Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Kerrville Texas

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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2 Corinthians 11.19—12.9 + Luke 8:4-15
Sexagesima Sunday

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

Jesus begins His parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed.” And while we often call this “The parable of the Sower,” the parable really isn’t about the sower. Nor is it primarily about the seed which the sower sows. Rather, the parable is about the four different types of soil upon which the seed is sown and how each type of soil receives the seed. And since the seed is the Word of God, the four types of soil signify four different types of hearts that hear and receive the Word of God.

The first type of soil is wayside, the beaten path upon which people walk. The seed does not penetrate this soil because it’s hardened and compacted. Since the soil isn’t receptive to the seed, the birds of the air devour it. Jesus explains, “Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.” This soil is the hearer who hears God’s word preached and closes themselves off it. They have no desire to listen to it, think about it, and apply it to themselves. This is the recalcitrant unbeliever who attends a service to witness a family member’s baptism or confirmation. But it is also the person who is present but not paying attention. They’re distracted by their phone, by other people, or by their own thoughts. This isn’t the momentary distraction of a child’s cry. It’s being here but not taking God’s word to heart. When the seed is sown and it falls on this type of soil, it does not penetrate the heart, it cannot take root. It cannot bear fruit. The devil then comes and takes the word away. If the word isn’t taken to heart, it cannot create faith or strengthen faith.

The second type of soil is rocky soil. The seed penetrates this soil so that faith springs up within a person. These receive the word with joy. They glory in the good news of the forgiveness of their sins and life everlasting. But as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. The seed produces faith that springs up quickly, but as the soil was shallow, so is the faith. It has no root. These are those who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. They experience the temptation to go back to old comfortable sins and allow themselves to be overpowered by it. But this could also be a time of testing that is the catalyst for their falling away. The word translated temptation may also be translated testing. God tests us by sending trials and hardships upon us. He also tests us by sending crosses and persecutions. He does this to exercise our faith so that we learn by experience His word and His faithfulness to it. Regardless of whether it is the devil tempting them to sin or God exercising them, so they grow, the one who initially received the word with joy falls away from faith. They fall away on account of the love of their sin or for thinking that God’s word should make life easier.

The third type of soil is thorny soil. The seed of the word penetrates this heart, faith springs up, but thorns spring up alongside the precious plant, entangle it, and choke it. Jesus tells us that the thorns which choke out faith are cares, riches, and pleasures of life. Cares, worries, and anxieties are like thorns in that they grow quickly. If they are not corralled by faith in God’s promises—by applying God’s promises to oneself—they quickly crowd faith out of the heart. Riches do the same. Like worries and anxieties, riches temp one to focus on them, set the heart on them, and to pursue them. The pleasures of this life do the same. Worldly pleasures tempt the heart to focus on them, fill the heart with them, and chase after them. Whether it is the cares of life, riches, or worldly pleasures, each are like thorns. If the seed of the word falls upon a heart that seeks these things, they will grow up alongside the tender shoot of faith and choking it to death so that it brings no fruit to maturity.

God wants His word to bear fruit in us. In Is 61:3 He preaches good news to His people that they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” The first psalm says the man who meditates daily on God’s word 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 (Ps 1:3). The fruit He wants to bear in us are good works, the fulfilling of the commandments from the heart. The fruit He wants to bear in us are the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal 5:22–23). The fruit He wants to bear in us is the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name (Heb 13:15). These are the fruits He bears in those who receive His word.

If a person does not bear the fruit of good works, the fruit of the Spirit, and the praise of God, their faith has died. They have let the thorns—cares, riches, and the pleasures of life—lead their hearts away from listening to God’s Word, thinking about it, and applying to themselves. We are familiar with God’s judgment on the tree that does not bear the fruits of faith. John the Baptist said, “every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mt 3:10). Christ Himself says in John 15[:5–6], “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” Only by abiding in Christ by faith, receiving the word of God with a noble and good heart, can anyone bear good fruit, for good fruit is the outward sign of saving faith in the one’s heart.

This brings us to the last type of soil. “Others,” Jesus says, “fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” What does it mean to be good ground? Jesus says it means to hear God’s word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. The noble and good heart is a hearing heart. It does not hear God’s word deceptively or indifferently, hypocritically, or haughtily. The good and noble heart listens to God’s word and receive it for what it is, not the word of man, but the very word of God. It listens to God’s word, pays attention to it, thinks about it, and applies it to itself. This heart keeps it and holds fast to it as its greatest treasure. This heart bears fruit—good works, the fruit of the Spirit, and the fruit of the lips which is confession and praise. And it bears these fruits with patient endurance. This means this heart brings forth its fruit in its season, which for the Christian is continually. And it endures in bearing the fruits of faith despite temptations and testing. Christ allows these so that He might exercise us and bring forth mature fruit in us, and not just a few fruits, but that the word implanted in us might yield a crop a hundredfold.

Jesus ended His parable of the soils by saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” To those who reject Christ’s plain words, His parables conceal God’s will, so that that “Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.” But to those who hear with good and honest hearts, parables illustrated the truth of what Christ has spoken plainly and served as an invitation to further meditate on His word. Jesus told the parable of the soils so that all who hear it might ask them themselves, “What kind of soil am I?” And it’s not to be a one-time question. It’s something to keep in mind as often as we hear God’s word, whether we are reading it off the page or hearing it preached. “Am I paying attention to it, or am I distracted?” “Am I hearing it for what it is as the Thessalonians heard it from Paul, “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe” (1 Th 2:13). “Am I allowing temptation or testing to come between me and God’s word?” “Am I hearing and believing God’s word but also allowing the thorns of cares, riches, and pleasures of life to slowly choke the word God has implanted in my heart?” And if you find that you have ears but aren’t using them to hear, repent, and look to the One who forgives sins and opens stopped up ears. For He is still sowing the seed of His word in the soil of hearts through the preaching of His ministers. Faith comes by hearing, and by faith He gives you the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit, so that you may hear with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. May God grant this to us all. Amen.

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

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1 Corinthians 9.24–10.5 + Matthew 20.1–16
Septuagesima Sunday

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

The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to find workers for his vineyard. The vineyard is his possession. The fruit of the vine belongs to him. The labor is his as well. But he wants to call men into the vineyard to tend it, water it, and cultivate it. First thing in the morning he calls several workers and agrees to pay them a denarius for a day’s work. The landowner wants to call more men into his vineyard, so he goes out at the third hour, the sixth hour, and the ninth hour of the day. Even at the eleventh hour, with one more hour of work left in the day, he goes out and calls still more men to labor in his vineyard. He doesn’t promise a denarius to any of these men. Rather he tells them, “Whatever is right I will give you.” These men trust the landowner and enter the vineyard, working joyfully at the landowner’s tasks, thankful for what the landowner will give them. At the end of the day they were paid, according to Deuteronomy 24:15, “Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it.” The eleventh-hour works are paid first, and they receive the denarius, receiving a full day’s wages even though they hadn’t worked the whole day! The landowner was gracious to these them, giving them far better than they deserved. I can’t imagine these men not rejoicing in the landowner’s graciousness.

This is a picture of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says. God is the landowner, and the vineyard is His church. He calls men to labor in the vineyard of the church. He calls some early in their life, baptizing them as infants or young children. Others He calls in young adulthood. Others He calls at middle age. Still others He calls at the eleventh hour of their lives. But the labor is the same and reward is the same. No one deserves to be called into the vineyard, but God wants His vineyard full, so He graciously invites men, women, and children into His church. He promises to give them what is right, and He shows His graciousness and mercy by promising everyone the forgiveness of all their sins, free salvation, and everlasting life. He gives all of it by sheer grace, for we deserve none of these things because of our sinful nature which gives birth daily to sinful thoughts and deeds. That’s why He gives it freely, without any merit or worthiness on our part, and He gives the same to those called at the beginning of their life as well as those called at the end of their life. The labor in the vineyard is the same as well. He sows the seed of His word into our hearts. He plants faith in our hearts, and we are then, by His Spirit’s power, to cultivate selfless love toward our neighbor and chastity and self-control toward our bodies and minds. None of that earns the grace of God. We do it simply because it’s the work our gracious landowner has given us to do.

But there are some like the workers hired early in the day who despise the grace of the Lord. These workers see the latecomers receive the denarius and imagine that should receive more on account of their long labor. This is a picture of the Pharisees who balked at tax collectors and sinners entering God’s kingdom late in life while they had long striven to fulfill Moses’ Law. It’s also a picture of the Christian who loses sight of God’s grace and begin to take it for granted. We are all, from time to time, tempted to neglect God’s grace and imagine that we’ve earned the forgiveness of our sins. “I’m contrite enough. I’ve made amends. I’ve done a lot for God’s kingdom, and He should be proud to someone like me working in His vineyard.” We’re tempted at times to think that we deserve more from God that what He promises to give us. This feeling of entitlement is really just self-idolatry, thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought. When we fall to this thinking, we take God’s grace for granted and rely upon our own imperfect works. If we don’t soon repent of this attitude, we risk disqualifying ourselves from the denarius given purely by grace.

There is another way of taking God’s grace for granted that isn’t pharisaical pride in our own piety. The other way of taking God’s grace for granted is to assume that since we have God’s grace there is nothing, we can do lose it. St. Paul speaks to this in the appointed Epistle lesson. He uses Israel at the time of the Exodus as an example of those who took God’s grace for granted and assumed they could continue in sin. Israel was under the cloud of God’s grace and protection. Israel passed through the sea, being baptized into Moses. Israel at the spiritual food and drank the spiritual that Christ provided through His Word. God fed their bodies with bread from heaven and water from a rock, but He fed them spiritual through the giving of His law. “But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness” (1 Cor. 10:5). Why? Because they complained against God’s servant Moses. They grumbled against God’s gracious provision. They committed idolatry with the golden calf. They fornicated with Moabite women. They feared the people of Canaan more than God and so rejected His gift of the Promised Land. They assumed since God had made them His chosen people, they were allowed to give their passions free reign and so their sinful passions reigned over them and disqualified them from receiving what God had graciously promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

St. Paul warns the Corinthians, and us, that like Israel, we can disqualify ourselves from God’s kingdom. Paul understood that any Christian—include Himself, even though Christ had called Him to be apostle to the gentiles—could disqualify oneself. He gives himself as an example to us all when he writes, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.^” The sinful flesh in which we live wants to give into sinful passions and desires. Those may be bodily, carnal desires. They may also be mental passions and desires which are contrary to God’s will: worry, lustful thinking, resentment toward God because of the cross He’s laid on us, jealousy toward others because of the good God has given them instead of us. Our flesh is like the same flesh as the Israelites had: it wants to bring forth its own works and if we allow it to bring forth the works of the flesh, the flesh will slowly tear us away from faith in God’s grace. We risk becoming entitled Pharisees who imagine God owes us anything, the like the first workers hired in Jesus’ parable, or hypocrites who praise God’s grace while using it as cover to continue in our favorite sins. If St. Paul admits that he could disqualify himself from God’s kingdom, we shouldn’t imagine that we cannot do the same.

 Jesus and Paul offer us the antidote for taking God’s grace in vain. Jesus commends humility and trust in God when the landowner tells those hired throughout the day, “Whatever is right I will give you.” We must humbly trust that God is gracious and gives us what is right. He doesn’t repay us according to our many sins or give us what we deserve. So, we should each day consider our sins and what they deserve from God, but also consider that God, by grace for Christ’s sake, freely forgives all our sins and promises of everlasting life. Humility and trust in God’s grace guards our hearts against imagining that God owes us anything, but it freely receives all that God so graciously offers us in Christ. Paul commends bodily discipline as well, that like athletes we practice temperance in all things and bring our bodies under subjection, and that bring “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). This prevents the flesh from gaining the upper hand against us, lest sin reign in our bodies and thoughts, so that we don’t take God’s grace for granted and imagine that we can continue in our favorite sins. This is the labor of God’s vineyard: chastity toward self and love toward neighbor. He’s called you into His vineyard by His grace, where He daily and richly forgives all your sins for Christ’s sake. Live in His grace each day, rejoice it His mercy freely offered, and put your hand to the labor to which He’s called you. Amen.

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

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2 Peter 1.16–21 + Matthew 17.1–9
The Transfiguration of Our Lord

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

Jesus takes three of His disciples—Peter, James, and John—up a high mountain, and there He was transfigured before them. His face shone with brightness like the sun. He clothes became white a light itself. In that moment, Jesus revealed His divine glory and brilliance, allowing it to shine through His human nature. He has always had this glory as the only begotten Son of God the Father. From the moment of His conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary, this glory has been rightly His. But until this moment He had concealed it under the weakness of human flesh, revealing brief glimpses of His divine glory in each of His miracles. But in that moment, Jesus allows these three disciples see the brightness of His glory, that He is God of God, Light from light, very God from very God in human flesh.

They also see two men with Jesus, Moses and Elijah. Moses the Lawgiver, the one who traversed Sinai’s heights, received God’s law of Israel, and spoke with God face to face as a man speaks to his friend (Ex 33:11), stands before them. He had died fourteen centuries before. God Himself had buried Moses in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor, and no one knows his grave to this day, except the one whom buried him (Dt 34:6). The other is Elijah the Tishbite, the great prophet of the ninth century who confronted kings with God’s condemnation and turned Israel from the worship of Baal. He had not tasted death. He was carried to heaven in a chariot of fire in the middle of ninth century B.C. St. Luke tells us that these two departed saints “appeared in glory and spoke of His departure—literally, “His exodus”—which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Lk 9:31).

Peter speaks up, “Lord, is it good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But Christ did not wish it. For as glorious as the vision is, it is not to last—not yet anyway. A bright cloud envelopes them and a voice comes from the cloud—the same voice that rang out from heaven at Jesus’ baptism—saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him.” The disciples drop to the ground in fear, at the sound of God the Father’s voice, just as Israel had feared when God spoke to them from Sinai to give them the Ten Commandments. Afterwards, Israel told Moses, so that they told Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Ex 20:19).

Jesus rouses them. He was in fear of God the Father’s voice because He is God the Father’s only begotten Son. He touched them and spoke gospel words to them, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” Not because the cloud and voice are gone, but because for the Father Himself loves them, because they have loved Jesus, and have believed that He came forth from God (Jn 16:27). As they make the trek down the mountain, Jesus commands them not to tell anyone the vision until after His resurrection from the dead. But you know they were thinking about it, pondering the vision in their hearts, treasuring it, and asking what it meant, so that when the day came that they could tell others, those who heard of it, through the apostles’ preaching, through Matthew’s gospel, and through Peter’s own witness in his epistle, may think about it, ponder it, and ask what it means for all who believe.

What did Jesus teach these three disciples? What does He teach all who hear about this vision? He teaches them who He is. We have seen glimpses of Christ’s glory throughout the Epiphany season. He’s been microdosing us. But today, on this final Sunday in Epiphany, He shows us the fullness of His glory as the only begotten Son of God. His conversation with Moses and Elijah about His departure in Jerusalem shows that the Law and the Prophets—the entire Old Testament—speaks to Him and His work that He will accomplish on the cross, the gifts He will earn, and how He will give the blessings He earns to all who believe in Him. And in the voice from heaven, God the Father shows us these same things. The one who shines with divine glory is God’s beloved Son, and God the Father is pleased with Jesus, His teaching, His work, because Jesus’ teaching is God’s teaching. Jesus works are God’s works that He has sent His Son to do. Because He is God’s only begotten Son, who perfectly reveals His Father’s grace and truth, His goodness and teaching, they are to hear Him. If they want to hear God’s teaching, the true interpretation of Moses and Elijah, they are to hear Him.

Christ also taught these three disciples—and all who would believe their testimony—about their future, for the Transfiguration is a glimpse of the glory of which all believers are made coheirs. The Transfiguration is a picture of life everlasting. Just as Jesus did not shed the human nature He assumed in the incarnation, but His flesh was deified through the incarnation (though still remaining human nature), so it will be for all who believe in Christ. On the Last Day when Christ raises the dead, St. Paul tells us that Christ will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body” (Php 3:21). He writes, “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Co 15:52–53). What this looks like is beyond our comprehension and even imagination. But St. John tells us, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn 3:2). Not only will we be glorified as He is glorified, but we will enjoy the company of all the saints, engaging with each other in holy conversation. Rather than tabernacles—temporary dwellings—there will the many mansions in which we shall dwell with the Lord in perfect peace, in Godly glory, forever rejoicing that it is good for us to be there with the Lord.

The glory He shows us today is our future. But the path to that glory is the cross. This is why the three disciples were commanded, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.” Six days before His transfiguration, Jesus began to show them that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day” (Mt 16:21). He must suffer, die, and be raised from the dead on the third day. Then, and only then, will He lay aside the weakness of the human nature and enter into His glory. He was also very clear that the cross—suffering specifically for Christ’s sake—must come before the disciples enter into His glory as well. After all, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master” (Mt 10:24). He told them, six days before His transfiguration, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Mt 16:24–25).

To enter into Christ’s glory, you must share His cross. You must deny yourself, daily putting to death the sinful flesh’s desires and passions. You must patiently bear whatever cross God lays on you for the sake of hearing Christ and confessing His true doctrine. It may be being mocked by family. It may be being oppressed by the world’s wickedness at work while remaining faithful to Christ. For some of you it means driving past more conveniently located church buildings to this one where you hear God’s Word taught in its truth and purity. For all of us here it has meant severing communion with loved ones who prioritize worldly concerns over the truth of God’s word. The cross—however it comes to us—must be born patiently. Taking up the cross God lays upon us kills our sinful flesh and conforms us more to the image of Christ. Taking up the cross God lays upon us also confess the truth to those around us, to encourage them to the same, or as a witness against them on at the Final Judgment if they do not believe. But what comes from taking up our cross and following Christ isn’t really up to us, nor should it really concern us. What should concern us is daily denying our sinful flesh, taking up the cross God assigns us, and bearing our crosses as Christ bore His.  

Christ showed Peter, James, and John the vision of His divine glory to encourage them; to encourage them in their faith that He truly is the Son of the Living God; to encourage them that He is the One whom they should hear and believe; and to courage them to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him. Christ had these three men witness His transfiguration so that they might bear witness about it to you, so that you might be encouraged in the same. Christ’s glory you hear described today is the future of all who persevere unto the end in faith. His cross is the path. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow Him, and He will bring you to this glorious inheritance. Amen.

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

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Matthew 8.23-27
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

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

In this world—broken by sin and inhabited by sinners—dreadful things happen. We were reminded of this again on Wednesday when we heard that a commercial airplane collided with an army helicopter, killing everyone aboard both aircraft. And while there is a great scurrying to assign blame, that is not our concern, nor is it our duty. This tragedy should remind us that danger can come upon us suddenly in this life, and that situations can quickly become perilous. It should remind us to give thanks to God that He daily delivers us from many unseen evils, even as it should spur us on to pray all the more faithfully that God would guard and keep us from danger and every evil. It also reminds, however, that there are times when God removes His gracious protection and allows us to fall into danger. He does this for two reasons. He does it to exercise our faith so that it grows, and we learn to trust His word the more quickly and confidently, or, if He allows us to perish, then He has allowed that danger to come upon us to bring us out of all danger to our heavenly home.

This is what Christ teaches us in today’s gospel lesson. Jesus’ disciples are confronted with a dangerous, life-threatening peril. Jesus gets into a boat. His disciples follow Him. They will sail to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. It is a normal occurrence and several of the disciples are fishermen who traverse these waters regularly. But behold, suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea. Literally, a σεισμὸς μέγας, a great, earthquake-like storm, so sudden and powerful that the boat was covered with the waves. Marks adds that the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling (Mk 4:37). What had been a normal trip across a familiar lake becomes, in the disciples’ eyes, their last moments on earth.

I say, “in the disciples’ eyes,” because they had no reason to fear, and not because Jesus was with them. No promise is given that those who are with Christ are safe from dangers, hardships, and death. No, they had no reason to fear because they had Jesus’ word, if they had considered it in that moment, would have comforted them in through their trial. St. Mark tells us how Jesus was the one who had originally said, “Let us cross over to the other side” (Mk 4:35). Would the One who turned water into wine and healed a centurion’s paralyzed servant with a word not fulfill His word now by bringing them safely to the other shore? When He first called them, had He not told them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:19). As of this point in the gospels they had fished no men. If they were to perish now, that word of Christ would fall to the ground, or rather, plummet to the bottom of the sea unfulfilled. These men believed Jesus to be the Christ. They confessed Him to be the Son of God in human flesh. But the more the wind and rain lashed against their skin, the less they thought of who Jesus was. The more the rocking of the boat attacked their balance, the more they forget the words Jesus has spoken to them. As the danger grows their faith gets smaller.

This is not the first we have heard of faithful believers taking their hearts off God’s word and promises. In our study of Genesis, we heard how Abram, as he approaches Egypt, fears that the Egyptians will kill him so one of them can take Sarai as his wife. He asks her, “Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you” (Ge 12:13). But just before he sojourned to Egypt, the Lord promised him, “To your descendants I will give this land” (Ge 12:7). Abram had no reason to cower in fear. If the Lord had promised descendants, he would need to be alive to father those descendants. Yet in the moment he allows the cowardice of the sinful flesh to crowd God’s promises aside. And as if Moses wanted to impress upon the corruption of the human heart, he records not only that Abraham did this same thing again when sojourning among the Philistines, but that his son Isaac fell prey to the same little faith while he and his wife sojourned among the Philistines. But it was not that the Patriarchs had no faith. They knew the true God. They believed His promises. But as the danger appeared, they turned their gaze away from God’s promises to their peril instead, and by doing this, their faith shrunk.

The scriptures do not sugarcoat the lives of the patriarchs or the disciples. Each of them had had moments in which they were of little faith. Yet, a little faith is still faith. The patriarchs trusted the Lord, though they should have more carefully considered God’s promises and applied them more tenaciously to themselves. The disciples, too, believed Jesus to be someone who could help them amid the life-threatening storm, so they woke Him. “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” Jesus asks, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” to rebuke, not to break, for “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench” (Is 42:3). He chides them so that they see the purpose, why He has allowed them to come in harm’s way. He exposes their fear to them so that they might be fast to fight against it with faith. He communicates their cowardice to them so that they might quickly confront it with faith in His word.

He calms the storm with a word, turning a life-threatening tumult into a great calm. The disciples, still learning, wonder, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” The eyes of faith begin to see Jesus more clearly as the divine—the Word of God through whom all things were made—and who upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb 1:3). They begin to see more that as true God from true God, His word is living and powerful, accomplishing its purpose, and worthy of their full confidence. With this miracle, Jesus exercised their faith so that the next time danger, peril, or crises came upon them, they would more quickly and more fervently cling to His word and promises. For the days would come when He would no longer be with them in the flesh. The days would come when Christ would allow danger and peril to come on them. Christ would still be with them, just as He would promise them, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). But that did mean they would never experience danger, peril, or crises. In fact, the day would come when Christ would allow them even to fall into danger and perish by martyrdom. Christ exercised them in the boat, and throughout their lives, so that in all danger, they quickly calmed their hearts by faith, trusting in their Lord whom even the winds and the sea obey.

This is what our Lord Jesus would work in us as well. By this manifestation of His glory, He would teach us to more firmly believe that He is the Son of God. By this manifestation of His glory, He would also teach us to trust His word more confidently, especially in crises, peril, and danger. The example of the disciples—as well as the Patriarchs—remind us of what we so often see in ourselves. We believe in Christ. We know who He is, and we believe His promises. But when dangers appear, when life-threatening situations arise, our faith becomes small and little, so that we turn our eyes away from Christ’s promises and fix our gaze on the difficulties and dangers we face. How often we do we set aside Christ’s word so that we deal with the crises we face, only to return to thinking about God’s word after we have escaped or put out whatever was on fire? How often do we, like the Patriarchs, see the world’s wickedness and assume we must figure out a way to keep ourselves safe? How often do we, like the disciples, experience sudden difficulty, disaster, or tragedy and feel the anguish of hopeless?

It is in these moments of little faith that He exercises us, training us to look to Him first, to look to His promises and take comfort from them, whether the difficulty or danger lets up. Even in life-threatening situations—especially in these—He wants us to cling to the promises He has made to us in His word and when He baptized us. And He wants us to move quickly from fear to faith, from cowardice to confidence in His word. His word is true. His promises are sure and certain. In Him we have the forgiveness of sins. In Him we have the promise of everlasting life. In Him we have the promise that all things work together for the good—especially the eternal good—of those who love Him. He exercises us, so that in each danger and every peril we get to faith faster than before, more confidently than before, trusting more firmly in the promises He has given us in His word and sacraments than what we see with our eyes and feel within ourselves. May God grant this to us all.

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

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