jubilate.mp3 |
Isaiah 40:25-31; 1 Peter 2:11-20; St John 16:16-22
LSB 793, 483, 462, 756, 602, 482
No Manuscript Available
LSB 793, 483, 462, 756, 602, 482
No Manuscript Available
Isaiah 40:25-31; 1 Peter 2:11-20; St John 16:16-22
LSB 793, 483, 462, 756, 602, 482 No Manuscript Available
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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:
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. |
Sunday: Divine Service 9a; Bible Class 1030a
Tuesday: Matins 9a; Bible Class Wednesday: Vespers 630p; Meal and Study |
St Peter's Ev Lutheran Church (LCMS)
2525 E. 11th St. Indianapolis, IN (317)638-7245 |