Receiving and Embracing the Greatness of the Cross of Christ Jesus

The disciples miss the mark widely in the way they react to the Word of the Lord concerning His Cross and Passion — arguing among themselves, as to which one of them would be the greatest.

They do not even begin to understand what real greatness is, because they do not yet understand Jesus Christ or the true nature of His glory and His greatness.  Not only that, but they are afraid to ask Him, because they don’t really want to know.  They don’t want to understand His statement.

The thing is, if the Cross awaits Jesus, it awaits His disciples, too.  That is what it means to be a disciple, after all: To follow and learn from a master, not only by listening to what he says, but also by doing what he does.  So, if Jesus is on His way to die, then they are called to die with Him, as well, which is the very opposite of what they are wanting and hoping to accomplish and achieve.

You are no different and no better.  You are not more faithful than those first disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is the same for you as it was for them, according to your flesh.  You do not and you cannot understand the Cross and Passion of the Christ.  And you also are afraid to ask, because you do not want to know.  More to the point, you do not want to be crucified and put to death.

You want to live.  And not only to live, but to succeed and thrive on your own terms.  You want to be great, to be respected and admired, to be well liked and popular.  You want to be somebody, and to be known for your achievements and accomplishments.  It’s not just a matter of your ego, though it is that, but you actually trust and rely on yourself more than God.  You don’t trust Him to give you good things.  You don’t trust Him to bless the life that He has given you in the place where He has put you.  You don’t trust Him to give you what you need, far less what you want.

You don’t trust the Lord your God, and you don’t trust your neighbor, either.  Not that you should trust in mortal men, but you don’t trust the Lord to serve you through the people He has provided for you in this world.  Your heart and mind are beclouded by paranoia, suspicion, and fear.  So, instead of trusting God and thinking well of your neighbor, you strive to protect yourself, not only physically but emotionally and in every other aspect of life.  You spend your days feverishly trying to get more, and frantically trying to protect what you have.  And at night you find no peace or rest, and you do not sleep well, because you wonder and worry what might happen to all your stuff, and about where you stand in relation to your neighbors.  You live your life as though it were actually a competition, and as though everyone around you, even your family and friends, were opponents.

As a consequence, what happens?  On the one hand, you are consumed by your pride, and by your self-righteousness, though that is nothing but a massive self-deception, supposing that you can justify and save yourself, and get a life for yourself, but you cannot.  On the other hand, you’re driven by your lusts, and by your envy, and by your covetous idolatry.  St. Paul says it straight: Your greed is idolatry.  You want things more than God.  And you are selfish with what you have.

Meanwhile, despite taking the credit for what you have, you are jealous and resentful of what the Lord your God has given to your neighbor, whether it be his income, his possessions, his place in the world, or even his family.  If someone speaks well of your neighbor, your immediate reaction is to protest, even if only in your own mind, that you are the one who really ought to be praised.  And if your neighbor is successful in business, in sports, or in school, you suppose that he must have cheated in some way, or that he was given some unfair advantage over you.

You get angry and become bitter.  You harbor grudges against your brothers and sisters in Christ.  You think the worst about your neighbor, and too often you express that out loud to others, as well.  In your heart, you root for the downfall of your neighbor, and outwardly you mutter and complain and gossip about him.  If you get your dander up, you’ll quarrel and fight with your neighbor to his face.  And in various ways, whether in the body or otherwise, you murder your neighbor.

In all of this, there is the worldly appearance of strength and power, and the promising smell of success and greatness.  To get one up on your neighbor seems to be a way of winning (whatever).

But it is all a false and misleading dream.  It is no true wisdom or righteousness.  It is no path to real greatness.  It is not divine or heavenly.  Did you hear what St. James has written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit?   Such attitudes and actions, such envy and jealousy, quarreling and hurting, such things are demonic; they are devilish and deadly; they do not make you great but destroy you.

Bear in mind and be warned that friendship with the world — so also, competing and contesting with your neighbors according to the world’s terms and rules of engagement — puts you at odds and at enmity with the Lord your God.  The story of Cain and Abel is a painful case in point.

Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.  Resist the devil.  That’s already what the Lord said to Cain, warning him, but Cain did not listen.  You, now, hear and heed the warning.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you, because he is already defeated — not by you, but by the One who truly is the Greatest.  Turn away from your temptations, from your sins and every evil.  Don’t dally in them.  Don’t suppose you are strong enough to go only so far, and then to stop just in the nick of time.  There is no “nick of time.”  The soul that sins shall die.  Don’t go down that road, not even one step.  Repent, and trust the Lord.  Submit yourself to His Word in faith.

The Lord your God will exalt you in mercy.  That is His greatness in Christ Jesus, that He exalts sinners by forgiving their sins.  And He does it at His own expense.  That is the remarkable thing.  The One who really does have everything gives it all away.  That is what He does for you.

You see it in Christ Jesus.  Not only as an example, although He is an example.  You cannot save yourself by trying to copy Jesus.  You never will fulfill the Law by your own self-righteousness.  But the Lord Jesus Christ is an example, that you should follow in His steps.  You see in Him how you are to live as a Christian, and how you are to die as His disciple.  But He is far more than just an example.  For in Him you see the greatness of God, which He has accomplished for you and made possible for you.  He has obtained it, purchased and won it for you, and He gives it to you.

He has humbled Himself and become obedient unto death, even death upon the Cross.  He has made Himself nothing, small and weak and subject to death.  The almighty and eternal Son of the Living God not only became “like” a little child, but He was conceived and born as a little Child, the Babe, the Son of St. Mary, a Fetus in her womb, an Infant at her breast.

And from the womb, from His circumcision on the eighth day, from the Temple as a young Man, and from the waters of His Baptism, He proceeded in the confidence of His God and Father, in love for God and His neighbor, making His way steadfastly to the Cross as the perfect Servant of all people for the salvation of all the sinful sons and daughters of Adam.  He exercised His divine Wisdom in mercy and kindness toward those who were not merciful or kind to Him at all.  “Father, forgive them,” He prayed for those who nailed Him to the Cross.  So does He pray for you, as well.

It is by His perfect righteousness that He justifies you, reconciles you to His God and Father in holy faith, and sanctifies you by the gracious gift of His Word and Holy Spirit.  It is by His Word of the Gospel that you are justified and righteous, sanctified and holy, in His crucified and risen Body.  That is who and what you are, not in yourself but in Him, because God says so.  He grants to you His Peace and Sabbath Rest in Christ through the free and full forgiveness of all your sins.

That is the strength and glory of God; and that is real greatness, which is by the Way of His Cross.

Instead of striving to take care of yourself, to make a way for yourself, to protect yourself, and to take what you want for yourself in competition with and at the expense of others — rather, commit your way to the Lord; entrust yourself to Him, body and soul, in both life and death, and wait quietly and patiently on Him to deliver you and give you all good things in Christ.  For He will.

Even if you are persecuted, even to the point of being put to death, do not despair, and do not give up hope, and do not take matters into your own hands.  Do not fret yourself, the Psalmist says, but know that the Lord, He is God, and He will vindicate you.  He will exalt you at the proper time.

You know that He will do it, because He has already done so in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus.  To be His disciple is to be crucified and die with Him, yes.  But it is also then to be raised with Him, to live with Him.  That is why the Church confesses her faith in the Resurrection of the dead.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ has received you as His own dear child in His Son.  That is what He was doing by the washing of the waters with His Word in your Holy Baptism, when He named you with His own Name, poured out His Spirit upon you, united you with Christ, and adopted you by His grace.  The Father has thereby taken you into His embrace within the Body of His Son, who was crucified for your sins and raised from the dead for your justification and life.

So has the one true God, the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, given Himself to you and drawn you to Himself in peace and love.  And so it is that, even now, you lack no good thing in heaven or on earth, regardless of your circumstances.  All things are yours, because Christ is yours, and you are His.  Anointed by His Holy Spirit, His God and Father is your God and Father.

The Lord your God, who has given Himself for you and given Himself to you in Christ Jesus, He is yours forever and always, for keeps, because you have not gotten Him for yourself by your own efforts, intentions, or accomplishments (all of which are fallible, frail, and fleeting, in any case).  But you are His, and He is yours, because He has spoken and acted in grace, mercy, and peace, for your salvation.  He has given and pledged Himself to you, and He will not withdraw Himself from you.  The One who promises is faithful.  He will do as He has spoken.  He cannot deny Himself, and He will not deny His Word and promises to you.  He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Now, I understand, there appears to be very little safety in the arms of Someone who was crucified, cruelly put to death, and buried in the dust of the earth.  To be and abide in the crucified arms of Christ, how safe is that, exactly?  For He Himself was like a gentle Lamb led to the slaughter.

“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,” they plotted and conspired against Him, “to cut off His life from the land of the living, that there should be no remembrance of Him.”

How easy it is to conclude that God abandoned Him in death.  According to the wisdom of our flesh, “we consider Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”  And how could any good ever come from such a Cross, from such a shameful and humiliating death and all that bloodshed?

But no, in fact, the truth of the matter is that the Cross of Christ is the Victory of God.  It is His greatness and His glory, His almighty power made perfect in His voluntary weakness, all for the sake of His divine and holy Love.  So it is that Christ the Crucified, the Son of God in the Flesh, has become your Salvation, your Strength, and your Song, by His innocent suffering and death.  For it is precisely by His Cross, by the shedding of His holy, precious Blood, that God the Lord has reconciled the world to Himself and established Peace for you — peace with God in heaven, and peace in your heart toward all of your neighbors on earth, no matter how they may treat you.

The Tree of the Cross is not what it appears, but is the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden of God; it bears living and life-giving fruits that remain for you and for all the disciples of Christ Jesus.  And by the eating and drinking of that Fruit from that Tree, by the crucified Body and shed Blood of Christ, the Name of the Lord is remembered, and His Name is hallowed from the rising of the sun to the place of its going down, even to the close of the age.  Not only in itself, as it surely is — God’s Name is holy — but His Name is remembered and hallowed in every generation, and so also here among us.  And so also for you, who bear His Name in His Peace.

Here, then, at His Table, take delight in the Lord who delights in you, and He shall give to you His heart’s desire, that you may be exalted by His grace, unto the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of your body and soul in Christ Jesus.

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

“Lord, We Believe — Help, Thou, Our Unbelief!”

There are a number of similarities between this Holy Gospel and the story we heard from St. Mark last week.  In each case, a parent comes to Jesus seeking His help for a demon-possessed child; but this time it is a father seeking help for his son, instead of a mother seeking help for her daughter.

Again Jesus engages the parent in a bit of a dialogue, or even debate, instead of simply granting the request immediately.  The woman last week was thereby given the opportunity to confess and demonstrate the tenacity of her faith.  And today the father of the demon-possessed boy is led from his doubts and fears and his struggling faith to a greater confidence and stronger trust in Jesus.

Consider the progression of the story.  This poor, desperate man has come to Jesus on a whim, as more-or-less a last resort.  In desperate frustration, since Jesus was not around at first, the father all but orders the disciples to heal his son — something the disciples of Jesus had been given the authority to do in His Name — but the man’s request is hardly a prayer of faith; it is a demand.

When the Lord Jesus Himself draws near, the man’s desperation shifts from making demands of the disciples to wondering if Jesus might be willing and able to help.  And, upon hearing the Word of Jesus concerning what is possible for those who believe, he cries out in a kind of repentance.  He confesses his faith in the Lord Jesus, such as it is, but he also confesses the weakness of his faith; he acknowledges his unbelief, and so he throws himself upon the mercies of God in Christ.

Along with all that, aside from the similarities and differences between the Syrophoenician woman last week and the father today, there is here again the conflict between Christ and the demonic.  For He is God in the flesh, who has come to confront and cast out the devil and his evil minions.

In order to understand the nature of that strange and dreadful strife between Christ and the devil, it is helpful to know the context of the story at hand, which is indicative of the big picture and of the way that Christ will overcome Satan, sin, and death, for the salvation of the world.

The present story is bracketed, before and after, by the clear Word of Jesus foretelling His Cross and Passion, His suffering, dying, and rising.  And, paradoxically, it is precisely by that foolish divine wisdom of the Cross that God defies the so-called “wisdom” of the world and defeats the devil, all his works, and all his ways, beneath the wounded heal of the incarnate Son.  For it is by His Sacrifice upon the Cross, by His voluntary suffering and death, by the shedding of His holy and precious Blood for the Atonement of the world, that Satan is cast out and the Kingdom of heaven is open to all who believe and are baptized into the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Betwixt and between those Words of the Cross, the story unfolds at the foot of the Mountain, as the Lord Jesus returns from His glorious Transfiguration on His Way to the Cross in Jerusalem.

It was on the Mountain of Transfiguration that God the Father identified Jesus as His beloved Son, echoing the Word that He had previously spoken at the Baptism of our Lord in the Jordan River.  And He admonished the disciples, not only then but now, to listen to Jesus — even as He made His way down the Mountain to the Cross.  For the glory of His Resurrection, briefly manifested in His Transfiguration on the Mountain, would be accomplished by His Cross and Passion.

The Word that Jesus speaks — which you are called to hear and heed — is the Word of His Cross.  And it is to His Sacrifice upon the Cross that both His Baptism and His Transfiguration point.

Down from the Mountain He came, therefore, with Peter, James, and John, making His way to the strange divine glory of His Cross and Crucifixion.  That is what awaited Him, and that is where He was heading, when He encountered the man whose son was possessed by the unclean spirit.

The difficult and dismal circumstances under which that boy had lived most of his life, from his early childhood, vividly and graphically demonstrate the circumstances of the entire world — and of each and every child of Adam — apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.  That is to say, one and all (apart from Christ) are subject to the power of the devil, whether possessed by demons in violent and obvious ways, or deceived and misled by more subtle manipulations.

So it is that the old evil foe, Satan the accuser, renders the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve deaf to the Word of God, and mute to the confession of the faith, so they neither hear nor speak rightly.  Drowning out the Word and promises of God, and pummeling you with falsehoods, the devil and his minions seize you by the heart and toss you about in many and various sins, gnashing your teeth in fear, clenching your fists in anger, and arching your back in stubborn pride.

Such are the fruits of unbelief and sin, outwardly manifested in the body and life of this poor boy.

But not only do his circumstances demonstrate the sinful condition of the world apart from Christ.  Beyond that, the trauma involved in the boy’s affliction, and the struggle involved in His cleansing by Jesus — to the point that he appeared to be a corpse! — also demonstrate the conflict, again, between Christ and the devil, and the way that He defeats the devil by and with His Cross.  For He conquers the foe, not by an outward display of power and might, but by sacrificing Himself, laying down His life and submitting Himself to suffering and death, in the confidence, faith, and prayer that His Father will raise Him from death to life.  He approaches His Cross and Passion in prayer to His God and Father, and He teaches you to pray in His Name by faith in His Resurrection.

It is likewise the case that, when the Lord Jesus here raises that poor boy back up from his corpse-like state, He thereby anticipates His own triumphant Resurrection from the dead!  That is the sure and certain outcome of His innocent suffering and death, because it is precisely by and with and through His Cross and Passion that He triumphs over Satan.  Sin, death, and hell dog-pile the Lord Jesus, and they all do their worst to possess Him in their wickedness.  But in that combat stupendous, it is the devil and his forces that are routed and driven out, never to return again.

By the same token, this whole Gospel-story — and the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, to which it directs you — likewise portrays the content and significance of your own Holy Baptism.

In the first place, it is your Holy Baptism that has given you life with God through the Cross and Resurrection of Christ.  It thereby also delivers you from Satan, from sin, death, and hell — and, in doing so, it puts you at odds with the entire demonic world!  That is to say, the life that you are given in Christ Jesus brings even more and greater wrath and opposition from the demonic world against you.  For the devil in his jealous rage is all the more rabid and desperate to destroy you.

Your Baptism thereby also puts you at odds with your own sinful heart, perverse mind, and fallen flesh!  It has begun a war within you, not so different from the struggle that ensued within that boy in this Holy Gospel when Jesus drove the demon out. Indeed, the Cross of Christ in your Baptism crucifies you and puts you to death to yourself, to your sin, and to the world, so that you become a kind of corpse in the perception of this body and life.  All that you fear, love, and trust, aside from the one true God, and all that you have attempted, desired, and pursued apart from His Word, is laid waste and put down, so that you should live no longer in yourself and for yourself, but that Christ should raise you up to a brand new life in Himself, conformed to the Image of His Cross.

Instead of chasing down the addictions, habits, idolatries, and lusts which have characterized your life in the world apart from Christ, and which drive you from the Lord your God into eternal death, you are taught the humility of repentance and the confidence of faith, to pray and intercede in the hope and promise of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to pursue love for your neighbors in the world.

The true, spiritual reality is that the Cross and Crucifixion of Christ Jesus mark your entire life as a baptized Christian, as a beloved child of His Father.  Who you are and how you live are defined by His Sacrifice.  So, in this world you live under the Cross, engaged in constant spiritual warfare.

And yet, for all of that, although you often appear on the surface to be dead and utterly defeated — and I suspect there are plenty of times when you also feel within yourself that you are dead and defeated — still you are raised up, alive and victorious, by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ.

The persistent problem, of course, is that, while you do believe the Gospel by the grace of God in Christ, you also wrestle and struggle with your sinful unbelief and native idolatry.  And as such, especially as you must live under the Cross, and as you are daily engaged in conflict with the devil, the world, and your own heart, mind, and flesh, it is often so hard to believe and trust in Christ.

After all, to believe in a Crucified God, to fear, love, and trust in a Crucified Messiah, and to hear and heed His Word of the Cross, is an utter contradiction of everything the world calls wisdom.

Consequently, it is a constant and difficult struggle to believe and confess the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ.  It is the battle of faith and unbelief, of true and false worship, of God and the devil, waged within your own body and life, and always hidden and mysterious under the Cross.

That can be so discouraging and exhausting, and downright disheartening, because it can seem so pointless and ultimately hopeless.  Does it not seem as though your own sins and failings, and the sins of others against you, will never end?  I fully expect that poor father felt just like that!

But now take heart.  As also in the case of that Syrophoenician woman and her prayer last Sunday, the striving and the struggles in your life are neither pointless nor forever.  It is rather in the midst of the struggle, and by means of that struggle under the Cross, that the Lord Jesus teaches you and leads you to faith and hope and confident trust in Him.  It is by His Cross, and so also by the ways and means of His Word and Holy Spirit.  Not struggle in and of itself, and not for its own sake, but as it brings you to the Gospel of Christ, to His forgiveness of your sins, and to the ongoing, daily significance of your Holy Baptism, by which you die and rise with Him unto newness of life.

So, for example, you have heard how Jesus led the father in this Holy Gospel — along with His own disciples — from doubt and skepticism and unbelief to repentance and faith.  To the sort of faith that prays to God in Christ, clinging to His Word, listening to the Lord Jesus and trusting Him — against all odds, living under the Cross — confessing confidence in Him, yet also praying for help against the doubts and fears of unbelief that always linger and lurk within your fallen flesh.

The Lord Jesus Himself, the incarnate Son of God, as your Substitute under the Law, under the curse of sin and death, called upon His God and Father on His Way to the Cross, trusting that He would rescue Him from out of death; and though He was a Son, He learned the obedience of faith by that which He suffered in your place.  So does He teach you by His Cross to trust and to pray.

Thanks be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He has answered your every prayer and provided for your every need of body and soul in the Person of His incarnate Son.  So does He also continue to answer your prayers and provide for all your needs in the same Son, Jesus Christ, who has taught you and commanded you to pray, and has promised to hear and answer.  For the same Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified for your sins and raised for your justification, is also seated at the right hand of His God and Father in heaven, where He ever lives to intercede for you.

As He has obtained the victory for you over Satan, sin, death, and hell, by His Cross and Passion, by His atoning Sacrifice and glorious Resurrection — so has He shared that victory of His Cross and Resurrection with you in the waters of your Holy Baptism.  Not only once upon a time, but as He calls you daily back to the significance of your Baptism through repentance and faith in His Word, He thereby forgives all your sins; He drives out the devil from your heart and life; He gives to you His own divine, eternal life in place of death; and He calls you to live unto God in Him.

So does He feed and nourish, guard and keep, your faith and life in Him — against all unbelief — by His Word of the Gospel.  And so does He feed and nurture you in the one true faith, unto life everlasting, with the fruits of His Cross and Passion, with His own holy Body and precious Blood.

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

Keep on Praying in the Confidence of Christ

The Syrophoenician woman’s remarkable persistence in asking the Lord Jesus to help her poor little daughter is the evidence and confession of her faith.  Her prayer is the voice of faith in this Man who has come to the pagan territory of Tyre and Sidon, whose Word has gone before Him declaring His divine mercy and authority.  She continues to pray and to plead for His help, even when He seems to deny her, because she believes the testimony that she has heard about Him.

St. Matthew has given us more of the details, describing the buildup to the denouement we have heard from St. Mark this morning.  At first when the woman came to Him, Jesus answered not a word.  Nothing but stony silence, just as your prayers sometimes seem to meet with stony silence.

And when His disciples grew weary of listening to her beg and plead for His help, and they urged Him to do something, to give her what she asked so that she would leave them alone, He replied, “I have come only for the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”  So it would seem He is not for her.  Which is what you also hear from the Law, as it accuses and condemns you, exposing your sins and declaring that you are not worthy or deserving of anything but punishment from God.

But the woman persists because she is driven by her sense of need, and she clings to the Gospel, to the Word of Jesus she has heard, and to the fact that He has come.  Undaunted and undeterred, she asks Him simply to help her.  And that is when the cruelest blow of all is answered in return.  “It is not right to give the children’s bread to the dogs.”  So now there is insult added to injury.

To which she says “Amen.”  “Yes, Lord. Guilty as charged. But even the puppies get to eat the crumbs that fall from their Master’s Table.”  She owns the insult, and still she clings to His mercy.

At which point Jesus does what He has intended from the start.  He casts out the demon from her little daughter.  He gives what His Word has promised to the faith that has clung to that Word and confessed it so boldly.  He has known her faith, to be sure, even before her persistence in prayer, but He has dealt with her in mercy and steadfast love, although it did not seem that way.  He has delayed His response in order to strengthen her faith, and so that, by her suffering, the faith of His disciples should be strengthened and their prayers invigorated by this woman’s faithful example.

Are you not encouraged in your faith by the answer He finally gives, by the tender mercy that He grants, by the healing of her daughter and the casting out of the demon?  By His praise of her faith?

So, then, take heart.  The Lord is not deaf to your cry, and His heart is not hardened against you.

The fact is that you pray as you believe.  The way that you pray is the evidence and expression of how and what you think about God, and whether you fear, love, and trust in Him, or not.

So, how is it with you?  How do you pray?

Are you patient and persistent, like that Syrophoenician woman?  Do you persevere in the face of stony silence?  Do you trust the Lord your God, His Word and promises, even when you hear only a “No” from His Law?  Do you say “Amen” to the apparent insult of the Lord when He puts down any claim of merit, self-righteousness, or worthiness on your part?  And do you keep on praying, anyway, in the confidence of His mercy and His grace?  To pray in that way is to speak rightly.

But if you do not fully expect (by the way of trust) that God will help you, as He has promised — if you do not fully expect to receive good things from Him, from your Father in heaven who loves you, who has promised to hear you, and who has answered your every prayer in Christ Jesus — if you do not trust that, and rely on that, and fully expect His help — which is what faith does — then you do not know or think about Him rightly.  And so it is that you do not pray as you ought.

You imagine God in your own image, and you suppose that He will deal with you in the ways that you deal with your neighbor.  You do not expect Him to hear and answer your prayer, because you are too often deaf to your neighbor’s pleas for mercy and for help.  You show partiality, and you exercise personal favoritism.  You do good according to your own agenda, assisting those who are most likely to return the favor with interest.  So you assume that is how God will deal with you.

Such attitudes and prejudices are sinful.  Your lack of faith toward God and love for your neighbor is sinful.  It is therefore the case that you do not deserve to have your prayer heard and answered.

But in contrast to you and your life, the Lord Jesus Christ has perfectly fulfilled the Royal Law.  He has kept it, and He still does.  He loves His neighbor well, even at His own expense, at the cost of His own body and life.  In love for His God and Father, He loves you, and He helps you, and He does good things for you.  He comes to set you free and to save you from sin, death, and hell.

You could not believe in Him or come to Him.  You could not call upon His Name or pray to Him rightly.  Indeed, you could not find Him or understand Him, and you did not know how to pray.

But He has come to you in the flesh, and He teaches you by His Word and Holy Spirit to fear, love, and trust in Him, to pray, praise, and give thanks to Him, and to rest yourself upon His promises.

The little girl could not come to Jesus herself, and she did not.  Her mother came and interceded.  And the deaf man who could not speak, He did not ask anything for himself, either.  He was utterly silent.  His friends brought him, and they petitioned Jesus for him.  And all of this was possible because Jesus had drawn near.  The woman in Tyre and those men in Sidon came to Jesus, because Jesus had first come to them.  And the same is true for you, as well.  Jesus has drawn near to you.

The Word of God has come down from heaven in the Person of the incarnate Son.  He has become your Brother in the flesh.  He is close at hand, and His ears are open to your cries for mercy.

And you are here where He is because others have brought you here.  You are here in the Lord’s House, a child of God, a sheep of the Good Shepherd, anointed by His Spirit in body and soul, because others have prayed and interceded for you, and have brought you to Jesus in His Church.

And the Lord responds to the prayers and petitions of His people by continuing to do what He has done from the start.  He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies His Church, on earth as it is in heaven, by the preaching of His Word and the gift of His Spirit.  By the Ministry of the Gospel He lays His hand on you in mercy.  He daily and richly forgives you all your sins for His own sake, as He has also washed you with water and His Word in your Holy Baptism.  He receives you to Himself, He pours out His Spirit generously upon you, and He brings you to His Father in peace.

He opens your ears to hear His Word, and He opens your mind to comprehend it, even though it is mysterious, and it seems foolish to the world.  He opens your heart to believe and trust in Him, and to cling to His Word and promises in the face of all that would deny them.

It is by His Word of the Gospel that He opens what was closed, and He looses what was bound.  He opens your lips to show forth His praise, to call upon His Name and pray according to His Word, and to confess His Holy Name, come hell or high water and God’s own Law against you.

Cling to His Name, and bind yourself to it.  Cling to His sure and certain mercy; it will not fail you.  Cling to His Cross and Resurrection, because all things have already been accomplished there and then in Christ Jesus.  Crucified and risen from the dead, He is God’s Answer to your prayer.  He is God’s “Amen.”  Not a schwaffling “maybe-yes / maybe-no,” and not a kinda-sorta-iffy-maybe, but in Christ Jesus God’s answer is always “Yes” and “Amen.”  It shall be so.  Believe that.

And so pray without ceasing.  Let your whole life be one of prayer, and let prayer be your way of life.  Pray at all times, and do not give up heart.  That is what Jesus teaches His disciples to do.  Keep on praying, even when it seems as though God has turned a deaf ear and a hard heart to your prayer.  Keep on praying, even when it seems as though He will simply go on refusing you forever.

Your Father in heaven hears and answers your prayer for the sake of Christ Jesus.  You shall be saved; for everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.  You shall not die but live.

And you shall not only survive, but you shall lack no good thing.  For the Lord feeds you with far more than mere crumbs from His Table.  The Father gives to you His own dear Son in the flesh, who feeds you with His Body and pours out His Blood for you to drink, for the forgiveness of sins.

Here, then, is how the Lord Jesus deals with you.  He helps you in your every need.  In fact, in His love for you He is helping before you have even called on Him; while you are yet speaking, He is already acting in mercy.  He does all of these things, not because you have prayed, but because of who He is.  And it is for that same reason that you are to pray.  Not to coerce or manipulate Him, but because of who He is, according to His Word and promise and His steadfast loving-kindness.

The Lord Jesus helps you in your every need.  He heals you of all your diseases.  He casts out your demons, and He forgives your every sin.  He listens to you in mercy, and He answers you in love.  He clothes your nakedness, and He feeds your deepest hunger.  Indeed, He feeds you with Himself.

And all of this He does for you for the sake of His fair Name, with which He has named you a child of His own God and Father, a beloved and well-pleasing son or daughter.  His heart is more open to you than even the most devoted parent on earth.  For none of us can achieve, and certainly never exceed, the Love of God, our Father in heaven, which is yours in Christ Jesus, His beloved Son.

As He has opened His great heart of love to you, so love your neighbors in Christ Jesus.  Do it for His sake.  When you look at your neighbors, behold the Lord Jesus in them.  Look at them as God the Father looks at them in Christ — as God the Father looks at you in Christ.  That is, do not see their faults and failings, but see the mercies of God and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which He has reconciled the world to Himself, not counting the sins of men against them.

The Lord your God shows no partiality.  He is near to all, and He is merciful to all who call upon Him by faith in His Word.  Since you, then, are a child of that God and Father, show no partiality.  Do not play favorites.  Do not pick and choose whom you will love, and do not distinguish whom you will and will not pray for.  Love and serve your neighbors as the Lord Jesus Christ loves you.

Listen to your neighbor in mercy, and speak to your neighbor in love.  Clothe your neighbor’s nakedness and shame with kindness, gentleness, protection, and peace.  And feed your neighbor’s hunger with bread for his body and the Word of Christ for His heart, mind, body, and soul.  Do not hold grudges or condemn, but forgive your neighbor — on the sole contingency of Christ Jesus.

So also pray for your neighbor.  Pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Pray for those who sit alongside of  you within this congregation.  If you have not thought about them, think of them, and pray for them.  And pray for those who are not here, that God would call them and bring them to Himself — or restore them to Himself — in love, in repentance and faith in His forgiveness.  Pray for those who are missing, the way a mother prays for her child; the way the Syrophoenician woman prayed for her little daughter; the way that St. Monica prayed for her son, Augustine.

Why would you not pray?  Do you not care?  Or do you suppose the Lord will not answer?

Pray as He has taught you.  And along with your prayer, speak the Word of the Gospel that God has spoken to you in peace.  And as the Lord so enables and gives you opportunity, bring your neighbors to Jesus by bringing them to His Church on earth.  Bring them here to the House of God, as others have brought you; so that your neighbors may also come to eat the Bread from the Lord’s Table and drink from His Chalice of Salvation; and that your neighbors also may be satisfied in body and soul, as you are satisfied, in the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, now and forever.

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

Sinful from the Inside-Out — Forgiven from the Outside-In

There is hardly another Word of God that so clearly and completely turns the world and all its “wisdom” on its head, and so utterly contradicts the world and everything that it believes about itself, as does the Word of our Lord Jesus this morning.

He reveals the painful truth of what belongs to our fallen human nature, and to all the children of man, apart from the Word and Spirit of God.  He thus reveals what you are like apart from Him, and what you are capable of doing and accomplishing on your own.  It is not a pretty picture.

From out of your heart — from within yourself — come evil thoughts, and sexual immorality; theft, murder, and adultery; sensuality and wickedness of every kind; envy and jealousy, coveting (which is idolatry), slander and deceit, and finally pride and foolishness.  “All these evil things come from within.”  That is what your heart does and accomplishes, unto death and destruction.

You cannot save yourself from who and what you are.  You cannot escape yourself and your sinful inheritance.  For the wickedness of Adam’s sons and daughters following the fall into sin is great upon the earth, and you also were conceived and born in the darkness of that legacy; from your mother’s womb you were dead in your trespasses and sin.  And it remains the case that, of yourself, you are a poor, miserable sinner, for which you rightly deserve nothing else but punishment.

What the Lord speaks to you this morning is therefore a sobering but necessary Word.  Not only does it expose the truth of where you stand apart from Christ, but it thereby also exposes the lies that you otherwise cling to in your sinful ignorance, stubborn disobedience, and selfish pride.

For example, to begin with, the Lord Jesus contradicts the very common notion that most if not all people are basically good — the false idea that, given the right environment and opportunities, most people will naturally make good and right decisions.  That is quite simply not the case.

The Lord thus resolves the dilemma of where all wickedness comes from and how such evil things can happen in the world.  It’s not just a bad seed here and there, or a black sheep in the family.  The problem is deeply rooted in the heart of the old Adam, in the entire human race of sinners.

Jesus also contradicts the popular and prevailing notion that whatever seems good to a person is good for that person — the false belief, in other words, that everything is relative and subjective.

And Jesus pulls the rug out from under the idea that your actions are only bad or sinful if they hurt another person or impinge upon another person’s freedoms.  You’ve all heard that excuse before; you’ve probably used that excuse for yourself on occasion.  But the truth is that whatever proceeds from out of your heart of sin is sinful, even if it may not harm anyone other than your own self.

Consider that the Lord Jesus includes envy and coveting, foolishness and pride, in the same breath as theft, murder, and adultery.  Those sins that eat away at your heart and mind on the inside — where you can hide them from others, but not from the Lord — may actually be more deadly to your Christian faith and life (and to your eternal salvation) than those sins that you and everyone else can see on the outside, which you and everyone else know to be sinful and wrong.

Here’s the deal: The Lord Jesus is not just talking about those really vile people out there, as the world tends to measure things.  He’s not just pointing His finger at the serial killers, rapists, and pedophiles.  Of course, He’s not excusing any of those people, either.  He’s really taking aim at everyone, including you.  He’s talking about your old Adam and your sinful human condition.

The real problem, then, is far deeper and more perverse than anything you can see with your eyes.  By the same token, it is such a common and pervasive problem that even the evidence — within your flesh and all around you in the world — just looks like so much “normal,” and maybe even good and right.  That is the charade of temptation and sin, which masquerade as angels of light.

But again, the Word of the Lord Jesus contradicts all those lies and deceptions of Satan.

So does He also contradict the notion that people are capable of finding their own way to God.  They cannot.  And He contradicts the notion that people are capable of determining the truth for themselves, as though their experiences, feelings, perspectives, and logic were decisive.  On the contrary, there is one true God, the Maker of the Heavens and the Earth, and not only does His Word reveal what is true and false, what is right and wrong; His Word determines everything that is.  And His Word exposes all that comes out of your heart as evil, wicked, mean, and nasty.

It is not possible for you to determine for yourself what you ought to be doing, not apart from the Word of the Lord and your God-given callings and stations in life.  You have freedoms, to be sure, but all genuine righteousness is elusive and well beyond the grasp of your heart, mind, and spirit, until the Lord reveals Himself and gives Himself to you by His Word and Holy Spirit.  Neither can you come to Him or believe in Him by your own reason or strength, but only as He breaks your heart of stone and makes of it a heart of flesh by His preaching of repentance and forgiveness.

In contrast to all of those false notions and opinions that arise and emerge from within your sinful heart, the forgiveness of your sins, the righteousness of Christ, and His divine, eternal life and salvation, all come to you from outside of you.  These good gifts of God, which are the remedy and solution to the problem, come to you from Christ the Crucified, and they are given to you by His Ministry of the Gospel, by His Word and Holy Sacraments, within His Holy Christian Church.

Not only does His Word expose and contradict the darkness of your sinful heart, but His Word of the Gospel shines the Light of the revelation of the Glory of God into your heart.  By that free gift and divine good work of the Gospel, He recreates your heart and mind, your body, soul, and spirit, into His Image and Likeness.  It comes from outside of you and makes all things new within you.

Apart from His Word, you are not capable of knowing or doing anything good.  But you are not apart from His Word, because it is spoken to you from the Lord.  Even now it is entering into your ears, and through your ears into your heart and mind, that you might have life instead of death.  That you might be no longer subject to the sin you have inherited from Adam, which dwells within your fallen flesh, but governed and guided by the mercies of the Lord your God in Christ Jesus.

His Word of the Gospel is your Light and your Salvation, by which He rescues and delivers you from that evil coalition of the devil, the world, and your own sinful heart.  And His Word to you, His Law and His Gospel, is also a Lamp for your feet and a Light for your path.  So does the Lord call you daily to repentance, unto faith and life in His forgiveness of all your sins.  And by His love for you, in and with His Word, He teaches you to love and serve your neighbor in His Name.

Even so, although you are given such a life to be lived in Christ — and even though the Law of the Lord is to be feared and obeyed as the revelation of His good and acceptable will — nevertheless, it remains the case that your righteousness is found, not in yourself or in your works, but in Christ Jesus, in His good works on your behalf, in the Atonement of His Cross and the righteousness of His Resurrection, all of which is credited to you and given to you by the Ministry of His Gospel.

That Gospel of Christ is not found inside of you, neither in your heart nor in your head.  It cannot be known intuitively, nor can it be obtained or held onto by any effort of your own.  It is a divine Mystery, above and beyond all human wisdom, knowledge, intelligence, or experience.

As such, the Gospel is always being given to you — by the Lord your God through the Ministry of His Word within His Church.  And it is received by faith alone, which is not your own work but is itself a gift of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Word of Christ Jesus.  Consequently, you are always on the passive and receiving side of the Gospel, which comes to you from God in Christ.  From outside of you.  From outside of your heart, your head, and your hands, and quite apart from your feelings, your intellect, and all of your own works and efforts.

The Gospel comes to you, and it is given to you — freely, by the grace of God, for Jesus’ sake — by and with His Word of forgiveness: in this very preaching, here and now, and in the spoken Word of Holy Absolution.  It has come to you, once and forever, by and with the washing of the water with His Word in your Holy Baptism.  And even now, as you journey through the wilderness on your way to Paradise, as you live within the Church on earth in the hope and expectation of the Resurrection, the Gospel of Christ Jesus comes to you and feeds you by and with His holy Body and His precious Blood, which He gives to you again in the Liturgy this morning.

These means of grace are not the traditions of men or mere formalities, but the very gifts of God.  They come to you from Him, from outside of yourself, in order to give you life in Christ, in body and soul, here and now and hereafter forever.  It is in the hearing and receiving of the Gospel, in the remembrance of your Holy Baptism, and in the eating and drinking of the Body and Blood of Christ, that you are justified, forgiven, and reconciled to God through faith, unto life everlasting.

To be and to live as a Christian is not an exercise or achievement of your thoughts and feelings, your own opinions or convictions, your own determination or sincerity, or your own sacrifices and contributions.  It is certainly not a matter of merely being nice and polite.  All of these things may well be a fruit of faith in Christ and an exercise of love for God and your neighbor.  But only after the fact, as a consequence of the life that is given to you in Christ Jesus.  To be and to live as a Christian is to receive and trust the Gospel as it comes to you in preaching and the Sacraments.

It is in fact the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ that determines real Christianity and makes for real Christians, that is, disciples of Christ Jesus, who are the children of His God and Father, anointed by His Holy Spirit.  It is not at all a do-it-yourself, go-it-alone, independent-contractor enterprise or operation, but the gracious activity and blessed gift of God Himself, who comes to you by these ways and means in order to pull you out of your own heart and head and save you from yourself.

It is indeed true that, as a Christian, because you are given new life in Christ, you do live in faith and love toward God and in loving service toward your neighbors, all for the sake of Christ Jesus and to the glory of His holy Name.  But that Christian faith and life are the fruits and the produce of all that God has done and given and accomplished by the means of His Gospel.  It is only as Christ and His Spirit have thereby come from outside of you to live and abide within you, within your heart and mind, within your body and soul, that you now live and abide with God in Christ.

It is only insofar as you are living by faith in the Gospel — which is to say, by hearing and relying on His Word, by returning daily to the significance of your Holy Baptism through contrition and repentance, confession and Absolution, and by regularly receiving the Sacrament of the Altar — that the fruits of the Holy Spirit are brought forth in your body and life from a brand new heart that rests and resides in the Body of Christ Jesus, in His flesh and blood and His forgiveness of sins.

Despite the fact that you so often fail to live as a child of God, as a Christian disciple of Christ, He continues to come and do and give and accomplish what only He can do and give and accomplish.  By continuing to serve you with His Gospel–Word and Sacraments, He daily and richly forgives you all of your sins, and He thereby renews your faith and life in Him, unto the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of your body and soul in His own crucified and risen Body.

That is the special beauty of the Gospel, namely, that it never does depend on you; it is nothing that you could ever do or accomplish for yourself.  The Gospel, which is the blessing of God and your Life and Salvation in Christ, does not come from inside of you, but only from outside of you.  So does it remain forever sure and certain in Christ Jesus, and it continues to do what He does for you, graciously and freely bestowing upon you all of His righteousness, His forgiveness of your sins, and His divine, eternal Life in body and soul, here in the Liturgy within His Church on earth, and hereafter when He comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead in His own righteousness.

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

Baptized into the Death and Life of Christ Jesus

Herod celebrates his birthday with a grand party, but he’s a dead man: dead in his trespasses and sin.

St. John the Baptist goes from the frying pan into the fire — from the dungeon to the chopping block and martyrdom — but he is raised from death to life, and he lives with Christ Jesus forever.

Those are your options, as well.  It really is a life or death matter.  You have no true or lasting life apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is only in His Resurrection from the dead that you are raised.  So it is only by His Cross that you have life.  It is by the sharing of His death and the losing of your own life in the world that you share His Resurrection and His life everlasting in body and soul.

That is the life that your Holy Baptism has granted, and that is what your Baptism still means for you, each and every day throughout your life.  You are put to death in order to be raised.  Your own head is removed, that Christ may be your Head, your Bridegroom and Lord.  Your body is buried with Him through Baptism into His death, in order that you may belong to His Body, the Church.

That’s what discipleship looks like.  Whether by crucifixion or beheading, it brings death and burial.  Those who baptize — and those who are baptized — are put to death for the Name of Christ.  Those who are sent to Minister in His Name, and those who receive that Ministry, live under His Cross.

And it is precisely by the Cross of Christ that you are raised with Him and live with Him forever.

As you bear and suffer that Cross, therefore, do not despair, but fix your faith and hope on Him.

As you are shut up in prison, or shut out from the crowd, or otherwise left alone and lonely, lift up your head, your heart, and your mind to Christ Jesus.  Not by your own reason or emotion, but by hearing and heeding His Word of the Gospel.  For He is the One who delivers you from death.

As you have your head chopped off — whether metaphorically or in actual fact — find your peace and rest in the crucified and risen Body of Christ Jesus.  Though you are despised and rejected by this fallen and perishing world, you are righteous and holy in the presence of God by faith in Him.

Live, then, in the righteousness and holiness of Christ.  Live by faith, by the hearing of His Word.

Do not seek to silence or shut down the Word of the Lord, and do not suppose that you will protect yourself by keeping it at arm’s length, as though it were in your power.  If you are perplexed by the preaching of repentance, do not harden your heart, but repent.  Confess your sins, and be forgiven.

Do not continue in your sins, which are a living death.  It is neither lawful nor safe to go on sinning.  And do not suppose that you shall escape the consequences; they will come back to haunt you.

Do not harbor envy and jealousy, nor bitterness and resentment, in your heart against your neighbor.  And do not let the sun go down on your anger.  But for Christ’s sake be reconciled to your neighbor by the way of mutual repentance and forgiveness.  For anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and the life and love of God do not abide in him.

Do not entertain the lust of the flesh, whether with your eyes, with your imagination, or with your body.  Whoever looks upon a woman or a man with lust in his heart is already an adulterer.  Such covetous lust conceives and gives birth to sin, which grows fully into death.

For all such hatred and adultery in your heart and mind, repent.

Turn away from evil, and do what is lawful.  Begin to practice what is good and right.

Do not be afraid to do the right thing, as though, if you did not line your own pockets and pad your own treasure chest, the Lord would let you die.  The fact is that you have already died, and yet your life is hidden with Christ in God forever.  But if you live in sin, then only death shall be your lot.

Do what you are given to do with confidence in Christ and in the promise of His Gospel.  Be strong and courageous.  The Lord your God is with you like a dread Champion.  If you share His death, so shall you also share His Resurrection and His life.  Whether you live or die, you are the Lord’s.

If you are sorry for what you have done or left undone, do not despair, but repent, and do better.  Not as though you will save yourself or set things right by your own righteousness and holiness, but because Christ has died for your transgressions and He is risen for your justification.  He has saved you by giving Himself for you.  His righteousness and holiness are yours.  He so identifies Himself with you, that He now rises and lives in you; He manifests Himself in your body and life on earth.

You need not dance for this true King, nor suppose that you would be able to seduce Him.  It is in love for you that He has redeemed you with His holy and precious blood, by His innocent suffering and death; that you should be an heir with Him of His Kingdom, not by half, but the whole thing.

Here, then, is the Supper that He hosts, in proclamation of His death until He comes.  Not for the high and mighty of the world, but for the weak and lowly and despised, whom He calls to Himself.

Recline here at His Table with Him, and receive from His hand His Body given, His Blood poured out for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins, and for the life everlasting of your body and soul.

Where there is such forgiveness, death cannot hurt you, not really, and not for long.

Rest here under His altar, until all things come to pass and all His promises are fully realized, just as He has spoken.  You shall not die, but live.  Just as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity, so are you raised from death to life in Him, here and now, and hereafter forever.

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

The Living and Life-Giving Bread from Heaven

The Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, conceived and born of St. Mary, has come down from the Father in heaven to be your Savior; and He is the One who promises and says: “I Am the Bread of Life.  He who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”

You have come to Him, today as in the past, because the Father has called you and given you to Christ, His Son.  And you believe in Him, because the Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel, and He has enlightened you with His gifts, even as He sanctifies and keeps you in the one true faith.  None of this by your own knowledge, insight, or understanding, but by the Self-revelation and calling of the Lord, the one true God, in the Word and Flesh of Christ Jesus.

The One who calls you is faithful, and He will surely do all that He has spoken.  You shall by no means be cast out.  The Tree of Life in the midst of Paradise is not barred to you.  The Fruits of that Tree are given and poured out for you to eat and drink, that you should not hunger or thirst, nor lack any good thing.  You shall not perish but live.  For Christ the Lord, to whom the Father has given you in love, as a Bride to her Bridegroom, will surely raise you up on the Last Day.

But for now, from the waters of your Holy Baptism you have come to Him in the wilderness.  And here, it would seem, there is rather a lot of hunger and thirst.  Indeed, you are hungry and thirsty, not only in your body, but also in your heart and mind.  So many wants and needs, so many hurts and sorrows, in yourself and in your neighbors, all of them gnawing away at your confidence.

There are ways in which you suffer precisely because of your faithfulness.  You suffer hardship and contempt on account of the Name of Christ which you bear.  You suffer because you are a Christian.  And in the face of that kind of treatment, because your flesh is so weary and so weak, there are those times in this body and life when you would just as soon give up, give in, and die.

At those times, to be sure, but even at the best of times, you are not so faithful as you ought to be.  Instead of steadfast faith and confident trust in the Lord, you harbor doubts and fears, frustrations and disappointments, discouragements, and threats of dark despair.  Against those who have failed you or hurt you in various ways, you harbor anger, resentment, and bitterness.  Instead of speaking with grace, forgiveness, and peace, you grumble and complain and utter harsh and spiteful words.  You harden your heart against your neighbors in the world, though you are called and taught to love them for the sake of Christ Jesus; and you thereby harden your heart against the Lord your God, the very Father of all mercies and God of all comfort.

You do not yet see, therefore, what your eyes long to see, neither in yourself nor in your life, nor in the world around you.  And it is so very hard to wait patiently and peacefully upon the Lord.

Your belly may be momentarily filled and satisfied from time to time, or painfully stuffed to the point that you can’t imagine another bite.  But it isn’t long before it starts growling and rumbling once again.  And even when your body is full, your heart and mind still hunger for peace and rest.

Why should you not just give up and die?  That is the question of your old Adam, at least at those times when you are not striving to make a god out of yourself.  From towering pride to the pits of despair in barely a heartbeat.  But what is the use, after all?  What point is there in trying?

Your fathers ate their daily bread.  Whether they prayed or not, whether they were evil or good, God the Father in heaven, the Creator and Preserver of all things, opened His hand to feed them, to shower them with sunshine and rain, to give them everything they needed for this body and life.  Yes, indeed.  Your fathers ate their daily bread — and they still died, just as you are in the process of dying, fast or slow, no matter what you do, regardless of your diet, exercise, or health plan.

How in the world are you supposed to survive and live?  Eat, drink, and be merry, and tomorrow you still die.  Or stop eating altogether and starve yourself to death.  What difference does it make?

Even though Jesus says and promises that those who come to Him and eat this Bread, which is His Flesh, shall not die but live forever, you know that Christians also suffer and die, they get sick and return to the dust of the earth.  So, it seems on the surface to make no difference at all, what you think or say or do, what you believe or receive.

But now, come and take your rest under the Tree of the Cross.  For that is where you live, and that is where you die, and by that Tree you shall rise again.  Even now, it shelters you and shades you, even when you are at your lowest and your worst, ready to give up and die in disgust.

By its abundant Fruit, by the Bread of this Tree, by the Blood of this true Vine, you are nourished in body and soul, not only for the here and now, but unto the resurrection and life everlasting.  For the Son of God shall raise you up on the Last Day, even forevermore.  So, even though you die, yet shall you live.  Death will not have the last word concerning you.  Christ is God’s Word to you and concerning you, and His Flesh and Blood are the surety and down payment on that Word and promise.  He is your daily Bread, your Meat and Drink indeed, by which you have life with God.

Consider that this same Lord Jesus Christ has suffered and died for you in tender-hearted kindness, in mercy and compassion, with great love for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins.

His Cross and Passion, His suffering and death were not meaningless or pointless, nor without hope.  These were, instead, a sweet-smelling sacrifice and offering, by which you are beloved and well-pleasing to His God and Father.  You know that is true, because God has raised this same Jesus from the dead, never to die again.  This same Jesus, the Lamb of God, who came down from heaven and became flesh, who took your sins upon Himself and died in your place — He has risen from the dead.  Therefore, you also rise from the death of your sin to live with God in Him.

As you are baptized into Christ Jesus, into His Cross and Resurrection, lay aside what is past and perishing.  Die to yourself, to the desires of your fallen flesh, to your sins, and to the habits and vices of this world.  And live unto God in Christ, in the righteousness of faith, in self-sacrificing love, in accordance with your calling as a Christian, as a disciple of Christ Jesus.  Bear the Cross in the hope and promise of the Resurrection, and be at peace with your neighbors.  Do not give yourself over to anger or despair, but speak the Word that gives life in the holiness of the Truth.

Your life is not your own (thank God!), but you are the Lord’s.  Whether you live or die, you are the Lord’s.  And He has called you to live in peace, in faith, hope, and love, in Christ Jesus.  To suffer and even to die, in and with Him, that you might be glorified in Him and live in Him, not only some day, faraway in the sweet by and by, but here and now, under the Cross, by faith in Him.

The truth is that you are not cast aside or left alone in what you suffer.  You are not abandoned.  You are not forgotten.  What you may suffer as a consequence of your sins is a discipline for your good, unto repentance and new life in the free and full forgiveness of all your sins.  And what you suffer in faith and love, as a Christian, is for the glory of God and for the good of your neighbor.

In any event, you do not suffer for yourself, nor by yourself, and you do not die alone.  As you have been crucified, put to death, and buried with Christ by your Baptism in His Name, so is your life now hidden with Christ in God forever.  It is not death but life that endures for you in Christ.

He who for your sake died and was raised strengthens and sustains you here under the Tree of His Cross, even here in the wilderness of this world, in the valley of the shadow of death.

The Lord Jesus loves you.  He is kind and merciful.  He does forgive you all your sins.  He is and does all the things for you that you have failed to be and do for your family, friends, and neighbors.  And as He suffered and died for your sins, and for the sins of the whole world, in His faithfulness and righteousness, so has He risen from the dead for your justification in the presence of God.

The Father has given Him from heaven for you, in the flesh, in order to save you.  To give you life.  For that is His good and gracious will!  That is the very thing that God most desires to do.  And He does it, at the cost of His own dear Son, His most priceless Treasure.

He stretches out His hand to you in Christ, in order to lay hold of you in love.  To raise you up.  To strengthen you in both body and soul, for this life and for the life everlasting.

And see here, Christ Jesus feeds you with His own flesh and blood, which He has given once for all upon the Cross, and which He still gives within His Church on earth, that all might live in Him.

Arise, therefore, and eat!  And drink from His hand, from His overflowing Chalice of Salvation.  Take your rest here at His Altar, under the Tree of His Cross, that He should give you His own life and sustain you on the way that He has set before you within your callings and stations on earth.

The journey through the wilderness is too much for you to travel by yourself.  But with this Food and Drink, the Lord Jesus travels with you every step of the way.  He bestows His Spirit upon you by His Word and with His Flesh, and He thereby keeps you steadfast and upholds you in the one true faith.  He will not let go of you, but He shall raise you up in glory like unto His own.

On the way, then, be imitators of God, as the Lord has admonished you this morning through His servant, St. Paul.  Not by your own wisdom, reason, and strength, which cannot help but fail you, but by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ — nourished and sustained by His Word of the Gospel, by His forgiveness of all your sins, by His Life-giving Holy Spirit, and by His Flesh and Blood.

Live in your body, here and now, as the Son of God lives in His own Body of flesh and blood like yours, that is, by faith in the Father, and in love for the Father and for all His children in the world, and for all those whom He would yet call to be His own.

Live as Christ has lived for you, has died for you, and has risen from the dead to live in love for you forevermore.  And as you live in Him, know that even death shall never be able to separate you from God’s Love for you in Him.  That is your perfect peace and confidence, throughout your life, and even in the face of death.  For though you die, yet shall you live.  In Christ you shall not die.

Awake and arise, eat and drink, rejoice, give thanks, and sing.  And live in the way of the Lord, according to His Word and Promise.  For with this Living and Life-giving Bread of Christ Jesus, with which the Father feeds you from heaven, you come to the Mountain of God, to share in the great Feast that He has prepared for you and all the nations in the Body and Blood of His Son.

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

Living on the Bread of Life Alone

Do not worry about what you will eat or what you will wear.  For the Lord your God provides you with the daily bread that you need for this body and life, solely out of His fatherly, divine goodness and mercy.  He is the Author and Giver of Life, and He is the One who created your body, so He knows what you need, and in love He opens His gracious hand to feed and clothe you every day.  For all that, it is your duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him, to the glory of His Name.

Unfortunately, it is an ever-present danger that you are tempted to receive and regard the good gifts of the Lord without acknowledging Him as the Giver.  How easily you “fear, love, and trust” in things and creature comforts, in other people, and in your own wisdom, reason, and strength, instead of worshiping the one true God.  When you have what you want, you are smug and secure in your world, the skies are blue and sunny in your eyes, and sailing is smooth.  You easily forget about God and hardly care whether He even exists.  In apathetic ease, you take Him for granted.

But let those things all be gone, your possessions, your position in the world, your parents, spouse, and children, and then you are convinced that all hope is lost.  The skies are dark and stormy.  The deep waves roll over your head.  And in the depths of your despair, you curse the Lord your God as though He had deserted you.  Forgetting all His benefits, you long for the fleshpots of Egypt.

When your car starts making not-so-funny noises; when your plumbing backs up; when termites are eating your house and home; when the cupboard is bare, the bread basket is empty, and your Sugar Daddy “Bread King” hasn’t come through in the way that you expected, then you find that you are no different and no better than those crowds in this morning’s Holy Gospel.

When you do go looking for Jesus, it is too often in the wrong way and for all the wrong reasons.  Instead of perceiving His miraculous “Signs” as revelations of the divine Glory of His Cross, and as the promise of His Gospel, the forgiveness of your sins, and the free gift of Life and Salvation, you follow your senses and feelings in pursuit of the perishing goods and services of this world.

So the people then were “satisfied,” initially, with the bread and fish that Jesus had provided in the Feeding of the Five Thousand.  But they were already hungry for more of the same, in the hopes of keeping their bellies fed and filled and happy.  That is the hunger that drove their interest.

But that is not the purpose of the Lord Jesus.  He has not come to cater to the god of your belly.  He has not come to feed you with bread alone, but with the Word of God and His own Flesh.

He thus directs you away from the perishable things of this body and life to the eternal Life that God the Father grants to you and all the world in the Body of the incarnate Son.  The Lord Jesus teaches you to hunger and thirst for the Food that endures unto Life everlasting in body and soul.

He preaches to you this morning, that you should be turned away from your illusions and your selfish desires, from the lusts of your flesh and the growling of your stomach, to the good gifts of the Spirit of God.  That you should recognize the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus and hunger and thirst for His Righteousness and Holiness, rather than investing yourself, your time, your energy, and your money, in the pursuit of things that will not last and cannot save you.  This body and life and the good gifts of God that sustain this body and life are not to be despised or demonized, to be sure.  But neither are they to be idolized and worshiped.  The Gospel bestows something better, something divine and eternal.  The Gospel is nothing less than the Gift of God Himself in Christ.

But as soon as you recognize that there is something more and better to be sought than miraculous bread and fish for your belly, you also begin to ask the question: “What must I do to be saved?” “What must I do to work the works of God?”  You’re always picturing yourself at the center of the equation, and you think in terms of bargains and deals, contracts and negotiations, by which you would trade what you have for whatever it is that you want and need, both temporal and eternal.

It is true, of course, that in this life you do have work to do.  Even before the fall into sin, the Lord gave the man and the woman the blessed task of caring for and cultivating the Garden of Eden.  And after the fall, the Lord declared that man would eat by the toil of his hands and the sweat of his brow.  In the New Testament St. Paul indicates that those who lazily refuse to work should not be given to eat.  The birds of the air do not have barns or granaries, true, but they do go out to find and gather the food that God provides.  So you do have work that you are given to do in this life.

And yet, for all of that, you would end up with nothing for your efforts, if not for the gracious gifts of God.  He provides seed for the sower and bread for the eater.  He causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on both the evil and the good, and He gives daily bread to all people by His grace.

Not to recognize that He is the One who daily and richly provides for all that you need, and not to give thanks for all His benefits in this body and life, is bad enough.  But it is far more grievous when you close your eyes to the gracious presence of the Holy Triune God and His eternal gifts to you in Holy Baptism, the preaching of the Gospel, Holy Absolution, and the Holy Communion.

When you regard those precious Means of Grace as something you must do for yourself, or as some kind of favor that you do for God, then you turn the Gospel inside-out and upside-down.  Likewise, when you think of going to church as a tedious burden you must bear and carry, or as though it were an impressive work and sacrifice on your part; if you go to earn brownie points from God, to impress others, or simply out of habit, then you have missed the point entirely.

The Lord commands you to sanctify His holy day, to hold His Word sacred, and gladly to give attention to the preaching of His Gospel, but not as though He needed anything from you.  It is not for His benefit but yours, for the sake of your salvation, that He calls you to Himself, gathers you in His Name, sanctifies you by the Liturgy of His Word and Sacrament, and thereby enlightens you with His Holy Spirit.  Not that you should serve Him, but that He should serve you by His grace.

That is one of the most difficult things for anyone to understand.  It clings so stubbornly to your sinful flesh that you must “do” and “work” something for God.  And you do not even realize that you are dead in your trespasses and sins, that you are lost without the forgiveness of Christ and His free gift of Life, and that you are utterly incapable of saving yourself or satisfying God’s Law.

So the Lord Jesus teaches you by His Word and Spirit that Life with God, now and forevermore, is given and received by His grace alone through faith alone; and that faith itself is not something you can “do” or “decide” for yourself, but a gracious gift of God that He works within you, where and when it pleases Him, by the preaching and ministry of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son.  No one comes to Him or believes in Him, except by the Word and Spirit of God the Father.

Apart from that divine gift of faith in the Gospel, you will never be able to understand the Lord Jesus, nor recognize Him for who and what He is, even as He comes to you here in His Liturgy.

It’s easy enough to criticize those who failed to receive Him as their Savior then.  But you are no different and no better.  You have the Word of God more readily available than ever before.  You have the preaching of the Holy Gospel, the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Holy Supper, the Word of Holy Absolution.  Yet, for all of that, you still long for the things of this dying world.

It is in His tender mercy, then, that Jesus patiently continues to come, to reveal Himself by His Word and Spirit, and to catechize you with His Law and His Gospel, unto repentance and faith in Him.  For the Holy Scriptures are all perfectly realized in Him, in His Body of flesh and blood, crucified and risen from the dead.  That is the testimony of God the Father and of the Holy Spirit, from the Baptism of the Lord Jesus to His Resurrection from the dead.  Thus do His Signs reveal.

So it is, for example, that the Old Testament Manna — as miraculous and beneficial as it was for Old Testament Israel — pointed beyond itself to the Christ who was to come in the Flesh, the Seed of the Woman.  For He alone is the true Bread of Life, who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made Man.

His Feeding of the Five Thousand was likewise far more than a single meal for all those bellies.  It, too, was a Sign that pointed beyond itself to that Living and Life-giving Bread from heaven, the Spiritual Meat and Drink indeed, which is nothing else and nothing less than Christ Jesus Himself.

He is the Word of God in the Flesh, who has sacrificed His Body and Life upon the Cross for you and poured out His Blood for your atonement; who now gives you His Body to eat and pours out His Blood for you to drink in the Holy Communion, that you might live in Him, and He in you.

And yet, how blind you are, striving for the bread that perishes at the expense of your life in Christ, and seeking a supposedly “spiritual” banquet and paradise of your own devising apart from Christ Jesus, even while He is standing right in front of you, spreading His Table with His Feast, given and poured out for you and your salvation.  You stand and stare, and dare to ask, “What is it?”

“Is that all there is to it?”  This “Manna” on the ground, which no one had ever known before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh?  This little piece of what is supposed to be bread but tastes more like cardboard, and a single swallow of wine?  Where are the flesh-pots of Egypt, the choice cuts of real meat?  Where is the beef?  Where is the golden calf?  Where is the real party?  And where is your “Bread King” with the food and prosperity that you demand from your gods?

But Christ Jesus declares that He is right here with you, granting you Himself and all His benefits, His forgiveness, His Life, and His Salvation, despite the fact that you are so sinful and stubborn.

Do not go looking anywhere else.  You will not find salvation from your sin and death, and you will not find the Food and the Life that endure forever, because you will not find the only true God, “out there” somewhere; neither will you find any of that hidden away in your heart.  But the Lord is here with you and for you in the preaching of His Gospel, in the waters of His Baptism, in His spoken Word of Absolution, and in the Supper of His own holy Body and His precious Blood.  Thus does He invite you to feast upon this Meal He provides, that you might live forever in Him.

The Word and Promises of Christ in the Liturgy of His Gospel do require faith to be received and understood for what they really are.  They are what they are in any event, whether you believe it or not, but you are not able to recognize them or benefit from them apart from faith in Christ.  For the whole world and your own fallen flesh are not able to comprehend these holy things.  But faith comes by the hearing of the Word of Christ, as He opens your ears, your heart, and your mind, to receive the Holy Spirit through the Gospel.  Give attention to His Word, therefore.  Hear and heed His preaching.  Rest yourself in His forgiveness, and eat the Food with which He feeds you.

Christ here invites you to a Meal which delivers you from death and gives to you eternal Life.  Anyone who eats of it will live by faith in Him; so that, even if all deaths were combined into one and they all attacked you at will, you would still have nothing to fear.  Death cannot harm you, not when you have received this Cup and eaten this Bread.  Though death and hell combine to do their worst, attacking you most fiercely — with cancer and strokes and heart disease, arthritis, infection, or what have you — they are not able to consume you or devour you.  For Christ will resurrect you on the Last Day.  Even if you are buried miles underground, torn apart and eaten by wolves, or burned and scattered to the winds, yet shall you live in Him, both body and soul, forever and ever.

Therefore, take and eat this Food that Christ now sets before you; drink this Cup that He pours out for you here.  It is not a work that you must do, but a Meal you are given to eat and drink in peace. For you there is nothing else but to give thanks, since everything here at His Table is a Gift freely given by the grace of God in Christ.  Here there is the free and full forgiveness of your sins, so that nothing is counted or held against you.  There is no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus.  Though your own body may betray you, and your blood may run slow and thin within your veins, His Body and Blood will never fail or fall short, but shall bestow upon you the Life that endures forever.

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