​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.

​5th Sunday in Lent – C                                                                                   LSB #’s 912, 571, 434
Text – Luke 20:17
 
But He looked directly at them & said, “What then is this that is written: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?” 
 
REJECTING THE CORNERSTONE
 
 
Last Sunday, with the parable of the Prodigal Son, we considered how foolish the father was  to give his younger son the inheritance before the father was even dead.   As children of God,  how often do you consider the heavenly Father  to be a fool?  It might seem out of line  for me  even to suggest that  to you.   Yet, the parable of the vineyard  reiterates that very point. 
“When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.  But the tenants beat him & sent him away empty-handed.  And he sent another servant.  But they also beat & treated him shamefully, & sent him away empty-handed.  And he sent yet a third.  This one also they wounded & cast out.  Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do?  I will send my beloved son;  perhaps they will respect him.’”  (Luke 20:10-13 ESV)  
 
What father would do such a foolish thing?    Would you?    The father should have destroyed the tenants from the get go,  but gets his own son killed  instead.   Whom does the owner of the vineyard represent?   Yes,  it’s the heavenly Father,  & His Son Jesus  is the one telling the parables  that demonstrate the foolishness of God. 
It’s important to keep in mind, however,  that labeling God a fool  comes purely from a human & earthly perspective.   As finite creatures  we  have no ability to see the future.  God’s actions can appear foolish to us  because we cannot see how things will turn out. 
Our experience in this sinful world teaches us this – anything that can go wrong  will.   Because of that, sending a son, after the tenants have already beat up the first three servants,  seems like a very foolish idea.  Our experience teaches us that  there is no such thing  as a free lunch.  Resources appear to be limited  so we have to be very careful  how we spend them. 
Giving your inheritance to your children before you’re dead  is not likely to end well. 
When the prodigal son returns flat out broke,  the father runs to greet him  & reestablishes the son’s place in the family.  From a worldly perspective,  what Jesus is teaching does not appear very wise.  Because our sinful nature seeks wisdom instead of foolishness, it’s important to remember what St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians:
“…we preach Christ crucified,  a stumbling block to Jews & folly to Gentiles, …For the foolishness of God is wiser than men…”  (1:23, 25 ESV)   In other words,  when human beings think that God’s Word is foolishness   God is demonstrating His wisdom.    Since God is love, when human beings think that God’s Word is foolishness   God is demonstrating His love. 
As the Son of God tells this parable,  it’s just three days before He’ll be crucified  for the sins   of the entire human race.    Yet,  it is precisely that death of Messiah  which seems preposterously foolish  to the scribes & chief priests.  In that,  they are the tenants of the vineyard who have beaten & driven off the servants  who were sent by the owner.
 In three days, they’ll have the Son of vineyard owner killed.  They are trying to do away with this rebellious rabbi  because He dares to pronounce judgment upon them.  However, in this battle against unbelief, Jesus is not trying to get rid of them.  He’s trying to turn them around  so they see the foolishness of their hatred.  He’s willing to be killed by them  in order to save them. 
To the world  that is the height of foolishness.  Our sinful nature views such generosity as foolish  because we live in a finite world  that is defined by limitations.  Our Lord knows  no such limitations,  & if we arrive in heaven  neither will we.   Until then, our faith in Jesus exists in an upside down world.   Until then, the Holy Trinity is working to build a new creation. 
The old covenant has yielded to a new covenant, of which Jesus,  rejected by the Jews, will be the mighty cornerstone.  His death & rejection did not eliminate Him.  On the contrary, it made Him what the new structure needed, the Cornerstone of the new covenant.  In this parable, Jesus announces judgment upon those who reject Him.  Then, Jesus goes to the cross & dies in order to accept that judgment upon Himself.  Rejecting Jesus is not saying, I’d like a piece of the cake, but without the ice cream.  If I reject Jesus, I am rejecting life itself & everything that comes with it.  The result is bad enough here on earth.  It will be infinitely worse  in eternity. 
“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?  He will come & destroy those tenants & give the vineyard to others.”  (Luke 20:15b-16a ESV)   While the parable of the vineyard workers is a warning of the judgment to come,  it is also a demonstration of God’s love for us. 
The parable demonstrates that our Creator keeps on sending people,  again & again,  to call us back to Him, going so far as to send His only Son.   As we are proud or self-righteous, God appears foolish to us  in that He is generous beyond all comparison.  We hear of that same generosity when Peter comes to Jesus:
“‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me & I forgive him?  Up to seven times?’   Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times,  but up to seventy times seven.’”  (Matthew 18:21-22 NASB)   That kind of generosity is beyond our ability  because sin has corrupted us & turned us inward to me, myself & I.  The Holy Spirit works to turn us inside out. 
The workers of the vineyard had forgotten who owns the vineyard & they are not working for him, but for themselves.  This same persistent love of God which has triumphed in us to make us His people is also the power & motivation for lives which produce the fruit of the vineyard.  As God produces that fruit in us  we become a blessing of peace & joy to our world. 
This Gospel reading from Luke is appointed for the Sunday before Holy Week begins.  Holy Week makes up some of the last chapters  of a very long history of God’s people rejecting Him & His Word.  The result of Israel’s rejection of Jesus means our inclusion.  And God has not “merely” included us.    He has continued being recklessly, wastefully & foolishly generous toward you & me  with His gifts of grace.  It means that this parable, for those who’ve heard the Word of God & believed, is good news!   And through us, our Lord & Savior is reaching out in the same way to all His human creatures.  Yes, there is a word of warning, but the good news is far greater.  Christ has become the cornerstone of a new & perfect creation that will last forever. 
Our Lord & Savior has invited you  to join Him in that creation.  Some people may think of Jesus as a fool for doing that, but such is the love of Christ Jesus for all.  His foolishness  is greater than the highest wisdom of any man.  Accept Christ’s love for you & find rest there.  Amen. 
 
 
Christ Jesus is the ground of faith,  who was made flesh & suffered death;  all then who trust in Him alone  are built on this chief cornerstone.     God would not have the sinner die;  His Son with saving grace is nigh;  His Spirit in the Word declares  how we in Christ are heaven’s heirs.     Be of good cheer,   for God’s own Son  forgives all sins which you have done;  & justified by Jesus’ blood,  your Baptism grants the highest good.  Amen.  LSB 571:2-4.
 

​Midweek 5 – 2025                                                                            LSB #’s 420:1-4; 420:5-7; 421
Text – Daniel 3:25
 
“…I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, & they are not hurt; & the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”   
 
PURIFICATION
 
 
The faith of Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego led them into the fire.  When they refused to bow down & worship the image of King Nebuchadnezzar,  he commanded the furnace to be heated seven times as hot as usual & had them thrown in,  thinking  it would incinerate them.  
But  it did not harm them.  It did not burn their clothing.  It did not even leave the smell of smoke on them,  though it did kill the unfortunate servants  who threw them in. 
FIRE IN GOD’S WORD
All of us know  that is not how fire normally works.  “Our God is a consuming fire” (12:29), says the author of Hebrews,  & throughout the Bible, fire is the instrument of God’s wrath to completely consume the wicked.  When Nadab & Abihu offered incense to the Lord which he did not command,  fire came out from the Lord & consumed them.  (Leviticus 10:1-2)  
When Korah assembled 250 chiefs of the congregation to rebel against Moses, fire came out from the Lord & consumed them all.  (Numbers 16:35)   When the outcry against Sodom & Gomorrah became great, the Lord rained down fire & brimstone to consume both cities.  
When God gave His Law on Mt. Sinai,  there was fire on the mountain (Deuteronomy 5:22) that struck fear into the hearts of the Israelites.  They said, “This great fire will consume us.  If we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore,  we  shall die.”  (Deuteronomy 5:25) 
It’s not very often in the Bible that something is on fire & not consumed.  One example occurs in Exodus 3.  Moses looked, & “behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.”  (3:2)   The Lord was in the fire.    The three men in the fiery furnace of Daniel 3, is another example: “The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, & no smell of fire had come upon them.”  (3:27)   The only thing the fire consumed was the ropes that bound them.  Perhaps this miracle had something to do with the presence of the Lord in the fire.  
Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace & saw a fourth man there with Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego,  & this 4th man looked like “a son of the gods.”   That phrase can also be translated, “the Son of God.”  (Daniel 3:25)   This fits the larger biblical story since Christ, the Son of God,  is the one who keeps us safe from God’s wrath. 
Faith leads us into the fire of repentance during Lent,  & every day.  This fire purifies us & helps us to amend our sinful ways.  Tonight, I’ll use these two different descriptions of fire in the Bible as a way of discussing two different ways to think about repentance.  
First, repentance means that we are totally consumed by God’s wrath & have to be resurrected every day.   Second, repentance means that we are not hurt at all by God’s wrath, but only the ropes that bind us  are burned away. 
REPENTANCE AS BEING CONSUMED
Ordinarily, when we talk about repentance as death & resurrection, we use the image of water, not fire.  The Small Catechism tells us 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 daily come forth & arise.  But we can make the same point with fire.  
By daily contrition & repentance, God’s law reduces us to ashes, & the gospel raises us from those ashes.  In this respect, we are like the Phoenix, the bird from Greek mythology which periodically burns to ashes & then rises again from those ashes.  That’s an image the early church sometimes picked up to describe the resurrection. 
To say that we are completely consumed is to say that there is no part of us that is
untainted by sin.  When Nineveh repented,  the whole city repented from the king  down to the animals.  When we repent, we confess not only that our animal instincts have gone astray, such as our lust or anger or envy,   but we confess that even the best parts of ourselves, the parts we are most proud of,  have likewise gone astray. 
C. S. Lewis points out that our highest desires are at the same time our most dangerous precisely because they are high  & are more easily confused with goodness.  What could be higher than a mother’s love for her child?  And yet  what could more easily eclipse  love for God?  Few people think that their lust makes them good.  
It’s much easier to imagine that love for a child can make someone good,  yet  even that can be selfish.  Lewis imagines a woman who loved her child so much that when he died, she kept the furniture in his room in place  for ten years.  She could not let go of him no matter what, even though it was destroying the husband & daughter  still with her.  
Lewis imagines another woman who loved her child so much that she couldn’t part with him, so she made sure he would always be with her… even in hell.[1]  Perhaps this is a kind of love,  but it is a twisted, selfish kind.   All of our best impulses are susceptible to this sort of distortion by our sinful nature. 
That is why daily contrition & repentance means that every part of us goes into the fire every day & is burned away.   Then, God raises us, every day,  from the ashes.  
REPENTANCE AS ONLY THE ROPES BEING CONSUMED
Another way to think about daily contrition & repentance is that we are not hurt by the fire of God’s wrath at all, but only the ropes that bind us  are burned away.  Here the point is that God created us good & implanted in us the natural desires that we have.  Sin is not a different set of desires that invades us,  but it is a corruption of those desires that God gave us.[2]   It’s as if sin has wound ropes around our healthy desires & dragged them off in a direction God did not mean for them to go.  Even our most sordid desires have a basis in something good.  
C. S. Lewis illustrates this with a story of a man who appears in heaven with a red lizard on his shoulder.  The lizard is a demon of lust.  An angel kills the lizard & throws it on the ground, freeing the man from its grasp.  Yet there is no void left where the lizard was  because the lizard transformed into a great white horse.  The man got on the horse & rode away.[3]  
The point of the story is that God has implanted desires in us which are far nobler & more powerful than lust,  as a horse is nobler & more powerful than a lizard.  But sin has constrained & diminished them  from a horse  down to a lizard.  The fire of repentance, then, burns away the constraints  & lets us begin to function closer to our God given capacity.
Taken together, these two ways of thinking of repentance  help us understand that it does not make us less human; it makes us more.   We are tempted to imagine that being purified means  God expects us to slice off pieces of ourselves  until we become well curated, gentle, harmless creatures who have no struggles  because we have only the mildest of feelings. 
That assumes there are pure parts of us that would remain after the “surgery.”   If we understand that the fire consumes us completely, then  there’s no process whereby we determine which parts of us need to go  & which parts we should keep.  
On the other hand, if we understand that the fire only burns the ropes, then we realize that our desires are not the problem,  but sin’s constraint of them is.   The underlying desires want & need to function within the boundaries that God has created so they can truly flourish.  The fire of repentance is a blessing because it helps us become who we truly are.  Still, it is a terrifying blessing because of its power.   This is why we remember the 4th man in the fiery furnace – the Son of God.  Whether the fire consumes us  or only burns away the ropes,  it cannot ultimately harm us  because Jesus has already been consumed by it,  & He rose  from the ashes.  
As Jesus rose from the ashes,  in Christ,  so shall we.  Repentance purifies us  so that we become what God intended us to be.   Because it kills our sinful nature, honest repentance is a painful process, but as we trust in God’s promises, the Holy Spirit enables us to turn back to Christ.  There, in Jesus, we find rest from all the struggles & sorrows of life.  Amen. 
 
 
 
Thou hast suffered great affliction  & hast borne it patiently,  even death by crucifixion,  fully to atone for me;  Thou didst choose to be tormented  that my doom should be prevented.   Thousand, thousand thanks shall be,  dearest Jesus,  unto Thee.      Then, for all that wrought my pardon,  for Thy sorrows deep & sore,  for Thine anguish in the Garden,  I will thank Thee evermore,  thank Thee for Thy groaning, sighing,  for Thy bleeding & Thy dying,  for that last triumphant cry,  & shall praise Thee, Lord on high.  Amen.  LSB 420:6-7. 


[1] C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (New York: Macmillan, 1946), 90–96.

[2] For a technical doctrinal discussion of this matter, see FC SD1, which uses Aristotelian terminology to classify original sin as an accident, not a substance.

[3] C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, 98–105.