MARCH 2025
MARCH 2025
2 March 2025 - Quinquagesima - Luke 6:27-31
In today’s lesson from his First Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul tells us that
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
One very specific way of applying this understanding of the true meaning of love can be found in what Jesus tells us in the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke, beginning at the 27th verse:
“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.”
Jesus here sets forth what is often called the “Golden Rule” - commonly expressed also as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The Golden Rule is not, however, unique to the teachings of Jesus.
Siddhartha Gautama - known as “the Buddha” - said: “Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”
Confucius said: “Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.”
Muhammad said: “Not one of you truly believes until you wish for others what you wish for yourself.”
Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, said: “Lay not on any soul a load that you would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself.”
And the list could go on. The reason why this general ethical principle appears in so many places, and comes from the lips of so many people, is because it is based on common sense, and on the natural law that resides in the conscience of all men.
The unique authority of Jesus, and of the Christian faith, is not based on the notion that non-Christians are incapable of common sense and ordinary human reason.
So, when Jesus says, “just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise,” we are okay with the fact that other people have said basically the same thing; and that the adherents of other religions, and the adherents of no particular religion, are able to recognize the essential soundness of this thought.
If everyone in a human society actually lived according to this principle, there would be no conflict, no violence, and no crime. Everyone’s reputation and property would be protected. Everyone’s human dignity would be honored.
Human reason is able to see this. But, the sinful human flesh, with its destructive passions and half-blind shortsightedness, is not able to implement this.
Human greed, human selfishness, and human lust often overpower human reason, and impel people to act in ways that defy and contradict common sense.
So, the Golden Rule lays out for all people the way things should be in human relationships. But the Golden Rule does not describe the way things actually are, most of the time.
It’s also important to note that the way the Golden Rule is worded - especially in the version that Jesus gave us - indicates that each of us is to be proactive, in doing the right thing for others, and in saying the right thing to others, rather than sitting back and waiting for others to do or say something first.
The shape of the rule is: Act first, and do to others as you would like others then to do to you. Do not wait until others do to you first, and then respond. So, not only are you not to respond to an injury, by injuring another, but you are to reach out to another first, to help and to heal.
Again, that’s what we’re supposed to do. But we don’t do what we’re supposed to do.
And our violations of the Golden Rule often develop into a vicious cycle of actions and reactions. Someone hurts me, and so I hurt him in response. He retaliates by hurting me again, and I then get even by hurting him yet another time.
And on it goes, as people drag each other down into an ever deeper mutual resentment, into an ever more intense mutual anger, and into an ever more obsessive mutual vengefulness.
Everyone involved is miserable. No one enjoys the feelings that are associated with this.
But it just continues anyway, pressed forward by the momentum of an unrelenting pride that does not want to concede defeat, or to accept the final humiliation. So it can seem that the cycle will never stop.
But it should be possible to stop it. It should be possible for such a destructive pattern to be halted and reversed. It should be possible for you to stop it, when you have been pulled into something like this.
When you are in this kind of competition with someone else, to see who can inflict the most and the greatest pain on the other, you could bring it to an end, and reverse it, if you would insert the Golden Rule into this vicious cycle.
Like inserting a monkey wrench into the gears of a machine that is otherwise humming along, this would stop it immediately. In the immediate context of his articulation of the Golden Rule, Jesus said:
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back.”
“Easier said than done,” you might say, as you even in this moment are thinking about rivals who have hurt you, and whom you have deliberately hurt in response. But Jesus says to do it. Jesus says to follow and to apply the Golden Rule in these ways, even when you must swallow your pride to do so.
I’ve noted that the basic contours of the Golden Rule are not unique to the teachings of Jesus, or to the principles of Christian ethics. Other religions and other worldviews also recognize the soundness of the Golden Rule, based as it is on common sense.
But Jesus, and the Christian faith, are unique, in making it possible for someone from the heart to be able and willing to act, think, and speak according to the Golden Rule - even and especially when it’s hard to do so.
The sinful flesh always undermines and hinders the living out of the Golden Rule, even in those who rationally recognize the soundness of this rule. And that includes Christians, whose faithfulness to the Golden Rule is always imperfect and incomplete, since their sinful flesh still clings to them, too.
But deep down on the inside, Christians have something more than the sinful flesh, and the old nature, which all human beings have inherited by natural generation, and with which all people have come into the world.
St. Paul writes to Titus of the salvation and the new spiritual beginning that the Triune God has provided for us, and has delivered to us, in the means of grace. He says that
“When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
St. Peter writes these words of encouragement to Christians, in his First Epistle:
“You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers...with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He...was made manifest...for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God...”
St. Paul furthermore writes in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians that
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them...”
Paul and Peter both link the new nature that is now in us because of Christ, with the redeeming and reconciling work of Christ: who in his life and death followed the Golden Rule perfectly, for us and for our benefit.
Jesus did not wait for sinful humanity to reach up to him and offer to serve him, but he reached down to us first. Of course, his service for us is very different from the service that we might have rendered to him. But he, proactively, by grace, served us according to our needs: as rebellious sinners in need of a reconciliation with God, and as spiritually dead sinners in need of a new life with God.
Jesus himself explains that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” And St. Paul explains in his Epistle to the Romans that
“God shows his love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
So, when Jesus said, “love your enemies” - as a very specific and very vivid example of implementing the Golden Rule - he certainly practiced what he preached. You and I were his enemies, because of our sin. But he loved us, and gave himself for us, without waiting for us to love him first.
And of course, he does now expect us, by the working of his Spirit within us and in our new nature, to love him in return. “We love because he first loved us,” St. John reminds us in his First Epistle.
And practically speaking, the primary way we show love for Christ, is to show love for our neighbor in his name. In speaking of the kindnesses that believers have shown to those in need, Jesus says in St. Matthew’s Gospel: “inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”
For us who know the love of Christ, who reached out to us in the spirit of the Golden Rule before we ever reached out to him, this shines a whole new light on what it means for us to seek to follow the Golden Rule now in our interactions with other people: including irritating and annoying people; people who have offended and hurt us in the past; people who have gone so far as to make themselves our enemies.
The Golden Rule is not only a crushing demand that we cannot live up to. It is a description of a new and liberated way of living, in Christ, which is possible for us now because Christ has freed us from the chains of bitterness and resentment that had bound us; and because Christ has lifted us out of the pit of hatred and anger in which we had been buried.
And as we move forward in love for him and for our neighbor, Jesus continues to do unto us, what he wants us to do unto him - or, more precisely, to do unto our neighbor in his name. Jesus forgives our sins in his Holy Absolution and in his Holy Supper, and we then heed these words of St. Paul:
“Bear with each other, and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
Jesus encourages and comforts us in our troubles, and we then heed these words of St. Paul:
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
Jesus continually pours out his grace upon us, to teach us his truth, to mold us into his image, and to heal us of the wounds that sin has inflicted upon us. God supplies every need of ours according to his riches in glory, in Christ Jesus. And we then heed these words of St. Paul:
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.” Amen.
5 March 2025 - Ash Wednesday
Not long ago, on a public social media platform on the internet, a recent convert to Confessional Lutheranism expressed some misgivings about the themes and emphases of Lenten services in this person’s new church.
This person had come from a church where Lent was never discussed, and where no such special season was observed. Instead, everything was always upbeat and cheerful all the time.
But in the Lutheran Church, by comparison, Lent seemed to be a real downer, and brought out feelings of depression in this person. So, this new Lutheran was having a hard time adjusting to the idea of Lent and to what Lent seemed to be about. I responded in this way:
“The discipline and structure of the church year are teaching tools for all of Christian life. In Lent we learn in a more focused way about humility before God and repentance for sin, but we are not humble only during Lent, and do not repent only during Lent.
“During the Easter season we learn in a more focused way about God’s gift of eternal life and the joy of our Christian hope for heaven and for our own future resurrection. But we do not celebrate these things only during the Easter season.
“The message and blessing of Christ’s resurrection are present also during Lent, and reminders of our need to take our sin seriously are present also during Easter. During the course of the whole church year, in the annual sequence of festivals, seasons, and observances, we learn the whole counsel of God, not only cerebrally but also experientially.
“But the whole counsel of God is also recapped on each Sunday and indeed on each day of the year: when law and gospel are proclaimed and meditated upon, when sin is confessed and absolution is pronounced and believed, and when the Lord's Supper is celebrated and received.
“Lent is and should be a special time to learn about sin, repentance, and humility; and about God’s wrath against wickedness and evil. These lessons are needed not only during Lent but they are needed for every other season and for a lifetime. And so, learn them during Lent, but apply them throughout the year.
“And in the meantime, what you learned during Easter can still be applied during Lent, and always. The risen Christ forgives you and renews your faith also during Lent. God reveals his Fatherly love and mercy also during Lent. The Holy Spirit renews your joy and Christian hope also during Lent.”
Indeed, we as a congregation, and as individual Christians, are now beginning our annual journey through the season of Lent, so that we, too, can relearn - once again - the special lessons about God and about our relationship with God that Lent is designed to teach.
Lent is not the only time of the year when we ponder our sins and their harmful effect on us and on our relationships. But it is a time when we learn - in some unique ways - how to ponder our sins all the time, and how to repent of those sins all the time.
Some of the historic traditions of Lent contribute toward this learning process. One of these traditions is giving up a certain pleasure during this season - often a food item that you really like - in order to be reminded - physically and mentally - of the need to remove from your souls the sins that you improperly love and cling to, through remorse and repentance.
Another such tradition is the imposition of ashes on the forehead on the first day of Lent - but just on the first day. In today’s Gospel from St. Matthew, Jesus tells us:
“When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place...”
So, on Ash Wednesday, the physical ashes remind us of something that will then have no physical manifestation for the rest of the season, when our faces will be clean.
But what the physical ashes represent on the first day of Lent will still be there - in our hearts and minds - on all the other days of Lent, as the lessons of the whole season are learned and internalized: namely the importance of humility before God, and of dependence on God.
We of ourselves - because of our inherited sinfulness, and because of our own personal sins - are filled with death, and cannot keep ourselves alive. Together with Adam our common ancestor, and all other human beings, we by nature are dust, and to dust we shall return.
Our only hope for eternal life, and for a future resurrection from the dead, is in God, who forgives the sins of which we repent, and who heals the deep wounds in our soul that our sins have inflicted on us. These are humbling thoughts, but they are not depressing thoughts, because God does indeed forgive and heal us.
If a doctor told you that you have a terminal disease and that there is no cure, then maybe you would be depressed by that news. But that’s not what God tells us - during Lent or at any other time.
It might sting a bit to be told that we are infected with the disease of sin and death. Yet a church that never tells this to its members is not serving its members very well.
We need to know this, so that we will then seek and accept the cure. And there is a cure for the sin and death that afflict us.
God’s forgiveness, and the healing power of God’s gospel, are the cure. And God does forgive and heal, because of Christ and his suffering and death on our behalf. St. John tells us in his Gospel that “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
The Prophet Isaiah - many centuries before it happened in human history - already knows, by means of a timeless revelation from God, that Jesus the Messiah
“was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Jesus himself tells us that
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Jesus also invites us: “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
This invitation to learn certainly applies to us at all times, but it applies especially during the season of Lent, when the texts and hymns of the season are teaching us the way of humility and joy before God, and the way of repentance and faith in God.
And in these words, Jesus prepares us - even during Lent - for the special lessons, and for the saving truth, of Easter:
“This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
“Almighty and everlasting God, You despise nothing You have made, and forgive the sins of all who are penitent. Create in us new and contrite hearts, that, lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, we may receive from You full pardon and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ.” Amen.
9 March 2025 - Lent 1 - Matthew 4:1-4
St. Matthew tells us in today’s Gospel that, after his baptism, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
If the Son of God was tempted by the devil, then it should not surprise us that the devil is more than willing to tempt everyone else as well - especially since he is so successful, so often, in his temptation of everyone besides Jesus.
Satan is a real being. He was created as a glorious archangel, to worship and serve God. One of the greatest unanswerable questions of our religion, is the mystery of how and why Satan became internally corrupted, and fell from his original perfection.
How could this happen? How could something that God had created to be perfect and pure, twist itself into something evil and wicked - apart from any outside negative influences?
We don’t know how and why this happened. But we do know that it did happen. We also know that many other angels, inspired by Satan, joined him in his rebellion against God.
And we know - not only by Scriptural revelation, but also by our own observations of human history - that there are indeed supernatural forces at work among us, that are committed to the destruction of the human race, and to inspiring as much pain and agony among us as they can.
Satan and his minions hate God. But because God is God, they know that they can’t really touch him. They can’t hurt God directly.
But they believe that they can hurt God indirectly, by hurting what God loves most. And what God loves most among his creatures, is that segment of his creation that was made in his own image. What God loves most is the human race.
And so, the devil, and all the demons who work in coordination with him, temp all of us. They are very smart in how they do it, too.
These fallen creatures are immortal. During all the time of their existence, they have learned a lot about human nature, and have accumulated much knowledge about us and about how we think.
Over the millennia they have fine-tuned their techniques, and perfected their tactics. They know what usually works.
One of the things that works, is to bring a temptation to sin into someone’s life in such a way, that the one being tempted by the devil doesn’t even know that he is being tempted by the devil. Satan is very good at creating situations where the one being tempted to do something harmful, doesn’t even know that it would be something harmful.
More often than not, when someone is contemplating the commission of a sinful deed, he’s not thinking to himself, “should I do this evil thing?” Rather, he is thinking to himself, “Should I do this good thing?”
Very seldom does someone actively think, as he is committing his sins, that he is in fact committing sins. He thinks he is doing something beneficial and positive, or at least something neutral and harmless.
He justifies his actions. He persuades himself that he is doing the right thing, under the circumstances. And all the while, the devil is, as it were, whispering into his ear.
With the active cooperation of our own sinful nature, the devil has many successes in tricking us into hurting ourselves and others. Except for those relatively rare cases of direct demonic possession, Satan usually doesn’t have to get his hands dirty at all.
We do all his dirty work for him, as we hurl ourselves into actions and into relationships that are corrupt and corrupting.
It is often only in hindsight that people can see how foolish they were, or how much harm they caused themselves or others. But this wisdom of hindsight is generally not profound enough, or influential enough, to prevent people from falling into the same traps again and again.
During wartime, a smart general will not blindly and impetuously throw his army at an enemy position. He first will reconnoiter that position, and identify the weakest spot in the enemy’s defenses. The attack will then be concentrated at that weak spot.
That’s what the devil does, too. He will probe you, until he finds your weak spot. And when he finds it, he will exploit it - again and again.
That weak spot might be your laziness, your lust, your greed, your pride, your temper, or your envy. He might find an opening for his deceptions in the context of your loneliness, your poor health, your desire to succeed, or your fear of not being accepted or liked by others.
The devil will seek out your vulnerabilities, and exploit them: to your moral, spiritual, and physical harm. He will often amplify certain genetic or hereditary weaknesses you may have - which may predispose you toward addictive behavior, or anti-social behavior - to a point where you surrender to those weaknesses, and allow them to tear your life to shreds.
In one way or another, he will lie to you and blind you - in the moment of your temptation - so that you will not know or see what is actually happening. He will find a way to make you think that a bad decision is actually a good decision, and will then prompt you to make that decision.
On your own, you will not be able to grasp what is really going on, or be able to resist him. He is smarter than you. He is more powerful than you.
He has much less to lose than you do, since his eternal fate is already sealed. But he is very good at hiding that fact from you.
He is very good at distracting you from thoughts about God, and about God’s good and gracious will, precisely at those moments when such thoughts would serve you best - and would serve him least.
The only time when the devil’s attempts to lead someone into sin and self-destruction ended in complete failure on his part, was in his encounters with Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, and our human brother: especially in the encounter that he had with Jesus in the wilderness, at the beginning of his public ministry.
The devil probed Jesus at the point of the bodily weakness of his hunger, to see if he could get him to misuse his divine power by turning stones into bread. That didn’t work.
Satan also attempted to find a weak spot in the area of the common human desire to “show off” and to get attention from others; and in the area of the common human love for worldly power.
But these proud and selfish traits were not in Jesus. So, the devil’s attempts to get Jesus to jump off the pinnacle of the temple, and to bow down to him so as to be given all the kingdoms of the earth, did not work either.
Jesus resisted him, and remained as a man without sin. But he resisted him not just for himself, and for the preservation of his own personal integrity. He resisted him also for you. He resisted him in your place, and for your benefit.
When the devil assaults your conscience and tempts you, your human resolve and understanding - your own will and reason - are not enough of a barrier to throw up against him for your protection. He will always be able to maneuver his way in, and to slither around the feeble will, and the finite reason, of even the most worldly-wise of human beings.
But when the devil assaults your conscience and tempts you, and you by faith throw up against him the successful resistence of Christ as your shield, that shield will hold. As Christ, with his righteousness, stands between you and your tormentor, you will be protected.
We read in the First Epistle to the Corinthians that God “will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape.” Jesus - with everything he is for you, everything he has done for you, and everything he does for you now - is the way of escape.
As a man without any sin of his own, Jesus became the man - the God-man - who could and did carry the sins of others to the cross. He carried your sins to the cross.
Jesus carried to the cross all your failures to resist the devil, and all your defeats under the devil’s assaults. When Christ died for those sins, and when he rose again to demonstrate God the Father’s acceptance of his sacrifice, he did this for you.
As St. Paul writes to the Romans, Jesus our Lord “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” In Christ, we are now justified and forgiven. In Christ, we are now liberated from the devil’s power to twist us, to manipulate us, and to destroy us.
Jesus’ successes are credited to you by faith, so that before God they cover over all your failures. Jesus’ righteousness is credited to you by faith, so that before God it covers over all your iniquity.
As you are now in Christ, and as Christ is now in you, you also see and understand many things, where previously you were blind and ignorant. God’s Word has shone a spotlight on the devil’s tactics, and has exposed them.
The Holy Scriptures have been given to you as a sure measuring rod of objective, inspired truth, by which you can tell the difference between a Satanic temptation to evil, and a God-given opportunity for good.
Indeed, the inspired Scriptures are “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be...equipped for every good work,” as we are told in the Second Epistle to Timothy.
And while you were weak and unable to resist Satan’s allurements by the strength of your own will and reason, in Christ you are now strong. You are strong in the strength of the one who told Satan, “Away with you!”
You are strong in the strength of the one who rose from the grave, and who lives - invincibly - forevermore. You are strong in the strength of the one who is with you now, who is guarding you now, and who for your sake is telling Satan once again, “Away with you!”
And so, in your temptations, cling to Christ - because Christ is clinging to you. He is clinging to you in the day of trial.
He is clinging to you in the darkness of your fears and uncertainties. He is clinging to you at all those times when the devil comes once again, and tries once again to pull you away from the love and light of God.
If you let go of your Savior, and turn aside from his gospel, you will thereby be letting go of all of the protections and blessings that are now yours in him. The devil will once again have free reign with you.
The devil will once again succeed, unimpeded, in bringing you down. You will be with him for eternity, and not with God. May this never be!
Satan is wily in his attacks, on individuals loved by God, and on their godly relationships. He is clever, beyond any human cleverness that might be brought to bear in resisting him, or even in figuring out what he is doing.
Let us all heed today the Lenten call of our Lord, that this is a time for us to stop allowing the devil to have as much influence in our lives as we have been allowing him to have. This is a time for our eyes and our ears to be opened once again.
This is a time for us to repent of all half-heartedness, all flippancy regarding the things of God, and all presumption regarding our ability to protect ourselves from the devil’s schemes.
This is a time to be renewed in faith - faith in the only one who can help us and deliver us - as our divine-human helper and deliverer comes to us in his Word and sacrament: to rearm us for this battle, and to equip us for our final victory in him.
Now is the time to listen to what St. James tells us:
“Submit yourselves...to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ... Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
And now is also the time to listen to what St. Paul tells us, in his Epistle to the Romans:
“I want you to be wise as to what is good, and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” Amen.
16 March 2025 - Lent 2 - Matthew 15:21-28
“I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” These words of our Lord, as recorded in today’s Gospel from St. Matthew, might seem harsh and cruel, especially in the context in which he spoke them. But he was simply stating the truth, as far as his vocation as a preacher and teacher was concerned.
We do remember that God gave his only-begotten Son because of his love for the world, and not just because of his love for Israel. Jesus’ death on the cross atoned for the sins of all people, and not just for the sins of the Jewish people.
But insofar as he was a rabbi - called to preach and teach during the relatively limited time of his earthly ministry, before his death - Jesus was not given to all people. He was given and sent only to his own people - that is, to the people of Israel.
Those few occasions when he did interact with non-Jews - such as in the land of the Gadarenes; and such as in the district of Tyre and Sidon in today’s text - were incidental to his prophetic and rabbinic calling, to let it be known in the land of Israel that the kingdom of God was at hand.
With his apostles, however, it would be different. Jesus always planned to send them forth into the world - after his crucifixion and resurrection - to make disciples of all nations.
During the three years when Jesus was fulfilling his own preaching and teaching ministry, he was also serving, in effect, as a seminary professor for the apostles, getting them ready for their future ministry. And what happened in today’s text was, we might say, an example of “field work” in this seminary program.
People often notice Jesus’ seeming disdain for the Canaanite woman in today’s account. They wonder why he seems not to care about her and her daughter’s demonic oppression.
Jesus appears to be acting as if he is annoyed by her petitions, and as if he wished she would not be there, bothering him. But remember that Jesus did make a point of going to this non-Jewish region.
Why did he do this? It wasn’t on the way to anywhere he needed to be for his ministry to the Jews.
By crossing the border into this pagan territory, he had every reason to expect that he and his disciples - who were with him - would sooner or later start bumping into the pagan inhabitants of that territory. And that’s what he wanted to happen.
He was there, in this Gentile land, to give his disciples - his students - some supervised, practical experience in interacting with the kind of people they would spend the rest of their lives interacting with, once they had left the land of Israel to go to the ends of the earth with the gospel of human salvation.
This was not Jesus’ earthly mission, but it was going to be theirs. Through the experience they had with the Canaanite woman, they were being introduced to their own vocational future.
Note, too, that the woman who came up to Jesus - somehow having heard of his supernatural power - was asking him to help her daughter, who was, as she said, “severely oppressed by a demon.”
There was demonic activity among the Jews, and Jesus sometimes cast demons out of possessed Jewish people. As Jesus himself pointed out, the “power of darkness” was at work, especially among those Jewish leaders who hated Christ, and were plotting to kill him.
But the most extreme example of demonic possession that Jesus encountered, was not among the Jews, but among the Gadarenes. You remember that story - about how the “legion” of evil spirits were cast out of a possessed man, and entered into a herd of pigs - which then proceeded to hurl themselves over a cliff.
The severe demonic oppression of the daughter of the Canaanite woman was no doubt like this, too.
Among the Jews of Jesus’ time, there was a restraining influence over against Satan and his minions, due to the prominence of God’s Word - and the presence of many people who believed that Word - in Jewish society. But in the pagan nations, with their idolatry and spiritual lostness, there was no such restraining influence.
Demonic possession was much more common, and much more severe, in those lands. In his Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul describes the condition of these unbelieving, benighted peoples, as those who are
“separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”
Those were the kind of people the apostles would someday preach to, teach, and baptize, so that they would no longer be separated from Christ. On a smaller scale, those were the kind of people Jesus was interacting with in today’s text.
The plight of the Canaanite woman’s daughter was emblematic of the plight of all people who are, as St. Paul says, “without God in the world.” Even though all unbelievers are not directly possessed by the devil, they are nevertheless captive to his will, deceived by his lies, and unwitting servants of his purposes.
And many of them are not all that unwitting, either. I knew a Christian minister who formerly had been a missionary in a remote region of South America.
He was the first Christian missionary to reach a particular tribe that had never before heard the Christian gospel. He told me about how his first convert was the village witch doctor. After that, the rest of the villagers were willing to listen to him, so that they all became Christians, too.
He also described for me the depressing and frightening religious worldview under which this tribe had formerly lived, before their liberation and enlightenment by Christ. They had believed that there had originally been a good God, who created everything; but that this good God was then chased away and supplanted by the evil spirits who were now dominating their lives.
Their tribal religion consisted in rituals and sacrifices that were calculated to appease these evil spirits, and to persuade them not to harm the people. They were very much aware of the demonic world. They were immersed in it - and they were immersed in the fear, the dread, the hopelessness, and the despair that these demons produced in them.
In this context, my friend announced to these people that through the sending of his Son into the world - to vanquish the devil, and to re-establish his kingdom among men - that good God who created them, is now reclaiming them; and is putting them under the protection of his Spirit.
He announced to them that God, in Christ, is now calling them to himself; and that he is now the one who is chasing the evil spirits away, and is supplanting them. They don’t have to be scared any more, because Jesus is now with them, saying to them in his gospel: “Do not be afraid.”
Concerning God, my friend, in effect, proclaimed to them the words that St. Paul had proclaimed to the Colossians:
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
If people in more sophisticated societies think that there is no supernatural world, and no devil, this doesn’t make it to be so. The primary evidence of Satan’s presence and influence in a society, or in an individual’s life, is not a conscious belief in Satan; but is, rather, a lack of belief in God, and in his Son Jesus Christ.
As our society is becoming less and less Christian, it is becoming more and more demonic. A decreasing interest in the Christian religion, is being matched by increased involvement with occultism and spiritism on the part of many.
When we step away from God’s Word in order to indulge our carnal passions, and fulfill our selfish ambitions, we are not thereby empowering ourselves. We are, instead, surrendering ourselves to the power of the devil.
The devil is, as it were, the “silent partner” of our sinful flesh, who cooperates with our own darker side in pulling us away from God - even as he then overwhelms us, and envelops us in his own grasp, before we know what is happening.
During his earthly ministry, Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and not to our Gentile ancestors. But Jesus’ earthly ministry, with its vocational limitations, is now over.
Since the Day of Pentecost, Jesus does come to people like us in his Word and Sacrament - as administered by his command, by the apostles and preachers he has called and sent in every generation. He comes to us, to rescue us from the power of sin and Satan, and to restore us to his kingdom of grace and truth.
Don’t underestimate the demonic aspects of the evil, the suffering, and the perverseness that is increasingly surrounding us in this world. Not being able to see something with your physical eyes, doesn’t mean that it isn’t there.
But don’t underestimate the grace and power of Christ, either. Trust in him, and remain in him, and you will be safe.
When Jesus, through his apostles, warns you to flee sexual immorality, and to flee idolatry - with all that this encompasses - then flee! Run fast and far, in the opposite direction.
Jesus knows what he is talking about, and he knows that there is a lot more going on, in the shadows of such sins, than meets the eye.
And, when Jesus invites you to come to him for safety and peace, heed that invitation, and come. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” he says.
If need be, leave all, and forsake all, to come to him, and to follow him. He also says:
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
You will never regret giving up anything of this world that you need to give up, in order to have all of Christ, all of his love, all of his gifts, all of his salvation.
Demons may still be hovering around the periphery of your life. And it’s inevitable that from time to time they will succeed in finding a chink in your armor, and in piercing through to you with a sin that wounds your conscience.
But the forgiveness of Christ is a balm for that wound. For all people in all nations - with everything that the devil and his minions have done to wound people, and to destroy them - the forgiveness of Christ has the power to heal all, and spiritually to resurrect all.
And there is a demon-free zone for you, where you can know that you are safe, and free. There are no demons in the gospel of your Lord and Savior Jesus, who tramples all his enemies under his feet.
They may be hovering around the gospel, trying to distract you from hearing it or believing it. But they are not in the gospel.
It is God who is present and speaking, when Jesus absolves you of all your sins; and when he, by the power of his consecrating Word, feeds your penitent soul, and your body, with his own body and blood.
As the daughter of the Canaanite woman was healed and delivered from the devil’s grip through the intervention of Christ, so too are you healed, and delivered, here and now. In whatever country of which you are a resident, whatever your ancestry is, and whatever your national or ethnic heritage may be, the healing of Christ is available to you. And it is for you.
Jesus is now sent to you, in Word and Sacrament, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile. Now he does come to you, in Word and Sacrament.
And now the devil flees from you, as he is compelled by your new Master to surrender you and your soul to him. You do now belong to Christ. You have been bought with the price of his blood.
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him. Amen.
17 March 2025 - Donna Lemke Funeral - Psalm 71:5-9
Please listen with me to a reading from the 71st Psalm, beginning at the 5th verse.
“For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth. By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of You. I have become as a wonder to many, but You are my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your glory all the day. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.”
It was only after she died, that I learned from Donna’s family that, in a certain sense, the die had been cast for the basic direction that her life would go, already in early childhood, when LeRoy Lemke became her schoolhouse sweetheart.
This put her on a trajectory that, in time, brought her and LeRoy to a happy marriage which lasted for more than four decades; that brought five sons into her and LeRoy’s life; and that resulted also in many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who continued to bring much joy to Donna until she finally departed from this world at the age of 94.
Humanly speaking, we would probably all agree that it is an unusual thing for the pathway of a person’s life in this world to be, in a certain sense, plotted out so early, through decisions and commitments made already in childhood. For most of us, when we were children, teens, and even young adults, we still had no idea how our life would unfold.
Most of us changed our minds about things quite often, as we bounced back and forth between various choices in our earlier years. Early life for most of us was no doubt marked also by some bad decisions, which tended to limit our options, as well as by some good decisions, which allowed us to narrow in on what our life did eventually become.
From God’s perspective, however, his gracious plan for his children, chosen in Christ, is always at work in their lives, not only from their early childhood, but from the moment they came into existence - and even from eternity.
In the mystery of God’s eternal love for his church, St. Peter - in his First Epistle - addresses the believers to whom he is writing his letter as those who are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”
And St. Paul, as he praises God for his incomprehensible mercy toward us in Jesus, says in his Epistle to the Ephesians:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love...”
Those who repent of their sins and believe in Christ’s forgiveness, who trust in God’s protection and guidance through all their trials, and who daily call upon the Lord in all their needs, are - in all these things - able to be comforted by the knowledge that God, in his immeasurable love, has already planned out their salvation, and everything that pertains to it.
He is with them every step of the way, making all these good and spiritually beneficial things happen for them, and in them, by his grace. Nothing that occurs in the lives of his saints is a surprise to God.
Even when something bad does happen, God is able to turn it to good, and to cause something good to come out of it.
To be sure, there is much mystery in this. There is much mystery in the questions we often ask in times of testing about why God does everything that he does, and about why he allows everything he allows.
The answers to such questions are usually hidden from us in this life. But what is not hidden from us is God’s promise that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
For Donna, this was how God was at work for her, and in her, from the moment she first came into existence. In her infancy she didn’t know what would be in store for her in her long life, but God knew.
God knew that he would bring her to faith in her Savior Jesus, and preserve her in that faith until the very end. And God knew the many ways in which he would bless her, as she rejoiced in his goodness even in her youth, and as God refined and sharpened her trust in him in times of grief and testing.
We can easily imagine the kind of storybook plans that Donna and LeRoy made for their lives together, when they were kids, as they wondered together what it would be like to grow up together and then to grow old together.
But that turned out not to be a mere childhood fantasy. It’s what really happened!
We don’t have to imagine many of the ways in which God worked out his plan for Donna, however. We know that she was baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
She then first received from the Triune God the divine gift of the forgiveness of sins, and the divine gift of an eternal hope - gifts that she then continued to receive from God’s hand, through his Word and Sacrament, for the rest of her life.
We also know that God’s Word led her to confess the fullness of her faith when she joined the Lutheran Church, and committed herself to this congregation.
Here she was served by God in her regular reception - in faith - of his means of grace. And here she - in love - served God’s people in various capacities through the years.
Donna attended for as long as she could, brought to church by Gary and Sandy, and then by Randy. When she could no longer travel to church, I brought church to her, with visits to her at the facility where she lived that included a reading from Scripture and a meditation on that reading; and that included a partaking of the sacrament of her Savior’s body and blood.
She listened with great devotion, and communed with great reverence.
Donna knew then that her earthly life would likely not continue for much longer. But that did not frighten her, because she also knew that God was still unfolding the loving plan that he had been unfolding for her for 94 years. He would not forsake her when her strength failed.
And she knew that God would continue to unfold his plan for her and for her salvation until that day when she would close her eyes for the last time in this world, and then instantly open them again in the next, and see Jesus.
Dear friends, are you tuned in to the loving plan that God has for you? Are you learning the lessons he wants to teach you? Are you heeding the warnings he is giving you? Are you receiving the help and blessings he is offering you?
The pathway that your life is taking, and will continue to take, in this world, may be fairly clear to you. Or, that earthly pathway may be uncertain or even a bit chaotic.
Yet knowing what God wants to do for you, and work in you, for your eternal benefit, is more important than anything else. You will not always be able to figure out everything that he is doing, or exactly why he is doing it. But there are some things you can know for sure.
Whenever you hear the invitation of his gospel, you can know with certainty that this invitation is for you, and in faith you can accept it:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Indeed, Jesus died and rose again for you: so that your sins can be pardoned and washed away; and so that you - like Donna - can have an eternal hope. You can be certain of this.
This therefore can be your prayer and your song of faith - as it was Donna’s prayer and her song of faith:
“For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth. By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of You. I have become as a wonder to many, but You are my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your glory all the day. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.” Amen.
23 March 2025 - Lent 3 - Mark 1:21-28
Please listen with me to a reading from the 1st chapter of the Gospel according to St. Mark, beginning at the 21st verse:
Then [Jesus and his disciples] went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are - the Holy One of God!” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” And immediately His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.
So far our text.
The scribes were the standard religious scholars among the Jews in the first century. They were in charge of copying and preserving manuscripts of the Sacred Scriptures, as well as manuscripts of the writings of the great rabbis of Israel’s history.
These rabbis had commented on the Scriptures, and had offered their opinions on the meaning and application of various passages. Over the generations, these interpretations had been layered on top of each other in such a way that the original meaning and spirit of a Biblical text was often completely obscured.
When Jesus criticized the “tradition of the elders,” or “the tradition of men,” this is what he was talking about. The scribes kept track of all these rabbinic writings, with their competing and sometimes contradictory views.
If someone would ask a scribe a question about some religious subject, he would answer the question by quoting the various rabbinic statements that had been made on that subject. And there was usually not just one commonly-accepted answer to a religious question.
So, a scribe might say, “Well, this rabbi answered your question in this way, but that rabbi answered your question in that way.”
The scribes, as a class, did not understand it to be their role to decide which rabbis of history were correct, and which were not. It was expected that everyone would basically pick and choose between these varying rabbinic opinions, without the idea that these issues really needed to be settled to the satisfaction of everyone.
And in general, that’s the way most people liked it. The Jewish people of the first century enjoyed religious debates. But they usually wanted to keep their options open, and not to feel forced to take a side, especially if the debate was over something controversial.
The way the scribes taught served this purpose very well. But the teaching of Jesus was different. Jesus didn’t present an array of possible answers to a religious question that someone might pose to him.
He answered such questions clearly, decisively, and with “authority.” He preached and expounded on the Scriptures with a new kind of freshness and power.
When Scripture gave one answer to a question, he told people what it was. And he rejected false interpretations - with the “authority” of one who seemed really to know what God’s intent was, in inspiring the passage in question.
We are told in our text that the people of Capernaum were “astonished” by this. We are also told that Jesus’ “fame” spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.
But the Greek word “akoe” - translated as “fame” - does not necessarily have a positive connotation, as the English word has. It just means that he became known in the region, and that people were hearing about him.
We might assume that the people were pleased finally to find a religious teacher who spoke with authority - unlike the scribes, with their vacillation and lack of commitment. But we should not necessarily assume this.
People in general don’t usually like to be told what they must believe, or how they must live. They don’t enjoy being told that a theological or moral belief to which they hold is wrong, and that they need to change that belief.
That’s the way it was back then, and that’s the way it is now, too. Most people today - even outwardly religious people - would prefer the approach of the scribes, over the approach of Jesus.
In regard to the various debated questions of doctrine and ethics in our time, the general tendency is for people to consider a wide range of interpretations and opinions, and then to choose the one that subjectively “feels right” to them.
And usually, the belief that is finally chosen, is the belief that allows them to conform themselves as much as possible to the current attitudes of the larger culture - or to the impulses of their own sinful flesh.
In this respect, we’ve probably heard of “cafeteria Catholics.” But picking up on the Swedish component of our Lutheran church’s heritage, we can say that there are also “Smorgasbord Lutherans.” Are you, perhaps, a Smorgasbord Lutheran?
Do you appreciate the inflexible authority with which Jesus speaks, so that you can be delivered from religious ignorance and spiritual deception by God’s objective truth in its totality? Do you want to be a Christian whose beliefs are firmly rooted in the Holy Scriptures, according to what the Scriptures actually say?
Or, might you prefer choosing your beliefs in bits and pieces, from here and there: constructing your own religion from the scribes of our age?
Do you - over time - move and shift from one idea to another: never allowing yourself to be brought to a deep and unchanging conviction regarding something that is bigger and more important than your own feelings and opinions - and to which you are willing to submit your feelings and opinions?
One thing you do need to know, is that if you identify yourself as a follower of Jesus, you are claiming to be a follower of one who teaches with authority, and not like the scribes. But are you really and fully a follower of Jesus?
Do you hear his authoritative voice in the Scriptures? Do you accept as true everything that he says - even when it might challenge you, or require a change in you?
A Christian recognizes the authority and truth of Jesus’ teaching. But this is not just an intellectual exercise.
For one man in particular in Capernaum, in today’s text, recognizing the authority of Christ, and experiencing the impact of that authority in his life, was certainly not just an intellectual exercise. I’m talking about the man who was possessed by a demon. Jesus - with his divine authority - cast out that demon, simply with a command.
Exorcisms were not unheard of among the Jews of the first century. But traditional Jewish exorcisms were not performed in the way that Jesus performed this one. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus describes how they were usually done at the time of Christ.
He notes, first, that the rituals, incantations, and other practices that were employed by Jewish exorcists were believed to have been passed down over the centuries from King Solomon, who supposedly had devised these practices. Josephus then describes an exorcism, performed in the traditional Jewish way, that he himself had witnessed:
“I have seen a certain man of my own country...curing people possessed by demons... The manner of the cure was as follows.”
“He put a ring that had under its seal one of those sorts of roots mentioned by Solomon, to the nostrils of the demoniac; and then drew the demon out, through his nostrils, as he smelt it. And when the man fell down immediately, [the exorcist] adjured the demon to return into him no more, still making mention of Solomon, and reciting the incantation which [Solomon] had composed.”
That’s the kind of exorcism that the people of Capernaum might have expected. But when Jesus interacted with the evil intelligence that was possessing the man in today’s account, that’s not what they saw or heard.
There was no root or herb, by which the demon was lured to come out of the person through his nose. There were no ritualized incantations. And there was certainly no invocation of the authority of King Solomon.
Instead of all that, Jesus, the Holy One of God, by his own authority commanded the demon to be quiet; and he commanded the demon to depart. And that was it. The exorcism was over. The demon was gone.
For the man who had been possessed, this was more than just an unusual event to be gawked at, and wondered about, by a curious crowd at a synagogue. He had been wonderfully liberated by Jesus from forces of darkness and death that had taken control of him.
The possessed man had been powerless to free himself from this horrible affliction. But Jesus had the power to cast out the unclean spirit. And the word that he spoke to accomplish this, was spoken with an authority that immediately made it happen!
The authority of the teaching and words of Jesus is not just an authority of persuasion, by which he convinces people that he is right, and that those who disagree with him are wrong. Jesus is not really interested in winning arguments.
He is interested in winning souls - souls that he redeemed by the shedding of his blood on the cross; and that he, as the resurrected living Lord of his church, now claims and draws to himself.
Most people in this world are not possessed directly by a demon. But the natural condition in which we all enter this world, is a condition of spiritual captivity to the power of sin.
We may not be inhabited by an unclean spirit. But we are by nature sinful and unclean before God, and are in need of the kind of deliverance that only Jesus, by the power and authority of his Word, is able to accomplish.
Today, through the proclamation of the law, Jesus does not just preach authoritative sermons that define what a sin is. He authoritatively identifies the sin that is in your life, and that puts distance between you and God. And thereby he convicts you, and calls you to repentance.
There’s a part of you - the “old nature” part of you - that would be inclined to rationalize away your transgressions - relativizing them and perhaps even justifying them. That’s the part of you that welcomes input from the “scribes,” who do not speak or teach with authority.
But there’s also a part of you - the new nature that God’s Word and Spirit create - that knows that what Jesus says is true. His words do not trigger within you a mere intellectual consideration of the hypothetical difference between right and wrong.
Rather, the words of Jesus instill within you a sense of shame and regret for your own sins; and a godly aversion to, and forsaking of, those sins.
And through the proclamation of the gospel, Jesus does not just preach authoritative sermons that describe conceptually how the forgiveness of God is delivered to penitent people. He authoritatively gives you God’s forgiveness, by giving you himself - as he speaks words of healing and pardon that reach down into your soul and spirit, and that implant his own divine Spirit within you.
If you might be pondering certain religious questions as matters of intellectual curiosity, the teaching of the scribes would be enough. But when you are gripped by the need to know what your standing with God is - in time and in eternity - then only a certain word from God will do.
The teaching of Jesus is a certain word from God, because Jesus is the Son of God - whom the Father sent into the world to save the world. When he tells you, in your baptism, that you now belong to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he is not thereby inviting a debate. He is bestowing a new birth, and is making all things new for you.
By the authority of his Word alone, Jesus was able to remove the demon from the body of the possessed man in Capernaum. Likewise by the authority of his Word alone, Jesus is able to remove the guilt and power of sin from your conscience.
This is exactly what he is doing for you, when he absolves you of your sins, through the lips of the called servant whom he has sent to you, to speak his absolution to you.
And when Jesus tells you, in his sacred Supper, that the bread and wine that he is offering to you is the very body and blood that he gave and shed for the forgiveness of your sins, he is not trying to stir up a theological argument about the Real Presence.
His authoritative and powerful Word is miraculously making his Real Presence happen! And through that Word, Jesus is renewing to you the Sabbath rest that is enjoyed by those who know that the Lamb of God has taken away their sin; and who know that the Son of Man will always be their companion and protector in all their human struggles.
The teacher into whom we are baptized, by whom we are absolved, and to whom we are united through the faithful reception of his body and blood, is not a scribe. And he does not teach like a scribe. His teaching is God’s teaching, which comes to us always with a divine purpose, and with a divine power to accomplish that purpose.
And we are astonished at His teaching, for He teaches us as one having authority, and not as the scribes. For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him. Amen.
30 March 2025 - Lent 4 - Isaiah 66:10-13
Please listen with me to a reading from the 66th chapter of the Prophet Isaiah, beginning at the 10th verse, which was the versicle in today’s Psalmody:
“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her; that you may feed and be satisfied with the consolation of her bosom, that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.” For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. Then you shall feed; on her sides shall you be carried, and be dandled on her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
So far our text.
The city of Jerusalem is portrayed here as a place of nurture, comfort, and peace for God’s people. This was literally true in the era of the Old Testament, since the temple, which was in that city, was the focal-point of God’s presence among his people.
But the biblical imagery of Jerusalem as a place of nurture, comfort, and peace extends far beyond the literal city, and far beyond what used to happen there in the days when the physical temple still existed. The spiritual Jerusalem, and the living temple of God in our New Testament era - which are embodied in the Christian Church - are also a focal-point of God’s presence for us, and of God’s forgiveness and reconciliation toward us.
In the Old Testament, the temple in Jerusalem was indeed the special gathering place to which the people of Israel were always drawn. God had established the original tabernacle, and later the temple which replaced it, as a unique place where his Word and Law were to be taught, and where the animal sacrifices that he commanded for his people would be offered, by the priests whom he had called to carry out these necessary ministries.
Indeed, God made himself uniquely accessible to his chosen nation at his temple. The people of Israel were set apart in faith and in holy living through the Scriptural instruction that they received there. And they were reconciled to God, and to each other, through the sacrifices that were offered there on their behalf.
Especially on the day of atonement, the high priest carried the blood of the sacrifice for that day beyond the temple curtain, and into the holy of holies, as a propitiation for the sins of the nation. He sprinkled some of the blood in that inner sanctuary; and he sprinkled some of the blood upon the people who had gathered there for this sacred ceremony.
They knew that their sins were an offense to their holy God. Their sins accordingly needed to be atoned for, according to God’s Law, by the death of a sacrificial substitute. The wrath of God’s judgment against them was poured out, not onto them, but onto that substitute.
Of course, we must never forget that the Scriptures which the priests taught and explained at the temple included, as their chief and primary content, comforting and hope-filled prophecies of the coming Messiah. Likewise, we must never forget that the animal sacrifices which were offered to atone for the sins of the people, did not - in themselves - have an inherent power to bring peace and reconciliation, or to confer forgiveness.
No saving merit resided in the blood of those creatures. Rather, these sacrifices in Jerusalem had this power, and this effect, only because they were connected, in God’s heart, to the coming ultimate sacrifice of his Son - of which they were types and foreshadowings. The Epistle to the Hebrews explains that
“Every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
Indeed, Jesus - the divine-human Messiah - has now come. The Old Testament has been supplanted by the New Testament.
The animal sacrifices of the Mosaic Law have been brought to an end, since the true and ultimate sacrifice - toward which they pointed, and of which they were a picture - has now been accomplished once and for all time on Calvary’s cross.
God’s people are therefore no longer drawn to the physical temple in Jerusalem, as the special place where they can have a saving encounter with the Lord. There is, in fact, no more physical temple in Jerusalem.
But God’s people - of all nations now - are drawn to a new temple; to a living, spiritual temple; to a temple that is not limited to one geographical location. In this temple, they are drawn to a new and fuller teaching - concerning Messianic fulfillments and not only Messianic predictions.
And they are drawn to another sacrifice: not to a recurring sacrifice that is still being offered over and over again, but to a finished sacrifice.
From this finished sacrifice blessings do, however, continue to flow: the blessings of an enduring peace and reconciliation with God, and of a cleansing forgiveness before God; the blessings of a new kind of membership in a new kind of nation, and of a new kind of citizenship in a new kind of kingdom.
The Epistle to the Hebrews explains this to us as well:
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
If you see allusions here to what goes on in a biblical and sacramental Christian church, that is not a coincidence. This is, in fact, what the author of this epistle wants you to see.
The inspired author speaks of the importance of not neglecting our meeting together as a congregation. But before that, he sets forth what it is that pushes us, and that pulls us, to these gatherings.
He reminds us that our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and that our bodies have been washed with pure water. That’s what baptism is and does, according to Christ’s institution, through the power of his Word.
Everything that you as God’s child think, say, and do in God’s house - from beginning to end - is built on the foundation that was laid for your life of faith by your baptismal union with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In your baptism God started you out on a lifelong journey: on a roadway of daily repentance and faith. And along this roadway, according to the Third Commandment, there is also a weekly “rest stop,” on the Lord’s Day, at the Lord’s House: where he continually provisions you for this journey with his gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
You are, as it were, gently pushed by your baptism to the regular gatherings of your fellow-baptized. And, you are at the same time gently pulled to those gatherings by the invitation and the command of the Lord’s Supper, where Jesus says not only “This is,” but also “This do.”
In what we have read from the Epistle to the Hebrews, we are reminded that “we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.”
We are also reminded that “we have a great priest over the house of God”: namely Jesus, who sacrificed his body and shed his blood, to atone for our sins; and who, as the resurrected Savior, gives us his body and his blood in his Holy Sacrament here and now, to apply that atonement to each of us in forgiveness.
In and through the Christian gospel in general, and the Sacrament of the Altar in particular, the holiness of Christ is credited to us, and our fear of God’s holiness is thereby taken away.
Without this imputation, and without Christ’s forgiveness, we in our fallen and corrupt condition could not endure God’s holiness. And if we were still clothed and covered in the filth of our sins, God in his righteousness could not endure us.
But his Son Jesus Christ, whose flesh and blood were offered in sacrifice on Calvary’s cross, earns justification for us, and pulls back the curtain, granting us access into God’s own presence.
When you come to Holy Communion, you are coming to the holy of holies of God’s new temple, in his new Jerusalem. And through the mercy of Christ - who is your eternal high priest, your redeemer, and your intercessor - God lets you in!
These stupendous things - which we confess to be true on the basis of Holy Scripture - are not happening everywhere. These encounters with God, these washings from God, and these reconciliations with God, take place when and where the means of grace, which Jesus left for his church, are in use.
In other words, for you - as members and worshipers at Bethany Lutheran Church - these extraordinary and marvelous things, which are of eternal significance, happen here, in this sanctuary, on every Lord’s Day and festival.
And this is why the Epistle to the Hebrews calls upon Christians like you always to remember where your spiritual home is, and where the ordinary portal to the heavenly holy of holies - for you - is to be found:
“Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another...”
Good works in God’s eyes are works which are the fruit of faith. And within your Jerusalem - in this church - faith is birthed and fed by the Word and sacraments of Christ: which nurture your spiritual life, even as the promises that Christ makes in his Word and sacraments are the object of your faith.
It’s a circular thing. And that ongoing back-and-forth - between the means of grace and faith - is what happens in the liturgy: as God’s Word of law convicts us, and as God’s Word of gospel comforts us; as Christ speaks to us in the Scriptures and through the lips of his called servants, and as we speak and sing back to him in joyful thanksgiving for the saving truth of what he tells us.
God wants you to be here for this. He knows that you need this.
It doesn’t harm God when you are absent, except in the way that all things which bring harm to his beloved children harm and grieve his Fatherly heart. And being disconnected from the means of grace, and from public worship, does harm you.
The requirements of your vocation, limitations that are placed upon you by illness or injury, or other circumstances beyond your control, may occasionally result in your needing to be absent from these gatherings: so that you are not able to heed that inner yearning to be in your beloved Jerusalem. Yet at the same time, God’s mandate, “You shall keep the day of rest holy,” is not silenced.
You will need to be persuaded in your own conscience that your absences from God’s house can be justified before God - when you are absent - as you weigh and balance the obligation that the Third Commandment places upon you, over against the other obligations that God has placed upon you in workplace or home.
Ultimately, no other human being can sit in judgment on your conscience, as God’s Word molds and shapes your conscience. But God can judge you; and your conscience can and will bear witness within you, testifying through that inner voice either of God’s approval, or of God’s disapproval.
If your absence from his house is not due to a real necessity, but is a matter of negligence, indifference, or a bad habit, then the divine admonition of the Epistle to the Hebrews is directed to you: Do not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some.
As you ponder these things, and consider your obligations to God and to your own soul, think also of your obligation to your fellow church members. They value the encouragement to their faith that your presence brings, as you sing and pray, confess and commune, with them, and with all who are here gathered.
They miss you when you are not here. They miss your companionship on the roadway to heaven on which we are all traveling.
Let us all pray, then, that what St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians, will touch our hearts, recalibrate our priorities, renew our commitments, and draw all of us close to him, and close to each other, within the fellowship of Christ’s body:
“For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that...we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her; that you may feed and be satisfied with the consolation of her bosom, that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.” Amen.