“Jesus Is My Salvation” (St. John 20:19-31)

If Christ has not been raised from the dead, our faith is in vain and we are still in our sins. But now Christ Jesus — who was crucified for our sins — has in fact been raised from the dead for our justification. So has God the Father reconciled us and all the world to Himself by His Son; and so has He entrusted to His Church on earth the ministry of reconciliation. By and from the Cross — in the crucified and risen Body of Christ Jesus — by and with His Word and Holy Spirit, He bestows His sweet Peace upon us through the free and full forgiveness of all our sins. He raises us up from death to life, out of darkness into light, from doubt and fear and unbelief to faith and trust in Christ. Thus do we now live and love in the confidence and contentment of that sure and certain hope of the Resurrection of the body to the Life everlasting of body and soul with Him, our living Head — signed, sealed, and secured in His own Resurrection from the dead on the Third Day.

It was already on that Third Day, that first Easter Sunday, that the risen Lord Jesus came to His disciples, comforted them with His Peace, and commissioned them to carry and convey His Gospel to the nations. Each of the holy Evangelists records examples of these Resurrection appearances and the accompanying Words of our Lord, upon which the one, holy, Christian, and Apostolic Church rests and depends. St. Paul likewise indicates the various appearances of the crucified and risen Lord to multiple witnesses in his first Epistle to the Church at Corinth, the fifteenth chapter, which opens with a creedal affirmation of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus.

What is remarkable, as one reads or listens to the accounts recorded in the four Holy Gospels, is the persistence of doubts and fears on the part of the disciples — not only the first time, but on each occasion, albeit in a variety of ways. It should not surprise us, however, but rather comfort and encourage us, considering that we are likewise afflicted with persistent doubts and fears of our own, even though we surely ought to know better. It remains the case, throughout this mortal life on earth, that we cannot by our own wisdom, reason, or strength believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or come to Him. Thanks be to God that He comes to us in peace and love, and that His Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel and brings us again and again to repentance, faith, and newness of life, in order to strengthen and sustain us in Christ Jesus as living members of His Body, the Church.

We find all of this laid out for us in the Holy Gospel According to St. John, the second half of the twentieth chapter, heard every year on the Second Sunday of Easter. It begins with St. John’s description of the appearance of the risen Lord to the disciples in the Upper Room, which follows immediately after the Emmaus story in St. Luke 24. There are similarities and differences in the details provided by the two Evangelists with respect to that first appearance on Easter Sunday evening. But then St. John goes on to record a second appearance of our Lord on the eighth day later, that is, the next Sunday. It is well known from St. John’s account that St. Thomas was absent from the gathering when Jesus first appeared, but then became the focus of our Lord’s attention on the second occasion. In his doubts and demands we recognize the frailties and fears of our own fallen flesh and sinful hearts and minds. So, too, in the Lord’s gracious dealings with St. Thomas we see demonstrated His patience, mercy, and compassion toward each and all of us, as well. Not only that, but in St. Thomas we also find an example of those men whom the Lord Himself called, ordained, and sent to preach repentance and forgiveness in His Name. And it is precisely by that Apostolic Ministry of His Gospel that He comes to us, abides with us, and deals with us as our Savior and Redeemer, our Lord, and our God!

While the Crucifixion of our Lord is the Hour of His Glory, and as such the crescendo of St. John’s Holy Gospel, the Resurrection appearances of Christ to His disciples in the twentieth chapter are the culmination of all that has transpired from the beginning. The concluding chapter that follows is brilliant in its own way, comprehending as it does the restoration of St. Peter (against the backdrop of his denials). But our Lord’s bestowal of Peace, the Holy Spirit, and the Office of the Keys — and the opening of His wounds to St. Thomas and the rest of the disciples — gathers up all that He has accomplished by His Cross and thereby establishes the Church and Ministry of His Gospel for all the ensuing generations.

In this Easter account we find the Incarnation confirmed, the Holy Trinity revealed and at work, the means of grace bestowed, and the divine gifts of repentance and faith, forgiveness, life, and salvation made available. We hear the confession of Christ Jesus and receive the peace, hope, and joy that belong even to us, who are blessed to believe in Him by the testimony of the Apostles, even though we do not yet see Him. Thus do the redemption, reconciliation, and righteousness of the Cross and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ become ours by grace through faith in Him.

Who, then, is this Lord Jesus Christ? That is the heart of the matter, for St. John as for all the Apostles and Evangelists. If Jesus is to be our Strength and our Song, our Savior and Salvation, it is necessary that He be true God and true Man. And so He is! From the beginning of the Gospel it has been asserted and affirmed that He is the divine Word by whom, through whom, and for whom all things are created and exist, the divine Word who is the Light of the world and the Life of all people, who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven and became Flesh of our flesh and Blood of our blood. Conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the only-begotten God who resides from all eternity in the bosom of God the Father has come to reveal and make known His Father to us in love. For this purpose He was baptized, anointed by the Holy Spirit in His own human Body, openly declared the Son of God, and identified as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (St. John 1:1-34). Herein are all the Mysteries that come to fruition in His Cross and Passion, which are in turn bestowed upon His Church in the gathering of His disciples in His Resurrection from the dead. So, for example, His divine nature and power are demonstrated by His sudden appearance behind locked doors (St. John 20:19, 26), by His breathing of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles (St. John 20:22), and by His knowledge of the demands that Thomas has made regarding His sacred wounds (St. John 20:25, 27). Paradoxically, though His wounded hands and side are the evidence that He remains the true Man of flesh and blood who was crucified, died, and was buried, they elicit from St. Thomas the profound confession that He is “Lord” and “God!” (St. John 20:28). And in turn, the Apostolic witness obtains such faith in countless others, who are thereby granted to believe and confess “that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (St. John 20:31). Which is to say that this Man, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of St. Mary, crucified and risen from the dead, is the Lord’s Anointed, the Bearer and Bestower of the Spirit, the only-begotten Son of God the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. He has come down from the Father in heaven to us, has borne all our sins and griefs and sorrows in His own Body to the Cross, and gathers us to Himself, grafting us into His riven and risen Body, in order to bring us to the bosom of His God and Father in peace and love and holiness.

It is fundamental to this Gospel that the risen Lord is the crucified Christ. His Cross is not to be repeated, His once-for-all Sacrifice is finished, perfected, and complete. But neither are His Cross and Passion left behind, forgotten in the past. It is by His being “lifted up” in death upon the Cross that He has glorified the Father and accomplished our salvation as the Propitiation for our sins — and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world (St. John 3:14-15, 12:27-32; 1 John 2:1-2). Despite appearances, this “lifting up” is also the beginning of His return to the Father, as well as the means whereby He calls and gathers disciples to Himself from all the nations, to be lifted up in and with Him. His atoning Sacrifice and the shedding of His holy, precious Blood cleanse us from all unrighteousness and open the Kingdom of heaven to all who believe and are baptized in His Name. So do His innocent suffering and death make possible the gift of His Holy Spirit, that we should be sanctified in the presence of God and not consumed and destroyed by His divine glory and absolute holiness. What He thus accomplished by His Cross, He delivers to His disciples in His Resurrection from the dead; the Spirit He gave out from the Cross (St. John 19:30) He breathes upon His Apostles in the Upper Room (St. John 20:22), that they in turn should breathe the same Spirit into others through the forgiveness of sins in His Name and stead.

Similarly, the wounds that He received upon the Cross — in His hands and side — are now opened to His disciples in His Resurrection. There is more than proof of His identity at work here. The Evangelist has stressed the piercing of His side — and the outpouring of blood and water from His side — in the account of our Lord’s Passion (St. John 19:34-37). In this we see a picture of the New Adam who gives life to His Bride, the Church, by the waters of Holy Baptism and the Blood of His New Testament in the Holy Communion. So, here again, what He has accomplished by His Cross is now manifested in His Resurrection, summoning His disciples from the death of doubt and despair to faith and life and peace and joy. Notably, these same three holy things — the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood — are cited in St. John’s First Epistle as a unified threefold witness to Jesus Christ, the Son of God (1 John 5:5-9). And in the previous chapter of that same Epistle, the Apostle indicates the nature and content of that witness, namely, “that Jesus Christ has come in the Flesh” (1 John 4:2). Indeed, not only in His Incarnation, but from the waters of His Baptism — where He was anointed by the Spirit and confessed by His Father — to the blood of His Cross, and now in His Resurrection from the dead, the Son of God has come — and does come — in the Flesh. As He promised His disciples on Maundy Thursday, on the Eve of His Passion, He has not left them as orphans, but He comes to them and discloses Himself to them (St. John 14:18-21). His coming to them is prominent in the first and second Resurrection appearances (St. John 20:19, 26). Likewise, the Peace that He promised on that earlier evening (St. John 14:27) is spoken and delivered to them repeatedly in connection with His Resurrection coming (St. John 20:19, 21, 26). It is surely no coincidence that His Word of Peace accompanies the opening of His wounds and the breathing of His Spirit, for it is the Crucified One who is risen from the dead who comes to them with His Word and Spirit, Flesh and Blood, that they should have faith and life in Him.

The Gift of the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter (Paraclete) — was also promised in our Lord’s “farewell discourse” on Maundy Thursday evening (St. John 15:26-27, 16:7-15). Prior to that, on the last, great day of the Feast of Booths, the Lord Jesus declared that those who believe in Him would receive the Holy Spirit, who would in turn well up in them as a River of Living Water (St. John 7:37-39). But that Gift of the Spirit would not be given until Jesus was glorified — a reference to His Crucifixion (St. John 7:39, 19:30). The Blood and Water from His pierced side, and the subsequent breathing of the Spirit upon His disciples, inaugurated the fulfillment of those promises and established the ongoing work of the Spirit in the life of the Church on earth (St. John 19:34-35, 20:22-23; 1 John 5:6-8). As the Son receives the Spirit from the Father — in His Baptism and in His Resurrection from the dead (St. John 1:32-34; Acts 2:32-33; Romans 8:11) — so does Jesus pour out the Spirit upon His Apostles and upon all who believe in Him through their Word (St. John 17:20). And as the Holy Spirit takes from the Father the things of Christ and bestows them upon the Church through His Word (St. John 16:14-15), it is the Spirit who gives Life and Salvation in and with Christ Jesus (St. John 3:5-8, 6:63). Accordingly, the Lord’s breathing of the Spirit upon the disciples recalls the breathing of life into Adam (Genesis 2:7), as well as the breathing of the Spirit into the resurrected bones and bodies of Israel (Ezekiel 37:7-14). This is the fulfillment and perfection of Creation in the crucified and risen Body of Christ Jesus, who pours out the Spirit of His Father upon His own, even as that same Spirit lays Christ upon their hearts and minds, bodies and souls, through the forgiveness of the Gospel.

This is our Life and our Salvation, that is, to receive the Spirit of the Father in the Son, and to be united with Christ Jesus and anointed by His Spirit as beloved and well-pleasing children of His God and Father. It is for this Life with God in Christ that we have been created in His Image and Likeness — redeemed from sin and death, rescued from the devil and hell, reconciled to God by the Cross of Christ, and righteous in His sight by faith in His Word.

All of this is worked in us by the Spirit through the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name (St. Luke 24:46-49). Here in St. John’s Holy Gospel, that takes the form of the forgiving or retaining of sins by those who are sent by Christ Jesus, as He is sent by the Father, anointed by the Holy Spirit for this Ministry of the Word. As all three Persons of the Holy Trinity are actively present and at work in Holy Baptism (St. John 1:32-34), so are all three Persons of the Holy Trinity actively present and at work in this binding and loosing of sins (St. John 16:5-15, 20:21-23). Everything aims at repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins, that sinners should be saved from death for abundant Life with God in and with Christ Jesus, by virtue of His Cross and Resurrection (St. John 10:7-18, 20:31). The Spirit is not simply an instrumental means to these ends. To bear the Spirit of God is to share in the divine Life, even to partake of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-4).

That being said, Luther helpfully distinguishes between the bearing of the Spirit by faith for one’s own life and salvation, and the bearing of the Spirit in one’s office for the benefit of others (Luther's Works AE 69, 354-359). In the case at hand, the Apostles are anointed by the Spirit for the Office of the Holy Ministry, for the forgiving or retaining of sins in the Name and stead of the Lord who calls, ordains, and sends them with His authority. While the forgiveness of the Gospel is confessed, spoken, bestowed, and delivered in a variety of ways — by preaching, Holy Baptism, and the Holy Communion, and in the consoling testimony of Christians for one another (Smalcald Articles III.IV.1) — it is significantly conveyed by the ministers of Christ, not according to their own persons, nor even by virtue of their own Christian faith and piety, but by virtue of their objective office and station (Apology VII-VIII [IV].47).

The objective integrity of the Office of the Holy Ministry is particularly important, because it is the primary way and means whereby the Lord Jesus comes to His people and bestows the Spirit upon them for the forgiveness of their sins and for the gift of His Life and Salvation. That is the case, expressed in different ways, in the commissioning accounts recorded by each of the four holy Evangelists: St. Matthew highlights Holy Baptism and ongoing catechesis in all that Jesus has commanded (St. Matthew 18:18-20), St. Mark similarly focuses on preaching and Holy Baptism (St. Mark 16:15-16), and, as already noted, St. Luke emphasizes the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name (St. Luke 24:46-48). We see these very things exemplified, as well, in Acts 2:37-42, culminating in the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the Breaking of the Bread, and the prayers of the Church. In St. John 20, the focus is on the forgiving of sins, which is at the heart and center of the entire Church and Ministry of the Gospel. And in the next chapter, the Apostle and Evangelist summarizes this pastoral ministry — in the Words of Jesus to St. Peter — as the feeding, tending, and nurturing of His own dear lambs and sheep (St. John 21:15-17).

This preaching and administration of the means of grace for the forgiveness of sins is the ordinary continuation of the extraordinary office and work of the Apostles. As such, along with and by the forgiveness of sins, this pastoral ministry has the same goal and purpose as St. John’s writing of the Holy Gospel: “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, you may have life in His Name” (St. John 20:30-31). This is precisely our confession concerning the Office of the Holy Ministry, that the Lord has instituted this preaching of His Word and the administration of His Sacraments in order to establish saving faith, where and when it pleases Him, in the hearts and lives of those who thereby hear and receive the Gospel (AC V). And this same Ministry is the source and substance of the Church’s true identity and unity (AC VII-VIII). So it is that Church Fellowship is essentially a fellowship of pastoral ministry and pastoral care, a mutual administration of the means of grace. To embrace the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace is to confess one Lord, to teach one faith, to practice one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and to live and love as children of one God and Father in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 4:1-7). Not as a merely “political” arrangement, but as a genuine fellowship in the actual practice of those who receive and bear the Holy Spirit in accordance with the Word of the Lord, who are called, ordained, and sent in the Name and stead of Jesus the Christ.

It is, indeed, a remarkable Word of the Lord Jesus, that He sends the Apostles as the Father has sent Him, especially considering the importance attached to the Father’s sending of His Son (St. John 3:16-17; 5:23-24; 6:29, 38, 57; 8:16, 18, 42; 10:36; 12:44-45; 14:24; 17:3, 8, 21, 23). To fear, love, and trust in the only true God, and to believe in Jesus Christ whom He has sent, is the pivotal point of the faith in the Gospel According to St. John (17:3). To know the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son, is to know the Father in Him (St. John 1:14-18, 14:5-11). And by extension, the Lord Jesus Christ is received, heard, and known in the words and works of those whom He sends in His Name (St. John 13:20; St. Matthew 10:40; St. Luke 10:16). Thus do we seek the Lord where He may be found — in the preaching and ministry of His sent ones within the life of the Church on earth. We know Him, especially, in His Word of Absolution, the forgiveness of sins in His Name. And where we have deviated or departed from His Word, He calls us back to Himself by the preaching of repentance, even by the discipline of the binding key — and excommunication where necessary — that we should be turned around, away from our sins, to the Life and Salvation that are found only in God. So He did for Thomas, in love, and so He does for each of us.

This Holy Gospel not only shows us the ministry of reconciliation and salvation, but also the ongoing faith and life of Christian disciples within the Body and Bride of Christ, His Holy Church. That is one of the most beautiful and compelling aspects of this account. And here we are not talking about simple practicalities or strategic programs, but about the real-time experience of Salvation in the fellowship of the Holy Triune God. That is what the Apostles have with the Father in the Son and by the Holy Spirit, and that is what we are now given and receive through the Word of the Apostles in the Church and Ministry of the Gospel (1 John 1:3-4; St. John 17:20; Acts 2:42). The paradigm for that life and fellowship is depicted and spelled out for us in St. John chapter 20.

St. John’s description of “that day, the first day of the week,” and again, “after eight days,” when the disciples were gathered together inside, behind closed doors, immediately calls to mind the gathering of the Church, week by week, on the Lord’s Day (St. John 20:19, 26; Revelation 1:10). The Resurrection of our Lord on the first day of the week, as well as these very appearances of our Lord to His disciples, established the Church’s practice of coming together for the Lord’s Supper on Sundays (initially in the evenings, as in this case, but eventually in the mornings). And just as the Breaking of the Bread at Emmaus (St. Luke 24:28-35) points to the Breaking of the Bread in the life of the Church (Acts 2:42-47), so does this Holy Gospel from St. John point to the coming of our Lord — His weekly Advent — to the place where His disciples are gathered together in His Name, by and for His Word, to hear His preaching of forgiveness, to receive the Gift of His Spirit in and with and through that preaching, and to enter into the fellowship of His Body through His opened wounds. That is where and how the Church lives — on earth as it is in heaven.

It is no accident or coincidence that the Peace of the Lord (Pax Domini) punctuates the Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper. It is what we pray for in the Gloria in Excelsis, and again in the Agnus Dei; and it is what we are granted by His Word following the consecration of the Sacrament, and then in the Sacrament itself, His Body given and His Blood poured out for us Christians to eat and to drink in faith and with thanksgiving for the forgiveness of sins. Thus do we Lutherans regularly “depart in Peace” with the Nunc Dimittis on our lips, because His Word has been fulfilled in us by the gifts of His Spirit, Flesh, and Blood. In this perfect Peace of Christ we are sent as Christians, anointed by His Spirit, as children of His God and Father, to live and love and serve to the glory of His Name within our callings and stations. In the world we are yet routinely confronted with trials and tribulations, but He has overcome the world on our behalf, and our sure and certain hope abides in His crucified and risen Body — to which we belong by grace through faith in Him, by the new birth of water and the Spirit, and by the New Testament in His Blood. That is the source and substance of our true and lasting Peace, such Peace as the world neither knows nor can it give or take away (St. John 14:27).

I’ve already mentioned how the post-Resurrection coming of the Lord to His disciples, His gift of the Spirit, and His granting of Peace are the fulfillment of His promises on Maundy Thursday evening. On that same occasion, He forewarned the disciples that for a little while they would no longer see Him, and they would “weep and lament” for that time. But then they would see Him again, and their sorrow would turn to joy (St. John 16:16-22). This promise, too, is here fulfilled in St. John chapter 20. For the disciples were troubled and afraid, hiding behind closed doors, but they rejoiced “when they saw the Lord” (St. John 20:20). St. Thomas, likewise, on the subsequent Sunday, was brought from his doubt and fear to believe and confess the risen Christ Jesus as his Lord and his God when he saw Him with his own eyes (St. John 20:26-29). And now, for our part, although we do not yet see Him, we are blessed to believe and trust in Him, to confess His holy Name, to worship and adore Him, all by the eyewitness testimony of those holy Apostles (St. John 17:20, 20:31). For what they saw, what they looked upon, what they touched and handled, and what they heard from the crucified and risen Lord Jesus, they proclaim to us in the Holy Scriptures (1 John 1:1-4). By this Word, by faith in this Word, we have fellowship with the Apostles, with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and with one another as members of the Body and Bride of Christ Jesus. And in this sharing of the Christian faith and life with us and the whole Church, the joy of the Apostles is made full (1 John 1:4). Thus do the many signs which Jesus performed in the presence of the disciples continue among us in the Apostolic Ministry of His means of grace. And thus do we have faith and life and peace and joy in His Name (St. John 20:30-31).

It is enough, and we are content — confident and courageous in all affliction and in the face of death itself — because Christ Jesus, our “living Head,” has risen from the dead. As He comes to us in mercy and abides with us by grace with His own Word and Spirit, Flesh and Blood, so do we live and abide in and with Him in body and soul, in heart, mind, and spirit — here in time, and hereafter in eternity. As we are set free from the chains that bind us by the liberating Key of Holy Absolution, so shall we awake and arise from death and the grave to live forever with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Arising glorious in body and soul, like unto the glory of our dear Lord Jesus Christ, we shall rejoice before Him forever and forevermore.

Indeed, Christ Jesus “rose for this purpose: so that we should be righteous and live through His Resurrection, and this is what He has commanded His Apostles and everyone to preach unto the end of the world, namely, that a Kingdom has been established on earth, which is a Kingdom over against sin, death, and the power of the devil, and it brings heavenly and eternal blessings. Christ help us thereunto, who has risen” from the dead and lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever (Luther’s Works AE 69, 436). To Him be all the glory, honor, and praise!

"Revisiting Harry after Outgrowing Him" (by Nicholai Stuckwisch)

Illustration by Mary GrandPre

A literary post by Nicholai Stuckwisch, borrowed with permission from the Mirabile Dictu Substack:

"This year I returned to the Harry Potter series for the first time in well over a decade, and I was genuinely surprised by the experience. I was prepared for a comfort read and nostalgia trip as I listened to the audiobooks in the background of other activities. I was not prepared for how much they gave me to think about or the new perspective I developed compared to the literal dozens of previous trips I took through Harry’s story. Even though I had not read or listened to any of the books since before college, I felt confident in my recollection of not just the plot but the themes, lessons, and noteworthy takeaways the wizarding world had to offer. Instead, I discovered that returning to a childhood favorite as an adult children of your own puts an entirely new spin on things.

"My father discovered Harry Potter pretty early on and was reading the books out loud to my older siblings before I was old enough to have any awareness or interest in the story. Some time between the release of The Goblet of Fire and The Order of the Phoenix, when I would have been seven or eight years old, my dad picked up the first four audiobooks narrated by the fantastically talented Jim Dale on CD. My younger brother and I, who shared a room at the time, struck up a habit of listening to Harry Potter at bedtime that we would continue pretty steadily for the next ten-odd years. Periodically we’d interrupt our endless cycle of starting and restarting the books with The Chronicles of Narnia or a one-off pick-up from the library, but Jim Dale’s voice bringing the cast of Harry Potter to life was a mainstay of my adolescence.

"When The Order of the Phoenix came out, I was 'finally' deemed old enough to stay up and listen to dad read aloud, and the journey of experiencing that plot for the first time as a family group was electric in a way I can’t trace to any other stories. All of us loved to theorize about what was coming, but I recall my dad being particularly invested in sleuthing out the twists and turns. He’d often pause mid-chapter with a 'You know what…' in a voice that you, of course, can’t picture but is burned into my memory. I believe my dad reading out-loud was also my first exposure to book six, but for sure by the time Deathly Hallows came out I was an avid enough reader that I was reading on my own simultaneously and independently while also listening to my dad read out loud. Those evenings of uncovering the later part of Rowling’s saga as a family and when all my peers were also on the edge of their seat for what would come next was a pivotal part of becoming a Potter fan for me.

"As I progressed to the later half of high school, I negotiated my way into getting my own sleeping quarters apart from my younger brothers, which meant I stopped partaking in the nightly audiobooks. I’m actually fairly confident that I never physically read the first three books in the series. I also stopped doing nearly as much reading and essentially all audiobook listening through college and into the first few years of my marriage. The more removed I was from nightly immersion into the series, the more neutral towards or even critical of the series I became. At no point did I adopt the opinion that the books were bad, but I did (and do) have a fairly negative perception of the film series overall, Rowling’s extracurricular commentary after concluding the series, and the absurd premise of The Cursed Child, along with my own criticisms with worldbuilding inconsistencies in the series resulted in me ranking the series fondly in my memory, but not particularly highly 'objectively' speaking.

"A few years ago, I began making a conscious effort to get back into regular reading and found myself rediscovering my great, nearly forgotten joy for the hobby in the process. I have always been particularly fond of the fantasy genre as a whole and long series with large books in particular, and so that kind of book has dominated my reading list for the last three or four years. My preference these days is certainly for reading a physical book, but I am also a child of the digital age who is embarrassingly uncomfortable being left alone with his own thoughts, so I supplement my reading with Audible – especially when I’m driving alone or working on projects that require my hands but not so much my brain.

"Back in April, my wife and I welcomed our fifth child (and first son), and I am blessed to work for an employer with a very generous parental leave policy, which meant I had a month and a half where my schedule involved considerably more time doing dishes and laundry. I was on the hunt for a new series. As I scrolled through the shared library of my in-law’s Audible account, I found myself reaching for something nostalgic and familiar that I could frequently pause and potentially half listen to when I needed to shift from chore mode to primary parent mode during my wife’s recovery.

"At some point six or so years ago, I came across a video from a YouTuber I’m a fan of, Austin McConnell, critiquing The Cursed Child, which I am proud to say I still have not read for myself. In that video, Austin made the argument that Harry Potter is not chiefly a fantasy series but rather a mystery series within a fantastical setting. I watched that video somewhere around the time I became hooked on J. K. Rowling’s character driven detective series which distinctly does not take place in a fantasy setting, and Austin’s observation rang true to me and reconciled with my own memories of the books. After re-listening to the entire series over the last few months, I find myself agreeing even more heartily.

"I don’t consider myself a mystery connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination, although I have thoroughly enjoyed the majority of mysteries I’ve read. Even with my limited sampling of the genre, I feel quite confident in asserting that Rowling is a master at crafting compelling, character driven mysteries and I think she’s proven herself now across two spectacular series. The amount of clever and subtle foreshadowing spread throughout the entire Harry Potter series is genuinely remarkable. In every single book, I found myself awed by how well every step of the narrative carefully sets up the plot twists and grand reveals, not just for the climaxes of the individual books but for the arcs both of the major characters and the series as a whole. Very often in books and film I find that plot twists either feel painfully predictable or so far out of left field that they are unearned, but the unveiling of each mystery in the Potter series feels it could have been predicted, but only if you were paying close attention and actively trying to piece it together.

"I still have nit-picks with the wizarding worldbuilding of the series. There are a lot of things that just don’t make sense to me or that hardly seem to hold up under close scrutiny, but in retrospect those things hardly seem to matter when I consider that the fantasy world is a backdrop adding extra flavor that helps bring the characters and plot alive, but is far from the true heart and soul of what the books have to offer. Rowling’s gift as a writer is not in creating a grand fantasy epic with a complex magic system or intricate lore.

"As I noted previously, my dad was one of the many avid fans of the series constantly trying to sleuth out what was coming next. If memory serves correctly, he was pretty spot on with a lot of his predictions although I can’t drum up any of the specifics of what he got right or wrong. One thing I distinctly remember from the Potter hay-days was my dad, a pastor in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, arguing not only against the perspective that Harry Potter was evil or satanic but that it actually had distinctly Christian themes and undertones running throughout. Before Rowling publicly said anything about her faith, I remember my dad guessing she was a Christian and that this could give us clues as to what would happen in the rest of the story. In my own revisiting of the series through an adult lens, I wouldn’t say that I view the story as overtly Christian, outside the presence of many traditionally Christian morals and the way all great stories point to THE great story. Certainly (spoiler alert), Harry’s sacrifice and resurrection in the final book evokes some compelling Christ-like imagery, but Harry Potter is not Chronicles of Narnia overly using fantasy as a Christian allegory. I would say it is more comparable to The Lord of the Rings in the sense that you can see a foundation permeated with Christian morality and mythos.

"Even though I wouldn’t classify Harry Potter as Christian fantasy, I would say that the beauty in the series is the way Rowling has crafted a story proclaiming the value of life, loving human connection, and living life according to a sense of honor, duty, and objective morality that is far greater than individuals or even a social collective. These are all things that Christians should seek out and praise in fictional and even fantastical literature – especially in a world where the modern literary landscape is littered with morally ambiguous, if not outright deplorable, characters and no one genuinely worth rooting for. Grimdark and Romantasy fly off the bookstore shelves, but I strongly suspect stories like Harry Potter that show sincere and heartfelt good triumphing over unambiguous and unapologetic evil will endure the test of time far longer.

"While, returning to the great writing, the clever mysteries, and the inspiring storytelling of the series was a joy, the aspect of the series that astounded me the most after such a long time away was the cast of characters. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but revisiting Harry and the rest as an adult, husband, and father, as well as just a person with a far more nuanced and informed outlook on the world was enlightening. Rowling’s knack for capturing compelling characters who feel impossibly real and tangible is, in my opinion, her single greatest strength. She knocked it out of the park in Harry Potter, and she’s still crushing it in her currently in-progress Cormoran Strike detective series.

"So much of what Harry and his peers think,do, and feel hits so differently to me as someone closer to the age of Lupin or Sirius than it ever did when I was closer to being Harry’s own age. The dumb decisions characters make feel more genuine and believable when I think about the way I viewed the world as a teen or preteen. The coming of age humor, especially as the characters start navigating the murky waters of romance, is so much funnier, cleverer, and bittersweet as a happily married man who is eternally grateful to be out of the dating pool. Above all, the emotional weight and heart of the series, the themes of self-sacrifice, love, and bravery, feel deeply profound in a way I simply couldn’t appreciate in the same way fifteen or twenty years ago.

"Rowling is infamous within my circles for her declaration that she always viewed Dumbledore as gay. While I still think Rowling’s post-publishing commentary on Dumbledore on the series in general was unnecessary, unhelpful, and uninspiring (The Cursed Child really should just not exist), I also don’t think claiming Dumbledore was always gay is as much of a character assassination or piece of revisionist history as it might appear on the surface.

"The reality is that Dumbledore’s sexuality is completely irrelevant to the story, because one of the things that Rowling does a remarkable job of demonstrating across the books is the fact that romantic (eros) love is not the only, or even the most,compelling love there is. The love of parents for their children and the deep bonds of loving friendship are far more prevalent and important to the story than any romantic relationship. The way characters demonstrate their love toward one another and cherish the beauty of life is – in my opinion – the single most beautiful thing about the entire series. We need more stories that are not afraid to show deeply profound and unapologetically loving relationships between characters, independent of sexual tension or attraction, and we need more villains that showcase the way that evil is very often tied to the absence or perversion of love.

"Harry Potter is absolutely worth revisiting or picking up for the first time as an adult – far more so than I would have thought six months ago. I still won’t recommend the series for its status in the fantasy genre, but in a world dominated by Grimdark and Romantasy, I would argue that Rowling is a modern day Tolkien or C. S. Lewis: proving that you can tell timeless stories with profoundly relatable characters that profess great truths and beauty in a way that is approachable even for young children while still respecting your reader along the way."

---

[My second eledst son,] "Nicholai Stuckwisch is husband to Hannah and father to five. He works in accounting, and has mastered the art of making elaborate spreadsheets. In his free time, he enjoys reading, playing board games, and visiting with friends and family."

Led by His Word to the Body of Jesus

There is the truth of the matter, in accordance with all the Holy Scriptures, that by His Cross and Passion, by His holy, precious Blood, and by His innocent suffering and death, the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed you from sin, death, the devil, and hell forever and forevermore.

And yet, for this present time, there is also what you see and feel and experience in the world, in your body and life on earth, which is often full of sadness, disappointment, sickness, and suffering of various kinds, the pervasiveness of sin, and the constant press of death upon your mortal flesh.

All around you, everywhere you look, bombarding your senses from the internet and elsewhere, and right up in your face, what you perceive is only the Cross and not the Resurrection. You have heard about the empty tomb, which is intriguing and perplexing, but the risen Jesus you do not see.

The Body of Jesus is missing. In the Gospel According to St. Luke the risen Lord Jesus makes no immediate appearance on Easter Sunday morning. You’re left wondering and waiting instead.

He has vanished from your sight, and your eyes are prevented from seeing Him. Even when He is standing right in front of you or walking right alongside of you, He is hidden from your eyes and unrecognizable. Your intellect and knowledge are unable to fathom the mystery of His presence.

He has acted as though He were moving on and leaving you behind. All the good news of Easter notwithstanding, it seems that your day in the sun is over and done; that the night must be at hand, as the darkness of death settles upon you and threatens to drag you down into its deep despair.

But, O foolish one, so slow of heart to believe the Word that God has spoken to you by His Son!

The Cross and suffering are not your defeat, but the Victory of God in Christ and the exercise of His divine Glory for your salvation from sin, death, and hell. He has redeemed you by His Cross!

Not only that, but in the speaking of His Gospel — in the Word of His Cross, and in the promise of His Resurrection — the crucified and risen Lord Jesus is close at hand. For by His Word and with His Holy Spirit He draws near to walk the hard road with you, and to abide with you here.

So, repent of your despair and unbelief. Believe the Gospel, and receive the gifts of Christ Jesus.

Learn to pray as He has taught you, with all boldness and confidence in Him. Not only when it all seems rosy, right, and good, but all the more so when it does not. Heed not your senses, nor trust your own experience, knowledge, and wisdom, but hear and believe the Word of the Lord Jesus.

Call upon Him in every trouble. Pray, praise, and give thanks to His Name, even before you have seen the evidence of His rescue and redemption. It is sure and certain that, not only will He hear and answer your prayer, but that He is already aware of your need and is already acting to shine the light of His mercy upon you, to give you life instead of death, and to raise you up in Himself.

Only bear in mind that He enters into His Glory by the way of the Cross, and that He brings you into Glory with Himself by the fruits and benefits of His Cross. He works repentance in you by His Cross and Passion, and He brings you from unbelief to faith by the forgiveness of His Cross.

Although He comes to you by this way and means — and as scary as the Cross truly is when you hear that your fellow Christians in the world, in these gray and latter days, are being shot, cut down, and put to death for bearing that same fair Name which you also bear as a disciple of Christ Jesus — nevertheless, pray that He would remain with you here in His Church under the Cross.

Pray, not with doubts and fears, but in the faith and confidence of His Resurrection from the dead. Despite appearances and experiences to the contrary, He is a very present help in time of trouble. He is here with His Cross, not to make things worse, but to save you. Not to hurt, but to heal you.

We follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before us on the Road to Emmaus. We have invited the Lord Jesus to come and be our guest, to enter this house that our mothers and fathers in the faith have built, which we now care for and support with our dollars, time, and efforts. We call on the Name of the Lord and ask Him to abide with us here on the corner of Milton & Dale.

Yet, here we find ourselves in His House, as guests at His Table, and that He is our gracious Host, our divine Waiter, and the Banquet itself, which He has prepared and spreads before us in love.

Here is where Jesus is found. Here is His Body, missing from the empty tomb but given in the Breaking of the Bread. This is where the disciples of Jesus are gathered by His Word and Spirit from all the highways and byways of the world — with all their sins and griefs and sorrows, with all their baggage, quirks, and idiosyncracies — to recline at His Table, to be served by His hand.

This is where and how He reveals and gives Himself to you. Not yet to your eyes, but to your heart and mind and mouth, so that you should here behold Him at His Altar by faith and not by sight.

He is not playing tricks on you or teasing you. This is not cat-and-mouse or hide-and-go-seek. He strengthens your faith and feeds you by His Cross, in order to give you Life in both body and soul by His own Resurrection. So do you enter by His grace into the Glory of God in Christ Jesus.

His Word declares the Truth, and by His Word and Spirit He opens your ears and eyes, your heart and mind, your lips and tongue to receive it, to believe it, and to confess it in this hostile world.

This Blood which He pours out for you to drink has redeemed you from all wickedness and evil; and this Body which He gives you to eat has conquered death and the devil. See here how He loves you, and rejoice in His Salvation. As He is risen indeed, so do you also live forever in Him.

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

The Song of Christ and His Israel

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia.

Sing to the Lord, you friends of God, for He has triumphed gloriously. He has brought you out of darkness and death — by His strong arms and outstretched hands — through the Red Sea waters of Holy Baptism into His marvelous Light and Life and Salvation.

Behold what He has done and accomplished for you! See how your foes have all be drowned beneath the waves, within the very waters through which Jesus the Christ has brought you in safety and in peace. For He, the Lord, has gone into the depths, into the heart of the sea, and now He has arisen and emerged and returned to His God and Father on your behalf, with you in tow. He has gone into the waters to defeat your enemies and deliver you from them, and He has come out of the waters to bring you to the Father in Himself, into freedom forever and ever.

Why are the waters red? They are permeated through and through with His precious Blood, as of the Lamb unblemished and spotless. For He has overcome the swift horses and fierce riders who pursued you by His own self-sacrifice, by laying down His life in love, by pouring Himself out.

The waters of your Baptism are truly a “Red Sea,” because they surge with the Life of the Lamb. By those waters you are saved. You are set free from every peril. You are cleansed and holy.

Do you remember how scared you were? How sad you were? How sure and certain you were — with Pharaoh breathing down your neck, hot on your heals — that you would perish in the desert?

And yet, the Lord has saved you, just as He has spoken. Know that He alone is God, and you are Israel, His Son, whom He has called out of Egypt. He has gotten glory over Pharaoh, but He has become your Salvation. Even now, and forever after, He is your Strength and your Song.

Now, therefore, when Pharaoh and his chariots and horsemen still pursue you in the wilderness; when day and night they threaten to overtake you, to capture or destroy you, to enslave you once again; and when the old leaven of Egypt still clings to you, infiltrating your thoughts, words, and actions with the world’s influence and idolatry; when you are empty, alone and afraid, so much so that you turn back your heart and mind, and sometimes, too, your hand and your mouth, to the fleshpots of Egypt; when you long for and try to reclaim the life that you knew there, although it was a living hell of slavery to sin and hard labor unto death; or, when it seems “they” have taken your Lord away, and you don’t know where to find Him, because you are still searching for the Jesus you have known back in Egypt, in the house of bondage, under the whip, under the cross—

Then the crucified and risen Lord Jesus sings to you. He gently intones your own name, for He knows you and He loves you dearly; and He sweetly serenades you with His Gospel of Peace.

He sings the story of the Scriptures, which He has fulfilled and accomplished by His Cross and Passion and in His Resurrection from the dead. He sings the forgiveness of your sins. He sings the daily and lifelong significance of your one Holy Baptism into Him. He sings the true Passover, which is His Body given and the New Testament in His Blood poured out for you.

His Passover means that His Exodus is at hand. Not just once upon a time, but as often as He sings that precious Word with which He gives to you His Body and pours out for you His Blood. That is the verse and refrain that echoes throughout the ages, even in the desert wilderness, until He comes again in glory and calls you, in both body and soul, to the neverending feast of Paradise, and to the everlasting song of God and of the Lamb, which surpasses that of Moses and Israel.

With His Song of the Gospel, the Lord, who is your Passover Lamb, the firstborn Son of God, snatches you back out of Egypt again to Himself. He brings you through the waters out of bondage into freedom through repentance and forgiveness of all your sins. He brings you to and from the tomb, in and out of death with Him, into His Resurrection and Ascension to the Father.

In His rising from the dead, Christ Himself is your New Song. He not only teaches you to sing, as your Rabonni, but He sings for you, and with you, and in you, as your Kantor; so that you also learn to sing Him — not just about Him, but you sing Christ Himself — with your whole heart and soul; with body, mind and spirit; with all your words and actions, and with your whole life, in fact.

It may seem a frivolous thing to sing: a pleasant pastime, maybe, but not productive. Yet, to sing to the Lord is the first and foremost thing His people do, His Israel, His Church in heaven and on earth. It doesn’t have to be “productive,” because God the Lord has already delivered you from sin, death, and the power of the devil. What more has to be done, accomplished, or produced? But now, with the New Song of Christ Jesus, who has saved you by His death, you rise up with Him, and in Him, in His Resurrection and Ascension, into the Holy of Holies of heaven itself.

For He has gone ahead of you to His God and Father, and He has done so as your Brother in the Flesh; and by your Holy Baptism in His Name, His God and Father is now your God and Father. So it is that you are welcomed and received, warmly embraced and at home with Him, even now.

Whether or not you may feel like singing — on this or any other particular day — the certainty and substance of your Song, of your Salvation, and of your Sonship in relation to God the Father, is and remains the Body and Blood, the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus: the very things that are given to you, into your mouth, into your body and soul, with His Word and in His Sacrament!

As often as He sings that sweet song of His Supper, He brings clarity and light into your darkness, wherever confusion, doubt and fear have reigned. He cleanses all of the accumulated leaven out of your life, day after day, week after week, and year after year, and He makes all things brand new for you again. For His mercies are new every morning, and He makes every day a new beginning.

Sadness may sometimes threaten to undo you, tears may blind your eyes. And your weeping may remain for a night. But there is new joy and gladness and feasting at the dawn: not only on this Easter morning, but at the dawn of each new day. For God raised Jesus from the dead, and nothing shall ever be the same again. It has not gotten worse, but so much better. Indeed, it is very good.

Celebrate His Feast in this way, therefore: Not by clinging to the flesh of Egypt, but by receiving the Body and Blood of the Lamb. Do not return to the works of darkness. Do not leaven your lump with licentiousness, nor with legalism, either. But rather ascend with Christ Jesus to your own dear God and Father in heaven — in heart and mind, body and soul — in the New Song of the Lamb.

Sing His Word and chant His holy Name. Let your whole life sing the Glory of His Resurrection. For He calls you by name, dear little lamb, and He sings His Gospel of mercy and forgiveness to you, in order to give you His whole Life and His whole Self.

Look, there, in the waters of your Baptism: Pharaoh and his chariots and horsemen have all been drowned and destroyed. They are defeated. All the leaven of your old man has been washed away. And here at the Lord’s Table is the Passover Lamb, who has been slain, who has been sacrificed for you and for all, who has risen from the dead, who even now sings you to His Father in peace.

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

To Worship the Lord Your God in the Body of Christ Jesus

To live is to worship the Lord your God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And to worship Him is your life and your salvation. It is for this Life that He created you, and to this Life He calls you.

The Lord calls you to Himself, to find your life in Him, and to worship Him by faith in Christ: by serving you, by feeding you, and by caring for your body and soul with His Word and Sacrament.

He does it all by means of this sacred Tradition and this solemn Ceremony, in which the Father hands over His Son, and the Son hands Himself over and gives Himself to you in His Holy Supper.

The Life by which you live is in the Blood of this Lamb, just as life is in the blood of both man and beast. For blood brings oxygen and nutrition to the body; it cleanses the body of infection, disease, and death. So has this Lamb been sacrificed for you, and His lifeblood has been shed for your life, that you should not die but live with God and worship Him in peace. Sacrificed once for all upon the Cross, His Flesh and His Blood are now given and poured out for you, in order to feed you, to quench your thirst, to forgive your sins, and to cleanse you of all that poisons you and kills you.

In this way, the beloved Son — who is the Lamb of God — worships the Father with His Body and His Life; and so does He also love and serve you, His neighbor, by and with His precious Blood.

It is Christ Jesus who thus makes this House of God your home, your place of peace and rest. For here the Ceremony of His Holy Supper (His Passover) is delivered to you, no less than He handed it over to His disciples. By this means, He gives Himself to you as your Meat and Drink indeed. He pours out His Blood to cover you, to shelter and protect you, here within His Father’s House.

Holy Baptism is the door through which you have entered this House, and by which you have been made a member of this Household and Family of God. For in the washing of the water with the Word and Spirit of God, you have been signed by the Cross with the Blood of the Lamb: upon the lintel and the door posts of your body and life, upon your forehead and your heart. So that all you think and say and do is marked by the cruciform Image of God in Christ, in whom you now live.

The Lord has given to His Church on earth these sacred rites and ceremonies as the way and means by which He remembers His people, and by which they worship Him. Thus are His Body and His Blood administered in His Name and stead by those whom He has called and sent. And this Holy Sacrament is both the Sign and the Instrument of His great deliverance, by which you are saved. For the Lord your God sees this Blood of the Lamb, which marks both you and this House wherein you feast and live; His judgment passes over you in mercy, and no plague befalls or destroys you.

This definitive Ceremony of the Lord’s Liturgy — this most sacred Tradition of Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, who has mercy upon you and grants you peace — this Passover of the New Testament is the first and foremost of days and weeks and months and years. Indeed, it is the beginning of eternity for you, as you eat and drink at the Word of Christ in faith and with thanksgiving. It is a perpetual Memorial established by God for your heart, mind, body, and soul, whereby you worship the Lord here in time and hereafter in Paradise forever. Not by your doing, but by hearing what He says, receiving what He gives, and trusting what He does.

For all of which it truly is meet, right, and salutary to thank, praise, serve, and obey Him in love.

It is likewise by this Meal of His Body and His Blood that you and all the children of God are one Household and Family, fellow members of one Body in Christ Jesus, anointed by one Holy Spirit. You have one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, and one God and Father in Christ, the beloved Son. And you are given to feast upon this one Lamb who has been sacrificed for you, whose Blood now marks your Father’s House. As you eat of His one Body and drink from His Chalice of Salvation, you are bound together with all who eat and drink, as one Body in Him. You are bodied and blooded together with all of your brothers and sisters in Christ, as one Holy Communion in Him.

Thus, you are what you receive, and you receive what you are: The Body of Christ. Not on your own, but together with all who are baptized into Him, who recline at His Table and feast on Him.

To love your neighbor, therefore, is to love the Lord Jesus Christ in your neighbor. This, too, is to worship the Lord your God and to live by faith in Him. And so it is that you love your neighbor as Christ Jesus loves you, because Christ now lives in you, both body and soul, by and with His Word, His Holy Spirit, and His own Body and Blood, given and poured out for you in His Supper.

You wash your neighbor’s feet, as Jesus washes you. Not only metaphorically, but sometimes for real, as when your parents or spouse are no longer able to care for themselves or wash their own bodies, or when you mothers and fathers bathe your little children and wash between their toes.

So do you also tend your neighbor’s wounds, and you tenderly care for his needs and his feelings. You feed his body, you cover his expenses, you clothe his nakedness, and you forgive his sins. You visit him in his affliction, in the house of bondage, and you grieve and mourn with him in the cords of death and the grave. You comfort him with such love as the Lord so patiently lavishes upon you. Indeed, you give life to your neighbor by way of your own blood, sweat, and tears.

And yet, for all of that, if you examine yourself rightly, and if you examine this Body of Christ to which you belong — if you consider even these neighbors here with you, who are your brothers and sisters in Christ, your own kin, the children of your own God and Father in Him — if you thus examine yourself, then you know that you have not loved as Christ has commanded you to love.

You have not let His love have its way with you, and so your love for others has failed. There are those whom you have hurt, and there are those whom you have failed to help. Your thoughts, words, and deeds have been soiled with sin, marred by selfishness, lust, and greed. In your fallen flesh there is nothing else but this vile sin and death, from which you cannot set yourself free.

Nevertheless, the Lord your God has called you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, out from under Pharaoh’s bitter yoke. He has delivered you from sin and death. Not because you were more prosperous or stronger than anyone else; not because you were more pious and faithful and sincere; not because you were more Lutheran, more confessional, or more orthodox than others. It is not because you were more plain and simple, nor because you were more formal and elaborate.

The Lord has called you, by His grace alone, with His Gospel of forgiveness. He has passed over your sins in mercy, and He remembers them no more. He has spared you from death and the grave, and He has brought you into Life with Himself. He has done so for His own Name’s sake, for the sake of His divine and holy Love in Christ Jesus, the Lamb who has been slain for your salvation.

So has He named you with His Name by calling you out of bondage and bringing you into His House of peace and rest through the waters of Holy Baptism and the forgiveness of all your sins.

The Father has sacrificed the unblemished Lamb for you at Twilight, and He has marked your door with His Blood. He catechizes you here in His House with His Word; He seats you here at His Table; and He washes your feet with the Absolution of Christ, so that you are clean by His grace.

And here the Father feeds you with the Lamb whom He has chosen from before the foundation of the world; whom He has sacrificed upon the Cross in your place, that you might live by His grace. As He fed the disciples then, even Judas and Peter and Thomas — not because of their faithfulness, but by His own faithfulness — so does He feed you. For the Father loves the disciples of Jesus, whom He has called and chosen by His Word and Holy Spirit. And so does the Father love you, as Christ Jesus loves you, even to His death upon the Cross, and in His Resurrection ever after.

It is by this Love of God for you in Christ Jesus, by the Body and Blood of the Lamb, that you live and worship the Lord your God in body and soul, and that you also love as you are loved, forever.

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

The Treasure of God Is Yours in Christ Jesus

The Heart of God the Father is Christ Jesus. And the heart of Christ is mercy and compassion. Such is the Treasure of God, which He freely bestows upon His creatures in gentleness and peace; for it is always His nature to be gracious and kind. The Father treasures His Son, and for His sake He treasures you. Christ Jesus treasures mercy, and in mercy He forgives you all your sins.

This mercy and compassion of God the Father in Christ Jesus are what characterize the Kingdom of God. This is what life in His Kingdom is like, the way it is lived in His presence by His grace.

The grace and favor of God are a priceless treasure, indeed. It is a real prize that remains forever, which gives everlasting Life to you. It cannot be earned or purchased, but only received as a gift; not by works, but only through repentant faith in Christ Jesus. And although such repentance and faith are yours, they are not of yourself but of God. They are His good work in you, by grace alone.

You cannot steal this treasure away from God, but neither can it be stolen from you, to whom He has given it freely as a gift by the Gospel. In Christ, this treasure is yours, and you are His own.

When you live by such faith — in the sure hope and certain confidence of Christ — your entire life and your whole world are shaped by the grace and favor of God, by His mercy and compassion.

It is a matter of where you have fixed your focus. That is where your heart and home are. When you are conscious of your life before God in Christ, and you live unto Him by faith in His mercy, then you have true joy, even in the midst of sorrow, and you rest in peace in the midst of death.

But when you are conscious, not of God, but of yourself — when you are not Christ-conscious, but self-conscious — then your body and life in the world are hounded by relentless demands and constant concerns, by worries and anxieties that never fully go away. The harder you try to get on top of it all, the less you are able to set your heart and mind at ease, or to let your body rest.

If what you seek are the praises of people, their admiration, appreciation, and applause, then you already have what you’re going to get, and even that much will not last for long. Fifteen minutes of fame?  Maybe more, maybe less. But not forever, that’s for sure. And it will not satisfy you.

Life on earth is fleeting and failing. So is everything about it, and everything it offers from within. Neither the entire universe nor any part or portion of creation is self-sufficient or self-sustaining. Apart from the Word of God, it withers and fades, it dies and decays.

And yet, you hunger insatiably for those precarious and perishing things, as though they could save you and sustain you, as though they could actually give you life and peace and happiness, and as though your appetites and desires gave you a rightful claim to take and keep whatever you want.

Driven by the passions of your fallen flesh (as it is also mortal and perishing), you’re constantly feeding on the world around you, but you are never content, never satisfied. The more you devour, the more you are consumed by your addictions to that which is not God and cannot give you life.

With yourself at the center, as though you were God, you use and use up whatever you find in self-interest, while you neglect the Lord and your neighbor: without faith, and without love. There are plenty of outright pagans all around you, and professed atheists, who attempt to live without God in the world. But do not pride yourself on the trappings of religion and philanthropy in your life. Even your piety, prayers, and charitable contributions are self-serving, and therefore idolatrous, whenever they are exercised and offered, not in the fear and faith of God, but in order to be noticed and praised by people — whenever your concern is not what you can do to serve others, but what others think of you and say about you, and what you can get them to do for you and give to you.

Repent of your idolatry. Stop worshiping yourself, and stop using your neighbor. Return to the Lord your God. Be reconciled to Him by faith in His Gospel of forgiveness, and live before Him in the righteousness of Christ, your Savior. For He is the One who calls you daily to repentance, not in wrath, but on account of His mercy and compassion for you. He has not hardened His heart against you, nor does He cast you away from His presence. On the contrary, His grace and favor are upon you in the Gospel of His Cross and Passion, and in His Resurrection from the dead.

Therefore, discipline yourself in accordance with His Word, and so bear the fruits of repentance. Not as though to save yourself, but as you live by grace in the presence of God, in His Kingdom. It is to this that He has called you in peace, that His Life might be yours both now and forever.

Discipline your flesh by fasting, in whatever particular ways will be most helpful to you in curbing and resisting your own particular appetites and addictions. That may be food and drink, or it may be something else entirely. Do not despise the good gifts of God, but do not make false gods out of His gifts, either. Rather, temper your consumption. Learn to live without those things that are not beneficial or necessary, and with less of those things that do still belong to your daily bread.

Do not fast to impress God or your neighbor, but to loosen the fallen world’s grip on your mortal flesh, and to exercise hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God in Christ. That is to seek first His Kingdom of heaven, instead of striving to reside in the palaces of earth and reveling in them. Let your body find its resurrection and its real life in the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus.

Likewise, discipline your heart and mind, your lips and mouth, by the prayer and confession of the Word of God. You will not drive the devil, the world, and your own sinful thoughts and feelings out of your head by your own willpower. You are not equal to that task. But actively take up the Sword of the Spirit, and wield the shield of faith, by hearing and confessing the Word that God speaks to you in Christ Jesus. Call upon His Name in the confidence that your Father in heaven hears and answers your prayers, just as He has promised and has taught you to pray by His Son.

Do not worry whether others are listening or notice. You are not praying to them, but to the Lord. Fix your eyes on Him, by fixing your faith on His Word of the Cross, in which His mercy and forgiveness are given to you. Hear the preaching of His Resurrection, in which you are justified, and reconciled to God, and raised up in peace from death and the grave to the Life everlasting.

So, too, discipline your hands and feet, your attitude and actions toward others, and the use of your possessions, by having mercy on your neighbor and giving alms to help and support him. Do so quietly, and in humility before God. For you know that you deserve nothing but punishment for your sins, and that everything you hold in your hand is nothing but the charity of God. Therefore, do not boast of your good works, nor embarrass your neighbor by announcing your almsgiving. You are not above him, nor is he beholden to you, but you and he alike are beholden to the Lord.

Living before God in the secret place of faith, in the hiddenness of the Cross of Christ, does not mean that you ignore your neighbor or turn your back on your brothers and sisters in their need. It does mean that, instead of viewing other people as an opportunity to achieve your own goals and to advance your own agendas, in Christ you are able to see them as objects of His affection, who are dear to His heart and recipients of His divine compassion. So then do you also love them, and you serve them for Christ Jesus’ sake, because you have also received the treasure of His mercy.

Indeed, you are able to pray to God, your dear Father in heaven, and you are able to give alms, because the Lord your God has had mercy upon you, and has given His only Son to die for you, and has now also given Him to you — into your ears, into your heart and mind, and into your hands and mouth — by the Ministry of His Gospel. You are able to return to the Lord your God, because He has sought you out and found you, and He has come to you in Christ Jesus.

Let such tender mercies of God be your dearest treasure, and so also the character and content of your Christian heart. For this treasure does not decay or turn to dust, and it cannot be taken away from you. It is given to you freely by the Lord your God in Christ Jesus, your Savior, and it is surely not depleted but multiplied by extending it to others in His Name and for His sake.

The Lord Jesus Christ, who is all in all, is all mercy and compassion. He is the One who saves you by His grace. He is the One who fasts in faith before His God and Father, so that, by His hunger and thirst for righteousness, He might establish and obtain the Kingdom of heaven for you and all. So has He made Himself nothing, and humbled Himself unto death, that you should now be fed with His Body and given to drink of His Blood, in which the Kingdom and the righteousness of God are yours. For having become sin and suffered death, He who knew no sin has borne the curse and consequences of your sin, in order to bless you with the Spirit of God unto the Life everlasting.

He who died for you has also risen from the dead, and He ever lives to pray and intercede for you before the throne of God, His Father in heaven. In that Inner Room, which is the Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens, He prays for you, and He is heard. Thus are you also brought before God, who is your own Father in Christ Jesus, and you now abide in His presence.

And even that is not all. For not only has Christ given Himself for you, in order to make peace for you with God. And not only has the Father received you to Himself in Christ Jesus, risen from the dead and seated at His right hand. But also here and now, in this Holy Sacrament of His Altar, in this Grain Offering and Drink Offering of Bread and Wine, the Father feeds you with His Son and comes to abide with you in Him. He places His most precious Treasure into your hands.

That is, not only does Christ Jesus give you alms, but He is Himself the Gift of God’s mercy in the Flesh. He is the Bread from heaven, who has given Himself for the Life of the world. And He is the true Vine, who has shed His holy, precious Blood to make Atonement for you and everyone.

In receiving what He gives you and pours out for you, you receive the reward of His mercy, and you are returned to the Lord your God, who loves you with an everlasting Love. For where His Treasure is, there His heart is also. And here the Father opens His great heart of mercy to you in the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, your Savior. So does He abide with you, forever and always.

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

Given by Christ Jesus to Be a Shepherd of His Sheep

“Thank God,” Dr. Luther once remarked, “even a seven-year-old child knows what a shepherd is and does.” He feeds and tends the lambs and sheep, and he guards and protects them from predators and other dangers. He puts himself in harm’s way, in order to keep them safe.

That is what the Lord Jesus does for His whole Flock. And that is likewise exactly what a Christian pastor is and does. He feeds and tends the sheep of the Good Shepherd in the good green pastures of His Word, His Law and His Gospel, unto repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins. And a pastor leads the sheep beside the clean and cleansing waters of Holy Baptism to the Table of the Lord in His Kingdom, all the while defending the flock against false doctrine, idolatrous practices, and all the assaults and accusations of the old evil foe. A pastor invests himself in this work, he spends his body and life for the well-being of the flock placed under his care.

If that sounds like a big job and a daunting task, that’s because it is. And as it is true that each and every Christian is called to bear the Cross and follow after Jesus, it is all the more the case that His pastors, the ministers of His Word, are called upon to serve and to suffer for His Name’s sake. Nor should anyone ever suppose that we can do or manage any of this on our own, by our own reason or strength, education, ingenuity, or what not.

None of us can be a sheep of the Good Shepherd — far less a shepherd of His sheep — by any efforts of our own. Those who attempt to do so are hirelings at best, or, as Jesus says today, they are thieves and robbers. But we are sheep because the Shepherd has called us by name with His Voice of the Gospel. And Pr. Harrison is here given to be a shepherd of the Lord’s sheep in this place, because he enters through the Door into the Sheepfold — in the Name and stead of Jesus.

So, what does this mean for us?  It is a bit confusing on the surface of it, and even the disciples did not understand the Words of our Lord when He first spoke them. But the Key, of course, is Christ Jesus Himself, His Cross and Resurrection. He is the Good Shepherd, and He is the Door by which His sheep and His undershepherds enter in and come and go in peace and safety, faith and love.

As the Good Shepherd, He lays down His Body and Life in death upon the Cross, and then He takes it up again, in order that His sheep might have abundant Life in Him forevermore. This is why He has come — to bear your sins, and the sins of the whole world, in His own Body on the bloody Cross, that you might die to sin and live to righteousness in Him. By His wounds you are healed, and by His bodily Resurrection from the dead you have Righteousness and Life.

Thus has He become the Door, and by your Holy Baptism in His Name you have entered through His death into His resurrected Life in the presence of His God and Father. Even now, living under the Cross in the midst of sin and death, awaiting the Resurrection and the Life everlasting, you live and abide in the House of the Lord, as a sheep of His pasture, in the communion of His Church:

In the Apostles’ Teaching and Fellowship, in the Breaking of the Bread, and in the Prayers of the Church, you live and abide under the care of your Good Shepherd, Christ Jesus, the Chief Pastor and Archbishop of your soul and body, heart, mind, and spirit.

It is by and for this Ministry of the Word and Sacrament that men like Pr. Harrison enter through the Door of Christ Jesus into His Sheepfold, not only to live and abide as one of the sheep, but to serve and care for the lambs and sheep, to feed and tend the flock in the Name and stead of Jesus.

As the sheep are called to learn from Jesus and follow His example, to live and love as He does, so are the pastors of the sheep called to preach the Word of Jesus, to speak with His Voice, to administer His Gifts, and to do what He does for the life and health of His Church in His Name.

Such pastors have beautiful feet, as we have heard, because they are sent to go, to bring and deliver His Word of the Gospel — and in their going, in their preaching and teaching, Christ Jesus Himself is actively present and at work to forgive sins and to grant His beautiful Life and Salvation.

This is not a self-chosen office and work. A man may well aspire to become a pastor and bishop, but it is the Lord who calls, ordains, and sends a man into that Office of the Holy Ministry, albeit through the agency of His Church on earth. Pastors and congregations identify and encourage young men to give themselves for this work. The seminaries train and prepare them, examine them, and then, along with the Council of Presidents, they certify and place them. Churches extend Calls, and those who already serve in the Office ordain new men to that Office and install them in it. But, again, it is the Lord our Good Shepherd who is ever at work throughout this process to bring a man through the Door into His Sheepfold to be a pastor — a shepherd — of His own dear sheep.

So, today, that is what He is doing with you — and for you — Pr. Harrison, for the sake of His dear sheep in this place, for their life and health and strength in Him. And as He is the One who stations you here in His Name, so shall He be and abide with you here in this Vocation and Office. He loves you, as He loves all His pastors; and He loves all His lambs and sheep entrusted to your care.

Along with that, the same Lord Jesus has given you the added benefit of a faithful colleague in this particular pasture, so that you will labor in love for the lambs and sheep alongside Pr. DeBlieck. It is a blessed thing when brothers in arms live and work together in unity, in common cause, not for their own benefit or glory, but for the benefit and blessing of the Lord’s own beloved flock.

Now, then, as the Lord Jesus in His Ministry lives and works, dies and rises, in accordance with the Word and Will of His Father who sent Him, you also are called and ordained to live and work, to bear the cross, to suffer and even to die, in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ who sends you.

So proceed in faith, hope, and love. And do not despair when it may seem that nothing is working or going well; nor fall into the trap of supposing that all of this work depends on you. Simply do what you are called and given to do, knowing that your labors in the Lord are not in vain. He will accomplish His purposes in you, and through you, and for you, all to the glory of His Holy Name.

Lay down your life in love for Christ Jesus and His sheep, in the sure and certain confidence that He will raise you up again, as surely as He daily and richly forgives you all your sins and cleanses you from all unrighteousness by His own Resurrection and the power of His indestructible Life.

You know the work you are given to do, not only because you have been taught and trained by the Church, but also because you are first of all a sheep yourself, and you live as a sheep of the Good Shepherd solely by His grace alone, by faith in His forgiveness of all your sins. You know and understand the challenges and hurts, the weaknesses and fears of this body and life. But you also know and love the sweet comfort and peace of the Gospel, the solid confidence and strength of Holy Baptism, and the forgiveness and fellowship of the Lord’s Altar. And here you are given, not only the duty and responsibility, but the blessed privilege of serving God’s people with these Gifts.

At its heart, the most basic work of a pastor — as we have prayed with the Psalmist this afternoon — is to proclaim the righteousness of the Lord in the great assembly of the Church, in the midst of the great congregation. That is to preach and teach the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and thereby to speak of His faithfulness and salvation, unto repentance and faith in His free and full forgiveness. By the preaching and hearing of this Word of Christ, the Lord Himself obtains faith in the heart, where and when it pleases Him. And as the heart thus believes, so does the Lord put a new song upon the lips and tongues of His dear people, a hymn of praise to the glory of His Holy Name. Blessed are the pastors and all the people of God who live by such faith in His precious Gospel!

Dear saints of University Lutheran Church, hear and heed the Voice of your Good Shepherd in the preaching and teaching of this man, Pr. Harrison, who is here and now given to you by the Lord to be your pastor in His Name, alongside Pr. DeBlieck. Receive the ministry of these men of God in faith and love. Listen to them and learn from them. Allow yourselves to be challenged by them, that you might grow in wisdom and maturity, in the grace and knowledge and fear of the Lord.

And wherever either of your pastors may stumble and misstep at times, be patient and kind, love them, and forgive them, even as you also hear and receive the Lord’s forgiveness of all your sins through the voice and ministry of these dear men. For it is ever and always the case that pastors and laity alike depend upon one and the same Lord Jesus Christ, the great Good Shepherd of the sheep. Everything depends on Him. So, do not be afraid, but rely on Him and rest yourself in Him.

Do not listen to strange voices, but flee from strangers and follow Christ Jesus the Lord by giving attention to His Word and availing yourself of His means of grace. And as often as you go astray, return by repentance and faith to the Pastor and Bishop of your soul. Indeed, He comes to you here to give you His abundant Life, and He will not fail, nor shall He ever leave you or forsake you.

Risen from the dead, never to die again, He lives and reigns to all eternity as your gracious God and Lord, your Savior and your Shepherd. And as He lives and abides with you here in peace and love, so shall you live and abide with Him — in His own Holy House — forever and forevermore.

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