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Luke 14:15-24

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

    Last Sunday we heard about a Rich Man who had lavish meals every day, but the beggar Lazarus was left to starve in plain view of the Rich Man’s table. This week it’s exactly the other way around:  the rich man is generous beyond measure, but the people actually refuse to come to his banquet table.

    If you’ve ever hosted a large meal, like a wedding reception, you know how much planning and preparation is involved: sending invitations, making sure you have enough food and drink for everyone, lining up the music and the servers.  In the same way, when it comes to the banquet of salvation and the wedding feast of the Lamb, our Lord has planned and prepared and accomplished everything perfectly.  But what happens in the story Jesus tells is that when the big day arrives, everyone who was invited rejects the invitation to the meal.

    It is written, “They all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ ” Excuses, excuses.

    Notice how each invited guest is occupied with something else dearer and more important to him.  So when the master, who represents God the Father, learns that all those invited to his banquet have rejected it, he orders that the outcasts be brought in: the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.  Remember how Lazarus the beggar was not invited to Rich Man’s table?  Well, the table of this rich man, the Lord’s table, is surrounded by beggars.  And here is the key point for us: the Lord’s table is precisely and only for beggars, and so if we want to be at that table, we must learn to see ourselves as spiritual beggars.

    The three excuses made by the people who were originally invited show that they don’t regard themselves as beggars at all.  Instead, they are wrapped up in the things of this world. The first man’s excuse is that he has bought land, and the idea here is of a large estate, a big farming operation, or ranch. He will have workers, men under him, and he will have dominion. This was the first sin in the beginning: man, who was given dominion of the earth by God, instead sought to grasp that dominion separately from God.  This is the temptation of the devil still: the desire for you to exercise  power independently from God, to become like God yourself.

    The next man has bought five pairs of oxen.  This would be rather expensive, and a typical family farm would only need one pair, not five.  So we can see excess here.  The number five is often used also of the senses, seeing, tasting, touching, hearing, smelling; and many of the senses come in pairs: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, two hands.  Now what do oxen do on a farm?  They turn up the earth; so we can see in this man a devotion to earthly things, a devotion to what his hands can touch and what his eyes can see.  God who is spirit, and ordinarily beyond being apprehended by man’s senses, is disregarded and ignored.

    The last man, pleading marriage, puts his family, his bride, before God, and even the desires of his flesh first.  But Jesus said, “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”  

    Now look in the mirror.  Do you see yourself in any of these three people?  Do you see pride and a desire to control in your actions?  Do you have an inappropriate love of earthly things?  Are you devoted more to your work or your family or your fleshly desires than you are to God?  Do you rationalize not being here in church every week because other things are supposedly more important?

    Repent.  Give up your need to control others and get your way.  Look beyond what your eyes can see and what your fingers can touch and what your work can get you and satisfying the lusts of your heart.  Care less about what your family thinks or your boss thinks and more about what God thinks and what He gives.

    Jesus told this parable to the Pharisees, but Luke recorded it for you and me.  Through this Word the Holy Spirit wishes to turn us from our inverted priorities and to come to Him always as beggars. We do not deserve what the Lord offers, but He gives it to us freely anyway, without money and without price.

    The Gospel cry rings out to you today, saying, “All things are now ready.”  How foolish it would be to let the things of this world ever hinder you from coming to the feast and entering into Christ’s presence and His kingdom.  It is well worth sacrificing everything in order to squeeze through and enter this kingdom by its narrow gates!  Remember what Ecclesiastes says about the things of this world and this fallen life, “All is vanity, meaningless, and a chasing after the wind.”  But not so with the things of Christ.  What He gives endures and brings real peace and joy.  This is not some drudgery you are called to but a festive banquet of salvation!  Whoever dismisses the world and sets his heart on Christ discovers that God is a gracious and friendly Father who will not remember your sins in eternity, who sets you free from being fixated on the burdensome cares of this life, who daily and richly provides and refreshes you in body and soul.  Whoever dismisses the world and sets his heart on Christ for the first time truly begins to live, truly experiences what it means to be at peace.  In this kingdom there is freedom from the shackles of sin, and the light of God’s grace scatters all the darkness of our hearts.

    So come to the feast; the Lord has done all things for you.  Jesus offered up His body on the cross to be “roasted” in the fire of judgment.  He literally suffered hell in your place at Calvary.  Having rescued you from sin and Satan by His holy death, and being now raised from the dead, Jesus offers Himself to the whole world as heavenly food that you might receive His saving gifts and be nourished by them.  Because of what Jesus has done, there is no one left to accuse you or condemn you, no one to keep you out, nothing to stop you from this joy given for free from on high.  God Himself, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit loves you and invites you to come to the feast.  He wants you to be with Him there.

    And do not think yourself unworthy of this feast because you are spiritually poor, maimed, lame, or blind.  You are precisely the ones Jesus has invited and that He wants.  Your sins are gone.  Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, for I have carried the burden for you.  My yoke is easy and my burden is light.  In Me, you will find rest for your souls.”  If you are weak, heartbroken or lonely, dealing with guilt and uncertainty, hear the words of the Lord:  All things are ready; it is finished.  This feast has been made ready for you.  The greatest and the least, the outcasts and the popular, the cool and the losers–everyone is invited.  Leave behind the love of temporary things.  Dwell upon the eternal love of Christ who has loved you beyond all telling, whose mercy makes you new.  Find your real life in Him.

    Jesus said, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.  He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”  And if Christ dwells in you, then the sin and death which trouble you ultimately cannot harm you.  He will indeed bring you who believe through the grave to the resurrection of the body at the close of the age.

    So hear again the Spirit’s call that goes out to you this day and heed it, “Come, for all things are now ready.”  You are reconciled with God and righteous in Christ.  The banquet table is laid before you, in the Word, in the Supper.  Partake of this holy, life-giving food.  Believe in Christ and be saved.  Receive the foretaste of the feast to come.  For blessed is He who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.

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

(With thanks to Christopher Esget, David Petersen, and CFW Walther for some of the content herein.)

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John 3:1-17

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

    What does it mean to be a “born-again Christian?”  Most of those who use that term for themselves mean that they’ve had some sort of special, life-changing experience where they’ve “found Jesus” or committed their lives to God and have begun a new life and a new way of living.  Usually they can point to the exact day when their born-again experience occurred.  And certainly God’s Word has the power to make drastic changes in the lives of people, as they are brought from unbelief to faith, as they are rescued from the power of sin through Christ to live for righteousness.

    What I find interesting, though, is that many born-again Christians deny the very thing that gives the new birth.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus says that unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  But when Nicodemus doesn’t get it, Jesus explains more directly by saying, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  Jesus is, of course, referring to baptism there.  As our first birth is from the watery womb of our earthly mother, so our rebirth in Christ is from the watery font of our heavenly mother, the Church.  Jesus connects the Spirit with the water.  That’s the place where the Spirit is poured out upon us very concretely through the Word and Name of God.  But strangely some say that baptism is simply something we do out of obedience to Christ, and what really counts is our commitment, our decision to believe and follow Jesus, and that sort of thing.  They don’t believe baptism actually really does or gives us anything.  In the end it’s just a nice ceremony.

    So on this Trinity Sunday, as we rejoice in the truth of who the only real God is, we will focus especially on the meaning of our baptism into the Name–notice that it’s singular, but also threefold–the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  And I suppose right there is a good place for us to begin.  What does it mean to be baptized in God’s name?  First of all, it means that God is the one doing the baptizing.  When people reject the power of baptism, it’s often because they think that what we are doing is the main thing.  But baptism is not something we do for God; it’s something He does for us.  It’s done in His name, by His authority, which means that ultimately it’s done by Him to you and for you.  Martin Luther says in the Large Catechism, “To be baptized in the name of God is to be baptized not by men, but by God Himself.  Therefore, although it is performed by human hands, it is nevertheless truly God’s own work.”  

    And when God puts His name on you with the water, He is marking you as His own.  Just as we put our names on items that are valuable to us, that we don’t want stolen or lost, so also God puts His name on you; for you are so valuable to Him that He gave up His only Son to the death of the cross and purchased you not with gold or silver but with His holy precious blood.  You belong to God in baptism.  You are His children.   You bear the family name–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

    So baptism most certainly is not just a pious ceremony.  It actually gives you the greatest of blessings.  For it joins you to Christ Himself.  That’s why it’s a new birth, a being born again.  Your first birth was a stillbirth, spiritually speaking.  You were born in the darkness, dead in sin.  All of the sins that bug you and all of the sins that don’t bug you (but should!) are symptoms of that.  Your earthly birth ends in death.  So you need a new birth that doesn’t end in death.  You need to be reborn in Christ, born from above.  Baptized into Christ, you share in His eternal life.  Jesus uses the language of water and the Spirit.  That’s creation language, as when the Spirit hovered over the waters in the beginning.  So also now He blows across the waters of baptism with the Word of Christ to recreate us.  Word and water and Spirit bring about new life.

    And please notice how this works:  Just as you had nothing to do with deciding to be born the first time–that was your parents’ doing–so also it is not your decision or commitment that causes you to be born the second time–that is God your Father’s doing.  All the glory for your being born again belongs to Him.  

    But someone might say, “I thought we were saved by Christ, not by Baptism.”  To which we respond: “Indeed, we are saved by Christ, and Christ alone.  And that is exactly why Baptism saves us, because Christ has put Himself and His gifts into it through His Word.”  Baptism is not separate from Christ; rather it encompasses all that He is and all that He has done for us.  That’s why I Peter 3 says, “Baptism now saves you.”  Romans 6 says that you are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection.  Therefore, when you are baptized, you are being given in the here and now the benefits of what Christ did long ago.  You were entirely under the power of Satan and the grave, and eternal death was to be your destiny.  But when you were baptized, you were wonderfully drenched with the forgiveness and life that spring forth from Good Friday and Easter.  You were transferred into the kingdom of light.  That’s why the sign of the cross is made both on the forehead and on the heart of those being baptized, to mark them as ones redeemed by Christ the crucified, and to show that through Baptism that redemption is being given to them right then and there.

    We rejoice to baptize people of all ages, including infants.  After all, infants are included in Christ’s command to baptize all people.  Nowhere in His command or anywhere else in the Scriptures is there even a hint that baptism is to be limited to a certain group of people on the basis of their age–especially since baptism in the New Testament is compared to circumcision, which was done to those 8 days old.  Now the Bible does record primarily adult baptisms.  But that is so because the church was new and expanding into pagan territories where there were many adult converts.  And even then the Scriptures tell us that the entire household of the adult convert was baptized, which would certainly include at least some young children or infants.

    Secondly, we also baptize infants because they are fallen sinners who need God’s grace.  They may appear to be quite innocent.  They don’t really have the ability to sin outwardly in all the ways adults do.  But David speaks quite clearly in Psalm 51 about their inward condition, “Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”  And children are also accountable to God for their sin; there is no such thing in Scripture as an “age of accountability.” Therefore, we rejoice that although infants cannot yet fully understand the Gospel in its spoken form, they can be given the Gospel in its baptismal form for the forgiveness of their sin.

    And thirdly, we baptize infants because they too can believe.  We must remember that faith is not primarily an intellectual thing, but a matter of the heart.  To say that infants cannot have a heart of faith which trusts in Christ and receives His gifts is to limit the work of the Holy Spirit.  Just as an infant can rely on and trust in a nursing mother and a caring father and know their voice, so an infant can have true faith in God the Father and know His voice.  When it comes right down to it, no one can believe, right?–including all you adults–except by the Holy Spirit.  That is His doing.  So then, the question to be asked is not “Can infants believe?” but “Can God give His gifts to infants?”  And the answer is most certainly “Yes.”  Infant baptism illustrates in a most beautiful way that we are pure receivers of God’s gracious working.

    God’s own powerful, life-giving Word is in the baptismal water.  That’s how baptism can do such great things.  There is the preached Word of the Gospel.  There is the poured Word of baptism.  There is the eaten Word of Holy Communion.  It’s always the Word of God that does the good stuff.  

    It’s like someone who receives a package in the mail which has something very valuable inside.  If a person were to judge by external appearances, the package would seem like nothing special, just cardboard and brown paper wrapping.  But upon opening it, a person would find that it was no ordinary package at all, but one that contained precious diamonds or some other great treasure.  So it is with Baptism.  Judging by external appearances, it seems to be nothing special, just a few handfuls of water.  But when faith looks inside this package, it finds that it’s no ordinary water at all, but water that contains the greatest treasure, the very Word of God made flesh, Jesus Christ.

    So you can see what a terrible tragedy it is that some see Baptism only in terms of its watery wrapping and not in terms of the great treasure that lies inside.  Or they say, “We are saved by faith alone and our external works contribute nothing.”  True enough.  However, Baptism is not our work but God’s.  And if He has chosen to use something external and ordinary like water to give us His grace, who are we to reject His choice?  Furthermore, faith doesn’t exist by itself but must have something external which it clings to and takes hold of.  And that something is the baptismal waters which contain the life-giving Word of God.  So to say that Baptism saves us and that Jesus saves us  is to say the same thing.  We are saved through faith alone, for faith clings to the water in which Jesus our Savior has put Himself.

    Keep baptism and faith together.  Baptism is not a magic spell, as some suppose, which saves a person regardless of what he believes.  Baptism calls for trust in the blessings which it gives.  And by water and the Word the Spirit creates that very faith in people’s hearts.  Unfortunately, some do fall from the faith and reject what God has done for them in Baptism, and thus they return to their former state of damnation.  The Scriptures say, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.”  Likewise, baptism is not a license to live however you please.  For Paul says in Romans 6, “Shall we go on sinning that grace may abound?  Certainly not! . . . We were buried with Christ through baptism so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”  And that new life is none other than the life of Christ, a life of faith and love.  

    All of this and more is what it means to be “born again.”  So if someone wants you to point to the specific day you were born again, fluster them real good and tell them the day of your baptism.  And if you don’t know what that date is, go home today and find it out.  For it is on that date that the Holy Trinity gave Himself concretely to you with all the blessings of His holy name.  He is the Father who loved you so that He gave His only begotten Son to die for you, conceived in the flesh by the Holy Spirit.  And through the working of the Holy Spirit, you are brought to faith in Christ who gives you everlasting life and restores you to the Father forever.  Let this one true faith always be on your lips.  Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity.  Let us give glory to Him, for He has shown mercy to us.  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever.  Amen.

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Acts 2:1-21; John 14:23-27

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

    There are some who would say that we Lutherans don’t pay enough attention to the Holy Spirit.  We’re always talking about Jesus and what He said and did, but the Holy Spirit barely gets a mention.  Shouldn’t He get equal time?  Shouldn’t we be talking more about the power of the Spirit in our lives?  Well stop and think about that question.  What specifically is the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives?  Romans 1 answers that question when it says, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”  The power of the Holy Spirit is not just some generic force to make things happen or to make us better people.  It is the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins in Christ the crucified.  That’s when the power of the Holy Spirit is being exercised, when that Gospel is being proclaimed, bringing people to faith in Christ and sustaining them in the faith.  For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also new life and salvation.

    So the truth of the matter is that whenever Christ is being preached, you can be sure that the Holy Spirit is present and doing His work.  Jesus said in John 16, “The Holy Spirit will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”  And in today’s Gospel our Lord said, “The Holy Spirit will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”  So you see, the Holy Spirit’s ministry is all about Jesus.  The Spirit’s job is not to be center stage Himself, but to bring glory to Christ.  In fact, if you’re hearing a lot of talk about the Holy Spirit just by Himself, or about healings and speaking in tongues and the Spirit’s power in your life apart from Christ, that actually frustrates the work of the Holy Spirit.  For He is the Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son and who is one with them in God’s purpose of bringing life to the world.

    And the events of Pentecost serve to make this point.  For when all is said and done, what are the main things that happened on Pentecost Day?  Well if you read all the way through the 2nd chapter of Acts, you’ll see that the Gospel of Christ was preached, people were baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, and the believers gathered together for the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper, the breaking of the bread.  There were other wonderful, miraculous things about Pentecost Day which God gave on this unique and special occasion.  But the key thing about this day is that the Holy Spirit was poured out to deliver the gifts of Christ.

    The first thing to notice about this event is that the believers were all gathered together in one place.  It was the 3rd hour of the day, 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning.  (How about that!)  That’s where the Spirit came, to that gathering, which is a reminder of the verse in Hebrews 10, “Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the [Last] Day approaching.”  

    And there were two signs which accompanied the coming of the Holy Spirit among this little band of Jesus’ followers.  The first was the sound of a rushing mighty wind.  This wind was the breath of God, breathing His Spirit and His life into His Church.  It is reminiscent of how Adam was created.  God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living being.  In the same way the Holy Spirit is the breath of life and the soul of the body which is the Church.  This rushing wind is also reminiscent of how God caused a wind to blow over the waters after the flood, drying the land and bringing about a new creation.  In the same way, the Spirit blows across the waters of baptism to make us a new creation in Christ.

    The second sign was the tongues of fire that came to rest upon the disciples.  As in the burning bush where God spoke to Moses, as in the pillar of fire that led the children of Israel in the wilderness, so also here, the fire shows that the Spirit of God, the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity, is present for and with His people to lead and guide them.

    And, of course, there’s a little play on words here: there were tongues of fire, and they were able to speak with other tongues.  The fiery presence of the Holy Spirit made them able to talk in other languages which they had not learned before this.  And please note that these were known languages in the world of that day.  Sometimes, when so-called Pentecostals talk about speaking in tongues–like those in the Assembly of God–they’re generally not talking about any language that would be understood today, just ecstatic babbling.  And that’s not what’s going on here.  The Holy Spirit gave the disciples the ability to speak in tongues so that the visitors who were there in the city from all over the world could hear the Word of Christ in their own native language.  This gift was given for the sake of the Gospel!  The people who heard this said, “We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”  Through this miracle, the Holy Spirit was saying to the people, “Jesus is for you.  He is for all nations and languages.  He died for everyone; He is your Savior from sin.  You can be sure of it because you are hearing it in your heart language, your own mother tongue.”

    The same is true for us gathered here today. The word of forgiveness, won by a man who spoke Aramaic and Hebrew, preached by apostles who spoke Greek, confessed by much of the church in Latin, translated by Luther into German, has come to you in your own language, in the English tongue.  That’s God’s gift to you.  There’s no more personal way of saying that Jesus is your Savior than to say it in your own language. The Gospel of Christ is for you.  That’s what it means to be truly Pentecostal.  

    Of course, the very fact that there are all these languages in the world is a reminder of why Jesus had to come and die in the first place.  God caused the confusion of languages at Babel because of our self-exalting sin.  In order to humble people like us, who want to make a name for ourselves, who aren’t content with what we were created to be, God scatters us.  The confusion of languages illustrates what our sin does.  It separates us from others, and most of all, it separates us from God.

    The thing that functions as our tower of Babel today is the internet and our advanced technology.  There’s nothing wrong, of course, with technology or the internet or tall towers of themselves.  But in the hands of sinful human beings, these tools tend to magnify and multiply sin and its power and its consequences.  And even though these things have the potential to bring people together for good, in the end they are always vying to become idols that we love because they serve our desires and because they enable us to a name for ourselves apart from God’s will.  It’s strange and yet not surprising that while technology has made the world seem smaller and more of a global community, we are as tribal and polarized as we’ve ever been–in our politics, in our workplaces, even in our own homes.  For greater power and potential in the hands of sinners inevitably causes greater separation from God and from one another.  Even among those of the same tongue, we’re not always speaking the same language.

    However, you can surely see that Pentecost is the reversal of Babel.  Whereas Babel caused the people to be scattered and separated, at Pentecost all the people of various languages are brought together in Christ.  Even as Jesus was crucified with the accusation above His head written in three different languages, so He redeemed all those of every nation and tribe and people and language, releasing them from their sins by His precious blood.  He has broken down the barrier of sin and pulverized it beneath His feet.  He has put us right with God the Father by His holy death.  And so He has also put us right again with one another.  The walls of hurt and division which separate us are overcome by His mercy and forgiveness.  The risen Jesus sends out His Spirit to draw us together and make us one in Himself.  No tower, no technology, no human achievement can truly unite us and lift us up to the heavens.  Only Jesus can do that.  And the Holy Spirit has come to proclaim that to the world.

    Now there were those on Pentecost who rejected the Holy Spirit, who mocked the disciples speaking in other tongues, and said, “They are full of new wine.”  And yet those mockers were actually more correct than they realized.  For Jesus had once said, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins . . . But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”  The wine of the old testament was poured from the old wineskins of the prophets.  But now in these latter days of the new testament, the apostles are the new wineskins.  For Christ Himself is the great grape cluster who was crushed in His suffering and passion, that He might bring forth the wine of the Spirit.  Here indeed, then, the apostles are filled with this new wine of the Holy Spirit, that they might bring life and joy to the nations.  It is written of the days of the Messiah that “the mountains shall drip with new wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.”  Here we see the beginning of those days, days in which we still live.

    Truly, the prophesy of Joel is still coming to pass, where God says, “On My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.”  To prophesy here simply means to speak and confess the word of God.  It is what we are doing here today in the liturgy, as we speak and sing and confess the words of God given us by the Holy Spirit.  You are the Lord’s menservants and maidservants, for God’s Spirit was quite literally poured out on you in your baptism.  You are the ones gathered by the Spirit around the altar as one body; for there you receive the true body of Christ.  You are those who look for the coming of great and awesome day of the Lord, who call on the name of the Lord and shall be saved.  For no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.  

    So then, keep and hold on to Jesus’ Word.  For it comes from the Father and is filled with the Holy Spirit.  Through this Word the persons of the Holy Trinity come to you and make their home with you.  By this Word you have peace that the world cannot give, the everlasting peace of Christ.

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

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John 15:26 - 16:4

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

    The devil doesn’t mind if people are religious, not at all.  In fact Satan actually likes it when people are religious; he’s behind the invention of all the false religions in the world.  For the most powerful form of evil is darkness that appears to be light, evil that seems to be good.  And what could appear to be more good than something which is done in the name of God and spirituality–a Mormon promoting family values, a Muslim seeking to live a righteous life, a Hindu seeking inner peace and balance?  The devil has no trouble with people engaging in religious God-talk; for the devil has been trying to play God from the beginning.  When people tell you that they’re spiritual, remind them that demons are spirits, too, and perhaps they should be just a little bit more specific.  St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 that what the pagans think they are offering up to their god they are actually offering to demons.  You don’t have to be a Satanist engaging in weird rituals to be worshiping the devil.  Any worship that is not the worship of the true God, the Holy Trinity, any faith that is not faith in Jesus the Savior is fine with the evil one.

    Just consider the Apostle Paul before his conversion.  He was serving the devil even while he thought he was serving God.  Paul was devoted to living righteously according to the law; he was a rising star among his fellow Pharisees.  And he was so zealous and passionate in his religion that he devoted himself to rooting out and getting rid of those whom he thought to be heretics, particularly these Christians who worshiped Jesus as the Son of God.  He oversaw the stoning to death of a Christian deacon named Stephen.  He was willing even to travel to other countries in order to persecute and imprison those who followed Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  It was only the grace of God that turned Paul’s life around when Jesus appeared to Him on the road to Damascus, bringing him to repentance and faith and a new life.  Only by grace did He come to worship the true God, through faith in Christ alone.

    Jesus said, “The time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.”  Today, those words bring to mind Islamic jihad, something that is supposedly a holy killing, a holy war.  The terrorists kill in service to their false god.  The shout of “Allahu Akbar” that you sometimes hear is simply the Arabic way of saying “God is the greatest.”  Those words of themselves are fine and true, but then they are twisted and turned against the true God, used while taking the life of the “infidel” Christian who refuses to renounce Jesus as the Savior or to honor Muhammad.  Unfortunately this sort of killing happens today with great frequency in North Africa and the Far East as well as the Middle East.  Followers of Jesus are specifically targeted because of their faith.  And here’s the thing: the terrorists think that what they’re doing will make the world a better place.  They actually think that they’re serving God.

    Now thankfully, this is something we almost never face.  However, there is a soft persecution that is rising year by year in this country.  And it comes from the religion of progressivism.  Even though progressives and so-called social justice warriors wouldn’t necessarily characterize their beliefs as religious, they are just as puritanical and intolerant of anyone who departs from their orthodoxy as Paul was in his days as a Pharisee.  Jesus said that “they will put you out of the synagogues.”  The equivalent of that today is: they will put you out of the public square where the shape of our cultural life is decided–higher education and politics and entertainment.  Just go to a university today as a professing Christian who believes that Jesus is the only way to eternal life and that the Bible is the truth.  Watch how quickly your free speech and freedom of assembly is shut down and you are cast to the fringes.  And also in politics and TV and movies and social media, if you don’t support so-called “reproductive rights” or gay relationships or transgenderism, if you make any sort of open statement declaring that you think marriage is only between a man and a woman, well then you’re no better than a Ku Klux Klan racist.  You’re a bigot who deserves to lose your job or be driven out of business.  You yourself may not be killed, but your livelihood certainly can be killed.  Many of you who work within the realm of secular culture and government regulations know well the pressure to use politically correct talk or to remain silent about your Christian beliefs in order to avoid problems or a financial hit or a re-education sensitivity training course.  And again, those who try to silence Christians and purge traditional Christian morality and beliefs may actually think that they’re doing something good and loving and positive for the world.  They may well believe they’re serving God by intolerantly enforcing their version of tolerance.

    Progressivism needs to be understood in this way as a religion.  Its Paradise Lost story is global warming.  It’s Gospel is self-expression and sexual freedom.  Its priests are Hollywood celebrities and woke professors and news media elites.  And its Sacrament is abortion, where Jesus’ words of life are demonically turned into words of death, “This is my body–I have a right to do what I want with it.”  The unbelieving world will always be religious.  But its religion is anti-Christ, anti-Christian, anti-truth.  It does not want to listen to the Spirit of truth sent by Jesus from the Father.  

    So do not think that it’s some strange or unexpected thing when trials come upon you or if people make it difficult for you to live as a Christian.  Jesus has told you in advance so that you won’t be surprised, so that you won’t be made to stumble in the faith and wonder what’s going on, so that you won’t be tempted to embrace the world’s religion like everyone else seems to be doing.  It’s not easy being on the outside of what the world is praising and holding up as good.  It’s not easy to be faithful in the midst of rampant unfaithfulness.  However, it is written, “Brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”  And today’s Epistle says, “Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.”  

    Jesus said, “A servant is not greater than his Master.”  If they crucified Him, those who follow Him should not expect a life of ease in this world.  But even in this, faith sees God’s gracious handat work.  For in each of these hardships the Lord is reminding you not to get too comfortable here. Your citizenship is in heaven, your life is hidden with God in Christ.  According to Scripture, it is an honor to partake of Christ’s sufferings.  Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and speak all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.  Rejoice and be exceedingly glad.  For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”   

    This is what it means to be baptized.  It is to take part in Christ’s death, so that we may also take part in His rising to new life.  Romans 6 says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were 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.”  So first and foremost, baptism means that we share in the benefits of Christ’s death.  We are washed clean of our sin, and we are given eternal life and the sure hope of the resurrection of the body.  But until that Day, your baptism also means sharing in Christ’s sufferings, sharing in the cross.  Baptism means the putting to death of your sinful nature.  That happens through daily contrition and repentance, battling against and drowning your old Adam and the world that lives in you.  But it also happens through the afflictions and trials that you are put through in this fallen and unbelieving world.  God works even through His enemies and the evils they inflict for your ultimate good, so that in the end you may share fully in the joy of Christ’s resurrection.  For it is written, “If we have been united with Him in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.”

    So trust in God in the midst of affliction or persecution.  He has not forgotten you or forsaken you.  He works through the cross and suffering to bring you unimaginable joy and blessing.  This world cannot touch you.  Its threats are meaningless.  The devil and the world may prowl around like a roaring lion seeking whom they may devour; but for those in Christ, all the devil can do is roar and make a lot of noise.  For he has had his teeth and claws pulled out on Good Friday.  Even if you were to be killed for your faith, nothing and no one can stop the bodily resurrection God is bringing you.  So do not be afraid when hardship comes.  Do not think for a moment that your heavenly Father has abandoned you.  For He loves you and has saved you for his own Name's sake.  He has gathered you out of the world's synagogues to be his own Holy Church, the spotless Bride of Christ washed clean in the waters of baptism flowing from the spear-pierced side of her Husband.  He has cleansed you of your filthiness and your idols.  He has replaced your stony heart, creating in you a clean heart of flesh.  He has given you a new spirit by breathing the breath of His Holy Spirit over you again and again as receive Holy Absolution.

    Here, in His Holy Church, the Lord offers to you all He has, for He offers you all that He is. The Lord is your light and your salvation and the strength of your life.  And He is here now to fill you with His forgiveness, love, and mercy.  Jesus is the One who truly offers God the Father service–not by killing others but by sacrificing Himself for you.  That is what the Divine Service is: the Lord's service to you–first performed for you on the cross and now given to you in the Holy Sacrament with His true body and blood.  This is what’s real and lasting and true in the midst of the fake reality of the world.  This is where everything is set right, where the madness of the world and its lies are held at bay. For where Christ Jesus is, there is your home, your peace, your comfort, your joy in all hardships, and your entry into eternal life.

    So take to heart the words of the Epistle, “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love for one another, . . . that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

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

    An early church father, John Chrysostom once remarked, “A mother to become a mother passes through pain.” That is how God has ordained the Christian life–joy is on the other side of pain, and the joy cannot come except through pain.  In explaining His coming crucifixion, our Lord uses the example of a mother’s pain in childbearing to show the necessity of His suffering on the cross, but also to give them the hope that the resurrection will shortly follow.  And notice how He joins His suffering to theirs, and His joy to theirs. The same is true for you: He invites you to bring your own pain, your own suffering, your own battle with sin and sorrow, to Him. He endures your pain, and will give to you the joy of His resurrection.

    But first, for now, we must experience these words, “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, and the world will rejoice.”  I think very often we forget that’s the way the Christian life works.  We are tempted to think that being a Christian means always being blessed by God in visible ways and being free from worry and hassle and pain and conflict.  And if we are experiencing those things, if we’re not living a “victorious Christian life,” then we must not be true Christians, or God must have left us.  I’ve known a number of people who have given themselves over to bitterness because of some hard circumstance in their life.  They’re angry at God for allowing suffering into their life.  They operate with the idea that if they do their part for God–come to church and so forth–then God will give them a smooth and happy existence.  But that’s not what God has promised His people.  The truth is that the Christian life is marked both by the cross and the resurrection, the curse of death and the gift of life in Christ at the same time.  And so it is a mixture of fear and love, weeping and laughing, heartache and gladness, sorrow and joy, insecurity and confidence–with the cross and suffering experienced as often as not in this life, while the fullness of contentment and happiness is reserved for the life of the world to come.

    Those are not exactly the words we want to hear.  We want to hear that life in Christ is a life where everything always falls into place.  We want to hear that being a Christian means that we will be treated fairly, that others will always respect us, that life’s bumps won’t be all that hard.  

    Joy is on the other side of pain; but we want desperately to avoid the cross in our lives and to run from the harder parts of our callings and our vocations.  We find it hard to accept the truth of Psalm verses such as these, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes, [O Lord].”  (Ps. 119.71). And again, “Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord” (Ps. 94.12).  For the Lord chastens and disciplines those He loves.  Throughout Scripture, tribulation is described as needful, so that we grow as children of God and learn to depend completely on the grace and mercy of God.

    Repent.  For as the OT reading said, “it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.  Let him sit alone and keep silent, because God has laid it on him; let him put his mouth in the dust–there may yet be hope.  Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, and be full of reproach.  For the Lord will not cast off forever.  Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.”  

    That is the way of the Christian because that is the way of Christ.  Jesus is the one who gave His cheek to the ones who struck Him, who was full of reproach, who was laid in the dust of death.  And yet He was not by any means cast off forever.  For He was raised again the third day.  That is the source of our forgiveness and our salvation; His pains bring us life and joy.  And this, then, is also the pattern of our lives in Christ.  Jesus is saying to His disciples, “Don’t be surprised at the trials that will come upon you as if this were something strange.  For I am about to go the cross to suffer your sins to death in My body and win your full and free forgiveness.  And you are my followers.  You are baptized into Me.  And so you are given to carry My suffering and death in your bodies, in order that you might also carry My life in your bodies and have the relief and comfort that only I can give.  So blessed are you who mourn, for you will be comforted.  Blessed are you who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for yours in the kingdom of heaven.”

    “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again, a little while, and you will see Me.”  There will be those little whiles in your life when you can’t seem to see Jesus, times when you want to just check out and give up.  But He reminds you here that it really is only a little while that you must endure.  That pain, that disease, that heartache, that challenging situation is almost over.  Just hang on to Him.  Trust in Him to pull you through it.  It may seem like an eternity, but only three days.  The day of resurrection is coming.  Weeping may remain for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

    Again, it’s like a pregnant woman awaiting the time of her delivery.  The wait may seem like forever, or the labor like it’s never going to end.  But inevitably, the time of the birth does come, the little while is finally over, the little one arrives, and Jesus says, “she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.”  

    So it is also for believers as we await the final delivery on the Last Day.  You were conceived and given new life in the womb of the church by water and the seed of the Word.  You are continually nourished through your holy mother by preaching and the supper.  You are given to grow and mature in the faith like a developing unborn child.  But there are times when things get a little uncomfortable in this womb, especially as the end nears.  And the “labor” of this life can be very traumatic.  But then comes the delivery of the new life.  Then comes your deliverance in the resurrection of the body on the Last Day, and there is nothing but joy and fulfillment–the former sorrows will not even be remembered, but will fade as fog evaporates in the light of day.

    So fix your hearts on Jesus, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Don’t bow to the temptations of the devil and the world and your flesh to give up on Christ, to surrender to the moment.  Rather, trust in the Lord to carry you through.  For He has in fact already carried you through by dying and rising again.  He’s already conquered all that weighs you down.  It’s just a matter of time for that victory to be revealed.  It’s only a little while more, and then comes the forever, the unending while of dwelling in the majesty of our Lord and the perfect happiness and completeness that His presence brings.  Then comes the peace that far surpasses our human understanding.  Then comes the time when the sufferings of this present life will not even be able to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.  For we know that when (Jesus) is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

    And even before that last day arrives, our Lord comes to us every little while.  After the little while of waiting, Jesus appeared to the disciples on Easter evening.  Then He was hidden from them for a little while until He returned a week later, showing Himself to doubting Thomas.  Then another little while, and on the next Sunday He appeared to the disciples on the sea shore after they had been fishing.  And on it goes.  Our Lord continues to come to His people every little while in divine service, revealing Himself to us in His words and His supper to comfort and strengthen us.  Here in this little while of the liturgy, we get a taste of eternity, the timelessness of being in Christ’s presence.

    Jesus said, “You now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”  The Lord sees you again at His table, that He may give Himself to you and fill you with immortal joy.  The Lord sees you, in mercy.  You are not invisible to Him.  He knows all that’s going on with you.  He loves you.  He watching out for you, watching over you.  So do not lose heart.  In those times when you are in the shadows, repeat those words to yourself that Jesus has given to His disciples, “A little while.”  Just a little while and your heart will rejoice in beholding Christ, and your joy no one will take from you.  

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

Mark 6:1-6; John 19:25-27
Midweek Lent 4

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✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    Our God is a God who has a family.  And I don’t simply mean in the spiritual sense, where we are all brothers and sisters in Christ–though that is obviously true and very important.  But here I mean that Jesus, God the Son, had an earthly family.  Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters living with Him in His house as He grew up (Mark 6:3).  There is a tradition that the virgin Mary was the mother only of Jesus, and that the other children were from a previous marriage of Joseph, whose first wife had died.  But whether Jesus was the youngest and had several older step-siblings, or whether Jesus was the oldest child, and Mary had more children afterwards–half-siblings of our Lord–the fact remains that Jesus grew up in a rather large household.   Behold the God with family.

    And our God is also a God who worked an everyday job before He began to fulfill His mission as the Messiah.  Like His earthly father, Joseph, Jesus was a carpenter.  He worked with hammer and wood and nails to make farm implements or tables or furniture for the people in the nearby capital city of Galilee called Sepphoris, six miles away from Nazareth.  Jesus didn’t just wander around piously for the first 30 years of His life.  He lived a rather normal, common life.  He worked.  Behold the God with a job.

    This is one of the reasons why, when Jesus came back to Nazareth preaching the kingdom of God, that the people of His hometown were offended and put off.  “Isn’t this the carpenter?” they asked.  They had watched him grow up with His siblings and learn the carpentry trade.  They couldn’t see Him as anything more than an ordinary man.  They were scandalized that he would now come home as their teacher, the one sent to carry out God's saving plan.

    We sometimes fail to fully grasp that fact, that Jesus was (and is) fully human.  It’s offensive to our reasoning to think that God the Son became a toddler, learning to walk, or a teenager, growing up into a man.  That seems beneath the divine majesty.  But Jesus’ true humanity is precisely what saves you.  And it’s a great comfort, too.  He knows what it’s like to live in an imperfect family, with all the dynamics of a full house and multiple brothers and sisters.  He knows what it’s like to work with His hands and to deal with people in the marketplace.  He knows what it’s like to be weary and tired, and to be joyful and content in the work of His hands.  He knows what it’s like to experience the kind of things that you go through.  Jesus hallowed your entire life, from conception to the grave, by going through it all Himself for you.

    Jesus experienced the brokenness of this world.  We know that Joseph died at some point after Jesus was 12 years old and before Jesus began His ministry.  So perhaps even during Jesus’ teen years, it was a single parent household.  And Jesus experienced rejection in His life, not only from outsiders but even from His own family members.  Prior to His death and resurrection, Jesus’ brothers and sisters thought He was a bit crazy.  John 7(:5) says that they didn’t believe in Him.  And even after His resurrection and ascension, His siblings didn’t always get it.

    James, the half-brother of our Lord Jesus, did become a believer after Easter; and He even became a leader in the early church–no doubt, in part, because of his family connections.  How many can say that they’re Jesus’ brother, after all?  He must have some special insight, right?  But James had a hard time shaking off the Jewish requirements of the Law, requirements that Jesus had fulfilled and set aside.  James had a tendency to add these ceremonial, legal requirements back onto the free gift of God’s grace in Christ.  The epistle to the Galatians speaks of how a delegation was sent by James from Jerusalem, telling these new Gentile believers that to be true Christians, they had to submit to circumcision and the OT food laws.  The apostle Paul had to forcefully denounce this and rebuke those who listened to James.  Paul reminded the Galatians, “ a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ; . . . for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”

    This situation with James helps to explain why Jesus says what He says on the cross to His mother Mary and to John.  Ordinarily, it would be the next oldest son who would take care of His mother after death.  But in view of the family situation and James’ issues of faith, Jesus on the cross entrusts Mary not to James or any of the other brothers, but to John, a preacher of the unadulterated truth.  It’s important who has the care of Mary.  For Mary is a picture of the church.  From her came the Christ; and the church is the body of Christ.  It is in the womb of the church that we are reborn at the font and made to be members of Christ’s body.  By virtue of our baptism, Mary is our spiritual mother, the icon of the church.  It is important who has charge of the church.  So it is that Jesus says to Mary, “Woman, behold your son,” and to John, “Behold your mother.”

    Water is thicker than blood.  By water and the Word in Baptism we are made to be Jesus’ mother and sisters and brothers.  In Mark 3 it is written that Jesus’ mother and brothers were looking for Him.  And Jesus looked at those who were listening to His teaching and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”  Biological connections gain you no advantage with Jesus.  The truth of the Gospel is what counts in this family.  

    John preached that truth.  He said such things as this, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  “This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sin.”  John drew special attention in His Gospel to the blood and water that flowed from Jesus side, reminding us of the sacraments which cleanse us and give us new life with God.  

    John, you will recall, is the one who outran Peter to the tomb and believed in the resurrection.  John is the one who first recognized Jesus on the shore after Easter.  John is the one who didn’t refer to himself by name but as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”  The love of Jesus was the key thing.

    Jesus is the only one who reveals the Father and His love to us.  And now, with these words from the cross, “Behold your son,” Jesus is saying that it is only through the preaching of John and those like him that you can come to know Christ.  This is the Trinitarian nature of the faith–the Father sends the Son, and the Son sends the Spirit to preach the truth of the Gospel that we may be drawn to Jesus and through Him back to the Father.  

    Therefore, these words of Jesus apply also to you, the church, “Woman behold your son, the preacher of the Gospel.”  Listen to those who are the successors of John and who proclaim the Word that he proclaimed.  Don’t listen to other voices that preach other gospels, even if they’re family.  Don’t listen to anyone who mixes in human works with the all-sufficient work of Jesus.  Receive the care of your pastor who speaks the saving truth of Christ and His words.  For it is through that Gospel alone that you come to know Jesus.  And He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Him.

    And Jesus’ words also apply to pastors, “Behold, your mother!”  The pastor is given charge of the church, but He is not in charge of the church as her owner.  Rather, He honors her as he would a parent.  For she is the one through whom he himself was given life.  The pastor is to treat the church with the same respect he gives his own Mom.  He is there to serve her and care for her spiritual welfare.  “Behold, your mother.”  Both mother and son are given as gifts to each other from Jesus, who alone is Lord over all.

    Finally, in one sense we could say that the people of Jesus’ hometown had it right; He was still a carpenter. For He yet had one more thing to build.  But this time in addition to hammer, nails, and wood, He would use His own body.  Through the redeeming work of the cross, Jesus laid the foundation of the Church.  Baptized into Christ the cornerstone, Scripture says that "you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (Eph. 2:22).  This temple will never crumble, because it is founded on the solid rock of Christ and His work for you, His family.

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

John 6:1-15
Lent 4

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

    At the end of today’s Gospel, the people said about Jesus, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”  When they spoke of “the Prophet,” they were referring to the promise that the Lord had made to Moses, when the children of Israel were afraid to hear the thundering voice of God on Mt. Sinai.  The Lord told Moses, “I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth.”  

    And to that extent, the people were right.  Jesus is the promised Prophet, the New and Greater Moses, who speaks God’s words to His people, who leads you and feeds you and intercedes for you.  Just consider all the details in today’s Gospel.  In the same way that  Moses led the children of Israel through the Red Sea, Jesus goes across the Sea of Galilee (6:1), and a great multitude follows Him.  And why did they follow Him?  Because of His signs which He performed on those who were diseased (6:2), just like Moses who had performed great signs in Egypt before Pharaoh.  And as Moses went up Mt. Sinai with the elders of Israel, and they saw God and ate and drank, so also Jesus here ascends a mountain with His disciples, and in Him the people would see God and eat and drink (6:3).  And it is written here that the Passover was near (6:4), the sacrificing of the unblemished Lamb whose blood protects from death.  In this Gospel, then, the Lord is teaching you that He is your greater Moses.  He alone is the One who sustains and leads you safely across the wilderness of this fallen world.  He is the One who comes after Moses, your Joshua, who leads you through death into the Promised Land and eternal life.

    Jesus is also your manna.  He said, “I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world (6:51).”  So when we hear of a miracle like the feeding of the 5000, we know that its significance doesn’t end with the earthly bread of that time and place.  No, here is pictured the true Manna, the Bread of Life which is still being distributed to the multitude today, to you in the Sacrament of the Altar.

    Seeing all the people coming to Him, Jesus asks Philip a question to test him.  Now when the Lord tests you, He does so not to find out information about you that He didn’t already know, right?  He’s God; He knows all things.  Jesus tests you ultimately to direct your faith to the right place and to strengthen it.  God’s tests are for your good.  The Lord asks Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?”  In this way the Lord leads Philip to despair of his own ability to do anything to solve this problem.  “Even if we had 200 days’ worth of wages, we still couldn’t buy nearly enough food.”  The disciples were helpless to do anything.  The first thing about having the right faith is knowing what not to trust in. Tests serve to empty you of your idols and your false gods.  The disciples were not to trust in themselves or their own resources.

    It’s the same way with you.   Jesus asks this question to show you that the bread of life is not something that you can acquire with your own spiritual resources or by your own goodness.  You simply have no ability to come up with what is necessary to attain eternal life.  You must learn to turn way from and despair of your own qualifications to solve this problem.  You’ve got nothing to barter with to make yourself right with God.  You can’t purchase this heavenly bread.  Rather, God offers it to you freely in Christ.  His forgiveness and salvation are granted to you without cost; for He has paid the price.  As Isaiah 55 says, “You who have no money, come, buy and eat.”

    Only those can receive the bread of life, then, who acknowledge their spiritual bankruptcy before God, who recognize that of themselves they can lay no claim on God’s eternal gifts.  Those who think that they are worthy of the Bread of Life will not be given life at all.  For they are still trying to “buy” their way into God’s good graces with their own merits.  Only to the poor in spirit does the kingdom of heaven belong.  Our righteousness is like the rotting Old Testament manna that was kept overnight; it’s goodness doesn’t last.  Only those who hunger and thirst for the righteousness of Christ will be satisfied.  For His is the food which endures to everlasting life (6:27).

    One of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?”  On the surface it appeared that this bread and fish would be useless to help feed the people.  But with Jesus it was more than enough to do the job.  It’s the same way with the Sacrament of the Altar.  Someone might ask, “What good can this little bit of bread and wine do?  How can these elements help my soul or give me any eternal blessings?”  But in the hands of Jesus, such elements are more than enough.  For what counts is not the impressiveness of the bread and wine but the miracle that our Lord does with them.  You must focus not simply on the elements only but on the Word of the Lord who stands behind them.

    “Then Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’  Now there was much grass in the place.”  The Lord invites you also to do the same thing today, for the Psalm says, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall lack nothing.  He makes me to lie down in green pastures.”  Right here is your grassy pasture where He calls you to come for rest.  It is here that He leads you beside the still waters of His living Word.  It is here that He prepares a table before you, spread with heavenly food.

    “And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.”  Here is the great miracle, that as the disciples handed out this food given them by Christ, there was always more and more.  The more they handed out, the more there was.  First there were five loaves in the basket.  Then, as this was distributed, the disciples would reach in and find more and more loaves ready to be given out.  And likewise with the fish.  Thousands upon thousands of people were fed, and the food never ran out.  Everyone was filled and satisfied; no one was left out.  The Lord more than covered all of their needs.

    Isn’t this also how it is with the gifts that Christ gives in Holy Communion?  In bread and wine He multiplies His body and blood, and through His ministers He distributes them to His people, that you may receive all that you want of Him who is the Living Bread from heaven, and that your souls may be thoroughly satisfied with His mercy.  There is always more and more of this Bread of Life to be given out.  For this bread is the flesh of God Himself; and there is no limit to God.  He offered up His body for you on the cross to purchase your forgiveness.  And now He offers up His body to you in Holy Communion that you may receive that full and limitless forgiveness.

    Like the five loaves and the two fish, our Lord’s love is ever-expanding.  It’s reverse mathematics; the more that He gives, the more that He has yet to give.  It can’t be measured; you can’t put a boundary around it.  So when you come to the Lord’s table with penitence and faith, you need never fear that the sin you bring is bigger than the Lord’s forgiveness.  The cross covers it all, and then some.  The shed blood of the Passover Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world.  When you eat the Living Bread from heaven in the Sacrament, you receive the fullness of Christ’s pardon, all that you could ever want.  And there is still more even beyond that.  For when you eat this Supper, you are partaking in the very life of God Himself.  Jesus said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day (6:54).”

    After the 5000 were fed, Jesus told the disciples to gather up what remained, so that nothing would be lost.  We also do the same thing here in Holy Communion.  What remains after the Supper is gathered up and placed into the tabernacle there at the back of the altar.  From there it is carried out to our hospitalized and shut-in members.  In that way the Lord’s love also reaches out to them in their need so that they might be drawn in and joined with us in this same holy communion.  

    Finally, when the disciples gathered up what remained, they filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves.  Five loaves became twelve baskets–more than when they started.  Five is the number of the Law, for there are five books of Moses.  Twelve is the number of the apostles.  In this miracle, then, we see a transition, from the old Israel, guided by the Law of Moses, to the New Israel, the Church, built on the doctrine and ministry of Christ’s apostles, as we say in the Creed, “one holy Christian and apostolic Church.”  It is written in Acts 2 of the early church,  “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers (Acts 2:42).”  This is what the 5 becoming 12 means for you: You have been freed from the judgment of the Law by Christ, who fulfilled it all for you; and your life is now to be found in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking and receiving of the Bread of Life, and in the prayers and liturgy of the church.  

    The multitudes back then wanted Jesus to be king–but only to keep their bellies filled and their appetites fed.  But you know that Jesus is much more than that.  He is the King who goes off to the mountain by Himself where He will be crowned with thorns, that His flesh might be given for the life of the world.  You are children of the Jerusalem that is above.  You are children of the promise in Jesus, the Greater Moses and the Bread of Life.

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