The Second Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. John 2:1-11
In Christ Jesus, who does not reject us for our sins but nourishes and cherishes us as members of His holy body (Eph. 5:29-30), dear fellow redeemed:
We expect that Jesus would perform His first public sign in the heart of Jerusalem, perhaps in the temple, so all the higher-ups would know the Messiah had come. He could have done something magnificent like the transfiguration of His appearance, flying from one place to another, or putting food on everyone’s table or money in their pockets. Or His first sign could have been in His hometown of Nazareth, so all His neighbors would realize who He really was.
But Jesus did not choose Nazareth or the Holy City. He chose Cana, a little town in Galilee about nine miles north of Nazareth. And the occasion for His first sign was a wedding. A common Jewish custom for wedding feasts at this time was a seven-day celebration. The fact that the wine ran out does not automatically mean the guests at this wedding drank more than usual. It could mean that more guests had arrived than anticipated.
Running out of wine would have certainly changed the celebratory mood of those who were present. And it would have been an embarrassing way for the bride and groom to begin their life together. The situation concerned Jesus’ mother Mary enough that she brought the problem to her Son. “They have no wine,” she told Him. Jesus’ reply is surprisingly blunt: “Woman, what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”
We’re not sure what Mary wanted Jesus to do. But her message to the servants, “do whatever He tells you,” indicates that she thought He might do something. We can’t forget how Mary treasured up all the things she heard and saw about her special Son through the years and pondered them in her heart (Luk. 2:19,51). Now that He was a grown man, she was waiting for Him to take the next step, to reveal who He really was, who the angel Gabriel told her He was—the true Son of God (Luk. 1:35). His recent calling of Galilean men to be His disciples certainly had her thinking that something was about to happen.
But Jesus was not going to be forced to act by His mother whom He loved dearly. He told her as a twelve-year-old that the plan was not in her hands, “Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” (Luk. 2:49). And He reminded her of the same thing now, “what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” And at this point in the account, Mary, after speaking to the servants, steps aside.
Soon after this, Jesus quietly asked the servants to fill six large stone jars with water. When this was done, He asked them to “draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” Could they tell that the water’s color had changed? Could they smell the aroma of wine? Did they comprehend what had just happened? Whether it struck them in the moment or later on, these eyewitnesses could only conclude that Jesus had powers unlike anyone else they knew or had heard of. That’s certainly the impact this sign had on the disciples. The evangelist John who was almost certainly present at the wedding reported about himself and the other disciples that they “believed in [Jesus],” that He was the Son of God incarnate.
So Jesus saved the wedding celebration. He saved the bride and groom from embarrassment. Their joy-filled union was the occasion for His first public sign through which He “manifested His glory.” Of all the places and ways He could have revealed His divinity, He chose a wedding celebration, the formation of a new home through the marital union of husband and wife.
While it might not be what we expect, a wedding was a fitting place and way for Jesus to start His public work. Marriage is the first building block of society and everything that exists within it—from home to church to state. God instituted marriage before the fall into sin, so He saw that it was “very good” even for a man and woman who lacked nothing. Marriage was a gift for them, and it was the means by which God would expand the human race.
Adam and Eve had the first and only perfect marriage. Adam rejoiced that the woman made from his rib was “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23). The end of Genesis 2 includes this note, “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (v. 24). They had a marriage without shame, without any sin. They perfectly loved one another and perfectly served one another.
But then they gave it all up because they wanted to have more. They brought sin into Paradise. Immediately after falling, they played the blame game, pointing their fingers at each other instead of themselves. But God did not destroy them for their sin or take them away from each other. He gave them a promise that would hold them together and give them hope. From the woman would come an Offspring who would crush Satan’s head (3:15).
That particular woman was not Eve but the virgin Mary, and that particular Offspring was Jesus the Christ. What Adam and Eve destroyed, Jesus came to restore. He came to rescue the human race, and with it, His beautiful institution of marriage. Marriage can never be in this life what it was before the fall into sin, but it can be more than the world considers it to be—much more.
To teach us about the greatness of marriage, Jesus likens it to His union with the Church of all believers. Ephesians 5 says that as the Church acknowledges Christ as its Head and submits to Him, “so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands” (v. 24). And as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her, this is how husbands should love their wives (v. 25). When this happens by the grace of God, when neither spouse points fingers and both spouses make sacrifices for each other, then we catch a glimpse of the blessed union of Christ with His Church.
Sometimes a self-sacrificing love can be found in marriages between unbelievers. But more often the view of marriage in the world today is that it exists for my personal fulfillment, and if I am not happy, if my needs are not being met the way I want them to be, then I am going to walk. And then there is the growing number of couples who think marriage is “nothing but a piece of paper,” a formality, which is “not nearly as important as a shared expression of love for one another.” The devil attacks the best gifts of God, and that’s what he is doing to marriage today.
It isn’t just unbelievers who are affected by his lies and temptations. Satan especially works against marriages of Christians, and he has done damage among us too. He tempts us to selfishness, unkindness, jealousy, manipulation, hurtful words, and hurtful actions. He tempts us to look outside of our marriage to get what we want. He tempts us to think that happiness should be the primary concern in our marriage instead of faithfulness and sacrificial love.
But Jesus is active in our marriages too. Despite our sins against Him, He has not turned His back on us. We might get frustrated with each other, but He does not get frustrated with us. He loves us perfectly. As ugly as we know we look in our sin, He declares His bride the Church to be “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing… holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27). This is because He cleansed us in Holy Baptism “by the washing of water with the word” (v. 26). He joined us to Him. He paid for our sins. He covers us in His righteousness. He keeps no record of our wrongs.
This is sacrificial love. We sinned against Him, but He took the punishment in our place. We were unfaithful to Him, but He willingly carried our guilt to the cross. We deserved eternal death, but He died to win us eternal life. Your sins against your neighbor, including your spouse, are sins against Him—and He forgives you. He forgives you, which moves you to share that forgiveness with others. Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
The first sin happened because of a breakdown of marriage. The first sign that God had taken on flesh to bring salvation to the world took place at a marriage celebration. Marriage was not perpetually cursed by Adam and Eve, so that it should be avoided at all costs. Marriage is eternally blessed by God, so we should embrace it and give thanks for it as a great gift. Whether or not you are married today, you came from a marriage. You had a father and a mother. You know what a gift a healthy marriage is. You know how important marriage is for the home, the church, and the state. It is the human foundation on which everything else rests.
And that’s why Jesus is particularly interested in the home. He gives husband and wife to care for, help, and encourage one another. He gives children through their union, so that children have stability, so they are provided for, and so they receive training in the saving Word of God. He gathers the family around His Word, so we set our hope on His promises and grow in love for God and one another. Where His Word is, Jesus is present. He says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Mat. 18:20).
Jesus is present in holiness and power turning sorrows into joys, pain into pleasure, hardship into contentment. Whatever is brought into our homes because of sin, He transforms by His grace like the way He turned water into wine. Keeping His Word at the center of our home and our life together is how we know our family will be blessed, even if the future does not go the way we plan or expect. Jesus is with us drawing us closer to Him and to one another and giving us hope—hope in this life and hope for the eternal life to come.
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 a work by a 10th century monk)
The Baptism of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 3:13-17
In Christ Jesus, who put His forgiveness and righteousness in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, so that the Father is well pleased with us His children, dear fellow redeemed:
One of the most remarkable things about the life of Jesus up to the point of His Baptism is how little we know about it. We learn about His birth, His circumcision, and His presentation in the temple as a little baby. We hear about the visit of the wise men and how He had to flee with His family to Egypt when He was under two years old. We hear about His journey to Jerusalem and sitting among the teachers in the temple when He was twelve years old. And that’s it. We know nothing more about His teenage years or twenties beyond the summary recorded by the evangelist Luke: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (2:52).
That tells us that Jesus was respected by the people around Him. We know He never got in trouble, at least due to a wrong of His own, because He was without sin. He spent His days serving His mother Mary and guardian Joseph and helping His neighbors in need. It is shocking how mundane this seems. We are so used to Jesus active in teaching and miracles, that we have a hard time picturing Him in Nazareth as a regular citizen of the town. But there is a comfort here, too, that in all the time Jesus was living this mostly anonymous life, He was redeeming our lives by His perfect keeping of God’s Law.
And now the time had come for His true nature to be revealed. He traveled from Galilee to where John was baptizing at the Jordan River and stepped down into the water. When John saw Him, he said, “I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” That is a strange statement. At another place in the Gospels, John made it clear that he did not know who the Messiah was until His Baptism: “I myself did not know him,” said John, “but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel” (Joh. 1:31).
We know that Jesus and John had met before. John leaped in his mother Elizabeth’s womb when her relative Mary, pregnant with the Christ-Child, greeted her (Luk. 1:41). We assume that more visits between the two families followed through the years. This may be why John had a positive view of Jesus and considered Him to be superior to himself. But having great respect for Jesus was different than recognizing Him as the Messiah.
John saw Jesus in a completely different light after Jesus was baptized. When Jesus came out of the water, the heavens were opened, the Spirit of God descended in the form of a dove and came to rest on Him, and the voice of God the Father said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” If the townspeople of Nazareth were present that day, they would have stood there wide-eyed. They would have said then what they said later: “Is not this Joseph’s son?” (Luk. 4:22). How could Jesus be the beloved Son of God?
But He was! All four evangelists record this event which shows its significance. Nowhere else in the Bible do we see the distinctiveness of the Persons of God depicted so clearly. There stood the Son, upon Him came the Holy Spirit, and from heaven spoke the Father. And yet, these three Persons were still one God. One God from eternity. One God in power and glory. One God over all—always Triune, one God in three Persons.
Once he saw the Holy Spirit come down from heaven upon Jesus, John knew this was the Christ, this was the Savior. He told everyone who would listen: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!… I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God” (Joh. 1:29,34).
The event of Jesus’ Baptism and John’s eyewitness testimony were recorded so you would know who Jesus is. He is more than a man; He is not just the Son of Mary. He is the Son of God. His Baptism was the beginning of His public work, His anointing by the Holy Spirit to His three-fold office as Prophet, High Priest, and King. The Father also left no question about Jesus’ Person. He said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”—His holy, perfect, eternal Son.
So His Baptism reveals Jesus’ Person, but what about His Purpose? We are baptized, and we bring our children to be baptized, because of our sin. We go to the font for “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Ti. 3:5). We go to be cleansed “by the washing of water with the word” (Eph. 5:26). We go to be buried and raised with Christ, so we might “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).
But Jesus needed no regeneration and renewal. He needed no cleansing. He had no need of a new spiritual life because He was perfect. What prompted Him to go to the Jordan River to be baptized? Even John questioned why He should need to do this. And Jesus replied, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” He was baptized not to have sins of His own taken away but to impart His righteousness.
Many theologians have described Jesus’ Baptism as a great exchange. He stood there in the water at the beginning of His public work to have our sins poured over Him. And He went forward as a spotless Lamb to the cross, so that His righteousness would be poured over us. Our sins for His righteousness—that’s the great exchange. Everything Jesus did in obedience to His Father from His Incarnation to His Baptism to the Cross was “to fulfill all righteousness.”
He came to redeem every bit of your sinful life from the moment you were conceived in your mother’s womb and inherited original sin (Psa. 51:5), to the moment you take your last breath. Jesus left nothing undone. He fulfilled every tiny detail in God’s holy Law. He missed nothing. He said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Mat. 5:17-18).
He verified that He did everything He set out to do when He said from the cross, “It is finished” (Joh. 19:30). The fulfillment of God’s Law was complete, and so was the payment for all sin. By becoming a Man, the Son of God put Himself under the Law to keep it in every sinner’s place. And He had a body and soul that could suffer the wrath of God against sin on our behalf. This was God the Father’s plan, and Jesus willingly and perfectly carried it out. “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Co. 5:21).
This righteousness was poured over you and credited to you at your Baptism. Some Christians who misunderstand Baptism regard it as little more than a ritual, a ceremony or tradition of the church that has no power in it. “It is just something external,” they say, “but what really matters is the decision you make in your heart for Christ.” But Jesus does not give us empty rituals. He gives us powerful Sacraments for dispensing His eternal gifts.
After His resurrection, He commanded His Church to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” by baptizing them and teaching them (Mat. 28:18-19). His apostles did this; they baptized sinners of all ages from all kinds of backgrounds. And the Church has continued to do this until the present day. Baptism is the primary means by which sinners are brought into the holy Christian Church and made members of the body of Christ.
Everything you needed to get to heaven was given to you at your Baptism. Galatians 3:27 says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” If you have “put on Christ,” what do you lack? What more is there to add? If you have been buried and raised with Him, receiving the benefits of His death and resurrection (Rom. 6:4), what else could you need? All of this came to you as a gift from God.
But it is possible to lose this gift. This would happen if you no longer believed that the Jesus who stepped down into the Jordan River and was nailed to the cross on Calvary is the true Son of God. Or if you no longer believed that He did everything necessary to win your salvation, and therefore did not “fulfill all righteousness” for you.
If you do not believe in Him, then you are on your own. Then you have to answer for every bad thing you have done and for every righteous thing you have left undone. If your sins were not put on Jesus, then they are still on you. If His righteousness was not imparted to you, then you have no righteousness that counts before God.
It is vitally important to have a clear understanding about the gifts God gave you in Baptism, how He made you His own through those waters and changed the course of your life from destruction to deliverance. Jesus’ Nazareth neighbors had a hard time seeing Him as anything more than a man, but His Baptism revealed Him as the true Son of God on a mission to redeem the world. Your neighbors may look at you in the same way, as no different than anyone else.
But through Baptism, you became a true son of God and an heir of His eternal kingdom. You became a member of Jesus’ holy body, which means you are going where He your Head has gone. You are no longer stuck in your sin and destined for eternal death. You have been raised with Christ, you walk in newness of life even now, and you look forward to the eternal joys waiting for you in the Lord’s holy presence. For this 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 1895 painting by José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior)
The Epiphany of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 2:1-12
In Christ Jesus, 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), dear fellow redeemed:
When strange men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, they could not have asked a more provocative question: “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?” Very quickly their question reached the ears of King Herod. These men from the east, described in our reading as magi or wise men, did not know that Herod was one of the most wicked kings in the history of Israel. He was a very jealous king who even had some of his own sons killed in order to preserve his power.
And now these men were asking about a newborn “King of the Jews.” Far from wondering about this, even when he heard the Old Testament prophecies about the Christ, Herod immediately made plans to destroy this little rival to his throne. But he didn’t let the wise men see his rage. They could make his job easier. If they found this so-called “Christ,” they could tell Herod where He was, and then Herod could kill Him.
Herod must have been a convincing liar. The wise men did not suspect a thing. Herod acted like a fellow believer. He wanted to know everything they could tell him about the star and the promise attached to it. He may have indicated that there were some bad characters who would oppose this Baby in Bethlehem, but that he, Herod, would see to it that the Child was protected. Herod was so certain that he had the wise men tricked, that he did not feel the need to send them to Bethlehem with his own officials or soldiers. He had set the trap, and these Gentiles from the east were walking right into it.
The contrast between the two kings in today’s reading could not be more pronounced. King Herod was exceedingly active. When he heard the news about some other king of the Jews, he turned the whole city upside down to get to the bottom of this problem. When he called the religious leaders to come, they came. He pulled the strings on all the people around him, including the innocent wise men. No one dared challenge him or cross him. King Herod had power, and he used it.
The other King we hear about was under two years old at this time. This King counted on his humble mother Mary and his guardian Joseph for everything—food, clothing, a place to live. He had no other attendants (at least visible ones). He pulled no strings, ordered no one around, threatened no one. He had no obvious power. He may have been called a “king” by the men from the east, but He hardly seemed it.
And yet, this was the King the wise men had come to worship. That was their stated reason for making the long trip: “We have come to worship this newborn King.” And that’s what they did when the special star from God led them to Jesus’ house in Bethlehem. When they entered the house and saw this Child with Mary His mother, “they fell down and worshiped Him.” What an absurd sight! Grown men falling on their faces and worshiping before a toddler! What could He do for them, this little diapered Child?
Their actions are a beautiful example of faith. If they were looking for a king with obvious power and influence, they would have stuck with Herod. But they were looking for a King of promise, One who could rise above all political intrigues and petty jealousies. They hadn’t just seen a new star appear in the sky and decided to follow it because they had nothing better to do. Somehow, some way, they knew this star was tied to God’s promise to send a Savior.
This Savior was born of the Jews, but He was not just for the Jews. He was for all people, including these Gentile men from the east. If they did not believe this, they would not have worshiped Jesus and brought Him gifts. That is why the Epiphany of our Lord, celebrated on January 6 just after the twelve days of Christmas, is often called “Christmas for the Gentiles.” It was the first time that non-Jewish people laid eyes on the Christ-Child.
We are Gentiles like them. Most if not all of us have descended from the Gentile peoples who did not have the Old Testament Scriptures, who did not know the Promise. But after His resurrection, Jesus made it clear that His message of salvation was to be broadcast to “all nations” (Mat. 28:19). Disciples were to be made for Him from people of all ages, nationalities, and languages by baptizing them in His name and teaching them His Word.
You have become one of these disciples. As great as the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh given by the wise men were, you have received greater ones. You have received the forgiveness of all your sins, the righteousness of Jesus’ perfect life credited to you, and the assurance of eternal life in His kingdom. You received these gifts when you were a little child like Jesus, when you seemingly had nothing to offer Him or the Church. At your Baptism, your Lord was not seeking to get something from you; He was present there to give you the gifts of His grace.
But He did not come with visible displays of power. The heavens did not visibly open and bright rays did not shine down on you when you were baptized. The same goes for your hearing of the Word and receiving the body and blood of Jesus in His Supper today. These do not come with impressive signs like glowing light, the sound of a rushing wind, or a tingly feeling that God is near. You trust that God is active through His Word and in your life because He promises that He is.
Faith clings to His promise. When the wise men saw the star over Bethlehem, “they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” They rejoiced because of the promise attached to the star, that the King of the Jews had been born for the salvation of the world. The Bible, the true Word of God, is that same guiding star for us. We sang about it in our opening hymn: “As a star, God’s holy Word / Leads us to our King and Lord” (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #120, v. 6).
We rejoice exceedingly with great joy because “the King of the Jews” worshiped by the wise men is our King too. He is the King of creation. He is the King over sin, death, and devil. He is the King who reigns at the right hand of the Father, and who shall come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead (Nicene Creed). He is the “King of kings” and “Lord of lords,” as the Bible describes Him (1Ti. 6:15, Rev. 17:14, 19:16).
But it does not always appear so in this life. The Church of all believers, the body of Christ, does not look very powerful. We often feel threatened or afraid about what might happen to us. We are tricked and betrayed by the false promises of those who seem to have power and influence, like the wise men were by King Herod. We wish that God propelled His kingdom forward by outward displays of majesty and might. We know we are on the winning side, but we would like to see this and experience it.
The wise men are good examples and teachers for us. They followed the promise of God with steadfast and joyful hearts. No matter what wicked plots and intrigues were happening all around them, they went forward in faith and hope. And when they found the Christ-Child, who displayed no visible power and authority, they humbly fell before Him and offered Him their gifts. We do the same when we hold to the promise of God revealed in His Word, no matter what temptations or trials come our way. We hear His Word and receive His gifts in the Divine Service, though they come with no visible show of God’s power. And we respond with our own humble gifts of praise, thanksgiving, and a godly life.
To outsiders, unbelievers, this all seems utterly ridiculous and foolish. They may look at believers in Christ as Herod viewed the wise men—as simpletons, easily manipulated, inferior people who hold to an empty faith. They want the Christian Church to crumble and fade into history. But we have a secret weapon: we have the Lamb.
Revelation 17 describes the kings of this world who receive their power from the devil. Verse 14 says, “They will make war on the Lamb.” This should be an easy victory. What could be more vulnerable or weaker than a lamb? But that isn’t what happens. We read that “They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings.” This Lamb is the eternal Son of God who became a Baby born of the virgin Mary. He is the One who offered up His spotless life to take away the sin of the world, including your sin and mine.
He may have looked like nothing but a little Child when the wise men came calling, but they saw Him differently by the grace of God, and so do you. This Christ-Child, the Lamb, the suffering Servant crowned with thorns and hanging on a cross is no King the world wants. But He is the only King who matters. He is the only King who saves. We Worship the King of Kings. You know where to look for Him. You find Him where He promises to be found. And that is right here, through His Word, for your eternal good.
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 “Adoration of the Magi,” a late 1800s mural in Conception, Missouri basilica)
The Transfiguration of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 41:37-43
In Christ Jesus, who through our light momentary afflictions is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2Co. 4:17), dear fellow redeemed:
What happened?!? If you heard last week’s sermon about Joseph being sold as a slave in Egypt, and then you heard today’s reading about Pharaoh making Joseph his right hand man, you have to wonder how one led to the other. Here’s how it happened. When Joseph was brought to Egypt as a seventeen-year-old, he was purchased by a man named Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard. For a while, everything went well. In fact, it went very well. The LORD blessed whatever Joseph did, and Potiphar noticed. So he made Joseph the manager of all he had and “had no concern about anything but the food he ate” (Gen. 39:6).
If we had to guess what came next, we might imagine one of Pharaoh’s people seeing the good job Joseph did for Potiphar and recommending him to Pharaoh. That could explain how Joseph made his way to Pharaoh’s house. But his path to honor and glory was not as direct as that. First, Joseph had to go to prison. He had to go to prison because Potiphar’s wife accused him of trying to rape her. The truth was that she tried to seduce Joseph. And as easy as it might have been for him to carry on a secret affair as a slave in a foreign land, he rejected her temptations. He told her, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (v. 9).
Seeing that Joseph would not give her what she wanted, she resolved to destroy him. She told the lie, and her husband Potiphar threw him in prison where the king’s prisoners were confined. So now Joseph was in worse shape! But the LORD blessed him there too, and in time, the keeper of the prison set Joseph over all the other prisoners. “And whatever he did, the LORD made it succeed” (v. 23).
Some time later, Pharaoh became angry with his chief cupbearer and his chief baker and sent them to the same prison as Joseph. After they had been there a while, both of these former officials had strange dreams one night. By the power of God, Joseph was able to interpret their dreams—a good outcome for the chief cupbearer who in three days was restored to his position, but a bad outcome for the chief baker who three days later was beheaded. Before the chief cupbearer left, Joseph asked him to remember him and mention him to Pharaoh.
Imagine Joseph waiting for a special representative of the court to come to the prison and let him out. His friend the chief cupbearer would not forget. A week passed. Then another week. Then a month. Then a year. Then two years. Joseph must have thought he would never get out. But God had not forgotten him.
The LORD now put two dreams in Pharaoh’s head. First Pharaoh dreamed of seven healthy cows emerging from the Nile River, but these were followed by seven ugly and thin cows that ate up the healthy cows! Then he dreamed of seven healthy ears growing on one stalk. Seven thin ears sprouted after them and swallowed up the healthy ears. Pharaoh assembled all his magicians and wise men, but none of them could interpret his dreams.
Now two years after leaving him, the cupbearer remembered Joseph and told Pharaoh about him. Pharaoh had him brought from prison, and he asked Joseph if he could interpret his dreams. Joseph replied that God would reveal the interpretation. The seven healthy cows and seven healthy ears represented seven years of plenty. The seven ugly cows and thin ears after them represented seven years of famine. Joseph advised that Pharaoh “select a discerning and wise man” (Gen. 41:33), who would store up grain from the seven good years, so there was enough for the seven bad years. And Pharaoh said, “How about you?”
No one could have guessed it. No one sees as God does. No one could imagine that Jacob’s favoritism, the brothers’ hatred, the selling of Joseph, and his trials in Egypt would lead to his position as Pharaoh’s next-in-command. And this isn’t just a rags to riches story. This was part of God’s deeper and longer plan to bring salvation to the world. Joseph had to be installed in Egypt, so he could store up grain, so there would be food for his father and brothers when the famine hit, so they would travel to Egypt and the line of Messiah would be preserved.
While the LORD was doing all these marvelous things, Jacob was back home mourning the death of his son, his other sons were afflicted by guilty consciences for their hatred, greed, and lies, and Joseph thought he would never get out of prison. This should encourage us that no matter how bad our situation seems to be or how hopeless we may feel about the future, that God is working in ways we are not aware of.
This is His promise, to work all things together for good for those who love Him (Rom. 8:28). No matter what evils came upon Joseph, God was there turning each situation into blessing and strengthening him through the trials for a much brighter future. He does the same for you. No matter what hardships you have gone through, God was there hiding His blessings. You maybe couldn’t see them at the time and not for a long time after. But now you see them. You know that He carried you through and worked so much for good.
In your times of suffering, you often can’t see the good. If you only went by your experience, you might conclude that God has abandoned you. He doesn’t care. He is opposed to you, angry with you. But that is not what He tells you in His Word. He promises His love, His care, and His help. That’s what He wants you to focus on—not your experience and how things appear to be—but on His promise and what He tells you is so. The last stanza in our hymn of the month says, “I cling to what my Savior taught / And trust it, whether felt or not” (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #226, v. 10).
God is most certainly for you. In fact, Joseph’s story is in part your story because the promise of a Savior that was preserved through Joseph’s efforts in Egypt is why you have a Savior today. God sent His Son to become Man through Jacob’s line, so that He would make payment for the sins of the whole world. For most of His life, Jesus hardly looked like the conquering King He was. Even His disciples who followed Him around for three years were at times unclear about His identity.
This is one reason why Jesus revealed His glory to Peter, James, and John on the mountain and was transfigured before them (Mat. 17:1-9). He wanted them to have a glimpse of His glory, so they would be assured that He was God in the flesh. A short time after this, their confidence would be tested, as Jesus went to Jerusalem and was arrested, beaten, and crucified. How could that be the mighty Son of God if He took such a beating, was crowned with thorns, and was nailed to a cross?
But this is how God operates. He hides His glory in suffering, His healing in pain, and His life in death. His crucifixion was not a defeat; it was a victory. It was not a day for His enemies, but for His friends. It was not His end; it was your beginning with Him. He was on the cross paying for your sins, and then He rose to win you new life. Through your Baptism, you were joined to Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul writes that through that washing of regeneration and renewal you were buried and raised with Him. You walk in newness of life with Him (Ti. 3:5, Rom. 6:4).
In another place, Paul writes, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:3-4). So even in your sorrows and pains and hardships, your life is hidden with Christ. Your life is so tied up in His that He can’t help but know your troubles. You are a member of His body. How could He not care about your well-being?
You cannot see Him now, but He is present to help you. You see His presence in Joseph’s life when He made everything Joseph did successful through his thirteen years as a slave and a prisoner in Egypt. You see His presence in your life, too, when you remember how He comforted you through His Word, how He forgave your many sins, how He continued to invite you to eat His own body and drink His own blood. His power, His life, and His salvation are hidden in His Word and Sacraments.
These gifts are hidden from your physical sight, but your faith finds them there. They are not hidden from faith. By faith, you trust that Jesus is with you. No matter how deep the pit is, Jesus is there. No matter how severe the pain, Jesus knows. No matter how hopeless the situation, Jesus carries you through. Soon His presence will be revealed. Soon you will see how everything you had to endure in this life had its purpose in the larger plan of God.
Who could imagine Joseph’s glory as they looked at him in prison? Who can imagine your glory when they see you afflicted and troubled today? But the glory is coming. “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” On the day of His return, Christ’s glory will become your glory. On that day, He will clothe you in fine linens and put a golden crown on your head.
And then you will be exalted even higher than Joseph in Egypt, for you will join the Lord at the right hand of God where He fills all things. And no one will ask “what happened?” because all will know we are there by the grace of our Savior who loved us and gave Himself up for us (Eph. 5:2).
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 Carl Bloch, c. 1865)
The Third Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 32:22-32
In Christ Jesus, who appeared to the faithful fathers of old to prepare them for His coming in the flesh to save the world, dear fellow redeemed:
When Jacob went to Haran to find a wife, the LORD promised him that his offspring would be “like the dust of the earth,” that He would be with him, and that He would bring him back to the land he came from (Gen. 28:14-15). Now Jacob was on his way back with his wives, children, and great possessions. He had left with nothing but a staff in his hand, and now he was a rich man. God had made good on His promise.
But Jacob was shaking with fear. He heard from a messenger that his brother Esau was coming toward him with four hundred men. Jacob knew that in the past, his brother Esau wanted to kill him for taking the family blessing. Twenty years had passed since then. Had Esau’s anger and hatred subsided over that time or had it only increased? Jacob implored God to deliver him and his family from Esau’s wrath. He prayed: “O LORD, You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ Please protect me and deliver me as You said You would” (Gen. 32:12).
Jacob knew that Esau would reach him the next day. He sent presents ahead of him hoping to appease his brother. Then during the night, he sent his family and all that he had across the stream, while he stayed behind alone in the dark. You know how active a mind can be in the middle of the night when you are anxious about something. Can’t sleep. Wide awake. Running some problem or conflict over and over again in your head. Imagining the worst. Despairing of any good outcome. That was Jacob. All he could picture was Esau coming at him with arrow ready or knife drawn. He imagined his wives and children under attack—all that he loved, destroyed, lost.
He prayed like he never had before: “Have mercy, O LORD, have mercy!” I’m sure you can relate. Perhaps you have not faced an immediate threat to your entire family like Jacob, but you have worried about a family member who was sick or injured. Or you have been at odds with someone close to you and couldn’t see how the situation would ever improve. Or you have felt threatened by an enemy and feared what harm he or she might do to you.
You prayed at those times. But your prayers were probably also mixed with some doubts. Will my loved one be okay? Will we be able to work through this conflict? Will I be safe? And as much as you might have asked God for help, you may have felt alone like Jacob, alone and in the dark, worried and fearful about what might be coming.
In Jacob’s anguish that night, he suddenly realized he was not alone. A stranger surprised him and started fighting with him. Was it Esau or one of Esau’s men? We aren’t told what Jacob was thinking, just that “a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.” Jacob poured all his worries and fears into this wrestling match. He felt that he was fighting for his very life! We don’t know how long this went on, but we do know that Jacob fought with all his might.
Jacob fought so desperately, that even when the Man dislocated his hip, he did not give up. With daylight coming on, the Man tried to get away, but Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.” A very strange request to make of someone threatening his life! But Jacob somehow knew this was no ordinary man. He perceived that it was the LORD he was wrestling with, the very LORD he had been begging for mercy. And so it was.
But why was the LORD fighting with him? Why was He acting like Jacob’s enemy instead of his Savior? Didn’t Jacob have enough troubles without the LORD piling on? Perhaps you can relate to this too. Have you ever had one bad thing happen after another, and you couldn’t help but ask, “Why God?” Or you felt like the times you tried to do what was right, you got punished for it.
You can rule out the idea that God is unable to help or is distracted by other responsibilities. Those things could only happen if God were small and only somewhat powerful, which is not the case. You can also rule out the idea that God has changed His mind about you and has turned against you, since that would go against His promise never to leave you or forsake you (Heb. 13:5). So why might it be that God would sometimes behave like your enemy, like He did with Jacob?
Could it be that He wants you to fight like Jacob did, to fight with a desperate faith? Think about the Canaanite woman crying out to Jesus for mercy for her demon-oppressed daughter. At first, Jesus didn’t answer her. Then He told His disciples He was sent only for the Israelites. Then when the woman knelt right in front of Him, begging, Jesus said, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” It seems obvious that Jesus was telling her to go away, but the woman wouldn’t give up. She believed in Him. She declared that this dog would gladly accept the crumbs that fell from His table. And Jesus said, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire” (Mat. 15:21-28).
This teaches us that Jesus wanted to be caught. He wanted to be conquered by faith. We see this in the Holy Gospel for today from the leprous man who conquered Jesus by faith and was healed, and from the Roman centurion who faithfully brought the needs of his servant before Jesus. The same was true in the LORD’s wrestling with Jacob. He wanted Jacob to struggle with Him and pin Him down by faith. Hadn’t He already made a promise to Jacob? Why was Jacob so afraid? Why was he so worried? The LORD tested him, so Jacob would learn not to doubt, so He would learn to fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
The LORD also wanted him to understand that the promise He made to him was bigger than blessings in his lifetime and even bigger than the multitude of people who would come from him. The promise was ultimately about the Savior who would come from his line, in whom “all the families of the earth [would] be blessed” (Gen. 28:14). Perhaps this is the blessing God repeated after wrestling with Jacob.
God operates in the same way with us. At various times in our life, He may seem to be ignoring us or even opposing us. This is because He wants to exercise our faith. He certainly isn’t trying to drive us away from Him. He wants us to recognize our weaknesses, so that we trust in His strength. He wants to teach us to let go of what we cannot control and instead cling tightly to His Word and promises.
Above all, He wants us to remember that the Savior He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did come. The LORD kept this Promise of all promises. Jacob thought he was alone in the dark, but the LORD was right with him, holding him in His everlasting arms. Jesus, on the other hand, truly was alone as He suffered in the dark on the cross, crying out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Jesus was forsaken because all your sin was piled on Him. He was getting the full wrath of God and the eternal punishment that you deserved. He was suffering for the times you worried about tomorrow, when you doubted God’s commitment to you, when you trusted your strength instead of His, when you neglected to thank Him when He saved you from your trouble. It was sins like these that brought the Son of God down to earth as a Man and got Him nailed to the cross. He paid for all your sins, every single one.
That means you can be certain that God is not punishing you for your sins by sending you hardships in your life. He lets you experience temporary suffering, not because He is angry with you, but because He loves you. Isn’t this why parents discipline their children, out of love for them, because they want them to be good, humble, and responsible people when they grow up? Hebrews 12 says, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” And a few verses later, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (vv. 6, 11).
The Lord knows what you need. A life of constant success, where everything goes the way you want, would destroy your faith. Who needs faith if everything works out exactly the way they plan? When troubles and afflictions come your way, that is when faith can do what God gave it to you to do. That is when faith can rise up in every instance of hardship, pain, and sorrow and can take hold of the rock-solid promises of God. That is how faith conquers. It conquers by clinging to the One who conquered every fearful enemy for us—our Lord Jesus Christ.
He wants you to bring all your worries and fears to Him, trusting that He will take care of you. He wants you to endure and prevail in every hardship. He wants you to pin Him to His promises and not let Him go unless He blesses you. He will bless you, as He has so often done before. By His grace, He will carry you through your troubles and will strengthen your faith until you are ready to join all the faithful, the many “from east and west,” who will “recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Mat. 8:11).
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 15 century French Gothic manuscript painting)
The Second Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 29:13-30
In Christ Jesus, who walked a lonely road and suffered for our griefs, sorrows, and sins, so we would be assured of His help in our trials, dear fellow redeemed:
Jacob didn’t know—he couldn’t have known—that when he traveled to Haran, he was walking right into a great web, a terrible sticky web. He would soon find himself wrapped up in such cares and troubles that he wondered if he would ever be free again. When he first made contact with his mother’s relatives, he was filled with joy. He was blissfully unaware that a spider watched his every move, a spider watching, waiting, scheming. That spider was Laban, his mother’s brother, his own uncle.
Jacob went there because his mother wanted to save him from the wrath of his brother Esau after Jacob received the family blessing instead of Esau. Jacob’s parents sent him to find a wife among his relatives. As he set off on his journey toward Haran, he stopped for the night at a place called Luz. This was in the same area where the LORD appeared to Abram when he first arrived in the land of Canaan. As Jacob slept, he dreamed about a ladder reaching to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it.
And the LORD spoke to him, promising that his offspring would be “like the dust of the earth,” and that “all the families of the earth [would] be blessed” through him (Gen. 28:14). “Behold, I am with you,” said the LORD, “and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land” (v. 15). They were wonderful promises, but at the present Jacob had nothing. He had no wife, no home, and no great possessions. When he got to Haran, he was just poor Jacob trying to find a wife.
As we heard in today’s lesson, his uncle Laban received him warmly. He “embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house.” Jacob couldn’t have been happier, and he gladly helped his uncle however he could. Laban recognized his good work ethic and thought it would be useful to keep Jacob around for a while. “Tell me, what shall your wages be?” asked Laban. Jacob had come to his uncle’s place for a very specific purpose, and of Laban’s two daughters, one of them caught his eye. He said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
Now do you suppose Rachel was flattered and excited about this, or somewhat offended? In our culture, marriages are not arranged by the parents. We expect marriages to be by the free and mutual consent of a man and a woman—with no business strings attached. The culture in Haran was different. There it seems that the father had the authority to give a daughter in marriage to whomever he wanted, and his daughter did not question that decision.
This did not automatically mean the marriage would be unhappy. Many cultures around the world still have arranged marriages. Studies have shown that these marriages may even last longer than marriages for love. While we would hardly adopt this approach in our families, it is very important for Christian parents to approve of the spouses their children decide to marry. When this does not happen, there are bumpy roads ahead!
As far as we can tell, Rachel was okay with the arrangement to marry Jacob. He certainly loved her. In a line too mushy for middle school boys, we are told that the seven years Jacob served for Rachel “seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.” The time couldn’t go fast enough for Jacob, but it went too fast for Laban.
You see, Laban saw what kind of worker he had in Jacob. And that old spider thought to himself, “If I spin a little deception, what can Jacob do about it? He came here with nothing. He has no one to stand up for him. I know how I can keep him under my thumb for a while longer….” So he put his older daughter Leah in the marriage bed instead of Rachel and arranged things so that Jacob would not know until after they had come together. “You can have Rachel, too,” said Laban, “IF you serve me for seven more years.”
That’s how we arrive at a godly man with two wives, sisters, with the younger one favored over the older one and making sure big sister knew it. And a deceitful father-in-law who treated his son-in-law like a slave. And Jacob not knowing who he could trust and wondering how and when he would ever get back home.
There is much unhappiness in this saga. This isn’t the way Jacob imagined it when he saw the angels of God going up and down the ladder from heaven and heard the LORD’s promises. This isn’t the way he imagined it when his uncle first welcomed him to Haran. This isn’t the way he imagined it when he prepared to marry the woman he loved. Nothing had gone the way he planned.
For these reasons, Jacob is a helpful example for us—because each of us here has also had to go through troubles and trials that we did not anticipate, had to adjust our plans because life did not go like we imagined. Maybe like Jacob, you fell deeply in love with someone and could only see happiness ahead, but then something happened to change the relationship, and the future you saw so clearly faded. Maybe you thought marriage would be easy, but it tested you to your very limits. Maybe you found yourself under your boss’s thumb and didn’t know how to get away or didn’t think you could afford to.
When we have been hurt, sometimes we draw inside ourselves and put up a hard shell to try to protect ourselves from the pain. Sometimes we lash out at the person who hurt us or at innocent bystanders who caught us at just the wrong time. Sometimes we let our anger build up inside and maybe even plot our revenge, hoping that the person who hurt us, someday, somehow, will learn how it feels.
This bitterness can happen in a marriage. It can happen between siblings. It can happen between a parent and a child. It can happen with friends and co-workers and neighbors. The devil wants this to happen. He wants to break up marriages and families and friendships. He wants us to think selfishly, to dwell on our hurts, to never forget a wrong, and to quickly give up on something that God intended for our good.
God gives marriage, family, and friendship for our good. The reason these things go haywire is not because He fails us but because we are sinners. Each one of us brings sin into our marriages, our families, and our friendships. The neighbors who should concern us the most, the ones who are closest to us—even in our own home—these are the ones who have often gotten the worst of our sinning. They have been on the receiving end of our prideful behavior, our hurtful words, our selfish actions. They have seen us behave less like faithful Jacob and more like deceitful Laban.
Where do we take the pain that others have caused us, the deep hurts from broken promises, failed expectations, shattered dreams? Where do we take the guilt for our own mistakes and failures, the recognition that we have not been for others what we should have been? We take all this guilt and shame and pain to the One who came to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows (Isa. 53:4).
Jacob looked to this One also, which is how he was sustained in his troubles. Jacob believed that a Savior was coming, even from his own line. And in a strange twist that only God could see, this Savior did not come as Jacob expected from his union with Rachel. The Savior came from his union with Leah! God knows how to work blessings even out of times of trial. We have another example of this in the Holy Gospel for today, where for His first public sign Jesus turned water into wine to bring joy to a marriage celebration (Joh. 2:1-11).
He still does that now. No matter what you have gone through in your marriage, your family, and your friendships—or what you are still going through—Jesus brings you His blessings. He is present here today to forgive you the sins you have committed against those He called you to care for. He is here to take the burdens of your guilt about the past, your struggles in the present, and your worries about the future. He picks you up and covers you in His mercy and grace as you listen to His promises and prepare to receive His body and blood given and shed for you. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,” He says, “and I will give you rest” (Mat. 11:28).
Your Savior Sees Your Troubles. Even before you were born, He saw you and what you would go through in your life. It was for you that He endured every sort of trouble on earth and for you that He went to the cross. No trial that you have to face is stronger than His love for you. There are more blessings ahead for you because He is with 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 a work by a 10th century monk)
The First Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 27:1-19
In Christ Jesus, Himself a Child within an earthly home, who with heart still undefiled did to manhood come (ELH #187, v. 2), so that His righteous life would be credited to us, dear fellow redeemed:
If you are from a family of more than one child, which one of you was the favorite? The older children can say, “Mom and Dad were so happy with us that they thought they would have more kids… but it didn’t work out like they hoped.” The younger ones can say, “Dad and Mom kept hoping for something better until they got to us.” These comments are all made in good fun. As much as we might try to get our parents to name their favorites, we know this would not be helpful to anyone.
Today’s reading gives us a clear example of favoritism in a family and the difficulties it caused. We heard last week how Isaac and Rebekah were unable to have children until twenty years into their marriage when God blessed them with twin sons. Carrying twins would be challenging enough, but in Rebekah’s case, her boys struggled inside her. It caused her such discomfort and pain that “she went to inquire of the LORD” (Gen. 25:22), probably through a prophet. She received this response: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger” (v. 23).
When her sons were born, the first baby was all red and his body was like a hairy cloak. He was called “Esau,” a name like the Hebrew word for “red.” The second baby came out hanging on to his brother’s heel, so he received the name “Jacob,” a name that means “heel grabber.” As they grew older, rough-and-tumble Esau, an outdoorsman and hunter, was favored by his father, while mild-mannered Jacob who stayed close to home was favored by his mother.
It is clear that the question of who was to be the chief heir of the family was on each of their minds. Esau was in the position of inheritance as the firstborn, but Rebekah could not forget the LORD’s prophecy about how “the older shall serve the younger.” Once when Esau returned home exhausted, he demanded that Jacob give him some of the stew he had prepared. Jacob sensing an opportunity said, “Sell me your birthright now” (v. 31). In other words, give up the right of the firstborn. And Esau replied, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” (v. 32). So Esau gave up his birthright for a bowl of stew, so little did he regard the promise of inheritance and of the coming Savior.
But it seems that Isaac was not convinced that Rebekah understood the prophecy in the right way. Perhaps through the struggle in her womb, thought Isaac, the younger Esau had prevailed and passed by his brother Jacob. Even by appearance, Esau was obviously the stronger of the two, and the prophecy said, “the one shall be stronger than the other.” Rebekah remained convinced that the son born last should be regarded as the first. Today’s reading shows us that the question had not been settled between husband and wife.
Isaac made it known to Esau that he intended to give him the official family blessing. Esau would inherit the largest portion. Esau would be the leader of the clan. Esau would be the heir of the promise. Rebekah overheard that conversation and quickly made a plan. Jacob would pretend to be Esau in order to receive his father’s blessing. The reason she thought they could pull it off is because Isaac in his old age had become nearly blind. Rebekah justified these actions by holding to the Word she had heard from the LORD, that the younger should prevail.
So Jacob dressed in Esau’s clothes, he covered his hands and neck with goat skin so his skin would seem rough like Esau’s, and he brought food for his father like the food Esau often prepared. And as crazy as the plan seemed, it actually worked. Despite some suspicions, Isaac bestowed the family blessing on Jacob including these words, “Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!” (27:29). So Jacob received the blessing as the LORD intended. Everything turned out well! Except for the fact that Esau now hated his brother and made plans to kill him when their father died (v. 41).
Nobody comes out of this account looking very righteous. Isaac ignored or explained away the prophecy his wife received. Rebekah schemed to deceive her husband. Esau showed in various ways his rejection of God’s will. Jacob lied several times to his father. Does it surprise you to learn these things about Isaac and Jacob, two of the prominent fathers of the faith in Old Testament times?
What we find in the household of Isaac and Rebekah is not so different from what could be found in our own homes. Perhaps the sins of our household don’t look exactly like theirs, but sins are certainly there. In our homes, husband and wife do not always get along. They do not always willingly and humbly serve one another. Sometimes they get angry with each other and speak harshly to each other. Children do not always obey their parents. They seek to deceive them, they lie to them, and they speak disrespectfully to them. Siblings fight with one another, hurt each other, possibly even express hatred toward one another wishing that their brother or sister were dead.
You know the sins of your own household. You know the part you played in the conflicts from your youth to the present day. You know that you and your family are not as righteous as you would like people to think. We can be grateful that the details of our home life are not recorded in the pages of Scripture for everyone to read like Isaac’s and Rebekah’s were. But their family conflicts are not included to give us something interesting to read and make judgments about. Their family conflicts are included because they relate directly to God’s promise that a Savior would come through their line.
Even in this household of sinners, through these flawed and selfish individuals, God kept His promise. He chose them by grace to carry the seed that would one day take shape in the womb of a woman named Mary. God does great things even in our own sinful homes. He gives us opportunities each day for humble service to one another, opportunities to forgive each other’s wrongs, opportunities to encourage one another in the faith. We are joined to the members of our family by blood, but more importantly, we are—each of us—part of the body of Christ through the cleansing of His blood.
In all of human history, there has only been one perfect Child. We hear about Him today going to church with His parents in Jerusalem. And though we might wonder why He didn’t tell His parents where He would be as they prepared to leave the city, He did not try to deceive them. He had no bad intentions. When they located Him on the third day in the temple, He explained with some surprise, “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” (Luk. 2:49).
They did not understand what He was saying, which I’m sure happened over and over again in His conversations with them. But the perfect Jesus did not become frustrated with His sinful parents. He submitted to their earthly authority, and in so doing, He perfectly fulfilled the Fourth Commandment: “Honor your father and your mother that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.”
Jesus kept that command for you, so that the times you disobeyed or disrespected your parents, your teachers, your bosses, and every other earthly authority—so that these times are covered by His righteousness. Jesus was born under God’s Law to redeem you from your breaking of His Law (Gal. 4:4-5). He took all the sins you have done as a child, as a sibling, as a spouse, as a parent, and He paid the price in full to save you from the wrath of God.
And since God is not angry with you for our sins, neither should you be angry with anyone else. Just because Esau did not get what he wanted, does not mean he had the right to hate his brother. Even Isaac when he learned he had been deceived by Rebekah and Jacob did not disown his wife and son. He forgave them and turned these concerns over to his Savior God, who knows how to work all things—even hurtful and dishonest things—for good.
Perhaps Isaac also realized that his favoritism toward Esau had clouded his judgment. Obvious favoritism in a family is never beneficial. The Bible says multiple times that “God shows no partiality” (Act. 10:34), and the same should be said for a father and a mother. When God grants children to Christian husband and wife, He intends that each child be loved, provided for, and prayed for just the same. I remember hearing about a family with multiple children who admitted after their parents’ deaths that each one thought he or she was the favorite. Each child thought this, which shows how dearly their parents loved each one.
In every station of our life, we want to love the people around us whom God has given us to love. When we fall short in our interactions and our responsibilities, we take comfort that we are loved with a perfect love. We are loved and forgiven by our heavenly Father who holds no grudge against us for past wrongs and has no plan to punish us in the future. He sent His perfect Son, the perfect Child of Mary, to redeem all the children of the world, including imperfect ones like you and me.
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 Among the Doctors” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Epiphany of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 26:1-6
In Christ Jesus, the Light shining in the thick darkness of the earth, to whom sinners from all nations come in faith, receiving from Him life and salvation, dear fellow redeemed:
Last week, we heard about God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering. As painful as this command was for father and son, they were willing to go through with it because they trusted God’s promise that nations would come from them, including the Savior of the world. Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son because he believed that God would bring Isaac back to life (Heb. 11:19).
The LORD stopped Abraham just as he was taking up the knife to slaughter his son, and He provided a ram for the sacrifice instead. He then repeated the promise to Abraham and Isaac that their descendants would be as many “as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore,” and in their offspring “all the nations of the earth [would] be blessed” (Gen. 22:17,18).
It was a grand promise, so grand that it must have been difficult to imagine. This family did not have the appearance of a great dynasty. Abraham and Sarah were very old. They had one child. They lived as nomads in the land of Canaan. They didn’t own any land until Sarah died and Abraham bought a field with a cave to bury her in. Isaac was thirty-seven years old when his dear mother died, and he grieved for her.
When Isaac was forty, Abraham sent a servant to the land of his relatives to find a wife for his son. Rebekah agreed to return and marry Isaac. It was a happy marriage, except that they were unable to have children for a long time. Just as the LORD made Abraham and Sarah wait, so He made Isaac and Rebekah wait. We are told that “Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife…. And the LORD granted his prayer” (Gen. 25:21). Twenty years after they were married, God gave Isaac and Rebekah not just one child, but twin sons!
Isaac might have thought everything was going well. As he aged, he could give thanks for a good wife, two sons including the heir of God’s promise, and sufficient means to support his household. The difficult times perhaps were behind them! But then, as today’s reading says, “there was a famine in the land….”
We can relate to this. You can think of times when things were going well for you, and you started to think you could be getting somewhere. But then something happened at work that threatened your livelihood. Or there was a family crisis or a health issue, and your plans had to be set aside, maybe never to be picked up again.
As we go through life, we learn again and again how little we can actually control. We don’t know how the economy will do, how business will go, how our health will be. We don’t know how many years or months or days we have left. Not knowing how life will play out can cause us to be anxious and worried. Those worries start in our youth and continue through the different stages of our life, worries like:
- How will I be able to make friends in a new classroom?
- How will I do on the big test?
- What will I be when I grow up?
- Will I find someone to marry?
- Will we be able to have children?
- How will we raise children if we have them?
- Will the work I do be appreciated?
- Will I have enough to live on?
- Will I have enough for retirement?
- Will I be healthy enough to enjoy what I have earned?
- Will I be able to stay in my home when I’m old?
We worry about what could happen in the future. When the future arrives, we usually recognize that we didn’t need to worry about that. Or we wonder why we were so worried about those little things when there are much bigger things to worry about now. Today’s account about Isaac and the troubles he faced is a good reminder that God keeps His promises.
Isaac could not see what the future held for him and his family. But the LORD could, and He wasn’t worried! The LORD appeared to Isaac and told him there was no need to be anxious. Even though Isaac’s situation seemed tenuous in a foreign land under a godless ruler, the LORD said, “I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands.” So his offspring would have a place. More than that, his offspring would be many, as many “as the stars of heaven.” And in his offspring “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed”—blessed because the Savior of the world would come from Isaac’s line.
Isaac could not see exactly how all this would come about. He did not know when these promises would be fulfilled. All he could see in that moment was trouble. But he believed what God said. He waited in faith for the Lord to act for his good and at the right time. Such quiet confidence is expressed by one of the characters in the Bright Valley of Love book that we are starting next week. He said, “When human thinking has come to a dead end and can see no way out of its problems… then faith is able to spread its wings. The climate has never been better—for faith” (p. 80).
Times of trouble are the perfect times for faith to “spread its wings.” Faith is for the things that are out of your control, which is most everything! Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The same chapter goes on to describe the faith of Noah who started building an ark long before the rain fell (v. 7), and the faith of Abraham who left his home country to live in the land that God promised to his descendants (vv. 8-9). They trusted God’s promises, fully knowing that some of these would not be fulfilled in their lifetime.
The times you must wait for the Lord in your trials, your suffering, your uncertainties, your pain—these are the times when God builds up faith. These are the times when He teaches you to rely on Him, to lean on Him. But when things are going well for you, when everything seems to be in place, when your plans are working out exactly as you intended, these can be dangerous times for faith. In our sinful thinking, we might imagine that it is our efforts, our abilities, our talents that have led to our success. And if that is the case, then what do you really need God for? If I am in control, if I am the master of my fate, then the Lord can just wait until possibly sometime down the road when I need Him.
In these times of little faith or no faith at all, God often sends us trials. He does not send these to destroy us or drive us from Him, but to draw us closer. In His love for us, He wants to give us opportunities to exercise our faith, to remind us of our need for His mercy, to strengthen our confidence in His grace and forgiveness.
You might remember with guilt those times in your self-assurance and pride when you took God’s gifts for granted. You became aware of how faithless you had been and how unworthy you were to be called a child of God. You maybe even had a difficult time coming to church because of your guilt. But what did you hear when God brought you back through these doors? Not words of judgment for poor sinners. Not condemnation. You heard God’s promise of forgiveness for your sins, the promise that you are reconciled with God the Father through the blood of His Son, the promise of eternal joy in His heavenly kingdom when your life here comes to an end.
These promises are as sure as God’s Son hanging on the cross and His tomb sitting empty on the third day because He had risen. He was the ultimate fulfillment of the LORD’s promise to Abraham and Isaac. It is through Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate, that “all the nations of the earth [are] blessed”—both the descendants of Abraham and Isaac and people from other nations like those wise men from the east. Jesus died and rose again for all, including you.
And that is true no matter what trouble God calls you to face in this life, or how often you have failed to trust in Him. You are a beloved child of God, fearfully and wonderfully made, redeemed by the blood of His Son, sanctified and kept in the true faith by the Holy Spirit. Like He did for Isaac when he was afflicted by a famine and wandering around with his family, the LORD promises to be with you and guide you and bless you. The LORD did not fail to keep His promises to Isaac, and He will not fail to keep His promises to you.
So in your suffering, in your pain, in your trouble, you say with the psalmist, “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope” (Psa. 130:5). Those who wait for the LORD and hope in His Word shall, as the Holy Scriptures say, “renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isa. 40:31)—ever strong in the LORD.
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 “Sacrifice of Isaac” by Orazio Riminaldi, 1625)
The Third Sunday after the Epiphany – Vicar Lehne sermon
Text: St. Matthew 8:1-13
In Christ Jesus, who is our ultimate cure, dear fellow redeemed:
Benjamin Franklin once said, “[I]n this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” But I think that a third thing needs to be added to that list: sickness. You could eat nothing but healthy food, drink lots of water, get just the right amount of sleep every night, wash your hands regularly with soap and water, and clean everything that could possibly be contaminated in your house; and you would still get sick eventually.
Getting sick is a miserable and frustrating thing. Depending on the type of sickness you get and the severity of it, you could lose your voice, your head could hurt, you could become so weak that it’s difficult for you to move, or perhaps the worst thing of all, you could have to take really nasty tasting medicine. And if that’s not bad enough, you may even have to cancel plans that you’ve been looking forward to, or you may fall behind on important work that you have to get done. Getting sick really can put you in your weakest and most helpless state.
When you are in this state, you have two options: you could ignore your weakness and helplessness and try to power through on your own, which usually results in your sickness getting even worse, or you could admit your weakness and helplessness and turn to others for help. But who should you turn to? Family? Friends? A doctor? While all of these people can be a great help to us when we are helpless, there is one person who can help us more than any of them: Jesus.
In our reading for today, we hear about two men who were at their weakest and most helpless state. One of them was a leper, a man who had a disease that made him ceremonially unclean and unable to be a part of Jewish society. The other was a centurion, a Roman commander who was in charge of about a hundred men. The centurion himself was not suffering from any physical weakness, but he was still at his weakest and most helpless point. This was because he had a servant who was not just suffering terribly from paralysis, but, as we find out in Luke 7, was also near death (Luke 7:2), and there was nothing he could do about it. These two men could have ignored their weakness and helplessness and powered through on their own, but they didn’t. They realized that they needed help, and the person who they turned to for help was Jesus.
The leper and the centurion believed that Jesus had the power to give them the help that they needed. Now, if Jesus was a mere man, then believing that he had any real power at all would be foolishness. After all, no man can miraculously heal someone’s sicknesses or disabilities. But what did Jesus do? He touched the leper with his hand and said, “[B]e clean” (verse 3), and the leper was immediately cleansed of his leprosy. He said to the centurion, “[L]et it be done for you as you have believed” (verse 13), and the centurion’s servant “was healed at that very moment” (verse 13). By having mercy on these two men and healing the leper and the centurion’s servant, Jesus proved that he was not just a man. He is God.
Because Jesus is God, we can turn to him for help whenever we are suffering from physical weaknesses of any kind. Physical weaknesses are not just sicknesses or injuries. They are also everything else that we suffer from in this life, such as money problems, drama with friends or family, or when we have a seemingly impossible task before us. Whatever it is that we are suffering from, it can put us at our lowest point.
When we are struggling and feeling helpless, we have two options: we could ignore our helplessness and try to push through on our own, which would only make our suffering even worse, or we could turn to Jesus, who has the power to help us, no matter what state we’re in, because he’s God. Jesus loves us, and in his mercy, he comes to us in our time of need and lifts us out of our low points. And if we have to suffer for a little longer, he remains by our side and takes all our sufferings on himself and bears the burden of them for us. As Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).
Even though we don’t deserve any of this love and mercy that Jesus shows us, there are times when we don’t think he is showing us enough love and mercy. We are grateful to Jesus when he delivers us from our suffering, but if he allows us to continue suffering, and that suffering seems to have no end in sight, we can become impatient with him and wonder if he is truly doing what is best for us.
We may think that we know what’s best for us, but this is based on our imperfect human reasoning. In reality, God is the only one who knows what’s best for us. It can be difficult for us to understand how our suffering could possibly be for our good when we are in the middle of it, and sometimes we may never know the reason for it. All we can do is trust, like the leper did, that no matter how God chooses to help us, be it by delivering us from our suffering or by helping us bear it, his will for us will be done. As the apostle Paul says, “[W]e know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). And we know that God’s ultimate will for us will be done, because he has already delivered us from the deadliest disease of all, the disease of sin.
Sin is a disease that we are all born with, and it infected every part of us, not just our physical bodies, but also our thoughts, words, and actions. It is because of sin that all of our physical weaknesses exist in the first place. It is because of sin that we grow impatient with God when he doesn’t help us in the way that we want him to. And it is because of sin that we will one day die. The disease of sin really puts us in our absolute weakest and most helpless state.
The disease of sin has infected us so completely that we are unable to turn to Jesus for help. And if it were left up to us, we would not just fail to overcome our sin, we would enter into the outer darkness of hell as punishment for our sin, where, as Jesus describes it in today’s reading, “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (verse 12) without end, eternal suffering.
But God the Father did not want to leave us in this state of complete and utter helplessness. He knew that we were unable to cure ourselves of the disease of sin, so he sent his only begotten Son, Jesus, to be our ultimate cure. Because Jesus is God, he was not born with sin, like all of us were, and he did not catch that deadly disease because he successfully resisted all the temptations that would have caused him to catch it, temptations that we fail to resist on a regular basis. Then, on the cross, he took the burden of our sin on himself and paid the price for all of it. Because of the suffering that Jesus endured on the cross for us, we have been cleansed of our sin.
The cure that Jesus won for you is a free gift that he gives to all of you through his Word and Sacraments. He speaks his forgiveness to you through his powerful Word, which heals you at that very moment. He reaches out his hand and gives you his healing touch through his Holy Sacraments. And now that he has given you his cure through these means of grace, you have a new life, not one that is weak and helpless, but one that is strong in Jesus.
Unfortunately, much like the physical sicknesses that you suffer through in this life, the disease of sin just doesn’t want to go away. And it doesn’t just give you physical weaknesses to suffer through, it also gives you spiritual weaknesses. It does so by trying to attack and weaken your faith, making you think that your weaknesses make you uncurable. But, thanks to the new life that God has given you through faith, trying to power through on your own is no longer your only option. In faith, you can turn to God for help, and he gives you the help you need by giving you the comfort that he has forgiven you and will always be there for you, bearing the burdens that you suffer in this life until the day that you get to enter into eternal life in heaven with him and forever be at peace.
One of the ways that Jesus gives you the forgiveness of sins when you are suffering is through Holy Communion. In that holy supper, you come to the Lord’s table, weak and helpless from the sins that you are suffering from, and you receive the Lord’s true body and blood in the bread and wine, which is the best medicine there is, the medicine of immortality. This is not a medicine that tastes really nasty, like the medicine that you may have to take to recover from your physical sicknesses. This medicine is sweet, granting you the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for you on the cross and strengthening you to continue through your lives with Jesus at your side.
Sickness is something that can be truly miserable and frustrating, especially when it makes us so weak and helpless that we can no longer function on our own. But even though it can be miserable, it can also be beneficial by helping us to realize that we can’t do everything on our own and that we do need to rely on help from others, especially on Jesus. When we are suffering from physical or spiritual weaknesses and there is no one else to turn to, we know that we can always turn to Jesus, who has the power to help us get through any weakness, because he is God.
Even though things that cause us suffering, such as death, taxes, and sickness, are considered to be certainties in this life, they are only temporary. The only certainty that has no end is the grace and mercy that can only be found in Jesus. Jesus truly is the ultimate cure.
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 a portion of a Byzantine mosaic in Sicily)
The Second Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Romans 12:6-16
In Christ Jesus, from whom all blessings flow to His holy bride, the Church of all believers, dear fellow redeemed:
I was surprised to learn that there are twelve couples in our parish who will celebrate fifty or more years of marriage this year. Thanks be to God for this! It is an example and an encouragement to the rest of us, as we live in a culture that places less and less value on marriage. I wish I had compiled these anniversary lists sooner, since there would have been more couples to recognize in years past.
When married couples reach their seventieth or seventy-fifth anniversary, that seems to be high enough for an article in the local newspaper. And the question is always asked, “How did you make it work for this long?” Or, “What advice do you have for other married couples?” The advice is often something like: “Never go to bed angry.” “Communicate with one another.” “Compliment each other every day.” And that is all good advice.
The couples among us who have been married a long time would agree that marriage takes work—and sometimes very hard work. But I think they would also acknowledge that it wasn’t so much their “being good at marriage” that got them through. It was the grace of God covering over their faults and forgiving their sins that brought them to this point.
This is what we emphasize at our marriage ceremonies, an emphasis that you won’t hear in many other places. We keep the focus on Jesus, and the love He has for us. For many others, the focus is only on the love the married couple has for one another. In some cases this mutual love is treated as the foundation of the marriage, and the vows are accordingly changed from “until death parts us,” to “as long as we both love each other.” That’s a problem, because the love one might have for another is not a constant. It is changeable, and it often does change in a marriage.
The Epistle lesson before us today is not specifically a marriage reading. It is instruction and encouragement to be who we already are in Christ. The reason we need the instruction is because sin clings to us, and we continue to think, say, and do things that are not right. We need to be taught what is right before God. We need to learn how He wants us to be as His people.
Marriage and family are wonderful ways to put these teachings into practice. What marriage wouldn’t benefit from outdoing “one another in showing honor,” or being “patient in tribulation,” or never being “wise in your own sight”? And think of how peaceful a home would be where siblings “love one another with brotherly affection,” where they “live in harmony with one another,” where none are “haughty, but associate with the lowly.”
The home is the testing place to see whether we will succeed outside the home. If a child does not respect his parents, what other authority will he respect? If siblings do not learn to get along, who else will they get along with? If Mom and Dad don’t model love and sacrifice in their marriage, how likely will their children learn these things for future relationships outside the home? So much depends on the home!
But the home is not perfect—no home is. I expect there is much you are thankful for about the home you grew up in, especially if it was a Christian home. But you also remember hard times, arguments, fights, impatience, anger. And you probably weren’t an innocent bystander in all of that. You remember the part you played in that discord. You remember your sins.
The home Jesus grew up in was no different. Probably Joseph and Mary worried about money like most couples do. I’m sure their tempers got short. You can imagine how Mary fretted when they lost track of their twelve-year-old Son in Jerusalem. When they finally found Him in the temple, Mary blurted out, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress” (Luk. 2:48). We see more worrying from Mary in today’s Holy Gospel when she brought the problem of a wine shortage to Jesus at a wedding they attended.
But one thing was different about the home of Mary and Joseph that made it like no other home. Jesus was different. He actually was an innocent bystander. He did not contribute in any way to the sin of the household. He was perfect. He submitted to the authority of Mary and Joseph (Luk. 2:51). He showed perfect love toward them and the neighbors around Him, and they noticed. The evangelist Luke writes that “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (2:52).
That perfect life was for you, to cover over all your transgressions and unkindnesses toward the people God placed in your life to love. Everything in today’s reading that you fall short of time and again, Jesus fulfilled. He was genuine in His love. He held fast to what was good. He loved and honored all the people around Him. He was not slothful in zeal; He was fervent in spirit; He perfectly served the Lord God. He rejoiced in hope; He was patient in tribulation; He was constant in prayer. He was humble, kind, gracious, and helpful in the best possible ways.
This perfect life that Jesus lived, He freely hands over to you. Like a husband and wife who agree to share everything with each other, Jesus says, “Everything that is Mine is yours.” In fact, marriage is exactly the picture God uses to explain what His Son did for you. But it is not like our marriages, which we enter into by mutual consent as equals. The union between Jesus and His bride the Church was totally by His prerogative, and it was nowhere near balanced like we expect the marriage relationship to be.
Jesus, the perfect Bridegroom, chose for His bride the world of sinners. The only-begotten Son of God, God from all eternity, chose to join Himself to our human flesh and become a Man, so that He could make everything that is ours His, and everything that is His ours. He accepted our pride, our anger, our bitterness, and our self-centeredness. He accepted our unkind words, our manipulative actions, our unfaithfulness, and our lies. He let all of our sins be placed on Himself as though He were the straying spouse, as though all the stains of our wrong-doing belonged on Him.
And in return, He gave us what is His. He gave us His perfect obedience to His Father, His kind actions, His gracious words, His righteous thoughts. He gave us His eternal life, His everlasting peace, His heavenly kingdom. All that He accomplished by His holy life and His sacrificial death on the cross, He poured over us in Baptism (Eph. 5:26).
He joined His life to yours at your Baptism. There He promised to remain faithful to you at all times and in all situations—“for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish.” But not until death parts you, because death cannot part you from your Bridegroom who rose in victory over your death and lives forevermore. By faith, you cling to Him. You trust that He will not break His baptismal vow to you no matter what you have to face in your marriage, in your home, or in your life.
Jesus our Bridegroom is perfectly true. Our side of things is the side that is less certain. Like a discontent spouse, sometimes we try to blame Jesus for not doing more for us, for not addressing our wants and needs, for not making us happier. But Jesus hasn’t changed toward us. It is we who change toward Him. It is our love for Him that falters. It is our confidence and trust in Him that are lacking.
When things get bad for us it is because we get this verse backward. Instead of “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good,” we often abhor what is good and hold fast to what is evil. That’s when we have problems with Jesus. We ignore His powerful Word, while giving way to our own bitter thoughts and sinful actions. We forget His love, while wallowing in self-pity.
But if we are going to “Hold Fast to What Is Good,” there is no other way to do this than to hold fast to Jesus, because it is Jesus who is good, whose mercy endures forever. The word for “holding fast” is the same word that Jesus used when quoting from Genesis 2: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Mat. 19:5). Or if you prefer the old translation, “a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife.”
We “hold fast” to Jesus, we “cleave” to Him, by gladly hearing and learning His Word, and trusting that He is here to bless us through the means of grace He instituted for His Church. We should have no doubts about what His Word can do. If it could turn water into wine and bring gladness to a wedding at Cana long ago, it can change bitterness to love, curses into blessings, and sorrows into joys in our hearts and in our homes.
So whether you are married or single, whether you are looking forward with excitement to unknown joys and challenges, or looking back with sober reflection and contentment, remember that Jesus’ vow toward you has not changed. He joined Himself to you and will never leave you. He is your salvation, your comfort, your strength.
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 Redeemer Lutheran Church stained glass)