The Son of God and Abraham Sets You Free

Jesus addresses this Word, in the first place, to those Jews who believed in Him. They had that much right, superficially at least, though they did not yet realize what it really means or requires.

What Jesus here declares and promises, not only then, but also here and now to you, pertains to Himself and His Word. That is, and was, and always will be the decisive matter. He and what He says are what it’s all about. Everything depends on Him, and therefore on His Word.

Would you be a Christian and share His Life and Salvation? Well that you should. Here, then, is how: You have Jesus as your Lord, you abide in Him and He abides in you, by remaining in His Word; by hearing it, believing it, confessing it and praying it, and living by faith according to it.

By this way and means of His Word, you follow Him as a disciple to the Cross, to be crucified and die with Him, and so also to rise and live with Him, both here in time and hereafter in eternity.

Thus, by His Word, by faith in His Word, you are given to know the Truth, which is Christ Jesus Himself, His Father and His Spirit, in whom alone there is true freedom and eternal Life.

So, again, everything, everything, everything — including the sixteenth-century Reformation and the life of the Church in our own day and always — everything depends upon Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. He alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. There is salvation in no one other than Him, nor at all apart from Him. Apart from Christ Jesus there is only sin, death, and damnation.

Consequently, what Jesus proclaims in this Gospel strikes your old Adam with the judgment of the Law, because He leaves no room for any other way of life or salvation than Himself and His Word. He takes away all of your self-righteousness, so that you might receive, by grace alone, through faith alone, that righteousness which is in Christ alone, prior to any and all good works of yours.

You cannot rely upon yourself, nor upon anything else other than the Lord Jesus who is with you by and with and through His Word. And that is the case, not only once upon a time, not just to begin with, nor only for a little while, but forever and ever, Amen.

His Word not only calls you in repentance to the waters of Holy Baptism, it brings you through those waters, and it leads you from those waters throughout your life in the daily dying and rising of contrition, repentance, and faith in the forgiveness of sins. It lays the Cross of Christ upon you unto newness of life — unto the death and resurrection of your body — unto the Life everlasting.

The Life that you live by faith in Christ Jesus is not completed with the rite of Confirmation. Far less is it sufficient to be listed on the membership roles of a congregation, which means little or nothing apart from an actual participation in the Liturgy of preaching and the Sacrament.

Genuine Life with God in Christ is not a matter of genealogy, pedigree, or holding a leadership office. It is not measured or determined by niceness or piety or sincerity or effort.

Your only true and lasting Life — the Life for which you have been created by the true and only God  — is in Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son. And that Lord Jesus Christ is with you, and He is for you, in and with His Word. Which is to say that He is with you, not simply in the Holy Scriptures, but in the Word that He speaks to you and for you in your Holy Baptism, in the Holy Absolution of your sins, and in the Holy Communion of His Body and His Blood. He abides with you in the daily catechesis of His Word and prayer, and especially in the preaching of His Gospel.

Faith comes by hearing, as the Apostle St. Paul has written, because hearing and believing are by the Word of Christ which is preached to you in His Name and stead.

The simple fact of the matter is that you cannot live without these means of grace and forgiveness and salvation, because you cannot live without Jesus, and these are His ways and means. Not as works of men, though He administers His gifts through men whom He has called and sent with His authority; nor as works of the Church, though the Lord gives them to you within the fellowship of His Church; but as God’s Service, the Ministry of Christ for the rescue and salvation of sinners.

That is why the protest of the people in this Holy Gospel, that they are Abraham’s children, falls flat and does not cut it. First of all, because Christ Jesus is the Seed of Abraham by whom all the nations of the earth are blessed and are called to bless the Lord and one another with His Word.

And then, also, because the true children of Abraham are those who share Abraham’s faith in the one true God. It is not a matter of human genealogy, but of faith and trust in the God of Abraham, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That point likewise rules out modern appeals to the so-called “Abrahamic faith,” as if Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were all religions of one and the same God. For Abraham’s faith is fulfilled only in Christ Jesus. There is no other God than Him, and no one knows the Father or receives the Holy Spirit except by Christ and by His Word.

Similarly, it does you no good to appeal to your Lutheran pedigree, if you do not share the faith and confession of Martin Luther, which is the faith and confession of Christ Jesus, crucified for your transgressions, raised for your justification, given and poured out for you in the Sacrament.

Have you been confirmed? Good for you! But do you pray and confess your Catechism every day, as Dr. Luther did, and as he taught and urged others to do for themselves and for their families?

And do you actually practice and live, as well as believe and confess, the Six Chief Parts of the Christian faith and life? Are you doing as you promised at your Confirmation? More important and to the point, are you living by faith in the Word of Christ in the Communion of His Church?

If you are doing well, praise God for that, and continue by His grace to abide in His Word.

And if you recognize that in so many ways you have failed to remain steadfast in the Word of the Lord, then repent, and put your trust in Christ Jesus, your Savior. Which is not simply a matter of the feelings in your heart or the thoughts in your head, but of where your body is, and of what you do with your body; that you are in the Lord’s Church and at the Lord’s Altar, with the preaching of Christ in your ears, and with His Body and His Blood in your mouth and in your stomach.

It is to this Life in Christ that repentance brings you. For the Lord does not expose your sins and bring them to your attention in order to crush and destroy you forever. He crucifies your old Adam with all your sinful lusts and desires, in order to raise you up again, body and soul, through His free and full forgiveness of all your sins, so that you might live by faith in His Word as a new man or woman, abiding by His grace in the presence of God in the righteousness and purity of Christ.

It’s not a matter of trying harder, as though you could justify yourself and set things right with God by your own best efforts. Apart from faith in Christ, apart from His Word and Holy Spirit, your self-righteous striving only adds to your sin and makes things that much worse instead of better.

By the same token, the point is not that you should give up or quit the work that God has given you to do. There is no virtue or benefit to be found in your laziness, negligence, selfishness, or greed. Refusing to do your duty and giving yourself over to sin will not help at all, but further hardens your heart, separates you from God, and drives you that much closer to death and damnation.

No, to live by the righteousness of God is a matter of trusting Christ in His Word and the preaching of it, in those ways and means of His grace where He has promised to be with you and for you with His forgiveness and salvation. It is to seek and receive Him there, to cling to Him there, and to find Him there, where He comes to you and finds you and binds you to Himself.

Truth be told, apart from Christ Jesus you are a slave to sin, and you are bound for death and damnation. Your case is utterly hopeless without your dear Savior. You will not make it, and you will not last without Him. Besides all that, heaven itself would be void and bare without Christ Jesus, anyway; so there would be no point in making it without Him, even if you could.

By contrast, the Life of the Church on earth in the Liturgy of her Lord is not simply a means to some other end, but is already the Life and Salvation with God to which He calls you by His Gospel. Pursuing other ways and means of life is nothing but a perverse path of self-destruction.

But, that you not die as you deserve, all of your sin, your idolatry and unbelief are remedied and overcome by the Son who sets you free indeed. For He is the Son of God, who out of love for you has become your Brother in the flesh, the Seed of Abraham who has fulfilled all the Words and promises of God in His own Body.  He has set you free from sin, death, and the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy and precious Blood and His innocent suffering and death.

So it is that, by His grace, you are now His very own, and by faith in His Word you now live with Him in His Kingdom. Even in great frailty and weakness under the Cross, you love and serve Him in the righteousness, innocence, and blessedness of His Resurrection, because He has first loved you, and His love for you never ends. He ever lives to make intercession for you before the Throne of God in heaven, even as He serves you in His House and at His Table here on earth.

All that He has done for you and won for you by His Cross and in His Resurrection, He gives to you, freely and generously, by His grace alone, by the way and means of His Gospel within His holy Christian Church. These fruits of His Cross, the Tree of Life, are distributed and set before you, not as a burden or a work for you to do, but as the most precious gifts of Christ Jesus.

Thus does He give Himself to you, and with His Body and His Blood and His forgiveness of all your sins, He gives you all the righteousness and Life of His own Resurrection from the dead.

It is in this way, also, that is to say, in His giving of Himself to you in Word and Sacrament, that your dear Lord Jesus daily returns you to the life-giving waters of your Holy Baptism; that He pours out His Holy Spirit generously upon you; that He daily and richly forgives you all your sins, strengthens your faith, and keeps you steadfast in the one true faith, unto the Life everlasting.

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

Justified by Grace through Faith in Christ Jesus

Two things are true for each of you, and for everyone on earth, for everyone of every nation, tribe, tongue, and people: You are a sinner, conceived and born in sin; and you are redeemed by Christ the Crucified, in order to be set free by His grace through faith in His forgiveness.

That you are a sinner is true in yourself and your experience, from your conception until death.

That you are redeemed and set free is true for you in Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.

The first truth is made known and made worse by the Law of God, which judges you guilty and condemns you. The second truth is manifested and made yours by the Gospel of God, whereby He judges you righteous and vindicates you.

The inherent contradiction and constant tension between these two facts cannot remain forever. If you continue in the Word of Christ, and thus abide in Him, then you will be free indeed, and you will remain with Him in the House of His God and Father forever and ever, Amen. But apart from Christ Jesus, you remain enslaved by your sin, and you cannot remain in the house but will finally be imprisoned by the Law, sentenced to eternal death and damnation.

If you would know the truth that sets you free, then die to sin and live unto righteousness. How so? By hearing and heeding the Word of Christ Jesus as it is preached to you and taught in His Name, and by following after Him as a disciple through faith in His Word.

Believe the Word of the Law, which exposes your sin for what it is, and so confess that you are a sinner, unable to set yourself free or to redeem yourself by any power or wisdom of your own.

Believe also in Christ Jesus and His Word of the Gospel, which freely forgives all your sins, and so confess that He is the Son of God, your Savior and Redeemer, by whom you are set free to live.

The problem is that you do not recognize your slavery, nor Christ’s freedom, for what they are. You imagine that your slavery to sin is really freedom, and that your death is really life. And you suppose that the true freedom of Christ Jesus — the freedom of faith in His Gospel — is a burden and a bondage that imprisons you; that life with Him is onerous, tedious, pointless, and boring.

Do you not imagine that doing whatever you want would be your idea of perfect freedom?

And do you not suppose that giving attention to the Word of Christ, watching to prayer with Him, and taking up the Cross to follow after Him, is rather a lot of effort and work which you’d prefer not to bother with?

Like a child (of whatever age) you falsely believe that life would be such a sweet dream and a happily-ever-after without the boundaries and rules and structures of a household and family. If only you could be in charge! If only you were the boss!

And as a proud, self-sufficient, self-righteous, independent adult, you boast of your wisdom and experience, your keen knowledge and savvy understanding, your accomplishments, your plans, your progress, your prizes, your pedigree and place in the world.

You’ll do what you have to do — to get by and to avoid punishment — but you’ll resent whatever isn’t by your own choice or to your personal liking.

Yet, for all your boasting and all your prideful self-reliance, you are not free. Not apart from Christ Jesus. To do whatever you want, according to your fallen sinful nature, is simply suicide in slow motion — or else on fast forward! One way or the other, it leads to your death and damnation.

You’re so addicted to your sin, you don’t even realize or recognize that it’s killing you. What you regard as your own “free will” is really a ravenous monster, which consumes you with your own craving hunger and destroys you with your own burning desires.

You’re searching for a place of peace and rest, a place where you belong, where you are safe and sound and satisfied. You’re searching for your house and home. But you won’t find it on your own, and you won’t find it anywhere outside the Body of Christ Jesus.

Does that seem harsh or unfair? Does it seem too demanding or even legalistic to say that your freedom and life are found only in Christ, and that Christ is found in His Church where His Word is preached and taught, confessed and prayed, in the fellowship of His Family?

Again, at the heart of your sin is your confusion of slavery with freedom, and vice versa.

But, in truth, “freedom” from God is nothing but the slavery of sin and death, from which you can by no means set yourself free; whereas faith in Christ and Christian discipleship are real freedom, unto the Life everlasting of body and soul in the crucified and risen Body of Jesus.

Righteousness and holiness, innocence and blessedness, and divine life are yours by divine grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, apart from any works of your own doing or decision.

Christ and His Gospel, His Church and Ministry are not means to some other end, whereby you would achieve and accomplish salvation for yourself. Rather, He and His Word, His works of love, and His gifts of grace are your Life and your Salvation, on earth even now and in heaven forever.

The purpose of His Law is not that you should justify yourself. That never was the plan. And the purpose of His Gospel is not mere information that you must study in preparation for a final test.

To continue in His Word; to be catechized from infancy through adulthood into old age; to live in the regular rhythms of His Church, week by week, year by year; to remember your Baptism; to confess your sins and receive Holy Absolution; to eat and drink His Body and His Blood at His gracious invitation — all of this is simply to live in and with Christ Jesus, by His grace.

To depart from these ways and means of life in Christ; to turn your back on Him; to shut your ears to the preaching of His Word; and to absent yourself from His Church — is to leave the house and home of your God and Father for the false “freedom” of sin and death.

Dear child of God, don’t run away from home! Don’t despise the Gospel or refuse the real freedom of forgiveness and life in Christ Jesus. Nor drive yourself to despair by seeking and striving to save yourself. You can’t do it. But neither do you have to.

What neither you nor the Law could accomplish, Christ has done and accomplished for you in His Flesh and with His Blood. He has kept the Law perfectly, fulfilled and satisfied it. And He has also suffered all its judgments, condemnations, and punishments in your place and on your behalf.

He has given Himself unto God in perfect faith, and He has given Himself for you in perfect love. He has shed His own Blood as the propitiation for your sins — and not for your sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. So has He also redeemed you, purchased and won you, from sin, death, the devil, and hell. He has bought you with that price, and you are His own — not as a slave, but as a beloved brother or sister, as a beloved child of His own dear God and Father in heaven.

He sends His angels, His messengers, to preach His everlasting Gospel as a voice from heaven on earth, to work His works and to give His gifts in His Name. He has never failed to provide such faithful servants of His Gospel, such ministers of His Word in every generation, but He has always raised up faithful pastors and teachers for His Church, to shepherd His sheep and feed His lambs.

Fear God, therefore, and worship Him, not in the terror of His wrath, but in the confidence and peace of His forgiveness. For the Hour of His Judgment has come in the Cross of Christ, His Son, who was crucified for your sins and raised for your justification. His Cross is your Atonement, and His Resurrection is your righteousness. That is how sure and certain it is.

The Hour of that Judgment is here for you in the giving of Christ’s Body and the pouring out of His Blood for the forgiveness of all your sins in His Holy Supper. That is His good judgment.

To eat and drink His sacred gifts is not slavery but freedom. It is to live, not as a slave, but as a son of God in your Father’s House. So does it strengthen you and keep you steadfast in the one true faith, unto the Life everlasting. For the Son thereby sets you free, and you are free indeed.

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

Put to Death and Raised to Life in and with Christ Jesus

You’re fascinated by St. John the Baptist.  No surprise — he is a fascinating man.  But at the same time, you’re also scared to death of him and of his preaching.  Or, if you’re not, you should be.

Now, it may be that you like to hear his fiery preaching well enough, especially when he’s pointing the finger at somebody else, and especially when you assume that John the Baptist is long since dead and gone.  But you don’t like it at all when you find that he is still preaching repentance from the Holy Scriptures.  You don’t like it when he turns the Law of God on you and your sins, and he calls you to repent in both heart and life, to set aside your vices and actually change your behavior.

If you imagine that you do like to hear St. John call you to repentance, then you don’t understand repentance at all, and you sink that much further into your own self-righteousness, supposing that genuine repentance, faith, and life are something you can do for yourself.  I guarantee that your old Adam, who is no one other than yourself, does not like to hear the true preaching of the Law.

The preaching of St. John the Baptist does still call you to repent, and it’s a deadly serious matter.  Not only that, but your life depends upon it, because it is not lawful for you to think the things that you think; it is not lawful for you to say the things that you say; and it is not lawful for you to keep on doing the things that you are doing.  Your sins and your sinfulness are neither lawful nor safe.

It is not lawful for you to compete and fight with your brothers and sisters, nor to take their stuff away, whether it be Legos and action figures or books and video games, or whatever it might be.

And as you get older, it is equally wrong and sinful to lust after your neighbor’s wife, to crave her for yourself, and to devise ways of enticing her away from your neighbor.  So, too, it is not lawful for you to covet your neighbor’s children, his friends, his workers, or even his pets.

Nor is it lawful for you to covet the bodies and affections of young dancing girls, or any of the other provocative allurements of this world, which reign as idols in your heart and in your life.

All of your selfish, prideful kingdom building is wrong, as you arrogantly presume yourself to be a god and not a mortal man.  And yet, fearing the opinions of man more than you fear the one true God, you commit what amounts to murder in His eyes and in His righteous judgment — by the hatred and enmity in your heart toward those who are beyond your reach, and by the actual hurt and hostility that you inflict upon those who cannot protect or defend themselves from you.

It is not lawful for you to do any of these things, nor a thousand other similar sins that you commit.

But you add sin upon your sin, and you make things far worse for yourself, when you shut up the preaching of the Law, when you stop your ears to it and run away from it — when you presume to keep it on a leash, because you like to hear it “a little bit,” but you want to keep it at arm’s length, or locked up in a cage or a dungeon, and you insist that it may speak to you only when it is spoken to, and only to the extent that you permit.  You thus suppose yourself to be the master of your own domain, the king or queen of your own castle; but that’s a lie which ends in death.

Repent of your arrogance and of your sin, or you will lose more than half of your kingdom, and really far more than your head or your body in the end.

In your confrontation with St. John the Baptist, it’s kill or be killed, at least for the time being.  There’s no two ways around it.  Neither of you can live while the other one survives in this life.

And yet, here is the profound irony and the paradox of the Cross: Those who save their life in this world will lose it forever in the dungeon prepared for the devil and his wicked angels, while those who lose their life for the sake of Christ Jesus and His Gospel will save it for eternity with Him.  That is how things truly are.

To repent, as you are called to do, and to be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus, is to put your own head on the chopping block, it is to bare your neck to the sword — to the Sword of the Spirit, at least, and, as needs may be, to the temporal sword of the king.

This isn’t fun and games.  It’s not make-believe or “let’s pretend.”  It is a fearful and deadly encounter.  No one gets out alive.  One way or the other, you are called upon to die, whether for the Resurrection and eternal Life in Christ Jesus, or for eternal death and damnation in hell.

But, now then, do not hear and see only St. John’s fearful preaching of the Law — though, by all means, do hear and heed that preaching, and repent.  But in repenting see him point and give way to Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away your sins, who submits Himself to death and the grave on your behalf, and who raises you up with Himself, in body and soul, unto newness of life.

St. John’s entire life and ministry, his preaching and Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, his suffering, and finally his death, are all a witness and a proclamation of this one Lord Jesus Christ, of His Cross and Passion, and of His Resurrection from the dead.

Everything about St. John — from his miraculous conception and birth, from the waters of the Jordan River to the depths of Herod’s dungeon and, finally, to the tomb in which he is buried — everything about St. John is wrapped up in Jesus.  It’s all about Jesus.  Every bit of it points to the Lord Jesus Christ.  For St. John is called and sent by God to be the Forerunner of the Christ, to go before the face of the Lord and prepare His Way.  And because the Way of the Lord is the way of the Cross, the way of suffering and death, that is where St. John the Baptist goes.

The same is true for anyone else who preaches and baptizes in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it is no less the case for those who are baptized into Him, who are given His Cross to bear and are called to follow after Him, even to the point of death and the grave.  It is to that Cross of Christ, and to that death with Him, that each and all of you are called by His Word and Holy Spirit.

The Lord’s people, His saints, are so wrapped up in Christ Jesus, so identified with Him, and so also named by Him and for Him as Christians, that the world sees Christ Jesus in them.  And that is true for you, as well; for it is no longer you who live, but Christ lives in you, and you in Him.

And so it was that Herod could not shake the impression that Jesus the Christ really was St. John the Baptist risen from the dead.  And in a way, Herod was exactly right about that!

In the Word and works of Christ Jesus are the first fruits of His Cross and Resurrection.  For His gracious miracles of healing and new life are a blessed foretaste of the neverending Feast that has come to fruition in His Resurrection and is manifest around the world in the Liturgy of His Gospel.

For those who die with Christ Jesus, like St. John and all the baptized, Jesus’ Resurrection is their Resurrection and their imperishable Life.  His Resurrection is your Resurrection and your Life.

So also, it is in Christ Jesus that St. John and all the baptized are righteous and holy.  It is in Jesus that you are righteous and holy, blameless, innocent, and pure before God the Father in heaven.

It is in that sure and certain hope, in that confidence of Christ and His Gospel, that the disciples of St. John, with tender affection and Christian love, laid his poor mistreated body to rest in the tomb, there to await the resurrection of all flesh on the Last Day.

And already, the souls of those, including St. John the Baptist, who have been slain for the sake of the Word of God — as well as those who have departed from this mortal life in the faith of Christ Jesus — find their Peace and Sabbath Rest in Him, under His Altar, in heaven as on earth.

What does this mean?  You have died with Christ in your Baptism, and so your life also is now hidden with Christ in God.

In life and in death, in body and in soul — even as you carry the Cross in your callings and stations on earth, and even when your body shall in due season be laid to rest in the dust of the ground — you are safe and secure in the Body and Blood of your crucified and risen Lord Jesus.

This true and everlasting King, who is both God and Man, prepares a Table before you in the presence of your enemies, each and all of whom He has defeated for you by His own Cross.  It is a Banquet, not for His own benefit — not to be served, but to serve you in love — to forgive you all your sins, to give you His own Life, and to save both your body and your soul forever and ever.

So, then, as your mortal body is here fed with His Life-giving Body and Blood, it is enlivened, honored, and glorified by Jesus, in preparation for and anticipation of the resurrection of your body at the last, when it shall be no longer mortal and perishable, no longer subject to sickness, infirmity, and pain, nor any more susceptible to weakness, tiredness, and fear, but immortal, and imperishable, and glorious, like unto His own glorious Body.

Your soul, as well, both now and forever, has Peace and Sabbath Rest in Christ Jesus, who has given Himself for you, who gives you His Body to eat and pours out His holy and precious Blood for you to drink in this Holy Communion.  Whether for the first time, or for the millionth time, it is for all time; it is forever.  For with this Feast He gives you, not simply half His Kingdom, but Himself with all His gifts and benefits, in whom the Kingdom of God is truly at hand.  Therefore, you are His, and He is yours, forever and ever, world without end.

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

An Excellent Wife the Lord Jesus Has Found in You

Mary Magdalene is a woman who fears the Lord, and He has risen up to praise her in the gates.  Her children also rise up to bless her, and her works follow her to praise her, both day and night.  For as St. Mary the Mother of God is both a living icon and a member of the Lord’s Holy Bride, the Church, so is St. Mary Magdalene.  And as St. Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, is remembered wherever in the world the Gospel is preached — because she loved the Lord Jesus, listened to and learned from His Word, and anointed Him beforehand for His burial — so also is St. Mary Magdalene remembered with thanksgiving to God for her works of mercy and her witness to the Gospel of Christ Jesus, our Savior.

Her gratitude runs deep, and she loves Him greatly, because she was rescued from great evil, and she was forgiven much.  Jesus cast out seven demons from this dear woman, saving her life and cleansing her in both body and soul.  He had mercy upon her, called her to Himself, and gave her, not only another chance, but a brand new life here in time and hereafter in eternity.  Thus did she become a true and faithful disciple, following the Lord Jesus throughout His Ministry on earth, listening and learning.  In love she supported Him and His holy Apostles from her own means, because she recognized the value and importance of His Ministry, both for herself and for others.

She was there, then, to witness the defining events of the Gospel: the Cross and Passion of our Lord, His entombment, and His bodily Resurrection from the dead.  In fact, St. Mary Magdalene is the first witness of our Lord’s Resurrection — not only of His empty tomb, but of His risen and glorified Body — and He Himself sends her to announce His Resurrection to the Apostles, to the very ones who would be sent to preach this Gospel to the ends of the earth.  So she is “the apostle to the Apostles,” as the Eastern churches regard her; and if their feet are beautiful because they have gone out into all the world to preach the Gospel of peace, St. Mary Magdalene is likewise beautiful among the saints of God in Christ.  She is adorned with His beauty and His glory, as a bride is adorned for her husband.  And as we thus remember her and give thanks for her on this day, we honor Christ Jesus, our Savior and hers, and give all thanks and praise and glory to Him.

Everything we know about St. Mary Magdalene is bound up in and with her dear Lord Jesus.  She received such excellent gifts and benefitted from His Ministry, and so she supported His Ministry with her whole life and all that she had.  She shared in His Cross and Passion, not only by her presence as a witness, but also by Holy Baptism and daily repentance; and accordingly, not only did she witness His Resurrection from the dead, but she herself is raised up by it, in and with Him, to live before God in His righteousness and purity forever.

Dear child of God in Christ, the same is no less true for you, as well.  Though you are not an eye-witness of His Cross and Resurrection, you are in fact baptized into those realities, so that you also die and rise with Christ Jesus through daily repentance and faith in His forgiveness of all your sins.  Consider the great treasures of His grace, mercy, and peace, which are given to you by the Ministry of His Gospel.  By these you have abundant life in Him and with Him, both now and forever.  For He is your true and heavenly Bridegroom, who has sought you out and found you and called you by name to be a member of His Body and His Bride, the holy Christian Church.

How, then, shall your life be a witness of His Resurrection?  How shall your words and actions testify that God has raised your dear Lord Jesus from the dead?  With what means, and by what works, will you support His Ministry of the Gospel for your own sake and for your neighbor’s?

Everything about you, and all that you are and have, is bound up with Christ Jesus.  For you are baptized in His Name.  You have died with Him — by your Baptism into His death — and so it is that your life is now hidden with Him in the bosom of God the Father.  Your temporary sojourn on earth, including your stewardship of whatever means the Lord in His mercy has entrusted to your use, is meaningful, significant, and holy, because you are taken up into Christ and His Gospel — through His Cross and Passion into His Resurrection and His Life everlasting

Do not try to cling to Him, therefore, in the dead and dying things of this world.  Do not attempt to find Him and have Him for yourself in that which has only the appearance of beauty, while inwardly it is perishing.  That sort of beauty is vain, and its charm is deceitful.

Trying to hang onto Jesus and His Life in the transitory familiarities of earth is futile and fatal.

The fact of the matter is that, apart from His Word and His Voice of the Gospel, you do not know where or how to find Him, nor are you at all able to find Him.  You are still in the dark, and so you are confused and afraid, and you weep with sorrow.  You seek comfort and security and answers to your questions from your mortal father, old Adam, although he is laid to rest in the tomb and remains there to rot and decay.  And as you are so intent upon the dust and the dirt, you are unable to recognize the risen Lord Jesus.  You do not know Him as He is.

But He is not that gardener, old Adam.  He is the Good Shepherd, who lays down His life for the sheep — and takes it up again — that they may have abundant life in Him.  He does for you and all His sheep as He did for dear Mary Magdalene: He calls you by name.  He calls you with His sweet Voice of the Gospel — whereby He forgives you all your sins, casts out all your demons, heals all your diseases, and raises you from death to life.  His Voice calls you and leads you and guides you to and from the quiet waters of your Baptism, through the lush green pastures of His Word, to the laden Table of His Altar in His Father’s House.  There He has prepared a great Feast for you, and He pours out His overflowing Chalice, which is the New Testament in His Blood.

Now your heart sings for joy, because you know the Voice of your Good Shepherd.  You recognize and respond to the tone and timbre of His Gospel with its persistent rhythm of mercy and kindness and its melody of forgiveness.  You know, when He speaks, where He is to be found, where His Body is given and His Blood is poured out for you to eat and to drink.  You know, when you hear His Voice, not only who He is and where He is, but who you are and where you are.

Beloved, not only are you a dear sheep of this Good Shepherd, but you are an excellent wife of this true and heavenly Bridegroom.  O son or daughter of the King, you belong to His most holy Bride!  With St. Mary Magdalene, with Mary of Bethany and Mary the Mother of God, with Peter and John and all the witnesses of the Resurrection, and with all the baptized in every time and place, you belong to the Wedding Party of the Lamb, and you are seated with Him at His Table.  For He takes you to be His very own, to have and to hold forever, and all that is His, He shares with you.

He rises from the dead; therefore, you also rise.  He ascends to the right hand of God, and you are seated with Him in the heavenly places.  His God and Father is now your God and Father.  And He has prepared a place for you with Him, where even now your life is hidden, safe and secure.

Not only has He called you by name to Himself, but He has also called you by His own Name.  Even now that is your surety, your pledge, your guarantee, your down-payment, and your dowry, unto the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of your body and soul.

No longer are you in the dark, since Christ your Lord is risen from the dead.  Even in the middle of the night, His Word is still a Lamp that does not go out, and by its light you rise up to eat and drink His Food from afar, and so to feed your neighbors in peace and love.  You are clothed with His scarlet and His purple, that is, with the forgiveness of His holy and precious Blood, and with the dignity and strength of His own royal righteousness.  Thus are you made strong, and thus are you able to strengthen your household and family, your neighbors and friends, and all your brothers and sisters in Christ.  For as He speaks so sweetly to you with His Voice of the Gospel, He likewise opens your mouth to speak in wisdom and with kindness to others.

Were you to look at yourself and consider yourself, for now, you would see no such glory, but only a poor gardener of sin and death, waiting to die and to be buried.  But listen now, and hear the Voice of your Bridegroom, who has risen from the dead for you, who blesses you and praises you according to His grace, mercy, and peace:

“Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all.  For you are worth far more to Me than silver and gold, more than many rubies and fine jewels.  Have I not sought you out and found you for Myself, and given Myself for you?  Surely I have done so, and you are My own forever.  Even in the gates of Hades I declare that you shall never perish but have abundant life in Me, and no one shall snatch you out of My hand.  Rest assured that you shall not be put to shame, for I, the Lord, am your Refuge and Strength.  Let not your heart be troubled; neither let it be afraid.

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

Christ Jesus Builds His Church Upon the Ministry of His Gospel

The Wise Man has built His House upon the Rock.

The almighty and eternal Son of the living God has come down from heaven, and He has taken for Himself our human Flesh and Blood from the womb of His Blessed Mother, in order to give His Body and Life as a Ransom for the many.  He has entered into our pagan territory of sin and death, and here in our stead He has defeated our ancient enemy, that old dragon, the devil or Satan.

By His Sacrifice upon the Cross, the Lord Jesus Christ has atoned for the sins of the whole world, reconciled all of us to His God and Father in heaven, and thereby destroyed death, released us from the fear of death, and removed all the power of the devil, namely, sin and guilt and accusation.

He has plundered the grave and Hades of their dead, and in His own bodily Resurrection He has opened the gates of heaven to all who believe and are baptized in His holy Name.

It is by this precious Gospel of Christ Jesus — by His forgiveness of sins and the great Salvation of His Cross and Resurrection — that He establishes, builds, and protects His Church on earth, from Jerusalem to the ends of the world, that disciples from all nations might have Life in Him.

Whoever lives and abides within His Church, even now bearing His Cross in faith and hope, is safe and secure from sin, death, the devil, and hell, and shall live and abide forever with the same Lord Jesus Christ in Paradise.  For He is indeed the Wise Man who has built His House upon the Rock.  The winds rage, the rains downpour, the floods rise and pummel that House, but it shall not fall.

Why, then, would you drown and die outside of His House in the midst of the storm?

The problem that confronts the flesh and blood of your old Adam and the whole sinful world in which you live, is that the Wise Man appears to be, not wise, but foolish; and the Rock foundation of His Christian Church appears to be, not solid and secure, but shifting sand.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, the “Son of Man,” appears to be nothing more than a man like any other.  Extraordinary, yes; a great Prophet, perhaps; a good and righteous man, no doubt; and a powerful preacher.  But surely not the Son of God.  No one is able to perceive or to believe who and what He truly is by means of their mortal flesh and blood or their fallen human reason.

And when He is crucified, put to death, and buried; executed as a criminal; hung upon a cursed tree in naked shame and humiliation; and laid to rest within a borrowed tomb, where is God in all that?

Where is the power and might of the glory of God in His Cross and Passion?  Where is the promise of His coming?  And where do you ever see or feel or experience His Resurrection and His Life?

He says that the gates of Hades shall not be able to overpower His Church.  But what are you to make of the fact that you and your loved ones, your family and friends and fellow Christians, are all subject to death and finally return to the dust, whether by way of illness, old age, or martyrdom.

Where is your hope, your life, and your salvation?  Where is the living God who can help you and save you from death and the grave, who will actually bring you out of Hades into His Heaven?

The Church appears to be a pitiful fortress indeed, little more than a fisherman’s shack upon the seashore.  After all, its so-called “Rock” foundation is nothing but the Ministry of the Gospel, that is, the preaching of repentance, the spoken word of forgiveness, the washing of water with the Word, and the administration of bread and wine in the remembrance of Jesus who was crucified.

And what sort of men are actually called and sent to preach and administer this Gospel?  Sinners, the lot of them!  Men like Simon Peter and Paul of Tarsus — the one a wavering denier of Christ, and the other a former diehard Pharisee, a persecutor of Jesus and His followers.

Pastors to this very day and age are likewise quarried from the same Rock.  They, too, are sinners, each and every one of them, in need of forgiveness for their own sins.  They are mortals, just like you, subject to death and the grave.  Finite, flawed, and frail creatures of flesh and blood.

And what keys do they bring, what instruments and means by which they are to help and save you?  With what do they come to set you free from the death-grip of sin and to open the gates of heaven to you?  By what power and authority are they supposed to keep you safe from the devil and hell?

They have nothing but the Gospel, which is the Word of Christ Jesus and His forgiveness of sins.  It is admittedly pathetic and pitiful to all appearances, seemingly impotent to meet all your needs.  Nor can you perceive or believe otherwise about any of this by any intellect or wisdom of yours.

The truth is that you cannot recognize the Lord Jesus Christ for who He is, nor can you come to Him, nor are you at all able to love and trust in Him, unless the Father reveals Him to you, and gives Him to you, and lays Him upon your heart by His Word and Holy Spirit.

But all of this the Father surely does for you, according to His tender mercies and steadfast loving-kindness, by way of that very Cross of Christ Jesus and that preaching of His Gospel which appear to all the world — and to your own fallen flesh — to be so foolish and miserable and weak.

You could not possibly open your eyes wide enough to see it.  But He has opened your eyes in faith by the Light of His Word, that is, by the Gospel of His forgiveness of all your sins.

You could not even begin to open your heart or your head to accept it.  But He has opened your ears to hear, your mind to understand, your heart to believe, and your lips to confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, who has become your Savior, your Strength, and your Song.

The Word of Christ that His servants speak to you in His Name is His Word upon their lips.  The Sacraments they administer in His stead, in remembrance of Him, are His own Gifts of Life and Salvation for you.  Their forgiveness of your sins is His forgiveness, as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ your dear Lord dealt with you Himself.  Truly, this is how He cares for you.

And this Word of forgiveness, this Holy Absolution, this free and full forgiveness of all your sins — although it seems like such a still small voice against the rage and roaring of the devil — it is a most solid foundation of a truly mighty fortress, which shall not fall nor fail to preserve your life.

Where sin is forgiven, the devil cannot accuse you, and even God’s own Law does not condemn you anymore forever.  There is no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus.

Where sin is forgiven, death no longer has any rightful claim on you, but it must relinquish you, body and soul, unto Christ your Redeemer, who has purchased you with His very own lifeblood.

Where sin is forgiven — and your sin is forgiven by the Word of Christ — there is only Life and Salvation.  Come hell or high water against you, these cannot touch you, they shall not reach you.

You shall not die but live.  The gates of Hades shall not prevail against you.  For you belong to the Body of Christ, His Holy Church; and just as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns forever in His own Body, so are you raised up by His Ministry of the Gospel to live with Him eternally.

His death has been the death of death, the devil’s defeat, and hell’s destruction, and all of this on your behalf.  Therefore, His Resurrection from the dead is your resurrection, and His own Life is yours forevermore.  So has He spoken, and so shall it be.  His Word abides unto Life everlasting.

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

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.

Blessed Are Those Who Hear and Receive this Word

Blessed are those who read and those who hear the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, as recorded by His bond-servant St. John, the Apostle and Evangelist.  For by this Word you also now receive the grace and peace of the One who was, and is, and is to come.  You walk in His Light as an heir of His Life and Salvation, clothed in His Blood and Righteousness forever.

For all of this, it is truly meet, right, and salutary to remember St. John with thanksgiving unto our God and Father in heaven.  For the Lord has chosen to reveal Himself and give Himself to you by the hand of this beloved Disciple and holy Apostle.  And do not underestimate the significance and benefit of these apostolic Scriptures, which are uniquely foundational to the Christian Church.

What St. John and his fellow Apostles saw and heard and even touched and handled — the only-begotten God, the Word-made-Flesh, the incarnate Son of the Father, your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ — no less than He is manifested and communicated to you in the apostolic Scriptures, as these have been written and as they are proclaimed within the Church.  As the Father has spoken His Word to us in the Person of His Son, so is He now spoken to you in the apostolic preaching of the Gospel, whereby you have entered into the joyous friendship and glorious company of the holy Apostles, and into the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Father, and His Holy Spirit.

You cannot separate your Savior, Jesus Christ, from this apostolic Word of His Gospel.  Nor can you have the One without the other.  Nor do you have God as your Father apart from this Word of His incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.  But as it is, you have been given and you have this Word by way of the Apostles of our Lord, whom He called, ordained, and sent to preach in His Name.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.  And by the preaching of that Word, that is, by the preaching of the Gospel for the forgiveness of sins in His Name, you have believed that Jesus is the Christ, the incarnate Son of God.  And by such faith you live and abide in Him forever.  Not metaphorically, rhetorically, or theoretically, but actually and tangibly.  For real.

In the apostolic Word of Christ that is preached to you by His grace, through faith in that Word, you are given everything that the holy Apostles beheld and heard and grasped in the Person of Jesus Christ, the one true God who was conceived and born of St. Mary.  Which is to say that you, also, are a beloved disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.  And you, also, are given to recline with Him at His Supper, cleansed and sanctified by one and the same Christ Jesus, by the washing of water with His Word and Holy Spirit, and fed from His own hand His holy Body and precious Blood.

The only-begotten God who has come from the bosom of the Father, who reveals the Father to us, He has taken you into His embrace, to rest upon His bosom, to find your shelter and protection, your Life and your Salvation, there in Him, in His own Flesh and Blood.

As you are thus called by His Word of the Gospel, by His forgiveness of all your sins, to live and believe in Him, so it is that you shall never die.  For so long as you abide in Him by grace through faith in His Gospel, so do you continue to live, even though you die!  Not by any reason or strength of your own, but by the good and gracious Will of God for you in Jesus Christ, your Savior.

The life that you now live, therefore, you live no longer for yourself, but for Him who for your sake died and was raised.  And you live that life — in Christ — in whatever office or station to which He has called you.  Whatever it may be, and however it may seem to the world or to you, that is the place where you glorify the Name of Christ and serve your neighbor in faith and love.

It will be different for you than for your fellow Christian disciples, as it was different for St. Peter than it was for St. John.  So, neither look back to see where you have been, nor look around to see how you compare with your neighbor.  Simply follow Christ Jesus wherever He shall lead you by His Word and Holy Spirit, whether for life or death, knowing that your true life is now hidden with Christ in God, and when He appears in Glory, so shall His Life be fully manifest in you forever.

Take heart, dearly-beloved disciple.  Repent of your envy and jealousy, your coveting, your doubts and fears, denials and betrayals, your haughty arrogance and faithless despair.  And in repentance, not only sorrow for your sins, but take heart in Christ, and do not be afraid.

By the Word of His Apostles — by the Word as written by St. John, and by the preaching of that Word — Christ Jesus fills the world with His gracious deeds of Life.  And so does He fill you.

When the bright Light of His Law exposes and condemns you, know that He remains faithful and righteous to forgive your sins and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness.  For He is Himself the Propitiation for all your sins, and not for your sins only, but for the sins of the whole world; and the merciful Light of His Gospel shines yet more brightly upon you than even His Law.

You are already clean, therefore, by this Word that He has spoken to you, by this Holy Absolution of the Gospel: All of your sins are forgiven!

It is in that Light of Christ that you have fellowship with St. John, the Apostle and Evangelist, and with all the saints who have gone before us in the faith, and so also with one another, and with the whole Christian Church in heaven and on earth.  For at His Word, once heard and received by the Apostles, now spoken and delivered to you here, you have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and, in Him, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  It is for the sake of this Holy Communion, and to this Holy Communion — this Fellowship with God in His Word-made-Flesh — that these things have been written and are preached to the close of the age, unto eternal Life in body and soul.

Come, then.  Recline here at His Table, and lean upon His breast, and eat and drink the Flesh and Blood of that very dear Savior who loves you — and so taste and see that He is good!

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

In and Out of Egypt with the Lamb of God

Do not suppose that death has got the upper hand, nor that death will have the last word.  For out of Egypt God has called His Son — the same Son, Jesus Christ, who has come in the Flesh to bear your sins and be your Savior.  He has shed His Blood and died for you, and God has raised Him from the dead.  Therefore, death has no power over Him, and neither does it have any power over you, since you are baptized into Christ Jesus and belong to Him now and forever.

And yet, despite all that, it sure still looks and feels as though death were winning.  Examples abound on all sides, and you can hardly read or listen to the news without adding more on a daily basis.  Explosions, shootings, accidents, and illness.  And it strikes even closer to home too often.

“In the very midst of life, death has us surrounded.”  And the fear of death, under its many guises, enslaves and tyrannizes you, driving you to sin.  It is at the heart of all your selfishness and greed, your covetousness and idolatry, your deception and manipulation, and both your lazy negligence and your works-righteous legalism.  For death has come into the world on account of sin, and sin increases all the more in the fear of death.  It is a vicious cycle which erupts here and there, within and without, sometimes with cold calculation, and then again with aimless outbursts of violence.

Sometimes, like King Herod, you get angry and lose your temper, and you fight back and defend yourself with force — as though you were a god, with the power and authority of life and death.

At other times, like Rachel, you despair of any help or consolation — you weep and moan, refusing to be consoled or comforted — as though there were no God, no Savior, and no hope to be found.

Such fear of death, such anger, and such inconsolable grief are all sinful and unrighteous, because they are contrary to faith and to the love of God.

I tell you, then, repent of your misplaced fear, of your violent temper, and of your hopeless despair.

Wait quietly and patiently upon the Lord, and rise up at His Word to do what He calls you to do.  No matter how daunting, difficult, or discouraging the task at hand may be, get up and go in the hope of His grace, mercy, and peace.  Live and work as St. Joseph of Nazareth has done in caring for his wife and for her Son, as he flees with them to Egypt and waits upon the Word of the Lord.

So, then, about that story set before us on this day: Once again it would seem that death has got the upper hand, and that everything is out of God’s control.  After all, the little Lord Jesus has to be rushed away to safety in the middle of the night, while the innocent baby boys of Bethlehem are slaughtered in His wake.  Where is the justice or the hope in such events as these?

To point out that everything actually unfolds according to the Scriptures seems, on the surface, only to make matters worse.  For why on earth would God permit such atrocities to happen?

Why, indeed, does God permit you to suffer?

And why does the Lord your God permit you to hurt and harm your neighbor?

Truth be told, God does respond to and deal with evil, with sin and death, with fear and anger and despair.  But He does not respond as you would do, nor does He act like either Herod or Rachel.  He does not react with force, nor retaliate with the raw unbridled power of a temper tantrum.  He has no need to get “defensive,” as though He were backed into a corner and desperate for some way out.  Nor does He panic and throw up His hands in frustration.  He does not give up the fight.

True enough, there is a day of reckoning, a day of judgment, when God vindicates His people and punishes the sons of disobedience.  He does get glory over against Pharaoh and the armies of Egypt who are drowned in the depths of the Red Sea.  Herod also dies and is judged by the Lord.

But the Lord God demonstrates His almighty power over sin, death, the devil, and hell, chiefly by showing mercy to sinners, and having compassion upon them, and forgiving them all their sins.  He is patient and long-suffering, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.  He establishes His righteousness in the midst of the nations, not by punishment to start with, but by redemption.  Else we should all be lost, completely and forever, and then there really would be no hope at all.

As it is, the Lord our God is faithful in His mercy, and He is righteous in His forgiveness of sins.  So it is that Herod’s treachery does not triumph, because death does not get the last word.  Herod’s slaughter of the innocents is no less sinful and wicked on that account, but neither does it win.

God does not fail or neglect the children of Bethlehem, but He calls them to Himself and rescues them from every evil, unto the Life everlasting in body and soul.  Their little bodies are cruelly butchered and put to death, but God gives them rest, and He shall raise them in glory at the last.

Meanwhile, Christ Jesus does not “run away” in fear from danger and from death, but He proceeds in faith to the Sacrifice of His Cross, which shall be at the time appointed by His Father in heaven.  No one takes His life from Him, but He lays it down willingly when that Day and that Hour come.

It is toward that purpose that He grows up — from infancy, through childhood, into adulthood — in order to redeem the whole of human life.  He lives in faith and love, from the first to the last, on His Way to the Cross.  And as true Man, He learns to refuse the evil and choose the good.  That is to say, He learns experientially to live by faith in the Word of God in the midst of sin and death.  He goes to the Cross, not as a helpless babe in His Mother’s arms, but as the Perfect Man of God.

In all of this, He does not escape the trials and tribulations of this life — which the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem are spared, though their mothers and fathers are not.  But He submits Himself to every bit of the Great Tribulation — for you and your salvation, and for the sake of all people.

He enters into Egypt in order to rescue and redeem His Israel from Egypt, in the certainty that His God and Father will call Him forth by the new and greater Exodus of His Cross and Passion.

It is not at Herod’s whim, but in fulfillment of God’s holy will, that Christ Jesus lays down His life in the hope of the Resurrection, trusting the Scriptures of the Prophets, the promise of His Father.

He thus becomes the Lamb who is given in place of beloved Isaac, sacrificed in place of the sons of Israel, put to death in place of all the children of men.  He is pierced for your transgressions, wounded for your iniquities, crucified, put to death, and buried; and by His stripes you are healed.

And now, behold, He is risen from the dead and lives forever in His own glorified Body!  For He is raised by God to life again, which is your justification, your righteousness and holiness before God in heaven.  Thus does the Son return to His own territory, to the Right Hand of His Father.

Beloved of the Lord, you now follow this Lamb, Jesus, wherever He goes, so that you are with Him where He is.  So it is by your Baptism into His death, and so too by the eating and drinking of His true Passover Feast, which is His Body given and His Blood poured out for you.

And so it is that you shall be with Him forever, alive with His Spirit in both body and soul, holy and righteous in the presence of His Father, residing in peace on the heavenly Mount Zion.

This is your future, and in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus it is your sure and certain hope.  Amen, Amen, so shall it be!  And that was likewise the case for the believing baby boys of Bethlehem when Herod put them to death, for he could not rob them of their life, which is in Christ Jesus.

To be sure, your time now under the Cross is not easy — in this wilderness to and from Egypt — as you must care for your neighbors in hardship and adversity, and as you mourn for those who die.  It was not easy for St. Joseph and the Holy Family, either, nor for the grieving fathers and mothers of Bethlehem.  And let us not make light of the Cross that is thus borne in this poor life of labor.

But the truth remains, that Christ has died, and Christ is risen from the dead.  And He has written His Name — the Name of His Father — with the sign and seal of His Cross upon your forehead.

Therefore, God calls you also out of Egypt in His Son.  Indeed, you are His beloved son in Christ!

Have no fear of death, for it has been undone.  Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for all your sins are forgiven.  The devil who sought your life is defeated; he cannot harm you anymore forever.  You are ransomed and redeemed by the Lord your God, and you are taught the New Song of the Lamb who has purchased and won you with His own Blood.

Even now you sing His Song in the strength of His Resurrection, which is the surety of your own resurrection from the dead; for He has become your Salvation, now and forever and ever.

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

Blessed Is She Who Believes the Word of God

This Word of our Lord confirms what His servant St. Luke has demonstrated from the beginning of the Holy Gospel — that the Virgin St. Mary is doubly blessed.  She who conceived and bore the very Son of God within her womb, who nursed Him at her breast and nurtured Him in childhood, also heard the Word of God, believed it and confessed it, and kept it in holy faith and love.  She is the first and foremost of all saints, who treasured these things and pondered them in her heart.

There is no competition between the blessings of the Blessed Virgin.  That she became the Mother of God by His Word and Spirit does not exclude but invites her fear, love, and trust in Him who remains her Creator and Lord even as He becomes her Child, the Fruit of her womb.  He is her own Savior and her God, even as He becomes and remains forevermore her own dearly-beloved Son.

Blessed is she both in faith and in love within her vocation and station and life, as you also are blessed by God’s Word and faith and by His calling within your own office and your place in life.

She is highly favored by the Lord, as He declares to her through the Archangel Gabriel.  She is the object of His grace and mercy, and she becomes the specially chosen instrument of His peace.  As a true daughter of Abraham, both according to the flesh and according to faith in the promises of God, she is holy and righteous in the presence of the Lord.  And His Word is fulfilled in her — for you and for all people — as she conceives and bears the promised Seed of Abraham in her body.

It was that same Word of God, made flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood, which she also kept and pondered in her heart by faith, as in her body by grace.  To that Word she submitted herself, and by that Word she lived.  She learned from her Son, as you are likewise taught, to pray to God, “Thy Will Be Done.”  “Behold the servant of the Lord.”  “Let it be to me according to Thy Word!”

St. Mary’s confession, her prayer, and her faithfulness are exemplary throughout all generations.

Thus do we give thanks to God the Father for this Blessed Virgin, this sainted Mother of His Son, our dear Lord Jesus Christ.  For she is most assuredly a gift of His grace for our salvation.  From the Garden of Eden to the Resurrection of the dead and the Life everlasting, she is the Woman whose Seed has crushed the head of the serpent, that old dragon who is called the devil and Satan.

We are strengthened in our faith by the mercy of God toward St. Mary of Nazareth, as also by His mercy toward all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve in giving Himself to us poor sinners as her own dear Son in the flesh.  For it is by His great mercy and not according to any human merit.

And again, we are strengthened in our own life and in the works of our callings by the example of St. Mary.  For she has done exactly as she has advised: “Whatever the Lord says to you, do it!”

Beyond all that, in a special way, we see in the Blessed Virgin Mary a living icon of the Church, the Bride of Christ, the Woman who conceives and gives birth to the children of God by His Word and Holy Spirit.  To that blessed, holy Church you also belong by the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus.  Indeed, your Holy Baptism and your faith and life in Christ are no less miraculous and merciful than the conception and birth of the Lord Jesus Himself.

And the life to which you are called is lived under the Cross in the hope of the Resurrection, no less than St. Mary’s entire life was lived in the shadow of the Cross of Christ, her Son.  She, like you, was given to rely upon and cling to the promise of His Resurrection.  And so was she, like you, sustained in her faith and saved from sin and death by the fulfillment of that sweet promise.

We are not wrong to consider the “passion” of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  For God the Holy Spirit prophesied through Simeon that a great Sword would pierce her own soul on account of Christ, her Son.  This Child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, not least of all His own dear Mother, St. Mary.  Her sufferings and her sorrows save no one, not even herself.  But sufferings and sorrows there were throughout her life.  Long before she would stand at the foot of the Cross, she bore the Cross in her vocation as the Mother of the One who would be crucified.

And yet, together with the whole Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has been crucified for our transgression and raised for our justification, blessed is she under His Cross.  Indeed, blessed is she by the Cross, unto the Resurrection of her body and the Life everlasting of her body and soul in the crucified and risen Body of her Son.

Blessed is she among women!  More blessed, indeed, is the Fruit of her womb.  For her Son, Jesus, is her own Savior as well as yours.  He is the promised Seed of the Woman, the Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Seed of Judah and of David, in whom all the nations of the world are blessed.

To bear this Seed, this Fruit of her womb, is surely her great work of love within her vocation, all by the grace and choosing of God.  Not that she deserved it, but that she did it by holy faith, by the strength that God provided through His Word and Holy Spirit.  So are you also called to live and to love, to serve your neighbor in peace, and to bear the fruits of faith in Christ within your place.

To be sure, they are great and mighty things that God has done for His handmaiden, the Blessed Virgin Mary; and not for her only, but through her for you and for all the children of men.

It is all the more remarkable and marvelous that her singular blessing as the Mother of God — her unique blessing as the Woman who bore the incarnate Son of God and nursed the infant Lord Jesus at her breast — that blessing which belongs to her alone is exceeded by the blessing that you and all the baptized are granted to share with her in Him whom she bore for us men and our salvation.

As you have heard from the lips of Jesus Himself this morning, that greater blessing is to hear the Word of God and to keep it.  To treasure all these things by faith; to ponder them in your heart and mind, in your prayer and confession; and to live according to the Word and promises of God in Christ Jesus, in the confidence that He is faithful and that He will surely do what He has spoken.

To be and to live as such a child of God, by such faith in Christ, the Word-made-Flesh, is finally and forevermore a surpassingly greater grace and blessing than even to be the Mother of God!

And all the more so shall we say that she is blessed indeed who is both the Mother and a child!

For she became the Mother, so that you also might become a child of God in Christ, her Son.  Through her He became like us, of the same flesh and blood as your own, so that, through Him, you should become like God and share with St. Mary and all saints in the Kingdom of His Father.

It is true that none of you will ever become the Mother of God.  St. Mary alone is blessed in that way, for which we give all thanks and praise to her Son, Jesus, and for which we rightly honor her on account of Him.  But here for you is something even better:

As God the Son received St. Mary’s flesh and blood and made it His own, conceived and born as true Man within her womb, so does He give His Body and His Blood to you.  As He nursed at her breast, so does He feed you at His Altar with His own flesh, by and with His Word.  Thus does He abide in you, and you in Him, both body and soul, unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.

Blessed are you who believe what He says!  For so shall it be to you according to His Word!

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

By the Ministry of the Word of Christ

Wherever the Lord Jesus Himself would go, He sends pastors in His Name, in whom His grace and glory are manifested through the ministry of the Gospel.  In their preaching of His Word, in their working of His works, the Kingdom of God draws near.  For Christ Jesus Himself is present and active in their faithful service, granting His perfect peace through the forgiveness of sins.

Pray that He would continue to send such faithful pastors to His Church throughout the world, and to all those whom He would call to Himself in every city, in every place, in every congregation.  And do not neglect to pray and intercede for those He has called, ordained, and sent in His Name. By all means pray for your own pastors in Christ, that they may be found faithful in their office.

And as you pray, give thanks to God that, according to His grace and tender mercy, He has never failed to provide such shepherds for His lambs and sheep.  St. Timothy, St. Paul, St. Titus today, and tomorrow, St. John Chrysostom, these men are but a few of those whom Christ has raised up in His Name and stead.  Prophets and Apostles, Pastors and Bishops, who handed over to the Church what they received from the Lord, and who ordained faithful men to follow after them.

As the Lord has so established and preserved His Church on earth for the sake of His Gospel, all those who are called to the pastoral office are instructed to rely on Him to provide for their needs through His Church, even as the people of God receive His good gifts through their pastors.

If you are a pastor, or if you aspire to that office, be content with what you receive, and work hard to serve those entrusted to your care.  And if you are baptized into Christ, if you are a Christian, a member of the Church, see to it that you support your pastors and provide for their needs in this body and life, all for the sake of the Gospel.  Not only in thanksgiving for what you thus receive, but that your neighbors also should be served by this pastoral office and ministry.

In relation to each other — pastor to people, and people to pastor — it is more blessed to give than to receive, as the Lord Jesus has taught you.  That is to speak in terms of holy love, for which you sacrifice yourself and your desires in order to serve your neighbor, to provide whatever is lacking.

Before God, though, you have nothing to offer but thanksgiving, since all things are from Him and are His.  All that you are and have belong to Him, and yet you are blessed by His generous giving and His good gifts to you.  Thus do you rely upon the grace of God in Christ for all that you need, as you go about serving your office and stations in life in love for God and for your neighbor.

And so it is that pastors are sent, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as sacrificial lambs in the midst of wolves; because they are the servants of the Lamb of God who handed Himself over to the Cross, who gave His life and shed His blood for the sheep, that they might have life in Him.

The pastors and confessors of Christ Jesus bear and suffer His Cross in their body and life, as surely as they proclaim His Cross in their preaching and distribute the fruits of His Sacrifice by the Ministry of His Gospel.  And they are content with the food and drink, the clothing and shelter that God provides through His people, just as surely as the Lord feeds His people and quenches their thirst with His Holy Supper, clothes them with His righteousness in Holy Baptism, and shelters them within His Church on earth through the labors of His called and ordained servants.

As ministers of His Word, as stewards of His Mysteries, they hold fast to what He has spoken, and they do what He has commanded.  They preach and administer His Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in His Name.  They take the bread and cup, they bless and give thanks, and they give you the Body and Blood of Christ with His Words in the remembrance of Him.  They hold fast to His Word, that they might teach, rebuke, admonish, comfort, and forgive you in His stead.

It is by His Word that pastors are kept faithful, not only in their vocation and office as pastors, but in their faith and life as Christians; that they should be above reproach, hospitable, lovers of what is good and right and true; self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined in word and deed.

The faithfulness of pastors and people alike, from St. Titus in Crete to this very day and place, is found not in the Law which accuses, but in the blessed Peace of the Lord Jesus Christ, which the world neither knows nor gives, but He has obtained by His Cross and bestows by His Ministry.

It is by and with His Word, and for the blessing of His Word, that He guards and protects you from all harm and danger to body and soul, and that He keeps you steadfast in the one true faith.  He so works repentance in your heart and mind, in your body and life, and He forgives you all your sins.

By His Word the Lord Jesus gives you all that is His — His Father and His Spirit, His Resurrection and His Name, His Sonship and His Kingdom — together with St. Titus and all the saints in Light.

See here, the Kingdom of God has come near to you.  Do not doubt it, but believe what He says.  For in this preaching of the Gospel, in the Word of the Lord, the Lord your God has come near to you in the flesh.  He is here with you and for you, and He shall never leave you nor forsake you.

Rest here in His House, at His Table, in His Peace.  Eat and drink what He provides, His own holy Body and His precious Blood.  This Hospitality of Christ, given and received in faith and love at His Altar, is the beating heart and center of His Church and Ministry.  In this Holy Sacrament the grace and loving-kindness of your great God and Savior are manifested and given for you.

Not on the basis of deeds that you have done, but according to His mercy, He saves you, even as He feeds you with Himself.  What He has established in His Body by His Cross and Resurrection, He bestows upon you by and with His Word of Peace, that you might live with God in Him.

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

Of Fathers and Kings

There are basically two kinds of King.

There are those who provide daily bread for their people; who give life and protect it; who use their strength, their power and authority, to serve and to care for their people.

And then there are those kings who take life from the people and seize it for themselves.  Kings who feed themselves at the expense of their subjects.  Kings who exercise their strength against the weak and the helpless, in order to consolidate and shore up their power.

So, what sort of king are you?

A king is called to be a father to his people, just as a father is a king in his own castle, called by God to be the head of his own household and family.  What, then, should that mean, and what should it look like?  How is a father to care for his family?  How is he to love and serve his wife?  And how shall he provide for and protect those little ones whom God places under his authority?

A father is called to feed his family in body and soul, not only with ordinary bread and water, but with the Word of God.  He is to guard and protect his family, and to use whatever strength and skill the Lord has given to strengthen his wife and children.  He teaches them by what he says and what he does.  He disciplines his children in love, being slow to anger and quick to forgive.  And when he sins against his family, he repents and makes amends.  That is how a father is supposed to be.

Within your own kingdom and castle, however big or small it may be, what sort of father are you?  What sort of king?  How do you treat those under your care?  Do you give life or take it?  And how do you exercise your strength?  Is it like St. Joseph, the son of David?  Or more like King Herod?

Consider the example that God has given you in St. Joseph of Nazareth, who quietly and quickly served his family, caring for St. Mary and her Son at the Word of the Lord.  He did not argue or debate.  He simply obeyed.  Sure, he was probably frightened; he was probably frustrated; he was probably tired.  But he still got up and immediately did what the Lord instructed him to do.  That is the sort of father he was by God’s grace.  He walked in the footsteps of his father, King David.

By contrast, there is Herod.  He was neither quiet nor obedient, but angry and violent.  He used his position, his power and authority, to murder and rob, in order to protect himself and his position.

In the case at hand, we are told that Herod was enraged; he was greatly angered.  But it was envy and jealousy that fueled his anger — the idolatry of covetous lust.  And behind all of that, it was fear that really drove him to such violent rage.  He did not fear God, but he was deathly afraid.

Real power is able to serve.  It is not afraid for itself, because it is not threatened.  It does not have to crush and destroy — it is rather able to give — because it is content and complete and secure.

But if you do not fear the Lord your God, then you will be driven by the fear of man, as Herod was.  And you will be driven by the fear of death, from which you cannot and will not escape.  When you worship the perishing idols of this fallen and perishing world, you are inevitably consumed with fear, because your gods are always dying, all the time, and you are dying along with them.

And if you imagine that life is something to be taken and held within your hands, to be seized and kept by your own power, then your life will be a contest, a competition, even all-out-war, and everyone else will be your enemy.  But no matter how you fight or play the game, no matter how ruthless or cunning you may be, death will still outsmart you, outmaneuver you, and beat you.

Sometimes you are Herod, giving your ferocious but ultimately futile orders.  And sometimes you are Rachel, inconsolably weeping for your children.  And sometimes you are the infant snatched out of her arms and put to the sword.  Sometimes the tough soldier, sometimes the little child.

But even Herod dies in the end.  All men die, because all men sin.  Learn, then, how to grieve rightly, that you may learn to hope in the Lord.  Do not mourn as those who have no hope.  And do not let your grief drive you to anger or despair.  But fear the Lord, and love and trust in Him.

If you are angry, do not let anger be your god, but fear the Lord and repent.  Sadly, the children of men have allowed their anger to get the better of them from the fall into sin to the present day.  Brothers against brothers.  Sisters against sisters.  A rock to the back of the head, a club, a sword, a gun, or biting words and cunning schemes.  But do not let your anger master you.  Do not stoke the anger in your head and your heart, and do not let it break out into violent words or actions.

Your Lord has taught you how to deal with your brother when he has sinned against you.  If you are rightly angered by his fault, do not sin, but approach him and admonish him in love, and pray for his repentance and the renewal of his faith in Christ.  In any case, do not hold on to your anger, but fear the Lord with whom there is forgiveness, and forgive your brother his sins against you.

Are you exasperated?  At the end of your rope?  Impatient?  Will no one listen to you?  Is your life so hard and painful?  Fear, love, and trust in God.  Call upon His Name and confess His Word.

If you must bear the reproach and the hostility of man, so be it.  That will then be the Egypt where you sojourn as a stranger for a time, where the Lord will still bless you and keep you by His grace, until He shall call you out of Egypt to Himself in due season.  Your Father will take care of you.

It is not the first time that Joseph must go down to Egypt to survive the violence of jealous anger.  That is where he flees, and that is where the Lord preserves his life and his family — even though Egypt is no friend of Israel, and Egypt is not the land that God has promised.  Egypt is not home.

And when a king arises who knows not Joseph, he seeks to destroy you by one means or another, you and your children, and no place feels safe; nowhere feels like home.

And when your children are no more — whether because they have died, or they have grown up and moved away, or they are estranged, or they have departed from the faith — whatever the case, it may be that you refuse even to be consoled or comforted.  You become angry and lash out, or you drown yourself in sorrow and despair.  Maybe even Christmas brings more grief than joy.

But now, repent of such faithless unbelief, and trust that Christ has not forsaken or forgotten you.

When everything is taken from you — when you are driven on the run, and nowhere is safe, and nowhere is home — when you are the little one, the helpless child who is snatched from your mother’s breast and arms, and you are put to the sword, and stabbed through the belly or stabbed through the heart, and even your soul is pierced with grief and pain — even then, do not despair.

Even now, says the Lord, restrain your voice from weeping and dry your eyes from tears.  There is hope for your future.  There is safety, peace, and rest.  There is a place for you.  There is a home where you belong.  There is yet life, that you may not die anymore forever.

The Lord has called you His Son.  He has written His Name on your forehead and your heart.  It is true that He has also signed you with the Cross and put you to death for many a day, but only for the sake of raising you up to a brand new life in Christ Jesus.  So will He also call you out of Egypt at the last.  That is a sure and certain promise, as sure and certain as the Lord your God.

He will call you out of Egypt — through the Red Sea and the Jordan — through the Cross and Resurrection — through your Baptism — out of death and the grave into the life everlasting.

He has not forgotten you in Egypt.  Nor is He out to destroy you.  He is a different sort of King than that, and a different sort of Father than you have known on earth — though every father on earth, including every pastor, is called to be like the Lord your God in caring for His children.  There are good examples — like St. Joseph! — but they all point to the One who is King, to the One who is Father, who deals with you kindly and gently, who strengthens you and gives you life.

That is the sort of King He is, the sort of Father He is, even when it does not seem like it at all.  Even when the ruthless reign on earth, and innocent children are murdered.  Even when the royal ways and wisdom of your God and Father are beyond you and hidden from your sight; and you cannot comprehend His purposes, but you have only His Word to you that says, “Go” or “Stay.”

Hear and heed His Word in the confidence of faith, and go or stay as He commands.  Only take the Child with His Mother with you, and keep the Child with His Mother close at hand wherever you may roam.  For that little One is your Peace, and for His sake you shall live.  He is the King who gives life, who feeds His people with good things, and who strengthens you at His own expense.

In this beloved Son, God the Father has taught you how to pray.  As He is now your own God and Father in Christ Jesus, and you are His dear child, He has invited you to come to Him for all that you need.  For every ache in your heart.  For the hunger in your belly.  For the fears that surround you.  For life in the midst of death.  For all of this and more, He answers your prayers in peace.  He has mercy on your weakness, and kindness, and love.  And He forgives you all of your sins.

Whatever evil the world has inflicted upon you in its animosity, hostility, and violence, the Lord your God has permitted only to the extent that He, in His mercy, should work it for your good.

And whatever evil you have wrought; whatever fear and terror have threatened the very heart of you; whatever covetous lust has enticed your soul; whatever anger and violence, grief and sorrow, despair and shame have gotten their hooks into you — all of this He crucifies and puts to death in you, in order to remove it from you.  All of this He slays, in order to give you life.  All of this He covers with the shedding of His Blood.  And with that same holy and precious Blood, He cleanses you and clothes you in His righteousness.  He ransoms and redeems you from death and the grave.  And even in the wilderness He quenches your thirst; He feeds you on the journey to and fro.

For Judah has made Himself the Surety for Rachel’s children.  Not Joseph or Benjamin, not Ephraim or Manasseh, but the Lion of Judah, the Son of David, He is the King of Peace.  He uses His strength to save His people at His own expense.  He sacrifices Himself to spare them.  So He is the One who goes down into the well, into bondage, into the prison house of sin and death, into the very depths of Sheol.  But none of it can hold Him.  He comes up and out again forevermore.

As He has thus become an acceptable Sacrifice to His God and Father, and ascended to the right hand of the Father — where He ever lives as your High Priest, and makes intercession for you, and shelters the holy martyrs under His wings, and preserves them in safety and peace under His Altar — so it is for you and all who believe and are baptized into Him.  Your life also is an acceptable sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.  And you ascend to stand before the Throne day and night, to serve your God without fear, in peace, in joy, in happiness, even when all around you there is death.  In Christ you are presented to the Father, not for death, but for life as God’s own child.

For everywhere that Lamb has gone, His Mother and her children follow after, that you also may be with Him where He is.  His God and Father is your God and Father.  And if St. Joseph kept and cared for the Holy Family on their pilgrimage, much more does your Holy Father care for His Church on earth and keep her safe and sound in Christ Jesus from the rising of the sun to the place of its going down.  Whether you dwell in Israel or Egypt, in Bethlehem or Nazareth, in Michigan or Indiana, your feet are surely standing on Mount Zion in the midst of the heavenly Jerusalem.  And so shall you abide in the Lord’s own Land, and dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

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