January 2026 – Page 2 – What Does This Mean?

To Live Well, Honor Your Parents

Encore Post:

[Thirteenth is a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

The Fourth Commandment is different. This commandment is positive. It urges us to honor our father and mother rather than the “nots” of most of the commandments. It comes with a promise — that you will live a long life. It is the first commandment that even non-believers can keep, and their lives will be better in this world. It is the first of the Words to explain what it means to love your neighbor — to do to others what you want them to do to you.

So, why is honoring our father and mother the first commandment about loving our neighbors? Of all the vocations (callings) that God gives to us, parenting is the most basic. We are not all blessed with children, professions, businesses, or crafts, but every one of us has one father and one mother. For us, a parent is a mask God wears to care for us in this world. When the evil of this world deprives us of a loving father and mother, adoptive father and mother, a stepfather or mother, or a foster father and mother, life is profoundly more difficult and troubled. When a father and mother serve God by caring for their children, providing for their needs, disciplining them, and loving them, their children have the best chance of living happy, productive lives. When we love them, thank them, care for them in old age and illness, we encourage them to serve faithfully. Most of all, we set an example for those we care for.

Martin Luther also saw in fathers and mothers a model for all people God calls to care for us. Employers, rulers, pastors, teachers, first responders, husbands, and others are called to lay down their lives for those in their care. We benefit from their leadership and protection. When we honor them, we honor God, who called them. We, in our turn, then serve those in our care, as Christ loved us and gave his life so we can live. When we honor all our leaders, we live longer, simpler, and happier lives in balance.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

The Sabbath Rest

Encore Post:

[twelfth is a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

The Sabbath rest is ancient. God himself rested on the seventh day, just after he created the world in six days. When God gave his law to his people, the command to rest on the seventh day made the top ten. God knew that working without rest would damage his creatures. So he built it — rested every night, and on the seventh day. It provided time for his people to worship and to meditate on his word.

Yet for Christians, the day they worship — and rest — is a matter of freedom. It belongs to the civil law, the law for the nation of Israel. It is not part of the moral law, the law for all people. We know this because Jesus called himself “the Lord of the Sabbath” and St. Paul describes that freedom in Romans and Colossians. Still, the church chose from the beginning to rest every Sunday, the first day of the week, to remember the Resurrection of Jesus.

While Christians should worship God every day, resting on Sunday offers the opportunity to hear God’s word preached, to receive his gifts of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, to meet with each other and pray for each other, and to study the Word of God. It is not so much that we have to go to church as that we get to go to church. At many times and in many places, that freedom does not exist.

So we honor Sundays and holy days. We used the opportunity to receive forgiveness of sins and bread for our daily lives. We rejoice to honor our Lord Jesus, who died for us, rested in the tomb three days, and rose again, so that we might rest with him forever.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Pray, Praise and Give Thanks

Encore Post:

[Eleventh is a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

A name has a lot more packed into it than we often realize. It carries a person’s reputation, authority, and power. In ancient magical lore, if you know a person’s true name, you can have power over them. God’s name is the most important of all, not because it is magical, but because God has promised to hear us when we call to him.

The Second Commandment is all about using God’s name in prayer, acting as his tools in this world to bring the Gospel to the lost and to do his will as we serve him and our neighbors. We baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We teach all that he commands us to teach. When we make promises to tell the truth and make promises to each other in his presence, we commit ourselves to keep them.

The problem is our sinful nature wants to use God’s name to cover lies and to make people believe we intend to do what we have no intention of doing. We want God to give us what we desire, treating Him as if He were some kind of cosmic vending machine — insert prayer. Believe you will get it, and it will come to you. We are inclined to say “Oh my God” when we are surprised or shocked, rather than as a prayer for help. These uses are misuses of God’s name and are what the command forbids.

So, then, do we go the other way, as Judaism does, and not even use his name at all? No, God wants us to use His name. We call him in trouble. We are comforted when, in His name, our pastors forgive our sins. We draw strength when we remember that he came to us in our baptism and put his name on us so that in his name we are saved. We call his name the way we call a beloved father, mother, or grandparent, knowing we are loved and that they want to share our lives. We use his name to praise him and thank him for his love and mercy.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2018, rev. 2020 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@msn.com

Jesus Rejected in Nazareth

Encore Post: Synagogues are like churches. They are places where Jews gather on the Sabbath (Saturday) to hear a passage from the Old Testament read, hear a sermon, and pray together. The Old Testament is read from a scroll instead of a book. Someone would help the reader take it out of a storage box called an ark, unwrap it, and roll the text to the place where he should start to read. Often, the people would sing while they did this.

When the reading was finished, it was put away until the next Sabbath. When a boy reached the age of twelve, he got to read it for the first time in an event called Bar Mitzvah, which means “Son of the Covenant.” If the reader were also a teacher, he would sit down and explain the reading.

This is what Jesus was doing when he returned to Nazareth. He read from Isaiah 61. This passage predicts the Messiah’s ministry to preach the Gospel and heal the sick. He announced that he was the Messiah.

The problem was that his neighbors and friends had a hard time believing he was the Messiah. He grew up in such a normal way that there was hardly anything for the Gospels to report for the first thirty years of his life. The contractor down the block is the Messiah — please! They wanted results! What’s in it for them? Nothing! Their lack of faith in Jesus meant he could not perform miracles at home.

On the day they tried to kill him, it failed. But it would not be long before Jesus went to Jerusalem. There he suffered and died for their sins, ours, and the sins of the entire world. When he rose from the dead, he set us all free. When he returns for us, then we will also be healed — not for a little while, but forever.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

The Confession of St. Peter

Encore Post: In northeast Israel, at the base of Mount Hermon, a giant spring gushed water out of a cave that flowed into Huela Marsh, the headwaters of the Jordan River. During the centuries following the death of Alexander the Great, Syria’s Greek rulers built a shrine to the god Pan there. During the earthly ministry of Jesus, Herod the Great’s son Philip built a town nearby and named it after Tiberius Caesar and himself. His father had added a temple to Caesar Augustus to the previous shrine to Pan. A major trade road, “The Way to the Sea,” ran through the town on its way to the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean Sea. At the end of his ministry in Galilee, Jesus took his disciples to this location to prepare them for his final year of ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection. (Matthew 16:13-28)

In this place, Jesus asked his disciples who people thought he was. They replied that people said he was a prophet, maybe even John the Baptist or Elijah. Jesus then followed up. “Who do you say I am?” St. Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” God the Father had revealed this to Peter, but it quickly became clear that he really did not know what a Messiah was supposed to do. Jesus explained to the disciples that he would soon suffer, die for the sins of the world, and rise from the dead in three days. Peter tried to scold him. It could not happen to him — he was the Messiah, after all. Jesus replied by calling Peter Satan. Anyone who would be his disciple would need to take up his own cross and follow Jesus.

Even though Peter was badly mistaken, Jesus praised his confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. The confession was so important that Jesus gave him the name Peter, the little rock. The confession itself is the rock on which Jesus builds his church. Even hell itself cannot destroy that church. Since the early years of the twentieth century, the Lutheran Church has celebrated this confession on January 18th, a day always in the season of Epiphany, when it meditates on how God the Son reveals himself to us.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

God’s Name

Encore Post:

[Tenth is a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

Moses was minding his father-in-law’s sheep in the Sinai Desert one day. When he saw a bush on fire, he noticed it was not burning up. Curious, he went to see what was happening. The Son of God spoke to him from the bush in the form of the Angel of the Lord. God called him to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt. During his conversation with God, Moses asked for God’s name. That name is Yahweh, which means “I Am Who I Am.” The Old Testament uses this name for God.

After the Jewish people returned from exile in Babylon, they decided never to pronounce this name. Instead, they used the word Adonai, which means “My Lord.” When they wrote down the text of God’s Word to read in the synagogue, they put the vowels of Adonai together with the consonants of Yahweh. This technique reminded the reader not to speak God’s name. When the Old Testament was translated into Greek, the translator used the word Kurios — Lord — in its place. Most English translations follow that custom.

Christians need not avoid saying Yahweh, but by custom often do so. The word Lord has become a cherished name for our Heavenly Father… and his son, Jesus.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

We Believe in One God…

Encore Post:

[Ninth is a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

“All religions believe the same thing, right?” Well-meaning people often say to me. They probably know deep down that it isn’t true, but just want everyone to get along. The easiest way to show it is not correct is to explain how various religions answer the question: “How many gods are there?”

Hindus and other Eastern religions believe all things and people are a part of god. Mormons believe all gods used to be people who worked their way to godhood and that we, too, can become gods. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity believe there is only one God.

The Bible describes the Triune God as the only true God. Moses writes: “Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). God himself says: “I am the First, I am the Last! Besides me, there is no god … Is there a god besides me? There is no rock; I know not any.” (Isaiah 44:6-8) St. Paul tells us that all other things people call gods are not real; there is only one God. (1 Corinthians 8:4-6) Jesus sums it up when he says in prayer that the Father is the only true God. (John 17:3)

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Who is Your God?

Encore Post:

[Eighth is a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

When St. Paul first visited Athens as a Christian, he noticed it was a very religious place. Everywhere he went, he found a temple or sometimes just an altar to this or that god or goddess. That he expected. But what caught him by surprise was that there was an altar on which to sacrifice to an unknown god. Someone really wanted to cover all their bases! (Acts 17:16-31)

Our world is also a very religious place. Everywhere you go, there are churches, temples, and gathering places. “In God we trust” appears on the money of the United States. Conversations often invoke a god, even if it’s just in cursing. At times of death and birth, a god is often called upon to provide blessings or comfort. In a secular society, gods are everywhere.

God made human beings so that we would need to depend upon him. So, even when a person is not a Christian, even if they are an atheist, they need to depend upon someone or something, especially in times of need. Martin Luther describes it this way:

“A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart; as I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. If your faith and trust be right, then is your God also true; and, on the other hand, if your trust be false and wrong, then you have not the true god; for these two belong together, faith and God. That now, I say, upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god.” (Large Catechism 1.1.2-3)

For Christians, God is not some fuzzy concept, one of many competing gods or goddesses, or the whole universe merged as a single being or something we are obsessed with or addicted to. God is our Father, who loved us before he made the world, who knit us together in our mother’s womb, who in the person of the Son of God, suffered, died, and rose again, so that we might live with him forever. All other things that we can make into a god are products of the human imagination or are not made to bear the weight of our trust. Sooner or later, they will fail. But God will never fail. He is with us, now, through death and into eternal life.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

The Two Greatest Commandments

Encore Post:

[Sixth post in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

Because God loved us before he made the world (Ephesians 1:3-4), we love God and want to keep his commandments. But where do we start? The rabbis count 613 commandments in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible, written by Moses) alone! While they kept track of each one in great detail and invented traditions to be sure and keep them, they found it helpful to ask each rabbi for his opinion. “Which commandment is the greatest of them all?” became a common question disciples asked their teacher. So it is not a surprise that people discussed this question with Jesus several times. (Matthew 22:36, Mark 12:28, Luke 10:25-28)

Jesus taught that two commandments summarize the whole of God’s Law — “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:45 ESV) and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) In a sense, the second of the two commandments is contained in the first. Every command in the whole of the Scripture will be kept if you love God with your whole heart.

As sinners, we cannot do this perfectly, of course. But we can do some good works because God loved us first, sending Jesus to die so that we might be forgiven. By His Holy Spirit, God has created faith in our hearts, so that we can truly love Him. So, then, because God loves us, we also love our neighbor as ourselves and in the same way that we have been loved by God. (1 John 4:7-12)

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Fence, Mirror and Guide Book

Encore Post:

[Fifth is a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

“In the day you eat of it, you will surely die,” God warned Adam. (Genesis 2:17) And he died, and all of us with him. (1 Corinthians 15:22) The first sin disrupted everything. It set creation against itself, bringing decay, suffering, grief, and disorder. The greatest disaster, however, is the separation of God from his children. Now they were under sentence of death. Yet God did not destroy the world, nor damn Adam and Eve as they deserved. In his love and mercy, God promised instead to send his Son to crush the ancient snake (Genesis 3:15). With his judgment on their sin and the curses that followed, he began to reveal his law to Adam and Eve so that they might learn the consequences of their sin, cling to the promised Seed of Eve for salvation and learn to serve God and others once again.

To this day, the Law of God restrains our sin, drives us to the Gospel for salvation, and shows us how, in faith, we can serve God and our neighbors. The law does this in three ways.

First, it stops sin from running free in the world. Through human authorities — parents, governments, employers, and others — the law praises and rewards good behavior and punishes evil deeds. It acts like a fence to contain and restrain sin.

Second, the law tells us what God requires of us, threatens us with eternal death if we do not obey it in thought, word, and deed. It reveals every one of our sins, evil motives, and desires. It charges us with rebellion against God in his court. It shows us we are guilty and cannot free ourselves. It drives us to the Gospel and the sacrifice of God’s Son for our salvation. It acts like a mirror that shows us our sin.

Third, the law guides Christians, in whom the Holy Spirit has created faith in Christ. Because we love God and want to please him, the law reveals God’s will for our lives and how he wants us to love him and our neighbors. It serves as a guidebook or manual that clears away the confusion of life in a sinful world.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana