At the Name of Jesus

If you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified, you do not have to wonder where to find Him. You are in the right place, where the Lord has risen for you, just as He said, and where His messenger has been established upon this Cornerstone of the crucified and risen Christ Jesus.

This is where you see Him, even now, by faith; who at the last shall stand upon the earth, and with your own eyes, from your own flesh, you shall see Him, just as He is, and you will be like Him. That is His promise to you, and His Word is true.

But are you afraid that you will not be able to find Him?
Or, are you more afraid that He will find you?

It is right that you should fear the Lord, your God, but do not be afraid. Rather, let your fear be tempered by love and governed by faith, so that you lay hold of His feet and worship Him.

He has risen from the dead, but He has not departed from you. He has taken His stand upon the earth, from Jerusalem to Galilee, even to the ends of the earth. And He comes to meet you on the way, in the proclamation and confession of His Word.

He goes before you, through death into life, but He does not turn His back on you. He calls you to Himself and greets you as His own dear brother.

Take to heart what that means — that you are not only His disciple, but His brother. For you also, by your Baptism into His tomb and out again, are a son of God in Christ.

It is by His Name, with which you have been named in Holy Baptism, that you are raised up to stand in the presence of God, to live and walk with Christ.

In the end, every tongue will confess that holy Name of Jesus, and there will be no denying it in heaven or on earth. No amount of money will silence that confession.

For now, sinful unbelief, hardness of heart, the love of money and the fear of man, cause men to tremble and shake like an earthquake and bring them to death in body and soul. But you bear the Name of the crucified and risen Christ in your body and life, as a Christian; so that you confess His Name, His Cross and Resurrection, with your lips and your life. Let that be the blessed privilege and purpose that guards and governs your life on earth.

In all your words and actions, remember that Christ Jesus has been crucified for your transgressions, and for the sins of the world, and that He has been raised for your justification.

So, too, your fellow Christians, all of them, are likewise sons of God and brothers of Christ. Worship Him by loving them, and worship Him by faith, by laying hold of Him here, where He has planted His feet on earth.

Do not be afraid. For by His gracious Word you shall see Him, as He said. Not for death, but for life.

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

On Prayer

There is nothing more basic to the Christian faith and life than prayer. For prayer is the very voice of faith itself and the primary good work of the Christian life, an act of love for both God and the neighbor. It is of first importance, St. Paul writes, that “prayer, intercession, supplication and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men” (1 Tim 2:1), in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, who died for all and desires that all men be saved. Christians are therefore to pray at all times, “without ceasing,” and not to lose heart (1 Thess 5:17; St. Luke 18:1).

How, then, shall we pray? The Lord Himself must teach us, by His Word and with His Holy Spirit, because we do not know how to pray as we should (St. Luke 11:1-4; Rom 8:14-27). Not only has He commanded us to pray and promised to hear us, but He has given us the Words with which to pray in His Name (St. John 15:16; 16:26-27; St. Matt 6:6-13; 18:19-20). He not only teaches but exemplifies the life of prayer: from the waters of the Jordan (St. Luke 3:21) to the Garden of Gethsemane (St. Luke 22:39-46); from His Transfiguration (St. Luke 9:29) to His Crucifixion (St. Luke 23:33-34, 46; Heb 5:7). What is more, having sacrificed Himself for us upon the Cross, as our great High Priest, He has also risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb 7:25).

This is our sure and certain confidence in prayer, that Christ and His Spirit pray with us and for us (St. John 17; Heb 7:25; Rom 8:14-27). We pray to “our Father in heaven,” as those who are baptized into Christ Jesus, the beloved and well-pleasing Son (St. Luke 3:21-22). His God and Father is our God and Father (St. John 20:17; Gal 4:4-7), and His prayer is our prayer. It is for this reason that we “ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach,” and that we do so “in faith without any doubting” (James 1:5-6).

That voice of faith which approaches the throne of grace with all boldness and confidence (Heb 10:19-23), like that of little children asking of their dear Father, arises in our hearts and from our mouths by the hearing of the Word of Christ (Rom 10:17). Christian prayer necessarily begins, therefore, not with our speaking, but with that hearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. For He is merciful to all who call upon Him in truth, but how shall we call upon Him whom we have not heard (Rom 10:11-14)?

Prayer goes hand-in-hand with the Word of God, and we cannot pray without it. The prayer of the Church belongs inseparably to the teaching and fellowship of the Apostles, who devoted themselves to prayer and the Ministry of the Word (Acts 2:42; 6:4). So it is that all things are sanctified to our use by the Word of God and prayer (1 Tim 4:4-5). We do not have the one without the other. It is the Word of the Lord that opens our lips to pray, praise and give thanks (Ps 51:15). Before it is ever a petition or request, prayer is first of all the confession of what God has spoken; and already in asking for what He has promised, we give thanks, for we know that His answer in Christ Jesus is always “Yes, and Amen” (2 Cor 1:20).

Every good and perfect gift is from the Lord, our God and Father in Christ Jesus, including all that we need for both body and soul, for this life and the life everlasting. All that He has created and given to us is to be “received with thanksgiving,” and again, “sanctified by means of the Word of God and prayer” (1 Tim 4:4-5). In this way His Name is kept holy among us, the very first thing for which He has taught us to pray. So, too, we sanctify each day as a Sabbath rest in Christ; not simply Saturday or Sunday, but all our days and nights, evening and morning. His Name is holy in itself, and every day is holy to the Lord, but these sacred things are made holy for us by the speaking and hearing of His Word in faith.

The rhythm of daily prayer is really a daily catechesis in the Word of God. As we hear and confess His Word, as we are instructed in the way of faith and love by the Law and the Gospel, and as we are thus taught to pray, His Holy Spirit is actively present and at work to bring us daily to repentance. He calls us by the Gospel, enlightens us with His gifts, sanctifies us in the faith, and keeps us united with Christ our Lord. All of this the Spirit does by the Word, which puts the old Adam in us to death and raises us to newness of life with our crucified and risen Lord Jesus. That is the rhythm of life for every baptized believer in Christ, but it never is by our own reason and strength. In the weakness of our faith we simply cry out, “Lord, have mercy and help us!” We avail ourselves of His Word and Spirit, and we pray. We rely upon the Ministry of His Gospel in His Church, and no less so do we give attention to His Word and prayer all week long. Indeed, the stronger and more mature a Christian is, the more he or she will gladly hear and learn the Word of God; and, in doing so, the more frequently and fervently he or she will pray.

There is no time of the day or night when a Christian does not cry out from the heart unto the Lord in repentant faith. Faith itself is already the inward groaning of the Holy Spirit within us for Christ our Lord (Rom 8:26-27). But as we believe with the heart, so do we confess with the mouth that Jesus is our Lord and God (Rom 10:8-10). As we have heard, so do we believe, and so do we speak in confession and prayer (2 Cor 4:13).

To call upon the Name of the Lord is the Christian’s daily sacrifice of thanksgiving, in the morning and at the close of day (Ps 88:1-2, 13; 116:17; 119:147-148; 139:11-12; 141:1-2). With such prayer, whereby we look unto the Lord for all that we need, we worship and adore Him as our true and only God. Not only that, but in our love for Him we also pray and intercede for His entire Church and for the whole world, which He so loves, and for which He has given His only-begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose dear Name we pray. In our prayer and intercession for the world — for our neighbors near and far, known and unknown, both friend and foe — we are united to Christ our Head, our great High Priest, as a royal priesthood of the baptized. Praying for our neighbor in this way, as Christ Jesus prays for us and for all, is the most distinctive and definitive duty of our priestly vocation as Christians.

As often as we pray the Our Father, and as often as we pray at all in the Name of Jesus, we are praying for His entire Church in heaven and on earth, and for as many as He will call to Himself to be His own dear children from all the nations (Acts 2:39). In that same light, it is comforting to realize that His entire Church is always praying day and night for each and all of us, from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets (Malachi 1:11; Ps 113:2-3). So do we Christians have all things in common, and with our prayers we love and serve one another (Acts 2:42-47).

As fundamental as all of this is to the Christian faith and life — as significant and necessary as the Word of God and prayer are to our spiritual health and strength — the actual practice of daily prayer does not come so easily or naturally to any of us poor sinners. How often have we tried, perhaps, to establish some routine, some discipline of prayer and devotion, whether on our own or with our families, only to find that it becomes harder and harder to keep up with it? We are so easily distracted by “the worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things” (St. Mark 4:19), and we so readily give away our time, attentions and energies to “every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us” (Heb 12:1). It seems burdensome to devote ourselves, our hearts and minds, our bodies and souls, to the Word of the Lord. Yet, His Word alone endures forever, while all of those temporal things that we chase after will wither and fade like the grass and the flower of the field (1 Pet 1:24-25). The more we are enticed by the idols of this world, the more desperately we need the Word of the one true God in Christ!

Thankfully, He does not leave us tossed about and helpless, but in His compassion shepherds us. By His grace and tender mercy, He encourages us and assists us in the discipline of daily prayer, first of all by His commands and promises. “For He Himself has commanded us to pray and has promised to hear us” (Small Catechism). Again, along with His exhortation and admonition, He has also given us the very Words with which we are to pray: “Our Father, who art in heaven.” He has taught us how to pray, not only by His Holy Scriptures, but even before we could read He put His prayer upon our lips, and thereby into our hearts and minds, by the teaching and example of our parents and pastors. The Second and Third Commandments, too, not only expose our sin, but serve as a curb and a guide, as a rule of faith and prayer. The Second Table of the Law helps to protect our neighbor from the harm that we would do him, but the First Table of the Law is for our own protection, that we should not neglect to hear the Word of God and call upon His Name. Our earthly parents require us to eat our vegetables, even before we have learned to enjoy them. So does our Father in heaven command us to listen and to pray, even when we would rather not. Then, by His living and active Word, He brings our hearts and minds along in repentance.

The Lord Jesus continues teaching us to pray, and His Holy Spirit daily continues to help us in our weakness. He does so by the ways and the means of His Word, by the agency of His Church on earth and the Ministry of His Gospel. As we thus hear and receive His gracious Word, in which He and His Spirit are actively present and at work to give us faith and life, so does He gather us up in Himself and bring us, like sweet incense (Ps 141:1–2), into the Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens (Heb 9:11; 2 Cor 5:1), to be well received by Our Father. Amen.

The Silence of the Lamb

Everyone is caught by surprise and astonished by Jesus. Peter is ready to strike with the sword, and to go down fighting if need be, but he does not know what to do or say about the Man who meekly gives Himself up as a Lamb into the lion’s mouth. Judas, too, probably expected Jesus to resist arrest, to defend Himself or fight back in some way, and to prevail in any event. But the betrayer is overcome with remorse and succumbs to despair when he sees that Jesus is condemned and sentenced to death. Pilate is likewise surprised by the silence of the Lamb, who makes no answer to the accusations leveled against Him, though none of those charges should stick. He’s not guilty, but He refuses to argue His case.

Jesus does not do what anyone expects. He does not do what you or anyone else would do. Because He alone is righteous, without sin, whereas all of us have gone astray, and each of us has turned to his own willful pursuits. Ironically, it is precisely in His righteousness, in perfect faith and holy love, that He alone bears and suffers and deals with the full extent of sin. For He takes upon Himself the sins of the world, and He assumes all of the responsibility for all of those sins and their outcome, which no one else could endure, much less overcome.

You are astonished at Jesus, not only because of His unique behavior, but also by the terrifying magnitude of sin, which has finally become evident, only now, in His Passion, in His bloodshed, suffering and death. This is mega-mega-death for mega-mega-sin, and who could have believed it, or even conceived the full extent of it, otherwise? It is too great, too terrible, too devastating. To be confronted with it in the Crucifixion of Christ Jesus, in the marring of His form and His appearance beyond that of any man, is astonishing. In His sacred head now wounded, you see what has never been told before or since. His silence closes your mouth, and leaves you dumbfounded, because in it you begin to understand what no one has ever heard.

You simply don’t know, nor can you imagine or perceive, the depths of the broken-ness and the pervasive consequences of sin, except by the Cross of Christ. For God spares you and suffers its terror and calamity, Himself. You could more easily investigate the fiery heat of the sun at its core than survive the brunt of sin with its onslaught of death and damnation. But Christ the Lord, and He alone, bears it all, in order to save you from it.

To be sure, you do know some of sin’s ravages and hurt. You experience bits and pieces of the fall into sin, and the broken-ness that it has brought, in the mortality of the world and yourself. You know suffering, sickness, sorrow and shame because of it. You feel its sting in the piercing of your conscience, in the crushing of your hopes and dreams, and in the splintering and separation of your family, whether by death or divorce, by the normal transitions of temporal life on earth, or by estrangements resulting from unresolved quarrels.

Some of your hurts are exquisite, festering and raw after years of nursing them, and some of your disappointments and fears are excruciating, painful and paralyzing. Perhaps there are days when you feel certain that you are going under, and that you will surely suffocate. But the worst of it all that you taste and see and feel and experience, in this life on earth, is hardly the tip of the iceberg. What lies beneath would stop your heart cold, before you could blink, and sink your ship faster than the Titanic.

And now, Christ takes all of it upon Himself. You still can’t comprehend the full extent of it; nor should you attempt to do so. But in the Cross you encounter the consequences of it all, and in the Crucified One you find all the hurts and burdens that you have known, fully lifted from your back and laid upon Him.

Do savor this, and ponder it in your heart, that your Lord Jesus Christ has fully taken your place. Under the Law, yes. Under the burden of sin and death, absolutely and completely. But so also in respect to all the details and specifics, be they big or small; the daily irritations, as well as the lifelong hurts and permanent scars. He has taken on the whole bloody iceberg, as well as the cruel little ice cubes down your back.

He has been despised by His peers and forsaken by His friends. He has been teased, mocked, made fun of, and ridiculed. Criticized and complained about. Misunderstood and mistreated.

In the divine Mystery of His Incarnation and Redemption, He fully sympathizes with you in every way. Your particular griefs, He has made His own and shares and feels with you. Your sadness and your sorrows, He knows them all; not from afar, but in His own heart, soul, mind and spirit, personally. Likewise, all your hurts, all your injuries and illnesses, He bears in His own body. Your cancer. Your HIV. Your heart disease and high blood pressure. Your arthritis. Your aching back and joints. Your clinical depression. Your chronic insomnia. He suffers it all.

More than that, He has also been tempted with all of your temptations, with every one of them, exactly as you are tempted. He has allowed Himself to feel and experience the tug and pull of the sins that gnaw away at you, the ache and appeal of your addictions. And though He has not committed any sins, He has made all of your transgressions and iniquities His own, so that exactly your humiliation, your shame, and your regret are now His. Your stigma has become His stigmata. He takes all your scars, inside and out, public and private, and makes them into His wounds.

He does all of this for you in love, but He does much more than sympathize and share your woes. For the depths of your sin and death are not only matched but exceeded by the heights of God’s love for you in Christ Jesus, as He is lifted up in death upon the Cross. He thus makes restitution for all of your wrongs. His eye and tooth are given for every eye that you have blackened and for every tooth that you have knocked out. His Life is given in payment for every life that you have wrecked or ruined, including your own. He repays your debts to the last cent, not with cash or credit, but with His flesh and blood. He suffers your entire punishment for every infraction and every capitol offense. He takes your place, Barabbas, in order to release you.

His suffering is also correctional, remedial and catechetical; and this, too, is for your benefit, for your faith and life and your salvation. Having taken your place, He undergoes this discipline, this boot camp, this apprenticeship, this training unto righteousness. Not that He is lacking in any respect, but He grows and learns, increases and matures on your behalf: vicariously.

Having emptied Himself and made Himself nothing, in the form of a servant, in the likeness of fallen flesh, He humbles Himself before both God and man, and becomes obedient, even unto death. In this He experiences your circumstances and condition — not only human, but mortal; not only as a creature, but subject to the curse of sin and death — and in this very situation, He proceeds and perseveres in perfect faith before God, His Father, and in perfect love for His Father and for you and all His neighbors. He learns what it is to obey in the context of suffering, from within the crucible of your sin and death. Not as though He were previously ignorant, but by making His own what was yours and not His. Therein, beloved, He prays to the Father with the tears of your grief and sorrow, and with the loud cries of your pain and anguish.

This is the righteousness of faith and love with which He responds to, and deals with, all that He confronts and takes upon Himself and undergoes on your behalf. In this the Perfect One is perfected in your stead. He endures your lot and bears the Cross in quiet patience and with steady confidence in the One who sent Him. His loud cries are for the ears of His Father alone, who has given Him this Cup, and who will raise Him up and vindicate Him from out of death. Before men, He speaks mercy, absolution, and peace; He testifies to that Truth of divine Love, and bears witness to the Kingdom of God. He makes the good confession before Pontius Pilate.

But He does not answer His accusers. He does not plead for mercy or release from the human judge who has been given authority over Him. He does not curse or revile His executioners, but prays and intercedes for them, for their forgiveness, as even now He prays and intercedes for you. He is otherwise silent as He is sheared of His garments, stripped naked and made into a public spectacle. He does not squeal or scream as He is led to the slaughter.

It is in this way that He is most different from you, from your parents and your children, precisely in this place of judgment that He has taken from you and made His own. He does not point the finger or pass blame. He does not take vengeance or seek to excuse Himself from your punishment. He does not act as you act, but He willingly takes the heat for all your actions.

Even Peeta in the Hunger Games, kind and compassionate Peeta, gentle and considerate though he is, readily acknowledges that he would kill in the arena, when it came down to it, rather than allow himself to be killed. Self-defense is assumed as a given, a basic human right of self-preservation, as of animal instinct. Stand your ground. Fight for your life. And then fight for your rights. Isn’t that what this recent case of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman turns upon? And in the wake of that shooting, that death, the Martin family fights for Trayvon’s name and reputation, while George Zimmerman and his family contend for his innocence and freedom. Lawyers engage. Politics ensue.

When it’s not self-defense, whether of life or reputation, then it’s too often a case of retaliation or revenge. Like the young man who went on a shooting rampage earlier this week, at the Christian college in California from which he had been expelled.

By the grace of God, you will not open fire on your opponents, but, when you can’t get even, you do resort to grudges and bitterness, hardening your heart against those who have hurt you, withholding forgiveness, and growing colder toward everyone.

There is the tip of that deadly iceberg again, the great mass of which threatens to be your own tragic demise.

But not so, Christ Jesus. He does not defend Himself, fight back, or demand justice from Caiaphas or Pilate. He is not threatened by the attacks of His enemies, but is content with the Word of His Father. He still trusts the promise of His Baptism: that He is a beloved and well-pleasing Son, and, though He die, His Father will raise Him up. His food and drink, in the wilderness of temptation, in the Garden of Gethsemane, and in the Hour of His Passion, are the Will of His Father for your salvation. He finds His satisfaction and His joy, therefore, in bearing the Cross and suffering for you; in laying down His life in love for His enemies, in order to forgive them. Not the seventy-seven-fold vengeance of Lamech, son of Cain, but forgiveness, seventy-times-seven-times over, even for those who nail Him to the Cross. Free and full forgiveness, even for you.

As the Passover Lamb of God, He is poured out to death on your behalf. Like Isaac, the beloved son of Abraham, this dear Lord Jesus calmly and quietly permits His Father to lay Him upon the Altar of the Cross and bind Him to the wood. He knows that He will not be spared the pangs of death, for He is the Lamb whom God has found for Himself; He is the Ram, caught not by any weakness, but by His strength, by His horns, upon the branches of the Tree.

This is what it means for Him to be the great High Priest who blesses, serves, and avails for all people. In His righteousness of faith and love, and in His voluntary suffering and sacrifice for all the children of men, He obtains justification and forgiveness for transgressors.

This is what He gives to you by the Ministry of the Gospel. He sanctifies and saves you by the fruits of His Passion. The Spirit that He breathes out from the Cross, He breathes into you by His Word of Absolution. The message of His Cross is the revealing of His strong arm and outstretched hand, with which He lays hold of you in love and brings you out of bondage.

As He pours Himself out in death upon the Cross, so does He pour out the water and the blood from His opened heart to fill the font and the chalice with cleansing power. These Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Holy Communion are His sprinkling of the nations with the grace and glory of His Cross. As the Passover Lamb, He is not only sacrificed for us, but His flesh is given for the Feast, with which you are fed. His Body and His Blood are the fruits of the Tree in the midst of the Garden, by which you live forever.

Now, therefore, draw near with confidence to this Throne of Grace. Here you receive mercy and do find grace to help in time of need. Here you are not estranged, forsaken, despised, or cast out, but you are a member of the household and family of God. You are a disciple whom Jesus loves, and so are you also a beloved son or daughter; for He entrusts you in mercy and compassion to Holy Mother Church, in order that you might have God Himself as your own dear Father in Christ. Having fully taken your place as a son of Adam, He fully gives you His place as the Son of God.

He gives you His place! Which means that you now belong to a family which will not and cannot be splintered or separated, because it is bound together by the Blood of Christ in His one Body, crucified and risen. In Him you are reconciled to God and to each other forever.

As the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is now your God and Father, and He is for you, there can finally be no one to stand against you. There is no iceberg anymore to scuttle your boat or sink your ship. You have no need to defend or exonerate yourself, for in Christ you are acquitted and fully vindicated. The silence of the Lamb has silenced every accusation. Your sin is forgiven. Your death is undone. Your adversary, the devil, is stripped of all his power against you. Not hell but heaven is open to you in the Body and Blood of Christ the Crucified.

Astonishing? Yes. But do not be afraid. Remember Him, who here remembers you in love. Not with mere emotion does He remember you, but with active affection and with the tangible forgiveness, life and salvation of His own flesh. Give thanks to Him, who has sacrificed Himself for you. For in Him all things are yours, and you are His, now and forever.

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

For the Love of God

Little children, see what love the Father has for you, that He should give His only-begotten Son for you, and hand Him over to His death upon the Cross. And see how the Son of God loves you, by giving Himself for you, and by serving you at His own expense.

But no, you cannot see it, can you? Not with your eyes. It is with your ears, first of all, that you are a disciple of Christ Jesus. You seek Him, but you cannot find or follow Him, except you hear His Word to you; though it is a hard Word to understand, and even harder to bear and believe.

It is with His Word that He has cleansed you in the waters of your Holy Baptism. And it is with His Word that He gives to you His Bread to eat, which is His Body, here at His Table. Receive what He gives to you here, but do not take it lightly or for granted.

It is a risky business to eat bread with Jesus. Not only because the world will hate you for it, and seek to kill you (as Him); and not only because Satan will rage the more fiercely against you and press you hard; but especially because you are here presented with God Himself, His Glory and His Life, in such a way that you may receive Him to yourself and embrace Him in love.

As the Lord your God thus entrusts Himself to you, and gives Himself into your hands, take care that you do not betray Him. Do not lift up your heel against Him who kneels to wash your dirty feet. Do not deny Him with the same mouth that has received and eaten His Bread from His hand. Do not seek a greater glory or any other greatness than that of His Cross. But love as He loves, and live as He lives.

What would you profit; what would you buy or sell, or spend or give? What would you do or sacrifice to be with Jesus where He is? To follow Him into life with God?

It is not for you to purchase or to achieve by any machinations or efforts of your own, but to hear His Word, to receive His gifts, and to follow Him by faith in His Cross, reconciled to God the Father by His Blood; and thus to live by His grace, and to love your neighbor graciously.

Are you afraid that you will falter or fail, as Simon Peter did? Or, what is worse, that you will be enticed by the devil and fall from grace altogether, like Judas?

Little children, examine your heart and confess your sin, but do not look to yourself. Look to Christ Jesus by listening to Him. Hear what love He has for you; not because you are good and faithful, but He is, and in His love for you He does not falter or fail. Even while you are His enemy, He has given Himself for you, and He has reconciled you to God by His death.

You are forgiven. Your doubts and denials are healed. If you have even betrayed Him, repent and believe the Gospel, which forgives you all of your sins. Recline here at His Table in peace. For the Bread that Jesus gives you is not a threat, but a promise and a gift. Receiving it, you receive Christ Jesus Himself, and you follow Him into the life everlasting. Reclining here at His breast, you rest in the bosom of the Father who loves you, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Life and Light in the Cross of Christ

The Lord Jesus Christ is Life and Light in Himself, the very Son of God from all eternity. He has no need of anything, for all things are made by Him, and apart from Him there is nothing.

But in love He has come in the flesh in order to give His Life and Light to you; that you might not die in the darkness, but live and walk in the Light of God, as a son or daughter of the Light.

In order that you may be with Him where He is, with the Father forever, He has come to be with you where you are, even in the deep dark valley of death and the grave. So does He hide Himself under the Cross, which has the appearance of defeat, as though He were not the Christ, the King of Israel, at all, but a loser and a fool.

In truth, the Cross of Christ is the Hour of His Glory as the Son of Man, your Savior. It is the pinnacle of His faith and love, as the true and perfect Man, your merciful and great High Priest.

By His death, He glorifies the Father, doing exactly what the Father has sent Him to do. And in being lifted up from the earth to His God and Father, by the Cross, He bears much fruit. That is to say, He draws all people to Himself, that He might bear them up to God in His Body by atoning for all their sins, redeeming them from death and the grave, and reconciling them to God.

So does He draw you to Himself, and He bears the good fruits of faith and love in you, by the preaching of His Cross.

That Word of His Cross puts you to death. It puts you at odds with yourself and with the world. For the ruler of this world, and your former way of life in this world, are cast out by the Cross. And as you follow after Christ, and serve and honor Him, so that you begin to speak and act as He does, that is, in faith and love, you lose the approval of men and your place among them — who walk in darkness and don’t know where they are going.

But take heart, and do not be discouraged. For as you die by the Cross of Christ, bearing His reproach among men, so do you rise and live with Him in His Resurrection, being lifted up to God in Him, and gaining the approval of God in Him.

Therefore, do not be afraid — no matter what anyone may say or do to you on account of Jesus — for the Father honors you in Christ, His Son, and glorifies His Holy Name in you.

By the Word of the Cross, He calls you out of the darkness into the Light of Christ, by working repentance in you, converting you from sinful unbelief to faith and life in Him.

That Light is with you here on earth for a little while in the preaching of repentance, which is not just the booming thunder of the Law, which crucifies you, but also the sweet message of the Gospel, which forgives you all your sins and gives you the Life of God.

By that Light you here perceive that His grain of wheat, having been crucified, dead and buried, has also been harvested, and has indeed become the very Bread of Life, which is given for you.

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

The Hour Has Come

The Hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. For He glorifies the Father by His death, and the Father glorifies Him in His Resurrection.

Would you see Him in this way, according to the Glory of His Cross, and know Him and love Him and understand these things?

Then come up to worship at His Feast; for His Passover is at hand.

Go out to meet Him, as He comes into His holy city, and follow Him to the Cross. Hail Him as your true King, your Lord and God and Savior, and call upon His holy Name.

Would you worship Him and serve Him? It is meet and right that you should. But you cannot make a supper for Him, nor does He need your money. The poor you have with you always; therefore, help them and feed them, as you can.

And, so also, as for you, recline at the Table with Jesus, that He may serve you and feed you; that He may fill up your poverty with His wealth. For He has raised you from the dead, He has called you to and from the tomb, through the waters of your Baptism: Out of sin and death into forgiveness and life; out of darkness into light.

You are His disciple; if you would understand these things, learn from Him. Follow in His footsteps. And do not be dismayed, though all may seek to kill you for the sake of Jesus’ Name.

It is a dangerous business to be raised from the dead by Jesus, and to eat and drink with Him at His Table. Envy and jealousy, fear and anger, pride and desperation, greed and paranoia, all rear their ugly heads against you, from within and without. Though you live, yet shall you die, or so it seems, because of Jesus.

But learn to bear His Cross in the light of His Resurrection. The Father shall raise you from death, vindicate and glorify you. Your confidence and boast before both God and man are the same as Christ’s, for His Righteousness and His Resurrection are yours, by His grace.

Nothing at all can hurt you forever, nor can anything destroy you, in Christ Jesus.

Those who recline at His Table with Him are those who have died, whose life is hidden with Christ in God; whom He has raised from the dead, and He shall raise again in Glory. For by His Voice of the Gospel He calls you by name out of the tomb into the life everlasting.

The sweet perfume of His costly sacrifice fills this house where you are gathered with His Peace, and rises like incense with your prayers to Our Father in heaven, who remembers you forever and always, and hears and answers in Love.

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

The Self-Sacrifice of Christ for Our Salvation

There are many reasons for which people contemplate or threaten suicide, and of course each situation is unique. But most of those people who actually attempt to die by their own hands have these two things in common: (1.) They have limited connections to other people, whether few in number or mostly casual and superficial; and (2.) they have come to believe that others would be less burdened, and so the world would actually become a better place without them.

If you are thinking along these lines, and feeling this way, please talk to your pastor or teacher, confide in your parent or spouse, or go and see your physician. Seek help, and do not believe the lie that the world would be a better place without you. The Author and Giver of life has created you for the sake of His love, and He has a purpose for each day and every hour that He gives you.

If someone else confides in you that he or she is contemplating suicide, do not simply encourage but actively assist that person in seeking help. Insist on the counsel and care of at least a parent, a pastor or physician, and follow through in making sure that help is obtained. Your neighbor’s life is too precious to risk doing nothing or letting it go out of awkwardness or loyalty to a friend.

But now, then, what are we to think or say about Jesus? Is He bent upon some kind of suicide mission? Is He intent upon throwing His life away? He’s had a lot of followers, off and on along the way, but He’s also managed to alienate many if not most of them. Public opinions rise and fall like election polls; the crowds tend to be fickle, their loyalties shallow. Is Jesus getting desperate, or despairing? His own extended family has already feared, at times, that He has lost His senses.

Hasn’t He been telling His disciples that He’s going to Jerusalem expecting to be condemned and put to death? And remember how He responded when Simon Peter objected to that prospect? He has spoken of His coming death as a given, a necessity, and as the very purpose for which He has come into the world. He has clearly said that He will lay down His life in order to save others.

So, is Jesus suicidal as He enters Jerusalem on a bee-line for the Cross?

By no means! He is not despairing, but confident and faithful, trusting in His God and Father. He is not giving up hope, nor abandoning His vocation, but proceeding in the way that His Father has set before Him, in the very Office to which He has been called and ordained by the Holy Spirit. His death upon the Cross is not suicide — although it is true that no one takes His life from Him, but He lays it down willingly. It is not suicide, but Self-sacrifice. He offers Himself up to God, in perfect faith, in love for God and for His neighbors: for all of His neighbors, including you.

The fallen world cannot make sense of this Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. It can discern, to some extent, the self-sacrifice of duty, of those who put themselves in harm’s way to save others. And the world surely does pass judgment, in one form or another, not only on those who shirk their duties and run away from danger when it comes, but also on those who have ended their own lives.

But the fallen world does not recognize, nor can it really know, the true glory of the Cross. It does not see the bullet that Christ takes, the bomb that He smothers and absorbs with His Body; nor does it realize the ransom that He pays to redeem the world from destruction. The Cross seems to be, not the faithfulness of duty, but simply foolishness; not the glory of heroic rescue from danger, but a futile waste, a misguided effort, a failed mission, a dismal loss. Or, at best, the world might think of the crucified Jesus as a martyr for some cause, as a fervent emotional appeal for tolerance.

Confronted with the Cross of Christ, the world slips easily into cynical unbelief and proud idolatry. If that’s what God is like, well then, no thanks! Cold reason kicks into gear and begins to calculate survival. Hardness of heart sets in, not only against God, but also against the neighbor. Sacrifice may be fine, to a certain extent, if there’s some return on the investment, some marketable glory to be gained. Every move is governed by the twin goals of self-preservation and self-promotion.

That way of thinking obviously doesn’t aim at suicide, but in resisting and fleeing from the Cross, it does lead to the spiritual self-destruction of apostasy; which is ultimately far worse. In trying to protect yourself and preserve your life by rejecting the Cross and the Crucified One, you make a show of strength and competence, but you cut yourself off from the only true and lasting Life.

Alternatively, the fallen world sometimes simply falls apart when confronted by the Cross; that is, instead of cold logic and calculated strategy, there is a kind of craziness or madness that emerges. Not hardness of heart, but insanity, lawlessness, and perversity of every kind. The nervous system comes unglued, the mind becomes unhinged, and open foolishness begins to reign. Faced with the consequences of sin, the certainty of death, and the condemnation of the Law — which is what you see in Christ on the Cross — there is the panic, the chaos and confusion of a waking nightmare.

So what are you to make of all this, when the so-called “real world,” on the one hand, seems so solid, so objective and so certain, and yet, on the other hand, it is frequently so very unstable? Soldiers gone berserk. Pilots gone crazy. High school students opening fire on their classmates. Football coaches molesting little boys. Fathers blowing up their children.

At the same time, the true reality — that of the Holy Triune God and His Word, His Kingdom and His Righteousness — and His dwelling place, the Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens — that all sounds so imaginary and fantastic, so make believe and fairy-tale foolish.

Too good to be true, for one thing; but then it is manifested and bestowed by the way of the Cross, which appears to be, and feels like, exactly the opposite!

It seems as though sanity ought to be rather savvy, reasonable and strong, the way the world likes it and wants it to be. But here the sanity of God enters in with this foolishness, in humility and weakness, mounted on the foal of a donkey. He who is God empties Himself, and makes Himself nothing. He submits Himself, in utter poverty and human shame, to death upon the Cross.

Such divine sanity appears absolutely crazy, as though God were out of His mind. And yet, you are called to have this mind of God in yourself, to share this sanity of Christ, which is the sanity of His Cross. That shall be yours only by faith in the Word of God. It is not by sight or sense; neither by emotion nor experience.

Appearances are deceiving. So, what’s really going on?

The triumphal entry into Jerusalem is the Lord’s selection of the Passover Lamb. That’s what was happening in the holy city on that day. Here the Father chooses His own beloved Son, without spot or blemish, and hands Him over to be slain for the Feast.

So it is that Jesus comes and enters in, and then He becomes the King of the Jews — He saves His people now — by entering upon His Holy Passion, and then mounting the throne of His Cross.

He goes up to Jerusalem, in order to enter the Most Holy Place once for all by His Self-sacrifice upon the Cross, by the shedding of His Blood. He thereby atones for the sins of the world and redeems all the people at the cost of His own Life, freely given in faith and love.

In this way, the Lord Jesus establishes the New Covenant in Himself — in His own Body, with His own Blood. Which is to say that He reconciles the world to God in Himself; so that heaven and earth, God and Man, are perfectly and permanently united in Him, in His Person, in Peace.

The testimony of that reconciliation is given by God the Father in the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Jesus. For He who died for you, bearing your sins, has been raised up and seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Not only that, but His reconciliation is also given, here and now, to you, in the New Covenant of His Body and His Blood.

For here is the Meat and Drink of that Passover Meal, of the Lamb who was chosen by God and sacrificed for the salvation of the world. His flesh feeds you. His blood cleanses you from sin and covers you from death. This is the eternal redemption that Christ has obtained for you.

This is the true wisdom of His Cross; the true sanity and stability of His salvation; the true victory of Christ, which prevails for you against all of your enemies: against sin, death, the devil and hell.

Therefore, if you have given up or despaired of hope, return to this stronghold — to this Covenant of Christ the Crucified. For this very day, He declares, He restores double to you.

He is faithful. He shall do it.

The world does have its own victories of self-sacrificing love, its own heroes, its own martyrs for good causes: Soldiers who don’t go berserk, but who lay down their lives in defense of others. Firefighters and police officers. Brave citizens who step into the breach. Mothers and fathers who sacrifice in countless ways for the sake of their children.

For a good cause, for a good man, for a good friend, some people are indeed willing to risk their lives, and to die. Man has no greater love to give than that.

And the world, in its own way, honors that sacrifice. But it does so with sadness, with memories of, and with monuments to, that which has been lost and won’t be gotten back again.

God’s love and His Self-sacrifice are far greater. For while we were yet sinners — not good men, but bad; not friends of God, but enemies at odds with Him — even then, the Father gave His Son, and the Son laid down His life for us all.

And see what His love has done: He has reconciled us and the whole world to Himself. He has befriended His enemies. He has brought an end to the war that would not end, and now He speaks peace to all the nations. Instead of chaos, He brings calm. Instead of insanity and instability, He has become your Firm Foundation, and the Wise Master Builder of a House that shall not fall.

In His Resurrection, He has given you a future and a hope. Indeed, He is your future and your hope, your life and your salvation, your strength and your song. Because He is not dead and gone, but victorious and alive forevermore. His dominion is from sea to shining sea; from the Tigris and the Euphrates, and from the Jordan River, even to the ends of the earth.

And here is the irony of the Cross: The world is a better place because of His death; because, by His atoning Self-sacrifice, He has established a peaceful connection and profound communion between God and Man. He has removed the great divide, brought down the wall of hostility, and replaced the stone cold loneliness of sin and death with His divine friendship.

Beloved, that is what is true and real, and sure and certain for you. The world is now a better place, for you and for your neighbor, because of who you are in Christ — God’s own dear child:

Buried with Christ by your Baptism into His death, and raised with Him to newness of life.

So it is that your life in the flesh, in the world, even now under the Cross, and your labors of love, for your neighbors, friends or foes, these are not in vain, but meaningful and significant. Your faith in Christ and His Cross is not foolish, but the true divine wisdom, which is forever and ever.

For God has highly exalted the Crucified One, and given Him the Name which is above every name; that, at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow — in heaven and on earth, and under the earth — and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

What, then, shall we offer to the Lord for all His benefits to us?

Let us offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Let us take up the Cup of Salvation, and call on the Name of the Lord. For everyone who calls on His Name shall be saved. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

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