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!
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
- 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
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!