231123 Sermon for Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2023

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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.

Our country has been celebrating the National Day of Thanksgiving since 1863. In October of 1863 President Lincoln called upon the nation to consider its good fortune. It had been blessed with bountiful harvests, with healthful skies, with productive mines. The president declared that these things came from a generous God. He acknowledged that there were troubles too. The country had been in the civil war for about a year and a half. But, President Lincoln said, things could be worse. Thus he set aside the last Thursday in November as the National Day of Thanksgiving.

For our observance of Thanksgiving Day we could do something similar to what President Lincoln did in his Thanksgiving proclamation. We could consider how things have been with us. God has given us a bountiful harvest. This is true nationally as well as locally. President Lincoln spoke of healthful skies. We, too, have had good weather. The mines are still being mined. Our grocery stores are all fully stocked. We’ve had our problems just like President Lincoln had his problems, but things could be worse.

It is good for us to try to see what is good in life and to give thanks to God for that goodness. The inability to see what is good and our coldness towards God are from our fall into sin. Before the fall into sin Adam and Eve had a free and easy relationship with God. After they fell into sin they were afraid of God. They were suspicious of what he might do to them.

We are like them. We’ve lost the ability to see what is good. Unfortunately, we very often don’t see how good something is until it’s gone. We don’t see how good health is until we are sick. Since we don’t see how good it is, we don’t thank God for it like we should. We haven’t had a famine for well over a hundred years. This has made many people believe that famines, food shortages, hunger—these are all things of the past. We do not see how extraordinary the abundance we enjoy is. We don’t give thanks to God for it.

And these are just the most intimate of our needs—our health, our food and drink. There are so many other good things that God heaps up on us day in and day out. He makes the sun shine. He makes the rain fall. He gives us the precious gifts of the members of our family. He gives us our community. He gives us the opportunity to serve with good and honest work. His mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness.

But maybe as I mentioned just those few blessings that God gives you’ve wanted to raise some objections. The weather’s kind of cold. I hear it’s only going to get colder. The precious gifts of the members of your family? They’re not always easy to live with. The community? It’s not like it was years ago. Good and honest work? Maybe you don’t like your work. Maybe you don’t like your coworkers.

But let me remind you of what I just spoke about. It is natural for us fallen sinners to be blind to what is good. It is always easier for us to be dissatisfied with what we have and to want something better. Thus we do not give thanks. Not only is this what comes naturally to us, but the devil and his demons want to spur on these thoughts and attitudes as well. These enemies of God don’t want us to be thankful.

The devil would like it best if none of us would receive our daily bread at all. But, barring that, since God is the way that he is, and he gives his daily bread to everyone, the devil would then like it if we would not be content with what we are given or to give God thanks and praise. Instead of being content, he wants us always to be on the lookout for something better—maybe that something that somebody else is enjoying. If only I had what they have, then I would be happy.

This is called coveting. The ninth and tenth commandments say, “You shall not covet.” God gives us these commandments for our good, and we truly would be better off if we never coveted, but coveting comes naturally to us. Coveting is also a very powerful spiritual problem, and so the devil wants us to covet. The first step to coveting is to be dissatisfied with what God has given to you. This dissatisfaction can be about all kinds of different things: Your spouse isn’t good enough. Your parents aren’t good enough. Your job isn’t good enough. Your friends aren’t good enough. Your personality isn’t good enough. Your body isn’t good enough.

There are two things I’d like to point out about this poisonous spiritual fog the devil is always wafting our way. First of all, it is useful to understand that these things could be true—at least certainly theoretically. Could you have a better body? Yep. We all even know how we could do it too. Could your job be better? Theoretically. If we are considering dreams and ideals, then I suppose anything is possible.

In fact, this is just the reverse of something I’ve already said a few times tonight: “Things could always be worse.” Conversely, things could always be better. Both statements are truisms. Things could always be worse. Things could always, at least theoretically, be better. So that’s the first thing—there’s truth, theoretically at least, mixed in with the dissatisfaction and covetousness.

The second thing I’d like to point out is that this evil spiritual fog makes people miserable. Thinking about how you don’t measure up with various aspects of your life is practically guaranteed to make anybody who does it sad. This, of course, is what the devil would like for all of us. The devil likes it when others are made sad. He’d like it if we would all be sad and miserable eternally.

So the devil will waft his nasty, poisonous fog towards us to destroy any contentment and thanksgiving towards God that we might otherwise have. The devil would like nothing better than for all of us to hate everything we have in our life, and then for us to be angry at God for making our lives so miserable. But truly it is not God who has made our lives so miserable. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. Great is his faithfulness. It is not God who makes us so miserable. It is the devil. The way he does it not even so much by depriving us of what we need for this body and life. Instead he bewitches us so that we are dissatisfied, covetous, and thankless.

Shame on the devil for bewitching us so thoroughly. What dreadful misery he manages to inflict upon us. But the good news is that you can fight back. Not only can you fight back, but the real truth is on our side. That’s how it always is with the devil. The truth is actually against him. He has been defeated. It is only by lies that he holds on to any power.

So when the devil cooks up a lie that you should be miserable and ashamed at how bad things are for you, know that he’s wrong. The truth that the devil will probably try to use is that things could always be better. But the real truth is that things are already good now. We don’t need any potentialities or idealism. Things are already good.

To say that, however, requires faith. We must believe that amid all the things that can happen and do happen in this life that Jesus is Lord and God. He reigns at the right hand of God the Father almighty. He has redeemed us poor, fallen, covetous sinners. He sends his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth and gladness, to fight against all lying, evil, and sad spirits.

Things are already good now and the truth is that the future is as bright and cheerful as we could ever hope for so long as we remain faithful to Jesus. What we know about the future is that there is nothing that is currently wrong that Jesus will not set right. There is nothing dissatisfactory about us or in us that will not be healed and perfected. Perhaps God will do this to some extent for his children already in this life, but even if he doesn’t, do not be afraid. He will surely do it when we are resurrected.

Now somebody might object: What about all those things that I still don’t like about my life? I want those changed now. My spouse, my job, my health, my wealth, my body—these haven’t suddenly changed in these last few moments have they? I want my best life now!

This brings to mind the kinds of things that the devil said to Jesus when he was tempted in the wilderness. He said, “If you are the Son of God, then change these stones into bread. Why be hungry? Fix it now.” Or, he said, “Bow down and worship me and all these kingdoms will be yours. Why go through that cross and trouble?” The devil, it seems, is a fan of the quick fix. Don’t put up with anything. Get it changed right now.

But supposing, even, that the goods could always be delivered—supposing that all your wants could be satisfied—what would that ultimately profit you? Jesus once asked, “What would it profit a man to gain the whole world, but to lose his soul?” The reason why even gaining the whole world would not ultimately profit us is because we were made in the image of God. We were made for fellowship with God. Not even all the world’s goods and accomplishments can satisfy what can only be satisfied with a relationship with God.

So do not throw away the goodness of God that is renewed for you every morning by being dissatisfied, by chasing after some ideal. Be thankful instead. What is now, what is present, is good. And even if there is something that isn’t good, it is without doubt passing away. That is what is so marvelous about what Jesus has accomplished for us. Anything that is evil, unfit, unworthy, sad, what-have-you, will not go on forever. It cannot go on forever. After the cross is the resurrection.

 

231112 Sermon on Matthew 25:1-13 (Pentecost 24) November 12, 2023

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What are you looking forward to? Is there a family gathering coming up? Christmas is around the corner. What gifts would you like to receive? Retirement? Weddings? Children or grandchildren? There are a lot of things to look forward to.

What about Jesus Christ’s second coming in power and great glory? Is that on your list? Probably not. There’s a proverbial saying: “It’s not the end of the world.” Behind that saying is a belief that the end of the world would be a bad thing, and that’s not unreasonable. The end of the world means the end of our earthly activities. This earthly life moves into the past. A somewhat unknown future rushes upon us. It is scary to think of all the things we are accustomed to failing and being presented with the unknown.  

You, who trust in Jesus, though, should not be afraid of him coming in power and great glory. This is not something you can do just by mustering up your nerve not to be afraid. That won’t work. There is only one reason why you should not be afraid of Jesus coming again, and that is the message of the Gospel. The Gospel is the good news about the relationship between God and us. The hostility between foul sinners on the one hand and a holy God on the other has been overcome by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This means that when Jesus comes, our future with God will be different from what we otherwise would expect.

What would we otherwise expect? An honest look at what we’ve done will quickly give us the answer. We haven’t done what we should have done. We’ve done what we shouldn’t have done. Meeting our Maker, face to face, immediately thrusts before us God’s judgment. The books are opened. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. What we otherwise expect, apart from the Gospel, is that we will be horrified and ashamed.

There is a stupendous truth here, not often acknowledged. Paul calls it the “ministry of the letter.” The glory of this ministry of the letter is so magnificent that nobody can stand to look at the end of it unless he has first turned to Christ. The glory of the letter of the law is in the way that it brings death and eternal death to all who do not fulfill it. This stupendous truth says that based upon how I have lived, with all my sin, I should be punished by God. He should deprive me of all happiness. He should snuff out my life. I deserve to go to hell.

But no matter how glorious this divine truth is, it isn’t even close to being the most glorious—at least according to Paul. Paul says that there is the ministry of the Spirit that is far more glorious. By the term, “ministry of the spirit,” he is referring to the Gospel. The Gospel declares that Jesus has taken our place. God is well pleased with all mankind because of Jesus. All who believe in him will have eternal life.

So let’s go back to how we might feel about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody has at least a little part of them that is afraid. To be perfectly unafraid would require a perfect faith. That isn’t possible in this life where we are constantly under assault from the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. There’s an element of fear in each of us because the Law is true. The Law says that God should punish us for our sins, and we know that we have sinned.

But here we should recall something that happens so often in what has been recorded in the Bible. So often God’s people are confronted with terrible facts, terrible laws. People are surrounded by water, or by enemies, or by lions, or possessed by demons. And all these facts and laws seem to lead to one conclusion—“You’re lost! There’s no hope for you!” But into these terrible situations God steps in and says, “Do not be afraid.” God says, “Do not be afraid,” countless times in the Scriptures. It’s as though he is saying, “I understand that these laws are calling for your destruction, but I am the Lord of all laws. So be still and see how I am God.”

And so on Judgement Day we will be witness to the working of laws that are more stupendous than anything we might be familiar with from our earthly life here. Even the laws of nature will do strange and unheard of things. As Amos says in our Old Testament reading, there will be nowhere to turn, nowhere to be safe. The only one to whom we can turn and in whom we can be safe is the God who is lord over all the terrible forces. We must turn to the one who is Lord over what will be ripping this creation apart.

How necessary, therefore, is the ministry of the Spirit, the word of the Gospel, through which God says, “Do not be afraid. This Law has called out for your punishment, but I have silenced all its accusations against you when I sent my Son to die for all the sins of the whole world—including yours.”

So what we can see from all of this is that the Day of the Lord is tremendous. Nobody will have experienced anything like it before it happens. It should not be taken for granted—some future event that is nothing to get excited about. If ever we have been excited about anything, then this day must provoke our greatest excitement. There’s to be joy for those of you who believe, but, as we think of it now, there’s an element of fear too.

We see this in our Gospel reading. Our Gospel reading is a parable about the end of the world. Jesus is the groom. The bride is the Holy Christian Church. The groom is coming for his bride because he loves her. The overall mood of this parable is by no means sad. The ten virgins are not dreading the coming of the groom. If anything, they are sad that he has been delayed. But then the cry comes at midnight: “He’s arrived! Come out to meet him!” Those young women must have been roused from their sleep with great happiness. He’s finally here!

It’s like Christmas morning. You don’t have to prod the children to get out of bed. They come a-running like calves out of the stall. They can’t wait to see him.

But Jesus also has a reason for telling us about the foolish virgins as well. Their joy quickly turns to dread. They’ve forgotten their oil. They can’t appear before the groom like that. Maybe they can get some from the others, but it turns out, no they can’t. Each must believe for himself or herself. The borrowing of faith is not possible. While they are gone in search of some way to be presentable to the groom, the doors are shut. That shows that the time of grace has ended. The time of preaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments has ended.

Jesus finished this parable by saying, “Watch, therefore, because you do not know the day nor the hour.” That helps us understand what happened with the foolish virgins, and it gives us our cue as well so that we do not end up in the same boat. It is not only possible, it is easy, for people who self-identify as Christians to quit watching for Christ’s second coming. What do they look for instead? Generally, it’s all the lovely gifts our benevolent Creator gives us in this early life. They look forward to retirement, to vacations, to the good times ahead. There’s no watching or waiting for the day of the Lord. The glory of the ministry of the Spirit leaves no impression, nor do the terrors of the law. Usually they say, at least to themselves: “We know all that stuff already. There’s no need to go on talking about it.” Off to sleep they go.

So how do we keep watch? How do we keep oil in our lamps? How may we be prepared for Christ’s second coming? You might think that fear should work. However, the fear of failure or the fear of punishment will never do it alone. If you prepare only by being fearful, then you are treating God as though he were your enemy. Perhaps by fear you can prepare somewhat for battle against him, but I don’t like your chances in such a fight. Fear alone won’t do.

But, to be honest, an excessive fear of God’s judgment is hardly a problem among us. Among us, it is rather the opposite. Fear of the Day of Judgment is shrugged off. No big deal. Or it isn’t talked about. A person might wonder while hearing this parable how it is possible that these church members, these virgins, were so foolish and unprepared. Well, might it be that when they congregated as a church they never talked about Judgement Day, or it was explained away as nothing to worry about?

Do you realize how rare it is to find a congregation that takes God’s judgement seriously? Our land is littered with churches, but I don’t know if a tenth of them take such things seriously. And yet they have well-meaning people in them who are quite sure that they are as Christian as anybody else. However, it is a Christianity on their terms instead of on God’s terms. A redefined, seemingly improved or more palatable Christianity might be successful by earthly measurements, but true Christianity prepares us for Judgement Day and for the life to come.

So we dare not shrug this day off, nor the fear that it tends to provoke. Nevertheless, only that person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in Jesus’s words. And what are Jesus’s words? Why is he coming? You know something he says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not sent his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Is not Jesus the groom, hastening to the bride whom he loves? These are the facts of God that overwhelm all other facts, no matter how glorious those other facts might appear to be. Jesus’s love is more glorious.

The Christian’s strength is never in fear. Fear can helpful. It can be a spur to wake us up or pull us out of ruts. However, fear can’t get us one inch closer to peace and to knowledge of God. For that we need God’s unfailing promises, in which we believe.

The Day of the Lord, the Day of Judgement, lies in the future. It could be today. It could be tomorrow. If ever we have looked forward to anything, then we should look forward to this day. It is a thrilling cry: “Wake, up! Here he comes! Come out to meet him!”

May God bless you with faith so that that day will give you the inexpressible joy that it deserves.

231029 Sermon for Reformation Day 2023

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“Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”

Today we commemorate the Reformation. One of the greatest consequences of the Reformation was that western Christendom was divided. Prior to the Reformation the Christians in Europe were united under the pope and the bishops under him. After the Reformation there continued to be Christians under the pope and the bishops, but there were also other Christians who no longer recognized the legitimacy of the pope and the bishops.

As you might be aware, this division continues to the present day. There continue to be Roman Catholics who are under the pope and the bishops. And then there are also Protestants, Lutherans included, who do not recognize the pope or bishops as having any divine authority over them.

Although the Reformation is a very large topic, and we could spend many hours going through the history and the issues involved, the fact that Christendom was split is a good way to get at what is especially important about the Reformation. Martin Luther’s rejection of the divine authority of the pope and of the bishops is what made him so despised at the time. The pope and the bishops would have been willing to put up with an awful lot, but they would not tolerate a Christendom that was outside of their jurisdiction.

And as I mentioned, Christendom remains divided to this very day. Therefore, at least among traditional Roman Catholics who have an understanding of church history, Martin Luther is the arch villain. Martin Luther broke the power of the pope over the peoples of Europe. Prior to the Reformation the pope was able to keep kings, princes, and other authorities in line by the power of his excommunication. After the Reformation, vast swaths of Europe no longer recognized his legitimacy. He never again had as much power.

And it is not like that was an unmitigated good. A vacuum of sorts was created. What filled that vacuum was the power of kings and princes. The church lost more and more power. Eventually the kings and princes were replaced by other forms of government, but, still, these governments had all the power. And today maybe it’s the corporations and hedge funds who have all the power. What power does the church have? Very little. The churches, regardless of their denomination, are very easily ignored.

So it’s not surprising that people who care about Christianity, who want Christianity to succeed, would trace the church’s seeming impotence in today’s world to Martin Luther. He broke the power of the pope and the bishops. He divided Christendom. He’s the reason why we’re in the mess that we’re in.

But Martin Luther is terribly mischaracterized if it is believed that he was some kind of revolutionary. If anything he was the opposite. He didn’t set out to destroy the power of the pope or the bishops. He was quite content to live under the pope and the bishops. The problem, though, was that he was not content to live under the pope and the bishops no matter what. If the pope and the bishops were siding against Christ and against the truth, then that was the end of Luther’s loyalty.

This was how Luther broke the system that was in place. There was a system for handling disagreements, a chain of command. If a disagreement came up that the local priest couldn’t handle, he could pass it along to the bishop. If the bishop couldn’t handle it, then he pass it along to the pope. The pope usually could handle it, but he did have the option of calling a church council made up of all the bishops. Perhaps the most important part of this system was that whatever was decided by this structure needed to be followed by the people.

And Luther was willing to go along with all of this. Again, he was no revolutionary. But if the end result of this chain of command was something false, then Luther wasn’t willing to deny the truth for the sake of keeping the peace. This is what stirred up all the trouble. Luther wouldn’t give up on what was true.

This is where what we heard in our Gospel reading applies: “Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”

It’s Jesus’s words that matter—not the church’s word, not the pope’s word, not even any Lutheran pastor’s word. Jesus’s words teach what is true. And it is the truth that sets free. It’s not lies that set free. The truth.

And this is where we can easily find much applicability to us today. This is not just some history lesson so that you can better understand the Reformation or Lutheranism. The burning issue at the time of the Reformation remains the burning issue in our time too: Is the truth going to prevail among us or are we going to be content with lies?

In fact, this has always been the issue since the very beginning, and it will remain the issue until the end. The truth that God spoke to Adam and Eve was replaced with a lie. Adam and Eve preferred the lie to the truth. God, however, was merciful to them and restored them in the truth.

But, as we see in Adam and Eve, it is always hard to come into the truth. When they heard God walking through the garden in the cool of the day they had never been more scared or unhappy. They went and hid in the bushes to try to stay in the lie. It was painful for them to come into the light of God’s judgment. They preferred the lie to the truth.

And at the time of the Reformation, Luther could have avoided all kinds of trouble if he only would have left things be as they were. If he would have left the powerful officials alone, he could have lived out his days in peace and quiet. He would have been on the wrong side. He would have been an enemy of Christ and his truth—siding instead for those in power and for personal advantage. He also wouldn’t have had peace with God. He would have had a guilty conscience, but sins and lies have a way of deadening our conscience so that it eventually doesn’t bother us too much after a while.

So it is also for each one of us. Are we on Jesus’s side or the devil’s side? Are we fighting for the truth or are we content to live peaceably with lies? Being on Jesus’s side is not easy. Jesus tells us that explicitly: “If you wish to be my disciple, then take up your cross and follow me.” That doesn’t sound like a very good deal. If you want to be his disciple, then a cross and suffering are going to be there. Jesus says more about being a disciple in our Gospel reading today too: “If you remain in my word, then you will truly be my disciple, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

So it looks like we have a choice before us. We can either embrace the way of lying or we can embrace the way of truth. The way of lying has its advantages. You can be unscrupulous. You can be extremely practical—do whatever works for you. If you’re a good enough liar you can keep doing almost anything you might want to do as nobody will find out about it. And finally, after a long life of wickedness and covering it up, we can hope in one final lie, that there won’t be any judgement at the end of it.

The way of truth is very different. It is uncomfortable. It is awkward. It can be embarrassing. It can mark you as a target for those who don’t want their lies exposed. As Paul says, “We are like sheep being led to slaughter.” Going the way of truth looks like it won’t work. It looks like it’s a bad deal. Jesus himself appeared to be a failure as he was hanging on the cross.

But, on the other hand, there’s nothing like the truth. It’s divine. It sets us free. The truth of Jesus’s words speak of a hope in Christ for a better existence—a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells. We don’t have to hide. The truth of forgiveness and righteousness in Jesus means we don’t have to lie. We know Jesus, and he has set us free.

A lot of people have blamed Martin Luther for dividing Christendom, weakening it, allowing other forces to rise up with nobody to keep them in check. These forces certainly are out there living it up, with no fear of God or man. Our churches, in contrast, look weak and miserable. We have so very little clout in the world.

But to dream of something different seems to me like the temptation when Jesus was shown all the kingdoms of the world. He could have them all if only Jesus would bow down and worship Satan. That’s not the way of truth. Salvation comes through the cross.

So we do not need to dream of something different. We are fully equipped for the kingdom of God with the truth of Jesus’s words. But we must use of it. If we reject Jesus’s word, if we reject God’s commandments, if we prefer lies and power to the truth, then we would be doing no good even if we managed to become the biggest church in Fairmont with all the trappings of success. Even if we managed to become as powerful as the medieval popes, it would be for naught, for that is not the way the Church of Christ goes forward.

The church of Christ goes forward by holding to the truth of Christ, come what may. This necessarily means that we take up our cross and follow him. When we abide in Jesus’s word we ourselves will be saved, and we will prove to be a light to others, leading them to Christ as well.

The work goes on. Luther didn’t fix things—come up with some magic formulas—so that there is no work, and he certainly didn’t wreck everything either. The words of Christ, the truth that sets free, must be presented to every individual of every generation. We must be sure that we don’t substitute what is false for what is true just because it is easier or looks like it will work better. The truth is in Jesus.

“Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”

231022 Sermon on Matthew 22:15-22 (Pentecost 21) October 22, 2023

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For better understanding what is going on in our Gospel reading, it is helpful to know the context. Our reading today is during Holy Week. Jesus entered Jerusalem a couple days before on Palm Sunday. The people hailed him as king. He then went to the Temple, clearing out the money changers, flipping over tables and such. All of this made the leaders in Jerusalem very upset. They had always believed that Jesus was no good. So in the readings for the past few weeks we’ve been hearing about the interaction between Jesus and these leaders in Jerusalem.

Our reading this morning is another of those interactions, but in today’s reading the Jewish leaders are trying to trap Jesus in what he might say.  So they come to him with something of a trick question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

To understand why this is a trick question, we need to know something about the political situation at that time. The Jewish people had not been able to govern themselves for quite some time. They had been ruled over by foreigners for a few hundred years. The latest of the foreign rulers were the Romans, with the Caesar at the head of that government. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to that guy or not?”

I’m not aware of any people who enjoys having foreign rulers over them, and the Jews were no exception. They resented the presumption, arrogance, brutality, and so on of the Romans. They were hoping that they could get their own kingdom back. One of the hopes at the time was that the Messiah, or the Christ, promised in the Old Testament, would come and restore their kingdom. So they’d rather not pay taxes to Caesar. Plus they could add some pretty legitimate sounding excuses. The Caesar was a rank unbeliever. He even styled himself as something of a god. How could tax-payers give their hard-earned money towards something like that?

So that’s one part of what is going on. The Jews didn’t like the Romans or Caesar. The other part of what is going on with Jesus being asked this questions was that it was dangerous for anyone to say that they didn’t like the Romans or Caesar. If someone had rebellious thoughts, and the Romans found out about it, they wouldn’t think twice about killing especially non-citizens like most of the Jews. I think this is what Jesus’s opponents were hoping would happen. I think they were hoping he would say that we should throw off the Roman yoke and start building a better world. And if Jesus’s opponents heard something like that, the first thing they would have done was to run to Pontius Pilate. They’d turn Jesus in and all their problems would go away.

But Jesus disappoints them. Instead of saying “Throw off the Roman yoke,” he says, “Give Caesar’s things to Caesar, and God’s things to God.” So Jesus avoided their trap.

Now let’s think about what Jesus’s answer means. There are two parts to his answer: “Give Caesar’s things to Caesar, and God’s things to God.” We’ll take them in turns. With the first part of Jesus’s response there seems—to me, at least—to be something of a dismissal of the whole issue. The saying, “Give Caesar’s things to Caesar,” strikes me as being something like, “Let sleeping dogs lie,” or “That’s all a tempest in a teapot.” Not much to see.

To respond in such a manner is unexpected, to say the least. Maybe it would be along the lines of someone saying, “It doesn’t matter if Biden or Trump is president,” when we all know that nothing could be more important than who is president. Right? We have about a dozen cable news channels that are dedicated to nothing else than covering every last whisper and wink that comes out of Washington. Jesus just says, “Leave Caesar alone. Give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar.”

Perhaps what Jesus’s response identifies is a false god that we easily end up fearing, loving, and trusting in. There’s no denying that those in government have power, and so we easily believe that if only we were able to get these things straight—if only we could get our guys or our party in there—then we’ll be happy. Every four years, every two years, we hear the same things over and over again. Vote for this guy and then you’ll be happy. Or, conversely, God forbid the other guy should be elected otherwise the world will fall apart. Our fear, love, and trust belong with the true God instead of in anything else. To fear, love, and trust in those who have power in earthly affairs is just as much idolatry as if we were bowing down and worshiping some statue.

In order for you to see how idolatry can be present with our thoughts about government, let me speak briefly about another kind of idolatry, the idolatry of money. Very similar things are said about money as are said about the government. “If only I have money, then I’ll be happy.” Or, conversely, “if I should happen to lose any money, then gloom, despair, and agony on me.”

Now I have to admit that there’s something going on with these things we idolize. For example, does it feel good to come into some money? You bet it does. Does it hurt to lose money? Yes indeed. So also with the government. There are good governments and bad governments. We’d all like to have a good government. Does it feel good to have your guy win on election night? You bet it does. But even though we can get some pleasure and satisfaction through these things, they are not very good gods. They don’t really deliver the happiness or blessedness that they are always promising.

So do not put your faith in this person or party being elected or not elected. A lot of people at Jesus’s time believed that if they could only get rid of that awful Caesar, then happy days would return again. Whether Caesars exist or don’t exist is not what will do the trick. What is needed is a new creation. The things of God are what is needed. We need to be born again of water and the Spirit. We need to enter into a new relationship with God where there is true righteousness, justice, peace, and so on—much purer and profounder than any earthly ruler could ever accomplish under even the best of circumstances.

So do not obsess over who is in power or not in power. God still exists in heaven above regardless of who is in power. Make it your aim, instead, to please God.

This is one thought that I believe Jesus is expressing when he says, “Give Caesar’s things to Caesar.” Leave him be. Another thing he is saying is actually the answer to their question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” Jesus says, basically, “It is.” Pay the things that belong to Caesar to Caesar. Paul says the same thing in Romans 13: “Pay taxes to whom you owe taxes.” Why? Because government is a gift from God. They need to be supported in the work that God has given them to do.

Now I can understand why it might not seem as though government is a gift from God. There is always waste, corruption, nonsense, if not even worse things. It can seem as though government is not a gift of God at all. But just because something that is good can be abused, doesn’t destroy what is supposed to be good. Admittedly, the government does not always do what is right. Governments never have! They’ve all been run by poor, miserable sinners. But there is a lot of goodness that God accomplishes through his gift of government that is easily overlooked.

Consider how good it is that we can pick up the phone and call 911, and we don’t have to wonder about whether help is on the way. God’s gift of government defends us and protects us. God’s gift of government also prevents all kinds of evils and mischief. Because of the fact that we have laws, police, judges, prisons, and so forth, those who want to do evil have to think twice before harming their neighbor. They don’t want to get caught. They don’t want to get punished. In this way God keeps the lid on all kinds of evil that otherwise would boil over. God’s gift of government, even if it be ever-so-imperfect, allows us to live quiet and peaceable lives.

So with Jesus’s words, “Give Caesar’s things to Caesar,” Jesus is indicating that government has a God-given role to play. Taxes should be paid to whom taxes are owed, because God works through those who are in government to maintain peace and prosperity. However, we should keep our distance when it comes to our heart. Don’t give your heart or your soul to anyone or anything but God alone.

Which brings us to the second part of Jesus’s response: “Give God’s things to God.” What are the things of God? What we must think of first and foremost when it comes to the “things of God” is God’s Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Jesus did the things of God.

And what did Jesus do? Jesus became Lord over everything that afflicts us the worst. We might think that government or money could fix our problems—and maybe they could fix some of them—but these things cannot even come close to addressing our worst and most pressing needs. What makes us saddest and most miserable is our poor spiritual condition—our coveting, greed, anger, hatred, lust, meanness, fear, self-loathing, and so on. We could sum all these things up with the word, “Sin.” And Sin would like to rule us like a tyrant both now in this life, and eternally in the life to come. Jesus defeats sin. Sin is not Lord. Jesus is Lord.

And Jesus defeats the gloomy grave. Death and decay in all around I see. Wave after wave of people go away and there seems to be no stopping it. But death must let go despite its terrible, seemingly invincible, grip. We shall rise as Jesus has arisen.

The glory of these things is so magnificent! Jesus gets to the root and source. There is so much talk of happiness: “I would be happy if only I …” and you fill in the blank. Happiness is so much higher and holier of a thing than people imagine. There’s no way government, or money, or any other earthly thing can truly bring about happiness. Happiness is tied up with God.

So, as Jesus says, “Give to God’s things to God.” The way we give God’s things to God is by believing him. Believe what God has done in his Son whom he sent, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Believe that Jesus is Lord and God. Faith, simply believing God, is the highest worship. There is no substitute for faith. Either we believe that Jesus Christ is Lord—in him is my happiness. Or you will be looking somewhere else for your happiness. Lots of things seem like they should do the trick. None of them, ultimately, can, except the things of God.

Jesus’s message is therefore remarkably applicable to us today. The Jews at Jesus’s time were lost in the same kinds of things we get lost in—political intrigues, lying, meanness, and so on. A lot of the Jews believed that if only they could attain some change in the government, then we’d have our happy days. But there is finally only one way to happiness, and that is in our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for us.

231001 Sermon on how outward appearances are not enough (Pentecost 18) October 1, 2023

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

“Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!”

In our Gospel reading the chief priest and elders are upset about Jesus. The chief priests and elders had never liked Jesus. Jesus wasn’t a part of their club. He wasn’t from Jerusalem. He didn’t go to the right schools. He wasn’t from the right families.

What’s more is that he also appeared to them to be a dangerous heretic. He healed people on the Sabbath, for example. That’s work, is it not? That’s forbidden. And his disciples didn’t wash their hands before they ate. Every self-respecting Jew had been washing his hands a certain way from time immemorial! And here these cheeky disciples were flaunting the traditions of their people.

So the chief priest and elders already didn’t like Jesus, but what had been going on lately was over the top. The day before our reading took place was Palm Sunday. Jesus entered Jerusalem amid shouts of joy: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Jesus is the King like King David! Hosanna, which means, save us we pray!” The people were joyously saying stuff like that, and it made these people sick. Jesus was a heretic! Jesus was no good! All their best theologians had said so.

But then Jesus did something more. He entered into their home turf. He entered the Temple. When he saw what was going on, it made him angry. Buying here. Selling there. And so Jesus kicked them all out. They had set up tables with pigeons, cash registers and such, and Jesus grabbed hold of their tables and flipped them over. Money and pigeons went flying everywhere. Jesus quoted Scripture to them: “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer.’ You have made it a den of robbers!”

Our Gospel reading today is from the day after Jesus did these things. It’s not surprising, therefore, that the chief priests and elders should go up to him and say, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” They wanted to know: had Jesus been authorized to raise havoc? They, of course, believed that they already knew the answer. Of course he didn’t have the authority, because they were the higher ups, and they certainly had not given him any such authority!

But Jesus surprises them by not immediately answering their question. He asks them a question. If they’ll answer his question, then he’ll answer theirs. Jesus asks, “John’s baptism: where did it come from? Was it from God or from man?” You heard how the chief priests and elders discussed how they should answer. If they said that the baptism was from God, then Jesus will ask why they didn’t get baptized? But if they said that John’s baptism was merely human they knew the people wouldn’t stand for it. The people were sure that John the Baptist was a prophet. So they said, “We don’t know.” And neither did Jesus tell them by what authority he did what he did.

Now let’s look a little more closely at what the chief priests and elders were doing. Notice how the chief priests and elders were dishonest right from the start. Already with the first question that they ask Jesus, they weren’t looking for an honest answer. It’s more an accusation in the form of a question: “By what authority do you do these things?” They don’t want to know what authority he has. They already know that he has no authority—at least so far as they’re concerned.

Then, when Jesus asks them his question, Jesus subtly points them towards the truth. Jesus brings up God—something that wasn’t even on the chief priests’ and elders’ radar. Jesus would have them consider: Might it be that John the Baptist was sent from God? Might it be that if John the Baptist was sent from God, then Jesus, also, was sent from God? Might it be that his authority comes from God?

This subtle suggestion is lost on them, however. It was like seed being sown on a beaten path. They didn’t think about God. They only thought of how they hadn’t liked John the Baptist either. He too wasn’t part of their club. He too said stuff and did stuff that annoyed them. No, of course John’s baptism wasn’t from God, but they dare not say that out loud. The idiotic people regarded John to be a prophet.

So notice what these church leaders are doing, or, rather, not doing. They aren’t interested in what is true. They don’t lay their cards on the table. They operate in a calculated and artificial way. Their thoughts are not on God, their thoughts are only on how their words and actions are going to affect themselves negatively or positively. Since they do not care about God or about what is true the meat and substance of what they are supposed to be about as members and leaders of the church has been lost. They are only dealing with the husks, the outward appearances of faith.

This was the very thing that Jesus reacted against so violently the day before. When he came into the temple and saw what was going on he saw that it was mechanical and empty. There was certainly a lot of hustle and bustle, but nothing of substance, nothing of faith. People were coming and going. They put in their offerings. Week after week, rinse and repeat. Jesus looks upon their bored faces and exclaims: “This house is to be a house of prayer!” That means that people are supposed to care, to think, to wrestle and to call upon God. Wrestling with God was not on the table. The husks were. The meat and the substance was gone.

That’s a good way to understand the contrast between the chief priests and elders on the one hand and John the Baptist and Jesus on the other. John the Baptist and Jesus called out for the meat and the substance. The Gospels summarize the preach of both as being the same. Both John the Baptist and Jesus preached: “Repent, for the kingdom of God draws near!”

That is a clear message. The king is coming. God is coming. That is a simple message that affects every last one of us. God can come suddenly and unexpectedly. Any one of us could die today or tomorrow and that is when we will meet our maker. That is the kingdom of God drawing near for us personally. Or today or tomorrow could be the end of this age when Christ will come with his angels in power and glory to judge the living and the dead.

In light of the kingdom of God drawing near both John and Jesus say the same thing: “Repent!” Change your ways! Let the sinner sin no longer. Paul says, “Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor partiers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God!” There’s that word: “kingdom of God.” “Those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Now I know that you’ve done such things. I’ve done such things, I’m sorry to say. John the Baptist and Jesus say, “Repent!” “Stop it!” To which we might very well say, “I don’t want to.” That might very well be the truth! After all, why have we done these things to begin with? Nobody held a gun to our head and said, “Be sexually immoral or else!” “Be greedy or else!” We did these things because we wanted to do. It might be against our will to stop.

I’ll give you another example: Your dad comes to you, as dads tend to do, and tells you, “Go outside and work!” I’ve never met the kid who unfailingly responds: “Hurray! I get to go and work!” More often than not we say, inwardly at least, “I don’t want to.”

Jesus gave the chief priests and elders a parable along these lines. He said, “What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I don’t want to,’ but afterward he repented and went. And the father went to the other son and said the same. He answered, ‘Yes sir. I will go,’ but he never did. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John the Baptist came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him.”

It is not surprising that someone doesn’t want to go work. Likewise, it is not surprising that anyone who likes to sin would want to stop. The tax collectors and prostitutes were the open sinners. They brazenly said: “We don’t want to,” but later they changed their mind. They repented.

The other son, on the other hand, looked better. He looked more pious. He said, “Yes sir!” when his father told him to do something he didn’t want to do. Although he looked different as far as outward appearances and words was concerned, inwardly he was just like his brother. He had the same heart.

But, as it turned out, he ended up being worse. He had looked better, he had said the right words, but he was worse because he did not repent. Even when his brother, who had said the wrong words, nevertheless went out and worked, he still didn’t repent and go and work. He was content to have merely said the right words and to have had the right appearance.

This is a special danger for regular churchgoers like us. We can be content with appearances. We have our church machinery that runs here week in and week out. It is quite easy for us to believe that being minimally involved in that machinery is more than enough. We don’t need to repent, unless we should happen to want to.

But to this we must say, “No!” The kingdom of God draws near. Husks and outward appearances are not enough. We might fool our fellow human beings with such things, but there’s no fooling God. God’s kingdom is coming. The king is coming. How will you welcome him? See to it that you are not ashamed! Welcome him with joy!

It is not like we need to be afraid of the real substance, the reigning and ruling of God. God’s kingdom is good! Jesus is gracious and merciful. The people who greeted him on Palm Sunday were full of joy at the prospect of Jesus being their king. When Jesus appeared to his disciples after he rose from the dead, they didn’t go running in terror from him. They were glad when they saw the Lord, even though they knew that they had done much that needed forgiveness.

God’s kingdom is like our opening hymn:

As surely as I live God said,

I would not see the sinner dead.

I want him turned from error’s ways

Repentant, living endless days.

The Lord bless your communion with him today. May this house be a house of prayer! Amen.

230917 Sermon on forgiving from the heart (Pentecost 16) September 17, 2023

 Audio recording

Sermon text:

Forgiveness can be difficult. It can be complicated. If I accidentally bump into you as we are passing by each other, that’s not hard to forgive. Not all forgiveness is like that. In fact, I don’t know if that really is forgiveness. It’s more like politeness. Forgiveness is more serious.

Being polite is easier than forgiving. Since politeness is easier than forgiveness we often try to have politeness be considered a sufficient substitute for actual forgiveness. There’s a phrase that’s common, “I will forgive, but I won’t forget.” That’s like a forewarning for how you’re going to treat the person—coldly and fiercely politely. The recipient of this coldness gets the message quite clearly. He or she knows that they are not forgiven. There’s no forgiveness from the heart.

So when Jesus says at the end of our reading, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart,” we should not think that our cold avoidance of the one with whom we have our beef is sufficient. That’s not forgiveness. It also isn’t fulfilling what Jesus says at the beginning of our reading when Peter came to him with a question. Peter thought that he was being quite generous when he asked Jesus, “How many times should my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” “No,” Jesus says, “not seven times but seventy times seven.”

So how do we forgive? How do we forgive from the heart? I can’t pretend that I have some secret formula. We do have Jesus’s parable, though, and that might help if we are willing to receive instruction from him. I won’t hold my breath, though, because being willing to receive instruction particularly about forgiveness is not automatic. Here’s another phrase: “blind with rage.” A person can go blind from anger, not literally, but in the sense that the person is so angry that he or she won’t take anything else in. Don’t talk to them about forgiveness because they won’t have it. You have no idea how badly they’ve been hurt. So it’s not automatic that people will listen to Jesus’s parable, but maybe today’s the day.

Jesus’s parable is pretty straightforward. There was a man who owed a huge sum of money to the king. He couldn’t pay the debt. He was going to be sold together with his family into slavery until the debt was paid. However, because the man pleaded with the king, and because the king had pity on him, the king forgave the entire debt.

Then this same man goes out and find somebody who owes him some money. He took him by the throat and demanded repayment. This debtor said the very same words that the one who was forgiven had just said, but instead of forgiving the man he throws him into prison until he should pay back what was owed.

This was highly distressing to those who heard it. The hypocrisy of it, the cruelty of it, made them make their petitions to the king. When the king found out about it he called the man in. “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt, and you couldn’t have mercy on the one who owed you?” And he threw him into prison until he should pay back the last penny.

As we consider this parable, what I’d like to convince you of is that we are all like the man whose debt was forgiven. It might seem extraordinary that he is so blind to his hypocrisy—that he can’t forgive as he has been forgiven—but that’s not that hard if you have the perspective that comes so easily to us. The perspective that comes so easily to us is always to be looking out for ourselves: How can I get ahead? How can I have more? How can I get without having to give? With this perspective the man’s debt being forgiven was a huge boon. Here he got to spend all that money, and now he doesn’t have to pay it back. Good for him!

When he left the king and found the fellow who owed him money he simply continued to be the way he always was. He continued to look out for himself. Here were some more riches he could accumulate for himself if only he could somehow get the man to pay. With the perspective we’ve been considering, we have to say, “Good for him!” He was just being a good businessman. As every good businessman knows, you have to pay as little as you possibly can, and you have to get as much as you possibly can. Maybe this man’s greed and lack of compassion was what he prided himself most on. It’s the way that he had gotten so far ahead in life, you see.

So I don’t think this fellow who was forgiven by the king was even thinking about what he was doing. He was just doing what he had always done. He’d always looked out for himself. He’d always done what was best for himself. If this fool king wants to forgive him his debt, okay. A fool and his money are soon parted. But this fellow was no fool. He knew how to get ahead in life, and it wasn’t by forgiving debts!

This way of living is extremely common. It’s the default, natural way. Lots of people think there’s nothing wrong with it. Maybe you don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. It wouldn’t be hard to find some people who give lectures and write books who would argue that this way of living is good for one’s self and it’s good for society. With every last person competing for every last resource we have managed to bring about our glorious modern world with all of its abundance. Selfishness has supposedly produced this miracle. And, as well all know, everybody’s so happy these days too, right? So, according to them, we don’t need less self-centeredness, we need more of it.

But if this is the way you will live your life, then you will never forgive. You can’t forgive, you see, because forgiving is against the rule that you’ve made for yourself. The rule you’ve made for yourself is that you are only going to do what is good for you, what enriches you, what feels good for you. Forgiveness is quite different from all that. Forgiveness is costly.

Think of this king. He lost billions of dollars when he forgave the debt. That’s what this debt would be in today’s money—literally billions, not millions, billions. Such a debt would drag almost all our billionaires into the poor house. He went from being rich to poor. Think of what he could have purchased with those billions of dollars.

And the same thing is true with the fellow who was forgiven, but who didn’t want to forgive his fellow servant. That forgiveness would have been costly too. 100 denarii is probably about $20,000 in today’s money. If a person doesn’t collect on a debt like that, that hurts. It means you can’t buy what you would have otherwise like to have bought. You can’t go on a trip that you otherwise would have liked to have gone on.

But it’s not always money that we lose with forgiveness. Sometimes it’s costlier things like our pride. We like to be right. You were right, of course, with that person with whom you’ve had your beef. You’ve always been right. They’ve always been wrong. So how could you give up your claims against them? They need to give up their claims against you!

Or maybe someone has dragged you or your family down into shame. They’ve wrecked your good name. Or maybe they’ve wrecked your livelihood. Or maybe they’ve wrecked your peace and happiness. These are very serious, costly things—often irreplaceable, irreparable things.

If you live your life in such a way that you are always going to come first, it is impossible let go of such costly things. Never, ever, in a million years will you forgive—at least not from the heart. Maybe you’ll be polite, but you’ll never love them. You can’t love them because they broke your #1 commandment: You shall not harm me.

One of the most surprising things that Christianity teaches us is that there are worse things than being harmed. There are worse things than suffering. The fear of harm, the fear of suffering is at the root of so many evils like lying, greed, anger, and so on. But suffering is not the worst thing.

Our God suffered to bring about our redemption. How can anyone say that that suffering was bad? The suffering of God in our Lord Jesus Christ was the highest and holiest thing that ever was or ever shall be.

This is reflected in the lives we are given to live as Christians. Jesus has left us with a remembrance of this suffering of God in the Lord’s Supper. We are to do this Lord’s Supper “often,” Jesus says, “in remembrance of him.” In remembrance of what? Of God’s suffering. Paul says in another place, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” This sacrament is to remind us of Jesus’s death, God’s suffering.

Then, also, we are called to suffer. Jesus says, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” To deny yourself and take up your cross is connected to what we heard also today: We must forgive from the heart. That is a call to suffer. Forgiveness is costly. To reach out across the pain, not counting the cost—that is forgiveness.

I do not have the ability to make a single one of you forgive anyone. You, in fact, do not have the ability to forgive anyone—at least not really, not from the heart. These precious pearls must not be cast before swine. Only the Holy Spirit can work this. What I can do is praise forgiveness. There is nothing nearer and dearer to our God than forgiveness. In Jesus’s costly suffering and death he forgave the whole world! Forgiveness is good.

Therefore, also, suffering is good. Suffering is good when it is done for love of your neighbor. I understand how we all fear suffering. I don’t like it any more than you do. But it is good. For you to forgive those who trespass against you is beautiful. It is more beautiful than anything that money can buy.

So be courageous. To not be afraid of suffering takes courage. Dare to forgive. Dare to reach out and love. By doing so you won’t lose anything that is truly precious. You will be able to taste the true spiritual riches of our suffering, loving God.

230903 Sermon on the strangeness of Christ's cross (Pentecost 14) September 4, 2023

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

Jesus said, “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.”

Let me begin by running a couple ideas by you. How about this idea for a marriage: Husband and wife get married. Like most married couples they thought it was going to be great. They had visions and plans in their heads. Not long after they tie the knot, however, they find out who it is that they really married. Who they married doesn’t match up at all with the ideas that they had in their head. What now? Have I made the biggest mistake of my life? How can I break free?

How’s that sound for a marriage? Sound like a good idea?

Or how about this idea for a livelihood: A young person goes and gets trained for a good job. The job requires skill and know-how. This young person is fully employed with benefits. This goes on for twenty or thirty years. Then that job is no longer necessary. Technology or globalization mean that somebody else can do the same job a lot cheaper. The person is permanently laid off. Now the young person is no longer young. Well paying jobs are not very available. Only the jobs that nobody really wants are available.

How’s that for a career? Sound good?

If these don’t sound like very good ideas to you, then maybe you can hear Jesus’s words a little differently when he describes how he was going to be king in our Gospel reading. Jesus told his disciples that he was going to go where all his worst enemies live. The big shots in Jerusalem were convinced that Jesus was a heretic. They believed that the only reason why Jesus could do all those miracles was because he was an agent of Satan. They were looking for an opportunity to get their hands on him, and Jesus said that he was going give them that opportunity. He would fall right into their hands. They would arrest him. They would put him on trial with false witnesses and a kangaroo court. They would blindfold him, punch him, and spit on him. They would kill him. On the third day he would rise.

There are Jesus’s ideas for how he would be king.

Peter can perhaps be excused for saying, “Oh, Jesus, let it not be so with you! May this never happen to you. That’s no way for the Christ to be king!”

How should the Christ be king? Lots of things could be done. The main thing is to get bigger. More members means more money, more resources. To get bigger we need to let people know what a great king Jesus is. We could take out some ads in the newspaper. That’s a little old fashioned, though. Maybe some TikTok videos. Instagram. Jesus kicking it with kids in skinny jeans. Seriously, though, we’ve got to grow. It’s only by growing that we can ever get strong enough. We have to get strong enough so that we can push out the Romans. Only when we’ve kicked out the Romans can we get Jesus installed as king.

What Jesus does is almost the opposite of all this. The movement doesn’t grow; it shrinks. He doesn’t get stronger; he gets weaker. He becomes so weak that he stumbles about. He can’t even carry his own cross anymore. Simon of Cyrene must carry it the remainder of the way.

The people at the cross are understandably baffled by Jesus’s claims: “Wait, so you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and here you are nailed to a cross? Why would God allow that? Come down from that cross, then we’ll believe you. Otherwise you don’t seem to be what you claim to be.”

When Jesus finally died, everybody knew that the movement was over and done with. The corpse, green and blue and stiff, was right there for anybody to see. How can that corpse be king? Are you going to prop that corpse up on a throne? No. Obviously the disciples were wrong. They thought that Jesus was the Christ, the king, but they were mistaken. All that’s left to do is to bury that corpse, move back to Galilee, and try to get on with life.

Realize that if Jesus wouldn’t have risen from the dead, everything that I’ve been saying to you would have been the sensible way to react to all that had happened. Peter, in fact, would have been proven right when he said, “Oh no, Jesus. Not that. You can’t do it like that.” But that’s not what happened. Jesus didn’t stay dead. That changes everything. Instead of what seems sensible being vindicated, Jesus and his words are vindicated. The thoughts of man are vain and futile. God’s thoughts prevail.

What are these thoughts of man that are now vain and futile? We’ve already spoken about them today. It would be the way we think we are going to succeed. For Jesus to be an effective king he has to be grand and glorious. The bigger the movement the more power it has. This thinking is vain and false. This is proven by what happened. At the moment of Jesus’s triumph with the cross and resurrection, the movement dwindled all the way down to exactly zero. Nobody believed in him. Popularity or numbers don’t matter when God is the one who is acting. God doesn’t need numbers or popularity.

Or take the examples with which I began. We are such idealistic creatures. We get an idea in our head of how things are supposed to go. A marriage is supposed to be like this. A career is supposed to be like this. A male body is supposed to look like this. A female body is supposed to look like this. A house is supposed to be like this. Home furnishings are supposed to be like this. A good personality is supposed to be like this. All the popular and successful people look like this.

These are all just ideas. Nobody measures up to all of them. Maybe you don’t measure up to many of them. Maybe you don’t measure up to any of them. If you don’t measure up to any of them, then you are what is called a “loser.” Being a loser sounds like it is the worst of the worst, but, you know what, let’s not be too hasty.

Do you know who the first person was to whom Jesus appeared when he rose from the dead? The very first person to whom Jesus came was Mary Magdalene. There are a few things we know about this woman. She used to be a prostitute. That means that she had sex with strangers for money. She was inhabited by seven demons, whom Jesus cast out. One demon is plenty to wreak havoc on a psyche. She had seven. Let’s not romanticize Mary Magdalene. She must have been a very, very troubled person—a “loser” you might say. And she has the honor of being the first to whom Jesus came. Why? Because Jesus loved her. He wanted to comfort her in her afflictions.

Note to whom Jesus did not appear: He did not appear to those who saw themselves as righteous, as wise, as powerful, as having the world by the tail. Jesus didn’t appear to any of those at all.

And consider what people would have thought about Jesus too. They thought that he was a loser. Maybe he was something in the past, but surely he is nothing as he hung naked, bruised, bloody, on the cross. “He saved others; he cannot save himself.” That’s what they were saying about him. “He claimed to be God’s Son. I guess God must not like people saying that they are God’s son, because look at him now. God must be punishing him.” Jesus looked like scum, a criminal, a loser.

But then we have all these sayings from the Scriptures like “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” That is a saying that means nothing other than “the loser will be winner, and the winner will be the loser.” Or here’s a related saying, “God rejects the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Or, again, a saying that is in our reading today: “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life on account of me will find it.”

Jesus teaches some strange things, which all hinge on whether Jesus rose from the dead. If Jesus rose from the dead, then all those old rules go out the window. If he did not rise from the dead, then, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, “We Christians are to be pitied above all others.” Our faith is vain. We are living a lie. We would be vastly better off if we would forget everything Jesus ever said, and instead ruthlessly make our own dreams come true. Maybe, if we try hard enough and never give up, then somebody will remember us.

But if Jesus has risen from the dead, and he has, then all the world’s wisdom is foolishness. The most perfect life, the life that ticks all the boxes, is an empty and lost life, estranged from God.

On the other hand, the opposite—being humbled, being humiliated—is not the worst thing. What does it mean to be humbled but to realize that you aren’t as great as you thought you were? Isn’t that just the truth? You are a fallible creature. What you should have done, you haven’t done, and what you shouldn’t have done, that’s the very thing that you’ve done. This is the truth that’s hard to see and harder to accept.

On the other hand, it’s easy to dream about what you’d like to be. It’s the easiest thing the world! What kind of marriage would you like? The best. What kind of house do you want? The best. What kind of job do you want? The best. The ideas are not even interesting. Everybody just wants to be the best!

In contrast to all this fakery, I can say that God has loved you—the real you, not the fake, ideal you. The real you is the you as you really are with all your defects, with all your unchecked boxes. Chasing dreams is supposed to make you happy. I’m not so sure. It’s not the only way to be.

Be like Mary Magdalene, that very troubled person. She was glad when she saw the Lord. She wasn’t much to look at, but Jesus loved her. Jesus loves you too.

Scripture says, “If anyone is in Christ, then that person is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!”