210425 Sermon on Lamentations 3, 1 John 3, John 16 (Easter 4) April 25, 2021

Audio recording 

Sermon manuscript:

Marketers are always trying to get people to buy their products. Perhaps you remember a couple often used phrases by the inventor Ron Popeil. With his kitchen gadgets he would say, “Set it and forget it.” And when he was working on his pitch he would say, “But wait, there’s more!” Consumers want things that will make their life easier. They want to get as much as they possibly can for their money. Marketers try to make the consumer believe that their life will be better by buying their product. They’ll be happier, have more time, and save money.

Church membership is something that can be marketed. A person can make a pitch that belonging to this church or that church will make a person happier. The folks of Ron Popeil’s generation seemed to understand this. That was the generation that tried to make church feel like movie theaters, sound like soft rock concerts. They added coffee bars and book stores. Coming to church was supposed to feel like going to the mall—a place that many people would rather go to than to a church.

But the marketing doesn’t have to be so intense and expensive. The marketing can be that the people are really friendly, and a person can make friends there. 100 years or so ago, being a member of a church and coming to a church was a way to make business connections and get customers. That made it beneficial to be the big church in town with the prominent, rich members.

This kind of stuff works in a sense. If a marketer is perceptive enough and clever enough then the church can turn into the hot new thing. But you always need to have that clever marketer. Where is Shopko? Where is Sears & Roebuck? At one time these places were on the cutting edge. Now they don’t exist. They didn’t keep up with the times. So if a church decides that it wants to play that game, it better be ready to constantly reinvent itself.

But these sorts of things are really like those people who were selling merchandise in the Temple. Jesus drove them out with a whip, overturning their tables. He said, “It is written, ‘My house is to be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it into a den of robbers.” The Temple itself saved no one. The merchandise saved no one. What was important about the Temple was that it was a place to have fellowship with God. So also, church membership at this place or that place saves no one. Church membership at this congregation does not save you. There is only One who can save you. The Scriptures say, “There is no other name given under heaven by which we may be saved than Jesus.”

So churches are not supposed to exist for their own sake. If churches exist for their own sake—to get bigger, to get famous, etc.—then they have lost sight of the reason why they exist. Christian congregations exist so that the saving truth may be made known, so that people may believe that truth, and through faith in that truth be saved. What belongs in our congregations is truth and nothing but the truth. If people believe that truth, then God be praised. If people do not believe that truth, then so be it.

Altering the truth so as to make people believe it might be good marketing. It might make the congregation grow. But no earthly congregation exists forever. What will exist forever are the people whom we are called to serve with the truth. All those people will either live forever in heaven with Jesus, or they will be thrown into the lake of fire—which is where we all deserve to go, but Jesus has saved us from that fate. What is important is that we be a place of truth, not a place that caters to whatever a person might want to hear.

So let’s hear the truths that our Scriptures have to teach us this morning. In our Old Testament reading we are told that God is compassionate. His mercies are new every morning. And yet we will bear a yoke. Our face may be thrust down into the dust. We may be filled with disgrace. But even though the Lord brings grief, he will show compassion on the basis of his great mercy. He does not afflict us from the heart. His intentions are good towards his children.

In our epistle reading we are given a very plain truth. It is very plain, but hard to believe—perhaps for the very fact of its plainness: “You are children of God now.” Think about what that means. God looks upon you as he looks upon his Son Jesus, whom he loves. You are children of God and you will see God. Plain and simple.

In our Gospel reading Jesus is counseling his disciples on the night when he was betrayed. Now they see him. Soon they won’t. And it is going to be awful. They are going to weep and wail. But Jesus gives them a promise: You will see me again. That’s truth right there: You will see me again. And when you see me again you will rejoice like a mother of a newborn. No one will take your joy away from you.

All these things are truths, straight from the horse’s mouth, but I’m not sure how well they might sell. Perhaps the easiest is the epistle reading: “You are children of God now.” That sounds pretty good. Maybe I’ll pick up one of those. But then there’s that seeing God part. I’m okay with seeing my dead relatives again, but seeing God? That sounds a little intense.

Both the Old Testament reading and the Gospel reading look like duds. Both of them talk of suffering. Being thrust down into the dust, being struck, being disgraced—no thank you. Being filled with sorrow, weeping and wailing—yuck! Isn’t there a pill I can take for this? Isn’t there some anesthesia that can be given? We don’t want pain.

But I’m not selling you anything. I’m not asking you to buy anything. I’m not presenting you with an offer that you can consider, and then you can decide for yourself whether you want to get on board or not. I’m simply telling you the truth. This is how things are. You can love it or you can hate it, that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change the nature of the situation. So my recommendation to you is that you quit evaluating it and judging it—seeing whether you like it or not—and learn from it instead. What is said here is very practical information.

As John says, you will see God, whether you like it or not. If you like it not, then it will be a terrible experience. If you want to see Jesus (and every last person on earth should be encouraged towards this, for Jesus has died for all), then it will be the best thing that has ever happened to you. Either way, you will meet your Maker. That is as practical as practical can be.

The other two readings are also very practical. It is flatly stated that you will have troubles. That’s just the truth. However, in the midst of those troubles you also have these truths: The Lord does not afflict from his heart. Though you have trouble now, and you cannot see Jesus, as it were, you will see him again, and your heart will rejoice.

You do well for yourself if you listen carefully to what is said here. We do whatever we can to get rid of our troubles. If there is a pill or a surgery or some other fix, then great! That’s best. But even if these things are not available we’ll still live in this kind of make believe state. We’ve been trained to do so. We say, “The sun will come out tomorrow.” “Don’t worry, everything will get better.” “I’m sure the doctors will have some miracle cure.” Sometimes even our prayers take on this character. Folks figure, what the heck, I might as well try praying.

All of this and more is an effort to deny reality because the reality is so sad that we don’t want to live in it. This can happen right up until the time of death. Some people won’t call the pastor until the person is unconscious and there’s little to be done. There is a holding out of hope that somehow, some way things will get back to normal. If the pastor gets called, then we have come to the end.

Of course, the presence of the pastor is not what is important. What is important is that God’s Word interpret the situation for us, giving us guidance in what we should believe in. Listen again to what Jesus says, “For a little while you will not see me. You will weep and wail. … You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.” Remember, I’m not giving you a sales pitch. Jesus isn’t selling anything. He’s telling it like it is. Every Christian will go through times of sadness. If nothing else, you will die one day. Our sadness can be such that there is even weeping and wailing. But with Jesus that sorrow will turn into joy, and no one will be able to take that joy away from you. That’s a promise from Jesus. Your sorrow will turn into joy, and no one will be able to take that joy away from you.

As I said, this is very practical. This might be happening to you. Or if it isn’t happening now, it could happen to you in the future. I’ve known some members of the congregation who have had some very sad times. Perhaps they’ve gotten a disease that cannot be cured. Perhaps their pain cannot be alleviated. Perhaps some parts of their body have quit working so that living from one day to the next is very difficult. What might a person do in such a situation? Believe in some new drug or some new surgical technique with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind? Unfortunately, that’s what ends up happening for a lot of people, because they have nothing else to believe in. There is a fear of reality.

How many times does it say in the Bible: Do not be afraid?  When that is said, it is said precisely because of the reality that is pressing down upon the frightened creatures. You are free to acknowledge the truth of the pain. You are free to acknowledge the truth of the fear. You are free to acknowledge that it is the Lord God who is afflicting you. You are free to say to God that you are sad. You can weep and wail. The Scriptures speak the truth, and the Scriptures say that these kinds of things happen. The Scriptures say that God, even, is the one who does them.

But we must also remember what else the Scriptures say. These are no less true: “The Lord does not cause affliction from his heart.” “By the mercies of the Lord we are not consumed, for his compassions do not fail. They are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness.” Or, as Jesus says, “Your sorrow will turn into joy. You will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”

We’ve been speaking of mainly bodily ailments. All the other disorders that the devil and our own sins have brought upon us can be dealt with in the same way. Perhaps you have been abused. Perhaps you have been an abuser. Perhaps you have been estranged from members of your family. Perhaps you’ve been disgraced. Perhaps you’ve disgraced yourself.

All of these things and more are the things for which Christ died. All disorders of body and soul, heart and mind have been made right by Jesus purchasing you and redeeming you from them by his own bloody death. That is why Jesus can speak so confidently when he says, “Your sorrow will turn into joy.” He knows that everything that causes sorrow has been defeated. He has defeated them.

Perhaps you are sad now. Perhaps you will be sad in the future. Either way you have Jesus’s promise. He speaks the truth. Thus you can be patient in your troubles while you wait for the Lord to keep his promises.

I’d like to close today with a Psalm that you might use to help you to pray in hard times. It is Psalm 130:

Let us pray:

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!

                O Lord, hear my voice.

                                Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,

                O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness,

                that you may be feared.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,

                and in his word I hope;

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning,

                more than watchmen for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love,

                and with him is plentiful redemption.

And he will redeem Israel

                from all his iniquities.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

                and to the Holy Spirit

as it was in the beginning,

                is now and will be forever. Amen.

210418 Sermon on Ezekiel 34:11-16 (Easter 3) April 18, 2021

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Sermon manuscript:

The relationship between shepherds and sheep is not a relationship of equality. Shepherds are one thing. Sheep are another. Their roles are not interchangeable.

It is also not the case that sheep need to have their say in what is going on. They are not asked for input on where they should go or what they should do. All the decisions, or at least all the good decisions, are made by the shepherd. I say “good decisions” because the sheep are able to wander away, get lost, and manage to get eaten by wolves. but none of these things are in the sheep’s best interests. All the good decisions are made by the shepherd who leads the flock into good grazing land, who keeps them safe from predators, and so on.

The Scriptures speak in several places about God being the Shepherd, and his people being sheep. For example, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters, he restoreth my soul.”

Then we have the readings we have heard this morning. In Ezekiel God says that he is the Shepherd who will seek out his sheep. Ezekiel was a prophet who lived later than most of the prophets that we are familiar with. He was a prophet while God’s people were at an exceptionally low point. Their nation had been decapitated. All their leaders had been taken away to live in Babylon. Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed. This was a time of clouds and thick darkness. But God would shepherd them.

In our Gospel reading Jesus says that this Shepherd who gets talked about in the Scriptures is him. He is the Shepherd whose rod and staff comfort you. He is the Shepherd who will gather his people from all the places where they have been scattered. Jesus knew Psalm 23. Jesus knew Ezekiel. He wasn’t pulling illustrations out of thin air when he says, “I am the Good Shepherd. … I lay my life down for the sheep.” So when the Scriptures speak about the Lord being the Shepherd, we need to know that is talking about Jesus.

I began today by speaking about the great inequality that exists between the shepherd and the sheep. Let’s apply this to our relationship with Jesus.

In our reading from Ezekiel, it is clear that Jesus’s sheep are not all neatly gathered together with a bow on top. God is emphatic as he preaches through Ezekiel. He says, “I, I myself will seek the welfare of my flock and carefully search for them.” The shepherd has work to do because of the way that the sheep are. One has gone over here. Another has gone over there. He pulls in these sheep wherever they might be found so that they may be safe under his protection.

This shows us that God is not the way that he is often understood to be. Oftentimes God is thought of as sitting alone on a throne very far away. It is up to us to make our way to him. We also do this with the idols we falsely worship. The god of success and personal glory sits high up on a throne very far away. It is up to us to work hard and never give up so as to make our way to him.

So, for example, those who choose to worship the God of athletic greatness have to do their prayers, listen to their Scriptures, and make their sacrifices every day. Their prayers are their dreams of success and glory. Their Scriptures are the motivational speakers they listen to, or the songs that they have put on their playlists. They listen to these Scriptures while they make their morning and evening sacrifices of punishing their body in the gym. Folks don’t think that this is worshipping gods, but as our Large Catechism says, “Whatever we cling to with our heart, that, for us, is our god.” So whatever we devote our heart, soul, strength and mind to—that obviously is our God, whether we recognize it or not.

Of course none of these idols, or false gods, actually exist. There is only one God. And he is very different than the false gods of people’s imaginations. In fact, it’s almost the opposite. False gods are always demanding more of us. Once you’ve made one sacrifice, another is required. Once you’ve given your heart to your dreams of glory, you also need to use your mind to get the right strategy and your will to carry it out. You are the one who is always active.

With the true God it is practically the opposite. Not one sparrows falls to the ground without God knowing of it and working it. All the hairs of your head are numbered. God gives daily bread to everyone, even to all evil people. Each and every day he gives us our food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. His mercies are new every morning, and great is his faithfulness. With all the goodness that is showered down upon us it is like he is shaking out a piggy bank of goodness every day, showering us with riches.

What you have did not come from you. You have not deserved it. If we wanted to talk about what you deserve, then we’d have to conclude that you deserve nothing but punishment. But God gives you all these things by grace, despite your sins.

“But what about all your hard work? What about all your achievements?” you might ask. Who gave you the ability to work? Do you really think you gave yourself this ability? And what of your achievements? You made your own success? There is some law of the universe that says you have to be rewarded? I think not. This too came from God. Paul says, “What do you have that has not been given to you?” The answer is “nothing.” The Lord is your Shepherd. You are the sheep. If you’ve found some good grazing land, it is because the Lord has led you there.

So it is not right for us to believe that we, with our various practices, are responsible for our own success. All success is given by God. To believe otherwise is to believe that your success has been given to you by some other god—even if that other god be yourself. But no other God exists besides the one and only true God.

This hold true also for spiritual things. Thus far we have mainly spoken of earthly things—things that have to do with our body and life. It is also true that all spiritual goods also come from God. What are spiritual goods? Defeating the devil and demons is a spiritual good. Being on good terms with God is a spiritual good. Having a true faith is a spiritual good. Being able to pray is a spiritual good. All these things and more come from the Good Shepherd just as truly as our daily bread comes from him.

It is very common for us to be deceived on this point. We take the kind of relationship that we have with idols, and we transfer it over to our relationship with God. Just as a person might dream big, destroy his body in the gym, and sacrifice every aspect of his life to attaining success and glory, so also we tend to think the same thing about our relationship with God. We tend to believe that we have to do everything in our power to be good, then God will like us. We have to do our part for God to do his part.

This, again, confuses the Shepherd with the sheep. It is not the sheep who find the Shepherd, but the Shepherd who finds the sheep. It is not our love for the Shepherd that draws us to him. It is the love of the Shepherd for us that makes him go out looking for us, or, to use the language in our reading from Ezekiel, to search diligently for us. He doesn’t just go on a leisurely stroll, and if he happens to find a sheep, then well and good. No, he searches diligently.

And notice how the Lord goes on and on about the nature of his searching and shepherding. He talks about how the sheep have been scattered, terribly scattered. He says, “I will seek the lost. I will bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured. I will strengthen the weak.” Why be so emphatic about Jesus’s activity? It is so that we do not think that Jesus only goes for the good ones.

Those people who are lost are lost because they have wandered off. Those people who have damaged themselves with their sins are damaged because of their own fault. The Law says that people should get what they deserve. Jesus, though, is the Good Shepherd. He lays down his life for the sheep. He doesn’t need to lay down his life for the sheep. He is under no compulsion to do so. He does it gladly. And why? So that we don’t get what we deserve. Jesus got what we deserve—namely, the punishment that should have been upon us. He died that we, the sheep whom he loves, can live. We belong to him. We hear his voice and follow him.

But how does Jesus do all this searching and finding, feeding and healing? He does it by the preaching of his Gospel. Last week we heard Jesus tell the apostles that whoever’s sins they forgive they are forgiven, whoever’s sins they retain are retained. In another place Jesus says, “Whoever hears you, hears me. Whoever receives you receives me. And whoever receives me, receives the One who sent me.”

So this means that the way that Jesus ordinarily finds and gathers together his sheep are by his Christians who speak his Word to those whom they come across. This also means that wherever the Word of God is put in use is a very special occasion indeed. It is very common for folks to think that a sermon or a conversation or a prayer are blasé and no big deal. It’s dismissed as mere church ritual. What is really going on is that God’s own Son is doing his work. He is particularly looking for those who are lost, sick, and weak. That is to say, those who know that they are sinners, those who are at the end of their rope, those who need to be comforted.

Those who believe that they have no need of the Jesus’s services are the ones who cannot be converted until they are brought low. These, also, are spoken of in our reading from Ezekiel. Perhaps you noticed it, because it is a little jarring. As we’ve been saying, God will seek out his sheep. He will find the lost, gather the strayed, bind up the injured, strengthen the weak. Then he says, “I will destroy the fat and the strong.” There is one gracious thing after another. Even sins and terrible failings are overlooked. Then there is this harsh judgment: The fat and the strong will be destroyed.

It is not as though these people are somehow automatically excluded. Jesus’s salvation—the way that he laid down his life for the sheep—is for absolutely everyone. Whoever hears the Gospel, no matter who the person might be or what the person might have done—whoever hears the Gospel may apply its forgiveness and salvation to himself or herself. But those who believe that they are fine on their own—the fat and the strong—will stay away. Those who are capable and strong in their own eyes cannot receive the Gospel.

It’s like what Jesus says when he weeps over Jerusalem. He had wanted to gather them together like a hen gathers her chicks, but they refused. They had no need for God’s Son. The prostitutes and tax collectors were willing to listen to Jesus, but not the chief priests and scribes.

Thus we find something strange about the Christian Church. Not many who are wise according to the flesh, not many who are strong, not many who are noble are found to be in the Christian Church. Those whose lives are all fine and dandy resist the preaching of Christ’s cross. They do not believe that they really need it. They believe they can get by without it. Accordingly they stay away from the Gospel. They stay away from the Sacrament of the altar, whereby the death of Christ is proclaimed until he comes. Wealthy, white suburbanites, and those who try to be like them, are too busy pursuing success in every aspects of their lives. They do not need the Good Shepherd—or so they believe. They have been blinded by the prince of this world.

Let that not be so for you. The Good Shepherd seeks you and has found you, even in your hearing of this message. I do not say this by my own authority, but with the authority that Jesus has given to me and to all Christians. Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven. Your Good Shepherd has laid down his life for you.

210411 Sermon on John 20:19-31 (Easter 2) April 11, 2021

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

On the evening of Easter Jesus appeared to his disciples. He said to them, “Peace to you.” We have a hard time grasping what Jesus says to us here. It is almost standard operating procedure for us to not think very highly of something when it does not seem to be needed. We don’t appreciate health until we are sick. We don’t appreciate good weather until we’ve had weeks of gray skies. So it is also with peace.

There’s another problem with peace: we use the word too much. The same thing happens with the word “love.” Using words a lot seems to degrade the meaning of them. We want world peace. We want peace for our times. The hippies had a peace sign. So what is peace? Is it being cool? Is it the advance of modern civilization? Is it non-violence?

Peace is a grand word, again, like the word “love.” Both of these words loom large in God’s plan. Heaven is a place of peace and love. Practically all the blessings that we use have the word “peace” in them. “Grace, mercy, and peace to you…” “The peace of God that surpasses all understanding…” “The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” All these blessings are actually quotations from Scripture. It is God’s will that you should have peace. That’s why he does what he does—so that his people may be blessed with peace. So peace is grand and heavenly.

At the same time peace is simple. Babies understand peace. When babies are hurt or frightened they cry in a certain way. It is a very sad thing when babies cry like that. We want to comfort them. And we are very thankful and joyful when that baby is blessed by peace. Mom picks him up and familiarity floods the baby’s senses. He knows the smell, he knows the feel, he hears the sound, he knows he’s safe. Peace is simple. At the same time it is profound.

Jesus says, “Peace to you.” Peace is bestowed upon the disciples by the Jesus whom they know. He shows them his hands, his feet, and his side. This is the same Jesus who hung on the cross and died. Now he is there, they know him, and he is giving them peace.

As far as how they felt, this was a great change and a great blessing. Prior to this they had no peace. Not only were they severely disturbed by what had happened to Jesus, whom they had thought was the Christ, but they were concerned for their own skin. The doors were locked for fear of the Jews. The peace that Jesus brought them was not unlike the peace that a mother gives her baby.

At the same time, Jesus’s peace is powerful. A person might wonder, how long is this peace going to last? Forever and ever. Do you see his hands and he feet? He died for your sin. He was raised for your justification. The apostle Paul says, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Things have changed.

God is no longer angry at us for our sins, having punished our sins in the Lord Jesus. Death has lost its sting. It is not the expression of terror and wrath that it otherwise would be as God’s punishment for our sin. This is because we are no longer under the Law. If we were under the Law, then it would howl and cry out for our punishment. If we were put on trial, and the things that we have done were brought up for judgment, then we would prefer that the mountains fall on us rather than face the shame. And we haven’t even said anything about the punishment that justice should demand. According to the Law there is only peace where the Law has been fulfilled. If the Law has not been fulfilled there is only wrath and punishment.

Along these lines let us notice again Jesus’s words and his actions. He says “Peace to you.” He doesn’t say “Wrath to you” or “Woe to you.”  If the Law and our actions were the deciding factor, then there would be no way for him to say “Peace to you.” He’d have to say, “Woe to you.” Honesty and truthfulness would demand it. But Jesus honestly and truthfully says, “Peace to you.” That is an authoritative word. He can say it, and he means it.

Then Jesus shows them the wounds of his crucifixion. Perhaps this is partly done so that they know that it is indeed Jesus. But there is more to it than that I think. Those wounds were created by God’s wrath for sin. As Paul says, “Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us.” Although he himself was sinless, he became sin, taking upon himself all of our sin—down to every single misdeed and every hidden, shameful thing. Then he was punished in our place.

It is almost as if he became the lightning rod and all of God’s wrath and punishment came crashing down upon him at the cross so that the impossible happened: God died. God died, so that we might live. Or, to use the language we are considering today, so that we may live in God’s peace.

John says that the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Indeed. They knew that Jesus loved them. If they had any doubt about that they had Jesus’s own words: “Peace to you.” This is also how you not only should face the prospect of seeing our Lord Jesus Christ, but it is how you must face that prospect. To do otherwise would be to call Jesus a liar when he says, “Peace to you.” He’s not lying. He really means it. He has the authority to say it. The wounds on his hands and his feet and his side are the proof that he’s paid for it.

Here let me say something about things I’ve preached and taught. I’m sure you’re well aware of it. I often and forcefully speak about the grandeur and awesomeness of God. I speak about how terrible it is to fall into the hands of the living God. I speak about how heaven is where God lives, and all our attention is going to be devoted to him. It is neither safe nor right to pretend that anybody can get away with ignoring God. I see this as a very common and fatally false opinion in our times and so I use every weapon I can to fight against it.

While this is all true, and I have no intention of taking any of it back, you must also believe what Jesus says to you today. Jesus’s words are at the heart of everything. It is the reason why the Father sent his Son. It is the reason why Jesus did all he did. It is the reason why Jesus does all that he does as he rules his kingdom from the right hand of God the Father. Jesus’s peace be unto you. Do not face the prospect of meeting God with dread. Do not face the prospect of meeting Jesus with dread. He is your friend. He loves you. He wants to be with you and he wants you to be with him. That is why he has reconciled you to God.

But, but, but what about my sins? I’m not ignoring your sins. I know some of you are some real hard-boiled sinners. I don’t care how hard-boiled you are, you are not stronger than Jesus. All sins have been atoned for, including all of your sins. It doesn’t matter how stinky or disgusting those sins might be. Jesus suffered and died for them.

The severity of this task is what made him stagger. He sweat blood when he prayed in the Garden. He couldn’t carry his own cross all the way to Golgotha. He was stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he attained the victory.

So I don’t intend to ignore your sin. That’s the old Adam’s way of dealing with sin. He buries it in the land of forgetfulness and hopes that it will never again rise to the surface. Your sins made Jesus suffer. God’s wrath was poured out upon him instead of upon you. But Jesus did this willingly and gladly.

It’s like how the old hymn goes: “A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth, the guilt of sinners bearing. And, laden with the sins of earth, none else the burden sharing; Goes patient on, grows weak and faint, to slaughter led without complaint, That spotless life to offer, He bears the stripes, the wound, the lies, the mockery and yet replies, ‘All this I gladly suffer.’”

So when Jesus says, “Peace to you,” you must know that he speaks the truth. Apply it to yourself. He wants you to apply it to yourself. That’s why he has brought you here to hear this Word in this Christian congregation. He wants you to believe it. He wants you to look forward to seeing him, face to face, and for you to have joy, just like these disciples had joy.

So with this first part of Jesus’s interaction with the disciples we have a cheerful and merry application of Easter, delivered to the disciples with the words, “Peace to you.”

Now let’s say a little bit about what he does after that. He repeats the words, “Peace to you.” Then he says, “As the Father has sent me, so also I’m sending you.” After this he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whenever you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven. Whenever you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” Here we have the work of the Christian Church very simply laid out for us. What are we to be about? Just as we have received the peace of Jesus, so also we are to pass that peace along to others.

There is one description of what the Christian Church is like that I think sums it up quite nicely: We are like beggars who tell other beggars where they can get good bread. Even the apostles were sinners. But God revealed to them that in Jesus there is peace. This is the very same thing that we speak to others.

Jesus tells the apostles that the sins they forgive are forgiven. The sins they do not forgive are not forgiven. This is the same thing that Jesus speaks of elsewhere when Peter makes the good confession that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus says, “To you are given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

All Christians, that is, all who make the same confession that Peter made—that Jesus is the Christ—have the keys. This is an authority that Christians have. They can authoritatively forgive, and it is truly God’s forgiveness. They can authoritatively bind sins, and those sins are bound. It is as Jesus says in another place, “He who hears you, hears me.”

And so all people better prick up their ears when Christians are speaking to them. The way that God generally deals with us is by speaking to us through his Christians. So if you are told to repent, and what is said is in accord with God’s Word, then you best repent. And if the pronouncement of forgiveness is spoken to you, then blessed are you when you believe it—you are truly forgiven.

This is the way that God wants to deal with us. He wants to deal with us sinners through other sinners who have been forgiven. He wants us to be baptized. He wants us to eat and drink his body and blood. If he wanted to deal with us in some other way, then surely he could. In fact, this is one of the reasons why people refuse to believe in Christ. They don’t want to believe in his humble ceremonies that deliver salvation with simple water and ordinary bread and wine. They don’t want to believe that God speaks through the sinful man, woman, or child who speaks authoritatively according to his Word. They want God to speak from heaven with thunder and lightning, then they would believe in him, so they think.

Well, it’s not really up to us to decide the way that God should want to do things. We are much better off simply believing what he has revealed. We should believe him, even when he speaks through lowly beggars.

In this regard we can finish up with the example of Thomas. Thomas didn’t want to believe the testimony his fellow apostles gave him. He proudly declared that he would never believe unless he smashed his fingers into Jesus’s wounds and shoved his hand into Jesus’s side. Jesus could have left him be with his unbelief. Don’t play games with God. Don’t put the Lord your God to the test. But Jesus did have mercy on him. He appeared a week later, and with the utmost gentleness urged Thomas not to disbelieve, but to believe. “Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet believed,” Jesus says. Blessed are you, therefore, when you believe.

Remember, though, that we shall not have to continue to believe without seeing forever. Now we believe without seeing, but one day we will be in basically the same position as Thomas was. We will see Jesus with our own eyes. He is your friend. He wants to be with you and he wants you to be with him. I wonder if we might then say, “My Lord, and my God!”

210404 Sermon for Easter, April 4, 2021

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There is a man named Elon Musk who is very busy. He owns and oversees several companies. Tesla and Space X are the most famous. For a brief time this year he surpassed Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, as the richest person in the world when his stock prices went way up. The reason why Elon Musk is so thoroughly believed in that people are prepared to throw their money at him is because he is so forward looking. He is looking for the next big thing.

There is one project of his that seems to be more along the lines of science fiction than what is actually possible. He’d like to make a direct connection between our brains and computer systems by implanting wires into our skulls. This would mean that we could control computers just by thinking. We wouldn’t have to use our fingers (which Elon Musk likes to call “meat sticks.”) This would give human beings even more power than they already have with our current, slow, keystroke by keystroke communication with computer systems.

It also opens up one more possibility that is relevant to Easter. This is where it seems to be really far out. If this project works as well as Elon Musk is hoping it will work, then human beings might be able to save their consciousness on machines. It would be like how we save documents and pictures on our computer or on the cloud. Perhaps it would eventually be possible to download consciousness to another body after this body wears out. A person could perhaps extend his or her consciousness indefinitely. The goal is eternal life.

This goal is an old one, and its predecessors have not worked out very well. About thirty years ago there were people who were very excited about cryogenics. This is where a body is put into a deep freeze in the hopes that eventually technology will advance to the point where they can be resurrected. Thus there are a few dozen bodies moldering away in freezers in a warehouse in California. The ancient Egyptians also believed that they could preserve a person’s body. They began the practice of embalming bodies several thousand years ago. Despite Hollywood, those mummies have never yet come back to life.

But even if these things could work and would work, the resurrection that they promise is still a far cry from the resurrection of Easter, and Jesus’s resurrection that is promised to those who are his. Those like Elon Musk, who are searching for eternal life, are looking for a mere continuation of this present life. There is no fundamental change that takes place. Things just continue on like they always have. The hope, even for those whose lives might be extended in this way, is to just make the most of it.

With Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, there are most certainly fundamental changes that make post-resurrection life very different from pre-resurrection life. Jesus’s resurrection was not just a return to “normal.” When you are resurrected, it also won’t be a return to “normal.” So today let’s explore what Jesus’s resurrection means and the way that it changes our life.

First of all, when Jesus died the devil was defeated. When Jesus rose, we were able to know that and make use of it. To speak about Jesus defeating the devil is about as fundamental as we can get when we are speaking about our life. The bible speaks of the devil as the prince of this world. He has many powers and authorities. Since we are born in sin, we naturally belong to him, and we serve him as we carry out his will. The change that took place in Adam and Eve with their fall into sin makes us all subject to the devil. And even when we have been converted and baptized, we find it all too easy to return to our submission to him.

But while we are weak, Jesus is strong. His death broke the devil’s power completely. The devil no longer has any real power. He has no rights over anyone. The only way that he has any power whatsoever is by lying. He has to steal people away from Jesus with his lies, falsely convincing them of what is not true. Because the truth is that all human beings and every individual belong to Jesus. He has purchased us, not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood, and with his innocent suffering and death. Atonement has been made. Justification of the ungodly has taken place. Jesus’s resurrection is proof of that.

Let’s explore how Jesus’s resurrection is proof of our justification. This is similar to the way that death was proof of Adam and Eve’s transgressions and God’s anger concerning that sin. When Adam sinned, a fundamental change took place. The Scriptures say: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.” Sin is the sting of death. It’s what brings it about. The power of sin is the Law. The reason why sin brings about death is because God says that in the day you eat of it, you will surely die. Or, as it says elsewhere, “The wages of sin is death.” Death is proof of God’s righteous anger against sin.

Resurrection, therefore, is proof of God’s approval. God the Father is well pleased with God the Son, Jesus Christ. Having judged, condemned, and punished the sins of the whole world in Jesus, the guilt is atoned for. The Father is pleased to raise him back to life. Jesus fulfilled what God’s Law demands for transgression. He died, even though he is God.

Thus God would now deal with us according to Jesus instead of according to the Law. Jesus has brought about reconciliation between God and mankind. In him we died and are raised. This is all Jesus’s doing. It is none of our doing. The Law is all about our own thoughts, words, and deeds. Our relationship with God doesn’t have that as the basis now that we are in Christ. If that were still the basis, then nobody would have God’s approval. But Jesus died for all, therefore all died. All died when Jesus died. All were raised when Jesus was raised. Through Adam came sin, then death. Through Christ comes righteousness, then everlasting life.

So let’s loop back again and relate what we have said to our question: What is the difference between life pre-resurrection and life post-resurrection? What does the defeat of Satan and God’s approval for Jesus’s sake have to do with how life has been changed? Already we can see that life has completely changed just by talking about life using these terms and ideas. We are not predisposed to think or talk or act this way.

When was the last time you told somebody that Jesus has defeated the devil? Has it been a while? When was the last time that you meditated on God’s perfect and wholehearted approval of you since you have been baptized into Christ? Has that been a while too? Well, then, what have you been doing with your time? All kinds of things, right? A goodly chunk of that stuff has probably been good too. You’ve done some work. You’ve enjoyed your friends and family. You’ve enjoyed the weather. We are preprogrammed to think that basically all the stuff besides God and the devil is the real stuff of life. Folks might go days and days, weeks or years, without thinking about the devil or God. They are too busy living their life.

The resurrection suddenly brings God to the forefront. All of a sudden life isn’t about money, entertainment, creating memories, or advancing civilization. Life is about you and the God who created you. We have a remarkable ability to pretend that God doesn’t exist. There are all kinds of clever resources out there to help further people along in that delusion too. But he does exist, and you will see him face to face. This is always either the best thing that has ever happened to somebody or the worst thing that has happened to somebody depending on whether they believe in the way, the truth, and the life that is Jesus Christ, or whether they believe the devil’s lies.

Either way, this life is going away. Nobody will be able to remain in this limbo, where a person can end up having a pretty nice life even while ignoring both God and the devil. The pleasures and richness of this life isn’t too bad. This is why Elon Musk and others are interested in perpetuating it, hopefully indefinitely. By the way, this is also the popular conception of heaven. Heaven is seen as a continuation of this life, with all the rules that we are familiar with in place—including an absence of the Holy God of the Bible.

But this in-between state, where we are free to enjoy God’s pleasures without having anything to do with him, will not go on. In fact, sometimes, God, in his mercy, will take away the pleasures of life so that we are less distracted by them. He did this with Job, who wrote what we heard in our Old Testament reading. He came about as face to face with God as anybody has in this life. A confession was squeezed out of him like juice from a winepress. But it is infinitely better to have a life like Job’s during this time of grace where a person can still repent, than to die comfortably in your bed, surrounded by loved ones, but believing that you can live a blessed life apart from God and his Christ.

Life will not be lived apart from Christ and apart from God. Just prior to where our Epistle reading picks up, Paul says, “Then comes the end, when Christ hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has done away with every other ruler and every other authority and power.” A little bit later he says, “Then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, in order that God may be all in all.”

The end point of all existence is that God will be “all in all.” All things are going to be brought into subjection to Christ. There won’t be independent existences out there where someone can safely ignore God, like they seemingly can do in this life. In fact, Jesus himself will subject himself to God so that, as Paul says, “God will be all in all.” How can we imagine that heaven will merely be a family reunion or a mere continuation of life as we have known it in this world? God will no longer be avoidable. He will be all in all.

This is bad news for all those who want to continue to live as though God doesn’t exist, or as though God has not revealed himself in Scripture, or as though God has not ultimately spoken to us by his Son, Jesus of Nazareth. It is bad news for all those who want to remain in darkness so that their evil deeds will not be exposed. But it need not be bad news.

From the beginning Christians have called this message not “bad news,” but rather, “good news.” That is what the word “Gospel” means. It means, “good news.” And the Gospel is good news, because it tells us what the will of God is towards us. God does not want us merely to continue on forever with this earthly existence. This earthly existence is not good enough. The goodness that is within it is all too easily perverted. Even the very best of things that we might enjoy in this life are always mixed with a little bit of evil. In the life of the world to come God is all in all. God is not evil. The evil, therefore, is no more.

We have not yet experienced this, so we can’t know what it is really like. We’ll have to wait until we meet God in heaven to begin to understand that. But we can and do already know something of God’s goodness. We know the goodness of being loved as a child. We know the goodness of loving as a parent. We know the goodness of laughing with friends. We know the goodness of being a man or being a woman. We know the goodness, even, of sexual relationships.

We also know that all of these good things get messed up and disordered. The evil one does all he can towards that. But God sets these things straight. By the blood of Jesus he cleanses. He heals. He sets you on the right path. That path will take you to that place where God is all in all. That is something to look forward to. Brace yourself, in fact, it is that good.

210403 Sermon on 1 Peter 3:17-18 (Holy Saturday) April 3, 2021

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Tonight I’d like to consider something that Peter says in our epistle reading: “Indeed, it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil, because Christ also suffered once for sins in our place, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”

First, I’d like to speak a little bit about suffering. We know from the Bible that suffering is the consequence of the fall into sin. With sin came death and everything that leads up to death, including pain, sickness, and disease. Psychological and spiritual suffering came with the fall—the worst of which is the feeling of alienation from God. There is also emotional suffering.

Right from the get-go human beings have tried to alleviate suffering to the greatest extent that they could. Right after Adam and Eve sinned they tried to alleviate their shame by making some clothes for themselves. From that time forward we have applied all the gifts and abilities that God has given to us to eliminate suffering wherever we might find it. One invention after another has reduced our toils and troubles and pains and sickness. Just think about it. We don’t have to walk anywhere. With our HVAC systems we are never cold nor hot. Gadgets and devices of all kinds make it so that we never have to exert ourselves while doing chores. There are also all kinds of drugs that can address disease, pain, and even our moods.

Now there is nothing unclean about these things unless they contradict God’s commandments. They can all be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. We shouldn’t deliberately shun them like the Amish do. There’s nothing in God’s Word that says we should do that. However, let’s not pretend that this way of living hasn’t had a powerful effect on us. When we are trained from the moment of our birth that suffering is bad and it must be eliminated, then it will be much harder to believe what the Bible says.

For example, Jesus says that we are to take up our cross and follow him. The cross was the Roman government’s way of inflicting capital punishment in a particularly painful way. It was reserved for slaves and non-citizens. Capital punishment for Roman citizens was beheading—a much quicker and less painful way to die. So Jesus is calling us to a life of suffering.

But this is not a life of suffering simply for suffering’s sake. It’s not like everything gets turned upside down where suffering is good and joy is bad. Suffering is still sad and hard, but it can be blessed, good, and holy. Suffering is also not something that we should go out of our way to find. Peter says, “it is good to suffer, if it is God’s will.” Again, I might mention the Amish. God is not better pleased with us if we use some gadget or don’t use some gadget. We should not make up good works for ourselves, and then feel good about the suffering that those self-chosen works might cause us. That is not suffering for doing good.

But God will, indeed, give us our crosses to bear if we are his disciples. These normally come in our everyday walk of life. God puts us all in families. Inevitably there will be hard times in those families. How do you react when you are mistreated? Do you forgive? Or do you seek some kind of payback? Or, what is much more common, we will rationalize our payback by convincing ourselves that we are teaching them a lesson. If we allow this one irritation to pass, then we’ll become a doormat, so we better teach them a lesson.

So everybody teaching everybody else a lesson with their sour faces, sharp responses, and tit for tat. Of course, these things can easily grow until we hate each other. It doesn’t need to be this way though. If we would only cover up the faults of our loved ones and let the mistreatment roll off our back, there wouldn’t be these blazing fires. Also, all along the line, if either party will only humble themselves, and quit teaching the other a lesson, how quickly the fire would be knocked down! Peter, a little later in this letter, says: “Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.”

Another area in our life where we must not shrink from suffering is in our good confession of our God. Bearing up under this kind of suffering is harder than suffering with your family or job. Suffering in your family or job will lead to you being blessed in an obvious way. When a person suffers for confessing what is true, it doesn’t look like it is going to be worth it.

Consider Daniel. When Darius made the law that nobody could pray to anybody except him Daniel had several options available. Instead of praying to his God like he was accustomed to doing—in broad daylight, with the windows open, facing Jerusalem, three times a day—he could have shut his windows. He could have prayed at night. He could have not prayed at all. If he would have done any of these things (and we could probably come up with a bunch more—even some cleverer ones) he wouldn’t have gotten in trouble—at least not from his wicked, jealous colleagues. Of course, this would have not been pleasing to God, which is always more important for anybody’s welfare. But that can be hard to see and believe when you are being escorted to the lion’s den.

Daniel did not let his fear control him, and as you heard, great good was worked thereby. God was glorified in that suffering. People were blessed through it.

So when you are with your friends and your family and they contradict God’s Word and speak evil of it, what are you going to do? When people denounce Christians for being hate-filled or bigoted or narrow-minded, who are you going to pick? Will you be faithful to God or will you pick your friend? Or will you close your window, keep your mouth shut, and let the storm pass?  We are predisposed to think that these little conversations are no big deal. They are here and gone before you know it. But isn’t this precisely what Peter must have thought when that servant girl was asking him if he wasn’t one of those guys from Galilee who were following Jesus?

Again, this same Peter learned something from that I’m sure. Just before our reading tonight he says: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that is in you. But speak with gentleness and respect, while maintaining a clear conscience, so that those who attack your good way of life in Christ may be put to shame because they slandered you as evildoers.”

So when people say that we hate gay people, or we hate women, or we are judgmental, or we hate having fun, or we hate people living their life, respond firmly but with gentleness and respect. You should notice that Daniel did not kick up a big fuss. Jesus did not kick up a big fuss either, when they were asking him all those trick questions during his trial. He answered what he could. He didn’t take their bait so as to fly off the handle.

But perhaps the most important thing, with whatever suffering might come upon us, is that we not be afraid. We have to remind ourselves that God exists and that he is in control. You might not be able to see how on earth you can make it through the trial without disaster, but that is not really your concern. Did Daniel know that God’s angel would hold shut the mouths of the lions while they prowled around him? The way that the salvation comes is usually not known until it actually happens.

So also with the crosses that God places upon you. It might seem impossible that the suffering that takes place in your family can have a good outcome. That’s not really up to you to decide. God will do that. You just be faithful and watch yourself, so that you are doing what is right. When friends or family mock Christ and his Church, it might seem like a lost cause. But it is not we who convert. It is the Holy Spirit who converts. But he always does it through his Word. He does not do it with the stuff we make up that sounds better as it soft pedals and manipulates.

When you are afraid of suffering for doing what is good, remember that God cannot fail to bless you in such a situation. After all, it is right at the heart of his own love. Remember the latter part of the passage that we have been looking at: “Indeed, it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil, because Christ also suffered once for sins in our place, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”

When you suffer for doing good you are following the pattern of our Lord Jesus Christ. The greatest possible good was brought about by his suffering. He brought you, though you were unrighteous, to God. When you suffer as a Christian, Jesus is with you. God will bring about good from it, even though you probably won’t be able to see how. Nonetheless, believe. He will bring about the good outcome in his own good time, as we see throughout the whole Bible. The Lord will provide.

210402 Sermon on 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (Good Friday) April 2, 2021

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I remember one of my seminary professors telling the classroom of future pastors that Good Friday is not a funeral for Jesus. That is to say, it is not an opportunity to open the vein of sentimentality and let it gush all over everything. There is a way of observing Good Friday where we feel good about feeling so bad about what happened to Jesus. In a way we hold up a mirror, while watching the sad scene with Jesus, to look at our own tears streaming down. The conclusions we draw is that we must be rather tenderhearted and good people—after all, just look how sad we are.

Luke tells us in his Gospel about Jesus’s surprising response to some sentimental women who were following him while he was carrying his cross to Golgotha. It says, “A large crowd of people was following Jesus, including women who were mourning and wailing for him. Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. Be sure of this: The days are coming when they will say, “Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never gave birth, and the breasts that never nursed.”’”

In this way Jesus ruined their pity party. They were having a nice time feeling sorry for the man, and then he has to make himself so unpitiable. What a jerk! I bet their tears dried up real quick.

There is a different conclusion that we should draw on Good Friday than that we are ever so tenderhearted. Paul says in our reading, “We have come to this conclusion: One died for all; therefore, all died.” This is a very different conclusion. Instead of feeling like pretty good people, who have gone out of their way on this Good Friday, to attend Jesus’s funeral and to feel bad about he has been mistreated, we are confronted with this stark claim that we have died. And why have we died? Because we were irredeemable.

God says in Jeremiah 17:9 that the human heart is deceitful beyond measure. It cannot be cured. It cannot even be understood. Feeling good about yourself for how you are feeling bad about something is crazy. But it is just part and parcel of our standard operating procedure. Our flesh is always looking for its own advantage. It looks at something or someone and says, “What can I use you for?” Thus we might look at the cross of Christ. Can I somehow get an emotional reaction out of this? I’ve seen many an individual at a funeral who resents the preaching of glad tidings of great news. It interrupts their feasting on their own sadness that they had been enjoying.

Or how about how we snarl and snap and bite at our God when he tells us to do something good. As children we would get enraged at our parents for telling us to do something—some chore or whatever. That is sheer madness! Why should we resent it when what they are telling us to do is good and helpful? All of God’s commandments are for our good. So why do we get ticked off when he tells us we should pray to him or that we should not despise preaching and his word, but gladly hear and learn it? And when he tells us that we should be faithful to the spouse whom God has given us? Or that we should be content with the wealth that he has given us? Or that we should be generous and help others? Why do we hate God so much?

It is as the Bible says that our heart is desperately wicked. It’s so wicked that we will never get to the bottom of it. And so don’t allow yourself the cheap luxury of believing that you are a pretty good person for how bad you feel about everything that happened to Jesus. That is a lie. What you are looking for is some proof within yourself that you must be one of the good ones. After all, just look at the tears. Do not allow yourself to draw that conclusion.

Consider, instead, the conclusion that Paul makes: “One died for all; therefore, all died.” You hate God so much, and, specifically, you hate God’s commandments so much, that there was nothing else that could be done with you. You had to be put down. That was the only way to get rid of the addictions, the hatred, the lying, that is to say, the flesh. The flesh, the Old Adam, cannot enter the kingdom of God. It cannot be in heaven, if, for no other reason, than that it hates God and everything he is and does and stands for.

So it is not bad news, but tremendously good news, that we have died. Even if we weren’t raised again, it would still be good news, because the evil would have been put down and done away with. But, of course, God did not leave us dead. He raised Jesus from the dead. And Paul tells us why.

Let me continue on with the quotation that we’ve been dealing with: “We have come to this conclusion: One died for all; therefore, all died. And he died for all, so that those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for him who died in their place and was raised again.” Then, a little later he says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come!”

Christ died for all, but not everybody is in Christ. That is to say, not everybody is baptized; not everybody believes in him. But, if anybody is in Christ, that person is a new creation. How so? In all kinds of ways, especially when the end comes and our bodies are changed, but Paul mentions just one thing. He says that we are a new creation so that “we would no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died in our place and was raised again.” Let’s deal with that first part first: “So that we would no longer live for ourselves.”

No longer living for yourself is a wonderful thing. It opens up the possibility (that otherwise cannot exist because of our flesh) of truly loving others instead of just yourself. It opens up the possibility of being obedient. It allows us to submit to God’s order of things. The Holy Spirit brings this about, giving us his gifts, and thereby sanctifying us. We return to being human beings who are happy, who are blessed.

Let me give you a purely natural example to help explain a little bit of what I’m talking about. The average person looks back fondly on their childhood. Why is that? I would argue that the biggest reason why that is true is because little children are blissfully un-self-conscious. They wake up, they play, they eat, they laugh, they go to bed and do it all over again the next day.

But right around age 8 or so they start to look in the mirror. They start to compare themselves to others. How do they stack up as far as beauty is concerned, as far as smarts are concerned, as far as strength is concerned? And everybody wants to make love to what they see in the mirror. They want to be the greatest at everything. And when they aren’t the greatest they are sad. Their sadness and shame lead them into tearing down others and trying to build themselves up. They look at anything and everything—even their nearest and dearest—and think to themselves, “What can I use you for?” This is such a change from our younger years when we would play with anyone. Or, to use the phrase we heard from Paul, “we lived much less for ourselves” in those days compared to when we got older and more corrupt.

But, as I mentioned, this is only a natural example. It is observable in people whether they are Christians or not. With the Holy Spirit we are not only set free from the slavery of living our lives for ourselves, we are also given the gift of living our life for the One who died in our place and was raised again. This is a revolution in what life is all about. All the old standards fall by the wayside. All the old measurements of greatness are, as Paul says, “crap.”

Greatness is loving the Lord Jesus, taking up your cross, and following him. Greatness is loving God and loving the people whom God has placed into your life. The more you forget about yourself, the less you measure yourself, the better. There is no need to measure yourself. Because you are a child of God. You have died and been raised again. You are a new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come. You have been reconciled to God through the cross of Christ.

This is already the best life that can be lived in this old world, even though it is burdened with sufferings and troubles, just as Jesus suffered and was troubled. In the life of the world to come, though, it only gets better and better. Our old Adam, the world, and the devil no longer get in the way and make us falter and fail like we do in this age.

This whole new life was opened up for us on a Friday afternoon some 2,000 years ago. Thus it has the altogether fitting name of “Good Friday.” I suppose that is an understatement if there ever was one. Strangely God had so much mercy on us wretched and wicked creatures that he sent his Son to become one of us and to die in our place. Having died and been raised in Jesus a life of goodness and mercy stretches out before us as far as the eye can see. Even the death of our earthly bodies cannot put a stop to it, or even hinder it. In fact, it helps, for then our sinful selves are done away with, and our bodies await the pure resurrection.

So this is no funeral for Jesus. If anything it’s the opposite. Today he won the costly victory, specifically in his death. Thus we sing: “Thousand, thousand thanks shall be, dearest Jesus unto thee.”

210401 Sermon for Maundy Thursday, April 1, 2021

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Calendars go together with culture. They help to reinforce the culture. For example, on July 4^th, we could ask our neighbor, “Don’t you know what day it is?” And they could probably tell you. It’s Independence Day. What happened on this day? The Declaration of Independence from Great Britain was signed in 1776. It was the birth of our nation as an independent entity.

Besides national events and national culture, there are also more personal calendars. We remember the days of births. We remember anniversaries. Remembering marks the person and event as something special.

In our Old Testament reading today we learned about a festival that the Lord himself instituted for his people, the Israelites. The Lord told Moses and Aaron that they were getting a whole new calendar. That month was going to be the beginning of the year. On the tenth day they were to choose a yearling lamb. They were to keep it with them until the fourteenth day. Then they were all to slaughter the lambs at sunset. The blood of the lamb they were to put on the sides and tops of the doors. They were to eat the lamb roasted, whole, over a fire. They were to eat it in haste. That is because they were on their way out. That night the final and worst of the ten plagues against Egypt would come down upon their heads. The Angel of the Lord would strike down the first born in all the houses that were not protected by the blood of the Lamb.

So, in a way, this was the Israelite’s Independence Day, although that is entirely the wrong word for it. If anything it’s their “dependence day.” From that day forward they would be dependent upon the Lord their God. But it was the beginning of their nation as a separate entity. They were liberated from their slavery in Egypt. They became God’s own nation, royal priests, the only nation whom God chose out of all the rest.

As you heard, at the end of the reading, God tells the Israelites to make use of this day on their calendar. They were to celebrate it every year as a memorial of what happened.

And so it came to pass that the Lord Jesus and his disciples were observing the festival of Passover on Thursday of Holy Week so many years ago. They were gathered together in an upper room that had wonderfully been prepared for them in advance. It is in the midst of this meal that Jesus instituted what we call the Lord’s Supper.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: “Take, eat; this is my body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup after supper, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying: “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Perhaps you can see the similarities to the Old Testament festival of Passover. Passover was a memorial of what God did for the Israelites in Egypt. Jesus speaks of the Lord’s Supper as a memorial. Of his body he says, “This do in remembrance of me.” Of his blood he says, “This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” Thus this supper is a memorial of Jesus, and what God would do to him and through him such a short time after this. Less than 24 hours after Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, he would be lying in a tomb, dead—the Lamb of God that had been sacrificed for the sins of the world.

But the Lord’s Supper is also different than a memorial. With a memorial everybody understands that the thing that had been done is not really there when it gets remembered. The lambs that the Israelites sacrificed on the Passovers following that original Passover were not the same lambs whose blood was painted on the doors of their houses. On July 4^th there isn’t a new declaration of independence that is written up and signed. On birthdays the person is not born again. On anniversaries the couple is not married again. The event lies in the past, perhaps even somewhat covered in dust. Then, every year, it is taken out again and the dust is blown off by the remembering of it.

Jesus’s words are quite different. He says, “This bread is my body. It is given for you.” These verbs are in the present tense. Furthermore, he says, “for you.” For whom? Just for the disciples who were there on that night? No, because Jesus tells them that they are going to repeat this supper, and we know that it was repeated with larger numbers than just the 12. So the “you” that Jesus is speaking of is Christians, his disciples—you—however many there might be, or wherever they might be. Whenever this is done, that bread is his body.

The same thing is true also of the cup. The verbs are in the present tense. It is his blood that is shed for you. Furthermore, this blood forgives your sins. This is quite different from a mere commemoration. There is something that actually takes place in the Lord’s Supper. Namely, Jesus’s body is eaten. Jesus’s blood is drunk. All our sins are forgiven according to the new testament that God has established with us in Jesus’s blood.

The Lord’s Supper is also different from merely a commemoration in the way that it is supposed to be used. If this were only a commemoration of Jesus’s death, then it would make sense that it should only be done once a year. Passover is celebrated once a year. Birthdays are celebrated once a year. Jesus instituted this supper on a specific day. He died on a specific day. But Jesus does not tell the disciples to have the Lord’s Supper only once a year. He tells them that however often they do it, they should do it in remembrance of him. It is quite probable that in the apostolic church the Lord’s Supper was offered every Lord’s day, that is, every Sunday, and perhaps other days besides. There is no regulation that we have to do it on Thursday or Friday or Sunday. However often we might do it, we are to do it in remembrance of Jesus.

In our Epistle reading, the apostle Paul is speaking about the Lord’s Supper. He says that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. This gives us some insight as to why the Lord’s Supper is different from a mere memorial, and why it isn’t observed only once a year or on certain days. The Lord coming again is the purpose of the sacrament. How can we be prepared for the Lord’s coming? Only by the Lord’s sacrificial death—the body of which and the blood of which we eat and drink in the sacrament.

And when is the Lord coming again? No one knows the day nor the hour. So how can we assume that there will be another Maundy Thursday, another year, that we can observe? Even if the Lord might not come in his glory for all people, it might very well be the end of the world for you. Jesus might come for you. This could be the last Maundy Thursday for any one of us. How can we be found worthy and well prepared for whenever that might happen? There is only one way. It is by the death of Christ, by his holy body and blood that was offered on the cross.

Thus, for Christ’s coming, there is no better way to be prepared than by receiving and believing the promises that Jesus makes in the sacrament: This is his body, given for you. This is his blood, shed for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins. Believe this and you have exactly what the words say. In this way—by faith in Jesus’s words—you are worthy and well prepared to receive the Sacrament.