Easter 2 of Series B (Acts 4:32-35)

“With great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! 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 second Sunday after Easter comes from the First Lesson read a few moments ago from the fourth chapter of the book of Acts. Dear friends in Christ, that which was from the beginning took flesh and became man. God walked this earth; He taught, He healed, He demonstrated His authority. He suffered, He died at the hands of sinful men. But then He rose; not a spirit, not a phantom, but with the body He took upon Himself in Mary’s womb. God became flesh, and He remains flesh, even after His resurrection, so that John can declare, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life…that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you.” They heard the risen Jesus, they saw Him with their own eyes. They even touched Him. Jesus invited Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it into my side.” They saw, they heard, they touched, and now they testify. They testify to you what they have seen and heard and touched—that Jesus, who was dead, is now alive.

Their testimony, the testimony of the resurrection, has power, it changes everything. Through this proclamation, you are united with God in faith; all the barriers have been crushed, your relationship with your Creator has been healed. Your sin kept you away from God, but the testimony of the resurrection declares that God has accepted the sacrifice of Christ on your behalf. And this changes everything. You now have fellowship with God, the fellowship that was intended at the beginning. Paradise is restored; God and man, so long at odds, are brought back together. This fellowship means life, eternal life. Your sin, which kept you from God, has been eliminated, done away with, destroyed. The resurrection proves it. The apostles told you what they saw and heard and touched so that you would live even though you die. “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”

The testimony of the resurrection creates fellowship with God, and from your fellowship with God flows fellowship with others. “That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” The apostles testified to what they had seen, heard, and touched—that Jesus, who was dead, is now alive—not only to reestablish fellowship between man and God, but also to bring fellowship between men. Their testimony has the power to do this; it changes everything.

People are brought together in unity around one banner: Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. Their unity doesn’t come from themselves; when viewed by the world, the Church is a hodgepodge of people from different backgrounds and situations. But all have one thing in common: they have each been given eternal life through Christ’s victory, proclaimed to them by the apostles who saw, heard, and touched the risen Lord. “Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.” The testimony of the resurrection changed everything; they no longer looked out only for their own needs, but instead they saw themselves as part of a community, a Church, centered on the one who died and rose again for them. Only the testimony of the resurrection could create such unity. “With great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” Selfishness was abolished in favor of love toward God and then toward their neighbors.

“There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.” The testimony of the resurrection changes everything. Now, not only is the relationship of these believers with God restored, not only do they live in unity with each other, but that unity, that love is turned outside of themselves to others. The testimony of the resurrection means that “there was not a needy person among them!” The resurrection matters, the resurrection makes a difference, not only for eternity, but here in this world. The love shown to them in Christ flowed from them to those around them; in sacrificial, self-giving love, everyone who had a need was provided for. Why? Because the resurrection of Jesus Christ had been proclaimed to them.

The resurrection of Jesus has been proclaimed to you and me; we heard it last week in all of its glory, and we hear it each and every Lord’s Day. It has established a Church, a place where those who are in fellowship with God through Christ’s redemption can gather together. Today we are here gathered in fellowship together—despite all the differences in background, economic status, family situation and everything else, we are here as equals, as those for whom Christ died and rose again. But unity is another matter. Can it truly be said of us that “the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul”? Sadly, it cannot. Instead, we live at odds with each other, selfishly seeking our own interests. We want our own way at the cost of unity; we gossip and complain against others who are members together in this fellowship of believers. 

And if our unity fails due to sin, the kind of self-giving love exhibited by the early Church is almost non-existent. Can it truly be said of us: “There was not a needy person among them”? Would we even think of selling our house or field to help someone in need? But don’t even worry about fields and houses, simply hear the exhortation of St. John: “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?” For decades now the Church has slowly been giving over care for the poor to the government, to the extent that the Church and her members do very little to providing for the physical needs of its members or of the world. When we look at the picture of the Church given by Luke and compare it to our congregation today, the result isn’t pretty. Does the resurrection truly matter to us? Does it even make a difference in how we live our lives a Christians, as a congregation?

Unfortunately, the testimony of the resurrection, despite its power, doesn’t create a perfect utopia. Those brought into fellowship with God and one another remain sinners. Even Luke’s beautiful picture of the early Church soon fell apart due to sin. Right after our text, Ananias and Sapphira lie to the apostles, claiming to bring the full price of a field for the needs of others while withholding some in greed and selfishness. Then, in Acts chapter six, “a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.” In both the giving and the distribution to those in need, sin invaded the early Church, as it has invaded our church.

Like the earliest Christians, we have heard the testimony of the resurrection, but we have failed to live according to it. Christ’s resurrection hasn’t seemed to change very much, for we still fall into sin against God and against our neighbor. But God for this reason doesn’t cease the proclamation of resurrection victory, He gives us more! The testimony of the resurrection is the only source of forgiveness; it forgives our lack of unity, it forgives our lack of love. The apostles were sent out not only to proclaim what they had seen, heard, and touched, but also to give forth the benefits of that testimony. “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’ And when he had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.’” The testimony of the resurrection is Christ’s answer to the sin that fills His Church, that fills our hearts. The apostles, and all who follow them in the pastoral office, are sent forth both to declare Christ’s resurrection and to give out the forgiveness that the resurrection has won.

Only the testimony of the resurrection has the power to forgive your lack of unity and love, and it does, whenever you confess your sins and hear the blessed Absolution; whenever you receive Christ’s very own Body and Blood. This testimony of the resurrection declares to you that the one who died on Good Friday, bearing the weight of your sin—all your sin—was raised from the dead on Easter morning in victory. On the cross, Jesus offered the sacrifice for your sin; God proclaimed to the world that He accepted that sacrifice, that death itself has been destroyed, by raising Christ from the dead. The testimony of the resurrection comes to you constantly because you need to hear it; you need to be given Christ’s own blood-bought forgiveness every time that you sin.

The testimony of the resurrection changes everything! Only that proclamation can restore fellowship with God, only that proclamation can restore fellowship with one another. We look at God differently; He is no longer the wrathful judge, but the One who in love gave His Son as the sacrifice for our sin then raised Him in victory over the grave. We look at the Church differently; this congregation isn’t just a collection of people, it is an assembly united by our fellowship with God. We look at those in need differently; they are no longer an inconvenience, but those whom God has blessed us with the resources to assist. The testimony of the resurrection changes everything! You are now a beloved child of God, and you will live even though you die, for your sins are forgiven and you are united once again with your Creator, to live in glory forevermore. Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! Amen.

Easter Sunday (Mark 16:1-8)

“Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.” Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia! 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 glorious Easter morning comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Mark. Dear friends in Christ, what is Easter without the risen Christ? Not much, it seems. The risen Jesus is what Easter is all about; that is why we’re here today, that is why we are Christians in the first place. An Easter without Jesus is a let-down, it doesn’t make much sense; ‘disappointing’ is a vast understatement. But that is what Saint Mark seems to have given us. You may have noticed that one thing is missing from our text this morning: an appearance of Jesus! We have women, the angel, an empty tomb, but no Jesus. No wonder later Christians added verses to the end of his Gospel—it just doesn’t seem right to have Easter without a resurrection appearance, to have a Gospel end with: “They were afraid.” Mark leaves us hanging, his Gospel concludes with many questions, but few answers: What will the women do? Can we trust this angel? Where is Jesus?

Mark’s Gospel ends with our reality; like the women, we live in the midst of a dangerous world, assaulted by sin and death, living in fear and trembling, and our eyes haven’t seen the risen Christ. We know the fear that filled those women, for we feel it ourselves. We have felt Satan’s hot breath on our necks; we know the power of temptation, and we know that we have fallen into that temptation. We fear the sin of this dangerous world; only a glance at the news shows us disaster and evil. From tornadoes to shootings, this world threatens us at every turn. We have come uncomfortably close to death; we know that it stalks our steps. A diagnosis of disease, the prospect of surgery, the knowledge that we too will someday die, fills our hearts with fear. From the outside, we may look calm and confident, but inside our hearts are trembling with fear, like the women on that first Easter morning. Doubts assail us, fears attack, and it seems like Satan has us right where he wants us.

We are standing in the world of Mark’s Gospel; confused, afraid, not sure what to do or say. But then we hear the message of Easter, we hear the proclamation of the angel: “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.” The proclamation of Easter breaks into our world, bringing a message of victory and hope into the midst of suffering, evil, sin, and death. Like the women at the tomb that first Easter, we must trust the word of others; the women had to trust the testimony of the angel, and we must trust the testimony of the women. We believe because others saw and reported to us. This is the life of faith, and this is exactly why Mark ends His Gospel the way he does. Mark’s first audience was a church under persecution, a church that lived each and every day in the midst of danger. Mark wrote his Gospel to Christians who live in fear, to Christians who must believe without seeing; he wrote to you and me. He wrote to all those who celebrate Easter without seeing the risen Christ; he wrote to comfort and assure us. His Gospel doesn’t end with the glory of Christ’s appearances; it ends where you are right now: in the midst of a dangerous world, trusting not in what your eyes have seen, but in what others have proclaimed to you. And the Holy Spirit accompanies that proclamation, working faith in the hearts of trembling souls. He worked faith by seeing in those first forty days, but ever since, He has worked faith by hearing. As Saint Paul declares, “Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.” We live by that faith, not by sight. We live by faith in the testimony of those who did see. Others see and we believe.

Mark emphasizes that we are hearing eyewitness testimony; he is delivering to us exactly what the women saw with their own eyes: they saw the stone rolled away, they saw the angel sitting there, and they saw the place where Jesus was laid. Saint Paul even goes farther in our Epistle lesson: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me.” Others see and we believe.

We believe in Easter not because Jesus has walked through these doors and showed us His hands and side; we believe in Easter because others saw the risen Jesus and have proclaimed that message to us. We believe because the Holy Spirit worked faith in us through that proclamation, faith which clings to the risen Christ. And when we believe in Easter, then we believe in all that Jesus said and did. Saint Paul declares, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” You cannot have Christianity without Easter, because the resurrection proves all of Jesus’ words. As the angel declared, the resurrection happened “just as He told you.” He told His followers that Good Friday wasn’t the end; they didn’t believe Him, but the women came to the tomb that day expecting to deal with a huge stone and a dead body. They came looking for Him in the tomb, but as the angel said, “He is not here!” He had risen just as He said He would; He walked out of His tomb as a confirmation of His promise. If Jesus was speaking the truth when He promised His resurrection, then all He said is confirmed. Everything we believe in is because of Easter; without the resurrection, all that Jesus said and did is a lie.

How do you know that Jesus is the Son of God, true God in the flesh? Because the one who died on Good Friday was raised on Easter! How do you know that the Bible is true? Because the one who died on Good Friday was raised on Easter! How do you know that God has accepted the sacrifice of Jesus in your place? Because the one who died on Good Friday was raised on Easter! How do you know that your sins are forgiven? Because the one who died on Good Friday was raised on Easter! How do you know that you will live forever, even though you die? Because the one who died on Good Friday was raised on Easter! He was raised up just as He said; the women saw and reported to you that the stone had been rolled away. That stone is still rolled away; Christ is still risen, a body will never be found, proving that all He said is true. Every promise, every word of comfort, every absolution is true only because the one who died on Good Friday, bearing the sins of the world, rose again on Easter morning.

From the empty tomb flows comfort to frightened sinners, to those who tremble in a world filled with sin and death. Easter changes everything; it is the only answer to fear. The angel could only declare “Do not be alarmed” because He also said, “He has risen; He is not here!” Only Easter can provide comfort when we see the evil of this world, only Easter can assure a mourning family, only Easter can comfort us when we face surgery or disease, only Easter can absolve us of our great and many sins. This comfort, this absolution is meant for the entire world. Easter is universal; it isn’t limited to any nation, race, or generation. Easter is the victory for all people who have ever lived; every person receives forgiveness and eternal life only because the one who died on Good Friday rose on Easter morning.

But Easter is the victory also for you. The angel told the women, “Go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see Him, just as he told you.” Why does Jesus single out Peter? Surely Peter knew that he was a part of “His disciples.” But this was the Peter who had denied Jesus, the Peter who claimed to not know his Lord. This was the Peter who thought that he was no longer an apostle, not worthy of Christ’s forgiveness. But Jesus singled him out because He knew that Peter needed to hear that forgiveness personally, individually. It isn’t difficult for us to believe that the world is redeemed; what is difficult is to apply this redemption to ourselves. Our anxiety isn’t whether the world is saved, but whether we are saved. And so let me declare this to you today: You are forgiven of all your sins, great and small, for Christ died for you, and He rose again for you. You need not fear death, for Christ will bring you to heaven with Him forever. Jesus didn’t just die and rise again for the world, He died and rose again for you. This salvation is for you; if you had been the only sinner on this planet, Jesus Christ still would’ve gone to the cross for you.

And now He goes on ahead of you, just as the angel said: “But go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.” He goes ahead of you not to Galilee, but to Mount Zion, the mountain of the resurrection. On that mountain, you will see Jesus face to face, no longer with the eyes of faith, but for eternity you too will be an eyewitness of His glory. You will see Him, just as He told you. For Christ’s resurrection will lead to your own, and you will spend an eternity on that mountain, where sin and death will be no more. “He will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.” Death is swallowed up because the one who died on Good Friday rose on Easter morning. Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! Amen.

Good Friday (Matthew 27:3-10 (John 18:1-9))

“When Judas, His betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, He changed His mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ They said, ‘What is that to us? See to it yourself.’ And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.” 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 Good Friday comes from the text that was just read from the twenty-seventh chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. Dear friends in Christ, Jesus loved Judas. This seems like a strange thing to say, but it is true. Jesus loved Judas. We certainly don’t love Judas; ever since he handed Jesus into the hands of his enemies, Judas has been a cursed name, a name associated with betrayal and evil. And this began even in the writing of the New Testament. Almost every time that Judas is mentioned in the Gospels, the evangelists add that he was ‘the one who betrayed him.’ It’s almost as if they can’t get the taste out of their mouths, they can’t quite get over the shame and anger that one of their number betrayed the Lord. But Jesus loved Judas, with a love that we cannot understand or comprehend, because we cannot bring ourselves to love the one who traded the Son of God for thirty pieces of silver.

Jesus loved Judas so much that He preached the Law to him over and over again, desperately trying to deter him from his shameful deed. We heard last night how Jesus spoke to the assembled Twelve at the Last Supper, saying, “Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” He didn’t give a name, hoping that Judas would turn away from Satan’s designs. Then He preached the penalty for this sin with its full severity: “The Son of Man goes as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” But Judas doesn’t listen. In the Garden, just hours later, Jesus again warns Judas, as we heard from St. John’s Gospel: “Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to Him, came forward and said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’ They answered Him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I AM he.’” Jesus thunders forth His true identity to Judas and the mob: He is God in the flesh, the great I AM walking this earth for the salvation of all. Judas’ task of identifying Jesus is taken out of his hands; there is nothing left for him to do, he is made obsolete by the mighty voice of Jesus. He has heard exactly who it was that he handed over, that His sin was against God Himself in the flesh, but yet, Judas still doesn’t listen. The Law has spoken, but Judas ignores it.

It is only when He sees Jesus taken from the Sanhedrin to Pilate, condemned to death by Jewish law, that he comes to his senses. “Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders.” He goes to the place where forgiveness was promised by Almighty God throughout the Old Testament, the temple, where the blood of bulls and goats were offered for sin. He goes in repentance, filled with great sorrow over his transgression. He sees the result of his sin right before his eyes, and so he confesses: “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” Like Pilate later that day, Judas finds Jesus innocent, unjustly condemned. Judas knows that he has been an agent of this injustice, he has sinned against God by handing an innocent man over into death; but more than that, he has sinned against God by handing His only-begotten Son into death. He goes to the temple, where atonement was offered and forgiveness given, to the chief priests and the elders, who were charged with the task of offering atonement for sin, who were to point to the coming Messiah. But they have no comfort for Judas. “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” Judas is pointed inside himself to find forgiveness, but all he sees there is corruption, sin, and guilt. There is nothing inside of him that provides comfort, that assures him that he has a merciful, forgiving God; all he finds is despair. “And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.”

The chief priests and elders have failed to shepherd God’s people. They are unwilling to atone for sin, but instead the sinner is pointed inside himself; Judas is given the Law without the Gospel, and that can only lead to despair. All the rules of the Pharisees, the pious deeds of the chief priests, are shown for what they are: empty and unable to bring salvation. The Law cannot deliver from sin, whether you think that you can keep it or not. It can only lead you inside of yourself, a tunnel that has no end. That is why Jesus came; at that moment, Jesus is winning the only true path of salvation: His once-for-all sacrifice that fulfills the Law’s demands. Had the chief priests and elders been true servants of God, they wouldn’t have pointed Judas inside himself; they would’ve pointed him to Jesus. They would’ve pointed this repentant sinner to the sacrifice being offered on a hill just outside the city walls.
Had Judas been pointed to Jesus, had he ran to the cross and fallen upon his knees before the bloodied and dying Son of God and uttered his confession: “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” would Jesus have forgiven him? There is no doubt in my mind that the answer is ‘Yes!’ This is the same Jesus who, as the nails were being driven into His hands, cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This is the same Jesus who restored and forgave Peter, who had denied even knowing Him, calling on him to “Feed my lambs.” This is the same Jesus who forgave the other ten disciples, who all fled during His Passion, and He sent them out to the ends of the earth with the message of the Gospel. And this is the same Jesus who took Saul, who persecuted the church and oversaw the murder of the saints, and made him into the Church’s greatest missionary. Jesus went to the cross for all them, and yes, even for Judas.

The tragedy is, at the very moment Judas is hanging himself in despair, Jesus is winning forgiveness for him. He is shedding His blood for Peter’s denial, for Saul’s persecution, and even for Judas’ betrayal. If Jesus can forgive Peter, Saul, and the other ten disciples, then he can certainly forgive Judas. And if He can forgive Judas, then no sin of yours is too great for Him to forgive. Jesus loved Judas, and He loves you. He showed His love to both you and him by freely offering up himself as the sacrifice for your sin. The same Jesus who forgave Peter of his denial, Saul of his persecution and Judas of his betrayal forgives you when you deny Him, abandon Him, or even betray Him in thought, word, and deed. His shed blood atones for every sin, no matter how small or how great. That is how Jesus expresses His love for Judas and His love for you, by going to the cross and giving Himself up into suffering and death on your behalf.

Satan wants you to end up like Judas; he wants you to look inside of yourself when your sin assails you. He wants your repentance to turn into despair. But do not despair- look to the cross! There the sinless, innocent Son of God suffers and dies for your sin. Look to the cross! His blood is shed upon the tree even for Judas, even for you and me. Judas was driven to suicide because all he saw was his sin; he couldn’t see his Savior, hanging upon the cross to atone for that sin. See your sin, repent of it, and look to your Savior. Look outside of yourself to the One whose blood covers each and every transgression. Run to where Jesus pours out what He won on the cross. Run to the Supper, where His Body and Blood are given to you to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of your sins. Run to your pastor, confess your sin and hear the blessed absolution. Run to the font each and every day, remembering your baptism and all that Christ did for you there. Good Friday doesn’t only come once a year; it comes near to you whenever you receive those gifts that apply Christ’s death to you. That is what Good Friday is all about: comfort for broken sinners. Look to the cross tonight, see your Savior suffering, bleeding, dying, and know that He did it all because He loved Judas, and He loves you. In His holy and precious Name, Amen.

Walther on Good Friday

On Golgotha, we see sin in the greatest magnitude and with the most horrifying result.  For what Christ suffered here, He did not suffer for the sake of His own sin.  Instead, He suffered voluntarily for the sake of our sin.  'Surely,' says the prophet Isaiah, 'He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities' (54:4-5).  What Christ suffered is what we should have eternally suffered for our sins.  He endured the punishment, showing us that our sins merit eternal torment.  He hung naked, disgraced, ridiculed, and shamed- the same condition our sins should have earned us.  He thirsted and was not refreshed, demonstrating that our sins should have brought us eternal thirst and languishing.  His cross was placed between the crosses of robbers and murderers, showing us that our sins should have excluded us from the communion of all holy creatures and consigned us instead to the company of the children of wickedness and condmnation.  Christ was forsaken by God, underscoring the fact that our sins merit eternal rejection by God.  He hung there in awful darkness, telling us that our sins should have earned us no light of grace.  Christ, the Life, died, and this is a stark reminder to us that our sins merit eternal death and damnation.

-- CFW Walther (from God Grant It, pgs. 339-340)

Maundy Thursday (Mark 14:12-26)

“Truly I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of 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 Maundy Thursday comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Mark. Dear friends in Christ, tonight we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Christians have known this sacrament by many names- Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the breaking of the bread, the Sacrament of the Altar- and each of these names teaches us something about this gift that Christ has given. When we call it the Lord’s Supper, we are confessing something about the very identity of this meal. It is the Lord’s Supper, not ours. It doesn’t belong to us, we aren’t in control of it, we didn’t invent it; it belongs to Jesus, who instituted it.

Nothing that happens to Jesus, especially in His final hours, is out of His control. He carefully watches over every detail, and He goes willingly to His destiny, freely giving Himself up into death. It begins even with the choice of the upper room where He celebrates the Lord’s Supper. He commands two of His disciples: “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The teacher says, “Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” Then He will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.’” Jesus calls it ‘my guest room;’ He takes ownership of the place, it is His, for He has chosen it for His own purposes. It may belong to the master of that house, but Christ has made it His own, as the location where He will give His gifts. This church building belongs to you in the eyes of the world; you helped pay for it, you still pay to maintain it, and some of you even helped to construct it. But this place is owned by Christ; Jesus has chosen it for His own purposes, as the place where He will give His people every good thing. It is the Lord’s house, not yours.

In the same way, those two disciples are the ones who prepare the meal; they purchase the lamb, they have it sacrificed, they cook it and prepare the other dishes, so that everything is ready when Jesus and the other ten arrive. But it is Jesus who is in control. He has chosen the place and He will soon give the meal. Those who prepared the feast, who distribute it, have a great privilege and honor, but they don’t make the meal what it is. That task belongs to Jesus alone. It is the Lord’s Supper, not ours.

He is in control; He knows those who come to His table, He even knows their hearts. “And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.’” No one can deceive the Lord. You can mislead your pastor and your fellow Christians, but you cannot deceive the Lord. Jesus knows the hearts of those who come to receive His gifts. He knows those who come to His altar as broken, repentant sinners, desperate for the forgiveness that He gives. And He knows those who come to His altar as defiant, unrepentant sinners, those who live in open sin or who have a different confession of faith than what is professed at this altar. He even knows those who, like Judas, hear the warning for unbelief and betrayal, and yet fail to heed: “For the Son of Man goes as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”

He knows the hearts of men; He knows your heart. There is no sense in trying to hide from Him. No one can deceive the Lord. This knowledge is terrifying when we think of God’s holy Law and how we have transgressed it. But this knowledge of what is in the hearts of men- of what is in your heart- doesn’t move Jesus to wrath; it moves Him to compassion. As He said to the disciples, “The Son of man goes as it is written of Him.” It was written of Jesus that He would suffer and die for the sin that dwells in the hearts of man, and so that is where He goes. Jesus is in control; no one takes His life from Him, but He gives it up freely, on His own accord.

He goes to the cross to pay for your sin, the sin that dwells in your heart that no one else knows about, and the sin that is committed out in the open, for all to see. Tomorrow night we will watch as He drinks that cup, the cup full to the brim of God’s wrath, down to the dregs in bitterness and agony. We will hear Him cry, “It is finished!” declaring that our salvation has been accomplished, for the price has been paid. At the cross death is defeated and Satan destroyed. At the cross your forgiveness is won, for His blood has been poured out for your sin, He has been sacrificed in your place. But Jesus doesn’t send you to the cross to find that forgiveness. You could travel to Israel, but the cross isn’t there anymore. You could time-travel two thousand years into the past to stand there amongst the soldiers and the women, but even those soldiers and those women didn’t receive forgiveness simply from being at the cross. You could meditate on the cross in your mind and heart, and while this is certainly a wonderful practice, it will not bring you forgiveness, because that is not how Jesus wants to give it. He is in charge, and while He certainly won salvation on Calvary’s hill, He doesn’t give it to you there.

To give you the forgiveness He won, Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. “And as they were eating, He took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them, and said, ‘Take, this is my Body.’ And He took a cup, and when he had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.’” Jesus does things His own way; He is in control, He decides how to give His gifts. He doesn’t send you to the cross, physically or in your mind, but to that place where He gives the very gifts He won on the cross.

He sends you to the Lord’s Supper, His Supper, the place where He actually bestows forgiveness, life, and salvation. He is in control; He is the same God who delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt, and so He replaces the Passover with a new meal of salvation. But the Lord’s Supper isn’t simply a new Passover. The Passover commemorated and celebrated salvation; the Lord’s Supper actually gives salvation. This is no memorial meal, no mere remembrance of God’s great acts; this is Christ’s own Body and Blood, the price for our redemption, given to us to eat and to drink. This is the medicine of immortality; those fed by this food will live even though they die. This is the Christian’s steady diet, food for the journey, rations for the soldier. Our journey is long, and our warfare intense, but through this gift, Christ sustains us, He feeds us with salvation. 

Martin Luther once declared that the only way the Church survived during the centuries of error and the suppression of the Gospel was the regular administration of the Lord’s Supper. It is the beating heart of the Church. Any attempt to revitalize or reinvigorate the Church apart from the Lord’s Supper is hamstrung; it is like trying to rebuild and drive a car without putting gas in the tank. Nothing else can truly sustain us, nothing else can preserve the Church through the trials that face her in this world. Christ is in control, and He has established this Sacrament as His means to preserve and strengthen His Church and His people.
It is the Lord’s Supper, not yours, but He gives it to you. It is His gift to broken sinners; it is His gift to you this very night. Jesus said, “I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Tonight the kingdom of God comes to you, and Jesus dines with you in the feast of salvation. He has set the table, He is both host and meal, and He invites you to come forward and partake of salvation. This is His Supper, the Lord’s Supper: His very Body and His true Blood, given and shed for you on Calvary’s cross, given and distributed to you here in the Supper. This is His grace given to eat and to drink by those who hunger and thirst for His righteousness. Come, taste and see that the Lord is good! In the Name of the host who is also the meal, our Passover Lamb who was sacrificed, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Palm Sunday (John 12:12-19)

“Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” 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 Palm Sunday is the Gospel lesson read at the beginning of the service from the twelfth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John. Dear friends in Christ: palm branches. That is what you have in your hands; that is what you carried into church this morning, singing that magnificent hymn. Palm branches. St. John is the only one to tell us that the crowds waved palm branches that day. Matthew and Mark mention branches, but they don’t tell us what kind of tree. Luke doesn’t even bring up branches at all. Just think, without John this day would probably be called ‘donkey Sunday’ or ‘coats on the ground Sunday’ or something else ridiculous like that. Instead, thanks to John’s attention to detail, we have Palm Sunday, and you are sitting here a week from Easter with palm branches in your hands. Have you ever stopped to wonder why? I mean, it does look a little ridiculous to the cars passing by for all those Lutherans to be standing around carrying palm branches. I guess the easy answer is that we have palm branches because the people who met Jesus that day had palm branches. But that doesn’t really answer the question. Why did the people of Jerusalem think it was a good idea to cut down palm branches and meet Jesus?

It wasn’t because they are pretty, or because palm trees just happened to be growing along the road Jesus traveled on. No, the crowd was quite deliberate in choosing palm branches to greet Jesus, because palm branches are an Old Testament symbol of victory, used to celebrate triumphant or popular rulers. When the people cut the palm trees and welcomed Jesus, they are demonstrating with their actions that this Jesus of Nazareth is their coming king. They cried: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel!” Jesus is the coming one, the one long promised, the Messiah, the king. He has come to His people in their time of need; He has come to the Holy City to save it. This is all happening just as the prophet Zechariah had promised: “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.” With palm branches in hand, Israel welcomes her king into her city in victory.

And what a victory this is! The crowd has heard of the miracles of Jesus, many have even seen His great signs; they know that this man has great power, such as no one has ever seen. John tells us that it was the most recent miracle of Jesus that had the people worked up into a frenzy. “The crowd that had been with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised Him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet Him was that they heard that He had done this sign.” This man even raises the dead! Who else could He be than Israel’s promised Messiah, her king? The prophecies of the Old Testament seemed to be unfolding right before their eyes, and so they shout in the words of Psalm 118: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel!” ‘Hosanna’ is the word that comes to their lips in this moment of triumph. Hosanna. We speak this ancient Hebrew word during the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper, but do we know what it means? ‘Save us, please!’ The crowd knew that Jesus had raised up Lazarus, they knew that He was their coming king, the one promised of old, and so they shouted, ‘Save us, please!’ 

But they had no idea what they were saying. They call for salvation, but they didn’t know what they needed saving from. For them, the raising of Lazarus was simply a demonstration that Jesus was their king, and their cry of ‘Save us, please- Hosanna!’ was a plea for deliverance from political oppression. They wanted their nation freed from the shackles of Roman oppression; that is what they celebrated that day. Today, you and I celebrate Jesus as well; we acclaim Him as our coming king. Like the people of Jerusalem, we even wave palm branches as a sign of victory. But what do we want Jesus to do for us? What use is He to us? Is Jesus only a friend, someone to get you through the week? Is He simply a status symbol, someone you hold to because that’s what others expect? Is He only a coach, who motivates you to get things done yourself? As this most holy of weeks begins, examine yourself. Find out exactly what you need Jesus for. It isn’t bad luck, corrupt government, nosy neighbors, family conflicts, or even disease. These are all just symptoms. Your problem is much deeper, and it is much worse: you need salvation from sin and death. Your problem is that you are sinful, and your problem is that this sin leads to death. You don’t need a counselor, a coach, a buddy, or even simply a king; you need a Savior. You and the crowds need victory over sin and death.

But if the crowd misunderstood what Jesus had come to save them from, they had no clue how this victory would be won. They expected Jesus to bring political freedom, but they failed to notice that He wasn’t riding a great war-horse; instead, He sat on a humble beast of burden. “Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!’” The donkey is a sign of humility; Jesus rejects the signs of power that the people would expect. He is the coming one, and He comes in humility. The donkey is also a sign of peace; those who seek peace in the Old Testament often are riding on the back of a humble donkey. Jesus is a king, all right, but not the kind of king that anyone expected. No one that day understood the kind of king Jesus was, nor the nature of the victory He would win; not the cheering crowds, not the religious leadership, not even Jesus’ closest companions.

John tells us that Palm Sunday only became clear to the disciples when they looked back: “His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him.” The crowds celebrated victory on Sunday, but the victory would be won on Friday in a way they never would’ve expected. They didn’t know what they needed salvation from, and so they had no idea what the cost would be. But Jesus did. He left the humble donkey behind, walking the rest of His triumphal march with the instrument of victory upon His back. Lining His path was no longer the cheering throng bearing palm branches, but a violent, bloodthirsty mob shaking their fists. He had come to win the victory, to answer the cries of the people, ‘Save us, please! Hosanna!’ and this victory, this salvation, would only come through His death.

The greatest need of the people who met Him on Palm Sunday in rejoicing and victory was not political freedom, it was freedom from sin and death. The greatest need of you and me, who entered this sanctuary in rejoicing and victory, with palm branches in hand, is not a better life now or tips for the week, it is salvation from sin and death. That is why Jesus went to the cross, to deliver you from sin itself and the penalty for that sin. His victory was to be won over sin and death, and that victory could only be won through His own death on our behalf, His own death in our place. As we watch Jesus walk up to Golgotha’s bloody hill, we cry out, ‘Save us, please!’ “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”

On the first Palm Sunday, the crowd ran out to meet Jesus because a man who was dead was now alive. Lazarus had been called forth from his grave by the mighty voice of Jesus; what better reason is there to cut down palm branches and celebrate the coming victory of their king? And the crowd was right. There is a connection between the raising of Lazarus and the victory of Jesus, though not in the way they thought. The raising of Lazarus isn’t simply a demonstration of the power of this coming king, it is a preview of His victory. This last and greatest sign of Jesus, celebrated on Palm Sunday, points to what will happen a week later, when the one who died bearing our sin rose again in victory. The tomb couldn’t hold Lazarus; it won’t hold Jesus. He was called forth from His grave, having accomplished salvation, having won the victory, having borne your sin to the cross and having destroyed it there. That was the victory that the crowds celebrated on Palm Sunday, whether they realized it or not; victory that was won on the cross and sealed with the empty tomb. Today, we too celebrate this victory; the palm branches are for celebrating the defeat of sin and death.

The tomb couldn’t hold Lazarus; the mighty voice of Jesus broke its hold on His friend. The tomb couldn’t hold Jesus; God accepted His sacrifice on your behalf and proved it by raising Him from the dead. The tomb won’t hold you; because Jesus won the victory for you through the cross and empty tomb, your grave will be opened on the Last Day; the mighty voice of your Savior will call on you to come out. You will rise as Lazarus did, but with one difference. Lazarus would die again; but as Christ was raised never to enter the grave again, so you will be raised never to taste death forever. That is the victory that we celebrate with our palm branches this day, and we will celebrate that victory with our palm branches forever. John saw this in his vision, recorded in Revelation chapter seven: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.” We wave our palm branches today and forever in victory, the victory that Christ won through the cross and empty tomb, the victory that means our resurrection and an eternity spent with our King, our Savior. In His holy and precious name, Amen.