Enter into the Holy City with Your Priestly King

It is truly an amazing and remarkable thing, that your King, the Lord Himself, the Son of God in His own human Flesh, comes to you and makes His dwelling here with you.

But what does this mean for you?  It’s a bit frightening, really.  I mean, does He come to provide for you or punish you?  To promote you, or to pull rank on you?  After all, a visit from the powers that be and the governing authorities often means discipline or consequences for wrongdoing.

There is a certain ambiguity and tension to the coming of your King.  Is He coming to put you in your place, or to remove you from your place and your position?  Wondering and worrying about when and where and how the axe is going to fall is nerve-wracking and scary.  And if, on the other hand, you get your hopes up that your King is coming to set things right and make everything better in your life on earth, you’re likely going to be surprised and disappointed by what He does.

It’s true enough, as the Holy Scriptures testify, that things are pretty messed up, not only in your own personal life, but on a national and global scale.  And even if you’re not a ruler or a boss — perhaps you’re one of the little guys, or you’re still making your way to wherever it is that you’re going — you’ve done your part to mess things up in your own little corner of the world.

There is no one who is righteous; no, not one — no one but Christ Jesus, the King who comes to His own people in righteousness and peace.  But then, consider how this one Lord Jesus Christ is regarded and received.  He’s hailed on Palm Sunday, yes, but mocked and ridiculed, condemned and crucified by the end of the week.  Falsely accused, brutally beaten, and spit upon.  His closest companions betray Him, deny Him, and abandon Him. How should a King respond to all of that?

Even now, as He enters the Holy City on the cusp of His Passion, it is primarily due to His miracles that the crowds throng to see Him and welcome Him.  His own disciples don’t yet understand what’s going on.  Everyone is eager for a “Bread King,” a great big “Sugar Daddy,” a Miracle Worker who will build a glorious Kingdom on earth and take on all the nations of the world.

To be sure, the raising of Lazarus from the dead has been an impressive Sign, as even the skeptics must admit and the enemies of Jesus grudgingly concede.  But, as a Sign, it points beyond itself to something else, that is, to the dying and rising of the Lord Jesus Himself.  The way that He approached that situation, as you heard last week, has indicated that the Glory of God in Christ is to be found, first of all, in His suffering and death, and only then in His Resurrection and His Life.

That is the pattern, too, of Christian faith and life, as your Baptism signifies and testifies, if you think about the dying and rising of that Holy Sacrament.  It is also your experience of life in the world, with all its ups and downs, with all its hopes and disappointments, frustrations and fears.

It is frankly confusing and difficult to navigate.  Just when you think you’ve finally got it figured out, and gotten your bearings, and found your footing in the world, then everything suddenly shifts and changes, and you’re left not knowing what’s up and what’s down, or which way to turn.

Think of how it must have been for the disciples in the course of that first Holy Week, from Palm Sunday, through Maundy Thursday, to Good Friday and Easter.  The Passion of Christ Jesus is a profound and powerful story, even to consider it.  But it is also the life into which you are baptized, by which the Lord recreates you from the dust of death and conforms you to His own Image.

It is impossible to understand any of this superficially, nor at all apart from the accomplished fact of the Cross and Passion — manifested in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead, and now realized for you in His Sacrament of the Altar.  The Lord’s Supper is the interpretive key to the Lord’s Passion, both beforehand and afterwards.  It not only explains what happens to Him, and why, but it now delivers and bestows the Fruits and Benefits of His Cross and Resurrection.

Only in the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus — crucified and risen from the dead, given and poured out for you and for the many — only there do you see and know and believe what is the Truth of God in Christ, your King: That He has indeed come to “take your place,” and to “put you in your place,” but in such a way that you could never have guessed or imagined or invented for yourself.

Do not be afraid, dear child of God!  For the Lord has made you a beloved son or daughter of His Church on earth, and therefore a son or daughter of the Father in Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son.  Rejoice in His mercy, and give all thanks and praise to this one Lord Jesus Christ, your King, who comes to you in Love, not to punish you for your sins, but to bear your punishment and grant you His Peace.  He comes to save you from your enemies; to give you rest from your weariness, relief from your fears, and safety in place of uncertainty; and to reign over you in love with His Word.

He has not come to “lord it over you” in the way of earthly monarchs, but, as your Lord, as your Savior and your King, He calls you by His Cross and Resurrection to become and be like Him.

To that end, He has first of all become like you in every way, save only without sin.  He has been tempted in every way that you are; He has suffered every burden of your mortal flesh and every dire consequence of your sin.  He truly has taken your place, your sin and death and every ill, and He has made it all His own, in order to bring you into His place with God the Father in Paradise.

By His Self-Sacrifice He opens up the Way through suffering and death into the Resurrection of the Body and the Life everlasting; for He is a priestly King, a royal High Priest, who enters the Most Holy Place by His own Blood and brings you into the presence of God in His own Body.

He humbles Himself, even unto His death upon the Cross, in order to be exalted and glorified on your behalf by His God and Father.  He becomes a disciple, Himself, in order to make a disciple of you by the catechesis of His Word and by your Holy Baptism in His Name.

So it is that your salvation is accomplished, established, and secure in the Person of Christ Jesus, in His own crucified and risen Body of flesh and blood.

Now, then, He testifies to the Sign of His own Cross and Resurrection by preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins in His Name.  His dying and rising are the fulfillment of all things, and they are also then the Sign of your own dying and rising with Him, by which you are saved from sin and death unto Life and Salvation forever.  All that He has suffered and received in your place, in order to rescue and redeem you, to justify and save you, He preaches and gives to you by His Word.

His preaching to you is not simply information to be processed and stored; it actually calls you to follow after Him.  Accordingly, as you hear the testimony of His Cross and Passion, come out to meet Him as He comes in Peace to meet you here at His Altar within His Church on earth.

His preaching of repentance does put you to death, it crucifies and buries you with Him.  So, you do lose “your place,” the place that you have made for yourself, the place of sin and death which Christ has taken from you and made His own.  But so does He also then bring you to Life and put you in His place.  He gives to you His Sonship, His Spirit, and His Glory in and with the Father.

In calling you to follow after Him, His preaching calls you and brings you into the New Covenant of His Flesh and Blood, the Promise of His eternal Inheritance which He has established forever.

Beloved of the Lord, as He entered the Holy City on Palm Sunday for His Cross and Passion, so do you enter the heavenly City, New Jerusalem, by the way and means of His Cross and Passion.

And as He entered the Most Holy Place once for all with His own Blood, by His innocent suffering and death and in His bodily Resurrection and Ascension, so do you now enter with Him into that same Holy of Holies, eternal in the heavens, by His Flesh and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. 

That is why the Liturgy has taught you to cry out in prayer and praise, to rejoice, give thanks, and sing, as the Lord comes to His Altar: Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest, and the Peace of the Lord on earth.  For here, indeed, He comes to save you now in this Divine Service, to sustain you with His Word and Holy Spirit, and to sanctify you for the Life everlasting in body and soul with His own holy Body and His holy and precious Blood.

As He thus remembers you in mercy, forgives you all your sins, and gives you His own Life and Salvation in body and soul, so remember Him by faith, repent of all your sins, and rejoice in His Resurrection and His Righteousness.  As surely as He comes to be with you here and now, so shall you surely follow after Him, to be with Him where He is forever and ever.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Sanity of the “New Normal” in the Self-Sacrifice of Christ Jesus

The fallen world is dumbfounded by the Self-Sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the Cross.  The world recognizes and admires the self-sacrifice of duty on the part of those who put themselves in harm’s way to save others; and by the same token, the world is critical of those who shirk their duties and run away from danger when it comes, including those who end their own lives to avoid difficulties.  But the fallen world is not able to comprehend the true glory of the Cross.

The world does not perceive the bullet that Christ Jesus takes on our behalf, the deadly bomb that He smothers and absorbs with His own Body to save us.  Nor does the world realize the ransom that Christ Jesus pays to redeem us all from the destruction we deserve.  The Cross appears to be, not the faithfulness of duty, but simply foolishness; not the glory of heroic rescue from danger, but a futile waste, a misguided effort, a failed mission, and a dismal loss.  Or, at best, the world might think of our crucified Lord Jesus as a martyr for some tragic ideological cause. 

Confronted with the Cross of Christ, the world slips easily into cynical unbelief and proud idolatry.  If that’s what God is like, well then, no thanks!  Cold reason kicks into gear and begins to calculate survival.  Hardness of heart sets in, not only against God, but also against the neighbor.  Sacrifice may be fine, to a certain extent, if there’s some return on the investment, some marketable glory to be gained.  Every move is governed by the twin goals of self-preservation and self-promotion.

Your own fallen flesh is no different.  But, ironically, by that way of thinking — by resisting and fleeing from the Cross — you run headlong into the spiritual self-destruction of apostasy.  In trying to protect yourself and preserve your life by rejecting the Cross and the Crucified One, you make a show of strength and competence, but you cut yourself off from the only true and lasting Life.

Alternatively, the fallen world and your fallen flesh sometimes simply fall apart when confronted by the Cross; that is to say, instead of cold logic and calculated strategy, there is a kind of craziness or madness that emerges and erupts in your thinking, speaking, and acting.  Not hardness of heart, but insanity, lawlessness, and perversity of every kind.  The nervous system comes unglued, the mind becomes unhinged, and open foolishness begins to reign.  Faced with the consequences of sin, the certainty of death, and the condemnation of the Law — which is precisely what you see in Christ Jesus on the Cross — there is the panic, the chaos and confusion of a waking nightmare.

So, what are you to make of all this, when the so-called “real world” seems so solid, so objective, and so certain, and yet so often explodes in ways that expose just how unstable and unreliable it really is.  If the whole past year has not made it obvious that this old world and your own flesh are perishing and passing away, you don’t have to wait long or go looking for many more examples to prove the point.  Just consider the ten people gunned down at the grocery store this past week.

At the same time, the true reality — that of the Holy Triune God and His Word, His Kingdom and His Righteousness — and His dwelling Place, the Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens — that all sounds so imaginary and fantastic, so make-believe and fairy-tale foolish.

It all sound too good to be true, to begin with.  But then it turns out to be manifested and bestowed by way of the Cross and suffering — which seems and feels like exactly the opposite of good.

Your instinct says that sanity ought to be rather savvy, reasonable, and strong, the way the world likes it and wants it to be.  But here the “sanity” of God enters in with this strange foolishness, in humility and weakness, seated on a donkey’s back.  The Lord God empties Himself and makes Himself nothing.  He submits Himself, in utter poverty and human shame, to death upon the Cross.

This divine wisdom appears to be absolutely crazy, as though God were actually out of His mind.  And yet, you also are called to have this mind of God in yourself, to share this bizarre “sanity” of Christ Jesus, which is the mysterious divine wisdom of His Cross and Passion.  And that is yours only by faith in the Word of God.  It is not by sight or sense, nor by emotion and experience.

The fact is that outward appearances are utterly deceiving.  So, what is really going on here?

The “triumphal entry” of Jesus into Jerusalem is the Lord’s selection and identification of the true Passover Lamb.  That’s what’s going on in the Holy City on this day: God the Father chooses His own beloved Son, without spot or blemish, and hands Him over to be sacrificed for the Feast.

Hence, Christ Jesus comes and enters in; and then He becomes the King of the Jews — He saves His people now — by entering upon His Holy Passion and ascending the throne of His Cross.

He goes up to Jerusalem in order to enter the Most Holy Place once for all by His Self-sacrifice upon the Cross, by the voluntary shedding of His own Blood.  He thereby atones for the sins of the world and redeems mankind at the cost of His own Life, freely given in faith and love.

It is in this way that Christ Jesus establishes the New Covenant in Himself — in His own Body, with His own Blood.  That is to say, He reconciles the world to God in Himself.  Consequently, heaven and earth, God and Man are perfectly and permanently united and at Peace in Him.

The evidence and testimony of that reconciliation are given by God the Father in the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Jesus.  For the very One who died for you, bearing your sins, has been raised up and seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven.  What is more, His reconciliation is also given here and now — to you — in the New Covenant of His Body and His Blood.

The Lord’s Supper is the Meat and Drink of that Passover Meal — of that Lamb who was chosen by God and sacrificed for the salvation of the world.  His Flesh feeds you.  His Blood cleanses you from sin and covers you from death.  And this is the Redemption that Christ has obtained for you.

This is the true wisdom of His Cross, the true sanity and stability of His salvation, the true victory of Christ which prevails for you against all of your enemies, against sin, death, the devil, and hell.

Therefore, wherever you have given up or despaired of any hope, return to this Stronghold, to this New Covenant of Christ the Crucified.  For this very day, He declares, He restores double to you.

The Lord is faithful, who calls you to Himself and promises to save you, and He will surely do it.

The world does have its own victories of self-sacrificing love, its own heroes, its own martyrs for good causes: Soldiers who put their lives on the line in defense of others.  Firefighters and police officers who brave real dangers every day for the safety of their neighbors.  Regular citizens who step into the breach.  Mothers and fathers who sacrifice in countless ways to care for their children.

For a good cause, for a good person, for a good friend, for their families, there are indeed many people willing to risk their lives, and even to die.  And man has no greater love to give than that.

The world, in its own way, honors those sacrifices, though it does so with sadness, with memories of the past and monuments to that which has been lost and won’t ever be gotten back again.

For all that, the Love of God in Christ Jesus and His Self-sacrifice upon the Cross are far greater.  For while we were yet sinners — not good people, but bad — not friends of God, but enemies at odds with Him — even then, the Father gave His Son, and the Son laid down His Life for us all.

And consider what His love has done: He has reconciled you and all the world to Himself.  He has befriended His enemies.  He has brought an end to the war that would not end, and now He speaks peace to all the nations.  In place of chaos, He bestows calm.  Instead of insanity and instability, He has become your solid Foundation, the wise Master Builder of a House that shall not fall.

In the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead, He has given you a future and a hope.  Indeed, He is your Future and your Hope, your Life and your Salvation, your Strength and your Song, because He is not dead and gone but victorious and alive forevermore.  His dominion is from sea to shining sea; from the Tigris and Euphrates, and from the Jordan River, to the ends of the earth.

And here is the real irony of the Cross: The world is a better place because of His death; because, by His atoning Self-sacrifice, He has established a peaceful connection and profound communion between God and Man.  He has removed the great divide, brought down the wall of hostility, and replaced the stone cold loneliness of sin and death with His divine friendship and camaraderie.

That is the “new normal,” which is eternal and permanent in the crucified and risen Body of Christ Jesus; and which is also true and real, sure and certain for you, as well.  The world is now a better place for you and for your neighbor, because of who you are in Christ Jesus — God’s own dear child, buried with Christ by your Baptism into His death, and raised with Him to newness of life.

So it is that your life in the flesh — even now in the midst of this fallen and perishing world — even now under the Cross — your life in the flesh and all your labors of love on behalf of all your neighbors, be they friends or foes — none of this is pointless but meaningful and significant.  Your faith in Christ and His Cross is not foolish but true divine wisdom, which is forever and ever.

For God has highly exalted the Crucified One, and has given Him the Name which is above every name.  Therefore, at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow — in heaven and on earth, and under the earth — and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

What, then, shall we offer to the Lord for all His benefits to us?

Let us offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving.  Indeed, let us take up the Cup of Salvation, which He pours out for you and for the many, and let us call on the Name of the Lord in peace.  For everyone who calls on His Name shall be saved.  This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

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

Your King Is Coming to Save You Now

Fear not, daughter of Zion!  Your King is coming to save you now, to bring you out of darkness into light, from death to life; to bring you to the Father in peace, in and with Himself, in this Feast.

He comes to you here on earth, in flesh and blood like your own, in gentle humility and meekness.  He comes not to punish, not to crush and destroy, but to rescue and save you and all other sinners.  Thus does He embrace you with love, in all your hurt and sadness, in your misery and pain, in your grief and shame.  He gathers you to Himself in safety, to comfort and protect you, even as He takes your sin and all your burdens upon Himself, to bear them and carry them in His Body to the Cross.

It is to the Cross that He has come, in humble obedience to His Father, and in merciful and loving service for you, that by the shedding of His Blood and the suffering of His death He would atone for all your sins, and for the sins of the whole world, and reconcile you and all the world to God.

Now He comes to you from the Cross, and with the Cross, not to “sacrifice” you, but to bestow the fruits and blessings of His Cross and Sacrifice upon you.  It is true that He does crucify you and put you to death, in order to break the bondage of sin and death, to set you free from that slavery, and to shatter the hardness of your heart and the idols that have reigned therein.  But even then, He is already calling you and drawing you to Himself, into His victory and His righteousness.

Because He has already borne your sins and suffered their punishments, the discipline of His Cross does not destroy you, but it conforms you to His Image and connects you to Him, not only to His death, but also to His Resurrection and His Life.  As God the Father has glorified Him by the way of His Cross, and vindicated Him by raising Him from the dead, and exalted Him in His Ascension, so do all of these things of Christ Jesus become yours through His Cross.

That is precisely what He has done for you in Holy Baptism, whereby you have been crucified, put to death, and buried with the Lord Jesus Christ — and also raised with Him in His Resurrection, just as surely as He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead.

That dying and rising of the Cross and Resurrection, and of your Holy Baptism into Christ Jesus, is your repentance, your redemption from eternal death unto Life everlasting, your reconciliation with God, and your righteousness before Him.

It is that righteousness of faith and life in Christ to which you are here called, by and through His Cross, as He comes to you in grace, mercy, and peace, in gentle humility and tender love for you.

That very righteousness of faith and life is actually given to you by this preaching of Christ Jesus, crucified and risen, with the forgiveness of all your sins in His Name.  And so is it given to you in remembrance of Him — into your body — in the sacrificial Meal of His Body and His Blood.

The Lord’s Supper is the way that Jesus deliberately entered upon His Passion unto death, and it provided His own interpretation and explanation of His Cross and suffering before they occurred.

Now His Body is also given to you in the Sacrament, as it was given for you on the Cross; and His Blood is poured out for you in the Holy Communion, as it was shed for you in His Passion, for the forgiveness of all your sins — and for reconciliation and union with God in Him.  What the Lord has accomplished for you by His sacrifice upon the Cross, He now shares with you in His Supper.

He is indeed the true Passover Lamb of God — chosen by His God and Father on “Palm Sunday,” as the unblemished male lambs and goats were being selected for the Jewish Passover that would coincide with His Passion later in the week.  His Blood is thus shed to mark and seal the household and family of His Church, and to mark and seal your body, as well, so that death takes Him and passes over you and all the people of God.  His Body feeds you, strengthens you in body and soul, and gives you life, as He by His passage through death into life brings you out of Egypt into freedom; out from under Pharaoh’s bitter yoke into the grace and glory of the Holy Triune God.

The Blood that He shed for you upon the Cross, which He now pours out for you at this Altar, is also the Blood of the New Covenant (or Testament), which has fulfilled and superceded the Old Covenant that God established with His people through Moses at Mt. Sinai.  What all the blood of bulls and goats could never do, He has done with His own Blood once-for-all.  He has made propitiation and atoned for the sins of the world.  And that same holy and precious Blood, which He has offered to the Father on your behalf, He now also gives you to drink here at His Word, so that you are thereby sealed unto God and receive all His benefits through Jesus Christ, your Lord.

It is for the sake of giving you these good gifts — to mediate and deliver these good gifts to you by grace — that He now comes to you in His Church on earth, and He calls you here to Himself, to meet Him here in His Word and at His Altar.  He calls you to come in and with your body, but also in and with your heart and mind, and so also with all your thoughts, words, and actions.

Humble yourself before Him, not as though He were a tyrant or a harsh taskmaster, but as He has humbled Himself for you and become obedient in all things to His Father for your salvation.  Pray, praise, and give thanks in His Name; not as though you must appease Him or stroke His ego, but precisely because He is your gracious Savior, your Redeemer, and your Helper, who loves you.

So love Him — and, loving Him, love your neighbor, also.  If not with palms of homage in your hands, then with good works of love, with reverence before Him, and with courtesy toward others.

Do not be afraid to humble yourself before God and in the presence of your neighbors.  Do not be afraid to live righteously, that is, to live and walk by faith according to the Word of the Lord, and in such faith to love the people God has placed in your life, even those who hate you and hurt you.  Whether for life or death, or whatever the Lord your God has called you to receive, to bear and do and suffer, do not be afraid, but have in you the mind and the Spirit of Christ Jesus.

If you are falsely accused, the Lord your God will vindicate you.  If you are persecuted and even put to death, your dear God and Father will yet deliver you from every evil and bring you out of death into life.  If you are weary and worn out, stretched to the point of exhaustion, He will raise you up, refresh you, and give you rest.  If you are hard pressed on all sides and burdened by more than it seems possible to bear, He will help and sustain you.  He will never let the righteous fall.

If you perish, you perish; and yet, behold, even then you shall live.

You know that God the Lord will help and save you, and that He will raise you up again, even from death and the grave, because He has already done so for you in the Person of Christ Jesus, your Savior.  No less so does He raise you from death to life through the Gospel, the forgiveness of all your sins, as also through your Baptism into the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus.

And what, after all, is the mind of Christ concerning you?  He is not angry or disappointed with you.  He is not bitter, resentful, or harsh.  He is not ashamed of you, nor is He weary of you.  Rather, the mind of Christ toward you is peace and love, it is joy and gladness.  He delights in you.  His thoughts of you are positive and pleasant.  His attitude toward you is gracious and kind.

And the Spirit of this same Lord Jesus Christ — the Holy Spirit, whom He pours out upon you generously; the Spirit with whom He anoints you, and whom He breathes into your body through your ears with His Word of the Gospel — His Spirit is the living and Life-giving Spirit of Yahweh.

So, then, you shall not die but live — and shall enter with Christ Jesus into the Land of the living.

The Holy Jerusalem He enters ahead of you is not only the earthly city of His Cross and Passion, which He accomplished once-for-all; it is also the Holy City of His Church on earth, here and now; and it is the heavenly City, the New Jerusalem, where He has already prepared a place for you with Himself, and where your life is already hidden with Christ in the bosom of His God and Father.

As He comes to you here and now — as He truly visits and abides with you by grace in the Word and Ministry of His Gospel — and as He feeds you here with the Spiritual Meat and Drink of His Passover Feast, which is the very Body of God’s Lamb and His Blood of the New Covenant — so does He gather you to Himself, and gather you up into Himself, and bring you in and with Himself into the Most Holy Place, to the very throne of God in heaven.

There seated at the Right Hand of His Father, where He ever lives to make intercession for you as your Royal High Priest, He reigns over you in love.  No foreign power and no mortal foe shall be permitted to harm or disturb you in Him.  For such a gracious King you have, a better Shepherd of the sheep than even His father David!  By His own death He has gotten life for you, and in His Resurrection from the dead is the sure and certain promise of your own eternal inheritance.

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

The Heart and Mind of God in Christ Jesus

This is what Christianity is all about.  The real heart and soul of the matter is the Cross and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, handed over by His Father to His innocent suffering and death, to the voluntary shedding of His holy, precious Blood for your Salvation.

This is therefore also what defines and shapes your Christian faith and life.  This is how you are to live as a disciple of Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes upon Himself the sins of the world, bears them in His Body to the Cross, and lays down His life to atone for all the children of men.

This is what Christianity is all about, never mind what pundits and politicians may presume and pontificate in the public square.  No doubt you are aware of many alternative views on what it is and means to be a Christian, as popular opinion would reduce it to being “nice” and tolerant to a fault.  Your own sinful heart likewise has its own erroneous ideas and opinions, all of which come down to whatever is most pleasing and acceptable to your flesh.  And there are plenty of would-be preachers who prey on those desires, peddling a feel-good religion of peace and prosperity.

On the one hand, the Son of God prays in the Garden that His Father’s will be done, even though that necessarily means He must suffer great agony and anguish of body and soul, unto His death on the Cross.  On the other hand, you tend to pray that the Lord would help you accomplish your own willful pursuits and achieve your own selfish purposes, as though He were your Lackey.

But getting what you want and doing whatever you feel like is not the Christian faith and life.  It is surely not what Christ, the Son of God, has given, done, and suffered for you and for all people.

The one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church is centered in the Cross and Crucifixion of Christ Jesus, in His willing Sacrifice for sinners.  With St. Paul, therefore, the Christian Church knows nothing but Christ the Crucified.  This is what the Church is all about, and what she is to be about, because this is most truly who God is, and what the one true God is like, the One who lays down His life in love for His wayward creatures, though they have been embittered and hostile to Him.

It is certainly not that God has some masochistic fascination with suffering and death.  He does not willingly afflict the children of men.  He created you, as He created Adam & Eve, not for death but for life and joy and peace with Himself forever.  It is your sin that has brought suffering and death upon your body and life.  You suffer and die with Adam, yes, but your own sin condemns you.

Yet, Jesus willingly suffers and dies, not for His own sins but for yours.  He dies in your stead, for the sake of His divine and holy love, in order to save you.  Even though you have brought suffering and death upon yourself by your sins and unbelief, by your rebellion and disobedience, in pure, unselfish love He gives Himself entirely for you.  He pays the wages of your sin with His death.

And it is there in His innocent and voluntary suffering and death, in His holy Cross and Passion, that God reveals Himself most clearly as He is, and He opens His great heart of Love to you most fully and faithfully.  He thereby identifies Himself with His fallen and sinful creatures, in order to give Himself for them, and to give Himself to them, that they should have life with Him forever.

So that is where and how your Lord Jesus reigns over you in love as your King: from His Cross.

So, then, what does it mean for you to be a Christian?  What does it mean, and what does it look like in real time, in daily life, for you to be a disciple of this Lord Jesus Christ, this holy, righteous, and innocent Man, who humbles Himself and becomes obedient even unto death on the Cross?

If you hail Him as your King, and if you would live with Him in His Kingdom, in what does your citizenship in that Kingdom consist?  How are you to live?  How are you to act?  And how shall you relate to your God and Father in heaven, and to your brothers and sisters in Christ on earth?

If you are to live in Him who gave Himself for you and all the world, and if you are to abide in His presence forever, then how shall you conduct yourself already here and now under the Cross?

If you share the life of God in Christ Jesus — if you are to have the same heart, mind, and attitude in yourself as there is in Christ Jesus — then where and how shall you humble yourself in this body and life?  In what callings and stations will you become obedient to your God and Father, even unto death?  Where and how are you given to serve your neighbor, and to suffer with and for your neighbor, in self-sacrificing love — not for your own fame and fortune, but for the glory of the Lord your God?  Where and how are you taught to pray, “Abba! Father! Thy Will be done,” in the face of the Cross that He lays upon you?  With what sort of love shall you gladly do good to your neighbor, though he or she smites and reviles you, and beats you, and puts you to death?

Of course, you dare not compare even your best and brightest righteousness to that of Christ Jesus.  Of yourself, you cannot even begin.  But do not presume to compare your righteousness to that of your neighbor, either, no matter whether you proudly suppose that you are doing better or sadly perceive that you are falling short.  You are not measured by your neighbor (nor he by you), but by the Word of God in Christ Jesus.  Not that you compare yourself to Christ, as though to achieve for yourself what He has done and accomplished for you; but that you live by faith in Him.

What, then, is your hope?  Where, then, is your life?  It is and remains, always and only, in Christ Jesus, in His Crucifixion, in His humility, in His obedience, in His suffering, in His servanthood.

You will never become your own savior.  You will not fully attain the heart, mind, and attitude of Christ until He has raised you perfectly in the Resurrection.  Your life always depends upon Him.  And though you sin every day and surely deserve nothing else but punishment, He loves you still.  And He remains among you as One who continues to serve.  For He comes as a Beast of Burden, Himself, riding the “donkey” of His Word and Sacrament in order to save you now by His grace.

It is by His sacrifice and humble service, it is by and from His Cross — by the ways and means of His Holy Cross in the Ministry of His Holy Gospel — that you are raised up in faith and love, day after day, in and with Him.  Not with any righteousness of yours, but with His own righteousness.  For you are cleansed and forgiven by His Blood; you are forgiven by His Word of the Gospel.

It is by the preaching and catechesis of His Word of the Cross, and by your Holy Baptism in His Name, into His Cross and Resurrection, that He puts you to death in order to raise you to new life.

It is by His Law and His Gospel — by way of repentance, confession, and forgiveness of sins — that He wounds you, in order to heal you; that He crushes you, in order to gather you together in His Body, in order to raise you up from the death of your sin to the life of faith and love in Him.

Like the grain that is borne from the death of a single seed — grain that is harvested and gathered, crushed and ground into flour, and baked into bread — so are you gathered and baked into the one Body of Christ Jesus, even as you eat of that Bread which is His Body given for you.  And like the grapes that are grown and gathered on a thousand hills — grapes that are squeezed and crushed into wine, poured out for the many — so are you gathered from the four winds into the Marriage of Christ and His Church, to drink from His Chalice in joy, and to be poured out with Him in love.

It is with the Fruits of His Cross and Passion, with His holy Body and His precious Blood, that He forgives you all your sins, cleanses you of all unrighteousness, gives to you His life in both body and soul, and seats you at His Table in His Kingdom.  It is here at His Altar, at His Table on earth as it is in heaven, that He bids you to recline and take your rest while He who is your Lord and Master girds Himself to serve you.  And here, indeed, His great heart of love is still opened wide to you, as it ever shall be open to you, in His grace, mercy, and peace, unto the Life everlasting.

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

Blessed Is He Who Comes by and with His Precious Blood

Child of God, do not be afraid.  Daughter of Jerusalem, rejoice and be glad.

See here, your King is coming to you.  Do not be afraid of Him.  He comes to save you.  And do not be afraid of anything else, either, because your King is near.  He is here with you.  He is at hand to help you, to give you life.  He is your King, and He has come that you may live with Him in His Kingdom in safety and security, at peace with God in His righteousness.

King Jesus comes into His Holy City.  He comes in the Name of the Lord, into great Jerusalem.  He has come to die for you and your salvation. And He comes here and now to forgive you by the way and the means of His Cross, to cleanse you with His holy and precious Blood, to set you free from your sin and death, and to bring you into the presence of God in and with Himself.

He is the new and greater David, and so He comes into a new and greater Jerusalem, a City eternal in the heavens, whose Builder and Architect is God.  He comes into His Holy Church, and He calls and gathers you there to Himself.  So do we acknowledge and rejoice in His coming by singing the Sanctus and the Benedictus as our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving in the Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper: “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the Highest!”

The donkey that He rides into His Church is the Altar from which He gives to you His holy Body and pours out for you His precious Blood, and the bread and wine with which He gives to you His Body and Blood.  As the donkey brought Him into His City then, into the City of His Passion and His Cross, so does this Holy Sacrament bear Him from His Cross here to you in His Church, in a new and better Passover Feast.  For Christ is your Passover, who has been sacrificed for you.

Therefore, do not be afraid.  For His coming means not death but life for you.  In fact, to share in this Feast, to partake of this Passover, to eat this Lamb and drink His Blood, this is your life.  This is your life with God in Christ, in His Kingdom, already now, and yet forever hereafter.

But how shall you “remember” these things?  And how will you “understand” this Word of Christ?

How shall you contemplate His Cross and Holy Passion, and how shall you recognize His divine Glory in His suffering, death, and burial?

How shall you receive this Cross of Christ and its precious Fruits, and how shall you rejoice in these good Gifts which Jesus freely gives you by His grace?  How shall you recognize His Cross and the Fruits of His Cross, not as a scandal, and not as foolishness, but as your great Salvation?

Watch and pray, surely.  Pray that you will not be led into temptation.  Watch with Him throughout this Hour of His Passion.  Give attention to His Word of the Cross and to the preaching of it.

For here, especially, is how you are prepared.  Here is how you are called to remember, because God remembers you in love with the Word that He preaches and the Gifts that He gives to you.  And here is how you are given to understand, and, better than that, to receive the Gifts of God in faith and with thanksgiving, not by your own wisdom, reason, or strength, but by the Holy Spirit.

Hearken to His Word of forgiveness.  For that is finally what He says to you in all of these things.  Your sins are forgiven by the Ministry of the Gospel in the Name and stead of Christ.  Your sins are removed, they are taken away; they are not counted against you, nor counted at all anymore.  For Christ has borne them in His Body to the Cross and put them to death in His Body forever.

Hearken, then, to His Word and preaching of forgiveness.  And give attention to this Sign that He performs in your presence.  It is a better Sign than His disciples were given then, on that day, when He road into His Holy City and they greeted Him with palms and shouts of “Hosanna!”

It is a better Sign that He gives to you here and now in His Supper.  For not only has He raised Lazarus from death and the grave — as by His voice He will raise your body at the last and forever — but He Himself is risen from the dead, having accomplished Redemption by His own Blood.

His Resurrection is the proclamation of His Victory, the proclamation of His Cross and of all that He has accomplished by His Cross for you and for all people.  His Resurrection is the proclamation of that Victory even to the ends of the earth.  And His own risen Body, His flesh and blood, these are the First Fruits of your Resurrection, the First Fruits of your Salvation.  His flesh and blood, crucified and risen from the dead, are the First Fruits of the New Creation, into which you have been born again, and in which you live by the grace of God, by virtue of your Baptism into Christ.

And this same Lord Jesus Christ, who was given over for your transgressions and has been raised for your justification, He is your King who is coming to you here within His Holy Church.

Do not be afraid.  Kneel in homage at His Name, as heaven and earth kneel at the Name of Jesus.  Worship and honor Him as your King.  Fear the Lord, all you His saints, by repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins.  But do not be afraid, and do not cower in fear at His coming.  Rather, welcome and receive Him in peace and with great joy, because He is coming here to save you.

He comes with Redemption.  He comes in the Righteousness of His Gospel, which is for you by His grace alone.  He comes not for condemnation, but with forgiveness, in order to give you life.

Come here, then.  Meet Him here at His Altar.  Not symbolically or metaphorically, nor with some nostalgic memory of days gone by, but in His tangible means of grace, as real — or more real — than your own flesh and blood and the whole of His good Creation.  Come to meet Him here at His Altar in His Body and His Blood, given and poured out for you to eat and drink with your body.

And thereby enter with Him into His Holy City, into His Temple — made without hands, eternal in the heavens — and yet, established by the death of Christ here on earth as it is in heaven.

You do not have to go searching for Him, because He has sought you out and come to you here.  You do not have to climb the highest mountain, because He has descended from the heights into the valley of the shadow of death, in order to raise you up in His Body to the right hand of God.

He is here with you.  Come, meet Him here.  Find Him where the waters of Holy Baptism flow in and with His Word of the Gospel.  Follow those waters to the Feast, to the better Passover of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Himself the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the whole world.

Here is the life-giving Fruit of His Cross, and here is the power of His Resurrection from the dead, the power of His own indestructible Life, by which He raises you from death to Life everlasting.  It is all right here in the Crucified One, His Blood shed for your salvation; and yet, behold, He lives, also for your salvation, for your justification, and for your reconciliation with God in Him.

Follow Him in the Way of His Cross, which is the Way of repentance and faith.  Follow Him in this Way of the Cross, unto eternal Life with God, through His Blood of the eternal Covenant.

The Life of God is in His Blood.  And His Blood is poured out for you here, for the forgiveness of all of your sins.  As you have perhaps seen depicted in a famous work by the great Christian artist, Albrecht Dürer — or similarly portrayed by others in various works of art — the Blood of Christ that He shed upon the Cross fills His Font and His Chalice, that it might cleanse you here within His Church on earth, in the washing of the water with His Word in Holy Baptism, and in the New Testament of His Blood, which is poured out for you and for the many in His Supper.

That Blood of Christ is holy and precious.  That is not simply rhetoric or piety, but a confession of what is most certainly true.  It is not imaginary Blood, nor “let’s pretend,” but the real deal, which He shed once for all upon the Cross, and which He pours out for you to drink from His Cup here at His Altar.  And it is in and with this Blood of Christ that God gives His own Life to you.

The Letter to the Hebrews is explicit.  It is by the Blood of Christ that the heavenly Sanctuary is sanctified for you.  It is already most holy in itself, because it is the dwelling place of God, but it is sanctified for you, that you might enter into the presence of God without fault or blemish or any sins; that you might be holy, even as He is holy, and worship Him forever and ever without fear.

It is by the Blood of Christ that you enter into that Holy Place, because He, by His own Blood, has entered into that Holy Place once for all.  And there in the presence of God His Blood is your Anchor that binds you to God forever, because He by His Blood has bound Himself to you.

And when the Letter to the Hebrews speaks of the Blood of Christ — when I preach to you this Blood of Christ — it is the Blood that He shed upon the Cross.  And it is no less that same Blood which He pours out for you here at His Altar, that you might not simply think about it, but that you should actually drink it with your mouth into your body, according to the Word of Christ who says, “Drink. This Cup Is the New Testament in My Blood, which is poured out for you.”

It is with this Blood of His that your King, Christ Jesus, has entered into His Holy City — and what is more, He has entered into the Most Holy Place, into the very Bosom of His Father, with His crucified and risen Body of flesh and blood like your own.  He has entered there for you, that you may be with Him where He is, with God forever, as He Himself has spoken and has promised.

It is by and with this same Blood of the Covenant that Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, gives Himself to you here and now.  And by this Blood He binds Himself to you, and you to Him, body and soul, so that no one shall ever be able to snatch you away from Him: Not now. Not ever.

It is by this Blood of Christ that you live — tangibly, already here in this Sacrament — and bodily in your own flesh and blood, here in your life on earth within your own place, within your own home and family — and hereafter in the Resurrection of your body to the life everlasting.

It is by this Blood of Christ that you love and serve your neighbor in peace and without fear.  It is by this Blood of Christ that you bear His Holy Cross and suffer patiently, as He has suffered for you and for all.  It is by this Blood of Christ that you are strengthened and sustained in the one true faith.  It is by this Blood of Christ that all of your sins are daily and richly forgiven in His Name.

Do not fear, dear child of God.  Behold, your King is coming to you with this holy and precious Blood of His, poured out for you to drink, and with His crucified and risen Body, given for you to eat as the pledge of your own resurrection.  Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the Highest, and Peace to His people on earth!

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

The Heart, Mind, and Spirit of Christ

Have this attitude in yourself, the heart, mind, and spirit of Christ Jesus, who did not seek His own advantage but the will of God and the salvation of sinners.  To live and to love as He has done on the Way of His Cross is to be like God in the flesh.  It is to bear His Image and Likeness in your body and life, as you were created to do.  It is to live unto righteousness by faith in His Word.

Not that you are righteous of yourself, but that your righteousness is found and received in Christ alone, who loves you and has given Himself for you.  Nor is it simply that you know what a godly, divine, and righteous life is like from His example, but that He has become your righteousness by His divine life, His godly death, and His Resurrection from the dead in human flesh and blood.

Even in the womb of His Mother Mary, in His Body just like yours, He is and remains the true and only God, of one and the same divine nature as the Father and the Holy Spirit.  That does not change when He becomes true Man.  But neither does He take it for granted.  He does not rest on His laurels or presume upon His status and prerogatives.  He does not insist upon His own way, nor enforce His human will upon His neighbors.  He does not live to serve Himself, but to serve others at His own expense to the glory of His God and Father.

He does not humble Himself by becoming Man, for that in itself is the fulfillment of God’s good creation from the beginning, that He should be the Image of God, the living Icon of the Father, the exact representation of His Likeness in the flesh, and all the fullness of the Deity in bodily form.  Yet, with all of that, this God-Man Jesus Christ humbled Himself by taking on the curse of sin and death.  He bore in His Body the Fall into sin and all the consequences of that great and mighty Fall.  He suffered all the frailties and weaknesses of your mortality, your sickness, your sorrow, and not only your death but the judgment of God against your sins and the damnation that you deserve.

All of this He does and suffers in obedience to His Father, in holy faith and confidence, and in holy love for you and all your neighbors in the world.  It is not easy or painless.  He does not enjoy it, but for the joy set before Him He endures the Cross in the hope and promise of the Resurrection, not for His own sake but for your salvation.  He does not consider it beneath Him.  He does not avoid the shame and disgrace of man, but He willingly makes that burden His own in order to raise the children of man from the dust of the earth and glorify them with His Righteousness and Life.

In the Cross and Passion of Christ you behold the great compassion of God and the perfection of His almighty power in mercy.  And in His Resurrection you are called to live by His righteousness, which is to live by faith in His forgiveness of your sins, to bear His Cross in peace and hope, and to glorify God in your body.  This is your calling as a Christian, as a child of God, as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ: to think and speak and act as He has done within your own station in life.

So, are you ready, then, as Simon Peter boasted, to go with your Lord Jesus wherever He goes, whether to prison or even to death on the Cross?  To bear His reproach and share His disgrace in the eyes of the fallen world?  Or do you fear the questions, accusations, and opinions of others?

Own that you are a Christian, not only in the safety of the congregation but in the public square.  Confess the truth, not only when it is popular and politically correct, but especially when it is under attack.  Speak up in defense of the defenseless, and then also put your money where your mouth is by helping to protect and support them in their needs.  Find the courage to admonish the erring according to your proper calling, which is to say, not by yelling at politicians on television from the comfortable anonymity of your couch, nor by passive aggressive Facebook posts, but by teaching your own children to fear the Lord; by disciplining your sons and daughters, not in anger but in love; and by refusing to accommodate evil or compromise your conscience on the job.

And where you have done wrong, where you have fallen short, where you have hurt or neglected to help your neighbor, and where you have failed to do your duty, find the courage to confess your sins, to seek the Holy Absolution of God, and to bear the fruits of repentance in your behavior.  In this, too, you bear the Cross of Christ, who bore your sins in His Body and suffered for them.

Do not kid yourself that you can follow Christ and live rightly as a Christian by any skill or effort of your own.  Nor suppose that, for that reason, it doesn’t matter and you need not worry about it.  On the contrary, pray the more fervently to your Father in heaven, and call on the Name of the Lord, that He would guard you against temptation and deliver you from the evil one, and above all, that He would preserve you in His Word and faith until you die, lest you fall away and perish forever.  And again, where and when you have fallen, for there is no one who does not stumble, be turned back to Christ and strengthened in Him by the preaching and ministry of His Gospel.

In other words, live not by our own ingenuity or personal strengths, but by faith in Christ Jesus.

Consider how very different He is from all the idols in your life to which you sacrifice, all those perishable and temporary things in which you invest so much of yourself, your time and energy, your money to the point of going into debt, your body and your health, and even your own soul.  Those false gods that occupy your heart and mind and dominate your days and nights are not able to help you; they cannot give you life.  They require so much of you, but whatever they may give you in return is fleeting and short-lived, even if it is not inherently wrong.  Enjoy the good gifts of God, but do not worship them.  When you pray to them, they will prey on you until you perish.

Only in Christ Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead, do you find the resurrection of your body and the life everlasting of your body and soul.  His Word alone endures forever and ever.

Contrast Him to the rulers of the nations, who lord it over their subjects and call themselves benefactors, even though they get all their wealth and power from the people.  King Jesus did not put on airs or vaunt Himself, but He emptied Himself in humility and laid down His life in love.

He gave Himself over to death and shed His precious Blood to atone for all your sins, to rob the devil of his power against you, to raise you up from death, and to give you life with God.  Christ did not save Himself, but He freely died to save you and all others, to forgive the sins of those who trespassed against Him, who betrayed and denied Him, who handed Him over and falsely accused Him, who beat and mocked and spit on Him, who stripped Him of His clothes and nailed Him to the Cross.  Not in desperation or denial, but in perfect faith and faithfulness He entrusted Himself to His God and Father, relying on Him to raise Him from death and the grave and to vindicate Him.

This innocent suffering and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, contrary to all appearances, is actually
the true divine Glory of God.  For His Glory is not found in what the world supposes to be good
and great and powerful, but in what this world considers useless and weak, impotent and foolish.

The Lord your God does not exercise His royal sovereignty by taxing you or taking things from you, but by giving all good things to you by grace.  So He does, not only for you, but for the world.  From princes to paupers, from presidents to peasants, whatever anybody has is by the charity of God.  Yet, all the stuff on earth will not save you, no matter how much you may have, but only Christ and the treasures of His Kingdom, which are yours by faith alone in the Gospel of His Cross and Resurrection.  For by and from His Sacrifice He gives to you His Righteousness and Life, His divine Sonship and His Name, His Body and His Blood, His heart and mind, and His Holy Spirit.

He saves you by the Passion of His great Love for you, which He bears and suffers unto death for the forgiveness of your sins.  He pours Himself out in order to fill you up with a prosperity and peace such as this world and its rulers neither know nor understand and cannot provide.

Because He is your Lord and King, your Savior and your God, He does teach you the fear of God.  He calls you to repentance where you are wrong, and He disciplines you to do what is good and right.  But in this, too, He exercises love for you, that you should learn how to live the divine life that is yours by His grace through faith in His Gospel.  He desires not your hurt but your salvation.

He calls you to weep for yourself and for the legacy of your sins, but to find your joy and gladness in His mercy.  He calls you to take up His Cross and follow Him in the hope of His Resurrection.

When He wounds you, it is to heal you by turning you away from your dead and deadly idols back to Himself, the true and living God who is alone the Author and Giver of Life.  When He puts you to death for your sins, it is to put sin to death in you, to raise you up and give you life by His free forgiveness of your sins.  So does He preserve you in His Word and strengthen your faith in Him.

And bear in mind that, despite how it feels to your flesh, this dying and rising of repentance and faith is a participation in the Image and Likeness of God.  Do not lose sight of this important fact, that everything He works in you for your good — as He deals with you in gentle compassion and according to the divine justice of His Love — He has first of all accomplished for you in Himself, in His own Body of flesh and blood, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

He has borne your sin in His Body.  He has suffered your death in His Body.  And He is risen from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father in His Body of flesh and blood like your own.

It is for this purpose that He has gone up to Jerusalem, and for this great salvation of sinners like yourself that He was lifted up in death upon the Cross.  It is the Will of God that He achieved and the Kingdom of God that He has established on earth as it is in heaven; for He bore the sins of the world as the Lamb of God, and He sacrificed Himself in the humble obedience of faith and love.  He is the One who was wounded in order to heal you.  He is the One who was put to death in order to give you life.  He is the One who has atoned for your sins and reconciled you to His Father.

He numbered Himself with transgressors.  He took His place with sinners from His Baptism to His Cross; He suffered and died in their stead.  And He humbled Himself in this way in order to cover your shame with His honor, to glorify you in Himself.  For His faithful obedience is reckoned unto you as righteousness, so that in His Resurrection and Ascension you are highly exalted by God.  As in your Holy Baptism, so also by His Holy Absolution and with His gracious Benediction, you are named with His great Name.  By His Ministry of the Gospel you are vindicated of your faults.

The Cross that He has laid upon your heart, mind, and spirit, on your body and your soul, is not only for repentance and discipline, but also for the daily and ongoing forgiveness of your sins, for your protection against Satan, all his works and all his ways, and for your Life and Salvation with Christ in God.  Through the blest baptismal waters you follow the Lord Jesus up to Jerusalem, and you pass through His death and grave into the Most Holy Place, eternal in the heavens, where you eat and drink the Passover Feast of God.  So does that man with the pitcher of water lead you to the Upper Room for that great Supper, the neverending Banquet of the Lamb in His Kingdom.

Here then, at His Altar, bend your knee at the Name of Jesus Christ, and confess to the glory of His God and Father that He who feeds you with His Body and His Blood is your Lord.  Worship Him with all that you are and have, not only in your heart and mind, but also with your body.  Not as though you must appease any wrath in Him or curry His favor, but rather in love, with thanks and praise, in faith, and with deep reverence, because He is the Lord your God in the flesh, your Savior from death, who freely and fully forgives you all of your sins.  He is the One who gives you life.

Offer Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving, because He gives you all good things by grace, and there is nothing else for you to do but return thanks unto Him.  He does not require that you sacrifice your flesh or pour out your blood.  On the contrary, He who is the one true God in the flesh does this for you.  He gives you His Body to eat, the Fat Portion of His Sacrifice for you.  And He pours out His Blood for you to drink, the Choice Wine of His sacred Libation.  How could He honor you more than He does?  For He is with you as the One who serves here at His Table.  He remembers you here in His Kingdom, and He gives you a place here with Himself in His Paradise on earth.

That is the heart, mind, and spirit of Christ, that you should find peace and rest in Him forever.

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

The Self-Sacrifice of Christ for Our Salvation

There are many reasons for which people contemplate or threaten suicide, and of course each situation is unique. But most of those people who actually attempt to die by their own hands have these two things in common: (1.) They have limited connections to other people, whether few in number or mostly casual and superficial; and (2.) they have come to believe that others would be less burdened, and so the world would actually become a better place without them.

If you are thinking along these lines, and feeling this way, please talk to your pastor or teacher, confide in your parent or spouse, or go and see your physician. Seek help, and do not believe the lie that the world would be a better place without you. The Author and Giver of life has created you for the sake of His love, and He has a purpose for each day and every hour that He gives you.

If someone else confides in you that he or she is contemplating suicide, do not simply encourage but actively assist that person in seeking help. Insist on the counsel and care of at least a parent, a pastor or physician, and follow through in making sure that help is obtained. Your neighbor’s life is too precious to risk doing nothing or letting it go out of awkwardness or loyalty to a friend.

But now, then, what are we to think or say about Jesus? Is He bent upon some kind of suicide mission? Is He intent upon throwing His life away? He’s had a lot of followers, off and on along the way, but He’s also managed to alienate many if not most of them. Public opinions rise and fall like election polls; the crowds tend to be fickle, their loyalties shallow. Is Jesus getting desperate, or despairing? His own extended family has already feared, at times, that He has lost His senses.

Hasn’t He been telling His disciples that He’s going to Jerusalem expecting to be condemned and put to death? And remember how He responded when Simon Peter objected to that prospect? He has spoken of His coming death as a given, a necessity, and as the very purpose for which He has come into the world. He has clearly said that He will lay down His life in order to save others.

So, is Jesus suicidal as He enters Jerusalem on a bee-line for the Cross?

By no means! He is not despairing, but confident and faithful, trusting in His God and Father. He is not giving up hope, nor abandoning His vocation, but proceeding in the way that His Father has set before Him, in the very Office to which He has been called and ordained by the Holy Spirit. His death upon the Cross is not suicide — although it is true that no one takes His life from Him, but He lays it down willingly. It is not suicide, but Self-sacrifice. He offers Himself up to God, in perfect faith, in love for God and for His neighbors: for all of His neighbors, including you.

The fallen world cannot make sense of this Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. It can discern, to some extent, the self-sacrifice of duty, of those who put themselves in harm’s way to save others. And the world surely does pass judgment, in one form or another, not only on those who shirk their duties and run away from danger when it comes, but also on those who have ended their own lives.

But the fallen world does not recognize, nor can it really know, the true glory of the Cross. It does not see the bullet that Christ takes, the bomb that He smothers and absorbs with His Body; nor does it realize the ransom that He pays to redeem the world from destruction. The Cross seems to be, not the faithfulness of duty, but simply foolishness; not the glory of heroic rescue from danger, but a futile waste, a misguided effort, a failed mission, a dismal loss. Or, at best, the world might think of the crucified Jesus as a martyr for some cause, as a fervent emotional appeal for tolerance.

Confronted with the Cross of Christ, the world slips easily into cynical unbelief and proud idolatry. If that’s what God is like, well then, no thanks! Cold reason kicks into gear and begins to calculate survival. Hardness of heart sets in, not only against God, but also against the neighbor. Sacrifice may be fine, to a certain extent, if there’s some return on the investment, some marketable glory to be gained. Every move is governed by the twin goals of self-preservation and self-promotion.

That way of thinking obviously doesn’t aim at suicide, but in resisting and fleeing from the Cross, it does lead to the spiritual self-destruction of apostasy; which is ultimately far worse. In trying to protect yourself and preserve your life by rejecting the Cross and the Crucified One, you make a show of strength and competence, but you cut yourself off from the only true and lasting Life.

Alternatively, the fallen world sometimes simply falls apart when confronted by the Cross; that is, instead of cold logic and calculated strategy, there is a kind of craziness or madness that emerges. Not hardness of heart, but insanity, lawlessness, and perversity of every kind. The nervous system comes unglued, the mind becomes unhinged, and open foolishness begins to reign. Faced with the consequences of sin, the certainty of death, and the condemnation of the Law — which is what you see in Christ on the Cross — there is the panic, the chaos and confusion of a waking nightmare.

So what are you to make of all this, when the so-called “real world,” on the one hand, seems so solid, so objective and so certain, and yet, on the other hand, it is frequently so very unstable? Soldiers gone berserk. Pilots gone crazy. High school students opening fire on their classmates. Football coaches molesting little boys. Fathers blowing up their children.

At the same time, the true reality — that of the Holy Triune God and His Word, His Kingdom and His Righteousness — and His dwelling place, the Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens — that all sounds so imaginary and fantastic, so make believe and fairy-tale foolish.

Too good to be true, for one thing; but then it is manifested and bestowed by the way of the Cross, which appears to be, and feels like, exactly the opposite!

It seems as though sanity ought to be rather savvy, reasonable and strong, the way the world likes it and wants it to be. But here the sanity of God enters in with this foolishness, in humility and weakness, mounted on the foal of a donkey. He who is God empties Himself, and makes Himself nothing. He submits Himself, in utter poverty and human shame, to death upon the Cross.

Such divine sanity appears absolutely crazy, as though God were out of His mind. And yet, you are called to have this mind of God in yourself, to share this sanity of Christ, which is the sanity of His Cross. That shall be yours only by faith in the Word of God. It is not by sight or sense; neither by emotion nor experience.

Appearances are deceiving. So, what’s really going on?

The triumphal entry into Jerusalem is the Lord’s selection of the Passover Lamb. That’s what was happening in the holy city on that day. Here the Father chooses His own beloved Son, without spot or blemish, and hands Him over to be slain for the Feast.

So it is that Jesus comes and enters in, and then He becomes the King of the Jews — He saves His people now — by entering upon His Holy Passion, and then mounting the throne of His Cross.

He goes up to Jerusalem, in order to enter the Most Holy Place once for all by His Self-sacrifice upon the Cross, by the shedding of His Blood. He thereby atones for the sins of the world and redeems all the people at the cost of His own Life, freely given in faith and love.

In this way, the Lord Jesus establishes the New Covenant in Himself — in His own Body, with His own Blood. Which is to say that He reconciles the world to God in Himself; so that heaven and earth, God and Man, are perfectly and permanently united in Him, in His Person, in Peace.

The testimony of that reconciliation is given by God the Father in the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Jesus. For He who died for you, bearing your sins, has been raised up and seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Not only that, but His reconciliation is also given, here and now, to you, in the New Covenant of His Body and His Blood.

For here is the Meat and Drink of that Passover Meal, of the Lamb who was chosen by God and sacrificed for the salvation of the world. His flesh feeds you. His blood cleanses you from sin and covers you from death. This is the eternal redemption that Christ has obtained for you.

This is the true wisdom of His Cross; the true sanity and stability of His salvation; the true victory of Christ, which prevails for you against all of your enemies: against sin, death, the devil and hell.

Therefore, if you have given up or despaired of hope, return to this stronghold — to this Covenant of Christ the Crucified. For this very day, He declares, He restores double to you.

He is faithful. He shall do it.

The world does have its own victories of self-sacrificing love, its own heroes, its own martyrs for good causes: Soldiers who don’t go berserk, but who lay down their lives in defense of others. Firefighters and police officers. Brave citizens who step into the breach. Mothers and fathers who sacrifice in countless ways for the sake of their children.

For a good cause, for a good man, for a good friend, some people are indeed willing to risk their lives, and to die. Man has no greater love to give than that.

And the world, in its own way, honors that sacrifice. But it does so with sadness, with memories of, and with monuments to, that which has been lost and won’t be gotten back again.

God’s love and His Self-sacrifice are far greater. For while we were yet sinners — not good men, but bad; not friends of God, but enemies at odds with Him — even then, the Father gave His Son, and the Son laid down His life for us all.

And see what His love has done: He has reconciled us and the whole world to Himself. He has befriended His enemies. He has brought an end to the war that would not end, and now He speaks peace to all the nations. Instead of chaos, He brings calm. Instead of insanity and instability, He has become your Firm Foundation, and the Wise Master Builder of a House that shall not fall.

In His Resurrection, He has given you a future and a hope. Indeed, He is your future and your hope, your life and your salvation, your strength and your song. Because He is not dead and gone, but victorious and alive forevermore. His dominion is from sea to shining sea; from the Tigris and the Euphrates, and from the Jordan River, even to the ends of the earth.

And here is the irony of the Cross: The world is a better place because of His death; because, by His atoning Self-sacrifice, He has established a peaceful connection and profound communion between God and Man. He has removed the great divide, brought down the wall of hostility, and replaced the stone cold loneliness of sin and death with His divine friendship.

Beloved, that is what is true and real, and sure and certain for you. The world is now a better place, for you and for your neighbor, because of who you are in Christ — God’s own dear child:

Buried with Christ by your Baptism into His death, and raised with Him to newness of life.

So it is that your life in the flesh, in the world, even now under the Cross, and your labors of love, for your neighbors, friends or foes, these are not in vain, but meaningful and significant. Your faith in Christ and His Cross is not foolish, but the true divine wisdom, which is forever and ever.

For God has highly exalted the Crucified One, and given Him the Name which is above every name; that, at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow — in heaven and on earth, and under the earth — and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

What, then, shall we offer to the Lord for all His benefits to us?

Let us offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Let us take up the Cup of Salvation, and call on the Name of the Lord. For everyone who calls on His Name shall be saved. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

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