[Sixty-Ninth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]
Encore Post: In Holy Baptism, we are made God’s children. This is perhaps the greatest and most wonderful vocation into which we are placed. Let’s call baptism ground zero for vocations. Moving from ground zero, there are other vocations that are built into the kingdom of God. The vocation or calling of a pastor comes to mind.
In the Old Testament, God commanded the men of the tribe of Levi to serve in his tabernacle and later temple as priests, and the specific men who would do the bulk of the public preaching and teaching concerning the Lord and his wonderful works of salvation, like the Exodus events of the Passover Lamb and the Red Sea.
In the New Testament, it is no longer about tribal bloodlines. Jesus calls 12 men to be his disciples, and we are not really told much about their tribal relationships. The original 12 disciples who were with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry, from his baptism to his ascension into heaven, were then sent to proclaim their testimony concerning what they had seen. They were to proclaim the salvation won for us by Jesus Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension. They did this publicly. Paul was a late comer but chosen by the risen Christ, Himself to be the voice to the Gentiles.
What are good works? Good works are those things which flow from faith in Christ Jesus, as well as those things that are carried out within our vocation. Where do you find yourself? In the Small Catechism, after the 6 chief parts, there is a lesser-known but ultra-important section called the Table of Duties.
The Table of Duties is a list of Bible passages that address the common yet holy vocations of Christians in their daily lives. The table begins with vocations within the church, then out to the public square, and finally back into the household. The compiled Bible passages are not an exhaustive list of the duties that comprise each calling or vocation, but they provide a good overview of the most common vocations: pastors, laypeople, children, parents, workers, and employers.
Some vocations can be chosen. Others are handed down to you without your consent. I am a son. I am also a brother. I was not asked how I felt about that. I learned quickly what it meant to live in the vocation of son and brother. But other vocations came through my own choosing. I am a husband and a father. Now that I have become a husband and a father, however, I am called upon and admonished to do the duties required of me from Scripture.
You might consider each kind of job a vocation. You might even say you are called to a particular job. But we must be careful how far we take that discussion because what would happen if we left that job? Would it be sinful to switch your career? We should not go that far, but understand that we are accountable to the more general descriptions of being a worker, etc.
The term vocation is freighted with all kinds of weight. But we Christians should turn our attention to the table of duties and ask ourselves, “Where do I find myself?”
Today, our Easter celebration of the resurrection is filled with joy. White paraments, flowers, and banners decorate our churches. Well-practiced organs, choirs, and musical instruments of all kinds add to our song. After all, we know the story and how it ends. Jesus is risen!
The first Easter was quite different. Women close to Jesus reported visions of angels and the Lord himself. The disciples didn’t know what to think. The five accounts of that day show the confusion. (Matthew 28:1-15, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-49, John 20:1-23, 1 Corinthians 15:3-5) Different people were running all over the place, and each story is its own. One thing was for sure. The tomb was empty.
On the first Sunday afternoon, two disciples were on the road home, feeling very unsettled. Could it be true? Was the Lord really risen from the dead? Jesus appeared to them, but did not reveal himself to them. As they walked to Emmaus, Jesus showed them how the Old Testament pointed to him and that he had to suffer, die, and rise again from the dead. They invited him to stay with them for the evening. As they ate dinner, Jesus blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to them. They recognized him. He immediately vanished.
These two disciples immediately went back to Jerusalem to report to the disciples what had happened. There, they learned Jesus had appeared to Peter. As they were talking about this, Jesus removed all doubt. He appeared to them, ate some food to show them he was not a ghost, but had risen from the dead, body and soul. He then blessed the Apostles and gave them the power to forgive and retain sins.
When life gets confusing, and we do not know what to do, Jesus comes to us in his word. Even though we do not see him, he is always with us. When we pray, “Stay with us, Lord,” he does. We are never alone, even until the end of time itself.
Encore Post: He is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!
In the silence of a cold, dark tomb, the world changed forever. Just as he promised, Jesus rose from his rest in the grave, breaking the seal of the tomb forever. And no one noticed.
The Romans were really good at torturing people to death. Crucifixion was a slow death, designed to kill with the maximum amount of pain and humiliation possible. If the Romans killed you, you were dead. Jesus, in fact, was already dead when the soldiers moved to hurry the process to get the bodies into a grave before sunset and the beginning of the Sabbath.
Once they laid Jesus in the tomb, no one expected him to go anywhere. Pilate ordered the tomb sealed by the authority of Rome, setting its seal on the stone that shut it off from the world. Had he not risen from death, the women would have completed his embalming, and they would have mourned him for seven days. After a year, they would have gathered his bones into a stone box. In fact, this is what Caiaphas’ family did. Archaeologists have found the high priest’s box. Had he not risen, likely no one today would even know the name of Jesus.
But Jesus did rise from the dead. The seal of our graves is broken. When we die now, our spirits live with him until the last day. When Jesus returns. On that day, he will call our bodies from the grave, and a new creation will occur. We will finally be whole — our bodies — like his resurrected body, will be fit for eternal life. Death no longer has a sting. The grave will have no victory. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)
That is why Easter strikes such a chord with Christians. It is why we greet each other with joy… Christ is risen…
Encore Post: Jesus died late in the afternoon on Good Friday, just before the Sabbath began at sunset. Two of his secret disciples asked Pilate for his body — Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. They gave him a hasty but rich man’s burial. Several of the women closest to Jesus followed them to the tomb. Joseph rolled a large stone in front of the entrance, and they left him there. Later, at the priests’ request, Pilate set a guard and sealed it to prevent the body’s theft. As the second day Jesus was dead began, he was finally at rest.
As God rested on the seventh day of creation, so now Jesus rested on the first Sabbath of the new creation. By his sacrifice on the cross, he destroyed sin and the power of the devil. Soon, when the Sabbath ended, he would break the power of death as well.
As Christians prepare for a joyful Easter celebration, we often miss this moment of quiet and peace. Soon, when sunset comes, the third day will begin. Sometime between that sunset and dawn, Jesus rose from the dead, descended to Hell to complete his victory over Satan, and became the first to rise into eternal life. The Church will begin its Vigil of Easter at sunset and sing the songs of Resurrection again.
Encore Post: Good Friday is the most somber day in the Church Year. On this day, the price of our sin is paid out in full — by God Himself. The ancient plan for our salvation had been unfolding for thousands of years. The descendant of Eve, of Noah, of Abraham, and of David was born to the Virgin Mary. The Son of God, the Author of Life himself, became one of us. At the Jordan River, he made holy the waters of Baptism and took on himself the sins of the world. On Mt. Zion, ancient Mt. Moriah, where the Angel of the Lord stayed the hand of Abraham, God’s Son, His only Son, whom he loves, was condemned to die as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Sentenced by Pilate, he began his final suffering and was nailed to the cross. Even as he began to die, the forgiving began — first of those who killed him and then of a thief on a nearby cross.
The greatest mystery of all came at the height of his suffering. The Eternal Son of God cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) in the language of his boyhood. We should not be surprised that we cannot understand this profound moment. Yet we know a few things for sure. We know this very moment was revealed in detail in the Scripture itself. Jesus’ words are a quotation from his father, David, in Psalm 22, written a thousand years earlier. We know Jesus felt abandoned by God. His prayers unanswered and his loneliness show that he shares fully in our humanity. He is like us in every way, which is why his sacrifice on our behalf is possible. We know that it is our sin he paid for on the cross, and that price is unimaginably high. We are moved as we extinguish one light after another, remembering the depth of his suffering.
Yet this is not the last word we hear from the suffering of our Lord. As he died, he said, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) Sin was atoned for, the power of the Devil defeated, and the seal of the grave soon to be broken. Jesus knew the Father had not abandoned him. He once again quoted his father, David, in Psalm 31, “Into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46), and entered his three-day rest in the tomb.
Encore Post: The night God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt, the Hebrews selected perfect lambs from their flocks. They had no injuries, blemishes, or birth defects. These lambs were slaughtered, their blood smeared on their doors, their meat roasted for a feast. That night, the Angel of Death passed over their houses as the firstborn of all Egypt perished.
On the evening God delivered us all from sin, death, and the power of the devil, the disciples arranged a Passover meal for them and for Jesus. John the Baptist had called him the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. He took bread and said, “This is my body given for you,” and wine and said, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood.” St. Paul calls him “our Passover, who is sacrificed for us.”
The Lord’s Supper, then, is our New Passover. In it, God gives us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. The Angel of Death passes over us. In baptism, we are united with him in his death on the cross. We enter the Red Sea of death with him and rise to new life when he breaks the seal of our graves.
Once again in Holy Week, we follow the Lamb of God as he goes to his death willingly. We pray as he takes each step,
Lamb of God, pure and holy, Who on the cross did suffer… Have mercy on us, O Jesus.
Encore Post: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday have been remembered by the Church since ancient times as the days on which our salvation was won through the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord. She accomplishes this with a single service that lasts three days. The Maundy Thursday divine service begins with an invocation but does not conclude with a benediction. Good Friday services have neither an invocation nor a benediction. The Vigil of Easter on Saturday evening does not begin with an invocation, but ends with a benediction.
The name Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin word mandatum — the first word in the Latin translation of Jesus’ command: “a new commandment I give to you: love one another.” (John 13:34) Jesus gave this command at the Last Supper, the night we also remember because he also instituted the Lord’s Supper during that Passover meal. The Maundy Thursday service ends with the stripping of the altar, the lectern, and the pulpit, and the removal of the pastor’s vestments. Often, the account of the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus’ arrest is read during this time. We depart in silence, noting that the disciples abandoned Jesus.
The day that begins at sunset on Maundy Thursday witnessed the whole of Jesus’ passion and death. We call it Good Friday because it is the day we were redeemed. It is also the first day of Christ’s rest in the tomb. This second day, Jesus was in the grave, which began at sunset on Friday. On Holy Saturday after sunset, the third day starts. The Church holds a vigil, a service that marks the beginning of Easter. Often, Christians are baptized during the vigil.
On these three days, Christ fulfilled his promise that he would take our sins to the cross, die to pay their due, make holy our graves by resting in death, defeat Satan and death, and rise again to shatter the grave forever. Three days to remember and to thank God for his mercy.
[Sixty-third in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]
For many Christians, Holy Communion is a very personal thing. Even those who think of it as a symbol and not a sacrament cherish it. It has a way of strengthening their faith in Jesus. So it comes as a surprise to many that the Lord’s Supper has a way of doing the same thing between Christians. St. Paul says, “because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body.” (1 Corinthians 10:17) When we eat the bread and drink the cup, we proclaim together his death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:26) So, when we commune together, we are confessing that we share the same faith as well as receive the benefits of the sacrament.
This is why Confessional Lutherans practice Closed Communion. All those who share the sacrament with us proclaim that what we teach is what they believe. Since non-Lutherans may not believe this, we do not want them to be saying something they do not believe. It is also why we do not commune at churches whose teachings we do not believe. In addition, if a communicant does not believe they receive Christ’s body and blood with the bread and wine of the sacrament, they may not examine themselves before receiving it. In love, we ask them not to put themselves in danger of sinning against Christ when they receive it. Because we do not want this divide to remain, we take every opportunity to study God’s word with them on subjects we disagree about.
Sermon on John 17 Fifth Wednesday in Lent Zion Lutheran Church Guttenberg, Iowa 25 March 2026
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This reading that we had this evening comes from the last prayer that we have recorded from the mouth of Jesus before he died (John 17). It was said in the Garden of Gethsemane, and while the disciples were trying to stay awake, they were depressed, confused, and did not know whether up or down was coming.
It had been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks. A sense of things leading toward conflict grew with each step that they took toward Jerusalem.
Jesus had healed a blind man in Jericho (Luke 18:35–43), a clear sign of the Messiah. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead in the sight of the priests, not miles from Jerusalem, after he had been dead for four days (John 11:38–44), yet one more sign of the Messiah.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus deliberately rides a donkey along the road that David took (1 Kings 1:33–34). He rode on a donkey, fulfilling prophecy (Zechariah 9:9), just as David had taken that very same road to reassume his throne, and just as his son Solomon had done, also riding a donkey into Jerusalem.
The sign was unmistakable to the pilgrims gathering for Passover, as the Passover lambs streamed in along the same road from Bethlehem, headed toward the temple for sacrifice.
He accepted the praises of the crowd, “Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Psalm 118:25–26; Matthew 21:9), and none of this was lost on the priests and those around him. The disciples were both joyful and just a little bit nervous.
The road led up and across the brook Kidron and directly into the temple complex, where Jesus was to drive the money changers out of the temple (Matthew 21:12–13) for three days and argue with the scribes and the Pharisees as they tried all the trick questions they could think of. Every one of them, Jesus deftly turned aside, and the disciples could not miss the hatred in their eyes. They knew something was up, but they really didn’t know exactly what that was.
Thomas long ago had conceded that he was headed toward Jerusalem to die: “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16).
It’s not only that, but Jesus had this tendency over the years to constantly predict his suffering, death, and resurrection, all at the hands of the scribes and the Pharisees (Matthew 16:21; Mark 10:33–34; Luke 18:31–33). And so, unsettled, they were listening to him, wondering half what this last teaching really meant for them.
And so, Jesus, quite aware of all of this, prays for them and for us.
What Is It That Bothers You Today?
We have quite a few things in this life: the usual litany of the phases of life—sickness, grief, death, hurricanes, tornadoes, all kinds of disasters that come our way, and ups and downs in the economy. Just when you think you can pay for your gas, you pull into the gas pump, and the price has jumped again.
All these things can worry and build on you. And if it’s not that, it’s chronic aches and pains, the issues that you find with workers and people alongside you. And any time you open your mouth to say anything to people about Jesus, you get at best a polite look of disdain and maybe even some ridicule along the way.
“In the world you will have tribulation,” Jesus told us (John 16:33). And he was right. We do have tribulation at every turn. These, he told us, are a sign that we are in the last days (Matthew 24:8), in the same way that you know that when labor begins, a woman is about to deliver her baby. And you might not know when, but you know it is coming, and it is coming soon.
And so it is we know that the end will come for us, either at the end of our days or at the end of all days, whichever the Lord wills.
The World, the Devil, and Our Own Sinful Flesh
The world itself is also preoccupied with everything that is on its agenda, each and every one of us being of the opinion that we, of course, should rule the world. And so we seek our own happiness, and the commercials and the television programs and the internet all urge us to splurge, to buy, to enjoy ourselves, to have all kinds of luxuries, that we are really right when we think that we are better than the people next to us and the people down the street.
Chief of sinners though I be… we might think all the rest are worse than me.
The devil’s accusations also play into this. Just as the devil tried to throw Jesus off his game with all of his sly things—“Turn these stones into bread… Bow down to me… Throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple” (Matthew 4:1–11)—so the same kinds of things also bear down on us.
When we know that we have to be disciplined, that we have to guard our lives so that we please God and our neighbors, so that we live in peace with people, and so that we raise our children well, we discover that sometimes those are very, very long paths and very, very long drawn-out things that you have to engage in, that could take you years to do. And so, taking a little shortcut, even if it’s not quite kosher, is a very tempting thing that comes our way.
Our own hearts, you see, are still inclined to sin (Romans 7:18–25), although we have been baptized and washed by the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 1:5), that we have been made his children and heirs, and a new person put in our hearts (2 Corinthians 5:17). That old Adam and that old Eve still keep coming along, and as is sometimes attributed to Luther, although I can’t find it in him, the old Adam is a good swimmer—very hard to drown in the waters of baptism (Romans 6:3–6). And he will be with us until the day that we die, and the Lord relieves us of him once and for all.
But in the meantime, we have all these things that tempt us to sin, and more often than we would like, we fall into those sins and have to start all over each day, asking for forgiveness and trying one more time.
“I Pray for You”
In the midst of all of this, which can get sometimes very confusing, they say that when you go into a battle, the moment that the first shots are fired, the smoke and the noise and the splashing of light is such that nobody knows where anybody or anyone else is, and the confusion is almost as bad as the violence around you.
And so it is in our world sometimes. We really can’t figure out what’s up or down some days.
And that’s why it is good that Jesus says, “I pray for you.” (John 17:9, 20)
Jesus, you see, rescued us from this, taking all of these sins, all of our doubts, all of our worries, all of our fear, and went to the cross right after he prayed this prayer, where he suffered and died that our sins might be completely paid for, washed away by the shedding of his very own precious blood on that cross (1 Peter 1:18–19).
And when he died and paid for it once and for all and said, “It is finished,” (John 19:30), it was really finished. Our sins are forgiven. Our lives are promised to be with him forever. And when our time comes to an end, that is where we will be, with him in glory forever and ever (Philippians 1:23).
And so he prays for us because he knows exactly what this life is like. One of the side benefits of the incarnation is that God walked as a man, suffered, had the same pains and the same temptations as each one of us (Hebrews 4:15), and knows very well what we’re up against. And so when he prays, he prays for what he knows very, very well.
Just as he begins to pray, it is not the last time he does so. It sounds like it—the High Priestly Prayer comes to an end, he’s arrested and off to the cross. But we’re told in various and sundry different places that in the midst of this world, in the midst of all of the trials and tribulations and the groanings that we have in this world, that Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25).
Now, on the side of him, the Holy Spirit is at work, listening to us, and when we don’t have the words to pray, praying those words himself for us (Romans 8:26–27).
In that promise, we can stand knowing that every day of our lives, not only are we not alone, but that God himself is praying to God for us. You really can’t lose when that’s going on.
Why Does He Pray?
And as if that were not enough—and it sure is—he continues to encourage us through the reading, the singing, and the preaching of his word (Romans 10:17), through the waters of baptism (Titus 3:5), through the comfort of hearing God’s own voice through your pastor forgiving your sins (John 20:22–23), through the sacrament of his body and blood where we receive the very body and blood of Christ shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins (Matthew 26:26–28).
In all of this, why does he pray?
He prays that we would be forgiven (John 17:17).
He prays that we would be one with each other and with the Church in heaven (John 17:21–23).
He prays that we would be made holy (John 17:17).
And you know, if God prays to God, there’s only one answer to that prayer, and that’s yes.
And so we can have comfort in this:
When you cannot pray, Christ prays for you.
When your faith is weak, his prayers undergird you and hold you up.
When you are weak and don’t know what is coming next, he is there to strengthen you.
And on the last day, he will send his angel to escort you to be with him (Luke 16:22).
So it is that you live with God even now. In the center of the Holy Trinity, in that family of persons that are one being, yet three, we are also one in some mysterious way with him, even in this life (John 14:20; John 17:23).
For Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live. And he who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25–26)
And so it is with us. As we walk in this life, we can be confident that no matter what comes our way, Jesus is with us and he prays for us. And that is really, really good enough.
