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Behold, Your King is Coming to You

Zechariah 9:9
Advent 1

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

A lot of your friends and neighbors and co-workers are agnostics.  The word agnostic literally means “one who doesn't know.”  They don’t know for sure what to believe when it comes to God and spiritual things or whether or not they will have eternal life or even if there is an eternal life.  They’re undecided, open to considering various positions, but they don’t fully embrace or practice any particular belief.  They see all the hundreds of religions in the world and say, “How do I know for sure which one is right?”  Usually such people will end up concluding one of two things: They’ll say either that no religion is right; they’re all just myths made up to deal with life and maybe even to control people.  Others, however, will conclude that all religions are right, or at least partially right; they all contain the truth and are just expressing themselves in different ways.  

C.S. Lewis once addressed this situation by using the example of a hallway in a big house that led to many different rooms. You don’t live in the hallway, he said.  You can wait in the hallway; the hallway gets you where you want to go.  But you need to actually enter a particular room to live your life.  Agnostics are those who try to live in the hallway.  They can’t decide which religion, which room is the right one to enter.  Persisting in that, though, is little more than spiritual laziness.  Saying that you’re spiritual but not religious, staying in the hallway doesn’t take much effort.  In the end, staying in the hallway is just the coward’s way; it may appear wise and thoughtful, but in truth it is fearful, frozen in uncertainty.  And besides, no one who has ever actually taken the time to compare the claims of Christianity and those of other religions could ever conclude that all religions are basically the same.

What do we say to those with an agnostic perspective on life?   To start with, it’s helpful for us to understand why there are so many religions in the world in the first place.  The reason is that all people know by nature that God exists and that He is to be worshiped.  It is written in Romans 1 that God’s existence is evident and known in what He has made.  We have a built-in instinct about this that must be suppressed is someone is going to be non-religious.  (And, of course, what generally happens is that they just become religious about something else.  Atheists are often the most “religious” of all about espousing their viewpoint, aren’t they.)  The Scriptures also say that the working of God’s law is written on our heart; in other words, everyone is created with a conscience, which tells us that there is such a thing as right and wrong, and that we’re accountable for that.

The problem is that our knowledge of God has been thoroughly corrupted by sin.  It is darkened and twisted and broken.  Therefore, human beings at various times and in various places have created false religions based on faulty knowledge of God and His will.  In ignorance and foolishness they have made up gods that really are more a reflection of themselves, a god made in man’s image, just a higher version of themselves.  Or instead of worshiping the Creator, they have worshiped the creation through idolatry or through giving homage to the supposed “spirits” of the trees or of animals or of their ancestors.

One helpful way to get at the truth, which religion is the right one, is to ask which religion is unique, different from the others.  If there are a bunch that are more or less the same but one that is unique at its core, that is likely the one that is true.  Christianity is that one; for if you take all the beliefs and all the spiritualities out there and boil them down to their basic elements, you’ll find that there are really only two religions: the religion of the Law and the religion of the Gospel.

The religion of the Law states that you must in some way reconcile yourself to God or find God by what you do.  In order to make contact with God you must discover Him with the wisdom of your mind or experience Him with the feelings of your heart or make yourself acceptable to Him with the work of your hands.  Once you’ve done that, then you supposedly enter into a connection with Him.  The religion of the Law is focused on man and his goodness and what he does to bring himself to God.  All false religions, from Islam to Judaism to Hinduism to the tribal spiritualities, are really only different versions of this single religion.

The religion of the Gospel, on the other hand, states that you are not able to find God or to reconcile yourself to Him by anything that you do.  Instead, the religion of the Gospel proclaims that you are reconciled to God entirely through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus on the cross.  Christ found you, He came into contact with you by sharing fully in your human life, and He did everything that was necessary to save you by taking your judgment on Himself.  You are redeemed by His good works, His wisdom, His love–not because you have deserved it but because He is merciful and compassionate toward you.  Trusting in Christ alone, you are put right with God.  The religion of the Gospel is focused on the goodness of God and what He does to bring Himself to you to rescue and restore you.

The religion of the Law is very appealing, but it inevitably fails, whether you’re trying to get to God with your head or your heart or your hands.  Your own intelligence and thinking can’t do it, for it is written, “How unsearchable are (God’s) judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33).  “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him” (1 Corinthians 2:14).  Your own morality and good living can’t do it, for it is written in James 2, “Whoever keeps the whole Law, yet fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” And you can’t find God through your feelings and experiences, either.  For your emotions are changing and uncertain, and your experiences can be misleading and deceiving.  Jesus said the wise man builds his house on the rock, not on such shifting sands.  And it is written that we walk by faith and not by sight or experience.  (II Corinthians 5:7)

And so that’s why the new church year begins with the good news that the true God comes to you in the person of Jesus Christ.  That is the glad announcement of Advent.  “Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and having salvation.”

Our God and Savior Jesus came into full contact with you in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary.  For there He took on your humanity, your skin and bones, body and soul.  He came to us and literally became one of us in order that He might unite us with Himself and make us holy.  We didn’t find God, He found us in the infant in the manger.  He entered into our earthly lives in order that we might enter with Him into His heavenly life.

And He did this in utter humility.  In the Gospel, when Jesus enters into capital city of Jerusalem, He comes on a donkey colt.  Even today’s politicians who are trying to identify with the common man still do it in such a way that exalts themselves, that makes them seem especially smart or cool or strong.  Their attempts at humility are usually not so subtle attempts to glorify themselves.  But not so with Jesus.  He doesn’t come in the way of the kings of His day, with a strong display of a force to be reckoned with.  He doesn’t come in the way of a candidate at a political convention with a sappy video to make Him seem likable.  He comes in lowliness and meekness, on a borrowed animal.  For He rides into Jerusalem not to receive honor for Himself but to give honor to us by His holy suffering and death.  He comes to pour out His life for us so that we might get our life back.

That is why Christ rides on a beast of burden; He comes to bear the burden of the sin of the whole world.  He carries that load to the cross where it is put to death in His body.  This King’s glory is to wear a crown of thorns.  For by His blood and sweat and agony, Jesus takes away the sin that once separated you from God.  By His atoning sacrifice, you are reconciled to the heavenly Father.  Through Jesus the warfare is over; peace with God is restored, the peace of sins forgiven, the calm certainty that you are held within the Father’s love.  That’s why Christ is called in Jeremiah “The Lord our Righteousness.”  For by His life and death and resurrection, He has become for you what you could not become yourselves.  In Him you are declared righteous; in Him you are put right with our Father in heaven.  There is no other God, there is no other religion like this, faith in a God of pure grace.

And just as Jesus came in meekness and humility in the past, so also He continues to come to you without pretense or fanfare.  He is still meekly and humbly riding to you on the common baptismal waters, on the preached words of the Gospel, on the bread and wine of the Sacrament. Especially in Holy Communion, Jesus is carried along in lowly state, and He Himself brings to you His own precious body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.  It is in the Lord’s Supper that the words of Scripture become very concrete: “Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and having salvation.”  And so we join in with the people who sang to our Lord on the road outside Jerusalem, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.  Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!”  Believe that Jesus enters into this place just as literally as He entered into Jerusalem.  Receive your King who comes to you in love.

For the time is fast approaching when Jesus will no longer come in humility but in all His  strength and majesty on the Last Day.  He who rode on a lowly donkey will ride on clouds of light with power and great glory.  He who was judged a criminal will come in judgment as Lord.  He who taught with gentle persuasion about the kingdom of heaven will powerfully reveal those who received His teaching in simple faith and those who rejected it in unbelief, those who are given to share in the Kingdom and those who are cursed and cast out from it forever.

So let us cast aside any agnosticism and cowardice that remains in our hearts, let us get out of the hallway, and let us stake our lives entirely on the One riding on the donkey and live in Him, the One who comes to us to rescue us.  God grant you penitent and believing hearts to receive this Jesus.  For behold, your King is coming to you.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Plentiful Ground

Luke 12:13-32
Thanksgiving/Harvest Festival

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

The question that Jesus asks at the beginning of the Gospel seems a little strange at first: “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?”  Isn’t this the Lord of all speaking, the One who later would say, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me?”  Certainly Jesus had the right to settle this dispute about an inheritance if He chose to.  

When Jesus speaks these words, then, He is making two points, first about vocation–“Man, go to the judge who has the God-given office to deal with this matter.  Don’t try to go around the earthly authorities I’ve established.”  But secondly, Jesus is especially making a point about how this man was seeking to misuse Him–“Man, the Father did not send me to be a pawn in your pursuit of mammon.  I am not a means to an end.  I am the end.” 

How often we ourselves can be tempted to do that with Jesus, to make Him the way to some supposedly greater goal rather than the goal itself--to be with Him, to share in the fellowship of His presence.  How easy it is to be lured at least to some degree into believing the Gospel of prosperity, that if we just live right and believe the right way, God will then give us the worldly honor or the material treasures or the easy life that we want and that we set our hearts on.  It’s a misuse of Jesus to participate in church in order to get blessed with earthly stuff, to seek the kingdom of God so that all these things will be added to you.  What’s the real motivation and priority in that equation?  When we engage in spirituality in order simply to gain some temporal, earthly benefit, it’s just the same as the man in the Gospel saying to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

Beware of covetousness, Jesus says.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  And if moth or rust or flood or drought can destroy your treasure, you will go down with it.  If mere death can separate you from your treasure–and death often comes much more quickly than expected–then what a fool you are!  Repent.  Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth which fail, but treasures in heaven which do not fail or pass away.  

That is what it means to be rich toward God, to treasure life with Him above all else, to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness for its own sake, to trust in the heavenly Father as the One who is the Giver of every good and perfect gift and who knows what you need even before you ask Him.  This faith, this richness toward God, is shown and revealed in letting go of your surplus, freely giving away what God has freely given you for the good of others and for the good of His church, clinging not to mammon but to the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.

The parable Jesus tells makes it clear that all we have is a gift.  For notice it says that “the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.”  In other words the man didn’t produce it for himself.  The Creator produced it from His own creation.  The man may well have worked the ground, but without God’s giving, he would have had nothing.  So also for us as we observe this thanksgiving harvest festival today–we are reminded that even though we may work hard and faithfully perform our tasks, without God’s giving, we would still have nothing, in body or soul.   The fruits of the earth, the possessions we own, our family and friends are all a pure gift from Him.  We pray “Give us this day our daily bread” so that we might realize this and receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.  The gifts of creation are meant to lead us back to their Source.  That’s the whole point of thanksgiving, so that we remember where the credit and the glory really belongs.  All praise belongs to God for granting us the food and clothing and shelter and whatever we need through Jesus Christ His Son, through whom all things were created and in whom all things hold together.  The rich man spoke greedily to his soul, but we are given to say with the Psalmist, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”  

The Lord does indeed satisfy your mouth with good things–not only with bread of the earth, but with the Living Bread from heaven.  For listen again to the Gospel, “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.”  Was not Jesus buried in the tomb of a certain rich man?  This ground most definitely did yield plentifully.  Christ the holy Seed was cast into the earth.  For unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone.  But if it dies, it produces much grain.  The Seed of the woman sprouted forth to new life from the rich man’s ground, producing a  limitless harvest of the finest wheat, the Bread which one may eat of and live forever.  This bread is the flesh of Jesus, which He gave into death on the cross, and which He continues to give out in the Sacrament for the life of the world.  As Joseph of Arimathea freely gave of His property for Jesus’ burial, much more so our Lord does not hoard His abundance but freely bestows it in limitless measure.  Your cup overflows with goodness and mercy.  We have the Lord’s sure promise that we who eat His flesh and drink His blood in faith have eternal life, and that we will be bodily raised up with Him on the last day.  Have no fear, little flock, for the Father has chosen to give you the kingdom.

Our greatest treasure, then, for which we give thanks today is not a full barn or a full bank account or a full house for the holiday, but Christ Himself.  He is our inheritance, our goal, our life, whose poverty has made us truly rich.  The Father did not send His Son into the world to be judge and arbitrator, a minister of fairness, but a minister of mercy, that the world through Him might be saved.  His lovingkindness continues to give you all that you need, both for this world and the one to come.  “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endures forever.”

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Wake, Awake!

Matthew 25:1-13

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Parents will use various techniques to try to get sleepy children awake and moving in the morning.  Some may try to gently coax their offspring into a state of alertness.  For me when I was young, I recall a combination of my Dad singing annoying morning songs and my Mom pulling the covers off of my bed.  

The parable in today’s Gospel probably more closely resembles the latter approach.  This parable is used by our Lord to disturb and unsettle and wake us up.  He wants to rip off the covers and rouse us from our spiritual slumber. It is appropriate then that this parable comes around on the Last Sunday of the church year. Today’s readings direct us to the fulfillment of all history at the return of Jesus Christ. That day will come like a thief in the night, suddenly, unexpectedly.  No one knows the day or the hour. Since that is so, we should not be lethargic or sleepy.  We need to be ready and alert.  In the words of St. Paul, “Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.”  Or in the words of Philipp Nicolai’s beautiful chorale that we just sang, “Wake, awake, for night is flying.”  This is no time for our souls to be sleepy.

It is important for us to be shaken awake. As the church year ends today, we should be mindful not only that the church calendar is about to be turned to Advent, but especially that our Lord’s return is closer now than it has ever been.  Our own death is closer than it has ever been. Time moves so quickly. The night of this life flies by rapidly. As the Psalmist reminds us, even at our best state, we are but vapor.  

Yet even though we know this, still it is so easy for us to become drowsy and distracted in this world.  It is so easy for us to live as if there will always be a tomorrow. We can sleep walk our way through this life, without taking seriously what it means to live by faith in God and by love toward our neighbor.  There are so many distractions and diversions that can keep us from focusing on the one thing needful, the Lord’s Word and the Lord’s Supper.  Our work and family commitments, our hobbies, our screens anesthetize our souls and put us into a blissful apathy when it comes to the things of God.  As we drift off, we say to ourselves, “No need to go overboard on this Christianity stuff.  You’ve got this covered well enough.  Just do what makes you happy.”  Our generally comfortable lives have the effect of a spiritual Benadryl or melatonin on us.  The things of this world hypnotize us and put our souls in a fog. They lay us down in a soft, comfortable bed.  So our Lord speaks this parable to wake us up.  Repent!   Are you ready for His arrival? Are you awake and prepared?  We do not want to be like those who are satisfied with their own good living, or content with their disordered desires. We do not want to be foolish, saying, “peace and security,” when we know that the Lord will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.  Notice that all ten virgins are waiting for the bridegroom and expect to be with him for the reception.  They all assume they will be at the wedding feast.  Yet Jesus also tells us that five of them were wise and five were foolish.  The foolish virgins were foolish precisely because they were not truly ready for his arrival. They had failed to prepare fully and properly. They did not bring enough oil with them and so, when they fell asleep, they did not have enough time to find more oil for their lamps. The wise virgins, however, were wise precisely because they were well-prepared. They made sure that they had plenty of oil; no matter how long the wait they would still be ready.  At midnight came the cry, “Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” “The reception is about to begin. Get your lamps and come into light of the feast.”

The ten virgins in today’s Gospel are symbolic of the Church.  They all have a lamp.  The lamp is the Word of God, as it is written, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  The oil within the lamps stands for the Holy Spirit, who keeps the flame of faith in Christ burning brightly.

The foolish do not give proper attention to the Word and the working of the Holy Spirit.  They forget who they are in baptism; they ignore the Lord’s preaching and the Lord’s Supper, or merely go through the motions, and so the flame of faith dies.  The wise, however, are those who attend to these gifts of the Spirit, and who therefore have an abundance of oil.  Faith’s flame glows.

To live for the arrival of the Bridegroom and the joy that will come at Christ’s return is to be truly wise.  To refuse to view things according to the illusions of this world and instead to look at everything according to the reality of God’s Word, that is wisdom–even when the foolish at first appear to be smarter and happier.  That’s something we need to be prepared for–for the world to look down on us and even mock us for our focus on Jesus and His return.  It’s not always going to be easy.  But when the call comes at midnight, the foolish will be left in a panic, scrambling to get oil, banging on a locked door saying “Lord, lord, open to us!” and hearing the harsh words, “I don’t know you.”  “Depart from Me” (Matthew 7:23)

Let us, then, learn the lesson of today’s Gospel well.  Jesus puts it very simply and clearly, “Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”  Let us persevere in the faith and in prayer even when the bridegroom is delayed.  Let us hold fast to God’s Word, hear it, learn it, take it to heart, live from it.

For the One who is coming is that true, heavenly Groom who is perfect love in the flesh, the One who “gave Himself up for His beloved church, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water and the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:26-27).  He is coming for His bride to take her unto Himself.

The good news in today’s Gospel is that God has granted you to be the wise in this parable.  For the Holy Spirit has made you wise unto salvation through the Gospel of Christ the crucified.  “Assuredly,” the Lord says, “I know you in your baptism.  More than you have watched for me, I have watched out for you.  My eyes are on you to save you.  I have redeemed you and claimed you as my own.”  You are made ready for the wedding feast on the Last Day because Christ prepares you for it by giving you a foretaste of the feast each week in Holy Communion.  He comes to you even here and now to comfort you with His love and fill you with His life.  The Gospel cry rings out in this place today, “Behold, the bridegroom is coming!  Go out to meet Him at His holy altar!”  You won’t be surprised or caught off guard at Jesus’ second coming because you’re already in the habit of going out to meet him in His divine service.

So, brothers and sisters of Christ, look to Jesus and His gifts, and the oil in your lamp will never run out.  He gives it to you in abundance; there is never a shortage of supply with Him.  Look to Jesus Christ and know that the door to the feast is open for you. “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep, we might live with him.” Be encouraged that Jesus Christ has taken away your sin and death by His cross. He has taken away your punishment and condemnation. He has given you His holiness and righteousness. He has forgiven you all your sins; He has cleansed you of every evil done to you.  On the day when all things are fulfilled at His return, Jesus Christ will speak to all the faithful who have fallen asleep in Him, “Wake, awake.” And they will be bodily resurrected.  This includes you. On the final Day of Fulfillment, the risen and ascended Christ will say to you, like a parent waking a child in the morning “Get up, arise.”  And you, and all the faithful, will rise from your grave-beds to enjoy the new heavens and the new earth forever.

“You do not know the day or the hour of His coming.” But you don’t need to know.  You only need to know that it is Jesus, your Bridegroom, who is coming, and that your times are in His merciful hands.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit ✠

Thy Kingdom Come

Luke 17:20-30
Trinity 25

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

We don’t think in terms of kingdoms much any more since we’ve long ago dispensed with the idea of kings.  But we do certainly think in terms of government and politics and power, don’t we.  In the aftermath of the recent elections, that’s at the forefront of everyone’s minds.  Who will be in charge?  Who will govern?  Who will have the power?  

So when the Pharisees ask about when the kingdom of God is going to come, what they’re really asking is “When is God going to show that He’s in charge?  When will we see His power?  When will He be the one who governs us as King?”  And this question is understandable from ones who were living under the domination of the Roman Empire, under the governorship of Pontius Pilate.  The Pharisees wanted some visible sign of God’s kingdom and God’s reign.

But Jesus reminds both them and us that the kingdom of God in this world is not about politics and worldly power.  It’s not something you can necessarily see on a map or in government.  Instead, Romans 14 says, the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.  It is the Lord Jesus graciously ruling our hearts through His Word.  Until the Last Day, the kingdom of God is a hidden reality, perceived by faith, not with the eyes but with the ears.  For it is written, “Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.” 

So Jesus’ first point here is that we shouldn’t think of the kingdom of God as only a future thing, when God’s power will become visible to our eyes.  When we pray “Thy kingdom come” in the Lord’s Prayer, we’re not only praying for Jesus to come again in glory at the end of the age.  We’re asking for His kingdom to come among us right now.  And how does that happen?  The Catechism confesses, “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.”  So the kingdom of God has, in fact, already arrived.  It’s a present reality.  Jesus says, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’  For indeed, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

The kingdom of God was already among the Pharisees, for Christ the King was among them.  And He is the kingdom of God Himself in the flesh.  Hidden beneath and within His true humanity, all the fullness of God dwells, and the entire content of the kingdom is present with all of its blessings.  So wherever the flesh-and-blood Christ is–wherever He is speaking His words to His people and giving us His forgiveness and life–there is the kingdom of God.  Even though Christ is unseen to our eyes, all who are joined to Him through faith have entrance already here on earth into the heavenly kingdom of God.

The old Adam in us, though, doesn’t like to think of the kingdom in those terms.  Our fallen nature prefers to have something that it can see and experience rather than simply trusting in the Word of God.  In that way we are very much like the Israelites at Mt. Sinai.  Moses was gone for a long time on the mountain, 40 days, not visible to them.  The people grew impatient.  That’s how it with us, too, isn’t it?  We grow impatient, waiting for the Lord to come through for us, waiting for some sign of His power and His help.  And that’s when we can be sorely tempted to turn away from Him and follow the ways of the world, to go after worldly ideologies and practices that promise to give us the power or the pleasure which we seek right now.  Having just come out of pagan Egypt, the Israelites were familiar with idols like the golden calf.  It brought them immediate gratification.  A golden calf was a fertility symbol.  When the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play, you can imagine what that involved.  Aaron gave the people what they wanted; he would have been much more likely to win election than Moses.

The golden calf event was written down for our warning and our learning.  When Moses came down from the mountain and saw the idolatry and the immorality, he became hot with anger.  Moses ground the calf to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.  In the same way all the modern idols of our day will be crushed in the end, and those who serve them will be forced to absorb the judgment for such false worship.  All who trust not in God-given words but in worldly spirituality and power will be brought to ruin with those idols which they serve.

Let us repent, then.  For just as Moses came down the mountain unexpectedly to judge Israel, so the Lord will come down unexpectedly on the Last Day to judge the fallen world.  Those who rely only on what they can see and observe will have no idea what is about to come upon them.  For as they look around, they will think that, for the most part, all is well.  Sure there may be violence and corruption like in the days of Noah.  Sure there may be self-indulgence and immorality like in the days of Lot, whose home city of Sodom inspired the name for a perverted sexual act.  But people will still be eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building and getting married just like usual.  However, as it was in the days of Noah, when the flood suddenly deluged the world, and as it was in the days of Lot, when the Lord suddenly consumed Sodom with fire, so it will be when the Son of Man is revealed.  Those who care only about visible power and glory will then be granted their wish.  They will see the power and wrath of a holy God in all its fury.

However, for those who repent and believe, for us who walk as yet by faith and not by sight, the Last Day is not a day for us to dread but to eagerly anticipate.  For our judgment day has already taken place on the holy cross of our Lord Jesus.  There God poured out on Him all the fury of hell.  The full judgment for our sin that stood against us pummeled Him as He hung there.  He received it all in our place, as our stand-in.  

Moses actually foreshadowed that in the Old Testament reading.  God was about to destroy Israel because of their faithlessness and rebellion.  But Moses spoke up and interceded on their behalf.  He got in between Israel and God’s wrath and saved them from a fiery judgment.  Our Lord Jesus did that in the ultimate way for us at Calvary, out of immeasurable love for us.  That’s why Jesus said in the Gospel that “He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.”  His love compelled Him to do it in order to redeem us from our idols and purchase us as His own and win for us the entire forgiveness of all our sins.  Your judgment day is in the past, Good Friday.  It’s over and done with and finished.  Just as the Lord provided deliverance for His people Noah and Lot, so also He has provided eternal deliverance for you in His Son.

The kingdom of God comes to you only in the king who wears a thorny crown.  And notice that in the cross the kingdom cannot be seen but must be believed.  All one can see is a bloody execution.  No one can literally view the eternal triumph over sin and death and the devil which took place there.  It must be trusted on the basis of the words of the Lord who declares it to be so–words spoken into your ears and poured onto you with the water and fed into you under the bread and wine.  By faith in those words, we receive the kingdom of God as it comes to us.  For through those things Christ Himself is among us.  In the end the kingdom of God will be revealed in all its glory.  But for now it remains hidden under the cross.  The church lives under a veil, until the fullness of time comes.

So believe the words of God spoken into your ears.  Looking at yourselves, you may see nothing but sin and sickness and trouble.  But listening to the Lord, you hear of the hidden reality that you are His chosen, righteous people and royal inheritors of eternal life.  Looking at the church, you may see nothing but imperfection and struggles and disunity.  But listening to and trusting in the Lord’s words, you hear of the hidden reality that the church is His holy bride, and even the very gates of hell shall not prevail against her.  That is why we say in the creed not “I see,” but, “I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church.”

The kingdoms of the world are in turmoil and always will be; it’s a never ending battle.  Things are never settled; there’s always the next election, the next threat, the next conflict.  But take heart, for in Christ the victory has been won.  You are citizens of the kingdom of heaven.  In Him you have peace and certainty about who you are and where you are going.  As it was with Noah and His family, you have been placed in the ark of this Church.  And when the waters subside on the day of our Lord’s return, you will enter into a new and imperishable creation, the everlasting kingdom of God unveiled in all its majesty.  And you will always be with the Lord.  “Therefore, comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18).

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Not Dead, But Sleeping

Luke 8:41-56

Trinity 24/All Saints Sunday

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Jairus came to Jesus with a desperate plea.  Though he was a ruler of the synagogue, he laid aside all normal decorum, fell down at Jesus feet, and begged Him to come to his house.  For his only daughter, a 12-year old, was at the point of death.  Jairus’ heart was breaking at the thought of losing her.  His only hope was that Jesus could save her and restore her life.  The situation was dire.  Time was of the essence.

All of us must learn to become like Jairus, to recognize our desperate need in this dying world, to set aside our worldly standing, ignoring what others may think of us, and come before Jesus seeking and pleading for His help.  For He’s the only One who can save us.  Like Jairus, we must be unafraid to lay hold of Him, recognizing that there’s no time to waste in this passing world.

As Jesus began to make His way to Jairus’ house, the multitudes surrounded and pressed in close to Him–something like a big celebrity trying to walk across the grounds during Summerfest pre-Covid.  I’m sure Jairus was becoming distressed at the slow pace.  Jesus could have slipped through the crowd if He chose.  He did that once at Nazareth when a hostile crowd tried to grab him and throw him off a cliff.  But He didn’t do that here.  He chose to let the crowd get in His way.

In the crowd was a woman who had been sick for the last twelve years, the same number of years as Jairus’ daughter’s age.  This woman suffered from a chronic hemorrhage, a constant uterine flow of blood.  She’d been to all the doctors and specialists.  She’d tried all their remedies and potions.  They took her money, but things never got any better, only worse.  

Perhaps that situation sounds familiar to you.  Even today, with all our medical advancements, there’s only so much that doctors can do for us in our bodily afflictions.  Even after spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on tests and procedures and pills, there’s a limit to what can be done.  We shouldn’t be surprised at that and go running after quack cures and potions.  Sometimes the best a doctor can say is, “You’re just going to have to learn how to manage it and live with it.”

For twelve long years this woman had suffered, not only physically, but also by being isolated from the community.  According to the Old Testament Levitical law, a woman was ceremonially unclean during the time of her flow of blood–which meant that this woman was constantly unclean.  She couldn’t enter the temple.  She was cut off.  Plus, she couldn’t bear children, even as Jairus feared that his 12-year old daughter would never grow up to have children.

This woman heard that Jesus was coming.  “I won’t bother Him,” she thought.  “He wouldn’t want to touch me, anyway.  I’m unclean.  I’ll just come up behind him.  All I have to do is touch his robe, and I’ll be well.”  And so she works her way close to Jesus and reaches out and touches the border of His garment.  And immediately her flow of blood is stopped.  She feels a surge of life flow into her like she hasn’t felt for years.  When she touches the robe of Jesus in faith, she is drawing upon the same energy of God that created the universe and everything that is in it.  She is healed.  

Notice that the power to heal does not lie inside of us, some inner energy.  It comes from Jesus.  There is no healing power within us waiting to be unlocked and unleashed.  Inside us there is only disease and death, hemorrhaging away our life.  Life and health come from outside ourselves.  Every healing comes from Jesus, whether through prayer or penicillin or both.  Medicine and prayer are instruments, but Jesus is the source.

 This woman’s flow of blood stopped because she had come into contact with Jesus, who would cause His blood to flow for her on Good Friday.  It is written, “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”  Jesus absorbed all of our ailments, and He crucified them in His body.  He suffered all of our suffering to death, so that in Him we might have real and enduring life and wholeness.  The Epistle reminds us, “In Jesus we have redemption through His blood.”

Jesus immediately stopped and looked around.  “Who touched Me?” He knew power had gone out from Him.  Peter replied, “How can you ask such a question?  The crowds are all pressing in on You.”  But Jesus wouldn’t move until He had dealt face to face with the one who had touched Him in faith.  He doesn’t deal with people anonymously but personally.  Jesus wanted to speak to her, to give her more than she had already received from him. “Who touched me?”  

Finally, when the woman saw that she couldn’t hide herself, she came trembling before Jesus.  She confesses the reason why she touched Him and how she was immediately healed.  And Jesus turns her fear to confidence and joy when He says, “Daughter, be of good cheer.”  By calling her “daughter,” he is restoring her to the family, to the people of God.  He is claiming her as His own.  And then Jesus says, “Your faith has saved you.  Go in peace.”  Not just generic faith, which believes God exists–“sure I believe in God”–no this is specific faith in Jesus, faith that dares to sneak up behind Him to touch Him.  Through Him she not only had healing but peace with God.

Doesn’t Jesus still extend the border of His garment also to us?  You are given to touch His garment, too, in this very place and receive His healing and forgiving power.  Just as the woman came into real contact with Jesus, so you come into real contact with Jesus in the Sacraments, particularly the Supper of His true body and blood.  Though you are not yet given to see Him face to face, yet you take courage and come up to Him from behind, so to speak, and touch His garment here at the altar.  And when you come in faith as the woman did, the power of His forgiveness goes out from Him to you.  As it is written, “The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.”  You are not anonymous to Him; He sees you.  He says to you, “Be of good cheer.  Your faith in Me has saved you.  Depart in peace.”  “Go, knowing that whatever ails and pains and troubles your body I have already conquered and overcome, and you will be gloriously healed and made whole in the resurrection of the body at the close of the age.”

Which brings us back to Jairus’ daughter.  Remember, all of this business with the woman in the crowd was an interruption and a detour from what Jesus was on His way to do.  The story suddenly stops and everything is put on hold.  Isn’t that how life generally is, a bunch of stops and side trips on the way to where you think you want to go?  However, Jesus shows us here that what may at first seem like a detour in our human existence is in fact precisely the road God is giving us to travel.  It’s the actual circumstances and people the Lord gives you which constitute the path you should walk by faith and in love.  For our true destination is not merely our own goals and dreams; our destination is Christ Himself.  He is the path and the way.  Jesus received this supposed interruption as sent from His Father, and He was completely there for this woman.  In the same way He is completely there also for you, even in the midst of the interruptions and the unexpected events of your life.

By the time Jesus is done dealing with the woman in the crowd, word comes to Jairus, “Your daughter is dead.  Do not trouble the Teacher.”  But Jesus seems to ignore the news.  He looks straight at Jairus.  “You trusted in Me when your little girl was sick.  Trust Me now that she’s dead.  I haven’t forgotten you; I will not fail you.  Do not fear.  She will be made well.  Just believe.”

Jairus must have been tempted to think that Jesus didn’t really care all that much for him, at least not as much as He cared for others.  Jesus delayed while his little girl’s life just faded away.  So also we can be tempted to doubt God’s care for us, especially when we see others doing better than ourselves, while our life if full of problems.  “Where is God?  Why does He delay in helping me?”  It’s one thing to trust in God when all is well; it’s another thing to trust in Him when the hand of blessing seems shut and all you have to cling to is Jesus and His Word, “Do not be afraid; only believe, and all will be made well, better than you could ever possibly imagine.”

Jairus must have believed and held out hope in Jesus, for He continues with Him on to his house.  When they arrived, they saw everyone mourning and weeping.  But Jesus said to them, “Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping.”  And they ridiculed Him for saying something that seemed so foolish and insensitive.  But from Jesus’ perspective, it was true.  For He knew she would awaken to life.  An ordinary doctor can only help when there’s still life in the body.  But Jesus can help even after the life is gone.  For He is the Lord of life and the Great Physician.

Jesus put them all outside, except for the parents and Peter, James, and John.  No unbeliever would see this miracle.  Then Jesus took the little girl by the hand; He touched her with His life-giving presence and said, “Little girl, arise.”  And by the power of His Word, her spirit returned and she arose immediately.  And He commanded that she be given something to eat, much to the joyous astonishment of her parents.

The world still ridicules Christ and His church today for this teaching of the resurrection.  To human reason it seems to be a foolish proposition to believe.   Yet we do profess, especially on this All Saints Sunday, that those who have died in the faith are asleep in Jesus and that their bodies will awaken at His return to everlasting life.  Remember the words of St. Paul, “I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. . .  The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout. . .  And the dead in Christ will rise.”  There won’t be any more ridicule on the Last Day.  For Christ will put the unbelievers outside, who in their profound regret will die a death that never ends.  But Christ will say to the faithful, to you, “Son, daughter, arise,” and your bodies will be awakened from their grave beds to the astonishing joy of sharing in Christ’s Easter glory and the wedding feast that has no end.

And finally, remember this: the Lord has already raised you from the death of sin to a new life in your baptism.  He calls upon me now to give you something to eat, this holy communion which strengthens you in your new life.  Touch Jesus’ garment.  Trust His word.  Do not fear.  Only believe.  Trust Jesus in sickness and pain and in the hour of your death.  Your faith will save you. Your Jesus will save you.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(With thanks to the Rev. William Cwirla)

If You Abide in My Word

John 8:31-36

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Even many Lutherans may not know that a rather important thing happened almost exactly 500 years ago in the Reformation, in September 1522.  It’s one of the most important things that happened during the Reformation, something we often take for granted now.

You’re familiar with the story of how Luther posted the 95 theses on the castle church door in Wittenberg Germany.  Those 95 statements for discussion called into question the practices of the pope and the church of Luther’s day in regards to purgatory and indulgences and the like.  It was on All Hallows Eve that Luther did this, Hallow E’en, October 31st, 1517, the day before All Saints Day.

The publication of those 95 theses created a good deal of turmoil that eventually led to another key event you’re probably familiar with.  In 1521 Martin Luther was called to stand trial before the Emperor himself.  The pope’s emissaries at the trial called on him to recant his teaching and repent.  For a moment Luther faltered; he asked for a day’s time to answer.  But when he returned the next day and was again asked to recant, he spoke boldly in the face of those who could very well have executed him as a heretic.  He said, “Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures or with open, clear, and distinct grounds and reasoning–and my conscience is captive to the Word of God–then I cannot and will not recant.”  Then Luther added, “Here I stand.  I can do no other.  God help me!”  Note the importance there for Luther of God’s Word.  That’s where he took his stand.  

Which leads us to the key, less-well-known event of 1522.  After this trial in the city of Worms, Luther was “kidnaped” by his prince and secretly taken to the Wartburg Castle in order to protect him.  There was a price on Luther’s head, and Prince Frederick didn’t want any harm to come to him.  Luther spent 10 months there holed up in the castle.  He wasn’t the kind of person to just sit around, and so he set about translating the New Testament into German, the language of the people.  With all the necessary resources brought to him and at his disposal, he completed his translation from the Greek in eleven weeks.  His colleague at the University, Philip Melanchthon, put the finishing touches on the translation. This was revolutionary.

Two laymen in Wittenberg, Lucas Cranach the Elder and his partner Christian Doering, then made sure this New Testament in German was printed in time for the Leipzig book fair. About 4,000 copies were made, bundled up, and rushed to Leipzig.

And so we know exactly when the Bible began to be the “best-selling book of all time.”  It  was September 21, 1522, the date when the fair opened.  All the copies of this German New Testament sold out before the fair ended. From there, Luther’s German New Testament spread around Europe. A second printing was started immediately and released in December. A pirated version was printed in Switzerland before the end of 1522. In the next year a total of twelve authorized and sixty-six unauthorized reprints appeared throughout Germany and Europe—hundreds of thousands of copies sold in just over twelve months. This Septembertestament as it was sometimes called, the New Testament Bible was a bestseller.  

And so today, 500 years later, we celebrate this very important even for the church.  It’s something we should see as a sort of Pentecost event, the Word of God and the Gospel being translated and spoken in the German tongue, the language of the people, not just for private reading but for public services.  The Holy Spirit was surely at work causing the good news of Jesus to become much more accessible and to spread throughout Germany and beyond.  It was a big influence on the Bible being translated also into English and many other languages.  For Martin Luther, and for Christians of every age, it’s all about the Word of God.  

Today is a good day for us to give thanks to God for one of the main principles of the Reformation, namely that the Word of God is not just for the clergy, it’s for all the people of God to have and to hear in their own language.  We are reminded of how the Bereans in the book of Acts, when they heard the preaching of Paul, searched the Scriptures to see if what he was saying was true.  So also, you are not merely given to just mindlessly accept whatever a pastor tells you apart from God’s Word, but to search the Scriptures and to have a good grasp of the Bible, that you may know the truth and be defended against false teaching.  

This means that you must actually open your Bible and use it regularly.  In many ways we have lost the sense of what a tremendous privilege it is for us to even have our own Bibles in our own homes.  The Christians of most of the history of the Church would have considered that to be a priceless treasure, but we are frequently thankless for this great gift and take it for granted and leave it on the shelf or the coffee table as if it were merely a decoration.  We’ve got study Bibles now with all sorts of notes and helps; you can read the Bible on your phone and even have it read to you!  There are good Lutheran podcasts that discuss the Scriptures and online resources to help you understand it.  Let this Reformation celebration, then, be an encouragement for you to again regularly have devotions and read and meditate on God’s Word.  For Jesus’ words are the words of eternal life.

Jesus Himself said, “If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  We hear a lot of talk about freedom and liberty in this country.  And that’s fine.  But it’s usually a political and personal liberty.  And very often it turns out to be almost the opposite of what Jesus is talking about.  Americans think of freedom as the liberty to do whatever we choose, whatever we want, to fulfill all the dreams and desires of our heart.  But that can quickly turn out to be just another form of slavery.  If we try to live outside of the way God ordered things to be, sooner or later we end up ensnared and imprisoned by our desires. Gluttony enslaves us to our belly and our food, as does alcoholism to drink.  Lust enslaves us to our passions, to pornography, to adulterous behavior that tears people apart.  Laziness enslaves us in a cycle of dependency and pessimism and excuse-making and blame.  Greed enslaves us to our money  and all the things we have to do to get and hold on to our stuff.  “Free thinking” that is not grounded in God’s wisdom leads to all sorts of destructive ideologies and philosophies.  Pride chains us to having to keep up our image and prop up the facade, when deep down we know it’s just hypocrisy.  And on and on it goes . . .  Deep down we know that things aren’t quite right with us, that we’re not truly free.  Jesus said, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”  And the wages of sin is death.  

However, Jesus came to free us from that bondage.  The way to be truly free, paradoxically, is to have Him as your Lord, to live under Him as His servant.  Apart from Christ, the devil is our deceitful and cruel taskmaster.  But Jesus came to rescue us from that dungeon and to give us a new life in His kingdom.  Jesus did that by actually entering into the dungeon for us.  He suffered death and shed His blood to serve our sentence and pay the price for our sins.  He entered the grave on our behalf in order to blast a way out of it for us and destroy that prison, rising again bodily on the third day.

Listen to how Luther describes it in the Large Catechism:  “The Lord Jesus has redeemed me from sin, from the devil, from death, and all evil. For before, I had no Lord nor King, but was captive under the power of the devil, condemned to death, enmeshed in sin and blindness.  For when we had been created by God the Father, and had received from Him all manner of good, the devil came and led us into disobedience, sin, death, and all evil, so that we fell under His wrath and displeasure and were doomed to eternal damnation, as we had merited and deserved.  There was no counsel, help, or comfort until this only and eternal Son of God in His unfathomable goodness had compassion upon our misery and wretchedness, and came from heaven to help us.  Those tyrants and jailers, then, are all expelled now, and in their place has come Jesus Christ, Lord of life, righteousness, every blessing, and salvation, and has delivered us poor lost men from the jaws of hell, has won us, made us free, and brought us again into the favor and grace of the Father, and has taken us as His own property under His shelter and protection, that He may govern us by His righteousness, wisdom, power, life, and blessedness.”

To be truly free is to belong to Jesus and follow Him.  And that freedom is given to you through Jesus’ words.  Listen again, “If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  To abide in Jesus’ word is to continue to receive His Word in all the ways that it comes to you and to trust in it and believe its promises.  It is to live in the gift of your baptism, where the Word of God was applied to you with the water, drowning the old Adam and bringing you forth to a new life.  It is to hear absolution and the preaching of the Gospel, by which the Word is applied to you and its gifts are given to you.  And it is to receive the Lord’s Supper, where the Word made flesh is truly present, giving you His flesh and blood for the forgiveness of sins.

So let us give thanks to God this Reformation Sunday/weekend for the gift of Holy Scripture, God’s Word.  The Lord is not silent to you. He speaks words of comfort and mercy and life.  He is your refuge and strength, and ever-present help in times of trouble.  So do not fear.  Be still and know that the Lord is God.  He is on your side.  He will never leave you or forsake you.  You are His.  You are righteous in Christ, the Son of God.  And if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Debt Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35
Trinity 22

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

 An official announcement was made this past week by the White House about applying for student loan forgiveness.  Many people with federal student loans can get $10,000 of their debt cancelled–a few even $20,000. This has caused a significant amount of debate and controversy and court battles.  Many have asked, why should this benefit be given only to some and not to those who fulfilled their obligation and paid their loans off properly according to its terms?  That seems rather unjust.  Others have suggested that this is actually a Christian thing to do since the Bible talks about forgiving debt, and one translation of the Our Father even prays “Forgive us our debts as we also forgive those who are indebted to us.”  Of course, it’s one thing for you to forgive a debt that’s owed to you personally; it’s quite another thing for the government to do so forcibly on your behalf.

But my purpose here isn’t to get into the politics of this, but to focus on one of the arguments that has come up in this debate which teaches us something about the Gospel and Christian forgiveness.  The argument goes like this: the $10,000 in student loan debts isn’t actually being forgiven, it’s just being transferred; someone else is going to have to pay that debt off–other taxpayers or whomever.  And that is absolutely true.  But what we sometimes miss is that’s always the case with forgiveness.  Someone always has to pay.  To forgive is to say, “I don’t hold this against you.  I’m willing to pay the price for what you did without me getting any payback.  I release you from that.”

Someone always has to pay.  Forgiveness simply means that the one who incurred the debt, who did the wrong, doesn’t have to pay the price because someone else is willing to pay the price for them.  This is true of money debt; it’s true of sin debt.  One way or another, the debt gets paid.

I’ve been asked a couple of times by parishioners–and perhaps you’ve wondered this yourself–why was it necessary for Jesus to have to share in our flesh and suffer and die and shed His blood?  Why couldn’t God simply forgive everyone’s sins simply with a wave of His hand?  Couldn’t God have just said of our sins, “Don’t worry about it” and leave it at that without all the blood and death?  The answer is, “No, not if His justice and mercy are real and true.”  

To sin is to offend against the justice and righteousness of God.  It is to rebel against His commands in favor of doing things your own way.  Your sin is not just the equivalent of getting a few parking tickets, a few minor misdeeds.  According to Scripture, your sin is treason against the King of the Universe.  It is the act of a traitor who wants to take over the Lord’s throne. In the end someone has to pay the price for that.  A just God and Lord doesn’t simply say, “Oh, whatever.”  Such sin, such sinners cannot stand in His presence.  His very nature requires that it be dealt with.  It is written in Hebrews 9, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.”  So the question is, who’s going to pay that price?  Is it you, or is it someone else who is willing to pay it for you?  Someone’s got to pay.

In the Gospel reading, the first servant owed the King an enormous debt, 10,000 talents.  Just one talent was worth about 6,000 denarii, and each denarius was about a day’s wage for an ordinary laborer.  So to pay off a debt of 10,000 talents would take the equivalent of 60 million days of work.  How this servant got into such debt, I don’t know.  But his claim that he could pay it off if he was given enough time is just laughable.  There’s no way he could ever climb his way out of that hole he had dug.

This first servant is a picture of each of us.  We have run up such a tab against God with our thoughts and desires, words and deeds, that we can’t even begin to grasp how big it is.  Even if we spent the rest of our lives trying to make ourselves right with God again, even if we entered into a monastery or convent and devoted every possible moment to making up for our sin and trying to become righteous, it wouldn’t be enough.  All we can do is throw ourselves at the King’s feet and humbly beg for mercy.

And thanks be to God, He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.  He’s not in the business of payback.  The Lord has taken pity on you and canceled your debt.  He didn’t just reduce what you owed and put you on an interest-free payment plan.  No, the debt is completely erased.  It’s gone.  You are debt free.  You are forgiven.

Now understand, the debt still had to be paid; just not by you.  The debt is very real; and so the payment must be very real.  Just like the king in the Gospel lost 10,000 talents by forgiving the servant, someone had to absorb your debt.  And that person is the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ.  Our Lord became a human being in order stand in for us and pay what we humans owed.  But since He is also God, the payment He earned was infinite, even as God Himself is infinite.  Jesus took on Himself your debt, your sins, and they were crucified with Him.  By dying in your place, Jesus settled your account with God forever–not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.  And by rising again to life, He earned eternal life for you and restored your relationship with the heavenly Father.  All this He has done without any merit or worthiness in you but only because of His fatherly, divine, goodness and mercy.  You are free from the power of sin, free from hell, free from being afraid of God.  Overflowing forgiveness has been given to you.  Like the servant, you’ve been given a new life, a new start.

Since that is true, since God has answered for all sin at Calvary–for everyone–since it’s all covered by Jesus’ blood, who are we to act otherwise?  Who are we to hold onto what God has let go of and dealt with and done away with, whether it’s our own sin or somebody else’s?

The first servant in the Gospel failed to understand this.  He didn’t seem to see the connection between how his debt had been forgiven by the mercy of the king, and how therefore he was also to be forgiving toward others.  And so he went out and grabbed his fellow servant by the throat and demanded, “Pay me what you owe!”  How could that servant behave the way he did?  It seems to me the only way he could act like that was if he didn’t really trust that his debt was truly forgiven.  Still in the back of his mind he was thinking, “This can’t actually be true.  Sooner or later, the king’s going to be coming for me, and I better build up as much in the way of assets as I possibly can, so that maybe I’ll have a little bargaining power.”  Do you see?  If the servant truly believed that the debt was forgiven, he would have been like a renewed Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Day, a new man, giving away and passing on with cheer the same compassion he himself had received.  Instead he didn’t believe it; he didn’t walk by faith.  And so he put himself outside the king’s mercy and ended up suffering the king’s judgment.  

Jesus issues a very clear warning to us here.  To insist on payback with others is to invite God to get payback with you.  To refuse to forgive others is to refuse to be forgiven by God.  After all, you can’t be on your knees before God and angrily at one another’s throats at the same time.  The attitude of humility before God seeking His mercy is the same attitude we should have toward others in giving mercy.

Someone’s got to pay.  Either you can spend your life making sure other people pay for their sin-debts against you and be consumed by your anger and bitterness and efforts at making them pay for how wrong they were.  Or you can pay using Jesus’ account.  You have this limitless resource that Jesus has earned, that covers all sin–including those sometimes terrible sins that have been done against you.  Jesus accounted and paid for all of it.  With the abundant overflow of His mercy toward you, you are made able to forgive the debts owed to you by others.  Because You have full access to Jesus’ account, you are given to say to others, “I’m going to treat you without a desire for revenge, without a desire for payback, without you having to make it up to me.  I’ll take the hit, since the hit was already absorbed by Christ for both of us.  I release you from your debt to me.  I forgive you.”

Through Jesus God has forgiven the sins of every single human being, even those who won’t repent and believe and be saved.  So also in Christ we forgive even those who won’t say they’re sorry or be reconciled to us.  Forgiveness is not dependent on the repentance of the person who committed the sin but on the actions and the attitude of the one who was sinned against.  You can forgive someone even if the other person hasn’t changed.  Isn’t that how it is with God?  God has forgiven the whole world’s sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It’s all covered.  People may still reject that and refuse to believe that and live outside of that forgiveness; but that’s on them.  If they are eternally condemned, it’s because of their own unbelief.  But what we are given to do is to stand with Christ and offer His mercy.  No sin is greater than God’s forgiveness; and it is by His forgiveness that we forgive others.  When someone does us harm, we remember, “Jesus paid for that sin, too. And if He paid for their sin, it’s no use for me to behave as if He didn’t.”

Real forgiveness like that will always be hard.  But all the truly hard stuff was done by Jesus.  All the sin-debt was transferred to Him–atoned for, punished, taken away, released and gone.  Period.  So when you find it difficult to forgive, or when you find yourself feeling unforgiving again toward a person you’ve once forgiven, the way to deal with that is to return to the cross.  You can’t forgive someone from your heart when your heart is empty.  Fill it with the merciful, debt-releasing words of Christ in Scripture.  Fill it with the sanctifying flood that flows to you from your Baptism into Christ the crucified.  And be filled once again with Jesus’ body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all sins.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

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