Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Kerrville Texas

1 Corinthians 11.23-32
Maundy Thursday

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they realize the need to have a will. Often, it’s when they begin having children. For others, that realization comes when they receive news that they have a terminal condition. Regardless of what sparks the realization, it is nearly always motivated by love. We want to make sure that after our death our children, our families, and our church, receive the good things that we have earned in our lifetime. And so, we record our final wishes in clear and plain language. The notary attaches his seal to them. Then, the will sits in a safe place until the day the Testator—the one who made the will—dies. Then it goes into effect.

St. Paul records the last will and testament of our Lord in tonight’s epistle. He was not in the upper room with the twelve apostles on the night in which He was betrayed. Paul was taught this directly by Christ. “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: The Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’”

Our translation renders the word covenant, but testament is better. Covenant implies two parties, each making promises to the other; “I will do this for you. You will do this for me.” It only takes one to make a testament, in which that one says, “I bequeath this to you.” A testament is unilateral. A testament is a promise. And it is confirmed by a death. This is how God ‘made a covenant’ with Abraham in Genesis 15. God promised Abraham that He would give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants. The covenant was confirmed by the death of a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon (Gn 15:9). These animals were cut in two—with the exception of the birds—and the Lord passed through the separated animals without Abraham, signifying that He was making a unilateral covenant—a testament.

This is how He dealt with Israel, the descendants of Abraham. He made them the promise, through Moses, in Exodus 3:8, “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.” Israel believed God’s promise and received it in faith. Then the testament was confirmed by a death—the death of the Passover lamb. And as the Passover lamb was a temporal and transitory thing, so was the Old Testament, and so was Israel’s possession of the land of Canaan. He had promised the land to Abraham’s descendants so that they might be separated from the other peoples of the earth, a people from whom the Messiah of all peoples might be born. The lamb, therefore, along with all the ceremonies Moses gave Israel, prefigured the true Paschal Lamb: Christ.

He came as a man, conceived without sin, and lived without blemish. His flesh was roasted in the fire of God’s wrath while on the cross. Like the lambs that prefigured Him, He was not allowed to remain on the cross until morning but was taken down and buried. Christ is the true paschal lamb, who died to ratify the New Testament which God had promised to make in Jeremiah 31[:33-34]. He said this covenant would not be like the one He made with Israel when He brought them out of Egypt. Israel had despised their separation from the nations and turned the laws and ceremonies God had given into a way of earning God’s righteousness. God foretells the New Testament when He tells Jeremiah, “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

As the Paschal Lamb which died to confirm the covenant was the eternal Son of God, so the New Testament He makes promised eternal benefits. The New Testament is the promise of the forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake. The New Testament is the promise of the Holy Spirit, who writes God’s law—His eternal will—on men’s hearts so that they begin to live as God’s people from the heart. This is what Christ bequeaths to all believers.

But before He died, on the night in which He was betrayed, He gave His apostles a sign and seal of the New Testament. The Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’” He had promised them the forgiveness of all their sins, new life, and eternal salvation. So that they might be certain in this promise, He tells them He will die for it. He will give His body and shed His blood to earn the forgiveness of all of their sins. And He leaves both—His very body and His very blood—to them as a sign, a seal, a notary, if you, that His testament is true and that it is truly theirs by faith.

It would have been enough to give them the New Testament—the promise. Their faith could have clung to His promise. But God knows their frame, that they are dust. He knows their weakness, so He gives them bread which is simultaneously His body and wine which is simultaneously His very blood which was shed for them, so that they might have even greater assurance and the strengthening of their faith. God has always put visible signs and seals to His promises, by which men might be stirred up all the more to faith. To Noah He gave the rainbow. To Gideon He gave the fleece. For the New Testament, though, He gives the very means by which He confirmed the New Testament: His body and blood for us Christians to eat and drink.

For although He gives it to the apostles, He does not give it only to them. It is for the Christian’s forgiveness and the strengthening of their faith. This is why He tells them, “This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” As often as you do this, remember His suffering and death. Not in a mere historical remembrance but remember it by receiving the blessings He gives as often as you do this. That Christ wanted more than just the apostles—but all Christians—eat His body and drink His blood for the forgiveness of their sins, new life, and eternal salvation, is evident from Acts 2:42 that the church after Pentecost continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread—which was the sacrament—and in prayers. That Christ meant this to be done by all Christians is evident from the fact that the apostle Paul gave it to the Corinthian congregation and taught them the necessity of self-examination before partaking, lest they eat and drink in an unworthy manner and be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. That He gave His body and blood for Christians to eat and drink in the sacrament is evident from the fact that He gave His body and blood as a sign and seal of the New Testament which is for all people.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night in which He was betrayed, left His last will and testament for those who are children of God by baptism and faith. He gave it to the apostles to give to the church because out of His infinite love and great compassion, He wants God’s baptized children to enjoy the blessings He earned by righteous life and His innocent, bitter sufferings and death. Knowing the enemies with which His baptized faithful must do battle, He wanted them to be strengthened in their faith, so that they trust His testament all the more. That they might take all the more conform in His testament—the promise of forgiveness, the promise of new life by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the promise of eternal salvation—He gives them His body and blood as a notary. For He instituted the sacrament of His body and blood to give you His testament and reconfirm it to you as often as you do this, remembering Him and receiving His benefits. For this cup is not a symbol of the New Testament, nor it is an empty sign of it. It is the New Testament—the Gospel itself—in His blood. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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Philippians 2.5-11 + Matthew 21.1-9
Palm Sunday, the Sixth Sunday in Lent

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus approaches Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of a donkey. By riding a beast of burden into the David’s city, He fulfills the words of the prophet Zechariah. And although the multitudes receive Him as they should—with rejoicing, with garments and palms forging a royal highway, and shouts of, “Hosanna—that is, Save us please—Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, it is still a moment of lowliness. In fact, His entire earthly life had been one of humility and lowliness. He told one would-be disciple in Matthew 8:20, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” He was regularly rejected on account of His teaching. Those who were spiritually poor—who acknowledged they had no work or worthiness good enough to offer to God—heard Him and flocked to Him. But those who thought of themselves as spiritually worthy of God in themselves, those rejected Him because the self-righteous need no Savior or Teacher but themselves. Christ even described Himself as “gentle and lowly in heart” in Matthew 11:29. Christ’s entire ministry, indeed, His entire earthly life, was typified by humility and lowliness.

St. Paul, in today’s Epistle lesson, writes of this great mystery and holds it up for us as something to emulate. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” What mind did Jesus have, meaning, how did Jesus think about Himself? His mind was humility. Christ, “being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.” Christ was in the form of God and did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, meaning that Christ was divine. He was, as we confess each Sunday, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. He is equal to the Father because He is begotten of the Father from all eternity. If there was anyone who could claim equality with God the Father and not be overstepping His place, it is Christ Jesus. He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God because He could not steal what is rightly His.

And yet, this one who is in the form of God and equal to God, “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant,” or better translated, slave, “and came in the likeness of men.” The only-begotten Son of God from all eternity assumes human flesh. He becomes man and humbles Himself so that He might experience the limitations of mortal men. He who gave Moses the Law on Mt. Sinai becomes man to live under the Law He gave Israel which no man was able to fulfill. He emptied Himself of His divine prerogative, using His divine power sparingly in the miracles for the sake of His neighbors whom He loved as He loved Himself. Though He is God in human flesh, He does not parade Himself around and demand the honor due to Him.

Rather, He made Himsel of no reputation. Literally, He “emptied Himself” of all divine prerogative so that He might become “obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”  Crucifixion is the most shameful, disgraceful, and painful death that wicked men could concoct for another man. But Christ is obedient to His Father’s will to the point of such a death, and He is obedient from the heart, not grudgingly doing His Father’s will, but willfully, deliberately, and lovingly. He does so to atone for the sins of the world.

The only One who is equal to God empties Himself and dies to redeem those who, in their sin, try to be equal with God. In paradise, the serpent tempted Eve to disobey God’s command with these words, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Ge 3:4-5). Since the moment Adam and Eve sinned and made sinners of themselves and all their posterity, this has been the sinner’s goal: to be like God. Sinners want to be equal to God so that their will can be done. People want to be “like God” so that their word and thoughts can determine what they should believe, how they should live, and to whom they should listen. Sinners want to be equal to God so that they can declare themselves worthy of good things so that they do not have to wait upon another for their good things in this life. Whether people chase the highest good from science, government, technology, reputation, or the gratification of their own desires, it is all comes from the same root: Sinners want to be equal with God so that they may be their own God, living righteously by their own word and their own ways.

But the devil is a liar, in fact, He is the father of lying. Seeking equality with God by disobeying God didn’t make Adam and Eve equal with Him. It made them slaves of sin. Jesus says, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (Jn 8:34). Adam and Eve brought death upon themselves and all their descendants, as St. Paul writes in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” The great lie, told to Adam and Eve continues to this very day: equality with God is attainable. It will make you free. The great lie is that you can worship how you see fit, in ways of which God surely would approve, though not how God commands in His Word. The great lie is that your will is better than God’s, or at least equal to it, so it should be done. The great lie is that you don’t need to pray because you can work things for good by yourself. But all of this is enslavement to self and sin. Equality with God is not within our grasp. Creatures can never be equal to their Creator. Trying to be “like God” only ends in slavery to sin, death, and the power of the devil. This is where most people are in our world today, trusting in anything other than the true God for good things in this life and the life to come.

But here is Christ, coming into Jerusalem, fulfilling what was written centuries before, “Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Mt 21:5). Here is Christ, presenting Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, going forth to the cross willingly, deliberately, and lovingly. Here is Christ, allowing Himself to be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, even though He could effortlessly call twelve legions of angels to His side. Here is Christ, standing in Pilate’s Praetorium, refusing to defend Himself, being “obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Doing no will except His Father’s.

He does all this humbly, meekly, and in all lowliness, so that He might earn redemption for the world. The One who is actually equal to God allows Himself to be crucified to pay for the sins of those who are not equal to God but attempt to be. His obedience to the Father’s will in Garden of Gethsemane pays for Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden. His innocent death atones for our sins by which we truly deserve death, both in this life and eternally. The One who actually IS God Himself, offers Himself on the altar of the cross to save those who delude themselves and think of themselves as their own gods so that they can do their own will. His blood pays for all our sins and the sins of all mankind, so that everyone who trusts His death has the forgiveness of their sins, and everyone who trusts His perfect righteousness has it as their own. When this forgiveness and righteousness is received by faith, it frees you from the lie that you can be like God.

And it presents you with the example of Christ, the one who is equal with God, but made emptied Himself for us and our salvation. St. Paul began the epistle lesson, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” The mind we’re to have—the way we are to think about ourselves, others, and God—is the mind that Christ had while on earth: humble, gentle, and lowly. The mind of Christ is not pride, arrogance, or self-importance, but humility which serves others in love, so that we look out not only for our own interests, but also for the interests of others (Phil 2:4). Nor is the mind of Christ prideful toward God, imagining that it knows better than He does or what He has revealed in His word. The mind of Christ is humble submission to God’s will and word, because the mind of Christ knows that God the Father works all things for the good of those who love Him. The mind of Christ does not seek equality with God—though He Himself has that from all eternity—but seeks to be obedient in all things to His Father’s will. The Christ who entered Jerusalem on this day so humbly still comes to us in humility and gentleness, offering us the fruits of His suffering and death: the forgiveness of all our sins and everlasting life. By giving us these gifts, He renews our minds so that we have the mind which was also in Him during His earthly life. For that, let us give Him thanks as praise as did the crowd outside Jerusalem. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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John 8.46-59
Judica, the 5^th Sunday in Lent

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today’s gospel lesson is the final part of a long conversation between Jesus and the Jews. Throughout this conversation, Jesus has exposed the Jews’ unbelief. They claim to be descendants of Abraham, but they do not behave like Abraham behave. He told them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would to the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this” (Jn 8:39-40). Instead, they do the deeds of their father—the devil. They lie and distort Jesus’ words and seek to kill Him, even though they cannot convict Him of any sin. Jesus summarizes this when He says at the beginning of today’s gospel, “He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.” They do not hear Jesus’ words for what they are—the words of God Himself—because they are not of God. They are not born from God by faith and baptism. Instead, they show themselves to be children of the devil by refusing to believe that God is His true Father and that He is God’s true Son.

Unable to convict Jesus of any sin, they attack His person. They call Him a Samaritan—not a true descendant of Abraham—and say that He has a demon. Jesus doesn’t bite on the accusation of being a Samaritan because even Samaritans can be true children of Abraham if they share Abraham’s faith. But He does respond to being called a demoniac, because it is blasphemy to call the word of God the word of the devil. He does not have a demon but honors His Father. He trusts His Father to seek His glory and vindicate Him against the attacks of the Jews, both of which He will do at when He raises Him from the dead on the third day after His death. Trusting His Father to seek His glory and vindicate Him, against this ungodly nation, He continues to teach these Jews what they desperately need to hear.” He had told them earlier the conversation that if they don’t believe in Him, they will die in their sin (24) but that His word will set them free from sin (36). Now He draws the conclusion. If one does not die in their sin, but is free from sin’s slavery, he will have eternal life. “Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.” The one who keeps His word—believes it, treasures it, holds fast to it in faith, guards it in his heart, and lives according to it—will not see death.

The Jews, thinking carnally, assume He means that His word will keep people from physical death. They say, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word he will never taste death. Whom do you make Yourself ‘out to be?’” But Jesus isn’t speaking of physical death. Nowhere does He promise that those who believe in Him will not bodily die, just as He never promises them an earthly life without suffering and cross. All who believe in Him—except those who are alive in the body when He returns in glory—will taste death. But His promise is that though they taste death, they will yet live with God. His word is true because He Himself will do this very thing—He tastes death—so that those who keep His word will not see eternal death. The author of Hebrews wrote, “Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone” (Heb 2:9).

Even Abraham. Moses wrote, “Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people” (Gen 25:8). Abraham tasted death. And although dead, Abraham lives with God because He kept God’s word, the word. He kept the word given to Him when God told him to leave his country, his family, and his father’s house, and go to the land which God would show him. He kept the words which God gave him that God would make him a great nation, bless him, and make his name great, and that in him all families of the earth shall be blessed (Gen 12:3). Abraham kept that word. He believed it and held fast to it, so that it was his most precious possession in this life. He lived according to it, though imperfectly because of sin. Trusting God’s word, he left his country, family, and father’s house, looking forward to Jesus’ day, to the Seed promised to Him—Christ—because it is in Christ’s atoning death for the sins of the world, and the proclaiming of that gospel to all mankind, that all families of the are blessed.

Still thinking carnally, still knowing Christ according to flesh, the Jews cannot help but ask, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” The answer is “yes.” Because “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” He has been saying this all along. If God is His Father, the one who has begotten Him, not created Him, and His word gives life, so that the one who keeps it will never see death, then He is God from God, light from light, and true God from true God. He is the one who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and identified Himself as “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex 3:14). This is why His word frees from sin. It is the very word of God. This is why His word gives life to all who keep it. It is the very word of God. The Jews understand perfectly well what so many deny today. They understood that Jesus identified Himself as God, as “I AM.” Their murderous desires, kept at bay up to this point, burst forth at what they believe to be blasphemy. They pick up stones to that they might make Him taste death in that moment. But in an act of divine power, He hid Himself and went out of their midst. For though He would taste death for all, it is not to be in this way, nor is it to be at this moment.

The Jews believe none of this. Not because they were ignorant of God’s written word. “To them were committed the oracles of God” (Rom 3:2). Nor is it because Jesus could have spoken more winsomely. He spoke bluntly to them because He was aggressive for their salvation. They did not hear His word because they were not of God. They thought that they were of God—that they were God’s children—because they were physical children of Abraham. But God is able to raise up children to Abraham from stones as John the Baptist had said (Mt 3:9). What makes one a child of God is faith in God’s word—believing it to be true, treasuring it as the word of eternal life, holding fast to it in faith that it is true for you, guarding it in the heart from all enemies who want to remove it, and living according to it, for if what is believed is not lived, it won’t be believed for very long.

The Jews of Jesus’ day trusted in their genealogy, that they were sons of God because they were biological descendants of Abraham. The Jews do this to this very day. They claim to be of God, but they refuse to acknowledge Jesus as God’s only begotten Son, and because of that they do not keep His word. On the other hand, many people claim to be Christians in this life, but they do not hear God’s word, and if they hear it, they do not keep it so that they believe it and live according to it. They live as Paul says, having a form of godliness but denying its power (2 Tim 3:5). As you approach the yearly celebration of your Lord’s Passion once again, the Holy Spirit puts this conversation between Jesus and the Jews before you so that you might consider your hearing—and keeping—of God’s word, repent of the sluggishness to hear it and the slothfulness in keeping it. The Holy Spirit puts this conversation of before you once again so that you might stir yourselves up with the knowledge that you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:26).

As God’s dearly beloved children, take care how you hear God’s word, that you hear it for what it is: the word which frees you from your sins and their guilt, a word which, if kept, keeps you from seeing eternal death. For this is a great and precious promise because, unless Christ returns in glory during our lifetime, you will most certainly die. You will taste death like Abraham and the prophets tasted death. But like them you will never see the eternal punishment of everlasting death. Jesus says in John 5:24, “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.” By faith in Christ and baptism you have been born of God and passed already from death to life. Since you have passed from death to life in holy baptism, since you have been born of God through water and the Spirit, because you are of God, because you believe that Christ is the only begotten Son of God, keep His word. Continue to believe it. Treasure it, hold fast to it in faith, guard it in your heart, comfort yourself with it in affliction and crosses, and live according to it. And on the day you die, you will live, because you have lived keeping the word of the One who tasted death for you. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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Galatians 4.21-31 + John 6.1-15
Laetare, the 4^th Sunday in Lent
Amos Sullivan Confirmation

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus feeds the five thousand with five barley loves and two small fish, and the crowd has as much as they wanted. Afterwards, the disciples filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. The crowd of five thousand men experiences bread in the wilderness and make the connection. “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world,” the say. The Lord told Moses in Deuteronomy 18:18, “I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.” What could be more like Moses than miraculously feeding a crowd of people in the wilderness with bread? They have the idea to take Jesus by force and make Him their king. There’s no doubt they wanted Him to be their king because He could provide daily bread for them like Moses had. But did they see in Jesus something else? Did they see Jesus as a prophet like Moses who would destroy their earthly enemies—in their case, the Romans—as Moses led Israel in victory against the Egyptians and Amalekites. Did they see Jesus as a new lawgiver, who would usher in a golden age in which everyone obeyed Moses’ law and God rewarded Israel with earthly peace and prosperity? Did they rejoice at the possibility of a Jerusalem, a temple, and a people restored to their former glory?

Jesus perceives these hopes in their hearts and retreats to the mountain by Himself alone. The crowd was right, He was The Prophet like Moses whom God foretold to Moses, the One to whom all people should listen and believe. But He is not the prophet they are looking for. He is not a new lawgiver. He is not earthly king who will rule over an earthly Israel in an earthly Jerusalem, an earthly temple, nor will He usher in an age of peace and prosperity for the Jews. He is a king. He will tell Pilate on the morning of His death, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here” (Jn 18:36). The eternal Son of God did not become man to establish an earthly kingdom; not then, not now, not in the end times or on the Last Day. His kingdom is not from here. Nor is it a kingdom that operates like an earthly one. Where it is from? St. Paul tells us in today’s epistle lesson.

He tells us that Jesus’ kingdom, His Jerusalem, is the Jerusalem above, which is free. To understand what the apostle means by this we must understand His allegory. He says Abraham had two sons. Each symbolizes a covenant. The first, Ishmael, Abraham conceived by the bondwoman and was conceived according to the flesh, that is, according to the natural way that children are conceived, apart from the promise of and the Word of God. The second son, Isaac, was not only born of the free woman, Sarah, but through God’s promise. God promised Isaac to Abraham and that he would be Abraham’s heir. These two ways of being born—according to the flesh and through promise—signify the works of the law and faith in the gospel, the Jerusalem that now is, and the Jerusalem from above.

The Jerusalem which is now, is not so much the physical city, but the religion of the law enshrined there. The Law brings forth children who are slaves. They are under the law’s coercion. They think that if they want to live eternally, they must do this and that. They must do certain things in order to be righteous in God’s sight. They must abstain from other things to remain righteous in God’s sight. But coercion cannot fulfill the law should be done in love for God, not because one has to. Not only are they coerced by the law, if they are honest with themselves, they are condemned by the law. The law says, “You shall not,” but the honest man will admit that He has done that very thing which God forbade. The law says, “You shall,” but the honest man will admit that he has not done the very thing that God commanded. And though he be outwardly pure and pristine in his words and behavior, he will see that in His heart he has done that which the law forbids and not done that which the law demands he do. This is why St. Peter called the law “a yoke . . . which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Ac 15:10). There is no salvation by works of the law, according to the flesh. This is why this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which is now, and is in bondage with her children.” It does not bring forth sons, but slaves. This is not the Jerusalem over which Christ will reign, an earthly kingdom which tries to make children of Abraham according to the flesh, by works of the law.

He will only be king of the Jerusalem above, that is, the spiritual Jerusalem, the church. This Jerusalem is free from the law’s coercion because Christ has taken the law upon Himself and done it all willingly. This Jerusalem is free from the law’s condemnation because Christ has done all the law perfectly, from the heart. This Jerusalem gives birth to children for Abraham, not according to the flesh and works of the law, but as Isaac was born—through promise. It is not achieved by works of the law. It is received by faith in the promise of the Gospel, the promise that for Christ’s sake, God freely forgives the sins of the penitent, regenerates them as sons of God, and gives them His Holy Spirit and eternal salvation. Faith in the promise means God sees you covered in the righteousness of Jesus. Faith in the promise means God has made you His son. Faith in the promise means you are free from the law’s coercion and condemnation. You may now live according to the law, loving God and neighbor as yourself, in thankfulness and praise that you have been reborn by God. It is by the gospel that Christ reigns in your hearts—and the hearts of all believers—in the true Jerusalem.

Since Christ reigns in us, not with the law for our condemnation, but with the gospel and its freedom from sin, guilt, and eternal death, so that we have new life with God, we freely answer Isaiah’s call which we sang in the Introit. The prophet wrote, “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, All you who love her, rejoice with he; Rejoice for joy with her, All you who mourn for her” (Is 66:10). Rejoice that the Jerusalem above, which is your mother, for it is the Holy Christian Church that Christ has rebirthed you in water combined with His word. Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad with her, for in her Christ feeds you, not with barely loves and fish, but with His word and sacrament. For by the clear and pure preaching, Christ nourishes your souls. By His body and blood in the Sacrament, Christ nourishes your faith, strengthening it to persevere trials and crosses with joy. Rejoice that though the world sees the Jerusalem above as desolate and looks down upon her because she seems small and weak, she continues to give birth to children of Abraham, sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, and she will endure forever, even against the gates of Hell itself.

Today we have another reason to rejoice. Fourteen years ago, the Jerusalem above gave birth to a son of God. On the day of his birth according to the flesh, Amos Wells was also born from above through water and the Spirit in the waters of Holy Baptism. Amos was justified by faith—which the Holy Spirit created in his heart that day—not by any works he worked or merits he merited. He has continued in the faith and learned the Faith into which He was baptized. Now he is ready to confess the Christian faith publicly, desiring to receive the forgiveness of his sins, life, and salvation in His Lord’s Supper. Today is not another rebirth, for Confirmation is not a sacrament. It was instituted by man. Nor is today an augmentation of the gifts God gave him in baptism, for the gifts Christ gave Amos in baptism don’t need any supplementation. God does not deal in incomplete gifts, nor does He make half-children in baptism. Today we rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad with her, for she is not bearing a new son of God, but admitting one of her sons to her Lord’s Table to be fed and nourished with Christ’s very body and blood for the strengthening and perseverance of his faith.

Let this reason to rejoice encourage you in your faith in Christ—that you are children of the promise because you know and believe in Christ. Let this reason to rejoice encourage your confession of Christ—that He justifies you by penitent faith in Christ by each day, and not your works and merits. Let this reason rejoice remind you that you are citizens of Jerusalem, not the earthly city, enslaved to sin and burdened by an unbearable yoke, but the Jerusalem above which is free, and that means you are free—from sin, from the law’s condemnation, and from the law’s coercion. You are free to live as sons of God who have all of His promises. Rejoice  with Jerusalem and be glad with her. Amen!

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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Luke 11:14-28
Oculi, the 3^rd Sunday in Lent

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In Isaiah 5:20 the Lord says of Israel, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” It is sinful human nature to call evil things good and good things evil. We see this all around us in the world. That which God forbids and condemns, the world celebrates as good. That which God says is excellent and praiseworthy, the world denigrates and despises as evil. The world, which is under the rule and sway of Satan, calls marriage evil and promiscuity good.  It calls the fact that God made mankind male and female evil, and homosexuality and transgenderism good. It calls obedience to governing authorities evil, and vandalism and violence good. The list could go on. But the sinful heart’s denial of God’s good works reaches its height in today’s gospel lesson when, in response to Jesus casting a mute demon out of a man, some Jews say, “He casts out demons by Beezzebub, the ruler of the demons.” These men have hardened their hearts and allowed the devil to disorder them so that they refuse to see Christ’s work as one of mercy to this poor possessed man. They will only allow themselves to see His good work as a satanic ruse meant to deceive the simple. Others, just as deceived, ask Him for a sign from heaven, as if the work just performed isn’t enough.

Jesus shows them the absurdity of their own demonic thinking. “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say I cast out demons by Beelzebub.” It makes no sense for Satan to allow one of his servants to drive out another. The devil held this demon-possessed man captive and guarded him diligently. To sacrifice his hold on one man for the sake of deceiving others would divide his kingdom, and divided kingdom will not stand very long. Not only that, but Christ points out that if He casts out demons by Beelzebub, then by whom do the Jews’ sons attempt to cast them out? They very fact that Jews would attempt to exorcise demons from men shows that this is not a work of Satan, but a good work of God. And where they failed, Jesus succeeded, casting out demons not by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons, but by the finger of God—the Holy Spirit. Instead of calling this good work evil and Jesus a minister of Satan, they should open their eyes to see that Jesus is destroying the kingdom of the devil and bringing the kingdom of God.

While these Jews’ hearts are so disordered that they assume Christ’s work is the devils, they also fail to realize that only one stronger than the devil can drive out demons. Jesus tells them, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his good are in peace.” The strong man is the devil, of course. Deep guile and great might are his dread arms in fight. His armor and weapons are lies and deceptions. He deceives men by His empty words so that they call evil good, and good evil. Lies are how he guards his own palace, which is the world. Paul calls him “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” in Ephesians 2:2. Jesus calls the devil the ruler of this world three times in John’s gospel. He guards this palace of his, and as long as he keeps men his deceptions so that they hold on tightly to the devil’s lies, his goods—the very men who he holds captive—are in peace. He is not going to allow another of his agents to wrest even one of his goods away from him.

That can only be done by one Stronger than him. “But when a stronger one than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils,” Jesus says. Jesus is the stronger one. This work of casting out a demon isn’t pantomime or play-acting. It is the work of God by which He overcomes the devil in this specific man, taking away His armor, and freeing the man from the devil’s dominance. He frees this man and divides the spoils by calling this man out of the kingdom of darkness and into His kingdom in which there is redemption, holiness, and everlasting life. Jesus is not on Satan’s team. He is his opposition. He is the Stronger One who has arrived to overcome him, take away his armor, and bring men into the kingdom of God.

Jesus is still the Stronger One who overcomes the devil, takes away His armor, and brings men into His kingdom. He overcame the devil by His innocent, bitter suffering and death on the cross, for that is how He made for the sins of the world. Whereas in the devil’s kingdom, he keeps men bound by their sins and their deserved guilt, the gospel presents us with the forgiveness of sins the release from guilt. By faith in Christ’s work on the cross, God has delivered you from the power of darkness and conveyed you into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom you have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:13–14). Whereas in the devil’s kingdom, he keeps men in his captivity with his armor—lies and deceptions about God. But in the gospel Christ disarms the devil, taking away His armor of lies and deception by teaching us His truth. He teaches you what is truly good and truly evil. He sweeps your heart clean and puts it in order, so that you see the devil’s deceptions and abhor what is evil and cling to what is good (Ro 12:9). By the gospel, Christ brings you into His kingdom where there is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

But there is still a danger. Jesus says, “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” Just as the demon recently cast out would attempt to return to the man, so the devil, though overcome by Christ and cast out with the gospel, will attempt to reclaim the spoils he has lost. Christ sweeps the house of our hearts clean by His gospel. He puts our hearts in order, directing us to virtue and piety—living in faith and love. But just as the devil departed from Christ until an opportune time (Lk 4:13), he lies in wait against us with temptations to sin, deceits, and schemes so that we fall into sin, let it reign over us, and by doing so, return to His kingdom. And we find it true than when the devil has been resisted in one way, he comes back with seven others, that is, other temptations which we may not be on guard against. But Christ not only sweeps the house clean and sets it in order, but He also dwells within the house, with His Father and the Holy Spirit. For just as houses are swept and put in order so that someone may dwell in them, so the human heart is swept by the gospel and set in order by Christ’s teaching so that the Triune God might dwell there with grace and blessing, strengthening the heart against every temptation and comforting it with forgiveness of sins each day. We must, like so many, allow the home of our heart to swept and set in order, only to let it sit vacant. If we do, the strong one will have no problem regaining his lost spoils since the Stronger One is not dwelling there.

How does the Stronger One dwell in the house of your heart? By faith, and faith comes by hearing the word of God (Ro 10:17). Today’s gospel ends with a woman crying out, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” Jesus agrees, but adds, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” What does it mean to keep God’s word? It means to treasure it, to keep it safe, even to guard it. Jesus uses the same word for what the strong man does, though that is lost in our translations. “When a strong man, fully armed, guards—or keeps—his own palace, his goods are in peace.” How diligent is devil to keep those who are his? How shrewd is Satan to guard those whom He possesses in sin? Quite diligent and careful. As Satan keeps his own palace—his usurped authority over this world—you are to keep God’s Word, guarding it as your most treasured possession, so that nothing comes between you and God’s Word. By keeping God’s Word, the Stronger One, your Lord Jesus Christ, along with His Father and the Holy Spirit, dwell in your hearts and make you His temples. This is true blessedness, to have the Triune God dwell in your heart by faith. The Stronger One has redeemed you from the devil, not with gold or silver by His precious, innocent blood. Now the Stronger One dwells in you, so that you might live in His kingdom each day and enjoy the spoils of His victory: forgiveness of your sins, new life, and salvation. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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1 Thessalonians 4.1-7 + Matthew 15.21-28
Reminiscere, the 2^nd Sunday in Lent

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dear Christian, you know that you have many enemies in this life. You have the devil as your opponent. We heard about this in last Sunday’s gospel and Wednesday evening’s lesson. He wants to sift you like wheat so that your faith fails. Along with the devil you also have the world and your very own flesh as opponents. Both tempt you to sin, to conform your thinking to sinful thinking, and thus to erode your faith, leading you into hypocrisy or apostasy. It is with these enemies in mind that St. Paul writes to the Ephesians, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:11–12). We equip ourselves with the armor of God. We use the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, His word, the “it is written,” to defend ourselves. By faith in God’s word is how we wrestle against these opponents who want to prevail against us.

In today’s gospel lesson, the Canaanite woman who approaches Jesus has been wrestling against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age in a very tangible way. Her daughter is severely-demon possessed. A devil has set up residence within her beloved child, and by doing so, has set up set up residence in the woman’s conscience. For the demon terrorizes her daughter, which terrorizes her conscience as she must helplessly watch the demon afflict her dear child. Having wrestled against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age in such a heart wrenching and tangible way, the news that Jesus has come into the region of Tyre and Sidon, gives her hope. Even in this region, north of Galilee, outside the ancient boundaries of Israel, she has heard the good report about Jesus, that He has power to cast out demons, and that He is merciful to the afflicted. This Canaanite woman has heard these things and believes them, even that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah of the world. Although Jesus had entered a house and wanted no one to know it (Mk 7:24), everyone knows it. Armed with this faith in Jesus, she seeks Him out, for He can wrestle this demonic opponent of hers to the ground and drive it out of her daughter.

But when she finds Jesus, she finds an unexpected opponent. She cries out, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” Her prayer has everything. She confesses Jesus to be the Lord and Messiah. She makes her request known to Him. She asks Him to mercifully come to her aid, defeat her opponent who tyrannizes her. But He answer her not a word. He ignores her. His disciples urge their Lord to sent her away, “for she cries out after us.” He tells them, but so that the Canaanite woman can overhear, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” She had come to Jesus for help but finds an opponent in Him instead. He slips out of her hold by making it clear that He hasn’t come to help those not of Israel.

But the Canaanite woman, being thrown off, doesn’t give up. Even though God Himself has become her opponent, she engages Him and begins to wrestle with Him for the blessing she came for. She came to Jesus for mercy. She came to Him for help. She falls down at His feet in humble supplication and cries out, “Lord, help me!” She grapples with Jesus and will not Him go until He gives her His mercy, His help, and His blessing. But Jesus evades that move as well, using a stronger version of His first countermove. “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” It was as if He were saying, “I have come to give the children of Israel the bread of life. You are not a daughter of Jacob, so to help you would be no different than taking what was meant for the children who sit at the table and give it to the house dogs.” For most, the match would be over at this point. Most would see Jesus as their enemy, as One who will not help, as one who does not want to help. They would tap the mat and surrender.

But not this Canaanite woman. She engages her opponent yet again; despise the pain his last move may have caused. She says, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” She does not give up. Not only does she not give up; she takes the words of Jesus and uses them against Him. She takes the words of Jesus, even the His words comparing her to a little dog that doesn’t get the children’s food and runs with it. She admits that she is not a child of Jacob. She knows He is right. She doesn’t have a seat at the table with the children of Israel. She is a little dog. But even dogs get the crumbs which fall from their master’s table. Whatever crumbs Jesus allows to fall, she will snatch up as her own. She may not have a set at the table, but she’s not leaving the dinning room until Jesus drops a morsel of mercy and a crumb of compassion.

And at that, it’s her opponent who surrenders. He answers and says, “O woman, great is your faith!” He submits and praises her tenacious trust that believes He will give her His mercy, His help, and His blessing. “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as your desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. She did not allow her daughter’s affliction to deter her. She did not allow Christ’s silence to stop her, or her own unworthiness to unnerve her. She took Jesus at His word, first, at the word which she had heard about Him, then His words spoken specifically to her. She takes His word that she is unworthy, that as a Canaanite she is comparable to a little dog and uses that word to prevail against her opponent. And that is why Jesus gave her His word. He is the opponent who wanted her to prevail against Him by using His word in faith.

In this she shows that, though she is not a flesh-and-blood Israelite, she is more Israelite than most biological sons of Jacob. Jacob wrestled with God Himself at the fords of the Jabbock River in Genesis 32. His brother Esau was approaching Him with four hundred men, and he had no idea what Esau intended to do. Jacob had done all that was in his power. The Angel of the Lord—the preincarnate Son of God—wrestles with Jacob throughout the night. Jacob wrestles to get a blessing from God because God is the One who told Jacob to return to His home. When the Lord saw that He did not prevail against Jacob, touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him (Gen 32:2). Even that did not stop Jacob, so that God had to say, “Let Me go, for the day breaks” (Gen 32:26). But Jacob would not let the Angel of the Lord go until He blessed him, until He answered his prayer. And Jacob prevails. Not because Jacob was stronger than God—he wasn’t—but because God wanted Jacob to prevail by faith. This Canaanite woman is more an Israelite than most Israelites in Jesus’ day.

Jesus praises the woman’s faith— O woman, great is your faith! —because He wants to draw your attention to it. This faith of hers, which trusted the good news about Jesus—the gospel—made her a spiritual daughter of Jacob, even as the faith which He has created and sustains in your hearts makes you true Israelites. St. Paul teaches in Romans 9:8, “Those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.”

But Jesus also praises the Canaanite woman’s faith to strengthen your faith as well, so that in affliction you wrestle with God in prayer and do not give up, despite tears and pain. He wants you follow this woman’s example, so that when you feel your unworthiness—and we are all unworthy for the things for which we pray—you give thanks that despite your unworthiness, He wants to you to pray. He gives you the Canaanite woman’s example, so that when it seems that God is silent to your prayers, even that He is your opponent, reminding you that you are but a little dog under the table, you remember what kind of opponent you’re dealing with. The devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh do not want you to prevail against them. They desire your defeat, and they work tirelessly and shrewdly to bring your faith to ruin. But God is the opponent who wants you to prevail against Him with faith that He hears you, with faith that He only gives good things to His children, and with faith that wrestles with Him until He give you the help, aid, and blessing you need. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds Christ Jesus. Amen.

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2 Corinthians 6.1-10 + Matthew 4.1-11
Invocavit, the First Sunday in Lent

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The author of Hebrews tells us, “We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). On the first Sunday in Lent, we see Christ, our High Priest, tempted by the devil. But was He really temped in all points as we are tempted? The tempter came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” You cannot turn stones into bread. Neither can I. But turning stones to bread is just the outward form of the temptation. The temptation is really a demonic invitation to believe that God is not good to His Son and that the Son should take matters into His own hands. It’s as if the devil were saying, “God isn’t giving you what you need for this body and life. Go and get it yourself. You have the ability to do that. Is this how God treats the One He calls “My beloved Son?” You and I aren’t tempted to turn stones into bread because we cannot do that. But you and I are tempted in this same way. “If you are a child of God by Holy Baptism, if God is your loving Father, then why isn’t God giving you everything you need? Since God evidently doesn’t want you to have them, go get them yourself.”

This temptation, to assume God isn’t good to His children and that they ought to get for themselves what God denies, is a familiar one. It’s the basis of so many of our temptations. God isn’t giving us some aspect of daily bread that we want now. We’d like more money, a nicer house, more property, better health, a better boss, more companionship, and whatever else we need for this body and life. He allows His baptized children to suffer lack at times. He allows them to fall into need. And when He doesn’t, isn’t it tempting to think that God isn’t all that good, that He may even be evil at times?” When God withholds what you want, isn’t it tempting to take matters into your hands, to step outside your vocations and get for yourself what God isn’t providing? How often you fall to thinking that God isn’t good, that He is withholding good things from you, so that you covet what others have, what you should have, and then step outside your vocations to make it so?

Jesus will not allow Himself to fall to this temptation, though. He answered with the written Word of God—Holy Scripture. He says, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Food supports the body, but God can make people live without food. He did it before with Moses on Sinai and Elijah in the wilderness. But man cannot live without God’s word. The source of life for Jesus—the source of life for you—is God’s word. And this is why He allows you to fall into need. This is why He doesn’t always give you daily bread in the way you want it, and at times, even withholds its. The Scripture, the “it is written,” that Jesus uses in faith is Deuteronomy 8:3, where Moses wrote under God’s inspiration, “So [the Lord] humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” God allows suffering, lack, and privation to come upon you so that you may know all the more confidently that God’s word is your source of life.

What about the next temptation? The devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the Jerusalem Temple and says, “If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written, ‘He shall give His angels chare over you,’ and ‘in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Again, the devil doesn’t come to you and tempt you to throw yourself off a high building to see if God will catch you. But this is only the outward circumstance of the temptation. The temptation is to put God to the test, to make Him prove His promises. You feel this temptation most acutely when you are tempted to sin and rationalize giving in to temptation because you know that you can always ask God for forgiveness later. But this is tempting God just as much as jumping off a high place and expecting His angels to catch you. Christ, again, answers from the written word—Holy Scripture. “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” This time He quotes from Deuteronomy 6:16. He will not put God the Father to the test. He will not make Him prove His word. He will only trust His Word.

This temptation also offers an important insight into how the devil tempts us once we begin to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. At that point, he uses Scripture to rationalize the temptation. He uses Psalm 91, but he twists it. He leaves out words. David had written, “For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways” (Ps 91:11). The devil omits the second phrase, and the fact that psalm describes God’s protection of the one whose ways are God’s ways, those who make the Lord their refuge and dwelling place. What David wrote under inspiration as a promise of angelic protection for those who trust God’s word and walk in His ways, the devil mutilates into an admonition to put God to the test, which is not walking in His ways. This is vital for us to remember because so many Christians assume that if someone quotes Scripture, they must be trustworthy. It someone uses the Bible; they must be godly. But this isn’t the case at all. But Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light, even as his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness (2 Co 11:14–15).

What about the third temptation? “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’” The devil has not appeared to any of us in such a way and offered us the entire world in all its glory, power, and splendor in exchange for worshiping him. Nor would you bow down and worship him, because you belong to Christ. But you experience this temptation in other ways. Instead of the crass invitation to worship him, the devil offers you the best the world has to offer if you but live as he wants you to live. How much better would your life be if you lived as the unbelieving live? If you prioritize what the world prioritizes, you’ll gain the world. If you go along with the world’s way of thinking, you’ll be popular with others, because you’ll agree with them, and they’ll agree with you. But what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? (Mk 8:36), for that’s what will happen if you love your life in this world and pursue what it tells you the “good life” is. Jesus answers, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.”  Again, Jesus uses the “it is written,” the Holy Scriptures of Deuteronomy 6:13.

Because He was tempted in all points as we are, He can sympathize with our weaknesses (Heb 4:15). He knows your weakness, because He assumed your flesh. He knows your temptations, dear saints, because He has experienced them in His own flesh. He shared in your temptations that He might be a good and gracious High Priest to you. He was victorious over your temptations so that He might give you His victory over the devil. If you fall to temptation, if the devil defeats you with his fiery darts, Christ your High Priest is present to absolve you of your sin. When He absolves you, He credits His victory over the devil to you, so that your sin is no more.

Not only does He absolve you and count His victory over the devil as yours, but He also leaves behind His example so that you may not be ignorant of the devil’s devices and know how to resist the devil so that He flees from you. Jesus, in our flesh, uses God’s Word. Just as man does not live by bread alone but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, so man does not stand against temptation by his own strength but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Christ used God’s written word—the Holy Scriptures. He didn’t use them as a magical amulet or incantation, so that the mere speaking the words drive away Satan. He uses them in faith, believing them and applying them to Himself. He has left this example for you and all whom God has called His beloved sons in holy baptism. To use God’s word, you must know God’s word. And while you can always know it better—and should make the effort to know it better—Christ’s rebuffs of Satan today are good places to start when you face the same temptations. When temptation arises, look to Christ. He has given you His victory already by faith, and by using God’s word in faith, your sympathetic High Priest will be victorious in you. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds Christ Jesus. Amen.

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The First Day of Lent
Jonah 3.1-10 + Joel 2:12-19 + Matthew 6:16-21

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

As the season of Lent begins, we hear three texts of Scripture, and all three mention fasting. In the first lesson, Jonah preaches God’s threat of punishment to the heathen of Nineveh. “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Because of their evil ways and violence, the Lord would destroy the city. But within this threat of punishment in a glimmer of the gospel. He could have destroyed Nineveh on that same day, but the fact that the Lord gave them forty days’ notice indicated that He wanted them to repent. In a move that Jonah did not expect, that’s exactly what the Ninevites do. They believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. They believed God’s word spoken by the prophet. To show that heartfelt belief and demonstrate it outwardly, they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth. Fasting—the abstaining from food for a fixed period—and wearing itchy sackcloth were outward signs that they were sorry for their sins, that they believed they had aroused God’s wrath, and that they were pleading with Him for forgiveness.

In today’s epistle—which, yes, isn’t from a New Testament epistle, but occupies the epistle’s spot in the Divine Service—the prophet Joel speaks the word of the LORD to Israel. The Lord had punished Israel by sending an army of locusts among them. Joel described the destruction in the first chapter of his prophecy. “What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten” (Joel 1:4). God sent this punishment upon Israel so that they would, like Nineveh, acknowledge their evil ways, turn from them, and turn to God. He says, “Now therefore,’ says the LORD, ‘Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” The Lord commanded them to fast, to weep, and mourn their sins, all of which are outward manifestations of what He commanded first when He said, “Turn to me with all your heart.” His command is to repent, as if He were saying, “Admit your sin. Acknowledge that your sins deserve My wrath. Then turn to Me for grace, mercy, and forgiveness.”

In both cases, fasting was an outward, physical way of showing what was going on in the heart. You don’t eat when you mourn the death of a loved one because grief occupies your heart. How much more would true contrition—grief over one’s sins and what your sins deserve—occupy the heart and drive out any thought of food? For the Ninevites who hear Jonah’s preaching and the Israelites who heard Joel’s, fasting showed the state of their hearts as contrite, humble, and believing.

But the hearts weren’t just contrite over their sins and fearful of God’s just judgment. Their hearts also hoped in the Lord’s mercy. The king of Nineveh says in his proclamation, “Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?” Joel tells Israel, “So rend your hearts and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him—a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God?” The Ninevites and Israelites humble themselves on account of their sins and in expectation that God would be merciful. There is contrition over their sins and there is faith that God forgives sins.

It may not sound like to our ears, though. The king of Nineveh says, “Who can tell if God will turn and relent?” and Joel says, “Who knows if He will turn and relent?” They are uncertain, but not of forgiveness. How often does God promise throughout Holy Scripture to forgive the one who confesses his sins? David writes in the fifty-first psalm, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise” (51:17). The Lord says in Isaiah 66:2, “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.” He says in Ezekiel 18[:32], “I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,’ says the Lord God. ‘Therefore turn and live!” The Ninevites and Joel do not doubt that God is merciful and will forgive their sins. They express hope that God, in His great mercy, will also turn away the temporal punishments He was sending on them. He did that for the Ninevites. “God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented of the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.” The Lord relented and removed the locusts from Israel, sending them grain and new wine and oil. God doesn’t always remove the temporal punishments for sin. When He lets them remain, it is to exercise of the faithful, as when David and Bathsheba’s son conceived in adultery died. But in these two cases, God relented and turned the worldly punishment aside. Nineveh was not destroyed at the time. Neither was Israel.

For the Ninevites and the Israelites of Joel’s day, the proclaimed fasts were public. The entire people had to participate. In the gospel lesson, Jesus speaks of fasting, but He isn’t speaking of public, mandatory fast. He speaks of private fasting, which is done for the sake of discipling the flesh. In Jesus’ day, the customary fasts had been publicized. Men would disfigure their faces. They render their faces unrecognizable so that others will recognize that they’re fasting. Their fasting is not to God, not to put aside the flesh for the sake of meditating on God’s Word. It’s a dog and pony show. Jesus says, “they have their reward.” They fast to gain recognition, and the recognition of man is all they get. But the disciples, when they fast, are to fast to God, denying themselves food for a period so that they might discipline the sinful flesh and concentrate on contemplating God’s word. God sees this fast because He sees the heart and will openly reward the one who fasts in such a way, not with riches or recognition, but with the spiritual blessings of Christ.

With all this in mind, today we begin the Lenten fast. It is public in that the church calls us to fast during these forty days, but it is private in that the outward signs of fasting are not required. The Lent fast is to “Rend your hearts and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.” It is not required that you abstain from certain foods, drinks, or pleasures. That can be done, of course, because the bodily exercise of fasting disciplines the flesh, tell it ‘No,’ and strengthens us to reign it in better. St. Paul tells Timothy, “Bodily exercise profits a little,” so if you are moved to discipline the flesh to devote more time to reading God’s word, prayer, and the like, do it. Christ says your Father in heaven will reward you. But Paul goes on, “but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Ti 4:8). The outward fasting should only be done to God, for the sake of disciplining the flesh, not to gain the recognition of others, nor to earn anything from God.

While fasting and other bodily disciplines can be beneficial, the Lenten fast should chiefly be a fast of the heart, in which we are more conscientious to exercise ourselves in God’s word. We do this by mediating on God’s commandments, to see how we have done what He forbids and fallen short of the perfect love that He requires of us. Our meditation on God’s law shows us our sins—of deed, word, and thought—so that we admit our sins, acknowledge that we deserve God’s wrath on account of our sins, and then trust the mercy He promises us for Jesus’ sake. We mediate on God’s law so that we may drink more deeply from His gospel that He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. It is not possible to recognize the benefits of Christ unless we understand our evils (Ap II:50). Such meditation on the commandments also shows us how we can amend our lives, while in the meditation on the gospel God strengthens our faith, raises us up as new men, and gives us His Holy Spirit so that we can joyfully and dauntlessly fight against sin and be victorious over it.

Bodily exercises such as fasting profit a little in this. But the fast of the heart, which is contrition and faith, sorrow over our sins followed by the joy of the gospel, and the newness of life which fights against sin by the power of the gospel, this is the fast we embark upon once again. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

1 Corinthians 13.1-13 + Luke 18.31-43
Quinquagesima Sunday

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus takes the twelve disciples aside and tells 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.” This was not the first time He had told them about His suffering, death, and resurrection, and despise the fact that Jesus speaks very plainly here, they do not have ears to hear it at the moment. “They understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.”

They believed Jesus was the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah. They believed He would fulfill everything the divinely inspired prophets had foretold about Him. But they didn’t know the things which Jesus was speaking about. Like the Jews of our day, they understood some of the things the prophets foretold about the Christ but failed to understand other things spoken about Him. When Jesus says that He will be delivered to the gentiles, they did not think of the words of David from Psalm 2, “Why do the gentiles 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 Christ, saying, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.” When He tells them the Son of Man will be mocked and insulted and spit upon, they don’t connect that with the words of Isaiah 50:6, “I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.”

When He tells them He must be scourged and killed, they do not recall that the prophet had written, “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. He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken” (Is 53:5, 8). They hear Him say, “The third day He will rise again,” David’s words from Psalm 16 do not come to mind. It is only after Christ’s resurrection, after He opens their minds to the Scriptures, that Peter applies those words of David to Jesus: “For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence” (Ac 2:27–28).

Although they do not understand these things and this saying was hidden from them, He tells them of His sufferings, death, and resurrection, so that after He accomplishes all these things, they might look back at remember that He had understood them and that He had foretold them. They would look back at this—and all the times Jesus had spoken of His passion and resurrection—and believe all the more firmly that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who alone has the words of life.

Then, as they come near Jericho on their way to Jerusalem—the place where He will accomplish all these things—they encounter a blind man, whom Mark identifies as Bartimaeus, sitting by the road, begging. This is how God provided him with his daily bread. When he hears a multitude passing by, he asks what’s happening, only to be told that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. Bartimaeus had heard the good news about Jesus. He had heard that Jesus opened the eyes of the blind, so he cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” He believes much more about Jesus than that He can work miracles. He believes Him to the Christ, the Son of David, in whose day “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped” as Isaiah had foretold. And when those nearby tell him to be quiet, his faith that Jesus is the Christ causes him to cry out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” For that is what faith does. It believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of David, and that Jesus is merciful, that He wants to show mercy to those who believe in Him and humbly ask Him for what they need. Faith leads Bartimaeus to prayer, to present His request to God, trusting that Christ can give it, and wants to give it.

Jesus stops and has Bartimaeus brought to Him. And He asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus is testing him. Asking for food or money would show that the blind man had no idea who Jesus was. But when he answers, “Lord, that I may receive my sight,” he reveals the faith in his heart. And Jesus lovingly answers this faith, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” Literally, “Your faith has saved you,” because faith is how one receives Christ’s promise of mercy. Bartimaeus receives his sight, becomes a disciple and pupil of Jesus, and glorifies God.

What do these two parts of the gospel—Jesus predicting His passion and the healing of the blind man—have to do with one another? Mercy. Jesus heals blind Bartimaeus right after teaching the twelve about His passion and resurrection to teach them why the Son of Man will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted, spit upon, scourged, and killed. The motivation is mercy. All that Jesus will accomplish in Jerusalem is all that necessary for God to show mercy to sinners. He will be delivered to the Gentiles so that all who believe in Him might not be delivered to God’s righteous judgment on account of our sins. He will be mocked and insulted and spit upon to redeem mankind from its sins of mocking God with unbelief, insulting God with its many sins, and spitting upon Him with its self-righteous rejection of His will. The gentiles will scourge Him and kill Him as our substitute since we deserve the eternal scourging of God’s wrath and the eternal death where “Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched” (Mk 9:44). And the third day He will rise again to justify believers, giving them everything He earned by His bitter, innocent sufferings and death—the full forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit to live new lives, the adoption as sons of God, and the promise of the eternal inheritance with Him. None of this is deserved. Not of this is merited. He earns it for us and gives it to penitent believers out of sheer grace and mercy. He does this out of love.

All of it must be done out of love, not obligation. St. Paul writes, “and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” If sacrificing his life, but not in love, profits Paul nothing, how much more would Christ’s sacrifice fail to profit those for whom He died? Christ heals blind Bartimaeus out of love, and Bartimaeus receives the love of Christ by faith, and that faith saved him. As it was for Bartimaeus, it is for you. Christ has taken your sins upon Himself, borne them upon His shoulders, and made perfect payment for every single one of them by His suffering and death. And He did this for you because He loves you. Faith in Christ’s satisfaction for your sins, faith in His perfect merits, saves you because faith is how you receive these blessings. Faith says, “Christ wants to be merciful to me. Christ made full satisfaction for my sins. Christ earned perfect righteousness in God’s sight for me. And He did all this because He is merciful. He did this and offers these blessings to me each day out of love.”

How then ought you to live? As Bartimaeus did, following Christ, learning from Him and praising Him. And as the twelve disciples did, not fully understanding, but following Him, nonetheless, believing Hiim to be the merciful Christ. As the disciples, you do not always understand His word, and you most certainly do not understand everything that happens to you in this world, nonetheless, you follow the merciful Christ. And how ought you to live towards others? As Christ lived for you, motiving by mercy, animated by love. Not the world’s false love of toleration of sin, but true love, the kind of love that Christ has for you. Love that is patient and kind. Love that does not envy. Love that does not boast and isn’t conceited. Love that does not behave indecently or seek its own. Love that does not become angry and dwell on evil. Love that does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth. Love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. This is the love Christ has demonstrated for you by being delivered to the Gentiles, mocked, insulted, spit upon. It is the love that led Him to be scourged and killed for you. Having been raised by the dead, it is the love He shows each day as He graciously offers you the blessings He earned for you. Following Him, let your motivation by mercy and your life be one of love. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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