Sweet Injuries, Indeed

You see here that you dare not underestimate the depravity of man and the wicked perversion of his sinful heart.

The chief priests and the pharisees, the religious leaders of God’s people, bearing holy office and zealous for the Law, observe the many signs that Jesus performs, and for these they seek to seize Him and kill Him.

He healed the sick, made the lame to walk and the blind to see; and now, His most recent crime, He has raised the dead to life.  Sweet injuries, indeed, yet for these the Law and the Priesthood must put Him to death for the people.

Do not suppose that your own sinful heart is free and clear of such depravity and perversion.

To take seriously who Jesus is, what He says and what He does, threatens your comfortable status quo, your place and your position in this world.

What are you called to drown and destroy in yourself, in your body and life?  How must you die?

The Law is constantly reminding you of your sin, and yet it is powerless to cleanse you of iniquity or to heal your mortality.

Though the Law of God is holy, good, and righteous, you are not.  Therefore, it cannot purify your conscience; it cannot set right your body and soul, your heart, mind, and spirit, with the Lord your God.  It only exposes your depravity, and even exacerbates it, and condemns you for it.

But now the same Law dares to lay the same judgment and condemnation upon Christ, because He has come to fulfill the will of God by the offering of Himself once for all.

Born of the Woman, and placing Himself under the Law, He redeems those who are under the Law.  He does it by the self-sacrifice of the same holy body in which He has lived in perfect conformity with the entire Law of God.  And this seeming contradiction, this travesty of justice by any normal standard, is the resolution of the same Law of God: the fulfillment of justice and righteousness.

In this sacrifice of Christ the holy priesthood also finds its perfect fulfillment and completion; for here is the true Passover Lamb, who is also your merciful and great High Priest.

Does He not go up to the Feast?  Indeed, He is the Feast!

He has offered Himself up to God to atone for the sins of the world; to reconcile man and all the world to God in Himself; to purify you and all of creation by His innocent suffering and death, by His holy and precious blood, and by His bodily Resurrection from the dead.

And now, then, He also feeds you with the same holy body and precious blood, so that you are spared and saved from death and sanctified for life.

Here, then, the Passover of Christ is at hand.  By this Feast, as by Your Holy Baptism, you are purified forever.  And you enter with Christ Jesus, in body and soul, through His sacrificial death and in His Resurrection, into the life everlasting with God, your Father.

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

The Strong Silent Type

The Scriptures tell us that St. Joseph was a righteous man.  That means, first of all, that he shared the faith of father Abraham, and the faith of his father David.  Not only a general sort of optimism or positive attitude, but confident trust in the Word and promises of God.  He believed that, by the Seed of Abraham, God would bless the sons of Israel and all the nations of the world.  And he believed that God, the Lord, would raise up the Seed of David to reign upon His throne forever; notwithstanding that David’s royal line had ceased and been replaced by the Herodian dynasty.

St. Joseph trusted, hope against hope, that the same Lord God who also raises the dead, who calls all things into being out of nothing, and who gave a promised son to Abraham and Sarah when his body and her womb were as good as dead, was in truth the God and Father of St. Mary’s Son; and that He, who was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit, was the Savior of His people: Immanuel.  St. Joseph had faith that it was so, because he believed what God had spoken to him.

By this righteousness of faith, St. Joseph was also humble and obedient, and faithful and just in his actions.  In each of the several situations that Holy Scripture describes, whatever God told him to do, St. Joseph immediately set about doing exactly that.  No arguments, no balking, no excuses, and no questions.  Not a single word from St. Joseph is recorded.  He simply and swiftly gets up and does what God calls him to do: He rises up in faith to serve his family in love.

The specifics of the case, the particular calling and circumstances in which St. Joseph was found, are certainly unique and extraordinary.  The Church remembers and gives thanks for this particular man because of his special place in the life of our Lord Jesus.  In this respect, by the grace and mercies of God, St. Joseph, his faith and life, and his works of love, were taken up into the Gospel itself; because God the Father chose to accomplish His purposes in this way, in giving us His Son.

But, then again, St. Joseph’s calling and circumstances were not so very different from those of any other husband and father; nor did he have anything else to go by than the Word of God.  True, he did receive some special revelations, by the angel of the Lord in his dreams, concerning the specific situations he was in.  So do you also receive the counsel and guidance of the messengers of the Lord within your own office and station in life.  And yet, the underlying basics are simple and straightforward, for you as for St. Joseph; which is not to say easy or painless.

St. Joseph was called to care for his family, for his wife and her Child, who was legally his own.  He was called to be a husband and a father, albeit under difficult and dangerous conditions, and under great duress.  The challenges confronting him were daunting, and at times overwhelming.  What man’s obligations and obstacles are not like that?  But the Lord had told St. Joseph, the son of David, not to be afraid: Not to be afraid to take St. Mary as his wife, and, therefore, not to be afraid of everything else that would go along with being a husband to her and a father to her Son.

Whether or not he felt the emotion of fear at any given point along the way — and given that he was a sinful man of mortal flesh and blood, it is natural to suppose that he did — yet, St. Joseph was also a man of faith, a righteous man, who lived and worked and carried out his vocation faithfully in the fear, love, and trust of God.  He persevered in the confidence of God’s promises.

And the Lord God was faithful, as ever and always, not only in caring for St. Joseph and providing for all his needs in the discharge of his duties, but also in caring for St. Mary and her Child, our dear Lord Jesus Christ, through the agency and means of this man, the carpenter from Nazareth.

Even more than the glorious King Solomon with his impressive Temple in Jerusalem, it is this son of David, St. Joseph, who is given the privilege and responsibility of making a house and a home for the Lord.  It is a fitting task for a carpenter, if one thinks only of the wood and the nails.  But more to the point, it is a father’s task.  Of all the sons of David, it is only St. Joseph who becomes a daddy to the Son of God: Not by the procreation of his own flesh and blood, but by the Word and will of God the Father in heaven, and by deeds of faith and love as a father on earth: by taking the pregnant Blessed Virgin Mary to be his wife, and by taking the legal responsibility for her Son.

So, think about what that means, for St. Joseph to be a father to Jesus on earth.  It means that he takes care of Jesus, and provides for Him, and protects Him, as every dad should do for any of his children, whether begotten or adopted.  It means, too, that St. Joseph teaches Jesus the Word of God, and how to pray, and takes Him to the synagogue and to the Temple, to worship the Lord; for so do the Holy Scriptures require of a father for his sons and daughters.

In its own way, this work of St. Joseph in being a father to Jesus is no less amazing, and no less important, than the fact that St. Mary became the Mother of God.  The Church rightly marvels that the Lord of all, the Creator and Upholder of the universe, was conceived and born of a woman, and that He who feeds the entire world with daily bread depended on His Mother for nourishment.  Such is the great Mystery of the Incarnation!  But so does He also live and grow and learn and develop as true Man, and, throughout His boyhood years, St. Joseph was instrumental in all that.

When the Boy Jesus is twelve years old, it is St. Joseph who takes the Holy Family up to Jerusalem for the Passover.  At that time, when Jesus has reached the age of maturity in Jewish tradition, there is a transition already at work, pulling Him away from His human parents to be about the work of His Father in heaven.  Even then, He submits to them, and to their authority, in accordance with the Fourth Commandment; because they are, in legal fact, His father and His mother on earth.

All the more striking, in the Holy Gospel for this festival day, when the little Lord Jesus is but a Babe in arms, He is entirely passive throughout.  He does not do or say anything, but is carried about and cared for by St. Mary and St. Joseph.  For though He is the almighty and eternal Son of God, by whom all things are made, He is also now a truly human Infant, and His life, as such, is like that of any other Baby in the world.

The Son of God humbled Himself to share the predicament of fallen man, but, even aside from the curse of sin and death, infants and toddlers are fully dependent on their parents, and so now is He.  In this way, too, He lives as true Man — in the way that Man was created to live — by faith in His God and Father in heaven — by relying on the parents God has provided for Him, for everything.

He becomes true Man in every way, save only without any sins of His own, in order to save His people from their sins.  He takes their place, not only to suffer the punishment of all their sins, but also to fulfill and satisfy the Law on their behalf.  He thereby lives vicariously, for them, and for all people, including each and all of you, in the way that everyone is called to live, but everyone else has failed to do.  He alone does it.  So that is why He is taken into Egypt: Not simply to escape the murderous wrath of Herod, but to relive the time of Israel in Egypt, and then also the Exodus.

In all of this, He is actively the Savior of His people, and of all the nations of the world: from Babylon and Persia in the east, to Egypt in the west; from Bethlehem of Judea in the south, to Nazareth of Galilee in the north; from Jerusalem to Rome, and even to the ends of the earth.  But His active obedience begins with the active passivity of quiet faith and trust in His God and Father.

From His Mother’s womb, to His crucifixion, death, and burial, the Lord Jesus is the Son of David after His Father’s heart.  Certainly, He truly is the Man after God’s own heart; for He is the Son of God from all eternity, of one Substance with the Father, and His human heart and mind, soul and spirit, are always in complete and utter harmony and unity with the divine Will.  So, too, in perfect faith, the Lord Jesus Christ walks in the ways of father David, that is, in the righteousness of David’s faith; although, of course, great David’s greater Son surpasses him, overcoming all temptations, and not committing any sins, but atoning for the sins of father David and all others.

But Jesus of Nazareth is also a Man after the faithful heart of His foster father, St. Joseph, and, in view of the Incarnation, that is not to be overlooked or taken lightly.

As St. Joseph is set before you, in the Holy Scriptures, and by the Church on this particular day, to serve as an example to you, to encourage you in faith and love, so was he also an example to the little Lord Jesus, as He was growing from infancy to manhood, increasing in wisdom and stature.  That is no dishonor to Christ Jesus, our Savior, but a testimony to His faith and life as true Man, that He learned from St. Joseph, from that father’s catechesis in the home, and from the example of that righteous man’s holy faith and works of love.

Dare we say that, as true Man, growing up, the heavenly Bridegroom of the Church first observed and began to learn what it means to be a husband, in the faithful care of St. Joseph for St. Mary.

To be sure, the righteousness of faith that Jesus saw exemplified in St. Joseph, He Himself — and He alone — has fulfilled and completed to perfection: By His life of humble obedience; by His death upon the Cross, in faith toward God and in love for all mankind; and in His Resurrection from the dead, as the Firstfruits of the New Creation.

Not St. Joseph, nor St. Mary, nor any other creature in heaven or on earth could do these things, which Christ Jesus our Lord has done, for the salvation of the world, and for all the people of all times and places.

Whereas St. Joseph was given the privilege of giving the Child of St. Mary the blessed Name of “Jesus,” there is yet no other Name under heaven, given among men, by which anyone is saved.  St. Joseph and St. Mary are instruments of God in giving us this precious Gift, but the Child Jesus has become our Strength and our Song, because He has become our Salvation.

Whereas St. Joseph was the carpenter, the husband and the dad, who made a house and home for the Child with His Mother here on earth, it is the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised Seed of David, who has become the true House of God in His own flesh and blood; whose crucified and risen Body is the Temple of God among men, in heaven and on earth, both now and forever and ever.

Whereas St. Joseph took care of his home and his family, as a good husband and father should do, the Lord Jesus is the new and greater Carpenter from Nazareth, who, by His innocent suffering and death, and in His Resurrection from the dead, has become the Cornerstone of His Church.  By the washing of water with His Word, He has cleansed and sanctified His Church, and has taken her to be His holy Bride, adorned in His own perfect righteousness.  By His Word and Holy Spirit, He conceives and gives birth in her to the children of God; He cares for them, feeds and shelters them, and provides for all their needs of body and soul, by the free gifts of His Gospel.  Upon the Holy Ministry of that Gospel, as upon a solid Rock, He has built His Church to stand fast and strong; not only against the murderous wrath of mortal princes like Herod, but against the gates of hell.

The Lord called St. Joseph to care for the Child Jesus, with His Mother, and through St. Joseph God the Father Himself took care of that precious Holy Family.  It is truly meet, right, and salutary that we should give Him thanks and praise for this grace and mercy of His, and so also for His gift of St. Joseph himself.  That righteous man of faith is a good example for all of us Christians, and for husbands and fathers, in particular.  So, too, we should give thanks and pray for the husbands and fathers by whom the Lord God serves His people here on earth, in this poor life of labor.

In like manner has the same Lord called pastors to care for His Church with the Gospel, to be for her spiritual fathers of grace, mercy, and peace, and to shepherd her with the good gifts of Christ.

Therefore, do not be afraid: The Lord whose Father called Him out of Egypt, who called the Light out of the darkness, and who raises the dead — the Lord who tabernacled with St. Joseph wherever he went, even cradled in the arms of His Mother — He is no less with you in this place, to save you by His grace, by His forgiveness of all your sins, and to feed you with His Body and His Blood.  As He has called you by His own great and holy Name, and as He has established this House for you, by His Gospel, on earth as it in heaven, so as a tender Father will He provide you with all that you need; and as your faithful Husband, He will never leave you nor forsake you.

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

The Authority of the Gospel of Christ

The Lord Jesus connects His authority to the Baptism of John: Not simply as a trump card to the trick question of the chief priests, scribes, and elders of the people, but because His authority to preach the Gospel has been received through His Baptism by St. John.

For here we do not have in view His raw power and authority as the Son of God, which is always His by right, by His own divine nature.  But here at hand is the authority of the Gospel, which is the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of sinners, the justification of the sinful and unclean.

This is the authority that has been given to Him, in heaven and on earth, because He has become the Author of Salvation.  It belongs to Him as the incarnate Son, the Lord’s Anointed, the Lamb of God who has taken upon Himself the sins of the world and borne them in His own body.

He has, in fact, gone so far as to become sin, and has suffered the curse of sin and death, in order to do away with all of that, to resolve the problem in Himself, and to reconcile the world to God.  Therefore, the Judgment of the Law has been laid upon Him, in order to be fulfilled and satisfied in His flesh and blood.  And in His Resurrection from the dead, He and the world are justified.

St. John the Baptist was sent by God, to preach and baptize as a testimony to this same Lord Jesus Christ.  In this respect, St. John himself has been authorized to preach the Gospel, whereby he points to Jesus and declares: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!”

But there is more to St. John’s office and role than even that beautiful Word.  For he is a prophet, but also more than a prophet, in that he goes before the Lord to prepare His Way.  To that end, he preaches a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; which does prepare the people for the coming of the Christ, by calling them to faith in Him.

And yet, even St. John is caught by surprise when the Lord Jesus comes and submits Himself to that Baptism of John: to that baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins!

It was, St. Luke writes, when all the people were baptized — when all the publicans, prostitutes, and other poor, miserable sinners were baptized by John — that Jesus also was baptized.  In doing so, He not only took the sins of the whole world upon Himself, but He also subjected Himself to repentance for all of those sins, on the world’s behalf.

Which is really to say that He committed Himself to the Cross, to His innocent suffering and death.  Because, in submitting to the Baptism of John, the Lord Jesus placed Himself under the authority and judgment of the Law, in order to accomplish and fulfill all the preaching of the Law and the Prophets, for the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of sinners.

Thus, in the waters of the Jordan, by the Baptism of John — as Joshua the son of Nun was once ordained by Moses — so now Jesus, the new and greater Joshua of Nazareth, the Son of Mary, has been anointed by the Spirit of His God and Father, and ordained to preach the Gospel, which He Himself authors by His Cross, and His Father confirms by His Resurrection.

He goes ahead of His people into the waters administered by St. John the Baptist — the waters included in God’s command and combined with His Word — and, by doing so, Jesus goes ahead of you, through death into life, through the Cross into the Resurrection.  He crosses the Jordan ahead of you, in order to lead you and bring you out of the wilderness into Canaan, out of this vale of tears into the great eternal Feast of Paradise: to eat the finest of wheat and sweet honey.

That is the authority by which the Lord Jesus has also sent me to preach His Gospel here to you, to forgive you all your sins in His Name and stead, and to feed you with His Body and His Blood.

This Ministry of the Gospel is from God in heaven, even here on earth among men, that you might hear this Word of forgiveness, and so believe and trust in Him, and open up your mouth to be fed by Christ Jesus, to live with Him in body and soul, both now and forever.

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

Judgment and Mercy

To live righteously according to the Law of God,
does not mean that you judge and discipline your neighbor,
but that you discipline and judge yourself, lest you be judged.

To live peacefully in the mercy of God,
does not mean that you excuse yourself and your sin,
but that you forgive your neighbor and overlook his sins
and gladly do good to those who trespass against you.

To Be a Theologian of the Cross

What He has always been, and ever shall be, He also becomes, in the flesh, in order to save you.  He who is the Word of God, the almighty and eternal Son, becomes a Theologian, that is, One who studies, prays and confesses, preaches and teaches the Word of God.

Dr. Luther famously describes the making of a real theologian by oratio, meditatio, and tentatio; which is to say, by prayer, by meditation on the Scriptures, and by the agonizing struggle of faith in that Word of God against the assaults and accusations of the devil.  It is a struggle of faith, the dying and rising of repentance, because the Lord God reveals Himself in the hidden Word of the Cross.  So does He work His work of repentance in you, by the way and the means of the Cross.

And so does the Lord Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, become a real theologian in the flesh, by prayer and fasting, by the careful consideration and study of the Scriptures, and by the agonizing struggle of faith in His Father, in the midst of the wilderness, in the face of the devil’s temptations.

It is a not a gratuitous charade, but He becomes a real Theologian of the Cross, in order that the Word of God be with you: He’s by your side upon the plain, with His good gifts and Spirit.  The Word draws near to you, here in the wilderness, not only as theology, but as the true Theologian.

What that means, in the first place, is that the Word of God has become like you; not only flesh of your flesh, conceived and born of St. Mary, but also living your life in the world, bearing your sin and its curse of mortality, and being tempted in every way that you are tempted.  He hears your cries of sorrow and anguish, and He sees your suffering and affliction; not from a great distance, but in your place, in the same predicament, in the heat of battle, under Pharaoh’s bitter yoke.

But now the same Word-made-Flesh draws near, in yet another way, by preaching Himself to you: so giving Himself into your ears, into your mind and heart, into your hands and mouth and body.

By His preaching you believe in Him, and you confess His Cross and Resurrection, and you call upon His Name in prayer, with praise and thanksgiving; and by His tender mercy, you are saved.

He, the Word-made-Flesh, the incarnate Son of God, is able to help and save you with His Word and preaching, because He has established His divine Sonship in the flesh, for you and for all people, by His perfect faith and faithfulness.  That is the witness you hear in His Gospel today.

He is tempted in every way, as you are, save only without sin, in order to become your merciful and faithful great High Priest.  Not only does He understand and sympathize with you — not only does He know how you feel, and how hard it is for you — but He is with you in those agonizing struggles; He bears them with you, in order to rescue and redeem you from the devil’s tyranny, and to bring you in safety and peace to His Father, not as a refugee, but as a beloved son or daughter.

He is therefore tempted in all the ways you are, and yet His temptations are also unique, because He is the Christ, your only Savior, and the only-begotten Son of God the Father from all eternity.  That is not to suggest that He has an easier time of it, but quite the opposite: He willingly bears the full extent of the burden, which would otherwise break you and destroy you.

There is a blessed divine Mystery at work in this, for He is not tempted by any covetous lust from within Himself.  He has no sinful heart, no sinful thoughts or inclinations.  But He has taken the weight, the pressure and the sting of those temptations upon Himself, that He might relieve you of that legacy, both by His own faithful perseverance, and by His forgiveness of all your failures.

So He is led by the Spirit in the wilderness, into confrontation with the devil, as your Champion; and He undergoes the full gamut of temptations, in order to overcome the foe who opposes you.

In human flesh and blood, just like yours, He lives as the true and perfect Man.  He trusts His God and Father, and He does not put Him to the test.  But He, the Son, is tested, as Israel was tested, and as you are also tested in the wilderness; and in this testing, He is found faithful.  He prevails in steadfast faith, so that you and all of Adam’s other children might be saved by His faithfulness.  And the content of that great salvation is that you receive the Sonship of Christ Jesus as your own, by the Father’s gracious adoption; just as He has given you and told you in your Holy Baptism.

In this respect, too, the Lord Jesus lives for you, as you are called to live, by faith in the Word and promises of God.  You have heard this before, and again this morning: The devil questions and puts to the test the very thing that Christ Himself has heard and received in His Baptism.  There the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God descended upon Him in bodily form, like a dove, and the Father openly declared to Him: “You are My beloved Son.  With You I am well-pleased.”

So Christ lives and perseveres, in the wilderness, even unto His death upon the Cross, by faith in the Word and promise of His Father; which is not only the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, but also the testimony of His Baptism.  Though He shall be crucified and die, He trusts that God His Father will raise Him up in glory from death and the grave, and the heavens are still open to Him.

Christ Jesus lives by faith in this Word of His Father.  But He Himself, precisely so, is the Word of God the Father to you, and the fulfillment of all His promises to you.  He and His preaching are full of the Holy Spirit, which He has received in His flesh, in order to pour out generously on you.  And so He does.  For everything that He has accomplished and achieved, He has done for you.

He hungers for the Word and Will of His Father, more deeply and more strongly than His empty stomach growls for bread.  But in thus believing the Word and doing the Will of His dear God and Father, He has becomes the Food of God for you, that is, the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God as the living and Life-giving Bread from heaven.

He goes without eating for those forty days, and upon the Cross, and He suffers in His Body, in order that you might eat and be well fed in both body and soul, here in time and there in eternity.  For He establishes the Word of God in His own Flesh and Blood; not only by His Incarnation, but also by His active and passive obedience, by His keeping of the Law, and by His suffering of its judgments in your stead, its punishments for all your disobedience.

That is why the Word of Christ not only teaches and instructs you, but it actually saves you.  His preaching first of all instills in you a hunger for His Word, for His Kingdom and His righteousness — and this same preaching of Christ Jesus also feeds and nourishes you with these very things.

Thus, with His Word to you, the Son of God fulfills the Word of His Father for you.  His Cross has utterly crushed and defeated the devil, all his works, and all his ways, because this Lord Jesus Christ has willingly gone to His death in the holiness and righteousness of perfect faith and love.  And as God the Father raised Him from the dead, He is now the First Fruits of the New Creation.

By His Cross, and in His Resurrection, with His Body and His Blood, He worships and serves the Lord, His God: Not to save Himself, not to bargain or barter for any personal benefit, but in order to save you and others by the grace of God.  For this salvation, there is nothing for you to do or to give but thanks and praise, in which you also become a real theologian of the Cross.

That is the true theology and the fine art of the Christian faith and life: to give thanks for the Cross, by which you are put to death and raised to newness of life, by repentance and forgiveness of sins.

Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour you in their furious hate and hostility; and though you have the old evil foe on your back, both day and night, hounding and harassing you within and without — the truth of the matter is, that the devil and his minions are defeated; they cannot harm you any more; they’re judged, the deed is done.

The Word of Christ has felled them; that is, the Word of His Cross, which Christ here preaches.

It is by His Cross, by the Fruits of His Cross, that He brings you out of Egypt with His mighty arms and outstretched hands; that He brings you safely through the wilderness, and through the Jordan River into the good Land that He promised: a Paradise flowing with creamy milk and sweet honey (that is, with the pure milk of His Word, which is much sweeter than honey from the honeycomb).

That good Land is not far away, but it is very near to you in this preaching of Christ Jesus.  It is in the Bread with which He feeds you, which is the Word of God made Flesh.  And it is in the good Wine that He pours out for you to drink, which is His holy and precious Blood.  And as God the Father raised this same Jesus, who here feeds you, from the dead, so shall He surely also raise you.

For He is merciful to you, and to all the sons and daughters of Adam, in this Word: His dear Son, Jesus Christ.  Call upon His Name, dear Christian theologian of the Cross, and you shall be saved.

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

For the Record

It was not the intention of the Lutheran Service Book to commemorate the birthdays of Martin Chemnitz and Philipp Melanchthon.  It is rather these two reformers who are commemorated.  They are remembered on their earthly birthdays (9 November and 16 February, respectively), instead of their heavenly birthdays (when they departed from this life on earth), primarily because the Church has generally tended to avoid commemorations during Lent and within the Octave of Easter.

This year, and at other times when Easter is early, the 16th of February does occur within Lententide, but that is usually not the case.  However, Chemnitz died on the 8th of April, Melanchthon on the 19th of April, and those dates frequently do coincide with the end of Lent or the beginning of Easter.  In addition, the sanctoral cycle in the Lutheran Service Book was developed with the Treasury of Daily Prayer in view, for which those commemorations within the movable Time of Easter are far more difficult to connect to the daily readings and other propers.

Because Chemnitz and Melanchthon are too important to be overlooked or forgotten, and there was precedent for remembering these men on their earthly birthdays in the old Lutheran Annuals, those dates were chosen for the LSB.  Regrettably, the parenthetical notes identifying these dates with their births was retained and actually published in the hymnal, although those notes were only intended as a point of information for the committee as it was working through the data and proposals.  There was no desire to hide the connection to the birthdays, but neither was there any intention of commemorating the birthdays per se.

It is typical to remember the saints on the date of their departure from this earth, but that is not always the case.  In other recent calendars, for example, Melancthon is commemorated, not on the date of his earthly death, but in connection with the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession on the 25th of June; whereas Chemnitz is simply not included.

It is a beneficial coincidence that, with these dates in LSB, the commemoration of Philipp Melanchthon occurs in close proximity to Luther’s (on the 18th of February); whereas the commemoration of Martin Chemnitz occurs shortly after Reformation Day (31 October) and a day before Luther’s birthday, which most Lutherans have been more familiar with.  Both Luther and Chemnitz were named for St. Martin of Tours, who is commemorated on November the 11th.

For the Joy Set Before You in Christ

This is the Glory of God that shines upon you in the face of Christ Jesus: That the Father, in love, has given His only-begotten Son in the flesh, to die for you, and has raised Him from the dead, in order to justify you in His presence, and to give you the life everlasting in body and soul.

He is the Apostle and the High Priest of the one true faith, and of the Christian religion, by which alone you shall be saved.  For He has been sent by God the Father to preach the Kingdom of God.  And He has come to establish that Kingdom in Himself, for you and for all, by the atoning sacrifice of His death upon the Cross, and in His bodily Resurrection and Ascension to the right hand of the Father.  Heaven and earth are permanently united in Him, in His Body of flesh and blood; so that God abides with you in Him, and you abide with Him in God.

This is the mission that He undertakes, the journey that He undergoes, from the heights of heavenly divine glory into the darkest depths of sin and death, and back to His God and Father again.  What He thereby accomplishes and achieves is not for His benefit, but for yours.  Because what it means is that the Glory that was always His, with the Father and the Holy Spirit from eternity, is now possessed and manifested in His human nature, in His Body; in order that you, also, should be glorified in Him and share in His Glory.

The transfiguration of His face, of His whole flesh and blood, and of your body, also, is by the way of His Cross.  It is by His priestly sacrifice that His Glory fills and permeates His Body, though in it He has borne the sins of the world; for by His death and bloodshed He atones for all those sins, and He sanctifies the flesh of man for life with God.  That Glory of His Cross is now manifest in His Resurrection from the dead.  His crucified and risen Body bears, forever and ever, the Spirit of His God and Father, whom He bestows upon His Body, the Church, through the preaching of His Gospel of forgiveness, and with His Body given and His Blood poured out in His Supper.

His Cross and Resurrection are His Exodus, by which He brings you out of Egypt, out of bondage into freedom, out of death into life.  His dying and rising are the completion and fulfillment of His Baptism, whereby He brings you through the Red Sea in safety, while Pharaoh and his horses and their riders are drowned; and whereby He also brings you through the Jordan River into Canaan, that is, into blessed Paradise.  As you are baptized into Him, you also pass through death and the grave, into His Resurrection of the Body and the life everlasting.  For by your Holy Baptism into Christ, you have washed your robes and made them white in His cleansing Blood; so that you are now clothed in the gleaming radiance of His holiness and righteousness.

What the disciples see in Jesus on the mountain, and Moses and Elijah share with Him in Glory, is also given to His Church, on earth as it is in heaven, and to you, who belong to Him by grace through faith in His Gospel.

Listen to Him.  His Word to you is true and Life-giving, and His lips have been anointed with grace.  His forgiveness of your sins actually does what it says.  What He speaks to you, He gives to you.  Therefore, hear and heed His calling.  Repent of your sins, and believe His Gospel.  Do not fear His Cross, but bear it patiently, and hope in His Resurrection.  The One who calls you is faithful, and as surely as God the Father raised His Son Jesus from the dead, so shall He also raise you up in Glory.  The guarantee of that is already in your Baptism.

Not only that, but you abide in His Glory, in peace and joy, in the Sacrament of the Altar, which is given and poured out for you to eat and to drink.  This Body and Blood of Christ are the Fruits of His Cross, transfigured by His sacrifice for you, so that your body also, even now, and forever in the Resurrection of all flesh, is glorified in Him.  Even though you are weary and overcome with sleep, yet are you raised up in Christ Jesus to newness of life, day by day, unto the neverending Eighth Day of the Kingdom of God.

The Glory of God is not something you can grab for yourself, or take and put into a box for safe keeping, or manipulate and manage like some kind of product or commodity.  It isn’t for sale at any price, and you can’t make it with your hands, nor achieve it by your striving.  It is elusive and mysterious, but it’s not just that the Glory of God is too hard for you, or too difficult to understand. The Glory of God is the grace of His Gospel, the gift of His Son, accomplished for you, and given to you freely, by His Cross.  You can’t take it for yourself, but it is given to you by His Word.

You do not need to build a house for God.  Nor could you do so.  He is not homeless, in any case.  And not even heaven and earth could contain Him.  But He has come to make His dwelling with you, in order to abide with you, so that you are able to live and abide with Him.  It is in the Body of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, that Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord your God, the Holy Trinity, is with you.  You’ll not find Him, nor have Him, anywhere else, but He is with you, and He is for you, in the flesh and blood of this Lord Jesus Christ.

Such is the Cloud that both conceals and reveals the Glory of God.  It rests and remains upon Jesus alone.  In many and various ways, God spoke to His people of old by the Prophets, by faithful Moses and Eliljah, by Samuel and Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many others.  But now, in these last days, He speaks to you by His Son.  In Him, the Word who is God is made Flesh, and He now tabernacles with you.

His Glory is hidden, for now, under His Cross.  You cannot see it with your eyes, but you hear it with your ears in the preaching of the Gospel, in the forgiveness of your sins.

This is the way and the means by which He journeys with you through the wilderness.  This Gospel of Christ Jesus is the pilgrim’s way.

You do not need to pitch a tent for Him, because He is the Tent of God, which His Father has pitched on earth for you.  In His flesh, the Lord God abides with you, and you abide with Him.

He comes to you, and He is here with you, in the Body of His Church on earth.  But, so also, in His flesh and blood, He takes you with Him up the high mountain to His God and Father.  For not only is He the Apostle who is sent to you by God, but He is also the merciful and great High Priest who brings you to God in Himself.  He is the Sacrifice of your Atonement by His Cross, and now He is the Incense of your prayer and intercession in His Resurrection and Ascension.  As He has died and risen for you, so does He ever live to make intercession for you.  And in Him, your prayers also are heard and received, and they are answered in grace, mercy, and peace.

As the very Son of God is here with you in the flesh, so are you also with Him, abiding in the Glory of His God and Father.  What you behold in His Voice, in His Word of the Gospel, is the Light of the Revelation of the Glory of God, which is His gracious presence and power to save.

Do not be afraid.  For in this dear Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, your Savior, who preaches forgiveness and feeds you with Himself — in Him, the Father has chosen you in love, and called you by His Name, to be His own dear child.  And so you are.

Hear now what He speaks to you by His Son: It is good for you to be here.  See, I have built this House for you, and here you are at home.  Behold the face of My Anointed, in whom you know My Peace and My good pleasure.  The Lord, Yahweh, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love; faithful and just, who forgives you all of your iniquity, transgression, and sin, forever and ever.

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