Most, and perhaps all of you, heard at least a portion of our Lord’s Passion account today. Beginning tomorrow, I will begin a five-part series of devotionals based on Matthew 27. Each day will provide a link to the Scripture and the devotional. Each day will focus on the portion of the narrative for that day, but I hope that you will see how they all fit together.
May God bless you this Holy Week. May you be gathered with your fellow saints often this week and hear of what your Lord has done for you. May you recognize and repent of your sin. And may you be comforted with the absolution given to you by our gracious God.
It is perhaps the darkest week of the Church Year. But do not fear: Sunday is coming.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
Dear saints, this morning we enter the third and final stage of Lent: Passiontide. On the Gesima Sundays, we introduced a period of penitence. With the first four Sundays in Lent, we intensified that penitence and began examining ourselves. This brings us to this morning. We explore and begin to commemorate the suffering, the Passion, of our Lord. The lessons from today through Good Friday highlight the enormity of our sin and iniquity. They show us the tremendous Sacrifice for the ugliness of our sin in light of the holiness of that Sacrifice. Thus, as we rightly tremble under the gravity of our sinfulness, we should still have a quiet joy in our redemption as we gather and worship. Even on Good Friday.
The lessons from Genesis and the Epistle to the Hebrews build to the Gospel. In the Old Testament, Abraham, the man who was reckoned righteous before God because he believed what God had promised him, is told to sacrifice his son on a mountain. Isaac, who would also know what had been promised through him, was to be the sacrifice.
On the third day of their journey, Abraham tells the young men with him, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” Let me be clear here: Abraham is not lying to them. He is confident that he will return with Isaac. When they come to the appointed place of sacrifice, the altar is built. The wood is laid out, Isaac is bound to it, and the knife is raised to fulfill what was commanded of Abraham.
Realize this also: Abraham is an old man. Isaac is a young man. If he wanted to, Isaac could have easily kept himself off the altar. But he did not. He feared, loved, and trusted God. He honored his father. He was willingly laid on the altar as a sacrifice. Sounds familiar, does it not?
But before the knife could strike, the angel of the Lord halts everything. “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know thatyou fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” The angel of the Lord here is none other than the Second Person of the Trinity. It is Christ before His incarnation. He says, “I know,” and, “from Me.”
Abraham then lifts his eyes and sees what had been hidden from both him and Isaac until that moment: A ram caught in a thicket by his horns. Three days of anguish is now relieved. Willing to sacrifice his only son, a substitute is given. The ram was the sacrifice offered on the mountain and, just as he said, he and Isaac returned to the young men. He names the place, “The Lord will provide,”for on that mountain it shall be provided.
That it that shall be provided is none other than Christ our Lord. He is the perfect Lamb that all the blood of bulls and goats sacrificed in the sacrificial system pointed to. He is the substitute that atones for our sins and suffers the just penalty that we deserve. And as He does this, He enters the Holy of Holies not made with hands as our Great High Priest. He carries in His hands His perfect blood as our Sacrifice. Christ Jesus, as both Priest and Victim, purifies our consciences from their dead works and enables us to serve the living God. And as we heard in the Epistle, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgression committed under the first covenant.
This brings us to the Gospel for this morning. It is the final half of a conversation between Jesus and the Jews. He again wrangles with the Pharisees and just before our lesson, it is reported that some of the Jews believed in Him. But the confrontation ends as stones are picked up to stone our Lord.
Jesus uses strong rhetoric here. He says these genetic children of Abraham are, in fact, no children of Abraham at all. He tells them their father is the devil, the father of lies. Our Lord says that they do not love Him because they do not love His Father. That they do not understand what He says because they cannot bear to hear what He has to say.
The Jews respond with blasphemy. They slander Jesus, saying that He is a Samaritan and has a demon. He denies having a demon and tells them that all who keep His word, that is, guard it in faith and obey what it bids, will never see death. Demonstrating that the Jews do not understand Jesus, they charge that He must have a demon because Abraham and all the prophets died. They do not understand that all the saints live eternally even though they die. Even if their bodies have returned to dust and they await the bodily resurrection on the Last Day. Finally, they ask if Jesus thinks Himself greater than Abraham.
Jesus answers them saying, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
The Jews are incredulous at this. “You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?” Of all the things Jesus does and says that they do not understand or comprehend, they do understand Jesus’ response: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”They understand that Jesus is claiming to be their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of the living and not of the dead. And because they do not believe Jesus is the I AM, they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
He leaves the Temple because His hour has not yet come. But the hour for Jesus is coming soon. He will soon be delivered over to the Pharisees and run through a sham trial. He will be brought before Pilate and the crowds will coerce Pilate into turning Jesus over to be crucified. Just as our Father intended.
Jesus is the Pure and Holy and Patient One. Pure in that He was sinless. Holy in that He is God Incarnate. Patient in that He does not condemn or smite the people of His day, or ours, for hardheartedness, faithlessness, or ignorance. Rather He suffers and is rejected. That suffering and rejection is not confined to the cross but is throughout His earthly ministry.
The Latin name for this Sunday is Judica. It means ‘judge’ or ‘vindicate.’ It is what we hear in the Introit: Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me! For you are the God in whom I take refuge.
Our Lord will soon be vindicated. He will be judged as pure and righteous. And He will be condemned and crucified on the cross. Beginning today, many congregations with crucifixes and small to medium-sized crosses have them veiled with a black veil. The cross is the place where our Lord sorrows and suffers. Ultimately, it is where he gives His life for us. Why cover that? Because the cross also reveals our Lord’s divinity. It is where we see Him winning our salvation. It is where He bestows to us His Body and Blood in the Sacrament. At the cross are beauty and joy. And we are unworthy to look directly at it. So, in humility, these congregations deny themselves those depictions so that their attention would be drawn to it and remember that we currently see dimly in a mirror. But also rejoice that one day we will see Him face to face.
The next two weeks are the most solemn days in the Church Year. In them, you will see just how much and in what way your Lord loves you. Indeed, the God of heaven and earth submits Himself to death that you might be delivered from your wilderness exile and go into the Promised Land He has prepared for you in heaven. May God bless you as you traverse Passiontide and approach our Lord’s death and burial, rejoicing in His Resurrection. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
Dear saints, on this Sunday last year (the Third Sunday of Lent), I began the sermon by saying:
[W]e all know the news of our day. There is quite a bit of panic over the virus that has swept the world. Runs on supplies. Stocks tanking. Schools, sports, and even countries have shut down. People on Facebook and Twitter are afraid. I get it. It’s a bit of a scary time. Even if you’re healthy and at no real risk, you could unwittingly be a carrier and expose someone who is vulnerable. It’s why I don’t blame businesses for telling people to work from home and sports leagues from shutting down. Or even staying home this morning instead of being here with us. Closer to home, some schools and even churches have closed. And while I don’t like it, I understand and am not going to complain about hospitals and nursing homes closing their doors to everyone except the patients, residents, and staff. They are rightly protecting their patients and residents. Let us hope and pray that this does not get to the point that they force everything, including churches, to close their doors as happened with the 1918 flu epidemic.
I went on to say that we did not yet know what the impact would be or how severely we would be affected. Well, we now know. The impact was and is widespread. Fear is still prevalent in our world. There are still worldwide shortages on certain supplies. While the stock market has rebounded, there are millions out of work even today. Schools, states, and countries are still shut down even if sports have resumed with empty to partially filled stadiums. In some places, churches are still closed because the state or country says they must be, labeling churches as ‘nonessential.’ Even as casinos and strip clubs are open and deemed essential.
In just over a year, our nation has reported over 500,000 deaths and there has been more than 2.5 million die worldwide. Compare this to the estimated 75-200 million who died over eight years of plague in the Late Middle Ages. This is a bad virus. But it is no bubonic plague. Especially when you consider the population of Europe then and the world now.
You might be asking yourself, “Why is pastor rehashing all this?” I do for a couple of reasons. First, because we see through the Old Testament, as we do in our lesson from Exodus, that plague can be brought by the finger of God. When the Egyptian magicians, by their dark arts, could not replicate the plagues brought upon Egypt, they recognized that it was the Lord who was behind it. The plagues were judgments upon Egypt and her false gods. They were used to deliver Israel from slavery and, eventually, into the Promised Land.
But there is a second reason I decided to revisit the topic of plague and pestilence this morning. And that is to point out another reason God brings things such as pandemics upon creation: to show humanity their false gods, that they would turn and believe in the true God. This is another constant theme of the Old Testament. Calamity was prophesied upon the wicked and a call to repentance was issued. Sometimes the people repented and were spared. Other times they persisted and were destroyed, and even those who did repent and trust in the Lord were sometimes caught up in the destruction.
I am not saying that God sent this virus. I have no “Thus saith the Lord” to say one way or the other. I am, however, saying that we should see what has happened and continues to happen as a call to repentance. Every man, woman, and child should recognize that it is our sin that brings such calamities upon the world. We turn our fear of our mortality into our god and abstain from gathering before the Lord our God. We look to government for our respite and rescue rather than Christ as the Redeemer of our souls. We hope for a shot when we have the Medicine of Immortality right here before us. We deserve all this and more.
In fact, our sin is the reason that the figurative finger of God mentioned by the Egyptian magicians is now a real and physical finger of God. This morning’s Gospel lesson tells us about the voice of God casting out a demon who had made a man mute. Having been cleansed, the man begins to speak. It causes the crowds who witnessed this miracle to marvel.
But some saw what Jesus did and decided to blaspheme. They said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” and others sought another sign beyond the miracle they had just witnessed. The first responded to the love and compassion Jesus had on the man with hatred in their hearts; others respond with unfaithfulness, as they would not accept any sign from our Lord.
But what Jesus did for that man is what He has done for you. He has had mercy upon you and cleansed you from your uncleanness. We have three enemies in this world: the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. These are enemies that we cannot conquer. And in fact, the devil is even the strong man Jesus mentions in the lesson and parable. Like Israel in Egypt, we are captive to these enemies as we are by nature captive to sin and enemies of God.
This is why Jesus took on our flesh in His incarnation. Jesus is the Stronger Man who binds the strong man. Jesus is the One who liberates you from your bondage to sin, death, and the devil and frees you from your uncleanness. In the second parable of our text, we hear that a demon cast out of a person wonders the waterless places seeking rest. When it finds none, it decides to return to the person it was cast out of. It finds a body, compared to a house, swept up and put in order. It then finds other spirits more evil than itself and takes up residence there once again. The state of that person is worse than before.
But this is not so with you, dear Christian. Yes, Jesus cleanses you of all uncleanness. He sweeps up the house of your body. But He does not leave it vacant. In place of the evil spirit (whether that was a demon or simply that you are born with a sinful nature), God sends the Holy Spirit. In doing so, He makes your body more than a simple house. He makes it His holy temple. So, when the spirit returns to you, it finds no place for solace or rest. Your state is not worse than before. It is eternally better.
All this He does for you in your Baptism. Because Jesus walked on earth, because He was baptized in the Jordan, because He was tempted in all the ways we are and did not sin, because He kept the Law perfectly, He was a worthy sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world. For your sins and mine.
I began to wrap up last year’s sermon by saying:
We don’t know how long or how bad this pandemic will be. We don’t know if we will contract it. If a friend or loved one will. And if we or they do, how severe the case will be. We don’t know what restrictions will be placed on us by the authorities, which, I remind you, that God himself has put in place.
Well, here we are a year later. We can see the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel,” but we do not know how far away from the exit we are. All of us know someone who has contracted the virus. Some of us have had close calls. Some of us have had it, and a few suffered greatly. We have been allowed to live mostly restriction-free here but see where others have been curbed greatly. Even if we grant the premise that all decisions and restrictions were put in place without malice, we also know some of those decisions were more harmful than helpful.
But, dear Christian, remember also what we know:
We know that our Lord Jesus Christ took upon our flesh to free us from the strong man. We know he paid for our sins on the cross, bleeding and dying to win victory over the strong man. We know that he has cleansed our bodies from all evil and sent the Holy Spirit to live in us and sanctify us. We know that we are always able to cry out to God in all situations and tell him whatever is on our mind. And when we do, we know that He will hear us and answer our prayer in the way that benefits our eternal good. O my God, in you I trust…Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!…for I take refuge in you. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
Dear saints, on the sixth day, God creates man from the dust of the earth. Because there is no helper suitable for the man, he creates woman from the man’s side. They are joined together in the first marriage. They are given the directive to be fruitful and multiply, filling and subduing the earth. God looks at all He created over those six days and declares them very good.
But the next thing we hear in the Bible is how the devil, disguised as a snake, tempts Adam and Eve. The temptation is three-fold. They are tempted with gluttony, for the food they were not to have, as the fruit of the Forbidden Tree was delightful to the eyes. They are tempted with vain ambition, for the serpent promises that their eyes would be open and that they would know good from evil. They are tempted with avarice, a desire for or seeking out of a high place, for by eating the fruit they would be like God.
Even though Adam and Eve know what God has commanded them; even though they know they share a perfect union with Him and one another, Eve takes the fruit and eats it. She gives some to Adam, who was there during the entire event and did not intervene and protect his wife, and he eats with her.
It is then that their world crashes around them. Indeed, their eyes are opened. They know good from evil. They know that the promise of being like God was a lie. They know they are now unworthy to be seen by Him, let alone look upon Him. And so, in shame, they hide.
As you recall, The Fall brings upon creation curses. It is why we have famine. It is why the harvest sometimes fails. It is why childbirth is so painful and, tragically, sometimes deadly. It is why, no matter how long you live, you will die. But even more important is the promise made. Even as humanity falls into sin, God promises to save and redeem it. He promises to crush the head of the serpent and rescue His creation.
And as you know, our Lord Jesus Christ is the promised Offspring of the woman.
We encounter Jesus this morning immediately after His baptism. Immediately after the heavens open and the Spirit descends like a dove. Right after the Father speaks and says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” The first act of the Spirit is to lead Jesus into the wilderness. Paired with the Old Testament lesson, you may see a parallel with Adam and Eve being removed from Eden and put into a type of wilderness. But you also may hear, especially when we consider our Lord’s forty-day and forty-night fast, the wilderness wanderings of Israel.
Adam and Eve enter a wilderness because of sin. Moses leads Israel into the wilderness, through the parted waters of the Red Sea (a picture and type of baptism), as the Lord saves them from their bondage in Egypt. While there, Israel fails to trust the Lord God and will spend forty years wandering. Our Lord is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
The temptations that Jesus faces are the same as those faced by Adam and Eve. At the end of His fast, He is hungry. And the devil tempts the Lord. I cannot tell you if the devil knows of what happened at the Jordan River as Jesus is baptized. But he does know who our Lord is. It is as if he says, “Prove that you are the Son of God. Satisfy your hunger. Use your power. Turn these stones into bread.” But Jesus has not come to show His power for His own sake. He will perform miracles, even miracles involving food. But these are for the benefit of others; not Himself. Tempted by gluttony, Jesus responds by trusting in His Father for what He needs. He looks to the Word of God.
The devil next leads Jesus…well, Jesus allows Himself to be led to Jerusalem. In his hubris, Satan thinks he is leading and directing the Christ. And taking Him to the pinnacle of the temple, the devil quotes Scripture. Again, it is as if he said, “Prove that you are the Son of God. Make a spectacle. Force the hand of God and push Your angels into action! Show these people who you really are.” Here our Lord is tempted with vain ambition. The devil pushes Him to show off, to prove that He is the Son of God. And He is to do this by leaping off the Temple and making God act. Instead of trusting that God is good; instead of trusting that the will of God will be done, the devil would have Jesus have a false trust that God would not let His foot strike the ground. In the midst of temptation, Jesus refuses to put God to the test.
Finally, the devil takes Jesus to a high mountain. In an instant, the kingdoms of the world are shown to the Lord. One final time, it is like the devil says, “You know your mission. You know that you came to save your creation. But you know what you must suffer to do it. Avoid it! I will give them to you right now. All you need to do is bow down before me. Worship me.” The temptation is one of avarice. A temptation for a shortcut.
It is a silly demand. Sure, he might control and, in a sense, rule the kingdoms of the world. But it is because he has claimed power and authority that is not his to have. What he is proposing is that he will give to Jesus what he does not own if Jesus, the God-Man, would worship one of His created angels as a God. So, Jesus responds, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”Jesus is not allured for power through false worship.
At that, the devil leaves and begins to seek another time. Angels come to Jesus and minister to Him. And when He has recovered, He begins His earthly ministry.
Two men. Three temptations. The human, the first Adam, falls into sin, being tricked by the devil. Adam desires to fill his stomach, had the ambition of being like a god, and the avarice of having the same knowledge of God. The God-Man, the Second Adam, remains steadfast and pure. Facing the same temptations, He trusts the Word of God, He does not misplace His trust in His Father, and He is not tricked into false worship promising a shortcut and ease. Through the Temptation of Christ and the other times the devil sought to trick our Lord, we have a great high priest who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
God led His people Israel through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, and brought them to the promised land. He did this even though they were sinful and stiff-necked. He disciplined them. He brought them to repentance. He gave them victory over their enemies. The Church is God’s Israel today. As the Israelites followed Christ in the pillar of cloud and fire, Christians follow Him as He speaks to us through Word and Sacrament. We follow Him through the wilderness of this world and toward the glory in the world to come, in our Promised Land. In a restored Eden.
Like Israel, we constantly sin. We fall into the silly and stupid temptations of the devil. We look to feed our bellies rather than seek what God would give us. We have our own ambitions that benefit the “me” and no one else. We desire the easy road. The path of least resistance and the one that does not cause any pain or difficulty. When we do this, we find that we do not fear, love, and trust God above all things. We find that we are putting our faith in ourselves and displacing God from His throne. May God grant us repentance for this grievous sin!
Let us, therefore, remember that we are like the first Adam. Foolish and easily tempted to sin. But also let us remember we have the Second Adam. God in the flesh and righteous. While He goes hungry, others are fed at His hands. He grows weary but offers others rest. He is the Messiah but pays the tribute, the tax to Caesar. He is called the devil but casts out demons. He is sold for thirty pieces of silver but pays the ransom for all. He dies the death of a sinner but saves His people from their sins. He will not turn bread into stones for Himself, but He gives His body and blood to nourish the souls of His people.
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
Encore Post: Dear saints, most, perhaps all of you know the sayings, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” or, “Looks can be deceiving.” We know that these sayings have merit. Simply look at the first two kings of Israel. After the people reject the Lord as their King, Samuel is sent to anoint a man named Saul. He had the look of a king. He was tall. He was handsome. And he began his reign well. But we know how it ended. He was rejected by God because of his continued sinful actions.
In his place was a man who no one would have expected. Samuel is sent by God to find a man named Jesse. He is to anoint one of Jessie’s sons as the new king of Israel. This is what we heard a few moments ago. When Samuel sees the eldest, he thinks to himself, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” But this was not the case. God says, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Each of Jesse’s sons come before Samuel. But none of these sons is the man chosen to be king. Finally, the youngest, a shepherd, is summoned from the field. I do not mean to say that David did not have the ‘look’ of a king. But he is not the one anyone would have sought out. He was not even mentioned until all the other boys had been rejected. And yet he is exactly who God had chosen.
This Old Testament account is a good way to set up our Gospel lesson this morning. Jesus is heading toward Jerusalem because he knows the time of His glorification is near. He knows that it is time to die. Time to suffer on behalf of His creation. Time to redeem mankind from their sins. And so, he tells the Twelve for the third time that this was his mission and destiny.
Like David, Jesus is not the one the people would think is the Chosen One of God. The people think He was born in Nazareth. This would immediately disqualify Him from being the Messiah, for the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. Even more, Jesus says His mission is to die. But the expectation is that the Messiah will be a military leader. That he will reestablish the earthly throne of David in Israel. We see this in John 6 when our Lord feeds the five thousand: Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain my himself.
But the ways of God are not the ways of man. The wisdom of man stands woefully inadequate even compared to the foolishness of God. And soon, all that is written about the Son of Man will be accomplished. Better said, all will be completed. Finished.
We stand at the threshold of Lent. Our preparation for Lent is completed and we begin another Lenten journey with our Lord on Wednesday. All that Jesus says will happen to Him we will see in Passiontide. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. He will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit upon. They will flog Him and kill Him. All the while, Jesus will not look like the Chosen One of Israel. He will not look like the world’s Savior. But that is the work He is doing. And on the third day, He will show that He is our Lord and Savior by rising from the dead.
As we journey toward the cross, we will see perfect, divine love shown to all people of all nations. We will see St. Paul’s words in the Epistle lived out perfectly by Jesus. The words of St. Paul are beautiful and pleasant to hear. They epitomize what we desire to be. But we also confess that we do not rise to the demands of what true love is. Even as we marvel and smile at the rhetoric, we are also crushed by the demands of this law of loving others. How easily do we lose our patience or speak an unkind word? How often do we envy the life or things of another? Boast of what we have or do? How easy it is to be arrogant or rude, especially to those who annoy us or that we deem deserving of it. When is the last time you insisted on your way? And how often, even when you know and want to do what is right, you choose to do evil?
Yes, we desire to love. We hope to fulfill the requirement. But we confess that we fail. And we believe; we trust and have faith in the Lord Christ that He loves us. That He sends the Spirit to sanctify us that we would begin to fulfill this law of love. Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The Lord is our rock of refuge. He is our strong fortress. Christ Jesus is our refuge and our strength. Because all he speaks of in the Gospel lesson takes place as He said it would, we commit our own bodies and spirits into His hands. In our distress, He is gracious. He hears our prayers and answers them according to His will and our eternal good. Jesus is crucified for you. Your redemption is won. He gives you the strength and ability to love. He has set you free from the bonds of your sins. And He will deliver you from evil. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
Dear saints, most, perhaps all of you know the sayings, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” or, “Looks can be deceiving.” We know that these sayings have merit. Simply look at the first two kings of Israel. After the people reject the Lord as their King, Samuel is sent to anoint a man named Saul. He had the look of a king. He was tall. He was handsome. And he began his reign well. But we know how it ended. He was rejected by God for his continued sinful actions.
In his place was a man who no one would have expected. Samuel is sent to Jesse to anoint one of his sons as the new king of Israel. This is what we heard a few moments ago. When Samuel sees the eldest, he thinks to himself, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” But this was not the case. “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Each of Jesse’s sons come before Samuel. But none of these sons is the man chosen to be king. Finally, the youngest, a shepherd, is summoned from the field. I do not mean to say that David did not have the ‘look’ of a king. But he is not the one anyone would have sought out. And yet he is exactly who God had chosen.
This Old Testament account is a good way to set up our Gospel lesson this morning. Jesus is heading toward Jerusalem because he knows the time of His glorification is near. He knows that it is time to die. Time to suffer on behalf of His creation. Time to redeem mankind from their sins. And so, he tells the Twelve for the third time that this was his mission and destiny.
Like David, Jesus is not the one the people would think is the Chosen One of God. The people think He was born in Nazareth. This would immediately disqualify Him from being the Messiah, for the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. Even more, Jesus says His mission is to die. But the expectation is that the Messiah will be a military leader. That he will reestablish the earthly throne of David in Israel.
But the ways of God are not the ways of man. The wisdom of man stands woefully inadequate even compared to the foolishness of God. And soon, all that is written about the Son of Man will be accomplished. Better said, all will be completed. Finished.
We stand at the threshold of Lent. Our preparation for Lent is completed and we begin another Lenten journey with our Lord on Wednesday. All that Jesus says will happen to Him we will see in Passiontide. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. He will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit upon. They will flog Him and kill Him. All the while, Jesus will not look like the Chosen One of Israel. He will not look like the world’s Savior. But that is the work He is doing. And on the third day, He will show that He is our Lord and Savior by rising from the dead.
As we journey toward the cross, we will see perfect, divine love shown to all people of all nations. We will see St. Paul’s words in the Epistle lived out perfectly by Jesus. The words of St. Paul are beautiful and pleasant to hear. They epitomize what we desire to be. But we also confess that we do not rise to the demands of what true love is. Even as we marvel and smile at the rhetoric, we are also crushed by the demands of this law of loving others. How easily do we lose our patience or speak an unkind word? How often do we envy the life or things of another? Boast of what we have or do? How easy it is to be arrogant or rude, especially to those who annoy us or ‘deserve’ it. When is the last time you insisted on your way? And how often, even when you know and want to do what is right, you choose to do evil?
Yes, we desire to love. We hope to fulfill the requirement. But we confess that we fail. And we believe; we trust and have faith in the Lord Christ that He loves us. That He sends the Spirit to sanctify us that we would begin to fulfill this law of love. Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The Lord is our rock of refuge. He is our strong fortress. Christ Jesus is our refuge and our strength. Because all he speaks of in the Gospel lesson takes place as He said it would, we commit our own bodies and spirits into His hands. In our distress, He is gracious. He hears our prayers and answers them according to His will and our eternal good. Jesus is crucified for you. Your redemption is won. He gives you the strength and ability to love. He has set you free from the bonds of your sins. And He will deliver you from evil. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
Dear saints, the life of a day laborer is not one to envy. You go every morning to a place you know that work can be found. You wait for someone to come by looking for workers. You hope that the work is something you can perform. You hope that you are either chosen for the work or able to get to the vehicle faster than others vying for the job. Then, at the end of the day, you hope that the wages you receive are fair for the often back-breaking work you performed for hours on end. Even if that wage is barely, or even less than what the area lists as its minimum wage.
This is the modern-day setting for the parable Jesus tells his disciples in this morning’s lesson. It is a parable meant to shock the hearer, but I do not think it is all that shocking to us. Why is that? Because we are used to its themes. We confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We believe that our God becomes man to save us from our sin. We confess that we are not able to do good without the Holy Spirit. We believe that we cannot be saved by our works, but only on account of the work of Christ Jesus our Lord. As a result, we instantly view ourselves as those laborers who work only a part of the day.
But for a moment, let us look at the parable from the world’s viewpoint. People claim they want fairness. And what we hear in the parable does not seem fair at all. We do not see it as fair that someone working for an hour gets the same pay as one that works all day. No one would object at the same hourly rate, but the same net pay? Such a business owner is irresponsible and will not last long. He will not get people to work all day when they know they can relax most of the day and get a full day’s wage for working only in the easy part of the day. His work will in turn not be completed and his projects will not finish on time. He will not get more contracts for business, and his business will shut down.
Looking at the parable through worldly eyes, it simply does not make sense. It is no way to manage a successful business. And I cannot disagree. Therefore, we must look at what is being taught here by our Lord. As always, context is key.
Just before the parable, we have a rich young ruler come to Jesus. He asks what he must do to have eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments. The man claims to do it, but still knows he lacks something. Jesus replies, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”Upon hearing this, the man goes away sad because he had many possessions. And to the disciples Jesus says,“Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
This perplexes the disciples, and they wonder who could ever be saved. The answer, of course, is, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Yet Peter, remembering his own call, points out that the Twelve left everything they had. What then shall they receive? “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” Thus the stage is set for our lesson this morning.
I will not pretend to know the difficulties of harvesting a field. Especially when many of you do that for a living. I do know that it is not easy work, even if it is less difficult today than in the days before our advanced technology. I am glad that I do not have to lug a sack over my shoulder and handpick corn or cotton or grapes. Especially in the heat of the day. But that seems to be the type of work being done in the parable.
A vineyard owner goes to the market early in the morning and meets with day laborers. They negotiate a wage for working in the vineyard: a denarius. They go and begin the work. Later in the day, the owner goes to the market again. He finds more laborers and calls them into his vineyard. He says he will pay them whatever is right. This happens again two more times. Finally, as the day is nearly over, the owner goes to the market a final time. He finds even more standing and not working. Even these are called into the vineyard. But this time there is no promise of wage; they are only told to go.
At the end of the day, the workers are brought in to receive their wages. Those sent at the eleventh hour are paid first and receive a denarius. Though we do not hear it, the ninth-, sixth-, and third-hour workers receive the same. It is not surprising that those who worked the full twelve-hour shift thought they would receive more. But when they come to the foreman, they receive their denarius. The one they negotiated for and were promised. And for this, for the master keeping his word, they grumble. To one of them, the master says, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?”
As is often the case, if we were to take the time needed to talk about everything in this lesson, you would probably start grumbling that I was talking too long. Some of you might already have such thoughts in your heads. So, let me briefly talk about what we are taught, and perhaps in future years, we shall dig into specific parts and flesh these lessons out.
First, we see that the work given to these laborers is not one they applied for. There was no interview process. Instead, they were sought out and called. They did not get this work for their ability or expertise, but because the owner decided to send them.
The same is true for each of us. The vineyard in the parable is the church and its work. None of us are qualified to work there. There is no application process and there is no way we can choose to work there. This is because we are by nature sinful and unclean. Unless the master, that is, unless our Lord seeks us out and calls us into His vineyard, we will never step foot inside it.
But, dear Christian, you have been called into the vineyard. You have been chosen by God and made able to work in His vineyard. This is the grace that God. Those baptized and those who trust in Christ Jesus as their Redeemer and Savior have a place in the vineyard.
Second, all in the vineyard work. No matter what time the laborer is sent in, there is work to do. And the expectation is they accomplish as much as they can for the hours that they are there.
St. Paul describes this work in the Epistle as a race. There is a reason we are in the vineyard, and that is to work. We seek to keep God’s commandments. We desire that others would hear and, like you, be called into the vineyard. It requires commitment and dedication. It is often tough and grueling work. Especially in times and places where the Church is hated and opposed. But no matter the circumstances, you are called to work and support the Church in whatever situation you are in. In doing this, you earn nothing. But you do receive the mercy and benefits that your Heavenly Father promises you. You do not run aimlessly or box as one who beats the air. You do, however, discipline your body and keep it under control that you will receive the imperishable wreath of eternal life.
Third, the master is faithful and generous. He keeps his word and pays what is promised to the first he calls into his vineyard. He is also generous to those whom he calls later in the day and makes all of them equal in what they receive.
The Twelve left everything they had and followed our Lord. They are promised thrones from which they will judge the twelve tribes of Israel. Abraham was promised that he would be the father of many nations but died without seeing the fruit of that promise. Moses led Israel out of Egypt and through the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. But he did not himself enter the Promised Land on earth. These and many other men (and women) labored long and hard for their Lord. And each of them, like the laborers who toiled the whole day in the scorching heat and sun, receive what was promised to them.
This reward is not based on their work, but the grace of God given to them. As Jesus tells the disciples when asked who can be saved, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”Because God calls all His people into his vineyard, whether you work an hour or twelve hours, the denarius you receive is on account of God’s grace.
Finally, even when you receive exactly what you are supposed to, jealousy is a temptation. Coveting what someone else has and begrudging the master is something anyone can fall into. Even those who only worked half the day and received great mercy and a full denarius.
Far be it for you or me to think to ourselves that some terrible person who has a late-in-life conversion is undeserving and hold them in contempt. May we not think to ourselves that they do not deserve forgiveness. Or worse, that we somehow deserve more forgiveness or greater benefits than they. They receive grace and forgiveness for the same reason, and in the same amount, as you and me. They are sought out and called by Christ. They are made new in baptism by the work of God, not of man. They are saved not because of their work, great or small, but by grace.
When the vineyard owner responds to a grumbling worker, he says more than what I quoted before. He goes on to say, “Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.”
This is a terrible sentence to hear. He is given the wage he negotiated for and told to leave the vineyard. He has what is his. But where does one go who leaves the vineyard? Who leave what God has created and called them into? And yet this is also a wonderful sentence to hear. The implication is that those who were ‘overpaid’ and did not complain about the owner’s inequality of pay and generosity remain in the vineyard. These do not simply get a denarius and leave the vineyard. They remain there. They are not treated as mere workers but as sons.
Here we see the work God does in the Gospel. It is more than a simple cancellation of our debt of sin. God forgives the sin of Adam and Eve, but He does not allow them back into Eden. Instead, He becomes a man. And as a man, He buys us out of sin. He wins us and our salvation. We now belong to Him. Not as a cow or a plow belongs to a farmer, but as a member of His family. God unites Himself to us, makes us His bride. By grace, we are made bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. God calls us His friends, His brothers, His children, His bride. As a man, He gives us His Body and His Blood in Holy Communion. There we become one flesh with Him, joined together by God. There is a reason it is called “communion.”
The cords of Sheol entangled each of us. Death stared us in the face and looked to devour us. But the Lord is your rock and your fortress and your deliverer. He calls you into His vineyard by grace. The love He shows you is not earned. Unless it is a bad reality TV show, men do not hold auditions or give tests that a potential bride must pass. He is her husband and she his bride because he loves her. And so, we cheerfully receive His grace. We stay in His vineyard. For where else could we go? The vineyard is made for us and us for it. We are mercifully delivered by His goodness to the glory of His holy Name. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
Dear saints, it has been six days since St. Peter correctly answered the most important question asked of him. Six days since Peter took offense at Jesus telling them that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and raised on the third day. Six days since Jesus told his disciples, “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” and, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
As Christians living some 2,000 years after this occurred, we know that the coming of the kingdom is set in motion at the Incarnation and has its final chapter begin at the Triumphal Entry. We know that all the things Jesus suffers are a sort of inauguration. We know that Jesus takes his throne as King of kings when He is lifted up on the cross. But how would the disciples know that? How could they look at Jesus nailed to a cross and think, “Here is the Son of Man in his kingdom. In his glory.”? How would they know that Peter is right to say, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God?”
In our lesson this morning, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John and leads them up a mountain. St. Luke adds that they go up the mountain to pray. While they are there, by themselves, Jesus is transfigured. A lot is going on in this text. There are a lot of moving parts. Unexpected participants, an unexpected voice. But the point of the Transfiguration was to comfort the disciples because The Glory of the Transfiguration Is a Preface to the Glory of the Cross.
When Jesus is transfigured, we read that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. St. Mark describes this whiteness as being, “radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.” Just try to imagine a white cleaner, whiter, and brighter than a completely covered field in a fresh blanket of snow on a bright, sunny day.
This alone would leave most in stunned silence, but then something more incredible happens: Moses and Elijah show up! They appear; are made visible. And more? Peter, James, and John, men who are not old men, recognize them. They know who they are because they are all part of the communion of saints. And they get to listen in on what Moses, Elijah, and Jesus are talking about: the upcoming exodus of Jesus.
And what was this upcoming exodus? The upcoming crucifixion of Christ. The soon to come liberation of man from their sins on account of the death of Jesus the Christ. This is what Jesus spoke to Moses and Elijah converse about.
But the disciples do not understand all this yet. And so, instead of listening and learning from the conversation, Peter opens his mouth: “Lord, it is good to be here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Peter has good intentions, but he is wrong to suggest this. The suggestion puts Jesus on the same level as Moses and Elijah. Indeed, Moses is the great lawgiver and the man who met face to face with God on Mt. Sinai. He is the one who had to wear a veil because his face reflected the glory of the Lord – the same glory Jesus now radiates. And Elijah is the great prophet. He boldly spoke the word of the Lord to God’s people and her kings. He was the instrument who closed and, after three and a half years, opened the skies.
But these men, as the great and faithful saints that they are, are not God. What they did was testify what God was doing and saying. They pointed toward the coming Christ. Moses said a prophet like him would be raised up from the people. Elijah reminds us of how God’s reign, his kingdom, has already manifested itself with the coming of Jesus. On the mountain, Jesus alone shines in glory. His predecessor in Moses and forerunner in Elijah do not. And so, to build a tent, or more precisely, a tabernacle for all three would be seeing Jesus as less than what he is. To see him as less than the Son of God.
This is probably why Peter is interrupted. He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” In the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt, the Glory of the Lord came upon the mountain in the same way. But here the glory overshadows them all, in effect creating a single tent. And the voice of the Father comes to the disciples and tells them what those at the baptism of Jesus heard: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. But this time, he adds something: Listen to him.
Again, there is a lot to this narrative. But today, we shall focus the rest of our time on this: Listen to him. The Transfiguration of our Lord is a turning point. It is as if Jesus turns His face to Jerusalem. The disciples have seen a lot while following Jesus. Authoritative teaching. Healings. The casting out of demons. Opposition from Jewish leaders.
And six days ago, they heard Jesus say that He must die. Of all the difficult things they heard Jesus say and do, this is by far the hardest to hear. Now on the mountain, Jesus brings Peter, James, and John with him to comfort them. He brings them up on the mountain and they hear the conversation between Moses, Elijah, and himself. A conversation concerning his coming death. The cloud comes and the voice of the Father tells them to listen and believe what Jesus tells them.
They are to listen not only to what he has said, but what he has yet to say. The disciples are still to learn that to be great, you must become the least. A teaching that is as hard to hear today as it was then. They hear that sin kills the soul and that it is better to lose a member than to sin with it. That your Father sends his shepherds into the wilderness to recover his lost and wayward sheep. They hear Jesus interpret the Passover and learn that it was always pointing towards his own sacrifice as the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. They hear that his body and blood are given for them on the cross and in the Holy Supper for the forgiveness of sins.
Crucifixion was offensive. It was reserved for the worst of criminals. And six days ago, Jesus told the disciples that they would have to take up their own crosses to follow him. It infers that Jesus would have his own cross. It means that, even if you do not personally face death, there will be a cost to being the disciple of Christ.
And so, Jesus is transfigured, Moses and Elijah are made visible and the disciples hear Jesus talk to them about His upcoming death, and the voice of the Father speaks to them and to you to remove the offense of the cross. It is to prevent your faith from being disturbed by it. By the humility of your Christ’s voluntary Passion. This is done by revealing his hidden dignity and glory. This is why I said earlier that The Glory of the Transfiguration Is a Preface to the Glory of the Cross.
The glory of God is expressed in the cross of Christ for the redemption of the world. The totality of the Law and the Prophets point forward and are fulfilled in this cross. You are connected to this cross as you are baptized into his death and raised to a new life in Christ. You are adopted as sons and brought into the tent of your Father. And you sit at His table, fed and nourished by the Lamb. All this is wrapped together on the mountain.
Though the disciples feared greatly, Jesus touches them, raises them up, and exhorts them not to be afraid. It is a fearful thing to be in the presence of God. Just ask Isaiah. Indeed, the unbridled glory of God without the cross is frightening. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but that is just the beginning. That is just the first part of repentance. You and I, like the disciples, need more than just the glory of Jesus to be saved. For this glory with no cross only leaves us in a fearful state.
Our Lord’s glory with no cross does us no good because we have too much sin. Too much wasted time. Too much gossip or wandering eyes or disdain for our neighbor or disrespect for our governing authorities or whatever is coming into your mind and causing you to feel shame right about now. Even when we try to do good, we fall on our faces. This is a reason to fall also on our face before a holy God.
Yet Jesus lifts up the three. He leads them down the mountain. They now travel toward Jerusalem and the cross. The glory is once again hidden and the humble Jesus they have known for three years is again before them. It is hidden until that appointed day where it will be revealed again on the cross. In his death and resurrection.
Because of this, we now look forward to sharing in Christ’s glory, for his great love shown on the cross has purified us from all the sin that terrorizes us. Forgiven is the sloth, false witness, lust, hate….
It might be tempting to think of the transfiguration as the “high point” of Jesus’ ministry. But it is only a vantage point from which Jesus can see clearly where he is going. From the height of the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus sees Jerusalem. From the glory of the Transfiguration, Jesus sees the humiliation of His death on the cross. From the splendor of the Transfiguration, Jesus sees the sorrow to come, and amid that sorrow, He sees you, your forgiveness, and your salvation. Let us, then, begin our own preparations to follow him to Jerusalem. To His cross and the place our salvation is won for us by Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
Dear saints, this morning we hear of the first, or chief of our Lord’s signs. He does it at a wedding in Cana. It is a classic wedding text, and in it we hear that water becomes wine. We hear that Mary is at the wedding and that Jesus and his disciples were invited and present. During the festivities, the wine begins to run out. In that time and culture, running out of wine at a seven-day wedding feast would have brought great shame upon the bridegroom.
Seeking to spare the groom of that shame, Mary comes to Jesus for help. She is likely not a guest but linked to the wedding party in some way. Some scholars claim she comes to Jesus because He and the disciples put the number of guests over what was planned for. They say Mary is asking Jesus to go get wine and replace what they consumed. But that claim does not hold water. They are not running low on food; they are only running low on wine. So, unless you are claiming Jesus and His disciples drank that much wine, the claim does not stand.
Rather Mary comes to her Lord because she believes He can and will come to the wedding party’s aid. She believes that he can provide what they need. Yet we also see that she does not fully comprehend the reason she bore Jesus. She rightly thinks He is her Savior, but she also presumes He will use His power for any reason.
This explains the somewhat harsh response. Well, it is harsh to our ears. And while there is a slight tone of rebuke, Jesus continues to honor His mother as He should. He says, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” There are a couple of things here. First, He claims that it is not His responsibility that the wine is running out. He and the disciples did not overindulge. He did not plan on enough supply. It is not His problem. The second thing is that His hour is not yet come. Jesus says His hour comes in John 12 when some Greeks seek to see Him after the Triumphal Entry.
Whatever Mary makes of this remark, she is undeterred. She still knows who Jesus is, even if not fully. She looks to the servants, who may be hired workers for the feast, and says, “Do whatever he tells you.” And that is what they do. They take the six stone water jars and fill them to the brim. These jars were used for a ceremonial washing that had been taken from what was commanded by God and transformed into a man made law. The Pharisees had taken this cleansing ritual for priests and applied it to all people. Jesus uses these to show His glory.
After these jars are filled, Jesus tells the servants to “draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” I wonder what these servants thought to themselves. They had just filled a jar used to wash things with water. They know the wine is running, if not by now, run out. And now they are to take some of this water to the mast of the feast? But following the instruction of Mary, they do as Jesus says. They take the water.
That water, now wine, is brought to the master of the feast and he drinks it. He does not know that this wine came from a water jar. He only knows it is the finest wine he has ever had. He summons the bridegroom and chides him for bringing the best wine last.
In this lesson, we see Jesus submitting to His mother and ensuring that the celebration of this marriage is not interrupted. We see here an epiphany of sympathy. He uses His power to provide for the needs of this newly married couple. And He does this even though He is not responsible for there being enough wine. But He does out of sympathy for them.
He also does this even though His time has not yet come. Yet it is here, in Cana of Galilee, where Jesus manifested his glory with the first of his signs. This sign was for one reason: that His disciples would believe in Him. And they do. Throughout the ministry of Jesus, the disciples are witnesses to the teaching of Jesus. The miracles of Jesus. They see and experience His joy and pain. Reception and rejection. As they walk with Him, they learn to trust Him. Through His signs, they believe that He is the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world.
But even as they do so, they stumble and fall. At times, they doubt. This should provide us some comfort. They were with Jesus as He walked among them. We, some two-thousand-years later, are with Him, but we do not see Him in the flesh.
Though we do not have Jesus in the body with us, we do have what the Holy Spirit had the apostles write down for us. We have the Word of God. And in it, especially in the Gospels, we read what Jesus did and what He has done for us: He perfectly obeyed the Law in your place and was crucified to atone for your sins, saving you from eternal death.
The Apostle John even gives the reason for writing his Gospel, and thus, why he tells us of this sign: That all those who hear it would believe in Jesus. That Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing in Him you would have eternal life. We see in the signs and miracles of Jesus that they are not to make us “healthy, wealthy, and wise,” but that we would be wise to what is the Truth. To be wise in knowing and trusting in Jesus. This first and chief sign of Jesus at a wedding in Cana clues us into what all the Gospel, and indeed, the Bible is about. It is about Jesus. How he creates all and then comes to it after it falls to restore it. How he comes to redeem and rescue fallen mankind.
It seems that the disciples were always seeing some sort of sign or healing. They even performed them themselves! And while we do not see that sort of thing today, let alone in the regularity they did in those days, we do have important signs that Jesus has left for us. We do see miracles in our midst even today. In baptism, we see someone who was dead made alive. There we see someone who is an enemy of God become the very child of God. In absolution, we hear and believe and trust that it is the very Word of God that forgives us our sins. And in the Supper of our Lord, we trust that He is present in the bread and wine, and in being present He feeds and nourishes our bodies and souls, forgiving our sins.
The wedding in Cana is a joyous festival, but it runs out of wine. The church throughout the world today celebrates the joy of Christ weekly by coming together, hearing the Word, and participating in the sign, the sacraments, that our Lord has given us. But we also wait for the culmination of the wedding in Cana. We wait for our own wedding feast as the Bride of Christ. It is there that He will again bring out
the best of the best wine, and we will live eternally with Him. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
Dear saints, when we first meet John the Baptist, he is in the wilderness calling for the people to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He wore strange clothing. He ate an odd diet. And many came out to him. They listened to him and many were convicted of their sins, they repented, and they were baptized into the forgiveness of sins. Even when confronted by the Pharisees, John was bold in his confession. He was unafraid to let them know of their wickedness and call them also to repent. Something they did not think they needed to do. We will hear more about John’s confession next week
But it was not only his people that John was bold to preach God’s Law to. He also took it to the secular authorities. And that is why we find him in prison this morning. He stood up to Herod and called him to repent of his sinful and immoral marriage to his brother’s wife. It landed him in prison.
While in prison, he hears of what the Christ is doing. The same one who he boldly confessed to be the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world. But now, as he sits in prison, he sends some of his disciples to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” There is debate among Christians on whether John sent these disciples because of his own doubt or because he was trying to encourage them to leave him and follow Jesus. I am not sure why, in this case, it is not both.
Surely John had to be struggling. He was God’s prophet and literally pointed to God’s Christ. But, because he knew he was a prophet, he also would not have been surprised that he was persecuted. To top it off, John had proclaimed certain things that Jesus would do. John said that Jesus would have the winnowing fork in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
But what does John hear? That Jesus is kind and compassionate. He dines with sinners. He heals the sick. Yes, he engages with and calls the Pharisees to repent, but it is not the fiery destruction that John apparently expected. And so, it would not be surprising that John would have some doubt about Jesus. Perhaps he thinks to himself, “I know who he is supposed to be. But I’m just not seeing it right now.” So, he sends his disciples and they ask if Jesus is the One who is coming.
When these disciples come and ask Jesus the question, it would make sense for Jesus to act like that man with the winnowing fork in his hands. It would make sense for a ‘fire and brimstone’ Jesus to condemn John for daring to have doubts. For questioning who Jesus is. But this is not what happens. Instead, Jesus speaks to the disciples sent by John with love and compassion. The text makes it sound like Jesus was teaching and healing as these disciples approached. And so when he turns to them and answers John’s question he says, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
The response was not condemnation for having expectations that Jesus was not living up to. Instead, it was referencing the prophecies and promises of Isaiah. Isaiah spoke God’s Law to the people. He called them to repent. And to those who believed and had faith in the Lord, he also proclaimed God’s abundant mercy. Jesus tells John, through his disciples, that he is exactly who John thought he was. He is the Christ. He is the one with the winnowing fork. But it is not time for the fork to be wielded.
Jesus was saying that now is the time for a preaching of repentance. Now is a time for healing. For forgiving. The time for the dead, both physically and spiritually, to be raised. And the one who is blessed is the one who is not ashamed of Jesus.
Things are not too different today. It is still the time for the preaching of repentance. It is still a time for healing. Today it is a spiritual healing that we provide. It is the spiritual life that is resurrected. Through the preaching of the Word, ears are opened and the deaf hear. The blinders are lifted, and people can see.
It is easy for us to look at the people in the Bible and feel superior to them. Why didn’t Israel stay faithful as they left Egypt? How could they reject God and his judges and seek an earthly king? How could John not see that Jesus is exactly who he said he was the first time Jesus approached in the desert? Well, because they are human and sinful. We, as they did, have ideas of what is supposed to happen. When it does not, we quickly question, doubt, or blame. And thankfully, Jesus is not waiting with a winnowing fork to toss us into the fire.
There are those today who say that doubt is better than faith. This is false. They assert that questioning God is an act of faith. That is ridiculous. It is sinful. But that is not to say that a Christian who has faith will never doubt. We see it this morning with John. He knows who Jesus is, but he does not see things working out like he thought they would. Another example is the Father of the boy with an unclean spirit. He asks Jesus if he can help. When Jesus replies that
Fear and doubt are no strangers to the Christian. Fear is a natural response to a serious illness. Doubt can creep into the minds of those with the strongest faith. Even after the resurrection, there was fear and doubt in the disciples. Even as they worshipped Jesus as their Lord and God. Sometimes it is hard to wrap your head around some of what we believe, teach, and confess:
How can the water of baptism do such great things? As you know, it is not the water, but it is the water with the word of God in and with the water. In other words, it is because of God’s promise attached to that water. We know this. We believe this. But I also remember a time that I had my doubts about it.
When you doubt, you are free to go to your Savior and tell them to him. You are free to express your doubt, your frustration, your fears. And when you do, you do not have to worry about an angry God ready and looking for a reason to destroy you. You find a loving God who desires his children to have a healthy fear and to trust that he is working all things out for the good of those who love him.
The reason you can be sure of this is because of John’s words about Jesus the first time he saw him in the wilderness. Jesus is the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world. He came as the babe in Bethlehem to be a sacrifice. He came to Jerusalem to be your atonement. To be your liberator from the slavery of sin, death, and the devil. He took his seat on his throne when he was lifted upon the cross. Where his blood flowed, forgiveness was won, and salvation was accomplished.
Jesus had no condemnation for John as John’s disciples left to return to him. Instead, Jesus had praise for him: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet…Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.” This was said for John’s disciples to hear. So that they would relay it to John as well.
There is no rebuke for John, but that does not mean you can doubt everything. When Peter scoffs as Jesus says that he must suffer and die, a swift and stern rebuke comes. When Zechariah doubts the angel Gabriel’s word that Elizabeth will have a son, he is struck mute. This doubt was faithless. Yet Mary’s questioning of Gabriel did not bring rebuke. It was a doubt of wonder. It was like she said, “I know what you say will come to pass, but I don’t understand how…”
We prayed this morning that God would “hear our prayers” and “lighten the darkness of our hearts.” God hears our prayers, and he lightens the darkness. He does so as he gives sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. That is, he delivers faith to those who do not know him. He strengthens faith in those who trust in him yet struggle. And this gives us joy. And in joy, we anticipate his coming. Not just as we remember him born of the Virgin, and not only in his promised return. But we have joy even today as we anticipate and enjoy his presence here in our midst. As he comes in his Body and Blood to feed and nourish you. To forgive your sins. To strengthen your faith in the hearing of his Holy Word. To be the answer to all your doubt.
And so, as the name of our Sunday invites us to do, let us Rejoice in the Lord always. For he has come to us and for us. He has covered our sin and has forgiven our iniquity. He speaks to us peace and revives us in body and soul. Again I will say, Rejoice. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
