The Promise of the Father

If Christian discipleship is difficult and challenging, do not suppose that Christ Jesus is unaware of that, nor that He is unfamiliar with the challenges and difficulties that you now face. For the discipleship to which you have been called, and which you have received in Holy Baptism, is the life that Christ has first of all lived for you, which you now live in Him (and He lives in you).

To be a disciple, therefore—to be a Christian—is to follow after Christ Jesus in the way that He has already gone before you: in the way of the Cross, unto the Resurrection and the life everlasting.

As disciples are made by Holy Baptism and the ongoing catechesis of the Word of Christ, so was the Lord Jesus Himself baptized for you and for all people, for the repentance and forgiveness of the world, and for the fulfilling of all righteousness, that you and all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve might be justified and saved from sin and death.

Consider what His Baptism signified and meant for Jesus: In submitting Himself to St. John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, He took upon Himself the sins of the whole world, including all of your sins of thought, word and deed, every last one of them. His was a bath that did not make Him clean—for He was already spotless, pure, holy and without blemish—but the waters of the Jordan soaked Him from head to foot with all the dirt of fallen man, all the mud and gunk and filth and stench of sinful unbelief, disobedience, doubt and despair.

He took upon Himself, and He bore in His own body, your lying and cheating, your covetous lust and greed, your cursing and filthy jokes, your laziness and negligence, your adultery and murder, your robbery of things and your gossiping tongue by which you rob your neighbor of his good name and reputation. He took all of this, and every other sin from Adam to the end of the world, and took ownership and responsibility for it, as though He alone were guilty, sinful and unclean.

And His wages for that great act of love, for that sin which He assumed into Himself, was death. Submitting to baptism was committing Himself to be crucified, dead and buried. Stepping into the water was, for this Man, a return to the dust of the earth from which the first man had been taken.

So, for Christ Jesus, as for you, His Baptism indicated that He should be drowned and die with all your sinful lusts and desires, in the place of your old Adam.

But what His Baptism also meant was indicated by the Word of His God and Father, and by the bodily sign of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Though He was so thoroughly soaked and saturated with the sins of the world—so as to be the Sinner above all others, and really to become sin itself and the curse of sin and death—He was also anointed by His Father with the Holy Spirit, and He was given the sure and certain Word of God, that He was a beloved and well-pleasing Son.

He received this Word and Spirit of God in faith, as the Son of Man, as your Substitute and Savior. He heard it, and He believed it, and He lived in the confidence and hope of that Word from His dear Father in heaven. He received it as the surety and promise of the Resurrection, that His Father would not abandon Him to the grave nor allow His flesh to suffer decay, but that He would pour out the Spirt upon His crucified body and raise Him again from the dust of the earth.

Of course, the Father and the Holy Spirit and immortal Life belong to the Son of God from all eternity, according to His own divine nature. But in the waters of His Baptism, not only in the flesh but in the likeness of fallen flesh—as the true and perfect Man, but also living under the curse and consequence of sin—He received the promise of the Father and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, as a pledge that, in Him, all men and women and their children would be redeemed and raised up in righteousness; that mortal flesh, after returning to the dirt, would receive the Holy Spirit and rise up again to live forever.

Now, then, understand that your dear Lord Jesus lived—as you are called to live—by faith in that Word and promise of His God and Father. He proceeded from the waters of the Jordan in that holy faith, in love for His Father and in love for all His neighbors, for you and for all those neighbors (everywhere and every when) who would become His many brothers and sisters by divine grace.

He was driven into the wilderness (by the Spirit of God!) to be tempted by the devil in all the ways that you are tempted, and in the midst of that contest to persevere by faith in the Word and promise of His Baptism: “If you are the Son of God,” the devil taunted, but there yet stood fast the Word that Jesus had heard and received from the Father: “You are My beloved Son.” So He believed.

And, believing, He continued in the way that He was called to go. He was faithful in His vocation, and He carried out the works of love that belonged to that particular place and station in life. He honored His father and mother. He loved His family and friends. He ate and drank with sinners. He healed the sick, and cast out demons, and raised the dead. He fed the hungry with good food. He taught the Word of God, preached the Gospel, confessed the faith, and prayed without ceasing.

For such great love, for His faithfulness in all things, for the Name of the Lord that He glorified, He was persecuted, betrayed and arrested, falsely accused and mocked, beaten and blasphemed, unjustly sentenced to death, and crucified in public shame.

All of this He bore patiently, in peace. He continued to trust His Father and the promise of His Baptism. He persevered in love for all people, even those who were hurting and killing Him. He forgave those who trespassed against Him. He turned the other cheek, and suffered His outer and inner garments to be taken from Him. He did not retaliate, nor did He revile in return, but He relied on the hope of the Resurrection.

The way He endured His Passion is simply the culmination of the way He lived His entire Life on the way of the Cross: from the watery grave of the Jordan River, to the garden tomb in which His body would be laid to rest on that sixth day when the Lord’s good work would be finished for us.

So, again, if you find that Christian discipleship is difficult and challenging, do not suppose that Christ Jesus is unaware of that, nor that He is unfamiliar with your challenges and difficulties. For the people misunderstood Him and wanted all the wrong things from Him. The rulers of the people were jealous and hateful of Him, and conspired against Him, and stirred up the crowds to cry out for His death. Meanwhile, His family, or most of them, thought He was out of His mind. His disciples, and even His closest friends among them, were frequently confused and afraid; they bickered and fought and competed with each other, and when He was arrested they all ran away.

Therefore, you do not have a Savior and High Priest who is unable to sympathize with you, but One who has indeed been tempted and tormented in all the ways that you are, and who has borne all your sin as though it were His own (though He Himself had no sin); One who has shared your suffering and sadness, your sickness and shame; who has carried your cross and died your death

Although He is the Son of God from all eternity, by His own nature, and by His own divine right, nevertheless, in human flesh and blood just like yours, He learned the faith and the obedience of sonship through what He bore and suffered on your behalf.

He learned, not as though He were ever ignorant or naive, but by the way of personal experience, by living your human life as you are called to live, first hand, in His own person. He did so, not out of intellectual curiosity, as though for some kind of experiment or science project, but in order to establish divine sonship for you in human flesh and blood. Likewise, so did He receive and bear the Spirit of God in His truly human flesh and blood, for you and your salvation, in order that your fallen flesh might receive and bear the same Holy Spirit and be raised up to eternal life with God.

Thus, the Lord Jesus Christ lived by faith in the Word and promise of His Father. He lived in the hope of His mercy, by the grace and guidance of the Spirit. He did what His Father called Him to do, and He spoke as the Father gave Him to speak. In steadfast faith and flawless love, He was handed over to the Cross (by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God), and He humbly accepted the same, submitting His human will to the divine will, in the hope of the Resurrection.

It is there upon the Cross, in that crucible of anguish—on the one hand enduring the condemnation of the Law that He perfectly fulfilled, and suffering the separation of sin from the Father He loved and trusted, while on the other hand continuing to trust and believe, even in the face of death and divine judgment, the steadfast love and faithful promise of His Father—it is in that crucible that He permanently establishes divine sonship for you. So that, even in the midst of your sin, and in the face of your death, the promise of the Gospel and the Sabbath Rest of Christ remain for you.

He has weathered the perfect storm in order to bring you through it safely in and with Himself. He has endured the inner conflict of the Old Man and the New Man in His own body, even unto the death of His Cross; and though sin and death were crucified and put to death in Him, He has prevailed in faith and love, and He has been raised up by the Spirit of His Father as the new and better Adam, as the First Fruits of the New Creation, as the Head of His Body and Bride, the holy Christian Church, so as to become the Firstborn of a great multitude of divine sons and daughters.

Having thus received the promised Holy Spirit from the Father in His Resurrection from the dead, He has poured out the same Spirit generously upon you in the waters of your Holy Baptism. Not only that, but He continues to pour out the Spirit upon you in the Absolution of the Gospel, in the Word of forgiveness that is preached to you, and in the spiritual Food and Drink of His Altar.

He has likewise given you the sure and certain Word and promise of His God and Father: that you are a dear son of God in Christ Jesus, and you are beloved and well-pleasing to the Father in Him; that all of your sins are freely and fully forgiven, and that God has truly reconciled you to Himself in Christ; and that, even though you die, yet shall you live in body and soul, heart, mind and spirit.

This is the Word and Spirit of God, who is your own dear Father in Christ, which is given to you on the way, and attends you, and upholds you. It stands fast in Christ, even when you falter, so that it remains true—and it remains for you—regardless of what you find or experience in yourself.

In this Gospel of Christ Jesus, the Father moves toward you in love, and He gives Himself to you, and He embraces you to Himself as a beloved child, always raising you up from death to life, from out of darkness into light, and from the dust of the earth to be a living creature in His own Image.

You are raised up, in and with Christ Jesus, to live and move and have your being in Him; to move in love—within Him, and through Him, by the Holy Spirit—unto His God and Father in heaven.

That Life in Christ and in the Holy Spirit—that movement of your body and life toward God your Father in heaven, as a living sacrifice—that true faith and worship of the Holy Trinity (in the Sprit and in Truth), is lived from your Holy Baptism into Christ Jesus, and by the way of the Cross.

It is by the way of the Cross, not for the sake of gratuitous violence or suffering, nor as some kind of divine sado-masochism, but to work in you a genuine sacrifice of repentance, faith and love; so that you, who are a son of God in Christ Jesus, by His grace, may learn the faith and obedience of sonship in Him; and so that sin and unbelief and all their deadly fruits may be put to death and die in you; and so that you, bearing the Cross for your neighbor, may love your neighbor and give him life, in the way that Christ your Savior loves you and gives you life (i.e. by the way of His Cross).

That way of the Cross, which is your Christian discipleship, is difficult and challenging; make no mistake about it. Indeed, it would be utterly impossible for you apart from Christ, if He had not gone before you and established the way in faith and love, in His own flesh and blood.

But now Christ has lived that life for you, and He has gone that way of the Cross for you, and He has died that death for you. He has borne your sins and suffered all their consequences. He has atoned for all your sins and reconciled you to God. This is most certainly true; for God has also raised this same Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and exalted this beloved Son at His right hand, and placed all your enemies under His feet, crushed and defeated beneath His once-wounded heel.

This is how and why He pours out His living and life-giving Holy Spirit upon you—through the Gospel of His Cross—raising you, daily, from death unto life. For which reason He has called and sent your pastors to you, not only to baptize, but to preach and teach His Word, and to commune you with His Body and His Blood; all of this in His Name and stead, and with His own authority.

These gifts of the Gospel, the means of grace, are the first fruits of His Cross and Passion, and so does the same tree of the Cross bear good fruits in you; even when it is crushing and killing your old Adam, and it seems as though God were not your loving Father at all, but rather an enemy who is out to destroy you altogether. Not so! Remember the Word and promise of your Baptism:

“You are My beloved son! With you I am well-pleased.” I am not angry or upset with you. I am not out to punish you. Your sins are all forgiven. You shall not die forever. “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” “This promise is for you and for your children.”

Bind that Word and promise to yourself, dear child of God, by giving attention to the ongoing catechesis of Christ. Listen to the preaching of His Word, and know that it is preached to you as a sure and certain Word of life.

And take heart that He has bound Himself to you, and you to Him.

He shall never leave you nor forsake you, but rather He is near you, and He is with you always.

Just as Christ is risen from the dead through the glory of the Father, and lives and reigns forever, so does He bear the good fruits of His Cross in you: the forgiveness of sins, received and given; faith and love, and self-sacrifice, but also resurrection and new life—day after day, by His grace, through the forgiveness of all your sins, unto the resurrection of your body and the life everlasting.

Is this not the life that Christ has lived for you? Yes. And He still lives—and He is still for you, with all the power of His indestructible life—both now and forever. This is the life that He now lives in you and with you, which you also live in Him, by the Holy Spirit whom He has given you.

This is the divine eternal Life of the Holy Triune God, which is now also yours by His grace, as you have received the adoption of sons in Christ Jesus. For as you are baptized in His Name, anointed with the Holy Spirit, and united with the beloved and well-pleasing Son of the Father in His Cross and Resurrection, so surely is the God and Father of Jesus your God and Father, and you are His own dear child, forever and ever. Amen.

The Road to Emmaus Leads to Jerusalem

Brethren, what shall you do? Where are you going? Where will you stay? Where will you lie down to sleep this night, and to what shall you arise on the morrow? To what do this new day and this very hour call you? What is given to you here, and where will you go from here?

Take it to heart, beloved of the Lord, that the gifts and promises of Holy Baptism, which are for Makrina and have here been given to her, by God’s grace, are also for you and for your children.

What are those gifts and promises? Repentance, and the forgiveness of all your sins in the Name of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen One. For it is into Him, into His Cross and Resurrection, that you have been baptized by the washing of the water with His Word. That Baptism is your repentance; which is to say that it has put you to death and buried you with Christ Jesus, and it has raised you up again through the forgiveness of His atoning sacrificial death and holy bloodshed. Your sinful old Adam has been crucified with Him, and you have been recreated and reborn in His rising from the dead, reconciled to God and received unto Him as a son or daughter in Christ.

Everything that belongs to Christ Jesus has thus become yours, by His grace, in Holy Baptism. His God and Father is now your God and Father, and you are beloved and well-pleasing to Him. So has He named you with His Name, and He has anointed you with the Spirit of Christ Jesus, that is, the living and Life-giving Holy Spirit who is Himself the Lord your God. As He is poured out upon you generously through Jesus Christ your Savior, you have life with God, now and forever. Thus, you are a child of God, and you are a Christian. That is your identity. That is who you are.

Therefore, your Baptism — for you, dear little Makrina, and for each one of you Christians — is not just a big one-day event, but a divine work and gracious gift with ongoing significance for every day of your life on earth, unto the life everlasting.

This Sacrament has given you a home, a household and a family, with God. It has also set you on the road with Jesus, on a way of life in Christ; which is what it means to be and to live as a disciple of Christ Jesus. You follow and walk in the way that He has gone, and you learn to live from Him.

So Makrina has a road set before her, which is mapped out, paved and governed by the Cross of Christ, and illumined by His Word, which is a Lamp to her feet and a Light upon her path.

You also are on that same road with Makrina, by virtue of your Baptism into Christ, and you are on your own way to wherever He shall lead and guide you by His Word. It is a straight and narrow path, as you have often heard before, but it also has its ups and downs. As the Word of the Lord charts a path of faith and love and navigates a course of righteousness and truth through a fallen, twisted and perverted world, you are confronted with steep hills to climb and dark valleys to cross, with confusing twists and unexpected sharp turns. You go, not over, but through the raging river of Holy Baptism; you journey onward, not through, but under the hard wood of the Cross.

Here is a very different sort of crossroads than Robert Johnson or Eric Clapton ever sang about. For on this road you make no deals with the devil to sell your soul and gain the world for a time or a season, but by the Cross of Christ you are crucified to the world, to yourself and to your sin, and day after day you are raised to new life in Him, in both body and soul, for now and for ever.

Although you are on such a journey, making your way on such a hard road, the fact that you do have a house and home with God, and a family in Christ, means that you have a sure foundation and a base, a safe place of comfort, peace and rest. In the touchstone of Christ — in His Cross and Resurrection, and in your Holy Baptism — you know exactly where you come from, and you know where you are going. You have a solid place from which to proceed, and then a safe place to land.

In such respects, you might observe that Makrina has it relatively easy at this point, doesn’t she? She knows her home and family. She knows right where she belongs. She knows that she is safe and loved and cared for. Really, she knows little else, because her father and mother provide for all her needs, day and night. In this, too, she lives by faith, and right now her life and experience on earth coincide to a large extent with the new life in Christ to which she has been reborn.

Though even Makrina suffers the curse and consequence of sin upon her mortal flesh — and of course, it is also sadly true that many other infants and small children (whether baptized or not) do not enjoy the security and comfort of a loving home and family, such as the Lord God intends — in general, the road gets more difficult and worse with the passage of time in this poor life of labor, in this vale of tears, in the shadow of death and the grave. So much for the “golden years,” right? The older you get and the further you go, the harder it is to remember where you came from, to keep track of who you are and where you’re headed, and to make sense of it all.

Examine your heart, and try your mind, and consider how well you really know your home with God and your family in Christ. In the midst of twists and turns, over the hills and through the dark valleys, are you clear and certain as to where you are, where you’re going, and how you’re going to get there safely? Or have you lost your bearings, your sense of direction, and your way? Have you forgotten your Holy Baptism, and what it means, and who you really are in Christ Jesus?

What are the hopes and dreams that you have harbored? And which of them seem already to be dashed and disappointed? What is the redemption you’re seeking, and where shall you find it?

Even when you confidently suppose that you know what’s what, and where you are, and where you’re going, it may yet be that you are completely mixed up and mistaken. There are many things that appear to be so sure and certain in this mortal life, and yet they are perishing and fading away.

Meanwhile, the Cross appears to be a stunning disaster and defeat. I don’t really mean any cross on the wall, on a chain or in a book, but the Cross of Christ in your life and laid upon your back. That Cross, which right now is killing you and robbing you of all your hope in the world, seems like anything but the glory of God and the redemption of Israel.

And the Resurrection of the Christ sounds like complete and utter nonsense. Which is likewise to say that the gifts and promises of your Holy Baptism seem ridiculous and empty, too. Where is the actual evidence of anything? Promises, promises, but life it tough, and then you die.

Him you do not see. What you do see and feel and experience is confusing and perplexing and doesn’t add up. Or just when you think that you finally have it all together, and that you’ve got it all figured out, it crumbles into dust at your feet again, worse than ever.

Apart from the Lord Jesus, nothing is going to make sense. But He has vanished from your sight. In fact, your eyes are prevented from seeing Him or recognizing Him.

And you are left standing still — stopped in your tracks — looking sad.

Some of you know the debilitating weight of depression, perhaps even the suffocating crush of deep despair. You know how it can shut you down and stop you from going anywhere or doing anything; how even the effort seems pointless and impossible. Others of you know the similar stranglehold of fear, of anger or anxiety, of lust or addiction, of jealousy or resentment. “Running to stand still” is how the rock group U2 described it, referring to a heroin epidemic in Dublin. But your drug of choice may be something else altogether. What sins have you in their grip? How are your relationships? Do you keep trying, and failing? Do you keep climbing, and falling down?

You know how it is, don’t you, when you’re in a hurry, but you’re getting nowhere fast because you keep dropping things? You keep getting tangled up in your own two feet, and tripping along. Or you’re running late for an appointment, and you end up hitting every red light on the way.

Perhaps you don’t even know what I’m talking about. Maybe you feel like you’re getting along just fine. But the fact remains that, without Jesus — wherever sin beclouds your mind and fills your heart — you’re not really going anywhere; leastwise nowhere that you’d really want to be. No matter how fast you run. No matter how frantic you become. No matter how hard you work. You’re running your treadmill and riding your exercise bike, and with all of that you stand still.

But, there is this story that you have heard: the story of Jesus; the story of His preaching and His miracles; the story of His Cross and Resurrection. It is the story that many or most of you first began to hear when you were still a babe, even in your Mother’s womb, and then in her arms, as she listened to the story, and as she spoke and sang and prayed the story (for herself, and for you).

It is a children’s story, that is certainly true. Check out the recent facebook video of my two-year-old granddaughter, Sarena, and her two-year-old friend, Martin, telling each other that story and discussing it, if you want to be reminded of how the story of Jesus captures the hearts and minds of the little children. But do not suppose, for that reason, that the story is too simple, too quaint, too childish, or too familiar and old hat to do you any good.

This story of Jesus is neither make-believe nor just once-upon-a-time. It is the living and active Word — the very Word of God — the Word of Christ, who is Himself the Word-made-Flesh.

The fact that such a Word can yet be taken and confessed upon the lips of children does not betray any weakness in this story, but rather reveals its power and great strength. For it was not only Momma with her video camera that drew near to Sarena and Martin as they were discussing the things about Jesus, but He Himself approached and joined them in that story-telling. Just as He once did with those first two disciples on the Road to Emmaus, before they really knew or had even begun to understand what they were talking about (unlike Sarena and Martin, who know).

So does the same Lord Jesus draw near to you in His Word, in the telling of His story, and with that He accompanies you on the way; He joins you on your path and journeys with you, matching your footsteps as you walk, that you might learn to match His. For you begin to walk with Him on the Way of faith and life, as you hear and learn the preaching and the catechesis of His Word. This, again, is the way of discipleship that leads to and from the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.

This story is not powerless or pointless, but life-changing and life-giving. Speak it and discuss it, therefore, not only for yourself, but with and for your children, for your parents and your spouse, for your neighbors in the world, and for your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Pastor Grobien and Regina, Kirsten and Ramone, Alena, Julianna, Kimberley, Brigitta, Amelia and Cillian, speak and discuss this story of Jesus with Makrina. Do not doubt that in your telling of His story to her, though she is so small, He Himself draws near and travels with her on the way.

The same thing goes for each and all of you, as you walk along and make your way through life alongside those who share the journey with you. Talk to them about Jesus, even when you can’t make any sense of what His story means for you or for them at any given juncture. Confessing the story will already begin to help both you and your neighbor, precisely because it is His story.

Likewise, listen carefully to those who talk to you about this Jesus of Nazareth, who tell you His story and teach you what it means. For in His story and the preaching of it, in the catechesis of His Word, you discover and receive, and you begin to live your own story, that is, the real story of your life — the one to which you have been called, which has been given to you in Holy Baptism. In this Way, the narrative of Jesus becomes your narrative, your path, and your journey on His road.

Do not be surprised or dismayed, therefore, that He not only tells you about the Cross, but He hides Himself in, with and under the Cross, in order to reveal Himself to you in this way, in this divine glory of His divine grace. He hides Himself from your eyes, that you might learn to see Him by faith in His Word of the Gospel, which is the Word of His Cross first of all. He’s not teasing you in this way, nor is He toying with you. He’s not even “testing” you so much as He is teaching you.

He asks you to tell Him “what things” He already knows well enough (better than you do), so that you would learn to confess what is true and right concerning Him. And He acts like He is moving on and going further — He pretends! — in order to invite you, to encourage you and prompt you to pray, that is, to call upon His Name and ask Him to stay with you.

By the Word of His Cross along the way, He gently chides you, “O foolish one,” and then He pierces your heart of stone, which has grown cold and hard through sin and death, and which has been groaning under the burden of its own heaviness. He shatters that cold, hard stone, and He recreates in you a heart of flesh, softened with His forgiveness and warmed with His tender love.

He brings you to repentance, and He brings life and immortality to light in you through the Gospel.

So do you pray to Him in faith and love, and He also answers your prayers. He does come in to abide with you, within your life, in the midst of your home and family. And then you find, what has been true from the start, that He is actually the Host, and you are His guest.

He has not come in to be served, but to serve, and to give Himself to you at His Table. He feeds you with His Body and His Blood, as surely as He daily and richly provides you with all that you need for both body and soul, by His grace. He takes the bread, He blesses and breaks and gives it to you: “Take, eat,” He says. “This is My Body. It is for you.” He takes the cup, likewise; He gives thanks and gives it to you: “Drink of it,” He says. “This is My Blood, poured out for you.”

Thus, He not only comes in to abide with you in your home, but He enters in to abide with you in yourself, in your body and your soul. He takes up residence in you, that you might abide in Him.

The Gospel of Emmaus makes clear that it is in “the Breaking of the Bread,” that is, in the Holy Communion, that the Body of Jesus is found, given and received. Not by sight, but no less truly. For the Church is not given to know Him by sight here on earth, but by faith in His Word, in the sound of His Voice, which is the preaching of His Gospel, His forgiving of all your sins.

You therefore recognize and know Him here. You know Him as the Christ, as the Lord your God, crucified and risen. You know Him in His grace, mercy, peace and love, unlike anything else in all the world. You know Him in His forgiveness, and in His good gifts, freely given: for He gives you Himself and His Life.

It is to this very Hour, to this Table in this House, that your Holy Baptism and the catechesis of Christ bring you. This is the destination of discipleship. This is your home base, from which you proceed all your days, and to which you daily return, forever and always.

Not that you should flee from the world, nor that you must escape it; for the Lord has positioned you here, for now, to live by His grace, and to love as you are loved. But even here, and right now, in the Gospel–Word and Sacrament, you discover that God has come to dwell with you, bodily, in Christ Jesus. Indeed, He has brought His heavenly kingdom and His holy city to dwell with you here, on earth as it is in heaven. Thus, this little village houses the great Metropolis of God.

And so it is that, in this very hour, you are raised up and returned to the midst of true Jerusalem, to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of all times and places. In this place of rest, the road is not hard. It does not matter if the sun has set, for even the darkness is light to Him who lights your way. He raises the valleys, lowers the hills, and makes the rough places plain. What has been crooked, He straightens. What has been twisted, He restores to wholeness. In safety and peace, He brings you again to the gathering of His disciples around the Apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, to the city of God, to the Temple of His Body, the Holy of Holies made without hands.

Ironically, that is where the Road to Emmaus finally leads: to Jerusalem.

That is where Makrina’s Holy Baptism takes her — to the New Jerusalem above, eternal and free. It has. It does. And it will: in the Breaking of the Bread at the Table with Jesus, as even here in His little Emmaus on earth. His preaching and His catechesis will take her on that journey, on that Road with Him, as He travels with her all the way. He has brought her to the font by His Word, and He goes with her from here — in all her going out and coming in, henceforth, forevermore.

He does the same for you, disciple of Emmaus. He brings you to and from your Holy Baptism, to and from the Table of His Altar. And His Word leads you from this Holy Communion into your daily path of life, into your own vocations. Daily there, and back again, He brings you most surely, and at the last, into the resurrection of your body, unto the life everlasting in body and soul.

Even now, as you do live here, in Christ, by grace through faith in His Gospel — don’t you see? — you’re already “home.”

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

The Lord's Body on the Lord's Day

This is the Day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Not just another day of another week, another day of grace on earth, but here gathered in the Name and the Remembrance of Jesus Christ, the Crucified, we enter upon the eternal Eighth Day of His Resurrection from the dead.

Therefore, not just “Friday,” but “Easter Friday,” because in the Gospel every day is Easter, and in the Divine Service it is always the Lord’s Day.

Thus, it is the dawning of a new day for you, a new beginning, in which the mercies of God are yours, regardless of your past.

If that all sounds like so much nonsense, or ridiculous, remember the Word that Jesus has spoken to you, and do not doubt that He is faithful and true. He has gone the way of the Cross, for you and for all, just as it was written of Him, and just as He said before it happened. And God has raised Him from the dead as the Firstfruits of the New Creation.

As He bore your sins in His Body on the Cross and died for you, so His Resurrection is your Absolution, your reconciliation with God, your justification, your newness of life and eternal salvation. As He lives, so do you.

Why, then, do you so often seek the Living One among the dead? That is to say, why do you attempt to find your life in the pursuits of the world, in the pleasures of your mortal flesh, in that which is temporal, fleeting and perishing? Why do you tend to put more stock in your own wisdom, experience and feelings, than you do in the Word and promises of God in Christ Jesus?

All your silver and gold, and everything it buys, will be destroyed before long. Your beauty and your strength will fade, and your mind may go before your body, or vice versa, but it will all pass away. Your possessions will rot, your name and reputation will eventually be forgotten among men, and whatever you manage to accomplish and achieve will be undone, replaced or superceded.

The empty tomb will someday house your mortal remains, but you’ll not find the body of the Lord Jesus there.

It is the Body of the Lord Jesus that you need, because it is in His Body of flesh and blood that He has borne your sins and tasted death on your behalf, and in His Body that He has defeated them once and for all. It is in His Body, like yours, that He has risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity, immortal, imperishable, and glorious. It is in and with His Body that He not only lives, but He gives life and health and strength to all the faithful.

Do not doubt that He gives life to you, to your body and your soul. And do not be terrified any longer by your sins, nor by the shadow of death that lies upon your mortal flesh.

For the Son of Man, crucified and risen, is still delivered into the hands of sinful men — not to be crucified or put to death ever again, but for you, Christian, to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of all your sins, for life and salvation.

In this Sacrament is where the Body of the Lord Jesus is found, where it is given and received, and where His Blood of the New Testament is poured out, so that you shall not die but live.

This is the Lord’s Day, just as He has spoken, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Taste and see that He is good, and go home from here in His Peace.

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

Shepherding the Sheep with Compassion

The Lord does not willingly grieve the sons of men, but desires to give them times of refreshment in heart and mind, body, soul and spirit.

Why, then, does the Lord grieve Peter?

You know it had to be awkward and painful. You’ve been there, too, in coming face to face with a loved one you have hurt or disappointed or failed in some way. Why must Jesus push the point and seemingly rub it in?

He knows all things. He knows that Peter loves Him. And of course He also knows Peter’s denials, as He knew them beforehand; as, indeed, He knew them before He ever called that sinful man to follow Him, to be a disciple, a fisher of men, a holy Apostle.

He likewise knows your faith and love, which are His good work in you, His gracious gift. And He knows your denials, too, and the cowardice and fear from which they stem. He knows your frailty and weakness, your guilt and shame, your embarrassment and pain.

So why does He put you on the spot with His questions? Why does He keep asking?

He grieves you in this way, as He grieved Simon Peter, not to be petty or spiteful, but for the sake of Love: His Love for you, which is unfailing and never ending. He puts you to the test, not to trip you up or trick you, but to strengthen your faith.

He wounds you in order to heal you, He puts you to death in order to raise you up; as He Himself glorified God by His death, and was glorified by the Father in His death — so does He raise up and glorify in Himself the weak and weary, the wounded and the fallen.

He reminds you of your sin, not to shame or embarrass you, but to bring about repentance, to restore you faith and love through the forgiveness of your sins.

He turns you away from your wickedness and failure, to follow Him through death into life.

Thus, He calls you, not to deny Him out of fear, but to follow Him in faith. He does so in love: knowing your sin better than you do, but loving you for His own sake.

It is for the sake of such love and compassion, also, that He grieves you and allows you to grieve; that you might learn mercy, compassion, sympathy and love for those who sin, and for those who suffer. He would catechize you to be, not vindictive or vengeful, but forgiving and kind. So that, as He tends you, feeds you, and shepherds you with His Gospel of forgiveness, and with His own Body and Blood, you would likewise feed your neighbor and tend to his needs.

And if you suffer and die in doing so, if you are bound and put to death and shed your blood, you glorify God and follow Christ. Not by your own strength and determination, but by His grace.

Do not be afraid, and do not despair. For the One who calls you loves you and cares for you. And as often as you fall, He raises you up. He forgives you, He feeds you, and He gives you life; because He loves you, and His love never fails.

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

The First Easter Oration of St. Gregory Nazianzen: modestly redacted for the Easter Vigil

It is the Night of the Resurrection. Let us therefore keep the Feast with splendor, and let us embrace one another. Let us say “Dear Brother,” or “Dear Sister,” even to those who hate us, and much more to those who have done or suffered anything out of love for us. Let us forgive all trespasses against us, for the sake of the Resurrection; let us give each other pardon.

The Great Mystery of Christ has anointed me — the Mystery of His Cross and Passion. I withdrew a little while from the Mystery, as was needful to examine myself. But now I come in with another Mystery, bringing with me the New Day as a good defender of my cowardice and weakness; that He who has risen this night from the dead may renew me also by His Spirit, and adorning me with Himself, may give me also to you — you who are His New Creation, begotten of God — that I may be a good model and teacher of Christ, willingly dying with Him and rising with Him again.

Yesterday, the Lamb was slain, and the door-posts were anointed; Egypt bewailed her firstborn, while the Destroyer passed us over, for the Seal is dreadful and reverend, and we are surrounded by the Precious Blood. Thus, today we have escaped altogether from Egypt and from Pharaoh, and there is no one to hinder us from keeping the Feast to the Lord our God — the Feast of our Exodus. There is no one to keep us from celebrating the Feast — not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, taking with us nothing of ungodly and Egyptian leaven.

Yesterday, we were crucified with Him; today, we are glorified with Him. Yesterday, we died with Him; today, we are quickened with Him. Yesterday, we were buried with Him; today, we rise with Him. And now, then, let us offer right treasures to Him who suffered and rose again for us. I do not mean gold or silver, nor tapestries, nor precious and costly stones, the mere passing materials of earth, which remain here below, and which for the most part are always possessed by the wicked, who are slaves of the world and of the prince of the world. But no, let us offer ourselves, the possession most precious to God, and most fitting. Let us give back to the Image what is made after the Image. Let us recognize our Dignity; let us honor the Archetype; let us know the power of the Mystery, and for what Christ died.

Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us. Let us become divine for His sake, since He for our sake became Man. He assumed the worse, that He might give us the better; He became poor that we through His poverty might be rich; He took upon Him the form of a servant that we might receive back our liberty; He came down that we might be exalted; He was tempted that we might conquer; He was dishonored that He might glorify us; He died that He might save us; He ascended that He might draw to Himself us, who were lying low in the Fall of sin.

Let us give all, and offer all, to Him who gave Himself as a Ransom and a Reconciliation for us. But one can give nothing like himself, understanding the Mystery, and becoming for His sake all that He has become for ours.

As you see, He offers you a pastor (a shepherd); for this is what your Good Shepherd is hoping and praying, who lays down His life for His sheep, that you might be His sheep. So does He give you Himself, as it were, double instead of single, and He makes the shepherd’s staff of this poor man a staff for your spirit.

Thus He adds to the building of His Church this living temple; and to His exceedingly beautiful and heavenly shrine, this poor and small one, yet to Him of great value, and built with much sweat and many labors. Would that I could say it is worthy of His labors! But He places at your disposal all that belongs to Him (O great generosity! O Fatherly love!): His hoary head and His youth, His Temple and Himself, the merciful and great High Priest, the Testator, the Heir, and the Gospel sermon you were longing to hear. Not like those that are in vain and poured out into the air, which reach no further than the outward ear, but those which the Spirit writes and engraves on tablets of stone, or of flesh; not superficially written, nor easily rubbed off, but etched very deep, not with ink, but with grace.

These are the gifts that are given to you by your venerable Abraham, the “Everlasting Father,” the honorable and reverend Head of all the faithful, the Patriarch, the Resting-place of all good, the Standard of all virtue, the Perfection of the Priesthood, who has offered to the Lord His willing Sacrifice, that of the only-begotten Son, the One Who was promised.

On your side, then, offer to God your willing ears to hear and heed your pastors, dwelling in a place of lush green grass, and being quenched by waters of refreshment. Know your Good Shepherd in His voice of the Gospel, as you are known by Him, and follow when He calls you as your Shepherd frankly through the door into His fold. Do not follow a stranger climbing up into the fold like a robber and a traitor, nor listen to a strange voice when it would call you away by stealth and scatter you from the truth across mountains, in deserts and pitfalls, and to places where the Lord does not visit. Avoid those who would lead you away from the orthodox faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the One Power and Godhead, whose Voice you have heard from me in my preaching by His grace (and may you always hear it); for deceitful and corrupt words would entice and force you away from the great Good Shepherd of us all.

From all that may hurt us or deceive us, may we all be kept, both shepherds and sheep, as from a poisonous and deadly weed; guiding and being guided far away from it, that we may all be one in Christ Jesus our Lord, now and unto the heavenly rest: To whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all the honor and glory and power and might, for ever and ever. Amen.

Woman, Behold Your Son

The death of a child is surely one of the most difficult and painful sorrows that anyone can ever suffer. In some respects, it hardly matters whether that child is three, or thirteen, or thirty-three, or in the first or third trimester in the womb. To lose your child is to be confronted with the absolute and utter futility of your mortal life, and of your human flesh under the curse of sin and death. What difference does anything make, when suffering, death and the grave await you and your children, either sooner or later?

In truth, that is the legacy that you have inherited from your father Adam and your mother Eve, and if you have any children of your own, it is the legacy that you have handed over to them in turn. Perhaps you have already had to bury your children. Or perhaps you have had no spouse or child at all, which may spare you some sorrow of loss, but maybe it has also left you feeling lonely and alone to begin with. If you do not bequeath the legacy of sin to anyone after you, neither are you any further ahead than those who do.

There still remains death to contend with: in yourself, and in all your loved ones, whatever their relationship to you may be. In Adam, all men die, because all men sin, and so it is with all the children of men. Each and all return to the dust of the ground, as surely as the serpent must crawl across the ground on his belly and eat dust as he goes.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is not spared this pain and sorrow, but she too is cut to the quick and pierced through the heart by the death of her dear Son, just as St. Simeon had prophesied several decades previous. Do not suppose that it was easier for her, or any less painful, just because she knew (or should have known) that it was coming. For every mother who has ever had to mourn the fruit of her own womb, there is a special kinship here to be found in the Mother of God, who stood at the foot of the Cross and watched her Jesus die.

He had been her little Boy, like any mother’s son, whom she had carried and delivered, nursed and diapered, and taught so many things over the years, as He grew and learned. What little games had they played? What smiles had He given her? What bedtime stories and naptime cuddles had they shared? And shall He now be so cruelly put to death before her very eyes, without touching her heart and soul at their core?

Not for nothing does He die, although this Seed of the Woman is the one Man who did not have to perish, the one Son of Adam who was not conceived and born in sin, and who had no sin of His own. For He is the Son of God from all eternity, and He was conceived of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. Thus, it was not out of necessity, but solely out of divine and holy love, that He was born of the Woman under the Law, in order to redeem those who were under the Law.

Not only did He become flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood, but He voluntarily took upon Himself the curse and consequences of sin. He became, not only human, but mortal, and He bore all the sins of the whole world in His own Body to the Cross. He dies, then, not for any sins of His own — for He has none — but for the sins of all His mortal fathers and mothers, and for all their sinful mortal children, for all His brothers and sisters in the flesh.

He dies for you and for your sins. And so St. Mary grieves her Son.

What is one to do with grief like that?

You may be tempted to say or suggest that, for the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is surely no big deal. After all, her Jesus doesn’t even stay dead for very long, but He rises again on the Third Day. It all turns out okay, and really much better than “okay,” and everything is fine. All of which is true, but of course it is no less true for you than it is for St. Mary. The joy and hope of her Son’s Resurrection is also for you and for your children. Everything hinges on His death and on His Resurrection from the dead, which are fully accomplished, once and for all, without any iffiness.

Therefore, just as St. Mary shares the same grief as so many other parents before her and after, so do you share the same hope and promise in her Son.

Learn, then, to live in that hope and confidence of Christ Jesus. Not as though death were to be taken lightly or laughed off. Neither Jesus nor His dear Mother laugh at death, which is no joke, nor is it funny, but it is a gross intrusion upon the Lord’s good creation. It is the fruit of sin, and it is vile. But for all of that, it does not get to have the last word, because it has been defeated by this death of Christ, the Son of God, in human flesh and blood.

So, where and how do you now live? Are you still trying to make a life for yourself in this mortal world, even though you are constantly confronted with its futility? Are you attempting to invest yourself in earthly empires, even though you should know that all such enterprises will collapse and fail. Are you hoping to establish a dynasty for yourself and all your sons and daughters of death, despite the fact that none of you will survive this present age?

Where is the house in which you can actually be safe and sound? Where are you truly at home, able to rest in peace? To what household and family do you really belong?

You can go looking and searching for all of these things on your own — and to some extent, that is what all of your restless seeking is after — but you’ll not find it apart from Christ and His Word. Your “destiny” apart from Him is death and the grave, the place of the skull, the dust of the ground, and what is worse, to be cast out and cut off from the presence of God forever.

Sadly, the same legacy of sin that is putting you to death, also turns you away from the Lord your God, even now; away from His tender mercy and His gracious promises.

Adam and Eve took hold of the one thing He had not given, the one thing He had forbidden them, in the hopes of finding something better for themselves than the life they already had in Him. And when they had thus fallen into sin, they tried to run away and hide from Him, and to cover their naked shame with leaves. Cast out of the garden, but given the promise of the Gospel — of the Woman’s Seed who would crush and defeat the serpent and reconcile the world to God — the first man and his bride learned to hope in the Lord and to call upon His Name. But see, already, what their sin has wrought: the Woman brings forth her firstborn son, and she is so optimistic at first, but then he kills his little brother in a jealous rage, and the woman is bereft of her son.

Standing over the hole in the ground where the body of your son or daughter has been laid to rest, and standing at the foot of the Cross with Mother Mary, you are tempted to despair, to anger and bitterness, confusion and fear. You are tempted to cast about for some explanation that will make it make sense, or you are driven to run away and hide. And yet you can’t escape. You’re left with empty hands, an aching heart, a lonely house with too many chairs anymore, and the naked shame of your own sin and your own death.

But the Lord who loves you, dear one, does not willingly grieve the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. He takes no pleasure in death, nor is He nonchalant about your pain. He has subjected His own good creation to such futility in the hope of His own redemption, in the eager anticipation of His gracious adoption of many sons and many daughters, the many brethren of His only-begotten Son, Christ Jesus.

Here, then, is another Seth in place of Abel; a new and better Lamb in the place of Isaac, and in the place of all the firstborn sons of Israel; and a greater Son than Solomon, in place of the week-old little boy of David and Uriah’s wife. Here is the beloved and well-pleasing Son of God, who, as the Son of Mary also, is given and poured out by His Father for all the children of sin and death.

Behold, His garments are removed to clothe and cover you, and in His nakedness He bears your shame. He does not run away and hide, nor does He turn His eyes away from you, but He willingly bears the curse and consequence of sin and lays down His own life in love.

He does not grasp or seize or take, but He receives and eats the bread of affliction from His Father’s hand, so that He Himself becomes your Bread of Life: His Body the Fruit of a better Tree, His Blood the Fruit of this true Vine. Take, and eat, He says. He does not forbid you. Drink, He says. Taste and see. By this Food, freely given by God, for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins, you shall not die, but live.

The Son cares for His Mother, and He entrusts her to a good man who provides for her a house and home. The Lord gives her another son in this man, the beloved disciple, and he shall honor her as a Mother in Christ Jesus. The same Lord Jesus provides for you, as well, in your bereavement and mourning. He does care for the widow and the orphan in distress. He also hears your cries, and He shall not leave you forsaken. He has given Himself for you, and He shall not withhold His goodness from you.

Look around you, even here. These are your mothers and your sons, your sisters and daughters, your fathers and brothers in Christ. Should you not love them, and shall they not love you, in the mercy and compassion of your dear Lord Jesus? You are not helpless or alone. You are not without a home and family. And if you find no need in yourself, then behold the needs of your neighbors, round about you here and elsewhere, and help them.

Who among you has had a miscarriage and now mourns in silent sorrow? Whose parents are ill and dying? Whose job is in danger? Who is overwhelmed and struggling to manage, to get by? Who is drowning in depression and despair?

Who among you stands at the foot of the Cross, waiting upon the Word of the Lord, and wondering (if not worrying) whatever shall become of you now?

Take heart, dear child of God. He has not forgotten you. For you are the disciple whom Jesus loves — He loves you dearly; yes, even you. And not only has He given you to comfort and care for your brothers and sisters in His Name, and for widows and orphans in their distress, but He has also laid you upon the bosom of His Church, to find in her your Mother.

From her font, by the Word and Spirit of God, you have been conceived and born again as a son of God in Christ. And at her festal board, the Son of Mary is still given in the same flesh and blood, like yours, in which He was born for you, and lived and died for you; in which He has risen from the dead for you, and lives and reigns forever at the right hand of His God and Father.

As He has made you a member of His Bride, the Church, the Mother of all the living, and as He has given you a place here in the home of all His beloved disciples, so is your place, your house and home, with Him in heaven.

From “the place of the skull,” you know that He is taken to be laid to rest in the garden. And now, it is right that you should mourn His death, on this day in particular. But not as those who have no hope. For His rest in the tomb is not the end, but a genuine Sabbath Rest, by which He has sanctified the graves of all His saints, including your grave and your children’s.

His departure is not from life into death, but from this vale of tears into Paradise, into the gracious and glorious presence of God. And as He has called you to be His own, and He loves you, so does He bring you with Himself through death into life, and back to an even better garden than your first parents were cast out of.

Even now, you are not found naked, but you are clothed with Christ and His righteousness, so that you have nothing to be ashamed of and no need to be afraid.

Even now, you are fed from the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden, so that, in the midst of mortal life, in the face of death and the grave, though you are dying, yet, behold, you live.

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

My Little Children, Love One Another

It is said that, when the Apostle St. John was an old man, his preaching was summarized simply as, “My little children, love one another.” It is not hard to imagine. St. Paul often writes of love in his Epistles, but it is St. John who has recorded the New Commandment of Christ Jesus, the “mandatum” for which this day has gotten its name: “Maundy Thursday.” St. John writes of this New Commandment in his Epistles, too, where he repeats the point with emphasis. So it is that the “beloved disciple,” who knew the love of Jesus so very well, has became the Apostle of Love.

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

In faith before God, to the glory of His holy Name, you are called and commanded to humble yourself in service to your neighbor (and who is your “neighbor,” if not each and every person whom God has positioned near you in your life on earth). You are to sacrifice and give yourself for others, to cleanse and feed your neighbors in the world, even those who trespass against you.

If this all sounds rather generic, and therefore easy, think concretely of your actual neighbors — your wife or husband, your children, your parents, your siblings; your fellow parishioners; your customers and co-workers; your colleagues and peers; your teachers, your students, and your classmates; and of course, the people in your neighborhood, in your building or on your street.

Think of them, of their names and of their circumstances. If you do not even know their names, or if you have no clue concerning their situation and their particular needs, you best start loving them by introducing yourself and by taking the time and making the effort to listen and to hear.

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

Along with that — you fathers in particular, but also you mothers — how shall you teach your children to love, as Christ and His Apostles have taught you and commanded you to love? If you have no children of your own, how shall you teach your students to love, or anyone else entrusted to your authority and care? The answer is simple enough: Chiefly, you are to love them. For how do you expect or suppose that your children or your students will love better than you love them?

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

Jesus does not ask you to do anything more, nor anything else, than what He Himself does for you, and gives to you by His grace. He commands you, rather, to be like Him, and to do as He does. Not only St. John, but St. Peter also learned that lesson well, as we have heard from his first Epistle this Holy Week; for the Lord Jesus has left an example for you to follow in His steps.

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

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

Is the “newness” of the Lord’s command an even greater Law, now, than the one God had already given through Moses a few millennia earlier? Has He just upped the ante that much higher? For the whole Law of Moses was already summarized in Love (for God and for the neighbor), but now you are commanded to love (both God and man) in the perfect way that Jesus does.

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

In any case, you can’t do it — not of yourself, nor by yourself.

You do love, dear little child, but only as Jesus first loves you. You learn from Him to love, not only by His good example or instruction, but as He serves you in love, and cleanses you by grace, and makes you brand new in Himself, recreated in His Image and Likeness.

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

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

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

It is in Him that all things are made new, including you.

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

He humbles Himself and comes down from the Father in heaven, into the very depths of your sin and death. He lays down His life for you, as He lays aside His garments and kneels down to wash your feet. Something a master would never do for a slave, yet the Lord Jesus does this for you.

The waters with which He cleanses you — not as a washing away of dirt from your body, but as a cleansing of your conscience from sin and guilt and shame and all unrighteousness — it is the water that flows from His wounded side, mingled and permeated with His Blood. So are you cleansed by His Blood in the waters of Holy Baptism; and so are you cleansed by His Blood from the Cup of His New Covenant, which He pours out for you in this Holy Sacrament of His Altar.

When the Israelite fathers would sacrifice the Passover lambs at twilight, they would do so in the doorways of their homes. At the threshold was a basin, an impression dug into the floor at that place, normally to prevent water from washing into the house. The blood of the sacrificed lamb was poured out into that basin, then painted onto the doorframe at its top and each of its sides with a brush of hyssop (making the sign of the Cross in the process). In like manner, the Blood of the true Passover Lamb of God, Christ Jesus, is poured out from His sacred wounds into the “basin” of His baptismal font, and into the “basin” of His communion chalice, at the foot of His Cross.

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

Now, you already know well enough from ordinary life how important and significant meals are; not only as daily bread for the nourishment and sustenance of your body, but also for fellowship with your neighbors. To eat and drink together is a fundamental bond of family and friends, and the dinner table is (or ought to be) a regular gathering place for parents with their children, and for brothers and sisters with each other. The husband and father who provides the meal, whether by farming or hunting and fishing, or by paying for the food, is thereby loving and caring for his wife and children. Likewise, the wife and mother who prepares the meal and serves it to her family, is loving her husband and children and caring for them. These are not incidentals, but are among the cords of love that connect the members of a household to one another and make of them a family.

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

Consequently, you are “bodied” and “blooded” together with the Lord Jesus Christ. You are what you eat, that is, a member of the Body of Christ, truly flesh of His flesh and blood of His blood.

And so also, dearly beloved of Christ Jesus, you are “bodied” and “blooded” together with each other in Him. You are all one Body in Christ, as you eat of His Body and drink of His Cup. So do you belong to one another, and so shall you love and serve and care for each other, each of you loving your neighbor — as you love yourself, and even better, as the Lord Jesus Christ loves you.

Consider what it means that you eat and drink together here, and what is more, that you eat and drink the very Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, your Savior.

In truth, you are “bodied” and “blooded” together with all Christians of all times and places, with even St. John, St. Peter and St. Paul. But this congregation is your immediate family. The fellow Christians who sit and stand and kneel beside you here, and all around you in this place, are your brothers and sisters; for you all have one Father, who right here gathers you and loves you and feeds you in His dearly-beloved Son. This is your family, and this is your home, and here is the Table where you eat and drink together in faith and love.

Where, then, shall your feet take you? Let them bring you here to share this Meal with your family. And let them also take you, in love, to one another in the world. Learn to know the needs, the hurts and the hopes, the heartaches and joys of your brothers and sisters, and do not run away from them in their pain, but walk toward them in mercy and compassion.

Christ Jesus, the Lord, has surely cleansed your feet in His love for you.

You, also, do the same for each other.

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

But “the end,” it turns out, is really the beginning of abundant life with God in Christ. For the One who has laid aside His garments to cleanse you by the shedding of His Blood, by His innocent suffering and death, and by the washing of water with His Word, has also taken them up again: to clothe you in His garments, richly wrought, and to adorn you in His own glorious raiment of righteousness, like a beautiful bride or handsome prince, made good-looking by His love for you.

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

That Hour has already come. The Son of Man has glorified the Father in Himself, in His sacrificial death as the Lamb of God, who has taken upon Himself and taken away the sins of the world. And His Father has glorified Him, by raising Him from the dead, never to die again. So it is that all things are made new in Him, in His crucified and risen Body, and all flesh is cleansed and made alive by His holy and precious Blood.

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

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

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