“Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” 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 eighth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Mark. Dear friends in Christ, our Lord took His disciples up to Caesarea Philippi, the farthest away from Jerusalem that they would ever be during His ministry. There, at the foot of Mount Hermon, He had a question for them: “Who do people say that I am?” Far from the crowds of Galilee or His dangerous opponents in Jerusalem, Jesus wanted an impartial evaluation of what people thought of Him. They answered, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” But Jesus wasn’t really all that interested in what other people had to say about Him. He wanted to know about what His closest companions, His friends, His disciples thought of Him. “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answers boldly on behalf of them all: “You are the Christ.” Their great teacher is much more than a mere man: He is the Messiah, the anointed One! The disciples, especially Peter, were excited, they were enthusiastic, they had visions of glory running through their heads. This was Israel’s triumphant Savior, come to establish God’s kingdom on earth!
But then Jesus tells them what it means that He is the Christ. “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, but the Christ will not receive glory before suffering. He is the suffering Messiah, who will give up His life into the hands of the religious leaders, the enemies of the Gospel. His destiny is rejection and death. And the disciples can’t believe it. “Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.” Peter may be bolder than the other eleven disciples, he may speak his mind more freely than you or I, but he is simply saying what we are all thinking: Jesus is a suffering Messiah? We are often ashamed of the sufferings of Jesus. We are embarrassed by a God who acts in weakness. Sure, we love the baby Jesus, the great teacher Jesus, even the exalted Jesus, but we turn quickly away from the suffering Jesus. That is why so many churches have empty crosses, or no crosses at all. That is why you find it so difficult to speak about Jesus to your friends and family. That is why Lent is such a difficult time of the year. Why? Why are we ashamed of Christ’s sufferings? First of all, our world hates weakness. The weak get crushed and despised, not admired and worshiped. But the attitude of our world is only part of the answer. Deep down, we are ashamed of Christ’s sufferings because we know that His sufferings will lead to our own.
We hear the words of Jesus in our text for today, and we know that He is calling on us to follow Him on the path of sacrifice, humiliation, and suffering. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” There are only two paths: the way of the world and the way of Christ. The way of Christ is a way of self-denial. Jesus calls on us to cease our self-promotion and pride and instead deny ourselves. We are to refuse to acknowledge ourselves; we are to place all people, especially Christ Himself, above us. When we do this, we will face ridicule, we will be trampled upon. We will suffer as Christ did. We will truly sacrifice, we will give up our own lives for others and for Christ. Our lives will be completely focused on following Christ, in everything we say and do, from Sunday morning in church to the rest of the week in our vocations at work and at home. It goes without saying that we don’t do this; we follow the way of this world. We don’t deny ourselves; we worship ourselves. We seek our own interests above all else. We desire the good life this world offers, the material things that will make us feel better and make our lives more convenient. We seek the approval of the world, and the world approves those who help themselves, those who keep their religion private. We are ashamed of the suffering and sacrifice that Jesus calls for, and so while we live for Christ on Sunday, the rest of the week we live for ourselves.
Jesus has stern words for us this morning: “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” There are only two paths: By following Christ, you may give up all earthly possessions, you will be ridiculed and persecuted, and may even give up your life, but you will receive eternal life. On the other hand, by following the world, you will keep all your possessions, you will praised by others and preserve your life, but you will receive eternal death. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” Nothing in this life can pay the ransom for your soul. All the wealth, all the popularity in the world counts for nothing in eternity. You cannot exchange the things of this world for the eternal salvation of your soul.
Only one price could be exchanged for your soul: the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. St. Paul writes in our Epistle lesson, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” The world has deceived you; nothing it offers can defeat death. All of its praise and wealth cannot travel with you beyond the grave. Suffering is the only path that brings salvation, the only way to eternal life. Jesus gave Himself in exchange for your soul, He walked the path of suffering, the path that Peter didn’t want Him to walk, for you and for me. We have a suffering Savior because that was the only way that He could deliver you and me from death. Mark tells us: “He began to teach them that the son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.” This is the divine ‘must,’ the ‘must’ of salvation. Jesus must go to the cross because it was the only way to save you from sin, death, and the power of the devil. No other way would suffice, no other path would lead to salvation, all that the world claimed to offer was a lie. The world offered salvation, but Jesus knew that the path of the world lead only to death. “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Every rich person dies, every poor person dies. Every Christian dies, and every non-Christian dies. Jesus went to the cross so that those who believed in Him, no matter how much they had to suffer and sacrifice in this life, would not die eternally, but instead receive eternal life.
Jesus wasn’t ashamed of His suffering; He walked willingly, boldly to Jerusalem, where He knew that humiliation and death awaited Him. Mark tells us in our text that Jesus spoke the prediction of His suffering and death “plainly.” The Greek word Mark uses is even stronger; Jesus spoke ‘boldly.’ Jesus boldly declared His suffering, humiliation, and death. He boldly proclaimed His cross, because He knew that this was the only path to deliver you from sin and death. He wasn’t ashamed of the cross, but He boldly proclaimed it and He boldly walked that path for you. The Gradual for Lent calls on us to look to Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus despised the shame of the cross, enduring it for you and for your salvation. His love for you would not let Him avoid paying the price for your redemption; He knew the cost, but He boldly declared that He would pay it, saying in John’s Gospel, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down on my own accord.”
He was not ashamed of you; He was not ashamed to bear your sin. The author to the Hebrews writes: “For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers.” Jesus was not ashamed to take flesh and become your brother; He was not ashamed of your sin, and so He bore it to the cross. He was not ashamed of the cost of your salvation, and so He paid it. You and I are covered with sin; we fall into pride and fail to deny ourselves, in our sin we are even ashamed of His humiliation. There is plenty for Jesus to be ashamed of. But He doesn’t reject us; He calls us to repentance, and then in love, mercy, and compassion He forgives our sins, cleansing and purifying us to live before Him forever. To follow Christ, we will face the loss of status in the eyes of others, ridicule, and persecution. We may perhaps be called upon to give up our possessions or even our lives for the sake of Christ. But this text gives us the assurance that despite all that we lose in this life for the sake of Christ, our Lord has a heavenly inheritance for us, won by His shed blood. Even though we die, yet through Christ, we will live. As we sang last week in the hymn A Mighty Fortress is our God, “And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, though these all be gone, our victory has been won; the Kingdom ours remaineth.”
For us as well as Jesus, suffering comes before glory. Good Friday comes before Easter, and for us, a life in a world opposed to Christ comes before an eternity spent with Him. We travel with Jesus to the cross this Lenten season, for there the price has been paid, there the gates of heaven have been opened wide to us. Through His sacrifice on Good Friday, all the glory that belongs to Jesus is given to us. Like Jesus, we travel the road of the cross, we walk through suffering and sorrow, all the while knowing that our Easter is coming. For the God who vindicated Jesus by raising Him from the dead will surely raise those who belong to Jesus on the Last Day, bringing you to the glories of heaven, where we will no longer suffer, but instead will praise the Lamb who suffered for us. In His holy and precious Name, Amen.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Servants of a present Christ, not vicars of an absent Christ
I was reading Luther's 1520 treatise The Freedom of a Christian for bible class yesterday, and this passage from his dedication to Pope Leo X struck me.
"Believe none who exalt you, believe those who humble you. This is the judgment of God, that '...He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree.' [Luke 1:52] See how different Christ is from His successors, although they all would wish to be His vicars. I fear that most of them have been to literally His vicars. A man is a vicar only when his superior is absent. If the pope rules, while Christ is absent...what else is he but a vicar of Christ? what is the church indeed under such a vicar but a mass of people without Christ? Indeed, what is such a vicar but an antichrist and an idol? How much more properly did the apostles call themselves servants of the present Christ and not vicars of an absent Christ."
This statement, though directed at the pope, has application to all who serve in the Office of the Holy Ministry. Pride is always lurking, seeking to consume pastors, and many can unfortunately recount the devestating effects when it takes hold. Luther insists that when we wallow in our pride and status, we end up pointing only to ourselves. This can happen to the country pastor the same as the TV evangelist; in short, all pastors are suceptible to making their Office all about themselves rather than about Christ.
"Believe none who exalt you, believe those who humble you. This is the judgment of God, that '...He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree.' [Luke 1:52] See how different Christ is from His successors, although they all would wish to be His vicars. I fear that most of them have been to literally His vicars. A man is a vicar only when his superior is absent. If the pope rules, while Christ is absent...what else is he but a vicar of Christ? what is the church indeed under such a vicar but a mass of people without Christ? Indeed, what is such a vicar but an antichrist and an idol? How much more properly did the apostles call themselves servants of the present Christ and not vicars of an absent Christ."
This statement, though directed at the pope, has application to all who serve in the Office of the Holy Ministry. Pride is always lurking, seeking to consume pastors, and many can unfortunately recount the devestating effects when it takes hold. Luther insists that when we wallow in our pride and status, we end up pointing only to ourselves. This can happen to the country pastor the same as the TV evangelist; in short, all pastors are suceptible to making their Office all about themselves rather than about Christ.
Lent 1 of Series B (Mark 1:9-15)
“And He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And He was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to Him.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this first Sunday in Lent comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the first chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Mark. Dear friends in Christ, when you hear the word ‘wilderness,’ what picture comes into your mind? The first thing we may think of is the desert. The wilderness sounds like a place where the sun is beating down on you, where food and water are scarce. And that is probably the kind of wilderness that Jesus encountered in our text. But the word “wilderness” in the Bible doesn’t necessarily refer to a place, instead it indicates a situation. The wilderness is characterized by isolation, desolation, emptiness.
The wilderness is a place where you are alone. Therefore, the wilderness can be the driest desert or the lushest rainforest. If you are isolated and alone, you are in the wilderness. Satan uses this isolation to make the wilderness a place of temptation. Eve was in the wilderness when Satan led her into sin. Even though Adam was right next to her, he refused to speak, and so she was alone. The children of Israel found the wilderness a place of temptation; even though they traveled as a nation led by God, they thought that they were alone, and they rebelled against the God who delivered them from bondage. Satan is at his best when he tempts us one at a time. His mission is to divide and conquer. He wants to bring us into the wilderness, to isolate us from others, and then lead us into sin.
He launches that assault on you and me each and every day. This world is the wilderness, the wilderness of temptation and sin. Satan is always working to keep it that way, to divide and isolate. He wants to separate us from our friends, our family, our congregation, but especially from our God. He does his most diligent and successful work in severing relationships. He wants us to think that we are alone, that we have to face this world by ourselves. And then, when we are isolated in any way, He moves in with temptation.
Temptation. That’s Satan’s specialty, and it is something that sharply distinguishes him from God. St. James teaches us: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one.” God tests, Satan tempts. We saw that in our Old Testament lesson, where God tested Abraham’s faith by having him sacrifice Isaac. God tests, and always for our good. What Satan does is quite different; he tempts, he draws us into sin. He plays on our desires, our emotions, our feelings. All sin starts in the heart, with desire, with coveting, and then it is downhill from there. Once again, James teaches us all about it: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Satan works on our most basic emotions, the desires we have for that which is not ours, for that which is not pleasing to God or in accordance with His holy Law. He knows the power that our emotions hold over us, and he is an expert at using that power against us, especially when we are isolated, when we are walking in the wilderness. Those desires lead to thoughts, words, and actions, those desires lead to sin. And sin has only one consequence, as Scripture clearly teaches: “The wages of sin is death.”
This approach has worked for every human since Eve took the apple from the tree; Satan has had thousands of years to perfect his tactics, and he has managed to lead every person who has ever walked this earth into sin. But then Jesus came. He showed up in Satan’s backyard, the wilderness of this sinful, corrupted world. “The Spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness.” He was baptized, but that doesn’t stop Satan’s attacks, it intensifies them. He doesn’t worry too much about the un-baptized, just as long as he can keep them from font. The ones he’s concerned about are those who have heard the words of the Father: “You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.” Like Jesus, all Christians, including you and me, are cast out from the font into the wilderness of temptation. But Jesus goes even a step further; He goes into a literal wilderness, the wilderness of Judea, a region inhabited only by the wild beasts, a place where there is no food, and water is scarce. Satan had to be licking his chops. Jesus was already isolated physically, now He must be isolated spiritually and then enticed into sin. One mistake, one sin, and the game was up. Jesus would be ruined and man would still be in Satan’s grasp. And so the devil quickly launched his attacks. Mark tells us that Jesus was “in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.” Matthew and Luke give us three specific temptations by Satan, but Mark shows us that Jesus constantly faced the relentless assaults of the tempter.
Jesus endured what God’s people have endured for thousands of years; He endured what you have endured for your entire life: continual, unrelenting attack by Satan. Those who have struggled with addiction in any form know exactly what Jesus faced in the wilderness. In the wilderness, God’s chosen people, those delivered by His mighty, outstretched hand, were continually assaulted by Satan’s temptations, and they fell, again and again. In the wilderness, you and I, God’s baptized people, those claimed as His own in those blessed waters, are continually assaulted by Satan’s temptations, and we fall, again and again. But Jesus Christ did not fall. He wasn’t enticed, He wasn’t deceived. Satan used every tactic he had learned in thousands of years of leading humans into sin, every temptation that had worked on millions of people before, but Jesus withstood them all. He remained without sin. He triumphed where God’s people failed, He triumphed where you fail. More than that, He triumphed for you, He triumphed in your place.
For the encounter in the wilderness was simply the first engagement in a war that would last for three years. Satan was defeated in the desert, but he didn’t quit. At every turn, demons rose up against Jesus; Satan even used Peter as a tool to turn Jesus away from the path of salvation. Finally, the journey ended where it began: in the wilderness, this time the wilderness of the cross. On Good Friday, Jesus truly was in the wilderness, He was completely isolated, abandoned by all of His disciples, rejected by the world, forsaken even by God Himself. He was more isolated that afternoon that during his forty days in the Judean wilderness. The only one there was Satan, mocking Him through the voice of the crowds, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down from the cross.” But Jesus Christ did not fall. He wasn’t enticed, He wasn’t deceived. Despite the temptations of Satan, He gave up His life on the tree, He shed His blood to destroy sin, death, and the power of the devil. He triumphed for you, He triumphed in your place. He triumphed on the cross for every time that you have fallen into Satan’s temptations, He triumphed on the cross so that Satan’s power over you would be broken forever. He triumphed on the cross so that you will never be alone, never isolated from God ever again. He triumphed so that the wilderness of temptation could become the new Eden of peace.
Sin isolates, it divides, it severs relationships. All of God’s creatures have been estranged from each other and from their Creator since Adam and Eve fell into sin. The wilderness is all about isolation. But Jesus came into the wilderness and transformed it. His blood brings forth a new reality: Eden restored, where all of creation lives in harmony with each other and with God. Jesus demonstrated this as He endured the temptations of Satan in the wilderness. Mark tells us, “He was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to Him.” Satan wanted Jesus to be isolated, but instead Jesus restored relationships even with the wild animals, the Creator was honored by His creatures. Isaiah predicted that this would be the work of the Messiah in chapter forty-three of his prophecy: “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people.” Peace in all the created order is the result of Christ’s work; the restoration of all relationships comes through His blood. What He began in the wilderness of Judea as He faced Satan’s temptations will be completed on the Last Day: the wilderness of temptation will be transformed into the Eden of peace.
Isaiah has more to say in another place about this new Eden, the new heavens and the new earth: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. 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.” The new heavens and the new earth will be Eden restored, where the wilderness of isolation and division will be no more. Peace will characterize eternity; all relationships will be perfect and whole, especially your relationship with your God, healed by the shed blood of Christ. There the assaults of Satan will cease forever. He will no longer tempt, no longer accuse, for Christ defeated him for you; He did battle with your enemy and He triumphed, in the wilderness of Judea and in the wilderness of the cross. Until that Day, Satan remains your enemy, but he is a defeated enemy, triumphed over by the One who stood in your place and did not fall into temptation, your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In His holy and precious Name, Amen.
The wilderness is a place where you are alone. Therefore, the wilderness can be the driest desert or the lushest rainforest. If you are isolated and alone, you are in the wilderness. Satan uses this isolation to make the wilderness a place of temptation. Eve was in the wilderness when Satan led her into sin. Even though Adam was right next to her, he refused to speak, and so she was alone. The children of Israel found the wilderness a place of temptation; even though they traveled as a nation led by God, they thought that they were alone, and they rebelled against the God who delivered them from bondage. Satan is at his best when he tempts us one at a time. His mission is to divide and conquer. He wants to bring us into the wilderness, to isolate us from others, and then lead us into sin.
He launches that assault on you and me each and every day. This world is the wilderness, the wilderness of temptation and sin. Satan is always working to keep it that way, to divide and isolate. He wants to separate us from our friends, our family, our congregation, but especially from our God. He does his most diligent and successful work in severing relationships. He wants us to think that we are alone, that we have to face this world by ourselves. And then, when we are isolated in any way, He moves in with temptation.
Temptation. That’s Satan’s specialty, and it is something that sharply distinguishes him from God. St. James teaches us: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one.” God tests, Satan tempts. We saw that in our Old Testament lesson, where God tested Abraham’s faith by having him sacrifice Isaac. God tests, and always for our good. What Satan does is quite different; he tempts, he draws us into sin. He plays on our desires, our emotions, our feelings. All sin starts in the heart, with desire, with coveting, and then it is downhill from there. Once again, James teaches us all about it: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Satan works on our most basic emotions, the desires we have for that which is not ours, for that which is not pleasing to God or in accordance with His holy Law. He knows the power that our emotions hold over us, and he is an expert at using that power against us, especially when we are isolated, when we are walking in the wilderness. Those desires lead to thoughts, words, and actions, those desires lead to sin. And sin has only one consequence, as Scripture clearly teaches: “The wages of sin is death.”
This approach has worked for every human since Eve took the apple from the tree; Satan has had thousands of years to perfect his tactics, and he has managed to lead every person who has ever walked this earth into sin. But then Jesus came. He showed up in Satan’s backyard, the wilderness of this sinful, corrupted world. “The Spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness.” He was baptized, but that doesn’t stop Satan’s attacks, it intensifies them. He doesn’t worry too much about the un-baptized, just as long as he can keep them from font. The ones he’s concerned about are those who have heard the words of the Father: “You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.” Like Jesus, all Christians, including you and me, are cast out from the font into the wilderness of temptation. But Jesus goes even a step further; He goes into a literal wilderness, the wilderness of Judea, a region inhabited only by the wild beasts, a place where there is no food, and water is scarce. Satan had to be licking his chops. Jesus was already isolated physically, now He must be isolated spiritually and then enticed into sin. One mistake, one sin, and the game was up. Jesus would be ruined and man would still be in Satan’s grasp. And so the devil quickly launched his attacks. Mark tells us that Jesus was “in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.” Matthew and Luke give us three specific temptations by Satan, but Mark shows us that Jesus constantly faced the relentless assaults of the tempter.
Jesus endured what God’s people have endured for thousands of years; He endured what you have endured for your entire life: continual, unrelenting attack by Satan. Those who have struggled with addiction in any form know exactly what Jesus faced in the wilderness. In the wilderness, God’s chosen people, those delivered by His mighty, outstretched hand, were continually assaulted by Satan’s temptations, and they fell, again and again. In the wilderness, you and I, God’s baptized people, those claimed as His own in those blessed waters, are continually assaulted by Satan’s temptations, and we fall, again and again. But Jesus Christ did not fall. He wasn’t enticed, He wasn’t deceived. Satan used every tactic he had learned in thousands of years of leading humans into sin, every temptation that had worked on millions of people before, but Jesus withstood them all. He remained without sin. He triumphed where God’s people failed, He triumphed where you fail. More than that, He triumphed for you, He triumphed in your place.
For the encounter in the wilderness was simply the first engagement in a war that would last for three years. Satan was defeated in the desert, but he didn’t quit. At every turn, demons rose up against Jesus; Satan even used Peter as a tool to turn Jesus away from the path of salvation. Finally, the journey ended where it began: in the wilderness, this time the wilderness of the cross. On Good Friday, Jesus truly was in the wilderness, He was completely isolated, abandoned by all of His disciples, rejected by the world, forsaken even by God Himself. He was more isolated that afternoon that during his forty days in the Judean wilderness. The only one there was Satan, mocking Him through the voice of the crowds, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down from the cross.” But Jesus Christ did not fall. He wasn’t enticed, He wasn’t deceived. Despite the temptations of Satan, He gave up His life on the tree, He shed His blood to destroy sin, death, and the power of the devil. He triumphed for you, He triumphed in your place. He triumphed on the cross for every time that you have fallen into Satan’s temptations, He triumphed on the cross so that Satan’s power over you would be broken forever. He triumphed on the cross so that you will never be alone, never isolated from God ever again. He triumphed so that the wilderness of temptation could become the new Eden of peace.
Sin isolates, it divides, it severs relationships. All of God’s creatures have been estranged from each other and from their Creator since Adam and Eve fell into sin. The wilderness is all about isolation. But Jesus came into the wilderness and transformed it. His blood brings forth a new reality: Eden restored, where all of creation lives in harmony with each other and with God. Jesus demonstrated this as He endured the temptations of Satan in the wilderness. Mark tells us, “He was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to Him.” Satan wanted Jesus to be isolated, but instead Jesus restored relationships even with the wild animals, the Creator was honored by His creatures. Isaiah predicted that this would be the work of the Messiah in chapter forty-three of his prophecy: “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people.” Peace in all the created order is the result of Christ’s work; the restoration of all relationships comes through His blood. What He began in the wilderness of Judea as He faced Satan’s temptations will be completed on the Last Day: the wilderness of temptation will be transformed into the Eden of peace.
Isaiah has more to say in another place about this new Eden, the new heavens and the new earth: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. 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.” The new heavens and the new earth will be Eden restored, where the wilderness of isolation and division will be no more. Peace will characterize eternity; all relationships will be perfect and whole, especially your relationship with your God, healed by the shed blood of Christ. There the assaults of Satan will cease forever. He will no longer tempt, no longer accuse, for Christ defeated him for you; He did battle with your enemy and He triumphed, in the wilderness of Judea and in the wilderness of the cross. Until that Day, Satan remains your enemy, but he is a defeated enemy, triumphed over by the One who stood in your place and did not fall into temptation, your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In His holy and precious Name, Amen.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Ash Wednesday (Joel 2:12-19)
“‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this evening comes from the Old Testament lesson read a few moments ago from the second chapter of the prophet Joel. Dear friends in Christ, it’s Ash Wednesday and I’m still not sure what I’m going to give up for Lent. I’ve thought about giving up watching sports, eating sweets, television, Facebook, or even the internet, but I haven’t been able to settle on any one thing. Surely, I have to give up something, right? It’s just what Christians do during Lent; giving up something has become a very popular way to commemorate this season, and so I have to deprive myself in some way. And it’s much better if I’m constantly reminding others about what I’m giving up and asking them what they’re doing, and so, what about you? Have you decided what you’re giving up for Lent?
Here’s an idea for you and for me: Give up sin for Lent! “‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” God tells us to quit messing around, to stop our pathetic show of outward piety. He doesn’t care if we quit eating chocolate for Lent, He cares about the condition of our heart. He is tired of His people pretending to be sorrowful over sin, He is disgusted with empty repentance. We can make a big show of repentance, we can even put ashes on our head, but He could care less how dirty our heads are tonight if we aren’t sorrowful over our sin. Jesus said in our Gospel lesson: “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.” Christ doesn’t care about the outward show; He looks to the heart. This is the same teaching we find in Joel: “Rend your hearts and not your garments.” Give up your sin for Lent! Don’t waste your time abstaining from steak if you continue to live in unrepentant sin. Examine your life deeply this Lenten season, make that your discipline. Look into every nook and cranny of your life, and expose the sin that hides in secret. Use the mirror of God’s Holy Law to bring all of your sin to light, especially the sin that no one else knows about.
Then repent of it; turn away from that sin and toward God. “Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.” Give up your sin for Lent! “Rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to your Creator, come back to Him in repentance, in sorrow and mourning over your great sin. Carry your secret sins to His altar and beg for forgiveness, confess them with the tears of repentance. Bring your sin into the light, confess them before God Himself and the servants God has given to you. Your pastor isn’t quite ready to institute the regular practice of private confession and absolution; he wants to teach a bible class first and write a few newsletters. Force his hand; demand that he hear your confession. Remind your pastor of his ordination vows, that he has been placed here by Jesus Christ Himself to hear your confession and intercede before God on your behalf. Make him do his job! Hold his feet to the fire, demand that he do what he has been called to do. Without private confession and absolution, you are being robbed of one of Christ’s greatest gifts; demand that your pastor provide it to you.
For he is commanded to do what the priests did in our text: “Between the vestibule and the altar let the priest, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God”?’” Your sins deserve death, each and every one of them, eternal death in hell; that is what God’s Law shows you when you examine yourself this Lenten season. God’s servants are charged to plead with Him to save you, to spare you from the punishment your sin has earned. Their task is to intercede on your behalf, they are to bring the petitions of those they serve before His throne of grace. They are to hear your confession, your secret sins and your public sins, and then plead to God for mercy, giving you assurance on the basis of His character. “He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.” Look to who your God is, take comfort there! “Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?”
You cannot make God be merciful, but you can trust that He will be merciful, that He will spare, that He will relent, because that is who He is. Your God is love. “Then the Lord became jealous for His land and had pity on His people.” God is jealous for you; He will give you up into Satan’s grasp, He will not let you die in your sin. He relents over the disaster that was prepared for you, because He has provided a substitute for you. St. Paul writes in our Epistle lesson, “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” This sinless substitute is Jesus Christ; through His death and resurrection, God will show forth His character as the God of love. “He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.” Christ was made sin so that God could show grace and mercy to you. The Father’s anger was slow because He knew that one day He would offer up His Son. Even today His anger is slow; the return of Christ and the end of the world is delayed only for the sake of God’s beloved creation, that more people would be saved through the blood of Christ. The Lord relents over disaster because the disaster fell upon Christ. Jesus on the cross is the definitive display of God’s gracious character. Joel wrote, “Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?” We know, because He sent us Jesus, to suffer, die, and rise again on our behalf.
We know because He has sent us His great gifts. “The Lord answered and said to His people, ‘Behold, I am sending you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.’” Christ has left behind Him the very gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. Examine your life deeply this Lenten season, seeing your sin in light of God’s Law; then run in repentance to where Christ pours forth the forgiveness He won on the cross. Run to the font each and every day, washing yourself clean once again in repentance and faith, drowning the Old Adam and bringing forth the new man to live before God! Run to your pastor; hold him to his ordination vows, demand that he hear your confession and then hear the sweet words of the absolution forgive that sin. Bring your secret sins out into the light and confess them to a man who has been placed here by Christ to hear them and forgive them in His stead and by His command. Run tonight to this altar, where Christ gives Himself to you for the forgiveness of your sins. Here, in this place, on this very night, Christ declares to you, “Behold, I am sending you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.” Run to where Christ is present for you, for Jesus pours out His gifts in abundance upon His repentant people.
For the next five Wednesdays, we will run to God’s house to hear God’s Law and repent of our sin, then we will hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and receive His forgiveness. Joel calls on all people to hear of this salvation together. “Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.” Together we will hear of our sin; together we will hear of Christ’s death and resurrection as the answer to that sin. This Lenten season, we run together to the cross, where “the Lord became jealous for His land and had pity on His people.” Amen.
Here’s an idea for you and for me: Give up sin for Lent! “‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” God tells us to quit messing around, to stop our pathetic show of outward piety. He doesn’t care if we quit eating chocolate for Lent, He cares about the condition of our heart. He is tired of His people pretending to be sorrowful over sin, He is disgusted with empty repentance. We can make a big show of repentance, we can even put ashes on our head, but He could care less how dirty our heads are tonight if we aren’t sorrowful over our sin. Jesus said in our Gospel lesson: “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.” Christ doesn’t care about the outward show; He looks to the heart. This is the same teaching we find in Joel: “Rend your hearts and not your garments.” Give up your sin for Lent! Don’t waste your time abstaining from steak if you continue to live in unrepentant sin. Examine your life deeply this Lenten season, make that your discipline. Look into every nook and cranny of your life, and expose the sin that hides in secret. Use the mirror of God’s Holy Law to bring all of your sin to light, especially the sin that no one else knows about.
Then repent of it; turn away from that sin and toward God. “Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.” Give up your sin for Lent! “Rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to your Creator, come back to Him in repentance, in sorrow and mourning over your great sin. Carry your secret sins to His altar and beg for forgiveness, confess them with the tears of repentance. Bring your sin into the light, confess them before God Himself and the servants God has given to you. Your pastor isn’t quite ready to institute the regular practice of private confession and absolution; he wants to teach a bible class first and write a few newsletters. Force his hand; demand that he hear your confession. Remind your pastor of his ordination vows, that he has been placed here by Jesus Christ Himself to hear your confession and intercede before God on your behalf. Make him do his job! Hold his feet to the fire, demand that he do what he has been called to do. Without private confession and absolution, you are being robbed of one of Christ’s greatest gifts; demand that your pastor provide it to you.
For he is commanded to do what the priests did in our text: “Between the vestibule and the altar let the priest, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God”?’” Your sins deserve death, each and every one of them, eternal death in hell; that is what God’s Law shows you when you examine yourself this Lenten season. God’s servants are charged to plead with Him to save you, to spare you from the punishment your sin has earned. Their task is to intercede on your behalf, they are to bring the petitions of those they serve before His throne of grace. They are to hear your confession, your secret sins and your public sins, and then plead to God for mercy, giving you assurance on the basis of His character. “He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.” Look to who your God is, take comfort there! “Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?”
You cannot make God be merciful, but you can trust that He will be merciful, that He will spare, that He will relent, because that is who He is. Your God is love. “Then the Lord became jealous for His land and had pity on His people.” God is jealous for you; He will give you up into Satan’s grasp, He will not let you die in your sin. He relents over the disaster that was prepared for you, because He has provided a substitute for you. St. Paul writes in our Epistle lesson, “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” This sinless substitute is Jesus Christ; through His death and resurrection, God will show forth His character as the God of love. “He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.” Christ was made sin so that God could show grace and mercy to you. The Father’s anger was slow because He knew that one day He would offer up His Son. Even today His anger is slow; the return of Christ and the end of the world is delayed only for the sake of God’s beloved creation, that more people would be saved through the blood of Christ. The Lord relents over disaster because the disaster fell upon Christ. Jesus on the cross is the definitive display of God’s gracious character. Joel wrote, “Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?” We know, because He sent us Jesus, to suffer, die, and rise again on our behalf.
We know because He has sent us His great gifts. “The Lord answered and said to His people, ‘Behold, I am sending you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.’” Christ has left behind Him the very gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. Examine your life deeply this Lenten season, seeing your sin in light of God’s Law; then run in repentance to where Christ pours forth the forgiveness He won on the cross. Run to the font each and every day, washing yourself clean once again in repentance and faith, drowning the Old Adam and bringing forth the new man to live before God! Run to your pastor; hold him to his ordination vows, demand that he hear your confession and then hear the sweet words of the absolution forgive that sin. Bring your secret sins out into the light and confess them to a man who has been placed here by Christ to hear them and forgive them in His stead and by His command. Run tonight to this altar, where Christ gives Himself to you for the forgiveness of your sins. Here, in this place, on this very night, Christ declares to you, “Behold, I am sending you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.” Run to where Christ is present for you, for Jesus pours out His gifts in abundance upon His repentant people.
For the next five Wednesdays, we will run to God’s house to hear God’s Law and repent of our sin, then we will hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and receive His forgiveness. Joel calls on all people to hear of this salvation together. “Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.” Together we will hear of our sin; together we will hear of Christ’s death and resurrection as the answer to that sin. This Lenten season, we run together to the cross, where “the Lord became jealous for His land and had pity on His people.” Amen.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
The proper nutrition
I would guess that every pastor wants to see his members grow in the faith. He desires for them to see their sin, repent of it, and cling to Christ, not their works or emotions. He is encouraged when a member 'gets it,' and shows enthusiasm (the good kind, not the heresy that clings to our flesh) for the teachings and work of the church. He would certainly want to see the entire congregation grow in this way. Spiritual apathy is very frustrating to deal with as a pastor.
My wife was watching a video by a nutritionist who consulted for the exercise program she is doing. This man was emphasizing the value of nutrition for working out, essentially saying, 'You can undermine your workout by what you eat before and after.' You can work out as hard as you want, but if you don't couple it with proper nutrition, you are sabotaging yourself.
This has direct application to the church. We want our members to grow in the faith, we want them to be enthusiastic for the teachings and work of the church, we want to fight apathy. But we so often do so without the nutrition Christ has given for doing this very task. More social activities, youth group events and soup suppers can all be good things, but they don't have the ability to create and strengthen faith. I as a pastor cannot expect anything but apathy if I am giving Christ's people a limited diet.
The nutrition Christ has given to the Church is the Word and the Sacraments. These means of grace do have the power to create and strengthen faith. That's why Christ gave them. I cannot expect renewal in my congregation (or in the church at large!) without an emphasis on the gifts Christ has given. I can try as hard as I want, I can run myself ragged, but if I am not using to the fullest extent Christ's gifts, I am sabotaging all of that work.
Without more frequent communion, the practice of private confession and absolution or a stronger emphasis on preaching and baptism, we are hamstringing all of our efforts; we are running in place or even going backward. Those are the tools Christ has given, the nutrition He has provided. Now, these gifts aren't magic; the results of Christ's Word and Sacraments are left in His hands. We are all still sinners; apathy will still be encountered. But even in the midst of apathy and sin, the pastor will be using the gifts that Christ has appointed for his task, the tools He has given, with the promise that His Word never returns empty, but will accomplish that for which it was sent.
My wife was watching a video by a nutritionist who consulted for the exercise program she is doing. This man was emphasizing the value of nutrition for working out, essentially saying, 'You can undermine your workout by what you eat before and after.' You can work out as hard as you want, but if you don't couple it with proper nutrition, you are sabotaging yourself.
This has direct application to the church. We want our members to grow in the faith, we want them to be enthusiastic for the teachings and work of the church, we want to fight apathy. But we so often do so without the nutrition Christ has given for doing this very task. More social activities, youth group events and soup suppers can all be good things, but they don't have the ability to create and strengthen faith. I as a pastor cannot expect anything but apathy if I am giving Christ's people a limited diet.
The nutrition Christ has given to the Church is the Word and the Sacraments. These means of grace do have the power to create and strengthen faith. That's why Christ gave them. I cannot expect renewal in my congregation (or in the church at large!) without an emphasis on the gifts Christ has given. I can try as hard as I want, I can run myself ragged, but if I am not using to the fullest extent Christ's gifts, I am sabotaging all of that work.
Without more frequent communion, the practice of private confession and absolution or a stronger emphasis on preaching and baptism, we are hamstringing all of our efforts; we are running in place or even going backward. Those are the tools Christ has given, the nutrition He has provided. Now, these gifts aren't magic; the results of Christ's Word and Sacraments are left in His hands. We are all still sinners; apathy will still be encountered. But even in the midst of apathy and sin, the pastor will be using the gifts that Christ has appointed for his task, the tools He has given, with the promise that His Word never returns empty, but will accomplish that for which it was sent.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Making God the devil
"We also see here how foolish it is for people to think they can hope for God's grace while they continue to cling to open or secret sin. Such people make a devil out of God. For it is the devil, not the holy God, who takes no notice of sin." -- CFW Walther (from God Grant It, pg. 231)
Transfiguration (Series B, Mark 9:2-9)
“A cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to 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 this Transfiguration Day comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the ninth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Mark. Dear friends in Christ, on April sixth, nearly seven weeks from now, we will gather at St. John’s for Good Friday. On that evening, our yearly pilgrimage to the cross, which begins on Wednesday, will come to an end. That long, somber journey, centered on repentance, will lead us to the Sanhedrin, to Pilate, to a place outside the walls of Jerusalem, a bloody hill called Golgotha. You will hear from the Gospels of His suffering, you will listen to the mocking, the bloodthirsty cries of the mob: ‘Crucify, crucify!’ You will look to the cross, and there you will see a dying man hanging there, an innocent man, a man who did not deserve any of the suffering He endured, a man who spent His ministry healing the sick, driving out demons, even raising the dead. He is a remarkable man, to be sure, but to all the world, He is simply a man. Jesus never appeared more human than at the moment of His death. Who is this man, dying upon the cross, dying like a criminal? We find it impossible to see glory on Good Friday, to see anything other than a man unjustly crucified. Who is this man?
God gives us the answer at the Transfiguration. On this day, we learn exactly who this dying man is. It was out Lutheran forefathers who placed this festival on the last Sunday of Epiphany, and I believe that it was a great decision. Just days before we place ashes upon our heads and walk into the shadowy valley of Lent, we are given a glimpse of the glory, the curtain is pulled back, if only for a minute. “After six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them, and His clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.” On this mountain, Jesus is revealed in all of His glory to be true God. In the magnificent language of the Nicene Creed, He is manifested that day as “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.” The Transfiguration shows us exactly what is happening on Good Friday; this man hanging upon the cross, suffering in shame and humiliation, is more than a man, He is God. On Good Friday, you will see God dying on Calvary’s cross. The glory will be hidden, but the Transfiguration teaches us that it’s a reality, that Jesus is true man and He is also true God.
The Transfiguration has even more to teach us about this man dying upon the cross. “A cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to Him.’” This Jesus, true God in the flesh, is the beloved Son of the Father. This makes Good Friday even more shocking; not only is God dying upon the cross, but the man who is also true God is called the ‘beloved Son’ of the Father! God’s beloved Son is dying upon the cross! This isn’t just a man; this isn’t even just a divine man. This is the One whom He loves, the One who is with Him from eternity, the only-begotten Son. The Father wouldn’t give the Son up into death lightly. How can God call Jesus His ‘beloved Son’ and then send Him to the cross? The Transfiguration teaches us the greatest tragedy of the cross: God’s beloved Son is crucified by God’s rebellious creatures.
What would motivate the Father to give up His Son into humiliation and death? Atheists call it ‘divine child abuse,’ and when we look at the cross, that seems close to the truth. But the answer is much different, and it is rooted not in God’s abuse but in our rebellion: Jesus Christ suffered and died because He was the only sacrifice that would suffice for the sin of the world. The cost of our sin isn’t the blood of rams, goats, or bulls. Those sacrifices could never completely appease God’s righteous wrath. Even the sacrifice of a man would never be enough. A perfect man? Closer, but still not enough. The cost of our sin is much higher; it is God in the flesh, the beloved Son of the Father. That is the only price that will suffice, the only sacrifice that will satisfy the wrath of God over our sin and rebellion.
The Transfiguration teaches you the price of your sin; on that mountain, with Peter, James, and John, you see clearly the price that you owed to God. Your debt was so large that only the death of the sinless, beloved Son of God would suffice. On Transfiguration Day, we learn that we do not take our sin seriously enough. How many times have you done something that you know is wrong, thinking that ‘I’ll just ask for forgiveness later’? We do this with our choices throughout each day, and we do this with the sinful lifestyles we indulge in. Pornography, filthy language, addiction, sex outside of marriage, hurtful words, and gossip are all sins that Christians wallow in. Now, there is a vast difference between struggling against a sin day after day, sometimes fighting it off, sometimes falling, and living in a sinful lifestyle without any thought of repentance. The first group takes sin seriously and wants to escape from it; the second doesn’t, but instead simply gives excuses. We justify our own actions, especially if we have the uncomfortable feeling that God’s Word is condemning our behavior. Where God’s Word is black and white, we are searching for gray. We are seeking to avoid the spotlight of God’s holy Law, and when it does catch us, we have excuses, or we tell ourselves that it isn’t a big deal. We treat sin and forgiveness as if it didn’t cost anything at all. Do we even confess our sins? Do we take our sin seriously enough to bring it before God and ask for forgiveness? After the Transfiguration you cannot take your sin lightly anymore; on that mountain you have seen the cost, the required price, and it is a price you could never pay.
God knew this, He knew the cost of your sin, the price that was required to satisfy His wrath over man’s rebellion, and in love, He paid it. The Transfiguration teaches us the love of God, a love that didn’t spare His only begotten Son, but gave Him up for us all. God didn’t hesitate in giving His Son into death for you. The price was steep, but He paid it, because of His great love for you. On Transfiguration Day, God shows you His Son in all His glory, and says, “This is what I’m giving up for you. He will die in your place because I would not see you die in your sin. This is the depth of my love for you; my Son, true God in the flesh, is the price I’m willing to pay for your salvation.” God’s justice demanded that sin should be punished, but His love demanded that He act to deliver you. At the cross God’s justice and His love met; there Jesus died under the wrath of God’s justice in order that the Father could show love to you.
Jesus is God’s beloved Son because He sacrificed Himself for you. God said on the mountain, “This is my beloved Son,” because Jesus was walking the way of the cross. Jesus was no unwilling victim; He knew the cost, but His love for you wouldn’t allow Him to do anything different. He was the only price that could pay for your sin. Only as true man could He take your place and live the perfect life you couldn’t; only as true God could His death atone for the sin of the world. He suffered and died upon that cross to satisfy the wrath of God, to pay for every sin you have ever committed. In fact, He died for the corruption of sin that has filled you since your conception. On the cross, we see a man dying, but through the lens of the Transfiguration, we see that this dying man is also true God, with the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father. That glory was hidden on Good Friday, but three days later it would shine forth never to be hidden again.
Jesus rose victorious over death, receiving the crown of glory that will never fade away. Now He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, interceding for His people, giving forth all that He won on the cross, through His instrument the Church. The Transfiguration was a glimpse of the glory that Jesus would possess forever. In the same way, because you have been joined to Christ in God-given faith, the Transfiguration is a glimpse of the glory that will be yours for eternity. Saint Paul declares, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” We too have glory, not because of who we are or what we have done, but because of who Jesus is and what He has done. He has transformed us through the power of His Gospel, through the washing of Holy Baptism, through the gift of His Body and Blood. We have glory, even though now it is hidden, and we must, like Jesus, pass through the valley of the shadow of death. This glory will shine forth forever when the Lord takes us to be with Himself. The Transfiguration is a picture of you, now through faith, and in eternity, as you will shine with the glory of heaven.
This picture of glory; the glory of Jesus and our own future glory, sustains us in the weeks to come, and it sustains us as we journey through this life. We can’t remain on the mountain any more than Peter could. “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He didn’t know what He was saying, all he knew was that he wanted to stay there and bask in the glory. But Transfiguration Day isn’t the end, it isn’t the goal, it’s simply a glimpse of what is to come. We must go down the mountain, we must travel with Jesus to the cross. Suffering always comes before glory; that is the pattern that Jesus followed, and that is the pattern that we follow, this Lenten season and throughout our life. We know that glory awaits us, that it’s already ours through faith in Christ, and we wait for its final revealing. On that Day, the Father will say to you what He said to Jesus, “This is my beloved child!” In the Name of Jesus, the price for our sin, offered willingly in love for us, Amen.
God gives us the answer at the Transfiguration. On this day, we learn exactly who this dying man is. It was out Lutheran forefathers who placed this festival on the last Sunday of Epiphany, and I believe that it was a great decision. Just days before we place ashes upon our heads and walk into the shadowy valley of Lent, we are given a glimpse of the glory, the curtain is pulled back, if only for a minute. “After six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them, and His clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.” On this mountain, Jesus is revealed in all of His glory to be true God. In the magnificent language of the Nicene Creed, He is manifested that day as “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.” The Transfiguration shows us exactly what is happening on Good Friday; this man hanging upon the cross, suffering in shame and humiliation, is more than a man, He is God. On Good Friday, you will see God dying on Calvary’s cross. The glory will be hidden, but the Transfiguration teaches us that it’s a reality, that Jesus is true man and He is also true God.
The Transfiguration has even more to teach us about this man dying upon the cross. “A cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to Him.’” This Jesus, true God in the flesh, is the beloved Son of the Father. This makes Good Friday even more shocking; not only is God dying upon the cross, but the man who is also true God is called the ‘beloved Son’ of the Father! God’s beloved Son is dying upon the cross! This isn’t just a man; this isn’t even just a divine man. This is the One whom He loves, the One who is with Him from eternity, the only-begotten Son. The Father wouldn’t give the Son up into death lightly. How can God call Jesus His ‘beloved Son’ and then send Him to the cross? The Transfiguration teaches us the greatest tragedy of the cross: God’s beloved Son is crucified by God’s rebellious creatures.
What would motivate the Father to give up His Son into humiliation and death? Atheists call it ‘divine child abuse,’ and when we look at the cross, that seems close to the truth. But the answer is much different, and it is rooted not in God’s abuse but in our rebellion: Jesus Christ suffered and died because He was the only sacrifice that would suffice for the sin of the world. The cost of our sin isn’t the blood of rams, goats, or bulls. Those sacrifices could never completely appease God’s righteous wrath. Even the sacrifice of a man would never be enough. A perfect man? Closer, but still not enough. The cost of our sin is much higher; it is God in the flesh, the beloved Son of the Father. That is the only price that will suffice, the only sacrifice that will satisfy the wrath of God over our sin and rebellion.
The Transfiguration teaches you the price of your sin; on that mountain, with Peter, James, and John, you see clearly the price that you owed to God. Your debt was so large that only the death of the sinless, beloved Son of God would suffice. On Transfiguration Day, we learn that we do not take our sin seriously enough. How many times have you done something that you know is wrong, thinking that ‘I’ll just ask for forgiveness later’? We do this with our choices throughout each day, and we do this with the sinful lifestyles we indulge in. Pornography, filthy language, addiction, sex outside of marriage, hurtful words, and gossip are all sins that Christians wallow in. Now, there is a vast difference between struggling against a sin day after day, sometimes fighting it off, sometimes falling, and living in a sinful lifestyle without any thought of repentance. The first group takes sin seriously and wants to escape from it; the second doesn’t, but instead simply gives excuses. We justify our own actions, especially if we have the uncomfortable feeling that God’s Word is condemning our behavior. Where God’s Word is black and white, we are searching for gray. We are seeking to avoid the spotlight of God’s holy Law, and when it does catch us, we have excuses, or we tell ourselves that it isn’t a big deal. We treat sin and forgiveness as if it didn’t cost anything at all. Do we even confess our sins? Do we take our sin seriously enough to bring it before God and ask for forgiveness? After the Transfiguration you cannot take your sin lightly anymore; on that mountain you have seen the cost, the required price, and it is a price you could never pay.
God knew this, He knew the cost of your sin, the price that was required to satisfy His wrath over man’s rebellion, and in love, He paid it. The Transfiguration teaches us the love of God, a love that didn’t spare His only begotten Son, but gave Him up for us all. God didn’t hesitate in giving His Son into death for you. The price was steep, but He paid it, because of His great love for you. On Transfiguration Day, God shows you His Son in all His glory, and says, “This is what I’m giving up for you. He will die in your place because I would not see you die in your sin. This is the depth of my love for you; my Son, true God in the flesh, is the price I’m willing to pay for your salvation.” God’s justice demanded that sin should be punished, but His love demanded that He act to deliver you. At the cross God’s justice and His love met; there Jesus died under the wrath of God’s justice in order that the Father could show love to you.
Jesus is God’s beloved Son because He sacrificed Himself for you. God said on the mountain, “This is my beloved Son,” because Jesus was walking the way of the cross. Jesus was no unwilling victim; He knew the cost, but His love for you wouldn’t allow Him to do anything different. He was the only price that could pay for your sin. Only as true man could He take your place and live the perfect life you couldn’t; only as true God could His death atone for the sin of the world. He suffered and died upon that cross to satisfy the wrath of God, to pay for every sin you have ever committed. In fact, He died for the corruption of sin that has filled you since your conception. On the cross, we see a man dying, but through the lens of the Transfiguration, we see that this dying man is also true God, with the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father. That glory was hidden on Good Friday, but three days later it would shine forth never to be hidden again.
Jesus rose victorious over death, receiving the crown of glory that will never fade away. Now He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, interceding for His people, giving forth all that He won on the cross, through His instrument the Church. The Transfiguration was a glimpse of the glory that Jesus would possess forever. In the same way, because you have been joined to Christ in God-given faith, the Transfiguration is a glimpse of the glory that will be yours for eternity. Saint Paul declares, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” We too have glory, not because of who we are or what we have done, but because of who Jesus is and what He has done. He has transformed us through the power of His Gospel, through the washing of Holy Baptism, through the gift of His Body and Blood. We have glory, even though now it is hidden, and we must, like Jesus, pass through the valley of the shadow of death. This glory will shine forth forever when the Lord takes us to be with Himself. The Transfiguration is a picture of you, now through faith, and in eternity, as you will shine with the glory of heaven.
This picture of glory; the glory of Jesus and our own future glory, sustains us in the weeks to come, and it sustains us as we journey through this life. We can’t remain on the mountain any more than Peter could. “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He didn’t know what He was saying, all he knew was that he wanted to stay there and bask in the glory. But Transfiguration Day isn’t the end, it isn’t the goal, it’s simply a glimpse of what is to come. We must go down the mountain, we must travel with Jesus to the cross. Suffering always comes before glory; that is the pattern that Jesus followed, and that is the pattern that we follow, this Lenten season and throughout our life. We know that glory awaits us, that it’s already ours through faith in Christ, and we wait for its final revealing. On that Day, the Father will say to you what He said to Jesus, “This is my beloved child!” In the Name of Jesus, the price for our sin, offered willingly in love for us, Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)