Lenten Midweek II

Lenten Midweek II: “Eyes on Jesus: Sleepy Eyes”[1] 

March 11, 2020 

Text: Mark 13:32-37, 14:32-42 

“Could you not watch one hour?” (Mark 14:37; ESV).  No, you can’t.  It’s not that you haven’t tried.  God knows you’ve tried.  But your eyes are heavy.  “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (v. 38).  You’re no better than Peter, James, and John.  Peter, who boasted that, though they all fall away, he would never deny Jesus (Mark 14:29).  In fact, he would go to the death with Jesus if that’s what it takes (v. 31).  James and John, who boasted that they could indeed drink the cup Jesus would drink and be baptized with the Baptism with which He is baptized, and so, yes, Jesus, we’d like to sit, one at your right, and the other at your left, when you come into your Kingdom (Mark 10:35 ff.).  What has become of these boasters?  When Jesus needs them most, when His soul is sorrowful even unto death, as He is praying that, if it be the Father’s will, the cup be removed from Him… you know, the cup James and John are certain they can drink… as Jesus has asked His dearest friends to watch with Him, and pray, in this His bitter hour… They are asleep!  Their eyes were heavy.  One little hour was too much for Peter, James, and John.

            And what of you?  It would be easy to boast.  Here you are in Church on a Wednesday night.  Extra credit, surely.  You serve the congregation, say your prayers, give an offering, and all of that is wonderful, to be sure.  But don’t make it a cause to boast.  This doesn’t mean you can drink the cup.  When you imagine the trials of the martyrs, those who suffered and died for the Name of Jesus, you have enough humility to know you should say, “I’m not sure I know what I’d do in that moment of persecution, but I pray God for the strength to confess Him and take my death with courage and faith.”  Perhaps you’ve learned a thing or two from the mistakes of our boastful Apostles.  You’ve taken to heart the truth of our Lord’s Words: “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  You want to confess.  You want to stay awake.  You want to be faithful to the Lord.  But there are so many other voices vying for your time and attention.  Your mind wanders.  Your eyes get heavy.  Why does Church have to go so long?  Why do we have to meet so often?  Is Satan really such a threat?  Are my sins really that bad?  Yes, you’ve had such thoughts.  You don’t want them, but they come anyway.  And sometimes, when you’re weak, when you’re tired, you entertain them.  You think them.  You’re asleep.  Repent. 

            Even Jesus, the Son of God, had to pray for strength to be faithful in the hour of trial, to do the Father’s will, to drink the cup.  If that is true of Jesus, how true it is for you and me.  Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation, Jesus tells us.  But as time progresses, we are lulled into a false sense of security.  We become complacent, apathetic.  Of course, I’ll do the Father’s will when the time comes.  But for now, I’ll just rest my eyes a little, let down my guard, listen a minute to the soothing voices of the world.  What could it hurt?  Surely God would not begrudge me this moment of rest.  Weak.  Your flesh is so weak.  Wake up!  Pray!  Satan never rests. 

            Thank God, the Almighty does not slumber or sleep (Ps. 121).  He keeps Israel, keeps the Church, keeps you under His watchful eye, under the shadow of His wings.  He helps you.  He delivers you.  He will not let your foot be moved.  He gives His angels charge over you, to guard you in all your ways.  He, Himself defends you and protects you.  He drives away the demons and fends off the crafts and assaults of the devil.  He defends you against all danger and guards and protects you from all evil.  He overcomes your enemies, so that you are kept in the hour of temptation.  He rescues you from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally when your last hour comes, graciously takes you from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.  This is His good and gracious will, and it is done on earth as it is in heaven. 

            And why does He do it?  Not because you, and Peter, James, and John, are so loyal.  But because He is so good.  You, and James and John, should drink the cup of Jesus.  It is the foaming cup of God’s wrath for sin.  But you do not.  Jesus drinks it, on the cross.  The whole thing.  Right down to the bitter dregs.  He swallows it all, so that you drink instead from the cup of blessing, the Lord’s blood, for your forgiveness. 

            You, and James and John, should be baptized with the Baptism with which Jesus is baptized.  It is the Baptism of blood as payment for sin.  But you are not baptized in your own blood.  You are baptized in Jesus’ blood, by water and the Word.  He suffers and bleeds.  You live eternally. 

            You, and Peter, should die the death of the cross for your sins.  But you do not.  Jesus suffers it and dies in your place, as your substitute, as the sacrifice of atonement for your sins. 

            And that is the one time God sleeps.  When He closes His eyes in death for you. 

            And then He wakes up.  On the third day.  He rises.  He lives.  And now what does He do?  He awakens you.  He wakes you up from spiritual death, awakens you to faith by His Word and Spirit.  He wakes you up to the will of the Father, to the need of your neighbor, to love and to joy.  Now you can drink whatever cup of suffering the Father bids you drink.  Now you can faithfully confess Him, even unto death if that is the Father’s will.  For He wakes you.  He wakes you up now by His Word and Spirit, and He’ll wake you up then, bodily, on that Day that knows no end, when He comes again in glory to give you life. 

            So “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Eph. 5:14).  Or, as Paul puts it this evening in our first reading, “you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep” (Rom. 13:11).  For Jesus is coming.  Salvation, the great Day of Deliverance, is nearer to us now than when we first believed, nearer to us now than ever!  The night is far gone!  The Day is at hand!  Cast off the works of darkness.  Put on the armor of light.  Watch and pray.  “Be on guard, and keep awake” (Mark 13:33).  How do you do that?  Live in the confidence of your Baptism.  Hear the Word at every opportunity.  Let nothing hinder you from the body and blood of Jesus in the Supper.  Temptation and evil are an ever-present danger.  But Christ keeps us.  And He is coming soon to give us the victory.

            We cannot watch one hour, but Jesus watches over us.  The Father watches over us.  The Spirit keeps us.  And so tonight, before you go to bed, commend your body, your soul, and all things into His hands.  Then go to sleep at once and in good cheer, knowing that soon, Christ, our risen Lord, will wake you.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

“Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping that awake we may watch with Christ and asleep we may rest in peace.”[2]  Amen.                  

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[1] The theme and many of the ideas in this sermon are taken from Eyes on Jesus (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019).

[2] Lutheran Service Book, Compline (St. Louis: Concordia, 2006) p. 258.

Second Sunday in Lent

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Second Sunday in Lent (A)

March 8, 2020

Text: John 3:1-17

            God’s love does you no good if it’s just a warm, fuzzy feeling.  We read John 3:16 like it’s a Hallmark card.  God SO loved the world, as in, He loved us so gosh darn much He just couldn’t help Himself.  He had to save us.  The culprit is that little word, “so.”  In modern English, we hear it like when we say to a child, “You’re getting SO big,” or when we say, “That happens SO often,” or we even say to our spouse or our children, “I love you SO much.”  “So” becomes a word of measure.  But the Greek word for “so” means “thusly,” or “in this manner.”  That is to say, “God loved the world, and this is the way He loved it.”  Love is not a feeling.  It is not an emotion.  It is decisive action.  Here is how God loved the world: He gave His only-begotten Son.  Into death.  For the sins of the world.  So that whoever believes in Him, God’s dear Son, crucified for sinners, will not perish, but have eternal life.  That is what we mean when we talk about God’s love. 

            We’re talking about agape love here, of course, and that kind of love is always concrete and self-sacrificial.  It is a love that spares not personal cost, but throws itself on the line, and suffers, willingly and joyfully, for the beloved.  This love does not wait for its object to be loveable, and it demands no return for its loving.  As a matter of fact, often this love is repaid with hatred and rejection from the beloved.  But this love loves anyway!  This love is none other than Christ!  And it is particularly Christ on the cross, love gushing forth from His hands and feet, His head, His side, love oozing from every pore.  That is the very picture of love, and Jesus uses it Himself in our text: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness…” You know, the bronze serpent on a pole… looked like a crucifix… the image of the enemy lifted high, so that when anyone was bitten by one of the fiery serpents sent by God to punish the people and kill them for their sin, if he looked at that image, he would not die… he would be healed (Num. 21:8-9)… “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).  When you, O sinner, look at that picture of God’s love and know and believe that it is for you, for the forgiveness of your sins, you shall not die, but live, and have eternal life.  God loves you, and the whole world, in just this manner, that Jesus be lifted up on the cross to atone for your sins.

            Now this is incomprehensible.  A world that rejected God, people who sin daily against His will and scoff at His love, people He knew would only curse and spit on His Son and kill Him… why, He ought to have sent His Son to condemn such a world, to obliterate it in His wrath, to damn it to an eternity of suffering in hell.  That would make sense.  We just can’t get how God could love a world so hell-bent on rejecting Him, hating Him, killing Him.  This is why God’s love cannot be a warm, fuzzy feeling.  He knows just what kind of world He has on His hands, just what kind of people we are, and He sends His Son anyway.  That is how He loves us!  That is what He does in the act of loving us!  He does not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world be saved through Him (v. 17).

            Fallen human nature is incapable of understanding this or receiving this love.  This is unbelievable for sinners.  And now we understand why Jesus says what He says to Nicodemus.  To receive this gift, you have to have a whole new start!  You have to be born again, from above, of God, of water and the Spirit.  Nicodemus shows his hand.  “How can a man be born when he is old?  Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (v. 4).  Now, Nicodemus knows that isn’t what Jesus means.  A respected member of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus is not a stupid man.  But neither has he yet received this new birth, and so his mind cannot conceive the great things of which our Lord here speaks.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh.  But that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  St. Paul puts it this way: “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… ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’  But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:14, 16).

            Which is to say, we are baptized.  God has given us a new mind, a new self.  That is the new birth, the birth from above, of water and the Spirit.  Baptism into Christ.  And that is where the great saving act God does for the whole world in the giving of His Son, Jesus, into death for our forgiveness, and raising Him from the dead for our justification, is applied to you and to me personally and intimately and made our own.  Baptism is the love of God for the world focused on you individually as God’s own child.  It is your adoption by grace into God’s family.  He has one only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the Savior.  But He has many children through Jesus Christ, the Savior.  And He loves His children, not just with really good feelings about them, but by doing for them, by saving them and gifting them, by sending His Son for them… for you.  The love of God for you is God’s giving of Himself for you.  God loves the world, God loves you, in this manner.

            St. John, who wrote our Holy Gospel by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has a lot to say throughout his writings about this love of God.  In fact, it is St. John who records the New Commandment Jesus gives on the night in which He was betrayed, handed over to accomplish His great act of love for us; namely, that as He does, so we are to do for one another: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).  He develops this theme in his epistles.  “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 1:7-8).  See, God is the very definition of love, and to know God and His love, and to love as God loves and as Jesus gives you to love in His New Commandment is to be born of God… Baptism!  “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (v. 9)… Is this not a nearly word for word quotation of John 3:16?  This is how God loves… by sending His Son!  “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation,” the blood sacrifice of atonement, “for our sins” (v. 10).  And now, that being the case, the love of God poured out for us in the giving of His Son, in the precious blood and the innocent suffering and death of Christ, made our own in Holy Baptism, we now love in His Name and with His love.  “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (v. 11).  Just as I have loved you, Jesus says, you also are to love one another.

            In other words, not with warm fuzzies, but with action!  In deed and in truth!  Warm fuzzies are great, and these also are a gift from God, but they are not yet love.  Love… Agape, is throwing yourself on the line for the beloved.  It is loving the unlovable.  It is loving those who will not love you in return.  It is loving those who reject you, hate you, even kill you, for the sake and in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Now, apply that to your relationships, to your vocations.  Your spouse.  Your children.  Your co-workers.  Your boss.  Your teacher.  The people sitting with you in this Church building, and even the one in the pulpit.  Where have you failed this kind of love in all those relationships?  Repent.  And know that Jesus loves you and gave Himself into death for you on the cross for those very failures.  So rise and love.  Get to loving.  Act.  Give.  Sacrifice for the sake of those around you whom you are called by God to love.  That is what Jesus does for you.  You now do it for one another. 

            Love is, finally, in summation, the cross… God on the cross for you, you bearing the cross for your neighbor.  You know this on some level with your family.  Love is not always warm and fuzzy feelings for one another.  But it is suffering and the giving of the self for one another.  Multiply that by infinity and you get God so loving the world, loving it in this manner: The giving of Jesus for you.  And so the loving continues.  God gives Him here and now on the altar.  He’s under the bread and wine, His body, His blood, given and shed for you.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.             

Lenten Midweek 1

Lenten Midweek I: “Eyes on Jesus: Betraying Eyes”[1]

March 4, 2020

Text: Mark 14:10-21, 32, 41-46

                What a despicable wretch!  What a miserable excuse for a human being!  I’m speaking of Judas, of course.  His name is synonymous with betrayal.  And honestly, what a duplicitous traitor!  Such a plunge from such lofty heights!  So Almighty God comes down into flesh and blood and chooses you, Judas, to be one of His closest friends, even trusts you with His money.  He takes you with Him everywhere He goes.  He confides in you.  You’re a part of all His business.  You share His bread, His cup.  He numbers you among the holders of the most sacred office in God’s Kingdom, Apostle.  And what do you do?  You lift your heel against Him.  You sell Him out for thirty pieces of silver.  You concoct a secret scheme with the chief priests to hand Him over in the dead of sacred Passover night, under cloak of darkness, in a secluded place, Jesus’ favorite, the Garden of Gethsemane.  You lead a mob with swords and clubs to the spot.  You give the secret code.  You approach in mock loyalty.  “Rabbi,” you address Him.  Teacher.  Literally, “My Great One.”  And then you kiss Him.  And the bloodthirsty crowd does what they came to do.  They lay hands on Him and seize Him.

                It’s no wonder the evangelists express so much pain and disappointment with every mention of Judas’ name.  They can’t get over the shock and the hurt of the infidelity.  We, also, enjoy getting our licks in when it comes to the turncoat.  There is a sense of poetic justice when we read Peter’s sermon in Acts, how Judas bought a field with the reward for his wickedness and fell headlong, bursting open in the middle, so that his bowels gushed out (Acts 1:18).  St. Luke’s account is vivid as he describes Judas’ demise on the Field of Blood (v. 19).  But not so fast.  Don’t enjoy this.  This is tragedy in the full sense of the word.  And whatever you do, don’t let Judas become the springboard for your own quest for self-justification and exaltation.  Look at this pathetic figure and recognize: “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” 

                Isn’t it interesting when Jesus announces in the Upper Room that one of the disciples would betray Him, as they all react with a grief-stricken and terrified “Is it I?” (Mark 14:19; ESV), Jesus doesn’t say to a one of them, “No, it isn’t you”?  Why doesn’t He put at least some of their consciences at rest?  Because they will all betray Him!  Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.  They all flee in the heat of the moment, at His arrest in the Garden.  Peter and John follow at a safe distance, but when the questions around the fire get hot, Peter denies Him.  After the deed is done, all of the Apostles, without exception, hide.  In fear and in shame.  They hide.  Of course, Jesus was indicating Judas with His prophecy of betrayal, but not only Judas.  And not only the Apostles.  Beloved in the Lord, He’s talking about you.

                Almighty God has come down into flesh and blood, and He’s chosen you to be His own.  He calls you friend.  He trusts you, not just with money, but with His Kingdom and all His gifts.  He is with you wherever you go, not just in some spiritual sense, but bodily, with you and in you as one who takes Him in through your ears and by mouth in the eating and drinking of His body and blood.  You’re a part of all His business.  You share His bread, His cup.  He numbers you among the holders of a most sacred office, the priesthood of the redeemed.  And what do you do?  You lift your heel against Him.  You sell Him out for your own safety and prosperity.  You keep your Christian mouth shut when you should speak.  You hide Jesus when He’s politically incorrect and embarrassing.  You pretend He doesn’t exist when you do things He tells you not to do.  You ignore His voice and your own conscience when you don’t do things He tells you you should do.  “Rabbi,” you call Him, my Teacher, my Great One, as you greet Him with a kiss.  But you also kiss the silver in your pocket, in which you trust for daily bread and the necessities and luxuries of life.  Don’t be so hard on Judas.  Every time you sin, you follow His anti-apostolic example.  “Is it I, Lord?”  Jesus is not saying no.  “Is it I?”  You know the answer.  Repent. 

                Yes, repent.  That is the difference between Judas and Peter, between Judas and the other eleven.  Judas was sorry, of course.  So sorry, He went out and hanged himself.  And even that didn’t go so well, as we heard from Luke in Acts.  He died in despair over his sins.  But that isn’t what we mean by repentance.  Repentance is not only sorrow for sin, it is faith.  It is faith in the very Lord Jesus whom we have betrayed.  For the death into which Judas handed Him over, the death our sins caused… that death is for Judas, for you, for me, and for us all, for the forgiveness of those very sins!  And, as it happens, this was God’s plan all along.  Now, don’t get me wrong, this does not excuse Judas from responsibility for his actions.  Nor does it excuse you for yours.  No, it forgives you for yours.  The Gospel does not excuse.  It forgives.  God took this great evil, Judas’ betrayal, the arrest, the trial, the crucifixion of our Lord, and turned it into the ultimate good, the salvation of the world, forgiveness and eternal life for you and for all believers in Christ.  The great tragedy is that this was for Judas, too.  If only he had received it.  Judas was not beyond the pale of our Lord’s saving work.  He was not out of reach of our Lord’s love.  And if that is true of Judas, then it is true of you.  Whatever you’ve done.  Wherever you’ve been.  Whoever you are.  Jesus died for you.  For the forgiveness of your sins.  For your salvation and eternal life.  Judas would not have it.  But you have it right here and now in Christ’s absolving Word and in the fruits of His cross, His body given for you, His blood shed for you, at His Table to which He still invites you.  Your betrayal is forgiven, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit. 

                The Greek word for “betray” can also be translated “to hand over” to “to deliver.”  The same word used to indicate Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, St. Paul uses for the handing over, the delivery, of Jesus in the Lord’s Supper.  “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered,” handed over, “to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed,” delivered, handed over, “took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body which is for you… this cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:23-25).  Jesus was handed over by Judas, by God, into death for the forgiveness of our sins.  Now the crucified and risen Jesus hands Himself over for us poor sinners to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of our sins.  We’re delivered from our betrayal and given once again to share the Lord’s bread, the Bread of Life.  That is how deep and wide the grace of God, His mercy, His love, is for us in Christ Jesus.  Do not despair.  Rejoice.  Jesus, the Crucified, is handed over for you!  Our Lord restored Peter and the eleven.  By the Word of Life and the Bread from Heaven, He restores you.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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[1] The theme and many of the ideas in this sermon are taken from Eyes on Jesus (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019).

First Sunday in Lent

First Sunday in Lent (A)

March 1, 2020

Text: Matt. 4:1-11

            “Lead us not into temptation,” we pray.  “Lead us not…”  Those are the words (the Greek word means “lead”), and we should not change them, apologies to Pope Francis.  Then again, I don’t think I will apologize, for we should never apologize for the Word of God, and no one, not even the pope, has the authority to change what God has said.  Jesus knew what He was doing when He gave us the petition.  And, in fact, He is reflecting on the incident recorded in our Holy Gospel this morning.  Matthew tells us that after our Lord was baptized, He was “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4:1; ESV).  Luke, likewise, says He was “led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1).  Mark is more vivid: After His Baptism, “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness” (Mark 1:12).  Drove Him out!  The Greek word there is the one usually used to indicate the casting out of demons!  In any case, the Gospel writers are unanimous: The Spirit of God leads Jesus into temptation! 

            Are you scandalized?  Good!  Because here is the point: Jesus is led into temptation by God, so that you could be led out.  So that temptation could no longer trap you in sin.  Not that you would no longer sin.  You will and you do for as long as you are in this moral body (Repent of that, of course!).  But that you would no longer be enslaved to sin, that you would no longer be the possession of the devil.  You see, Jesus is led into temptation as your Substitute, to do battle with the devil in your place, to win where you have lost, to win where our first parents lost it for us all.  As the writer to the Hebrews says, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).  Jesus faced down Satan’s temptation, and He did not fall!  It is for that reason He can be our Champion all the way to His sin-atoning death on the cross and His resurrection victory over death.

            Now, it is important to understand the nature of the temptations.  These were real temptations.  Remember, Jesus is a real Man, and so He really was tempted.  That is, He suffered the introduction of wicked ideas into His ear and His mind.  As true God, He was able to do what we cannot do when such ideas are introduced to us.  That is, deny them.  Remain steadfast against them.  Refuse to entertain them.  Remember that temptation is not sin.  Giving in to temptation is sin, and entertaining temptation is sin.  Luther famously said, “Temptations, of course, cannot be avoided, but because we cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them nest in our hair.”  Our problem is, the minute a tempting thought enters our mind, we start handing the demonic birds twigs and straw.  So for us, temptation is usually contemporaneous with sin.  Not Jesus.  Unlike us, unlike Eve, our Lord does not give ear to the serpent’s siren song. 

            But imagine fasting forty days and forty nights, nothing to eat at all, and then the devil comes along and reminds Jesus that, if He is the Son of God, the Creator of all, He could just command these stones to become bread, and they would!  To hear that when He’s that hungry, and to know that it’s true, and to resist that… That is to suffer!  To know that He could bypass the cross by simply throwing Himself down off the Temple, and in front of all those crowds, the angels would miraculously swoop Him up so that everyone would adore Him…  To resist that… That is to suffer!  To know, once again, that He could bypass the cross by one simple act of devotion to the devil, and all the kingdoms of the world would be His… To resist that in full determination to go to His crucifixion… That is to suffer!  He suffered it!  Jesus suffered it all, the full force of temptation.  He knows what it is to be tempted.  He knows what it is to ache to give in.  But He doesn’t.  He doesn’t give in.  He doesn’t because of you.  Jesus will not give in to temptation because He is determined to save you. 

            Notice the first temptation involves food.  Ring a bell?  Here He undoes the temptation to which Adam falls.  He does not take and eat what is not given Him to take and eat.  This temptation has to do with the desires of the flesh.  The second has to do with the lust for glory.  The third, the lust for power.  Do not all our temptations proceed from one of these lusts?  It all has to do with the idea that God is holding out on us somehow, that there is more, and better, to be had than what He has given, that we can be our own gods.  And at the root of it all, there are two things: First, are you really the Son of God?  In other words, does He really love you, and can you trust His Word?  And second, is the cross the only way?

            Jesus defeats Satan by clinging to the Word of His Father.  “It is written… it is written… it is written…” (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10).  Jesus wields the Sword of the Spirit.  “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (v. 4).  “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (v. 7).  “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve” (v. 10).  It is not just that He quotes Bible verses.  Satan quotes Bible verses, too, although he misquotes them and twists them to his own purposes.  It is that in the speaking of these verses, Jesus places all His trust in the Father alone.  He confesses that God is true, that it is as the Father has said and as the Spirit testifies: Jesus is God’s beloved Son with whom He is well pleased.  And it is this Son whom the Father has given to suffer and die for the life of the world.

            Jesus defeats the devil by unyielding faith in the Father, and flowing from that faith, the absolute determination to accomplish the Father’s will.  By dying on the cross.  Thus saving you.  The cross is the decisive battle in the war between God and the devil.  The cross is the crushing of the serpent’s head by the suffering of his mortal bite.  The cross is the swallowing up of temptation and sin and guilt and death by the only One who can take them away.  And He does.  He dies.  And now Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

            So when you are tempted, first, recognize that no matter how fierce the battle, the war is already won.  By Jesus, on the cross and in the empty tomb.  Second, wield the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Eph. 6:17), not just quoting Bible verses (because the devil knows the Bible better than you do), but clinging in faith to the God who cannot lie, who has declared in Holy Baptism that you are His beloved child, in Holy Absolution that all your sins are forgiven, in the preaching of the Gospel that you are righteous and holy with the righteousness and holiness of Christ.  And in all of this, pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” knowing that it is true, “God tempts no one,” as we confess in the Catechism and as St. James writes (James 1:13).  But He led Jesus into temptation to be temptation’s demise.  Jesus is your victory over temptation.  Jesus is your way out.  And Jesus is ever and always your forgiveness when you fall.  When you pray, “lead us not into temptation,” Jesus is the answer to your prayer.

            So when you are tempted, run where Jesus is, where He has promised to be for you with salvation, His Spirit, and life.  Run to the Word and to the Holy Sacrament.  That is where the Spirit leads you.  Here in the wilderness of this world there is hunger and temptation and the opposition of the devil.  But here in the Church there is Jesus, who has defeated all of these in His death and resurrection.  He sets right all that has gone wrong, with Adam, and with you.  Live by His every Word.  Worship and trust in Him alone.  And so He leads you out of temptation and delivers you from the evil one.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.           

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday: “Eyes on Jesus: Misjudging Eyes”[1]

February 26, 2020

Text: Mark 14:1-9: ¹It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, ²for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”

   ³And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. ⁴There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? ⁵For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. ⁶But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. ⁸She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. ⁹And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

            The dinner guests are quite right that we should give money and other necessities to the poor.  That is not the problem with their criticism of the woman.  Jesus assumes in the Holy Gospel read earlier (Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21) that we’ll give to the needy, as well as pray and fast and do other good works.  In fact, those are the very disciplines encouraged on Ash Wednesday and in the holy season of Lent.  The question is not whether good works are necessary.  They are.  The question is what they are necessary for.  In our reading from Matthew, Jesus criticizes those who do their good works in order to be seen by others, to be admired and honored by men.  And He roundly condemns the idea that good works are necessary to gain God’s favor, to merit life and salvation.  So good works are necessary, but not to earn anything before God, and though your Father will reward what He sees in secret according to Jesus, we don’t do them for rewards, temporal or eternal.  Why do them, then?  Because you need them to crucify your sinful nature and exercise your faith in Christ.  And because your neighbor needs them.  He needs you not to sin against him, to do good for him, to provide his needs, and have mercy upon him.  And insofar as you do it to one of the least of these, you do it unto Christ.

            But the dinner gusts misjudge what the woman is doing, and their eyes are blind to the significance.  They think she is wasting the precious ointment.  Now, if it’s true the ointment could have been sold for 300 denarii, that would feed a lot of people.  A denarius is about a day’s wage for a common laborer.  300 denarii is close to a year’s wages!  Think of that!  Back when Jesus fed the 5,000, the disciples exclaimed that 200 denarii would be about right to feed the crowd.  Here with the ointment, we’re talking a hundred more than that.  So this is very precious stuff, this ointment, and the alabaster flask she broke was worth a pretty penny in and of itself. 

            But it is not a waste.  It is a sign.  It is a preparation for that which is most important.  The death and burial of Jesus for the forgiveness of all our sins.  Jesus calls her action “a beautiful thing” in our text (Mark 14:6), literally, a beautiful work.  It is beautiful because it proclaims the precious Gospel of the sin-atoning work of Jesus.  Remember this when you think we’re spending too much money on Church stuff.  If it is stuff that proclaims Christ and His salvation, it is never a waste.  That is what is important in this, the proclamation of Christ.  That is what we need for salvation.  Not our works, but the work of Jesus. 

            It is preparation for His burial.  Remember that there was no time to anoint Jesus properly at His burial.  They were in a hurry to get Him in the tomb before the Sabbath.  That is why the women were on their way to the tomb Easter morning, to give Him a proper anointing.  Here the woman anoints Him before the time.  And anointing, that is significant.  Prophets, priests, and kings are anointed.  The Hebrew word for Messiah, the Greek word for Christ, these mean “Anointed One.”  Jesus is the One anointed by God with His Spirit in His Baptism.  He is anointed to be our Redeemer from sin, death, and hell.  Jesus is the Prophet who preaches the Good News of our salvation.  He is our great High Priest who makes the sacrifice of atonement for our sin.  He is the King who is risen from the dead, lives, and reigns to all eternity, who frees us from bondage and makes us His own and gives us the Kingdom forever and ever. 

            All of that is proclaimed by the woman’s beautiful work.  And that is why to this day, to this very moment, “wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (v. 9).

            The dinner guests misjudge the who Jesus is and what He has come to do.  They misjudge the actions and motives of the nameless woman and her beautiful work.  They misjudge the place of good works in the economy of the Gospel.  Jesus sees with clear eyes.  The woman’s beautiful work flows from faith in her Lord, her Savior.  Feeding the poor is important, but Jesus’ death for the poor and for all is most important.  The poor you will always have with you, so feed them your whole life long.  God knows they need it, and He feeds them through you.  Jesus will soon go to the cross as the Passover Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.  So above all, put your faith in Him and let your love flow out of that.  Do not trust in your works and do not do works to seek a reward from men or from God.  Do them because your neighbor is hungry.  Do them because he needs your help.  And do what you can, wherever you can, to do the beautiful work of pointing your neighbor to the death and burial of Christ, who is risen and lives and loves you and your neighbor. 

            The woman did “what she could,” says Jesus (v. 8).  That is, she had a vocation, a calling for this moment of time, to anoint the Lord in preparation for His burial.  You also do what you can, which is to say, look at your place, your station in life.  You have been born into a specific time and place, surrounded by specific people.  Feed the hungry among them.  Give alms, fast, and pray.  And anoint Jesus before their eyes, showing them His death and resurrection for them.  Spend money on the things that proclaim Jesus.  Give an offering for the preaching of the Gospel.  Proclaim Him yourself.  Speak of Him.  Point to Him.  That is a beautiful work. 

            Then simply rejoice.  You are a Dinner guest of Jesus.  Baptized into Christ, sins forgiven, declared righteous apart from works, in order to do good works which God prepared beforehand that you should walk in them (Eph. 2:10), come to the Table so that Jesus can feed the poor, so that Jesus can feed you.  His true body.  His true blood.  Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  He was anointed for this very thing.  And because you eat the very body anointed by the woman in her beautiful work so that He is in you with His sin-atoning death and resurrection life, you are strengthened to go give alms and feed the poor.

            And, by the way, don’t misjudge the ashes you are about to receive.  Don’t do these for a reward, to impress God or show others what a super Christian you are.  No… These are the ashes of death.  Repent of your sins!  Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.  But know also these ashes are mixed with oil in the shape of the holy cross.  Tonight, you are anointed, quite literally, ash and oil and the holy cross.  And that turns your mourning into dancing and fills you, you sack of dust, with the very breath of life, the Spirit.  You who are baptized into the death of Christ, are baptized into the resurrection of Christ.  You who died with Christ have been raised with Him.  And the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon you.  So that is how God looks upon you.  No misjudging with Him.  He looks upon you with the clear eyes of Jesus, crucified for you, risen for you.  He judges you righteous, He judges you holy, for Jesus’ sake.  And here you are, ashes yes, but forgiven, healed, made whole, alive.  By grace.  In Christ your Savior.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.             

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[1] The theme and many of the ideas in this sermon are taken from Eyes on Jesus (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019).

The Transfiguration of Our Lord

The Transfiguration of Our Lord (A)

February 23, 2020

Text: Matt. 17:1-9

            “And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only” (Matt. 17:8; ESV).  Our eyes hunger to see all the sights, the power, the glory, the majesty of it all.  We long to see the Church bursting at the seams with more and more people taken captive by the Gospel.  A new building, a splendid edifice, the bigger the better.  Ecstatic worship experiences.  Inspiring, engaging, practical sermons that go right to the heart and are easily applied to the life.  Moral transformation in the minds and hearts and lives of the people.  Nobody sinning against anybody else.  Everybody getting better and better every day, better and better in every way.  Isn’t that what the Gospel is supposed to do?  Heaven on earth?  The Kingdom of God here and now?  Shine, Jesus, shine!  Fill our hearts with the Father’s glory!  Justification, yes.  Fine.  But sanctification, where the rubber meets the road!  And glorification!  Glory, glory, halleluiah!  That is what our eyes want to see.

            But here we are, and what are we left with?  Look around you.  This isn’t quite that.  Or it doesn’t appear to be.  No, what do we have?  Not even our own building (though we’re very thankful for the use of this one).  But really, sinners to the right, sinners to the left.  A really big sinner for a preacher.  If we’re honest, our worship isn’t all that ecstatic, we don’t usually leave all that inspired, and Pastor won’t even let us sing “Shine, Jesus, Shine.”  Not much glory.  Today we bid goodbye to the alleluia for a time.  Always justification talk, and nobody behaves all that sanctified.  Lots of words.  A little water.  A little bread and wine.  Yet when we look upon these things, there is, nevertheless, a great surprise.  In these very things, and only in these things, there is Jesus.  Jesus only.  And Jesus is enough.  Jesus, is all we need.

            Peter, James, and John ascend the mountain with Jesus, and their eyes take in a veritable feast!  Suddenly, the Lord is transfigured before them, His divine nature shining through His humanity, His very clothing radiantly white with His holiness and glory.  Like the burning bush, radiating fire but not consumed, the human body of Jesus radiating the fulness of the Godhead, but not consumed.  And speaking of Moses… there he is!  With Elijah.  The great Law-giver, the writer of God’s Torah, and the great Prophet, Elijah, who was taken up into heaven in the whirlwind, the Law and the Prophets bearing witness.  All the Scriptures are about Jesus, this Man who is God, shining up on the mountain. 

            Peter doesn’t want to come down.  He wants to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.  ‘Tis good, Lord, to be here.  He wants to build three tents, one for Moses, one for Elijah, one for Jesus, so that they never have to leave.  And why would he want to?  This is a little picture of heaven!  Jesus in all His glory.  The saints who have gone before!  (And notice, by the way, that there is no doubt this is Moses and Elijah, even though the disciples had never met them, and there were no Polaroid pictures to know what they looked like.  We will certainly know one another in heaven, and even those we did not know on earth!). 

            In any case, Peter goes on yapping as though he has any idea what is going on.  As we are wont to do, especially when it comes to God.  And all at once, the bright cloud.  This is the cloud that separated Israel from Egypt at the Red Sea, that led the Children of Israel through the wilderness, that descended upon the Tent of Meeting as Moses met with God face to face as with a familiar friend.  This is the cloud that filled the Temple at Solomon’s dedication.  This cloud is the presence of the glory of God.  And from it, the Father speaks, words we’ve heard before, at Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (v. 5). 

            It was too much for the disciples to take.  They fell on their faces, terrified.  Like dead men.  Like you would be, too, if you were there.  See, we cannot handle the glory.  We think we want it, but sinners cannot stand in the presence of the glory of God and live.  Apart from Jesus.  But Jesus came and touched them.  Just as He touched the bier of the widow’s only son in Nain.  Just as He took the hand of Jairus’ little girl, saying to her, “Talitha cumi… Little girl, I say to you, arise” (Mark 5:41).  So He touches His disciples and says to them, “Rise, and have no fear” (Matt. 17:7).  Rise.  Be alive.  Resurrected.  And no longer be afraid.  That is what this is all about.  That we rise and have no fear.  And lifting their eyes, they see all they need to see.  They have all they need to have.  Not the brightness and the glory and the mountain top experience.  Jesus.  Jesus only.

            Why the Transfiguration?  It is a momentary lifting of the veil.  This is where we’re headed.  This is where all of this leads.  Resurrection!  Easter!  There will be glory.  There will be the visible presence of God.  There will be reunion with the saints.  Because Jesus is who He says He is and He’s come to do what He says He’s come to do.  He is God in the flesh, and He has come to save us.  The whole Scripture bears witness.  The Father Himself declares it from heaven. 

            But before all of this becomes the visible reality, Jesus and the disciples must descend the mountain.  There is a cross to be borne.  Jesus must suffer and die for the sins of the world.  Good Friday must come before Easter.  And the disciples, too, must suffer.  As part of their bearing witness.  They will be insulted, persecuted, martyred for the Name of Jesus and for His Gospel.  The Transfiguration is given as encouragement and confirmation.  To Jesus, as He goes the way of Golgotha.  To the disciples, as they face the events of Holy Week.  To you and me as we struggle with sin and temptation, doubt and despair, opposition from the world and the weakness of the Church in this vale of tears.  There is a reason the Church celebrates Transfiguration on the cusp of Lent.  We are about to walk the road of repentance and deep mediation on the suffering and death of Jesus.  That must come before Easter.  But here we have a glimpse, a foretaste.  It is worth it.  Glory is coming.  In God’s way.  In God’s time.  In the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 

            We want power and glory, and we want it now.  But it is not to be.  Repent of that.  Once St. Paul was caught up to the third heaven (whatever that means!) and heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.  It was like his own little experience of the Transfiguration.  But he could not stay there.  And to keep him from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, there was given to him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass him.  Three times he pleaded with the Lord, that it should leave him, but the Lord answered Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).  Paul, you need Jesus only.  And that is what you have.  Suffering is necessary now.  Glory will come later.  In the meantime, Jesus.  Only Jesus.  He is enough.

            And so you.  You must suffer now.  You must bear your fallen flesh and the aches and pains and illnesses that go with that.  You must suffer reproach from the world and the temptations of the devil.  You must bear the consequences of sin and the mistakes that you’ve made.  But always in faith.  We’ve had here a glimpse.  Jesus is the Son of God.  He is God in the flesh.  He has come to save us.  He died, but He is not dead.  He is risen and lives and reigns.  Listen to Him.  Set your eyes on Him.  Rise and have no fear.  Go with Him to the cross and know that Easter is on the other side.  And it is enough that He comes to you in words and water and bread and wine, in the mutual conversation and consolation of sinners to your left and to your right, and the really big sinner preaching from the pulpit.  Jesus is in that.  Jesus only.  Jesus is all you need. 

            And in this way, heaven does come to earth.  The Kingdom of God is here and now.  Not in the filling of this land with the Father’s glory, but in the filling of your ears and your mouth with the Father’s glory, which is Jesus Himself in His Word and Sacrament.  It doesn’t look like much.  But it is everything.  And it is all for you.  Jesus only.  Jesus for you.  Listen to Jesus.  Come and eat Jesus.  You have Jesus.  Rise, and have no fear.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.