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The pattern of sorrow followed by joy

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Sermon for Easter 3 – Jubilate

1 Peter 2:11-20  +  John 16:16-23

We spent Holy Week listening to the apostle John recount Jesus’ words and deeds during that climactic week of His earthly ministry. Today we begin a series of five Sundays in the Church’s lectionary in which the same apostle walks us through some of Jesus’ final instructions to His apostles in the upper room in Jerusalem, before they set out for the Garden of Gethsemane. Some of the things He said applied to the immediate future, but mostly, He was preparing them for the time after His ascension, for those crucial decades when these men would be laying the foundation of the Christian Church, carrying the Gospel to the world, beginning with Jerusalem. It would be a trying time for them, with plenty of sorrow, so He encouraged them with the words of our Gospel. But He was also leaving behind words for St. John to record for our benefit so that we have the encouragement we need, in our time, to face the sorrowful times ahead, so that we, too, may have a reason to rejoice.

“A little while, and you will not see me. And again, a little while, and you will see me, because I am going to the Father.” They didn’t understand what He was talking about, and they were afraid to ask, so He goes on to explain, although still somewhat mysteriously. Jesus said to them, “You are asking one another about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see me. And again, a little while, and you will see me.’ Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.

There is a fulfillment of these words in Jesus’ suffering and resurrection. Within a few hours, Jesus would be taken away from them, arrested, tried, tortured, convicted, crucified, and buried. During that time, Jesus’ disciples would be sorrowful. They would be sad, right up until the moment Jesus appeared to them again, in that same upper room, on Easter Sunday evening. Then they rejoiced when they saw the Lord, just as He said they would.

But on that evening, when Jesus talked about going away, He wasn’t mainly talking about going away to death and the grave. He was talking, as He said, about going away to His Father in heaven. He was talking about leaving the earth and ascending into heaven, after which they would never see Him again in this life. In a little while, that is, in 43 short days, they wouldn’t see Him anymore. And during that time, for the rest of their earthly lives, they would know many times of sorrow, as those men, one after the other, were persecuted and put to death for their preaching of Christ, and as they watched their brothers and sisters in Christ be tortured and killed for their faith, too. During that time, the world would rejoice, because the world would think it had gotten rid of Jesus for good, thought it would get away with doing as it pleased with the Christians who still live in the world.

And yet, Jesus says that, in a little while, His disciples would see Him, and that their sorrow would be turned into joy. The Easter fulfillment of that saying, when the sorrow of not seeing Jesus for a little while was replaced with great joy in seeing Him again, set a pattern for the future. It had another fulfillment, when they closed their eyes in the sleep of Christian death, and their souls were taken to Paradise, where they saw Jesus again after the sorrow of this life was done. And it will have another fulfillment, when Jesus returns at the end of the age, when all things reach their goal, and evil is destroyed, and death is swallowed up forever, when God will put an end to all sorrow and wipe away every tear from every believer’s eyes.

That’s three fulfillments of Jesus’ saying: at the time of Easter Sunday (for the original disciples), at the time of their earthly death, and at the end of the age which is still to come. But there is yet a fourth fulfillment of Jesus’ mysterious statement.

After Jesus’ ascension, the disciples didn’t see Him with their eyes, and they experienced sorrow, as we said. But by His Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit whom Jesus would pour out on His Church on the Day of Pentecost, Jesus enabled His apostles, and all of His believers, to “see Him” in another way, to see Him by faith, and to rejoice. By His Spirit, after they had experienced a little while of toil and sorrow—and near despair, as the apostle Paul describes it to the Corinthians—Jesus would fill them again with the assurance that their labor in the Lord was not in vain, that Christ really was reigning on His throne, that God was truly working all things together for their good. After they had experienced a little while of sorrow, Jesus would comfort them again by His Spirit, would testify to their hearts by His Spirit that they were beloved children of God, and so would enable them to rejoice.

We have an example of that in the apostles, after the Day of Pentecost. They were arrested by the Jews and beaten for preaching the Gospel of Christ. But as soon as they were released, it says that the apostles rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. That’s not a manmade rejoicing. It’s the joy that Jesus gave them by His Spirit, teaching them a brand new way to view suffering—not as something to be feared, not as something to make them despair, but as something that is even cause for rejoicing.

The apostle Peter taught Christians the same lesson in chapter 1 of his first epistle: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As Christians, you’ve surely experienced this strange mixture of joy and sorrow. At times the sorrow of feeling abandoned by God is stronger, while at other times the joy of knowing for certain in your heart that the Lord Jesus, who died for you, also rose again, and reigns at the right hand of God, and will never leave you or forsake you—that joy is renewed and strengthened. It’s all part of the pattern that Jesus spoke of in today’s Gospel, a pattern of sorrow followed by joy.

But they are not equal. There is not an equal amount of joy for the sorrow you go through. No, Jesus makes it clear that the joy is far greater. It weighs far more than the sorrow does. He compares it to childbirth in our Gospel—and how appropriate for Mother’s Day! There’s plenty of sorrow, plenty of pain, but in the end, the joy of bringing a child into the world is far, far greater than the sorrow ever was, as all moms will attest.

The pain and sorrow are, of course, a result of sin. Your sins, other people’s sins, the sinful condition of a world that is cursed. But this is why Jesus came, came into our sorrow, came to share in our pain, came to bear our sins, so that, by paying for our sins on the cross, and by defeating death in His glorious resurrection, He might break the pattern of sorrow followed by only more sorrow, the pattern of sorrow followed by only death, and create a new pattern. A pattern of sorrow followed by joy—true joy, joy in seeing Him now by faith, joy in the Paradise that believers will enter when we die, and the final, perfect joy of the resurrection at the end of the age.

You don’t need to see Jesus now, with your eyes, in order to experience this joy. The Lord is risen, whether you see Him or not. The Lord is risen, whether you experience the joy of it or not. And His promises remain true, even when you’re going through a time of sorrow. The Lord promises that, soon enough, you will see Him. And your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. And as Peter also wrote, Though you have not seen Jesus, you love Him. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the goal of your faith—the salvation of your souls. May these words, inspired by the Spirit of God, sustain you in all the times of sorrow you must still face in this life, and may they also grant you the sure hope of the joy that will most certainly come. Amen.

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The Shepherd Himself goes looking

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Sermon for Midweek of Easter 2

Ezekiel 34:11-16  +  John 10:1-10

You may have seen in the news that the papal conclave began today, the secretive process for choosing a new pope. The whole world is watching and waiting to see who the next pope will be, and what stances he’ll take, and whether he’ll rescue or further destroy Western Civilization. It’s somewhat ironic that it’s happening this week, as we hear the Scripture readings about Christ the Good Shepherd. Because, of course, the pope claims to be the Chief Shepherd over all Christians on earth, the head, not only of the Roman Catholic Church, but of the Holy Christian Church—as if the Church could have another head besides Christ, as if there could be another chief shepherd over the whole Church besides Christ. For that claim alone, Christians should recognize the papacy as an abomination. And no matter who sits in the chair that they falsely claim to be the chair of Peter, no matter who is chosen, the office of the pope will bring only destruction to Christ’s sheep within the Roman Church. It will only serve to scatter them and drive them away from their true Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because, while there are surely many sheep of the Good Shepherd still within the Roman Catholic Church, the office of the papacy, by its very nature, seeks to lead them, not toward the Lord Jesus and His Word, but away from Him.

It’s uncannily similar to the situation of Old Testament Israel at the time of the prophet Ezekiel, who wrote during the early years of the Babylonian captivity. There was no single shepherd or king or prophet or priest who had tried to lead the people of Israel astray. No, but the kings and priests, as a whole, and many false prophets, had thoroughly abandoned the sheep and had become self-serving instead, using their positions to hold onto their power and their possessions. In the verses before the text you heard this evening, the Lord, through Ezekiel, berated those worthless shepherds of Israel, even as Jeremiah had done not long before, because those shepherds had not been working to preach the Word of God to the sheep, had not been seeking the lost, had not been preaching the Law to the secure sinners, or offering the comfort of the Gospel to the fearful and guilt-ridden sheep. They had not been pointing people ahead to the coming of the Messiah. Their ministry had become a business to them, a political role, an institutional position, not at all unlike the ministries that flood the Christian Church today, both in Rome and outside of Rome. Those worthless shepherds had so decimated the Church of Israel spiritually that God had to come in and decimate them politically, too, sending the Babylonians against them, sending Israel into captivity. The sheep, for their part, weren’t innocent in all of it, but the shepherds bore the greater guilt.

And so, with His flock scattered as far as Babylon, largely because of the unfaithfulness of the shepherds, the Lord announced His solution: ‘For thus says the Lord GOD: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.

Much like the prophet Isaiah, as we saw during our Wednesday evening services last year, the prophet Ezekiel’s prophecies often have a double or a twofold fulfillment. God Himself would intervene in history, first, to bring His people Israel back from captivity in Babylon, back to the land of Israel. God Himself, through rulers whom He would raise up, like Cyrus and Darius and Nehemiah and Ezra, would resettle His people in their land. That was the first fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy.

But it was a minor fulfillment, a stop-gap fulfillment, because the sheep would just go back to their wandering ways, and the new shepherds who would arise in Israel would, for the most part, be just as bad as the old shepherds, so that, by the time of Jesus, God’s evaluation of Israel was that they were like “sheep without a shepherd.”

And so, about 575 years after Ezekiel prophesied, the Lord fulfilled this prophecy in the most direct and personal way possible. He didn’t go looking for His sheep through anyone else. He went looking Himself, in person. He sent His only-begotten Son, God, the Son of God, to Israel.

I’m going to reread the rest of the verses you heard from Ezekiel 34. And, while some things in the text have a first fulfillment in the return from Babylon, we’re going to focus on the second, bigger fulfillment at the time of Christ—and afterward! Listen again to the rest of the text:

As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land; I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down,” says the Lord GOD. “I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick;

Jesus did all of that during the course of His earthly ministry. He came, as He said, to seek and to save what was lost. He came calling the lost sheep to repentance and offering them a Father’s welcome back into the kingdom of God, to those who were willing to be carried back on Jesus’ shoulders. He fed them with the truth, with the Gospel, with God’s promise of forgiveness through Christ. He treated the broken and the sick, both physically and spiritually, and assured all who came to Him that He would give them eternal life and an eternal inheritance in the kingdom of God.

But notice what Ezekiel said the Lord would also do: but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment. That’s what Jesus did with the scribes and Pharisees. He didn’t physically destroy them. He destroyed them with the sword of His mouth, with His word, as He exposed their hypocrisy, charged them with sin in the sight of God, and assured them that, in the sight of God, they stood already judged.

Ezekiel doesn’t touch on the other part of Christ’s shepherding in this text, how the Shepherd would lay down His life for the sheep, to make atonement for their sins. That was the awful price of their readmittance into God’s favor. But it’s also the very thing the Father sent the Good Shepherd to do, and He did it gladly and willingly for all who were and who would become His precious sheep.

Of course, in this Easter season, we focus less on the suffering and death of Christ and more on His mighty resurrection from the dead. In this Easter season, we focus on how the risen Lord Jesus continues to shepherd His flock through the ministry of the Word. Because it’s still Him doing it, even though He uses flawed and weak men as His mouthpieces. It’s the still the voice of the true Shepherd that you hear when you hear His Gospel purely preached, and His Word rightly explained, and when His words are spoken in connection with His Sacraments. It’s still the Lord God Himself, coming to His sheep who are still in the world, to seek the lost, to comfort the broken and the sick, and to gather His flock of Christians to Himself within His Holy Christian Church.

But there is still a third fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy, just as there was a third fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecies. Because, after Jesus is done gathering His sheep throughout the world, the LORD Himself will come again, in person, in glory, to gather His sheep on His right hand and to send all the others to His left.

And among those on His left will be all the false prophets who claimed to be the Chief Shepherd and the Holy Father of all Christians. They fooled many people here on earth, but they could never fool the Good Shepherd as they tried to steal His sheep from Him, nor, in the end, could they fool the true sheep of the Lord Jesus, because, as Jesus said in the Gospel, His sheep know the voice of their true Shepherd, and will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

Always flee from the voice of the stranger, who presents you with an alternate gospel, and with doctrines of men instead of the teaching of God. You know your Shepherd’s voice. You’ve learned it from His Holy, inspired Scriptures. Keep listening. Keep following. And you can be confident that He knows and cares for each and every one of you, and will never let anyone snatch you from His hand. Amen.

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Called to follow the Good Shepherd

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Sermon for Easter 2 – Misericordias Domini

1 Peter 2:21-25  +  John 10:11-16

The second Sunday after Easter is traditionally celebrated as Good Shepherd Sunday because of the Gospel you heard from John 10. And it’s all the more fitting today as we celebrate a confirmation. Two confirmations, actually. Because what is it to be confirmed? What is it to be a Christian, for that matter, other than to follow the Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ, wherever He goes?

Now, following the Shepherd does not mean becoming the Shepherd. That’s impossible. There can be only one Good Shepherd. Only the Lord Jesus could stand up to the wolf on behalf of the sheep, could stand up to the devil and take him on and defeat him, and rescue the captives from his kingdom, and gather His sheep and tend to them as His own. Only the Lord Jesus could suffer and die for the sins of the world and take up His life again. Only the Lord Jesus could turn unbelieving, impenitent sinners into believing sheep, who belong to Him, and who live within the sheepfold of His Holy Christian Church. Only the Lord Jesus knew how to go looking for His sheep and find them and bring them safely home into the Father’s house. Only the Lord Jesus could give life to the sheep, eternal life that knows no end, eternal life that includes the resurrection from the dead at the Last Day. He alone will speak over the graves of His believing sheep and raise us to life again and bring us into the heavenly sheepfold. Only the Lord Jesus knows His sheep perfectly and is known by them. And they follow Him wherever He goes.

But what does it mean to follow Him? Saint Peter gives us some examples in today’s epistle. He writes, For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow in his steps. To this you were called. To what were you called? To follow the Lord Jesus Christ, to follow in His steps.

Now again, there are steps that Jesus walked that no one else can ever walk. He is the eternal, only-begotten Son of God, whose first step toward our salvation was taking on human flesh in the first place, choosing to become man, born of the Virgin Mary. That’s not a step any of us can take. He took on the office of the Christ, as our true Prophet, Priest and King, to save us from our sins. That’s not a step any of us can take. He came preaching and teaching in the name of His Father. That’s only a step we can take if He Himself calls us to do it, if He calls us through the call of the Church, as it calls ministers of Christ to minister in His name.

But there are steps Jesus took in which Christians can walk by the power of the Holy Spirit and are called to walk. The first step that Peter mentions is this: He knew no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. Well, that certainly wasn’t the natural state in which any of us was born. We all know sin by nature. And in one way or another, we all practice deceit by nature. Whether it’s to keep ourselves from getting in trouble, or whether it’s to take advantage of our neighbor. All have sinned, says the apostle Paul, and fall short of the glory of God. Or, as John puts it in his first epistle, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Whereas in the case of Christ the Good Shepherd, He never knew sin. He never practiced deceit. Ever. From the moment He was conceived, He was sinless, unlike the rest of us. He had no sinful flesh. No sinful nature.

So you can’t follow the Good Shepherd by being sinless. But the greatest gift Christ has given us is the forgiveness of sins. God promises to forgive us our sins, for the sake of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. When we look to Christ, in repentance and faith, He wipes our slate clean before God. But when He does that, He also gives us His Holy Spirit. And He creates within us a new man, a new nature, who is able, at least to some degree, to walk with the Spirit. To say no to sin. To say yes to righteousness. To walk in holiness, as those who have been set free from sin and set apart from the sinful world. To live no longer for sin, but for Him who died for us and rose again. And so, in this way, you are called to follow in the footsteps of your Good Shepherd. To live for God and not for yourself. To recognize the path of sin in your life, each and every day, and to avoid it. To walk a different way, to walk in the way of Jesus, with love for God above all things, and with love for your neighbor, and with a special love for your fellow Christian. Your love can never equal His love or match His love. But you can strive to imitate it, to follow in His steps.

Liam and Kaity, you have learned God’s commandments. And you’ve learned Luther’s explanations of them, too. You know how Jesus walked, and you know how He calls on you to walk. So follow Him. All of you Christians, follow Him in this way, shunning sin, and running toward God’s commandments. Not as a way to be saved from sin, not as a way to earn eternal life, but as a way to follow in the footsteps of Him whom you call your Lord, your Savior, and your Shepherd.

But your Shepherd did not only show you by His example how to avoid sin and how to serve God by doing what was right. He also showed you by His example how to suffer with courage. Now, suffering isn’t something you choose. It’s not something you go looking for. You suffer things that other people do to you. But Jesus assures His sheep that if the world persecuted Him, then the world will also persecute His believers. If the devil went after Him, he will most certainly go after those who follow Jesus.

When that happens, there are two questions you will have to answer. First, will you agree to suffer for Jesus sake, or will you run away from suffering in order to save yourself? To accept the suffering that the devil and the world will bring on you is to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who willingly accepted the suffering that His Father ordained for Him, who drank that cup of suffering, for as much as He didn’t want to drink it. So to follow Him is to accept the suffering that goes along with being a Christian. To follow Him is to walk toward suffering, if that’s what faithfulness to God requires, to take up your cross and follow Him.

The second question you will have to answer, if you are willing to follow Jesus into suffering, is how you will respond to it. Peter writes, When he was insulted, he did not hurl insults in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but turned it over to the one who judges justly. When the world comes after you for speaking the truth, when people mock you, or insult you, or exclude you, or make life hard for you because you hold to God’s Word and you follow Jesus, you could do what so many people do. You could grumble. You could complain. You could hurl insults back at those who insult you. You could make fun of people, just like they make fun of you, or even threaten them. But, as Peter reminds us, that’s not how Jesus responded to suffering, is it? He took it patiently. He took it without complaint. He turned it over to His Father, who judges justly, and who will see to it that those who hurt His children will answer for it in due time. So if you would follow in the steps of your Shepherd, you will respond to suffering in the same way, turning it all over to God the Father, turning it all over to the risen Lord Jesus, who reigns at the Father’s right hand.

And why will you do all this? Why will you follow Jesus in avoiding sin, and doing what’s right, and speaking the truth? Why will you follow Jesus toward suffering and not away from it? Because you believe in Him, which means you believe what Peter wrote about Him, that He Himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, should live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray. But now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Why will you follow in the steps of your Shepherd? Because all your steps were leading straight to hell, and would have led there, if the Shepherd hadn’t come in to face the wolf for you, if He hadn’t taken responsibility for your sins, if He hadn’t laid down His life for you, if He hadn’t called you by name to make you His own. But He did, and now you are. And so you love Him. And anyone who truly loves Jesus also wants to listen to Him, and to imitate Him, to be like Him, wants to follow Him, and does follow Him. See, He has shown you the way again today!

Liam and Kaity, you’ve been following Jesus ever since your baptism, and your parents have been guiding you by the hand along the way. But now you have learned more about what it means to follow Jesus and are about to confess, before God and before this congregation, your determination to follow Him for the rest of your lives, just as all the members here have, by the grace of God, made the same confession, and the same commitment. May God strengthen you by His Spirit, through His Word and through His Sacrament, to persevere in His grace and in your walk as Christians, to walk according to your calling to follow in the steps of the Good Shepherd all the days of your life, until you follow Him into the eternal life of His heavenly pasture. May the blessing once written to the Hebrews be upon you today, and upon all the Christians here: May the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

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The living Christ authorizes His ministers, like Thomas

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Sermon for Easter 1

1 John 5:4-10  +  John 20:19-31

The order of events on the first Easter Sunday is a little hard to pin down. Each Gospel writer was moved by the Holy Spirit to include certain details about that day, not always in order, but always with obvious excitement, even writing, as they were, several decades later, still so excited to share with the world some parts of the resurrection story. Matthew skips Jesus’ Easter appearance to His disciples entirely and takes us straight to His meeting with them on a mountain in Galilee some weeks later. Mark takes us to the table in the upper room where the eleven were gathered—the same table where they had celebrated Passover with Jesus and had received the Lord’s Supper from Jesus a few days earlier—and tells us how Jesus rebuked them for disbelieving the reports of those who had seen Him alive. Luke includes that story about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, which we heard on Wednesday, and adds a little bit about Jesus eating a piece of broiled fish in front of the disciples, to prove that He was not just alive again, but alive with His own, real, human body made of flesh and blood.

For the apostle John, it had been nearly six decades between the resurrection and the time he wrote his Gospel, but the Holy Spirit still called to his mind certain details from that first Easter Sunday that no other Evangelist had recorded. And so we have this wonderful account of Thomas and his struggle to believe, and, as part of that account, a repetition of that special authority Jesus gave to His Church through the apostolic ministry to forgive or to retain sins in Jesus’ name.

First, let’s have a look at Thomas. Jesus appeared to ten of the twelve disciples on Easter evening, and, according to Luke’s account, it seems that other disciples were there with them, too. Judas was dead by suicide. Thomas was out and about. The doors were locked, for fear of the Jews, because, if they succeeded in killing Jesus Himself, why should they stop with Him? Why not go after the ones closest to Him, even as they had been planning on killing Lazarus, too? Worse, if God had not seen fit to rescue His beloved, sinless Son from the Jews, what hope did His disciples have left?

And then Jesus appeared in the middle of the room before their very eyes, just as He had disappeared before the very eyes of the two disciples in Emmaus, as soon as they recognized Him. Jesus had real flesh and blood and yet was able to appear and disappear at will, no longer submitting to the laws of nature as He had before. He doesn’t have to. He’s true God as well as true man, and does as He pleases.

He greeted His fearful disciples with a word of peace, and after a few minutes (and a few bites of food) they were convinced that it was really Him. And they rejoiced. And after a little while, Jesu disappeared again. Why didn’t He just wait for Thomas to get back? Because He wanted you and me to have this story, and to learn a lesson from it.

Thomas walked in the door a moment too late, and he wouldn’t believe his brother apostles, or the women who had reported seeing Jesus earlier that day, or the two who had come back from Emmaus. “Not unless I see the nail prints in His hands and put my fingers into them. Not unless I can thrust my hand into His pierced side. I know what I saw with my own eyes: a Jesus who was crucified, who died, who was pierced with a spear and whose blood came pouring out. You don’t come back from that. No one does. Human reason and experience say so.”

And the Lord allowed Thomas to stew in the unbelief that flowed from his human reason and experience for a whole week, until the following Sunday, and waited until Thomas was with them before appearing again. Peace to you, He said, and then turned and looked straight at Thomas, and held out His hands, still bearing the nail prints as a testimony to His suffering, and said, “Reach out your hand, Thomas, and put your fingers here. Take your hand, Thomas, and thrust it into My side, if you must. Whatever it takes. Be no longer unbelieving, but believing!” And Thomas said, “My Lord and my God!”

Yeah, he finally got it. The one whom he had been referring to as Lord for the last three years was also God. That’s why He could rise from the dead. Man can’t conquer death, but God can. And now Thomas knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this man, Jesus, is the very God who has power over life and death.

With that in mind, consider the authority Jesus spoke upon His apostles on that first Easter Sunday. First, He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit! The breathing on them was a picture of the Holy Spirit proceeding from His mouth like breath, the Spirit whom He, their Lord and their God, would send upon them 50 days from then, on the day of Pentecost. When the Spirit came upon them on that day, like breath from heaven, they were to remember this act of Jesus breathing on them and understand that it was Jesus, from the right hand of God, sending the Holy Spirit down upon His Church to begin the lengthy process of building it until He comes again.

And the tools for building it would be, not hammers, but keys. The keys of the kingdom of heaven. Keys that would be wielded with heaven’s own authority. Keys not made of metal, but keys made of words. As my Father has sent me, so I also send you…If you forgive the sins of any, their sins are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, their sins are retained. This is not a new command or authority. It’s the same one Jesus had spoken about months earlier. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. It’s the same command and authority recorded with different words by Mark: Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. It’s the same command and authority referred to in Luke’s Gospel, where Jesus told them that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And it’s the same command and authority that He gave them again on that mountain in Galilee, recorded in Matthew’s Gospel: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. Jesus, as Lord and God, gave this command and authority to His Church, through the apostolic ministry, to preach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments in the name of Jesus, who is both Lord and God. That’s how He would build His Church, through what we often refer to as the Means or the “tools” of Grace, wielded by the ministers whom He would continue to send until the end of the age.

Using the keys or the Means of Grace includes the speaking and the baptizing in the name of God that Peter did on the day of Pentecost, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins! It includes the appeal of St. Paul to the jailor in Philippi, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved!, or as he summarized it to the Corinthians, Be reconciled to God! For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. It includes the administration of the Lord’s Supper, too, where God’s forgiveness is handed out to God’s believing people, one by one. And it also includes, where necessary, the retaining of sins, as Peter did with Ananias and Sapphira, or with Simon the Sorcerer, or as Paul did with the sinner in Corinth who was flaunting his adultery. Whether it’s the forgiving of sins or the retaining of sins, Jesus set it up in His Church going forward that God would deal with men and build His kingdom through the keys wielded by the apostolic ministry of His Holy Christian Church.

A ministry that included men like Thomas, who had their moments of shameful unbelief. A ministry that included men like Peter, who had faltered before and would falter again, needing to be corrected by a minister like Paul, who had a previous reputation of locking Christians up in jail. A ministry that included also the Apostle John, who carried out his God-given ministry throughout the first century, of which this Gospel of John was a part. With the authority and with the inspiration of the Spirit that the Lord Jesus gave him, he wrote for us, not everything that Jesus ever said or did, but only the things the Spirit guided him to remember and to record, all for a purpose, which he states at the end of our reading: that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, by believing, you may have life in his name.

This is the same ministry, with the same Means of Grace, that has been passed on from generation to generation, so that the Church would always have the necessary, Spirit-filled tools for creating and preserving faith. This is the same ministry that is being carried out among you today, which you support, and which you are here making use of right now, according to Christ’s command. He never planned for any of you to see Him in this life, as the apostles did. What He did plan for was for you to hear His Word, to believe through what you hear, and to continue to receive the ministry of His Word and Sacraments, so that you might make it all the way through this earthly life, still hoping, still rejoicing, still believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, crucified and risen from the dead, and that, by believing, you, too, may have life in His name. May God grant it, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

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Revealed in the preaching of His death and resurrection

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Sermon for the Week of Easter

Luke 24:13-35

What a wonderful story we have before us in the Gospel during this Easter week! What a beautiful scene St. Luke paints for us! Two downcast disciples of Jesus—not from among the eleven apostles but obviously sincere believers in Jesus who had spent considerable time with Jesus and the Eleven—walking sullenly down to the village of Emmaus. They had thought that Jesus was the Christ. They had thought that He would redeem Israel. But after seeing Him suffer and die two days earlier, rejected by the leaders of Israel, they thought they must’ve made a mistake. Jesus couldn’t be the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures, could He?

Then Jesus comes out of nowhere, walking alongside them, and doesn’t allow them to recognize Him. Why? Why not just announce Himself and begin the Easter celebration? Because they needed a firmer foundation than their eyesight alone could provide. They needed to know the Christ from the Scriptures, and know Him better than they did, because what they knew about the Christ from the Scriptures up until now was far too vague and not nearly enough. They knew He would be a miracle-working Prophet. They knew He would redeem Israel. They knew He would reign on the throne of His father David forever. That was all true, but, again, it’s not nearly enough, which is obvious, because, according to their understanding, the Christ should not have suffered and died.

So Jesus, still not letting them recognize Him, rebukes them: Foolish men! You’re so slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into His glory? And then He patiently walked them through the whole Old Testament, showing them passage after passage that spoke of the suffering of the Christ.

Surely He pointed them to the very first promise of a Savior, given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where God said to the devil, in his serpent-form: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. They probably focused on the “He will crush your head” part, without ever putting it together that the devil would also attack the woman’s Offspring, striking His heel, as a serpent strikes the heel of a man—a strike that can often be fatal, and in the case of the Christ, it was.

Then Jesus surely walked them through the events of Holy Week, maybe going through it all in order. Maybe He reminded them of Zechariah’s prophecy of the King riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. Or maybe He began with another prophecy from Zechariah, prophesying Judas’ betrayal: “So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’—the handsome price at which they valued me!”

Then on to Maundy Thursday in the Garden of Gethsemane, He likely quoted Zechariah again, telling how all Jesus’ disciples would flee when the Christ was arrested: “Awake, sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me! … Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.”

He could have continued with Psalm 109, where David prophesies the wicked and false accusations that were made against Jesus by the Jews: For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues … In return for my love they accuse me. And Isaiah speaks of how they would commit violence against the Christ, and about He would respond to their attacks: I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.

But it wouldn’t be the Jews alone conspiring against the Christ. David had said in Psalm 2, Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.” And so the Jews got the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, involved, who also conspired with King Herod in Jesus’ trial, fulfilling this prophecy, even as the crowds cried out, Crucify Him! Crucify Him!, fulfilling a prophecy in Psalm 69, Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head. And then Pilate condemned Him, even though, as Isaiah had said would happen, He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth…By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

As Jesus walked along with the two disciples, getting closer to Emmaus, He must have quoted extensively from Isaiah 52 and 53, where it says of the coming Christ: “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain … Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering … He was pierced for our transgressions … By his wounds we are healed … He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.

Yes, He was wounded and “pierced,” as Psalm 22 said He would be. They pierce my hands and my feet. And they divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. Meanwhile, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, fulfilling another prophecy, He made intercession for the transgressors. And He was numbered with the transgressors, one hanging on a cross on His right and another on His left.

Maybe these two disciples on the road to Emmaus had been there on Good Friday to hear the chief priests and Pharisees mocking Jesus with almost the exact words from Psalm 22, where the Messiah lamented: I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, “He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”

You have to think that Jesus reminded the disciples of the words He cried out after three hours of intense suffering in darkness, words taken directly from Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And when He said, “I thirst,” the soldiers fulfilled the prophecy from Psalm 69, They gave me vinegar for my thirst.

The death of Christ was specifically prophesied in several places. In Psalm 22: You have brought Me to the dust of death. In Isaiah: He was cut off from the land of the living… he poured out his life unto death. And in Daniel: After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.”

Even after He died, the prophecies continued. When the soldiers found Jesus dead, they didn’t break His bones as they had done with the other two, fulfilling the Passover Lamb prophecy from Genesis, Not one of his bones will be broken. Instead, they pierced His side with a spear, fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy, “They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child.” And then, even in His burial in rich Joseph’s tomb, Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled: “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.”

But death would not be the end for the Christ. After His suffering and death, the prophecies continued from Psalm 22: For the LORD has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted One; nor has He hidden His face from Him; nut when He cried to Him, the LORD heard. Or Psalm 16, which Peter would later quote: For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life. Or from Isaiah 53: After You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.

All the while, as Jesus unfolded and decrypted the Scriptures for these two disciples, their hearts were burning within them. How could they have missed all these prophecies? They weren’t mistaken about Jesus being the Christ. On the contrary, the Christ had to suffer everything that Jesus suffered, in order to redeem Israel from sin, death, and the devil. And He also had to rise from the dead to “justify many” through His Gospel, and to build His kingdom, which would include both Jews and Gentiles, and to reign over God’s people forever. So, maybe the stories of His empty tomb this morning make sense! Maybe the tomb is empty, because Jesus is the Christ, who not only died, but has risen from the dead! Maybe His kingdom is just getting started!

And so it was. And so Jesus revealed Himself to those disciples at the dinner table. But only after revealing Himself to them first through the Word of God. That was always His plan. To build His Church through the Word of God, which came to include the eyewitness accounts of those who saw the risen Lord. So keep studying the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit will continue to open your hearts, too, so that you see the Lord’s death and resurrection, as they were both foretold and fulfilled. This is how the Lord will comfort your hearts in every trouble, in every trial. This is how the living Christ will grow and extend His kingdom until the end of the age, through the preaching of His suffering, death, and resurrection. And you get to be a part of it! Amen.

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The empty tomb is peace for all who believe

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Sermon for Easter Sunday

1 Corinthians 5:6-8  +  Mark 16:1-8

Fellow believers in Christ crucified: The crucified One is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia! Praise the LORD!

When we say that Jesus lives, we don’t mean it figuratively. We don’t mean that He lives in our hearts, or in our memories. We mean that the real Son of God, who took on real flesh and blood, born of the virgin Mary, who truly suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, actually came back to life on the third day after His death, stepped out of His tomb, and, throughout that day and the coming days, appeared openly to all His disciples—who were glad, but surprised, to see Him.

It really shouldn’t have surprised them as much as it did. They had confessed Him to be the Christ, the Son of the living God. And He, the Christ, had told His disciples how He would be nailed to a cross, die, and rise on the third day, which was the very same thing that was prophesied about the Christ in the words of King David in Psalm 16 a thousand years before, “I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to the grave, or let your holy one see corruption.”

As the apostles pointed out to the Jewish crowds later on, King David, who wrote those words of Psalm 16, most certainly died and most certainly decayed in his grave. But the Holy One about whom he was writing, the Son of David, the Christ—He was not abandoned to the grave or left in the tomb. He was raised from the dead.

That’s what the angel announced to those wonderful, devoted women who went to the tomb that first Easter morning to serve Jesus one last time, to finish taking care of His body, which, they assumed, was already beginning to see corruption. They expected to have trouble rolling away the big stone that blocked the entrance, but, no, they saw that it had already been rolled away, and they saw an angel waiting there to give them the good news. Do not be afraid. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the One who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the place where they laid Him!

Wouldn’t you like to have seen it, too? The place where they laid Him? The stone rolled away, the empty tomb, the neatly folded linens lying there, no longer wrapped around Jesus’ body, and the angel sitting where Jesus had been? Or what if you had seen the empty tomb? Then what? Then you would have been just as afraid, just as terrified as those women were. Because an empty tomb, all by itself, doesn’t calm anyone’s fears.

The fact that Jesus’ tomb was empty, the fact that the Son of David, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, has risen from the dead, is neither good news nor bad news, all by itself. It just is. It’s a fact. It happened. But what does it mean? Is it a fact that saves or is it a fact that damns? The only way to know what it means is to hear what God reveals about it in the preaching of the gospel.

And what does God reveal in the gospel about the Son of David, Jesus Christ, risen from the dead?

Well, in Psalm 2, a Psalm about the coming Christ, it says, Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. So those who take refuge in the risen Son of God are blessed! But those who do not seek refuge in Him will be the objects of His wrath and will perish eternally.

According to the gospel, then, the empty tomb of Jesus means that His enemies and all who hate Him or His beloved Church had better be very afraid. The resurrection of Jesus is terrible news for the devil and his demons. It’s terrible news for the one who denies the existence of God, or who wants to get to heaven by serving some other god, or by offering God his own goodness and decency. It’s also terrible news for all who refuse to repent of their sins. Because if Jesus is dead, then you get to decide what’s right and wrong for your life, and then, when you’re dead, you’re dead. That’s it. But if Jesus is alive, then everything He said is true, and there will also be a resurrection of all the dead and a Day of reckoning, for all. So for the impenitent and unbelieving, the empty tomb of Jesus is cause for fear.

But for those who want a sure refuge from God’s wrath, for those who wish to be reconciled to God through the death of Christ, for those who want Jesus for a Savior, the gospel reveals this truth: that Jesus was delivered up for our sins and raised to life for our justification. His death was sufficient payment for all sin, for every sin, for the worst sinner; and His resurrection means that all who hope in Him, all who trust in Him, all who look to Him for forgiveness of their sins are declared innocent before God’s own courtroom in heaven. The empty tomb means the justification of all who believe in the risen Lord Jesus.

And with justification comes every gift and benefit of Christ: the adoption as God’s children, the full acceptance into eternal life, the daily forgiveness of sins in this Christian Church, and the promise of your own empty tomb when Jesus returns with salvation for His waiting people.

But even those faithful women didn’t understand all that when they first arrived at the tomb on that first day of the week. Jesus’ empty tomb, all by itself, is still a scary thing, and those women remained afraid until, later that morning, they saw Jesus for themselves and, more importantly, heard His gospel, His word of peace. Then they rejoiced with a joy that nothing could ever take away.

You have to see Jesus for yourself, too. But not with your eyes. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed, Jesus said. Believed what? Believed that the tomb of Jesus was and remains empty? Yes, but only if you believe in the One who stepped out of that tomb. Believe in God’s promise of forgiveness in Christ. Believe in His Gospel. Believe in the word of God the Father, who emptied Jesus’ tomb by raising His Son from the dead. This word from God that He has commissioned me to preach to you today is better than seeing a thousand empty tombs. Because here in the Word you don’t see the place where Jesus isn’t. You actually get to see Jesus in the only way that can save you from eternal death and grant you eternal life. Because here in the Word of God, here in the Sacrament of Christ’s Holy Supper, the risen Lord Jesus comes to you today with a message: “He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” Those words would be utterly meaningless if Jesus had remained in the tomb. But He didn’t. So believe in Him who rose from the dead, because, for you who believe, the empty tomb of the crucified One means peace with God, and joy, and life everlasting. Amen.

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Jesus will draw all men to Himself

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Sermon for Holy Monday

John 12:20-33

The world has gone after Jesus!, the Pharisees and chief priests of Israel lamented as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Obviously they were exaggerating. But in a sense, it was true. Many in Israel were going after Jesus, though that number would be greatly reduced by the end of the week. But Gentiles from other parts of the world were also starting to go after Jesus, and many, many more would follow.

We heard about some Greeks who went after Jesus in this evening’s reading. They were there for Passover, which indicates that these were people of Greek ancestry but who had converted to the Jewish religion. These men were going after Jesus to see Him and to investigate these claims they had been hearing about Him being the Messiah. They may not have believed in Jesus yet as the Christ, but they were interested. They cared. They knew that their adopted Jewish religion was pointing somewhere, not to the earthly kingdom of Israel, but to a Savior and King who would bring the Gentiles into His kingdom, too, together with the Jews who would believe in Him. So they asked Philip, Sir, we would see Jesus.

I remember having a seminary professor who reminded us of these words in our preaching class. Sir, we would see Jesus. He reminded us, rightly, that this is really the chief request, the only request that all of Jesus’ sheep make of their pastor, if they’re in church for the right reasons. Hypocrites and unbelievers may come to hear a sermon with some cute story, some life lesson, some inspirational speech. But true Christians—true Christians come to sit at the feet of the shepherd whom Jesus has placed among them to see Jesus through the pastor’s preaching, just as the Greeks approached Philip, not to hear all about Philip’s life or Philip’s ideas, but that Philip might lead them to see Jesus.

Whether or not Jesus ended up meeting with these Greeks, we’re not told. But what Jesus said to His disciples certainly had ramifications for the Greeks. He answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” Several times in John’s Gospel, it looked like the end for Jesus. But each time He said, “My hour has not yet come.” Now, during the Passover of Holy Week, it had. His hour “to be glorified.” He compares Himself to a grain of wheat, a seed that’s planted in the ground. It “dies” and is buried, never to be seen again in that same form. But what comes up from that seed is a new stalk of wheat that produces many grains. So it would be when Jesus was “glorified.”

He would be glorified, first, in His Passion itself, in His innocent-but-willing suffering and death. If you’ve ever listened to St. John’s Passion by Bach, you may know that the opening song goes like this (in English): O Lord, our Lord, whose name is majestic in all the earth, show us, by Your Passion, that You, the true Son of God, have been glorified at all times, even in the greatest lowliness. The Son of God didn’t appear glorious during His Passion, but for those who know why He went through it, and that He did it all willingly and with full knowledge of what He would suffer, we see through the shame to the true glory of Christ, so that we call out with all the heavenly throng, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!” Yes, Jesus would also be glorified outwardly in His resurrection. In other passages, John refers to the resurrection and ascension of Jesus as His glorification. But for now, during Holy Week, the glory is hidden behind suffering for Jesus.

As it must also be for those who would follow Him. He goes on in John’s Gospel with words He had spoken on several occasions and would repeat again: He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. What does it look like to love one’s life in this world? It looks like Judas, betraying his Lord for thirty pieces of silver. It looks like Peter, denying the Lord three times to keep himself out of danger. It looks like all the disciples running away from Him in the Garden. It looks like many of the rulers of the Jews believing in Jesus but not daring to say so out loud for fear of persecution. It looks like the crowds on Good Friday, who gave in to the Jewish leaders and joined in with the cries to crucify Him. It looks like all unbelievers, pursuing nothing but an earthly life, or seeking after false gods. It looks like Christians who are more concerned with comfort than they are with bearing the cross. He who loves his life in this world will lose it, Jesus says.

But what does it look like to hate one’s life in this world? There really are no examples of it during Holy Week except for Jesus Himself. Safety? He hated it. Comfort? He hated it. The praise and acceptance of the church leaders? He hated it. His own life? He hated it. Meaning, He gave it all up in order to obey His Father’s will, before everything else. That’s where Jesus went, toward faithfulness and obedience that led to the cross. And that’s where He calls on all who would follow Him to go, too. And just as He received honor from the Father after His earthly life was given up, so we, too, will receive honor from the Father, if we continue to serve, and to follow, and to hate our life in this world for His sake.

“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven,

Jesus wasn’t “giddy” about what He was about to suffer, not “eager” to endure it. He dreaded it. His soul was deeply troubled by it. And in the Garden of Gethsemane, He did pray, “Father save Me from this hour! Take this cup from me!” But He added the most important thing of all to that petition, “Not My will, but Yours be done!” Jesus knew already in the early part of Holy Week what His Father’s will would be, so already then He submitted His will to His Father’s will, and, instead of asking to be saved from His Passion, He put Himself in His Father’s hands and, above all else, prayed, “Father, glorify Your name!”

Let that be your prayer, too, when you’re faced with bearing your cross or dropping it on the floor, when you have to decide whether to suffer with Jesus or enjoy peace and comfort with the world. For the Christian, in the end, there is no choice. For the Christian, it’s faithfulness to Jesus, whatever the cost may be. And if that’s not your choice, as it wasn’t Peter’s choice in the courtyard of the high priest on Maundy Thursday night, then realize that you stop being a Christian when you choose peace and comfort over Jesus, and you can only be brought back through genuine sorrow and repentance, as Peter, thankfully, was. As for you, don’t follow Peter in falling away. Instead, follow Jesus when facing the cross, and say, “Father, glorify Your name through whatever happens to me as I bear the cross for Jesus’ sake.”

As He had done at Jesus’ Baptism, as He had done again at Jesus’ transfiguration, the Father spoke from heaven, saying, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Jesus didn’t need to hear the Father’s approval of Him, or of His plan for Jesus’ Passion. The people there needed to hear it, and Jesus came right out and told them what it was all about.

Now is the judgment of this world. Now its ruler will be cast out. But how was the world judged then, during Holy Week? The judgment that the world deserved fell upon the Lord Jesus. So the devil, the ruler of this world, is cast out in the sense that he can no longer accuse or hold onto any who believe in Jesus, who are buried with Him through Baptism into death, because He suffered the judgment that the world was legally bound to suffer, and now all who seek God’s approval through Him are delivered out of the devil’s kingdom and into His own.

That’s what He means when He says, And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die. Again the Lord prophesies how He would die, that He would be lifted up, on a cross. And even the image of Him hanging on a cross with outstretched arms really is a picture of Jesus drawing, inviting, welcoming all peoples to Himself, Jews and Greeks, men and women, rich and poor—all who acknowledge their wretchedness before God and who wish to be reconciled to God through Christ crucified. He draws the world to Himself, He invites the world—all men—to be saved through Him from the ruler of this world and from the judgment that will come upon the world, upon all those who wish to be judged apart from Him. “Be reconciled to God through Me,” His image cries out from the cross. For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that, in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. Amen.

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The world has gone after the King

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Sermon for Palm Sunday

Philippians 2:5-11  +  John 12:1-19

All four Gospel writers describe Holy Week. Many of their accounts overlap, but each one also includes certain details that the others leave out. Some years, we hear a combined account, a harmony of the four Evangelists. Other years we focus on just one. This year, we’re going to turn to St. John, every day this week (except for Wednesday, our one day off), to view the events of Holy Week and the Passion, that is, the Suffering of the Lord Jesus, from the inspired perspective of the apostle who often referred to himself simply as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” May the Lord grant us His Holy Spirit to guide and to bless our meditation.

John, like the other three Evangelists, includes an account of Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, sitting on a donkey. We’ll get to that in a moment. But first, John records what happened the day before, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, in the little town of Bethany, at the house of a man named Simon the Leper.

Matthew and Mark include this account, too, but it’s John who tells us when it happened, the day before Palm Sunday. It’s also John who names Martha as a servant at the dinner, and Martha’s sister Mary as the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with that expensive perfume, and who wiped His feet with her hair. Their brother Lazarus was also there—an important detail added by John, because Lazarus is the one who had recently been raised from the dead by Jesus after he had spent three days in the tomb. That’s where we get that beautiful discourse between Jesus and Martha, where Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.

Well, some who were in attendance at that supper were there especially to see the resurrected Lazarus, and the Jesus who had raised him up. Word was spreading quickly that this Jesus was truly the Son of God, the promised Christ, and it was the resurrection of Lazarus that sealed the deal for many of them—which added to the Palm Sunday multitude, and which also convinced the chief priests that they not only had to kill Jesus, but Lazarus, too, to regain their iron grip on the people of Israel and to keep them from following Jesus any longer.

We learn from this encounter that Judas was a thief even before he was a traitor. That’s why, John says, he was upset with the “waste” of this expensive perfume that Mary poured out on Jesus’ feet. But we also learn that Jesus accepts the humble service of His saints, both men and women, as well as the costly gifts they give to honor Him, because they love Him, and because they’ve been listening to His word, as Mary had been listening to Jesus talk about the crucifixion He would soon endure—something that had gone right over the heads of all the apostles. Leave her alone, Jesus said. She has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not always have.

And with that, the tone is set for Palm Sunday.

The next day, Jesus came with His disciples to the Mount of Olives, just up the road from Bethany, to the east of Jerusalem, with the Kidron Valley running in between. Jesus sent two of His disciples to go fetch a donkey and her colt, knowing exactly where they would be, and that the owner would gladly send them in the Lord’s service for this special day. He needed the donkeys, because He had a prophecy to fulfill, from the book of prophet Zechariah: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The donkey was there to identify Jesus as the Christ, the promised King of the Jews, riding into Jerusalem as foretold, without Him having to say a word. And, it was also there to remind the people what the Christ would be like, and what He was coming to do: Lowly, humble, righteous, He was coming to bring them salvation—to bring it in a lowly way, not by destroying sinners, not by making war with their earthly enemies, not by raising Israel up to rule over the other nations. How, then? How would He bring them salvation? For that, they needed to turn to the prophet Isaiah (as we’ll do again on Friday): He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. The King would bring salvation by suffering and dying for the sins of His people, so that, by His blood, He might make peace between God and sinners, so that all who believe might be saved.

No one there that day understood what Jesus was coming to do during that Passover week. No one knew on Sunday that He would be dead by Friday evening. No one could have imagined the turmoil and the drama of the coming week. No one, except for Jesus, who faced it willingly, who faced it “gladly,” in the sense that He knew the salvation His suffering would accomplish for millions of people, past, present, and future. And so He kept going, all the way into the city, all the way to the cross.

But the crowds, in spite of their ignorance, were glad to welcome their King that day. “Hosanna!, they cried. ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ They weren’t just making up their own song of praise. The whole thing, including the Hebrew word “Hosanna” is a quotation from Psalm 118, a song of praise and thanks to the LORD, the God of Israel, who brings salvation to His people, who acts on His people’s behalf—a Messianic Psalm that speaks of the suffering of the Christ and of His eventual deliverance from His suffering. That part they didn’t connect to Jesus.

But we do! And when they acclaimed Him as the The King of Israel, not really knowing what kind of King He was, we acclaim Him as King in the fullest sense, because we know Him as the King who suffered and died for us, as the righteous King who shares His righteousness with all who believe in Him, as the King who now sits at the right hand of God the Father, reigning over all for the good of His holy Church.

Still, not everyone acclaimed Him as King that day. The Pharisees were livid at this “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem, appalled that their fellow Jews were welcoming Jesus with their palm branches and their praises, and with these Messianic verses. They said to one another, “See? You are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!”

It must have felt like that to them, at that moment, as it seemed like their power was slipping away through their fingers. The world has gone after Jesus. Everyone’s following Jesus, listening to Jesus, believing in Jesus, talking about Jesus! They couldn’t stand it. So they made plans to kill Him, so that no one else could go after Him ever again.

It would have worked, except that He rose from the dead after they killed Him, and He has kept on calling out to the world, through the ministers whom He has sent, “Repent and believe the good news! Your King has come to save you!” And ever since the Day of Pentecost, the world has been “going after Him”—many going after Him to kill His religion, to persecute His Church, or, even worse, to corrupt it, and to persuade Christians to abandon Him, to abandon His word, to fit in with the world, to focus on an earthly life where Jesus is little more than an afterthought. Such enemies of Jesus have been around as long as the Pharisees have, and they’ve had far too much success in the world.

But some, a few, a remnant have gone after Jesus, and go after Him still, to seek Him, to worship Him, and to receive the salvation He came to bring. A few still believe in Jesus as their Lord, their Savior, and their King. A few still gather together in His name, every Sunday if possible, and then every year for Holy Week, to spend the week hearing the word of their King and meditating on His teaching and on His Passion. For this we, too, have gathered, by the grace of God, having been chosen by God to hear His Gospel and to believe in His Son, and to receive life in His name. May His Holy Spirit accompany us in our worship and in our devotion as our King comes to us again this week in Word and Sacrament. And let us always be found among those who go after Him! Amen.

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6th Chief Part: The Sacrament of the Altar

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Sermons on the Small Catechism: The Lord’s Supper

Jeremiah 31:31-34  +  1 Corinthians 11:23-32

The Sixth and final Chief Part of the Small Catechism is the Sacrament of the Altar. As you know, Lutherans have a unique position on this teaching, neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant. But it’s the only position that agrees with Holy Scripture, and so we hold to it gladly and give thanks to God for the precious gift of this Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ.

There are two main questions concerning the Sacrament of the Altar. What is it? And, What is it for?

First, what is it? It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself, for us Christians to eat and to drink. The Roman Catholic Church agrees with us about the Real Presence of the body and blood of Christ, but they reject the part about bread and wine still being present. Instead, they believe in Transubstantiation, that the substance of the bread and wine is converted into something else, so that the bread and wine are gone, replaced by Christ’s body and blood that now just look like bread and wine. Meanwhile, the Protestants (modern Evangelicals, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, etc.) agree with us about bread and wine being present but reject the part about the Real Presence of the body and blood of Christ. Instead, they believe in Representationism, that the bread and wine (or grape juice in many cases) merely symbolize or represent the absent body and blood of Christ.

But we believe, according to Holy Scripture, that bread and wine, and Christ’s body and blood, are truly present in the Sacrament, received, eaten, and drunk by everyone who participates in the Sacrament. Jesus is not using figurative language here, as He institutes this Sacrament. He isn’t speaking in riddles or using any symbols. “This is My body. This is My blood,” He said. Or in some passages, “This is the New Testament in My blood” or “This is My blood of the New Covenant.” As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread. You see? We partake of the bread that is the communion of the body of Christ. If we just stick with Scripture and with the plain words of Jesus, it isn’t that hard.

It’s also what the Christian Church has always taught and believed. It wasn’t until the year 1215, at the Fourth Lateran Council, when the doctrine of transubstantiation became official. And it wasn’t until the 16th century that anyone in the Church started denying the Real Presence of Jesus body and blood in the Sacrament, as the Reformed theologians broke away from Rome and felt free to change whichever teachings didn’t mesh with their human reason.

And so we stick with the plain and simple words of Jesus about what the Sacrament of the Altar is. Because to play around with the words of Jesus is to dishonor Him greatly. But to take Him at His Word, to believe this unbelievable thing that He said, is the highest form of worship. It gives Him all the glory for us to submit our fallen reason to His Word, and to cling to His Word above all things.

The second main question concerning the Sacrament is, What is it for? What is the benefit of this eating and drinking?

The Roman Catholic Church says it’s for offering up to God a sacrifice of atonement for the living and the dead. Every time the Eucharist is celebrated, the priest is said to be offering the body and blood of Jesus to God the Father as a sacrifice for sin, as if the sacrifice Jesus made once on the cross needed to be re-offered over and over again. Even if no one else eats or drinks except for the priest, they say that the mere act of the priest offering up this sacrifice to God benefits all those for whom the Mass is being celebrated, whether they’re alive or dead.

Meanwhile, the Protestants say that the benefit of observing the Lord’s Supper is that Christians are obeying the command of Christ to “do this,” making a public testimony that they believe Jesus suffered and died for our sins. It’s their act of obedience toward God.

The Romanists are dead wrong about it being a repeated sacrifice offered up to the Father, because Christ gave Himself once on the cross for all sin. He was the one and only High Priest who offered up that sacrifice to God the Father. No human being dare try to offer it up again. And the Protestants get this part wrong, too, as they entirely miss the main purpose of the Sacrament.

So, What is the benefit of this eating and drinking? That is shown us by these words: “Given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins,” namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. In other words, by eating and drinking the very body and blood of Christ that were once given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins, we are made partakers of Christ’s sacrifice, and we are given the gifts that He earned by His sacrifice, even the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. So the main purpose of the meal isn’t to give something to God, but to receive from God the best gifts He has to give.

How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things? Just as in Baptism, it isn’t the water that does such great things, but the word of God that’s spoken in connection with the water, so in this Sacrament it isn’t the eating and drinking that does it, but the words that are there: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” These words accompany the bodily eating and drinking as the chief part in the Sacrament, and whoever believes these words has what they say and as they declare, namely, forgiveness of sins. Faith doesn’t have to be there to receive Christ’s body and blood. Even an unbeliever would receive that, if he were to somehow participate with us in the Sacrament, because what the Sacrament is doesn’t depend on faith, but solely on the Word of Christ. So an unbeliever would receive the body and blood of Christ, but he would receive it for his judgment, as something harmful to him, whereas the believer receives it for the forgiveness of sins. Because the forgiveness of sins is a promise, and faith is always required to receive a promise.

What else is required for a person to receive the Sacrament worthily? The Roman Church used to teach that you had to be fasting, or that you had to go to confession in order to be worthy to receive the Lord’s Supper. But we say in the Catechism, He is truly worthy and well-prepared who has faith in these words: “Given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.” But whoever does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared. For the words “for you” require nothing but believing hearts.

So, faith. Believing hearts. That’s what makes a person “worthy,” that is, “well-prepared” to receive the Sacrament. Some people get the idea that they have to be practically sinless to go to the Sacrament. But that’s not true at all. Not sinless, but penitent. Sorry for your sins. Trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. And believing what He says about the Sacrament, both that it is His true body and blood, and that He’s giving it to you, once again, for the forgiveness of your sins, so that when you eat His body and drink His blood, you can be certain that He is including you in His sacrifice, that He still accepts you as a member of His body, and that He still includes you in the eternal inheritance of all who have been redeemed and reconciled to God through His body and blood, given and shed on the cross, and now given to Christians to eat and to drink in the Sacrament of the Altar.

How often should you use the Sacrament? As often as you realize you still live in the sinful and unbelieving world, which seeks to drag you away from faith in Christ Jesus. As often as you realize the devil is targeting you for destruction. As often as you realize that one of your most deadly enemies is the very sinful flesh you carry around with you all the time, which will gain the upper hand over you, unless the Lord Himself helps you. So, how often should you use the Sacrament? As often as possible! May God lead you to see it as an indispensable treasure. And may the true body and blood of Jesus strengthen you and preserve you in the true faith unto life everlasting. Depart in peace. Amen.

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The royal, priestly Prophet goes into battle

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Sermon for Judica – Lent 5

Hebrews 9:11-15  +  John 8:46-59

We often speak of the threefold office of God’s Anointed One, the Christ, the Son of David: the office of Prophet, Priest, and King. All three offices were prominent in the Old Testament, usually occupied by different people, although sometimes they overlapped, as with David, for example, who, in addition to being king, was an inspired, prophetic writer of many of the Psalms, earning him the title “royal Prophet.” At the beginning of the Lenten season we saw how Jesus, the Son of David, defeated the devil’s temptations and so became qualified to serve as our great High Priest, who was without sin and, therefore, able to offer His own blood as the perfect sacrifice for all sin, being the Mediator and Priest of a New Testament to fulfill and replace the Old. Today’s epistle spoke of that same thing, and it’s the main theme of Holy Week.

On this last Sunday before Holy Week, we heard a Gospel that highlights Jesus’ role especially as Prophet and King, like His forefather David. Prophet, in that He was sent by God to speak the very words of God to the Jews, and to reveal God to them, although most refused to acknowledge Him as a true Prophet; and King, in that Jesus confronts the enemies of His people to put them in their place. Modern kings, where they still exist, usually sit in safety and luxury, giving orders from afar, from the comfort of their palaces. Ancient kings sat on thrones when they were making decisions, but they also led the charge in battle. Throughout this whole chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus does battle, not with earthly weapons, but with the sword of His almighty word. He takes on His enemies, the Jews who were becoming more and more motivated to kill Him. And He takes them on, not for His own sake—on the contrary, these confrontations would eventually get Him killed. No, He confronts them for our sake. He bears their insults and accusations, refutes them, and makes the bold statements that form the foundation of our faith and provide pure comfort to all who believe. So watch as the true royal, priestly Prophet goes into battle for His beloved Church.

The Jews had been challenging Jesus all day. So He challenged them back: “Which one of you convicts me of sin?” And no one could, for as much as they hated Him and were eager to find sins to convict Him of. The fact that they couldn’t proves yet again that Jesus was indeed qualified to serve both as the great High Priest and as the perfect Sacrifice, to heal the breech between God and sinful mankind, to reconcile God and man through His blood and mediation.

And if I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears God’s words. That is why you do not hear, because you are not of God. Jesus was “of God” from the start, making Him both the perfect Prophet, who spoke God’s words faithfully and was supposed to be believed, and the perfect Priest, who, as the God-Man, can perfectly represent God to man and man to God. Believers become “of God” when they are born again, when they are brought to faith. But the Jews who didn’t believe in Jesus proved that they were not “of God.” They didn’t have Him for a Father. They weren’t His children. They weren’t on His side. Instead, as Jesus had pointed out earlier in this dialogue, they were of their father, the devil, who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Yes, Jesus dared to declare these powerful, well-respected religious leaders to be sons of Satan, to be working for the devil, to be enemies of God, because they refused to use Jesus, the Mediator, to be reconciled to God. That’s true for everyone who fails to hear and believe the word of God that Jesus speaks, the word of God that’s recorded in Holy Scripture. There is no fellowship with God for those who do not believe the things that Jesus says. And, tragically, it’s often people inside the Church, people who claim to be God’s children, who reveal themselves not to be God’s children by their rejection of Christ’s teaching—a sobering warning for all of us.

The Jews answered and said to him, “Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and that you have a demon?” They were dripping with hatred and condescension toward Jesus. Who did He think He was? They were the famous Pharisees! They were the experts! They were the leaders of the Church! How dare He declare them to be outside the kingdom of God! He must be the one who’s a half-breed and in league with the devil!

Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and who judges.” There He is as Prophet and as King. As Prophet, Jesus honors His Father by speaking His Father’s words faithfully. He honors His Father by doing His will in the world, always, without fail. As Prophet and as King, Jesus stands against these unbelievers and warns them that the One who is heaven seeks glory and honor for His beloved Son, and who sits in judgment against everyone who fails to give it. This is the same Jesus whom John saw in his vision in the Book of Revelation, with a sharp two-edged sword coming out of His mouth. Here He slashes the Jews with it and speaks condemnation against them.

Meanwhile, the same sword of His mouth works great comfort for those who believe, even as it continues to destroy those who disbelieve. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. That’s a defiant assertion against His enemies, who would surely see death, and even eternal death, because they wouldn’t keep His word. But for all who do, it’s a proclamation of pure comfort, for all who keep His word, for all who believe in Him and in the words He speaks. Here is Christ the King, stepping forward to take on death itself on behalf of His beloved Christians.

“Death” has various meanings. The most literal meaning is the separation of body and soul that takes place when the lungs stop breathing and the heart stops beating and the brain stops sending signals to the rest of the body. That physical death awaits us all, by the ancient command of God that cursed our race after the first man and woman chose death over life. But the death that believers in Jesus will never see is far worse. That death is called eternal death, the death of pain and torment that comes after physical death—torment for the soul, and then torment for body and soul at the end of this age, when Jesus returns and raises all the dead, when the righteous will go away to eternal life while the unrighteous will go away to everlasting punishment. That death is truly dreadful. That death is permanent. But we have the assurance of the Christ, our Prophet and our King, that those who keep His word will never see that death, not at all, not any part of it, not hell, not purgatory, not any sort of torment after our physical death occurs, but only life, joy, peace, and rest.

Of course, the unbelieving Jews were oblivious, as usual, to Jesus’ true meaning. Then the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets. And you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?”

Yes, the prophets and patriarchs experienced physical death. The Jews claimed Jesus was demon-possessed because, as they saw it, He was promising to keep people from dying physically, when, in fact, He was talking about eternal death in hell. They thought He was making Himself out to be greater than Abraham and greater than the prophets. In that, however, they weren’t wrong. Our royal priestly Prophet Jesus, the Son of David, was and is greater than Abraham or any of the Old Testament prophets, greater than the greatest men who had ever lived, greater than Elijah and Elisha, who did raise a couple of people from the dead. But those people just got a few more years added to their earthly lives before they died again. Jesus could do far more!

But first, before the big reveal, before revealing who He truly was, our King tossed another grenade at them: Jesus answered, “If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. You do not know him; but I know him. If I were to say, ‘I do not know him,’ I would be a liar, like you. But I do know him and keep his word.” The royal priestly Prophet from heaven knows the Father perfectly, because He is the only-begotten Son of the Father, begotten of His Father before all ages. He knows God and He reveals God to mankind. Meanwhile, those who reject Jesus and don’t listen to His word, but who still call themselves children of God or worshipers of God—they’re nothing but liars. And Jesus isn’t afraid to say so.

Finally, the King is ready to set them on fire with His words about Himself. Your father Abraham was glad that he would see my day, and he saw it and rejoiced. Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old! And you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Abraham saw the coming of His promised Seed by faith, and he laughed. He rejoiced, not only in the birth of his promised son Isaac, but in the coming Seed, the promised Christ, in whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. But more than that, Abraham literally saw the person of Christ every time he interacted with God, because Jesus is the exact representation of the Father, the eternal God Himself, Yahweh, Jehovah, the great I AM, as He revealed Himself to Moses.

That’s what the Prophet Jesus declares about Himself. So don’t even think about claiming to be a religious person, much less a Christian, if you don’t believe it, and if you don’t believe in Him. He is the only true God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is the true Prophet, Priest, and King, anointed by God the Father to speak for Him as Prophet, to offer His blood and to mediate for sinners as Priest, and to reign over the house of God as King, doing battle against every enemy as a mighty Champion, until death itself is thoroughly defeated. Believe in Him! Take refuge in Him! And He will share with you His victory over sin, death, and the devil. Amen.

Source: Sermons