Romans 8:28). When we’re struggling financially, we pray “give us this day our daily bread” and when we’re feeling guilty and ashamed we pray “forgive us our sins.” Pray for the things God has promised to give you – certain that he will hear and answer – and your joy will be complete!

I don’t know where everyone who was here six weeks ago is today. What I do know is that I need to be here, because not only does the world have a way of draining the joy out of life but because there’s still so much I don’t understand. But today Jesus helps us better understand the kind of joy Easter brings. It’s a “in a little while” joy – meaning that even though we weep in this life, it’s only a “little while” until we will rejoice for all eternity. It’s “sorrow turned into joy” – meaning that the saddest day on earth – Good Friday – is now the source of our greatest joy in the forgiveness, life and salvation Jesus won for us there. It’s “joy completed in prayer” – trusting that when we pray in Jesus’ name to our Father, he will hear and answer according to his perfect will. That’s the kind of lasting joy Easter brings – it’s the kind of joy that nothing and no one can take away from you. Amen.  

John 13:31-35 - Apart from Jesus, We Don't Really Know Love - May 15, 2022

Do you consider yourself to be a loving person? If so, how would you describe or explain it? What does love look like, sound like, act like? I don’t think any one of us would want to describe ourselves as unloving. But I’m going to say something that is intentionally offensive: you’re not loving. Neither am I. Neither is anyone else in the world. A statement like that demands proof, doesn’t it? Here are three. In the prayer of the day we begged God to “make us love what you command” – why would we need to pray that if we are love experts? We only pray for things we don’t possess or are incapable of. Second: I’m pretty confident that when I asked if you were a loving person you immediately thought about your feelings, especially for your family and friends – because those were my first thoughts, too. But feelings of affection for family and friends is not the kind of love Jesus is describing. Finally, isn’t it true that many of the sickest, most depraved things are done in the name of love: murder of the unborn (see how loving the protestors have been lately?), same-sex marriage, refusal to carry out Christian discipline, the tolerance of false doctrines and idolatrous religions. No, we do not know what love is – and we’d better figure it out because our confessions say “the fact that a person does not love is a sure sign that he is not justified” (FC SD III:27). Or, as John puts it: the one who does not love remains in death (1 John 3:14). People who don’t know what love is are, to be blunt, damned. We better learn what love is. And for that, we must look to Jesus.

The first stop in our quest to figure out love is at the foot of the cross. John spends a full third of his Gospel (John 12-21) recounting the final seven days of Jesus’ life. John 13:1 serves as a sort of theme of Jesus’ entire Passion: having loved those who were his own in the world, he loved them to the end (John 13:1). And what did Jesus’ love earn him? Betrayal. Judas left because Jesus had forced his hand, forcing him to choose between light and darkness. Judas chose darkness and at Jesus’ command (John 13:27) he left the upper room to finish his wicked work. That’s incredible, isn’t it? Jesus himself sparked the series of events that would lead directly to his condemnation by the church and crucifixion by the state. And yet, what does he say about it? He says it is his glory! Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify the Son in himself and will glorify him at once. Exactly how is Jesus, how is God, glorified by the Son of God suffering and dying on a cross? You’ve got to understand God’s rather outrageous idea of glory. His glory is doing the undoable, saving the unsaveable, redeeming the irredeemable. Right there you understand why many people don’t understand love, right? According to human reason and false religions a glorious, loving God ought to save the saveable, love the lovable, help those who help themselves and show mercy to those who earn it. But the true God reveals his glory most clearly in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). And what greater gift could he give than his Son? What could bring him greater glory than saving people who don’t deserve it – people like us?

That’s why, if you want to know what love looks like, you’ve got to start at the cross. See how God has lifted the burden of sin and guilt off your shoulders and placed them on the shoulders of his Son. Listen to Jesus, knowing what was about to happen to him, telling you that saving your wretched, loveless soul by being nailed to a tree and suffering the hell you deserve is his greatest glory. See him do it, not grudgingly but willingly. See him not only shoulder your sins but your fears, your failures, your worries and your cares, too. There can be no conversation about love unless we begin right here, at the foot of the cross, with Jesus’ suffering, sighing, bleeding and dying on a cross to bring glory to his Father and salvation to sinners.

But love that starts at the cross never stops there. Jesus moves immediately from justification by grace to the life of sanctification: a new commandment I give you: love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you are to love one another. The obvious question is: what is new about this command? Didn’t Moses say love your neighbor as yourself 1500 years earlier (Leviticus 19:18)? Did you notice the two differences? First, the standard. Moses’ standard was yourself – love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. Jesus raises the bar. He commands us to love others as much as he loved us. This means that Jesus commands us to love others even more than we love ourselves. Again, Jesus himself set the standard: not only did he lay down his life for us – the greatest possible act of love (John 15:13) – but he did it while we were still his enemies! (Romans 5:8) Jesus isn’t commanding us to have mushy feelings for one another, he’s commanding us to sacrifice for one another – even if we don’t like them, and especially when they don’t deserve it. The second difference is the scope. Moses’ command was to love your neighbor – illustrated by Jesus in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). And that’s still true. But in his new command, Jesus specifically tells his disciples to love one another. It’s a sad commentary on the state of Christianity when churches stumble over themselves boasting about how much they do for and in their communities – and even across the world: feeding the hungry and housing the homeless and clothing the naked – but when it comes to loving one another, they don’t even know each other’s names – much less fulfilling the debt of love they owe one another (Romans 13:8) to rebuke and forgive and pray for and encourage one another. Please do not misunderstand: Yes, Jesus does want us to love our neighbors out there in the world, but in this text, he is telling us to do something that just might be even harder: love the people right here in this room. This may sound selfish and self-serving, but Jesus says that this is outreach, it’s evangelism: by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

So back to our question: are we loving people? Remember, Jesus is not talking about fuzzy feelings, empty words or good intentions – he’s laying out his personal example of total self-sacrifice, of putting other’s needs before our own, of doing the hard and thankless tasks that need to be done even if they don’t benefit us our or families – he’s saying love others like I have loved you! Paul carefully defined the kind of love Jesus is talking about: love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. It does not brag. It is not arrogant. It does not behave indecently. It is not selfish. It is not irritable. It does not keep a record of wrongs. It does not rejoice over unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). Those words might seem appropriate when they are applied to a man and a woman who are madly in love with each other on their wedding day, but they sound a little different when the one whose hands and feet were nailed to a cross, who literally experienced hell for you is standing before you asking: “Look to your right and your left; have you loved these people like this, have you loved them like I loved you?”

Admittedly, Jesus has set a standard of love that we will never meet. He even says where I am going, you cannot come. Accomplishing the redemption of the world by sacrificing his life was a task only Jesus could perform. But perfect love is nonetheless what he demands of us. No excuses. No massaging or twisting what Jesus said. No redefining love or suggesting that Jesus just wants us to try our best. Those words from 1 Corinthians 13 that are frequently printed in some cutesy font on cards and posters are some of the hardest law in the Bible. And this law of love does two things for us: like a mirror it convicts us of our sins and like a guide it shows us how God wants us to live (Romans 3:20; Psalm 119:105). Allow me to cherry pick one of Paul’s standards and apply it to us, the members of Risen Savior. [Love] is not irritable. It’s important to remember that one of the devil’s favorite tricks is to make God’s greatest blessings seem like the worst curses. After God’s gift of the Gospel in Word and Sacrament, what is the greatest blessing we have here at Risen Savior? You. All of you. You are the people for whom Jesus died. That includes the ones you’re holding in your arms, running around your feet, squawking and crying and distracting and throwing toys and making a mess. The devil would like nothing more than to turn the blessing of children in church (a sadly rare thing in 21st century America) into a curse and a source of irritability. And he’s had success, hasn’t he? Angry glares. Shaking heads. Stressed-out parents and bitter children. Thinking or saying “Something has to be done!” I agree. What needs to be done is we all need to love each other more than ourselves.

So as uncomfortable as this might be – here’s the law of love applied as a mirror and guide to us. Children, Jesus loved you so much that he died for you. He has loved you enough to give you faithful Christian parents who bring you to sit at his feet. Listen to them and obey them as if you were listening to and obeying Jesus himself – because you are! (Ephesians 6:1) Parents, while everyone here understands that no child is perfect and they will have their moments – even in church – Jesus commands you to love the people around you more than your own convenience or pride or laziness and take the tantrum out of church behind the glass wall or into the nursery designed for that very purpose. Love your child enough to discipline them. Love them enough to forgive them – and actually use those words, “I forgive you.” Love them enough to teach them the way the One who died for them wants them to behave. And everyone else…imagine if Jesus was sitting here, observing not only your outward behavior but judging the very thoughts of your heart. Do you picture him sitting there glaring at you, shaking his head, nudging his Father, pointing at you and saying something about “sinners these days!” Nope, he’s here to meet you – sins and all – and he’s here with open arms to welcome you, forgive you, help you, encourage you and support you. He had every right to lose his temper with you. What did he do instead? He lost his life for you. Instead of grumbling about “parents these days” – ask yourself – “how can I help parents these days?” And let me be blunt: if a screaming toddler can make you lose your temper in God’s house – the problem is not the child, the problem is you. You need to repent – and a proper fruit of that repentance would be to personally apologize for your selfish and loveless behavior.

I’ll ask again, are we loving people? Can any of us say “yes” with a straight face? Even though we will never love perfectly, perfect love is our goal – a goal we want to strive for only one reason: Jesus. We don’t love children because they’re well-behaved or fellow members because they’re so nice or our pastor because he’s so charming – because more often than not, those things aren’t true! The only reason we love is because God loved us first (1 John 4:19). He loved us when we were unlovable. He loved us when we were his enemies. He loved us enough to let our sins cause his perfect Son to be spit on and mocked, slapped and whipped, crucified and murdered. Our world likes to think of love in pretty pastel colors and fuzzy feelings and over-priced Hallmark cards. God’s love is written in the metallic gray of nails driven into his Son’s hands and feet and his crimson blood dripping down a cross. It’s written in the blackest depths of hell where God damned his own Son in our place. God’s love is not just words or feelings; it was and is active. His love brought us kicking and screaming to Baptism to be washed clean and made new. His love announces forgiveness for even the worst of sins and sinners – which, in my estimation, has to be me (1 Timothy 1:15). His love hands you his Son’s flesh and blood to assure you that he didn’t just love the world, he loved you – especially at those times when you know you’re completely unloveable. And when you turn around after receiving communion this morning and look at all the faces out there, remember that Jesus loved and died for them too. That, finally, is the reason we want to love one another.

The unbelieving world doesn’t know how to love. Neither will we if we ever take our eyes off of Jesus. He is both the perfect example of love and the only reason we can love one another even more than ourselves. One last time: are you a loving person? What can we say but: “no, not as Jesus demands.” But may God also lead us to trust that while we are not perfectly loving, we are perfectly loved by him. Because when we know that God loves us unconditionally, then our love for one another will take care of itself. Amen.

John 15:1-8 - Stay Connected to Jesus - May 8, 2022

We are living in the most socially and technologically connected period in human history. Some might say over-connected. Nearly everyone owns or has access to a laptop, tablet, smartphone, or at the very least a TV, radio or landline that gives them an instant access to the rest of the world. This connectivity has changed the way we live. In the past, when you went home at the end of the day you left your work at work. That’s not the case anymore. Bosses and coworkers and customers can email, text, or call you any time of day or night and you’re expected to respond within hours, if not minutes – even when it’s Mother’s Day and you are spending a few precious hours with the woman who gave birth to you and changed your diapers and patched up your scraped knees. In the past, when students went home from school, they disconnected from their friends and reconnected with their families. That’s not the case anymore either. Through TikTok, Twitter, and texting – friends are always only a tap away. Sometimes, it all feels like too much. Too much pressure, too many texts and emails, too much connection. So why don’t we just pull the plug? Because we’re afraid if we do, we might miss something important. Here’s the question: do we feel the same way about our connection to Jesus? Do we worry that if we go a day without God’s Word we might miss something important? Do we get as anxious when we miss (or skip) an opportunity to worship as we do when the internet goes down for a few hours? Is the last thing we look at before going to sleep a word from God or a text from a friend? Our lesson this morning teaches us the importance of staying connected to Jesus.

These words about Jesus as the vine and believers as the branches are familiar. What may not be quite as familiar is the context: Jesus spoke these words on Maundy Thursday, the night before his crucifixion. For the apostles, three years of training was almost over; soon they would be on their own. In a way, Rayna, you are in a similar situation today. Your confirmation marks the end of years of Sunday school and 2 years of concentrated study of Christian doctrine. Soon you will leave grade school for high school where you will face new opportunities, new challenges and new temptations. But before you go, Jesus has a message he wants you to hear: I am the Vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him is the one who bears much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

How can you be sure that you are a branch connected to Jesus? Because the words Jesus spoke to his apostles apply to you too: you are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Jesus spoke to you, Rayna, he connected you to himself when you were baptized (just like he did with little Mason today). And that’s really what this day is all about – it’s not about you, it’s about what God has done for you. Today you will publicly confess that you believe that God in his grace washed away all your sins and made you his child through Holy Baptism. Through the Word you have learned that because of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection you stand justified (not guilty) before God. No matter what happens to you tomorrow, next year or in 10 years – this is who you are, Rayna, you are a justified and beloved child of God; that is your identity which no one can take away from you.

But you didn’t get here all by yourself. Today is Mother’s Day. There is no overstating the importance of the mothers (and fathers) who take the time to bring their children to learn and grow at Jesus’ feet. It’s been said that an ounce of mother is worth a pound of pastor. I couldn’t agree more. While over the course of two years I might spend around 100 hours in class with confirmation students; who can count the endless hours mothers (and fathers) spend with their children, the invaluable conversations they have around the dinner table or in the car? What price tag can we put on the encouragement, the help with difficult issues and problems, the guidance and leadership and love parents provide for their children? Parents, and today, especially mothers, thank you for all you do to keep the children God has given you connected to Christ!

But this is also a time for us – especially mothers and fathers – to remember that our job is not done when we’ve gotten our child baptized or confirmed, that we have an ongoing responsibility to keep our children connected to Jesus. Think back to that day at the hospital when you first held that precious infant in your arms and you had no doubt in your mind that you were holding a miracle, a precious gift of God in your hands. Remember the baptismal promise – the oath, really – you made to help that child, in every way possible, remain a child of God until death. Christian children don’t just happen. They don’t raise themselves. When God blessed you with a baby boy or girl he also gave you a great responsibility. But he didn’t leave you alone; he also provided the Church to help you bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). Use this great blessing we have here at Risen Savior called Sunday School. God has blessed us with dedicated and talented teachers; space to grow and learn in; and most importantly he has given us the pure Gospel message that leads to salvation (Romans 1:16). Mothers (and fathers) use these opportunities to plant your children deep in Jesus – the only true vine. But again, the Church can only do so much, the saying “an ounce of mother is worth a pound of pastor” is even truer in the years after confirmation when the bigger issues of high school, college, cars, boyfriends, careers and moving out of the house present themselves. Parents, this is not my advice, this is God’s command: take the time, expend the energy, help your teenager, 20 or 30 something stay connected to Jesus – in any way you can (Ephesians 6:4).

Why is this training so important? Why should you sacrifice your time and money and effort; why should you go through the Sunday morning battles to keep your children connected to Jesus? Because without [Jesus no one] can do [anything]. Our devices connect us to the world. But we also know that if we forget to pay the bill or charge our device we will lose our connection, the device is as good as dead. The same is true of our connection to Jesus. If we cut ourselves off from his life-giving Word and Sacraments we lose our connection, we are as good as dead. And Rayna, the temptations to let that happen will be all around you in high school and beyond. Sports, friends, unbelieving teachers, godless social media influences – Satan will use any or all of those things to break your connection with Jesus. He will use them to make it seem like being connected to Jesus is a bad thing. He will make it seem like Jesus just wants to take all the fun out of life. He will tempt you to think that true freedom means being free from the God’s Church and His Word. Jesus will never break his connection with you, but if you break your connection with Jesus, you will be a dead branch, you won’t be good for anything but to be thrown into the fire, and burned.

That’s not what Jesus or anyone else here wants. No one wants you or any child of God to fall away. So how do you stay connected? Again, the cell phone analogy works well. What do you have to regularly do with your cell phone to make it usable? You have to keep it charged and keep your bill paid. But you also know that it’s not really what you do that provides you access to your friends or the internet, it’s up to the wireless company. The same holds true for staying connected to Jesus.

Neither you nor your pastor nor your parents can take the credit for connecting you to Jesus. All the credit goes to him. He was at work in your baptism. He worked through the Bible stories you learned in Sunday school to show you that he loved you enough to suffer and die for your sins. In minutes you will confess that everything you are and ever will be is because of the mercy God showed you for Jesus’ sake. Never forget that. Never forget that God chose YOU to be his child when you were still dead in sin. Whenever you plug in your cellphone remember to take the time to plug into God’s Word. Remember that God has given you the tools to study the Bible on your own; he has given you the ability to separate truth from lies in your classes, with your friends, on social media and in your own behavior and thinking. And through faithful worship – and after today, through faithful reception of the Lord’s Supper – Jesus will recharge you, he will strengthen your faith, he will give you the knowledge and courage to face any trouble or temptation that will come your way.

For the rest of us (pastor, parents, leaders, friends) – our job doesn’t end here either, our responsibility to Mason and Rayna and to all of God’s children goes on (remember the oath we all just took?). We can continue to pay the bill – not the one that keeps God’s children connected to the internet – but the one that keeps them connected to Jesus. We pay that bill first and foremost by providing an example of staying plugged in to God’s Word ourselves – not only by faithfully attending worship but by reading our Bibles and catechisms and praying in our lives outside of these walls. We can pay the bill as a congregation by encouraging younger parents with our prayers, our advice, and – even our money. Maybe it doesn’t seem right that members without children should help those with children pay for a fulltime Christian education. Maybe there seem to be bigger or more important things we can accomplish as a church than teaching and training our youth – but children are God’s greatest gift to us and they are our greatest asset worthy of our greatest investment. Parents, I know it’s hard to convince teenagers to do anything on Sunday mornings, because we were all teenagers who once thought that the best time to sleep was when the sun was coming up. But consider this, we willingly pay hundreds for cell phones and summer camps; thousands for car insurance and college – never knowing for sure if that investment will pay off in the future. But the time, effort, and tears it takes to keep your child, teenager, and even 20-something connected to Jesus is not wasted. It will pay dividends long into the future – long after you and I are gone – that investment will pay off in eternity. You have Jesus’ promise: my Father is glorified by this: that you continue to bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

Rayna, you are growing up connected to your friends and the world in ways many of us have never experienced. But because we live in a sinful world I can guarantee that a time will come in your life when you will feel alone in spite of those connections. There will be a time when your friends won’t answer your texts; when logging on to Instagram or TikTok just makes you want to cry; when your parents just don’t understand; when the world seems like a cold, loveless place. Don’t leave here today without taking to heart Jesus’ final promise to you: if you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. You cell phone might break, your internet connection may be disrupted, but your connection to Jesus is always on – and nothing you do, no sin you commit, no poor boys broken heart will ever change that. Jesus will always be your best friend and he will always be waiting, ready to listen, and ready to forgive. So talk to him. Jesus has given you his direct line, use it – ask whatever you wish and Jesus will always answer you – it might not always be the answer you want or expect, but it will be the answer you need. In Jesus, God will do everything you need for this life and the next.

We are living in the most connected time in history. I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks that it is both a blessing and a curse to always be connected to work and school 24/7. But today, Jesus reminds us that through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament we are intimately connected to him. And that connection is always on. Rayna, mothers, and all of us – Stay Connected to Jesus: apart from him we can do nothing; but in him, he will do everything for us. Amen.

John 21:1-14 - A Fish Fry Reveals Jesus' Power - May 1, 2022

According to the eye-witness accounts that have been handed down to us, our Lord appeared no fewer than 12 times in his glorified state in the 40 days between his resurrection and ascension (and Acts implies that he made many more appearances that haven’t been recorded – see Acts 1:3). Why? Why didn’t he just declare “mission accomplished,” leave this broken world and return to his Father’s side in heaven immediately? Paul explains in Romans 4 why Jesus made these appearances: he was handed over to death because of our trespasses and was raised to life because of our justification (Romans 4:25). Every appearance of our Risen Savior proves definitively that God accepted his holy sacrifice for our sins and the sins of the world. He didn’t appear for his own sake – he appeared for ours – to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that we are indeed justified before God. But each appearance of Jesus also had a more specific purpose. Jesus appeared to the women in the garden so that they could go and tell his disciples that he had risen (Matthew 28:10). He appeared to two disciples on the Road to Emmaus to teach them that he had to do everything written in the scriptures, including suffering, dying and rising (Luke 24:46). He appeared to the eleven apostles in Galilee to commission them to go and make disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching (Matthew 28:16-20). But in John 21, Jesus invites his disciples to a fish fry. That seems trivial. What’s the point of that?

I’m going fishing, Peter says. That’s kind of strange, isn’t it? Doesn’t Peter have better things to be doing, like, say, preaching the Gospel? Actually, no. Peter and the six disciples with him were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing. On Easter, Jesus directed the women: go, tell my brothers that they should go to Galilee, and there they will see me (Matthew 28:10). So the disciples listened and went to Galilee to wait for Jesus – and while they were waiting they did what men often do to pass the time: they went fishing. Being professional fishermen, the disciples knew that the best fishing is at night – but that was not the case on this night.

When dawn broke things got interesting. A stranger on the shore called out to them: Boys, don’t you have any fish? No! they answered… Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. If you know any avid fishermen, you know that they tend to be extremely proud of their craft and will do almost anything before they accept the advice of a perfect stranger. But the disciples listened. They hauled in their nets and let them down on the right side. Then they were not able to haul it in because of the large number of fish. If you’re thinking that this story sounds familiar, you’re right. Jesus performed a similar miracle in Luke chapter 5 when he first called Peter, James, and John away from their boats to follow him (Luke 5:1-11).

More important for us is to see that here our Risen Savior reveals his power – his power to teach. Did you catch the lesson? It was a lesson the disciples should have learned by now – especially since this was the second time they had fished all night with no luck, only to have Jesus provide more fish than they could handle. Now there are lots of far-fetched interpretations out there – that the left side represented the Jewish people who resisted and rejected the Gospel and the right side represented the Gentiles who were ripe for the picking. Some have even tried to make this miracle political – right vs. left; conservative vs. liberal. That’s foolishness. No, here is one of the many places where we must let Scripture interpret Scripture. Psalm 127 says that if the LORD does not build the house, it is useless for the builders to work hard over it (Psalm 127:1). Jesus states the same truth in John 15: I am the Vine; you are the branches…without me you can do nothing (John 15:5). This was the powerful lesson Jesus was teaching his disciples: that apart from him, they will accomplish nothing – neither catching fish for breakfast nor making disciples for God’s kingdom.

What are you busy trying to accomplish right now in your life? Are you, like the disciples, simply trying to put food on the table? Are you in the middle of the daunting task of raising Christian children in a society that seems to have lost all sense of right and wrong, of morality and propriety? Are you working to maintain or strengthen your marriage? Are you trying to stay healthy or get back to good health? Are you just trying to age gracefully – leaving a fine, Christian example for your children and grandchildren? What’s the message here for us? Apart from [Jesus], no matter what you’re trying to do – from fishing to parenting to aging – you will do nothing. I know that sounds harsh – but there’s a good reason for it. Because Jesus knows that when we are working toward something and don’t seem to be having any success there are a million places we will look for help before looking to him. We will read a self-help book, we will watch a DIY YouTube video, we will buckle down and try harder, we will seek advice from a friend or doctor or therapist, finally, we might just throw up our hands and give up – but how often do we take Jesus up on his invitation to call on me in the day of distress. I will deliver you, and you will honor me (Psalm 50:15)? Whatever we leave here to try to accomplish today, this week, or this year – the powerful lesson our Risen Savior is teaching this morning is that apart from him, we will do nothing.

The next verses provide something of a character study of Peter and John, the two most prominent apostles. John is the quiet, contemplative disciple – and the first to recognize Jesus. Peter is the man of action – and the first to leap out of a perfectly good boat to swim to Jesus. Maybe there’s a small lesson here too: God can use both quiet, contemplative and bold, impulsive disciples to carry out his mission in this world.

But let’s get back to the text, because the Risen Savior is not done displaying his power. When they stepped out on land, they saw some bread and a charcoal fire with fish on it…Jesus said to them, “Come, eat breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. What’s the big, burning question here? The symbolism of the 153 fish? How did Peter, alone, pull the net on shore when previously seven men couldn’t pull it on board? Why didn’t the disciples dare to ask him who he was? No. (The number, 153, simply shows us that this catch was truly a miracle and that John was clearly an eyewitness and it made a huge impression on him. Peter’s strength was possibly another miracle. And, the disciples didn’t dare to ask Jesus because the evidence – the miraculous catch – spoke for itself; even though they didn’t initially recognize him in his glorious state, they knew that this could be none other than the Risen Lord.)

No, the big question here is: where did the fire, fish and bread come from? The answer is simple and profound. Jesus, the Risen Lord, had miraculously provided it. What the disciples had tried and failed all night to do, Jesus accomplished easily with his almighty power. Jesus was teaching another important lesson here. The apostles needed to realize that in the coming weeks and years, when they would be rejected and hated for their message, when Satan would tempt them to doubt the power of the Word, when they would face danger, poverty and hunger – that no matter how serious or dangerous or unsolvable the situation seemed to be, Jesus could and would provide. The book of Acts tells us that Jesus kept this promise. When the apostles were placed on trial for their preaching – Jesus gave them the words to say (Acts 4:1-22; Acts 5:17-42; etc). When they needed proof that their message came from heaven – Jesus gave them the ability to perform miracles as validation (Acts 3; 5:12-16). And, when they ventured off into regions unknown to preach the Gospel – Jesus provided open hearts and open homes; believers who loved their Lord and provided for his apostles. The Risen Lord showed his disciples with this powerful miracle that they could trust him to provide.

Is there anything more difficult for us to do than trust that Jesus will provide what we need when we need it? Too often we are consumed with worry about [our lives], what [we] will eat or drink, or about [our] body, what [we] will wear even though Jesus tells us not to worry and assures us that [our] heavenly Father knows that [we] need all these things (Matthew 6:25, 32). Too often we wait until we have exhausted every other possible resource before we turn to Jesus and lay our problems into his hands. When you find yourself worrying, agonizing, stressed out – remember this fish fry. Remember that it is as easy for Jesus to satisfy your needs today as it was for his disciples then. How can you be sure? What if you’ve worked all night or all your life and seem to have an empty net? You can be sure because Jesus has already taken care of your greatest need: he has already done the one thing we haven’t done – he trusted God above all things – and he did it perfectly. He has taken away your sins of doubt and worry and has given you the riches of the righteousness he earned for you by his perfect life and innocent death. Instead of worrying, instead of growing frustrated, instead of exhausting all your other resources before turning to Jesus; ask this question with Paul: [If God] 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 (Romans 8:32)? Our Savior is Risen, and he’s not just kicking back on a beach somewhere sipping on a margarita – he’s the powerful Lord of heaven and earth who can and will provide what you need, when you need it (according to his perfect will and perfect timing) – from something as small as breakfast to something as big as the forgiveness of all your sins.

John closes this interesting little sea-side story rather abruptly: This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. Perhaps it pays to note that Jesus appeared more than just three times, but John was only counting his appearances to his inner circle of disciples, namely, on Easter evening (John 20:19-23) and again a week later (John 20:24-29). Apart from showing us that he can count to three, what does John hope to express with this abrupt ending? He saved the best for last. It’s not new to us, but it is the most important news in the world. Do you know what it is?

Christ is (still) Risen!!! The one who was brutally betrayed, beaten, and condemned to die – he’s not dead! The one who had nails pounded through his hands and feet and a spear plunged into his side – he’s alive! The one who cried out my God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Matthew 27:46) as he experienced the torture of hell – he’s walking and talking with his disciples! The one who bowed his head and gave up his spirit (Matthew 27:50) – is here, with us and for us (Matthew 28:20)! The one whose body was laid in a tomb is not clothed in decay, but clothed in so much glory that his disciples were afraid to even wonder aloud who he was! It’s easy for us, especially in reading a Biblical account with as many peculiarities as this one, to get hung up on the details or get lost looking for deep, mystical truths. But the central truth, the truth that all the details point to is the most important one: Jesus Christ who died in humiliation is alive in all of his glory! Realize what this means: your sins are forgiven! You are liberated from the burden of the law! You don’t have to do anything to earn God’s favor! You are never alone in this life! Nothing in this world can separate you from his love! Jesus will provide for you now and is preparing a mansion for you in heaven (John 14:1-4)! All of that is true because Jesus Christ is your (still) Risen Savior. That’s powerful comfort for this life and the next.

The Holy Spirit never inspired men to spill ink for nothing. Every page of Holy Scripture strengthens our faith, builds our hope, and guides our lives. Today we see, once again, that Jesus lives, and he’s got power; power to teach, power to provide, and power to comfort. Next time you go out for a fish fry, remember this one, one that teaches that Easter has changed everything – Jesus lives, he lives to bless us with his love; he lives to plead for us above. He lives, our hungry souls to feed; he lives to help in time of need! (CW 152:3) Amen.

Matthew 28:11-15 - The Reality of Easter Determines Everything - April 17, 2022

While you might think that the celebration and observance of Easter is pretty simple and straightforward for all Christians, if there is one day, one truth, one confession, one faith that the devil would like to steal from us – it’s this one: the resurrection of our Savior. He tries to drag us into one of two ditches regarding Easter. First, he tempts us to trivialize Easter, leading us to make it all about bunnies and breakfasts and family gatherings and Cadbury Eggs – like the unbelieving world does. (Which, speaking of Cadbury Eggs, can we all agree that they’re disgusting? That they should each come with a certificate for a free cavity?) If that’s what Easter is all about – then we’d be better off not celebrating it at all – because then Easter is meaningless. If he can’t lead us to trivialize Easter, then he’d like to lead us into the ditch of “spiritualizing” Easter; that is, to believe that Jesus didn’t really, physically rise from the dead – but that he instead lives on through his teachings and the warm, fuzzy feelings we have about him in our hearts. If that’s all that Easter is about, again, we’d be better off not celebrating it at all – because if the essence of Easter is either trivial or merely “spiritual” then we are still doomed to live short, miserable, meaningless lives on this earth and then to suffer forever in hell. In our midweek Lenten services this year we considered what you might call adversarial or hostile witnesses of Jesus’ Passion – witnesses who were at best indifferent and at worst hostile to Jesus – and yet their testimony all agreed: Jesus is the Son of God. This morning we will consider some further adversarial, hostile testimony – testimony which proves the reality of Easter once and for all. We will consider the testimony of the very men who were most responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion: the chief priests.

Has it ever struck you as odd that the universal symbol of Christianity is not an empty tomb but an ugly instrument of execution: the cross? But that’s the way it should be. We rightly hang crosses in our churches and homes and around our necks and point to Good Friday as the day on which Jesus won the victory over sin, death and the devil once and for all. But if the story ended there, no one could be sure; no one could know whether God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice or not. Without the resurrection, Jesus was simply swallowed up by death – just like every other human from the beginning of time. Without the resurrection, everyone – both believers and unbelievers – who have died are suffering in hell forever – and so will we. If there is no hope for eternity – what point is there to this life? What difference does it make if you try your best to be good or just indulge every desire of your sinful heart? If this world is all there is, then we’d be better off living by the mantra: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die (1 Corinthians 15:32). The resurrection is what gives life meaning; without it, life is empty, hopeless and pointless. It’s not an exaggeration to say that everything – everything now and eternally – hinges on whether Jesus actually rose from the dead or not. And this is why the devil has worked so hard through skeptics and critics to undermine the reality of the resurrection.

Now, you might wonder why sinful humans would go along with the devil’s lie. Well, judging by the reaction of the chief priests, there are two reasons – as far as I can tell. The chief priests fabricated and paid for a lie to be spread on Easter Sunday to protect their position and power and to quiet the nagging voice of conscience which told them that they really murdered the Son of God. They concocted what is called “stolen-body” theory: that is, that Jesus’ disciples stole his body so that they could then hatch the myth of a risen Savior. But there are many other lies out there. There’s the theory that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross, that he just passed out and was revived in the cool of Joseph’s tomb (the so-called “swoon” theory) – although how he survived having a spear thrust through his side and how he made it out of the sealed and guarded tomb is still a mystery. There’s the theory that the resurrection is just the product of a mass hallucination or delusion on the part of the disciples (kind of like the mass delusion that is spreading in our own society – in which a biological man can actually be a woman). But probably my favorite is that Jesus had a twin brother who remained in hiding until after Jesus’ death on the cross. Then he emerged into public, claiming to be Jesus – miraculously risen from the dead. We may be tempted to laugh at these ridiculous theories, but here’s the thing, these lies are dangerous, not because they can destroy the truth (you can call a man a woman until you pass out – that doesn’t make it true) – but because they can make us doubt the truth and undermine our faith. In other words, if you hear a lie often enough – you can become convinced that it is true.

But all of the various lies about the resurrection have one extremely important point in common: they all acknowledge that on Easter morning, Joseph’s tomb was empty. Isn’t that strange? Wouldn’t it have been more effective to just prove that Jesus’ body was never missing, but that it was still lying there, stone cold dead, the whole time? But no one – from the chief priests to modern-day skeptics – have ever made this argument. For good reason: there is a mountain of historical evidence that Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb was empty on Easter morning.

1) First, if the chief priests really thought that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body – don’t you think that they would have told the soldiers “Go find them. Go find his body!” Instead of “here’s a bribe, now go tell people that’s what happened.” It doesn’t make any sense. They knew what had really happened. 2) Second, remember the disciples on Good Friday? They were fearless followers, right? Followers who would let nothing stop them from following Jesus. Nope. They were scaredy cats. They ran away at the first hint of danger. They hid in a locked room for three days out of fear (John 20:19). They were hardly the type of men to storm a sealed tomb guarded by Roman soldiers. 3) Third, if Jesus didn’t rise, how do you explain the extraordinary change that came over the disciples – that in less than a day they went from sniveling cowards to bold confessors? History has proven that people will die for a lie; history has also proven that no one will die for something they know to be a lie (especially a lie of their own making) – and history tells us that all but one of the twelve apostles died for their confession. Something changed, something transformed those men – and it could hardly be anything less than the most important reality of Easter: the empty tomb proves that Jesus really rose from the dead and truly is the Son of God. 4) Fourth, what happened in Jerusalem 50 days after Easter – Pentecost, the mass conversion of 3000 people – could have taken place only if Joseph’s tomb was empty. Otherwise, the chief priests could have simply snuffed Christianity out in it’s infancy by making the short trip over to the tomb and unveiling exhibit A: Jesus’ corpse. They didn’t do this, however, because they knew the reality: the tomb was empty.

The chief priests had spread a lie – a lie that has been repeated among the Jews until this day; a lie that critics of every age have picked up and modified in order to protect their positions and power; to deal with their fear of God’s judgment. But no matter how many times or how many variations of the lie is told – it can’t change the reality: the tomb was empty.

You might be wondering why I spent so much time detailing the evidence of a truth that you already know and believe and confess. Because this central reality of Easter – the empty tomb – determines everything! The empty tomb means that Easter isn’t trivial; it isn’t really about bunnies or brunches or family gatherings or Cadbury Eggs – don’t get me wrong; go ahead and enjoy them (well, except the Cadbury Eggs), but don’t let them distract you from the real meaning of Easter. The reality of the resurrection means that Easter isn’t merely “spiritual;” that Jesus only lives on through his teachings or in the warm, fuzzy feelings we have about him in our hearts – it means that he is living and reigning over all things at God’s right hand (Ephesians 1:21) and is really present wherever two or three are gathered in his name (Matthew 18:20). The resurrection means that when a sinful man forgives your sins here on earth – they are forgiven in heaven (Matthew 18:18). It means that through the washing of water and the Word little James there is really saved; he is really a child of God (Andrew and Kristen – you can take great comfort in this; it means that the almighty God loves James even more than you do!). It means that when we come to this altar to receive bread and wine it really is the body and blood of Jesus – given and poured out for us for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:26-29). It means that there is nothing truer and more important to teach to our children – children like little James – than the saving gospel of Christ crucified and risen. The empty tomb means that all of Scripture is trustworthy – from its testimony regarding the origin of the universe to its prophecies regarding the end of time. The empty tomb means that we don’t have to muddle around in the murky relativism of our modern culture in which men are women and women are men; constantly wondering what is true and what is false – because we know that everything God tells us in here is 100% true.

Most importantly, the empty tomb means that God has accepted Jesus’ sacrifice as sufficient to pay not only for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world (Romans 4:25; 1 John 2:2). The empty tomb means that the devil can’t accuse us anymore (Revelation 12:10) – because all of the evidence against us has been erased (Colossians 2:14). The empty tomb means that death has been swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54) – which means that your loved ones who died in the faith are not really dead and that when you and I face death ourselves, we should fear it as little as we fear falling asleep. It means that one day Jesus will return and raise you and me and all the dead to life and take believers with him to paradise (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The empty tomb gives meaning to each and every day – because every day is not only evidence of God’s boundless grace but another opportunity for us to live for the one who lived, died and rose again for us (2 Corinthians 5:15). In other words, the empty tomb determines everything for us – both in this life and the next.

It’s kind of ironic, isn’t it? All the chief priests wanted to do was kill Jesus and then keep him dead. They spent a lot of time, money, and effort to do so by bribing some soldiers to spread their lie. But what did they wind up doing instead? Proving beyond all doubt the central truth, the basic reality of Easter. What is that reality? The tomb was empty. What does that mean? Say it with me: Christ is risen, he is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

Luke 22:14-22 - The Last Passover - April 14, 2022

The major events of our Savior’s life are like diamonds: precious, yes – but also in that the more you hold them up and examine them, the deeper your appreciation grows for their many and varied facets. Tonight, Maundy Thursday, is no exception. Maundy Thursday meant many different things to many different people. For your average Jew it was simply the annual opportunity to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 16:16), which would kick-off for the seven-day long party called the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For Judas and the Jewish leaders, it meant the opportunity to bring their scheme of doing away with Jesus to fruition (Luke 22:1-6; John 13:2). For the other apostles, it marked yet another occasion for them to argue over which of them was the greatest (Luke 22:24). For Peter, in particular, it meant another opportunity for him to crow (pun intended) about his unwavering dedication to Jesus (Luke 22:31-38). And yet, while Maundy Thursday was certainly multi-faceted, meaning many different things for many different people – tonight we will focus on what this Last Passover tells us about Jesus.

While, for most of those involved, the night of the Last Passover consisted of little more than thoughtless outbursts (Peter and the other apostles) or the hoped-for, but uncertain, culmination of wicked plans (Judas and the Jewish leaders) – for Jesus, there was nothing thoughtless or uncertain about this night. Jesus knew exactly what this night held for him – and he told his disciples as much: 1) this would be his last Passover before his suffering and the last one he would eat until the glory of heaven; 2) his betrayer was one of those gathered for this last Passover meal; and 3) this was all according to plan; it had been determined long before tonight. Omniscience aside, Jesus knew what lay before him this night because he knew his OT prophecies. Prophecies like David’s in Psalm 41: even a man who was at peace with me, a man whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has raised up his heel to step on me (Psalm 41:9). And Isaiah 53: He was despised and rejected by men, a man who knew grief, who was well acquainted with suffering. Like someone whom people cannot bear to look at, he was despised, and we thought nothing of him. Surely he was taking up our weaknesses, and he was carrying our sufferings. (Isaiah 53:3-5). In what must be the most tragic irony in history, the Jewish leaders had rejected Jesus and were determined to kill him because he claimed to be that Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53; because he testified that he had come to die to save a world of sinners.

Sadly, many still reject Jesus as their Savior today – and for similar reasons. The Jewish leaders probably could have tolerated Jesus the wise rabbi, the insightful teacher, the miracle worker, the political revolutionary, the social liberator – in fact, they probably would have loved him for it – but they could not tolerate his claims to be the Son of God and Savior from sin. Still today, many accept a Jesus who teaches about morality and promises to heal all earthly ills and to liberate those who are oppressed – but reject a Jesus who would dare to be the Son of God and their Savior from sin. It’s tragic. But what’s even more tragic is that even among those who confess Jesus as the Son of God continue to reject him. “How?” By the countless decisions, words, thoughts and actions we make every day in which we reject Jesus, the Son of God, as the Lord of our lives. When we fear things like sickness and death more than him, when we elevate our own thoughts and feelings over his Word and will, when we spend more time talking on social media than talking to him in prayer, when we dishonor the authorities Jesus has placed over us, when we fail to help our neighbors in need, when we allow lust to linger in our hearts and minds, when we steal time from our employers, when we speak or listen to gossip, when we covet what God has not given us – we are rejecting Jesus as the Son of God, the Lord of our lives. It’s as Isaiah said: we thought nothing of him (Isaiah 53:3). Here’s the problem: if Jesus is not the Son of God, if he’s not the King of kings and Lord of lords – not only over all of creation but over our lives – then we have no substitute for our death, no one to take the punishment for our sins, no forgiveness, no life, no salvation. The harsh reality is that anyone who despises and rejects Jesus now is doomed to be despised and reject by God forever (Luke 12:8-12).

But here’s the good news: there is still hope for people like you and me, who have despised and rejected Jesus by our sinful lives. The fact that Jesus was and is despised and rejected doesn’t change who Jesus is! And when we are ready to confess that we have often rejected Jesus’ lordship of our lives – then we’re fully prepared to receive this unchanging and unchangeable Jesus – not only through faith, but also through the Supper he instituted on that Last Passover which validates his identity as the Son of God and our Savior.

How does the Last Passover validate Jesus’ identity? Well, let’s do a quick review of the Passover Festival. Even before the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt, he had commanded them to celebrate the Passover Feast annually to recall how the angel of death passed over the homes of those who had believed God’s Word, slaughtered a lamb and painted its blood on their doorposts (Exodus 12:14). Each year the Israelites were to celebrate this feast to remind them that it was the Lord who had redeemed them from their slavery in Egypt. Over the course of time, it became traditional for the Israelites to share four cups of wine during this meal to recall the four promises God had made to them in Exodus 6: tell the Israelites, ‘I am the LORD. I will bring you out from under the forced labor of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from being their slaves. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the LORD your God, the one who brought you out from under the forced labor of the Egyptians (Exodus 6:6-7).

Here’s a brief overview of what the feast would have looked like. As the Passover meal began, the youngest child was sent outside to look for the Messiah, the Christ, because Jewish tradition expected the Christ to come on the eve of the Passover. The youngest child would then ask, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” And the family rehearse the history of how God had redeemed and liberated Israel from Egypt and what it meant. The meal began with the sharing of the first cup of wine. Next, they ate bitter herbs, which reminded them of the bitterness of slavery. The second cup was shared followed by the eating of unleavened bread – unleavened (made without yeast) because the Israelites had to leave in haste, before the bread could have a chance to rise. The third cup passed was known as the cup of redemption. They sang some psalms and hymns and then passed the fourth cup.

Luke only records the passing of two cups, the first and third. The matzah, the unleavened bread, was placed on the table in a special container called a matzah tosh. This white, silk bag was divided into three compartments for the three matzah wafers. Today, Jewish Christians understand this to symbolize the triune God, with the middle matzah, or wafer, represented the Christ. While none of this was commanded by God in the OT or described in detail in the Gospel accounts, if this was how the disciples understood the symbolism, it is interesting to put yourself in their shoes that night. In their minds, what was Jesus implying when he took bread (the middle wafer), and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me”? Theologically and grammatically, of course, Jesus meant exactly what he said: this is my body. On another level, though, it would have meant: “I am the Christ. I am the Son of God. I am the Savior you’ve been waiting for.” The breaking of the bread was Jesus’ final prediction that his body would be broken on a cross for us. Now, whether the disciples understood this significance that night – or whether that’s actually how they celebrated the Passover meal – is all debatable. What’s not debatable is that Christians eventually understood the deep significance of taking and eating the unleavened bread; as Paul explains: the bread that we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16). In the Lord’s Supper, we are receiving nothing less than the physical body of the Son of God.

Luke continues: in the same way, he took the cup after the supper. This would have been the third cup, to which this promise of God was attached: I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment (Exodus 6:6). We can hear echoes of this promise when Jesus says: this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is being poured out for you. Let’s put the pieces together. When Jesus stretched out his arms on the cross to pay for our sins, God indeed executed a great act of judgment: he condemned his sinless Son in our place, and in place of every sinner who will ever live. According to Matthew’s account, this Last Passover meal was never completed; they never drank the fourth cup of wine. After they sang the appointed psalms, they went to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:30). Why didn’t they finish the meal? Because within a matter of hours, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross would fulfill God’s promise of redemption. And, as a result, the Passover meal which anticipated full redemption would be replaced by the Lord’s Supper which delivers completed redemption – in fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

So what does this all mean for us tonight, thousands of years and thousands of miles away from that Last Passover. Well, Jesus still tells us to do this in remembrance of me. In English, “to remember” something means to think backward in time mentally to something that isn’t currently present – like looking at a photo album. But that’s not what the Greek word Jesus uses here, anamnesis, means nor what the Hebrew word for “remember” (zakar) meant. Both were intended to lead the people to remember something which – while it may have happened in the past – has a present and ongoing impact. In other words, when the Jews were encouraged to “remember the exodus,” they were to remember the event long ago which made them free today! (I suppose you could compare it to the American celebration of Independence Day – that event which occurred so long ago but still impacts us today.) When Jesus says do this in remembrance of me, he’s telling us that the benefits and blessings he won by his death on the cross 2000 years ago are present and being distributed here and now. Tonight, we, who personally know what it’s like to be enslaved to sin, death and the devil, are to remember that here and now in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, we are receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, which gives us the forgiveness, life and salvation – and liberation from sin, death and the devil.

Why should we continue to celebrate the Last Passover two thousand years after it took place? Or, to steal a line from the Jews: “what makes this night different from all other nights?” It indicates that Jesus was – and continues to be – rejected – just as it had been determined. It implicates us; it convicts us as sinners who have caused Jesus’ suffering by our sinful thoughts, words and actions. It identifies Jesus as the promised Son of God and Savior of the world. And, it is the day our Savior instituted a new meal, the Lord’s Supper, to grant us the blessings he won by his life, death and resurrection long ago: forgiveness, life and salvation. The Last Passover is indeed a precious gem to be treasured and examined; it is truly a night to remember. Amen.

Luke 19:28-40 - On Palm Sunday, Don't Mistake the King you Want for the King you Need - April 10, 2022

By all appearances and for all practical purposes, Jesus seems like he’s finally made it today. Palm Sunday is the only day in his entire life when “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” are given to him; the one and only time the crowds come to him – not looking for free food or healthcare (or to try to kill him), but to hail him as the King who comes in the name of the LORD. Today Jesus looks every bit the King he claimed to be. But there’s a caution for us on Palm Sunday: don’t mistake the King you want for the King you need.

Undeniably, Palm Sunday is very “regal,” very “royal,” isn’t it? Exhibit A: Jesus is finally acting like a king should act. Kings send their servants to do their bidding – and Jesus sends two of his disciples to retrieve a colt. Kings don’t ask for permission to use their subject’s property, they requisition it – and Jesus tells his disciples to say the Lord needs it. You may think that a donkey doesn’t appear to be a very kingly mode of transportation – Air Force One or at least a stallion might seem more appropriate – but it’s interesting to note that this is the only time in the Gospels where we hear that Jesus is riding at all; otherwise, he got where he was going the old-fashioned way: his own two feet. And when you combine this with Zechariah’s prophecy that Jerusalem’s true King would come into the city riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9) it’s clear that Jesus is making a statement with this mode of transportation: he was openly claiming to be the King of Jerusalem, the rightful successor of David, who would bring peace to Israel.

Exhibit B: the people went crazy. They loved it. This is what they’d been waiting centuries for. Just like cities throw parades for victorious sports teams today, the people of Jerusalem gave Jesus a welcome fit for a king. They threw their coats down, so that he rode into Jerusalem on a carpet. John says that they took palm branches and went out to meet him (John 12:13). The palm branch was like the national flag of Israel. Just as people wave the stars and stripes before the President today, so they waved their palms before their king. And this wasn’t blind or undeserved praise. Luke says the whole crowd of disciples began to praise God joyfully, with a loud voice, for all the miracles they had seen. They had seen him give the blind sight, feed thousands, defeat demons, heal lepers and, last, but certainly not least, they had seen him bring Lazarus back to life after he had been dead for four days (John 11).

Never before had Jesus received this kind of welcome. Never before had they publicly and boldly proclaimed all that Jesus had done. And, unlike before, Jesus accepts their praise. He doesn’t tell them to keep his miracles to themselves, as he had before (Luke 5:14). He didn’t turn around and go into hiding as he did after they tried to make him king after he fed the 5000 (John 6:15). He doesn’t tell them my kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36) as he would tell Pilate in a few days. In fact, Jesus tells his enemies that this praise is so fitting and necessary that if the crowds were silent the stones would cry out.

Today it looks like the baby born in a stable in Bethlehem and raised in the backwoods of Nazareth has finally lived up to the angelic hype. Finally, he has the glory, the crowds, the praise; finally, Jesus isn’t worshipped by just a few lowly peasants in rural Galilee but by a huge crowd in the capital city; finally, it seems Jesus has come to do something more effective and powerful than just preach and teach, he’s come to take power and control; finally, Jesus is acting like the king the people want.

This is the Jesus you will find proclaimed in many, if not most, churches. This is the powerful, life-changing Jesus who rescues people from their slavery to drugs and alcohol. The Jesus who came down from heaven to deliver people from the prisons of sickness and depression. The Jesus who will save your marriage, entertain and educate your children, get you that dream promotion or vacation, make sure you have more than enough money for retirement and liberate you from life’s greatest burdens: student and credit card debt. This Jesus sounds an awful lot like a politician. And doesn’t this Jesus sound great? Who wouldn’t want this kind of Jesus? This Jesus is helpful, useful, practical, and always relevant. Even the unbelieving world can get behind this Jesus.

Finally, Jesus was acting the way the people wanted him to…and that’s why that crowd grew so big so quickly – they thought he was getting ready to reestablish David’s throne in Jerusalem. Just a few verses before our text Luke tells us that because he was near Jerusalem…the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once (Luke 19:11). They were expecting Jesus to be the king they wanted; a king who would throw the Romans out of the Holy Land and restore prosperity and power to Israel. That’s the version of Jesus the world can – and does – gladly accept. No blood or suffering or cross. No Jesus who works through foolish instruments like Word, water, bread and wine. The biggest and trendiest churches wouldn’t dare mention that kind of Jesus. Why not? Because they know that this Jesus doesn’t fill seats or open wallets, they know that the world isn’t buying a crucified King.

But lest you think this is just a screed on how wrong the rest of the world is and how right we are, I have a confession to make: the Jesus the world wants…that’s the Jesus I want too. Is the same true of you? I don’t really want bloody Good Friday Jesus. I want glorious Palm Sunday Jesus. I don’t want a king who is rejected by the world, and says that the world will reject me too if I follow him (Matthew 10:22). I don’t want a Jesus who picks up a cross and then tells me that if I’m going to follow him I must pick up my own cross, too (Luke 9:23). I want a Jesus who stops at Luke 19:40. I want a superhero Jesus that I can brag about to my family and friends – not a bloody, beaten, loser Jesus who says that we must go through many troubles on our way to the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). Isn’t it true that we often prefer the King we want over the one we need? Consider your prayer life. When you pray do you plead with Jesus to save you from God’s wrath or to save you from health issues and financial insecurity? What’s your attitude towards worship? Are you coming here with open hands to receive the gifts Jesus purchased with his blood or do you imagine that coming here is like putting coins into a divine vending machine to keep the blessings rolling out there? Perhaps the clearest and most shameful evidence is that like that first Palm Sunday this crowd – you – are here shouting praise to King Jesus in his glory, but where will this crowd – where will you – be on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday when King Jesus is betrayed and convicted and whipped and bleeds and dies? The truth is that if we want Jesus to be a King who comes to make this life and this world better, then we don’t want the real Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible. And this is more than just a mistake, this is sin, this is idolatry. It’s time to repent.

Repent for your own good; repent, change your mind about the King you want, because idol Jesus, the Jesus the world wants, the Jesus we often secretly want, won’t save anyone. There is no salvation to be found in a Jesus whose work ends at Luke 19:40. Sure, Jesus has done some wonderful miracles and preached some mesmerizing sermons and fulfilled some OT prophecies. But if Jesus’ work had stopped there, the devil would still control us, our sins would still condemn us, and we would still have every reason to fear death – because the yawning gates of hell would still be open. The Jesus who “makes” it in the world doesn’t make it as a Savior.  

It’s easy to make mistakes about Jesus on Palm Sunday because the appearances can be deceiving. He appears to march in as David’s legitimate heir who has come to be the earthly King the people want. But if you look past the palm branches and fawning crowds, you can see the real reason Jesus came. Jesus specifically sends his disciples to find a colt on which no one has ever sat. Why does that matter? In the OT, whenever there was an unsolved murder, whenever a dead body was found and no one knew who did it, God commanded the citizens of that city to find a heifer which had never been yoked, never been used for plowing, and slaughter it as an atoning sacrifice (Deuteronomy 21:1-9). They were to say atone, LORD, for your people whom you have redeemed (Deuteronomy 21:8). Through that heifer the Lord himself was atoning for the people’s guilt.  

Jesus isn’t riding into Jerusalem on a war horse to establish his kingdom on earth, he’s riding on a colt as the sacrifice for the sins of the world. He comes not to slaughter his enemies but to be slaughtered. Even as the crowds shout his praises and prepare to install him as King – he knows what really lies ahead: that he is going to be beaten, tortured and installed with nails onto a cross. He knows that the palm branches waving before him today will be replaced by the Roman whip ripping open his back. He knows that each step on that carpeted path is one step closer to Calvary where not only the religious establishment, not only the crowds, not only his disciples – but his own Father will disown him.

On Palm Sunday, it’s easy to be mistaken. It looks like Jesus comes to be the king the world wants. It looks like Jesus belongs on the throne so much that even the stones have to admit it. And the stones would. But they do not cry out today. No, when do the stones cry out? Good Friday! Only after Jesus is lifted up on the throne of the cross; only after the notice is nailed above his head identifying him as the King of the Jews (Luke 23:38); only after King Jesus has given up his spirit do the stones shake and quake and split in acknowledgement of the truth: oh, sorrow dread! God’s Son is dead! (Matthew 27:50-51 & CW 137:2)

In the end, not the Palm Sunday crowds but the Good Friday stones proclaim the King we need. We don’t need a Jesus who hangs out in a palace, we need a Jesus who hangs on a cross. A Jesus who is popular in the world wouldn’t want anything to do with you or me. We don’t have the power, the money, the looks, the talent, the charisma the world values and praises. A Jesus like that would be out of touch and out of reach for sinners like us. We need a Jesus who meets us where we are; who knows what it is to grieve and weep; who knows what it means to be weak and helpless; who is despised and hated by the world just like we are. When we are suffering, we find comfort in a King who suffers too. When we are burdened by sin and haunted by demons, we run to a King who knows sin’s burden and the devil’s fury. More than we need a King who is popular among this world’s elite, we need a King who isn’t ashamed to associate with sinners; because that’s what we are. Let the rest of the world have health and wealth and happiness Jesus; I need the Jesus who gave up his health and wealth and happiness to defeat sin, death and the devil in order to win eternal life for me.

This is the Jesus who saves the world. A Jesus who never suffered and died could save no one from death. A Jesus who is everything the world wants in a King would be no King at all – he would just be another lying politician. The world turns in disgust from this King and his wounds, his blood, his cross, his death. Nothing in the universe is more offensive to the world than Jesus the crucified King. The world might not want this Jesus who comes to Jerusalem on a donkey to die, but I do. Because there is nothing in the world I need more than for Jesus to suffer and die for my sins. May the Lord help us this Holy Week to never mistake the King we want for the King we need. Amen.

Matthew 27:51-54 - The Centurion - April 6, 2022

As we heard in the Passion History reading, it was dark on that first Good Friday (Matthew 27:45). But it wasn’t just a physical darkness; that the sun had stopped shining. This was a dark end for Jesus of Nazareth, the One the angel told Joseph was going to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Not only couldn’t he save others, he apparently couldn’t even save himself. The jealously and greed and cowardliness and utter wickedness of man had conquered the One who had claimed to be the Son of God (Matthew 26:64). If he couldn’t overcome the evil schemes of man, how could he possibly be the Son of God? That’s a dark thought. It’s even darker when you consider that the institution that we look to for physical protection – the government – and the institution we look to for spiritual truth – the Church – colluded to falsely condemn and unjustifiably execute an innocent man. It was a dark day, that first Good Friday. And yet, tonight we will see that out of the darkness comes proof that Jesus truly is the Son of God.

The darkness of Good Friday is a stark contrast to the bright hope Jesus brought with him into this world. He had come to take the place of God’s other sons; sons who had proven themselves unfaithful. Adam was God’s first son, a son who through his rebellion he brought the darkness of sin and death into the world (Romans 5:12). Israel, God’s adopted son (Exodus 4:22), had been unfaithful. They had prostituted themselves to false gods (Exodus 32). Now Jesus, who had been proclaimed to be the Son of God at his birth by an army of angels (Luke 2:11), by the Father and the Holy Spirit at his Baptism (Luke 3:22), and again on the Mt. of Transfiguration by the Father (Luke 9:28-36) had arrived. And, for a time, it appeared that the light was extinguishing the darkness of sin and death. The number who believed in him grew by the day: Peter, Andrew, James, John, the rest of the apostles, the crowds. Jesus left a wave of healing and freedom and forgiveness and faith in his wake through his teaching and preaching and miracles. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowds acclaimed him as their King (Luke 19:38). The march of the light Jesus brought into this world seemed unstoppable.

Until it was brought to a sudden and abrupt halt – in just a matter of hours. The “church” – the religious establishment in Jerusalem – rejected Jesus as God’s Son and stirred up the crowds against him. Judas betrayed him. The other apostles abandoned him. Peter denied him. The Roman government, through Pontius Pilate, sentenced him to death. The crowds around the cross ridiculed him. Even the thieves being crucified with him insulted him (Mathew 27:44). Matthew only records one of Jesus’ words from the cross, words that are haunting even from the distance of 2000 years, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46) Even God had abandoned his only-begotten, beloved Son. And then he died. In darkness. Alone.

Well, not quite alone. There was someone there with him throughout the entire Good Friday ordeal: an unnamed Roman centurion. This Roman officer had likely been an eyewitness to everything that happened on that fateful Friday. He had seen and heard the mob shout for this man’s death while the governor maintained his innocence. He had viewed the whipping and humiliation of this man. He had ordered his men to drive nails through his hands and feet. He had ensured that he was dead by having a spear thrust into his side (John 19:34). And at the end of it all he came to a rather shocking conclusion: truly this was the Son of God. What can account for the change that took place in this hardened, Gentile soldier who specialized in executing humans in the most painful manner possible?

Three things. First, nature gave its testimony. Right in the middle of the day, at noon, the sun went dark – turning it’s back on this man. (And no, there is no natural, “scientific” explanation for this – solar eclipses last minutes, not hours and are impossible when it’s a full moon – as it always is at the Passover.) He felt the earth shake under his feet and saw rocks splitting open. He saw the world around him falling apart as the natural world bent its collective knee before its Creator and Preserver (Colossians 1:16-17).

He also heard testimony, not from Jesus’ friends but from his enemies. They were unwitting and unwilling witnesses, but they were witnesses nonetheless. His own boss, Pilate, had commanded that a sign be posted over his head, advertising not the crime he had committed – for he had committed no crime – but rather his identity: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews (Matthew 27:37). The chief priests, experts in the law, and elders mocked him from the foot of his cross, but even there they confirmed his identity as the King of Israel and the Son of God (Matthew 27:41-43). Even the passersby, who laughed at his claim to be able to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days called him the Son of God (Matthew 27:40). You might be wondering how this mockery validates Jesus’ claim. I’m not suggesting that the centurion would have known this, but – for us at least – this is fulfillment of OT prophecy; specifically, the words of Psalm 22 written by King David 1000 years earlier: I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me. They sneer. They shake their heads. They say, “Trust in the LORD.” “Let the LORD deliver him. Let him rescue him, if he delights in him.” (Psalm 22:7-8) For the centurion, the mocking, taunting, and ridicule proved that this was not your run-of-the-mill political insurrectionist hanging from this tree.

But most powerful of all were the words that came from the victim’s own lips. His words of grace to those who had worked tirelessly to have him put to death and mocked him as he was dying: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34); and to the thief who had mocked him: Amen, I tell you: Today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43). He witnessed Jesus’ selfless love as he cared for his mother even as his life was being drained out of his body, drop by drop (John 19:26-27). He didn’t curse God, but cried out to him like an abandoned child: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Mark 15:34) He heard him request a drink (John 19:28), not to numb the pain but so he could give the thunderous shout: it is finished (John 19:30). And, he witnessed something he had never, ever seen before: death did not take this man; this man summoned death: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46). The darkness had risen up to swallow up the light of life – but rather than drive this centurion into deeper darkness, this combined testimony brought him into the light; converting him from unbelief to faith in Jesus as the Son of God.

What does this centurion have to do with us? Well, the devil loves to sow the seeds of doubt in our minds regarding the eyewitness testimony of Jesus’ disciples, recorded in the Bible. “They were Jesus’ friends, of course they affirmed his teaching and his claims, you can’t believe them.” Or “The Bible is just a bunch of books written by men – many of them uneducated fishermen – how can you trust them more than the modern-day experts who allege that the Bible is at best contradictory and at worst just a myth?” Or maybe he takes a different tact; he uses our familiarity with the Gospel to deaden and deafen our ears to the astonishing claim that all four Gospel writers make: that on Good Friday, on that hill called Calvary, mankind – you and I included – mutilated, brutalized, and crucified the Son of God. If that claim makes no impact on you; if it doesn’t make you pause; if it can’t distract you from whatever is going on in the world out there or wondering about the weather or planning tomorrow’s schedule – then you’re even more lost in the darkness than that centurion.

It's good that tonight we have the opportunity to see and hear this all-important message from a new perspective. Tonight, we are looking at the cross through the eyes of a man who was an unbeliever, a Gentile, a Roman soldier. Tonight, we are looking at the core truth of the Bible’s message from the perspective of the enemy. And this adversarial testimony isn’t only found here. You can find it in the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus, in the accounts of the Jewish historian Josephus, and in the Babylonian Talmud. If you have more time on your hands than you know what to do with, go ahead and read them, they verify the claims of Jesus – just as much as the centurion does here.

What do they say to us? That Jesus really was a revolutionary activist who had unfortunately made himself some powerful and envious enemies? The centurion might have been a soldier, but he wasn’t dumb – he knew that the Jewish elites wouldn’t stay up all night to conduct a sham trial, wouldn’t willingly acknowledge Pilate’s authority, wouldn’t drag their fancy robes over the dusty road leading to Calvary just to mock a delusional fool. Do Jesus’ enemies tell us that Jesus was just a moral teacher? He may have taught about morality – but he claimed to be God – and moral teachers don’t tell lies of that magnitude. No, the eyewitness testimony of Jesus’ enemies like this centurion forces us to make a decision: is Jesus who he claimed to be or not? That is the challenge the Biblical witness issues to everyone who hears and reads it; that is the challenge the Biblical witness is issuing to you and me tonight. C. S. Lewis famously put it this way: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (Lewis, C. S., Mere Christianity, London: Collins, 1952, pp 54-56).

My job is not to change your mind; my job is merely to present the evidence. Here’s the evidence: on a dark Friday on an ugly hill outside of Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified for claiming to be the Son of God. Nature attested to this claim. Jesus’ enemies went far, far out of their way to mock this claim. Jesus’ strange behavior and words from the cross confirmed this claim. This evidence convinced the centurion who executed Jesus that his claims were true, that truly [he] was the Son of God. How about you? Carefully consider the evidence that has been presented to you this Lenten season; your eternity depends on it. Amen.

Luke 20:9-19 - You Be the Judge - April 3, 2022

Many of today’s most popular TV shows are those that invite audience participation. From sports, where slow-motion replays invite the viewer to make their own judgment to the myriad of competitions and reality TV shows featuring people of questionable talent doing things of questionable value – but hey, you get to decide via text message who stays and who goes. Apparently people like the feeling of power that comes with judging. This fifth Sunday in Lent has historically been called Judica “Judgment” Sunday. Jesus is just days from the cross now, and in our text he calls on us to judge correctly.

It’s Tuesday of Holy week. Tuesday of Holy week was kind of like the media day before the Super Bowl – Jerusalem was packed with pilgrims who had come to celebrate the Passover and Jesus is in the temple courts accepting interviews and challenges from both friend and foe and teaching the people about the events that would soon be happening. The Jewish leaders question his authority to be teaching and he responds with this parable. A man planted a vineyard and handed it over to farmers – with the full expectation of receiving his share of the harvest. He sent a servant to collect what was due him and the tenant farmers beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another but they also beat him, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. He sent a third they also wounded him and threw him out. Finally, he sent his son. And they took one look at the son and said ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours.’ They threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.  

As with any parable, the key to proper interpretation is a correct identification of the characters and details. Fortunately, we don’t have to speculate, because Luke tells us: the chief priests and the experts in the law…knew he had spoken this parable against them. So, this parable is about Israel, with special focus on Israel’s religious establishment. God is the owner. The people of Israel are the vineyard. The teachers of the law and the chief priests are the farmers. The thing that stands out is God’s grace to these religious leaders. They hadn’t purchased the vineyard with their own resources, nor had they earned their positions as farmers. God simply gave it to them. And, naturally, God – the owner – had every right to share in the profits of his vineyard – but sadly, the farmers refused and preferred to pretend as if the vineyard belonged to them, running God’s servants – the OT prophets – out of town.

You be the judge of these religious leaders, Jesus is telling the crowd. See God’s grace to them and see their hateful rejection of his grace and his prophets. Even more, see what they are planning to do to the Son of the owner of the vineyard. Imagine that. Jesus is speaking to the people and telling them that their leaders are planning to murder him – with the leaders standing right there.

How would you judge them? In fairness, you can’t really make that judgment until you first judge the Lord of the vineyard. Namely, what kind of fruit was he expecting the vineyard – the people – to produce under the care of the farmers – the church leaders? I believe this question is the crux of this parable. It demonstrates that this parable is not a fairy tale, that this is about real people and their standing before God; this story is about the Church of all time; this parable applies also to the pastor and people of Risen Savior. What kind of fruit did the prophets seek? What fruit did Jesus seek? What fruit does God command me to seek from you? Did the prophets seek sacrifices – obedience to rituals? There was no shortage of sacrifices in the OT, but through Hosea God said: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6). Did Jesus come after people’s money or possessions? I don’t recall Jesus once gathering an offering. Does God send pastors today to teach behavior modification, to help bad people become good and good people, better. If that were true, if the OT prophets, Jesus, or faithful pastors today were only trying to coerce people into obeying the Law, they would never be persecuted. Check out some of the most popular mega-churches and mega-pastors today (not to mention every other religion in the world): they demand everything but the shirt off their follower’s backs, week after week they give people “to-do” lists and people love them for it. No, what got God’s OT prophets persecuted, Jesus crucified and faithful pastors today attacked is seeking people’s sins.

Throughout the OT all of the prophets had the same message: repent and believe. They pleaded with the people to hand over their sins. Jesus came to seek out the lost sheep – not seeking to get something from the sheep (Luke 15). He came to serve, not to be served. Jesus still sends men to preach repentance and forgiveness – and many people find this offensive. There are those who don’t think it’s the church’s or pastor’s business to point out and rebuke their sins and those who think the church should be busy changing public policy not changing hearts. There are self-righteous people in every church – people who may be active and generous and sincere – but who are sadly under the impression that their good works cancel out their sins. And yet, the only people they’re deceiving is themselves. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).

So you be the judge. Be the judge of the Lord of the Church and of those he sends to tend to it. He came to the vineyard looking to lift the burden of people’s sins. Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28), Jesus invited, but the chief priests preferred to try to work their way into heaven. All Jesus wanted was to be their Savior, the Lamb of God who takes away their sins, but rather than repent of their self-righteousness and build their faith on Jesus, they rejected and killed him. I suppose it might not seem politically correct – or even Christian – to ask you to judge these leaders, but isn’t that exactly what God invites us to do in Isaiah 5: judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard that I have not already done for it? (Isaiah 5:3-4) He gave the vineyard away for free. He wanted the only fruit that sinners can produce…which is: sin. He didn’t just send one prophet or a couple of prophets, but as he says in Jeremiah: from the time your fathers left Egypt until today, I have sent all my servants, the prophets, to them again and again (Jeremiah 7:25). What more could God have done?

Well, there is one more thing. The greatest thing. God sent his most precious treasure – his only-begotten Son – to the landfill of this earth to seek fruit in the vineyard. You be the judge of love like that. Can you wrap your mind around such love? Would you ever send your child to people with a reputation for violence and murder – would you ever send them to Iran or Russia – on the chance they will give them a warm reception? Because that’s exactly what God did. He saw his prophets abused and beaten and he said to himself what should I do? I will send my son, whom I love. Perhaps they will respect him.

Don’t we have to judge that the Lord of the vineyard loves us more than we would dare to hope? This is that love unknown that we sing about! It was God’s unknown, unfathomable, outrageous love that caused him to send his Son into this world not to gather up our good works but to gather up our sins. All of them. Not just the small ones, the “white lies,” or that one time we ran a stop sign or the one time we lost our temper– but the big, black ones, the ones we would never tell anyone about, the ones that keep us up at night. That’s the fruit he’s looking for. That’s what he came to earth to suffer, die, and pay for.

Is that how we always judge Christ and his Church or has work-righteousness taken root in our hearts, too? Do you think Jesus invites you to come into his presence so that he can get something from you? Is your faith defined by what you do for God or what God has done for you? Do you view your giving, serving, praying, worshipping as rent payments – as things you do to stay in God’s good graces? If so, it’s no wonder you would resent him; it’s no wonder that you would view midweek Lenten services as unnecessary and blow off Holy Week services – because in your mind church is where God piles burdens on you instead of taking them from you. But faith built on what we do for Jesus is no faith at all. In fact, it is unbelief; a rejection of God’s grace.

And what will God do to those who reject his grace? Jesus tells us he will come and destroy those tenant farmers and give the vineyard to others. Isn’t that shocking and appalling? Not the owner’s reaction – that’s completely justified – but the people’s reaction. How do they react when Jesus tells them that God is going to destroy the leaders who taught that doing good and working harder is how you earn God’s favor? Did they rejoice that the Lord would remove these abusive leaders? No, they foolishly shout may it never be! “No Jesus. We’d rather continue to believe that we can earn our way into heaven than accept it as a free gift from you.” [Jesus] looked at them. The English doesn’t do justice to the emotion contained in these words. This word for look is the one used when Jesus looked at the rich young man and loved him (Mark 10:21). It’s the word for that famous look Jesus gave Peter after the rooster had crowed (Luke 22:61). They were acting like slaves who wanted to remain in slavery rather than accept freedom. And Jesus pitied them.

Jesus tries one more time to help them judge properly. He quotes Psalm 118: ‘the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’ and adds his own interpretation: everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush the one on whom it falls. There’s a Jewish proverb that states: “If a stone falls on a pot, woe to the pot. If the pot falls on the stone, woe to the pot. Either way, woe to the pot!” [1] Jesus is telling the people one more time that according to Scripture, the one the Jewish leaders reject is actually the key to the whole building. He is the great treasure God has given to the world – a treasure the Jewish establishment would throw onto the trash heap in days by crucifying him on Calvary. The point is that with Jesus there is no middle ground; you will either be broken by him now in repentance and faith or you will be crushed by him in judgment. Either way you must die to yourself; to all thoughts of earning heaven on your own.

You be the judge: where do you stand? Are you offended that Jesus doesn’t come to give you your best life now or to teach you how to be a better person but to call you to repentance, to expose your sins so that he can take them away from you? If this offends you, then you will be crushed just like those religious leaders, the nation of Israel and all who believe that Christianity is about “doing good” and “trying harder” for God. Or, will Jesus land on you and break you, crushing the pride, the self-sufficiency, the sins right out of you? Will he lead you to admit that you don’t have anything God needs; the only thing you really own is your sin; to not say “Lord, look at all the good I’ve done” but instead “Lord, have mercy on me”? Will you fall on Jesus and his merits and build your entire life, your faith, your priorities, your family on him? Will you see that worship is not about you doing anything for Jesus but him serving you with his forgiveness? Will you risk abusing God’s grace for so long that he finally takes it away from you and gives it to others? This is not reality TV where the worst that could happen is you get kicked off the island; the stakes are eternal life or death. You be the judge. God grant us all the wisdom to judge correctly. Amen.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Pots#:~:text=But%20there%20is%20also%20a,Rabbah%2C%207%3A10).

Luke 23:32-43 - The Thief - March 30, 2022

Something’s always bothered me about this thief on the cross: why do people look up to him? Have you ever urged someone to repent, to return to church, to return to their confirmation vow and had them appeal to the thief on the cross? Especially delinquent or lapsed Christians seem to be strangely drawn to this thief – almost as a role model. Why is that? Does it soothe our guilty consciences to know that while we have sinned – at least we haven’t been sentenced to death? Is it because his example gives us the delusional hope that there will always be time later to repent and believe – so that we don’t have to do it now? There are two very good reasons why no one should idolize this thief. 1) First, he’s nailed to a cross – meaning: he must have committed and been convicted of some heinous crime to be executed in such a cruel fashion. 2) Second, and more importantly, Matthew tells us that even the criminals (both of them) who were crucified with him kept insulting him (Matthew 27:44), joining in with the taunt of the crowds, if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross (Matthew 27:43). This taunt relates to our theme for this year’s Lenten services: If Jesus is really the Son of God, why doesn’t he use his divine power to save himself – and, while he’s at it, us too? Don’t thoughts like that often run through our minds when we’re sitting at the kitchen table staring at a pile of bills we can’t pay; when we are struggling with some difficult or painful decision; when we are sick and suffering or when we are standing at the grave of someone we love? How can Jesus be the Son of God if all he can do is hang helplessly on a cross – and, if he can’t even save himself, how can he save us?

Proverbs says there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it is the road to death (Proverbs 14:12). The cry if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross is a distillation, a summary of humanity’s natural religion; it’s the way we naturally think about God. The crowds, the chief priests and elders, even the crucified thieves rejected Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God because he didn’t fit their template of what God should be and do. They expected the Son of God, the Messiah to reveal himself in big, powerful, spectacular ways – not to hang helplessly on a cross. And didn’t they have every reason to expect that from Jesus? After all, he had given glimpses of his glory throughout his ministry. Even the thieves might have heard that Jesus had turned water into wine (John 2:1-11); cleansed lepers (Luke 17:11-19), cast out demons (Luke 11:14-26), calmed storms (Luke 8:22-25) and even raised the dead – not just once, but at least three times (Luke 7:11-17; Luke 8:40-56; John 11:1-44). Didn’t they have every reason to expect that if this guy really was the Son of God he could not only save himself from an agonizing death on a cross but them too?

But what did they see instead? A pitiful, pathetic excuse for a man hanging limply from a tree; his hands and feet bleeding just like ours would if someone drove nails through them. A man whose closest friends had abandoned him. A man who had been condemned by both the religious establishment and the governing authorities. A man who was mocked and ridiculed by perfect strangers passing by on the road. A man who appeared to be under God’s curse. Can you blame them for rejecting his claims? What reasonable person would accept that this convict hanging from a tree could possibly be the Son of God?

Here's the thing: while the way that is reasonable and rational might seem right – as Solomon declared, it ends only in death. With regard to Jesus, especially Jesus hanging on a cross, reason and logic will always be wrong. The thieves wanted Jesus to prove that he was God’s Son by coming down from the cross; Jesus proved that he was God’s Son by staying on it. Jesus shows us that God doesn’t do things our way. In fact, this is without question the biggest hurdle that must be crossed to go from the darkness of unbelief to the light of faith: the foolishness of the cross. That pitiful figure on the cross is concrete proof of the truth Paul spelled out in his letter to the Corinthians: God chose the foolish things of the world to put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are strong, and God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to do away with the things that are, so that no one may boast before God (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). Or as the only disciple who had the courage to stand at the foot of the cross, John, later wrote: this is the one who came by water and blood: Jesus Christ…this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son (1 John 5:6, 11).

But something came over this thief – something caused him to change his mind about Jesus. Was it Jesus’ glorious appearance or powerful actions? No – there was none of that on Calvary. Did the thief simply decide to accept Jesus into his heart? No, it’s difficult to think of someone more hardened in unbelief than a man who will ridicule the guy on the cross next to him when he knows he’s going to be meeting his Maker in a matter of hours. So what can account for the change, for the thief’s conversion? Paul explains: faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). While the thief’s eyes and brain deceived him; his ears did not. He heard Jesus look at his mockers and pray Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). Yes, he heard Jesus cry out in the midst of his deepest agony my God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Matthew 27:46), but he never heard Jesus curse God, blame God or deny God. Just the opposite: he never lost his faith or trust in God. This is God at his absolute greatest and most glorious: hanging, dying on a cross. It’s horrible and beautiful at the same time, isn’t it? God has given us eternal life – by condemning his Son to eternal death. The thief was finally truly seeing God, not in a miraculous escape from the cross, not in power or glory – but in the form of a Suffering Servant, who came to save sinners by water and blood (1 John 5:6).

The thief had heard the truth – both from the lips of Jesus and from the lips of his enemies. And the truth is that Jesus was determined to give his life to save humanity – no matter the pain or the cost. As long as the thief judged Jesus with his reason and logic, he was not only a dying man – he was a man headed for eternal death. But when the Word entered the thief’s ears and mind and heart, he became a changed man, crying and confessing and pleading all at once: “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same condemnation? We are punished justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for what we have done, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Proof from the lips of a condemned man that Jesus truly is the perfect Son of God. Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.” Jesus heard his confession and without hesitation announced: Amen I tell you: Today you will be with me in paradise. From hell to heaven in a matter of minutes.

Here's the point: we don’t need to look up to the thief as much as we need to see ourselves in him. 1) We too by nature reject the apparently humble, weak ways in which God works in our world and our lives. Some words spoken by a sinful man; some ordinary water, bread and wine - this is really how God reveals and applies his power and glory? These things are supposed to grant forgiveness of sins and eternal life? But just like for that thief, the Holy Spirit applied his almighty power through those humble means of grace to change us, to convert us, to carry us over the hurdle of the cross from rejection to repentance. 2) Even the thief’s words mirror our own, don’t they? He said we are punished justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for what we have done. We confessed moments ago: I confess to God Almighty, before the whole company of heaven, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned in thought, word, and deed; by my fault, by my own fault, by my own grievous fault. Whether those words are spoken by a thief from a cross or by middle class Americans in a climate-controlled sanctuary – that’s what repentance looks and sounds like. 3) Just like that thief, our only hope of escape from eternal death lies in the fact that Jesus’ prayer Father, forgive them (Luke 23:34) apply to us as well. 4) Finally, our plea isn’t so much different from his, either. He said Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom. We pleaded I pray for God Almighty to have mercy on me, forgive me all my sins and bring me to everlasting life. And, as evidence that God’s grace is beyond measure, just as Jesus promised that thief that today you will be with me in paradise, so you assured me and I assured you that the almighty and merciful Lord [has] granted you pardon, forgiveness, and remission of all your sins.

So, I guess, in the end, we can look up to that thief on the cross. No, we shouldn’t imitate his life of crime or his mockery and ridicule of Jesus. No, we shouldn’t entertain the delusion that there will always be time to repent later – because tomorrow is guaranteed to no one. Instead, we can look up to that thief as an illustration of how God has treated us. God applied the power of his Word and Sacrament on us to lead us across the void from rejection to repentance and faith. We can and we should emulate his honest, unconditional repentance; his confession of sins and his plea for mercy. And, best of all, we should receive with joyful and believing hearts the truth that because the Son of God suffered on a cross for our sins, we too will be with him in paradise. I guess I was wrong; you can learn a lot from a thief. Amen.   

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 - A Trip to the Lost and Found - March 27, 2022

A parable is an earthly story with a spiritual meaning. Jesus told this parable to people who were grumbling about the company he kept. They were disgusted that he had the audacity to hang out with the society’s outcasts, the riff-raff: tax collectors and prostitutes, lepers and beggars. They were not good, upstanding, church-going folk; they were sinners…dirty, despicable sinners. They were the last people anyone expected to see in church, much less in heaven. But Jesus welcomed them and ate with them. And the Pharisees and experts in the law hated him for it. So he took them on a trip to the lost and found. It’s actually the third of three related parables. The first two set up the third. In the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7), a shepherd leaves 99 sheep to search for and save one lost sheep, and when he finds it, he calls his neighbors and throws a party. Then a woman loses a coin and turns the whole house upside down looking for it, and when she finds it, she calls her neighbors and friends and…throws a party (Luke 15:8-10). You can see the pattern, right? Something is lost, then it’s found, and there is rejoicing and a party. 

There was a man who had two sons. The younger son couldn’t wait for his father to die. He said Father, give me my share of the estate. In other words, “Dad, you’re worth more to me dead than alive, and since you seem unlikely to check out any time soon, just sign over the inheritance check now so I can get out from under your eye and get on with living life my way.” And the father did. He signed over the inheritance to the younger, gave the farm to the older, and kicked back into retirement. Not many days later the younger son hit the road to a far-off country…far from home and family – far from all the rules and guidance and accountability – this younger son did what so many people do in the same situation: he wasted his wealth. How? Reckless living. Was it alcohol, women, gambling, a business venture gone wrong? Who knows? It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that his father’s money, his livelihood, was now gone.

To make matters worse, there was a severe famine in that country. That part is familiar too, isn’t it? When it rains, it pours. You lose your job and your health insurance at the same time you need surgery and the furnace breaks down and the car needs new tires. The young man has no money and no food; he’s homeless and broke. But he’s still not broken. He’s still determined to prove that he doesn’t need his father or his love and especially his rules. So he goes to work in that far-off country feeding pigs. That’s about as shameful as it gets for a Jewish boy. Pigs were unclean, off-limits (Leviticus 11:7-8). Things got so desperate that he would have liked to fill his stomach with the pigs’ food. If you’ve ever wondered what rock-bottom looks like, this is it.

Hungry, broke, lost in a foreign country and reeking of pigs, Jesus says, he came to his senses. His proud, independent, rebellious will was starting to crack. ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, and I am dying from hunger!’ So he makes a plan. I will get up, go to my father, and tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. And off he went.

He probably rehearsed his little speech on the road. “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you…” He probably wondered if his father would acknowledge him or just slam the door in his face, as he knew he deserved. In this earthly story, there were no guarantees that his plan would work. All he knew was that after he had tried his hand at making his way through this world on his terms – and the world had coldly used him up and spit him out. He was all out of options; it was either die with the pigs in a foreign country or go home to his father’s house and beg for mercy.

Maybe you’ve been there. You’ve tried living life on your terms. You’ve done things your way with no regard for the will of the one who gave you life, gave you his love and a place in his family, and gave you everything you needed for this life and the promise of even more in the next. You’ve looked for happiness and fulfillment in all the places your Father told you not to. You tried to find yourself in the world and ended up getting lost. You’re broken and alone and out of options – but to go back to your Father’s house with your tail between your legs.

This is what repentance looks like. Repentance is not an act of human will – it is God’s act of breaking the human will. We don’t work repentance. God does. And he does it in a variety of ways. He begins it at the Baptismal font – as he did again this morning for Abigail – where he drowns our sinful nature under the waters of his forgiveness. He does it through parents and pastors and teachers and spouses and friends – who lovingly point out our sins to us. He does it regularly through the confession of sins and absolution and the proclamation of the Law in worship. When those fail to bring us around, he does it through the church’s declaration of excommunication. But quite often God does it through life. When we run away from him he allows us to fail, to suffer, to be humiliated and broken by this cold world. He lets us learn Psalm 32 firsthand: many are the sorrows of the wicked (Psalm 32:10). However God does it his message is the same: apart from him we are not only lost, we are as good as dead – now and eternally. And because it is really God’s hand at work in every case, we know that no matter how painful it is, his goal is that we repent and throw ourselves on his grace, his undeserved love.

Undeserved love is what we see in the parable. When the younger son was still far off, little more than a speck on the horizon, his father saw him. Clearly, he’d been watching, waiting, hoping his son would finally see the error of his ways and come home. And when he finally saw him, he didn’t hesitate, he took off running towards his son (something no self-respecting adult male would do), wrapped him up in his arms, kissed him – this boy that smelled like pig manure. The boy can only get half of his speech out before his father smothers him and orders the servants to bring out the best robe to cover his rags, the family ring for his finger and sandals for his blistered feet. And then, following the pattern, he says “let’s throw a party.” Because this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

Here’s the other side of repentance…when God has broken us, when he’s led us to see our lost condition, he won’t allow us to come to him trying to work out a deal. “Father, if you forgive me now I will turn my life over to you; I’ll be better; try harder. Give me a chance to earn my way back into your family.” Repentance is not a negotiation. Repentance doesn’t earn forgiveness. In fact, true repentance understands that God’s grace is so deep that we are forgiven before we say a word. We don’t ever earn our way home, we are received purely by unearned, undeserved grace.

Then there’s the older brother. He’s still out in the field working. He hears the music, the dancing, the singing. He comes near to the house and asks a servant, “Hey, what’s going on?” Your brother is here! Your father killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound. And he’s absolutely furious. He refuses to join the party. He wants nothing to do with it. Even when his father comes out and pleads with him, he won’t go. He says Look, these many years I’ve been serving you, and I never disobeyed your command, but you never gave me even a young goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours arrived after wasting your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him! In other words, “I’ll be damned before I celebrate your love along with that undeserving son of yours.” And right there you see the problem, right? This son thought he deserved better; that he had earned his father’s love.

But the father loves him too much to let him off so easily: Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. But it was fitting to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And there the story ends. At the end of the parable, which son is lost? Who finds himself outside of the party? Not the one you’d expect. The good, responsible, upstanding one. The one who did all the right things for all the wrong reasons. And in the end, what keeps him out of the party? Not his brother’s wild living or his Father’s reckless love. Nothing but his own stubborn self-righteousness. In the end, self-righteousness is the reason so many people will find themselves lost in hell forever. They don’t think they need God’s undeserved love because they imagine they’ve earned it. No one is more lost than the person who thinks that they deserve God’s undeserved love.

What is this parable about? First, it’s about the third son, the one telling the story. The Son who left his Father’s house, forfeited all the perks of being the only Son of God, took on our human flesh and humbled himself to be born of a virgin. But there are two big, glaring differences. 1) He didn’t waste his Father’s inheritance, we did. We stole God’s blessings of life and health and wealth and used them to pursue our own selfish, pleasure-seeking purposes. We are why Jesus was born in the pig-pen of this world, surrounded by the slop of sin and death. We are why he was hung between criminals on a cross, mocked and jeered at by the rabble on the streets. We are why he was lost in a way we could never imagine when his Father abandoned him to hell. 2) And unlike the son in the parable, he had to earn his Father’s love. He not only had to live a perfectly obedient life, he then had to carry the sins of the world to the cross and hell and die to earn his Father’s favor. And only when he had done it all, perfectly, did God exalt him to his rightful place at the head of heaven’s feast where he rules all things (Philippians 2:9-11).

This parable is about us, too. We were all born as lost sons. Lost in sin. Doomed to die and be lost in hell forever. But God found us. He found us in Baptism – like he did this morning for little Abigail – he washed away our sins, adopted us into his family, gave us a place in his house, gave us all the rights and privileges of true sons and daughters. And how have we thanked him? How many times have we said, “No, Father, I don’t like your rules or really care about your love. The path you would have me walk is too restrictive and I’d rather run free. I can do without the gifts you offer in Word and Sacrament. Just give me your blessings and go away.” And yet, while God often lets us go our own way – his house (the Church) is not a prison, he forces no one to stay – he never gives up on us. He never stops working to lead us to repentance – whether through the hammer of the Law or the sheer hopelessness and despair of life in this world apart from him. And the most amazing thing is that no matter how many times we run away he’s always there waiting to welcome us home. Always ready to cover the filth of our sin with the robe of Jesus’ perfect righteousness. No matter how far, how long, how badly, how shamefully we have treated our Father – he always, always, always welcomes us back. No questions, no conditions, just full and immediate restoration.

In the end, this parable isn’t really about lost sons but about the father’s endless grace. Whether we can more closely identify with the younger son who squandered his father’s inheritance or the older one who squandered his father’s love – the point of the parable is the same: it’s not about what you think you deserve. Jesus took our place under God’s wrath so that we could take his seat at his Father’s party. The Father sacrificed the Lamb for us. That’s grace. That’s what this parable is about. That’s the only way that anyone can relate to God. We don’t ever find out if the older son realized his lost condition and went in to receive and celebrate his father’s boundless love. I think Jesus ends there on purpose. It forces us to ask ourselves: will we? Amen.  

Mark 15:21 - Simon of Cyrene - March 23, 2022

Who is Jesus? That may sound like a simple, kindergarten-level question to you but it’s proven to be one of, if not the most difficult question to answer in history. It’s not a new question. This question runs throughout all four gospels. It’s raised after Jesus taught with authority in the synagogue and followed that up by exorcising a demon-possessed man (Mark 1:21-28). It’s raised after Jesus absolved the sins of a sinful woman, when those who had witnessed it asked who is this who even forgives sins (Luke 7:49)? After Jesus had calmed the wind and the waves with just a word, his disciples asked who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him (Mark 4:41)! “Who are you?” Pilate asked Jesus as he stood before him on trial. “Are you a king? Where are you from?” (John 18:33; 19:9). “Who is Jesus?” is the most important question anyone can ever ask because the answer has eternal implications. But behind that question is another question, the question many Jews at the time were asking: “Could this Jesus of Nazareth be the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior?” Such Messianic expectations must have filled our man of the hour, a man called Simon of Cyrene.

So what do we know about this man? Well, to state the obvious, he was from Cyrene. Cyrene was a city in Libya in North Africa. Even though it was in Africa, Cyrene was a Greek city in which the Jews had settled (or better, been resettled) in large numbers. What was Simon doing so far from home? The Law of Moses required Jews to observe the Passover at the place the Lord chose (Deuteronomy 16:2, 11). Jerusalem was that place, and every Jew tried to make that pilgrimage at least once in their life. Simon was likely in Jerusalem on just such a pilgrimage. He was a Jew who had come to celebrate the Passover Festival. Messianic and nationalistic expectations ran high during the Passover. They hoped, prayed and longed for the Messiah to come to restore their nation.

As a Jew, Simon of Cyrene would have been well acquainted with the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. There were four threads regarding the expectations the Jews held for the promised Messiah. 1) First and foremost was the expectation that the Messiah would be a descendant of David who would sit on David’s throne and would restore independence to God’s chosen people – as in Isaiah 9 (Isaiah 9:6-7). 2) A second expectation was that in the Messiah God himself would break into human history – as in Isaiah 7 (Isaiah 7:14; 52:10). 3) A third expectation pulled the first two together and said that this divinely appointed Messiah would destroy Israel’s enemies and usher in a new age of unprecedented peace and prosperity – as in Isaiah 65 (Isaiah 65:17-25). 4) A fourth expectation, which was hard, if not impossible for the Jews to grasp – was that the Messiah would also be the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. You can understand why many Jews struggled with this prophecy, can’t you? How on earth could a king who suffered and died in such a horrible fashion possibly save his people from their enemies and establish an eternal kingdom? It made no sense. In any event, up until this point no one man had truly fulfilled one, much less all of these prophecies.

No one knows precisely what kind of questions or expectations Simon of Cyrene brought with him to Jerusalem. But it’s probably safe to assume that he did not expect to be forced to carry the cross of a condemned criminal (compare as reverse of 3rd Amendment). But, nonetheless, it happened. There he was, just trying to celebrate the Passover, now forced to carry the cross of a condemned man to Calvary. As he struggled under the weight of this man’s cross, he must have been wondering: “Who is this man and what has he done to deserve this?” The road to Calvary supplied some clues. 1) There were women who wept and wailed over him – few people normally weep over the imminent death of a capital criminal (Luke 23:27). 2) There was Jesus’ response to this weeping: daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. Be sure of this: the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never gave birth, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things to the green wood, what will happen to the dry?” (Luke 23:29-31) These were not the words of a hardened anarchist or murderer. These were weighty words; words of prophecy (Hosea 10:8). 3) And if these words didn’t make it clear, the sign Pilate placed over his head on the cross removed all doubt: this man was Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews (John 19:19).

What Simon knew previously about Jesus, we can’t say. How long Simon stayed near the cross is also unknown. But this much is clear – Mark further identifies Simon as the father of Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21). Alexander and Rufus must have been believers well-known to the early Church – otherwise Mark’s reference to them here wouldn’t make any sense. Quite possibly, this is the same Rufus as the one Paul sent his greetings to at the end of his letter to the Romans (Romans 16:13). The mention of these two men tells us that Simon’s seemingly chance encounter had generated faith.

While there’s a lot of uncertainty regarding this Simon of Cyrene, his carrying of Jesus’ cross does serve to confirm Jesus’ words in John 12: and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself (John 12:32). The cross is the ultimate answer to the question “Who is this man?” It silently and brutally testifies that he is the Suffering Servant Isaiah wrote about. He was despised and rejected by men, a man who knew grief, who was well acquainted with suffering. Like someone whom people cannot bear to look at, he was despised, and we thought nothing of him (Isaiah 53:3). (“We thought nothing of him” carries the idea that no one recognized who Jesus really was – as the entire account of Jesus’ passion proves to be true.)

Does that mean that this was all an accident, a tragic coincidence, a terrible miscarriage of justice; that things would have gone differently if only everyone had recognized who Jesus really was? No. Because according to Isaiah it was the LORD’s will to crush him and to allow him to suffer (Isaiah 53:10). The cross was no accident. It was part of God’s plan from the beginning. It was the Lord of heaven and earth – not just wicked, corrupt men like Judas and Caiaphas and Herod and Pilate – who crushed Jesus, his Servant. The million-dollar question is: why? Why did God the Father crush his own perfect, beloved Son under the weight his wrath on the cross? Isaiah answers that question, too: 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 (Isaiah 53:5).

It was something that Simon almost certainly didn’t recognize at the time, but his carrying of the cross is a vivid illustration of what we call “The Great Exchange.” Whether he knew it or not, the cross Simon was forced to carry was really his own – that is, the one he deserved; and the one we deserve. Both he and we deserved to be forced by whips and kicks and shouts to carry a heavy, splintered cross to a hill away from the presence of God to be nailed to it and to suffer the full wrath of God over our sins – suffering which would never end in hell. But by God’s grace, Simon – and we – get to drop that cross at Calvary, and watch as Jesus – the innocent, sinless, Lamb of God – hung on it in our place. What cross are you carrying right now? What sin or guilt is haunting you? What anger or grudge is burning a hole in your heart? What fear or anxiety is keeping you up at night? What sickness or pain is making you miserable? Drop it here, let Jesus take it – and leave it here. Jesus wants nothing more. Paul puts it this way: 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). Jesus had to take our punishment so that we might receive his righteousness – that’s why this had to happen; this was God’s plan all along.

We’ve been asking “who is Jesus? But several times Jesus turned that question back on his disciples, who do people say that I am? (Mark 8:27) His disciples reported the confusion of the people: John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others say one of the prophets (Mark 8:28). But Jesus asked all who would call themselves his disciples – and therefore, us – a much more pointed question: who do you say I am? (Mark 8:29). When we look at Isaiah’s inspired, prophetic words, when we look at Simon of Cyrene, that man who carried Jesus’ cross, and when we put all the evidence together, there’s only one possible conclusion: this man, this Jesus of Nazareth who was hung on a cursed tree, is the one – the only one – who fulfills all of God’s prophecies regarding the Messiah. He is the One God had sent to sit on David’s throne as God’s Anointed One to destroy his people’s enemies and usher in an age of unprecedented peace and prosperity – a victory he would achieve as a Servant, a Servant who would suffer and die on a cross. Or, put more succinctly, here is further proof that Jesus truly is the Son of God. Amen.  

Luke 13:1-9 - Jesus Interprets the News - March 20, 2022

If the season of Lent could be summed up in just one word, that word would be…REPENT. In Hebrew it’s “shuv” – which has the basic idea of turning back or turning around. In Greek it’s “metanoia” – literally “change your mind.” Throughout the Bible repentance refers to a change; a change of heart and mind and ways…from sin to holiness, from unbelief to faith, from death to life. In the first of his 95 theses, Martin Luther stated that the entire life of a believer is to be one of repentance. [1] Today, Jesus shows us how the news we consume is really a call to repentance.

Why are we so fascinated by the news? Why do our lives revolve around the morning newspaper or the news feed on our phones? One reason is that it allows us to “play God” – to sit in the safety of our homes and judge the thoughts, words and actions of others. We are invited to join similarly uninvolved reporters in assigning blame or shame or criticism or praise as we see fit. It’s an ego boost to see all these “evil” people paraded before our eyes and think: “I may not be perfect…but I’m certainly better than them!” It gives us a certain “entitlement” complex. That the news validates what we thought all along “other people may need to repent, but not me!”

Israel suffered from this “entitlement” complex. They knew they were God’s chosen people, his treasured possession (Deuteronomy 7:6). They had the Law, the temple, the prophets, priests and kings chosen by God himself. They had proof that God was on their side: he had rescued them from Egypt, led them through the Red Sea and the wilderness, and given them possession of a land that wasn’t theirs. And so they figured: “we’ve got the golden ticket…we don’t need to repent, to change our ways.” And yet, what did God commission Ezekiel to proclaim to Israel? Turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel (Ezekiel 33:11)

The Christians in Corinth evidently had the same kind of “entitlement” complex. They were strong, they were spiritual, they were filled with knowledge and the Spirit, they enjoyed their liberty from the Law through the Gospel. They prophesied and spoke in tongues. They were young and hip and growing and…they were the congregation Paul had the most trouble with. They were divided. They abused the gift of the Lord’s Supper and each other. They boasted of their tolerance of sin and failed to carry out proper Christian discipline. They were sexually immoral and doubted the resurrection. Which is why Paul issued one of the sternest warnings in the entire NT: let him who thinks he stands be careful that he does not fall (1 Corinthians 10:12) That’s why he reminded them of Israel’s history; that Israel too had all the benefits of God’s grace – and yet God was not pleased with most of them. He had them die in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:5). Remember the lessons of the past, Paul was telling them; don’t take God’s grace for granted. He will eventually reject those who refuse to repent and return to him.

We need to hear this warning too because we still have a tendency to have an “entitlement” complex, to take God’s grace for granted. Don’t we tend to believe that bad things happen to bad people? Every time there is a disaster, some act of war or violence or abuse of power…a tornado, earthquake, or flood – we are inundated with 24/7 streams of speculation attempting to answer the question: “why did God allow this to happen to these people?” And the usual, if unspoken, answer is, “well, they must have deserved it.” (To be clear, sometimes this is the case. When a drug addict overdoses or a speeder dies in a crash, their death is clearly a direct result of their sin.) But the one thing that never changes, no matter what has happened in the news, is the comfort that it has nothing at all to do with me. Jesus challenges that theory in our text.

One day, some people came to Jesus with news about a barbaric act committed by Pontius Pilate. He had slaughtered some Galileans as they were offering their sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem. It was probably no coincidence that this happened to Galileans. Galilee was the wild west of Israel; a hotbed of insurrection, political anarchists and terrorists. Pilate was probably hoping to make an example out of them. He was sending a message: “If you even think about plotting against my government, this will happen to you, too.”

So how were the people to interpret this? From Jesus’ response, it appears that they were expecting him to agree with their own interpretation: that God was punishing these Galileans for their sin. But Jesus gets to the heart of the issue: do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered these things? And then he does the one thing we never want him to do when we come to him for answers: he turns the question around: I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all perish too.

And then to drive the point home even further, Jesus adds a headline of his own: a construction accident which didn’t appear to have any political or religious overtones. A tower fell in Siloam killing 18 people. Just a freak accident. How was this to be interpreted? Do you think that they were worse sinners than all the people living in Jerusalem? Was God paying those people back for some sin they had committed? I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all perish too. And you could substitute any manmade or natural disaster, any tragedy you want; those with religious overtones – like 9/11 or the religious persecution occurring in the Middle East and China; or those without, like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or the wildfires in Texas. How should you interpret that news? Is God punishing these people? Are they getting what they deserve? Jesus’ answer is: no – meaning that’s the wrong question. When tragedies happen we shouldn’t be asking “why did God allow this to happen?” But “what is God telling me?” According to Jesus, the answer to that question is crystal clear: repent! No matter what happened to who, every tragedy is a reminder that this entire world is under God’s curse and sooner or later he is going to bring everyone under judgment. Every death is a reminder that someday we, too, will die. So go ahead and watch the news, but remember that the news isn’t really about what God is doing to others (that’s above our pay-grade), it’s about what he’s telling us. And his message to us is clear: repent, otherwise you, too, will perish.

But the simple fact that we are still here to consume the news and not reduced to a few inches in the obituary section is evidence of God’s grace to us. Jesus illustrates this with a parable. A man had a fruitless fig tree that failed to produce for three years. He wanted to cut it down. It was taking up space, wasting soil and water. But the gardener intervened. Be patient. Give it one more year. He’ll work on it: aerate its roots, fertilize it. If it bears fruit, great. If not, go ahead: cut it down. This parable was clearly spoken against Israel. She was the fig tree God had planted in the Promised Land and when the Son of God came, looking for fruit, he didn’t find any. For three years Jesus had left his footprints on Israel’s highways and byways. For three years he had worked to seek and save the lost in Israel. For three years he had preached and taught and performed miracles. For three years he had searched for repentance and faith in Israel. Israel’s time was running out. But still Jesus was patient, he put up with their unbelief, their hostility, their rejection – because he didn’t want any of them to perish but to return to their God and be saved (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9).

And that’s also why God puts up with the world at large today. That’s why he doesn’t seem to be on any big campaign to clean this world up. That’s why he doesn’t give this world what it deserves. That’s why in most cases it seems likes he doesn’t interfere or intervene when evil people do evil things and tragedies happen; why he allows felons to drive over Christmas parades, college kids to OD on spring break, and Russia to invade Ukraine. Each and every disaster is a public service announcement through which God is telling the world: Repent. Turn around. Change your mind and your ways. Return to the God who created you.

Most importantly, Jesus’ intercession is the only reason that God has put up with us to this day. His pleading with the Father for “one more year” is the only reason we are still alive, still watching the news and not subjects of the news. It’s why we refer to our lifetimes as our “time of grace.” It is the time Jesus has graciously purchased for us to repent, to return to him and be saved from the destruction that is coming. Both parts are important: repenting and returning. Why? Because we are incapable, by ourselves, of producing the good fruit God demands from us. Jesus makes this clear in John’s Gospel: I am the Vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him is the one who bears much fruit, because without me you can do nothing (John 15:5). That Jesus is the one who produces good fruit in our lives is clear even in this parable: ‘Sir, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put fertilizer on it. If it produces fruit next year, fine. But if not, then cut it down.’

This is the real reason we are still alive, still breathing, still walking and talking in this world – so that Jesus would have one more day to dig around the roots of our hearts with his call to repentance, to fertilize us by pouring his life-giving, fruit-producing power into us through Word and sacrament. To make us the fruitful trees God always intended. What does a fruitful tree look like? Paul says the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Are those fruits present in your life? If God is watching the newsreel of your life – and he is – is he pleased with what he sees? If you have to confess with me that many days we’ve been fruitless trees just taking up space in God’s kingdom – then remember this: the call to return to Jesus, to receive his gifts in Word and Sacrament, isn’t primarily a call to come here to be fertilized and energized so that you can go out and prove your fruitfulness, your worthiness to God in your life. If that were true, we’d be better off giving up now – because our fruit will never meet God’s standard of perfection. No, the call to return to Jesus – especially in this season of Lent – is to trust that he came to live the life we have not, to bear the fruit we cannot, to be cut down on the cross in our place and to rise to life to justify us, make us worthy and righteous in God’s sight. We need to return to Jesus urgently because every day the one thing we need most is the forgiveness and righteousness only he can offer. Because while full and free forgiveness is no guarantee that we won’t be diagnosed with cancer or that some tragedy will put our names in the headlines – it does guarantee that we will be shielded from God’s wrath on Judgment Day. And in the end, that’s the real tragedy we need to avoid.

So…how should we interpret the news – the minute-by-minute reporting of tragic events from all over the world? Jesus says that we can’t – at least not in the way we’d like to. I hope Jesus has changed the way you consume the news forever. That instead of asking “why did God allow this to happen to those people?” we ask “what is God telling me?” Because now we know the answer to that question: repent! Turn around. Change your mind and your ways. Recognize that every tragedy is a shadow of the far worse tragedy that will befall every impenitent unbeliever on Judgment Day. And then return. Return to Jesus in faith – the one who shed his blood to shield you from the punishment of eternal death so that you might instead have the gift of eternal life. Amen.

[1] https://www.luther.de/en/95thesen.html

Matthew 27:11-14, 24-26 - Pontius Pilate - March 16, 2022

Have you ever noticed that, apart from the persons of the Holy Trinity, there are only two other people mentioned by name in the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds – one famous, the other infamous; one whom we call blessed, the other cursed? We confess that Jesus “was born of the Virgin Mary” and we rightly call her blessed. Then we continue, “[Jesus] suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.” A cursed legacy if there ever was one. What are we to make of this man?

Let’s start with what we know about him from history. His official title was “governor of the imperial province of Judea,” a position he held from roughly 26 to 36 AD. He had been appointed to maintain Roman rule over Galilee, Samaria, Judea, and other territories to the north. This was not exactly a dream posting. Palestine was an infamously difficult place to keep the peace because the Jews were so bitterly opposed to foreign rule. Being sent to govern Syria was like being sent to Afghanistan, and governors went there hoping for a swift promotion to somewhere better.

Pilate’s own term as governor was marred by near-continuous discontent and rioting among the Jews, and much of it was his own fault. No sooner had he arrived in Jerusalem than he tried to have the imperial symbol, which included the image of Caesar, mounted on the walls of the Temple. His attempt to “imperialize” the temple incited such backlash that he had it removed within five days. Later, he proposed to build a new 25-mile aqueduct to bring fresh water from the mountains to Jerusalem – which sounds like a noble cause. But when he tried to requisition funds from the temple treasury to build it, a bloody riot broke out. Stories like these characterized Pilate’s ten-year reign as governor: the Jews hated him – and he hated them. It's important to keep that political tension in mind as we consider Pilate’s role in the last hours of our Savior’s life.

Normally, the governor lived in Caesarea on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. There, the climate was cool and calm – not only because the refreshing breeze from the Mediterranean beat back the sweltering Palestinian heat, but also because there the governor was somewhat removed from the focal point of Jewish contention: Jerusalem. However, whenever the Jews celebrated their annual religious festivals, the governor relocated to Jerusalem, because it was at those times that Jewish nationalism, patriotism and opposition to foreign rule tended to boil over into both peaceful and not-so-peaceful protests and riots.

The Passover festival of 30 AD held true to form. It was in the early hours, probably about 5a on Friday, when Pilate was roused out of bed by a delegation of the Jewish leaders, members of the Sanhedrin. Mark records it this way: as soon as it was morning, the chief priests, along with the elders, the experts in the law, and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate (Mark 15:1). You can imagine Pilate’s reaction. He probably cursed the Jews under his breath for disturbing his sleep at such an early hour. And if that weren’t enough, the following interaction must have made his blood boil: what charge do you bring against this man?...If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you…Take him and judge him according to your law…It’s not legal for us to put anyone to death (John 18:29-31). Why did Jesus have to die, according to them? We found this fellow misleading our nation, forbidding the payment of taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king (Luke 23:2).

Put yourself in Pilate’s shoes for a moment. Can you blame him for not wanting anything to do with this case? He discovers that they had been up all night prejudging the defendant. He also knew that all they wanted was for him to rubber-stamp their verdict. (If there’s one thing no judge likes, it’s presumption on the part of the prosecution.) He also knew that their bringing Jesus to him was pure hypocrisy. He knew that if Jesus had really been opposing the paying of taxes to Rome that they would have been cheering him on, not accusing him. But even though he knew that this man was brought to him on completely trumped-up charges, the trumped-up charge was treason, and if he refused to hear the case then, as the Jews accurately stated, if you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar (John 19:12). In other words, if word of this supposed treason got back to Caesar and it was discovered that Pilate ignored it, his own neck would be on the line.

So Pilate interrogated Jesus: “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said to him, “It is as you say.” Jesus had just pleaded guilty to the charge of being the King of the Jews and therefore the Son of God, the Christ – and what was Pilate’s verdict? I find no basis for a charge against him (John 18:38). Pilate knew that this whole thing was a sham; a devious scheme to get rid of someone who was a threat – not to Caesar – but to these Jewish leaders. Pilate’s declaration of innocence is official, historical proof that Jesus truly is the Son of God.

He did everything in his power to free Jesus. 1) He tried to refer the case to Herod, but Herod sent Jesus right back when Jesus wouldn’t entertain him with miracles (Luke 23:6-12). 2) Then Pilate gave them a choice between the notorious and violent criminal called Barabbas (whose name ironically means “son of the father”) and Jesus, whose only crime was that he was the Son of God. They chose Barabbas (Matthew 27:21). 3) Then he appealed to their sense of compassion. He ordered his soldiers to flog Jesus (Matthew 27:26). Flogging meant lashes with a whip, which consisted of leather strips that had bits of bone or metal tied to the tips. Each stroke would rip open the victim’s skin and tear into his flesh. And then, to top it off, they pressed a crown of thorns into our Savior’s head in mockery of his kingship (Mark 15:17). In this state, Pilate presented him to the crowd, hoping that this pathetic excuse for a man would arouse their pity and satisfy their desire for blood. 4) Finally, when that failed, he tried one last dramatic move to demonstrate his opposition to this whole situation: he took water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, and said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. It is your responsibility. But when they shouted back, let his blood be on us and on our children he handed him over to be crucified.

It's a sad story, really, isn’t it? That Pilate is remembered not for any of the positive, beneficial things that he might have accomplished during his term as governor; that instead his name is recorded in history – in both the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds – as the one under whom Jesus suffered, was crucified, died and was buried. What kind of man would do this? He knew Jesus was innocent and yet he condemned him to death anyway. What kind of man is this who knows what is right, yet violates his own conscience? How could anyone preside over such an obvious perversion of justice as this and live with himself?

What’s obvious is that Pilate was, in the end, a pragmatist. A pragmatist is someone who has no real principles, no real moral standards, no clear distinction between right and wrong. All that the pragmatist is worried about is finding what works best in any given situation. And Pilate, the pragmatic, ambitious politician, was most concerned about keeping the peace at all costs so that he would remain in position for a promotion. In that game, it isn’t possible to stick to absolute principles of right and wrong, but rather, to what is expedient. Caught in an impossible situation, Pilate reveals himself to be a weak, cowardly and compromising man – ready to sell his own soul for the sake of his career. The tragic irony of Pilate’s story is that all of his efforts at climbing the political ladder didn’t work out in the end. A few years after he had condemned Jesus to death by crucifixion, the emperor recalled Pilate to Rome. [1] There, his failures and his guilty conscience apparently caught up with him. According to the Roman historian Eusebius, Pilate died – not naturally or of old age, but by suicide. If this review of Pilate’s life proves anything – it’s that he was a spineless coward…both in life and in death.

It's understandable that history is not kind to Pilate. But isn’t the spirit of Pilate alive and well in our world today? Don’t we still have our share of pragmatists who are unprincipled, immoral and regularly blur the line between right and wrong? And I’m not talking about politicians, celebrities or used-car salesmen. How many times don’t we choose what is easy, pleasurable and expedient over what is right? It’s tax season. It’s really tempting to be less than honest on our tax returns in order to get a bigger refund. Parenting is hard. It’s really tempting to try to be your child’s friend rather than do the hard work of raising them in the fear and knowledge of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). A lot of people disagree with what God’s Word teaches regarding marriage and sexuality – maybe even a lot of your own friends and family. It’s really tempting, expedient even, to just go along with popular opinion. There is only one way to heaven (John 14:6) and only one way that this gift salvation is delivered to people – through the means of grace: the gospel in Word and Sacrament; and yet – as we talked about in Bible class on Sunday – it’s really tempting to keep quiet instead of making a friend or family member angry by bringing up their sin of neglecting the means of grace. Certainly we must speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), but that demands that we speak! Silence is tantamount to cowardly, spineless pragmatism. Pilate definitely isn’t alone in failing to do or say what is right in the name of expediency.

Thank God, then, that Jesus never compromised his principles or sacrificed his morality for a single moment for any reason – not even in the face of being unjustly put to death for honestly confessing his identity as the Son of God, the King of kings, Lord of lords, and Savior of the world. The Jews claimed that they wanted Jesus’ blood on them and their children…ironically, we agree with them. We want – we need – Jesus’ blood to be on us and our children, for only the blood of Jesus…[God’s] Son, cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7) – including our sins of sacrificing our principles, our morality, our integrity, most of all, our obligation the truth of God’s Word for the sake of temporary advancement or pleasure or gain. This is the good news from the sad story of Pilate: the times we have acted like Pilate in our own lives are forgiven by the death of Jesus, the Son of God. May this forgiveness strengthen us to stand firm in truth and honesty and integrity, no matter the pain or the cost. Amen.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontius_Pilate#CITEREFSchwartz1992