Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Kerrville Texas

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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Matthew 8.1-13
Third Sunday after Epiphany

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

Jesus manifests His glory—His divine glory as the eternal Son of God—by healing a leper and a paralytic. The leper approaches Jesus after the Sermon on the Mount. He bows down before Jesus and says, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” The leper heard Jesus’ preaching and through His preaching believed that He was the Son of God, able to do all things, even things impossible for men. He also believed that Jesus was kind and that He wanted to help those who come to Him. The leper bows before Jesus and acknowledges that Jesus has the power to cleanse his flesh of its loathsome disease, while also humbly acknowledging that Jesus’ will is far better than his own. So, he asks, “If you are willing, You can make me clean.” “Thy will be done.” Jesus stretches forth the right hand of His majesty, touches the leper, and says, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Since Jesus had not yet fulfilled the law of Moses by suffering and dying, He tells the formerly leprous man to show himself to the priest and offer the sacrifices commanded by Moses. His offering at the temple would serve as a testimony of Christ to the priests and all who saw him.

Jesus then enters the town of Capernaum, when a centurion came to Him and said, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” He does not ask Jesus to come to his home and heal his servant, but Jesus responds that He will come to his house and heal the man. But the centurion, a commander of around hundred soldiers, stops Jesus. “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus hears this, He marvels at the centurion’s faith. The centurion—a gentile Roman—believes Jesus can heal a paralyzed man, and not only that, but heal him with a word, from a distance. The centurion sees Jesus’ authority. Just as he commands his soldiers and they follow his orders, he recognizes Jesus as the Son of God who has authority over all things, all people, and all situations, so that all He needs to do is speak and what He speaks is accomplished.

This is great faith, so great, in fact, that Jesus marvels at it and holds the centurion’s faith up before all to see. He says to the crowd, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The centurion’s faith—the faith of a gentile—outshines the faith Jesus has encountered among the Jews. He even says that many more gentiles will come from east and west who will believe with such faith, so that on the Last Day they recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom—the Jews—will be cast out into the outer darkness of eternal punishment—Hell—where there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth. For although they are the sons of the kingdom, if they do not believe in Him as this gentile centurion believes—that He is the eternal Son of God in human flesh who has all the authority of God the Father, whom they should hear and heed—they will not attain the kingdom of heaven. Jesus turns to the centurion and answers His prayer. “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And it was so. The centurion’s servant was healed from that very hour by the word of Jesus.

Jesus manifests His divine glory, that He is truly God from God, Light from Light, very God from very God, the eternal Son of God, now in human flesh. He reveals His authority over all things, all people, even their bodies, and all situations. He reveals—even as He did last week by changing water into wine—that the word He speaks is active and powerful to accomplish what He wills because He is true God, even though He is also true man. He reveals His glory, what St. John calls “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14), showing us His kindness, mercy and willingness to help those who come to Him in sincere faith.

Just as Jesus manifests His glory by healing these two men, He also reveals what sincere faith looks like and does. The leper teaches us that Christ is to be approached for help, no matter the hopelessness or impossibility of our situation. Leprosy is something that, to this day, cannot be healed by medical intervention. Yet the leper knew that the Son of God has authority over all things, so He brought His petition before Christ. The leper teaches us humility by bowing before Jesus in humility and humbly asking, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” He teaches us that whenever we ask for earthly things—everything the Small Catechism calls ‘daily bread’—we ask according to God’s will. That includes health and healing. There are times when it is God’s will to heal our sicknesses and diseases, and when He does, we give Him thanks and praise. But there are other times when His will is not to heal us. He allows us to suffer the effects our sin and the sinful world in our bodies, in our situations, and in our lives, not because He is petty or arbitrary or unloving, but because He wants to exercise our faith, giving us opportunity to trust that His will for us in only good and gracious. He teaches us in His word, “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives” (Heb 12:6). Whenever we ask for the things of this life, we ask as the leper did, “Lord, if You are willing,” even as we believe that the Lord will give us what is best for us, especially what is best for our faith and bringing us safely to our heavenly home.

The centurion also teaches us humility before Christ. He understood that Jeus has authority over all things, all people, even their bodies, and all situations. Although a gentile, he understood that there is nothing outside of Christ’s authority. He understood what Christ will tell His disciples after His resurrection, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Mt 28:18). Believing Christ to be the Son of God in human flesh, the centurion also teaches us that Christ exercises His authority by His Word. His word is active and powerful, accomplishing the purpose for which He sends it. The centurion understood this and relied solely on Christ’s word. In fact, all he wanted was Christ’s word. Trusting in Christ’s word, the centurion understood that he had all he needed.

As it was for the leper and centurion, it is for us, though Christ does not speak directly to us as He did to them. He speaks to us through His Word in Holy Scripture. That Scripture is God’s word, Paul says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Ti 3:16) and Peter says, “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pe 1:2). Because it is God’s word, not only Scripture true, but it is living and powerful to accomplish what it says in us. By His word read from the page and preached from the pulpit, God creates faith that justifies in His sight, faith that prays, faith that trusts God amid trials, and loves neighbor. This is why the devil, the world, and false prophets attack Scripture, denying that it is God’s word on one hand, or arguing that it is insufficient and doesn’t contain everything God wants us to know on the other. The centurion reminds us that faith will not let itself be separated from God’s word and Christ. For those who believe, Scripture is God’s very word to us by which He exercises His authority over us and gives—and sustains in us—faith that receives the forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit, new life, and eternal salvation.

The Holy Spirit recorded these miracles in Holy Scripture so that we would know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, for these miracles reveal His divine glory. The Holy Spirit also recorded them to reveal to us the nature of faith, how it is content with God’s will because it trusts the word of God that tells us of Jesus, who is kind and merciful, and who is willing to help all who sincerely come to Him. This faith is what makes one a true “son of the kingdom,” so that whether one be from east and west, whether one be of Jewish stock like the leper or gentile stock like the centurion, they will recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven forever. May God grant such faith to us all. Amen.

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

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Romans 12.1–5 + Luke 2.41–52
First Sunday after Epiphany

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

Throughout the season of Epiphany, which means “manifestation,” Jesus manifests, or makes known His divine glory. Today’s gospel lesson records the only occasion during His childhood when He manifested His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. When Jesus was twelve years old, Mary, Joseph, and He go up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. They celebrate the Feast as God had commanded, then they go back home to Nazareth, part of a large caravan of relatives and acquaintances who are all heading in the same direction home. Assuming Jesus is in the caravan, they go a day’s journey, only to realize at the end of the day that their son isn’t with them. They make the journey back to Jerusalem and after three days of anxious searching, they finally find the boy. He is in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone there—including the teachers of Scripture—were astonished at His understanding and His answers. Mary and Joseph, finding Him like this, marvel at Him as well. But Mary must ask Him the question any mother would ask her son in this situation, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.”

Jesus had already manifested a bit of His divine glory in His understanding and answers, but it is in His answer to His mother that He reveals a bit more. He responds to her, “Why did you seek Me? Did you know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Jesus knows who He is and why He is here. Mary and Joseph seem to have forgotten that their Son was the eternal Son of God in human flesh. They intellectually knew that Jesus was the Son of God and promised Messiah. But that doesn’t mean they dwelt upon that fact every moment of every day. They had vocations to attend to, especially the vocation of parent, raising their son in the fear and admonition of the Lord. That Mary had forgotten this to a certain extent is evident from her words, “Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” Mary knew Joseph was not Jesus’ father. He was her husband and Jesus’ guardian, but not His father. Jesus respectfully corrects His mother. “Did you know that I must be about My Father’s business?”  He reminds both Mary and Joseph of what they had, for whatever reason, neglected at the moment, that He is God’s eternal Son and must concern Himself with the things of His Father, especially the Divine Word which is about Him and the redemption He will earn for all humanity.  In this, Jesus shows His obedience to the First Commandment, for He demonstrates that He loves God, His Father and His will above all things.

Mary and Joseph do not understand this at the moment. They’re relieved to have found Him and perhaps grieved at what He had put them through. But Jesus doesn’t press the issue. In fact, He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. In this, Jesus was obedience to the Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” Even though God was His Father from all eternity, Mary is His mother according to the flesh. And Joseph, while not His biological father, is Mary’s husband and His earthly father. Jesus goes back home with them and honors, them, serves and obeys them, loves and cherishes them. He does what they tell Him to do, and He does it joyfully. If Jesus’ questions and answers to the teachers of the law in the temple reveal a glimpse of His glory as the Word of God, then His submission to His parents reveals that though He is true God, He has become flesh to live under the law to fulfil the law completely, from the heart, as the substitute for sinners who cannot live under the law and fulfill it entirely, from the heart. This is why God’s Son was conceived, born, and lived a normal human life, so that He might pass through the stages of life, living according to God’s will, earning perfect righteousness that He can bestow on all who place their trust in Him. This reveals the glory of His grace, in that He becomes flesh to do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves because of our sinful nature. This reveals the glory of His grace because He then credits all who penitently believe in Him with His righteousness under the law, so that God the Father sees you as perfectly righteous because you believe in His Son. He gives us a glimpse of all of this at this epiphany of His glory when He was twelve years old.

Jesus also teaches us, already at twelve years old, how we as sons of God by faith—sins forgiven and clothed with Christ’s perfect righteousness—are to live. First, we are not to forget just who Jesus is. Like Mary and Joseph, it is easy for us to intellectually know that Jesus is the eternal Son of God who is primarily concerned with His Father’s business, which is our redemption, our justification, and that we persevere in faith unto the end. Some treat Jesus as if He were a genie in lamp to grant people’s wishes or a vending machine that dispenses what we want. Others treat Jesus as a therapist that never judges or condemns but only encourages them in whatever they think is right. But as Jesus reminded His earthly mother and father that He must be about His Father’s business, so He reminds us of this once again so that if we looked to Him as what He is not, we may repent and look to Him for who He is and ask Him for what He promised to give.

As sons of God, adopted by God the waters of Holy Baptism, Jesus’ example encourages us to be about our Father’s business. As the boy Jesus lingered in Jerusalem after the Passover, we begin to linger over God’s word, listening to it and asking questions of it as we apply it ourselves. Loving God for the great gifts He gives us in His Son, we love the habitation of His house and the place where His glory dwells. Loving God’s word is a chief way we love God. Those who call themselves Christians yet stay away from God’s Word will find the fire of their love for God growing cold, if not extinguished entirely. His Word teaches you to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. His will is that, like Christ, you live for the sake others and sacrifice yourself for their good. His word renews your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. His word is His instrument for teaching what things we ought to do, but also His instrument for giving us grace and power to faithfully fulfil those things we ought to do.

By His obedience to His earthly parents, Christ teaches us that love and obedience to God entails love for and submission to others. Jesus does not play one commandment off another. He doesn’t excuse Himself form obeying Mary and Joseph because He’s busy obeying God His Father. Obedience and submission to his earthly parents is part of His love and obedience for God His Father. This is why Luther begins his explanation of the commandment, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise parents and those in authority over us; but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.” Children are to obey their parents. This is a good work God has given them to do. Citizens are to honor and obey their authorities because we fear and love God. St. Peter tells us, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good” (1 Pe 2:13–14). Christians even submit to one another out of fear of God, giving place to others’ needs, not thinking of themselves more highly than he ought to think. When a child submits to his or her parents, when citizens, submit to their ruler and the laws of the land, when a Christian submits and yields to another out of love, these are truly good works. The only time children are not to obey parents and citizens are not to obey those placed in authority is when they demand children and citizens to sin. In those cases, the Christan must say with the St. Peter before the Sanhedrin, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

Jesus has shown you again precisely who He is, the eternal Son of God in your flesh. And He has shown you what His Father’s business is—your redemption. Having been redeemed and made sons of God by baptism, may be about your heavenly Father’s business as well. Learn His Word and promises so that you persevere in faith unto the end. Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, and this, by loving others and submitting to them because by the Holy Spirit’s work, you have begun to fear and love God above all things. Amen.

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

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Second Sunday after Christmas
1 Peter 4.12–19 + Matthew 2.13–23

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

On this twelfth and final day of Christmas, the Holy Spirit reminds us again that danger and suffering follow the child whose birth we celebrate. Not only Him, but danger, suffering, and even death pursue those who are close to Him. Our gospel takes place after tomorrow’s gospel. Tomorrow is the Epiphany of our Lord, the day in which the gentile Magi from the east visit Christ and worship Him. They follow the star to Bethlehem, meet with Herod, and Herod sends them to Bethlehem with the request that they bring word back to Herod, so that he might allegedly go and worship the child. The Magi are warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and as they head back to their eastern countries, the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and says to him, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” God, who knows all things and sees all things from eternity, warns Joseph of Herod’s plot even before Herod has given the command. Joseph believes God’s word, and that night takes Mary and the child, fleeing to Egypt, another Roman province where Herod has no jurisdiction. This is how God protects the holy family from Herod’s rage on account of Christ.

He does not, however, protect the children in Bethlehem and its surrounding area. When Herod realizes the Magi are not coming back to him with the child’s location, he becomes exceedingly angry. Herod did not want to worship the one “born king of the Jews” (Matt 2:2) but kill Him. Herod was known for such a thing. He had three of his sons executed on suspicion of treason, so that Caesar Augustus allegedly said, “It’s better to be Herod’s pig than his son.” The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that before Herod died, he ordered all the principal men of the entire Jewish nation come to him, be captured in the hippodrome, and murdered at the moment of his death so that there would be “memorable mourning” at his funeral. Thankfully, his sister and brother-in-law did not comply. Herod, paranoid for this throne at the news that the “king of the Jews” has been born, and enraged at the Magi, orders the male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding area, two years old and under, to be killed.

These children, whom the church has honored with the title of Holy Innocents, were close to Christ and died for it. Joseph and Mary were united with Christ in one of the closest ways humanly possible, mother and guardian. It makes sense that if the Child were persecuted, His earthly father and mother would suffer. Simeon told Mary that in last week’s gospel when he told her, “A sword will pierce through your own soul also.” She will suffer on account of being the mother of God. In one sense, the male children, two years and under, have no relation to Christ. They just happen to be in close physically proximity to him when He is born. But these children are closer to Christ than that. As male descendants of Abraham, they would have been circumcised on the eighth day of their lives. Their circumcision brought them into God’s covenant so that they were His people—His children—and were righteous in God’s sight by faith, since circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of faith. By circumcision they had faith. As believing infants, each one entered eternal glory in the moment when Herod’s wrath fell upon them. Those male children are the first martyrs to die on account of Christ.

Where Jesus is, there is danger for those who are close to Him. Not only for those who are close to Him by blood, His earthly family, during the days of His earthly ministry, but also for those who believe in Him. He says in Luke 8:21, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” As sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus, you are His family. Where Jesus is, there is danger for those who are righteous by faith in Him as the Holy Innocents were close to Him, not by circumcision but baptism. St. Paul calls baptism “the circumcision made without hands” in Colossians 2:11. Instead of cutting off the foreskin of the flesh, baptism is the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh. Baptism both buries us with Christ and raises us with Christ. Like circumcision in the old covenant, baptism makes you a child of God, one of His people, and heir of all the blessings of Christ. You, and all who believe and are baptized—from the smallest infant to the most aged man—are Christ’s brothers and sisters.

Which means there is danger for you because you are so close to Christ. St. Peter writes to you in today’s epistle, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” As ones who partake in Christ’s blessings—the forgiveness of all of your sins, the Holy Spirit, and the promise of an eternal inheritance—you will also partake in Christ’s sufferings. Peter especially has in mind being reproached, criticized, or mocked for the name of Christ, that is, for being a Christian, confessing Christ, believing, and living His doctrine. If you suffer these things at your job, with your family, amongst your friends, or even from the authorities, St. Peter would have you rejoice. You should rejoice because you are partaking, to whatever extend the Lord allows, in Christ’s suffering. Peter also bids you, when you suffer according to the will of God, to commit your souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator. Whatever danger you face on account of Christ, regardless of what it is, rejoice and commit yourself to God, who has made you His beloved child in the circumcision made without hands, a beloved child whom He promises never to leave and never to forsake, but to protects you from all danger and delivers you from all evil.

Today’s gospel also teaches us the ways God protects us from all danger and delivers us from all evil. Sometimes he stops the danger from ever reaching us. This is the protection David sings of in Psalm 91:10 when he says, “No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling.”  At other times, He allows us to fall into danger so that He may redeem us and show us what He promises in His word. In Genesis 48:16 Jacob calls God, “The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil.” This is what happens to the Holy Family in today’s gospel. Herod was about to call for the murder of the Bethlehem children for Christ’s sake when the angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream. The Lord removed Joseph, Mary, and Christ from the danger so that it could not touch them. Foreseeing Herod’s wrath, He redeemed the holy family from Herod by directing them to the safety of Egypt. God allows danger and evil to come up on us to exercise our faith in His word, and so that He can prove His word to us when He delivers us from the evil.

This can even be said of the holy innocents. God allowed them to partake in Christ’s sufferings by being unjustly persecuted and killed for the sake of Christ. The world looks at the holy innocents and scoff at God, saying, “Why didn’t He rescue them?” But faith sees their deaths at the hand of the tyrant as their recuse from all evil as well. The eyes of faith see God’s providential work of taking these circumcised infants out of this veil of tears, out from this sinful, broken, world, into everlasting bliss where there is no evil, no tears, and no suffering. With this, God would teach us to view the death of believers—whether martyred or not—as His removing them from this sinful world to a far better one, while we remain in a world in which we must still persevere in faith unto the end. God knew Herod’s paranoid, sinful rage and brought good out of the evil He intended and the evil He accomplished. God used it to fulfill prophesy. He used it to bring the holy innocents to a life far better than this one. He used it to teach you to rejoice when you suffer for the sake of His only begotten Son. It is dangerous to be close to Christ, but God defends us from all danger and redeems us from all evil, so that in every suffering, we may rejoice and say with the apostle, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God.” This makes every evil and every danger for Christ’s sake is a testament to God’s great love and care for us. Amen.

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

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First Sunday after Christmas
Galatians 4.1–7 + Luke 2.33-40

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

Today’s gospel lesson opens with Mary and Joseph marveling at those things which were spoken of Him. They are in the temple, forty days after Jesus’ birth to present Him to the Lord according to the law of Moses. While they are there, the Holy Spirit leads Simeon, a devout believer whom He had promised would live to see the promised Messiah. Simeon enters the temple, goes to the holy family, scoops up infant Jesus in his arms and sings what you know as the Nunc Dimittis, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).

Mary and Joseph marvel—they’re amazed at this man’s words—because he confirms what the angel Gabriel had told Mary over ten months before, and what the angel told the shepherds on the night when Jesus was born. Mary’s child was the Lord’s salvation. That’s even what His name—Jesus—means. Mary’s child is the Lord’s salvation for all people, non-Jew and Jew alike. He will lighten the gentiles by teaching them the way of salvation. The people of Israel will rejoice that in Him, God fulfills His promises to the patriarchs. The Holy Spirit promised Simeon that he would not die until he sees the Lord’s Christ for Simeon’s sake, as a reward for Simeon’s steadfast devotion and waiting for the Consolation of Israel (Lk 2:25). But the Holy Spirit also made this promise to Simeon so that He might confirm Joseph and Mary’s faith through Simeon’s words. Mary and Joseph were flesh and blood people like us. They didn’t walk around always thinking of their son as the Christ and Son of God. They had vocations to attend to, especially the vocation of raising this little one. The Holy Spirit’s words through Simeon are to confirm their faith so that they go about their duties as Jesus’ parents with steadfastness, devotion, and diligence.

Through Simeon’s words, the Holy Spirit also warns the parents of what is to come. He blesses them and says to Mary, “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” It is one thing—a vitally important thing—to know that this child is the Lord’s salvation and that He is for all people, a light to lighten the gentiles and the reason for Israel to glory in God and rejoice. But it is just as important to know that their child will be divisive. He is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel. Many in Israel, many of the Jews, will fall because of the child. This is a spiritual fall, a spiritual stumbling on account of Christ. Many in Israel will fall, not because He pushes them, but because they stumble over Him. The Lord had said through the prophet Isaiah, “He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  ¹⁵ And many among them shall stumble; They shall fall and be broken, Be snared and taken” (Is 8:14-15). Many of the Jews will be offended by Him. Many will be offended that His kingdom will not be a worldly kingdom. Many will be offended at His teaching that their righteousness—their outward fulfillment of the law—is really just self-righteousness if it doesn’t proceed from faith. Offended, they will fall and be broken on this stone of stumbling.

Not all will be offended, however. This child is appointed for the rising of many in Israel as well! There will be many who are not offended by His kingdom and teaching. Many will humble themselves, repent of their sins, and seek God’s mercy for the child’s sake, will rise. They will rise from penitential humility to the joy of the gospel. They will rise from the kingdom of the devil, who oppressed their consciences with guilt, to the freedom of sins forgiven and heaven opened. They will rise from slavery to sin to a new life animated by the Holy Spirit. And on the Last Day, when the Christ returns, they will rise from their graves—with all believers who persevere to the end—with glorified and incorruptible bodies, to live eternally in the everlasting blessedness of God’s presence.

This child will also be a sign which will be spoken against. He will be rejected and condemned. This is the child’s fate, so, of course it will affect His mother. Simeon says, “A sword will pierce through your own soul also.” She will be standing by the cross of Jesus, watching the world pour out its hatred, rejection, and wrath on her son. It is important that Mary know this, so that when she sees her countrymen and kinsmen become offended by her Son and turn away from Him, she isn’t offended and fall away as well. It is important she know this so that when she experiences the sword of persecution and suffering piercing her own heart, she does not give up her faith in what she has been told about her Son, that He is the Lord’s salvation for all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory and rejoicing of the true Israel.

This is, of course, written for our learning, too. Two thousand years later, the Son of Mary still causes many to fall and rise. Two thousand years later, Mary’s child is still a sign which is spoken against. Those who think His kingdom should be of this world stumble and fall when they hear that God’s kingdom is His reign over the hearts of men by His gospel, which is a kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17). Some speak against Christ and His kingdom, mocking it because they think it should be a kingdom of social and economic equality. Others speak against it because they imagine it to be a Christian society in which everyone is ruled by God’s law. People on both sides say, “The church isn’t doing enough to make this world what it should be!” But they are simply offended at the Christ who tells Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).

Others stumble over Christ and fall because of they are self-righteous. Some are self-righteous in the sense that they think to be good enough for God on their own, without Christ, without faith, that God should approve of them because they’re good people, or at least not like other people. Others are self-righteous in the sense that they imagine they have Christ and the forgiveness of sins even though they continue in their sins and feel no need to repent and live differently. They imagine since God’s grace abounds; sin must abound as well. When confronted with the God’s righteous condemnation of sin, they are offended that Christ calls sinners to repentance and growth in godliness, not to continued sinning. Simeon’s words are necessary for us to know, so that when we see people offended at the Christian faith, when we see people spurn the gospel, when see masses of people confess Christ with their lips but never hear His Word and live Chrisitan lives, we understand that this is child has been appointed for this. If the Holy Spirit did not want Mary and Joseph to be offended at the world and the hypocrite’s rejection of their Son, how much more does He want you to know this in advance, so that you may not stumble and fall over Christ when you see it in for yourself? The child is still revealing the thoughts of many hearts as some fall and some rise on account of Him.

The Holy Spirit does not want you to be discouraged by what you hear and see in the world and in most of what calls itself Christ’s church but is not. Nor does He want you to be offended so that you fall away when you experience cross and hardship for this child’s sake. He wants you to remain faithful unto the end, like Simeon and Anna, joyfully receiving the redemption Christ has brought. Even though many stumble over Christ and although many speak against Him, the Holy Spirit reminds you that regardless of what people may expect Him to be, this child is the Consolation of Israel, He is God’s promised redemption. He is the light to lighten the gentiles by the gospel, and the boast of Israel. And although you’ve already been told, marvel at this, as Mary and Joseph did, though they had already been told. Be devout of Simeon had been. Dedicate yourself to prayer and disciplining your flesh as Anna did. The world and false church will only speak against Christ, His kingdom, and His gospel because it isn’t what they think it should be or want it to be. Leave them to it. The Holy Spirit has told you this would happen. Instead, marvel in faith at the words of Simeon and Anna, and rejoice, for this Child is your Savior and your Redemption. Amen.

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

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