The Epiphany of Our
Lord
January 6, 2019
Text: Matt. 2:1-12
Happy
Epiphany! Which is just another way of
saying, Merry Christmas! Epiphany is
sometimes called the “Gentile Christmas,” as the Magi were the first Gentiles
to behold and worship the Savior of the Nations. In fact, Epiphany has been the historic
celebration of Christmas among the Christians of the East. Christmas is all about the joyous mystery
that God has become flesh in Jesus Christ.
Epiphany is all about the joyous mystery that this man, Jesus, is
God. Same blessed gift considered from
another perspective. The word “epiphany”
means revelation or manifestation. It is
when something comes to light. When you
suddenly have a bright idea, you say that you’ve had an “epiphany”… a new
thought has been revealed. Epiphany is
the Season of Light. God has revealed to
us a new thought in the Gospel, which is really a very old thought, the will of
God from all eternity, that we would not be condemned but have eternal life in
the salvation brought about by Jesus.
The Light that is Jesus Christ shines in all the dark corners of the
world and of our hearts, and the darkness cannot overcome it. What we could never have known or imagined
has been revealed in the flesh of Jesus: God has come down. God has become one with us. This man, susceptible to all the weaknesses
and temptations and difficulties of the flesh, is God come to save us who have
fallen to all the weaknesses and temptations and difficulties of the flesh.
We
sang on Christmas Day that Jesus “comes to make His blessings flow Far as the
curse is found” (LSB 387:3).[1] That is an Epiphany thought. The blessings of salvation wrapped up in the
flesh of Jesus Christ are to flow, to be made known in preaching and confession
and the presence of Christian people “far as the curse is found.” And that is to say, the whole world which
groans under the curse of sin and death and fallen creation. That is to say the far reaches of the
earth. That is to say your own homes and
families and the deepest recesses of your heart. The preaching goes forth from the Baby in the
manger: God has come to deliver you. God
has come as a flesh and blood Child to grow up and die for you, to rise for
you, to live and reign for you. To
forgive your sins. To give you new and
eternal life. To take you to Himself in
heaven. To raise you bodily on the Last
Day. He reverses the curse by suffering
it for you on the cross, in His flesh, shedding His blood. He imparts to you all His righteousness and
life in His holy Word, by baptizing you into Himself, and by feeding you with
His body and blood, the body and blood of God!
Far as the curse is found, the Word goes out, deep into you and from you
to the whole world. It is an Epiphany, a
revelation. God is gracious to
sinners. God is gracious to you. He loves you.
He gave His only-begotten Son for you.
Epiphany
is a missionary season. The concept is
often lost on us, just how revolutionary this is that Gentiles are given to
behold and worship the newborn King, and come into His Kingdom. Israel often forgot that their God is the God
of all the nations. Israel was, after
all, God’s covenant people. St. Paul
reminds us, “They are Israelites, and to
them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the
worship, and the promises. To them
belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the
Christ who is God over all, blessed forever.
Amen” (Rom. 9:4-5; ESV). Even
after our Lord’s appearing and saving work, the blessed Apostles had to wrestle
with what it meant for the Gospel to preached in all the world. Peter had his vision of the sheet with
unclean animals. “Rise, Peter; kill and eat,” was the Lord’s command (Acts 10:13),
and Peter objected: He had never eaten anything unclean. Three times he had to have the rooftop
vision, so that Jesus could teach him, “What
God has made clean, do not call common” (v. 15). And what was the impetus for the lesson? Go, Peter, and preach to the Gentile
Cornelius and his household. And when
Peter did so, wouldn’t you know, Cornelius and his household believed and
received the Holy Spirit, so that Peter was compelled to baptize them and
include them as full members of the New Israel, the holy Christian Church. It was revolutionary. Unclean Gentiles, not even circumcised,
included in God’s covenant people? But
this is all written in the prophets, and typified by the visit of the
Magi.
Then,
what to do with Paul? Of course, he
began his ministry in each new place by first visiting the Synagogue and
reasoning with the Jews on the basis of the Scriptures, proving that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God. But when
this Jew of Jews, Pharisee of Pharisees, of the Tribe of Benjamin, former
persecutor of the Church, converted by Jesus Himself on the Damascus road… when
he encountered the objections of the Jews, as he inevitably did, he would go to
the Gentiles. It took a whole Synod
convention in Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council, to solve the problem of what to
do with all these Gentile converts.
Should they be circumcised?
Should they observe the Sabbath?
What about bacon and shellfish?
(Well, I guess Peter’s vision solved that problem!) James, the brother of the Lord, and St. Peter
himself had to speak up in defense of Paul’s ministry. The old ceremonial laws are unnecessary for
the Gentiles to keep. Clearly it is the
Lord’s will to save them as He has saved us all, Jew and Gentile alike, by
grace through faith on account of Christ, apart from works. Therefore let us simply bid them to abstain
from things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and so as not to
give offense to the Jewish brethren, not to eat what is strangled or blood
(Acts 15:19-20). The Gentiles do not
need to become Jews, as the Judaizers had maintained. They could still be Gentiles, but now Christian Gentiles, for the grace of God
is for Gentiles also.
So
the Magi come to worship Jesus. They are
not kings, by the way, and we don’t know how many of them there are. Probably more than three. They represent the best of human wisdom. We get the word “magician” from Magi. They are actually pagans. But they are given, by grace, to know that a
new King and Savior has been born. And
this King is not only King of the Jews, but of the whole world. It is revealed to them by a star that
appeared, epiphanied, in the
East. How did they know to follow that
star? These are the Magi undoubtedly in
the tradition of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, wise men of
Persia. They had received the
Scriptures. They knew Scriptures like
Numbers 24 and Balaam’s final oracle: “I
see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of
Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel” (v. 17). Or our Old Testament reading this morning
from the Prophet Isaiah: “those from
Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold
and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praise of the LORD”
(60:6).
Now,
this may not strike you as such amazingly good news for you personally, that
the Gentiles are included in the covenant.
But then again, are you Jewish?
If not, you ought to fall on your knees in thanksgiving for this
morning’s Holy Gospel, that this Savior, Jesus, the man who is God, is for you,
your God, and your Savior. And if you do
happen to be Jewish, you also ought to fall on your knees in thanksgiving, for
this salvation of the Gentiles does not displace you and your place in the
Kingdom. It vindicates you! Your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
longed to see this day. God preserved
the nation of Israel for this very purpose, to bring about the salvation of the
world. And we all, Jew and Gentile
alike, are saved by this man, this God who died for us, and who lives and
reigns. So we preach, because that is
the continuation of the Epiphany. The
blessings continue to flow far as the curse is found.
The
Magi come and the star leads them to the very house where Jesus is with the
Holy Family. As they enter, St. Matthew
tells us, “they rejoiced exceedingly
with great joy” (Matt. 2:10). May it
ever be so for you when you enter the House where Jesus is with His Holy
Family, the holy Christian Church. And
they present to Him gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh. We often think of worship as our coming to
bring gifts to Jesus, our time spent in holy obligation, our praises, our
offerings in the plate. But learn here
from the Magi. Their gifts actually
reveal, epiphany, the Lord’s gifts to
them and to us. Gold, befitting a
King. Jesus is our King. He reigns over all things for our sake, and
we are beloved citizens of His Kingdom and children of His heavenly
Father. Frankincense: That is the
incense of sacrifice. Jesus is the God
who receives the incense of our sacrificial offerings and prayers. Jesus is the sacrifice for our sins. The Frankincense is a prophecy of His
crucifixion for our sakes. And along
with that, myrrh, the burial spice.
Jesus will be dead and buried for us and for our salvation. The very Gospel in all its fullness is
prophesied in the gifts of the wise men.
As much as it is their gift to Jesus, even more it is Jesus’ gift to
them. And so our gifts. We do not come to Church to fulfill a holy
obligation, but to be filled with Jesus and all of His gifts to us: forgiveness
of sins, eternal life, and salvation; strength for daily life and our various
vocations, the Holy Spirit, faith, love for God and our neighbor, prayer that
calls upon God in every trouble, praises, and gives thanks in all
circumstances. Our offerings in the
plate? Do you really think God needs
your money? This isn’t about giving to
God, as if He has a lack or a need you can fill. No, your offerings are God’s gift to
you. They are first of all an exercise
of your faith, that you recognize that all good things are from God, that they
belong to Him, that you are merely stewards of what is His, and that He will
not forsake you when you give your money away.
He will continue to provide for your needs. And then, too, they are God’s gift to you
because they continue to provide for the preaching of His Gospel among you, and
to send forth the preaching to the ends of the earth, far as the curse is
found. Your offerings are actually and
investment in God’s Gospel preaching, in the Epiphany! We do not come to worship primarily to serve
God, but to be served by God: served up with Jesus and His salvation. Then, and only then, and for that reason
alone, we sing our praises to Him, and His Name is glorified.
So
happy Epiphany! And merry
Christmas! Pray that this man, Jesus,
who is our God, be revealed to all who do not know and believe in Him. Give your offerings, for the sake of the
preaching. And rejoice. Especially you Gentiles, and also you Jews. This Savior is for you. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Baptism of Our
Lord (C)
January 13, 2019
Text: Luke 3:15-22
John’s
Baptism is preparatory. He is not the
Christ. He is not the Savior. He is the last and best Old Testament
prophet, on the cusp of the New Testament brought about by the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world. But
John’s work is still preliminary. This
is not in any way to diminish John’s Baptism.
John’s Baptism is the forerunner of Christian Baptism, as John is the
forerunner of Christ. And John’s Baptism
comes with gifts. John’s is a Baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3). The people came to John confessing their sins
(Matt. 3:6). They knew God was justly
angry over their transgressions. John preached
not only the Law to the people, but as our text says, “with many other exhortations he preached the good news,” the
Gospel, “to the people” (Luke 3:18;
ESV). The people heard from John that
God is gracious, that He is merciful, that He does not desire the death of a
sinner, but that the sinner turn from His evil ways and live. And they heard that God would provide, and
was in the very act of providing, a Savior, a sacrificial Lamb, to take away
the sins of the world. So come and be
baptized. Take a divine bath, that God
may wash away your sins. Leave them here
in the Jordan. Be forgiven. Be clean.
And you better believe that such preaching and Baptism created faith in
the one true God, as it always does.
But
John’s Baptism only works this way because Jesus steps into the water. He’s in the lineup of the people being
baptized. And when John baptizes the Lord,
Holy Baptism is transformed forever. The
preparation has come to an end. The
fulfillment has arrived. Like a Divine
Sponge, in His Baptism, Jesus soaks up all the sins of the people and of all
the world. He takes all sin into
Himself, bears it in His flesh, that He may put it to death, suffer its
penalty, pay for it in full, in His flesh.
And He leaves behind Him in the water all of His righteousness and life,
all of His gifts. It is the beautiful
image Luther pains in his Flood Prayer, part of the rite of Holy Baptism:
“Through the Baptism in the Jordan of Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
You sanctified and instituted all waters to be a blessed flood and a lavish
washing away of sin” (LSB 269). Because
Jesus stepped into the Jordan, Jesus is in the water for us.
Jesus
is in the water, and He is praying, and all at once the heavens are
opened. The Holy Spirit comes upon our
Lord in the bodily form of a dove. A
voice comes from heaven, the very voice of the Father, declaring “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well
pleased” (v. 22). And that is now
the reality of the font. When you are
plunged into the watery grave of Baptism, Jesus is there in the water, giving
you His resurrection life. “We were buried therefore with
him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom.
6:4). Newness of life now, eternal life
in the resurrection of the body on the Last Day. Jesus is in the water praying, for you, with
you, and in you. Heaven is opened to
you, to receive your prayers prayed in Christ, to receive you who have been
baptized into Christ. You are now a citizen
of the Kingdom, an heir with Christ of all that is the Father’s. The Spirit descends upon you, not in the
bodily form of a dove, but into your body which is now a temple of the Holy
Spirit. He possesses you, and gives you
faith in Jesus Christ for salvation and restoration to the Father. And you are God’s own child. That is what the Father says of you who are
baptized into Christ. “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well
pleased.” Your sins are
forgiven. You are righteous in my
sight. For you are covered with my Son,
Christ. You are wrapped in His
righteousness. When I look at you, I see
only the righteousness and perfection of my Son, Jesus.
Of course, certainly not just water
does these things. This is not
magic. It is not superstition. Nor, by the way, is it your work for God. Your will, your obedience, these are not the
operative ingredient in Baptism. Oh,
no. It is the Word of God in the water
that does these things. That makes
Baptism God’s work, not yours. To say
that “Baptism… now saves you,” as
St. Peter does (1 Peter 3:21), is not to contradict the truth that we are saved
by God’s gracious action alone. Quite
the opposite. It is to say, this is how
God does His saving work in us. By Jesus
in the water, by virtue of His Word, as the vehicle of the Holy Spirit,
creating saving faith and washing away sin.
It’s all God. Not you. Not even the pastor. God does the baptizing. The Word of God in the water is our Lord’s
command: “Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19), and of course, the command
continues with our obligation to teach the baptized all things whatsoever our
Lord has commanded (v. 20). It is also
the beautiful Promise of our Lord from the longer ending of Mark, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be
saved” (Mark 16:16). Faith grasps
this Word of God. Faith is the receiving
hands God gives us, by which we take hold of His saving gifts in Christ. And those gifts are the forgiveness of sins,
rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation. It is the daily drowning death of the Old
Adam in us by contrition and repentance, that the new man daily emerge and
arise in Christ to live before God in righteousness and purity. That is what repentance is, a daily return to
Baptism.
And because this is God’s work, and
not ours, this is why we baptize children and infants. It is true, the infant doesn’t decide to come
to Baptism, or even rationally know what Baptism is. That’s exactly the kind of person God
wants. Infants don’t present all sorts
of objections to Baptism on the basis of the perverse human will or human
reason. They simply undergo it. By grace.
God does His work upon them and in them.
We adults have all sorts of problems in this regard. We have our objections. How can water do this, even if you add a few
words from the Bible? It just looks like
water. How can I know it will work? How can I know if I believe enough? If I was sincere in my decision? I’m just not so sure. That is why Jesus tells us we must become
like children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
That is to say, helpless. And
trusting. Everything must be done for
us. God is the Doer. Infants don’t know much about anything. But they do know the voice of Mom. Already in the womb, they know her
voice. And they trust Mom. They don’t even know the word “Mom,” but they
know Mom. They know her touch. They know her heartbeat. They know that Mom is the source of all that
is good. Food. Diaper changes. Comfort.
Protection. Help. And the same trust an infant has in Mom, he
is given to have in Jesus by means of Holy Baptism. The adult is no different. Even if an adult marches up to the font all
by himself, having resolved to be baptized, it is really not his work in any
way. He is carried there by His mother,
the Church. The Holy Spirit calls him by
the Gospel and gives him to answer by faith that he rejects the devil and all
his works and all his ways, and believes in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The problem with adults is we think we came
up with this ourselves and we’re doing something for God. Not at all.
Baptism is the Triune saving action: Jesus is in the water with all of
His gifts, the Spirit comes upon you to enlighten you, and the Father declares
His love and pleasure in you, His child.
It is all God’s work.
Now, this is important, because life
in this world is dangerous. For one
thing, there is a Judgment coming. Jesus
is coming back, visibly, to judge the living and the dead. His winnowing fork will be in His hand to clear
His threshing floor, to clear out the world.
He will gather the wheat into His barn.
That is to say, those believe and are baptized will be saved. They will be gathered to the Lord Jesus. But the chaff He will burn with unquenchable
fire. That is to say, the one who does
not believe will be condemned. Eternity
in the unquenchable fires of hell. So
you need to be in Christ. And you come
into Christ by Baptism.
The other thing is, Christians are
promised great persecution in this world.
You haven’t had to suffer much of it.
But look at St. John the Baptizer.
He gets a little too political in his sermons. He preaches against Herod’s adultery with
Herodias. Sexual indiscretion in the
halls of power, as well as all the other evil things Herod did. John is not politically correct. He preaches against this and it gets him
locked up and eventually beheaded. Not
only Christian preachers, but you can expect these things to happen for your
steadfast confession of faith, the faith into which you have been
baptized. If it doesn’t happen,
great. The Lord has spared you. But don’t be surprised if it does, as if the
Lord did not warn you. It’s great to
know, though, going into persecution, that you belong to your heavenly
Father. That you are precious to
Him. That He has written His Name on
you. That nothing can separate you from
the love of God in Christ Jesus. That
take they your life, goods, fame, child or wife, the Kingdom yours
remaineth. They can kill your body, but
they cannot kill your soul, and really, they cannot kill your body ultimately,
because you are baptized into Christ, who is risen from the dead, and who will
raise you.
Beloved, live each day in your
Baptism, which is to say, live in the holy faith of Jesus. Live in His death and resurrection. Live in His forgiveness and righteousness. It is not that you were baptized, but that you are
baptized. This is your reality. Jesus has died on the cross for your
sins. Daily die to sin. That is to say, repent. Jesus is risen from the dead. Daily live in the confidence of His
resurrection. That is to say, believe. Each day make the sign of the holy cross and
speak the reality anew: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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