John 20:1-18
The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

    There is an element of the Easter account that we all know very well, but since it’s so familiar and obvious, we usually pass over it too quickly.  And that element is this: the first witnesses of the resurrection were women.  OK.  So what?  Doesn’t seem all that noteworthy.  But in the first century this really would have stood out.  For women were not considered to be reliable witnesses.  Jewish rabbis at the time explicitly said that the testimony of a woman, especially in a court of law, was not to be considered valid.  While this was not Jesus’ stance toward women, it was the thinking of the time.  So what can we learn from the fact that in every one of the four Gospels, it is the women who are the first witnesses of Easter?

    First of all, this helps to authenticate the resurrection of Jesus, that this is a real, historical event and not some legend.  After all, if you were going to make up and invent a story, the last thing you would do at that time would be to give women such a prominent role in your tale.  And, in fact, those who rejected and mocked Christianity in the first century often pointed this out about the Easter account, that it was based in part on the unreliable testimony of grieving women.  The idea of bodily resurrection was something the first century world already scoffed at, and this feature of the narrative just made it an even easier target for lampooning.  

    And yet the early Christian church didn’t adjust their story to make it more palatable to the world.  They didn’t take out the part about the women and jump right to the men, to Jesus’ later appearances to the disciples.  No they stood by the women.  They didn’t even photoshop Mary Magdalene out of the picture–the one who, if she wasn’t formerly a prostitute, certainly had a shady past.  And yet there she is, not just in the background but prominently featured, particularly in John’s account of Easter.  The early Christian community stood by the account we have in the Gospels from the very beginning.  They didn’t change how the story happened because this wasn’t a concocted story in the first place.  This is how it actually occurred, and no amount of rejection or persecution could make them deny this life-changing truth.  

    And there is another thing we can learn from the women being the first witnesses of the resurrection.  Their central role in this points to the fact that Jesus’ resurrection is the undoing of the fall of mankind.  You recall how in Genesis, it was Eve who was tempted by the devil in the Garden, and after she succumbed and ate, she passed some along to her husband with her and he ate.  Though both Adam and Eve were guilty, it was from the woman to the man that death came.  That was the path by which the curse traveled and the grave gained its power over us.  “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”  

    So now on Easter morning, our Lord Jesus does a wonderful “in your face” to our ancient enemy.  He mocks the devil whom He has defeated by purposely giving the good news first to the women to then give to the men.  Jesus reverses and destroys the devil’s work.  Just as the fall came through Eve to Adam–who failed to preach God’s Word in that moment–so now news of the raising up of mankind comes from Mary Magdalene to Peter and John and all the disciples who would preach the good news.  Here in this Garden, the announcement that the tomb is empty and that the curse of death is broken is carried by the women to these men, who would be ordained by Christ to be the preachers and apostles of the Easter Gospel–as it is with all men who serve as Christ’s voice in the pastoral office down to this day.  Here we are given to see that in the risen Jesus creation is redeemed from the fall and all things are restored and revitalized.

    In this true story of the resurrection, Jesus is shown to be the new Adam for us, the one in whom humanity has a new birth and a new beginning.  And we need this new life desperately, don’t we.  For our old life from the first Adam is riddled with death even from our youth.  It’s the hollowness that you still have even after you’ve taken in your fill of all this passing world has to offer. It’s the camaraderie you seek by going along with the crowd that turns out to be a sort of crowded isolation.  It’s the deterioration of your bodies and the brokenness of your relationships which happens often in spite of your best efforts.  There’s ultimately no avoiding the truth of your mortality.  In the end you are left right where Mary was: bent over, staring through tearful eyes into the gaping mouth of the grave.

    But note what Mary sees.  Not only is Jesus’ tomb empty, but she also sees two angels sitting where Jesus had been.  And these messengers of the Lord ask her, “Why are you weeping?”  “There’s no need for tears any more.  For the crucified One whom you seek has risen.  He who bore the curse of the world’s sin has redeemed you from the curse forever.  He who was held by the jaws of the grave has shattered those jaws and has destroyed death’s power over you.  He who did battle with the kingdom of darkness has crushed the devil’s head by His holy cross, setting you free from hellish bondage.  So don’t cry.  Jesus is alive for you as the triumphant Lord of all.”

    Mary then turns around and sees Jesus.  But she doesn’t yet know that it’s Him.  She mistakes Jesus for the gardener.  But of course, she really isn’t mistaken, is she.  Jesus is the Gardener.  For He is risen to restore you to Paradise.  This New Adam walks in the garden in the cool of the new day and comes to this daughter of Eve.  What He brings to her and to you is not judgment but justification, not sin but righteousness, not death but life.  Jesus totally and completely undoes the fall.  We heard it in the Epistle, “As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

    Jesus reveals who He is to Mary simply with one word.  The sheep know their Shepherd’s voice, and He calls them each by name. “Mary.”  In the joy of this sudden recognition, Mary cries out “Teacher!”  She goes to Jesus and falls before Him, clinging to His feet, the same feet she had once anointed with fragrant oil and with repentant tears.  The Teacher who had received her and had forgiven her sins was alive!  Now it is tears of joy that she cries.  

    But interestingly, Jesus tells her, “Do not cling to me.”  Why would He say that to her and ruin this moment?  Things are not the same now.  This is not just a going back to the good old days before the horrors of Good Friday.  Easter is not the undoing of the crucifixion, just a turning back of the clock.  In truth Easter is the victory of the crucifixion.  It’s the result and effect of what He accomplished on the cross.  The resurrection of our Lord shows that His death really did pay the wages of sin completely.  By the cross He swallowed up death and conquered the grave and redeemed the world and routed the devil.  Easter is simply the glorious revealing of that fact.  So Jesus is not snubbing Mary here; but He is indicating that things will never be the same again.  Everything has been changed.  

    Time now has been turned forward.  Jesus’ death and bodily resurrection have inaugurated the era of the new creation.  Easter means that we are looking forward to something much better than the Garden of Eden.  Through Christ, creation itself will be resurrected and freed from its bondage to decay and death.  On Tuesday the world will have its semi-pagan “Earth Day” celebration.  But we know that the real earth day is today.  For Easter means that the groaning of  creation under the curse has its end, and what was intended for this earth from the beginning will come to come to its awesome fulfillment in Jesus.

    The good news for you today is that you have your place in this because you are baptized into Christ, who is the source and spring of the new creation.  Jesus revealed Himself to you actually in the same way He did to Mary, by calling your name at the baptismal font.  By water and the Word He drew your name into the name of the Holy Trinity.  He united you with Himself and thereby made you a child of God.  That’s why Jesus says to Mary, “My Father and your Father, my God and your God.”  Do you see what that means?  Penitent believers are now family with Jesus.  All that Christ is and has He has made yours: release from sorrow, abounding forgiveness, indestructible life and joy.  In Christ you are restored to communion with God and with one another.  

    Finally I must note what a wonderful change of message occurs with Mary Magdalene in the Gospel.  She goes from a frantic “They have taken away the Lord!” to a joyous “I have seen the Lord!”  At first she had thought the soldiers who were guarding the tomb had moved Jesus’ body.  They would have absolutely no reason to do that, but it was the only way she could make sense of things.  She didn’t yet know that when Jesus rose, the soldiers became paralyzed with fear and then fled away.  That, too, is more evidence of the resurrection.  Both Jesus’ friends and enemies acknowledged that the tomb was empty.  Jesus’ cowardly disciples certainly couldn’t have stolen the body.  And if the body had been moved by the well-armed authorities, the location of His corpse immediately would have been pointed out by them when the disciples started preaching that Jesus was alive.  This whole Christianity thing would have gone absolutely nowhere.  But the authorities didn’t do that.  They couldn’t.  For there was no dead body any more.  

    No, Christ Jesus is indeed risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  There is more of Easter to come, more rising from the dead.  Our Lord has led the way through the grave, so that those who die in Him will also rise with Him when He comes again.  The Lord will swallow up death forever.  He will wipe away the tears from all faces.  You can be sure of it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.  

    Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Matthew 26 and 27
Palm/Passion Sunday

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

    If you pay close attention to the Passion narrative, the crucifixion of Jesus is something that no one seems to want.  You might think that the plotting, scheming religious leaders want the crucifixion.  But they don’t–at least not yet, not this week of the Passover.  The chief priests, the scribes, and the elders don’t want Jesus bloodied up with all the crowds around.  Their plan is for it to be later, when there are fewer people, lest there be an uproar, they say.

    The disciples, of course, don’t want the crucifixion.  Peter, earlier had actually rebuked Jesus for speaking about His death; now He tries to stop the crucifixion by drawing and striking with His sword at the time of confrontation and arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.  

    Jesus Himself prays: “O My Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”  I think this is one point where the hymn we just sang doesn’t get it quite right.  It says, “Yet cheerful He to suffering goes.”  His agony in the garden wouldn’t suggest cheerfulness.  He most assuredly was willing and determined and ready to do His Father’s will, but He was a real human being like you and me.  No one is cheerful about a torturous death.  Perhaps the point of the word cheerful is that it was Jesus’ joy and His glory to lay down His life for you to save you.

    Even Judas doesn’t seem to want this crucifixion, at least not in the end.  Whatever his dark motives were before–greed, envy, dissatisfaction with Jesus’ political agenda–now he confesses, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”

    And Pontius Pilate?  He doesn’t want the crucifixion.  He tries to reason his way out of this political jam.  He knows Jesus is innocent; but He doesn’t want to offend the Jewish leaders.  And He most certainly doesn’t want a big public incident with word getting back to Caesar, who was already just one step away from replacing him as governor.  So Pilate tries to come up with a diplomatic solution: offer the crowd a choice of who to release from custody, the somewhat popular Jesus, or the notorious criminal Barabbas.  And in the midst of all this, Pilate’s wife sends to her husband urging him not to have anything to do with Jesus–she doesn’t want the crucifixion either.  But Pilate’s plan doesn’t work; the religious leaders have their people there to influence the crowd in favor of Barabbas over Jesus.  Finally, Pilate attempts to wash his hands of the whole thing, publicly declaring Jesus to be not guilty: “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.”

    And the fact is that in many ways, you and I don’t want this crucifixion either!  We’d really rather not have to deal with the unpleasantness of it all.  We’d really rather not to have to admit that the reason He had to suffer and die was because of our damnable sinfulness, or that we have absolutely no power to save ourselves from that sin.  We’d really rather not hear that Christianity is about taking up the cross, denying ourselves, and following Jesus, putting our old Adam to death with Him in sacrificial love.  No, if we must talk Christianity, let’s talk Christmas, baby Jesus, meek and mild.  Let’s talk Epiphany, miracles and glory.  If we have to do Lent, then let’s talk about ourselves and what we’re giving up.  But then let’s move quickly on to Easter, to flowers and clothes and dinners and family. Yes, and let’s then get on to Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit, and let’s get on to summer vacation and sports and to everything else that’s so important in our lives.  But let’s not stop too long at crucifixion; it’s not very nice or positive.  Can’t we shorten up that Passion reading?  It is the crucifixion that no one seems to want.

    No one, that is, except God.  God does want this crucifixion.  And for that reason, the chief priests and scribes and religious leaders are drawn into having this crucifixion even when they don’t want it, right in the middle of the feast–right in the middle of the Passover and the sacrificing of the Passover lambs!  Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!  The disciples, too, are powerless to stop this crucifixion, and, seeing their powerlessness, simply give up and run away.  Pilate, despite his maneuvers, and despite his water, bowl and towel, has Jesus crucified and thus earns his place in the Creed: “And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.”  Jesus will not be stopped from accomplishing His mission.

    The bloody crucifixion of Jesus is, in truth, the heart of the whole Bible, the heart of the Gospels, which spend more time on this than anything else.  Any supposed interpretation of the Bible that doesn’t have the cross at its center is falsehood.  Jesus’ suffering and death is what the church is all about, it’s what your faith and life are all about.  It’s everything.  Sure, there is absolutely a bodily resurrection to come.  But Easter means nothing without the cross.  Easter is the revealing of the victory of the cross.  And so St. Paul says to the Corinthians, “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

    God wants this crucifixion.  And so the Father works even through the rebellious mob.  They end up being God’s voice declaring God’s will.  When Pilate brings Jesus and the notorious criminal Barabbas before the people and asks, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”  The crowd and God say, “Barabbas.”  When Pilate asks, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” through the crowd, God the Father says of His eternal Son, “Crucify Him.”  For this is the picture of salvation.  This is the Father’s plan from the beginning, that the sinless Son of God should die in the place of sinners to set them free.  Though this seems to be a great injustice that is taking place, in fact, it is the way God accomplishes His perfect justice, fully paying the penalty for the sins of all so that you might be just and righteous in His sight.

    The truth of the matter is that Barabbas is you.  You are the ones deserving judgment and the eternal death penalty.  But Jesus steps in and makes a blessed exchange, His life for yours.  The sinner goes free, forgiven; the Holy One gets counted as guilty and is condemned.  God chooses to pour out His anger and wrath not on you but on His own Son!  Jesus suffers your hell for you so that you gain heaven.  He takes your place in death so that you get to take His place in everlasting life.  Your sin is His.  His righteousness is yours.  That’s why God wants this crucifixion–so that He can spare and save you whom He loves.

    This is why God insists on offending your sensibilities with the cross and diverting you from your other supposedly more important pursuits in life.  Because He loves you.  Because even though this may not be exactly what you want, it is exactly what you need for your salvation.  This is what tears the curtain in two which separates you from God, so that you may enter His holy presence in peace.  This is what breaks open the tombs and gives you resurrection.  This is what defeats the devil’s power over you and crushes his head forever.  Never let anything sidetrack you from the cross.

    It is written, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”  Today, in His mercy, God brings the cross to you, so that all its benefits might be yours.  The same body and blood offered up for you is now given out to you for the forgiveness of sins.  Learn by God’s Word and Spirit to want Christ the crucified and the fruits of the cross.  Trust in this Gospel.  For He alone is your life and your salvation.

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

(With thanks to the Rev. James Dale Wilson)

Genesis 42 and 45
Midweek Lent 5

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    The dreams of Joseph have now come to pass.  Remember the brothers’ sheaves of grain all bowing down to his sheaf?  Now his brothers themselves bow before him, seeking grain for themselves and their hungry households.  But they don’t yet know that it’s him.  Joseph speaks roughly to them and doesn’t reveal who he is to them.  He hides himself.  

    Through this behavior of Joseph, God is at work to break the hardened hearts of his brothers.  For it is written, “Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior” (Isaiah 45:15).  In order that we might receive His saving mercy, He conceals it and at first appears to be our enemy.  As Joseph’s treatment of his brothers drove them to admit their sin, so the harsh words of the Law reveal our sin, so that we might repent and take refuge in the Gospel of Christ alone.  Only as the hidden God brings us to fully acknowledge our sin will we fully come to know Him as our Savior, the God of mercy.

    Joseph serves as the instrument of this God who kills in order to make alive (1 Sam. 2:6; Hosea 6:1-2).  The Law has yet more killing work to do with Joseph’s brothers before mercy and life are revealed to them.  Its judgment weighs even heavier as they discover the silver in their sacks.  They rightly see the Divine Hand in this, saying, “What has God done?” (v. 28).  The Law drives us into the very depths of hell, so that we despair of having any hope in ourselves, and in this way it prepares us for heaven to be opened in the Gospel, where we find our hope in Christ alone.  Joseph turned away from his brothers and wept when he heard their acknowledgment of guilt (v.21); he did not truly wish them harm.  So also God would have us to trust in His mercy even when we do not see His face and He appears to be harsh with us.  Truly He desires all to come to repentance and to be saved (2 Pet. 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:4).  

    Reuben recognizes that there must be a reckoning for sin (v.22).  For God is just.  But His justice is satisfied by His mercy in Christ, whose blood was shed for us so that we would be reckoned as righteous through faith in Him (Rom. 4:24).  In the end there will be freedom and reconciliation only when Benjamin comes.  For his name means literally “son of the right hand.”  When the ultimate Son of the Right Hand comes from the Father, namely Jesus, we will finally and fully be released from our sin and death.  At His second coming the hidden God will be revealed and all believers will be like Jesus in glory, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).

    When Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers, in many ways it foreshadows the resurrection appearances of Jesus. For just as Joseph had been unrecognized by his brothers, so Jesus walked with the Emmaus disciples on Easter without being recognized until the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:13ff). Likewise, when Joseph made known who he was, his brothers were dismayed at his presence (v. 3), even as the disciples feared at first when the risen Jesus came to them in the upper room (Luke 24:37).  

    However, both Joseph and Jesus bring a message of peace (Luke 24:36). Joseph was not interested in retribution but reconciliation and reunion with his family. And it is written of Jesus, “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 3:17). God sent Jesus before us to preserve the remnant of His Church, to provide for us from His storehouse of mercy and forgiveness. Though we could rightly be punished for our sins against Him, the Lord bears the punishment on our behalf and restores us to fellowship with the Father. God was at work even through and in spite of the envious scheming of men.

    And so the words of Joseph are fittingly spoken also to those who betrayed and arrested and condemned Jesus to the cross, “It was not you who sent me here, but God” (45:8). For Jesus had prayed to His Father, “Not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).  Even the wicked Jewish leaders and Pontius Pilate were accomplishing the will of God to save the world, though they did not know it.  Joseph fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, even as the father fell upon the prodigal son’s neck and kissed him. For our Lord has compassion on us and desires that we be fully restored to communion with Him.

    Joseph’s brothers were told to go back to their father, proclaiming that he is lord over all Egypt and telling him, “Come down to me. You shall be near me, and I will provide for you” (vv. 9-11). Still to this day, the brethren of the risen Jesus are given to preach something much greater: that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him (Matt. 28:19). To you who are weary and burdened under the curse He says, “Come to Me, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Draw near to Me, I will provide mercy and grace to help you in your time of need (Heb. 4:16).

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

Mark 10:32-45
Lent 5

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

    We human beings are generally unhappy when we don’t have what we want.  Our search for happiness, then, (we think) is to try to get what we want, to pursue our dreams and our heart’s desires.  But if we do get what we want, then it turns out that brings a whole new set of wants and needs that must be pursued.  And on and on it goes in a restless, never-ending cycle.  Even unbelievers can recognize that there is no real happiness in that.  The whole circle of wanting, grasping, getting, and wanting again is actually the reverse of the way in which happiness is found.

    The secret of happiness is to be found in God and His ways–the God who has nothing to get and everything to give.  God’s happiness is in giving away His gifts.  We should never forget that God didn’t create us to get something from us that He somehow needed.  God was already complete in Himself, in the perfect self-giving that exists between the persons of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  No, the reason God made us is so that His giving might grow and expand.  He created and designed us not to serve Him like household slaves but so that He would have creatures upon whom He could pour out His blessing.  We are designed to be recipients of His gifts.  That’s what makes Him happy.

    So also for us, real happiness comes from imitating God and sharing in His ways.  The Lord created and equipped us for the same sort of giving to one another, and so for the same sort of happiness.  We get a glimpse of this in the happiness we have in giving a birthday gift to a child or grandchild.  It’s often more fun, more rewarding, to be the giver than the recipient.  And we see this particularly in God’s creation of husband and wife and the one flesh intimacy of marriage; God designed the giving of spouses to each other, the shared life of mutual giving.  

    The action of giving is something that grows.  Proverbs 11 says, “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.”  It’s counterintuitive, but the more that is given, the more there is yet to give, and the greater the happiness.  Therefore, God ordained that children should come from the giving of husband and wife to each other. Marriage, family, and society place us in the middle of many opportunities for giving, and therefore, for happiness.  That is God’s design; that is God’s happiness that He wanted to share with us.  All He asked of His creatures was that they should receive His gifts from Him, allow themselves to be given to, and then find their happiness in the same way, in giving to others.

    But all of this was ruined by our fall into sin–our proud refusal to be given to by God and our selfish refusal to give to others.  We turned it all upside down.  Now we want to get from others what we want out of them, and to give to God, to push our spirituality and our good works up to Him as if He somehow needed those things from us, as if we thereby impressed Him and merited His favor.  When we twisted ourselves around like that–away from receiving God’s gifts, doing things our own way instead, and away from giving to getting from others, our happiness was destroyed.  No more is it the happy, quiet mind and contentment; no more is it the joy in the gifts and the giving; now it is the fretful, coveting, grumbling restlessness of wanting, grasping, getting, and wanting again.

    God could have said, “They don’t want my gifts?  They don’t want Me?  Fine,  I’ve had enough of them!”  But instead of simply drawing God’s wrath, our sin drew from God even more and greater giving–the sending of His own Son to save us from that wrath.  In today’s Gospel Jesus tells His disciples the sort of giving He’s going to be doing, the giving of His life at the hands of the very sinners He came to save.  Here is the ultimate expression of the nature of our giver God–not only that He becomes man, but that He lays down His life in our place to redeem us from our sin.

    But Jesus’ disciples don’t get it.  Their grasping, getting ways are still running the show.  James and John come up to Jesus and say, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.”  For the moment Jesus indulges their presumptuousness and says, “What do you want me to do for you?”  “Grant that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on your left, in Your glory.”  They figured Jesus was going places.  And they were going to ride His coattails. They aspired to be His top advisers and top power brokers when Jesus got to be in charge.  This may seem to us like an over-the-top request, but it’s the same with us when we are tempted to use religion and spirituality and faith as a means for self-advancement and self-fulfillment, when we go to church or pray primarily so that we can get some worldly blessing out of it.  Then it’s not so much about loving God but serving yourself, trying to get where you want to be.  

    Jesus was indeed going places.  But James and John didn’t grasp where it was that Jesus was going, even though He had just told them.  Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask.  Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”  Jesus there is referring to His suffering and cross.  He would drink the poisonous cup of judgment against the world’s sin.  He would be swept away in the cold flood of death.  There were two people who would be placed at Jesus’ right and Jesus’ left hand–namely, the two criminals who were crucified with Him.  They were the ones for whom those places had been prepared.

    James and John wanted to be with Jesus in His glory.  And it is Jesus’ glory to die for sinners in order to save them.  It is His glory to lay down His life that we may live.  It is His glory to be the God who is love, who gives Himself completely for us so that we might be drawn into His life.

    So if you want to share in Jesus’ glory, then, you must share in His death.  You must die to yourself and your desires.  Repent.  Return to your baptism into Jesus’ death.  Be emptied of your own merits and righteousness so that Christ may fill you with His righteousness and His life.  That’s what our Lord means when He says, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

    “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.”  After all, what can you truly give to Him who is the Creator and the source of all that is good?  Only your thanksgiving and praise.  Jesus came not to get something from you but to give something to you, to give His life as the ransom price for your soul.

    For you were kidnaped, captured by the devil and the power of the grave.  They demanded a price that neither you nor any other creature could pay for your release.  In time you would have been executed by your abductors and given over to eternal death.  But Christ has paid your ransom, not with gold or silver but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.  He offered His life for yours.  He set you free and then destroyed your kidnappers by the power of His resurrection.  All this He did purely by grace, as a gift, for you.

    So make sure you don’t get it backwards.  We receive from God and give to others.  You need not spend all your time trying to earn God’s favor; you are already His favor in Jesus.  The thing that truly pleases God is for you to trust in His goodness and to believe in His Son in whom He is well pleased.  The true worship of God that glorifies and pleases Him is faith, simply to receive His love and forgiveness and life and to praise and give thanks to Him for these unmerited gifts.  

    Jesus gave up His life for you at Calvary, and now He gives out His life to you in divine service.  It is as Jesus told James and John, “You will drink the cup I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized.”  For them, that meant they would suffer and be persecuted for being Jesus’ disciples–as it will be sometimes also for you.  But this also refers to the Sacraments.  You have been baptized in Christ’s baptism, cleansed by His death.  And He gives you to drink of His cup.  Because it was a cup of judgment for Jesus, it is now a cup of mercy for you, the cup of His own life-giving blood.  Jesus is still the One who comes not to be served but to serve, to give Himself to you in preaching and the supper for your good, your redemption.

    And here’s a final key point from today’s Gospel:  Jesus’ servanthood doesn’t stop here in church.  It continues through you out there in the world.  Just as God uses ordinary things to give His saving gifts–water, words, bread, wine–so also He uses ordinary Christians in your ordinary stations in life as a means by which He serves the world.  In that sense, you yourselves are God’s Sacraments to the world.  Christ is present in, with, and under you His people to show forth His love to the neighbor.

    And in that way your daily work becomes a sort of worship, the life of faith toward God and love toward others.  As your sinful nature is put to death in acts of service, the Lord works life and good for your neighbor, even as He worked the ultimate life and good by offering up His own flesh for our sins on the cross.  Through His Church, Jesus continues to be the Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve.

    It is better to give than to receive.  God knows that, and He wants you to find your happiness in knowing it too.

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

(With thanks to Dr. Normal Nagel)

Genesis 41:1-56
Midweek Lent 4

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    Dreams play an important role in the lives of both the Joseph of the Old Testament and the Joseph of the New Testament (Mt 1-2).  In fact there are three times for each of them when dreams are pivotal in how God accomplishes His good and gracious will.  These dreams are given by God for the deliverance of Israel and of the whole world through Jesus.

    In today’s reading Joseph is finally remembered by the cupbearer as one who can interpret dreams.  Finally Joseph will arise out of prison.  In order to come before Pharaoh, Joseph must be cleansed and clothed.  The same thing is true of us who by nature are in bondage to Satan and the grave.  In order to come before the Father in heaven we must be cleansed in the waters of baptism and clothed in Christ (Gal. 3:27).  Only then can we enter God’s presence.

    Joseph knows that it is only by the grace of God that he lives and stands before Pharaoh.  And so he takes no honor for himself but honors God alone as the One who will give the interpretation.  Joseph said, “The answer is not in me” (v. 16).  So also we know that the answers we seek and the source of our help is not in us.  We do not look within for wisdom or meaning or guidance; for there is nothing in us but sin and death, from which we cannot set ourselves free (Cf. Mt. 15:19).  It is only in what God reveals to us in His Word, the Holy Scriptures, that we find true wisdom and understanding and the life-giving help we need.  For there God reveals Himself fully to us in His Son (John 1:18).

    Skinny cows eat fat cows; blighted grain devours good grain.  Joseph’s interpretation of these dreams reveals that there will be abundance in Egypt followed by a famine that will completely wipe out any memory of the time of plenty.  Isn’t that how it always is in this fallen world?  Good times are followed and trampled over by bad; sorrow swallows up joy, causing it to fly away like a dream (Ps. 90:5).  But Jesus reverses this for His people.  First there is death, then there is life.  First there is the cross and affliction, then there is the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.  Therefore, as Joseph advised the storing up of grain, we are exhorted to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven (Mt. 6:20).  For these gifts of Christ are the only thing that can save us during the famine of death.  It may seem unnecessary to continually treasure up all these things and ponder them in our hearts when all is going well, but when the mortal east winds blow, only the saving words of Jesus will matter.  For He said, “heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Lk. 21:33).  
   
    It’s worth noting the time frame of Joseph’s imprisonment and release.  He was in captivity two entire years (41:1), and then in the third year, Joseph experiences the joy of being raised up and brought out of prison.  His patient endurance in suffering is vindicated, and He is honored and exalted in Pharaoh’s presence.  In this we see a picture of Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).  Though Jesus suffered innocently and unjustly, yet after two days, on the third day He was raised up in honor and glory.  In the same way that they called out before Joseph, “Bow the knee!” (v. 43) so God the Father has highly exalted Jesus, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow (Phil. 2:9-10).  All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Matt. 28:18).

    As we live in Christ day by day, we also are given to walk with patient endurance in the midst of suffering or persecution.  The Lord says to His churches in the book of Revelation, “I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake” (Rev. 2:3).  Jesus does not forget those who are baptized in His name, who trust in Him.  We see this in the names that are given to Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.  Jesus is with us as we take up the cross and follow Him, making us fruitful in our affliction–Ephraim (41:52; Gal. 5:22-23).  And He is working all things together for good for those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28), so that in the end we will forget our hardship–Manasseh (41:51).  “After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him” (Hos. 6:2).  Because you are in Christ, there’s never a reason for you to give up hope.

    Finally, seeing Joseph’s wisdom and discernment, Pharaoh recognizes that the Spirit of God is in him.  Joseph is given to store up and distribute grain not only to the Egyptians but to all the earth that comes to him in hunger.  In a much greater way, the Spirit of the Lord rests upon Jesus, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding (Is. 11:2).  He has been anointed to preach good news to the poor who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Lk. 4:18; Matt. 5:6), to satisfy them with the very Bread of Life.  Christ is our Joseph, freely pouring forth His forgiveness on all the nations who come to Him as beggars.  Regarding both Joseph and Jesus the people were told, “Whatever He says to you, do it” (Gen. 41:55, John 2:5).  God grant us all, then, to faithfully receive the life-giving grain of the Gospel.  And let us also serve as the instruments of Christ and bestow the treasures of His storehouses to a starving world.

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

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 ✠