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 Festival of the Reformation – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Chronicles 29:12-19
In Christ Jesus, who cleanses and consecrates His holy Church of all believers, so we are ready to carry out His work in His name to His glory, dear fellow redeemed:
Imagine if a church building was taken over by Satanists and defiled in every way, or it was turned into an establishment that catered to every vice that people were willing to pay for. What would need to be done to turn the building back into a Christian church? Every godless image and item would be need to thrown out. The interior would need to be scrubbed from top to bottom. None of the uncleanness that was there before could be left—not even a hint of it—if it was to serve as the place of God’s holy presence once again.
This is the task the Levites and priests faced when King Hezekiah opened up the temple doors that his wicked father had shut up. Hezekiah’s father had followed the pagan practices of the nations around Judah. He had built altars to false gods all over Jerusalem and in the high places surrounding it. He had sacrificed some of his sons as burnt offerings. He took the holy vessels from the temple of God and cut them in pieces. He put a stop to the daily sacrifices in the temple which God had commanded (2Chr. 28).
The first thing Hezekiah did when he began to reign was to call the priests and Levites together to cleanse the temple of the filth that had been brought into it. They started by consecrating themselves—preparing themselves for holy work—as the Law of God required. This is how every effort in the Church should begin, by a recognition of our own sinfulness. The priests and Levites acknowledged their past unfaithfulness, and they committed to doing what God had commanded.
Piece by piece, item by item, inch by inch, they cleansed the house of the LORD. They started with the innermost parts of the temple. The seven Levitical families worked seven days plus one until they reached the vestibule or porch of the temple. Then they worked another seven days plus one to finish the work of consecration.
The number seven is in view because that is the number for perfection or completeness. The use of seven indicates that the temple of the LORD was completely cleansed by the priests and Levites and prepared for His service. This is also why seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats were brought for a sin offering when the temple was ready. This was an offering for all the sins of all the Israelites (2Chr. 29:24).
But how could the people turn so quickly from their wicked ways? How could they so eagerly follow a bad king one day and a good king the next? The change was not exactly so immediate and all-inclusive. Some whose consciences had troubled them under the previous king were now ready to do what was right under King Hezekiah. Others might have preferred the former practices and pleasures that the worship of false gods offered.
But Hezekiah and the priests and Levites did not do their work arbitrarily. The religious system they sought to re-establish and follow was not a spirituality of their own making. They were doing what God had told His people to do in His Word, in the Holy Scriptures recorded by the prophets. This is what they would follow because this was the very voice of God which He had spoken and given for their life and salvation.
Martin Luther and the other reformers in the sixteenth century similarly had to deal with defilement in the house of God, in His holy Church. Over time, the Roman Catholic Church had adopted unbiblical teachings and practices that were leading the people away from the truth. The Roman Church taught that indulgences could be purchased to free souls from purgatory, that the human will is able to produce good works which make satisfaction for sin, that Mary and the saints could be invoked for spiritual help, and many other things that are not taught in the Bible.
Just as the priests and Levites threw some things out of the temple, but consecrated and kept others, so the Reformers did not throw out everything that “looked Catholic.” They kept everything that was faithful to the Word of God, such as the Baptism of infants, the real presence of Jesus in the Supper, the order of the historic liturgy, vestments, altars, pulpits, crucifixes, candles. This is why Roman Catholics often find that our buildings and services seem familiar, because we have retained these historic and beneficial Christian things.
The focus of the priests and Levites, just like the focus of the Lutheran Reformers, was to hold fast to the pure Word of God. Every teaching, every practice, every effort in the Church had to be examined in the light of God’s Word and to be cast out if it did not agree with God’s Word. They would humbly listen to His teaching, follow His guidance, and proclaim His truth.
This is still our focus today. We have been talking over the last couple weeks about how different we are than other Lutherans who do not believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Recently in the news we are hearing about a division in the Anglican Church between those who deny the clear Word of God and those who want to follow it. In fact, every major Christian church body has fractured over those who want to stand on the Scriptures as written and those who want to make accommodations for our culture and society.
The Christian Church on earth will always be tempted to water down its teachings in order to fit better with the world. We are personally tempted when we think to ourselves how many more people we could reach if we just loosened up on this teaching or that practice, such as the clear meaning of the Ten Commandments, the roles of men and women, and who can receive Holy Communion. But if we step off the foundation of the Bible, from what our Lord has taught us in His Word, we will find there is no firm ground to stand on.
Faithfulness here (in the church) has to start with faithfulness here (in the heart). If each of us individually cannot articulate and defend the faith we have, how can we make sure that the teachings of our church will stay pure? Like the priests and Levites working their way through the polluted temple starting with its inner parts, we need to closely examine our hearts to identify what is unclean and needs to be cast out.
So we could examine ourselves with questions like these: What lies have I been telling myself or others that need to be acknowledged? What sins have I committed with my eyes, my ears, or my mouth that need to be stopped? What anger, hatred, and bitterness have I let grow in my heart toward another person? What jealousy, judgment, or unkindness do I find when I think about certain people? What sins have I tried to bury or ignore that are eating me up? How have I failed to honor God in my daily pursuits and efforts?
The Levites carried the unclean items from the temple out to the brook Kidron. We bring all our sins to the waters of Holy Baptism. It was at Baptism that we were first cleansed of our sins and made members of Christ’s holy Church. We return to that Baptism and receive cleansing again when we confess our sins and receive forgiveness through Christ’s Word of absolution, like we do at the beginning of the divine service.
Every time you hear your Savior’s comforting words of forgiveness, He is telling you that He is not angry with you for your sins. He joined you to Him in Baptism, so that you would be covered in His righteousness and consecrated, or set apart, to do His holy work. No matter how the temple of your body has been defiled in the past from your sins, He prepares it for fruitful work now.
After listing all sorts of serious sins that the Christians in Corinth had committed, St. Paul wrote, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1Co. 6:11). He wrote to them again in his second letter, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2Co. 5:17).
You are washed in the waters of Holy Baptism—cleansed of your sins. In Christ, you are a new creation, which means your sinful past is history. But then why do we find it so challenging to do what is right? It is because the old Adam clings to us and wants to re-conquer our hearts. Our sin is the reason that the Church on earth is always struggling—in Hezekiah’s time, in Luther’s time, and in our time. We can’t take for granted that we will always be faithful, because we are no less sinful and weak than anyone else.
But you know where Christ’s power and strength for faithfulness is found. It is found in His pure Word and Sacraments. The preaching and studying of His Word and the administration of His Sacraments may seem like weak fortifications for the attacks of the devil, the world, and your own flesh. But nothing could be more effective against these attacks. Jesus says: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life,” and, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Joh. 6:33, 8:31-32).
Christ Cleanses the Church by His Pure Word. Through His Word, He reveals the uncleanness in our hearts and the errors of our ways. Through His Word, He declares the forgiveness and righteousness we have by faith in Him. Through His Word, He changes us, prepares us, and equips us for the good work He has given us to do as members of His holy Church. So we joyfully confess and sing the words of Luther’s hymn:
Stood we alone in our own might,
Our striving would be losing;
For us the one true Man doth fight,
The Man of God’s own choosing.
Who is this chosen One?
’Tis Jesus Christ, the Son,
The Lord of hosts, ’tis He
Who wins the victory
In ev’ry field of battle. (ELH #251, v. 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 Wittenberg altarpiece painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Younger, 1547)
The Thirteen Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Kings 5:15-27
In Christ Jesus, who by His blood purifies our consciences from dead works to serve the living God (Heb. 9:14), dear fellow redeemed:
When Martin Luther was ordered to recant, to take back, everything he had written up to that time in 1521, he replied, “[M]y conscience is captive to the Word of God… I cannot and will not recant, because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience” (quoted in Kittelson’s Luther the Reformer, 161). For Luther, conscience and the Word of God were so bound up together, that to go against one would be to go against the other.
God gave us a conscience which He informs by the moral law written on our hearts. That moral law totally agrees with and is sharpened by the Ten Commandments recorded in the pages of Scripture. When our conscience is operating properly, it will help keep us in line with the Law of God. And if we are living according to the Law of God, we will have a clear conscience. But as you and I well know, living according to God’s Law is not the easiest thing to do.
When we hear about the Good Samaritan, we might think of him as a professional do-gooder, whose heart was filled with an endless supply of love, patience, and compassion to help a person in need. It seems to us that a person like this must have enjoyed a clear conscience. He was just so good. But let’s bring him back into the real world. Let’s imagine he was something like us.
The Samaritan may have had other concerns and responsibilities occupying his mind. He may have been mulling over troubles at work as he traveled. Maybe he was in danger of losing his job. Maybe he was poor and hardly able to provide for his family. Maybe he and his wife hadn’t spoken for days or weeks. Maybe his parents were beginning to need care he wasn’t sure how to provide. Maybe he was stressed and unhappy and didn’t think his life could get any more complicated or any worse. Then there was this man lying by the side of the road. Could he really handle another problem right now? Should he just pass by on the other side? Would anyone know if he did? His conscience compelled him to stop.
You can’t be a Christian without having struggles of conscience. Those struggles, those inner conflicts, are actually a blessing. If you no longer felt conflict inside, the tug and pull of what is right or wrong, then your faith would be in great danger. Life in this fallen world is not meant to be comfortable for those who believe in Jesus. He plainly said, “In the world you will have tribulation” (Jn. 16:33), and “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mt. 16:24).
Naaman felt this struggle and conflict. As soon as he was converted, he began to be concerned about having a clear conscience. His flesh was cleansed of its leprosy, and he came back to Elisha confessing the name of the true God. But though he was now clean, Naaman was bothered by something new. He would soon be leaving Israel to return to his home. The last thing he wanted was to dishonor the LORD who had miraculously healed him.
He first asked for two loads of soil, so that he could offer sacrifices to the God of the Israelites on Israelite ground. Then he brought up another issue. As the right hand man of the king, he was expected to accompany him into the temple of Rimmon, a false god. Would the LORD pardon him for doing this and even for bowing down—not out of respect for the idol but out of respect for his king? Elisha replied, “Go in peace.”
But Naaman wasn’t the only one whose conscience was troubled. Gehazi, the chief servant of Elisha, couldn’t believe his master had rejected the gifts that Naaman wished to give. Think what good that silver, gold, and fine clothing could do. After all, should the prophets have to scrape by on so little? If nothing else, couldn’t such riches be used to help the poor? This is what Judas Iscariot argued when Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive ointment (Joh. 12:4). But it wasn’t charity that drove Judas or Gehazi to speak up for the generous offerings of others. It was greed.
The love of money caused Gehazi to do great violence to his conscience. He surely reasoned it all out to quiet this inner voice. Perhaps he thought that what Naaman offered probably belonged to Israel anyway. After all, Naaman had attacked the Israelites, taking their goods, and turning them into his slaves. Wouldn’t Gehazi know how to put riches to better use than that wicked man?
Gehazi felt so sure about his purpose that he even took an oath before God that he would handle the situation in a better way than Elisha. “As the LORD lives,” he said, “I will run after him and get something from him.” Then to follow his plan through, he had to lie to Naaman and then to Elisha. Even if Gehazi convinced himself that his cause was right, his conscience was certainly not in line with the Word of God.
The tension of keeping a clear conscience was so great that Gehazi decided he would not listen anymore. We know how that feels. Every day, we are challenged by these tensions. Should I confront my boss about his dishonest business practices, or stay quiet and protect my job? Should I take the shortcuts everyone else is taking, or do what is right? Should I hide my toys so no one else can play with them, or should I share? Should I lie and keep myself out of trouble, or tell the truth?
Sometimes the cost of a clear conscience seems too great, and we make the conscious decision to go ahead with something that we know is wrong. Sure, we reason it all out to keep our conscience from screaming too loudly: “We may not be married, but we are committed.” “Who am I to say what someone else should do with her body?” “It’s not right for me to judge.” “It’s going to happen anyway whether I say something or not.” “I don’t want to be left out.” But even if our conscience is quieted somewhat, we have departed from the Word of God, and the leprosy of the unbelieving world rubs off on us. We think we can just give a little, relieve some of that tension, and still be faithful confessors of Christ.
These compromises can never deliver a clear conscience. They only make our condition worse. No amount of good intentions, compromises, or charitable efforts and good works can earn us a clear conscience. These efforts amount to selling the faith for two talents of silver and two changes of clothing which won’t help us anymore than they helped Gehazi. Then sin continues to cling to us just as leprosy clung to him.
So what can be done to get a clear conscience? If conscience is guided by the Law of God, and we have broken the Law in many, many ways, is a clear conscience even possible?
God knows the cost of a clear conscience. He knows this not because His conscience was ever dirtied or in conflict, but because He knows us sinners. He knows how utterly we failed to keep His holy Law. He knows how what He intended us to be is nothing like what we are since the fall into sin. So He resolved to send His holy Son down to earth to be “born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4-5).
Being placed under the Law, Jesus could fulfill the Law for every sinner. He could maintain a perfectly clear conscience that never departed from the holy Law of God. He was tempted in every way just as we are, but He never blurred the line between right and wrong. He never deviated from His holy task. He never set aside the Word of God—even in the smallest part—in order to appeal to more people.
He kept His conscience clear all the way through a false verdict, unmerited suffering, and a horrible death. He held fast to the promises of God; He had to follow through with God’s plan in order to redeem souls, your soul. God now declares you to be right with Him because of what Jesus did. You are now freed from the guilt of your sins. By the immeasurable price of His holy body and blood, Jesus made the payment to obtain for you a clear conscience, a conscience that is no longer imprisoned in your former darkness and sin.
So a clear conscience cannot be gotten by something you do. It is obtained by what Jesus did for you. Just as Naaman was cleansed of his leprosy in the waters of the Jordan, your conscience was cleansed in the waters of your Baptism. And that powerful cleansing remains in effect as long as you are a believer in Christ. St. Peter calls Baptism “an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1Pe. 3:21). And the author of the book of Hebrews writes, “[S]ince we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (10:19,23).
Baptized into Christ, He is with you to “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience” (1Ti. 1:18-19). He helps you to resist the temptations of this world, the devil, and your flesh, and to continuously battle to uphold the truth of His Word. You will not perfectly avoid what is wrong and do what is right. Your conscience will be sullied again by the leprosy of sin. But it is always cleansed in Christ.
Bring your troubled conscience to Him in humble repentance; acknowledge where you have fallen short; lay all your guilt before Him. Then wrap yourself up in His righteousness and grace. Know that your sins are all forgiven through the blood of Christ. The Cost of a Clear Conscience was very high, and Jesus met that cost in full for you. You can depart as Naaman did with these words of comfort in your ear: “Go in peace.”
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Parable of the Good Samaritan” by Jan Wijnants, 1632-1684)
The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Kings 5:1-15
In Christ Jesus, who through His own flesh delivered the eternal cure for our sin and death, dear fellow redeemed:
If you think of the stories of King Arthur’s brave knights or perhaps of the courageous heroes in modern war movies, you can get a sense of Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Syria. He is described as “a great man with his master and in high favor” and as “a mighty man of valor.” He was a man’s man, bold, and strong. We can suppose that he wasn’t afraid of anyone, that he never backed down from a fight. Wherever the danger was greatest or the odds were most against him, Naaman went forward.
And Naaman won. He was held in high esteem by his master because he was so successful. A ruler cannot be effective without loyal and capable men around him ready to carry out his orders. But neither the king nor Naaman realized where their success came from. We learn in today’s reading that “the LORD had given victory to Syria.” Syria’s strength was part of the LORD’s plan. And so was Naaman’s leprosy. Leprosy was a serious and debilitating skin disease. Naaman had probably prayed to his own gods for relief and healing, but none came. It bothered him enough that even his servants were aware of his struggle.
We don’t expect to see weakness in our heroes. We’re surprised when our nation’s leaders get sidelined by the cold or flu, or when elite athletes pull a muscle and have to take time off. These instances are good reminders that the people we look up to are human also. Because of sin in the world, hardships come on the strong and the weak, the wealthy and the poor, the famous and the obscure. This also teaches us that the people who seem to have it all probably have troubles and pains that we wouldn’t want to touch with a ten foot pole.
So Naaman, who knew military strategy, who knew his way around a battlefield, had been outflanked by a skin disease. He had no answer for it; he couldn’t beat it. It was going to kill him. And now we see the LORD’s strategy in play. Through a little girl who was carried away from Israel and made a slave in Naaman’s house, the LORD made Naaman aware of a prophet in Israel. The little girl confidently told Naaman’s wife that this prophet “would cure him of his leprosy.”
If Naaman’s skin disease did not bother him very much, he would have ignored what the little girl said. What would a Syrian commander want with an Israelite prophet! But that was not his response. He took the message to his king—as farfetched as it sounded—, and the king sent Naaman to Israel with a letter and a load of gifts. Naaman was willing to try even this if it meant he could be healed.
When he was sent to the house of the prophet Elisha, what Naaman expected was that he would have the opportunity to make the case for why he should be healed. Or perhaps he thought he would flatter the prophet and impress him with the gifts he had brought. Certainly it wasn’t every day that Elisha had such esteemed visitors come to his door with all their horses and chariots.
But Elisha was not impressed by these things. He was nobody’s tool but the LORD’s. When Naaman arrived, Elisha didn’t even come out of his house to greet him. He sent a messenger with simple instructions: “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” This is not at all what Naaman expected. In fact, he found it very offensive. The prophet wouldn’t even speak to him directly?!? He was supposed to wash himself in the dirty waters of the Jordan River?!? No thanks.
Many people make the same judgment about the Christian Church. “If Christianity were true,” they think, “and if the Christian God is supposedly a God of love, then why wouldn’t He come and make the problems in the world go away? Or if He truly cares about His people, why wouldn’t He at least make their troubles go away?” When told about the basics of the Christian faith, they say, “How can regular water make me a child of God? How can eating bread and drinking wine be a Communion with the body and blood of Jesus? How can these simple things bring salvation?”
Looked at from the unbeliever’s perspective, we can see how strange this all seems. We don’t have anything like Naaman expected—someone waving his hands and saying the magic words and all our troubles disappear. How could washing in the Jordan River seven times do anything good? People expect that salvation should be harder to come by. Shouldn’t we have to do something to be saved? “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
Initially, Naaman rejected the Word. He drove away in his chariot angry, perhaps thinking thoughts of war against Israel for treating him like this. Then his servants meekly approached and said, “Did you not hear what the prophet said? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So Naaman consented. He went down to the Jordan and dipped himself “according to the word of the man of God” once, twice, up to seven times—the number for perfection, holiness. And what happened? The flesh that was infected with leprosy “was restored like the flesh of a little child.” He was clean.
Now bold Naaman, mighty Naaman, Naaman the conqueror returned to Elisha’s house and said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.” What had changed him? Was it the water? Did it have some special quality that when applied resulted in healing? No, it was the Word of the Most High God. The Word attached to the water brought healing to Naaman. The Word brought faith to his heart.
Naaman had been conquered by the LORD’s Word, and he didn’t even see it coming! Many other enemies of the LORD have also been conquered by Him and brought into His kingdom in the same way. You were one of them. Like Naaman, you had something like a disease clinging to and afflicting you, a disease for which you had no cure. It was worse than leprosy; it was sin.
People try all sorts of remedies for this: trying to do enough good to cancel out their bad, pointing to the worse failures of others to make themselves look better, even arguing that what used to be considered sinful isn’t really sinful anymore. But we can’t escape it. The sin of Adam has been passed along to us, and this sin has captured our hearts. Ignoring this infection doesn’t make it go away; it only makes our condition worse. So what can we do to make our condition better?
Jesus says, “There is nothing that you can do. But there is something that I can do.” The Son of God took on our weak human flesh, so that He could reverse the fortunes of Adam’s line. He came to bring salvation to us who were sick, and life to us who were dying. For the official beginning of His public work, Jesus stepped down into that same dirty river as Naaman had some eight hundred years before, and He was baptized by John “to fulfill all righteousness” (Mat. 3:15).
At His Baptism, your sin was poured over Him, and He carried that sin all the way to His death on the cross. His death on the cross was the cure for your sinful condition. It was the remedy for the Fall of all mankind. The perfect Son of God made full satisfaction for all your sins against the holy God. By His death and resurrection, He declares you righteous and pure in God’s sight.
To make sure that you know this righteousness is for you, He has sent messengers to tell you. Your parents brought you to the baptismal font, where you received “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Ti. 3:5), so that like Naaman, you were made new, “like the flesh of a little child”—born again by water and the Word. It was a perfect cleansing, removing all your sin from you, and placing Jesus’ righteousness over you. At your Baptism, God gave you a tremendous gift. And since that time, your parents and sponsors and fellow believers and pastors have reminded you about this gift.
The humble appearance of Baptism makes some think it is powerless. It’s like Naaman stating that there must be better options for bathing than the Jordan River. But where Jesus’ Word is spoken according to His promise, there is power—life-giving, heart-changing power, the power to heal and save. Today’s Holy Gospel presents an excellent example of the power of His Word (Mar. 7:31-37). Jesus said, “Ephphatha—Be opened,” and the deaf and mute man was healed.
The Word attached to the water of Baptism is what brought you healing and salvation from the LORD. You return to these waters every time you repent of your sins and cast off the things that hinder your faith in Him. Like mighty Naaman humbly obeying the Word and dipping his leprous skin in the water, you and I bring our sins to God, but not only our sins. We bring our weaknesses and strengths, our past and our present, our worries, struggles, and pain, our abilities, our dreams, and our plans, our imperfect hearts and minds. We bring them all to the cleansing waters of Christ and drown them all in faith.
We want everything we do to be washed in Him, to flow from Him, to be sanctified through Him. We need Him to guide our thoughts, words, and actions. We need Him to carry us and keep us true to Him, so that we are not misled by other gods that cannot save. His method for keeping us faithful is not what we expect—the proclamation of His Word and the administration of water, bread, and wine with His promise. These are the powerful means that bring us His forgiveness and salvation, that conquer and cleanse our sinful hearts.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from Saude Lutheran Church stained glass)
The Festival of the Resurrection of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad exordium & sermon
Festival exordium:
It feels like Easter. Green grass is popping up everywhere, trees are budding, the temperature is going up, and April showers are in the forecast. But perhaps the most recognizable sign that Easter is here is the lilies. They are often the first flowers to show up in the spring. Even after the lifeless brown of fall and the biting cold of winter, new life has sprouted again.
That is why lilies are a symbol for Jesus’ resurrection. Adam and Eve brought sin and death to God’s perfect creation. Now the ground produced thorns and thistles. Now there was pain and suffering. But God planted hope in their hearts. He would send a Savior to redeem them. He would bring life to the world of death.
Everything looked so dark on Friday. Jesus struggled to breathe on the cross while His enemies mocked Him. Then He gave one last cry, and He was gone. They laid His body in a tomb and sealed it shut. His disciples despaired. They went into hiding.
But then on Sunday morning new life sprang forth. An angel rolled the stone away from the tomb and declared, “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said” (Mat. 28:6). Then Jesus began to show Himself: to the women, to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, to Peter, to ten of the disciples gathered together. He was not dead, and He was no ghost. He had risen indeed!
St. Paul called Him “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1Co. 15:20). He was the first to rise bodily from the dead, the first flower of a New Spring. This is why we plant flowers on graves. Just as the flowers come forth and flourish, so will the bodies of all the faithful when Jesus returns on the last day with a shout and “with the sound of the trumpet of God” (1Th. 4:16).
The trumpet-shaped lilies anticipate His coming. Our cemeteries might look lifeless and bleak now, but they will fill with new life when our Lord Jesus comes in His glory. The winter is past. Death is dead. Spring breaks forth. And together with all who live in Him, we join our voices in saying: “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!”
Let us sing our festival hymn #348, “He Is Arisen! Glorious Word!”
He is arisen! Glorious Word!
Now reconciled is God, my Lord;
The gates of heaven are open.
My Jesus died triumphantly,
And Satan’s arrows broken lie,
Destroyed hell’s direst weapon.
O hear
What cheer!
Christ victorious
Riseth glorious,
Life He giveth—
He was dead, but see, He liveth!
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Sermon text: Joshua 3:5-17
In Christ Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Joh. 14:6), dear fellow redeemed:
There aren’t many people who end up doing what they think they will as children. After all, there are only so many spots open for professional athletes, famous singers, or the President of the United States. Typically a person’s path through life is less definite than they think it will be as a child. We learn as we go that dreams often do not become reality. The person we thought was perfect for us turns out not to be. We move from job to job. Plans change. So the way our life plays out is not so much a “point A to point B,” but a zig-zagging, forward and backward, wandering around sort of path that leads to a different point than we ever imagined.
When the Israelite people left Egypt, they expected to journey to the land of Canaan which the LORD had promised to give them. But they didn’t march straight east and then north right into the land. God led them into the wilderness, through the Red Sea, and to Mount Sinai to receive His Law. Finally He brought them to the Promised Land, where spies were sent to survey the land. But the spies brought back a bad report. “[T]he cities are fortified and very large,” they said. “The people are too strong. They are like giants, and we seemed like grasshoppers in comparison. We could never defeat them” (Num. 13:28,31-32).
Because they did not trust the LORD, He told them they would wander for forty years in the wilderness, and everyone above the age of twenty with the exception of Joshua and Caleb would die in the wilderness (Num. 32:11-12). If you were five or ten years old when the LORD delivered this judgment, the next forty years would have seemed a long time. As you traveled around from one wilderness place to another, you couldn’t help but wonder, “Are we ever going to get somewhere?”
That question was answered in today’s account. The time had come for the people to cross over the Jordan River and enter the land of Canaan. But how would they get across? The Jordan River was estimated to be one hundred feet wide and up to ten feet deep. Besides that, it was springtime when snowmelt from a nearby mountain and new rainfall caused the river to overflow its banks. There was no way the great multitude of Israelites would be able to wade across.
Just before today’s reading, we are told that the Israelites camped near the Jordan for three days (Jos. 3:1-2). For three days, they looked at the churning waters in front of them. Perhaps they scouted up and down the river looking for a suitable place to cross. There was none. Their eyes were also drawn past the waters to the lush, green landscape of Canaan. How good it would be to get there! That’s where they wanted to go! But when? How?
They had no answers. They could not accomplish it. They had to wait for the LORD to make a way. He brought them this far; He would have to bring them across. Through Joshua, the LORD told the people to consecrate themselves, to prepare in repentance for what He would do for them. Joshua told the priests to carry the ark of the covenant toward the river, and when their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from the north stopped flowing. It stood up in a heap like the waters of the Red Sea had done, so that all the people could cross over on dry ground. The impossible was made possible by the mighty LORD.
We have gathered to celebrate another impossible event today, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. None of His disciples expected it to happen. As they waited those three days, they wept together and hid themselves in fear of what might happen to them. All they could see before them and behind them were dark, churning waters of trouble which threatened to engulf them at any moment. Where could they go? What would they do?
Then reports started to trickle in: “The stone was rolled away… the tomb was empty… angels spoke to us… we saw Jesus… He told us what we should do….” The impossible was made possible. Jesus rose from the dead, which means He was not just a man. He is true God who completed the work He came to do—redeem the whole world from sin and death by His death and resurrection. By the Sunday after Easter, He had shown Himself to His chosen disciples, and soon afterward, He appeared to more than five hundred of His followers at once (1Co. 15:6).
Then on the fortieth day after His resurrection, His disciples watched Him ascend into heaven, and angels appeared and said, “This Jesus… will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Act. 1:11). So there is a direct line between the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and His return on the last day to judge the living and the dead. Because He predicted His resurrection on the third day and then rose, it is just as certain that He will return visibly on the last day as He said He would. So if His resurrection is “point A,” and His return in glory is “point B,” then every day is another day down the line closer to His return.
But just as the Israelites wondered if they would ever get to the Promised Land as they wandered through the wilderness, so we wonder if we will ever reach the Promised Land of heaven. We haven’t seen heaven. All we know is the wilderness of this world. And often it seems to us that the sinful plans and pleasures of the moment are better than the promise of future blessings. Is the Promised Land really waiting at the end of the line? Is it really all it is made out to be?
So like the Israelites who had doubts about God’s care for them and His promises to them, we have doubts. Like the Israelites who grumbled and complained when they faced hardships, we grumble and complain. Like the Israelites who wanted to stop aiming for the Promised Land and instead return to Egypt, we are tempted to turn away from God’s promise, go along with the world, and pursue what is wrong.
But there is no life in going back to where we started or choosing a different path than God’s. Those paths are all dead ends. They all lead away from God and back into the slavery of sin. Only through Jesus can we see our way forward to blessings in this life and beyond. But how can we know we are walking on His path? How can we be certain that the way we are going is the way we are supposed to go?
Actually that responsibility does not rest with us, which is a good thing because we have a terrible sense of direction! If our reaching the Promised Land depended on our figuring out the way and on our strength to get there, we would never come close. The only way to get on that straight line stretching from Jesus’ resurrection to His return, is if He puts us on the line and keeps us on it.
It starts with Baptism. At your Baptism, Jesus joined Himself to you. He tied you to His burial and His resurrection, so that your sin was buried with Him and you now walk with Him “in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). Baptism is the beginning of your journey to the Promised Land of heaven, just as the Israelites’ passing through the water of the Red Sea was the beginning of their journey to the Promised Land of Canaan.
Baptism gives you a clear future. It means that where Jesus is going, you are going—point A to point B. In your sin, you might deviate from that path—and sometimes significantly. But Jesus by His grace is constantly calling you back, constantly forgiving your sins, and guiding you in the right direction through His Word and Sacraments. He says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Joh. 8:31-32). And, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life” (Joh. 10:27-28a).
By His holy Word, Jesus leads you through this life toward eternal life with Him. When you die, your immortal soul will leave your body and be carried to the Lord. Your body will be buried for a time. Then on the day of His return, the heaven you have strained to see over the dark, churning waters of this life, will finally become clear. Jesus, your Joshua, will call you from the grave, clothe you in His glory, and lead you to a blessed place, a bright new beginning. He will bring you safely across the Jordan To the Promised Land.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(woodcut from “The Empty Tomb” by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)
The First Sunday in Lent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Exodus 14:5-31
In Christ Jesus, our Refuge and Strength, a very present help in trouble, so that we have no need to fear (Psa. 46:1-2), dear fellow redeemed:
By all appearances, the Israelites were in big trouble. They had just marched out of Egypt carrying the wealth of the land with them after the Egyptians freely gave them whatever they asked for (Exo. 12:35-36). Egypt’s economy was in a shambles after the ten plagues the LORD sent. Every firstborn Egyptian son was dead. And the Pharaoh realized that the slaves who might rebuild the economy were kicking up dust on their way out of town. In great wrath (and because the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart), he and his army quickly set off in hot pursuit of the Israelites.
What could the Israelites do without proper weapons, without military training, and with so many vulnerable people in the company? Pharaoh and his charioteers were getting closer and closer. Soon they would be overtaken! In this moment of tremendous fear, they took out their anxiety on Moses. Why had he brought them out to die in the wilderness? Why couldn’t he have just left them in Egypt? It would be better to be slaves in Egypt than to die out here!
We can understand their reaction. They were thinking logically. Pharaoh’s army was much more powerful than they were. They could not stand against him or try to fight him. They had no chance. All very logical. But they were forgetting something. It wasn’t Pharaoh and his army against them. It was Pharaoh and his army against God! The LORD had already shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that He was far superior to Pharaoh. He had brought ten plagues on the land of Egypt, and there was nothing Pharaoh could do about it. The LORD could have sent a hundred plagues, and no one could have stopped Him.
We fall into the same kind of thinking as the Israelites. We imagine that when we face challenges, it’s up to us to find the strength inside ourselves to stand firm. It could be relationship problems with a family member or friend. It could be a health issue like a cancer diagnosis. It could be trouble at school or work or in the community. “Somehow, someway,” we think, “I have to dig deep and find a way out of this mess. I can’t count on anyone but myself.”
We try the same approach with strong temptations to sin. We might be tempted to take someone else’s work or possessions and pass them off as our own. We might be tempted to lie to avoid having to answer for our wrongs. We might be tempted to consume drinks or drugs that we know will harm us. We might be tempted to view images and videos online that we know we shouldn’t.
When those temptations come, how well does it work to grit your teeth, clench your fists, and shout your defiance into the darkness? “Take your best shot! I’m too strong for you! You can’t beat me! You picked the wrong target!” As soon as you are done shouting, the desire to sin will still be in your mind. The tug o’ war will keep happening. The devil will keep trying to draw you toward your destruction. He will tell you that you will never have rest until you do whatever it is you desire to do. But when you give in, you don’t find relief, you don’t find satisfaction. You find guilt, a gnawing, bitter guilt.
Guilt is a heavy burden. It’s so heavy, we look for ways to get rid of it. One of those ways is trying to pass the blame for the sin we committed. Moses became the target for the people of Israel. “It’s your fault! You led us out in the wilderness. You led us right into this trap. There’s nowhere to go!” Repentance never crossed their minds or their lips. And so we might blame a bad boss as the reason our stealing was justified, or another person’s bad deed as the reason we were compelled to lie, or an uncaring spouse for why we looked elsewhere to fulfill our needs.
Perhaps in some way, these justifications might make our conscience less sharp and therefore the burden of guilt less heavy. But however we came to the sin, we are the ones who did it. We are the ones who chose to do or say or think what God said we should not. In the big picture, in the grand accounting of it all, it is obvious that we have fallen far short of the righteousness that God has called us to. In our weakness, we have given in to many temptations. We have committed many sins.
If the Israelites were afraid of Pharaoh’s army on one side and the Red Sea on the other, we are in even worse shape. We have the devil, the world, and our own flesh facing us on one side with weapons poised to strike, and on the other side we look behind us into the deep pit of death. “Fear not,” Moses said to the people, “stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
“The Lord Will Fight for You.” That’s the key! We are stuck in the middle of a battle, a battle which on our own, we can’t win. We don’t have all the answers. We are not equal to the seasoned fighters who oppose us. But the LORD, our LORD, is more than their equal. Like David facing Goliath, He may have appeared overmatched in His state of humiliation on earth. But like David overcoming Goliath, Jesus won a complete victory.
Even in the Holy Gospel for today, it looked like Jesus was vulnerable. He was very hungry after forty days and nights of fasting. The devil seemed to make a good case from Scripture why Jesus should throw Himself down from the temple. The devil flexed his muscles by offering Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.” All Jesus had to do was bow down and worship him. He could bypass all the suffering, all the pain, all the trouble for saving sinners. He would have instant rest and relief if only He would acknowledge the devil’s authority (Mat. 4:1-11).
Jesus stood firm against these temptations. He wouldn’t budge. Where we would have easily caved to the pressure, He did not. Hebrews 4:15 says that “in every respect [He] has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” He stayed strong for you. He resisted every temptation for you. He maintained a perfectly clear conscience, so He could credit you with His righteousness and holiness.
He gave this gift to you when He called you to the waters of Baptism. He brought you freedom from sin and eternal life and salvation through those waters. He baptized you into Him through those waters. The Israelites passing through the Red Sea is a picture of your Baptism. Just as a new people emerged from the sea no longer enslaved, with their captors destroyed, so the new man of faith was raised up in you through holy Baptism, and your old Adam was drowned.
If the Israelites doubted God’s commitment to them before, they could hardly doubt it now as they walked over dry land with walls of water on either side of them. This was their Baptism, as 1 Corinthians 10 says, “our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (vv. 1-2). But they did doubt God’s commitment again, many times. This is why St. Paul adds, “with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (v. 5).
Just because you are baptized does not mean that you will always remember what Baptism means and take comfort in it. Baptism means that the Almighty God of heaven and earth has claimed you for His own. He committed Himself to your care and salvation. He promised to guide you and comfort you and strengthen you through His Word and Sacraments. He promised to fight your battles for you, stand against all your enemies, and deliver you from every evil.
Going your own way and relying on your own strength is to step away from these baptismal protections. It is like picking up a little stick and charging at the whole Egyptian army by yourself. Or loading up your pockets with bars of gold and silver before jumping into the Red Sea in an attempt to swim to safety. Moses told the self-centered Israelites that the LORD would fight for them. All he asked of them was this: “you have only to be silent.”
The same goes for you. “The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” Being silent means not shouting boastful words into the darkness. Being silent means stopping your words of self-justification. Being silent means quietly repenting of your sins each and every day. Being silent means listening to the LORD’s strong word, hearing His promises, and trusting that He can take on any enemy that threatens you.
He certainly can. It appeared that the Israelites were doomed. But by the end of the day, they were singing and dancing while the Egyptians washed up dead on the seashore. You may feel at times like you are without hope, but the LORD makes a way through the trouble just as He opened a path for His people through the Red Sea. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For Thou art with me” (Psa. 23:4).
The LORD is with you. When the devil attacks you and fires temptations at you, that is your reminder that you need the LORD to guard and protect you. You need to hear Him speak His powerful Word into the darkness that threatens you. He will not back down from the devil. He will never abandon you. He will fight for you.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)
The Baptism of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Exodus 11:1, 12:21-30
In Christ Jesus, whose blood cleansed us from all our sins and reconciled us to God, so that we would be saved from destruction, dear fellow redeemed:
God turned all of Egypt’s water to blood, but Pharaoh wouldn’t let the people of Israel go. Then God sent frogs and gnats and flies, but Pharaoh wouldn’t budge. Then He sent a disease on Egypt’s livestock, boils on Egypt’s people, and destructive hail throughout the land. Still, Pharaoh said no. God sent locusts that devoured every green plant, and then caused a deep darkness to fall on the land for three days. Through each of these nine plagues, the book of Exodus says first that Pharaoh hardened his heart, and then that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. He did this to show Egypt and all other nations that He was the LORD (Exo. 10:2). He would free His people, the Israelites, from slavery.
They weren’t always slaves. You remember that Joseph brought his father and brothers to Egypt during a time of famine. When they came with their families, there were seventy of them. But over a period of several hundred years, the people had multiplied greatly, and the Pharaohs in power no longer knew about Joseph. They saw the Israelite people as a threat, so they enslaved them. When the people continued to expand, the Pharaoh ordered all Israelite baby boys to be killed. It was a horrible time for God’s people.
But the LORD heard their groaning. He saw their suffering. He hadn’t forgotten them (Exo. 2:24-25). He raised up an unlikely deliverer, eighty-year-old Moses, to lead them out of Egypt to the Promised Land. Moses and his brother Aaron delivered the message to Pharaoh that he was to let the Israelites go to worship the LORD in the wilderness. When Pharaoh refused, the plagues commenced and continued.
That brings us to the final and decisive plague which today’s reading describes. Before He sent the plague, God gave instructions for how His people were to be protected. He didn’t give them armor or put a force field around them. He didn’t give them supernatural powers to defend themselves. He told them that their salvation would come through a lamb.
Each household was to select a lamb “without blemish, a male a year old” (Exo. 12:5). They were to wait four days and then kill the lamb at twilight. They were directed to put some of the lamb’s blood on the lintels and doorposts of their homes, eat the meat roasted over a fire with unleavened bread on the side, and prepare to march into the wilderness. The Israelites did this. They killed the lambs, painted the blood outside their doors, ate the meat, and waited with belts fastened, sandals on, and staffs in hand.
At midnight, the LORD did what He said. He struck down all the firstborn sons in Egypt in all the homes that had no blood on the doorposts. The LORD had told His people, “The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt” (Exo. 12:13). This is where the term “Passover” comes from—the LORD passed over the homes marked by the blood of the lamb. In this way, the people of Israel were saved and set apart from all other nations. They were purchased by God from their slavery in Egypt with blood.
This purchasing with the blood of the lamb was a “type” or a shadow of what God promised to do for all sinners through His Son. 1 Peter 1 says, “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (vv. 18-19). This is why John, after seeing the Holy Spirit descend on Him and hearing the words of the Father about Him, pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Joh. 1:29).
Jesus’ Baptism marked Him as the Christ, the anointed Son of God. It was the beginning of His public work. No more quiet service to His parents in Nazareth, where probably no one pegged Him as the next great rabbi or a great prophet. Now He began to teach, preach, and heal. He gathered His disciples. He traveled from place to place. And finally He set His face to go to Jerusalem, where this spotless Lamb would be bound, nailed to a cross, and die before the setting of the sun on that Passover day.
Just as the blood of the Passover lamb saved the people of Israel from death and delivered them from slavery, so the blood of Jesus has done the same for you. His blood set you free from the grip of the devil; he can no longer accuse and torment you for your sins because your sins were all atoned for by Jesus. You are not a slave to sin because you have been purchased and won by Jesus’ blood. Eternal punishment and death in hell must pass over you because Jesus saved you.
But how can you be sure about this? Doubts always creep in. What if the sins you have committed, either for their frequency or for their repulsiveness, disqualify you from receiving God’s grace? What if your faith is not true enough? What if your heart is not pure enough? The Israelites could point to the blood on their doorposts: “That made the difference! That’s why we are saved!” What can you point to?
Some people try to point to their good works, but those cannot save them. Some point to their good intentions – “My life may not look great, but God knows I tried”—that won’t save anyone either. If you point to anything you do, you will always have doubts. Your thoughts, words, and actions have never been perfectly pure, and as long as you live in this fallen world, they never will be.
And that is why you take comfort, not in what you have done, but in what God has done for you. God the Father sent His Son to be your Passover Lamb, to wash you clean of all your sin by shedding His precious blood. Jesus willingly went to the cross for you. He suffered and died there for you. And to make sure you know that He did this for you, He has given you a visible sign, the holy Sacrament of water and the Word.
Your Baptism is like the Israelites’ blood on the doorposts. The blood marked them as God’s own children. Baptism marks you as a child of God. When you were baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” God put His name on you and claimed you as His own. He made you holy and set you apart from the world. He made you His heir, joining you to the eternal inheritance won for you by your Savior.
No matter what the devil and the world plot against you, no matter what harm they might do to you, you belong to the LORD. He loves you perfectly. He knows your struggles and suffering. He gives you His strength and courage through His Word and Sacraments. And He promises ultimate deliverance—safe passage to the Promised Land. In his great Easter hymn, Martin Luther puts these thoughts together:
Here the true Paschal Lamb we see, / Whom God so freely gave us;
He died on the accursed tree— / So strong His love—to save us.
See, His blood doth mark our door; / Faith points to it, death passes o’er,
And Satan cannot harm us. / Alleluia! (ELH 343, v. 5)
Your Baptism was the beginning of your new life in Christ. It set you on a different path than you were on before. Baptism lets you put behind you the desires and sins that enslaved you. It points you forward in hope to a better place, a better day, a better home. That’s exactly what the Passover was for the people of Israel. In fact, God made their deliverance from slavery in Egypt the beginning of a new calendar (Exo. 12:2). They were to celebrate the Passover at the beginning of this new year every year, in order to remember and rejoice in the grace of God they continued to receive.
This is why it is good for you to remember the date of your Baptism and give thanks for it each year—and not just annually, but even daily. The Catechism teaches that you return to your Baptism by daily contrition and repentance, and that a new man daily comes forth and arises to live before God in righteousness and purity (“The Meaning of Baptism”). You are baptized into Christ. It is your enduring identity before God. It is the eternal mark He put on you that He can see just as clearly as He saw the blood on the doorposts.
The Israelites could not see what the future held after they had made their Passover preparations. We also at Baptism cannot see all the burdens and blessings that will come along the way in our journey. But we know who is with us—the LORD who made heaven and earth and everything in them, the LORD who delivered His people Israel from slavery, the LORD who conquered sin, devil, and death for every sinner!
As we go forward, He speaks His comforting promises to us. He reminds us who we are in Him, who He made us to be through Holy Baptism. And in the new Supper instituted with the unleavened bread and wine of the Passover meal, He feeds us with His holy body and blood. The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, including your sin and mine. We are saved by His blood.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “The Sacrificial Lamb” by Josefa de Ayala, 1630-1684)
The Second Sunday in Advent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 6:9-22
In Christ Jesus, whom we will see “coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luk. 21:27) on the day of judgment, dear fellow redeemed:
When things are not going so well in the nation or in the church, we might find ourselves dreaming about how it would be if certain individuals were still with us. What would George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln say and do about our current challenges on the local and national levels? And in the church, what difference would Martin Luther, C. F. W. Walther, and U. V. Koren make if they were still here preaching and teaching?
For us, these men have been gone a long time. But if we lived in Noah’s day, presumably all these men would still be with us. Genesis 5 gives the ages of Adam and his descendants. Adam lived to be 930 years old. His son Seth lived 912 years. Methuselah, the oldest man named in the Bible and Noah’s grandfather, lived 969 years. So when you overlap the lifetimes of these men, you find that Adam and Methuselah lived concurrently for 243 years.[1] Methuselah’s son Lamech overlapped 56 years with Adam. Now Lamech was Noah’s father! So even though Noah was unable to speak directly with Adam about what happened in the Garden of Eden and the promise God made to crush Satan’s head, Noah’s father certainly could have.
This makes it all the more surprising that the behavior of mankind had degenerated to the point that it had. The reason this had happened is because the people of the promise, the believers, began to intermarry with unbelievers. Why did the believing men do this? We are told it was because the unbelieving women were attractive (Gen. 6:2). Examples like this are why we teach our children to seek out spouses who share the same faith in Christ. A believing spouse can have a beneficial effect on an unbelieving spouse. But the opposite can also be true and often happens, that the faith of a believer is weakened or lost when the unbelieving spouse does not encourage it.
Because of these intermarriages in that early period of history, the community of believers got smaller and smaller, until “the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (v. 5). The first man and first preacher Adam had only recently died, and yet so few cared about God’s promise of salvation. In Genesis 6 just before today’s reading, we are told that “the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth” (v. 6). He decided that He would destroy mankind and all the land animals. Only one man found favor in God’s sight—only Noah.
Noah was described in glowing terms—he was “a righteous man, blameless in his generation”; he “walked with God.” In short, Noah was a believer. He knew that he deserved nothing but damnation for his sins, but he believed God’s promise that a Savior was coming. It broke Noah’s heart to see all the ungodliness around him. How could so many have forgotten their Creator? How could he alone be left? No doubt, the devil attacked Noah with terrible trials and persecutions. Noah was an outcast, despised by everyone. Did he think he was so perfect? What made him so sure that his truth was the right one?
Then God gave Noah an even harder task: build a boat, a great big ark, out in the middle of a field. The ark had to be big enough to hold Noah and his family and two of every kind of animal on the earth with seven pairs of all clean animals. God told him what the dimensions of the ark needed to be: 300 cubits long or about the length of a football field and a half, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits tall which would be all of the height of our church steeple. In Iowa, we have the nice story of the Field of Dreams, but making a baseball field in the country does not seem quite as crazy as building a massive boat! And yet Noah did not question God; “he did all that God commanded him.”
Noah is one of the great fathers in the faith. He is an excellent example for us who are also surrounded by all sorts of violence and godlessness. Noah believed God’s warning even when everyone else ridiculed it. They attacked his family and probably tried to sabotage his work, but Noah kept building. Day after day, he encouraged his family by the Word of God and led them in prayer. Day after day, he did the work God gave him to do. And after a period of perhaps 100 years, the massive ark was ready.
Noah’s neighbors spent no time reflecting on their actions. They felt no remorse. Jesus said that “in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark” (Mat. 24:38). They cared nothing about crazy Noah and his boat, and even less about Noah’s preaching of repentance. But what about when animals started climbing into the ark two by two? “Must be some kind of coincidence” or “witchcraft,” they thought. Then the rain started to fall, and Noah was nowhere to be seen. Then they noticed that the door in the side of the ark was shut….
What happened next is almost too terrible to imagine. The waters rose higher and higher. People desperately looked for higher ground, young and old, rich and poor, but age, health, and position meant nothing. Could Noah and his family hear the screaming? Did anyone try to pry open the door from the outside? The rain poured down, the boat came free of its scaffolding, and then there was no sound but rain on the roof.
The same waters that destroyed all living people and land animals outside the ark saved the people and animals inside the ark. They were waters of destruction and salvation. That’s the same way we think about the waters of Baptism—they are waters of destruction and salvation. Baptism drowned your old Adam and washed away the filth of your sin—everything in you that rebelled against your Creator and separated you from Him. At the same time, Baptism gave you a living faith and raised you up to new life in Christ.
1 Peter 3 ties the Flood and Baptism together: “God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (20-21). You were baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection and made a member of His holy body. Your Baptism is when you stepped out of the world of darkness and destruction and into the ark of the Church.
You might think of the time we are in as the time when the ark was nearly finished and the rain was about to fall. Jesus tells us to stay ready. The day of judgment is fast approaching. But then we wonder, “How soon?” Perhaps we can eat and drink with the attractive people of the world a little longer, or at least avoid some uncomfortable interactions by keeping our beliefs quiet. And besides, being in the ark of the Church is not always the most pleasant thing. We may grow tired of the personalities around us, the little annoyances and disagreements, the criticisms and occasional coldness we feel from others. Being cooped up in the Church makes the air seem a little stale. We want to be outside! We want to breathe deeply and live fully!
Some say they don’t need the Church at all because they can worship God just fine on their own. That may be so, but when the wind blows and the waves roll, would you rather be in the large ark in good company or alone in a little fishing boat? God calls us as Christians to hear His Word together, to confess our faith together, to kneel together at His Table, to encourage one another. If we remove ourselves from all Christian fellowship, we can’t do these things.
Being together helps to keep us accountable. In love, your fellow Christians can call you to repentance when you have faltered and fallen into sin. In love, they can also point you to your forgiveness and salvation through Jesus who has redeemed you from sin and death. In love, they can help you stay alert and prepared for the Lord’s return. Jesus says that just as the people in Noah’s day paid no attention to the preaching of the truth and were caught unprepared when the Flood came, “so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Mat. 24:37,39).
In the ark of Christ’s Church, you are kept ready for His coming on the last day. Here in this ark, there are ample supplies—His Word of absolution that frees you from your guilt and comforts you, and the rich food of His body and blood that nourishes and strengthens you and draws you closer together with your fellow believers. With these good supplies, you can weather the storms of temptation and persecution in this world. You can endure suffering because you know that your Lord Jesus Christ is with you, increasing your faith, hope, and love.
You cannot see Him now, and you cannot see how it will be for you on the other side of the storm, but you know He will carry you to safety. That is your certainty. That is your hope. Noah and his family faithfully followed the Word of the Lord and were preserved from the perils of the Flood until they set foot again on a renewed earth. You have the same promise, that your Lord will preserve you until the day of His glorious return when the heavens and the earth will be made new. When that day comes, says Jesus, “straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luk. 21:28).
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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[1] For more details about this, see “From Creation to Jacob: Communicating the Promise” by Pr. Joseph Abrahamson: https://steadfastlutherans.org/blog/2016/06/from-creation-to-jacob-communicating-the-promise/.
(picture from stained glass at Redeemer Lutheran Church)
The Festival of All Saints – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Revelation 7:2-12
In Christ Jesus, through whom we are sealed with righteousness and salvation, so that we are prepared to join the great company of saints in His eternal kingdom, dear fellow redeemed:
You can tell a lot about people by looking at their eyes. You can tell if they are happy or sad, angry or frustrated, surprised or scared. Eyes can indicate if people are telling the truth or lying, or if they have personalities that are more extroverted or more introverted. Eyes can also reveal health problems like stress, sleeplessness, allergies, even liver issues. The expressiveness of eyes is why they are often referred to as “windows to the soul”—windows to the innermost parts of who we are. But of course, what our brains are thinking behind our eyes is far more complex than what our eyes reveal.
Today’s reading from the Book of Revelation talks about a “seal” on the foreheads of believers that only God and the angels can see. Imagine if that seal were also visible to our eyes. You would know who was a believer in Jesus and who wasn’t, not by what they say but by what you see. Maybe the forehead would glow somehow. And what if the forehead would be brighter when a Christian’s faith is strong and dimmer when a Christian’s faith is weak? I think we would all be more focused on the means that God has given to make faith stronger!
I’m sure we would also be surprised to learn who is truly a Christian and who is not. Some who we thought were Christians would be exposed as hypocrites, and some would be shown to have faith who we would not expect. How would you feel about having a very visible seal of God on your forehead for everyone around you to see? Would it make you more aware of the things you say and do? Are there times you would rather keep your faith more hidden, so that you could fit in easier in the world?
It is clear from our reading that although the seal of God is not visible to our eyes, it does set us apart from the world. The seal on our foreheads marks us as “servants of God.” Just as God chose His people Israel to be separate from the nations around them, He calls us to be separate as well. We are part of the 144,000 who are sealed “from every tribe of the sons of Israel.” This is a symbolic number, as the numbers generally are in the Book of Revelation. For example, seven is the number for perfection, and twelve is the number for completeness.
The number 144,000 is gotten by multiplying the twelve tribes of Israel with 12,000 from each tribe. This number expresses the completeness of God’s elect, the holy members of Christ’s Church. You might have heard that the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach something different about this. They teach that 144,000 is the literal number of people chosen by God to be in heaven. Jehovah’s Witnesses who are not part of that select group are told that they will not be in heaven in eternity, but they will reign on a new earth. To improve their chances of a higher status after this life, they are urged to be more active witnesses to their church’s teachings. It is a man-made, works-based religion.
But the sealing spoken of in Revelation is clearly not the work of man. A number of passages speak about how God seals us to protect us from the attacks of the devil. Jesus says that “God the Father has set his seal” on believers (Joh. 6:27). Through the work that Jesus accomplished, the Father “has anointed us” and “has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” (2Co. 1:21,22).
The Holy Spirit works through the Word to bring about this sealing. St. Paul writes that “when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, [you] were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (Eph. 1:13). And in another place, “God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are his’” (2Ti. 2:19). You are sealed by the Holy Spirit with the righteousness of Jesus that He worked for you (Rom. 4:11). You are sealed with the forgiveness He obtained for you on the cross. You are sealed in faith as you eagerly wait “for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).
God first applied this seal to many of you at your Baptism when you were called “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1Pe. 1:29). At your Baptism, water was applied to your forehead, and the sign of the cross was made over your head and over your heart. The opening hymn referred to Baptism when we sang, “Each newborn soldier”—born again by water and the Word—“Each newborn soldier of the Crucified / Bears on his brow the seal of Him who died” (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #194, v. 2).
Thinking about this connection to Baptism, could it be that the seal of God on our foreheads is in the shape of a cross? Two passages in Revelation speak about the seal in a different way. In chapters 14 and 22, what the 144,000 are said to have written on their foreheads is the name of the Lamb and the Father’s name (14:1, 22:4).
Through Baptism, God claimed you as His own. He put His name on you, sealed it to you, so that you are identified both as His child and His heir. You might have doubts about yourself, such as how strong your faith is or how God could love a sinner like you. But God says that nothing has changed from His view. The commitment He made to you when He brought you to faith still stands.
It was no mistake that He set His seal on you. He wants to keep you in the faith until He brings you to the great celebration of heaven. This is why He continues to send the Holy Spirit through the Word and Sacraments to strengthen you. As the Holy Spirit works through the Word, we are reminded again who we are. Yes, we are sinners who continue to struggle and break God’s Commandments. For that, we repent, and we need to keep repenting. But the Holy Spirit also assures us that we are saints, sealed with righteousness, forgiveness, and life.
We did nothing to earn this; Jesus earned it for us. This is what the great uncountable multitude in heaven cries out in thanksgiving and praise: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” The saints in heaven give glory where glory is due, and we do the same here on earth. In our liturgy, we join the angels in their Christmas song, “Glory be to God in the highest / And on earth peace, good will toward men” (ELH p. 44). We join them later in the service in their heavenly song of praise, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth; / Heav’n and earth are full of Your glory” (ELH pp. 51-52).
That is the beauty of the historic liturgy. It recounts God’s gifts and teaches us how to give thanks for them. It joins our voices spiritually with the saints and angels around God’s throne, even while this fellowship is hidden from our eyes. And it prepares us to join the heavenly liturgy with the saints, angels, elders, and living creatures around the throne of God.
As you sing the liturgy and hymns in our worship here in church, you might sometimes think about where members used to sit whose souls are now in heaven. Today we especially think of Nadine, Swede, and Derwin from Redeemer and Don from Jerico who were called out of this life within the last year. Those of you who are older have seen many saints of our congregations go on ahead of you. Perhaps you think more and more about how you will join them soon, and what it will be like when you do.
Today’s reading gives us a glimpse of what is coming. The elect who were sealed by the Holy Spirit in this life through Word and Sacrament now enjoy the bliss of heaven. They stand “before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.” Their focus, the object of all their love and praise, is the Triune God. They are glad to be with their fellow saints, but their attention is on God.
They are clothed in white robes. An angel explained to John what made their robes so white: “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14). In heaven, we won’t remember any sins, not the ones we have done or the ones others have done to us. We won’t remember any of the things that caused us grief or pain. Jesus’ blood washes all that away. We will stand in the presence of the holy God, and we will be holy. By faith, we are holy now—we are saints now—but the glory is hidden from our eyes. In heaven, we will be perfect saints in body and soul.
This is what you have to look forward to. This is what you are sealed for. You Are Sealed for Eternal Salvation. This is not something to try to hide, so that you can fit in better with the world. Both the troubles and the triumphs of this life are short-lived. Your merciful Lord has something much better and more glorious planned for you. He had it planned for you before you were even born. In fact, He chose you in Christ “before the foundation of the world, that [you] should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph. 1:4).
This is how we stand by faith in Him, and this is how we will stand before Him in heaven. As St. John writes: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1Jo. 3:2-3)—saints forevermore.
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
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(picture from “Seventh Seal and 144,000 Sealed” by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)
The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Ephesians 4:22-28
In Christ Jesus, who gives us a purpose bigger than ourselves, who has a plan and a glorious future for us that stretches from this life to eternity, dear fellow redeemed:
“Stick to this diet plan and watch the pounds melt away!”
“Use this face cream, and your wrinkles will disappear!”
“Do these exercises and get the body you always wanted!”
“Follow these easy steps, and you will be rich!”
The promises made by advertisements like these are often exaggerations. But we don’t really care. We want to believe there are solutions out there to make us healthier, stronger, and better than we are right now. But even if these products delivered on their promises, how much would we have actually changed? Would the changes be significant and impactful long-term, or would they be surface-level changes, only temporary, only skin-deep?
Looking around us, we can’t help but see that many people are discontent. They complain about how they look, their aches and pains, their lack of time and money, their inability to maintain a good diet and a good exercise regimen. They see the people who seem so beautiful and handsome, so strong and fit, so rich and famous, and they envy them. “If only we could look like they look and have what they have,” they say, “then we would be happy.”
Others are working on ways to further integrate technology with humanity, so that they can figure out how to mitigate or even reverse the effects of aging. They are asking questions like these: “How can we live longer? Suffer less? Function better? Have a higher quality of life?” For some called “transhumanists,” the answer is somehow to plug a computer-enhanced brain into a technological environment, so that our consciousness and cognitive ability are not limited by our weak bodies.
But as much as we would like to have better health, more agility and strength, better cognitive function, and more wealth—and as good as these things can be—there is an important question we should be asking. That question is: Who is this for? Who is my physical health, my mental ability, and my individual talents for? The answer that our society typically gives to this question is: “These things are for me.” Is it any wonder that people are so discontent? As long as their personal improvement is only for themselves, they will find that they will never get as far or have as much as they want.
Today’s reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians helps us aim higher. The focus of this reading is not first of all on our physical health or on our earthly success. It is primarily about our spiritual health and how that affects the people around us. Just as physical health is about avoiding what is bad while also pursuing what is good, the same is true for our spiritual health. Paul writes that we were taught in Christ both to put off our old self and to put on our new self.
Our old self is our sinful nature, the nature we inherited from Adam. His sinful likeness, his image, is imprinted on us (Gen. 5:3). It is clear that we have come from him because we are sinners like he was. Sin is the common family trait that we can see in every human being that has ever lived (except for One). This corruption inside us is what causes us to do and say things that are harmful to ourselves and others.
These are the things that we are to put off or lay aside. Paul gives a few examples. He writes that we should “put away falsehood.” We should “not let the sun go down on [our] anger.” We should “no longer steal.” These are things that come from the old self. These are things that invite the devil in to attack our faith. If we want to be spiritually healthy, we will avoid these things. And if we have fallen into these sins, we must be ready to repent of them.
While avoiding what is harmful to our faith, we also want to pursue what is good. If we must “put away falsehood,” we should also “speak the truth” with one another. If we must “not let the sun go down on [our] anger,” we should seek to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving toward others (Eph. 4:32). If we must “no longer steal,” we should be ready to do “honest work with [our] own hands, so that [we] may have something to share with anyone in need.”
But like the paralyzed man in today’s Gospel account (Mat. 9:1-8), we don’t have the power to get up and do this on our own. That power must come from God. We see this power in Jesus’ words to the paralytic, “Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven.” It didn’t initially look like these words had done anything. The paralytic kept on lying there on his bed. What good were those words if he couldn’t walk?
But we have no indication that the man was disappointed. What if he had been blaming himself for his paralysis? What if he thought God was punishing him for past wrongs? What if he was terrified of dying apart from God’s grace? Then he heard those sweet words from Jesus, “Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven.” If that was the gift the man wanted most, then being able to walk again was just icing on the cake.
In the same way, no one can see the power of God at work in Baptism. When water is applied while Jesus’ words are spoken, nothing seems to happen. A sleeping baby might keep on sleeping. A crying baby might keep on crying, or even cry harder! But God’s power is at work in Baptism because He promises it is. Baptism is where your old Adam was drowned and where your new life of faith began.
At your Baptism, the Triune God claimed you as His own. He cleansed your heart of its old corruption and renewed your mind for better pursuits, for a higher purpose. He created you after His likeness and applied His “true righteousness and holiness” to you. This is your new self, your life of faith in the living God. There is no room here for pride or selfishness or discontent or despair. With the new self, there is only love, only good, only opportunities to serve God and neighbor.
But bad habits are hard to break. We know that with our lack of exercise, our preference for unhealthy foods, and our pursuit of unhealthy behaviors. Our sinful flesh wants to be indulged. It wants to be fed more and more. It wants us to pursue what feels right in the moment. It wants us to fill up on anything our eyes can see, our ears can hear, or our hands can take hold of. We don’t know what has prevailed more often—our old self or new self—but we do know we are not where we want to be.
This is why our struggle against our sinful flesh is and must be a daily struggle. We know what the devil, the unbelieving world, and our sinful flesh want. They want our faith to be snuffed out. They want us to forget what Jesus has done for us. They want us to choose and pursue and do whatever seems best for ourselves.
And what does Jesus want for us? He wants us to know that He has not rejected us for our past indiscretions, for our failures toward others, for our lies, our anger, our dishonesty, or our greed. He wants us to know that each and every one of our sins is forgiven, that our guilty conscience has been washed clean in His precious blood. He still has important work for us to do.
No matter how much you fell short yesterday, God has given you the gift of today. Your works of yesterday, both bad and good, are cleansed and sanctified in Christ. Today is a fresh start, a day for truth, for kindness, and for charity. The same will be true for tomorrow. You might only see your weaknesses. You might feel incapable of doing anything that really matters. You might feel like a failure.
God sees His own beloved child. He sees a light shining in this world of darkness. He sees a saint bathed in His righteousness and holiness. He sees someone capable of great things, great things like a gentle word that turns away wrath, like a hand ready to help a person in need, like a patient ear that listens to the anguish and pain of another. God sees those great things in you because that is what He made you for.
He created you and cleansed you and called you for His holy service. He rescued you from the futility of life in this world and the unbelief that leads to hell. He calls you to be more and do more, and He gives you the power to do it. The faith you have is His gift planted in your heart. The love you show and give flows from Him to you. He is the One who moves you to keep putting off your old self in repentance and to keep putting on the new self in faith.
You are one of the blessed ones whom Jesus has called to be His disciple. As His disciple, you follow Him and continuously learn from Him. You get to carry out the work He has prepared for you to do each day, for the benefit of others and for His glory alone. “This is the day the LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psa. 118:24).
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 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)