The One Who Thirsts for Your Salvation

It was also about the sixth hour when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and asked her to give Him a drink.  And of course, as that story unfolded, it was not that He was seeking to get something from her, but that He was teaching her to seek the gift of living Water from Him — Water that would become a fountain springing up to everlasting life in her and in all who would hear and heed His Word.  For so does He bestow the free gift of the Holy Spirit from the Father.

Indeed, at the Feast of Tabernacles a few chapters later in St. John’s Holy Gospel, Jesus declares to the crowds in Jerusalem, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”  For as the Holy Scriptures have said, “From out of His innermost being will flow rivers of living Water.”  And this He said concerning the Holy Spirit, who would be freely given to all who believe in Christ Jesus; though the Spirit was not yet given, then, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Now the Hour has come, when the Son of Man is glorified by the way and the means of His Cross and Passion, the atoning sacrifice of true God in the flesh.  And so it is from this very Hour that He pours out the Holy Spirit generously upon all those who believe and are baptized in His Name.

It is by the voluntary suffering and death of the incarnate Son of God that forgiveness of sins is obtained, and that sinners are redeemed and reconciled to God the Father in Him.  Apart from that forgiveness and redemption, the fallen sons and daughters of Adam could neither receive the Holy Spirit nor ever hope to abide in the presence of God, far less to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  Apart from the Atonement of Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit would be for sinners a deadly Flood and a consuming Fire, but not the Breath of Life and the Living Water that He desires to be for you.

But Christ the Lord, the Son of God, has given Himself into death upon the Cross as your merciful and great High Priest in all things pertaining to God.  And by way of that willing Self-Sacrifice, in His Resurrection from the dead and His Ascension to the right hand of the Father, He has become the true Temple of God.  In His own Body, crucified and risen from the dead, God tabernacles with His people in the flesh; and through His flesh and blood you come to the Father in the Spirit and the Truth, that is, by faith in the Word and Spirit of this one Lord, Jesus Christ.

So it is that, by and from the Cross of Christ the Crucified — from His innermost being, from the depths of His Body, pierced and wounded for you and your salvation — the Holy Spirit is poured out generously upon the Church on earth.  The Spirit flows from the open heart of Christ as a River of living Water and as a Fountain springing up, even in the desert, unto everlasting Life.

As St. John will write in his Book of the Revelation, this pure River of the Water of Life flows from the Throne of God and of the Lamb — from the Body of the Lamb who was slain, and yet, behold, He lives.  That River flows into all the world with healing and refreshment, that all who thirst might drink freely, without cost, and live.  And again, that living and Life-giving Water is the Holy Spirit, who is freely given to all who thirst in the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, bestowing life and health and strength to His disciples from all nations.  Whoever drinks of that living Water (by faith in the Gospel) shall never thirst again, nor shall he die anymore forever.

With that in mind, consider what it means for the Lord Jesus Christ — the very Son of God who freely bestows the Holy Spirit from the Father — consider what it means for Him to thirst, as He dies upon the Cross in fulfillment of the Scriptures, completing your Atonement and Redemption.

There can be no doubt that His battered, bruised, beaten, bloody, and beleaguered human body was genuinely thirsty for something to drink, to moisten His parched lips and soothe His dry throat.

But far more important for you and your salvation, the Lord Jesus thirsts for the Spirit of God, for the Kingdom of His God and Father, and for the righteousness by which He justifies and saves the nations.  He hungers and thirsts to do the will of His Father in fulfillment of the Holy Scriptures, in order to bestow the free gift of the Holy Spirit upon dead and dying sinners: To pour out the Spirit generously upon you through His Word of the Gospel, the forgiveness of all your sins.

When you are thirsty, it is for yourself, for your own benefit and comfort, for your own pleasure and satisfaction, your own refreshment and hydration.  Not that it is wrong for you to receive and benefit from the good gifts of God for your body and life, but your thirst is for your own needs.

By contrast, the Lord Jesus Christ is thirsty, not for Himself and His own needs, but for the good and gracious will of God, for the life and salvation of all the fallen children of Adam and Eve.

Jesus does not thirst for anything that you might provide Him or give to Him.  Instead, He thirsts to provide for you and give to you all that you have lacked and needed in both body and soul — Atonement for your sins, Redemption from death and the devil, Reconciliation and Peace with God, and the Life everlasting in His Kingdom.

To that end, His thirst is not quenched with the cool, clear, and refreshing water of life, but with the last dregs of that bitter Cup which the Father has given Him to drink, the sour wine of God’s righteous wrath and anger against the sins of the world — that the thunder of God’s wrath against you and your sins should be quieted, and that you should be righteous and holy before Him.

It is in His perfect fulfillment of the Righteousness of God, by His suffering and death upon the Cross, that Christ Jesus hands over the Spirit — that you might receive the Holy Spirit from Him.  He thirsts, in other words, that you might drink freely of His Spirit and never thirst again; that you should not die but live forever with Him, body and soul, in the presence of His God and Father.

So it is that Christ Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit upon you in that sacred Fountain of Water and Blood that flows from His innermost being on the Cross.  For these holy things of which St. John adamantly testifies are all connected: The Spirit, the Water, and the Blood are all in agreement.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, your merciful and great High Priest, He drinks the sour wine, the vinegar with gall, the poison in the Cup, in order to pour out the Water and the Blood from His Body as the good and best Wine for you and for the many — which you are now given to drink with Him in His Kingdom, in the royal wedding Banquet of the Lamb and His Wife.

So has He filled His Font and His Chalice with the life-giving Fruits and Benefits of His Sacrifice upon the Cross.  He gives you not only Himself but the gift of the Holy Spirit from God the Father in heaven; not for condemnation, but in and with His free and full forgiveness of all your sins.

And so it is that, in the waters of your Holy Baptism, to which you are daily returned by the Word of the Law and the Gospel, by repentance and faith in the forgiveness of your sins — and in the Cup of the Holy Communion, which is the New Testament in the very Blood of Christ Jesus — you are given to drink freely and deeply from the River of Life.

Thus are you redeemed and justified, cleansed and sanctified, body and soul, both now and forever.  Thus are you rescued from the bondage of sin, the fear of death, the power of the devil, and the punishment of hell.  And thus are you given the Spirit of God, by whom you have Life everlasting.

It is likewise by these gracious gifts of God in Christ that you worship the Father in Spirit and Truth: By hearing and receiving the Divine Service of His Gospel in faith and with thanksgiving, and by confessing His Word and calling on His Name in prayer and praise.

So also do you worship the Lord your God by loving your neighbor in the Name and for the sake of Jesus Christ — not least of all by giving drink to those who thirst, since Christ the Lord has also thirsted for you and them.  You live and love as He does, because the Spirit of God wells up in you as a Fountain of life for your neighbor, and because Christ Jesus Himself lives and loves in you.

Though the Lord does all things for you, provides you with all that you need, and has no need of anything from you, He would have you love and serve your neighbor as an exercise and expression of your faith and gratitude.  It is in your thirsty neighbor, as Christ Himself has taught you, that you are given the opportunity to give your Lord a drink, to quench His thirst, even with a cup of cool water.  And He has promised that all who do so in His Name shall by no means lose their reward.

Even so, for all those ways in which you find yourself still parched and thirsty in the desert, so spent upon yourself that you have nothing left for anyone else, ask of Him who has thirsted on the Cross in your place, who has fulfilled the Scriptures and accomplished the will of God the Father, and who has opened the Kingdom of God to all who believe and are baptized in His Name — ask, and He will pour out for you such living Water as will satisfy your deepest thirst.  For He forgives you all your sins and remembers them no more; He fills you with His Spirit and commends you to His Father in peace; and He raises you from death to life in His own righteousness and holiness.

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

The Newness of Love in the New Covenant of Christ

It is said that, in his later years, the preaching of St. John the Apostle could be summarized simply as, “My little children, love one another.”  That is not hard to imagine.  St. Paul often writes of love in his Epistles, but it is St. John who has recorded the New Commandment of the Lord Jesus, the “mandatum” for which this day has been named: “Maundy Thursday.”  St. John likewise writes of this New Commandment in his Epistles, and he there repeats the point with emphasis.  Hence, the “beloved disciple,” who knew the love of Jesus well, has also become the Apostle of Love.

Not only St. John and St. Paul, but the Lord Jesus Himself teaches you that Love is the summary and fulfillment of the Law: Love for God above everything else, and love for your neighbor with the same affection, care, and dedication that you have for yourself.  This is what the Lord requires of you as a child of God, as a disciple of Christ Jesus, in all that you do and say.

In faith before God, to the glory of His holy Name, you are called and commanded to humble yourself in service to your neighbor.  And your “neighbor” is found in all those people whom God the Lord has stationed alongside you in this life on earth.  You are to sacrifice and give yourself for others, to cleanse and feed your neighbors in the world, even those who trespass against you.

How, then, shall you wash your neighbor’s feet?  Little children, how shall you love one another?

And with that, you fathers and mothers, how shall you teach your own children to love, as Christ Jesus and His Apostles have taught you and commanded you to love?  Or, if you have no children of your own, how shall you teach your students to love, or anyone else entrusted to your care and oversight?  The answer is obvious enough.  In the first place, you are to love them.  For you cannot expect or suppose that your children (or students) will love any differently than you love them.

Parents, do you want your children to love each other?  To be polite and respectful to you and to other people?  To be considerate, kind, and gentle?  To put the needs of others ahead of their own?  You should desire all of these things.  And so should you love your children as Christ Jesus loves you, and serves you, and gives Himself for you, as He forgives you, cleanses you, and feeds you.

Jesus does not ask you to do anything more or anything else than what He Himself does for you and gives to you by His grace.  He rather commands you to be like Him, and to do for others as He does for you.  As we have heard from St. Peter earlier this week, the Lord Jesus Christ has left you an example in the bearing of His Cross and Passion, that you should follow in His steps.

Your feet are to walk in the way of Christ Jesus, which is the way of faith before God, and the way of steadfast love for one another (as Dr. Luther’s post-Communion Collect summarizes so well).

But where is the Gospel found in all of this?  For the Gospel is not a law, it is a gift.  The Gospel does not tell you what to do.  It proclaims what Christ has done, and it freely delivers His good things to you.  So where is the Gospel in the Lord’s good example and in His New Commandment?

Is the “newness” of the Lord’s command an even higher and holier Law than God had previously given through Moses in the Old Testament?  Has He just upped the ante even more?  For the whole Law of Moses was already summarized in Love — for God and for the neighbor — whereas now you are commanded to love both God and man in the perfect way that Christ Jesus does.

But in fact, the perfect love of Jesus — for His Father, for you, and for all people — is precisely the fulfillment of what the old Law demanded.  So that expectation is not the “newness” at hand.

In any event, you could not do it — not of yourself or by yourself.

You love God and your neighbor only as the Lord Jesus first loves you.  You learn from Him to love, not only by His good example and instruction, but as He serves you in love, and cleanses you by grace, and makes you brand new in Himself, recreated in His divine Image and Likeness.

Would you presume to wash your own feet and cleanse yourself and become your own savior?  You know better than that!  Be humbled before the Lord who humbles Himself to love and serve you, and so receive His grace.  Be cleansed and fed by Him who is your Savior.  You bend your knee in reverence before Him, and rightly so.  You meekly bow your head and fold your hands in His presence, and that is truly meet, right, and salutary.  But here, too, humble yourself by giving Him your dirty feet to be washed, and by opening your mouth to eat and drink from His hand.

There is something remarkably new in that.  Among the Jews, it was unusual even for a servant to wash the feet of his own master.  A Jewish servant could not legally be required or compelled to do so, although he might choose to do so for a beloved master.  But here it is the Lord who strips Himself to serve, who gets down on His knees to wash the feet of His disciples, including one who will betray Him and one who will deny Him, as He well knows; and all of them will run away.

In this humble service of Christ Jesus — the great Lord who came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for the many — in this you are brought to the heart of the matter.  For the “newness” of His Commandment is the newness of the New Covenant in His Blood.

It is in Him that all things are made new, including you.  In His own Body of flesh and blood.

The newness is found in His keeping and fulfilling of the Law — not only God’s commandments, but also His promises — including the divinely given rites and ceremonies of the Lord’s Passover.  So has He kept and fulfilled the Law of God from His conception, birth, and childhood, from His Baptism in the Jordan River, and throughout His life and ministry on earth.  But it all culminates and is completed — even as it continues — on this night, in this Hour, in His Passion unto death.

In humility He comes down from the Father in heaven into the very depths of your sin and death.  He lays down His life for you, as He lays aside His garments and kneels down to wash your feet.  It is something that a master would never do for a slave; and yet, the Lord Jesus does so for you.

The waters with which He cleanses you flow from His wounded side together with His Blood.  So you are cleansed by His Blood in the waters of Holy Baptism.  And you are cleansed by His Blood from the Cup of His New Covenant, which He pours out for you in His Sacrament of the Altar.

When the Israelite fathers sacrificed the Passover lambs at twilight, they did so in the doorways of their homes.  At the threshold was a basin, an impression dug into the floor, which would normally be useful for preventing water from washing into the house.  The blood of the sacrificed lamb was poured out into that basin, and then painted onto the doorframe at its top and each of its sides with a brush of hyssop — thus making the sign of the Cross!  In like manner, the Blood of the true Passover Lamb, Christ Jesus, is poured out from His sacred wounds into the “basin” of His Baptismal Font, and into the “basin” of His Holy Communion Chalice, at the foot of His Cross.

Here is the Love of God with which He loves you: His own Lifeblood, shed for you and poured out for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins.  And with that, you have Christ Jesus, and life and salvation in Him as a member of His Body, the Church, His own beloved household and family.

You know well enough, even from everyday life, how important and significant meals are, not only for the nourishment and sustenance of your body, but also for fellowship with your neighbors.  To eat and drink together is a fundamental bond of family and friends, and the dinner table is, or ought to be, a regular gathering place for parents with their children, and for brothers and sisters with one another.  The husband and father who provides the meal, whether by farming, by hunting and fishing, or by paying for the food, thereby loves and cares for his wife and children.  Likewise, the wife and mother who prepares the meal and serves it to her family, thereby loves her husband and children and cares for them.  Such works and service are not incidental; they are among the cords of love that bind the members of a household to each other and actually make them into a family.

Similarly, Jesus here “presides” over the Meal of His Household and Family, as a Husband to His beloved Bride, and as a Father to His dear little children.  In gathering you to Himself in this Feast, He includes you in His Family, His Church.  He gives you a part in Himself, in His Body.  All the more so because He has not only provided for this Feast and paid for it with His own Life; He has not only prepared it by His death; and not only does He Himself serve you, as your Waiter, through His Ministry of the Gospel; but He is the Food and the Drink with which He now feeds you.

Consequently, you are “bodied” and “blooded” together with the Lord Jesus Christ.  You are what you eat, that is, a member of the Body of Christ, truly flesh of His flesh and blood of His blood.  And in Him you are “bodied” and “blooded” together with each other.  You are all one Body in Christ, as you all eat of His Body and drink of His Cup.  Thus, you belong to each other, and you are given to love and serve and care for each other, as the Lord Jesus Christ loves each of you.

To be sure, you are “bodied” and “blooded” together with Christians of all times and places.  But this congregation is your immediate family.  The Christians who sit and stand and kneel beside you here in this place are your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.  And you all have one Father, who gathers you right here to love you and to feed you with His beloved Son.  So this is your family, and this is your home.  And this is the Table where you eat and drink together in faith and love.

Where then shall your feet take you, as they are cleansed by the Lord who loves you?  Let them bring you here to share this Meal with your family, which Christ in mercy has prepared for you and gives to you.  And then let your feet take you from this Altar to love and serve your neighbors in the world.  Learn to know the needs, the hurts and hopes, the heartaches and joys of your brothers and sisters, and do not run away from them and their pain, but walk beside them with compassion.

Little children, love one another.  For love is of God, and you are beloved of Him.  He loves you, even here in the midst of sin and death, even to the bitter end.

Not only that, but “the end,” it turns out, is really the beginning of abundant life with God in Christ Jesus.  For the One who has laid aside His garments to cleanse you by the shedding of His Blood, by His innocent suffering and death, and by the washing of water with His Word, has also taken them up again, in order to clothe you in His garments, richly wrought, and to adorn you in His righteousness like a beautiful bride or a handsome prince, made good-looking by His love for you.

The One who has laid down His life for you has taken it up again on His journey back to His God and Father in heaven.  And as He has come down from heaven for you and your salvation, so does He bring you, in and with Himself, to the One who is your own dear God and Father in Him.

The Son of Man has glorified the Father in Himself by His sacrificial death as the Lamb of God, bearing the sins of the world in His own Body on the Cross.  And His Father has glorified Him by raising Him from the dead, never to die again.  So it is that all things are made new in Him, in His crucified and risen Body; and all flesh is cleansed and made alive by His holy and precious Blood.

His Blood marks the threshold of His Church in Holy Baptism, sealed with the sign of His Cross from the basin at His feet to the beam and lintels above His thorn-crowned head and on His right and on His left.  His Blood has likewise signed and sealed you with His Cross in the waters of your Baptism, so that you are clean and made ready for this Feast, which He has made ready for you.

In your eating of His Body, in your drinking of His Blood, you pass with Him through death into life, and you enter with Him into the Most Holy Place.  For here at His Table you are united with your whole family in heaven and on earth within your Father’s House.  And here you are kept safe and sound.  The destroyer and death and the devil must leave you alone and cannot touch you here, because Christ the Lamb lays hold of you in love, that He should abide in you, and you abide in Him, body and soul, unto the Life everlasting.  This is Love.  And this is your Life forevermore.

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

Glorified with the Glory of God in Christ Jesus

It is the Glory of the Son of God to do the will of His Father for the salvation of the world.  It is no weakness on His part, but the exercise of His divine strength, steadfast faithfulness, holiness, and righteousness, that the incarnate Son says and does nothing of His own initiative but speaks as the Father has spoken and does what the Father has given Him to do.

The Lord Jesus loves the Father perfectly with His whole being and life, and He trusts the Father fully and completely, even in the midst of sin and death.  He proceeds in the bold confidence that His Father will honor Him, vindicate Him, and glorify the holy Name of God in Him.

It is therefore in such perfect faith that Christ Jesus comes to the Hour of His Cross and willingly lays down His life, in order to bear much fruit.  That is to say, He dies in order to save the world and to raise up sinners from death unto eternal life.  He comes down from heaven into the depths of the earth, knowing that His Father will raise Him from the dead — and so raise all men in Him.

Having accomplished all things in accordance with the Law and the Prophets, and having glorified His God and Father by His voluntary suffering and His sacrificial death upon the Cross, now the Christ is lifted up in the preaching of His Cross and the administration of the Fruits of His Cross — in the proclamation of His death until He comes again in the open glory of His Resurrection.

In His Passion, the condemnation of sin and the judgment of the Law have been fully laid on Him; so now the whole world is judged righteous in His faithfulness, in His innocence and holiness.

The tyrant who has ruled the world with his assaults and accusations and the terrifying threat of death is silenced and cast out, because Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, has borne the accusations and suffered the death of all men.  He, the Lord Himself, true God in the flesh, has made Atonement for the sins of the world, satisfied the Law forever, and broken the power of death and the grave.

That great Salvation of the Son of God is the Light that now shines for you here, by which you live and walk in faith, although it is hidden under the painful sign and foolish weakness of the Cross.

Do not shut your eyes to the sight, nor stop your ears to the Word of the Cross.  Do not harden your heart against the Crucified God by loving your life in the world and craving the approval of men.  But look to the One who is lifted up for you in the Gospel, to the One who is elevated and highly exalted here at His Altar, and hear His Voice in the preaching of His forgiveness of all your sins.

His forgiveness is as sure and certain as His Cross and Resurrection, as tangible and real as His own Body of flesh and blood, and as powerful and permanent as His own indestructible life.

It is by this Light of His Gospel that you see and believe the Glory of God in the Cross of Christ.  And so it is that you now walk, no longer in the darkness of your sin and death, but as a child of God in Christ, as a child of the Light in whom the Name of the Lord your God is glorified.

Therefore, draw near to Him here, where He draws near to you in love and mercy for you.  For in the Ministry of His servant, in the preaching and administration of His Gospel in His Name and stead, you hear and see your Savior, Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead, given and poured out for you and for the many, for the forgiveness of all your sins unto life and salvation.

The God and Father of your Lord Jesus Christ honors you with this Gospel, He glorifies you in body and soul with His divine and holy Name, and He raises you up from death to life by His Word and Holy Spirit.  And as surely as the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, was crucified for your sins, raised for your justification, and remains forever at the right hand of His God and Father in heaven, so do you live and abide with Him where He is, here in time and hereafter in eternity.

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

Come Up to Worship at the Feast of Christ

If you wish to see Jesus, come up to worship at His Feast.  For the Hour has come in which the Son of Man is to be glorified.  It is for this purpose that He has come into His Holy City: to be lifted up and glorified in death, and thereby to call the whole world to Himself, both Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, male and female, young and old, even the living and “the dead.”

So it is that He will be handed over to the chief priests, scribes, and pharisees, crucified under Pontius Pilate, put to death, and buried in a tomb.  None of this comes upon Him by surprise.  Nor do suffering and death thwart His purposes; by His Cross and Passion He fulfills His purposes.

In all of this, He does not become discouraged or despair.  He does not wail and complain.  He does not revile or strike back against those who betray, revile, and hurt Him.  But entrusting Himself, His Body and Life, entirely to His God and Father, He enters the Holy City as it has been written of Him, and He proceeds in faith and love to sacrifice Himself upon the Cross.

It is in this way that He becomes the true Passover Lamb, who is given into death in place of all the sons of man, for the life and salvation of all the daughters of Jerusalem.  And because He is thereby given and dies for all the people, the Victory of His Cross and the free gift of His great Salvation are likewise for all people of all times and places, for all the children of Adam & Eve.

The Atonement of His Cross, His Resurrection from the dead, His Ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His Life everlasting — all of this He has accomplished in His own Body of human flesh and blood, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in order to redeem and rescue His own human creatures and reconcile them to God in His own perfect righteousness.

All of this is yours, as He is yours and you are His.  For by and with His voice of the Gospel, He has called you by name from death into Life, from out of your darkness into His marvelous Light.

In your Holy Baptism, you have indeed been crucified, put to death, and buried with Christ Jesus.  So are you also raised with Him to newness of life.  Not only that, but those whom He has raised from the dead are also given to recline here at His Supper Table with Him, here within His House.

The fragrance that fills this House has the odor of death about it — the smell of the Cross — which the world hates and sinful people abhor.  But the sacrificial death of Christ is a sweet-smelling aroma to His God and Father, who thus delights in you, as well, and gladly receives your worship.

Your presence, then, at the Table with Jesus, is a testimony to His Cross and Resurrection, by which some will be called to faith and life, and for which others will hate you and seek to kill you.

But either way, do not be afraid.

If you would see Jesus and live, come up to His Feast and worship.  Worship Him by receiving His Gifts with thanksgiving.  Worship Him, also, by serving within His Church, and by serving your neighbor in the world as you can.  Worship Him in the confidence that you have been raised with Him to recline at His Table forever.  Abiding here with Him, although you die, yet shall you live.

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

The Heart and Mind of God in Christ Jesus

This is what Christianity is all about.  The real heart and soul of the matter is the Cross and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, handed over by His Father to His innocent suffering and death, to the voluntary shedding of His holy, precious Blood for your Salvation.

This is therefore also what defines and shapes your Christian faith and life.  This is how you are to live as a disciple of Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes upon Himself the sins of the world, bears them in His Body to the Cross, and lays down His life to atone for all the children of men.

This is what Christianity is all about, never mind what pundits and politicians may presume and pontificate in the public square.  No doubt you are aware of many alternative views on what it is and means to be a Christian, as popular opinion would reduce it to being “nice” and tolerant to a fault.  Your own sinful heart likewise has its own erroneous ideas and opinions, all of which come down to whatever is most pleasing and acceptable to your flesh.  And there are plenty of would-be preachers who prey on those desires, peddling a feel-good religion of peace and prosperity.

On the one hand, the Son of God prays in the Garden that His Father’s will be done, even though that necessarily means He must suffer great agony and anguish of body and soul, unto His death on the Cross.  On the other hand, you tend to pray that the Lord would help you accomplish your own willful pursuits and achieve your own selfish purposes, as though He were your Lackey.

But getting what you want and doing whatever you feel like is not the Christian faith and life.  It is surely not what Christ, the Son of God, has given, done, and suffered for you and for all people.

The one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church is centered in the Cross and Crucifixion of Christ Jesus, in His willing Sacrifice for sinners.  With St. Paul, therefore, the Christian Church knows nothing but Christ the Crucified.  This is what the Church is all about, and what she is to be about, because this is most truly who God is, and what the one true God is like, the One who lays down His life in love for His wayward creatures, though they have been embittered and hostile to Him.

It is certainly not that God has some masochistic fascination with suffering and death.  He does not willingly afflict the children of men.  He created you, as He created Adam & Eve, not for death but for life and joy and peace with Himself forever.  It is your sin that has brought suffering and death upon your body and life.  You suffer and die with Adam, yes, but your own sin condemns you.

Yet, Jesus willingly suffers and dies, not for His own sins but for yours.  He dies in your stead, for the sake of His divine and holy love, in order to save you.  Even though you have brought suffering and death upon yourself by your sins and unbelief, by your rebellion and disobedience, in pure, unselfish love He gives Himself entirely for you.  He pays the wages of your sin with His death.

And it is there in His innocent and voluntary suffering and death, in His holy Cross and Passion, that God reveals Himself most clearly as He is, and He opens His great heart of Love to you most fully and faithfully.  He thereby identifies Himself with His fallen and sinful creatures, in order to give Himself for them, and to give Himself to them, that they should have life with Him forever.

So that is where and how your Lord Jesus reigns over you in love as your King: from His Cross.

So, then, what does it mean for you to be a Christian?  What does it mean, and what does it look like in real time, in daily life, for you to be a disciple of this Lord Jesus Christ, this holy, righteous, and innocent Man, who humbles Himself and becomes obedient even unto death on the Cross?

If you hail Him as your King, and if you would live with Him in His Kingdom, in what does your citizenship in that Kingdom consist?  How are you to live?  How are you to act?  And how shall you relate to your God and Father in heaven, and to your brothers and sisters in Christ on earth?

If you are to live in Him who gave Himself for you and all the world, and if you are to abide in His presence forever, then how shall you conduct yourself already here and now under the Cross?

If you share the life of God in Christ Jesus — if you are to have the same heart, mind, and attitude in yourself as there is in Christ Jesus — then where and how shall you humble yourself in this body and life?  In what callings and stations will you become obedient to your God and Father, even unto death?  Where and how are you given to serve your neighbor, and to suffer with and for your neighbor, in self-sacrificing love — not for your own fame and fortune, but for the glory of the Lord your God?  Where and how are you taught to pray, “Abba! Father! Thy Will be done,” in the face of the Cross that He lays upon you?  With what sort of love shall you gladly do good to your neighbor, though he or she smites and reviles you, and beats you, and puts you to death?

Of course, you dare not compare even your best and brightest righteousness to that of Christ Jesus.  Of yourself, you cannot even begin.  But do not presume to compare your righteousness to that of your neighbor, either, no matter whether you proudly suppose that you are doing better or sadly perceive that you are falling short.  You are not measured by your neighbor (nor he by you), but by the Word of God in Christ Jesus.  Not that you compare yourself to Christ, as though to achieve for yourself what He has done and accomplished for you; but that you live by faith in Him.

What, then, is your hope?  Where, then, is your life?  It is and remains, always and only, in Christ Jesus, in His Crucifixion, in His humility, in His obedience, in His suffering, in His servanthood.

You will never become your own savior.  You will not fully attain the heart, mind, and attitude of Christ until He has raised you perfectly in the Resurrection.  Your life always depends upon Him.  And though you sin every day and surely deserve nothing else but punishment, He loves you still.  And He remains among you as One who continues to serve.  For He comes as a Beast of Burden, Himself, riding the “donkey” of His Word and Sacrament in order to save you now by His grace.

It is by His sacrifice and humble service, it is by and from His Cross — by the ways and means of His Holy Cross in the Ministry of His Holy Gospel — that you are raised up in faith and love, day after day, in and with Him.  Not with any righteousness of yours, but with His own righteousness.  For you are cleansed and forgiven by His Blood; you are forgiven by His Word of the Gospel.

It is by the preaching and catechesis of His Word of the Cross, and by your Holy Baptism in His Name, into His Cross and Resurrection, that He puts you to death in order to raise you to new life.

It is by His Law and His Gospel — by way of repentance, confession, and forgiveness of sins — that He wounds you, in order to heal you; that He crushes you, in order to gather you together in His Body, in order to raise you up from the death of your sin to the life of faith and love in Him.

Like the grain that is borne from the death of a single seed — grain that is harvested and gathered, crushed and ground into flour, and baked into bread — so are you gathered and baked into the one Body of Christ Jesus, even as you eat of that Bread which is His Body given for you.  And like the grapes that are grown and gathered on a thousand hills — grapes that are squeezed and crushed into wine, poured out for the many — so are you gathered from the four winds into the Marriage of Christ and His Church, to drink from His Chalice in joy, and to be poured out with Him in love.

It is with the Fruits of His Cross and Passion, with His holy Body and His precious Blood, that He forgives you all your sins, cleanses you of all unrighteousness, gives to you His life in both body and soul, and seats you at His Table in His Kingdom.  It is here at His Altar, at His Table on earth as it is in heaven, that He bids you to recline and take your rest while He who is your Lord and Master girds Himself to serve you.  And here, indeed, His great heart of love is still opened wide to you, as it ever shall be open to you, in His grace, mercy, and peace, unto the Life everlasting.

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

Sanctified by the Sacrifice of Christ for the Life Everlasting

It should be clear from this account that you dare not underestimate the depravity of man and the wicked perversion of his sinful heart (nor that of your own fallen flesh).

The chief priests and the pharisees, the religious leaders of God’s people, bearing holy office and zealous for the Law, observe the many signs that Jesus performs, and for these they seek to seize Him and put Him to death.  Jealous of their own position, they choose violence against the Lord.

He healed the sick, made the lame to walk and the blind to see; and now, His most recent crime, He has raised the dead from out of the grave to newness of life.  Sweet injuries, indeed!  Yet, for these the Law and the Priesthood must put Him to death for the benefit and salvation of the people.

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

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

Consider, then, what you are called to drown and destroy in yourself, in your body and life.  Take to heart that, in being called to repentance and discipleship, you are called to die with Christ Jesus.

In setting before you the life of faith and love that He has fulfilled by His Cross and Passion, the Law of the Lord is constantly exposing your sins for what they really are and condemning you for them.  But the Law is powerless to forgive your iniquity or to save you from death and the grave.

Though the Law of God is holy, good, and righteous, you are not.  Therefore, it cannot purify your conscience; it cannot set right your body and soul, your heart, mind, and spirit, with the Lord your God.  The Law can only expose your depravity, and make it worse, and so condemn you for it.

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

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

In this Sacrifice of Christ the Holy Priesthood also finds its perfect fulfillment and completion.  For Christ Jesus is the true Passover Lamb, who is also your merciful and great High Priest.

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

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

Therefore, also, He now feeds you with the same holy Body and precious Blood that He offered for you on the Cross, so that you are spared and saved from death and sanctified for life in Him.

Here, then, the true Passover of Christ is at hand, here at this Altar.  By this Feast, as by Your Holy Baptism, you are purified forever.  And so do you enter with Christ Jesus, body and soul, through His sacrificial Cross and Resurrection, into the Life everlasting with His God and Father.

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

Reconciled to God and to Each Other in the Forgiveness of Christ

The heart of all your problems is sin, which is rooted far deeper in your heart, mind, will, and flesh than the wrong which you do and the good that you do not.  It is the alienation and enmity between you and the Lord your God, whereby you turn away from Him, disregard and disobey His Word, and reject His way of Life in your pursuit of deadly and damnable idolatry.  You do not fear, love, and trust in Him, but in seeking to serve and satisfy yourself, in worshiping that which is not God and cannot give you life, you are lost and wandering further and further into danger and trouble.

What is more, in rupturing your relationship with God, sin also ruins your relationship with others.  For both faith and love, all true fellowship, and life itself are all broken and undone by your sin.

What you need, therefore, first and foremost, is the forgiveness of your sins.  Not simply excuses or rationalizations, not explanations, exceptions to the rules, or the tolerance of your sins, but real forgiveness for real sins: Your debts paid off and cancelled, and your heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit set free from the power of sin, the fear of death, and the assaults and accusations of Satan.

Such forgiveness is fundamental and definitive to the entire Christian faith and life, and so also to the Christian Church.  There is more to life and salvation than the forgiveness of sins, but there is no life or salvation without it.  In this life on earth, under the curse and consequences of the fall into sin, everything depends upon the forgiveness of sins, apart from which there is only death.

As for the source and substance of all true forgiveness, it derives solely from the Cross of Christ, whereby He who is the Lamb of God, the incarnate Son, sacrificed Himself and shed His holy and precious blood for the sins of the whole world, once for all.  He is the Propitiation for your sins, and He has made Atonement for them all, in order to reconcile you and all people to His God and Father; that you should not die but live, justified in His Resurrection and sanctified by His Spirit.

So has Christ Jesus done and accomplished by His perfect Sacrifice, and so has God established in raising this same Lord Jesus from the dead.  No other sacrifice for sin is needed or possible.  For His part, God is reconciled to you and all the world in Christ Jesus.  He is not angry.  He is at peace with you in Christ.  But how, then, shall you be reconciled to Him and live at peace with Him?

How are you brought from your pursuit of sin and death to faith and life in Christ?  Where and how do you receive and lay hold of His forgiveness with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?  Or, to say it better: Where and how does the Lord Jesus lay hold of you with His forgiveness of sins?

That purpose — the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name, for the sake of faith and life in Him — that is what the Ministry of the Gospel and the means of grace are all about.  Such forgiveness of sins is what the Church on earth is all about, on which your fellowship with God and man depends.

The means of grace, which are the various ways in which the Word of the Gospel is delivered in the life of the Church, are the ways and means by which the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit daily and richly forgive your sins.  They are the ways and means whereby the great salvation that Christ has purchased and won for you by His Cross is wrapped up and given to you — spoken into your ears, laid upon your heart and mind, pressed into your hands, and even given into your body.

As the Gospel is administered in these means of grace, by this Ministry of the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, He calls you (daily and throughout your life) to repentant faith in His forgiveness.

Everything is built upon that firm foundation, the Ministry of the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins in the Name and stead of Christ Jesus.  There is no Christian Church, there is no Christianity, and you are no Christian, yourself, except by these ways and means of His Gospel and His grace, by faith in these ways and means of His Gospel (and not by any works or efforts of your own).

You have no forgiveness of sins, no faith in God, no life, and no salvation — because you have no Jesus Christ — except by the Ministry of His Gospel–Word and Sacrament.  For that is how He seeks you out, speaks to you, cares for you, and pours out His Holy Spirit generously upon you.

In contrast to the mind set of the world and the proclivities of your own fallen flesh, Christianity is not a do-it-yourself religion or a self-help program.  You cannot raise yourself up from death to life by tugging on your own bootstraps.  You cannot fear, love, and trust in the Lord by your own intellect or ingenuity, by your own cleverness or creativity.  You cannot forgive your own sins.

The Christian faith and life are found in Christ Jesus alone, the Word-made-Flesh who has borne your sins in His body on the Cross, who now bestows His grace and all His benefits upon you, for both your body and soul, by and through and with His Gospel (and not apart from His Gospel).

It is by this grace of God in Christ, by the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in His Name, that your heart of stone is broken and replaced with a heart of flesh, and that you are raised up from your sin and death to life and salvation through faith in the one Lord Jesus Christ.

The fact that you still so often presume to lay hold of the Lord Jesus, and to climb your own way up to God, by your own ways and means — by your own wisdom, reason, and strength, by your own thoughts and feelings, by your own strategic plans and negotiations — is yet another aspect of your sin and unbelief.  It is the evidence and demonstration of your inherent self-righteousness and self-idolatry, which are so antithetical to the grace of God and to the Gospel of Christ Jesus.

It is from this self-righteous idolatry of yours, from this way of sin and death that clings to your fallen flesh, that the Lord Jesus comes to set you free by way of repentance and forgiveness of sins.  It is for this purpose that He has atoned for all your sins, reconciled you and all the world to God, and opened up the way of life and salvation to you and all people, by His sacrificial death upon the Cross and in His Resurrection from the dead — all of this in flesh and blood like your own.

It is nothing else and nothing less than this forgiveness, life, and salvation of His own Cross and Resurrection that He speaks to you and delivers to you through the Ministry of His Gospel: in the preaching and catechesis of His Word, in the washing of the water with His Word and Spirit in Holy Baptism, in the Holy Communion of His Body and Blood — and in His Holy Absolution.

Take to heart how exceedingly rich in His grace toward you the Lord is, that He has provided so many ways and means of forgiveness for you!  Indeed, He has so established His Church on earth for this very purpose of daily and richly forgiving all your sins (as He has also taught you to pray).

These ways and means of forgiveness — these various ways and means of the Gospel of Christ — are not like the scattered pieces of a puzzle, as though you were supposed to hunt them down, gather them together, and assemble them into some intricate, composite picture.

Each of the means of grace has its own particular characteristics and benefits; and to be sure, none of them can take the place of any other.  Nevertheless, each and all of these means bestows the same Lord Jesus Christ with all His gifts and benefits, His free and full forgiveness of all your sins, and His divine, eternal life and salvation.  There is nothing piecemeal or partial about any of this.

So, for example, if the question is posed, whether you “have to” go to your pastor for Individual Confession and Holy Absolution, then the answer (at least in general) must be “no.”  This is not a matter of the Law, a requirement or work that you must perform in order to satisfy some quota.  It is rather a gift of the Gospel, whereby the Lord provides an extraordinary benefit and a most gracious opportunity for pastoral care in opposition to the assaults and accusations of the devil.

The forgiveness of Holy Absolution is the same forgiveness of Christ Jesus and His Cross which is yours in Holy Baptism, which you hear and receive in the preaching of His Gospel, and which you receive with His Body and His Blood in the Holy Communion.  So, in that respect, there is no forgiveness “missing” if you abstain from this particular gift and benefit of your Lord Jesus.

But the practice of Individual Confession and Holy Absolution is not simply another alternative means of getting the same forgiveness of sins.  It is surely such a means of forgiveness, which is already a precious blessing in itself.  But it also provides its own unique contributions to your Christian faith and life, that you might be strengthened in the grace, mercy, and peace of Christ.

Dr. Luther, for example, was adamant that this particular means of grace and forgiveness not be taken from him, nor from the life of the evangelical Christian Church.  When others spoke against the practice of Individual Confession and Absolution while Luther was being kept at the Wartburg Castle, he returned to Wittenberg in order to insist that it be preserved and to encourage its use.  For he himself knew how beneficial it was to his own faith and life and to his defense against the attacks of Satan.  Elsewhere, Luther credits his own father confessor, Johannes Von Staupitz, with teaching him to know and understand the Gospel.  And in the Large Catechism he indicates that, when he urges you to go to Confession, he is simply urging you to be a Christian!

Aside from Dr. Luther himself, the Lutheran Confessions likewise insist that it would be wicked to remove Individual Confession and Absolution from the life of the Church; and again, that anyone who despises this Christian practice neither knows nor understands the Gospel at all.

Along the same lines, but more positively stated, at one point following Dr. Luther’s death his younger colleague Philipp Melanchthon characterized the entire Reformation as Luther’s rescue and recovery of Individual Confession and Absolution for the evangelical use of the Church!

Certainly, for any confirmed Lutheran — for anyone taught the Word of God from Luther’s Small Catechism — it should be clear and understood that a regular practice of Individual Confession and Absolution is intended to be a normal part of your life as a baptized disciple of Christ Jesus.

Specifically, Confession and Absolution returns you to the life-giving waters of your Baptism into Christ, that is, to the ongoing significance of your one Holy Baptism, by the exercise of contrition, repentance, and forgiveness of sins, which are worked in you and for you by the Word of the Lord.

To examine yourself and to consider your place in life according to the Ten Commandments, and to confess those sins that are thereby brought to light, is to let the Word of God have its way with you, that it might defend and protect you against the lies and deceptions of the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh (your pernicious old Adam, who is ironically your own worst enemy).

Even more to the point at hand, to hear and receive the spoken Word of Holy Absolution by which your dear Lord Jesus Christ forgives you all your sins through the mouth of His servant on earth, and so also before your God and Father in heaven, is to be strengthened and sustained in the one true faith, unto the Life everlasting of your body and soul with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Do not imagine that your sins are too small to bother with, nor suppose that your sins are too big and bad and shameful to be dealt with and absolved.  Rather, repent of your sins, confess them, and trust the ways and means that Jesus, your Good Shepherd, has provided to care for you, His sheep.

And by this way and means of His Gospel and His grace, by this pastoral care of Confession and Holy Absolution in His Name, learn from the Lord Jesus Christ (not only in theory, but in practice) to live by faith in His forgiveness of sins.  Thus are you reconciled to your God and Father, as He has reconciled you to Himself in His beloved Son.  And so also learn how to be reconciled to your neighbors by way of mutual repentance and forgiveness of sins, by confessing your sins, and by gladly doing good and speaking words of forgiveness to those who trespass against you.  Not by excuses or explanations, rationalizations, or even second chances, but by the grace of Christ Jesus.

This exercise of confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation within the household and family of God is truly the breathing of the Holy Spirit in the Life of His holy Christian Church on earth.

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