The Strong Word of Him Who Shall Not Be Tamed

Do not suppose that you are safe, keeping your head down and focusing on your own family, or, even more narrowly, focusing on yourself and “keeping your nose clean” while the world around you burns. And do not suppose that your neighbor or the world is the greatest threat that faces you.

For, behold, the storm of the Lord has gone forth in wrath, and it swirls down upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord does not turn back, until He has performed and carried out all the purpose of His heart. There is nowhere you can flee to hide yourself away from Him; nor does it do you any good to cry out, “Peace, Peace,” where there is no peace.

Is His Word not a fire, and a hammer that shatters rocks?  Surely it is!  For God threatens to punish all those who break His commandments. Therefore, you should fear His wrath and not disobey Him. But, as He also promises grace and every blessing to all those who keep His commandments, you should love and trust in Him, and gladly do what He commands.

That is not yet the Gospel, but it is the Word of the Lord — His good and acceptable Will — which you ignore at your own peril. So does He call and send His pastors and preachers to speak His Word to you and to His whole Church, to call sinners to repentance — away from their sins and the deadly consequences of their sins — to faith and life according to His Word, now and forever.

As to what that means and what that looks like: To fear, love, and trust in God above all things is to be more afraid of breaking His Law than of dying; more afraid of His fire, which burns forever, than of the fire which burns for but a little while here on earth. It is to trust in Him, to believe in His Word and rely upon His promises, more than you rely upon your own thoughts and feelings and opinions; more than your own wisdom, reason, or senses suggest; and more than your own strength and cleverness may seem to achieve. And it is to love Him more than your parents, spouse, and children; indeed, to love Him more than yourself, more than your own body and life.

In all of this, the Lord Jesus confronts you with a contradiction — with a Cross and crucifixion — which you cannot control or contain (nor can you survive by your own powers or wherewithal).

He has already taught you that it is foolish to put your trust in riches, which cannot save you; and that it is foolish to worry about food and clothing, because there are more important things, and your worry does not help, but the Lord your God provides all that you need. But now He goes even further. He teaches that there can be no compromise between Himself and your life in this world. Even your own household and family shall be divided by the sharp two-edged Sword of His Word, which cuts you to the quick, and pierces your soul, and separates the marrow from your bones. He is, in fact, relentless in cutting you off from every other god than Himself.

There is no safety or salvation anywhere else, nor in anyone else but Him. Yet, do not be naive. He is not “safe.” He is not “tame.” He has come to cast fire upon the earth. He burns up the chaff, the hay, the straw, and the stubble, in order to cleanse you and purify you, in both body and soul, in heart, mind, and spirit, as silver and gold are purged of all impurities by fire.

This is the irony, the paradox and contradiction of the Cross of Christ: It is by dying that you live. He puts you to death, in order to raise you up in His own Resurrection, unto the Life everlasting.

It is for this very purpose that He sends you a pastor to preach His Law and His Gospel, repentance and forgiveness of sins — to crucify you with Himself, and to raise you up again from death and the grave to newness of life, to live before God in righteousness and purity forever and ever.

So, then, hear and heed His Word, and fix your eyes on this very Jesus who brings, not peace, but division and fire. He is the Author and Perfecter of your faith and life, who has endured the Cross and borne the shame for the joy of your salvation. Consider Him who has willingly suffered such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary or lose heart. More than that, consider that He has been baptized, even unto death upon the Cross, in order to bear the righteous wrath and judgment of God against all sin. For that is where and how the Lord has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart. That is what His coming means, and what it aims at.

You don’t have to live in Israel to understand that a cloud rolling in off the Mediterranean Sea is going to bring rain, and that a hot wind blowing in from the desert is gonna be a scorcher. And you know how to read the world in which you live, too, with varying degrees of accuracy, whether it be the weather and traffic conditions, the best time and place to shop or see a movie, the stock market or your sports league of choice. Would that people knew the Word of God and the remembrance of His saints as well as they know the stats and gossip on their favorite celebrities!

But the Lord your God has not left you ignorant or clueless about His coming and His presence. It is only that you cannot recognize or interpret these signs, except by His Word and Holy Spirit. By fire and water, that is how He comes: The pillar of fire by night, and the pillar of cloud by day. Fire and billowing smoke upon the Mountain, and towering walls of water on the right and on the left through the midst of the Sea. The fire of God’s consuming presence receiving the whole burnt offerings on His Altar, and the Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

So, here you are then, with the Egyptians hard on your heels and the Red Sea before you. Caught between the fire and the flood. Between the God whose promise is for you and for your children, and the same God who commands you to sacrifice your son, your only son, your “Isaac,” whom you love. Caught in a trap, with nowhere to go and nothing to do but die. Therefore, be still. And know that He, the Lord, is God. He wounds in order to heal. He kills, and He brings you to life.

It is a terrifying thing to be caught up in the hands of the living God. But, as there is no escaping from those hands, consider also what those hands have done:

They are stretched out upon the hard wood of the Cross, as Isaac once bore the wood upon the Mountain. Only, here the beloved Son is not spared, but the Father delivers Him up for us all. He whose Word the mountains rendeth, He lays within the grave. He who shall not be tamed is wounded for your transgressions, chastised for your iniquities, and put to death for your sins. By His stripes and scars you are healed, and in His Resurrection and Ascension is your righteousness and peace with God in heaven. In His Body, crucified and risen, is your new household and family.

This is the completion of His Baptism, the fulfillment of all righteousness, which He took upon Himself when He took His stand with sinners in the waters of the Jordan River and submitted Himself to St. John’s Baptism of repentance. Into the water He goes, until He is drowned and destroyed in the sins of the world, in all your sinful lusts and desires; and then He comes forth and arises when His God and Father raises Him from death and the grave to life again.

This is how He kindles the fire which God casts upon the earth from heaven. Your merciful and great High Priest does not allow that fire to go out, but He lays Himself upon it as your Whole Burnt Offering. He is the Atonement for all your sins, and the Sacrifice of Propitiation, not for your sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. And as He rises, then, like incense, He is a sweet-smelling aroma with which His God and Father is well-pleased: And so are you also received into His favor, forever and ever.

That which He did and provided for His people by the Tabernacle, Temple, and Priesthood in the Old Testament, He does for you in His Church on earth by the Ministry of the Gospel in the Word and Sacraments. As the Old Testament sacrifices anticipated the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross, so do the New Testament Means of Grace deliver the fruits and benefits of His now once-for-all accomplished Sacrifice, whereby your sins are all forgiven and you have peace with God.

Thus do you flee the wrath of God by fleeing to His mercy in Christ Jesus. You enter the dark passage through the walls of deep water in the confidence of His Resurrection. You sacrifice your life, goods, fame, child, and wife, in the sure and certain hope of Him who loves you, who has promised you His Kingdom. By such faith, you live in the righteousness of Christ. You shut the lion’s mouth; you quench the fire’s power; you escape the edge of the sword. In weakness you are made strong, and in the fear of the Lord you are wise — because the Mighty One has done great things for you, whose almighty power is made known in His mercy and compassion for you.

In the world you have tribulation. The Cross does not remove that conflict, but, far from it, the Cross stirs the pot and fuels the fire. Within and without, you are crucified and put to death. And, as often as you would flee the Cross, as though to find your safety in the world, the Lord pursues you with His mighty Sword. He comes to you, again and again, through the preaching and ministry of His servants — called, ordained, and sent in His Name and stead to address you with His Word and confront you with His Cross.

But, lest you wonder why He is so persistent in coming after you in this way, let me tell you:

He is not mean, and He does not seek your death, but He desires to give you His own Life. To be sure, He is not safe, but He is good, and it is in love that He pursues you. He would turn you from your sin and death, back to Himself, to call upon His holy Name, and to hide yourself in Him.

When you perceive the pillar of cloud arise from the waters of your Baptism, and you hear the Voice of the Spirit blowing across the desert of your dried-up dead bones, know that He who brings you out of Egypt will bring you into Canaan. As surely as your Savior, Christ Jesus, has passed through death into life, so surely does He bring you through the fire and the water with Himself. He has overcome the world, and He has reconciled you and all the world to God.

That is where your peace is found: in the house and home of your Father, in the fellowship of His family and friends, in the unity of His Holy Spirit, in the Holy Communion of His beloved Son. Not as the world gives, does He give to you here, but through the voice of your pastor He forgives you all your sins; He remembers them no more, nor does He count them against you.

He has turned aside His fierce anger from you, because His Son — His only Son, Christ Jesus, whom He loves — has fulfilled the purpose of His heart for your salvation. So shall He sustain you by the gracious Ministry of His Gospel. For you are righteous in His sight, for Jesus’ sake, and He will never let the righteous fall. Many are the afflictions of the Righteous, but the Lord delivers Him out of them all. As He raised Christ Jesus from the dead, so shall He raise you forevermore.

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

The Things That Make for Peace

People certainly do start projects they can’t finish.  They do it all the time — maybe due to pride, or maybe out of desperation — without a lot of forethought or planning, perhaps, or with a naive optimism.  And not just other people, you do it, too.  You take on more than you can manage.  You make promises that you won’t be able to keep — maybe with the best of intentions, or maybe just to keep the wolves at bay for a little while longer.  You write checks that your body can’t cash.  And you go into debt buying things you don’t need with money you don’t have.

The same spirit of competition and self-advancement that drives you to do such things, beyond your actual capacities and limitations, also puts you into conflict with everyone around you.  So, along with all the rest of it, you take on opponents that you can’t hope to defeat or overcome.  “Eye of the tiger” and all that, sure, but this, too, is vanity.  And you’re not alone in your bravado.  From the playground to the White House, the sons and daughters of Adam pick fights they can’t win.

All of this is foolishness, which is always easier to spot in the choices and decisions of the other guy than it is to admit in yourself.  But you know better, or you should.  To tackle more than you can handle is foolish.  It’s a waste of time, energy, and resources, all of which could have been, and should have been, put to some better use.  And as the Lord Jesus points out, you not only suffer the loss of your investment, but embarrassment and shame in the eyes of all who see it.

The stakes are that much higher in the case at hand in this Word of our Lord.  Be wise, therefore, and consider this: If the war you want to win is the judgement of God’s holy and righteous Law, and if the goal you want to reach is that of real Life and genuine prosperity in the heavenly places, there’s only one way to gain that victory and only one way to arrive at that goal.  Only one way, and that not of yourself; it is solely by the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by following Him through death and the grave into His Resurrection and Life everlasting in the Kingdom of God.

It is by the way of the Cross.  But what does that mean?  To take up the Cross and bear it after Christ is not an exercise program or a disciplined new diet, whereby you strive to build yourself up and improve your overall health and well-being.  There is a place for such discipline in this body and life, and in your spiritual life, as well.  But the Cross does not aim at a better you.  It’s not a matter of self-improvement.  To take up your own cross is to embrace your own execution.

To be a disciple of Christ Jesus, to take up His Cross and follow after Him, is to renounce yourself entirely.  It is to disavow your collections and your trophies, your prizes and scrapbooks.  It is to disregard, not only your possessions, your perishable stuff, but all the best parts of you, that is to say, your wisdom, your reason, your strength, and all of your achievements.  To bear the Cross is to be done with all of your self-righteousness.  And with that, it redefines all of your relationships, as well, with family, friends, and neighbors.  To be crucified is not to get stronger and healthier; it is to die to yourself and your life in this fallen and perishing world.

So, then, give up building your own towers, and stop trying to fight your own battles, because the truth is, you can’t reach the heavens, nor can you win the war, by any ways or means of your own.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can make it or complete it.  You can’t.  Think about it.  When all the world was united following the Flood, the descendants of Noah set out to build a mighty tower, in order to make a name for themselves, to achieve their own fame and glory — in disobedience to the Word of God.  And it sure seemed like there wasn’t anything they couldn’t do.  But the Lord set Himself against them, confused their communications, and terminated their grand building project.  They could do nothing, finally, except what the Lord determined and permitted.

The “rich fool,” likewise, as we heard from Jesus a few weeks ago, considered his crops and his storage barns, carefully counted his costs and his profits, and then made his plans to build more and bigger barns for all his grain, to store up his wealth for many years to come.  But then his life came to an abrupt end, and he wasn’t able to carry out his plans, nor to benefit from all his crops.

When it comes to battles and warfare, consider the history of Moses and the Israelites, of Joshua and the subsequent Judges, especially Gideon, Samson, and Samuel, and the stories of King Saul and King David.  It is the Lord who fights for His people, whether with only a few men or many.  And where He has spoken, it doesn’t matter if the enemy has hundreds or thousands of soldiers, chariots and horsemen, weapons of bronze, or nine-foot giants — the battle belongs to the Lord.

By the same token, whenever Israel proceeds apart from the Word and promise of God, then they are soundly defeated and put to flight, like flea-bitten dogs with their tails between their legs.

When it comes right down to it, it’s not the number of people you have lined up on your side, nor the number of dollars in your portfolio, nor the extent of your military savvy, strength, and skill, but the Word and Spirit of God are alone decisive.  When you proceed according to His Word, even in great weakness you will succeed and prosper; and when you follow your own self-chosen path apart from His Word, you will fail and fall apart.  Not according to the measure of the world, but according to the divine Wisdom of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus.  Which is to say that it may look as though you’ve got the bases covered, but you don’t; whereas, again, when you are being crucified and put to death, and you suffer all manner of hardships and major setbacks, it may be that the Lord Himself is bringing you through those trials and tribulations into Glory.

The logic of the Cross is not intuitive or rational.  You can’t figure it out by instinct or calculation.  It is something you are taught by the Word-made-Flesh.  You learn from Him as you listen to His preaching, and as you follow after Him and live with Him on the paradoxical Way of His Cross.

Thus do you learn from Christ Jesus that the wealth and ability by which you live and prosper — the ways and means by which you are completed and preserved, rescued and sustained — these are not your own, neither are they in your own power or possession, but they are found in the fear of the Lord, that is, by repentance and faith in His Word, in His commands and promises.

The blessing of the Lord your God, the Holy Trinity — His gift of Life and prosperity — is found in Christ the Crucified, the Incarnate Son.  In this foolishness of God, which is wiser than man.  In this weakness of God, which is stronger than man.  In this death of God for the life of the world.

The Cross and Passion of the Christ is the divine blessing by which you are saved.  By contrast, to rely upon your yourself, upon your family and the whole gamut of your possessions, as though to achieve and keep life for yourself by these means, that is the curse of idolatry, sin, and death.  You cannot overcome it, but, ironically, the harder that you try, the more you will succumb to it.  It is both sinful and self-defeating to rely upon yourself and your own assets; for that puts you at odds with God, and you will not be able to withstand Him or survive when He comes against you.

This does not mean that your body and life, your place in the world, your family and friends, and all the stuff that God has put into your hands is somehow bad or evil.  When the Lord Jesus speaks of “hating” your parents and children, spouse and siblings, for example, He is not describing an emotion or feeling of dislike or disgust, but objective choices and decisions, actions and behaviors, whereby you refuse to worship any other god than the Lord, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The person that you are, the people that God has placed around you in the world, and the portion of His creation that He has entrusted to your stewardship in this life on earth, all of that is good and right in its own proper place.  This is the good salt of which Jesus speaks, with which the Lord has seasoned you along the way; and it is meant to season the sacrifice that you are to offer unto Him by faith.  What I mean by that is this: You receive all that you are and have from God’s gracious hand, and so do you render it all back to Him, to the honor, praise, and glory of His Holy Name.

You should not despise what God has given to you; but neither should you worship and depend upon the creature in the place that belongs to the Creator.  You should neither demonize nor idolize the good gifts of God, but receive them in faith and sanctify their use by His Word and prayer.  Then the good salt is put to its godly purpose, and your sacrifice is seasoned with thanksgiving.

Attempting to use the salt, instead, to buy or build or battle your way into heaven, is worthless.  Not only does it do you no good, but it also robs the salt of its good worth, and of its saltiness, so that it becomes useless and even detrimental — not in itself, that is, but in your use of it, or misuse.

The salt is rightly used, as I have said, when it accompanies the sacrifice of yourself unto God, whereby you renounce all reliance on yourself, and you relinquish yourself and all your stuff to the Lord your God, in the confidence that all good things are from Him, both for now and for ever.

Such is the Sacrifice and Salt of Christ Jesus, who sets an example for you to follow in His steps.  In Him is the Way of discipleship, that is, the Way of the Cross, the Way of repentance, faith, and love, by which He obtains life and prosperity for you and for all of His disciples after Him.

He relies, not on Himself, but on His Father.  He looks to His Father in faith and receives all things from Him; and yet, He does not cling to anything, but He offers it up with Himself as a sacrifice.  Indeed, He renounces Himself entirely, and gives Himself up to the Cross, in order to be honored by His Father.  He stakes everything on the Glory of God, on the promise of the Resurrection; not for His own advantage or benefit, but for the good of His neighbor, for your sake, in holy love.

He is the one Man who is willing and actually able to pay the cost, to finish the work that He has been given to do, to establish, build, and complete the tower that reaches to the Father in heaven.  But notice that He finishes the task and pays the price, not with cash or credit, paper or plastic, but with His own holy and precious Blood.  Rather than avoiding embarrassment and the ridicule of the world, He humbles Himself and bears the shame of sinners, trusting in God’s vindication.

Outwardly speaking, He appears to be undone, outnumbered, and overcome.  He saved others, and yet, or so it seems, He cannot save Himself.  More to the point, He chooses not to save Himself, nor to exalt Himself, but He waits upon the Father to save Him from out of death and to exalt Him in the highest.  He does not build a tower to make a Name for Himself, but He is lifted up on the Cross to the glory of God.  He willingly submits to death, and He suffers Himself to be laughed at, mocked, and made fun of, in order to rely entirely upon the Word and promise of His Father.

Although He has 10,000 angels at His command, any one of which could take out His enemies — and even though He is the “stronger Man,” indeed, the almighty and eternal Son of God, by whom all things are made — He defeats the ruler of this world, and He reconciles the world to God, by the voluntary sacrifice of Himself, contrary to every wisdom and strategy of this mortal world.

Rather than crushing His enemies and establishing justice by brute force and raw violence against those who oppose Him, He makes for Peace and Righteousness by His Cross and Resurrection.

And this same Peace and Righteousness are what He gives to you by His grace, by the delegation of His Gospel, by the preaching of His Cross unto repentance and forgiveness of sins.

As Philemon owed his very life to the Apostle, St. Paul, on account of the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, so does your whole life derive from and depend upon the Gospel of the same Lord.  As you are crucified with His Cross by the preaching of repentance, so are you raised up with His Resurrection by His free forgiveness of all your sins, unto faith and life and prosperity forever.

By His preaching the dear Lord Jesus seasons you with the salt of His own Sacrifice, so as to preserve you in Himself and bring you to His Father in perfect peace and joy, as He Himself has returned to the right hand of the Father in righteousness and holiness, blessedness and glory.

Here, then, receive these Holy Things which make for Peace with God: The Word of the Gospel, which absolves you of all your sins, and the Body and Blood of your Savior, Christ Jesus, given and poured out for you, for your Life and Salvation in and with Him.

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

Humbled and Exalted in Christ Jesus

The Word of the Lord Jesus is plain: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.”

And the truth is that you have exalted yourself.  You have done so in the past, and you still do it.

You exalt yourself over against the Lord by sitting in judgment of Him, no less than the Pharisees and their lawyers did when they invited Him to dinner and sat there watching Him closely, testing Him, looking for a way to trap Him and accuse Him.

You may protest that, No, you don’t do that!  You love Jesus.  And you’re here this morning, after all.  But your critical assessment of His Word is a judgment against Him, an exalting of yourself.  You pick and choose which parts of His Word you will hear and heed, honor and obey.  You may listen to it, but you act as though you were free and clear to take it or leave it at your own whim.

The Law of the Lord and His commands are clear, but you do not obey them.  You do not fear, love, and trust in Him.  You place yourself and other gods above Him, as though you were the higher authority, and as though you had the last word on each and every matter in your life.

When you covet what God has given to your neighbor, for example, you accuse the Lord in your heart of being unfair to you, of holding out on you, of not giving you what you think you deserve.  In this way, too, you exalt yourself in the presence of God.

You likewise sit in judgment of others and exalt yourself over against your neighbors.  You do not deal with them in love and mercy and forgiveness.  You are not charitable toward your neighbors, as the Lord your God is so charitable toward you.  When your neighbors are in need, you may or may not try to help them.  Among your neighbors are those who go hungry, whom you do not feed; those who are sick or in prison, whom you do not visit; those who are naked and ashamed, whom you do not defend or speak well of to cover their shame and uphold them.

There are plenty of neighbors whom you do not help at all.  And many of those you do help, you help and assist because there’s something in it for you, something to improve your reputation and your assets.  There are favors to be exchanged, invitations to be received and given, friendships to be won, and palms to be greased.  After all, it’s who you know that gets you ahead in life.

Or, perhaps the benefit you get from helping some of your neighbors is a sense of self-righteous satisfaction.  It may be that you do help your neighbor in such a case, but only because it makes you feel that much better about yourself.  In that respect, again, you exalt yourself above others.

And yet, despite your unbelief, idolatry, and lack of love, you persist in exalting yourself as you presume to come into the presence of God on the basis of your own righteousness.  As though you had a right to stand before Him.  As though you had a shred of merit or worthiness in yourself.

In all of these ways, with all of your sins, you exalt yourself over and above both God and man.

And even so, the Word of the Lord remains clear: “The one who exalts himself will be humbled.”

He does not say, “may be humbled.”  No, you will be humbled.  You will be humbled by the Lord.

Pray, therefore, that you are humbled here in time, unto repentance, before it is too late; and that you are not permanently humbled in the final judgment of the living and the dead.  For those who resist and reject the Word of the Lord, who do not receive His chastening and His discipline, who refuse to repent of their sins, and who persist in exalting themselves — they will be condemned in their unbelief and sin, consigned to eternal shame and everlasting judgment.

God grant that He would humble you by His Word and Holy Spirit, not unto eternal condemnation, but unto repentance and a reliance on His mercy, unto Life everlasting in His forgiveness of sins.

Thanks be to God that, in His mercy, He does work to humble you in this way — by the preaching of His Law, and by allowing you to suffer some of the curse and consequences of your sin — in order to bring you to repentance.  He thereby turns you away from your death and destruction, away from your sin and self-exalting, that He might bring you back to Himself in faith and love.

That way of life has been opened for you.  It is possible for you to be turned around and turned back.  You can be rescued from the pit of despair into which you have fallen.  And you are able to come into the presence of the Lord your God and stand before Him in peace and confidence.

The way is open to you, because the Lord Jesus Christ has humbled Himself in order to exalt you.  In fact, He alone has truly humbled Himself.  Though He is true God in the flesh, He did not count His equality with God as something to horde for Himself, but He made Himself nothing.  He took on the form of a servant.  He humbled Himself and became obedient, even unto death on the Cross.

He has gone to the Cross bearing all of your sins in His own Body of flesh and blood — all that you have failed to do, and all that you have done which you should not.  He has borne in His Body all your griefs and sorrows, all your guilt and shame, and all of your humiliation and pain.

All that you have failed to do for your neighbors, the Lord has done for you in love.  And all that you have deserved for your sins, the judgment and punishment of the Law, He has borne for you.

He has not done it under any coercion or compulsion, but voluntarily.  He has gone willingly to His suffering and death out of His great love for His Father, and out of His great love for you and all His neighbors.  He has thus gone to His death in true righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

He has done all of this for you and your salvation.  He has taken your place.  It is in your stead that He has humbled Himself and died.  And because He has done all of this for you, on your behalf, so are His vindication, His exaltation, and His ascension all credited to you and given to you.

You are raised with Christ in His Resurrection and seated with Him in the heavenly places, in the presence of God, who welcomes you as a Father His child, with love and mercy and forgiveness.

The Lord Jesus humbled Himself unto death, and God exalted Him by raising Him from the dead, giving to Him the Name that is above every name in heaven and on earth and under the earth.  What is more, the same Lord Jesus Christ has given that Name to you in your Holy Baptism.  Everything that He has accomplished and received in His own flesh and blood, He has also given to you in both body and soul.  As you see Him rise and ascend, therefore, you see Him bring you into the presence of God in His own Body, into the heavenly Banquet of His own Wedding Feast.

You stand before God in Christ Jesus, not to be condemned, but declared righteous and dressed in His beautiful holiness and spotless perfection; not to die, but to live forever with Christ in God.

He has come down from heaven and given Himself for you, in order to make of you a member of His holy Bride, the holy Christian Church, and He your heavenly Bridegroom.

Here, then, already set before you in His Holy Supper, is the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, who is your true Husband and your living Head.  You are His honored guest, for you belong to Him, to His Body and His Bride.

He has invited you here, and He has wooed you and wed you to Himself, not because of any righteousness in you, but for the sake of His Love and for the sake of His Righteousness.  He has not invited you here because you were His friend or His relative or His wealthy neighbor.  Indeed, you were none of these.  You had absolutely nothing with which you could ever have repaid Him.

But though He was rich, yet, for your sake, He became poor.  Not to line His pockets, but yours, so to speak; in order that you might inherit the real riches of God in Him.

Though you have been a child of sin and death — a child of the devil and his murderous lies, estranged from God and far removed from Him — the only-begotten Son of God has come to gather you in, to make of you a dear child of God, a beloved daughter or son of His Father in heaven, anointed by His Spirit.  So it is that you belong to His family, and all that He has is yours.

It is in His love for you that He seeks you out and gathers you in to Himself.  And in His mercy all your sins are forgiven.  All of your iniquities are pardoned.  All of your diseases and infirmities are healed.  Your sadness is turned into joy.  Your shame and humiliation are turned into honor.

Though you are a poor, miserable sinner, and you deserve nothing but punishment, and you could never repay the debt that you owe to God, and you have nothing to bring before Him, nothing to offer Him, Christ Jesus has come for you and given Himself for you.  He covers you with Himself.

He prepares a Table before you.  He sets it here in your presence.  He invites you to come and kneel at His Altar to receive these good Gifts which He freely gives.  And here you are, set before Him with your sickness unto death, with all your sins and griefs and sorrows, yet you are not turned away or cast aside.  He reaches out to you with His Word of the Gospel and with His own Life-giving Body and Blood.  He takes hold of you by grace.  He heals you and gives you Life.  He grants to you His Peace and true Sabbath Rest in His Father’s House within His holy Kingdom.

Though He does humble you with His Law, He does not do it to destroy you.  He humbles you, not to drive you away from Himself into despair, but in order to bring you into repentance and back to Himself in faith and love.  So has He done by His grace, and so He continues to do in His mercy.

And with the preaching of His Holy Gospel, His Word to you is this: “Friend, come up higher!”

He calls you His friend!  He invites you to come to His Table, to recline here with Him.  Therefore, come, and take and eat the Body of Christ, which He gives to you in peace.  And drink from this Cup His holy and precious Blood, which He pours out for you in love for the forgiveness of sins.

Here the Lord, the King, the Prince of Peace honors you; He blesses you, and He exalts you in His Righteousness, in His Resurrection from the dead.  He has pulled you out of the pit into which you had fallen.  He has lifted you up and seated you at His own side as a guest of honor at His Table.

Rejoice in the Lord, therefore.  Give thanks to Him and glorify His holy Name, forever and ever.

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

The Lord Is a Fierce Foe and a Fierce Friend

The Lord is a fierce Friend, and He is a fierce Foe.  He is the sort of Friend who tells you what you need to hear, whether you like it or not.  And He is a fierce Foe of your sin, because it is your enemy, of the devil who misleads you, and of the death that permeates your fallen flesh.

The Lord is a fierce Friend, and He is a fierce Foe, but He is also the Lord your God.  He speaks with the authority that belongs to Him as the Creator of all things.  And His Word to you is fire and water — a fire that threatens to consume you, and deep water that would drown and destroy you.

The thunder of His Word shakes the mountains and causes them to tremble.  It is a fierce Word, a storm that breaks over your head with dark and billowing clouds, thunderbolts and lightning.

God is not some senile old man who simply smiles and nods as you go about your way.  He does not pat you on the back and tell you it’s okay to go on sinning.

Do not confuse His Gospel with permissiveness.  And do not suppose that you can sin all you want, “that grace may abound all the more.”  The Lord your God loves you, He does not coddle you.  He does not speak peace where your heart is set against Him — He calls you to repentance.

Is His Word not a Fire that consumes the straw and stubble and hay within you?  Is His Word not, first of all, a Hammer that crushes you by exposing your sins and condemning them as wrong?

His Word is such a fierce Fire and a strong Hammer that pounds away, not because He delights in hurt, but because the way of sin is deadly and damnable, and because the way of Life with God is altogether different than that.  So, His Law is fierce, and it is relentless; and the One who is your fierce Friend becomes your fiercest Foe in causing His Word to be preached to you without pulling any punches — until the Lord accomplishes the purposes of His heart for you in Christ Jesus.

So, for example, in the midst of Jeremiah’s strong Word of condemnation against the people of Jerusalem who did not listen to the Lord their God, who persisted in their sins, who were prideful and presumptuous and worshiped false gods — in the midst of his strong Word against the “prophets” who ran though God did not send them, who spoke according to their own hearts instead of His — the Prophet Jeremiah also speaks of the Gospel when he says, “The Lord’s wrath and anger will not be set aside until the Lord has accomplished the purposes of His heart.”

The thing is that, even when He is at His fiercest, and even when He is most ferocious with you, as though He were the roaring lion who would consume you — even then, the Lord purposes to save you by His grace in Christ Jesus, to give you Life with Him.  The purposes of His heart are deep divine Love, tender mercy and compassion, forgiveness of sins, and reconciliation with Him.

It is true that God is fiercely loyal.  And it is true that, as you live and abide in Christ Jesus, your sins will not be able to separate you from the Love of God, because He has atoned for them and forgives them.  But do not imagine that God ever takes your sin lightly.  And do not suppose that your sin is ever harmless, or that it does not cause great damage to you and to your neighbors.

No, the Lord your God is relentless and ferocious, until He has accomplished His purposes for you in Christ Jesus.  So, what is it, then, that Christ has come to do?

He has not come to bring “peace on earth.”  On the contrary, He comes with a sharp, two-edged Sword, whereby He divides and conquers.  He does come to establish Peace with God.  But Peace with God results in alienation with the sinful world; to be reconciled with God in Christ Jesus is to be turned away from your sin, the enticements of the devil, and the allurements of your flesh.

It is like that Pillar of Cloud by day and Pillar of Fire by night, by which God led the sons of Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and across the wilderness, until at last, through the waters of the Jordan, He brought them into Canaan as He had promised.  That Cloud and Fire were the very Glory of God in the midst of His people, which divided and separated Israel from Egypt, and so cut off the Egyptians from pursuing Israel, coming between the people of God and their enemies, Pharaoh with all his horses and chariots.  And that same divine Glory of God in Christ Jesus is set between you and your own self, between even your bones and marrow, dividing between the flesh and the spirit, between your body and soul, and at times between you and your family and friends.

It’s not as though God desires to break apart families.  Indeed, He calls you and commands you to love your spouse, to love your children, to love and honor your parents; to love your neighbor; to love even your enemies, and to pray for those who persecute you.  But He does also call you to separate yourself from unbelievers, to turn both your heart and your body away from false gods and idols, and to turn your heart, mind, eyes, and hands away from that which is your neighbor’s.

Likewise, the same Pillar of Cloud and Fire that leads you out of captivity into freedom, through the desert into the Promised Land, also separates you from Egypt — from all the sinful lusts and desires of your fallen flesh, and from all the sinful pursuits of your heart, mind, body, and soul.

Christ brings that division — for you and in you — by the way of His own Cross, which is both Law and Gospel, unto repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins.  Indeed, the death of Christ Jesus is your repentance, whereby you die with Him, that you might also rise and live with Him.

The Cross of Christ is both Law and Gospel, because it is in His Body on the Cross that you see the wrath and anger of God poured out against the sins of the world, including all of your sins.

There you see the Law of God fulfilled in the condemnation and punishment of sin, but so also in the faith and love of Christ Jesus, who willingly bears such wrath and anger against Himself in love for you and for all people, in the sure and certain confidence that His Father will raise Him.

That is the Redemption, the Reconciliation, and the Righteousness of God for you in Christ Jesus.  And it is for the sake of that precious Holy Gospel that God’s Law is so fierce, and for the sake of that Gospel that the Lord Jesus comes with such Fire and Brimstone, Thunder and Lightning.

He comes “to cast Fire upon the earth,” but He kindles it, first of all, in His own Body of flesh and blood, by the way of His Cross and Passion.  And it is from that accomplished fact of His atoning Sacrifice that He casts Fire upon the earth by the preaching of repentance, whereby He calls you to contrition, to sorrow over your sins, to regret them as very great indeed, and to flee from them to newness of Life in Him.  And by the fire of repentance, kindled in you by His Word and Holy Spirit, He cleanses you within and without, as gold and silver are cleansed and purified by fire.

He casts the Fire of His Spirit upon the earth, in order to work repentance and faith within you by His grace.  It is to that end that He has first of all kindled that Fire in Himself, beginning with His Baptism in the waters of the Jordan River.  There He submitted Himself to St. John’s preaching and Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  He submerged Himself in the water, taking all your sins, your death, and your damnation upon Himself, and then bearing it all in His Body over the next three years, until His Baptism was finally completed in His death upon the Cross.

And then, just as He had emerged and risen from the waters of the Jordan, and the heavens were opened, and the Father spoke, and the Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove, so did Christ Jesus also emerge from the tomb, arise from the dust of the ground, ascend into heaven, to the Right Hand of His Father, and pour out His Holy Spirit generously upon His Church on earth.

So, when you see the Cloud of His Cross rising in the west, in the domain of darkness where the sun has set, and you hear the south wind blowing that hot wind, the preaching of repentance, which shatters rocks and levels mountains, then analyze the present time and consider what this means.

Heed the preaching of repentance, and return to the significance of your Baptism into Christ Jesus.  Die to yourself, to your sins, and to the sinful world around you, and live unto God by faith in Him.

Turn away from your sins, knowing that all sin is contrary to the Will of the Lord.  Turn away from your grudges and your pettiness.  Turn away from all those false gods and idols that consume so much of your attention and affections.  Turn away from your anger.  Turn away from your despair.

But do not turn away from your neighbors.  Rather, where you have neglected them, repent of your sin and return to the Lord your God by loving and serving your neighbors in peace.  If you have withheld your heart from your spouse, then trust Christ and open your heart to your wife or your husband in love.  If your children have been disobedient and disrespectful, teach them obedience by your example, and teach them respect by the humility of your own repentance before God.

If you have not honored your parents, if you have not loved and cherished them and given thanks to God for your father and mother, then turn away from your sin and toward your parents in love.

Where you have lusted, repent and change your ways.  Avert your eyes.  Discipline your heart and your flesh.  Pray, and meditate upon the Word of God.  Where you have spent money recklessly, stop, and give alms to the Church and to your neighbor in his need.  And where you have been gluttonous or a drunkard, fast and pray, and exercise restraint.  Give your mouth to speak the Gospel and your hands to serve your neighbor.  And flee with your feet away from sin to do good.

And as you work to do all of these things, and you come up against the brick wall of your inability to make yourself righteous, realize that, while you can and should discipline your outward actions, you remain sinful from the inside-out.  And then fix your eyes on Jesus, and consider Him who has endured such hostility against Himself, and remember that for the joy set before Him He endured the Cross and did not consider the shame to be any deterrent, but gave Himself for you and for all.

Consider the example He has left for you to follow in His steps.  Consider how He turned the other cheek, how He bared His back to those who struck Him, how He forgave those who sinned against Him, how He did good and not evil.  But more than His example, see in His Cross the Gospel.  See the fulfillment of the Law, the satisfaction of its punishments.  See your reconciliation with God.

And do analyze the time, that it is growing short.  You know how to plan and consider for tomorrow.  You know how to find out what your work or school schedule is going to be.  You can check and see what the weather will be like.  You know how to tell when your car needs gas.  And you can read your neighbor to know when he’s about to blow a gasket, or when he needs a helping hand.

So also, analyze the present time, and consider the signs of Christ.  Look to the Cross, which is set before your eyes, that you might know the seriousness of sin, but also the greatness of God’s Love, His mercy and compassion, His Atonement and forgiveness.  Consider the signs to know that God is with you, the Pillar of Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by night that are set before you in Holy Baptism, and in the preaching of the Gospel, and in the Holy Absolution of all your sins.  And consider the death of Christ until He comes, who actually gives you His Body to eat and His Blood for you to drink.  In these you know the heart of God, your fierce Friend who is the fierce Foe of all your enemies, who deals with you by grace and calls you away from sin and death to Himself.

If the Hammer of God’s Law crushes you, then know that there upon the Cross the Son of God was crushed into the dust on account of your transgressions; so that, in raising the same Christ Jesus from the dead, God might again form Man from the dust of the ground in His Image and Likeness, and breathe into Him the Breath of Life — and so also raise you from death to Life in Him.

When the Law weighs heavy upon you, trust Christ and live.  Listen to His Word, pray according to His Promise, confess your sins and be forgiven, and receive the Gifts He so freely gives to you; for here is the Cloud by day, the Fire by night, and the Life-giving Wind of the Holy Spirit — here in the Cross of Christ Jesus, your Savior — that you should not perish but live forever and ever.

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

The Lord Jesus Is Faithful in All Things for Your Salvation

Dear little lamb of Jesus, have no fear!  Although you are small and weak, beleaguered, and mortal, you are more valuable to Christ Jesus than birds and flowers, more precious to Him than the ravens and the grass.  Has He not redeemed you for Himself, purchased and won you with His own lifeblood?  And has He not made His God and Father your own dear God and Father?  Yes, indeed, this is most certainly true.  So, then, your Father shall not only feed you and clothe you, as He does for the rest of all His creatures, but He has gladly chosen to give you His Kingdom.

Do the work that He has given you to do, even as the birds live and the flowers grow.  Do your work faithfully, but do it in love for God and your neighbor, and not as though your life depended on it.  And do not work to get treasures for yourself on earth, which will not last but perish.

Whatever God places into your hands, extend to your neighbor in mercy, in the confidence that God will surely continue to feed and clothe you according to His gracious providence.  He knows your needs, and He well provides them.  Be content, therefore, with the food and clothing that He gives to you by His charity — for you are worthy of none of those things, and yet, He gives them to you by His grace alone.  And you, in turn, feed and clothe Christ Jesus in your neighbor’s need.

Do not seek and strive after food and drink and clothing for this body and life.  Do not make that labor your righteousness, and do not make those temporal goods your treasure and your god.

But do seek the Kingdom of the one true God in Christ Jesus.  Not by work and worry, but by faith in the Gospel — in the clothing of Christ, with which He has clothed you in Holy Baptism, and in the Food and Drink of Christ, as you recline and rest here at His Table where He serves you.

Fix your heart and mind, your eyes and ears, your body, soul, and spirit on Him.  For the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, is your true and lasting Treasure — an unfailing Treasure in heaven — who has come down to earth for you and freely gives Himself to you here and now.

As He has done so, and as He continues to do so within His Church — and as the Father has not withheld His only-begotten and well-beloved Son from you, but has given Him for you — have no fear, but know that the true and only God gives Himself and all good things to you in Christ.

Though you do not yet see Him with your eyes, behold Him by faith in the Gospel, in His means of grace and forgiveness, and trust His great mercy and salvation.  You will not be disappointed.

Do not worry about what you will wear, but be dressed in readiness for Christ the Lord, clothed in His righteousness by His grace.  And keep your lamps lit, your loins girded, knowing that His Passover is at hand, the Sacrifice of His Body and Life having been offered once-for-all.

Do not worry about what you will eat or drink, but recline here at your Master’s Table, where He comes and girds Himself to serve you.  Here He washes your dirty feet and waits on you in love.  Here He is not only your Host, but your Waiter and your Meal, your Meat and Drink indeed.

Like a Thief in the night He comes, by the way and the means of His Cross, with the Fruits of His Cross, given and poured out for you, the Body and Blood of this true Lamb of God who was slain for your Salvation.  “See, His Blood now marks our door; faith looks to it, death passes o’er.”

Pharaoh is undone.  Egypt is plundered.  Even Satan, strong though he be, is bound and cast out.

For here is the true Solomon, the Son of David, the King of Righteousness, the King of Peace.  And not only that, but He is your great and merciful High Priest forever, who brings in bread and wine, who blesses God and blesses you, and who feeds you such a great Feast that you could never have imagined.  Neither could all your work and worry ever spread such a Table as this one, which Christ has prepared for you by His own Cross and Passion.

Here is the true and promised Seed of Abraham, in whom all the promises of God are fulfilled, by whom all the nations of the world are blessed, by whose righteousness you are made righteous, being justified by His grace through faith in His Gospel.

So, then, do not be afraid.

Though you have been fearful, He has been steadfast.  Though you may yet be terrified, He has already prevailed for you and for all; and for you and for all He remains, forever and forevermore.

Though you have been anxious and worried about many things, He has been faithful in all things — in your stead and on your behalf.  And He is still faithful.  All that He has promised, He does, and He will do — for you and your salvation.

Though you have not been watching, waiting, and alert, He has been ready, willing, and able at all hours of the day and night.  From the rising of the sun even to its going down, and through all the watches of the night, He is and ever has been vigilant in His care for you, just as He has gone to the Cross for you, and risen from the dead for you, and ever lives to make intercession for you, and reigns over you in love for all eternity.

This greater Solomon — in all His Glory — has fasted and gone without food for His Body; for His food is to do the Will of His Father, and He has hungered for His Father’s Kingdom and His Father’s Righteousness, in order that you might be fed in His Peace.

This greater Solomon — in all His Glory — has thirsted, even unto death, that He might pour out the living Water of His Holy Spirit generously upon you, and cleanse you and quench your thirst with the Life-giving River of holy Water and royal Blood from His open heart and wounded side.

And, dearly-beloved child of God, as the Lord Jesus has opened His heart to you, know that you are His treasure, and He is now and ever with you where you are.

This greater Solomon — in all His Glory — has gone naked in open public shame, that He might clothe you with His garments of divine Sonship and eternal Salvation.

Listen to His Word, and take to heart what He says and promises: Christ Jesus has come, and He has opened the door to you.  Here within His Holy House, He has girded Himself to serve you.  So, recline here at His Table, and receive what you did not expect:  Food from His hand.  Drink from His Cup.  Life from His death.  Perfect Peace, instead of endless worries and frustrations.  Safety from all that has frightened you and hounded you.  Sabbath Rest from all your labors.

Here is your true Fatherland, the Country you’ve been waiting for.  Here is the City of the living God, and here is your Father’s House, whose Architect and Builder is Christ Jesus, your Savior, to whom be all the glory, honor, worship, and thanksgiving, now and forever.

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

The Divine Greatness of the Lord's Divine Self-Sacrifice

The heartbeat of the Christian faith and life is the Cross and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is likewise His Cross which His disciples are given to receive, to carry, and to rely upon for Life.  For it is in the Cross of Christ that true divine greatness and the almighty power of God are made perfect in His voluntary weakness and demonstrated in His mercy and pity toward us poor sinners.

He has such compassion and bestows His charity upon you, not from some high and lofty distance, but up close and personal, in His own flesh and blood.  Nor is His giving to you like the painless writing of a check from your disposable income to this or that cause or charity for the sake of a tax write-off.  No, His divine charity is the true greatness and real strength of self-sacrificing love and voluntary suffering for the sake of saving you, even though you have no way to repay Him.

So, then, in answer to the disciples’ questions and discussion, it is Christ Jesus alone who is the greatest of all.  He stands head and shoulders above any and all other contenders.  Indeed, He is lifted up above all others when He is lifted up in His death upon the Cross — and when He is then raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of His Father in everlasting glory and honor.

Again, His greatness is found precisely in His grace and mercy toward us, which He exercises in His obedience to the Father and in His humble service to the point of His death upon the Cross.  It is in love for His Father, and in steadfast perfect faith in the Father who sent Him, that He takes up that Cross and offers up His Body and Life upon it in love and compassion for His neighbor.

In doing so, He has made Himself the Least of all and the Servant of all.  The almighty and eternal Son of the Living God has become like a little child.  More than that, He actually was conceived and born as the little Child of St. Mary, in order to redeem the world and everyone in it, to rescue all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve from sin, death, the devil, and hell, by His own death.

To be and to live like a little child, as Jesus has done for you and your salvation, is to live by faith in the Lord your God, in His Word and promises.  It is to rely on Him and to receive all that you need from His hand by way of those He has given to care for you.  It is to boast not in yourself but in His grace and mercy, and to give to Him all your thanks and praise in body, soul, and spirit.

It is by living in this way on your behalf, by faith in His Father, in flesh and blood like your own, that Christ Jesus has humbled Himself to serve you and save you at the cost of His own Body and Life.  So has He atoned for your sins, reconciled you to God, and poured out His Spirit upon you.

Of course, this is the great irony and paradox of Christianity, that forgiveness, Life, and Salvation are obtained by the Cross of Christ Jesus and given to you by and from that same Cross; so that your true and only Life — your only real Life — is found in His innocent suffering and death.

Those who are called and catechized to be the disciples of this same Lord, Jesus Christ — who are called to follow Him and learn from Him — are thus taught by His Word and by His example to be and to live like Him: in faith toward God and in fervent love for those He places around you.

So do you become like a little child and live by faith in your dear God and Father.  And so do you also bear the Cross of Christ Jesus in self-sacrificing love and humble service for your neighbors in their need.  Not simply trading favors, tit-for-tat — not doing good merely for those who are able to repay you in some way or another — but sacrificing yourself, expending your time, your treasures, and your talents in service to others, for no other reason than that of holy charity.

Understand, first of all, that you actually are “a little child” in relation to the Lord your God, like a newborn infant.  You are absolutely and completely dependent on Him for everything; and you are not able to repay Him in return.  And as that is how it is for you, so learn to love and care for your brothers and sisters in Christ and for all your neighbors in the world, regardless of their age or abilities, in the way that your dear Father in heaven cares for you and all His beloved children.

In particular, care for those who actually are little children, even yet hidden in the womb.  And by the same token, care for those who are like the little children — who are innocent and simple in their thinking, in their abilities and way of life.  Care for all such little ones, because they are so small and weak and helpless — because they are not able to help themselves or to help you, but they need your help — and do what you can to care for them as an instrument and agent of your God and Father in heaven, much like an older brother or sister caring for your younger siblings.

To live in these ways, both in general and in particular — that is, to receive what you need from God, and then to give to your neighbor as the Lord your God gives to you — that is nothing more nor less than to live by faith and in love as a Christian.  It is to live by the Cross and by the fruits of the Cross of Christ Jesus, and to bear such fruits for others after the same kind — at your own expense, as needs may be, even unto death, in the hope and confidence of the Resurrection.

Sure sounds good, doesn’t it.  Except that it really is no wonder that the disciples were afraid to ask Jesus what He meant when He told them where He was going and what was going to happen to Him there.  They did not want to know or understand the Cross — not His, and certainly not their own.  That is not at all the kind of “greatness” they were discussing on the way.

It’s not what you’re after for yourself, either; not according to your sinful, mortal flesh.  It’s quite the opposite of what you want.  Your old Adam has other ideas and altogether different desires!  You don’t want suffering, you want prosperity and pleasure.  You don’t want to serve, you want to be served — except when you can promote yourself and feel good about yourself by serving others, in such a way that you’re able to place yourself above them, as though you were superior.  In general, you want other people to care for you, to provide for your needs, to cater to your wants, to be at your beck and call — or, better yet, to do what you want without your asking — none of this as though it were a matter of charity (or grace), but as though you were deserving of it all.

As you make your way through life, as you chart your course and blaze your trail, you also discuss and contemplate your greatness vis-à-vis others.  Not the greatness of the Cross, but the greatness of the world with its idols.  For that prize you compare and contrast, you jockey for position, you compete with your neighbor, and you maneuver for your own advancement, benefit, and profit.  That is what occupies your attention, because that is what grips your heart and mind.

Consequently, you are not able to comprehend the Cross and Passion of Christ Jesus, who lays down His life and sacrifices Himself, not for His own benefit, but for the benefit of others, even for those who have hated Him and been at odds with Him, in order to rescue them from their own predicament, from their sin and death, and to reconcile them to His God and Father in peace.  He goes out of His way to make friends of His enemies, and to make life better for them, and to bring them to God.  Such divine, self-sacrificing love is pure grace and utter charity — and so contrary to your own instincts of survival, self-preservation, self-promotion, and self-righteousness.

So, that is why you must be catechized, put to death, and born again to a new and better life — all by the Word and Spirit of God, by the preaching of the Law and the Gospel, unto repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins — in order that, by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, you should thus become a little child of God and a faithful disciple of the same Lord Jesus Christ.

And with that, bear in mind that the only true and lasting greatness is that of Christ Jesus Himself, who has become, for you and for all, the Least and the Last, the faithful Servant of both God and Man, the Sacrifice to end all sacrifice for sin.  For not only has He become the little Child who lives by faith in His Father, but so is He also the sacrificial Lamb who lives and dies in love for God and for His neighbors, who takes upon Himself and takes away the sins of the whole world.

This is the great service that He has rendered and accomplished for you and for all people.

And it is in this greatness of His own Cross and Passion that He gently calls you to Himself, again and again, and catechizes you by and with His Word and Holy Spirit unto repentance, away from sin and death to faith in Him.  And as the Father has raised Him from death and the grave and has seated Him at His right hand in glory, so does He raise you from death to Life, now and forever.

So has He given you a brand new birth, and He has made you a little child of His God and Father by your Holy Baptism into His Cross and Resurrection.  That is who you are.  No matter how old you are, no matter how smart you are, no matter how strong you are, no matter how wealthy you may be, and no matter how much stuff you have (all of which is going away) — yet, for now and forever, you are God’s own child, a little child whom He takes into His arms and takes care of.

That is what He has done for you by way of your Baptism in His Name.  In much the same way, throughout your life He continues to send His servants to preach and teach His Word, to catechize you unto daily repentance, to forgive you all your sins in His Name and stead, and to nourish your faith and life in Him by the means of His Gospel within the household and family of His Church.

He teaches you to be and to live as a child of God, not by the force and fury of His Law, but by caring for you and providing for you, by loving you relentlessly, in spite of your sins, in spite of your unbelief, ingratitude, petty grumpiness, and persistent disobedience.  It is in mercy that He calls you to repentance for all of those sins and for all of your other sins, especially by calling you to the great goodness of His grace, to the forgiveness of His Gospel, to the free gift of His Love.

Not only does He feed and clothe and shelter you, guard and protect you, guide and lead you for this body and life on earth, but He freely gives you His own divine Life in body and soul, for now and forever.  Which is to say that He feeds and clothes and shelters you, He guards and protects you, He guides and leads you, and He brings you to the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of your body and soul with Himself in the Kingdom of His God and Father.

As this one Lord Jesus Christ has given Himself for you and for all — unto His sacrificial death upon the Cross — so does He now give Himself to you from the Cross in the Sacrament of His Altar.  He humbles Himself in the elements of bread and wine in order to feed you from His own nail-scarred hands, to serve you with His own holy Body, and to pour out for you, not only cold water (refreshing as that is), but that Cup which is the New Testament in His precious Blood.

Receiving these good Gifts which Christ Jesus freely gives, you receive the Lord God Himself in His mercy, and you partake of His divine, eternal Life.  That is the true greatness of Christ and His Cross, which is now also yours as a child of God in Him, by His grace through faith in His Gospel.

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

To Hear and Speak the Word of Christ Jesus

Words matter.  Indeed, words make all the difference, because God does everything by His Word.

You already have at least some awareness of this fact.  You know how powerful words can be — to hurt, or to help: They can totally make or wreck your day, your week, or whole seasons of time.

Words matter.  For the Lord your God does everything by His Word, from the Creation to the Redemption of His Creation; and you, being made in His Image and Likeness, are created to speak.

What you say matters.  And not only what you say, but how you say it.  And what you don’t say, that matters, too.  And all of your speaking, whether it be good or bad, depends on your hearing.  Garbage in, garbage out.  But if you hear the Word of Christ, that is what you speak and confess.

You cannot fear, love, and trust in the one true God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, nor can you confess Him rightly with your lips, except by the hearing of the Word of Christ.  You cannot pray, praise, or give thanks, and you cannot call upon His Holy Name, except by the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus.  You cannot bless God, nor can you bless your neighbor, if you are not hearing and receiving the blessing of God’s Word.  Apart from His Word to you in Christ Jesus, you can do nothing but curse, swear, lie, and deceive, grind your teeth, and foam at the mouth.

That is why it is so basic and fundamental to the faith and life of the entire Church on earth, and why it is so necessary to your own Christian faith and life, that there be preachers and teachers of the Word of Christ Jesus.  That is why preachers must be sent to preach repentance and forgiveness in His Name, and teachers must teach as the oracles of God; and disciples must listen and learn, and hear and heed the Word of Christ, in order to follow Him, believe in Him, and live in Him.

To be a Christian is, above all else, to be a hearer of the Word of Christ.  That is the first and most important thing that a Christian is given to do — to hear the Word that Christ Jesus preaches into your ears.  And to be a Christian is then also to confess with your mouth the Word that you have heard — to speak what God the Father has spoken to you by His Son, Christ Jesus — and by that Word to pray, praise, and give thanks, to call upon the Name of the Lord from a heart of faith.

To speak with the mouth of a disciple is to glorify the Name of the Lord by confessing who He is and what He has done, by speaking what He has spoken.  And it is precisely with that Word, with that confession, that you are able to sustain the weary one with the Word of Christ Jesus.

Is someone you know and love hurting?  Then, along with whatever good you can do for that person in his or her body, do not neglect to speak the Word of Christ.  Indeed, speak that Word of Christ to all of your neighbors.  For words do matter; and the Word of Christ matters most of all.

It is by the Word of Christ that the weary are comforted and sustained.  That is the main thing that pastors are given to do — to sustain those who are weary with the Gospel of Christ Jesus, with the forgiveness of sins in His Name.  And that is why pastors are held to such a strict accountability for their words and work, because everything depends upon the preaching and teaching of Christ.

But so also, in turn, are husbands and wives to speak that Word of Christ Jesus to each other.

And fathers and mothers — along with everything else you are given to do, and really above all of your other responsibilities as parents — you are to catechize and care for your children with the Word of Christ Jesus.  Not only by careful and consistent instruction, as an academic subject, but especially by way of your example, by your own speaking, by what you say and how you say it.

It is by the preaching of the Word of Christ Jesus that the entire Body of His Church is bridled and guided, just as a horse is bridled and as a ship is guided by its rudder.  And much the same thing is true in your home and family.  The way you speak guides the entire course of your household, whether it is in harmony with the Word of Christ or completely out of sorts and out of sync.

Consider the consequences of your words for those entrusted to your care.  If you speak the Word of Christ Jesus to your children, for example, they will learn to confess and to pray in His Name.  What is more, they will learn to know and love Jesus Himself in your speaking; because there is no other way to know the Lord Jesus, except by the speaking and hearing of His Word.

By the same token, tragically, when you routinely curse, swear, lie, and deceive in speaking to and around your children, that is what they learn to know and to speak.  Garbage in, garbage out.

Consider the example of that father at the foot of the mountain in the Holy Gospel this morning.  And think of how he differs from that faithful Syrophoenician woman in last Sunday’s Gospel.

Remember how she prayed?  There were no ifs.  There were no demands.  With her there was only the prayer of confident faith, even in the face of the Lord’s apparent rejection.  “Lord, help me.”  She knew that He could do it — and she trusted that He would — so she just kept on praying.

But this Dad today just doesn’t get it, leastwise not at first.  And you can feel for him, because your own circumstances, your own experience and feelings are not so different.  “I told Your disciples to do it, and they couldn’t; but if You can help me, do something.”  This is not the prayer of faith but of last resort and desperation, a case of clinging to the Law and making bargains and demands.

So, in this case, the father has to be catechized first.  He needs to hear the Word of Christ Jesus, in order to confess and pray rightly; so that he, in turn, will have a Word of the Lord with which to comfort and sustain his weary son.  For only by the ongoing catechesis and confession of the Word of Christ Jesus will the demons be kept at bay and prevented from coming back seven times worse than before.  Only by the Word of Christ will father and son be preserved in faith and life.

These are not fairy tales.  This isn’t make-believe or let’s pretend.  You also are given to hear the Word of Christ.  You are given nothing else, finally, nothing that will remain or save you; but you are given the Word of Christ, and everything depends on that.  If you would bring your family to Jesus — if you would have them live and not die — then hear, confess, and pray His Holy Word.

You cannot confess what you have not heard.  You cannot pray except by the Word and Spirit of Jesus.  And you cannot forgive your neighbor, except as you are forgiven by the Lord your God.

It is by the Word of God in Christ Jesus that all of this is accomplished and happens.  But the Word of God is not a magical formula.  The Word of God is not a mantra to be invoked, like the artificial intelligence on your phone, as though He were at your beck and call and subject to your whims.

The fact is that you can’t even open your ears to hear His Word, nor can you open your own mind and heart to comprehend and believe it.  You live by His grace, not by your own work or efforts.

You can’t convert your neighbor, either, not by your own eloquence or savvy.  It’s not a matter of finally getting the right combination of all the right words to convince your neighbor that you’re right about this or that.  The Word of God does not aim at “winning” arguments.  It doesn’t debate the truth but simply declares what is so, the Law and the Gospel, unto repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins.  The one true God does not have to prove Himself to you or to your neighbor; but He speaks to you in love — and He would have you speak His Word to your neighbor in love — because it is only by His Word that you and your neighbor are given to live by faith in Christ.

To that end, it is absolutely fundamental that you must keep on listening and learning, hearing, and heeding the Word of Christ Jesus.  Even if it were true that you’ve heard it all before, and even if you actually remembered every syllable of the Holy Scriptures — even so, you would still need to hear the preaching of God’s Word, not for the sake of “education” and “information,” but for the forgiveness of sins, for faith and life in Christ Jesus.  For it is by His Word that He is with you.

Apart from the Word of Christ, there is nothing but darkness and death, and separation from God, which is the essence of damnation.  But He has not abandoned you, despite your stubborn sin and fatal unbelief.  As He created all things out of nothing by His Word for the sake of His divine and holy Love, so does He draw near to you in love, by and with His Word, in order to give you Life in and with Himself.  As He preaches His Word into your ears, He Himself is thereby with you.

So, do keep listening to His Word and the preaching of it; and do keep speaking His Word.  But understand that, even with that effort and that discipline to hear and heed His Word, it is still not by your own intelligence, knowledge, or wisdom that you believe and trust in Christ Jesus.  No, that is by the power of the Word itself — by the working of the Holy Spirit through that Word.

So, too, for your neighbor as for yourself, and for all your family and friends, speak the Word of Christ in faith and confidence; but know that you cannot force or constrain anyone to believe it.

As often as you listen to the Word of God, and as often as you speak His Word, pray to Him.  Call upon His Name.  For the demons that prevent you from hearing and speaking the Word of the Lord “can only come out by prayer.”  Take that seriously, and pray that Christ Jesus, by His Word and Holy Spirit, will open your ears to hear, your heart to believe, and your lips to confess His Name.

That is the point and purpose of the Collect of the Day.  For the Church does not even presume to hear the Word of God by her own efforts, intelligence, or powers, but she rather beseeches and depends upon the Spirit of the Lord, that she would not be deaf and dumb to what He says.

Listen with confidence that the Lord wants you to hear what He says.  Listen with that confidence, but not presumptuously.  And as you hear, so also speak with confidence, but not presumptuously.  Rather, pray and intercede that you and your neighbor would hear and believe the Word that God the Lord here speaks to you.  For it is only by God’s grace that anyone does.

Do not imagine that it’s easy, not at all.  For now you are caught like that poor father at the bottom of the mountain, down in the valley between faith and unbelief, between life and death — between God and the devil, as Luther’s life was described.  Scary stuff.  And left to yourself, you can’t win.

Not only that, but when the Church’s prayer is answered and the Word of Christ strikes home in your heart and life, then there is a strange and dreadful strife that rages within you.  Then you are thrown into the fire and the water, as it were, as though to be utterly destroyed.  And the truth of the matter is that the Word of Christ Jesus does put you to death.  The Sword of the Spirit slices and dices between your very bones and marrow and cuts you to the quick of your unclean spirit.

But take heart, for this is the fire of the Holy Spirit and the water of His rebirth and regeneration; and this is the death of Christ having its way with you, even the death of His Cross.  And by these ways and means of His Word you are brought to repentance and to faith and to life through the free and full forgiveness of all your sins, so that death and the devil will not get to have the last word.

See, here now is the hand of One who has come down from heaven to help you and to save you.  Here is the hand of the One who has gone through the fire and the water, through death and the grave — ahead of you and for you — in order to deliver you, and to open the way of Life for you.

Here is the hand of the Crucified and Risen One, whose tongue and lips speak Peace and Life to you — who prays for you at the Right Hand of God the Father — and whose Spirit also intercedes for you at all times, even when that deaf and mute spirit has shut your ears and shut your mouth.

Here is the hand of the One who lays hold of you in love, who raises you up with Himself from death to Life — who has opened your ears to hear and your heart to believe — who opens your mouth and your lips and places on your tongue His own Word-made-Flesh.  So that, as you have heard, so may you believe, and so may you speak, and so may you live by His grace everlasting.

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

Cleansed Inside and Out by the Word of God in Christ Jesus

If you think back to Genesis and the story of the Fall into sin, there in the Garden of Eden, it might well strike you as odd for Jesus to say, here in this Holy Gospel, that what you eat does not effect the heart or defile you.  After all, wasn’t that the whole problem, to begin with, in the case of Adam and Eve?  And as you move through the Old Testament, it was the Lord Himself who differentiated between the clean and unclean animals and gave specific dietary laws for His people to follow.

But the key to understanding all of this — at ground level and from the inside-out — is the Word that God the Lord has spoken.  It is what He has said concerning this or that food that matters.

The truth is that sin and death are not caused or determined by food, leastwise not in itself.  Indeed, food belongs to God’s good creation and is basic among His good gifts to man.  Neither food nor drink of itself can defile or cleanse you, damn you or save you.  Neither fasting nor feasting make you righteous before God.  But the way that you receive and use His good creation — including the way that you consume the food and drink He gives to you — all of this is measured by His Word to you, whether you are acting in faith and love, or in disobedience, idolatry, and unbelief.

All things, St. Paul writes, are sanctified by the Word of God and prayer, and the Lord’s good creation is to be received from His open hand with thanksgiving (as in the Eucharist).  All things are lawful to those who trust in the Lord, and all foods are clean to the one who eats and drinks in such faith, as the gifts of God are regarded and used in accordance with His Commandments.

Faith is content, satisfied, and happy with whatever God has given to you, be it a lot or very little.  And faith is happy for your neighbor, too, with whatever God has given to him, even if it happens to be considerably more than He has given to you.  And you need not be afraid to enjoy and make use of whatever the Lord has entrusted to your stewardship in the freedom of faith in Christ Jesus.  Nor should you be angered by what you do not have, as though your life actually depended on that one thing — or those great many things — which the Lord your God has not given to you.

In faith you are neither angry nor afraid of anything, because you are at home and at peace in your Father’s world.  You are a beloved child living in His House, a free citizen of His Kingdom.

So, what has gone wrong?  And why is it that your life in the flesh is so precarious and difficult?

Well, flesh and blood are not your enemy.  Neither your neighbor’s flesh and blood, nor the flesh and blood of any creature.  Not food or drink but the devil is your enemy with his assaults and accusations.  He tempts you to sin, and then he drives you to despair when he has led you into sin.  And your sinful heart is not only vulnerable to his attacks; it is outright complicit with the devil and this sinful world.  You actually conspire with your worst enemy to your own hurt and harm.

Now, back in the Garden, Adam and Eve did not eat according to God’s Word in faith — that was the problem.  Instead, they disobeyed what He had spoken to them, beginning already with their doubt of His Word and His promises.  And you are their child and heir; you see the fruits of that in your life, in your heart and mind, in your thoughts and feelings, and in your words and actions.  You do not fear, love, and trust the Lord your God, and neither do you heed His Commandments.  Hence, you have no peace or rest, and you do not feel safe and secure in the world, because you do not believe Him.  You do not believe His promises, and you do not trust His providence.

Because your heart is not right with God, your life in the world is not righteous and holy, either.  Instead of receiving and using God’s good creation rightly, you either despise and demonize it with contempt, or you idolize and worship the creation as a false god.  You also sin against your neighbor in what you think and say and do.  You hurt him and speak ill of him.  You take his stuff, or you would if you could get away with it.  You covet his spouse and his children.  You burn with envy and jealousy, hatred and lust, because you lack the wisdom and understanding of God.

With such a sinful heart, you don’t even know how to live, not really.  You may think you do.  You may have many aspirations, and you may suppose that you’re hittin’ or missin’ the mark.  But the truth is, you don’t really know how to live.  Apart from faith in Christ, you are not able to “possess the land,” even though God gives you all good things by His grace.  You do not see or trust what He is doing for you, and so you stumble about from one sin to another, finally falling into death.

But now, listen to Christ Jesus.  Hear what He says, even before it begins to make sense to you.  For you won’t have the ears to hear until He has first of all opened your ears with His Word.

It is by His Word and by His Holy Spirit through the Gospel that He has called you into His House to catechize you here, to make you a disciple, a Christian, by His grace through faith in His Word.  By this catechesis, as by your Holy Baptism, He has made of you a new creation.  Indeed, all things are made brand new in the Body of Christ Jesus, crucified and risen.  And all things are cleansed and sanctified by the Word that He speaks to you.  So, then, listen to Him and hear what He says.

From out of your own sinful heart — Jesus has clearly told you — out of your own sinful heart proceed all kinds of evil things.  He gives you a fair number of examples, but there’s even more than you could ever realize.  It is the Spirit who searches your heart and tries your mind.  Only God can show you the full extent and depths of your sin — which is what comes out of your heart.

But out of His great heart of love, in striking contrast, grace and mercy and peace spring forth, unto forgiveness and Life and Salvation.  That is what proceeds from His heart — for you and for all.

The Son of God has come forth from the Father, and He has become flesh and blood for you and your salvation, indeed, for all the world.  In divine and holy love, He has entered into and become a part of His own Creation by His conception and birth of St. Mary.  And that too was by His Word and Holy Spirit, for everything the Lord your God does, He does by His Word and Holy Spirit; and as the Angel Gabriel said to the Blessed Virgin Mary, “With God, no Word shall be powerless.”

So this is what the Lord Jesus Christ has done.  And not only that.  He has redeemed and sanctified all flesh and all of creation in His own Body by way of His Cross and in His Resurrection.

Not only has He atoned for all of your sins by His sacrificial death and by the shedding of His holy and precious Blood, but in Himself — by His own life in His Body of flesh and blood like yours, and by His bodily Resurrection from the dead — He has established the righteousness of faith and love for you and for all the sons and daughters of Adam & Eve.  As the true Man, He has set things right between God and man, not just abstractly, not just in general, but also for you.  Both inwardly and outwardly, now and forever, Jesus has made everything right.

And all of this that He has done for you (and for all) is what He also now gives to you (and to His whole Church on earth), as He gives you Himself and all the fruits and benefits of His Cross and Resurrection by His Word of the Gospel, the forgiveness of all your sins, and by and with His own Body and Blood, given and poured out for you, Christian, to eat and to drink in His Holy Supper.

This Word that He speaks to you — the Word of the Gospel that is preached to you, and the Word of the same Gospel in the Holy Sacrament — “Take, eat, this is My Body; drink, this is My Blood, for you, for the forgiveness of sins” — this Word of Christ Jesus which He speaks to you, into your ears and your body, declares you to be clean.  He speaks, and it is so.  You are holy and righteous before Him and in Him, in the presence of His God and Father in heaven, because Jesus says so.

He cleanses and sanctifies your heart, mind, body, and soul by the free and full forgiveness of all your sins.  So has He done by the washing of the water with His Word in Holy Baptism; and so does He continue to do by the catechesis of His Word and by the preaching of the Holy Gospel.

That is the Truth with which you are girded: All of your sins are forgiven.  You are holy, innocent, and pure.  Your body, soul, and spirit are blameless in Christ Jesus, your Savior.

That is the Truth, and that is your righteousness — the righteousness of Christ which is credited to you by faith in His Word — the righteousness by which your heart and conscience are guarded from attack, so that the flaming darts of the devil cannot pierce you and bring you to utter ruin.

Such is your perfect peace with God in Christ, in which you now live in love for your neighbor within your own station in life, and by which you do “possess the land” that God has given you.

So, take up this shield of faith by giving heed to the Word of Christ, by listening to Him, and then by confessing what He has spoken.  And wear the helmet of salvation by filling your head with your Savior’s Voice.  Let Him permeate your inward thoughts and your outward conversations.

Don’t suppose that you can shut out the devil and his lies by sticking your fingers in your ears and wagging your tongue at him.  Rather, fill your ears with the Truth of Christ Jesus.  Give attention to the preaching of His Word.  Listen to it, read it, repeat it, and sing it for yourself and others.

And then take up the Sword of the Spirit by confessing what you have heard and, as St. Paul has instructed you, by the prayer and intercession of the Word of God.  Pray.  Pray for the mercies of the Lord.  Pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  And pray for the heart and mind of Christ Jesus.  Pray in this way, knowing and believing that your Father in heaven hears and answers your prayer according to the Word and promise that He has spoken to you by His beloved Son.

And pray also for the ministry and preaching of the Holy Gospel.  Pray specifically for your pastors in Christ Jesus — and for the pastors of our sister congregations and of the Church around the world — that the Ministers of Christ in every place would be enabled to wield the Sword of the Spirit for the benefit of the Church on earth, for your own sake and for the good of your neighbors.

That ministry and preaching of Christ Jesus come from outside of you, from the Lord your God who loves you.  They come to you from Him, in order to set you free from sin and every evil, and to feed you with a consecrated Food and Drink, which are the Body and Blood of Christ Himself.

This Meal of the Lord is a holy and Spiritual Food, which not only enters your mouth and your stomach, but into your very heart and soul, into your mind and spirit and your whole body, in order to cleanse you within and without, to heal you, and to give you Life with God forever and ever.

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

Trusting the Divine Doctrine of the Gospel

For the past few weeks, we’ve been hearing the preaching of Jesus following His Feeding of the Five Thousand, in which He declares Himself to be the Bread of Life.  The consequence of that Sermon was that many of His disciples went away, because it was simply too hard for them to believe what Jesus said about eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood.  The Twelve Apostles were a notable exception to this mass exodus; for by the grace of God they were able to confess, in the words of St. Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the Words of eternal Life?”

Still, the vast majority did not believe as Peter and the other Apostles did.  In fact, rumors about Jesus were evidently spreading far and wide; and in the Holy Gospel this morning from St. Mark, Pharisees and Scribes from Jerusalem have come to investigate this “religious trouble-maker.”

Sure enough, after watching Jesus awhile, they observe His Disciples breaking one of their many traditions; and so they accuse and criticize.  It is a mark of those who place their own traditions on par with the Word of God, that they must attack anyone else who does not follow the same path.

It is still the case that confessing and abiding by the Word of the Lord over against popular opinion and trendy behavior angers those who rely upon their own wisdom, reason, and strength.

In the case at hand, the “traditions” of the Pharisees were a special collection of teachings and opinions, rules and regulations, passed on by the rabbis in addition to the Law of Moses.  Over the course of six-hundred years, these traditions were gathered together into the “Talmud.”  And by and large, they were pious attempts to apply the Law of God to specific situations of everyday life.

At other times, sadly, the traditions were really man-made loopholes, whereby people attempted to circumvent the Will of God.  And to be sure, people are still prone to do the same thing today.

Even so, tradition in itself is certainly not a bad thing.  Indeed, traditions are generally quite good and practical — customs that have developed over the course of time via trial and error, embodying the collective wisdom of many generations — practices that most people would do well to follow.  But whenever human customs and traditions are made equal to the Word of the Lord — or, what is worse, when they are maintained in opposition to His Word — that is a serious problem.  And the fact is, the traditions mentioned in this case were held to be on par with the Holy Scriptures.

Most important of all, it would seem, were traditions that dealt with keeping things clean, such as the one about washing your hands before eating.  So seriously was this taken, by way of example, that one rabbi, after he was thrown into prison and given only enough water to drink, is said to have chosen to die of thirst rather than eating with unwashed hands.  Another rabbi taught that eating without washing was just as sinful as committing adultery.

And so it is that the Pharisees and Scribes try to condemn Jesus and His Disciples in this Holy Gospel, because the Disciples were eating without washing their hands as expected.

Now, especially after this past year or two, I imagine you would all agree that washing your hands before you eat is a good and sensible thing to do, and there’s no reason to suppose that our Lord would take exception to that.  But I dare say the Pharisees and Scribes were not really concerned about the Disciples’ health or personal hygiene.  Rather, they were themselves attempting to earn God’s favor by following this custom — and they condemned as sinful anyone else who did not.

It is this self-righteous attitude that contradicts and violates the Word of the Lord.  For the Lord requires that you be clean on the inside — that you must be spiritually clean in all your thoughts, words, and actions.  But all the soap and hot water in the world won’t wash the dirt of your sin from your heart, mind, and soul.  No, you are clean and pleasing to God only by the suffering and death of His Son.  As St. John writes, “the Blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from sin.”

To be clear, the sins for which Christ Jesus died are not the neglecting of human traditions, but rather the breaking of God’s own holy Law — which you and all people are guilty of doing, whether you wash your hands or not.  But, because Christ Jesus was crucified for all of your sins and iniquities, the Law of God no longer condemns you.  And as the Lord your God no longer condemns you, no one else has any right to condemn you for the sake of their human traditions.

Again, it is not wrong to follow the traditions inherited from your fathers, especially in the case of those pious traditions that have been handed down from your spiritual fathers in Christ Jesus.  Many of those traditions are actually good and helpful, meet, right, and salutary, no less so than washing your hands before eating is a good and healthy habit to maintain.  And it is often the case that letting go of one tradition simply means adopting another, which may well be less beneficial.

But the way the Pharisees and Scribes were following and insisting on their traditions was not a healthy respect for the wisdom of the past.  Their traditions had actually become a rigid set of laws and by-laws, which were regarded and treated as equal to, or even superior to, the Law of God.  The Lord Jesus points this out, and He sternly condemns it.  For the fact remains that where you stand before the Lord your God is determined solely by His Word — by faith in His Word alone.

There are those who have claimed that we Lutherans follow human traditions in much the same way as the Pharisees and Scribes were doing.  And it is true that the Lutheran Church has made an effort to retain the ancient customs of the Christian faith.  We’re not a sect or a cult, huddled off in a corner by ourselves somewhere; we stand together with worshiping Christians from the time of Jesus onward.  And so we confess the Creeds of the Church, now many hundreds of years old; and we follow an order of Service similar in many respects to that which even the Lord and His Apostles used.  Granted, the particular details that we use are not commanded by God, and so should never be regarded as the basis of our faith.  But it is hardly fair to describe our Lutheran heritage as the “vain babbling of the heathen,” as I have heard from time to time over the years.

Consider this: The basic order and form of the Divine Service and many of the other traditions of the Lutheran Church, though not commanded per se in the Word of the Lord, are almost entirely derived from and based upon His Word.  And they have been knit together over the centuries in such a way that they focus your attention — not upon these various traditions for their own sake — but rather upon Christ Jesus and His gracious Gifts.  “Human traditions” they may be, but they direct you to the “doctrines of God,” to the Lord Jesus, and to His forgiveness, Life, and Salvation.

Although the Church on earth is free in respect to many of the forms of worship that she uses — so long as all things are done with integrity and in good order, with due reverence for the holy things of Christ Jesus, in love for all His people, and in harmony with the Holy Scriptures — the question should certainly be considered, “With what would this or that practice be replaced?”

Should the Lutheran Church, like so many others, let go of its clear focus on Christ and His Word in exchange for human feelings, flashy gimmicks, and current fads?  Or should we rather follow the steady example of our Lutheran fathers and mothers in Christ Jesus, who rejected only those traditions which detracted from the Word of God and His Gospel, and gladly kept those traditions which served and supported the Word and Sacraments of Christ in the unity of His holy Church?

Ironically, the Lutheran Church has also been criticized for its historic insistence on “orthodoxy” and “right doctrine.”  The word doctrine simply means official teaching; and here, of course, we mean specifically the teaching of the Lord God Himself, as He has revealed to us in His Word.  Significantly, genuine orthodoxy properly involves, not only this right teaching of God’s Word, but also the right worship or glorification of God — not only right doctrine, but right doxology.

It has always been true to some extent, and no less so now, that many ostensibly Christian churches have downplayed the Word of God in favor of social programming and humanistic philosophies.  Such churches have thereby minimized the Word of God to the point of obscurity, while treating the theories of man as doctrine.  Increasingly, there are those who would brazenly acknowledge that approach and boast of it as being more advanced, more up-to-date, and more sophisticated.  God forbid that we should go down that path, whether together or alone.  It will not end well.

But what exactly is the doctrine of God?  Certainly it includes His righteous Law — summarized in the Ten Commandments, which show you how to live and thereby also bring your sins to light.  But even more glorious is the Gospel, that most precious doctrine of God, by which He forgives your sins, justifies you in His sight, sanctifies you in Christ Jesus, and gives you His own Life.

The Lord your God speaks that marvelous Gospel to you, not only in His written Word, but also by the preaching of that Word, and by those Means of Grace which He Himself has established.  Thus, in Holy Baptism, you are united with Christ Jesus in His Cross and Resurrection, adopted as a beloved and well-pleasing child of God in Him, and anointed by His Holy Spirit.  In His Word of forgiveness your faith is strengthened and sustained.  And in the Holy Communion, you are fed with the Lord’s own Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins and for Life and Salvation in Him.

These precious Means of Grace and the entire Ministry of the Gospel in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ are not the “traditions of man” but are truly the “doctrines of God,” whereby He does exactly what He says and gives to you all that He has promised.  These gifts and graces of God in Christ Jesus are divine traditions, which He has handed over to His Church on earth for the sake of Salvation, and which He has preserved within His Church from generation to generation, from His pastors to His people in each place where He causes His Name and His Glory to dwell in love.

While we dare not allow human rules and traditions to contradict or undermine God’s holy Law, it is far worse to let them contradict His holy Gospel.  Beware of would-be “Christian traditions” which dictate a particular manner of life apart from the Word of the Lord.  Moralistic crusades against drinking and smoking and dancing and rock music, for example, may (or may not) be grounded in wisdom, reason, and healthy self-discipline; but such things are not the measure of Christian faith and life — else the Pharisees and Scribes were the very best “Christians” around!

Your faith and Life and Salvation do not depend or rest upon an avoidance of human vices in your life, but upon Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.  “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved!”  Thus says the Lord.  Any human tradition that adds or subtracts from this doctrine of God should be condemned for what it is: damnable works righteousness.  Avoid vices because they are bad, and practice good habits because they are good and right — but not as though to save yourself.

There is nothing in or of yourself that can obtain the righteousness of God.  Even your own best works are no better than filthy rags in His sight, utterly unworthy of His holiness.  Yet, for the sake of His own holy Love, the Holy Triune God has freely and graciously given You Himself and His own divine Life in Christ Jesus, by and with His forgiveness of your sins.  Thus are you holy and righteous in His sight by faith in Him, by His Ministry of the Gospel and the Gifts of His Spirit.

In place of your own works (good or bad), you are credited with the works and righteousness of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, your Savior and Redeemer.  And all the punishment that you have deserved — for placing your own traditions ahead of God’s Word, and for trusting and worshiping yourself instead of Him — all the punishment which you have thereby deserved, the Lord your God has taken away from you, taken upon Himself, and taken care of permanently.

By His Cross and Resurrection Christ Jesus has obtained eternal Life and Salvation for you and for all people.  That is what He so freely and graciously bestows upon you by the Divine Doctrine of His Word and the Holy Ministry of His Gospel.  Nothing else in heaven or on earth is sure and certain.  Nothing else is righteous.  Nothing else can save you.  And nothing else will ever do.

So it is that your strength and comfort are ever and always in the Word and Spirit of God and in the Holy Sacraments of Christ Jesus, which He here gives to you by His grace and in His mercy.  Thus do you receive what only He can give — the forgiveness of sins and Life with God in Him.

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