Epiphany 8 of Series A (Matthew 6:24-34)

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” 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 sixth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. Dear friends in Christ, the Sermon on the Mount has a certain intensity to it. Jesus rails against man’s self-righteousness attempts to keep the Law with fire and brimstone. You can hear His passion in exposing the false ideas of His hearers throughout the sermon, but in our text for today, the tone changes. We have a pause in the fire and brimstone, and here Jesus speaks much more softly. You can almost imagine Him preaching this text with His arm around your shoulder, gently chiding you for not trusting in the promises of God. The command ‘do not worry’ is stern Law, but Jesus bases it on the sweet words of the Gospel; you don’t have to worry because your heavenly Father is taking care of you. The theme statement of this little ‘sermon within the sermon’ is found at the end of our text: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” What does it look like to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; how does this affect how we live? These are the questions we are going to investigate this morning, and to do so, we are going to look at three individuals who place their trust in the Lord: a farmer, a worker, and a retiree.

The farmer has plenty to worry about. God promised the Adam and Eve that the ground would yield its fruit only grudgingly, and even with all of the modern equipment and technology, that truth still remains. The farmer stands at the mercy of things completely out of his control. A drought could stifle his crops, a flood could drown them. Weeds could choke his corn, bugs could eat them, some new disease could cause them to waste away. A bad crop doesn’t stop the bills; the corn doesn’t care if you needed to put up a new building or buy a new tractor or simply had to repair what you had. Expenses continue to go up as the farmer coaxes the ground to support him and his family. Yet, on the other hand, not everything is bleak. He has visions of more land, better equipment, more money. He is tempted to go all out, to cash in on his opportunities like that superfarm down the road.

But yet the words of Jesus stick out in his mind: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” It’s simply a question of priorities, right? You cannot place both God and money first in your life. In Luke chapter ten, Martha hurried around thinking about the things of this world while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus. The farmer tries to model his life after that of Mary. Hearing the Word of God, and teaching it to his family, takes precedence over everything else. He has been tempted more than once to spend Sunday morning in the field, but then he remembers again the words of Jesus: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” He knows all the excuses- if I don’t spray on Sunday morning, it’s going to rain on Sunday afternoon; if I don’t get the harvest done, it’s going to snow- but he doesn’t use them. He may squirm a bit and check his watch, but he is there on Sunday morning, seeking first God’s kingdom and His righteousness. He trusts that the Lord will take care of him, that the God who created and redeemed him will continue to provide.

How can the God who provided for the farmer’s salvation fail to provide his food, drink, and clothing? The same God who gave His own Son into death to forgive the sins of this farmer, along with you, me, and all people, is also concerned about the things that we need for our life in this world. Jesus said, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” The obvious answer is yes, you are more valuable than them! So valuable, in fact, that the same one who is speaking will go to the cross to pay for your sin, to provide for your greatest need, your need for salvation from sin and death. You are so valuable to Him that in His love He suffered the very anguish of hell so that you would never have to. Now heavenly treasures await you, treasures that are so far beyond anything in this world.

Like the farmer, the worker has plenty to worry about. She labors hard for every dollar that she earns, putting in long days to support her family’s needs. But things simply seem to be getting harder and harder. How can revolutions half a world away reach out and strike her wallet? Costs keep going up; rumors of five dollar gas are swirling about, and the newspapers are already talking about drastic markups at the grocery store. It was already tough making ends meet- what will it be like in a couple months? She’s lost faith in the government; she and her husband already work too much- where can she turn?

She turns to the only place that she has left: prayer. Saint Paul wrote in Philippians chapter four, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” She takes Paul’s advice and holds up her concerns to God. She asks Him to take them, to make them His own. She commends herself, her family, and all the worries of this life to her heavenly Father. Prayer becomes her constant companion; whenever worries and anxieties enter her life, she counters them with prayer. She doesn’t work any less hard, nor does she expect prosperity and wealth simply because she prays, but instead she places her life into the hands of God. She doesn’t put her trust in her work, but instead in Him. She, like the farmer, keeps her priorities straight, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, trusting that her loving Father in heaven will then provide all else.

Jesus said in our text: “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” God will provide because He is our loving Father. That is the teaching of the Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus has given as a gift to His people earlier in the Sermon on the Mount. “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” You are a beloved child of God only because of the One who gave this prayer. You are joined with Christ in baptism, for you were baptized into His death for your sin. His resurrection victory is yours through Baptism, and those connected with Jesus as brothers and sisters are then children of the heavenly Father. Through our brother Jesus we then have the confidence that our Father knows our needs, and He wants us to bring every request to Him. In the Lord’s Prayer, we are given the opportunity to ask for everything that we need. The worker prays the fourth petition most fervently: “Give us this day our daily bread.” This petition reminds her every day that all she needs in this life only comes from her Father in heaven. But she doesn’t pray the fourth petition first. Instead, the Lord has taught her to first ask that His Name would be holy, that His kingdom would come, and that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. In the Lord’s Prayer she is taught to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. The kingdom comes to her in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and it is His righteousness that clothes her. With the robe of Christ’s righteousness given in Baptism, she can boldly cry out to her Father in heaven in every trouble that she finds herself in this life, knowing that this robe will be her garment for all eternity.

The retiree has plenty of anxieties, too. He worries about his physical health, knowing that each test he takes could bring news that is terrifying to hear. He dreads words like cancer, diabetes, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. But he doesn’t only worry about himself, because the others around him provide plenty of opportunities for concern. He shares the anxiety of his children and grandchildren; their worries become his own. And if that isn’t bad enough, he worries even when they aren’t worried. When they are living openly sinful lives, he worries, even though it doesn’t seem to affect them at all. When he stops to think about all the concerns of his life he has only one question: wasn’t retirement supposed to be relaxing?

But then he remembers the words of Jesus in our text, once again gently chiding: “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” The answer, of course, is that worrying is much more likely to take away hours from a person’s life rather than add to them. He learns through this text to trust in the provision of the Lord, to depend on His care and protection. Jesus concluded our text in this way: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Trusting in the Lord’s protection and provision is a daily task; it is trusting today that he will provide for tomorrow. In Exodus chapter sixteen, the people of Israel were given the miraculous provision of bread from heaven as they wandered in the wilderness. Moses told the people to simply gather what they needed for the day, but what happened? “They did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank.” They gathered too much because they didn’t trust that God would provide tomorrow what He had given today. The retiree seeks to learn from their example, entrusting today and tomorrow to his heavenly Father.

He cannot do this on his own; none of us can. The retiree falls into worry, just as the farmer and just as the worker- indeed just as you and I. But the same God who provides for all of our needs also provides forgiveness for that sin as He provides forgiveness for all of our sins. Through that forgiveness, we are promised an eternity where all the causes for worry are erased, as Isaiah declares in our Old Testament lesson for today. “They shall feed along the ways; and on all bare heights shall be their pasture; they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for He who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.” In the midst of the struggles of your life, the challenges that cause worry and anxiety, the message is clear from both Jesus and Isaiah: God has not forgotten you! “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” In the Name of the God who knows your needs, who provides for you out of His rich bounty, our Lord who provided for our greatest need through His Son Jesus Christ, Amen.

Epiphany 7 of Series A (Matthew 5:38-48)

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” 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 fifth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. Dear friends in Christ, have you ever seen those old propaganda posters from the first or second Word War? Many of these posters were triumphant, showing victorious Americans coming together to get the job done. You remember the pointing finger of Uncle Sam or the smiling face of Rosie the Riveter. On the other hand, some of those posters took a much different approach. I am thinking of a World War I poster in particular. It showed the image, familiar from the movies, of King Kong coming ashore to sow destruction and death. In his arms was a fair maiden, limp and obviously in great distress. Above and below we read these words: “Destroy this mad brute! Enlist- US Army.” On top of the gorilla’s head is a German helmet. The message is clear: if you don’t enlist to help stop him, this ‘German brute’ is going to come to our shores and desecrate our land as he already has ravaged Europe. Destroy this senseless animal before it destroys you!

Propaganda like that dehumanizes the enemy; it makes our opponents out to be evil incarnate, senseless animals that only plot our destruction. Propaganda makes it easier to see other men and women as the enemy, it makes a far off war personal, and then it enlists our help in hating and then defeating that enemy. It is easy to see those who war against our country, who burn our flag, as the enemy. They very clearly stand against us, and often they explicitly call for our destruction. Yes, it is easy to hate those who spy on us, who bomb our buildings, who show contempt for us. But think a little closer to home; we don’t have to read the news to find enemies. We all know people that we cannot stand, that we would rather never see again. They annoy us, they frustrate us, they take delight in making us upset. We may not call them our enemies, but they are definitely not our friends. We go out of the way to avoid them, or we try to make their lives as miserable as they have made ours. But when Jesus uses the word ‘enemy’ in our text for today, He is not necessarily referring to either of those groups. In the New Testament, the word ‘enemy’ refers to those who are opposed to God and His people. By that definition, every person who doesn’t believe in Jesus is our enemy. Yes, it’s easy to see those who persecute us for our faith as our enemies, but the Scriptures go even farther than that, declaring that every non-believer is, in a sense, our enemy.

So what do we do with enemies? We love them. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” We are to show love to those who hate us, whether it is a terrorist who wants to see you killed, your neighbor you can’t stand, or the atheist who mocks your faith. We are to show love to them even when they don’t show love toward us. In fact, Jesus says that we are to show love to them especially when they don’t show love toward us. “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” As Christians we can make a great show of doing good to those who treat us well. Great job, Jesus says; you are just about as pious as the thieves and the scoundrels, as the prostitutes and the criminals, or as the devil himself! Jesus calls us to a higher standard; we are to show love to the ones who hate us, who persecute us, who even seek our deaths.

Why? Why should we show any respect to those who hate our guts? The first reason is that we do not return evil for evil. “But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” We hope that in showing love to our enemies they may see our love and give glory to our Father who is in heaven. The second reason is that in doing so we are only imitating God Himself. “For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” God shows love to all of His creation, those who love Him and those who despise Him. He shows love regardless of the thanks He receives, and we are to do the same. Now I hope that none of you think that this is easy, because it isn’t. In fact, you are probably tempted to protest: ‘Come on Jesus, this is ridiculous, this is impossible. Who could possibly do this?’

Jesus doesn’t answer our protest with words, but instead with actions. He is the one who loves His enemies, even to death, He is the one who refuses to resist evil, even though it means the torture of the cross. In our text, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Early in the morning on Good Friday, Jesus did not resist as the servants of the high priest struck Him again and again, He refused to act as Pilate’s soldiers ruined His body with the scourge. Jesus said, “And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” Our Lord did not protest as He was forced to carry His own cross to Golgotha, carrying the very instrument of His own death. “And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.” Jesus watched in silence as the soldiers took His clothing and cast lots for them. They took all He had; they left Him with nothing, but still, like a lamb led to the slaughter, He did not open His mouth. He did not respond to the jeers or to the cruel torture with words of anger or hate, but instead when He did speak, it was words of grace. On the mountain Jesus had said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” At the cross He cried out as the soldiers drove in the nails, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus is the one who refuses to give evil for evil, He is the one who prays for those who persecute Him, He is the one who loves His enemies.

Those enemies were not only the ones crucifying Him that Good Friday, they were not only the ones who condemned Him to the cruelest death imaginable. No, His list of enemies includes you, it includes me. Saint Paul writes in Romans chapter five: “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” You and I were conceived and born in sin, we were conceived and born enemies of God, completely opposed to Him. You and I were God’s enemies! But while we were still His enemies, Christ showed love to us. For He did not submit to the tortures of cross as some sort of object lesson, simply to demonstrate that a person could love his enemies and pray for the ones who persecute him. No, He submitted to the tortures of the cross and did not resist the evil of men because He intended to save all of His enemies. His prayer that day, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” was for all of His enemies, it was for you and it was for me. He died on the cross for those who opposed Him, you and me, so that He might pay for our sin and save us. Because of Christ, God deals with us only on the basis of His Son’s sacrifice for us, as our Introit for today puts so well: “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.” Jesus doesn’t resist our evil with evil, but instead with love and forgiveness. He didn’t resist the torture of the cross because He knew that it was only His death in the place of His enemies that could deliver His enemies from sin, death, and the devil. He refused to repay evil with evil because He had come to that moment in order to destroy evil. He went to the cross because it was the only way to make His enemies brothers and sisters.

We were born enemies of God, but because Christ died for His enemies, we are now made children of God, united with Him through our baptism into His death. We are reconciled with the Father, transformed from bitter enemies into beloved children. As His beloved children we go forth into this world with love for our enemies. His love for us, as always, motivates our love for others. We love our enemies because Jesus loved us when we were His enemies. He prayed for our forgiveness, He shed His blood that we may be united to Him. We show love to our enemies that they might become our brothers and sisters in Christ, united with us in the bonds of faith. Sure, some may take advantage of us, some may never show us any love back. Some may even persecute us. But we err on the side of showing generosity to anyone in need, just as Jesus said: “Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.” God showers on all people the fruits of the earth, regardless of whether they thank Him or not; His reckless love casts out the seed of the Word into the world. We too live with such reckless love, giving to those who cannot repay, showing kindness to those who hate us. In that way we follow the example of God Himself.

Jesus calls on us to follow that example with the last words of our text: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Now, this seems like an impossible command, and it is. We cannot be perfect as our heavenly Father is with our own efforts. We need the perfection given by Christ, given to us through His perfect life, death, and resurrection for us. Joined with Him in the waters of Holy Baptism, we are perfect as well, we bear His perfection. And so we live in the world and love our enemies as those made perfect already in Christ, and looking toward the day when we will be perfect in body and soul for eternity. Glorious now, we look toward the glory yet to be revealed. Thanks be to God that He has loved His enemies in Christ! In the Name of the one who forgives His enemies, who dies for those who persecuted Him, our crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Epiphany 6 of Series A: Sanctity of Life Sunday (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.” 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 Sanctity of Life Sunday comes from the Old Testament lesson read a few moments ago from the thirtieth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. Dear friends in Christ: in our text for today, Moses presents the people with a choice. The verses that immediately precede our text give us the sense that Moses believed this was an easy, even obvious choice: “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.”

What is this choice that is not far off, that is easy and even obvious? It is nothing other than the choice between life and death. “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.” Hmmm, what does Moses want us to choose, letter ‘a’ or letter ‘b?’ Life or death? Good or evil? This is a test with only one question, and only one right answer. If you guessed letter ‘a’ then you…are…RIGHT! “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.” Choosing life is nothing else than living in obedience to God and the Law that He has set forth through this same Moses. “If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in His ways, and by keeping His commandments and His statutes and His rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.” Life is given when the people of God obey and love Him.

On the other hand, death is the penalty for disobedience, for apostasy, for idolatry. “But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.” If the benefits of obedience are clear, the penalties of disobedience are even clearer. To serve anyone else than the true God can have only one result: death. So the choice is clear: Serve the true God, and you will have life; serve false gods, and you will have death. What could be easier than a choice between life and death? The life of obedience is not easy, but at least the choice is: life is the right answer, indeed the only answer, because who would answer with death when given the choice between it and life?

Unfortunately, in our world today, when given the choice between life and death, many choose death. We live in a culture of death, a culture that sees death as a solution, as an instrument. It is the solution to unwanted people of any age and stage of development. Death is the solution of convenience, it is the solution of choice when another person is going to drain our finances or dramatically change our lives. Over fifty million children have been murdered in the womb in the United States since Roe vs. Wade in 1973. Fifty million situations where death was the solution for whatever problems faced the parents. Fifty million occasions where death was the choice; where death was enlisted to eliminate a burden. Many of those fifty million were those with physical or mental disabilities, killed because others did not see them as fit to live. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, envisioned abortion, birth control, and sterilization as means to eliminate those who were a drain on society, creating a more pure race. Even today, it is the poor and disabled who are targeted by abortion providers. Death is seen as a solution to poverty, a solution to the challenges that raising a disabled child presents. But it is not only the infirm and poor that are killed. The vast majority of those fifty million were killed for convenience; death was the solution to protect careers or money. Children are killed in the womb each and every day because the time isn’t right, because the parents aren’t married, or because the child is quite simply unwanted. Millions are killed because parents refuse to take the responsibility that sexual activity demands.

Death is not only the solution used for those who are ‘unwanted’ in the womb, but even at the end of life death is seen as a solution. The same reasons used to defend the slaughter of fifty million children since 1973 are now being used to speak of the disabled, the infirm, the aged. There are many who wish to call on death as the solution once again, the solution for those with incurable diseases, the solution for those who are profoundly disabled, the solution for those whose usefulness to society has seemingly ended. Hitler killed all three groups in his quest for the master race; now many in our society want to follow in his footsteps. Death is the solution of convenience, the solution that saves money, the solution that removes the burdens of caring for those who cannot care for themselves from family or the government. Death is the solution sought by our society for all manner of ills.

But death cannot be tamed, it cannot be harnessed as our ally. Death is never the solution, but instead it is the problem. Death is our enemy, the first and fundamental adversary of man. God declared to Adam and Eve after they plunged humanity into sin and death: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” You will hear those same words repeated a month from now as ashes are placed upon your head. “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Death is not something to be embraced, but instead it is the penalty for our sin, it is our first and greatest enemy. We cannot wield our greatest enemy as a tool, we cannot think that we can control it without dire consequences. We are adrift in a sea of death, in the midst of a culture which views death as the solution for many, if not all of the problems that we face as a society. But the Scriptures declare that death is man’s greatest problem; it is never the solution.

However, there is one exception to that statement. Death is never the solution, except for the one instance where the death of one is the solution to death for all. Death is the problem, and the death of Jesus is the solution. It is His death that conquers death, it is His death that brings life. His death even brings forgiveness for those who have participated in the culture of death. He died so that a repentant mother who aborted her child will live eternally, forgiven and restored. Jesus died so that a repentant father who pressured his partner to end their child’s life will be forgiven of his sin just as Christ’s death forgives your sin and mine. The death of Christ destroyed death even for abortion doctors and nurses, even for you and me when we fail to stand up to this culture of death. The death of Christ destroyed the power of death over all of us; His death on Calvary’s cross brought life- the resurrection on the third day proved that. For those who have participated in abortion or euthanasia in any way, the message on Sanctity of Life Sunday is clear: Christ died for your sin, and He forgives you of that sin as He forgives you of all other sin, for no sin is too great for His love and mercy to forgive it.

Christ’s death brings us life, fullness of life, the kind of life that Moses held before the people in our text for today. In order to attain that life, Moses demanded obedience from the people: “Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to Him.” But the commands of Moses couldn’t give that life; if it were up to our obedience to choose life, we would only end up with death. St. Paul writes, “The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” We are sinful; we cannot love the Lord to the extent that we ought. That is why Christ came and that is why He died. He died in order to give us what the command of Moses could not- life. He chose life for us, and He won it for us through His death. Now, because of His death for you, you are destined for an eternity where death, your first and greatest enemy, is trampled down and defeated. We read about this eternity of life in Isaiah chapter sixty-five: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind… I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days…”

We who have been given life, eternal life, then go out and proclaim that life to others. Death is not the solution to any problem that our society faces, but it is instead the problem, the greatest problem, our ancient enemy. And we have the privilege to declare before the world that it is a defeated enemy, that Christ has defeated death through His death and resurrection. We have the opportunity to declare Christ’s resurrection victory with St. Paul: “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” We defend life from beginning to end because we have a God of life; the God who created life, the God who sustains life, the God who gives eternal life. Christ’s life is your life, His victory is your victory, His resurrection points forward to your own. In the name of the One whose death brought us life, the Lord of life, our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Epiphany 5 of Series A (Matthew 5:13-20)

“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” 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 fifth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. Dear friends in Christ, [later this morning at Saint John’s we are going to have a confirmation] today you are going to witness a confirmation. Alice is going to come forward after the offering and make solemn vows, a confession before God and the world as to what she believes. Confirmation isn’t something commanded in Scripture, but the Church in her wisdom has established it as a time for one who has been baptized and instructed in the faith to confess Christ before others. Confirmation is not graduation; instead it is more like a beginning, the beginning of a lifetime of learning more and more about God, a lifetime of confessing Him before men. Jesus promises in Matthew chapter ten: “Whoever confesses me before men, I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.” Friends in Christ, at your confirmation you made the same solemn vows that Alice will make. You confessed the triune God, you declared your allegiance to the teachings of the Lutheran Church, and you promised with the help of God to live according to the Word of God. In the words of Jesus in our text for today, you promised to be salt and light.

“You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Notice how Jesus says it; He doesn’t say ‘make yourself salt and light,’ but instead He says, “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.” This is your identity, your baptismal identity. When God made you His child in the washing of the water with the Word, He made you salt and light. That is simply what a Christian is, and as Jesus says, a Christian that refuses to be what God has made him or her in Baptism is as ridiculous as unseasoned salt or hidden light.

Salt seasons; light shines. That is simply what they do, and that is what we are called on to do. We are to salt the earth and give light to the world. All creation has been corrupted by sin, and so people need to be called to repentance, they need to hear the Gospel. That is what it means to be salt and light in this world; to speak the Word of God to those around us, to confess Jesus before men. It means living a life that declares to the world that we Christians are different, that we refuse to participate in the corruption of this world, but instead that we call on this world to repent. In our Old Testament lesson for today, God is fed up with the empty fasting of His people. He doesn’t need them to stay at home trying to impress Him, but instead He wants them to go out and be salt and light. “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?” Being salt and light in this world is nothing else than serving our neighbor in his physical and spiritual needs. It is showing the love of Christ to those around us. Salt and light should make an impression on an unseasoned and dark world. “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” That is the object of our lives in this world; we are salt and light in order that others may glorify God and come to faith.

Someone who claims to be a Christian and yet refuses to proclaim Christ by word and deed is like unseasoned salt or hidden light. “If salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet… Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.” Unseasoned salt? Hidden light? A Christian that has no effect on the world around him, who lives a life indistinguishable from his atheist neighbor is just as absurd, just as crazy. Christ hasn’t delivered you from sin, death, and hell so that you can continue living like the world, but instead He has claimed you as His own so that you are salt and light. That is what Baptism makes us, that is what we confess in Confirmation. I will ask Alice, “Do you intend to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word, and deed to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death?” Only through the power of the Holy Spirit, Alice will answer, “I do, by the grace of God.” That promise, or one like it, is what you said on your confirmation day. You promised to live different than the world, for Christ’s coming didn’t destroy God’s holy Law. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

The Law tells us how to live as salt and light, and therefore cannot be abolished. But the Law cannot make us salt and light. Only the one who has fulfilled the Law can do that. We are salt and light because Jesus has first salted and enlightened us. He came as the fulfillment of the Old Testament, to complete God’s revelation by bringing the promised salvation to us. He is the true light that has come to shine in the darkness of this corrupted world, to shine in the darkness of corrupted hearts. Saint Paul said in second Corinthians chapter four: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” We were in darkness, the darkness of sin, the darkness of death, but the same God who created light from darkness on the first day of creation sent the Light into our dark world. Saint John writes in the first chapter of his Gospel: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” But the darkness sure tried. The crown of God’s creation, humanity, tried to snuff out this light; the prince of darkness, Satan, incited them to nail the Light of the world to the cross. There the sun refused to shine, there darkness covered the earth, the darkness of sin and death. The Light of the world was placed under a basket, and to the world it seemed that it had been smothered.

But the darkness could not extinguish this light. On Easter Sunday, the Light shone in all of its brilliance, all of its glory, out of the open tomb. Jesus has risen! The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it! The powers of darkness thought that they had snuffed out the Light on that Good Friday, but instead it was the darkness that was defeated. The darkness of sin and death will no longer have a hold on God’s beloved people, for the Light has conquered the darkness in victory. His resurrection is the declaration of that victory, the assurance that just as He conquered death, so you will too. The Light of Christ then goes out to illuminate dark hearts, to bring the victory of the cross to you and me. We give those whom we baptize a candle, signifying to them that through the washing of the water with the Word the Light has illuminated their hearts. On the day you were baptized, the Lord shined His Light in your darkened heart, removing the power of sin and death from you.

It is only because Christ hasfirst shone His Light in our hearts that we then have the privilege of shining that same Light before others. We do not shine our light in order to earn heaven, but we shine our light because we have been given heaven. Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” We don’t need our good works, because our salvation has already been accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus, but our neighbors need them. Our neighbors needs the Light that we shine forth in word and deed, because they are hungry, they are poor, they are naked, they are sick. But most of all, our neighbors need the Light because they are sinful. They need Christ and His forgiveness just as much as you and I, they need the Light to illuminate their darkened heart. Our good works are directed toward our neighbors because they have need of them, and we pray that through our good works they give glory to our Father in heaven.

Only good works done in faith are righteous, and as Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” The scribes and Pharisees had outward righteousness. They looked good to the world, but their righteousness counted as nothing, for they weren’t joined with Christ. Any good deed done outside of faith in Christ is not a good deed at all. Only when we are joined to Christ through Baptism are our works righteous; our good works are righteous in the sight of God only because Jesus is righteous. They flow from His righteousness given to us, they come naturally through the relationship that He has established with us. Our righteousness abounds and brings us into the kingdom of heaven because it is His righteousness, won for us through the cross and empty tomb.

It is Christ’s righteousness that we cling to as we salt and enlighten the world. We do this imperfectly, we stumble and fall, we often are unseasoned salt and hidden light. And so we are in constant need of Christ’s righteousness applied to us, we daily require the Light of Christ to be shone into our hearts, we need His forgiveness. That is why we study His Word, that is why we hear the beautiful words of the Absolution at the beginning of the service, that is why we partake of His Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper. Through those means, Christ forgives us, He makes us righteous by giving us His righteousness, He shines the light that chases the darkness away. This same Light will characterize eternity, as we hear in Revelation chapter twenty-one: “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day- and there will be no night there.” In the name of the Light of the World, our Lord, our Savior, our righteousness, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Epiphany 4 of Series A (Micah 6:1-8)

“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?” 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 sixth chapter of the prophet Micah. Dear friends in Christ, even if you have never personally dealt with the legal system of the United States, you probably know how a courtroom operates. Television, movies, and books have all made sure of that. First, even before the court can begin its work, there is the summons. “Hear what the Lord says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against His people, and He will contend with Israel.” All of the parties have been summoned: God Himself is the judge, and all creation is summoned to witness God’s lawsuit. His people are on trial. This means first of all His people Israel, but if you and I think that we can escape this trial, we are gravely mistaken. When everyone is assembled in the great courtroom of God, the judge shows up, and He is not a happy camper.

“O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!” Without introduction or preamble, God the judge launches into us. Notice that God doesn’t directly accuse us of anything- yet. Instead He asks two biting questions: “What have I done to you? How have I wearied you?” He is demanding that we make some defense, that we give Him a reason for our sin. God wants us to tell Him what He has done to us to make us rebel against Him. Our heavenly Father wants to know how He has wearied and bored us so that we either go through the motions as His followers, or even avoid worshipping Him. He demands a reply- “Answer me!”- but none is forthcoming. As we stand in stunned silence, God goes on to tell us exactly what He has done to us.

“I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.” God asked us “What have I done to you?” and now He gives the answer. He has delivered us, He has provided salvation. Through Moses He brought the people out of bondage in Egypt. When Balak king of Moab wanted to curse Israel, Balaam could only speak blessings. At Shittim the covenant was broken; in His grace God restored His people at Gilgal. How do His people respond to His gracious acts? God has released from slavery; His people respond with rebellion. He longs to bless His people; they thank Him by going through the motions in their lives and at worship. He restores them again and again; His people respond by avoiding where He brings His grace.

The judge has finally completed His thunderous opening statement. The focus now turns to His people, to you and me. What reply will we make? The first response is that of desperation. How can we possibly satisfy the wrath of this righteous and holy judge? “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?” That is the question that confronts people of every age. What can I bring before the Lord to placate Him, to get Him off my back, to make Him forget about my sin? “Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?” Surely, God, if I come to church a little more often, you can look the other way when I sin during the week, right? “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?” Ok, God, what if I ratchet it up a bit? What if I not only go to church every week, but I put some money in the offering plate? And not just a couple bucks, but the full ten percent. Maybe some spare change in Pastor’s new ‘alms for charity’ jar, too. What about that, God, will that make you back off? “Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” All right, God, what’s it going to take? I’m trying my best, I really am, but I have this sneaking suspicion that your wrath is still there. You told Israel not to sacrifice her children like the nations around her, but here she is driven to such desperation that she is willing to kill her sons and daughters. Your people are grasping for your grace, trying to find something that will end your hot wrath. What do you want from me? What can I do to satisfy you? “With what shall I come before the Lord?”

It is at this point that Micah steps in. This country prophet and preacher has the answer to our vitally important question. “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” God is fed up with our attempts to placate His wrath, He is tired of our sacrifices. He declared through the mouth of another prophet, Amos: “Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.” God has wearied of people going through the motions, of trying get rid of their sin through their own deeds. Our attempts to earn His favor through what we do are offensive to Him. He doesn’t seek outward acts, but instead a changed heart.

Jesus spoke about that in our Gospel lesson. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” As Micah said, God simply asks for humility, for justice, for kindness shown to Him and to our neighbors. This has to do with a changed attitude, not with sacrifices or deeds. This is what we also read in the Introit this morning: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked…” Ok, now we know what God requires, but this puts us in even more desperate straits. At least when we were offering our deeds to God, it was something we could do; we could see us earning our way back into favor with Him. But now we’re in trouble. God demands a changed life, but I can’t do it. I could pray and worship more, I could put more in the plate, I could do this and that, but a changed life is deep down within me, and when I look there, all I see is sin.

It makes perfect sense that we would need to earn our way back into God’s favor; it’s reasonable, it’s logical. But the only solution to our sin is not logical, it is not reasonable in the eyes of human wisdom, but instead it is foolishness. St. Paul declares, “Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” We couldn’t earn God’s favor; Israel’s extreme attempts to please Him proved that. They cried out in desperation: “Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Their firstborn couldn’t satisfy God’s wrath, but His firstborn could. Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son of the Father, came to do what we could not. He allowed Himself to be given up into death for our sin. Jesus was the firstborn given for our transgressions; He, the fruit of Mary’s womb, was given for the sin of our soul. Christ was crucified for you and me; He made the sacrifice that satisfied God’s wrath, His perfect life in the place of our sinful lives. This makes no sense to the world, but God choose what appears as foolishness as the very means for our salvation.

Because of Christ’s death for our sake, because He has delivered us from the crushing burden of our sin, the situation in God’s courtroom is completely reversed. God is now our advocate; He argues on behalf of His people, not against them. On the Last Day, God will point to you and declare you righteous for the sake of Jesus Christ. The people of God declared their hope in this great reversal in Micah chapter seven: “I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon His vindication.” This vindication came at the cross, where Jesus died in your place, where He did all that you could not, where He faced God’s wrath for you. God in His great love refused to leave you in your sin, but instead He acted once again in salvation to deliver you from that sin. He answers His own accusation! Not by ignoring our sin, not by giving us a ‘to do’ list to take care of it ourselves, but by giving up His own Son into death in our place, His firstborn for our transgressions, for the sin of our souls. His judgment is no longer against us but for us; you are judged as righteous because Jesus is righteous, and He has claimed you as His own. You are His because Jesus suffered and died for you!

As we gather here this morning, the question still confronts us: “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?” The answer is simple: we come before the Lord with nothing but our sin. We come as beggars, empty handed, because we have nothing to give, not our good works, not our sparkling life, only our sin. And Jesus takes that sin upon Himself and does away with it, giving us in its place forgiveness, life, and salvation. We are beggars who have come empty-handed, only to be given the treasures of heaven itself. We therefore come before God bearing not our own merits, but instead the righteousness of Christ, which He has given to us. Then we seek to serve God and neighbor, not to gain His favor, but because He has shown us favor. We come to this place week after week to receive, to drink deeply from the wells of salvation, until that day when the Lord declares to us: “Come into the kingdom given to you by the death and resurrection of my firstborn.” In the name of God’s firstborn Son, who through the foolishness of the cross brought us salvation, Amen.

Epiphany 2 of Series A (John 1:29-42a)

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the first chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John. Dear friends in Christ, have you confessed anything lately? Now I know that this is a loaded question. When we think of the word ‘confession’ we usually think about the confession of sin. No doubt some of you have confessed sin this past week, asking for forgiveness from the one you have hurt and from God. The confession of sin is an important, indeed vital, part of the Christian’s life, but that isn’t specifically the confession I’m talking about this morning. Instead, today we want to focus on the primary meaning of the word confession: speaking back to God what He has said to us. That is what confession is; saying the same thing that God has said, taking His revelation in through the ears and speaking that word with our mouths. The confession of sin is an important example of this; God in His Word has declared that all people are sinners, and when we confess our sins at the beginning of the service, we are speaking back to God that declaration. ‘Yes, Lord, as you have said, I am a sinner.’ But confession also means speaking back to God and the world not just our sin but also our Savior. We cannot confess unless God has first spoken to us, and He does this primarily in His Word. He reveals who He is and what He has done for us, and we confess that truth to the world.

John the Baptist uttered one of the great confessions of the New Testament in our text for today. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” But even the forerunner of Christ did not come up with that confession by himself, but instead he speaks to the world what God had revealed to him. “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on Him. I myself did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’” We too saw the Baptism of Jesus last week, we heard from God’s holy Word that the Spirit descended upon Jesus, anointing Him for the task to come. It was that event that brought forth the confession of John; it confirmed for Him who Jesus was and what He had come to do. John can’t keep that confession in, and so it must go out, declaring before the world that this One, walking beside the river, has come in salvation. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

John confesses that this man, seemingly as normal as you and me, was indeed the very Lamb of God. This Lamb takes away the sin of the world, not just the sins of the disciples, not just John’s sin, but the sin of the entire world. That means you, it means me, it means every single person on this planet. Jesus, the true Lamb of God, has come to take away sin, to remove it from us, to eliminate its penalty, to get rid of it and cast it away forever. He has come that sin will be no more! Though John doesn’t go into how this Jesus will remove the sin of the world, the title ‘Lamb of God,’ does give us some clues. You may think about the ram sacrificed in the place of Isaac, or the declaration in Isaiah 53 that the suffering Servant will stand before His oppressors like a lamb before the slaughter. We should probably also turn to the Passover, where the blood of a slaughtered lamb is the sign for the angel of death to pass over the homes of the Israelites and spare their firstborn. The true Lamb of God will be slaughtered, sacrificed in the place of His people, in the place of you and me, in order to take away our sin. He will remove sin by being sacrificed for it; He will remove God’s wrath over our transgressions and the penalty of death we deserved. His blood will be placed upon us as a sign that death no longer has a hold on us; the seal of our baptism will protect us from the angel of death. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

But John’s confession is not the only confession we find in our text. Andrew also declares who this Jesus is. “He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah (which means Christ).’” This is a confession of salvation: the one promised throughout the Old Testament, the messiah who was to save God’s people, has come. Listen to his joy: “We have found the Messiah!” This is the anointed one, the one anointed to bring salvation to all the people, the one anointed to bring salvation to you and to me. He is the promised one! The story of the Old Testament has come to culmination in Jesus Christ, the one appointed to save by His death for our sins and His victorious resurrection from the dead.

Andrew couldn’t keep this confession in any more than John could. He had to get it out, he had to proclaim it to others. John tells us that the first thing he did after encountering Jesus was to make the good confession before his brother Peter. Once again, Andrew’s confession did not come from himself, but from the Lord. He heard the confession of John and then saw and heard Jesus Himself. In faith he then confessed, bringing that proclamation to another person, Peter. That is what the confession of Christ does; it leads others to confess, creating disciples along the way. You can see the pattern clearly in our text: first John received the revelation from God. He believed, becoming a disciple of Jesus, and then he confessed. His confession worked faith in Jesus in two other men, who became disciples of Jesus. “The two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus.” Then they confessed, bringing others into contact with Jesus. That pattern has been repeated through thousands of years, amongst countless millions of people, until a pastor, parent, or friend confessed the person and work of Jesus to you, and God worked through His Word on the lips of His people, creating faith within you.

Unfortunately, that is so often where the confession ends, because we are often unwilling to confess Christ before others. We have heard the revelation of Jesus in His Holy Word. His flesh and blood has touched our lips, we have been washed in the baptism He instituted. Through those means, the Lord has created faith, the same faith of John the Baptist and of Andrew. Throughout the centuries that faith has brought forth confession from the lips of Christians, confession that eventually delivered to you the salvation accomplished by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. But how often does that confession which delivered to you the very salvation of Jesus never make it beyond you? Do we go first to our family, friends, and neighbors to confess to them the work of Christ on their behalf? You can see the enthusiasm, the joy in Andrew after He comes to faith, and the first thing he wants to do is confess that God-given faith to his brother. Do we have that same enthusiasm? Do we seek out every opportunity to confess, or do we keep our mouths shut? The reasons are many: don’t want to offend, no opportunity, I don’t know how, but so often these are simply excuses for doing nothing. So often we keep the confession of Jesus private, treating it either like our own personal property, or something not important enough to share with others.

That is unfortunate, for our Lord Jesus Christ, in His great grace, is pleased to use you and me as His instruments to bring others to faith. We have the wonderful privilege and responsibility to confess His person and work to those around us, and He has promised to be active in that Word on the lips of His people. Think about it: Jesus uses you and me, sinful and weak people, to proclaim His salvation to others. And He doesn’t make us responsible for the results; the outcomes are His, because the Word is His. We are simply His instruments, proclaiming to others, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” As Martin Luther once said, we are beggars telling other beggars where to find bread. The key phrase is: “Come and you will see.” That is what Jesus said to the inquiring disciples, and that same phrase is on the lips of Philip just a few verses after our text. We invite people to come and see Jesus, to encounter their risen Lord as He comes to them in Word and Sacrament, bearing forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

When we invite others to come and see Jesus, we are inviting them to join us in the relationship Christ established, we are inviting them to abide in Jesus. “Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, ‘What are you seeking?” And they said to Him, ‘Rabbi (which means Teacher), where are you staying?’” The word translated here as ‘staying’ actually means ‘abiding.’ They want to abide in Jesus, to be with Him, in intimate communion with Him. The response of Jesus? “Come and you will see.” John tells us the wonderful result of this invitation. “So they came and saw where He was staying [or abiding], and they stayed [or abided] with Him that day.” Jesus broke into this world to abide with you and me, as John the evangelist wrote earlier in chapter one: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Through His sacrifice on Calvary’s cross, God now abides with man as man. Through faith we abide with Jesus and He abides with us. We participate in the very relationship of the Trinity, we abide in and with the God who has delivered us. Because we abide in Jesus, we have forgiveness for all of our sins, even for failing to confess Him before others, and through that forgiveness we know that we will abide with the Trinity for all eternity.

God has always been pleased to work through the weakness of men to spread His Gospel of salvation. He works despite and even through our weakness and sin to take that confession throughout the world. He gives us great and wonderful gifts, and then He sends us in joy to proclaim the mercies of the God who broke into this world in order to forgive, redeem, and abide with His rebellious creation. The confession you take to others is the confession that sustains you all your days: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” In the name of the Lamb, whose confession we proclaim, Amen.

Baptism of our Lord (Matthew 3:13-17)

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” 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 Baptism of our Lord, 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, I have always loved rivers. Not far from where I grew up, the Platte River flows wide and shallow, a ribbon of life cutting through the dry prairie. In Fort Wayne, the St. Joseph River flows slow and muddy behind the seminary, and more than once it tried to swallow downtown with flooding. Out in New York, we lived close to the source of the Susquehanna River, which flows clear and beautiful all the way through Pennsylvania on its course to the sea. Now, we live near the mighty Boyer River, which follows a beautiful valley from here to Omaha. Rivers give life, they shape the terrain, like highways they move things from one point to another. But anyone who has visited a big city or a developing country knows that a river can also be a dump, a plays to dispose of all matter of waste and filth.

There was once a river, a filthy river. God had created it, as He created all rivers, and He created it to flow clear and wide, taking life-giving water from one point to another. It provided for His creation, watering plants, animals, and humans. But then John showed up, and he had another use for this river. He cried out from its banks: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” As the crowds gathered, he began to baptize. “Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” They washed their sins into this river, and the waters darkened. As more and more people came to John, the river quickly became a depository for sin. Like toxic waste from a chemical plant, their sin corrupted the waters, as our sin has corrupted all of creation.

Raw sewage couldn’t make this river more filthy than sin, because man’s sin is the dirtiest substance imaginable. It corrupts us, it makes us unclean, even though on the outside we may look great. That’s because more often than not the filth of sin is only found within our minds and hearts. Violations of the sixth commandment such as lust and pornography more obviously make us feel unclean within, but rebelling against the other nine commandments can make us just as dirty. Anger and hateful thoughts against others, even if these thoughts never result in words or actions, consume us within and make us filthy with sin. The ninth and tenth commandments both deal with ‘coveting,’ something that is internal, a desire of the mind for the things of others that may not even lead to action but leaves us dirty all the same. And this doesn’t even scratch the surface, for we all have the grunge of original sin clinging to our bones. Original sin covers us like mud, like the muck that you dig out of a flooded basement, like the grimy oil that inhabits the corners of an auto shop. It is the dirtiest substance out there, and it makes us completely filthy, corrupting us to our very core. It was that kind of filth that was corrupting the river, making it toxic, a cesspool of corruption and sin.

As John continued to stand in the midst of all that waste and filth, Jesus appeared. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.” John waded to the edge of the water, protesting. There is no way that Jesus should come here. He is the sinless one. He has no sin of His own to wash away or to repent of. Jesus Himself would someday say, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” Jesus wasn’t sick, He wasn’t dirty. In fact, He was the only clean one to ever live. What need did He have to step into that filthy river and be baptized? “John would have prevented Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’” John knows that he is sinful himself, that he is in need of the same washing that he is giving to others, but not Jesus. He doesn’t need to be washed, because there is nothing to wash.

But Jesus will not be deterred. “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” This action is fitting, it is proper for the fulfilling of all righteousness. And so Jesus, the sinless One, steps into the river where men are washing away their sin, into a river literally flowing with sin, and He is baptized with the baptism of sinners. He is baptized with the baptism of repentance, even though He had no sin to repent of. And yet, this is fitting for the fulfillment of all righteousness. It is fitting for the sinless one to stand in filth of our sin. In fact, that is what He has done since His birth in a grimy stable in Bethlehem. He came to dwell amongst His dirty people, sharing their filth but yet remaining clean. It is fitting that the righteous and clean one would then stand in that toxic cesspool in the place of sinners. Think about it: the sinless One submits Himself to the baptism of sinners. What clearer sign could there be that this one is our sin-bearer! He has come to take our sin upon His own shoulders, to stand in our place for our salvation. It is fitting that God would send His Son to bear our sin. It is fitting because this was the only way that God could cleanse His beloved people from their sin.

Jesus comes forth from the waters, and all heaven breaks loose. “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately He went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.’” The entire Trinity shows up at this great event: the Father’s booming voice, the Son standing in the waters of sin, and the Holy Spirit descending as a dove. Here Jesus is declared to be the sin-bearer, here He is commissioned to go forth from those filthy waters to destroy the source of that filth. When the Father declares, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased,” He is recalling the words of Isaiah in our Old Testament lesson for today. “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” The Father placed His Spirit upon Jesus to bring justice to the nations, to take the filth of mankind’s sin and do away with it. Jesus is declared the sin-bearer, and He takes on all the sins floating in the river, and all sins ever committed before or since by every person who has ever lived, and He takes them upon His shoulders. The clean one is made dirty for our sake. He is appointed not just to bear our sin, but to be rid of that sin; He is anointed by the Holy Spirit to go- all the way to the cross.

His baptism in the place of sinners points to His death in the place of sinners. At that filthy river He is anointed as the sin-bearer; at the cross He pays the price for that sin. After John baptizes Him, Jesus is called God’s beloved Son; at Calvary, Jesus cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The voice sounds forth from heaven that the Father is well pleased with His Son for His baptism in the place of sinners; no voice booms forth, but on Easter morning, the stone rolls away from the tomb to declare that God is well-pleased with His Son’s death in the place of sinners. Jesus was baptized with your baptism; Jesus died the death you deserved. He stood in your place, He did it all for you.

From the cross flows forgiveness, life, and cleansing. Because of what He would do on the cross, the Baptism of Jesus cleanses the filthy river, and indeed sets aside all waters to deliver the cleansing that Jesus won there. The pastor prays in the baptismal liturgy: “Through the Baptism in the Jordan of Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, You sanctified and instituted all waters to be a blessed flood and a lavish washing away of sin.” When Jesus stepped into that toxic cesspool of sin and corruption, He cleansed the waters from their corruption by bearing that corruption to the cross. And now He uses water to bring the cleansing that we all need. Baptism is how Jesus cleanses the grime and filth of your sin. Baptism is how Jesus purifies you and makes you holy in the sight of God, so that for you, death is defeated.

If Jesus died in your place just as He was baptized in your place, then Paul draws the conclusion in our Epistle lesson that your Baptism is into His death. The cross of Jesus stands in between His Baptism and your own. His baptism was in your place, pointing forward to His suffering and death in your place. Your baptism looks back, incorporating you into His death and bringing you all the benefits He won there. But we do not have Good Friday without Easter. “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. If we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” Your most important death was in your baptism, for there you died to sin, and therefore for you, death is defeated enemy, and Christ will complete your baptism by raising you from the dead on the Last Day to live before God, cleansed and pure forever.

Having been cleansed by the washing instituted by the clean One, having been incorporated into His death and resurrection, we hear the same voice that Jesus heard: “This is my beloved child, with whom I am well pleased.” You are God’s beloved child through your Baptism into Christ’s death, and He is well pleased with you. Not because of anything you have done, for like all people you still fall into sin, but because of what Jesus has done for you in bearing your filth and corruption to the cross. You are His; His beloved child, His forgiven sinner. You are baptized into Christ; you are a child of paradise! In the Name of the One who stands in the place of sinners, Amen.