“Where is He who has been born the king of the Jews? For we saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon on this, the Epiphany of our Lord, comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the second chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. Dear friends in Christ: They came mysteriously, arriving from the ‘east,’ coming with a strange inquiry: “Where is He who has been born the king of the Jews?” Who are these guys? Matthew calls them ‘magi,’ a term that has baffled and fascinated us through the centuries. We’ve called them ‘kings,’ though that is very unlikely. They may have served kings, but they were not kings themselves. Often they are referred to as ‘wise men,’ and that may be getting closer to the truth. For most of the Church’s history, the magi were seen as pagan sorcerers, whose ‘wisdom’ was completely opposed to the True God. They found the child despite their wisdom, only through the guiding of God. In the past few centuries, as we humans have praised our own human understanding and wisdom, people began to revere the magi as examples of the highest learning of their day. I think the truth lies more on the side of the early Church. These ‘wise guys’ were probably sorcerers and magicians for the Persian kings, and one of Matthew’s main points is that their perceived ‘wisdom’ was only a hindrance to tracking down Jesus- they needed the assistance of God.
Perhaps the greatest example of how the ‘wisdom’ of the magi failed them occurs right off the bat. I don’t know about you, but I would think that if you were searching for the true King of the Jews, the person to ask isn’t the man who considers himself the king of the Jews. I’m guessing he’s not going to take the news very well. “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” If we didn’t know much about Herod, we might assume that the people of Jerusalem were stirred up for the same reason he was: a rival to the throne has been born! But there is little indication that anyone in Jerusalem really cared if Herod was deposed by some other ‘king of the Jews.’ They were stirred up and troubled because they could only imagine how Herod would react to this news. He was not a king noted for his kindness and stability. He was known for great building projects, including Jerusalem’s magnificent temple. He was known as an able administrator, able to remain in the good graces of Rome through several emperors. On the other hand, he was well-known for his cruelty and lust for power. He was not a Jew, and resented the fact that many in Israel considered him an illegitimate king. He imposed heavy taxes on the people, and at the time the magi arrived, he was in the midst of his final years, marked by paranoia and murder. In jealousy he killed his advisors, his wife, and at least two of his sons. Jerusalem trembled at what he would do next.
Historians and psychologists have attempted throughout history to understand people like Herod, because he is hardly unique. Again and again the human race has produced people of incredible cruelty, those who lust to dominate their fellow man, who are consumed by jealousy. We can blame chemical imbalances or their upbringing, factors that make them different from the rest of society, which we think is generally pretty good. That’s all well and good, and probably has some truth to it, but I think it lets us off the hook way too easily. God’s Word proclaims that all people, from Herod and Hitler to you and me, have the same basic problem: sin. The cruelty of Herod and those like him is caused by the same sinful desires that affect us all. We are much closer to these evil men than we are comfortable with. They are driven by a lust for power and domination, desires which manifest themselves in our own lives. We want to exalt ourselves at the expense of others, we’re always looking for an edge. That’s why we gossip, that’s why put others down in our thoughts and words. Herod’s jealousy drove him to rage; we may not react in the same way, but envy and jealousy for the things that others have infects us all. At the least, jealousy leads us to say or think ill of our neighbors; at the most, it can lead us to try to get what they have by unjust means. Looking at people like Herod should make us uncomfortable, for in many ways they are simply the extreme examples of the sin that is within us all.
A king like Herod, a king like us, is hardly worth celebrating. The wise men may not quite get it yet, but they are looking for another sort of king, a king that will be completely different from every king that came before. But if Herod gets his way, this king will never take his throne. He gathers his advisors and finds out exactly where this Messiah is to be born, they quote from Micah and second Samuel: “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” He sends the magi as his unwitting spies; they are to go in secret and find this promised king. Herod has eliminated rivals before, and he’s prepared to do so again. But he has never come up against a king like this. This ‘King of the Jews’ was born in a cattle stall, not a palace. He came into the world not in glory, but as a weak and vulnerable baby. His parents were dirt-poor, wrapping their child in rags, not royal clothes. The language Herod spoke was power and authority, and this child seemed to have neither. But the signs that Herod would judge by mattered little in understanding Jesus, for He would be a king greater than Herod, greater than any king that ever had or ever would rule. He would be King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He would be the One described in the passage Herod’s advisors quoted. “From you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” Unlike Herod, this child born King of the Jews would truly shepherd His people, for He was a King unlike any other.
His rule would not be manifested or revealed in power and glory, but in humility. He would be crowned with thorns, He would only wear royal robes as soldiers mocked Him. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is only referred to as a King in our text and at the cross. As He suffers and dies, shedding His blood, the inscription above His head declared that the King the wise men sought was hanging on a cross, humiliated before the world: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” His coronation was on the cross, for it was there that the Shepherd would lay down His life for the sheep. He gave His life for sheep who love to wander, for sheep like Herod and you and me. That is how He rules, by paying for your sin on the cross, by giving His life in your place. His death, by destroying the corruption of sin and death, establishes His rule over this fallen creation. Now He reigns as King over all, but not in domination or power, but in grace and mercy. The King of the Jews seeks out lost sheep by forgiving them through His shed blood.
In His great love God manifests His glory in the humiliation of His Son. God Himself is revealed in the humility of a helpless child in Mary’s arms. God Himself is revealed in the humility of a helpless man on the cross. For Jesus is a servant King, a King that rules by giving forgiveness and salvation to His people. That is how God is revealed to us: in forgiveness for all of our sins, in His overflowing love. He manifests Himself in service. The Father quite literally brought to light the humility of Jesus by sending a star to draw the magi from the east. “And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.” When the magi arrived at the home of Mary and Joseph, pagan sorcerers were among the first to worship the King of the Jews.
This humble King is for all people, for you and me who have fallen again and again into sin, and even for people like Herod; no sheep is so lost that the Shepherd cannot find him. Whenever a sinner comes into contact with the King of forgiveness and grace, the example of the magi is once again followed. Matthew tells us in verse ten: “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” Nowhere else in Scripture is so much joy described; Matthew piles on the adverbs and adjectives to describe overwhelming joy at arriving at the house of the King: “they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” That is the joy of Epiphany! God has revealed His love and mercy in a humble child, One who would grow up to lay His life down as the Good Shepherd for you and for me. This child is our Savior and Lord, the source of all joy and the object of worship.
The magi declared to Herod that they had come to Judea to worship the King of the Jews, and when they finally enter the house of that King, they have their chance. “And going into the house they fell down and worshiped Him.” That is what we do on Sunday mornings. We go into the house of our King, and He lavishes us with the gifts that He won through His coronation on the cross. Then we respond in worship, giving to our humble and saving King praise and honor. In exceedingly great joy we praise our King for His salvation, for His wonderful gifts given to us. Our King gives and we respond with worship and with gifts. “Then, opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” Our gifts go in the offering plate, but the treasures we give to our King are much more than the fruits of our labors. We also give to our King the gift of humble service to our neighbors. We do not seek to exalt ourselves, but instead we place others ahead of us, seeking to show them the love and mercy Christ first showed us. We sacrifice of ourselves in service to those around us just as Christ sacrificed Himself for us. Those are the treasures that we give to our King, in response to His great love shown to us.
On Christmas, God gave us the gift of His Son, and during Epiphany we unwrap that gift, as God reveals His Son, He manifests His glory in humility. We rejoice exceedingly with great joy this Epiphany season, for God has revealed Himself in love and mercy through the death and resurrection of our King, Jesus Christ. Thanks be to our King for His gracious and merciful rule! Amen.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Christmas 2 of Series A (Luke 2:40-52)
“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning comes from the Gospel lesson I read a few moments ago from the second chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Dear friends in Christ: In our text for today, Luke gives us an account of Jesus’ early life that we can easily connect with. Those of you who are parents can feel the anguish, the distress that Mary and Joseph felt as they searched for Jesus. Many of us have been to big events, carnivals, fairs, concerts, where young children can be easily lost. We can picture in our mind a crying child at the information desk, trying to communicate to the staff who his parents are. We have probably all heard over the speakers the name of a lost child, and a plea for his parents to come retrieve him. No doubt a few of us have been the lost child ourselves. Distress in those situations lasts for a relatively short time, during which so many possibilities go through your mind, all of which are not happy. So we can imagine the anguish that Mary and Joseph felt as they scoured Jerusalem for three days, and then the joy, mixed with frustration, at finding Him in the temple. “And when His parents saw him, they were astonished. And His mother said to Him, ‘Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.’”
What had this twelve-year-old boy been doing for several days in Jerusalem? Luke tells us at the opening of our text that “the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon Him.” Jesus was in the temple proving just that, demonstrating His wisdom to the intellectual big shots of Jerusalem. They were the ones with the PhD’s and He was a twelve-year-old upstart, a boy genius demonstrating to them knowledge of the law they had never seen in a boy so young. “After three days they found Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” But Jesus wasn’t in the temple simply to show off; instead He had a much more profound reason to spend time in its magnificent courts. “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
Mary and Joseph responded to that pronouncement in disbelief. “And they did not understand the saying that He spoke to them.” It is hard to imagine how Jesus’ parents, who had been given more information about this child than anyone else, who had heard from Gabriel, from Simeon, from Anna the testimony to the identity and work of their Son, could misunderstand Him, but they did. They are the first to stumble over Jesus’ testimony about Himself, but they would hardly be the last. Luke tells us that “all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.” Amazement and misunderstanding would follow Jesus throughout His life, as people tried in vain to grasp after who this child was and what He had come to do.
That is hardly surprising, for human wisdom has a very difficult time understanding Christ. Indeed, that is how the world and our own sinful nature attack faith. How can you believe in God? Have you ever seen Him? Jesus is simply a deluded man! Do you really believe that He was born of a virgin? Do you really believe that He rose from the dead? All the claims of Christianity seem ridiculous in the eyes of the world, based in myth, while science, that is something based in fact, in observation. Sometimes we’re too smart for our own good. We trust so much in our human understanding and wisdom that it seems impossible to believe in miracles. If I haven’t seen it, I can’t believe it. Satan uses others around us and our own human wisdom to inspire doubt. Now at this point I could exhort you and me to ‘just believe’ when those doubts assail you, and to a certain extent that is good advice. But on the other hand, such an approach avoids the fact that Christianity is not irrational. I can teach you how to defend the faith against the assaults of the world; you can learn how to prove the Resurrection of Jesus, how to argue for the existence of God. We don’t simply have to say ‘just believe,’ but we can take on the challenges of the world with good, solid arguments.
But arguing for the faith ultimately falls short where it really matters. I can believe that God created the universe, I can believe that Jesus is who He says He is, I can even believe that He rose from the dead. But even Satan knows those things, and that isn’t going to do him any good. It is one thing to believe the truth of those facts, it is a whole other thing to believe that they have any significance for me. That is where human understanding and wisdom fails. Our minds and hearts cannot tell us that Jesus has anything to do with us; in fact, they say quite the opposite. Our mind tells us that we are too sinful, too corrupted, for Jesus to want anything to do with us. Surely He can’t accept me, surely He cannot forgive my sin. We know ourselves, we know the secret sins we keep hidden from everyone else, we know how we have let others down, how we have let God down. How can God love a person like me? Our hearts accuse us, our conscience constantly brings up past sins and failures; we close our eyes, and we see how we have hurt others, how we have grieved God. Our heart tells us: “You are lost. God does exist, and there is no way that He is going to forgive your sin.” Human understanding and wisdom cannot conceive of a loving God; it is impossible, and so it leaves us with our sin, trembling before the One who punishes it with eternal judgment.
We need a different kind of wisdom, a different kind of understanding. Our sinful human minds cannot make the leap from the facts to the application. Only a wisdom from outside ourselves can do this. Only a wisdom given by God can allow us to truly understand Jesus. This is wisdom and understanding that goes beyond what our minds can comprehend- in fact, it runs completely contrary to what human wisdom proclaims to us. St. Paul speaks of this heavenly wisdom in our Epistle lesson: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to his purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.” This is the wisdom that makes known to us the very will of God Himself. His plan and purpose was to send Jesus into the world to win forgiveness for those who did not deserve it, to die in the place of those who had grieved Him with their sin.
Heavenly wisdom grasps onto both the identity and work of Jesus Christ. Heavenly wisdom enables us to understand the pronouncement of the boy Jesus in the temple: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Heavenly wisdom declares to us that this boy in the temple, this man walking the dusty roads of Palestine is God Himself in the flesh, the very Son of the Father sent to dwell among us. He is Immanuel, God with us. But heavenly wisdom doesn’t stop there. It also declares to us what Jesus has done. It proclaims that Jesus would return to His Father’s house on another Passover thirty years later, this time to give His life on the cross. He would shed His blood there in accordance with the will of the Father. We cannot stop there, either, because then we are still left with facts that seemingly have no application to our lives. Heavenly wisdom takes the next vital step. It proclaims to us that Jesus is who He is and did what He did for you! It declares that the love of God for you was so great that He sent His Son to bear your sin to the cross and to do away with it there. No matter what your heart tells you, no matter what your human wisdom claims, God has forgiven you for the sake of Christ. The blood He shed, the death He died, was all for you and for your salvation! Human wisdom cannot comprehend the love of a God who would deliver sinful and rebellious people, who would forgive you and me of even our hidden sins. Only heavenly wisdom can declare that Jesus did it all for you.
Where does this heavenly wisdom come from? How do we attain it? The wonderful message is that we do nothing to earn it, but instead it is a gift of God through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives heavenly wisdom by creating faith within us through the Word of God, as St. Paul writes: “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” The Scriptures make us wise for salvation, the only wisdom that matters. I never want to discourage learning more about God and His Word, but the wisdom that clings to Christ is not simply a matter of facts, it is a matter of forgiveness. Heavenly wisdom is ultimately given to us in the forgiveness of sins. It is the sure and certain Word that God proclaims to us: “For the sake of my Son Jesus, your sins are forgiven!” We can trust that Word, we can cling to it despite what our human wisdom and understanding tells us. St. John writes, “Whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything.” God knows what earthly wisdom cannot- that Christ has died for you, He has paid for every one of your sins. Only the wisdom given by God applies Jesus directly to you and your sins.
Our Gospel lesson is not the only time in Jesus’ life when He was lost. Some thirty years later, He would be lost again, and those who loved Him would be distressed. But He would be found, again three days later, this time risen from the dead, triumphant over sin, death, and hell. He rose to declare the victory that He won on the cross, He rose so that the message of the cross and empty tomb, foolishness to the world but the wisdom of salvation for you and me, may be proclaimed to all men. He was found that third day so that you may be found, given the faith that makes you wise for salvation. It is that heavenly wisdom that will sustain you this day and every day until you follow Jesus in your own resurrection from the dead. Death has no victory- the foolishness of the cross has defeated it! In the Name of the only Son of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
What had this twelve-year-old boy been doing for several days in Jerusalem? Luke tells us at the opening of our text that “the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon Him.” Jesus was in the temple proving just that, demonstrating His wisdom to the intellectual big shots of Jerusalem. They were the ones with the PhD’s and He was a twelve-year-old upstart, a boy genius demonstrating to them knowledge of the law they had never seen in a boy so young. “After three days they found Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” But Jesus wasn’t in the temple simply to show off; instead He had a much more profound reason to spend time in its magnificent courts. “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
Mary and Joseph responded to that pronouncement in disbelief. “And they did not understand the saying that He spoke to them.” It is hard to imagine how Jesus’ parents, who had been given more information about this child than anyone else, who had heard from Gabriel, from Simeon, from Anna the testimony to the identity and work of their Son, could misunderstand Him, but they did. They are the first to stumble over Jesus’ testimony about Himself, but they would hardly be the last. Luke tells us that “all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.” Amazement and misunderstanding would follow Jesus throughout His life, as people tried in vain to grasp after who this child was and what He had come to do.
That is hardly surprising, for human wisdom has a very difficult time understanding Christ. Indeed, that is how the world and our own sinful nature attack faith. How can you believe in God? Have you ever seen Him? Jesus is simply a deluded man! Do you really believe that He was born of a virgin? Do you really believe that He rose from the dead? All the claims of Christianity seem ridiculous in the eyes of the world, based in myth, while science, that is something based in fact, in observation. Sometimes we’re too smart for our own good. We trust so much in our human understanding and wisdom that it seems impossible to believe in miracles. If I haven’t seen it, I can’t believe it. Satan uses others around us and our own human wisdom to inspire doubt. Now at this point I could exhort you and me to ‘just believe’ when those doubts assail you, and to a certain extent that is good advice. But on the other hand, such an approach avoids the fact that Christianity is not irrational. I can teach you how to defend the faith against the assaults of the world; you can learn how to prove the Resurrection of Jesus, how to argue for the existence of God. We don’t simply have to say ‘just believe,’ but we can take on the challenges of the world with good, solid arguments.
But arguing for the faith ultimately falls short where it really matters. I can believe that God created the universe, I can believe that Jesus is who He says He is, I can even believe that He rose from the dead. But even Satan knows those things, and that isn’t going to do him any good. It is one thing to believe the truth of those facts, it is a whole other thing to believe that they have any significance for me. That is where human understanding and wisdom fails. Our minds and hearts cannot tell us that Jesus has anything to do with us; in fact, they say quite the opposite. Our mind tells us that we are too sinful, too corrupted, for Jesus to want anything to do with us. Surely He can’t accept me, surely He cannot forgive my sin. We know ourselves, we know the secret sins we keep hidden from everyone else, we know how we have let others down, how we have let God down. How can God love a person like me? Our hearts accuse us, our conscience constantly brings up past sins and failures; we close our eyes, and we see how we have hurt others, how we have grieved God. Our heart tells us: “You are lost. God does exist, and there is no way that He is going to forgive your sin.” Human understanding and wisdom cannot conceive of a loving God; it is impossible, and so it leaves us with our sin, trembling before the One who punishes it with eternal judgment.
We need a different kind of wisdom, a different kind of understanding. Our sinful human minds cannot make the leap from the facts to the application. Only a wisdom from outside ourselves can do this. Only a wisdom given by God can allow us to truly understand Jesus. This is wisdom and understanding that goes beyond what our minds can comprehend- in fact, it runs completely contrary to what human wisdom proclaims to us. St. Paul speaks of this heavenly wisdom in our Epistle lesson: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to his purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.” This is the wisdom that makes known to us the very will of God Himself. His plan and purpose was to send Jesus into the world to win forgiveness for those who did not deserve it, to die in the place of those who had grieved Him with their sin.
Heavenly wisdom grasps onto both the identity and work of Jesus Christ. Heavenly wisdom enables us to understand the pronouncement of the boy Jesus in the temple: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Heavenly wisdom declares to us that this boy in the temple, this man walking the dusty roads of Palestine is God Himself in the flesh, the very Son of the Father sent to dwell among us. He is Immanuel, God with us. But heavenly wisdom doesn’t stop there. It also declares to us what Jesus has done. It proclaims that Jesus would return to His Father’s house on another Passover thirty years later, this time to give His life on the cross. He would shed His blood there in accordance with the will of the Father. We cannot stop there, either, because then we are still left with facts that seemingly have no application to our lives. Heavenly wisdom takes the next vital step. It proclaims to us that Jesus is who He is and did what He did for you! It declares that the love of God for you was so great that He sent His Son to bear your sin to the cross and to do away with it there. No matter what your heart tells you, no matter what your human wisdom claims, God has forgiven you for the sake of Christ. The blood He shed, the death He died, was all for you and for your salvation! Human wisdom cannot comprehend the love of a God who would deliver sinful and rebellious people, who would forgive you and me of even our hidden sins. Only heavenly wisdom can declare that Jesus did it all for you.
Where does this heavenly wisdom come from? How do we attain it? The wonderful message is that we do nothing to earn it, but instead it is a gift of God through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives heavenly wisdom by creating faith within us through the Word of God, as St. Paul writes: “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” The Scriptures make us wise for salvation, the only wisdom that matters. I never want to discourage learning more about God and His Word, but the wisdom that clings to Christ is not simply a matter of facts, it is a matter of forgiveness. Heavenly wisdom is ultimately given to us in the forgiveness of sins. It is the sure and certain Word that God proclaims to us: “For the sake of my Son Jesus, your sins are forgiven!” We can trust that Word, we can cling to it despite what our human wisdom and understanding tells us. St. John writes, “Whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything.” God knows what earthly wisdom cannot- that Christ has died for you, He has paid for every one of your sins. Only the wisdom given by God applies Jesus directly to you and your sins.
Our Gospel lesson is not the only time in Jesus’ life when He was lost. Some thirty years later, He would be lost again, and those who loved Him would be distressed. But He would be found, again three days later, this time risen from the dead, triumphant over sin, death, and hell. He rose to declare the victory that He won on the cross, He rose so that the message of the cross and empty tomb, foolishness to the world but the wisdom of salvation for you and me, may be proclaimed to all men. He was found that third day so that you may be found, given the faith that makes you wise for salvation. It is that heavenly wisdom that will sustain you this day and every day until you follow Jesus in your own resurrection from the dead. Death has no victory- the foolishness of the cross has defeated it! In the Name of the only Son of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Christmas 1 of Series A (Isaiah 63:7-14)
“In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning comes from the Old Testament lesson read a few moments ago from the sixty-third chapter of the prophet Isaiah. Dear friends in Christ: Where would we be without our memory? Can you imagine being unable to remember what has gone before in your life? We expect memories to fade throughout time- none of us has a perfect memory- but it would be a tragedy if we lost all of our memories. Medically we call such a condition amnesia, and it afflicts people for a variety of reasons. While medical amnesia is unfortunate, spiritual amnesia is even worse. When we have forgotten God’s past deeds, we can’t believe that He will help us here and now. Even more terrifying is amnesia on God’s part. If He forgets His past acts of salvation, then there is little reason to believe He will ever act to deliver us again. Isaiah knows this, he knows that we can trust God saving now because He has saved in the past, and so He calls on both us and God to remember. “I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.”
God has acted to save His people in the past. In His great love, He established Israel as His treasured possession, the nation by which all other nations would be blessed. He said about them, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” Because they are His children, they will not deal falsely with Him. They will follow the covenant that He established with them, worshipping the true God, serving Him with their words and their deeds. They will remember who they are, His treasured possession, His people, His children. Their obedience doesn’t make them His children; instead, because they were His children, He called them to obedience. So when they were in trouble, in bondage in Egypt, Isaiah tells us that “He became their Savior.”
God saw their slavery and their suffering under Pharaoh’s taskmasters, and in one of the more beautiful phrases in all of Scripture, Isaiah tells us that “In all their affliction He was afflicted.” God Himself was afflicted because His people were afflicted, and His compassion and love moved Him to do something about that affliction. He identified with their need and acted to fulfill it. “The Angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity he redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” The Angel of His presence came among them and delivered them; He was God’s instrument of salvation, in Him the Lord fulfilled the title of Savior. The Angel of His presence led the people out of bondage, He carried them into the wilderness on the paths that led to the Promised Land. God saw their affliction, and He acted in salvation.
Just like a fairy tale, we would expect everyone to live ‘happily ever after.’ Having received such a great salvation, what more can the people do than obey this saving God and follow Him all their days? But even deliverance from Egyptian bondage does not rid them of their sin. Isaiah tells us that “they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit.” God mourns over the sin and rebellion of His people, it is a tragedy that moves Him to tears. It is the same grief that He had in the days of Noah, when the wickedness of mankind was so great that He send a devastating flood. Christian friends, what about you and me? How have we grieved the Holy Spirit like God’s people of old? He has given us such a great gift of salvation, but yet we still dwell in our sins. We come here on Sundays to drink of the deep well of the Gospel, and then live the rest of our lives as if what we do here matters little at all. The Holy Spirit has created faith within us, but so often Christians and Israelites trample on that faith with our thoughts, words, and actions. We can’t look down on God’s people in the wilderness for they are us. They have been given a great deliverance, as we have, and both of us have grieved the Holy Spirit. What is the consequence of such sin and rebellion? Isaiah tells us: “Therefore He turned to be their enemy, and Himself fought against them.”
We don’t like to think of God as an enemy, but because of mankind’s sin and rebellion, that is what He is. Who else could a just and holy God be than the one who punishes sin? In the wilderness, God turned around from leading His people and fought against them. He disciplined them for their grumbling and rebellion, teaching them that He is a God of justice, a God who cannot tolerate sin. God loves His people, but because of their rebellion, He became the enemy of the ones He loved. He must punish sin, and for us, those who have sinned, those who are corrupted by sin to our very cores, this is a scary thought. Sin brings justice, sin brings judgment, sin brings punishment. Our sin condemns us to join the Israelites as those whom Isaiah describes: “But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; therefore He turned to be their enemy, and Himself fought against them.”
A God with amnesia is a scary thing. A God who does not remember past acts of deliverance has little reason to deliver in the future. Therefore, the words of Isaiah in verse eleven of our text are among the most comforting in all of Scripture: “Then He remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people.” In the original Hebrew text it is even more striking and sudden. “Then He remembered the days of old: Moses! My people!” He calls out the names of His beloved; He remembers. God remembers His past acts of salvation, He remembers His promises. But for God remembering isn’t some passive activity of the mind, instead it leads to activity, it causes Him to do something.
God was afflicted by our affliction. He saw our sin, our rebellion, and it grieved Him. And His response to our sin was remarkably similar to His response to the affliction of His people of old in Egypt. “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them; in his love and in His pity He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” Once again He sent as our Savior the Angel of His presence. This individual is known throughout the Old Testament as the Angel of the Lord, the Son of Man, the anointed one. We know of Him through the proclamation of the angels one winter’s night in Judea: “And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’” This baby, dressed in rags and laying in straw, is the Angel of God’s presence, He is God truly present among us, Immanuel, God with us. And as He did in Egypt so long ago, the Angel of God’s presence has come to save.
In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus reenacts the Exodus. God sends the holy family to Egypt to flee the persecution of Herod, and then when the time is right, Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus come out of Egypt and back into the Promised Land. Matthew quotes from Hosea: “Out of Egypt I called my Son.” The One who has come to bring the greater Exodus goes through His own exodus, proclaiming that He has come to lead us out of bondage. God remembered us, He remembered His love for us, He remembered His past acts of salvation, and He acted. Christmas is God’s answer to our sin, to our rebellion, as He sends once again the Angel of His presence among us, this time in our own human flesh. On the cross this Jesus will be afflicted by our affliction, as He paid the price for our sin and rebellion. The Father turned toward His Son as an enemy, because the Son bore all of our sin. The judgment rendered on the cross was that our sin has been paid for, death defeated, Satan crushed. The verdict is the same one that Isaiah declares in verse eight of our text: “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” Because Christ, His Son, the Angel of His presence, God Himself in the flesh, died for you, you are now God’s children. That is why Jesus was born as a child in Bethlehem, so that we may become God’s children. St. Paul puts it so well: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” God made Israel His people, His children in bringing them salvation from bondage in Egypt. He makes you and me His people, His children, in bringing us salvation from the bondage of sin.
In His love and compassion, Jesus carries you and me out of that bondage, and He leads us to the Promised Land. This child, whom shepherds guard and angels sing, is the Good Shepherd, leading His people like a flock to the green pastures of eternity. “Then He remembered the days of old, of Moses and His people. Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is He who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit, who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name, who led them through the depths? Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble. Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.” He leads His beloved flock from the bondage of sin to the rest of paradise, to the fertile fields of the Promised Land. That is their destination, that is their goal. He will lead them, He will carry them, He will shepherd them each and every step of the way. Like a horse galloping through the desert, they shall not stumble. You are that flock, the sheep of His pasture, and the Angel of God’s presence, the child born Immanuel will lead you to the destination that He promised to you. God has remembered you, and He has become for you a Savior, the Savior from sin and death. “Hark! The herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn king!’” Amen.
God has acted to save His people in the past. In His great love, He established Israel as His treasured possession, the nation by which all other nations would be blessed. He said about them, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” Because they are His children, they will not deal falsely with Him. They will follow the covenant that He established with them, worshipping the true God, serving Him with their words and their deeds. They will remember who they are, His treasured possession, His people, His children. Their obedience doesn’t make them His children; instead, because they were His children, He called them to obedience. So when they were in trouble, in bondage in Egypt, Isaiah tells us that “He became their Savior.”
God saw their slavery and their suffering under Pharaoh’s taskmasters, and in one of the more beautiful phrases in all of Scripture, Isaiah tells us that “In all their affliction He was afflicted.” God Himself was afflicted because His people were afflicted, and His compassion and love moved Him to do something about that affliction. He identified with their need and acted to fulfill it. “The Angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity he redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” The Angel of His presence came among them and delivered them; He was God’s instrument of salvation, in Him the Lord fulfilled the title of Savior. The Angel of His presence led the people out of bondage, He carried them into the wilderness on the paths that led to the Promised Land. God saw their affliction, and He acted in salvation.
Just like a fairy tale, we would expect everyone to live ‘happily ever after.’ Having received such a great salvation, what more can the people do than obey this saving God and follow Him all their days? But even deliverance from Egyptian bondage does not rid them of their sin. Isaiah tells us that “they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit.” God mourns over the sin and rebellion of His people, it is a tragedy that moves Him to tears. It is the same grief that He had in the days of Noah, when the wickedness of mankind was so great that He send a devastating flood. Christian friends, what about you and me? How have we grieved the Holy Spirit like God’s people of old? He has given us such a great gift of salvation, but yet we still dwell in our sins. We come here on Sundays to drink of the deep well of the Gospel, and then live the rest of our lives as if what we do here matters little at all. The Holy Spirit has created faith within us, but so often Christians and Israelites trample on that faith with our thoughts, words, and actions. We can’t look down on God’s people in the wilderness for they are us. They have been given a great deliverance, as we have, and both of us have grieved the Holy Spirit. What is the consequence of such sin and rebellion? Isaiah tells us: “Therefore He turned to be their enemy, and Himself fought against them.”
We don’t like to think of God as an enemy, but because of mankind’s sin and rebellion, that is what He is. Who else could a just and holy God be than the one who punishes sin? In the wilderness, God turned around from leading His people and fought against them. He disciplined them for their grumbling and rebellion, teaching them that He is a God of justice, a God who cannot tolerate sin. God loves His people, but because of their rebellion, He became the enemy of the ones He loved. He must punish sin, and for us, those who have sinned, those who are corrupted by sin to our very cores, this is a scary thought. Sin brings justice, sin brings judgment, sin brings punishment. Our sin condemns us to join the Israelites as those whom Isaiah describes: “But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; therefore He turned to be their enemy, and Himself fought against them.”
A God with amnesia is a scary thing. A God who does not remember past acts of deliverance has little reason to deliver in the future. Therefore, the words of Isaiah in verse eleven of our text are among the most comforting in all of Scripture: “Then He remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people.” In the original Hebrew text it is even more striking and sudden. “Then He remembered the days of old: Moses! My people!” He calls out the names of His beloved; He remembers. God remembers His past acts of salvation, He remembers His promises. But for God remembering isn’t some passive activity of the mind, instead it leads to activity, it causes Him to do something.
God was afflicted by our affliction. He saw our sin, our rebellion, and it grieved Him. And His response to our sin was remarkably similar to His response to the affliction of His people of old in Egypt. “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them; in his love and in His pity He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” Once again He sent as our Savior the Angel of His presence. This individual is known throughout the Old Testament as the Angel of the Lord, the Son of Man, the anointed one. We know of Him through the proclamation of the angels one winter’s night in Judea: “And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’” This baby, dressed in rags and laying in straw, is the Angel of God’s presence, He is God truly present among us, Immanuel, God with us. And as He did in Egypt so long ago, the Angel of God’s presence has come to save.
In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus reenacts the Exodus. God sends the holy family to Egypt to flee the persecution of Herod, and then when the time is right, Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus come out of Egypt and back into the Promised Land. Matthew quotes from Hosea: “Out of Egypt I called my Son.” The One who has come to bring the greater Exodus goes through His own exodus, proclaiming that He has come to lead us out of bondage. God remembered us, He remembered His love for us, He remembered His past acts of salvation, and He acted. Christmas is God’s answer to our sin, to our rebellion, as He sends once again the Angel of His presence among us, this time in our own human flesh. On the cross this Jesus will be afflicted by our affliction, as He paid the price for our sin and rebellion. The Father turned toward His Son as an enemy, because the Son bore all of our sin. The judgment rendered on the cross was that our sin has been paid for, death defeated, Satan crushed. The verdict is the same one that Isaiah declares in verse eight of our text: “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” Because Christ, His Son, the Angel of His presence, God Himself in the flesh, died for you, you are now God’s children. That is why Jesus was born as a child in Bethlehem, so that we may become God’s children. St. Paul puts it so well: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” God made Israel His people, His children in bringing them salvation from bondage in Egypt. He makes you and me His people, His children, in bringing us salvation from the bondage of sin.
In His love and compassion, Jesus carries you and me out of that bondage, and He leads us to the Promised Land. This child, whom shepherds guard and angels sing, is the Good Shepherd, leading His people like a flock to the green pastures of eternity. “Then He remembered the days of old, of Moses and His people. Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is He who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit, who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name, who led them through the depths? Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble. Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.” He leads His beloved flock from the bondage of sin to the rest of paradise, to the fertile fields of the Promised Land. That is their destination, that is their goal. He will lead them, He will carry them, He will shepherd them each and every step of the way. Like a horse galloping through the desert, they shall not stumble. You are that flock, the sheep of His pasture, and the Angel of God’s presence, the child born Immanuel will lead you to the destination that He promised to you. God has remembered you, and He has become for you a Savior, the Savior from sin and death. “Hark! The herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn king!’” Amen.
Christmas Eve (Luke 2:1-14 (15-20))
“And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this Christmas Eve comes from the second chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Dear friends in Christ: A decree went out, affecting the entire world. Now, great swaths of our planet did not live and die under the Caesars, North America, South America, much of Africa, much of Asia, and Australia, but for those living around the Mediterranean Sea, the Roman Empire was the world. Decisions made in the gilded halls of Rome could reach out and touch the lives of poor peasants in North Africa, Eastern Europe, or Palestine. That is how a carpenter from Nazareth and his betrothed ended up making the nearly one hundred mile journey from Galilee to Judea. “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.”
No exceptions could be made for hardship cases. Caesar Augustus wanted the world registered, and so you had to go. No matter that you had to walk for several days. No matter that your wife was at the end of her pregnancy. Caesar said it, and you had to obey. As soon as they read the decree, Mary and Joseph had to know that their child would be born in Bethlehem, if they made it that far. That wouldn’t be too bad. The entire house of David was assembling there, so there would be plenty of help and support from Joseph’s extended family. But something went terribly wrong that first Christmas Eve. Luke tells us, “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” With just a few words, Luke has given us a detail that has shaped our understanding of Christmas ever since. The first part of the verse goes as expected, but suddenly we encounter the word “manger” and the terrible phrase “there was no place for them in the inn.” ‘Manger’ makes us think of a stable, inspiring Christmas displays for centuries, but perhaps they didn’t even have that much shelter; it may have been just a feed trough under the open sky. ‘No room in the inn’ makes us complain about money-hungry business owners, unable to give a place for a poor woman to have her child.
This is the point where we today like to puff out our chests and say, ‘If I was in Bethlehem that night, I would’ve given them a place to stay!’ That is probably true, because you know exactly who this child is. But what if you didn’t? The word we traditionally have here as ‘inn,’ is probably more accurately ‘guest-room.’ That changes things a bit, doesn’t it? Now we aren’t talking about greedy innkeepers, but instead about all the citizens of Bethlehem. They refused to open up their homes to this young couple that they didn’t know, but instead decided that it was safer to not get involved. Still feeling confident that we would’ve done differently? We have people in need placed all around us, and how often do we simply look the other way, keeping the guest room for ourselves? How often do we decide that it’s better to stay away from those situations? Do we extend a helping hand to strangers in need? Would we have welcomed a pregnant teenager into our home, or simply directed them somewhere else, making them another person’s problem? In Matthew chapter twenty-five, Jesus tells a parable about the Last Day. “The King will say to those on His left… ’I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’” Jesus teaches us that those in need around us are the masks of God in this world, and when we refuse to serve them, we are refusing to serve God Himself.
Jesus’ rejection at Bethlehem was only the symptom of a greater problem, our sin. Our sin is the reason why we fail to help our neighbors, our sin is the reason why Mary, Joseph, and Jesus found no room. Our sin forms a barrier between us and God; because of original sin we have no room for God, not in our homes, not in our hearts, not anywhere. We are born enemies of God, with only a shut door toward Him. But it was precisely for that reason that He came.
Jesus came because there was no room, He came because the doors were shut in Bethlehem, He came because the hearts of sinful men were closed against Him. Jesus came because we fail to help our neighbors in need, He came because we fail to show love to the masks of God in our lives. Jesus made Himself poor and rejected for our sake. He did not come dressed in royal garments, but instead in the rags of a poor virgin mother. He was not born in a palace, but He was born where cattle ate, rejected by all. He did this all because of your sin, because His only desire was to see that sin done away with. It was in love that He came into this world, such deep love for you and me that He was willing to lay aside all of the glory that was rightfully His and taken on our human flesh and blood. The Lord and Creator of the universe became man- for you! And not any man, but a man born in the poorest of circumstances, a man born in humility. Can you imagine what the shepherds thought? The angel appears to them and says, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Wow, a child is born this very day, who is a Savior, but more than that, He is Christ and indeed the Lord, God Himself! After hearing such a pronouncement of who this child was, it must’ve puzzled them to hear about where they would find Him: “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” The Savior and Lord of the universe is in a feed trough? This was not the Messiah we expected, but it was the Messiah we needed.
For our Lord came in humility, He came not to march in triumph, but instead to walk the way of suffering. One day He would trade His manger for a cross. Instead of swaddling cloths He would be wrapped in burial cloths. One day He would exchange the stable for a tomb. That is how He would fulfill the names the angel gave Him on that first Christmas Eve. He is the Savior, the Savior from sin, and He would perform this great work by giving up His life for our sake. The rejection of the holy family in Bethlehem only pointed to a greater rejection. There was no room in Jerusalem for a Messiah, and so He was killed, crucified for the sin of the world. That is why He was born, to die for you and your sins, to bring you salvation. But He did not stay dead! The joy of Christmas is the joy of Easter, that Jesus was born so that man no more may die. The angels brought a message of joy to the shepherds that winter night, and some thirty years later they would bring a message of joy again to some women outside of an empty tomb. Christ was born to die, but He was also born to rise again. He was born to conquer death, to raise us up on the Last Day, forgiven and restored, to stand before the Father forever. He is God’s anointed one, the one appointed to bring salvation. He is the Lord of all the universe in human flesh, here to take on the sins of all men. That is why we have joy this Christmas season: God has provided a solution to our sin, He has removed the barrier between Himself and His beloved creation, He has acted to open closed hearts.
In our sin and rebellion we were unable to make room for Christ, but in His grace He comes to us, breaking down the barrier of sin through the forgiveness that He won for us, creating faith which grasps onto the Christ child. He opens our hearts to see those in need around us as an opportunity to show the love that He first showed to us to others. We don’t serve others in order to gain favor before God, but instead as an overflowing of the love that Christ poured out on us by becoming man and walking the way of the cross for you and me. He went there to fulfill the song the angels sang that first Christmas Eve. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Because of this child, there is peace on earth, peace between God and man, the peace that the world cannot give. This is the peace of heaven, the peace that will characterize our existence for all eternity. He is pleased with you because He died for you, and because of that you truly have peace on this beautiful night.
The peace that the angels sang of is for the whole world. Caesar Augustus thought that he had the world in the palm of his hand. He simply said the word, and a young family traveled from Nazareth to Judea. But some events are even bigger than the Roman Empire. The birth of this child was a worldwide event, indeed a universal event, an event that brought heaven itself near to this earth. He was born not just for those shepherds in the Judean hills, not just for the Jewish people, not even just for those who lived and died under the Caesars. He was born for all men, Jew and Gentile, Roman, Chinese, African, and all the rest. He was born for you and He was born for me. He was born to bring you salvation, to reconcile you with your God. He was born so that you need not fear death, He was born that you will dwell forever with your God in peace. Thanks be to God for the gift of His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ! Amen.
No exceptions could be made for hardship cases. Caesar Augustus wanted the world registered, and so you had to go. No matter that you had to walk for several days. No matter that your wife was at the end of her pregnancy. Caesar said it, and you had to obey. As soon as they read the decree, Mary and Joseph had to know that their child would be born in Bethlehem, if they made it that far. That wouldn’t be too bad. The entire house of David was assembling there, so there would be plenty of help and support from Joseph’s extended family. But something went terribly wrong that first Christmas Eve. Luke tells us, “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” With just a few words, Luke has given us a detail that has shaped our understanding of Christmas ever since. The first part of the verse goes as expected, but suddenly we encounter the word “manger” and the terrible phrase “there was no place for them in the inn.” ‘Manger’ makes us think of a stable, inspiring Christmas displays for centuries, but perhaps they didn’t even have that much shelter; it may have been just a feed trough under the open sky. ‘No room in the inn’ makes us complain about money-hungry business owners, unable to give a place for a poor woman to have her child.
This is the point where we today like to puff out our chests and say, ‘If I was in Bethlehem that night, I would’ve given them a place to stay!’ That is probably true, because you know exactly who this child is. But what if you didn’t? The word we traditionally have here as ‘inn,’ is probably more accurately ‘guest-room.’ That changes things a bit, doesn’t it? Now we aren’t talking about greedy innkeepers, but instead about all the citizens of Bethlehem. They refused to open up their homes to this young couple that they didn’t know, but instead decided that it was safer to not get involved. Still feeling confident that we would’ve done differently? We have people in need placed all around us, and how often do we simply look the other way, keeping the guest room for ourselves? How often do we decide that it’s better to stay away from those situations? Do we extend a helping hand to strangers in need? Would we have welcomed a pregnant teenager into our home, or simply directed them somewhere else, making them another person’s problem? In Matthew chapter twenty-five, Jesus tells a parable about the Last Day. “The King will say to those on His left… ’I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’” Jesus teaches us that those in need around us are the masks of God in this world, and when we refuse to serve them, we are refusing to serve God Himself.
Jesus’ rejection at Bethlehem was only the symptom of a greater problem, our sin. Our sin is the reason why we fail to help our neighbors, our sin is the reason why Mary, Joseph, and Jesus found no room. Our sin forms a barrier between us and God; because of original sin we have no room for God, not in our homes, not in our hearts, not anywhere. We are born enemies of God, with only a shut door toward Him. But it was precisely for that reason that He came.
Jesus came because there was no room, He came because the doors were shut in Bethlehem, He came because the hearts of sinful men were closed against Him. Jesus came because we fail to help our neighbors in need, He came because we fail to show love to the masks of God in our lives. Jesus made Himself poor and rejected for our sake. He did not come dressed in royal garments, but instead in the rags of a poor virgin mother. He was not born in a palace, but He was born where cattle ate, rejected by all. He did this all because of your sin, because His only desire was to see that sin done away with. It was in love that He came into this world, such deep love for you and me that He was willing to lay aside all of the glory that was rightfully His and taken on our human flesh and blood. The Lord and Creator of the universe became man- for you! And not any man, but a man born in the poorest of circumstances, a man born in humility. Can you imagine what the shepherds thought? The angel appears to them and says, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Wow, a child is born this very day, who is a Savior, but more than that, He is Christ and indeed the Lord, God Himself! After hearing such a pronouncement of who this child was, it must’ve puzzled them to hear about where they would find Him: “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” The Savior and Lord of the universe is in a feed trough? This was not the Messiah we expected, but it was the Messiah we needed.
For our Lord came in humility, He came not to march in triumph, but instead to walk the way of suffering. One day He would trade His manger for a cross. Instead of swaddling cloths He would be wrapped in burial cloths. One day He would exchange the stable for a tomb. That is how He would fulfill the names the angel gave Him on that first Christmas Eve. He is the Savior, the Savior from sin, and He would perform this great work by giving up His life for our sake. The rejection of the holy family in Bethlehem only pointed to a greater rejection. There was no room in Jerusalem for a Messiah, and so He was killed, crucified for the sin of the world. That is why He was born, to die for you and your sins, to bring you salvation. But He did not stay dead! The joy of Christmas is the joy of Easter, that Jesus was born so that man no more may die. The angels brought a message of joy to the shepherds that winter night, and some thirty years later they would bring a message of joy again to some women outside of an empty tomb. Christ was born to die, but He was also born to rise again. He was born to conquer death, to raise us up on the Last Day, forgiven and restored, to stand before the Father forever. He is God’s anointed one, the one appointed to bring salvation. He is the Lord of all the universe in human flesh, here to take on the sins of all men. That is why we have joy this Christmas season: God has provided a solution to our sin, He has removed the barrier between Himself and His beloved creation, He has acted to open closed hearts.
In our sin and rebellion we were unable to make room for Christ, but in His grace He comes to us, breaking down the barrier of sin through the forgiveness that He won for us, creating faith which grasps onto the Christ child. He opens our hearts to see those in need around us as an opportunity to show the love that He first showed to us to others. We don’t serve others in order to gain favor before God, but instead as an overflowing of the love that Christ poured out on us by becoming man and walking the way of the cross for you and me. He went there to fulfill the song the angels sang that first Christmas Eve. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Because of this child, there is peace on earth, peace between God and man, the peace that the world cannot give. This is the peace of heaven, the peace that will characterize our existence for all eternity. He is pleased with you because He died for you, and because of that you truly have peace on this beautiful night.
The peace that the angels sang of is for the whole world. Caesar Augustus thought that he had the world in the palm of his hand. He simply said the word, and a young family traveled from Nazareth to Judea. But some events are even bigger than the Roman Empire. The birth of this child was a worldwide event, indeed a universal event, an event that brought heaven itself near to this earth. He was born not just for those shepherds in the Judean hills, not just for the Jewish people, not even just for those who lived and died under the Caesars. He was born for all men, Jew and Gentile, Roman, Chinese, African, and all the rest. He was born for you and He was born for me. He was born to bring you salvation, to reconcile you with your God. He was born so that you need not fear death, He was born that you will dwell forever with your God in peace. Thanks be to God for the gift of His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ! Amen.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Advent 4 of Series A (Matthew 1:18-25)
“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning is from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the first chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. Dear friends in Christ, we are definitely more familiar with Luke’s Christmas narrative than Matthew’s. From Luke, we hear of angels and shepherds, inns and stables. We find out exactly why Jesus was born in Bethlehem, with all the needed historical details. Luke’s Christmas narrative is a thing of beauty, with songs of praise and wondrous imagery around every corner. Matthew’s Christmas, on the other hand, seems a bit disappointing. The actual birth of Jesus, that event that Luke spends so much time describing, is almost an afterthought in verse twenty-five of our text: “But he knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called His name Jesus.” Matthew is recording the events of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection during a time when people are questioning every aspect of the Christ’s life, and he wants to set the record straight. He wants to faithfully demonstrate Jesus’ origins, proving that a miracle did happen, that Jesus was conceived of a virgin through the work of the Holy Spirit. Songs, shepherds, and stables cannot provide much help here, but instead he needs to tell the story of a pregnant teenager, and the scandal that resulted.
Listen to how Matthew lays out the situation: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” Matthew carefully gives us the relevant details. Mary is betrothed to Joseph, which means that they were engaged. For a virgin, the period of engagement was to be one year, during which Mary would be considered Joseph’s wife, but they would not have marital relations. Matthew emphasizes this by telling us that “before they came together” she was found to be pregnant. Now we know that Mary is pregnant “from the Holy Spirit,” but no one else does, and I’m guessing that it would be hard for her to convince her parents or Joseph that she was carrying the Messiah. Can you imagine what Joseph felt? If she was pregnant and it was not his child, then it seemed to him that the only other option was a violation of the Sixth Commandment: “You shall not commit adultery.” Joseph probably felt betrayed, angry, disappointed, or perhaps just profoundly sad. But he does not act on those emotions; instead, what does he do? “And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.”
Even though Mary wasn’t guilty, there is good reason why she would’ve been exposed to shame: virginity is praiseworthy and sex outside of marriage is sinful! I think that we have lost sight of both of these facts today, even in the Church. We don’t praise virginity and chastity enough from the pulpit or in our private conversations, and because of this, we have lost the ability to proclaim God’s Law effectively. We forget or ignore the words of Paul, who declares that for those who have been given this gift, virginity is better than marriage! The apostle writes in 1 Corinthians chapter seven: “I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am.” God gives that gift so that people can dedicate their lives to serving Christ and His Church. Of course, not all people are given the gift of life-long virginity, but we should never look down upon those who are given that gift, instead encouraging them to use that gift in service of the Church. And while the majority of us are not given that gift, we can all still live chaste lives. Despite what the media bombards us with, despite what everyone else is doing, despite what our sinful natures want, God has given sex as a gift only within the bonds of marriage. That is what chastity is, living a life in obedience to the Sixth Commandment, whether we are married or not. And God does not only call us all as Christians to a life of chastity, but He commands us to encourage it amongst our children and our friends and neighbors. That is where we are failing as a church and as Christians. We do not praise chastity and virginity enough; we do not give the positive side of the Sixth Commandment as a model for living our lives before God.
But we have the whole shame thing down pat. Joseph had to work quietly and quickly to avoid bringing shame down on Mary, because he knew that once the word got out, Mary would immediately become the subject of gossip. Oh, yes, we’re good at that. We’re great at talking about violations of the Sixth Commandment amongst our friends or neighbors, we’re very good at making someone the ‘talk of the town.’ But where we fail as the Church and as Christians is in going to fellow sinners privately and proclaiming to them both God’s stern Law and His sweet Gospel. We are much more ready to tear down a person’s reputation than to look at leading them out of their sin and to the loving mercies of God’s forgiveness.
Joseph knew this; he had a firm grip on human nature, he understood how small towns like Nazareth, Kiron, and Deloit operated. So how does he plan to resolve this situation? Matthew tells us: “And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.” It was well within his rights to expose Mary’s adultery, leaving her to the punishment of the crowds, a punishment that at the least included public disgrace, at the most death by stoning. He could’ve retained her dowry and even taken back from Mary’s father the bride price. And who would’ve blamed him? He had been sinned against in the worst way; she had betrayed his trust and the vows they made to one another. But instead of acting out of anger and betrayal, Joseph acts in grace. He wants to protect Mary, he wants to keep her from the shame that is sure to come when this ‘teen pregnancy’ is revealed. Matthew describes Joseph as ‘just,’ a word much better translated as ‘righteous.’ Joseph is a righteous man, and because of that he wants to reach out to Mary in mercy, protecting her from the penalty for her sin.
This is all unexpected and wonderful for Joseph to do, except for one thing: Mary hadn’t sinned! Joseph is doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, but fortunately God is quick to correct him. “But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’” Joseph’s original plan protected Mary at his expense, but now God’s angel was telling him to go a step further. Joseph was to take this pregnant young woman into his home before the betrothal was completed. Think about what this would signify to the people of Nazareth; in taking Mary into his home early, Joseph was proclaiming to the world that it was he who had committed adultery. He was the one who broke the Sixth Commandment, who had violated the rules of betrothal. He was taking Mary’s shame upon himself, making himself a sinner in the eyes of the world when he had done nothing wrong. He would take responsibility for her supposed sin, and bear himself the blame and the shame that would be sure to come. This involved much more personal sacrifice than his original plan, but the angel of the Lord told Him “do not fear,” and so he did not. “When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.”
Joseph named Mary’s Son Jesus, the name given to him by the angel. The angel had also given to him the definition of that name: “She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” But little did Joseph know that Jesus would fulfill His name by following in the footsteps of His earthly father. Jesus committed no sin; He was the perfect one, fulfilling every aspect of God’s holy Law completely. He is the righteous One, the beloved Son of the Father. He had no sin of His own to be ashamed of, but we did, we still do. We are ashamed of our disobedience to the Law, especially our violations of the Sixth Commandment in thought, word and deed. We are ashamed of our failure to praise chastity or work to bring sinners to repentance. Jesus had no such shame, but just as Joseph took Mary’s shame upon himself, so Jesus took our shame upon Himself. He, the righteous One, the One without sin, proclaimed to the world and His Father that He was the sinner, the sin-bearer. He presented Himself before God covered with our sin, with our shame, and He paid the required price.
Joseph could take the shame of Mary upon himself, but he could not do away with that shame. Jesus did what His earthly father could not; He bore our shame and He eliminated it. He did not bear our sin and shame to identify with us in some act of solidarity, but He bore our sin and shame to remove them forever. His shed blood and death, the righteous One in the place of sinners, rids us of all shame forever. Now our shame is replaced by the forgiveness of Christ, which cleanses us and restores us to our Father. Jesus’ righteousness is now ours, and by being joined to Him we do not need to stand trembling in shame anymore before God, but instead we stand boldly before His throne of grace, because our shame has been taken care of by the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. That is how He will save us from our sins as the angel promised, by removing all shame from us so that we may live in the Father’s presence forever. Jesus removes shame by His forgiveness, the forgiveness that He freely pours out upon you whenever you fall into sin.
God knew what He was doing when he selected Jesus’ earthly parents. He directed all the events of His Son’s birth, just as He had been guiding history to that point. God orchestrated our salvation, demonstrating throughout Scripture that His only goal was the deliverance of you, me, and all people from sin and shame. God’s great love for you is shown on every page of His Word, and we celebrate His careful planning this Advent season. The same God who ordered all history for your salvation will preserve you all your days, cleansing you with Jesus’ blood-bought forgiveness until you stand before Him clothed not with shame but with Christ’s own righteousness. In the name of our sin-bearer, our coming Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
Listen to how Matthew lays out the situation: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” Matthew carefully gives us the relevant details. Mary is betrothed to Joseph, which means that they were engaged. For a virgin, the period of engagement was to be one year, during which Mary would be considered Joseph’s wife, but they would not have marital relations. Matthew emphasizes this by telling us that “before they came together” she was found to be pregnant. Now we know that Mary is pregnant “from the Holy Spirit,” but no one else does, and I’m guessing that it would be hard for her to convince her parents or Joseph that she was carrying the Messiah. Can you imagine what Joseph felt? If she was pregnant and it was not his child, then it seemed to him that the only other option was a violation of the Sixth Commandment: “You shall not commit adultery.” Joseph probably felt betrayed, angry, disappointed, or perhaps just profoundly sad. But he does not act on those emotions; instead, what does he do? “And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.”
Even though Mary wasn’t guilty, there is good reason why she would’ve been exposed to shame: virginity is praiseworthy and sex outside of marriage is sinful! I think that we have lost sight of both of these facts today, even in the Church. We don’t praise virginity and chastity enough from the pulpit or in our private conversations, and because of this, we have lost the ability to proclaim God’s Law effectively. We forget or ignore the words of Paul, who declares that for those who have been given this gift, virginity is better than marriage! The apostle writes in 1 Corinthians chapter seven: “I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am.” God gives that gift so that people can dedicate their lives to serving Christ and His Church. Of course, not all people are given the gift of life-long virginity, but we should never look down upon those who are given that gift, instead encouraging them to use that gift in service of the Church. And while the majority of us are not given that gift, we can all still live chaste lives. Despite what the media bombards us with, despite what everyone else is doing, despite what our sinful natures want, God has given sex as a gift only within the bonds of marriage. That is what chastity is, living a life in obedience to the Sixth Commandment, whether we are married or not. And God does not only call us all as Christians to a life of chastity, but He commands us to encourage it amongst our children and our friends and neighbors. That is where we are failing as a church and as Christians. We do not praise chastity and virginity enough; we do not give the positive side of the Sixth Commandment as a model for living our lives before God.
But we have the whole shame thing down pat. Joseph had to work quietly and quickly to avoid bringing shame down on Mary, because he knew that once the word got out, Mary would immediately become the subject of gossip. Oh, yes, we’re good at that. We’re great at talking about violations of the Sixth Commandment amongst our friends or neighbors, we’re very good at making someone the ‘talk of the town.’ But where we fail as the Church and as Christians is in going to fellow sinners privately and proclaiming to them both God’s stern Law and His sweet Gospel. We are much more ready to tear down a person’s reputation than to look at leading them out of their sin and to the loving mercies of God’s forgiveness.
Joseph knew this; he had a firm grip on human nature, he understood how small towns like Nazareth, Kiron, and Deloit operated. So how does he plan to resolve this situation? Matthew tells us: “And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.” It was well within his rights to expose Mary’s adultery, leaving her to the punishment of the crowds, a punishment that at the least included public disgrace, at the most death by stoning. He could’ve retained her dowry and even taken back from Mary’s father the bride price. And who would’ve blamed him? He had been sinned against in the worst way; she had betrayed his trust and the vows they made to one another. But instead of acting out of anger and betrayal, Joseph acts in grace. He wants to protect Mary, he wants to keep her from the shame that is sure to come when this ‘teen pregnancy’ is revealed. Matthew describes Joseph as ‘just,’ a word much better translated as ‘righteous.’ Joseph is a righteous man, and because of that he wants to reach out to Mary in mercy, protecting her from the penalty for her sin.
This is all unexpected and wonderful for Joseph to do, except for one thing: Mary hadn’t sinned! Joseph is doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, but fortunately God is quick to correct him. “But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’” Joseph’s original plan protected Mary at his expense, but now God’s angel was telling him to go a step further. Joseph was to take this pregnant young woman into his home before the betrothal was completed. Think about what this would signify to the people of Nazareth; in taking Mary into his home early, Joseph was proclaiming to the world that it was he who had committed adultery. He was the one who broke the Sixth Commandment, who had violated the rules of betrothal. He was taking Mary’s shame upon himself, making himself a sinner in the eyes of the world when he had done nothing wrong. He would take responsibility for her supposed sin, and bear himself the blame and the shame that would be sure to come. This involved much more personal sacrifice than his original plan, but the angel of the Lord told Him “do not fear,” and so he did not. “When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.”
Joseph named Mary’s Son Jesus, the name given to him by the angel. The angel had also given to him the definition of that name: “She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” But little did Joseph know that Jesus would fulfill His name by following in the footsteps of His earthly father. Jesus committed no sin; He was the perfect one, fulfilling every aspect of God’s holy Law completely. He is the righteous One, the beloved Son of the Father. He had no sin of His own to be ashamed of, but we did, we still do. We are ashamed of our disobedience to the Law, especially our violations of the Sixth Commandment in thought, word and deed. We are ashamed of our failure to praise chastity or work to bring sinners to repentance. Jesus had no such shame, but just as Joseph took Mary’s shame upon himself, so Jesus took our shame upon Himself. He, the righteous One, the One without sin, proclaimed to the world and His Father that He was the sinner, the sin-bearer. He presented Himself before God covered with our sin, with our shame, and He paid the required price.
Joseph could take the shame of Mary upon himself, but he could not do away with that shame. Jesus did what His earthly father could not; He bore our shame and He eliminated it. He did not bear our sin and shame to identify with us in some act of solidarity, but He bore our sin and shame to remove them forever. His shed blood and death, the righteous One in the place of sinners, rids us of all shame forever. Now our shame is replaced by the forgiveness of Christ, which cleanses us and restores us to our Father. Jesus’ righteousness is now ours, and by being joined to Him we do not need to stand trembling in shame anymore before God, but instead we stand boldly before His throne of grace, because our shame has been taken care of by the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. That is how He will save us from our sins as the angel promised, by removing all shame from us so that we may live in the Father’s presence forever. Jesus removes shame by His forgiveness, the forgiveness that He freely pours out upon you whenever you fall into sin.
God knew what He was doing when he selected Jesus’ earthly parents. He directed all the events of His Son’s birth, just as He had been guiding history to that point. God orchestrated our salvation, demonstrating throughout Scripture that His only goal was the deliverance of you, me, and all people from sin and shame. God’s great love for you is shown on every page of His Word, and we celebrate His careful planning this Advent season. The same God who ordered all history for your salvation will preserve you all your days, cleansing you with Jesus’ blood-bought forgiveness until you stand before Him clothed not with shame but with Christ’s own righteousness. In the name of our sin-bearer, our coming Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Advent 2 of Series A (Matthew 3:1-12)
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the third chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. Dear friends in Christ, John the Baptist is the star of Advent. This is the season when we make the transition from the Old Testament to the New, and John encapsulates that shift perfectly. He has the look of the Old Testament, dressed in his camel hair while eating locusts and wild honey. When you think of a wilderness prophet in the Old Testament, whether it is Amos or especially Elijah, this is how you would imagine their appearance. But John also clearly has his bare feet in the New Testament as well. The Gospel according to Saint Mark begins with John in the wilderness, and that makes sense, for his work inaugurates the new thing that God is doing by sending His Son into our world. John’s work is that of preparation, making roads straight, clearing paths. He is a highway contractor for the way of the Lord, in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’” What are his tools, how does he prepare the way of the Lord? John makes straight pathways for God by preaching repentance, because REPENTANCE PREPARES US FOR CHRIST.
‘Repentance is the reason for the season’- I’m guessing you’ve never seen that on a Christmas card. The season of Advent is one of repentance, a season in which we acknowledge our great sin and our need for a Savior from that sin. The two great festivals of our Church Year are Christmas and Easter, and both of them are preceded by seasons of reflection and repentance, to prepare us to celebrate God’s mighty acts in Christ. For the world, on the other hand, the holiday season is a time of busyness, scurrying about making preparations and enjoying the parties that come throughout the season. The world does not want to reflect during Advent, it doesn’t want to repent, it wants to celebrate. And then, on December 26th, the parties are over and the world starts thinking about New Year’s Eve. But in the Church, Advent is the season of repentance and preparation, and when December 24th rolls around, the festival begins! We rejoice and revel in Christ’s birth for twelve days, up to the festival of Epiphany. John is the ideal Advent preacher, because he declares that the only way to prepare for the coming of the Lord is through repentance.
He calls on all Israel to repent, and they respond, confessing their sins and clinging to the mercies of a God who is preparing to break into their world with His great acts of salvation.
Now, John could play nice and assume that all those coming to him were truly repentant, but he’s just a little too combative and fiery to make that assumption. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." John is the expert on repentance, and so he can spot false repentance from a mile away. These guys are only going through the motions, trying to look good for the people, but as John says, they are bearing no fruit. He makes a vital point here: repentance bears fruit. If you acknowledge your sin and beg for God’s forgiveness, then logically after receiving that forgiveness you would then try with the Lord’s help to avoid that sin in the future. You would attempt to reform your life. That is all that bearing fruit is- the life of faith that flows from forgiveness. Fruit is not a prerequisite for forgiveness, but instead it comes as a natural result and outgrowth of it.
Some bear no fruit because they think they need no repentance. The Pharisees and Sadducees thought they had it made because of who they were, but John squashes that idea. "And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham." Simply sitting in the pew or being from a Christian family may bring you close to where God gives His gifts, but such outward acts ultimately matter nothing before Him if you refuse to acknowledge that you have any sin that needs repenting of. Some bear no fruit because they don’t take their sin seriously enough to really change. Changing my life now is inconvenient, it’s expensive, it’s too much work. God will forgive me anyway, right? There is a great difference here between the person who struggles mightily with a sin each and every day, wanting to be rid of it, and the person who treats God like a forgiveness machine, not wanting to make the effort of bearing fruit. This is what pastors hear all the time: “Yeah, I know it’s wrong, and I really hate it, but I can’t change now.” If living together without marriage is a sin, move out! If filthy language and gossip are sins, then watch your tongue! If verbal or physical abuse are sins, then get some professional help! As John says, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance!”
False repentance arrogantly tells God that His forgiveness is cheap and easy, that it is something that really has no affect on my life. God does not deal lightly with those who despise His forgiveness and treat it as worthless. He is sending His Son into the world to win forgiveness for repentant sinners, but for those who reject this forgiveness, Jesus is also the righteous judge, as John declares.
“Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Trees made good through the forgiveness of Jesus are to bear good fruit, but those who arrogantly refuse to bear such fruit will be cast into the fire. That is the reality on the Last Day: “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear his threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! Repent of your rebellion against God, repent of your false repentance and clinging to your sins!
John’s work shatters the illusion of false repentance for you and me, he preaches hell to us so that we see our great sin and our need for a Savior from that sin. John is making paths straight for the reigning of God to break into this corrupted world. As I taught the bible classes this fall, the kingdom of the heavens is not primarily a place, it is an activity. It is God beginning to reestablish His rule over His fallen creation. John’s cry of ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ therefore means ‘God is beginning to act!’ That is what Jesus came to do, to deliver all creation, along with you and me, from the bondage of sin, and bring God’s righteous and just rule over all things once again. He will do this by allowing Himself to be cut down, the righteous judge falsely accused and condemned for sins He did not commit. He was the only human that ever did live or ever will live that had no need of repentance, but He in His great love for you and me made Himself the sinner, bearing all of our sin to the cross. That is why He came, to win forgiveness for our sins by His shed blood. John shows us that we need a Savior, and thanks be to God that we were not left out in the cold without one, but instead Jesus came walking in the way of the Lord, a road that led to the cross. There He paid the price for all of your sin, all of my sin, all of the sin of the world. He won forgiveness on that day, the only solution that could suffice for our sin. God took our sin seriously, seriously enough to abandon His only Son to His furious wrath on the cross. The redemption price was steep, but Jesus paid it in His great, sacrificial love for you and for me. Jesus’ blood-bought forgiveness then makes trees good; it enables them to bear the fruit of repentance that John talks about. It even covers our sins of false repentance, delivering you and me from the wrath that John spoke of in our text.
If there was no hell, then we would not need deliverance from it, but John tells us of the reality of the judgment that Jesus will carry out. He will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire, but that is not His proper work, it is only made necessary because people reject His forgiveness. Instead, His proper work, the work He delights in, is gathering His wheat into the barn. You are that wheat because you have been forgiven by Christ Jesus, His blood paid for your sin. You are the wheat because the Lord has claimed you as His own through faith, applying His death and resurrection directly to you in the waters of Holy Baptism. He has made you a good tree, and good trees bear good fruit. It is not the other way around, you do not bear good fruit in order to become a good tree, but instead Jesus works within you to create faith, making you a good tree that now cannot but bear good fruit. The harvest may not always be bountiful, because we remain sinful, but Jesus is there to nurture us, to water us with the reminder of our baptism, to fertilize us with His forgiveness. He does not abandon His crop until it has been gathered into His barn on the Last Day.
For the Last Day is the culmination of all of Jesus’ work. Then He will bring to completion the victory won on the cross, by renewing all creation and removing the scourge of sin forever. That is also what makes John the great preacher of Advent. He makes the paths straight for Christ’s first coming by preaching a message of repentance, but He fast-forwards all the way to the Last Day, preaching repentance for all people, for you and me, as we approach Christ’s second coming. You see, for John the first and second comings of Jesus were almost indistinguishable, for the forgiveness and salvation won by Christ’s first coming will deliver us from the judgment of His second coming. What Jesus inaugurates by His birth in Bethlehem is brought to completion when He gathers all of His wheat, you and me, into His barn. His righteous and kingly rule will be extended over the new heavens and the new earth, and there we will dwell in peace, as Isaiah describes: “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” This Advent season, we look toward Christ’s first and second comings, as with them God brings us from the wilderness of sin to the paradise of the new heavens and the new earth by reestablishing His kingly rule over His beloved creation. The kingdom of heaven is at hand- thanks be to God! Amen.
‘Repentance is the reason for the season’- I’m guessing you’ve never seen that on a Christmas card. The season of Advent is one of repentance, a season in which we acknowledge our great sin and our need for a Savior from that sin. The two great festivals of our Church Year are Christmas and Easter, and both of them are preceded by seasons of reflection and repentance, to prepare us to celebrate God’s mighty acts in Christ. For the world, on the other hand, the holiday season is a time of busyness, scurrying about making preparations and enjoying the parties that come throughout the season. The world does not want to reflect during Advent, it doesn’t want to repent, it wants to celebrate. And then, on December 26th, the parties are over and the world starts thinking about New Year’s Eve. But in the Church, Advent is the season of repentance and preparation, and when December 24th rolls around, the festival begins! We rejoice and revel in Christ’s birth for twelve days, up to the festival of Epiphany. John is the ideal Advent preacher, because he declares that the only way to prepare for the coming of the Lord is through repentance.
He calls on all Israel to repent, and they respond, confessing their sins and clinging to the mercies of a God who is preparing to break into their world with His great acts of salvation.
Now, John could play nice and assume that all those coming to him were truly repentant, but he’s just a little too combative and fiery to make that assumption. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." John is the expert on repentance, and so he can spot false repentance from a mile away. These guys are only going through the motions, trying to look good for the people, but as John says, they are bearing no fruit. He makes a vital point here: repentance bears fruit. If you acknowledge your sin and beg for God’s forgiveness, then logically after receiving that forgiveness you would then try with the Lord’s help to avoid that sin in the future. You would attempt to reform your life. That is all that bearing fruit is- the life of faith that flows from forgiveness. Fruit is not a prerequisite for forgiveness, but instead it comes as a natural result and outgrowth of it.
Some bear no fruit because they think they need no repentance. The Pharisees and Sadducees thought they had it made because of who they were, but John squashes that idea. "And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham." Simply sitting in the pew or being from a Christian family may bring you close to where God gives His gifts, but such outward acts ultimately matter nothing before Him if you refuse to acknowledge that you have any sin that needs repenting of. Some bear no fruit because they don’t take their sin seriously enough to really change. Changing my life now is inconvenient, it’s expensive, it’s too much work. God will forgive me anyway, right? There is a great difference here between the person who struggles mightily with a sin each and every day, wanting to be rid of it, and the person who treats God like a forgiveness machine, not wanting to make the effort of bearing fruit. This is what pastors hear all the time: “Yeah, I know it’s wrong, and I really hate it, but I can’t change now.” If living together without marriage is a sin, move out! If filthy language and gossip are sins, then watch your tongue! If verbal or physical abuse are sins, then get some professional help! As John says, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance!”
False repentance arrogantly tells God that His forgiveness is cheap and easy, that it is something that really has no affect on my life. God does not deal lightly with those who despise His forgiveness and treat it as worthless. He is sending His Son into the world to win forgiveness for repentant sinners, but for those who reject this forgiveness, Jesus is also the righteous judge, as John declares.
“Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Trees made good through the forgiveness of Jesus are to bear good fruit, but those who arrogantly refuse to bear such fruit will be cast into the fire. That is the reality on the Last Day: “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear his threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! Repent of your rebellion against God, repent of your false repentance and clinging to your sins!
John’s work shatters the illusion of false repentance for you and me, he preaches hell to us so that we see our great sin and our need for a Savior from that sin. John is making paths straight for the reigning of God to break into this corrupted world. As I taught the bible classes this fall, the kingdom of the heavens is not primarily a place, it is an activity. It is God beginning to reestablish His rule over His fallen creation. John’s cry of ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ therefore means ‘God is beginning to act!’ That is what Jesus came to do, to deliver all creation, along with you and me, from the bondage of sin, and bring God’s righteous and just rule over all things once again. He will do this by allowing Himself to be cut down, the righteous judge falsely accused and condemned for sins He did not commit. He was the only human that ever did live or ever will live that had no need of repentance, but He in His great love for you and me made Himself the sinner, bearing all of our sin to the cross. That is why He came, to win forgiveness for our sins by His shed blood. John shows us that we need a Savior, and thanks be to God that we were not left out in the cold without one, but instead Jesus came walking in the way of the Lord, a road that led to the cross. There He paid the price for all of your sin, all of my sin, all of the sin of the world. He won forgiveness on that day, the only solution that could suffice for our sin. God took our sin seriously, seriously enough to abandon His only Son to His furious wrath on the cross. The redemption price was steep, but Jesus paid it in His great, sacrificial love for you and for me. Jesus’ blood-bought forgiveness then makes trees good; it enables them to bear the fruit of repentance that John talks about. It even covers our sins of false repentance, delivering you and me from the wrath that John spoke of in our text.
If there was no hell, then we would not need deliverance from it, but John tells us of the reality of the judgment that Jesus will carry out. He will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire, but that is not His proper work, it is only made necessary because people reject His forgiveness. Instead, His proper work, the work He delights in, is gathering His wheat into the barn. You are that wheat because you have been forgiven by Christ Jesus, His blood paid for your sin. You are the wheat because the Lord has claimed you as His own through faith, applying His death and resurrection directly to you in the waters of Holy Baptism. He has made you a good tree, and good trees bear good fruit. It is not the other way around, you do not bear good fruit in order to become a good tree, but instead Jesus works within you to create faith, making you a good tree that now cannot but bear good fruit. The harvest may not always be bountiful, because we remain sinful, but Jesus is there to nurture us, to water us with the reminder of our baptism, to fertilize us with His forgiveness. He does not abandon His crop until it has been gathered into His barn on the Last Day.
For the Last Day is the culmination of all of Jesus’ work. Then He will bring to completion the victory won on the cross, by renewing all creation and removing the scourge of sin forever. That is also what makes John the great preacher of Advent. He makes the paths straight for Christ’s first coming by preaching a message of repentance, but He fast-forwards all the way to the Last Day, preaching repentance for all people, for you and me, as we approach Christ’s second coming. You see, for John the first and second comings of Jesus were almost indistinguishable, for the forgiveness and salvation won by Christ’s first coming will deliver us from the judgment of His second coming. What Jesus inaugurates by His birth in Bethlehem is brought to completion when He gathers all of His wheat, you and me, into His barn. His righteous and kingly rule will be extended over the new heavens and the new earth, and there we will dwell in peace, as Isaiah describes: “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” This Advent season, we look toward Christ’s first and second comings, as with them God brings us from the wilderness of sin to the paradise of the new heavens and the new earth by reestablishing His kingly rule over His beloved creation. The kingdom of heaven is at hand- thanks be to God! Amen.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Advent 1 of Series A (Matthew 21:1-11)
“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the twenty-first chapter of Matthew. Dear friends in Christ; Jesus is coming! We learn from the Gospel according to Saint John that Jesus traveled to Jerusalem each and every year, but in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we only have one journey recorded, emphasizing its importance. Jesus is coming! He has wandered throughout Galilee, drifting north, sometimes south. He has spent time in Samaria, even a few days near the coast. In short, throughout the Gospel of Matthew He has been everywhere but Jerusalem. But now Jesus is coming! He is coming near, and this will be no covert entrance. He sends His disciples ahead of Him to secure the transportation, and soon He is seated on a donkey, ready to come into God’s holy city. Jesus is coming, and the crowds are ready. “Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before Him and that followed Him were shouting ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’” Jesus is coming! The crowds shout, they line the road, all of Jerusalem is shaken. They celebrate Him, they call forth His name, they quote psalms. Jesus is coming- it’s time to celebrate!
At least the crowd thought that there was ample reason for a celebration. This miracle worker, this prophet from Galilee, who had loitered about in the boonies for most of His three year ministry, was finally going where all the action was. Jesus is coming to the Holy City, to Jerusalem, and surely there He will set things right! Jesus is coming, and they practically drooled at what He could do for them when He arrived. Some were outraged at the corruption and decadence of the Jewish religious leadership. They had heard about Jesus’ sparring with the Pharisees in Galilee, now they wanted to see him come up against the Sadducees, the group that controlled the temple. Jesus is coming, and He might take on the high priest himself! Many more could hardly believe that God’s holy land, His chosen people, and His great city were all under the thumb of Caesar. If Jesus truly is the Son of God, then He can deliver us from Roman occupation and restore our nation to its rightful prominence. That’s what a messiah’s supposed to do, right? Jesus is coming, and He just has to say the word and the scourge of Roman rule is over. They had Jesus all figured out, they lined the streets that day to greet the King coming to give them what they wanted. And because they had Him figured out, very few stopped to think about what His coming truly meant.
Jesus is coming, but is that really a good thing? If Jesus is who He says He is, the Messiah, the Son of God, God in the flesh walking this earth, do we really want Him all that near us? We do not have a tame God, instead we have a God of justice, a God of holiness, a God who despises sin. We have a God whose hot wrath has burned before, more than once. Jesus is coming, but do we really want to answer the door when He shows up? When God comes, people are stirred up, they are shaken, and it happened once again in Jerusalem that day. “And when He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up.” Jesus shakes things up, He throws things into an uproar, He has a habit of overturning tables, of upsetting those comfortable lives that we are gladly living.
Jesus is coming, but you know, it seems much safer if He stays where He is at. Yes, it is much more convenient when God stays up there doing His thing and stays far away from my life, and especially my sin. When it comes down to it, a God who comes to us is a frightening and uncomfortable concept. I have sins I really don’t want Him to see and I would rather not have Him poking around my life. In our Epistle lesson for this morning, Paul says, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” But you know, sleep is good! It is much easier to stay in bed than to actually live out this Christian life, and if Jesus comes, then I’m probably going to have to love my neighbor, serve others, and demonstrate with my life who I am in Christ. The works of darkness are so much easier than those of the light, but if Jesus shows up, then I should probably strap on this rusty, heavy armor of light. Jesus is coming, but it sounds like He is just going to stir up trouble in my life. When God stays safe and sound in heaven where He belongs, then I can get away with all of my favorite pet sins, with living my life the way I want. I’m pretty good at keeping those hidden sins from my friends and family, and as long as God doesn’t interfere, I’m pretty good at keeping them from Him. But if Jesus is coming, I have a feeling that He’s going to find them, because He just seems to have a nose for the stuff. Jesus is coming, and I’m pretty sure that it isn’t a good thing.
But yet Jesus is still coming, whether we want Him to or not, whether we celebrate His arrival for all the wrong reasons or quickly try to sweep our sins under the rug, He is coming. Jesus is coming, for this is the goal and culmination of His entire life on this earth, because it is absolutely necessary to fulfill the Father’s will. Take note of that final phrase. Jesus’ coming is ‘absolutely necessary to fulfill the Father’s will.’ His coming does not aim to fulfill human expectations and fears, the expectations of the crowd gathered that day or the fears of the religious leadership. His coming does not aim to fulfill our fears of God nosing around in our sinful lives. His coming is in fulfillment of the Father’s will and the Scripture that the Father gave, specifically this prophecy: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” Jesus doesn’t come seeking glory, He doesn’t come in triumph. He doesn’t come to debate the Sadducees or kick out the Romans. He has proclaimed the Law powerfully throughout His ministry, but He doesn’t come now to root around in your life, looking for secret sins. Jesus is coming, and He is coming in humility.
He comes in humility, not in power, because Jesus is coming in order to die. He is coming for a victory and a conquest, all right, but His victory and His conquest will only come by submitting in humility to death. He enters Jerusalem as the sacrificial Lamb, there to offer Himself up as the payment for all of our sin. Jesus is coming for one last week of teaching and preaching, healing and miracles, He is coming to stir things up one last time, and Satan is waiting to take full advantage of this opportunity. He will incite one of those closest to Him to betray Him unto death. Satan will then successfully tempt another crowd, this time not lining the entrance into the city, but instead standing before Pontus Pilate, to cry out “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Finally Satan will tempt the governor to lose his backbone and give Jesus over into the cruel torture and execution of the scourge and the cross. But Satan doesn’t get it. He doesn’t realize that Jesus entered Jerusalem in humility, not in power and glory. He finds out only to late that Jesus is coming to win a victory, but not the victory that the crowds nor the evil one expected. Jesus is coming to crush Satan’s head, but He will do that by humbly submitting to the humiliation, pain, and torture of the cross. Satan’s seeming triumph will be Christ’s great victory. Death will be conquered by His death, and His resurrection on the third day is the seal on that victory. Then Jesus will have glory, then He will have power, but only after the humiliation of the cross. He submitted to that humiliation for me, for you, to pay for all of those sins that we foolishly think we can hide from God. Jesus is coming, not to condemn us for our secret sins, but to pay for them, to destroy its power and hold over us, and the penalty of death we deserved for it. Jesus is coming, and He comes bearing salvation!
Today, here and now, Jesus is coming, and because He is coming in humility, you have no reason to fear His arrival. He comes bearing the gifts that He won by entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday centuries ago. Jesus is coming, with healing in His wings, with forgiveness for all of your sins. Jesus is coming to bind up your wounds, to give you Himself. Jesus is coming so that you can participate in the victory that He won through His humiliation and death. The crowds may have misunderstood His entrance, but their cry of praise is one that we echo. “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Those words should sound a bit familiar, because we sang them last week, and we will sing them again next week. Just before communion, when our Lord Jesus Christ comes to us with the gift of His Body and His Blood, we sing the Sanctus: “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He, blessed is He, blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest!” Jesus is coming, and He comes bearing forgiveness for all of our sins each and every day, but especially when He invites us to partake of His Body and His Blood, the very redemption price that He in humility paid for you and me.
Jesus is coming, and in this Advent season we look toward His first coming, when He became man and was born of the Virgin Mary on Christmas Eve. We have a God who knew that we are unable to come to Him, and so He came to us to accomplish salvation for us, to bring us salvation and peace. Jesus is coming: He came as a baby in Bethlehem, He came into Jerusalem to deliver us, He comes to us in the Supper of His Body and Blood, and He will come again to bring us to be with Himself. That is also what we anticipate this Advent season, Christ’s return in glory. His coming for our salvation was in humility, but His coming again will be in His unveiled glory, to bring us forgiven sinners to His side for eternity. Jesus is coming- Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Amen.
At least the crowd thought that there was ample reason for a celebration. This miracle worker, this prophet from Galilee, who had loitered about in the boonies for most of His three year ministry, was finally going where all the action was. Jesus is coming to the Holy City, to Jerusalem, and surely there He will set things right! Jesus is coming, and they practically drooled at what He could do for them when He arrived. Some were outraged at the corruption and decadence of the Jewish religious leadership. They had heard about Jesus’ sparring with the Pharisees in Galilee, now they wanted to see him come up against the Sadducees, the group that controlled the temple. Jesus is coming, and He might take on the high priest himself! Many more could hardly believe that God’s holy land, His chosen people, and His great city were all under the thumb of Caesar. If Jesus truly is the Son of God, then He can deliver us from Roman occupation and restore our nation to its rightful prominence. That’s what a messiah’s supposed to do, right? Jesus is coming, and He just has to say the word and the scourge of Roman rule is over. They had Jesus all figured out, they lined the streets that day to greet the King coming to give them what they wanted. And because they had Him figured out, very few stopped to think about what His coming truly meant.
Jesus is coming, but is that really a good thing? If Jesus is who He says He is, the Messiah, the Son of God, God in the flesh walking this earth, do we really want Him all that near us? We do not have a tame God, instead we have a God of justice, a God of holiness, a God who despises sin. We have a God whose hot wrath has burned before, more than once. Jesus is coming, but do we really want to answer the door when He shows up? When God comes, people are stirred up, they are shaken, and it happened once again in Jerusalem that day. “And when He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up.” Jesus shakes things up, He throws things into an uproar, He has a habit of overturning tables, of upsetting those comfortable lives that we are gladly living.
Jesus is coming, but you know, it seems much safer if He stays where He is at. Yes, it is much more convenient when God stays up there doing His thing and stays far away from my life, and especially my sin. When it comes down to it, a God who comes to us is a frightening and uncomfortable concept. I have sins I really don’t want Him to see and I would rather not have Him poking around my life. In our Epistle lesson for this morning, Paul says, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” But you know, sleep is good! It is much easier to stay in bed than to actually live out this Christian life, and if Jesus comes, then I’m probably going to have to love my neighbor, serve others, and demonstrate with my life who I am in Christ. The works of darkness are so much easier than those of the light, but if Jesus shows up, then I should probably strap on this rusty, heavy armor of light. Jesus is coming, but it sounds like He is just going to stir up trouble in my life. When God stays safe and sound in heaven where He belongs, then I can get away with all of my favorite pet sins, with living my life the way I want. I’m pretty good at keeping those hidden sins from my friends and family, and as long as God doesn’t interfere, I’m pretty good at keeping them from Him. But if Jesus is coming, I have a feeling that He’s going to find them, because He just seems to have a nose for the stuff. Jesus is coming, and I’m pretty sure that it isn’t a good thing.
But yet Jesus is still coming, whether we want Him to or not, whether we celebrate His arrival for all the wrong reasons or quickly try to sweep our sins under the rug, He is coming. Jesus is coming, for this is the goal and culmination of His entire life on this earth, because it is absolutely necessary to fulfill the Father’s will. Take note of that final phrase. Jesus’ coming is ‘absolutely necessary to fulfill the Father’s will.’ His coming does not aim to fulfill human expectations and fears, the expectations of the crowd gathered that day or the fears of the religious leadership. His coming does not aim to fulfill our fears of God nosing around in our sinful lives. His coming is in fulfillment of the Father’s will and the Scripture that the Father gave, specifically this prophecy: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” Jesus doesn’t come seeking glory, He doesn’t come in triumph. He doesn’t come to debate the Sadducees or kick out the Romans. He has proclaimed the Law powerfully throughout His ministry, but He doesn’t come now to root around in your life, looking for secret sins. Jesus is coming, and He is coming in humility.
He comes in humility, not in power, because Jesus is coming in order to die. He is coming for a victory and a conquest, all right, but His victory and His conquest will only come by submitting in humility to death. He enters Jerusalem as the sacrificial Lamb, there to offer Himself up as the payment for all of our sin. Jesus is coming for one last week of teaching and preaching, healing and miracles, He is coming to stir things up one last time, and Satan is waiting to take full advantage of this opportunity. He will incite one of those closest to Him to betray Him unto death. Satan will then successfully tempt another crowd, this time not lining the entrance into the city, but instead standing before Pontus Pilate, to cry out “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Finally Satan will tempt the governor to lose his backbone and give Jesus over into the cruel torture and execution of the scourge and the cross. But Satan doesn’t get it. He doesn’t realize that Jesus entered Jerusalem in humility, not in power and glory. He finds out only to late that Jesus is coming to win a victory, but not the victory that the crowds nor the evil one expected. Jesus is coming to crush Satan’s head, but He will do that by humbly submitting to the humiliation, pain, and torture of the cross. Satan’s seeming triumph will be Christ’s great victory. Death will be conquered by His death, and His resurrection on the third day is the seal on that victory. Then Jesus will have glory, then He will have power, but only after the humiliation of the cross. He submitted to that humiliation for me, for you, to pay for all of those sins that we foolishly think we can hide from God. Jesus is coming, not to condemn us for our secret sins, but to pay for them, to destroy its power and hold over us, and the penalty of death we deserved for it. Jesus is coming, and He comes bearing salvation!
Today, here and now, Jesus is coming, and because He is coming in humility, you have no reason to fear His arrival. He comes bearing the gifts that He won by entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday centuries ago. Jesus is coming, with healing in His wings, with forgiveness for all of your sins. Jesus is coming to bind up your wounds, to give you Himself. Jesus is coming so that you can participate in the victory that He won through His humiliation and death. The crowds may have misunderstood His entrance, but their cry of praise is one that we echo. “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Those words should sound a bit familiar, because we sang them last week, and we will sing them again next week. Just before communion, when our Lord Jesus Christ comes to us with the gift of His Body and His Blood, we sing the Sanctus: “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He, blessed is He, blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest!” Jesus is coming, and He comes bearing forgiveness for all of our sins each and every day, but especially when He invites us to partake of His Body and His Blood, the very redemption price that He in humility paid for you and me.
Jesus is coming, and in this Advent season we look toward His first coming, when He became man and was born of the Virgin Mary on Christmas Eve. We have a God who knew that we are unable to come to Him, and so He came to us to accomplish salvation for us, to bring us salvation and peace. Jesus is coming: He came as a baby in Bethlehem, He came into Jerusalem to deliver us, He comes to us in the Supper of His Body and Blood, and He will come again to bring us to be with Himself. That is also what we anticipate this Advent season, Christ’s return in glory. His coming for our salvation was in humility, but His coming again will be in His unveiled glory, to bring us forgiven sinners to His side for eternity. Jesus is coming- Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)