Sermon for Midweek of Invocavit

James 1:2-15  +  Luke 22:24-32

This evening we pick up the theme that we considered on Sunday—the theme of temptation, focusing on the lesson you heard from James. Trials and temptations, actually. The word used in the New Testament for temptation is the same word used for trials or testing. A trial or a test is a hardship that has to be endured, resulting in divine approval and blessing. You might think of Abraham, how God tested his faith by telling him to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. That was certainly a hardship that God had Abraham endure, and when Abraham endured, his faith was approved and He was greatly blessed. Jesus, too, was tested. You heard Him in the second lesson tonight as He spoke to His disciples: But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. Jesus’ trials began in earnest when He was fasting in the wilderness. It was a hardship for Him to go forty days and nights without food, a trial of His faith in His dear Father and a testing of His obedience.

But a trial can also turn into a temptation. Let’s define a temptation this way: A temptation is the enticement to fulfill one’s desires apart from God’s will. For example, God had given Adam and Eve a very small test, the tiniest possible trial, the smallest hardship that can barely be called a hardship: don’t eat from this one tree. That wasn’t a temptation; it was a test. But then the devil came along and magnified that tiny hardship for Eve, deceiving her into thinking it was a really big hardship. (Has he ever done that with you—fool you into dwelling on a little hardship until it appears as big as a mountain, until you’re good and worried about it?) The devil did that with Eve, and then cunningly played on Eve’s godly desire for knowledge and wisdom. He used that desire and then tempted Eve, enticed Eve to find knowledge and wisdom in the fruit of the tree where God had said not to go looking for knowledge and wisdom. She listened to the devil. She saw that the tree was desirable to make one wise, and so allowed the devil to lead her astray from God’s will, to fulfill her desire where God told her not to fulfill it.

On Sunday we saw Jesus’ trial in the wilderness. His trial of hunger at the end of forty days of fasting was also turned into a temptation by the devil, who tried to entice Jesus to fulfill His desire for food in a way that God hadn’t given. But as we learned on Sunday, the devil was unable to entice Jesus away from faith in God and love for God and obedience to God.

Just to be clear on the difference between trial and temptation, let’s go to what James says at the end of tonight’s lesson and see how he talks about “temptation.” Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Here James shows us how temptation works. It plays to our desires, which may be innocent enough on their own, but temptation turns those desires in directions that God’s Word doesn’t allow, and that gives birth to sin, and sin, if left unchecked, leads to death.

James says that God tempts no one. He does “test” His children, as He did with Abraham and with Jesus. But He doesn’t tempt anyone to sin. And why does He test faith? James gives us a reason in our lesson: My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. “Patience” can also be translated “endurance” or “perseverance.” St. Paul said the same thing in similar words in Rom. 5:  We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Peter, too, speaks of God’s good purpose in testing our faith: Now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 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,

So James urges us to rejoice in trials, because faith and perseverance in the faith are the most precious things God gives in this life. Without faith in Christ, we’re lost forever. With faith in Christ, you have God’s favor. You have everything, so you can lose everything here on this earth. As we sing in the hymn, And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, let these all be gone. They yet have nothing won. The kingdom ours remaineth. So God works on our faith with tests and trials in order to exercise it, to keep driving us back to Him and His Word alone.

What trials have you faced in the past and endured? What trials are you now facing that require you to shut your eyes and simply trust? How have you fallen into temptation in the past? How is Satan tugging on your desires even now to get you to serve yourself and to turn away from God and His Word? Listen to God’s Holy Spirit through the words of James. Know that trials for the baptized are not signs of God’s disfavor, but of His fatherly care. And even the temptations that come from the devil, the world, or our own sinful flesh are used by God for our good. This life is a constant battlefield, full of trials and temptations. If you have fallen into temptation—and there is no one who doesn’t fall, Christ is here to pick you up again with His forgiveness and mercy. And now, as you go forth with His forgiveness, go forth more committed than you were before to endure hardship, trials and temptations, with Christ Jesus in your sights as both your Savior and your example of patient endurance. As James says, Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Amen.

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Sermon for Invocavit – Lent 1

Genesis 3:1-24  +  2 Corinthians 6:1-10  +  Matthew 4:1-11

The theme of temptation in today’s Scriptures readings is inescapable. Soon after the creation of the world, soon after the fall of the evil angels, there was the tempter, the devil, that ancient serpent, in the Garden of Eden with our first parents. And what was his temptation, really? It was a temptation to disbelieve the Word of God, and a temptation to be unhappy with the life God had given them. There they were in paradise. They were the rulers of the world. They had food all around them, and the love of God surrounding them, perfect health, perfect unity, perfect peace. And still the devil was able to get Eve to change her mind and conclude, “It’s not enough. I need more than what God has given.” And Adam, when he saw that his wife had taken the plunge into disobedience, instead of refusing the fruit she offered, changed his mind and concluded, “Life would be meaningless without my precious Eve. I must join her in disobedience. God’s love is just not enough.”

We are their children. All of us. Every human being who has ever been, born of a father and a mother—we are children of Adam and Eve. We inherit from them, not just the genes that make up our bodies, but also the spiritual genes that make up our souls. Their very being, their very nature was twisted into something ugly, something diseased, something sinful and damnable when they fell into sin, and that is what we inherit from them. Not just the corruption of our bodies that eventually leads to death, but also the corruption of our souls, of our nature, so that sin is with us all the time, so that nothing good can come from us, by nature. Only evil.

Those are the ravages of original sin, that complete corruption of our nature into something sinful. It’s why no one, by nature, loves God, or has true fear of God or trust in God. On the contrary, we are people who are naturally unhappy with God and the things He provides. Dissatisfied with Him. Discontented with our life. And naturally distrustful of His Word.

This original sin is so bad that it goes beyond our understanding. We don’t even realize how thoroughly corrupted we are. Only God’s Word can reveal it. We don’t even need the tempter to come and tempt us, as he did with Adam and Eve, because we are already fallen creatures. That’s true of every human being ever born, every human being descended from Adam.

Until Jesus came, born, not of a man and a woman, but of a woman only. The fact of His virgin-birth, combined with the fact of His conception by the working of the Holy Spirit, meant that Jesus was fully human, like us, but without the corruption to His nature. In that way, He was like Adam was when Adam was first created, before he fell into sin. That’s why we sometimes refer to Jesus as the Second Adam.

Well, when He was about 30 years old, the Second Adam was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, not to wash away His sins, but to step forward and be inaugurated as our Savior and Substitute, so that, just as all who are descended from Adam inherit his sin and the resulting condemnation, so all who are descended from Christ by a spiritual rebirth, through Baptism and faith, inherit His righteousness and the resulting justification.

And so, as soon as Christ, the Second Adam was baptized, He was led out—or as St. Mark puts it, driven out! —into the desert, into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit “to be tempted.” Part of that temptation would come as a result of the forty day fast that God the Father imposed on His Son. Not that Christ was unwilling to do it, but when we consider that it was the Holy Spirit who drove Him out into the wilderness and kept Him there, where there was no food, we see that this forty day fast wasn’t just something Jesus decided on His own to do. It was His Father’s will that He stay out there in the desert for forty days with nothing to eat.

Now, today’s Gospel mentions three of the temptations that Jesus faced. All three temptations are similar to the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden—and similar to the temptations that affect us—because they all have to do with a lack of contentment with what God has given.

First, Matthew tells us of the temptation to be unhappy about the lack of food the Father had provided. If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. Here the devil isn’t trying to make Jesus doubt who He was. Jesus knew that perfectly well and displayed it already at the age of 12 when He asked His parents, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” No, this was a temptation for the Son of God to be dissatisfied with His Father’s decision to withhold food from His Son when His Son was hungry. If Your Father doesn’t provide you with what You want or with what You think you need, then forget about Him and take care of Yourself!

But Jesus opened up the Scriptures and threw back in the devil’s face the Word of God that was spoken through Moses: It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ Jesus remained content, happy with what His Father had provided, because, even though there was no food in the wilderness, Jesus had the words and promises of God to sustain Him. That was enough.

Then there was the temptation to jump from the pinnacle of the temple—another temptation to be dissatisfied with God. After all, He hasn’t demonstrated His love for you nearly often enough, has He, Jesus? You should go out of Your way to make Him prove that His Word is true. Make Him prove that He loves you. The Son of God surely deserves to have guardian angels keeping Him safe from all harm! It even says so in the Bible!

But again Jesus referred back to the Scriptures in their proper context: It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’ For Jesus, there was no need to go out of His way to try to force God to keep His Word or prove His love. He was already completely satisfied with God’s love and content with God’s promises, no matter what.

Finally, there was the temptation in which the devil took Jesus up to that high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world with their glory. All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me. But, didn’t all the kingdoms of the world already belong to Jesus? As God, yes. But as Man, no. Not yet. The kingdoms of the earth and their glory had to be earned by the Man Christ Jesus—earned by a life of humble obedience to His Father, earned by fulfilling His God-given mission, earned by suffering abuse and crucifixion and death. That’s the future Jesus’ Father had given Him, and Jesus knew it. So here was the devil, offering Jesus an alternate path to greatness, an easy path, a painless one, one without the cross. It was a lie, of course, a deception, but then, so is every temptation of the devil. He’s always lying, trying to get us to be dissatisfied with what God has given, promising something that he cannot give.

Adam and Eve bought into the lie. You have bought into the lie over and over again. But Jesus never wavered. Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ The Second Adam overcame the devil, and His victory becomes your victory when you are grafted into Him by faith. When you were baptized into Christ, you were baptized into His victory over sin and temptation and the devil.

That’s your only safety from the devil’s accusations, because he can rightly accuse you of many things before God. Every sin you commit is the result of dissatisfaction with God and what He has given. The devil tempts you to be unhappy with your life, unhappy with your spouse or with your lack of a spouse, unhappy with your children or with your lack of children, unhappy with your body, with your income, with your friends and family, unhappy with your grades, you’re your talents and abilities, unhappy with your past, your present or your future, unhappy with your church, unhappy with God’s Word. That unhappiness is sinful in itself, and it leads to all kinds of other sins as you try to correct or change the things you’re unhappy with. All the strife and discord in the world exists because human beings refuse to be content with what God has given, and so they rebel against God. We rebel against God.

See, then, how important Baptism is? It links you to Christ. It paints His perfection onto you before God. It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promise of God declare. And it signifies that the Old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man, in turn, should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

A new man should daily emerge and arise… Our flesh, our sinful nature is never satisfied with God. But when the Holy Spirit brings us to faith in Christ Jesus, He creates a new man in us who is satisfied with God, because God gave His only Son to do battle against the devil for us, to bruise the serpent’s head for us and to rescue us from the devil’s dominion. That new man needs to be fed and nurtured and strengthened each day to do battle against the Old Adam in us, because the devil is always at work with his lies and temptations, pointing you to those things that make you unhappy with God. The only remedy against the devil is faith in Christ, and the only remedy for our natural dissatisfaction with God is hearing God’s Word and receiving the body and blood of our Savior. Here, in Word and Sacrament, we learn to be content with what God has given, because He has given His Son for us. Hasn’t He proven that He is good? And if we think anything is still lacking, then we learn from Christ to turn to God in prayer and to look to God’s Word for guidance, not to resort to our own devices or rely on our own wisdom or strength.

God’s grace is revealed in today’s Gospel in the Second Adam who stood strong against Satan for you. When you are tempted to be unhappy with God, remember Jesus. Remember Him first as your Savior who defeated the devil for you and saved you from condemnation. And then, remember Him, too, for strength to fight against the devil and to resist his temptations. God is good and gracious, and what He gives is always enough. Don’t let the devil deceive you into believing otherwise! Amen.

Source: Sermons

Sermon for Ash Wednesday

Jonah 3:1-10  +  Joel 2:12-19  +  Matthew 6:16-21

We call today Ash Wednesday because ashes are an Old Testament sign of sorrow, and in the New Testament Church the practice arose of having those Christians who fell into grave public sin wear ashes on their heads during the Lenten season as a sign of their repentance—their sorrow over the sins they had committed—so that they could then be welcomed back into the Church after their time of public repentance was fulfilled. At some point, the practice was extended, not just to public sinners, but to any and all Christians. I can’t say that I find any usefulness in that in our time, nor did the Lutherans at the time of the Reformation.

Then there is the tradition of fasting during the Lenten season, and that may be somewhat more useful, if carried out in the right spirit and for the right reasons. Jesus spoke of the usefulness of that kind of fast in our Gospel this evening.

In any case, we learn from the Scriptures this evening about the great usefulness—or rather, our the urgent need—of repentance and sorrow over sin, but only when that sorrow over sin is followed by faith in God’s tender mercies for Christ’s sake. Because to be sorry or sorrowful over something you did wrong does no one any good if it isn’t combined with faith in God’s grace and mercy to blot out your transgressions.

We saw the king of Nineveh sitting in ashes and proclaiming a fast in his city after the prophet Jonah announced that the Lord was giving them forty days before He would destroy them for their violence and their unbelief. And the Lord saw that the ashes and the fasting were signs of genuine humility, indications of true repentance and sorrow over their wickedness, signs that they were determined to turn from their sins in the hope that God would relent. And He did relent; He didn’t destroy them, because He is gracious and merciful and does not desire the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn back from their sins and turn toward the merciful Lord God for forgiveness.

We heard the prophet Joel calling on the rebellious people of Israel to repent, to turn to the Lord with all their heart, “with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” Unlike the heathen people of Nineveh, the Israelites had a covenant relationship with the true God and yet still had turned away from Him in their hearts, putting their trust in false gods, putting their trust in themselves, living in whatever sins they wanted, and figuring that God would let it go, that God would put up with it, because, after all, they were His people, His Church. Oh, no, says Joel. All have sinned, and a day of vengeance and punishment is coming on all who will not sorrow over their sins. Return to the Lord, not with outward gestures of repentance, but with hearts that are truly broken and contrite. Why? What’s the point? Because God is “gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.”

The people of Nineveh fasted in repentance. The people of Israel were called on to fast in repentance. Then there’s that other group of Jews, the Pharisees, who were famous for fasting. They fasted all the time, and made sure everyone knew it and could see it on their faces, so that they would be praised for their great “humility.” But their fasting wasn’t good enough. Their fasting wasn’t done in sorrow over sin, but as a sign of their pride in how “practically sinless” they were.

But they weren’t sinless. No one is sinless. In fact, the Scriptures lump all of our works together under sin. God says, repent of all of it. Sorrow over all of it. Not a single deed you’ve ever done is good enough to earn God’s favor. You can’t hold up a single work of yours to the light of God’s Law and say, “Now this was a perfect work, untainted by sin.”

What you can do, what you must do, is to sorrow over your utter sinfulness, and then immediately hold up to God the treasure that He Himself has given you, the treasure that is Christ Jesus. Here! Here is perfection! Here is a life of perfect righteousness and love and humility. Here, O Lord God! Judge me, not by anything I’ve done, but by the precious blood of Your dear Son. And there is where God’s mercy and forgiveness are always found. The blood of Christ is always precious enough to cover your sins. The merits of Christ are always good enough to earn God’s favor for you and for everyone who has ever lived on earth or who will ever live. To repent is to sorrow over your complete failure before God, and then at once to rejoice in faith in the complete success of Jesus, who earned God’s favor for you.

Christ is the treasure that matters, that lasts. And so, He says, don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth. Here, moth and rust destroy. Here, thieves break in and steal; stock markets crash; wars erupt and currency becomes worthless overnight. Here, the favor of your friends and even of your family is fickle, and with one mistake, on your part or theirs, you can lose it all. So why live for these things? Why order your life around getting more things and gaining more favor here on earth? It will all be gone, and probably sooner than you think. Worse still, you have sins that need dealing with, and there’s nothing here on earth that can do it.

Instead, by the Means of Grace you have been given access to heavenly things, heavenly benefits. Christ has shed His blood for your sins, and now, in Word and Sacrament, He gives you the heavenly benefits of forgiveness, life and salvation. Earthly wisdom fails and perishes. But the heavenly wisdom of God’s Holy Spirit never fails and never perishes. Works done to get ahead in this life will be forgotten. But the works done by believers in faith toward God and in love toward your neighbor will follow you into eternal life.

So I won’t put ashes on your forehead tonight, and I won’t tell you to fast in this Lenten season. And I don’t want to know about it, even if you do fast; let it be between you and God, and let it serve as a reminder that your soul needs the treasure of Christ even more than your body needs food. I will tell you over the next forty days to live in repentance—sorrow over sin and faith in Christ, and not to neglect the state of your soul. And I will tell you to be ardent in prayer and diligent in hearing the Word of God, in struggling against sin and the temptations that come both from the devil and from your own flesh, and in producing fruit worthy of repentance, improving your life, with the help and support of God’s Holy Spirit, so that you are more loving tomorrow than you were today, ever growing into the image of Christ. As we confess with Luther in the Smalcald Articles:

In Christians, this repentance continues until death. For through one’s entire life, repentance contends with the sin remaining in the flesh. Paul testifies that he wars with the law in his members (Romans 7:14–25) not by his own powers, but by the gift of the Holy Spirit that follows the forgiveness of sins. This gift daily cleanses and sweeps out the remaining sins and works to make a person truly pure and holy.

Amen.

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Sermon for Quinquagesima

Isaiah 35:3-7  +  1 Corinthians 13  +  Luke 18:31-43

Today’s Gospel is simple. We see the love of Christ on the one hand, and the faith of the blind beggar on the other. Faith and love. That basically describes the Christian life. I suppose it’s especially fitting that we heard the Biblical description of love today from 1 Corinthians 13 as the rest of the world goes crazy over Valentine’s Day, often celebrating things that aren’t really love at all.

We see true love in Jesus in today’s Gospel, who “loved the Church and gave Himself for her.” He even described to His disciples ahead of time the things that were about to happen—the things that He Himself was about to let happen:

Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”

See, Jesus isn’t complaining here to His disciples about what’s going to happen to Him. Nor is He trying to make them feel guilty, nor is He trying to show off just how wonderful He is. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. He’s just telling them about it ahead of time so that they will understand later, first, that Jesus truly is the Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Son of David, whose coming, whose suffering, death and resurrection were foretold by all the Prophets. And second, that no one was forcing Jesus to go through with Holy Week. He allowed those who hated Him to hate Him and to arrest Him and abuse Him and crucify Him. He did it, because He wanted to provide the sacrifice for sin by which sinful men may be saved. He did it, because His Father wanted to give His Son into death, so that sinners who were hostile to Him might be converted and saved by faith in Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us. He did everything for us. Love “does not seek its own.”

How different that is from what passes for “love” in our society, where people call it “love” when you’re attracted to another person. But see, if you’re attracted to another person, then there’s something in the other person pulling you toward him or her, some quality that you like, some action or attitude that draws you to that person. But Biblical love isn’t turned on by something good in someone else. It isn’t a give and take. It just gives. It’s a sacrificial devotion to another person’s wellbeing. God’s love for sinners isn’t inspired by something good He sees in us. It starts with Him. It’s God’s sacrificial devotion to our wellbeing that prompted Jesus to come and to give Himself for us. The message of that love of Christ inspires our faith in Him, and faith does produce love. The same kind of giving love and sacrificial devotion that God has shown to us, we now begin to show to our neighbor.

Well, not always. Sometimes the self-centered flesh of believers still get the better of them. It wasn’t exactly “love” that prompted the crowds in the parade to Jerusalem with Jesus to try to shush the blind man who was calling out to Jesus for help. That response on their part was not love, not devotion to the blind man or to Jesus. It was self-centered. They were thinking about themselves and how bothered they were that their joyful procession to Jerusalem was being interrupted by a blind beggar who wouldn’t shut up. He just keeps praising Jesus. That’s right, praising Jesus. Because the highest praise Jesus receives from anyone is to be recognized as the Christ and believed in as the merciful Savior. Faith is the worship inspired by the Gospel.

Jesus didn’t cast away the crowd, or the beggar. Instead, He showed kindness—unmerited kindness to the blind beggar and granted his request that his sight should be restored. In other words, Jesus loved the blind beggar and showed him and showed the crowd and showed us that faith in Jesus saves. “Your faith has made you well. Your faith has saved you.” Jesus made him well physically to show that faith alone in Christ is what saves us spiritually. That’s what the love of Christ accomplished here.

That was prophesied, too, in the Old Testament, not just His suffering. What did we hear today from Isaiah?  How did God announce the coming of the Christ? Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Strength for the weak, comfort for the despairing. There is absolutely no need to despair, no matter what’s falling apart in your life, no matter how sinful you’ve been, no matter how many people are against you. Strength, comfort, encouragement—these are the things that mark the Messiah’s coming. These are good reasons to believe in Him and trust in His goodness. The ones who will be condemned at His coming are those who are strong in themselves, secure in themselves, stubbornly holding onto their sins, worshiping false gods of their own making. But those who are weak, sinful, distressed—they will find a Savior in Jesus, not only when He comes again, but first now as they hear His Word and are baptized and trust in His name, as He sends His Spirit in the Word, in Baptism, in the Absolution, in the Sacrament. It’s good news that Jesus is here for all who want Him for a Savior, for all who look to Him for help, mercy, strength and forgiveness.

Learn from the love of Jesus in today’s Gospel, that His love knows no limits, no bounds. It propelled Him to the cross, because He was devoted to sinful mankind. And the love and devotion of Jesus does not fade with time, because “love never fails.” People fail. Sinners fail. But love doesn’t fail.

And learn from the blind beggar in today’s Gospel to trust in Jesus, the Son of David, to admit that you need His help, and to call out to Him in every need. Receive Jesus’ help in Word and Sacrament and trust that He will open your eyes, too, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.

And with Jesus’ love in view and with faith in Him that is kindled by His love, now turn to your neighbors and love them, too, not because you find something loveable in them, but because God has poured His own love into your hearts, love that does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

This is the only path of the Christian: faith and love. Faith that receives all good things from Jesus, and love that gives all good things to our neighbor. As we enter the season of Lent this Wednesday, let us all devote ourselves to hearing the Word of Christ, that we may rejoice in the love of Christ, and grow in faith, and put His love into practice. Amen.

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Sermon for Sexagesima

Isaiah 55:10-13  +  2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9  +  Luke 8:4-15

The Word of God—what is it? It’s every word that’s written in the Holy Scriptures, which holy men of God wrote down as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. I think that’s what first comes to mind when we think of the Word of God, isn’t it? The written Word of God is our fount and source of doctrine and the judge of every preacher and of every teaching. But remember this: what the prophets and apostles preached to their hearers was also the Word of God, whether or not it was written down. So, too, the message of Christ in our day, if it is faithfully proclaimed, is also the Word of God. The Word of God, for example, is not only proclaimed in our Divine Service when I read to you from the Scriptures or when our hymns quote snippets from the Scriptures. A hymn or a liturgical response that faithfully and accurately proclaims the message of Christ is also God’s Word. And the sermons preached by ministers of the Gospel in agreement with the written Word of God are also the Word of God. Keep that in mind as you consider Jesus’ parable today about the Sower and the Seed.

The seed is God’s Word. The sower is God who sends forth His Word to be preached. The hearers are the soil. The plant that springs forth from the Word is faith, and the fruits that are produced from the plant are works of love and the godly life that flow from faith. Before we even discuss Jesus’ parable, there is a warning here not to despise or neglect the preaching of God’s Word. The seed already has enough obstacles to overcome when it is being sown. Those who refuse to hear the Word have already set up an idol to worship in place of God, something more important than the Word of God. I warn you, who are here today, to take care lest you fall into such idolatry in the future.

But now, you who are hearing the Word, you are the soil onto which the seed is now falling. And the parable is not just about the moment when the seed is sown, but also about what happens afterward. So think about that as we go through the parable and remember it as you travel home today, as you approach the coming week. How will the word of God that is sown today grow during the week? What effect will it have on you and those around you? What does the seed need in order to grow? What things in your life are attacking the seed and the plant that begins to grow from it?

May the seed that is sown today through your ears not be like the seed that fell by the wayside. The wayside, the road, is hard. The seed falls on it but doesn’t penetrate the soil at all. Instead people walk on it and the birds snatch it up right away. Jesus says that this happens when people hear the word but don’t think about it, don’t take it to heart. They’re distracted. Or they just stubbornly assume they know all that stuff already. Instead of thinking about the Word they hear, they focus on the preacher, what they like or don’t like about him, or they think about other things that are going on in their life. They forget what God said as soon as they hear it, and don’t give it a second thought. And so the devil comes and snatches the Word of God away from them so that it doesn’t take root and grow into faith.

And may the seed that is sown today through your ears not be like the seed that fell on the rocky soil. These people hear the word and rejoice over God’s goodness in Christ, but only for a little while. Then temptation comes. Persecution comes. The cross comes, and they fall away. They fall away because their faith wasn’t firmly rooted in God’s Word. They never bothered to grow in their understanding of God’s Word. Instead, they were satisfied with the little bit they heard, and so their faith remained superficial. But faith needs to grow roots. A superficial faith will not survive for long in the heat of the day, as Jesus plainly says, because all the false doctrine out there in the world, the culture around us that is so hostile to real Biblical Christianity, and the pressure from friends and family and society to turn away from the faith can only be withstood by a faith that is firmly grounded in the Word of God. It takes real arrogance for a Christian to imagine that he or she can hold onto his or her faith without a regular supply of God’s Word to keep watering it and nourishing it and making it grow.

And may the seed that is sown today through your ears not be like the seed that fell among thorns. These are the ones who hear the Word of God, and it does sprout in their hearts into faith, but then, the cares, riches, and pleasures of life choke it. How easy it is to let the cares of life choke the Word so that it doesn’t produce the fruits of love and perseverance! Work, school, sports, recreation, health, finances, washing, baking, cooking, cleaning, folding, ironing, repairing, maintaining, banking, retiring, dating, eating, drinking, partying, sleeping—who has time even to hear God’s Word, much less to think about it and meditate on it and study it and discuss it? Who has time to pray and to serve his neighbor and to grow into the image of Christ? It’s not that that list of things has to take over your life and choke the Word. It’s that people allow that list of things to choke the Word. And all the while, there is Jesus with this warning, and with His command from Matthew 6, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Then there are the others, the seed that fell on good soil. Not good because the soil itself has done anything good, or because it has any natural properties that make it good. It’s called good because it receives the seed of the Word. It’s called good because these people have heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. This! This is what God is seeking, and His Word itself has the power to create it: the hearer of His Word who listens, who takes it seriously, who cherishes the Word of God, believes it and puts it into practice. This is the one who hears the good report about Christ, who loved us and gave Himself for us, and takes comfort in Christ’s mercy and in His sacrifice for sins. Faith springs up from the Word. It isn’t flashy; it isn’t showy. It just grows, patiently. It’s watered by the Word of God, too, which, as Isaiah said, is like rain and snow that come down from the heavens and water the earth, making it bud and flourish. This faith sends down roots, so that, even though temptations and persecutions come along, these faithful hearers flee to Christ for refuge and strength and daily forgiveness. They are surrounded by the same cares and riches and pleasures as anyone else, but they heed the warning of Christ not to let those things take priority over the Word of God. And so, firmly rooted in Christ, they produce a harvest of good fruit, works of love and sacrifice and service, works of compassion and care and selflessness, ever hearing the Word, ever receiving the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, ever praying for all the saints.

These are the hearers whom Jesus seeks, and it’s never too late to become one, as long as the Word of God is being preached, because every time the Word of God is preached, the seed is again being sown. How will you hear it today?

The fact that some people will always mishear the Word of God, the fact that some people will not take it to heart and keep it, doesn’t mean you have to be one of them. Instead, when God’s Word is being proclaimed, when Christ’s death and resurrection are being preached, when God’s commandments are being explained, when the Sacraments are being administered, know that God’s Holy Spirit is powerfully working to sow that seed in your heart and to make it bud and flourish, so that you will be blessed, as the Lord declares in the first Psalm:

    Blessed is the man
    Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
      Nor stands in the path of sinners,
      Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
    But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
      And in His law he meditates day and night.
    He shall be like a tree
      Planted by the rivers of water,
      That brings forth its fruit in its season,
      Whose leaf also shall not wither;
    And whatever he does shall prosper.

May these words describe your hearing of the Word today.  In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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Sermon for Septuagesima

Jeremiah 1:4-10  +  1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5  +  Matthew 20:1-16

There are two kinds of workers in the Lord’s vineyard, two kinds of Christians in the Lord’s Church. Jesus describes them for us in today’s Gospel. There are those who start out first, but end up last. And there are those who start out last, but end up first. The parable about the workers in the vineyard helps us to understand how all this works, so that we don’t end up last. Because “last” in God’s eyes means losing His favor and falling out of grace.

In Jesus’ parable, there’s a landowner who goes out at the crack of dawn and finds a number of workers ready to hit the fields and work. These are the first workers, the ones who will put in their full twelve hours of work. They will work hard and long. They will bear the burden and the heat of the day. And they will be duly compensated for their work. The landowner agrees with them ahead of time on the wages he’ll pay them at the end of the day: one denarius. Fair enough.

Then there were the rest of the workers that the landowner hired at various points throughout the day. Some of them would work nine hours, some six hours, some three hours, and some only one hour in the vineyard. With all of these workers, there was no agreement for certain wages. Just the assurance that the landowner would treat them fairly at the end of the day.

At the end of the day, those who were hired throughout the day, including the very last hour of the day, were given one denarius. Those who were hired first in the day were given one denarius. And, as you know, that embittered the ones who were hired first, who worked the longest. They expected that the wages would be handed out based on the merit of the worker and the worthiness of the work. So when they saw those who were hired last receiving one denarius, they expected to get more than that. Surely their twelve hours of labor were worth more than these people’s one hour of labor.

Well, maybe that would be true, if this parable were about worldly economics or earthly business practices. But it isn’t. This parable of Jesus is about the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is not a business, and God, the heavenly landowner, does not reward the workers in His vineyard like an earthly landowner does.

In the end, the first workers who grumbled and complained against the landowner received their precious denarius. But they lost favor with the landowner. Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’

Now let’s consider the meaning of this parable.

The first group of workers includes the Old Testament Jews. They were the first ones chosen by God, out of all the nations of the earth, to be His special people. He made His covenant—His agreement—with the people of Israel through Moses and gave to Israel all the commandments of the Law, the Ten Commandments and all the rest of the statutes and ordinances of the Old Testament. And God promised Israel that, if they would obey His commandments and keep His covenant, they would be His holy people, and He would be their God. By the time Jesus came, the Jews, as a nation, had been working under the burden and heat of the Law for some 1,500 years.

The second group of workers, the ones not chosen first, who didn’t work as long in the vineyard, includes the Gentiles. The Gentiles weren’t part of God’s original agreement with Israel. They never had to live under any of those Old Testament rules and regulations, and they also never had God’s promises of life and salvation, like the Jews did. But then Christ came and fulfilled God’s covenant with Israel, and opened up the kingdom of heaven, not to those who could match the Jews’ zeal at keeping the law, but to all who would believe in Him. That meant Gentiles. That also meant Jews who hadn’t worked to keep God’s law, but who had broken it time and time again, the public sinners among the Jews who knew they had no hope of earning their way into heaven, no hope of surpassing the righteousness of the Pharisees; their work would never be good enough. They were invited into the kingdom of God—into His vineyard—by baptism and faith in Christ.

That angered the Jews who thought they had worked so hard to earn God’s favor and their place in the kingdom of heaven. “Here we’ve spent our whole lives being careful to keep the commandments. We’ve given up so much, sacrificed so much for the sake of God’s Law. Why should those sinners who did hardly any work (except for evil works) receive the same reward as us?” They were proud of their hard work under the Law. They wanted to be recognized for it. And they certainly didn’t want Gentiles and sinners to receive the same reward as they. That’s why they hated Jesus so much. He made everyone equal as sinners. He made everyone’s works equally worthless for earning a place in the kingdom of heaven. And He made everyone equal in how they could be saved: only by grace, only for the sake of Christ’s merits, Christ’s works, only through faith in Christ.

Grace is the basis of reward in the kingdom of heaven, not how hard a person works to keep the commandments. If God were to reward us according to our works, we would all perish eternally. As the Psalmist once wrote, O Lord, do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no one living is righteous. Instead, He gives His forgiveness and eternal life out of pure grace, because He is kind and generous and good.

The merits of Christ are what count in the kingdom of heaven, not our merits. In other words, in God’s kingdom of grace, Jesus—true God and true Man—is the only worker, the only laborer. His hard work at keeping God’s commandments throughout His earthly life, His hard work at suffering for the sins of mankind—that is what has earned a place in God’s kingdom and in God’s favor for mankind.

And faith is the means by which sinners receive the benefits that Christ has merited, that Christ has earned. Sinners are saved by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith. That is the simple, basic Christian Gospel.

Jesus’ parable today is a warning to Christians so that we don’t go running back to the Law, to be judged by how hard we have worked rather than by grace. Because you don’t have to be a Jew to be in that first group of workers. You can also be a Christian who has worked hard and long at keeping God’s commandments, going to church, being a good person. And you, too, can begin to be worthy and deserving in your own eyes, as if all of your hard work and the sacrifices you’ve made in order to follow Christ made you just a little bit deserving of God’s forgiveness and grace. And you could begin to become bitter when you see another Christian who has not worked very hard, in your opinion, at keeping the commandments receiving the same forgiveness you do, the same love and grace of God that you receive. You run the risk of getting to the Last Day and relying on how hard you’ve tried to live a good life as a Christian, consoling yourself on your deathbed that, you may not have been perfect, but you weren’t really all that bad, either. Surely God will accept you.

Such a reliance on your works will condemn you to hell, because to rely on your works is to reject the works of Christ. So be careful that you don’t try to buy or bargain your way into heaven with anything you’ve ever done or not done. If you become first in your own eyes, that is, if you think of yourself and your works as deserving of God’s heavenly reward, then you will be last in God’s eyes.

But, for those who know all too well that their works are insufficient, that they haven’t worked long enough or hard enough to earn God’s favor, to those who are last in their own eyes, Jesus comforts you today with this parable, because He teaches you that, when it comes to God’s grace, everyone is equal. All who rely on Christ and His merits alone are recipients of God’s generosity, of God’s grace. For Christ’s sake, God regards the lowliest sinner who repents as highly as the Virgin Mary herself. Your sins are equally forgiven, your prayers are equally heard, you are equally loved, and you are equally rewarded, because all in God’s kingdom are rewarded on the basis of the works of Another, the works of Christ Jesus our Lord. He reveals to us today a God of grace and mercy, who rewards those who don’t deserve it, and who turns away those who think they do. For those who know and rely on His grace alone, to work in His vineyard, to serve Him in His kingdom, is not a chore, but a privilege. And at the end of the day and the end of your earthly life, you will see just how generous our God truly is. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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Sermon for Transfiguration

Isaiah 61:10-11  +  2 Peter 1:16-21  +  Matthew 17:1-9

You heard the words today describing the majesty of Jesus as He was transfigured before Peter, James and John on that mountain in Israel. You weren’t there. You didn’t see it. But Peter was there. He saw it. He saw Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. He heard the Father’s voice from the bright cloud. And then, after Jesus rose from the dead, Peter revealed what he and the others saw, just as Jesus told him to do. You heard Peter’s words in the Epistle: We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

You weren’t there. You didn’t see it. But it doesn’t matter one little bit. Because the words you are hearing right now that describe Jesus’ transfiguration are the Holy Spirit’s words. The image that these words paint for you are the Holy Spirit’s portrait and the truth of Jesus’ majesty and divinity is being etched into your heart by the same Holy Spirit. Today, through the Spirit’s words, you behold the majesty of Christ.

We learn from the Spirit’s words that Jesus’ transfiguration took place about a week after another key event in the ministry of Christ. It was at that time that Peter confessed to Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. It was at the same time that Jesus promised to build His Church on the ministry of that confession, and that the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. And, it was at the same time that Jesus began to show His disciples that He, the Christ, the Son of the living God, had to suffer, and die, and rise again from the dead, at which point Peter rebuked Jesus, at which point Jesus said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan!” And then Jesus revealed to His disciples that He, and they, and anyone who wants to follow Him, first has to bear the cross and suffer on this earth before finally being vindicated and glorified.

Now, you know—you have heard—where things went from there, how Jesus was crucified and died and rose again, how the Church has been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief Cornerstone. But all of that was still in the future for the apostles. All of that was still unknown, unseen, still hidden. So Jesus grants a few of them a special vision so that, later on, they could reflect back on it and understand, and so that they could reveal it to us.

First, the transfiguration itself, the changing of the figure of Jesus from that of an ordinary man to the brilliantly shining face and the dazzling white clothing that you would expect God Himself to have, if you could see God. And that’s just the point. God the Father makes it crystal clear in the transfiguration that this seemingly ordinary Man Jesus actually shares in the divine glory and majesty of the Father. As if all the miracles and other signs hadn’t been enough, Jesus is manifested here as the glorious Son of God.

Actually God has been depicted this way once before in Holy Scripture. In the book of Daniel, chapter 7, this is what Daniel saw in his vision of God: “I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool.” That part of the vision was about God the Father, even though it sounds a lot like how Jesus is described in His transfiguration, doesn’t it? Then Daniel says this: I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed. That term, “Son of Man,” was Jesus’ favorite title for Himself. This is what the three disciples were seeing, Jesus revealed as the King of kings and Lord of lords. This is the One at whose name every knee should bow, as the apostle Paul would later write. This is the One through whose name alone we must be saved.

The majesty of Christ is also revealed in the holy conversation He was having with the two great prophets, Moses and Elijah. What’s this all about? Well, God wanted Peter, James, and John, and us, to see that Jesus has the approval of the Old Testament. That’s important. Jesus did not come to set up a new religion, but to fulfill the true religion of the Jews, which, itself, was the continuation of the true religion begun in Eden. Everything about Jesus, from His birth to His preaching and miracles, to His suffering, death and resurrection—all of it was prophesied ahead of time. All was going according to plan.

And it makes sense that Moses was there. As we saw just last week, Jesus came to be a Prophet like Moses, but better. Moses was the deliverer prophet who led God’s people out of slavery to the promised land, and then died. Jesus would be the great Deliverer prophet, who would die. And by His death, all who believe in Him are saved from the slavery to sin, death, and the devil.

And it makes sense that Elijah was there. He was the persecuted prophet, who once raised the dead, the prophet who never died, but ascended to heaven still very much alive. So Jesus would be persecuted from now on, despised by the leadership of His people. He had raised the dead already and would raise the dead again. And He Himself would be raised from the dead and would ascend to heaven, like Elijah, very much alive.

And then the greatest glory, the greatest sign of majesty in Jesus, is the voice of God the Father that spoke from the brilliant cloud: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This is, of course, the second time the Father has spoken those words over Jesus, the first time being at Jesus’ baptism. But those words are also connected to Old Testament words. Already in the second Psalm, this is what God says about the Christ, the Anointed One: You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. And in Isaiah 42 God says about the coming Christ, Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! That is, “in whom I am well pleased.” All of the Old Testament was pointing to Jesus: His life, His death, His resurrection. And God the Father has “set His seal on Him,” as Jesus Himself once put it.

That’s why it’s foolish to imagine that you can believe in God without believing in Jesus. God is only pleased in Jesus—in Jesus and in those who are found clinging to Jesus by faith, bound to Jesus by baptism, eating and drinking the body and blood of Jesus in the Sacrament. Those who trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins have God the Father’s approval. Those who will not repent and believe in Jesus have only the Father’s wrath.

Now, why hide all this glory and majesty from the rest of the world? Why only reveal it to these three believing disciples on the mountain? Because faith must not rely on sight, or else it isn’t faith. Faith must rely on things unseen. Faith must come from the Word of God alone! All of this majesty that was revealed in Jesus on the Mt. of Transfiguration was building up to this one command from God the Father: Hear Him! Hear Him! God commands us to hear His Son. It is not optional. This is the Father’s will, that you should hear the voice of His Son, and believe Him, and do what He says, in all things.

You don’t hear Jesus directly since He ascended into heaven. You hear Him through the ministry of His Word, through the mouth of those whom He has sent to preach and teach His Gospel. Jesus said to His apostles, “He who hears you hears Me.” That means you are to hear the preaching of the Word of Christ, and not despise it, and not find better things to do when His Word is being preached. Hear Him!

When Jesus gives His Church’s ordained teachers the authority to forgive and retain sins, hear Him! And believe the Word of God spoken by His ministers, both when they absolve, and when they excommunicate.

When He says that He will die and when He says that He will rise again on the third day, oh, Peter, James and John, hear Him and don’t doubt. And you who hear Him today, know that Jesus died for your sins and was raised to life for your justification.

When He says This is My body, this is My blood, hear Him, and don’t doubt the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament. But instead, when He says, “This do in remembrance of Me,” hear Him and receive His Sacrament often.

When He promises His Holy Spirit, when He calls you to repent, to believe, and to walk as children of the light, in faith toward God and in love toward your neighbor, hear Him!

When He says that He will come again and call His sleeping children from their graves and take them to be where He is forever, hear Him!

You weren’t there with Peter, James and John on the Mt. of Transfiguration. You didn’t see what they saw. But that’s OK, because you have heard what they heard, and that’s all that matters. No matter what your eyes see, no matter what your reason tells you, no matter how much your flesh complains, hear the Word of Jesus again today and believe what He says. Then you won’t be afraid when the cross comes and you suffer for the name of Jesus. Because the One whose glory was revealed on the mountain still reigns at the right hand of God. And soon He will share His glory with you, even as you now share in His sufferings. Amen.

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Sermon for the Second Sunday after Epiphany

Deuteronomy 18:15-19  +  Romans 12:6-16  +  John 2:1-11

Who is Jesus? What is He like? Very few people knew the answer to that question when Jesus first began His ministry. Of course, the Apostle John, in chapter 1 of his Gospel, told us many things about Jesus. He is the Word who was in the beginning with God and who was God. He is the One through whom all things have been made. He is the true light who gives light to all men. He is the Word made flesh. He is the only-begotten Son of the Father who has come to reveal His Father to sinful mankind, sitting in the darkness. All that we learn about Jesus just in the first chapter of St. John’s Gospel.

But all of that was secret. All of that was hidden from view when Jesus walked the earth. It was John the Baptist who first began to reveal the true identity of this Man from Nazareth in Galilee. John the Baptist had baptized Jesus, and then heard the Father speak from heaven, This is My Son, in whom I am well-pleased. So John began to send his own disciples to Jesus. And within just a few days, those first few disciples had learned for themselves that this Jesus truly was the Christ, the Son of God, the King of Israel.

But what would this Jesus do? What kind of Christ would He turn out to be? How would He show His Father to His disciples and to the rest of mankind? St. John tells us that Jesus’ first act, just days after gathering His first disciples, was to…attend a wedding to which He and they had been invited.

Really? This is how the Messiah is going to begin His reign on earth? This is how He’s going to teach the world about God and gather for Himself a chosen people? By attending a wedding banquet? It’s perfect, isn’t it? Jesus shows that He has not come to summon people to some holy jihad, or to some monastic life where His people are to shun human society and go hole up in a corner somewhere or in a church building somewhere. Instead, He honors marriage and the godly celebration of it with His presence. To follow this Christ is not to avoid marriage or having children or being involved in society. It is to participate in the godly vocations of this world without setting our hearts on the things of this world. It is, as Paul says to the Romans, to “rejoice with those who rejoice, to mourn with those who mourn,” always keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Christ.

What else will the Christ reveal about Himself and His Father at this wedding banquet? Who is Jesus? He is the God who allows Himself to be moved by the prayers and petitions of His people. When Mary first told Jesus that they had run out of wine, His answer makes it seem like it hadn’t been His plan to perform a miracle that day. “My hour has not yet come.” And it’s not like running out of wine is a desperate situation that’s worthy of Jesus’ time. And yet, He listens and chooses to help anyway—not because His mother Mary has some extra-special influence on Him, but because all of His people matter to Him and are heard by Him. He is the One who came to earth to address our every need, even the small ones. He is the One who comes to our aid without first checking to see if we’re worthy of it (We aren’t!). He is the one from whom we should expect all good to come, in whatever way He sees fit to provide it. Mary was wise to tell the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” Whatever Jesus says, that is what’s right. If He doesn’t say it, you have no business believing it or doing it.

And what do we learn of God in the miracle itself? Who is Jesus? He is the Almighty Creator who works wonders, when and where He pleases, who is not bound to the laws of nature that He Himself created, who is not a slave to science, but who changes the laws of physics at will, to serve His own purposes, changing gallons and gallons of water into gallons and gallons of wine.

This business of changing water into another substance should jar your memory a little bit. It’s not the first time a prophet had changed water into a red substance. Remember Moses in Egypt, the first public miracle Moses performed, the first of the ten plagues? By the power of God, Moses, at the beginning of his public ministry, as his first act of deliverance before leading Israel out of bondage in Egypt, was to change water into blood. It was a terrible sign, a destructive sign, a sign of death. The water became undrinkable and disgusting, and God’s glory was revealed to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt.

Interestingly, a few verses earlier in John’s Gospel, St. John made the comparison between Christ and Moses: For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. In fact, you heard Moses in the Old Testament lesson today prophesy to the people of Israel that The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear. Now look what God does in the Person of Jesus. He puts a divine twist on Moses’ miracle. It’s another changing-of-water miracle, but this time, not to curse, but to bless. This time, all for good. This time, changing water into the blood of grapes, something more drinkable than plain water, something delicious and pleasant, a sign of life, and life to the fullest, a sign that Jesus is the divinely sent Deliverer from the bondage of sin, death, and the devil.

Moses came as a divinely chosen deliverer of God’s people Israel, but he is known especially for being the lawgiver. You shall! You shall not! The one who sins against these commandments shall be cut off from his people. There on Mt. Sinai God revealed His holy Law through Moses and made Israel shudder in fear. And yet still, they failed to keep the commandments. After 1500 years of failure, the divine lesson had been proven over and over again: by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in God’s sight, for by the Law is the knowledge of sin.

But now One like Moses has come. A prophet like Moses, but so much better. He hasn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. He hasn’t come to give a new law, but to save sinners from their sins against the law. Remember the last plague in Egypt? The plague of the firstborn and the Passover? God sent His firstborn, His only-begotten Son, not to kill the firstborn, but to die, to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Moses instructed the Israelites to take the blood of a lamb and paint the doorframes of the houses with it in order to escape death. Jesus instructs us to be washed in His blood by Holy Baptism and by faith in His blood once shed for us on the cross to order to escape death and condemnation. Moses, by God’s Word, provided bread from heaven for Israel in the wilderness. Jesus not only provided bread, but was the true Bread that came down from heaven to feed the souls of men with Himself. Moses once sprinkled the people of Israel with the blood of beasts and declared, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you.” Jesus once sat down with His disciples and instituted a meal which He called “My blood of the New Covenant.” Truly Jesus is a prophet like Moses, but better.

One more thing we might consider in this miracle account this morning. When Jesus turns water into wine, it isn’t the $3 bottle kind (like I usually drink). It’s the finest of wines, designed to delight those who drink of it. The master of the feast was amazed. Most people start out with the best wine and then move to a lower quality. But Jesus did the opposite. The people drank inferior wine all along until Jesus came. The wine He created far surpassed everything they had been drinking until then.

So it is in every way. Everything that came before Jesus, including Moses, including the Law, was inferior. Now a better Prophet has come, a better Deliverer, a true Savior. Now the Gospel has come, calling all men to repent and believe in this Jesus. He hasn’t come to make life oppressive. He has come to bring forgiveness and life to His people, by faith alone in Him and His goodness. And just as He once turned water into wine, so He will soon turn all our sorrows into everlasting joy.

Who is Jesus? What is He like? He’s the God who came into this world, not to condemn it, but that all, through Him, might be saved. He shows that today in the simple, gracious, pleasant miracle of changing water into wine. That’s who Jesus is: the One who came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. Rejoice that you, by faith, have seen His glory today and have been invited to the feast of His body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. Even that is just a foretaste of the better things yet to come. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb! Amen.

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Sermon for the First Sunday after Epiphany

Isaiah 61:1-3  +  Romans 12:1-5  +  Luke 2:41-52

We have before us today a straightforward, simple account from our Lord’s childhood.  There are only a handful of references to Christ’s childhood in Scripture. He was probably about five years old when He and His parents returned from Egypt to go live permanently in Nazareth. The rest of His youth—until the age of 30! — is summarized for us in St. Luke’s Gospel right before the verses you heard today: the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. And again at the end of today’s Gospel: Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

What does that tell us? It tells us that Jesus was likeable. Friendly. He didn’t keep to Himself; He interacted well with people, as we see from the fact that His parents weren’t at all concerned about Jesus as they left Jerusalem, figuring He was in the company of His relatives and acquaintances, as He must have often been. He was utterly obedient to His parents. Joyful.  Intelligent. Wise. Dependable and reliable. Especially gifted in spiritual matters, keenly interested in the doctrine of Scripture, with a true love and devotion to His heavenly Father and an unshakable trust in Him. The fact that Jesus “grew” in all these things simply means that He didn’t come out of the womb as a mature adult trapped in a baby’s body. He didn’t rely on His divine omniscience, but instead, He set it aside and humbled Himself. He had to learn to speak, learn to read and write; He had to learn facts and information, learn to live in this world, like any child does, except that He did it all without sin, with no youthful stubbornness or rebellion, with no selfishness, with no anger, with no complaining. Jesus was, literally, the perfect Son.

So we really have to think about the events recorded in our Gospel. Because suddenly, and apparently for the first time in His life, the perfect Son wasn’t where His parents expected Him to be.

Imagine the panic that must have struck Mary and Joseph at the end of their first travel day away from Jerusalem. They assumed Jesus was with some of their relatives in the caravan. They didn’t watch over their perfect Son perfectly. That speaks to just how normal their family was, in spite of the spectacular events that surrounded Jesus’ birth. The fact that Jesus was the Son of God doesn’t seem to have come up all that often in their home. It’s not unlike having an adopted son or daughter. It’s not that you actually forget that he or she was adopted. Most days it just doesn’t matter. You don’t even think about it. He’s just “your son.” She’s just “your daughter.” You’re a family. That’s the way it should be.

Except that, in the case of Jesus, He had two fathers to consider: Joseph, his adopted father, and God Himself, His eternal, divine Father. Mary and Joseph were raising their Son Jesus for Someone Else. Their Son had a divine origin and a divine purpose—a purpose that He had to stay behind in Jerusalem to accomplish.

Mary and Joseph hurried back to Jerusalem. They had already gone a day’s journey away, so it took another day to get back. And then, on the third day, they retraced their steps back to the Temple, where they found Jesus, not sitting idly, not worrying about His parents, but actively involved in the affairs of His Father, listening to the teachers of the Law, asking them astute questions, providing astonishing answers. Even at the age of twelve, Jesus displayed His divine majesty, not with miraculous deeds, but with the perfect knowledge of God that only the perfect Son of God could have.

Mary and Joseph, too, were amazed when they saw Jesus sitting there in the midst of the teachers, probably because they figured that Jesus had somehow gotten lost and separated from their company on accident, and that He would be frightened and searching for His parents. Instead, they find Him here in the Temple, happy to be where He is, acting as if it were the most normal thing in the world for Him, as a twelve year old boy from Nazareth, to be discussing matters of God with the Jewish teachers in Jerusalem.

Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously. Mary was right, of course, to call Jesus her Son, and she was right to call Joseph His father, because, legally, he was. But she shows here that she still didn’t grasp the full meaning of the angel Gabriel’s words to her some 13 years earlier, that the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. She should have remembered God’s Word to her. She should have understood that she and Joseph were not the only parents of their Son, but that He had come with a divine purpose.

And that was basically Jesus’ answer to her: Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business? “The Father’s business” includes many things, of course, not the least of which was listening to God’s Word and revealing His Father to mankind. “I must be about His business,” Jesus said. It wasn’t optional. It was His purpose for coming into the world, to show us what God is like: righteous, kind, friendly, intelligent, wise. More than that, Jesus’ purpose was to show us what His Father is like in this: that the Father gave His perfect Son into death on a cross, so that sinners could be saved by faith in Him.

At the time, Mary and Joseph still didn’t understand what Jesus meant. Mary wouldn’t understand at times even later when Jesus was risking His life by preaching and teaching and speaking against the errors of the priests and Pharisees. But now, after all has been accomplished, now you understand, don’t you?

First, you understand that Jesus, the perfect Son of God, had to come into our flesh as the perfect human Son, because we are not perfect sons and daughters, either to God or to our human parents. Always obedient to our parents and other authorities, always selfless, always loving and trusting, always fearing God above all things, always thoroughly devoted to hearing and studying His Word—that doesn’t describe any of you, or me. You are not perfect sons and daughters. You are sinful sons and daughters. But now, by faith in Jesus and by Baptism into His name, you inherit His record. You are marked by His character. You are counted as perfect sons by faith in the Perfect Son.

Then, you understand, too, that Jesus did not come into this world to live for Himself, but to serve sinners, to serve you and me. He had to be about His Father’s business at all times, because His Father’s business was saving sinners, and Jesus is the only Savior of sinners. It’s foolish to imagine, as Roman Catholics do, that, somehow, Jesus is closer to His mother Mary than He is to anyone else. We see already from the age of twelve that His heart was devoted, not to His earthly family, but to His heavenly Father, and to all who would hear His voice. You who hear His voice today—you are His Father’s business. Jesus is spending this Sunday morning in your midst, with His Word and with His own body and blood, that you should hear His voice, repent of your sins, trust in Him as your Savior from sin, and know God through Him.

Finally, we learn from Jesus’ twelve-year-old example just how important God’s Word is to those who believe in Jesus. Christians love to hear God’s Word and study it and grow in it. And since we don’t have the perfect knowledge of God that Jesus had, we must be even more diligent in devoting ourselves to learning and studying God’s Word. That’s why we have our Small Catechism, to be a daily exercise in learning God’s truth. That’s why you have Bibles in your homes, and why we have Bible studies here at church, because if you’re a Christian, if you want to walk in Jesus’ footsteps, if you know Him and believe in Him and love Him, then you will not let your sinful flesh keep you or your children away from the opportunities you have to hear and learn God’s Word. Instead, you must struggle against your flesh, so that you remember Jesus’ love and devotion for His Father’s business even as a young boy of twelve. His devotion to God’s Word both earned for us the forgiveness of our sins, and serves as a model and as a goal for us, and for our children, so that we, who are already counted as perfect sons by faith in the perfect Son, may grow each day in the knowledge of God and in service to our neighbor, as is fitting for sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. Amen.

Source: Sermons

Sermon for Epiphany

Isaiah 49:1-7  +  Isaiah 60:1-6  +  Matthew 2:1-12

As I promised on Sunday morning, we’re considering this evening the visit of the wise men, the magi who were led by a star to Bethlehem so that they could worship the newborn King of the Jews. It’s a story filled with wonder, just like the Christmas story itself, and it has rightly been called “the Gentiles’ Christmas.” Since you and I here are (I think) all Gentiles, it makes sense for us to celebrate this festival of Epiphany with extra joy.

The Epiphany is the manifestation or the revelation of Christ Jesus as the Savior, specifically today, as the Savior of the Gentiles. It’s hard for us to understand just what a big deal that was, that Jesus came to bring all the Gentiles, all the nations into fellowship with Him, and thus also into one great fellowship with those in Israel who would put their faith in Him. One great fellowship of mankind, one great Church united by a common faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, and the Savior. Since the days of Adam and Eve, some 4,000 years before the birth of Christ, God had basically let mankind go his own way, and mankind did so poorly that all but Noah’s family had to be wiped out at the time of the Flood. Then, not long after, God divided up humanity into nations at the Tower of Babel, letting all the nations go their own way. He let the race of men do what they wanted to do, which was to pursue their own made-up gods, their made-up religion, to pursue their own sinful and earthly desires, the same godlessness.

The same godlessness would have resulted for the line of Noah’s son Shem, except that God intervened at the time of Abraham and chose him and his descendants, specifically his descendants through Isaac and then Jacob, to be different. Not different in that they were less sinful or more deserving of God’s help and mercy. But different in that God revealed Himself to them and made special promises to them and special covenants with them. All the nations went their own way. All of them sat in the darkness of ignorance, impenitence and unbelief. All of them went to destruction, to perdition.  But Israel God called out from among the nations to be His own, His chosen people, His special people, purely out of divine grace and mercy, so that He might preserve the promise of a Savior who would one day be born of a woman.

So while the nations all went their own way away from the true God, Israel was shown grace, and some in Israel, the remnant, always believed in God and were righteous before Him, not by their own good works, but by faith. But even many in Israel, most in Israel walked in darkness, turned aside form God’s Word and God’s worship, and went their own way. You know (or should know) Old Testament history enough to know that.

Now, we heard on Sunday about God’s solution to Israel’s waywardness: God called His Son Israel out of Egypt. God sent His Son, the true Israel, to be what Israel wasn’t, to be a good Son, a faithful Son, an obedient Son, a new and better Israel. You heard Isaiah say that again tonight in that Messianic prophecy:  And He said to me, ‘You are My servant, O Israel, In whom I will be glorified. It was the Messiah’s mission To bring Jacob back to Him, So that Israel is gathered to Him. It made sense for God to gather Israel. He had spent the last 2,000 years on them. But what didn’t make as much sense to many people at that time, was that God’s plan of salvation stretched beyond Israel’s borders also to those Gentiles whom God had let go their own way for thousands of years. With the birth of Christ, the Gentiles were now invited as well.

Of course, that wasn’t really a new piece of information. You heard Isaiah prophesy the same thing tonight about the Christ: It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth. And again in Isaiah 60: Arise, shine (O Israel), for Your light has come…The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising. It was a spiritual light that Isaiah prophesied, the light of Christ, in whom the great reunion of humanity had been foretold, the birth of the One who fixes Adam’s fall, who brings the nations back into fellowship with God through faith, and thus with one another, too.

Leave it to God to take that prophecy about a spiritual light of revelation and signal its coming with an actual light, a miraculous light, the light of a “star.”

It was the light of a special star that guided those wise men from some nation in the East to travel to Israel. We don’t know how many of them there were or where exactly they came from. We don’t know what the light was that they saw in the sky, nor do we know exactly how they knew what it meant. We don’t need to know those things or waste our time speculating about them. We just sit back in awe at this story filled with wonder. Those were our forefathers who followed the light of that star. Not that any of us is probably directly related to them by birth. But they were Gentiles, like us. The first Gentiles to seek the Christ who had been born in Bethlehem.

Not that they knew initially to look for Him in Bethlehem. The star (or the light) that they followed seems to have disappeared for a time. So they went to Jerusalem to ask, Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him. The Jews hadn’t seen this light. We can only speculate as to why. And when they heard the story of these wise men, it says that Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Troubled. Not overjoyed. Not excited. But troubled. They weren’t eagerly waiting for the Messiah to be born, it seems. They were troubled at the thought of his birth. Herod, we know, was troubled out of jealousy and fear for his crown. As for the rest of Jerusalem? Perhaps troubled out of jealousy for their Jewish heritage, because salvation, they thought, wasn’t supposed to be for Gentiles, but for Jews, by keeping the Law. So they didn’t seek the Christ. They didn’t want Him. They didn’t realize their need for them.

Well, most of them in Jerusalem. Some did, like Simeon and Anna, about whom we heard a couple of Sundays ago. It’s likely that the wise men came shortly before Simeon and Anna met Jesus in the Temple. Maybe that’s why they were so anxiously awaiting the Christ in the Temple and were waiting for Him when He came, because they had recently heard of the wise men’s arrival, together with the rest of Jerusalem. Some were troubled at the news of Christ’s birth. Others were relieved beyond words. So it has always been. So it will always be.

The light of the star wasn’t enough to guide the wise men to Christ. It took a different light to lead them to where the Child was, the light of God’s revealed Word, specifically, His Word through the prophet Micah saying that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem.

So off they went. They sought Christ where God’s Word directed them to seek Him, and God blessed their seeking with the renewed light of the star, this time leading them right to place where the Child was—something that no star, in the scientific sense, is able to do. They found Jesus and worshiped Him and laid before Him those precious gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh—expensive gifts, fit for a king. Expensive gifts that Jesus and His family would surely need over the next few years as they lived as refugees in the land of Egypt.

The wise men were the firstfruits from among the Gentiles, signifying the great harvest that would follow. Who would have thought that people from every nation around the globe would one day acknowledge Jesus as their Savior and King? It used to matter who your parents were. It used to matter if you were physically related to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But now, your natural birth doesn’t matter at all. Your native country, your ancestry, your blood line, your color, who your parents were—it doesn’t matter. No nation on earth is superior to another before God, no class of people, no social status. I won’t even speak of “race,” because there is only one race of men, the human one, the sinful human one. Only faith in Christ matters, because in Him the two have become one, the nation of Israel and the rest of the nations. All approach God on the same basis. All approach God only through Christ Jesus, and receive God’s blessing and forgiveness only by faith in Christ Jesus.

Tonight we celebrate the dawn of that new day as God’s grace brought Gentiles into the true worship of God in the Person of His Son, as He graciously led wise men to seek and to find Him. He’s done the same for you by graciously sending forth the light of His Word to you, by bringing you into that great fellowship of faith in Christ through Holy Baptism, by bringing you together with the wise men into the worship of the One who was born in Bethlehem, King of the Jews, the One who was also crucified, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, who now has blessed us with the right to call Him our King, too. Rejoice, O Gentiles, with God’s people! Rejoice with the wise men! And seek Christ, not in the night sky, but in His Word and in His Sacrament. Here you will always find Him, to worship and adore Him, and to receive His grace and blessing. Amen.

Source: Sermons