Maundy Thursday (John 13:1-15)

This sermon is based on a sermon series entitled 'Knowing God Perfectly' by Rev. Brent Kuhlman.

“Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this Maundy Thursday comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John. Dear friends in Christ, during this Lenten season, we have set out to learn how to know God perfectly. An impossible, even sacrilegious task, it seemed. Who can know the mind of God? Who can understand His ways, who can discern His thoughts? Who could even dare to plumb such depths? Who can know God perfectly? You can; I can. Every Christian can, and indeed, every Christian should, for we know God perfectly when we see Jesus serving us, all the way to the cross. Luther says in the Large Catechism, “The Creed properly follows, which sets forth all that we must expect and receive from God; in short, it teaches us to know God perfectly.” We know God perfectly when we know what to expect and receive from Him, and we know what to expect and receive from God when we look to our Savior, our Servant Jesus. In His Divine Service, we know God perfectly, expecting and receiving from Him the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation, given when Jesus lays down His life for you.

What a Savior we have! Look at what He does in the upper room, washing the feet of His disciples. Look at what He does in the upper room, giving His Body and Blood to eat and to drink. He does this for sinners, for you. Jesus is God for you. The eternal Word, God Himself, who became flesh—He is nothing but a Servant. He is simply for His disciples and He is for you. This is the Divine Service, God in the flesh serving man, making Himself your Servant, fulfilling His own words, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

At first, Peter objects, he refuses, he cannot handle having His God as a Servant. He cannot receive this Divine Service. “You shall never wash my feet.” Really? He would reject the Lord’s Divine Service? Would you too? Do you receive Jesus as your Servant, or do you give into the demonic desire to give Him something, to make Him fit your ideas of what a Savior should be? Peter cannot abide Jesus, His Lord, His God, acting as a Servant, but this is the only way to have Him. “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Apart from Christ’s Divine Service, there is no share in the benefits of His suffering and dying that will come with His Good Friday cross. Jesus comes as our Servant, or not at all. That is what today is all about, and that is what tomorrow is all about. “Do you understand what I have done to you?” Do you understand what this Divine Service points to? The foot washing on Maundy Thursday is a preview of what is coming on Good Friday. His self-sacrifice of Himself tonight will climax tomorrow as He gets nailed to the tree. Bearing all your sin. Suffering your hell. Salvation won. Jesus as gift.

“Do you understand what I have done to you?” Do you? He washes your feet as an act of Divine Service, for He is God’s gift to you. But there is more. The free gift of His sacrificial service of love in washing feet on Maundy Thursday, then suffering and dying on Good Friday, hooks you into a life that looks just like your Teacher and Lord, your Servant. Jesus is gift, first and foremost, but He is also example. “I have given you an example that you should also do just I have done to you.” Later on, after our text, Jesus puts it this way: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” Jesus as gift; Jesus as example. It is this new commandment that gives Maundy Thursday its name, the new commandment, or mandatum in Latin, is to love one another in imitation of Christ. In other words, faith in Jesus is very active. Believers are very active in loving self-sacrificial service for the sake of others. His gifts have their way with you. His gifts enliven you. For salvation. And for fruitful service in your daily callings in life. “Do you understand what I have done to you?” We know God perfectly in His love for us and our love for others.

“Love one another, just as I have loved you.” Christ’s love for you is given in the upper room; the love that led Him to get down on the floor and wash the feet of His disciples, the love that led later in the evening to an even greater Divine Service. “The Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new testament in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” Maundy Thursday is the night of service, Christ’s Divine Service, all for you. Jesus gives Himself as gift; His own Body; His very Blood. The same Body and Blood sacrificed upon the cross Good Friday for the salvation of all is given into our mouths for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus is the Passover Lamb; His blood marks our doors, death passes over, and we eat the sacrificial meal, which is no mere memorial, but delivers to us all that He won. This Divine Service connects us with the Divine Service of the cross; the two are inseparable acts of love, inseparable deeds of service, together they are Christ’s gift of Himself. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” We know God perfectly in the Lord’s Supper, for in the Supper He is our servant, the host, the meal, He is gift for us.

Today we prayed, “Grant that we may so receive the sacred mystery of your Body and Blood that the fruits of your redemption may continually be manifest in us.” Christ as gift; Christ as example. Jesus extends His love to others through you and your bodily existence. Your redeemed and died for physical life in the body. As Jesus gave His Body to us—into death upon the cross and to eat in the Supper—so you give your body for others. “Do you understand what I have done to you?” Because of Christ’s Divine Service, you no longer live but Christ lives in you. Jesus uses you, His redeemed disciples, to help those around you through self-sacrificial acts of love. Having received Christ as gift, you “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.” You live sacrificially in the body as you love one another with brotherly affection; as you outdo one another in showing honor; not being slothful in zeal, being fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, being patient in tribulation, praying constantly for others, contributing to the needs of the saints and showing hospitality. John preaches it, in His First Epistle: “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us… And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers… Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Christ as gift; Christ as example. His love comes first; our love for others flows from the love He has shown to us.

“Do you understand what I have done to you?” You do now! It’s what you expect and receive today and every Sunday: His Divine Service for you in Word and Sacrament, His giving of His Body and Blood for you to eat and to drink; the benefits of His Divine Service on the cross given into your ears and into your mouths. You know God perfectly when you receive Christ’s sacrificial Divine Service, as He serves you. And only when He has connected you with His cross through the Word and Holy Sacraments does He have good use for you in this world as His instruments of love. Jesus your gift. Jesus your example. He sends you forth to love as He has loved you. And oh the love that He has shown to you! Jesus is your servant, He offers to you His Divine Service, giving up His life into death upon the cross for you, and giving to you the same Body that hung upon the tree, the same Blood poured out there for the salvation of the world. In the Divine Service, we know God perfectly, for we know Jesus our servant; God for you, forever. In the Name of Jesus, host and meal, Amen.

Tuesday of Holy Week (2 Timothy 6:12-14)

“Keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this Holy Tuesday is the Epistle lesson read a few moments ago from the sixth chapter of Paul’s first letter to Saint Timothy. Dear friends in Christ, the saints in Christ were gathered together, many witnesses assembled, waiting, preparing, listening, anticipating the good confession. The pastor’s voice boomed out: “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. “Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?” Yes, I believe. “Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord?” Yes, I believe. “Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?” Yes, I believe. The good confession, boldly spoken, spoken before the Church and the world; spoken to the Church and against the world. Witnessed by many on behalf of all; a single congregation in a moment of time standing in for the Church of all ages, of every time and place. “Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?” I do, by the grace of God.

A very different crowd was gathered together, at the point of a riot, crying out for the blood of one man. He stood before the governor, who stood in for the power of Rome; one powerful man representing an empire, an empire that had its bullseye on the chest of Jesus. The governor’s voice boomed forth: “Are you the king of the Jews?” “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say this about me?” “What have you done?” “My kingdom is not of this world.” “So you are a king?” “You say that I am a king… Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” The good confession, boldly spoken before kings and rulers, spoken against kings and rulers. Witnessed by one man on behalf of all, the one who represented the powers of this world, Rome reduced to one. “Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above.”

He refused to compromise, He refused to say what would deny the truth and save His life. He confessed unto death. He confessed even though He knew exactly what it would mean; He confessed even though He had counted its cost. He confessed as God called on Him to confess. He kept that commandment pure and undefiled; He refused to profane it by denying His Father at the moment when death was to be His share. He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Before the powers and principalities of this world, with a governor looking for an excuse to set Him free, Jesus refused to deny His Father’s will and the path that was set before Him. Why? Because Jesus knew that it was not Pilate who had life to give, but His Father. “I know that His commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.” Death would be the price of His confession, and He would willingly pay it.

You are surrounded by many witnesses, some violent, some not, some looking for an excuse to set you free, some looking for an excuse to condemn you. You are on the stage, you bear the name ‘Christian;’ will you confess, or will you deny? This world will not let you be a comfortable believer; it will attack you, it will try to seize your faith from you. Your sinful flesh will not go quietly, it will not submit to God’s Word without a struggle. No, to be a Christian means to battle. “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” You confessed that you would suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from this faith. Easy words to say, when you are standing in a Church, surrounded by your fellow believers, confessing along with them. Now, you are called upon to fight. Fight the good fight; struggle against this world, fight its temptations, refuse to let it put you back into bondage! Fight the good fight; struggle against you flesh, put it to death! Drown it and its desires each and every day.

The world promises you death: death of relationships, death of influence, death of popularity, and one day it may, as Pilate did, promise you physical death. Will you confess, or will you deny? Will you fight, or will you surrender? Will you hold on to the faith, or will you let it go, loving the glory that comes from men more than the glory that comes from God? You know how often You have surrendered, you know how often you have failed to confess, you know how often you have loved the glory that comes from men more than the glory that comes from God. Repent. Repent and confess your sins, your failures. Repent and believe, for you have a Savior who made the good confession for you.

Jesus refused to compromise, Jesus refused to say what would deny the truth and save His life. He confessed unto death for you. He confessed for the times you failed to confess, He confessed to give His life into death for that sin and all others. He confessed even though He knew exactly what it would mean, His death in your place; He confessed even though He had counted its cost, the very punishment that your sin deserved. Death would be the price of His confession, and He would willingly pay it, because He loves you. He confessed as God called on Him to confess because He loves His Father and He loves you. He refused to leave you in your sin, He refused to deny His Father’s will and the path that was set before Him. He knew that the Father would give Him life, and that the Father would give you life through Him. And He will; you confess the God who gives life to all things; He gave life to Jesus, and He will give life to you, for as Christ was surely raised, so you will be raised with Him at His glorious appearing. For you confess the one who made the good confession on your behalf, even unto death, and he still makes the good confession for you as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Palm Sunday (Zechariah 9:9-12)

O God, O Lord of heaven and earth, Thy living finger never wrote that life should be an aimless mote, a deathward drift from futile birth. Your will, your design, your intention, was not death, it was not futility, it was not corruption. Life was not meant to be a slow drift to death, it was not to be worthless, without value. Instead, Thy Word meant life triumphant hurled in splendor through Thy broken world. You brought order from chaos, you spoke, and it happened, you formed the man from the dust of the earth, and you formed the woman from the side of the man. Since light awoke and life began, Thou hast desired Thy life for man. You breathed into our nostrils the very breath of life, life that was to have no end, life that was to be enjoyed in this perfect world, life that was unstained by evil. Work was no burden, worship no imposition. Abundance was our portion, freely given, to sustain our bodies and our souls; you gave us everything, the fruits of the earth and the fruits of your Word. You gave us a life of joy, that we would gladly serve you and serve our neighbor. Life was your decree, life your gift, given at the moment of our creation, as your hands knit us together in the wombs of our mothers, and then sustained in every moment since. Every breath, every beat of our heart, was never meant to be one step closer to our last, but instead a gift that had no end. O God, O Lord of heaven and earth, life was your gift, life to the full.

But our fatal will to equal Thee, our rebel will wrought death and night. We heard the serpent’s lie, and we listened: “You shall be like God.” We forgot that we were made in your image and likeness, that we were already like you, and we sought to make ourselves your equal. Our will had been your will, we had desired what you desired, we had sought what you sought, but no more. Our will set itself up in opposition to your will, our desire was for what you had in wisdom not given to us, and we grasped after the fruit of death, rather than rejoicing in a world of life. We seized and used in pride and spite Thy wondrous gift of liberty. We were free, free to love you and live in joy, receiving your gift of life from your abundant hand, but we put ourselves into bondage. And like the flipping of a light, darkness and death entered in. O God, O Lord of heaven and earth, Thy living finger never wrote that life should be an aimless mote, a deathward drift from futile birth, but now it was. Birth could only deliver death; one heartbeat, one breath meant that we were one step closer to the just consequence of our sin. Our pride, our rebellion had cut us off from life.

We housed us in this house of doom, where death had royal scope and room. We put ourselves into prison, into bondage. It was our sin that did it, our fatal will to equal Thee. We put ourselves into prison, we gave the jailer the key, and we ourselves shut the locked door. We have no one else to blame, no one else to accuse. We fell in Adam’s Fall, and we have fallen every moment since. Now, this house of doom is our home, this dominion of death, this kingdom of the damned. We put ourselves here, and we cannot escape. Every cut, every scrape, every cold or fever, every drop of blood we shed is a reminder that we are slaves, in bondage to sin and death. Death is our ruler, death is our king; he rules this house of doom, and we follow his commands to the grave. None can escape, none will escape; death claims us all. We put ourselves into bondage, and now we cannot get out. The door is shut; the dead made it, and the dead keep it. We will all die. By our perverse, rebellious will we call this house of doom freedom, we call the chains and shackles of sin liberty; we rejoice to live what we foolishly call independence, but our jailer still holds the keys, and there will come a day for us all when the illusion of liberty will be replaced with the reality of death.

But then the cry comes over the walls of our prison: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of donkey.” We housed us in this hall of death, where death had royal scope and room, until Thy Servant, Prince of Peace, breached all its walls for our release. He has come, He has come. Your servant, Prince of Peace, humble and mounted on a donkey, righteous and having salvation. He comes to bring peace, He comes to put an end to our warfare, to cease the conflict between nations, between neighbors, between us and you. You declare, “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and He shall speak peace to the nations; His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” O God, O Lord of heaven and earth, your Son has come, and He has come bringing peace. He has come to reconcile us with you, to restore to us the life that we cast away in foolish rebellion. He has come to breach the walls of our prison and set us free.

Thou camest to our hall of death, O Christ to breathe our poisoned air, to drink for us the dark despair that strangled our reluctant breath. You breached the walls of our prison, O Jesus, you breathed the air that we poisoned, thick with the stench of death. And you drank down to the very dregs the cup of death that was our portion. Your lungs filled with our poison, your belly filled with our judgment, you gave yourself into death to set the prisoners of death free. “As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.” A new covenant you brought, O Jesus, a covenant founded in your blood. Your blood set us free, the blood shed upon the cross of Calvary, the blood of your sacrifice pouring down Golgotha’s hill of horror. On the cross, your lungs took in the air poisoned with death, on the cross, you drank of our despair and drained the cup of your Father’s wrath. You came into our hall of death to give yourself up into death for our sake. Your blood forgives our rebellion, the transgressions of our fatal will, and so your blood sets us free; in triumph, you lead us out from our prison as you went forth from your grave.

How beautiful the feet the trod the road that leads us back to God! “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey.” How beautiful are your feet, O Jesus, the feet that walked the roads of Palestine, living a perfect life in our place, the feet that dangled from the donkey’s back, entering Jerusalem in triumph, entering Jerusalem in humility, the same feet that walked the path of the cross, bearing our sin, the very feet that crushed the serpent’s head, trampling our jailer and taking his keys. The stronger man entered the strong man’s house and plundered all of his goods. The humble King did not spurn the cross, but gave Himself up into death, shedding the blood of the covenant to set the prisoners free. How beautiful the feet that trod the road that leads us back to God!

How beautiful the feet that ran to bring the great good news to man! “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.” You have made us prisoners of hope; no longer prisoners of death, no longer captive to the predations of our ancient foe, but now prisoners, captives of hope. We are enslaved by hope, the hope of resurrection, of final victory, the sure and certain hope that just as you O Christ were raised in victory on the third day, so we too will be raised on that Day when the cry goes up once again: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He.” We are no longer housed in a house of doom, a hall of death, we are prisoners of hope in your stronghold, O Christ, the stronghold, the fortress that is your bride, the Church. In your Church we receive double; double forgiveness for all of our sins, double grace and mercy for our rebellion, an overflowing abundance of love flowing from your pierced side.

In your Church we are captive to hope, the hope that you will come again, a hope sustained because you do come, week after week, humble and joined to bread and wine, water and Word. You come as the Son of David and the Son of God, as God and man, as our Creator and our brother, as our servant and still our King in the Holy Sacrament. Your humble coming on Palm Sunday, the coming of your kingdom on the cross, and your coming on the clouds of heaven are all contained in bread and wine. In this world we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, captive to hope, living on these words, proclaimed every Lord’s Day and trumpeted on the Last Day: “Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you.” O Spirit, who didst once restore Thy Church that it might be again the bringer of good news to men, breathe on Thy cloven Church once more, that in these grey and latter days there may be those whose life is praise, each life a high doxology to Father, Son, and unto Thee. Amen.

Lent Midweek 4

This sermon is based on a Lenten sermon series entitled "The Apostles' Creed: Knowing God Perfectly!" authored by Rev. Brent Kuhlman.

“When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but rather that a riot was under way, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of the blood of this man; see to it yourselves.’ Then all the people responded, ‘His blood be on us and on our children.’” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this day is the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, part four: the Praetorium. Dear friends in Christ, you know God perfectly when you recognize the Light. The world was shrouded in darkness, engulfed in the thick veil that had come on the day of man’s fall. This is the darkness of sin, this is the darkness of unbelief, this is the darkness of rebellion against God. All of creation was the valley of the shadow of death. But into that darkness a light shone. “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” To know God perfectly is to recognize that Light when it enters this shadowed world, to see it and rejoice in its warm, life-giving rays. But when that long-awaited, long-prophesied moment came, when the Light shone, a creation shrouded in darkness refused to receive it. “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.” Not just the nations, not just the pagans, but His brothers, His countrymen, the bearers of the promise, rejected Him. “He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.”

They did not receive the Light with the joy befitting his coming, they refused to know Him. They scorned the light, for they loved the darkness more. “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” In the beginning of their history, God had given them a gift, the Law. This Law was to be light for their path, showing them how God wished them to live, separated from the uncleanness of the nations around them. This Law, this Word from God, also spoke of a Savior, the Messiah who would come into the world. But when this Messiah appeared, here in flesh and blood to save them, they wielded the Law as their weapon against Him. “We have a law and by that law Jesus ought to die because He made Himself the Son of God.” The One who gave the Law is condemned by that Law. The Law is their weapon, not for truth, not for justice, but to rid themselves of someone they hate. They do not know God perfectly, for they refuse to see Jesus as the Light of the world.

They do not recognize their brother, they do not recognize their kinsman, the One whom Moses promised would come from among them as their final prophet. The entire point of the history of Israel, of the existence of God’s chosen people, was to bring forth the Messiah, but when He comes, He is rejected. God promised them a Savior from their flesh and blood, but when He comes, they choose Barabbas instead. “Pilate asked them again, ‘Which of these two do you want me to release for you?’ And they cried out all together, saying, ‘Away with this man, and release for us Barabbas.’” Barabbas is their Savior, Barabbas is their choice. The terrorist, the murderer, the scoundrel Barabbas. The innocent One, their own brother, is condemned to death. The guilty one, whom they hardly know, is set free. He deserving of death goes forth to live. He deserving of life goes forth to die. They didn’t recognize their brother, they didn’t recognize their Savior; they didn’t know God perfectly, and so they put Him to death.

Pilate had the Light of the world standing before him, shining despite His humility. The very One who gave Pilate all of his authority, his power over life and death—not Caesar, but Jesus, was presented before him. As governor, Pilate had the God-given vocation to punish all criminals and evildoers, pardoning the innocent. And he knows that Jesus is innocent. Three times he declares the innocence of Jesus; three times he tells Jesus’ accusers that their charges have no merit. He knows what justice calls for, but he will not do it. The divinely appointed guardian of truth and justice blows off his duty with a cute phrase—“What is truth?”—and then asks for a bowl of water. “‘I am innocent of the blood of this man; see to it yourselves.’ Then all the people responded, ‘His blood be on us and on our children.’” The blindness is complete; Jesus, the Light of the world, is rejected by those in the bondage of darkness.

They do not know God perfectly; Israel condemns Him, Israel rejects Him, Rome abandons Him. It all happens in one moment of time. “Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘See, I bring Him out to you that you may know that I find Him not guilty.’ So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the man!’ When the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried, ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’” He is presented before the world as the innocent One, the innocent One condemned to death. Here Pilate is an evangelist, against his own will; he preaches a sermon, pointing the entire world, pointing you and me, to ‘the man;’ where his finger points is the one place where God is known perfectly. Purple-robed, flogged, thorn-crowned Jesus is the man who gives His life into death. He is the man on whom the sin of all mankind is laid. He is the innocent man that gets counted as sin and the greatest sinner as He bears the sin of the world in His own body.

Pilate, the one-time evangelist, does fulfill his office as governor; he delivers a verdict: “Not guilty,” but he will allow the enemies of Jesus to dictate the sentence for an innocent man. And the enemies of Jesus have chosen Barabbas. But in this choice, the chief priests and elders have also become evangelists. When they call for the innocent One to go free and the guilty one to be condemned, they are telling you where to know God perfectly: in the great exchange. Jesus doesn’t just swap with Barabbas, He swaps with you. He takes all your sin and all its punishment, and He gives you in its place all His perfection, innocence, and holiness. Jesus is condemned, and you are set free.

What Israel could not see, what they did not realize, you know by faith. You know God perfectly in the condemnation of Jesus by the very Law that He gave. You know God perfectly in the perfect life of Jesus lived in your place, His condemnation that was to be yours, His death that you deserved. You know God perfectly because in Jesus you know what to expect from Him: forgiveness, life, and salvation. When Pilate washes his hands, trying desperately to exonerate himself from any blame in condemning the innocent to death, the crowd cries out, “His blood be on us and on our children!” They are evangelists, pointing us where to know God perfectly—in the blood of Jesus, shed on Calvary’s cross and poured out upon you in the Word and holy Sacraments. Yes, may the blood of Jesus be on us and on our children, for it is only by being covered with the blood of Jesus that we are delivered from the darkness of this world.

That darkness schemed and plotted, manipulating the law, subverting authority, in order to overcome the Light. And as Jesus is led away to be crucified, the Light is condemned, rejected, and abandoned, but it is not overcome, it will not be conquered. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” The darkness it itself overcome, for the innocent One could not be contained by the grave; the tomb was forced to release its captive. Now, not Pilate but the Church says, “Behold the man!” the man who conquered death for you. Now, not the chief priests and elders but pastors proclaim, “Release for us Barabbas!” yes, release all Barabbas’s, those in the bondage of sin and death, for Christ died and rose again in our place. Now, not an angry crowd but the apostles say, “His blood be on us and on our children!” the blood shed for the sin of the world. At the empty tomb you know God perfectly, for the crucified One is the risen One, never to die again. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Oculi (Ephesians 5:1-9)

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning is the Epistle lesson read a few moments ago from the fifth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Church of God in Ephesus. Dear friends in Christ: What is love? We read books about love, hear songs about love, watch movies about love, but do we have any idea what it is? Where do we look to learn about love? Do we look to God, imitating Him, or do we look to the world, and imitate those around us? Every three years, at the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod’s national youth gathering, a survey is taken, asking the opinion of the youth on a variety of topics. In 2013, only fifty-five percent of the youth surveyed agreed with the statement that homosexuality is ‘always wrong according to God’s Word.’ Do we imitate God, or have we imitated the world? In that same survey only forty-four percent of nineteen-year olds reported that they were virgins. Do we imitate God, or have we imitated the world? I have no statistics here, but most pastors today will tell you that it’s extremely rare to work with a couple in preparation for marriage that has not been sexually active, even living together as if they are married. The question remains—as Christians, do we imitate God, and His love, or have we imitated the world, and its love?

Without compromise, without equivocation, without apology, Paul calls on us to imitate God and His love. And there is only one place to look in order to see God’s love: the cross. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Christ’s love is for us; it is for you. His love is not self-serving or self-seeking; it is oriented toward the other, toward you. He loves you, and He gives you everything: His life, His righteousness, His glory, and the very riches of heaven. He gives you everything, and takes what is yours: your sin, your death, your poverty. He takes you place, He exchanges all that you have for all that is His, for His love is always directed outward, from Himself to you, to a world in desperate need of His love.

Christ’s love is self-giving, it is sacrificial. He gives up His own life into death for you; He does not hold onto His own life, He does not seek His own good, but He seeks yours. He gives up everything, submitting to death, even death upon the cross. The aroma of His sacrifice rises pleasing to God, for in the death of Christ, God is revealed as love. Love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be. He loves you by not leaving you in your sins; He does not pour out His wrath upon you, He pours it out on Christ, the willing sacrifice, who had everything but gave all things up for you. Jesus does not take, but He gives: His life, His blood, His flesh. He gives them to you by sacrificing them for you upon the altar of the cross, and He gives them to you by pouring out His gifts upon you in the Word and holy sacraments. Jesus did not grasp after glory, as Satan tempted Him to do, but He gave up His life into death because He loves you.

This love has very little in common with how the world teaches and practices love. The love of Christ is always directed toward the other; the love of the world is directed toward the self. This is no more evident, or potentially destructive, than in the area of human existence that Paul focuses on today: sexuality. There the world tells you that your wants, your passions, your desires rule the roost. No self-control is called for, no renunciation of the desires of your flesh. You are encouraged to indulge yourself, no matter what the consequences may be. You are told only to think of yourself; there is no thought as to what such activities are doing to your neighbor, or to the one who may someday marry your neighbor. The love of Christ is self-giving; you are told to take, to seize what is not yours, to join yourself with one who has not been given to you in marriage, the only place where God gives another person to you to become one flesh.

Saint Paul is more than explicit: such things have no place among Christians! “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.” Such things must not even be named among the saints! The saints of Christ, you and me, are to show the same self-giving, self-sacrificial love that Christ has showed to you. You are called to chastity, restricting sexuality to the one God has given to you in marriage. That means laying aside your desires and passions, and that means protecting the chastity of those around you, from your sons and daughters to your boyfriends and girlfriends, to every other man or woman made in the image of God. If what you are doing or saying or thinking isn’t showing to your neighbor the love of Christ, then Paul calls on you to instead give your body to a spouse when He gives one to you, to instead use your thoughts to contemplate God’s Word, to instead use your lips for thanksgiving.

The love that the world teaches, this self-gratifying, self-focused love, contradicts your identity in Christ; that is not the kind of love Christ shows to you! It is incompatible with who you claim to be. You cannot go around bearing the name ‘Christian’ and yet love as the world loves. Paul minces no words in his condemnation of such hypocrisy. “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” Paul isn’t talking to the heathen, he isn’t standing on the corner of Bourbon Street, he’s talking to Christians, he’s talking to you and me.

“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” Do not be deceived by the empty words of others, inside the Church and without, who tell you that sexual sins are no big deal, that chastity is old-fashioned and repressive, that freedom is to be found in serving your natural passions. Do not be deceived by those who would tell you that to be a Christian is to no longer have a use for the Law, those who use the Reformation teaching of grace as an excuse for lawlessness and laziness. Do not be deceived by those who promise freedom, but give only bondage, bondage to sin, a bondage that controls you and leads you away from God. Sexual sin is slavery, slavery that delivers only death. Freedom is only found in Christ, in the release from the shackles of sin won by His shed blood, the freedom He bestows day after day by His forgiveness. Do not return to the slave drivers, but live in the freedom of Jesus Christ.

“Therefore do not associate with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk in the light.” You used to be associated with the darkness, but no more. You are light. Christ has shown forth His love to you in taking you out of the darkness, seizing you from the prison house of death. Christ is the Light, the Light no darkness can overcome, the Light that appeared to be snuffed out in the darkness of Good Friday, but instead shone out all the more on Easter morn. Christ loves you by giving you freedom, by releasing you from your sin. He has driven away the suffocating darkness, He has broken the bonds of slavery. He has made you light, shedding His blood and dying for every sin, against every commandment, but especially those against the Sixth Commandment. He died for every sexual sin of thought, word, and deed. He died for those sins that only you know, He died for those sins that only you and one other person knows, He died for those sins that too many people know. He died for them all. He fulfilled the Sixth Commandment perfectly so that He could pay the price for all those times you have not. He died to make you light, and Paul has one encouragement: “Walk in the light.”

What does it mean to walk in the light? It doesn’t mean a life of perfection; it doesn’t mean that you never sin. It doesn’t mean that if you have messed up you are ‘damaged goods’ and have lost something that Christ cannot restore. What does it mean to walk in the light? It means to live the life of repentance. It means to despair of your sins, to cry out for Christ’s forgiveness, receiving that forgiveness by grace, and then, having been forgiven, to bear the fruits of repentance. As Saint Paul says, “The fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.” The life of chastity is not easy; you will battle your own sinful flesh, and you will feel the overwhelming pressure of a world that doesn’t understand you at all. You cannot live as Christ calls you to live on your own power. Only by daily repentance and faith, confession and absolution, only by continually receiving Christ’s forgiveness can you walk this road.

If you have the guilt and shame of sexual sins in your present or your past, repent and hear these words: You are forgiven! God showed His love to you in that while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you. You’re not ‘damaged goods,’ you are clean, you are pure in Christ, for you are forgiven. Bear the fruits of repentance. Repent and abstain, repent and move out, repent and purchase accountability software. And know that you do not walk this road on your own. As a Church we need to do more than give out purity rings and sign pledges. We need to support and help all who are walking the road of chastity, before marriage, during marriage, after marriage. We cannot simply tell our young people ‘just say no’ and then give them no help in leading a chaste life. The Church is not the place to excuse or ignore sin, but the place where sin is pointed out, repented of, and forgiven. That’s what Christ does with our sin. He loves us by giving up His life into death and He loves us by shining His light in our hearts, making us light in the Lord; He gives us the supreme example of love, but it is much more than an example, it is your forgiveness, your life, your salvation. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Lent Midweek 1

This sermon is based on a Lenten sermon series entitled "The Apostles' Creed: Knowing God Perfectly!" authored by Rev. Brent Kuhlman.

“Who is greater, he that sits at the table or he that serves? Is it not he that sits at the table? But I am among you as a servant.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this evening is the passion reading read a few moments ago: Part One, the Lord’s Supper. Dear friends in Christ: you have the wonderful privilege this night to know God perfectly! Yes, you heard right—you will leave this place knowing God, not slightly, not a little bit, not even mostly or considerably, but perfectly! Hear these words of Luther: “The Creed properly follows, which sets forth all that we must expect and receive from God; in short, it teaches us to know Him perfectly.” To know God perfectly is to know Jesus, God in the flesh, and to know Jesus is to know Him not only as teacher and Lord, not only as true God and true man, but as a servant, as One who has come to serve you. Luther says we know God perfectly when we know what we must expect and receive from Him, and tonight we learn to expect and receive Christ’s service. And not just any kind of service; He serves you with salvation. Jesus is God for you as He serves you by giving His Body into death and shedding His Blood for you upon the cross, and by giving that same Body and Blood to you to eat and to drink in the Lord’s Supper. As Jesus Himself says, “I am among you as a servant.”

He comes to serve us, we sinners who delight in serving ourselves. “My time is at hand,” Jesus says. The time of service has come, the time for Him to render us the greatest service of all. But the time of man’s wickedness has also come, a time for the schemes of self-serving men. Look what happens! The bigwig religious establishment types, the know-it-all consultants, and their lockstep followers gather in secret meetings, plotting in the high priest’s palace. They are jealous of Jesus, they are threatened by Him. Not from the Romans, not from the Greeks, but from the church, from God’s chosen people and those appointed to lead them, come plots of betrayal and murder. They seek to serve themselves; they care little for truth or error, they care little for the salvation of the people. What they care about is their own reputation, their own power. They are people like you and me; we may not plot to take another man’s life, but we will plot to take his reputation, we will seek to humble him and exalt ourselves. When it comes down to it, we will serve ourselves, even if we must destroy someone else.

The time of man’s wickedness has come. Look what happens! Satan is working overtime, lurking about, seeking a soul to entice. And he finds one, not in the brothels, not in the bad part of town, not among the atheists but in the Church, in the Office of the Holy Ministry. “Then Satan entered into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, one of the Twelve. He went his way to the chief priests and captains and spoke together with them how he might betray Jesus to them.” Whatever his motivation, political or religious, we do know that Judas intended to get rich with this dastardly deed. “What will you give me to betray him to you?” He is serving himself; his own ideals, his own opinions, but most of all his own pocketbook. He is fundamentally driven by greed. And what won’t man do, what won’t you do, in service of greed, in service of yourself? We may not hand over a friend for blood money, but we will do whatever we can to enrich our own checking account, whether it is moral or not, and no matter who we hurt along the way. We will always find a way to serve ourselves, as Judas did. But you never truly serve yourself, no matter how hard you try. In serving his own ends, Judas is actually serving another: Satan himself.

The time of man’s wickedness has come. Look what happens! Trouble, conflict, discord, contention, fighting. Where? Amongst the rabble rousers in the taverns, among the bullies at school? No, in the Church. In the Office of the Holy Ministry. “There was also a strife among them as to which of them should be accounted the greatest.” The apostles clench their fists, raise their voices, spit invectives, push, shove, and threaten one another with bodily harm, litigation and excommunication as they verbally brawl about who is the greatest among them. How appalling! What an embarrassment! The people of God, people who call themselves Christians, fighting over their position, fighting to serve themselves, to satiate their own pride. This is no conflict over doctrine, over the truth of Scripture; those are things worth fighting for. This is a contest of stubbornness, a war fought over pride, to see who has the biggest head, who can exert the most self-serving ego.

What does Jesus do with this rotten mess? What does He do in the midst of all these deadbeat losers and criminals, the chief priest and scribes, Judas and the Twelve, you and me? Look what happens! The most unexpected event in the history of the world. The time of man’s wickedness has come, but that very hour is also the hour of Christ’s service. Look what happens! “Having loved His own who are in the world, He loved them to the end.” He loves us! He loves us to the end! He loves us by serving us. You learn to know God perfectly in what Jesus does for the apostles and for you. You learn to know God perfectly as Jesus serves sinners, sinners like you and me. He humbles Himself, making Himself lower than the lowest servant. He washes their feet! “I am among you as a servant.” He came not to be served but to serve. Peter objects; he will not let his Lord become a servant. But Jesus will have none of it; the only way to have Jesus is as a servant. “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.” He serves, we are served, there is no other way; Jesus comes in no other way than as a servant. Only as Jesus serves us do we know God perfectly.

In washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus teaches Peter, the other apostles, and you what to expect and receive from Him—love, mercy, forgiveness, salvation. And having loved them by washing their feet Jesus departs in order to love them to the end. “Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but afterwards you will follow me.’” He is going where they cannot now follow—into death, that final enemy of man, the price of your selfishness, the price of your sin. He goes where you cannot now go, for He goes in your place, He goes bearing your sin, your selfishness, your pride. He goes as your servant. He goes as God for you, winning salvation by giving up His own life into death in your place, paying the price that your sin required with His own blood. He goes where you cannot now go with the promise that afterwards you will follow Him into the grave. But because He has already walked the road of the cross through humiliation and death to the victory of the empty tomb, that journey has been forever changed for you. You will follow Him through death to life everlasting. You will live as He lives, never to die again. Christ has served you unto death, so that He can give you life.

To know God perfectly is to know what to receive and expect from Him, to know that in Christ’s death and resurrection your salvation was won, and that in this place, His salvation is given to you. At this altar, Jesus “takes off His outer garments” and goes to work for you. He comes among you once again as One who serves. “Take eat, this is my body,” He says. “Drink of it all of you, this is my blood,” He says. He gives Himself to you fully and completely, holding nothing back, coming as your servant. You sit at the table and He serves you, He loves you. He loves you to the end, and He will continue to pour that love out upon you; this is what you are to receive and expect from Him all of your life. What He says He gives. What He gives He says. Forgiveness, life, salvation. He loves you to the end. Good Friday, the Lord’s Supper, all for you. There you know God perfectly! In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Invocavit (Matthew 4:1-11)

“Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this first Sunday in Lent comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the fourth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. Dear friends in Christ: God created the man in His own image, stooping down into the dust of His creation to form him from the clay, then bending low to fill his nostrils with the breath of life. God created the woman from man, forming her from man’s own flesh and bone to be the perfect helper corresponding to him. God gave life to the people of Israel, the family of Jacob, by removing them from bitter bondage in Egypt, taking them through the waters of the Red Sea from slavery to freedom, from death to life, and placing His Name upon them as His own unique people. God made you alive, giving to you the second birth that delivered you from the curse of your first birth, taking you through the waters of the baptismal font from slavery to freedom, from death to life, and placing His Name upon you as His own child. And Jesus? He stood in the waters of the Jordan and was declared to be the very Son of the Father: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Adam and Eve rose from their birth and entered the garden established for their good. But they did not know, they could not know, that in that garden of paradise lurked the voice of temptation. The people of Israel left slavery and death behind them in the waters of the Red Sea, but they did not enter the Promised Land immediately; they passed through water into the wilderness, the wilderness of scarcity, the wilderness of temptation. The Lord did not take your life the moment after your baptism; instead you traveled from the font out of the sanctuary into the wilderness of a world that had just received a new enemy—you, an enemy that the devil, the world, and your own sinful nature would not cease to attack, constantly seeking your overthrow. And Jesus? He too would go from water to the wilderness. “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

Satan always works to make us desire that which is not ours, to doubt that God really cares for us. “Did God actually say?” He wants Eve to doubt the Word, to doubt God’s goodness, to doubt who she is, the crown of God’s creation. God has promised to provide for Israel in the wilderness, but now they are hungry, they thirst. Satan’s forked tongue whispers in their ears, telling them that God’s promises are lies, that He will not give them what they need. You have wants, desires; your eyes, your mind, your very body cries out for what it wants. And Satan tells you to go get it yourself, to doubt God’s declaration that you are His beloved child, His promise that He will provide. And so you fulfill your desires: you lust after, you covet, you even take what God has not given to you; unsatisfied with His gifts, you desire what is not yours.

Jesus was hungry, deathly hungry; He is certainly true God, but He is also just as certainly true man, and after forty days and forty nights the stomach of God was famished, the body of God was weak and emaciated. Satan has been waiting for this. “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” If. Two letters full of poison, the poison of doubt. God has declared to the world that Jesus is His beloved Son; now Satan wants Jesus to prove it. But Jesus doesn’t take the bait; instead, He will take up the sword of the Word. “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” He will not take what God has not given; He will in humility receive all things as a gift from His Father, even suffering, even the burden of humanity’s sin, even the cross.

Satan is a master manipulator of God’s Word. “You will not surely die,” he says to Eve. Put God to the test, see if His Word is really true, or if He’s just holding back on you. The people of Israel, driven by their thirst, demanded that God act when and how they want, testing Him to see if He would follow their orders. “You will not surely die,” Satan whispers in your ear when you are caught in sin, when you are indulging the desires of your flesh, when you are taking what you want on your own terms rather than trusting in God to provide. What else is unrepentant sin than you testing God, daring Him to withdraw His protection, to demand your life from you? God’s Law says, ‘Repent!’ Satan says, ‘Build bigger barns; eat, drink, and be merry.’

Satan is usually content to deny the truth of God’s Word, but if needed, he can quote and misquote with the best. So when Jesus takes up the sword of the Word, Satan is ready to strike back, taking Christ to the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Put God to the test, Jesus, call on Him to fulfill His promises, if you truly are His Son. But Jesus will not budge; He stands firm where Eve, Israel, and you have failed. “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” He will not demand that the Father do His bidding, He will do the Father’s bidding, even if it means the way of suffering, the way of humiliation, the path of the cross.

Satan’s clinching argument is to tell Eve what she can become, if she would only extend her hand and take what has not been given to her: “You will be like God.” He attacks, he inflates her pride, and the fruit is soon in her mouth. The people of Israel thought that they knew better than Moses, that they knew better than God. And so they made their own god at the foot of Mount Sinai, bowing down to a calf made of gold. “You will be like God;” that is what every temptation comes down to. You be the god, for you know better than God; you call the shots, you say what’s right and what’s wrong. You will worship anything that satisfies your natural desires, especially yourself; a god is not a statue on the shelf, but what you desire above all else, what you cannot live without.

Satan promised Eve, Israel, and you that he can make you like God. Just exert yourself, stand up to and against God, and you yourself can have the same power and authority as God. But it’s all a lie. He has no such power and authority to give. He promises much, but he cannot deliver. “Again, the devil took [Jesus] to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’” Satan promises Jesus the very glory of God Himself, all the earthly power and glory that there is to give. But Satan is a liar from the first, and Jesus knows exactly how to counter lies: with the truth of God’s Word. “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.’” He triumphs where Eve failed, He triumphs where Israel failed, He triumphs where you failed and continue to fail. He refuses to seek His own glory, He will not stop to gather an earthly kingdom; His road leads to the cross, and He will take it, all the way to the end.

For Jesus, glory only comes after suffering. By refusing to take Satan’s deal, by refusing to seek earthly glory, Jesus has signed His own death sentence. He will be humiliated, insulted, beaten, and put to death. He will suffer the death of a criminal, but more than that, He will suffer the very wrath of God Himself; He will suffer the judgment of hell as He hangs suspended between heaven and earth. But on the other side of the horror of the cross lies the glory of the empty tomb, the Ascension, the very right hand of the throne of God. On the other side of the wilderness lies the Promised Land. God will vindicate Him, God will deliver Him; what was said at the Jordan will remain just as true on Easter: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

God is well-pleased with Jesus because He was born, baptized, tempted, suffered, and died in the place of sinful man, in your place. You have failed under every one of Satan’s temptations; you have indulged your own sinful desires, putting God to the test and indeed making yourself like God by grasping after that which was not given to you. Whenever Satan whispered, you listened; whenever he tempted, you fell. But Jesus stood fast. He stood fast for you, in your place, triumphing where you failed, and His perfect life was offered up in your place to satisfy God’s just wrath. Christ did what you couldn’t; He faced Satan and defeated him, in the wilderness and on the cross.

After hearing from God’s own lips the curse that their sin would bring, Adam and Eve cowered with fear; paradise had become a wilderness. But paradise would be restored; one would come to crush the serpent’s head and deliver all creation from the bondage of sin. His salvation was prefigured by the people of Israel, who through many trials and temptations did, only by the grace of God, cross the Jordan into the Promised Land. Now the mighty Savior has come; He triumphed over Satan in the wilderness, where Eve, Israel, and you failed, then crushed him by the cross and empty tomb. Now you have forgiveness, you have life, you have salvation; you will pass through this wilderness to the Promised Land, the Promised Land of the new heavens and the new earth. Jesus won it for you, by standing in your place, and it is your inheritance, just as sure as Jesus is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. In His Name, Amen.