Matthew 16:13-19
St. Peter and St. Paul

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

    “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  That was the question Jesus asked the disciples in Caesarea Philippi.  Most people thought of him as an important figure, a great prophet like Elijah or Jeremiah, or perhaps even the beheaded John the Baptist risen from the dead.  

    It’s really quite noteworthy that the people made those particular connections to Jesus.  For each of those prophets was known for speaking strong words, even to people in powerful positions, proclaiming the wrath of God on the ungodly, calling Israel back to faithfulness.  Elijah announced a famine at the time of the wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel; He preached against the false religion of Baal and mocked their priests.  Jeremiah preached against kings and the corrupt use of the Lord’s house; he prophesied the fall of Jerusalem.  And John the Baptizer called the religious leaders a brood of vipers; he preached to everyone that they must repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

    So let this be a reminder to you not to embrace popular caricatures of Jesus.  His preaching was not just that everyone should be nice and fair.  It was deadly serious stuff dealing with saving souls from the very real judgement of God.  Jesus said His words would divide families (Matt. 10:34-36).  He called for real repentance and holy living and offered real mercy and grace (John 8:1-11).  Jesus’ preaching was manly and authoritative; it reminded the people of an Old Testament prophet. 
    
    Of course, there was much about Jesus that the people didn’t understand, just as it is to this day.  Most people also today think of Jesus still as an important figure; even non-Christian religions try to co-opt Jesus in some way and claim Him as their own–Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, you name it.  Almost everyone has nice things to say about Jesus.  But you’ll note that most see him as just a man–perhaps a great man and teacher, but still just a man.  Just as it was in Jesus’ day, the people’s understanding of Jesus falls short of the truth.  So yes, Jesus gives you wisdom for living in this world, but He is not merely your life coach guru helping you to be your best self.  Yes, Jesus speaks truth to power, but He is not merely there to promote your favorite political causes or wrap Himself in the American flag.  Yes, Jesus fulfills the Law, but He is not just a great moral teacher.  We need to be on guard against seeing Jesus merely in our own human terms.  He is fully human; but there’s so much more to who He is and what He taught and did.

    Jesus then turns the question to His disciples, “But who do you say that I am?”  That is the fundamental question of life, isn’t it, one that every single person will have to answer in the end.  “Who do you say that Jesus is?”  How would you answer that question?  If you’re ever talking with an unchurched friend or family member about the faith, this is a great question to discuss.  Because if you’re talking about Christ, then you’re talking about the heart and center of the Christian faith.  It’s best not to get bogged down in details about controversial questions right away.  Just keep the focus on Jesus, who He is, what He said and did.

    A good way to answer this question would be to quote the catechism, the meaning of the 2nd article of the Creed: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord.”  That’s who the real Jesus is–not just a great man, but also the great God in the flesh, who became man in order to become your Lord, the One who rescues you out of bondage to Satan and death and who brings you into His kingdom of light and life, so that you may serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

    That’s exactly the way Peter answers here with his great confession.  He says to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  The title, “Christ” means “the Anointed One.”  It’s the Greek version of the Hebrew word “Messiah.”  Prophets, priests, and especially kings were referred to as the Lord’s anointed, like king David of old.  So Peter here is referring to Jesus as the promised Messiah King–but not merely an earthly king.  For Jesus is also the Son of the Living God.  Jesus is King of all creation, who has come to redeem all creation in His holy flesh and blood.  He is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, who for us and for our salvation was made man.

    And please pay special attention to Peter’s words here, that Jesus is “the Son of the living God.”  Caesarea Philippi was a pagan area north of Galilee, full of all sorts of idols and false gods.  The pagan Caesar was honored in the city name, as was Herod Philip who rebuilt and enlarged it.  In particular, Caesarea Philippi was known for its worship of the God Pan, that flute-playing, goat-legged, horned god of the wild and of flocks you may have learned about.  When we were in Israel a few years ago, we went to this location, a nature area where you can still see the remnants of the old pagan idols like Pan and large altar areas in cave grottos and carved into the rocks.  So now picture the scene in today’s Gospel: in the presence of all these dead gods, which are nothing more than demonic illusions, Simon Peter says to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  Here in Jesus is the true God, the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Peter confesses here that every other god is nothing; worshiping them leads to death.

    That’s still how it is.  All the false gods that you are tempted to idolize–possessions, power, pleasure, the praise of people–giving your life to those things only leads to death.  For either they offer demonic illusions and false hopes, or the things that they give only last a short time.  What false gods offer is temporary; what the living God gives is eternal.  Remember what the psalm says: “Their idols... have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see; ears, but do not hear...  Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them” (Psalm 115).  That’s an important principle to keep in mind: You become like what you worship and give yourself to; you become like your G/god.  Worship dead idols, you die.  Attach your heart to the passing things and people of this world, you too will pass away eternally.  Worship the Living God, and you will have real life.  Receive His eternal gifts in Christ Jesus and you will share in the blessings of the new creation with Him forever.  You become like what you worship and devote yourself to.  Worship Jesus, and you will become like Him, sharing fully in His image, partaking of His divine life.

    In response to Peter’s confession of faith, Jesus calls him blessed, because this truth was revealed to him by the Father.  It was a divinely given insight.  And then Jesus goes on to say, “On this rock, I will build My church.”  Roman Catholics have tried to suggest that Jesus was referring to Peter himself, that the church would be built on him as the first pope, since the name Peter means “rock.”  But if you know anything about Peter, or any other fallen human being for that matter, building the church on that foundation would be building on sand.  No, of course, Jesus was referring to Peter’s rock-solid confession of faith in Him.  That’s what the church is built on, as it is written in 1 Corinthians 3, “No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  Built on that Rock, the church shall stand.  Christ is our cornerstone.  On Him alone we build, on the foundation of the words of His apostles and prophets in Holy Scripture.

    There’s one other thing to note from the Gospel about Caesarea Philippi, and that is the reference to the gates of hell.  At this place where the god Pan was worshiped there was a spring of water flowing out of a cave.  When the ancient people tried to see how deep the spring was, they found that they could not reach the bottom, no matter how long of a line that they let down into it.  This was a mysterious and fearful place for them.  They considered it to be a sort of gateway to the underworld, the place of Hades, the god of the dead.  And so when Jesus says that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the Church, that would really resonate here.  Even this deep, mysterious place, even Hades and every other demonic false god, indeed even the devil himself could not prevail against the church.  For the Lord Jesus conquered every dark, pagan power and crushed Satan’s head in His death on the cross.  Christ went to the place of the dead and broke down the gates of hell.  And He arose again bodily in triumph on the 3rd day, in victory over every enemy that stands against you.  The gates of Hades and the depths of death cannot swallow you up.  You are safe and secure in Christ’s Church where you have taken refuge in Him.

    Today is the day when we rejoice in the ministry of St. Peter and St. Paul.  Both of these men, in the confidence of Christ Jesus, engaged in battle against the gates of hell in their preaching and teaching.  Paul in particular would be the apostle to the pagan Gentiles, traveling through the territory of the Greek and Roman gods, indeed all the way to Rome itself preaching Christ the crucified.  Peter, too, would conclude his ministry in pagan Rome.  Both of these men faithfully led the church to confess that we are saved by faith in Christ alone apart from the works of the Law.  You heard how there were some who wanted to make the keeping of the Old Testament ceremonial Law necessary for salvation.  But when the church in Jerusalem heard from Paul and Barnabas how the Holy Spirit had been given also to the uncircumcised Gentiles, Peter confirmed the truth of the Gospel by saying that circumcision was not necessary.  For those ceremonial rules and food regulations and sacrifices had all been fulfilled by Christ.  It is through faith in Jesus alone that we are saved.

    This is the faith that Peter and Paul proclaimed and lived for.  This is the faith that Peter and Paul died for.  According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside down for his preaching, insisting on that since he didn’t feel worthy to die the same way that Jesus did.  And Paul was beheaded in Rome, likely under the persecution of Christians under Emperor Nero.  This is in keeping with what Jesus said to the disciples and to all of us right after Peter’s great confession of faith, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

    Let us all then take up the cross in our daily vocations, dying to ourselves in this world, that we may share in Jesus’ resurrection in the next.  For the Lord has purchased and saved your soul at the price of His holy, precious blood.  As God’s baptized sons and daughters, let us confess together with Peter and the whole Church the saving truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

Feast of the Holy Trinity
John 3:1-17

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    There is a strong temptation in times like these to let news headlines determine what we talk about and meditate on, even here in church.  Much is unsettled and troubled in the world: conflict in the Middle East, disorder on the streets of our cities, budgetary issues both in our homes and our government.  These things can dominate and consume our attention and energy.  But in the church we focus our meditation and our attention first and foremost on God’s Word.  For the Word of the Lord endures forever.  Only the wisdom that it imparts can help us to see ourselves and our world rightly.  Apart from the Word there is only delusion and division and the lure of this or that political ideology.  But in the Word we find peace and truth.  For there we find Jesus, the One who is the Truth, who shares in the humanity of all people, who restores good order and unites us in Himself by the Gospel.  The answer to what ails us and the world is to be found only in Christ.

     So on this Holy Trinity Sunday, we begin by directing our attention to the nature of the only true God–the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  1 John 4 says that God is love–not just that He is loving in some sappy sense, but that He actually is love, within Himself.  He is the perfect union of persons in one divine essence.  And He is therefore by nature the God who gives of Himself in order to redeem us fallen human beings.  We heard it in today’s Gospel reading, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”  The God who is love demonstrated that love by giving His only Son to the death of the cross to save us and all who believe.

    There can be a temptation, though, to take that John 3:16 verse, which beautifully sums up the Gospel, and reduce it to a sort of trite meme or bumper sticker, as if Jesus just wants everyone to be nice, as if He were just some flower child hippie.  That’s not the Jesus of the Bible.  So let’s not forget the context in which this is spoken–Jesus is talking to Nicodemus.  Nicodemus doesn’t understand what Jesus means when He says, “you must be born again.”  And unfortunately, many don’t understand Jesus’ words still to this day.

    To a lot of folks, being born again means having a spiritual experience of God centering on inner emotions.  They say that being born again means making a religious choice, a decision to follow a certain way of life.  But if you think about it, none of that has anything to do with birth.

    When you were born the first time, you weren’t even aware of exactly what was happening. You didn’t make a choice to be born.  It wasn’t about your emotions, except maybe for the fact that you were fussing and crying.  When you were born in the flesh, you were helpless, dependent, not capable of making decisions at all.  Jesus uses that metaphor of fleshly birth to teach us about spiritual birth.  Just as your first birth was your parents’ doing, so your second birth is God’s doing.  Life and birth is not something you do, it’s something you receive.  Our life with God is entirely a gift from Him; we are dependent on Him for everything, as an infant is dependent on his parents.  That’s why Jesus said on another occasion, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Mark 10:15)

    This is what our Lord also is teaching Nicodemus here: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  As in the beginning when the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters to bring life to creation, so the Holy Spirit hovers over the baptismal waters to bring about new life and a new creation.  As a baby is given birth from the watery womb of his mother, so also a Christian–baby or adult–is given rebirth in the watery font of our mother, the Church.  Titus 3 says: “[God the Father] saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”  

    Jesus commanded the apostles to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Note that Jesus doesn’t say to baptize “in the names” of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but rather “in the name,” singular.  His Jewish listeners knew what He meant by saying “the name.” For that is what they called God, a Hebrew word, pronounced HaShem, that translates “The Name.” It was the name that they didn’t speak for fear of misusing it.  But we are given to speak it and confess it: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  One name, one God, three distinct Persons.  That’s the truth and the beautiful mystery of the Holy Trinity.

    We Christians are under a lot of pressure to back off from our Trinitarian Creeds, to compromise our belief that this is the one and only God, or to retreat from Jesus’ words that He is the only Way to the Father and eternal life.  We are encouraged instead to just pray to a generic “God.”  We are pressured to treat Jews and Muslims–and sometimes even Buddhists and Pagans–as people who pray to the same God as we do.  But all religions do not lead to the same God, just as all roads don’t lead to the same destination.  Unless we worship the Trinity, we are walking the wrong path.  If people deny that Jesus is God, they are praying to a false god.  If they are praying to a “life force in the universe,” they are praying to a false god.  If they deny the personhood of the Holy Spirit, they are praying to a false god.

    And let me add that this is not just ivory tower stuff.  This is very practical and relevant.  For only in the true God is there real life and actual love.  Only the Holy Trinity is the God of pure grace and mercy.  Every other religion tells you in some way that you have to earn your own way into divine favor by what you do.  Every other so-called god is a delusion and a lie that ultimately leads to the destruction of those who embrace it.  For the Scriptures say that when people worship false gods, they are actually worshiping demons (1 Cor. 10:20) posing as angels of light (2 Cor. 11:14).  Satan and the demons love religion and spirituality, as long as it draws you away from the Jesus of the Bible to some other false Christ and false belief.  The devil doesn’t necessarily try to get rid of Jesus, just to redefine Him and corrupt His words.  That’s why every religion tries to claim that Jesus is on their side and co-opt Him in one way or another.

    I’ve noticed a small example of this trending lately on social media under the theme, “Read the red words.”  The red words, of course, are the words of Jesus in the Bible in red print.  People will quote sayings of Jesus about loving your neighbor or feeding the hungry as a political statement regarding the current illegal immigration situation.  And we should undoubtedly pay attention to those words of Jesus.  But we dare not ignore all the other words in red calling people to repentance for their sins and to stop their pharisaical virtue signaling--those words tend not to get quoted so much.  But here’s the thing: what’s implied is that the rest of the words of the Bible in black are somehow less important or can be ignored.  However, if the Bible is the Word of God, and Jesus is God, all the words in black are His words, too, written by His chosen apostles, including the ones condemning lawlessness and calling people to honor the authorities as ones who bear the sword by divine authority.  

    If we really love our neighbor, we want them to know the truth, the full truth.  And the truth is this: we all must be born again–all of us.  Next time somebody says, “I was born this way,” you can say, “Yeah, I know.  We’re all natural born sinners.  That’s why Jesus said you must be born again.”  Our first birth inevitably leads to death.  We are born under the curse, turned in on ourselves.  We cannot escape from judgment by our own efforts and merits.  This is the reason that Christianity is not merely about getting your life together; it’s about getting a whole new life, the life of Christ.  You can’t fix or reform your way into heaven.  Your old Adam won’t allow it.  He’ll just try to use religion to his own perverse advantage.  No, according to Scripture your old Adam must be drowned and die through daily contrition and repentance, so that a new man may emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.  St. Paul put it this way in Galatians 2, “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live by Christ who lives in me.  And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

    Jesus gave Himself for you, lifted up on the cross like the bronze serpent of old, so that everyone who believes in Him would be rescued from the lethal venom of sin and have eternal life.  It is only through Jesus that we come to fully know the Holy Trinity.  Christ is the One who reveals the Father.  Christ is the One who sends the Holy Spirit.  He is the One who shares fully in our humanity so that we may share fully in His divine life.

    So let us remember and affirm this day what the Christian, Trinitarian faith is.  We believe in the Father who created us and the Son who redeemed us and the Holy Spirit who makes us holy.  We believe in the Father who loves even us sinners, in His one and only Son who redeemed us with His precious blood, and in the Holy Spirit who pours out that love upon us by water and the Word.  We believe in the Father who reaches out to us fallen creatures in mercy, whose Son takes on our nature and bears our judgment and saves us, whose Holy Spirit unites us as one holy, Christian, apostolic Church in the preaching of the Gospel and the holy supper.  It’s all from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit; and then back again in the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father.

    This is the catholic faith, with a small “c,” what the church in all times and places has taught, the Scriptural faith which binds us together as one people of God, whatever our background may be.  Whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16-17).

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Numbers 21:4-9; 1 Timothy 2:1-6; John 16:23-33
Easter 6

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

    This past Wednesday I was driving on the highway, and I saw a billboard that had just three words filling the entire sign.  The billboard simply said, “You are enough.”  I imagine those who paid for that wanted to spread an encouraging mental health message in a world that often seems to beat us down.  “Don’t always compare yourself to others and seek external validation.  You are enough.”  And there is certainly some truth there.  As a creation of God, you most certainly have great value, no matter who you are.  Your value doesn’t come from pleasing other people and living up to their standards for looks or achievements before you’re worth something.  You don’t need to be fake.  Your individual humanity is precious.  

    But of course, there’s much more which that phrase is trying to communicate.  In our world the statement that “You are enough” means that you are good enough of yourself, that your intrinsic value comes from within.  The world says that you should believe in your own innate abilities and potential, that you should embrace your own desires and prioritize personal growth and self-care, even when affirming yourself means affirming something that is not God-pleasing.  Slogans like this can encourage you to look to your own inner strength, to your own spiritual power.  

    And that’s a problem.  Because the truth is, you and I are not enough–not of ourselves.  And when we feel that “not-enoughness,” we’re feeling the reality of our fallen condition, that things aren’t quite right with us.  We shouldn’t deny that; because if we do, then we deny our real need for being saved, our real need for Jesus. Sometimes when people look in the mirror and say to themselves, “You are enough,” what they’re really doing is trying to justify themselves, who they are and what they do (or don’t do).  And while that may work for a while and help you maintain a positive attitude, eventually it ends badly, especially as we stand before God.  For Romans 3 states that none of us is justified by who we are or by what we do.  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  You and I are not enough.  We need restoration.

    Beware, then, of looking within yourself for answers or for power or for some spiritual connection to the divine.  For whether that inward look leads to self-love or self-loathing, you’re still lost inside yourself.  And that sort of navel-gazing and self-focused life is not what you were created for.  

    What God created you for is to live outside of yourself–in Him by faith, and in your neighbor by love.  Our eyes are to be directed not inward, but outward and upward.  

    When the Israelites were in grave danger because of the fiery serpents, what was it that saved them?  Was it their own inner resources or intelligence or spirituality?  No, they finally acknowledged that they were inwardly full of sin against the Lord.  They looked outside of themselves to the Lord’s servant Moses for help.  And the solution the Lord provided was outside of them, too–the bronze serpent on the pole.  When the Israelites stopped focusing inward and downward on all their serpentine troubles and instead looked outward and upward to the Lord, when they trusted in the Lord’s external promise connected to that bronze serpent, they were healed and restored and safe.  

    So it is also for you.  The serpent wants you to focus on yourself–whether it’s on all your shortcomings and flaws and troubles in life, or whether it’s on all your wonderful qualities and good deeds and amazing achievements.  That’s the venom of sin that has been injected into your veins–what Luther called man curved in on himself.  Left in that condition, you will die.  But God does not leave you in that condition.  Instead, the Lord shares in your humanity and allows the serpent to sink its fangs into Him.  Having absorbed all the deadly venom into Himself, Jesus is lifted up for you on the cross.  He who knew no sin became sin for you, so that you would become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).  Jesus allowed Himself to be treated as if He were the evil one so that you would be treated as beloved children, holy and righteous in God’s sight.  For the risen Jesus has crushed the serpent’s head.  Though of yourself your efforts and merits are not enough, looking to Christ on the cross and trusting in His all-sufficient death and resurrection, you are saved and restored and made whole.  It is written in John 3, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”  In this Jesus alone you are justified.  Baptized into Him, you have the greatest worth.  Trusting in His promises, you receive His enoughness.

    That is why the Epistle points us to Jesus as the One we should look to as our Mediator before God.  Don’t try to come to God on your own–it won’t go well for you.  There is a saying in the legal profession that the one who represents himself in court has a fool for a lawyer.  How much more is that true when we stand before the Judge of all things!  Thankfully, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One.  He is our wise lawyer.  Since He Himself is both God and man, He is the One who is able to bring God and man back together and win for you a verdict of mercy.  You can’t win this yourself.  You need a Mediator.  Jesus is the only One for the job.  

    And this applies, then, also to prayer.  You don’t come to God on your own; you come in Jesus’ name.  Your prayers are offered through Jesus Christ our Lord.  That’s why it is appropriate to pray “Our Father” even when you’re alone.  It’s not just that you are always linked together with other Christians when you pray–which is a great thing to remember–you are connected with Christ Himself.  He is right by your side as you pray, bringing your prayers to the Father with a holy “our” so that they are heard and answered according to His good and gracious will.  Jesus is your Mediator in prayer.  He is the One who gives you access to the heavenly throne.  It’s His name and His credentials that get you in.

    Don’t ever take prayer for granted.  It is a key way God has given you to get outside of yourself.  When you are tempted to wallow in anxiety or self-pity or pride, prayer helps you to get the focus off of yourself and onto the One who is the source of every good gift and all that you need in both body and soul.  The very act of prayer reminds you that the place to look is not within but outside of yourself.  Things are not in your hands but in His hands.  To pray is to believe that for the sake of Christ, God is truly good and merciful.  It is to come to Him as dear children to a dear father.  It is to know that even when the answer to prayer isn’t what you expected or hoped for, in the end you will understand; Father knows best.  In the end He will come through for you in ways far beyond your expectations.  

    Note how Jesus doesn’t mince words here: in the world you will have tribulation.  Don’t be surprised by that as if it’s some strange thing.  Rather, let that tribulation accomplish its purpose of driving you away from self-focused trust.  Let it drive you to Him who suffered all tribulation for you to show you the way through it and out again in the resurrection of the body.  Receive His words when He says to you, “Take heart, I have overcome the world.”  Jesus is the Conqueror.  He is Lord over sin and death and the devil.  And in Jesus you also are more than conquerors.  Pray to Him, that your joy may be full.  Take refuge in Him, and all will be well in the end.  And until then, remember what He says, “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace.”  “You can endure with confidence and a restful heart.  My grace is sufficient for you; it is enough.  And in Me, you are enough.  Look to me for your validation and justification. You have a standing and a place in the household in My name.  Keep your eyes fixed on Me, the One who was lifted up for you.”

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

John 10:11-18, 27-30
Misericordias Domini
May 5, 2025
Aaron A. Koch
Preached at the Gottesdienst Conference
Redeemer Lutheran Church
Fort Wayne, Indiana

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

    The Lord Jesus says in the Gospel, “I know My sheep.”  Does that bring you comfort or discomfort, “I know My sheep”?  If you know yourself–if you’re honest about how easily greed or jealousy can well up within you, how often you have turned to your own way and to the same foolish sins, how quickly you can give in to fear or despair or grumbling–then Jesus’ words may not at first sound particularly comforting.  He knows all about you, all the things you’d be horrified for other people to find out, all the cringe-inducing memories.  “I know My sheep.”

    However, as unsettling as it might be, it is a very good thing that your Shepherd knows you completely.  For He is not like a political consultant doing opposition research on you so that He can broadcast your defects, or an intelligence operative who has inside information that he can use as leverage to make you do what he wants.  No, He is like the lifelong friend who knows all your foibles and tendencies and triggers, who stands with you even in the ugly times to lift you up from the pit, who calls you out to something better.

    The fact that Jesus knows you is precisely what saves you.  He’s not just talking here about having the facts on you.  It’s much more personal, knowing you in a way that takes you in and embraces you.  That’s why Jesus’ words are comforting good news–for what our Lord knows, He can heal.  What He grasps and takes hold of, He can subdue and redeem.  What He embraces and takes in, He can suffer to death and purify and renew in His own body.

    You do not have a Shepherd who knows you only intellectually, at arm’s length, while never actually feeling and enduring and bearing what you go through.  And the Lord doesn’t have mere information about your heartache and your stress and your depression and your fears, all the while keeping a safe distance.  Rather, in Jesus you have a Shepherd who commits Himself to you entirely in His incarnation–the Shepherd who is the Lamb–who shares in your flesh and blood, who receives your humanity into Himself, who understands and takes in everything you are.  In Jesus you have One who can sympathize with your weaknesses, who was tempted in all points just as you are.  And though He Himself is without sin, He endured your sin and experienced your suffering and underwent your judgment and your death to deliver you from it all on the cross.  It is precisely in knowing you that Jesus is your Good Shepherd.  It is in knowing you that He lays down His life.  The sins that mortify you moved the Good Shepherd to be mortified for you.  “The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”  

    Though the Lord truly knows you, He doesn’t draw back or turn away or run from you.  Instead He sticks with you as your truest Friend.  That is what makes Him the Good Shepherd, the Good Pastor.  He doesn’t flee when the wolf comes.  Instead when the predators close in–sin and death and the devil–He steps in between you and them.  He suffers the ravaging for you, dragging them all down to hell and destroying them, to protect you and save you as His own flock–"My sheep," Jesus says.  He lays down His life in order to take it up again, so that you may have life in Him and have it abundantly.  

    Those who are shepherds in the church of course have a pattern here.  Pastors also are given to know their sheep.  The hireling knows the job description but doesn’t truly know or care for the sheep.  They’re just a means to an end for him; and so he offers no real protection against the wolf.  Christ’s undershepherds, though, are called to know both their theology and their people, and to bring both of those things to bear as they minister to the sheep.  The faithful shepherd does not run from hardship, much less from the annoyances and the weaknesses of the sheep.  Rather, he is given to embrace the flock, and he steps in to guard them from wolfish false teaching.  He leads them with the living voice and the living words of the Chief Shepherd.

    For the Lord says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”  By the grace of God, the sheep recognize Jesus; they perk up and listen to Him and begin to follow in His steps, being dead to sins and living unto righteousness.  We are drawn to the sound of Jesus’ voice, aren’t we, His words of life and counsel and wisdom.  In the midst of all the other voices out there clamoring for your attention, enticing you to follow their version of spirituality, only the one-of-a-kind voice of the Good Shepherd rings true and beautiful in your ears, kalos.  There’s nothing else like it, is there–the absolving pronouncement of Jesus, “I forgive you all your sins,”  the preaching of our Lord’s goodness and mercy that pursues you and rescues you and heals you.  It is the voice of Him who does not flee when the going gets tough, who is not scared off by what He knows about you or by the predators who have abused you and made you feel polluted.  It is the sound of the One who still seeks you out and gathers you to Himself, who restores your soul and leads you in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

    That is how Jesus is known by His own.  You know Him by His voice, by His Word.  And embracing Him who is the Word, you are brought back into fellowship with the Father.  Note what Jesus says here, “As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.”  Do you hear that?  Jesus extends His perfect union with the Father to you.  He knows and embraces all that you are so that you might know and embrace all that He is and share fully in the fellowship of God’s love.  To put it simply, by this working of Christ’s Spirit, you have been drawn into the very life of God Himself, the Blessed Holy Trinity.  “I know My sheep, and am known by My own.”

    Let these words of Jesus, then, bring you comfort.  For in Scripture, the worst, most horrific thing you could hear from the Lord is “I do not know you.”  But in fact He does know you, precisely so that He might be merciful to you.  The Good Shepherd says to you, “I know you in your baptism, where I marked you with My cross and claimed you as My own.  And you know Me here at the altar, where you receive the overflowing richness of My grace in the eating and drinking of My true body and blood.  I laid down My life for you, and now I give out My life to you.  I have prepared the table before you right in the presence of your enemies–see how they lie conquered beneath My resurrected feet!  

    “So take heart.  I have called you by name.  You are mine.  I give you eternal life, and you shall never perish.  Neither shall anyone snatch you out of My hand.”

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

John 20:1-18
The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

    There is an element of the Easter account that we all know very well, but since it’s so familiar and obvious, we usually pass over it too quickly.  And that element is this: the first witnesses of the resurrection were women.  OK.  So what?  Doesn’t seem all that noteworthy.  But in the first century this really would have stood out.  For women were not considered to be reliable witnesses.  Jewish rabbis at the time explicitly said that the testimony of a woman, especially in a court of law, was not to be considered valid.  While this was not Jesus’ stance toward women, it was the thinking of the time.  So what can we learn from the fact that in every one of the four Gospels, it is the women who are the first witnesses of Easter?

    First of all, this helps to authenticate the resurrection of Jesus, that this is a real, historical event and not some legend.  After all, if you were going to make up and invent a story, the last thing you would do at that time would be to give women such a prominent role in your tale.  And, in fact, those who rejected and mocked Christianity in the first century often pointed this out about the Easter account, that it was based in part on the unreliable testimony of grieving women.  The idea of bodily resurrection was something the first century world already scoffed at, and this feature of the narrative just made it an even easier target for lampooning.  

    And yet the early Christian church didn’t adjust their story to make it more palatable to the world.  They didn’t take out the part about the women and jump right to the men, to Jesus’ later appearances to the disciples.  No they stood by the women.  They didn’t even photoshop Mary Magdalene out of the picture–the one who, if she wasn’t formerly a prostitute, certainly had a shady past.  And yet there she is, not just in the background but prominently featured, particularly in John’s account of Easter.  The early Christian community stood by the account we have in the Gospels from the very beginning.  They didn’t change how the story happened because this wasn’t a concocted story in the first place.  This is how it actually occurred, and no amount of rejection or persecution could make them deny this life-changing truth.  

    And there is another thing we can learn from the women being the first witnesses of the resurrection.  Their central role in this points to the fact that Jesus’ resurrection is the undoing of the fall of mankind.  You recall how in Genesis, it was Eve who was tempted by the devil in the Garden, and after she succumbed and ate, she passed some along to her husband with her and he ate.  Though both Adam and Eve were guilty, it was from the woman to the man that death came.  That was the path by which the curse traveled and the grave gained its power over us.  “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”  

    So now on Easter morning, our Lord Jesus does a wonderful “in your face” to our ancient enemy.  He mocks the devil whom He has defeated by purposely giving the good news first to the women to then give to the men.  Jesus reverses and destroys the devil’s work.  Just as the fall came through Eve to Adam–who failed to preach God’s Word in that moment–so now news of the raising up of mankind comes from Mary Magdalene to Peter and John and all the disciples who would preach the good news.  Here in this Garden, the announcement that the tomb is empty and that the curse of death is broken is carried by the women to these men, who would be ordained by Christ to be the preachers and apostles of the Easter Gospel–as it is with all men who serve as Christ’s voice in the pastoral office down to this day.  Here we are given to see that in the risen Jesus creation is redeemed from the fall and all things are restored and revitalized.

    In this true story of the resurrection, Jesus is shown to be the new Adam for us, the one in whom humanity has a new birth and a new beginning.  And we need this new life desperately, don’t we.  For our old life from the first Adam is riddled with death even from our youth.  It’s the hollowness that you still have even after you’ve taken in your fill of all this passing world has to offer. It’s the camaraderie you seek by going along with the crowd that turns out to be a sort of crowded isolation.  It’s the deterioration of your bodies and the brokenness of your relationships which happens often in spite of your best efforts.  There’s ultimately no avoiding the truth of your mortality.  In the end you are left right where Mary was: bent over, staring through tearful eyes into the gaping mouth of the grave.

    But note what Mary sees.  Not only is Jesus’ tomb empty, but she also sees two angels sitting where Jesus had been.  And these messengers of the Lord ask her, “Why are you weeping?”  “There’s no need for tears any more.  For the crucified One whom you seek has risen.  He who bore the curse of the world’s sin has redeemed you from the curse forever.  He who was held by the jaws of the grave has shattered those jaws and has destroyed death’s power over you.  He who did battle with the kingdom of darkness has crushed the devil’s head by His holy cross, setting you free from hellish bondage.  So don’t cry.  Jesus is alive for you as the triumphant Lord of all.”

    Mary then turns around and sees Jesus.  But she doesn’t yet know that it’s Him.  She mistakes Jesus for the gardener.  But of course, she really isn’t mistaken, is she.  Jesus is the Gardener.  For He is risen to restore you to Paradise.  This New Adam walks in the garden in the cool of the new day and comes to this daughter of Eve.  What He brings to her and to you is not judgment but justification, not sin but righteousness, not death but life.  Jesus totally and completely undoes the fall.  We heard it in the Epistle, “As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

    Jesus reveals who He is to Mary simply with one word.  The sheep know their Shepherd’s voice, and He calls them each by name. “Mary.”  In the joy of this sudden recognition, Mary cries out “Teacher!”  She goes to Jesus and falls before Him, clinging to His feet, the same feet she had once anointed with fragrant oil and with repentant tears.  The Teacher who had received her and had forgiven her sins was alive!  Now it is tears of joy that she cries.  

    But interestingly, Jesus tells her, “Do not cling to me.”  Why would He say that to her and ruin this moment?  Things are not the same now.  This is not just a going back to the good old days before the horrors of Good Friday.  Easter is not the undoing of the crucifixion, just a turning back of the clock.  In truth Easter is the victory of the crucifixion.  It’s the result and effect of what He accomplished on the cross.  The resurrection of our Lord shows that His death really did pay the wages of sin completely.  By the cross He swallowed up death and conquered the grave and redeemed the world and routed the devil.  Easter is simply the glorious revealing of that fact.  So Jesus is not snubbing Mary here; but He is indicating that things will never be the same again.  Everything has been changed.  

    Time now has been turned forward.  Jesus’ death and bodily resurrection have inaugurated the era of the new creation.  Easter means that we are looking forward to something much better than the Garden of Eden.  Through Christ, creation itself will be resurrected and freed from its bondage to decay and death.  On Tuesday the world will have its semi-pagan “Earth Day” celebration.  But we know that the real earth day is today.  For Easter means that the groaning of  creation under the curse has its end, and what was intended for this earth from the beginning will come to come to its awesome fulfillment in Jesus.

    The good news for you today is that you have your place in this because you are baptized into Christ, who is the source and spring of the new creation.  Jesus revealed Himself to you actually in the same way He did to Mary, by calling your name at the baptismal font.  By water and the Word He drew your name into the name of the Holy Trinity.  He united you with Himself and thereby made you a child of God.  That’s why Jesus says to Mary, “My Father and your Father, my God and your God.”  Do you see what that means?  Penitent believers are now family with Jesus.  All that Christ is and has He has made yours: release from sorrow, abounding forgiveness, indestructible life and joy.  In Christ you are restored to communion with God and with one another.  

    Finally I must note what a wonderful change of message occurs with Mary Magdalene in the Gospel.  She goes from a frantic “They have taken away the Lord!” to a joyous “I have seen the Lord!”  At first she had thought the soldiers who were guarding the tomb had moved Jesus’ body.  They would have absolutely no reason to do that, but it was the only way she could make sense of things.  She didn’t yet know that when Jesus rose, the soldiers became paralyzed with fear and then fled away.  That, too, is more evidence of the resurrection.  Both Jesus’ friends and enemies acknowledged that the tomb was empty.  Jesus’ cowardly disciples certainly couldn’t have stolen the body.  And if the body had been moved by the well-armed authorities, the location of His corpse immediately would have been pointed out by them when the disciples started preaching that Jesus was alive.  This whole Christianity thing would have gone absolutely nowhere.  But the authorities didn’t do that.  They couldn’t.  For there was no dead body any more.  

    No, Christ Jesus is indeed risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  There is more of Easter to come, more rising from the dead.  Our Lord has led the way through the grave, so that those who die in Him will also rise with Him when He comes again.  The Lord will swallow up death forever.  He will wipe away the tears from all faces.  You can be sure of it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.  

    Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Matthew 26 and 27
Palm/Passion Sunday

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    If you pay close attention to the Passion narrative, the crucifixion of Jesus is something that no one seems to want.  You might think that the plotting, scheming religious leaders want the crucifixion.  But they don’t–at least not yet, not this week of the Passover.  The chief priests, the scribes, and the elders don’t want Jesus bloodied up with all the crowds around.  Their plan is for it to be later, when there are fewer people, lest there be an uproar, they say.

    The disciples, of course, don’t want the crucifixion.  Peter, earlier had actually rebuked Jesus for speaking about His death; now He tries to stop the crucifixion by drawing and striking with His sword at the time of confrontation and arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.  

    Jesus Himself prays: “O My Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”  I think this is one point where the hymn we just sang doesn’t get it quite right.  It says, “Yet cheerful He to suffering goes.”  His agony in the garden wouldn’t suggest cheerfulness.  He most assuredly was willing and determined and ready to do His Father’s will, but He was a real human being like you and me.  No one is cheerful about a torturous death.  Perhaps the point of the word cheerful is that it was Jesus’ joy and His glory to lay down His life for you to save you.

    Even Judas doesn’t seem to want this crucifixion, at least not in the end.  Whatever his dark motives were before–greed, envy, dissatisfaction with Jesus’ political agenda–now he confesses, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”

    And Pontius Pilate?  He doesn’t want the crucifixion.  He tries to reason his way out of this political jam.  He knows Jesus is innocent; but He doesn’t want to offend the Jewish leaders.  And He most certainly doesn’t want a big public incident with word getting back to Caesar, who was already just one step away from replacing him as governor.  So Pilate tries to come up with a diplomatic solution: offer the crowd a choice of who to release from custody, the somewhat popular Jesus, or the notorious criminal Barabbas.  And in the midst of all this, Pilate’s wife sends to her husband urging him not to have anything to do with Jesus–she doesn’t want the crucifixion either.  But Pilate’s plan doesn’t work; the religious leaders have their people there to influence the crowd in favor of Barabbas over Jesus.  Finally, Pilate attempts to wash his hands of the whole thing, publicly declaring Jesus to be not guilty: “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.”

    And the fact is that in many ways, you and I don’t want this crucifixion either!  We’d really rather not have to deal with the unpleasantness of it all.  We’d really rather not to have to admit that the reason He had to suffer and die was because of our damnable sinfulness, or that we have absolutely no power to save ourselves from that sin.  We’d really rather not hear that Christianity is about taking up the cross, denying ourselves, and following Jesus, putting our old Adam to death with Him in sacrificial love.  No, if we must talk Christianity, let’s talk Christmas, baby Jesus, meek and mild.  Let’s talk Epiphany, miracles and glory.  If we have to do Lent, then let’s talk about ourselves and what we’re giving up.  But then let’s move quickly on to Easter, to flowers and clothes and dinners and family. Yes, and let’s then get on to Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit, and let’s get on to summer vacation and sports and to everything else that’s so important in our lives.  But let’s not stop too long at crucifixion; it’s not very nice or positive.  Can’t we shorten up that Passion reading?  It is the crucifixion that no one seems to want.

    No one, that is, except God.  God does want this crucifixion.  And for that reason, the chief priests and scribes and religious leaders are drawn into having this crucifixion even when they don’t want it, right in the middle of the feast–right in the middle of the Passover and the sacrificing of the Passover lambs!  Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!  The disciples, too, are powerless to stop this crucifixion, and, seeing their powerlessness, simply give up and run away.  Pilate, despite his maneuvers, and despite his water, bowl and towel, has Jesus crucified and thus earns his place in the Creed: “And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.”  Jesus will not be stopped from accomplishing His mission.

    The bloody crucifixion of Jesus is, in truth, the heart of the whole Bible, the heart of the Gospels, which spend more time on this than anything else.  Any supposed interpretation of the Bible that doesn’t have the cross at its center is falsehood.  Jesus’ suffering and death is what the church is all about, it’s what your faith and life are all about.  It’s everything.  Sure, there is absolutely a bodily resurrection to come.  But Easter means nothing without the cross.  Easter is the revealing of the victory of the cross.  And so St. Paul says to the Corinthians, “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

    God wants this crucifixion.  And so the Father works even through the rebellious mob.  They end up being God’s voice declaring God’s will.  When Pilate brings Jesus and the notorious criminal Barabbas before the people and asks, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”  The crowd and God say, “Barabbas.”  When Pilate asks, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” through the crowd, God the Father says of His eternal Son, “Crucify Him.”  For this is the picture of salvation.  This is the Father’s plan from the beginning, that the sinless Son of God should die in the place of sinners to set them free.  Though this seems to be a great injustice that is taking place, in fact, it is the way God accomplishes His perfect justice, fully paying the penalty for the sins of all so that you might be just and righteous in His sight.

    The truth of the matter is that Barabbas is you.  You are the ones deserving judgment and the eternal death penalty.  But Jesus steps in and makes a blessed exchange, His life for yours.  The sinner goes free, forgiven; the Holy One gets counted as guilty and is condemned.  God chooses to pour out His anger and wrath not on you but on His own Son!  Jesus suffers your hell for you so that you gain heaven.  He takes your place in death so that you get to take His place in everlasting life.  Your sin is His.  His righteousness is yours.  That’s why God wants this crucifixion–so that He can spare and save you whom He loves.

    This is why God insists on offending your sensibilities with the cross and diverting you from your other supposedly more important pursuits in life.  Because He loves you.  Because even though this may not be exactly what you want, it is exactly what you need for your salvation.  This is what tears the curtain in two which separates you from God, so that you may enter His holy presence in peace.  This is what breaks open the tombs and gives you resurrection.  This is what defeats the devil’s power over you and crushes his head forever.  Never let anything sidetrack you from the cross.

    It is written, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”  Today, in His mercy, God brings the cross to you, so that all its benefits might be yours.  The same body and blood offered up for you is now given out to you for the forgiveness of sins.  Learn by God’s Word and Spirit to want Christ the crucified and the fruits of the cross.  Trust in this Gospel.  For He alone is your life and your salvation.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(With thanks to the Rev. James Dale Wilson)

Genesis 42 and 45
Midweek Lent 5

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    The dreams of Joseph have now come to pass.  Remember the brothers’ sheaves of grain all bowing down to his sheaf?  Now his brothers themselves bow before him, seeking grain for themselves and their hungry households.  But they don’t yet know that it’s him.  Joseph speaks roughly to them and doesn’t reveal who he is to them.  He hides himself.  

    Through this behavior of Joseph, God is at work to break the hardened hearts of his brothers.  For it is written, “Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior” (Isaiah 45:15).  In order that we might receive His saving mercy, He conceals it and at first appears to be our enemy.  As Joseph’s treatment of his brothers drove them to admit their sin, so the harsh words of the Law reveal our sin, so that we might repent and take refuge in the Gospel of Christ alone.  Only as the hidden God brings us to fully acknowledge our sin will we fully come to know Him as our Savior, the God of mercy.

    Joseph serves as the instrument of this God who kills in order to make alive (1 Sam. 2:6; Hosea 6:1-2).  The Law has yet more killing work to do with Joseph’s brothers before mercy and life are revealed to them.  Its judgment weighs even heavier as they discover the silver in their sacks.  They rightly see the Divine Hand in this, saying, “What has God done?” (v. 28).  The Law drives us into the very depths of hell, so that we despair of having any hope in ourselves, and in this way it prepares us for heaven to be opened in the Gospel, where we find our hope in Christ alone.  Joseph turned away from his brothers and wept when he heard their acknowledgment of guilt (v.21); he did not truly wish them harm.  So also God would have us to trust in His mercy even when we do not see His face and He appears to be harsh with us.  Truly He desires all to come to repentance and to be saved (2 Pet. 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:4).  

    Reuben recognizes that there must be a reckoning for sin (v.22).  For God is just.  But His justice is satisfied by His mercy in Christ, whose blood was shed for us so that we would be reckoned as righteous through faith in Him (Rom. 4:24).  In the end there will be freedom and reconciliation only when Benjamin comes.  For his name means literally “son of the right hand.”  When the ultimate Son of the Right Hand comes from the Father, namely Jesus, we will finally and fully be released from our sin and death.  At His second coming the hidden God will be revealed and all believers will be like Jesus in glory, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).

    When Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers, in many ways it foreshadows the resurrection appearances of Jesus. For just as Joseph had been unrecognized by his brothers, so Jesus walked with the Emmaus disciples on Easter without being recognized until the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:13ff). Likewise, when Joseph made known who he was, his brothers were dismayed at his presence (v. 3), even as the disciples feared at first when the risen Jesus came to them in the upper room (Luke 24:37).  

    However, both Joseph and Jesus bring a message of peace (Luke 24:36). Joseph was not interested in retribution but reconciliation and reunion with his family. And it is written of Jesus, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). God sent Jesus before us to preserve the remnant of His Church, to provide for us from His storehouse of mercy and forgiveness. Though we could rightly be punished for our sins against Him, the Lord bears the punishment on our behalf and restores us to fellowship with the Father. God was at work even through and in spite of the envious scheming of men.

    And so the words of Joseph are fittingly spoken also to those who betrayed and arrested and condemned Jesus to the cross, “It was not you who sent me here, but God” (45:8). For Jesus had prayed to His Father, “Not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).  Even the wicked Jewish leaders and Pontius Pilate were accomplishing the will of God to save the world, though they did not know it.  Joseph fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, even as the father fell upon the prodigal son’s neck and kissed him. For our Lord has compassion on us and desires that we be fully restored to communion with Him.

    Joseph’s brothers were told to go back to their father, proclaiming that he is lord over all Egypt and telling him, “Come down to me. You shall be near me, and I will provide for you” (vv. 9-11). Still to this day, the brethren of the risen Jesus are given to preach something much greater: that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him (Matt. 28:19). To you who are weary and burdened under the curse He says, “Come to Me, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Draw near to Me, I will provide mercy and grace to help you in your time of need (Heb. 4:16).

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠