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.

Today this Scripture Is Fulfilled in Your Ears

It is an audacious claim that Jesus makes, not only for the people of Nazareth way back then, but also for you, right here and now. It is a claim concerning Himself, His Person, and His work as the Messiah, as well as a bold assertion concerning the preaching of His Word, that is, the Voice of the Lord which proceeds from His gracious lips and from the mouth of His servants into your ears.

By this Word of Christ — not simply a Word about Him, but the Word that He continues to speak to and for His Church — by this Word the most amazing things are done for you and given to you. But apart from this Word, there is neither life nor light, nor any hope or help for you.

By way of example, consider what great things and what tremendous benefits the washing of water with the Word of Christ does for you and gives to you and to your children in Holy Baptism. It works the forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this — all of this by the power and authority of His Word. Without His Word, it would be water only and not the Life-giving Baptism that it is. But by and with the Word of Christ, your Holy Baptism makes of you a living member of His Body, the Church, on earth as it is in heaven.

It is a pleasant and agreeable thing to hear and receive such lovely Gospel Words and promises, which are most certainly true. And yet, there is a problem: Your sinful heart does not believe and trust this Holy Gospel, for one thing, nor are you satisfied by these gracious Words that enter your ears and fall upon your body and life from the lips of your dear Lord, Jesus Christ.

His promises sound too good to be true as He speaks of deliverance, freedom, safety, and security in the Land of God. So you are skeptical and cynical to begin with. But patient you are not. For you covet and crave more tangible benefits than you have yet seen or held in your hands, and you would much prefer to have the promises of the Lord in your body and life right now, instead of waiting for the Resurrection of your body to the Life everlasting on the other side of the grave.

Meanwhile, your fallen flesh, your sinful heart and mind delude you to suppose that, in contrast to others, you actually deserve to have what you want by some right or rationality of “fairness,” despite the fact that for your sins you deserve nothing but punishment. The Lord does not owe you anything. But in defensiveness and desperation, you get angry, build up a big old head of steam, and become hostile toward the Lord and everyone around you when others appear to be receiving what you want for yourself. Such covetous desire is the root of all temptation and sin.

The same thing happens when it comes to the Church on earth. How often do you hear comments and complaints about what the Church ought to be like, what it should be and do, and how it should make you feel. Comparison and competition with the world are the ruling standard.

How many other such questions and criticisms go unspoken, perhaps within your own thoughts and feelings when you’re not hearing what you want to hear or getting what you want to get? It’s not for me to get inside your head or your heart, but ask yourself whether you are content with the Word of Christ and the gift and promise of His Gospel. Or do you covet what He does not give and resent the neighbor who appears to have what you do not? Are you jealous of Capernaum? Or of that other congregation with more people, more money, more of this, or maybe less of that? Such envy and jealousy will poison your heart and mind against the Lord Jesus and His gracious Gospel.

Truth be told, there are as many differing opinions as to how the Church on earth should be as there are people in the world shopping around for the savior and the sort of salvation that suits them. But there’s no real safety or security in that. No divine Wisdom or divine Life in it, either.

But the dear Lord Jesus bestows what only He can give, according to His good and gracious will, where and when and how it pleases Him, solely by the way and the means of His Word and the preaching of it. He does His mighty works and establishes the Kingdom of God here on earth, not by any might or cleverness of man — far less by any greed or grasping of man — but by the Cross that He first of all bears and then lays upon His disciples, and by the promise of His Resurrection, the surety of your own resurrection, which you cannot see but can only believe.

So, how shall you respond to this preaching of Jesus? Will you receive Him and embrace Him as your Savior on His terms, and rejoice in His divine Life and eternal salvation, although He comes to you and deals with you by and with the Cross? Or will you insist on your own way, on your own expectations, on your own pride and selfishness and greed, and drive the Lord Jesus away?

Oh, to be sure — and make no mistake about it — your unbelief, your sinful rejection, and your rebellion against Jesus will not thwart Him or prevent Him from accomplishing His great salvation. As surely as He has become Man, has sacrificed Himself once for all upon the Cross, has risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father, so surely will His Name be hallowed, His Kingdom come, and His Will be done. The only real question is, what will become of you?

How often shall you throw Him out — if not bodily, then by your attitude, and by your words and actions — before He simply passes through your midst like water through your hands and moves on to others, leaving you with nothing but your bitter resentment, to languish and die in your sins?

Take care, then, how you hear and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as He comes to you and speaks to you. Repent of your sinful unbelief, your covetous lust, and your angry rejection of His Word. Do not insist on your own wants and your own way, but rejoice in His gracious Voice and give thanks that He comes to you in Peace to atone for your sins and to reconcile you to God forever. Repent of all your sins, and find your help and hope and life in the preaching of His Gospel.

It is instructive to contrast the response of Nazareth to the preaching of Jesus with the response of the people in Nehemiah’s day when Ezra the priest read and preached the Law of God to them.

Take your cues from those who heard and repented, who were comforted with the mercies of the Lord and given to feast upon the gifts of His grace. Rather than hardening your heart and mind against the Lord and adding sin upon sin by rejecting and refusing to hear and heed His Word, humble yourself before Him, live by faith in His Word under His Cross, and worship Him with reverence and awe in your body, soul, and spirit. Fear, love, and trust in Him above all else.

It is the great irony and paradox of the Christian faith, that when the Law of God exposes you and condemns you as a sinner, just so does He open you up to His grace and mercy and declare you to be the object of His Gospel of forgiveness. For if you are a sinner, the Lord Jesus is your Savior. But if you refuse to be a sinner, then you refuse and reject the One who is the Savior of sinners.

It is indeed for this very purpose that He has come to you, and for which He has been anointed by the Spirit of God in His Baptism. He is here in the flesh to bear and carry the Cross, in order to save you from your sins, to redeem you from death and the devil, and to bring you to God as a member of His own crucified and risen Body. He comes to cleanse and heal you, to set you free from the bondage of guilt and fear, to fill up your poverty with His heavenly riches, and to feed your desperate hunger and deepest thirst with nothing less than Himself, His Body and His Blood.

None of this according to any merit or worthiness in you, nor by any pedigree or power in you. That is precisely the point! It is all by His grace, by His divine charity, to meet your real need.

If He does not relieve you of your loneliness and isolation; if He does not provide you with the spouse, the family, or the friends that you would so much like to have; if He does not cure all your aches and pains and hurts and anxieties, nor heal all your temporal, bodily ailments; if He does not make you rich and famous, or give you whatever else it is that you have demanded and expected in your sinful thoughts and desires — it is not because He has not come to be your Savior.

On the contrary, the Lord Jesus would have you recognize your real need for Him and so receive Him as your Savior from sin, death, the devil, and hell. And He would have you live by faith in His preaching, instead of living for earthly comforts and worldly achievements, which can be ever so delightful but are deceptive in their appearances because they do not last and cannot save you.

Indeed, if you are blessed by the Lord your God with many and great things here on earth, pray all the more fervently that He would “lead you not into temptation,” but that He would guide you by His Word and Spirit to use whatever He has put into your hands in godly faith and in holy love for Him and for your neighbor. Do not put your trust in such things which whither and fade like grass.

The harsh reality is that, whether you have much or little, your covetous and sinful heart will lead you astray to the left or to the right, either into sinful pride or else into faithless despair.

In your idolatrous fear, love, and trust in yourself and in other false gods, you will get frustrated, angry, and rebellious with Jesus, and you would just as soon cast Him out of your life altogether.

But for all of that, He has come to be the Savior of sinners. He comes to be your Savior, to speak to you the gracious Word of His Gospel, to absolve you of all your sins, to release you from the oppression of your old Adam, and to set you free from false belief, from pride, and from despair.

It’s all right here for you — in this preaching of His Word — sounding in your ears, even now — this Word of Christ that lifts you up and gives you His Life in place of your death and damnation.

Do not let it go right by you, in one ear and out the other. But give careful attention to His Word. Consider it, and cling to it, and take it to heart, irrespective of your fickle feelings and emotions.

It is the Word of the Word-made-Flesh that is here preached to you, which makes of your Holy Baptism a cleansing from transgression, from the vile leprosy of sin, and from the stink of death.

It is the Word of the Word-made-Flesh that is here spoken to you with such tenderness and peace, which feeds you from the never-empty Bread Box and the overflowing Chalice of His everlasting Marriage Feast; for He is your immortal Bridegroom, who lives and does not die forevermore.

As you now hear His voice in your ears, so eat of the Fat Portions which He gives into your mouth, and drink of the Sweet Wine which He pours out upon your lips and tongue for the forgiveness of all your sins. As He has spoken, so does He freely distribute these sacred Portions to you, and to the many who have nothing, because He has prepared this great Feast for His own Name’s sake.

Neither mourn nor weep, but rejoice in the Lord your God. For He rejoices over you in holy Love. As He forgives you all your sins and justifies you in His sight by the preaching of His Gospel, so by His Word does He delight in you with great joy, and by His Word you are strengthened in Him.

It is His Word of the Gospel which sanctifies this day and makes of it the day of salvation for you, and His Word of the New Testament which makes of this building His own House and Home, His dwelling place of peace, that you might live with Him in His Kingdom both now and for eternity.

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.

Dying to Live with Christ Jesus

The Law of God is not a comfortable or comforting word, though many people try to use the Law to get comfort for themselves.  The Law of God does not really work that way.  It exposes your sin by telling you to stop doing what you’re doing.  And it exposes your weaknesses, your frailties and faults, by commanding you to do things you haven’t been doing and really don’t want to do.

By way of example, St. Paul defines greed as “idolatry.”  He mentions a number of other sins that could lead you to suppose that he’s focused especially on the Sixth Commandment.  He refers to impurity, evil desires, and passion.  And maybe such things strike to the heart of your behavior; or maybe those particular commands make you think of those “other” people who are like that.

But then the Apostle goes on to say that your greed is idolatry, and with that he mows you down.  It’s not just sexual lust, but covetous desire for your neighbor’s property and possessions, position and power and popularity — for all those things that you suppose would make your life happy and easy — all of that coveting in your heart and mind, thoughts and feelings, is damnable idolatry.

The truth is that you do break the Sixth Commandment in your heart and mind, even if not with your body.  But it’s also the case that you break the First Commandment, first of all, and the Ninth and Tenth Commandments on a daily basis, and really all of the Commandments, the entire Law of God.  There is no one who is righteous.  No, not one, and not you  You do not do what God commands, but you continue doing what He forbids.

But your idolatry, your covetous lust and greed are not only sinful; they are foolish and deadly.  When you make a god out of money, out of flesh, out of food and drink, out of sleep, popularity, entertainment, hard work, or even your family, then you have made for yourself a god who cannot save you, a god who cannot give you life, a false god which is itself perishing and passing away.

To put your faith in such false gods — to live by such idolatry — will drive you to despair, and you will find no rest, not even at night.  Your heart and mind will churn, perhaps your stomach, also.  Even when you sleep, whether you dream or not, you will not get the rest that you need and long for; for day and night you are hounded by the Law of God and the devil’s accusations, by the wicked desires of your own old Adam, and by the enticing temptations of the world around you.

When you are driven by such faith in false gods, when you live by such idolatry, then your work is painful and grievous, even when it is good and right in itself.  When you are driven by idolatry, then loving your spouse is painful and grievous, and honoring your parents is painful and grievous, and caring for your children is painful and grievous.  Doing your job, paying your taxes, mowing the lawn, helping your neighbor, even listening to the Word of God — it’s all painful and grievous, and you find no joy or satisfaction in any of it, because your heart languishes without the true God.

It’s all striving after the wind, and see how much good that does you.  You can’t catch it in your hand or put it in a bucket.  Whatever you do gain is vanity — futile, empty, and chaotic at best.

Neither your labors nor the fruits of your labors can save you.  It doesn’t matter how much you make, it doesn’t matter how much you save or spend, it doesn’t matter how big your barns are or how much you put in them.  It’s all going to perish, every bit of it.  None of it will last.

Ironically, though, much of that perishing stuff will outlast you; and when you die, it will go to someone else — maybe a friend, maybe a child, maybe a complete stranger.  It may well be that some of the things you have prized so highly will be discarded as junk.  Things you thought were so important, nobody else will care about.  And things you worked so hard to get, someone else will take for granted, or give away without a second thought, or leave to get dusy in a closet.

Your stuff won’t save you.  You can’t get life for yourself.  It’s foolish and futile to try.

But real Wisdom — which begins and continues in the fear of the Lord — and the knowledge of God, and the joy and peace that surpass all human understanding, and real Life with God, now and forever — all of that Wisdom and knowledge and joy and Life are found in the death of Jesus.

The fallen world will never understand this.  If you get it, thank God the Holy Spirit that you do, because your old Adam would never understand this, either.  If you truly understand and believe that Life is found in the death of Christ, praise God the Holy Spirit, and Christ Himself be praised.

Whether you realize it or not, real Life — divine, eternal Life — is found in the death of Christ Jesus.  It’s not a life for which you have to strive and struggle or work and scheme.  In fact, you cannot get it for yourself.  Yet, it is given to you freely, without measure, poured out generously into your heart and your hands, into your ears and your mouth, into your body and your soul.

Life is found in the death of Christ, and the death of Christ is found in the waters of Holy Baptism — in which you and all the baptized drown and die and rise and live with Christ Jesus, our Lord.

That is where real Life is found: Life for today and tomorrow, for this whole week and month, for this whole coming year, and forever.  It’s found in the waters of your Holy Baptism, where you were crucified, put to death, and buried with Christ Jesus — where everything you are and have, all that you know, and whatever you have tried to do and accomplish has all been put to death.

It is by dying with Christ Jesus — by your Baptism in His Name, and by daily repentance in the ongoing significance of your Baptism — that you are raised up to live by faith in His forgiveness, in His Resurrection and His Righteousness, credited to you by grace through faith in Him.  For Life is found in the Fruits of His hard labor, in the sweat of His brow and the produce of His hands, as He has worked the land and cultivated the soil by laying down His Life in death and returning to the dust of the earth, sanctifying your grave with His own Body, and then rising from the dead.

He has ransomed your life with His own.  So, you’re already bought and paid for.  Everything is done.  It’s not on a credit card, it’s not even on layaway.  He’s already bought and paid for your Life with God forever.  He has ransomed and redeemed you from death and the grave with His own Body and Life, with own His holy and precious Blood, and with His innocent suffering and death.

Here is a Rich Man who does not build bigger barns so that He can lounge by the pool and party with margaritas.  Here is a Rich Man who has poured Himself out and given up everything, so that you, a poor, miserable sinner, can live with Him and not die forever.

So, when your idolatry, your greed and lust and selfishness, your covetous desire, your laziness, and your neglect drive you to despair, go ahead and finish the job and put to death the members of your earthly body.  Deprive yourself of what you want, and cling to what Christ Jesus gives.  Let yourself die to yourself, to the world, and to your sin, in order that you may live with God.

Put the members of your earthly body to death, as St. Paul writes, not by suicide, but by the Word and Spirit of God, by contrition and repentance, by examining yourself and confessing your sins.  Let go of your sinful desires, that you might receive and cling to the Gospel of Life in Christ Jesus.

If you would be your own shepherd and foolishly trust in your own words and your own works, in your own thoughts and ideas, in your own efforts and striving — which can only ever lay hold of empty wind — then, says the Psalmist, you are destined to die; your “shepherd” is death.

But here you have a better Shepherd, a Good Shepherd, Christ the Lord, who has laid down His Life for you and for all.  He has given Himself over to death for the sake of His lost and wandering sheep, in order to regather them to Himself in safety, to let them graze on the mountains of Israel, to give them rest near peaceful waters, and to feed them at His Table as dear daughters and sons.

The dear Lord Jesus Christ is your Good Shepherd, and He is rich toward God in His love for you.  In faith and in righteousness, He has given Himself a Ransom for many.  He has laid down His Life, but He has also taken it up again by faith in His Father.  So has He received all authority to forgive your sins, to raise you up from death and the grave, and to bring you into everlasting Life.

As He shall raise you from your tomb on that great and final Day, so does He now take you out of the bed you have made for yourself — the bed in which you cannot sleep but only toss and turn — and He lays you gently on His soft bed, on the perfect pillow of His grace.  He covers you with His Righteousness, and He tucks you in with His forgiveness.  And He sings your cradle song each night, as His holy angels stand round about you on all sides, and you are guarded from every evil.  The wicked foe can have no power over you, because you are Christ’s, and He is yours forever.

It really does not matter how much money you have.  And it really does not matter how great your life on earth might be.  It only matters that you belong to the One who has died and been raised; for in Him you also have died and are raised.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  You have already died, and your Life is hidden with Christ in God.  It happened in your Baptism, and it remains the truth, now and forever.  It is clarified and confirmed each time that uncomfortable Word of the Law crushes you and stabs you and puts you to death, and then the sweet Gospel comes in and says, “I forgive you.”

“I forgive you,” says the Lord, your Savior and your God.  “Everything you have done wrong, and all that you have failed to do — whatever you have screwed up royally — I forgive you.  You shall not die.  You’ve already died with Me in the waters of your Baptism, and as I live, so do you live.”

As you go about your days, as you live and love, as you work and play, even right here on earth, your Life is hidden with Christ in God.  You are hidden with Christ in God.  And you are safe.

Consider what an astounding difference that makes, as you go about doing whatever you’re given to do — as you go to work and do your job, as you stay home and take care of your children, as you go next door to help your neighbor, as you mow the lawn or watch a movie, as you go to the store, ride your bike, snuggle your babies, or read a book.  Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, or whatever it is, you do it to the glory of God because you abide with God in Christ Jesus.

You live within your vocations, and they are not painful and grievous; they’re a light and easy burden, even though it is a Cross that you bear, because Christ has borne that Cross on your behalf.  You love your spouse, care for your children, honor your parents, do your job, and live out your days in this fallen and perishing world; and it’s not all “painful and grievous,” because Christ is risen, and He rejoices over you in love, and you are well-pleasing to your Father in heaven.

Christ the Lord rejoices in you, and you are beloved and well-pleasing in God’s sight; for He sees in you what you do not yet see.  God the Father beholds you in love, and He sees in you the Perfect Righteousness, Holiness, Innocence, and Blessedness of His beloved Son, Christ Jesus.

So, you are good in God’s sight.  You do not have to strive or work for righteousness or riches.  You don’t have to, because everything is already yours.  You work for the sake of love.  And as you receive good gifts from the hand of God, as you eat and drink what He provides for body and soul, you enjoy your Life, and you rest in the Peace of Christ, who forgives you all of your sins.

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

The Lord Jesus Teaches You to Pray

You are able to pray, and you do, because the Lord your God has chosen to communicate with you, and He has thereby established a relationship with you, inviting you to call on Him as your Dad.  It all hinges on the fact that He has called you to be His own, and He has named you His own dear child — in the circumcision made without hands, that is, by your Holy Baptism into Christ Jesus.

As a newborn infant is held safely in the arms of his parents, sheltered in their home, protected by their constant attention, fed and clothed, washed and cared for, so are you held, safe and secure, in your Father’s hand.  Before you have ever learned to know your need or even how to ask for any help (or anything at all), while you are still so oblivious to His providential care, He is already meeting all your needs and preserving the life that He Himself gives to you in body and soul.

But as you are then growing up and learning to live as His child, as a member of the household and family of God, He also teaches you to pray — to say “please” and “thank you,” so to speak.  It’s more than a mere formality or simple politeness; He is catechizing you in the way of faith and love, in the rhythm of family life.  He would have you know and trust, more and more, what He is like, and to become more and more like Him in the way that you think and speak and act, in the way that you live in relation to Him and with others.  He would have His sons grow up to be men after His own heart, and His daughters to become women like His Bride, the Church, the Mother of us all.

So your Father in heaven speaks to you and deals with you in love, and He bestows His Holy Spirit upon you by His grace through the Ministry of the Gospel of His incarnate Son.  For it is in the Word and work of Christ Jesus, the promised Seed of Abraham, in His own Body of flesh and blood, that you know your God and Father and learn to love and trust in Him.

You have heard it already in the case of father Abraham.  When he was a stranger in a pagan land, the Lord God called him, and led him, and brought him to the Land of Promise.  He named him the father of many nations, when that man was already old and still childless.  And the Lord swore an oath to that old man, that He would be with him and bless him, and that all the nations would be saved by and through his Seed.  By the Covenant of Circumcision the Lord God Almighty actually bound Himself to Abraham’s flesh, and sealed His promise in Abraham’s body, eventually to be fulfilled in the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ.  By the Spirit of the Lord, Abraham believed the Word and promises of God, and by such faith he was accounted righteous.

All of this the Lord has already accomplished in calling Abraham to Himself, when He then also chooses to reveal to Abraham His plans for Sodom and Gomorrah.  See, He has made Abraham His own beloved child by faith, but here He also invites the man into the intimacy of friendship; more than that, He catechizes Abraham in what it means to be a father.  By Word and example, the Lord prepares the old man to become the patriarch of His people (and the ancestor of His Christ).

To say it simply, the Lord leads Abraham to pray in the righteousness of faith and in the justice of love and mercy.  In laying before him the intentions of His wrath against those wicked cities, He provides Abraham an opportunity to call upon His mercy, and thus to lay hold of Him according to the true heart of His almighty power, which is made known especially in grace and compassion.

Abraham does so with humility and reverence, in the fear of the Lord, to be sure; in repentance he knows himself to be dust and ashes.  Yet, in the faith and knowledge of God’s forgiveness, trusting His Word and promises, and responding to the friendship that God has shown to him, Abraham prays and intercedes for Sodom and Gomorrah with an almost brazen boldness and courageous confidence.  In the righteousness of faith, he appeals to the righteousness of God.  In doing so, he demonstrates a profound understanding, that God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked, but will rather spare the wicked for the sake of the righteous.

Like a little child asking his father for good things, always eager for more in the certainty of Dad’s generosity, Abraham is not shy about asking — and even continuing to push for more.  Except that Abraham does not appeal for himself, nor only for his nephew Lot and his family, but he intercedes for the entire population of those evil cities.  It’s not that he condones or defends their wickedness — he does not — but he pleads that God would be patient, and preserve the righteous remnant, and spare the rest of the people on account of the few righteous among them.

This is not simply how Abraham happens to pray, but this is how he believes in God, how he exercises his faith in the promises of God, and how he lives in the confidence and expectation of God’s faithfulness and grace.  And with such prayer he will likewise teach his children to know and love the Lord their God, to worship Him in repentant faith, and to live in the sure and certain hope of His mercy and forgiveness.  It is specifically for the sake of such catechesis of his children and descendants that God here catechizes Abraham by opening Himself up to the man.

This is what fathers do for their children.  They teach them how to pray, and thereby teach them to know God rightly, to love and trust in Him, and to live in love for other people, too.  Along with all the other things a father teaches and does for his children, nothing else is more fundamental and important than prayer.  A father prays for his children and sets an example of prayer for them.  He prays also for himself, because he lives by faith in his own God and Father.  And he intercedes for others beyond the family, because he exercises love for the neighbor.  Children learn from all of this, even as they learn to ask for and receive good things from their Dad.

So Abraham did for his family, for his descendants.  And humanly speaking, you might consider, then, where and how the Lord Jesus first learned to pray, and how to pray, when He was a little Boy.  Surely His parents taught Him with their words and by their example.  Joseph and Mary of Nazareth, being faithful in their callings, as they had learned from their own fathers and mothers, catechized and taught their Son from the Holy Scriptures.  So did Jesus learn to pray from the Word of God in their home, in the synagogue, and at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Now, then, in much the same way, the Lord Jesus teaches His own household and family to pray.  As the incarnate Son of God, a Man after His Father’s heart, He is a faithful Husband and Father to His Church.  And that means that, not only does He protect and provide for His people, but He also teaches them to live by faith, to live in love, to call upon Him, and to call upon the Father in His Name, to pray and petition, to praise and give thanks.  So does He catechize you even now.

He urges you to pray with all boldness and confidence.  That is the chief and central point to His two little Parables this morning.  You should not be shy or hesitant in going to the Lord in every circumstance, whatever the time of day or night.  You can count on Him to provide for your every need, so that you will lack for no good thing, neither for yourself nor for your neighbors.  And you may ask Him with the confidence of a child seeking help from his or her Dad, except that He is not a sinful man but the gracious and merciful Lord, who is merciful to all who call upon Him.

Jesus not only urges you to pray — as elsewhere the Lord commands you to pray — but He also provides you with the very words by which to call upon the Father in His Name; and He promises that His Father will hear and answer your prayer.  He will not ignore you.  He will not deny your prayer or refuse to meet your needs.  Neither will He give you evil things instead of good, but He will pour out His Life-giving Holy Spirit upon you, so that you do not perish but gain eternal Life.

The Our Father is more than information or instruction.  With these Words the Lord God does for you as He did for Abraham.  He initiates and establishes a relationship with you, an intimacy of friendship and familial love.  He draws you into a fellowship of faith with Himself, and thereby also makes a place for you within the broad fellowship and family of His one, holy, catholic, and Apostolic Church.  He teaches you to pray, not in lonely isolation, nor as a private individual, but within a community of brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, with one God and Father in heaven.

To pray in this way is to be and to live as a Christian, as a child of God, a disciple of Jesus.  It is to actively rely upon the Lord your God for all that you need, for both your body and your soul, for this life and for the Life everlasting.  It is to live by faith in His forgiveness, and therefore, also, to forgive those who sin against you.  It is to eat from the open hand of God, and to open your hand in love to feed and care for your neighbor, for your own children and family, and for your fellow Christians, and even for the fellow who comes calling on you for help in the middle of the night.

As you pray, so do you believe, and so do you live.  Or, so you should.

Where do the confidence and courage come from?  Where are such faith and love to be found?  How shall you pray as you ought, and how shall you live and love in harmony with such prayer?

The answer is found — and it is given to you — in the very One who teaches you to pray.  Your boldness and confidence rest upon His generous love and gracious mercy toward you.  Your faith resides in His faithfulness.  As a child of God in Christ Jesus, you learn to rely upon your Father by way of His constant care for you, and from His compassion for you in all trial, fear, and need.

Jesus teaches all of this in teaching you to pray.  But that is not all that He does.  For one thing, He exemplifies the life of prayer in His own practice.  Especially in St. Luke’s Holy Gospel, the Lord Jesus is often found praying; for He lives in perfect faith and perfect love, and so He persists in perfect prayer.  That belongs, first of all, to His life as the true and perfect Man.  But then it also belongs to His Office and Ministry as your merciful and great High Priest.  It is still the case that He actively prays and intercedes for you, now and forever, at the Right Hand of the Father.

The Lord Jesus Christ, by His Cross and Passion, and in His Resurrection and Ascension, is not only the One who prays for you, but He Himself is your Voice of Prayer to the God and Father in heaven.  As He is the Word of God to you, made Flesh and dwelling with you bodily in the Gospel, so is He also the divine Word that avails for you and speaks to the Father on your behalf.  And He is also already the Father’s resounding “Yes” and “Amen” to all of your prayers and all of your needs.  It is in Him, by His Ministry of the Gospel, that the Father gives to you the Holy Spirit.

For the sake of this one Righteous Man, Christ Jesus, the Lord God Almighty forgives you all your sins.  He does not punish or destroy you, nor count your transgressions against you, nor withhold any good thing from you because of your sins.  On the contrary, He rescues you from every evil of body and soul, saves you from sin and death, and reconciles you to Himself in Christ Jesus.

Along with His forgiveness of your sins He also feeds you with the Bread that you need.  Bread for each day, yes, to nourish and support this body and life on earth.  But also the Bread of eternal Life, the Bread which does not perish but preserves you in the imperishable Body of Jesus.  Hence the connections that Christians have always made between our prayer for “Daily Bread” and the forgiveness of sins and the fellowship of the Lord’s Altar in the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus.

It is in the eating and drinking of these Holy Things — in this Bread and this Cup, which are given and poured out for you and for the many — that you are firmly bound to Christ, your Head, and that all of you are knit together as one Body in Him.  Forgiven and forgiving, you eat and drink together with the Lord, and so also with each other in Him, unto faith and life forever.

Beloved in the Lord, as He so teaches you to live by faith in Him and in fervent love for family, friends, and neighbors, so, then, pray for one another.  Pray that God’s Kingdom would come to all of us and all the world.  And pray that He would take not His Holy Spirit from His Church on earth, but would continue to pour out the Spirit generously upon us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The One who teaches you to pray is faithful, and He will do it.  Not because of your resolve or perseverance, but for the sake of His own righteousness.  For Christ has come, and He remains with you in peace and love.  He has taken His stand with you, and as He has died for you and risen from the dead, He ever lives to make intercession for you.  His prayer for you is signed and sealed with His holy and precious Blood, by His Cross and Passion, and in His Holy Communion.  And His own Resurrection and Ascension are indeed the answer that your dear Father gives to you.

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

Love the Lord Your God by Listening to Jesus

It should be clear that Martha is not sinning by welcoming Jesus into her home and preparing a meal for Him.  Indeed, it is a good and godly thing to do, and a loving way to serve Him who is not only her Lord but also her neighbor (and, as we know from St. John, her friend).  She is not sinning in her careful efforts and hard work, nor in her desire that everything be done well.  In contrast to Simon the Pharisee, earlier in St. Luke’s Gospel, Martha is eager to provide suitable and appropriate hospitality for her honored Guest.

And Jesus does not despise her effort or reject her hospitality.  He receives these gifts, just as He has instructed His sent ones to receive and be content with the hospitality that is provided for them in the homes of peace to which they come.  Our Lord in human flesh needs food and drink and so forth, and here He benefits from Martha’s service.  As any host or hostess knows, someone has to do the work, or there won’t be anything for anyone to eat or drink.  That meal won’t prepare itself!

But Martha does sin against her sister, and she misses the mark with her Lord, as well, by the division and distractions within her heart and mind.  She is driven, not only by faith and love, but by anxiety and trouble; and along with that, instead of being driven to find her peace and rest in Christ Jesus, she is drawn away from Him and His Word to her own work and worries.  In striving to serve Him and to please Him, she neglects His service and the very point and purpose of His visitation.  Not only that but, in her efforts to serve the Lord, she fails to love her sister.

How often doesn’t that end up being the case for you, as well?  That you strive to serve the Church, to serve your Lord, which is good and right in itself, of course, but that you do so at the expense of your family?  Or, that you go the extra mile for a friend or neighbor in need — which, again, is a good and godly thing to do — but that you fail to show consideration, gentleness, kindness, or patience with your own spouse, with your own children, or with your own siblings?

It’s not that you should neglect to serve the Church and your neighbors with your time, treasures, and talents, as you are able.  Indeed, you should do so!  But so also serve your closest neighbors, that is, your own family, who in most cases are also members of the household and family of God.

Well, then, you might say, what about Mary in this case at hand?  Wasn’t she neglecting to love and serve her sister Martha by not helping her with the meal preparations?  Could not her two hands have lightened the load and quickened the whole process?  Perhaps, and probably so.

And yet, Jesus responds quite differently to Martha’s complaint and request.  It’s actually rather frustrating, I suspect, especially to those who are often the ones slaving away behind the scenes, before, during, and after the party, while others are taking their ease and enjoying themselves.

Truth be told, our Lord is not exactly “practical” or “realistic” in what He says to Martha; leastwise not by any worldly human standard of common sense.  But don’t take that the wrong way.  Our Lord Jesus is not rude, He is not mean or inconsiderate.  He certainly does care about Martha, and He speaks to her with gentle compassion.  It is in His love for her that He corrects her mistaken perspective and her wrong way of thinking.  He calls her to repent of her sin, and He catechizes her in the One Thing truly needful, in the Good Portion that will not be taken away.

He does not enter into any arbitration of whatever sibling rivalry or suspicion there may have been going on between Mary and Martha.  If you have children or siblings of your own, you can easily imagine that being a factor in the story at hand.  These sisters certainly had different personalities, and it is likely that Martha was the older of the two.  Since their parents are not mentioned, perhaps it had fallen to Martha to bear the load of responsibility for her sister and their household.  It may be that their brother Lazarus had already taken ill or was otherwise unable to care for them.

All sorts of possibilities, but, whatever the particulars of the situation, Jesus does not address any of that.  He seems to ignore altogether the logistical necessities, and He pays no attention to family politics.  Instead, He points Martha to Mary’s good example, and in doing so He points both of them — and you, as well — to Himself, to His Word, and to His Divine Service of the Gospel.

It is noteworthy and significant that Mary says nothing at all; and she does nothing, either, except to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to Him.  In this she honors Him well and worships Him devoutly.

If Martha has far-and-away outdone Simon the Pharisee in her gracious hospitality for the Lord Jesus, her sister Mary has outdone even that blessed sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet in Simon’s home.  It is interesting to note that this same Mary of Bethany, Martha’s sister, will likewise anoint the Lord’s feet and dry them with her hair when, again, her sister Martha serves a supper for Him on the cusp of His Passion.  But in this present case Mary is sitting at His feet, not to serve Him with any work of hers, but to love Him above all things by listening to His Word.

Such listening to the Word of Christ Jesus is the first and foremost activity of faithful Christian worship in Spirit and in Truth.  To be sure, you are to be a doer of the Word, and not a hearer only.  But all of your obedience and faithful doing begin with and continue to depend upon your hearing of His Word, even as your hearing itself depends upon the preaching of His Word.  It is for such preaching that Jesus comes, and you worship Him by listening to Him.

Your pastors preach and teach the Word and administer the Sacraments, as their vocation and service in the Lord, just as you perform the duties of your own callings and stations in life.  All of this is good and right and as it should be; it is the fruit of faith and the work of love, in the place where God Himself has positioned each one of us, according to His good and gracious Will.

But the foremost worship of the Lord your God is not in your serving but in your receiving of His Service, in your listening to and learning from Him, and in your eating and drinking of what He gives to you here within His House in the Liturgy of His Gospel.

All of your serving, and your pastors’ serving, too, depends upon the Lord’s speaking and giving.  None of us have anything to say or do, except what He speaks to us by His grace.  And none of us have anything to give, except what He provides and we receive from Him, according to His mercy.

So, first things first, Sister Mary has it right.

Again, it’s not a matter of neglecting duties and responsibilities.  There is work to be done, and someone has to prepare the meal, serve it, and clean up afterwards.  Many hands do make for light work, and you should not leave your neighbor to do everything for you while you laze around doing nothing.  But none of this means anything apart from the Word and work of Christ Jesus.

It’s like the Feeding of the Five Thousand, as you may recall, when those great crowds of people listened to the Lord Jesus as He preached and taught them throughout that long day.  And then, as evening approached, and the disciples were worried and anxious about how all those people were going to eat, because there was no food but a few loaves and fishes — well, you know that Jesus fed them all, and there was more than enough.  Earlier in the Gospel, He Himself feasted on the Word of God His Father throughout His forty days and nights in the wilderness, following His Baptism; He thus fasted with His Body and waited on His Father to provide all that He needed.

So, too, at that first Emmaus, Jesus “fed” the two disciples with His Word along the way; and then, when they invited Him in to be their guest, He became their Host in His Breaking of the Bread.  For He is the One who feeds both soul and body by His grace.  Therefore, seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness — by listening to Him, by hearing His Word and the preaching of it, and by eating and drinking the Meal He serves you — and all things shall be added unto you in Him.

I don’t mean that you should be negligent or lazy, nor that you should quit your job and leave your family in order to spend all your time at church.  Do the work that God has given you to do, and serve the neighbors He has placed around you in this body and life.  But set your ears, your heart and mind upon His Word, which is the One Thing on which everything else depends.  Find your peace and Sabbath rest in Him, and so find life and health and strength for now and forever.  Then you’ll also serve Him with the worship of your body and your soul, with your confession of His Name, and with your prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.  And in Christ Jesus you’ll learn to love your neighbor as yourself, and to serve your neighbor as Jesus serves you with His Gospel.

It’s not by your own reason or strength!  None of this is, not even your listening and hearing.  Jesus comes to you and enters in.  He makes His visitation and He preaches.  He sends His messengers before His face.  His Word opens your ears, your mind and heart, and finally your mouth, as well.

It was the same for Mary, as it was also for Abraham and Sarah.  Each of them was just as flawed, distracted, worried, and troubled as you often are, and as Martha was, too, on this occasion.  We’re all incredulous, fatigued, cynical, or jaded at times.  Sarah laughed in disbelief at the Word and promise of the Lord; yet, His Word was fulfilled for her nonetheless.  Her skepticism became faith, and her sarcastic snort became the laughter of genuine joy and gladness in her son.

Abraham also served the Lord with hospitality, as Martha does in her day.  He did so as one who had found favor in the Lord by faith in His Word; for Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.  His faith depended on God’s faithfulness.  He rested in God’s Word and promise.  And despite father Abraham’s doubts and fears and sins and failings, he was sustained and saved by the Lord his God.  That is how it was for Mary and Martha of Bethany, as well.

The Word and promises of Christ the Lord are also here spoken to you.  These are not empty and meaningless chatter, nor simply a lesson in history and morality.  By this Ministry of the Gospel the Holy Spirit lays Christ upon your heart, and you are reconciled to God the Father through this beloved Son.  The preaching of His Word calls you to repentance and brings you to faith and life in Christ Jesus by and with His forgiveness of all your sins.

He is gentle in His rebuke, and He is generous in His Divine Service; for He does care deeply about you and for you, and His whole purpose in coming to you, here and now, is not to put you to work for Him, but to give you peace with God and perfect rest from all your heavy burdens.

The One Thing that you need is here provided for you freely, by the grace of God, in this Word of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  Here is your hope of Glory, which shall not disappoint you; for Christ is actively present in His Word, and He thereby gives nothing less than Himself to you, with all His gifts and benefits.  You honor Him and worship Him by hearing and receiving Him, who is not only your gracious Host, but your Butler and Cook, your Waiter, and your Meat and Drink indeed.

Already He has cleaned up after you, and He has prepared a permanent place for you at His Table in His House, in the City of God forever and ever.  Recline here at His feet, and set your heart and mind at ease in Him who serves you.  Feast upon this Main Course, this Good Portion, this Holy Supper of Christ Jesus, your Lord.  It will not be taken away from you, nor shall you ever perish.

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