Your Passover, Christ, Has Been Sacrificed

There’s no denying the victory that God has won for His people.  It’s there before their eyes, that the Lord has gotten glory for Himself over Pharaoh.  So Moses and Israel sing with great joy, and praise the Name of the Lord, and celebrate their salvation from slavery and death in Egypt.

But then what?  Within a chapter the people are groaning and complaining against the same Lord God, and against His servant Moses, because they are hungry and thirsty, bored and restless.

From the waters of the Red Sea they are confronted by the wilderness with its harsh and difficult conditions.  That is what they will have to face and deal with for the next forty years.  Only two of the grownups will live to enter the Promised Land.  So it’s out of the frying pan, into the fire.

And so it is for you, as well, who share the Exodus of Christ Jesus by virtue of your Baptism into His Cross and Resurrection.  You die and rise with Him, and then you still have to face the fallen world with all its sins and griefs and sorrows, as you sojourn through this vale of tears.

The Christian faith and life are a struggle against the ongoing experience of sin and death, and against the knowledge of natural reason, which may be persuaded by the evidence and the facts, but cannot comprehend the Scriptures.  As of yet, you do not know as you are known.

On the one hand, you are confronted and seemingly trapped by your enemies, who hate you and hurt you and hurl abuse at you.  And on the other hand, you must grapple with the poverty and depravity of your own life, within your heart and mind and outwardly in your words and actions.

The Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead is in fact your rescue from all of this, no doubt.  It is the saving grace of God, the answer and solution to all of your problems.  But it hardly seems real for the time being, and it may not appear to be making any difference or doing any good.

You’re still sinning against God and your neighbor, still grumbling and complaining against the Lord and against His servants.  What is more, your neighbors and the devil are still sinning against you; if not Pharaoh and his minions, there are plenty of others who oppress you and fight with you.  And on both counts, you’re still dying, day by day, year after year, both inside and out.

So there is this wrestling match within you, in your heart and mind, and in your flesh, between faith and unbelief, and between real love and the lies of anger and fear, apathy and despair.

Against all that, again, there is the fact that Christ has died — once for all, never to die again — and that Christ is risen — He is risen indeed, just as He said!  But He seems to have disappeared, to be missing in action, and frankly you don’t know what to do with yourself.  “They” have taken away your Lord (whoever “they” are), and you do not know where or how to find Him.

So you’re in the same quandary as those dear first Christians who have gone before you in the struggle of faith — from the waters of Baptism into the wilderness under the shadow of the Cross.

Like Mary Magdalene, from whom the Lord cast out seven demons; who loved Him with such deep gratitude, and depended on His mercy and compassion, even as she served and supported Him.  She’s there first thing to pay her respects, to remember and grieve, but she’s still in the dark.  And when she finds the stone rolled away and the tomb empty, she is beside herself with sorrow and weeping.  She is at an utter loss.  How will she ever know any peace or happiness again?

And there is Simon Peter, so bold and brave on occasion, but now living with the deep sadness and bitter regret of his denials.  How often hasn’t he spoken out of turn without understanding, but he did not speak up when he should have done, and now he is dumbfounded by the death of Christ and the discovery of an empty tomb.  Is there any hope for Peter?  Any chance for reconciliation?

Even the disciple whom Jesus loves — the Teacher’s pet, the golden boy, the wunderkind — he, too, is at a loss.  He enters the empty tomb, he sees with his own eyes, and he believes the facts of the case before him, but he does not yet know what it means.  So he goes home.  But what now?

And how is it for you and yours?

Whether in confidence or desperation, you race ahead to get where you’re going, to wherever it is you think you should be, but you also come up short.  Johnny or Suzie on the spot — up before the dawn, or burning the midnight oil — but then it’s the proverbial “hurry up and wait.”

With misplaced zeal, you cling to the wrong things, because they seem so good and so right, and yet, you fail to see or recognize the Lord Himself when He is standing before you in His Gospel.  Your overeager efforts do not help, but lead you instead to exhaustion and disappointment.

Maybe you have brief glimpses of clarity and insight, moments when everything seems to make sense.  But then it all shatters and fades away, and you’re left again with perplexity and confusion.

Despite all that you know and believe, there is still this darkness that weighs upon you, and hovers over you, and follows after you like Eeyore’s little black rain cloud.  It threatens to expose all your junk, to destroy your carefully crafted façade, and to bring you to shame and disgrace.

Whatever the contours and particulars of your own story, there is all this old leaven in you, which permeates your being and nature, your heart and soul, your body, mind, and spirit.

And the solution, which you already know but don’t yet understand — the great Salvation of your Savior Jesus Christ — is so counter-intuitive and scary, because it is first of all your own undoing.

It’s not just that you can do nothing to save yourself, but that you must be utterly undone in order to be saved.  It doesn’t matter who you are, the good, the bad, or the ugly: You must be undone.

For the Lord God is a Warrior, Yahweh Sabaoth.  In drowning and destroying Pharaoh and all his host, the same Lord also puts you to death — to yourself, to your sin, to your own righteousness, and to the whole world of sin and death, both near and far, all around you and within you.

You must be purged of the leaven on which you have relied.  You must enter into the depths, to pass through the waters — with your enemies hot on your heels, breathing threats and murder.

Not only that, but what awaits you on the far side of the deadly waters is a desert, and who knows how many years of wandering, in which you will not feed or clothe yourself, but you will be fed and cared for by the Lord your God.  He is the One who brings you through the wilderness — into Paradise at last — by His grace alone: By the true Bread of Life from heaven, and by the Living and Life-Giving Water that flows from the innermost Being of Christ into your body and soul.

Do not cling to what you have known or experienced in the past, but let it go, and be done with it altogether.  Do not pine away for the fleshpots of Egypt, no matter how hard the desert may be.

It’s not a game.  The Lord is not teasing you.  The ordeal is not pointless.  For it is on this journey through the wilderness that you are catechized — day by day, year after year, your whole life long — unto repentance and faith.  Thus are you taught to rely upon the Lord, to trust His Promise of the Resurrection, even as you are being put to death or simply wasting away.

How, then, shall you be saved?  And how shall you be able to sing in the midst of the struggle?

It is by the Lamb who was slain, and yet, behold, He lives!  He is your Strength and your Song, because He has become your Salvation.  He is your Passover, who has been sacrificed for you, who now feeds you with Himself, with His own flesh and blood.  Indeed, His Blood covers you and cleanses you, and anoints you in body and soul, inside and out.  And His Body enlivens you and strengthens you with forgiveness of sins and communion with God.

The same Lord Jesus Christ has passed through the deep waters — ahead of you, and with you — in order to bring you through death and the grave into His Resurrection and His Life Everlasting.

So does He travel before you and with you — He is your Vanguard and your Rearguard — through the wilderness into the Promised Land.  His Ministry of the Gospel and His Means of Grace are the Pillar of Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by night, by which He leads and guides you all the way.  And as He has passed through the waters of the Jordan into Canaan by His own Baptism — that is to say, by His Cross and Resurrection — so do you enter with Him, by your Holy Baptism, into the Good Land that God has promised and pledged to you in the Body of Christ Jesus.

For in His Body, with His Blood, Christ ascends to His God and Father in heaven, that you might also be with Him there; and not only with Him, but like Him, and one with Him; that His God be your God, and His Father your Father, by adoption and by grace, both now and forevermore.

You also are His disciple whom He loves.  You follow after Him and learn from Him, who has in fact also made Himself your Brother in the flesh, in death as in life, unto the Life Everlasting.

To your enemies within and without (including your own old Adam) He is a fierce and mighty Warrior, and the thunder of His mighty Law is not to be denied.  But hearken to this Holy Gospel, and hear how He also speaks to you so gently, and how He calls you by name to Himself, and calls you by His own Name.  For you are His dear lamb, and He is your Good Shepherd forever.

With His gentle voice of the Gospel, He raises you from doubt and fear to faith and joy, from perplexity to confidence and peace, from death and the grave to divine eternal Life in Him.

He teaches you sincerity and truth in all your dealings with others, by His own Word and Spirit of the Gospel in all His dealings with you, that is, by His mercy and His forgiveness of all your sins.

Mary Magdalene is not forgotten or forsaken.  Simon Peter is not cast away or rejected.  And you are not abandoned, condemned, or denied, either, but you are surely rescued, renewed, and made righteous before your God and Father in Christ Jesus.

As He feeds you here in His own House with the unleavened Bread of His own Body, so do you become brand new in your body and soul, and you live a new life in Him as a member of His Body.

In this Paschal Feast He brings you into the Paradise of His New Creation, and He establishes you in the true Sanctuary, made without hands, eternal in the heavens, which is His crucified and risen Body.  You enter through the Veil of His Flesh, cleansed and redeemed by His Blood, anointed and sanctified by His Spirit, and so do you worship the Father in Him, in the Spirit and the Truth.

Beloved of the Lord, as He thus calls you by His Word and lays hold of you with His own flesh and blood, given and poured out for you, so cling to Him in these Means of Grace.  You will not find Him in the fleshpots of Egypt, nor in the old leaven of malice and envy, but here at His Altar is where you find Him and know Him rightly as He is: Your Savior and Redeemer.

Therefore, let us keep this Feast of feasts to which the Lord invites you.  For He, your Passover, is sacrificed and risen for you, and ever lives for you as your merciful and great High Priest.  So shall you sing the New Song of Christ, of God and of the Lamb.  And all the host of Yahweh, together with His whole Church in heaven and on earth, the true Israel of God, sings with you in the joy of His Resurrection, to the praise of His glorious grace.

For Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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

It Is Finished

In the beginning was the Word.

As we consider the “seven words of Jesus from the Cross,” it is well to remember that there is really the one Word of God, that is, our dear Lord Jesus Christ Himself: the almighty and eternal Son of God, who has become flesh and tabernacles among us.  It is chiefly that one Word of God, which the Father speaks in the Body of flesh and blood upon the Cross, crucified for all your sins, which you are called upon to hear and receive on this Good Friday, and no less on Easter Sunday, and on Pentecost Day, and at Christmas, and throughout the whole year and your whole life.

It is with that Word of God in Christ that the holy evangelist, St. John, begins his record of the Holy Gospel.  For Christ Jesus, the only begotten Son, was in the beginning with God; and He is God; and by Him were all things made, as God spoke His Word, and it was so.  In taking up that divine Word, St. John proclaims the Gospel in the Light of Genesis and the Creation.

In fact, there are a number of points and places in the course of St. John’s Gospel that manifest the Lord Jesus as the Creator of the heavens and the earth.  And He has come in the flesh in order to redeem and sanctify His own Creation, to bring it to the fulfillment of His good and gracious will for those whom He has made in His Image and Likeness.

In the first place, He is the Light of the world, and He is the Life of men, as in the beginning He called forth the light out of the darkness and breathed His Breath of Life into Adam.

And as He separated the land from the water and brought forth the fruits of the earth on the third day of Creation, so it was “on the third day” that Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana, manifesting in advance the dawn of the New Creation.

So is He the One who gives new birth through water and the Spirit; Who also works and heals and gives life, even on the Sabbath.  For as the Father is always working, creating and preserving life, so does the Son — the Word of God — continue to work and give life, thus providing rest for man.

Indeed, He is the Resurrection and the Life, so that all who believe in Him, even though they die — as did His friend Lazarus — yet shall they live — as surely as Lazarus was raised from the dead.

For all of that, even His raising of Lazarus is still only the anticipation of the Hour of Jesus, when He will finally accomplish and manifest His divine Glory in the flesh.  In fact, ironically enough, it is His raising of Lazarus that precipitates the Hour of His Glory, the Hour when He is lifted up for the life of the world in His death upon the Cross, and He thereby draws all people to Himself.

So it is that the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Author and Giver of Life, Who is Himself the Life and the Light of the world, comes into His Glory by way of suffering and death.

What is the point and purpose of God in all of this, in the Person and work of His incarnate Son, Christ Jesus?  What does it mean that He is glorified in Crucifixion?  How can this be?  And why?

Once more, we must begin with the beginning, when the Lord God created all things out of nothing, by and through His Word, for the sake of His own divine Love.  That is to say, it is the Father’s divine, eternal Love for His Son — and the Son’s divine, eternal Love for His Father — in the Holy Spirit — it is for this Love that the Holy Triune God created the heavens and the earth.

He created all things, and man in particular, in order to share His own divine, eternal Life — His own Being of Love — with others outside of Himself; to love and serve His own creatures.

More to the point at hand, and also to put this more personally, He created you in order to love you.  That is why you exist: namely, so that God may love you with Himself.

Thus, again, the Holy Triune God created man in His own Image, in the sense and for the purpose of sharing Himself, His Life and His Love, with man; so that all the children of man, receiving these gifts and graces of God, would also reflect the Glory of God in both soul and body.

In thus creating man in His Image and Likeness — out of the dust of the ground, into the flesh — and breathing into man His living and Life-giving Spirit — the Father was already anticipating the Incarnation of His dear Son, our dear Lord Jesus Christ, who is Himself the Image of God.

Tragically, though, in contradiction of God’s good and gracious will for us men and our salvation, when we fell into sin through unbelief and disobedience, we brought death and destruction upon ourselves.  We cut ourselves off from the Word and Spirit of God, and thereby rejected the Life and the Love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Incarnation of the Son of God was therefore undertaken for a two-fold purpose:

On the one hand, the Incarnation is the way and the means by which God has firmly established His divine Image in the flesh and blood of Man, in the Person of Jesus Christ, in the very Body of Him who is both true God and true Man.  He thereby accomplishes in Himself the primary purpose of His Creation.  And on the other hand, in the same Lord Jesus Christ, He rescues man from sin, death, and hell through the forgiveness of sin, the defeat of death, and the satisfaction of judgment.

Thus, what began with the creation of all things by and through the Word of God, is fulfilled in the Incarnation of the same Word, culminating in His voluntary Cross and in His Resurrection.

It is for the sake of the same divine Love for which all things are made, that God Himself in the flesh lays down His own body and life in loving Self-sacrifice for the salvation of His creatures.

All of this the Lord our God has done, for you and for all people, by subjecting Himself to the utter depths of that death and damnation which you brought upon yourself by your sin.  So that, even there — in your death and damnation — you are no longer separated from His Life and His Love.

Indeed, He has spoken His Word — His “Let it Be!” in the flesh — in the midst of the darkness to which you had succumbed.  He has invaded the nothingness to which you had returned by your sin, and He calls you to come forth again from out of your tomb, out of your hole in the ground.

Once more, the Lord God creates out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo) by and through His Word, precisely by submitting Himself, in the Person of His Word, His only-begotten Son, to the utter depths of death and the grave.  Everything is thereby turned inside-out, because the Light of God has entered the darkness, and the divine Life has stormed the gates of Hades.

So does He also, then, “give up the Spirit.”  Which is to say, in this Holy Gospel, that He hands over and restores the living and Life-giving Spirit of God to the children of man, who otherwise return to the dust from which they have come.  So it is that, in His Resurrection, Jesus breathes the Spirit upon His disciple — and through them into you by the Holy Absolution of all your sins.

This forgiveness of sins by and from the Cross, unto the life and salvation of your body and soul — that is the Glory of God, and the Hour of His Glory.  Thus, “It is finished,” as He says from the Cross.  What is “it”?  The point and purpose of God’s Creation.  And how is it “finished”?  By the death of God in the flesh, for the redemption and salvation — and the restoration — of Creation.

Once again — as in Genesis, when God had finished all His work and He rested — so does Christ also rest in His tomb on the Sabbath — whereby He sanctifies and establishes this perfect Sabbath Rest for man.  Therefore, even death is no longer able to frighten or alarm you, because it has been filled with the Peace and presence of Christ.  As He who is the Light of the world and the Life of men has entered into your tomb, so are you called to enter into His rest by faith in His Gospel.

And in the Light and Life of this completed New Creation in Christ, a brand new day begins — a day beyond the Sabbath, a never-ending day beyond the days and weeks of this temporal world: A new eternal “Eighth Day” dawns for you in His Resurrection from the dead on Easter.

That new, eternal Day begins, and it is manifested in His Resurrection for the whole world to receive and enter into it and live forever in Christ Jesus, because all of His work of Creation and Redemption has been accomplished, completed, and perfected on this day, on this Good Friday — the Sixth Day — in the Cross and Crucifixion of the incarnate Son of God.  Everything henceforth is the “It Was So” of this final “Let It Be!”

And the Lord God saw all the works of His hands, which He had finished, and, behold, it was very good!  So may you also rest in His Peace, both now and forever.

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

Let It Be According to His Word

In the midst of the darkness and the barren wilderness of Lent, this Word of the Gospel comes — seemingly out of nowhere — to address itself to you, to shine the Light of Christ upon you and to give you Life in Him.  It is the very Word that proceeds from the mouth of God, which here gives to you the Bread of Life from Heaven: the very flesh and blood of the only-begotten Son.

And as a living icon of the Church, here stands the Blessed Virgin Mary with you, who embodies and exemplifies the holiness of faith in the hearing and receiving of this Word of God, which she ponders in her heart and keeps within her womb.

Even more so and more intimately than St. John the Baptist, St. Mary is the crux between the Old and New Testaments.  She is the recipient of all the many and various prophecies of old, which are now fulfilled and spoken to us by her Son.  For she has become the Mother of the Son of God, of Him who is begotten of His Father before all worlds — God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God — who is now also the true Man, because, for us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary.  As He is of one divine nature with God the Father from all eternity, so is He now of the same human nature as you and me, because He was conceived and born of this Woman, this daughter of Adam and Eve.

She has done nothing to bring it on, nothing to earn it or deserve it.  We are told nothing about her prior to this point, except that she was “a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David,” and that she was living in the city of Nazareth.  But the Lord is with her — as He is also with you, here in His Church, in His Holy Gospel.  He favors her with His grace; He blesses her with His Word and Spirit — uniquely so, of course; and yet, He also favors you and blesses you within your own vocations and stations in life.  Most glorious of all, the Lord speaks His Word to her, and God the Father gives to her His own dear Son.  And so does He also speak His Word to you, and through that Word He gives to you the same Son who was conceived and born of Mary.

Oh, the power and the glory of that Word of God!  That holy and almighty Word, which was in the beginning with God.  That Word which was and is God the Son.  That Word by which all things are made, apart from which there is nothing.  That Word which here in this Holy Gospel becomes flesh and comes to tabernacle with us, the bodily fullness of deity!  That Word of Life, which is Spirit and Truth.  That Word which, when He says, “Let there be,” then it is so, and it is very good!

All glory, honor, thanks, and praise be to that holy and precious Word of God which, even as it was sounding in the ears of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the same time was being conceived in her womb, so that, taking her flesh and blood to become His own Body, He thus became true Man.

Along with that, the same Word of God also brought forth that most amazing confession of faith from St. Mary.  It opened her lips to declare His praise: “Let it be for me according to Your Word!”

How often shall we praise that beautiful confession, and let those words ring in our ears!?  It could never be too often.  For Dr. Luther, this confession of the faith is actually even more wondrous than the Incarnation and the Virgin Birth.  That God should create such great faith in the heart and on the lips of this woman — in spite of her sinfulness; in the face of His seemingly impossible promises; in the sorrow and shame of all that she will have to suffer from the world around her; and finally in the shadow of the Cross of her dear Son — that she would believe His Word is, indeed, a miracle of His grace.

Against all the challenges and obstacles of this fallen world, there stands fast the Word of God.  And by that Word — full of the Holy Spirit and the Power of the Highest — there is also then the faith to bow before that same Word in humility, and to cling to that Word for dear life.

These things are true not only of St. Mary, but also of you, and of all the children of God in Christ Jesus.  For He has spoken His Word — and His seemingly impossible promises — to you, as well.

He has spoken to you, poor miserable sinner though you are, and He has declared that He is with you.  He has favored you with His gracious Word of forgiveness, and He has blessed you with His Holy Spirit unto repentance and faith.

In the washing of the water with His Word in Holy Baptism, the Lord has called you by name to Himself.  What is more, He has named you with His own Holy Name!  He has said to you, that you are forgiven, and that your Baptism has now saved you.  For He has thereby anointed you with His Holy Spirit — the same Holy Spirit that over-shadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary and conceived the Son of God within her womb.  And He has united you with that same Son of God in His Cross and Resurrection.  So it is that you, also, are a child of the Father in heaven.

The same Word of God has spoken to you — again and again throughout your life — the Holy Absolution of all your sins.  And that Word still does and accomplishes whatever it says.  So, too, when that same Word of God says to you, “Take, eat; this is My Body, which is given for you,” and “Drink from this Cup, which is the New Testament in My Blood, which is poured out for you and for the many, for the forgiveness of your sins.”  And it is so!

This is the Word of God that is spoken to you by your pastor.  It is no less sure and certain than the Word that was spoken by the Angel Gabriel to St. Mary.  It is no less full of the Holy Spirit and the Power of the Highest.  And it is no less able to call forth in your heart and from your lips the confession of faith.  For you are a servant of the Lord.  Let it be for you according to His Word!

When it seems impossible to believe that you are His child, that He loves you, that He has forgiven you, and that He will never leave you nor forsake you, “Let it be according to His Word!”

When it feels like the whole world is against you — and, frankly, all the more so when the whole world really is against you: Nevertheless, Let it be for you according to His Word!

When you are painfully aware of just how small and frail and helpless you are: Still, Let it be for you according to His Word!

When the Cross lies heavy upon you; when you can see and feel nothing else but pain and heartache and sadness; when you are reduced to lowliness and nothingness: Even then, especially then, Let it be for you according to His Word!”

Take it to heart, that, for all the ups and downs in your Christian faith and life, the Word of God will never let you down or put you to shame.  The Lord has not lied to you.  Nor does He deceive you.  His promises are not impossible.  The Father has spoken to you by His Son!

Fear not, therefore.  The Lord is with you!  And you have found favor with God.

Blessed are you that believe; for there shall be a fulfillment of those things which are told you from the Lord.

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

To Share in the Glory of the Son of Man

Some of you are probably more competitive than others when it comes to games or sports or other contests of skill.  But you would all prefer winning as opposed to losing.  There is a spirit of competition that pervades this fallen and perishing world with its limited resources.  Consider how the successful and the prosperous are described as “winners,” while those who struggle to hit their stride or make ends meet are labeled as “losers.”  As though life itself were a contest.

Even when it comes to matters of opinion, differences in taste, and the luck of the draw, the roll of the dice, there is this urge to “win,” to demonstrate “superiority,” to dominate your peers.  If not by your own abilities and achievements, then by your associations and attachments, riding the coattails of your chosen favorites.  Whether in the realm of politics, sports, or entertainment, or in the case of celebrities whose only claim to fame is fame itself, there are the heros and their rivals.

These people are the apparent “rulers” and the “great men and women” of the “gentiles” in our day and age.  So, whose side are you on?  Who’s your team?  Your hero?  Your role model?  Or do you look for your personal fame and glory in the accomplishments and accolades of your children?

You do get caught up in the culture of competition, because it also pervades your own heart and soul; it claws at your mortal flesh with its demands for attention, self-preservation, and promotion.  With strategies both crass and subtle, deliberate and only semi-conscious, you jockey for position, you vaunt yourself and lord it over others where you can, and you exercise whatever power and prerogative you have to serve yourself first of all.  Welcome to the law of the jungle.

You find the same thing in the case of James and John, when they request that Jesus promote them above all others.  And it’s there again in the anger of the other disciples.  But credit where it’s due, they have fixed their eyes and set their sights on Jesus, which is both good and right to do.  They are seeking glory, it is true, but they have at least recognized that with Jesus is the place to find it.

But what will this mean for them?  And what will it look like?  What will being with Jesus require?

They do not yet understand or even know what they are asking.  But they will.  They will learn, because Jesus will teach them.  He deals gently with the ignorant and misguided, above all by taking their frailties and weaknesses, their sins and griefs and sorrows upon Himself and bearing them in His own body, soul, and spirit to the Cross.

Thus do James and John, the other disciples, and you learn from Him the Way of the Lord.

His Way is not the worldly way of competition, but of divine charity and compassion.  It is the greatness and glory of service and self-sacrifice, exemplified in His own Body and Life, in His humble obedience to the Father, in His innocent suffering and death.  That is how He is revealed to you, and that is how you know Him rightly.

He is the One who acts to reveal and attach Himself to you.  Not to ride your coattails, but to give you His own Life.  He becomes your God, and you belong to His people by His grace.  For He forgives your iniquities, and He remembers your sins no more, but He remembers you in mercy.

The Lord establishes this New Covenant in His own Body on the Cross; and now He writes it, signs and seals it with His own flesh and blood — upon your heart, in your mind, body, and soul — by the preaching and catechesis of His Word, in Holy Baptism, and in the Holy Communion.

You learn to know Him — His heart and mind, His true greatness and His real glory — by His free and full forgiveness of your sins.  By this Holy Gospel, you know Him deeply and profoundly, truly and completely.  You know the Lord Jesus, His Father, and His Spirit, the one true God, through His Word of Holy Absolution and in His Holy Sacraments, in His Chalice and His Font.

This Gospel of love and forgiveness, this Testament of life and salvation, is freely given to you by God, by His grace alone, and it is freely received by faith alone, apart from any works of the Law.

But the very faith which lives so freely by this gracious Gospel, also proceeds on the Way of the Lord according to the Law of Christ, which is not the law of the jungle but the Law of love.  Which means that you gladly forgive and do good and give life to your neighbor in the Name of Christ.  That, too, is the significance of His Baptism, with which you are baptized, and of His Cup, from which you are given to drink.

For these gifts of God that you receive have implications for the way that you live.

The New Covenant of Christ, having been established for you and for all in His own Body and Blood on the Cross, is now being written for your neighbor with your flesh and blood, with the stylus of the Cross in your life, in the particular place where you live and work and love and serve.  This, indeed, is the pattern of life and glory in the Kingdom of God.

Your place in His Kingdom is not one that you choose for yourself, but it is given and received by God’s calling and appointment.  You are positioned and equipped by the Lord your God, who loves you and your neighbor, to the glory of His Holy Name.  The same was true of Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son, on His Way to the Cross, in His calling and appointment to His office and work as your merciful and great High Priest in all things pertaining to God.

As you are called to live under Him in His Kingdom, do not live as a citizen of this sinful world with its petty jealousies.  Do not compete with your neighbor, nor seek to get the better of him; but, for the sake of love, serve your neighbor as Christ Jesus loves you and serves you in peace.

Sometimes what you are called to do — the Cross that you are called to bear — is simply to endure patiently, to wait upon the Lord, and in the meantime to deal patiently with your neighbor.

Whatever your circumstances, let there be no envy or resentment among you, but only love.  Let there be no contesting for greatness or glory, but glorify your Lord Jesus Christ and His Cross by outdoing one another in humility, grace, and compassion.

It’s not kill or be killed, nor live and let live, but to lay down your life in love for your neighbor, for your friends and for your foes.  It’s not a competition after all, and there is no place for keeping score or tracking your progress against each other.  For one and all are called to know the true and only God in Jesus Christ the Crucified, from the greatest to the least of all His beloved brethren.

Despite all of the many differences (of which you are so aware) between you and your neighbors, and among your neighbors, the Lord shows no partiality.  Rich and poor, great and small, all are to Him alike, and whatever any of them has comes from Him.  But what does He regard and prize?  Faith in His Gospel, and faithfulness to His Word, and love and mercy in His Name.

Look, then, to your Captain, your merciful and great High Priest, the Author and Perfecter of faith:

In the days of His flesh, He offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying to the One who was able to save Him out of death — to the One who could take the Cup from Him, if it were His Will, but who would yet be able to raise Him up from death when He had fully drained that Cup.

He prayed to His Father, and He was heard because of His piety and reverence.  So it is that your prayers, too, are heard and answered for His sake, because of His piety and reverence.  For God the Father, who handed over His Son Jesus to be crucified for the sins of the world, has also raised Him from the dead for the reconciliation of the world, and for the justification of the unrighteous.

Although He was already a beloved Son, He learned obedience — experientially — from the things He suffered in your place, in order to become your compassionate and faithful High Priest.

His greatness and His glory are His faith and faithfulness, His mercy and Self-sacrificing love.  So has He given Himself as a Ransom for you and for the many, and so does He now serve you with forgiveness.  Having been made perfect by His Cross and in His Resurrection, He has become the fountain and source of eternal salvation to you and to all who believe and are baptized into Him.

As He gave Himself for you, His Body and Life upon the Cross, so now, in His Resurrection, He gives Himself to you; He serves you, and He brings you to His God and Father in the Spirit, by the way and means of His Baptism and His Cup.  These are the fruits of His Cross, by which you live.

As the Sacraments are shaped and filled by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, so are you also filled with Him and formed in His Image and Likeness by sharing in His Baptism and drinking from His Cup.  These means of grace shape your life in faith and love like His, even as they forgive your sins and give you the Life of Christ in place of death.

So do you follow in the footsteps of Jesus — up to Jerusalem, the Holy City, and even to your God and Father in heaven — by the Cross of Christ, by the New Covenant in His flesh and blood.  For you enter into Him by faith in His Gospel, as He gives Himself to you in His Holy Supper, so that you now enter into the presence of God through the crucified and risen Body of Christ Jesus.

The bitter cup of wrath and woe, He has made sweet by His bloody Cross and Passion.  The poison in the cup, He has swallowed, that it might become for you the Cup of Blessing and Salvation.

The sacred flesh that bore your sins upon the Cross, and the precious blood of Christ that atoned for all of your unrighteousness, are given and poured out for you at the Lord’s Table in His House.  He surrounds you on the right and on the left, and He gives to you the place of honor, so that He may serve you and give Himself to you in love.  So are you seated here with Him in the glory of His righteousness and holiness, His innocence and blessedness, both now and forevermore.

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

The River of Life

What you confess in the Creeds and pray in the Our Father, the Holy Triune God does for you and gives to you in Holy Baptism.  For you could not find Him, nor could you make your way to Him, but He has come to you in this way, by this way and means of grace, by the water and the Word.

What He has spoken and promised by the Prophets and Apostles, and what He has accomplished for you and for all people in Christ Jesus, He gives to you and accomplishes in you through the waters of Holy Baptism; so that you may live in Him and with Him, both now and forevermore.

Water, in and of itself in this fallen world, is ambiguous.  It is necessary and fundamental to life on earth, but either too much or too little of it can be deadly.  It quenches your thirst, but it can also drown you.  It washes you clean, but it can also wash your home away.  It is refreshing in a gentle rain, but dangerous in the torrential downpour of a raging thunderstorm.

But now, with respect to the waters of Holy Baptism — included in God’s command and combined with His Word — these waters flow from His Sanctuary to give life to His New Creation in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead.

They flow from the side of Christ, from His innermost Being, from His Body crucified and risen — from His Body lifted up on the living and life-giving Tree of His Cross — from the Tree of Life in the midst of Paradise, which is the Throne of God and of the Lamb.

This water that pours out from the side of Christ the Crucified flows in and with and of the Holy Spirit; even as the same Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, is sent from the Father in heaven to give life to the world, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.  So does this water of Life now flow with the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, as He is spoken and the Spirit is breathed by God the Father in the preaching and administration of the Gospel.

This River of the Spirit and of Life in Christ — though it begins in humility with His death upon the Cross — it does not diminish as it flows into the world, but it grows and increases, even to the ends of the earth.  It gives life in the desert.  It freshens the waters of the oceans and great seas.

It gives life to the nations, and makes disciples of all nations, of both Jews and Gentiles alike.  For the fishers of men, whom Jesus sends in His Name and stead, catch a great multitude of fish of every kind in these waters with the nets of the Holy Gospel.

It is true, the same waters of Holy Baptism drown and destroy the unbelieving world, and Pharaoh with his army, his chariots and horsemen, and so also the old Adam in you.

But these waters are not ambiguous.  They are not fickle and arbitrary.  God drowns and destroys sin and death and all the enemies of man with these waters, in order to bring about the New Creation in the Body of Christ Jesus, and to give real life to His disciples, His Christians.

Therefore, these waters of Holy Baptism wash you and cleanse you of all sin.  They quench your deepest thirst with the Spirit of Christ.  They bring true and lasting refreshment to body and soul.

And by these waters, the living and life-giving Spirit of Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit — the Author and Giver of Life, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified as the one true God — He flows in you and through you and from you to others.

As you are born again in the washing of the water with the Word — and as you are washed and sanctified by those waters, so that you have also entered the Holy City of God, that is, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, the Body of Christ, by the way and means of these waters — and as you eat from the Tree of Life, because you are baptized in these waters, which flow freely from the Tree of the Cross — so have you been planted as a tree alongside these living waters.

In the words of the Psalmist, you are a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; so that whatever you do prospers in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead.  You are a tree after the same kind as the Cross of Christ, suffering whatever you must bear for the sake of love with faith and trust in your dear God and Father.  You thus bear leaves for the healing of your neighbor, and good fruits to nourish those around you.

Each of you does so according to your own proper vocation in life, that is to say, first of all, as a Christian, baptized into the Cross of Christ, living within your own particular place in the world.

You are so fruitful and productive, like the Tree of the Cross, because you are constantly being watered and fed from the Body of Christ, within the Body of Christ, in the Ministry of the Gospel.

You are healed and nurtured and sustained by the waters of your Baptism: not repeated, but always effective, because those waters flow from the Cross and are always sufficient, always increasing, even to the close of the age, constantly cleansing you with the free and full forgiveness of sins.

And you are fed by the Fruits of the Tree of Life, that is, the Body and the Blood of Christ Jesus, which you are given to eat and drink as one who has been washed in the waters of Holy Baptism.

There is no ambiguity in that!  But in the clearest possible way, those sacred waters bring to you and give to you the Life and Love of the Lord Jesus, His Father, and His Spirit, now and forever.

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

Pray Without Ceasing

The Lord has commanded you to pray, and has taught you to pray at all times, without ceasing.  Day by day, and night by night, you are to call upon His Name.  Indeed, your whole life is to be a constant prayer of faith, even as you offer up yourself, your body and soul and all that you are and have, as a living sacrifice to the praise and glory of the Lord your God.  But so also, take the time to pray: as you get up to begin your day, and as you lay yourself down to sleep at night; as you sit down to eat the food the Lord has provided, and as you return thanks to Him for what you have received; and as you are gathered together with your family and His to hear and learn His Word.

Evening and morning, in all your going out and coming in, pray to the Lord and call upon His Holy Name, because He alone is your Life and your Salvation.  He is your only hope, and you need Him at all times and in all places, not only in the day of trouble, but in every situation, without ceasing.

It is for you as it was for that poor widow in the Lord’s Parable.  Her husband has died, and she is evidently without father, brothers, or sons to represent her interests and defend her.  It is likely that others are attempting to seize the estate that would sustain her life and provide for her needs.  So she seeks help from the only place it can be found, that is, from the local judge, who ought to protect her and give her justice.  He’s not a good or pleasant man, but she has nowhere else to turn.  Therefore, she persists and perseveres in coming and asking for his help; not because it’s easy or enjoyable, but because she has no choice.  Her life depends upon it.  And that is how it is for you.

Your need for the Lord is no less urgent, but all the more so does your life in both body and soul, now and forever, depend entirely upon Him.  If He does not justify and save you, if He does not protect you and provide for you, then you shall be lost, both here in time and hereafter in eternity.

It’s not as though you actually deserve any of those things you need from God, for which you pray.  You don’t.  Nothing else but punishment is all that you have earned.  So what?  That only increases your desperate need for rescue and deliverance.  You have no choice but to rely upon God’s grace and mercy, His forgiveness and utter charity.  You are a beggar before Him, that is true.  Own it.

It is a fearful thing, though, isn’t it?  You are threatened by the Law, and by God’s wrath against your sin.  He is a righteous Judge, and justice would demand that your request be denied, or that you be delivered to the debtors’ prison, or put to death and damned.  Satan also accuses you and argues against you with the condemnation of the Law, and with his lying and murdering all day long and every night.

So you may be scared to seek the Lord or call on Him for help.  It may seem hopeless at best, and dangerous in any case, more likely to make things worse than to gain any benefit or advantage.  But ask Him anyway.  Keep on praying, and don’t give up.  Because you won’t survive without the Lord your God.  You need Him.  There’s no one else in heaven or earth who can save you.

The unrighteous judge in the Parable, who neither fears God nor cares for man, finally gives the poor widow the justice that she needs.  Not because he wants to help her, but only because he is wearied and worn down by her constant asking.  Her nagging, I suppose he would say.  She beats him up with her demands for justice, until he relents of his resistance and rescues her from evil.

Now, by the greatest contrast, the Lord is not reluctant or unwilling to hear and answer the prayers of His people, but He will certainly help and save His elect, because He loves them and desires to give them Life with Himself.  Even before they have known Him or called on Him, He has known them and chosen them in love, and called them by His Word, and reconciled them to Himself in Christ Jesus, in order to give them justice, not of the Law but of the Gospel, and to glorify them.

He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for you and for us all, will He not also, with Him, freely give you all good things?  Surely, yes, He will!  All the more reason to fear, love, and trust in Him, to call upon His Name in hope, and to pray to Him for all that you need.

But why, oh, why, does He delay in responding?  Or so it surely seems, although He has said that He will not delay.  As though He were ignoring and avoiding you, and not even listening to you.  As though He did not want to help you.  As though He were slow about keeping His promises.

Why does He sometimes seem to be your opponent, your accuser, and your enemy, instead of the defender and protector that you need Him to be?  To be sure, His holy and righteous Law, and His righteous wrath and anger against your sin, that is your greatest and most serious problem.  And you are to fear the Lord your God.  But, in light of the Gospel, why does He still resist your plea?

Or, to be more precise and to the point, why is it that He answers your prayer with the Cross?

This, too, belongs to His care for you.  It is fundamental to His catechesis and teaching, unto faith and life in Him.  In love for you, because He has made you His own dear child, and by His grace He has become your true Father in heaven, He disciplines and trains you in the way of Wisdom.  And, as we have heard from St. Paul this past Sunday, the genuine power and wisdom of God is found in the foolishness and weakness of the Cross.  It is by and with the Cross that He serves you.

The Lord is not slow about keeping His promises, but He is patient and persistent in calling you to repentance and faith.  As He would have you pray at all times, so does care for you at all times and in all places, calling you daily back to the significance of your Baptism — or to be baptized, if you are not — to die and rise with Christ the Crucified, and to find your life in Him.  For not only do you sin every day in your thoughts, words, and deeds, but you often don’t even realize — nor would you be able to realize on your own — that your thinking is so wrongheaded and false.

To give you what you need, to answer your prayer, and to help you, He lays the Cross upon you, that you would learn to live by faith alone in His Word and promises.  Your Father calls you, then, not only to better behavior, but to a strong and steadfast faith, to believe in Him and pray to Him, in, with, and under the Cross; that you would be conformed to the Image of Christ, the Son of God.

So, it is in love for you that He comes to meet you on the way, and challenges you, as it were, and wrestles with you through the long dark night, and lays the Cross upon your body and your soul.

Your confrontation with God in prayer is not only like that of the poor widow, but also like that of Jacob when he comes face to face with God on his way back home to face the brother and the father he had deceived.  His story is instructive, because Jacob is like you, on the one hand, but also a type of Christ on the other hand.  In his wrestling match with the Lord, in the way it all went down, you find your reconciliation with God and the working out of your relationship with Him.

Notwithstanding his treachery and deception, Jacob does have the birthright and blessing of his father.  The promised Seed of Abraham and Isaac will be the Seed of Jacob, also.  What is more, the Lord has promised to be with him and to bless him, and to bring him safely home again to the Land that He has sworn to give to this family.  Jacob clings to this promise, and, in doing so, he clings to the Lord and refuses to let go of Him.  He perseveres in the faith and hope of the promise, and he prevails upon the Lord, calling on His Name and requiring the blessing of His Name.

The Lord also perseveres and prevails upon Jacob, asking his name, and then changing his name, and putting his hip out of joint, out of its socket.  In this case, Jacob does not lie or deceive, as he had done with his father when he claimed to be his brother.  He confesses that he is “Jacob,” the deceiver.  But still he won’t let go, because he hangs on to the promise.  Therefore the Lord gives him the new name of “Israel,” because he strives with God.  It is both a struggle and faithfulness, and it does involve the bearing of the Cross, but so also the Name and the blessing of the Lord.

The Lord likewise fights with you and strives with you, as He did with Jacob, in order to break the old Adam in you, to put him to death and bury him, day by day, and night by night, as often as he keeps rearing his treacherous head within your heart and mind and in your flesh.  But not only that.  The Lord also strives with you, that you would learn to strive with Him; He prevails upon you, that you would learn to prevail upon Him, to press Him according to His Word and promises to you.

He would have you learn to pray to Him, not in fear or desperation, but in the hope of His mercy. Not as though you were stronger than God, but in the confidence of His steadfast love for you.

So, too, does the Lord Jesus Christ take your place in this wrestling match with God, in order to strive and wrestle for you, on your behalf.  As the true and perfect Man, the Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He lives by faith in His Father, and He prays.  He practices what He preaches.  He sets the example of the life to which He calls you, and He establishes that life for you in His own Body of flesh and blood, crucified and risen from the dead.

He takes all your sin and death upon Himself; He suffers the assaults and accusations of the devil against you; and He lays down His life for you, persevering in faith and love unto the Cross.  Not relying on Himself, nor as though any of this were easy for Him, but clinging to the Word of God, His Father, and to the promise and blessing of His own Baptism in the Jordan River: that He is the beloved and well-pleasing Son, and that His Father will raise Him up, even from death, unto life.

He sends you, His Bride the Church, and the children of God, and all that is His across the stream to safety, while He alone contends with God on your behalf through the long dark hours of the night, from Maundy Thursday through Good Friday.  Consider, for example, how He wrestles with His God and Father in the Garden of Gethsemane on that night when He is handed over to death.

He strives and wrestles, not to break away from God, but to fulfill His Father’s good and gracious Will: to take up the Cup of wrath and drink it to the dregs for your salvation; to atone for your sin with His own blood; to conquer death in His own flesh; and to reconcile you with God the Father.

His bones are put out of joint, His hip out of its socket in His Crucifixion, as the sacrificial Lamb who is put to death for your transgressions.  And so it is, that in His bodily Resurrection from the dead is your justification, your righteousness, and God’s resounding “Yes” and “Amen” to all of your needs, the answer to all of your prayers and intercessions.

As the same Lord Jesus Christ ever lives to intercede for you before His Father in heaven — who, for the sake of His beloved Son, and in His Body crucified and risen, freely gives you all good things — so does the Holy Spirit also help you in your weakness and pray for you.

The Spirit intercedes for you with groans of repentance and faith, too deep for words, as deep calls unto deep in the Body of Christ Jesus.  But so does He also teach you how to pray by and with the Word of Christ, and to call upon God as your own dear “Abba, Father!”  He teaches you to pray, and He gives you the words with which to pray, not as a slave, but as a beloved and well-pleasing son of God the Father in Christ Jesus.  For you are baptized in His Name; you are His very own.

Therefore, do not lose heart or give up hope, but pray both day and night in the confidence of faith.  At all times and in all places, pray, praise, and give thanks to the Father through Jesus Christ your Lord, by His Word and Spirit.  For the Testimony of the Lord is pure, making wise the simple.  And, as you are instructed by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel, the words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart are acceptable and pleasing to your Father in heaven.

In the Spirit, by faith in the Gospel, by virtue of your Holy Baptism, you are no longer a poor and helpless widow, but a beloved Bride of Christ and a very dear child of God.

The Lord who comes to be your Judge has redeemed you with His own holy and precious Blood.  So does He also hear your prayer and help you.  He gives to you the justice of His own perfect Righteousness.  He gives to you and shares with you the inheritance of His Father’s Kingdom.  He blesses you with His own Name, the Name above all names with which He has named you.

He is the One who has commanded you and taught you to pray, and He has promised that your prayer will be heard and answered.  In Him, the Word-made-Flesh, there is no petition, no cry for mercy, and no intercession whose voice is not heard.  For He has gone to the Father by His Cross and Resurrection, and in His Ascension He brings you and your prayer to the Father in His own Body, with His own flesh and blood, so that you are pleasantly received as sweet-smelling incense.  In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Your House and Home with God in Christ

The Lord Jesus knows what is in every man.  He knows what is in you.  He knows the truth behind the lies you tell yourself, and He sees through the deceptions that you perpetrate on others.  He knows your sins of thought, word, and deed, your secret shame, your guilty conscience, and your deepest regrets.  He knows your heart and mind, your hopes and dreams, your doubts and fears.

He knows those things about you and within you that make you so afraid, because you are sure that, if anyone knew what you’re really like, what you’ve done, or what your wicked imagination dreams of doing, then there would be no hope for you, and no one could ever like you or love you.

And yet, even knowing all of that and more — knowing you, your sin and death, better than you know yourself — this same Lord Jesus does in fact love you with a passion and a zeal that is larger than life and stronger than death.  And for the sake of such Love, in order that you may have Life in Him, He comes down from heaven and goes up to Jerusalem to lay down His Life for you.

He gives Himself, and offers up Himself, as the Passover Lamb who is sacrificed for you, to set you free from the bondage of your sin and death, within and without.  He willingly sheds His holy and precious blood for you, to cover and protect you from the angel of death.  He pours out His Cup for you, and He feeds you with His own flesh, that you may feast on Him and not die but live.

By His Cross, and in His Resurrection from the dead, He prepares a place for you in His Father’s House, a seat at His Father’s Table, where you are safe and sound and able to rest in His Peace.

There is a deep and direct connection between His Love for you and His Love for His own God and Father.  In Him you see the perfect continuity between faith and love toward God and love for the neighbor; for in His fear, love, and trust in God above all things, He loves you with His own Body and Life in all the ways the Law commands.  He does you no harm but only good, even at the cost of Himself, in order to honor His Father, and to fulfill the good and gracious will of God.

As you have heard, the zeal of the Lord Jesus for His Father’s House — His zeal for His Father’s Name and Glory — consumes Him entirely.  It eats Him up: to the point of death upon the Cross.  It’s not that He loses His temper; nor is He defensive of Himself.  His righteous anger compels Him to act for the keeping and fulfillment of His Father’s Word, for the salvation of His people.

It’s not the Father He’s protecting, but the purpose of the Father’s House as the way and means by which He dwells with you in Peace, so that you are able to live and abide with Him, and call upon His Name, and rest yourself in the refuge of His grace.  The Father doesn’t need a house to live in; He’s not homeless; nor could the whole of creation contain Him, who holds it all in His own hand.

But you need the House of the Lord your God, in order to draw near to Him and to be with Him.  So it is in self-sacrificing love for you that Christ is consumed and eaten up by His zeal for God.

Your peace and life with God is not something you can get for yourself or accomplish for yourself.  It cannot be purchased with money, nor bartered for with works, nor obtained by your sacrifices.  It is accomplished by God, established for you, and given to you by His grace in Christ Jesus, in much the same way that He provided the Tabernacle (and then the Temple), the Priesthood, and the Sacrifices in the Old Testament as means of grace and forgiveness in anticipation of Christ.

It is Christ, the Son of God who has become Flesh and now tabernacles among us, who brings all of this to completion and perfection.  And He does it, not only by His Incarnation, but by the way and means of His Cross.  He suffers His holy and blameless Body to be destroyed on your behalf, as the once-for-all Sacrifice of Atonement, as the Whole Burnt Offering, and as the sweet smelling Incense, by which you draw near to the Father and are received by Him and pleasing to Him.

So it is that Christ the Crucified — in His rising from the dead, and in His Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father, into the Holy of Holies eternal in the heavens — He is your Reconciliation with God; He is your Redemption, your Ransom, your Rescue from the bondage of sin and death; and, as St. Paul has said, the crucified and risen Lord Jesus is your Righteousness and Holiness.

He is the Lamb without blemish, spot, or flaw, who has been sacrificed for you and for all people.

And He is the merciful and great High Priest, who ministers before God on your behalf; who has offered Himself in your stead, in order to make a place for you; who ever lives to intercede for you.

He is the sacrificial Feast, who gives His Body and pours out His Blood for you to eat and drink.

And His Body is the Temple, whereby God dwells with you — not only with His Life-giving Word and Spirit, but with His own Flesh and Blood — and you abide with Him.  And not only do you live with Him, but in Him; and He also abides in you, that is, in your body as well as your soul.

This is what He is aiming at and fighting for when He comes down from heaven, when He cleanses the Temple, and when He goes to the Cross: He would take up residence in you, that you might live and abide in Him.  It is a marriage of heart and mind, of body, soul, and spirit, whereby He gives Himself entirely to you, so that you may find yourself entirely in Him.  Not that He would rob you of freedom, life, and happiness, but that you should have all of these things, truly and forever, in and with Him, the true and only God.

So He enters in — by and with His Cross — by the foolish preaching of His Cross, which is the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in His Name — and He cleanses you from the inside-out.  He drives out all that clutters up your life and crowds Him out.  Indeed, by the scourge of the Cross He topples and scatters and removes all of your self-righteous attempts to build your own temple and to scale the heights of heaven by your own wisdom, reason, and strength.

To be sure, just as the Cross appears utterly foolish and useless when the Lord Jesus takes it upon Himself, it seems to be flat-out offensive and dreadfully rude when He lays it upon you.  But as He has the authority to lay down His own body and life (in holy faith and holy love), so does He also raise it up again.  And with that same authority of His Cross and Resurrection, not only does He crucify you and put you to death, but He also raises you, as well, in and with Himself; and having cleaned house in you, He brings you home to God the Father in Himself, in His own Body.

As He is consumed by His zeal for the Father and for you — for He is “a jealous God,” and He is zealous for you because you are His own — so does He consume you by His Cross, and by His fierce preaching of repentance.  But that is only one side of the story.  He also gives His Body for you, and pours out His Blood for you, the Fruits of His Cross — the Meat and Drink of His Self-sacrifice — so that you may consume Him, and eat Him up, as your Passover Lamb.  In this Meal you find that He is not out to get you, but to give Himself to you, in order to give you His Life.

Thus, He is now “what is in you.”  Your body is a temple of God, not metaphorically, but actually.  Cleansed and sanctified by the Word and Spirit of Christ, by the water and the blood, and by His forgiveness of your sins, your body and your soul are a house of prayer and a place of peace.

For His Body is the Temple of God among men, given for you here, that you may receive what you are and become what you receive: The Body of Christ.  He lives in you, and you in Him.  This is a great Mystery indeed, but His Body is your Temple, wherein you abide with God the Father, and He abides with you.  For the Body of Christ is your Father’s House, on earth as it is in heaven.

This House of God, therefore, and this Altar of the Lord, where the Body of Jesus is given to you with His Word, is where you live.  This is your home.  Here you are safe and sound, hidden with Christ in God.  Here you have Peace and Sabbath Rest, because you are forgiven all your sins and reconciled with God by the Blood of Christ.  Here is your Food and Drink, unto life everlasting.

Let us therefore keep the Feast, for Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, and in three days He has raised Himself up for you and your salvation.

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