APRIL 2025
APRIL 2025
6 April 2025 - Lent 5 - Zephaniah 1:7-11, 14-16Please listen with me to a reading from the first chapter of the Prophet Zephaniah, beginning at the seventh verse:
“Be silent in the presence of the Lord God; for the day of the Lord is at hand, for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests. And it shall be, in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel. In the same day I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit. And there shall be on that day, says the Lord, the sound of a mournful cry from the Fish Gate, a wailing from the Second Quarter, and a loud crashing from the hills. Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh! For all the merchant people are cut down; all those who handle money are cut off. ... The great day of the Lord is near; it is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; there the mighty men shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness...”
So far our text.
In the time of the Old Testament, God’s people already knew that a day of divine judgment was coming. They knew this, because God had revealed this to them through the prophets.
What we just heard from the Book of Zephaniah is one example of this. No class of men is exempt from humanity’s accountability to its creator. No class of men will be exempt from God’s judgment. Three segments of society - which together embrace everyone - are mentioned in the text.
The Lord issues his warning to the wicked among the aristocracy and nobility, who dwell in opulence and live lives of privilege. The Lord also speaks of the dishonest element within the servant and laboring class. And divine judgment will be brought to bear also against corrupt businessmen, merchants, and traders of the middle class.
All men are created equal. After conception and birth, social and economic inequalities are a reality in this world, so that some people have more power and more resources, and other people have less.
But when judgment day comes, all are equal once again. All will be judged on the basis of what they did with the power and resources that had been entrusted to them during their lives on earth.
From those to whom more had been given, more will be expected. Jesus articulated this principle in St. Luke’s Gospel:
“Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”
But all will be judged. And all will be judged, and punished, righteously. Those who did not do the good they should have done will be judged. Those who did the evil they should not have done will be judged.
In earlier generations, most people in western civilization believed in a coming final judgment. They believed that the wicked would ultimately get what is coming to them, even if they had never been held to account for their evil deeds in this life.
But a lot of people today don’t believe in good and evil, as clearly-differentiated, objective realities. “What’s good and right for you is not what’s good and right for me.” “You can’t impose your morality on others.” Those are the slogans by which so many live in our time.
And the worst possible thing to claim in this postmodern age, is that your morality is actually God’s morality, and should be everyone’s morality. That kind of “intolerance” is probably the single biggest remaining sin today - a sin that is pretty much unforgivable.
And the God of the popular imagination, if he exists at all, is a compliant and indulgent God, who lets each of us define our own morality, and who then blesses us in that self-defined morality. The last thing that today’s unthreatening God will do, is judge people for having a wrong morality, and for living a morally wrong life.
But you know, it’s not just murderers, terrorists, and similar sociopaths who need to be serious and sober-minded as they ponder the judgment that will someday come upon sinful man. St. Paul has some important things to say to all of us in that respect, in his Epistle to the Galatians:
“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
And the same apostle gives us a similar list in his First Epistle to the Corinthians:
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
These words were written by a divinely-inspired apostle. These words are God’s words. These words are God’s warning, to each and every one of us.
They are words of warning about what may happen to us, if we end our life in this world, and face the Day of the Lord, with an existence that is marked and defined by such ungodliness. As we are thinking about this, and letting this sink in, God gives us one more severe warning through Zephaniah:
“The great day of the Lord is near; it is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; there the mighty men shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness...” ...
At the beginning of the text from Zephaniah that was read a few minutes ago, we also heard something else about the Day of the Lord: something that was written, we might say, in a different tone, and with a different thrust. We heard this:
“Be silent in the presence of the Lord God; for the day of the Lord is at hand, for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests.”
The Lord has indeed prepared a sacrifice - a saving and forgiving sacrifice - which is able to prepare us for the Day of the Lord. In comparison to the many animal sacrifices of the Old Testament - which were a foreshadowing of this true and ultimate sacrifice - today’s appointed reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us about that special and final offering for sin:
“For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
A little further on, the Epistle to the Hebrews also explains that Christ our Redeemer
“has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”
Indeed, those who are waiting for the Day of the Lord with eagerness, and not with fear, are those who know that their sins were atoned for by the sacrifice of God’s Son on their behalf.
By a daily repentance they turn away from those sins - which would disqualify them from God’s kingdom. And by a daily trusting in God’s merciful promises in Christ, they receive the righteousness of Christ, which covers over all those sins.
Truly, “the Lord has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests.” In Christ we are the Lord’s guests, who are invited to believe in him for our justification and vindication.
We are invited guests at the Lord’s Table now, having been set apart as God’s own forgiven and reconciled people: through the sacred washing of his baptism that we have received, and through the sacred truth of his Word that we have learned and confessed.
In faith, we therefore know that the body and blood of Jesus that we receive in this Supper, are the same body and blood of Jesus that were sacrificed for us on the cross. Each time we commune on the Lord’s Day now, we are made ready once again for the Day of the Lord yet to come.
And on that future Day of the Lord, we will - with this same faith in Christ - also be invited guests at the eternal banquet of our Savior’s everlasting kingdom.
When you know Christ, then - and only then - do you know that your future in Christ is a future of life, and not of death. “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us,” as St. Paul comforts Christians in his First Epistle to the Thessalonians.
The way to avoid God’s judgment on judgment day, is to make sure you come to that day clothed with Christ, united to Christ, and justified by Christ.
Your sins - all of your sins, both small and great - would otherwise condemn you. They would disqualify you. But Jesus died for those sins. And Jesus now forgives those sins and washes them away.
In him, therefore - as you are in him by repentance and faith - God the Father no longer sees those sins. And on the Last Day, he will not see those sins.
By God’s grace you are therefore able to look forward to the Day of the Lord with joy, and not with fear; with peace, and not with trepidation: because by God’s grace you are also able even now to look back to the cross of Calvary - where your deliverance from condemnation was won and accomplished - with a thankful heart toward God, and with heartfelt love for God.
“Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause. ... For You are the God of my strength; Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!” Amen.
13 April 2025 - Palm Sunday - Matthew 27:15-26
Barabbas is described in today’s text from St. Matthew, as a “notorious” criminal. St. Mark’s Gospel adds the detail that he was an insurrectionist and a murderer. And St. John’s Gospel tells us that he was a robber. It’s easy to see why he was notorious.
As an insurrectionist, he was a flagrant denier of the authority of those who had been placed over him in the realm of civil government, as representatives of God for the maintenance of law and order.
Jesus had taught that we are to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. But Barabbas didn’t think that Caesar had any claim on him. He opposed Roman rule, actively and violently.
His being called a murderer suggests that he had killed someone, or maybe more than one person, not just in a street battle, but deliberately and personally. He had made a decision that the life of another person had no value that he was obligated to respect.
And Barabbas, as a robber, not only had no regard for the lives of others, but also did not respect the property of others.
One more thing we know about Barabbas is the meaning of his name. “Barabbas” means “Son of the Father.” That’s interesting.
Jesus, of course, had previously described himself as the Son of the Father. In St. John’s Gospel, he says: “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
John adds the comment there that “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
But there is some sense in which the New Testament invites us to see this notorious insurrectionist, murderer, and robber, also as a son of the Father. His name is used, and our attention is drawn to his name and to what it means.
As a Jew, Barabbas was a member of God’s chosen nation, and in that sense was a son of the Old Covenant and of the God of the Old Covenant. But clearly he was a prodigal son. He had broken the Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Commandments, and thereby had broken the First Commandment as well.
His crimes were also capital offenses under Roman law. He had been caught and convicted, and was accordingly destined for crucifixion. The cross on which he was to be nailed was already prepared.
But now, at the trial of Jesus, a most unexpected and undeserved reprieve has changed the trajectory toward death that Barabbas was on. Now, Barabbas will not die. Another will die in his place, and he will go free.
Have you ever considered that the very cross that Jesus carried to Calvary, was more than likely the cross that Barabbas was originally supposed to carry?
Jesus took Barabbas’s place even in that most literal of ways. Also the nails that were supposed to be driven into Barabbas’s hands and feet, were now driven into Jesus’ hands and feet.
In Barabbas and in his story, we see a very fortunate man. But also in Barabbas and in his story, we see a picture of other men. We see a picture of all men. We see a picture of ourselves.
In his speech to the Athenians, recorded in the Book of Acts, St. Paul said with reference to Adam and to all his descendants:
“The God who made the world and everything in it...made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your own poets have said, ‘‘For we are indeed his offspring.’”
So there is a sense in which all the descendants of Adam can be thought of as “offspring” or children of God. All human beings are, in this sense, “Barabbas” - that is, sons of the Father.
And all human beings, by nature, are like Barabbas also in that they are prodigal sons of their creator, turning against him and rejecting his ways.
In our hearts, if not in our bodily actions, we are insurrectionists. In our many sins against God’s law, we are resisting God’s rightful authority over us, and are rebelling against that authority.
Through Jeremiah the Prophet, the Lord says that he is bringing judgment upon his people “because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts.”
Does that describe you?
And, like Barabbas, we are murderers. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount:
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”
So, you don’t have to raise your hand physically against another, for the hatred and animosity that is in your heart to be counted by God as a damnable sin.
And the Fifth Commandment not only forbids us from harming others, but also requires us to help and protect others, and to do what we can to keep them safe. Yet how often have we made sacrifices, or gone out of our way, to fulfill such an obligation of love for a vulnerable or threatened person?
And like Barabbas, we too are robbers - in will and mind even if not in outward actions. The Ninth and Tenth Commandments forbid not only stealing, but also coveting - that is, desiring what belongs to others, and not respecting their right to enjoy what God has given them.
This is a sin of the heart, closely allied to greed, envy, and jealousy. It is the opposite of contentment with what God has given you, and it invites the anger of God.
But we are Barabbas also in that we, too, have been reprieved from the punishment we deserve for our many sins: not before the bar of Roman justice, but before God’s tribunal. Jesus died for our sins, so that we need not die, but can live forever in a reconciled fellowship with God.
In the Prophet Isaiah’s vivid description of Christ, the suffering servant, we are told:
“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He 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.”
We know about Barabbas’s crinminal past, before the day when he was released. But we don’t know about what he then did with his life after his pardon.
Once Jesus had died in his place, so that he was not obligated to die for his own sins on Calvary, did he repent of how he had lived, and humbly receive God’s forgiveness? Did he become a changed man?
Or did he live as before, committing the same crimes as before, so that the Romans probably caught up with him again and executed him at some point in the future?
Did Barabbas allow the sacrifice that Jesus had made for him, go to waste, in time and in eternity? Or did he appreciate that sacrifice, and in faith receive its benefits? Again, we don’t know.
But what about you? What difference does it make to you that Jesus died on your cross, and as your substitute suffered for your sins under the judgment of God’s law?
Holy Week is a very good time for you to think about this. As we remember the suffering and death of Jesus, it is a very good time for you to consider what his death means to you, and to heed the exhortation that St. Paul gives us in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians:
“Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.”
Because you are a human creature of God, you are, in that sense, the “offspring” of God. And because God loves you, he sent his Son to die for you. God invites you to repent of your sins and to trust in Christ for your salvation.
But are you a son or daughter of God also in that deeper sense of having received a supernatural adoption into God’s eternal family, through faith in his only-begotten Son? Are you able to rejoice personally in these words of comfort from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians?:
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”
As we head into Holy Week together, let us listen together to what St. John writes in his First Epistle:
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
“Then [Pilate] released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.” Amen.
17 April 2025 - Maundy Thursday
The institution of the Lord’s Supper by our Savior Jesus Christ, on the night in which he was betrayed, is recorded in three of the Gospels - Matthew, Mark, and Luke - and in St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians. But in these four inspired accounts, the descriptions of exactly what Jesus said are not the same.
None of these inspired writers contradict each other, but they do supplement each other. They each provide different details of what the Lord’s wording was. We need to read all of them, in order to know all of what Jesus said.
One thing that all of these sacred sources do tell us, is that Jesus declared, in regard to the bread he was offering his disciples, “This is my body.” They all also tell us that he declared the cup of wine that he was inviting them to drink, to be “his blood” of the testament, or the new testament in “his blood.”
This is obviously the chief and foundational truth of the Lord’s Supper, since these words - as Jesus spoke them that night - are not left out by any of the writers. Everything else that they quote Jesus to have said on this occasion, in regard to his body and blood, presupposes this profound miracle: that the blessed bread and wine in this sacred meal are, truly, the body and blood of God’s Son.
All the inspired accounts, despite the variations in what they report on other details of what Jesus said, concur in reporting that Jesus said these words - and that by the power of these words, he made this happen!
St. Matthew’s account of the institution of the Holy Sacrament is the only one of the four that tells us, in so many words, that Jesus said that the blood he was offering to the disciples was the blood that is shed “for the forgiveness of sins.” St. Mark’s account, by comparison, says simply that his blood is “my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”
But in the Jewish context of the original institution, and of the early church, everyone would have known that the shedding of blood, according to a divine covenant, was always for the forgiveness of sins, even if that was not explicitly spelled out. Yet Jesus did spell it out - as Matthew tells us - perhaps because he knew that gentiles, who needed it to be spelled out, would someday be receiving this Supper.
The men among whom the Lord instituted his Supper - in conjunction with the Passover observance - were indeed religiously-observant Jewish men, who would have been well-grounded in the Hebrew Scriptures.
St. Luke, and St. Paul in First Corinthians, report that Jesus described the cup of wine he was offering to the disciples as the “new testament” or “new covenant” in his blood. This phrase would have automatically triggered within the disciples a recollection of God’s messianic promise of redemption, restoration, and forgiveness, as recorded in the Prophet Jeremiah:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.”
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
“And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
The new testament, which Jesus has now inaugurated for the people of Israel, and for all people, is a testament of a divine regeneration in the heart; and a testament of divine forgiveness in Christ: that is, a divine forgetting of our sins, so that in Christ those sins will not be held against us in time or in eternity.
But, while this new covenant is for everyone, sadly, not everyone will embrace it or be embraced by it. In John’s Gospel, John the Baptist is quoted to say:
“The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
In Psalm 130, all humanity, as it were, asks: “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?”
There is a simple yet profound reason why God’s wrath against sin in general does not still rest on us personally - corrupted though we are by our sins. There is a reason why God has not marked, and kept track of, our iniquities.
There is a reason why we are able to stand in God’s presence without being destroyed by God. There is a reason why we are indeed included within the new covenant of the Lord.
The reason is this, as St. Paul summarizes it in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
God made his Son to be sin for you. His Son died as your substitute on your cross, under the judgment that your sins have earned.
And now, in Christ, and in the body and blood of Christ, you do not get what you earned, but you get what he earned for you. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. But Jesus’ blood has been shed: for you.
In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus gives this blood to you. Therefore, in the Lord’s Supper, Jesus gives you the forgiveness of your sins, and thereby renews to you your reconciliation with your Father in heaven.
According to the Lord’s will it cannot be any other way, for those who approach in repentance, and whose hearts have been drawn in faith to the Word and promise of their Savior. When Jesus bestows his body and blood on you, it can never be a neutral or indifferent thing.
Hypocrites and unbelievers, if they manage - in Judas-like fashion - to finagle themselves a place at the Lord’s Table, will indeed also have an encounter with the Lord. But it will be an encounter with his wrath. They will eat and drink judgment upon themselves.
They will experience a foretaste of the condemnation that will be pronounced upon them on judgment day, even if they don’t realize it at the time.
The penitent and believing, however - who yearn for the Lord’s forgiveness, and for peace with God - will receive what they yearn for. The Spirit of God has placed this yearning into them. And the Son of God will satisfy that yearning, by the gift of himself, in the blessed bread and wine of his Sacred Supper.
The penitent and believing, at the Lord’s Altar, will receive a foretaste of the vindication in Christ that will be theirs on the Last Day, when they will stand before Jesus clothed in his righteousness; and having borne the fruits of faith in their lives to his glory.
The giving of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper is, of course, not the only way in which forgiveness, and the many other blessings of the new covenant, come to us from God. Whenever and wherever the message of Jesus’ love and sacrificial death is present and active, God’s power to forgive is also present and active.
But Jesus did institute this special Supper for a reason. In the Lord’s Supper, the Lord himself touches our weak and trembling humanity at the point of his own now-glorified humanity. In our frailty he sustains us most vividly by his strength.
In a uniquely “incarnational” way, he impresses his gospel of forgiveness upon us in the Supper, by impressing himself upon us, and by uniting himself to us: as he feeds us with the very human body that he sacrificed on the cross; and as he gives us to drink of the very human blood which was shed for our redemption.
Lord Jesus Christ, Thou hast prepared a feast for our salvation,
It is Thy body and Thy blood; and at Thy invitation
As weary souls, with sin oppressed, we come to Thee for needed rest,
For comfort, and for pardon.Lord, I believe what Thou hast said, help me when doubts assail me;
Remember that I am but dust and let my faith not fail me.
Thy Supper in this vale of tears refreshes me and stills my fears
And is my priceless treasure. Amen.
18 April 2025 - Good Friday - John 19:31-37
The most common cause of death for a victim of a Roman crucifixion was not the effusion of blood, but was a form of suffocation. Because of the way in which the arms of the victim were outstretched, fluid would begin to build up in his lungs.
After a while, then, in order to take a breath, he would have to push up with his legs, which caused excruciating pain due to the fact that nails had been driven through his feet or ankles. Then, when he dropped down after taking that breath, there would be excruciating pain in his wrists and hands, where, of course, nails had also been driven.
This extremely painful and exhausting process of pushing up and dropping down, each time a breath was to be taken, could go on for days. So, it would be a humane reprieve from this hopeless agony for the legs of a crucified man to be broken.
Then he could no longer push up to take a breath, and then he would quickly succumb to an internal suffocation, in his fluid-filled lungs.
That’s what the Jewish leaders asked Pilate to do for the three men who were being crucified on that first Good Friday, because they didn’t want these men to be up there - alive and in agony - during the Passover Sabbath. And so this is the way the two thieves who were executed with Jesus were dispatched.
St. John tells us, however, that Jesus had already died, so that his legs did not need to be broken. His death came sooner than expected, probably for a couple reasons.
First, he had been flogged to within an inch of his life already before his crucifixion. The blood loss and physical trauma of that beating certainly contributed toward his death.
And second, the very real mental and emotional stress of what was going on at a supernatural level in and with Jesus, would also have worn him out physically. He was bearing the weight of the sins of the world, and he knew it.
And according to his human nature, Jesus felt the horror of being forsaken by his Father, due to the fact that - in God’s eyes - he was smeared with all human sin and with all of the offensiveness of sin.
Jesus thereby experienced the equivalent of hell itself - for us - so that we need never know what hell is like, with the eternal separation from God that defines what damnation really is.
So, Jesus died. And we know that he had really died, and had not merely passed out or entered into a comatose state, because when the spear was thrust into his side, blood and water gushed out.
The most likely physiological explanation for this is that the spear released the water-like fluid that in death had pooled in his chest cavity; and that the spear then entered directly into his heart, where some residual blood remained in that now-stilled organ.
If by some remote chance Jesus was still barely alive before this was done, the spear being thrust in his side certainly would have killed him.
But even apart from the fact that water and blood flowing out from the spear wound testified incontrovertibly to Jesus’ death, that water and blood that did come out of the Lord’s body have always been understood by the Christian church to have saving significance for Christians.
The water at Calvary stands for the water of Baptism, which flows out from Jesus - the true baptizer - and which, through the power of his Word, delivers to Christians the forgiveness of sins that his death on the cross won for them.
And the blood that came out of the Lord’s side on the cross, is the same blood that is now distributed to communicants in the Lord’s Supper, according to Jesus’ Word and institution: again, for the forgiveness of sins.
There are many examples of Lutheran artwork from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that show water flowing out from the side of a portrayal of the crucified Christ onto a child being baptized. And there are even more historic Lutheran paintings and woodcuts that show a vivid image of the crucified Savior behind and above an altar, with blood coming out from his side directly into a chalice that rests on that altar, as the Lord’s Supper is being administered.
We believe that the sacraments instituted for us by Jesus are real, and that they really do connect us to Christ for grace and forgiveness, because the atoning sacrifice of Christ is real. And we believe that the atoning sacrifice of Christ is real, because of the reliable eyewitness testimony of John and the other apostles.
John, in his Gospel, emphasizes as strongly and clearly as he can, how certain his readers can be that what he is saying about Jesus’ suffering and death really happened; and especially that what he is saying about the flowing out of water and blood from Jesus’ side really happened. He writes:
“One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.”
It is, of course, the Holy Spirit who supernaturally creates faith in our hearts. Faith in Jesus Christ is not merely a rational human process, but is a divine work and a divine gift.
But the Holy Spirit uses means - namely the Word of God. And the Word of God, as God inspired the writing of his Word through prophets and apostles in Holy Scripture, is filled with real testimonies to real historical events that were accomplished for our deliverance from sin and death.
The crucifixion of God’s Son was such a real event. The flow of water and blood out of the side of his body was such a real event.
Human reason would probably be able and willing to accept that a man named Jesus got himself in trouble with the authorities in Jerusalem, around the year 33 A.D., and was killed. But human reason would have a very difficult time accepting that this man was also the eternal God in human flesh, or that his death was a propitiatory sacrifice that reconciled a holy God to a rebellious humanity.
And even when some, through the help of the Holy Spirit, are willing to believe this, their human reason resists believing that the blessings of this sacrifice are truly distributed through the concrete sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.
In regard to the sacraments, in their case, human reason believes only what it sees: Baptism is water, and the Lord’s Supper is bread and wine. These earthly elements may symbolize something more, but in themselves they are not something more.
But on this Good Friday, as we have heard St. John’s clear and adamant testimony, we do believe in more than what we can see. We believe in more than what our reason tells us is possible.
Jesus, sent into the world to be the one mediator between God and men, is indeed the mediator of a new covenant: a covenant where God, in Christ, gives forgiveness, life, and salvation; and where we, with a humble and penitent faith, receive what God gives.
Jesus, sent into the world to be the Lamb of God, takes away the sin of that world by his sacrificial death. And therefore he takes away our sin, and before God presents us as clean and righteous.
And Jesus is still sent, and still comes - invisibly - even now. He unites himself to us in his sacred sacraments.
On the day of your christening, when you received Holy Baptism, you received Christ, and he received you into his church. Last night, and on every other occasion when you received Holy Communion, you received Christ, and he renewed and strengthened your attachment to him and to your brothers and sisters in faith in the fellowship of his church.
The water and the blood really did flow from him as his body hung from the cross. The water and the blood really did flow down to you, to cleanse you, and nurture you, in the sacraments that have touched your life in body and soul.
As a matter of geography and history, the crucifixion of Jesus - in Jerusalem, 2,000 years ago - is very far away from you. But the water and the blood that came forth from his side, when he was crucified, are not very far away. They are very close.
And the now-living Christ - through this water and this blood, and in his gospel in all of its forms - is very, very close. He was there for you on the day you were baptized. He was there for you last night, when you communed. And he is here, for you, now.
“One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.” Amen.
20 April 2025 - Easter Dawn - 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
We believe that Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross for our sins, that he was buried, and that, on the third day, he rose bodily from the grave. This is a part of what we confess in the Nicene Creed, almost in these exact words. But why do we believe these things?
In our postmodern age, people are less and less willing to believe in things that they have not actually experienced themselves, with their own five senses. A strong spirit of doubt and skepticism, regarding reports of events that happened in the past or in distant places, runs through the philosophy of postmodernism.
Many now reject the very concept of an objective truth that is accessible to everyone, and that makes a claim on everyone. This is one of the reasons why it is now common for a person to speak of “her truth” or of “his truth,” and not simply to speak of the truth.
Why do we believe in Jesus’ atoning death, and in his resurrection? Why do we want everyone to believe in these things? And why do we think that it should be possible for everyone to be persuaded that they should believe in these things?
As we ponder those questions, let us consider the reasons why St. Paul believed in these things.
Paul was not a disciple of Christ during the time of his earthly ministry. He did not personally see the things that took place during the Lord’s earthly life, or at the end of his earthly life.
But he still believed in these things, and was quite certain that they had really happened. And he tells us why, in today’s lesson from the First Epistle to the Corinthians:
“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures...”
Paul is not at this point appealing to his own personal experience as the reason for his certainty that these things really happened. He indicates instead that the knowledge of these things was “delivered” to him, and that he had “received” this knowledge by means of the testimony of others.
The Holy Spirit is the giver of life. He is the giver of spiritual life, and the creator of faith in the heart. So there definitely is a supernatural component involved in what we believe as Christians, and in our willingness to believe it.
But there is also the component of reliable testimony from reliable witnesses. People are willing to believe a lot of things on that basis. The academic discipline of history exists on that basis. Criminals are convicted in courts of law on that basis.
The knowledge of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection that had been delivered to Paul, and that had been received and embraced by him, was rooted in the reliable testimony of reliable witnesses.
But notice this, too - especially in regard to what Paul says about the death of Jesus: It’s not just the historical event itself that he confesses to be real and true. He also expresses here his faith in the meaning and purpose of that death. It was “for our sins.”
There were people who experienced the objective historical fact of the death and burial of Jesus with their own physical senses. The Lord’s mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and the apostle John were with him on Calvary. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took care of his body after he died.
But none of those people experienced the meaning of their Savior’s crucifixion with their physical senses.
No one, whether friend or foe, was able to see with his eyes that the sins of the world had been placed upon Jesus, as he hung on the cross. No one, whether friend or foe, was able to see Jesus absorbing the wrath of God into himself on the cross, on account of those sins.
Those who were eyewitnesses to the suffering and burial of Jesus, and who also believed that Jesus had died for them, knew that the death of Jesus was for their sins, because the meaning of Jesus’ death had been “delivered” to them, too: by means of the testimony and explanations of God’s inspired Word; and by means of the faith that God’s Word and Spirit had engendered within them.
Strictly speaking, no human being saw the actual resurrection of Jesus. Nobody else was present in the tomb at that flash of a moment when his body was reanimated and glorified.
But we do have reliable testimonies of encounters with the living Jesus after the resurrection. St. Paul says that he, too, was privileged to see, and converse with, the risen Savior, in the special appearance that Jesus made to him on the road to Damascus.
But as with the death of Christ, so also with the resurrection of Christ: the meaning of this miracle would not be self-evident even to those who might have had a first-hand encounter with the resurrected Lord, apart from a divine explanation of its meaning.
As St. Paul expresses it, he believed that Jesus died for our sins “according to the Scriptures,” and that Jesus was raised on the third day also “according to the Scriptures.” This means two things.
First, the Scriptures - specifically the Old Testament Scriptures - had predicted and pictured the death and resurrection of Israel’s Messiah. Anyone who had carefully read those Scriptures should therefore have been expecting these things to happen.
But also, St. Paul’s statement means that the Scriptures are what give us the meaning of these events today.
The sensory perception of those who were there at the time can serve as evidence that these things did happen, as those witnesses give their first-hand testimony to what they experienced. But it is only the Scriptures - God’s own revelation and message to mankind - that can tell us that these events needed to happen, and that can explain why they needed to happen.
Regarding the death and burial of Christ, and regarding their purpose, the Prophet Isaiah tells us:
“His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men; so shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him... He 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. ...He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked – but with the rich at His death...”
Regarding the resurrection of Christ - and regarding what the resurrection means, and what the resurrected Christ will do for the salvation of his people - Isaiah says this:
“Yet...He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many...
The apostle Paul writes in today’s text:
“I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you - unless you believed in vain.”
He also says: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain.”
The gospel that St. Paul preached is the good news that God’s Son was crucified for our sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead on the third day, so that the grace of God can now be spread abroad to us all: to call us to faith, and to make us to be what God wants us to be.
According to his grace - his unconditional favor and love - God brings his pardon and forgiveness to us. That pardon and forgiveness cancel out the debt of righteousness and obedience that we owe to God, but that we could never pay ourselves.
And that pardon and forgiveness justify us. That is, they wash away all our sins in God’s sight, cover us with the righteousness of Jesus, and credit to us the obedience of Jesus.
But the grace of God does not only change our standing with God - as important as that is. The grace of God also changes us. With Paul each of us can therefore say:
“By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain.”
The Holy Spirit presses the grace of God into us, at the deepest levels of our life - when the good news of God is proclaimed and believed. This transforms our character, reshapes our values, resets our priorities, and redefines our relationships.
According to the gospel, Jesus died on the cross. As a historical event, this is true. By means of the eyewitness testimony of those who saw this happen - which God caused to be written in the New Testament for your benefit - you are able to know that it happened, even though you were not there to see it for yourself.
But God’s grace, through the gospel, also supernaturally impresses upon you the saving truth that it was for your sins that Jesus died. You now have a clear conscience before God, and will no longer be weighed down by guilt and fear.
The revelation of God’s fatherly and forgiving heart toward you, through the death of his Son, has taken away that guilt and that fear.
According to the gospel, Jesus also rose from the grave. As a historical event, this, too, is true. By means of the eyewitness testimony of those who saw the risen Christ - which God caused to be written in the New Testament for your benefit - you are able to know that this happened, even though you were not there to see it for yourself.
But God’s grace, through the gospel, also supernaturally impresses upon you the saving truth that Jesus rose again for you, so that eternal life is now yours. You, who know Christ by faith, will live forever, beyond the grave. And your own body will be resurrected from the dust of death on the last day.
Each of us can therefore say with the confidence that God’s Word has given us: I have not believed in vain. I have received what was delivered to me. By the grace of God I am what I am. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
20 April 2025 - Easter - Luke 24:13-35
EXORDIUM
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
It was said by a certain president of our country many years ago, that the landing of astronauts on the moon in 1969 was the greatest event in human history. He was wrong. What we celebrate today was the greatest event in human history.
The sad reality that many people in our world do not know that the resurrection of Jesus happened, or do not care that it happened, does not change this fact. But the fact of Jesus’ resurrection has the power to change them, when they hear the living and life-giving message of their living and life-giving Lord.
Today we have heard this message of the greatest event in human history, and will continue to hear this message. If we were afflicted by doubts and distractions when we came here today, this message will vanquish those doubts and distractions.
This message will deliver to us the unconquerable truth of Christ’s resurrection, and the invincible hope of our own resurrection in Christ. And this message will send us forth on this day with a true love for our neighbors, and will embolden us in our testimony to them of what God did for them, and for the whole human race, on this day.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
SERMON
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Please listen with me to a reading from the 24th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke, beginning at the 13th verse:
Now behold, two of [Jesus’ disciples] were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him. And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?” And He said to them, “What things?” So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.” Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scirptures the things concerning Himself. Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them. Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.
So far our text.
“We ~were hoping~ that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.”
The loss of faith is always a profoundly sad thing to observe in someone’s life. And for those who have lost their own faith, sometimes ~they~ feel sad about it as well.
I once heard an interview with a man who had formerly been a Christian, but who had come to a point of no longer believing in the Christian message. And yet, he also said that he did ~miss~ the feeling of emotional comfort that he used to experience when he was a Christian.
Nevertheless, he had reached the sad conclusion - in light of his consideration of all the ~suffering~ that exists in the world - that there is no God, and consequently that there is no divine Savior.
As I listened to this disheartening interview, it became clear to me that this man’s previous Christian faith had never been built on a very sound foundation, and also that it had never been ~nurtured~ in a proper way. He had previously embraced a “revivalistic” kind of Christianity, which emphasized the emotional ~experience~ of faith over the objective ~content~ of faith.
And in this kind of subjective Christianity, there are no solid and objective sacramental “anchors,” to keep a struggling Christian from being tossed to and fro in a sea of doubt and confusion. But even so, weak though his faith may have been, it was a sad thing to see the evidence of his having lost it - and to see ~his~ sadness at having lost it.
“We ~were hoping~ that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.”
With such poignant words, ~many~ over the centuries have expressed their emotional grief over their loss of faith. With these exact words - in St. Luke’s remarkable account of the resurrection appearance of Jesus on the road to Emmaus - the disciples with whom the risen Lord was walking expressed ~their~ emotional grief over ~their~ loss of faith.
But Jesus, on this day of his resurrection, wanted to have a conversation with these men. For the ~sake~ of this conversation, he temporarily hid his identity from them as he joined them on their journey.
For now, he didn’t want them to be able to recognize him in his physical ~person~. Instead, he wanted to bring them to a point where they would be able to recognize him in the ~Scriptures~. He wanted the conversation to be ~about~ the Scriptures, and about what the ~Scriptures~ say to the human heart concerning the Messiah and his redemption.
The disciples had been hoping that Jesus was the one to redeem Israel. Yet they had now ~lost~ that hope. But ~why~ had they lost that hope? What had that hope been ~based~ on? On the social and political aspirations of anti-Roman Jewish nationalism?
What did the ~Bible~ actually say about what the redemption of Israel would look like, when it ~did happen~? How would the ~Redeemer~ of Israel be ~recognized~, when he ~did come~?
These are questions that the divine Scriptures do answer. But these disciples had apparently not been seeking answers to these questions from that source.
It would seem that they had indeed been waiting for God to send a social and political deliverer, who would right all the wrongs in the land: getting rid of the Romans and their cruelty; and getting rid of all corruption, injustice, and suffering in the civic life of the Jews.
They had also come to believe that ~Jesus~ was the Christ, the Son of the living God. ~As~ the Christ, and ~as~ the Son of God, they had expected him to make these kinds of changes in and for their nation.
That’s the kind of redemption that they were hoping for, and that they thought Jesus would bring - in spite of everything Jesus had previously said to the contrary.
But they hadn’t ever really listened to him. And so, when Jesus died, without accomplishing any of the things they had expected, these disciples ~lost~ their hope in him. And now, their mysterious traveling companion is ~rebuking~ them for this.
They had been building their faith on something other than God’s Word. No wonder they were confused. No wonder they had lost their faith, such as it was. And Jesus - still in disguise - said to them:
“‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! ~Ought~ not the Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
The redemption of Israel, and indeed the redemption of ~all humanity~, was to take place through the suffering and ~death~ of the Redeemer, and not through a political coup d'état or a military conquest.
According to the Scriptures, it was ~necessary~ that the work of redemption would be carried out in the way it ~was~ carried out. It was necessary, because the most fundamental captivity in which Israel, and all the world, languished, was ~not~ the imperial enslavement of ~Rome~. It was the ~spiritual~ enslavement of the ~devil~, within his dark kingdom of sin and death.
But the Messiah came to redeem us from this captivity. God ~himself~ came, in the person of Jesus, to liberate his people ~himself~. He confronted the devil, and crushed him underfoot.
To liberate his people from the power of ~sin~, he took all human sin ~upon~ himself, and atoned for it. To liberate them from the power of ~death~, he himself entered into the ~domain~ of death, and then victoriously broke forth ~from~ it on the third day.
If the disciples on the road to Emmaus had been basing their faith on the divine message of the Scriptures - as Jesus had been trying to explain this message to them during the time of his ministry - they would ~not~ have lost their faith when Jesus died. Their faith would have been ~confirmed~ - ~and filled~ with the ~expectancy~ of the ~resurrection~.
Are you, perhaps, losing ~your~ faith, and your Christian hope? Or do you sometimes feel that you ~might~ be? Have disappointments and tragedies caused you to question if what you think you believe about a good and powerful God, is really true?
Well, what ~do~ you actually believe? And ~why~ do you ~believe~ it?
Maybe your faith on this Easter Sunday - like the flagging faith of the disciples on the road to Emmaus on that ~first~ Easter - is based on the wrong expectations. Maybe your faith is based on human ~presumptions~, and ~not~ on divine ~promises~.
Maybe it would be a ~good~ thing if ~such~ a faith would be lost: not so that you would have ~no~ faith, but so that God could give you a firm and ~saving~ faith, based squarely and securely on the testimony of the Scriptures.
Perhaps a misdirected faith needs to be ~dismantled~, and ~reconstructed~ on the true foundation of what the Bible really ~promises~ about Christ, and what it promises to ~you in~ Christ.
The Scriptures don’t promise an end to earthly suffering and injustice. They don’t promise that things will always go smoothly for ~you~, or turn out as you expect.
In this fallen world, confessing Christ, and living as a disciple of Christ, sometimes means that you are going to be significantly ~out~ of harmony with a lot of what is going on around you. You might suffer. If you are a Christian in places like North Korea or northern Nigeria, you might not survive.
Jesus warns: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” And Jesus ~promises~: “Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
Believing that Jesus has saved you from sin and death will place you into a ~hostile~ relationship with the forces ~of~ sin and death in this world - both natural and supernatural. God has not promised otherwise.
If your faith is based on the premise that God ~has~ made promises like this - promises of material prosperity and earthly comfort for those who believe in him - your faith is not built on the solid rock of Scripture, but on sinking sand.
~Such~ a faith will ~not~ survive. And such a faith doesn’t ~deserve~ to survive.
A faith that is based on Moses and the ~Prophets~, on the other hand, will know that sometimes God ~does~ allow suffering on the earth, and that such suffering is ~not~ a sign of God’s lack of concern. It’s easy to imagine that on the road to Emmaus, Jesus referred to the passage from the Book of Exodus, where the Lord speaks to Moses from the burning bush:
“I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
It’s also easy to imagine that Jesus then ~applied~ this passage to ~himself~, and to ~his~ saving work on the ~cross~. And that’s because the Lord has ~also~ seen the sufferings that the slavery of ~sin~ has brought to ~all~ men. And in Christ he has come down to deliver ~us~ from this affliction.
When Jesus and his companions arrived at Emmaus, the two disciples urged him strongly, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And Jesus went in to stay with them.
And Jesus stays with us, too. When the light of human happiness is flickering, and seems to be going out, Jesus stays. In a time of trial, when all ~human~ strength is ~gone~, Jesus stays.
God has not promised to his children that in this world they will never endure hardship. But he ~has~ promised that they will never endure hardship ~alone~. “I am with you always,” Jesus says to his church.
This Biblical pledge builds and preserves faith - especially when this pledge takes concrete form in the breaking of the Bread of ~Life~ among us. At Emmaus,
“As He sat at the table with them, ... He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him... He was ~known~ to them ~in~ the ~breaking~ of ~bread~.”
This is how the risen Christ preserves ~our~ faith, ~too~. ~We~ know him in the breaking of the bread. When he comes to be among us in his Sacred Supper by the power of his Word; and when we hear him say, “given for you,” and “shed for you for the remission of sins,” then ~our~ eyes are opened, and ~we~ know him.
We recognize him as a resurrected Savior who is now our constant companion in life, and who continues to cover us with his righteousness and mercifully to wash away our sins.
The Lord’s Supper ~is~ an “anchor” for us, and for our faith. As the living Christ embraces us in this sacrament, he holds onto us, and keeps our faith focused on where it needs to ~be~ focused.
The story of the risen Christ and the disciples - on the road ~to~ Emmaus, and at the table ~in~ Emmaus - teaches us this. This story teaches us about the only valid basis for faith: namely, what the ~Scriptures~ declare, and impress deeply upon us, about what God ~has done~; and ~not~ what human opinion would assert about what God ~should~ do.
This story also teaches us about the methods that Christ himself has instituted for our ~preservation~ in faith, whenever our faith in him is assaulted by the weakness of the flesh, by the lies of the devil, or by the allurements of the world. Jesus is ~alive~ for us, and he is continually known ~to~ us in the bread that ~we~ break - and in the cup that we bless.
After he had made himself known to the disciples at Emmaus, Jesus disappeared from their physical sight. But this didn’t diminish their newfound confidence in his abiding ~invisible~ presence with them.
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things ~not~ seen,” Paul says. The Scriptures, with their divine authority; and the sacraments, with their divine power, instill and ~sustain~ such a faith within us.
As Christ abides with us in these ways, and as we abide in ~him~ in these ways, faith will endure. Faith will thrive!
Christ has ~not~ failed us. In Christ, therefore, as he abides with us and sustains us in his gospel and sacraments, we will never say that we ~were hoping~ that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.
We ~do~ hope in him. We know that he ~did~ redeem Israel. We know that he did redeem the ~world~. ~We know~ that he ~did redeem us~. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!