In One Lord, Jesus Christ, the True and Only God

Most of you have known at least some of those dear Christians we will name before the Lord’s Altar on this day, who have gone before us in the faith and confession of Christ Jesus.  And all of you have laid to rest loved ones in the past, whether recently or long ago, from the womb or after many years of life together.  Parents and children, spouses and siblings, neighbors and friends.

Take some time to think about those people, those men and women, boys and girls, all of them sinful and mortal like yourself.  What was important to them?  What really mattered?  What did they treasure in this body and life on earth?  How did they spend their time?  Where did they invest themselves?  With what did they depart this vale of tears, and with what did they enter eternity?  What did they take with them?  And what do they have now?

All that remains forever is Christ Jesus and His Word, His Spirit and His Father.  Apart from Him, there is only darkness, death, and damnation.  Where, then, shall your heart and life be found?  And how shall you live here and now, in order that you may rise and live with the Lord Jesus forever?

To set aside for God a part or a portion of your time would be idolatrous.  To dedicate or offer to the Lord a percentage of your possessions would be a sacrilege.  For how shall you call Him the Lord your God, to whom you would give only a portion of yourself?  And how shall you worship Him, if you presume to assign Him a place as one priority among so many others in your life?

It will not do to subdivide yourself, your time and energy, your heart, mind, soul, and strength.  No, you are to love and serve the Lord your God, and nothing else besides Him, with everything you are and have.  For there is one Lord, one God, not many.  There is one Author and Giver of Life.  Wherever else you might look for life, you would find nothing but death.  Not that God is merely a means by which you get life for yourself, but He alone is your Life and Light and Salvation.

Whatever else to which you direct or dedicate your thoughts, words, and actions — if not the Holy Triune God — that is your idol, your false god and false religion.  Or to suppose that you have ever “done your time” and “paid your dues,” is already to have failed and fallen far short of the glory of God.  For He would have all of you, that you should have your whole life entirely in Him.

Your offerings and your alms are inadequate and insufficient, no matter what the amount, and no matter what percentage of your income and your wealth, if you still withhold yourself from God and from your neighbor.  For you are to love the Lord your God with your entire being, and you are to love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Which is not to say that you should love your neighbor in addition to God, nor alongside of God, for that would be to make another god out of your neighbor.  Rather, you are to love your neighbor under and within your fear, love, and trust in God, that is, according to His Word and after the example of His own great heart of love.

It is for God’s sake that you thus love your neighbor in humility, in faith, in mercy, and in peace.  And that is how you are to live your whole life in the good Land to which the Lord your God has called you, which He has promised you in His Word, and which He gives to you in Christ Jesus.

Where you do not love the Lord God and your neighbor, there is alienation, enmity, separation, loneliness, and fear.  Not peace and rest, but anxiety and hard labor.  Not life, but death, now and forever.  That is the land laid waste by your lack of love for God and man.  That is the kingdom and the city of your own idolatrous self-love.  It is sprawling, unruly, divided, and running amok.

But over His good Land the Lord your God has raised up and established a good King, who is the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, with whom He has made an everlasting Covenant for your salvation.  Indeed, He is the royal High Priest who has redeemed you with His Life-Blood by His Sacrifice upon the Cross and reconciled you to God in His Resurrection from the dead, in order that you may live with Him in His Kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

Who is this King of Glory, who does such great things for you?  He is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and He is both David’s Son and David’s Lord because He is the Word-made-Flesh, the incarnate Son of God, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Word and Spirit of His Father.

In the great Mystery of His Holy Incarnation, the Lord your God has thereby fulfilled the first and greatest commandment — and likewise the second — for you and for all people.  For the Son loves His God and Father with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength, also now from and with His own human Body of flesh and blood like yours.  And in such love for His Father, He has made Himself your Neighbor, even your Brother in the flesh, in order to love you with His whole Body and Life.

Thus, the one true God, beside whom there is no other, has come beside you, and He has placed you beside Him, so that you might share His Life and abide with Him in His divine and holy Love.

He has held nothing back.  He has humbled Himself, poured Himself out, and given His whole self to God, even unto death upon the Cross.  That is His Priesthood and His Sacrifice, which He offers to God on your behalf.  His Life is in His Blood, and He gives His Life entirely in love for God and in love for you.  For by the shedding of His Blood, He has atoned for all your sins, and not for your sins only, but for the sins of the whole world.  He has redeemed you for Himself forevermore.  And He has established the New Covenant between God and Man in His own Flesh and Blood.

His own Body is the new and greater Tabernacle, wherein God abides with you and you abide with God.  For this Son of David, this true King of Peace, this Word and Wisdom of God in the Flesh — He replaces the old Tabernacle and the old Temple in Jerusalem with the new, eternal Temple of His crucified and risen Body.  And by His holy and precious Blood, you enter with Him into the Holy of Holies, which is to say, into the very presence of God.  You are brought to God the Father in Him, in order to receive the eternal inheritance that belongs to the Son of God.  That is what He freely gives to you by grace in the Holy Communion, which is the New Covenant in His Blood.

Here there are no contingencies, nor is there anything lacking or amiss.  There is nothing “iffy” or uncertain about the Life that is here given by the one true God, who gives Himself to you.  For He has offered Himself as the perfect Sacrifice, once-for-all.  And this same Lord Jesus has risen from the dead, and has ascended to the right hand of the Father where He lives and reigns forever.

Therefore, with His Gospel, which is the “sprinkling” of His Blood, He cleanses your conscience of all sin and shame and every stain.  As He was crucified for your transgressions and raised for your justification, so now He daily and richly forgives you, reconciles you to His God and Father, and sanctifies and purifies your body and soul with His Holy Spirit.  All of this by His Blood, with which He gives to you His Life.  He thereby raises you from death to divine Life in and with Him.

The Law commands you and requires you to love the Lord your God, but here the Lord your God loves you.  The Law tells you to cleanse your heart and draw near to God, but here by His Gospel the one true God draws near to you in Christ, in order to cleanse you by His grace and forgiveness.  He comes to free you from the devil’s kingdom, from the slavery and prison house of sin and death, and to bring you into the Kingdom of God.  The King Himself, the Christ, the Son of God, shares with you His faithfulness, His faith and holy love.  He fully gives to you His relationship with His God and Father, so that the true and only God is now your God and your Father in Him.

That is what the dear Lord Jesus Christ has done for those who have gone before us in the faith, whom we rightly remember with thanksgiving to God in Christ.  We do not worship them, but with them we worship God.  And loving Him above all things, we love them also for His sake.  For they belong to us in Him, and we belong to them.  They are not dead and gone, but alive forevermore.  Not by their own wisdom, reason, or strength, but by the grace of God in the Gospel of Christ.

So does He likewise give Himself, His Life, and His Love to you and all His children, and to His children’s children from one generation to the next, even to the close of the age.

It is in the Temple of His Body, the Church, on earth as it is in heaven, that He bestows Himself and His Gospel upon you, His Life, and His Salvation.  His Word is spoken to you from His Holy Altar, from which He also gives to you His Body and pours out for you the New Testament in His Blood.  For since the Word has become Flesh and tabernacles with us, the Word is never without His Flesh, but He always brings you to His Father in His Body and with His Blood.  He gives you not a part or a portion, but His whole self, perfect and complete.  He withholds nothing from you.

As there is one Bread and one Cup, one Spiritual Food and Drink — of one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all — so there is one Holy Communion in heaven and on earth, which is the one Body of Christ.  He is not divided, but the many are united and become one in Him, just as the many grains of wheat become one Bread, given for you, and the many grapes are united in one Cup of wine, poured out for you and for the many.  So it is that, in His one Body and Blood, all of the faithful of all times and all places live and abide in perfect Peace forevermore.

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

The Mercy and Intercession of Our Great High Priest

Do you look for the Resurrection of the dead and the Life of the world to come?  Is that what you wait for, long for, and pray for? — The Life of the world to come, when there will be no blindness, and no paralysis, no aching bones and muscles, no ugly cancer cells eating the life out of your body from the inside-out — the Day without end, full of life and light and joy in the Lord your God?

To be and to live as a Christian is to look for that Resurrection of the body and that Life in both body and soul in the presence of the Holy Triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  And if, by His grace, you are looking for that Resurrection and that Life, your hope shall not be put to shame or disappointed, because Jesus of Nazareth is here, the incarnate Son of God, your merciful and great High Priest.  He has drawn near to you here, that you might draw near to God in Him.

He is the Son of David, Bartimaeus has it exactly right.  Descended from David according to the flesh, according to the promise God had given, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, He is your Brother in the Flesh.  He has a Body of flesh and blood, just like you.  And into His own Body He has taken all your sin, borne its full weight, and suffered all its consequences.  He knows your hurt, He knows your hunger, He knows your weakness and pain, your fatigue, and your tears.  He has become like you, and He has been tempted and suffered in every way like you, save only without any sins of His own, in order to save you, to fill you with His Life in both body and soul.

For all of that, He is and remains the one true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity, God from God, Light from Light, very God of very God.  All that belongs to the Father belongs to Him.  And now He has become Flesh, and He draws near to you in the Flesh, to be and to serve as your High Priest, the one Mediator between God and Man, perfectly uniting God and Man in Himself, in His Body.  Thus has He given Himself for you, sacrificed Himself and shed His Blood for you.

The incarnate Son of God, great David’s greater Son, has thereby conquered death for you and all the sons and daughters of affliction, because He has made Atonement for the sins of the world.  He has redeemed you and all the children of men by His Cross, He has reconciled you to His God and Father in the righteousness of His Resurrection, and He has made right all that was wrong.

And even as He draws near to you here, tabernacles with you, and gives Himself to you here within His Church on earth, He is also seated at the Right Hand of His God and Father in the heavenly places, where He has made a place for you, now and forever.  The One who has taken your place — the One who shares your flesh and blood, who bore your sins in His own Body and died your death upon the Cross — He is the One who is risen from the dead, who lives and reigns forever.  He has entered into the true Holy of Holies, eternal in the heavens.  He has taken His seat at the Right Hand of the Father because His work of Atonement and Redemption is perfectly completed.  And yet, as your High Priest, He ever lives to make intercession for you before the Throne of God.

This is one of the most amazing and astonishing things, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, always lives to pray and intercede for you in the presence of His God and Father.  He’s doing so right now, even as He is also here with you in His Church on earth, in the Liturgy of His Gospel.  Both here and there — with God and with you, as surely as He is both God and Man — He stands for you, steadfast and eternal.  His Priesthood never ends, and so shall your Life and Salvation never end.

The Son of God is praying for you, ever and always.  And the Father hears His prayer and receives, not only His prayer, but you along with it in this beloved Son, Christ Jesus.  For He has done all that He has done, and He still does what He does, in order to bring you to the Father in Himself.

It is in and with and through Christ Jesus, and by no other way or means, that the Father gathers His people from all the nations of the world, from all times and place.  It is in and with and through Christ Jesus — by the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus — that the Father calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies His children to be His holy people, a royal priesthood, named with His own Name.

Take courage, then, and have no fear.  Know that God Himself is for you.  He does not condemn you for your many sins, though you surely deserve nothing but punishment, but He raises you up from the dust of the earth, from sin and death, to live the New Life that is yours in Christ Jesus.

Don’t lie there in despair.  Don’t imagine that there is no hope or help for you.  Don’t withdraw into yourself.  But stand up, and draw near to Jesus in His Gospel; for He is calling for you.

“Come unto Me,” He says.  If you labor and are heavy laden — if you know your sins, your needs, your hurts and sorrows, your frailties and afflictions — come to Him, and He will give you rest.  Draw near to Him, and follow Him.  Live by faith in His Word, as a child of His God and Father.

He has made you God’s own child by the washing of the water with His Word and Holy Spirit in your Holy Baptism.  Those are the quiet waters to which God calls you and along which He leads His people; and that is the straight and narrow way by which you live and walk as His dear child.

Do not wander away from those waters, for they are your daily cleansing, your forgiveness and sanctification, your life and health and strength and every blessing.  Though it seems very simple, too good to be true — and though you cannot see it with your eyes or discern it with your senses in this mortal body and life — yet, listen with your ears, and know that it is true.  The Lord Jesus is here with you and for you in the Church and Ministry of His Gospel.  Come to Him, and live.

He has taken His stand for you here.  He has planted His feet here on earth, right here on the corner of Milton and Dale, in order to receive you to Himself — no less so than He did for Bartimaus.  When Jesus heard that poor man calling, He stopped, and He said, “Call him to Me.”  That Word of Jesus, that was that man’s courage.  And the Word of that same Jesus, calling for you, is now your courage, also.  It is His Word that raises you up from the dust and the dirt on the side of the road — that raises you up from death and the grave — to live and walk with Him as a Christian.

He has taken His stand for you here, to receive you to Himself; and as I said, even now He sits at the Right Hand of God, the Father in heaven, interceding for you.  So, consider what that means:  As the Lord Jesus is here with you, and the same Jesus is seated at the Right Hand of His Father, then right here is where you draw near to God.  Right here is where you live in His presence.

Repent of your sins, therefore, and turn away from all that is not right in your life.  Throw off your old self, as Bartimaeus threw off his cloak and got up.  You are called to something new and real.  You are called from out of your darkness and death into the Life and Light of God in Christ Jesus.  So, rise up, draw near, and call upon the Name of the Lord who loves you and calls you to Himself.

If you are threatened with despair, call upon His Name.  If you are crushed by more than you can handle, call upon His Name.  And if you think you have everything handled, call upon His Name.

You do not have what it takes to live by yourself.  But you do have such a Savior who invites you, teaches you, and commands you to pray; who has also promised to hear and answer your prayer.

His Word reveals and makes plain the way things really are.  His Word exposes your sin for what it is and makes known your desperate need for Him, sitting there on the side of the road, blind, or lame, or deaf and mute, or even in good health but sinful nonetheless, and dying in your ignorance of God — which is real blindness — unable to see the Lord as He is, to know and trust in Him.

But as surely as God’s Word exposes your sin and shame and desperation, so surely does His Word also open your blind eyes to see and know the Lord Jesus, to follow Him, to love and trust in Him, to cling to His forgiveness in faith and confidence, and to find all that you need in Him alone.

The Word that He speaks to you is the Word of His Cross, which is both Law and Gospel.  It does crucify and kill you, but it also makes you alive.  It wounds you to the core, but it also heals you from the inside-out.  The One who speaks to you is the One who has borne your griefs and carried all your sorrows — your blindness, your lameness, your deafness, and your muteness, your hurts and pains and disappointments, your frustrations — all of that, He has borne it in His own Flesh.

All of the sin and death that lives in your body and soul, He has taken all of it upon Himself, and He has nailed it all to the Cross in His own Body, in frailty, weakness, and pain.  And yet, it is by His innocent suffering and death, by the shedding of His holy and precious Blood, that He has made Atonement forever, for you and all the world.  He has done it.  He has made Peace with God.

This fallen, sinful world is no longer under the wrath and judgment of God’s Law, but is now made new in Christ Jesus, reconciled and at peace with God, because He has taken all the fallenness and brokenness, all the sin, death, and damnation upon Himself, and still He has persevered in perfect faith and love.  He did not turn away from His God and Father, but continued to call upon and trust His Father, even in the depths of judgment and under the condemnation of the Law — punished for the sins of the world.  In all things He remained faithful and righteous and holy as your Savior.

And you know that God has vindicated Him.  His Sacrifice was not in vain.  For God raised this same Jesus from the dead.  The very One who bore your sins and died in your place, God raised Him from the dead.  He lives, He lives, who once was dead, the Lamb who has been slain for you.

Therefore, you also are raised from death to life in His Resurrection.  Your home and your place are not in the ground, under judgment, or in hell.  Your home and your place are with God.  Thus are you seated with Christ Jesus in the heavenly places by faith in His forgiveness of your sins.

You are vindicated in Him.  You are holy and righteous in Him.  There is no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus.  None.  That is your courage to stand up and come to Him.  And you shall not be put to shame or disappointed, for you bear the honor of Christ as a beloved son of God in Him.

That’s what “Bartimaeus” means, “a son of honor.”  And what a joke it must have seemed, as he lay there on the side of the road, blind and begging.  And when he would go to Jesus, everyone told him, “No! You can’t go to Him. Sit down and shut up!”  But Christ Jesus says, “Call him to Me.”

And the same Lord Jesus calls you to come, as well.  He has brought down the walls of hostility, as surely as He once brought down the walls of Jericho in the days of old.  And He has defeated all of your enemies, every last one of them.  But you He has saved.  As He once rescued Rahab and her family when He brought down the walls of Jericho, so has He saved you from sin and death.

So, pray to Him in faith and confidence, in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.  Call upon His Name as a beloved and well-pleasing child of God in Christ Jesus.  Not as though you have to twist His arm or convince Him to help you, but because He is your Life and your Salvation, and He has come in mercy to raise you up and save you in body and soul.

Stand up, and take courage.  He is calling you to Himself.  Call upon His Name.  And as you pray, so also live by faith in Him, in love for Him and for your neighbor.  So let your life be your prayer.

As Bartimaeus was called to faith and received his sight by the Word of Jesus, he set out to follow Jesus on the Way of the Cross.  In short, he became a disciple, a Christian.  Now, you also follow Christ Jesus, wherever He has called you and stationed you to serve in this body and life on earth.  Do what He has given you to do.  Where that means bearing the Cross for your neighbors, give thanks to God that He counts you worthy to do so.  And where it means suffering for His Name’s sake, rejoice that you bear such a Name.  And if you die because you are a Christian, give thanks to God that you live because you are a Christian, because you are in Christ, and Christ lives in you.

The Way of the Cross can seem futile and foolish, like marching around a city for six days in a row, wondering what’s going to happen.  But trust the Word that God has spoken, and know that at His Word you are raised up and you live, as Christ is risen from the dead and lives forevermore.

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

Your Sabbath Rest in the Body of Christ Jesus

Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.  That is to say, not that you simply recall and think about the Old Testament Sabbath (which has been fulfilled and superceded in Christ Jesus) — nor that you merely give a nod to this or that day of the week — but that you receive and rest yourself in the Word that God speaks and the Gifts that He bestows upon you in the place where He causes His Name and His Glory to tabernacle with you for the sake of your Life and Salvation in Christ.

So, then, as Dr. Luther has so clearly and simply explained: In the fear and faith of the Lord your God, do not despise the preaching of His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.  For it is by this way and means of preaching that God grants you His perfect Peace and Sabbath Rest through the forgiveness of all your sins.  And it is in the receiving of these good and gracious Gifts of God, in faith and with thanksgiving, that you worship God the Father in His incarnate Son and by His Holy Spirit.  Indeed, that is how you live and do not die, body and soul, now and forever.

The way you live and work and go about your days and weeks hinges on whether and how you keep this Sabbath rest.  Do you think of that rest as the due reward of your labors?  Or do you recognize your work to be a way of living in the peace and rest that God gives you by His grace?

When you realize, understand, and trust that your entire life in body and soul is from the Lord your God — that your real life, now and forever, is found in Him and with Him, in the Word and Flesh of Christ Jesus — and that you are always living in His presence (Coram Deo) — and when your heart, mind, body, and soul are thus turned toward the Lord in repentance and faith — then you have true peace and genuine rest, even as you work hard to do your job, and even in your death.

But when you work as though to make a life for yourself by your labors, and when you live for the accumulation of wealth and riches on earth, then you have no peace and no rest.  Not even when you call it a day and go to bed and try to sleep.  Not even when you’re living it up on vacation.

These are the chronicles of life and death and everything in between.  For the way your life begins — and the way that it will end — certainly ought to inform the way that you live all of your days in between, the way that you approach your job and go about all your working and your resting.

And the fact remains that your whole life comes entirely from God; and when you die He will be your Judge.  So, consider that you were naked when you were born into this world, and so will you be naked before Him when He raises your body from the dust of the earth for the final judgment.

Whatever it is that you may hold in your hands in the meantime, every last bit of it is a gift, pure and simple, not according to any merit of yours, but all by the mercies of God.  And all such things are temporary, besides; you can’t take any of them with you, so how should you be using them?

Who or what is it that you worship with your body and life?  Who or what do you serve with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?  What is it that occupies your thoughts and your attention?  And where do you invest your time, your energies and affections, and your financial resources?  Where and how you spend your money is often the best way to discern who and what your god is.

So, do you worship the one true God in faith and love, according to His Word?  That is to say, do you fear, love, and trust in the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, by repentance and by faith in His Gospel, by hearing and receiving His Gifts in the Liturgy, in the sacred Preaching and Holy Supper of Christ Jesus?  If so, then you are alive, and you are living by the grace of God, come hell or high water against you; and even though you die, yet shall you live forever with God.

For your Life in God’s Kingdom does not originate with your works, nor does it consist of your wealth, but it is received by faith in His Gospel, and it is lived in love for the sake of Jesus Christ.

But if you do not love the Lord your God above all, and if you do not serve and worship only Him, then you are dead and dying in your false belief and sin, which is idolatry, even as you go about your temporal life on earth, no matter how healthy, wealthy, and wise you imagine yourself to be.

To put it another way, What is it that rules your life?  What is it that has dominion over you?  Who or what is your lord?  Whom or what do you obey?  And what, then, does your life look like as a consequence?  For that is “the kingdom” to which you belong, whether it be of God or the devil.

Make no mistake, there are lots of wealth and riches of all kinds in this fallen and perishing world, to which you are tempted and prone to cling, and for which you hunger, strive, and fight, as though your life and happiness derived from and actually depended on such things.  It might be money, your house and home, or your vehicle, by way of some common examples.  Or it might also be intangible things, such as friendship and popularity, power and prestige, knowledge and ingenuity, or entertainment of one kind or another.  All such things are good and gracious gifts of God, which are to be received in faith and with thanksgiving and sanctified by His Word and prayer.  But your sinful and guileful heart is rather inclined to take His gifts and make them into false gods and idols — thus worshiping the creature instead of the Creator, the gifts instead of their Giver.

There’s any number of different ways by which you count your “coins” and compete with your neighbors in this body and life.  But whether you “have” or “have not,” whether a lot or a little, it is not possible for you to enter the Kingdom of God by your wealth and riches of whatever sort.

In fact, not only will your “wealth and riches” not get you into heaven, they present a temptation, a covetous desire that actually threatens to consume you; which makes it that much harder and all the more impossible for you to enter into the Kingdom of God at all.  Your stuff gets in the way.

Where, then, is the promise of real Peace and Sabbath Rest?  That is yours only in Christ Jesus, in His Cross and Resurrection; and it is granted to you by His grace in the preaching of His Gospel.  The one true faith is conceived and born within your heart and life, within your body and soul, by the way and means of that preaching, as you are thereby given to hear, receive, and trust the Word of God in Christ Jesus, the forgiveness of all your sins and the free gift of eternal Life in His Body of Flesh and Blood.  Thus do you have Peace and Rest in the incarnate Son of God by faith in Him.

Listen, then, and hear His Word to you.  He has already made Peace for you by the reconciliation of His Cross.  And He has established Sabbath Rest for you in His Resurrection from the dead, which is your righteousness in the presence of God.  All of this that He has done for you, He also desires to share with you, and He does so here and now — Today! — with His voice of mercy.

In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was first established with the finished completion of Creation — and then again with the Exodus from Egypt, whereby the Lord, the one true God, bestowed rest upon His people by way of His works on their behalf, by His mighty arm and outstretched hand.

So did the Lord God create His people out of nothing, and redeem them from out of death into life, from out of slavery into freedom.  He set them free to worship Him, to fear, love, and trust in Him, not for His benefit, but for their present and eternal welfare, even the Life everlasting with Him.  So did He bring them through the desert wilderness, across the Jordan River, into the good Land that He had promised, wherein He gave them Peace and Rest from all their enemies on all sides.

And all these things, which the Lord God did for His people then, He has fulfilled in Christ Jesus for you and for all people.  By His Holy Cross and Passion He has redeemed you from death and damnation, and He calls you out of your slavery to sin into the freedom of faith in His forgiveness.  That is the Sabbath Rest that remains for you and all His people in the Word and Flesh of Jesus.

By His Resurrection and Ascension Christ Jesus brings you through the waters of Baptism out of Egypt into the heavenly Canaan, into the Kingdom of His God and Father, in and with Himself, as a member of His own Body and Bride, the Holy Christian Church (on earth as it is in heaven).

It was surely not easy for Him to accomplish this great Salvation on your behalf.  Indeed, how costly and painful it was!  And yet, He has done it gladly and willingly in His divine and holy Love — for all people, yes — but in His divine and holy Love for you, for each and every one of you.

And what He has thus done and established by His hard work, by His bloody sweat and labor, He grants to you as Peace and Rest in His Means of Grace, in His means of forgiveness and Life: In the waters of Holy Baptism, wherein you have died with Him, and by which you also rise and live with Him.  In the Holy Communion, wherein He feeds you with His own holy Body and precious Blood, that He might abide in you and you in Him, both body and soul, now and forevermore.  And, really, everywhere in His Holy Gospel, He is consistently forgiving your sins, day after day.  Thus do you have Sabbath Rest in Christ Jesus, even as you go about your works of love within your own stations in life, and even as you face your death.  For not the devil, nor hell, nor even the Law of God have any right to accuse or condemn you any longer, since Christ has given Himself for you, atoned for all your sins by His Sacrifice, and still graciously forgives you by His Word.

As you have died with Christ Jesus and given up everything in your Baptism — for that is what happened there, in those waters; that is what you promised; and that is what Christ did for you by His Word and Holy Spirit — as you have died with Him there, relinquishing everything else in the waters of Holy Baptism — renouncing the devil, all his works, and all his ways, and the world with all its pomp and circumstance, and, yes, even your own sinful flesh, with all your sinful lusts and desires — and there laying hold of eternal Life in Christ Jesus, in His Father and His Holy Spirit — so do you now live and work on earth, in the place where God has stationed you, by faith in Him, by faith in His Gospel, in the hope and confidence of His Resurrection from the dead.

So, too, the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ is your Peace and Rest, here in time and hereafter in eternity.  For all things in heaven and on earth are yours in Him, by His grace, through faith in His Gospel, in the Liturgy of His-Word-preached-to-you and His-Body-and-Blood-given-for-you.

This Lord Jesus Christ has finished once-for-all His perfect work on the Sixth Day, Good Friday, atoning for the sins of the world and reconciling the world to His God and Father.  And He has rested on the Seventh Day, that Holy Saturday, the Sabbath, in order to sanctify your rest in Him, so that even your grave and the graves of all His saints are made holy by His own rest in the tomb.

In His Resurrection, His Body has become the First Fruits of the New Creation, and His Flesh and Blood are the New Passover; for He has accomplished the new and greater Exodus, bringing His people out of death into eternal Life in and with Himself, the One who is greater than Moses.  For all things are fulfilled, perfected, and made brand new in Him, in His Body of flesh and blood.

Therefore, do not harden your heart by setting it upon your own works or your own wealth, but worship the Lord your God by faith in the Person of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.  Remember His Sabbath and keep it holy unto yourself by hearing His Gospel, by receiving His mercy and grace here within His Church, in His own Liturgy, and by eating and drinking His Body and Blood here at His Altar, according to His Word, in faith and with thanksgiving for all that He has done.

For He does remember you with His free and full forgiveness of all your sins; He sanctifies your body and your soul for the Life everlasting; and He gives you Peace and Rest in Himself forever.

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

Living the Good Life by Faith in Christ Jesus

What is it that you trust and rely on?  What is it that you cling to for dear life?  What do you look to in yourself and in your life for safety and security, for a sense of peace and satisfaction?

Is it your good works?  Or have you come to the honest realization that your good works just aren’t good enough?  What, then?  Your good intentions or best efforts?  Your property, your land and all your stuff?  Can you name and number your possessions, and do you keep them close at hand?

Is it your income you depend on?  Your savings and investments?  Or your insurance policies?  Have you got everything in its place, so that, no matter what happens, you’ll still have it made?

Or, maybe you know better.  Maybe you know that your silver and gold will disappear, and that all of your stuff will rust, or moths will eat it, or thieves will steal it.  So, do you look for your life, instead, in your family, friends, and loved ones?  In your relationships and social circles?  In the number of “likes” and comments that your posts and pictures get on social media?  Or in the nice things you hope they’ll say in your obituary and at your funeral?  Is that what you’re relying on?

The rich young man understood that, for all his good works, and for all his possessions, there was still something missing.  He was still falling short and lacking something crucial.  Perhaps he had heard (or heard about) the Sermon on the Mount, and he wondered how his righteousness could ever exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, that he might inherit and enter the Kingdom of God.  He had questions, in any case, because his heart and mind were not at rest.  He had no real peace.

It’s easy enough to hear this story and suppose this young man was boastful and arrogant, prideful, and self-confident.  But he comes to Jesus because he’s looking for something — something he doesn’t know or have or understand.  He’s restless inside, and he’s searching.  How about you?

For all that you have — for all your best efforts, all your hard work, your family and friends, your good name and reputation — for all that, what is still missing, and what is it that you still need?  What is it going to cost?  And what must you do to get it and keep it?  What are you willing to do?

Actually, you already know what you should be doing; or, you should know, in any case.  Like it or not, the Lord has told you what to do and not to do, and what you are to be about.  He has given you the guidance of His Word, He has called you to a particular office and station in life, and He has positioned you in the proximity of neighbors you are to love and serve and care for.

As the Catechism has taught you, consider your place in life according to the Ten Commandments, and then you will already have more than enough to occupy all your days and life on earth.

Wherever God has placed you in this world, that is it where you are to fear, love, and trust in Him, to listen to His Word and call upon His Name.  That is where you are to honor your parents and the other authorities God has positioned over you, to catechize and care for those He has entrusted to your oversight, and to do unto others as you would have done unto you.

You don’t have to go hunting and searching to find or figure out what God would have you do — in fact, you absolutely should not abandon your post to attempt that kind of self-chosen adventure.  Just do what God has given you to do in the place where He has put you, according to His Word.

But don’t do it as a way or means of getting life for yourself, far less as a way or means of saving yourself or gaining the Kingdom of God by your own works and efforts.  Rather, do what God has given you to do, and live according to His Word, because He is the Author and Giver of Life, and His Word to you is your Life and Salvation.  It is good and right to live as He has spoken.  What is more, it is good for you and for your neighbor to live in harmony with His Word, which reveals and describes, guides and governs the divine Life that is lived by His grace in faith and love.

Goodness is not achieved or accomplished by your behavior.  You can’t make yourself good by the works that you do.  That is not within your power or ability.  Goodness belongs to God alone, to His Word and His works.  And such goodness can only become yours by the gift of His grace.

Now, then, your goodness as a creature of God, as a human being, is by and according to His holy Word, for He has created you in His Image and Likeness; He brought you into existence by His almighty power, and He formed you in your mother’s womb for Life with Himself in both body and soul, both here in time and hereafter in eternity.  And notwithstanding the Fall, in spite of the curse and consequences of sin and death, the goodness of God is established and fulfilled in Man in the Person of Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, that you might inherit the Kingdom of God and Life everlasting in Him.  And that divine goodness of Christ Jesus is given to you and realized in you by His grace, by faith in His Word of the Gospel.  Your goodness is solely by faith in Him.

It is because you are good by faith in Christ that you do what is good and right in love for God and for your neighbor, in the keeping of the Lord’s Commandments.  It is not what you do that makes you who and what you are (nor can you determine for yourself who and what you are); but who and what you are is manifest in what you do.  Because you are a sinner — a fallen child of Adam — you sin: you do what you should not, and you don’t do what you should.  But so, too, because you are a child of God in Christ Jesus — baptized in His Name — you do what is good and right: you live according to His Word by faith, and you love your neighbor as Christ Jesus loves you.

Now, your works in themselves can be measured by the Word of God, as to whether they are good or evil, right or wrong, outwardly speaking.  But as for yourself, your heart and soul, body and life, and where you stand before the Lord your God, that is another matter.  Your outward behavior is good and right to the extent that it agrees with the Word of God.  But apart from faith in Christ Jesus, even your best and most impressive works are detestable, filthy, and unclean in the presence of God.  Your self-righteousness is no righteousness at all in the eyes of the Lord, no matter how good it might look to you and to the world.  Apart from faith, it is impossible to please Him.

Such faith is not a commodity you can possess and put away on a shelf or in your closet.  It’s more than intellect or emotion, more than your knowledge of true facts, more than your good feelings.  It is rather to fear, love, and trust in God above all things, to stake your entire body and life on Him and on His Word, to rely on Him, to learn from Him, to bear His Cross and follow Him, even unto death, in the sure and certain hope of His Resurrection.  And with that, it’s a willingness to let go of your possessions, to give them up or use them up in service to your neighbors, while fixing your heart, mind, body, and life upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His divine Liturgy of the Holy Gospel.

Whatever it is that you cling to and won’t let go — whatever it is that you depend on for dear life — whatever it is that makes you feel happy, complete, safe, and at peace when you have it; but if or when it is threatened or taken away, you are inconsolably angry, defensive, or sorrowful — that is your god, and that is your worship.  So, if you cannot relinquish your possessions, if you cannot let go of your stuff, you are worshiping the wrong gods, which are perishing and cannot give you life or save you.  But if you fear, love, and trust the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ above all things, then, no matter what comes your way, whether for life or death, you have Life in Him.

What, then?  Repent of your sins.  Turn away from evil and do good.  Hear and heed what God the Lord has spoken to you, and do what He commands.  Above all, believe and trust the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  Depend upon His grace and His forgiveness.  Receive His gifts, and so rely on Him.  That is your Life and Salvation.  For you are His, and He is yours, and He will not let you go.

Repent of your sins, believe the Gospel, and be baptized.  Or, if you have already been baptized, then return to the ongoing significance of your Baptism — every day — and so also, here and now.  Return to the Cross of Christ, to your death and life in Him, by contrition and repentance, by faith in His forgiveness of your sins and His free gifts of the Gospel.  Because everything that you lack, everything that’s missing — the big empty hole in your heart, the restlessness in your mind, and all your sleepless nights — everything you need is here for you in the Word and Flesh of Jesus.

And it is all given to you, freely, by His grace, by the divine Charity of the Lord your God, whose eye is ever upon you in love.  It is not by your works that you receive it.  Nor is it for sale, as if you ever could afford to buy it, anyway.  But it is poured out upon you generously in Christ Jesus.

He is the One who keeps all of the Commandments, inside and out.  He lacks nothing in regards to holy faith, and He lacks nothing in respect to holy love.  And so it is that He who was rich with all the riches of the Kingdom of heaven made Himself poor with the utter poverty of your sin and death, in order that you might inherit His Righteousness and everlasting Life in His Resurrection from the dead.  He liquidates everything, His Body and His Life upon the Cross, in order to give you His Body and Life and all the Treasures of God’s Kingdom in the Liturgy of His Gospel.

Today, then — right here and now, Today — you hear His voice, that of your Good Shepherd and merciful High Priest, speaking His Gospel to you, forgiving you all your sins.  And as you hear His voice Today — from this Pulpit and this Holy Altar — do not harden your heart against Him, but follow Him where His Voice leads, and live by His good works, by His Cross and Resurrection.

Like that rich young man of St. Mark’s Holy Gospel.  Maybe it was John Mark himself, as tradition suggests (and I am inclined to believe).  In any case, we hear the story of this young man who had so many possessions — who was actually a ruler of the synagogue, a leader in the church — who had so much and did so much, and yet he knew that he was missing something — we hear about him here, and then we hear about two other young men in the continuation of the Holy Gospel.

I’m sure you remember the one story.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus was arrested and as He was being hauled away to get beaten up and then to be executed on the Cross, there was a young man following after Him.  He was wrapped in a linen sheet, that’s all he had on his body.  And the soldiers grabbed him — they were going to take him away, too — but he slipped away, and he ran away naked into the night.  Buck naked.  He had nothing.  It had all been stripped away.

And then, on the Third Day, very early in the morning, when the women went to the tomb, and they wondered how they were going to move that huge stone out of the way, they found that it was already gone.  And the body of Jesus was not there, because He had risen, just as He said.  But there in His tomb — you know it was an angel — but that’s not how St. Mark describes him.  There was a “young man,” he writes, clothed in white raiments, in the radiance of the Resurrection.

That’s what the Lord Jesus has done for you in Holy Baptism.  And that’s what He does for you Today and every Sunday.  Stripped naked by way of repentance, you are clothed in Christ Jesus, radiantly adorned in His Righteousness and Holiness, and decked out in His divine Goodness.

Here, then, is the peace and rest you’re looking for.  Here your poverty is filled up with His Riches.  Here your nakedness and shame are covered by His Honor and His Glory, because here your sins are all forgiven by His Word of the Gospel.  They really are.  And that is very good.

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

United as One Body in and with Christ Jesus

There is finally one Marriage, one Husband and one Wife.  There is the one Man, Jesus Christ — and there is the one Woman, His Holy Christian Church, made for Him as a suitable companion, corresponding to Him in every way, brought to Him and given to Him by His God and Father.

He is faithful in caring for His Bride and giving her life, in and with His own Body and Life, with His own Flesh and Blood — by His Cross and Passion and in His bodily Resurrection from the dead — in the Water and the Blood from His wounded side, in His Font and in His Chalice.

By these means of grace and salvation, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has made of you a member of His Bride, the Church; He has brought you to Him and given you to Him.

So are you called to be faithful to your Husband and Head, Christ Jesus, within your own particular place and station in life, whatever that may be.  For you are named with His holy Name, and you have been joined together with Him, united with Him in body and soul, heart, mind, and spirit.

You derive your life, all that you are and have, entirely from Him; and thus are you given to live unto Him in righteousness and purity, now and forever.  It’s not that you must earn your keep, or pull your own weight, or make a life for yourself, but that you would receive your life from Him alone, and so live in Christ Jesus your Lord by faith, by His grace, to the glory of His holy Name.

What that life in Christ Jesus looks like in the context of holy marriage here on earth is faithfulness and love in the lifelong union of one man and one woman, the male and the female, even unto death.  The husband gives himself and lays down his life for his wife, that she might have life; and the wife submits to her husband and serves him in love, in the faith and confidence of Jesus.

The intimate union of male and female as one flesh, the intimacy of heart, mind, body, and soul, belongs to this lifelong bond and commitment of marriage, because it confesses Christ Jesus and His Church and thus declares the Gospel and the grace of God.  It is to be a bond of faithfulness and loving devotion, because the Lord Jesus is faithful and devoted in His perfect love for you.

Casual “hook-ups,” temporary and conditional “shack-up” arrangements, perversions of sexuality, and all manner of unfaithfulness, including the breaking of the marriage bond by legal divorce — these all confess a false “christ” and false “gospel,” which do not give life but rob and destroy it.

Indeed, any and all attempts to engage in sexual intimacy outside of holy marriage, which is to say, outside of Christ Jesus and apart from His Word and Spirit, are not only sinful and unclean, but dangerous, deadly, and doomed to fail.

Of course, the “one flesh” union of husband and wife is also abused and broken within marriages — when spouses do not love and care for each other, but instead hurt or neglect each other, turn away from each other, or fend for themselves in competition with each other.

Simply living together in the same house, even sleeping together in the same bed, is not yet, by itself, the intimate communion of heart, mind, body, and soul that characterizes and constitutes the holy Matrimony of Christ Jesus with His beloved Bride, the Holy Christian Church.

Tragically, one doesn’t have to look very far or dig too deep to find examples of the brokenness, the disappointments, the failures, and the hurts that impact our human marriages here on earth.

By the same token, there is also the brokenness, the disappointments, the failures and hurts of those who have longed to be married or to be given in marriage, but who have no husband or wife to have and to hold, to love and to cherish in that blessed fellowship of a life wedded together.

All of which can easily make the very idea of “holy marriage” seem rather idealistic and naive.

And, as we have heard this morning, on account of the hardness of our fallen, sinful hearts, even holy Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send his wife away.

This “permission,” which God allowed through His Prophet Moses, should not be interpreted as any kind of acceptance or approval.  It is rather an acknowledgment of failure, an accommodation for the sake of avoiding even greater wickedness and further hurt.  But none of this is “good.”  From the beginning, Jesus says, this is not at all what God intended.  Elsewhere, the Lord clearly declares that He hates divorce, which is so contrary to His love and so antithetical to His Gospel.

Yet, the Lord God knows your frame, that you are mortal.  He knows that your flesh and blood are full of sin and death.  He knows the hardness of your heart and of your head.  He knows that you are prone to selfishness, to look after yourself at all costs, instead of trusting Him and obeying His voice and loving your neighbor as you ought.  He knows that you are likely to lash out in violence if you are backed into a corner and put on the defensive.  And He knows that you still have much to learn and a great deal of maturing to do, before you will grow into the fullness of the stature of your Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the true and heavenly Bridegroom of His Church.

It is also a fact that genuine love, such as holy marriage properly requires, cannot be achieved or obtained by the force of the Law.  Demands and threats and punishments will not bring about the self-giving and self-sacrificing love that belongs to real intimacy.  To be sure, your actions can and should be disciplined.  Your behavior can and should be curbed and moderated for the benefit and protection of your neighbors.  But outward regulations and controls will not change your heart.

So it is that God permits divorce, as a tragic last resort, lest even greater tragedy unfold — lest husbands and wives resort to violence and murder.  So might a father separate his warring children from each other, for a time, rather than risk trying to force them to get along with each other.

It’s not a matter of condoning sin or rewarding stubbornness, but a case of taking sin seriously and choosing the lesser of evils, while working to rescue the children from every evil of body and soul.

As a good and loving Father, the Lord your God is patient with you, long-suffering, and slow to anger.  He does not punish you as your sins actually deserve, but He bears with you according to His tender mercies and His grace, while He also disciplines you as a beloved son or daughter.

But it is more than immaturity and ignorance at work in your hardness of heart; it is sin and death having their way with you, wreaking havoc in your body and life and in all of your relationships.  Such things are another kind of “childish behavior,” altogether different than the childlike faith to which you are called.  The hardness of your sinful heart is evident, for example, in the pout and stomping foot and rebellious “no” and temper tantrum of the toddler.  The toddler must grow up — and so must the Christian also learn to live in faith toward God and in love for the neighbor.

The Law exposes your sin, your hardness of heart, your wickedness, your nakedness and shame.  But you learn and grow by repentance and by faith in Christ, because holy love and holy marriage are found, not in you, but in Him, in His faithfulness, and in His sacrifice for the sake of sinners.

It is certainly not just the “good” little boys and girls whom He takes up in His arms and blesses, but He gathers to Himself the colicky infants, the tyrannical toddlers, the spoiled brats, the moody and distant teens, the dead-beat twenty-somethings, and the childish “adults” who still resort to pouting and stomping and hollering “no.”  He calls them all to repentance, to be sure.  Their sins, and all of your sins, are not good.  But so does He also lay His hand on you in Holy Absolution.

And He does not cast you away from His presence.  He does not send you away.

What He permits men to do, because of their hard hearts, He Himself does not do.  He does not divorce His wife, but He wins her back, woos her to Himself in love, and reconciles her to Himself in the grace and forgiveness of His Gospel.  He does not consider her trespasses or count them against her, but He bears all her burdens and all her weaknesses in Himself.  He covers her guilt and shame and clothes her with His own honor, with His own righteousness and holiness.

He does all of this for you, in making you a member of His Body and His Bride, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  This is not idealistic or naive, but this is Holy Marriage, which is the Love of God in Christ Jesus, your Savior.  He is faithful in giving Himself for you, that you might be His very own, to have and to hold forever.  Even death shall not separate you from Him.

So, too, here within His Holy Church is where and how you get your bearings and take your cues, whether you are married or unmarried, widowed or divorced in this life on earth.  For you belong to Jesus Christ, the true and heavenly Bridegroom, and you bear His Name in whatever it is that you are called and given to do.  Both marriage and celibacy, here in time, point beyond themselves to the one Marriage of that one Man and His Holy Bride, which is forever and ever.

It is His Cross which sanctifies the crosses that you are given to bear in this body and life, whether the crosses of a spouse and marriage or the crosses of celibacy and loneliness.  It is the sacrifice of His Cross that forgives you, redeems you, and saves you from all of your unfaithfulness, from all of your lust, from your fornication and adultery, and from your coldness and hardness of heart.

The Lord your God — the almighty and eternal Son — has made Himself to be like you, bone of your bone, and flesh of your flesh, and blood of your blood.  He was conceived and born of the Woman, St. Mary, by the Word and Spirit of God, that you might be conceived and born of God by the washing of the water with His Word and Holy Spirit in His Holy Christian Church.  Therein you are cleansed and sanctified and clothed in the beautiful white wedding garments of Jesus Christ and His perfect righteousness.  Having no sins of His own, no flaws or blemishes, no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, He has bestowed on you His innocence and blessedness, even as He has taken upon Himself your sin and death and all unrighteousness.  He has borne your temptations and suffered all your sorrows, in order to become your merciful and faithful High Priest, in order to bring you blameless into everlasting Life with His God and Father in Paradise.

This is what it means for the Lord Jesus Christ to be your Husband, your heavenly Bridegroom.  And this is what it means for you to be a member of His Body and His Bride.  He is perfected in this vocation through suffering, by His Cross and Passion, so that you are perfected and glorified in Him, in His bodily Resurrection from the dead.  In His sleeping — in the deep sleep of His death upon the Cross and His resting in the earth — you have been taken from His side and formed in His Image, in the waters of your Baptism and in the holy and precious Blood of His Chalice.

Thus are you given to Him in Holy Marriage here at His Altar, as often as He feeds you here with His Flesh and Blood.  And so does He take you into His arms and bless you, for now and forever.

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