In January of 1521, Pope Leo X, formalized the excommunication of Martin Luther in his bull Decet Romanum Pontificam. The decree removed, as far as the Pope and the structure of the church were concerned Luther’s right to teach the faith, exercise the pastoral office and receive the sacraments. It was not published until October of 1521, since it also excommunicated most of Germany’s princes and city-state governments. Emperor Charles V needed their financial and military support, especially against Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Islamic Ottoman Empire, then rising in power. His armies were marching towards Belgrade through Serbia and Hungary as these events were happening.
To address these challenges, and the threat to religious unity Martin Luther and his friends represented, Emperor Charles convened a diet (a cross between a parliament and a diplomatic conference) at the city of Worms in Southwest Germany. In January of 1521, negotiations began between the Emperor and his advisors and Elector Frederick the Wise and his advisors to summon Luther to the Diet to defend himself. The Emperor favored the papacy and the institution of the Church, but he knew to move too strongly against Luther would at best deprive him of badly needed support. Frederick was the key prince in the empire and Luther’s protector. So he agreed to give Luther the hearing that the reformer requested and a safe conduct pledge to go to Worms and return to Saxony.
The imperial summons was worded very graciously, addressing Luther with all the titles due to him as a priest and professor of theology. It was vaguely worded, stated as a request for Luther to answer questions about his books. It could be viewed as allowing everything from a full hearing to a simple demand to renounce them all. The safe conduct was generously worded and issued also by Frederick the Wise and Duke George of Saxony. In the back of everyone’s mind was a similar safe conduct given to Jan Hus one hundred years before, which was violated by the then Emperor. Hus was burned at the stake shortly thereafter. Luther and his prince would be relying on the young emperor’s sense of chivalry and his desire to keep peace in Germany.
To placate the Pope and his supporters, the Emperor also issued a mandate to sequester all of Luther’s books. The Emperor’s officials conveyed to Georg Spalatin that this was for show, that the intent was to give Luther a fair hearing. The Elector, his advisors and Luther’s friends were not entirely sure what the truth was, but advised Luther it was likely safe to attend, given the support of the princes and the estates. Luther was determined to confess the truth before the empire, even if it cost his life. He agreed to go.
When the Church celebrates the Lord’s Supper in the Divine Service, the congregation will likely confess their faith using the words of the Nicene Creed. You might be thinking, “We don’t learn that one by heart in Confirmation.” This series will dive into the Creed we commonly call the Nicene Creed.
With this post I am merely introducing the Nicene Creed and a little bit of its history. The Nicene Creed, or at least the first two articles, come out of the events that transpired at the Council of Nicea, 325AD. Unfortunately, the Church was not immune to controversy, and the Council that convened at Nicea had to deal specifically with the question of who Jesus is. Is Jesus of the same substance of God the Father? Or is He something other and then less than God?
The major controversy arose over the saying of Arius, “There was a time when the Son was not” implying that Jesus was not begotten of the Father from all eternity. The great orthodox theologian Athanasius strongly opposed Arius and his teachings. The story also goes that St. Nicholas slapped Arius for his heretical teaching at the Council of Nicea. This had to be dealt with, and unfortunately, the Apostles’ Creed could be recited by both the orthodox Christian as well as a follower of Arius. It did not address the issues at hand. The Roman Emperor Constantine who had allowed Christianity to stand as a recognized religion in the Empire wanted to keep the peace between the factions. He called for a Council, the first of its kind since Acts 15. The Nicea formulation would take pains to articulate the biblical and orthodox view of Jesus in relationship to the Father. We will talk more about that as we get into the articles in later posts.
I said the first articles come from the Council of Nicea, the third article cae out of the controversies dealt with at the later council held at Constantinople, 381AD. There the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Father and Son was taken up. So the Nicene Creed is shorthand for the fuller name: The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. Historically speaking, this creed was the second ecumenical creed to be written down for all orthodox Christians to confess with one voice, and this creed is likely the most commonly confessed creed of the 3 creeds inside the Divine Service. Next time we will look at the First Article of the Creed and how it expands on the words of the Apostles’ Creed.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter’s Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
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
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
When you confess your faith in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and when you confess that the Word of Scripture is God’s Word, do you realize you also then must confess the fact that Satan exists? That Hell and Evil exist?
They most assuredly do, otherwise why would have the Father sent the Son? Surely, the Son was sent for the purpose of saving you from the clutches of Satan, his evil devices, and Hell itself. That is what Scripture says after all. But do you really believe it, or are you one of those people like many people in American Christianity that speak of hell and Satan as imaginary. Or if its real, Hell is empty. It is much easier these days to talk about the presence of evil. But the source of that evil?
It was not hard for the apostles to speak about all of this. They saw evil up-close and personal. The story of Matthias is not necessarily a happy one. Matthias only becomes an apostle, because of the evil that Judas committed against the Lord Jesus Christ, betraying Him into the hands of sinners.
And Peter, who was restored by the risen Christ, now stands up and speaks of the great evil deed of Judas. “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” Luke adds, “This man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.” This is not a pretty sight at all. Judas was so overcome by the evil that he committed that he had no hope of being forgiven, and he killed himself. Peter goes on interpreting the events in light of the Psalms of David, “May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it”; and “Let another take his office.”
Enter Matthias, a man who had accompanied Jesus and the other apostles during all the time that the Lord went in and out among them, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when He was taken up from them. There was another man also who fit this description, but the lot fell to Matthias. And He was numbered with the 11, making 12 apostles once again.
Satan and evil exist, this we know. And Matthias and the rest of the 11 now are to go out to preach the truth that evil has been overcome in the one Jesus Christ, who died and rose again from the dead, beating Satan at his own game. The apostles are to declare war on the old Satanic foe just like their Lord did when He came into hostile territory, becoming man, and then going out into the wilderness and ultimately all the way to the cross to defeat Satan for all humanity. Now Matthias and the apostles preach the victory of Christ over Satan and Evil. And one little word of Christ crucified makes Satan fall.
Matthias is barely mentioned (if ever) again in any of the books of the New Testament. The extra-biblical materials we have concerning Matthias are few, and what we do have are quite late. But isn’t that the way of many of the pastors placed into office of the Holy Ministry? Matthias was placed into the office not to make a name for himself but to proclaim Christ and Him crucified to the nations. He was placed into the Office to confront the very evil of Satan that he knew well with the triumphant word of Christ Jesus. That Christ Jesus has overcome Satan and thus has made us His own. That our own acts of evil have been forgiven for the sake of Christ Jesus. That Christ holds the keys of death and hades now and forevermore, and He gives eternal life to us.
Pastors now, are also called to confront the evils that are amongst us and even within us. They are called to preach the truth of God’s Word of the realities of hell and Satan, and evil. And they too are to confront evil with the truth of Christ Jesus. They are called to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins, that we be saved from everlasting death.
Jesus when teaching, called many people evil. He even called his disciples evil because of their sinful hearts. We too have sinful hearts. It’s our natural heart’s state, another way to say it is it’s the Old Adam in us. We are by nature sinful and unclean. Jesus confronts evil head on and deals with it in a way only He could. He destroys evil by his death on the cross, whereby He swallows up death, sin, and Satan, the source of evil forever, and rises victorious over it all. And He forgives. All the evil of your own heart, Christ has covered with His Blood.
And while Judas spilled his own guts over his evil and wicked deeds, your Lord pours out his blood for you in love that you might be forgiven and be at peace in the forgiveness of sins. In effect being changed from inside out, your heart of evil removed, and a living heart in its place. A new creation for the sake of Christ.
This is what those men placed into the Office of the Holy Ministry are called to confess and to preach, that you might be saved, and not be overcome by the Evil One. Satan and his evil devices are real as Scripture says, but so is their Conqueror, our Savior Jesus Christ. Trust him in just as Matthias did, that you be numbered in great multitude that no one can number singing the praise of the Lamb forever and ever. Amen.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter’s Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
Encore Post: For six days, God had been creating the world. He spoke and light appeared, earth took form, land appeared out of the great sea. The sun, moon and stars shown in the sky. Plants grew on the ground, fish swam in the sea and animals roamed the earth.
Now Father, Son and Holy Spirit conferred and said let us make man just like us. And so he made us – male and female. He planted a garden, came down and formed Adam (His name means “ground, soil” in Hebrew) from the soil and breathed life into him. But something still was not quite right. Adam was alone.
So God brought all the animals to him. He named them all one by one. While they were good, something just was not right. Dogs and Cats just didn’t do it. So God made woman from his own bones. Now at last man was just like God – two persons in one flesh. Adam called her woman — she-man and named her Eve–life, because she would be the mother of all people. God’s creation was finally complete. He had made marriage and the family. This was very good.
This perfect image of God, holy like him and the closest human beings have to understanding the nature of God, was ruined by sin and its consequences. When people make themselves the center of the universe there is no room for a god or another. Now sin tempts us to look everywhere for pleasure than in the very good gifts God has given to us. As we turn our hearts from our beloved and the Beloved, they grown cold and unfeeling.
This is why God condemns adultery, pornography, same sex relationships and acts, pre-marital sex, sexual assault, rape and all other seeking of desire outside of the love of one man and woman, united in marriage for a lifetime. It divides what God himself has joined together and marrs the image he placed in us. It destroys the image of the marriage of Christ to the Church and obscures the work he has done for us.
But when we were lost, unfaithful to God our husband, Jesus came and sought us to be his holy bride, with his own blood he bought us and for our life he died. When he found us, he washed us, cleansed us in baptism, so that he could present us as his radiant bride. One the last day, he will come for us, and bring us to the wedding and the marriage reception that lasts forever.
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
This question is similar to the one of iconoclasm. Iconoclasts reject any images of the Lord or His saints. But, folks who find the crucifix repellent tend to like other images of Jesus. At Christmas there’s little or resistance to baby Jesus in His manger. We’ll find paintings like the blonde haired, blue eyed Jesus peacefully praying in the garden. We see images of Jesus healing the blind. And, Jesus after the resurrection is featured, but usually without His wounds.
What we don’t see is significant. Him at His at crucifixion. For Jesus, for the evangelists, for Paul, and for the saints in heaven, His crucifixion is the center of his work. Here are a few of the places where we find discussions of Jesus’ work centering upon His death on the cross. These are taken from outside the passion narrative, both before and after.
“Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” [Matthew 20:28 ESV] The giving up of His life on the cross buys you forgiveness.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” [John 3:14 ESV]. The lifting up is directly connected to the serpent on a pole. Jesus will also be lifted up in that same inglorious way. Yet, for us, it is Jesus’ glory.
“So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” [John 8:28–29 ESV] It’s also the Father’s desire that Jesus should die for us. Sin can only be atoned for by a perfect sacrifice, paying for the sin. It’s not a debt anything in creation can pay. But, Jesus did it on the cross for you.
“But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.” [1 Corinthians 1:23 ESV] “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus’ Christ and him crucified.” [1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV] For St. Paul, everything we preach and everything we know revolves around Jesus’ crucifixion. It’s a stumbling block to the unbelief we constantly battle in our own hearts. The crucifix stands firm against our unbelief.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” [Galatians 2:20 ESV] Paul also indicates our living as gift from Christ’s death.
“Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” [John 20:27–28 ESV] Even in the resurrection, the glorified body of Jesus’ bears the marks of our salvation.
“And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” [Luke 9:30-31 ESV] The saints in heaven are steadily concerned with Jesus’ death on the cross.
“Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’” [Revelation 5:11–12 ESV] This Lamb of God who was slain for our salvation is known to us only from His death.
We will sometimes hear folks say “we worship a risen savior.” This isn’t untrue. But, it conceals a weakness in our Christian armor. We don’t like to see the very act that saved us. That was Jesus’ focus. The Evangelists, St. Paul, the saints in heaven, all look to the crucifixion as the very glory of Jesus.
Make sure you have a crucifix among the crosses in your home. Without Jesus, it’s just an image of a method of death, like noose or an electric chair. But, with Jesus on it, the cross is an image of our salvation by Jesus’ death.
Blessèd be the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
Rev. Jason M. Kaspar Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool La Grange, TX
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
The Law is God’s Word just as much as the Gospel is God’s Word. Both are eternal. And both are good. The Law of God is Good. God’s eternal law expresses His very being, and it is called “the unchanging will of God, according to which human beings are to conduct themselves in this life.” (Formula of Concord 6.15) In other words the Law of God is Good and Wise.
However, in our present sinful condition we always hear the Law’s accusations. We have not done good enough. We have failed to honor mother and father. We have not always helped someone when they were in bodily need. We have failed to tell people about Jesus. We have not always paid attention when in the Divine Service. The list goes on and on. Our confessions state,“The law always accuses” ( Lex Semper Accusat), but it does not only accuse. Think of the beginning. Adam knew God by the Law. It was only understood to be a good thing. Only when Adam transgressed did the accusations begin.
The same Law that now accuses continues to point us to the deeds which our Lord delights in. The Law shows us the way of righteousness. That is a good thing. While we are shown to fall short of God’s holiness due to our sins, God’s Law prepares us for the good news that Jesus Christ has fulfilled the Law for us, and by in Christ Jesus, we are able to do those which are deemed good and right. In Christ fulfilling the Law, the Law is returned to its original positive position.
Christ has fulfilled the Law. It is to Him that we flee for refuge because the Law still accuses as live this life. The threats of the Law still persist. But know the good news! Christ has set us free from the curse of the Law. By faith, we no longer see the Law in its accusatory function, but rather as it was in the beginning, leading us to live in righteousness. It is then a life that reflects the holiness of our Heavenly Father.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter’s Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
Very early in the history of the Church, new Christians studied the faith intensely in preparation to be baptized. It soon became the custom to baptize them during the Easter Vigil and to spend the forty days prior to Easter fasting and completing their instruction in the faith. These students (also known as catechumens from the Greek word that means to instruct) were joined in the fast by their catechists (instructors). Both groups valued this discipline so much that the whole church joined them in their study.
For this reason, the readings in the season of Lent are keyed to the basic doctrines of the faith. They become a kind of spring training for the Church as it looks forward to celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord on Easter. Often Bible classes will turn to a study of Luther’s Small Catechism (from the word that means instruction book, handbook) It has been our custom at What Does This Mean? to rerun our series of posts on the catechism, sometimes as the only post for the day, other times as a supplement. Since this series has grown to more than forty posts, we’ve decided to start during the last few weeks of Epiphany so that we have a chance of finishing before Easter. May God bless your study of the faith as we look forward to the celebration of the Resurrection.
