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Rest for Your Souls

Matthew 11:25-30

 
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
 
For all of the leisure time we have in our modern era, for all the hours we spend engaged with our various screens and technologies, it’s amazing how often people complain about being tired and worn out.  It may not only be a physical weariness of difficult or tedious work, but a mental exhaustion, too, information overload.  As the warm weather finally arrives, people are eager to get away from it all and take a trip or a vacation, decompress and recharge.  Of course, as enjoyable as a getaway can be, most people realize they need a vacation after their vacation before they will actually feel rested and refreshed.  We keep seeking after things that will de-stress and rejuvenate us and give us peace, but we never quite seem to get all the way there. 
 
In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about the rest that He gives to those who are tired and burdened.  He is not talking simply about outward, temporary relaxation bur rather inward, lasting restoration and peace, rest for your souls.  So today, we will be seeking first to identify what it is that makes our souls so weary, and then second, to discover where and how we may obtain this rest which Jesus is speaking about, the true rest which continues forever.
 
What is it that exhausts our souls?  For some it is very simply the stress of fulfilling their many responsibilities in life and all the things you have to deal with as a parent and a spouse and a worker and a volunteer and a caretaker.  The anxiety that comes from doing everything that needs to be done can cause more than just bodily tiredness, it can drain a person's spirit.  For others, it is struggling to live up to the expectations and social pressures of family members or friends that makes them inwardly worn out.  They never feel like they quite measure up.  For many, burdens of the soul can be caused by bodily troubles and sicknesses, which wear a person down mentally and can raise the nagging question, "Why is this happening to me?"  And for still others, spiritual weariness comes from the fact that they've been dragging around a load of guilt with them for years and sometimes even decades.  Some failure or something they deeply regret having done won't leave them alone but seems to hang on to them like a ball and chain.null
 
But in the most ultimate and truest sense, the thing that makes our souls "weary and burdened" is the all-encompassing demands laid on us by God's Law.  Now at first we might think that we can handle God's commands.  "Don't murder.  Don't steal.  Don't commit adultery.  Honor your parents.  Remember the Sabbath Day."  Those aren't always easy, but with a little effort we can usually pull that weight.  But then we learn that there's more to it than that.  "Don't murder" also means that we should help our neighbor in all his physical needs, even to the point of loving our enemies.  "Don't commit adultery" also means that we should constantly honor and love our spouse.  "Don't steal" also means that we should help others to improve and protect their possessions.  That’s a lot heavier load.  And then we discover that we can also break God's commandments in our hearts.  Lust is adultery.  Anger is murder.  Greed is stealing.  Now, it takes all of our might just to drag that burden an inch.  And that's not even the end of it.  We're stopped dead in our tracks, drained of all our strength when God says in His Word, "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."  And, "You, therefore, must be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
 
God's Law is like a gigantic boulder to which we are chained.  And He says, "Pull it!  If you want to get to heaven on your own steam, you must drag it all the way there."  And not one of us can.  Our fallenness burdens our conscience and makes life an exhausting spiritual struggle. 
 
So where do we find rest?  The kind of rest we are speaking about is not to be found in a vacation trip or a six-pack or in any other earthly pleasure.  No, in the Gospel Jesus tells us where real, lasting rest is to be found by saying, "Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."  Notice the gift language there.  No purchase necessary.  “I will give you rest.” To those who are weighed down by the burden of anxiety or stress, Jesus says, "Here, let me carry it."  To those who've been dragging around a load of guilt Jesus says, "Here, let me pull it."  To those who've been worn down and worn out by the demands of God's Law Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
 
A yoke, of course, is a wooden bar or frame by which two draft animals, like horses or oxen, are joined together for plowing.  So it might seem a bit odd at first that Jesus would invite us to come to Him for rest and then say, "Take my yoke upon you," as if it was not rest He was offering but hard labor.  However, that is clearly not Jesus' intent.  What He is saying rather is, "Stop your exhausting and futile efforts to pull that load alone.  Hook up with me; let me do it."
 
One of the parts of a yoke is a piece called an evener.  This evener can be adjusted so that the stronger of the two animals pulls the heaviest portion of the load.  Well, in our case, the evener is adjusted all the way so that we pull the whole load through Christ and by His strength alone.  For only He has the power to move it.  Only He has the power to fulfill the Law of God and to overcome sin.  We are yoked together with Christ by faith, so that His work counts as our own.  He does all the pulling and we get all the credit.  By His grace Christ joins Himself to us in such a way that His righteousness is our righteousness before God the Father.  Jesus bears the yoke of the cross, and so do we.  But He bears the full burden of it; He’s the One carrying the load.  Christ walks beside us day by day in this world and dwells in us by His holy words and sacraments, that He may live His life through us, a life of faith and love that is well-pleasing to the heavenly Father.
 
You see, Jesus' purpose in coming to this earth was to do for us what we had to do but could not do.  Having taken on Himself our human nature, He, the Son of God, began to live a holy life for us.  He overcame temptation.  He loved and gave of Himself for others.  He fulfilled all the requirements of God's Law.  And then He submitted Himself to a cruel and torturous death in our place in obedience to His heavenly Father.  He dragged the weight of the entire world's sin up the Mount of Calvary.  There He was crucified.  Our sins were paid for that day, nevermore to accuse us, nevermore to burden our souls.  Jesus became weak so that we would be made strong.  He became weary to the point of death so that we would have rest and life.  And now that He has conquered death by His glorious resurrection from the grave, we are made certain that this rest He gives is real and this life He bestows is everlasting.
 
Jesus' invitation to each of you today, then, is to renew your faith in Him, the faith by which you are yoked together with Him.  For when He says, "Come to me," and "Take my yoke upon you," that is the same as His saying, "Believe in me.  Place your confidence in what I've done to save you.  Let your heart take refuge in Me.  Trust in me to help pull you through the struggles of this life."  You were yoked together with Christ already in your baptism, where He said to you, "I have called you by name; you are mine.  I will never leave you or forsake you."  Jesus is walking with you even today, every step of the way, through the high points and the low points, through the good and the bad, so that regardless of your circumstances, you may have His restfulness and His peace in your souls, that peace which passes all understanding.  Christ gives you rest along the way by speaking into your ears His comforting words of absolution.  And He offers you refreshment by placing into your mouths His holy body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins, to strengthen you with His real presence, His very life.  
 
That is why the day of the divine service is rightly called the Sabbath Day, the day of rest.  For it is especially in the liturgy that Christ gives you true spiritual rest and recreation.  It is here that the Holy Spirit uses His instruments of life to re-create you and renew you in the image of Christ.  Our Lord will finally lead you from here to the eternal re-creation–the new creation–and to the unending rest and peace and joy which is being prepared for you in heaven.
 
Of course, to the world, this may all seem foolish, even childish.  But remember what Jesus said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babies. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.”  The so-called smart people of this world keep searching for rest in places it cannot be truly found–in the idols of things and people and false spirituality.  Only those who are weak and lowly find real rest in Christ, for He is the One who is gentle and lowly in heart, who comforts the afflicted, who declares sinners to be righteous, who gives rest to the weary and life to the dead.  
 
To conclude, Revelation 14 speaks of heaven and hell in terms of rest.  Of unbelievers, it says this:  "The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; and they have no rest, day or night."  But of believers, yoked together with Christ, it says this:  "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth.  Blessed indeed, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors."
 
God grant, then, that you who are weary will heed Jesus' invitation and come to Him with trusting hearts.  For He gives you the rest of your life–both in this world and in the one to come.
 
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
Posted on April 17, 2016 6:39 PM by Aaron Koch
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Have No Fear, Little Flock

John 10: 11-18, 27-30

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

    “They’re all just a bunch of sheep.”  You’ve heard people use that phrase before.  It’s not meant to be a compliment.  It carries with it the idea of blind allegiance and ignorant loyalty to a person or a cause or an institution.  And I suppose that’s how the world often thinks of Christians and the church–that we’re all just a bunch of people mindlessly holding to the faith, not thinking for ourselves, following a Messiah with some foolish herd mentality.  

    Jesus does refer to you as His sheep, but of course not in the way the world does.  It’s actually quite a good thing in the end that you’re a bunch of sheep in His flock.  What are we to learn from this image that God uses throughout the Scriptures?  There are several points of comparison, but the main point is our total spiritual helplessness and therefore our complete dependence on Christ our Shepherd.  Sheep are not particularly well-suited for survival when left to themselves.  They can’t run fast to flee from a predator. They have no powerful jaws or claws to fight off an attacker.  They’re basically an easy meal for whatever bear or wolf might want to ravage the flock.

    And that’s how it is with us.  The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  The grave opens its jaws wide and lunges at us to drag us to the depths.  And sin, like a beast from within, constantly tries to fight its way out and gain dominance in our lives.  And were we left to our own devices, those spiritual enemies would easily win the day and destroy us and leave our bones for the scavenging vultures.  And all the more so because of what the Scriptures say, “We all like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way.”  We’ve seen those TV shows featuring the harsh realities of nature and what happens to animals that stray from the herd out in the wild.  That’s exactly how it is with us who stray from God, thinking we can live independently from Him, doing things our own way, according to our own rules.  We wander from the flock.  Little do we realize that in our pride we’re entirely defenseless.  And the predator attacks, and the jugular is pierced, and the evil one would drag our carcass away.  null

    But today’s Gospel is not primarily about the sheep but about the Shepherd.  He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep, even the foolish, sinful sheep who stray.  Jesus is a Good Shepherd in the way of David before Him.  You may remember when David was applying before King Saul for the job of taking on the Philistine warrior Goliath, the number one thing David put on his resumé was his experience as a shepherd:

    David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” Moreover David said, “The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!” [1 Sam. 17.34-37]

    Jesus, the Son of David, protects us sheep from sin and death and the Goliath Satan by facing them head on for us.  He stands in between us and the predators to shield and shelter us.  He opens up His own body to their slashing and onslaughts to take them down and keep us safe.  

    In this way Jesus is not like a hireling.  The hireling runs away from the fight because he doesn’t truly care about the sheep.  He’s just there to earn a buck.  He doesn’t own the sheep.  It’s not his loss if the flock is scattered a bit.  At the end of the day, he’s going to save his own skin.  But Jesus truly cares about you.  He’s not using you for His own ends, just to dump you somewhere down the line.  You belong to Him.  He wants to have you with Himself for all eternity.  And so He defends you as His own treasured possession.  He puts His own life on the line for you, even to the point of the cross.   Like David, He grabs hold of sin and death by the scruff of the neck, and He drags those predators down into the pit.  They kill Him, and then suppose that with the Shepherd dead, the sheep would be theirs. But in attacking Him, they walked into a trap.  It was beyond their comprehension that the Shepherd could live again, arising from the dead and leaving them behind, crushed and defeated in the pit forever.  They bit into a man and found God.  Seizing their Victim, they themselves became the prey.  As David beat back the lion and the bear with his knife and club, so great David’s greater Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, has turned the wood of the cross into a mighty weapon by which those wolves that threatened us, Satan and death, are slain and crushed.

    Always remember, then, that Jesus alone is your Good Shepherd, your Good Pastor and Bishop.  For He alone is the One to whom you belong as His flock.  As the Epistle said, “For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”  All of us who bear the title of “pastor” are simply undershepherds of the Chief Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep.  All trust is to be placed in Him alone.  For in every undershepherd there is a hireling called the old Adam, the sinful nature.  No sure source of confidence there, whether it's your local pastor or the Pope himself.  Our only confidence is in Christ to whom the sheep belong.

    And notice how it is that we know Jesus: through His Word.  Sheep don’t have particularly good vision, but they do have good hearing.  Jesus said, “My sheep listen to My voice and they follow Me.”  Usually when we think of herders dealing with animals, we have in mind something like ranchers who drive their animals and push them to go where they want them to go from behind, forcing them to stay in a tight bunch–lots of yelling and dogs barking and that sort of thing. But here Jesus says, “My sheep follow Me.” Jesus is out in front. The sheep stay together and follow because they recognize His voice, His voice of mercy and forgiveness in the Gospel. There’s no force and coercion involved here, but the gentle invitation of Jesus’ Word. Do you see the difference? We’re not just nameless cattle to our Lord. We are beloved sheep whom He calls each by name. Jesus says, “I know My sheep; and My sheep know Me.” You follow Him, for you love and trust in Him. You stake your life on Him. For You know His voice and you listen to it; it’s unlike any other out there in the world. Your ears perk up at the sound of it. Even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you fear no evil; for He is with you. Even if you can’t see Him, if you can hear Him, you know it will be alright; you know it’s safe. You’re in His care. He restores your soul. He leads you beside still and gentle waters to drink of His Spirit in the Word and in Holy Baptism. He prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemies, the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, which draws us into communion with Himself and with His Father; for Jesus and the Father are one. It is for all of these reasons and more that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. It is for all of these reasons and more that we follow Him.

    We dare not forget, of course, that following Him means that we are given to live as He lived, too, in this world. We heard about this in the Epistle, that Christ left us an example, that you should follow in His steps. Being a sheep of the Good Shepherd’s flock means living a different kind of life, walking the path of the cross. When Jesus suffered, He did not threaten but forgave. So also, it is not for you to seek revenge on your enemies but to do them good. When Jesus was reviled and mocked, He did not revile in return. So also, it is not for you to return evil for evil, but to pray for those who make life difficult for you. As Jesus did, so you also, commit yourselves to God the Father who judges justly. Trust that all these matters are in His righteous hands.

    For we heard in the Old Testament reading that Jesus Himself will come for the weak and the injured and the broken and the sick.  You can probably find yourself somewhere in that group.  None of us is untouched by bodily weakness, or damaged psyches, or challenging family situations, or disappointments or  overwhelming obligations, or nagging addictions and compulsions and lusts.  You are not alone.  All we like sheep have gone astray and are weak, wounded, damaged and frail.  But Jesus says, “I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out and gather them and feed them in rich pasture.   I will bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick.”  “By His wounds we are healed.”

    And finally don’t forget that the way our Good Shepherd saved us sheep was by becoming one of us, the Lamb who was slain.  It is written in Revelation 7, “The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. . .  They shall neither hunger any more nor thirst any more . . .  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”  

    So let me say it again:  You’re all a bunch of sheep.  But in this case that’s a good and wonderful thing.  Because you’re the sheep of Christ, the Good Shepherd, who listen to His voice and who follow Him to the eternal life that He alone gives.  His promise stands sure:  nothing, nothing at all can snatch you out of His good and merciful hands.

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

Posted on April 09, 2016 10:08 PM by Aaron Koch
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I'm Not Spiritual, I'm Religious

Easter 1
John 20:19-31 (Ezek 37:1-14, 1 John 5:4-10)
 
In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit
 
It’s become a very fashionable cliche’ for people to say nowadays, “I’m not religious; I’m spiritual.”  It’s a way of talking that seems open-minded and non-rigid while still embracing the idea of faith and the divine.  But in truth, I think what is often meant is, “I want to deal with God on my own terms and in my own way, and so I’ll treat my faith like a buffet line at a cafeteria, and take only what I want and what appeals to me.”  St. Augustine once said, “If you believe what you like in the Gospel and reject what you don’t, it’s not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”  All of this is in the same category as those who say they don’t believe in organized religion.  While it’s true that religious institutions populated with fallen human beings are often going to be a mess, the rejection of any sort of organized religion is in actuality a rejection of any sort of tangible, concrete, real world, real life faith that involves real people.  In the end it’s a rejection of Christianity which is all about God in the flesh.  It’s an incarnate faith in the One who came to redeem human beings and all creation through His bodily death and bodily resurrection.  That’s not just some free-floating spirituality; that’s real doctrine, real people, real, organized, congregation-type religion. 
 
What our sinful nature wants is a generic, easily managed belief system of self-fulfillment.  We like being “spiritual” because it sounds pious, but in fact, being “spiritual” often means taking the body out of the equation in favor of some sort of divine energy within.  The sinful nature loves this because then you can claim to have faith while your bodily life is involved in unfaithfulness: gluttony or overdrinking with the mouth, lusting after others or viewing pornography with the eyes, taking part in ungodly gossip or crude joking with the mouth and ears, physical laziness in carrying out your real-world, organized, ordinary vocations that serve the neighbor. 
 
It’s no coincidence, then, that our “spiritual, but not religious” culture grows more and more sexually immoral, as if one’s bodily behavior or one’s created gender is disconnected from one’s faith in the God who Himself made our bodies.  A purely spiritual faith doesn’t necessarily concern itself with chastity, or for that matter with visiting “orphans and widows in their affliction” and keeping oneself “unstained from the world” as James 1:27 describes it.  But in fact St. James calls the doing of those things “religion that is pure and undefiled before God.”  
 
Focusing only on the soul and “being spiritual” is to miss the whole point of what the human spirit was created to do: namely, to animate one particular human body, to dwell in human flesh, to live in the perfect glory that God meant for us when He made man and breathed life into his physical body.  There are those who think that the ultimate spiritual occurrence would be to have an out of body experience.  But there is actually a term for an out of body experience, the separation of the spirit from the body–it’s called “death.”  And the Bible refers to that as a curse, and our enemy.
 
To be truly alive is to be like Jesus after the resurrection.  For on that first Easter evening, the disciples were locked in a room in fear.  And who came to visit them?  Not a ghost. Not a spirit.  Not an idea in their heads or feelings in their hearts.  Rather it was Jesus, the incarnate God, the bodily resurrected Son, who came to them. He did not come bearing a socially-acceptable, safe, and self-serving spirituality. Rather He came bearing His body, standing in the flesh among them, and He said to them: “Peace be with you.”null
 
This is exactly what they needed to hear out loud in the midst of their fears and guilt and uncertainty about the future as they huddled behind locked doors.  And it’s exactly what we need to hear, too.  Jesus is saying, “Do not be afraid; I took away all your sins and failures in my death on the cross.  I have conquered the grave for you; it has no power over you any longer.  I have reconciled you to the Father.  All is well.  Let not your hearts be troubled.  Peace be with you.”
 
This peace of God comes bodily. It is not an abstract idea, but a fleshly reality in Jesus, the Prince of Peace and the Source of Peace.  Having given the apostles this gift, Jesus goes on to give them the Holy Spirit and the authority to forgive sins: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” And even here, the Spirit is not given to the apostles spiritually, but rather bodily. For notice how it says that the Lord “breathed on them.” He ordained them in this physical way, just as Jesus touched the sick and sinners to heal and release them.  The apostles would later pass on this authority to forgive sins to other men, not through silent prayer, not through mystical divine energy rituals, but through the physical laying on of hands with the words of God.
 
Here’s another way of putting it and thinking about it:  Jesus did not come to make the world more spiritual, but rather to restore and renew and glorify its tangible, concrete createdness.  In a very real sense our bodies right now are only shadows of what they were created to be.  The way the Bible speaks of it, what we look forward to as Christians is not so much us going to some spiritual existence in heaven, but heaven coming to earth, God coming to dwell with His resurrected people in a renewed creation freed from the curse.
 
So when St. Thomas the doubter was present the next Sunday, our Lord Jesus did not offer Him a mystical vision, positive energy, or an aura: rather He offered St. Thomas His very fleshly body, and His wounds, given physically for him to see and touch. Thomas did not look within for a spiritual experience with his eyes closed, but rather stuck his finger into the Lord’s hand and side. And Thomas confessed: “My Lord and my God!” He did not believe in Jesus the ghost or Jesus the literary character. He believed in Jesus: the Son of God, the Son of Man, who took flesh in order to die, who died in order to rise, who rose in order that we too might rise, and do so bodily.
 
There was another son of man from we heard about in the OT reading who had an encounter in the Spirit of the Lord that was anything but a “spiritual” experience. For Ezekiel saw a field of bones. And when the prophet preached the Word to these bones, the breath, that is, the spirit, entered them. But the result was not spiritual, but physical: “I will lay sinews upon you,” says the Lord, “and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live…. And there was a rattling and the bones came together.” And then came sinews and flesh and skin. And when the breath, that is, the spirit entered the flesh, the flesh came to life: “an exceedingly great army.”  The Lord did not speak through Ezekiel promising a vague spirituality, but something starkly physical: “Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves…. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, O My people. And I will put My Spirit within you, and you shall live.” (Ezekiel 37)
 
How remarkable this Word is, this promise fulfilled before the doubting eyes of Thomas, whose hands touched the reality, whose eyes saw physically.  Thomas himself would go on to baptize, preach, and administer Holy Communion in the flesh until his dying day.
 
Anyone who would try to “spiritualize” Jesus is attempting to tame Him, control Him, and reduce Him to a moralizing, milquetoast guru, instead of submitting to the Almighty One who conquered death by dying, and who physically rose from the tomb so that we too might rise.
So let me say it once more:  Christianity is not about generic spirituality, but about Jesus: His body and His blood, the water that flowed from His side, and the touch of His nail-scarred, forgiving hands. This is very Good News for you, and part of the good news is that you experience this Gospel physically, through your bodily senses–from your Holy Baptism which you experienced in the flesh through feeling the water and the sound waves of the words; from the preached Law and Gospel and Holy Absolution, receiving by faith that which comes by hearing with your ears; and from Holy Communion, the flesh and blood of Jesus eaten with the mouth by flesh and blood sinners, for forgiveness, life, and salvation.
 
“For everyone,” says John in the epistle, “who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood – Jesus Christ.”
 
Fellow believers, fellow religious Christians, our Lord does not compare us to phantoms that run on positive thoughts, but rather to “newborn babies” who “desire the pure milk of the Word.” For Jesus is risen from the dead, and He stood on His feet in the midst of the disciples and said with His mouth words that ring true still today, “Peace be with you.”   This is how we now can confess with our mouths: “I believe in… the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”  For Jesus has come in the flesh to join us to Himself and to make us to be members of His risen body.  May we all confess the same thing about this incarnate One that Thomas did, “My Lord and my God!”
 
In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit
 
 (With thanks to the Rev. Larry Beane for much of the above.)
Posted on April 03, 2016 11:50 AM by Aaron Koch
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Revelation 2: To the Church in Smyrna

Revelation 2:8-11
Midweek Lent 1

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    The second letter of our Lord Jesus in Revelation is to the church in Smyrna.  Smyrna was a city in Asia Minor that had become fairly well-to-do because of its firm loyalty to Rome and the Roman empire.  Smyrna was the first city in the ancient world to build a temple in honor of the goddess of Rome.  There was also a temple built to Tiberias Caesar, and to the Roman Senate.  Because of Smyrna’s strong allegiance to the empire, they were rewarded with imperial monies that built a well-known stadium, a noted library, and a large public theater.  Rome referred to Smyrna as “the crown” of Asia.

    These circumstances presented some trouble for the Christians who lived there.  For believers could not take part in the various pagan temple rites that would’ve been common among the citizens of that city.  This caused economic hardship to many believers.  How were Christians supposed to get a decent job when everyone thought of them as irreligious and unpatriotic for not taking part in the imperial worship?  Even though the church would pray for the Caesar as God’s civil authority and would obey the laws and pay the taxes, they would still be looked on with suspicion.  Through a serious distortion of what the Lord’s Supper was, rumors abounded that Christians were cannibals, eating the body and drinking the blood of some victim.  In this sort of context, it’s easy to see how most believers were poor.  Jesus says here, “I know your tribulation and your poverty.”

    During certain periods in the early church outright persecution of Christians would take place.  All someone had to do during these times was to bring a charge against someone for being a Christian, and they could be imprisoned or put to death.  Often those who had been charged as Christians would be given an opportunity to deny their faith or recant it by offering up incense to Caesar and saying “Caesar is Lord.”  If they performed that act of worship and loyalty to the Roman emperor, then they could go free.  However, if they didn’t, then they could lose their life.  Believers could not say, “Caesar is Lord,” but only, “Jesus is Lord.”null

    One of the groups that was giving Christians trouble in Smyrna was the Jews.  Jesus says here, “I know the blasphemy of those say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.”  True Jews, true Israelites believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the Savior.  But these were blasphemers, in league with the evil one.  For the name “Satan” literally means, “accuser.”  And they were accusing the Christians to the authorities in order to do them harm.  These Jews did not like the pagan worship of the Romans, but they seemed to hate the Christians even more passionately.

    One famous Christian from Smyrna who was martyred was a man named Polycarp, who was the bishop of the church in Smyrna.  This old man was brought into the stadium before the crowds, who shouted at him, “Away with the atheist!”  See, they thought of Christians as atheists, because Christians had a God you couldn’t see and wouldn’t bow down to their gods, whom you could see.  But bishop Polycarp turned to the crowd, and with a wave of his hand said to them, “Away with the atheists!”  After refusing to renounce the Lord Jesus whom he had served for 86 years, Polycarp was burned to death.

    So, how does all of this apply to us?  Well, thankfully in one sense, things aren’t so dire for us yet as they were for those in Smyrna.  But still, consider this: Roman citizens made a god and a religion out of their empire and their rulers.  In a similar vein, are people in this country sometimes more religiously fervent about their patriotism than about Christ and His Word?  Do we ever see symbols of our country and symbols of religion being combined and intermingled–angels holding the American flag, or flag draped crosses, or July 4th church services that are more pro-USA than they are pro-Jesus?  We must always be on guard against the mixing and confusing of the civil realm and the spiritual realm.  For to make any worldly thing, even our country, the object of our worship and highest loyalty, is to commit idolatry.  

    On the economic side, being a Christian can also present challenges to God’s people today.  Refusing to engage in unethical practices like everyone else seems to be doing can close the door to advancement at work.  Likewise, having it known that you’re against abortion or homosexuality or living together before marriage, or that you believe that the Bible is literally true and that Jesus is the only way to eternal life can cause you to be ostracized or thought of as extreme.  That’s certainly how the cultural elite today want to paint the church.  We’re not yet faced with demands to deny the faith or be executed.  But we are tempted to compromise and downplay what we believe and go with the flow so that we don’t lose our social or economic standing.  Giving such homage to the spirit of the culture is also a form of idolatry that we must be on guard against.

    To all of this Jesus says, “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer.”  To live in fear of what men can do to us is not to live in trust of our Creator and Redeemer God.  In the Gospel Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”  Rather, let us learn to fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  For we are of great value to Him.  Jesus reminds us here, “I am the First and the Last.”  In other words, “I was here before your enemies were, and I’ll be here long after they’re dead and gone.  So do not fear them; I will deliver you from them.”  “I am the One who was dead and came back to life.  They did their worst to me and failed.  So also, they may cause you grief or pain or even death, but they can do nothing to separate you from My love.”  “You will have tribulation, but it will only be for ten days; in other words, it has a limit and an end when it will all be over.”  “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”  

    Smyrna may have been called the crown of Asia, but it wasn’t long before it’s edifices were piles of broken stone, as was the case also with Rome.  It was a crown that faded.  But Jesus gives a crown that does not fade away, that not even death can touch.  For the crown of glory we wear is His own.  The life that we have is His own eternal life.  That is how Jesus can say to those who are poor, “You are rich.”  For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  St. Paul writes, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.”  Not only will we be with our Savior Jesus, but we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

    We are given to wear the crown of life because Jesus was given to wear the crown of thorns.  He bore our curse and died our death–not only our first death, but also our second death.  That is to say, not only did He suffer temporal death but also and especially He suffered eternal death and hell for us on the cross.  That second, eternal death is conquered by Jesus’ death and resurrection.  It has no power over you any longer.  That’s why Jesus says, “He who overcomes [by faith] shall not be hurt by the second death.”  Rather, we look forward to the resurrection of the body.

    “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father in heaven.”  To confess Jesus before men is to say “yes” to Him when the world wants you to say “no” or “maybe” or “I’m not sure.”  To confess Jesus before men is to be willing to let it be known that Jesus is your Lord and the One you stake your life on.  And if you’ve faltered in confessing Jesus in the past, remember Peter, who denied Christ three times but was three times forgiven and restored.  So also, all your sins are forgiven, and you are restored in Jesus.  He has said an unwavering “yes” to you in your baptism, confessing your name before His Father in heaven.  And on the Last Day He will again say, “Yes, this one was born in Zion; this one is Mine.”

    “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

Posted on February 17, 2016 8:08 PM by Aaron Koch
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Whatever is Right I Will Give You

Septuagesima
 
 
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
 
What is the real difference between the first and the last laborers in the vineyard?  Some might think it’s simply a matter of greed and jealousy, that the first workers didn’t get what they thought they deserved in comparison to the others.  And we can sort of understand their point.  We wouldn’t like it if somebody got paid the same as we did for doing only a fraction of the work.  Nothing seems to arouse our passions more than if there’s even a hint that we are being treated unfairly in money matters.  We love to grouse about overpaid athletes and greedy political and corporate insiders and how we’re not getting paid as much as we’re worth at our job and how high prices have gotten for this or that.  Of course, when we get more than we deserve, a deal that’s more than fair, we’re rarely as vocal about that, unless we’re bragging–which if you think about it is the same as grumbling in an opposite way, just the flip side of an obsession with oneself.  “I’m not being treated fairly” and “Look at what an awesome dealmaker I am” are both attempts at self-exaltation.  But even so, that’s not the primary difference between the first and the last laborers in the vineyard.  It goes deeper than that.
 
The first laborers had an agreement, a contract with the landowner to work for a denarius a day, which was the going rate for a day’s work.  This was a fair day’s wage for a good day’s labor.  The other laborers, though, had no such agreement, no contract.  They didn’t insist upon definite terms.  The landowner simply said, “Go into the vineyard, and whatever is right, I will give you.” null
 
Now if that was you, would you have gone to work for this landowner?  Would you labor for him not knowing what your wages were going to be, if all you had to go on was His promise to do what was right?  It all depends, doesn’t it?  It depends on what kind of person you think him to be–is he miserly or generous, is he a man of good character or bad?  It depends on whether or not you trust him–do you know him, do you have a good relationship with him?  If you didn’t trust the landowner, you probably wouldn’t go into his vineyard.  If you did, you would.
 
That ultimately is the real difference between the first and the last in this parable.  The first were dealing with the landowner on the basis of a contract; the last were dealing with him on the basis of trust in his goodness.  The first wanted to deal with him on what they deemed to be fair.  The last dealt with him on the basis of what he deemed to be good and right.  That’s a big difference.
 
The owner of the vineyard in this parable is God the Father.  By His Word and Spirit He sends out the call of the Gospel to come into His vineyard, which is the church, and for His people to be about the things pertaining to the holy Vine, Jesus Christ.  Some come into the church from the first moments of their life, baptized as infants, remaining faithful their entire lives.  Others are converted as adults.  Some aren’t brought to faith in Christ the Savior until their lives are almost over.  But God gives all the same salvation at the end of the day: full forgiveness of sins, deliverance from death and the devil, everlasting life with Him in heaven.  He does this not because He is unfair, but rather, because He is generous and loving and merciful.  He pours out His gifts on His people abundantly and lavishly.  For the reward at the end of the day is given not based on our work but on the work of His Son, who lived and died and was raised again for us.
 
The problem arises when some in the vineyard of the church begin to think that their length of time and service is what earns salvation, who want God to work on the merit system.  The problem is that this attitude destroys the relationship of love that God wishes to have with His people.  Love has nothing to do with what is owed or deserved.  Real love is a freely given gift with no strings attached.  As soon as we start wanting to deal with God on the basis of what He owes us, it is no longer a relationship of love, but in the end one of manipulation, where we get God to do what we want by pulling the right strings.  We put in the good works, like a coin into the slot, and out comes the blessing.  To treat God like that is really to treat Him as nothing more than a vending machine or a puppet.
 
Besides, it’s foolishness for us to want God to give us what we deserve, anyway.  For here’s what the Scriptures say about our fair wages, “The wages of sin is death.”  Those who end up in hell are really in the end only getting what they asked for, namely, the just and fair payment for their faithless works.  “Go your way,” the landowner said.  Have it your way.  Hell is filled with grumbling and complaining against God.  The damned actually believe that God is wrong, that He’s being unfair to them.  This worsening bitterness and teeth-gritting frustration is a big part of their unending torment. 
 
Do you find yourself considering God to be unfair because of your situation in life or something that’s happened to you?  Are you one whose religion is like a contract with God, a system of rewards for your good deeds?  Do you negotiate with God in your prayers (I’ll do this for you if you do this for me)?  If so, then you are behaving like the first laborers in this parable, and you must repent.  Turn away from ranking yourself above others, turn away from your own works, and turn to the works of Christ.  Believe that it is only and entirely through Him that you receive any blessing from the Father.  Trust in Christ alone to save you from death and hell.  
 
That is the difference between the first and the last, between unbelief and faith.  Unbelievers seek a God who is fair, and when they find Him, they don’t like Him.  Believers seek a God who is merciful and gracious, and when He finds them, they love Him.  (Notice how in the parable, it’s the owner who finds the workers.  He initiates the “hiring.”)  Believers know that it is only by grace that they are even in the vineyard, no matter how long they’ve been there.  They consider it a privilege and an honor to be able to contribute to the health and the growth of the vineyard.  They are not jealous of the newcomer or the repentant restored sinner or the one converted in his dying days, but they rejoice that the same mercy that saved them has also saved another.  Even a faithful lifelong Christian recognizes that of himself he deserves nothing and that it is only because of Jesus that he has forgiveness and life.  As it is written, “The free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).”  And again, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).” 
 
Remember, the landowner said, “Go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.”  The word for “right” in the Greek can also be translated “righteous.”  “Whatever is righteous I will give you.”  That puts a little different perspective on that phrase, doesn’t it.  God is not simply saying, “I will give you whatever is fair,” but, “I will give to you according to my righteous plan of grace.”  “I will give to you what My righteous Son Jesus won for you.”  Or most simply, “I will give you My righteousness.”  It is written in Romans 3, “You are declared righteous freely by God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
 
Now this does not mean that we are to be lax and lazy about good works; not at all.  For there is something else about God’s grace here that goes even further, which we don’t often talk about: namely that once God has freely forgiven you and made you a Christian, He does offer rewards for your good works, and that also is a free gift of His mercy.  Listen to what our Lutheran Confession of faith says.  This is from the Apology or the Defense of the Augsburg Confession:  
 
“Here also we add something concerning rewards and merits. We teach that rewards have been offered and promised to the works of believers. We teach that good works are meritorious, not for the forgiveness of sins, . . . but for other rewards, bodily and spiritual, in this life and after this life, because Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:8, “Every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labor.”  There will, therefore, be different rewards according to different labors. But the forgiveness of sins is alike and equal to all. . .  (For instance,) Paul, in Ephesians 6:2,  commends to us the commandment concerning honoring parents, by mention of the reward which is added to that commandment, where he does not mean that obedience to parents justifies us before God, but that, when it occurs in those who have been justified, it merits other great rewards.”  
Just as disobeying God’s commands can bring great trouble and hardship to people, so also keeping His commands has the promise of great blessings, both for this life and the life of the world to come. This should encourage us to do diligent work in the vineyard.
 
But then, since even this notion of rewards for good works can lead to pride, the Lutheran Reformers go on to remind us of this: “Yet God exercises His saints variously, and often defers the rewards of the righteousness of works in order that they may learn not to trust in their own righteousness, and may learn to seek the will of God rather than the rewards; as appears in Job, in Christ, and other saints” who suffered greatly while doing good.  The Word of God speaks of the blessing and the reward of doing good works, both for this life and the next.  And so we should be moved to do good works.  After all, we aren’t in the vineyard to sit around in the shade but to labor while it is day, before the night comes when no one can work.  But our work is always to be offered in the humility of faith.
 
           It is as we prayed in the Introit, “The Lord will save the humble people, but will bring down proud and haughty looks.”  Or as Jesus said, “The last will be first, and the first last.”  For this is His way.  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–handed over to Pontius Pilate at dawn, crucified at the third hour of the day; then 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 before you were even brought to the faith.  Hear again those words from the cross, “It is finished.”  For you.
 
Let us then be truly full of good works by trusting in this grace of Christ alone to save us.  Or as St. Paul puts it, let us run in such a way as to obtain the prize of life with Christ.  Let us run with the certainty of faith, setting our hearts on Him, disciplining our bodies and minds, filling ourselves with His words and His life-giving body and blood.  Come and lay hold of the denarius Christ earned for you–not because it’s owed; but simply because it is His pleasure and delight to be generous and loving toward you, to give you whatever is right.
 
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
Posted on January 24, 2016 11:32 AM by Aaron Koch
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Jesus Trespasses into Baptism for Your Trespasses

Matthew 3:13-17
Baptism of our Lord

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

    John the Baptist is back again.  You remember him from Advent, the one preparing the way of the Lord, the one who proclaimed to those who came out to him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come, the unquenchable fire?”  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”  “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.”  With such words, John the Baptist reminds us that the Christian faith is not always about being nice–though, of course, kindness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, along with love.  However, love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.  And the truth about our sin is not something we want to hear.  The old Adam only wants to hear the truth in watered-down and corrupted form.  “Sure you’ve made mistakes and have your failings, but if you try hard to do what’s right, if your intentions are good, God won’t hold it against you.  Besides, your sins aren’t really that bad.  Nobody’s perfect.”  That’s the kind of talk that the old Adam is drawn to and that he himself engages in; for then he can still find his security in himself and not in God alone.  John won’t let us get away with that.

    Now it is true that, according to Scripture, we are to speak the truth in love.  Our purpose in speaking the truth is always to be for the good of the one who is hearing us; that’s love’s goal.  But hearing the truth about sin, hearing the call to repentance rarely seems loving at the time.  It sounds like judgmentalism and an attack.  We put up our walls and instantly start blaming the messenger of the truth.  But the reality is that John the Baptist actually was speaking the truth in love when he called those coming out to him a brood of vipers, children of the snake of Eden.  For only when they had come to truly see their deathly spiritual condition would they desire the holy cure in Christ and penitently receive His kingdom of pure grace.

    And the same is true for us yet today.  John’s voice still rings through the centuries, calling us away from the fatal loves of this world, from taking refuge in our family heritage or our own spiritual efforts and self-justifications.  He turns us from the way of death, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Jesus the King is here in His words and the sacraments.  Receive Him in humble repentance.  Find your life in Him alone.null

    It’s important that we begin today by remembering all of this about John’s baptism, that it was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  For only then can we begin to understand what’s going on here in today’s Gospel.  John prepared the way of the Lord, but even he didn’t fully grasp the ways of the Lord.  John seems shocked when Jesus comes to him to be baptized, and it is written that John tried to prevent Him, to stop Him from being baptized!  “What are you doing, Jesus?  This is a baptism for those who need to repent.  This is a baptism for sinners in need of forgiveness, not for You, the sinless Son of God.  I should be the one being baptized by You!  Why are you coming to me?  This seems all wrong and improper and upside down.”  

    But Jesus responds, “Permit it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”  This is proper; this is right.  For this is why I have come–to stand with sinners in order to save sinners.  

    A pastor friend of mine described what Jesus was doing as a divine trespass.  Usually when we think of trespasses and sins, we think of how we’ve crossed over a boundary and have gone where we shouldn’t go.  By crossing the line, we attempt to enter into God’s territory and do things our own way as if we’re in charge.  But here Jesus does just the opposite.  He crosses out of divine territory and into the territory of fallen man.  He trespasses for our good out of His realm as God into the mud and muck of our sin as fallen creatures.  He doesn’t just make Himself to be like us by becoming human–that we celebrated at Christmas.  Now He goes the final step, the full trespass, and He makes Himself like us by even allowing Himself to be dirtied with our sin.  

    Today, the Son of God is numbered with the trespassers, so that we trespassers may be restored to being children of God.  Saying it most starkly, today Jesus becomes Sin with a capital S.  And if that sounds blasphemous, listen again to these words from 2 Corinthians, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  Jesus became a sinner so that you would become saints.  He had no sin of His own; but He made your sin His own, as if He had committed it all.  Isn’t that what John said after Jesus baptism, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  You might say that Jesus stole your sins from you; He took them away.  The only way they can damn you now is if you steal them back and insist on continuing in them and keeping them away from Jesus.  Either your sins are on Him or they’re on you.  And Jesus says today, “They’re all on me.  I took them.  Believe that; deal with it. You don’t get to hold on to them any more; you don’t get to keep beating yourself up over them.  I became your pride, your greed, your lust, your immorality, your jealousy, your impatience, your laziness and weakness.  And in turn you have become My righteousness, My holiness, My glory.  Today I begin My sacred journey toward Calvary, bearing and carrying the sin of the world, so that I may destroy it there by My death and the shedding of My blood.”  

    You see, at His baptism Jesus was not just interacting in some shallow way with the common man.  He is not like Hollywood actors or politicians who go and serve at the local soup kitchen to “identify” with those less fortunate than themselves. Rather, Jesus is more like a very rich man who gives up all his advantages and stands in line with the beggars, and becomes dirt poor and dirty Himself.   He goes so far as to take your place and put Himself into your bondage in order that He might burst the bars of your captivity and conquer your satanic captor.  As Isaiah prophesied, God’s Servant Jesus will “bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.”  Our Lord’s Baptism and His holy cross are inseparably connected.  For on both occasions He is there as your substitute.  He trades places with you to set you free from the power of death and to give you the glorious liberty of His everlasting life.

    This is why we hold baptism in such high regard.  This is why it is such a powerful act of God and a true Sacrament.  Our Lord Jesus has put Himself into it!  He who paid the penalty for our sins on the cross has “trespassed” into the water and sanctified it with His real presence.  Christ is in the water to make baptism a fountain of grace and forgiveness and life.  Baptism and the cross still go together, for your salvation, even as they call you to die to yourself and rise with Christ to newness of life.

    There are those who hold baptism in low esteem and consider it to be a mere ceremony or human act of dedication.  They say that Jesus was merely setting an example for us here.  And so the Small Catechism poses the question, “How can water do such great things?” like rescuing from death and the devil and giving eternal salvation to all who believe.  The answer: “Certainly not just water, but the word of God in and with the water does these things, along with the faith which trusts this word of God in the water.”  Do you see?  It's not mere water that does these wonderful things.  It is the Word of God that is in the water that is the key thing, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, whom our hearts cling to and trust in.  His presence makes baptism a life-giving, faith creating event.  As Titus chapter three says, “[God the Father] saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.”  He who needed no baptism put Himself into the River in order that your baptism might be a holy cleansing.  What was washed away from you in your baptism was washed onto Jesus and absorbed by Him in His baptism, that He might take it away from you and conquer it forever.

    That’s why the heavenly Father is so pleased with His Son here.  Jesus faithfully and humbly obeys His Father and gives Himself in love to accomplish your redemption.  And therefore, in Jesus, the Father is perfectly pleased with you as well.  At the holy font you truly were Christened, incorporated into Christ’s body, made to be the temple of the Holy Spirit that descended upon His body.  You’ve become part of the divine family, children of the heavenly Father.  For it is written, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”  No longer are you the brood and offspring of the serpent.  You are sons of God in Christ, forgiven and redeemed and holy children, well-pleasing to Him in Jesus.  God the Father is happy with you; He rejoices in you, His baptized ones.

    Brothers and sisters of Christ, heaven has been opened to you.  The “No Trespassing” sign for sinners has been torn down.  You’re allowed in because of the Divine Trespass of Jesus.  You have crossed the Jordan with Jesus into the Promised Land.  This is real.  You are a child of God in Jesus.  You are precious in God’s sight.  You are His beloved.  Stay close to the river of baptism.  Come back to it daily in repentance and faith.  For your Life, your Jesus, is in the water.  

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

Posted on January 10, 2016 11:28 AM by MountZion Office
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Partaking in Christ's Sufferings

1 Peter 4:12-19; Matthew 2:13-23
Christmas 2

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

    Today’s Epistle begins by saying, “Do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.”  And yet we still do think it’s strange when bad things happen to us, don’t we?  We’re still shocked and surprised when we have to go through trials and afflictions and sufferings.  For we generally live in denial of the way things are with us and with this world.  We suppress the truth of our original sin and the curse on this creation.  And we pretend that we can be Christians in this world without having to suffer the consequences of following Christ.  So when things go wrong, we get frustrated and angry as if some strange and unfair and totally unexpected thing were happening to us.  Today’s readings help to set matters straight for us.

    First of all, we need to recognize that very often we suffer as a result of our own foolishness.  It is written in 1 Peter, “Let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters.”  And yet we do.  We murder by daydreaming about payback for those who have hurt us; we steal by getting things under false pretenses; we commit sexual sins in heart and mind if not also in body; we gossip about others and stick our nose in where it doesn’t belong.  We commit all manner of sins that have all manner of spiritual and physical consequences.  So much of the suffering we have to deal with in our lives is self-inflicted, whether it’s in our health or in our finances or in our relationships.  We like to rationalize our behavior and make excuses and deflect blame.  But the Scriptural saying holds true, “You reap what you sow.”  It is written in Galatians, “He who sows to His flesh will of the flesh reap corruption.”  Man very often blames God for the deadly consequences of his own sin.null

    Of course, it is true that some of what you suffer isn’t your fault.  Some of it is the collateral damage of other people’s foolishness.  It’s not just that people make “mistakes” or “bad choices”; they sin.  And sin always has ripple effects.  Sometimes you get caught in that wake, which very often feels more like a tsunami.  Often it’s those who are the most vulnerable who bear the brunt of other people’s behavior.  We shouldn’t be surprised that living as a sinner among sinners in a fallen world, we’re going to have to regularly deal with the aftereffects of the fall in trials and afflictions.

    But here’s where Jesus enters into the picture.  Here’s where our suffering is redeemed by the Son of God, who shared fully in our humanity and bore our infirmities and sins and carried all of our afflictions.  For Peter’s main point here is not about suffering because of sin but suffering because of Christ who has taken away our sin and saved us.  He says, “Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings. . . If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.”  Holding to the words and the ways of Christ is to be in conflict with the words and the ways of this world.  We should not think it strange or be shocked when we suffer as followers of Jesus, for it is precisely through suffering that He redeemed us.  Not only should we not be surprised at suffering for Jesus’ name, we should in fact rejoice that we have been given that privilege, that we have been granted a portion in Christ’s cross and its blessings.  In Acts chapter 5, in the early days of the church, the apostles were beaten for preaching the name of Jesus.  Afterwards, it is written, “So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.  And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”  To be a disciple of Jesus is to take up the cross daily and follow Him, holding to the faith in spite of the cost.

    From the very earliest moments of His life, we see that the way of Christ is the way of the cross.  Not only was He born in the most humble circumstances, as we heard at Christmas.  But from the very start, the infant Son of God was vulnerable and under assault.  The people of this world will try to destroy anything that threatens the worldly power and treasures they hold onto.  And King Herod was no different.  Seeing Jesus as a future rival to His throne, he took the horrific and tyrannical step of trying to destroy Him by killing all the infant boys in the city of Bethlehem, even up to two years old!  Jesus and His family had to flee for refuge to a foreign country, Egypt.  Even upon their return to Israel, they had to change their destination out of fear of Herod’s son, Archelaus.  There was nothing glorious or easy or free of suffering even in the earliest days of Jesus’ life.  If that is true of our Lord, we should not be surprised if it is true also for us.  For Jesus said, “A disciple is not above his Teacher.”  

    There is some comfort to be taken in this, however.  Looking at Jesus’ childhood, it appeared that things were rather out of control.  Joseph and Mary may well have wondered just what was going on.  Simeon had spoken of how Jesus would be a sign that would be spoken against.  But I’m sure they still expected that the Messianic promises regarding Jesus might have meant something more glorious than living as refugees in Egypt and shuffling around from this place to that.  And yet even though they couldn’t see the whole picture at the time, all of this took place in fulfillment of Scripture and to carry out God’s eternal plan of salvation.  What seemed out of control was still under God’s gracious direction.  And so it is also for all of you who are baptized into Christ.  No matter what’s going on in your life, you can still be confident that your times are in His hands.

    For Jesus, that detour to Egypt fulfilled God’s plan in Hosea 11, where He said, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”  Hosea’s prophecy was originally spoken concerning the entire nation of Israel who had been slaves in Egypt.  That is why it was important that Jesus also would be called from Egypt, too.  For it was His task to be the embodiment of God’s people, to do perfectly and without sin what Israel had failed to do.  After being delivered from their slavery, the children of Israel had grumbled against God and rebelled against Him.  They did not live as His holy people or glorify His name among the nations.  But now the Child of Israel, Jesus, has come to do that perfectly, accomplishing God’s will completely on behalf of Israel and all people.  So in the seemingly minor detail of the calling of Jesus out of Egypt, we see that He was fulfilling the Law for us, actively doing all that was necessary to rescue us.  Jesus is the new Jacob, the new Israel, going down to Egypt and coming up again to be our Redeemer, to bring us into the Promised Land of life with God.

    So also in the prophecy that Jesus would be a Nazarene.  It was more than just political circumstances that were at play in Jesus living in Nazareth.  In the Old Testament we learn that the Messiah would be humble and ultimately even despised.  And if there was ever a lowly and despised town in Israel, one that you didn’t want to admit you were from, it was Nazareth, near Gentile territory.  Even one of Jesus' own disciples once said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  That is why Jesus was a Nazarene.  He was to bear affliction and rejection and the most horrific sufferings of the cross for you to cleanse you of all sin.  

    This is our comfort, then, in our own suffering.  Through such suffering our lives are being conformed to Christ.  In Him we trust that even when everything seems to be out of control, He is at work for our eternal good and our salvation.  Our suffering humbles us and empties us of our self-righteous foolishness and teaches us to look to the Lord for help.  And it reminds us of how He suffered for us.  The cross becomes all the more precious to us, that we have a God who loved us to that extent, who shed His blood for us, who has promised to never leave us or forsake us in our afflictions.  We learn to see that He is our only Help and our only Hope.

    The baby boys of Bethlehem suffered and died because they were under the wicked Herod’s authority.  But their suffering was redeemed because even more so their suffering was for the sake of Christ, who became a weak baby boy for them to rescue them.  Though it certainly didn’t seem so at the time, the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem were given to share in Christ’s glory as the first martyrs for His name.  Though their lives were violently cut short, they are blessed in Jesus, having been delivered so quickly from the burdens of this fallen world.  Being close to Christ does mean sharing in His sufferings.  But it is the opposite of being in the wake of those people who bring you trouble by what they do.  Here through partaking in Christ’s suffering, He brings you to glory.

    So in the midst of your afflictions, especially those trials you undergo for believing God’s Word and doing what is right in God’s sight, take to heart the words of God to you in Romans 8: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”  Not only back in bible times but also still today, God is active in human history working out His good and perfect will for the sake of His church.   And so we trust that despite any appearances to the contrary, God is with us and graciously at work in our lives.  For we are the called ones, chosen in Holy Baptism, made to be the forgiven children of God.  Even in the midst of our human vulnerability, God is carrying out His almighty will for our benefit.

    And in those times when you can’t make sense of things, when you feel like the parents of Bethlehem, whose infant children were slaughtered before their eyes, when there seems to be no valid purpose or meaning to what’s going on in your lives, God points your eyes again to the cross.  For there in that greatest display of God’s all-powerful weakness, there in that senseless and yet most meaningful death of Jesus, you are assured that God’s love for you is limitless and unshakable.  There is nothing in all of creation that can separate you from the love of God in Christ.

    Come, then, to the altar of the Lord’s love.  You are here given to partake of Christ's sufferings in a most blessed way.  If the almighty Lord would go so far as to take on your vulnerable human flesh, to die in the flesh and shed His blood, and then give you His resurrected flesh and blood for the forgiveness of your sins, certainly you can trust Him even in those times when there seems to be no reasonable answers to your questions.  For in the end, the answer to all of those questions, the solution to all of those problems is the One in the manger and on the cross and under the bread and the wine.  This is your strength for living in the new year.  And if you must suffer according to the will of God, commit your souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.

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

Posted on January 02, 2016 6:19 PM by Aaron Koch
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