By pastorjuhl, on March 29th, 2010%
This from Rev. Dustin L. Anderson, Trinity Lutheran Church, Marseilles, IL
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Holy Week begins today with great pomp and fanfare. “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.” Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem with a great reception. He is now receiving the proper reverence and respect. The Son of God is being worshiped, cloaks and palms process before Him. There King has arrived.
How short lived this reception is. The worship of God fizzles out faster than it began. From shouts of love and acceptance the crowd turns on Jesus with shouts of pure evil and hatred. Crucify Him! What a two-faced people. Who do they think they are?
This day we gather, many among us for the first time in months, even years. You may be drawn here under obligation to the family. Some because that’s what you do this time of the year. And while you’re here you think you might as well participate and follow along, waving your palms branches and placing your cloaks before Jesus and the fellow members of the crowd. Some are here thinking that Jesus doesn’t care that you’ve been absent from this place.
I have hit raw nerve among some, but it cannot be ignored. Sin can never be ignored. Like many in the crowd of Jerusalem there were those who were their out of obligation, because it was time for the Passover. Others out of shear convenience. It’s easier to go to Jerusalem than endure the nagging of one’s mother. It isn’t much different for some of you as you sit through one hour of church avoiding your nagging family. And since you’re here, maybe, just maybe, Jesus is here too. Maybe He will help you out the way you think He should so you butter Him up. “Hosanna, Hosanna in the Highest!” Repent.
But Jesus doesn’t work on your timetable. Nor does He work the way you want Him to. He knows what is best for you. But like children who don’t get their way, you scream, “I hate you. I hope you die.” In other words, “Crucify Him.” You may not say this with words, but your actions speak quite loudly. And they betray your faith, which says, “I believe in God.” Your absence and silence is deafening, “I don’t care that Jesus died for me.”
Even though the world thinks and speaks differently we all know deep down that sex outside of marriage is sin of the sixth commandment. We all know deep down to take what is not ours is sin against the seventh commandment. But what has been buffed away and numbed by the constant beatings of the devil and world is the idea and belief that speaking or thinking such things is evil too, mortal sin and must be repented of. (This is true of all of us.) And of those things, which you think is not really that bad is skipping church. The devil has won your soul if you believe such things. To God, your skipping of church and to desire something more than to hear the Word of God and receive His forgiveness is as vile as fornication with a prostitute or murder of your neighbor. Skipping church and being unrepentant is a mortal sin – period. It is mortal because it despises the reception of God’s gifts, namely the forgiveness of your sins. Repent. Change your mind to this condemnable belief. If left untreated, unconfessed there is only hell for you.
Jesus is here today, as He is every time you all gather in this place. Even when you’re not here, He is here. He is here with gifts that the world cannot give – His Holy Word and Blessed Sacraments. That crowd that welcomed Jesus that Sunday before His crucifixion betrayed Him for the lust of their own hearts. He had gifts to give, but they didn’t want those gifts. This Jesus didn’t measure up to the Jesus of their own hearts. This Jesus came to forgive sins, but they only wanted sins to be ignored and for them to be accepted for who they were. The Jesus they got came to change the world, but it was in bringing life through death – His death. He was the only thing to save them, all other things had to die, even their ideas about Jesus.
Ironically, the king the crowd so earnestly desired, they got. It wasn’t the way they wanted Him, but they got Him nonetheless. They got Him nailed to the cross, and it was for the vileness of their sin. Their unbelief is what killed Jesus, but it was Jesus dying on the cross, which also saved them from their sin, their unbelief.
Your sin is never something is be trivial about, it will kill you. If you are unrepentant, wanting to hold onto your sin, your final resting place is not going to be in heaven. The only way to heaven is through Jesus, the Jesus who went to the cross for you. He most certainly did not make light of your sin. He died for them. He forgave them, but you who would not repent, those of you who do not think your sin is serious, even skipping church, for whatever reason, save illness, will pay for your own sin. Jesus died for you and all your sin, but if you don’t want Him to have them they’re yours. Repent.
Lent, especially Holy Week, is a time to reflect on your sinfulness. It is a time to meditate on the innocent suffering and death of Jesus for you. It is not pretty and it is not fun. Sin is never pretty or fun, but it is good. Jesus on the cross is meant to wake you and your conscience to the seriousness of sin, but it is also meant to comfort you with the certainty that He hung on that cross to forgive, remove and renew you. In other words, He died on that cross to give you new life.
Repenting of all your sins and receiving the never-ending grace and love of God, make a new beginning in Jesus. Confess your sins and be forgiven. Remember your baptism that you are God’s. God does not want to destroy you, that is why He sent His Son, to destroy Him in your deserved place. Here in this place you hear of all this, what Jesus has done for you. In this place you receive this, what Jesus purchased for you. In this place you feed on Jesus and are strengthened, even to confess your sins in the assurance that Jesus forgives you. To neglect this sanctuary is nothing short of being suicidal.
You never know when your time will be or when Christ returns. You may not have tomorrow. What you do know is that Jesus is here today and every Lord’s day, preparing you for the life to come by forgiving you and feeding you with the food of immortality – His own body and blood. The gifts are here for you. Receive them, for your life depends on them. It depends on Jesus. + In Jesus’ Name + Amen.
By pastorjuhl, on March 26th, 2010%
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
Congratulations! With the help of God, you’ve made it to Jerusalem. Do you have your palm? Good. Are you ready to greet the Son of David with a thunderous “Hosanna”? Great! It should be an interesting parade because there are bunches of people around here who want to see Jesus dead. They think the whole world has fallen into the trap of believing He is the Son of God. You believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God or else you wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t have undertaken such a long journey with Him if the destination weren’t worth seeing.
There’s good news and bad news about what is going to happen. You might as well hear the bad news first. The folks who want to see Jesus dead are going to get their wish. The triumphant procession leads from where you are sitting to the Upper Room, the Garden of Gethsemane, and a number of other locations. This whole mess will lead to the Place of the Skull where you will see Jesus die a long and horrible death. You will see Noble Joseph give up his tomb for Jesus. Christ’s Body goes in the grave and a guard will seal the opening with a stone and a guard.
Here is the good news. There is a happy ending. However, there is even better news today. Palm Sunday is the great memorial to our Lord’s solemn entrance into Jerusalem where He was about to suffer and die. The palm leaf you have is a visual reminder of the day when our Lord entered Jerusalem just as the prophet Zechariah said He would. Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. Zechariah’s words are familiar because you hear them every year about this time. What you may have never thought about is the phrase He is just and having salvation.
This short phrase tells so much about why Jesus comes to you as He does both then and now. Jesus is just. He is the perfect Son of the Most High God. He is our heavenly Father’s love for fallen creation wrapped in flesh and blood. Everything He thinks, does, and says is upright. Jesus never sinned. He is the only person wrapped in flesh and blood Who makes that claim. Instead of using that claim against you as He should, for you have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; instead of holding His just and righteous nature against your nature that despises God and His holy Word, He swaps His just nature for your unjust nature. Your sin becomes His. His righteousness becomes yours.
Saint Paul summarizes this sweet swap in the Epistle. He writes to the Church in Philippi: being in the form of God, [Christ Jesus] did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Some think Paul’s words are a hymn of the early Christian Church. If it is, what a hymn! Jesus Christ makes Himself of no reputation for you. Jesus Christ humbles Himself for you. Jesus Christ dies for you. His obedience to the Father’s will for wayward creation go all the way to the cross. It should be you up there. Jesus is there instead.
Jesus is on the cross for you because, as Zechariah says, He has salvation. His blood makes the perfect offering necessary to redeem creation from sin, death, and the devil. Zechariah writes, because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. The waterless pit is reserved for Satan, his angels, and those who follow them. Those who are covered in Christ’s blood; those who have not wiped off his blood by means of unrepentant sin or willful self-exclusion from the Means of Grace, are rescued from falling into the waterless pit.
What more can you do to honor the Savior of the Nations but bow the knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father! Today is the first time in Christ’s earthly life that He allowed royal homage to be paid Him. Keep today’s images clear in your mind’s eye, especially when you will be brought face-to-face with His suffering and death in a few days. Today is also an introduction to Christ’s sacred passion. The reading of a portion of Saint Matthew’s account of Christ’s sacred passion prepares you for hearing John’s passion account on Friday. The silence will be unusually loud Friday. There will be lots of time to contemplate what Jesus went through for you.
When those images reappear in your mind’s eye later this week, rejoice. You may not want to rejoice in the death of Jesus, but Palm Sunday may be called the golden gateway leading to the joy of Easter. There is a thread of joy and victory that runs through everything you hear today and this coming week. The thread of joy and victory comes from resurrection glory. That’s the good news at the end of the journey. That’s what you packed your bags to see as you walked the long Lenten road to Jerusalem. The sacred, wounded head of Jesus and His tortured, beaten Body will rise triumphant three days after it went into the tomb. God dies, but He does not die eternally. God must come back to life in order that you will come back to life with Him because of Jesus Christ.
Cling tight to your palm this week. It’s a reminder that Jesus Christ, the Son of David, comes to save you from sin and death. Joy becomes sorrow, yet sorrow becomes joy. Jesus lives. So do you.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
By pastorjuhl, on March 24th, 2010%
We Christians, however, should get really well acquainted with this Christ-King, and place all our hope boldly in the life which is to come, where we will be forever happy, free of all sin and infirmity. It’s for that reason that Christ came, and was crucified, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven to occupy his kingdom. That’s how he overcame sin,death, and the devil for us, and by his blood and Holy Spirit swept us clean of all filth, so that all who believe in him are righteous and blessed, and will someday pass through temporal death into his eternal, heavenly kingdom.
That’s why all of us should truly welcome this Christ-King, recognizing him as our righteous helper, and by the power of the Word, Sacraments, and faith, enjoy him now and forever! A Christian, you see, has not beep baptized, so that he may collect treasure and get rich here on earth – all of which he can do as well without the gospel and baptism; instead he was baptized so that through Christ he may attain eternal life. To reach that life is why we should faithfully use the gospel and our baptism. I am a baptized Christian so that I may inherit and attain Christ’s kingdom. And if I’m also blessed with possessions, I use these for my physical needs – certainly not to lift myself up into heaven!
We should, therefore, mark all the difference between Christ’s kingdom and worldly powers, as he himself clearly showed by his extraordinary entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, without a saddle, the animal a borrowed one at that! He sat 0n it without pretense, just as he was, barefoot, without boots and spurs. From the human point of view the whole incident looked ridiculous, and yet this beggar-King, riding on a donkey, was Israel’s King, promised by God and foretold by the prophets. That was evident also from the way his followers greeted him, “Hosanna!” Blessings on this King and upon his new kingdom! “Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” All of which made it crystal clear that he was in no way like worldly rulers who have amassed a lot of treasure and property for the purpose of displaying worldly pomp and circumstance for their public appearances. Christ was no such earthly king; on the contrary, he is an eternal King, with an everlasting kingdom where one needs neither gold or silver, and yet will never suffer any want or need in all eternity.
The world has nothing but high disdain for this King and his kingdom with its eternal blessings; it is concerned only with temporal goods: power, honor, and riches on earth. We Christians, however, are to labor here and use the world’s goods for our bodily needs, all the while not forgetting the other life. After all, we must in the end depart and leave behind the goods of this earthly life; that should help us remember where we really want to be, namely with Christ, our eternal King. For if we accept him here, that is, believe in him and heed his gospel, he will also receive us over there, saying to us, “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
This, then, is what our dear Lord Jesus Christ meant to show by his entrance into Jerusalem, so that we might truly understand him and his kingdom. On the left hand, as it were, we still live here in the kingdom of this world, but always on the right hand we reach forward and upward to his kingdom everlasting in the world to come. It was for that future life that we were baptized. May God grant us his grace so that we may joyously welcome and accept this King and remain with him forever. Amen!
- House Postil
By ToddPeperkorn, on March 23rd, 2010%
Poem by G.K. Chesterton:
“The Donkey”
G.K. Chesterton
WHEN fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will,
Starve, scourge, deride me I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.
Fools, for I also had my hour,
One far fierce hour and sweet,
There was a shout about my ears
And palms before my feet.”
/
(Via Lectionary Central.)
By pastorjuhl, on March 23rd, 2010%
The three last days of Holy Week are often called the Sacred Triduum (Triduum Sacrum). This period may be considered from a threefold viewpoint: a) first, these days bring to a climax and to a conclusion our preparation for Easter. The Church is, as we have often seen, an artist in the matter of graduated intensity. From Septuagesima on it has been a constant crescendo. Pre-Lent was the first step, then Lent. In Lent an irresistible onward drive was apparent. Then Passiontide, and a further step at Palm Sunday, which marked the beginning of Holy Week. Now we enter the Holy of Holies, the Sacred Triduum.
b) But these three days are already a part of Easter; for there is an inseparable union between the death and resurrection of Christ – the two together constitute the Easter mystery. Therefore we pass from Holy Week to Easter Week with no noticeable break; Holy Saturday is a resurrection and baptism service – the Easter Vigil.
c) These three days may, nevertheless, be regarded as a unit in themselves, a true triduum or trilogy, a three-part drama on Christ’s redemptive work. We have already interpreted the Hours of Matins and Lauds in this manner, and the same interpretation is valid for the evening liturgy. The Office emphasizes the Lord’s “bitter suffering” and death; the remaining liturgy is generally of a different character and content. It deals rather with the beata passio, the glorious, victorious aspect of Christ’s redeeming work (Matins are of later origin – from the eighth and ninth centuries whereas the Mass liturgy dates from the most primitive times).
The main themes of Matins on the coming days are: fear of death, the crucifixion, rest in the sepulcher; the three evening services, on the other hand, take as their principal subjects: the Eucharist, the triumph of the Cross, baptism and resurrection. Thus subjective-meditative piety and piety of an objective-receptive mold both find plenty food as the bitter passion and the glory of the Cross are alternately presented to the soul.
Here is a final observation on participation in the services during the Sacred Triduum. In the Middle Ages Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday were holydays; buying and selling stopped, and the people could take part in the religious celebration without difficulty. This was as it should be. Christians ought to have the opportunity to observe these greatest of memorial days with due preparation and calm of soul, days on which the most sublime mysteries are re-enacted.
Unfortunately the economic situation is such that most of us can participate in these solemnities only after a regular day’s work. In some places factories and stores close at noon on Good Friday. Zealous pastors will devise ways and means of utilizing this concession of the business world. In any case I would strongly urge all readers to remain as free as possible from work on these days. Attend and participate in the services. The evening hour has made it easy.
The women should finish their usual Easter house-cleaning by Wednesday. In families interest in the Holy Week liturgy and zeal to attend the services should be stimulated. Pastors should arrange the services so that the greatest possible number of people can be present. It would indeed be tragic if the most solemn and sacred rites of the entire year would take place in empty churches now that the Holy See has again restored to the Christian world its most precious heritage.
The Church’s Year of Grace, Volume 2, pages 316-317
By pastorjuhl, on March 23rd, 2010%
And at the end of it all we take our palms home, and reverently place them behind our crucifix; and we would do well to use the palms of all the members of our family, placing them in the living room, the kitchen, the bedrooms, the garden – in any place where we pass our time – that they may remain there throughout the year. Why should we do that? Because at the end of the procession the priest says this prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, our King and Redeemer, we have carried these branches and sung solemn praises in Thy honor. Graciously let Thy grace and blessing rest wherever these branches are brought; with the power of Thy right hand defeat every evil influence and deception of the devil while granting protection to those whom Thou hast redeemed; who are living and reigning with God and the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.”
The palms are not instruments of magic; they are not like superstitious amulets supposed to possess any power or virtue of their own; but they are the visible signs of the powerful prayer of God’s Church which calls down the blessing of God upon all the places where they are put. We who have faith in the Church should have faith in her prayers, and make use of their power to our sanctification and protection.”
- Clifford Howell, Preparing for Easter. Quoted by Pius Parsch, The Church’s Year of Grace, Volume 2, pages 299-300.
By pastorjuhl, on March 23rd, 2010%
Volume 2:290
Now we enter the holiest part of Lent. The Church has prepared us step by step for this sacred experience. A steady crescendo in the liturgy has been taking place since Septuagesima Sunday. Each week the sound rose higher, and louder. Although Mother Church often spoke about the Cross and the resurrection, she did so in veiled signs and figures, as if she feared exposing a most precious object to profane eyes. Not until this moment does she remove the curtain. Now we see the Holy of Holies; and more than that, we are asked to participate in the most sublime drama of religious history.
The greatest and holiest of weeks is about to begin. We should not call it a week of mourning, for Cross and resurrection are inseparable. Christ’s redemptive work did not end with death, it continues on in the victory of His resurrection. Therefore, we must not separate the passion from the resurrection, but rather regard the Cross as the way to Easter victory.
The liturgy does not make this week one of sorrowful lamentation or tearful sympathizing with our suffering Lord. That was the medieval approach. No, through the whole week there runs a note of victory and joy, a realization that Christ’s sacred passion was a prerequisite to Easter glory. We cannot understand the Church’s liturgy unless we keep this in mind.
There is no day in the entire coming week when the theme of Easter and victory does not resound loud and clear. Think only of Palm Sunday with its homage to the King; of Holy Thursday with its solemn Mass and consecration of the Holy Oils; of Good Friday with the solemn exaltation of the Cross; of Holy Saturday, the beginning of the Easter solemnities.
Four days take on special importance, viz., Palm Sunday and the sacred Triduum. The remaining three days, Monday through Wednesday, do not differ radically from other days in Passiontide. Palm Sunday may be called the golden gateway leading to the holy mysteries of Easter.
By pastorjuhl, on March 22nd, 2010%
As we approach Holy Week, we pastors begin to think about the services for the Faithful during the week. One service often seen in Lutheran congregation is the “Tenebrae” service on Good Friday. Tenebrae is the Latin word for “shadows” or “darkness”. The Roman Church celebrates Tenebrae in place of Matins and Lauds on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. It is also customary to celebrate Tenebrae the afternoon before the office is usually observed.
Here is a brief comment from Dom Prosper Gueranger’s commentary on Tenebrae from The Liturgical Year Volume 6.
“There is an impressive ceremony peculiar to this Office which tends to perpetuate its name. There is placed in the sanctuary, near the altar, a large triangular candlestick, holding fifteen candles. These candles, and the six that are on the altar, are of yellow wax, as in the Office for the dead. At the end of each psalm or canticle, one of these fifteen candles is extinguished; but the one which is placed at the top of the triangle is left lighted. During the singing of the Benedictus, at Lauds; the six candles on the altar are also put out. Then the master of ceremonies takes the lighted candle from the triangle, and holds it upon the altar, on the epistle side, while the choir repeats the antiphon after the canticle: after which he hides it behind the altar during the recitation of the Miserere and the prayer which follows the psalm. As soon as this prayer is finished, a noise is made with the seats of the stalls in the choir, which continues until the candle is brought from behind the altar, and shows, by its light, that the Office of Tenebrae is over.”
I recall listening to Choral Evensong on BBC Radio 3 during Holy Week of 2009 and hearing the choir beat their prayer books against the stalls to make the distinctive noise. Lutherans might recall a slamming or banging of a book, large wooden stick, or a slamming of a door to make the noise.
You may see the rite within this book on Google Books. Scroll down to the appendix beginning on page i.
When I prayed the Daily Office using The Anglican Breviary, I would pray Tenebrae. It’s a long office, but a salutary way to pray during Holy Week.
It would be nice to see a truly evangelical Tenebrae rite. What we have in Lutheran Service Book is a form of Tenebrae, but not the real thing. When I do the LSB rite on Friday night, I call it Vespers rather than Tenebrae. I also do the Chief Divine Service for Good Friday. Readers can go back and forth on offering the Lord’s Supper on Good Friday but I think it to be a salutary practice.
By ToddPeperkorn, on March 19th, 2010%
Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Judica, Lent V (March 29, 2009)
John 8:46-56
TITLE: “The Taste of Life”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is from the Gospel lesson just read from John chapter 8.
The time of Jesus’ passion and death grows nearer. This Sunday is traditionally called Passion Sunday, for it is on this day that we hear of the people’s rejection of Jesus as the only Messiah, and how they sought to kill Him. We drape all the crosses in the church to remind us that the price for our Lord’s passion is great, and so that when we next view the cross, it will be with new eyes.
Jesus properly points out to the Jews that if they truly were from God, they would love Him, for He proceeds from the Father and goes back to the Father. He then goes on to say that they, the people, are of their father, the devil. For the devil is the father of lies and is at the root of all sin and evil in the world.
This is how our Lutheran Confessions treat this text about the devil. The Apology of the Augsburg Confession writes: “Nevertheless, the cause of sin is the will of the devil and of men turning away from God, as Christ said about the devil (John 8:44), “’When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature.’”1
In times of great evil and distress in the world, it is quite common to ask the question of why. Why is there so much evil in the world? Why is there so much hatred and violence? But if you dig even deeper, the question may even be asked of yourself: why do I do these things? Why am I so torn and possessed by sin? Saint Paul himself struggled with this very same question when he wrote:
Romans 7:18-20 (ESV)
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
This is the slavery to sin which we all are bound under and which we all struggle with every day or our lives. If you do not struggle and fight against sin, it is not a sign that you don’t sin. It is a sign that you are blind to sin and do not realize it’s stranglehold on you.
This is the message which so incensed and infuriated the Jews in Jesus’ day. He had the audacity and sheer gall to suggest to them that they were not going to be automatically saved because they were Jews. But even more, Jesus knows and understands the connection between sin and the devil. For the two always go together.
Now let’s step back and stop talking history for a minute. For Jesus isn’t talking about the Jews in this text finally; he’s talking about you. He’s talking about your desire to cling to pet sins. He’s talking about your wanting to always hold back on God. You know what I mean. I’ll go to church and be a Christian and all, but there are just some things that are too good to give up. There are certain sins which are mine, and I’m not going to let anything or anyone get in the way of doing what I want to do.
This is the trial Abraham faced in the sacrifice of his son. God had given him a son in his old age, and now God asked him to go and sacrifice his son, to prove his great love for the Lord. It didn’t make sense, and Abraham was sorely tempted to simply refuse. After all, this was his son, no one could take him away. He loved Isaac like no one else in the world. And yet it is precisely that love for his son which God tested. What are you willing to give up for me, the Lord asked. Your livelihood, your friends, your life, or even your son’s life?
Abraham walked by faith not by sight. He passed the test, because God gave him the faith to pass the test. But Abraham is not the only one God ever tested.
Every day or your life your faith is tried and tested in the furnace of the cross. There are constantly temptations for you to overcome, trials to face, and crosses to bear. But you know the dilemma: you fail at these every day. Like the Jews of Jesus’ day, you just can’t see past your own selfish nature and self-righteous judgment about the rest of the world.
So where is the Gospel? Where does the hope lie? The hope lies in those great words of Jesus: Before Abraham was, I AM. Those may sound like easy words to say, but those are words of sweet comfort for the hurting sinner. Those words draw you outside of yourself and your own failures and shortcomings, and draw you into His loving embrace and His everlasting comfort.
Let me explain. As long as you look at sin as something you can conquer like a bad habit, you will fail. We have a hard enough time conquering bad habits. Sin goes much, much deeper. Being a Christian is not like a diet program to get rid of sin. Sin is a part of your very nature as a human being since the Fall. You cannot simply reform your way of life. That is putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound. You must be reborn. You must be made anew. No set of laws or regulations or steps for living will cure this disease. It must come from outside of you.
Before Abraham was, I AM. What this means is that this Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has had your salvation planned before the foundation of the world. God knew you would fail, and His love for you is so great, so strong and powerful, that He ordained His only-begotten Son to come into your flesh and die so that the price would be paid for your failure.
The author to Hebrews put it this way: Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Jesus enters into that most holy place and paid the price, the ultimate price of His very life for you. It is that body and blood which you eat and drink this day. It is that body and blood which will cleanse you and remake you into the image of God once again.
This message is offensive. It forces you to put aside all of your silly and pathetic ideas about yourself, about your worth and status, and strips away the layers of sin and death which infect us all. And in their place the very image of God is put upon you with water and the Word of God.
So it is in that message of life through death and salvation through suffering that brings hope and peace to you this day. Abraham rejoiced to see this day, and he saw it and was glad. For all of heaven rejoice when one sinner comes to realize their sinfulness and turns in faith to the only one who can save them, even Jesus Christ, our Lord.
As we prepare for our Lord’s Passion, death and resurrection once again, may this ever be your song: Jesus, sinners does receive. Believe it for His sake. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.
By pastorjuhl, on March 17th, 2010%
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
The bitter irony is lost on the Jews tormenting Jesus in John chapter eight. The Psalms are their prayer book. Some knew every one of them by heart. They prayed frequently, Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me! Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord! You delivered me from my enemies; You rescued me from the man of violence. Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me. The Lord is righteous; He has cut the cords of the wicked.
The bitter irony is that the words they prayed frequently mean nothing to them now. They have set their hearts on ungodliness because they have set their hearts against the Messiah. Instead of praying the Psalms to strengthen faith in the Promise of the Savior, they pray these Words to defend a tradition, a way of doing things that they have grown comfortable doing over many years. They have separated Scripture from the Holy Spirit. The Jews who persecute Jesus commit the unpardonable sin.
They claim Abraham as their father, yet reject everything Abraham believed. They saw Him cast out demons, yet say Jesus casts out demons by the prince of demons. They call Jesus a Samaritan even after hearing a parable about a Samaritan coming to the aid of a Jew. Jesus is that Good Samaritan, yet they reject His parable as demonic because it goes against the letter of the Law. The Jews take up stones to stone the King of Kings because He supposedly commits blasphemy by saying, before Abraham was, I am. All these things the Jews do not knowing or believing that they are offering up the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.
The Lamb of God tells the Truth and you do not have ears to hear Him. Today begins the most difficult part of the journey with Jesus to Jerusalem. The Jesus you know from Holy Scripture rips apart the Jesus you think you know from your reason and senses. Perhaps you have approached Christ’s Passion and Death not believing what you hear. That’s not my Jesus. My Jesus wouldn’t call anyone a liar. My Jesus would never tell pious Jews they are not of God because they do not hear God’s Words. My Jesus would welcome anyone who believes in any sort of higher power. Though someone may deny every Word Jesus says, that person receives eternal life simply because God is love. A God Who loves would never deny eternal life to anyone. Doesn’t Jesus say so when He tells the crowds of the Jews, most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My words he shall never see death?
You have fallen prey to the foolish wisdom of the world. It is not the mere keeping of the words of Jesus Christ that brings eternal life. If it were, then Jesus would be the greatest moral theologian who ever lived. You could string every sentence He says about holy living into a chain of sayings like those of Confucius. All those parables would end up like Aesop’s fables: great stories with a moral that preaches virtues and values rather than repentance and faith.
Take another look at your Jesus. Today He does exactly as the Jews, and you, pray He does. This is your Jesus, the High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Though His Words seem like salt rubbed in wounds, they are Spirit and they are Truth. Jesus’ Words to the crowds of the Jews convict them of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Only the Holy Spirit preaches these Words. Jesus will have more to say about this preaching of the Holy Spirit before He ascends to heaven. Nevertheless, He convicts them of sin because they refuse to believe Him. He convicts them of false righteousness, trusting in a way of doing things as a people rather than seeing in these ways of doing things that one greater than Moses and Elijah stands among them. He convicts them of judgment because when they call Jesus a Samaritan and demon possessed, they judge themselves straight into hell.
Perhaps you are worried that you have done the same thing as the crowds of the Jews. Perhaps you wonder whether you have committed a sin against the Holy Spirit. Take heart. Do not fear. Wondering about the unpardonable sin and whether or not you committed it is a sign of repentance. Contrary to those who question our Lord in the Holy Gospel, you have heard His pardoning Word and have not hardened your hearts. It is a sign that you trust in the Savior Who vindicates you against the accuser who never stops accusing you. The Savior stands before you and accuses the accuser. Jesus is the ram caught in the thicket of thorns Who dies in your place to make perfect atonement for your sin.
Here’s how the author to the Hebrews puts it: For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? There’s deep comfort in those words. What was once a shadow of the good things to come is now before your eyes. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from all sin and delivers a clean conscience before God. You are vindicated. You are delivered from your accusing enemies. You are rescued from the man of violence by the Man of Sorrows Who takes on your accusations, your stripes, your dirty conscience, and the violence you deserve because of sin. Jesus takes on all these things and much more for you. He takes on your sin and gives you His righteousness. Jesus cuts the cords of the wicked and frees you from their snare. You are free.
Now comes the difficult part: keeping His Word. What does it mean to keep the Word of Christ? Keeping the Word of Christ means to hearken to it, to listen carefully, to make His Word your Word through total trust in what Jesus says. It is as if you are blind to everything except Christ. Your eyes remain on Him though you are tossed back and forth. Hearkening to His Word means to let the Holy Spirit through the Word direct you to the places where the Lord gives His undeserved love. He brings you to the font, to the pulpit, and to the altar to receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life. These are the holy places where the Savior calls out to you to walk with Him through the valley of the shadow of death into the light of eternal life. The One Who is greater than Abraham kept His Promise to Abraham and his offspring. He will keep His promise to you as well. Believe it for Jesus’ sake.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
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