Your life and health and strength and salvation are found in the Name of the Lord. You do not live by your own works, for they will perish with you. Nor is your life to be found in the wealth and wisdom of this world, which also is perishing. But it is by the Name of the Lord that you live — as His child, in His presence — by His grace. And that life is by faith in Christ Jesus, your Savior.
The Name of that Lord Jesus Christ has been granted to you in Holy Baptism. And that is a most wonderful and extraordinary thing. Whenever that day was, whatever your age may have been, whether you can remember the day or not, there in the water with His Word the Lord laid hold of you in love, He saved you from death by forgiving all your sins, and He gave you His own Life.
The Name of the Lord is your Strength and your Song, because He has become your Salvation, and He has named you with His own Holy Name. So are you also anointed by the Holy Spirit for faith and life with God, who is now your own dear Father in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son. Everything that belongs to Him is now yours. His Life is yours, because His Name and His Spirit are yours.
You are “salted” by the Holy Spirit through the Word of Christ Jesus. But what does that mean? You are disciplined, as though by fire — as gold and silver are purified by fire — and as the sons of Levi and all the children of God are purified as though by fire. By the discipline of the Word of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit, you are called to daily repentance — by and through and with and in the Cross of Christ. As He was crucified for you, so are you crucified with Him and put to death to the world, to your sin, and to all the lusts of your flesh, the cravings of your heart.
That is how you are “salted” on the one hand. But you are also “salted” or “seasoned,” both inside and out, with peace and love — the peace that is yours in Christ Jesus, which is your reconciliation with God and with your neighbors — and the Love of God which is likewise yours in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, which He has poured out into your heart by and with His Holy Spirit.
So are you also “seasoned” with newness of life in body and soul, because God the Father has raised you from death to life in the crucified and risen Body of His incarnate Son. The One who died for you has also risen from the dead, and you are raised with Him through His forgiveness of your sins. There is no accusation that stands against you in your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
How, then, shall you deal with yourself and your body and life in this world? And having been named with the Name of God and anointed by the Spirit, how shall you deal with your neighbor?
What shall it mean for you — for your relationships, callings, and stations in this life on earth — that you are God’s own child, baptized into Christ Jesus, crucified and risen with Him for life with God in body and soul, not only for ever, but already here and now as a member of His Church?
Well, it’s a hard Word that Christ Jesus declares to you this morning. We’re not used to hearing Him talk this way; we know that He does on occasion, but it’s not typical, and it’s not easy to hear. There is a kind of violence in what He says today, as He speaks of tying millstones around necks and drowning people in the depths of the sea, of cutting off body parts and plucking out eyes. This is the sort of thing we expect from horror movies, not from the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He speaks of such violence — and it is a real violence, make no mistake — but it is not a violence against your body per se. It is sometimes necessary, in medical surgery, for example, to harm the body and place the body in precarious danger for the sake of addressing some greater threat to life; and that is not so far removed from what we have going on here. But the Lord is not prescribing a medical treatment, whereby you would actually mutilate your body with knife and scalpel; for your body remains His good creation even under the curse of sin. Certainly He is not directing you to do violence against your neighbor’s body, either. The violence of which our Lord here speaks is leveled against the sinfulness of your heart — the fountain out of which all of your sins proceed.
Your every hope, your life and salvation are in the Name of the Lord. He saves you by His Name. And His Name in turn bears good fruits in your body and life — finally forever in the Resurrection of your body to the Life everlasting of your body and soul — but already here and now, His Name is bearing the fruits of faith and love in your life on earth, wherever He calls and stations you.
But the sin in your heart is another story altogether; and that is what needs to be dealt with, to be cut off and thrown away. As surely as faith in the Name of the Lord brings forth good and godly fruits in your body and life, so does the sin in your heart bring forth “fruits” after its own kind in your body and life, which are not living and life-giving but damnable and deadly to you and others.
So, our Lord is harsh and violent against your sin because He loves you. He is not out to destroy you, but to save you from sin and death — to save you from yourself — for Life with God in Him.
Both sinful unbelief and repentant faith are matters of the heart and soul. But both sinful unbelief and repentant faith are also embodied and bear fruit in your flesh, in your outward life and actions. Faith bears the fruits of love, the fruits of the Spirit. But sin bears more sin and brings forth death.
The actions of your body, in turn, substantiate and strengthen the attitudes of your heart, whether for good or ill, whether for life or death. To live according to the Word of God is to exercise and strengthen your faith in His Word and in the life that He has given you by His grace. To persist in sin and wrongdoing is to strengthen the sin in your heart and to buck against the Holy Spirit.
So, then, deny your body its sinful desires, its lust and greed, and live instead by faith in the hope of the Resurrection of your body. Do not give yourself over to your cravings. Do not covet what the Lord has given to your neighbor, but be content and satisfied with what the Lord gives to you. In all that you do with your body, live now in view of the fact that your body shall be raised to live with God in His Kingdom forever; for your body also bears the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember that you are baptized. The Name and Spirit of God have been given to you, along with the forgiveness of your sins and the cleansing of your conscience. All of this in your body as well as your soul, as the water washed over your body with the Word of Christ Jesus, and the sign of His Cross was marked upon your forehead and your heart. So shall your body be raised from the dead, glorious, like unto His own glorious Body. Your body rises day-by-day from the watery grave of your Holy Baptism by faith in the Gospel, and so shall your body be raised in glory at the last, just as Christ is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity in His Body. So, live now in the view of that Resurrection, in such a way that your body confesses the Name of Christ.
If your hand, your foot, or your eye is involved in sin, then repent in your heart, and so also repent in your body and in your outward behavior. Discipline your flesh to do good and refrain from evil. Avert your eyes, divert your feet, and withhold your hand from every manner of wickedness.
To live in sin is already a kind of living death. And I’m not just talking about people shacking up and fornicating, though that is certainly part of it. But to live in whatever your sin is, to persist in it, to keep on doing what you know is wrong, to put yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time, to harbor temptations in your thoughts and in your heart instead of resisting the devil and fleeing from his temptation — to live in sin is already a kind of living death, and it will end in no good.
But to live by faith, that is to rely on the Name of Christ Jesus, even unto Life everlasting. To live by faith in His Name is to pray by and with His Word and Holy Spirit. It is to rely upon Him rather than yourself. To live by faith in His Name is to live in the Liturgy of His Gospel — to know that you need it, that you need to hear it and receive it — to seek it out, and to support it with your prayers, with your financial contributions, and above all with your presence and participation.
In turn, to live by faith is also to live in love, to catechize your neighbor. Whether you are husband or father, wife or mother, or simply a Christian living in the world, you are given to catechize your neighbors — not necessarily by sitting down and having a class together, but rather by speaking the Word of Christ that you have heard and received in the Liturgy of the Gospel. That is the most precious thing you can do for any of your neighbors, the one thing that shall remain forever after.
To live by faith is to live in love and to care for your neighbor in the Name of Christ Jesus, because you bear His Name, and because your neighbor may bear His Name — if he or she is already a Christian, a child of God baptized into Christ — or, if not, it is God’s desire that your neighbor would become a Christian, and receive that Name, and live by that Name as you live. And so, for the sake of His Name, you care for your neighbor in the way that Christ Jesus cares for you; and you speak to your neighbor in the way — and with the Words — that Christ Jesus speaks to you.
Do not go home from here and go about your day-to-day life as though you have heard nothing of any consequence, as though the Word of Christ did not matter or make any difference, as though it may or may not be true, or as though it were only true for you. But gladly speak what you have heard here, and do not be ashamed of that Word of Life in Christ, which is also for your neighbor.
Both by your words and by your actions, be patient and at peace with your neighbor, practicing mercy and kindness. Be slow to anger, reluctant to hurt in what you do or say, eager to help and to heal, and always quick and ready to forgive, as you are forgiven by Christ Jesus in His Name and stead. And when your brother goes astray, or when your sister stumbles in her faith and life, restore your neighbor in a spirit of gentleness, in the genuine humility of your own repentance. For there is not one of you who does not stumble in many ways, and yet the Lord your God is merciful, and He calls you daily to repentance, to faith in His free and full forgiveness of sins.
In short, discipline yourself in body and soul, not only to avoid what is evil, but actively to do and say what is good and right, whether you feel like it or not. Really, such discipline is most needed when you’d rather not do what you should; and, often as not, those are precisely the times when it is most important for you to do what is good and right for the sake of your neighbor.
In all of this, as you recognize your own sins and your own ways of stumbling — as you certainly will discover when you examine yourself honestly, as you should, in accordance with the Word of God — when you thus recognize in yourself your own sins and stumbling, do not despair — and do not persist in your sins, either — but call upon the Name of the Lord, and rely on Christ Jesus, your Savior. Repent of your sins, trust Christ, and live; for He cares about you, He really does.
And because He loves you, the Lord Jesus provides for all your needs of body and soul, for this life and for the Life everlasting. He forgives you all your sins for His Name’s sake; He raises you up to newness of life each day in His own righteousness and holiness; and so shall He raise you at the last to Life everlasting with Himself, and with His God and Father, and with the Holy Spirit.
The One who promises is faithful, and He shall do it. Already He has borne the burden of your sin in His own Body on the Cross. Indeed, what Moses and the Law could not do or accomplish, this Jesus has done for you and for all, for your life and salvation. He has borne the whole burden of His people in His Body. He has carried them in Himself. He has saved them from sin and death. And even now He brings you and all His people through this desert wilderness into the promised Kingdom of His God and Father, whom He has made your own dear God and Father in Him.
See here, in this Hour, in this Place, how He feeds you on the Way — how He feeds the vast multitude of His Church in all times and places. He does not fail to do it, but with real Meat and true Drink He sustains them all. And so does He sustain you with His holy and precious Blood, poured out for you, and with His own Body given for you, the Life-giving Manna that refreshes and restores your soul and renews your body for the Resurrection and for eternal Life with God.
Even in the midst of death, this is real Life, and this is real Living, which is for you in Christ Jesus.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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