The Sign of the Cross in the Holy Place

Everything hinges on the Cross of Christ Jesus.  Life, the universe, and everything — indeed, all of time and space — are centered in the Cross of Christ and find their heart and meaning there.  Heaven and earth and all that is in them, all of creation, and your life, too, depend on His Cross.

None of these things can properly be understood apart from the Cross.  Nor will any of it survive apart from the Cross.  Every bit of it is either put to death by the Cross, in order to live, or judged forever outside of the Cross, unto eternal death.  You either die to live, or you're living to die.

The sign of the Cross is a mark of the Church on earth and of the Christian life in this world.  Not simply as a piece of jewelry or a work of art, nor only as a pious personal ceremony, appropriate as such things are.  It involves tribulation and suffering within and without, the daily dying of the old Adam by contrition and repentance, and relentless persecution by the devil and the world.

You have been taught to love and adore the Cross of Christ Jesus, and it is meet and right so to do.  But for all of that, the Cross remains an abomination of desolation in the Temple of God; for it is the full realization of the curse of sin and death, and of God’s righteous wrath and just judgment.  It is the Cross that desecrates the old, in order to make all things new in the Body of Christ.

Such is the paradox of Christianity — the paradox of God Himself — which is entirely foolish and counter-intuitive to the wisdom of sinful man.  It makes no sense at all to you apart from the preaching of the Gospel, which is the forgiveness of sins by the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus.

That is why your crucified and risen Lord Jesus sends His messengers to you now — as He will send out His angels on that great and terrible Day.  He sends His servants to gather His elect from the four winds, to call disciples from all the nations — all by the way and the means of His Cross, by His Word of the Cross, which is the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Meanwhile, there are no lack of false “christs” and false prophets, who go out into all the world preaching a false “gospel,” proclaiming false promises that are not grounded in the painful Cross of Christ Jesus, but dependent on seemingly impressive signs and wonders.

Do not listen to them.  Do not be misled.

What is more, do not horde or grasp or cling to any of the wealth and wisdom of this world.  Even the Lord’s good gifts and blessings of your home and family must finally give way and be let go.  Indeed, all of nature, the heavens and the earth, the sun, moon, and stars, all of it will pass away.

Repent of your idolatrous fear, love, and trust in whatever is not God.  Repent of whatever is not Christ Jesus, crucified and risen.  For only Christ and His Word of the Cross remain forever.

It is His Cross, remember that.  Your life and salvation do not depend upon your suffering and death, but on His.  It is not what you bear and carry, but His Holy Cross and Passion, His innocent suffering and death, which have fulfilled and established all of creation — and your salvation.

His Cross is laid upon you, therefore, in love by the Lord your God, not to crush and destroy you, but to save you and to give you life by His grace.  So does He also feed you here with the fruits of His Cross.  Here your sins are forgiven, so that, by His tribulation, you abide in His House forever.

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

A Medicine of Peace for Heart, Mind, Soul, and Spirit

If you knew that your pastor could cure your illness and heal all your bodily diseases — and that he would gladly do so with a word, without any cost — you would surely go to him.  You know that you would.  For medical care, you’re willing to do a lot, to go through a lot, to pay a lot, even if you are one of those people who tend to put it off too long.

When it finally does come down to it, for your physical health and well-being you’re also willing to let your medical doctor examine you in ways that would otherwise be quite immodest and inappropriate.  What is more, you’re willing to let a surgeon cut into your body and open you up — in ways that actually are quite dangerous and even deadly — for the sake of dealing with even more dangerous and deadly conditions.

You’re willing to do and suffer these medical treatments, even though there are no guarantees or “warranties” when it comes to your bodily health in this mortal life.

How is it, then, that there is such hesitation and resistance on the part of so many Christians when it comes to seeking out spiritual care from their pastor and allowing him to serve them with the sure and certain Word of Christ?  Is it self-righteous pride and conceit?  Stubborn self-reliance?  Or is it, rather, embarrassment and shame?

No matter what your own reasons or excuses may be, if you recognize your sin, if you know how serious and dangerous it is, then, for heaven’s sake, seek and receive the rescue that your Lord so freely provides — just as you go to the doctor when you’re sick, even though you’d rather not.

But if you do not recognize or realize your sinful condition and its sobering prognosis, then all the more urgently do you need to be rescued and healed from it — lest it kill you eternally!  The fact is that your sin is real, and it is deadly, all the more so when you deny it.

It is for this reason that the Holy Scriptures and the Small Catechism teach you and admonish you to examine yourself according to the Commandments of the Lord your God.

That’s actually far more important than regular medical check-ups and exams, notwithstanding the wisdom and benefit of such bodily maintenance.  Take care of yourself, certainly.  But it is still the case that your body is going to die, in any event, whether it be sooner or later, no matter what you do or don’t do.  And then, what happens to your body and your soul after that point — and forever and ever — depends entirely on where you stand in relation to God, either in repentance and faith unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting, or in sinful unbelief unto eternal punishment.

Examine yourself, therefore, and discipline yourself according to the Word of God.

Otherwise — and thanks be to God for this, although it is unpleasant in the meantime — the Lord, in His love for you, will discipline you and call you to repentance, in order that you not remain in your sins, but that you would be rescued for the faith and life of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.

It is to this end that the Lord your God allows you to suffer some of the consequences of your sins.  Although in His mercy He spares you from so much of what you rightly deserve, He also chastens you and wounds you, in order to heal and repair you.  He also sends His Nathans, His pastors and His “prophets,” as it were, to preach His Word to you, lest you be left in your ignorance — or, what is even worse than that, your presumptuous sins.

The Lord uses both His Law and His Gospel to call you and to bring you daily to repentance, that is, to the dying of contrition and to the rising of faith in His forgiveness of sins.  He puts the Old Adam in you to death, and He raises you up to newness of life in the New Man, Jesus Christ.

You should recognize this dying and rising for what it is, namely, the ongoing, daily, and life-long significance of your Holy Baptism.  It is not your work, nor is it in your own power, no more than your Baptism itself and its great benefits are your doing.  There simply is no “do-it-yourself” or “self-medicated” Christianity, but the Lord is always at work through His own ways and means to recall you to Himself, and to keep you close to Him.

This good work of repentance is precisely what He does for you, and gives to you, and works in you, also through the practice of Confession & Holy Absolution.

Though it may seem natural that you would focus on your confession of sins — on its difficulty and embarrassment, on its character and content, on its length and other qualities — the real focus and the “center of gravity” in this means of grace is the Lord’s Holy Absolution, that is, the spoken Word of forgiveness in the Name and stead of Christ Jesus, your Savior.  And along with that Word, there is also then the pastor’s preaching of the Gospel to you within that personal context.

The emphasis is not on your work, but on Christ’s work.  It’s not about how “good” or “bad” you are, but how good Christ is, and how gracious and merciful He is in forgiving you all your sins.  It’s not what you must give or suffer, but what Christ Jesus freely gives to you as the fruit and benefit of His suffering for you.  It does not depend upon your remorse over the past, nor your promise concerning the future, but entirely upon the certainty of Christ’s Word and promise to you.

The Lord gives you all these good things, and He does these good things for you, by and with His Word, and not at all apart from His Word.  So did He send the Prophet “Nathan” (whose very name means gift) to speak His Word to David.

And so does He also send your pastor to you, not as a master and commander of His Word, but as a called and ordained servant of His Word, and as a personal gift of His grace and mercy.

It is true that Individual Confession & Absolution is a matter of freedom; it is a gift of the Gospel, not an obligation or a burden of the Law.  To be sure, that is not the case in matters of public sin or when it comes to stubborn persistence in unrepentant sin, both of which call for the use of the binding key and for the exercise of church discipline, as needs may be.  But the ordinary use of Individual Confession & Absolution is freely given to be freely received in repentant faith.  No one is keeping score or grading you on this practice.

However, do consider and take to heart the unique and powerful benefit and blessing of Individual Confession & Absolution, which rests upon the authority of Christ your dear Lord Himself, and which is so highly praised by Dr. Luther and our Lutheran Confessions.

The Word of Christ Jesus that is spoken and preached in Holy Absolution surely does and gives exactly what it says.  By that Word, the Lord your God removes your sins from you and lays them on the Son of David, Jesus Christ, who dies (and rises) in your stead and for your benefit.

In removing your sin, He also strengthens your faith with the Gospel.  The Word of Absolution sets Christ against your sin and death, against both the temptations and the accusations of the devil; and at the same time, it also sets the same Lord Jesus Christ, not against you, but with you and for you, as your great Champion of Salvation.

The life-giving Word of Holy Absolution pours Christ Jesus Himself into you — into your ears — in much the same way that His Body and His Blood are given into your mouth in the Holy Communion.  And in both cases, the Holy Spirit lays Christ upon your heart to strengthen and sustain your body and your soul in steadfast faith and real life.

So, too, along with this central gift and benefit of Holy Absolution itself, the practice of Individual Confession & Absolution is a tremendous means of pastoral care and catechesis in the Word and faith, as I can attest from both sides of the practice.  It is a most personal bestowal of forgiveness, which addresses itself to your particular sins and weaknesses, not to condemn you, but to help and strengthen you.  It is therefore also a powerful weapon against the assaults and accusations of the devil, and a source of unsurpassed comfort, peace, and rest in the sweet Gospel of Christ Jesus.

For a pastor, let me tell you honestly that Individual Confession & Absolution is a difficult and humbling task.  Nevertheless, it is also a sacred trust and responsibility, and a profound means of care that can hardly be equaled and cannot be replaced.

Actually, the Office of the Keys and the Office of the Holy Ministry go hand-in-hand: Hearing confession and absolving sinners in the Name and stead of Christ Jesus is integral to, and in some ways definitive of, the entire pastoral office.

So much is this a part of who your pastor is and what he does, that he is not shocked or appalled (nor even surprised) by your sins.  But he is grateful for the opportunity to help you with the gifts of Christ, that is, with the Holy Absolution of the Gospel, and with the preaching of the Gospel to your own sins and personal circumstances.

In this way, and by this means of grace, your pastor is given to assist you in bearing the burdens of your sin and death.  Not by his own wisdom or strength, but by the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, and by His authority as the crucified and risen Lord.  It is indeed a special authority, not of worldly power, but of loving service.

Through this exercise of pastoral care, your pastor serves, not only as a physician of your soul, but as your shepherd under Christ Jesus, and as your spiritual father in Christ Jesus.

Do not be ashamed to be a patient, a sheep, and a child of this servant.  Rather, understand that Christ Jesus — who has purchased and won you to be His very own, in order that you might live with Him in His Kingdom in eternal peace and joy — has entrusted you to the care of this poor man, so that you might kneel at this Altar and recline at this Table; that you might here be fed and nourished with the Gospel in the Word and Sacrament of Christ; and that you might be and live as a son or daughter of God in the House of the Lord forever and ever.

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

Timely and Apropos for a Day of Humiliation and Prayer

O Eternal and Merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we acknowledge and confess before Thee our manifold and great offenses. We have experienced Thy goodness, but have not been led to repentance. We have seen thy judgments abroad in the earth, but have not learned righteousness. Above all, we have neglected the means of grace and set at naught Thy tender mercies in Christ Jesus. But Thou art a merciful God, full of compassion, long-suffering, and of great pity, who hast no pleasure in the death of sinners, but hadst rather that they turn from their sins and be saved. Be gracious unto us, therefore, even as Thou art wont. Spare us, O Lord, though for our evil deeds we do worthily deserve to be punished. In the midst of judgment still remember mercy. For Thy dear Son's sake, forgive us all our past sins, and grant that we may hereafter serve and please Thee in newness of life, to the honor and glory of Thy name.

Be Thou our Refuge and Strength, a very present Help in trouble.

Protect Thy Church, the vineyard which Thou hast planted among us, and water it abundantly with the rivers of living water. Give grace to all the ministers of Thy Gospel, that they may both by their doctrine and life set forth Thy true and lively Word, and grant that Thy little flock may dwell in peace and safety everywhere.

Preserve us from plague and pestilence, from war and bloodshed, from fire and flood, from failure of harvest and from famine, from lightning and tempest, and from all other calamities.

We entreat Thee also for all those who are in authority over us; counsel them by Thy wisdom, and strengthen their hands, that they may so wait on their office as to promote Thy glory and the common good. And grant grace to all Thy people, that we may submit ourselves to every ordinance of man for Thy sake, and be subject to the higher powers, reverencing  them and upholding them in all their lawful endeavors to maintain justice and righteousness among men.

Teach us to live, day by day, in humble dependence on Thy promises, in cheerful obedience to Thy laws, and in a sure and certain hope of a blessed immortality.

Fill our hearts with a due sense of Thy unspeakable love in the redemption of our souls, that we may with filial confidence call upon Thee in the day of trouble and, among all the changes of this mortal life, ever be defended by Thy most gracious and ready help.

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, in our every need. Save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, that Thy glory may dwell in our land.

Almighty God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto Thee, and dost promise, where two or three are gathered together in Thy name, Thou wilt grant their requests, fulfill now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of Thy servants as may be most expedient for us, granting us in this world knowledge of Thy truth and in the world to come life everlasting; for the sake of the redemption and intercession of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth in equal majesty and glory, true God and man, blessed forever. Amen. (The Lutheran Liturgy, 366-368).

Now, in Christ, Death Cannot Slay Me

Even the friends of Jesus are confronted with sickness and the experience of death.  They suffer hurt and disappointment.  They are subject to sadness and tears.  The same is no less true for you, as you are called to believe in Jesus Christ and follow Him.  Indeed, His disciples are called to bear His Cross and to suffer and die with Him.  To be crucified, put to death, and buried with Him.

It is one thing to bear and suffer these things along with Him.  But so often it appears as though Jesus were not present when He could be, and that He has chosen not to help you.  He waits and deliberately delays.  He does not respond right away.  He does not answer your prayer according to the longing of your heart, but in ways that are confusing and seem to make no sense at all.

If only He were here, your brother would not die; nor your nephew; nor your cousin; nor your son.

If only He would intervene and do “His thing,” your own infirmity and illness would not end in death, nor even disability, but you would surely recover and not only live but thrive.

Isn’t that what a close personal friend of Jesus ought to expect from the One who is incarnate Love and the very Mercies of God in person?  He causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on both the evil and the good, and He gives daily bread even to the wicked.  Will He not help His own friends?

You know the whispers and dark questions of your sinful heart and mind.  What does it mean when Jesus does not do what you are so desperately hoping and praying?  Does He not love and care for you?  Have you disappointed Him or failed Him somehow, that He should disappoint and fail you?  Is He tired of your nagging and your neediness?  Or does He just have better things to do?

To be sure, there are a thousand such temptations of doubt and fear, which are a more devastating consequence of sin than the sickness and death of your body.  Where heart and mind are insecure and uncertain of Christ Jesus, weeping and mourning do not flow in faith and love, but threaten to overwhelm you altogether, to drown you in cynical despair.  Assaulted by the crafts of the devil, you are buried, not with Christ in the hope of the Resurrection, but in hopelessness and unbelief.

Yet, for all your frustration, faithlessness, and fear, the fact of Christ’s presence and His love for you are certain.  Not because you have been such a good friend to Him, but because He is sent by the Father to do His Will and to glorify His Holy Name; and your Salvation is His divine Glory.

The Lord Jesus is the Good Physician, that is true, but He does not come to stave off death with heroic measures to protect and preserve your life on earth.  He does not call a halt to the reign of death by the fiat of His almighty power, although He surely could do that.  He could also have let Adam & Eve eat from the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden — and live forever in their sin.  But, instead of that, He would have the children of man become the children of God, and so live in His eternal Love: To be reconciled to Him in peace, and to become His friends in truth.  Thus, He comes, not to spare your body from the first death, but to save your body and soul from eternal death, and to bring you alive into the Paradise of the New Creation in His own glorified Body.

For that reason, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the One who comes into the world, enters fully into the sickness and mortality of our human condition, in order to die on behalf of all the people.  He comes to save them altogether from the bondage and fear of death by His own death in the flesh, by the shedding of His blood.  He comes to bring them into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

He also will be wrapped and shrouded in grave clothes, buried in a tomb, and hidden away from sight and smell by a large stone.  For He makes His bed where your body is bound to repose.

Even so, according to the prayer and confession of the Psalmist, His sacred Body will not suffer decay, nor will the Father permit His beloved Son and faithful Servant to undergo corruption.  He always has the Life of the Father in Himself, and He is Himself the Resurrection and the Life of the world.  So it is that death and the grave are not able to hold Him or contain Him, although He willingly submits to them.  He lays down His life in death, in order to take it up again for us all.

So, then, sickness and mortality do not end in death.  Even death itself does not end in death!  But, no, in Christ Jesus a Christian passes through death into the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.  And, dear friends, that is the case, not only on the last day, but already here and now in the midst of mortal life.  Even now, by faith you walk in the Light of Christ and do not stumble or fall.

You are sorely tempted, tried, and tested, no doubt about it.  Not least of all by the ravages of sin, by sickness, suffering, and death, not only in yourself, but in your loved ones and all around you.

Nevertheless, as you believe in Christ, the Crucified and Risen One, the greatest miracle of all is that you do behold the Glory of God, not “in spite of the Cross,” but precisely in the Cross itself, which you have come to know and have believed to be the glorification of the Son of God.

It’s not that your hopes are pinned on some miraculous rescue from every illness, suffering, and tragedy in this perishing world.  You do rightly pray for the mercies of the Lord, and you rely upon His help in every kind of trouble.  But, come what may, you give thanks unto the Lord because He is good, and His mercy endures forever.  You hear and heed the Voice of Christ in His Gospel, and you find sure and certain hope in the Resurrection and the Life of His Body and His Blood.

Take courage, and be comforted, that He has also borne your griefs and carried all your sorrows in His own flesh, in His own body to the Cross; that He has suffered Himself to experience and share all your weaknesses and temptations, and He sympathizes with you, as your merciful and great High Priest.  He does not abandon you in tribulation and heartache, but He is with you to strengthen and support you in the one true faith, and to save you from every evil of body and soul.

It is so much the case that He is with you in the suffering and experience of sin and death, that it is precisely by His Cross that He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the children of God.  You enter into the friendship of God, and you share His Glory in Christ Jesus, by the way of His Cross.

So, then, whether you live, or whether you die, you are the Lord’s.  In Him who loves you, who died for you and has risen from the dead, you also rise up and live forever, even though you die.  By your Baptism you have already died with Him, in order to live with Him, now and forever.

In that Light of Christ, it is not wrong but appropriate and right to mourn for those who die from this world, who have been near and dear to you in this body and life.  For death is the consequence of sin; it is an intrusion upon God’s good creation and His gift of life.  Only, do not mourn as those who have no hope.  Do not despair.  Do not give yourself over to grief, as though it were your god.

Instead, call upon the Name of the Lord your God, and rely upon His mercy.  For even though you are threatened by sorrow and fear, still, He is not done with you; He is and remains your Savior.

In and through Christ Jesus, your Father in heaven hears and answers your prayers.

And His Answer to all your prayers, the Father’s resounding “Yes” and “Amen” to your every need, is Christ Jesus Himself, the incarnate Son.  And He is not simply a means to some other end, but He is Himself your Resurrection and your Life everlasting with God in both body and soul.

As you have already died and risen with Christ Jesus through Holy Baptism, so do you also feast upon His crucified and risen Body and Blood.  In Him, therefore, you really are set free from sin and death forevermore.  No longer are you imprisoned by the grave, nor bound and constricted by its trappings.  You do not stink of death and decay anymore, no matter what your senses tell you.

In truth, you live and believe in Jesus.  You live in His Light and His Love by faith in His Word.  And both you and your prayers arise like sweet-smelling incense, a pleasing aroma, to your God and Father in heaven.  By the Voice of His beloved Son — by the preaching of His Gospel — He daily and richly forgives your sins and calls you from death and the grave into Life and Salvation.

As the Lord your God is pleased with you, do not be dismayed or afraid, but hope and trust in Him with the confidence of faith; and here behold His Glory in His Body given and His Blood poured out for you and for the many.  For in and with His Flesh the Life of God abides in you forever.

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

Abiding with Christ in the Place of Holy Baptism

You do not deny that Jesus is the Son of God, and you would not dream of picking up stones to throw at Him and kill Him.  By your Baptism into Christ Jesus, by His Word and Holy Spirit, you believe in Him and love Him, and you confess that He is the Lord, your Savior and your God.

But also take to heart, in particular, that He, being God, has been sanctified and sent by the Father to become true Man, your Brother in the flesh.  He has come down from heaven to do the works of God the Father here on earth — with human words and with His bodily means of grace.

Look, then, where He is staying: He is in the place of Baptism, that is, within His Church on earth — in the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins — and in the Supper of the Lamb, the One who has been slain, and yet, behold, He lives for you.  That is where you go to be with Him.

Do not look for your Savior and your God “up there,” as though you could peer into heaven and scale such heights on your own.  And don’t try to lay hold of Him, whether for good or evil, by any power or wisdom of yours.  You won’t find Him that way, nor will you catch Him in your hands.

Do not suppose that you will ever have outgrown the benefits and significance of Holy Baptism.  And do not imagine that what you need is something more and better than the same ol’ same ol’ means of grace.  Those means of the Gospel are exactly where and how Jesus is with you and for you.  That is where He remains.  That is where you find Him, because that is where and how He finds you. That is where and how you come to believe in Him and live in Him, now and forever.

Repent of your desire and your tendency to wander off and look for other gods — whatever their name or kind, whether it be your family and friends, wealth or power or fame.  Return with all your heart and soul, your body, mind, and strength, to the place of Baptism, to the Church on earth.  It is precisely there that God the Son has come from God the Father to work among you and for you.

It is in His own Body of flesh and blood — in the waters of the Jordan, in His Crucifixion and His Resurrection — that His God and Father has sanctified Christ Jesus with His Holy Spirit to be your Savior.  And it is still with the flesh and blood of Christ, and by the Word of Jesus Christ the Crucified One, that His Father sanctifies you with the same Holy Spirit, unto the Life everlasting.

This is the good work that Christ your Savior does for you.  His Word has come to you, and it is still spoken to you, for the forgiveness of all your sins.  So, too, in the waters of Holy Baptism He has made of you a son of God by His grace.  His Father is your Father.  And the Holy Triune God, who has named you with His own Name, lives in you, and you in Him, forever and forevermore.

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

The New Adam and the New Creation

Not from the dust of the earth this time, but from the body of the Woman, from her flesh and blood the Lord God forms the Man, the New Adam, who is Himself the Image of God in the flesh.  He is the Son of God from all eternity, but now, in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His Father fashions a Body for Him, and He becomes what He was not: true Man, the Son of David, the Seed of Abraham — the Seed of the Woman, who shall crush the serpent’s head and rescue the first Adam and his Eve and all their children, whom He now calls His own brothers and sisters.

God becomes Man.  The Word becomes Flesh.  And that was always the Lord’s intent.  Human sin has not forced His hand, nor has it changed His plans.  When He created the man in His own Image, forming his body from the dust of the ground and breathing His living and Life-giving Spirit into him, it was already in view of the Incarnation — the becoming-flesh — of God the Son.  For Christ Jesus — the Son of God, conceived and born of St. Mary — is the very Image of God in whom Adam was created, and in whom you also are now recreated unto the Life everlasting.

The Word by whom all things are made fulfills creation in Himself, from the inside-out, as He enters His creation and becomes one with it in human flesh and blood.  This is how closely and intimately God is now with us forever in Christ Jesus.  This is how, and how fully, God gives Himself to us; and with Himself He gives His own divine life, all for the sake of His holy Love.

The King and the Queen of God’s good creation, the Man and the Woman, are restored to the royal throne and gracious dominion that God the Creator has given to them — which the first man and his wife abdicated by their sinful rebellion against the Word of God.  For Christ the Son of God comes in perfect faith and love, in the flesh, to atone for the sins of all men and women, and to reconcile all the children of man to His own God and Father in heaven.  And the new life that He bestows by His grace through faith in His gracious speaking, by His good works and His free gifts of the Gospel, is manifest in His Mother Mary and bears good fruits in her, as in the faithful who have gone before her.  She thus prays and confesses the Word of the Lord.  She humbles herself in repentant faith before Him.  She receives what He gives — she receives Him by His Word and Spirit — and as the new Eve she becomes the Mother of all those who truly live in her dear Son.

The Lord does not take a body for Himself from the dust of the earth, for even though He does make all things new, He has come to be the Savior of men, to rescue the sons and daughters of the first Adam & Eve.  So it is that He becomes, not only like us, but exactly one of us.  He is true Man, of the same human nature as you and all your kin — bone of your bone, flesh of your flesh, blood of your blood — because He is born of the Woman, and He derives His DNA, His Body, and His entire humanity entirely from her.  That make Him not only her Savior, but yours, and all of ours, the Savior of all people everywhere, even to the ends of the earth.

In Him, already in His own Person forevermore, God and Man are perfectly united in perfect harmony.  For He is the perfect Man, just as God intended, living in and with God in flawless faith and absolute love.  In Him everything is already exactly as it should be, and so shall it always be.

But He has become and always remains such a Man, in order that you also may be so reconciled to and united with God in Him; so that you also may live and abide forever with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in perfect faith and love.  It is for such life and love that the Lord your God has created you, and for which the same Lord God has become true Man and redeemed you.

It is for this reason that He has not only become like you — of the same flesh and blood, of the same human nature — but He has been conceived and born of the Woman under the Law, in order to redeem you from the curse and consequences of sin, from the condemnation of the Law, and from the fear of death and the power of the devil.  He has come to replace what was lost and bring about what was intended, to repair what has been broken and make it better than new.  Thus, He has gone out from Paradise into the harsh wilderness of sin and death — to which the Law has driven you, and wherein you were lost — in order to retrieve you, to bring you back to the Garden, back to God, not as a captive slave, but as a son or a daughter, as a dear child and heir.

Thus, the Body of the Lord Jesus is prepared for sacrifice, His Blood to be shed upon the Cross.  What all the bulls and goats could only signify, He has become, and He has come in the flesh to accomplish.  Not simply to make reparations or amends, but fully to atone for all sins.  He enters into the brokenness and hurt, and He becomes it.  He bears the full burden of sin and death, and He becomes sin and death.  He suffers the curse, and He becomes the curse.  He receives the fatal wound into His own Body, upon His sacred head, into His holy hands and feet and side.  He gives Himself freely, to the point of Crucifixion, to be cursed upon the Tree.  He dies and is buried.

In this way, then, He returns to the dust of the ground whence man was taken.  He pours out His lifeblood, gives up His Spirit, makes Himself nothing, and is swallowed up by death and Hades.

In this, too, you see again how closely and intimately God is with us in Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary.  For death and the grave are where you and your life on earth are finally found, and that is where He has gone — for you and your salvation — into the darkness and the depths of despair.  Not only that, but in His Crucifixion, bearing your sins and the sins of the whole world, He has suffered not only death (as the wages of your sin) but the full condemnation of the Law and the dire judgment of God against all wickedness and evil.  So it is that the Holy and Righteous One, the Son of the Most High, the Perfect Man, is damned upon the Cross with your damnation.

And then, out of that nothingness, out of that pitch black darkness of death and the grave, God has raised Him up in glorious Life.  God has taken the Man from the dust of the ground, and poured out His Spirit upon Him; and all of Creation is restored in Him, made brand new and perfected.

That is the power and authority of the Word that God the Lord now speaks to you — as surely as He once spoke to the Blessed Virgin Mary in Nazareth of Galilee.  It is the creative and Life-giving Word of His Resurrection from the dead, whereby He recreates you out of the nothing that you were apart from Him, and He gives life to your mortal body.  With this Word He raises you up from your sin and death, He breathes His Spirit into you, and He makes of you a beloved child.

It is the Word of Christ, the Word of His Gospel, which forgives you all your sins and causes the Light of the Revelation of the Glory of God to shine forth within your heart and life.  By the preaching of His Word He cuts through your pride and your despair, in order to bring you into repentance — in order to save you from sin and death, and from all the temptations, assaults, and accusations of the devil.  He chases the fog and the darkness away, so that your heart and mind are no longer beclouded by Satan’s lies, by the world’s allurements, or by your own doubts and fears.

The Word of Christ does not simply clarify things with new and better information.  It is by and through the Word of Christ that all things are.  What is more, it is a living and Life-giving Word with the power and authority to forgive sins, to justify the ungodly, to save sinners, and to make all things brand new.  It is the Word of the One whom God raised from the dead; which makes it a comparatively small thing for Him to give children to a barren old lady and a young virgin.

Now, then, hear what this Word of Christ proclaims to you:  Do not be afraid!  For you have found favor with God, and He is surely with you in grace, mercy, and peace.  You shall not die but live, for the Lord has come to you in great love to make His dwelling with you, both now and forever.

He is a gracious and merciful King, who reigns over you in love from His Cross, and whose scepter is the righteousness by which He justifies you.

So what does that mean?

Though you daily sin much in your thoughts, words, and deeds, you are not punished for your sins as you deserve, but you are forgiven all your sins, and you are spared from eternal condemnation.  You are rescued and delivered from death and the devil.  What is more, God is not ashamed of you, but He delights in you and rejoices over you.  He is not angry with you, but in His good pleasure with you He actually glorifies you with His own divine glory.  He is your Father, who calls you His own dear child.  And He is your Brother, who stands by you and with you and for you forever.

How can this be, since you have never known such a man as this One?  It is most certainly true, because He is the perfect Man, who is also the Son of God Most High; and He is the Christ, the Bearer and Bestower of the Holy Spirit.  He has been anointed with the Oil of Gladness to be your merciful and great High Priest and your true King, to pour out the Spirit generously upon you, and to make you glad all your days by His gracious presence.

What He once did with and for the Blessed Virgin Mary, that most highly favored Lady, He still does with and for His Bride, the Church.  She is the dear Woman, the Mother of all the living, of whom both Eve and St. Mary are the types.  To her God speaks, and it is so.  In her the Father conceives and bears the Son, in human flesh and blood, for you and your salvation.  In her the Spirit magnifies the same Son, Jesus Christ, and lays Him gently upon your heart by the Gospel.

In this Holy Christian Church the messenger of the Lord enters in and proclaims the Gospel — even here, as also to the ends of the earth.  By that preaching of the Gospel, Christ is given to you as your Savior, your sins are forgiven, and you are granted faith and life in Him.  Not by your own natural wisdom or strength, but by His gracious power, by the Cross and Resurrection of this incarnate Son of God, Christ Jesus, and as a free gift of His divine mercy and great love for you.

That is why you, a son or daughter of Adam & Eve, conceived and born in sin, deserving of death and damnation, have been conceived by God in His Church through the catechesis of Christ, and born again to a new and living hope by the Word and Spirit of God in the waters of your Holy Baptism.  Thus do you now speak and sing in faith, according to the Word of the Lord.  You pray and confess as His servant, a disciple of Christ Jesus, but also as a child of God, a friend of God, a brother or sister of God.  In the humility of repentance and the confidence of faith, you declare: “Let it be to me according to His Word.”  And it is so.

Such great things God has done for St. Mary, it is true.  Thus do we also call her blessed.

And such great things does He now do for you.  For the same Body and Blood of the same Lord Jesus Christ — the Son of God, conceived and born of Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate for your sins, and raised from the dead for your justification — His Body and Blood are given into your body, that you may live and abide in Him, and He in you, unto the Life everlasting.

Wherefore you call His Name “Jesus,” because He is your Savior.

And so do you call Him Immanuel, for He is your God, and He is with you — to whom belongs all glory, honor, worship, and praise, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, both now and forever.

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

Day Calls Unto Night and Pours Forth His Light

The truth is that everyone is blind, without exception.  There is no one who is able to see God, not until Jesus enters in and shines His Light upon the world.  And this He most certainly does.  He speaks, and it is so!  The Light shines in the darkness.  Yet, the darkness does not comprehend it.

All of creation depends upon the Word of the Lord, not only for existence, but for enlightenment.  Apart from His speaking, there is no Life, nor Light, nor Love.  So, when His Word is rejected, darkness and death descend like a pall over everything.  Wherever you turn, the nighttime reigns.

It is a far deeper darkness than this or that sin by you or your neighbor or your parents, unless you trace it back to the sin of that one man, Adam, in whom all men sin and all men die.  The curse and consequences of sin — the creeping death of mortality, with all its ravages of time and space and its wrecking of relationships — does go back to the fall of Adam.  It is inherited by all his children.  Indeed, it is suffered by the entire world, which groans under the burden of human sin and death.

But now, understand that the Lord has cursed His creation on account of Adam, not in futility, but in the hope of the New Creation in Christ Jesus.  He spits on the ground that He has made, from which He has taken the man, in order to put sin and death to death, and so to make all things new.  Out of the curse, He brings forth the blessing; out of death, new Life; and out of darkness, Light.

This Lord Jesus is the Word of God by whom all things are created and sustained.  He is Himself the Light, which coming into the world enlightens every man.  He comes in the flesh of Adam’s flesh, in the blood of Adam’s blood, conceived and born of the Woman to become the true Man.

In Him, eternal Day calls unto night, and at the speaking of this Word-made-Flesh there is a New Beginning.  For His own Body is the Light in the darkness.  As He shall be crucified in the frailty of our mortal flesh and raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father, so does He bring about the resurrection of the New Man from the dust of the ground, a New Creation from the clay.  And by the washing of the water with His Word, He opens up blind eyes to behold the true Light in Him.

These are the good works of God in Christ, which are manifested, also now for you, in the man who was born blind: Not only in the opening of his eyes to see, but in his coming to faith in Christ, and in his courageous confession of Christ Jesus.  The latter works are no less miraculous than the first, for he is raised from death to life in both body and soul.  He becomes a brand new person.

Jesus catechizes this man, as He catechized Nicodemus in the night and the Samaritan woman at the well, and He leads him by this catechesis of His Word and work to the enlightenment of faith. He leads the blind man on a Way he did not know, and He thereby makes the darkness into Light.

The same Lord Jesus does the same thing for you.  He still works on the Sabbath, in order to give you relief from all your burdens and infirmities, and to give you perfect peace and rest in Himself.  He opens up the blind eyes of your heart and mind by His Word and Spirit of the Gospel, so that you now see and understand, you believe, and you confess what you were not able to comprehend.  What is more, He also makes your body and soul brand new in His own Body of flesh and blood.

Those who resist and reject the Word of Christ, who refuse to receive the work of God or even to recognize their own blindness, are not only ignorant in doing so, but blasphemous and idolatrous.  For not only do they profane the Name of God, but they put their trust in that which is not God.

The one true God is known only in the flesh and blood of the Incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.  Apart from the Man called Jesus, whatever it is that you see and know — or whatever it is you think you see and know — it’s not what you think, and it is surely not the Lord our God.  No matter how bright and shiny it may be, and no matter how good it may appear to you or anyone else, it is not that true Light of the world, nor real Life, nor the Love of God, but only darkness and death.

Not even the Law of God can be gotten right apart from Christ, who is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.  You don’t actually know Moses, nor can you be his disciple, if you do not know and follow Jesus Christ the Lord, to whom the Prophet Moses points in all his words and works.

Buried alive, as it were, in the dust of the earth — confused and confounded by the darkness, and breathing only your own poisoned air — you don’t know what is real or imagined, what is true or false.  All you really know, apart from Christ Jesus, are death and dying and hallucination.

So it remains, until Christ Jesus comes and saves you.  He raises you up, opens your blind eyes, and breathes His Life-giving Holy Spirit into your flesh with His Holy Absolution of the Gospel.  Only then do you begin to see and know the Truth, which is to say that you know God in Christ.

What also happens, then, is that the world in its darkness, and those who desire to be religious in their own self-righteousness, in the blindness of their ignorance and unbelief, will hate you and persecute you for the faith and confession of Christ Jesus.  For the works of darkness are exposed and made evident by the shining of the Light.  And as the Light now shines on you and is displayed in you, it drives the darkness to more and greater fear and frustration, and finally to outright fury.

You will be threatened in all sorts of ways, sometimes subtle, and sometimes savagely blunt.  You may lose friends, or miss opportunities, or suffer insults and rejection.  Your own family may let you down, rather than risk being caught up in the scandal of calling this Man, Jesus, the Christ.

But do not succumb to fear!  Do not love the praises of people more than God.  Rather, cling to Christ and trust in Him to care for you.  The One who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.  The deeds of darkness, by contrast, are unfruitful; they bring forth nothing but death and damnation.

Recognize and repent of your own dark deeds, of your infirmity and blindness inside and out.  Instead of relying on yourself and your own self-righteousness, which cannot help but fail, find your Life and Light and your Salvation in the Lord Jesus, who speaks to you in Love.

Repent and be baptized, every one of you; or, return to the significance of your Baptism.  Wash in those waters of forgiveness, which flow for you from Christ Jesus unto the Life everlasting.

Awake, O sleeper, and rise from death!  For here Christ shines upon you with His Gospel.  Listen to what He says, and look to Him, that you may see.  Hear and heed His Word to you, even in the midst of the deep darkness all around you.  And worship Him from the heart in holy faith and holy love by the witness of your words and by the works of God in your body and life.

Though you cannot see Him — no more than the man born blind could see Him when Jesus first approached, and anointed his eyes with mud and spit, and sent him to wash in the water — yet, by His grace you believe in Him, and you love Him who first loved you and recreated you in mercy.

Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Walk in His Light by giving attention to His Word and to His works.  See, His sent ones are here to serve you in His Name, to work the works of God while it is Day.  And it is now Day, even in the darkness of the night, and even in the face of death and the grave, because Christ has come.  It is the Day of His grace and salvation so long as the Gospel is preached and the gifts of God are given to His Church.  In the Light of the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, your eyes and ears and your whole body and soul are healed.

So it is that, as you are born again of water and the Word in Holy Baptism, so shall you be raised up from the clay in the Resurrection of all flesh.  And then with your own eyes you shall see your Redeemer face to face, when He stands at last upon the earth and every knee shall bow to Him.

You shall see Him as He is, and you shall be like Him, all glorious in His righteousness, because you are forgiven all your sins — in which you were born, and which you have committed ever since — and you are justified by His grace, by His Cross and Resurrection in the flesh.

Even now, by faith you are able to see His salvation in His Body and His Blood, given and poured out for you here at His Altar.  Fix your eyes on Jesus, therefore, in these gifts He freely gives to you.  Be ever looking to Him, the Lamb of God who takes away your sins, who feeds you with His Flesh and covers you with His Blood; for He shall pluck your feet out of the net and raise you up from death into Life.  Even now He lifts up your head, as He lifts up His countenance upon you.

Behold the fair beauty of the Lord.  Seek and find Him in the Temple of His Church.  Worship Him with your body and your soul in the splendor of His holiness.  Kneel and bow down before Him.  For He is the Light of the world who shines upon you in Peace, and in His Light you have Life.

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