Rogate (14 May 2023)
​Numbers 6:4-9; James 1:22-27; St John 16:23-33
​LSB 942, 766, 555, 773, 724, 668

+INJ+ 

Beloved in Christ, the day will come when we will ask for nothing. We will ask for nothing because we shall lack nothing.

But not now. Now we lack. We ask Our Father for all the things that we desire. Some of it is needed. Some of it would be harmful if God gave it. And some of it is nothing more than luxury. It is hard for us to know what is good or useful. But we know Him whom we ask. We trust His promise. He will sort it out. He will give what is meet, right and salutary.

Our lack is not unjust, nor is our suffering unreasonable or unexpected. We do not ask because we deserve of ourselves. We ask because He commands and promises. We ask, beseech, and plead God the Father in Name of Jesus Christ our Brother to give us what is good. This goodness is more than bare necessity. We do not ask only for what we need nor do we ask only for spiritual good. In the confidence that God loves us and hears us and wants to make our joy full, we ask for whatever we desire that is not forbidden. We ask for physical things, for pleasurable things, for small and large things, trusting that He will do what is good and that our joy is and will be full.

We call to the Father by the Name of the Son because the Holy Spirit has given us this Name in Holy Baptism and granted us access. The Holy Spirit didn’t lay some ambiguous burden upon your heart, a riddle that you have to solve to prove your worth or sincerity. He baptized you. 

This was not your doing. He called you by the Gospel. This Gospel was the words “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It was and is external, outside of you. It was not an inward action unseen by human eyes. Your baptism was and is an objective historical reality. It took place in the real, physical world with flesh and blood witnesses. It isn’t a question of how you feel about it or whether you meant it or not or even whether or not you understand it. The question is “Did it happen or not?” and if it did then “Is God’s Word trustworthy or not? Will He do what He says?”

To be sure, a person can deny Baptism and reject it. He can insist on his own name and sins and therefore blaspheme and fall away from the faith. But that doesn’t mean Baptism didn’t happen or that God didn’t do what He promised. It only means that God does not force Himself upon anyone.

God has bound Himself and His Name to the waters of Holy Baptism by His promise. It is not a ceremony of the Church. It is a gift of God that He instituted for the salvation of the world. He puts His Name upon His children there. If His Name is upon you then you belong to Him. If you belong to Him and His Name is upon you then He takes responsibility for your sins and debts. He cannot be at war with Himself or His Name. 

Thus His Name, your Baptism, is a shield against the devil’s accusations and your own guilt and tribulations. And His Name gives you access by prayer. You call upon Him as a dear child calling on his dear Father.

All this this is because Christ our Lord has come from the Father to us. He, who was lifted up from the earth and returned to the Father as our envoy and Ambassador, comes to us in His risen Body and Blood. In the peace which is bestowed by the Absolution. And He speaks to us in His Word. He does not deal in ambiguities. There is no reason to think that He hints and prods and places riddles before us. The Lord does not struggle to communicate. He does not try and fail. He speaks in His Word and He comes with His grace where He promises. We receive what He gives and listen to what He says and we respond in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.

For all that we still lack good things. We suffer evil. We have tribulation. God loves us as a Father. Not as a boy trying to impress us and potentially use us. He doesn’t pamper or coddle us or attempt to buy our affection. He respects us. He calls us “friend” and “child.” He gives us a part in His Kingdom. Even making us His ambassadors to the world as we are molded into His image by crosses and even deprivation.

The fullness of our joy is not emptied by suffering or by sorrow, nor by dying or death. Christ’s joy was full when He looked over Jerusalem and wept for her. His joy was full when He was betrayed by Judas whom He loved. His joy was full even when He cried out in anguish on the Cross at His Father’s forsaking of Him. His joy was full because He and the Father are one. The Christ was at peace, trusting in the goodness of His Father’s will, waiting for the revelation and vindication that He knew would come on Easter. Christ, our Lord, had tribulations in this world. And He prayed. So do you. You have cross and tribulation. And you are given to pray. To ask. 

Do not think that the joy He promises is simply pleasure or some shallow happiness. The Gospel is not an opioid meant to give you euphoria, make you forget the past, or even take away all your pain. The Gospel bestows a place in the Kingdom and family. The day will come when you will ask for nothing. 

But not now. Even then, you won’t forget your past or be in some mindless state of bliss. Rather you will be one with the Father, perfect in your trust, without doubt or corruption, without guilt or shame. Your joy will be full and your love will be pure. It will be agape and phileo. Not ecstasy.

Neither the holy angels nor the saints in St. John’s vision are portrayed in Holy Scripture as though they are in a state of euphoria. Rather they appear as an organized and disciplined choir whose voices are joined together in peace and harmony. They are working toward a common and joyful goal. They are free of angst and worry, anger and pride. They are content. At peace. They are happy to be in the presence of God and with their brothers and sisters singing God’s praise and shepherding His creation.

So even though you have tribulations and sorrow and need, even though you have committed sins and continue to struggle against them, you have access to the Father in the Name of Christ and therein is your joy. You are holy and righteous as Christ is holy and righteous. 

And in this sense, prayer is your right and inheritance. His Name gives it to you. It isn’t a right based upon your worthiness, but it is the right of children which has been bestowed by God’s adoption of you and His decree. You can and must pray because you are baptized. He must and will hear and answer you because He has bound Himself to do so by His Word. Thus, in your joy, you ask Him for all things that you lack and desire. You are bold because He is good and you know that He is trustworthy.

The world holds our prayers in derision. They ask: “What good are you prayers? The world is still full of evil and the wicked seem to conquer.” We respond: “God works all things together for good for those who love Him. What wicked men mean for evil, such as the slavery and imprisonment of Joseph and the death of Jesus, God uses for good. We live by faith and not by sight. We are the children of God and His Name is upon us. If that brings us dishonor in the world, so be it. We will not shrink from it. We are in His Father and He in us. We are unashamed of Him even as He is unashamed of us.”

The day will come, however, when we will ask Him for nothing and will be vindicated, again, even as the Christ has been vindicated in the Resurrection.

In the meantime, Christ has said that you would have peace. This is the purpose of His speaking to us, giving us His Word, revealing Himself to us, not only this section of the Gospel but in all of Holy Scripture. He tells us the truth so that we would have peace in the world, even though we do not have peace with the world. 

They hate and mock our prayers and faith, but we belong to God. We have His Name. He gives peace that the world cannot give. This peace comes from the Father for the sake of Christ. It is the peace that was announced by angels to shepherds and then bestowed in the Upper Room. It is peace with God. Full joy. We are reconciled to the Father in the Blood of Christ. He loves us and we belong to Him and He to us. This world, its sickness and death, its pain and sorrow, its lies and betrayals, along with its constant lack and many evils, is passing away.

But Christ says: “Take heart. I have overcome the world. I have bought your peace, won your joy, named you as My own. The hour will come when you will not be scattered and separated and alone. The hour will come when you will have no needs or lack. You will be gathered to My Father’s bosom and then you shall ask Me for nothing but forevermore will sing with Me My Father’s praise.”

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia! 

Isaiah 12:1-6; James 1:16-21; St John 16:5-15
LSB 816, 556, p155, 790, 754, 768
+INJ+

Beloved in Christ, there are two categories of religion in the world. The religion of justice. And the religion of mercy. The former emphasizes the work and effort of the practitioner, but is silent about the person and work of Christ. The latter places the work of Christ at the center. The believer’s works flow from faith in Christ’s mercy.  

In this binary it is impossible for someone who is singularly focused on justice to understand Christianity. Christianity centers on mercy. Those who are obsessed with justice cannot understand how it is that we are so concerned about pure doctrine when there are starving children in Africa. Or how we seek to discuss the clarity of Scripture when there are unbelievers walking the halls of our schools. 

They think that our religion is worthless and that we are hypocrites because we do not care about the things they do in the way they do. 

They have a point. The Spirit calls us to love our neighbor, to show mercy to the poor and needy, and to speak the truth. No Christian living on this side of glory can hear the charge “hypocrite” and not cringe in guilt. We don’t do what we say we should do and what we want to do. We say one thing and do another. 

Yet contrary to the judgment of the world, to the judgmentalism of even those who call themselves our brethren, and even contrary to our own conscience at times, the Holy Scriptures declare that we who are baptized and believe in Christ are holy, righteous, and innocent for Christ’s sake. This is not because we have pure hearts or have done enough good works. It is because God has forgiven all our sins by offering up His own Son as our Substitute, our Ransom and Atoning Sacrifice. He declares us righteous despite our imperfections and even wickedness. 

You, the baptized who believe in Christ, who trust in His mercy, yet who daily sin much, you are rightly called SAINTS. You are the people of God. It would be a terrible pity that we would forget or be ashamed to be called saints. For to forget this is to forget Christ and Holy Baptism. 

There is an irony here. Those who fear they are hypocrites are saints. Those who cast the stones, who claim to hate hypocrisy in others, are not. Two men went up to the Temple to pray. . .

You, who are truly sinners, who know your sin, who deplore your wretched flesh and feel its burden. You ask for grace and want to do better. And even though it accuses and condemns you, you love God’s Law. You see in it what is truly good and true and beautiful. God’s perfect Word and will. His desire of His people. What you were meant for. You do not simply shrug off the charge of “hypocrite.” It is a serious danger. 

But at the same time, while you don’t want to be called sinner, don’t shrink from that title “saint.” To be both things at the same time is not the mark of a hypocrite. It is the mark of a Christian, a baptized and redeemed sinner, who has not yet been transferred to glory. 

To be a Christian you must believe in two things at the same time. You must believe the Law which accuses you and calls you sinner. You must also believe and trust in the Gospel which forgives all your sins, comforts you, and calls you “saint.”

The devil will try to tell you that the sins which you commit every day offend God and therefore you are not a saint. The devil is a liar and the master of half-truths. Yes, you are filthy in your sins. Your conscience terrifies you. But even as a mother’s love is stronger than the filth and scariness and stink on a naughty child, so the love of God toward us is stronger than the dirt that clings to us. We are sinners. But we do not thereby lose our filial relation on account of our filthiness. God is our Father who has made His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be our Brother, that we might live by His Spirit. Unless we let our sins rule over us and give into them, we are not hypocrites. 
But the devil likes theology. He is masterful at rightly dividing but wrongly applying God’s Law and Gospel. He will tell you that the Holy Spirit does not dwell where there are habitual sins. And you’ve got them. He will tell you that the Bible teaches that Christians progress and grow in their sanctification. But you are growing worse in sin. 

Again, he twists the truth. Jesus says, 
When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the Truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.

In other words, the Holy Spirit gives away the Kingdom to sinners by the Word. He glorified the Son in His Crucifixion where He was lifted up from the world. And He continues to glorify the Son through the preaching of His Cross by which He calls sinners to Himself. This is the Good and Perfect Gift of the Son’s righteousness which comes down from the Father of lights. 

The Holy Spirit is a kind of Robin Hood. The Father, not the devil, offers up the Son. The Holy Spirit who drove Christ to the desert for temptation, kills and robs Him on the Cross, takes what is His and the Father’s, and gives it to you through the Word, read and preached. Do you believe this? Yes. Then you are not a hypocrite. 
Beloved, you are growing in sanctification. Part of that growth is an increasing awareness of and sorrow over your sins. And while you can’t look into the hearts of men, you can’t even completely look into your own heart, Christ can. He looks into the hearts and minds of men. He sees yours and by His Spirit He not only convicts you, but comforts you. Sanctification isn’t quantifiable like bricks and pennies. 

The Christian mind and heart says, “I believe and cling to Him who is in heaven as my Savior and Advocate. He will come to judge the living and the dead. And if I fall into sin I will rise again by His grace and mercy. I don’t continue to sin with immunity.  I live by His grace and mercy. Sin doesn’t rule over me. By His grace, through His Word and Sacraments, I rise up and become the enemy of sin. I hate sin. I renounce it. I ask again for mercy. I come as a child, filthy and guilty, naughty. With tears in my eyes. I have done again what my mother told me not to do. I come to her trusting that she will still love me, wash me and kiss my wounds. I trust that Christ sends His Spirit into my mind and heart by His Word to Comfort and Defend me when my conscience afflicts me.”

The Christian faith differs from all other religions in this: the Christian hopes even in the midst of evil and his own sins. He lives by faith in the mercy of Christ. 

Without the Holy Spirit natural man can’t do this. He can only seek refuge in his works. To say, “I am a child of God,” or “I am holy, a saint of God,” is not arrogant anymore than saying, “I am an American is arrogant.” For the Christian it is not hypocrisy. It is poverty of spirit. It is faith and trust. 

You can’t see all of your good works. You can’t see the growth and strengthening of your faith. But you can’t see the Holy Spirit either. You hear Him. He is a Preacher. You live by His Word. You trust in His promises. Not all that is real is visible. 

I tell you the Truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. . . When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the Truth. He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.
Now there is something to sin about this Cantate Sunday. 

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
​He is risen indeed! Alleluia! 

Isaiah 40:25-31; 1 Peter 2:11-20; St John 16:16-22
LSB 793, 483, 462, 756, 602, 482
No Manuscript Available

Misericordias Domini (23 April 2023)
Ezekiel 34:11-16; 1 Peter 2:21-25; St John 10:11-18
​LSB 481, 709, 66, 864, 737, 534, 735

+INJ+

The ancient understanding of goodness was much deeper and richer than what our post-modern minds allow. Good in our contemporary culture is a matter of opinion. It is assumed that what is frequent is normal. And what is normal is good. Thus it is argued that if something is prevalent is must be normal. And if a majority of people agree that it is good then it must be. 

This tactic was employed by the proponents of so-called same-sex marriage. It is also the strategy of the advocates of transgenderism. The frequency with which moral degeneracy is displayed normalizes it. And if something is perceived as normal it will eventually be accepted as good.  

This is not only true for society at large, but we do this individually. For our own consciences and lives. When we normalize sinful behavior we desensitize our consciences to God’s holy Law.  

For the ancients this was a disastrous way of understanding good. Destructive not only to society but to the soul. Plato’s most famous allegory is that of the cave. A group of people who have lived chained up in cave all their lives facing a blank wall. They watch shadows projected on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them. These shadows are the prisoners’ reality. They give them names. But they are not true representations of the real world. They are not good. 

Plato explains that the philosopher, the lover of wisdom, is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not the substance. He returns to inform his fellow prisoners and help them break free of society’s assumptions of what is good and to grasp the ultimate good of God Himself. But they refuse to believe his words and kill him. They’d rather live in their delusion.  

Our problem is that according to our sin-nature we are constantly fighting that notion of goodness. Our sin-nature thinks there is freedom in the cave. It wants to live in the delusion. For freedom Christ has set you free. Our delusion is that we often have a romantic notion of the Good Shepherd, thinking that His goodness resides in His affection for the sheep. That He is the strong, yet gentle lover of the sheep. 

Fine. That notion is not completely out of place in the New Testament. But that is not what the ancients described as good. And that is not what Jesus is saying. He is not saying, “I am the gentle Lover of the sheep.” But neither is He saying He is the Good Shepherd in the way that our culture misunderstands that word. 

Our Lord didn’t speak in English. He probably spoke in Aramaic or possibly Hebrew. There is even a chance He spoke this in Greek. In one sense it doesn’t matter what language He spoke. The Holy Spirit has given His Word to us in Greek. And what the Holy Spirit gives is authoritative. So you might as well learn a Greek word today. The word translated as “good” is kalos. Jesus said, I am the Kalos Shepherd. 

That word has a tremendous amount of theological freight. Everything from when God saw all that He had made in the beginning and behold it was kalos. The kalos sacrifices of Abel, the shepherd. The appearance of the Son of God to the shepherd Moses in the Burning Bush. The Passover and Exodus. Psalm 23. Ezekiel 34. And a host of other passages. 

Good, kalos, is understood as how perfectly a thing fulfills the purpose for which it was given. Kalos means good, right, fitting. It means true, beautiful and perfect. It means competent, good for you, noble. 

What Jesus is saying is that He is the Perfect Shepherd, the True Shepherd, even the Noble Shepherd. Precisely because He lays down His Life for the sheep. He is the most fitting, uniquely qualified and best Shepherd for sinners. He is, in fact the only Shepherd who can actually bear this title. Not Abel or Moses. Not King David nor all his sons. They were only types, shadows on the cave wall of the gracious rule of our Kalos Shepherd. Even the most faithful, best Pastor is but a poor echo of the true Shepherd.

Our Lord’s primary purpose in this assertion is to deny the claims of all other shepherds. He denies the claim of the many shepherd gods and kings of the Greeks. He rejects all pagan claims to being good. At the same time He rejects the claims of the Pharisees, Priests, and Essenes. He is not the Good Shepherd how they mean or even expect. He is the Kalos Shepherd who alone is the Redeemer, Savior and Atoning Sacrifice for sinners. 

The Lord alone can make this claim. Even all undershepherds, whether King David or Pastor Mierow, shepherd another’s sheep while himself being a sheep of the Kalos Shepherd. He alone is the Kalos Shepherd. He is Alone is the One who is morally and ontologically good. He is wholly perfect, without blemish or stain or sin. 

But His claim does not come from being morally or even essentially good. Jesus’ claim that He is the Kalos Shepherd comes from His faithful obedience and perfect sacrifice. He is the true and only Shepherd because He gives His Life for the sheep. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in His Body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. He is the Good Shepherd. 

And that which is good gives insight into that which is beautiful and that which is true. For Plato beauty was eternal and moved man to seek after harmony. St Augustine taught that God wove beauty into every part of creation. And that things were especially beautiful when they worked according to the goodness of their created purpose. 

Is it any wonder that our culture, which has made goodness subjective, has effectively expelled the timeless standard of beauty from discussion also? “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” they claim. If goodness is relative than so also beauty and likewise truth. And if these three virtues - goodness, beauty and truth - describe God, than He too must be subjective. 

Thus does the Kalos Shepherd speak the truth, I am the Good Shepherd, I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My Life for the sheep. He is Truth Incarnate. He is the Kalos Shepherd. He is the Beautiful Savior.

Dear lambs, He has called you out of the dark cave of sin and death, bringing you into the beautiful Light of His Truth according to His Good Word. As you are loved by He who is Wisdom Incarnate so do you love the Wisdom of His Word. And as you share this beautiful Word of truth and goodness do not be surprised that the world hates you and may even seek to kill you. Resist the temptation to return to the cave.

Rather, listen to the call of your Good Shepherd. For He brings you here by the Voice of His true Word to the sheepfold of His Church. Psalm 50 exclaims, The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. 

Come, then, dear little lambs. Even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, fear no evil. Your Kalos Shepherd is with you. His rod and staff, His Word and Spirit, they comfort you. Behold, He has prepared a Table before you. A Feast of rich food, given in the righteousness of Christ, His own Body and Blood, swallowed by death, alive from the grave, given to you hear as the Food of Immorality.   

The wolf may howl, he may snarl and rage, but death cannot have you, its sting is lost, its power undone. The Lamb the sheep has ransomed. You belong to Christ, the Great Good Shepherd and Bishop of your body and your soul, who gathers you together as one flock. His truth and goodness follow you always. You shall dwell in His beautiful House forever.  

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

Quasimodo Geniti (16 April 2023)
Ezekiel 37:1-14; 1 John 5:4-10; St John 20:19-31
LSB 490, 471, 467, 472, 597
​
+INJ+

On the evening of Easter Day, the disciples were gathered together. They were not meeting to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord. They were not rejoicing in Jesus’ triumph over sin and death. This was not a gathering of faith. No. It was a gathering of unbelief. 

The disciples, who should have benefited from more than three years of the best theological training in the history of the world, were cowering behind locked doors. In fear for their lives. They didn’t believe the testimony of Mary Magdalene who had seen the risen Lord. They didn’t believe Jesus’ own words, that He would be crucified and rise again after three days. What Jesus had said stood in conflict with the reality of death. 

So, in spite of Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, the disciples believed that death, not Jesus, was lord. They were gathered together in fear. They had seen Jesus die. Like you, they trusted that death would have the final word.

But the disciples had another reason to be afraid. Jesus had said, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Mt 5:10). But in the first time of persecution all the disciples had forsaken Jesus and fled. Jesus had said, Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father in heaven (Mt 10:33). Peter had denied Jesus with oaths and curses. Judas had betrayed Him. They had shown themselves to be the worst sort of disciples. And if Jesus somehow was not dead, He had every reason to be angry with them. So, the disciples might have had every reason to fear the Resurrection. To fear that Jesus would seek vengeance. 

Now, with the doors having been locked where the disciples were on account of fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and says to them, Peace be to you.

The doors were locked for fear of the Jews, but locked doors don’t discriminate. They keep out all kinds of unwelcome guests – unless that guest happens to be Jesus. In that case, Jesus simply comes uninvited, locks or no locks, and stands in the midst, saying, Peace be to you.

This is no mere greeting. These are not empty words. We may ask a stranger or even a friend, “How are you?” but we aren’t really asking. We don’t mean our words. It’s just a greeting. Not so with Jesus. Our resurrected Lord stands before His disciples, the scars of His battle against sin, death, and hell still visible on His hands and side, and declares His victory with these words, Peace be to you. These are words of absolution. Of forgiveness. No doubt, the disciples were troubled by specific sins – forsaking and denying their Lord. Fearing to suffer for His name. And especially, for their unbelief. All these sins are forgiven in Christ’s words, Peace be to you.

But there is more to this peace. The sins that trouble us merely flow from the source of original sin, the sin-nature born in every man and woman since Adam. In the garden, all humankind chose to believe the word of Satan over and against the Word of God. We refused to trust in God as our Father, and instead willingly became allies of Satan. As Paul writes, You were once alienated and hostile in mind (Col 1:21) and again, we were enemies [of God] (Rm 5:10). Eating of the fruit was our declaration of war. 

Nevertheless, God proclaimed to Satan that He would not allow this new alliance to stand. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel (Gn 3:15). Through the Seed of the woman, who is Christ, God promised to restore proper hatred between man and Satan, to break up our partnership with death. In Isaiah, the Lord God declares, Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Hell will not stand (Is 28:18).

The first promise of the Savior was given after God found Adam and Eve hiding in the Garden. It is fitting that when Jesus comes to announce the fulfillment of this prophecy, He would find the disciples, once again, hiding. So He stands before His terrified disciples and proclaims God’s verdict upon all the sons of Adam. Peace be to you. 

Jesus declares that our war against God is now over, our iniquity has been pardoned. The price of our peace, as Isaiah says, has been laid upon Him. Peace be to you. When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Here was the proof. The scars in His hands, the gash in His side testified to His words. Peace with God had come at a terrible price. We were reconciled to God through the death of his Son (Rm 5:10). It cost Jesus everything – His Blood, His Life – yet He paid this price gladly. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross willingly, despising its shame (Heb 12:2).

It’s no coincidence that in Jesus’ first encounter with His disciples following His victory upon the Cross, He proclaims to them peace and the forgiveness of sins. By the sin of one man, Adam, Satan had brought death into this world. Sin separated us from God. Sin wreaked havoc upon God’s perfect creation. But now, on the first day of the new week, the eighth day of creation, Jesus had fulfilled God’s promise to redeem fallen creation. 

In the beginning, through the power of His Word, God spoke the universe into being. With His Word He breathed life into Adam, as He also did to the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision. And now, in a parallel act of re-creation, Jesus, having conquered the curse of death, breathes life into His disciples saying, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. This is why Christ established His Church and sent out His Apostles. 

For even as Jesus was sent by the Father, announcing peace with God and proclaiming the forgiveness of sins, so also, Jesus sends His disciples that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations (Lk 24:47). This is the task of the Church: To proclaim our Lord’s death and resurrection, and in His Name to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent. Just as sin brought death into the world, so the forgiveness of sins gives Life to all believers.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, the gathering of faithless disciples became a gathering of believers, and the disciples rejoiced that they had seen the Lord. Even though their faith had been weak, or non-existent, they had gathered together according to Jesus’ promise, Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them (Mt 18:20). And true to His word, He was there among them. Death could not keep Him away. The grave was powerless to hold Him. Our resurrected Lord stood among His disciples, as He stands among us today, announcing the forgiveness of sins, bestowing the Holy Spirit, and strengthening – or creating – faith. This truly is the Divine Service, where God comes to us bestowing His gifts, and we rejoice because we have seen the Lord.

But not Thomas. Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. For whatever reason, He had forsaken the assembly of the saints. Jesus had come, and Thomas had missed Him. The other disciples told Him, “We have seen the Lord!” And not just once. They told him, and kept on telling him – again and again. But Thomas would not believe. Instead, in rather crude language, he says: Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and jab my finger into the mark of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will absolutely never believe. 

Perhaps you’ve heard people say that Thomas got a bad rap. Poor Thomas had a single episode of doubt, he will forever be remembered as “Doubting Thomas.” But consider Thomas’ confession: I will absolutely never believe! This is the strongest negation possible in the Greek language. This is not doubt. This is not uncertainty. This is damnable unbelief. “Doubting Thomas” is too kind. He should instead be called Unbelieving Thomas. Or Thomas the Atheist. If Christ had not been merciful, Thomas would have remained in his unbelief, and would have been damned.

The same is true for you. Unless Christ had mercy, you too would have been lost. So, why do we often seek to clean Thomas up a bit, to have some sympathy? Perhaps because we know that we are Thomas. Sinful flesh doesn’t want to admit the depth of its depravity. But the Scripture is clear: You were lost in sin and unbelief. You were unwilling to come to God. In fact, you were His enemy. You had nothing to contribute to your salvation – except sin and hostility toward God. Do you want to be numbered among the saints, among the disciples? Answer carefully, for Jesus chose forsakers, deniers, betrayers, unbelievers, persecutors, and murderers to be His disciples. Are you in this company? “Give glory to God”, as Joshua exhorted Achan, “and confess your sin.” For yes, your sin is great – but your Savior is greater.

Christ was merciful to you. You could not, by your own reason or strength believe. You did not desire to come to Him. Once again, the doors were locked. Yet if the grave could not hold Him in, how could locks keep him out? He stands in your midst and says to you: Peace be to you. Thomas, bring your finger. Jab it into my hands. Thrust your hand into my side. Thomas, do not be unbelieving, but be believing.

This may sound like a rebuke, and it is. But it is also a loving and gracious word. The same God who said, “Let there be light” and it was so, now says to you, “Be believing!” and it is so. Christ is merciful to you. He comes through locked doors and conquers your unbelief. He bids you to thrust your hand into His life-giving side and take freely from His bounty. He bestows his Holy Spirit, creating and sustaining the faith by which you cry, My Lord and my God!

Jesus said to Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” You are blessed indeed, for God has seen fit to pour out His gift of the Holy Spirit upon you, who have not seen, but now believe. You, who once were far off, have been brought near. You, who once were enemies, have been made dear children of God, and may once again call Him Father. 

Blessed are you who have not seen and yet have believed. And yet, you have seen the Lord. Your ears have heard His words. You have felt the water of baptism that flowed from His gaping side. You have seen with your eyes and tasted with your mouth the living Body and Blood of our Savior, who is present among us again today. And so, you too may say, “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.”

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia! 
​Amen.

Easter Tuesday (11 April 2023)
Daniel 3:8-28; Acts 13:26-33; St Luke 24:36-49
​LSB 930, 490, 483, 464

+INJ+

St Paul rightly exegeted Psalm 2 and applied it to the events of our Lord’s Passion and Death. We ought to be humbled by that. We don’t do enough with the Psalter. Either through prayer or preaching. The Psalms are a marvelously unique text of Holy Scripture in which the Holy Spirit gives us insight into the intra-Trinitarian dialogue. 

Today the Father speaks to the Son. The Son replies and speaks what the Father has spoken to Him. And the Holy Spirit illuminates the heart and mind of King David who prays the Psalm back to the Father through the Son by the Spirit, and confesses the Word before the world in which St Paul spiritually exegetes it for Christians in Pisidian Antioch, St Luke records it by the Spirit, and we are privileged to hear and receive it by the self-same Holy Spirit! Amazing! 

Might we also apply Psalm 2 typologically to King Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans of Babylon? Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together. The intra-Trinitarian narrative of Psalm which was dramatically fulfilled by our Lord’s Passion. 

But it was also typified in the drama which unfolded on the plain of Dura. The king had set up his enormous golden idol. A false god to which all the surrounding, enslaved peoples must submit. Totalitarians are always forcing theological submission upon subjugated peoples. Its definitional. All false gods are non-ambulatory and must be journeyed to. Its indisputable. Yet even then they are at times “indisposed,” as Elijah had to inform the false prophets of Baal.

Now, at the discordant sound of worship, the devotees were required to prostrate before the golden image on pain of immolation. State originated worship by compulsion. Always a telltale sign of paganism. The cultural elites, the Chaldeans, were the priestly police, ensuring complete compliance. Three courageous young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or, as their mothers and God called them - Hanniah, Mishael, and Azariah - they said, NO. 

No manifestos. No great declarations or defiances. Just, “No.” “Our God, the only true and living God, He will deliver us from a fiery death in this mortal life or He will deliver us through fire into eternal life. Either way, No.” Amazing.

As we marvel for a moment at their steadfastness, consider the circumstances of these three young men:

• Ripped from their native land, their homes, hauled off into captivity in enemy territory
• Judea conquered, the Temple destroyed, Jerusalem in ruins, all their cultural and civic institutions overrun
• Living as strangers in a strange land; population minorities; culture, language, morality and religion all opposed

Yet they not only survive, they thrive! Our Lord preserves His remnant for the sake of His promises. He does so in truth, goodness and beauty, by catechesis and education, through prayer and vocational sacrifice. Amidst their nearly insurmountable odds, consider what these three young men, by God’s grace and blessing, had:

• The Truth of God’s Word, through diligent catechesis they had learned by heart much of the Torah and Psalms;
• The goodness and beauty of godly friendship, solidarity in making the good confession both verbally to the king and in music while in the furnace
• And an education which made them mindful of their vocational service wherever or whomever their neighbors, for they served the Lord

Such solid, Scriptural foundations prepared these three young men for Christian lives of faith and love in the midst of a pagan culture and authoritarian rule. How shall we fare with our children? Are we arming them with the same spiritual weapons as their courageous brethren in Christ, Hanniah, Mishael, and Azariah had? Or are we giving them tepid catechesis and progressive education? Are we setting the courageous example of refusal to participate in idolatry? Or are we bowing to the images set up by our cultural priestly elite? They were prepared for martyrdom. Are our children? Are we? 

For refusal to participate in worship exercises mandated by authoritarian regimes is an affront to the authoritarian himself. It will always incur punishment. A minimal fine. Loss of job. Loss of livelihood. Immolation is currently unlikely, but Nebuchadnezzar was deranged. So there’s that. They were cast into the fiery furnace, bound and clothed. Lord, have mercy! 

He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then He will speak to them in His wrath and terrify them in His fury, saying, “As for me, I have set My King on Zion, My Holy Hill.”

The One who strode in the fire with the three young men, the very Son of God, took up flesh to allow Himself to be roasted in the Father wrath for Hanniah, Mishael, and Azariah, for all His dear children whom He calls by name. 

He was set up on Zion as the true King, the only Image of His Father and the Icon of our Salvation. But the nations raged and the peoples plotted in vain. For the Father vindicated His innocent Son. He has raised Him from the dead never to die again. And He comes to the fearful disciples, to His minority little Church, living as strangers in a strange land, under foreign military occupancy, and He opens their minds to understand the Scriptures. Giving them a peace which the world cannot give. Securing a peace for their troubled consciences. And yours. 

For He is not “set up” on the plains of Dura or in the halls of power to which you must journey and bring your obligatory votives. He condescends to come to you. He stoops low to serve you. Even going as low and degrading as the ignoble, cursed death upon the Tree. For this the Divine must. The godly necessity required for your salvation. In fulfillment of all the Scriptures. 

As equally necessary is the Divine must of preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins in His Name. For by the proclamation of His Cross Christ Jesus continues to bring down the haughty from their thrones and exalt the lowly. He continues to fill the hungry with good things but the rich He sends empty away. Thus does He raise up courageous men in each and every generation as heralds of His Cross. As Ministers of His powerful Word. Sent to teach and preach. Through the weapons of catechesis and hymnody, by instruction in the Christian life of faith and love, of prayer and vocational sacrifice. 

So does He continue to see Satan fall like lightening from heaven through the faithful proclamation of His almighty Word. So does He raise you up amidst your persecutors and slanderers. To make the good confession in the midst of a pagan culture, demanding homage to its idols and votives to its principles. Do not fear them, beloved. Do not fear those who can destroy the body, but after that can do nothing. 

For should you perish by fire, the precious gift of your faith is already being refined like gold in the fire. You will indeed pass through the flame unharmed. Your God shall perhaps deliver you from it, though more likely through it. Yet your baptismal garments shall be unsinged and no smell of smoke cling to you. For you already have the smell of the Resurrection upon. Why else do you suppose Satan prowls like a roaring and ravening lion, seeking to devour? He smells the resurrected Life upon you! 

Fear not, dear Christians. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has already laid him low. And has taken from the eater something sweet. The proclamation of victory over the grave! Where is its sting? Where its victory? You belong to the Lord almighty, King of the Universe. What pagan god shall snatch you out of His hand? 

Come and find refuge in Him and receive the blessing of His Hand. The holy Body and precious Blood of Christ Jesus, out of death, bringing life and immortality to all who have faith in His Word. 

We ought to return from the Holy Communion like lions breathing fire, having become terrible to the devil. Thinking on upon Christ our Head and the love that He has shown for us. For our Lord says, “I feed you with My own Flesh, desiring that you being nobly born and holding forth good hope for your future. I have willed to become your Brother. For your sake I shared in flesh and blood and in turn I give you the Flesh and Blood by which I became your Redeemer.” 

Good friends, this Blood causes the image of our King to be refreshed within us. It produces beauty unspeakable and prevents the nobility of our souls from wasting away. It nourishes your soul and works in them a mighty power. This Body and Blood, taken in repentant faith, drives away devils and keeps them far from you. Even while it calls the angels of the Lord and the Lord of Angels Himself to your side. 

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Easter Day (9 April 2023)
Job 19:23-27; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8; St Mark 16:1-8
LSB 947, 458, 633, 461, 487, 465​

+INJ+

No one dies with dignity. It is always ugly, humiliating, shameful. It often includes an unpleasant emptying of the bowels. And however bad the pain and suffering might have been that preceded it, at least there was life. Then it is gone. Dead. Final. Cold. Still. Creepy and disturbing. And nothing mortal men can do can undo it or make it go away.

That is why we must go to the tomb. We must enter with the women. We must see what death has done. We must know that Jesus died without dignity. That He cried in pain, that He sobbed in fear, that He was beaten and broken, dirty and defiled. He had no beauty, nobility, or pleasantness that we should look upon Him. We esteemed Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted. Without dignity or strength or honor.

We must go in to the tomb and see what death has done.

It is not pleasant or comfortable. You have to crouch. It is dark and damp. It stinks. It is hard to get into without rubbing up against the dirt and grime. It is crowded. There is dust and mildew and decay. Maybe there are rats. There are definitely creepy things. Your scalp feels itchy. There is something disgusting is in your hair.

And what do you see there in death’s domain? Maybe it is a hospital bed or a broken windshield with blood on it. Maybe there is tiny coffin or a chemo patient’s wig. Maybe there is huge bill from attorneys and doctors or a sleazy funeral director or a relative who betrayed and cheated you.

We might all see different things, but we need to see them. We need to face the reality that death is real. We need to see what we have brought upon ourselves and those whom we love by our sins.

All this ought to give some sympathy for the women on Easter morning. They crouched down and went into that disgusting place and there they found an angel. He told them, “Do not be alarmed,” but they were alarmed. It was an alarming place. It was dark and dank. It stunk. He told them, “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the place where they laid him.” But it was too terrible to behold and they did not want to look.

They were in survival mode, trying to protect themselves. They wanted to be strong. They wanted to handle things well. They didn’t want to be a spectacle. The angel was ripping away bandages too fast. He was shining the light in dark places where they were afraid to look. He was saying things that they were afraid to hear.

So they ran away and they did not tell the disciples what they had seen.

But what of us? What is in that grave? What are we afraid to leave behind? Is there a secret sin we fear will be exposed? Do we fear that if we trust God He will disappoint us once again? Do we not want to look like fools?

Maybe all of it, but can we repent as the women did? Can we regroup and catch our breath and learn to sing Alleluia even though we’re sad? Jesus lives. He was crucified, but He is risen. Death is not the last word. It can be undone. It is already undone. It is still being undone and no one who believes in Jesus actually dies. You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified, but He is not dead. He lives.

So let us walk with the women. Let us see death’s debris, the hospital bed, the broken windshield, the little coffin, and leave it there in the tomb where it belongs. Leave it with our sins. Jesus lives. Jesus is coming back. We mourn, but we have hope. We suffer this world’s indignities, we are no strangers to pain, but Jesus lives. And so will we. And so will those whom we love who have departed with the sign of faith. Jesus lives.

We have had our days of lament, of crying out to God that our birth was evil, that this life is not worth the living. That death itself would be a relief. That is why we so love Job. Now let us repent. We’ve gone too far. We’ve said too much. We’ve not trusted God. So also we’ve cried for justice, for revenge, and for an end to all that is wrong in this world and our inability to fix it. We’ve railed against disease and divorce and death. Now let us leave behind that as well. Place it all into God’s hands. Our Redeemer lives just as He said. And He has gone before us.

There is a time to lament, a time to mourn, a time to cry for help. Soon that will end. Jesus goes before us into and out of death. He did not die with dignity, but He did die with purpose, as one of us for us. He did not die until it was finished. Only after Hell had been satisfied, the wrath of His Father quenched, and no sin left that had not been paid for, only then did He die. He did not suffer physical death, the separation of body and soul, to save us in the sense that there was more to do or something left undone. We were saved by His suffering of eternal death on the cross. He finished that when He said it was finished. There was no more to do in that regard. But there was more that He wanted for us. So He died.

He died, suffered physical death, to pave the way for us through death and to sanctify our graves. He died to bury death and its debris. And He rose to open heaven to all believers.
What was finished on the cross, was brought to fulfillment on Easter. Death has lost its sting, the grave its victory. He was delivered for our offenses. He was raised for our justification. He has brought life and immorality to light and paved the way not only through death, but also out of death. Our Redeemer lives. He is risen. He has inaugurated the Resurrection and we live in the last days.

The women came to know this. They learned to sing “Alleluia. Jesus lives.” And they learned to wait with hope in the midst of sadness, to wait for the time when they too would walk out of their own graves and follow Jesus, and never suffer another loved one to die.

We are their students, still learning. We sing Alleluia this morning and we mean it. Jesus lives. We rejoice. But we also weep. Our faith is not yet complete. There are still good works for us to do, still things to be overcome. We must repent even as we believe. We must leave it all in God’s hands and in His empty tomb.

You have not come this morning to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom. You have not come to the cross or the stone that has been rolled away. All that is past, completed in Jesus for you. You have come to Easter’s Holy Communion. It is Mount Zion, the city of the living God built without hands, the heavenly Jerusalem. In coming to the Supper, you come to Jesus Himself. 

And here, with Jesus, there are innumerable angels in festal gathering. Here is the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. Here is God, the judge of all, who pronounced Jesus guilty on the cross but vindicated Him in the Resurrection. Jesus is the Living God, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Redeemer that Job waited for, the Suffering Servant caught in the thicket who was slain but who lives. A King after the order of Melchizedek who sits on David’s throne and reigns over Jacob forever. A High Priest who is no Levite or son of Aaron, but who does all that Adam should have done and did not, the Son of the Father, the Son of Israel, the Lion of Judah. He lives. He is not Moses leading us out of slavery with a new law. He is Joshua leading us into the promised land with a promise. You have come to Him. And here with Him, in communion with Him, always with Him, are the spirits of the righteous made perfect. 

Here, at the center, is Jesus who was crucified, alive in Body and Soul, God in our Flesh, the first of many brothers, and the Mediator of the new Testament. He is here in His sprinkled, risen, living blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel and which does that which the blood of bulls and goats could never do: it forgives sins. It strengthens faith. It makes saints out of sinners and undoes death. So also it teaches us to sing Alleluia and praise the Lord with a new song. You come to Jesus today. He is alive in the Sacrament. There you find peace and courage. There He takes you by the hand and guides you out of the tomb. He, who lives, calls you by name.

He has paved the way for you, through death, and into life. You can face it. You can carry on. You can face life and you can face death. You can mourn. You can lament. You can cry for justice. And you must. But you can and you must also sing His praise and wait on His mercy and trust His Word. Jesus lives. Alleluia. Jesus lives.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! 
He is risen indeed! Alleluia! 
Amen.