John 20:19-31

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

The disciples were in a self-imposed quarantine.  They were afraid of what might happen to them if they were to venture outside.  To this fearful, socially distanced group, Jesus appears risen from the dead. You can’t blame the disciples for being afraid; we would have been, too.  They’d seen their Teacher and Friend crucified.  Surely they as Jesus’ top lieutenants would be the next targets of the authorities.  

They had heard the news from Mary Magdalene that Jesus was alive; she said she had seen Him and touched Him.  Peter and John had investigated the tomb. Nothing there. The grave clothes were folded neatly, the head covering off to the side. Everything was in order. Clearly not the work of grave robbers.  Yet still, the disciples are locked up in this little room in fear. Death is conquered. Jesus is risen. And still they are afraid. They knew about the resurrection of Jesus, but they hadn’t yet seen, heard, and touched Him. That makes all the difference in the world, being gathered together in Jesus presence, in person, in the flesh. Dead men don’t rise, ordinarily. They weren’t ignorant. The news just seemed too good to be true.

What is it that you fear, that leaves you paralyzed and uncertain?  What keeps you locked up, bolted in?  It’s not just viruses and governors’ orders that do that.  We fear financial troubles, losing a job, losing a relationship.  We fear rejection by friends or family.  We fear violence.  We fear aging and losing our faculties.  And so we lock ourselves into our own little safe zones–in work, in TV and social media and video games, in drinking and comfort foods, in our hobbies and constant need for entertainment and activity–whatever it is that you do to hide from your fears, from the world, and especially from God.

But Jesus breaks through such artificial barriers.  The crucified One comes to the disciples in their locked room.  His risen body now shares fully in the glory of His divine nature, all-powerful, omnipresent.  And so locked doors are no barrier to Him.  Remember the stone was rolled away from the tomb not to let Jesus out but to let the witnesses of the resurrection in.  Jesus doesn’t need to knock–they wouldn’t have opened the door anyway.  He simply appears, as though He was there all along though not seen–just as He is with us, here and now.  You can’t see Him, but His presence is very tangible and real, in that little room and in this one, and wherever two or three are gathered in His Name.  

And the very first words Jesus speaks to them after His resurrection are not words that berate them for their unbelief; they are gentle words of absolution.  “Peace be with you.” That’s not just some generic greeting.  Jesus’ words give what they say: calm, wholeness, forgiveness.  “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.”  Jesus is saying to them and to you, “It’s going to be OK.  I am not here to give you vengeance but mercy.  I do not hold your sins against you.  They have all been paid for and answered for and put away forever.  Everything is as it should be.  I have reconciled you to the Father.  All is well.  Do not fear.  Be at peace.”

With Jesus’ words come also His wounds, the nail marks in His hands and feet, the spear wound in His side.  But why the wounds?  The rest of His body had been restored and glorified; why keep these wounds after the resurrection?  Firstly, they mark Him as the crucified One. Had Jesus appeared without wounds, there might have been doubt that it really was Jesus.  Maybe it was an impostor.  The wounds mark Him for certain. That’s what Thomas wanted to see. “Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” Pretty strong statement, but then, dead men don’t ordinarily rise, so we probably shouldn’t point fingers at doubting Thomas.

But Jesus’ wounds are more than proof that He’s actually risen, they are the very source of the peace Jesus spoke of.  From those wounds alone come our forgiveness, our life, our salvation.  It is written in Isaiah, “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by His wounds we are healed.”  Jesus retains the scars from His wounds, then, because that’s how we recognize Him for who He is, that’s how we know Him to be the Savior, whose glory it is to lay down His life in love for us, whose “rich wounds yet visible above” are our peace.  It’s only when the disciples saw the wounds of Jesus that they knew gladness and joy.

Once more Jesus says, “Peace to you.”  With His first word of peace Jesus absolved His disciples and took away their fear.  Now with His second word of peace He sends them to absolve others and take away their fears.  “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”  As Jesus was sent from the Father to speak on the Father’s behalf, so now Jesus was sending His apostles to speak on His behalf and to give out the gifts that He had just won.

And how will this group of fearful disciples manage this task? What will propel them out the door into the world?  It is written, “Jesus breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” The Holy Spirit is the life-breath of the Church who enables them to speak the Word of Christ.

Jesus says to them, “If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven.” You don’t have to search for forgiveness from God. You don’t have to look to heaven, or in your heart. Look for the mouth of the minister and listen with your ears. Forgiveness is something spoken and heard out loud from outside of you.  No self-medicating here; this isn’t some pop culture notion about forgiving yourself.   Forgiveness comes from God as a gift and is simply received and believed.

So when the absolution is spoken to you, think of it as a resurrection appearance of Jesus to you.  For that’s what it is.  Through those whom He has sent to speak in His name, Jesus Himself is saying to you, “Peace be with you.”  “I forgive you all your sins. . .”

And think of the Lord’s Supper as a resurrection appearance of Jesus, too.  After all, what did Thomas do?  He touched Jesus’ hands and side.  Isn’t that happens when you come to the Sacrament?  You touch the nail marks by receiving the body of Jesus, wounded for your salvation, risen from the dead, and fed into you to give you unconquerable life.  You touch Jesus’ side by grasping the cup which contains the very blood which flowed from His side which cleanses you of all sin.  Before you come forward for the Lord’s Supper, Jesus presents His wounds to you as the host and cup are lifted high and the words are spoken, “The peace of the Lord be with you always.”  The same risen Jesus is here with His words and His wounds, so that you might confess of Him with Thomas, “My Lord and my God!”

Blessed, then, are you who have not seen and yet have believed.  For by believing you have life in Jesus’ name.

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

(With thanks to the Rev. William Cwirla)

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

I’m sure there are some folks in the world who might wonder why it is that we would desire to meet together like this today.  Why go through all the hassle and strangeness of trying to worship in a parking lot?  Why not just stay home and pray and read the Bible individually?  And why during these last few weeks have many of you who can safely do so, why have you been coming here to meet in our groups of 10 or less to receive the Lord’s Supper inside the church?  What is it that compels us to gather like this in person, bodily, in the flesh?  

The answer very simply is Easter.  The answer is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.  For Jesus’ rising was not just a virtual thing, a spiritual matter.  It wasn’t a ghost or a hologram that came out of the tomb and appeared to the disciples.  Notice what the Easter Gospel says.  When the women went to the tomb, “they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.”  They didn’t find a body, because Jesus’ dead corpse was raised and glorified!  Jesus’ resurrection wasn’t merely spiritual, it was physical.  The same body that was born of the blessed Virgin Mary, the same body of the man who lived a holy life on our behalf, the same body that suffered and bled and died on the cross to pay for our sins–that body of the eternal Son of God was raised from death in victory over the grave for us.  The Christian faith is a bodily thing.

The Scriptures make it clear that this same risen Jesus is truly present among His gathered people.  For Jesus said, “Where two or three [or 10 or 100] are gathered together in My name [around My preaching and My supper] there I am in the midst of them.”  The church by its very nature is the bodily gathering of God’s people around His words and His supper, where He is bodily present for us.  The Biblical word for church means those who have been called out of this world and gathered together in His saving presence.  And so, here we are–not gathered in the way we would prefer to be certainly, but still gathered together by Christ and with Christ around His Word.

The resurrection of Jesus means that your body matters to God.  It’s not just a mere container for your soul; it’s an integral part of who you are and whom He has created you to be.  That’s why He cares about how you live your bodily life.  That’s why He cares about redeeming and exalting your body together with your soul.  Otherwise, why would He have taken on your flesh and blood and become a true man in the first place?  Why else would He have risen with flesh and bones?   The Christian faith is a concrete, tangible, physical faith.  It deals with stuff that really happened; it deals with the real world of material things, bodily things, the things of this creation.  

So virtual stuff, stuff that we can watch on a screen, is fine as a temporary measure in times like these.  We thank God for that ability and that technology that can keep us somewhat connected, and that the Word of God can be heard in that way.  But the communion of saints is not a virtual communion; it is the living body of Christ.  There is no such thing as virtual communion, just as there is no such thing as a virtual hug.  In the same way that a virtual hug over long distances leaves you longing for the real thing, when you can truly embrace the ones you love, so virtual church away from the Lord’s altar leaves you longing for the real thing, when we can be together in the flesh, where Christ embraces our bodies, speaking His life-giving words into our ears, touching us in the Sacrament of His body and blood, uniting us with Himself and one another as we eat and drink for the forgiveness of our sins.  Our God is the God of creation, the God who redeems and restores our bodies, who will raise us up at the Last Day just as He was raised up, literally, in the flesh.  

For now, though, we must deal with our flesh that is riddled with sin and sickness and death.  We are fallen creatures; our created humanity has been corrupted.  And this Coronavirus is actually a pretty good metaphor for what sin does to us.  It cuts us off from one another; it isolates us; it often makes us fear one another and see each other as a potential threat or competitor.  Sin turns us in ourselves and puts us in a defensive posture of self-interest, guarding our own stuff, losing patience and lashing out at others.  And worst of all, sin is a fatal virus that cuts us off from God.  The deadly pandemic began in the garden.  It is a contagion that makes us delusional, that causes us to rebel against God’s Word, to think that we can live better without Him.  But as the book of Proverbs says, His words are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh.  Apart from Jesus’ words, there is no life; only death and being cut off.

I’ve seen quite a few commercials lately that are advertising something they’re calling contactless delivery.  That’s a selling point now, no human contact.  How awful!  It may be temporarily necessary, I understand, but how awful!  I’ve preached to you before how one Scriptural way to understand hell is that it is utter isolation and aloneness, being forsaken and cut off from God and all that is good, utter emptiness and loneliness.  Sure, we all like a little time to ourselves now and again.  But it is not good for man to be alone.  That’s not how God created us to be.  We are made to be in communion with God and one another.

And that’s what Jesus has come to restore for us and has given to us at Easter.  We are reconciled and reunited with God and each other in the risen and living Christ.  Jesus is not about contactless delivery or social distancing at all.  He who is without sin, without disease, comes with no mask, no personal protection, and He touches our diseased human nature.  Remember the stories of Jesus’ healing of the sick?  A leper once came to Him begging Him for help, and it is written that Jesus stretched out His hand and touched Him (Matthew 8:3).  Think about that!  Highly infectious lepers, of all people, were supposed to be quarantined and isolated.  But Jesus breaks into the quarantine in order to bring the cure to our diseased bodies and souls.

And the cure is His own pure and holy body and soul.  Here’s how it works: Jesus was  willingly infected on your behalf.  He willingly absorbed into Himself every single bit of your sin virus, so that in His death the disease itself would die.  The risen Jesus has become the cure for you, for He is now immune from death.  As we just said in Romans 6, “We know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again.  Death no longer has mastery over Him.”  By your baptism into Christ, by your faith in Him, you now share in His immunity.  As it is written, “The death He died, He died to sin once for all.”  The grave is now a toothless enemy for you.  For though you may still die, eternal death and hell are defeated, and you shall rise again, just as Jesus did.  For he said, “Because I live, you shall live also.”  “I am the Resurrection and the Life.  He who believes in Me will live, even though He dies.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”  

You could compare it to how a vaccine works.  A vaccine introduces into your body certain elements of a particular virus, exposing you to it in a non-lethal way, so that your body produces anti-bodies.  And then when you’re exposed to the full-fledged virus, you have the defenses to fight it off.  It can’t harm you any more.  In a much deeper and greater way, Jesus does that for you.  He introduces death to you in a non-lethal way by joining you to His own death for sin.  As it says in Romans 6, “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?”  You’ve been safely exposed to death through Christ.  So now when you face your own death, in Christ it cannot touch you.  For He took it all into His body and destroyed its power by dying and rising again.  Receiving Jesus by faith, hearing His Word, partaking of His body and blood, you have the antibody against death.  He has already conquered death for you, and so sin and Satan and the grave can’t harm you any more.  He is your sure defense against every physical and spiritual pathogen.  As Romans 6 continues, “If we have been united with Him like this is His death, we shall surely also be united with Him in His resurrection.”

This is the great comfort and joy of Easter for us, just as it was that first Easter day for the disciples who were sequestered away in fear.  Jesus’ resurrection means that your sins have truly been paid for.  For the wages of sin is death, but now death has been undone, and there is forgiveness and new life.  Jesus’ resurrection means that you can trust His Word; He prophesied this, and His words have come to pass.  If He is trustworthy in something so important as this, then you can also have confidence in everything else that He says, too.  And Jesus’ resurrection means that you also will rise bodily from the grave on the Last Day.  For Christ is the firstfruits, the first of many more who will be raised at His coming.

So this is why we gather, this is why we assemble.  We can’t help but be near the One who is our source of life and healing.  Our God is in the business of gathering us to Himself so that we may have perfect fellowship with Him and share in His life and live in His presence.  God the Father created your body, God the Son by His blood redeemed your body, God the Holy Spirit by Holy Baptism has sanctified your body to be His temple, so that you may have your part bodily in the new creation to come.  

So this pandemic can temporarily stop many things, but it can’t stop the permanency of Easter.  His tomb is forever empty.  Nothing can undo His eternal victory over the grave.  And nothing can stop the fellowship that you have with one another in Christ.  As we look forward to the day when the quarantines are lifted and we can get back inside church together, let us much more look forward to the Last Day when we shall all be bodily gathered together around the throne of God, in the visible presence of the Lamb who was slain, who has begun His reign.  He is raised and is alive forevermore, so that you may have life and have it abundantly.

The Lord is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Lent 4 Meditation

Exodus 16; John 6

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

Today’s Scripture readings remind us of how our God provides for us, for our bodily needs,  even in ways that we do not expect.  Unexpected, uncertain circumstances can be stressful for us.  They can bring out creativity and ingenuity; sometimes, though, they bring out the worst in us.  The children of Israel weren’t exactly patient in dealing with their circumstances.  They grumbled against Moses and even wished that they could go back to their slavery in Egypt where at least there would be some food.  Even after seeing the power of the Lord in the crossing of the Red Sea just a few weeks earlier, their grumbling stomachs quickly caused them to turn their faith away from Him to the fact that their present needs weren’t being met.  This is a warning for us also, especially in this current unexpected public health situation.  Let us be on guard against faithlessness, against turning our trust away from the Lord to whatever else we think might be the answer to our present needs.

Grumbling is the opposite of prayer.  Prayer seeks the Lord and His help.  Prayer holds God to His promises.  Grumbling points the finger of blame at others–politicians, leaders, perhaps family members that we’re cooped up with.  But really, grumbling ultimately is directed at God.  As Moses and Aaron pointed out, “You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.”  So let us rather call upon the Lord’s name for help in our time of need, whether it be for food or finances or physical healing and protection.  For He has promised, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble.  I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me.”

We are reminded by current events, though we sometimes forget, that this world in which we now live is the wilderness.  It is that place between the Red Sea of our Baptism into Christ and the promised land of our resurrection with Him on the Last Day.  Right now we’re in the in-between time of testing and trials, when God calls us to trust in Him and not in ourselves.  The wilderness is where faith is nurtured and shaped and strengthened.

God let His people get hungry in the wilderness, but He didn’t let them starve.  They were His Israel.  He promised to take care of them.  He heard their cry, grumbling though it was, and He fed them.  In the evening, God gave them meat, sending quail into the camp.  And in the morning, a thin layer of a small round substance covered the ground, manna.  God provided daily bread for His grumbling people.  

That tells us something about the nature of our God.  He is good even to the stubborn and rebellious, in hopes that His kindness may lead them to repentance.  It is as we confess in the Catechism, “God gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people.”  God provides for our bodily needs, not because of our asking or because we’ve deserved it.  For even the wicked who don’t pray for daily bread still receive it.  God is simply good and generous and merciful to the world through Christ.  He causes His sun to shine and His rain to fall both on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  Why then should we pray for daily bread?  The Catechism continues, “We pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this (that He is the source of all that we have), and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving (to Him).”  Hopefully, in this time when supply chains are less reliable, we will be all the more thankful to God for things we used to take for granted.

Notice once again that we are directed to pray “Give us this day our daily bread.”  God only provided the Israelites with enough manna to last for that day.  No one was to hoard the manna or be greedy with it.  They were only to gather as much as they needed that day.  They were to live trusting that just as God provided for them today, He would also provide for them tomorrow and the next day.  God was teaching them to live by faith in Him.  

Right now we are tempted to worry about tomorrow and next month and next year.  There is much uncertainty about the future.  And there’s clearly nothing wrong with planning and preparedness.  It’s obviously fine for us to have more food in the house than just for today.  But also don’t forget what happened to the Israelites who didn’t live by faith in God’s Word but in their own efforts and scheming and hoarding.  What happened to that extra manna?  It became rotten and would be full of maggots by morning.  

God will provide you with daily bread.  That’s His promise to you, His baptized children.  It may not always be everything that you want; but it will be everything that you need.  Today’s Gospel shows that our Lord can even bring something out of nothing for His people.  With nothing but five loaves and two fish, He feeds more than 5000 people.  And there was more left over than when He started.  Learn from this that the Lord cares about your bodily needs.  In fact, He cares so much that He became flesh, to suffer and die in the body, and to rise again bodily from the grave so that you, too, might rise bodily to life everlasting.  That’s the ultimate answer to the prayer for daily bread, for healing and your physical welfare.  Even if you must hunger or struggle in this life, you have the resurrection of your body through Christ and the riches of His glory in the life to come.

Jesus is Himself your manna for the wilderness.  He is the bread sent by the Father to feed you, to nourish you, to fill you, to sustain you on your pilgrimage from Baptism through the wilderness to the promised land of the new creation.  Jesus said, “I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, He will live forever.  And this bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh . . . He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.”  Every other kind of bread is temporary.  It spoils, and you get hungry again.  But Jesus is the bread that does not spoil.  He is the food that endures to eternal life.  Eat and receive of Him and you will live forever.

One last thing: There was one day of the week that Israel was allowed to gather more than they needed for that day.  It was Friday.  On that day, the 6th day, they could gather enough for it and the next day, too, the Sabbath day of rest.  The manna did not spoil overnight but sustained Israel through the day of rest to the beginning of a new week.  So also, our Lord Jesus, the Manna from above, who died on the sixth day, Good Friday, did not decay in the tomb.  Rather, He has become the Living Bread that carries us through to resurrection and new life and everlasting rest in heaven.

You eat the Bread of Life by believing in Jesus.  Trusting in Christ, you are receiving and  absorbing all the blessings and benefits of what He has done for you–His incarnation, His perfect life, His innocent death on the cross in your place, His victory over the grave, His ascension to the Father–all of that becomes yours through faith in Jesus.

So especially in these unusual and disorienting times, receive the bread of life day by day.  As you read and meditate on the words of Scripture whether here or at home, you are given to experience the words of the Psalm, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103). And above all, here in the Lord’s Supper you get a special, literal sense of what it means that Jesus is the Living Bread come down from heaven. Under the form of ordinary bread, Jesus gives you hidden manna, His own body, once handed over to Pontius Pilate as the perfect sacrifice for sin, now handed out to you for the forgiveness of all your sin.  Here God acts in a way that is wonderfully beyond our expectations, that calms our stress and our fear.  That small round substance on the altar is Living Manna to sustain you here in the wilderness.  Jesus is the Bread of Life, and no matter what else is going on in the world, if you have Him, then you have everything, all that you need.

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

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

In today’s Old Testament reading, we hear about two of the plagues that God brought upon the land of Egypt.  Hearing about plagues may be a little uncomfortable as we sit here today, not in the midst of a plague, but certainly in the midst of a significant health situation in our country and in the world with the Coronavirus, COVID-19.  With the constant negative news headlines, perhaps you have just a small sense of the fear that must have come over Egypt as they had to be wondering “What next?” while the Lord caused 10 different plagues to come upon them.  

Those plagues were sent as judgment against Egypt and the Pharaoh for their oppression of God’s people Israel, for the Egyptians’ idolatry, for Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness.  The plagues were the terrible consequence of their impenitence and unbelief.  Which raises the question, when things like the Coronavirus happen today, is that God’s judgment, too?  Is God punishing us?  

It’s important to note in Exodus 8 how God drew a distinction between the Egyptians and His people Israel.  Scripture clearly reveals that this was an act of divine judgment against particular people for their sin.  As the Epistle said, "The wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience."  With things like COVID-19 though, we have no such Word of God.  This virus attacks both Christians and unbelievers alike.  Someone who gets this disease or any other disease for that matter is not necessarily being punished for some particular sin.  We should be careful to note that.

However, this is still a call to repentance–not only for the unbelieving world that has rejected the Lord’s Word in so many and increasingly rebellious ways, but also for us who believe in Jesus.  For everything that robs us of comfort and ease in this life is meant to be a reminder to us to repent.  This world will pass away.  God’s kingdom will never pass away.  Too often we find our comfort and confidence and security in the things of this world.  The stock market goes down, and we feel like everything is falling apart in our life.  The love of mammon and worldly pleasures, the idolizing of economic prosperity, the fearful hoarding of supplies from store shelves is not in keeping with the love of God and faith in Him.  Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and mammon.”  Or when our health is threatened, we can suddenly start wondering if God is absent.  But does our faith rest in how well life is going at the moment or in God’s never-changing words and promises?  Are we clinging so much to this life that our hearts aren’t set on the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come?  So at this time of upheaval and uncertainty, yes, the Lord is calling you to repentance.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, that He may lift you up in due time.

But then above all, trust that He really will lift you up in due time, that He will never leave you or forsake you.  His promises hold firm even when nothing else in this world seems firm.  Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.”  To keep the Word of God does not simply mean to obey it, though it does involve that.  To keep the Word of God more literally means to hold onto it, to cling to it, to find your confidence in it, to take comfort in it.

And here is a Word of God for you to cling to today, from Isaiah 43.  The Lord says, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name.  You are mine.  When you pass through the waters I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire you will not be burned, the flames will not set you ablaze.  For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”  

There is much to legitimately fear out there, even though there is also much fear-mongering that is going on, too.  It’s a good idea not to watch too much news in the midst of a crisis.  The way they keep their ratings up sometimes is by keeping you fearful.  But in the midst of threats that are real, whether it’s the sin inside you, or the devil and the world outside you, the Lord says to you, “Fear not.  Don’t be afraid.”

And then He gives you two tremendous reasons why you need not fear.  First, He says, “I have redeemed you.”  Jesus has bought you with the price of His own blood.  He has ransomed you from the power sin and sickness, death and the devil.  Those enemies of yours are defeated and crushed by His holy cross and empty tomb.  It is worth noting especially today what is written in Matthew 8, “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”  Jesus suffered all of that for you so that now even a terminal disease cannot do you lasting harm.  For you will be raised in glory with Christ on the Last Day!  St. Paul said, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

And lest you think that this is only true for other people but not for you, note what else the Lord says in Isaiah 43, “I have called you by name.  You are mine.”  Those are great and precious words.  They remind you of your baptism, where the Lord literally called you by name and then put His own name and seal upon you.  He marked you as His own.  He gave you a place in the family.  What more comforting words could there be than to hear our Maker and Redeemer say, “You are mine.  You’re with me.  I am with you always to the very close of the age.  I’ve been through the worst of it for you; and now I will walk through the worst of it with you to carry you safely out of it.  Nothing in all creation can separate you from my love.  Stick with me.  I’ve got this.”  

Jesus is that Stronger Man in the Gospel who overcomes the strong man, the devil.  Satan likes to make like he’s some big mafia boss or gang leader you’ve got to pay protection money to.  He makes it seem like living in the “real world” means you’ve got compromise your beliefs and get with his program and follow worldly ways in order to live safely and well.  But then Jesus comes upon the scene and beats him at his own game.  He uses the weapons that the devil trusts in and turns them against him.  Scripture says that death, and particularly the fear of death, are a way in which Satan tries to hold people in his grip and make us cling to idols.  And so Jesus enters into the devil’s stronghold of death through the cross.  He uses that very weapon to crush the devil’s head, exploding the power of the grave from the inside out through His resurrection.  The mafioso devil is exposed as the pathetic creature that he is, bound and defeated.  It is written in Hebrews 2, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, Jesus Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. ”

This helps us to see that diseases and disasters–while they are a call to repentance, always, while they may be discipline that God uses to draw us back to Himself–they are not the punishment of an angry God against sin.  For Jesus has already suffered the punishment for all sins.  All that judgment and wrath fell on Him.  He was plagued with everything that we deserved in order to set us free.  Even as Israel was saved from the final plague of death by putting the Lamb’s blood on their doorpost, so eternal death has passed over us who have taken refuge in Jesus and the blood He shed for us.  

So when we face fearful or uncertain times, when things don’t seem quite as solid or sure as they once did, it is here in divine service, where the words of the liturgy which have held solid and sure through the ages, the changeless words of God bring us comfort and hope and confidence.  How fitting the words of the Introit are for today.  Listen again to these words from the Psalms:

My eyes are ever | toward the LORD,

For He shall pluck my feet out | of the net.

The eyes of the LORD are on the | righteous,

And His ears are open | to their cry.

The face of the LORD is against those who do | evil,

To cut off the remembrance of them | from the earth.

The LORD is near to those who have a | broken heart,

And saves such as have a contrite | spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the | righteous,

But the LORD delivers him out | of them all.

The LORD redeems the soul of His | servants,

And none of those who trust in Him shall | be condemned.

Our eyes are ever toward the Lord, looking to Him for all that we need in body and soul.  And most importantly, His eyes are ever on us, watching over us, caring for us.  His ears are open to your cries.  Those who reject the Lord and turn away from Him are rejecting their only help and refuge and will be cut off.  But if you have a broken spirit, if you are burdened and weighed down,  He is near to you to help.  He saves those with a penitent heart.  You may suffer many afflictions, but the Lord Jesus who was afflicted for you, He delivers you out of them all.  Your soul has been redeemed.  Trusting in Christ, you shall not be condemned, but you shall be received by Him with joy forever.

So as it is written in Romans 5, let us rejoice even in the midst of tribulation.  For very often we learn much more of value in times of trouble than in the good times.  As we recently studied in Bible class in Ecclesiastes, we are reminded again that everything about this fallen world is vapor.  It’s all here one day and gone the next, a chasing after the wind.  The things of this world are no place for you to be staking your hope and your happiness.  A pastor friend noted how this Lenten tide, God is forcing us into a certain sort of fast, a fasting from sports and March Madness and concerts and entertainment of various sorts–all of these ultimately vaporous things that too often distract from the one thing needful.  So let us give thanks to God at all times, even in times such as these.  Let your eyes ever be toward the Lord, fixing your eyes on Jesus your Savior, who plucks your feet out of the net, who loves you and gave Himself for you, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.  Let us lay aside the faithless ways of this passing world.  Let us love our neighbor in need and fulfill our callings as Christians, serving one another in the stations of life into which God has placed us.  For though you were once darkness, now you are light in the Lord.  Walk as the children of light.

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

Matthew 4:1-11 (Genesis 3:1-21)

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

Why was the knowledge of good and evil harmful to Adam and Eve?  Why did God not want them to partake of that? What’s the big deal?  What’s wrong with human beings having their eyes opened to whatever they want to look in to? 

In the beginning Adam and Eve knew only good; they experienced only the gifts and the blessing of God’s creation. They did not need to know and understand how evil works, all the ins and outs of what its like to reject God and to live disconnected from His Word.  All they needed to know was that they shouldn’t go there, they shouldn’t depart from His words, and to do so would bring death.  That was enough. 

The Lord gave this command for good reason.  For with created beings like us, to know evil is to be changed and corrupted by it.  Even on the most basic level, you probably know what it’s like to have seen something that you wish you hadn’t seen–an immoral image, an act of gory violence, some traumatic event.  But now there’s no unseeing it. The evil sticks with you and changes how you perceive even good things in your life.  Or on a little bit deeper level, perhaps you’ve done or experienced something that you shouldn’t have.  Even if you’ve repented of it and are forgiven, or even if it happened without your consent, even if you’ve tried to forget it and put it out of your mind, the effects often still remain and burden you.  You’ve become a bit more calloused or jaded.  There is still a sense of being tainted by it all.

God didn’t want Adam and Eve or you or me to know any of this evil.  He wanted us to receive only good things from His gracious hand–rather than being turned in on ourselves, hiding out from our fears, preoccupied with covering up our shame.  The Lord wants us to live in the blessed innocence of knowing only His goodness, nothing more.  That’s not stupidity or naivete, any more than we would call a child stupid or naive because they haven’t seen a bloody mixed martial arts knockout or an X rated movie.  In fact we think of children as being greatly blessed when they are free from all the corrupting influences of life that adults know, when they are just able to be kids.  We envy them; we find joy in seeing their joy in the simple pleasures of life.  Just because we know more and have experienced and seen more doesn’t mean that we’re better off than they are at all.  That’s why Scripture counsels us, “In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature” (1 Corinthians 14:20).  

Today we acknowledge that we are those who, like our first parents, have transgressed into the realm of the knowledge of good and evil.  We’ve wanted to be like God, to achieve our own form of self-fulfillment, to have our eyes opened to whatever our hearts desire.  Repent, for that is the way of death.  You know it; you feel it in your bones.  Turn to Christ Jesus.  For He has come to destroy the evil that corrupts our natures.  He has come to make things good and right again.

That’s why Jesus is in the wilderness in today’s Gospel reading.  In the Garden of Eden man exalted himself to be a god in place of God.  However, in the sin-cursed wilderness God humbles Himself to become a man in place of man. 

 Jesus does not eat but fasts and bears the onslaughts of the devil for us that we may be restored to life. In the Garden man tried to win independence from God, to be his own master, to be in charge of his own life.  But in the wilderness, Jesus relies on His heavenly Father, submitting to His will and looking to Him for all that He needs, in order that He might restore us to faith and to a right relationship with God.  

Let us give our attention then to the devil’s temptation of Christ and how Christ won the victory for us over the evil one.  For here we are given to see the only way out of the trap that the knowledge of evil has lured us into.  Only in Jesus is our corruption undone.  

Jesus was tested and tempted in every way just as we are. As God, He couldn’t be tempted. But He set aside that divine privilege here.  He put His bullet proof vest on the shelf, you might say.  This was the Son of God as true Man against the devil, a match promised back in Genesis where God said He would do battle with the devil through the Promised Seed of the woman. The head crusher versus the heal crusher. No referee in the ring. One on one in the wilderness.  He fights for you.

The first temptation is the temptation of the flesh, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”  “Feed your appetite.  Your Father isn’t providing for you like He should.  Are you sure He loves you?  Take things into Your own hands.  Do what you want for Yourself.  You don’t have to humble Yourself like this and listen to Him.  Come on, Son of God!”  Notice how the devil tries to implant doubt with His temptation.  “If you are the Son of God. . .”  At His Baptism the Father had just said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  Now Satan wants Him to doubt that.  

This is how the devil subtly attacks you, too.  Satan wants you to doubt the Word of God spoken at your baptism.  “If you really were a beloved child of God, would God allow you to go through the things you’ve gone through?  And look at you, sinner; you don’t much look like a Christian.  Are you sure you’re forgiven?  Are you sure God wants you?” This is the true evil of the devil’s temptation.  It’s bad enough if he can lure you to engage in sinful behavior.  But even worse, he then takes those sins and shoves them in your face and tries to make you think you’re not even a Christian, that you don’t have true faith.  That’s why the greater temptation is the spiritual kind.  In the Small Catechism, Luther placed the three temptations in this order: first, false belief; then, despair; and then, other great shame and vice.  The vices come last; issues of faith come first.

And so when the devil assaults your conscience and reminds you of your sins, use Luther’s technique and add a few more sins to the devil’s list that he forgot about, and then tell him to go to hell where he belongs.  Fight him off by clinging to Christ and His Word.  Know that all of your sins were swallowed up in the wounds of Christ on the holy cross.  Anything that the devil can charge you with, Christ answered for at Calvary.  With the Word and name of Jesus you can put the devil to flight.  In this way Christ truly is your mighty fortress.

Jesus is faithful for our sake.  He wins this battle on our behalf, denying Himself, trusting in His heavenly Father, and fending off this temptation with the Scripture, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  Our real life comes not simply from food but from God’s words and speaking.  His breath and voice give us life.  “I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.”  “I forgive you all your sins.” “This is My body and blood given and shed for you.”  Feeding on that Bread of Life, we live.

Jesus quotes Scripture, and so the devil, in his monstrous craftiness also quotes Scripture.  He took Jesus up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.  For it is written, ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” The devil has here what seems like a pious idea.  God says that His angels will protect you.  So let’s see if it’s true.  Jump from the roof of the temple.  But testing God like that does not flow from faith but from unbelief.  It’s an attempt to manipulate God and make Him do your bidding.  Unbelief demands miracles and signs and outward displays of power to prove that God is really with you.  Beware of those who want you to prove your faith with extraordinary works or signs.  That is the religion of the devil.  Jesus said, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”

Don’t ever forget that the devil is very good at religion.  He can quote the Bible with the best of them.  But his religion, his Bible-quoting is always a perversion of the truth.  It has the appearance of godliness, but it is devoid of the grace of God, or it perverts God’s grace beyond recognition and mixes it with man-made righteousness.  The devil laughs at the naivete of those who think that it doesn’t matter what religion you are as long as you’re sincere.  The devil is the founder of every sincere false religion out there.  He loves it when people are “spiritual.”  What he doesn’t like is the cross of Christ–if people believe the preaching of the true Gospel, if they receive the Sacraments with penitent faith, if they trust not in their own merits but in the merits of Jesus alone for forgiveness.

Finally, the third temptation is that of power and honor and glory.  “All these [kingdoms of the world and their glory] I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”  “You don’t need to go the way of weakness and the cross, Jesus. All this heavy stuff about suffering and sacrifice–just put that out of Your mind.  You can have it all right now.  Just make this one little change, this one little compromise in Your principles and Your plans.”  Whereas we would be mightily tempted to take the equivalent of a billion dollar lottery ticket, Jesus doesn’t entertain such a thought for even a moment.  As our faithful captain, He quickly makes one mighty thrust of the sword of the Spirit, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”  And the devil slithers out of the ring, defeated, badly wounded, waiting for an opportune time to try a final revenge attack.  Jesus would not take the path of least resistance.  He took the path to Calvary, the only path that would truly ransom you from the power of the devil.  By the shedding of His holy blood, Jesus released you from Satan’s grip and purchased you as His own.

Today’s Gospel, then, marks the beginning of that victory of our Lord over the devil.  Here’s the key point:  Christ has carried your human flesh into temptation, and He has triumphed. He has prevailed over sin, over the devil, over death, all for you.  Where Adam was defeated, Jesus is victorious.  And He gives you His victory as a gift through faith in His name. Romans 5 states, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”  Jesus was obedient even to the point of death on the cross, for you. Just as Adam and Eve’s clothing was made from an animal God had sacrificed, so Jesus was sacrificed for you by the Father, that through His shed blood you would be clothed with His righteousness.  The risen Lord has taken away the sin that gives Satan his deathly power over you.  Now in Christ you are set free from the fatal desire to know and play around with evil.  You can see that lure for what it truly is.  Now for you who are in Christ, it is “dust to dust to the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”

Seeing, then, that we have such a great High Priest and Redeemer, let us hold fast our confession of faith in Christ. Come boldly to His throne of grace, that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in your time of need.  In the midst of your testings and temptations and battles, believe that in Christ, the victory is already won.  We pray, “Deliver us from evil.”  And the Lord does; and He has.  Through Him the words of the Introit come true for you, “You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra; the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.”

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

Sexagesima

Luke 8:4-15

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

The weather lately certainly hasn’t been gardening weather.  But I imagine that there are at least a couple among us who have some old garden seeds stored away somewhere in the garage or in the basement or a drawer in the kitchen–maybe some leftover green bean seeds or cucumber or zucchini seeds, or sweet corn or flower seeds.  If you think about it, seeds are really remarkable things.  They can lay around for months, seemingly dry and dead.  And yet consider what they do!  A buried acorn becomes a huge oak tree.  An almost invisible speck produces the lettuce and carrots and tomatoes and other vegetables we eat.  A hard pellet imbedded with complex DNA codes and intricate chemical systems starts a chain reaction when something as simple as water is added to it.

The seed is an important element in several of Jesus’ parables.  One of His shortest ones goes like this, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is larger than all garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

The seed teaches us of the hidden way God works.  What appears unimpressive, even dead, is precisely where the action is at.  Seeds are, in a way, a sacrament, an earthly element that contains within it the life-giving Word and command of God.  Seeds bear in them the creative power of God himself.

The Lord God created a perfect world in the beginning teeming with life;  and seeds were a key part of this great creative plan.  In fact, only twelve verses into the Bible, we read: “And God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind.’”  Seeds have always been integral to God’s creation.  And these seeds were there to give food to mankind and all living creatures. Seeds are the ongoing creative work of God to sustain man and beast alike.

But what did man do?  He abused the seed, he took advantage of God’s gift, eating that which was not sown for him.  And after the Fall, God announced the consequence to man: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.”  No more would seeds sprout effortlessly for man.  Now birds would eat what the man has sown–animals no longer living in harmony with man, but in competition. Rocky ground and lack of moisture would make his job harder, making him till and water the ground.  Thorns would entangle the seed and choke it out, requiring constant weeding and hoeing. Good ground would become hard to find, and the man would have to labor hard to eat his bread.

But interestingly, God announces to the devil only a few verses later that a Seed was coming to fix what had been broken.  He tells Satan that the Seed of the woman will crush his head.  The Seed from the body of Eve, the offspring of the very woman who committed the first sin, would come to conquer the Serpent and set the world right again.

The Seed was promised throughout the Old Testament, in particular to people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  God said to Abraham, “In you and in your seed all nations on earth will be blessed.”  The prophets reminded God’s people of His promise.  It continued through David who reigned over a prosperous kingdom, and through God’s messengers who saw the Temple destroyed and the people taken captive.  Through wars and conquests, occupation and bloodshed, the promise of the Seed remained alive, passing from generation to generation.

And when the ground was ready, the Seed was finally sown. Unlike any other human seed sown by an earthly father in the natural way, this Seed was sown supernaturally by God Himself, through the Holy Spirit.  The angel of the Lord appeared to Mary and sowed the Seed into her womb through speaking into her ears!  The Seed is none other than the Word of the Father, the only begotten Son of God Himself!  And having been planted, that Seed of the Word became flesh; it germinated in the fertile ground of the Blessed Virgin, and grew into a Man, the fulfillment of God’s promise back in the Garden.  Jesus, the very Word of God, crushed the Serpent’s head in a totally unexpected way: by dying, and rising from the dead. For Christ himself told us that unless a “grain of wheat”–a seed–“falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Fellow believers, hear this clearly: The first three soils in today’s Gospel are descriptive of us.  You are the hardened soil of the wayside, sometimes callous to God’s Word, letting it in one ear and out the other without letting it penetrate your heart, acting as if you’ve heard it all before.  You are the rocky soil, on fire for the faith one minute, withered away in unfaithfulness the next.  You are the thorn-infested soil, all caught up in the pursuit of money and the pleasures of this life, anxious about this and that, forgetting the one thing that’s most needful.  Acknowledge this, repent of it, and believe in Christ.  

For this is the purpose of the Word and why it has been sent to you.  First of all, the seed shows the soil for what it is.  There’s never anything wrong with the seed.  But it’s being cast onto the soil reveals the nature of the soil–hard, rocky, thorn-infested, unfruitful  The soil was surely this before the seed fell on it.  But the seed confirms this judgment.  It pronounces it and manifests how things truly are with us.  It does what it was supposed to do.  It shows how the soil is powerless to change itself.  As Isaiah said, “Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.”

But then notice this: The Sower casts the Seed, the Father sends His Son right into the midst of all of this for you, into such corrupted soil.  Jesus is the One who has borne this corruption all for you to take it away from you.  For behold how this Seed falls to the earth, how our Lord suffers on the cross.  Jesus, the Word of God, the Seed, is thrown onto the wayside, the way of sorrows, where he is dragged to His cross.  But notice that the birds of the air do not devour Jesus’ body as was often the case with other condemned criminals, who would be left for the animals to consume.  And this Seed is hurled upon the rocky ground of Golgotha, where he lacked moisture.  But in spite of his suffering and thirst, this Seed would not wither away permanently.  He was even crowned with thorns, the very symbol of Adam’s curse, and yet this Seed would not be choked out of existence.  For while the Seed did die, He rose again in victory over the devil and the world and our sinful nature.  

So do you see?  By His holy suffering and death and resurrection, our Lord has overcome all that stands against you, all that keeps you from having life, all that keeps you from bearing fruit.  In Christ you are free from the hardness and the rocks and the thorns.  In Christ and in Him 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 through preaching.  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 is in you and with you and for you.

And be sure to notice how the Father sows the seed.  He doesn’t just plant it here or there in soils He deems suitable and acceptable.  He scatters the Seed everywhere, on the good and the bad, the worthy and the unworthy, on all of us.  That is the nature of His love, love that extends to all.  And the Word of God does what God intends it to do. Just as the rain and snow fall from heaven, so the Word of the Lord will not return void or empty, but will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent. For even in the midst of thorns and thistles, the prophet Isaiah said that cypress and myrtle trees will grow and replace the briars.  

So even though a sermon from a preacher, or a few words spoken over bread and wine, or an announcement of the forgiveness of sins, or a sprinkle of water and the name of God on a sinner’s head don’t look very powerful, they are indeed the very same Seed that crushed the Serpent’s head: the Word of God which is “living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.”

The Word of God is truly the most powerful thing in creation.  For it brings life and creation into being.  It is far greater than the power of our fiercest weapons or the energy of the sun.  For only the Word of God overcomes death, makes us worthy to stand in the presence of God, and gives us life beyond the grave itself.

Therefore, fellow Christians, let us thank God for his Word, for his Seed.  As Isaiah said, “Go out with joy, and be led out in peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” All of creation rejoices because of the fruit that the Seed bears.  And you are that produce of Christ; you are that fruit that has the seed within it.  In fact Galatians 3 goes so far as to say this, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”  He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

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

(With thanks to the Rev. Larry Beane for some of the above)

Matthew 20:1-16

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

Is God fair?  If by fair you mean, is God just and righteous, the answer is yes, absolutely.  But if you mean, does he always give us what we deserve, then the answer is no–thankfully so.  For our God is a God of grace as well as justice.  And to illustrate this point, our Lord Jesus tells a parable to teach us how His kingdom works.  

In this story of the workers in the vineyard, a boss goes out in the morning to hire laborers.  As the sun rises, he makes a contract with several laborers for the standard rate of a denarius a day.  And he sent them into his vineyard.  A few hours later, about nine in the morning, he hires another group, but interestingly, their agreement is not for a specific amount but for “whatever is right,” whatever is just and righteous.  And so they went.  The same thing happens at about noon, and then about three.  Finally, at five in the afternoon, with only a single hour left in the workday, the boss hires one last group, and sends them into the vineyard too.

As the sun sets, the foreman brings the workers in to get paid.  The boss says, “Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.”  The guys that worked one single hour received their pay: “each of them received a denarius,” that is, a full day’s wage.  Imagine that!  They were paid for 12 hours, but only actually worked one hour.  So the guys who worked twelve hours, were really looking forward to getting paid.  Surely, they would receive much more, maybe as much as 12 days pay for a single day’s work (if the pay rate was going to be equal).  At the very least in their minds, they should be getting a lot more than what they originally contracted for. “But each of them also received a denarius.”

Now it would seem that Jesus couldn’t possibly approve of this.  It doesn’t seem fair!  After all, those who worked 12 hours “have borne the burden and the heat of the day,” unlike those Johnny-come-latelies who were sitting idle all day, who then only worked an hour in the evening air, and got paid for twelve hours.  When you look at it from the point of view of “equal pay for equal work,” that sounds outrageous.  Maybe this unfair boss is going to be punished in the story.  Maybe he will be forced to pay his workers more fairly.  Jesus has to fix this, right?

But instead, Jesus sides with the boss.  “Friend,” says the business owner to one of the men who worked twelve long hours for a denarius, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong.  Did you not agree with me for a denarius?  Take what belongs to you and go your way.  I choose to give to this worker the same as I give to you.  Am I not allowed to do what I want with my own things?  Or is your eye evil because I am good?”

That’s an interesting phrase that Jesus concludes the story with, isn’t it?  It’s about the eyes, this grumbling and complaining and discontentment.  It’s about looking at others and making comparisons and finding some reason to be outraged at people and offended at how you’re being treated or how life’s just not fair.  To have an evil eye is to have a covetous eye that is focused always on yourself and what you can gain for yourself.  A person like this can’t be happy for someone else when things go well; they can only engage in grumbling and insults and in pity parties for themselves.  

It’s important to remember in this parable, though, that no one was treated unfairly.  No injustice was done.  The first workers got a fair day’s wage.  That was good and right.  It’s just that the others were the recipients of the landowner’s great generosity.  People might expect that Jesus’ message would be different, that He would side with the workers seeking fairness with management. But Jesus is like the landowner who has every right to do what He wants with His own things and to be generous to whom He wants to be generous.

Now you could make the point here that Jesus is no Socialist, and He does not advocate for the right of workers to make a claim on what does not belong to them, or to violate their contracts.  But, of course, the main point of this parable is not really about politics or economics but about what the kingdom of heaven is like.  Jesus says that in God’s kingdom, “The last will be first, and the first last.”  Jesus says that “fairness” according to the ways of the world is not how His kingdom operates.  In fact, it’s turned upside down.  Those who think God owes them something more than what He’s given are gravely mistaken.  His ways are just and gracious.  Who are we to begrudge His generosity to someone?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(With thanks to the Rev. Larry Beane for some of the above)