Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21; John 14:23-27

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

Technology of itself is neither good nor bad.  But the way we use technology is not neutral, either morally or spiritually.  Scientific advancements bring new problems, as the tools we use end up using and changing us. The invention of the automobile, the airplane, the telephone, and now mobile technologies have changed how and where people live, how we view the world and interact with each other. You’ve seen others–and perhaps even yourself–become chained like a slave to screens–televisions, computers, and handheld and wearable devices.

The account of the Tower of Babel is about certain technological advancements that occurred among the people of that day.  Without good stone for building, they learned to mold clay into bricks, bake them, and bind them together with asphalt. This was, no doubt, a good thing. But they employed their technology in a manner serving their own desires and their own pride. They sought to build a tower that would be to their own name, to their own glory.  That is why St. Jerome referred to the Tower of Babel as the “Tower of Pride.”

“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language,” God said. “Us” shows already here that there is One God in Three Persons–the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  In the counsel of the Holy Trinity it was determined to bring judgement on these builders who used their language and their technology for evil.

Now clearly we live in a far more technologically advanced age than the one in Genesis 11. While this presents opportunities for greater good, there is also the opportunity for greater rebellion and pride and the sense that we are the ones who run the show.  As an example: In the church we see the benefit of technology in being able to stream our services as a temporary solution for those who are physically unable come to church.  However, even this good thing can become an evil if people begin to think that watching church on their computer screen is enough or just as good as physical attendance.  Biblically speaking, there’s no such thing as a virtual church that exists somewhere in cyberspace.  For we believe in the incarnate Jesus who calls us to gather in the flesh with one another, to hear His words face to face and to receive His true and literal body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.  Our God is an in-person kind of God.  We should be willing to risk all the treasures of this world in order to have these treasures of heaven.

Likewise also out in the world, we benefit from great and wonderful medical advances and treatments.  And yet at the same time we see human life being manipulated and destroyed in the name of research or choice–millions of human embryos in the IVF lab and unborn babies in the womb are killed.  In the midst of the wonders of global communication and instant contact through the internet, there is a vast wasteland of pornography, voyeurism, and just plain idiocy.  And, of course, in our age we also construct great and tall buildings and monuments, which is fine and good. But is this to God’s glory or our own?  We advance technologically and decline morally.

This decline is reflected in our language and the way we talk.  Not only do we sometimes engage in spin and the manipulation of words to deceive or to push our own agendas, but our culture uses euphemisms to try to pretty up and justify sin: marriage equality, reproductive rights, non-binary, gender fluid.  The elites of society actually cowtow to the person who insists on being referred to as an individual with the pronouns “they” and “them,” or even nonsense words like “ze” and “zir.”  It’s no wonder that the judgment God pronounces on fallen mankind who abuses language is to confuse the languages.

So let us be on guard against the desire to find our security in the wisdom of the world, it’s achievements and advancements.  Let us not pridefully stake our lives on things that pass away, on wisdom that is really just prettied-up foolishness.  God’s judgment will not be thwarted.   He scatters the proud in the imagination of their hearts.  It is written, “The Lord came down,” which is a human way of saying that the Lord, who is slow to anger, finally said, “Enough!” and began to punish.  Let us be warned, repenting in our minds and hearts and behavior, and turning to Christ for mercy and help.

For in the glorious events of Pentecost that we are celebrating today, the LORD came down in a new and different way. When the Holy Spirit gave the disciples the gift of speaking in other languages that they had not studied or learned, the judgement at the Tower of Babel was reversed.  Pride caused the languages of the world to be divided; Christ’s humility caused the good news of God’s forgiveness to be preached in a united way to every language. What the Tower of Pride split apart, God has put back together in the holy Christian Church.  Pride caused one language to become many. In the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, those many languages and peoples are made one.

The Church is not German or Roman or Greek or Jewish or any other ethnicity. The Church is Christ’s, and the day of Pentecost reveals that the Gospel is for everyone.  The Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the forgiveness of sins, the hope of our own resurrection and life in God’s kingdom is for every tribe and nation and people and language.  It is a tremendous thing when a people are welcomed into the Church not because of the color of their skin or common cultural background, but because they are fellow sons and daughters of Adam, who in Holy Baptism are made to be fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

We, who come from different places and have different talents and gifts–we have in Jesus a common inheritance. Today’s Gospel declares Jesus’ farewell gift to you, the inheritance He leaves with His disciples: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.”

“Not as the world gives.” The world does have a certain kind of peace–but it’s a fake peace, a temporary truce.  What Jesus gives is real, lasting, deep and true.  Isaiah prophesied, “The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him.”  You have been reconciled to the Father in Christ.  You are at peace with God through the cross of Jesus.  This is the peace that passes all understanding, the peace that comes through the blood of Christ that has atoned for your sins, that calms your consciences.  God is not your enemy.  He comes down to you in Christ with mercy and pours out His Holy Spirit upon you through the Gospel and the Sacraments.  So it is that Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled.  Neither let them be afraid.”  There is no reason to fear any more, not even when you’re confronting the grave.   If you are right with God, then you can face whatever is going on in your day to day life with His strength and with the confidence that He is with you and will guide you through His Word.  This is not worldly peace which fails; this is peace given by the Spirit of God which never fails and which endures forever.

If you want to know what the Holy Spirit does, look at what Jesus does. Note how the Son and the Spirit are both sent by the Father. “The Father sent Me,” Jesus declares, and then He says, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will … bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” The Father who sent the Son sends the Spirit to deliver the work of the Son. The Son wins forgiveness for us sinners, and the Spirit delivers that forgiveness, so that we are reconciled to the forgiving Father. The Spirit is poured out to unite us with the Son in Baptism, and so we are made children of the heavenly Father.  The Holy Spirit is not off doing His own strange and bizarre thing, but is always connected with Jesus and delivering His Gospel.

The Holy Spirit comes to make you holy in Christ.  And if you doubt this about yourself, if you know your own unholiness all too well and wonder if because of your sin you may not have the Holy Spirit, consider these words from Martin Luther: “To be sure, the Holy Spirit sometimes lets His Christians fall, err, stumble, and sin. This is to forestall any complacency, as though we were holy of ourselves, and to teach us to know ourselves and the source of our holiness. Otherwise we would become arrogant and overweening.”

When we sin, we are not sure if God really accepts us.   But our Lord says, “You must not look at yourself; you must fix your eyes on what I have done for you and what I give you–the forgiveness of sins, Baptism, the Sacrament, and the Gospel.  These are the tokens of My grace and peace.”  That is where the Holy Spirit is present for you in rich measure with all of His gifts.  That is how Pentecost continues for you each and every day:  through the words of Jesus, who is the Word made flesh.  Remember, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, who puts language to its proper use, who doesn’t use words to spin or manipulate or deceive, but to preach Him who is Truth Incarnate, so that you may call on the name of the Lord Jesus and be saved.

So even though God would be completely just in coming down as He did at Babel and visiting you with wrath and destruction, yet once again God has given you opportunity to repent, and the Holy Spirit has been poured out on you generously. By His holy inspiration, you have heard the words of Jesus repeated to you, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.”  Do not take not this gift lightly, nor wonder if it is truly yours. This consolation is for you.  Say to yourself on this feast of Pentecost, “I am baptized.  I, an unholy sinner, have been declared holy, and have received the Holy Spirit. The Father has made peace with me through His Son, and my home will forever be with Him.”

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

(With thanks to the Rev. Christopher Esget)

John 16:23-33
Easter 5

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

Jesus says, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.”  So what do you want to ask for from God?  What is it that you think that you need?  What do you lack that would make you happy?  And if you had it, would it really make you content?  “Whatever you ask,” Jesus says.  So what do you want?

What we want is sometimes far removed from what we need and what we were made for.  Sometimes the very worst judgment that God can bring upon a person is to let them have what they want, to give them over to their heart’s desires, and then to let them suffer the consequences that those idols bring–emptiness and bitterness and isolation.  Why else would it be that so many lottery winners feel cursed and the lives of so many famous celebrities are ruined or cut short by their own doing?  Beware of fixing your eyes on worldly things and pleasures, for then minds become anxious, mouths grumble, and hearts fail to trust in God to supply all things that are needful for us.

That’s how it was with the children of Israel.  They had seen great miracles of God in the Passover, at the parting of the Red Sea, and with the manna from heaven.  And yet now they are discontented.  They complain.  “Why have you brought us out … to die in the wilderness?”  “Our soul loathes this worthless bread.”  They did not trust God.  They did not appreciate the great gifts He had given them.

Let us learn from that today as we hear Jesus’ words urging us to pray.  Prayer begins with a humble and penitent heart, as it did for the children of Israel.  Only when they had been laid low did they finally confess the truth and seek God’s help, saying to Moses: “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD.”

And so we should start by admitting that, like the Israelites, we have a tendency to be spiritually fickle, often neglecting any serious praying until we’re desperate.  That is one reason why the Lord allows tribulation to come upon us, even as He sent the fiery serpents into the Israelite camp, so that we might be called back to Him, turning us from double-mindedness to single-minded repentant faith.  The Israelites were turned to the bronze serpent lifted up on the pole.  We are turned to Him who was lifted up for us on the cross.  “In the world you will have tribulation,” says our Lord; “but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

I know of only some of the tribulations you endure.  But the Lord knows them all.  He knows the conflicts you have in your family; He knows your problems at work; He knows your despair and your addictions; He knows your loneliness and your ailing body; He knows the sins you struggle with.  He has redeemed you out of them all.  The troubles of this life are an invitation from God to pray, to call upon Him in our need.  In this way the very things that plague and afflict us bring us nearer to our Lord, driving us to look where true joy may be found–in Christ’s victory over the world.  Hear His words again: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

When Christ invites us to pray to the Father “in His name,” that means first of all that He invites us to pray not based upon our own merits but upon His redeeming work, His cross which has opened the way for us to the Father.  The words “in the name of Jesus” are not a magic formula.  They mean that we have access to God the Father, and He hears our prayers, only because of what His Son Jesus has accomplished for us.  Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel call to mind His entire Person and work.  “I came forth from the Father” means that He is the Son of God the Father, eternally begotten, but not made; very God of very God.  “I have come into the world,” means “I was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of My mother Mary as a true man; and I have come into the world to give My life for the world.”  Then He says, “Again, I leave the world and go the Father,” which means that He will ascend to the right hand of God 40 days following His resurrection from the dead.

Secondly, to pray in Jesus’ name means to pray as those who have been baptized in His name.  To pray in Jesus’ name is to stand in His shoes and ask as if you were the Son of God Himself!  Remember that in His baptism, Jesus stood in your place as a sinner, taking on Himself and taking away the sins of the world.  Now through your baptism into Him, you stand in His place as righteous and pray as dear children ask their dear Father.  That’s why you now have the privilege of saying, “Our Father who art in heaven . . .”  For you are truly children of God, holy, righteous, royal members of God’s family through faith in Christ your Savior, your Brother.  Even when you pray alone, you are always praying side by side with Jesus–to His Father, and therefore also to yours.  You pray with Jesus, “Our Father who art in heaven.”  You pray with all Christians.

So, what do you want, Christian?  “Ask,” says our Lord.  “Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.”  Does this mean we can ask for anything our flesh desires?  Obviously not.  Otherwise we wouldn’t be taught to pray “Thy will be done,” which means the breaking and hindering of every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature which stand against God’s will.  No, we are to ask for that which is given within the Name and the will of God–whatever aids us in our life as disciples of Christ and children of God.  If we ask for something that hinders our salvation, if we ask for something that does not help us lead a holy life in the callings God has given us, then we have not asked in the Name of Jesus our Savior, no matter what words we have used.  The name of Jesus is not a formula that guarantees a “yes” to your prayer–unlike those who think that if you just have enough faith when you pray, God will give you whatever you ask for.  No, to pray in the name of Jesus means that Jesus Himself is present in our prayers.  It is to pray the way He prayed, the way that brings real life, forgiveness, salvation, and joy.

In our prayers, then, we begin by acknowledging that we have no right to pray, no right to ask for anything.  For as the catechism says, we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment.  We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray nor have we deserved them, but we ask that God would give them all to us by grace.  In Jesus’ name all answer to prayer comes by grace, as a gift through what He has done for us.  

So when you pray, do not provoke the Lord by asking for what you shouldn’t–worldly honor and power and pleasure.  It’s certainly OK to pray for bodily and material needs for ourselves or others.  That’s why Jesus teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  But He also teaches us, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

King Solomon in the Old Testament is a good example of how we should pray.  When he first became king after his father David, Solomon was overwhelmed with the burden of his responsibilities.  And so when God told him to ask for whatever he wanted, Solomon didn’t ask for riches or long life or the death of his enemies.  Instead he asked for wisdom and a discerning heart, so that he could rule God’s people well.  And the Lord not only gave him great wisdom, so that there was none like him in all the world, the Lord also gave him what he did not ask for–riches and long life and honor among the nations.  In Solomon we see a good way to pray, not merely for our own interests, but for the things we need to carry out our callings well and for the good of our neighbor.

So when you pray, ask for the things that God has promised you in Christ.  Ask that the mercies of God may never be turned away from you, that you and the ones you love may endure in the faith unto the end.  In fact, if you think about it, the Lord’s Prayer tells us exactly what it is that God desires to give us. What comfort and certainty there is in that!  So ask that the name of God may be hallowed among us by what we teach and how we live.  Pray for the coming of the kingdom and all the spiritual graces that Holy Spirit would bestow through the Word.  Pray that not ours but God’s good and gracious will may be done.  Ask for the daily bread that you need and receive it with thanksgiving.  Pray that your selfish heart may be taken away, that you may be kept unspotted from the world’s pollutions and temptations and evils, that you may be cleansed from all your sins, that you may love your neighbor.  Give thanks to God for redeeming you by the blood of Jesus.  Seek that blood and that body here; for by these He overcame the world.  They are given and shed for you for your forgiveness.  

In your praying, know that Christ Jesus is on your side.  He is your mediator, who gave His own life as a ransom for you.  You’ve been bought out of bondage to sin and Satan.  You’re released. You are free.  And when you don’t know what to pray for or what words to say, remember what the Scriptures say, that “the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groans too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).  He helps us in our weakness when we don’t know how to pray as we ought.  He formulates and gives voice to the petitions of our hearts.  In the power of the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our mediator, our prayers are brought to our loving heavenly Father, who answers them always according to His good and gracious will.  That is what it means to pray in the name of Jesus, in the reality of your being baptized into the name of the blessed Holy Trinity.  Never think of this as a small thing.  God Himself has invited you to pray.  He’s not joking around.  The Lord of all says to you once again, “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”  

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

(With thanks to the Rev. Christopher Esget)

John 16:16-22

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

Sometimes in TV dramas and movies, part of the storytelling will involve flashbacks to an earlier time.  What happened in the past gives context and deeper meaning to what’s happening in the present.  And in a way that’s what is happening with the Gospel readings in this part of the Easter season.  Throughout the church year we recount the true story of Jesus, and now that we’re in the post-resurrection part of the year, we flash back to Jesus with his disciples in the upper room on Thursday of Holy Week–before His arrest, before His trial, before all the darkness of Good Friday.  During this Eastertide, we recall Jesus’ words from the night He was betrayed, and it deepens and enriches our present understanding of the Gospel and gives us hope for the future.

Jesus says, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.”  For a little while Jesus was humiliated–betrayed, beaten, killed, and buried in the tomb–and the disciples didn’t see him. And again a little while, on the third day, they saw him raised from the dead and alive again as he promised.  That’s why Jesus told his disciples, “you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy.” If Jesus had only died, and the disciples didn’t see him alive again, then there would be no joy, no hope, no gift of the Holy Spirit to guide them into proclaiming the faith that we hold to today.  If Jesus had only died, then sin and Satan would win, because death would have defeated Jesus just as it has been defeating people ever since Genesis 3.

But Jesus did not only die. He laid down his life in order that he might take it up again, new and triumphant over Satan and the grave.  And so the disciples and the women did weep at Jesus’ death, while the unbelieving world rejoiced that the Son of God was crucified.  However, the disciples then saw the risen Jesus’ hands and side and heard his voice speaking “Peace be with you”, and they rejoiced.  Joy wasn’t to be found within the disciples, in their own wisdom and strength; it was found outside of themselves in the crucified and risen Jesus.  Easter alone turned their sorrow into joy.

So you might be thinking, “Well, OK, that’s great for them, but what does this have to do with us? What do Jesus’ words to his disciples back then mean for us today?”  Well, to begin with, just apply those words to yourself.  First, Jesus said, “You will be sorrowful.”  Christianity isn’t always about feeling happy and walking around with a cheery smile.  For we deal with this fallen world as it actually is.  So there are plenty of days where we don’t feel joyful. There are plenty of things to lament and weep over, plenty of times when we’re sick or depressed or stressed out.  We live in a world that hates God’s Word and opposes the Gospel of Christ. We live in a world that rejoices more in celebrity, wealth, and power than compassion, mercy, and love; that rejoices when Christians are falsely made to look stupid or prudish or hateful–a world that rejoices in its own achievements and power and rejects the power of the risen Jesus and the salvation He has achieved for us.

So there will be those little whiles when you can’t seem to see Jesus, when things seem to be falling apart.  We deal with worry and uncertainty for the future. We sorrow for family or friends who have fallen or drifted away from the faith, or who suffer inexplicably and seemingly without end.  And if all that’s not bad enough, we have to contend with our own sinful nature which so often messes things up and saps the joy from our lives.

But then comes the reality of Easter.  The resurrection of Jesus turns our sorrow into joy, too.  Our individual and congregational situation may be different than that of the disciples 2000 years ago.  But the solution to our sorrow and weeping is the same–the real presence of the risen Jesus. The bodily resurrection of Jesus means that everything that brings us grief and sadness has been overcome and will be undone.  God the Father has accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins by raising Him from the dead.  So you are surely and truly forgiven.  All that has gone wrong with you in body and in mind, your sicknesses, your depression and anxiety, the death you face–you have been redeemed from it all in the risen body of Christ.  The loneliness you experience and the sense you have that things just aren’t right–all things are made right again in Him who says to you, “Behold, I make all things new.”  The Word of Jesus gives you confidence that the stuff you’re going through now really is just temporary, just a little while, and it will be followed by an unending while of life with Christ and eternal joy.  And knowing that is true brings you joy and peace even now, even in the midst of the bad stuff.  

A helpful way to think of it is that right now, we’re living in the age of Holy Saturday, the day between Christ’s death and resurrection.  Salvation has been won.  Jesus has paid for our sins and said, “It is finished.”  The resurrection of the dead is surely coming.  But we can’t see it yet; we don’t yet see Jesus.  And so it’s like we’re living in two worlds at once, the world of sin and death, and the new world of mercy and life unending, all at the same time.  The troubles of this world seem to be the same as always, and yet we know change is coming when Jesus returns.  The old cursed age and the new blessed age overlap now, so that we experience both.  But the good news is that the old is passing away, and the new is being revealed as the permanent reality in Christ.  As 1 John 2 says, “The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.”

It’s like what the Epistle reading said, that we’re living both in the now and the not yet.  “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. . .”  We’re living in the in-between time, in the little while of salvation won–and it’s ours completely by faith– but not yet salvation fulfilled and consummated by sight.  However, we live in the sure confidence that the fulfillment is most certainly coming on the Last Day when Christ returns.  The Epistle reading goes on, “But we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 

Just a little while, and that’s how it’s going to be for you–sharing in Christ’s glory, freed from your old sinful nature, released from pain and heartache and sickness and death, living in perfect communion with God, beholding the beauty of Lord and sharing in the joyous fellowship of His people forever.  For you who believe and are baptized, that is all yours as surely as Jesus is risen from the dead.  And so He encourages you today, “It really is only a little while that you must endure.  Just keep hanging on to Me.  Trust in Me to pull you through it.  It may seem like an eternity, but only three days.  Your Easter is coming.  Weeping may remain for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”  Just like Job, you will see your Redeemer with your own eyes, in your resurrected flesh.

So be sure in these days that you don’t engage in the wrong kind of flashback, living in the past, dwelling on traumas and mistakes and regrets.  You can obsess about sin and evil, but the truth is that Jesus has taken all that from you.  He literally suffered it do death–whatever you’ve done, whatever has been done to you–and it’s all buried in the tomb from which He arose forever; it’s dead and gone and overcome.  Flash back to that; fix your eyes on Jesus, crucified and risen for you to give you life.

And finally, there’s also a certain flashing forward that you’re given to do, too.  Already now, you’re given a foretaste of the Last Day.  Jesus takes the future and brings it here to the present.  Here in the Lord’s Supper, it’s as if a time portal is opened up at the altar to the joyous feasting to come.  We look forward to Jesus’ return, and yet in fact He’s already here, giving us His risen body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith.  Already now you are given to see Him as He is and begin to share in His life and His glory.  In the midst of this little while of sorrow, you partake of the blessedness of eternity.  

So take to heart the words of today’s OT reading, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.”  And remember what the Lord Himself has said to you, “I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”

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

John 10:11-18-27-30

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

Today’s Gospel says that the hireling doesn’t care much about the sheep because he doesn’t own the sheep.  Not much skin in the game, and so when danger approaches, he flees.  But that means that there is one who does own the sheep.  And that is the Good Shepherd, Jesus.  The sheep belong to Him.  That’s one of His main points in contrasting Himself to the hired hand.  The owner cares about things much more deeply than someone who is simply there to earn a paycheck.

But stop for a minute and consider what that means for you.  Jesus owns you.  Usually we think of being owned as a negative thing.  We resist and rebel against the notion that we belong to another.  We want to be free to do whatever we want.  We like saying to others, “You’re not the boss of me.”  We think of being owned as being dominated and put down, as slavery.  

But the truth is that, no matter what we may think, we are dependent creatures; that’s how we’re made.  Our existence and our life doesn’t come from within us; it depends on God.  We can’t belong to ourselves.  We are created to belong to a lord and master.  And if we are not entrusting ourselves to the true God, then we inevitably are entrusting ourselves to some idol.  That’s why when people desert the church and the Christian faith, they don’t really stop being religious.  They are always giving themselves over to some sort of ruling philosophy or spirituality or way of life; they’re always seeking after some idol to serve.  People are always going to be religious about something in their life, even if it’s just their hobby or their exercise regimen.  You can’t help being owned.  In the end, you either belong to the evil one or to God.

And so it is the greatest good news to hear that Jesus is the One who owns us.  We are His treasured possession; we are in His safe keeping.  He is our Lord, not as an angry slavemaster, but as One who offers us life and protection within the safety of His flock.  You have gone from having a hellish master and captor to having a gracious Lord and King.  Martin Luther spoke of it this way, “I . . . was captive under the power of the devil, condemned to death, enmeshed in sin and blindness . . . There was no counsel, help, or comfort until this only and eternal Son of God . . . had compassion upon our misery and wretchedness, and came from heaven to help us. Those tyrants and jailers, then, are all expelled now, and in their place has come Jesus Christ, Lord of life, righteousness, every blessing, and salvation, and has delivered us poor lost men from the jaws of hell, has won us, made us free, and brought us again into the favor and grace of the Father, and has taken us as His own property under His shelter and protection.”  Notice there how real freedom comes from being the property of Jesus.

So you are owned by the Lord twice over, then, once because He made you, and again because He redeemed you and bought you back with His holy precious blood.  As St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6, “You are not your own, you were bought at a price.  Therefore, honor God with your bodies.”

This is the difference between Jesus and the hireling:  The hired hand, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and runs to save his own hide.  But Jesus doesn’t run away.  He is the one and only true Shepherd and Pastor whom you can always count on.  Whereas we tend to look at things that don’t belong to us and say “Someone else will deal with it; not my problem,” Jesus looks at your situation and says, “That’s My problem. It’s not one I caused–but still, I am their Creator, and they are My creatures, and I love them, and I wish to care for them.”  The Good Shepherd cares for the sheep like no one else because you belong to Him, and He has compassion on you.  He died for you.

Since all of this is so, why then would you live as though you belong to this world, as if the love and approval of other people is more important?  Why, when the Good Shepherd speaks to you, would you wander from divine service and listen to shallow entertaining voices?  Why, when the Good Shepherd leads you to green pastures and still waters, would you prefer to give your attention instead to those who lead you astray into fleeting pleasures and passing things?  Beware of those who say to you, “Don’t be owned; you belong to no one but you.  Live for yourself!”  They do not truly love you; they cannot give you life.  Living for yourself is the way of death.

Today we mark a rather important event which demonstrated how Martin Luther understood this.  By the grace of God he was a pastor and teacher who was not like a hireling.  He did not run away when the wolves came, the false teachers from Rome.  Luther knew personally what it was like to be under the tyranny of the Law, of having to strive to be good enough to be accepted by God and never being able to get there.  He had been freed by the Gospel of the pure unmerited grace of Christ.  And he cared about the church which was under the same tyranny he had been under.  He was a theologian and pastor who wanted to protect Christ’s sheep from the false, works-righteousness teaching of the papist wolves.

And so exactly 500 years ago this very weekend, Luther didn’t flee when he had the chance to save his own skin.  He had been called before the holy Roman emperor himself and asked to recant his writings and his teaching.  Failure to do so meant that he could be put to death as a heretic.  Luther had just been excommunicated by the pope a few months earlier.  There didn’t seem to be a way out for him.  This event turned out to be a two day affair.  On the first day, April 17, 1521, in the presence of the emperor and princes of the empire and church officials in all their finery, when asked to recant, Luther faltered a bit and asked for another day to answer.  When he was brought back the next day, strengthened by God in his faith, Luther gave his now famous reply, “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.  I cannot do otherwise, here I stand, may God help me.”  Protected by his prince, Frederick of Saxony, Luther was able to depart, and the Reformation carried on.

This is a good example for us to follow in a world that is hostile to the truth of God’s Word.  When we are presented with opportunities to confess our faith in Christ, we too may briefly falter.  We may be tempted to compromise and go along with the world’s ways in order to keep ourselves out of trouble.  But in the end we know that the only voice that is worth following is the voice of the Good Shepherd.  How can we be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ who has saved us?  Unlike the lords of this world, there is no selfishness in Jesus, only love.  He lays down His life even for wandering sheep like us.  He speaks His words to you not to dominate you or control you, but because He knows what is best for you, because He desires to lead you to eternal life.

In the end, that is what it means to be a Christian–to hear Christ’s Word and follow Him.  And you can’t do that on your own.  He has put us all into one flock, and that is where He has promised to be, wherever we are gathered in His name. Lone sheep are wolf food.  You need to be gathered together in the flock of the Church, around the table the Good Shepherd has prepared.  And the Church is found not where things are hippest or most up to date, nor where things are biggest or oldest, but only where the Word is rightly preached and where that Word is joined to water, bread, and wine as Christ instituted it.  There is no being a Christian apart from the flock which gathers to hear the voice of Christ the Good Shepherd.

And what does the voice of your Good Shepherd say to the sheep? He says things like this: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!  Go, and sin no more.  I do not desire your death, but that you should turn from your wicked way and live.  Rejoice, your King comes to you!  I forgive you all your sins; I will wipe away every tear from every eye; I will never leave you nor forsake you; I give you eternal life and you will never perish; nothing can snatch you out of My hand. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise you up on the Last Day; Behold, I make all things new!”

Those are the things your Good Shepherd says to you. Those words are your life. All other words, even if they’re sometimes helpful, are temporary and un-saving; or, all too often, they turn out to be devilishly deceptive and damning. Do not listen to them. Keep your ears tuned to the voice which is saying to you continually, “Repent! Follow Me!” and “I forgive you!  Do not fear!”

Christ the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep, meaning He puts His own body between you and the attacking wolf, between you and death.  He takes the attack in Himself.  And when death and hell came to swallow Him up on the cross, they seized a bite that they could not swallow. The teeth of the devil were broken, and now his snarling voice is nothing more to you than an empty threat.  The devourer was devoured, the destroyer was destroyed, the enemy was routed.

And now, Christ the Good Shepherd prepares this table for you right in the presence of your enemies, right in their face.   He feeds you with Himself, so that what happened to the dead body of Jesus on Easter also will happen to your dead body on the last day, the day of resurrection.  He leads you through this valley of the shadow of death and out of it.  You are His and He is yours.

So it’s not just that you belong to Jesus–that’s wonderful enough.  It’s also that He belongs to you.  He has given Himself to you and made Himself your own with His whole being.  He has sacrificed Himself for you.  His life is yours.  And so you need fear no evil.  He is with you.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever as His very own.

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

(With thanks to the Rev. Christopher Esget)

Daniel 3

The Lord is risen!  He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

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

There is nothing that reveals a person’s faith and character more than when they are facing the threat of death; all facades are stripped away and the heart is revealed.  When our Lord Jesus faced the horror of bearing the judgment of the whole world’s sin on the cross, He didn’t shrink from the task; His heart confidently trusted in His heavenly Father.  And on this day we celebrate the fact that Jesus’ faithfulness was vindicated; He rose again bodily from the grave on the 3rd day in triumph, having accomplished the salvation of the whole world.  As we sang in the hymn, He endured the cross and grave, sinners to redeem and save.

The hearts of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were certainly revealed when they faced the threat of death.  They got into trouble when they refused to bow down to a massive idol that the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar had set up.  In celebration of his conquest of Israel and other nations, Nebuchadnezzar had this sixty cubit, 90-foot tall idol constructed, entirely plated with gold.  King Nebuchadnezzar allowed the people he had conquered to keep their own religions, but he demanded that they must also follow the religion of his kingdom, embodied by this idol, or suffer death.  Faithful Israelites could not possibly do that.  For the only true God had commanded them, “You shall have no other gods.”  So when the music began to play and the order came to bow down, these three men remained standing.  When they refused to obey, even after having been brought before the king himself, they were sentenced to death.  They were thrown into the blazing furnace.

All of this foreshadows what would happen to Jesus when He refused to give homage to the idols of His day.  It was not a golden image which He was pressured to bow down to but ones such as the devil laid before Him, the idol of glory without suffering or the cross.  Jesus was pressured to bow down to the idolatrous self-justifying laws of the Pharisees and the religious institutions of His day that stood opposed to God.  They would have let Jesus go on teaching if He would’ve given reverence to their ways and fit in with their system.  But because He didn’t, because He remained faithful to His heavenly Father’s will regardless of the consequences, they plotted His death.  He was sentenced and crucified.

We, too, can get ourselves into trouble when we refuse to bow down to the idols of our day.  We’re not pressured to give homage to a gold statue either, but to other “deities” of our age–things like the “god” of self-expression and self-fulfillment, which says that the most important thing in life is for a person to do whatever makes them happy and to follow whatever they feel in their hearts, even if it contradicts God’s words and denies our need for repentance.  Say to somebody that what their heart is telling them is not as important as what Scripture is telling them, and see if that doesn’t create some anger toward you.  Or things like the golden idol of financial security, where we go along with and bow down to the ungodly spiritualities of this age in order to keep the income flowing.  How many Christian workers and managers and business owners feel compelled not to express the Christian beliefs and morality that they hold to for fear of negative consequences?  Or  things like the generic god of religious relativism, which rejects Jesus’ claim that He and His words are the only eternal truth and that He is the only way to eternal life.  You’ll be labeled as arrogant and unloving for saying that only Christianity leads to heaven and everything else is false religion. Remember, the thing that got Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into trouble was that they weren’t inclusive of the king’s religion.  The world is perfectly happy when people call themselves Christians, as long as Christ is 2nd or 3rd or 4th on the priority list and you keeping bowing to woke social pressures and worldly philosophies and all the many things that keep you from being here at divine service each week.  Being faithful to God and refusing to fit in with the world’s system can sometimes cause you trouble and even get you cancelled.  But Christians know that it is far better to endure the flames of suffering in this life clinging to Christ than to experience the judgment of hell which our sins have deserved apart from Him.

So here’s the good news–the resurrection of Jesus from the dead assures us that there is deliverance and new life and vindication for all who trust in Him and hold to His words.  Because Jesus literally went through hell for us on the cross, all who take refuge in Him will be rescued from death’s blazing fire and will come out gloriously alive on the other side.  That’s how it was for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  Knowing their God to be the Lord and Giver of Life, they exhibited a most confident faith in Him.  “O Nebuchadnezzar, if we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king.  But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”  Did you hear that?  These three men didn’t know if God would protect them from suffering in that moment.  But it didn’t matter.  Better to die to this life than to let go of the One who gives eternal life.  An enraged Nebuchadnezzar heated the furnace seven times hotter than usual.  He had them firmly tied up, and they were thrown into the furnace just as they were, wearing all their clothes.  It was so hot that the men who threw them in were themselves killed; for the unbelieving will not be saved.

But when Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace, he didn't see Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego burning to death.  Instead, he stood up and said, “Look!  I see four men walking around, untied and unharmed.  And the fourth one looks like the Son of God!”  Though the King couldn’t understand it, these three men didn’t die in the flames because God was with them.  The Son of God, our Lord Jesus, was there in the furnace to save them from death.  He kept the fire from burning them.  When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out, their clothes were not even singed, and there was no smell of fire on them.  They came out of the flames unbound, alive and well.

What we rejoice in today is that when the time comes that we enter the flames of death, God will save us also who trust in Him, just as He did these men.  We may be put into the grave tied with the ropes of death’s curse, but we will come out unbound, free and well.  How do we know that is true?  Because Jesus took away the burning sting of death for us by His cross and empty tomb.  As the Scriptures say, “Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O grave, is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.  But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”  

Jesus willingly put Himself into the fiery furnace for us, just as He did for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  He went into the place of death and the grave in order to save His people.  At Golgotha, He was scorched by sin and Satan and death.  But that was far from the end of the story.  For His body did not decay in the tomb.  Instead, He conquered death and the devil by rising triumphantly from the grave in the flesh.  Just like the three men, He came out of the tomb unharmed as the victorious Ruler of all.  Jesus put Himself into the furnace of death in order to protect us from its blazing heat and to deliver us from it forever. On Easter morning Jesus, like a fireman, carried us out, safe and well.  His exit from the tomb is also our exit from the tomb.

Just as He was there for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Christ is surely also there for us always, even in death.  For we are baptized into Him, joined to Him by faith.  The Scriptures say, “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  If we were united with Him in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.”  Through water and the Word, Christ has doused the flames of death and has raised us with Himself to a new life.  The three men were fully clothed before they went into the fiery furnace.  So also we were fully clothed in baptism with the robe of Christ’s righteousness.  And just as the three men came out of the furnace better than when they went in, free and unbound, so also on the Last Day we will come out of the grave better than we entered it, free and unbound from the curse, with no smell of death or hell upon us.  Our waiting souls in heaven will be rejoined with our resurrected bodies, to share in the glory and perfection and immortality of Christ.  As Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.  He who believes in Me will live, even though He dies.  And whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.”  And again Jesus said, “Because I live, you will live also.”  New life for Jesus means new life for you.  His Easter assures you of your Easter and of your eternal release from all sorrow and trouble and pain.

So it is that God says to you all through His prophet Isaiah, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you.  I have called you by name.  You are Mine . . .  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.  For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

Dear fellow baptized, because Jesus came alive again bodily, you and all believers in Him will surely also come alive again bodily when He returns.  Let us therefore resolve this day to be faithful to our gracious God, just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were, trusting in Him to the very end.  For Christ gives you this promise, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

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

John 8:42-59; Genesis 22:1-14

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

If I were to ask you the question, “Is Abraham dead?” your first thought would probably be, “Of course he’s dead.  The Bible even tells us where he is buried.”  That’s what the Jews thought in today’s Gospel.  They said that Abraham and the prophets were all dead.  But consider how on another occasion Jesus said that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and  Jacob is not the God of the dead but of the living.  In this greater sense, Abraham is not dead but very much alive with God.  Jesus said, “Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”  And in today’s Gospel our Lord says, “If anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”

That last statement greatly angered the Jews Jesus was talking to.  They thought He was being arrogant and sacrilegious, making Himself out to be greater than Abraham (which of course He is).  And they also misunderstood what Jesus meant when He said, “If anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”  For they changed one word in His statement.  They replied, “You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.’” They changed the word “see” to “taste.”  But our Lord wasn’t talking about tasting death.  He doesn’t mean, “Whoever keeps My words will never end up in the grave or experience the death of the body.”  For that will surely happen to all people until the close of the age.

And in fact in a way that is actually a good thing!  For how else can we escape this body of death until it dies and is planted in the ground so that it might rise again renewed?  And how else will we finally and forever be purified and cleansed of sin, unless the flesh that it so fiercely and stubbornly adheres to is killed?  And so you die with Christ.  And so your body is buried, so that it might rise with Christ better than you ever imagined, fully restored to life with God.  St. Paul says it this way: “The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power” (1 Cor 15:42-44).

All of this is according to the Lord’s wonderful and mysterious mercy.  For after the disobedience of Adam and Eve, God pronounced the death sentence on all creation–not simply in anger, and not simply to punish; but also to purify and renew and re-create.  For in pronouncing this curse, the Lord was also pronouncing the way in which we would be redeemed.  In Christ, death actually becomes a blessing, because He, the very Son of God, tasted death for us to take away its poison from us.  It is written in Hebrews, “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.” Jesus drank the lethal cup of judgment against our sin for us so that we might taste and see that the Lord is good and take refuge in Him and have everlasting life.  

Even though Jesus escaped the hands of the Jews here on this day when they tried to stone Him, He didn’t hide Himself or escape death on the cross.  He endured the death we must endure.  He died a real death.  He is the true Seed of Abraham who was planted and buried in the earth in order that He might sprout and rise and produce the harvest of our salvation.  And if it is our hope to live with Him, we must also die with Him.  For our life is tied to His in the waters of Holy Baptism.  As it is written in Romans 6, “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  If we have been united with Him in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.”  We who hold to Jesus must taste death.  And that is good, and according to God’s mercy.  For only through death is there real resurrection.  Only through death do we attain our goal–life in the kingdom of God.

So when our Lord Jesus says that anyone who keeps His word will never see death, He means simply that those who hold to Him will never see the full wrath, the full fury, the full punishment and curse of death.  In other words, we will never see eternal death and hell.  And we will never see God with His back turned against us.  So while we will taste of death, we will not see it or experience it in all its infernal horror.  Blessed, then, are your believing loved ones who have died in Christ–spouses, parents and grandparents, children, friends–for they are not truly dead but are alive in the Lord, as alive as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

“If anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”  What a tremendous promise that is!  Let us therefore hold tightly to Jesus’ words and promises and cling to the eternal gifts that they deliver.  Ponder and meditate on the Word of Christ, for in so doing you will not see death but rather you will see Him who is Life incarnate, the Life of God enfleshed for your redemption.

That, of course, is the underlying reason why the Jews rejected Jesus–they couldn’t accept that He was (and is) God in the flesh.  They were still in bondage to the lies of their father, the devil.  The thing that caused them to pick up stones to kill Jesus was when He said, “Most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”  I AM is the name of God revealed to Moses in the burning bush.  I AM is Yahweh, the Lord God Almighty. That’s who Jesus was claiming to be by saying this.  They considered that to be blasphemy.  But in truth, Jesus had not only seen Abraham and the prophets, He is the very Son of God who gave them life, who spoke to them and guided them.  

In fact it was the voice of Christ that Abraham heard in today’s Old Testament reading, the voice which called out to Abraham telling him not to harm Isaac when he was about to sacrifice him.  For it was the Angel of the Lord (with a capital A) who spoke to Abraham–that is, the Messenger of the Father, the Son of God.  This was no created angel, for He said to Abraham, “You have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me,” that is from God Himself.

Though the Jews prided themselves on being descendants of Abraham and called him their father, they were not truly his children; for they did not share in his faith.  Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”  By faith Abraham trusted in God’s promises and was given to see what was coming in Christ.  And I believe one of the ways God showed Abraham what was coming was in this very account of the offering up of Isaac.  Not only was God testing Abraham’s faith here in order to strengthen it, He was also giving a living prophecy of what He would do with His own Son.

Just consider all that is being beautifully and mysteriously foreshadowed here in the Old Testament reading.  Isaac was the only son, the beloved son of Abraham, conceived in a miraculous way.  So also God the Father gave His only begotten and beloved Son, miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Blessed Virgin.  It was a donkey that carried Abraham’s supplies to Moriah, even as it was a donkey that carried our Lord into Jerusalem.  When Abraham had come to Moriah on the 3rd day, he said, “We will worship and then we will come back to you.”  Jesus said to His disciples, “In a little while you will see Me no more, and then after a little while, you will see Me.”  I will go away and then I will come back to you in the power of the resurrection on the third day.  Abraham laid the wood on Isaac his son, who carried it to the top of the mountain.  Even so the Father laid the wood of the cross on His Son Jesus, and it was carried to the top of Mt. Calvary, the place of sacrifice.  Just as Isaac was laid on the wood and bound, so Jesus was bound to the wood of the cross.

But the time for sacrificing the son would not come in Abraham’s day, but in Jesus’ day.  After God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son, he looked up and saw a male sheep, a ram caught in the thicket by its horns.  Abraham offered it in place of his son.  Even so, Jesus has offered up Himself in your place so that you would be set free from the judgment of death.  The Lamb of God purposely caught His head in the thorny thicket of your sin to take it away and to release you from your bondage to sin and death.  In Christ the words of Abraham are fulfilled for you, “God Himself will provide the Lamb.”  Abraham named that place, “The Lord will Provide.”  For on that holy mountain God provided for your salvation in His only Son, Jesus.  Truly then, Abraham saw Jesus’ day and was glad.

We also are given to see Jesus’ day and be glad.  For this is the Lord’s Day right now, where He gives Himself and shows Himself to you as the great I AM–“I am the Resurrection and the Life.”  This is the day you are given to taste Life in the Sacrament of His holy body and blood, so that you might never see death.  Our Lord Jesus is here to forgive you and transfigure your death-riddled flesh, so that one day, you may stand before the Father in your renewed and resurrected flesh, vindicated and honored with Christ.  

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

(With thanks to John Fenton for some of the above)

Luke 11:14-28

Lent 3

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

It is the way of the unbelieving world to call what is good evil and what is evil good.  Euphemisms are often employed to accomplish this.  The freedom to kill an unborn child is called “reproductive rights” or “women’s health care,” as if there was only one person’s rights and health at stake.  The rejection of God’s gift of natural marriage and the joining together of same-sex partners is called “marriage equality,” as if the nature and purpose of those unions were somehow the same.  The mutilation and drugging of the body in an attempt to change one’s sex is called “gender reassignment,” as if God’s assignment and creation doesn’t count.  And if anyone ever speaks out about these things, even in the gentlest way, because we care about people’s humanity and the consequences of what’s happening, they are portrayed as hateful and bigoted, or just weird and stupid.  Meanwhile those promoting these things are the ones who are supposedly loving and open-minded and sensible.  

And it’s not just the cultural stuff; we see this even within the church, regarding Gospel teaching.  Those who uphold doctrinal faithfulness to Christ and His saving Word regarding the Sacraments or sin and repentance or salvation by faith in Christ alone–they are often called unloving and legalistic; while the theologians and pastors who compromise the faith are called inclusive and mature and groundbreaking.  (Just consider Pope Francis.)

And lest we think this is something new, listen to what the Lutheran pastor George Stoeckhardt preached about this over 100 years ago: “Within Christendom everywhere there are blasphemers who pass off Christ’s Word and work as the devil’s work, as wickedness.  Christ’s salutary teaching they call a poisonous, pernicious teaching, which merely produces harm, hurt, dissension, disturbance. . . When believing Christians confidently boast of the grace of their God, this is labeled insufferable pride.  Christians, who are ardent in spirit and demonstrate diligence and zeal in their Christianity are often chided as being foolish, crazy, possessed.  Christians, seeking to save their fellowmen from destruction and rebuking sin, are regarded as a hostile, hateful clan.  Yes, mockery and blasphemy increase the nearer we come to the end.”

This all began, of course, with our Lord Jesus.  In today’s Gospel Jesus is doing something good.  He is casting out a demon from a man who had been made unable to speak by it, freeing him from this dark power.  When the demon had gone out of the man, he was able to talk again.  The crowd that saw this marveled at the wonderful thing that Jesus had done.

But there were some there who hated Jesus, who out of envy couldn’t stand or accept the goodness of Jesus.  And so they called good evil.  They said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.”  Beelzebub means “Lord of the flies.”  In other words they were saying, “The only reason Jesus can cast out demons is because He gets His power from Satan.”  They tried to raise suspicions about Jesus in those who saw what He did.

By doing this, though, the ones who accused Jesus of being of the devil showed themselves to be of the devil.  For isn’t it the way of the devil to plant doubt and work against faith in Jesus?  And they further showed that they were in league with Satan by testing Jesus and asking for a sign from heaven; isn’t that exactly what the devil did in the wilderness when he asked Jesus to throw Himself down from the temple and let the angels catch Him?  Besides, they already had a sign from Jesus in the casting out of the demon.  But unbelief always wants something more and different than Jesus and what He gives.

Beware of sign-seeking.  Jesus would later say to this same crowd that it is an evil generation which seeks a sign, which wants to walk by sight and not by faith, which trusts experiences and emotions and superstition more than Christ and His Word.  Jesus said the only sign that would be given them is the sign of Jonah, the sign of a man submerged three days in the belly of death but who rose from the depths to new life.  The sign which faith clings to, then, is the sign of the cross, Christ crucified and risen to save us sinners.

That sign of the cross has been given to you in your baptism, etched into your very bodies by water and the Word.  In the OT reading, when the plagues of lice and flies came, the Egyptians recognized, “This is the finger of God.”  So also at the font, the finger of God was at work for you to deliver you from your slavery to the evil one; the pastor’s fingers inscribed the cross on the forehead and on the heart. The Epistle reading said, “You were once darkness . . .”  However, Jesus has shined into your darkness and washed away your sins and rescued you from the devil’s domain, bringing you into His own realm of mercy and grace.  So the Epistle goes on to say, “But now you are light in the Lord.”  You have been released from the devil’s grip.  You have been conveyed into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son; you are possessed by His Holy Spirit.  Now your mute tongues are loosed to sing the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

But there are people still who want to call that good evil.  They label baptism and the liturgy of Christ’s preaching and supper as being mere ceremony; they want signs and visual excitement, not divine service.  Or they berate Christians as being intellectually foolish and psychologically weak.  But in the face of such demonic testing, we remember that it is written, “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.”  In a world that wants signs from heaven, we know that Jesus Himself is our sign from heaven.  He is all that we need.  For again it is written, “We preach Christ crucified, an offense to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  

Jesus is that Stronger Man who overcomes the strong man, the devil.  But our Lord shows His strength not with an all out display of force as we might expect.  For that is not the way the devil slithered into this world in the first place and gained the upper hand in the heart of man.  Satan came in disguise, as one who had man’s best interest at heart.  He overcame man in the Garden through trickery and deception, calling evil good.  And so in order to overcome the devil and rescue man, the Lord chooses to use Satan’s own devices against him.  Christ snares the devil with divine trickery and deception–not evil disguised as good this time, but good disguised as evil.  Jesus gives Himself over to being beaten and bloodied and crucified.  He perishes as if he were an evil criminal.  But in this way Jesus invades the enemy’s domain of death.  He parachutes in behind enemy lines and demolishes all of the devil’s armor in which he trusted.  Christ infiltrates the devil’s kingdom and conquers him by means of the very death which the devil brought into the world.  He turns the devil’s weapons right back in his own face and destroys him.  Man is released and set free.  The power of the devil to accuse you of sin and hold you captive has been taken away by Christ right along with your sins.  It is written in Hebrews, “The Son of God Himself likewise shared in our flesh and blood, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime held in bondage.”  Christ has divided and conquered Satan’s kingdom by the power of His holy cross.  

And Jesus makes it clear to the crowds and to us that there can be no sitting on the fence in this matter.  Our Lord says, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”  There are no Switzerlands in the warfare of the soul, no neutral, moderate position when it comes to Christ; no agnostic or undecided.  Either you take refuge in Him who is the Stronger Man, or you refuse Him and seek other shelter that draws you back into the devil’s hands.  Either Jesus is on the throne of your heart, or the devil is.  There are no third options, somewhere between faith and unbelief.  The “sensible,” middle-of-the-road position is unbelief.

You see, even though the devil has been defeated and man’s salvation has been won–fully and decisively–he still runs about making like he is strong, acting like he still controls death.  He seeks to lure people away from the protection of the mighty fortress of Christ, leading them into doubt and despair.  And many fall for the trap, believing the strong man rather than trusting in the Stronger One.  And so the evil spirits return to many a person from whom they were cast out.  For the Holy Spirit given in baptism has been grieved and rejected.  “The last state of that man is worse than the first.”

And so our Lord urges us here to remain steadfast in the faith.  He says, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.”  To keep the Word of God is simply to hold on to it, to cling to it, to treasure it and trust in its promises.  Those who do so are blessed, as the mother of our Lord was blessed.  For the Word of God is living and active and powerful to save.  It is the channel of the Holy Spirit.  It drives away the onslaughts of the evil one.

Ultimately, to keep the Word of God is to hold on to Christ.  For He is the Word made flesh.  Blessed are those who hear Jesus and cling to Him; for He is your refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  The chains of guilt which bound you have dropped from our wrists.  You are free.  In Christ, the dominion of evil is ended.  By his glorious resurrection from the dead, our Lord Jesus has won the decisive victory. He is the champion and his scars are his trophies. Jesus is the victor and He shares the spoils with all of you.  Blessed are those in whom the Word of Christ dwells richly through holy absolution and preaching.  Blessed are those who trust in Christ and who are filled with His true body and precious blood.  Over such the devil has no power.  He can’t touch you.  For you are in the Strongest One, the Lord over death and the devil.  Let your eyes ever be toward Christ, who plucks your feet out of the net, who conquers your enemy, who is your sure defense, and who will deliver you from all evil in the resurrection.

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