230430 What is an abundant life? (Easter 4) April 30, 2023

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Sermon manuscript:

Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

What is an abundant life? This is a big question. What is an abundant life immediately brings up other questions: What is life for? How should we live our lives? Big questions like these have been asked and answered in countless ways. Philosophy and religion are two enormous fields of study that work with questions like these. Countless lifetimes could be spent reading the books that have been written to answer the questions of what life is for, how we should live it, what is an abundant life?

Jesus, though, seems to be quite certain despite all the books. You heard what he said: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Jesus knows what life is. He knows how it is to be had abundantly. He is talking about these things when he says, for example, in our reading: “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep… if anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”

Jesus says similar things elsewhere. He says, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger and he who believes in me will never thirst.” In that same place he also says, “My flesh is true food. My blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” Eating and drinking and living—this is to be had in Jesus. He says that he is the bread of life, he is the light of the world, he is the door, he is the resurrection and the life. Jesus doesn’t mumble when he says these things. He says them very plainly and with authority.

Although Jesus is very confident that he brings life, and even an abundant life, that doesn’t mean that everybody is going to believe him. We know this, if nothing else, just by reading the Gospels. That time that I just mentioned—where Jesus talked about his flesh as true food and his blood as true drink—that didn’t go over very well. Many thousands had been following him because he had fed 5,000 of them with bread, but when they heard Jesus say that he himself is the bread, that they should eat his flesh and drink his blood—all of a sudden they weren’t so interested anymore. “This is a hard saying,” they said, “who can accept it?” The falling away was so bad that Jesus even asked his disciples, “Are you going to go away too?” To which Peter responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” We sing those words in the Alleluia before the Gospel reading.

So Jesus is clear and assertive. In him is life and abundant life. There’s your answer for what is the abundant life—it’s in Jesus. But you should not expect that Jesus’s words are going to be persuasive to everyone who hears them. Some are going to believe that Jesus is their Lord and the Christ—that in him is abundant life; some are not. Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.” 

But even for those of us who hear his voice and want to follow him his words can be a little puzzling: “I am the door; I am the bread; I am the light”—what does stuff like that mean exactly? And when he says “I have come so that they may have life and have it abundantly,” what does that mean? It’s hard because we already have our own ideas about what an abundant life should look like. Maybe all I need to do to find out what you believe is an abundant life is to ask you: “What do you want?”

I want to be popular. I want prestige. I want money. I want looks. I want never to get sick, never to grow old, never to die. I want to have the most and be the best—aren’t these and similar thoughts what we can’t help but think when we hear about abundant life?

If that’s what we think an abundant life is (and we probably do), then we can’t help but wonder how we can use Jesus to accomplish these plans of ours. But then, what Jesus says, doesn’t seem like it’s going to work at all for getting what we want (“I am the door. I am the bread of life,”—how can these things help?) so our mental cogs kind of get jammed up.

But there is an assumption here that we know what is good. We know what life is. We know how to have it abundantly. It’s not very profound or subtle. We can easily sum it up by saying that whatever is good for me must be the abundant life. What Jesus has in mind is something different. We can see that in Jesus’s cross.

In a way the cross looks like it is the very opposite of life. Suffering. Death. Who wants that? Think of Jesus even. He doesn’t seem to want it even. In his prayer in the garden he prayed that if it were possible that this cup would pass from him. Think about what actually happened though. By Jesus’s death and resurrection a new life dawned. Death and decay were defeated—something utterly unheard of. More life than we have ever known or ever can know—an abundance of life—arose. Jesus fell into the earth like a grain of wheat and died, but then he sprang up and bears much fruit.

Jesus’s words, “I have come so that they may have life and have it abundantly,” are true, but we must learn almost a new vocabulary to understand what he means. He doesn’t mean that we should have everything and that everybody else should have nothing. He doesn’t mean that we should be the greatest and everybody else should be the least. Jesus turns these things on their heads.

One time the disciples were arguing with one another over which of them was the greatest. Jesus said to them: “In this world the kings and great men lord it over other people. It is not to be so among you. Those who are to be great among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a slave. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? It’s the one who sits at the table, not the one who is serving. But look at me! I am among you as one who serves.”

Or take another saying of Jesus. He said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Whenever you see or hear that word “blessed” in the Scriptures, you should think of the word “happy.” Everybody wants to be happy right? So how can you be happy? Jesus says you will be happier when you give than when you receive. This is not just money. It’s also forgiveness, care, effort, and so on. You will be happier when you give than when you receive. Don’t we all have a lot to learn with just that one simple statement? Jesus says this so it must be true. You’ll be happier if you give than if you receive. That’s a promise that Jesus give us. “Lord I believe, help Thou my unbelief!”

And that’s how it must go as we learn from the voice of the Good Shepherd what life and an abundant life is. It requires faith. Faith is required to believe that him being the bread of life, the door, the resurrection and the life, and so on is what we need the most. If we don’t feel like we need him to be the bread, the door, and so on, that’s because our feelings are wrong. Our desires are not directed towards life. What comes naturally to us is to live for ourselves and for what is best for us. We don’t care too much about others so long as we have as much as we can get for ourselves.

Christ and the way of life that Jesus brings about is very different from this. You can see this from our first two readings that we heard this morning.

In our reading from Acts you heard about the Christian congregation that came about right after Pentecost. The members sold their property, held it in common, and gave to whomever was in need. They did this, not because they were forced to, but because they were free. They were set free from the compulsion to always get more and be the best. They learned that it made them happier to give than to receive.

And notice how they received their food. It says they received simply their food “with glad and generous hearts.” They didn’t need Cadillacs and Ferraris to give them a bump. They had joy at the humble dinner table. The Lord opens his hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing.

And notice the advice that Peter gives in our second reading. He says, “This is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.” It is good when you suffer unjustly, when you suffer patiently and with kindness. Whenever someone else is suffering unjustly we must immediately come to their aid. Love requires that we look out for our neighbor. But when it comes to us, it is a gracious thing if we endure sorrows even though we don’t deserve it. This means that you don’t have to get back at everyone who does you wrong. You can forgive them. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

So when Jesus talks the way that he does about life, and an abundant life, we should not have the expectation that we will immediately understand him perfectly. Our thoughts are not God’s thoughts, and our ways are not his ways. What we think is good, especially what we think is good for ourselves, may very well not be good, because none of us are as loving as we should be.

Jesus’s understanding of an abundant life is full of love. It is full of God’s love toward us. We, as a consequence of God’s love toward us, are also to have love for one another.

It can be scary, it can be painful, it can be hard for us to love, to forgive, to suffer unjustly. Therefore it is good for us to listen to the voice of our Good Shepherd. Jesus always speaks the truth. So if he says we will be happier if we give than if we receive, we should believe that. We should believe that even if our feelings tell us something totally different.

I challenge you: Try it out. Try it out, with faith in our Good Shepherd’s words. It is the way to have life, and to have it abundantly.

230416 Sermon on John 20:19-23 (Easter 2) April 16, 2023

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Sermon manuscript:

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on the disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”

These words were spoken on the evening of Easter day. In the morning the women had found the tomb empty. The angels told them that Jesus was not there because he had risen from the dead. Our reading tells us what happened the evening of Easter day. The disciples were gathered together in an upper room with the doors locked. Jesus appeared before them and spoke with them as you have heard.

The words that Jesus speaks are extremely important for us Christians. There are two things that are shown to us by his words. First, his words show us the meaning of what Jesus has accomplished during Holy Week. Second, his words show us what the Christian Church is for, and what it is to be engaged in. These are very important and practical things that every Christian should have a firm grasp of: What is the meaning of what Jesus accomplished during Holy Week, and what is the Christian Church supposed to be doing?

The meaning of what Jesus accomplished is shown by Jesus’s words: “Peace to you.” Maybe a more modern way of saying what Jesus said is, “Everything’s going to be alright.” When there is chaos, when there is danger, when there is pain and uncertainty, it is a very good thing to hear: “Everything’s going to be alright.”

It matters who says this, though. If somebody doesn’t understand what is going on, then them saying this isn’t very reassuring. But if Dad says, “Everything’s going to be alright,” or the policeman says, “everything’s going to be alright,” or the doctor says, “everything’s going to be alright”—someone with knowledge and authority—all of a sudden the troubles and fears look more manageable. Everything’s going to be alright.

In the case of Easter evening, the one who is speaking is Jesus. He is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity. As he says in the last chapter of Matthew: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.” So if he says, “Peace to you,” or “Everything’s going to be alright,” you would do well to believe that. God is speaking.

So what is troubling you today? Has money been tight? Have relationships been strained? Are you depressed? Are you dying? Everything’s going to be alright. Maybe it’s not much comfort to hear just a pastor say that. What does a pastor know? I’ve known some pretty foolish pastors. But you should not take these words as though any mere human being is saying them, but that Jesus, the Son of God, is saying them—and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.

And it’s clear that if I or any other Christian should say to you, “Peace to you,” or “Everything is going to be alright,” this is not just the Christian who is saying this. Jesus is saying this because he sent out his disciples to say this.

Listen again to what Jesus said: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on the disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”

Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” That means that a pastor’s or a Christian’s forgiveness is not just Joe Schmo’s forgiveness. They are doing what they’ve been told. They are but the instrument through whom Jesus speaks. A pastor’s forgiveness or a Christian’s forgiveness is not just their forgiveness. It’s God’s forgiveness.

Perhaps you noticed, though, that Jesus does not just speak about forgiving sins, he also speaks about not forgiving sins. He says: “If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” Who, then, should be told that they are forgiven, and who should be told that they are not forgiven?

Those who must be told that they are forgiven are those who repent of their sins, who want to change their ways and do better. On the other hand, those who are unrepentant, who do not want to change, must be told that they are not forgiven until they do repent.

This requires a good, sturdy backbone. I’ve never come across anyone who has gotten upset by being told that his or her sins are forgiven. I’ve experienced several people who have gotten very upset at being told they must repent and change their ways. This is not surprising, because we are all like that. Not a single one of us likes to be told that we are wrong, that we must change our ways.

If the goal of being a Christian was merely to have everyone like you and always to say nice things about you, then there’d be no sense in ever telling anyone to repent. But I think I can show you the necessity of speaking both words that Jesus gives us to speak by using an analogy.

Suppose that someone had a very bad fall and ended up with a very badly broken leg. The break is so bad that the bone is sticking out of the skin—really nasty. Where do you go when something like that happens? You go to the hospital.

But let’s say at this hospital they had all made it a rule that they should never, ever cause anybody any pain. You shouldn’t even hurt anyone’s feelings. So this guy comes into the hospital and the doctors and nurses take a look at him and they all say there’s nothing wrong! The patient says, “Look! My bone is sticking out of my leg.” These doctors and nurses say, “No, that’s just how some bones are. You have perfect health! Go, be happy and healthy!”

A person could die from medical treatment like that. The wound could become infected and so on. Those doctors and nurses are horrible at what they are supposed to be doing. They don’t know what they are doing. They’re completely confused about the mission that has been given to them.

But let’s make the analogy a little less dramatic. There’s a break again, but not as bad. The bone isn’t sticking out, but the broken bones aren’t lined up anymore, and they need to be set. Have you ever had to get a bone set? If the bones don’t match up they can never heal, or at least they can never heal very well. But to set the bone can be very difficult and painful. Tremendous force needs to be applied to the limb to bring the bone back into alignment. I’ve heard stories about people howling in pain as the doctors and nurses tug and pry at them to straighten out that which is crooked.

The Christian Church is meant to be a hospital for souls. Our goal is spiritual health, that is, a good relationship with God. The tools we have been given for this are plainly laid out for us in our Gospel reading. The newly resurrected Jesus tells his disciples that they have the Holy Spirit. Whosoever’s sins they forgive, they are forgiven; whosoever’s sins they retain, they are retained. It is by the preaching of God’s Law, of what is right and wrong, that sinners come to an awareness of their condition. Sometimes this takes some harsh speaking and unpleasant discipline. Maybe an unrepentant member of the congregation will no longer be able to take communion. Maybe a member could be removed from membership or excommunicated.

Actions like these are not done very often or very energetically these days because most people don’t believe that spiritual health or spiritual illness is real, or maybe such things are not seen as unimportant. Plus it takes a lot of faith in Jesus’s words. Jesus tells us how we should be Christians and act as the Christian Church, but our own ways seem like they would work better for making the church grow. Telling someone that his or her sins are withheld does not seem like it will grow a congregation.

But I’m afraid that we Christians have become like those silly doctors and nurses that I talked about. We are not clear about our mission, about what we should be doing. Our mission is to help people get to heaven. What good is a Christian congregation that doesn’t believe that sins are serious, that sinners, without repentance, will go to hell? What help can a congregation like that provide?

We must be a congregation that actually helps sinners instead of a congregation that tells lies to sinners. And here’s the amazing thing: the truth is actually on the side of us sinners. It is not our sins that bar us from heaven. Jesus has died and completely atoned for all sin. It is unrepentance and unbelief that bar us from heaven and leave us in our sins. The only way unrepentance and unbelief can be overcome is by the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God with its retaining and forgiving of our sins. No project, no activity, no popularity, so special music—nothing that a congregation might try to do can substitute what Jesus gave us Christians to do on Easter evening.

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on the disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”

If we have the courage to follow Jesus’s words—if we forgive the sins of repentant sinners and withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent—if we have the courage to do this as a congregation then good must come to us. It has to come to us because we will be following Jesus’s words. We will be a true spiritual hospital, helping sinners to leave their sins behind and to find peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Stand to receive a blessing:

There is a peace that the world cannot give. This peace is yours in our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything is going to be alright.

230408 Sermon for Easter Vigil (John 3:16ff) April 8, 2023

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Sermon manuscript:

Tonight I would like to speak briefly using just one of the many themes found in this Easter Vigil service. We have heard many times tonight that Jesus is the light who lightens the darkness. I’d like read some Scripture. You will no doubt be familiar with a portion of it. Our reading begins with John 3:16:

Jesus said:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Then, a couple verses later:

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

Maybe you remember when you were a kid that sometimes you wanted to do things that you knew you weren’t supposed to do. You learned fairly quickly that you couldn’t do those things out in the open. If you did them out in the open, then you’d be told to stop. Then you wouldn’t be able to do what you wanted to do. So you learned fairly quickly that if you wanted to do the things you wanted to do you needed to go where you thought that no one could see you.

I wish it were true that we all outgrew this, leaving it forever behind, but probably not. Hiding from prying eyes so that you get to do what you want to do probably didn’t go away.

But this kind of thing is much more damaging than people imagine. Lots of addictions start and are fed by going into the darkness. Eating in the darkness, drinking in the darkness, using pornography in the darkness, and many other things along these lines are done in the darkness. No light. We do not want what we have done to be exposed.

Before I speak about Jesus as the light who has come, I feel it is necessary to trace where a love of the darkness will ultimately lead us. Hell is a place where there is nothing but darkness. It is filled with evil people who always and only do what they want, and what they want is perpetually evil. They are incapable of love. They think only of themselves.

Darkness might seem advantageous because then you get to do what you want, but it is unhealthy, damaging, deadening. The pleasures of the darkness are never as good as their counterparts which are done in the light, and yet there’s this zip and excitement—is there not?—with what is done in the darkness. I guess that must be the bait that the devil uses to sink his hooks into his would-be victims.

Jesus, though, is the Savior. He is the light who lightens the darkness. The light is not afraid of the darkness. It is the darkness which must retreat and shrink back in the presence of light. Light exposes and reveals. Light removes lies. Light brings truth. There’s no sneaking around when there is a bright light. Everything is revealed as it truly is. This is what Jesus as the light does.

If we are extremely willful, if we only want to do what we want to do, then this light is going to seem hostile and unfriendly. Doesn’t the kid who has gone into the darkness just want to be left alone? The kid doesn’t care whether what he is doing is destructive. But it’s not just kids who are that way. Don’t grown-ups want to be left alone with their pet-sins, don’t they want to be able to go on with their manipulating and unloving ways?

So Jesus as the light necessarily must strike all of us, to one extent or another, as something opposed to our will, as something alien, as something hostile. There’s at least a part of us that loves the darkness. Jesus doesn’t love the darkness. The darkness is where the devil is with all his horrible hooks and barbs. How could Jesus love such destructive and death-dealing things? Jesus doesn’t love the darkness, but Jesus does love you.

Jesus loves you even though you have been in the darkness. He loves you even though you have shunned him, shunned the light, and thought that the devil was the one who really had the pleasurable goods. It is not food comas or drunkenness or illicit orgasms that truly satisfy. Love is the best and highest thing. The Scriptures say, “God is love.” God, who is light and love, is who satisfies.

And God is not stingy either. He wants us to have the good things of life. The devil liked to paint God as some insufferable prude. No, he wants us to eat, to drink, and to have sex. But these things should not be worshipped as gods in themselves in the darkness. Let them be done honorably in the light according to the will and ordering that God has put in place. And let us give thanks to the true God from whom they come—the giver of every good thing.

During this Easter time learn yet again that God has loved the world in this way, that he sent his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Jesus died for you, Jesus rose for you, to rescue you from eternal darkness and bring you into the everlasting light. It’s a little scary when the light comes. The darkness is what we’re accustomed to. But the light is good.

Stand to receive a blessing:

May Jesus the light shine on you more and more. Amen.

230407 Sermon for Good Friday April 7, 2023

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Sermon manuscript:

King David prays to God in Psalm 38 like this:

O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,

    nor discipline me in your wrath!

For your arrows have sunk into me,

    and your hand has come down on me.

There is no soundness in my flesh

    because of your indignation;

there is no health in my bones

    because of my sin.

What you have just heard King David say in Psalm 38 is uncommon. He is afraid of God: “O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath!” This is uncommon because we do not like being afraid. We do not like being afraid of being caught when we’ve done wrong. We do not like being afraid of punishment. If your secrets and my secrets were revealed, who could cover our shame? As it turns out, though, the Bible says that this will happen.

In the book of Revelation it says this about the last day: “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, will hide in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They will call to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!’”

Jesus says something similar about our secrets: “For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.”

If that is for real, then we have good reason to fear. There are some things that I have done in my life that I would rather die than have them made known publicly. Maybe you feel the same way about things that you have done in your life.

What we’ve heard from the Bible, though, tells us that death is no escape. It’s actually the other way around. While we live in this life we might be able to hide things. We can lie to ourselves. Other people can’t know everything that has been going on in our minds and hearts. We can easily imagine that everything has been kept in the dark. Nobody knows. Nobody will ever know.

Death is when this comforting illusion must come to an end. Then, when the light has come at our death or on the last day, we might wish more than we’ve wished for anything ever to be able to stay in the dark. That’s why the people in Revelation are begging the mountains and rocks: “Fall on us and hide us from God.” But that won’t work. Now is the hour of darkness. The light is coming from which no one can hide.

So let me read for you again David’s words in Psalm 38:

O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,

    nor discipline me in your wrath!

For your arrows have sunk into me,

    and your hand has come down on me.

There is no soundness in my flesh

    because of your indignation;

there is no health in my bones

    because of my sin.

Again, to feel like David feels is deeply unpleasant. We don’t want to be afraid. We don’t want to be punished by God. Lots of people, therefore, don’t see the point in feeling the way that David feels. To feel like David feels towards God won’t make anyone rich or popular. To feel that way won’t help you make friends and influence people. I don’t think there is much of any tangible or earthly benefit to being afraid of God because of one’s sins. Since that is the case, most people are not interested in entertaining such thoughts. What good can it serve?

The only redeeming quality feeling this way towards God can have is that it is the truth, and that’s no small thing. The relationship that you have with God must be true, because God will never, ever have it any other way. For now we can survive for a while, hiding our sins, ignoring God, but that is ultimately foolish. Jesus says, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but to lose his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

When we are dealing with God we must be dealing with the truth. When we are dealing with Good Friday, the truth about ourselves and about God should make itself known. In order to understand Good Friday properly it is necessary to know the truth along the lines of the 38^th Psalm: “O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.” The cross is not just a gory, blood spectacle about somebody else. The cross is about you and God. In order to know how things stand with you and God the truth is to be found in the cross.

And what does the cross reveal? Are things simply splendid between God and you? Is God just so proud of you? I can honestly say that I wish that that were the case! I wish that there was nothing for you to be ashamed of. There would be nothing better than if you were so good, loved God so much, loved your fellow human beings so much, maintained your self-control, had only pure thoughts, and so on. The truth, however, is that this is not how you have been in your thoughts, words, and deeds.

The fact that you have been sinful and unclean is extremely serious. The cross of Christ involves an infinite fear, dread, sorrow, pain, and so on for Jesus. This was not because the Son of God was deserving of his Father’s blast furnace of wrath. As Paul says, “Jesus knew no sin, but even though he knew no sin, he became sin for us.” Having become sin, Jesus suffered all the way to death and all the torments of hell. The impossible happened. God, who cannot die, died. And what caused this? It was your sin. The cross reveals that you are a sinner without any hope. If Jesus couldn’t survive, what chance do you have?

What does the cross reveal about God? It is obvious that God does not just say about our sin, “Oh, it’s fine. Don’t mention it. No problem.” Violations of God’s Law desecrate God’s holiness. The sacrifice needed to be infinitely precious, and it was. What is the whole world compared to one drop of the Son of God’s blood? It is this infinitely precious, pure, and good thing that God wounded him for our transgressions, that God crushed him for our iniquities.

God didn’t just snap his fingers to make our sins go away. Maybe someone might want to make up some god in their own heads whom the think should make sins go away by snapping his fingers, but that would not be the one, true God who died on Good Friday for our sins. This God is extremely serious about sins. They must be atoned for. As we heard in one of the readings last night, “There is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood.”

And that is what God did on Good Friday. You heard in our Gospel reading that Jesus cried out: “It is finished!” What was finished is the rebuking, the disciplining, the punishing. The prophet Isaiah foresaw this suffering of Christ: “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

This is what is finished by God through Jesus on Good Friday. God worked reconciliation between himself and sinners by punishing Jesus in our place for the sins we have committed. God has reconciled us to himself, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. We urge everyone to believe the truth that every sin and every sinner has been redeemed and reconciled on Good Friday. Jesus died for everyone. It is through faith in Jesus the Savior, who saves on Good Friday, that we may be justified before God.

Being justified before God is what we’ve been talking about today. When David prays, “Rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath,” he is asking God to love him in spite of his sins. We have talked about the last day when everything will be revealed, and how there is no hope if we are left to our own devices and our own excuses. All things will be revealed. But here is where justification comes in. For those who believe in Jesus, they have a stronger thing that they may believe in. Yes, we have sinned. The shame is unbearable. But it was precisely for those shameful and awful sins that Jesus suffered so infinitely. Jesus’s redemption is stronger than your sins. Jesus’s righteousness is stronger than your shame. Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be whiter than snow.

If the thought of judgement and having your sins revealed makes you afraid, then I say, “Good for you.” Lots of people never even make it that far in the truth. But know also that God’s almighty and invincible love brought Jesus to the cross to remove those sins. Instead of feeling guilty or ashamed about yourself on the one hand, or, on the other hand, feeling pretty good about yourself, that you’ve done a pretty good job—these are stupid, fleshly thoughts—turn away from yourself. Give thanks and praise to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He has brought about this infinitely precious redemption, so that you may not fear death, nor hell, nor God’s judgement. God saves you in our Lord Jesus Christ.

God forgives you all your sins for Jesus’s sake. Go in peace. Amen.

230402 Behold Your King is Coming to You (Palm Sunday) April 2, 2023

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

               Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

behold, your king is coming to you;

               righteous and having salvation is he.

 

“Behold, your king is coming to you.” This prophecy was made hundreds of years before Palm Sunday. The fulfillment of this prophecy explains all the rejoicing, the shouting aloud, that we hear about on Palm Sunday. Behold, your king is coming to you. If you asked the people gathered at the city gates of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday what they were doing, they would have told you that the King was coming to them.

You can tell that this is what the people were looking for by the words the evangelists have recorded from that day. In our reading from John Jesus is called the King of Israel. Luke records the people saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord.” Mark says, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.” Matthew says, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”

All these folks believe that Jesus is the king. He is restoring kingship, instituted by God about 1000 years before this with King David. They keep saying that Jesus is king in the Name of the Lord. This means that they believe this is God’s doing. God wants Jesus to be the Davidic king. And people are singing “Hosanna,” which means, “Save us now” or “Save us please!”

The evangelist Luke tells us that these people were disciples and why they were convinced that Jesus is the king. He says, “As Jesus was drawing near to Jerusalem, already on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of Jesus’s disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen.” The people were convinced that Jesus was the king because of the miracles that he had done.

They believed this for good reason. Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies about the coming Christ. Isaiah prophesied, for example, that the Christ would open the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf would be unstopped. The lame would leap like a dear that the tongue of the mute would sing for joy. Jesus did all these things. So Jesus must be the king that they had been waiting for. Having discovered that Jesus is this king is why they are so happy on Palm Sunday. “Behold, your king is coming to you,” so “rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!”

But let us fast-forward a few days after Palm Sunday. A few days later Jesus is there. The word “king” is there. But the mood is altogether different on Good Friday. Jesus was nailed to a cross. Above him a billboard was commissioned by Pontius Pilate. The billboard said, “Here is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,” intending to mock him.

And Jesus, after crying out in a loud voice, after having breathed his last, had the color drained from his face and body. Instead of being a healthy and vibrant pink, his skin became greenish gray. His chest no longer rose and fell with his breaths. He hung there limply and utterly lifeless.

This was a horrible tragedy for those who believed in the Jesus as King movement that seemed to have been going so well on Palm Sunday. A great crowd of people had sung: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord.” Now their hopes were dashed. The man who was hanging dead on the cross did not look like he was going to be making anymore people leap like a dear or anymore mute people sign for joy. The writers of the Gospels are clear about even the closest disciples, the apostles, losing their faith. There is such a discordant note between the praises of Palm Sunday and the sadness of Good Friday.

In a way the Jesus as king movement that had looked so popular and up and coming on Palm Sunday never recovered. Even after the resurrection and Jesus’s appearances to various disciples, we are told that there were only about 120 disciples left. Only about 120 were meeting together after Jesus’s ascension and before the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Where were the 5,000 who had been fed with the five loaves and the two fish? Where were the 4,000? Where was the multitude rejoicing and shouting, “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday?

What happened is that they all came to the quite logical conclusion that although they had hoped and believed that Jesus was the king, they must have been wrong. That man they had believed in was crucified and died. Dead kings can’t do much for anybody. These folks were probably resilient. They probably just moved on to the next hope, the next dream for happiness and fulfillment.

We can be a lot like those people too. Maybe we once believed and hoped. Maybe we used to say from the bottom of our heart: “Save us now, we pray!” but maybe it’s been a while since we prayed that. Or perhaps we’ve moved on to other hopes and other dreams. It’s easy for Christians to put into their back pocket: “Yes, yes, Jesus is king. That’s all well and good. Everybody know that.” But now let’s get serious about what I really want out of life: I want money, I want toys, I want popularity. Life is meant for being happy—otherwise what good is life?

Thousands of one-time disciples of Jesus thought the same way. They thought that Jesus was their meal ticket for bread, for independence, for happiness. When Jesus died it appeared impossible that Jesus could continue on in this way. What good is such a king then? Who needs him? What I need is some more miracles. I could use some more of that bread. I could use a healing or two. If he can’t do that, then what good is he? The assumption is that because Jesus died, he can’t be a miracle worker anymore.

But Jesus didn’t stay dead, and he most certainly continues to be as much of a miracle worker as he ever was. There is not a single promise of God that has ever fallen to the ground. God keeps them all.

We must look at what happened to the king on Good Friday differently than the great multitude who lost their faith in him. Jesus did not cease to be the king when he was nailed to the cross and died. The billboard that Pilate had fastened above his cross spoke the truth, even when Jesus was stone-cold dead. Jesus the crucified is the king who died for you.

Jesus the king’s death is of the greatest possible significance. By his death he destroyed the power of death. By the redemption that Jesus wrought all of mankind is reconciled to God and put onto a new footing. Through Adam sin entered into the world, and through sin, death. In Jesus the grace of God, the righteousness of God is brought about for all people. Jesus pulled out the roots of disease, decay, and death so that we may attain final, perfect, and eternal healing.

We think we know what seeing is, but the only seeing we’ve seen is this fallen and incomplete seeing. We think we know what hearing is. Sometimes we hear beautiful, wonderful things! We haven’t heard nothing yet. In general the only life that we have known is this fallen life. This fallen earthly life is full of defects and diseases. We are in need of profound healing!

By the death and resurrection of Jesus he has not become a lesser miracle worker, but a greater miracle worker. His miracles are not a matter of the past, locked away thousands of years ago, only to be known from books. Jesus’s miracles are done now and will be done in the future.

Jesus forgives all of your sins now. Think of what a tremendous thing that is! We talk about it so much that we forget how extraordinary it is. Jesus forgives your sins. That means that God is not angry with you. God is well pleased with you. Why? Because you’re such a great person? No. If anything, you’ve probably not been all that different from the disciples that we’ve been talking about who lost their faith in Jesus. God is well pleased with you not because of anything that you’ve done, but because of what Jesus has done as the great King. He died for you. He rose for you. You are forgiven because of him. You may enjoy the miracle of having a good conscience before God. The ruler of the universe is pleased with you for Jesus’s sake. What are any of the miracles we hear about in the Bible compared to that?

There are more miracles that await us in the future. When we die in Jesus, and when we are raised in Jesus, then we will know how Jesus does all things well because great things will be done to us. No miracle and no wonder that is recorded in Scripture compares to the healing, the cleansing, the vitalization that is in store for you. The adventures of this life pale in comparison to the adventures of those who live and die with faith in Jesus their king. Paul says, “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it even entered into the imagination of the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him.” That means that no matter how hard we try to picture heaven, we’re not even close. The eye, the ear, and the legs must become infinitely stronger for the weight of glory that awaits us.

So if there’s something that I’d like you to remember from this Palm Sunday sermon it is that Jesus, your king, is coming to you. The king once entered Jerusalem with hosannas, loud hosannas. Behold, your king is coming also to you. He comes to you not to do lesser miracles for you, but greater miracles for you.

For good reason our ancient Christian liturgy has had us Christians sing before the Lord’s Supper: “Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord!” We sing this ancient song in preparation for our King coming to serve us with his body and his blood in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus the king is coming to give us the food of immortality, to forgive us —again, a much higher and profounder miracle than any we ever hear about in the Gospels.

Behold, your king is coming to you. This is what the people on Palm Sunday were so excited about. Jesus the king was coming to them. Now Jesus, your king, is coming to you. Let us then rise and pray like the people of old:

Hosanna! Save us now we pray! Amen!