What Does This Mean?

St. Mary Magdalene: Another Unlikely Saint

Today, the church remembers and celebrates St. Mary Magdalene. Before the new hymnal came out, the appointed Gospel lesson was Luke 7:36-50. There, we hear about an unnamed prostitute anointing the head and feet of Jesus while He ate with a pharisee. We learn more about Mary from the next chapter of Luke’s gospel: she had seven, yes, seven demons cast from her. Put that all together and you a picture of a woman who knew God’s grace and knew it came from Jesus, God’s own Son in the flesh. It makes complete sense that she stuck so close to Jesus, following him and providing for him and the disciples out of their means.

You might say Mary is an unlikely saint, but becoming a saint is not something that we do for ourselves. No, God must do the work of making saints. Just as He did for Mary, He has done for you.

Just think about who God chooses to be his own. Abraham, he was the son of an idolater and a liar, as the story in Egypt shows. Jacob was a deceiver. Judah took a prostitute, who happened to be the wife of his dead son. David, the best of the Old Testament Kings, had a man killed because he would not lay with his wife to cover up the fact that David had taken her for himself and that a child was on the way. The ones chosen by God are not saintly by the world’s standards at all. And that’s just in the Old Testament! The new testament is just as littered with unlikely saints, Paul being the most profound.

But that is what our Lord does. He does not find saints, instead he makes them. He makes saints out of sinners. He takes hold of them, gives them his love, through his Son Jesus, and says, “Forgiven, free, mine!” He makes them clean; He cleanses them just as He cleansed you by water and the word to be his holy bride. And that’s no matter who you are. Jesus wants you for Himself. He came that you might be His and His alone.

You may have heard of the book The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, maybe not. It’s a riveting tale of fiction that depicts that Mary Madgalene was the wife of Jesus in an earthly sense. And that Jesus was a mere human. Scripture and the Church Fathers never say such a thing.

The Bride of Christ is His Church—the whole Church. Mary, like you and I, are members of this body. You and I, along with Mary, are the bride of Christ by faith. Christ has made Himself one flesh with us. Christ has given us all that He is and all that He has. Christ went so far as to die for us, that having cleansed by his own blood, He might present to himself a clean and perfect bride. This bride did nothing to deserve Christ’s love and devotion. This bride did not take hold of Christ, but Christ sought her out and made her His bride. He clung to her even through death, and He still clings to her now that she might be with Him always.

Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb that first Easter all upset, empty, and drained from the previous day’s events. Before Jesus, she was the prostitute and woman with seven demons. Her life was a living hell. Then Jesus took hold of her. She was granted new life in Him, but as she walked to the tomb had hell really won? Had death and hell taken Jesus away from her? The images of the cross and the sound of the stone being rolled in front of the tomb screamed, “Yes!”

But the tomb is empty when she walks up. However, her thoughts only make her feel worse. Had someone stolen the body? Where did they take him?

“Why are you weeping?” The angels know the truth of the resurrection, but Mary is unable to consider the resurrection. “Why are you weeping?” asked the man, whom she assumed to be the gardener. She is standing outside of a tomb. Why do you think she would be crying? Dead men don’t rise.! She still is looking for the dead body and asks for the location.

Then the most perfect word comes from the mouth of this man: “Mary.” The Shepherd calls His sheep by name. Mary knows. She goes to Him and does not plan to ever let Him go again. However, Jesus has one more thing to teach Mary. “I am giving you my body and blood to cling to in a better and even fuller way, a way for all people to cling to me. You shall cling to me by Word and Sacrament. And most importantly, I will cling to you, that you have life everlasting.”

That is what we have. We have a Lord and Savior who clings on to us. It is He who makes us His saints. Unlikely and full of sin as we are, yet He loves us just as He loved Mary. That same mercy and grace that was shown to her is shown to you day in and day out. Recall how Christ called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light via the waters of holy baptism. Look to the altar and recall the sacrifice Christ made, giving up his body and shedding his blood for you and your forgiveness. All works done by Christ for you to make you his own.

So let us take our place at the table of unlikely saints with St. Mary and receive again that grace and mercy of Bridegroom Jesus Christ and rejoice in the love shown to us all. Christ has made his Bride forever.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana

Isaiah

Encore Post: On the 6th of July, the church commemorates the prophet Isaiah. If you have never read the front part of the hymnal, I highly recommend it. The Church sees the good in remembering the saints.

Isaiah ministered to God’s people during an era of great turmoil. Reading his book, you see, he was called to serve as the Lord’s prophet the year that King Uzziah died, and he served as a prophet through the reign of Hezekiah. During this period, there was a lot of political turmoil, and the book speaks about some of these situations in detail. But the promise of the Lord saving his people and gathering them together on His Holy Mountain is in the background.

Isaiah did what every other prophet did: speak the word of the Lord to the people, even the kings of his day. He preached the Law of God, proclaiming that judgment was coming on Judah and the northern kingdom in the form of the Assyrians, and later the Babylonians. He preached to them repentance. But Isaiah also offers much gospel and forgiveness from the Lord. We only need to look to Isaiah 40. But even before that we see throughout his book that he preaches Law and Gospel.

In the three-year lectionary of the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod, we find Isaiah’s book is used on a whopping 77 Sundays. That is over 50% of the Old Testament lessons, when you consider the season of Easter replacing OT lessons with readings from Acts.

Perhaps we should ask why Isaiah is so prominent in the lectionary. Perhaps it is because Isaiah preaches Christ’s kingdom in a way that the Gospels preaches it. Some even called Isaiah “the fifth Gospel” because Christ and His work come through so clearly. Even the name “Isaiah” conveys Christ. His name means “YHWH’s Salvation”. And it is no surprise that two of Isaiah’s favorite words to use in the book are the verb “he shall save” and the noun “salvation”.

Isaiah’s prophecies of Christ are quite clear, and perhaps that is why we like him so much. Isaiah also is quoted a number of times by the Gospels too, and Isaiah 52 and 53 are highlighted in Acts as the text that converted the Ethiopian Eunuch.

So we in the Church give thanks to the work that the Lord did through His prophet Isaiah, as we remember and commemorate Isaiah today.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp

Christ Lutheran Church

Noblesville, Indiana

Ezekiel: The Prophet In Exile

Ezekiel was a prophet during the age of exile. His name can be translated as “Strength of God; whom God will strengthen; God is strong; the man of God strengthens.” And really, his name plays a role in the man’s nature. He needed the strength of God, like his contemporaries, to grasp and trust in the work that God was accomplishing before the eyes of all the nations.

We see Ezekiel mentioned by name twice in the Bible (Ezekiel 1:3; 24:24). The same name also appears in 1 Chronicles 24:16, but there the man is a priest during the days of David and translated as Jehezkel. All we know of the exilic prophet comes from the book attributed to him.

Ezekiel and his life are inseparable from the political upheaval of the seventh and sixth centuries BC. It is likely that Ezekiel was a young contemporary of Jeremiah. If Ezekiel was in his “thirtieth year” when he experienced his inaugural vision and received his call to be a mouthpiece of the Lord, he would have been a boy when Hilkiah the priest discovered the Book of the Law in the Temple in Jerusalem (2 Kings 22). It is conceivable since Ezekiel was of a priestly family (Son of Buzi, of the line of Aaron), he may have witnessed his own family members carrying out the idols at Josiah’s command, only to return a generation or two later.

In 605 BC, Ezekiel’s world shifted as Nebuchadnezzar II came to the throne of Neo-Babylonian Empire. Nebuchadnezzar was able to drive Egypt out of region of Israel, and the Babylonian forces carried off the first wave of Judaeans. This likely was the group that included Daniel and his three friends. Ezekiel was carried to Babylon around 597, when Jehoiachin surrendered to Babylon, but remained in place as king. But that was not the end of things for Jerusalem. Ezekiel prophesied in Exile, warning what was to come upon Jerusalem. Jerusalem was sacked in 587 BC. Ezekiel never left Babylon. Early Jewish tradition (The Lives of the Prophets) recounts that Ezekiel died in Chaldea for having rebuked a leader of the Judaean exiles for worshipping idols.

As God’s mouthpiece to those in exile, Ezekiel frequently performed sign-acts to get the message across. Ezekiel carried in his body the oracles he proclaimed. During his ministry as the mouthpiece of God, Ezekiel is rendered unable to speak (Ezek 3:22–27; 33:22), move (Ezek 4:4–8), and mourn his wife’s death (Ezek 24:15–27). He also was made to cook food over human and cow dung (Ezek 4:9-17).

Ezekiel’s message is not simply doom and despair over the coming judgment against Jerusalem that came to fruition in 586 BC. Ezekiel, while bearing witness to YHWH’s leaving the Temple in Jerusalem, shows that YHWH did not leave His people while in exile. Instead, He went to His people, foreshadowing how the true temple of God, the Word made Flesh, would come to seek His people like a shepherd seeking lost sheep and make it known to all that He is God. Ezekiel proclaims both God’s Law and His beautiful Gospel for all believers. In the final chapters of his book, Ezekiel writes about the end, prophesying of the glorious temple to come and the water that flows out of it to water trees that bear fruit in all seasons. Ezekiel seems to be picking up Psalm 1 and looking forward to Jesus’ proclamation that He is the water of life (John 4:13-14 and John 7:37-38).

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana

Sunday School: Jonah and the Unforgivable

Encore Post: Nineveh was the ancient capital of the Assyrian Empire, on the Tigris River in what is now modern Iraq. Our story takes place during the years when its power was growing and several events caused the people to focus on the service of their gods. About a century after the events of the Book of Jonah, The Assyrians invaded Israel, carried off all the people of the Northern Kingdom into exile.

Jonah is not a typical prophet. He came from a small town near Nazareth and hated the people of Nineveh for their legendary cruelty. Rather than take part in God’s plan to rescue the residents of the city from their sinful ways, he would rather go to the ends of the earth — literally. Tarshish was in Spain, which was the western edge of the known world at that time. As pagan sailors work to save his life, he seems unconcerned. When the fish swallows him, he comes to his senses and turns to God. Yet even then, he only preaches to Nineveh because God commands it. He is even angry with God when the people repent and God spares them.

Before we criticize Jonah too much, consider how you’d react if God sent you to preach to people that you have no use for. Imagine being called to preach to members of murderous gangs, to Muslim terrorists or even to those who rape or beat up children or women. It’s hard to have any sympathy for them, isn’t it?

Yet that is what we are called to do. American Lutheran pastor Henry Gerecke had volunteered as a chaplain in World War II. He served as a chaplain in an army unit and visited the Dachau death camp. When the Army asked him to be the chaplain for the Nazis on death row during the Nuremberg war crime trials, he volunteered. How do you minister to monsters? He approached the eleven Nazi leaders that conducted the holocaust through their childhood faith. He did not gloss over their crimes. When they asked to be communed, he refused unless they truly repented and confessed faith in Jesus. It is not a surprise that seven did not. Yet four did. He prayed a childhood prayer with one as the Nazi went to the gallows.

We must never forget that we, too, are sinners and unworthy of God’s mercy. Yet God, in his love, sent Jesus to see and to save the lost — both respectable people and the monsters, too. He calls on us to rejoice, for he has found his lost sheep and brought them all home.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emertitus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Blog Post Series

Sunday School: Jeremiah, The Weeping Prophet

Encore Post: Jesus, when he asked the disciples who the Son of Man was, got some interesting answers. His disciples gave him the answers, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

It is striking that Jeremiah was mentioned by name. Jeremiah is best known as the weeping prophet, and that at first glance has little to do with the Son of Man, which we see coming on the clouds in triumph and judgment. He wept for Jerusalem because her disobedience led to destruction. Jeremiah truly suffered as he witnessed Jerusalem’s fall. Jeremiah was a prophet who suffered mightily for the words that the Lord had him utter. His scroll was burned. Jeremiah was also jailed and even thrown into a cistern.

So what does it mean that some said the Son of Man was to be Jeremiah? Did they know something about the Son of Man that the disciples did not? Did not the Son of Man come into the world to suffer? To suffer the awful fate of the cross, that was on the agenda of the Son of Man. Jeremiah is perhaps the best type we have in the Old Testament that points us forward to Jesus’ sorrow over Jerusalem and Jesus’ suffering at the hands of his own people because of his message.

The book that bears Jeremiah’s name and the next book in our Bible, Lamentations, speaks a lot about suffering. But this is not the only thing, nor it is the last word. There is hope; there is Gospel. Jeremiah is given some of the sweetest words of the Gospel that we have recorded for us in all of Scripture. The mourning of the believer will be turned to song. The Lord’s love is never ending. Great is His faithfulness. In Christ, the true Son of Man, the one who suffered even worse than the weeping prophet, Jeremiah, has set us free from sin and death by his own death and resurrection.

So yes, Jeremiah should have been in the conversation of the Son of Man because He is a type and figure of the very Son of Man, Jesus, who suffered and died and rose to win salvation and everlasting life for us, poor, miserable sinners.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville Indiana

Sunday School: Elijah’s Mantle on Elisha Cast

Encore Post: Elijah knew his ministry was nearing the end. At Mount Sinai, he complained to God that all his ministry, including fire called from heaven, was useless. He believed he was alone. God showed his prophet his glory in wind, earthquake, and fire. As Moses did in the same place, Elijah hid his eyes from the glory of God — this time with his cloak, the symbol of his call as a prophet. Yet even after seeing the glory of God, Elijah was unmoved. So, in a quiet voice, God told his faithful prophet he was far from alone. To Elijah, he gave a final commission: to appoint his successors.

God sent Elijah to call Elisha to be his successor. Their names sound very close in English, but are very different in Hebrew. Elijah means, “Yahweh is God.” Elisha means, “God saves.” Elisha’s name is very close to Joshua’s name. Joshua means, “Yahweh saves.” Elijah threw his cloak over Elisha, who did not miss the meaning of that gesture.

When it was time for Elijah to go, he and Elisha went to Gilgal. There, the people of Israel had first camped when they came into the promised land, were circumcised as God’s people, celebrated the Passover, saw the end of the coming of Manna and the departure of the pillar of fire by night and cloud by day. There, the Angel of the Lord commissioned Joshua. Then they went to Bethel, where Jacob had dreamed of the angels coming and going from heaven. Finally, they went to Jericho, where Joshua struck the first blow against the gods of Canaan.

When the two prophets arrived at the Jordan River, Elijah rolled up the cloak into a staff like Moses’. He struck the River, and it parted — just as it did in the same place for Joshua. Like Moses, Elijah would depart this world from just outside the promised land. As the chariot of fire carried Elijah into heaven in a whirlwind, Elisha caught his cloak. The new prophet struck the Jordan with it and it parted. God had made Elisha the heir of Elijah’s ministry.

Nearly two thousand years later, Moses and Elijah met with Jesus as those he would send watched. The new Joshua (Jesus’ name is the Greek form of Joshua’s name) would suffer, die and rise again to defeat sin, death and the power of the devil. Rising from the dead, he breathed the Holy Spirit on his appointed prophets. From generation to generation, one generation’s prophets have laid their hands upon those who would take up their stoles after them. God of the prophets, bless the prophets’ sons, Elijah’s mantle on Elisha cast. Make each one nobler, stronger than the last.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Blog Post Series

Sunday School: Elijah, The Man of God when There were Few

Encore Post: Elijah is not credited with any of the books of the Bible, but he is remembered as one of the most powerful prophets of the entire Old Testament. His stories are legendary for those of us who listened to our moms and dads read bible stories before bed. He was the prophet who prophesied a 3 year drought. He was the prophet who worked the miracle of flour and oil, and raised the widow’s son from the dead. He was the prophet who called down fire on Mount Carmel in the midst of the Baal priests. And we can’t forget about him being taken up to heaven by a whirlwind and a chariot of fire.

Elijah was the Lord’s man. But even after great triumph and acts of the Lord, Elijah shows himself to be afraid. I should say, it is difficult to determine if Elijah is afraid or he is tired of preaching to people who do not believe. You can read Dr. Maier’s great commentary on Kings from CPH for that answer. But what we do know is that Elijah runs to Mount Horeb wishing to die because he thinks he is the only prophet of the Lord left. The Lord is merciful to Elijah. The Lord tells him the truth of the situation. The Lord has 7,000 men who have not bowed down to Baal.

What a great comfort to Elijah! He is not working in vain. The Lord worked to bring about repentance and faith in the time of great apostasy then, and He still works now through the preaching of His Word. What great comfort for us now! The Word of the Lord remains the same.

In the days of Malachi, the Lord promised to send Elijah prior to the great day of the Lord. Jesus plainly tells his disciples that John was the Elijah. And we must not forget that Elijah was on the mountain of transfiguration with Jesus and Moses, speaking about Jesus’ own exodus.

What a man of the Lord! Elijah was used by the Lord to bring about repentance and faith when there were few who believed and worshiped the true God of Israel. Thanks be to God that in these days, where the world appears to be going in that same way, there are those who preach the same message of Elijah.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, IN

Sunday School: Solomon Asks for Wisdom

Encore Post: When God invited Solomon to ask for a blessing, Solomon asked for wisdom. Solomon’s request pleased God for several reasons. First, he was humble, realizing his limitations. He was still very young and had little experience governing. Second, he sought to serve God first. He asked for wisdom — the ability to use knowledge well to meet needs and discernment, — the ability to tell right from wrong. He sought first God’s kingdom and righteousness. God granted him what he asked for — and riches, fame and a long life as well.

King Solomon was the son of King David and Bathsheba. His life shows how completely God forgives, since David committed great sins with and because of Bathsheba. They deserved to die, but God forgave them, let them live and gave them a second son. Solomon would be an ancestor of the Messiah.

Under Solomon, Israel became a prosperous and powerful nation. Solomon was a superb organizer. He reformed the kingdom’s bureaucracy, making it more efficient and channeling its prosperity effectively. He built God’s Holy Temple and numerous other buildings. He became a collector of proverbs, many of which appear in the Book of Proverbs. According to tradition, the Books of Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs are written by the King, although much debate about this exists among scholars.

As great as he was, Solomon was a sinner also. He married hundreds of wives, mainly to secure treaties. He allowed them to worship the gods of their fathers and even constructed temples for them. For this reason, God caused the kingdom to be divided during his son’s reign. Yet, for the sake of the one greater than Solomon, his sins are forgiven, along with ours.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sunday School: David Anointed King

Encore Post: In ancient times, people poured oil on themselves for various purposes, — as perfume, as medicine, and to show that something or someone was to serve God only. Doing this was called anointing.

Anointing was a part of the ceremonies to make a king the ruler of Israel or a priest to serve God in performing sacrifices. The word “Messiah” comes from the Hebrew word that means “anointed one.” It was translated into Greek with the word “Christ.”

As the prophets God sent to Israel predicted more and more about the coming of Jesus, they began to use these words as the title for God’s Son. When the prophet Nathan promised that a descendant of David would be the Messiah, they also came to call this promised savior “The Son of David.”

Jesus is the Messiah promised. He did not come to be served, but to serve others and give his life for us. In this way, he truly is the man after God’s own heart.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sunday School: David and Goliath

Encore Post: When Saul and David lived, war was very personal. Most of the fighting was done with swords, shields, and other weapons in hand-to-hand combat. Sometimes it was very hard to predict who would win a battle. Yet everyone knew hundreds to thousands of soldiers on both sides would die. To spare the armies of such losses, the two sides would sometimes agree to have their two best soldiers fight the battle for their armies. These soldiers were called champions.

Goliath proposed to fight for the Philistines. If he won, Israel would surrender to them. If he lost, the Philistines would surrender. All of Goliath’s strength did him no good, since he couldn’t reach David with his sword. David used his sling. Men from the tribe of Benjamin were known for their marksmanship with a sling. Like them, David learned his skill with the weapon fending off animals that attacked his sheep. God guided David’s stone, which killed the giant. He finished off Goliath with the Philistine’s own sword. But the Philistine army did not honor the agreement, but broke ranks and fled. The army of Israel followed them, killing many as they ran.

Saul recognized talent when he saw it. He kept David with him and sent him out on military missions. As David won victory after victory, the people came to love him. David became a good friend of Saul’s son, Jonathan. Saul would eventually give David his daughter Michal in marriage. Soon Saul would become jealous of David’s fame and see him as a threat to his throne.

David’s descendent, Jesus, is our champion. He fought sin, death and the devil for us on the cross, suffered and died for our sins and rose from the grave to defeat them. Because our Champion died for us, we now will live with Him forever.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana