The Publication of the Gospel to the Nations

As we heard from the Evangelist St. John yesterday, from the closing chapters of his Holy Gospel, “These things have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you may have Life in His Name.”

That likewise sums up the point and purpose of St. Mark’s Gospel, too, and the salutary reason for which we remember and give thanks for St. Mark the Evangelist on this appointed festival day.

The written Holy Gospels — of which St. Mark’s may well have been the first — became most necessary as it became clear that the Holy Apostles would not always be around and available in person.  So, for example, St. Peter wrote in his second Epistle that he would make provisions for his proclamation of the Gospel to continue even after his departure.  And that provision was then made available in the Holy Gospel According to St. Mark, written under the authority of St. Peter.  All for the sake of the forgiveness, faith, and life of the one, holy, catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Irrespective of the specific details of when and where he wrote it, St. Mark’s Gospel provides for, serves, and supports the continuation of the Holy Apostolic Ministry, the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, and the Apostles’ preaching of the Gospel throughout the world to all of creation.

So, then, along with the other Holy Gospels, the inspired writing of St. Mark is the authority, the foundation, and the content of the pastoral ministry to this day, even to the close of the age.  All that I do as your pastor rests upon this Word that was written for the sake of your faith and life.

The substance and power of this Apostolic Ministry of the Gospel is Christ Jesus Himself, the Son of God in the flesh, crucified and risen from the dead.  Nowhere is that more clear than it is in the Gospel According to St. Mark, which focuses so tightly on the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus with comparatively little of His preaching and teaching.

What you hear and receive from St. Mark is Jesus in action.  The Son of God goes forth to war, a kingly crown to gain.  For He is the Lion of Judah, who comes to tread the serpent and bitter death beneath His heel into the dust.  So it is that St. Mark preaches the Lord of Life hard at it, always moving, always doing.  A little less talk and a lot more action.  And all His active doing culminates in His voluntary suffering and death.  That is laid upon Him and done to Him, but He is no passive victim.  He knows where He is headed and what He is about.  He takes up His Cross willingly and lays down His life of His own accord.  So does He take it up again by strong faith in His Father.

St. Mark’s Gospel is especially devoted to the Cross.  It has been described as a Passion account with an introduction, and that is just about right.  This Evangelist offers a ringside commentary on that great fight of which we sing with Dr. Luther: “It was a strange and dreadful strife when life and death contended.  The victory remained with life; the reign of death was ended.”

But again, these things are written for the purpose that you also should believe and live in Christ Jesus; that you should be crucified and raised with Him through repentance and faith in His Word.  And St. Mark has done a masterful job of portraying that significance with his own life in mind.

By long-standing tradition, at least, and I am quite inclined to agree, St. Mark was that rich young man who once came to Jesus and asked what he must do to inherit eternal life.  As you will recall, he went away sorrowful following that first encounter, because he had many possessions and was reluctant to give them up in order to follow Jesus.  Yet, the Lord looked on him and loved him, and what was impossible for that young man or any other, was not impossible for the One who alone is good, who is true God and perfect Man.  Though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor.  He liquidated everything, including His Body and Life, in order to give you the Kingdom of God.

For St. Mark the Gospel is the Cross and Passion of the Christ, and so too for those who would be His disciples.  To live with Him in His Kingdom is to share His Cross and follow Him.  It is to be baptized with His Baptism, to be buried with Him through Baptism into His death, in order to share His Resurrection and His Life.  It is likewise to drink the Cup that He drinks, although for Him it is the Cup of God’s wrath and bitter woe, whereas for us it is the Cup of Blessing and Salvation.  He drinks it down to the dregs for us, in order to fill it to the brim and overflowing with His Blood of the New Testament, which He pours out for you and for the many for the forgiveness of sins.  So is He stripped naked on the Cross, that you should be clothed with His robes of righteousness.

This is what He has done in love for you and for St. Mark.  Consider that interesting side note in his Gospel, which the children find amusing, about that young man in the Garden of Gethsemane who slips out of his linen sheet and runs away naked at the onset of the Passion.  If this is the same young man who once declined to give up his riches, he has followed Jesus to the point of giving up everything now!  Yet, the Lord would not have His disciples found naked, but clothed with immortality.  As He once clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of sacrifice, so does the once-for-all Sacrifice of His own Flesh and Blood clothe all who are baptized in His Name.  His garments are removed and distributed to you, so that His nakedness and shame should fully cover yours.

And surely He has done it!  Indeed, the next time we hear of a “young man” in St. Mark’s Holy Gospel, he is sitting in the empty tomb from which the crucified Jesus has risen, “wearing a white robe.”  Yes, of course, it was an angel — one of two, actually — but St. Mark has recorded the historical facts with theological intent, and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he catechizes you in the significance of Holy Baptism.  The rich young man has been called to repentance, turned away from the idolatry of his many possessions to follow Christ Jesus to the Cross.  He has been stripped naked of all his own prideful self-righteousness, in order to be crucified, put to death, and buried with his Lord.  But now, behold, he emerges from the tomb in the Resurrection of that same Lord Jesus Christ, and he has been cleansed and clothed in the purity of that New Man.

With all of this in mind, and especially in view of the Holy Gospel for this festival day, it is clear that these things have been written for the proclamation and the hearing of the Word of Christ; that sinners be called to repentance, faith, and life in the Cross and Resurrection of the Son of God.

In particular, the publication of the Holy Gospel — the written record of Christ Jesus — aims to serve the administration of Holy Baptism in His Name.  As St. John the Baptist came preaching a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and as St. Peter preached on Pentecost that the people should repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name, so has St. Mark written that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.  This promise is for you and for your children, for your body and your soul, and for your faith and life in Christ, both now and forever.

So does the Holy Gospel likewise serve the Office of the Keys and Holy Absolution, by preserving and declaring this special authority for the forgiving of repentant sinners in the Name and stead of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Though perhaps not as obvious as the gift of the Keys in St. John chapter twenty, it is no less certain in what St. Mark has written here: “In My Name,” Jesus says, “demons will be cast out, and upon the sick you will lay your hands, and they will be made well.”  For the healing of body and soul is bestowed, unto the Life everlasting, by the Holy Absolution of Christ.

With all of this, the Holy Gospel According to St. Mark, like that of the other holy Evangelists, serves the handing over of the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus — from one generation of the Church to the next; from pastor to people; from the Lord Himself to His disciples of all nations — for His Christians of all times and places to eat and to drink in faith and with thanksgiving, for the forgiveness of sins, unto the Resurrection of the body and the Life everlasting of body and soul.

As the crucified and risen Lord Jesus “appeared to the Eleven as they were reclining to eat at the table,” and He was there made known to them in “the Breaking of the Bread,” so does He reveal and give Himself to His people at His Table to this day, in the Holy Communion of His Body and His Blood, given and poured out for you and for the many.  His Holy Word and His Holy Supper — His Holy Flesh, His indestructible Life, and His great Salvation — these all belong together, given and received within His Church on earth as one sacred Tradition of His precious Gospel.

So it is, on the basis of the Word of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, especially as it has been recorded by the holy Evangelist Mark, that I preach to you on this day the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins in the Name and stead of Christ.  And here at His Table in His House I give to you His Body to eat and pour out for you His Blood to drink, that you should be strengthened and sustained in the one true faith, and that you should have eternal Life in Him.

In this Ministry of the Gospel, the Lord Himself is actively present and at work, confirming His Word with the sacred signs of water, bread, and wine, and giving you nothing less than Himself.

Who has believed this report?  To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  With man it is impossible, but not with God.  All things are possible with God.  He does it by His Gospel.  So has He done it by the Gospel of that beloved young man, St. Mark, by whose poverty many have now been made rich.  For his voice has gone out into all the earth, his words to the ends of the world.  How beautiful, indeed, are the feet of him who was sent with such glad tidings of good things.

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

Fellowship with God in the Wounded Body of Christ Jesus

We believe and confess one, holy, catholic, and Apostolic Church, because it is by the Apostles, first of all, that Christ Jesus establishes His Church on earth, and speaks to her in Peace, and gives Himself to those whom He has called to Himself by their preaching.  He sends them in His Name and stead, with the power and authority that He has received from the Father, with the Keys of His own Cross and Resurrection, in order to set free the prisoners from the prison house of sin and death, and to open the Kingdom of God to all who believe and are baptized into Him.

As He has been sent by the Father and anointed by the Spirit in His own Body of flesh and blood, so does He pour out the same Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, and He sends them to bestow the Spirit upon the Church through the preaching of His Word of Holy Absolution.  That Apostolic Ministry of the Gospel continues, even to the close of the age, in the Ministry of your pastors, who preach and teach the Word of Christ, baptize and absolve in His Name, and administer the Holy Communion in remembrance of Him, in accordance with “the Apostles’ doctrine and fellowship.”

It is by the eyewitness testimony of the Apostles — including that of St. Thomas — that you are called and brought to faith in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus, in order that, believing, you may have life in His Name.  Blessed are those men who saw what the Prophets longed to see, and who looked upon the Mystery of the Word-made-Flesh, which even the holy angels had so long desired to look into.  And blessed are you who receive their preaching of Christ Jesus, for by that Apostolic Word you share their fellowship with Him, and with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  By the faithful Word of those who saw and touched the Body of Christ Jesus, you are made a member of His Body, and you abide in Him with one another in peace and love.

Even so, take note that the holy Apostles were not strong, confident, and believing by any reason or strength of their own, but by the grace of God in Christ Jesus.  Thomas was not the only doubter among them.  In fact, they all doubted to begin with, until the Lord showed to them His hands and feet and wounded side.  It wasn’t simply doubt or skepticism but unbelief that plagued them.

Now, then, think of yourself on both sides of that situation:

If you doubt something and don’t believe it, you can’t simply choose to believe it.  You can’t will yourself to believe differently than you do.  It is possible to be convinced and convicted of this or that, by one means or another, depending on the circumstances; but apart from such a conversion you can’t just decide to trust and take to heart what you doubt.

And when you have such doubts — whether about friendship or love, or perhaps about Christ Jesus and His Word — then you have no real peace and calm, but fear, frustration, and anxiety.

On the other side of it, if someone else doubts you and your word and refuses to believe you, that can also be very frustrating and exasperating.  Perhaps you become impatient and angry in such situations — although that doesn’t help your credibility, and it doesn’t help the doubter, either.

But the gracious Lord Jesus does not lose sight of His goal and purpose.  He is not moved by pride or ego, but by His own divine love and mercy.  His desire is to give life and peace and fellowship, to bring you into fellowship with Himself, and to unite you with Himself within His holy Body.

His love and His faithfulness are forever; so He is patient and kind, long-suffering, slow to anger, and abounding in gracious compassion.  Even His “scolding” is gentle, that you not be frightened or shamed but embraced by His love.  He is not harsh or mean.  He does not berate His disciples or cast them away from His presence; nor does He leave them alone in their doubts and fears.  But He is merciful in coming to His disciples and opening Himself to them.

Consider what it means that He reveals Himself to the disciples, including St. Thomas in particular — He makes Himself known to them — specifically by the means of His wounded hands and side.  And consider carefully that He is not simply recognized as Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified One, but in those wounds He is recognized, confessed, and worshiped as the Lord, the one true God.

Is this not striking and seemingly ironic, that the Lord our God should be seen in His wounds?

But this is exactly right.  It is meet, right, and salutary; because this is the sort of God you have.  He has given Himself as a Lamb for His people, a Lamb that has been slain, and yet, behold, He lives.  He has passed through the deep waters for His people, on their behalf, going ahead of them, in order to bring them through on dry ground.  From His pierced and wounded side He has washed His people with pure water, and He has cleansed and covered them with His holy, precious Blood, so that death has to leave them alone, and doubt must finally let go of them.

So it is that, with His Body and His Blood, He gathers His disciples to Himself and grafts them into His wounded side, that they may have Life in Him.

That is why, even in His Resurrection, His glorified Body still bears the wounds of His Passion.  There is no shame in those wounds; they are His great glory as the Lord, our Savior and our God.  This apparent weakness is actually His strength and His great salvation for you and all people.

And if the Body of Christ Jesus thus bears the wounds of His Holy Cross, do not be dismayed that the members of His Body bear His Cross and are wounded in various ways in this body and life.

Do not despise your wounded brothers and sisters in their weakness, doubts, and fears.  If anyone says that He loves Jesus, whom he cannot see, but hates his brother whom he does see, he is a liar.  You see Christ Jesus in your brother and sister, especially in your wounded brother and sister; for it is by His wounds that He reveals Himself and makes Himself known to you.

And do not despair if you yourself are wounded, whether in body or soul, heart, mind, or spirit.  For the Lord Jesus has made such wounds His own, in order to heal you by His death and make you whole in His Resurrection from the dead.  Do not be unbelieving, but believing and at peace.

Take courage from the example of St. Thomas, who is finally remembered in the Church, even to the end of the age, not as “doubting Thomas,” but as one of the holy Apostles.  Each and all of them were raised up from their doubts and fears to confidence and courage, and they were called and sent by Christ Jesus in His Name, not because of their flawless strength and impeccable stats, but even in the frailty and weakness of their mortal flesh, in order that the glory of Christ the Crucified might be manifested in such wounded hands and feet as these preachers of His Gospel.

The wounded members also belong to the one Body of Christ.  And so do all of you belong to one another in Him.  You are fitted and joined together in love, in the unity of faith and the knowledge of God’s Son, that you might share each other’s strengths and weaknesses, wounds and scars, in peace — under one Head, crowned with thorns — who is Christ Jesus, your Lord and your God.

If your fellow members of His Body are not with you in the gathering of His disciples, seek them out, speak to them in love, and invite them in.  That is what the other disciples did for Thomas; although he doubted their word, they spoke to him nonetheless, and perhaps that is why he was there the next Sunday, instead of being elsewhere on his own.  Your words may not convince your brother or sister of anything, but bring them with you, anyway, to the Upper Room of the Church.

It is here, in the Liturgy of His Gospel, that Christ Jesus is with you, in your midst; and so is it here that His Peace is with you.  Receive His Holy Spirit in His Holy Absolution of all your sins.  And do not be afraid, for He is here with you and for you in love.  Even His preaching of the Law is a gentle scolding, which does not drive you away but invites you to hide yourself in His wounds.

Reach here with your hand.  Take, eat, drink.  Taste and see that the Lord is good, and that He is risen indeed.  Oh, come let us worship Him, our Lord and our God, and give to Him all thanks and praise, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Sin and Death Are Defeated in the Body of Christ Jesus

Christ is risen! — He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

By His death He has destroyed death.  And in His rising from the dead He has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.  Sin is forgiven, and the whole world is reconciled to God in Christ Jesus.  Consequently, death has been defeated and the devil is utterly undone.

But for all that, the last great enemy, death, has not yet been abolished.  Defeated, yes, but death is not yet “dead and gone.”  People are still dying every day, both Christians and non-Christians alike, even throughout Eastertide.  Cemeteries continue to expand as graves continue to increase.

Life has triumphed over death in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, and God the Father has put all things beneath His feet.  But you do not yet see or feel that reality.  It sure doesn’t look like Jesus has got the upper hand.  What you see is that His disciples, His people, still bear the Cross in this world.  Sin and death are rampant everywhere you look, and both of these are still at work in you.

The new thing that God has created is already established, it is sure and certain in the crucified and risen Body of the Lord Jesus.  But it does not yet appear as it shall be.  For the time being, in this fallen world, life has the appearance of death, while death has the appearance of life.  What I mean is this, that real life is hidden under the Cross, whereas sin is so tempting and appealing, as though it could liven things up and make your life better, when it actually brings only death.

It is true that, before you have ever called out for help or cried out in dismay, the Lord your God has already resolved your dilemmas, He has already answered your prayers and met your needs.  But His answers are elusive.  So, you do call upon His Name and beg Him for mercy, because you neither see His solution in your life nor experience His salvation in your mortal flesh and blood.

Even so, while you are still speaking, He is not only hearing your prayer, but He is also already responding with His gracious gifts of the Gospel and with His promises of Life everlasting.

The Truth remains that the Crucified One is the Living One, now and evermore.  He is never to die again.  He is risen indeed.  Alleluia!  And that is good news for you, because He has died and risen as your Savior, in order to become your great Salvation.  All of that is rock solid.

But what you see is an empty tomb.  Or, rather, what you see is nothing.  In any case, Him you do not see.  That is the odd thing about this Holy Gospel from the Resurrection Chapter of St. Luke:  The Lord Jesus doesn’t appear in this account.  He is mentioned, and His Words are recalled, but He makes no personal appearance and He doesn’t speak for Himself.  His Body is not found, nor is He seen alive.  The women are first of all perplexed, then they are terrified; and when they have gone to report what they discovered and what they heard from the angels, the Apostles and the rest of the disciples refuse to believe them.  Peter runs to the tomb, to check out their story for himself, but he doesn’t see Jesus, either.  He goes home marveling, which is quite different than believing.

It is an odd Holy Gospel for such a joyous festival day as this one.  But then again, it cuts pretty close to where your own Christian faith and life are given to abide in this poor life of labor.

The words and promises of the Gospel are perplexing, and they honestly do sound like nonsense.  St. Paul acknowledges that earlier in his letter to the Church at Corinth.  So it’s no surprise that you are hampered by doubts and fears, within and without, no less so than those first Christians were.

At times, no one believes; and that includes you, no matter how much and how badly you want to.

It is still a struggle — a strange and dreadful strife — the contending of life and death inside of you and all around you in the world.  That combat stupendous, which Christ Jesus has already won, still rages in your flesh and blood and in your heart and mind.

It certainly would seem as though Christians were really delusional nut cases to believe in the Resurrection against all evidence to the contrary.  It is by faith alone, and not be sight!  Indeed!  But is that just a ruse, a clever hoax, a pious excuse to keep on kidding yourself?

The fact is that you labor long and hard, seemingly in vain.  And you bear children, apparently for calamity; or perhaps you bear no children at all.  Either way, it still remains the case that, in Adam, all the children of men die.  And to be sure, the tombs of your ancestors and of your loved ones, including some of your own children, are not empty at all, but full of death and dust and bones.

So, what gives?  And what is the point?  Where is the power and promise of the Resurrection?

Beloved of the Lord, do not despair or give up hope!  Your Savior, Christ Jesus, is risen from the dead, and that has actually changed everything and made all the difference, for now and forever.

Children continue to be born to Adam and his kin; not for calamity and death — though they do experience all that — but in order to be reborn and recreated in the New Man, Jesus Christ.  If they are born but once, that is most pitiable, and it were surely better had they never been born at all.  But if they are born again by the water, Word, and Spirit of Christ Jesus, then they are brought forth out of death into the Resurrection of their bodies and the Life everlasting of body and soul.

Indeed, the very Son of God has become a Son of Adam — by His conception and birth of the Woman — in order to die the death of Adam once-for-all, and by His death to bring an end to the tyranny of death, and in His own bodily Resurrection to raise the sons and daughters of Adam from the dust of the earth to live forever with Him as beloved children of His God and Father in heaven.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the First Fruits, as you have heard from His Apostle, St. Paul; and if Jesus is the First Fruits, then you shall follow after Him.  As surely as He led the sons of Israel out of Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea and through the waters of the Jordan River into Canaan, so surely does He lead you through the waters of your Holy Baptism, through death and the grave, into the gracious and glorious Paradise that He has promised and prepared for all of His people.

When He hands over His Kingdom to His God and Father, then He will surely bring you also to the Father in and with Himself; for you belong to His Kingdom by the grace of His Gospel.

For now He has established His Kingdom and His dwelling place within His Holy Church on earth, wherein He calls and gathers you to Himself, in order to bring you into His eternal Sanctuary with the Father in heaven.  As He brings you in and plants you here, so does He bring you in and plant you there, even forevermore.  Everything that belongs to Him, He gives to you here in His Church.

He hands Himself over to you here by the Ministry of the Gospel, no less so than He has offered Himself up once-for-all and handed Himself over to the Father by His Sacrifice upon the Cross.  Thus are you bound to God the Father, in both body and soul, in the Person and work of Christ Jesus — by His Word and Holy Spirit, and by His crucified and risen Body and His Blood.

Where, then, is the Body of Jesus?  That is the big question at the beginning of Easter, and really to this very day.  Where is the Body of Jesus?  That’s what everyone is looking for, or should be.

By the end of St. Luke’s Resurrection Chapter, as we shall hear and celebrate in these coming days of the Easter Feast, the answer is given clearly: The Body of Christ is in the Breaking of the Bread.  He is recognized and received at His Table in the eating and drinking of His Holy Supper.

It is by and with His Word that He reveals and gives Himself to you in this way, by this Means of Grace.  Do not suppose that it is foolish nonsense, no matter how marvelous and perplexing it is.  For with His Word He remembers you in love, and He Himself gives to you His own Body to eat, He pours out His own Blood for you to drink.  And by His Word, which He has spoken to you — and He still speaks to you by His messengers — by that Word of His, you also remember Him.

What is more, it is also by the preaching of His Word that His faith and His faithfulness become yours.  So, too, His Victory over death, His Resurrection from the dead, and the power of His indestructible Life all become yours by the Ministry of His Gospel.  Whereas unbelief and death go hand-in-hand — with each other and with sin — the Lord Jesus Christ has triumphed over sin and death, over idolatry and unbelief, by His Cross and in His Resurrection.  And His crucified and risen Body is the beginning of the New Creation in holy faith before His God and Father and in love for God and Man.  So, even when you and all others are faithless, He remains ever faithful.

So it is that, by His Word and Spirit, by the preaching of His Gospel of forgiveness, you also now believe — as the women who witnessed the empty tomb, and the other disciples, too, were brought from their doubts and fears and sadness to faith and life and peace and joy in Christ Jesus.

Your rejoicing and gladness on this glorious day and throughout this poor life of labor, even in the midst of sin and in the face of death — this joy and gladness are not a joke, a pretense or charade, and they are no lie or subterfuge, regardless of how you may be feeling on the inside.  They are as real and solid and true as the Flesh and Blood of Christ Jesus, not only crucified and risen, but given and poured out for you, unto the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting .

If you are trying to smile and sing on the outside, while in your heart and mind you struggle with sorrow and feel like dying, nevertheless, true joy and real gladness are rightly yours, both now and forever, in Christ Jesus.  Not because of how you feel about it or what you think about it, but here is the Truth: Your rejoicing and your gladness are found and received in the Lord’s rejoicing over you, and in His great gladness in you, because He does in fact delight in you.

The Lord your God, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, has recreated you for such joy and gladness and Life everlasting in Christ Jesus.  He has done it first of all in Christ Himself, in His Body of flesh and blood just like yours, in which He has been crucified for your sins and raised for your righteousness and salvation.  It is a done deal, permanently established for you in Him.

But God has also brought about the New Creation of Christ Jesus in you through the Gospel, by your Baptism into Him, and by His Body and His Blood, which He gives to you here as your Meat and Drink indeed.  By these Means of Grace, in Christ you are a new creation — born of the new and better Adam, not for calamity and death, but for the Life and Light and Love of God the Lord.

Christ is your Strength in weakness, and He is your Song in both joy and sadness all your days, because He has become your Salvation.  That won’t change, not ever.  It stands fast, and it shall be revealed at the last.  As surely as He is risen from the dead, so surely shall you also rise; for He has died your death, and His Resurrection is therefore already your Resurrection forevermore.

The Prince of Life, who died, reigns immortal.  He reigns over you in love and with great joy.  This Victor King has mercy upon you, and the eternal sunshine of His grace, mercy, and peace, His Resurrection and His Life, His Body and His Blood, now warms and lights you all your days.

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

Behold the Image of God in Man, Given and Poured Out for You

It is amazing how visual the Gospel of the Passion is.  “Look!” you are told, again and again.  “Behold the Lamb of God.”  “Behold the Man.”  “Behold your King.”  “Like this,” St. John will describe, as though you could actually see some gesture he is making while he preaches.

No one has ever seen God at any time, but now the Incarnate Son, who resides in the bosom of the Father, He reveals God to us.  For the Word of God, who is God, by whom all things are made — He has become Flesh.  In Him God tabernacles among us.  In Him you behold the one true God.

In the beginning was this Word — the Word was with God, and the Word was God — and as God spoke this Word of His, who is in fact the Father’s only-begotten Son from all eternity, so did creation come into being out of nothing.  “Let there be Light,” He said, and there was Light.  For this Word is the Light in the darkness, which is the Life and Love of God.

And on the Sixth Day, on that first Friday of creation, God said, “Let Us make Man in Our Image.”  Then He crafted the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his body the Breath of Life, which is the Spirit of the Lord.  So did man become a living being.  And that he should be and live in the Image and Likeness of the Holy Trinity — an eternal relationship of mutual Love between the Father and His Son in the Holy Spirit — the Lord God caused the man to sleep, and opened up his side, and from his body crafted the woman, his beautiful bride, to be a helpmate comparable to him.  The Lord then brought her to the man to be his wife; and behold, it was very good.

But the Image of God is not a static or stationary work of art, which simply stays put and looks pretty on the wall, on a mantle or a shelf.  In order to see God in man, the man is given to live in mutual love with God and with his neighbor, receiving and requiting the Love of God, and loving the Household and Family of God in His Name.  Such Love, by its very nature, cannot be forced, demanded, or manipulated.  It is given and received in freedom, in the peace of friendship.

In that freedom, though they were the friends of God, the man and the woman doubted and denied His Word, and so betrayed Him with their disobedience.  Though they were His own creation and His beloved children, to whom He had already given a cornucopia of good things, they chose to flee in faithless fear from His Image, and they sought instead the knowledge of self-righteousness, which is not the Truth at all but the likeness of death.  They ran from God and returned to the dust.

The first man and his wife were blinded by their sin.  They could no longer perceive or understand the Lord their God in His good creation with the clarity of faith and love.  Instead, they were afraid and ashamed.  They were lost and confused.  They were no longer free to live and love in peace, but trapped in a pit of desperation.  They were no longer fully alive, but subject to death and decay.

Nevertheless, God still beheld them in His mercy, and the gracious freedom of His Love for them was not defeated by their disobedience.  He did not destroy them or turn Himself against them.  He did not look with contempt upon their nakedness, but covered and clothed them with animal skins.  Thus did the Lord offer the first sacrifice, in order to remove the shame of fallen man.

And the Promise was first given, that God would remedy the problem, rectify what was broken, and make all things new.  The Seed of the Woman would crush the adversary’s head and reconcile the world to God.  In Him the Image and Likeness of God would be seen in perfect clarity.

Behold, this is the New Creation that God has accomplished in Christ Jesus, His beloved Son, conceived and born of the Woman.  He does not scrap the first creation and start over, but He redeems and restores it, raises it up, and perfects it in this Man.  He is the completion of Creation.

So it was that, on the Sixth Day, on the Good Friday of His Cross, God the Father said to His dear Son, “Let Us make Man in Our Image and after Our Likeness.”  And that is what He has done.

Indeed, this is what the one true God looks like in His Creation.  Here is the fullness of the Deity embodied and enfleshed.  Which means, also, that here is the true Man.  For Christ the Crucified is the very Model and Pattern — the Image and Likeness of God — in which the first man, Adam, was fashioned and formed.  From the beginning, yes, even from before the foundation of the world, it was this Man, Christ Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Son, whom God the Father beheld in Love, and for whose sake He created the heavens and the earth, Adam & Eve, and everything else.

It is specifically His Sacrifice for the salvation of sinners that reveals the grace and glory of God most clearly.  So, if you want to know what God and Man are like, look at Him upon the Cross.

He lives and dies, not for Himself — He does what He does, not for His own sake or benefit — but in love for His Father and in love for you and all His creatures.  It is such divine Love that you behold in Him, and perfect faith in His God and Father; for He is the faithful and obedient Son.

Thus He becomes your merciful and great High Priest in all things pertaining to God; not only for a little while, but forever and always.  As the true Man He has fully taken your place; and in His own human Flesh and Blood He has established His place as the Son of God for you.

He has taken your place, not only by His Incarnation, by His conception and birth of the Woman, but also by coming in the likeness of fallen flesh.  That is, although He has no sins of His own, He takes the sins of the whole world upon Himself and bears the entire brunt of their burden, the full extent of their curse and consequence.  Though He is Life Itself, He is made mortal and subject to death.  He suffers all your pain and grief and sorrow from the cradle to the grave.  He is tempted in all the ways that you are tempted.  He sympathizes with all of your frailties and weaknesses.

He takes your place — the place of Adam and of all the children of men — the place of the skull.

You know that no one takes His life from Him; He lays it down willingly in love, and so shall He take it up again by the Spirit of His Father.  And He takes that place of yours on purpose, that place of death and the grave, so that He might take you up from there to His own place with the Father.

As your great High Priest He offers Himself up to God — the Son offers Himself up to the Father — in the faith and love for which you have been created.  He does so, not under ideal conditions, not in the bliss of Paradise, but from within the curse of death and damnation, under the terrible weight of your sin.  Burdened by all the hate and hurt and heartache of this fallen world, still He perseveres in the fear, love, and trust of His Father.  He has no other gods but Him.

It’s not as though it were easy for Him, but He does it all because He is faithful and true, because He is the true Man, and because He loves you.  So He calls upon the Name of the Lord, even with tears, with loud cries and deep groans of anguish, and He entrusts Himself entirely to His God and Father.  He takes the Cup and drinks it, confident in the One who is able to save Him out of death.

And He is heard because of His piety!  Not only that but, consequently, His matchless piety now and forever avails for you before the Father in heaven!  For the Body of Christ Jesus, who has been crucified for your iniquities, is your Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies.  Therein He ever stands for you as your merciful and great High Priest, and there He ever lives to make intercession for you.  His priestly garment, His unrent seamless tunic, covers your naked guilt and shame.  Do not run away and hide, therefore, but draw near in peace, since you are reconciled to God in Christ Jesus.

As surely as He is your great High Priest, so is He also the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, that is, the King of the Lord’s Creation.  He truly is the King of the Jews, for salvation is from the Jews.  He is the King of Israel, indeed, of all who are the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by faith in the Promise.  But He is also the King of the world, even though His Kingdom is not from here — just as Pilate decrees by the authority that was given to him from above, that Jesus of Nazareth is “the King of the Jews.”  Thus it is written in the languages of the whole world, and so shall it be wherever in the world the Gospel is preached concerning this crucified King and His Cross.

As the New Adam He has become the Head of a new humanity.  But see how His headship is so different from the rulers of this world.  They lord it over their subjects and use their power to serve themselves, to promote their own advantage and agendas.  The Lord Jesus is not like that at all.  He reigns in love, He rules in peace.  He lays down His own life in order to give life to His people.  His Kingdom and His Power and His Glory are the Gospel of His Cross.

And so it is that His own Bride, His Queen, His Holy Church is taken from His opened side as He sleeps the deep sleep of death upon His Cross.  By the Water and the Blood that pour forth out of His innermost being, the New Woman is fashioned and formed after the Image of this New Man, to be a helpmate comparable to Him.  Even His own blessed Mother is given this new identity, as she who once gave birth to Him is given new life by Him.  She, too, is redeemed and sanctified by His atoning death, by His holy and precious Blood, which she beholds at the foot of His Cross.

She stands there, beneath His Tree, as a member and an icon of His Holy Church, the Mother of all the living.  And so does the beloved disciple stand there with her, as an icon of each and every Christian, each and all of whom are the children of God by grace, by His gracious adoption of sons.  Behold, in this Mother and this Son, the Household and Family of God in Christ Jesus.

She is entrusted to the care of the apostolic witness and preaching of Christ the Crucified.  And by the Word and Spirit of God the Church conceives and gives birth to His children, in much the same way that Mother Mary conceived and gave birth to the Christ Child Himself.  Born from the waters of the font, they are nourished by His Blood and Flesh at the Altar of His Holy Church.

These are the Fruits of His Tree, the Water, Blood, and Spirit which He hands over and gives out from the Cross; His gracious Word of forgiveness; and His Body given for you and for the many.

As He enters upon His Holy Passion from the garden, and as His sacred Body is temporarily laid to rest in the garden, so is the Cross of Christ the true Tree of Life in the midst of Paradise.  Its good and holy Fruits are no evil, no poison or hurt, but the very Medicine of Immortality, the true Ambrosia, by which you have life and health and strength in body and soul, forever and ever.

You don’t have to get yourself back to the garden.  Nor could you ever have done so.  On your own you can only return to the dust from which you were taken.  But here the Garden of God has come to you, as it is found wherever Christ the Crucified is lifted up in the preaching of His Cross, and wherever He is given and poured out in the Fruits of His Cross, His Body and His Blood.

You now, beloved of the Lord, who are born from His Body in the Water and the Blood, and who are fed from His Tree of Life with His own Flesh — you are now like Him, who made Himself to be like you.  You are made brand new in Him.  You are what you eat and drink: the Image of God.

Do not doubt that it is true.  Despite the outward appearance of the Cross, which the world despises in Christ Jesus and so now also in you, and notwithstanding the fact and experience of sin, which remains in your fallen flesh — where you feel it, and the Law reveals it daily — nevertheless, the Truth of Christ Jesus stands fast and remains forever and ever for you.

He is the Man, and He is the Image of God in Man.  As He has taken your place, even unto death upon the Cross, so has He given you His place as the Son of God, even unto Life everlasting.

That is what His God and Father graciously beholds in you.  Not your nakedness and shame, your suffering, sin, and death, which Christ Jesus bears on your behalf, but the perfect piety, steadfast faith, and holy love with which He has gone to the Cross for you and for all people, and which He now lavishly bestows upon you by His Holy Gospel.  Amen, amen, it is and ever shall be so.

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

Christ Jesus is the Passover Lamb of God

The sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not spared from death because of any merit or worthiness or innocence of their own, but for the sake of the Lamb that was sacrificed in their stead.  The blood of that Lamb covered them from death, it shielded them from the Angel of Death.  And the flesh of that Lamb fed them for the journey out of bondage into freedom.

All of this on account of divine and holy Love, the grace and mercy of the Lord their God.  And that is already to speak of Christ Jesus.  It’s all about Jesus.  And it is all fulfilled for you in Him, the one Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the firstborn Son of God, who is not spared from death, though He committed no sin, nor was there any deceit found in His mouth.  He is the firstborn Son of God from all eternity, who was in time conceived and born as the promised Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He is the true Israel.  And He has become the Lamb of God, who takes upon Himself and takes away the sins of the world.  He is sacrificed for you and all as the true Passover Lamb.

His Sacrifice has been completed once-for-all in His death upon the Cross, and there is no other sacrifice for sin, nor is any other needed.  His Victory is sure and certain.  It is finished and perfect.

And yet, the Passover requires, not only the sacrifice of the Lamb, but also that His holy and precious Blood be applied to you, that it should cover you; and likewise, that His Flesh should be given to you, and that you should eat His Flesh in repentant faith and with thanksgiving.

It is true, as you have heard from the lips of Jesus, that you are already clean by the Word that He has spoken to you; for He has called you by His Gospel, and He has enlightened you with His gifts of grace and peace.  In Holy Baptism He has washed you with water and His Word; He has there forgiven you all of your sins, and He has poured out His Holy Spirit generously upon you.

But consider your day-to-day life and your circumstances in this world.  You do not love and serve your neighbor as Christ Jesus loves and serves you.  Perhaps your neighbor does not need you to wash his dirty feet — or perhaps he does — but your neighbor does have needs, in any case; and he is set before you as an object of divine Love, so that you also might love and serve him or her, as the Lord Jesus Christ has humbled Himself and served you, even unto death upon the Cross.

But the truth is that you do not love your neighbor as Jesus loves you, certainly not consistently and all the time.  You do, however, sin every day in the way that you think, in the way that you speak, and in the way that you act.  Indeed, you are surrounded on all sides, within and without, by sin and death — by your own sins and weaknesses, and by the sins of others against you — and by all the assaults and temptations of the devil and the whole fallen world around you, all seeking to destroy you by grabbing you away from God and plunging you into bitter death and judgment.

Your own covetous lust (whether for money, for sex, for food and drink, or for entertainment) can so easily lead you astray into sin and finally death, as happened in the tragic case of Judas Iscariot.  How often do you compromise yourself for wealth or pleasure?  And how often do you excuse your selfishness and sin, supposing that you are in a position to call your own shots?  But to pursue that path is to open your heart and mind, your body, and your life to Satan and his wicked ways.

All of which is also to say that, if the Lord Jesus does not continue to wash you by His Word and Spirit, to cleanse you with His Blood and feed you with His Flesh in divine mercy, then you shall have no part in Him.  If He does not continue to catechize you with His Wisdom, you shall perish.  You shall be consumed and destroyed by the Angel of Death on account of your unbelief and sin.

So, then, do not be like Simon Peter in this case, questioning and resisting the Word of the Lord and His Means of the Gospel.  Rather, hear and heed the Word of Christ Jesus, and trust Him to serve you, to love you with the ways and means He has provided for you in divine and holy Love.  Remain in the House of His God and Father, and so keep the Feast at His Table.  Live and love as a child of God, and give no place to the devil in your heart, mind, or behavior.  But where you have fallen into temptation and sin, return to the Lord your God by fleeing to His mercy in Christ Jesus.

Now, it is certainly true that your life as a Christian disciple of Jesus is one of joyful peace, of faith and hope and confidence.  And how shall we not give thanks and praise to our dear Lord on such a night as this one, in particular?  But with that, so are you also called to live in the fear of the Lord, and to exercise sober judgment and repentance by His Word and Spirit in this sinful world.

“Repent.”  That is the preaching of Jesus.  “Examine yourself.”  That is the teaching of His Holy Apostle, St. Paul.  “Consider your place in life according to the Ten Commandments,” and so learn to confess to your pastor those sins that you discover in yourself, in your thoughts, words, and actions.  That is the teaching of the Lord’s faithful servant, Dr. Luther.  Judge yourself rightly in the light of God’s Word.  Acknowledge your sins, your weaknesses, and your mortality.

And knowing your many and great needs, confess your sins and receive the forgiveness of Christ Jesus, your Savior.  Be returned to the cleansing and Life-giving waters of your Holy Baptism by the right use of His Word in Confession and Holy Absolution.  And as He remembers you in love and speaks to you in peace here in His Supper, so eat the Flesh with which He feeds you, and drink the Blood with which He removes your sins, shelters you from death, and brings you into Paradise.

Here at the Table of the Lord is where and how you learn to love and serve your neighbor, and so to live as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ; because here at this Table is where and how the Lord Jesus loves and serves you as His own beloved.  So is He faithful and gracious even to the end.

Here is the Hour of His Glory, where He is glorified in His grace and mercy toward you as your beloved Lord and Savior; because here is where the Glory of His Cross, His Victory over sin, death, and the devil, is given to you and poured out for you, unto Life and Salvation in Him.

Here the devil cannot have you or tyrannize you anymore; not while the Word of Christ rings in your ears, in your heart, in your body and your mind.  Nor can your sin accuse you or harm you; not while you cling by faith to the forgiveness of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  And not even death can touch you forever; not while you rest and remain in the Body and Blood of the Lamb.

Though the world may shed your blood and slay you, yet the Lord Himself prevails for you and saves you from sin, death, and hell.  For you are baptized into Christ Jesus, and here in His Supper you abide in Him — and He abides in you — unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.

It is the Lord’s Passover, and you are His Israel indeed, whom He sets free from bondage and brings through the wilderness into the good Land that He has promised; that you may live with Him in His Kingdom, and worship Him and serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all your days, even to the close of the age, when you shall see Him face to face and live forever.

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

Follow the Man with the Water to the Feast of the Lamb

Have this attitude in yourself, which was in Christ Jesus.  Have the mind of Christ, His heart and Spirit.  That is more than just a mind set or a world view; it is to lay down your life in love for those who hate you, to serve those who persecute you, and to pray for those who speak ill of you.

That is what the life of God in the Flesh is like.  So, then, if you would be like Him, if you would bear His Name and live as His child, think and speak and act like that, as Christ Jesus does.

Are you ready, willing, and able to do so?  As Simon Peter boasted, are you ready to go with Jesus, even to prison and to death?  To follow Him to the Cross, to be mocked and ridiculed, beaten up and spit upon?  Or do you fear even the questions, accusations, and opinions of others?

How easily are you swayed in your resolve by what other people might think or say or do?  How quickly do their loud voices drown out your reason, your faith, and your confession of Christ Jesus, so that you give Him up and hand Him over?  For what?  For money, friends, safety, or freedom?

Pray, as the Lord Jesus prays for you, and as He has taught you to pray, that you would not enter into temptation, and that your faith in Him would not fail.

That is what happened to Judas Iscariot.  His lust for money opened his heart to the temptations of the devil, and he sold out his Friend, the Lord Jesus, for cash.  Pray that you don’t go there.

Consider what Christ Jesus is like, and how different He is from the kings and rulers, presidents and princes of this world, who lord it over their subjects even by giving out their “favors.”  They like to be called “benefactors,” because it makes them feel like gods, as though all things were at their disposal.  So they distribute their favors to those who tickle their fancy and stroke their ego.

But the true King, Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, is not like this at all.  He does not count His equality with God as something to be clung to and hoarded to His own advantage.  He knows who He is, and He knows and loves and trusts His Father — and in such confidence, with a heart of compassion, He empties Himself and makes Himself nothing.  He is true God in the Flesh, but He takes into His Flesh the sins of the world, the curse and consequences of death and damnation.

In holy faith and holy love He humbles Himself entirely in obedience to the Father who sent Him, in order to save you and all the fallen sons and daughters of Adam from sin, death, the devil, and hell.  It is in this way that He is your Lord; not by bossing you about or pushing you around, but by giving Himself into death for your Life and Salvation, and so also by seating you at His Table and serving you with His forgiveness of sins and the gift of His own Body and Blood, that you might live with Him in His Kingdom, by His grace, in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

This is the true Glory of God in the Flesh of Jesus Christ.  For divine Glory is not found in what the world calls great and powerful.  It is rather found in what the world considers to be weak and foolish and impotent.  In particular, the Glory of God is manifested and revealed in Christ Jesus, the Crucified One, who willingly lays down His Body and Life, sheds His own Blood, and suffers and dies upon the Cross, in order to save you and all people by and with His forgiveness of sins.

The world does sometimes speak of “forgiveness,” but it usually does not know what it’s talking about.  Indeed, there is no real forgiveness apart from Christ Jesus, who does not make excuses, who does not rationalize or wink at sin, who does not merely offer second chances, or whatever else the world offers in the way of barter and bargain.  He does not excuse sin, He forgives it.  And that is not a cheap or easy transaction, but one that He accomplishes at the greatest personal cost.

He does it in the Passion of His Love for you, even to the point of His death on the Cross.  And so, too, it is in His Love for you that He calls you to repentance, bids you take up the Cross and follow after Him, and disciplines you in the Way of Life by His Word and Holy Spirit.  He is not out to destroy you or make your life miserable!  He wounds you and puts you to death with His Law, in order to heal you and raise you up to newness of life with the forgiveness of His Gospel.

And all of this that He now works in you by the preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins, He has first of all accomplished for you (and for all people) in His own Body of Flesh and Blood, by His sacrificial death upon the Cross and in His Resurrection from the dead unto Life eternal.

So does He also come to you now, in the same Body of Flesh and Blood, crucified and risen from the dead, in order to “save you now.”  By and with His Body — from the Altar of His Cross and in His Resurrection from the dead — He reigns over you in Love with the Fruits of His Passion.

In His going up to Jerusalem and in His being lifted up on the Cross, He reconciles you to God and raises you up to the Father in heaven.  He has descended from the heights of the Mountain and has taken up your sin as His burden, bearing all that weight in His own Body to the Cross; and He has taken you up, as well, and gone back up the Mountain to God, bearing you to the Father.

So it is that He is wounded, in order to heal you.  And He is put to death, in order to give you Life.  For He numbers Himself with transgressors — beginning already with His Baptism in the Jordan River (now completed in His death).  Do you recall?  When all the people were baptized — when the sinners were coming, repenting, confessing their sins, and being baptized by John — Jesus also was baptized.  He stood there in the midst of the waters of the Jordan, as Joshua once stood in the midst of the waters, so that Israel could pass through; and so do you now pass through with Him.

He takes His stand with sinners.  He numbers Himself with transgressors.  He is in the water with you, so that His suffering and death, His Sacrifice, His humbleness, His obedience, His faith — all of these are for you.  He does all that He does on your behalf, for your Life and your Salvation.

He humbles Himself in this way, even to His death upon the Cross, in order to cover your shame with His honor.  He takes your shame upon Himself, so that His honor becomes yours.  You were naked, so He strips Himself and dresses you; He is naked on the Cross, that you might be clothed in His righteousness.  You were hungry, so He goes without to feed you.  You were a stranger and an alien, a nobody with no name, and you had no people, you had no home.  So He made Himself a stranger, with no place of His own to lay His head.  He made Himself an outcast, in order to give you His own room in the Father’s House — so that you may call His Father’s House your Home; that you should have a place and a Family, and that you should know Love and not be forgotten.

He covers your sin and shame with His holiness and righteousness, and He glorifies you with His own Glory; for His faithfulness is reckoned to you as righteousness.  All that Jesus has done right, by the Father’s Word you have now done right.  I don’t mean that you try harder and do better.  And I don’t mean that you have done better, or that you mean well, or that you think about things differently now.  I mean that everything Christ has done is now yours.  His Righteousness is yours, because it is reckoned to you, it is credited to you.  This is the “grade” that God gives you: A+

There is nothing lacking in your standing before the Lord your God; for the very One who died for you, bearing all your sins, is risen from the dead and highly exalted by God, and in Him you also are raised from the dead and highly exalted by God.  And you are named with His Name — yes, that very Name which is above every other name, that is the Name with which God has named you, and that is the Name which you now bear as a Christian, as one who is baptized into Christ Jesus.

As God the Father vindicated His righteous and faithful Servant, Christ Jesus, so has He vindicated you in Him.  All the accusations of your enemies are silenced.  All the accusations of Satan against you are silenced.  All the accusations of God’s own Law are silenced.  God Himself has vindicated you.  Who, then, will contend with you?  Let them make their case — it is thrown out of court.

Through the waters of your Holy Baptism you follow Jesus up to Jerusalem, and you pass through His death into Life with Him — into the Most Holy Place, the Inner Sanctum, the Holy of Holies, the very Bosom of the Father.  The Holy of Holies not made with hands but eternal in the heavens, that is where you go and enter in with Jesus — unto the Passover Feast of God.  How the Lord has longed to eat this Feast with you!  And He has made it so.

That is why He is among you, even now, as One who serves, who bids you to recline at His Table.  Though He is the Greatest, He demonstrates His greatness by girding Himself to serve you, by stretching out His hand to feed you, and by pouring out His Cup to give you drink.

You know the Way.  You know how to find that Feast.  You know how to enter in.  Your Savior, Christ Jesus, is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and you come to the Father by and with Him. And as it is, the same instructions that He gave to His disciples then, are also good instructions for you:  Find the man with the pitcher of water, and follow him to where he leads — to the Upper Room — that is the place for the Great Supper, the true Passover of the Lamb of God.

You know what that pitcher of water is for.  It has already cleansed you by the Word and Spirit of God in Holy Baptism.  There the Spirit Himself was poured out upon you generously through Jesus Christ your Savior.  There God the Father named you, and there you were marked with the sign of the Cross as one redeemed by Christ the Crucified.  So it is that you are already clean, because you are baptized into Him.  But that same pitcher of water is now poured out, as it were, so that Christ Jesus might wash your feet with Holy Absolution; that all the dirt and dust and grime that accumulates in your body and soul, heart, mind, and spirit, as you go about your days in the world, should likewise be washed away, freely cleansed by waters that flow with the very Blood of Christ.

That man whom Christ has sent with the pitcher of water leads you here to the Upper Room.  And here is the Table at which the Lord invites you to recline.  Here is where He serves you with His Body and His Blood.  Here, then, bend your knees and confess His holy Name.  Or, if your knees won’t bend in this life, know that in the Resurrection they will.  And whether you can bend the knee or not, bow your heart, bow your mind, and bow your spirit before Him who is your Savior.

Do not be afraid to confess His Name; not only here among your friends and fellow Christians, but in that place where God has put you in the world, wherever He has stationed you in this life.

Bow before the Lord Jesus and confess His Name, not as though you must appease Him.  There is no wrath in Him, but only mercy for you.  The Son of Man has not come to condemn the world, but that you might be saved through Him.  So, too, bend the knee and confess His Name, not as though you must curry His favor by stroking His “ego,” but because He freely and fully forgives you all your sins by the Ministry of His Gospel.  So does He justify you by His grace and save you from death and the grave.  In Him is your Life and your Salvation.  That is why you worship Him.

Offer Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving because He gives you all good things.  There is nothing else for you to give to Him except thanks.  He does not require you to pay for your sins with your body and life.  But here is the Fat Portion of His Sacrifice, His holy Body, given for you.  And here is the choice Wine of His Drink Offering, His own holy and precious Blood, poured out for you.  For He, the true God in the Flesh, has made the Sacrifice, and now He gives Himself to you.

Here at His Table He serves you with His Word of the Gospel, His forgiveness of all your sins.  And here at His Table He gives you His Spirit by feeding you with Spiritual Food, which is your Meat and Drink indeed.  And here at His Table, in His Supper, is where and how He remembers you in His Kingdom.  That is what it means to do this in “remembrance” of Him.  It is not so much that you gird up your mind and your memory to think about Jesus, but that He remembers you by feeding you and forgiving you.  So does He make His Paradise right here with you, by His grace.

Come on up to His Feast, therefore, here at His Altar in His House, and find your hiding place and your Sabbath Rest in the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb of God, both now and forever.

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

The Marvelous Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts

Behold, the Lord, the Almighty, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, He is doing something new, which the nations have not known, nor could they ever have performed it.  The Lord who opens a way through the sea and brings His people through the mighty waters on dry ground — who causes rivers to spring forth in the desert wilderness and gives drink to His people — He forms a people for Himself and gives them Life in body and soul, to the glory of His Holy Name.

He plants them as a Vine and cultivates them as a Vineyard in a good land, that they might thrive and bear good fruits of faith and love.  Not because He is hungry or in need of produce and profit, but for the sake of His divine and holy Love; that is what moves Him to bestow Life and Salvation.

That grace of God, His own divine Love, is the reason and the purpose for which He plants His Vineyard, His people, His Church, and for which He daily and richly provides for His own and cares for them.  He does it all out of His fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, that they might live — that you might live — that you might grow and flourish and bear good fruits after His own kind, in faith toward Him and in love for your neighbors round about you in the world.

In Love, therefore, He entrusts the care of His Church on earth to His people in various ways, to each person according to his or her particular calling and station in life.  As each of you are called to be His own and are planted in His Vineyard by His grace, so are you also given a stewardship of His Vineyard in your own place or portion.  Which is to say that you are given to care for others around you.  And by the same token, you are likewise cared for by your neighbors and by those who are in authority over you, for this life on earth and for the Life everlasting in body and soul.

The stewards of the Lord’s Vineyard certainly include the pastors and professors of the Church, who are charged with the preaching and teaching of His Word for the benefit of His people.  But so, too, fathers and mothers are entrusted with the care and catechesis of their children.  Brothers and sisters are given to care for each other; and teachers for their students, and students for their studies and their classmates; and doctors and nurses, engineers, accountants, cooks, and computer programers, each and all for their respective neighbors.  So, then, wherever the Lord has planted you, wherever He has given you work to do, that is where you care for His Vineyard in love; and that is where and how, by faith in His Word, you also bear good fruits to the glory of His Name.

But then, because He works in this way through various masks and means, through neighbors and governing authorities — because He chooses to care for His Church and His Creation through His creatures — it may often seem that He has gone away “on a journey for a long time,” that He is far removed from the cares and concerns of His Vineyard; that He is uninvolved and unobservant.  That is not the case, but that is the temptation — and so also, to despair of His providential care, or to seize control of the Vineyard to the extent that you can, in the hopes of fending for yourself.

Nevertheless, the Lord has not forgotten His Vineyard and its needs; nor has He relinquished His care and cultivation of the Vineyard.  His “journey” is not a turning away or departure from His people; it is rather His slowness to anger and His withholding of the punishment that sin deserves.  He deals with His people, not directly but through means, in order to be gentle with His Vineyard.

Thus, already from the Fall into sin, and even to the close of the age, the Lord governs His people, His Church, by His Word of promise and by the Word of His Prophets and Apostles — written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Holy Scriptures and continued in the Office of the Holy Ministry, in the preaching of the Law and the Gospel unto repentance and faith in His forgiveness.

The Lord is patient and long-suffering in sending His servants to preach to His people, and thus by His Word to bring forth the fruits of His Vineyard.  So have you heard in the Parable — and how He continues to do so even in the face of rejection and refusal.  The treatment of His slaves whom He has sent is an attack upon His honor and authority, and yet He has persisted in peace.

Let this be a caution and encouragement to you; for as the Lord Jesus spoke this Parable against the scribes and the chief priests then, so has it been written in the Holy Gospel for your instruction.

Consider the stewards of the Lord’s Vineyard, and how, instead of bringing forth the fruits of the Vineyard for His praise and glory, they seek to keep it all for themselves, for their own benefit — not only the fruits it has already produced, but the entire Vineyard.

From the very first Garden until now, it has always been this way, that Man attempts to take the fruit that God has not given — the fruit that belongs to God, the Lord — and that Man thereby tries to seize and hang onto life for himself in that forbidden fruit, because it looks so good; and that he thus rejects and refuses to receive the true divine Life that God is freely giving by His grace.

The gardeners and vine-growers do not comprehend that the real treasure and true glory of the Vineyard is not to be found in itself, but in its Lord — in His gracious providence and good gifts; and that Paradise is not found in the pretense of self-righteousness, but in the presence of the Lord.

Even so, that true divine grace and glory of the Lord has ever and always been the case, and so does it ever remain, even after Man has fallen into sin, into unbelief and disobedience.

Therefore, by His divine grace, in great love for His Vineyard, the Lord God sends His beloved Son, in whom His Church is gathered into being.  And to be sure, His people do have Life through faith in Him; for it is in the Son that the Vineyard is fruitful and productive to the glory of God.

To that end, God the Father sends His own dear Son in grace, mercy, and peace.

But then what happens?  It sure doesn’t sound like any kind of happy ending, does it?

As the Parable is drawing to a close, it rather seems that everything has gone from very bad to much, much worse.  The Lord of the Vineyard has lost it all.  His Vineyard has been taken over and His beloved Son has been thrown out like rubbish and killed.  That is what sin, at its heart, is always aiming at and leading to: To usurp the glory of God by the rejection and murder of His Son.

Only then, when it already seems too late to do any good or to make any difference, the Lord of the Vineyard comes and destroys those vine-growers — and He gives the Vineyard to others.

Here is the new thing that God does!  Here is the Mystery of His Vineyard, which all the nations of the earth could never have imagined or pulled off.  It is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous.

The rejection and death of the beloved Son is not only the height and culmination of sin; it is also the precious Cornerstone that God has set and established for His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  Christ Jesus goes voluntarily to His death, knowing what He will suffer.  Is He not the One who tells this Parable ahead of time, before it all unfolds?  And yet, He proceeds in Love.

He goes willingly to His death upon the Cross, handed over by His own people to the gentiles, in order to atone for the sins of all the people by the giving of His own Body and Life as a Sacrifice, and by the shedding of His own holy and precious Blood.  He lays down His Life in Love, and He will take it up again in faith, so that by His innocent suffering and death He might destroy death and remove its terrifying power from all the children of men.  He comes in peace and submits Himself to the abuse, to the beatings, and to His death by crucifixion, in order to reconcile this whole hostile world to His God and Father by the Ministry of the Gospel of His Cross.

Thus, the judgment of unrighteousness and the destruction of sin are borne for all by the beloved Son, in order that the Vineyard might be spared, and restored to its own Lord, and given Life in His Resurrection from the dead.  So has He done, and so it is.  The Vineyard lives, and it is given — not rented or sold, not relinquished, not bartered or abandoned — but it is given to others, to all who believe and are baptized into Christ Jesus, who share by faith His Cross and Resurrection.

Make no mistake, whoever does not believe will be condemned.  There is the coming Judgment of unrighteousness.  There will be that Final Day of reckoning, when those vine-growers who reject the beloved Son and refuse to repent will be subject to eternal damnation of body and soul.

But now is the Day of Grace, in which the servants of the Lord continue to be sent in patience and in peace.  And now is the Day of Salvation, in which the crucified and risen Son of God comes to cultivate His Vineyard, His people, His Church, by the preaching of repentance and forgiveness.

It is by His Cross that the whole Vineyard is forgiven.  And it is in His Resurrection from the dead that His Vineyard is justified, enlivened, and abundantly fruitful.  And that is true for you, as well.

So, then, what is your faithfulness and fruitfulness in Christ Jesus like?

By the measure of the world, and by the conceits of your own sinful heart, “fruitfulness” is found in whatever you manage to accomplish, to achieve, and to accumulate for yourself.

But in truth, everything is determined by the Cross of Christ, either unto repentance, faith, and life, or unto the judgment and condemnation of unbelief.  He is the Stone of stumbling and the Rock of offense.  He breaks into pieces those who fall on Him, and He smashes into dust and scatters those on whom He falls.  And yet, He is also the Chief Cornerstone upon whom you are built.

Fear God, therefore, and repent of your sins.  And put your trust in Christ Jesus.  Remember the grace, mercy, and long-suffering patience of the Lord your God, who loves you, and that He did not spare His beloved Son but handed Him over to His death upon the Cross in order to save you.

By the grace and Spirit of God you know that your righteousness, your resurrection, and your life are not found in yourself, nor in your own works, but in this dear Lord Jesus, crucified and risen.

So it is that your good fruits of faith and love are found in the fellowship of His suffering, as you are conformed more and more to the Image of His crucifixion.  That is to say, not only that your old sinful self is put to death, but that you also carry the Cross and lay down your life in love for your neighbor, for Jesus’ sake.  And by the power of His Resurrection He raises you up in faith each day through the forgiveness of all your sins, as He shall also raise you up in glory at the last.

Indeed, you are among the good fruits that Christ Jesus bears to the Glory of His God and Father!

Here in the Gospel of His Cross and Resurrection is a pathway through the sea and living water in the desert.  Here the Heir bequeaths to you the Inheritance of His Father.  And the Fruits of this true Vine are given and poured out for you to eat and to drink.  Here then, in this Sacrament, lay hold of Him who lays hold of you for the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting.

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