​Midweek 3 – 2024                                                            LSB #’s 437, 453, 430:1, 3; 883:1-2, 5-6
Text – Psalm 41:4
 
As for me, I said, ‘O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against You.’ 
 
I HAVE SINNED
 
 
In these midweek sermons, two things are being emphasized: that the Psalms speak about Jesus & that because the Psalms speak about Jesus, they speak also about you.   At Baptism, you were “joined to the Lord.”   You & Jesus became one, just as “He & His Father are one.”  (John 10:30)     “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”  (Matthew 19:6) 
Your permanent & eternal connection to Christ is an essential tool for reading the Psalms.  If it’s true that the Psalms speak about Jesus, then sometimes they say strange, unbecoming   & seemingly untrue things about Him.  Psalm 41 is an example, especially where it is written, “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against You.”  
Those words speak strangely about Jesus because Jesus did not sin against the Lord His Father.  Jesus is sinless.  The Book of Hebrews famously & beautifully states that Jesus, our High Priest, was indeed tempted in every way, just as we are, “yet without sin.”  (4:15) 
Some people come to the disastrous conclusion that those words – “yet without sin” – indicate that Jesus was not actually like us in every single way.   However, St. Luke tells us, “[Jesus] went down with them & came to Nazareth & was submissive to [His parents].”  (2:51) 
Jesus also experienced the full range of human emotion, weeping at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35), getting angry at the moneychangers in the temple (John 2:15), & being ‘sorrowful, even to death’ while in the Garden of Gethsemane.  (Matthew 26:38)    According to this sorrowful account, He experienced the full range of physical pain:
“Pilate took Jesus & flogged Him...  He delivered Him over to them to be crucified.”  (John 19:1, 16)   But human thinking can still say, wait a minute, Jesus “in every respect has been tempted as we are” (Hebrews 4:15), except for the fact that He had no sin.  Surely that must have been some sort of advantage for Him!    O, how our sinful flesh can be deceived & misled.  Jesus of Nazareth, incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, truly made Himself exactly like us in every way, including sin. 
Yes, our Lord Jesus Christ truly had, & still has, absolutely no sin of His own.  St. Peter wrote, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth.”  (1 Peter 2:22)     However, just because Jesus committed no sin, that does not mean He had no sin.  Where the Bible says in the Book of Hebrews, “yet without sin” (4:15), it means, “yet without sin   of His own.”  
When John wrote, “In Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5), he did not mean that there was no sin on Him.  John the Baptist was faithful & true when He said concerning Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away” – who picks up, shoulders upon Himself, & carries off – “the sin of the world!”  (John 1:29)    Where did the sin come from, which was given to Jesus?  
It came from you & from me.  “The Lord has laid on Him,” said Isaiah, “the iniquity of us all.”  (53:6)   As you heard in last week’s sermon, “Jesus held Himself personally responsible for our guilt; He made Himself to be the guilty one so that we could be “blameless & innocent, children of God without blemish.”  (Philippians 2:15)  
That is why the Scriptures say God, “made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”  (2 Corinthians 5:21)   Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther preached a similar thing:
When the merciful Father saw that we were being oppressed through the Law, that we were being held under a curse, that we could not be liberated from it by anything, He sent His Son into the world, heaped all the sins of men upon Him, & said to Him: Be Peter the denier; Paul the persecutor, blasphemer, & assaulter; David the adulterer; the sinner who ate the apple in Paradise; the thief on the cross.  In short, be the person of all men, the one who has committed the sins of all men.  And see to it that You pay & make satisfaction for them.  (“Lectures on Galatians [3:13],” AE 26:280)   Our Lord’s personal carrying of all our guilt is the reason why the sinless Jesus could say in Psalm 41, “I have sinned.” 
David prayed in Psalm 41, “As for me, I said, ‘O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against You.’”  (41:4)   The Lord heard his prayer & laid all of David’s sin upon His Son, His Christ, His “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”  (John 1:29)   You can pray the same prayer that David prayed, & every word of that prayer will be true:
“O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against You.”  As the Lord did for David, He has done for you: the Lord has heard your prayer & listened to your plea for grace.  God the heavenly Father has laid all your sin upon His Son, right next to David’s sin.   It would not be wrong for you to think of your Lord Jesus as saying to you at your Baptism:
“From now on, I am going to be you, & you are going to be Me.  Switch with Me so that you may take My place while I have yours.”  Because the Psalms are about Jesus, Psalm 41 also gives voice to the prayer of our Lord: “O Lord, be gracious to Me; heal Me, for I have sinned against You.”  
Because of the load that our Lord shouldered for our salvation, the divine Law could look at Jesus, “Jesus only” (Matthew 17:8), & say concerning Him, in the words of Martin Luther:
“I find Him a sinner, who takes upon Himself the sins of all men.  I do not see any other sins than those in Him.  Therefore let Him die on the cross!  And so it attacks Him & kills Him.  By this deed the whole world is purged & expiated from all sins, & thus it is set free from death & from every evil.”  (AE 26:280) 
In Psalm 41, Jesus appealed to His Father for your sake, carrying your burden & being
your sin.  (2 Corinthians 5:21)   His Father heard Him because of the reverence with which He
submitted His plea (Hebrews 5:7), & because of His obedience unto death, even death on a cross.  
“Therefore God has highly exalted Him & bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven & on earth & under the earth, & every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:9–11)  Amen. 
 
 
Who is it, Lord, that bruised You?  Who has so sore abused You & caused You all your woe?  We all must make confession of sin & dire transgression while You no ways of evil know.        Your cross I place before me; its saving power restore me, sustain me in the test.   It will when life is ending, be guiding & attending my way to Your eternal rest.  Amen.  LSB 453:3, 7. 

​2nd Sunday in Lent – B                                                                     LSB #’s 837:1-2, 5-6; 708, 722
Text – Mark 8:34
 
And calling the crowd to Him with His disciples, He said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself & take up his cross & follow me.”   
 
FOLLOWING JESUS
 
 
Peter did not want things to go badly for Jesus.  Peter wanted things to go well, but in front of everyone, Jesus rebuked him: “Get behind me, Satan!   For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”  (Mark 8:33 ESV)   As it turned out things went badly for Peter that day, & there are many days when things go badly for us. 
Just before Thanksgiving, I caught a cold that gave me the worst case of laryngitis I have ever had.  The day after Christmas, I was exposed to the latest strain of Covid.  By two days later I was feeling it.    Goodbye 2023 & good riddance.   You have experienced bad days, even bad weeks, where everything seems to go wrong. 
One of our neighbors, a widow, has had something like six friends die in the last year.  In the past three years, all of us have experienced inflation like has not been seen in over 40 years.   Previous generations had to confront WWI, & WWII, with the Great Depression sandwiched in between, all within a 30 year time frame. 
You may remember the space shuttle Challenger blowing up shortly after launch, & 9-11 is a day that no one will forget – unless they weren’t born yet.  The Bible tells us that we live in a world that is entirely corrupted by sin.    You & I have plenty of evidence of that in our own experience.  Why do we ever expect our plans to go well here on earth? 
In this world, people die, & we are still surprised when it happens.  Peter did not want things to go badly for Jesus, so he rejected the prediction of Jesus’ death.   However we define it, all of us look for & long for success.   Jesus was not concerned about being seen, by human beings, as successful.   He set His mind only on the things of God.  To explain what that is like, Jesus said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself & take up his cross & follow me.”  (Mark 8:34 ESV)   Jesus is not saying what we must do in order to be His disciples.  Rather, He is telling us what it is like if we follow Him. 
This text from the Gospel of Mark is not telling us to leave our home, our family, our career.  Jesus simply describes life under the reign of God.   It is filled with dying – dying to self.   There, God brings life.   The ministry of pastors is filled with dying places where Jesus brings life.    That is a paradox in this sinful world.  
If we live in a self-centered manner, we are not following Jesus.  Even if it seems like we are getting ahead, we are going in the wrong direction.   By trying to save our own life we are actually losing it.   Instead, Jesus tells us, “…whoever loses his life for my sake & the gospel’s will save it.”  (Mark 8:35 ESV)   That is simply a description of following Jesus. 
God’s Son wants us to know what we’re getting into when we follow Him.  He’s already given us eternal life, but our road there will not be easy.   Too often, Christians assume that it will.   Worse yet, many pastors preach as if God wants us to have heaven on earth, & we are simply not good Christians if we don’t achieve that. 
To counter that sort of false belief, in this text from the 8th chapter of Mark, Jesus promises that wherever there is dying, in Him, there you will find life.    If Jesus is not present, dying only brings death.   Yet, if Jesus is there, He brings life out of death.  A logical question then is this, “What does that dying look like, that Jesus is preaching?” 
On a personal level, dealing with illness is common, especially when we must live with it on a daily basis.  Having children that stray from faith in Jesus, in whatever way, certainly brings a type of dying to this world.  Not having a great income & having to constantly make ends meet is another form of dying, especially when so many others are living high on the hog.  Ultimately though, taking up our cross to follow Jesus is about the deaths that we face for living our faith in Jesus.  Being pro-life or believing in Creation instead of Evolution, will bring ridicule at work, among neighbors or family.   Ridicule is a temptation from Satan to stray off the path set by God. 
On a national level,  as more & more Americans drift away from taking up their cross & following Jesus,  God will allow or cause  challenges & struggles that our nation will not be able to overcome.  Just like on a personal level, Yahweh Himself does that in the hope that our people will turn back to Him for solutions.  Political solutions are useless without Christ. 
Faith in Jesus trusts   that even as He leads you on that road of dying, you will also discover life along the way.   That life will be eternal, unlike the life we pursue in this body, which is very short.  Life in Christ is very different from the one Satan & our world offer to us. 
The struggle of being a Christian is twofold: “How do you live in this world while not clinging to it?   How do you survive in this world without giving in to despair?”  The Lutheran answer is to be studying & simply reading the Word of God.  Then meditate upon it as it applies to the events of your daily life. 
In addition to that, remember what God promised you at your Baptism.  It forgives your sins.  It rescues from death & the devil.  It gives eternal salvation to all who believe God’s promise.  And make use of Holy Communion where God also takes your sins away, thus renewing the life & salvation He first promised you in Baptism. 
Strengthened by God, through those three means of salvation,  you are enabled to die to the old things of this world  & rise to the new things of the eternal life you have already been granted.  And, strengthened by God, through those three means of salvation, you can take your eyes & your hearts off the suffering of this life to find peace in Christ so that you do not despair.  Truly following the will of God is quite difficult.  We cannot do it by our own reason or strength.  The problem is not with the will of God.  The problem is with sinful creatures like you & me.  Sin & grace coexist within us.  Sin separates but God’s grace always unites.   God’s grace is working in you, enabling you to be faithful. 
As God’s children, we can only ‘fail’ when we diminish or do not make use of the ways in which we are connected to the Vine.  The three means of salvation, God’s Word, Baptism & Holy Communion, are how God connects us to Jesus’ saving work of the cross & the empty tomb.  If we minimize them, or separate ourselves from them, we cannot follow Jesus. 
And that is a great temptation, because following Jesus entails the death of our sinful nature.  It involves self-sacrifice & being in service to other human beings.  No matter how sincerely you give your life to Jesus here, you, & your family, will still & always suffer the effects of sin – your own sin, & the sins of others. 
Satan’s end game is always & only death.  If you follow Jesus, you still will die, but only to the brokenness of this world.   In following Jesus, your suffering & death, will be used by the Holy Spirit to bring to you eternal life.  At the end of your resources, at the end of your strength, at the end of your reason, there is life – Jesus’ life. 
That is the life of faith in Jesus as your Savior.   In many ways, the season of Lent has been designed, or intended, to help you come to grips with the cost of following Jesus.  Lent is about growing our understanding of discipleship & what it means to have a future with Jesus.  Abraham went through a type of Lent when God called him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. 
Following Jesus in this sinful world is a constant struggle.  Even when we think everything is going well there are still problems that we simply are not aware of, or have become insensitive to.  The paradox of dying in order to remain alive is something that only Jesus could do perfectly & He accomplished that on our behalf.  Jesus’ description of what following Him is like, is ultimately a call to faith & trust in Him as our good & almighty Lord & Savior.  As always, the point of the good news is to reveal what God has done for our salvation.  Jesus is the way & the truth & the life, because He loves us.  Amen. 
 
 
 
Lord, take my hand & lead me upon life’s way; direct, protect, & feed me from day to day.   Without Your grace & favor I go astray; so take my hand, O Savior, & lead the way.     Lord, when the tempest rages, I need not fear, for You, the Rock of Ages, are always near.   Close by Your side abiding, I fear no foe, for when Your hand is guiding, in peace I go.     Lord, when the shadows lengthen & night has come, I know that You will strengthen my steps toward home.   Then nothing can impede me, O blessed Friend; so take my hand & lead me unto the end.  Amen.  LSB 722.  

​Midweek 2 – 2024                                                                           LSB #’s 435, 421, 430:1-2, 433
Text – Psalm 41:3
 
The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness You restore him to full health. 
 
SUSTAINED IN SICKNESS
 
 
King David wrote in the opening words of Psalm 41, “Blessed is the one who considers the poor!  In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him; the LORD protects him & keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; You do not give him up to the will of his enemies.” 
Those words marked the Ash Wednesday sermon, in which two things were emphasized: First,   all of  God’s Psalms – including Psalm 41 – speak about our Lord & His work of our salvation.  (Luke 24:44)   That is why God included the Psalms in His Scriptures: they “bear witness about Me,” said Jesus.  (John 5:39) 
2nd, because the Psalms are about Jesus, they are also about you.  You are the baptized of Christ,  & through baptism you 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).  You & your Messiah are now joined together by God: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:6) 
Tonight, as we move forward in Psalm 41,  I’d like you to bear that very thing in mind: that the Psalms speak about you because  they speak 1st about Jesus.  Your baptismal connection to Him can help with your understanding of these words from Psalm 41: “The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness You restore him to full health.” 
1.  First & foremost, Jesus is the one whom God the Father sustained on a sickbed.  To be sure, the Gospel writers never recorded anything about Jesus suffering cancer, feeling the effects of lung disease, catching a cold, or even striking His “foot against a stone.”  (Matthew 4:6)  As far as the Gospels are concerned, our Lord was a picture of health. 
Right up to the moment of His arrest, He was always healing & never needing to be
healed.  The human body of Jesus was unblemished (1 Peter 1:19) & uncorrupted by disease because Jesus had no sin of His own.  (Hebrews 4:15)   Disease came into the world as a result of sin, & Jesus is personally  sinless.  Nonetheless, just because Jesus had no sin of His own, we should NOT therefore think that He carried no sin at all in His body. 
 Jesus is the Lamb of God, who took upon Himself “the sin of the world.”  (John 1:29)   Sinless Jesus  was made to be the sinner for our sake.  God the Father laid onto His perfect Son every corrupt thing about us.  (Isaiah 53:6)  
Jesus held Himself personally responsible for our guilt; He made Himself to be the guilty one so that we could be “blameless & innocent, children of God without blemish.”  (Philippians 2:15)  That’s why the Scriptures say God “made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”  (2 Corinthians 5:21) 
Because Jesus took upon Himself all of our sin, He also took upon Himself all the bodily effects of our sin, including our diseases & ailments.  You might have a bad hip; you can find comfort in knowing that Jesus bore pain & hobbled for you in His Passion.  
You might have bad lungs;  knowing that Jesus suffocated on the cross can help you realize that you are not alone in your breathing problems.   Isaiah declared,  & Peter echoed,  a promise from God concerning Jesus that shall yet be fulfilled in our bodies: “with His wounds we are healed.”  (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24)   
David prayed in another place – & why we also can pray, even in pain – “Bless the Lord, O my soul, & forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit.”  (Psalm 103:2–4)    The words of the sermon text describe God the heavenly Father’s personal attentiveness toward Jesus:
“The Lord sustains him on His sickbed; in his illness You restore him to full health.”
A German artist named Matthias Grünewald famously painted a picture of our Lord’s crucified body  not merely pierced with nails & the spear   but also pockmarked & discolored with a disease called the plague.  Grünewald wanted us to think of our Lord’s cross as a sickbed, where Jesus suffered for us & for our salvation,  bearing both our sin  & its bodily consequences. 
David’s word, “sustains,” could also be translated as “upholds.”  God said through Isaiah, “Behold My Servant, whom I uphold, My chosen, in whom My soul delights.”  (Isaiah 42:1)  
Artists have depicted God the Father  present at the crucifixion of our Lord.   In those paintings, the heavenly Father would sometimes be positioned above & behind the cross,  arms outstretched toward Jesus, holding His Son’s sacrificial body in place against the beam.  Thus, God the Father upheld & sustained the incarnate Son “on His sickbed,” as it were. 
David wrote: “In his illness You restore him to full health.”  Stated another way, God “raised Him from the dead & gave Him glory, so that your faith & hope are in God.”  (1 Peter 1:21)   In the resurrection of our Lord, God the Father restored full health to His Son, setting Him free from the weight of our sin & the burden of our disease.  
The resurrection of our Lord’s flesh  promises resurrection also to ours because He made Himself one with us.  That’s why Job confidently prayed, “…after my skin has been thus destroyed,  yet in my flesh I shall see God,  whom I shall see for myself,  & my eyes shall behold…”  (Job 19:26–27) 
2.  Because Psalm 41 is about Jesus,  it is also about YOU, the baptized of Christ.  David said, for the purpose of your abiding faith & eternal hope, “The LORD sustains him or her” – that is, the Lord sustains each of His chosen ones – “on each person’s sickbed;  in each Christian’s illness,  You,  O Lord  restore him or her to full health” (v. 3, paraphrase). 
David’s “sustain,” or “uphold,” is a beautiful word!  Jesus of Nazareth is the hand &
Word of the Lord of hosts.  “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly, the right hand of the Lord exalts!”  (Psalm 118:15–16)  “Your right hand upholds me.”  (Psalm 63:8)   Your Christ knows “how to sustain with a word  him who is weary.”  (Isaiah 50:4) 
Are you, at this moment, a picture of health?  If you are,  you did NOT  reach that temporary state through your own effort or strength.  “The God of Israel – He is the one who gives power & strength to His people.”  (Psalm 68:35) 
Is anyone among you sick?  You did NOT  get that way  because of an accidental oversight in the heavenly realm or because the Lord your God has forgotten you.  If you are sick, it has been allowed by the attentive grace & overflowing mercy of God, who “gives power to the faint” & “increases strength.”  (Isaiah 40:29)   
Even as we suffer in our bodies & struggle in our minds, Jesus is “sweetness to the soul & health to the body.”  (Proverbs 16:24) 
Has your dear Christian loved one died in the faith & departed this life?   His illness was not his death.  Her disease did not  claim her life.  “The child is not dead,” said the Lord, “but sleeping.”  (Mark 5:39)   Why? Because David’s words in Psalm 41 are faithful & true:
“The Lord sustains you on your sickbed;  in your illness He restores you to full health.”  (Isaiah 41:3 paraphrased)  Amen. 
 
 
Jesus, grant that balm & healing  in Your holy wound I find,  every hour that I am feeling  pains of body & of mind.   Should some evil thought within  tempt my treacherous heart to sin,  show the peril,  & from sinning   keep me from its first beginning.       Every wound that pains or grieves me   by Your wounds, Lord, is made whole;  when I’m faint,  Your cross revives me,  granting new life to my soul.    Yes, Your comfort renders sweet  every bitter cup I meet;  for Your all-atoning passion  has procured my soul’s salvation.     O my God, my rock & tower,  grant that in Your death I trust,  knowing death has lost its power  since You crushed it in the dust.  Savior, let Your agony  ever help & comfort me;  when I die be my protection,  light & life & resurrection.  Amen.  LSB 421:1, 4-5. 

​1st Sunday in Lent – B                                                                                               LSB #’s 424, 547, 702
Text – Genesis 22:1a
 
After these things God tested Abraham & said to him, “Abraham!” 
 
AFTER THESE THINGS
 
 
Verse one begins in an innocuous, understated manner.   Opening with similar words, we might say, “After these things we went grocery shopping.    After these things, I cleaned the cat’s litter box.  After these things, they dusted the furniture & washed the windows.” 
However, when Genesis 22 begins in such an innocuous, understated manner,    you would never guess what kind of emotional torture is coming.  Still, the words of Moses painting this picture reveal no distress on the part of Abraham at all.    Even Isaac speaks not the slightest rebellious word, nor does he make the least rebellious move. 
The contradiction between the mundane opening words & the climax of Abraham taking the knife to slaughter his son is so far beyond the normal events of life that we strain to grasp it.  People at the parade for the Kansas City football team faced a similar contradiction this past week as they were celebrating victory one moment & running for their lives the next. 
Yet, in almost all of those situations, you end up hearing someone say, “We never thought it could happen to us.”    Because of sin, life is filled with contradictions, but most of them are minor so we learn to completely ignore them.  When we are struck by a contradiction as difficult as the one in the OT reading, it can shake us right to the core. 
God had promised Abraham & Sarah a son, through whom Messiah would be brought into the world.  After that son is born, God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to the Lord as a burnt offering.   And Moses begins writing about this monumental contradiction in a very understated manner, “After these things…”    So, what are those things? 
Abraham was called out of his home country to a place that God will show him.   Years
later, God promises a son for Abraham & Sarah.  Years after that promise, they grew tired of waiting & Abraham fathers a child with Sarah’s servant.  That turns into a disaster for everyone.  Next, Abraham intercedes for Sodom & Gomorrah, but not even 10 righteous people live there.  So God sends two angels to rescue Lot & his family, & the cities are destroyed by sulfur & fire.
Finally, Isaac is born after 25 long years of unfulfilled promise.  Then, Sarah tells Abraham to get rid of Hagar & Ishmael.  He does & God provides for them.  Next, Abraham makes a treaty with the Philistines & lives peaceably in their land for many days.  Things finally looked like they were settling down to a comfortable routine. 
“After these things God tested Abraham & said to him, ‘Abraham!’  And he said, ‘Here I am.’  He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, & go to the land of Moriah, & offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’”  (Genesis 22:1-2 ESV)  Abraham’s trust is weighed in the balance against common sense & human affection. 
Though not as dramatically, God has also weighed your trust in Him against common sense & human affection.  The simplest examples involve Sunday morning.  God commands us to remember the Sabbath day & keep it holy, & He expects that we will give not just our time but also our money to God’s church. 
In both cases, our trust in God is weighed against common sense.  The latter tells us, you don’t have to go to church, & there are many other worthwhile things that can be accomplished instead of sitting here on Sunday morning.   Common sense also reminds us that giving money to God’s church means we’ll no longer be able to spend those dollars on our wants & our needs. 
 Do you trust God with your time & with your money?   If not, how can you trust God with your life?   Would you be able to trust the life of your only son to God?   In 25 years of ministry I’ve done a lot of sessions of pre-marital counseling & the couples have always been ‘in love.’  Generally speaking, the women are most always connected to a church & commonly the men are not.  As long as they are still ‘in love’ it doesn’t matter, but once the honeymoon is over, having married someone who is not committed to Jesus Christ seldom ends well.   Not trusting God with whom you marry can bring a whole lot of heartache.    We’ve all seen it. 
Just because a person says, “I believe in Jesus,” does not mean they can be trusted in a complicated & long-term relationship like marriage.  It’s helpful to test their belief in Jesus by watching to see they trust Jesus with their time, their money & their life.   If they don’t trust God with those things, they will hardly trust God with their marriage vows. 
God tells us that He loves us, & He wants us to love our neighbor as ourself.  Then the marriage relationship gets difficult, maybe health & employment issues crop up, addictions come into play.   God asks you to sacrifice your wants & desires for the needs of your spouse.  You thought marriage was about love.  Then you find out that it’s about death. 
God, who formerly seemed to be your best friend, now appears to have become an enemy & a tyrant.  It’s a similar contradiction to what Abraham faced.  He thought his relationship with his son was about love.   Then God commanded him to put that son to death.   God, who formerly seemed to be Abraham’s best friend, now appears to have become an enemy & a tyrant. 
Surprisingly, Abraham obeys the command of God.   Would you?       Do you?         Have you found that,   just when you think you’ve finally got things settled down to a comfortable routine,   God seems to come along & throw everything out of balance?   
Whatever the problem is, whatever the test may be, Satan comes along with, “This cannot be God’s will!”   You need to bail out, jump ship.   Take Sunday mornings to get the work done around the house.    Church will go on without you.   Spend that church offering on new car tires instead.     Divorce is no fault now, just like car insurance!   And what makes us so agreeable to Satan’s temptations is that we just cannot fathom how corrupted we are by sin.  You & I have never known anyone who was holy.  We have no experience to compare our sinfulness to except that of other sinful creatures.  
That’s why so many people have trouble with the confession of sins we spoke earlier, “I, a poor, miserable sinner…”  While we’re saying those words, hasn’t the thought occurred to you, “Well, I’m not all that bad.”?     You see, even in the very act of publicly confessing our sinfulness, we still cannot really fathom how corrupted we are by sin. 
That corruption is hidden deep in the depths of our heart & soul.  Sin is part of the very fabric of our being.  Sin is not just something we do.  Sinful is what we are.   And once the Holy Spirit creates that saintly nature within us, then we are 100% saint & 100% sinner.  By definition all Christians are a contradiction in terms. 
If all God does is give you good things you will rot in your sinfulness.  So God tests me in order to reveal to myself what is hidden in my heart – the depths & the depravity of my soul.  God tests all of us in order to crush the head of the serpent within us.    That is complicated,   painful, & even frightening as we come face to face with that poor, miserable sinner within. 
But there, by God’s grace, we also see the depths of Christ’s love for us, & what our heavenly Father was willing to sacrifice in order to redeem us.   Jesus has purchased & won you from all sins, from death & from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood, & with His innocent suffering & death, that you may be His own. 
“After these things… Abraham reached out his hand & took the knife to slaughter his son.”  (Genesis 22:1a, 10 ESV)  But there, by God’s grace, “…the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven & said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know
that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”  (Genesis
22:11-12 ESV)   The trials of Abraham have been set before us that we may be encouraged in our own trials.  Just as it was for Abraham & Isaac, no eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, no mind has ever conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.  (1 Corinthians 2:9)  Yahweh does not test us out of cruelty, but out of love, that we might be purified for heaven. 
As James wrote in the Epistle reading, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.”  (1:12 ESV) 
When tested by God we are confronted with this question.  Do we regard our Creator as a convenient means to fulfill our wishes,   or are committed to let God’s will be done   in full confidence that it is a good & gracious will?  That applies to our actions on Sunday morning & our actions every other day of the week. 
Satan convinced Adam & Eve that God’s will was not good because He was withholding from them the tree of the knowledge of good & evil.   On the other hand, when confronted with God’s command to offer his only son Isaac as a sacrifice, Abraham trusted completely that God’s will was good.  In Hebrews 11:17-19, the Holy Spirit gives us some perfect insight:
“By faith Abraham,  when he was tested,  offered up Isaac,  & he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’  He considered that God was able   even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” 
In that belief, to Abraham, Isaac was a type of Christ whom God would sacrifice & then raise from the dead to pay the price of our rebellion against Him.  And the ram that had its horns caught in the thicket, was provided by Yahweh that Abraham & Isaac might complete the sacrifice there.  That ram too was a forerunner of the true “…Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  (John 1:29 ESV)    All of creation, from the smallest virus or bacterium, to the largest galaxy or black hole, is suffering the effects of sin.  Romans 8:22-23 offers this insight:
“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” 
As a child of God, you see & feel the contradictions caused by sin   every day of your lives, even if you’re oblivious to the minor ways in which they are revealed to you.  However, as us older folk can confirm, there’s a point at which the human body no longer ages well.  That reality is in direct contradiction, & we feel it every day, to the words of 2 Corinthians 5:17:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”   Even when I wake up from a perfect night’s sleep, I never feel new anymore.  I suspect the same is true for many of you.  There is a contradiction between what God tells us & the reality we experience in this sinful world. 
Faith in Jesus as Savior involves trusting God’s reality even though for now we cannot see it or feel it.   That applies to old age.   It applies to being in God’s house & giving our money back to our Lord.  It applies to the guilt we feel for the sins we’ve committed.  It applies to the wounds we carry from harm done to us in our past.  “Behold, the new has come.” 
One day in heaven, we’ll be having a conversation & someone will say, “After these things, I ended up here, & life has been absolutely perfect ever since.”  Amen. 
 
The Lamb, the Lamb,   O Father, where’s the sacrifice?   Faith sees, believes God will provide the Lamb of price!     The Lamb, the Lamb,  as wayward sheep the shepherd kill  so still,  His will  on our behalf the Law to fill.     He sighs, He dies, He takes my sin & wretchedness.   He lives, forgives, He gives me His own righteousness.    Worthy is the Lamb   whose death makes me His own!   The Lamb is reigning on His throne!     He rose, He rose, my heart with thanks now overflows.  His song prolong till every heart to Him belong.    Worthy is the Lamb   whose death makes me His own!   The Lamb is reigning on His throne!  Amen.  LSB 547:1, 3-5.  

​Ash Wednesday – 2024                                                                      LSB #’s 419, 430:1, 440, 887
Text – Psalm 41:1-2
 
MUTUAL CONSIDERATION
 
 
“Blessed is the one who considers the poor!  In the day of trouble, the LORD delivers him; the LORD protects him & keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; You do not give him up to the will of his enemies.” 
Those words of the sermon text are from Psalm 41 & that psalm will be the focal point of our attention for the entire season of Lent.  It’s like David painted a portrait of his friend, & then the two switched places, & his friend painted a portrait of him.  Here’s what I mean:
1. “Blessed is the one who considers the poor!”  David’s word, “considers,” can also be translated as “pays attention, focuses upon or thinks about intently.”  If you paint someone’s portrait, you must look intently upon that person, studying his or her features closely.  
When David said, “Blessed is the one who considers,” he was talking about someone who gives careful, attentive thought to something.  He also spoke in the singular, not in the plural: “Blessed is the ONE who considers the poor [ONE]”; “Blessed is the INDIVIDUAL who considers the poor INDIVIDUAL”; “Blessed is the PERSON who considers the poor PERSON.” 
Those singular nouns are important, because someone could argue that David was making a sweeping statement that applies to everyone.  David could easily have said, “Blessed is everyone who considers anyone who is poor,” but David did NOT say that.  He wrote in the singular on purpose.  He wanted us to think in singular on purpose.  
“Blessed is the ONE who considers the poor [ONE],” boils the entire world down to only two people.  Who are those two people?  You are one of them.  Jesus is the other.  That is the entire point of tonight’s sermon.  You & Jesus are like a person who painted a portrait of a friend & then switched places so the friend could paint a portrait of the person. 
* Jesus is the poor man you shall be eternally blessed to consider, focus upon, & always bear in mind.  That is why the Book of Hebrews talks about “looking to Jesus, the founder & perfecter of our faith.”  (Hebrews 12:2) 
* You also are the poor person whom Christ Jesus, our Lord, carefully considered, bore in mind,  acted on behalf of,  & was declared blessed for it.  As Jesus said in the Book of Revelation, “I know your tribulation & your poverty.”  (Revelation 2:9) 
2.  I know it sounds strange that you & Jesus are both the poor person, & that both of you are the person who shall be blessed for considering the poor.  Here’s why that strange thing is true:
* 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 is why God included the Psalms in His Scriptures: they “bear witness about Me,” said Jesus.  (John 5:39) 
* Because the Psalms are about Jesus, they are also about you.  After all, you are the baptized of Christ.  When you were baptized, you entered into His holy body (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 1:30) just as surely as He entered yours.  (John 14:20; Galatians 2:20)   You & your Christ are now joined together as one flesh.  (Ephesians 5:31–32)  
* At your Baptism, your Lord’s perfection became yours, & your sins became His (1 Peter 2:24); His strength became yours, & your weakness became His (2 Corinthians 12:9);   His life became yours, & your death became His.  (Romans 6:4)   Luther called that the blessed exchange. 
* At your Baptism, the words of the Bible that speak about you became applicable to Jesus, & the words that speak about Jesus became applicable to you.   Because you are “partakers of the divine nature,” as Peter said in the Epistle reading (2 Peter 1:4), every Scripture passage about Jesus is also about you. 
* Your inseparable, eternal, baptismal unity with Christ is why Jesus is the poor man
whom you shall be blessed to consider AND why you are the poor person whom Jesus likewise considered.  Psalm 41 speaks of mutual consideration: “Blessed is the one who considers the poor!”  Those words are like a person who painted a portrait of a friend.  Then the two switched places, & the friend painted a portrait of the person.  You & Jesus are those friends.   
3a. Why did Jesus give Himself over to “suffer many things... be killed, & after three days rise again”?  (Mark 8:31)  Jesus did so because He always “considers the poor.”    Psalm 9:12, “He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.”   Psalm 34:15, “The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous & His ears toward their cry.”  
Psalm 34:6, “This poor man cried, & the LORD heard him & saved him out of all his troubles.”  All three passages describe our Lord’s consideration toward you, His “poor” one.  And these are key words used in the Bible to describe the nature of our Lord’s consideration toward you – pity, compassion, mercy & grace:
“We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 15:11); we are “waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (Jude 1:21); “He will again have compassion on us; …tread our iniquities underfoot.  You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”  (Micah 7:19).  “Moved with pity, [Jesus] stretched out His hand.”  (Mark 1:41) 
Jesus is the blessed man who considers the poor one.  In Psalm 41, David prophesied the great blessing & reward that Jesus received precisely because He “considers the poor” one & “poured out His soul to death” (Isaiah 53:12):
“In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him; the LORD protects him & keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; You do not give him up to the will of his enemies.”  (Psalm 41:1b-2 ESV)   Those are words of resurrection; they are “the words of eternal life.”  (John 6:68)  Because Jesus considered our poverty – paying attention to us,   focusing upon us,   thinking intently about our needs – because Jesus considered our poverty, God “raised Him from the dead & gave Him glory.”  (1 Peter 1:21) 
* God the Father so completely & profoundly raised Jesus from the dead that David could look from afar, in the prophetic distance of history, & say, “The LORD protects him & keeps him alive.”
* The resurrection of our Lord also indicates that the heavenly Father did NOT give Jesus up “to the will of His enemies.”  Through His death & resurrection, rather, Jesus gained eternal victory over every enemy.  Thus, Jesus is indeed blessed – & is called blessed in the land of eternal life – precisely because He “considers the poor.” 
3b. Now switch places with Jesus & paint a portrait of Him, as it were: Jesus is the poor man whom you shall be eternally blessed to consider, focus upon, & always bear in mind.  “Blessed is the one who considers the poor!”  What key words do the Scriptures use to describe the nature of your consideration – your faithful paying attention – toward Jesus?  
Words like faith, hope & trust?  “Some TRUST in chariots & some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”  (Psalm 20:7)     “HOPE does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  (Romans 5:5)   “The life I now live in the flesh I live by FAITH in the Son of God, who loved me & gave Himself for me.”  (Galatians 2:20) 
So you will be counted among the blessed when you consider the poverty of your Lord Jesus, just as surely as Jesus Himself was blessed because He considered your poverty.  That is the promise of God, spoken through David in Psalm 41: “Blessed are you who consider the poverty of your Christ, whose poverty has made you rich in every way.” 
How is it that you shall be blessed?  David explained: In the day of trouble the LORD
delivers you; the LORD protects you & keeps you alive; you are called blessed in the land; He does not give you up to the will of your enemies.  (Psalm 41:1–2, paraphrased)   In the resurrection of all flesh on the Last Day, the Lord your God shall make it so, & more.  Amen.
 
 
Jesus, I will ponder now on Your holy passion; with You Spirit me endow for such meditation.  Grant that I in love & faith may the image cherish of Your suffering, pain & death that I may not perish.      Grant that I Your passion view with repentant grieving.   Let me not bring shame to You by unholy living.   How could I refuse to shun every sinful pleasure since for me God’s only Son suffered without measure?      Graciously my faith renew; help me bear my crosses, learning humbleness from You, peace mid pain & losses!  Hear me, O my Savior, that I may in heaven above sing Your praise forever.  Amen.  LSB 440:1, 4, 6.