Luke 11:14-28
Lent 3

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

    C.S. Lewis observed that when it comes to the Devil, there are two mistakes we can make.  One is thinking too much of him, and the other is not thinking enough about him.  Some people conceive of the devil almost as being equal with God, when in fact he is merely a fallen angel, very powerful and utterly evil to be sure, but a creature nonetheless.  People become terribly frightened of the devil and forget that his rebellion has been crushed under the heel of Jesus, who died and rose again in victory over him.  However, others don’t give the devil any thought at all.  They think of Satan as the stuff of fairy tales, at best a figure who is only symbolic of evil, but not a literal being.  They forget that the devil’s goal now is to lure people away from the safe refuge of Christ Jesus; and if Satan can do that by making people think of him as nothing real, just a Halloween caricature, all the better.

    But I would add that there’s a third mistake we can make which, in a way, combines these first two mistakes.  And it’s something even many Christians do.  We know as believers that there’s more going on than what the eye can see, that there is a spiritual realm beyond the simple grasp of our five senses.  But too often, instead of listening to God’s Word on this subject, we embrace all sorts of superstitious and ungodly beliefs.  And in particular what I’m talking about here are the popular notions about ghosts and spirits.  Whether it’s a belief that loved ones who have died are still present on earth and interacting with us in our lives, or whether it’s something more sinister and spooky, like spirits of the dead haunting buildings, far too many Christians are open to this false belief rather than hearing and holding to God’s Word.

    Here is what Scripture says: It is written in Ecclesiastes 12 that when someone dies, their spirit returns to God–plain and simple.  Hebrews 10 speaks of how it is given to man to die once and then the judgment of heaven or hell–certainly no reincarnation or inhabiting of other bodies or anything like that.  To the thief on the cross, Jesus said “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”  And on and on it goes.  Never in the Bible is there a period of time where the spirits of the dead are doing unfinished business on this earth before they can enter into the light or some other such nonsense.  Don’t let Hollywood movie fictions or TV shows about the supernatural and communicating with the dead and ghost hunting and good or evil spirits of the departed–don’t let such things lure you into foolishness.  It’s not true.  In fact, it’s occult.  Scripture speaks about attempts at communication and interaction with the dead as wicked and an abomination.  It’s in the same category as witchcraft and sorcery.  

    For in the end, while most of this is the stuff of hoaxes, if people really are having contact with a supernatural being, it’s not the spirits of the dearly departed, it’s demons that are at hand.  It can’t be human spirits we’re talking about according to Scripture.  It can only be angels or demons.  And angels almost always do their work unnoticed.  For it is their joy to glorify God and to draw you to Christ as they watch over you.  These mighty creatures that God created in the beginning (who never were and never will be human beings, btw)–these mighty creatures would never distract you or draw you away from Jesus and His Word.  But demons on the other hand, that’s all they want to do.  And if they can get you to dwell on this mysterious occurrence or that supposed haunting or some supposed appearance of a deceased spouse or relative, then that’s right up their alley, for then you’re being distracted from God and His words.  People think they’re being “spiritual” by doing this, when in fact they’re just engaging in another form of foolish unbelief.  That’s why I say that this sort of silly superstition combines both mistakes C.S. Lewis spoke of–people are giving too much attention to the occult at the same time that don’t even realize they’re doing so.  For the devil likes to come in disguise, even as an angel of light.

    Again, it is the goal of the devil and the demons to lure you away from the safe refuge of Christ to something else, anything else, to keep your attention there and away from the Savior.  And if Jesus is center stage, then they’ll try to pervert and distort who He is and what He has said.  That’s what happens in today’s Gospel reading.  Jesus casts out a demon, and what do the unbelievers say?  That somehow He did this good by using an evil power, the power of Beelzebub, another word for Satan.  This is the way of the wicked: to call good evil and to call evil good–we see that all the time in our culture, where the godly are presented as bigots and the ungodly are presented as the loving ones.  The devil is a liar, and like an obnoxious politician at a debate, he’ll do whatever he can to try to shout over the truth of Jesus and to keep you from trusting in Him.  Our Lord does not cast out demons by Beelzebub.  He is the Stronger Man who overcomes the satanic strong man with nothing but a finger, the finger of God, which is the power of His Holy Spirit.  
    
    Jesus is warning us here to be vigilant about our ancient enemy.  For once an unclean spirit (a demon) is cast out, if he gets the opportunity to return, he will do so–and it will be even worse the next time.  This is why the Church generally doesn’t baptize a child unless the parents are committed to teaching the child the catechism, the Word of God, and making sure the child is brought to divine service regularly.  For baptism is truly a form of exorcism.  Luther’s ancient baptismal rite begins this way: “Depart unclean spirit, and make room for the Holy Spirit.”  It is not enough to baptize someone, only to have their new faith starved and deprived of God’s Word.  Christians are to be continually on guard against the evil one by being devoted to the Word of God and prayer.

    Remember that, while outright demon-possession may be rare–though it is on the rise on our re-paganizing culture–typically the demons are more subtle, tempting us behind the scenes, working through our sinful flesh to drive a wedge between us and God, chipping away at the stone, gradually eating away at us until we are alienated from God and don’t even realize it or care.  The devil seeks to take away your faith in Christ not usually by an obvious frontal assault but by deceptively trying to undermine what you believe, by planting doubt, by turning your attention to other spiritualities and philosophies that appear to be good but are devoid of the Gospel of Christ the crucified.

    So how do we guard ourselves against such a crafty enemy who is more powerful than we are and that we can’t see?  The answer, very simply, is to take refuge in Christ.  For He is the Stronger Man who overcomes the strong man.  He is the One who not only won the victory for us in the wilderness, the Son of David slinging the smooth stone of the Word and felling the Goliath Satan.  He is also the One who outmaneuvered and outflanked the devil and utterly destroyed Him through the cross.  He turned the devil’s own weapons against him.  Jesus overcomes the crafty one with His own divine and holy craftiness, sneaking into the devil’s kingdom of death, allowing Himself to be crucified, and then nuking and laying waste to the devil’s power from the inside out, rising from the dead in glory on the third day.  

    Satan is defeated and undone and humiliated.  Christ is the Conqueror has rescued us from the realm of darkness and brought us into His own kingdom of mercy and love and goodness.  Our Lord has made our bodies the temple of His Holy Spirit in baptism.  He speaks His powerful, forgiving words into our ears.  He feeds us His holy, life-giving Flesh and Blood to sanctify our bodies and fortify and strengthen our spirits.  We come to this church week by week because we need to be strengthened against the crafts and assaults of the devil and to be equipped to resist them.

    There is only one way to be safe from evil: to be with Jesus, our fortress and our refuge.  Jesus says, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”  We gather with Jesus right here.  And like the mute person who was gagged by the demon, when Jesus casts out our demons, our tongues are loosed, and we give praise to God for his gifts.  We are given to tell the marveling multitudes just who it is who has delivered us.  And we can also raise our fists at the devil and give him the “finger of God” and curse him to hell in the name of the Lord Jesus.

    “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”  Your days of being imprisoned to Satan are over.  You have been released from your shackles and led out of the dark prison into the glorious light of Christ!

    And this blessing from God is for all of you who hear and believe and hold on to His Word.  Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.”  Holding on to Christ’s words, you are blessed and you are safe.  So if you are concerned or fearful about strange or unexplained experiences in your life, remember that all things are sanctified and made holy by the Word of God and prayer.  At the name of Jesus, the demons must flee.  Call upon His name, not only here in this place, but also in your homes.  Read the Word and pray out loud so that both the angels and the demons can hear.  God’s Word cleanses and blesses and makes holy.  God’s Word sets you apart as His own, and it sets apart your dwellings as the place where God dwells.  Don’t allow the things of demons into your homes, only the things of God.  It used to be a common practice to have house blessings of Christian homes, especially when someone was just moving into a house.  And on at least one occasion that I was involved with, when there were some unusual and frightening things happening in someone’s home, when the Word of God and prayer were brought to bless that house, those things stopped happening.  It is written that God has not given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power and love and self-control (2 Tim 1:7).

    And if you want to be close to departed loved ones, don’t try to do that in superstitious ways.  Meet them instead at the altar.  For if they died in the faith, they are with Christ, and Christ is here.  Here is where the communion of saints is.  Let the highest love and devotion of your heart always be fixed on Jesus.  For through Him, nothing can snatch you from the hand of God.  For on that hand of God are the fingers that cast out demons and that point you to the cross where your salvation was won.  You have been liberated from all your sins by the Lord Jesus Christ.  You are now free to walk in love as children of light.  Let your eyes ever be toward Christ, who plucks your feet out of the net, who conquers your enemy, and who will deliver you from all evil in the resurrection of the body.

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

Genesis 32:22-32; Matthew 15:21-28
Lent 2

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

    Last week we saw how the devil, who is your enemy, likes to parade about as if he is your friend.  He told Jesus, “Go ahead and feed Your desires; You can have glory and power if You just listen to Me and pay homage to Me.”  He said to Adam and Eve in the garden, “Go ahead and eat.  Your eyes will be opened; you will be like God.”  The devil is a false and traitorous friend if there ever was one.  Now this week, we learn that there is an opposite truth as well, namely, that when Jesus, your truest friend, deals with you, very often He will appear to be your enemy, to be One who seems not to care, who apparently ignores your prayers for help.  

    As a Christian you know that you can count on Jesus to keep His Word, to be faithful to you and stand by you and never forsake you.  But sometimes you know that only by faith and not by sight or experience.  Sometimes it’s like in today’s Old Testament and Gospel readings.  For in both of those readings, God acts as if He were the enemy.  He doesn’t appear to be the faithful friend, but an adversary, first of Jacob and then of the Canaanite woman.  Why would He act in that way?

    We must always remember that God deals with us in two different ways–through His Law and through His Gospel.  Those aren’t just theological words, those are the realities of how we experience God’s coming to us.  The Law brings judgment; the Gospel brings mercy.  With His Law, God holds a gun to our head, so to speak, so that our predicament as sinners before His holiness hits home with terrifying reality.  We haven’t really dealt with reality until we’re scared to death that God is going to be our worst enemy.  After all, He holds your life in His hands.  His Law undoes all of your defenses and lays you bare–no excuses, no escape, nothing to bargain with at all as you face an eternal death sentence.  There’s no playing games with such a God.

    But the Lord behaves this way toward us, humbling us, laying us low, not to harm us but to save us.  The Law ends up serving the Gospel.  God “kills” us in order that He might raise us from this cursed life to real life.  We need to know the terror of death before we can truly live.  And so God slays us sinners with the Law in order that He might recreate us holy in Christ with the Gospel.  Through His damning Law God clears out and creates a place for His mercy in our fallen hearts where there was no place before.  And this is what He wants–hearts stripped of all pretense and self-sufficiency, directed only toward Him, seeking and taking refuge in His mercy in Christ.  It is written in Hosea, “Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has injured us, but He will bind up our wounds.  After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up that we may live in His sight.”

    The analogy of a doctor is worth repeating here: Just imagine if you lived 1000 years ago, and you were transported through time to today to witness a surgery.  The surgeon would certainly look like a terrifying bad guy, cutting with His scalpel, wearing a mask, with blood on his hands.  Only through the words you hear telling you what he’s doing, only by believing those words could you see that the surgeon is actually the good guy.  In the same way, only by believing the words of God do you come to see that even when He appears to be doing you harm, He is still the good guy.  This faith is something that the Holy Spirit creates in you, giving you to believe that God’s true nature is one of love and mercy, and that his attitude toward you is favorable in Christ, even when everything that you feel and see seems to say otherwise.  This is what it means to walk by faith, not by sight.  We trust in His mercy that we often cannot see against His judgment that we often do see all too clearly.  We believe that His promises are greater than His threats.

    This is what we witness in today’s readings.  God comes to Jacob as a nameless stranger who fights and wrestles with him.  Jacob probably would’ve hoped for God to come to him in a more gentle manner.  For Jacob was already under a lot of stress.  He was about to meet his brother Esau, the one whom Jacob had tricked out of the inheritance and the family blessing some 14 years earlier.  This would be the first time they’ve seen each other since then.  Jacob didn’t know if Esau would receive him well or try to do harm to him and his family.  And in the midst of all this, God comes and wrestles with Jacob until the break of day.

    But He does so for Jacob’s good.  For despite appearances, He is making Himself accessible to Jacob here.  The Lord is with him to wrestle away his fears and to strengthen Jacob’s faith in the promises He had made to him.  So it is that Jacob clings to the Lord and will not let Him go until he receives a blessing from Him.  That’s faith, that’s what the Lord wants.  Though He seemed like an enemy, God was there as Jacob’s ally.  For He blessed him there.  Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, which means “struggles with God.”  For he struggled with God and men and prevailed.

    In the same way, there may be times in your life when you want God to come gently and softly, and instead you get the God who fights and wrestles with you.  But trust Him; He knows what He’s doing.  Rejoice that He’s there, that He’s with you.  He’s putting your sinful nature to death. Like Jacob, hold on to Him tightly.  Cling to His promises; wrestle with His Word.  Don’t let Him go until He gives you a blessing.  That’s what He wants.  That’s why He seeks you out and comes to you.  Be a true Israelite, struggling with God and prevailing by faith.  Believe that behind the awful judgment of the Law, the Lord is indeed good to you, and His mercy endures forever.

    That’s what the Canaanite woman in the Gospel believed.  Jesus certainly treated her as if He were her enemy.  According to the woke standards of today, Jesus acted like a racist!  This Gentile woman comes to Him believing that He can help.  Though she’s not from Israel, yet she believes that He is the Messiah, calling Him Son of David.  She prays to Him, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!  My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”

    But Jesus doesn’t even answer her.  He acts as if she is not even worth listening to, turns His back on her.  All she gets is silence.  It’s like when we pray to God, when our need is serious, but there seems to be no answer to our prayer.  That’s when the struggle and the wrestling begins.  That’s when the temptation arises in your hearts to think that God is loveless (at least toward you), that He doesn’t really care, that there’s no point in seeking His help.

    Jesus goes on emptying this Gentile woman of herself so that He might fill her up with His goodness and life.  He behaves as if He’s not for her, saying that He’s only for the Jews.  And then, even when she kneels before Him and begs for help, He seems to give her a mortal blow, calling her a little dog who shouldn’t get the children’s bread.  
    But this Canaanite woman shows herself to be a true Israelite.  Like Jacob of old, she won’t let Jesus go until she receives a blessing.  She clings to the Lord’s words, and she’s not going to let Him wriggle out of them.  Out of His very own words she forms a plea.  “Yes, you are right; I have no right to your mercy.  I am a dog.  Yet, if that is what I am, then give me what a dog gets; give me some table scraps, and that will be more than enough to see me through.”  And Jesus delights in being caught in His words and to give to the woman not just crumbs but the whole loaf, all that she desired.  She struggles with God and man in Christ and prevails.  And so she, too, is of Israel!  Jesus says to her, “O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be to you as you desire.”  Behind the enemy’s mask, Jesus now breaks through and is revealed to be her truest Friend.

    So it is with you, too.  God’s Law deals you a mortal, lethal blow.  “Lord, your judgement against me is that I am damned sinner.  Yes, Lord, it is true.  I deserve nothing good from you.  I have no right to your mercy.  Yet, if I am a sinner, give me what you have promised to sinners.  It is written, ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’  Grant me that salvation.  It is written, ‘The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.’  Grant me that forgiveness.  It is written, ‘I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.’  Lord, grant me that life.  I’m not letting go until you keep your promises to me.”  And Jesus is delighted to have you hold Him to His words.  That is what faith is, to cling to Christ and His words, even when everything else seems to be against you, even contrary to what you see.  For Christ gives you not just crumbs, but the whole loaf, His entire self, His true body and blood offered up for you on the cross, now given for you for the forgiveness of your sins.  No longer are you mere dogs, scrounging around for scraps.  You are children at the table of the Lord.

    And that is so because Jesus Himself was treated as if He were the unwanted street dog, whipped and rejected by men.  He too heard the silence of God in His ears when He prayed to the Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?”  No answer came back as He suffered our sins and our hell to death.  And yet He remained faithful, trusting in and holding on to His Father’s love, and He was vindicated in the end, rising from the grave triumphant on the third day, so that with the Canaanite woman, you too might share in His vindication and His victory.

    So remember, our God is in the business of death and resurrection.  He cuts you so that He may heal you.  He kills you so that He may make you alive through His Son.  Through tribulation He produces perseverance and character and hope which does not disappoint.  Trust Him with your death.  And trust Him with your life in Christ.

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

Psalm 51; 2 Samuel 12:13-14
Ash Wednesday

    The text for this evening’s sermon is Psalm 51 which we prayed a few minutes ago, and also these verses from 2 Samuel 12: David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”  And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”

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

    He was a man of great power and authority, highly respected by the people.  But He had used his position to have an affair with another man’s wife.  He committed adultery.  She became pregnant.  When nothing else seemed to resolve the situation, he plotted to have her husband killed–quite by accident, of course.  The plan worked.  He took her to be his wife.  This man was the ruler of Israel, King David.

    But this was not the end of the story for King David.  God sent a prophet to him named Nathan to confront him with his sin.  Nathan unmasked David’s scheming and deceptive iniquity, cutting him to the heart with words of divine anger and judgment.  David was laid bare as one who had sinned against God.

    What we have before us here in Psalm 51 is David’s penitential plea to God following Nathan’s visit.  These are David’s anguished words of confession.  As we now enter the penitential season of Lent, it is certainly appropriate that we pray and make these words our own and consider well their meaning for our lives.

    The Psalm begins with the only words a sinner can say who wants to be forgiven and delivered from God’s judgment:  Have mercy on me.  God isn’t obligated to forgive you just because you’ve asked.  That's not how it works, as if God is a vending machine, and you just pop in the coin of your confession, and out pops the forgiveness you want. There’s nothing you can do or say to climb your way out of this.  All you can do is appeal to His mercy and pray for His favor.  Your destiny is entirely up to Him.

    “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.”  You appeal to God’s mercy because you know better than anyone else how you’ve fallen short of God’s glory.  What may be hidden and secret from others is all too apparent to you.    Your sin is constantly visible to you, despite your best efforts to forget it or overcome it.

    David continues, “Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” On the surface of it, King David had transgressed primarily against Bathsheba and her husband.  Murder and adultery are certainly not private wrongs.  And yet David gets to the heart of the matter when he confesses that his sin was pre-eminently against the Lord.  He had ignored God and rejected God’s ways in doing this.  David had made himself to be his own god.  That was the core problem.

    So also, when you sin, it may be against yourself or others, but first and foremost it is against the Lord.  Every broken commandment is ultimately broken in rebellion against God.  When people act selfishly, God is being pushed out of His #1 spot.  When people abuse the Lord’s name, they’re abusing the Lord Himself.  When they fail to remember the Sabbath Day, they’re despising the Lord’s Word.  When they dishonor parents and other authorities, they’re dishonoring God who gave those people their authority.  When they harm their neighbors or fail to help them, they’re rejecting God’s gift of human life.  When they engage in wrongful sexual thoughts or behavior, they’re forsaking God’s gift of marriage.  When they take what belongs rightly to others, they are disregarding God as the Giver of all possessions.  When they gossip, they’re taking away the good name God has given a person.  When they envy and covet, they show dissatisfaction with what God has provided.  Against God and God only have you sinned.

    David explains why this is, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”  Right from the very moment you came into existence, this rebellion against God adhered to your being.  All of humanity has a nature that is stained with the fall.  It’s called original sin, a doctrine confirmed by the experience of every parent trying to raise a 2 year old.  No one is able by nature to have true reverence for God and true faith in God.  All are subject to His eternal wrath.

    What then are you to do?  The same as David did.  “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to Me with all your heart.”  For now is the time of God’s favor.  Now is the day of salvation.  “Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”  The Psalmist pleaded, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love.”  That is what keeps us from despair and gives us strength for repentance, the sure hope we have in God’s love which does not fail.  The Lord does not delight in executing wrath but in showing mercy to those who repent.

    David prayed, “According to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.”  The imagery here is of a book with a listing of all your sin being completely erased and wiped clean.  And such is exactly what God did for you in His only Son, our Lord Jesus.  Colossians 2 proclaims, “God forgave (you) all (your) sins, having canceled the written code . . . that was against (you); He took it away, nailing it to the cross.”  Jesus erased your name from the document sentencing you to eternal death and put His own name there instead.  On Calvary the sentence was fully meted out.  Your transgressions were wiped away.  For Jesus stood in your place.  Just as the infant son of David was the one who died and paid the price for David’s sins, so also Jesus, the Son of David died for your sins and paid the price for the sins of the whole world.

    Christ never broke any of the commandments, kept the Law from the heart, and yet He was counted as the Great Transgressor in His baptism and crucifixion so that the unholy world might be counted as righteous before God through faith.  To put it another way, the words of this Psalm were made to be the words of Jesus.  He cried out on your behalf, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love.  According to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.”  He who knew no sin spoke these anguished words of confession in your stead.  For your sake, no mercy was shown to Him on Good Friday, but we know from Easter morning that His cry was heard.  Through Jesus, then, your prayer to God for mercy is answered affirmatively, “Yes, you have My mercy and forgiveness.”

    This forgiveness is cleansing, like a filthy garment being purified.  “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.”  In Old Testament times, when a leper was to be pronounced clean, a hyssop plant was dipped in sacrificial blood and sprinkled on the leper seven times.  Then he was clean.  So you too have been made clean from a leprosy of the soul by the blood of Christ sprinkled on you.  I John 1 proclaims, “The blood of Jesus, (God’s) Son, cleanses us from all sin.”  God’s mercy in Christ is like a renewing shower, a baptismal washing that rinses away the dirt of sin and makes you pure in His sight.  God says through His prophet Isaiah, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.  Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

    David prayed, “Create in me a pure heart, O God.”  His prayer was answered when Nathan announced to him, “The Lord has taken away your sin.”  The prophet’s words accomplished what they said.  So also God creates in you a pure heart by the living words of Christ spoken in the absolution, “I forgive you all your sins.”  God’s Spirit creates in you and gives to you a new heart, the heart of Christ.  For His body and blood are truly fed into you with all of their renewing power.  A heart in which Christ dwells by faith is pure.  He lives in you and through you with a willing spirit of service and love towards others.  His gracious presence restores to you the joy of your salvation.

    Brothers and sisters of Christ, return to the Lord with all your heart this Lenten season.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.  Take comfort in knowing that the sacrifice God is looking for is a broken spirit.  As Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  God will not despise a broken and penitent heart.

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

Luke 18:31-43
Quinquagesima

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

The disciples in today’s Gospel don’t seem to be particularly bright, do they.  Jesus takes them aside and gives them a heads-up, spelling out for them exactly what’s about to happen:  They are going up to Jerusalem, where Jesus will be mocked and insulted and spit upon and scourged and killed.  And the third day He will rise again.  It couldn’t be laid out any more clearly than that.  But the disciples just don’t have the ability to understand it.  It doesn’t fit in with their way of thinking about Jesus, and so it goes right over their heads; they clearly don’t get it.

But don’t look down on the disciples.  Rather, be warned.  For if it could happen to them when they were right there in the visible presence of Jesus, it can also happen to us.  We shouldn’t look at them and say “How foolish!”  We should rather look at ourselves with some godly fear and humility and ask, “What is it that I don’t get?  What is it about Jesus or about myself that I’m blind to?”  Think about how it sometimes is in your earthly relationships, with a friend or spouse or family member.  You’ve probably had the experience of having a blind spot–something about yourself or something you were doing that you failed to recognize which ended up becoming a big issue.  Isn’t it possible for that to be the case also in your relationship with God?  The fact of the matter is that in our fallen condition, we are all spiritually blind.  Our vision is clouded and darkened to the truth, even though it might be sitting there right in front of us.  

First, without the clear mirror of God’s Law, we don’t see our own sin rightly.  We know we have a few flaws and problems, but we’re blind to how utterly deep the corruption goes in us, and how it taints everything about us.  We can see it a little better in others, all the issues that everyone else has whom we live and work with.  But the justifications and excuses we make for ourselves inevitably obscure our vision and block a clear self-diagnosis.  

And perhaps even worse, apart from the clear proclamation of the Gospel, we don’t see Jesus rightly.  He gets turned into some other figure whom we can fit into our agendas–the Messiah who’s on our side in political causes, the guru who helps us to cope and live a happier lifestyle, the guide who provides the example for how we can make ourselves righteous, the coach who helps us to get where we want to be.  You can tell you have a false Jesus, though, when He’s only a means to an end.  In the Bible, Jesus is the end–He’s the goal; He’s everything that we’re seeking.  He is Himself the Truth and the Life.  He’s not merely our guide to lead us somewhere greater.  For there is nowhere greater than fellowship with God in Christ.

So as we ponder today’s Gospel, let us remember what we confess in the Catechism about the 3rd article of the Creed, “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him.  But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts (“enlightened” means that He’s given light to our eyes so that we can rightly see), sanctified and kept me in the truth faith.”  If we do have proper vision about ourselves and about Jesus, it’s entirely a gift of God’s grace by His Word and Spirit.  Remember this, too, as you talk about the faith with others, particularly if they seem to be a little bit unclear and unable to understand what you’re saying.  Have patience; for only the Holy Spirit can open their eyes.

In today’s Gospel, the one with the best vision, who sees Jesus rightly, is the blind man.  Maybe that’s because all that he has to go by is His ears.  It’s the Word that he heard about Jesus that is the key thing for him.  And faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ.  Let us learn to be like this beggar–empty-handed before God, with nothing to give Him that He should accept us, desiring the vision that only He can impart.

The blind man heard a great crowd passing by and asked what it all meant.  When they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was with them, the blind man cried out and shouted with a loud voice, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  This shows that the blind man already had faith in Jesus.  “Son of David” is a title for the Messiah.  This blind man believed the Word that he had heard about Jesus.  Even without earthly sight, the blind man could see Jesus was the Promised One.  He believed that Jesus could heal him; even more, he believed that Jesus was the Christ, who had come to redeem His people.  

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  This is our prayer, too, throughout the liturgy.  Kyrie eleison, Lord, have mercy.  It is the prayer of beggars looking for help and gifts as the King comes near.  “O Christ the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.”  This is not just a prayer for when you’re in church but for every day.  When you see someone in trouble or acting foolishly, you can pray for them simply by saying, “Lord, have mercy.”  When you yourself are in trouble or need, when you’re about to go into surgery, when a relationship is on the rocks or you don’t know how you’re going to pay the bills, you can pray, “Lord, have mercy on me.”  And even when everything’s going great for you, you’re healthy and prosperous, after your prayers of thanksgiving, it is still good to pray “Lord, have mercy on me” lest you fall into complacency and spiritual laziness or pride and self-congratulation.  Let this prayer be a regular part of the conversation of your heart, so that in the hour of death you may confidently say, “Lord, have mercy,” and know that He will.  His mercy is everything for you.

Now the crowds here don’t much like this prayer of the blind man.  They warn him that he should shut up.  It’s impolite.  He’s being annoying, crying out that way.  It’s like those people who think it’s fine that you’re a Christian, as long as you keep it a purely private matter.  “I don’t care what you believe, as long as it doesn’t bother me.”  But when the exercise of your faith goes against the flow of their desires and plans, or when the confession of your faith becomes a nuisance to them, that’s when people start telling you to shut up and pipe down and don’t carry things so far.

However, faith is stubborn and persistent.  Faith won’t let anything get in the way of life in Jesus or prayer to Him.  Faith doesn’t care what people think or what they will say, because it seeks a gift infinitely greater than worldly approval.  Faith is not ashamed and will not be silenced.  And so the blind man cries out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

And notice this wonderful statement in the Gospel.  When the blind man speaks these words, it is written that “Jesus stood still.”  It’s like when you’re doing something, and then people having a conversation nearby say your name.  Suddenly, you tune in to what they’re saying.  In the same way, this prayer of the blind man turns Jesus around and draws His undivided attention.  It stops Him in His tracks.  Isn’t that marvelous!?  Jesus stood still.  He doesn’t mind that proper decorum has been breached.  At the sound of this prayer, Jesus commands that the blind man be brought to Him. 
And He asks him, “What do you want Me to do for you?”  Now why would He ask that?  God knows what you need even before you ask Him.  In fact, He knows your needs better than you do.  But He asks anyway in order that the blind man may exercise his faith with a specific prayer.  Jesus wants to hear from you in your own voice what is on your mind and heart. He wants you to verbalize your desires, like a little child learning to speak to his father and use his words to ask for help.  In verbalizing your prayers, they become concrete and focused.  Prayer is one of the primary ways in which you exercise your faith, that you may learn to look to the Lord for all that you need and see that every good gift comes from His hand.

In response to Jesus’ question, the blind man answers, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.”  Jesus says to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.”  And immediately he can see.  The blind man’s eyes are opened, and what is the first sight that he sees?  The face of His Savior.  “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  The blind man’s heart is pure, for it trusts in Jesus who alone is pure.  Through this faith he is made well; he sees God.

Now this doesn’t mean that if God doesn’t give you 20/20 vision when you ask for it, then you don’t have enough faith.  It’s best not to focus on your believing, but on the One you’re believing in.  Faith in Jesus receives everything as a gift, not as a demand that He has to fulfill.  Sometimes God says “no” to what we ask for because he wants to teach us patience or make room for greater gifts.  Sometimes He knows that what we are asking for will harm us and endanger our salvation.  We can’t know the mind of God ahead of time.  So we pray trusting that Jesus will hear our prayers and do what is truly best for us.

Like all of Jesus’ miracles, this healing wasn’t just talk or an easy wave of the hands.  It cost Him his life on the cross. There Jesus won healing and restoration for you, too, by bearing your physical ailments and infirmities, your sin and pain and sorrow, suffering them all to death in His holy body.  And He shares that miracle with all who cry out to Him in beggar faith.  Jesus hung on a cross in the darkness, blinded by death, in order to bring healing and the light of His resurrection to the world.

Know, then, that the Lord hears your prayers, even when they seem to go unanswered.  Ultimately they have all been answered “yes” in Jesus’ dying and rising.  For now we walk by faith in that truth; but on the Last Day our faith will turn to sight, just like the man in the Gospel.  For on the Last Day every disorder in you will done away with–from failing vision to poor hearing, from arthritis to anxiety and depression, from heart disease to cancer; sin and death will be eradicated completely, and the Great Physician will raise you bodily to share in His own glory and life.  

When the blind man received his sight, he followed Jesus on the road to Jerusalem and the cross.  As we prepare to enter Lent, then, let us follow Jesus, too, and walk with Him on the way of love’s sacrifice.  And let us also remember what happened afterwards on that first Easter evening.  The Emmaus disciples walked the road with Jesus and talked with Him without recognizing Him, blind to who He was.  But when Jesus broke bread with them, then He was no longer hidden to their eyes.  So it is also now.  Here your eyes are opened, and Jesus is made known to you in the breaking of the bread.  His body and blood are given and shed for you.  His forgiveness covers your past and your former blindness.  When the final Easter comes, you will hear Him say to you, “Your faith has saved you; receive your sight.”  And then you, too, will behold the face of God.

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

Luke 8:4-15

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

There’s a reason why Jesus told the parable in today’s Gospel.  He didn’t just randomly decide to tell a story about a sower and a seed.  Something was happening, and the disciples needed to understand what was going on.  It’s important for us to pay attention to the context of this story.

It is written here that a great multitude had gathered around Jesus and that people had come to Him from every city.  Everyone had heard about Him and wanted to see Him.  And so Jesus proclaims this parable to make something clear, especially to the twelve.  They might have been getting a little puffed up, thinking that this was going to be just one big victory procession, everything seemed to be going so successfully.  Jesus speaks a parable that gives a dose of reality.  He says that there are four possible outcomes to the hearing of the Word, and only one of them is good.  For three out of four hearers, the Word of God comes to no lasting effect.  The apostles are sometimes going to experience more failure than success, more rejection than acceptance in the long run.  They shouldn’t be fooled by the large crowds coming out to see Jesus.  Big numbers don’t mean anything.  Not all of them were believers.

In fact, remember that there actually came a point in Jesus’ own ministry when the crowds stopped following Him; all He had left were the 12 disciples, and even one of them would turn away from Him and betray Him.  After the feeding of the 5000, Jesus had been teaching how the bread that He would give for the life of the world was His flesh, and how His flesh was real food and His blood was real drink (John 6:55).  That was too hard for the people to accept; Jesus went from 5000+ down to only 12 followers.  Finally Jesus asked the 12, “Do you also want to go away?”  Peter replied in those familiar words, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”

And that’s where we can find some comfort, especially in this little flock called Mt. Zion.  When everything is going great in terms of numbers, we can be tempted to self–absorbed pride; when things are going poorly in terms of numbers, we can be tempted to self-absorbed despair.  But what we must finally cling to in both cases is not outward signs of success, but the sure promise that the Word of Christ is living and powerful to fulfill its purpose.  Sometimes the purpose of the Word is to reveal the unbelieving heart. That’s why we have those unsettling words in the Gospel, when it says that Jesus spoke in parables so that, “seeing, they may not see, and hearing, they may not understand.”  Blindness and deafness to the Word unveils God’s judgment.  But above all, the Word of God is sent to give life and joy to us descendants of Adam created from the dirt.  God said through the prophet Isaiah, “(My word that goes forth from My mouth) shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

The going forth of God’s Word is like the scattering of seed on all different kinds of soil.  God scatters the seed of His Word recklessly, freely, even on places where there seems little hope of a harvest.  For in His love He desires all to be saved.  The Lord’s Word is alive with His Spirit to give life even to the worst of soils.

First, like the hardened, foot-worn path, some people become hardened to the Word of God.  Perhaps they’ve been “walked all over” in their lives, mistreated, abused.  Or they’ve been pressed down and wearied by the struggles and difficulties of life.  They say, “Where has God been for me?  Why should I even listen to His Word?”  Or Satan has pressed and hardened some with his lies about the Word as being untrustworthy, or that it’s foolish superstition, or that it’s all just a power play by church officials to manipulate people.  And so the Word goes in one ear and out the other, like seed bouncing off a dirt road. The birds of the air snatch it away–which is a reminder of that passage which describes the devil as the prince of the power of the air.  Think of all the stuff that flies across our airwaves which seeks to counter the truth of God’s Word, to make you doubt it or reject it.  For the first group, then, the Word doesn’t penetrate the heart and bear fruit and do what it has the power to do.

Be on guard, therefore, against inattentive and unserious listening to the Word of God.  Martin Luther once wrote that the third commandment is not only violated by those who don’t come to church each week as the commandment requires, but it is also violated by those who do come to church, but only from force of habit or out of compulsion, who listen to it like they would listen to entertainment, and then who leave church no different than when they came in.  On the other hand, Luther said, “when we seriously ponder the Word, hear it, and put it to use, such is its power that it never departs without fruit. It always awakens new understandings, pleasure, and devotion, and it constantly creates clean hearts and minds. For the Word is not idle or dead, but effective and living.”

In the second instance, in the planting of the Seed on the rocky soil, there’s the listening that hears and rejoices, believes and thanks God, and yet it’s only a shallow, good-times faith. When the bad-times come along–and they always do sooner or later–the person lets go of the Word and their faith withers and dies. One of the purposes of hearing the Word regularly–weekly, even daily–is  to store up in your heart and mind those passages that will see you through the hard times with your faith intact. The Word has the power to do it, if we don’t let it go. So often this happens when bad times come–people stop going to church, stop listening to the Word, and then they’re surprised when their faith grows weaker and weaker and finally dies. Remember: faith is never something you can keep alive inside yourself. It only comes from hearing and holding the Word of God.

Thirdly, our Lord reminds us that even folks who listen to the Word, can still lose it, if they let it get crowded out of their lives by the thorns.  Jesus says the thorns are the cares, riches, and pleasures of life–which is odd because usually when you think of thorns, you think of something that’s painful, something that hurts.  And yet the thorns Jesus mentions include riches and pleasures, which seem to be the opposite of pain!  But experience teaches that Jesus’ words are true.  For, in fact, the things that promise us the most pleasure end up bringing us the most pain.  The things of this world give a temporary happiness but leave us with a lasting sadness and emptiness if we set our hearts on them.  These thorns can sedate us into apathy and cause a choking of the Word of God, squeezing it into an ever smaller place in our lives until in the end we don’t really hear it at all.

But then our Lord reminds us that it is possible to hear His Word in such a way that it bears abundant fruit. He describes those hearts that hear and hold fast the Word as honest and good.  How did those hearts get to be honest and good?  Well certainly not of themselves.  All of us are by nature the first three soils.  Only the Word and Holy Spirit of God has the power to till up and clear the soil and renew our hearts.  If, as the Apostle says, faith in Jesus is what purifies the heart, and faith comes by hearing the Word of God, then our hearts will be “honest and good” in no other way than by that Word making its home inside of us, and creating in us a clean heart–the heart of Christ.  

Here’s really the best way to think of it:  Jesus is Himself the perfect fourth soil.  He is the eternal Word of God, the Seed, having taken root in the earth of our humanity–fully human but entirely without the rocks and thorns and hardness of sin.  

This Word became flesh and bore all that has infested your soil.  Jesus was planted in this world by His heavenly Father to save and redeem you.  Behold how this Seed is cast to the earth, how Jesus the Word is thrown onto the wayside, the way of sorrows, where he is dragged to His cross, mocked in His suffering like the crowing of scavenging ravens.  But notice that the birds of the air do not devour Jesus’ body, as was often the case with other crucified criminals who would be left for the animals to consume.  This Seed is hurled upon the rocky ground of Golgotha, where he lacked moisture and cried out, “I thirst!”  But in spite of his suffering and thirst, this Seed would not wither away permanently.  And Jesus was even crowned with thorns, the very symbol of Adam’s curse; yet this Seed would not be choked out of existence, but would rise again.  A Seed has to die, if it is to rise out of the earth and bear much fruit.  The fruit of Jesus’ suffering is your salvation.

In this way our Lord has overcome all that stands against you, all that keeps you from having life, all that keeps you from growing to maturity.  In Christ you are free from hard-heartedness and the rocks of shallow faith and the thorns of this world.  In Christ alone you are the holy fourth soil, pure and righteous and fruitful and forgiven.  In you, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Word of God is implanted.  You have been watered with the Word in your baptism.  And the Word is sown in the soil of your body, placed on your very tongues, in the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood.  The power of God to give life is in the Seed.  And the Seed of the Word is in you and with you and for you, the Word of the Father who wants you with all His heart to share forever in His life.

Let us, then, be eager to confess this Word with our mouths before the world.  Let the scattering of the holy Seed continue outside of these walls, out in the daily callings that God has placed you in.  Let the Word accomplish its purpose with your unchurched or de-churched friends and family.  Invite them in to divine service, to adult instruction classes.  Together with them, let us all seek the Lord while He may be found, and call upon Him, for He is near; His Word is here.  Return to the Lord, for He will have mercy on you, and He will abundantly pardon.  His grace in Christ is more than sufficient for you, even in the midst of your weakness.  For His strength is made perfect in the weakness of the cross.  “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

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

Epiphany 2
John 2:1-11

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

What do you do when the wine runs out?  Which is to say, what do you do when the things that brought you pleasure or contentment have reached their end, when the good times are no longer merrily rolling along like they used to and like you assumed they would continue to?  After a long stretch of comfort and ease, sometimes the bottom drops out of life, the happy times turn to sad times, and the joy of life turns to heartache.  Then what?  Just like Cana’s wedding feast was thrown into crisis by this relatively minor embarrassment, we know that it doesn’t always take much to throw our lives out of whack and put us over the edge, to create stress and anxiety and even desperation.  And, of course, sometimes the stuff we’re confronted with is not so minor–financial troubles, broken relationships, a bad diagnosis, the sudden death of a loved one.  What do you do when the wine runs out?

The mother of our Lord shows us the way here.  Whether your concern is something big or something small, the place to turn is to her Son and to trust in Him even when He doesn’t appear at first to care.  Mary knew well who her Son was, how He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, how He was the Son of God and the Savior.  The angel had told her that, and the shepherds.  Simeon had spoken of an hour when a sword would pierce her soul, a mysterious reference to her Son’s death.

But Jesus’ hour had not yet come there in Cana.  The countdown had begun at Jesus’ baptism.  He had three years to live.  He knew His time was short.  The clock was ticking, the battle with the devil had been joined, and He was on His way to redeem fallen mankind.  And then Mary comes at Him with this trivial request, “They have no wine.”  He had a mission to fulfill from His Father.  What did it matter to Him if this wedding reception wasn’t quite as spectacular and successful as the planners had hoped, and the bar ran out of supplies?

So Jesus answers his mother rather abruptly and seems to reject her request.  He really says something worse then “no.”  He says it’s not His concern.  And yet, Mary believed.  She believed that despite Jesus’ seeming apathy about the whole matter, He would still be the One who Helps.  She clung to that truth about her Son; this is what He does–He rescues and helps.  That faith is perhaps an even greater miracle of God than turning water into wine.  After all water gets turned into wine all the time in vineyards and wineries.  It just takes a few months.

The mother of our Lord could hardly have been more indirect with her request, “They have no wine.”  It really wasn’t a request at all; just stating a fact.  The petition was only implied– sort of like  a mother telling her husband or children, “The garbage is full” or “Your bed hasn’t been made.”  What Jesus’ mother was saying of course was: “Do something about this problem.”  Jesus knew what she meant.  And despite appearances, He does not ignore His beloved mother, even as He does not ignore us because of our shyness about praying or our fearfulness or our lack of adequate words.  He hears the prayers of His people.  He knows what we want and what we need.  And, most importantly, He knows what is good.

Jesus is not rude to His mother, but He is direct: “What does your concern have to do with Me?” which is to say, “I’ve got bigger things on my plate.  How is this My problem?”  Not only was this request inconsequential, the people at this party were probably already a little tipsy, anyway.  They didn’t need more wine.  Nor would they appreciate it.  And some of them would surely overdo it.  Who knows what evil would result from more wine.  So whatever it was that Mary was hoping for, at first she was denied.  Jesus did not offer to run to the liquor store.  He did not lament the sadness of a poorly planned wedding and an embarrassed couple.  He did not even bother to lecture her on moderation.  He simply told her that her concern and her request were insignificant in the face of His looming betrayal and suffering and death.

But her response to this rebuke couldn’t be better.  She believed.  Despite the rejection, she believed that Jesus was good, that Jesus would rescue her and the couple in some way.  Because that is what Jesus does.  That is who Jesus is.  This is His story: He is always rescuing people.  So despite the rejection, she believes that nothing, nothing that concerns her is outside of His concern, that no request she makes is actually trivial, and that He hears her and answers her every prayer.  With perfect faith she gives the servants the best advice the world has ever heard: “Whatever He says to you, do it.”  And what a surprise He has in store.

He gives them wine like the world has never known.  The volume was somewhere around 150 gallons of wine.  So we’re talking hundred and hundreds of bottles of wine.  As to the quality, we can only imagine, though we know it was better than the good wine the bridegroom provided at the beginning, the stuff used for their champagne toast.  Jesus gave them the best wine, and an awful lot of it, more than they could have consumed in a single night.  And so what if some was abused and some was wasted and some was thought to have come from the bridegroom?  God gives His gifts to people for them to enjoy them.  He never gives His gifts in hopes that we’ll attach a plaque and remember Him or send a thank you note.  He does not do these things for His pleasure, because it makes Him feel good to help.  He does them for us, because we have need, because He delights in making our hearts glad.  He was not in Cana merely to enjoy Himself.  He was there for the wedding, to give of Himself, to provide His blessing; for that is what we truly need.

And so to this day we rightly pray with Lady Israel, in the way of the blessed Mother of Our God: “They have no wine.”  None of our prayers are trivial to Him.  It’s good to lament to Him and to look to Him for everything: “This life is hard, Lord.  I am sad and tired.  I am unmotivated and frustrated.  I am angry.  I wish, O God, that the world was not always undermining and corrupting what is good.  I wish my job was better, that my home life was more peaceful.  I wish that these annoying pains in my body would go away.  I wish that I could just have a good night’s sleep.  I wish, O God, that there was more wine.”

And what does God say to our little petitions?  It seems, more often than not at first, that what concerns us doesn’t really concern Him.  But we learn in today’s Gospel to trust Him still.  He never ignores His beloved for whom He laid down His life.  He will do what is good.  He will do what is right.  He will surprise you.  Pray away, in boldness and confidence.  Nothing is insignificant to Him if it concerns you, His baptized people.  And if He holds out for a while, do not despair.  If you wait long enough and seek your Lord’s help through your troubles, you will find that the last wine is better than the first.  All your prayers are answered “Yes” in Him.

The Gospel says that Jesus manifested His glory in this miracle.  But John points to an even greater glory of which this miracle was a sign.  In John 12, Jesus refers to His looming crucifixion when He says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  It is the glory of Christ to give Himself for you in love, to sacrifice His life that you might live.  It was water and wine that were poured out at Cana.  But at Calvary it was water and blood that flowed from Christ’s side to sanctify and cleanse you, that you should be holy and without blemish.  Christ loves you as a groom loves His bride.  He gave Himself up for you that you might be raised up with Him.

There will always be a lack in this world.  Things will always come up short in the end., just like we ourselves do, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  The wine will always run out.  But Jesus came precisely to redeem this sin-cursed world which fails us, and to make all things new and right again.  That’s why it is prophesied in Amos that in the new creation to come, “The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.”  By the death and resurrection of Christ on the third day–as this miracle occurred on the third day–you are redeemed and restored and given to share in His glory.

God is good.  He knows you and what is good for you.  He will not fail.  You will have wine, your heart will be glad–if not now in all the fullness you desire, then you will have it in the Kingdom to come.  In the meantime, while you wait, remember Mary’s words to the servants. “Do whatever He tells you.”  What He tells you is: “Take, eat.  Drink of it, all of you.  Do this in remembrance of Me.”  Eat the Body of Jesus.  Drink His Blood given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins.  Hear the Word of absolution and have the balm of His resurrection applied generously to your heart.  For this Lord of Life loves you.  It is written, “As the bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”

Dear bride of Christ, both at Cana and this very day, our Lord has saved the choice wine for last.  He has given His best, and it is all for you.  The servants knew.  The disciples believed.  Let us be numbered among them.  For it is written, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (Rev. 19:9)

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

(With thanks to Erik Rottman and David Petersen)

Numbers 6:22-27; Luke 2:21

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

New Year’s Eve has never really struck me as a particularly cheerful holiday in spite of all its festivities.  For we’re marking another year gone by.  And while it is good to reflect on the blessings of God in the year past and give Him thanks, to think about the growth of our children or grandchildren and the new things that have happened and our hopes for the future, more often than not, we don’t like the passage of time.  It takes away what’s familiar and comfortable to us.  It takes away friends and family.  In the end it takes away our health and our life.  And so the Psalmist prays, “Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days a mere handbreadth, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.”  It seems to me that the New Year’s celebrations carry a good deal of this melancholy undertone.  

So rather than simply marking the new year today, the church marks the naming and circumcision of Jesus.  This is the [Eve of the] 8th day of Christmas when these things occurred for our Lord.  And in particular I would like to have us meditate on the fullness of the name revealed in the blessing that our Lord speaks to His people, the Benediction given in today’s Old Testament reading.  In our lifetimes we have heard this Benediction spoken hundreds if not thousands of times.  But we don’t always fully consider what these words mean.  We don’t always realize all that our Lord is doing for us with these words.  And so as we observe the naming and circumcision of our Lord, we will focus our attention on this threefold blessing in which our Lord gives His name to us.

First of all, please note that the benediction is not a mere wish, like when we say, “Have a nice day.”  It’s not “May the Lord bless you and keep you.”  It’s “The Lord bless you and keep you.”  It’s an actual giving of a gift.  It’s a real bestowal of what the words say.  God Himself is active through these words.  In the Old Testament reading God directed the priests to speak this benediction; and then He said, “So I shall bless them.”  And it’s the same way still today.  Though the benediction is spoken by a man, it should be understood as the voice of God Himself to you.

Specifically, God says that He will put His name on His people through this triple blessing.  And so for us, the benediction is intimately connected to our baptism.  For that is the place where God first put His threefold name on us and claimed us as His own.  Just like we place our names on things that are important to us, that we don’t want to lose or have stolen, so the Lord marked us with the sign of the cross, and in the water He inscribed His name on us as His own treasured, precious possession.  He doesn’t want to lose us.  And so we have on us the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

In a very real way, then, the benediction re-applies and confirms us in our baptism.  Even as we became His people with the threefold application of His name, so also we depart divine service with the threefold application of His name, to live as His people out in the stations of life where He has put us.

Each of the three parts of the benediction correspond to the three persons of the Holy Trinity.  First, we receive the blessing of the Father with these words, “The Lord bless you and keep you.”  Notice that He’s the one who does the keeping.  While we do cling to Him by faith, the greater truth is that He is keeping and holding on to us.  He keeps us in the faith through His Word and Spirit so that we may endure in the faith to the end and be saved.  It’s like a father holding on to the hand of his child as they walk together across a slippery patch of snow and ice.  The child may be holding on to Dad, but what really counts is that Dad is holding on to his child, especially when the child slips.  That’s the only thing that will keep the child from falling.  So also, God the Father holds on to us, so that even when we slip, we won’t fall away from Him.  That’s how the Father blesses us–not only does He give us life and sustain our lives in this world, but He also gives us everlasting life in Christ, and by the Holy Spirit He keeps us with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.  James 1 reminds us, “Every good and perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights.”

Second, we receive the blessing of God the Son with these words, “The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you.”  Jesus is the face of the Father, as He said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”  In the humble Jesus in the manger, in the Word made flesh who willingly submits to the Law of circumcision, we see God in His mercy and love, who comes to redeem us by fulfilling the Law in our place.  The words about the Lord making His face shine on you especially calls to mind Jesus’ transfiguration, where the Scriptures say that His face “shone like the sun.”  And it is also written in II Corinthians, “It is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  

For the Lord to make His face shine on you means for Him to accept you and look upon you favorably.  And how could God look on you any more favorably than to send His Son into your flesh and blood to save you from sin and death and to restore your humanity by His cross and resurrection?  Because Christ’s face has shined on you in self-giving love, you are now given to shine in His glory in the resurrection to come.  That is how He is gracious to you–this all comes to you without any merit or worthiness in you but purely out of His grace and goodness.

Thirdly, we receive the blessing of God the Holy Spirit with these words, “The Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.”  Countenance is another word for the face, or more specifically, for the attitude or the expression that is on the face.  So a lifted-up countenance would be a sign of God’s good will toward you.  The opposite would be for Him to turn away from you with an angry countenance and forsake you in hell.  Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, God reveals that His countenance and expression is lifted up toward you because of Jesus.  The Father turned away from Christ on the cross in order to turn toward you in love.  

This is how the Holy Spirit gives you peace.  The word for peace is “shalom.”  It has to do with health and wholeness, with being put right again.  Through the working of the Spirit, you are put right again with God, and with one another.  You are given eternal health and wholeness and life in Christ.  When Jesus spoke of sending the Holy Spirit, He said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled; neither let them be afraid.”

There’s one final thing to consider regarding this benediction.  And that is the name of God that is used here.  Our translations have it as Lord.  But it is actually the name Yahweh, the name God revealed to Moses in the burning bush.  “Yahweh bless you and keep you; Yahweh make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; Yahweh lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.”  Yahweh means I AM.  It’s the name of the Creator who has always existed, who is, who was, and who will be.  And yet it’s a name that seems also somewhat incomplete.  I am . . .  what?  The good news for us today is that Jesus came to reveal the name of God completely.  He fills in the blank for us.  For He said, “I am the Good Shepherd; I am the Light of the World; I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; I am the Vine.”  I am Jesus, which means, “The Lord saves.”  Though you are cursed under the Law and condemned to eternal death, I am the One who came to redeem you from the curse by being cursed in your place, hung on the tree of the cross.  Even as I first shed blood for you in my circumcision to fulfill the Law, so I poured out my blood for you at Golgotha to cleanse you from all sin.  Now you are released from the curse, forgiven, set free.  You are children of God in Me, the Son of God.

The benediction has been put on God’s people for thousands of years.  And God will continue to bless you with His saving name in the year 2023 and to the very close of the age.  It is one thing that is constant and sure in the midst of this changing and decaying world, even as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  God grant you His heavenly benediction in the year to come, that you may know His great blessing for all eternity.

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