To live righteously according to the Law of God,
does not mean that you judge and discipline your neighbor,
but that you discipline and judge yourself, lest you be judged.
To live peacefully in the mercy of God,
does not mean that you excuse yourself and your sin,
but that you forgive your neighbor and overlook his sins
and gladly do good to those who trespass against you.
20 February 2013
17 February 2013
To Be a Theologian of the Cross
What He has always been, and ever shall be, He also becomes, in the flesh, in order to save you. He who is the Word of God, the almighty and eternal Son, becomes a Theologian, that is, One who studies, prays and confesses, preaches and teaches the Word of God.
Dr. Luther famously describes the making of a real theologian by oratio, meditatio, and tentatio; which is to say, by prayer, by meditation on the Scriptures, and by the agonizing struggle of faith in that Word of God against the assaults and accusations of the devil. It is a struggle of faith, the dying and rising of repentance, because the Lord God reveals Himself in the hidden Word of the Cross. So does He work His work of repentance in you, by the way and the means of the Cross.
And so does the Lord Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, become a real theologian in the flesh, by prayer and fasting, by the careful consideration and study of the Scriptures, and by the agonizing struggle of faith in His Father, in the midst of the wilderness, in the face of the devil’s temptations.
It is a not a gratuitous charade, but He becomes a real Theologian of the Cross, in order that the Word of God be with you: He’s by your side upon the plain, with His good gifts and Spirit. The Word draws near to you, here in the wilderness, not only as theology, but as the true Theologian.
What that means, in the first place, is that the Word of God has become like you; not only flesh of your flesh, conceived and born of St. Mary, but also living your life in the world, bearing your sin and its curse of mortality, and being tempted in every way that you are tempted. He hears your cries of sorrow and anguish, and He sees your suffering and affliction; not from a great distance, but in your place, in the same predicament, in the heat of battle, under Pharaoh’s bitter yoke.
But now the same Word-made-Flesh draws near, in yet another way, by preaching Himself to you: so giving Himself into your ears, into your mind and heart, into your hands and mouth and body.
By His preaching you believe in Him, and you confess His Cross and Resurrection, and you call upon His Name in prayer, with praise and thanksgiving; and by His tender mercy, you are saved.
He, the Word-made-Flesh, the incarnate Son of God, is able to help and save you with His Word and preaching, because He has established His divine Sonship in the flesh, for you and for all people, by His perfect faith and faithfulness. That is the witness you hear in His Gospel today.
He is tempted in every way, as you are, save only without sin, in order to become your merciful and faithful great High Priest. Not only does He understand and sympathize with you — not only does He know how you feel, and how hard it is for you — but He is with you in those agonizing struggles; He bears them with you, in order to rescue and redeem you from the devil’s tyranny, and to bring you in safety and peace to His Father, not as a refugee, but as a beloved son or daughter.
He is therefore tempted in all the ways you are, and yet His temptations are also unique, because He is the Christ, your only Savior, and the only-begotten Son of God the Father from all eternity. That is not to suggest that He has an easier time of it, but quite the opposite: He willingly bears the full extent of the burden, which would otherwise break you and destroy you.
There is a blessed divine Mystery at work in this, for He is not tempted by any covetous lust from within Himself. He has no sinful heart, no sinful thoughts or inclinations. But He has taken the weight, the pressure and the sting of those temptations upon Himself, that He might relieve you of that legacy, both by His own faithful perseverance, and by His forgiveness of all your failures.
So He is led by the Spirit in the wilderness, into confrontation with the devil, as your Champion; and He undergoes the full gamut of temptations, in order to overcome the foe who opposes you.
In human flesh and blood, just like yours, He lives as the true and perfect Man. He trusts His God and Father, and He does not put Him to the test. But He, the Son, is tested, as Israel was tested, and as you are also tested in the wilderness; and in this testing, He is found faithful. He prevails in steadfast faith, so that you and all of Adam’s other children might be saved by His faithfulness. And the content of that great salvation is that you receive the Sonship of Christ Jesus as your own, by the Father’s gracious adoption; just as He has given you and told you in your Holy Baptism.
In this respect, too, the Lord Jesus lives for you, as you are called to live, by faith in the Word and promises of God. You have heard this before, and again this morning: The devil questions and puts to the test the very thing that Christ Himself has heard and received in His Baptism. There the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God descended upon Him in bodily form, like a dove, and the Father openly declared to Him: “You are My beloved Son. With You I am well-pleased.”
So Christ lives and perseveres, in the wilderness, even unto His death upon the Cross, by faith in the Word and promise of His Father; which is not only the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, but also the testimony of His Baptism. Though He shall be crucified and die, He trusts that God His Father will raise Him up in glory from death and the grave, and the heavens are still open to Him.
Christ Jesus lives by faith in this Word of His Father. But He Himself, precisely so, is the Word of God the Father to you, and the fulfillment of all His promises to you. He and His preaching are full of the Holy Spirit, which He has received in His flesh, in order to pour out generously on you. And so He does. For everything that He has accomplished and achieved, He has done for you.
He hungers for the Word and Will of His Father, more deeply and more strongly than His empty stomach growls for bread. But in thus believing the Word and doing the Will of His dear God and Father, He has becomes the Food of God for you, that is, the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God as the living and Life-giving Bread from heaven.
He goes without eating for those forty days, and upon the Cross, and He suffers in His Body, in order that you might eat and be well fed in both body and soul, here in time and there in eternity. For He establishes the Word of God in His own Flesh and Blood; not only by His Incarnation, but also by His active and passive obedience, by His keeping of the Law, and by His suffering of its judgments in your stead, its punishments for all your disobedience.
That is why the Word of Christ not only teaches and instructs you, but it actually saves you. His preaching first of all instills in you a hunger for His Word, for His Kingdom and His righteousness — and this same preaching of Christ Jesus also feeds and nourishes you with these very things.
Thus, with His Word to you, the Son of God fulfills the Word of His Father for you. His Cross has utterly crushed and defeated the devil, all his works, and all his ways, because this Lord Jesus Christ has willingly gone to His death in the holiness and righteousness of perfect faith and love. And as God the Father raised Him from the dead, He is now the First Fruits of the New Creation.
By His Cross, and in His Resurrection, with His Body and His Blood, He worships and serves the Lord, His God: Not to save Himself, not to bargain or barter for any personal benefit, but in order to save you and others by the grace of God. For this salvation, there is nothing for you to do or to give but thanks and praise, in which you also become a real theologian of the Cross.
That is the true theology and the fine art of the Christian faith and life: to give thanks for the Cross, by which you are put to death and raised to newness of life, by repentance and forgiveness of sins.
Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour you in their furious hate and hostility; and though you have the old evil foe on your back, both day and night, hounding and harassing you within and without — the truth of the matter is, that the devil and his minions are defeated; they cannot harm you any more; they’re judged, the deed is done.
The Word of Christ has felled them; that is, the Word of His Cross, which Christ here preaches.
It is by His Cross, by the Fruits of His Cross, that He brings you out of Egypt with His mighty arms and outstretched hands; that He brings you safely through the wilderness, and through the Jordan River into the good Land that He promised: a Paradise flowing with creamy milk and sweet honey (that is, with the pure milk of His Word, which is much sweeter than honey from the honeycomb).
That good Land is not far away, but it is very near to you in this preaching of Christ Jesus. It is in the Bread with which He feeds you, which is the Word of God made Flesh. And it is in the good Wine that He pours out for you to drink, which is His holy and precious Blood. And as God the Father raised this same Jesus, who here feeds you, from the dead, so shall He surely also raise you.
For He is merciful to you, and to all the sons and daughters of Adam, in this Word: His dear Son, Jesus Christ. Call upon His Name, dear Christian theologian of the Cross, and you shall be saved.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dr. Luther famously describes the making of a real theologian by oratio, meditatio, and tentatio; which is to say, by prayer, by meditation on the Scriptures, and by the agonizing struggle of faith in that Word of God against the assaults and accusations of the devil. It is a struggle of faith, the dying and rising of repentance, because the Lord God reveals Himself in the hidden Word of the Cross. So does He work His work of repentance in you, by the way and the means of the Cross.
And so does the Lord Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, become a real theologian in the flesh, by prayer and fasting, by the careful consideration and study of the Scriptures, and by the agonizing struggle of faith in His Father, in the midst of the wilderness, in the face of the devil’s temptations.
It is a not a gratuitous charade, but He becomes a real Theologian of the Cross, in order that the Word of God be with you: He’s by your side upon the plain, with His good gifts and Spirit. The Word draws near to you, here in the wilderness, not only as theology, but as the true Theologian.
What that means, in the first place, is that the Word of God has become like you; not only flesh of your flesh, conceived and born of St. Mary, but also living your life in the world, bearing your sin and its curse of mortality, and being tempted in every way that you are tempted. He hears your cries of sorrow and anguish, and He sees your suffering and affliction; not from a great distance, but in your place, in the same predicament, in the heat of battle, under Pharaoh’s bitter yoke.
But now the same Word-made-Flesh draws near, in yet another way, by preaching Himself to you: so giving Himself into your ears, into your mind and heart, into your hands and mouth and body.
By His preaching you believe in Him, and you confess His Cross and Resurrection, and you call upon His Name in prayer, with praise and thanksgiving; and by His tender mercy, you are saved.
He, the Word-made-Flesh, the incarnate Son of God, is able to help and save you with His Word and preaching, because He has established His divine Sonship in the flesh, for you and for all people, by His perfect faith and faithfulness. That is the witness you hear in His Gospel today.
He is tempted in every way, as you are, save only without sin, in order to become your merciful and faithful great High Priest. Not only does He understand and sympathize with you — not only does He know how you feel, and how hard it is for you — but He is with you in those agonizing struggles; He bears them with you, in order to rescue and redeem you from the devil’s tyranny, and to bring you in safety and peace to His Father, not as a refugee, but as a beloved son or daughter.
He is therefore tempted in all the ways you are, and yet His temptations are also unique, because He is the Christ, your only Savior, and the only-begotten Son of God the Father from all eternity. That is not to suggest that He has an easier time of it, but quite the opposite: He willingly bears the full extent of the burden, which would otherwise break you and destroy you.
There is a blessed divine Mystery at work in this, for He is not tempted by any covetous lust from within Himself. He has no sinful heart, no sinful thoughts or inclinations. But He has taken the weight, the pressure and the sting of those temptations upon Himself, that He might relieve you of that legacy, both by His own faithful perseverance, and by His forgiveness of all your failures.
So He is led by the Spirit in the wilderness, into confrontation with the devil, as your Champion; and He undergoes the full gamut of temptations, in order to overcome the foe who opposes you.
In human flesh and blood, just like yours, He lives as the true and perfect Man. He trusts His God and Father, and He does not put Him to the test. But He, the Son, is tested, as Israel was tested, and as you are also tested in the wilderness; and in this testing, He is found faithful. He prevails in steadfast faith, so that you and all of Adam’s other children might be saved by His faithfulness. And the content of that great salvation is that you receive the Sonship of Christ Jesus as your own, by the Father’s gracious adoption; just as He has given you and told you in your Holy Baptism.
In this respect, too, the Lord Jesus lives for you, as you are called to live, by faith in the Word and promises of God. You have heard this before, and again this morning: The devil questions and puts to the test the very thing that Christ Himself has heard and received in His Baptism. There the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God descended upon Him in bodily form, like a dove, and the Father openly declared to Him: “You are My beloved Son. With You I am well-pleased.”
So Christ lives and perseveres, in the wilderness, even unto His death upon the Cross, by faith in the Word and promise of His Father; which is not only the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, but also the testimony of His Baptism. Though He shall be crucified and die, He trusts that God His Father will raise Him up in glory from death and the grave, and the heavens are still open to Him.
Christ Jesus lives by faith in this Word of His Father. But He Himself, precisely so, is the Word of God the Father to you, and the fulfillment of all His promises to you. He and His preaching are full of the Holy Spirit, which He has received in His flesh, in order to pour out generously on you. And so He does. For everything that He has accomplished and achieved, He has done for you.
He hungers for the Word and Will of His Father, more deeply and more strongly than His empty stomach growls for bread. But in thus believing the Word and doing the Will of His dear God and Father, He has becomes the Food of God for you, that is, the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God as the living and Life-giving Bread from heaven.
He goes without eating for those forty days, and upon the Cross, and He suffers in His Body, in order that you might eat and be well fed in both body and soul, here in time and there in eternity. For He establishes the Word of God in His own Flesh and Blood; not only by His Incarnation, but also by His active and passive obedience, by His keeping of the Law, and by His suffering of its judgments in your stead, its punishments for all your disobedience.
That is why the Word of Christ not only teaches and instructs you, but it actually saves you. His preaching first of all instills in you a hunger for His Word, for His Kingdom and His righteousness — and this same preaching of Christ Jesus also feeds and nourishes you with these very things.
Thus, with His Word to you, the Son of God fulfills the Word of His Father for you. His Cross has utterly crushed and defeated the devil, all his works, and all his ways, because this Lord Jesus Christ has willingly gone to His death in the holiness and righteousness of perfect faith and love. And as God the Father raised Him from the dead, He is now the First Fruits of the New Creation.
By His Cross, and in His Resurrection, with His Body and His Blood, He worships and serves the Lord, His God: Not to save Himself, not to bargain or barter for any personal benefit, but in order to save you and others by the grace of God. For this salvation, there is nothing for you to do or to give but thanks and praise, in which you also become a real theologian of the Cross.
That is the true theology and the fine art of the Christian faith and life: to give thanks for the Cross, by which you are put to death and raised to newness of life, by repentance and forgiveness of sins.
Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour you in their furious hate and hostility; and though you have the old evil foe on your back, both day and night, hounding and harassing you within and without — the truth of the matter is, that the devil and his minions are defeated; they cannot harm you any more; they’re judged, the deed is done.
The Word of Christ has felled them; that is, the Word of His Cross, which Christ here preaches.
It is by His Cross, by the Fruits of His Cross, that He brings you out of Egypt with His mighty arms and outstretched hands; that He brings you safely through the wilderness, and through the Jordan River into the good Land that He promised: a Paradise flowing with creamy milk and sweet honey (that is, with the pure milk of His Word, which is much sweeter than honey from the honeycomb).
That good Land is not far away, but it is very near to you in this preaching of Christ Jesus. It is in the Bread with which He feeds you, which is the Word of God made Flesh. And it is in the good Wine that He pours out for you to drink, which is His holy and precious Blood. And as God the Father raised this same Jesus, who here feeds you, from the dead, so shall He surely also raise you.
For He is merciful to you, and to all the sons and daughters of Adam, in this Word: His dear Son, Jesus Christ. Call upon His Name, dear Christian theologian of the Cross, and you shall be saved.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
14 February 2013
For the Record
It was not the intention of the Lutheran Service Book to commemorate the birthdays of Martin Chemnitz and Philipp Melanchthon. It is rather these two reformers who are commemorated. They are remembered on their earthly birthdays (9 November and 16 February, respectively), instead of their heavenly birthdays (when they departed from this life on earth), primarily because the Church has generally tended to avoid commemorations during Lent and within the Octave of Easter.
This year, and at other times when Easter is early, the 16th of February does occur within Lententide, but that is usually not the case. However, Chemnitz died on the 8th of April, Melanchthon on the 19th of April, and those dates frequently do coincide with the end of Lent or the beginning of Easter. In addition, the sanctoral cycle in the Lutheran Service Book was developed with the Treasury of Daily Prayer in view, for which those commemorations within the movable Time of Easter are far more difficult to connect to the daily readings and other propers.
Because Chemnitz and Melanchthon are too important to be overlooked or forgotten, and there was precedent for remembering these men on their earthly birthdays in the old Lutheran Annuals, those dates were chosen for the LSB. Regrettably, the parenthetical notes identifying these dates with their births was retained and actually published in the hymnal, although those notes were only intended as a point of information for the committee as it was working through the data and proposals. There was no desire to hide the connection to the birthdays, but neither was there any intention of commemorating the birthdays per se.
It is typical to remember the saints on the date of their departure from this earth, but that is not always the case. In other recent calendars, for example, Melancthon is commemorated, not on the date of his earthly death, but in connection with the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession on the 25th of June; whereas Chemnitz is simply not included.
It is a beneficial coincidence that, with these dates in LSB, the commemoration of Philipp Melanchthon occurs in close proximity to Luther’s (on the 18th of February); whereas the commemoration of Martin Chemnitz occurs shortly after Reformation Day (31 October) and a day before Luther’s birthday, which most Lutherans have been more familiar with. Both Luther and Chemnitz were named for St. Martin of Tours, who is commemorated on November the 11th.
This year, and at other times when Easter is early, the 16th of February does occur within Lententide, but that is usually not the case. However, Chemnitz died on the 8th of April, Melanchthon on the 19th of April, and those dates frequently do coincide with the end of Lent or the beginning of Easter. In addition, the sanctoral cycle in the Lutheran Service Book was developed with the Treasury of Daily Prayer in view, for which those commemorations within the movable Time of Easter are far more difficult to connect to the daily readings and other propers.
Because Chemnitz and Melanchthon are too important to be overlooked or forgotten, and there was precedent for remembering these men on their earthly birthdays in the old Lutheran Annuals, those dates were chosen for the LSB. Regrettably, the parenthetical notes identifying these dates with their births was retained and actually published in the hymnal, although those notes were only intended as a point of information for the committee as it was working through the data and proposals. There was no desire to hide the connection to the birthdays, but neither was there any intention of commemorating the birthdays per se.
It is typical to remember the saints on the date of their departure from this earth, but that is not always the case. In other recent calendars, for example, Melancthon is commemorated, not on the date of his earthly death, but in connection with the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession on the 25th of June; whereas Chemnitz is simply not included.
It is a beneficial coincidence that, with these dates in LSB, the commemoration of Philipp Melanchthon occurs in close proximity to Luther’s (on the 18th of February); whereas the commemoration of Martin Chemnitz occurs shortly after Reformation Day (31 October) and a day before Luther’s birthday, which most Lutherans have been more familiar with. Both Luther and Chemnitz were named for St. Martin of Tours, who is commemorated on November the 11th.
10 February 2013
For the Joy Set Before You in Christ
This is the Glory of God that shines upon you in the face of Christ Jesus: That the Father, in love, has given His only-begotten Son in the flesh, to die for you, and has raised Him from the dead, in order to justify you in His presence, and to give you the life everlasting in body and soul.
He is the Apostle and the High Priest of the one true faith, and of the Christian religion, by which alone you shall be saved. For He has been sent by God the Father to preach the Kingdom of God. And He has come to establish that Kingdom in Himself, for you and for all, by the atoning sacrifice of His death upon the Cross, and in His bodily Resurrection and Ascension to the right hand of the Father. Heaven and earth are permanently united in Him, in His Body of flesh and blood; so that God abides with you in Him, and you abide with Him in God.
This is the mission that He undertakes, the journey that He undergoes, from the heights of heavenly divine glory into the darkest depths of sin and death, and back to His God and Father again. What He thereby accomplishes and achieves is not for His benefit, but for yours. Because what it means is that the Glory that was always His, with the Father and the Holy Spirit from eternity, is now possessed and manifested in His human nature, in His Body; in order that you, also, should be glorified in Him and share in His Glory.
The transfiguration of His face, of His whole flesh and blood, and of your body, also, is by the way of His Cross. It is by His priestly sacrifice that His Glory fills and permeates His Body, though in it He has borne the sins of the world; for by His death and bloodshed He atones for all those sins, and He sanctifies the flesh of man for life with God. That Glory of His Cross is now manifest in His Resurrection from the dead. His crucified and risen Body bears, forever and ever, the Spirit of His God and Father, whom He bestows upon His Body, the Church, through the preaching of His Gospel of forgiveness, and with His Body given and His Blood poured out in His Supper.
His Cross and Resurrection are His Exodus, by which He brings you out of Egypt, out of bondage into freedom, out of death into life. His dying and rising are the completion and fulfillment of His Baptism, whereby He brings you through the Red Sea in safety, while Pharaoh and his horses and their riders are drowned; and whereby He also brings you through the Jordan River into Canaan, that is, into blessed Paradise. As you are baptized into Him, you also pass through death and the grave, into His Resurrection of the Body and the life everlasting. For by your Holy Baptism into Christ, you have washed your robes and made them white in His cleansing Blood; so that you are now clothed in the gleaming radiance of His holiness and righteousness.
What the disciples see in Jesus on the mountain, and Moses and Elijah share with Him in Glory, is also given to His Church, on earth as it is in heaven, and to you, who belong to Him by grace through faith in His Gospel.
Listen to Him. His Word to you is true and Life-giving, and His lips have been anointed with grace. His forgiveness of your sins actually does what it says. What He speaks to you, He gives to you. Therefore, hear and heed His calling. Repent of your sins, and believe His Gospel. Do not fear His Cross, but bear it patiently, and hope in His Resurrection. The One who calls you is faithful, and as surely as God the Father raised His Son Jesus from the dead, so shall He also raise you up in Glory. The guarantee of that is already in your Baptism.
Not only that, but you abide in His Glory, in peace and joy, in the Sacrament of the Altar, which is given and poured out for you to eat and to drink. This Body and Blood of Christ are the Fruits of His Cross, transfigured by His sacrifice for you, so that your body also, even now, and forever in the Resurrection of all flesh, is glorified in Him. Even though you are weary and overcome with sleep, yet are you raised up in Christ Jesus to newness of life, day by day, unto the neverending Eighth Day of the Kingdom of God.
The Glory of God is not something you can grab for yourself, or take and put into a box for safe keeping, or manipulate and manage like some kind of product or commodity. It isn’t for sale at any price, and you can’t make it with your hands, nor achieve it by your striving. It is elusive and mysterious, but it’s not just that the Glory of God is too hard for you, or too difficult to understand. The Glory of God is the grace of His Gospel, the gift of His Son, accomplished for you, and given to you freely, by His Cross. You can’t take it for yourself, but it is given to you by His Word.
You do not need to build a house for God. Nor could you do so. He is not homeless, in any case. And not even heaven and earth could contain Him. But He has come to make His dwelling with you, in order to abide with you, so that you are able to live and abide with Him. It is in the Body of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, that Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord your God, the Holy Trinity, is with you. You’ll not find Him, nor have Him, anywhere else, but He is with you, and He is for you, in the flesh and blood of this Lord Jesus Christ.
Such is the Cloud that both conceals and reveals the Glory of God. It rests and remains upon Jesus alone. In many and various ways, God spoke to His people of old by the Prophets, by faithful Moses and Eliljah, by Samuel and Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many others. But now, in these last days, He speaks to you by His Son. In Him, the Word who is God is made Flesh, and He now tabernacles with you.
His Glory is hidden, for now, under His Cross. You cannot see it with your eyes, but you hear it with your ears in the preaching of the Gospel, in the forgiveness of your sins.
This is the way and the means by which He journeys with you through the wilderness. This Gospel of Christ Jesus is the pilgrim’s way.
You do not need to pitch a tent for Him, because He is the Tent of God, which His Father has pitched on earth for you. In His flesh, the Lord God abides with you, and you abide with Him.
He comes to you, and He is here with you, in the Body of His Church on earth. But, so also, in His flesh and blood, He takes you with Him up the high mountain to His God and Father. For not only is He the Apostle who is sent to you by God, but He is also the merciful and great High Priest who brings you to God in Himself. He is the Sacrifice of your Atonement by His Cross, and now He is the Incense of your prayer and intercession in His Resurrection and Ascension. As He has died and risen for you, so does He ever live to make intercession for you. And in Him, your prayers also are heard and received, and they are answered in grace, mercy, and peace.
As the very Son of God is here with you in the flesh, so are you also with Him, abiding in the Glory of His God and Father. What you behold in His Voice, in His Word of the Gospel, is the Light of the Revelation of the Glory of God, which is His gracious presence and power to save.
Do not be afraid. For in this dear Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, your Savior, who preaches forgiveness and feeds you with Himself — in Him, the Father has chosen you in love, and called you by His Name, to be His own dear child. And so you are.
Hear now what He speaks to you by His Son: It is good for you to be here. See, I have built this House for you, and here you are at home. Behold the face of My Anointed, in whom you know My Peace and My good pleasure. The Lord, Yahweh, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love; faithful and just, who forgives you all of your iniquity, transgression, and sin, forever and ever.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
He is the Apostle and the High Priest of the one true faith, and of the Christian religion, by which alone you shall be saved. For He has been sent by God the Father to preach the Kingdom of God. And He has come to establish that Kingdom in Himself, for you and for all, by the atoning sacrifice of His death upon the Cross, and in His bodily Resurrection and Ascension to the right hand of the Father. Heaven and earth are permanently united in Him, in His Body of flesh and blood; so that God abides with you in Him, and you abide with Him in God.
This is the mission that He undertakes, the journey that He undergoes, from the heights of heavenly divine glory into the darkest depths of sin and death, and back to His God and Father again. What He thereby accomplishes and achieves is not for His benefit, but for yours. Because what it means is that the Glory that was always His, with the Father and the Holy Spirit from eternity, is now possessed and manifested in His human nature, in His Body; in order that you, also, should be glorified in Him and share in His Glory.
The transfiguration of His face, of His whole flesh and blood, and of your body, also, is by the way of His Cross. It is by His priestly sacrifice that His Glory fills and permeates His Body, though in it He has borne the sins of the world; for by His death and bloodshed He atones for all those sins, and He sanctifies the flesh of man for life with God. That Glory of His Cross is now manifest in His Resurrection from the dead. His crucified and risen Body bears, forever and ever, the Spirit of His God and Father, whom He bestows upon His Body, the Church, through the preaching of His Gospel of forgiveness, and with His Body given and His Blood poured out in His Supper.
His Cross and Resurrection are His Exodus, by which He brings you out of Egypt, out of bondage into freedom, out of death into life. His dying and rising are the completion and fulfillment of His Baptism, whereby He brings you through the Red Sea in safety, while Pharaoh and his horses and their riders are drowned; and whereby He also brings you through the Jordan River into Canaan, that is, into blessed Paradise. As you are baptized into Him, you also pass through death and the grave, into His Resurrection of the Body and the life everlasting. For by your Holy Baptism into Christ, you have washed your robes and made them white in His cleansing Blood; so that you are now clothed in the gleaming radiance of His holiness and righteousness.
What the disciples see in Jesus on the mountain, and Moses and Elijah share with Him in Glory, is also given to His Church, on earth as it is in heaven, and to you, who belong to Him by grace through faith in His Gospel.
Listen to Him. His Word to you is true and Life-giving, and His lips have been anointed with grace. His forgiveness of your sins actually does what it says. What He speaks to you, He gives to you. Therefore, hear and heed His calling. Repent of your sins, and believe His Gospel. Do not fear His Cross, but bear it patiently, and hope in His Resurrection. The One who calls you is faithful, and as surely as God the Father raised His Son Jesus from the dead, so shall He also raise you up in Glory. The guarantee of that is already in your Baptism.
Not only that, but you abide in His Glory, in peace and joy, in the Sacrament of the Altar, which is given and poured out for you to eat and to drink. This Body and Blood of Christ are the Fruits of His Cross, transfigured by His sacrifice for you, so that your body also, even now, and forever in the Resurrection of all flesh, is glorified in Him. Even though you are weary and overcome with sleep, yet are you raised up in Christ Jesus to newness of life, day by day, unto the neverending Eighth Day of the Kingdom of God.
The Glory of God is not something you can grab for yourself, or take and put into a box for safe keeping, or manipulate and manage like some kind of product or commodity. It isn’t for sale at any price, and you can’t make it with your hands, nor achieve it by your striving. It is elusive and mysterious, but it’s not just that the Glory of God is too hard for you, or too difficult to understand. The Glory of God is the grace of His Gospel, the gift of His Son, accomplished for you, and given to you freely, by His Cross. You can’t take it for yourself, but it is given to you by His Word.
You do not need to build a house for God. Nor could you do so. He is not homeless, in any case. And not even heaven and earth could contain Him. But He has come to make His dwelling with you, in order to abide with you, so that you are able to live and abide with Him. It is in the Body of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, that Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord your God, the Holy Trinity, is with you. You’ll not find Him, nor have Him, anywhere else, but He is with you, and He is for you, in the flesh and blood of this Lord Jesus Christ.
Such is the Cloud that both conceals and reveals the Glory of God. It rests and remains upon Jesus alone. In many and various ways, God spoke to His people of old by the Prophets, by faithful Moses and Eliljah, by Samuel and Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many others. But now, in these last days, He speaks to you by His Son. In Him, the Word who is God is made Flesh, and He now tabernacles with you.
His Glory is hidden, for now, under His Cross. You cannot see it with your eyes, but you hear it with your ears in the preaching of the Gospel, in the forgiveness of your sins.
This is the way and the means by which He journeys with you through the wilderness. This Gospel of Christ Jesus is the pilgrim’s way.
You do not need to pitch a tent for Him, because He is the Tent of God, which His Father has pitched on earth for you. In His flesh, the Lord God abides with you, and you abide with Him.
He comes to you, and He is here with you, in the Body of His Church on earth. But, so also, in His flesh and blood, He takes you with Him up the high mountain to His God and Father. For not only is He the Apostle who is sent to you by God, but He is also the merciful and great High Priest who brings you to God in Himself. He is the Sacrifice of your Atonement by His Cross, and now He is the Incense of your prayer and intercession in His Resurrection and Ascension. As He has died and risen for you, so does He ever live to make intercession for you. And in Him, your prayers also are heard and received, and they are answered in grace, mercy, and peace.
As the very Son of God is here with you in the flesh, so are you also with Him, abiding in the Glory of His God and Father. What you behold in His Voice, in His Word of the Gospel, is the Light of the Revelation of the Glory of God, which is His gracious presence and power to save.
Do not be afraid. For in this dear Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, your Savior, who preaches forgiveness and feeds you with Himself — in Him, the Father has chosen you in love, and called you by His Name, to be His own dear child. And so you are.
Hear now what He speaks to you by His Son: It is good for you to be here. See, I have built this House for you, and here you are at home. Behold the face of My Anointed, in whom you know My Peace and My good pleasure. The Lord, Yahweh, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love; faithful and just, who forgives you all of your iniquity, transgression, and sin, forever and ever.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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