Genesis 40:1-23; Luke 23:26-43
Midweek Lent 3

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    Joseph was in prison, falsely accused of making an advance on his master’s wife.  Joseph was suffering for sins which were not his own.  It was Potiphar’s wife who had made the sexual advances.  But in all of this Joseph remained faithful.  Even in prison his noble character caused him to be put in charge of the other prisoners.  And the Lord made all that he did succeed.  

    In this we can see our Lord Jesus, can’t we?  He was one who was wrongfully accused and who ended up suffering and dying for sins that were not His own.  It was those who accused Him who were the real guilty ones; indeed, it was because of us that He died. But Jesus endured affliction faithfully.  All that He did succeeded, so that He is now Lord over death and hell; He is in charge of the prison house of the grave.  And He frees all the prisoners who take refuge in Him so that they share in His resurrection.

    Take comfort in that when you are accused falsely, or when you are made to bear the brunt of other people’s sins.  Our Lord Jesus is with you especially in those times.  He's been there, and He knows what you’re going through, and He walks with you to see you safely through it.

    There were two noteworthy men in particular whom Joseph had charge of in the prison who were confined with him: Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker.  They were incarcerated because they had both committed an offense against Pharaoh.  These two men who are with Joseph in his punishment can be compared to the two criminals who are with Jesus in His crucifixion.  For in both cases, one receives life and the other receives death.  The cupbearer and the baker picture the outcome of faith and unbelief.  

    Both of these men have dreams that leave them troubled, for they don’t know what they mean.  First, the cupbearer is given a dream symbolizing his release and restoration.  He sees a vine with three branches, and he takes the grapes from the vine and presses them into the cup of Pharaoh and gives the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.  Joseph tells him what this means: in three days Pharaoh will lift up his head and reinstate him to the position he had before.  The interpretation of the dream is good news.  In the same way on Good Friday, when the repentant thief spoke to Jesus on the cross asking for the Lord to remember him, Jesus spoke words to him that lifted him up out of his sins and gladdened his heart like sweet wine, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.”  This thief would be reinstated and brought back into the kingdom of God.  The words that Jesus spoke were good news, the best of news. The Lord remembers you, too.  You will be with Him and share in His life.  God grant you to receive the good news in repentant faith.

    However, the baker is given a dream which symbolizes his judgment and death.  The baker had three baskets of bread on his head, and in the uppermost basket was baked goods for Pharaoh.  But then the birds flew in and were eating all of it out of the basket.  Joseph told the baker what his dream meant:  In three days his head will be lifted from him; he will be hung on a tree, and eaten by the birds.  The interpretation of the dream is bad news.  In the same way, the unrepentant thief on the cross who mocked Jesus–by rejecting Him who is the Bread of Life–he only partook of the bread of the curse, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground” (Gen. 3:19).  The unrepentant thief would be devoured by death.  God protect us all from such a fate.

    The three days in these dreams remind us of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead on the third day.  By being hung on the tree like the baker but then rising in royal glory, Jesus has conquered the curse and defeated the grave and has become Living Bread for you.  “Therefore,” the Psalm says, “He will lift up His head” (Ps. 110:7).  The Father has exalted Jesus and lifted Him up to His right hand.

    Joseph, too, would be exalted, but not yet.  Joseph would have to endure a while longer.  The cupbearer forgot Joseph.  We too, often forget the Lord’s saving work and neglect to honor the God who has helped us.  But the good news is that the Lord does not forget us.  It is written, “Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.  Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Is. 49:15-16).  The Lord calls us back to Himself, urging us to lift up our hearts in divine service and receive Him who comes to us through the bread and the cup.  God’s cupbearers are His pastors, called to serve you and distribute to you the true body and blood of Christ.  He lifts up your head, releasing you from the eternal punishment for sin and restoring you to life with Himself forever.  It is written, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26).  Since we have been freed from judgment, we gladly look forward to the return of Jesus our Redeemer, for He said, “When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Lk 21:28).

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

Genesis 37:1-36
Midweek Lent 1

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    Sometimes telling the truth about things comes across as arrogance and gets you in trouble.  That’s certainly how it was for Joseph with his brothers.  First, he gave a bad report about them to his father; he told the truth about their unrighteousness in their work and their behavior.  Then he was given a vision of the future in his dreams, about how his brothers and even his father would bow down to him.  Perhaps the way he said it bothered them.  Probably even more though, the idea that they who were older would honor and obey him as the greater one grated on their nerves.  Joseph’s truth-telling annoyed them and went against the way they thought things should be.  And to top it all off, Jacob their father favored Joseph and showed him more love.  The inward envy and hate of the brothers gave birth to outward cruelty toward Joseph.  They contemplated killing him, threw him in a pit, and then sold him as a slave to the Ishmaelites who took him down to Egypt.

    In all of this we see Jesus.  For He also incurred the wrath of His Jewish brothers, the religious leaders of the day.  Even Pontius Pilate recognized that they handed Jesus over to him because of envy.  They were jealous of the following that He had and didn’t like the threat that He was to their power.  Jesus’ teaching of the truth gave a bad report of them, exposing their unrighteousness, so that they could not speak peacefully to Him and wanted to kill Him.  Jesus is the chosen One in whom the Father delights (Is. 42:1), but they could not accept that He is the Messiah and the Son of God.  “Who do you make yourself out to be?” they said (John 8:53).  They thought He was arrogant and blasphemous for what He said and taught.

    Don’t be surprised then as disciples of Jesus, if you are treated badly or unfairly for speaking the truth of God’s Word and for following Him who is the Truth.  To be sure, we should be kind and understanding in our talk, speaking the truth in love.  But often it doesn’t matter how you say it; people just don’t want anyone to threaten their world view or even to suggest that we all need to repent and cling to Christ’s mercy, which alone can save us.  To do that can get you branded as arrogant or unloving.  People might want to take you down a peg.  It can bring hard consequences.

    For Jesus, many of those consequences were prophesied in the life of Joseph.  As Judah sold his own brother for silver shekels to the Ishmaelites, Judas betrayed Jesus to the Jewish authorities for silver pieces, so that they might be rid of Him (Mt 26:14).  As Joseph was stripped naked and placed into a pit, so Jesus was stripped, hung on the cross to pay for our foolish sins of envy and jealousy, and put into the pit of the grave.  Yet, like Joseph, Christ was in the pit of death only for a short time.   He rose again so that we may be restored to the Father and so that our sorrows may one day be turned to pure joy.  As Joseph was taken down to Egypt, Jesus was also taken there as a young child, so that He might encapsulate and perfectly fulfill the life of His people Israel and make all things new, freeing us from our slavery to sin and death and the devil and bringing us into the new creation.  

    Joseph’s brothers had to come up with a story and something to tell their father to try to cover up their wrongdoing.  That’s the problem with sin; it always leads to more sin and futile attempts to hide it.  Sooner or later the truth will be revealed, as it is by the end of the Joseph narrative.  For now though, Joseph’s blood-stained multi-colored robe covers over the sins of his brothers.  But it only hides them temporarily.  However, the blood of Christ becomes the robe which covers our sins eternally.  And it doesn’t just cover them over, it takes them away.  For Jesus is the sacrificial animal who redeems us and clothes us in His own righteousness, as it is written, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”  “The blood of Jesus God’s Son cleanses us of all sin.”  “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”  You wear the rich coat of the Father’s manifold love.  

    Joseph’s dreams would come to pass.  His brothers eventually would bow down to him.  But his dreams are especially fulfilled in Jesus.  For in the end every knee shall bow to Him and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Rom. 14:10-11; Phil. 2:10-11).  It was the sun, moon, and stars that bowed to Joseph in his dream.  And consider these heavenly bodies as they relate to our Lord. As a star led the Wise Men to the infant Jesus (Mt. 2:9), as the sun was darkened at His crucifixion (Mt. 27:45), so all the heavenly bodies will bow before Christ when He returns to usher in the new creation.  As it is written, “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:24-26).  

    Jesus spoke the truth before the Council, that He is the Son of God, whom they would see sitting at the right hand of God’s power even though it got Him condemned.  But this He did for you, that you would not be condemned but saved.  Let us then bow before our Redeemer this Lententide; for in Him your vindication is coming.  

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

Matthew 4:1-11; 1 Samuel 17
Lent 1
 

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

    We didn’t sing “A Mighty Fortress” today just because it’s a favorite Lutheran hymn.  “A Mighty Fortress” is the appointed hymn of the day because this season of Lent that we have just entered is all about battle and spiritual warfare.  We often think of Lent as being primarily about Jesus’ suffering–and that’s certainly a part of it, especially later in Lent.  But the first three weeks of this season focus especially on our battle against the devil and demons.  Lent reminds us who the real enemy is.  For too often we get caught up in the wrong fights.  St. Paul reminds us, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”  The enemy is not simply the politicians or the criminals or the cultural elites or China or Russia.  The enemy is Satan and sin and false teaching.  They are the real threat which we need to be defended against and which must be defeated for us.

    Humanity was devastated in this war when we first fell into sin in the Garden of Eden.  Our very humanity was ripped away from us as our first parents were lured away from God, enticed into thinking they could become like God themselves.  Stepping outside of the protective, life-giving fortress of God’s Word, the devil ravaged and plundered them and all of their descendants, right down to us.  By causing you to rebel against God, to go your own self-serving way, the Goliath Satan won a big battle.  As the hymn said, “On earth is not his equal.”  He loves to taunt you and terrify you with the death you deserve because of your sin.  

    However, then suddenly there appears someone new on the field of battle, the Son of David.  He comes to fight on your behalf.  “But for us fights the Valiant One, whom God Himself elected.  Ask ye who is this?  Jesus Christ it is.  Of Sabaoth Lord, and there’s none other God.  He holds the field forever.”  Jesus stands in for you and fights off all the onslaughts of the devil in your place and conquers him decisively.

    It’s all prefigured and foreshadowed and prophesied for us in the fight between David and Goliath.  The children of Israel lived in fear of the Philistine army because the Philistines had this soldier more than nine feet tall on their side, who wore armor heavier than most men could even manage.  For 40 days this Goliath came out and taunted the Israelite soldiers, challenging them, “Send someone out to fight me.  If he defeats me, we will be your slaves.  But if I defeat him, then you will be our slaves.”  No Israelite soldier could be found willing to fight Goliath.  

    But then a young man named David heard this giant who blasphemed God and mocked God's people.  And with the permission of King Saul, David went out to fight Goliath, bringing with him only a slingshot and five smooth stones.  The giant man laughed when he saw David, who was little more than half his size, and tried to intimidate him with some trash talk, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks? . . . Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”  But David relied not on his own strength, but on the strength of God.  He said, “I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts . . .  The battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”  As the Philistine moved towards David, David ran towards the giant, putting a stone into his sling.  And he slung it and struck Goliath between the eyes, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and the Philistine fell on his face to the ground.

    You are like the army of Israel, intimidated by the devil’s threats, unable to overcome him, unable to find anyone who is worthy to fight the Goliath Satan.  But then the Son of David steps forth, Christ Jesus, to do battle with the blasphemous giant.  He appears to be no match for the devil, for He is there in weak human flesh with no weapons but the five smooth stones of the books of Moses.  As David didn’t wear the armor Saul gave him, Christ fights not with human power but with the power of the living God.  After 40 days the devil rushes in to attack, and with each onslaught Jesus slings back the smooth stone of God’s Word. Satan says, “Forget this silly self-denial that your Father has placed upon you.  Command that these stones become bread.”  But Jesus responds, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”  Satan says, “Come on!  Let’s see if the Scriptures are really true.  Put on a little display to prove it.  Throw yourself down from this temple.”  Jesus answers, “It is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”  Again, Satan says, “You can skip the suffering and get right to being the glorious ruler of the world if you just fall down and worship me.”  But Jesus gives the final rebuttal, “Away with you Satan!  For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.’” The Son of David reaches into the five books of Moses, and each time he slings the single stone of Deuteronomy.  And the stone sinks into the forehead, and the Goliath Satan falls with his face to the ground, defeated.  Those who refuse to bow before the Lord in life will most certainly bow with their faces to the ground in death.

    When the Philistine had fallen to the earth, David ran and took the giant’s own sword and used it to cut off his head.  In the same way, Jesus, the Son of David, uses the devil’s own weapons to bring about his eternal defeat.  Satan’s favorite tool is death and the fear of death.  He tries to scare you into all sorts of false belief and idolatry to try to get you to evade or ignore death.  In particular he thinks that by crucifying Christ, he will be victorious over Him.  But in fact, it is precisely through death that Jesus brings about Satan’s downfall.  For through the cross the Lord takes away the sin that gives Satan his deathly power over you.  Then Jesus rises to life again to break sin’s curse.  It’s no longer “dust to dust” but “dust to life” for those who trust in Christ.  Your death is now simply a precursor to your bodily resurrection with Jesus.  For He came forth from the grave eternally triumphant over death and the devil for you.  Satan falls into His own death trap.  Jesus, by His cross  and resurrection, has fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy and crushed Satan’s head.  Like Goliath, the devil is decapitated by his own sword.  No longer can the devil cause you any lasting or eternal harm.  For you have been baptized into Christ the conqueror.  The serpent may still hiss and squirm and convulse in his final perishing twitches.  But ultimately he can’t touch you; you have the victory in Christ.

    Finally, when the Philistines saw that Goliath was dead, they fled in fear.  And the Israelites pursued them and routed them.  In the same way, in Christ you now have the power to send the hordes of hell into retreat in the final skirmishes that must yet be fought.  You have the means to master and vanquish the foe.  For the Lord says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”  “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you.”  “Put on the whole armor of God . . .  Take up the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”  As you live your life in this wilderness world–when you are tempted to feed your own desires rather than to be faithful to God, when you are enticed into putting God to the test to make Him prove Himself to you rather than trusting the promises of His Word, when you are lured to seek after the honors and the approval of this world rather than the honor and approval of God–you have at your disposal the very same things that Christ did in the wilderness.  He gives you His righteousness and His salvation as a shield and armor to protect you from the blows of the evil one.  You have the saber of the Word, with which you can run the devil through.  For the Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.  And when you call upon Christ in prayer and faith, you are calling upon one who can sympathize with your weaknesses, one who was in all points tempted as you are, yet without sin.  He will certainly hear and answer your prayers.  God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape for you into the mighty fortress of Christ.

    Jesus went through all this testing and temptation not just to be your example; He did this in your place, on your behalf.  This is the key point:  Christ has carried your human flesh into temptation, and He has triumphed. He has prevailed over sin, over the devil, over death, all for you.  Where Adam was defeated in humanity’s first battle, Jesus the Son of David is victorious; in Him the war is won.  And He gives you His victory as a gift through faith in His name.  In Him, the words of the Psalm come true, “You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.”

    Truly then, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  And today you receive not just bread alone, but bread which is Christ, the Word made flesh.  In His preaching and His supper, He Himself comes to dwell within you and strengthen you.  Fellow Christians, in the midst of your testings and temptations and battles, never forget what the Word says, “The battle is the Lord’s.”  “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”

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

Matthew 6:1-6,16-21
Ash Wednesday

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    This past weekend was the Academy Awards.  With much fanfare and a little virtue signaling, the movie industry congratulated itself and handed out Oscars to those they believe have excelled in the craft of acting (often in movies you’ve never heard of before).  And of course there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a good movie and appreciating good visual storytelling.  But it’s worth remembering that actors are people who are really good at faking like they’re somebody they’re not.  We are watching accomplished pretenders, those who can give the illusion of reality, which then evaporates and is gone when the cameras are turned off.  

    I bring this up not to bash Hollywood–that would be lazy of me.  Rather, I mention this because in today’s Gospel Jesus warns us not to be like the hypocrites.  And the word for “hypocrite” literally means “actor” or “someone who impersonates another.” What Jesus is saying is, “Don’t be an actor or an impersonator when it comes to the faith.  You may be able to fool others with a show of piety, but God sees the way things truly are.  And He’s the One you should be trying to please.  You should be seeking the praise of God, not the praise of other people.

    In ancient theater, actors would sometimes wear masks over their faces. These masks would hide the actor’s true identity from the audience, and the attention would then be drawn to the character he was playing.  To this day many theaters will display two masks, one smiling, the other frowning as emblems of this past practice.  In our day to day life, we also sometimes put on a mask, a pretend face that conceals the truth of who we are or what we’re thinking and feeling.  Some are covering the pain of a failing relationship.  Others are masking some self-destructive addiction.  Still others hide the scars left by loved ones or by complete strangers.  All of us try to camouflage our sins and failings and imperfections.

     Jesus reminds us that in His church, there is no need for the masks.  There is to be no faking like things are better with you than they actually are, no pretending like you have no struggles with sin in your life.  Here, especially as Lent begins, the disguise can come off.  We can be honest in the presence of a merciful God, and before one another as His children.

    With our masks removed, then, let us consider Jesus’ words.  He says,  “When you do a charitable deed, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

    Christians do not horde worldly wealth.  For we know that God is the Giver of all good and perfect gifts; and we trust that He will always provide for us, even as He does the birds of the air.  By such faith we are freed to use our monetary resources in love towards others, to take what we have freely received from God’s hand and freely give it for the good of the church and of our neighbor in need.

    But even such good deeds can be perverted and twisted back in on the self.  And so Jesus exhorts us to do our charitable giving secretly, to the point that our left hand doesn’t even know what our right hand is doing.  In this way the act can be entirely one of love, that is, one that receives no personal benefit such as worldly acclaim and glory, but one that is done solely for the sake of the neighbor and to please God alone.  To give in this way is to find your satisfaction in the eternal praise of God and not the temporary praise of men.  Jesus Himself is our reward, the One who is given to us from the Father’s right hand, who will indeed be shown openly to us on the Last Day.  He Himself is our wealth, as it is written, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”

    Jesus also alerts us here to the wrong and the right way to pray.  “When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.  For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.  Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

    We are taught here to guard against making a show of our prayers, virtue signaling to others how often we pray or whom we’re praying for to make ourselves look more spiritual in the eyes of others and to be honored by them.  Maybe you’ve been in group situations where it seemed as if the one praying was directing his words more toward the assembled people than to God.  True prayer doesn’t care what others think, be it good or bad.  It trusts in the Lord and seeks only Him and His help.  The “reward” given to such prayerful faith is precisely the One it trusts in, namely, God Himself–to receive His gifts, to live in His presence.  Jesus tells you to go into your room privately for prayer now because He at His return He will openly reveal the place He is preparing for you, as He said, “In My Father’s house are many rooms.”  You will dwell in the house of the Lord forever by His grace.

    Jesus finally speaks here of the wrong and the right way to fast.  “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

    Christians fast and engage in other forms of self-denial not in order to be noticed by others.  For such notice will pass and fade away.  We do so rather in order to be purged of our worldly loves and worldly desires and to direct our hearts to the eternal Creator who said, “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”   Fasting and self denial is not done for any particular sort of personal gain, but to discipline our bodies as an integral part of our Christian faith and life, and to get rid of the impediments that keep us from hungering and thirsting for the righteousness of Christ.

    Jesus said, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you . . .  I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. . .  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. . .  Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”  Fasting in regards to the temporal things of this world, Jesus invites us to feast on Him who died and rose for us, to believe in Him, to receive His true body and blood, so that we may be forgiven and share in His everlasting life, we in Him and He in us.

    That is what it means to lay up for yourself treasure in heaven.  For moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal this treasure which Christ has won for you.  Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  That is not only true of you, it is also true of Him.  You are God’s treasure.  His heart is with you.  You are the focus of His love, love which sacrificed all to win you back through the hidden and secret means of the cross.  Hidden in secret beneath the goriness of the crucifixion is the glory of God and the love of God for you.  The Father sees in secret and honors His Son’s work, and He now reveals openly the mystery of the cross through His Word.  Through the foolishness of the preaching of Christ crucified, He saves you who believe.

    So real and true is this that Jesus refers to God the Father here as “your Father.”  Think about what an honor that is!  The only One who can truly call God Father is Jesus, His eternal and only Son.  But Jesus here invites you to take His place and to come before the Father as if you were Jesus Himself.  This is no act; this is not a mask over your face but a divine robe that you wear.  This is your true identity now.  For you have been baptized into Christ, who took all your sins away through the shedding of His blood.  Therefore all that belongs to Christ belongs to you.  “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,” St. Paul writes (Galatians 3:27), even partakers of the divine nature as St. Peter said in the Epistle (2 Peter 1:4).  You have full access to the Father through Jesus, and all the treasures of heaven are yours in Him.  Clinging to Jesus who took your place under judgment, you are saved from the fatal love of worldly praise and worldly treasures, and you are reconciled to God.

    Lay yourselves low, then, in the ashes of repentance this day.  Turn away from your sin.  Return to the Lord, your God.  For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and He exalts the lowly.  Believe in that truth.  And trust that the Father who sees in secret, where there are no masks, will Himself give you openly the reward of Christ on the Last Day.

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

1 Samuel 16:1-13
Quinquagesima

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

    The Lord had rejected Saul as being king over Israel.  For Saul had not followed the voice of the Lord but the voice of the people.  God had told Saul to utterly destroy all the Amalekites, both man and beast, as His judgment on them.  But Saul spared some of the animals and the spoils of war, justifying it by saying that it would be offered to the Lord.  Under a religious veneer he wanted to benefit from the Amalekites’ possessions and the food from the sacrificed animals rather than devote these things to destruction as God had said.  Because of this rebelliousness and presumption, Saul would be dethroned.

    The prophet Samuel told Saul, “To obey is better than sacrifice.”  Which is a good reminder and warning to us: Be on guard against thinking that you’ve got a better way of doing things than what God has said.  Sometimes God’s Word doesn’t make sense to us, and so we come up with what we think is more reasonable, all the while justifying it as being more fair or loving or more likely to draw people to God.  We try to forge compromises between the Scriptures and the world in hopes of not losing a treasured possession or a cherished relationship, when we should be treasuring God’s life-giving words above all.  We can be tempted to presumptuously put our own self-chosen wisdom above simply doing what the Lord has said.  

    In place of Saul a new king was to be chosen, a better king, one of the sons of Jesse in Bethlehem.  And the way this king was chosen went against everything that was expected, even what the prophet Samuel expected.  When Eliab the firstborn son was presented, Samuel thought for sure that he was the one, but the Lord said, “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.”  Eliab looked the part and had all the qualifications–strength and military experience and a commanding presence.  But that wasn’t how God would choose.  Something else was more important.

    “The Lord looks on the heart.”  So what does that mean exactly?  We’ve got sayings like “You can’t judge a book by its cover” and “Beauty is only skin deep.”  But that’s not really what this means.  After all when David is described, he’s depicted in terms of his outward appearance, handsome and having beautiful eyes.  But what is it that you do with the heart?  Why is that what the Lord especially pays attention to?  Well, with the heart you love, and with the heart you trust; and it matters what you love and trust in.  The Lord is looking for those who love and trust in Him.  Whatever else is true about you–your achievements, your looks, your job, your friends, your family, your finances–what really counts with God is the condition of your heart.  Even if you lack all of those things I just listed, what the Lord is looking for is a heart that looks to Him and seeks His help and trusts in His promises and loves Him and His words.  

    Listen to what David himself wrote in the psalms about the heart: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”  The Lord looks on the heart that is penitent and humbled.  Take comfort in knowing that the Lord is looking on you with acceptance when you are laid low, when you confess your sins before Him.  Again David says,“The Lord is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped.”  The Lord is looking on you when you seek refuge in Him; He receives you who believe in Him with your heart, especially in your time of need.  He helps you and saves you in Christ.  That is why David goes on to say, “My heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”

    David is described in the Bible as “a man after God’s own heart.”  He loved what God loves and hated what God hates.  There is a place for hate in our hearts. As Scripture says, “Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9).  And David himself prayed in the psalms, “I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord.”  “You, [O Lord], hate all evildoers.”  David is one who loved fellowship with the Lord and hated anything that stood in the way of that.  

    That is what it means that the Lord looks on the heart.  He’s not looking for some inner beauty or merit in you, but simply a heart that seeks Him, that loves and trusts in His words, a heart that has been moved to faith by the working of His Spirit.

    So when you call upon the Lord in prayer, know that He is looking on you and paying attention to you.  It’s just like the blind man on the side of the road.  What happened when he called out to the Lord for mercy?  The Lord stopped.  The Lord paid attention to him and looked on him.  It’s a beautiful thing.  And notice how the blind man addressed him, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  Jesus is not just a man after God’s own heart like David; He is the Father’s heart.  He is the enfleshment of God’s love and His desire to save you.  Jesus is the fulfillment of all the prophecies of the Messiah.  He is the promised Son who sits as King on the throne of David forever.

    What a strange thing it was for David to be made king, the youngest boy in the family.  The thought of him becoming king was so far-fetched that when it came time for this sacrificial meal, David wasn’t even there but was left to take care of tending the sheep.  But this shows the way of the Lord, doesn’t it, how he turns the world’s thinking upside down.  “The last shall be first, and the first last.”  The lowly and the outsider are exalted in the Lord’s presence.  

    In particular we should note that David was the 8th son of Jesse.  That number is particularly important in Scripture.  It is the number of the new creation.  It is one beyond the seven days of this creation.  There were eight people on the ark, in which God made a new beginning of the world.  It was on the eighth day that Hebrew boys were to be circumcised, a sign that they were being separated out from this fallen world as God’s own people.  And if you start counting at the beginning of Holy Week, Palm Sunday, our Lord Jesus was raised on the 8th day, making all things new in His bodily resurrection from the dead.  As the 8th son, David points you to Jesus who regenerates you and gives you a new beginning in the waters of your baptism.

    And speaking of that, it’s worth noting here what Samuel calls the new king: the Lord’s anointed.  In Hebrew the word for the Anointed One is the Messiah; in Greek it is the Christ.  Every faithful Israelite king–and especially David himself–they were little messiahs, little christs, pointing forward to the Messiah and Savior, Jesus our Lord.  As David was anointed here among his brothers and the Spirit rushed upon Him, so Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit in His baptism in the midst of sinners.  For He had come to make us His brothers by bearing our sin and taking it away to the cross.  As the baptized, you all have been Christened; you all are little christs whose Spirit has been poured out on you generously; you have been given power to do battle against sin and the devil and the world, and to overcome by faith.

    Almost immediately after his anointing, David would face Goliath in battle.  In the same way, immediately after Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit would drive Him into the wilderness to do battle with the devil, being tempted on our behalf.  This is who your Lord is, a Warrior King who is not in it for worldly glory but who is willing to wear the thorny crown and who isn’t afraid to get muddy and bloody to conquer your enemies.  Like David, He is a Shepherd King, who lays down His life for the sheep to rescue you from the predators.  He feeds you with good pasture and prepares a table before you right in the face of your defeated enemies.  Your sins are forgiven in Christ; death and the devil are crushed under His feet for you.  His fervent desire is for you to be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.

    The Lord looks on the heart.  Perhaps that scares you; for that means He knows every idolatrous love and sinful desire that you have.  But the Lord is slow to anger. He calls you to repent of those of things and turn back to Him.  For He is the One who creates in you a clean heart and renews a right spirit within you. Learn to see Jesus as the blind man saw Him, with the eyes of faith.  Let your ears have that 20/20 vision as you hear His words.  Don’t look upon Jesus according to the outward appearance of His lowliness, but according to His heart of mercy and compassion.  He is the incarnate love of the Father who is patient with you and is kind, who did not insist on His own way but walked the way of the cross.  He endures all things for you; He is the One who never fails you.

    So as we prepare to enter the Lenten season this week, let us ever walk with Jesus as the blind man did and glorify Him for opening our eyes to who He is as our Redeemer.  For those who follow Him by faith, who suffer and die with Him, will also rise with Him bodily and live with Him eternally.

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

2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Sexagesima

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

    One of the frustrating things a pastor sometimes has to deal with is when people are going through some trouble in their life, spiritual or mental or physical, and they decide then to just stay away from church and avoid pastoral care or the counsel of fellow Christians.  Perhaps it’s because they feel embarrassment or that they’re going to be judged.  Perhaps they think that God has let them down somehow.  But it’s profoundly sad, because it’s especially in those troubled times when we need the Lord’s help and the Lord’s saving gifts.  We tend to flee from God’s presence precisely when we should be running to Him.

    It’s helpful for us to remember that the church is exactly the place for people who don’t have it all together.  One of my favorite Martin Luther quotes is this one, “May a merciful God preserve me from a Christian Church in which everyone is a saint!  I want to be and remain in the little flock of the fainthearted, the feeble and the ailing, who feel and recognize the wretchedness of their sins, who sigh and cry to God incessantly for comfort and help, who believe in the forgiveness of sins.”

    To use the language of today’s Epistle, the church is the gathering of those who are weak in themselves and who find their strength in Christ and cling to Him and His words.  False prophets will preach that your strength comes from within.  They will say that you can achieve your best life now if you just follow the right mental practices and spiritual principles.  And of course there may be benefit from some of these things.  But the followers of Jesus are not called to a life of glory and self-fulfillment, but to deny themselves and take up His cross.  The way Jesus operates is not to avoid affliction and trouble but to go directly through it with you, to bear the cross fully for you as the only way to bring you real life and victory and resurrection.  To follow in the way of Christ is to believe, even against what you sometimes feel, that God is at work for your good precisely in weakness and suffering and struggle.

    In today’s Epistle the apostle Paul was dealing with the church in Corinth that was in danger of being led astray by success-and-glory preachers.  Responding to that threat, Paul says that even though he could boast of revelations and visions from the Lord, that would not be profitable or helpful.  Instead he says that he will rather boast in his weaknesses, “that the power of Christ may rest upon me,” so that the eyes of everyone may always be focused on Christ and Him crucified.

    Paul speaks of one affliction in particular.  To keep him from becoming proud and puffed up, he says “a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.”  Notice the language that he uses.  Even though this thorn in the flesh was a messenger of Satan, yet Paul speaks of this in the language of a gift; this thorn was given to him by the Lord.

    That notion can be a bit troubling to ponder, just as Job struggled to understand why God permitted his suffering.  But it should also bring us great comfort, too.  Even if we can’t understand why God permits our trouble or affliction, we can trust that there is a good God who is working through it, as it is written, “A father disciplines the son he loves.”  In this way even what the devil does to us ends up serving God’s purposes for His called and chosen people.  The affliction which Satan tries to tear us down with actually ends up drawing us closer to Christ and the life we have in Him that cannot be taken away.

    Now, what was this thorn in the flesh that Paul had?  Since it’s described as a messenger of Satan, some have thought of it as some sort of demonic spiritual attack.  That is possibly the case.  But I would suggest that since Paul speaks of his flesh, this is something he probably experienced as a bodily ailment.  He may have suffered from malaria or some other chronic disease.  We know for certain from the epistle to the Galatians that Paul had very poor eyesight that he suffered from.  But whatever it was, all of this is described as a messenger of Satan.

    In the same way, when you are suffering intense stresses or physical problems, it can feel like the devil is sending you a message, trying to slap you around and saying, “Oh, you really think that God cares about you, that He’s with you, that He forgives you?  Come on, look at you.  Why would He let this happen to you?  You should just give up on Him.”  When we’re suffering physically or emotionally, that’s the message the devil wants to drive home and lure you to believe.

    But notice what actually happens for God’s people in the end.  Paul says that this experience moved him to pray and to plead with the Lord.  So it is for us.  We may say our prayers of thanks when all is going well, but so often complacency sets in, and we forget about the Lord and stray away.  And so the Lord makes use of affliction to draw us back to Himself and into His life–not because He wants to do us harm, but because He wants to do us the greatest good.  He doesn’t want us to be lost.

    And then comes the even harder part about all of this: Paul says that he pleaded with the Lord three times that this thorn in the flesh might depart from him.  Three times the apostle begs for this affliction to be taken away.  You would think if anyone’s prayer would be answered positively, it would be someone like the Apostle Paul.  But our prayers are not answered based on our own merits and worthiness, but on the merits and worthiness of Christ, and the good and gracious will of our heavenly Father.  And in this case, that gracious will meant that the answer to Paul’s prayer was a gentle but firm “No.”  No, Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.  For my power is made perfect in weakness.”  The discipline of that thorn in the flesh would endure for his earthly lifetime.  It would be part of the way that Paul was brought to perfect fullness in Christ.

    And so it is also for us.  We may know in some sense that we need Jesus when we feel like we’re living a good life and things are going well for us.  But it’s when our sinfulness is driven home to us to the point that we’re terrified of losing our salvation, it’s when everything in life seems to be falling apart that we learn how desperately we need Jesus, and we cling to Him with all our heart and look to Him to rescue us and deliver us.  And to cling to Christ is to be truly strong.  For His is real strength that cannot be conquered or overcome.  When you finally learn to give up on your own wisdom and good choices and the good stuff you’ve acquired, when you realize that of yourself it’s all just dust in the wind, when you’re nothing, then Jesus is everything.  His strength is made perfect for you in weakness.

    Remember the apostle Paul, then, when it seems that God isn’t hearing your prayers, that He doesn’t care, or even worse, that He is against you.  Remember, that the good and gracious will of our heavenly Father sometimes answers “no” to your prayers.  You may not understand why, but like Paul you are given to say “Amen” to His will, trusting that His power truly is made perfect in your weakness.

    For after all, isn’t that the heart of what we believe about Christ Himself?  His strength was made perfect in His own weakness.  His greatest power was not exhibited when He calmed the stormy sea, though that was great and divine power.  The greatest force of His might was not shown when He cast out the legion of demons from the Gerasene man, though that was a wonderful example of how He came to rescue and deliver us.  Jesus’ ultimate strength was shown when He chose not to use His power in a glorious way, but when He utterly gave up His strength for you at Calvary, when He became completely weak with all of your sins and infirmities and sorrows, when He emptied Himself of His divine glory and power and was broken down completely, losing it all, even His very life.  Jesus’ greatest power was shown by using His strength for sacrifice, to redeem you, to win you back, to conquer your enemies, sin and death and the devil.  His perfect weakness was perfect strength, perfect power to save.  

    This, then, is the way of Christ for you.  Despairing of yourself in your own weakness, taking refuge in Christ the crucified, you share in His perfect strength and salvation.  As people baptized into Christ, you know what it means to find real life by losing your life for His sake.  In the foolishness of the Gospel message preached, that weak little seed scattered on the soil, the Lord saves you who believe, you who were created from the dirt.  His Word does not return to Him void.  The Word made flesh is planted right on your tongues under weak bread and wine, His true body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of all your sins, so that you may share in the power of His glorious resurrection on the Last Day.  In the strength of these things, we who belong to this insignificant little congregation declare with St. Paul, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

    “My grace is sufficient for you,” Jesus says.  In the end, this grace of your Lord Jesus is all that you need.  It suffices; it is more than enough.  For His grace saves you eternally; and it strengthens you to endure every trouble and affliction and cross that you must yet bear in this fallen earthly life.

    The hymn writer Paul Gerhardt said it this way:

    When life’s troubles rise to meet me,
   Though their weight
   May be great,
They will not defeat me.
God, my loving Savior, sends them;
   He who knows
   All my woes
Knows how best to end them.

    God gives me my days of gladness,
   And I will
   Trust Him still
When He sends me sadness.God is good; His love attends me
   Day by day,
   Come what may,
Guides me and defends me.

    From God’s joy can nothing sever,
   For I am 
   His dear lamb,
He, my Shepherd ever.
I am His because He gave me
   His own blood 
   For my good,
By His death to save me.
    (LSB 756:2-4)

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

(Image Credit: https://www.bible.com/bible/111/2CO.12.9.NIV) 

Matthew 20:1-16
Septuagesima

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

    Lent begins in 2 ½ weeks.  The Lenten season could be compared to Army boot camp, where we train in doing battle against the devil, the world, and our own fallen flesh.  But of course no smart person goes to boot camp without doing some pre-training to get in shape.  And so we have the pre-Lent season, the Gesima Sundays to get ourselves prepared and to do some basic training.  

    St. Paul picks up on this idea in today’s Epistle.  He says, “I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.”  In other words, this isn’t a pretend game.  It isn’t make-believe light saber fights with sticks, or a daydream about hitting the winning shot at the buzzer.  This is a spiritual war zone with live rounds being fired.  And so Paul goes on, “I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”  The disciplines of Lent are already in view.

    To get us in shape, the Gesima season focuses on three of the great solas of the Reformation: Grace Alone, Scripture Alone, and Faith Alone.  Getting those right forms the basis of how the battle is won.  

    This week’s Gospel parable focuses on grace alone and how God’s undeserved love and generosity can lead self-justifying sinners to grumble.  Jesus deliberately sets us up by telling a story that strikes us as patently unfair.  How can we not side with the workers in this story who feel cheated because they worked, in some cases, twelve times as long as other workers–including working at the hottest time of day–only to get paid the same wages?

    No labor union would endorse this parable.  Nobody who has ever been treated by a boss unequally compared to other co-workers is likely to be happy with the ending of this tale.  It sounds like some kind of propaganda designed to justify the unfair labor practices of wealthy business owners.  You might even say that this sounds like DEI, rewarding people based on something other than their merit and their work.  Ah, but that’s the point.  

    The workers who felt cheated “grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’”  We can resonate with that, and with the children of Israel in the Old Testament reading, unhappy with the leadership of Moses, who brought them out into the desert with no plan as to how they would drink water.  We too would likely be grumbling about his poor leadership skills.

    But when we grumble at what has or hasn’t been given to us, when we grumble because we desire what has been given to others, we are really grumbling at God Himself.  We are saying to Him: “You don’t know what You’re doing; You should be doing things My way.  You’re not a good God.”

    But the children of Israel in fact did get water to drink.  For God was with them and had not forsaken them, but was testing them.  By God’s gracious working, Moses brought water out of the rock.  We are told in the Epistle that “they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”  He allowed Himself to be struck with a spear on the cross so that the living water flowing from His side would wash away the sins even of grumblers.

    Jesus explains what the kingdom of heaven is like by reminding us that God is in charge; He determines what is fair, and He gives according to His will and His bountiful goodness.  All things belong to Him, and we have no claim on anything.  And really, if God is merciful to someone else, how does that affect us negatively anyway?–any more than if an employer were to give a needy coworker a special bonus just out of the kindness of his heart.  God owns everything.  Is He not allowed to do what He chooses with what belongs to Him?  Who are we to begrudge His generosity?

    It’s important to remember in this parable that nobody was treated unfairly.  No injustice was done.  The first workers got a fair day’s wage.  That was good and right.  It’s just that the others were the recipients of the landowner’s great generosity.  People might expect that Jesus’ message would be different, that He would side with the workers seeking equal pay for equal work.  However, it turns out that Jesus is like the landowner who has every right to do what He wants with His own things and to be generous to whomever He wants to be generous.

    You could try to make a political point out of this parable about socialism or capitalism or liberalism or conservatism.  But, of course, that would be missing the main point of this parable, which is not about politics or economics but about what the kingdom of heaven is like.  Jesus says that in God’s kingdom, “The last will be first, and the first last.”  He says that “fairness” according to the ways of the world is not how His kingdom operates.  In fact, it’s turned upside down.  Those who think God owes them something more than what He’s given are gravely mistaken.

    Here’s really the key spiritual point to take from the Gospel reading: the difference between the first laborers and the later laborers is that the first had a specific contract, a legal compact, with the landowner, whereas the last workers had nothing specific, just a promise that the landowner would give them whatever is right.  That’s a big difference.  Would you work for someone without knowing in advance what your wage was going to be?  You might.  It depends on who’s hiring you, right?.  Is the person greedy or generous?  Are they trustworthy or not?  Is it a stingy next door neighbor wanting to get their snow shoveled on the cheap, or is it grandma and grandpa looking for an excuse to give their grandchild a big gift?

    So you might say that the first laborers were operating under the Law, and the later laborers were operating under the Gospel.  The first laborers were relying on their own works, the last laborers were living by faith in the goodness of the landowner.  That’s why the last are first, because their confidence is not in themselves but in the Lord and what He does.  A literal translation of  what the landowner said is, “Is your eye evil because I am good?”  The Lord is good, and His mercy endures forever.  

    The truth is, we should thank God daily that He doesn’t judge us by what is fair; He doesn’t give us what we deserve by our works.  For we deserve death and hell.   We may rightly be considered good people in an earthly sense.  But how often have we been idle and lazy in doing good works?  Have some of our words or deeds perhaps even done damage to the vineyard of Christ’s church?  Scripture plainly says, “The wages of sin is death.”  However, because of the atoning work of Jesus, God shows mercy to us.  He is free to do good to us which we have not merited or deserved.  In the death of Jesus, justice (what is fair) and grace (what is undeserved) come together.  At Golgotha, the just punishment for sin is carried out.  Justice is done; Jesus pays the price.  And at the same time grace overflows.  Your sins are forgiven; you are treated as if you worked perfectly and tirelessly all day.  The merits of Jesus are credited to you.  “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

    He who is the first and the greatest humbled Himself to be the last of all on the holy cross.  He bore the burden and the heat of the day that brings us the generous reward of salvation.  Just consider the times mentioned in the Bible on Good Friday. Jesus was handed over to Pontius Pilate at dawn, crucified at the third hour of the day; darkness covered the land at the sixth hour, noon.  Our Lord died at the ninth hour as the perfect and complete sacrifice for our sin.  He was buried at the eleventh hour of the day just before sundown.  The work has all been done for you, simply for you to receive by faith.  Hear again those words from the cross, “It is finished.”

    One more point: Very often when we hear this parable of the laborers in the vineyard, those of us who have been lifelong Christians and lifelong Lutherans like to think of ourselves as having worked the whole day.  We didn’t come to faith later in life; we were baptized as infants and have been a part of the church right from the very beginning.  And that’s certainly an acceptable application of this parable–although it is also a warning.  Remember what happened to those hired at dawn!  Let us never grumble at the grace of God shown to those who repent of their sins and receive the denarius of salvation later in life!  

    But there’s another way to think about and apply this parable, too.  And that is that we ourselves are actually among the last workers hired.  Those who have really borne the burden and the heat of the day in the Church have come before us in history.  We’re not the ones who fought the early heresies and formed the Scriptural Creeds of the Church.  We’re not the ones who faced the power of emperors and the power of popes, risking death for our faith (though that day may soon be coming).  We’re not the ones who crossed oceans and sacrificed everything to be able to practice our faith and raise our children according to the truth.  We’re not the ones who preserved the liturgy and penned the great hymns of the Church.  Truly an astonishingly rich heritage has been handed down to us which we are privileged to carry on.  And here we are near the close of the age, at the end of the Day, eagerly waiting for the Last Day, relying on the goodness of the Master, mercifully called to work in the vineyard and to support and tend to the one, holy, Christian, apostolic Church.  Truly, it’s all a gift of God’s grace.

    Our Lord does what He chooses with what belongs to Him.  And that is true here again today, as Jesus freely chooses to give you His very body and blood, once offered up as the atoning sacrifice for all of your sins.  Here at the altar you all are paid the denarius of salvation, regardless of how long you’ve been in the vineyard.  For in truth we are all those last fortunate workers who just squeaked in, though we do not deserve it.

    The Lord is just and fair.  The Lord is gracious and generous.  The Lord is good and merciful.  Blessed is the one who trusts in Him.

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

(With thanks to the Rev. Larry Beane)