220330 Sermon on Jesus being King (Lent 4 midweek) March 30, 2022

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We are continuing our series tonight on the witnesses of Christ with the person of Barabbas. There is not much more known about Barabbas than what you heard tonight. The crowd asked Pilate to release Barabbas instead of Jesus.

Barabbas is called a robber. We tend to use the word “robber” and “thief” somewhat interchangeably. There is a difference, however. A robber uses violence to take away your stuff whereas a thief uses stealth.

The only other thing we know about him is that he was involved in a revolt, and that he had committed murder during that revolt. The word for “robber” in Greek can also be used to describe a “revolutionary.” That is why the translation we heard tonight called Barabbas a “rebel.” He was probably part of a group of Jews who resented the foreign occupation of the Romans. They wanted to be free to have their own Jewish state like they used to have back in the days of David and Solomon.

This brings up something that is in the background of the New Testament that we don’t often talk about, but is nevertheless important. It is important in Jesus’s trial before Pontius Pilate. And that is that the Jews really hated the Romans.

They had some good reasons to hate the Romans. The Romans were the big bullies of the ancient world. They acted as though they owned the planet. The Romans thought that they and their culture were better than everybody else’s. They would set up places to worship the Roman state and the Roman gods all over the place. They even tried to do this with the Temple in Jerusalem. A couple Sundays ago you heard about how Pilate had killed some Jewish worshippers in their very act of worship. Unless you were on the Roman government’s payroll, if you were a Jew, you probably didn’t have any time for the Romans.

With all this dissatisfaction in the air, it isn’t surprising that there would be movements afoot to throw off the hated Roman yoke. This is an important force at work during the time of Jesus. It’s even important for how people saw Jesus and the hopes they might have placed in him. Some placed earthly hopes in him. It was earthly hopes that made people most interested in Jesus. The only thing that worries Pontius Pilate is that Jesus claims to be some kind of king. Jesus being king is what was written over Christ’s cross: “Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.”

There was a lot of interest in revolution at that time. Barabbas was a revolutionary. He is a true believer in the Jewish state. He believes in it so much that he is happy to be violent and hard about it. He had taken life in his quest for a free Jewish state.

Ultimately the Jewish thirst for independence is going to be the means by which God brings down his heavy hand upon the Jews who rejected the Christ. About 20-30 years after Jesus was crucified, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, the political agitators were finally able to get a powerful enough movement together. The Jews pushed the Romans out and took over in that territory. However, soon the Romans came back and they absolutely destroyed the place. Not one stone was left upon another. The slaughter and misery was unprecedented. The temple was destroyed in 70 A. D. like Jesus said it would. It has never been rebuilt to this very day. The Jew’s hatred of the Romans would have dramatic repercussions.

So during Pilate’s examination, he is especially interested in understanding what kind of man he is dealing with. Pilate was the Roman governor. What is this Jew, Jesus, really about? Is he a political threat? Is he one of the insurrectionists?

Our reading tonight clearly shows that Pilate did not think much of Jesus. Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” (a very important question to him).

Jesus responded, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here.”

“You are a king then?” Pilate asked.

Jesus answered, “I am, as you say, a king. For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilate responded, “What is truth?”

Immediately after that Pilate goes out to the Jews and tells them that Jesus is not guilty. The implication, as far as Pilate is concerned, is that Jesus is not guilty, he’s just crazy.

Jesus, to Pilate, is a nobody. He doesn’t even have the Jewish officials on his side. His disciples are a bunch of poor fishermen. He comes from the sticks of Galilee. He imagines that he can command an army of angels if he were so inclined. If there was one thing that was certain to Pilate, it was that Jesus was no king, regardless of what he might say.

He has lots of fun at Jesus’s expense in this regard. He dresses him up kind of like a king. He has the title written on Jesus’s cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.” The soldiers at the cross make fun of him, “How’s it going up there king? How’s that throne feeling?” They think that Jesus’s kingdom is nothing other than a figment of his own imagination.

The shortest creed, or statement of faith, for us Christians is that Jesus is the Christ. That is to say, “Jesus is the king.” The very heart of our faith is that Jesus is the king. However, it is very easy for us to act as though Jesus’s kingdom is imaginary so far as we are concerned too. Other things in life can seem to be vastly more important. Politics, economics, progress—these are the hard and fast, truly important subjects. What does Jesus’s kingdom have to do with such things? Seemingly nothing. And so maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on those folks who were crying out for Barabbas. Maybe we would do the same thing.

Think about it. If you were interested in the welfare of your nation, if you were interested in independence and freedom, if you wanted to take a chunk out of the evil-doers of the human race, which of these two, Jesus or Barabbas, would appear to be the more effective superficially speaking? Barabbas was a Jewish patriot. He had shed blood in defense of his country. Jesus appears to be nothing other than a distraction. He’s getting the people to think about other things besides the Jewish independence movement. He’s pointed out the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders. He is not making the nation stronger. He’s making it weaker. These are things that could be said about Christ and his Christians up to this very day, and there is an element of truth to it.

As Christians it is important for you to understand that you already have a king. You already have a God. There are many high and noble things that might want you to follow them with your whole heart, but you have already given your heart to another. Christ is king of an eternal kingdom that is not of this world. You are members of this kingdom. Jesus reigns and rules in the hearts of his people by his Holy Spirit from the right hand of God the Father. This kingdom takes precedence over everything else.

Jesus says, “Seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you as well.” People understandably have earthly concerns. We are concerned about our government, our society, our family, our job, what have you. We do not do well when we make these things our gods. They were never meant to be gods. They are created things that are here today and gone tomorrow, even though they are very important. To our flesh they appear to be the most important things.

The most important thing to us, however, is Jesus of Nazareth, king of Jews. The most important thing to us is the cross upon which that title was placed. God the Father sent his Son on a mission which culminated in this cross. It is at the cross, and the battle that was fought there by our king, that we were won for his kingdom. We think politics, economics, and so on are the big and important things. That is only because we are so near-sighted that we are almost blind. We care about the things that are passing away. The bigger and more important things are the eternal things—our relationship with God, whether we are holy or unholy, whether we know the truth, or whether we sneeringly say with Pilate: “What is truth?”

Jesus truly is king. He came. He conquered. He reigns and rules in the hearts of his people from the right hand of God the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. Jesus is at his most glorious when he is suffering in our place at the cross. God suffered for his creatures. God suffered for you. Let the world have its Barabbases. You put your trust in the king whose kingdom is not of this world.

220327 Sermon on Pride as the Queen of Sins (Lent 4) March 27, 2022

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There is a very old Christian saying: “Pride is the queen of sins.” Pride is at the top. It is unimaginably damaging and sinister. Pride is worse than other sins. It is worse than visiting prostitutes. It is worse than wasting all your money. It is the biggest factor in people failing to fear, love, and trust in God. Pride is a hardening and contributing factor to other sins. I suspect that 99% of the people who go to hell are proud. Only 1% are broken and in despair like poor Judas. There is no greater hindrance to saving faith. It is therefore useful for Christians to learn about pride.

We will consider how pride fights against the keeping of the Ten Commandments with its two tables of the Law. Then we will see how God breaking our pride is a God-sent. There is no better preparation he can give us for believing in the Gospel.

We will begin with pride and the commandments. Pride fights against the first three commandments, the first table of the Law, the commandments that have to do with God. At its root, pride is worship of one’s self. The first commandment says that we are only to worship the Lord our God. Worshipping the Lord our God is unnatural for us. It is natural for us to worship ourselves.

Pride and self-worship afflicts all human beings—young and old, good and bad, those in high places and those in prisons. Smart, beautiful, rich, charming, honorable—glittering specimens of the human race—these people can’t help but gaze in the mirror and be happy with what they see. You might think that these supermen and superwomen have good reason to be proud. We are even taught that we are supposed to strive to be like them, then we can worship ourselves too. But you should know better than that.

What does anybody have that has not been given to him or her? There is nothing that anybody has which has not been given by the Creator. Just to prove that point, when God is gracious, he will sometimes take away those gifts. Until he does that, though, we believe in ourselves. We believe in our smarts, our hard work, our savings, our respectable life, and so on. We believe that we are entitled to blessings and happiness because of what we have and how we have acted. Believing in yourself is very different than believing in the Lord your God. It is a contradiction of the first commandment.

Very quickly I’d like to mention how pride fights against the second and third commandments. Pride causes us to not make use of the Name of the Lord our God. When things are going swimmingly, when we are super-duper awesome, what use have we for prayer?

It is a similar story with the third commandment. What use has a person for God’s Word when they are doing fine on their own, thank you very much? God’s Word is boring. Plus it doesn’t appear to increase wealth, physical fitness, or make anybody get ahead in life. For that the proper books of study are self-help books. Those are the kinds of books that will make you fabulously wealthy or healthy, that is to say, blessed.

Pride is also very destructive for keeping the second table of the law, the commandments that have to do with our fellow human beings. Pride makes us worship ourselves, and we would like it if everyone else would join in on that worship of us too. We’d like to be recognized as the glittering specimens of humanity that we are. Everyone wants to be the smartest, the prettiest, the wealthiest, the strongest, and so on.

Thus we must make our case accordingly. Everybody else has to be degraded, while we have to be promoted. I am not primarily talking about how we speak out loud to one another. We were all taught that this kind of thing is impolite. It will hamper you on your way to the top. I’m talking about how we converse within ourselves in our soul.

If you think about it (normally we do not think about it), but if you think about it, it is appalling what we say within ourselves. We render the harshest judgments. Nobody is spared. Everybody else is doing it wrong. You, and you only, are doing it right. You’ve made judgements about me, and I’ve made judgements about you. If we were to make all the horrible internal dialogue that we engage in public—if we actually told other people what we have thought of them—we wouldn’t have any friends!

We render harsh judgments internally even with those we like and love the best—our best friends, our brothers and our sisters. Think of this even: We do this with our spouse—the one with whom we are one flesh! If we didn’t hold back and keep private the judgments that we make the divorce courts would be even busier than they already are.

Understand that I am not advocating that we should make our private, evil judgments public. They are already more public than they should be. As we grow up sin grows up too. We learn how to make our evil judgments public, but in a subtle way. That way we can continue on with our evil, but won’t get called out for it. Thus we learn how to make public our judgments with raised eyebrows, with snubbing actions, with double-weighted words. If only we could shut up these more subtle things like we’ve learned how to keep our mouths from speaking plain judgements! We would have a pleasanter place to live. So I’m not advocating that we should make our evil internal dialogue public. What I’m pointing out is that we are evil.

Our pride makes us evil. We are easy on ourselves and hard on others. The way it should be is the other way around. We should be hard on ourselves and easy on others. We hate—and I mean hate—it when anything negative is pointed out about us. We secretly love it when negative things are pointed out about others. We love to hear good things about us. We get bored when we hear good things about others.

The world thinks that we have made so much progress. We know so many things about so many things. We have made zero progress, however, when it comes to the most important thing that makes us all miserable. We’ve made zero progress in combating pride. In fact, all our progress in other areas has only made us prouder. Not only do most people consider pride not to be a sin, they consider it to be a virtue. Books get written, curricula in schools get formulated, for the very purpose of making us prouder. And this is some teaching that we can all really get behind, because it is the very thing that our flesh can’t get enough of.

Pride is the queen of sins.

In order to slaughter this queen God has been known to take some drastic actions. If God is gracious he will humble us. If we are wise we will use this for our benefit.

Consider what we heard in our Gospel reading today. The worst thing that could have happened to that younger, prodigal son would be that somehow, some way, the money kept flowing in. Maybe he made some good investments or something so that he could continue on with his enjoyable lifestyle. He would have continued with his spiritual slumber while having a good time.

For him God’s wrath was God’s mercy. God stripped him to the bone. God broke his pride. He was ready and willing to accept a whole different arrangement with his father than he had before. Before he proudly asked his father for his inheritance so that he could be done with him. After God broke his pride he was willing to work as one of his father’s hired hands. In this way he was prepared to receive the grace and mercy of his father and appreciate it.

The older brother, on the other hand, did not have his pride broken. Furthermore, this older brother went further. He wrapped up his pride with pious looking clothes and pious sounding phrases. Thereby he doubly insulated himself from actually being converted like his little brother was. He doesn’t think he has done anything wrong. He can’t think of any sin. And perhaps we can grant him that in a very limited sense. Perhaps we can grant that he hasn’t done too much wrong—outwardly.

Outwardly he has followed the rules somewhat. Outwardly he has obeyed his father somewhat. But how are things inwardly? We actually catch a glimpse of that at the end of the reading. The older brother hates everybody. He hates his father. He hates his brother. He thinks his father is stingy and mean—not even giving him a goat, to say nothing about a rich and tender grain-fed calf! And then, who does he give such nice gifts to? His good-for-nothing brother. He probably wasted all his money on prostitutes! I’ve never wasted my money on prostitutes. I deserve everything I have and more.

The example of this older brother is of special concern to us who gather around God’s Word and Sacraments. People who live to pursue pleasure will go to hell. I’m sure this makes the devil happy. But I wonder if it doesn’t make him even happier if he is able to take people to hell who are life-long members of congregations who come to church every Sunday. I have to believe this gives him more pleasure. We are people who are surrounded by the riches of the Father. “Everything that is mine is yours,” he says. And yet by our pride and judgments of others, while neglecting judgment of ourselves, reveal our true colors. We show to whom we belong.

If you cannot empathize with any and every sinner, then you are no Christian. If you believe that you are above other people, then you are no Christian. You must understand yourself to be a full member of the common class of “sinner.” I’m not urging you just to pretend that you are a sinner, or that you should just say it so as to please me. Pretending or faking won’t cut it. You must understand and believe that you are not better than anybody else.

Supposing that you were better, supposing that you did manage to keep every other commandment, pride is still the queen of sins. This finely dressed lady will drag you down into hell just as surely as any other sin that doesn’t wear as nice of clothes. That’s what makes her so tricky. She doesn’t look half as bad as more grotesque things. However, there is no worse commandment to break than the first one. Whenever we compare ourselves to others and sing our own praises, we are worshipping ourselves.

May God be gracious to us and continue to break our pride until we have safely made it into the grave. Pride attacks everyone. Old people do not outgrow it. In fact, old people only grow more prone to pride. There is no other sin that is so destructive to faith. This is why it rightly has been said to be the queen of sins.

I’d like to close with yet another Christian saying that I have gotten from somebody else, who said that he got it from yet another. He said, “The task of evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to get bread.” Beggars can’t be too proud. Christians are beggars. The only difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that the Christian has been told where there is a heavenly Father who will run out to greet us, throw his arms around our neck, kiss us, put a robe on us, a ring on our finger, and will celebrate and make merry. He who was lost is found. He who was dead is alive again.

220323 Sermon on God being in control of all things and the example of Peter March 23, 2022

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God is in control of all things. Day by day he gives us our body and soul, eyes, ears, and all our members, our reason and all our senses. Day by day he gives us our clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children. Day by day he gives all that we need to support this body and life. What is more fundamental to being God than this activity? God being God means that he gives and works everything.

This extends to things that can make us nervous, to say the least. God is not evil. The devil is evil. God tempts no one. And yet God is the one who keeps this world going. If God didn’t sustain the devil, the devil would be no more. If God didn’t sustain evil-doers, the evil-doers would be no more. If God didn’t sustain viruses, they would be no more. And so God is involved in whatsoever should happen on this earth. If God wasn’t behind everything that happened on this earth, then he actually would either not be God, or there would have to be other gods besides him who are working these things.

Most people do not enjoy thinking about how God is the one who works everything. Cancer, for example, is bad enough. The thought that somehow God is behind it can be terrifying. Perhaps you were nervous about what Jesus said in the Gospel reading this past Sunday. He made it seem that God was behind Pilate’s mixing of the worshippers’ blood with the sacrifices. He made it seem that God had made the tower fall. Jesus concluded both of these things by saying, “Repent, otherwise you will perish too.”

Unfortunately this truth, that God is in control of everything, that God works everything, has been withheld from you and me even though it is not hard to find in the Bible. It has been withheld because it has been thought that God needs some better public relations. God needs to be sold to people, otherwise they won’t extend the curtesy of believing in him.

That is totally backwards, however. It’s as though we are gods, and we get to pick whether or not God should be recognized. That is utterly stupid and so unbelievably unbiblical. The only way people have gotten away with thinking such things is because they never read the Bible.

God exists. God is in control of all things. Not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from him. The hairs on your head are numbered. It’s not like God goes on vacation when bad things happen. He works all in all. Whether you like this fact or not is beside the point. Whether you like God or not doesn’t change the fact that he exists and works all things. He is going to continue existing. You not liking him just means that you are his enemy and not his friend.

If this frightens you, then that’s good. It means that you are paying attention and taking this seriously. The Bible says dozens of times that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Now it might sound as though I’ve been trying to unload on you all kinds of bad news. It might sound as though I want you to think negatively about God. That is not my intention. God is good. My intention is to show you that you are not God. There are no other gods besides the one true God. It is neither safe nor right to ignore God, or the fact that he is in control of all things. You are not in control. Your money is not in control. America is not in control. We and all things are under God’s control.

When you accept that God is in control of all things it is going to change your perception of what is going on. When God sends you good things, and you recognize that they come from him, you can give him thanks. Our fallen, sinful flesh makes this very hard for us. (We are much more prone to be blind to God’s goodness, to grumble, or even to attribute good things to our own powers and abilities.) Nonetheless, when good things happen, you can thank God.

When bad things happen, you can know that God is in control of them. He will place a boundary on them. We do not know how everything will go, but it will go how God wants it to go. And we know by the good news of God, by the Gospel, that we are justified before God for Jesus’s sake. By baptism and through faith in Jesus we have a loving Father. The difficulties and troubles he sends our way is his discipline. We don't know the way it will go, when it will end, or how much it will hurt, but God, who loves us, is the one who does it. He will remain faithful to his promises to us. Therefore, we should also love and trust in him and gladly do what he commands.

Let us now apply this to Peter. A bit of knowledge that is helpful to know about Peter is that before this he had sworn up and down that he would never leave Jesus. He would die, if need be. Jesus could count on him. Jesus responded, “Peter, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. The Shepherd will be struck and the sheep will be scattered.”

In whom did Peter believe? He believed in himself. We like believing in ourselves. It makes us feel strong and good. Unfortunately, the truth is that we are neither strong nor good.

Did you notice what Paul said in our Epistle reading? God gave him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to prevent him from believing in himself. Paul didn’t like this thorn. He wanted to be rid of it. But the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul goes on to say that he will gladly, with pleasure, take delight or boast about his weaknesses. Do people boast about their weaknesses? I should say not. They boast about their powers. Paul, however, boasts about his weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon him. For when he is weak, then he is strong.

What happened with Peter was that when he was questioned about being Jesus’s disciple, he was not content to be weak. He was afraid of letting God direct him wherever that might be. He took the matter into his own hands, he denied Christ, because he did not want to be arrested. After all, he had cut off Malchus’s ear, right? Attempted murder. Assault and battery at the very least. And so Peter lies. “I don’t know Jesus.” Jesus is the very linchpin of our relationship with God who works all things, and here Peter throws him away.

What would be the alternative? Peter could have kept the commandments of God, entrusting himself to God, and let what happens happen. Maybe he would have been arrested. Would that have made God cease to exist? Maybe he would have been beaten to a pulp. Would that make God not be in control any more?

Ultimately, many years later, at the end of Peter’s life, this kind of thing happened again, except the outcome was very different. After Peter sinned, Jesus forgave, restored, and strengthened Peter before he ascended into heaven. The Holy Spirit empowered Peter to preach a very dangerous sermon about Jesus to the people of Jerusalem at Pentecost. Ultimately Peter would be crucified for preaching the good news, the Gospel, that God is well pleased with sinners for the sake of Jesus. What Peter was afraid of happening to him on this night when Jesus was betrayed, actually happened to him many years later, except this second time he confessed Jesus rather than denying him. He, according to church legend, was crucified upside down.

There is something extremely practical and applicable here for you. You probably don’t remember the first time that you lied, but you can probably figure out why you did. Why did you lie? It was because you were afraid of what would happen to you. You wanted to avoid it. And guess what? It probably appeared to work like a charm. What you were afraid of happening didn’t happen.

However, at the same time that you lied, what you were not afraid of happening—what you probably didn’t even think about—did happen. By your lying you were alienated from God. You managed things how you wanted them to go, but at the same time you were disbelieving in God and you broke his commandments. You cozied up, not to the heavenly Father, but to the father of lies.

What more practical thing can I say to you than that you shouldn’t lie? If you’ve done wrong don’t lie about it. Not lying about it may very well mean that you will be punished. You will have some negative experiences that you’d rather avoid. Do not let the fear of negative experiences run your life. Will negative experiences somehow make God cease to exist? Of course not! Will negative experiences make God cease to be in control of everything, including your life, including your punishment? Of course not! God will continue to exist. You will be much better off commending yourself to him, putting your trust in him, believing that he accepts you and loves you for the sake of Christ, than cozying up to the devil for your comfort by making use of lies.

It is truly the case that we know not what we do. By nature we are so utterly stupid and blind when it comes to spiritual matters. We think that the truth is bad and the lies are good. God is bad and mean. The devil is nice and lenient.

It is much better, much safer, much richer for you to believe and acknowledge the truth. God is in control of all things. If this makes you afraid, that’s okay. It’s a lot better to be afraid of God than to think he is some stupid stooge of yours or that he doesn’t exist. But, in truth, we shouldn’t be afraid. We have God’s promise of love to us in Jesus. God loves us and is approving of us because of Jesus. Therefore, whatever should happen to us, will be for our good—even if we don’t enjoy it for the moment. As Paul says, “All things work together for the good of those who love God.”

Peter was glorified, being loved by God, when he was crucified upside down. I don’t know what is in your future. Know this: God is in control. God is for you in Jesus, even if it doesn’t look like he is for you. We know that God is for you because that is what he says, and God is not a liar.

220320 Sermon on Luke 13:1-9 (Lent 3) March 20, 2022

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I’m a little frightened to do what I’m about to do. I’m going to put the scenario in our Gospel reading into a hypothetical, contemporary situation. I’m afraid that you’re not going to like it, because Jesus thinks and speaks differently than we do. But I’m going to do it anyway, because what’s the point of being a Christian if you don’t listen to Christ? So here goes.

Did you hear what Vladimir Putin did the other day? He had his soldiers waiting in ambush at a Ukrainian church. There were some old ladies who made their way into church to pray. So Putin had their tongues cut out and hung on the altar.

Let me be clear, this is not what Vladimir Putin did. I made it up. But it is actually mild compared to what some people told Jesus in our Gospel reading today. They gave a news report: Pilate killed some Galileans (Galilee is where Jesus and the apostles were from). Pilate the pagan, Roman governor killed them in church. They were making sacrifices. The blood of these men ended up being mixed with the blood of the animals that they were sacrificing. They didn’t just have their tongues cut out, like in my hypothetical story. They were killed.

Now if you had heard my fake story about Vladimir Putin and believed it to be true, what would you be thinking about? Especially if you personally knew the victims, like perhaps Jesus and the apostles knew the victims under Pilate, what would you being thinking about? You’d be thinking: What a monster! How cruel! Shame on him! How can we get pay-back? How can he cut people’s tongues out? Your thoughts would paint him black as coal with horn and fangs.

If your thoughts turned to the victims you’d probably paint them as white as doves. Those poor old ladies—how scared they must have been! Those poor Galileans—just trying to go to church in Jerusalem.

The people in Bible times were made of the same flesh and blood that we have. Those people who turned on the news for Jesus, letting him know about the dastardly deeds of Pilate, were expecting Jesus to be outraged at that pagan, Pontius Pilate, and feel sorry for those victims. Where did Jesus send their thoughts? Not where you’d expect. First he sent their thoughts to whether the victims deserved it or not. Then he had them examine themselves.

He said, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered these things? I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all perish too.”

Again, I don’t want to do this, but let me put it into my fake scenario: “Do you think those old Ukrainian women were worse sinners than the rest of the Ukrainians? I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will have your tongues cut out too.”

I am not going to waste my breath trying to make what Jesus says here palatable to unbelievers. Unbelievers will think he is monstrous. There were plenty of people who didn’t like Jesus back then too. The flesh and blood that they had is the same flesh and blood that we have. Those who hate Jesus cannot learn anything from him. And Jesus is teaching something. What is he teaching?

First of all, Jesus is taking away two forms of justification that we find palatable and handy. We figure that a person is justified either by shifting the blame to someone else—where they are the bad ones, or we figure we are justified if we have gone through a nasty bit of suffering. You can use one of the other, but we like it best when we have a combination of both. Let me explain each of these justifications.

We figure that we are justified if someone else is nastier than us. We are always on the lookout for someone nastier than us. I think this is why we like gossip so much. It’s why we like hearing about dastardly deeds of others. If other people are horrible, then we don’t look so bad in comparison.

Note that this is what happens with God’s questioning in the Garden. Adam blames Eve and says to God. “If it wasn’t for the woman that you, God, put here with me, I never would have eaten.” Eve blames the serpent. The serpent’s a lot worse than she is. But they are not thereby justified. Each of us is responsible for his or her sins. Pointing to someone nastier than us doesn’t make those sins go away.

We also want to justify ourselves by the suffering that we have gone through. We had a rough childhood. We’ve been mistreated by this person and that person and the other person. Our tongues were cut out. Our blood was splashed on the sacrifices. Surely someone who has had a miserable life has to have a better one in the next! Justice demands it. Whoever doesn’t think so must be a monster.

The fact is our suffering never atones for a single sin. Our suffering isn’t at all redeeming. If anything it is nothing other than what we simply deserve. “I, a poor, miserable sinner, deserve present and eternal punishment.”

Even unbelievers should be able to see that our suffering isn’t that noble or commendable. We immediately resent the suffering as soon as it comes upon us. We hardly ever are cheerful while we are going through it. We look for someone to blame for what we have suffered—it’s the doctor’s fault; it’s the tobacco company’s fault.

Probably the worst thing that we do with our suffering is we use it as an excuse to do bad things. I had a rough life, so I’m entitled to drown my sorrows. I was treated like garbage by my parents, so I can treat my children like garbage. My spouse hurt me, so I’m entitled to hurt right back.

I mentioned that we like it best when we can use both of these things to justify ourselves. We like it when there’s some villain out there. We figure we can never be tossed into the same basket as a Hitler or a Stalin. We’re not that bad. Look at their sins, not my sins. If we do have to look at me, then look how sad we are. Poor, poor me! Look what I’ve gone through! Everybody should feel so sorry for me.

The reason why Jesus sounds like such a jerk is that he cuts straight through these justifications that we like to rely upon. They’re no good, though. You will never be justified by the badness of other people. You will never be justified by your sad story. You are responsible to God for your life. God is not swayed by popular opinion. He does not accept these justifications as being valid. This is what Jesus points out with his words.

Jesus says, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans?” Jesus brings to mind that the victims of this crime were sinners. That’s a big no-no. Very insensitive. Then he says that they were just like everybody else. They weren’t worse sinners. Oh good. Notice what he is doing there. He is tossing everyone into the same basket. He’s tossing you into the same basket as the Hitlers and the Stalins. Then he says, “Unless you all repent, you likewise will perish.”

Here we had all been enjoying ourselves, listening to the news, appalled at the villains and having oh-so-tender of a heart for the victims, (we really do have a heart of gold, you know,) and then Jesus has to come along and ruin it! He very rudely redirects our attention away from others onto ourselves: “Unless you repent, you likewise will perish!”

It is the easiest thing in the world for us to go through life without giving a second thought to our own responsibility. We can live our entire life feeling sorry for ourselves. We can blame this person and that person. We alternate between the thoughts, “Shame on them!” and “Poor, poor me.” If there is anything wrong with me, then it must be somebody else’s fault. If there is anything wrong with me, surely it can’t be as bad as what others have done. We love this stuff. You know why? Because it excuses us and gives us license to live however we might want—within bounds of course. We can’t go cutting old ladies’ tongues out or anything.

But, you know what? Sometimes those who do such awful things end up getting ahead. Maybe there are more Christians in prisons who have done horrible things than there are in some of our congregations. (Assuming there are preachers of the Gospel in those places.) You know why? Because some of them have had their favorite justifications taken away. They don’t play the stupid games that the rest of us do. They can’t pretend that they are not evil. That is to say, they repent. They know that it is their own fault. That is something that is extremely rare.

Wide is the gate and easy is the way that leads to destruction. Narrow is the gate and hard is the way that leads to eternal life. There is nothing more common in this world than for people to justify themselves. While they justify themselves they feel entitled to do whatever they please—again, within reason, of course. There is hardly anything rarer than those who confess they are without excuse. They have no justification. “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” That is the hard way that leads to eternal life, because we have to admit that God is right when he judges me. Of course God is also right when he says that he justifies me in Jesus Christ.

Jesus’s words are always going to sound impolite. He is taking away the ways that we prefer to deal with life. We prefer to live our life in such a way where we don’t really have to think about God. It goes without saying, then, that we don’t want to think of God being involved in our life in such a way where he would cause a tower to fall on us. We prefer our own justifications of ourselves to God’s justification of us in Jesus Christ. With our own justifications of ourselves we believe that we are sitting in the driver’s seat of our lives. We retain our dignity by looking down on others. Whatever is wrong is mostly somebody else’s fault.

What’s wrong is not Putin’s fault, it’s not the Ukrainians’ fault, it’s not Biden’s fault, it’s not Trump’s fault, it’s not the Democrats’ fault, it’s not the Republicans’ fault. Our nation is filled to the brim with smug, self-righteous people, who are all too eager to condemn each other and, while they’re at it, fleece each other out of house and home if that is at all possible. We pay attention to everything everybody else is doing wrong while we live however we want. We never consider that it is our own fault.

Think about that. Everybody knows we’re in a terrible mess. That’s about the only thing we all agree on. The proper way that we, as Christ’s disciples, should think about this is that it’s our fault. God is punishing us for our sins. We should repent lest we likewise perish. Those so-called “little sins” that we do—they are hardly worth mentioning compared cutting out tongues and other such things—what if it is our daily, run-of-the-mill unrighteousness that has brought upon us our calamities?

It is never that beneficial to focus on other people’s sins. If God has given you the authority and task of watching over others, then, by all means, do the job God has given you to do with fearlessness and gusto. But focusing on other people’s sins never, ever brings about an improvement in ourselves. We always come away from such activity feeling superior, feeling justified. That, however, is a fake, sin-producing, flimsy justification.

It is only Jesus’s justification, Jesus’s atonement, that has stomped down evil and will ultimately stomp it down completely. Jesus’s justification makes justice roll down as waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

We cannot justify ourselves. We cannot fix ourselves. But God forgives those who repent. He heals those who are wounded. God does such a better job at being God than we ever will. Let God be God. You strive to be his faithful creature. Repent, and believe in Jesus.

220313 Sermon on how Christians should act toward governing authorities (Lent 2) March 13, 2022

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Today I’d like to speak about how we, as Christians, are to act towards the authorities that have been placed over us. Our Gospel reading today affords us that opportunity because Jesus is teaching the Pharisees how they should deal with Herod. This is applicable also to us, even though our authorities are quite different than Herod.

Before we get into that, however, let’s say a little bit about these Pharisees. Pharisees were Jews who were especially committed to the idea of being the people of God. They were very serious about their Judaism. They were a reform movement. They wanted people to change for the better. Changing for the better meant paying more attention to the Bible. That’s all well and good. Changing for the better also meant paying attention to all the commentators on the Bible. That was not always as good. The commentators sometimes went above and beyond what the Bible said. This brought the Pharisees into conflict with Jesus.

For example, God commanded the Old Testament believers to do no work on Saturday. God never intended that all activity without exception should cease. The Pharisees didn’t want to break this commandment, though, so they added some prohibitions to make sure they didn’t. When Jesus or his disciples didn’t follow these man-made rules, it made the Pharisees very upset. Some concluded that despite whatever else Jesus might say or do, he must be evil.

The Pharisees are a mixed bag, so to speak. It was good that they wanted to be very serious about the Bible. Through their devotion to the Bible many of them were very serious about the Lord God. Others were more devoted to sounding smart, attaining a high position in the church, and bossing everyone else around. At best the Pharisees were suspicious of Jesus because he didn’t accept all their man-made rules. At worst they regarded him as an agent of Satan.

Therefore I’m not sure what to make of the advice they give to Jesus at the beginning of our Gospel reading.  They say to Jesus, “You better go away and never come back because Herod, the ruler of Galilee, wants to kill you.” Do they care for Jesus’s safety? Or do they want him just to go away? In a way Jesus and the Pharisees are on the same side as compared to Herod. Jesus and the Pharisees are serious about God’s Word and living faithfully. Herod lived for pleasure. Whatever the Pharisee’s motives might have been, Jesus’s response is remarkable.

The Pharisees had said to Jesus, “You better go away and never come back because Herod wants to kill you.” Jesus responded with some advice of his own: “You better go and tell that fox, Herod, that I’m busy. I’m going to be driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow and on the third day I will reach my goal, on so on.”

Jesus could have just told the Pharisees that he wasn’t worried about Herod. He’d be fine. Instead he returns their imperative with an imperative of his own. They said, “You better go away and never come back.” Jesus said, “You better go and tell Herod what I’m doing.” If the Pharisees went and told Herod about Jesus, and if Herod really did want to kill Jesus, then Herod would put a target not only on Jesus’s back, but also on these Pharisees. If the Pharisees went to talk to Herod they might be killed, or, at the very least, they would be inviting trouble upon themselves.

Here we should talk about something that is quite important and quite clear in the New Testament: How we should relate to those in authority over us. How should we act towards those placed over us, like Herod was placed over the people who lived in Galilee? Jesus and the apostles teach us two things. On the one hand we are to submit to whoever the authorities might be. On the other hand we are boldly to testify the truth. We are to confess Jesus and his saving deeds, just as Jesus was urging these Pharisees to do with Herod. Whether the Herods of this world then would like to chop off our heads like Herod did to John the Baptist—so be it. We Christians are not living for pleasure and worldly gain. We’re strangers here. Heaven is our home.

Let’s talk some more about these two things that Christians are taught to do. We’ll begin with how we are to submit to whoever the authorities might be. The fourth commandment says that we are to honor our father and our mother. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities. The obedience that we are to have towards our father and our mother is to extend also to those placed in authority in the other realms of life besides the family. We are to honor the authorities placed over us in school, at work, or in government.

Paul says in Romans 13: “Everyone must submit to the governing authorities. This is because no authority exists except by God, and the authorities that do exist have been established by God.” Paul teaches us something very important here. Whoever it is that has attained authority has done so by God putting them there. God does not just put the good rulers into place. He also puts the bad rulers into place, quite likely as punishment for our sins.

For example, Herod was not a good man, neither was Herod’s father, Herod the great. Herod of Galilee chopped off John the Baptist’s head. Herod the great, his father, sent troops to murder the baby boys of Bethlehem, hoping to kill the baby Jesus before he could grow up and become a threat. Regardless of all this evil, by the connections that Herod and his family had with Rome, they were the rulers in this area. God is the one who put them there. God can also take them out. But it’s not up to us to do that. Jesus does not say to the Pharisees: “You better go and assassinate Herod.” He says, “You better go and testify to me.”

Let us also take note of what Jesus says to Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of that region. The Jews grudgingly brought Jesus before Pontius Pilate because they could no longer execute whomever they wished. They needed the Roman governor’s approval for that. At one point during Pilate’s questioning of Jesus, Jesus did not answer. Pilate responded: “Are you not talking to me? Don’t you know that I have the authority to release you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered (and this is where I’d like to pay close attention): “You would have no authority over me at all if it had not been given to you from above.”

Jesus does not deny that Pilate has authority. Jesus does not say, “You are a wicked man so I am not bound to you.” Jesus does not seek to overthrow the government. Jesus also informs Pilate that his authority is not just his own. This is probably the way that Pilate felt about his position. He probably thought that he was his own man, he had made his own way, all that he had was because of him and his actions. But Jesus says that the authority Pilate has was given to him “from above,” that is, “from God.” Pilate is not God. He doesn’t have this authority of himself or because of himself. God gave him this authority and therefore Pilate is answerable to God for how he uses that authority.

There is more that we could say about this. There are other important passages that we could look at. We’ve established, though, that we are to submit to whoever the authorities might be, because God is the one who has put them there. If God wants to remove or replace someone, he can do that as easily as simply ending their life.

The second thing that we are taught by Jesus and the apostles, which is likewise crystal clear, is that we are to speak the truth and to testify to Jesus.

We see this also with the example of Jesus before Pilate. Jesus did not beg Pilate to save his life. He did not submit to Pilate in any way where he would give up the truth. Jesus could have very easily gotten out of trouble if only he would have said, “I am not a king.” That’s the charge that is placed at the top of his cross: “Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.” Pilate would have let him go if only he would have submitted to Pilate and the Caesar—if he would have let them determine what was true and not true.

But submitting to the authorities who are governing has limits. We must submit to them when it comes to the things of this world. We have to pay our taxes and obey the laws. However, if the government begins to want to teach what is right and wrong, if it wants to teach things that are contrary to what God teaches, if the government wants to stop the proclamation of the Gospel, then Christians must not submit on pains of losing their salvation. Governments can rule our bodies, our earthly life. They absolutely cannot rule our souls. No man and no created thing is to rule our souls. Our souls are to be ruled by God alone, by the Holy Spirit alone. We can testify before Pilate or before Herod or before the supreme ruler of the earth what God has taught us.

In fact, not only can we testify, but we are to be aggressive with our testimony. Peter and John were once commanded by the authorities in Jerusalem to quit preaching that Jesus is the Christ. Peter and John said that they would not do that. They had to obey God rather than men. When Peter and John didn’t quit with their testifying, the Jerusalem authorities beat them to a pulp. What did Peter and John do then? They rejoiced that they had been counted worthy of suffering for the Name of Jesus. Peter and John didn’t keep their Christianity secret so as to avoid being punished.

You see the same thing with Jesus in our Gospel reading today. The Pharisees tell Jesus that he should flee. Jesus tells them that they should testify before that murderous Herod. Not only can we testify to the truth and to the Gospel of Jesus before those in high places, we must testify regardless of the consequences. If we suffer on account of that, then we should rejoice like Peter and John. If we should die on account of that testimony, then we can hear those precious words spoken by God himself: “Well done, my good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your master.”

By nature we cannot like either of these two things that Jesus and the apostles teach us. By nature we do not want to submit to the authorities who are governing. We don’t want to acknowledge that God is the one who has put them in that position for the time being. This is similar and this is related to the way that we don’t like submitting to our father and our mother. It’s fine if mom and dad want the same things I want, but if they tell us to do something we don’t like, then we are thoroughly annoyed. The same thing is true with the government.

The same thing is true with the other point. We don’t like it. We don’t want to embrace the freedom that we have been given to testify to the truth and testify to Jesus. Testifying might cause us trouble. Put yourself in the shoes of those Pharisees, assuming that there was a real threat and they weren’t just trying to get rid of Jesus. Do you want to let a hostile power know that you are on the other side? What might that hostile power do to you?

Fear is a powerful weapon that the devil uses to great effect to stop the most important and life-giving function on earth. Fear prevents us from challenging lies and speaking the truth. Fear prevents us from testifying about Jesus—not just before hostile authorities, but even with friends and family. But Jesus has a word for us concerning this fear. He says, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear the One (that is, fear God) who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

In a way it’s a little ridiculous that we are afraid at all. The devil’s lies are very flimsy if only we would look at them rightly. God is in charge of all things. What good can it do anyone to curry all the favor in the world—even to have the powers that be shower gifts and honor down upon us, but to anger God or be ashamed of Jesus?

On the other hand, since God is in control of all things, we should be bold with the truth God has taught us and the proclamation that Jesus has risen from the dead at sits at God’s right hand. God is on our side. He will not leave us nor forsake us. This does mean that we will suffer. Evil powers will see to that. But they are on the losing side. With Jesus you are on the winning side. Suffering is not the worst thing. Being cut off from God is the worst thing. Whatever troubles God lays upon us he will also give us the strength to go through them.

Luther’s hymn says: A mighty fortress is our God, a trusty shield and weapon. He helps us free from every need that hath us now o’ertaken.

And again it says: And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, though these all be gone, our vict’ry has been won; The Kingdom ours remaineth.

220306 Sermon on Luke 4:1-13 (Lent 1) March 6, 2022

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Nobody had to teach us to have an unbelieving attitude towards life. What I mean by an unbelieving attitude is that we ignore God. He is the one from whom all things come. As we are by nature our thoughts do not rise up that high. We get up, make breakfast, and start in on whatever it is that we do. Little thought, or, more likely, no thought at all is given to the one who gave us a comfortable bed, who made the sun shine, who gives us good things to eat. Every day is filled to the brim with wonderful gifts from our Creator. We pay him no attention, though, or, at best, very little.

Our thoughts are occupied with all sorts of other things—how to get ahead, how well or poorly we are doing, what’s going on in Washington. How we conduct our affairs and what is going on in the country are taken to be the very serious and very important things. Thinking of God giving us all kinds of gifts is not going to add to the bottom line. It’s not going to promote progress. It’s taken to be almost something bad—like daydreaming. Work is the god who is going to bless us. Wasting time thinking about the true God is a sin.

Here we are getting closer to understanding why we naturally act the way that we do. People aren’t stupid, particularly when it comes to the things that have to do with the bottom line. So why should a person waste his or her time with the Lord God when there are other ways to be much more productive? That is to say, the reason why we don’t thank and praise the Lord God is because it doesn’t work. Since when did this help anybody?

The way to get ahead in life is to work harder than everybody else, be smarter than everybody else, be more charming than everybody else, be prettier than everybody else. It’s all up to you. God’s not going to take care of you. You have to take care of yourself. If you don’t take care of yourself, then you are screwed. So why would you waste time on anything that doesn’t have the possibility of making you more competitive? You wouldn’t. You’re not stupid. You know what works.

Here we have perhaps the root of all sinfulness. The root of all sinfulness is that the Lord God can’t help me, or, perhaps, the Lord God won’t help me. The first temptation was that Adam and Eve would be better off on their own. They could be like God if they believed in themselves and never gave up. Afterwards, when they heard God walking through the Garden in the cool of the day, it didn’t even occur to them to ask for or expect help from God. They thought it much wiser to pretend that nothing had happened. Then they thought it much wiser to lie about what happened. It was someone else’s fault, you see.

This stupidity has been passed down from one generation to the next. The worthlessness of God on the one hand, and the much better results that can be expected by relying upon other things on the other hand—this is the thread that runs through all subsequent sin. This is true of the out-and-out unbelievers, such as the descendants of Cain, who relied upon their industry and technology for their blessings, as well as those who should have known better such as the Israelites. The Israelites in the wilderness were constantly saying, “We’re going to die. We’re going to die.” They constantly were desiring to go back to Egypt. Several times they rebelled in order to go back. Either the Lord God can’t help or he won’t help. We will be much better blessed in some other way.

This thread, which runs through all sinfulness, can be seen in why we break the Ten Commandments.

1st commandment: We do not fear, love, and trust in God because other things will work better.

2nd commandment: We do not call upon his name because it won’t do us any good.

3rd commandment: We do not gladly hear and learn his Word because there are better things we can do with our time.

4th commandment: We do not honor our parents and other authorities because we know better how to be happy.

5th commandment: We get angry and seek revenge because if we don’t do it, nobody else will.

6th commandment: We pursue sexual gratification in other people and other things besides the spouse God has given us or will give to us because what God has given or will give is not good enough.

7th commandment: We take what doesn’t belong to us or cheat to get more than we should because God won’t give us what we want.

8th commandment: We lie so as to avoid punishment and to make ourselves look better than what we really are.

9th and 10th commandments: We don’t think that the Lord God will take care of us, so we look for our blessing in those things that he hasn’t given to us.

The reigning and ruling assumption in our sin-darkened minds is that God can’t help us or God won’t help us. Or, with those who know him, such as the Israelites and us Christians, he is thought to be rather stingy. He doesn’t always give us all that we might want, or he might not give it to us as quickly as we want. So we better take it into our own hands to make sure that we get what we want.

On the other hand, sometimes God sends things our way that we don’t like such as sickness, the loss of wealth, or other troubles. A god that would be more to our own liking would only think like we think and act how we would act. That is to say, we think that we would be better gods than the one who actually exists. And so, like the Israelites, we grumble. If only God would do everything we think he should do.

One of the most important questions in life is whether God is actually good. This can sound like a Philosophy 101 kind of question, and we don’t care much for philosophy majors.  It can also sound like a question that we already obviously know the answer to. The Sunday School answer is that of course God is good. How could it be otherwise? But I would present to you that this is a very personal question. Is God good to you?

One clue that this question is important is how little we think about it. Our spiritual enemies have a way of preventing us from asking the right questions. We don’t think about whether God is good. We just wake up, make our breakfast, and go about our day. The routines, the cares, and the concerns of this world, run our life as we go from one task to the next. The question of whether God is good to you rarely (if ever) occurs. Maybe we assume that we already know the answer, and, of course, the correct answer is “yes.” We go to church, don’t we? Obviously the answer must be “yes.”

Although our mouth might say, “yes,” our heart might be elsewhere. We might say “yes” with our mouth, but our heart is not interested in thanking and praising God. We’ll say “yes” but what about all those dark and ugly things? Then we might not even want to say yes with our mouths anymore. What about childhood cancer? What about all the cruelty, suffering, grief, and death? Think of poor Job. God allowed Job to be stripped to the bone. Is a God like that still good? That’s the very question that Job kept on asking. It takes up most of text in that rather lengthy book.

Job remained confounded and perplexed until God finally spoke to him from the whirlwind. That doesn’t come until chapter 38. Basically God says to hurting Job, “Who do you think you are? Are you God? Can you do what I can do?” This is what made the fever break for Job. He quit trying to be God’s teacher, praising God when God did something to his liking, frowning at God when he sent something unpleasant. Job quit competing with God as a rival, wiser God. He embraced his role of being a creature. The bones that God had broken rejoiced.

It is good to be a creature. When we think we are gods we are not very happy. We aren’t meant to be in control of all things. We aren’t meant to understand all things. We aren’t meant to judge all things. Our lives as creatures is such where we see what our Creator has in store for us. These are things that God does.

The Psalm says, “The eyes of all look to you, O Lord, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.” As creatures who believe in the Creator we can be certain that he can help us and he will help us. I won’t always know how. Sometimes it might appear as though he can’t or he won’t, but that’s not up to me as a creature to know. That’s God’s job. Leave it to him and be at peace.

In our Gospel reading today we heard about Jesus being tempted. Jesus is a man, a human being, just like every one of us. As the Scriptures say, “He was tempted in every way just as we are, but without sin.” So in our Gospel reading Jesus overcomes temptation.

Notice how the devil tempts him just as he tempts us. The thread is the same. The devil would have him be dissatisfied with the state that he was in. He was hungry. How could God have put him in this miserable state? God was probably going to keep him there too. So Jesus should take things into his own hands. But Jesus says, “It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, by improving his own lot, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

The devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus could have mastery over all of them. All Jesus needs to do is not put all his eggs in one basket—not put all his eggs in the basket of God’s promises. If he splits his allegiance between God and the devil then he can have his cake and eat it too. But Jesus says, “It is written: You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”

Then the devil seems like he changes tactics. Jesus won’t quit trusting in the Lord his God. Let’s see if he will go to what seems to be the other extreme. So he takes Jesus to the top of the temple and tells him to trust God—throw himself off. The Scriptures say that the angels will catch him. He won’t even bang his foot against a stone.”

It might seem as though the devil has changed tactics here, but he really hasn’t. It might seem as though the devil is trying to get him to trust in the Lord his God too much, but that’s impossible. It is impossible for anybody to trust in God too much. It is always the case that the more we trust the better.

What the devil is really trying to do is what he’s been trying to do all along: He wants Jesus to be dissatisfied with what God has given to him. God has given him a perfectly good set of stairs. The ordinary means of a perfectly good set of stairs is boring. He could really put on display his spiritual powers if he would throw himself off to the glory of God. But Jesus says, “It is written: You shall not test the Lord your God.”

Jesus, a human being just like us, withstood temptation. He continued to believe that God would put things in order. He continued to believe that God could and would help him. He believed that our Father in heaven is good.

God would feed him when the time was right. God would exalt him when the time was right. Whether the circumstances appear good or bad, boring or not, he waited for the Lord to open his hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

Where the first Adam failed, this second Adam, Jesus, prevailed. By the first Adam we inherited unbelief, sin, and death. By the second Adam we learn that God is good and gracious. Whoever puts their trust in him will not be disappointed. By the second Adam we are righteous, having been credited with Jesus’s own righteousness. We inherit life, for Jesus has risen from the dead. And we can embrace our creatureliness instead of being unhappy, pretend gods.

God is good, come what may. Even death cannot prevent us from counting on God to give us every good thing. All things work for the good of those who love him. Good things will come for those who trust in him. This is inevitable and certain. Good things will come to those who trust him. It’s just a question of whether it will be today, tomorrow, or in the resurrection from the dead. That’s up to him. However he arranges it, we can be sure that it is good because he loves us. Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer, is proof of God’s love for us.

220302 Sermon on the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Ash Wednesday) March 2, 2022

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John the Baptist testifies: “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” We are beginning our Lent series tonight with this witness’s testimony: “Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

The main thing here is the action. Sin is being removed. The way that it is removed is by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who is Jesus. The only way that sin can be taken away or removed is by the sacrifice of Jesus. This is not to say, however, that there are no other ways of dealing with sin—not removing sin, but dealing with it.

There are a lot of ways we can try to cope with sin. The most common and perhaps most effective way is to forget about it. In each of our lives we have a whole basement full of things that we have done. We all have done things that we would be deeply ashamed of if they were brought into the light of day. We’ve seen things we should not have seen. We’ve said things we shouldn’t have said. We’ve fantasized about things altogether too much. Why? Because we thought that such things can never be found out by others. Whenever we’ve thought that there would be no consequences to our actions, we have been much more likely to do bad things. After the fact all this stuff gets put into the basement of our subconscious. Like garbage, if it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind.

In addition to the things that we have done, we’ve also had things done to us. A lot of people don’t know that being on the receiving end of sin does damage. We sense that us sinning does damage. But being sinned against does damage too. Children are damaged by their parents’ sins. Those who are slandered are damaged by those who make fun of them. Victims of scams and theft are often deeply ashamed. Being a victim of sexual sin leaves tremendous scars.

This stuff as well can get stuffed into the basement: Out of sight, out of mind. Maybe the main floors of our conscious life are kept clean enough, respectable enough. But, for heaven’s sakes, you don’t want anybody to go into the basement. Or maybe there’s so much stuff that is crammed into the basement it starts to fill up the rest of your life. Then there’s no denying it. There’s no pretense that’s left. Despair takes hold. You could pretend when you were more or less successful at forgetting your sins and forgetting your being sinned against, but it can get to the point where you can’t keep the garbage at bay.

Although it is very unpleasant to run out of room in the basement so that your sins start to clog up your life, it’s not a bad thing to have happen to us. We can cope with sin by forgetting about it and thereby go on with our life so as to have contentment and happiness. But when sin crowds into our life we can start to understand how bad sin is. The better we are at forgetting our sin, or coping with our sin, the worse off we are at understanding it. What needs to be understood is that sin is terrible and death dealing. The sins we commit are like this. The sins that are committed against us are like this. Sin has power.

It is highly significant that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away our sin, as John the Baptist testifies. A person might think that since God is God he can do anything he wants. Since God can do anything he wants he can just snap his fingers and make sin go away. That’s not how it is, though. The Son of God is sacrificed. Blood is shed. Punishment is carried out. Death happens. The burden is so heavy upon this Son of God that he fervently prays that he not have to drink the cup. He sweats blood. He cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is how sin is taken away. This is how sin is removed.

How can we think, then, that forgetting about our sin will work? How can we image that it is a sufficient way to cope with the things that we have done and the things that have been done to us? God died to set us free from our sin. We can’t truly handle sin in any other way than through the God who died for that sin. Every other way of trying to cope with our sin is always going to be some variation of what the serpent said to Eve. Eve told the serpent that they would die if they even touched the fruit. The serpent responded, “You won’t surely die. It will be fine. Don’t worry about it.”

To use the analogy that we’ve been working with tonight: “Your basement’s full of stuff. But it’s fine. Nobody will know. No problem. Just make sure that you keep it hidden.” But do you know, then, who you will never want to have over for supper? God can see your mess, even if your fellow flesh and blood human being cannot. You won’t want to have God over to your house just as you wouldn’t want to have company see things that would make you ashamed.

The devil’s lie is bad enough. What’s worse is that those who believe it can never be comfortable with God. For comfort to remain the sins have to stay hidden. For stuff to stay hidden you can’t have anybody know. To keep from anybody knowing, you better stay away from God. So the logic goes. And the devil can achieve his ends this way. If you want to stay at arm’s length from God forever, then you will be granted your wish. God doesn’t drag anybody into heaven by their hair.

On the other hand, God loves you. That’s strange, you might think, and you’d be right. God knows what’s in the basement. God knows what you managed to hide from yourself. And yet God wants to be with you. To his supper he calls us all. Therefore he takes away the sin of the world. Sin loses its power because Jesus took all that sin can do upon himself. “Look, the Lamb of God who removes the sin of the world.” This statement is true.

Although this statement is true, we are left with something important to do. We must believe that it is true. Of course, our believing that it is true has absolutely nothing to do with what God has already done. Jesus removing the sin of the whole world is over and done with. Him rising from the dead is proof of it. But if we do not believe that it is true for us, and for our own basement, then we are still going to keep God at arm’s length. God wants us to come to supper. He has removed all our sin. But if we insist that we are still not clean, (which is a horrible lie, by the way), then we’ll keep our distance.

Here’s something strange that we all naturally do. We go from one extreme to the other. First of all we assume that we are fine. We’ve got plenty of room in the basement. We can carry on and enjoy life. Our sins aren’t that bad. Plus we’ve got things to look forward to in life. We resist the truth of being sinners. We minimize the importance and consequences of our sins.

If we somehow have our minds changed about this, then we go to the other extreme. We hate the garbage. We hate ourselves. We get engulfed by guilt and shame and assume that there’s no way out. We think it is Christian to punish ourselves until we feel that we have punished ourselves enough.

This is no good. It’s very presumptuous if nothing else. Who are you compared to Jesus? Your punishments are supposed to work better than Jesus’s? God doesn’t want us to stay in a frame of mind where we hate ourselves. Hate yourself, hate your sin. Fine. Then move on.

God wants us to know that we are sinners. He also want us to believe that are sins are forgiven. He wants us to believe this simply because it is true. “Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Believe it or not, God wants to be with you, and he wants you to be with him. That is why he sent his Son to remove the sin of the world. If sin is removed, then there is no garbage on the main floor, neither is there anything in the basement. Sin has lost its power.