Lenten Midweek IV
“Tree to Tree: The
Tree of Life to the Cross”[1]
March 14, 2018
Text: Gen. 2:15-17, 3:22-24; John 3:14-15
Why
did our Lord have to die for us affixed to wood? Why wood?
Have you ever thought about this?
Nothing with the Lord is by accident.
It may be helpful to know that the Hebrew word for wood, עֵץ, is also the word for tree.
So now think about this: It is at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil where the serpent overcomes our first parents and traps them in his wicked
kingdom by leading them into rebellion against God. As a result, we are infected with sin from
birth, from conception, from the moment we come into existence, because of what
happened at that tree. And now, lest we
eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in this living death of sin and decay
and sickness and aging and suffering and violence and sadness and separation
from God, God has barred our path back to Eden with flaming sword and
cherubim. It is a gracious thing, to be
sure. Living like that would be hell…
eternal death. But it is also a
curse. No access to God’s Tree of
Life. No way back to Eden. No way back to God.
Our
Lord is lifted up on the wood, the tree of the cross, that he who once overcame
by a tree (the devil), might likewise by a tree be overcome. Jesus is undoing Adam’s sin! Adam’s sin made the Tree of Life into a tree
of death. Jesus’ cross made a tree of
death into the Tree of Life. Adam took
and ate of a tree what was not given for him.
Because he ate, our Lord surely died.
Because our Lord died on the tree of the cross, we take and eat of its
fruit, the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for us, for the forgiveness
of sins, and we surely live. Why did our
Lord have to die affixed to the wood? To
undo sin, release us from Satan’s bondage, and wash away the curse forever.
It’s
all over Scripture, the tree, the wood.
To name but a few: There is Moses’ staff by which the LORD did all the
wonders before Pharaoh in Egypt (Ex. 7-12), and which Moses stretched out
before the Red Sea so that it divided and the people crossed over on dry land
(Ex. 14). By means of the wood, the
people of God were saved from their enemies and were baptized into Moses in the
Red Sea (1 Cor. 10:2), sent on their way to the Promised Land. There is the bitter water at Marah, made
sweet when Moses casts in the log (Ex. 15:23-25). With his staff, Moses struck the rock at
Massah and Meribah, and out flowed life-giving water (Ex. 17:6). Immediately after this, Amalek came to fight
with Israel in the wilderness. As long
as Moses held up His staff, God’s people prevailed. When his arms became tired, and he lowered
the staff, Amalek prevailed. So Aaron
and Hur sat Moses on a rock and held up his hands, one on each side (Ex.
17:11-12). And what does that look like? Jesus on the cross. Where there is Jesus on the cross, God’s
people prevail. Through the suffering
and death of the Son of God, God’s people are saved.
Then
there was the controversy over whether everyone
was to serve as the priest of God, or whether God had, indeed, chosen Levi as
the priestly tribe, and Aaron in particular as His priest. Remember, each chief of each tribe was to put
his staff into the Tabernacle, Aaron’s staff representing Levi. And in the morning, behold, Aaron’s staff had
budded into almond blossoms with ripe almonds (Num. 17). Here, life and ripe fruit come from a
lifeless piece of wood. Just as our life
comes from the cross of Christ, the Chosen and Anointed One, our High Priest, and
from the wood of His death comes the fruit we eat and drink in the Holy Supper,
the food of our life.
One
of my favorite examples of this is an episode from the ministry of the Prophet
Elisha. The sons of the prophets (which
is to say, the school of the prophets, their seminary) were hewing logs to
build dwellings. One particular young
man who had borrowed an ax was felling a tree when the head flew off and sank
to the bottom of the Jordan. You’ve
probably been in a similar predicament where you’ve borrowed something, and
wouldn’t you know it, you lost it, or it broke on your watch. The man panics: “Alas, my master! It was borrowed”
(2 Kings 6:5; ESV). Without skipping a
beat, Elisha cuts a stick and throws it where the ax head fell. And the iron floats (v. 6)! This is both a type of the cross and Holy
Baptism. The ax head is lost in the
water, as you are drowned in Holy Baptism (this is the Jordan, after all, which
should always make us think of Baptism).
When the wood is put in the water, what should not float (the iron ax
head), rises to the top. Just as the
death and resurrection of Christ in the water of the font raises you to new
life. You, a sinner, who should perish
in your sins, are raised from the dead!
You are a new creation in Christ!
For the tree of death, the tree of the cross, has become the Tree of
Life for you and for all. And so also,
that wood in the water restored the young man’s relationship with the person
from whom he borrowed the ax. He is able
to return the ax, good as new. Take note
of that. For in the same way, the wood
of the holy cross in the water of Holy Baptism, restores your relationships to
one another. God forgives your
trespasses, and you forgive those who trespass against you. Even when they lose or break your stuff.
These
are only a few examples. There are so
many more. Think of two of them we’ve
encountered in our Lenten meditations: The wood of the sacrifice carried by
Isaac to the top of Mount Moriah (Gen. 22); the serpent on the pole that we
heard about on Sunday (Num. 21:4-9), of which Jesus says in our Holy Gospel, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him
may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).
All of Holy Scripture is about Jesus.
In all of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit is showing us how God Himself
will save us from our sins. By sending
His Son. By fixing Him to the wood. That we, who have died as the result of one
man’s sin at a tree, might now live eternally as a result of one man’s death on
a tree.
And
now this: Barred as we are from the Tree of Life, Jesus takes upon Himself the
Tree of Death, the cross, which becomes the very Tree of Life for us. But there is more. By means of His death and resurrection, Jesus
brings us into His heavenly courts. And
St. John describes the heavenly courts this way in the Revelation: “Then the angel showed me the river of the
water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the
Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the
river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each
month. The leaves of the tree were for
the healing of the nations. No longer
will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be
in it, and his servants will worship him.
They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for
the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever”
(Rev. 22:1-5). Do you see what our
Lord’s cross does for us? It brings us
to the water of life, whose tributaries flow into our baptismal font. And there it is! The Tree of Life. We’re back in Eden! No more flaming sword and cherubim blocking
our way. We have access to the Tree
again. Its leaves are for our healing. And we can take of its fruit, and eat of it,
and so live forever. We get a little
foretaste of it here, in the Supper. But
there we will enjoy it to the full. And
we have access to God once again, our heavenly Father, and the Lamb, Jesus
Christ, His Son. And we belong to
Him. His Name is on us. That happened at Baptism. And there is no darkness. He is our light. And we reign with Him. As Adam and Eve were meant to reign, to fill
the earth and subdue it. So it will be
on that Day.
All
because Jesus was affixed to the wood.
Because Jesus died on the wood.
Our sins are forgiven. And Jesus
Christ is risen from the dead. And now
we know how to read the Holy Scriptures.
The Spirit has enlightened our hearts to see that it’s all about
Jesus. He’s on every page. He’s in every event recorded in Sacred
Writ. He is there, saving us. He is there, giving us life. He is there on the page (the product of
wood!). Jesus, our crucified Lord, is
all in all. In the Name of the Father,
and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
[1] The theme and structure of
this sermon are from Jeffery Pulse, Return
from Exile: A Lenten Journey (St. Louis: Concordia, 2017).
Fifth Sunday in Lent
(B)
March 18, 2018
Text: Mark 10:32-45
“You do not know what you are asking”
(Mark 10:38; ESV). Isn’t that just like
the disciples? Always arguing about who
is the greatest. Always thinking they
understand, but in reality, having no clue.
Always boasting in themselves, speaking when they should be listening,
asking for things about which they have no wisdom. There are three Passion predictions in the
Gospel according to St. Mark, three times when Jesus explicitly tells His
disciples that He must suffer and die for our sins. And always, immediately after the prediction,
the disciples demonstrate what a pack of miserable failures they are.
After
the first Passion prediction (Mark 8:31), St. Peter rebukes our Lord for all of
this suffering and death talk (v. 32), and receives the stinging rebuke in
return, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the
things of God, but on the things of man” (v. 33). Whereupon the whole group gets a necessary
lecture from Jesus on the necessity of suffering, both Jesus’ suffering and our
own: “If anyone would come after me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (vv.
34-35).
After
the second Passion prediction (9:30-31), none of the disciples understand what
He is talking about, and, as if our Lord doesn’t already know their ignorance,
and as if He will be unkind to them about it, they are afraid to ask Him (v.
32). But they do immediately descend
into an argument about which one of them is the greatest (vv. 33-34). Now, probably all twelve aren’t in contention
for the title, but some are following Peter, others James or John, or maybe
Andrew, or perhaps a dark horse like Nathaniel.
But what they don’t see coming is Jesus’ answer, when He brings a little
child into their midst and holds him in His arms and says, “If anyone would be first, he must be last
of all and servant of all… Whoever receives one such child in my name receives
me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me” (vv. 35,
37).
Now,
you’d think the disciples would have learned this lesson. But here we arrive at our text, the third
Passion prediction, and immediately James and John show up with the request to
sit on our Lord’s right and left in His glory (10:37). Actually, first they ask for a blank check,
do whatever we ask You (v. 35). Jesus,
like any wise parent, doesn’t fall into their trap. First tell me what you want (v. 36). And what they want is to be nothing less than
preeminent among the Twelve. As with all
of our prayers, there is both something noble about their request, and
something selfish. It is noble to want
to be near Jesus. That should be our
prayer, too, to be as close to Jesus as we possibly can be. But we know, as do the Ten, that James and
John are also looking for some power and glory of their own. Like us, when we pray the doxology at the end
of the Lord’s Prayer: “For thine is the
Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory”… But leave me just a little bit,
too, Lord. I want some glory. Just a little. Give me a little power. Just with the affairs of this life. I mean, I’d make a better president than the
turkeys who ran this last go around.
Beloved, repent. Trust not in
princes, and don’t try to be one yourself.
See, we haven’t learned our lesson any better than the disciples.
Well,
we’re all very hard on James and John for their self-exalting request, which
actually puts us in the company of the other Ten. Why are the other Ten so upset? Why are you?
Because these guys think they’re better than the rest! They’re jealous! And, well, you certainly admit, I would hope,
that the actual Apostles have a better claim to this glory than you do, but
let’s not be so hasty, you say. There
are ten other candidates, just as well qualified, perhaps even more qualified. See, what gets you about this is that you do
it all the time in your own life. Why
did that guy get the honor when I’ve
been quietly doing even more than he does over here? Why did she
get the promotion when I work harder and put out better quality product in half
the time? Why are those people rich and famous while I’m middle class (or “poor,” as
we always like to brag) and anonymous.
And, I say it all the time when I’m driving somewhere and some rascal
tailgates me or pulls around me or can’t wait half a minute for a red light,
“What, are you so much more important than everyone else that you can’t wait a
few extra seconds to get where you’re going?”
After which, of course, I cheat on the speed limit to get where I’m
going a little faster. Beloved,
repent. Rejoice with those who
rejoice. Praise God for their good
fortune, which we know is not fortune or luck at all, but the providence of our
Father in heaven, who also provides what you need, including sometimes a good
helping of humble pie.
You
ask God for many things, and that’s fine. You are a beloved child asking your dear
Father. There is nothing you can’t
ask. But you have to understand that
Jesus’ answer is the same that He gives to James and John. “You
do not know what you are asking.”
Even when you ask for the right things, like forgiveness of sins and
eternal life and the Holy Spirit, or to be near Jesus, right by His side, you
really have no concept of profundity of your request. You just know you want the good stuff for
you. But Jesus, as always, turns
everything on its head. You want to be
with Me in My glory? Get ready to
suffer. You want to be first? Be last.
You want to the greatest? Become
a servant, a slave. Die to self. Give your life for the good of your
neighbor. Make no claim to honor, to the
Kingdom, the Power, or the Glory. Do not
insist on your own way. Regard others as
better than yourselves. Take the lowest
seat. Take up your cross and follow Me.
Who
is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?
It is the least of these. Which
is to say, Jesus. For it is Jesus, the
eternal Son of the Father, Almighty God become flesh in the womb of the Virgin
Mary, who did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made
Himself nothing, taking upon Himself the form of a servant, a man, humbling Himself
and becoming obedient to the point of death, even the accursed death of the
cross (Phil. 2:6-8). “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you
by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). “For
our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
“For even the Son of Man came not
to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark
10:45). Love unknown, this is… my
Savior’s love to me. Completely
incomprehensible to self-centered sinners like us. “Love to the loveless shown That they might
lovely be. Oh, who am I That for my sake
My Lord should take Frail flesh and die?” (LSB 430:1).
You
see, when our Lord bids us become greatest by becoming least, by giving our
life for our friends, loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, walking the
extra mile with the one who compels us, denying the self, taking up the cross
and dying… He is first of all, and foremost, talking about Himself. This is what He does, for you. It is nearly Holy Week, and we will follow
Him to Golgotha. Don’t miss it,
beloved. Be there for every service
possible. Hear every Word. There will be so much Scripture. All of which will deliver this to you: Our
Lord’s suffering and death for you, for the forgiveness of all of your
sins. His body and blood, given and shed
for you, for the forgiveness of sins.
The Lamb of God, pure and holy, who on the cross did suffer, bearing all
your sins, lest despair reign over you.
He gives you in His Word and Supper His own life and light and peace and
joy and strength and comfort and help, His Spirit, and everything you need for
body and soul.
That
is why Lutherans call worship “The Divine Service.” We are not here to serve God. God gets nothing out of this. He does not need us to affirm Him so He feels
good about Himself. The Divine Service
is not our work for God. It is God’s
work for us. Here Jesus serves us. Just as He wrapped Himself in a towel on the
night in which He was betrayed and stooped down to wash His disciples feet
(John 13). So, in every Divine Service,
Jesus is here in the flesh to serve us.
He comes to us. He stoops
down. He washes away our sin. He teaches us and prays for us and with us
and in us. And He feeds us. All for us.
For our forgiveness and life. He
imparts all the saving benefits of His death and resurrection. And there is no room here for arguing about
who is the greatest. Jesus is. There is no lording it over anyone else. We are all the same before God. We are all here to receive His gifts, the
gifts we truly need, the gifts we cannot live without. We are all sinners here to be forgiven. We do serve in Church, but notice that this
is not service to God, as if He couldn’t do it without us, but to our neighbor,
who needs us to do it. Again, there is
no lording it over anyone here. We all
have different gifts and we use them in different ways. Our musicians lead the music. Our ushers usher. Our elders elder. Our singers sing. I do the preaching. Our Sunday School teachers teach. Dad makes the coffee. You sit and stand and hear and believe and
confess. And you love your
neighbor. That part takes practice. Most of what you do is unseen by others and
brings you no glory, not even a shout-out in the sermon. But that is okay. Your reward is in heaven. This is your vocation. This is what God has given you to do. You are called to serve your neighbor.
And
the main service you do is out there in the world, the service you provide for
your neighbor. That is where your good
works belong. That is what we should
call our worship, our serving. Your sins
are forgiven and you are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, apart from
works, by Christ’s life and death and resurrection for you. God has no need of your works. But boy, your neighbor sure does. And most of this happens in vocation. A mother feeds the hungry when she makes
dinner for her all-too-often ungrateful children and husband. A father clothes the naked when He goes to
his job and provides for his household.
A child visits the sick when he drops in to see his ailing grandfather
in the nursing home. Being faithful to
your spouse, taking out the garbage, getting up and going to work, obeying
traffic laws even when you think you’re more important than everyone else,
changing diapers, mowing your lawn, these are the things you do for your
neighbor, and so do for Jesus Himself.
That is service. That is love.
And,
you suffer. That is service, too. You are baptized with the Baptism with which
Jesus is baptized. You drink His
cup. You will suffer the holy
cross. You do not seek it, but it will
come. Satan will buffet you with thorns
in the flesh. You will suffer heartbreak
and sorrow. You will worry for your
children. Your best friend will say mean
things to you. You will get sick, and
you will care for the sick. You will
suffer persecution for the faith, to one degree or another. You will bury loved ones, and your loved ones
will bury you. Notice that this, also,
is all within your vocations, your callings, the relationships in which God has
placed you, among the people with whom He has surrounded you. And in these vocations, you will pray for
help and you will pray for relief and you will pray for success. You will want to be the greatest. You will want to be the best. And you won’t know what you are asking. But the good news is, the Lord knows what you
need. And He will faithfully give
it. Always. Even when you think He is holding out on
you. He always forgives you. He is always with you. He is even in you, for you eat Him in the
Supper. And you are always in Him, for
you are baptized into Christ. You always
live in this reality. And that is
enough. Jesus is Lord. You and I follow Him. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
