Lenten Midweek III

Lenten Midweek III

Christian Questions with Their Answers: Receiving Christ’s Body and Blood and Proclaiming His Death[1]

March 15, 2023

Text: Christian Questions 13-16

            I invite the congregation to turn to page 329 in your hymnal as we examine Questions 13-16 of “Christian Questions with Their Answers”…

 

            Tonight’s questions with their answers lead us to confess what it is that we receive in the Lord’s Supper, and why we believe we receive it.  And then in so receiving, what it is we are remembering and proclaiming.

            The confession is straightforward and simple.  No Aristotelian philosophical terms about substance and accidents.  No end runs around the plain words of our Lord so as to make Him say the opposite of what He is saying.  No handwringing about how to make this mystery accessible and acceptable to human reason.  Just the bare meaning of the words.  What is this bread in the Supper?  It is the body of Jesus Christ.  What is this wine in the Supper?  It is the blood of Jesus Christ.  What on earth would convince you to believe this?  Jesus says it, and that’s good enough for me.  “Take, eat, this is My body; drink of it, all of you, this is My blood” (Question 14).  In the Lord’s Supper, we eat Christ’s body, and drink His blood.  Because that’s what He says.  His Word makes it so. 

            So that dispenses with the first two questions.  We don’t deny, by the way, that we are eating bread and drinking wine.  But that bread is Christ’s body.  And that wine is Christ’s blood.  Lutherans are not transubstantiationists.  We do not believe the bread changes into Christ’s body, and the wine changes into Christ’s blood.  Nor are we, as we are often accused of being, consubstantiationists.  That theory probably fits Calvinism better than Lutheranism, though the Calvinists probably wouldn’t agree.  The idea in consubstantiation is that, here is the bread, and it is just bread, but along with it in some way, Christ’s body is received.  That works very nicely with Calvin’s idea that the faithful eat the earthly bread, and then, by faith, stretch up to heaven to feed on Christ’s body spiritually (and, by the way, unbelievers, as a result, according to this theory, get nothing but bread, because they don’t have any faith to stretch).  But that’s not what we’re saying.  We’re saying that the “is” in “this is My body; this is My blood,” is essentially an equal sign.  This is bread that is Christ’s body, because He says so.  This is wine that is Christ’s blood, because He says so.  As a result, whether it is or isn’t has nothing to do with my faith (faith receives the benefit, the good, of the Sacrament, but it doesn’t make the Sacrament what it is).  It depends wholly and alone on Christ’s sure Word.  His Word that does what it says.  His Word that makes it so (“Let there be,” and there is).  His Word that cannot lie.  He says it is, and so it is, and that is what the communicant eats and drinks, the believer to his salvation, the unbeliever to his judgment (1 Cor. 11:29).

            Perhaps you’ve heard the colorful story of Luther and Zwingli at the Marburg Colloquy in 1529.  Zwingli and his colleague, Oecolampadius, marshalled their arguments why it is unreasonable to think the communicant is actually, bodily, eating anything other than bread, and drinking anything other than wine, in the Lord’s Supper.  Luther, for his part (with Melanchthon at his side), wrote the words, “hoc est corpus meum,” “This is My body,” in chalk on the table, and covered it with the tablecloth.  And at each of Zwingli’s arguments, Luther would simply lift the tablecloth and point to the words.  On the basis of those words, regardless of reason’s objections, we must believe the bread is Jesus’ body, and the wine His blood.  In spite of all the other things Luther and Zwingli agreed on at the Colloquy, because they could not agree that the Lord’s Supper is what Jesus says it is, Luther sadly concluded, “We are of a different spirit.”  We must hold to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Our reason must be captive to the Word. 

            Now, every time we come to the Sacrament, we are both remembering and proclaiming the Lord’s death for our sins.  As He says, “This do in remembrance of Me,” and as St. Paul says, “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26; ESV).  Remember and proclaim.  To remember here means so much more than simply to “call to mind.”  In the Scriptures, to remember often means to participate in.  It means to take action.  So, for example, the Passover seder was a memorial meal for the Israelites, which they were to observe throughout their generations in remembrance of the Lord’s great deliverance from Egypt.  When they spoke of the Passover during the seder, they spoke of it as something the LORD did for them, even if they were not yet born at the time of the Exodus.  For in eating the Passover meal, the Passover was really present (a present reality) for them, and they were actually participating in it.  That is what the remembrance was all about.  So it is for us when we eat our Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, and drink His blood, in the Holy Supper.  We do this in remembrance of Him, which is to say, we actually receive all the benefits of His suffering and death for our sins.  What was done there and then becomes ours here and now.

            And it is a sermon that you are preaching every time you gather here around the altar to eat and drink what the Lord here gives you.  You proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes, Paul says.  That is a profound statement.  When you receive the Lord’s Supper, you are proclaiming that the God who became flesh, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered, died, and rose again for you, who ascended into heaven, and who is coming again to judge the living and the dead, has not left you alone as orphans (John 14:18).  He has not abandoned you.  He is, as He promises, with you always until the end of the age (Matt. 28:20).  He comes to you.  Really and truly.  In the flesh.  In the Supper.  He comes, and you can walk right up to Him here, at the altar, right up to the Holy of Holies… because He died for you, the perfect Sacrifice of Atonement for your sins, to take your sins away, and wash you clean, so that you are holy, and may bask in the very presence of God.  That is to proclaim the Lord’s death.  And it is to proclaim that this is now the way Jesus manifests His presence among His people, in His Church, until He comes again visibly and in great glory. 

            You are also proclaiming some other things when you come to the Supper, and we should remember this.  You are proclaiming that no mere creature could make satisfaction for your sins.  Not the bulls and goats and sheep of the Old Testament sacrifices.  Those all pointed forward to THE Sacrifice of Jesus’ body on the altar of the cross.  Nor the satisfactions of mere human beings.  Not even super Christians and saints.  Even Jesus Christ, if He were not true God, could not make satisfaction for our sins by His bodily death.  His death can only count for us, and for the sins of the whole world, because this Man who died is God. 

            And so we proclaim, to ourselves and others, that our sins are so serious that the death of God is demanded to make atonement for us.  We must not underestimate the grievous offense of our sins before God, nor the damnation they merit for us.  We have to be honest with ourselves about who we are apart from Christ… poor, miserable sinners. 

            And this then fills us with all-the-more joy and comfort when we hear that our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, has come to suffer the damnation our sins deserve, to pay the penalty in full, to free us from our sin and guilt, and to give us eternal life.  And that all of this is ours by faith in Christ.  When we receive the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim this very thing. 

            Now the “you” who eat this bread and so proclaim, is a second person plural.  That is, Paul is saying “y’all eat, and so y’all proclaim” in this verse.  That is to say, this is something you do together.  Your sermon is preached in unity with those who are communing with you.  When you commune at a particular altar, you are proclaiming your “Amen” to the theology taught at that altar.  That is an important thing to remember.  If you cannot say “Amen” to the things that are taught at a particular Church, you should not commune at that altar.  That is not to say they aren’t Christians, but it is to say you are not yet in agreement with them such that you should go to the Lord’s Supper together.  You will, when Jesus comes again and sets everybody straight, and you should pray that this can be the reality now, in this life, by all of us coming to theological agreement on the basis of the Scriptures.  But that is an ideal that isn’t true yet.  So, if you can’t say “Amen” to the theology at a particular altar, don’t commune as if you can.  And in communing at this altar, understand, you are proclaiming your “Amen” to what is taught here.

            And may what is taught here ever be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, who died for your sins, who is risen from the dead, who is present with you here, giving you His true body and blood under bread and wine, that you ever receive from Him forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation.  When you come to the altar, you remember that.  That is, you participate in that reality.  And you proclaim it. 

            And how do you know it is true?  For one reason, and one reason only.  That is what Jesus says.  And our Lord Jesus Christ, the Truth incarnate, cannot lie.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.               

 

           

             

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[1] This year’s Lenten Midweek meditations make use of the resources at https://resources.lcms.org/worship-planning/worship-suggestions-for-2023-midweek-lenten-services/

Third Sunday in Lent

Third Sunday in Lent (A)

March 12, 2023

Text: John 4:5-30, 39-42

            She makes her way to the well at a rather strange hour, the sixth hour, high noon, in the heat of the day.  This is not the time the other women come to draw water.  Could it be that she is avoiding them?  Their judgmental glares?  Their gossiping tongues?  Their righteously cold shoulders?  They know who and what kind of woman this is.  She knows it, too.  Her reputation precedes her.  She is a loose woman.  She is a sinner.  Not just in her heart.  A real, honest-to-goodness sinner.  Five husbands.  Five failed marriages.  Each man had used her and then abandoned her.  And now she lives in sin.  The man she now has is not her husband.  He won’t even do her the honor of committing to her.  He uses her body for his own pleasure.  She uses her body to keep him.  The whole situation is broken.  Shameful.  Fallen.  And she just can’t face the other women of the town. 

            But as she approaches, there sits… a man!  A Jewish man!  And she, a Samaritan woman, is to have no dealings with Jewish men.  But she has a job to do, and she’s going to do it, Jewish man or not.  She needs the water.  For drinking, for cooking, for washing, for bathing.  Water is the stuff of life.  You can’t live without it.  So undoubtedly, without a word, she sets down her jar and begins to draw. 

            And that is when things get really scandalous.  Not on her part… On Jesus’ part!  He speaks to her!  A Jew to a Samaritan!  A man to an unaccompanied woman!  An honorable man to this woman!  A clean man to this woman who is anything but clean!  Give me a drink. 

            Now, this woman is no stranger to scandal, but even she thinks this is over the top.  How is it that You, a Jew, ask a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?  We hate each other, remember?  You especially despise us.  We’re the leftovers from the time of the exile, intermarried with the nations, impure in your eyes. 

            Ah, dear woman, if you only knew the gift of God and who it is who is speaking to you, you would understand that you should really be asking me, and I would give you living water, and you will never be thirsty again. 

            Oh, really… How are You going to do that?  Are You greater than Father Jacob, who gave us this well? 

            Ah, dear woman… I AM.

            It should not surprise us that Jesus meets this woman at the well.  The well, the source of life, water.  The well… Cities are named after wells.  Beer-lahai-roi, “Well of the Living One Who Sees Me,” where God saved Hagar and her son, Ishmael (Gen. 16), where Isaac settled (Gen. 25:11).  Beersheba, “The Seven Wells,” dug by Abraham and passed on to his children, a sign of God’s covenant and gift of the Promised Land.  Baalath-beer, “Mistress of the Well,” that is Ramah (Josh. 19:8), where Rachel wells up in tears, weeping for her children and refuses to be comforted (Jer. 31:15; Matt. 2:18). 

            Marriages are made at the well.  Abraham’s servant finds a wife for Isaac, the beautiful Rebekah at a well (Gen. 24).  Jacob meets Rachel at the well (Gen. 29).  Moses meets his wife at the well (Ex. 2).

            And the enemies of God’s people are forever trying to steal the wells (Gen. 21), fill in the wells and ruin them (Gen. 26:15), drive God’s people and their sheep away from the wells (Ex. 2), and God is forever rescuing His people from their enemies and restoring access to the life-giving water.

            So what is Jesus doing at the well?  This is a divine appointment!  A marriage is being made!  Jesus, the faithful Bridegroom, is bringing the Samaritan woman, and soon, her whole community, into the Bride of Christ, the Church!  He is reclaiming the Promised Land.  He is fulfilling God’s ancient covenant.  He is driving away her enemies, the shaking heads and wagging tongues, sin, shame, impurity, filth.  He sees the woman, and He rescues her.  He comforts her and wipes her tears.  Not by excusing her sin, but forgiving her, restoring her, restoring her access to the water, the water of life! 

            Later in John, at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, as the priest drew the ceremonial water from the Pool of Siloam and poured it out at the altar in the Temple, Jesus cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38; ESV).  Jesus is the well!  He is the Rock struck by Moses, from which came water in the wilderness for all of God’s people.  As St. Paul says, “all drank the same spiritual drink.  For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4).  God dug the well on the cross.  He gouged it out from the dust of Jesus’ flesh… His hands, His feet… The soldiers struck His side and, like a well, out gushed the water and the blood.  Jesus is the well, and there on Calvary He thirsted for us men and for our salvation.  “I thirst,” He said (John 19:28), as He poured out the water of life from His body for us.  “It is finished,” He said (v. 30), as He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit.

            So ask Him if you’re thirsty.  As a matter of fact, before you even ask, there He is, giving you to drink, slaking your thirst with the water of life.  By the time the Samaritan woman asks Him to give her this water always so that she wouldn’t have to keep coming back to the well, He is already pouring forth the water of salvation in His Word. 

            Who really came to whom?  Jesus was there at the well, not by accident.  He’s waiting for her.  Her sin and shame does not dissuade Him.  Nothing will keep Him from saving her.

            What about you?  Who really came to whom?  Jesus was there at the well of the font, not by accident, waiting for you.  Your sin and shame did not dissuade Him.  Nothing will keep Him from saving you.

            Yes, there at the font, in Holy Baptism, Jesus makes you His own.  He brings you into His Church, His holy Bride!  He drives away your enemies, sin, death, the devil… all who would fill in the well or drive you from it.  He gives you access to the living water of salvation that flows form His wounds.  It flows to you in His Word and Holy Sacraments.

            And unlike all the others who came before… the five husbands who used and abandoned the poor woman at the well, the man who was using her for his own selfish desires and would not marry her, the idols that defile you and abandon you, with whom you have made yourself unclean… unlike all of them, Jesus is ever faithful.  For the first time in her life, a man truly loved the woman at the well, not in lewdness, but in faithfulness.  For the first time in your life, at the well of the font, you have a God who actually loves you, who is faithful, who will never leave you nor forsake you, who forgives you and restores you and provides for your every need.

            Divorce is not God’s will for you.  It happens, I understand (and of course, there are the biblical reasons for divorce; namely, adultery [Matt. 19:8-9] and abandonment [1 Cor. 7:15]), but it is not God-pleasing.  It is a mark of the pervasive brokenness of humanity.  We are not meant to go from husband to husband, wife to wife.  And we should not live together outside of marriage.  We should reserve sex for marriage.  I know this is hard for you, but you must hear it.  The boyfriend who expects his girlfriend to live with him outside of marriage, who expects sex from her before marriage, is using her in the same way the Samaritan woman was used.  Christian men, don’t be that guy!  Christian women, don’t let your boyfriend be that guy!  Don’t give yourself to that kind of guy.  Repent.  Your body is holy.  You are precious to the Lord.  You should treat one another as precious and holy.  Just get married!  Commit!  Love one another really and truly, in the full sense of the word.  If you are in a situation that is not God-pleasing, come and see your pastor to be absolved, and to make the situation right. 

            For whatever your sins, Jesus will not reject you.  Neither will your pastor, by the way.  Jesus will take your shame from you.  He will not leave you in your sin.  He will forgive you.  He will wash away your guilt.  He will quench your thirst with living water.  His Spirit.  His righteousness.  His salvation.  Poured out from His sacred veins.  Pooled in font and chalice.  Flowing from His mouth in the speaking of His Word and Absolution.

            And what will happen then?  The water that Jesus gives will become in you a spring of water welling up to eternal life.  Salvation will bubble over with faith toward God and fervent love toward one another.  Faith will bring forth faithfulness.  The Spirit will open your lips to go and tell others, without fear and without shame.  And like the Samaritan woman, you’ll bring them with you to encounter Jesus for themselves.  Where?  The well, of course.  Jesus meets His Bride at the well.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.        

 

 

           

Lenten Midweek II

Lenten Midweek II

Christian Questions with Their Answers: God and Christ[1]

March 8, 2023

Text: Christian Questions 7-12

            I invite the congregation to turn to page 329 in your hymnal as we examine Questions 7-12 of “Christian Questions with Their Answers”…

 

            The one true God is the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Apart from Him, there is no God.  And it is the Son, sent by the Father, who became Man, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, to suffer and die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, and who is now risen from the dead to be our life and salvation.

            We have to get these things straight.  These are the two great dogmas of the Christian Faith: The Trinity and Christology.  And they may seem obvious to you, because you’ve been catechized, and you’ve been in Church all these years, and so, you’ve learned these things.  But think about this: How would anyone know about the Trinity, or about our Lord Jesus Christ, if these things were not preached, if they were not taught?  Of course, they wouldn’t… they couldn’t.  These things are not obvious.  They are not apparent to our human reason.  And so, whatever we may think we already know, it is good and right for us to examine ourselves tonight, to see whether we know and believe these things aright, to review them, and to proclaim them to our children, and to our Christian brothers and sisters, and to those outside of the Church’s fellowship, that they also may be brought in.  A Christian must never say of the preaching and teaching of God’s Word, “I already know that.”  If you already know it, good!  Hearing it again will never hurt you, but it will strengthen you, as the Spirit is active in His Word, as He promises to be.  And you never know, you may just come to a deeper understanding of the things you already know, for, as St. Jerome reportedly said, God’s Word is “shallow enough for a babe to come and drink without fear of drowning and deep enough for a theologian to swim in without ever touching the bottom” (by the way, I can’t find a citation for that quote, so who knows whether Jerome actually said it.  And I always thought it was St. Augustine who said God’s Word is shallow enough for a child to wade in, and deep enough for an elephant to drown in, but… it doesn’t matter, you get the point!). 

            In any event, the Holy Trinity is deep enough an article of doctrine for us to drown in, especially if we get too big for our britches and start to think we can understand and explain Him in a way that satisfies our human reason.  The words, “Trinity,” and “Triune,” do not appear in the Bible.  They were actually coined by the Church Father, Tertullian.  But as you heard in our Scripture readings tonight, the teaching of God as Three in One is throughout the Bible.  God is, as we heard, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (baptizing them in the Name, singular, of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Three Persons, Matt. 28:19).  And even in the Old Testament, when the Name of God (Name… singular) was placed upon the people of Israel in benediction, that Name was Triune: “The LORD… the LORD… the LORD.”  “The LORD bless you and keep you,” etc. (Num. 6:24 ff.), as you still hear today at the end of the Divine Service, when, once again, the LORD sends you out with His three-fold Name upon you. 

            Now, let’s have no childish explanations of the Trinity such as eggs with their shell, mallow, and yolk; or apples with their skin, flesh, and seeds.  Those are all examples of the heresy called partialism, as though the Father is only part of God, the Son a part, the Holy Spirit a part.  This divides the one substance of the Godhead into three.  We should not teach such things to our children. 

            And let’s not describe the Trinity as though God were Father in the Old Testament, Son in the Gospels, and the Holy Spirit ever since; or as though God wears various masks at different times, now the Father, now the Son, now the Holy Spirit.  These, also, are ancient heresies that have been repudiated.  These are not Christianity.  Nor should we do as the Jehovah’s Witnesses do, saying that the Father is the true God, and Jesus is only called a “god,” honorifically, because of how good He is.  This is a rerun of the ancient heresy of Arianism.  Again, it is not Christianity. 

            We should simply say as our Creeds say, because they say what the Bible says.  The Three Persons of the One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are one substance, coequal, and coeternal.  The Father, unbegotten, begets the Son from eternity, who is begotten, not made.  And the Holy Spirit, neither made nor begotten, eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son.  To the Father, we typically ascribe the work of creation and preservation, although He does these through the Son and by the Holy Spirit.  To the Son, we typically ascribe the work of redemption, although it is the Father who sends the Son to redeem us, the Son who is conceived by the Holy Spirit, anointed with Him, and imparts Him to us.  And to the Holy Spirit, we typically ascribe the work of Sanctification, which is to say, conversion, repentance, faith, and good works, although His work is always directing us to Jesus Christ, the Son, who has reconciled us to the Father.  And so, the work of each Person of the Holy Trinity is Trinitarian, involving all Three Persons.      

            Now, these are a lot of fancy theological words, the “deep enough to drown in” part, and as we grow in the faith, we should learn the theological language.  But the fact is, our smallest children already believe this.  Maybe they don’t know the words, but they do believe what the words say.  In fact, they have less trouble believing it than the adults do.  And so, here is a little catechetical drill I do with Catechism kids, the “shallow enough to wade in” part, and it’s a good review for us.  How many Gods are there?  One.  How many Persons is He?  Three.  Who are they?  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The point is not to understand, mathematically, for example, how these things can be (how 1+1+1 can equal 1).  The point is simply to believe it.  And wonder at it.  And so praise the God who reveals Himself in this way.  This is the first great dogma of the Christian Faith, the Holy Trinity.

            But we must also know about the second great dogma of the Christian Faith, the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It was not the Father who entered into time and became flesh to suffer and die for us.  Nor was it the Holy Spirit.  It was the Son, eternally begotten of the Father, and sent by Him, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit at just the right time, in the womb of the Virgin Mary.  To be born under the Law, to redeem those under the Law, that we might receive adoption as sons (Gal. 4:4). 

            He is one Person, our Lord Jesus Christ, with two Natures: Divine and Human.  Now, note this carefully.  He is not two persons, one divine, and the other human.  He is not God and Man in such a way that He is like two boards glued together, which is the ancient heresy of Nestorianism.  On the other hand, neither is He God and Man in such a way that some new thing, a third category, neither God nor Man, results, like how water mixed with honey results in mead (that’s the old example.  Maybe today we’d say, Kool-Aid crystals mixed with water makes a refreshing artificially flavored beverage.  Or, remember Tang?  Jesus is not like that).  That is the ancient heresy of Eutychianism.  Nor is it that God the Son at some point in time came and physically possessed the otherwise unassuming man, Jesus of Nazareth, at His Baptism or at another time, which is the ancient heresy of adoptionism.  No, He is one Person with two Natures ever since the moment of His conception.  When the angel came to Mary and preached the Word that she would have a Son into her ears, the Word, the eternal Son of God, entered through her ears, and took up residence in her womb, becoming flesh of her flesh.  And ever since that moment, wherever Jesus is, He is there as God and Man.  Inseparable.  God and Man in such a way that His two Natures are united as one Person, yet kept distinct.  His divinity, the Church Fathers say, interpenetrates His humanity, each Nature, though, keeping the properties distinct to it. 

            Nevertheless, because of this Personal Union of the two Natures, we can say things about Jesus that we couldn’t otherwise say about a man: That Man created the world.  That Man rules all things in heaven and on earth.  That Man hears our prayers and should receive our worship.  That Man gives life.  That Man is risen from the dead.  And because He is God, that Man can be present with us, and with all Christians, in His true body and blood.

            And, on the other hand, we can say things about Jesus that we couldn’t otherwise say about God.  God was born of a woman.  God hungered and thirsted.  God was tired and slept.  God wept in grief and sadness.  God is a flesh and blood Man.  And so, God died. 

            Yes, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born of Mary, we can say, and believe, that God died on the cross… for you.  God died on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins.  God shed His holy, precious blood to redeem you.  And we should know this if we want to come to the Sacrament… indeed, if we want to be Christians.  We should believe it and confess it.  In Jesus, all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell… in the flesh!... and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself (Col. 1:19-20).  Jesus is the revelation of the Father’s heart to you, His Word, His Son.  We meet Him in the Gospel, and as He feeds us with His very body and blood, given and shed for us on the cross, now in the Holy Supper.

            On one level, these things are very simple… simple enough for a child to know and believe.  Again, here is more of the catechetical drill:  How many Persons is Christ?  One.  How many Natures does He have?  Two.  What are they?  Divine and human.  Simple.  Memorable.  Like the Trinity.  How many Gods?  One.  How many Persons is He?  Three.  Who are they?  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Then again, these things are deeper than the ocean, deeper than eternity.  Deep enough, indeed, for you to drown in them. 

            Which is exactly what has happened to you, when you were drowned and raised to new life in them, by water and the Word, and in the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.    

 

             

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[1] This year’s Lenten Midweek meditations make use of the resources at https://resources.lcms.org/worship-planning/worship-suggestions-for-2023-midweek-lenten-services/

Second Sunday in Lent

Second Sunday in Lent (A)

March 5, 2023

Text: John 3:1-17

            “And 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; ESV). 

            Delivered from Egyptian slavery, brought out in exodus with the plunder of their enemies, rescued by Baptism in the Red Sea, manna in the wilderness every morning, quail every evening, water from the rock, God’s chosen people, the children of Israel, receiving from Him, grace upon grace.  Yet “the people became impatient on the way.  And the people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food’” (Num. 21: 3-5).  Of course, their complaint betrays the lie.  The LORD has delivered them, but they accuse Him of killing them.  The LORD is miraculously feeding them, but they don’t want the food He gives.  The LORD gives them water from the rock, but they have NO water, they say.  Ungrateful.  And more to the point, unbelieving.  God has done all of this, but it isn’t good enough.  God has done all of this, but He surely won’t continue doing it.  God has done all this, but it was better before He did all this, and we’d rather He’d never done it. 

            Enter the serpents.  Sent by God, but they remind us of the chief antagonist in our Old Testament and Gospel last week, don’t they?  Serpents.  Who bite the people so that they die in a fit of agony.  That’s where you are apart from the LORD’s deliverance and merciful presence.  In the fiery fits of death, resulting from Satan’s mortal bite. 

            But there is a solution.  “‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’  So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole.  And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live” (vv. 8-9).  The image of that which causes death was raised up before the eyes of the people to be the life-giving cure.  Incidentally, this is why on ambulances and emergency medical vehicles you often see a logo, the Star of Life, with a serpent on a pole.  Don’t tell the secularists that’s from the Bible.

            When our Lord converses with His nighttime visitor, Nicodemus, about salvation and the Kingdom of God, the Savior connects the dots for us between this episode from ancient Israel and His own saving work for us by His death on the cross.  The serpent on the pole is a type of Jesus on the cross, a foreshadowing, a prophecy in action… “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”   

            Now, this is a recurring theme in John’s Gospel, the idea of the Son of Man being “lifted up.”  In Chapter 8, Jesus says to the Jews, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he”… that “I AM”… “and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me” (v. 28).  In Chapter 12, Jesus says to the crowd, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (v. 32).  John tells us, “He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die” (v. 33).  In each case, the lifting up of the Son of Man refers to Jesus’ crucifixion.  Remember?  Jesus “went out, bearing his own cross, to the place call The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.  There they crucified him” (John 19:17-18), that is, they nailed His hands and feet to the wood, and lifted Him up high into the air for all to see this naked, torn, bruised and bloody corpse of a dying Man.

            Now, we may say, the serpent on the pole was, indeed, the image of that which caused death to the Israelites, the snakes that were biting them.  And it is, indeed, the image of that which causes death to all humanity, the serpent in the Garden, Satan, who bit us with temptation, prompting our fall into sin.  But surely this is where the image breaks down.  How is Jesus, lifted up on the cross, the image of that which causes our death?  After all, He is the sinless Son of God.  That is true.  But here, on the cross, in His body, He bears the sin of the whole world.  Your sin.  My sin.  The sin of the Israelites, and Nicodemus, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Chief Priests, the Roman soldiers.  “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).  When we look at Jesus, lifted up on the cross, we see the Sinless One who became THE Sinner, not by His own sin, but by taking on ours, making atonement for our sins, and redeeming us for Himself, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood, and by His innocent suffering and death. 

            He is the cure for death.  Because He is the cure for sin.  “For God so loved the world,” loved it in this manner, “that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him,” whoever looks at God’s Son lifted up on the cross, knowing that the Son is lifted up precisely for the sinner’s healing and salvation, “should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  God loved, and so He gave His Son.  Salvation by grace alone.  Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have life.  Salvation by faith alone.  All in Christ alone. 

            Now, what of Nicodemus.  He is a man of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews, a member of the Sanhedrin.  Thus, he is representative of all Israel.  He comes to Jesus in the dark of night.  Because he is afraid, undoubtedly, of being seen with Jesus, and so harming his reputation, and perhaps provoking ridicule and rebuke from his fellow Jewish leaders.  But the point is, he’s in the dark, as is all Israel, and all humanity. 

            Now, Jesus wants to turn on the lights for Nicodemus, and for all Israel, and for all humanity.  He teaches Nicodemus about Holy Baptism and entrance into the Kingdom.  As Israel was baptized in the Sea, and so became God’s Covenant people and royal priests at Sinai (followed, incidentally, by a royal meal in God’s presence), so one must be born from above, of water and the Spirit, to enter the Kingdom of God.  Frankly, the light confuses Nicodemus.  He is the teacher of Israel, but in the darkness of his mind and heart, he cannot understand these things.  Paul says, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).  But Jesus gives Nicodemus a sign to look for.  Watch for the Son of Man being lifted up.  As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

            And that’s just what Nicodemus saw.  The lights were coming on for him, gradually.  He saw the unjust plotting of the Chief Priests and Pharisees to lay hands on Jesus and arrest Him.  “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” Nicodemus asked the Jewish council (John 7:51).  And here he got a little taste of the cross for himself: “Are you from Galilee too?” they retorted (v. 52).  Then, where do we find him next?  With Joseph of Arimathea, taking the body of the crucified Jesus down from the cross on which He’d been lifted up, anointing the body with myrrh and aloes, and binding Him with linen strips, to bury Him in Joseph’s new Garden tomb (John 19:38-42).  Nicodemus not only saw the Son of Man lifted up like the serpent on the pole.  He embraced Him, and carried Him, the blood of Jesus oozing all over him.  And Nicodemus loved Him.  Look what he does for Him.  No longer worried about reputation or Pharisaical censure, he lovingly tends the body broken and lifted up for him.  And for Nicodemus, and for us all, the lights would be turned on fully in three short days, when the Son of Man, once lifted up on the cross, is lifted up forever from His grave.

            To be for us the cure for Satan’s bite, the cure for death, the cure for sin.  To be for us, Righteousness, Life, and Salvation.

            Now we are born from above, of water and the Spirit, in Holy Baptism.  The Lord has delivered us from our bondage to sin, death, and the devil, and brought us out in exodus through the waters, red with Jesus’ blood.  He feeds us manna in the wilderness, and gives us to drink from the Rock that is Christ.  We are His chosen people, His children, and we all receive from Him grace upon grace.  Our praise proclaims the truth.  God has done all this, and it is eternally good.  God has done all this, and He will continue doing it, our whole life long, until the end of the age.  God has done all this, and we should never look back.  Instead, let us give thanks, and eat and drink in His presence.  For we are His people, His blood-bought children.  And as for the serpent?  His head is crushed (Gen. 3:15).  Just look at the spike piercing Jesus’ heal.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

 

 

 

 

Lenten Midweek I

Lenten Midweek I

Christian Questions with Their Answers: Sin and Salvation[1]

March 1, 2023

Text: Christian Questions 1-6

            I invite the congregation to turn to page 329 in your hymnal as we examine Questions 1-6 of “Christian Questions with Their Answers”…

 

            The first step in our self-examination as we prepare to receive the Sacrament of our Lord’s true body and blood, is to ask ourselves if we really understand who we are as a result of our sin, the condemnation our sins merit, and whether we repent of our sins, or wish to remain in them.  It is only when we understand the total separation our sin has made between us and God; that we justly merit “His wrath and displeasure, temporal death, and eternal damnation” (Question 4); that remaining in our sins will result in just that; and that in and of ourselves we have no hope of salvation; that we may then understand that our only hope, our only Savior, is Jesus Christ, our Lord, who takes away our sins, and gives us His own righteousness by means of His Word and Sacraments.  That is why we hunger for the body of Jesus Christ, given into death on the cross for our sins; and thirst for the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross for our forgiveness.  And it is that which is now given, under the bread and wine, for us Christians to eat and to drink in the Holy Supper.  Sin and salvation.  You must know the sin part in order to realize your great need for salvation and run to Christ.  Repentance and faith.  Seeing your sin, you are mortified, but with thanksgiving and great rejoicing, you receive and cling to the lifeline Jesus extends to you now in His saving Means of Grace.

            Now, this is going to be counter-intuitive, as the truth so often is, but to live a happy, confident, joy-filled life, the last thing you need is high self-esteem.  Self-esteem is the gospel preached by the world, and it is no Gospel.  Think about the problem with the whole idea.  Self-esteem means to love yourself.  It is all about being curved in on yourself.  Ah, wait a minute!  That is the very definition of sin.  That is what went wrong in the Garden, as we heard this past Sunday.  Adam and Eve were entirely focused on God, and, as a result, on one another; but when they listened to the serpent, and ate the forbidden fruit, all of a sudden they were focused only on themselves, and not on God, nor, as a result, on one another, nor on their future children (us!).  That is the problem with self-esteem. 

            Think about some of the popular phrases by which the world preaches the self-esteem gospel.  I looked some of them up.  “I (heart) Myself.”  “I believe in Me!”  “Believe in yourself!”  “I love myself.”  “I am great!”  “I am amazing!”  Where do these catch-phrases direct your faith?  God?  Jesus Christ?  No.  The self.  And in whom do these catch-phrases boast?  Who is the object of praise?  God?  Jesus Christ?  No.  The self!  Kind of reminds me of Nebuchadnezzar, boasting in “this Babylon” which he had built for himself by his mighty power and for the glory of his majesty (Dan. 4).  Do you remember how that episode ends?  For seven periods of time (weeks… months?) he lives like an animal in the wild.  He is utterly humiliated.  But he believed his self-esteem posters. 

            Here are some more substantial quotes that elucidate this false-teaching.  “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”  That one is actually attributed to Buddha, which already tells you something.  Here’s one from that great theologian, Lucille Ball: “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.”  What should we think of this in light of the First and Greatest Commandment: “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30; ESV)?  Isn’t it actually true that when you love God first, then everything else falls into place?  If God is not in His proper place, everything else, including you, falls into disorder.  This is really a First Commandment issue, isn’t it?  When we love ourselves first, we make ourselves gods in place of God. 

            Then what about other people?  Again, here are some quotes.  “Instead of wiping away your tears, wipe away the people who made you cry.”  “The biggest mistake I have made in my life is letting people stay in my life far longer than they deserved to.”  “There comes a point in your life when you realize who matters, who never did, who won’t anymore, and who always will.”  I see these kinds of things posted on social media all the time by well-meaning Christians who don’t realize what they’re really saying.  How does this square with our Lord’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22: 39; Lev. 19:18)?  What about “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44).  Those are both quotes from Jesus, which, again, should tell you something.  Or how about this from St. Paul: “Live in harmony with one another…  If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Rom. 12:16, 18).  Or St. Peter: “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).  He isn’t saying your love covers your sins.  He is saying your love for others covers over their sins, forgives them, and puts the best construction on everything. 

            What we are actually doing when we hear and believe the lies of the self-esteem cult, is seeking justification and salvation in the very sin that damns us.  Self-esteem = self-justification.  And self-justification is the turning away from the justification we have in Jesus Christ, to curve totally in on the self.  Beloved, we must crucify our self-justifying old Adam… we must destroy our self-loving, self-worshiping, self-esteem… before self-esteem destroys us.  Self-esteem leads to sham happiness.  It is never real.  It is never dependable.  Because it always has to prove itself.  Before God and others.  And above all, before itself!  Because even you don’t believe your own lies. 

            Actually, to live a happy, confident, joy-filled life, you don’t need high self-esteem.  You need God’s esteem.  You don’t need to build yourself up in your own eyes and the eyes of others.  You need to see you how God sees you: A sinner… forgiven, for the sake of Jesus Christ alone.  And therefore loved by God.

            You can’t really know God’s esteem, until you know just how utterly and completely undeserving you are to receive it.  It is only when we know how unlovable we have made ourselves by our sin and rebellion, our rejection of God, that we can know how astounding is our God’s love for us, and how astounding is the manner in which He loves us and makes us His own.  You start with honest self-examination in light of the Ten Commandments, and a true acknowledgment and confession of your sins against them.  It will kill you to do this.  You won’t feel good about yourself.  But the point is not to leave you feeling guilty and bad.  Trust me, I don’t want you to have some sort of self-loathing crisis when you leave here tonight.  The point is to prepare your ears, and mind, and heart, and soul, to hear and believe this: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).  “For God so loved the world,” loved it in this manner, “that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  These are much better than any self-esteem poster.  And unlike your self-esteem posters, they are actually true.

            Now your happiness, your confidence, your joyfulness, doesn’t depend on whether you can convince yourself and others that you are good and righteous and worth their (and your) love.  Now it depends only and alone on Jesus.  It doesn’t depend on how you see yourself, or how others see you.  It depends upon how Christ sees you.  Look what He did for you.  That’s how much He loves you.  That’s the way in which He loves you and makes you His own.  Your happiness, your confidence, your joyfulness, is not in yourself.  “For we are not sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us…”  No.  These gifts are from God.  These are in Christ.  Our “sufficiency is from God” (2 Cor. 3:5).  Jesus Christ is our sufficiency, our happiness, our confidence, our joy.  We don’t need self-esteem.  We need Christ’s esteem.  That lifts our drooping heads from focusing on our own navels, to focus instead on God once again, as we were created to do, and receive from Him every good gift.  And as a result, to focus on our neighbor.  To love God above all, and to love our neighbor as ourself.  Self-esteem curves us in on ourselves.  Christ’s esteem saves us, and straightens us out to walk as His upright creatures once again.  To look up, and to look out.  And I promise you this: Whereas looking at yourself will only, ultimately, bring you misery and unhappiness; looking away from yourself, and to God, and toward others… will make you happy, confident, and fill you with joy.

            So this drives us here to the altar.  And to the Scriptures.  And to the Preaching.  And to the Absolution.  It drives us to exult in our Baptism every day.  Beloved, Jesus died for you.  Jesus is risen and lives for you.  What an astonishing mystery.  You don’t need to esteem yourself.  Christ’s unfailing love and esteem for you is so much better.  Do you believe that you are a sinner?  “Yes,” you answer confidently, “I believe it.  A poor, miserable one.  But I also hope to be saved.  And my hope is sure and certain.  For my hope is in my dear Lord Jesus Christ.”  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.               

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[1] This year’s Lenten Midweek meditations make use of the resources at https://resources.lcms.org/worship-planning/worship-suggestions-for-2023-midweek-lenten-services/