Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Kerrville Texas

Joel 2.12-19 & Matthew 6:16-21

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

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Jesus’ words invite us to ask ourselves, “What is my treasure?” What do you value above all else? From what do you expect all good? Of what do you say, “If I didn’t have that, I’d have nothing left?” The answer is where your heart is. That’s your treasure. As Christians, Jesus is our priceless treasure” His Gospel, His forgiveness, His Word, His promises. We know Christ to be the most valuable thing we have in this life, so that if we were to lose Him we’d have nothing.

And while we know Jesus is our treasure, that our hearts should be continually and ever set on Him and His word, this is not always the case. If we’re honest with ourselves, we see that there are times when we work pretty hard to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth. By this I don’t mean that we work hard to save money, to have nice things to enjoy, and to share with others. It isn’t a sin to have wealth. It isn’t a sin to enjoy the blessings God gives us through our labor. Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 5:18-19, “It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor — this is the gift of God.” What I mean is that we work hard to lay up treasures on earth so that we might set our hearts on them, trust in them, and be comforted by them, and think that if we have these things then life is good.

Wealth is the obvious thing to which so many devote their hearts. They desire to be wealthy, to have plenty—which is always more than they currently have. St. Paul tells Timothy, “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Tim 6:9-10). While there are many temptations which assail the one who desires riches, the chief temptation is to define oneself by one’s riches, to find one’s identity in riches, and imagine that more wealth equals more security from the changes and chances of life. Yet what happens to this earthly treasure we lay up for ourselves? Security systems may deter thieves from breaking in and stealing, but savings, investments, and retirement accounts are destroyed by the decisions of people we will never meet. Riches are truly uncertain (1 Tim 6:17).

Health is another earthly treasure to which so many devote their hearts. It’s good to be healthy. It’s good to be fit. It’s good to eat right and exercise the bodies God has given us. Yet many have the desire to use health as a means of overcoming all life’s obstacles. Many believe that if they can only attain—and maintain—a certain level of health, they can keep disease away from their doorstep and deterioration away from the their bodies and minds. Some are tempted to find their identity in their health, their weight, their active lifestyle. Others are tempted to locate their security in their bodily and mental health, so that as long as they are healthy, life is good. Yet what happens to this earthly treasure we lay up for ourselves? No one is exempt from illness. Disease afflicts seemingly at random. While we may have a bit more control over our health than we do riches, health is also uncertain.

Relationships are another thing to which many devote themselves, imagining that if they have certain relationships, they will have every good thing and have a good life. The single person may seek the treasure of a spouse, then life would be good. The married may desire someone else’s spouse as that which would make their life good. The childless may desire children as their highest good so much that they employ science to help them conceive a child at all costs, even at the expense of the embryos—living children—who will certainly die. Others seek pleasure as that which will give them a good life, so that if they only had more of whatever gives them pleasure, they’d have a good life. Show me your treasure and I’ll show you your heart, for “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

With these words Jesus invites us to ask ourselves, “What is my treasure? What do I value above all else? From what do I expect all good, so that if I have it, I have everything I need?” The thing about earthly treasures is that they are treasures. Wealth, health, marriage, children, pleasure, and all the things of this life are gifts from God. They are our daily bread. It isn’t the possession of earthly treasures that is sinful. It is laying up treasures on earth so that we might set our hearts on them and seek our identity and security in them. It is to make these things idols, into god. Luther writes in the Large Catechism:

A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart; as I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. 3 If your faith and trust be right, then is your god also true; and, on the other hand, if your trust be false and wrong, then you have not the true God; for these two belong together, faith and God. That now, I say, upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god (I:3)

When Christ invites to ask, “What is my treasure?” He teaches us the First Commandment, that we are to have no other Gods before Him, so that we fear, love, and trust in Him above all things.

As often as the Holy Ghost shows us that we are laying up treasures on earth for ourselves, to find our identity and security in them, there is only one response. Repent. “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, 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?” “(Joel 2:12-14). Turn back to God with all your heart. Repent of attempting to turn His good gifts into Him, of looking to created things for identity and security rather than Him.

And then rejoice, for your God is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. God our heavenly Father hears the prayers of the penitent and forgives the idolatry of our hearts for Jesus’ sake. By forgiving us for Jesus’ sake, He shows His graciousness and mercy toward us, because that by which our sins are forgiven, and we are counted righteous in His sight is the heavenly treasure: Jesus and His perfect merit and all-sufficient suffering and death for all sins on the cross. God wants us to have this treasure. He wants us to enjoy this treasure by faith. He wants us to use this treasure each day because this treasure gives those things which formerly looked for from earthly treasures. God gives us identity—we are sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ Jesus. God gives us security in the midst of the changes and chances of life—If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:31). In the gospel God gives us security for the life of the world to come, because by faith He has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for us (1 Ptr 1:3-4).

Jesus is our treasure: His gospel which promises forgiveness as quickly as we repent; His word which teaches us to see ourselves as He sees us and the world as He sees it; His Holy Spirit so that we begin to live a new life, simultaneously content the earthly treasures He gives as our daily bread, yet also desiring our eternal inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. Christ Jesus is our most valuable treasure in this life, and setting our hearts on Him, finding our identity and security in Him, we have everything we need. Regardless of what God gives or withholds from us for our good, we say each day: “Yes, whate’er I here must bear, Thou are still my purest Pleasure, Jesus, priceless Treasure.” 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

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

When Jesus originally called His disciples He called them with the words, “Follow Me.” It was an invitation to join His school and learn from Him the word and ways of God. The twelve disciples had been learning from Jesus for three years now when today’s gospel lesson begins. Jesus had been teaching a multitude but then pulls the twelve aside from the crowd to tell them where He will lead them next. “Behold,” He says, “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.” Christ has told them this before on other occasions and each time they did not understand. We hear this and think, “Of course. This is the how the story goes.”

But we know the story. The twelve were living it in real time. Even though Jesus spoke in plain words to them, not figuratively as in a parable, they understood none of these things. In fact, this saying was hidden from them. The Holy Spirit hid this saying from them so that they could not understand it. At this point sorrow would have engulfed them if they had understood it. At this stage in their understanding, they may have done everything in their power to stop their teacher and Lord from suffering and death. For now, the disciples need to know that Jesus knew all this would happen in advance. What is today hidden, will be revealed after His resurrection when He explains His suffering, death, and resurrection from the Scripture itself, so that they might go into all the world preaching the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Christ for the justification of all who believe.

Having predicted His passion one more time, they Jesus leads them towards Jerusalem with them following Him. As they come to the city of Jericho they come near a blind man, sitting by the road, begging. This was, after all, all he could do. He had to live day to day from the generosity of others. This blind man hears a multitude passing by but being blind, the matter is hidden from him. He asks what’s happening and is told that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. After three years of public ministry Jesus’ fame had spread through all Israel, and this blind man had obviously heard of Jesus, His miracles, and His mercy. Not only had he heard of Jesus, but he also believed in Him. That’s why he cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” What faith! Though blind, he sees what so many of his countrymen are blind to: that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah. He prays to Jesus, begging that He be merciful to him as Jesus has been merciful to so many. Those passing by tell him to be quiet. Jesus is either speaking or being spoken to and they want to hear. This blind beggar’s cries cares are only getting in the way. This just makes the blind man cry out all the more. “Son of David, have mercy on me!” He’s not going to let this one chance slip away. He doesn’t care who else hears. Nothing will prevent him from crying out to Jesus, not if all the world were to tell him to hush. His faith is resilient, untiring, and unyielding in spite of the fact that the sight of Jesus is hidden from him.

And Jesus is merciful. He hears the blind man’s prayer and has him brought to Him. Jesus asks him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” to exercise the man’s faith and teach the multitude that was with Him. The blind man was a beggar, after all, and beggars beg. Did he just want food, drink, or money? No, “Lord, that I may receive my sight,” he says. And Jesus answers His prayer. “Receive your sight,” Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well.” Literally, “Your faith has saved you,” because faith is how anyone receives the mercy Jesus promises. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. The formerly blind man had become a disciple of Jesus, following Him, learning from Him the word and ways of God. The healing of the blind man shows the disciples what He will do for them, spiritually speaking, after His resurrection. Though things were hidden from them at the moment, Christ would, at the proper time, reveal all things to them, not only for their benefit, but to for the benefit of the entire world. The formerly blind man also encourages them to follow Jesus even though they don’t see as clearly as they think they should. The point is simply follow Jesus to the cross and learn from Him why He is willing to be delivered to the Gentiles, mocked and insulted and spit upon, scourged, and killed, and rise again on the third day.

What will they learn is the reason, the why? Love. St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:2, “Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” Christ went to Jerusalem, knowing full-well that He would suffer greatly at the hands of the Romans. He went to Jerusalem, knowing that He would suffer greatly in His soul because He would suffer the full wrath of God against sin as The Sinner—the substitute who would die in place of all mankind to pay for the sins of all mankind. And the only motivation to be made such a sacrifice is love, for no other motivation could animate Christ to endure such suffering willfully, knowingly, gently, and perfectly. Without love it wouldn’t have fulfilled the law. Without love as the motivation, Christ’s words would have been sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. Without love as the motivation, all Christ’s prophecy, understanding, knowledge, and faith in His heavenly Father would have been nothing. Without love for mankind—all of mankind—though He gave His body to death on the cross it would have profited us nothing, for love is the fulfillment of the law, and Christ has fulfilled the law perfectly for us, therefore Christ bore all things, suffered all things, and endured all things because He loved us.

The season of Lent begins on Wednesday, so it is only right that today Jesus tells us, “Behold! We are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.” As we follow our Lord Jesus Christ to the cross, we will see how everything He establishes and everything He endures accomplishes what the prophets wrote about the Son of Man. These things were hidden from the disciples beforehand. But they are not hidden from our eyes, that is, unless we willfully close our eyes and stop up our ears to the apostles’ witness. Not only must we see how Christ accomplished all things written about the Son of Man, we must see that all of it is done, suffered, and endured out of love for us. Only then will our faith cry out all the more, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” as the blind beggar cried out. Christ shows us His great love for us so that we believe in Him, so that we trust in Him, so that we place all our confidence in Him, regardless of what is hidden from us in this life. Christ drives His love deeper into our hearts as we hear again how He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows; how He was smitten and afflicted by God; how He was wounded for our transgression and bruised for our iniquities, and how His chastisement earns our peace with God, and how His bloody stripes are our saving health.

And if we contemplate Christ’s love for us like this, so that it is driven deeper into our hearts, then we will have choice but love our neighbor for whom Christ has also died. The love Christ has shown us shows us how we are to love one another, not in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth “(1 Jn 3:18). Paul teaches us this love in the epistle. “Love suffers long—that is, it is patient—and is kind; love does not envy. Love does not parade itself—meaning, it isn’t boastful about what it does—It is not puffed up, that is, conceited. Love does not behave rudely, indecently towards others. Love does not seek it’s own, our own good, but the good of our neighbor, placing their good alongside ours, because if it isn’t good for our neighbor then it isn’t good for us, either. This is why Paul says in Philippians 2:4, “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” Love thinks no evil, either of others or evil things for oneself. Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. As we look at the ministry, suffering, and death of Jesus we see this perfect love for all people, including us, and turn toward our neighbors and love them this same way. This is why of faith, hope, and love, the greatest of these is love. Faith and hope are directed toward God. Love is the greatest because it is not only directed toward God, but to every neighbor, even to ourselves, for we cannot love our neighbor if we do not love ourselves as God loves us.

If we follow Jesus to the cross, learning God’s word and ways from Him, He will show us His great love for us. That love strengthens our faith in Him, so that, like the blind beggar, regardless of how much is hidden from us in this life, we confidently call out to Him in all things, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me,” knowing that He will. If He has loved us enough to suffer all things and die for us, how much more will graciously give us all things we need for this life and the next? Amen.

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

2 Corinthians 11.19–12.9 & Luke 8.4–15

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

Pay attention to how you hear. That’s the point of the parable of the sower. A sower sows seed on four types of soil. Some seed falls the wayside—a well-worn, compacted path—and that seed is trampled on people so that the birds of air devour it. Some seed falls on the rock. It springs up momentarily, but quickly withers because it couldn’t establish roots to get moisture. Other seed falls among thorns. The thorns grow up alongside the tender plant and choke it. Still other seed falls on good ground. This seed springs up, establishes roots, and grows to the point of bearing fruit, even a bountiful harvest.

The four types of soil upon the seed falls represent four types of human hearts who hear God’s Word. The first type, the wayside, is the heart that is hardened and compacted. The seed falls on this ground but bounces right off because the heart is impenetrable. These are those who hear God’s word preached and think nothing of it. The word is heard but not understood and so it can’t implant itself in the heart. It bounces off their hard, compacted heart, then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They go about their life, never again thinking of the word which they heard.

The second type of heart is represented by the rocky soil. The seed penetrates this soil for a brief time. It tries to grow, but can’t establish roots to collect moisture, so it withers and dies. Jesus explains that these receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. These are the people who hear God’s word and accept it with great gusto. They believe for a while. They rejoice in the free forgiveness of their sins for Jesus’ sake. They enjoy the peace of conscience the gospel brings. But then temptation comes. The word translated temptation can also be translated as testing. When God is the subject of the verb we translate it as “testing. James teaches us in his epistle, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” (Ja 1:13). But when the devil is the subject of the verb, then it’s translated temptation. God tests for the strengthening of faith; the devil tempts into sin for the destruction of faith. Jesus doesn’t say from whom this time of temptation comes, but it really doesn’t matter. od allows the devil to tempt believers, just as He allowed the devil to tempt His only begotten Son, so that we might exercise our faith in the midst of temptations to sin, just as He wants to exercise our faith through trials, afflictions, and suffering. The heart represented by the rocky soil starts off strong, but when temptation and testing come and they realize that the seed of the Word isn’t given to make life easier, their faith withers away and dies.

Thorny soil represents the third type of human heart which has the seed of God’s Word sown on it. The thorns grow up alongside the tender shoot, become intertwined with God’s planting, and choke it so that it cannot bear mature fruit. Jesus says the thorns which choke the plant of faith are cares, riches, and pleasures of life. Cares are anxieties and worries. Jesus describes these cares in Matthew 6:25 as worries about what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Anxious worrying about the stuff of this life can easily choke faith. Riches are just that, wealth beyond what we need for everyday life. Paul reminds Timothy that those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (1 Tim 6:9-10). The desire for riches chokes faith so that it cannot bear fruit, but dies. Finally, the pleasures of life do the same they are prioritized over the word of God and not controlled and directed by the word of God. Cares, riches, and pleasures of life all choke faith so that it is unproductive, sickly, and moribund because they fight tenaciously for our attention, each one seeking to be the highest good in our life.

Then there’s soil number four: good ground, which Jesus calls a good and noble heart. The good and noble heart is the heart that, having heard God’s word, keeps it. How does it keep God’s word? It hears God’s word preached, it accepts the seed the word so that it becomes implanted, and then it is nurtured so that it grows. What does this look like, practically speaking? It’s the heart that hears God’s word as it is sown through preaching, seeks to understand it, and then applies it to oneself. And not just at the time of hearing. If we only apply God’s word to ourselves while we are listen to the sermon or singing in the Service, then walk through those doors and not think about it again until we come back next Sunday, then aren’t keeping it, because out there in the world, in your daily life, are temptations and trials, cares, riches, and the pleasures of life, which want to be prioritized and pursued. The seed must be received, it must become implanted, and it must be kept in mind, lived, and applied to oneself each day. This is how the heart bears fruit with patience. It takes time, moisture, nurture, weeding the soil of the heart to keep thorns at bay, for the word to bear its fruit.

What fruit does the seed of the word want to bear in us? Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). And while its tempting to make this fruit an abstraction, the Holy Spirit bears this fruit in us toward real people and real situations in our real lives. If we make the fruit the Spirit wants to bear in us an abstraction, then we can say we love someone while treating them spitefully and with disdain. We can claim to want longsuffering—patience—yet demand of ourselves and others that they be where we want them to be right now. We can claim to be good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled in the abstract, while treating ourselves and others badly, unfaithfully, harshly, and let our sinful nature run our thoughts, words, and behaviors. When we see ourselves doing this then we must repent, removing the rocks and uprooting the thorns in our heart, so that God can implant the seed of His word—the gospel of forgiveness, new life, and the Holy Spirit—into our hearts once again and we can keep it, seek to understand it more deeply, and apply it to ourselves more confidently.

And lest we still want to make the fruit the Spirit bears in us through His word an abstraction, He gives us the very real example of St. Paul in today’s epistle. Look at the fruit the word bears in him. He sufferings temptation, trial, affliction, and cross. Scourged, imprisoned, beaten with rods, pelted with stones, shipwrecked three times, in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Yet he bears it all with patience. He bears every affliction and cross out of love for Christ, for the churches he has planted, for the saints whom his ministry serves. He endures all this, along with a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, and He does so in the strength that Christ provides, the strength that is perfect in human weakness and suffering, although we do not always sense it and understand it. Christ sowed the seed of the word in Paul’s heart and Paul, by the working of the Holy Spirit, kept it and bore fruit with patience, even the fruit of suffering what God sent with patience and trust. 

Pay attention to how you hear. That’s the point of the parable of the sower. Don’t think you can hear it here and leave it here until next week. The bird of prey will snatch it away. Don’t hear God’s word and imagine that it’s the path of least resistance to ease and glory, but hear it and apply it yourself so that when you are tempted, and when Christ lays the cross upon you, it encourage you and strengthen you in the midst of your weakness, for His strength is made perfect in weakness. Don’t hear God’s word and still think the cares, riches, and pleasures of life can be prioritized above God’s word, because if you do, they will become your greatest good and choke the plant of faith. No, may God instead grant our hearts to be good ground, soil receptive to His word, so that we hear it, read it, mark it, learn it, inwardly digest it, apply it to ourselves each day, and live it. May God grant that that His word—which He has implanted in us here today— bears fruit with patience, not fruit in the abstract, but real fruit towards ourselves, towards others, and towards our Lord. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Grant this, Lord, to us all. Amen.

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

1 Corinthians 9.24–10:5 & Matthew 20.1-16

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

A landowner goes to the marketplace at the beginning of the workday, 6am. He invites the men standing there to come and work in his vineyard for the day. They agree on a wage, a denarius for a day’s work, and the men go to work in the vineyard. The landowner wants more workers in his vineyard, so he goes to the marketplace again at 9am, and finds some standing idle in the marketplace. He tells them, “You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.” These men know that they don’t deserve an entire day’s wages, but they trust the landowner’s generosity. They are confident that He will give them what is right. The landowner goes out again at the sixth hour, noon, and then the ninth hour, which would be 3 o’clock in the afternoon. He calls more men to work in His vineyard. Even at the eleventh hour, 5pm, one hour until quitting time, the landowner goes into the marketplace again and calls those men to work in his vineyard. Although these men claim that no one had hired them all throughout the day, the landowner hires them with the same promise given to the workers hired at the ninth hour: “Whatever is right you will receive.” Such is the generosity of the landowner, that He calls men throughout the entire day and promises to give them what it good and right. He proves himself true to His word at the end of the day when he pays the eleventh hour workers a denarius, a full day’s wages, even though they only worked one hour. Not only did He graciously call them into His vineyard so late in the day, he rewarded them based on His generosity, not their work or merits.

The landowner’s generosity has a different effect on the men hired first. When they see the eleventh-hour workers, the one hour workers, receive what they, the 6am workers had agreed upon, they assumed that the landowner had changed the agreement and would reward them according to their works, the time of their labor, and their own merit. When they receive the denarius—which they had agreed to—they grumble against the landowner. “These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.” These men had entered the landowner’s vineyard by His grace. But they forgot that. When they saw the landowner’s generosity to others, their eyes became evil, that is, they despised the landowner’s goodness. Suddenly, their agreement wasn’t enough. They expected more because of the amount of work they had done and the length of time they had worked. But the landowner tells them, “Take what is yours and go your way. Is it not lawful for me to give to this last man the same as to you? Or is your eye evil because I am good?” He gives them the agreed upon wage and then sends them out of His vineyard. They began the day by the grace of the landowner, but by the end of the day they wanted nothing to do with His goodness.

What does this parable teach us about the kingdom of God? The kingdom of heaven is the church on earth. The landowner is Christ who graciously calls men throughout the day of human history. He calls men from all ages of the world. He also calls men many times throughout their lives, some at the beginning of their life, others in their youth, others in midlife, and others during old age. The call is always the same, “You also go work in my vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.” When Christ calls men to work in His vineyard, the church, He is not calling them to earn their salvation by their works. He graciously gives them His salvation when they enter into the vineyard. The call goes out to all men, at different times of their lives, to repent of sin and enter into a kingdom of grace in which God graciously provides you with everything you need to stand before God the Father in righteousness and purity. Everyone enters the vineyard of Christ’s church with the promise, “Whatever is right I will give you.” No one enters the vineyard because of his works and merits. Everyone is called by grace, without regard to their works or merits.

And good thing too! For the only thing that we deserve and merit is condemnation and wrath. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23). “There is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin,” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). We sang earlier in the Tract the words of Psalm 130: “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.” We do not deserve anything which we have in this life, only wrath and condemnation for our sins. But the Landowner is gracious, and His graciousness abounds to sinners. This is the reason that the Son of God became Man and was named Jesus, because He came to save people from their sins. The Son of God came to earth to destroy the works of the devil, the chief of which are sin and death. He calls men, He calls you, into His vineyard not because of anything you have done, but in spite of the evil you have done and the good you have left undone. He does not mark iniquities or keep records of sins. The devil does that so he can tempt you to despair of God’s mercy, reminding you of sins long forgotten. The Lord graciously forgives your sins by applying the merits of Christ to you when you believe the gospel. The Lord graciously absolves you of all your sins in this vineyard as often as you confess them. He calls you into His vineyard to give you all the blessings Christ earned on the cross.

But the vineyard is also a place of work and labor. There is planting and cultivating, pruning and watering to be done. The call to work in the church does not mean that He calls each of us to the work of the ministry. He calls some to be pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ (Eph 4:12). But everyone Christ calls into the vineyard of His church He calls to the work and labor of living the Christian life—what St. Paul calls a race and competition in today’s epistle.  To labor in Christ’s vineyard means to break up the soil of our hearts by daily repentance, to cultivate our hearts with trust in the promise of the forgiveness of sins. To labor in Christ’s vineyard means to bear the fruit of the Spirit while pulling the weeds of sin and temptations as they arise from the soil of our hearts. To labor in the vineyard is to live a holy life in your callings as citizens and spouses, parents and grandparents, children and friends, volunteers, and members of this congregation. To labor in the vineyard of Christ is to endure suffering and hardship with patience and trust that God will deliver you in His good time in the way that is best for you. To labor in the vineyard, the church, is to discipline oneself—our bodies and minds, our desires and will—and bring ourselves into subjection to God’s will, lest sin gain mastery over us, so that we drive out the Holy Spirit and thereby become disqualified from everlasting life.

In this way Jesus’ parable is also a word of warning to us, that we do not despise His grace and favor like the workers called first. They entered the vineyard and worked diligently, but when they saw the landowner’s graciousness to others, they suddenly wanted to be in the vineyard because of their works. They entered the vineyard in grace but ended the day trusting in their own works and merits. For this they were given their denarius, which are temporal blessings, and were promptly cast out of the vineyard. They received many temporal and worldly blessings from their work in the vineyard, but they despised the Landowner’s grace and so they were driven from the vineyard. St. Paul says that if we allow sin to gain mastery over us, we will disqualify ourselves from our heavenly reward, the imperishable crown of eternal life. Jesus says something similar in this parable. Just as we are not to let sin gain mastery over us so that we willfully go along with every temptation, so we are beware lest we fall into the sin of presumption, imaging that we belong here in Christ’s church because of our good works and behavior. This, too, is His work in us, as He says in John 15:5, “For without Me you can do nothing.”

In the kingdom of heaven the only merit that matters is Christ’s merit. In Christ’s vineyard, there is no goodness in which we should glory except the goodness of the landowner who promises to reward our works in this life and in the life to come, for He says of our work in the vineyard, “Whatever is right I will give you.” But, dear saints of God, do not work as if working for the reward. Do not labor in Christ’s vineyard with your wages in mind. Work in the vineyard as one who does not deserve to be here but IS here solely because of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Labor in your callings, run the race, knowing that you labor in the grace of God. Rejoice, not in your own merits and works, but in the merits and work of Christ Jesus, in whom you have the forgiveness of all your sins, the grace of God, and the imperishable crown of everlasting life. Amen.

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

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2 Peter 1:16–21 & Matthew 17:1-9

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

“Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.” This is the brightest and clearest epiphany yet. Jesus usually reveals His glory by way of a miracle that helps someone: water into wine, healing a leper with his touch, or calming a storm with only a word. In every miracle, Christ’s divine glory peaks out from under the weakness of His human nature. But in the transfiguration Christ’s divine glory is on full display. His face shines like the sun. His clothing became as white as the light. He no longer hides His divine glory under human weakness, but lets it glorify His true humanity.

Not only is Jesus transfigured before them, but Moses and Elijah appear in glory along with Christ, reminding Peter, James, and John that God is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him” (Lk 20:38). Moses, the lawgiver, who died and was buried by God Himself, signifies the law. Elijah, who did not die but was translated directly into heavenly glory by a whirlwind and chariots of fire, signifies the prophets. They are both called from heaven to attest to the fact that entire Scripture—the Law and the Prophets—bear witness to Christ, His work, and the benefits He earns for all mankind and gives to all who believe. Luke tells us these men talk with Jesus about this very thing, His departure, literally, His exodus (Lk 9:31), both His exodus from this world and the exodus He will lead from sin, death, and the power of the devil for all who believe in Him.

Then Peter speaks. “Lord, it is 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.” Who can blame Peter for saying such a thing? Who wouldn’t want stay and bask in the divine glory of Christ at His transfiguration? Who wouldn’t want to remain with Moses, Elijah, and Christ in heavenly glory? But while He was still speaking, God the Father interrupts him. A bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” God the Father puts His seal of approval on His Son once again. He had already done this once, at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River. There, the Father said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). He repeats His previous words and adds, “Hear Him.” God the Father is well-pleased with His only begotten Son and wants these three disciples—in fact, all people—to hear Jesus, listen to Jesus, and abide in the word that Jesus speaks. Why? John tells us, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (Jn 1:18).

Hearing God’s voice is too much for these men. They fell down, faces to the ground, greatly afraid, because that’s what one does when one actually hears the voice of God. When Israel heard God’s voice at Mt. Sinai as He gave the Ten Commandments, the people said, “Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die” (Deut 18:16). How much more afraid were these three disciples at hearing God’s voice from the bright cloud that overshadowed them all? Jesus comes to them, touches them, and tells them, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” This by itself is an amazing word of gospel. God the Father had just told them to hear Jesus, and what is the first thing that Jesus tells them afterwards? Do not be afraid. Why not? Because you are sons of God through faith in God’s only begotten Son, and for His sake you have gracious God. As long as you are in Christ, you have nothing to fear of God the Father. And as if to drive Father’s words further into their hearts, when they look up they saw no one but Jesus only. Hear Him and only Him.

On the way down the mountain Jesus commands the three men, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.” Why would Jesus show them such a glorious sight only to tell them to keep it under wraps until after His resurrection? Because this vision—for now—is for them alone. This epiphany, like all the other revelations of His glory, is to help someone. It is to strengthen these disciples as they descend the mountain with Jesus into the valley of the shadow of death.

Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection serve as bookends to His transfiguration. Matthew begins his account of the transfiguration, “Now after six days.” Six days after what? Six days prior to this Peter had confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God. Six days prior to this Jesus began to show to His disciples 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). On that day He taught them about His suffering, death, and resurrection and theirs as well. He told them, after rebuking Peter—who was unwittingly being in league with Satan for denying that Christ would suffer and die—that they, too, must take of their cross. “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). Not only must Jesus suffer greatly at the hands of those who hate Him and be crucified, but those who follow Him must bear their cross as well. A cross is any suffering that is specifically for the sake of confessing Christ and living according to His word. This is what these men—and anyone who desires to come after Him—must bear. They must deny themselves, not only their sinful desires, but they must deny themselves any thought of having glory in this life. They must lose their life in this world.

Jesus shows them this glorious vision of Himself to strengthen their confidence in Him, so that as they see Him betrayed by one their own, accused by false witnesses, condemned by godless hypocrites, they do not lose heart. Jesus shows them that everything He endures was foretold by Moses and the Prophets, in words and figures, so that when they see gentile solders pulling out His beard, punishing His flesh with cruel implements, and lifting Him up on a cross, they might not despair and turn from Him in unbelief. As Jesus takes up His cross, they are to remember that the one suffering such agony is God the Father’s beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. And if this is how God the Father treats His only begotten Son with whom He is well pleased, then they, too, should rejoice when they suffer for Jesus’ sake, because that’s how God treats His sons. It is as Paul said in Acts 14:22, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” The same is true for you and for me. We must deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him.

Jesus gives these three disciples this vision for our benefit as well. They were only to keep it to themselves until after His resurrection. Now it is proclaimed once again to you, to strengthen you in the midst of bearing your cross for Jesus’ sake, whatever it may be. There is suffering. There is cross. There is tribulation. All of it could be avoided by denying Christ by going along with the ways of the world. But the transfiguration reminds us that even as Christ’s glory was so often hidden under human weakness before His resurrection, so is the glory that is ours by baptism and faith—the glory of the children of God—is hidden under weakness, suffering, and cross in this life before the resurrection. Peter wants to instill such fortitude in us by writing about Christ’s transfiguration in today’s epistle. Peter, an eyewitness to Christ’s majesty at the transfiguration; Peter, who heard with his ears the voice of God the Father, tells you, “We have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place.”

We do not have the vison of Christ’s glorious light at His transfiguration as Peter did. But we have the prophetic word—Moses the Prophets—confirmed by eyewitnesses, the apostles themselves. They testify to us of Christ’s glory, so that the writings of Scripture become the glorious light of Christ to us. We have the Moses and prophets, the apostles and evangelists, as a light which we heed, for the holy Scriptures are a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, showing us what we are to believe and how we are to live that faith. The Scriptures are our light in the dark place of this life because they are very words of God which show us Christ, God’s beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased. We have the prophetic word confirmed so that we might hear Him, and Him only, so that as we take up our cross and follow Him, we do not lose heart and despair, but look forward to that glory to be revealed in the sons of God when Christ returns, the glory of Christ’s transfiguration, glory not worth being compared to our current sufferings. Amen.

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

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John 2:1-11

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

On this second Sunday after Epiphany Jesus once against manifested his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14). He manifests His divine glory and sonship by turning water into wine. God alone can bring something into being by speaking. David says in Psalm 33[:6, 9], “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” On the third day after entering Galilee—with the five disciples He had so far called—and with a word changes one substance into another. By this Christ demonstrates His divinity, that God is His Father and He is equal with Him. But there’s more to it than that. The circumstances around the miracle reveal His divine glory and sonship as well.

What do we notice about the circumstances of changing water into wine? First, He performed this miracle, not at Passover or a religious feast, not in the Temple or synagogue, but at a wedding. He inaugurates His public ministry at a wedding to reveal Himself as true God and true man simultaneously. When a man and a woman pledge themselves to each other in marriage, they become one flesh. Our father Adam confessed this by faith when the Lord brought Eve to him. He said, “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh” (Gen 2:23). By assuming human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the eternal Son of God marries Himself to human flesh, so that He can say of humanity, ““This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh.” For although everyone present at the wedding sees Him as a man—which He is—but He, by His miracle, shows them that He is also true God. He also foreshadows His entire work. He comes to win a bride. The bride He comes to win is His church—the body of believers. He will give Himself for her, sacrifice Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish (Eph 5:26-27). By changing water into wine at a wedding, Jesus manifests His glory as the only begotten Son of God in human flesh, who will win His bride.

The second thing we notice about the circumstances of changing water into wine is Jesus’ interaction with His mother. When the wine runs out, Mary says to her son, “They have no wine.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come.” Jesus reprimands His mother her, not in rudeness, but to remind her that while He is her Son, He is chiefly the Son of God in human flesh, and that it is His prerogative to decide when and how to act in His office as Messiah. He calls her “Woman” and not mother  because as the Messiah who has come into His office, He is not subject to her, just as He is not subject to anyone but God the heavenly Father. He impresses the point on her by asking her, “What does your concern have to do with Me?” or literally, “What do I have to do with you?” This is a Hebraism, a way of speaking among the Hebrews that we see used in the Old Testament. In 2 Samuel 16:10, Abishai the son of Zeruiah wanted to cuff of Shimei’s head for cursing David. “But the king said, ‘What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah?’” It’s as if David had said, “Why are involving yourself in my responsibilities, in my things?” This is even how demons responded to Jesus when He approaches them in the gospels, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” (Mk 5:7). By answering His mother this way, He reveals His glory as the only begotten Son of God who acts according to His own wisdom and His own time. No one, not even His mother, can direct Him. When it comes to discharging His office as Messiah, His mother is no different from any other woman. She has no special prerogative with her son. Later in His ministry Jesus will even say, “Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother” (Matt 12:50).

This is especially important because there are many who extoll the Mother of God more highly than they ought, invoking her in prayer, asking for her aid, or asking her to join with them in their prayers. Scripture nowhere commands us to do this, nor has God promised that they even hear us. Instead, God commands us to call upon Him in the day of trouble (Ps 50:15).  And if Jesus reserves for Himself when and how to act during His earthly ministry, how much more, having been exalted to the right hand of God the Father almighty does He reserve that for Himself? Mary doesn’t err in asking Him for help. She doesn’t err by interceding for someone else. She errs in the fact that she tries to use her relation to Jesus—the fact that she is His mother—to get Him act. Mary understands, for doesn’t tell the servants that she will try again later with her son. She directs them to Christ Himself.  “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Why? Because He will act when and how it’s best for you. Thus, we should direct all our prayers to the Triune God alone, and ask those who we know can hear us to pray for us and join with us in our prayers to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost alone.

There is one more circumstance of changing water into wine that reveals Christ’s glory as the only begotten Son of God and Messiah, and that is the fact that He changes water into the good wine, the type that is usually served first. He begins fulfilling the prophets, one of who said, “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined” (Is 25:6 ESV). Not only does He act in His time and according to the manner He prescribes, but He gives us over and above what we need. He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think (Eph 3:20). If wine that makes glad the heart of man as the Psalmist says (Ps 104:15), Christ making abundant and good wine from water shows us that His blessings and benefits gladden our hearts! That’s what the forgiveness of sins does to the heart. It lightens and gladdens the heart that was once burdened by its guilt. The promise that God hears our prayers and answers for Jesus’ sake rejoices the heart, because we are certain that we have a gracious God who will act when and how He knows best for our good and His glory. He gives forgiveness, righteousness, peace, joy, and all His gifts in such abundance. How can our hearts not be gladdened and rejoice whenever we consider the great blessings He earned for us by His life, suffering, and death, and gives to us freely in His Word and sacraments without any merit or worthiness on our part?

This epiphany of our Lord also teaches us about the life we live in Christ. By inaugurating His public ministry at a wedding, Jesus shows us that He approves of marriage and all that comes with it, as it is written in Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled.” If anyone would say that marriage isn’t as holy an estate as celibacy, or if anyone would probit marriage of man and woman, they have Jesus’ to deal with here, not to mention the rest of the Scriptures. The Son of God, who instituted marriage in the beginning by forming Eve and bringing her to Adam for a lifelong union of love, inaugurates His public ministry at a wedding to bless the married estate with His presence. We ought to treat marriage as such holy and divine estates, our marriages if God has given us a spouse, and the marriages of others, honoring them and defending them against all of Satan’s destructive temptations and schemes.

Christ also teaches us how we are to pray in this epiphany of His. Like Mary, we present our trouble to Christ. She simply says, “They have no wine.” Although she presumed that her relationship as Jesus’ mother would make Him act, she learned what we continually learn in our lives: God answers prayer in His time, in His wisdom, in His manner. We aren’t to presume to tell Him how and when to answer our prayers. As Paul says, we are to let our requests be made known to God (Phil 4:6) and trust His promise to answer. Christ also shows us here when the hour arrives for Him to act on our behalf, He will act in goodness and graciously toward us, answering our prayer and rejoicing our heart. Christ wants to strengthen your faith in Him by hearing about this miracle once again. That was its original purpose, after all. This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. Christ wants you to believe in Him all the more confidently, so when need arises, when trouble and affliction are laid upon you, when the wine runs out, you trust Him to act in the hour He appoints, in the way He determines. For His ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts. They’re better. In fact, they are perfect. Amen.

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

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Luke 2:41-52

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

During the Christmas season we heard great things about the child who was born to Mary. The angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her that she will conceive and bear a son who will be called the Son of God (Lk 1:35). The angel appeared to her betrothed husband, Joseph, in a dream to tell him that that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and that He will save His people from their sins (Mt 1:20-21). On the night in which Jesus was born, angels appeared to shepherds and told them the child they would find wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger was the Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Lk 2:11). Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart (Lk 2:19). When Jesus was presented in the temple, Simeon calls the salvation that God has prepared for all people, a light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of His people Israel. Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him (Lk 2:33). Simeon also told them that their child was destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (Lk 2:34). The prophetess Anna spoke of the child to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem (Lk 2:38). Many great things had been said of the child before and after His birth. Mary and Joseph heard them all, believed them, and treasured them.

But it was no until His twelfth year that Jesus showed any indication of any indication that He was no normal child. When He was twelve, He and His parents went up to Jerusalem from Nazareth for the Feast of Passover with their relatives and friends. They celebrated the yearly celebration of the exodus from Egypt. They ate the Passover lamb. They did all the Lord commanded in His law. After the feast was completed, they went home, back to Nazareth. At the end of the first day of travel, Joseph and Mary looked for him among their relatives and friends. When they don’t find Him, they return to Jerusalem to look for Him. Any parent can imagine not knowing where their child is. Imagine the frantic searching. Imagine what they were both feeling. God Himself had given them His only begotten Son to care for, raise, and protect. And they’ve lost Him. When they find Him three days later Mary gives us a glimpse into the terror she felt when she says, “Look, Your father and I have sought you anxiously.” She uses the same word the rich man in Hades uses when tells Abraham, “I am tormented in this flame” (Lk 16:24). Mary is in agony of conscience as she searches for her son.

They search for three days, and on the third day they find the boy. He was just fine. He’s in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. The Lord gave the priests the responsibility to teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them by the hand of Moses in Leviticus 10:11. Jesus sits there listening to their teaching. He not only listens but asks them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. What sorts of questions did He ask? What sort of answers did He give? No doubt He spoke about the true meaning of the commandments, that they touched not just the outward act but the entire man, including his heart. He no doubt spoke about how the Passover lambs which had been sacrificed and eaten just over a week before prefigured the Messiah and the exodus He would lead from sin and death. When Joseph and Mary come to the temple on the third day of their search, His mother has words for Him. “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” The twelve-year-old Jesus asks His mother, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Luke tells us that they didn’t understand this at the time, but that His mother kept all these things in her heart.

Today is the first Sunday after Epiphany. Epiphany was yesterday, January 6. Epiphany is a Greek word which means “manifestation.” Throughout the season of Epiphany, we hear in the appointed gospels how Jesus manifested His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14). Although He conceals His divinity under human weakness, although He lives a perfectly human life, during this season we will see Jesus manifest His divine glory and power in several different ways. Usually, He manifests His glory through miracles. But today He manifests His divine glory in a different way, so that we know Him as the only begotten of God the Father.

He manifests this first by staying behind in Jerusalem even as Joseph and His mother left for home. By staying behind, Jesus demonstrates that He is not under Mary and Joseph’s parental authority by nature. Our children, before they reach adulthood, are under our authority. This is God’s order, so that children are cared for, protected, and most of all, be brought up in the training and admonition of the Lord as Paul writes in Ephesians 6:4. And God commands children to be subject to their parents and to live respectfully under their parents’ authority. He tells says in the Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” (Ex 20:12). Paul tells children, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord” (Eph 6:1), whenever they tell you do what pleasing to God. Parents have no authority to command their children to sin and act against God’s word. If they do, they aren’t to be obeyed. Mary and Joseph weren’t acting outside their office as Jesus’ parents. But Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem as a testimony to the fact that, although Mary was His mother and Joseph His God-assigned guardian, Jesus owes primary obedience to His heavenly Father as the only begotten Son of God the Father. He is more than man, more than Mary’s son. He is the only begotten Son of God.

Jesus also manifests His divine glory, His divine sonship, by His questions and answers to the priests. Jesus was respectful of their office as priests. He listens to them. But He also taught them the truth of God’s word in a childlike way, so that all who heard Him—even these priests who had spent their entire lives studying the law—were astonished at His understanding and answers. He manifests His divine glory to His parents finally when He responds to Mary’s exasperation and asks, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” God’s business is His word, His will, His law, and His promises. He is her son, but He is primarily God’s Son, about His Father’s business, and He will demonstrate this all the more during the days of His earthly ministry. He will teach those willing to learn. He will chide those who think they have need to learn from Him. He will heal the sick, give sight to the blind, make the lame walk, and raise the dead, each miracle manifesting His divine glory.  His divine glory will chiefly be seen in being delivered up because of our offenses, and being raised because of our justification (Rom 4:25). But for now, once this brief epiphany in the temple comes to an end, Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. He lived a regular childhood, subject to his parents’ authority, gladly and joyfully doing all that His mother and Joseph told Him to do.

In this first manifestation of His divine glory, He shows Himself to be the only begotten Son of God in human flesh. The Son of God becomes a son of man so that we all who believe in Him might receive received the adoption as sons (Gal 4:5) by faith and baptism. Through faith and baptism, God adopts us as His sons and daughters, forgives all our sins, promises us eternal salvation, and gives us His Holy Spirit so that we might live as our older brother in the flesh, Jesus, lived. He is our Savior from sin, death, and the power of the devil. He is also our example and pattern. This epiphany shows us that God establishes authority and wants it honored, for Jesus willingly subjects Himself to Mary and Joseph. This is an example for children, but for adults also who are under authority, that they may obediently live under the authorities God has established—except when them command us to sin. Jesus shows us that such obedience is God-pleasing by subjecting Himself to His parents’ authority.

In this first of Jesus’ epiphanies, as He manifests His divine glory as the son of God, He teaches us that as sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, we, too, should be about our heavenly Father’s business. Our Father’s business is His word, His will, His law, and His promises. God has given each us lots of business that needs attending each day. But in the midst of fulfilling the duties God has given us to one another, we mustn’t neglect our Father’s business; meditating on His Word so that in the joy of the gospel we live by His commandments for our good, for our neighbor’s benefit, and for God’s glory. All that we do, regardless of our business, should flow from the fact that we are about our heavenly Father’s business, and we are about His business because by faith He has made us His sons and daughters, forgives our sins, and raises us to new life each day to live even as Christ lives. Amen.

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

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Galatians 4:1-7 & Luke 2:33–40

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

Even though today is the seventh day of Christmas, this Sunday’s gospel lesson takes us to the fortieth day of Jesus’ life. Mary and Joseph bring the child to the temple in Jerusalem for her purification. Moses wrote in Leviticus 12[:2-4], “If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled.” Since Mary had given birth to a male child, she was ceremonially unclean for forty days. This taught Israel about original sin that was passed from parents to children, the necessity of having God forgive it, and the necessity of fighting against the flesh’s inborn lusts and temptations. Christ is born of a woman, born under the law, to show that He is the fulfillment of the law. In this case, that He is the purification for original sin that all people conceived in the natural way contact from sinful parents.

It was also the day in which Mary and Joseph would redeem their male child. The Lord said in Numbers 18:15-16, “Everything that first opens the womb of all flesh, which they bring to the LORD, whether man or beast, shall be yours; nevertheless the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. And those redeemed of the devoted things you shall redeem when one month old, according to your valuation, for five shekels of silver.” Luke tells us in verse 24 that they went to offer a pair of turtle doves, but he doesn’t mention the lamb, nor does the evangelist tell us that Mary and Joseph redeemed Jesus with five shekels. There was no need to bring a lamb, for they presented the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Nor was their need to redeem their Firstborn, rather, they presented their Firstborn as the redemption for Israel.

It was at this point that that an aged man by the name of Simeon entered the temple. Simeon was a just man—righteous by faith—and devout—living according to law of the Lord. Luke writes that Simeon was waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ “(Lk 2:25-26). He came to temple by the prompting of the Holy Spirit, took Mary’s child up in his arms, blessed God and said words which you ought to find very familiar. He says, “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” (Lk 2:29-32). The Holy Spirit fulfilled His word to Simeon. He had seen the Lord’s Anointed One. Now He can depart this life in peace because the Lord has fulfilled His word not just to him, but to all Israel. These words—which words which we sing after receiving the same Christ’s body and blood— are the words that Mary and Joseph marveled over at the beginning of today’s gospel.

But Simeon isn’t finished. 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.” These words are quite different from his first words. Yes, this child is God’s salvation, which He prepared for all people. Yes, this child is a light to the Gentiles as the prophets foretold, for through faith in this child the Gentiles will enter the kingdom of God. Yes, this child is the glory of the people of Israel. But not all will see the child for who and what He is. The child is appointed for the fall of many in Israel. Many will stumble over Mary’s Son and fall into Hell. Those who stumble on account of Him will not only stumble, they will speak against Him so as to excuse their fall.

Some will be offended at His lowliness and humility. They’ll say, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works Is this not the carpenter’s son?” Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?” (Mt 14:54-56). Others will be scandalized by His claim that God is His Father, and that by this He is making Himself equal with God (Jn 5:18). Stumbling over the Holy One of Israel in human flesh, they’ll call Him Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons (Mt 12:24). Still others will be scandalized by the fact that He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mt 9:13), and that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before those who trust their own righteousness (Mt 21:31). While they pretend piety, their reaction to Mary’s Son will reveal the thoughts of their hearts to be self-righteous, self-centered, and self-worshiping. In their rejection of her Son, Mary’s heart would be pierced through as well, for she would have to watch as their fall brought about her Son’s bitter, innocent suffering and death.

But this child is also appointed for the rising of many in Israel. Those who are poor and lowly before God, those who hear Christ’s teaching and humble themselves in repentance, these will rise. They will rise from spiritual death to life by the forgiveness of their sins, for where there is forgiveness of sins there is life and salvation. They will rise from being outsiders to being sons of God by the adoption that comes through faith in the Firstborn who was presented in the temple as the world’s redemption price. They will rise from a life of dead works done by coercion to the new life of love by the Holy Spirit who will bear His fruit in all who believe. And even though they die, they will yet live, for they will rise again in the resurrection at the last day (Jn 11:24) since they heard His voice in His Word, believed Him while living, and by faith in His Word passed from death into life (Jn 5:24). This child is appointed for the rising of many in Israel: the first resurrection of faith and the second resurrection to life on the Last Day, and the resurrection to the life of godliness each day in between.

Simeon finishes prophesying as the prophetess Anna enters the Temple. She was a widow of great age, having lived as a widow for 84 after seven years of marriage. As an unmarried woman she cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit, serving in fasting and prayer without distraction as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7[:34-35]. She enters the temple while Simeon is holding the child. She hears His words, believes them, and gives thanks to the Lord for the redemption of the Lord. She then speaks of the child to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. While many looked for redemption from Rome, Anna speaks to those who looked for true redemption, redemption from sin, death, and the devil. To all those who looked for God’s redemption, Anna speaks to them about this child, telling them that she, who has seen terrible things befall the Jews during her long life, has now seen God’s redemption with her own eyes.

There is much for us to marvel at, ponder, and meditate upon in this little gospel. Like Mary and Joseph, we can marvel over Simeon’s words that we sing as the Nunc Dimittis after receiving Christ bodily in the Lord’s Supper, so that we can—whenever the Lord beckons us—depart this life in peace according to His Word, since our eyes have seen, our lips have tasted, and our hearts experienced Christ’s salvation. We should ponder Simeon’s prophecy that this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and use it fortify ourselves, so that we aren’t scandalized when many fall on account of Christ and His doctrine and think that we should change our teaching to better suit what people want to hear. We should meditate each day upon the resurrection we experience by dying to sin through repentance and rising by faith in Christ to live before God in in righteousness and purity. We can ponder at the example of Anna, who accepts the vocation of widowhood as an invitation to serve the Lord by fastings and prayers without distraction, and apply that to ourselves, so that we accept the vocation God gives us—single, married, widowed, or widowered—and serve God and our neighbor in our vocations. We can marvel at the advanced age of both Simeon and Anna, and how in spite of their age, they were still serving the Lord as they were able and be encouraged so that even if all we can do is pray because of our age, we do that faithfully and fervently. But most of all, we must marvel at the child who is our redemption and consolation and give thanks for Him always. Amen.

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

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John 1:1-14

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

In yesterday’s epistle, St. Paul exhorted us to , “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4).  While that is the will of God for us every day, we ought to rejoice all the more on this day of our Lord’s nativity. The child born of the Virgin Mary, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manager is God the Word, the one of whom St. John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word is eternal, being with God from the beginning. The Word was God, John says. He does not say that the Word became God, or that the Word was created by God in the beginning to stand alongside God or next to God. The Word was not fashioned like the rest of creation. The Word simply was. He has always existed, being eternally generated from the God the Father in a way that is ineffable and indescribable and unfathomable to our finite minds. The Word is intrinsic to God’s nature. Paul describes Him in a similar fashion in this morning’s Epistle lesson. He is “the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3). As light without brightness is not light, so God without the Word cannot be, for “the Word was God.” Nor could a created being ever suffice to be God’s radiance and brightness, nor could a creature ever faithfully reflect the invisible God as the “express image of His person.”

This is the One who is born in human flesh on this day. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” The eternal Word of God, the brightness of the everlasting Light, the One by whom all things were made that were made, comes into the world through the womb of the Virgin Mary. In Him we see “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” So the One born of Mary is eternal Word of the Father, brightness of the Father’s light, and the Only-Begotten Son of God, begotten before all worlds, God from God, light from light, very God from very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. The Son born of Mary is therefore the Only-Begotten Son of God. This is why we ought to doubly rejoice on this day: The Son of God becomes a Son of Man. He does not become flesh by changing from God into man, so that He ceases to be God, nor does He become a third thing, a hybrid of God and Man. The Word became flesh, that is, the eternal Word wrapped Himself in human flesh and clothed Himself with our full humanity in the womb of Mary. The whole human existence. Human body. Human soul. He becomes like us in every aspect, except that He is without sin.

 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” He doesn’t do this out of necessity, as if His nature drove Him to become man. He doesn’t assume human flesh to be a tourist among us to see what its like to be man. Everything the eternal Word does is for us and our salvation. The Son of God becomes a Son of Man so that all men who believe in Him might become sons of God. Mankind rebelled against God the Lord in the Garden of Eden and that sin of Adam and Eve is passed on through every successive generation, so that all are sinners and therefore all continue in sin. Adam and Eve’s transgression brought corruption into their souls and death to their bodies. The corruption of sin infects everyone throughout human history who is born in the natural way, of the seed of woman and the seed of man. Death, which is the earned wage of sin, stalks all humanity, a fact which we are all too familiar with in our own lives. We die because we sin. We sin because we are born of the line of Adam and Eve. Without a gracious God to intervene, all humanity would be lost in sin, death, and remain forever in the thralldom of the devil. This is the reason for the incarnation, the enfleshment, of the eternal Son of God. In love for His creation, God the Father would not allow the creation to languish in sin and its corruption. In compassion for poor sinners, God the Father sends God the Son into world to redeem the world. In mercy, God the Father sends God the Son to become flesh so that through Him, all flesh might made incorruptible and taste everlasting life once again. “For God so love the world that He gave His Only-Begotten Son” to become flesh, to become man, to redeem man from sin and death.

We rejoice in this incarnation of the eternal Son of God because by it, He becomes our brother in this life, made like us every way, excepting sin. And as our brother in the flesh He does what Adam and all sons of Adam are unable to do. He becomes like us in every way, excepting sin, so that He might suffer and die in your place to atone for our sin. Paul says again that “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9). God the Son was made a little lower than the angels, meaning He was made man so that He might suffer and “taste death for everyone.” He tastes death upon the cross for all mankind to atone for the sins of the all mankind. For “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2). The sacrifice of a mere man could never suffice to pay the debt of even that man’s sin. The death of a creature, someone created by God, would never suffice as the propitiation for the sins of the entire world. Therefore it must be God’s blood that is spilled and God’s death as payment for men’s sins. This is why He becomes flesh, so that He might suffer in the flesh for all your sins, die in the flesh for all your transgressions, and atone for the corruption which sin has brought about in your flesh to do away with all of it.

That atonement which the incarnate God wins upon the cross He then gives to all who believe in His Gospel. This atonement acquired by God the Son through His innocent, bitter sufferings and death, is presented to you in the Gospel and is received by faith. St. John writes, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” There will always be men who reject the Gospel and cast it aside in unbelief. Those who do not believe the Gospel will not be justified before God. Their sins are not forgiven because they disbelieve the Gospel. But all who receive the Him in the Gospel and believe that in Christ God is gracious to them and desires to forgive their sins, they have as they believe.

Faith is what grabs hold of the gifts Christ wins for us in the flesh. Faith is how we receive the promise of the Gospel that our sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. By faith we receive the forgiveness of all of our sins, eternal life, and the adoption as sons, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:26). This is what St. John means when he writes, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.” Through faith in Christ and His atonement – that His work is for me and my salvation – that is what makes one a child of God. This means that the Son of God became man so that all who believe in Him might become sons of God and enjoy all the blessings of divine sonship. Faith makes you into a Son of God, not in the same way that Christ is the Son of God. He is the Son of God by nature and essence. But you are sons of God through faith, adopted into the heavenly family. In this adoption Christ gives you the forgiveness of all your sins. By faith He gives you a new, incorruptible heart in which the Triune God dwells. Because you are a son of God by faith, you share in all the divine blessings which Christ has by nature, so that you are a joint-heir with Christ of His heavenly innocence, righteousness and blessedness.

This is why rejoice at the incarnation of the Son of God. God the Son takes on our flesh to purify human flesh from the corruption of sin. He tastes death for us so that all who believe His Gospel will have life even though they die. This is the reason we join with angel choirs and praise God for His great work of salvation. God the Word becomes man to suffer and die to atone for our sins so that when we believe that our sins are forgiven, they are no more. God the Son becomes man so that all who believe in Him might become sons of God by faith, sons that enjoy all the eternal inheritance of Christ for our salvation and His eternal glory. “Rejoice in the Lord always.” For the Son of God has assumed our flesh and made us, by faith, into Sons of God. Amen.

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

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Luke 2.1-20

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

In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, nearly five-hundred years before Christ’s birth, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream. In his dream he saw an image of a man. The man’s head was fine gold. Its chest and arms were silver. Its belly and thighs were made of bronze. Its legs were iron, its feet partly iron and partly clay. Then Nebuchadnezzar sees a stone being cut, except the stone isn’t cut by human hands. The stone strikes the image at its feet. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth (Dan 2:31-35).

God gives knowledge of the dream and its interpretation to His servant, Daniel, and Daniel interprets the dream for Nebuchadnezzar. He is head of gold. After him, a kingdom will arise which will be inferior to his kingdom. This is the image’s silver chest and arms. Then another kingdom will follow the silver kingdom, inferior to it as bronze is inferior to silver. A fourth kingdom will arise which will be as strong as iron, and it will break in pieces and crush all the others (Dan 2:40), but it will also be partly fragile, as iron and clay do not adhere to one another. It is the days of the fourth kingdom that the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever (Dan 2:44).

The first kingdom was Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom, Babylon. The second kingdom, inferior to Babylon as silver is inferior to gold, was the Medes and Persians, who conquered Babylon. The third kingdom, inferior to the Medes and Persians as bronze is inferior to silver, was Alexander the Great and the Greeks who ruled after him. The fourth kingdom, with the strength of iron, yet the fragility of clay, was the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar began the process of changing the republic into an empire, but that was interrupted by his assignation. His grand-nephew and heir, Gaius Octavius, finished the job in 29 BC and two years later was given the title Augustus. He established peace throughout the empire and economic prosperity for all the peoples under rule.

As Augustus establishes his kingdom among men, God goes about establishing another kingdom. This kingdom is not of gold, silver, bronze, or iron. It is of stone, specifically a stone which Nebuchadnezzar saw cut from mountain not by human hands. It is an everlasting kingdom that will break all earthly kingdoms, outlasting them all. The stone, which is cut from the mountain but not by human hands, is our Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father begets a Son from eternity that is of the same substance, so that the Son is stone from stone, God from God, light from light, true God from true God. God the Son becomes man without human involvement, either. He becomes flesh by being conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary by the power of God the Holy Spirit. As true God and true man, He will build a kingdom Himself, not relying upon the shoulders of slaves and servants, tax revenue and machines of war. “The government will be upon His shoulder.” He will establish it Himself. He will maintain it Himself by His divine power. “Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever.” The kingdoms of this earth may be gold, silver, bronze, and iron, but this stone—cut from the mountain without human hands—will strike all of them down and become a great mountain which fills the whole earth.

And how is He brought forth? How does He enter the world to establish His reign over all kingdoms of the world? Like this: “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.  Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

Christ enters the world in humility, poverty, and insignificance. Everything the world despises, thinks little of, and works to avoid, He embraces. He is king of kings and Lord of lords, yet his mother and guardian are subservient to Caesar. The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein (Ps 24:1), yet there is no room for them in town of Bethlehem, so that Mary must give birth where the animals are kept, and Christ’s first bed is a feeding trough. Even though in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col 2:9), He conceals His divine power under human frailty and weakness. He gives a glimpse of it when He is twelve years old, and during His ministry in His miracles, but otherwise, He lives a completely human life, except without sin.

From a worldly perspective this is not how you establish a kingdom, a reign, a rule over people. But His kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom is not a tract of land, a sovereign state, or even a millennial reign on earth. Jesus says in Luke 17[:20-21], “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” St. Paul says that the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking—meaning, the things of this life like bodily sustenance and government—but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17). Christ reigns over men—in men’s hearts—by His gospel, the good news that He has come to call sinners to repentance, so that they may daily enjoy the forgiveness He earns for all mankind by His death on the cross. He reigns in the hearts of believers through His Holy Spirit so that they have peace of conscience, for they believe their sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake. He reigns in the hearts of believers through His Holy Spirit so that they have joy of heart which no one or no thing in this life—even suffering and death—can take from them.

Those whose hearts are set on the things of this world cannot receive this kingdom. Those who imagine that if they have the things of this life in abundance, then they have a God who is good and gracious, cannot enter into it. Those whose concern is for eating and drinking—the things of this life like bodily sustenance, wealth, and government—will only be disappointed at the kingdom Christ establishes. For in this life, His kingdom looks small, insignificant, and despised, just as it did during the days of His earthly life. This is why the angel did not appear to the rulers or the rich, but shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night, some of the lowest people on the pecking order. Only the humble before God can receive Him rightly and enjoy the blessings of His kingdom. Only the spiritually poor can appreciate that the government is on His shoulders, that He bears their burden and gives them all things because they have nothing to offer. It is also why after they see the child, the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them, for they received the kingdom through faith in God’s word, were given righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Many will have none of this, their hearts set on the kingdom of this world. But the words of the psalmist are true: “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:22-23). Christ is the stone that struck the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Though He came in lowliness, He is the rock of our salvation, and His kingdom goes forth whenever His Word is purely preached and His sacraments administered as He commanded, because through these He enters men’s hearts and establishes His reign in them. The kingdoms of this world will come, and they will go. But blessed is the one in whom Christ reigns daily for repentance from sin, for forgiveness, for righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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

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