The Word of Christ Is Near to You

It’s a rough and tumble world, and it’s easy enough to get caught up in the crush of the crowd, with so many people pushing and pulling at you, threatening to trample you beneath their feet, or else to drown and destroy you with their endless chatter, everybody talking at you, telling you what’s what, and what to do, and what you should be like.  There’s lots of noise and confusion, lots of words and information, and lots of competition and jockeying for position.

It is overwhelming, and yet, in its own way, enticing.  Against the onslaught of the crowds, you are tempted to impress them and appease them, to protect yourself from the critics, and to promote yourself with the movers and shakers, in the hopes of becoming someone important.

But none of the people, neither the celebrities nor the crowds, are able to save you or destroy you.  They can neither make you nor break you, not really.  For each and all of them are mortal, like yourself, subject to death and decay and held accountable to the judgment of God.

It is in the presence of the Lord your God that you live your life and die your death: Coram Deo, that is, before God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth and of all things.  He is the One with all authority — the authority to judge all of creation — because He is the Author and Giver of Life.

Therefore, He is the One, not only with power to hurt and kill, such as fallen man presumes to do with those who are smaller and weaker than himself; but God has genuine authority to condemn both soul and body forever: To “Gehenna,” Jesus says (though it is sometimes translated “hell”).

Gehenna was the name of a valley alongside Jerusalem, where, at various times, even the Israelites had resorted to sacrificing their own children, and where an ongoing fire served the potters’ kilns and the constant burning of rubbish and every manner of refuse.  It provides a vivid picture of hell on earth, but only God Almighty has the authority to consign both body and soul to such a place.  And He alone has the power and authority to save you, in body and soul, for the Life everlasting.

Therefore, the Lord Jesus exhorts you, not to be afraid of the world and its power-brokers, but to fear, love, and trust in the Lord your God above all things.  For He is the only true God, who is Life and Light and Love within Himself.  He has created you in holy Love, both body and soul, in His own Image and Likeness, for Life everlasting with Him, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Not only that, but the almighty and eternal Lord, who changes not, has Himself become a part of His own Creation by the conception and birth of the Son from the Blessed Virgin Mary.  He has lived and died in the Body, with flesh and blood like yours; and God the Father has also raised this incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, bodily from the dead.  So shall your body likewise be raised at the last, and glorified like unto the crucified and risen Body of your Lord, unto Life eternal in Paradise.

Do not doubt that it is true.  The One who created the sparrows and still cares for them, though they are but a dime-a-dozen, cares for you all the more and provides for you all that you need, for this life and for the Life to come.  You are precious to Him and valued most highly.  Just consider the price that He has willingly paid for you: not gold or silver, but His own Body and His Blood.

He who was crucified for you — who has also risen from the dead and lives and reigns forever as your great High Priest, always interceding for you at the Right Hand of God the Father — He now serves you in body and soul with His tangible Means of Grace, His Holy Word and Sacraments.

The Word of the Word-made-Flesh penetrates your heart and mind, your soul and spirit, through the ears of your body.  And your conscience is cleansed before the Lord your God by the washing of your body with pure water, that is, with water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word in Holy Baptism.  And your Savior Jesus Christ, the incarnate God, feeds you with His true Body and gives you to drink of His true Blood, which you eat and drink with your mouth.

Therefore, your body also is justified and saved by the Gospel of God; and in fact, your soul is not saved apart from your body, for it has no access to God apart from His Word and Sacraments.

So, then, take it seriously that the life which is yours in Christ Jesus, which you have by grace through faith in Him, is lived not only in your heart and in your head, but likewise in your body — in your words and in your actions, in what you say with your mouth and do with your hands.

And yet, you know well enough that your insides and your outsides don’t always match.  You know that what you say is not always what you’re thinking and feeling.  And you know that your actions are not always in harmony with your convictions and your actual preferences.

Those differences are not bad, but good and right, when they stem from the discipline of your sinful flesh, so that you do and say what you should, instead of what your old Adam desires.

At other times, however, it’s not a matter of self-discipline, but of hypocrisy, whereby you make an outward pretense for the sake of good impressions but out of sync with your conscience.

In this respect, there is actually a two-fold danger of hypocrisy.  There is, on the one hand, the outward show of false piety, in which you act the part of godly reverence and you go through the motions of the fear and faith of God, while your heart and mind are still far removed from Him.  Then you are like a white-washed tomb, decorated pretty on the outside, but hiding death within.

On the other hand, there is the hiding and disguising of the Christian faith and life, as though you could carry on with Jesus privately, while outwardly you live like a pagan and talk like a pirate, whether it be out of fear of “persecution” (be it martyrdom or being laughed at), or maybe to compete with the world on its terms, contesting for popularity, power, and prestige, or whatever.

One and the same person can be as pliable as Play-doh, shaped by the expectations — or by the perceived expectations — of the people around him.  So he may be pious and reverent at church, profane at school or work, and something else altogether by himself — probably lost and lonely without the crowd to play to, without an audience to perform for.

But the truth will come out.  It will.  Jesus says so.  And that is both a warning and a promise.  Your secret sins are not hidden from the Lord your God.  But so, too, your faith and life in Christ are also known to Him who loves you.  There is no concealing of your conscience before Him.

Where you actually stand with the one true God will be made known — in your life and in your confession, and in the final Judgment — whether for everlasting Life or everlasting punishment.

So, here is what you need to know: True Life is found only in Christ Jesus, crucified and risen, and it is had only by faith in Him, in His Gospel of forgiveness.  Not by your works, but by His.  And yet, such faith in Christ cannot be kept hidden in the heart.  It can’t — not without suffering loss.  No, faith in Christ is exercised, as it is expressed, with your mouth and with the rest of your body: In worship and in works of love — and in words of confession, whereby you speak as the Lord your God has spoken to you.  To say what He has said is how you know and speak the Truth.

Both faith itself and the words and works by which you confess the faith are the gracious work and the good gifts of God the Holy Spirit.  And He is near to you, indeed, He is actively present and at work in you, by and with the preaching of Christ Jesus.

The Holy Spirit calls you and brings you to faith in Christ by the Word of Christ.  There is no other way by which you believe and are saved.  And He likewise strengthens and sustains you in this true and saving faith by the same Word of Christ Jesus.  Apart from this Word, you die.  By it, you live.

The Holy Spirit preaches Christ to you, so that you believe in Christ and call upon His Name in prayer, praise, and confession of His Word.  What He speaks into your ears comes out of your mouth; for this is how the Spirit works in and with the Church, which is the Body of Christ Jesus.

The power and authority of this Word is the Gospel; for by the Word of Christ your doubts and fears, your denials and failings, and all your many other sins are freely and fully forgiven, just as He was crucified for your transgressions and God raised this same Christ Jesus from the dead.

So it was that Simon Peter, who denied Him, was forgiven and restored to faith and life in Christ.

But to set your heart and mind against the preaching of the Word of Christ is to resist and reject the Holy Spirit and His gracious work.  So it was that Judas Iscariot ended his own life in despair.

Beware that you do not harden your heart and mind in this way, lest you be condemned to the fire that burns forever, and your soul and body be consigned to a worse Gehenna than earth has known.

Rather, hear and heed the Word of Christ that is preached to you.  Hear and receive His Word of Absolution, that is, the forgiveness of all your sins; for with that Word He sets His own Cross and Resurrection before your eyes and thereby saves you from the fire forever and ever.

You need not scale the heights of heaven (nor can you!), as though to bring God down to you.  Nor can you raise yourself or anyone else from the deep dark abyss of death and the grave.  But the Lord your God has come down from heaven, and He has gone into the depths, into Sheol, into Gehenna, in order to raise you up with Himself.  God the Father has sacrificed His own dear Son, in order to atone for all of your sins and thereby to rob death and the devil of any claims on you.

Now the Son draws near to you in Peace, and He befriends you with His Word and Holy Spirit.  He reconciles you to Himself by the way of repentance and forgiveness of sins.  In this way He returns you daily to your Baptism, and He raises you up from sin and death to life with God.  For the Lord has surely set apart the godly for Himself, and you are godly by the grace of His Gospel.

With this Word of Christ Jesus the Holy Spirit teaches you what to confess, and He likewise gives you the confidence and courage to do so, come what may.

Cling to that Word with both your body and your soul, as He gives it to you generously in so many ways: by preaching and teaching, by the Holy Scriptures, by the Catechism, and by the Hymnal.

And for God’s sake, teach these things to your children, and to your children’s children, as you are given the opportunity; that they, too, may not die but live forever with God in Christ.  Read the Bible to them.  Sing hymns with them.  Pray with them and for them.  And bring them to church.

This Word of Christ is not powerless, it is living and Life-giving.  Indeed, the Lord Himself is very near you by and with His Word, as He preaches it into your ears, as He lays it upon your heart, and as He brings it to confession in your mouth.  So is He a very present help in every kind of need.

By His dying and rising He has received all authority in heaven and on earth, that is, the true power and authority of the New Creation — to forgive sins and to save sinners; to comfort you with His forgiveness, life, and salvation; to justify and save you in body and soul, for now and forever.

So does He grant you a quiet night, a restful sleep, and peace at the last.  And so does He raise you up in the true joy of His mercy, which is new every morning and ever shall be, world without end.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.