Living Water to Quench Your Deepest Thirst

The Lord your God has saved you.  He has brought you out of Egypt to receive His gifts in faith and with thanksgiving, and so to worship Him in righteousness and holiness before Him.

This is most certainly true, despite outward appearances and all that you experience to the contrary.  You surely do not yet see it or feel it, of course.  Not when you are surrounded on all sides by the desert wilderness, and there’s no well or water to be found.  Not when sin, death, the devil, and hell still assail and oppress you, so that you are staggered and cannot stand.

It is still true, nevertheless, that God the Lord has saved you, and even now He is giving you life, even though your sinful heart is doubtful and afraid, irritable and quarrelsome.

In spite of His great and free salvation, your thoughts, words, and actions — proceeding from your sinful heart — do not praise and honor the Lord Your God, but profane His holy Name.  Instead of worshiping Him in faith and with thanksgiving, you grumble against Him, and against His servants.  And you put Him to the test: “Is the Lord among us or not!?”

Thus hardening your heart against Him, you close yourself to His gracious gifts of life.  You cover your ears against His Word, and you shut your mouth to His food and drink.  Thus do you go thirsty.  In foolish desperation, you long to go back to your former idolatry, to the land of sin and death from which the Lord has set you free, where all the water turns to blood, and the more you drink, the more you thirst.  In truth, by such apostasy you’ve already gone back to pagan Egypt.

The Samaritan woman in this Holy Gospel was likewise guilty of her own apostasy and spent her own time in “Egypt.”  But then she was given what she needed in the water and the Word of Christ Jesus.  Until that day when He went to meet her and called her to Himself, she had thirsted for something she did not even know, nor could she ever have gotten it on her own.  Not in her series of husbands, nor in her fornication with the man that she was then shacked up with.  She needed forgiveness for her many sins, and reconciliation with God, and the Holy Spirit of the Messiah.

Your needs are no different than hers.  And your own sins are no less damnable than hers, even if they have not included adultery and fornication.  There is, of course, that Word of our Lord Jesus by which He condemns the lust of your eyes, of your heart, and of your mind, as adultery.  Besides that, you have your own covetous lusts, your own desperate thirst for that which is not God.

So, what is it that you thirst for?  What is your drink of choice, and what well do you attempt to draw it from?  The false gods of Egypt take many forms.  You can make an idol out of marriage, for example, even if you’re only married once.  Maybe it’s alcoholism, or chronic drunkenness, or gluttony.  Or maybe it has nothing to do with actual food and drink for your body.  God knows that you need to eat and drink, after all, and He is gracious in giving you your daily bread and fresh water.  But what do your heart and mind, your soul and spirit thirst for?  What do you crave?

What do you worship?  That is the real question.  Whatever it is that you thirst for, not only with your lips and tongue and throat, but with your heart and soul and all your strength, that is your god.  And your hard work in going to fetch a pail of whatever from that well, that is your “worship.”

Therefore, if your well and your water are anything but Christ Jesus and His Gospel — Repent

Return to the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Turn away from your covetous lust and desperate selfishness.  Leave behind the water pot with which you would draw your own salvation.  Do not “obey your thirst” for anything that is not the true and living God.

Instead, seek the Lord where He may be found, where His Word is spoken, where His gifts are given.  Find Him where He comes to find you: in the courts of the Lord’s House, in the midst of His true Jerusalem.  Not with grumbling, anger, and complaint, but in faith and fervent prayer.

If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that speaks to you, then you would ask of Him, and He would give you Living Water.  So ask.  And do not doubt but firmly believe that He will give you all that you need.  Not on this mountain or that, neither here nor there, but in His Church on earth, wherever on earth His Church may be, established and built upon the Rock of Christ.

Even Samaria or South Bend become the Mountain of God when Christ is at hand.  And He is here.

Here your thirst is quenched in ways that you would never have imagined.  For here you are cleansed within and without, in body and soul, by the Spirit of Christ: from His Cross and Passion.

To be sure, where you have sinned He admonishes you.  He reproves, corrects, and exhorts.  He calls you to repentance.  But still, He does not write you off.  He does not make an end of you.  He does not strike you with His Law to destroy you forever, though that is what you and all deserve.

He does speak His Law forthrightly, in order to expose your sin, to tell you everything that you have done wrong and all that you have failed to do right.  And it is the case that your sin must be condemned and punished; it must be put to death and dealt with, lest it bring you down to Sheol.

But see the staff which His Law wields, and hear how He strikes with it, not you, but the Rock which is Christ.  The Lord takes the blow and the burden of the Law upon Himself.  He does not smite His people.  He does not smite you.  By the wood of the Cross, the heavy staff of Moses cuts Yahweh to the quick.  And He, the Lord, is stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  He is bruised and beaten for your sins.  He is pierced and wounded for your transgressions, in order to save you.

He has been thirsty, even to the point of death, so that you may be given to drink from His well.

So does He remember you and love you.  As in the past, so also now and forever.  He remembers you by acting to save you, to bring you back out of Egypt to Himself, to turn your idolatrous heart from gods of stone to Himself, your God in the flesh.  All of this He does at His own expense, by His own sacrifice, by His holy and precious Blood, by His innocent suffering and death.

For He is the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, who has saved you.  He is the Rock of your Salvation, your Strength and your Song, who has brought you out of bondage into life.  He follows you in steadfast faithfulness through the wilderness all the days of your life, even to the last.

It is true that you are rocked and staggered by tribulation, by hurts and sorrows within and without, by anxieties and fears, and by various trials and temptations so great and so many that you cannot stand upright.  You are always tripping and stumbling and falling, and dying.

But take heart.  The Lord is with you.

Yes, He is hidden from your sight for now, and He is with you in the form of a hard Rock.  But even so, that Rock is not set against you.  It is for you, that He may be your sure Foundation.

Behold the Living Water streaming from His open side, and with it flows His own Blood of the New Testament.  From this Rock the Font and the Chalice have been filled with His Spirit and His Life for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins.  Here is Water.  Drink.  You shall not die but live.

The same life-giving Water of the Holy Spirit is poured out for you, even in the desert, in this very preaching of the Gospel.  It quenches your deepest thirst by forgiving all your sins.  It cleanses your soul and your body with the righteousness of Christ, your Savior.  It gives you eternal life.

Therefore, your tribulations, though many, shall not be permitted to slay your body and soul forever.  They rather produce in you hope and patient endurance, which shall not be disappointed.  For none of this depends on you, but on Christ Jesus.  And He does not fail.  He shall not fall.

By your own strength you cannot stand, but Christ sustains you.  Even in His death, He is lifted up to save you.  And it is in His grace and peace and righteousness, by His Cross, that you now stand.  His Spirit lives in you, and you live in Him.  In Him you are strong and courageous!

This is the true worship of God, that is, the Cross of Christ, by which He offers up Himself to God the Father in perfect faith and steadfast love.  His Body and His Life are offered up for you and for all, even unto death, in order to atone for the sins of the world and to reconcile the world to God.  And by His Word and Holy Spirit you are united with Him in that sacrifice of faith and love.  Not that you make atonement for yourself or anyone else, but that you are returned to God the Father in Christ Jesus.  And having been justified by His grace, you live and abide with Him in peace.

As He comes to meet you in His Church and speaks His Word of the Gospel to you, He gives you the gift of His Spirit, who also unites you with Christ Jesus in the one true faith.  Thus, by His grace, through His Holy Spirit, you worship the Father in and with Christ Jesus, the beloved Son.

Not only that, but in such faith before God you also live and worship Him in fervent love for one another.  For where you are not driven by a temporal thirst that is never satiated and never can be satisfied — when your thirst is for the one true God, who freely pours Himself out for you in Christ Jesus and fills you with Himself in the Person of the Holy Spirit — then you overflow with divine love for others.  You are faithful in your marriage to the spouse that God has given you, or you are chaste and pure in your life outside of marriage; either way, you love and serve your neighbors at hand.  You forgive those who trespass against you, and what is more, you gladly do them good.

It is ever and only in Christ Jesus, and always by His grace alone, that you now stand before God in perfect peace, and that you so live and love in His presence in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.  Your life never does advance beyond this dear Lord Jesus, the Christ, but you live and move in Him by faith in the Word that He speaks to you in love.

For now, of course, in this mortal life, it is always in, with, and under His Cross.  It is hidden from your eyes, so that you neither know it nor have it except by His Word and the preaching of it.

When you thus discover in yourself that you continue to falter, to fall short, and to fail, first of all take heart that your sins are forgiven.  That is what the Gospel is all about: the forgiveness of sins.  Day after day they are washed away by the water and the blood that flow from the side of Christ Jesus, which He pours out for you in His Church by and with His Holy Spirit through the Gospel.

Therefore, do not despair, and do not suppose that you must somehow rectify your own situation and restore your own life.  Rather, return to the fountain of life, to Christ Jesus and His Spirit, by returning to the Ministry of His Gospel, to His ways and means of grace, to His Church on earth.

That is the Well at which He is found, where He freely does pour out His Living Water for you.

Do you recall the story when Abraham’s servant went to find a bride for Isaac?  Some of you will have just read it or heard it this past week.  That servant waited at a well, where the women went to draw water, and when Rebekah came he asked her for a drink, in much the same way that Jesus asked of the Samaritan woman in this morning’s Holy Gospel.  The goal was not to be served, but to serve — to give the good gifts of the Father, to woo and to win a Bride for the Son.  So was Rebekah called to be the bride of Isaac, and so was that Samaritan woman called to her true and heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.  Dearly beloved, the same is here true for you.

Bride of Christ, rejoice!  For here at hand is your true Bridegroom, the beloved and well-pleasing Son of the Father.  He has sent His servant here to you, to give you His good gifts, to woo you and to win you with His gracious love and tender forgiveness, and to bring you home to Himself.

Come, therefore, and drink deeply from His Cup, from His own hand.  Drink the Living Water that flows freely from His open heart into yours.  Hear His Word of the Gospel, which is Spirit and Truth.  Receive His free gifts, which are divine Life and eternal Salvation.  For He is indeed the Savior of the world.  Not only that, He is your Savior and your God, and you are His beloved.

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

The Voice of the Bridegroom

Always a groomsman, never the Groom.  That is John’s vocation.  Among those born of the earth, he is the best man, but he is not the Christ.  He is not that true Light which shines upon the Bride and makes her radiant and beautiful.

John’s voice heralds the Coming One, the Word-made-Flesh, at whose speaking death gives way to life.  That One is the Bridegroom, the Son of God, sent by the Father from heaven to court His Bride, to call her to Himself, to cleanse and clothe her with His righteousness, and to consummate His marriage to her in both body and soul, so that not even death shall ever separate her from Him.

It is to this union of Christ Jesus and His Bride, the Church, that every earthly marriage testifies.  Husband, love your wife, therefore; forgive her sins, give yourself to her, and live your life for her benefit.  Woman, likewise, love and serve your husband; submit to him in faith, for Jesus’ sake.

Receive the spouse that God the Lord has given you, and be content.  Do not covet your neighbor’s wife or husband, but cherish the one whom Christ has given you in love.  Or, if you have not received an earthly bride or groom, be content with Christ Jesus and cling to Him by faith.

Each of you, let all your thoughts, words, and actions be chaste and pure, unselfish, and charitable, as your dear Lord Jesus Christ is toward you in all things.  For He is your heavenly Bridegroom, and by the washing of the water with His Word you belong to Him as a member of His holy Bride. In His Body and His Blood, you are one flesh with Him.  You, therefore, be holy, as He is holy.

You have nothing at all apart from Him — that is, nothing but divine wrath, condemnation, and eternal death.  But in Him, you have all good things, everything pertaining to life and godliness.  For the Father has set His seal upon His Son, not only from eternity, but also in His own flesh: in the waters of the Jordan, upon the holy Mountain, and in the Resurrection of the Crucified One.

This Man, the Bridegroom come down from heaven, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, He is the beloved Son.  All that belongs to the Father is His.  He has received the Spirit without measure, also in His flesh and blood upon the earth, in order to pour out His Holy Spirit generously and without measure upon you.  He has done so in the heavenly washing of your Baptism; and He does so for you here also, in His Holy Supper, at the festal board of His Altar.

He also does so freely, daily, and richly in His Word of forgiveness.  He does so because He loves you.  He has pledged Himself to you, bound Himself to you, and given Himself for you forever.

As you belong to such a beloved Bride of Christ, as one whom He has baptized to be a member of His Holy Christian Church, so do you belong among the true daughters of Zion, the daughters of Jerusalem.  The Father’s Son is your true Husband.  Therefore, His Father is your true Father.  His home and His inheritance are yours.  And as He increases, so are you also exalted in Him.

Dearly beloved, be awake and alert, and wait upon your Bridegroom.  For He is coming soon to call you from this vale of tears to Himself — to your true home in heaven.  He comes to carry you, body and soul, over that threshold — through the waters of the Jordan into Paradise forever.

Listen for His Voice.  He speaks to you even now by the mouth of His friend, His groomsman at this Altar.  It is His own Voice which speaks to you in love.  Consider what He says, and rejoice: “Take, eat. Drink.”  Receive these gifts Christ freely gives.  Believe His Word.  Believe also in Him, and have eternal life.  So shall your joy be made full in the Feast of His Body and His Blood.

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

Confessing the God of the Font and the Altar

The one true God, the Holy Trinity, the Creator of the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, is also the Author and Giver of life.  He has created you in love for life with Himself forever, and, not only does He give you life in body and soul, but He is your Life and your Salvation.  Not only has He made you — His creature — but He has graciously adopted you to be His own dear child.  Not only has He constructed your body, and not only does He cause it to function, but He enlivens your body and soul with His Holy Spirit, and He enlightens your heart and mind with His Word.

His Word, indeed, is more than sounds and letters and data.  The Father speaks to you by His Son, the Only-Begotten: God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God.  This Word is always with God, from eternity to all eternity.  But what is more, this Word of God is God, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, by whom the Father is known and the Spirit is bestowed.  For the Word of the Father and the Voice of the Spirit is the Christ, the Son of God, who in the fulness of time has been conceived and born of the Woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and crucified as true Man for all of us human beings, for our salvation.  The divine Word has thus become Flesh and abides with us.

This Word of the living God — the Father’s Son, Christ Jesus, the Bearer and Bestower of the Life-giving Holy Spirit — is written in the Scriptures, revealed in the preaching of the Gospel, confessed and prayed and spoken and sung by the children of God in the Church and throughout the whole world, from the rising of the sun to the place of its going down.  This is not the work of fallen man.  It is the good work and good gift of God Himself, which He performs and gives by His grace alone.  The Father keeps speaking His Son, and the Spirit keeps preaching the Christ.  Not because you or any of us are good, but because He is good, and He is merciful, and He is holy.

By this Word of God and the preaching of it — in the Church on earth, and from the Church for the life of the world — the one true God continues to shine His Light in the darkness, to create new life out of nothing, and to bring forth life from out of death, all for the sake of His own divine and holy Love.  He speaks, and it is so.  So it is that sinful mortal men, dying and as good as dead, not only receive new life in themselves, but they also become givers of life to others in faith and love.  Women with barren wombs conceive and give birth.  Doubters become believers, sinners become saints, the lost are found, the dead are raised, and even you are given life in Christ Jesus.

The Love by which and for which the Almighty and Eternal God does and gives such good and gracious things — the Love that constitutes His very Being and characterizes His divine nature — is the personal and permanent Love of God the Father for His Son, and of God the Son for His Father, in communion with the Holy Spirit.  Hence the grace of God.  It is not arbitrary, whimsical, or capricious.  It does not come and go, but as it is, so has it always been, and so shall it be forever.

That is the Love with which God loves you.  Or, better to say, He is the Love with which He loves you, just as He is the true Light that shines upon you through His Gospel.  And He is the Life with which He enlivens you, so that you now share and live the Life of God in and with Christ Jesus.

In order that you might have this Life, and know this Life, and live this Life — even now in your mortal body, and hereafter in the resurrection, in both your body and your soul forevermore — the Father speaks to you by His Son, and through that Word He breathes His Spirit into you.  Day by day He raises you up, and from the dust of the earth you become a living being: a man or woman recreated in the Image of God; a son or daughter of God the Father in His Son, Christ Jesus.

This divine Life is already yours in Christ Jesus, but it is not yet seen or felt or experienced for what it truly is, not in this fallen and perishing world.  Nevertheless, His Word of Life grants faith and hope, conviction, and assurance against all the darkness of death, against all the assaults and accusations of the devil, against false belief, despair, and every kind of wickedness.  His Word calls you daily to repentance, away from the false gods that have otherwise held sway over your heart, mind, body, and soul, unto Him who loves you, who is your Light and Life and Salvation.

The Word of God in Christ raises you from the dead and gives you faith and life, because by it He forgives you all your sins.  By His Word He justifies you and sanctifies you, which is to reconcile you to Himself in peace and love, and thereby to embrace and keep you in His own holiness.

All of this is so because the Word that God the Father speaks, which the Holy Spirit confesses to you in the Church and Ministry of the Gospel, is the preaching of Christ Jesus.  It is not only a preaching about Christ, nor is it simply that Christ is preaching through His Word, though both of those things are true.  But the preaching is Christ Himself, the Word of God, the Word-made-Flesh, graciously at work to give Himself to you.  He is actually spoken and sung into your ears, into your heart and mind.  And with Him, the Father gives to you His Heart, His highest Treasure, and Himself.  He binds Himself to you in love, in this Lord Jesus Christ and by His Holy Spirit.  And He so binds you to Christ that His Cross and Resurrection become yours, along with His faith and love, His righteousness and His good works, His life and His salvation.  All of these are yours.

He has taken all your sins upon Himself, and all their curse and consequence He has taken from you and into His own Body.  By His Cross He has put them to death and buried them in His tomb.  For with His holy and precious blood He has atoned for all your sins and redeemed you from the bondage of sin, death, and the devil.  In His Resurrection from the dead, He has raised you also, recreated and brand new, no longer dead in your trespasses and unbelief, but alive forevermore.

All of this the Lord Jesus Christ has already done and accomplished in Himself, once and for all.  It’s a done deal, and there is nothing at all that remains to be done in this regard.  There is nothing lacking in Him, in His work, in His Cross or Resurrection.  There is nothing whatsoever amiss.

So certain is the Lord’s great salvation that it stands fast from before the foundation of the world, not only to the end of the age, but to all eternity, forever and ever.  Amen, amen, it is and always shall be so.  In Christ Jesus, God has reconciled the world to Himself, so that sins are no longer counted or considered, and death has been defeated.  For God raised this same Jesus from the dead, and it is very good.  This is the Sabbath Rest that remains for you and for all the people of God.

And yet, the fact remains that you do not see it.  You do not feel or experience this in yourself, and you sure don’t find it to be so in the world around you.  Sin continues everywhere.  If anything, it only gets worse and worse.  Death remains rampant.  Idolatry is commonplace, along with all manner of sacrilegious blasphemy.  Fornication and false witness are taken for granted.  Even your fellow Christians sin against you, and day by day you also trespass against them.  Your thoughts are vile and perverse.  Your words are hardly better.  Your actions are not those of faith and love, but too often they proceed out of guilt and fear, out of pride and selfishness, out of a covetous heart of bitter envy and jealousy, in violent anger on the one hand, in deep sadness on the other.

What then shall we say?  And whatever shall you do?  You lift up your eyes, and all you can see is sin and death, within and without.  Where, then, shall you find any help?  Consider the Psalm: Your help comes from the Lord, the true and only God, the Maker of the heavens and the earth.

He does not slumber or sleep, but day and night, week by week, and year by year, as you lay down to sleep, and as you get up to face another day in this poor life of labor, He guards and keeps you from all the evil that surrounds you and threatens to undo you.  He shall not suffer your foot to be moved, but in all your going out and coming in He stands fast and guards you round about.  And even though you die, yet shall you live, as surely as your Savior Christ Jesus has risen and lives.

He calls you to Himself each day, again and again, as He has called you to Himself by the Gospel to begin with; not because He has to, but because He loves you, and He has created you in love to live with Him forever.  He has not moved and acted to save you because you are so faithful and sincere, so righteous and so holy, but because He is righteous and holy and faithful and just, and because it is His great glory to be gracious and merciful: to create anew and give life to the dead, to forgive and rescue sinners, to seek and to save the lost.  He never does grow weary of doing so.

The Father speaks His Son to you from His great heart of love; and this Word of God, who is your Savior Jesus Christ, fills you with His faith and love, with His assurance and conviction.  By the hearing of that Word of Christ you believe.  For the Lord your God is still creating good things out of nothing, He is still calling forth Light out of darkness, and He is still raising the dead from the dust of the earth to live.  And as you believe the Word of Christ, so do you confess.  You speak the same thing that He has said to you, and it remains His sure and certain Word upon your lips and tongue, even when you stammer and stutter.  It is His Word, and it is true against all that is false.

You speak and say what God has spoken to you by His Son — you sing the Word that He sings in you by His Spirit — and that Word perseveres and prevails where you could not even begin.

This very Word of God, your dear Lord Jesus Christ in your ears, in your heart, and on your lips, He is the new and greater Noah, who in reverence has prepared an Ark for the salvation of His household and family, that is, the holy Ark of His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

And He is the new and greater Joshua, who has brought the people of God through the waters into the good land, and who has gone before them to defeat all their enemies.  He has brought down the walls of hostility, and He has built a better city for His people, for His brothers and sisters: for you!

As for Him, the Son of God who has become true Man — your Brother in the flesh, your kinsman Redeemer, your Savior from sin and death — He has served His God and Father in perfect faith and love, in such a way that His entire household shares in His faithfulness and righteousness.

Put away your false gods, therefore, and live here in peace within the House of the Lord your God.  Hear and heed His Word to you, and pray and confess it.  However meager it may seem, this is the same Word by which all things have been made and are sustained.  This is the same Word that forgives sins, and raises the dead, and gives life and salvation to all of creation.

This Word is now your strength and your song, because this is the Word of your Savior, who has become your Salvation.  This Word is spoken to you, and it is given to you to believe and to confess — and it remains the Word of God, the Word of Christ Jesus, the Son of the living God.

By this Word you live, and you confess the God who gives you life and is your Life.  By this Word you love Him who first loves you.  By this Word you walk in His Light, even in the midst of deep darkness, even as you journey through the valley of the shadows of death.

By this Word you confess the Maker of the heavens and the earth, who is your God and Father in Christ Jesus.  And by this Word, no less, you confess the God of the Font, who cleanses you from all unrighteousness and clothes you with Christ Jesus and His righteousness.  And you confess the God of the Altar, who feeds you with Himself, with His Body and His Blood — in whom all of creation finds its meaning, its purpose and fulfillment, and in whom you also live in both body and soul, here in time, and hereafter in the resurrection forever and ever.  This is most certainly true.

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

The New Birth and New Creation in Christ Jesus

Abram’s body was as good as dead, and he was still without children in his 90s.  His barren old wife Sarai’s womb was likewise dead and dying.  Their bodies, like yours, were from the dust and returning to the dust.  Born of Adam’s flesh and blood, they were subject to the sin and death of their father Adam.  Such is the legacy of fallen man.  From sire to seed the curse descends.

It is the same for you, as well.  You have received it from your parents, and you pass it on to your children (if you have any).  No amount of intelligence, strategy, hard work, luck, or wealth will break that cycle of sin and death.  No matter what your success may be, it will come to an end.

As you face the future, then, what hope do you have?  What is the point in going forward, going anywhere at all, in doing or attempting anything?  What does it matter, and why do you bother?

If your aim and hope were for this life only, that would be a most pitiable shame.  Whether it be an education, a job, a spouse and family, or fame and fortune — whether you manage to achieve such goals or fail at them all — it would make no difference in the end.  It would not matter.  Not only that, but the rest of the story would be worse than pointless, separated from God in the eternal darkness and despair of ongoing death: existing without life or light or love forevermore.

Except that isn’t all He wrote or spoke.  That isn’t the whole story, because the Author and Giver of Life has created you in Love, in order to give you His own Life in body and soul, now and forever.  And in that same divine Love, He causes the Light to shine upon you by His Word.

So, then, His Word is all that Abram and Sarai had when they set out from their home and family to a new place they had never seen before.  On a wing and a prayer, you might say, but the Lord’s promise came first and led them forward.  “I will surely be with you and bless you,” He pledged.  And not only that, but the Lord would bless the whole world in the Seed of Abram.  For the old man and his barren old wife would have children, not according to the power and promise of their frail and perishing flesh, but according to the Word and promise of the Lord their God.

It doesn’t sound like much to go on.  In fact, it seems like less than nothing at all.  So, too, when the promised Seed of Abram finally comes — the Word of God made flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood — He doesn’t look so promising, either, especially not when He arrives at the goal of His coming.  For the long-awaited Son is born to die.  The beloved and only-begotten Son will be sacrificed upon the Wood of His Cross.  What sort of hope is that?  Certainly not one that depends upon you or your understanding, that is for sure.

The Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness cannot comprehend it.  The shadow of death thus appears to overwhelm the Light and snuff it out.  Men are born, they grow old, and they die.  Or, as often as not, they do not even grow old — nor do they get a second childhood.  However long or short the days may be, the nighttime descends, and all is dark and cold.

And yet, the darkness is not able to prevail against the Light of the Word, nor overcome it.  True, you cannot see where it is coming from, nor can you tell where it is going.  But listen, anyway, to the Voice of the Spirit, which is the Word of God the Father, spoken to and for you by His Son.

This is the very Word by whom all things were made out of nothing, by whom and for whom all things exist and are upheld.  He is the Light of the world, who even now calls forth the Light out of the darkness.  For He is the Life of all mankind, who brings forth Life out of death.  And He has come down from heaven to earth, into the flesh and blood of man, into the depths of sin and death.  Not because there is no hope, but precisely to fulfill the promise of His Father, and to become the Blessing — that is, the “Good Word” of God — by whom all the nations are blessed.

He comes to make all things new, to bring about a New Creation by the new birth of water, Word, and Spirit.  That’s not a “second try,” nor is it a “plan B.” It is the actual completion of the Lord’s original intention in the Person of the Incarnate Son.  In His Body of flesh and blood, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, He is the Image and Likeness of God in which you are raised up from the dust of the earth to newness of life.  By His Voice, by His speaking of the Gospel, God the Father breathes the Holy Spirit into your mortal flesh, in order to give you His own immortal Life in both body and soul.  So does He shine the Light upon you in divine and holy Love.

That you might believe in Him — and, believing, have abundant Life in His Name — St. John the Baptist was sent to preach the Holy Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and St. John the Apostle was sent to preach and to publish the Holy Gospel.  By the same Word and Sacrament, even to this day and place, the Holy Spirit also testifies that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary, crucified and risen from the dead, is the Christ, the Son of the Living God; that He has come in the flesh to save you from sin, death, the devil, and hell.  And we know that His testimony is true.

It is in love for His only-begotten Son that God the Father has created you, and in love for His Son that He has given Him to save you.  And it is in love for His Father that God the Son has come to bring about this great salvation, that you might live with God in Love, in the Spirit of the Father and the Son.  He has come down from heaven, from the bosom of the Father, St. John testifies, and He has become flesh, in order to reveal the Father to you — to manifest the fulness of divine grace and truth in Himself.  As the Lamb of God who takes away your sin and bears it in His Body to the Cross, He has come to redeem you from sin and death.  And as the beloved and well-pleasing Son, He has come to raise you up and to bring you into His own relationship with God the Father.

So it is that you are begotten of God and born from above through this one Lord, Jesus Christ.

By His Incarnation, by His becoming flesh for us, and by His Baptism in the Jordan River, the Word and Spirit of God are now to be found in the flesh and blood of this Man from Nazareth.  For His Body is the very Word of God, and the Holy Spirit rests and remains upon Him forevermore.

As the one true God has thus become true Man, so does He also reveal and give Himself to you in earthly means.  And so does He pour out His Spirit upon you through earthly means of grace, even as the Spirit reveals and gives the same Christ Jesus to you in His Word and Sacraments.

Significantly, the Christ who is thus revealed to you, who gives Himself to you and pours out His Spirit upon you, is the very One who is crucified, dead, and buried for you.  Such are the depths of His Love for you, and, at the same time, the heights of His divine Glory as the Lord your God.

He comes down from heaven to raise you up by His Cross, to bring you to the Father in His own crucified and risen Body.  He descends in order to ascend, in order to bring you back to God in and with Himself.  It is thus by the way of His Cross that you now see and enter the Kingdom of God.

As strange as it may seem, the Cross itself — that is to say, the lifting up of the Son of Man in His death by Crucifixion — is already His mysterious and hidden exaltation, the exercise of His Glory as the Son of God, and His return to the Father in perfect faith and perfect love.  It is the voluntary sacrifice of God, whereby He wins the victory of life and salvation for you and all the nations.

It is a striking and mysterious paradox, which you cannot understand until you are enlightened by the Spirit of Christ through the catechesis of His Word.  For He is lifted up on the Wood of the Cross in the form of those fiery serpents — that is to say, in the likeness of the very sin and death which are killing you — in order to save you from those serpents and their poisonous sting.

The Resurrection of the same Lord Jesus Christ is therefore also your rescue from serpent, sin, and death, your reconciliation with God the Father, your righteousness, and your salvation.  It is the New Creation of God by His Word — in the Flesh of His Word, crucified and risen — out of the nothingness of sin and death.  It is the Light of God, shining in the darkness of sin and death, which He also causes to shine forth in your heart by the preaching of this Holy Gospel.

The Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead is Righteousness and Life for all who believe and are baptized into Him.  It is the power and authority by which you are born again of water and the Spirit — a Sign as miraculous as the conception and birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, and as marvelous as the conception and birth of Jesus Himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary of Nazareth.

Thus are you begotten and born of God in body and soul through faith in Christ Jesus.  And such faith is itself conceived and born in you by His Word and Spirit, by repentance and forgiveness of sins; which is to say, by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, not only for you, but in you.

You are put to death in order to be reborn to newness of life.  You are buried with Christ by your Baptism into His death, in order to be raised with Him in His Resurrection unto Life everlasting.

So it is that, even now, though you are daily being put to death by the Mystery of His Cross, you are also being lifted up and offered to God the Father as a sweet-smelling sacrifice in Christ Jesus.

As you thus live and die on earth by faith in Him — and as He thus lives and abides in you by His Word and Spirit, with His own flesh and blood — so it is that your flesh and blood, your body and your soul, your heart, mind, and spirit, likewise ascend before God and live in His Presence.

Wherever you go, be it near or far, the Lord goes with you by His Word; and you live with Him by faith in His Word.  And by His Word and promise you are blessed, no matter come what may.  Has He not given you the guarantee and pledge of these heavenly things in His own earthly things, in His holy Body and precious Blood, given and poured out for you, for the forgiveness of sins?

If you perish, you perish, but only from this mortal life on earth; for whether you live or die, you are the Lord’s, in whom you shall not perish but live forevermore.

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

Abiding in the Body of Christ Jesus

The Lord’s Passover is at hand, and the firstborn Son of the Father shall be put to death as the Lamb of God, in order that His people should be spared from death, and saved from their sins, and set free from their bondage and all their burdens of body and soul.

You live, therefore, by abiding in the Father’s house in peace, where the blood of this Lamb marks the door, and where His flesh is eaten in faith and hope and with thanksgiving.

But you cannot remain in His house forever, nor can you live with Him in His presence, so long as you remain in your sin.  For your sin has put you at odds with your Father and would separate you from His house and home altogether.  If you are to abide under His roof, preserved and protected in safety when the Angel of Death passes through Egypt, then you must be forgiven of your sins and reconciled to your Father — lest you be put to death and perish forever.

Now, then, do not cast about frantically for some way or means of appeasing Him.  You cannot purchase or earn God’s favor by any coin or sacrifice of your own.  Atonement and reconciliation are not a business transaction that you could ever negotiate.  Indeed, attempting to barter or bargain for your life with God only puts you that much more at odds with Him.

Rather, see here that the Son of God has been entirely consumed by His zeal for the Father’s house, so that it should be, not a marketplace of works righteousness, but a place of peace and rest for you and for disciples of all nations.  It is a mighty fortress, a refuge and stronghold, a place where you are safe from sin, death, the devil, and hell, and from the condemnation of the Lord’s own Law.

It is by His Cross and Resurrection that the Lord Jesus Christ has become, not only the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, but also the true divine, eternal Temple of God among His people, established here on earth for you, and so also at the right hand of the Father for you.

His Body has been sacrificed, once for all, in order to atone for the sins of the whole world; and His Blood has been shed for reconciliation with God.  So it is that His Resurrection from the dead is the opening of heaven to you and to all who believe and are baptized into Him.  His open tomb is now the ever-open door back into the Father’s house.

It is by this authority of His Cross and Resurrection that Jesus calls you to repentance and brings you to faith by His free and full forgiveness of all your sins.  So also, it is from His Cross and in His Resurrection that He feeds you with His own holy Body, which is the very Temple of God.

He thus abides in you, and you abide in Him, who is the Lord your God.  And abiding in Him, you dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of your life, both here and now and forever after.

His House, His Temple, is no one building — neither here nor in Palestine, nor in any other single place on earth — but it is His own Body, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, risen and ascended to the right hand of the Father, but given to His disciples in His Supper within His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church on earth.

His holy Church around the world (in heaven and on earth) is altogether one Body in Him, because His disciples from all nations eat of His one Body and drink from the one Cup which is the New Testament in His Blood.  Together they are built into a Temple of living stones, to which you also belong — built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Himself the Cornerstone.

Wherever in the world His Scriptures are read, wherever His Word of the Gospel is preached in His Name in its truth and purity, there His Church is gathered — His Body, His Temple on earth — to feast upon His Body and His Blood in faith, hope, and love, to the glory of God the Father.

So, then, receive here what you are, and be what you receive: the Body of Christ.  Be cleansed and sealed by His Blood for life and salvation in Him, and be at peace with your God and Father.  For here you are already at home with Him, and not even death shall be able to separate you from Him.  Though your body shall die and be buried, you also shall rise, in and with your body, and live.

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

Living with Christ in the Household and Family of God

Christ Jesus is the Lord your God, who has brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, into the freedom of faith in the household and family of His Father.  You shall have no other gods than Him.  For there is life in no one else, and there is no other name by which you shall be saved.

Call upon the Name of this Lord Jesus.  Look to Him for all that you need, and for all good things.  Trust Him and rely on Him, and so proceed in faith and confidence.  Know that He is with you, that He loves you, and that He will help you in the future as in the past.  For the sake of His great mercy and compassion, He shall never leave you nor forsake you, but He will save you from sin, death, the devil, and hell.  He will rescue you from every evil of body and soul.

As surely as He has borne your sins and griefs and sorrows in His own Body on the Cross, as surely as He has laid down His life and shed His blood for you as the Lamb of God, and as surely as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity, so surely does He conquer all your enemies, cleanse you from all unrighteousness, and bring you out of death and the grave into His Resurrection and His Life.  As He has ascended to the right hand of His God and Father in heaven, so does He seat you there with Himself in the heavenly places, even now, and forever and ever.

He is your sure and certain Hope.  He is your faith and life.  He is your Strength and your Song.  For He has become your Salvation, and so does He remain.

Cling to Him, therefore, and worship Him — with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.  Worship this Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, soul, body, mind, and spirit.  As you have been baptized in His Name, into His Cross and Resurrection — by the washing of water with His Word — so confess His Name in both your words and actions, and pray in His Name to your Father in heaven by the grace of His Holy Spirit, as He Himself has taught you and invited you to pray.

Indeed, let your whole life be a confession of the Lord Jesus Christ and a prayer of faith in Him.  With your body worship Him in reverence and humility before Him, in fear, love, and trust in Him above all else, and so also in loving and self-sacrificing service to your neighbor for Jesus’ sake.

Do not make or worship any other gods, nor attempt to be a god unto yourself.  That is to say, do not put your hope and confidence in yourself or anyone else, but solely in this Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of the Father.  Do not invest yourself, your heart and mind, your time and energy, in anything apart from His Word.  Do not give your body over to that which His Word forbids, nor to that which He has not given to you, but exercise and train your body to live unto righteousness according to His Word.  Likewise, do not speak except as He has spoken, that all your words might be good and right and true.  Live in such a way, by faith in Christ Jesus, that everything you do and say resounds to the glory, honor, thanks, and praise of your God and Father in heaven.

It is really a matter of living in His house, as a member of His family, as a child and heir of God the Father in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son.  It is a matter of resting in His gracious providence, abiding in His peace, receiving His good gifts, being cared for and protected by the One who loves you and bestows His own life upon you.  It is a matter of finding your own place, your refuge, and your home, with Him who has called you to Himself and named you with His own Name, adopting you for the sake of His great love, and granting you a glorious inheritance forever.

The rules of His household and family are not some new kind of slavery or bondage, though your old Adam is constrained and constricted by such rules.  Sons and daughters in this life of sin do not always honor their fathers and mothers; they do not always obey their parents.  Brothers and sisters do not always love and care for each other as they should.  Therefore, the rules of the Father’s house so order things for the benefit of one and all, that wickedness, hurt, and harm may be curbed, that help may be given and good promoted.  So, too, the rules of His household aim to keep you close to your Father and your family, to keep you safe from all harm and danger, and to give you the rhythm and stability of real life in the peace and harmony of Christ, your Savior.

To that end, His rules set before you the good life that Christ Jesus has lived for you in His own flesh and blood like yours, the life which He has given and still gives to you by His Ministry of the Gospel.  He thus invites you into that life, which is established and steadfast in Him.  And He continues to bear the good fruits of that life, so that you might eat and drink and live with Him.

He jealously guards you against the false gods that seek to entice and force you away from Him — the false gods and idols that promise you life, though they actually have nothing but death, destruction, and despair to inflict upon you.  That you should rather live instead of die, your dear Lord Jesus invites you to pray, He teaches and encourages you to pray, and He even commands you to pray, that you should thereby learn to speak and live by faith in His God and Father, who has in fact become your own God and Father.  So does He also call you daily back to your Sabbath Rest in Him, to His Word, and to His good works.  For He would feed you at His Table and give you peaceful sleep in the bed that He has made for you, in your own room in your Father’s house.

The pillow upon which your heart and soul, your mind and body rest is the sweet forgiveness of His Gospel.  For He Himself loves you in the way that He commands you to love your neighbors, to love your brothers and sisters.  And in such love He also forgives you all your sins.  He does not hold your trespasses against you.  As His mercies are new every morning, so is your Father’s house always wide open to you; your place at His Table is set and secure; and your Sabbath Rest in Christ Jesus remains in the Ministry of His Gospel, unto the Life everlasting of your body and soul.

Such love and forgiveness are the good fruits of His good Tree, which He bears for you in His mercy and in His perfect faithfulness.

By these fruits of the Cross, He does you no hurt, He causes you no harm, neither in your body nor in your soul.  On the contrary, He gives to you His own divine Life, both now and forever.

He does not rob you, He does not mug you, and He does not take any good thing away from you.  He rather gives you Himself and all the treasures of His Kingdom, so that you lack for nothing.

He is an ever-faithful husband, who cherishes you and cares for you as a member of His beloved Bride, His Holy Church.  And wherever you have strayed, as often as you have turned away from Him and gone a-whoring after other gods, still He woos you back to Himself, He reconciles you to Himself, and He always welcomes you back into His strong arms and His loving embrace.

With His Word He forgives you, He enlightens you, He teaches you all things, and He gives to you His Holy Spirit.  He defends you against all the assaults and accusations of the devil.  He quiets even the accusations of God’s own Law against you, as surely as He has kept and fulfilled the Law for you.  He thus covers your shame with His own honor.  He speaks well of you, even though the whole world does not.  He speaks well of you, and He credits you with His own righteousness.

This is the firm foundation of His Father’s house, which stands fast on earth even as it is in heaven, and which shall not be blown away or wrecked by winds or waves, by earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, or raging floods.  For all the Law and the Prophets have been fulfilled in Him, in His Incarnation, in His Body of flesh and blood, in His Cross and Resurrection, in His holy faith and perfect love.  He has kept and still keeps all the rules of the house for you, so that His Sabbath Rest remains and His good life continues for you.  That shall never be shaken or removed.

That is why the Word of Christ has such authority.  He does not simply interpret or teach the Law, but He has kept and fulfilled the Law (just as it was always intended).  And His fulfillment of the whole Law, of the Ten Commandments and all that His Father has spoken, has become His Gospel to you.  Thus does He forgive your sins — your faults and failings, your breaking of the Law, and your neglect of faith and love.  As He has given Himself for you in atonement for all that has been wrong, so does He give Himself to you in peace, in mercy and compassion, in order to repair what has been broken, to set right what is amiss, to fill up whatever is lacking, and to bring you home.

Do not be afraid.  The Lord has set you free — but He does not simply let you go.  You are His own beloved, and He truly is the Lord your God.  As He has brought you out of slavery, out of Egypt, so does He bring you in freedom into the good land that He has promised, the good land of His Paradise.  Even now in the wilderness, He remains with you; and He shall not leave you, He shall not abandon you.  Know that He has not forgotten you, but He remembers you in love.

Even here and now, you are at home with Him.  And He shall bring to pass all that He has spoken to you.  The One who promises is faithful, and He will surely do it in grace, mercy, and peace.

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

Divine Sonship for You in the Flesh of Jesus Christ

Christ Jesus lives by faith in His Father.  That comes naturally to Him, of course, because He is the only-begotten Son of the Father from all eternity: God from God, Light from Light, very God of very God.  But now He also lives that same divine Sonship — He lives by fear, love, and trust in His God and Father — in His own human flesh, in the nature He received from His Mother in the fullness of time, in which He now and ever after lives as your blood Brother.  What is more, He lives by such faith, this beloved and well-pleasing Son, even under the curse and consequences of Adam’s fall into sin.  He shares the sin and death of all mankind, as though it were His own, even though He commits no sins of His own, nor is there anything but grace upon His lips.

He knows the weakness, pain, and urgent tug of hunger in His gut.  He knows the slow and steady passage of time, from one moment to the next, within which He waits upon the Lord and looks to Him with patient trust.  The days and nights come and go for Him as they do for you, and His flesh feels their weight and their burden, while He yet waits for His Father to feed Him in due season.

Although He is a Son — He is, and was, and ever shall be the Son of God by nature — yet, for you and your salvation, He learns the obedience of sonship through His suffering and temptation in His Body of flesh and blood.  He learns, not as though He were ignorant, but in order to exercise compassion.  He learns by the experience of your condition.  He bears your griefs and shares your sorrows, in order to become your merciful and great High Priest in all things pertaining to God.

That is what the Temptation of our Lord is all about.  For everything He does and says and suffers, He does it all for your sake, in order to save you from sin and death to the Glory of His God and Father.  For it is the Glory of God to save sinners by His divine grace.  Hence, Christ Jesus is the Savior of fallen men and women, solely for the sake of His love.  He becomes like them and shares their predicament, in order to rescue them, to raise them from the dust of the earth, and to recreate them in His Image and Likeness.  He comes in the likeness of your mortal flesh, in order to enliven your flesh and blood, your body and soul, with His Holy Spirit and His divine Sonship; so that you thus become a child of the heavenly Father in this Lord Jesus Christ who loves you.

The Temptations of our Lord are both unique to Him and universal to all the children of man.  For He is tempted in all the ways that you are, yet without sin.  And whereas temptation arises for you, not only from outside of you, but also from within yourself — from the discontent and covetous lust of your own sinful heart — for Christ our Lord there is no sin at all within Him.  His heart and mind are set upon His God and Father from the inside-out; and so it is that His Body also lives and dies in peace and love, because He always abides in perfect faith.  At all times and in all places, He worships the Father in Spirit and Truth, and gives all glory, honor, thanks, and praise to Him.  Jesus remains confident and content in the Word and promise of His Baptism, even in the desert, and even on the Cross.  He prays to and trusts in the One who is able to raise Him up from death.

But, so that He might be tempted as you are, in order to become your great High Priest and Savior, He deliberately deprives His Body of food.  He prays and keeps the fast of forty days and nights.  Even this He does not do at His own whim, but the Spirit of His Father leads Him up from His Baptism into the wilderness, and in faith and love He goes.  In becoming hungry, Jesus experiences in Himself the bodily need and desire for nourishment — not covetous lust, but a real hunger of His own natural human flesh.  In this way He is tested by God like Old Testament Israel in the wilderness, and He is subjected to the temptations of the devil, in order to be strengthened in His obedience to the Father by way of an active exercise of faithfulness in the midst of adversity.

This is more than just an example, and far more than simply a token case of empathy for you.  He suffers this voluntary weakness and want in order to provide for you — to raise you up from sin and death to faith and life — by the way and means of His own persistent faith and perseverance.

In Adam all men die, because in Adam all men sin.  Although the first man and woman lacked nothing, they were tempted by a desire for what God had not given, for the one thing that God had set apart for their humble obedience to and reverent worship of Him.  And by their disregard of His Word, they gave up the contentment and peace of the Garden and the friendship of the Lord, in exchange for anxiety and animosity, hardship and toil, pain and death.  Such is your inheritance as a child of their fallen flesh and blood.  But, so too, the promise of God to Adam and Eve is also for you and for your children, and for your children’s children, as also for all the children of man.

So it is that One of the sons of Adam, the Seed of the Woman, has restored the Image and Likeness of God in Man.  He is born without sin, because He is the Son of God, begotten of the Father from eternity.  But He does not keep His distance from the sons and daughters of affliction.  He does not hold Himself aloof, nor does He go His own way.  Although He is incarnate God, He humbles Himself and makes Himself nothing, in order to become the Firstborn of many brothers and sisters; that He might be fruitful and bring forth a multitude of children for His God and Father in heaven.

He puts Himself in your place — not in a lush Paradise of plenty, but in the harsh wilderness of blood, sweat, and tears, where you must labor long and hard to make ends meet, and still you perish in the end.  It is in that place of hardship and hurt, of hunger and hard work, that He lives as the true Son.  He returns to the dust of the earth from which you and father Adam are taken, in order to make you and all things brand new by His faith and faithfulness in the promises of His Father in heaven.  He likewise becomes the new Israel, passing through the water into the desert in order to live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  He is tempted, tried, and tested, so that His Sonship, His fear, love, and trust in God, and His steadfast obedience of faith, are all established deeply and forever in His human flesh and blood — for you and for all people.

Understand that, when the Lord your God disciplines you, as a father disciplines his son in love, and when He allows you to go hungry before He opens wide His hand to feed you at the proper time, He does so to humble you, to break your prideful heart, and to bring you in repentance back to Himself.  He thereby teaches you not to rely upon your own futile self-righteousness, but to rest yourself in Him, to call upon His Name, and to wait upon His providential care.

With Christ Jesus, it is the same experience, but also the opposite.  For, unlike you, He is Life in Himself, and He is able to do all things.  And yet, He is not prideful or presumptuous.  He has no need of any repentance for Himself.  Rather, He humbles Himself and bears the discipline of His Father on your behalf, and thereby extends His faith and righteousness to you.  He relies upon His Father, and He awaits the Father’s rescue from death and the grave, in order to raise you up from the dirt in His Resurrection, to glorify you as a beloved and well-pleasing child of God in Him.

It is for this reason and to this end that He faces what He faces in the desert wilderness.  He takes on the tempter and all of your temptations of heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit, in order to atone for all your sins and failures, and to open up a new way of life for you.

That Way of Life which He opens up and sets before you is the way of faith in the Word that God has spoken.  Such faith does not contrive or compromise; it is not desperate or impatient; it does not seek detours or short cuts around the Cross that God has appointed.  Faith is neither reckless nor presumptuous.  It does not attempt to prove God by putting Him to the test, nor does it seek to use Him for personal gratification.  Faith loves and worships the Lord, the one true God, and does nothing to contradict or disobey His commandments.  It cannot and will not trade the Kingdom of God and His righteousness for the false and fading glory of this world and its politics of power and prestige.  Faith abides in the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, come hell or high water against it, and no matter how foolish or unreasonable it may seem.

Such faith and life are yours in Christ Jesus because He has made it so, and because He has given these things to you by your Baptism in His Name.  That is the new inheritance and legacy of this new and better Adam, which is for you and for your children by His grace.  As He entered the wilderness to be with you here by the waters of His Baptism in the Jordan River, so does He bring you through the waters of your Baptism — through His Cross and Resurrection — out of death into life, out of the desert into the Canaan of His Church on earth, and finally into Paradise.

By your Baptism into Christ, you have a new genealogy, a new Father, a new and right Spirit, and a new Sonship.  You have a new life.  Or, to say it even better, you have real Life instead of death.

How, then, shall you live this life that is yours in Christ Jesus?  How shall you live by faith in God, your dear Father in heaven?  And how shall you survive your time in this wilderness, surrounded by temptations within and without, as you sojourn on your way to the Promised Land?

The command and promise of the Lord your God is this: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you, as surely as he departed from Christ and left Him.  Because the devil actually has nothing but lies and deception.  Even when he cites the Holy Scriptures, he spins and twists the truth into lies.  He is crafty and clever, but the devil is not creative, because he is not God; he is a creature himself, who has nothing but what the Lord permits and tolerates.  So it is that, even on your lips, the Word of the Lord defeats him, and Satan must flee as the Lord commands.  Do not doubt that it is so.

In truth, the Lord your God is faithful.  He will do and provide for you all that He has promised.  He is the One who preserves you in the wilderness, even in spite of your mortal frailty and sinful weaknesses.  Indeed, by His own resistance of the devil in flesh and blood like your own, Christ Jesus your Savior has already defeated that old dragon, and He has won the Victory for you.

As that same Lord Jesus Christ has united Himself to you, and you to Him, in Holy Baptism, and as He now feeds you with Himself — with His Word, and with His flesh and blood, a better Manna from heaven than Israel ever received — so does He strengthen and sustain your body and soul with His own faith and faithfulness, that you might live with God and be kept safe from the devil.

To be sure, the Lord does not constrain you against your will.  He does not violate your heart and mind, nor does He rob you of your freedom in this body and life.  He has created you for love and friendship, and so He leaves you free to love, to be a friend of God and man in peace.  But so it is that you are also free and susceptible to genuine temptations in this present wilderness.  You can and do fall into such temptations, into sins of thought, word, and deed, and into the snares of the devil.  You are tempted by the hungers of your mortal flesh, as it desperately attempts to hang onto this life on earth.  You are tempted by the scheming of your mind and fallen reason, by your great brain and your money-loving heart, to use and abuse the gifts of God in a futile effort to seize the kingdoms and the power and the glory of this perverse and perishing world.  And you are tempted by the vanity of your sinful heart, which covets for yourself the glory that belongs to God alone.

Guard your heart and mind, therefore, with the Word of God in Christ.  Exercise the new heart, soul, mind, and spirit He has given you, by resisting the devil and turning away from his deceits.

And where you have failed and fallen short, repent of your sins and return to the Lord your God.  Hear and receive the Word and promise of the Gospel in His means of grace, and rehearse that Gospel by prayer and confession.  Above all, seek out His free and full forgiveness of your sins, which is here given to you by His ministers in His Name.  And so also, cease and desist from the sins that have ensnared you; not that you will save yourself, but because the Son of God has saved you from sin and every evil and has made you a child of God, anointed and filled by His Holy Spirit in body and soul.  It is certain that He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Beloved, the Lord who loves you, your merciful and great High Priest, your Savior and your God, He is in you and with you, closer than a brother.  He is with you on the battlefield.  He is by your side upon the plain with His good gifts and Spirit.  He has already won the Victory for you, as your Champion against Satan, sin, and death; and even now He defends and protects you, rescues and restores you, forgives your sins, and reconciles you to the Father.  Here He cares for you in mercy.  Here He feeds you with this living and life-giving Bread, for which you did not toil and could not pay, but which you freely receive from His hand.  For by His fasting and temptation, by His hard labor and bloody sweat, and by His Tree of the Cross, He has brought forth life from out of death.

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