A Son of the Father in Christ

Remember that you are dust.  But of course, it would be hard to forget that or deny it today.

What we receive from our fathers and hand over to our children — along with looks and intellect, skills and temperament, attitudes, ideas, and possibly possessions — is a legacy of sin and death, which puts you back into the ground from which your first father Adam was taken.  Along the way, it rears its heads in all sorts of ways, both general and particular: in your quirks and foibles, in your vices and bad habits, and in the injuries and illnesses which exacerbate your fear and anger.  There is a brokenness to life on earth afflicting body and soul, home and family, business and finance.

From sire to seed the curse descends.  To be conceived and born as a child of man in this mortal world is always to inherit a terminal disease.  There’s no denying or escaping it.

That’s not to say there are no blessings or good things.  Surely there are, by the grace of God.  But in this poor life of labor, it is always a mixed bag, and at bottom it is like the grass that withers, the flower that fades, and the dust that is blown away.  Even in the midst of real life and the many good gifts of God, death pursues you and surrounds you because of sin.

All men die, because all men sin.  And the perversity of that sin is never greater than when you deny it, and take credit for what you have received, as though you had achieved it for yourself, and pridefully presume to make a name for yourself, to make your own way and a life for yourself.

By contrast, what the Lord Jesus Christ has received from His Father is Life and Grace and Glory and the Name above all names; not only from eternity as the only-begotten Son of God, but also in His true manhood, in His own Body of human flesh and blood.  For He is anointed by the Spirit as the Christ at His Baptism in the Jordan River, and the Spirit rests and remains upon Him.

Not for His own benefit does He receive the Holy Spirit, but in order to become your Savior from sin, death, the devil, and hell.  Thus He is driven by the Spirit from the waters of His Baptism into the wilderness in which you live and die, in order to contend with Satan as your great Champion, to take His stand beside you on the plain, even unto His Cross and Passion as the Son of Man.

He takes all your many transgressions, and not only yours, but those of the whole world, and the whole legacy of sin and death from Adam to the end of the age.  His Father in heaven lays it all upon Him, so that you might be rescued from the curse and every evil, justified, reconciled to God, and sanctified in body and soul, unto the life everlasting.

He puts His mouth in the dust.  He gives His cheek to the smiters.  He bears the reproach of God and man for the sins of all of Adam’s children.  And by His death, He puts sin and death to death in Himself, in His own Body of flesh and blood, in the confidence that His Father will raise Him in accordance with the Scriptures.  In faith and hope, He waits quietly upon His God and Father.

So it is, that, in His Resurrection from the dead, you also are raised up with Him.  In His crucified and risen Body, you are brought to the Father in Peace; not for condemnation, but for eternal life.

Indeed, His God and Father has actually become your God and Father in Him; not by your works, but in spite of your sin, by His grace as a free gift, through the Gospel, through faith in the Gospel.

For as the Father raises the incarnate Son from death to life, so does the Son give Life to you and to all who believe in Him.  So has He given His Life to Leon, not only for a while, but forever.

The same Lord Jesus Christ works all of this in you, so that it becomes yours, as it is has also become Leon’s, by repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins.  It happens by your dying and rising with Christ, both to and from your Baptism, and so also day-by-day in the significance of your Baptism.

Thus, by various ways and means — by the way of the Cross, by the preaching of His Word, and by the curse and consequences of sin that you suffer in the world — God puts you to death, in order to raise you from death to life.  Even what you suffer because of your sin, and on account of the sins of others against you, is constrained to serve the purposes of God in conforming you to Christ, so that you become a son of God in Him.  Has He not taught you to pray, “Our Father”?

In Christ you receive a new legacy, a new inheritance, not of sin and death, but of the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.  This is the gracious gift of God, which you receive from Christ through the Gospel, as it is handed over from generation to generation.  It is a holy and precious tradition, passed on by Christian parents to their children, just as Leon gave it to his sons by taking them to church and having them taught the faith at Trinity in Utica.  And it is given by spiritual fathers, as well, to the children of God entrusted to their care within the life of the Church on earth.

There is a strong irony and contrast at work in this tradition of the Gospel, in which mortal men are able to give immortal life to their children, instead of simply sin and death.  It is obvious, for example, when a pastor has the privilege of baptizing his own son or daughter.  As a father, he has passed on the legacy of Adam, but as a pastor he bestows the grace of God the Father in Christ.

There is a similar paradox at work when a pastor is given to serve and care for his own earthly father in the Name of Christ, on behalf of our Father in heaven, as Pastor Fickel has done for his Dad in the final years of his life.  So did the son become the father, and by the Word of Christ, by the power of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ, he was able to give life to his dying father.

By the Ministry of the Gospel, the legacy of sin and death is turned on its head and inside-out.  For you are baptized into the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, and, because you die with Him, so do you also live with Him.  By faith in your Baptism, your life is hidden with Christ in God.

It is hidden.  Your Life in Christ is real, solid, and true, but it is hidden under the Cross in the dark shadows of death and the grave.  You are not able, here and now, to experience or feel it in your flesh and bones.  It is by faith, and not by sight.  You cling to the promise of the Gospel in the face of your own mortality and the mortality of your loved ones, your parents and your children.

And not only your flesh, but your faith, too, is constantly assaulted, attacked, and accused by the devil, the father of lies, who desperately seeks to rob and destroy the hope of Christ in you.  He troubles your heart and mind with the chaos of conflicting emotions, so that you are tossed about and torn apart, to the point that you cannot keep your bearings or remember what is true.  Anger at your Dad, or at yourself, or at the world.  Guilt for things you’ve done or said, or for what you should have done or said but didn’t.  Worries and anxieties over what the future holds for you and for your own children.  Doubts and fears, maybe verging on despair, because it seems too much.

It is a strange and dreadful strife when life and death contend within your heart, mind, and spirit.

But hear now the Voice of Christ Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, whose Word is Spirit and Truth.  He does not accuse or condemn you.  He judges you righteous for His own sake.  He speaks forgiveness, the free and full forgiveness of all your sins, of all your guilt and shame.  He does not toss you back upon yourself in regret for the past, but, in calling you to repentance, He calls you to faith in the mercies of God.  He calls you out of death and the grave, from the dust of the earth, to rise and live with Him forever in the bosom of your own dear God and Father.

For the fact of the matter is, that you share your dust and death, not only with father Adam, but now also with Christ Jesus, your Savior.  By His humble obedience unto His death upon the Cross, and by your Baptism into Him, He has become like you, and He makes you to be like Him.

Suffering is therefore not meaningless, pointless, or hopeless.  Indeed, it cannot be.  It is invested with divine significance by the suffering of God in human flesh and blood like yours.  What you suffer is a thus a participation in the Cross of Christ, an exercise of repentance and faith in Him.  Even a terminal illness — whether it be Huntington’s Disease, or cancer, or whatever it may be — must serve the gracious and merciful purposes of God for the life and salvation of His children.

Your Father does not afflict or grieve you willingly, but He subjects you to futility in the promise of the Resurrection, so that you learn to wait upon the Lord and hope in Him, to find your portion in Him alone.  He causes you grief, but only for the sake of His mercy, compassion, and steadfast loving-kindness.  He quiets your commotion, your outbursts of anger and frustration, so that you would listen to His Voice of the Gospel.  He humbles you, in order to exalt you in Christ Jesus.

He remembers that you are dust.  And from that very dust He forms you into the Image and Likeness of His own dearly-beloved Son, and He breathes into your body and soul the Breath of Life, the living and Life-giving Spirit of Jesus.

The One who promises is faithful forever.  And as He has done it in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead, so shall He raise Leon at the last, and so shall He raise you to live with the Lord in Grace, Mercy, and Peace in the House of your God and Father.

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

To Speak Christ as the Father Has Spoken

“Deeds, not Creeds!”  You’ve all heard that slogan.  Perhaps you’ve even used it yourself.  And there’s some truth to the concern.  If you’re gonna talk the talk, you better walk the walk.  Put your money where your mouth is.  Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only or talkers only.

But, for all of that, let your doing begin with your speaking, and let what you say be true.

Confess what is good and right, by confessing what God has done for you and said to you.  In this there is no conflict or competition between your Creed and your deeds, but the greatest continuity and harmony in the Lord your God, in holy faith and holy love.

Indeed, this word and work of confessing the faith is fundamental to the worship of God.  And you should not suppose that it is easy or a cop out.  You know better than that, if you consider how often you are scared and hesitate to speak the Word of the Lord, to confess and call upon His Name.  But it’s not because it’s often hard and sometimes dangerous that such confession is so important and significant.  It is rather because it is in keeping with who God is and what He does.

You speak what the Lord has spoken in the fear, love, and trust that He does everything by and with His Word.  As He created all things out of nothing by His Word, so does He also uphold and sustain all things in heaven and on earth by His Word, not only for this body and life, but for the life everlasting of body and soul.  So does the Father speak to you by His Son.  He speaks Christ Jesus to you, who is Himself the Word-made-Flesh, anointed by the Spirit in His Body for you.

And you, in turn, worship the Lord your God by speaking what is true, that is, by speaking what He has spoken to you in Christ Jesus.  You proceed from Sabbath listening to the right use of God’s Name in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, in proclamation and confession of His Word.

From the earliest days of the Christian Church, the Apostles’ Creed and the Our Father have been at the heart of this right worship of God.  They are foundational to orthodox faith and practice, because they are true.  They pray and confess the Word of the Lord your God.

Not only does this worship of the Word glorify and honor the Holy Trinity in Christ Jesus, but to speak of God in this way, as He speaks, and to speak to and for your neighbor as God speaks to you, is also the first and foremost service of love for your neighbor in the world.  Which is to say that your deeds of faith and love are centered in the Creed, in the confession of Christ.

By the Word and Spirit of God, you are given to speak His Word, and thus to breathe His Spirit.  Like God the Father, you speak the Word of Christ, His Son, and the Spirit of Christ speaks in you and breathes in you.  So it is that you breathe out the same Holy Spirit whom you breathe in, by speaking the Gospel that you hear, by forgiving the sins of others as you are forgiven by Christ.

This is a high and holy calling to which you are called as a Christian, that you should be given to speak the Word of God to your neighbor.  No matter how little you are, no matter how young or old you may be — whether you are well-educated or simple-minded and forgetful — in confessing the Word of God, in echoing what He has spoken, you are given to say what God the Father says.

No president or king can say or do anything better, more important, or more powerful than that.

Of course, as you speak, so should you also act.  Don’t be a hypocrite, presuming to speak the right words while living the wrong way.  Don’t deny your confession of Christ by continuing in your sin, as though His Gospel meant nothing and did nothing.  As you speak forgiveness, show mercy.

But in affirming the need for consistency in your words and actions, also bear in mind that your speaking is already an activity of your body and life, a doing of something real, whether for good or for ill.  When you speak from the heart of faith with your mind and your mouth, that is to live and act in love, to perform a divine deed by which you give life.  And likewise, when you speak, not from faith but from your sinful unbelief, you perform a devilish, satanic work that destroys life.

What you speak with your mouth — the sound of your voice, and the very words that you say — it all matters a great deal, and it makes a difference, good or bad, depending on whether what you say is good and right or wicked and wrong.  Certainly the Holy Scriptures regard what you say with your mouth, your lips and tongue very highly and very seriously.

Consider the case of Job, for example.  In all that he suffered, he did not sin with his lips.  He did not curse God, but he confessed his faith and blessed the Name of the Lord; he gave thanks in the face of all that he lost.  He relied upon the Lord for his righteousness.  He invested himself and his hope in the promise of the Resurrection, which he confessed against death and the devil.

What Job and others said and did not say is crucial to his story.  When, in response to his friends, he begins to assert his own integrity, then God speaks, and silences Job, and calls him back to repentance and faith.  Job listens in quietness.  He is both humbled and strengthened by the Word of God.  And then he confesses the Majesty, the Mystery, and the mercies of the one true God.  At which point God declares that Job has spoken rightly concerning Him, and that Job’s friends have spoken wrongly about God.  Significantly, Job also prays for his friends, and they are forgiven.

Now we have at hand a similar example in the case of Nebuchadnezzar.  Again, it is a matter of what is said, but, as you have heard, the great Babylonian king did sin with his lips.  And while the words were yet in his mouth, as he was thinking out loud with himself on the roof of the palace, the voice of God from heaven silenced him and disciplined him.  Whereas the prideful words of Nebuchadnezzar were false and empty and powerless, the Word of God was immediately fulfilled.

Because the proud king had spoken in praise of himself, he was driven to madness.  For this is real madness, to exalt yourself over and above the Lord; to credit yourself with all that you have; to praise your own name, as though your life, your possessions and achievements were your own.

So Nebuchadnezzar was driven away from other people to live with the animals, and to become like an animal himself, without words or reason.

Of course, the animals cannot speak like man, yet they acknowledge and praise the Lord their God and look to Him for their food in due season.  In this, they are both wiser and more innocent than sinful man.  They cannot confess the Lord in the way that man is privileged to speak the Word of God and call upon Him, but neither are they able to blaspheme the Holy Name of the Lord.

The ability and capacity to speak is both a powerful and a dangerous potential.  With your mouth, your lips and tongue, you are able to bless or to curse the Lord your God, to speak either truly or falsely, to help or to hurt your neighbor.  And you are held accountable for what you say, just as the king of Babylon was.  For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His Name in vain.

Thus Nebuchadnezzar was chastened and humbled by the Lord, who brings down the lofty and raises up the lowly.  And, humbled like the animals, he learned with the animals to look unto God.  His eyes and ears were lifted up to the Most High, and so too were his mouth and lips and tongue.  For his reason returned to him, the genuine logic of right words.  No longer did he exalt himself, but in humility he glorified the Lord with his speaking, with his words, and with his confession.  Then his counselors and nobles began to seek him out again, and he was restored to his throne.

In contrast to the madness of self-righteousness and blasphemy, this indeed is true divine reason, wisdom, and strength, namely, to speak the Truth concerning God Most High, and to praise the Name of the Lord:  That is to speak the Truth of who God is, what He is like, and what He does, by confessing what He has spoken concerning Himself.  It is to confess His Law and His Gospel.

With this Creed, you praise, exalt, and honor the Holy Triune God.  You worship Him rightly by such faith in His Word, by such confession of His Name.

With the same Word, you serve, support, and strengthen your neighbor; you call him to repentance and faith, to righteousness and holiness; and you comfort him with the mercies of Christ Jesus.

Do not underestimate how important your words can be to your brothers and sisters in Christ, and do not be afraid or ashamed to speak the Gospel to them, the forgiveness of sins, and the promise of the resurrection.  Speak the truth in love, yes.  If your neighbor is caught up in some trespass, you who are spiritual restore him in a spirit of gentleness.  Such restoration will include, not only pointing out the fault and calling to repentance, but also the confession of Christ and His salvation.

You don’t have to come up with your own clever and creative words.  Usually, it’s better that you don’t.  Instead, speak the words that you have been taught from the Bible and the Catechism, the words that you have heard and received in the Church’s confession of Christ.

You have opportunity to do this all the time: one-on-one with your neighbor; with your family in your home, around your table; with your colleagues at work; with your classmates at school.

So also, when you are gathered together as the people of God, as the Body of Christ, you serve, support, and strengthen one another by your praying, confessing, and singing of the Word of God.  The Spirit of God thus dwells among you richly, in and with that Word that you speak to and for and with each other.  You fill each other up with the Spirit of Christ Jesus by the confession of His Name.  More often than not, the Lord who opens your mouth to speak and to sing in this way, will be caring for your neighbor and addressing his hurts in ways that you won’t even realize.

As a parent, you do this for your children — and for your children’s children from before they are ever born — by the catechesis and confession of Christ Jesus.  That is both your privilege and your responsibility as a Christian father or mother — that the Word of the Lord should be spoken and taught and handed over from one generation to the next — just as you also received that Word in the Creed and in the Scriptures from those who came before you in the faith and life of Christ.

For thousands of years, Christians have been confessing these same priceless words, in countless languages around the world, to and from the waters of Holy Baptism, and throughout the Church.  And by taking this confession of Christ upon your lips, as you also ponder it in your mind and treasure it in your heart and soul (for you speak as you believe), so are you strengthened in the one true faith and armored against the devil, all his works and all his ways.

Putting on the full Armor of God and wielding the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, is not merely poetic rhetoric, but the most practical and important admonition: By faith you hear and receive and make use of the Word that is preached to you and taught to you.  You rehearse it, and you exercise your faith in the Word, by actually speaking it, by praying and confessing it.

The Creed and the Our Father are a great place to start.  By such prayer and confession, you drown out the false words of wickedness with the true voice of divine Wisdom.  The devil cannot stand against that Word of Christ.  Whether you are two years old, twelve or twenty, 40, 60, 80, or 90, you speak that Word of the Lord, as He has taught you, and the devil has no choice but to flee.

This is something that you can and should do, as a baptized Christian, as a disciple of Christ Jesus: to be like your Teacher, your Master, and to speak as He has spoken to you and catechized you.

Of course, it is not your own work, reason, wisdom, or strength.  It is the gift of God, His Logic, His Righteousness and Peace, which surpass all human understanding, but which are given to you by His speaking of His Word to you, in which you rest, and by which you live in Christ Jesus.

It is by and with His Word that He is near you and abides with you.  By His Word that He foils the tempter’s power.  By His Word that He guides you, guards and keeps you, as your Staff and Stay.  It is by and with His Word that He is kind to you, and gentle and good, and heals you of all iniquities and all infirmities of body and soul.  It is by His Word that He holds the Cross before your closing eyes, in order to bless you by the forgiveness of the Cross: in life, in death, even unto the Resurrection and the Life Everlasting.  And by this Word He opens your ears to hear, your heart and mind to comprehend and believe the Gospel, and your lips and mouth to show forth His praise and glorify the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

To Be with the Lord Jesus Where He Is

Do you wish to be a Christian, a disciple of Christ Jesus?  And would you follow Him, in order to be with Him where He is, both now and forever?

Then you must be taught by Him and learn from Him.

Not only that, but your ongoing catechesis must focus your attention on who this Jesus is.  And the big question will remain, at all times: What do you think of Him?

What do the people say?  What is the public opinion of Jesus?  Well, He’s a preacher of the Word of God, a preacher of repentance; and He’s another prophet, like John, and a baptizer.

And to be sure, He is all of these things, and more.

But the question is also put to you: Not only what you think, but who do you say that Jesus is?  What do your words and actions confess concerning Him?  What do you say about Jesus in your vocation as a Christian, in your own particular place in the world?

If your life says nothing at all about Jesus, then how shall your life be saved?

But what, then?  Who is this Jesus?

He is the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed.  So have you confessed, by the grace of God the Father, already in your Baptism.  So, what will that mean for Him?  And what does it mean for you?

Jesus, the Son of the living God, is anointed by the Spirit of His Father to be the Son of Man; wherefore He must suffer many things, and die, and rise again for you and your salvation. And if you are His disciple, and you are taught by Him to carry the cross and follow after Him, then you also suffer and die and rise again.

Jesus puts this to you plainly.  Will you accept it and bear it?  Will He be your Lord and your God?  Or will you buck and resist His Word?  And would you presume to rebuke Him for His Cross?

Repent.  Get back in line behind Jesus, and follow Him.

Deny yourself, take up the Cross, and follow Christ.  Do not set your heart and mind on your own interests, and do not walk according to the worldly wisdom of self-preservation.  But give attention to the Word of God.  Fear, love, and trust in Him.

Such is the work of the Cross in your body and life here on earth.  It puts you to death, it crucifies and buries you with Christ, so that you may rise from the dead to newness of life and live forever in Him.  That work begins and remains rooted in your Baptism, and it continues all your days.

Real life and the one true God are found, not where you are prone to look (that is, within yourself), but in Christ, crucified and risen; in His Word of the Gospel, the forgiveness of all your sins; and in His holy flesh and blood.  This promise is for you and for your children.

Thus, not only must you be put to death to yourself, to your sin, and to the world, but so also your children must be crucified, put to death, and buried with Christ Jesus — if you would give them the salvation of their bodies and souls and the life everlasting.

Each of you is called to deny yourself, to take up the Cross, and to follow Jesus.  But you parents, you fathers in particular, are called to catechize your children in this way of the Cross.  That means teaching them the Word of Christ Jesus within your home and family, and bringing them to be taught within the household and family of the Church.

Fathers, teach your children the Bible and the Catechism, the Liturgy and the hymns of the Church.  And teach them by your example, too, by exercising your faith in the way you love and serve them — and in the way you gently serve and care for their Mom.

Prioritize the Gospel of the Cross in the way that you order and arrange your own life and your family’s.  Do not live for the acquisition of worldly goods, which perish, but let everything be bent toward the storing up of treasures in heaven, which are found only in Christ and His Gospel.

To live by faith in Him will put you and your children at odds with this adulterous and sinful generation.  Indeed, it puts you at odds with yourself, with your own sinful heart and fallen flesh.

To live according to His Word, by faith, under His Cross, is difficult and painful.  It is beyond your strength and seemingly impossible altogether — like the promise of God to ancient Abraham and barren Sarah, and like His covenant with them, which was finally fulfilled, against all odds, for them and for you and for all the nations, in the Cross of Christ.

The guarantee and certainty of this faith, by which you have peace, hope, love, and joy in the midst of tribulation, suffering, setbacks, and temporary disappointments, is that same Cross and Passion of Christ Himself, who is God in the flesh; and it is found in His bodily Resurrection from death and the grave to eternal life.  For He has not failed, and your faith in Him shall not be disappointed.

It is because of this Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, that you are reconciled to God.  Live and walk in Him, therefore, in the surety of what He has done, and in the way that He has gone.  In Him alone is where your life is found, now and forever, and there is no life anywhere else.

Even now, you are in and with Christ Jesus, because He has first of all established Himself for you, and He has given Himself for you.  So has He also given Himself to you, and established you in Himself.  That is the gift and the good work that He has granted to you in the waters of your Holy Baptism.  That is what He gives to you with His Body and His Blood in the Holy Communion.

Thus, it is in Christ that you now live before God, righteous and holy, at peace, and hopeful even in the face of death.  So, too, your safety and security in Christ remain sure and certain, no matter how the world may hate you and hurt you, or despise and dismiss you, or ignore you as of no consequence.  The Lord remains steadfast and faithful, no matter how your own frail heart may waver with doubt or quail in fear, as even the heart of father Abraham did at times.

God’s promises to Abraham have indeed been fully accomplished, also for you, in the holy Seed of father Abraham, that is, in the incarnate Son of God, Christ Jesus, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  He is fruitful, and He multiplies His family throughout all the nations of the earth by the preaching of His Gospel.

No matter how many Christians ISIS may brutally burn or behead, they shall not be able to defeat or destroy those dear brothers and sisters, nor rob them of the life that is theirs in Christ Jesus, who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross and thereby defeated death and the devil for us all.

And when you yourself are confronted with death, at whatever age, and by whatever means, you shall follow the Author and Perfecter of our faith through the dark valley and the very gates of Hades into His Resurrection and His Life everlasting.

You and all who are born again by the washing of water with the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, who believe in Him, are the true children of Abraham by grace through faith in the One who is both Abraham’s Son and Abraham’s Lord.  So you are an heir of God’s promises to Abraham. Yes, and much more than that, you are a son of God in Christ, and He is counted as your righteousness.

So does God your Father in heaven give life to you and to your mortal flesh, to your body and your soul, by the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.  And by the power of His indestructible life, so do you also live under His Cross and in His Resurrection from the dead.  Yes, yes, it shall be so.  For even though you die, yet shall you live, and you shall be with Him, where He is, even forevermore.

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

To Be with the Lord Jesus Where He Is

The Lord Jesus has come down from heaven, and He has come down from the Mountain, in order to raise you up from death to life; to set you free from your slavery to sin; to bring you into the good land that He has promised and prepared for you; and to bring you to His God and Father in and with Himself.  For that is the divine purpose of man, namely, to live with God in Christ Jesus.

You have been created for this divine Life, to abide with the Lord your God, receiving all good things from Him by His grace, even forevermore.

Yet, for now, you are distanced from God, lost and alone, threatened and afraid.  Not because you are a finite creature, but because you have preferred creation over the Creator.  Not because you are flesh and blood, but because you hunger for the flesh more than you hunger for the Lord.

You fear, love, and trust your flesh, even in its frailty and weakness, more than God and His Word.

So you worry about getting sick, and you work to fill your belly, but you doubt and question and too easily forget about the Word and work, the promises and providence of the Lord your God.

Even so, it is for you — with all your doubts and fears and misplaced loyalties — it is for you that Christ Jesus has come.  Not because you have been so faithful or even well-intentioned, but because He is faithful and just, and because He loves you.

And in His love for you, He has entered the wilderness to be with you.  He has hungered and thirsted in His mortal flesh and blood, just like yours, so He knows exactly how you feel.

But, above all else, He has hungered and thirsted in both His body and soul for the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, even to the point of His suffering and death for the Glory of God.

To save you for God, He has borne your sins and sickness, all of your iniquities, and all your griefs and sorrows in His flesh; so that by His stripes and by His wounds you are cleansed and healed.

He has passed through the waters of the Flood, the Red Sea, and the Jordan, in order to make a way for you, an Exodus from death into life.  He has gone alone, first of all, in order to bear the wrath and judgment of the Law of God in your stead.  And as the Passover Lamb of God, He has been sacrificed in your place, so that His blood covers you, and so that death passes over you.

Now, what the world perceives in this Sacrifice of Christ is nothing but utter defeat and hopeless despair, as though all were lost.  How, then, shall it ever suffice, or really do any good at all?

And how easily do you also give up hope and suppose that there is no help to be found?

Do you count the cost, and add and subtract appearances and variables, and come up empty?

Repent of such unbelief.  And do not despair, but believe the Gospel.  For Christ is risen from the dead and has returned to the Father in His glorified Body, and this He has done for your salvation.

He has taken His seat at the right hand of God the Father, and He has seated you with Himself there.  So that, where He is, there you are also — in the Body of Christ on earth as it is in heaven.  Indeed, He has brought you into this good land, with Himself, through the waters of your Baptism.

Recline yourself here at His Table, then, as He invites you, and rest yourself here in His Feast.  For He feeds you with Food that shall not perish, so that you shall not perish, either.  And there is more than enough:  Take and eat!  Drink of it, all of you!  And give thanks to the Lord your God.

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

The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ

Jesus comes down from the mountain, in order to bring you up the High Mountain to God.

Generations earlier, Moses had also come down from the mountain — with the two stone tablets of the Testimony — and, having spoken with God on the high and holy mountain, he commanded the people all that God had told him.  By this Word, the Lord established His Covenant with Israel, that He would be their God and they would be His people.  The Ten Commandments defined the character and content of that relationship, comprising faith in Him and love for Him and others.

There was also given, in great detail, the Lord’s instructions for the Tabernacle and its furnishings, the Priesthood and its vestments, and the foundations of the sacrificial means of grace, by which the Lord would abide with His people and cause His Name and His Glory to dwell among them.

As the instrument and minister of this divine revelation, the face of Moses shone with the Glory of the Law.  It was transfigured by his speaking with God, so that it radiated the light of the Lord.  That frightened the people when they saw it.  They were threatened by it, as by the thunder and lightning, fire and smoke of Mt. Sinai.  But it also enticed, intrigued, and impressed them, quite rightly, for it demonstrated that what Moses spoke to them was the Word of the Lord their God.

He veiled his face afterwards, each time, until he next went in before the Lord to speak with Him.  And St. Paul tells us why: namely, so that the people would not see the fading away of that Glory.

The Glory faded from the face of Moses, because Moses himself was fading away.  Though he was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, he too was from the dust and returning to the dust in his sin and death.  The mortal flesh of fallen man is not able to bear or sustain the Glory of God; not even that of great Moses, the Lawgiver.  Indeed, the Law itself brings death to sinful man.

The Law is not fulfilled in Moses, nor in the ancient people to whom it was given at Mt. Sinai.  Thus, the Glory of God does not remain with them forever, but fades away, time and time again.  It must be restored — and it can only be restored — by the preaching of the Word of the Lord.

But, apart from Christ Jesus, the veil remains, hiding both the true Glory of God and the sin and death that it exposes and exacerbates.  Minds are blinded and hearts are hardened against the Law, so that it is either misused or abused: ignored, or disobeyed outright, or else relied upon for life all the while it destroys you.  In your sin you can neither fulfill nor escape the holiness of the Law.

In Christ Jesus, though, the veil is removed.  The Light of the revelation of the Glory of God shines upon us in His face and does not fade away.  For though He takes upon Himself and suffers the full burden of sin and death in His own Body of flesh and blood, He does not relinquish or let go of the divine Glory, but fulfills and completes it in perfect faith and in holy love for God and man.

The Glory of God is established and revealed in the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, first of all by His Incarnation, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and then also by His Holy Cross and Passion, His innocent suffering and death.  That is where and how the veil is removed.

But what you see in the flesh of Christ is scary, isn’t it?  Overwhelming and confusing.  As it was for Peter, James, and John on the Mountain of Transfiguration; and as it was for all the disciples when they saw the Lord Jesus arrested, hauled away, condemned, beaten and mistreated, and cruelly put to death upon the Cross.  His Glory confronts you with the Cross that kills you, and it reveals that fulfilling the Law is not only beyond you but is altogether other than you supposed.

The Glory of God is good and right and wise, but, precisely so, it brings to light all the ways that you are not.  And it has already been established that the true divine Glory of the Law is, in fact, a ministry of death for you and for all who are not holy and righteous but sinful and unclean.

Removing the veil to reveal the righteousness and holiness of God — in the face of Jesus Christ, in His Body and His garments — exposes all the dirt and filth that fill your heart and mind, infect your perishing flesh from the inside out, and stain your garments with all the damn spots of your thoughts, words, and deeds.  Removing the veil uncovers the nakedness and shame of your sin.

As painful and scary as that is — and, make no mistake, as devastating as that is to every pretense of self-righteousness or do-it-yourself-ness — it is not the whole story, but only the beginning of that which is perfected in Christ Jesus.  For He is not another Moses or Elijah, but He is the One to whom they have pointed and for whom they have waited in hope, as do all the people of God.

He does not simply speak or reveal the Word of the Lord, but, as you know, He is the very Word of God, who has become flesh to dwell among us, to reveal the Father to us, to shine upon us in Love with the Light and Life of the Holy Trinity.  He is not “on par” with Moses and Elijah, but far above them, residing from eternity in the bosom of God the Father, though He has also come down from heaven for all of us and our salvation, in order to fulfill all the Law and the Prophets.

Jesus does not simply preach and teach the righteousness and holiness of God, nor simply reveal the Glory of God, but He is all of these things, and He embodies them all in His own flesh for us.

As such, He removes the veil which covered the divine Glory and darkened the hearts and minds of man, by submitting Himself to the Law’s “Ministry of Death” in your place and on your behalf.

He bears your dirt and filth and stain in His own flesh and blood, as though all of it were His own; as though He were the One (the only One) who had done what He should not and failed to do what He should; as though He were the Guilty One.  He is publicly exposed and put on display before God and the whole world in your naked shame upon the Cross.

And here is the wonder of all wonders: His divine and holy Body is transfigured by His Cross and Crucifixion, so that He thereby enters into Glory — with our human flesh — by way of His death.

The indestructible Power and Glory of His Resurrection, anticipated here in His Transfiguration, is the divine Glory that He accomplishes and establishes for you and for all people by His Cross.

Which is why it cannot be preached or even told until after the Son of Man has risen from the dead.

In this light, therefore, are at least two reasons why Peter’s confused suggestion is misguided and wrong, no less so than when he took it upon himself to rebuke Jesus and refute His coming Cross:

First of all, Jesus does not need anyone to build a tabernacle for Him to abide with His disciples, because He is Himself the Tabernacle of God among men.  And, second, He actually becomes that true divine Tabernacle in His human flesh and blood — for all who believe and are baptized into Him — by coming down from the Mountain and going the Way of His Holy Cross and Passion.

He is the Tabernacle, the Temple of God, the merciful and great High Priest who remains forever, and the once-for-all Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, because He lays down His own life and sheds His own holy and precious blood for the salvation of all the children of Adam and Eve.

As the one perfect Mediator between God and Man, because He is both true God and true Man in His one Person, the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily among us in His own flesh and blood, He comes down from the Mountain — as He has come down from heaven, and as He went down into the waters of His Baptism, even to death and to the grave.

He comes down to offer Himself up, in order to raise you up with Himself from death unto life.  For in His bodily Resurrection from the dead, the Glory of God in His face and in His flesh shall never fade away.  He has satisfied the Law completely, both meeting its demands and suffering its punishments for the sins of the world.  And having risen from the dead, He is never to die again.

What He has thus accomplished and achieved in Himself, in His own Body and Soul, in all His thoughts, words, and deeds, He now also gives to you, and bestows upon you, and makes it your own by His grace, through His Word of the Gospel, which is a Ministry of the Spirit and of Life.  By that Ministry, by that New Covenant in His Blood, you receive His mercy and forgiveness.

Through your Baptism into Christ, into His Cross and Resurrection, you have passed through death into life, and you have entered into the Glory of God with your body and soul and all that you are.

To be sure, it does not yet appear what you shall be, but everything that Christ Jesus has received in His Body of flesh and blood, in His Resurrection from the dead, is now also yours in and with Him.  Therefore, when He appears in all His Glory for the Judgment of the living and the dead, then you shall see Him as He is, and you shall be like Him: Radiant, glorious, and beautiful.

As the veil has been lifted by the Cross of Christ, for now you behold the Glory of God precisely in the Cross: Not only in the Gospel of Christ — in the preaching of His Cross, and in His Body given, His Blood poured out for you — but also in yourself, bearing the Cross as a disciple of His.

That is the part that is still so difficult and hard to understand, but you are not left to yourself, to figure it out or handle it on your own.  You are catechized and cared for by the Word of Christ, and by the care and catechesis of His Church, which He has established on earth as it is in heaven.

The crucifix above the Altar artistically confesses and declares the Body and Blood of Christ that are given and poured out for you upon His Altar.  Historically, that is why Lutherans have always preferred the crucifix, that the body of Christ on the Cross should confess His Body in the Supper.

This, indeed, is the majestic Cloud that now surrounds you, the Pillar of Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by night, in which you behold the glorious power and presence of God among us.  For the Body of Christ, crucified and risen, and given for you to eat, His Blood for you to drink, truly is the Tabernacle of God among men.  Here is where and how Immanuel is God-with-us.

And this Sacrament of Christ is the mirror by which you are given to see the transformation — the transfiguration — of your own body of flesh and blood into the same Image of God, from Glory to Glory.  For the Cross that you bear and suffer in the Name of Christ Jesus, the blessed Fruits of which you here and now receive, is a participation in the divine Glory of the Lord, as well as the means by which you are being transfigured with His Glory unto the Resurrection of your body.

Here is mercy for you in the one Lord, Jesus Christ.  Therefore, do not lose heart, but rest in Him.

Already now, though you cannot see it, you are clothed with His radiant garments of righteousness and holiness, pure and clean like no bleach or laundry soap on earth could ever hope to manage.  As He has taken the stain of your sin, your nakedness and shame to be His own, so are you covered with Christ Jesus and clothed with His grace and His Glory by His Gospel of forgiveness.

So, too, as He feeds you here with His Body and His Blood — transfigured by His Cross, unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting — so does He gather you up, both body and soul, into His Body of flesh and blood, and bear you up the High Mountain to His God and Father in heaven.

Thus do you behold by faith the true divine Glory in the Fruits of His Cross, given and poured out for you and for the many.  You eat and drink in His presence, and you do not die, but you live.

Dear Christian, listen to Him, and hear what He says:  Take and eat this Bread.  It is My Body, which is given for you.  And drink from this Chalice, which is the New Testament in My Blood.  It is poured out for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins.

Come, find your peace and rest in Him, and receive your inheritance, which shall not fade away.

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

The Redemption of the Lord

We have been returned, as it were, to Christmas once again—on this fortieth day of Christmas, which is really the conclusion of the Christmas cycle.  In just a few weeks, with the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, we will be turned toward the glory of His Cross and Passion, in the hopeful expectation of His Resurrection.  But for the moment, the Word of God has called us to behold and receive the infant Lord Jesus in the courts of His House, His Holy Sanctuary.

This festival day actually recalls and celebrates two different events, which coincided in the visit of the Holy Family to the Temple in Jerusalem.  In accordance with the Law of the Lord, there is the purification of St. Mary following the birth of her firstborn Son, and then also the redemption of the same little Lord Jesus, who was not a Levite but from the tribe of Judah.

We acknowledge that the Blessed Virgin Mary is indeed a saint by God’s grace and forgiveness in Christ Jesus, her Son, but that she was, to begin with, a sinner in need of such forgiveness—in need of cleansing and purification.  That much is simple and straightforward enough.  And yet, it is profoundly ironic that she would be required by the Law of God to undergo purification for bearing the spotless and holy Son of God!  She a virgin undefiled, who conceived by the Holy Spirit and gave birth to the Savior of the world, had to be purified for that very reason.

To be sure, such requirements of purification were not unique to St. Mary.  They belonged to the ceremonial and sacrificial Law of God, whereby He sanctified and set apart His people (Israel) from the pagan nations of the world.  His Law, in this regard, dealt not only with sins per se, but also with other aspects of natural life.  This ceremonial Law drew strict boundaries between what was pure and clean, whole and complete, on the one hand, and what was flawed or blemished, diminished or incomplete, on the other hand.  And again, the purpose was to sanctify and set apart the chosen people of God, and thus to reflect the absolute holiness of God Himself.

In addition to these lines of purity, the ceremonial Law of God attached special and particular significance to bodily functions pertaining to procreation and childbirth.  It is in this category, of course, that St. Mary’s purification falls today.  To consider what this means, think back to the Garden of Eden and to the consequences of the Fall into Sin:

In the first place, God cursed the woman with pain in childbirth; but then He also promised a Savior Who would be the Seed of the Woman.  Thus, both the Law and the Gospel, the curse and the blessing, the consequences of sin and its forgiveness are all centered in the Woman precisely as Mother: centered in her ovaries and womb.

From Eve onward, then, especially among the chosen people of God, every aspect of a woman’s fertility and childbearing was both a proclamation of the curse of sin and a proclamation of the promise of the Gospel.  And in a very real sense, the bleeding that follows childbirth and continues for roughly six weeks (or forty days) is likewise both a consequence of the Fall into Sin and a foreshadowing of the blood that would be shed by the Woman’s Seed, that is, by the Savior Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who would bleed and die for the forgiveness and salvation of the world.

The same sacrificial blood of Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, was signified by the requisite sacrifice of a lamb—or, in a case of poverty, the sacrifice of a turtledove and a pigeon—for the purification of a woman following childbirth.  Indeed, like everything else in the Old Testament, the point and purpose of this ceremonial and sacrificial Law of God was to prepare the people for the coming of the Christ.

Therefore, if the fertility and childbearing of each and every other woman recalled the Fall into Sin and the promise of the Gospel, all the more so, the childbearing of this Woman, in particular, that is, the childbearing of this Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, was the ultimate fulfillment of both the curse and the promise of God in the Garden.  Through her, through the very pain and process of childbirth, God has given Himself to bear our sin and to be our Savior, to sacrifice Himself and to shed His own blood for the sins of the world.

Far from being exempt from the requirement of purification, St. Mary was the Mother, above all others, whom this Law of God was really all about.  Not as though she had sinned in giving birth to the Son of God, but because His birth encompassed and dealt with the whole reality of sin and its forgiveness, for the salvation of all sinners languishing under its curse.  Indeed, as St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Galatians, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us!  In very much the same way that our Lord’s circumcision on the Eighth Day fulfilled the covenant of circumcision, so does St. Mary’s purification on this fortieth day fulfill the first promise of the Gospel in the Garden of Eden.  It is a declaration, in accordance with the Law of God, that the promised Seed of the Woman has arrived to crush the serpent-devil’s head.

Likewise, the same principle and significance are also at work in the Presentation of our Lord, which is the other ceremonial Law that is fulfilled on the fortieth day of Christmas.  It goes back, not to the Garden of Eden, but to the Exodus from Egypt.

Most of you will no doubt recall the devastating tenth plague, which the Lord brought against Pharaoh and the whole land of Egypt: The Lord God sent the Angel of Death by night to slay all the firstborn sons of both man and beast, from the firstborn of mighty Pharaoh on his throne all the way down to the firstborn of the lowliest captive in prison.  The firstborn sons of Israel, however, were spared from this plague of death, because they were covered and protected by the blood of the Passover Lamb.  Where the Lord’s Angel saw the blood of the lamb, he passed over the home.

Henceforth, the Lord commanded that the firstborn sons of Israel (both man and beast) would belong to Him by right.  Indeed, it needs to be understood that all the Children of Israel belonged to the Lord, even as all the earth is the Lord’s and all the fulness thereof.  But even more so, the firstborn sons belong to Him, because He spared them from death and sanctified them for Himself in the Exodus.  Thus, all the firstborn animals among the people were to be sacrificed to the Lord, and all the firstborn sons of the people were to be given to the Lord for His service.

Now, as part of the Covenant that God established with Israel at Mt. Sinai, He set aside for Himself the entire tribe of Levi to serve Him as priests among the people.  And as such, He established that all of the other tribes would redeem their firstborn sons from service, for the redemption price of five silver shekels.  For the people to pay this price for the redemption of their firstborns served as a constant reminder that both they and their sons and daughters, and their animals, and all of their earthly goods, belonged in fact to the Lord their God.  And all the while, then, the tribe of Levi was responsible for the priestly Divine Service of God, including the offering of the many and various sacrifices that He had commanded, all of this in preparation for the coming of the Christ.

Which now brings us to the Presentation of that very Christ in His Temple on this day:

The Lord Jesus Christ, Who is not only the firstborn Son of Mary, but also, from all eternity, the “Firstborn,” the only-begotten Son of God the Father.  In Him we behold the love and mercy, the grace and peace, and the divine Glory of the one true God in the flesh.

In contrast to the Israelites in Egypt, this firstborn Son of God will not be spared the plague of the Angel of Death.  On the contrary, He has come to bear and suffer that plague in His own Body on the Cross.  Indeed, this one Lord Jesus Christ, the almighty and eternal Son of God, has come to be the Passover Lamb, so that His own holy and precious blood might cover His people from death and release them from the bondage of sin.  Accordingly, it is the very Body and Blood of this same Lord Jesus that are set before you and given to you as your Passover Meal, your Feast of Salvation.

What is more, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Mary’s Son, is the merciful and great High Priest who supercedes and replaces the Levitical Priesthood of the Old Testament, once and for all, by His own voluntary sacrifice (of Himself), and by His innocent suffering and death on the Cross.

In keeping with the Law, Jesus would have been “redeemed” by Joseph and Mary at the cost of five silver shekels, since He was not from the tribe of Levi.  Yet, St. Luke does not mention any such payment or redemption, implying instead that the true theological significance of our Lord’s Presentation was not a redemption from service but consecration for service unto God.

To say it another way, the little Lord Jesus, less than two months old, was consecrated to become both the Priest and the Sacrifice, and thereby, also, the Temple itself in His own flesh and blood.

Bearing all of this in mind, you may see that the Presentation of our Lord is the fulfillment of the Passover, the Exodus, the Priesthood, and the entire Old Testament Liturgy, for the redemption of all people—yourself included—from the slavery and eternal punishment of sin, death, and hell.  Not with any silver, but with His own body and life!

It is in that Body of Christ Jesus, here within His Church of the Gospel–Word and Sacraments, and especially in His sacrificial flesh and blood—in this, the New Testament Passover Feast—that you now meet the Lord Himself, as did St. Simeon there in the Temple.  In this Lord Jesus Christ, in His own flesh, you behold your Light and your Salvation, indeed, the Savior of the world.  And as you take Him up into your arms, as you receive Him into your own body, you also may depart in peace, according to His Word of the Gospel.

For He has become like you in every respect, save only without any sin of His own.  And He has taken all of your sin upon Himself, and carried it in His Body to the Cross.  He has suffered all that you must suffer; He has been tempted in every way that you are tempted; and He has borne the judgment of God and the damnation you deserve, so that you may be covered by His blood and spared eternal death.  Indeed, He has sacrificed Himself for you, for the forgiveness of all of your sins; and here and now He gives to you Himself, His Body and His Blood, for Life and Salvation in Him.  And this true Body and Blood of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will strengthen you and keep you steadfast in the true faith, unto life everlasting.  Depart in His Peace.

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

Jesus Has Come and Brings Pleasure Eternal

Jesus has come and has entered in.  But what does Jesus have to do with you?  Why has He come?  Is He here to destroy you?  No, not really.  But it may seem that way; and in a sense He does.

He has come to set you free, to save you, to cleanse and heal you and give you life.  But, as all of that requires the drowning, death, and destruction of the old Adam in you, the washing away of your unclean spirit, it is painful and difficult, even deadly.  It cuts you to the quick and slays you.

The unclean spirit is in the synagogue, right there in the church, in the midst of the congregation.  And there is an unclean spirit in you, too, as you rightly confess that you are sinful and unclean.

The unclean spirit knows something about the Holy One, but it does not know as it ought to know.  It knows the holiness of the Law, at least in part, but not the holiness of the Gospel.  It knows the threats of punishment, but not the promise of grace and every blessing; the fire and brimstone of God’s righteous wrath and divine judgment, but not His patience, steadfast love, and mercy.

Therefore, the unclean spirit does not trust, and it does not love, neither God nor man, because it does not know the Lord Jesus rightly, that is, according to the divine Self-sacrifice of His death upon the Cross, and according to the indestructible power of His Resurrection from the dead.

Thus, you are afraid, and out of your fear derives anger, accusation, or apathy; either competition with instead of compassion for your neighbor, or a lazy complacency that does nothing at all.

But, now, be quiet.  Close your mouth and hush your thoughts.  Listen, first of all, and learn from the Lord, who is your Teacher, before you presume to know or to speak anything about Him.

The Lord Jesus comes, and with His Word He kills you, to be sure.  But He does so in order to make you alive, to raise you up from sin and death to righteousness and life everlasting in Him.

For He is the Prophet like Moses, who speaks the Word of God most high.  But He is more than a prophet.  He is the incarnate Word, the Lord Himself, who has become your Brother in the flesh.  And He has the authority, the power and ability, to put you to death and raise you to life, to call you to repentance, to redeem you, and to justify you with His own perfect righteousness, holiness, innocence and blessedness; because He has borne your uncleanness in Himself, and put it to death in Himself, in His own Body on the Cross, and washed it away forever and ever with His Blood.

Now, then, just as He is risen from the dead and ever lives to make intercession for you, so does He cleanse you in body and soul with His Holy Spirit by the speaking of His Word, His teaching or doctrine, which bears and conveys the power and authority of His Cross and Resurrection.

Every spirit speaks and acts, and it is known, by its words and actions, by what it says and does.

So, for example, your unclean spirit is not just a cancer hidden inside of you, in the secret thoughts of your heart and mind, in the words you mutter quietly under your breath to no one but yourself; but it also emerges in toxic words and hurtful deeds that actually attack and destroy your neighbor.

By your accusing, criticizing, gossiping, and harsh speech, you lash out and rail against the Lord Jesus Christ.  And when you sin against your brother or sister, for whom Christ Jesus died, you sin against the Lord Himself.  Thus, your unclean spirit is manifest and exposed for what it really is.

But so does the Holy Spirit emerge and proceed in and with and through the good Word and good works of Jesus Christ, which He does for you and speaks to you in the synagogue of His Church.  And His Spirit is also then present in the good words and good works of His Christians, as they are rescued from sin and death and brought to life by the Ministry of the Gospel.

With what sort of voice will you speak?  What will you say?  What spirit shall you breathe?  The unclean spirit of guilt and shame, of doubt and fear, of anger and despair?  Or the Spirit of Christ?

Here and now is the confrontation of the Word and teaching of Jesus with the voice and violence of your old Adam, the puffed-up knowledge and sacrilegious blasphemy of your unclean spirit:

“Be Quiet,” the Lord Jesus declares, and “Depart, unclean spirit!”  Shut up and go away!  And make room for the Holy Spirit!  That is what happens in Holy Baptism, and in the lifelong daily significance of your Baptism into Christ Jesus.  It is the divine work of repentance and forgiveness, which results in a wrenching separation of the old man from the New Man in you.

Little wonder that you convulse and cry out, as you are ripped and torn apart at the seams, as it were; turned completely inside-out, entirely emptied of yourself, and refilled with new stuffing.  So entangled and deeply-seated is your sin within every part of you, body and soul, that you must die and be reborn as someone altogether new.

The daily death of contrition and repentance is painful and scary.  But this doctrine and authority of Jesus is for your rescue and salvation and life.  He destroys you in order to save you forever.

The Word of the Lord Jesus commands your sin and death, and they must obey.  They must depart, because He has atoned for sin and swallowed up death by His sacrifice upon the Cross.  He has suffered Himself to be destroyed on account of your unclean spirit.  And it is in His Crucifixion that you are now put to death, to yourself and to your sin: Far better to die with Him than forever!

So it is that the Word of Jesus, who was crucified for you and raised again, also raises you up and gives you a brand new life in and with Him.  As He has become like you, so does He recreate you to become like Him.  He is your New Man, and you are a new man (or woman) in Christ Jesus.

He cleanses your spirit, and He fills your body and soul with His Holy Spirit, by whom you live, through His forgiveness of all your sins.  He does not hold anything against you.  He does not accuse or condemn you.  He does not count or consider your sins at all.  He removes them with His Word, His Holy Absolution, and at that Word of Christ, sin, death, the devil, and hell are cast out.  They have no choice but to obey Him.  They cannot remain or stand before Him.

Whereas you are raised up to stand fast in Him who is risen and stands fast for you forevermore.

Therefore, you have a new word to speak: to and about the Lord, to and for your neighbor; and you have a new way to live and to act; because you are known by God in grace, mercy, and peace.

As He knows you in His love for you, in the intimacy of the flesh and blood that He shares with you unto the life everlasting, so do you know Him rightly, even now, by faith.  And by such faith you love Him, according to the new and right spirit that He has granted you; and knowing Christ Jesus, you know the Father and the Holy Spirit, and you love the Lord your God as you are loved.

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