Luke 18:9-14
Trinity 11

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

    When you hear today’s Gospel reading, it’s easy to think that you and the Pharisee have really nothing in common.  For he seems to be sort of an exaggerated caricature as he prays in his own self-absorbed, self-righteous way, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men . . .”  And so it’s easy, therefore, to think that Jesus isn’t really addressing you with these words but somebody else.  After all, you’ve never been so brash as to pray like that before!

    But let’s be honest with ourselves.  We may know we’re not all perfect and righteous, but when it comes right down to it, we don’t think our flaws are all that serious, either.  Or if they are, well, we’ve got a good excuse for why things are the way they are for us.  It’s not really our fault.  We say, “Hey, I try my hardest to do what’s right, and when I mess up, God’s not going to send me to hell for that, is he?  I mean, come on, I go to church, I give offerings, I volunteer for things.  Compared to a lot of others in this society, I think I’m doing OK.  God, I thank you that I’m not like those transgender crazies and those criminals who openly flout the law and those weird people on reality TV and my neighbors who don’t take good care of their property and who have gotten themselves in way over their heads into debt.  God, I thank you that I’ve made much better choices in my life.”

    See, that’s where the real problem comes in.  We always want to make it about us.  In one sense there’s really nothing wrong with the Pharisee giving thanks to God for keeping him from becoming an adulterer or an extortioner–and that he had done some outwardly good things like giving tithes and offerings.  It is good to give thanks to God for restraining the sinful desires of your heart and mind and flesh, that God gives and enables you to do good works.  But the truth, of course, was that the Pharisee wasn’t really giving thanks to God at all.  He was the star of his own show, “God I thank You that I am not like other men . . .”  It all comes down to who you trust in.  “Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.”  Note how those two things go together–self-trust and despising others.  The Pharisee thought the difference between himself and the tax collector was his own righteous efforts and his superior spiritual living.  The Pharisee thought it all came from within him.  His faith was centered not in God but in himself.  

    If you don’t think that being righteous and right with God is a gift from Him out of His pure grace, if you think being right with God is about what you do or don’t do, then it’s always going to be a spiritual measurement game for you, religious score-keeping.  And then you won’t be able to stop looking down on those who aren’t scoring as well as you.  And if others are scoring better, well, then they’re probably pious snobs.  You may be able to hide your contempt most of the time.  But in your heart, you will see others simply as a point of comparison by which you usually come out a little superior.  When you don’t trust entirely in God’s undeserved love but insist on playing the merit game, then you won’t be truly free to love your neighbor either without conditions.  

    What the Pharisee needed to learn was that he and the tax collector actually had the exact same sinful nature.  They may have looked different outwardly, but they had the same root disease that only God could cure.  The tax collector’s symptoms were obvious; the Pharisee’s were a little harder to diagnose.  For he looked healthy.  His sin-sickness had been driven deep within by his zealous religion.  Jesus called the Pharisees whitewashed tombs–outwardly they looked clean, but inwardly they were full of death.

    We also should learn the lesson of the Pharisee.  If you come to church and can’t think of any real sin that you need to confess–no greed or gossiping or lust or envy or disrespect or gluttony or laziness or any breaking of the commandments–then by all means confess your sin of blind pride and self-righteousness.  We all have the same fallen human nature.  That, I believe, is the basis for the phrase, “There but for the grace of God go I.”  The difference between me standing the pulpit or lying in the gutter is only the grace of God.  The difference between you sitting in the pew or sitting behind bars is only the grace of God.  There is no reason for us to boast about anything, as the Epistle said.  Rather, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

    “By grace you have been saved.”  It has to be the grace of God, because by nature you were dead in your sins according to the Apostle Paul.  And the spiritually dead can only produce spiritually dead works, which is what the Pharisee and all his contemporary counterparts offer with their performances that draw more attention to themselves than to God.  That, by the way, is one of the  problems with so-called contemporary worship.  It’s all about the stagecraft and the performers (including the preachers) and the music that creates the right mood and the consumer-oriented focus on giving people what they want.  Though God’s name may be frequently used, beneath the surface it’s worship that is centered in man rather than God.

    No, the tax collector’s worship is the right kind of worship, that of humble reverence before the Lord.  The only attention the tax collector draws to himself is to his spiritual sickness, that he might be cured by the Great Physician.  His faith is not in himself but in the Lord’s grace and mercy.  He doesn’t presume that he has the right to draw near to God on his own merits.  He stands afar off with his face not even lifted up to the King of kings.  He beats his chest in sorrow as if to say, “What have I done?”  And his only prayer and plea is, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

    That may not be the kind of worship that draws crowds and makes you feel all tingly, but it is the kind of worship that Jesus seeks and that He praises here.  For Jesus says that it’s the tax collector who goes down to his house justified and right with God.  For the tax collector came before God with repentance and faith.  This wasn’t just a show to make himself look good.  This was very real.  He knew his sins were serious.  But he also clung to the belief that the Lord was a God of mercy who would not forsake even him, who would forgive him and raise him up.  

    That’s why he came to the temple.  This wasn’t a synagogue.  This was the temple, where the sacrifices were made that God appointed and where blood was shed to atone for sin.  When the tax collector prays “God be merciful to me . . .” the word he uses for mercy has to do with those sacrifices, all of which pointed forward to the coming sacrifice on Good Friday.  So as the tax collector offers this prayer, God is already answering it for him there in the animals being offered on the altar which the Lord attached His promise of mercy to.  The tax collector trusted in that promise, and he longed for the day when the Messiah would come and bring all of these things to their fulfillment.

    So let us also then learn the lesson of the tax collector and take our place with him.  Come before the Lord with humble reverence, with sincere repentance and faith.  For it is written, “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit.”  If you know the burden of your fallen nature, if you’ve made some poor choices in life or just don’t feel like you’re worth much, if this world at times wearies you to death, if you feel humiliated, then the Lord Jesus is for you.  Pray “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”  And He is, and He will be, and His mercy endures forever.  For He has made the sacrifice for you in the temple of His body on the altar of the cross.  There the Lamb of God was offered up once and for all.  Through His sacrifice your sin has been fully atoned for; you are released and forgiven.  You are freed from all the religious score-keeping and comparison games that divide you from your neighbor.  Just as the blood of Abel covered the ground, so the holy blood of Jesus covers you who are made of dust.  By it you are reconciled you to God, as it is written, “You who once were far off (as the tax collector stood far off) have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

    Now you are given to lift up your eyes and see heaven opened through Jesus.  It is opened because Jesus lived up to His own words here, Jesus humbled Himself even to the point of death on a cross.  He didn’t say to His Father, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men”–even though He very well could have said that.  Instead, He made Himself to be like other men–like us–and bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we, having died with Him to sin, might live for His righteousness.  And now God the Father has exalted the risen Jesus to the highest place and given Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.  And if Jesus is exalted, then so also are you who take refuge in Him.

    All of you are given the highest worth in Jesus.  For by His sacrificial love He sends you down to your houses justified and righteous today–not because of what you have done for God, but because of what He has done for you.  “It is by grace you have been saved through faith” in Christ, who is your righteousness.  This is “not of yourselves,” from within you, “it is the gift of God” from outside of you, “not of works, lest anyone should boast.”  You are God’s own workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God Himself prepared beforehand for you to walk in.  So walk in them, freely and gladly. For the Lord has turned you from a child of wrath to a child of grace.  He comforts you now with His words of mercy and feeds you His own true body and blood, like a holy medicine, to cure your sin-disease and to prepare your bodies for the resurrection to life everlasting on the Last Day.

    You are justified, right with God in Christ.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, that He may lift you up in due time.

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

(Artwork copyright Edward Riojas, Two Men Went Up to Pray)

Luke 19:41-48
Trinity 10

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

    The nation of Israel has been in the news frequently over the last year or two.  There was the attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians and the ensuing military response in Gaza; and then there was the bombing of Iranian nuclear sites followed by Iranian missiles being launched into Israel.  Thankfully, things have quieted considerably over the last months, and there is good reason to hope for peace and order going forward (which I am counting on for my Holy Land trip next April!).  But when we hear about things happening over there, many Christians may wonder how this connects to our faith and to the Bible.  Israel and the Jews are obviously central to the Biblical account of salvation.  But what should our attitude be toward what’s going on with Israel and the Middle East today?  

    There are some supposedly Christian preachers and authors who want to make a big deal out of current events.  They see current happenings in the Middle East as the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.  They view the nation of Israel as a key player in the end times.  They believe that before Christ can return, a whole series of geopolitical events must play themselves out, including the rebuilding of the temple.  But all who preach and believe such things are mistaken and in error.  For they are failing to see that all prophecy centers on Christ and is fulfilled in His life and death and resurrection.  All prophecy that is not centered in Christ and fulfilled in Him and His church is false prophecy.  This is especially true when it comes to the prophecies pertaining to Israel.  

    The people of Israel were indeed the chosen people of God.  They are descendants of Abraham, to whom God gave the promise that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him.  But that promise came to life in the birth of the Israelite Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.  Through Christ the blessing of the forgiveness of sins comes to all the nations.  All that God gave to Israel, from the tabernacle to the sacrifices to the Sabbath all pointed forward to a culmination in Jesus.  Even the prophecies pertaining to the land of Israel, that geographic territory, were all given so that there might be a particular place where the promises of God might come to pass in Christ.  What makes the holy land holy is not that the ground itself is sacred, but rather that God Himself walked that ground in the person of Jesus and there accomplished our salvation by His holy cross.

    And so today in this New Testament age, the true Israel is no longer a reference to a nation or a territory.  It is rather a reference to the church, to those who are the people of God in Christ throughout the world. Romans 9 says that not all who are Israelites according to the flesh are the true Israel, but rather “the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”  In other words, those who are believers in the promised Messiah are the true Jews, the real Israel.  Jesus is the whole people of Israel embodied in one man.  And so when we believe and are baptized into Him, we ourselves become Israelites, God’s chosen people, children of God in Him who is the Son of God.  

    So when we are praying the Psalms and refer to Israel, we are not referring to a nation–which has rejected Jesus as Messiah–but to the church, to the faithful of the Lord.  And when we refer to Jerusalem, as we will be doing in today’s closing hymn, we are referring not to a temporal, passing city, but the heavenly new Jerusalem, the eternal dwelling place of God’s redeemed believers.  

    So to get back to where we started, when it comes to events in Israel and the Middle East today, we have no theological stake in what the outcome is.  It doesn’t affect our Christian faith one way or the other.  Our country may have a strategic or political stake in the matter, but that’s an entirely different story.  The only thing the turmoil in Israel and the Middle East and throughout the world should remind us of as Christians is that in this world we will find no lasting peace.  That is to be found only in Christ.  Wars and rumors of wars, the persecution and killing of Christians in Muslim lands–all of that is meant to alert us to the fact that Christ will come again soon, and that we should be praying daily for His return to bring our salvation to its completion.

    In today’s Gospel, Jesus mourns what will become of Israel and of Jerusalem in particular.  The name Jerusalem literally means “city of peace.”  But when the Prince of Peace had come to her, she refused Him.  Like a rejected groom, He weeps for her and her fate.  Just forty years after this Gospel, Jesus’ prophetic words will be fulfilled.  Jerusalem will be attacked and laid siege by the Romans.  Thousands upon thousands will be killed in utterly horrific fashion.  Above all, the temple will be utterly destroyed and laid waste.  All that is left of the temple still today is one portion of an outer foundation wall, the wailing wall, which still calls to mind Jesus’ weeping.

    This was very clearly the judgment of God.  The Romans were His instrument in executing the sentence.  For Israel had spurned the Messiah.  They did not know the time of their visitation, when God Himself visited them and walked among them.  It was their day, and they missed it.  The things that made for their peace with God were hidden from their eyes by their own unbelief.  

    And it’s not as if they weren’t religious.  St. Paul says in the Epistle that they were passionate for God, but they tried to get right with Him on the basis of their own keeping of God’s Law.  They foolishly trusted in their own obedience rather than humbly and penitently relying on the grace of God revealed to them in Christ and receiving His righteousness as a free and undeserved gift.  And so they ended up rejecting the very one their Law prophesied.  All their religious passion was for nothing.  They wanted something flashier and more glorious than this lowly Jesus.  In fact it offended them to think that’s how God would visit them.  They stumbled at this stumbling stone of the Gospel, and so the stones of the temple and the city were demolished around them.  The weeping of God eventually becomes the judgment of God for those who will not repent.

    This is a clear and sobering call to repentance for you still today.  For the Jews had it all, everything they needed to recognize and receive the Messiah when He came.  Don’t we also?  In fact, we have even more!  Let us not, then, take these things for granted and stumble as they did.  What happened to Jerusalem in the 1st century is a miniature picture of what will happen to all the unbelieving world on judgment day.  Consider, then, how things stand with you.  Are you relying on the fact that you’re a good person to get you into heaven rather than on Christ alone?  Then your religion is like the false religion of the Jews, and you must repent.  Do you look for God primarily in mysterious signs or supernatural occurrences instead of in His humble but sure Word?  Is divine service something you can do without for weeks at a time?  Then you are like the Israelites who did not know the time of their visitation, and you must repent.  Are you one who wants to use religion as a way of gaining earthly blessings?  Then you are like those who bought and sold in the temple, and you must repent.

    Turn away from all that, and turn to Him whose heart still weeps out of love for His people.  Trust in Him who continues to cry out, “If you would know, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace!”  Christ is your Peace, who still visits you humbly–in water and words, bread and wine.  He is the One who brings reconciliation between you and God, the One who gives the peace that passes all understanding.  This is your day, right now, the day of your visitation, as it is written,  “Behold, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation.”  This is the moment in which Christ is coming to you in His Gospel sounding in your ears.  Believe in Him; trust in what He has done; seek His righteousness.

    For our Lord has cleansed the temple.  When Jesus drove out the moneychangers in righteous anger and purified the temple as a house of prayer, that was a sign of what He was about to do at Calvary.  For there on the cross Jesus Himself experienced the righteous anger of God against the world’s sin and drove it out in the temple of His body.  Jesus made Himself unclean in your place.  He took all of the greed and the self-righteousness and the callousness and every other sin and made it His own dirty mess.  And by His holy suffering and death He cast it out and away from you forever.  He buried it all permanently in the grave.

    Jesus had said of His body, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  Though the temple in Jerusalem remains destroyed, Jesus could not remain in the grave.  He is now bodily raised in everlasting glory and honor, the new and eternal dwelling place of God for you.  Jesus is your temple.  The risen body of Christ is full of holiness and righteousness and cleansing.  Baptized into Him, those things are all yours.  The Church is the body of Christ.  And therefore you are the temple of Christ’s Spirit, who dwells in you through your baptismal faith. You are safe from divine judgment.  For you are in Him who took the judgment for you.

    “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!”  Brothers and sisters in Christ, you who are the true Israel of God, this is your day; this is the time of your visitation.  Don’t miss out because you’re looking for the wrong thing,  or because you’ve got more important things to do.  Here are the things that make for your peace, the body and blood of Christ, offered up for you for the forgiveness of your sins, for your peace, for your rest, for your restoration to the Father.  God grant you all to be like that faithful remnant in the Gospel that was hanging on Jesus’ words, so that by His grace you may be brought to dwell eternally in the new Jerusalem.

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

Matthew 5:17-26
Trinity 6
Pastor Aaron A. Koch
Mt. Zion Lutheran Church
Greenfield, WI

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

    At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, we have passages like today’s Gospel, where Jesus teaches the full meaning of the Law.  True righteousness, a true keeping of the Law involves not only our outward behavior but also our inward thoughts and motivations and desires.  It’s not only a matter of the hands but also a matter of the mind and heart.  Anger=Murder, Lust=Adultery, Greed=Stealing, and so forth.  And this is a message that we need to hear.  For too often we think of ourselves better than we ought to because most of us haven’t robbed a bank or committed adultery or engaged in physical violence against our neighbor.  We feel self-satisfied and even a bit self-righteous about that; we’re good people.  Sure, we’re not perfect and we’ve made a mistake here or there.  But all in all, we’ve done well, definitely above average, we think.  And so we need Jesus’ teaching here to remind us that in fact there isn’t a single commandment that we haven’t broken.  We are all murderous, adulterous, lying, covetous thieves.  And that doesn’t even take into account the most important commandments, the first three that have to do with our relationship with God.  Jesus preaches this Law to us so that we might not become like the scribes and Pharisees, trusting in their own goodness and their own supposedly clean living.  We need the Law to drive us away from trusting in ourselves to trust in Christ Jesus alone.  The Law is good, but it cannot give us eternal life.  It’s an abuse of the Law to try to do that.  Only Jesus can save us and give us life.

    But there is another more subtle way we can abuse the Law, too, which perhaps is more common for us Lutherans.  We say to ourselves, “Well, since it’s just as much a sin before God if you do it inwardly or outwardly, then it really doesn’t matter if you go ahead and commit the sin with your body since you’ve already done it in your heart.”  We try to justify our behavior by saying that since everyone breaks the commandments in their sinful hearts, then it’s no worse to be guilty of engaging in the outward behavior.  All sins are the same, we say.  But that is wrong and false.  We abuse Jesus’ teaching here by trying to use it make our own outward sins seem not so bad.  

    Our Lord Jesus teaches us in Scripture that all sins are not equal or the same.  God’s Word teaches that there are different types and different degrees of sin.  What we have done in many cases is that we have taken the correct theological principle that all sins are equally damning, that all sins make us subject to judgment by God–which is true–and then we conclude that all sins therefore are the same and equal.  But that’s clearly not the case.

    For instance, 1 John 5 speaks of sins which lead to death and sins which do not lead to death, faith-destroying sins and those which do not destroy faith.  Sins of weakness are not as damaging to faith, though they still should be considered to be quite dangerous.  Deliberate sins are the worst, when we plan to sin, when we delight in sin, when we know exactly what we’re doing and don’t care.  Jesus Himself said to Pontius Pilate, “Those who delivered me over to you have the greater sin.”  So there are greater and lesser sins.  Or 1 Corinthians 6 speaks of how sexual sin is different because it’s a sin against one’s own body.  Greater damage is inflicted to yourself through such sin.

    It’s a selfish idea to think that since all sins are damnable, therefore there is no difference if you do it in your heart or if you do it externally.  But sinfully coveting your neighbor’s wealth is not as terrible as actually going and robbing someone of their life’s savings.  The consequences to your neighbor are vastly different, and the danger to your faith is different.  All sin is dangerous and damnable, but all sin is certainly not the same.  Our bodily behavior matters.  So we may not be able to stop a flash of anger or lust from arising within us from our sinful nature, but we can according to the new man stop ourselves from dwelling upon it, from scheming for revenge or engaging in sinful daydreams; and we most certainly can control ourselves from doing someone harm or from watching pornography and engaging in sexual immorality.  And thanks be to God that He is at work through the curbing influence of His Law, which restrains us from ruining our own lives and the lives of our loved ones and others.  Even here we see God’s mercy, that He keeps the effects of our sin in check, so that it doesn’t do all the earthly damage to us that it could.

    So let us, then, not abuse the Law in either of these ways–whether to try to justify ourselves because we’re so good, or to try to excuse our sin as not so bad.  Jesus said, “Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.”  St. Paul said in the Epistle, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” God’s forgiveness is not a  license to sin, it’s freedom from sin.  It’s the taking away of sin.  Why would we willingly want to embrace again the very things which once condemned us to hell?  Since the old Adam still hangs around our neck, tempting us to think lightly of sin, the Law is still in force in this fallen world.  Not one dot or iota will pass away from it till all is fulfilled at Christ’s return.  The commandments still apply to every single one of us, calling us to repent.

    And here’s where the good news kicks in.  Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Jesus came not to undo the Law but to bring it to fulfillment and completion in Himself.  He is our only hope and our only help.  For only in Jesus do we receive an inward righteousness before God, the righteousness of faith, where we despair of our own goodness and instead rely on Christ alone.  We prayed it in the Introit, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped.”  Only in Jesus is there deliverance from the judgment of the Law.  For only Jesus has kept the Law without fault or failing.  And all of this He did for you and in your place.  So Jesus isn’t only your example.  Rather, He keeps the Law completely and perfectly on your behalf.  Through faith in Him, His righteousness is counted as yours.

    It is written in Hebrews, “He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.”  Not only did Jesus not do the things that the commandments forbid, He also did do everything the commandments demand.  Not only did He not murder or steal or have impure thoughts, but He also perfectly loved His Father in heaven and His neighbor on earth, showing compassion, healing, doing good and teaching the truth to all.  Our Lord lived a holy life as our representative and our substitute, so that our unholy lives would be redeemed.

    And Jesus also fulfilled the Law by completing all of the old ceremonial requirements regarding the Sabbath and the sacrifices and all the rest.  Through His holy death and His rest in the tomb, Jesus Himself became your eternal Sabbath rest; and so He says, “Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  “I will release from the crushing weight of the Law; I give you the peace of being reconciled with God.”  And by His once-for-all, final sacrifice as the Lamb of God, Jesus cleansed you from your sin and purified you.  All the Old Testament Jewish rules and regulations found their goal in Jesus, who put that all to an end in His crucified body, that the Law might no longer condemn you.  You’ve been put right with God again.  That’s what Jesus was declaring on the cross when He said, “It is finished.”  It is accomplished, completed, perfected, fulfilled.  All has been done, as Romans 10 declares, “Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

    That’s how the words of Jesus which seemed to be impossible are now, in fact, true in Him:  “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”  By faith in Christ, your righteousness actually does exceed that of the Pharisees, for it has been given to you freely by God’s grace.  You have received the perfect righteousness of Jesus as your own.  The Father has declared it to be so.  He didn’t just demand that you straighten out your life, when you were baptized He gave you a whole new life, the life of Jesus that is full and complete and perfect and everlasting.  Through Christ you will enter the kingdom of heaven.  In fact you have already entered it by faith in Him who is the King of heaven and earth.  

    So whether you struggle with sins of weakness, or whether you have willfully sinned and rejected and turned away from God, you are not without hope.  Return to faith in Christ; return to the Lord, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.  Our Lord has brought you through the Red Sea of baptism, out of the house of bondage.  Your old selves were crucified with Christ, that you should no longer be slaves to sin.  Therefore, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  That’s what’s real.  For just as you have been united with Him in His death, you will surely also be united with Him in the resurrection of the body when He comes again.  To Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all worship, honor, glory, and praise, now and forever.  Amen.

(With thanks to David Petersen for some of the Law exposition above)

Matthew 16:13-19
St. Peter and St. Paul

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

    “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  That was the question Jesus asked the disciples in Caesarea Philippi.  Most people thought of him as an important figure, a great prophet like Elijah or Jeremiah, or perhaps even the beheaded John the Baptist risen from the dead.  

    It’s really quite noteworthy that the people made those particular connections to Jesus.  For each of those prophets was known for speaking strong words, even to people in powerful positions, proclaiming the wrath of God on the ungodly, calling Israel back to faithfulness.  Elijah announced a famine at the time of the wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel; He preached against the false religion of Baal and mocked their priests.  Jeremiah preached against kings and the corrupt use of the Lord’s house; he prophesied the fall of Jerusalem.  And John the Baptizer called the religious leaders a brood of vipers; he preached to everyone that they must repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

    So let this be a reminder to you not to embrace popular caricatures of Jesus.  His preaching was not just that everyone should be nice and fair.  It was deadly serious stuff dealing with saving souls from the very real judgement of God.  Jesus said His words would divide families (Matt. 10:34-36).  He called for real repentance and holy living and offered real mercy and grace (John 8:1-11).  Jesus’ preaching was manly and authoritative; it reminded the people of an Old Testament prophet. 
    
    Of course, there was much about Jesus that the people didn’t understand, just as it is to this day.  Most people also today think of Jesus still as an important figure; even non-Christian religions try to co-opt Jesus in some way and claim Him as their own–Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, you name it.  Almost everyone has nice things to say about Jesus.  But you’ll note that most see him as just a man–perhaps a great man and teacher, but still just a man.  Just as it was in Jesus’ day, the people’s understanding of Jesus falls short of the truth.  So yes, Jesus gives you wisdom for living in this world, but He is not merely your life coach guru helping you to be your best self.  Yes, Jesus speaks truth to power, but He is not merely there to promote your favorite political causes or wrap Himself in the American flag.  Yes, Jesus fulfills the Law, but He is not just a great moral teacher.  We need to be on guard against seeing Jesus merely in our own human terms.  He is fully human; but there’s so much more to who He is and what He taught and did.

    Jesus then turns the question to His disciples, “But who do you say that I am?”  That is the fundamental question of life, isn’t it, one that every single person will have to answer in the end.  “Who do you say that Jesus is?”  How would you answer that question?  If you’re ever talking with an unchurched friend or family member about the faith, this is a great question to discuss.  Because if you’re talking about Christ, then you’re talking about the heart and center of the Christian faith.  It’s best not to get bogged down in details about controversial questions right away.  Just keep the focus on Jesus, who He is, what He said and did.

    A good way to answer this question would be to quote the catechism, the meaning of the 2nd article of the Creed: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord.”  That’s who the real Jesus is–not just a great man, but also the great God in the flesh, who became man in order to become your Lord, the One who rescues you out of bondage to Satan and death and who brings you into His kingdom of light and life, so that you may serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

    That’s exactly the way Peter answers here with his great confession.  He says to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  The title, “Christ” means “the Anointed One.”  It’s the Greek version of the Hebrew word “Messiah.”  Prophets, priests, and especially kings were referred to as the Lord’s anointed, like king David of old.  So Peter here is referring to Jesus as the promised Messiah King–but not merely an earthly king.  For Jesus is also the Son of the Living God.  Jesus is King of all creation, who has come to redeem all creation in His holy flesh and blood.  He is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, who for us and for our salvation was made man.

    And please pay special attention to Peter’s words here, that Jesus is “the Son of the living God.”  Caesarea Philippi was a pagan area north of Galilee, full of all sorts of idols and false gods.  The pagan Caesar was honored in the city name, as was Herod Philip who rebuilt and enlarged it.  In particular, Caesarea Philippi was known for its worship of the God Pan, that flute-playing, goat-legged, horned god of the wild and of flocks you may have learned about.  When we were in Israel a few years ago, we went to this location, a nature area where you can still see the remnants of the old pagan idols like Pan and large altar areas in cave grottos and carved into the rocks.  So now picture the scene in today’s Gospel: in the presence of all these dead gods, which are nothing more than demonic illusions, Simon Peter says to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  Here in Jesus is the true God, the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Peter confesses here that every other god is nothing; worshiping them leads to death.

    That’s still how it is.  All the false gods that you are tempted to idolize–possessions, power, pleasure, the praise of people–giving your life to those things only leads to death.  For either they offer demonic illusions and false hopes, or the things that they give only last a short time.  What false gods offer is temporary; what the living God gives is eternal.  Remember what the psalm says: “Their idols... have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see; ears, but do not hear...  Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them” (Psalm 115).  That’s an important principle to keep in mind: You become like what you worship and give yourself to; you become like your G/god.  Worship dead idols, you die.  Attach your heart to the passing things and people of this world, you too will pass away eternally.  Worship the Living God, and you will have real life.  Receive His eternal gifts in Christ Jesus and you will share in the blessings of the new creation with Him forever.  You become like what you worship and devote yourself to.  Worship Jesus, and you will become like Him, sharing fully in His image, partaking of His divine life.

    In response to Peter’s confession of faith, Jesus calls him blessed, because this truth was revealed to him by the Father.  It was a divinely given insight.  And then Jesus goes on to say, “On this rock, I will build My church.”  Roman Catholics have tried to suggest that Jesus was referring to Peter himself, that the church would be built on him as the first pope, since the name Peter means “rock.”  But if you know anything about Peter, or any other fallen human being for that matter, building the church on that foundation would be building on sand.  No, of course, Jesus was referring to Peter’s rock-solid confession of faith in Him.  That’s what the church is built on, as it is written in 1 Corinthians 3, “No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  Built on that Rock, the church shall stand.  Christ is our cornerstone.  On Him alone we build, on the foundation of the words of His apostles and prophets in Holy Scripture.

    There’s one other thing to note from the Gospel about Caesarea Philippi, and that is the reference to the gates of hell.  At this place where the god Pan was worshiped there was a spring of water flowing out of a cave.  When the ancient people tried to see how deep the spring was, they found that they could not reach the bottom, no matter how long of a line that they let down into it.  This was a mysterious and fearful place for them.  They considered it to be a sort of gateway to the underworld, the place of Hades, the god of the dead.  And so when Jesus says that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the Church, that would really resonate here.  Even this deep, mysterious place, even Hades and every other demonic false god, indeed even the devil himself could not prevail against the church.  For the Lord Jesus conquered every dark, pagan power and crushed Satan’s head in His death on the cross.  Christ went to the place of the dead and broke down the gates of hell.  And He arose again bodily in triumph on the 3rd day, in victory over every enemy that stands against you.  The gates of Hades and the depths of death cannot swallow you up.  You are safe and secure in Christ’s Church where you have taken refuge in Him.

    Today is the day when we rejoice in the ministry of St. Peter and St. Paul.  Both of these men, in the confidence of Christ Jesus, engaged in battle against the gates of hell in their preaching and teaching.  Paul in particular would be the apostle to the pagan Gentiles, traveling through the territory of the Greek and Roman gods, indeed all the way to Rome itself preaching Christ the crucified.  Peter, too, would conclude his ministry in pagan Rome.  Both of these men faithfully led the church to confess that we are saved by faith in Christ alone apart from the works of the Law.  You heard how there were some who wanted to make the keeping of the Old Testament ceremonial Law necessary for salvation.  But when the church in Jerusalem heard from Paul and Barnabas how the Holy Spirit had been given also to the uncircumcised Gentiles, Peter confirmed the truth of the Gospel by saying that circumcision was not necessary.  For those ceremonial rules and food regulations and sacrifices had all been fulfilled by Christ.  It is through faith in Jesus alone that we are saved.

    This is the faith that Peter and Paul proclaimed and lived for.  This is the faith that Peter and Paul died for.  According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside down for his preaching, insisting on that since he didn’t feel worthy to die the same way that Jesus did.  And Paul was beheaded in Rome, likely under the persecution of Christians under Emperor Nero.  This is in keeping with what Jesus said to the disciples and to all of us right after Peter’s great confession of faith, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

    Let us all then take up the cross in our daily vocations, dying to ourselves in this world, that we may share in Jesus’ resurrection in the next.  For the Lord has purchased and saved your soul at the price of His holy, precious blood.  As God’s baptized sons and daughters, let us confess together with Peter and the whole Church the saving truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

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

Feast of the Holy Trinity
John 3:1-17

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

    There is a strong temptation in times like these to let news headlines determine what we talk about and meditate on, even here in church.  Much is unsettled and troubled in the world: conflict in the Middle East, disorder on the streets of our cities, budgetary issues both in our homes and our government.  These things can dominate and consume our attention and energy.  But in the church we focus our meditation and our attention first and foremost on God’s Word.  For the Word of the Lord endures forever.  Only the wisdom that it imparts can help us to see ourselves and our world rightly.  Apart from the Word there is only delusion and division and the lure of this or that political ideology.  But in the Word we find peace and truth.  For there we find Jesus, the One who is the Truth, who shares in the humanity of all people, who restores good order and unites us in Himself by the Gospel.  The answer to what ails us and the world is to be found only in Christ.

     So on this Holy Trinity Sunday, we begin by directing our attention to the nature of the only true God–the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  1 John 4 says that God is love–not just that He is loving in some sappy sense, but that He actually is love, within Himself.  He is the perfect union of persons in one divine essence.  And He is therefore by nature the God who gives of Himself in order to redeem us fallen human beings.  We heard it in today’s Gospel reading, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”  The God who is love demonstrated that love by giving His only Son to the death of the cross to save us and all who believe.

    There can be a temptation, though, to take that John 3:16 verse, which beautifully sums up the Gospel, and reduce it to a sort of trite meme or bumper sticker, as if Jesus just wants everyone to be nice, as if He were just some flower child hippie.  That’s not the Jesus of the Bible.  So let’s not forget the context in which this is spoken–Jesus is talking to Nicodemus.  Nicodemus doesn’t understand what Jesus means when He says, “you must be born again.”  And unfortunately, many don’t understand Jesus’ words still to this day.

    To a lot of folks, being born again means having a spiritual experience of God centering on inner emotions.  They say that being born again means making a religious choice, a decision to follow a certain way of life.  But if you think about it, none of that has anything to do with birth.

    When you were born the first time, you weren’t even aware of exactly what was happening. You didn’t make a choice to be born.  It wasn’t about your emotions, except maybe for the fact that you were fussing and crying.  When you were born in the flesh, you were helpless, dependent, not capable of making decisions at all.  Jesus uses that metaphor of fleshly birth to teach us about spiritual birth.  Just as your first birth was your parents’ doing, so your second birth is God’s doing.  Life and birth is not something you do, it’s something you receive.  Our life with God is entirely a gift from Him; we are dependent on Him for everything, as an infant is dependent on his parents.  That’s why Jesus said on another occasion, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Mark 10:15)

    This is what our Lord also is teaching Nicodemus here: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  As in the beginning when the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters to bring life to creation, so the Holy Spirit hovers over the baptismal waters to bring about new life and a new creation.  As a baby is given birth from the watery womb of his mother, so also a Christian–baby or adult–is given rebirth in the watery font of our mother, the Church.  Titus 3 says: “[God the Father] saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”  

    Jesus commanded the apostles to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Note that Jesus doesn’t say to baptize “in the names” of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but rather “in the name,” singular.  His Jewish listeners knew what He meant by saying “the name.” For that is what they called God, a Hebrew word, pronounced HaShem, that translates “The Name.” It was the name that they didn’t speak for fear of misusing it.  But we are given to speak it and confess it: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  One name, one God, three distinct Persons.  That’s the truth and the beautiful mystery of the Holy Trinity.

    We Christians are under a lot of pressure to back off from our Trinitarian Creeds, to compromise our belief that this is the one and only God, or to retreat from Jesus’ words that He is the only Way to the Father and eternal life.  We are encouraged instead to just pray to a generic “God.”  We are pressured to treat Jews and Muslims–and sometimes even Buddhists and Pagans–as people who pray to the same God as we do.  But all religions do not lead to the same God, just as all roads don’t lead to the same destination.  Unless we worship the Trinity, we are walking the wrong path.  If people deny that Jesus is God, they are praying to a false god.  If they are praying to a “life force in the universe,” they are praying to a false god.  If they deny the personhood of the Holy Spirit, they are praying to a false god.

    And let me add that this is not just ivory tower stuff.  This is very practical and relevant.  For only in the true God is there real life and actual love.  Only the Holy Trinity is the God of pure grace and mercy.  Every other religion tells you in some way that you have to earn your own way into divine favor by what you do.  Every other so-called god is a delusion and a lie that ultimately leads to the destruction of those who embrace it.  For the Scriptures say that when people worship false gods, they are actually worshiping demons (1 Cor. 10:20) posing as angels of light (2 Cor. 11:14).  Satan and the demons love religion and spirituality, as long as it draws you away from the Jesus of the Bible to some other false Christ and false belief.  The devil doesn’t necessarily try to get rid of Jesus, just to redefine Him and corrupt His words.  That’s why every religion tries to claim that Jesus is on their side and co-opt Him in one way or another.

    I’ve noticed a small example of this trending lately on social media under the theme, “Read the red words.”  The red words, of course, are the words of Jesus in the Bible in red print.  People will quote sayings of Jesus about loving your neighbor or feeding the hungry as a political statement regarding the current illegal immigration situation.  And we should undoubtedly pay attention to those words of Jesus.  But we dare not ignore all the other words in red calling people to repentance for their sins and to stop their pharisaical virtue signaling--those words tend not to get quoted so much.  But here’s the thing: what’s implied is that the rest of the words of the Bible in black are somehow less important or can be ignored.  However, if the Bible is the Word of God, and Jesus is God, all the words in black are His words, too, written by His chosen apostles, including the ones condemning lawlessness and calling people to honor the authorities as ones who bear the sword by divine authority.  

    If we really love our neighbor, we want them to know the truth, the full truth.  And the truth is this: we all must be born again–all of us.  Next time somebody says, “I was born this way,” you can say, “Yeah, I know.  We’re all natural born sinners.  That’s why Jesus said you must be born again.”  Our first birth inevitably leads to death.  We are born under the curse, turned in on ourselves.  We cannot escape from judgment by our own efforts and merits.  This is the reason that Christianity is not merely about getting your life together; it’s about getting a whole new life, the life of Christ.  You can’t fix or reform your way into heaven.  Your old Adam won’t allow it.  He’ll just try to use religion to his own perverse advantage.  No, according to Scripture your old Adam must be drowned and die through daily contrition and repentance, so that a new man may emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.  St. Paul put it this way in Galatians 2, “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live by Christ who lives in me.  And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

    Jesus gave Himself for you, lifted up on the cross like the bronze serpent of old, so that everyone who believes in Him would be rescued from the lethal venom of sin and have eternal life.  It is only through Jesus that we come to fully know the Holy Trinity.  Christ is the One who reveals the Father.  Christ is the One who sends the Holy Spirit.  He is the One who shares fully in our humanity so that we may share fully in His divine life.

    So let us remember and affirm this day what the Christian, Trinitarian faith is.  We believe in the Father who created us and the Son who redeemed us and the Holy Spirit who makes us holy.  We believe in the Father who loves even us sinners, in His one and only Son who redeemed us with His precious blood, and in the Holy Spirit who pours out that love upon us by water and the Word.  We believe in the Father who reaches out to us fallen creatures in mercy, whose Son takes on our nature and bears our judgment and saves us, whose Holy Spirit unites us as one holy, Christian, apostolic Church in the preaching of the Gospel and the holy supper.  It’s all from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit; and then back again in the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father.

    This is the catholic faith, with a small “c,” what the church in all times and places has taught, the Scriptural faith which binds us together as one people of God, whatever our background may be.  Whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16-17).

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

Numbers 21:4-9; 1 Timothy 2:1-6; John 16:23-33
Easter 6

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

    This past Wednesday I was driving on the highway, and I saw a billboard that had just three words filling the entire sign.  The billboard simply said, “You are enough.”  I imagine those who paid for that wanted to spread an encouraging mental health message in a world that often seems to beat us down.  “Don’t always compare yourself to others and seek external validation.  You are enough.”  And there is certainly some truth there.  As a creation of God, you most certainly have great value, no matter who you are.  Your value doesn’t come from pleasing other people and living up to their standards for looks or achievements before you’re worth something.  You don’t need to be fake.  Your individual humanity is precious.  

    But of course, there’s much more which that phrase is trying to communicate.  In our world the statement that “You are enough” means that you are good enough of yourself, that your intrinsic value comes from within.  The world says that you should believe in your own innate abilities and potential, that you should embrace your own desires and prioritize personal growth and self-care, even when affirming yourself means affirming something that is not God-pleasing.  Slogans like this can encourage you to look to your own inner strength, to your own spiritual power.  

    And that’s a problem.  Because the truth is, you and I are not enough–not of ourselves.  And when we feel that “not-enoughness,” we’re feeling the reality of our fallen condition, that things aren’t quite right with us.  We shouldn’t deny that; because if we do, then we deny our real need for being saved, our real need for Jesus. Sometimes when people look in the mirror and say to themselves, “You are enough,” what they’re really doing is trying to justify themselves, who they are and what they do (or don’t do).  And while that may work for a while and help you maintain a positive attitude, eventually it ends badly, especially as we stand before God.  For Romans 3 states that none of us is justified by who we are or by what we do.  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  You and I are not enough.  We need restoration.

    Beware, then, of looking within yourself for answers or for power or for some spiritual connection to the divine.  For whether that inward look leads to self-love or self-loathing, you’re still lost inside yourself.  And that sort of navel-gazing and self-focused life is not what you were created for.  

    What God created you for is to live outside of yourself–in Him by faith, and in your neighbor by love.  Our eyes are to be directed not inward, but outward and upward.  

    When the Israelites were in grave danger because of the fiery serpents, what was it that saved them?  Was it their own inner resources or intelligence or spirituality?  No, they finally acknowledged that they were inwardly full of sin against the Lord.  They looked outside of themselves to the Lord’s servant Moses for help.  And the solution the Lord provided was outside of them, too–the bronze serpent on the pole.  When the Israelites stopped focusing inward and downward on all their serpentine troubles and instead looked outward and upward to the Lord, when they trusted in the Lord’s external promise connected to that bronze serpent, they were healed and restored and safe.  

    So it is also for you.  The serpent wants you to focus on yourself–whether it’s on all your shortcomings and flaws and troubles in life, or whether it’s on all your wonderful qualities and good deeds and amazing achievements.  That’s the venom of sin that has been injected into your veins–what Luther called man curved in on himself.  Left in that condition, you will die.  But God does not leave you in that condition.  Instead, the Lord shares in your humanity and allows the serpent to sink its fangs into Him.  Having absorbed all the deadly venom into Himself, Jesus is lifted up for you on the cross.  He who knew no sin became sin for you, so that you would become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).  Jesus allowed Himself to be treated as if He were the evil one so that you would be treated as beloved children, holy and righteous in God’s sight.  For the risen Jesus has crushed the serpent’s head.  Though of yourself your efforts and merits are not enough, looking to Christ on the cross and trusting in His all-sufficient death and resurrection, you are saved and restored and made whole.  It is written in John 3, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”  In this Jesus alone you are justified.  Baptized into Him, you have the greatest worth.  Trusting in His promises, you receive His enoughness.

    That is why the Epistle points us to Jesus as the One we should look to as our Mediator before God.  Don’t try to come to God on your own–it won’t go well for you.  There is a saying in the legal profession that the one who represents himself in court has a fool for a lawyer.  How much more is that true when we stand before the Judge of all things!  Thankfully, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One.  He is our wise lawyer.  Since He Himself is both God and man, He is the One who is able to bring God and man back together and win for you a verdict of mercy.  You can’t win this yourself.  You need a Mediator.  Jesus is the only One for the job.  

    And this applies, then, also to prayer.  You don’t come to God on your own; you come in Jesus’ name.  Your prayers are offered through Jesus Christ our Lord.  That’s why it is appropriate to pray “Our Father” even when you’re alone.  It’s not just that you are always linked together with other Christians when you pray–which is a great thing to remember–you are connected with Christ Himself.  He is right by your side as you pray, bringing your prayers to the Father with a holy “our” so that they are heard and answered according to His good and gracious will.  Jesus is your Mediator in prayer.  He is the One who gives you access to the heavenly throne.  It’s His name and His credentials that get you in.

    Don’t ever take prayer for granted.  It is a key way God has given you to get outside of yourself.  When you are tempted to wallow in anxiety or self-pity or pride, prayer helps you to get the focus off of yourself and onto the One who is the source of every good gift and all that you need in both body and soul.  The very act of prayer reminds you that the place to look is not within but outside of yourself.  Things are not in your hands but in His hands.  To pray is to believe that for the sake of Christ, God is truly good and merciful.  It is to come to Him as dear children to a dear father.  It is to know that even when the answer to prayer isn’t what you expected or hoped for, in the end you will understand; Father knows best.  In the end He will come through for you in ways far beyond your expectations.  

    Note how Jesus doesn’t mince words here: in the world you will have tribulation.  Don’t be surprised by that as if it’s some strange thing.  Rather, let that tribulation accomplish its purpose of driving you away from self-focused trust.  Let it drive you to Him who suffered all tribulation for you to show you the way through it and out again in the resurrection of the body.  Receive His words when He says to you, “Take heart, I have overcome the world.”  Jesus is the Conqueror.  He is Lord over sin and death and the devil.  And in Jesus you also are more than conquerors.  Pray to Him, that your joy may be full.  Take refuge in Him, and all will be well in the end.  And until then, remember what He says, “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace.”  “You can endure with confidence and a restful heart.  My grace is sufficient for you; it is enough.  And in Me, you are enough.  Look to me for your validation and justification. You have a standing and a place in the household in My name.  Keep your eyes fixed on Me, the One who was lifted up for you.”

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

John 10:11-18, 27-30
Misericordias Domini
May 5, 2025
Aaron A. Koch
Preached at the Gottesdienst Conference
Redeemer Lutheran Church
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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

    The Lord Jesus says in the Gospel, “I know My sheep.”  Does that bring you comfort or discomfort, “I know My sheep”?  If you know yourself–if you’re honest about how easily greed or jealousy can well up within you, how often you have turned to your own way and to the same foolish sins, how quickly you can give in to fear or despair or grumbling–then Jesus’ words may not at first sound particularly comforting.  He knows all about you, all the things you’d be horrified for other people to find out, all the cringe-inducing memories.  “I know My sheep.”

    However, as unsettling as it might be, it is a very good thing that your Shepherd knows you completely.  For He is not like a political consultant doing opposition research on you so that He can broadcast your defects, or an intelligence operative who has inside information that he can use as leverage to make you do what he wants.  No, He is like the lifelong friend who knows all your foibles and tendencies and triggers, who stands with you even in the ugly times to lift you up from the pit, who calls you out to something better.

    The fact that Jesus knows you is precisely what saves you.  He’s not just talking here about having the facts on you.  It’s much more personal, knowing you in a way that takes you in and embraces you.  That’s why Jesus’ words are comforting good news–for what our Lord knows, He can heal.  What He grasps and takes hold of, He can subdue and redeem.  What He embraces and takes in, He can suffer to death and purify and renew in His own body.

    You do not have a Shepherd who knows you only intellectually, at arm’s length, while never actually feeling and enduring and bearing what you go through.  And the Lord doesn’t have mere information about your heartache and your stress and your depression and your fears, all the while keeping a safe distance.  Rather, in Jesus you have a Shepherd who commits Himself to you entirely in His incarnation–the Shepherd who is the Lamb–who shares in your flesh and blood, who receives your humanity into Himself, who understands and takes in everything you are.  In Jesus you have One who can sympathize with your weaknesses, who was tempted in all points just as you are.  And though He Himself is without sin, He endured your sin and experienced your suffering and underwent your judgment and your death to deliver you from it all on the cross.  It is precisely in knowing you that Jesus is your Good Shepherd.  It is in knowing you that He lays down His life.  The sins that mortify you moved the Good Shepherd to be mortified for you.  “The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”  

    Though the Lord truly knows you, He doesn’t draw back or turn away or run from you.  Instead He sticks with you as your truest Friend.  That is what makes Him the Good Shepherd, the Good Pastor.  He doesn’t flee when the wolf comes.  Instead when the predators close in–sin and death and the devil–He steps in between you and them.  He suffers the ravaging for you, dragging them all down to hell and destroying them, to protect you and save you as His own flock–"My sheep," Jesus says.  He lays down His life in order to take it up again, so that you may have life in Him and have it abundantly.  

    Those who are shepherds in the church of course have a pattern here.  Pastors also are given to know their sheep.  The hireling knows the job description but doesn’t truly know or care for the sheep.  They’re just a means to an end for him; and so he offers no real protection against the wolf.  Christ’s undershepherds, though, are called to know both their theology and their people, and to bring both of those things to bear as they minister to the sheep.  The faithful shepherd does not run from hardship, much less from the annoyances and the weaknesses of the sheep.  Rather, he is given to embrace the flock, and he steps in to guard them from wolfish false teaching.  He leads them with the living voice and the living words of the Chief Shepherd.

    For the Lord says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”  By the grace of God, the sheep recognize Jesus; they perk up and listen to Him and begin to follow in His steps, being dead to sins and living unto righteousness.  We are drawn to the sound of Jesus’ voice, aren’t we, His words of life and counsel and wisdom.  In the midst of all the other voices out there clamoring for your attention, enticing you to follow their version of spirituality, only the one-of-a-kind voice of the Good Shepherd rings true and beautiful in your ears, kalos.  There’s nothing else like it, is there–the absolving pronouncement of Jesus, “I forgive you all your sins,”  the preaching of our Lord’s goodness and mercy that pursues you and rescues you and heals you.  It is the voice of Him who does not flee when the going gets tough, who is not scared off by what He knows about you or by the predators who have abused you and made you feel polluted.  It is the sound of the One who still seeks you out and gathers you to Himself, who restores your soul and leads you in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

    That is how Jesus is known by His own.  You know Him by His voice, by His Word.  And embracing Him who is the Word, you are brought back into fellowship with the Father.  Note what Jesus says here, “As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.”  Do you hear that?  Jesus extends His perfect union with the Father to you.  He knows and embraces all that you are so that you might know and embrace all that He is and share fully in the fellowship of God’s love.  To put it simply, by this working of Christ’s Spirit, you have been drawn into the very life of God Himself, the Blessed Holy Trinity.  “I know My sheep, and am known by My own.”

    Let these words of Jesus, then, bring you comfort.  For in Scripture, the worst, most horrific thing you could hear from the Lord is “I do not know you.”  But in fact He does know you, precisely so that He might be merciful to you.  The Good Shepherd says to you, “I know you in your baptism, where I marked you with My cross and claimed you as My own.  And you know Me here at the altar, where you receive the overflowing richness of My grace in the eating and drinking of My true body and blood.  I laid down My life for you, and now I give out My life to you.  I have prepared the table before you right in the presence of your enemies–see how they lie conquered beneath My resurrected feet!  

    “So take heart.  I have called you by name.  You are mine.  I give you eternal life, and you shall never perish.  Neither shall anyone snatch you out of My hand.”

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