​2nd Sunday of Easter – C                                                                    LSB #’s 470:1, 4-7; 468, 917
Text – John 20:19
 
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came & stood among them & said, “Peace be with you!” 
 
WITH THE DOORS LOCKED 
 
Doors  are a means by which  human beings  attempt to exert control  over the chaos of life.   Doors are meant to keep out  mosquitos,  wild animals,  the cold winter wind.   Doors are meant to keep in  pets & small children  while keeping out  people with evil intentions.   Doors are necessary in this life  because sin has corrupted  what God created in perfection. 
On earth,  different families have different traditions regarding who closes or who opens a door.  When is the door closed  & when is it opened?   Who locks the doors at night?  At what time are the doors locked?   In places like Eritrea, Sudan & Ethiopia,  a closed door is a sign of poverty, shame & death.  If the owner is home,  the door will be open otherwise. 
In Jewish society also, the door is kept open.  So in our text when we read that the door is locked,  it’s a sign  that something is wrong,  something is less  than whole.  Jesus comes to restore the wholeness  as He says, “Shalom!”   It’s common to translate that into English as, “Peace be with you.”    Yet,  the Hebrew word shalom means  so much more than that. 
The apostle John may have believed that Jesus rose from the dead,  & Mary may have seen Jesus & reported His resurrection to the disciples,  but they weren’t taking any chances.  They still feared for their lives & had locked themselves in.  Their last week  had been an all too vivid experience of how things can easily go  from bad  to worse. 
Lurking in their hearts are troubling questions about cause & effect,  about destiny,  about life  & about death.  Jesus had told them He is the way & the truth & the life,   & then He was crucified, died & was buried.   Now,  He’s alive again,  but He’s already told them that He’ll be returning to His father in heaven.  Jesus is the One  who’s been healing people of their diseases, even raising  them from the dead.   When He leaves, “What becomes of us?” thought His disciples.   The same question haunts our lives as well, “What becomes of you?   What becomes of me?”   All of our lives,  those questions provide the framework  for everything we do. 
When a child is born, “What will become of them  if we do this,  or do that?”    The question motivates decisions on what & when to feed them,  where & when to put them to sleep.  As they grow, “What will become of them?” guides where & when we send them to school. 
As they graduate, “What will become of me?” provides the framework for decisions on a future career.  As we go through life – whom to marry, what to buy or sell, where to live,  where & when to seek medical treatment,  those questions are grounded in “What becomes of us?” 
As the end of life approaches,  decisions for ourselves & for those who depend upon us, are driven by the looming questions, “What becomes of me?   What becomes of you?”     Jesus came  to restore the wholeness,  & He says, “Shalom!”   Our Gospel reading translates that, “Peace be with you.”    Yet,  the Hebrew word shalom means  so much more than that. 
We commonly think of peace as an absence of war  or conflict of any sort.   Our life experiences teach us that an absence of conflict  is pretty much  as good  as it gets.   If no one is fighting,  don’t rock the boat.  We’re good! 
When Jesus was born,  in a stable,  to a family of peasants,  He was coming from an entirely  superior set  of life experiences.  Jesus came  from heaven,  & from there  He brings to us the word shalom.   Shalom  is what life will be like in paradise,  & it will be that way for all eternity.   There,  doors will never be locked,  if there even are doors. 
In the 10th chapter of John, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you,  he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief & a robber.  But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.”  (John 10:1-2 ESV)   In this life,  doors are necessary  because of sin’s corruption of all that God created.   Doors  help us determine if someone is a thief & a robber,  instead of a shepherd  of the sheep.   
Ultimately though,  the God who created us  is our protector  & provider.   Jesus tells us that He is  the good shepherd,  & His resurrection from the dead proves that not even death  can limit Him.  In light of Jesus’ resurrection,  our fear of death is clearly the work of the thief & robber – Satan himself.  His goal is to steal our shalom & lock our doors. 
Jesus came to restore the shalom of His experience which is heavenly, perfect  & eternal.  In Exodus, Moses teaches people what to do when suffering a loss of things.  When that loss or injury occurs, the owner is considered to be lacking or incomplete.  The one responsible was to make things right.  Shalom means that things are made complete again. 
In Genesis, when Joseph’s brothers come asking for food, he asks them how they & their father are doing.  They answer that their father is in good health.  Joseph’s questions & his brother’s answers use the word shalom to describe what English translates as good health.  And bad health is a result of sin,  which Jesus did not experience in heaven. 
Heaven is a place of far more than simply good health.  It is an eternity of perfect health.  When Jesus says shalom, His words bring it into reality.  He often tells His followers to stop being afraid, but He doesn’t say that  only as wishful thinking.  He tells us not to fear  because He is bringing shalom, the restoration of His holy & perfect creation. 
Having shalom means we also have patience to wait for that day when our bodies are raised to a perfect health that none of us have ever known.  Having shalom means being content, or at peace, with what God chooses to give us in this life.  God’s word creates what it says,  but He does not jam that down our throats.  Yahweh does allow us to reject His words, to reject His creation,  to reject His shalom.  As saints & yet sinners,  all of us struggle with believing His words, His promises & His eternal reality.  Because of that,  we need God’s words, promises & reality every day.  Like Thomas, our hopes are crushed by the sinful reality in which we also live,  but that reality  is a temporary one,  & as yet,  you & I have experienced no other. 
Thomas had locked the door to his heart, but Jesus appeared to him anyway.   That appearance unlocked the door once again to Thomas’ heart  & he believed.  He was spiritually awakened from the dead.  That is the Holy Spirit’s mission every day,  to awaken all of us from the dead,  & we need it.  Faith is not something that we gain once & never lose. 
Faith is more like a container of water in the desert.  Evaporation constantly removes the water & thus it needs to be refilled every day.   Our faith, our shalom,  needs to be refilled every day, & that’s why God calls us to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.  At the very least, we need to be in God’s house every 7th day in order to receive Yahweh’s shalom. 
There are many causes of fear in the chaos of this sinful world.  It saddens Jesus to see us being afraid,  but He sees & experiences the final resurrection far more clearly than do   you & I.  As we lean upon Jesus in faith, there are no  circumstances in this life  that can tear us out of His hand.  Thomas refused to believe that Jesus was risen,  & Jesus came to claim him. 
Jesus is still today  coming to claim you,  & me  & everyone He created.  When we receive His shalom, His peace,  then we are restored, renewed & empowered to be light in the darkness of our sinful world.  Our peace will shine  as we lean upon Christ,  because God’s perfect love always drives out fear.  Amen.   
 
I am content!   My Jesus is my head;  His member I shall be.  He bowed His head when on the cross  He died with cries of agony.   Now death is brought into subjection  for me by Jesus’ resurrection.    I am content!   At length I shall be free,  awakened from the dead,  arising glorious  evermore to be  with You,  my living head.   The chains that hold my body,  sever;  then shall my soul rejoice forever.  I am content!  I am content!  Amen.  LSB 468:2, 4. 

​Easter Sunday – 2025                                                                                    LSB #’s 457, 436, 466
Text – John 20:1-2
 
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, & saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.  So she ran…
 
WHAT ARE YOU RUNNING FROM?
 
 
Go to Dark Gethsemane is probably not the most common hymn sung on Easter morning.  In my own mind it is firmly etched in the somber services of Good Friday.   The opening verses lament Christ’s suffering & death: “Your Redeemer’s conflict see, watch with Him one bitter hour.   Shun not suffering, shame or loss, learn from Him to bear the cross.” 
We began this service with a dimly lit room that blossomed into a sight of beauty with the Agnus Dei ringing in our ears, flowers singing across the chancel, & then the glorious strains of “Jesus Christ is risen today, our triumphant holy day…  Hymns of praise then let us sing, unto Christ, our heavenly king, Alleluia!”  (LSB 457:1 & 2). 
You know the story, “’Twill be my theme in glory to tell the old,   old story of Jesus & His love.”   Because we know the story, we effortlessly jump to the final conclusion – our physical arrival in heaven on the Last Day, as our bodies are raised from the dead in glorious perfection.   None of what you just experienced was that way for Mary on her Easter morning. 
You & I have this joyous celebration.  Mary ran away in confusion.  Our service is full of praise & joy, loud Alleluias, many flowers & jubilant music.   The resurrection Gospel according John, has tones of frantic confusion, searching for a missing body, & even after believing, a lack of peaceful understanding.   Peter & John went home.   Mary stayed at the open tomb   & cried. 
“Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark,   & saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.   So she ran & went to Simon Peter & the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, & said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, & we do not know where they have laid Him.’”  (John 20:1-2 ESV)  Mary panics & runs away because she misinterprets the proof that God showed her, the proof of His Son’s resurrection from the dead.   Jesus had predicted this.  Mary had not understood. 
“‘…everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.  For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles & will be mocked & shamefully treated & spit upon.   And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, & on the third day He will rise.’   But they understood none of these things.  This saying was hidden from them, & they did not grasp what was said.”  (Luke 18:31-34 ESV) 
 
The Gospel of Luke tells us that understanding of Jesus’ prophecy was actually hidden from His followers.  After several of the miraculous signs Jesus performs, He instructs them to tell no one.  Everything about Christ’s kingdom hinged upon His resurrection from the dead, & even after His resurrection, it took awhile for the confidence of His followers to return. 
Our experience of Easter is so totally different from that of the people who grieved Christ’s death on the first Good Friday.   We cannot help but take Easter for granted.  We cannot begin to fathom the joy that Jesus’ followers experienced in the days after that very first Easter.  Their joy led them to accept death for themselves rather than stop telling others about Jesus. 
In addition to Jesus, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mary, the other women, & the apostles, for not allowing their church or their government to silence them.  What motivated them to speak so defiantly, was not guilt over their failures & sins.  It was joy that all their sins & failures had been completely paid for, & new & eternal life was now in their possession. 
Physical death could no longer harm them, so threats of punishment held no sway,  when it came to sharing the love of Jesus Christ with people in need.   That’s where the followers of Jesus ended up, once they believed & understood Christ’s resurrection from the dead.  That’s not where they were on Easter morning.  When Mary first saw the stone taken away, she ran. 
At that moment, she was running out of fear.  It wasn’t fear for her life, but fear that she
would not be able to honor her Lord as she intended.  She was afraid that others had plotted to dishonor Jesus even more than they already had.   What happened that she stopped running?  Jesus appeared to her in person, & He spoke her name:
“…she turned around & saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.  Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?  Whom are you seeking?’  Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, & I will take Him away.’  Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’  She turned & said to Him in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher).”  (John 20:14-16 ESV) 
 
Our experience of this Easter is vastly different from the experience of Jesus’ disciples that first Easter morning, but all of us are also running from something, or from many things.  When I was still running for exercise, someone once asked, “What are you running from?”  I replied, “From old age.”   Well, it caught me. 
There are an endless number of things that sinful human beings are running from – lack of financial or emotional security, being ashamed of ourselves or ashamed of those associated with us.  We run from responsibility, we run from being loved, we run from loving others.  We run from our past, we run from our future.  Sinful creatures do a lot of running. 
Once we own our fear then it no longer controls us.  The resurrection of Jesus from the dead allows & enables us to stop being afraid.  God had given Mary proof of the resurrection of Jesus in the empty tomb.  Yet, because she was living in fear, she could not see that proof.  All she knew, from her worldly experience, is that an empty tomb was totally abnormal. 
Once Jesus speaks her name her fear is gone & she believes.  Likewise with John, verse 8 tells us, “Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, & he saw & believed.”  The first Easter morning of Jesus’ disciples was not filled with joy, but with fear.  It took time, & the work of the Holy Spirit, to dispel that fear. 
Instead of listening to the words of Jesus & believing them, His disciples, men & women
both, had been following their own thoughts & experiences regarding what was real & what was not.  Here we learn that even miracles are only steppingstones to faith.  The real basis of faith is Holy Scripture, the revealed & inspired Words of God.  On this basis is faith to rest. 
If all the disciples had closely remembered the prophecies of Jesus concerning His Passion & resurrection, they would have saved themselves many a bitter heartache.   Whatever you are running from, searching the holy words of God, instead of following your feelings, is the reason you will finally stop running.  You finally experience God’s peace. 
In all four Gospel-accounts, all the disciples, men as well as women, are pictured as fearful, confused, running this way & that.  On the other hand, Jesus was patient.  He came to them & spoke the Scriptures. 
Mary did not go to the tomb on Sunday morning to meet a risen Savior.  She went to finish His burial, but Jesus found her, & healed her broken heart with a joy she had never imagined.  Jesus has that same joy available for you.  It doesn’t remove you from the brokenness of this sinful world, but His joy enables you to see beyond this world. 
That is what Job was describing as he wrote, “…I know that my Redeemer lives, & at the last He will stand upon the earth.  And 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,  & not another.  My heart faints within me!”  (19:25-27 ESV)    St. Paul wrote of that in a letter to the church at Corinth:
“I tell you a mystery.  …we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.   For the trumpet will sound, & the dead will be raised imperishable...  then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?’   The sting of death is sin, & the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (15:51-52, 54-57 ESV) 
 
Confident of that victory, you & I are empowered by the Holy Spirit to own any of the fears we are running from.   Now, we have something to run to – the last trumpet, our own resurrection from the dead, a life in paradise that will never be spoiled & will never come to an end.   The reign of sin & death has already been defeated.  Our fears are a figment of Satan’s imagination.  This veil of tears is but a passing matter compared to the eternal life we enjoy partially already now & one day will enjoy fully with Jesus in heaven.  Amen. 
 
 
 
Calvary’s mournful mountain climb; there, adoring at His feet, mark that miracle of time, God’s own sacrifice complete.  “It is finished!” hear Him cry; learn from Jesus Christ to die.   Early hasten to the tomb where they laid His breathless clay; all is solitude & gloom.  Who has taken Him away?   Christ is risen!  He meets our eyes.  Savior, teach us so to rise.  Amen.  LSB 436:3-4. 

​Maundy Thursday – 2025                                                                                      LSB #’s 445, 570
Text – Exodus 24:8
 
And Moses took the blood & threw it on the people & said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
 
 THE BLOOD OF ACCESS
 
 
Imagine a person walking in front of the White House seeking access to the president of the United States.   Better yet,  imagine that the person  is you.  Your shoes are shined,  your hair is combed,  you are dressed in your Sunday best.  You want an audience with the Commander in Chief   because there are some burning issues you want to take up with him. 
There is the problem of a new highway.  It doesn’t have an exit ramp close enough to your house.     There’s the issue of income taxes.  They’re too high for you  & too low for everyone else.   Finally, there is that sticky matter called student loans.  Couldn’t the president make a few calls & get you  off  the hook? 
Let’s be honest, though.  There are too many barriers between you & the president.  The gates are locked.  The guards won’t let you in.  The Secret Service has orders to shoot first & ask questions later. 
But what if the president looks out his window on Pennsylvania Avenue & sees you?  What if he gives the command & his security detail escorts you right into the Oval Office?  And what if the president listens attentively & makes all the changes you ask for?    Too good to be true?  With the President of the United States,  it is!  
With the King of the Universe,  you do have a friend in high places.  Listen again to these words in Exodus 24:1, “Then He said to Moses, ‘Come up to the LORD,  you & Aaron,  Nadab, & Abihu, & seventy of the elders of Israel, & worship from afar.’”  Don’t get too close!  Worship from afar.   Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu & the seventy elders of Israel do not have access.  There are too many barriers between them & the LORD.  Yahweh is the holy,  infinite,  eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing & only God.   He   is in a league all His own.  Though Yahweh has descended upon Mt. Sinai in a cloud & glory,  Israel’s leaders must still “worship from afar.”  
Why is that?   The Bible says that we are born  dead in transgressions & sin.  The Bible says that by nature  you & I are enemies of God.   The Bible says we are fading leaves, empty cisterns & flowers quickly fading.  The Bible teaches that we are rebels &  prodigals,  prone to wander, hard-hearted, selfish, & lost  in sin. 
“Moses alone shall come near to the LORD,  but the others shall not come near,  & the people shall not come up with him.”  (Exodus 24:2)   Why does Moses get to come near?  Moses gets to come near  because He is the mediator, the go-between,  between God & Israel.  Moses is going to bridge the gap between Israel’s leaders & Yahweh.  How so? 
“Moses took the blood & threw it on the people & said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.’”  (Exodus 24:8) Blood is how Israelites get out of Egypt.  The Passover lamb is slain & his blood is splattered on the doorframes of the houses.  
Therefore, the angel of death passes over the Israelite houses  but passes through the houses of the Egyptians striking down every firstborn in Egypt.   Blood is how Israelites get out of Egypt.  Blood is how Israelites gain access to God.   Blood   is what you & I  need! 
“Then Moses & Aaron, Nadab & Abihu,  & 70 of the elders of Israel went up & they saw the God of Israel.  There was under His feet as it were  a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.  And He did not lay His hand on the chief men of the people of Israel.  They saw God,  & ate & drank.”  (Exodus 24:9–11)  
These Israelites not only see the God of Israel, they eat & drink in His presence!  Talk
about access!   And this is God’s gift to you!  Blood is how we get out of Egypt.  Egypt – our house of guilt & remorse & darkness & death.  Blood is also how we gain access to God.  Blood is what we need!  Whose blood?   The blood of Jesus.  Calvary isn’t a sudden tragedy.  Christ’s execution is not God’s knee-jerk reaction to a world spinning out of control.  
No!  Revelation 13:8 tells us, the Lamb was slain from the creation of the world.  Before the world was made,  the Father planned for His Son’s blood to be shed.   On Good Friday the Jews wanted Barabbas.  Herod wanted a show.  Pilate wanted out.  Caiaphas wanted death.  The soldiers wanted to have some fun.   And the executioners?  They wanted the blood of Jesus. 
The strategy was singular; beat Him within an inch of death  & then stop.  With His back lacerated by lashes  they shove the crossbeam on His shoulders.   When He comes to Calvary they nail Him to the wood.   And there  Jesus hangs: “…Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  (John 1:29 ESV) 
All is not right with the world  because God is in His heaven.  No,  all is right with the world  because God  is on the cross.   As Hebrews tells us, “…brothers, we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place  by the blood of Jesus.”  (10:19 ESV)   By the blood of Jesus, we have access!  Access to the Most Holy Place.  Access to the throne  of Almighty God.  
You have access to the heart of Him who rules the sun, the moon & the stars.  Access to our Father who wields for us, His children,  a full monopoly of power  in heaven  & on earth!  By the blood of Jesus, we enter God’s presence with confidence!  Not with shaking & trembling.  Not with angst & fear.  We enter with confidence!  
The word “confidence” appears forty times in the NT.  Why is that?  The message of the NT is singular.  By the blood of Jesus,  we have unlimited access to the Most Holy Place of the Most Holy God  who has the Most Holy name!   That is confidence!  Confidence to live; confidence to speak; confidence when we suffer; confidence when we pray;  even confidence when we die.   Unlimited access was God’s gift to Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, & the seventy elders of Israel. They see the God of Israel.  They eat & drink with Him. 
So why should anyone remain on the outside,  all alone,  feeling as though they have no access to the most powerful person in the universe?  At this table you & I not only have access to God,  we see God when we eat & drink the true body & true blood of Jesus.   Imagine that!   Unlimited access  is God’s gift in Christ,   at this table,   for you!  Amen. 
 
 
 
Just as I am,   without one plea   but that Thy blood was shed for me   & that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,  O Lamb of God,  I come,   I come.      Just as I am,  Thou wilt receive,  wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;  because Thy promise I believe,  O Lamb of God,  I come,  I come.     Just as I am;  Thy love unknown  has broken every barrier down;  now to be Thine,  yea, Thine alone,  O Lamb of God,  I come,  I come.  Amen.  LSB 570:1, 5-6.  

​    Sunday of the Passion – C                                                                         LSB #’s 436, 432, 560
Text – Luke 23:49
 
And all His acquaintances & the women who had followed Him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. 
 
STANDING AT A DISTANCE
 
 
At birth  each of us boarded this train called life.   We meet family members,  &  during the innocence of youth  we assume they will always travel by our side.  However, at some station our parents will step off the train, leaving us behind on this journey.    As time goes by,  other people board the train who will be  significant – siblings, friends, spouse or children.  
Eventually,  all will step off the train & leave a permanent vacuum.   Others will go  so unnoticed that we don’t realize they vacated their seats.  The train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, goodbyes  & farewells.  The mystery to everyone is: We do not know at which station  we ourselves  will step  off the train. 
“Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice,  said, ‘Father,  into your hands I commit my spirit!’   And having said this  He breathed His last.  … And all His acquaintances & the women who had followed Him from Galilee  stood at a distance  watching these things.”  (Luke 23:47, 49 ESV)   They watched,  in disbelief & sorrow,  as Jesus  stepped off the train. 
When Jesus was arrested,  Peter,  rather than standing at a distance & watching,  had wanted to fight,  but Jesus stopped him.  This is how the Gospel of John records that event:
“…Judas, having procured a band of soldiers & some officers from the chief priests & the Pharisees,  went there with lanterns & torches & weapons.   Then Jesus,  knowing all that would happen to Him,  came forward & said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’    They answered Him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’   Jesus said to them,  ‘I am he.’”  (John 18:3-5 ESV) 
“Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it  & struck the high priest’s servant & cut off
his right ear…  So Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword into its sheath;  shall I not  drink the cup that the Father has given me?’”  (John 18:10-11 ESV)     Should we act  or should we stand back & watch?  The Holy Spirit calls us to each,  but at the right time  & in the right place.  Beginning with the arrest of Jesus,  His followers are called to stand back  & watch. 
It was time for Jesus to accomplish His mission.   He was not only obedient,   He was content to do the Father’s will.  The only task of His followers was to stand by & watch.  Besides Peter cutting off the servant’s ear,  Judas was the only other follower to act,  & he betrayed his Lord & Savior.   It would have been better for him  to have remained at a distance & watch. 
 That’s the dilemma of being a sinful creature – knowing when to act  & when to refrain.  Is that one reason Ecclesiastes 3 resonates  with so many of us?   “For everything there is a season, & a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born,  & a time to die;
…a time to weep,  & a time to laugh;
a time to mourn,  & a time to dance;
…a time to keep silence,    & a time  to speak.”  (3:1-2, 4, 7 ESV) 
Since Jesus was in perfect health until the day of His crucifixion,  His death was sudden & unexpected for those who were following Him.  It all happened so fast, it left them disoriented & confused  & afraid.  Their grief was an onslaught of horrific emotions  that they were ill-prepared to face.  Our awareness of Jesus’ death has been an entirely different experience. 
We’ve known of it  all of our Christian life.  We hear of it again & again  especially as the season of Lent rolls around each year.  For Lutherans,  the death of Christ is The singular event of salvation in all of creation.  It is the moment in history where God pays the price  for each of our sins  that we might have a clean conscience & a mind & spirit  filled with perfect peace. 
You & I have had time to process the brutal suffering & death of our Lord & Savior.  We
have had countless opportunities to understand & embrace  the cross.  For today’s followers of Christ  it is the ultimate symbol  of our Creator’s love for us,  no matter how wretched our lives have been,  & still may be.   Since the Holy Spirit works to prepare in advance  opportunities for us,  all of us have participated in the mission  of proclaiming Christ crucified for sin. 
And still,  there are moments  we sense the Holy Spirit  urging us  to act on behalf of Christ,  but we prefer to stand at a distance.   There are moments  we sense the Holy Spirit urging us  to speak God’s love  into the pain & the darkness of another human being’s existence.  Will we continue  standing at a distance? 
There are times to act  & other times to refrain,  but loving our neighbor is not optional for someone who has experienced the love of Jesus Christ.   He did not die that horrible death on the cross  so that we can spend our time loving only  ourselves.   Certainly our Lord cares for our needs & our desires,  yet He calls us to also care  for the needs & the desires of our neighbors. 
The powerful people in Jesus’ day – Herod, Pilate, the soldiers, the Pharisees – all find themselves on the outside of God’s kingdom.  They were caring for their needs & desires alone.  The powerless, the humble & the broken  are privileged to be among the front ranks of those in God’s kingdom. 
Thus, when Jesus restored him to God’s kingdom, Zacchaeus declared, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.  And if I have defrauded anyone  of anything,  I restore it fourfold.”  (Luke 19:8 ESV)   Zacchaeus could no longer  stand at a distance & merely watch.  His soul had come to life  & begun to breathe the breath  of Jesus Christ. 
As “…all His acquaintances & the women who had followed Him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things,”  (Luke 23:49 ESV) they might have been remembering the good that Jesus had done for others.  Yet, during those moments, the inescapable conclusion was that it had all come to this colossal failure at Golgotha.  This man they believed to be Messiah,  had breathed His last  & there was nothing they could do to stop it.   They were helpless to do anything  but stand at a distance & watch.  All of them saw it  with their own two eyes. 
Only after the resurrection  did they realize  that what they saw  was the King of creation reigning,  over His kingdom,  right there on the cross.  Yahweh’s kingdom is not one of power & domination, as the world desires.  Rather,  it is a kingdom where peace comes  from self-giving   love & service.  The Son of God demonstrated that  perfectly  as He was willingly crucified. 
But His death was not simply a demonstration of humility & love.   Christ died in our place because we cannot live up to His example.  He paid for our sins on the cross – all of our sins!  And like the repentant criminal next to Him,  we receive heaven instead of hell.  That is God’s will for everyone,  but He does not force anyone to believe that. 
Three days later, while Jesus’ disciples are still in hiding,  out of fear,  Jesus rises from death in order to show that He not only reigns from the cross,  He also reigns over sin, death & the grave.  They were powerless to hold Him,  & therefore, sin, death & the grave will also be powerless to hold anyone who trusts in Jesus. 
When you or I or anyone we love steps off the train of life,  that is not the end.  We will see them again,  & rejoice with them for all eternity,  as long as they believe that Jesus is our Savior.  Resurrection from the dead is final stop of the train we are on now,  & the new train journey for all believers will be paradise,  joy after sorrow,  & it will never end.  Amen. 
 
 
In silent pain  the eternal Son hangs derelict & still;  in darkened day His work is done,  fulfilled,  His Father’s will.   Uplifted for all the world to see  He hangs in strangest victory,  for in His body on the tree  He carries all our ill.    He died that we might die to sin  & live for righteousness;  the earth is stained  to make us clean  & bring us into peace.   For peace He came & met its cost;  He gave Himself to save the lost;  He loved us to the uttermost  & paid for our release.  Amen.  LSB 432:1-2. 

​Midweek 6 – 2025                                                                       LSB #’s 423, 555:1, 4, 6-7, 9; 918
Text – Exodus 14:30
 
Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, & Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.   
 
SALVATION
 
 
The Exodus is the salvation event of the OT.   The Israelites were living in the land of Egypt, but Pharaoh was afraid because they were becoming too numerous.  So, he enslaved them & forced them to make bricks & work in the fields.  He ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill all the male children as they were born.    As time went on, their situation grew worse & worse.  
First the Egyptians forced them to make bricks with straw that the Egyptians provided.  Then they told the Israelites they needed to gather their own straw, but still had to produce the same number of bricks. 
God delivered His people from this dire situation.  He sent Moses to lead them out of slavery, culminating in the crossing of the Red Sea, which is the text for this evening.  With the Egyptians in hot pursuit, Moses lifted his staff & stretched out his hand to divide the sea.  
God sent a strong east wind that divided the waters, opening up a path of dry ground for the Israelites to cross.  The Egyptians pursued them into the sea, but after the Israelites were safely on the other side, Moses stretched out his hand once again.  The sea returned to its normal course & drowned the entire Egyptian army. 
This story is not only about what happened to the Israelites long ago.   It sets forth a pattern of God’s deliverance that we see repeated multiple times in the Bible, & in our lives as well.  The story itself echoes the pattern that God established at creation.  Then the pattern is repeated in Christ’s resurrection, & in our baptism. 
CREATION        In the first verses of Genesis, we read that the “Spirit of God was
hovering over the face of the waters.”  (Genesis 1:2)   On day two of creation, God separates the waters from the waters & installs the sky to keep the waters above separate from the waters below.  On day 3, God gathers the waters below into one place, & dry land appears.  We see these same themes in the crossing of the Red Sea.  
God sends a strong east wind.  Now, the Hebrew word for “wind” can also be translated as “Spirit.”  The east winds correspond to the Spirit hovering over the waters.  As in day two of creation, also here God separates the waters from the waters.  As in day three, dry land appears.  
That means we can understand the crossing of the Red Sea as not just any miracle, but as God re-engaging in an act of creation.  The Israelites were dead, in a sense, as they served their cruel Egyptian masters.  Yet, by leading them through the sea, God re-created them.  He brought them from death to life.  He made Himself a people. 
CHRIST        We see the same pattern play out on a cosmic scale in the story of Christ once we realize that Moses finds his fulfillment in Messiah.  In Deuteronomy 18, the Lord says to Moses, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers.  And I will put my words in His mouth, & He shall speak to them all that I command Him.”  (18:18 ESV)  
The early church identified this passage as one of the most important prophecies of Christ in the OT.   It shows that, what Moses accomplished in a preliminary way, Jesus accomplished in ultimate reality.  As Moses delivered the Israelites from the Pharoah in Egypt, Jesus delivers the world from the true Pharaoh, Satan himself. 
This deliverance takes place through the sea, which in the Bible is an image of chaos & death from God’s wrath.  We see it in the story of Jonah, where God’s wrath appears as a storm on the sea, & the only way to quell the storm was for the sailors to throw Jonah into the sea.  He spent three days & nights in the belly of a fish until he was spit up on dry ground.  Jesus refers to this describing what would happen to Him: “…just as Jonah was three days & three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days & three nights in the heart of the earth.”  (Matthew 12:40 ESV)  
When Jesus died on the cross, we can say He went into the sea, into the heart of God’s wrath, where He suffered that wrath on our behalf.  When He rose from the dead, He came out the other side, at which point all the powers that would enslave us – sin, death, & the devil – were drowned in the sea of Messiah’s sacrifice.
BAPTISM          The same pattern plays out in our baptism.   Baptism is structured upon Christ’s death & resurrection.  It has the crossing of the Red Sea built into it, as St. Paul wrote:
“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”  (Romans 6:3–4 ESV) 
Just as the Israelites go into the midst of the sea, we also go into the waters in our baptism, where we die with Christ.  And just as the Israelites come out of the sea alive on the other side, we also come out of the water of baptism alive in Christ’s resurrection, & are walking in newness of life.  
This is the pattern of the Christian life that the Small Catechism uses when it says that such baptizing with water indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition & repentance be drowned & die with all sins & evil lusts  & a new man come forth & arise to live before God in righteousness & purity forever.  
In our baptism, the victory that Christ won becomes our triumph over death.  But there is a detail in the story that is not so triumphant.  As the Egyptian army is approaching, the Israelites are afraid, & actually wish they were back in slavery.  They say to Moses, “Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’?  For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”  (Exodus 14:12 ESV) 
The longing to return to slavery can be a powerful force.  In the baptismal liturgy, that force is dealt with in the following exchange between the pastor & the baptismal candidate.  Sometimes the congregation is encouraged to speak the responses as well:
Do you renounce the devil?                  Yes, I renounce him.
Do you renounce all his works?                  Yes, I renounce them.
Do you renounce all his ways?                 Yes, I renounce them.[1]
Sinners struggle to say that whole-heartedly.  Does sin still have its allure?  If so, then you need to understand that sin is slavery.  St. Paul says, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?”  (Romans 6:16 ESV)  
Sin demands ever more of you.  First it demands bricks.  Then bricks without straw.  Sin is the anvil on your chest interfering with your breathing.  It is the slipper that’s so tight you can’t feel your toes.  It is the rope that envelopes your desires & constrains them, dragging them off in directions they were never meant to go.  
Sin is a lizard that cannot stand the idea of being a great & noble creature, but Christ has freed us from that slavery.  He’s lifted the weight from our chest & burned the ropes that bind us.  
By daily contrition & repentance we are led into the fullness of our humanity & begin to experience the freedom, nobility & significance of being God’s own creatures, the way He designed us to be.  Honest repentance doesn’t make us less human; it makes us more, as Jesus
said, “I came that they may have life & have it abundantly.”  (John 10:10b ESV)   Through His perfect life, death & resurrection, Jesus has saved you & me from slavery to sin.  He has given us hope & a future in eternal paradise.  Meanwhile, His work of re-creation is going on each & every day of our lives.  Salvation unto us has come.  Amen. 
 
 
Salvation unto us has come by God’s free grace & favor; good works cannot avert our doom, they help & save us never.   Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone, who did for all the world atone; He is our one Redeemer.    From sin our flesh could not abstain, sin held its sway unceasing; the task was useless & in vain, our guilt was e’er increasing.   None can remove sin’s poisoned dart or purify our guileful heart – so deep is our corruption.     Since Christ has full atonement made   & brought us to salvation, each Christian therefore may be glad & build on this foundation.   Your grace alone, dear Lord, I plead, Your death is now my life indeed, for You have paid my ransom.  Amen.  LSB 555:1, 4, 6. 


[1] Lutheran Service Book (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005), 270.