Given the Eyes of Faith to See Christ the Crucified

Everything hinges and depends upon the Word of God in Christ.  However, because it centers in His Cross, His Word remains a great Mystery, and even His disciples are blind to what it means and signifies (for Him and for themselves), until it is revealed and explained by the Holy Spirit.

As a case in point, St. Luke has carefully and purposely contrasted here the blind ignorance of the twelve disciples with the faith of the blind man.  Where he without eyes could see by faith who and what Jesus is, the twelve disciples understood nothing because His Word of the Cross was hidden from them.  Seeing, they could not see; and hearing, they could neither hear nor understand.

Yet, the Cross and Passion of Christ Jesus are the fulfillment of all that the Prophets had written concerning the Son of Man.  This is what the Word of God is all about!  This is what it means for Jesus to be the “Son of Man,” the incarnate God, given and poured out for the salvation of sinners, that He might justify the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve in His Resurrection from the dead.

Contrary to all human wisdom, reason, and strength, the Cross and Passion of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, are the revelation of the grace and glory of God in the flesh.  There, in the Body of Christ the Crucified, the heart of God is opened to you in love, to forgive you and to save you.

But you are not able to recognize this true divine reality with the eyes in your head.  Nor can you measure any of this accurately according to outward appearances.  Apart from the Word and Spirit of God, you can neither see nor hear nor understand what any of this is or what it really means.

It is already a struggle to see and believe that Christ the Crucified is the Power and Wisdom and Glory of God in the flesh, and that His Cross and Passion are forgiveness, life, and salvation for the world.  But now you are called, as well, to bear and to carry His Cross, to suffer His Passion, to live and die with Him in your own body and life as a disciple of this one Lord, Jesus Christ.

The challenge, then, is to recognize the gracious presence of God in the Cross of Christ that you bear and suffer.  It is not “in spite of the Cross,” but it is by and with and in the Cross that you are glorified with the Glory of God in Christ Jesus.  Just at those times and in those places when you are most tempted to suppose (and complain) that the Lord your God has forgotten you, that He has abandoned you, that He is angry at you — or, at your most cynical, that there is no God at all — it is then and there that He calls you to rejoice and give thanks that He is with you to glorify you.

But you cannot embrace the Cross of Christ Jesus as the Grace and Glory of God, as your Life and your Salvation, except by His Word and Holy Spirit.  It is only by the preaching of His Word, which is the work of His Spirit, that you are called and converted from your blind unbelief to see and believe the truth — in the humility of true repentance, but so also in the confidence of faith.

So, there you sit by the side of the road — squatting in a gutter at the edge of town — a poor, blind beggar.  A poor, miserable sinner.  You have nothing of your own, nothing to show for yourself.  And all that you deserve from the Lord your God is nothing else but punishment for your sins.

Well, okay, it may be that you’ve managed to cobble together a comfortable life for yourself in this world, or an adequate existence at any rate, better than others.  But you know that is not your true spiritual condition, not apart from Christ Jesus.  Apart from Him, your life is neither comfortable nor adequate, but rather on its way from bad to worse.  And in your native sinfulness, you could not see or find the Lord Jesus anywhere.  You could not see or understand anything as it really is, nor could you see or find any hope for the future.  In truth, apart from Christ there is no hope.

So you squat and waste away in your rut by the side of the road, a poor beggar.  That is what the Cross must make of you.  That is what repentance does.  It reduces you to nothing and leaves you with nothing to show for yourself, nothing to offer to God or anyone else, but only your desperate and pitiful need.  To that end the Cross is laid upon you, in order to put you to death with Christ the Crucified and bring you by way of His Cross into His Resurrection and the Life everlasting.

Repentance is no game, nor is it a mental exercise.  It begins with the dreadful experience of death and the grave, the anguish of your sins, and a little taste of hell in your heart, mind, body, and soul.  It is the crushing realization that, in yourself, because of your sin, you have no power, no strength, no hope for the future, no choices to make, and no opportunities, nothing but emptiness and want.

And then comes the Word of Christ.  You cannot see Him with your eyes, but you hear the Word which declares that Jesus is drawing near and passing by.  That Word reaches into your darkness, past your blindness, and calls you to attention.  It is true, there is no hope in you, but there is every hope for you in this Man from Nazareth.  And though you are blind to His presence, unable to find Him, the Word proclaims that He is here.  He has come to where you are on His way to the Cross.

And because you have been reduced to nothing but emptiness and need, the Word of Christ Jesus elicits from you the most basic prayer of faith: “Kyrie Eleison!” “Lord, have mercy!”  What else can you say?  You have nothing else to offer, and nothing with which to bargain or barter with the Lord.  You are a beggar.  There is no merit or worthiness in you.  So you simply cry out for mercy.

It is a deeply heartfelt prayer.  It is a groan of anguish and a cry of desperation, a plea for help from the only One who can help.  It is the voice of faith in its purest and most childlike state, small and fragile, helpless and weak, relying on the mercy of the Lord, the Son of David, Jesus Christ.  Under the weight of the Cross, you cry out for mercy to Him who bears and carries the Cross for you.

But of course, as soon as you begin to pray — as soon as repentance and faith begin to offer up their Kyrie Eleison! — the devil, the world, and your own flesh rise up against you, determined to keep you from Jesus.  “Hush your mouth,” they say.  “Be content with sin, death, and hell, and do not presume to ask for mercy.  Don’t pray.  Don’t hope.  Don’t trust.  Just give up, and shut up.”

So it is that voices of opposition strive to keep you from hearing and receiving the Word of Jesus, and to dissuade you from calling upon His Name and coming to Him at His Word.  But such voices do not belong to those who follow after Jesus.  They are the false noises and the fatal cacophony of those who presume to go before Him, who presume to lead and guide Him.  They know nothing of the Cross, but only the power, might, and wisdom of the world.  They are puffed up with their own reason and strength, and they insist that you must likewise be measured by their standards.

It is the Word of Jesus on His way to the Cross that defends you against those false and misleading voices of doubt and despair.  So faith persists in the confidence of His Word, which declares that He is close at hand.  And His Cross has taught you to know and believe these two most basic facts: You need Him, who alone is able to help and save you; and He has come for you in divine love.

So you will not shut up, nor will you give up, but you will cry out all the more: Lord, have mercy!

But, O Lord, how long!?  How long must we grope about in this deep darkness?  How long must we languish in our poverty and pathetic degradation, begging for mercy by the side of the road?  How long must we pray and cry out, before the Lord opens His hand and pours out His mercy?

If you are asking how long you must bear the Cross and suffer such difficulties, the answer is that your entire life in this world is lived under the Cross of Christ, which is paradoxically your glory, your strength, your sure confidence and hope — all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding.

But if you are asking how long it will be until the Lord Jesus hears and answers your cry for mercy, He has already answered before you have asked.  Indeed, He has planted Himself here, that even a blind beggar may find Him and lay hold of Him; and He calls for you to be brought to Him.

Against all those voices of opposition, He has commanded that you should be brought to Him.  He speaks with the authority of His own Cross and Resurrection, and His Word gives you confidence.  For not only has He drawn near to you, but He is calling for you to be drawn near to Him.

Your prayer for mercy is not in vain.  It is heard, and it is answered.  For the Lord invites you to pray, to lay your every need and every request before Him.  What is more, He has given you the very words with which to pray: “Our Father, who art in heaven.”  He has indeed commanded you to pray, and He has promised that, whatever you ask in His Name, it will be granted.  So it is that His Word comes to your rescue.  It opens your ears to hear, your eyes to see, and your lips to pray.

Now, to be sure, He answers your prayer for daily bread, for all that you need to support this body and life, just as He has taught you to pray.  Cast all of your anxieties on Him, therefore, because He truly cares about you, and He provides food and clothing, shelter and protection for your body.  But even better, He opens your blind eyes to behold and believe His true Glory, which is to say, His Holy Cross and Passion, whereby He has obtained the forgiveness of all your sins, conquered death in order to give you life, and defeated the devil in order to save you for eternity in heaven.

Of course it is true that, no matter what your circumstances in this world, for now you are not yet able to see the Lord Jesus with the eyeballs in your head.  And for as long as you live in this world, always under the Cross, you will not be able to “feel” His presence with you here.  For now it is by faith alone, and not by sight.  Blessed are you, therefore, who have not seen but have believed.

But how so are you blessed, and how do you believe what you cannot see and the world denies?  It is by the Word of Christ the Crucified.  “Faith alone” depends upon “the Word alone.”  Not just any Word, but the Word of God in Christ.  And not just any Christ, but Jesus Christ the Crucified.

The truth of the matter is that, if you could see Him, this crucified Lord Jesus Christ, you would be no less confused and scandalized than the disciples were then.  Just as you are so challenged, and sometimes shaken, when you are confronted by the Cross in your own Christian faith and life.

Even so, the Word of Christ prevails.  Not only has it alerted you to His gracious presence.  Not only has it called you to Him and invited you to pray.  His Word now also gives you Christ Himself and such good things as you could never dare hope for.  He speaks to you today, and your sins are forgiven.  He speaks to you today, and your faith is strengthened unto Life everlasting.  He speaks to you today, and He thereby gives to you His own holy Body and His holy, precious Blood, which He has sacrificed for you upon His Cross, that you should live in Him, and He in you, forever.

He speaks to you today, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against you.  For He speaks to you from His own Cross, the One who has been mocked and spitefully treated and spit upon, scourged and put to death for you and your salvation, who has risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity.  Today, then, as you hear His Voice, do not harden your heart, and do not suppose that He has hardened His heart against you, but enter into His Peace and Rest by faith in His mercy.

You are a beggar, that is true — truer than you even know.  But Christ be praised, He is the Savior of such beggars.  He is your Savior, and He has had mercy upon you.  His Word has saved you.  Come, then, rise up from your gutter, and follow Him on the Way that leads to Life everlasting.

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

In Many and Various Ways, God Spoke to His People by the Prophet Moses

The Lord knew him face to face, and he was faithful in all God’s house as a servant.  There was no other prophet like him, who performed such signs and wonders in the Name of the Lord, with mighty powers and great terrors in the sight of all the people, and over pharaoh with all his hosts.

But what the Prophet Moses saw and spoke and wrote, he did not yet receive or enter into apart from you.  He longed to perceive and to know the fulfillment of the Word that was revealed to him, but it was veiled and hidden, even from that great and faithful man.

Not the one through whom the Law was given, but the One in whom grace and truth are realized, He is the One who brings the Israel of God into the promised Land.  For this Joshua, the Son of Mary, He is the High Priest and Apostle of our Confession, the Author and Perfecter of the faith.

He is the Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom the Land was promised.  He is the Seed of the Woman, of whom St. Moses wrote, to whom he testified in all that he said and did.  He, too, was drawn out of the water: From the waters of His Mother’s womb, an Infant at His Mother’s breast, He too escaped from a vicious king who sought to kill him, in and out of Egypt, as God’s Son, for the redemption of His people.  Then again, as an Adult, from the waters of Baptism He arose and emerged to open up the Jordan and all waters to you, to draw you out of death into life.

In those same waters, He has also been revealed as the true Passover Lamb, the Firstborn Son of the true and only God, who has been sacrificed for all the sons and daughters of man; who was crucified for your transgressions; whom God raised from the dead for your justification, as surely as both He and you have been drawn out of the waters of Holy Baptism, unto the life everlasting.

Now, then, as the Lamb who was slain (and yet, behold, He lives!), His flesh is your Meat indeed: His Body is your Manna in the wilderness, the living Bread from heaven, which His own Father gives to you by grace, that you should eat from His hand and live forever.  So, too, His Blood is your true Drink, which atones for all your sins and covers you from sin and death and every evil.

For He is the Rock in whom St. Moses was hidden on Mt. Sinai, wherein the great Prophet heard the preaching of the Name of the Lord: that He is gracious and merciful, long-suffering, patient, and slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love for a thousand generations.  He is the Rock in whom St. Moses was given a glimpse of the Glory of God, which is the goodness of the Gospel.

This Rock, which is Christ Jesus, accompanied Israel throughout the wilderness.  He is the Rock that was stricken, smitten, and afflicted by the rod and the staff of the Law, so that from His riven side there flow streams of living water in the desert; and the spiritual drink of His holy, precious Blood, which is poured out for you and for the many, for the forgiveness of all your sins.

This is the Blood of the New Covenant, which all the blood of bulls and goats could not seal or secure.  With this Blood of Christ you are redeemed; you are sprinkled and anointed, within and without; you are cleansed and sanctified in body and soul, so that you behold the Glory of God.

For here you have come to a better Mountain than Sinai, to Mt. Zion; and to the City of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; and to myriad of angels; to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven; and to God, the Judge of all; and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect; and to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to His sprinkled Blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

Here, then, the veil is lifted and removed, so that you are able to see the Light of the revelation of the Glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.  He stretches out His hand, not to strike you, not to punish or destroy you, but to feed you, to give you His Body and Blood to eat and to drink.

For all the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled in Him, for you and for all; for Moses and Israel; for all the descendants of Abraham, that is, for all who share the faith of Abraham; for all who believe in Him, whom the Father has sent; and for all the nations, even to the furthermost ends of the earth.

He is the One who has kept the Ten Commandments in perfect faith and love.   For He has been a faithful Son in the House of His God and Father, even unto His death upon the Cross; so that, now, in His Resurrection from the dead, His Body has been established as the true Temple of God.  And you belong to the household and family of God, as you belong to His Body, the Church, by faith in His Gospel within this Holy Communion.

This same Jesus, to whom the Father testifies — this beloved and well-pleasing Son, the Lord’s Anointed — He has hallowed the Name of His God and Father, not only by His faithful preaching and teaching, but with His whole Body and Life.  Wherefore, He has received — also in His own crucified and risen flesh, in His human nature, which He shares with you as your Brother, as your Kinsman — He has received that holy Name, which is above every Name in heaven and on earth.

Thus He has done, that He might name you with His Name, as a Christian, and with His Father’s Name, as a beloved and well-pleasing child of God.

So has He also become your Sabbath Rest, in whom you are at Peace with God: Not by any works of your own, but by His keeping of the Law on your behalf and for your benefit.

He has honored His Father (and Mother), that you might have life and health and strength, and that you might live forever in the good Land He has promised you, which He gives to you by grace.

He does not hate or murder you, but guards you and keeps you, in body and soul, unto the life everlasting.  He does not run around or cheat on you, but He is your always faithful Bridegroom, who forgives you all of your unfaithfulness, and who freely reconciles you to Himself in love.  He does not rob you, nor withhold from you any good thing, but He has yielded His riches for you, and He has made Himself poor, that you might inherit all the treasures of His Kingdom.  He does not accuse or condemn you, but defends you, speaks well of you, covers all your shame with His own honor and glory, and justifies you with His own righteousness.

Thus, all that God spoke to His people of old through His servant St. Moses, the Prophet, He has accomplished for you in this Lord Jesus Christ, His own dear Son — through whom He now speaks to you through the Gospel in these last days.

He is the new and greater Joshua, filled with the Holy Spirit and the Wisdom of His Father in the waters of the Jordan, that He might bring you through those waters into Canaan: Into His Church, flowing with the milk and honey of His Word, and with the Meat and Drink of His Paschal Feast; and at last, in the resurrection of your body, into Paradise, where you shall know Him face to face.

What the Prophet Moses once saw from afar, from the cleft of the Rock on Mt. Sinai, and from the heights of Mt. Nebo outside the Promised Land, he has rejoiced to see fulfilled in the One of whom he wrote and testified.  On the Mountain of Transfiguration, he spoke with Him concerning that great Exodus, which the Lord Jesus was about to undergo and accomplish in Jerusalem.  For was it not necessary that the Christ should thus enter into His Glory through suffering?  Surely it was, and surely He has done it.

He has opened the way through death into life.  He has opened the Kingdom of heaven to all who believe and are baptized into Him.

As Moses carefully constructed the Tabernacle according to the sacred pattern that the Lord God showed to him, so has the true Image and Likeness of God been manifested in His Incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, who is the radiance of His Glory and the exact representation of His Nature, and who upholds all things by the Word of His power.  In Him, who has become Flesh and tabernacles among us, all the fullness of God dwells bodily.

And in the Resurrection of the Body of Christ Jesus, Moses has finally entered into the good and glorious Land of God: Into the heavenly places, into the holy City, and into the Tabernacle not made with hands — where you also, no less, and your life, are safely hidden with Christ in God.

Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously!  The horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea.  But you He has drawn out of the water — into His gates with thanksgiving, into His courts with praise, and into the Most Holy Place by the flesh and blood of Jesus, who is your Strength and your Song, because He has become your Salvation.

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