The Festival of Our Lord’s Ascension – Pr. Faugstad exordium & sermon
Festival exordium:
When I was younger, it was common for athletes who had just won a championship to be asked what they were going to do next. And the answer they gave was almost always the same: “I’m going to Disneyland!”
What about Jesus when He won the victory over sin, death, and the devil? Where would He go? His disciples might have wished He would say, “I am going to go appear to the Jewish Council that condemned Me,” or “visit Pontius Pilate’s headquarters,” or even “march to the palace of the Roman Emperor.” Who could stand against Jesus or deny His power now that He had conquered death itself?
But Jesus had already told them where He was going. Just before His crucifixion, He said multiple times, “I am going to the Father” (Joh. 14:28, 16:5). On the day of His resurrection, He told Mary Magdalene to tell the disciples, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (Joh. 20:17).
But what good would going to the Father do? Why leave the earth at His hour of victory? Jesus ascended to the right hand of His Father because the work the Father had sent Him to do was complete.
God the Father sent His Son to fulfill the law for us sinners—check!
He sent His Son to make atonement for all sin by offering His perfect life on the cross—finished!
He sent His Son to defeat death by rising in victory over death and the grave—done!
Everything necessary to win our salvation was accomplished by Jesus. So now He ascended to His Father.
He ascended to prepare a place for us in His Father’s house (Joh. 14:2).
He ascended so that His enemies would become His footstool (Psa. 110:1, Heb. 10:13), and He would become Head over all things to His body the Church (Eph. 1:22-23).
He ascended so that the Holy Spirit would be sent out to convert hearts and strengthen faith through the Gospel until the end of time (Joh. 16:7).
Jesus had many good reasons for returning to His Father. This was all part of the plan. Jesus’ ascension, His removal of His visible presence, was not a sad day. It was not a day of loss. The disciples “returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Luk. 24:52), and we join them in rejoicing.
Let us rise to sing the hymn printed in the service folder, “O Wondrous Conqueror and Great”:
O wondrous Conqueror and great,
Scorned by the world You did create,
Your work is all completed!
Your toilsome course is at an end;
You to the Father do ascend,
In royal glory seated.
Lowly,
Holy,
Now victorious,
High and glorious:
Earth and heaven
To Your rule, O Christ, are given.
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Sermon text: St. Mark 16:14-20
In Christ Jesus, the King who reigns over all things and gives us the gifts of His grace, dear fellow redeemed:
The beginning and the end of today’s Gospel reading portrays the disciples in very different ways. Jesus first appeared to His disciples on Easter evening when they were huddled together in a tightly secured room. They were afraid of both the Jewish and the Roman authorities. If the authorities could do what they did to Jesus, wouldn’t Jesus’ followers be next?
Had they taken seriously Jesus’ words leading up to His crucifixion, they should have been excited about that Sunday. He told them multiple times that He would suffer many things in Jerusalem and would be killed, but on the third day He would rise. Sunday was the third day. Everything else Jesus said had happened. But in the disciples’ estimation, the thought of Jesus rising from the dead was a bridge too far. They might have thought to themselves: if He had the power to rise from the dead, why would He let Himself be arrested and killed in the first place?
The first message Jesus spoke to His disciples on that Sunday was, “Peace be with you” (Joh. 20:19). He wanted them to know they were still His disciples. He had not rejected them. But He did take them to task for denying His resurrection. St. Mark writes that “He rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw Him after He had risen.”
Everything hinged on His resurrection. It verified that Jesus was who He said—the eternal Son of God. It gave meaning to His suffering and death—these were done to make atonement for sin. And it gave a clear message and direction for what the disciples of Jesus would do going forward. They would tell everyone about the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, that He died and rose to save the world of sinners.
This is still the mission and message of the church. Jesus said, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” He doesn’t restrict the proclamation of the Gospel to certain groups of people or certain places. He wants the message of salvation to be broadcast everywhere. He wants everyone to know that He “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).
People are converted and become members of His holy body by Baptism, and they remain in that baptismal grace by continuing to hear His Word (Mat. 28:19-20). Baptism alone does not guarantee that someone will go to heaven, because the faith worked through the water and Word of Baptism can be lost. Jesus says, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe—whether or not they have been baptized—will be condemned.”
The key is to cling to Jesus’ saving Word. That is why Jesus had to rebuke His disciples. They weren’t listening to and trusting His Word. They were going by what seemed right to them. They were following their own reason. We are tempted to do the same today. We are tempted to go along with what the culture around us promotes, even when it is contrary to the Word of God. We do this because we don’t want to be singled out and targeted. We don’t want to be rejected by others when our beliefs don’t match up with the prevailing opinions around us.
But Jesus does not call us to fit in with the world. He calls us to be set apart. He says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me…. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Mat. 16:24,26). Jesus gives us more than the world. The world is small and insignificant compared with what He has won for us.
If you sold your soul for everything desirable in the world, you would only have it for a short time, and whatever you had would be lost. Jesus gives you eternal treasures that will never be taken from you. Through His death to pay for your sins and His resurrection to overcome your death, He has restored the image of God to you that Adam and Eve lost in the fall. You are covered in His righteousness and credited with His perfection. You have the victory over sin, death, and devil. You have eternal life.
These are the gifts of the King. He has the authority to give them to whomever He wants. He chooses to give them to you, and He wants to give them to many others besides. After Jesus’ ascension, this became clear to His disciples. They understood that they would not be with Jesus like they were before, speaking with Him face to face and physically going wherever He went. But He promised that He would be with them “always, to the end of the age” (Mat. 28:20).
Jesus’ ascension did not mean He had deserted His chosen disciples or any who would come after them. It meant that His work that the Father sent Him to do was complete. His ascension also did not mean that He was going into retirement. Today’s reading makes that clear. He promised to work signs through those who spread the message of salvation, such as casting out demons, making them immune to deadly poison, and giving them the ability to heal. When His disciples went out preaching the message of salvation, we are told that “the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.
Those signs were given for the initial spread of the Gospel. You can read in the Book of Acts about the miraculous abilities He gave the apostles. But once the early churches were established, those special gifts of the Spirit diminished. Jesus does not teach us to focus on having unique spiritual gifts, which is all that some modern Christian churches want to talk about. Jesus instead teaches us to hold fast to the Gospel.
The mission of His Church is to speak His Word. We are simply messengers of the King. We don’t come up with our own message, something new to excite the people in our community. We faithfully speak what we have been taught. We give what we have been given. We comfort as we have been comforted.
It may seem to us at times that we need something more. We hear the message of Jesus’ death and resurrection so often that it might seem to lose its power. If it is powerful, why don’t we see more growth in our churches? But what the King does with His Word is not the business of His subjects. The authority behind the Word is not ours; it is His. By the same token, the pressure to get results is not on us. When the King sends out His messengers, when Jesus sends out believers, our duty is to proclaim what He has done, and He will see to it that the Gospel message accomplishes what He pleases (Isa. 55:11)
Just as the Lord was still at work with His disciples after His ascension, so He is still working among us. From His position at the right hand of His Father, He fills all things, particularly working for the good of His Church (Eph. 1:22-23). It is His absolution that you hear from my mouth. It is His Word that sounds forth from the pulpit. It is His holy body and blood you receive in the Sacrament of the Altar.
His grace given to you and the Holy Spirit working in you is what gives you the motivation and the strength to take part in “proclaim[ing] the gospel to the whole creation.” Just as Jesus’ resurrection turned His disciples from fear to faith and cowardice to courage, so it does the same for you. You are a messenger of the crucified and risen King, Jesus Christ, at whose name “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phi. 2:10-11).
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from painting by John Singleton Copley, 1775)
The Sixth Sunday of Easter – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. John 16:23-30
In Christ Jesus, who has taught us to pray with all boldness and confidence because He has died for us, risen from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, dear fellow redeemed:
If there was something you wanted as a child, who were you more likely to ask: your mom or your dad? There were a number of factors to consider: First of all, their track record—who said “yes” more often than “no.” Second, their level of stress—who was in a better state of mind to consider your request. Third, their natural interest in your particular idea—for example, dad was maybe more disposed to say “yes” to ordering pizza, while mom was more willing to say “yes” to going to a friend’s house. There were some important calculations you had to make—and possibly some minor manipulations—to get your way.
This is not the sort of approach we need to take in praying to God. We do not need to guess what He might be thinking before we make our request. “For who has known the mind of the Lord?” (Rom. 11:34). We do not need to hope He is happy with us and looks with favor upon us before we pray. “For God so loved the world” (Joh. 3:16). We do not need to appeal to one Person of the Triune God over another, as though one is harder to approach or less willing to hear. For “God is one” (Gal. 3:20).
There is much in this world that discourages our prayer. But there is much in Jesus’ Word that encourages it. First of all, the obstacles to prayer. One of the obstacles to prayer is the thought that we don’t have time to pray. We have so much to do. We have to keep up with kids and work and appointments. We hardly have time to eat and exercise the way we want to. Even if we did carve out a few minutes for prayer, our brains are so full of what else needs to get done, that we could not focus anyway.
Another obstacle is our lack of confidence that we are praying in the right way. We know people who are good at it, it seems to come naturally to them, but that isn’t us. We stumble over our thoughts and our words. We imagine that God is in heaven shaking His head at our attempt. This obstacle is closely related to another one: I am not worthy to pray. Who am I to think God would ever want to hear my prayers? I have sinned too much. I haven’t been loving or kind to others like I should be. I don’t deserve to have what I want to ask for. The thought of trying to pray just makes me feel guilty.
Another obstacle is the thought that my praying won’t accomplish anything that isn’t already in God’s plan. This goes along with the idea that God has predetermined everything. He knows what He will do, and there’s nothing I can do to change that. So why pray? He knows what I need; He doesn’t need me to ask Him. Closely connected to this obstacle is the notion that God probably isn’t going to give me what I ask for, so why increase my frustration and pain for giving prayer a try and having it fail?
These are common obstacles to prayer. I am confident they sound familiar to you. If you polled one hundred Christians, I think the vast majority of them would say that their practice of prayer is weak or nearly non-existent. Our goal today is not to give you a list of ways to form a habit of prayer, to teach you to become a more effective pray-er, or to try to convince you how fun this can be. That would be trying to motivate you with the Law, and that would only lead to more guilt and failure. Instead, we will focus on the promises of Jesus, on His encouragements to pray, and the power and grace He imparts to us to bring our requests to God.
At the beginning of today’s reading, Jesus says, “Truly, truly—Amen, amen—I say to you.” Whenever He doubles the word “amen” or “truly,” we should listen carefully. He is saying something immovable, something He wants us to take to heart and keep there. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you.”
This is a glorious passage! Jesus is saying that there is no barrier between us and the Almighty Father, Maker of heaven and earth. Jesus taught His disciples in every time and place to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” In the Catechism, Martin Luther beautifully explains what this means: “God would hereby tenderly invite us to believe that He is our true Father, and that we are His true children, so that we may ask Him with all boldness and confidence, as children ask their dear father.”
The reason we can ask the Father with such boldness and confidence, and the way we do it, is “in Jesus’ name.” “In Jesus’ name” means in view of everything He did to save us. He paid for our sins, He overcame our death, He covers us in His righteousness. Because we are in Him, members of His body by faith, when the Father sees us, He sees His Son. When He hears us, He hears His Son. When He answers our prayers, He answers them as though His Son did the asking.
But if that is true, why don’t we receive everything we ask for? Did Jesus receive everything He asked for? Think about how He prayed in great agony in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His death: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luk. 22:42). Did Jesus receive what He asked for? The Father did not remove the cup of suffering from His Son. Jesus had to suffer the wrath of God and the fires of hell and die on the cross in order to make atonement for our sins. The Father’s love for us compelled Him to send His Son to suffering and death.
The cup of suffering was not removed from Jesus, but the Father’s will was done, and that is ultimately where Jesus left His request: “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” We pray in the same way when we are praying for things that we’re not sure God wants to give us. “If it is Your will, help my injury to heal, my health to improve, my finances to stabilize, my family to grow.” It may be His will to let our struggles continue a while longer in order to train us in our faith, our patience, and our humility.
But we do not pray to the Father expecting to come up empty-handed. We pray with confidence, in full expectation that He wants to bless us and will bless us. Jesus said, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Mat. 7:11). The Father loves you! He sent His only Son to die in your place! If He did not care about you, He would not have done this, He would not provide for your daily needs, and He would not continue to bring His holy Word to your ears and heart.
You have a gracious, generous God. There are so many proofs of this in the abilities, interests, and skills He has given you; in the food, clothing, and home you enjoy; in the family and friends that surround you. You are part of a Christian congregation; you hear His saving Word; you receive His life-giving Sacraments; you have a pastor who cares for your soul (Heb. 13:17). Your God forgives you, comforts you, strengthens you, protects you. He loves to hear your prayers, and He loves to give His gifts: “Ask,” says Jesus, “and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
These promises all hinged on Jesus completing the work His Father sent Him to do. Jesus said: “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” The disciples did not understand it at the time, but Jesus was telling them that He had to suffer and die, and that He would rise again and return in glory to His Father. His “leaving the world and going to the Father” at His ascension was the sign that His saving work was finished. It was the proof that the way was opened to the Father, that every believer has direct access to the Father in prayer.
Jesus’ death and resurrection to save our souls, His righteousness that covers us, His name placed on us in Baptism, is why we are confident in prayer. Through His Word and Sacraments, the Holy Spirit imparts the grace we need for praying. The Holy Spirit works in us the desire to speak to our Father in Jesus’ name, to bring all our concerns, struggles, and wants to Him, and to have confidence that everything we need, “whatever [we] ask,” rests in His merciful and all-powerful hands.
We don’t need to wait for the perfect time to pray; we don’t need to pray in the perfect way; we don’t need to wonder if God is ready to hear us or worry how He will respond. Effectiveness in prayer does not depend on how well we do it or on pulling the right strings. It depends on the love of God toward us. He wants us to pray. He promises to hear us. He loves us with a perfect love which means He is not looking to criticize us or judge us harshly for our weakness in prayer.
Like a dear mother or father who patiently and gladly listens to the request of a child, God listens to us. He knows all things, so He knows what is best for us. He will answer our prayers in such a way that we are spared from the weak impulses and inclinations of our sinful nature and are instead confirmed in His grace and truth. His perfect answers to our prayers increase our joy and move us to respond to Him in words of thanks and praise. So we say:
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Jesus and the Little Child” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Fifth Sunday of Easter & Saude Confirmation – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. John 16:5-15
In Christ Jesus, who spoke the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, because He is the truth, dear fellow redeemed:
Do you remember what happened the first time you told your parents a lie… and got caught? You lied because you didn’t want to get in trouble. You wanted to get away with something that you know you shouldn’t have done. But it didn’t work. Your parents found out. I am confident they did not respond by saying, “It’s no big deal.” Or, “You almost got us that time!” Or, “We’re glad to see you pursuing your truth.” You had to face the consequences, not only for the wrong thing you did, but also and especially for lying about it.
We are taught from a very young age to tell the truth. We must be taught it because it does not come naturally to us. The problem is, hardly anyone these days seems to agree on what exactly is true. We hear often enough, “What is true for you is not necessarily what is true for me.” Or, “One person’s truth is just as valid as another’s.” This makes all truth relative, totally dependent on what each individual thinks is right and wrong. But no society can actually function like this. With no truth boundaries in place, we would destroy each other.
This is why some people look to the government to establish truth. But government officials are not perfect. Laws that encourage and reward harmful activity can be put in place, and good laws can be changed by bad actors. What about the visible Christian Church? Can that establish truth? Church officials are sinful too. And what one church might call true and good, another might call false and evil because they don’t agree about what God wants them to teach and do. Should it be each household or community determining what is true? That just puts us back to truth being relative, decided by what seems right to each individual or small group.
The problem with all these options is that they start with humanity. They start with what we can do to create a peaceful, well-ordered society. If we were capable of this, or even moderately good at it, wouldn’t we see a lot more peace and order in history and a lot less violence and trouble? Jesus makes it clear that we sinners are not going to be able to raise ourselves out of the continuous conflict and suffering of the world. We need someone to come from the outside in, someone who is not held back by the same weakness and sin that we are.
Jesus was a Person like this. He did not come from the world; He made the world. John 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (vv. 1,3). Then the evangelist writes, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The Son of God took on human flesh by being born of the virgin Mary. Because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, He entered the world without sin. He was “full of grace and truth,” and He came to save the world (Joh. 3:17). He came to offer up His holy life as the payment for all sin, to make satisfaction for it by His death on the cross. Jesus spoke the words of today’s reading the night before He was crucified. He knew that He would suffer, that He would die, and that He would rise again on the third day. This is what His heavenly Father sent Him to do (Joh. 10:18).
After His work was complete, Jesus told the disciples that He must return to His Father. He would no longer be visibly present with them to teach them, answer their questions, and encourage them. This filled their hearts with sorrow. How could they go on without their Teacher and Lord? Jesus had the answer. He told them He would send the Holy Spirit to guide them into all the truth, to declare to them the things that were to come, and to take what was His and declare it to them.
When the disciples heard Jesus’ words before His death and resurrection, they could not make sense of any of it. After His resurrection, they began to understand Jesus’ purpose and plan for the salvation of the world. And then at Pentecost, ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven, it all became clear. God the Father and God the Son sent God the Holy Spirit to them just as Jesus had promised.
The Holy Spirit not only guided these chosen disciples to preach boldly in the name of Jesus, He also guided them to write histories and letters, so that others after them would hear the truth and would learn how to discern truth from error. We still have those Spirit-inspired writings today. They are collected in the New Testament of the Bible, along with the inspired words of the prophets in the Old Testament. We believe that the entire Bible is given to us by God. It was written down by men, but it contains no human opinions, no human errors, and no actual contradictions. It is the Word of God, which means it is true.
This is the truth that has gone out into the world and still goes out. It has changed the world and still changes it. But you might say, “If the Word of God is so powerful, if it is true, why isn’t the world a better place?” If you filled up on food at a recent meal, why do you keep more food in the cupboards and fridge? If a cut in your skin has healed, why do you keep bandages around? You know that just because you ate today and were in good shape today, that there will be hunger and other troubles tomorrow. We live in a fallen, sinful world, and each one of us is sinful.
One of the Holy Spirit’s duties is to expose the sinfulness of the world and of our own hearts. Jesus said that at the Spirit’s coming, “He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” The unbelieving world does not know how lost it is, how far it has fallen from the glory of God, and how deeply it is stuck in sin. It does not understand that its best deeds and greatest accomplishments are garbage compared to God’s goodness and righteousness. It does not see that if it continues to reject the salvation won by Jesus, it will be eternally condemned along with the devil.
That’s the truth, and it’s a hard truth. It is difficult to speak this message in the world because the world does not want to hear it. No one likes to be told that he or she has a major problem. Unbelievers do not want to hear that no matter how good they have tried to be toward their neighbors, or how much they have tried to make a positive difference in their communities, that none of it counts for their salvation with God. It isn’t good enough. Unless they repent, they cannot be saved. As long as they reject Jesus’ saving work, they are on the way to hell. No matter what our culture says today, not everyone who dies goes to “a better place.”
This sounds harsh. People who hear this wonder why we Christians think we are so much better than others. They can name a whole bunch of Christians who seem to be worse people than they are. It isn’t hard to find a sinful Christian. We do not speak to others about sin, righteousness, and judgment because we think we are so good. We speak the truth of God because we know we are just as sinful as everyone else, and we know that no one can be saved apart from the grace of God.
We speak the truth because we want others to have the forgiveness and comfort that we have. We want them to know that Jesus fulfilled the holy Law of God for them and died to pay for their sins and rose again to conquer their death. He did this for the whole world, for all people of all time. He did not leave anyone out or fail to pay for anyone’s sins. Every single wrong we have done, every single unkind word or action toward others, every single lie we have spoken or lived, Jesus suffered the wrath of God for it and shed His blood to wash it all away.
This is the truth. It is not my opinion. It is not make-believe. I can tell you with one-hundred-percent certainty that your sins are forgiven because Jesus paid for them. He commanded that this Gospel message be shared with the whole world (Mat. 28:18-20, Joh. 20:22-23). The Gospel “is the power of God for salvation” (Rom. 1:16). It is powerful because it is not man’s word; it is God’s Word. The Holy Spirit works through the Word to guide you into all truth, to point you to Jesus’ work for your salvation, to take what is His—His righteousness, His perfection, His life—and declare it and give it to you.
You breathe in the Spirit and power of God whenever you listen to His Word and receive His Sacraments in faith. And you breathe out these gifts to others when you speak the same promises and blessings of God to them. You believe, and so you also speak (2Co. 4:13). When you speak the truth, you do not need to worry about how it will be received. That burden is not on you. The Holy Spirit will do all the heavy-lifting. He will open ears, He will work repentance, He will plant faith in hearts—just as He has done for you.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from stained glass by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, c. 1660)
The Fourth Sunday of Easter – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. John 16:16-23
In Christ Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before him—the joy of saving you—endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God”—from which He dispenses His gift of joy to you (Heb. 12:2), dear fellow redeemed:
The chief priests had the apostles arrested for their public preaching and teaching. They and the Jewish Council strictly charged the apostles to stop teaching in the name of Jesus. They threatened them in every way. They physically attacked them and beat them up. But instead of going silent or going into hiding, the apostles went right back to their work, “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Act. 5:41).
Paul and Silas received the same rough treatment when they proclaimed the Gospel in Philippi. They were beaten with rods and sent bruised and bleeding to prison where their feet were fastened in the stocks. How did they respond to this unjust treatment? They passed the night by “praying and singing hymns to God” (Act. 16:25).
Not just the apostles have responded in this way. We hear rejoicing from the lips of people who have lost all their earthly possessions, people who have been attacked for speaking the truth in love, people who experience weakness and pain from a terminal illness, people standing at the graves of their loved ones. How can people in these circumstances rejoice? How is this possible?
Unbelievers do not understand. When Christians are in some sort of crisis, they are quick to ask, “Where is the God that you say loves you and cares for you? If He loves you, why would He let you go through these difficulties?” They think that believing in God is only worth it if it makes your life better on earth. “What good is a God who doesn’t keep you from pain and suffering?” Thoughts like these have crossed our own minds as well. We wonder why God lets certain trials come our way, or why He doesn’t bring us immediate healing and help.
Jesus does not promise His followers a care-free and happy life on earth. In today’s reading, He told His disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.” He shared these words with them the same night He was betrayed and arrested before He was nailed to the cross on the following day. His suffering and death would cause them great sorrow, while many others would rejoice. But their sorrow would last only “a little while.” They would see Him again, and their sorrow would turn into joy.
Those were comforting words, but the sorrow and pain were still out in front of them. They heard the promise, but they couldn’t understand what blessings would come of it. We also hear God’s promise that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5), that He is with us always (Mat. 28:20). And yet, it’s easy to forget that when we are preparing for a challenging life event. Maybe it’s a hard treatment plan or a complicated surgery, and we don’t know if it will fix the problem. Or we know we should speak to someone about his wrongdoing, but we are afraid of the anger or repercussions that could come from it. Or we know we should admit our own sins, but we don’t want anyone to think less of us.
Jesus used the example of a woman going into labor and delivery. She is thankful that God has blessed her with a baby and given her strength to carry it for nine months. She is eager to meet her little one. But the pain is real. In the midst of that pain, she might feel that no one understands the suffering, and that it may never come to an end. But then it does, and “she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.”
Jesus said to His disciples that in a similar way, they had sorrow now. They were worried about the enemies of Jesus who wanted to kill Him, and Jesus’ words about His departure caused them great grief. Jesus could see the worry and sadness on their faces. He knew that while He suffered in the coming hours, they would suffer too. Part of their suffering would be their guilt at having deserted Him, their shame at all their courageous talk being so cheap. But after this anguish, Jesus promised them, “I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice.”
He kept that promise. For “a little while” after His death and burial, the disciples wept and mourned as though He were never coming back. They went into hiding with the windows shuttered and the doors locked. But on the third day, Jesus saw them again. Rising from the dead as He said He would, He came to them bringing His message of peace and forgiveness. And just as He predicted, the disciples’ hearts rejoiced; they “were glad when they saw the Lord” (Joh. 20:20).
The source of our joy is not a feeling that everything is going our way.
It is not being successful at our jobs and having a lot of money and a nice house.
It is not having the respect of everyone around us.
It is not staying healthy and active till we reach a good old age.
It is not avoiding death or never having to experience the death of a loved one.
Having good things in this life and honor and a long life are blessings from God, but they are not the source of our joy. They might bring us joy for a little while, but they do not last.
The joy that God gives is not a feeling. It is a gift won for us by a Person. Our joy is the same joy the disciples had. It is the joy of a holy Man who had shown Himself to be God in the flesh, dying on the cross and then coming to life again. Beforehand, the disciples could not understand how Jesus’ death would benefit anyone. But after His resurrection, they learned that His death was the necessary atonement for all sin, and that it meant salvation for mankind. His resurrection showed the entire world that sin is forgiven, and the whole world is reconciled to God.
This is the source of our joy.
Jesus’ death and resurrection means that He is not against me; He is for me.
He is not ashamed of me; He loves me.
He is not far away from me; He is with me always.
He does nothing to harm me, but works everything for my good.
Like He promised His disciples, He also promises us that He will see us again, and we will see Him, when He comes again in glory on the last day.
Until that great day of rejoicing comes, while you remain here in this world, it could be that your troubles and struggles are not likely to change or improve. You might carry the heavy burden of sorrow over loss. Your physical pain might linger and get worse. You might not regain the abilities you have lost. You might not feel happy. But you can still have joy. If the apostles could limp away with fresh bruises and injuries rejoicing, if Paul and Silas could sing hymns while their feet were in the stocks, we can rejoice in the midst of our troubles as well.
We always have cause for rejoicing because Jesus is our Savior—every minute, every hour, every day, for a lifetime. St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi after he had experienced that beating and imprisonment in their hometown: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Phi. 4:4). The key to our rejoicing is “in the Lord,” in what He has done for us and what He continues to do for us.
When He meets us in the Divine Service, He brings joy with Him. We express this joy after the Absolution, the forgiveness of our sins, by joining the angels in their Christmas song, “Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” We sing for joy after hearing Jesus’ words in the Holy Gospel, “God be praised for His glad tidings.” We greet Him with joy in the Communion liturgy like the people did on Palm Sunday, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” And after we receive His body and blood for the remission of our sins, we sing in the hymn of thanksgiving, “Break forth, my soul, for joy and say: What wealth is come to me this day!” (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #325, v. 2).
Our Sunday gatherings are filled with joy. Even the fact that we worship on Sunday is an expression of joy because Sunday is the day of our Lord’s resurrection. But you might not always or even very often feel the joy when you come to church. That doesn’t mean there is something wrong with you or your faith. You might come here carrying very heavy burdens, invisible to everyone else, and you don’t feel very joyful.
There is joy here, but it doesn’t always come through feelings. It does come through Jesus’ Word and Sacraments. These holy means are how the Holy Spirit works joy in our hearts, even when we are suffering. Joy is second on the list of the fruit granted by the Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy” (Gal. 5:22). The Holy Spirit brings you joy as a gift through the message of Christ’s death and resurrection.
No matter how much suffering you have to endure, how much sorrow, how much injustice, how much pain, how much affliction, no one can take away from you what Jesus has done for you. No one can take away His perfect life that counts for your righteousness before God. No one can take away His holy blood that washes you clean from all sin. No one can take away His victory over death that assures you of your resurrection on the last day and eternal life with Him.
And if no one can take away your Jesus, what He has done for your salvation, then no one can take away your joy. Jesus’ promise long ago to His disciples is just as much a promise to you: “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and No One Will Take Your Joy from You.”
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Jesus Discourses with His Disciples” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Third Sunday of Easter – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. John 10:11-16
In Christ Jesus, who came that we “may have life and have it abundantly” (Joh. 10:10), dear fellow redeemed:
The most well-known and best-loved Psalm in the Bible is Psalm 23. We love the picture of a shepherd guiding his sheep to green pastures and still waters, leading them safely through the valley of the shadow of death, providing everything they need, and bringing them everlasting peace. This Psalm is comforting because it emphasizes the work of the shepherd, how he cares for the sheep.
If it were a Psalm about what the sheep do, the picture would be much darker. The sheep wander this way and that and become separated from each other. They don’t know where to find food and water. They walk through the valley of the shadow of death with no one to defend them. Evil surrounds them, and they are very afraid. Enemies get ready to attack, and the sheep cannot defend themselves. They are helpless; they have no hope.
This is the spiritual reality for us apart from Jesus. We don’t know the right way to go. We are constantly exposed to the devil’s attacks, and he sends us deeper and deeper into sin and guilt. Death is coming, and there is nothing we can do to avoid it. We are hopelessly lost, and we cannot find our way to safety.
But as helpless and hopeless as we are, the LORD our Shepherd still cares for us. He does not want to leave us to our own sinful devices. He does not want the wolves to slink in and pick us off. He does not want to hand us over to death. We see this in the way He snatched Adam and Eve back from the jaws of the devil and death when they fell into sin. He promised that He would “put enmity between” the devil and the woman’s offspring, and that He would send One to crush Satan’s head (Gen. 3:15).
This One is Jesus, true God and true Man. He is “the Good Shepherd,” who “lays down His life for the sheep.” That sounds like good news for the sheep, except that if their Shepherd lays down His life for them, who will be left to defend them? If the Shepherd dies for His sheep, there is no hired man who will stand with the sheep. He will see the wolf coming and leave the sheep and flee. So what good could the Shepherd’s death actually do?
We need to understand that the Shepherd laying down His life for His sheep is not some desperate fight to the end, and that as soon as it’s over for the Shepherd, it’s over for the sheep. What is taking place by His sacrifice is a great Divine Bargain. The Shepherd agrees to lay down His life on behalf of, or in the place of, His sheep. God the Father sent His Son for this very purpose. The way Satan’s head would be crushed, the way his power would be taken away from him, is by the Shepherd offering Himself as the atoning sacrifice for all sin.
Only a perfect sacrifice would do. The Shepherd, who never failed at His duties, who never lost track of the sheep, who never took the wrong path, stepped in to suffer and die for the sins of every person. He suffered as though He had wandered away from God like we have, acted foolishly and selfishly like we do, followed His own sinful desires like we have, and ignored God’s law. Whatever you and I have done to break God’s Commandments, endanger our faith, and put ourselves in the devil’s grip, Jesus took the punishment for it. The prophet Isaiah described it like this: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (53:6).
Jesus offered His perfect, righteous life in place of ours. He shed His holy blood to wash away every sin. This was the price for our redemption. This was the Divine Bargain: He would suffer and die for our sins, so we would receive His righteousness and eternal life. Jesus did what He told His disciples He came to do: “I lay down My life for the sheep.” But immediately after that statement, He indicated that He had gracious work to do beyond His sacrifice: “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice.”
How this would be possible was made clear in the very next verses after today’s reading, where Jesus says, “I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father” (Joh. 10:17-18). The Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep fully trusting His Father’s plan that He would be raised again. The sheep would not be left to fend for themselves, not the disciples in Jesus’ day and not us. Jesus died to redeem us, and He lives to save us.
We mentioned how much people appreciate Psalm 23. What might be lost on them is how well this Psalm connects with the one before it. Psalm 22 starts like this, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?” Later in the Psalm we hear, “They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots” (vv. 1,16-18, NKJV). Psalm 22 is one of the clearest depictions in the Bible of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. But what could this Psalm of agony have to do with the peaceful Psalm that follows it?
Psalm 23 describes the fruit of His victory over death and the ongoing work He continues to do among us. Our risen Lord supplies us with everything we need for our salvation. He leads us to the green pastures and still waters of His Word and Sacraments. That’s where He feeds us, restores our soul, strengthens our faith. He leads us in the paths of righteousness. Those are the paths of God, His paths. We walk along them by His grace, “for His name’s sake,” because of what He has done for us.
We walk through the valley of the shadow of death in this life; we face temptations, hardships, sorrows, persecution; every day is a day closer to our death. But we fear no evil. Why? Because the Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, our crucified and risen Savior is with us. Because He is with us, we rejoice with Him and feast with Him even in the presence of our enemies. St. Paul writes, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:31-32).
On our own, we—the weak and vulnerable sheep—don’t have a chance. But in Him, we have every confidence. If He was willing to die in our place, for our sins, He is not going to abandon us now. If He was willing to seek after us and bring us back when we wandered and became lost in our sin, He will keep watch over us and protect us today. We Gentiles used to be outside the fold. There was a time when our forefathers did not listen to His voice. They followed gods and superstitions of their own making. That would still be true of us today if not for God’s grace toward us.
The fact that the saving faith has come to us is a fulfillment of Jesus’ promise in today’s reading: “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one Flock, one Shepherd.” We are believing Gentiles whom God has called along with believing Jews into the “one holy Christian and Apostolic Church” (Nicene Creed). We are sheep by faith, not by nationality. The members of His holy Church have passed through the same cleansing waters of Baptism. We have received the same body and blood of our Lord. We are gathered into His body with Him as our Head. He nourishes and cherishes us, just as a Shepherd nourishes and cherishes His sheep.
The Shepherd grows His holy Flock of believers in no other way than through His Word. He speaks, and the sheep hear His voice. We cannot see the future. We do not know what the way forward will look like. We don’t know what trials and temptations we will face. Will there be days of gladness or seasons of sadness (ELH #377, v. 3)? How dark will the shadow of death hang over us? Will the days to come be many or few?
We fear no evil because the Shepherd speaks. We know His voice. There is no other voice like His. Other voices make grand promises: “You can have more!” “You can be happier!” “You can leave all your troubles behind!” These voices would pull us in every direction away from Christ. But only He has the words of eternal life (Joh. 6:68). Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (Joh. 10:27-28).
The world can make no such promises. The world cannot give you eternal life. Only He who laid down His life and took it up again can do that. He did that for you. You are not “just another sheep” to Him. He knows you, knows everything about you—your sins, your struggles, your weaknesses. He chose to suffer for you, die for you, and rise again for you, so that you would live with Him. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow [you] All the days of [your] life; And [you] will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever” (Psa. 23:6).
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from Saude Lutheran Church altar painting)
The Second Sunday of Easter – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. John 20:19-31
In Christ Jesus, who still bears the marks of His love for the entire human race (Rev. 5:6), scars that we will see one day with our own eyes, dear fellow redeemed:
Everybody here has scars, permanent marks from incidents in the past. What do you think of those scars? Do they bother you because they stand out from the rest of your skin, or because they remind you of difficult times like surgery, or times that you behaved foolishly and injured yourself? Or are you thankful for the reminder that God saw you through those difficulties and still cares for you? Whether or not we like our scars, they all have meaning. Each one takes us back to a particular point in time, a particular experience, that we would not remember without the scars.
Today’s reading highlights the most significant, most beautiful scars that have ever been etched in human skin. These are the scars of Jesus Christ. The wounds He received during Holy Week were probably too many to count. How many stripes were cut into His back from the flogging He received? How many thorns pierced His skull? How often was His skin broken from the beating He received?
Having sustained these wounds starting Thursday evening and then being nailed to the cross on Friday, there is no way, humanly speaking, that His wounds would have healed and become scars by Easter Sunday. But Jesus did not need time to recover from His wounds. With His work complete, He entered His state of exaltation. This means that starting with His triumphant descent into hell, He always and fully uses His divine power. He feels no weakness or pain; He is not susceptible to injury anymore. If He chose, He could make every mark of His suffering and death vanish. Instead, He chose to retain at least five of them: the marks in His hands, His feet (Luk. 24:39), and His side.
These are what He showed to His disciples when He appeared to them in the tightly closed room on Easter Sunday evening. But first, He said something to them, something short but powerful: “Peace be with you.” Those were stunning first words! If we had just suffered for the sins of others and gone through the torments of hell while our friends deserted us, our first words to them might likely be: “How could you do this to me?” Or, “Where were you?” Or, “I thought you said you would never deny me!” Or, “Why didn’t you believe me?”
Jesus said, “Peace be with you,” and immediately showed them His hands and His side. He showed these scars to prove that, yes, He was their Lord who died on the cross on Friday. And now He was alive again. Death could not defeat Him. He had risen, just as He said He would. His message and the marks meshed beautifully with each other. The scars on His hands, feet, and side showed how peace was secured.
Colossians 1:20 says that the Son of God incarnate “reconcile[d] to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” Peace between God and mankind was not possible except through Jesus’ suffering and death. A perfect sacrifice had to be offered for the sins of all people, and that perfect sacrifice was sent from heaven to earth. Jesus was “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Joh. 1:29). His mission was to reconcile us, bring us back together, make peace with God that only He could bring about.
The message of peace that He spoke to the disciples was not just for them, it was for everyone. His resurrection from the dead means that peace was made between us and God. The Father accepted His atoning sacrifice on our behalf. Washed clean by the blood of the Lamb, the Father announces our eternal verdict: “Not guilty!” The empty tomb on Easter morning means that all your sins—every single one—are forgiven.
That is also true of the sins of your neighbor. The peace that Jesus declares was not just for the pretty good people, not just for the ones who would believe in Him, not just for the people we like. His death and resurrection made peace with God for all sinners of all time. His resurrection victory is everyone’s victory because He died and rose for every sinner.
This is important to remember when we are dealing with people in our life who have not been kind to us. Maybe they cheated us, lied to us, lied about us. Maybe they betrayed our trust, stole from us, caused us tremendous pain. Those sins leave marks, too, just not visible ones. They are sins that cut deep, that keep causing pain long after the deed is done.
There are different things we can do with that pain. Our natural reaction is to want to inflict pain on the one who hurt us, to seek not peace but revenge. If that is not possible, we might take out our hurt on others. Or we might drown our pain in the bottle, the drug, anything to numb the hurt we feel. Those approaches will only make the pain worse.
The better way is to hand it over to Jesus. He accepts our pain with open hands, hands that show the scars of His sacrifice. “I will bear this for you,” He says. “That’s why I came.” The prophet Isaiah tells us, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…. [H]e was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed” (53:4,5). His wounds bring peace and healing to us. He accepted punishment for all sin, both the sins we have done and the sins that others have done to us. He paid for them all, pouring out His holy blood to wash them away.
If Jesus did not need to take revenge against His disciples who should have stood by Him or against the people who tortured and crucified Him, we don’t need to take revenge against those who have harmed us. Instead, we pray that God would put mercy in our hearts toward them, and that they would hear about and understand the peace that God wants them to have, the peace of knowing that all sin is forgiven through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus wants us to share this peace. “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Mat. 5:9), He says. He gave this responsibility and privilege to every Christian when He commissioned those weak, unfaithful, frightened disciples to proclaim this glorious message. After showing them the scars that secured peace, Jesus said for the second time, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.” Then He breathed on them, His own life-giving breath, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
This is the Office of the Keys, “the special authority which Christ has given to His Church on earth: to forgive the sins of the penitent sinners, but to retain the sins of the impenitent as long as they do not repent” (Luther’s Small Catechism). This work is done publicly by the pastor on behalf of the congregation. But every Christian can announce the forgiveness of sins to those who are sorry for the wrongs they have done. We can assure them that Jesus died on the cross for their trespasses and rose again for their justification (Rom. 4:25), to declare them righteous before God, not guilty of any wrong in His sight.
For those who are not sorry for their sins, who show no remorse for the pain they have caused, it is important for us to extend our personal forgiveness, so that our hurt does not turn into anger and hatred. But as long as those who have sinned remain in their sin, they are not forgiven before God. Jesus suffered, died, and rose again for their peace, but until they acknowledge their sin, they are saying they have no need for His saving work.
This is how it was for Thomas during that long, agonizing week between Jesus’ appearances to His disciples. We often refer to him as “doubting Thomas,” but “stubborn Thomas” might be more accurate. No matter what details his friends shared with him about their interactions with Jesus, about the encouraging things He did and the peaceful things He said, Thomas would not listen to their word. He would not hear them with humility. He was going to insist that Jesus was dead, until his standard of proof was met: “Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.”
This must have been a great frustration for the disciples who had seen Jesus, just as it is a great frustration to us when a brother or sister in Christ takes the stubborn route and won’t listen to the clear Word of God. But Jesus still loved Thomas, just as we are still to love those who have become stuck in sin. When Jesus appeared again to the disciples a week after His resurrection, with Thomas now present, the first words out of His mouth were once again, “Peace be with you. I have died and risen for all of you, including you, Thomas.” But He also added some words of rebuke and correction: “Do not disbelieve, but believe,” and, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
We trust in Jesus, the perfect Son of God in the flesh, even though we have not seen Him or His wounds. We believe that He endured every injustice, every torment, every wrong, so that we would have peace with God, healing from our wounds, and hope for the life to come. He willingly went to the cross to redeem us and rose in victory over sin, death, and devil.
When He comes in glory on the last day, then we will see Him with our own eyes. We will see the marks on His hands, feet, and side—those beautiful scars. They stand as an eternal reminder of God’s love for the human race that caused Him to send His Son to save us. He joyfully bears the scars of His crucifixion and death as signs of His atoning, all-sufficient sacrifice, as the marks that made for our peace.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas” by Caravaggio, c. 1601-1602)
The Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad exordium & sermon
Festival exordium:
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1Co. 15:17).
If Christ has not been raised, all His promises were lies.
If Christ has not been raised, the Christian Church is a worldly organization created by men.
If Christ has not been raised, your Baptism did you no good.
If Christ has not been raised, you eat bread and drink wine in Communion and nothing more.
If Christ has not been raised, there is no place prepared for you in heaven.
If Christ has not been raised, the dead who are buried in our cemeteries will stay dead.
If Christ has not been raised, you got up early this morning for no good reason.
“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain” (1Co. 15:14), and you might as well ignore it.
If Christ has not been raised, you are of all people most to be pitied (1Co. 15:19).
If Christ has not been raised, all these things are true.
But Christ HAS been raised.
Since Christ has been raised, your faith is NOT futile, and you are NOT in your sins.
Since Christ has been raised, all His promises are verified.
Since Christ has been raised, the Christian Church shall prevail against the gates of hell.
Since Christ has been raised, you were raised with Him in the waters of Baptism.
Since Christ has been raised, you receive His living body and blood in Holy Communion for the forgiveness of your sins.
Since Christ has been raised, a place is prepared for you in heaven.
Since Christ has been raised, the dead who now sleep will also rise.
Since Christ has been raised, you have not wasted your morning.
Since Christ has been raised, our preaching is not in vain, and God’s powerful words of life enter your ears and heart.
Since Christ has been raised, you are counted among those who will inherit eternal life.
Yes, Christ has been raised. That is why we joyfully share the Easter greeting as the faithful have shared it for thousands of years:
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
We sing our festival hymn #348, “He Is Arisen! Glorious Word!”
He is arisen! Glorious Word!
Now reconciled is God, my Lord;
The gates of heaven are open.
My Jesus died triumphantly,
And Satan’s arrows broken lie,
Destroyed hell’s direst weapon.
O hear
What cheer!
Christ victorious
Riseth glorious,
Life He giveth—
He was dead, but see, He liveth!
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Sermon text: St. Mark 16:1-8
In Christ Jesus, who did not do what people expected, but who did do what He said He would, dear fellow redeemed:
“Jesus is dead. He is gone.” That thought haunted their minds ever since Friday afternoon when they saw Him breathe His last. They saw Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus take His lifeless body down from the cross, wrap it in a linen shroud with spices, and bury it in a tomb nearby. They saw the men roll a stone across the entrance and depart. Then they went home, too, to observe the Sabbath rest.
These women had traveled with Jesus from Galilee and provided for His needs. They saw the miracles He performed. They watched Him cast demons out of people and raise the dead. They heard His powerful teaching. They believed that He was the promised Messiah. But now He was dead. What were they to do?
Overwhelmed with sorrow, they determined to serve Jesus one last time—they would give Him a more proper burial. They purchased and prepared spices and made their way early Sunday morning to the tomb. They shuddered thinking about the terrible wounds they would once again see on their Lord: the bruises on His face, the gouges from the crown of thorns, the holes in His hands and feet from the large nails, the gash in His side from the soldier’s spear. They had no doubts about what they would find at the tomb: the dead body of Jesus.
They were in for a surprise, or really a series of surprises. They found the large stone rolled away from the entrance. Looking inside, they saw an angel waiting for them. He told them not to be alarmed. They wouldn’t find what they were looking for because Jesus had been raised up. And He was on the move! They were to tell the Lord’s disciples that He was going before them to Galilee, where they would see Him, just as He had said.
The women took off from the tomb, full of trembling, amazement, and fear. But why did they react like this? Why was this such a surprise? If your parents told you they were taking you to the zoo for your birthday, and that you would see monkeys, lions, and giraffes, would you be surprised to go there and see those animals? They might not look exactly as you imagined, but you wouldn’t really be surprised. You saw what they said you would.
So why didn’t the followers of Jesus believe Him when He said He would suffer and die in Jerusalem and then rise on the third day? The evangelist Luke records a longer message from the angel reminding the women about this: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise” (Luk. 24:5-7). Jesus clearly told His disciples what would happen. There should have been no surprise. But they did not believe.
They did not believe because they failed to see the big picture. They could not understand what benefit the death of Jesus could have. They wanted to keep things the way they were. Jesus was doing wonderful work. If Palm Sunday was any indication, He was gaining momentum and followers. If He died, all that work would come to a screeching halt. His death was the last thing the Jews and the whole world needed.
Because they couldn’t understand the purpose of His death, which was to redeem the world of sinners, they missed the significance of His resurrection. Something similar happens today. We are generally clear about the purpose of Jesus’ death—He died on the cross to pay for our sins. But we are not always so clear about the significance of His resurrection.
Jesus’ resurrection proves that He is the Son of God, and that everything He said is true. If He could predict His own resurrection and then come back to life, who can doubt the accuracy of anything He said?
Jesus’ resurrection also shows that His Father accepted His sacrifice for sin. Romans 4:25 says that He “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Both things were necessary, His death and resurrection. If He had died and stayed dead, that would prove He was not God and that His sacrifice was not sufficient. His resurrection declares to the whole world that sin is paid for, death is defeated, and we are accounted as innocent before God.
Jesus’ resurrection is also a preview of our resurrection. Because He lives, we who trust in Him will live, even though we die (Joh. 11:25, 14:19). This resurrection victory was handed to us at our Baptism. The apostle Peter writes that Baptism is not about getting clean on the outside. It is deeply spiritual, “an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1Pe. 3:21). The water-and-Word of Baptism is full of the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness of Jesus precisely because He has risen. St. Paul writes that through Baptism, “just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).
In Baptism, we received Jesus’ resurrection victory. We received the full inheritance of His righteousness and life. We are destined for heaven with Him! But that is easy to forget while we are still here on earth. We often fail to see the big picture. We struggle with sin and the guilt it produces in us. We have doubts and sometimes even crises of faith, when we wonder if God really loves us. We don’t feel much like we’re “walking in newness of life.” Our death is getting closer and closer, and we’re not sure we’re ready for it.
Without the death and resurrection of Jesus, no one can be ready for death. Death is batting nearly .1000, with the exception of people like Enoch and Elijah whom God took directly to heaven. The rest of humankind from Adam to the present has had to die. “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). We are sinners, so we will die, everyone in this room, unless Jesus returns first.
But we believers don’t look at death like the women looked at Jesus’ death, as though it were final. We don’t cling to the remains of the dead like the women wanted to cling to Jesus. Instead, we cling to Jesus’ Word, His promise. He promised His disciples that He would rise from the dead on the third day, and He did. He promises us that He will come again on the last day to raise us from the dead, so He will.
On the last day, it shouldn’t surprise us when we “see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luk. 21:27). It shouldn’t surprise us when we see the holy angels with Him, the same angels who shared the good news with the women at Jesus’ tomb. It shouldn’t surprise us when we see all the graves in our cemeteries opened up. It shouldn’t surprise us when we find no one in the caskets. But we won’t even have time for that investigation, since we will be caught up “in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1Th. 4:17).
This is what sets us apart from the world. This is why we do not “not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1Th. 4:13). We know that death is not final. Jesus put a stop to death’s terrible reign. He let death devour Him, so He could tear open its insides and free everyone stuck in its dark belly. On the last day, His clear voice will wake us from our temporary sleep. We will blink our eyes and take in the light coming from the One who is Light and Life.
His same voice that will wake us from death is the powerful Word you are hearing today. He tells you today that your sins are forgiven. He paid for them on the cross and left them buried forever when He rose from the dead. He tells you at the altar, “This is My body; this is My blood for the remission of your sins.” He gave you this Holy Meal for your strength and comfort until He comes again.
The angel said to the women, “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here.” But the angel would tell you something different about the presence of Jesus in His Word and Sacraments. He would say, “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! And He is here!” He is here to distribute the riches of His grace to you and prepare you for His visible return.
He has done everything you need for your salvation. He tells you everything you need to know. So when He comes again in glory and leaves your grave empty by calling you to His side, it will be no unexpected surprise, just exceeding, everlasting joy.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(woodcut from “The Empty Tomb” by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)
The Festival of Our Lord’s Ascension – Pr. Faugstad exordium & sermon
Festival exordium:
Beginning forty days before Easter, we recall the intense suffering our Lord Jesus endured for our salvation. Forty days after Easter, we celebrate His glorious ascension. This was His enthronement at the right hand of God the Father, not only as the Son of God but also as the Son of Man. He was welcomed by all the host of heaven as the victorious King, the Conqueror of sin, death, and devil, the Savior of the world.
Jesus ascended visibly into heaven, but He also continues to be with us and bless us here on earth. Just before His ascension, He said to His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Mat. 28:18-20, NKJV). He commissioned the Church to take His powerful Word and Sacraments to every nation, land, and people.
Then He added words that give us great comfort and courage, “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (v. 20, NKJV). Jesus did not abandon us when He ascended into heaven. He has not left us to fend for ourselves. “I am with you always,” He says. As true God, He is present everywhere. And He is specially present when His message of salvation is proclaimed, when the Baptism He instituted is administered, and when His body and blood are distributed in His Holy Supper.
You know just where to find Jesus. He is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty right here and right now. God’s right hand touches this pulpit, this font, this altar. His right hand touches our homes, “where two or three are gathered in [Jesus’] name” (Mat. 18:20), hearing and learning His Word. Jesus, the victorious Son of God, is present and active here, just as He has promised He would be.
And on the last day, He will return visibly in glory to judge both the living and the dead. Then you and all trust in Him will also ascend. You will join Him in His heavenly kingdom. You will be gathered with all the host of heaven around the throne of God, where rejoicing and gladness never come to an end.
We now stand to sing our festival hymn printed in the service folder, “O Wondrous Conqueror and Great”:
O wondrous Conqueror and great,
Scorned by the world You did create,
Your work is all completed!
Your toilsome course is at an end;
You to the Father do ascend,
In royal glory seated.
Lowly,
Holy,
Now victorious,
High and glorious:
Earth and heaven
To Your rule, O Christ, are given.
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Sermon text: 1 Samuel 8:1-22
In Christ Jesus, whose kingdom of power, grace, and glory will never end, dear fellow redeemed:
Over the last couple of weeks, we heard how God sent judges to deliver the Israelites from their enemies, judges like Gideon and Samson. After Samson’s death, the LORD raised up one of the great leaders of the Israelites, a prophet named Samuel. He judged Israel all the days of his life and faithfully called the wayward Israelites back to the worship of the true God. But Samuel’s sons were not like him. He wanted them to continue after him and serve the LORD like he had. They were more interested in using their positions for personal gain.
So the elders of Israel came to Samuel and made a fateful request: “We want to have a king like all the other nations.” It was not wrong for them to want a strong leader. It was wrong for them to speak as though they had no king. The LORD God was their king. He had led them out of Egypt to the Promised Land and had given them victory over their enemies. Samuel was troubled by their request. But the LORD told him, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.”
God would give the people what they asked for, but He warned them that having a king was not as great as they imagined. The people would not listen. They could only see the positives: our king will “judge us,” they said, “and go out before us and fight our battles.” It’s the sort of thinking that touches every generation. We are always looking for the next great leader who will fix all the problems in our society—and perhaps even the world—and make us more prosperous and happy than ever before. But as soon as we think we’ve found people like that, they inevitably disappoint us. They aren’t as perfect as we thought they were.
The people of Israel were dreaming about what their new king would give them. Samuel informed them about what their king would take from them: he would take their sons to fight for him, farm for him, and build for him; he would take their daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers; he would take their fields, vineyards, and olive orchards; he would take their servants, their grain, and their livestock. They would be his slaves.
That does not sound like a good deal. Why would the Israelites want this? Samuel revealed later that they made this request because they were afraid of their enemies (1Sa. 12:12). They did not trust the LORD to protect them. For the next number of weeks, we will learn about the kings of Israel. Some of them served well for a time. But what God warned the people about through Samuel did come true. It wasn’t long before the kings required more than they delivered; they took more than they gave. Having a king wasn’t as great as the people expected.
We in the United States have no king of our country. The crown was offered to George Washington after the American colonies won the Revolutionary War, but in humility, Washington rejected it. He served as president for two terms and then peacefully stepped aside. We have no king of our country, but we do have a King in the church. This is not the pope. He may be the head of the Roman Church, but he has no divine authority in the holy Christian Church.
The King of our church is no mortal man whose reign is temporary. The King of our church is the crucified and risen Christ, who reigns over all things at the right hand of His Father in heaven. He left the glories of heaven to take on our human flesh and humbly suffer and die in our place. He hardly looked like a king, except to those who looked upon Him with faith. The thief hanging next to Jesus on the cross was one of these. When He looked at the anguished, bleeding Christ with a crown of thorns on His head, He saw a King who even had power over death. He said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luk. 23:42).
Now, beginning with His victory march through hell and His resurrection from the dead, Jesus is exalted. Now He always and fully uses His divine power as God and Man. As our King, Jesus rules over a three-fold kingdom. He rules with power over the whole universe. He rules with grace in His holy Church. And He rules with glory in heaven. Ephesians 1 tells us that God the Father “raised [Christ] from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places…. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (vv. 20,22-23).
This passage describes our connection to Christ in the closest terms: He is our Head, and we are members of His body. We live in Him, move in Him, and have our being in Him (Act. 17:28). There is no life apart from Him. He gives us our spiritual health and strength. He makes us fruitful members that desire to do good to the glory of God. He also prepares us to follow Him to heaven, to go where He has gone. One of today’s hymns says, “For where the Head is, there full well / I know His members are to dwell / When Christ shall come and call them” (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #392, v. 1).
Our King does not use His power and authority to boss us around or take things from us. He was not like the Israelite kings that Samuel warned the people about. Jesus does the opposite. He uses His power and authority to bless us by His grace. Ephesians 4 says, “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, ‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men’” (vv. 7-8).
The “host of captives” includes you and me. We were captive to sin and death by nature. The devil, the prince of demons and darkness, ruled over us. But Jesus broke us out of this prison. The devil, the unbelieving world, and death tried to stop Him, but there was nothing they could do. Our King was too powerful for them. His victory was complete.
He shares this victory with all who trust in Him. “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” The gifts He gives to us are the gifts of eternal salvation. He forgives our sins; He covers us in His righteousness; He has prepared a place for us in His kingdom. We couldn’t have it better than we have it with our King.
But like the Israelites who wanted to be like the nations around them, we often look for more than what Jesus gives us. We want to have power and success and prosperity now. We want to enjoy the good things of here. These things seem real to us, unlike the invisible gifts from an invisible King, who promises us a place in a heavenly kingdom we have never seen. And yet we never get as much from the world as we hope we might. We find that despite its promises and seeming advantages, the world takes more from us than it gives.
Only the grace of God prevails. Only the grace of God gives us what cannot be taken away. Jesus’ ascension into heaven was the crowning moment of His saving work. It was the ultimate recognition that He had accomplished everything His Father sent Him to do. No sin was left unpaid for. No accusation of the devil left unaddressed. No chain of death left unbroken. Everything for salvation was carried out, completed, finished—for you and every sinner.
Our King now sits at the right hand of God the Father dispensing these gifts of His grace. Every day, He hands them out to you, to me, and to all His people all over the world. He never runs out. In fact, He always has grace for more, more who will join Him in His kingdom. This grace comes through the means or channels He has established for giving His gifts. He calls pastors to speak His Word, baptize, and administer His Supper. The pastor is not the King; he is just the courier or the messenger. He only passes on what Jesus has given to His Church.
The Church receives these gifts with joy. We know who our King is, we know what He has done for us, and we know He is preparing us for even greater things when He returns in glory.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from painting by John Singleton Copley, 1775)
The Sixth Sunday of Easter – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Judges 16:18-30
In Christ Jesus, the greater and perfect Samson, who delivered us from all our enemies, dear fellow redeemed:
There is an error about prayer hanging around some of the branches of the Christian Church. The error is the idea that if you pray with enough faith, or if you have proven yourself worthy before God by your good works, then He will give you exactly what you ask for. When people who are taught this do not receive what they pray for, they have a crisis of faith. They assume that God must be punishing them for something. They picture Him looking upon them with fierce wrath instead of looking upon them with mercy.
We see a different picture in God’s dealings with Samson. But first, a little backstory is helpful. Before Samson’s mother had him, she had been unable to have children. The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said that she would “conceive and bear a son” (Jud. 13:3). He would be dedicated to the LORD, and his parents were directed to let his hair grow. As he got older, we are told that “the LORD blessed him. And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir in him” (13:24-25).
One of the ways the Holy Spirit “began to stir in him” was by giving him tremendous physical strength. On one occasion, a young lion charged at him roaring. “Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and… he tore the lion in pieces” (14:6). The same language is used later on—“the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him”—and he single-handedly killed thirty men among the Philistines who ruled at that time over the Israelites (v. 19). The LORD was using Samson to deliver the Israelites from their oppressors.
For his next act, he caught 300 foxes, tied them together in pairs and put a torch between them. Then he set them loose in the Philistines’ grain fields and olive orchards, and much was destroyed. The Philistines came after him, and with the jawbone of a donkey in his hand, Samson killed 1,000 of them. Another time, he tore out the gates and posts of one of their cities and carried it in one piece and set it on the top of a hill. Samson was a big problem for the Philistines.
And Philistine women were a big problem for Samson. We meet one of them in today’s reading, a woman named Delilah. The Philistine rulers promised her great riches if she would “seduce him” and find out “where his great strength lies” (16:5). Samson told her that if he were bound with seven fresh bowstrings, he would become weak. When he fell asleep, she bound him with seven fresh bowstrings, but when he woke up, he broke them easily. She kept trying. He told her that fresh ropes would do it, but he broke those too. Then he said if his hair were tied into a weaver’s loom, he would become weak. Delilah did this, but it didn’t work either.
It is obvious that Delilah could not be trusted, but she wouldn’t give up. She kept pressing and pressing until Samson finally gave in. “A razor has never come upon my head,” he said, “for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man” (16:17). You heard what happened next. The Philistines shaved his head while he slept, and when they attacked him, he figured he would defeat them like before. But “his strength left him” because “the LORD had left him.”
Samson had taken his strength for granted. He felt invincible. He thought he could not be defeated. He had forgotten where his strength came from. He had forgotten to put his trust in God and follow the LORD’s will. He was full of pride, and that led to his fall (Pro. 16:18). It was a tremendous fall. The Philistines gouged out his eyes and made him grind at the mill in their prison. Then they gathered for a great feast to their god Dagon to celebrate Samson’s defeat, and they brought Samson in to entertain them. We can imagine the abuse and mockery hurled toward him. He had killed so many of their people, but now here he was—weak, pathetic, a joke.
These hardships had given Samson time to reflect. He knew where he had gone wrong. He understood how foolish he had been. He realized how arrogant he had been and how faithless before God. We see this humility come out in his prayer to the LORD: “O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.”
But why should God give back to Samson what he had so carelessly thrown away? He didn’t owe Samson anything. Samson had been given a great gift from God, and he sold it for the charms of Delilah. Samson deserved to be the Philistines’ slave. He deserved their ridicule and torment. Why should the LORD listen to his prayer?
The same question might come to our minds. None of us have had the strength of Samson, but like Samson, we have taken God’s gifts for granted. We have not used our ability to think in pure and dedicated service to the LORD. We have not always used our mouths for His glory and honor. We have not always used our physical abilities to serve Him and our neighbors. We have treated these gifts as though they originated with us and not with God. Why should the LORD listen to our prayers?
The answer is not that we have somehow earned the right to have God hear us because our faith is strong enough or we have proven ourselves worthy before Him. We know this is not the case. The reason the LORD listens to our prayers is because He is merciful—full of mercy—toward us. He is not watching us and keeping a tally of all the things we do and say and think that are wrong, to see when the scale tips or the balance shifts away from His favor. If this were the case, our fate would have been sealed long ago for our sins against Him.
But as He looked upon Samson, so He looks upon us. He knows far more clearly than we do how we have sinned against Him. He sees every misdeed, every infraction, every transgression. We deserve nothing but torment from God for these sins, endless torture in the eternal prison of hell. But the LORD has mercy upon us. He saw us in all our weakness, surrounded by our enemies, unable to free ourselves, and He sent us a Savior.
Like the angel who spoke to Samson’s mother, an angel appeared to the virgin Mary and said, “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son” (Luk. 1:31). The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him because He was the eternal Son of God. As He humbled Himself to carry out His saving work, Jesus appeared vulnerable and weak, but His enemies were not able to overcome Him. The devil, the roaring lion, rushed at Him with many temptations, the unbelieving world with all its power and resources tried to bury Him, death tried to hold Him fast in its dark chains. But all of them failed. He conquered them all.
He was our Samson, the strongest Man, who stood up to our formidable enemies. He had mercy on us in our weakness. He rescued us from the devil’s prison house. He paid the price for our transgressions. He suffered and died for our sins. This is how we know God the Father loves us—He sent His Son to redeem us by pouring out His holy blood. This is how we know God the Father is not punishing us for our wrongs—He punished His Son in our place.
Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection on the third day is also how we know the Father hears our prayers and wants to hear them. In today’s Holy Gospel, Jesus says, “the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (Joh. 16:27). Because of what Jesus has done, the way is open to the Father. He urges us to pray to Him as He says in Psalm 50, “call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (v. 15).
He knows that it is often in “the day of trouble” that we remember to pray to Him. It is when we are weak, when we are unable to control or fix something, when we don’t have answers, that we remember to bring these troubles to our LORD. This is what Samson did. He was weak, he couldn’t see, he was the object of everyone’s scorn, and he prayed for the LORD to give him strength. The LORD did. Samson pushed against the pillars of the house, and the house fell on the thousands of Philistines gathered there, killing more in Samson’s death than he had in his life.
The LORD had given him strength in his weakness, and He had done it for the sake of His people Israel to save them from their enemies. The LORD also works in you as the Holy Spirit strengthens and builds you up through His Word and Sacraments. He leads you to repent of your sins, to set aside your arrogance and pride, and put your trust in Him alone. He applies the saving work of Jesus to you, so you are comforted and assured of His grace.
The Holy Spirit also guides you in your prayers. He graciously brings your needs and concerns and requests before God. Romans 8:26 says, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” The Lord God wants to hear your prayers, and in His mercy, He promises to answer them in the way that is best for you, both for your earthly good and for your eternal salvation.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from stained glass by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, c. 1660)
The Fifth Sunday of Easter & Saude Confirmation – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Judges 7:1-7, 16-21
In Christ Jesus, whose grace is sufficient for you, whose power is made perfect in weakness (2Co. 12:9), dear fellow redeemed:
The Israelites had become everyone’s doormat. They should hardly have been surprised. They lived on prime real estate in the land of Canaan—land that was the envy of all the nations around them. The only reason they had this land and the only reason they ever had peace is because the LORD God gave it to them. But as the generations passed, the Israelites did not give thanks to God or honor Him for these gifts. Instead they gave up the worship of the true God for the false gods of the nations around them. So God gave them up to their enemies.
That’s how we find Israel in today’s reading. They were currently under the thumb of the Midianites. Every time the Israelites’ crops matured, the Midianites and others “would come like locusts in number” and take whatever they wanted; “they laid waste to the land” (Jud. 6:5). The Israelites were completely impoverished. They had no way to defend themselves. And only now at rock bottom did they remember the LORD. They cried out for His mercy.
The LORD chose an unlikely savior for them. He visited a man named Gideon and told him he would deliver Israel. Gideon replied, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house” (Jud. 6:15). The first task the LORD gave him was to destroy his father’s altar to the god Baal and the monument next to it to the goddess Asherah. Gideon was so afraid to do this that he waited until the middle of night, so he wouldn’t have to face any opposition for his actions. Not exactly hero material.
It was harvest time again, so the Midianites were on the march. But this year wouldn’t be like the ones before it. The Midianites would not be taking whatever they wanted. The LORD prepared timid Gideon to stop them by giving him strength and courage. We are told that “the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and [his countrymen] were called out to follow him” (6:34). Altogether 32,000 men showed up for battle. That sounds like a lot, but the camp of Midian had 135,000 men—more than four times as many! Just looking at the numbers, Israel wouldn’t stand a chance.
But that’s not how God saw it. He said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’” He told Gideon to send anyone home who was afraid. 22,000 left, leaving just 10,000 fighting men. “The people are still too many,” said the LORD. He devised a test to whittle down the number by how the men drank water. Of the 10,000, all but 300 knelt down to drink. The LORD chose the 300.
So it was 300 Israelites against 135,000 Midianites. No one would take those odds. Israel did not have superior armor or equipment. They had no weapon of mass destruction. But the Israelites did have one thing the Midianites did not—they had the LORD on their side. Would Gideon and his 300 trust the LORD to give them the victory?
God’s faithful people have often faced long odds. The prophet Elijah thought he was the only believer left in his day, but God had preserved 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1Ki. 19:18). Shortly after Jesus’ resurrection, only a handful believed in Him. When persecution began against the Christians after Pentecost, their number was only at 5,000. Martin Luther had many more opponents than allies when he articulated the Bible’s teaching of salvation. And still today, our congregations are on the smaller side in our communities, and our church body hardly registers on anyone’s radar.
When we look at all that threatens us, all around us who would like to see the Church go under and go away, it is easy for us to wonder if our days are numbered. How can we as Christians stand in a society and culture that is moving further away from God’s Word and will? We are tempted to stop speaking the truth because we don’t want to face the consequences for it. We might stay silent because we don’t want to become targets of people’s criticism or ridicule or risk our good standing in the community. Like the Israelites who were “fearful and trembling” at the thought of facing the powerful Midianites in battle, we are afraid to face the world’s opposition to our faith. Do we even stand a chance?
But we must not forget who is on our side. In God’s holy Church, where something appears to be weak, that is often where He shows His strength. And where something has the appearance of strength, that is often where you find weakness. The first chapter of First Corinthians lays this out clearly: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1Co. 1:27-29).
Think of how God adds members to His holy Church. He does it through simple water and Word in the Sacrament of Baptism, and typically the ones brought to the font are little infants! How can helpless babies endure against the spiritual enemies arrayed against them? When our youth are confirmed, they renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways, and they promise to remain faithful to the pure teaching of the Bible until death. But how can they be so sure they will? They don’t know what life will throw at them and what challenges they will face in the future.
The devil, the unbelieving world, and our sinful flesh look disdainfully at us weak Christians and say, “They don’t stand a chance.” But they are forgetting something. Look at Gideon with his 300 facing an army of 135,000. The Israelites did have a plan for confusing the Midianites by dividing into three companies and then blowing their trumpets, breaking their jars, and holding their torches high in the dark of night. But that alone does not account for so few defeating so many.
Right after today’s reading it says, “When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army” (7:22). It was the LORD who did this, the LORD who defeated the great Midianite army, the LORD who gave victory to Gideon and his fellow Israelites. The task seemed impossible, but not for God. He delights in making the seemingly impossible, the humanly impossible—possible. “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luk. 1:37).
The angel Gabriel said those words to the virgin Mary the day the Christ was conceived in her womb. As He grew up, almost no one would have picked Jesus to be a Savior, just as they would not have picked Gideon to lead so many years before. And if the odds were stacked against Gideon, they were stacked even more against Jesus. Gideon had 300 men for his mission. Jesus had 12, and they deserted Him right when He was at His lowest point. The Jewish religious leaders carried out their scheme, the Roman soldiers flexed their muscles, and Jesus was nailed to a cross. Everyone who passed by agreed: He didn’t stand a chance.
But why did Jesus on the cross talk like He wasn’t losing? “Father, forgive them,” He said. “Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.” His enemies must have been perplexed. He talked like someone who was in control, who was not suffering against His will. This is because Jesus was no regular man hanging on the cross. He was the Son of God in the flesh! He predicted very clearly leading up to His crucifixion, “I lay down my life that I may take it up again” (Joh. 10:17). He did lay down His life on the cross, and He did take it up again on the third day when He left His tomb empty. No one could stop Him. No one could keep Him from doing what He came to do.
This is why you have great courage, even as your enemies surround you and you seem hopelessly overmatched and outnumbered. The crucified and risen Lord is on your side. He paid for each of your sins and rose again for your justification, for the declaration of your righteousness and innocence before God. Jesus won it all for you. And He gives His victory over sin and death to you right now. He gives it to you by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Gospel for today, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit “will guide you into all the truth… for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you” (Joh. 16:13,14).
This is how you are able to stand against your many and formidable enemies. On your own, relying on your own strength, you would be crushed. But with Jesus contending for you, you cannot lose. At your Baptism, you “put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27); you were joined to Him. In Holy Communion, He gives you His own body and blood to eat and drink for your forgiveness and life. He is the one who fortifies you and fights for you.
With your confidence and trust in Him and not in yourself, you can look disdainfully at all your spiritual enemies—your sinful flesh that would betray you, the devil who would destroy you, death which would swallow you up—you can look at them in the courage of the Holy Spirit and say, “They Don’t Stand a Chance.”
As true as God’s own Word is true,
Not earth or hell with all their crew
Against us shall prevail.
A jest and byword are they grown;
God is with us, we are His own;
Our vict’ry cannot fail. (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #375, v. 3)
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from stained glass window at Saude Lutheran Church)