4th Sunday of Easter – B LSB #’s 740, 735, 711
Text – John 10:14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own & my own know me. KNOWING THE SHEPHERD As we sung the opening hymn, did the thought occur that it’s a cute little song but it’s sort of embarrassing to sing as an adult? “I am Jesus’ little lamb, ever glad at heart I am; for my Shepherd gently guides me…” (LSB 740:1) In the Gospel reading from St. John, the apostle is basically asking you this question, “Can you be Jesus’ little lamb in your heart & in your mind & in your soul?” Can you be a tender baby lamb that loves to rest in the arms of its master? Can you follow & respond to the gentle guiding of your Shepherd? If you can then you know the Shepherd! Adults struggle with being embarrassed. Children do as well, but since it tends to happen to them a lot more often, it’s not as earth shaking when it does. One of the advantages of being grown up is that we learn how to avoid embarrassment, so when it does happen it’s more difficult to deal with. So, adults don’t commonly think of themselves as a helpless lamb. Christian adults know better & it’s still difficult. Intellectually, or spiritually, we recognize that being Jesus’ little lamb is a good thing, because that’s how the Word of God pictures it. It’s our emotions that get in the way. Adults do not enjoy feeling helpless. It’s one reason of many that nursing homes are not a popular place. There, helplessness is on full display. It confronts you face to face, if you make eye contact with the residents. When you do, you can literally feel their pain. It’s the pain of being helpless & embarrassed. When someone is comfortable with that it’s probably because they know the Shepherd. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own & my own know me.” (John 10:14 ESV) Do you know the Shepherd? Do you know Jesus? Sinful creatures that we are, we cannot know the Shepherd in our pride, nor in our arrogance. We only know Jesus in the humility that the Holy Spirit gives to us. Sinful creatures that we are, we know that humility the greatest in our weakness. We know, & we appreciate, the Shepherd the most when we are helpless. Being a Christian in this broken world offers plenty of opportunities for weakness. And weakness is not a fun place to be. In Christ we have amazing joy, but that delight is not centered in this world. Because of what mankind did to God’s first creation, The Lamb of God had to die in order to fulfill His being as our Shepherd. That was, is & always shall be the plan of Yahweh to rescue us from what we have done. Jesus is the Shepherd of all humanity. Trusting in Him is eternal life. Whether people connect the dots, or not, something about Jesus as Shepherd resonates with human beings. Psalm 23 is probably The most common Scripture lesson at funerals. That reveals, at the very least, a subconscious longing for human beings to rest in the arms of their Creator. God uses the weaknesses in our lives to nudge us toward surrendering to Him. That’s one of the ways in which ‘my Shepherd gently guides me,’ as the author of the hymn put it. That surrendering is a constant & ongoing part of our sanctification. The Holy Spirit is always & ever working to point us to Jesus as the good Shepherd: “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod & your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:2-4 ESV) All other shepherds have failed & will continue to fail. That doesn’t mean we should never lean on friends & family for support & encouragement, but it does mean that only Jesus will always be with us in this life, & only Jesus can get us into heaven. For those of us who’ve been followers of Jesus a long time, we’ve grown comfortable with the idea that Jesus knows us. We follow Him because we believe that He is good, even when difficult things come into our lives. Not everyone is there in their spiritual life. Jesus knows our every thought, even those we try to bury. He knows our every word, the ones our filter catches before they’re spoken aloud, the ones we look over our shoulder before we speak, the ones we dare speak only at a whisper. Jesus knows our every action. He knows what we spend our money on & what that says about the true treasure of our heart. When Jesus says, “I know my own,” that can be scary. To be fully known by God is to be exposed & vulnerable. The good news is that God loves us & sent His Son to die for us precisely because He does know you & me. He knows us in all our sins & He knows our desperate need to be saved from ourselves. Since Jesus already knows our sins, there’s no reason to be afraid & looking over our shoulder before we speak. Nothing we do can change God’s opinion of us. We can’t get any worse than we already are. The eternal Son of God had to suffer hell in order to pay for what you & I have done. And He did so willingly for the joy of heaven that was set before Him. Yahweh knows the threats we face, within & without. He knows the brokenness of our condition. He knows the evil Foe who threatens to devour us. He knows not only our guilt, but especially our helplessness. We are like little lambs who have no chance of fending off a wolf. Where our sinful heart at times will kick someone when they’re down, Jesus has compassion. The Good Shepherd realizes that unless He reveals Himself to us, we could never find Him – not in this world of total brokenness in which we live. He didn’t laugh at our futile attempts to find a god worthy of our service & devotion. Instead, Jesus came to us as a helpless baby child. He came to rescue us in a position of weakness in order to understand our fears. One of the greatest fears, for Christian parents, is that their children may wander from the true faith. During His ministry on earth, Jesus had plenty of opportunity to experience that with His own disciples & other followers. Fears like those leave us helpless, because we cannot control the heart, the mind or the soul of other human beings. In those fears, & in that helplessness, Jesus calls us to turn to Him in our own heart, mind & soul, like little baby lambs. The Good Shepherd calls us to entrust to Him the fate of all God’s children & sheep, even when we think of them as our own. We can give our anxieties over to the Great & Good Shepherd of the sheep. We are wholly inadequate to save anyone. Whenever sin overtakes you, use that as a reminder to know Jesus as the Good Shepherd & to return to Him. Let Him be your shepherd in your heart & in your mind & in your soul. Find rest in His loving arms, & do not be ashamed that you are so helpless & lost without Him. “The good shepherd has laid down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11b ESV) Another shepherd once wrote, in Psalm 95, “For He is our God, & we are the people of His pasture, & the sheep of His hand.” (95:7a ESV) Today, we hear the voice of our Shepherd in the words of Absolution, in the words of Holy Scripture & in the words of Benediction. We are the little lambs of the Good Shepherd & He is risen from the dead to love us forever. Amen. Have no fear, little flock; have no fear, little flock, for the Father has chosen to give you the Kingdom; have no fear, little flock! Have good cheer, little flock; have good cheer, little flock, for the Father will keep you in His love forever; have good cheer, little flock. Amen. LSB 735:1-2. 3rd Sunday of Easter – B LSB #’s 476, 672, 491
Text – 1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, & what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. BEING LIKE CHRIST An old man going a lone highway, Came, at the evening cold & gray, To a chasm vast & deep & wide. Through which was flowing a sullen tide The old man crossed in the twilight dim, The sullen stream had no fear for him; But he turned when safe on the other side And built a bridge to span the tide. “Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near, “You are wasting your strength with building here; Your journey will end with the ending day, You never again will pass this way; You’ve crossed the chasm, deep & wide, Why build this bridge at evening tide?” The builder lifted his old gray head; “Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said, “There followed after me to-day A youth whose feet must pass this way. This chasm that has been as naught to me To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be; He, too, must cross in the twilight dim; Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”[1] That poem is titled The Bridge Builder, & it’s earliest known printing was in 1898. The author, Ms. Dromgoole, wrote over 7,500 poems, 5,000 essays & published thirteen books. Even as someone who has written well over 1000 sermons in my years of ministry, her work is an amazing accomplishment. And, in my opinion, the poem speaks to the heart of God’s love. John’s 1st epistle highlights the love of God at 4:8 where he writes, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (ESV) As we continue our celebration of the Easter season, Good Friday is still only 16 days ago. Before the sun set that evening, our Lord came to His chasm deep & wide. He too crossed in the twilight dim, & the sullen stream also had no fear for Him. And in the death & resurrection of Jesus Christ He also was turning, when safe on the other side, to build a bridge that would span the tide. God knows that you & I must also cross that chasm deep & wide. As John recorded in his Gospel: “…for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice & come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, & those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (5:28-29 ESV) Our heavenly Father knew that not a one of us could cross that chasm of our own accord. So He sent His only Son to build a bridge. Our sinful nature, if it has resigned itself to being religious, always defaults to the belief that you & I must do something to earn God’s reward. Our sinful nature wants to take some credit for gaining eternal life. And arrogant Christians cannot believe that God would just give salvation away with no strings attached. Slogans like ‘What Would Jesus Do’ sound well-meaning enough – until Satan gets ahold of them & twist them into words of condemnation because we have not done what Jesus would do. If we devoted our entire lives to doing what Jesus would do, we could not accomplish even one thing, because Jesus does everything 100% perfectly, 100% of the time. The Great I Am has no slack standards for sinners. He is eternally holy & therefore He cannot fail to render justice, at all times & in all places. The only solution for offering salvation to all sinners, was to sacrifice something holy in payment for our sins. Then, we could be offered a 2nd chance. For that reason, the Triune God sent the Son to build a bridge. The chasm that was as naught to Jesus to us most certainly a pitfall would be. So Jesus built that bridge for you & for me. In John’s day, he wrote his 1st epistle letter to the house churches in what is now, roughly the Muslim nation of Turkey. John aimed that letter at false teachers who were promoting themselves as an elite type of Christian. They would have been the equivalent of the arrogant Christians of our day who claim that you have to do something, at least make some kind of decision or commitment, in order to really follow Jesus. That is how a person goes about being like Christ. That’s the kind of mindset St. John was speaking against. He spoke against that mindset because it destroyed the comfort & the peace of Christ’s good news. From the cross Jesus said, “It is finished!” & by that Jesus meant the work of our salvation. The gift of eternal life is already ours. Now, all that we can do is to lose it, but even that the Holy Spirit strives to prevent us from doing. Being like Christ is a gift that we receive in Baptism & through hearing the Word of God. Both means are miracles, worked by the Holy Spirit, to our eternal benefit. John writes this epistle letter for the purpose of encouraging the followers of Jesus even in the midst of the false teaching that was apparently rampant in their day. Living in our time, we have an idea of what that’s like. Independence & freedom have taken on religious status in our country, but it’s no longer just freedom from being ruled by an earthly king. Americans are increasingly declaring their freedom from the heavenly King. Being in God’s house, or accepting His wisdom are being rejected as colonial & racist. In Africa, where colonialism & racism have done massive damage, millions of people have been flocking to the King of kings. Many of their churches are ashamed of their American counterparts who have declared their freedom from God’s teaching. Americans are rejecting their Creator in favor of themselves & their own arrogant self-understanding. Rather than getting angry, God knew this was coming for our nation, as for all the others that have left Him throughout history. Thus the 3rd stanza of The Bridge Builder appropriately speaks to us today: “The builder lifted his old gray head; ‘Good friend, in the path I have come,’ he said, ‘There followed after me to-day A youth whose feet must pass this way. This chasm that has been as naught to me To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be; He, too, must cross in the twilight dim; Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!’” God is love, & His greatest longing is to restore the relationship that mankind had with Him in the Garden of Eden. Being like Christ is not our project & it is not for today. It is in heaven that God’s children will be like Christ, & making us like Him is the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus built the bridge to heaven & the Holy Spirit is striving to bring us there. Yes, the world does reject its Maker in favor of itself & its arrogant self-understanding. As a result, it does not comprehend or tolerate the children of the heavenly Father. That is a sad & difficult contrast to the wonder of being the children of God by grace, & we live that out contrast daily under the shadow of the Cross. God’s promise is that the glory of heaven will make all our time here worthwhile. The glory of heaven, & being like Christ, are teachings that motivate & strengthen us for the journey. And just as the women found the stone rolled away from the tomb on Easter morning, Christ has already built the bridge for us to cross over death & arrive at our own resurrection. For much of our lives, while healthy or young, words like those are very abstract & seemingly distant. When death is near, the words of God take on a far more concrete reality. One day, we shall be like Christ, we shall be love, we shall be pure & true & patient. We long for that time when we shall be like Christ, the devil, the world, & our flesh completely gone. In this life we must be on our constant guard against letting our sinful flesh rule us. We must be on constant guard not to let our emotions get away with us, even good emotions. In John’s 1st epistle, our eyes are drawn out from behind the shadow of the Cross, & this perishing world, to the light of the promise of eternal life – the joys of Heaven. “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the Throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 11:16-17) Then, we will be like Christ – forever! Amen. Jerusalem the golden, with milk & honey blest – the promise of salvation, the place of peace & rest – we know not, oh, we know not what joys await us there: the radiancy of glory, the bliss beyond compare! Around the throne of David, the saints, from care released, raise loud their songs of triumph to celebrate the feast. They sing to Christ their leader, Who conquered in the fight, Who won for them forever their gleaming robes of white. O sweet & blessed country, the home of God’s elect! O sweet & blessed country that faithful hearts expect! In mercy, Jesus, bring us to that eternal rest with You & God the Father & Spirt, ever blest. Amen. LSB 672:1, 3-4. [1] Father: An Anthology of Verse (EP Dutton & Company, 1931) 2nd Sunday of Easter – B LSB #’s 420:1-3, 704, 475
Text – John 20:30-31 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, & that by believing you may have life in His name. LIFE IN HIS NAME When writing sermons on this Gospel text, preachers often focus on the standout feature – commonly referred to as Doubting Thomas. Some preachers claim that Thomas got a bad rap, because all the disciples had doubted originally. Other preachers distinguish Thomas from the rest because he stated that he would not believe, unless he could see… The events surrounding the unbelief of Thomas, & his return to faith in Jesus, make for a compelling lesson on how following Jesus is not a simple nor a constant & linear process. Instead, it’s full of highs & lows, mountaintops & valleys, moments of exhilaration & moments of despair. Our sinful nature is a powerful force in our daily lives, constantly corrupting even our best intentions. When we desire to grow in our ability to trust Jesus, it’s not something we do on our own. There is no plan or program guaranteed to protect you from temptation or struggle. Our sinful nature must die & that will always be a painful experience. It was the sinful nature of Thomas speaking when he said, “Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, & place my finger into the mark of the nails, & place my hand into His side, I will never believe.” (John 20:25b ESV) You & I can take a cue from Thomas when we find ourselves making demands of God. As that attitude overtakes us the time is ripe to stop, to look & to listen. In those moments, God is asking us to see things not as you or I want them to be, but as they truly are in His Kingdom. Jesus actually was risen from the dead, but Thomas did not want to believe it unless he saw evidence & proof. What Thomas did not understand is that God’s Son is life itself. The first verses of the Gospel of John, written long after this event, clearly make that point concerning Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word, & the Word was with God, & the Word was God… In Him was life, & the life was the light of men.” (John 1:1 & 4 ESV) Then, as John is bringing his Gospel to a close, he reiterates the point, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, & that by believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:30-31 ESV) Our sinful nature is a powerful force for death. John wants you to know that believing in Jesus as the anointed Son of God guarantees that you are actually alive. As Jesus stated, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 ESV) John also wrote in 1:5, “The light shines in the darkness, & the darkness has not overcome it.” We need to hear words of assurance & comfort because the darkness often seems to be winning, in the world around us, & also in our heart within. Looking at the world & our heart brings fear. What will come of us, of our children & grandchildren if this continues? Jesus calls us to look at Him rather than the world. Our risen Savior calls us to look at Him rather than our own heart. St. John calls us to look at the signs & the miracles he wrote in his Gospel so that we, “…may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, & that by believing [we] may have life in His name.” (John 20:31 ESV) Fear sucks the life out of us. Jesus is inviting the disciples & us to extend the same peace He spoke when He entered into their fear behind those locked doors. Do you see forgiveness needed in your life, in your community, in your congregation, in your workplace, in the world? What would it look like for you to be a bearer of that forgiveness? How might you be called by the Holy Spirit to embody the peace that Jesus brings, not only for yourself, but for the people that God brings into your life? All of us are doubting people in this sinful world, & chiefly, what people are doubting is that God could love them. And because we have doubts about God’s love for us, we live in fear & we live in death. Jesus came that [we] may have life & have it abundantly. (John 10:10b ESV) Those are great sounding words, & in heaven we will experience that fully. However, you know from your own experience that living just isn’t all sunshine & roses in the here & now. While we’re normally tempted to blame others, the reality is that our sinful nature makes it impossible for us to appreciate the life & the abundance that Jesus gives to us. Yes, there are fleeting moments of satisfaction, but then we’re off to the races again. And Satan doesn’t give up just because of a sunny day here & there. In fact, the Easter season of alleluias can seem to leave little room for our doubts, our fears, & our pain. For many, the joy & happiness of Christmas & Easter clash with their inner pain & anguish as they still struggle with the effects of sin. Whether that’s poor health, or bad family & economic circumstances, we can be tempted to believe that God sees us as failures. That’s why the unbelief of Thomas, John describes, is so important for us to hear. Unbelief is not a hopeless situation. Jesus’ ministry revealed that He is able to work miracles. Mark recorded these words of a father so we know there is always hope, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24 ESV) All the disciples of Jesus struggled to believe that He was alive. And our fears, whatever they are, cause us to struggle with believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. There are so many other things to love in this world – so many temptations. They look pleasing to eye, making it difficult to grasp that they lead to death. To top it off, they seldom lead to instant death, so in those second chances that God gives to us, perversely we draw the conclusion that we can ‘get away’ with sin. In essence, our addiction to sin is an addiction to death. We see that play out to the extreme with the growing support for euthanasia. Even the word, which means good death, shows the sinful nature’s addiction to it. On earth, every person you will ever meet needs the forgiveness & peace that Jesus offers. The faith we have in Him as our Lord & Savior is a mystery that cannot be forced upon anyone. All that we can do is to invite them into the mystery with us. It is the greatest of mysteries that believing Jesus is the Christ makes us a new creation, yet we still flounder in sin. We believe, yet struggle daily with unbelief. In the name of Jesus we have life, yet we are addicted to sin & to death. Christ is the life of all the living & He is the death of death our foe. Through His sufferings, death & merit – we eternal life inherit. (LSB 420:1) Faith is a mystery that comes to us only & always as the most precious gift that can never be earned. The life we have in the name of Jesus is not just life as we commonly speak of it. It is a distinctive kind of life that is obscured by the English language. Three different Greek words are translated into English with our word life. When John, & the rest of the NT, speak of psyche or bios, those words refer to what anything possesses simply by virtue of being a living creature. This is the life possessed from birth to death by animals & humans, whether they be good or bad, righteous or wicked, founders of charities or perpetrators of genocide. On the other hand, “life” as used at the end of John 20, is spoken of with the word zoe. This is eternal life, life given to those who are born of God; life that, in John, transforms us from merely existing to living in the abundance & eternity of God. This life was present from the beginning & lies at the core of creation. “In [Jesus] was zoe, & the zoe was the light of men.” (John 1:4) This zoe life connects the deepest purposes of God with the ultimate purpose of John’s gospel: “…these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ … & that by believing you may have zoe in His name.” (John 20:31 ESV) Zoe does not replace the life we have without it; we are still the same creatures we were before. It does, however, bring us into the fullness of God’s grace – the new creation that comes with believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Again, all of that is mystery that we can enter into only by invitation, & God invites everyone. Some choose to say no. To have life is to be with the One who created us specifically to be with Him. Fortunately for Doubting Thomas, the moment He saw Jesus alive he gave up his refusal to believe. And on the heels of his confession, “My Lord & my God!” John tells us what his whole Gospel is about: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, & that by believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:30-31) Jesus is life, or zoe, itself, & He reassured us: “I am the resurrection & the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25 ESV) That is life in His name. Amen. Renew me, O eternal Light, & let my heart & soul be bright, illumined with the light of grace that issues from Your holy face. Grant that I only You may love & seek those things which are above till I behold You face to face, O Light eternal, through Your grace. Amen. LSB 704:1, 4. Easter – 2024 LSB #’s 457, 464, 463
Text – Psalm 41:12-13 BECAUSE OF MY INTEGRITY Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!) Alleluia! Grace, mercy, & peace to you from God our Father & our risen Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. David prayed to the Lord of hosts in Psalm 41, “You have upheld me because of my integrity, & set me in Your presence forever. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen & Amen.” Lack of integrity – there’s a pandemic of that going on in our nation today. Integrity means ‘whole & undivided.’ Integrity indicates original, unblemished condition. Integrity can be used to indicate beautiful qualities such as honesty, faithfulness, purity, reliability, uprightness, honor, incorruptibility, forthrightness, & other noble virtues. David wrote, “Because of my integrity,” not because he wanted to sing & pray all the psalms by himself. David wrote Psalm 41 because he wanted you to sing & pray together with him. He wanted you to say to God in sincerity & truth, “You have upheld me [O Lord] because of my integrity.” Can you bring yourself to think that, let alone speak it out loud? God, the Holy Spirit, inspired David to write those words into the Holy Scriptures. David’s words are there because your Lord & Savior wants you also to pray, with all honesty, “You have upheld me [O Lord] because of my integrity.” Can you honestly join with David in saying to God, “You have upheld me [O Lord] because of my integrity”? The answer is Yes! Yes, because you are the baptized child of God & because Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! It is the resurrection of our Lord that has guaranteed your answer to be Yes, even though you might feel tempted to think that your answer should be no. Followers of Jesus want to have integrity, but nobody actually has it – at least, not in the original, main sense of the word. Our loss of integrity was originally Adam & Eve’s fault, & once we were conceived it became our fault. Integrity means ‘whole & undivided.’ Integrity indicates an unblemished, original condition. Integrity can indicate beautiful qualities as such honesty, faithfulness & purity. Those who follow Jesus long to be described with such wonderful words. The miracle of Christianity is that in Christ, you can be. Those words are how Christ describes you to the heavenly Father at your Baptism. Those words are your eternal characteristics as a child of God. That’s why we celebrate the fact that Christ is risen from the dead. He is risen so that the word integrity can be used in a description of you. Do you hesitate to pray to the Lord, “You have upheld me because of my integrity”? Perhaps you don’t think all the qualities of integrity rightly describe you; certainly not all of the time. Perhaps you see a different set of qualities at work inside yourself: Not whole & undivided, but sometimes doubleminded (James 1:8), & at other times doubtful. (Matthew 14:31) Not in original, unblemished condition, but chipped or broken, stained with sin, hampered by the memory of wrongdoing, & scarred with regret. Not always true & faithful, but unreliable & dishonorable, even corrupted. Those realizations make it feel brazen or dishonest of us to pray David’s words, “You have upheld me because of my integrity.” We’d like to have integrity. In most cases, any of us would gladly describe ourselves as having integrity, but we probably would not want to speak so boldly in the presence of God. He knows our hearts. (Luke 16:15) He knows where the integrity falls apart. Perhaps it is wisest & best to mumble Psalm 41 when it states, “You have upheld me because of my integrity,” or to pray those words with the thought that they probably refer to someone else but not so much to you or to me. We are wrong to think that. David wrote Psalm 41 because he wanted us to sing & pray together with him. David’s words are in the Scriptures because the Lord our God wants us to pray those words together with David. “You have upheld me because of my integrity.” Through the season of Lent, all our midweek worship has focused upon Psalm 41 & the sermons have emphasized two vitally essential points for God’s children: In one way or another, all of God’s Psalms – including 41 – speak about our Lord & His work of salvation on our behalf. (Luke 24:44) That’s why God included them in His Scriptures; they “bear witness about Me,” said Jesus. (John 5:39) And because the Psalms are about Jesus, they are also about you. After all, you are the baptized of Christ. When you were baptized, you miraculously entered into Christ’s holy body (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 1:30), just as surely as He entered yours. (John 14:20; Galatians 2:20) And Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed!) Alleluia! You & the risen Messiah are now joined together as one flesh. (1 Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 5:32) “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate!” (Matthew 19:6) What does that union with Christ indicate? It says that, when Jesus of Nazareth died upon His cross, you & I, & all the baptized of Christ died there with Him. Baptism is why Paul could say, & why each of us can say with Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ.” (Galatians 2:20) In addition, Baptism also indicates that, when Jesus rose from the dead, God the Father also “raised us up with Him & seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6) At your Baptism: The Lord’s perfection became yours. Your sins became His. (1 Peter 2:24) Christ’s strength became yours. Your weakness became His. (2 Corinthians 12:8–9) His life became yours. Your death became His. (Romans 6:4) The perfect & unblemished integrity of Jesus became yours. Any lack of integrity in you became His. You are now “partakers of the divine nature,” said Peter. (2 Peter 1:4) Because of your baptismal participation in the divine nature of Christ, every Scripture passage that speaks about Jesus now speaks also about you. In all human history, only Christ Jesus, our Lord, could pray to His Father on the basis of His own merit, “You have upheld Me because of My integrity.” But Jesus has joined Himself to you. In that miraculous joining, whatever the Scriptures say about Jesus can now also be said, in faithfulness & honesty, about you: “You have upheld me because of my integrity.” Integrity means “whole & undivided.” It means “original, unblemished condition.” Integrity indicates qualities such as honesty, faithfulness, purity, reliability, uprightness, honor, incorruptibility & forthrightness. Those qualities all describe Jesus, the Crucified One. (1 Corinthians 1:23) Because of our Lord’s personal integrity: “God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.” (Acts 2:24) As you heard in the Gospel reading: “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, & Salome bought spices, so that they might go & anoint Him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?’ And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back – it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, & they were alarmed.” And he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.’” (Mark 16:1–6) By the power of His death, & in the victory of His resurrection, Jesus has given all of His integrity to you so that His perfect integrity may be yours forever! His personal integrity was delivered to you in the water of Baptism, which joined you to both His death & His resurrection. (Romans 6:3–5) Our Lord’s personal integrity has miraculously entered into your heart & mind through the proclamation of the Gospel. Our Lord’s integrity likewise enters your mouth & fills your body when you participate in the blessed Sacrament of the Altar. With confidence, we can proclaim that Christ lives – & we live with Him – as we hear in Romans 6:9, “Death no longer has dominion over Him.” Christ’s personal integrity, given personally to you, is the power by which you now can pray to the Lord, with all godliness & honesty, “You have upheld me because of my integrity.” That same integrity, poured out by Jesus, is the only reason why I can pray along with you. King David did not rely upon his own integrity when he prayed. King David relied upon the integrity of his Messiah, who was both David’s Son & David’s Lord. You & I do not need to rely upon our own integrity any more than David did. David’s Son was born also to us. (Luke 2:11) David’s Lord died also for us. David’s prayer is therefore our prayer, & David’s rejoicing in eternity is likewise our rejoicing, both now & forever: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen & Amen.” Why? Because Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!) Alleluia! Amen. The powers of death have done their worst, But Christ their legions hath dispersed. Let shouts of joy outburst. Alleluia! He broke the age-bound chains of hell; the bars from heaven’s high portals fell. Let hymns of praise His triumph tell. Alleluia! Lord, by the stripes which wounded Thee, from death’s dread sting Thy servants free that we may live & sing to Thee. Alleluia. Amen. LSB 464:2, 4-5. Good Friday – 2024 LSB #’s 439:1, 12-15; 447, 425
Text – Psalm 41:10 But you, O Lord, be gracious to me, & raise me up, that I may repay them! BE GRACIOUS TO ME For the midweek sermons in Lent, we’ve focused on Psalm 41, written by David, as it concerns himself & Christ. Although written many years before the birth of our Lord, Psalm 41 speaks history about Jesus. During His ministry, Jesus “went about doing good & healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38) That fulfilled David’s words in Psalm 41: “Blessed is the one who considers the poor” (v. 1) & “he is called blessed in the land.” (v. 2) Jesus was welcomed & loved by the Galilean crowds but not by the Jerusalem leaders. Many prominent men opposed Him, hated Him, conspired against Him. This took place according to what David had prophesied in Psalm 41: “My enemies say of me in malice, ‘When will he die, & his name perish?’” (v. 5) “They imagine the worst for me.” (v. 7) Psalm 41 saw the future of the Lord’s betrayer, Judas Iscariot. It said in our Lord’s voice, & Jesus even quoted the psalm on the night He was betrayed: “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” (v. 9; cf. John 13:18) Tonight brings us to the death of our Lord & to the prophetic words from Psalm 41: “But You, O Lord, be gracious to me, & raise me up, that I may repay them!” When the Scriptures speak about “lifting up,” or “raising up,” as they do in this psalm, the first thing that comes to mind is God’s miraculous power of resurrection, by which He makes the dead to be alive again. Thus it is written in Psalm 40, “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, & set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.” (Psalm 40:2) To this Paul added, “[God] raised us up with Him & seated us with Him in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 2:6) Yet, there are times when the Scriptures speak about “raising up,” that are not talking about life, but about death. In particular, “raising up” can be a reference to our Lord’s place on His cross. Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus repeatedly used “lifting up” & “raising up” in reference to His death by crucifixion. Jesus said in the 3rd chapter of John, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” (v. 14) Those words speak not about our Lord’s resurrection but about His death on the cross. In the same way that the bronze serpent was raised up on a pole for the healing of the rebellious people of Israel, so Jesus was suspended above the earth “for the healing of the nations.” (Revelation 22:2) Jesus said a similar thing in the 8th chapter of John: “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He.” (v. 28) There again, the “lifting up” or “raising up” of which our Lord spoke was a reference to His crucifixion. This lifting was in keeping with the words of the prophet Isaiah: “…He shall be high & lifted up... His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, & His form beyond that of the children of mankind – so shall He sprinkle many nations...” (Isaiah 52:13–15) What happened when the Lord Jesus was lifted up from the earth & suspended upon His cross? Jesus explained in John chapter 12: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself,” (v. 32) speaking about His death for the sins of the world. “But You, O Lord, be gracious to Me, & raise Me up.” In Psalm 41, as in those other passages, the reference to “raising up” is not so much a reference to our Lord’s resurrection as it is to His death on the cross. “Raise me up, that I may repay them.” For what purpose was our Lord lifted up, according to this psalm? “That I may repay them!” Repay whom? Here’s an amazing thing: Jesus wanted to be raised up on His cross in order to repay those who plotted evil against Him; to repay those who spoke evil concerning Him; to repay those who imagined the worst for Him & said “in malice, ‘When will He die, & His name perish?’” (v. 5) This is a strange way of speaking! The Son of God worked His vengeance against His enemies in a manner totally unlike the ways we prefer to work our vengeance. The kings of the world work their vengeance by sending armies against those who plot against them. King Saul required from David a terrible & weighty bride price, requiring that it be cut from the Philistines, “that he may be avenged of the king’s enemies.” (1 Samuel 18:25) When Jesus told His parable of the tenants, even His enemies knew that the master of the house would be within his rights to “put those wretches to a miserable death & let out the vineyard to other tenants.” (Matthew 21:41) Like the kings of the earth, you & I equally use revenge against those who’ve wronged us. Even little children understand the idea of payback; adults are usually able to work their revenge more subtly, & more disastrously. That’s why we’ve heard these sayings “Revenge is a dish best served cold” & “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Not so with the Lord our God! Where we prefer to work vengeance in acts against others, the Lord of hosts preferred to execute judgment against His Son. God was so adamant about cleansing the sin of the entire world, so preoccupied with our salvation, that even the vengeance He sought against His enemies was self-inflicted: “But You, O Lord, ...raise Me up that I may repay them!” In answer to that prayer, God the Father lifted up His Son to death, “even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8) The death of Jesus was divine vengeance over every enemy – including death itself. The death of Jesus was not the triumph of His enemies over Him. When the soldiers at Golgotha saw the earthquake & what took place, “they were filled with awe & said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’” (Matthew 27:54) This happened in keeping with David’s prophecy in Psalm 41, written in the voice of Jesus, “By this I know that You delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.” (V. 11) Even though the enemies of God enjoyed the sight of His death, their enjoyment was momentary, so eclipsed & devastated that momentary victory was by the power of Christ’s resurrection. We must therefore be exceedingly careful & mindfully faithful when we think of our enemies. Jesus died. All vengeance was worked by God upon the cross. That’s why our heavenly Father now graciously forbids us to seek vengeance. Our acts of revenge are nothing less than a denial of Christ & His death! Through Baptism, you were joined to the death of Christ, as Paul stated: “I have been crucified with Christ.” (Galatians 2:20) In addition, Paul wrote, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” (Romans 6:3) Thus, because Psalm 41 speaks about Jesus, it speaks likewise about you. Therefore, these words are also your words: “But You, O Lord, be gracious to me, & raise me up, that I may repay them!” What do those words mean when you & I pray them? We, along with Jesus, already have been raised up on the cross. Like Jesus, we have our losses & injustices avenged in His blood. In the death of Christ, all vengeance has been worked by God. If we seek revenge upon our enemies, our desire for revenge becomes a denial of the cross; a rejection of the atonement. God has said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” (Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19) Our Lord Jesus taught us, “Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Matthew 5:39) The apostle Paul added, “The Lord is an avenger in all these things.” (1 Thessalonians 4:6) Will the Lord our God work vengeance for us on the Last Day, when Christ our Lord returns to judge the living & the dead? Yes, & Amen! That is why there are Christian martyrs who, even now, plead with God for His victorious return, that He might avenge their blood. (Revelation 6:9–10) We do not need to think of our Lord’s vengeance on the Last Day as something separate from His cross. The Last Day, rather, is the culmination & the full flowering of that which was completely worked out for us on the cross. The blood of God’s saints shall one day be avenged (Revelation 6:10) because Jesus was raised up on the cross to work God’s vengeance. The death of God’s saints is precious in His sight (Psalm 116:15) because Jesus of Nazareth “bowed His head & gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30) Every injustice you have suffered – along with every injustice you have ever committed – finds its fulfillment & satisfaction in these words: “O Lord, be gracious to me, & raise me up, that I may repay them!” Amen. Jesus, in Your dying woes, even while Your lifeblood flows, craving pardon for Your foes: Hear us, holy Jesus. Savior, for our pardon sue when our sins Your pangs renew, for we know not what we do: Hear us, holy Jesus. When we seem in vain to pray & our hope seems far away, in the darkness be our stay: Hear us, holy Jesus. When the death shades round us lower, guard us from the tempter’s power, keep us in that trial hour: Hear us, holy Jesus. Amen. LSB 447:1-2, 11, 20. |
AuthorPastor Dean R. Poellet Archives
April 2024
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