Hebrews 13:9-16 - Sanctifying Blood - April 1, 2020

Apart from extremely devout Jews and Muslims and Seventh Day Adventists, there are relatively few people today who believe that your diet – what you eat – will have an impact on your standing before God and your eternity. Why not? For Bible believing Christians, the answer is clear. First, to Jewish leaders who were convinced that they were made clean or unclean by what they ate, Jesus said there is nothing outside of a man that can make him unclean by going into him. But the things that come out of a man are what make a man unclean (Mark 7:15). Second, Paul provides confirmation in his letter to the Colossians: do not let anyone judge you in regard to food or drink….these are a shadow of the things that were coming, but the body belongs to Christ (Colossians 2:16-17). The New Testament puts a nail through the heart of any religious dietary restrictions (so feel free to let your Catholic friends know that it’s ok to dig into a steak on Fridays in Lent!). And in our text, the author of Hebrews picks up on that same theme. He warns his readers against being carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, including strange teachings about foods. His point is that we aren’t sanctified, that is set apart and made holy and acceptable to God by our diet but by blood. Jesus’ blood.

Like Jesus and the apostle Paul, the author of Hebrews draws us away from trying to earn the righteousness of God and instead to receive it from him through Jesus. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tent have no right to eat. What is this altar? Where is it? It’s a cross…a cross planted on Golgotha. It’s the altar Jesus built when he offered his body and blood as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. Through faith, through Baptism, through Absolution, through the Lord’s Supper (which we still retain possession of, even if we can’t practice it as frequently as we would like), through hearing and reading the Word of God, we are given Christ’s own righteousness and receive his holiness. That is how God sanctifies us today. Those who continue to live under the old covenant – or any religious system where salvation is based on works – have no right to eat from this altar because they prove by that behavior that they do not believe in Jesus, they do not accept that he is the Lamb of God, whose blood sets us free from sin.

In verses 11 and 12 the author compares and contrasts the Old and the New Covenants. He refers to the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament (Leviticus 16). The carcasses of the animals slaughtered for sacrifice on this annual Day of Atonement would be drained of blood. Then the high priest would carry the blood into the Most Holy Place as an atoning sacrifice, but the bodies would be burned outside the camp (Leviticus 16:27). He compares this to what happened on Calvary. Jesus suffered outside the gate. That is, he was crucified outside of Jerusalem (John 19:17). He suffered outside the city, to sanctify people by his own blood.

This sacrifice was repeated year after year after year – it was never really done, which served to point the people of Israel ahead to the real “Day of Atonement,” Good Friday, when Jesus himself would serve as both the High Priest and the sacrificial Lamb. He would suffer outside the camp and with his own blood enter the Most Holy Place in heaven to make his “once for all” payment for the sins of the world. His sacrifice doesn’t need repeating – not by the sacrifice of lambs, not by some ceremonial sacrifice made by pastors or priests (as the Catholic Church maintains to this day[1]). When Jesus cried from the cross it is finished (John 19:30), he announced to the world that his redeeming and sanctifying work is complete. No longer do we need to sacrifice lambs and goats because the Lamb of God has sanctified us by his own blood. His blood cleanses us from the infection of sin. His blood makes us holy people, people who belong to God and can stand before without any stain or stench of sin or guilt (Ephesians 5:27). Paul describes the reality of this cleansing in Romans 8: there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2).

What the blood of all the animals in the world could never do, God did for us by the blood of his Son. He has sanctified us – that is, made us holy and set us apart as his own people. He has purchased and won us from sin, death, and devil by that blood. We belong to him. Now what? What does that mean practically speaking for our everyday lives? Hebrews makes three applications. First, so then let us go to him, outside of the camp, bearing his disgrace. For we do not have a permanent city here, but we are looking for the city that is coming. We are to go where Jesus is – even if it means enduring the scorn and mockery of the world. He is outside of the camp. Now this doesn’t mean that we have to go back to Golgotha, because – frankly – we can’t. But we do have to go outside of the camp – that is we must leave behind any rules or regulations that claim to make us holier or more spiritual; that claim to offer the sanctification that only Jesus can offer. To go back to the Old Testament – or any novel religious system built on laws and rules and restrictions – is to live as if Jesus Christ had not come,  had not suffered, died, and rose again; it would be to reject the Gospel. Instead, we cling to Christ crucified and him alone. We trust him as he distributes to us the fruits of his sacrifice through Word and Sacrament as we await the heavenly city that is to come. That’s why I love the thanksgiving responses we use after we receive communion, from Psalm 136 and 1 Corinthians 11: give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His mercy endures forever (Psalm 136:1). Whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup. We proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes (1 Corinthians 11:26). In that sacrament time and eternity truly meet, as we look back to receive through faith the gifts Christ won for us on the cross and look forward to his second coming in glory – to take us home to the heavenly city that is coming.

Second, through Jesus, therefore, let us constantly offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. The Bible makes a distinction between two different kinds of sacrifice. 1) There is the sacrifice of atonement that takes away sin. And 2) the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. The sacrifice of atonement was made by Jesus on the cross. This sacrifice can never be replicated or repeated – nor does it need to be. He finished that job once and for all (John 19:30). Then there are the ongoing sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. These are the sacrifices we offer whenever we put our trust in Jesus, when we confess our faith, whenever we offer him our hymns and songs and prayers.

But this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving doesn’t end there either, it also encompasses our entire lives. Here’s the third application, the third result, of being sanctified by Jesus’ blood: Do not forget to do good and share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Jesus’ blood not only sanctifies our lips to praise his holy name, he also sanctifies our lives to live for him. There’s an important point here to keep in mind that is often misunderstood or forgotten: God doesn’t need our good works. The love God commands us and enables us to show in our lives is not to be directed at him (as if we could anyway) but at the people around us, our neighbors (Luke 10:25-37). Paul makes this clear in his speech before the Areopagus: The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made with hands. Neither is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything, since he himself gives all people life and breath and everything they have (Acts 17:24-25) God doesn’t need our good works. He’s God. He doesn’t need our time, our compassion, the work of our hands, our money – or, today, a roll of toilet paper or a bottle of hand sanitizer. But in these trying times, our neighbor might. Living by faith in Jesus also means living in love for our neighbor. Works of love directed toward those who need them are integral parts of our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to Jesus for all he’s done for us. In fact, in yet another example of his boundless grace, Jesus says that when we do good to others – especially other believers – it’s the same, in his eyes, as doing good for him: just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me (Matthew 25:40).

That’s the power of Jesus’ blood. Not only does his blood cleanse us from all sin and set us apart as God’s holy people – but it sanctifies us, sets us apart as his royal priests (1 Peter 2:9) who live every day in faith toward him and love toward one another. Amen.

[1] 1367 The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: "The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different." "And since in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner. . . this sacrifice is truly propitiatory."190 (https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c1a3.htm)

John 11:47-53 - Who's In Charge Here? - March 29, 2020

“Who’s in charge here?” It’s a question I imagine is on the minds of millions of Americans today. “Who’s in charge of our country, our healthcare system, making sure everyone has enough food to eat, money to pay their bills,” and on and on and on. Who’s in charge and are their decisions right and constitutional and how do we know we can trust that what they say is true and for the best? That’s a good question – and not just in a time of crisis. It’s a good question to ask every day of our lives and today, it’s a good question to ask during Lent as we continue to follow Jesus to his cross. Who’s in charge here?

Today in our country, it certainly seems like God’s enemies are in charge. Just think of how many things have been redefined, been transferred from the column labeled “immoral and sinful” to the column of “normal, moral and acceptable behavior” over the course of the past 50 years or so. Life has been redefined as beginning outside of the womb – and in some states, only if the mother deems the life worth preserving – instead of the definition that has been in place since the beginning of time: that life begins in the womb at conception. The end of life has been placed into the hands of doctors and nurses – with the ultimate goal of making a person comfortable – rather than in the hands of God – with the goal of making one sure of salvation. Sexual norms have been redefined so that not only has same-sex marriage been legalized, but the arbitrary changing of one’s gender identity is now publicly promoted and encouraged.

And what has been the result? What has happened to those who have presumed to “play God” and undermine his authority? Apparently, nothing. He didn’t send fire and brimstone (Genesis 19:24-25) to burn up lawmakers who decided to legalize and use tax payer money to fund the systematic murder of unborn babies. He’s allowed his gifts of science and medicine to be used to alleviate the consequences of homosexuality and to facilitate transgenderism. Not only has our godless culture not been judged for daring to overthrow God’s authority, but they appear to be winning their war against God and his church every day. They have slandered, smeared, and prosecuted those who oppose them and face no consequences when they blaspheme God’s name or will. It would be very easy for any Bible-believing Christian to wonder “who’s in charge here?”

If there’s anything we should be sure of, it’s that when believers have questions, God has answers. As we heard in Psalm 2, the Lord acknowledges that the nations have conspired against him and his Anointed One. And what is his reaction? The one who is seated in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them (Psalm 2:1-4). In Psalm 37 David sees that the wicked plot against the righteous and says the Lord laughs at [them] (Psalm 37:13). Other psalms describe the persecution believers undergo at the hands of unbelievers and in each and every case, the Lord and even his people laugh at them (Psalm 59:8; Psalm 52:6).

So the LORD has answered our question. He has guaranteed us in his Word that he is and will always be in charge. But can we trust him? Well, he promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit and inhabit Canaan (Genesis 15:18-21) and that promise looked pretty bleak during the 430 years of their slavery in Egypt – but then God stepped in and freed them (Exodus 12:40-42). Babylon took Israel into exile and released them 70 years later, just as God had promised (Jeremiah 29:10). After the prophet Malachi left the scene, it seemed like God had abandoned his people, but then John the Baptist showed up in the wilderness 400 years later (John 3:1-2). The Roman Empire engaged in systematic persecution of Christians for centuries. But the Roman Empire lies in dust while the Church still stands strong. Can we trust God when he says that he’s in charge? Yes. Why? Because he has a left a perfect track record of promises kept.

But even as we confess that truth, there is something else we must confess: the real problem in our world and in our lives isn’t that God’s enemies try to overthrow his rule, it’s that I do…and you do. We are guilty of this attempted coup whenever we think that we should be able to define what is good, what is best for us. Sickness is bad; health is good. Poverty is bad; wealth is good. Having a job is good; unemployment is bad. Who are we to determine these things? We’re acting like children who think that ice cream would be the perfect food for every meal – we don’t really know what’s good for us. We may say and pray your will be done (Matthew 6:10), while we’re really thinking “as long as your will corresponds with my will and you get it done quick!”

“Pastor, don’t you know the chaos that is going on in our world right now, is this really the time to make us feel sorry for our sins and call us to repentance? Don’t you think now is the time to tell us that everything is going to be fine, that no one who puts their trust in God is going to die from Covid-19, run short on food, lose their job, or go bankrupt?” No, I don’t. Not only because God has not promised those things but also because unless God leads us to the realization and confession that the greatest problem in the world isn’t some invisible virus out there, isn’t some corrupt or ill-informed or power-hungry politician, and isn’t the uncertain future – then we are always going to wind up with a worse problem: damnation. If we don’t confess that our greatest problem is not out there but in here, then we’re always going to be idolaters. We’re always going to blame him when things don’t go the way we think they should; doubt his love and goodness; or question that he is as powerful as he claims to be – which is nothing less than unbelief (Matthew 14:31). And that’s a real problem when Jesus has said that the line between heaven and hell is as thin as faith: whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:16).

Back to our question: who is in charge? Look at our text. See how God was in control right in the midst of his enemies. As the Sanhedrin met to discuss how best to handle this “Jesus issue”, one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. You do not even consider that it is better for us that one man died for the people than that the whole nation perish.” Caiaphas was a Sadducee. Sadducees didn’t believe in angels or in the resurrection (Matthew 22:23; Acts 5:17; 23:8) – they were essentially “religious atheists.” But Caiaphas was in charge and he had a very simple plan: get rid of Jesus. And God used his agenda, his plan and his mouth to preach the Gospel. That’s why the apostle adds an editorial comment: He did not say this on his own, but, as high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation. The question is, who was right? Well, Caiaphas was right, but John was more right. Caiaphas didn’t have the slightest clue as to what he was saying. He didn’t understand either side of his prophecy, neither the gospel truth nor the future political reality. The gospel truth was that God had planned all along to sacrifice his Son in place of the world (1 John 2:2). As high priest, this should have come as no surprise to Caiaphas, because God is the one who promised that while the Savior would crush the serpent’s head, the serpent would succeed in crushing his heel (Genesis 3:15). It was God who predicted that Jesus was be betrayed by a trusted friend (Psalm 41:9). It was God who saw the leaders of the world surrounding Jesus like a pack of wild dogs snarling and thirsty for his blood (Psalm 22:16). It was God who said that it was his will to crush him (Isaiah 53:10), that he be stricken, smitten, and afflicted, that he be crushed for the guilt our sins deserved, that the punishment that brought us peace should be upon him, all so that by his wounds we might be healed (Isaiah 53:4-5).

But Caiaphas didn’t understand the political consequences of his words and actions, either. The political reality was that, by putting Jesus to death, he was actually making himself, the Sanhedrin, and the nation of Israel obsolete. God had used Israel as a kind of “incubator” for his Promised Savior, but once the Savior had come and completed his mission, Israel was no longer needed – at least, not as God’s specially chosen people. That’s why John said [Caiaphas] did not say this on his own, but, as high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for that nation, but also in order to gather into one the scattered children of God – meaning the elect, his chosen from the Gentile nations. And, guess what happened not long after Caiaphas uttered this divinely inspired prophecy. 40 years after he spoke these words, 40 years after the Sanhedrin worked in concert with the Romans to crucify Jesus, 40 years after Jesus rose from the dead, Caiaphas’ nightmare came true: the Romans came and laid waste to Jerusalem, to the Temple, and to the high priesthood – all according to God’s plan.

What does this mean? This means that when the devil, when an invisible virus, when chaos and unemployment and irrational panic and never-before-seen lockdowns seem to be controlling your life, it’s just an illusion. It’s not true. God hasn’t and will never abdicate his throne. Even when he is apparently helpless, bound and bleeding and standing trial before Pilate, what does he say? You would have no authority over me at all if it had not been given to you from above (John 19:11). God’s enemies think they are in charge. They think they are in charge of the situation when they agree that Jesus has to die – when in fact they are simply pawns in God’s master plan of salvation.

Jesus’ journey to the cross proves, more than anything in the world, that God is in charge. Even when evil men think they are doing what they want they wind up doing precisely what God wants – that’s the definition of control, is it not? And what did God want to do? He wanted to hand his only Son over to death for our sins (Romans 4:25). He wanted to hand over the perfect Man, who had kept every letter of every law, who never sinned once, who had never even had a sinful desire in his heart – to evil men who would torture and crucify him. Why? For you. He handed his perfect Son over to death for you, for your family, for your neighbors, for everyone. To make you his children, his sons and daughters (Galatians 3:26). He handed his Son over to buy you back from the certainty of eternal death in hell.

It’s kind of like dodgeball. Remember that? Remember the tension of the whole team-picking process? Where did you fall? Regardless of where you were picked in the game of dodgeball, in the game of life, God picked you first. He chose you over his only-begotten Son and sent him to take the responsibility and all the punishment for all of your sins, your guilt and shame. You weren’t God’s last choice, the last kid sitting on the bench. No, God chose you to hear the Gospel and be baptized, to come to faith and remain in the faith even before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). God is in charge and you are the proof. Because God picked you to come to faith and be saved, somehow and in some way he sent someone to communicate the Gospel to you and baptize you. You and your faith are the proof that God is – and always will be – in charge.

Who’s in charge of our world and our lives? Humanly speaking, I’m not going to pretend to know the answer, and it doesn’t really matter. Because we know who’s in charge of everything – everything related to this life and the next. Here’s what I do know: obey your leaders and honor their authority (Romans 13:1) – because if we learned anything today, it’s that God can and does use the words and decrees of even foolish and evil leaders to carry out his will for the good of his people. We will not panic, we will not be afraid, we will walk the narrow Lutheran middle, because we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God (Romans 8:28) – yes, even the great coronavirus crisis of 2020. Amen.

Hebrews 2:10-18 - Shared Blood - March 25, 2020

Do you know what today is? Yes, it’s March 25. Do you know what else it is? It is Annunciation Day – the festival in the church year that commemorates the day the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would conceive and give birth to the Son of God (Luke 1:26-38). Do you know why the Church settled on March 25 for the Annunciation? It’s pretty simple: March 25 is exactly 9 months from December 25 – Christmas Day. So, let me be the first, and likely, only person to wish you a happy Annunciation Day! By sheer chronological coincidence, our text from Hebrews for this evening has everything to do with the announcement of Jesus’ birth because it talks about the Son of God becoming our brother…taking on our flesh…sharing our blood.

Have you noticed that every time some major disaster like our current pandemic occurs, people – especially public figures – like to talk in terms of one big human race, as if we were one big family of brothers and sisters who worship and pray to a common God. In Tweets and prayer meetings distinctions are cast aside as Jews and Muslims and Christians and atheists join hands in prayer for help and relief. It sounds good, it’s heavy on virtue signaling, it might even “feel” like the right thing to do in a crisis situation. But it’s a blasphemous heresy. We are not one big, happy family who worship the same God as Jews and Muslims and atheists. Oh sure, we are brothers and sisters in the sense that we all come from Adam and Eve, but that’s where the relationship ends. In fact, one time when Jesus was busy and was told that his blood relatives were looking for him, he said who is my mother? And who are my brothers?...whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother (Matthew 12:48, 50). He also stated in no uncertain terms that no one comes to the Father except through [him] (John 14:6). Don’t get caught up in the ecumenical fervor during this crisis. Take care of your family and love your neighbor, but know that the family of God only consists of those who believe in Jesus as their Savior (Galatians 3:7; 3:26). And yet, as important as that is – and I do think worthy of consideration in these days of crisis – I only bring it up to show the sharp contrast with what the author of Hebrews says in these words. While sin has not only divided nations and faith – but also separate sinners from God – Jesus, the Son of God, crossed enemy lines, he humbled himself to become one of us: since the children share flesh and blood, he also shared the same flesh and blood.

The obvious question is why? Why would the Creator share his creature’s blood? Sharing anything these days is fraught with risk. We aren’t supposed to share the same 6 feet of oxygen as other people, much less blood. So why did God’s Son do it? He had to become like his brothers in every way…so that he could pay for the sins of the people. Indeed, because he suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Jesus had to become one of us in order to save us. And, as one of us, he had to experience everything we do, including suffering. Why? Why did Jesus have to suffer? Because, as Isaac Newton described in his 3rd law of motion: for every action there is an equal reaction. [1] That’s how God designed it already in the Garden of Eden: obedience equaled happiness and life; disobedience equaled suffering and death (Genesis 3:16-19). We know that from experience, too. We regularly suffer as a result of our own sins. I think just one example will suffice. Consider the 4th commandment: honor your father and mother that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth. When we disobey this commandment by dishonoring God’s representatives in the home, church, and state, does it hurt them? Yes. Does it often come back to bite us? Yes, as you may discover if you try to go out on a “non-essential” errand over the next month. Or you may have observed this in the case of all those young, seemingly invincible young people who partied on Spring Break – in breach of government warnings – and came home infected with Covid-19. When we disobey God and his representatives, we not only hurt others, we often wind up hurting ourselves.

Jesus suffered too. But he didn’t suffer for his own sin because he didn’t have any (2 Corinthians 5:21). In spite of that, God considered it fitting to bring the author of their salvation to his goal through sufferings. Many people are horrified by this – that God would actually orchestrate his own Son’s suffering and death. False teachers have labeled it “cosmic child abuse.” [2] They consider a God who would do this to be a monster. In what way was it fitting for God to cause Jesus to suffer and die? The answer lies in verse 17: he had to become like his brothers in every way…so that he could pay for the sins of the people. Those who consider God to be a monster make one of two fatal mistakes: they either don’t take the Law seriously or they don’t understand the beauty of the Gospel. They allege either that God is a liar who doesn’t really care about sin or Jesus’ crucifixion was just a sad and meaningless tragedy and we are still doomed to suffer for all eternity for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17). But the Bible makes it clear that God is both serious about sin (the Law) (Hebrews 10:26-31) and that Jesus did suffer for the sins of the world (the Gospel) (1 John 2:2). And so the biblical truth is that it was God’s boundless love not his anger, that drove him to cause his Son to suffer. It was his love for us. He loved us so much that he cause his own Son to suffer more than anyone ever has. God caused his Son to suffer and Jesus willingly suffered for us and for our salvation.

How? How did Jesus suffer? Hebrews says he suffered when he was tempted. I think it’s easy for us to think that Jesus was immune from temptation; that it was all just a show – that he was like Superman and the bullets of temptation just bounced off of his chest. Now, as true God, Jesus certainly could have been a Superman, but as true man, as our substitute he had to face them all, just like we do. We see this most clearly in his temptation in the wilderness. Satan tempted Jesus to give in to his own physical desires, to serve himself by turning stones into bread, to test God by throwing himself off of the temple, by offering Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he would only bow down and worship him (Matthew 4:1-11). And the temptations didn’t end when Jesus left the wilderness. Satan would come back over and over. He would be back in the person of Peter when Peter rebuked Jesus for speaking of the necessity of the cross, his suffering and death (Matthew 16:22-23). Satan would be there in the Upper Room slithering into the crack in Judas’ heart created by greed and filling it with the darkest form of evil imaginable: the betrayal of the Savior to the hands of darkness for a few silver coins (John 13:27). And Satan would be there on Good Friday in the jeering voices of the crowd who shouted if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross…and we will believe (Matthew 27:40, 42). Jesus suffered when he was tempted, which means that he is able to help those who are being tempted. He’s no stranger to the temptations you face. He knows what it’s like to have panic and fear and anxiety and frustration well up inside (look no further than his struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-46)), he knows how easy it is to doubt God’s promises and be paralyzed by the thought of death. And the good news is that he has already confronted those temptations and he has conquered them for you. Therefore, he is able to help you, to strengthen when you are being tempted – and when you fall, to raise you up through his forgiveness.

Finally, since Jesus shares our common flesh and blood it was also necessary for him to share our common fate, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). Hebrews says that Jesus shared in our flesh and blood so that through death he could destroy the one who had the power of death (that is, the Devil) and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. This section really got me thinking as I studied it this week. I wondered how and why it is that to a person, generation after generation, we just keep on doing the devil’s will rather than God’s. “What power does he have over us to make us behave this way?” The answer of Hebrews is that the devil’s power over us is our fear of death. Since the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), as long as the devil can keep us sinning, he can hold death over our heads as our rightful punishment. And as long as we are afraid of death, we will do anything, even things that are destructive to ourselves and others, in order to ignore it, deny it, avoid it. Don’t we see that fear on clear display today? In the mass panic, the hoarding, the frenzy to get tested – the fear of death is alive and well, even in our supposedly advanced society. Our world is clearly still in the grip of the Evil One (1 John 5:19).  

So what’s the good news? Would it be good news if I told you to not be afraid, to not worry about Covid-19, to ignore all the guidance given by governing authorities, to stop washing your hands and maintaining social distancing? No. That would be reckless and irresponsible. The good news is that while Jesus came into this world in the appearance of a slave – he was no slave of the devil. He was unstained by sin. He never fell for the devil’s lies. He didn’t fear death, he embraced it. Even as his final breath left his lungs, Jesus obeyed his Father, all the way up to his final, fearless prayer: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46). He shared in our death, and through death he swallowed up death; by taking away our sin he destroyed the power of death and freed us from our slavery to the devil (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). Because of Jesus, there is no reason to fear death. Death, for believers – whether it’s caused by Covid-19, cancer, or a car accident – is nothing less than the gateway to eternal life. The devil has lost his last and greatest power over us! In the end, that’s why Jesus shared our blood, he shared our blood and our temptation and our suffering and our death so that he could swallow up our fear of death.

And that, dear friends, is why we should celebrate the Festival of the Annunciation today and why we will, Lord willing, celebrate Christmas together in just nine short months. That’s why we shouldn’t fear invisible viruses or nationwide lockdowns or running out of toilet paper. Instead, we should trust Jesus, especially when we are suffering and when we are tempted and when the fear of death has us in its grip. We trust Jesus because he became our brother so that by sharing our flesh and our blood he could defeat suffering, temptation and even death itself. And if Jesus has freed us from the fear of death, then that means we are free from the fear of everything else, too – including invisible viruses and social and economic turmoil. Jesus shared our blood so that we might share in his glory – and that is why we can be fearless, joyful and confident even in these uncertain times. Happy Annunciation day! Amen.

[1] https://www.livescience.com/46561-newton-third-law.html

[2] https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/cosmic-child-abuse/

Matthew 20:17-28 - What Kind of Christianity Do You Want? - March 22, 2020

We Americans love to have choices, and if our free-market capitalistic system is good at anything – it’s providing choices. (And if anything has been painful during this last week of the coronavirus, it’s the lack of choices. We are forbidden to choose whether or not we can gather together for worship; forbidden to send our kids to school; and, perhaps worst of all, lacking our choice of toilet paper – because it’s all gone!) We like choices. We want to choose where to live, where to work, where to eat, etc. Being an American is nearly synonymous with choice. So why should Christianity be any different? Well – in America, at least – it’s not. You have choices. But today we’re not talking about denominations, we’re talking about two competing “models” of Christianity (which cross denominational lines) and ask, which one do you want: a Christianity of glory or a Christianity of the cross?

Modern Americans tend to judge everything by their personal experience. When you come to church what do you expect to experience? Do you expect the service to be all about you, your individual wants and needs – an experience that coddles your human nature? Or do you expect a service that confronts your human nature by putting your sinful nature to death through the law, raising a new man to life through the gospel, and challenging this new man to follow Christ in the way of the cross? You have choices. The first model is grounded on what is called the “prosperity gospel”: that Jesus died to make you happy, healthy and wealthy in this life. In this model, the administration of the keys (confession and absolution), the preaching of Christ and the cross, and especially the administration of the Sacraments take a backseat to moving music and inspirational leaders. Why? Because they are pandering to consumer demand: giving people what they want (2 Timothy 4:3), not what the Bible says they need. When what Jesus has done takes a backseat to what I feel I need – that’s a Christianity of glory. In the Christianity of glory the purpose of going to church is not to confess sins or receive forgiveness or be guided in grateful Christian living, but to learn how to manipulate God for your own benefit. Now that sells…because who wouldn’t want to have the power to control God? (Little do most teachers of this doctrine realize that this has been the teaching of every false religion that has ever existed. That one of the fundamental doctrines of every false religion is following a set of rituals or sacrifices or obedience in order to control and manipulate God.) This is a message that is supposedly “relevant” and “appealing” to contemporary society. But you have to wonder: at a time when the concern is not “do I love my job,” but “do I have a job;” not “what trendy restaurant should I eat at tonight,” but “will there be any food at the grocery store;” not “am I happy with my life,” but “I could die from Covid-19, then what” – how “relevant” is that message today?

You have choices: what will it be for you? This morning Jesus makes it clear that he has nothing to do with the Christianity of glory. Jesus will have nothing of the warm, fuzzy religion that panders to human wants and desires. On the fourth Sunday of Lent, Jesus presents his disciples and us with the Christianity of the cross – because it’s only through the cross that Jesus meets our deepest needs: our need for mercy, forgiveness, and eternal life.

As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside; and on the way he said to them, “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and experts in the law, and they will condemn him to death. They will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, flog, and crucify him. On the third day he will be raised.” These words are very familiar. We confess them each week in the creeds. And there’s a danger in that familiarity; that we may grow bored and complacent with this message; to wonder why we can’t come up with some new material. But don’t overlook the hidden but profound implications of this prediction: Jesus knew ahead of time exactly what he would face in Jerusalem. He knew about every drop of spit that would run down his cheek, every fist that would take aim at his face, every lash that would tear his flesh, every tongue that would wag at him in mockery and scorn. He knew that at the end of it all stood a cross and a grave with his name on them. He knew every ugly detail of Holy Week. And he was willing to endure it anyway – because his Father’s will was not for him to find glory in a palace in Jerusalem but on a cross outside the city limits.

By this point, the disciples should have known this. This was now the third time that Jesus had predicted his suffering and death. But when we look back at his previous predictions, we see that it never really sunk in. After the first prediction, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “May you receive mercy, Lord! This will never happen to you.” But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a snare to me because you are not thinking the things of God, but the things of men” (Matthew 16:22-23). “You know Jesus, if you want to be popular, if you want people to follow you, you shouldn’t bring up things like suffering and dying – people don’t like that, it’s not a good church growth marketing strategy.” Peter was willing to follow Jesus wherever he led, as long as it was an easy, painless path that ended in glory.

The second time, Matthew tells us that [the disciples] were greatly distressed. (Matthew 17:23) They weren’t just distressed that Jesus was going to die. They were distressed that all of their dreams of power and riches and glory would be dashed on that rock with the ugly name of Golgotha (Matthew 27:33). Instead of thanking Jesus for his willingness to die for them, they curled up in a safe space of self-pity because Jesus wasn’t going to give them the glory they wanted.

But, without question, their response to this third prediction is the most appalling: Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to him with her sons, kneeling and asking something of him. He said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Promise that in your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right hand and one on your left hand.” But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to him, “We are.” He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and on my left hand is not for me to give; rather these places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.” Can you imagine having the guts to ask Jesus for high-ranking positions in his cabinet moments after he had predicted his suffering and death? Neither could they. That’s why they had mom do it. (Who, by the way, we have reason to believe was Jesus’ aunt, Salome. see Matthew 27:56 & John 19:25) Who could say “no” to their own aunt? They completely ignored what Jesus had just said about his arrest, torture, and death. They were after the easy life – the life where they could recline on thrones next to the guy calling the shots with all of the power, honor, and glory that would bring. (Incidentally, do you know who God had planned to give the seats at Jesus’ right and left in his glory? Two convicted criminals (Matthew 27:38).)

Shame on them…shame on James and John for being so selfish and power-hungry and foolish! But…do we ever do the same thing? Do we ever ask for or expect special treatment from Jesus – and fall into the doctrine and practice of the theology of glory? Have we ever been stingy with our offerings, and yet expect Jesus to keep his spigot of blessing flowing full stream (which is a unique temptation for us today when no one is going to pass the offering plate)? Have we ever gone days or weeks without praying, but expect Jesus to keep his ears open just in case we decide we need a favor? Have we ever intentionally disobeyed God’s commands, and then expected him to swoop in to save us from the consequences of our disobedience? Have we let worldly concerns crowd out opportunities to daily gather as families around God’s Word then wonder why our children abandon the church after they are confirmed? Shame on James and John? No, shame on us! They certainly aren’t the only ones who expect glory without the cross.

But there was a deeper problem. By volunteering to share Jesus’ cup, James and John thought they were asking for cushy jobs as Jesus’ closest advisors. But they didn’t know what [they] were asking. They were acting like little children who day-dream aloud about being grown-ups. A child thinks that being an adult is all about calling the shots and getting as much “screen time” as you want and eating greasy fast food whenever you want and going to bed when you want. In reality, that child doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The aches and pains, the arbitrary work rules, the wishing you didn’t have to spend so much time in front of a screen and that you could eat healthier and wanting to go to bed early. That’s the reality of adulthood. James and John wanted to bask in glory at Jesus’ side, but the grown-up reality was that Jesus’ reign was never going to be on a glorious throne in Jerusalem.

No, Jesus’ reign consisted of drinking the cup the Father had given him. What was in that cup? Adam and Eve’s rebellion (Genesis 3:6). Noah’s drunkenness (Genesis 9:21). Abraham’s lies (Genesis 12:13). Jacob’s deceit (Genesis 27:19-24). David’s adultery and murder (2 Samuel 11). Matthew’s greed (Matthew 9:9-13). Peter’s denial (Luke 22:54-62). Judas’ despair and suicide (Matthew 27:3-10). Paul’s persecution of the church (Acts 8:3). All of it was in that cup – and more…The sins of the past we are desperate to keep hidden – in that cup. The thoughts in our heads that would make even Hollywood directors blush – they’re in the cup. Our lack of faith in God’s providence in these days of fear and panic – in the cup. The lack of love we’ve shown to our neighbors by hoarding necessities or failing to share what we do have – in the cup. What have you thought or said or done this week that’s in the cup? And yet, the One who had no sin, drank that cup overflowing with our sin – becoming sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).

But there was more in this cup. The final, bitter ingredient was justice. God’s justice demanded that sin be punished – that your sins and mine be punished – but instead of raining down his wrath on our heads, he rained it down on Jesus. As God unleashed the sledge hammer of his justice on Jesus, he cried out in agony we cannot imagine: my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46) He drained the cup of God’s wrath to the last drop. That’s how Jesus rules. As he said: the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. That’s why the cross is the beating heart of genuine Christianity. Because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, we don’t have to pretend that everything in life is sunshine and rainbows – when anyone can see that it’s not; we can really rejoice – not because there’s any guarantee that we won’t get sick but because God is not angry at us anymore. Jesus has extinguished God’s wrath and delivered to us mercy, forgiveness, and eternal life. When you come to church, that’s what you should expect to receive – and that’s why the cross must remain at the center of Christianity, because that’s what you and I need most of all.

But Christ and his cross offer so much more. The Christianity of glory may promise you whatever meager handout of wealth, health or happiness you believe will complete your life (although, oddly enough, I haven’t heard any false teachers promising to remove the current restrictions on gatherings of 10 or more people – I really wish they’d get on that) but the cross assures us that the same God who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also graciously give us all things along with him? (Romans 8:32) The Christianity of glory will offer you free childcare while you enjoy a cup of gourmet coffee and a concert; but only Christ’s promise connected to the water of Baptism assures you that your child is safe in the care of their Father in heaven. The Christianity of glory tries to trick you into “feeling close to God” through manipulative music and messages; in Holy Communion, Jesus offers you the real presence of his very body and blood (Matthew 26:26-29). The Christianity of glory prefers to pretend that disease and hardship and disappointment and suffering don’t happen to believers (at least, not the good ones); the Christianity of the cross believes Jesus when he said: in this world you are going to have trouble. But be courageous! I have overcome the world (John 16:33). The ultimate goal of the Christianity of glory is to give you your best life now; Christ, who took up his cross for you, tells you: be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life (Revelation 2:10).

All those things – and countless other blessings – Christ has won for you and for me; and he did it through the cross. So what will it be? Which model of Christianity do you want? Let the pagans and false teachers have their easy religion, their best life and their glory now; we’ll take the cross and the mercy, forgiveness and never-ending glory Jesus won for us there. Amen.   

Hebrews 12:18-24 - Blood That Speaks - March 18, 2020

In our reading from the Passion History we heard how our Lord was taken into the palace of the high priest and how he was interrogated, falsely accused and finally convicted for the simple reason that evil men were thirsty for his blood. And we know that they would get their wish. Within a matter of hours Jesus would be convicted, sentenced, and executed. His blood would spill, drop by drop, from a cruel Roman cross. Like Abel, he would die as an innocent victim. But there’s a difference. Hebrews tells us that Jesus’ blood speaks a better message than the blood of Abel. At first, it may strike us as strange that blood could speak. If I cut myself, I might scream, but my blood drips in silence. But doctors and lab technicians might say that blood speaks more loudly and clearly than the patient it was taken from. Through tests, blood can tell them if a person has high cholesterol, diabetes, strep throat – and a whole host of other diseases. Blood speaks. According to Genesis, Abel’s blood spoke so loudly that it reached the ears of God in heaven (Genesis 4:10). Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance. Jesus’ blood also speaks. Not from earth to heaven but from heaven to earth. And not a message of vengeance but a message of good news. And who couldn’t use a little good news right about now? What is this good news?

First, this – for lack of a better term – “bloody sermon” tells us that we have access to true worship of the true God: you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God. Mt. Zion was the location of the temple in the OT. The temple was where God had located his name and his presence. Unlike Mt. Sinai, the mountain of the Law, which was off-limits, Mount Zion was accessible to God’s people. It was where God heard the prayers and accepted the offerings of the people and offered them his forgiveness and grace. After Solomon had finished building the temple, the LORD said to him: I have heard your prayer and the plea for mercy that you offered before me. I have consecrated this house, which you built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time (1 Kings 9:3). “Temple, we can’t even go to church these days,” you might be thinking. That’s not a problem. Paul says in 2 Corinthians you are the temple of the living God, just as God said: I will live and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people (2 Corinthians 6:16). Through baptism and through faith, you are the Church even if you can’t be in church (Ephesians 2:19-22). Here is powerful comfort for us as we struggle with the fact that we can’t come to church to worship. God doesn’t live a building. He lives in heaven and he reaches out of heaven with his forgiveness and grace wherever we are through his Word. You may not be present here with me in this building. But God is present with you as you hear his Word.

Second, the blood of Jesus proclaims that you have come…to the heavenly Jerusalem; to tens of thousands of angels in joyful assembly. Whenever we worship God, whether in our homes or at church, heaven and earth intersect and we, as citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, stand with the saints of old and the angels in many ways. But perhaps the best example lies in the songs of our liturgy, like the Sanctus holy, holy, holy Lord God of heavenly hosts: heav’n and earth are full of your glory (CW p. 22). This song was not composed on earth but in heaven! It’s the song Isaiah heard the angels singing in the throne-room of God (Isaiah 6:3). The choir of saints and angels have taught the church on earth the very songs they sing in heaven!

The third part of this bloody sermon proclaims the unity of the church. You have come…to the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. All baptized believers have their names written in heaven’s book of life – which means that there are not two churches (one on earth and one in heaven) but one church on earth and in heaven. As we confess in the Nicene Creed, “we believe in…the one, holy, Christian and apostolic church.” We may be compelled to live in relative isolation in this new world of novel viruses and self-quarantines, but know this: you are not alone. You have brothers and sisters throughout our nation and the world who are struggling and suffering and praying right along with you. Paul puts it this way: There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in the one hope of your calling. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all (Ephesians 4:4-5). God doesn’t call us to faith and then leave us to fend for ourselves. He makes us members of his family through Holy Baptism. That is why gathering together regularly around the Word is so important – even when we have to make sacrifices and adjustments – like watching pastor preach to an empty church on our computer – to make this meeting together possible. That’s why, even though we cannot meet in person right now, the second the mandates have been lifted we will eagerly obey the command of Hebrews 10: Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have the habit of doing. Rather, let us encourage each other, and all the more as you see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:25). After all: is there any time we need the encouragement of God’s Word and other Christians more than when the signs of the end are as clear as they are right now?

Fourth, we have access to the Judge. You have come…to God, who is the judge of all. Hmm. That doesn’t sound good. How should we react to that? No matter where you are sitting…you’re sitting before the Judge of all. You’re not alone, whether they like it or not, whether they believe it or not, all people are going to have to stand before the Judge of all on the Last Day. His judgment will be perfect and his verdict will be final (John 5:30). And there are only two options: guilty or innocent; and two sentencing recommendations: eternity in either heaven or hell. Here’s the good news: when you heard the absolution earlier, you heard God’s verdict ahead of time. In that verdict you heard that God has judged you innocent, has acquitted you, has forgiven your crimes for the sake of his Son.

Part five of this bloody sermon tells us is that we have spiritual mentors. You have come…to the spirits of righteous people who have been made perfect. What does that mean? Well, in the previous chapter of Hebrews, chapter 11 – the so-called hall of fame of faith – there is a list of believers who have gone before us, beginning with Abel. We do not pray to or worship these saints, nor do we trust in them for salvation. However, with the very first Lutherans we confess: “Our churches teach that the history of the saints may be set before us so that we may follow the example of their faith and good works, according to our calling” (AC XXI:1). The believers who have gone before us have left us a rich legacy. It’s not so much that we should imitate how they lived – for they too, were sinners – but rather, how they believed, how they trusted in God’s grace, especially in troubling times. We made use of this blessing in our Bible class this past Sunday when we considered the words of Martin Luther and C.S. Lewis – Christians who also had to formulate Christ-centered, law and gospel balanced responses to situations where senseless fear and panic were rampant. Their response to the crises of their times inform and guide our response to our own time of crisis.

Sixth, this bloody sermon tells us that we have a real heavy-weight fighting in our corner, on our behalf. You have come…to Jesus, the mediator of a new testament. When people think they have been wrongly fired, been injured in a car accident or found themselves in legal trouble, they often run to a lawyer, a mediator who can argue their case on their behalf. We have something even better; we have Jesus. Jesus is not only our advocate, not simply our defense attorney, he’s our substitute, he’s the one who has taken our sin upon himself and given us his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). On Calvary he pushed us out of the way of God’s wrath, pled guilty to our sin and endured our punishment, and now he stands before God’s judgment seat equipped with the perfect and only argument for our acquittal. He will point to you, baptized believer, as you stand spotless and blameless, covered in the robe of his righteousness and say: “there’s no sin or sinner here, it’s all been paid for and wiped away – I paid for it and wiped it away with my blood, therefore, Father, you must declare them “not guilty.””

Which brings us to the seventh and final message of this bloody sermon: You have come…to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better message than the blood of Abel. Jesus shed his blood for us on the cross 2000 years ago outside of Jerusalem. But Hebrews says that this blood speaks to us in the present tense. That means that the blood of Jesus didn’t just speak on Good Friday – it still speaks today. Through your Baptism, it still speaks to you, telling you that you are cleansed and blameless in the sight of God (Ephesians 5:26-26; Galatians 3:26-27). It spoke to you in the words of Absolution you heard minutes ago. It speaks to you whenever you receive it in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus’ blood still speaks. It speaks a better message than the blood of Abel. His blood doesn’t cry out for vengeance but for forgiveness, not for the punishment of the guilty but for the justification of the ungodly (Romans 4:5), not for death but for never-ending life. And do you know what the best part of this “bloody sermon” is? No, not that it’s almost over, but that in a time when it seems all we are hearing is bad, threatening, or frightening news, this bloody sermon is packed with good news – and it’s all for you. Amen.  

John 9:1-7, 13-17, 34-39 - Jesus Brings Blind Justice - March 15, 2020

We’ve all heard of “blind justice.” “Blind justice” is the theory that judgments handed down by our legal system are fair and impartial because judges and juries are forbidden to take into account the gender, race, religion – or any other external factor – of the person being judged. That’s why Lady Justice is often depicted as being blind-folded. Of course, everyone knows that justice dispensed by men is never truly blind – every judge and juror is affected by a lot of baggage that skews their sense of fairness. Today’s text is about blind justice…not man’s, but God’s. And when it comes to God’s justice, it’s not he who is blind – no, he sees everything (Proverbs 15:3). It’s we who are blind and need him to open our eyes to see the justice of what often seem to be his unjust judgments.

Take our text for example, in what universe is it just for a baby to be born blind? Is there anything more heart-wrenching than a poor little blind baby? It’s bad enough when someone goes blind on account of age or disease, but a baby has never had the chance to see anything in the world around them. Now imagine being born in a society without schools for the blind, braille, Seeing Eye dogs, and Social Security. From the darkness of the womb you’re born into a world of darkness – a world whose size and scope you will never be able to grasp. You would need someone to care for you your whole life. The only thing you would be able to do for yourself was what the blind man in our text did: find a road where people walked and beg.

How is what happened to this man justice? The disciples think it’s retributive justice. Passing by this blind man on the road, they ask Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Now remember, these disciples had seen Jesus turn water into wine (John 2:1-11), heal a dying child (John 4:43-54), feed 5000 people (John 6:1-14) and walk on water (John 6:15-21) but they are neither seeking nor expecting him to do anything for this blind man. Why not? Because in their minds either he or his parents had sinned and so he was simply getting what he deserved.

You know what we call that line of thinking today, right? It’s called karma. What goes around comes around. You get what you deserve. It’s a popular philosophy because it’s intellectually easy – it doesn’t require much thought. Do good – get good; do evil – get evil. Sounds fair, right? In practical terms: if you don’t smoke, you won’t get lung cancer; if you wash your hands and stay away from large gatherings, you won’t get Covid-19; if you exercise and eat right, you won’t have a heart attack or a stroke. But there is a catch. The catch is that sooner or later reality blows up the notion of karma. It becomes clear that God didn’t get the memo that good things should happen to good people and bad things to bad people. People who have never smoked get lung cancer. People who bathe in hand sanitizer get Covid-19. People who diet and exercise religiously have heart attacks and strokes.

Ok. So karma’s out. What’s left? Chance. Fate. Bad things happen to people at random. Some get cancer; some get Covid-19; some have heart attacks and strokes. Sure, diet and exercise and genetics and lifestyle may play some role, but in the end it all comes down to some factor that no one can understand or quantify. Anyone who’s been to the doctor can attest to this. They do tests and run scans and even do genetic testing – but the best they can give you is a percentage-based prediction – when your real question is: what determines whether I will actually get the disease or not? What is the governing principle of life? Can it really be something as mystical, unpredictable as dumb luck? Is that all that life is? One giant roll of the dice?

What does Jesus say? It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that God’s works might be revealed in connection with him. Is that answer satisfactory to you? If you were this man or his parents, would you accept that he was born blind for no other reason than so that one day the Son of God could walk along and heal him? Is that how God works? Is that divine justice?

One thing is for sure, not many people believed or saw Jesus as light of the world in this miracle. Most were blinded by the light. When the Pharisees got wind of this miracle they launched an all-out investigation. They interviewed the man, his parents and neighbors. But because Jesus had broken their law, they could not see Jesus as the light. Jesus had performed this miracle on the Sabbath day – strike one. He applied saliva to this man’s eyes (at that time, apparently, the accepted treatment for an eye infection[1]) – strike two. He made mud – strike three. All three acts were considered “work” by the Pharisees and strictly forbidden under their Sabbath laws. The interesting thing is: we know Jesus could have healed him without a word or a touch (John 4:50). He didn’t need to heal him in this manner. He did it this way intentionally. He deliberately violated their man-made Sabbath laws to force them to confront the fact that he was doing things only God could do. Sadly, they were blinded by the light and refused to believe.

God violates our laws all the time, doesn’t he? People who work hard, save up, and invest wisely can have financial struggles. People who eat right, exercise, and follow their doctors’ advice down to the letter get sick. People who obey traffic laws have their lives snuffed out by drunk drivers. Innocent children get cancer. Lifelong Christians have strokes and heart attacks. And it doesn’t seem fair, it doesn’t seem right, it seems anything but just. Many, even many Christians, get upset when God appears to be breaking our “laws” of right and wrong. We too are often blinded by the light.

But the Pharisees aren’t the only ones blinded by the light. In the verses we didn’t read, the man’s parents see the miracle, but they won’t testify to what they have seen and know because they are afraid of the consequences. The Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue – excommunicated. Are we ever afraid to confess the truth that God is in control of everything that happens in this world? Do we ever try to take God out of the equation by blaming karma or lifestyle or chance or China for the bad things that happen? Do we miss out on opportunities to confess the one true God to family and friends by failing to point out that every disaster, be it manmade or natural, is a call to repentance (Luke 13:1-5)? Do we lack the faith to believe that God uses suffering to purify our faith by loosening our grip on things of this world (1 Peter 1:3-7)? Any hesitation to confess the truth is evidence that our sinful nature still has us partially blind to the light of God and his ways.

The divine irony is that the only one in this story could see was the man who had been blind from birth. Although, if you read all of John 9, you see that even he struggles to see the truth. First he says he doesn’t know anything about him (John 9:11-12). Then he calls him a prophet (John 9:17). Then he simply says one thing I do know: I was blind, and now I see and drew the obvious conclusion that this Jesus must be from God, because if [he] were not from God, he could do nothing. But he’s still feeling around in the dark. Even being the subject of a miracle didn’t give this man faith. He didn’t fall down and worship Jesus until Jesus had tracked him down and created faith in his heart. And how did Jesus do this? Through his Word!

So what’s the lesson here for us? It’s that we will never be able to make sense of God’s justice, his activities in our world and in our lives, on the basis of what we can see through our reason, our intuition, or our investigation. We will never know why one person contracts Covid-19 and dies and another person never gets it. We will never understand why some couples can’t have children or some people have strokes or some good people have some really bad things happen to them by a careful investigation of the circumstances. We will never understand this world apart from God. Proverbs says evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand everything (Proverbs 28:5). And how does God give this understanding? How does he open our eyes to see? Only and always through the Word (Romans 10:17).

God has given us two distinct “words.” In the Law, God reveals what justice should really look like. It should be immediate death and a one-way trip to hell for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:9-18, 23). Short of that, it would be divine justice if we were all born physically blind. Since Adam and Eve sinned with their eyes lusting after the forbidden fruit, it would have been fair if from then on all humans were born blind. Could we complain? On what basis? That God’s not being fair? Adam’s sin is our sin (Romans 5:12). To prove that, look at what we’ve done with the seeing eyes God has graciously given us. We’ve lusted, hated, envied, and coveted with them. And if that weren’t bad enough – our eyes have also led us to desire the things of this world more than the things of God, so that we have despised the gifts God gives us in his Word and Sacrament. According to the Bible, the wages of sin is everything up to and including death (Romans 6:23). No one could complain that God is being unjust if he were to damn us all to hell, no questions asked.

But God didn’t do that. In his mercy, he gave us another “word” – the Gospel; he planned to execute his justice in another way: he determined that he would punish his Son, Jesus, in our place. No suffering we’ve seen or experienced can compare with Jesus’. In our reading of the Passion History in our midweek Lenten services we are reminded of what happened when the gavel of God’s justice fell on Jesus. In Gethsemane, his eyes were blinded by the bloody sweat that poured from his skin as he struggled to stand up under the weight of our sins (Luke 22:44). While Jesus was being held in custody they covered his face and struck him with their fists (Mark 14:65) and kept asking him, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” (Luke 23:64) On the cross, Jesus’ burden of our sin, our guilt, our shame was so disgusting that the sun refused to shine (Luke 23:44-45). And in the midst of suffering the hell we deserved he cried out my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46) God’s justice blinded Jesus to the extent that he could not even see his Father’s loving face.

Do we still want to blame God for being unfair or unjust? It wasn’t fair that sinless Jesus should suffer the punishment we sinners deserve. It wasn’t fair – but it was our only hope. His payment on the cross, his taking our place under God’s judgment won him the right to heal our blindness. And the healing we need most is not physical but spiritual – which is why we need to gather to hear God’s Word and receive his Sacrament now, during this widespread panic and chaos, perhaps more than ever. Because you can’t see the light, you won’t understand what is going on in our world, unless you focus on God’s clear Word instead of his mysterious actions.

You can be physically blind and still see spiritual truth; but if you are spiritually blind you don’t even see the physical things properly. You see a miracle involving spit and mud as nothing more than the breaking of some manmade law. You see going along with the crowd as safer than confessing Christ. You see the water and Word of Baptism as nothing more than a quaint ceremony and the sacrament of Holy Communion – in which Jesus promises that his body and blood are truly present (1 Corinthians 11:27) – as nothing more than a snack; or worse, as something to be avoided because of the potential for contamination. Today, you see the senseless fear, the panicked reaction of millions to a viral pandemic as evidence that God has lost control.

But when God opens your eyes, then you can truly see. You see that Jesus truly is the Light of the World. You see that because he is the only one who has come from heaven (John 3:13) he’s the only one who can illuminate the reality of life in this world for us. Where these eyes can only see a man pouring water over a baby’s head and muttering some words, God shows us that he is performing the spiritual operation of taking a child who was born dead in sin and breathing the life of faith into him. Where these eyes and these hands and this tongue see and feel and taste only bread and wine, he shows us that we are receiving the only medicine that can cure all of our troubles, the medicine of immortality. And where the unbelieving world sees only a reason to panic and hoard hand sanitizer and toilet paper, we can see this Covid-19 outbreak as God’s clear call to repentance and faith. Because when we focus on the clear word of God rather than on the mysterious works of God in the world, we are led to see the clearest demonstration of God’s justice ever given to the world: the cross of Christ.  If you want to understand God’s justice, look to the cross. There you see God’s Son dying in your place. There you see how much it cost God to cure your spiritual blindness and answer your prayer to deliver you from evil (Matthew 6:13). In Jesus we find the justice of God which blinds those who see and gives sight to the blind. Amen.  

[1] Edersheim, Alfred The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. 1993) 506; 600

John 4:4-26 - Are You Thirsty? - March 8, 2020

Are you thirsty? Are you longing to run back to the water fountain (or bubbler, as we say in Wisconsin) for a refreshing drink? Doctors say that most of us don’t get enough water because we only drink when we feel thirsty. And, if you feel thirsty, they say that you’re already mildly dehydrated. [1] If you’re not thirsty, you’re not likely to drink water – even if it’s available. On the other hand, if you’ve just completed a strenuous workout or a long day in the hot sun, then you hardly need to be told to take a drink. Our text this morning is all about stimulating and satisfying thirst.

In what may come as a surprise, the first thirsty person we meet is…Jesus. Jesus, being tired from the journey, sat down by the well and said to her, “Give me a drink.” Here we see Jesus’ true human nature shine through in a rather unexpected way. He’s worn out; exhausted; spent. He couldn’t take another step, he needed a break and a drink. Give me a drink, he says to an unsuspecting Samaritan woman. He doesn’t ask for a drink, he demands it.

But Jesus isn’t the only thirsty one in this text. The woman is too, although not for water from Jacob’s well, as she thinks. Jesus offers her a drink of the Gospel right away, the living water of eternal life. But she’s not buying it. She’s not thirsty. So Jesus tries a different tactic. He pulls the skeletons out of her closet. Five of them. Five husbands she has left in the dust. In a time when people died young and divorce was rampant, it’s certainly possible that all five had either died or wrongly divorced her – but why bring them up if she didn’t bear some blame? Regardless, she’s living in sin now. Jesus said go, call your husband, and come back here. And she responds I have no husband. Jesus agrees: you are right when you say, ‘I have no husband.’ In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” “What’s the big deal?” our culture would say. So she’s living with her boyfriend, that’s how relationships evolve. But the biblical reality is that her lifestyle was sexually immoral; and Paul says do not be deceived. The sexually immoral [will not] inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

Whatever you call it “living together” or “cohabitation” – it’s one of those sins that no one wants to talk about. Why? Two reasons. 1) Some – or many – of us may still have the stain of this sin seared on our conscience from the past; or 2) we may have children, grandchildren, friends, or neighbors who are living in this sin as we speak. We may try to ignore it. We may try to defend it as prudent. We may argue that they still have faith in Jesus. But the truth is that a “cohabitating” lifestyle is a sexually immoral lifestyle and the sexually immoral who refuse to repent stand outside the kingdom of heaven. And if you don’t think that’s true, then why did Jesus even bring it up? In other words, if living together is no big deal, why would Jesus worry about the Law, why not just give her the Gospel?

This woman knows she’s living in sin. It’s why she came to the well in the middle of the day, in the sweltering heat, rather than in the cooler morning or evening with the other women from town. The Samaritans had the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Bible – including the Ten Commandments, including the sixth. In Samaria, there was still a stigma attached to living together outside of marriage, it was still viewed as a shameful situation. How things have changed! Our society not only tolerates this sin, it expects and celebrates it. More than likely, this woman came to get water in the heat of the day so she wouldn’t have to endure the judging stares of the other women from Sychar. That’s probably why, when Jesus offers her water that won’t run out, she jumps at the chance to never have to come back to the well ever again.

But Jesus isn’t interested in removing the social stigma from this woman’s life, he wants to remove the sin from her soul. But she deflects. She’s not thirsty yet. She claims: I have no husband. That’s just one of a thousand excuses and justifications for living together outside of marriage. I’m sure you’ve heard others. “We don’t have the money to get married.” “We want to be sure that we’re right for each other.” “We’re in love, why do we need a piece of paper to prove it?” And, of course, there’s always the religious argument. That’s the woman’s fallback. She worships God. She has faith in her heart and just knows that God loves her even though she has made disobedience part of her lifestyle. She’s spiritually dehydrated, she’s dying for a drink – but she doesn’t even know it.

Do you know anyone like this woman? Someone whose lifestyle has left them spiritually dehydrated, but they don’t know it yet? If you do know someone who is living together outside of marriage, have you loved them enough to tell them that they are putting their soul in danger of hell? But enough about that one sin. This sin is no worse than any other. What about you? Are you thirsty? Or are you doing just fine with your sins? Are you living with them just like this woman lived with hers? Do you have routines built into your life that help you hide your sins – like she did? Have you cleared out room in your home, your schedule, your life, your heart for sin instead of sending it packing? Have you renamed your sins – like this woman – to make them seem less serious? For her, “sexual immorality” became I have no husband. It’s so easy to do: greed is just ambition; hatred is indifference; lust is just an innocent look; pride is self-confidence; gossip is friendly conversation and coveting is the American dream. There’s a special danger for us, that we may fall back on religion to defend our sins; arguing that because we come to church and pray and give our offerings that our sins are no big deal. The truth is, you’re thirsty, you’re dying for a drink – even if you don’t realize it.

You’re not alone. No one knows that they’re thirsty until Jesus shows them. And the only way even Jesus can do this is through the Law. Of course, the church today by and large thinks it knows better than Jesus. It thinks that if you have enough social programs and Easter egg hunts and community service projects – and, of course, gourmet coffee and premium donuts – then you can bait-and-switch people into unwittingly drinking the water of life – that is, believing the gospel. Somewhere along the line the church caved to the idea that if you give people what they want then they will somehow desire what they really need: a Savior from sin. If Jesus agreed with that line of thinking, he would have just helped her get water from Jacob’s well instead of exposing her sin.

But that’s just what Jesus does, and he doesn’t soften the blow at all. He doesn’t just say “Go get your husband.” He says, go, call your husband, and come back here. Here? Here is the one place she didn’t want to be. Here is where those other women came – the women who would judge her, and Jesus wants her to bring her live-in boyfriend here? It would be like Jesus telling us to go get our browsing histories, our private messages, our infamous stories from college, our mental diaries from the past week – and bring them here so he can expose them for all the world to see. That’s what the Law does. It doesn’t gently acknowledge that no one is perfect. It exposes our sins in painstaking detail. Lays them out in plain view like Jesus laid out this woman’s immoral life.

He doesn’t let her hide behind her religion, either. He tells her bluntly, you Samaritans worship what you do not know. She may go through the motions of the Samaritan religion, but if you’re not worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth – that is with heartfelt repentance and true faith in the Savior God has sent – then your worship is useless. In other words, it’s not about where you sit for one hour a week; it’s about where your heart is all week long. That’s the Law for you. There go all of the ways this woman could pour cold water on the guilt and sin burning inside of her. Jesus won’t let her hide them. He won’t let her pretend they’re not that bad. He won’t let her think that the mere outward practice of religion can take care of her sins. He lets the Law crush her self-righteousness. He makes her feel how desperate her situation is. He lets the fires of hell lick at her heels – leading her to crave a drink of the cool water of God’s grace. And, finally, she realizes how spiritually dehydrated she is, her thoughts turn to the Messiah who is coming.

And our situation is no different, even though our sins may be. Our excuses, our justifications that it’s just the way we are; that it’s how we were raised; that we know a lot of people who are doing the same, or worse – don’t and can never remove a single sin. All the good we do can’t erase the evil we’ve done. Our worship, our faith, our prayers and offerings aren’t the water of life. The water of life is salvation – and salvation must be given to us; it must come from outside of us. Ask anyone who’s been stranded in a desert without water – you can’t quench your thirst by worshipping water, by believing in water, by praying for water. Someone else must give it to you.

So, are you thirsty? I am. I’m thirsty for forgiveness, for salvation, for righteousness that I can’t provide for myself. Do you know what the only thing greater than the thirst of sinners for salvation is? Jesus’ thirst to save us. We’re all dying for a drink; Jesus died to give us a drink. I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard many sermons that present this account as a handbook for evangelism: this is how Jesus shared the Gospel, this is how you should too. Certainly, Jesus does give a fine – no, a perfect – example of sharing the gospel. But before we ask What Would Jesus Do, we must ask What Has Jesus Done? Before we try to imitate his evangelism methods we must see that Jesus is here for us. After all, that’s what Lent is all about, isn’t it? Not what we do; but what Jesus did. Why is Jesus, the creator of every molecule of water in existence, collapsed at a well in Samaria begging for a drink? Why is he so exhausted when his disciples were not? Because he’s carrying their sins, and your sins, and my sins – and it’s a horrifically heavy load. He suffers thirst like we wretched sinners should. On the cross, he will cry I thirst (John 19:28) because the flames of hell were engulfing him – instead of us.

Jesus goes to the cross carrying the sins we hide with polite words and shameful excuses. He goes to the cross carrying sins so countless it’s beyond our imagination. He goes carrying those serious, shameful sins that we’ve tried our best to hide from sight. Whatever sins still haunt you – know this – Jesus has already paid for them. Even our worst nightmares can’t compare with the horrors of hell that Jesus endured in body and soul to pay for our sins. Lent is about following him to Calvary, seeing him, hearing him, feeling him in all of his suffering and agony until he slumps over in death and the soldiers plunge a spear into his side (John 19:34). And what comes out of that precious side? The water that is a washing of rebirth and renewal (Titus 3:5); the blood which he gives you in, with and under the wine to satisfy your thirst for righteousness, your thirst for salvation (Matthew 26:27-28).

This is powerful, supernatural water and blood. More effective than any sports drink, having this water poured on you in Baptism and this blood poured into your mouth in Communion stops the deadly disease of self-righteousness right in its tracks. Gone are our excuses for our sins. We don’t need them because the water and blood have washed them all away. Gone are our attempts to minimize our sins; because the good news is that where our sins increase, God’s grace increases all the more (Romans 5:20). Gone, finally, are all of our attempts to satisfy our thirst ourselves, to provide salvation and righteousness for ourselves by our believing or praying or worshipping. True worship is not about anything we do. It’s about soaking up what Jesus has done for us by bathing in the water and drinking up the blood that flows from his pierced side. True worship is about emptying yourself of your sins in confession and then filling yourself up with the righteousness Jesus died to give you.

But none of it will do you any good unless you realize how thirsty you are. That’s why we need the Law, to dry up our self-righteousness and make us feel our thirst – so that we crave the good news of free forgiveness, life and salvation. Lent is about Jesus and in Lent Jesus stimulates your thirst with the Law and satisfies it with the Gospel. That’s real salvation and a real Savior for real sinners like you and me. Amen.

[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/want-to-stay-hydrated-drink-before-youre-thirsty/art-20390077

Matthew 4:1-11 - Nothing New Under the Sun - March 1, 2020

Last week our family went to a cousin’s 2 year birthday party. The kids were all playing with hula-hoops. It felt like the 1970’s all over again. If you’re looking for a movie lately and feel like you’ve seen them all before (The Lion King, Aladdin, Mulan)…you have – they’re all remakes. Millennial men are wearing their grandpa’s beards and flannel. If you observe cultural trends, you quickly recognize that what’s old is suddenly new again. The same is true of our lives spiritually – when you look closely, you see that Solomon was right: there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Our lessons this morning bear that out. From Eden to the Judean wilderness to McFarland – the devil’s tactics are always the same. By studying his tactics this morning we will be better equipped to identify them as the lies they are, and, more importantly, we will rejoice in the victory that is ours in Christ.

The devil rarely leads with a big, bold lie. He doesn’t usually come right out and say “God is wrong,” “God is evil,” or “God’s Word is untrue.” Instead he starts in small, seemingly harmless ways. The little lie…the half-truth. In Eden, it started with a harmless little question to Eve: did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ (Genesis 3:1). The devil knew full well that God had said that Adam and Eve could eat from any tree in the garden except for one (Genesis 2:16-17), but – like the political ads flooding the airwaves around us – he rewrites the narrative in order to paint his enemy in the worst possible light.

Thousands of years go by, and the second Adam, Jesus, the Son of God, appears. At his baptism, God the Father says this is my Son, whom I love. (Matthew 3:17). And in the next breath – after Jesus is led out into the wilderness by the Spirit for a 40 day fast – the devil calls God’s proclamation and Jesus’ identity into question: If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread. “If you are God’s Son and God loves you, he wouldn’t want you to starve to death…go ahead, zap those stones into bread.”  What’s wrong with that? Nothing…except the biggest thing. It was God’s will that Jesus would go hungry. To miraculously create food would be rebellion against God’s will. Jesus nails the heart of this temptation: man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Here is trust: Jesus trusted that God could preserve his life even without bread.

2000 years later, the devil still slithers into our lives with his sneaky little lies and half-truths – intended to paint God in the worst possible light. “If God is loving, why does he let something like the coronavirus spread like wildfire around the world? If he’s in control why didn’t he stop that madman before he gunned down his coworkers at a brewery in Milwaukee?” Or: “If you’re really God’s child, why are you so weak and sick, why did he let you lose your job, why did he let the stock market crash – and your retirement portfolio with it – this past week?” And, unlike Jesus, how often don’t those little seeds of doubt blossom into full-blown unbelief and distrust in our hearts?

The devil doesn’t usually start with bold lies, but once he has his foot in the door, he quickly gets there. Eve correctly tells the devil that God warned them not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden or they will die (Genesis 3:3). The devil responds “No,” you will not surely die (Genesis 3:4). God had promised life if they didn’t eat from the tree. The devil promises life if they do eat. Eve is left with a choice: trust God’s Word or test it.

In the wilderness, the devil comes at Jesus again – this time, armed with Scripture. He tells Jesus to throw himself off of the temple since his Father had promised that his angels wouldn’t let him even stub his toe (Psalm 91:11-12). First, the devil attacked Jesus’ weakness: his aching stomach. Here, he attacks Jesus’ strength: his trust in God’s Word. “You trust God’s Word, Jesus? Prove it. Toss yourself off the temple and let God prove himself good to his Word.”

How is the devil tempting you to test God’s promises? How often don’t we test God in our prayers – asking for something he hasn’t promised, and then, when he doesn’t give us the answer we want, blame him for failing us? How many times haven’t we tested the limits of God’s forgiveness by knowing something is wrong and doing it anyway, thinking “God will always forgive me”? It’s true, God has promised to guard believers as they live according to his will (Psalm 91:9-12). But God hasn’t promised long life to those who slowly kill themselves with gluttony or laziness or by abusing drugs or alcohol. God hasn’t promised to send his angels to guard the lives of reckless or distracted drivers. God hasn’t promised to keep every hardship, disease, or disaster away from you. God hasn’t promised to put food on the table or money in the bank if you will not work or if you waste what he has given you. God’s Word is to be trusted, not tried and tested.

In the end, the temptation that proved fatal for Eve was that if she ate the fruit she would be like God (Genesis 3:5). That’s pretty appealing, isn’t it? Who of us hasn’t thought at least once that if we were in charge, we could run things better than God? The devil makes the greatest evil look like the greatest good. God is not good and his Word is not trustworthy – so the only logical conclusion is that he should be rejected and replaced. It’s the greatest lie ever told because it blatantly contradicts the greatest commandment ever given, the first commandment, you shall have no other gods (Exodus 20:3; Matthew 22:37).

Thousands of years go by and the devil again wants Jesus to believe that God and his plan must be replaced. From a very high mountain he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and promised to give them all to Jesus if he would just do one little thing: bow down and worship the devil. We maybe don’t appreciate how tempting this would have been for Jesus. He could have his cake and eat it too. He could have all that his Father had promised him, all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18), without the spit and the whips, the shame and the cross. There was just one catch: not a word of it was true. If you take only one thing from this sermon, take this: the devil always lies; it’s the only language he speaks (John 8:44). He lied to Eve – she didn’t become like God, she died like a wretched sinner. He lied to Jesus – the kingdoms of the world aren’t his to give, they always have and always will belong to God alone (Psalm 24:1).

Satan still lies today, still tempts us to play God, still tempts us to believe that we can have our cake and eat it too if we just replace God’s will with our own. That is, tempting us to become God by deciding what is right and wrong for ourselves. What shortcuts has the devil highlighted on your path through life? From the classroom to tax forms – he can always make cheating look pretty attractive, can’t he? Teaching children to know and love the Lord takes time and effort we don’t always have – why not keep your leisure time and let daycares and schools and the church do the hard work? God is love, isn’t he (1 John 4:8)? Doesn’t he want us to love everyone regardless of their doctrinal positions and sexual orientations and support their choices? Bible study, law and gospel, confession and absolution demand focus and humility – why not just find a church where God loves you just the way you are? After all, God wants you to be happy, doesn’t he? Yes, God does want you to be happy…forever in heaven with him. The lie is that disobedience get you there. We all know from experience that redefining God’s right and wrong doesn’t lead to happiness but broken lives, broken homes, and broken hearts.

And yet, there’s nothing new under the sun – the devil uses his same old tactics – he’s not creative, his temptations today are the same as they have been for thousands of years – and yet we fall for it time after time. So what’s the good news? I want to be very clear here. The good news is NOT that if you follow Jesus’ example you can defeat the devil all by yourself. The moral of the story is NOT that if you know your Bible well enough you can shred his lies and temptations and send the devil running.

Why not? Well, have you ever tried doing what Jesus did? When you’ve doubted God’s love, has reciting John 3:16 helped you overcome doubt in a moment of weakness? Have you ever found contentment by repeating Jesus’ command do not worry (Matthew 6:31) like a mantra? Have you ever stood firm against the devil’s sinful shortcuts by reciting Deuteronomy 6:13 – worship the Lord your God, and serve him only? If I were to stand at the door and hand each of you a Bible as you walk out the door and say, “everything you need to defeat temptation is in this book” – it wouldn’t do any good. Not because the Word isn’t powerful, but because we are weak and fallen (Romans 3:12). Moreover, teaching you how to defeat temptation is Law, not Gospel! This account doesn’t teach us how to win the victory, rather, it shows us Christ, who has won the victory for us. The good news is that even as the devil’s schemes don’t change, neither does the fact of Jesus’ victory. He went head to head with the devil in the wilderness and won – and in three years he would face him down on the cross and crush his head in the dust once and for all – that’s the good news!

So, what should you do when the devil shows up and takes aim at your weaknesses: “Look at what’s happening in your life, your marriage, your family – it sure doesn’t seem like God loves or cares about you.” Don’t look for evidence of God’s love in your heart or your life. See it in your baptism. Through that washing with water and the Word God adopted you into his family and promised that nothing in all creation can separate you from his love (Romans 8:38-39).

What about when the devil attacks your strength: your trust in God’s Word? “Go ahead, give in, just this once. Everyone’s doing it. God apparently isn’t serious about punishing evil (Exodus 20:5-6). And God will just forgive you anyway, won’t he (Romans 6:1)? Go ahead, test him and see if he’s good to his Word!” The only way to silence that devilish voice is to appeal to God’s Word outside of you. To remember those simple, yet profound, words of absolution, in which God himself cast your sins into the bottom of the sea (Micah 7:19). In the absolution, we died to sin, how can we live in it any longer (Romans 6:1)?

What about when the devil leads you to believe that God is not as good as he claims to be, that he’s holding back on you? “God wants you to be happy, right? Who cares if the means are necessarily moral or not; the ends always justify the means.” You could argue with the devil. But he knows as well as we do that we’re no good at delaying satisfaction. The only hope is to look outside of yourself. To look here, to the altar. Here God gives you the best he has to give; here he gives you the body and blood of his only Son. What better evidence could God give you that he is not holding anything good back from you than by giving you his only Son (Romans 8:32)?

You can’t beat the devil by quoting Scripture. He knows it better than you do. And…you don’t have to, because Jesus did. Yes, the devil can point to the struggles and suffering you have in your life and make you doubt God’s love for you; but the Word and water of Baptism cannot lie. Yes, the devil can convince you to sin; but he cannot bring back sins that God has buried in the sea of absolution (Micah 7:19). Yes, the devil can make it seem like God is holding back on you; but he can’t take the body and blood of his Son – tangible evidence of his loving presence – out of your mouth.

There is nothing new under the sun. The devil’s tactics won’t change when we walk out those doors. He will tempt us to question God’s character, test God’s Word, and play God ourselves. But something else won’t change, either. Jesus defeated the devil in that wilderness and crushed his head on the cross and rose victorious – for you! So when you feel the tempter breathing down your neck, don’t make Eve’s mistake and try to fight him alone, run to the Word and Sacrament, where Jesus’ victory is your victory! Amen.     

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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