The Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad exordium & sermon
Festival exordium:
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1Co. 15:17).
If Christ has not been raised, all His promises were lies.
If Christ has not been raised, the Christian Church is a worldly organization created by men.
If Christ has not been raised, your Baptism did you no good.
If Christ has not been raised, you eat bread and drink wine in Communion and nothing more.
If Christ has not been raised, there is no place prepared for you in heaven.
If Christ has not been raised, the dead who are buried in our cemeteries will stay dead.
If Christ has not been raised, you got up early this morning for no good reason.
“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain” (1Co. 15:14), and you might as well ignore it.
If Christ has not been raised, you are of all people most to be pitied (1Co. 15:19).
If Christ has not been raised, all these things are true.
But Christ HAS been raised.
Since Christ has been raised, your faith is NOT futile, and you are NOT in your sins.
Since Christ has been raised, all His promises are verified.
Since Christ has been raised, the Christian Church shall prevail against the gates of hell.
Since Christ has been raised, you were raised with Him in the waters of Baptism.
Since Christ has been raised, you receive His living body and blood in Holy Communion for the forgiveness of your sins.
Since Christ has been raised, a place is prepared for you in heaven.
Since Christ has been raised, the dead who now sleep will also rise.
Since Christ has been raised, you have not wasted your morning.
Since Christ has been raised, our preaching is not in vain, and God’s powerful words of life enter your ears and heart.
Since Christ has been raised, you are counted among those who will inherit eternal life.
Yes, Christ has been raised. That is why we joyfully share the Easter greeting as the faithful have shared it for thousands of years:
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
We sing our festival hymn #348, “He Is Arisen! Glorious Word!”
He is arisen! Glorious Word!
Now reconciled is God, my Lord;
The gates of heaven are open.
My Jesus died triumphantly,
And Satan’s arrows broken lie,
Destroyed hell’s direst weapon.
O hear
What cheer!
Christ victorious
Riseth glorious,
Life He giveth—
He was dead, but see, He liveth!
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Sermon text: St. Mark 16:1-8
In Christ Jesus, who did not do what people expected, but who did do what He said He would, dear fellow redeemed:
“Jesus is dead. He is gone.” That thought haunted their minds ever since Friday afternoon when they saw Him breathe His last. They saw Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus take His lifeless body down from the cross, wrap it in a linen shroud with spices, and bury it in a tomb nearby. They saw the men roll a stone across the entrance and depart. Then they went home, too, to observe the Sabbath rest.
These women had traveled with Jesus from Galilee and provided for His needs. They saw the miracles He performed. They watched Him cast demons out of people and raise the dead. They heard His powerful teaching. They believed that He was the promised Messiah. But now He was dead. What were they to do?
Overwhelmed with sorrow, they determined to serve Jesus one last time—they would give Him a more proper burial. They purchased and prepared spices and made their way early Sunday morning to the tomb. They shuddered thinking about the terrible wounds they would once again see on their Lord: the bruises on His face, the gouges from the crown of thorns, the holes in His hands and feet from the large nails, the gash in His side from the soldier’s spear. They had no doubts about what they would find at the tomb: the dead body of Jesus.
They were in for a surprise, or really a series of surprises. They found the large stone rolled away from the entrance. Looking inside, they saw an angel waiting for them. He told them not to be alarmed. They wouldn’t find what they were looking for because Jesus had been raised up. And He was on the move! They were to tell the Lord’s disciples that He was going before them to Galilee, where they would see Him, just as He had said.
The women took off from the tomb, full of trembling, amazement, and fear. But why did they react like this? Why was this such a surprise? If your parents told you they were taking you to the zoo for your birthday, and that you would see monkeys, lions, and giraffes, would you be surprised to go there and see those animals? They might not look exactly as you imagined, but you wouldn’t really be surprised. You saw what they said you would.
So why didn’t the followers of Jesus believe Him when He said He would suffer and die in Jerusalem and then rise on the third day? The evangelist Luke records a longer message from the angel reminding the women about this: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise” (Luk. 24:5-7). Jesus clearly told His disciples what would happen. There should have been no surprise. But they did not believe.
They did not believe because they failed to see the big picture. They could not understand what benefit the death of Jesus could have. They wanted to keep things the way they were. Jesus was doing wonderful work. If Palm Sunday was any indication, He was gaining momentum and followers. If He died, all that work would come to a screeching halt. His death was the last thing the Jews and the whole world needed.
Because they couldn’t understand the purpose of His death, which was to redeem the world of sinners, they missed the significance of His resurrection. Something similar happens today. We are generally clear about the purpose of Jesus’ death—He died on the cross to pay for our sins. But we are not always so clear about the significance of His resurrection.
Jesus’ resurrection proves that He is the Son of God, and that everything He said is true. If He could predict His own resurrection and then come back to life, who can doubt the accuracy of anything He said?
Jesus’ resurrection also shows that His Father accepted His sacrifice for sin. Romans 4:25 says that He “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Both things were necessary, His death and resurrection. If He had died and stayed dead, that would prove He was not God and that His sacrifice was not sufficient. His resurrection declares to the whole world that sin is paid for, death is defeated, and we are accounted as innocent before God.
Jesus’ resurrection is also a preview of our resurrection. Because He lives, we who trust in Him will live, even though we die (Joh. 11:25, 14:19). This resurrection victory was handed to us at our Baptism. The apostle Peter writes that Baptism is not about getting clean on the outside. It is deeply spiritual, “an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1Pe. 3:21). The water-and-Word of Baptism is full of the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness of Jesus precisely because He has risen. St. Paul writes that through Baptism, “just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).
In Baptism, we received Jesus’ resurrection victory. We received the full inheritance of His righteousness and life. We are destined for heaven with Him! But that is easy to forget while we are still here on earth. We often fail to see the big picture. We struggle with sin and the guilt it produces in us. We have doubts and sometimes even crises of faith, when we wonder if God really loves us. We don’t feel much like we’re “walking in newness of life.” Our death is getting closer and closer, and we’re not sure we’re ready for it.
Without the death and resurrection of Jesus, no one can be ready for death. Death is batting nearly .1000, with the exception of people like Enoch and Elijah whom God took directly to heaven. The rest of humankind from Adam to the present has had to die. “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). We are sinners, so we will die, everyone in this room, unless Jesus returns first.
But we believers don’t look at death like the women looked at Jesus’ death, as though it were final. We don’t cling to the remains of the dead like the women wanted to cling to Jesus. Instead, we cling to Jesus’ Word, His promise. He promised His disciples that He would rise from the dead on the third day, and He did. He promises us that He will come again on the last day to raise us from the dead, so He will.
On the last day, it shouldn’t surprise us when we “see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luk. 21:27). It shouldn’t surprise us when we see the holy angels with Him, the same angels who shared the good news with the women at Jesus’ tomb. It shouldn’t surprise us when we see all the graves in our cemeteries opened up. It shouldn’t surprise us when we find no one in the caskets. But we won’t even have time for that investigation, since we will be caught up “in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1Th. 4:17).
This is what sets us apart from the world. This is why we do not “not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1Th. 4:13). We know that death is not final. Jesus put a stop to death’s terrible reign. He let death devour Him, so He could tear open its insides and free everyone stuck in its dark belly. On the last day, His clear voice will wake us from our temporary sleep. We will blink our eyes and take in the light coming from the One who is Light and Life.
His same voice that will wake us from death is the powerful Word you are hearing today. He tells you today that your sins are forgiven. He paid for them on the cross and left them buried forever when He rose from the dead. He tells you at the altar, “This is My body; this is My blood for the remission of your sins.” He gave you this Holy Meal for your strength and comfort until He comes again.
The angel said to the women, “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here.” But the angel would tell you something different about the presence of Jesus in His Word and Sacraments. He would say, “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! And He is here!” He is here to distribute the riches of His grace to you and prepare you for His visible return.
He has done everything you need for your salvation. He tells you everything you need to know. So when He comes again in glory and leaves your grave empty by calling you to His side, it will be no unexpected surprise, just exceeding, everlasting joy.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(woodcut from “The Empty Tomb” by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)
The Third Sunday in Lent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 11:14-28
In Christ Jesus, who guards us His prized possessions so closely, that He declares, “no one will snatch them out of my hand” (Joh. 10:28), dear fellow redeemed:
The “strong man” that Jesus refers to who is fully armed, guarding his own palace, and keeping his goods safe is the devil. He rules over the kingdom of darkness and death. Jesus called him “the ruler of this world” (Joh. 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). That means no earthly power, no human authority is stronger than Satan. Ephesians 6 says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (v. 12).
The devil and his fellow demons are our primary enemy. Their aim is to keep us from Jesus, and in so doing to keep us from life. They want to drag us into eternal death with them. It started with the devil’s temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God told Adam that if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die (Gen. 2:17). The devil said the opposite, “You will not surely die…. [Y]ou will be like God” (3:4,5).
The devil lied. Adam and Eve were already “like God.” They were made in His image. Now they knew sin and fear. They went into hiding as soon as they heard God in the Garden. They acted like God was their enemy. He proved to be their Savior. The LORD told the devil that he could not have mankind. He had not created them; they were not his. So God would be taking them back. He said to Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (3:15).
This was a prophecy of the coming Messiah. This One would be born of woman, so that He could storm the devil’s palace and take his spoils. It was a perilous mission. Jesus was not welcome on earth. The book of Revelation describes the devil’s response to the incarnation of the Christ: “the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it” (12:4). But the devil did not succeed.
That doesn’t mean he stopped trying. We heard two weeks ago how he tempted Jesus in the wilderness to give up His mission (Mat. 4:1-11). There were more attempts like these. But Jesus did not fall for his temptations. He kept on marching right through the devil’s territory, as though it were His and not the devil’s. And as He went, He took away the armor in which the devil trusted and divided his spoils.
The armor the devil wore was the power of sin and death. Seeing how successful he had been with Adam and Eve, he kept on tempting man to sin. And as soon as he catches them in his trap, he points the flamethrower of accusation against them. In the Garden, he said, “Did God actually say?” Now he says to you and me, “Does God actually love you? How could He, since you have broken all His laws?”
The incarnate Son of God is the answer to that horrible question. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son” (Joh. 3:16). God had the devil in His sights. 1 John 3:8 says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” The devil’s works include the power of death. If the devil can no longer successfully accuse us for our sins, then he can’t torment us with death either. Hebrews 2 says, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, [Jesus] himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (vv. 14-15).
Jesus came on a rescue mission. He stood alone against the devil’s kingdom, and the devil was forced to give ground. We see this at the beginning of today’s account. Jesus cast out a demon from a man who was mute, and the man started speaking. He did this everywhere He went. He applied the power of His Word, and the demons retreated.
Jesus’ opponents accused Him of casting out demons by the power of the devil, whom they called “Beelzebul, the prince of demons.” Jesus explained how utterly foolish this would be. He said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.” He was not working with the devil; He was clearly working against him. A stronger Man had come to challenge the strong man, which meant that the devil’s goods were not safe.
The devil’s goods consist of sinful human beings. You and I were once in his prison, but Jesus freed us from it by the light of His truth. That’s how He fights against the devil’s kingdom on earth. He does it by wielding “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17). It is by the Word that God “called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1Pe. 2:9). And it is by the Word that He keeps you in the light.
That means the last thing you would ever want to do is to step away from His Word. To do that would be to take your life into your own hands, and you already heard how you measure up to the devil—like a predator and his prey. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us that our “adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” We step away from the powerful and protective Word of God every time we willfully sin against God. We know we shouldn’t do something, and we do it anyway. We listen to our heart instead of to Him who loves us and redeemed us.
Jesus gives an example in today’s account of someone who thinks he is safe but isn’t. He spoke of “the unclean spirit [who] has gone out of a person.” The only reason the demons leave is by the power of God. So the Lord had delivered this person, just like He delivered all of us by the power of Holy Baptism.
But the person who had the demon expelled took his new spiritual freedom for granted. He had his house—or rather his body and heart—“swept and put in order.” Life was going well for him. He was enjoying the pleasures and treasures and human measures of the world. He was not filling his heart and mind with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. So the unclean spirit returned and brought “seven other spirits more evil than itself” to enter and dwell in that person.
This is not a figure of speech or old-fashioned superstition. The demons exist, and they are constantly working to destroy your faith. A heart that is not filled with the Holy Spirit is a heart that is exposed and open to other spirits. Our modern culture may think this is foolishness, but the devil and demons are just as active today as they were in the past. And baptized believers are their special target.
This is why Jesus says, “Blessed… are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” It is not enough to hear the Word of God. We could hear it but then reject it with our mind or reject it by our intentional sinning. Jesus says we are blessed when we hear His Word “and keep it.” The word for “keep” does not mean “obey.” It means to “watch over” the Word, “guard it,” “keep it close.” It is the same word as the one used earlier in the reading for the strong man guarding his own palace and goods. We want to hold on to the Word with all that we have, guard it, and keep it close because God’s Word is the source of our faith and life.
It is by His holy Word that Jesus holds on to us. He says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Mat. 18:20). We need His presence every passing hour because only His grace can foil the tempter’s power (ELH #561, v. 6). Alone, we cannot withstand the devil’s attacks, but by the Lord’s power, we can stand. We would fall, but Jesus did not. He stayed faithful to His Father’s will all the way to His death on the cross to redeem us.
His death and resurrection are how He destroyed the work of the devil and wrenched the power of death out of his hands. The devil threw everything he could at Jesus, and everything failed. There was nothing he could do. The LORD told the devil what He would do after the fall into sin. He would send the woman’s Offspring to crush Satan’s head, and that is just what He did. Jesus defeated Satan. He booted him right off his dungy throne.
The devil knows now that he cannot overcome Jesus, so he focuses his destructive powers on the followers of Jesus. But our Lord does not leave us to fend for ourselves, just as He did not give up Adam and Eve. We are His prized possessions purchased by His holy blood. He guards us and keeps us close. He fights for us. He does not get tired of defending us, no matter how weak we are or how often we slip up. He continuously forgives our sins and places His protective armor on us through His Word and Sacraments.
He keeps speaking His powerful Word into our ears and hearts. He tells us: “I kept the holy Law of God for you. I died for you and rose again to free you from sin and death. I have called you by name. You are mine (Isa. 43:1). I will not let you go.” And we trust Him; we find refuge in Him. We see the great powers of darkness arrayed against us, but we know they are no match for our Lord Jesus. His Word will prevail. His Word stands forever (Isa. 40:8).
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 “Exorcism” woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)
The Transfiguration of Our Lord (& The Conversion of St. Paul) – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 17:1-9
In Christ Jesus, the bright Morning Star, whose light of grace shines into our hearts through His holy Word, dear fellow redeemed:
If Peter, James, and John had doubts before this, now they were sure. Jesus was the Son of God. They saw Him transfigured before them—His face shining like the sun, His clothes as white as light. They saw Moses and Elijah talking with him, arguably the two most prominent figures from Old Testament times. They were enveloped by the cloud and heard the Voice: “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” They believed that Jesus was God in the flesh.
But immediately after this experience, Jesus said something troubling: “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” The secrecy part wasn’t so bad; it was that Jesus was saying He would die. It wasn’t the first time He had said this. Shortly before His transfiguration, Jesus told the disciples that He would be killed and then raised. Bold Peter pulled Him aside to give him a talking to: “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you” (Mat. 16:22). Then Jesus rebuked him, calling him “Satan” and “a hindrance,” and told him he was setting his mind on the things of man.
After His transfiguration, Jesus spoke of His death again: “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day” (Mat. 17:22-23). Matthew, one of the Twelve, records the fact that these words caused the disciples “great distress.” It didn’t make sense. How could Jesus who had power over demons, sickness, and death, and who revealed His eternal glory, end up dead. They were convinced He was God. How could God die?
Each time Jesus predicted His death, He also predicted His resurrection, but that part did not sink in. The disciples took Jesus seriously when He said He would die, but perhaps they doubted He could rise again if He were killed. No one had ever done something like that before. It isn’t that they denied the resurrection of the dead at the end of time on the last day. They just didn’t grasp how Jesus could rise on the third day after His death, or why this would even be necessary.
No doubt Peter, James, and John wanted to see more glory like they had on the mountaintop. Why couldn’t Jesus go to Jerusalem like that, with His face shining like the sun, flanked by Moses and Elijah? Instead, they saw Jesus enter Jerusalem humbly and give Himself into the hands of His enemies. They wanted to see glory but saw suffering. They wanted Jesus on the throne but instead saw Him on the cross. Jesus did not deliver like they wanted, but He did deliver how they needed.
The reason Jesus gave the three disciples a glimpse of His glory was to prepare them for the suffering to come. It was also to give them proofs along the way of who He was, so they could look back after His resurrection and ascension and understand why He did what He did and what He accomplished. This is why Jesus told them to keep the transfiguration to themselves “until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” After His resurrection, this would be one piece of evidence they could share that showed Jesus was both Son of Man and Son of God.
That same evidence is now set before us by the inspired Word of the apostles. We get to travel with the disciples to that mountaintop and learn what transpired, what they saw and heard. We see in Moses and Elijah the Old Testament Law and Prophets pointing to Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promise. The evangelist Luke reports that they were speaking to Jesus “of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luk. 9:31). This is what Moses and Elijah had looked forward to so long before. The Messiah had come!
They had to wait a long time for the fulfillment of God’s promise, just as the New Testament Church has been waiting a long time for His return. In this time of waiting, it is easy to forget that Jesus is with us, and that He reigns over all things in heaven and on earth. We think that if this is so, we should have a lot more mountaintop experiences and not so much suffering. Why doesn’t Jesus show His glory and power to us? Why doesn’t He guard and protect us, so that suffering and death do not come our way?
But what was the disciples’ problem? They were going by their own expectation and their own experience while ignoring what Jesus said. The same is true for us when we expect Jesus to do for us what He has not promised to do. He has not promised visible appearances in power and shining displays of His glory. He has promised His presence through Word and Sacrament. “Take, eat; this is My body,” He says. “Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood” (Mat. 26:26,27). Shortly before His ascension, He told the disciples what He would do with His authority as the Son of Man who had conquered sin, death, and devil. He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mat. 28:19-20).
Did Jesus do what He said when He predicted His death and His resurrection on the third day? Absolutely. Has Jesus done what He said when He commissioned His Church to make disciples for Him of all nations by His baptism and teaching? If we shake our heads at the disciples for not believing Jesus’ promise to rise from the dead, we should admit that we have not always seen Jesus at work where He promised to be.
We were looking for glorious signs, visible displays of His might, while He was powerfully working in our congregations, our homes, and our hearts through His holy Word. The fact that there is a Christian Church all around the world in peaceful places like ours and in places of persecution in other countries shows that Jesus is working. People every day are baptized into His name and forgiven in His name. Every day, they partake of His holy body and blood. Every day, believers are translated from this world of trouble to His kingdom of glory.
Jesus is doing exactly what He said He would do for you and me. He carries our burdens and gives us rest. He forgives our sins and strengthens our faith. He comforts us in difficulties and gives us courage to confess the truth. He prepares us to enter the eternal mansions that He won for us by His death and resurrection. We might want perfect health, great prosperity, world peace. But He gives us what we truly need. And all the troubles, suffering, and hardship that we experience here, He works through and turns around for our good.
We see an example of His powerful work in the life of Paul who was originally called Saul. His conversion is remembered each year on January 25. Saul thought that Jesus was a false teacher. He thought that movement would end with Jesus’ death. But instead, the movement had gained traction and momentum with Jesus’ disciples claiming that He had risen from the dead! Saul wanted to put a stop to it. When the first Christian, Stephen, was stoned to death after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, Saul was there watching in approval (Act. 7:58).
Stephen’s martyrdom was the beginning of a great persecution against the rapidly growing Christian Church. Saul was one of the ringleaders. We are told that he “was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison” (8:3). He was on the way to do this in Damascus when a great light from heaven shone around him, like the light that came from Jesus at His transfiguration. And on this occasion, too, a Voice spoke from heaven. But it was not the Voice of the Father; it was the Voice of the Son, saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (9:4). “Who are you, Lord?” asked Saul. And the Voice said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (v. 5).
Talk about a shock! Saul thought Jesus was dead and therefore could not have been God. Now he realized Jesus was exactly who He had said, and that He had risen from the dead and was reigning in heaven. If Saul had not become convinced that the Son of Man was also the Son of God, he would not have undertaken his three missionary journeys and taken such abuse for preaching Christ.
So Paul testifies to the truth of who Jesus is, just as Peter, James, and John and the other apostles did. You have their testimony recorded in the New Testament. When God the Father spoke from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him”—the way you listen to Him is by reading, hearing, and meditating upon His holy Word. When like the three disciples, you cower in fear with the awareness of your sin, He touches you through His Sacraments and bids you to “rise, and have no fear.” You lift up your eyes and see no one but Him—“Jesus only.” Only He is your righteousness, forgiveness, and peace; only He is your salvation; only He is your life.
Jesus told Peter, James, and John, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” The fact that you are hearing about this vision from the New Testament writings means that “the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” He is God incarnate, God in the flesh, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true Man born of the virgin Mary. He died on the cross, and then conquered death by rising on the third day. This Son of Man Is Risen and Reigns. He has kept His promise to you and to the whole Church. He does not fail to visit you here through the Means of Grace, by which He continues to fortify and strengthen all believers.
And He will come again in glory on the last day, when you will get to see Him as the three disciples did, with Moses, Elijah, and all the saints surrounding Him. Then you will behold Him without fear and will join Him in His bright presence, whose kingdom shall have no end.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from painting by Carl Bloch, c. 1865)
The Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Kings 20
In Christ Jesus, who alone is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Joh. 14:6), dear fellow redeemed:
King Hezekiah, as we heard, was very sick. Our reading tells us that he had a boil, the same word used for the boils the LORD sent on the Egyptians and the boils that afflicted Job (Exo. 9:9, Job 2:7). Hezekiah’s boil had presumably caused a serious infection that had brought him to “the point of death.” The LORD sent the prophet Isaiah to visit him with this message: “Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.” That was a shocking word for a king who was only thirty-nine years old at this time and had ruled well for fourteen years.
But as you know, death does not often—or even ever—come at the “right time.” From our perspective, the death of a loved one always comes too soon. Even when a medical treatment or a miracle extends a life by the grace of God, we are still not ready when death comes. No amount of time is enough time. The number of days a person will have is not known to us, but it is known to God.
When He created us in our mother’s womb, He had already determined the length of our days. Psalm 139:16 says: “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” The psalmist in another place asks God to keep him from getting too caught up in his life in the world: “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” (Psa. 39:4).
In the oldest Psalm in the Book, Moses makes this request of the LORD: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” There is wisdom in recognizing the shortness of our life here on earth. There is wisdom in making preparations for our death. As Christians, we know that death is not the end of our life; it is the beginning of our eternal life in the Lord’s presence.
So if a prophet visited you and said, “Set your house in order, for you shall die,” what would you do? I suppose that depends on how much time you had. What if you had two years to live? Two months? Two weeks? Two days? You would get your legal papers in order. You would contact your family members and friends to express your love for them. You might take a trip you always wanted to take.
It is good to give some thought to these things, since we don’t know when our death will come. You can save your family members a lot of trouble by making your wishes known in a will and by doing some advance planning for your funeral and burial. But it is much more important to make sure you are prepared spiritually, to get rid of any sin you have been holding onto, or has been holding on to you.
Are you keeping any old grudges that you could try to resolve? Have you been hiding something that has compromised you spiritually, endangering your faith, something that could cause embarrassment to your family if it were discovered after you are gone? Are you waiting to talk with an estranged family member or friend until “sometime down the road”—a time that may never come?
Our Lord Jesus teaches us to forgive others as God has forgiven us. We deal with anger, bitterness, and pain not by hoping they will go away, but by dealing with them through confession and absolution. This is also what we do with secret sins. We get rid of any snares in our home or life that are tempting us or leading us to sin, and we lay all our sins out in the open before God through repentance.
We do these things each week in the Divine Service, so your attendance here is a big part of preparing for your death. Here you are taught to examine your heart and life for sin. Here you are absolved of those sins by the Word of Jesus. Here you are pointed to the work He has done to save you through His death and resurrection. Here you receive the gifts of His life and salvation through His Word and Sacraments. Here you are encouraged to pray and bring your needs and requests before Him.
After hearing the word from Isaiah about his imminent death, Hezekiah prayed to the LORD. Our reading contains a short version of this prayer. The book of Isaiah records a longer version. In the longer version, Hezekiah acknowledged that he had been prideful and not given all glory to God. He said, “Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back” (38:17). This prayer of confession was accompanied by great weeping. The LORD’s message through Isaiah had hit home; Hezekiah recognized his own mortality.
The LORD listened to his prayer. He sent Isaiah to tell Hezekiah, “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD, and I will add fifteen years to your life.” “On the third day”—that didn’t make Hezekiah’s ears perk up like it does ours. But it is one in a line of hints about a future “third day,” the greatest “third day.”
Jonah was swallowed up by a huge fish for three days before it spit him back on shore (Jon. 1:17), and Jesus later applied this account to His own burial “in the heart of the earth” (Mat. 12:40). When the Jews asked Jesus for a sign for His authoritative teaching and work, Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple [talking about His body], and in three days I will raise it up” (Joh. 2:19). At least three times before He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, Jesus told His disciples that He would be condemned and killed and “after three days rise again” (Mar. 8:31, 9:31, 10:34).
Jesus’ prophecies about His resurrection “on the third day” were not empty words. He was crucified, died, and was buried on Good Friday, and on the following Sunday morning—the third day—He rose from the dead. Death could not hold Him because He had conquered death. And He didn’t just conquer it for Himself; He conquered it for you and me. His disciples didn’t believe it until they saw Him alive in the flesh with their own eyes. Then they wrote down what they saw. Their eyewitness account stands as a testimony to the whole world that Jesus the Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
His resurrection is why we don’t view our physical death here on earth as “the last thing.” We do not want to die, but it does not terrify us like it does unbelievers. They run from death and even distance themselves from loved ones who are dying because they cannot bear the thought of their own death. On the other hand, we Christians sing, “For me to live is Jesus, / To die is gain for me; / Then, whensoe’er He pleases, / I meet death willingly” (ELH #473, v. 1).
We meet death willingly because Jesus has turned our earthly death into the entrance to eternal life. When a believer in Jesus dies, his soul goes immediately to be with the Lord. His body is laid to rest, put to bed in the casket, for an unknown amount of time. The body rests in peace until Jesus comes back visibly in all His power and glory on the last day. He will come with a shout, and all the dead will wake up from their slumber (1Th. 4:16). Then He will gather all believers to Himself, whole, glorified, soul and body joined once again, to go with Him to His heavenly kingdom.
Until that day comes, those who have died in the Lord are only sleeping. That’s what death is to God, nothing more than a sleep. We have no power over death, but He does. He can wake us from it as easily as we can wake someone from an afternoon nap. We often use the term “pass away” for death, but that does not come from the Bible. The Bible often uses the term “sleep.”
Jesus described His friend Lazarus as having “fallen asleep” after he had died (Joh. 11:11). Several times, St. Paul referred to believers who had died as “those who have fallen asleep” (1Co. 15:6,18,20; 1Th. 4:14,15). In today’s Holy Gospel, Jesus told the mourners who had gathered at the house of a dead girl, “the girl is not dead but sleeping” (Mat. 9:24). And in our reading from 2 Kings, we hear that “Hezekiah slept with his fathers.” He died as they had died and was buried where they had been buried.
But for them—for you—death is not final. Hezekiah may have died, but he lives. His soul is with the LORD, and his body will be resurrected on the last day. This is God’s promise for all who trust in Him. He died to blot out every one of your sins. He rose in victory over your death. It does no good to try to hide your sins away or to imagine that death will not come for you. Jesus took your sins on Himself, and He paid the price for them. He took on your death, and on the third day, He overcame it to win for you eternal life. Your hope is not in what you can do about your sin and death; your hope is in what He has done to save you.
As Isaiah said would happen, Hezekiah recovered on the third day and went up to the house of the LORD. Because of Jesus’ resurrection on the third day, you also go to His holy house with rejoicing. You thank and praise Him that He has rescued you from temporal and eternal death. Though you are dying, yet He gives you His life. You receive this life through His Word of life and through “the medicine of immortality”—His holy body and blood—which He gives for you to eat and drink at His holy table.
Because Jesus is “the resurrection and the life,” because He imparts His life to you, you and all who believe in Him will live, even though your body dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Him shall never die (Joh. 11:25-26).
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)
Midweek Lent 2 – Pr. Abraham Faugstad homily
Text: St. Matthew 26:1-2
William Miller predicted that Christ’s second coming would be on April 18, 1844. After that date passed, a disciple of Miller predicted October 22, 1844. Charles Russell, a Jehovah Witness, predicted that Christ would return in 1874. A Russian Mennonite, Claas Epp predicted that Christ would return on March 8, 1889. These are names of people that you have probably never heard of. Why? Because they join a long list of many other people who have predicted things about Christ and other events, which never came true.
These people are examples of modern-day false prophets. Yet, false prophets are nothing new to our times. The Lord even had to warn the people of Israel about false prophets who claimed to have revelations and prophecies from God. The Lord gave criterion to identify true and false prophets. A true prophet was someone who may be enabled by the Lord to perform great miracles. Also important, was that everything a prophet speaks would be in alignment with God’s Word (Deut. 13:1–5). Yet, one of the most obvious marks of a true prophet was that their prophecies came true. If a prophet’s words didn’t come true, clearly, they were not from God. Deuteronomy 18:22 states, “When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”
Jesus was the greatest of all prophets. He is the one whom Moses foretold, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen” (Deut. 18:15). In our Lenten series this year, we are looking at some of the prophecies made by Christ during Holy Week. Tonight, our Savior foretells that he would be delivered for crucifixion.
During his earthly ministry Jesus was transparent to his disciples about his purpose and work. Yet, in the last year of his ministry, and especially the week before his crucifixion, we see his discussions with his disciples becoming more and more clear about how and where he would accomplish our salvation. In the Gospel of Matthew alone, Jesus had already foretold of his suffering and death to his disciples three times (Matthew 16:21–23,17:22–23, 20:17–19). He would go to Jerusalem to suffer and die, and on the third day he would rise. He would be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes who would condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, flogged, and crucified.
Jesus had foretold where and how he would die. In our lesson, Jesus foretells when he would be crucified, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” Jesus is speaking fact. Jesus is saying to his disciples, “You know after two days the Passover is coming. Just as certainly as this, I will be handed over to be crucified.”
Here Jesus is indicating more than a prediction and more than supernatural knowledge. This was an act of determining, or fixing, the time of his death. Jesus is demonstrating his authority over all things. Regardless of any plans of the Jewish leaders, it would be as he directs—Thursday night and Friday, and no other time. Jesus’ words were making reality.
What’s hard for us to wrap our heads around is that Jesus was in control. He speaks as if it already happened, because what God determines will come to pass. Jesus showed his power by this prediction, a prediction in which he will be made powerless. He is showing his authority by fixing the time of his suffering, a time where he would submit himself under the authority of a kangaroo court and Pontius Pilate. With this prophecy Jesus is showing his power and authority over time. He is in control. Yet, it’s a paradox, what he causes to be, will make him look powerless, weak, and destroyed.
Jesus was not only a true prophet in the sense that his word came true. He showed his power and control over all things by fixing the exact time of his crucifixion. If you had the same power as Jesus, to not only know the future, but be in control of your future, how would you use it? I’m willing to wager that if we had the power over our future, we certainly would not be planning our own demise. We would not plan our own suffering and humiliation, and a horrible death which was saved for only the worst type of criminals. Instead, we would make a future where we would have peace, relaxation, and glory—where we wouldn’t face hardship, sorrow, or shame. We would want to avoid all pain. If we had this power, we would obviously want to make ourselves as happy as possible.
But not Jesus. He gave up his power and glory in heaven when he humbled himself to be born of a virgin. He gave up the peace of heaven to live an innocent life where he was rejected by his own people, wrongly convicted, beaten, mocked, and crucified. What could drive Jesus to do all this? If Jesus had the power to change his future, why on earth would he choose this path?
Because if he didn’t, it would be you convicted, beaten, mocked, and cast to hell for all eternity. We so often think very little about our sins. You don’t think your selfishness is that sinful, don’t I deserve better? You think your hatred of your neighbor is justified. You think your desire for more and more and more isn’t greed, but healthy ambition. You think your lust which you hold in your heart for someone who is not our spouse isn’t that bad. But any sin, no matter how small we might tell ourselves it is, deserves hell. Scripture says, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” (James 2:10).
Christ chose the path of the cross because he loves you. Because he wanted to save you from what you deserve. He gladly received what he did not deserve, so that you could receive forgiveness and his undeserved kindness. God is love and in Christ we see God’s love. Scripture says, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:9–10).
In our lesson, Jesus prophesied when he would be crucified. When we hear this prediction, we should realize Christ’s love for us. His death was no accident or coincidence. It was all part of his plan to save you. Not only did all of Jesus’ prophecies come to be, but Jesus also fulfilled all the prophecies about himself. “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows… He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed… And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53).
Jesus showed himself to be a true prophet because his word came to be, which means you can trust his word. His word which says, “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37); “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” (Matthew 11:28); “Be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you” (Matthew 9:2); “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25); “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19).
Jesus is the greatest of all prophets. Even now as our resurrected Lord, he continues to carry out his prophetic office by sending preachers to preach his word. So that men, women, and children sitting in pews in Iowa 2,000 years later and over 6,000 miles from his empty tomb, might learn about their Savior. The names of false prophets come and go. But our Savior’s name will forever be. His name is Jesus, “because He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Amen.
(picture from “Jesus Discourses with His Disciples” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
In Christ Jesus, whose work and word is life for us, dear fellow redeemed:
Jairus was desperate. His daughter, just twelve years old, was sick, and she wasn’t getting better. The doctors said there was nothing more they could do. Her parents’ hearts were broken; their tears flowed. They would gladly have taken her place. They would die if only she could live. They felt hopeless. Then Jairus learned that Jesus had just come to the area. He hurried to meet Him, knelt before Him, and begged Him to lay His healing hand on the girl so she would live. Jesus agreed to go. Jairus felt a glimmer of hope.
But while they were on their way, a friend from Jairus’ home met them with terrible news, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more” (Luk. 8:49). They were too late. The girl’s time had run out. Her soul had left her body and gone to be with the Lord. Her body lay at rest. But then Jesus turned to Jairus in his anguish and said something strange, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well” (v. 50). They kept going. When they got to the house, a great crowd had gathered, “weeping and wailing loudly” (Mar. 5:38). Jesus now addressed them. “Do not weep,” He said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping” (Luk. 8:52, Mat. 9:24).
The people in the crowd did not respond like Jairus did. They laughed at Jesus. It was not a laugh of joy or even of surprise. It was a laugh that showed their offense at Jesus’ words and their disdain for His message. They knew the difference between sleep and death! They knew the signs: her heart had stopped, she wasn’t breathing, her skin had gone cold. There was no doubt about it—the girl was dead.
And no doubt she was. But just like the people today who tell us to “trust science” since nothing can be verified apart from science, the people in the crowd failed to account for the power of God. Death was too powerful for the people to overcome, but it wasn’t too powerful for Jesus. They were helpless in the face of death, but Jesus was not.
Jesus sent the crowd out of the house and approached the girl’s bedside. She lay there so still, so peaceful, while all around her was so much pain and sadness. Jesus reached down, took her by the hand, and said two words in Aramaic, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise” (Mar. 5:41). Immediately the girl got up and started walking.
You and I have also stood at the side of deceased people before. We have seen them lying there peacefully, maybe even touched their hands. We looked at their faces and wished that their eyes might open, that they would start breathing again, that they would step out of the casket and be reunited with us. Why doesn’t God do this for us? Why doesn’t He work a miracle? It’s obvious that He can. Nothing is impossible for Him (Luk. 1:37).
But He does not call us to put our hope in what He can do or might do. He calls us to trust in what He has promised. And He does promise to raise our loved ones from the dead, even if it is not as soon as we want. The inspired words of 1 Thessalonians address this pain of loss and the difficulty of waiting for the day of our final redemption. St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Christians, “we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.”
It is clear that these Christians were concerned that some among them were dying before the return of Jesus. Would these believers lose out on their chance to be in heaven with glorified body and soul? “No,” says Paul echoing the words of Jesus, “they are only sleeping. Through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.” But how could they be certain of this? Where was the proof? They needed to look no further than Jesus, who “died and rose again.”
When Jesus died on Good Friday, no one called that a sleep. The soldiers found Him dead on the cross and thrust a spear into His side to make sure of it. Joseph and Nicodemus took down His body, put it in a new tomb, and sealed the tomb with a big stone. No one expected Jesus to come out again. The women made plans to return for a better burial. But everything changed on Easter Sunday. Everything changed for Jesus’ disciples who saw Him alive that day, and everything changed that day for you and me as we approach our own death.
Paul writes that the One who died and rose again, who triumphed over death, is going to return to raise us from the dead. He is going to come and wake us up, just as though we had been sleeping, just as He woke up the little girl. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” We think of Jesus coming on the clouds with all the angels. But did you remember this passage which says He will come down with a shout, “with a cry of command”?
What is it that He will cry out? Perhaps we have an insight from Jesus raising the young man from Nain to life when He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise” (Luk. 7:14). Or when He called to his friend Lazarus in the tomb, “Lazarus, come out” (Joh. 11:43). Or when He said to Jairus’ daughter, “Little girl, I say to you, arise” (Mar. 5:41). Whatever Jesus’ calls out on the last day—whether “arise!” or “come out!” or something else—our reading tells us clearly what will happen, “the dead in Christ will rise.”
Jesus’ word of command will awaken the dead. It will wake them up just as though they had been sleeping, just as you might wake up someone from a nap. That’s what His Word has the power to do. It gives life. His Word is how you and I were brought to faith in Him. It wasn’t by a decision we made. It wasn’t because we put ourselves in a good position to be influenced by God. It is because God in His mercy and grace looked with love upon us and called us to believe through the Gospel, through the good news of what Jesus did to save us.
When we hear this message, God the Holy Spirit is at work. He is working to plant faith in the hearts of unbelievers and to strengthen faith in the hearts of believers. This Gospel message comforts us when we mourn the death of our loved ones, and it prepares us for our own death. The promises of Jesus are why, though we are certainly saddened by death, we do “not grieve as others do who have no hope.”
Grieving without hope is celebrating a life without celebrating the life of Jesus and the life He won for us. Grieving without hope is looking for some sign of a loved one’s presence in nature or in the coincidences of daily life instead of rejoicing in their bliss in the presence of God. Grieving without hope is removing all trace of a loved one’s life because it hurts too much to think of them, or setting up shrines to them in our homes as though we can keep their spirit with us.
Grieving without hope is separating ourselves from the means God has given for our comfort and strength—His holy Word and Sacraments. There is no hope apart from God in the face of death. The crowd showed their hopelessness when Jesus told them the girl was “not dead but sleeping.” They laughed at Him. They did not trust His Word, so they received no comfort and encouragement.
But how can we be sure that what the Bible says about the last day will happen? How can we know that the dead will be raised, that we will see the people we love again, that we ourselves will wake up from the sleep of death? Besides the fact that there is no hopeful alternative to what God says, the Bible has never been proven false. Everything the Old Testament said about the coming Savior was clearly fulfilled in Jesus. Everything Jesus said would happen, including His suffering, death, and resurrection, did happen.
So why should we doubt what He tells us about His return in glory on the last day? Paul did not make up the words of today’s reading. “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,” he wrote. And, “encourage one another with these words.” The words we are privileged to hear today are words of life. They are words that cut through our pain, dispel our sadness, break up the clouds of doubt we have. These words point us to what Jesus has done—died on the cross and rose again for our salvation—and to what He will do—descend from heaven in glory to bring all believers with Him to heaven.
So rest well, dear friends in Christ. At the end of your life, you can close your eyes without a care knowing that through Christ your sins are forgiven and eternal life is yours. By His grace, you will drift into the gentle slumber of death. Your soul will immediately fly to the Lord, and your body will lie in peaceful sleep until the day of our Lord’s appearing.
Lord, let at last Thine angels come,
To Abram’s bosom bear me home,
That I may die unfearing;
And in its narrow chamber keep
My body safe in peaceful sleep
Until Thy reappearing.
And then from death awaken me
That these mine eyes with joy may see,
O Son of God, Thy glorious face,
My Savior and my Fount of grace.
Lord Jesus Christ,
My prayer attend, my prayer attend,
And I will praise Thee without end. Amen. (ELH #406, v. 3)
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from painting by Gabriel von Max, 1878)
The Seventh Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Romans 6:19-23
In Christ Jesus, who not only freed us from sin, but who also freed us for a life of righteousness, dear fellow redeemed:
In one of the books that the kids and I read recently, we read about a ship exploring unmapped parts of an imaginary sea (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis). The crew came across an island covered in darkness where a half-wild man swam toward the boat yelling for them to turn back. When he got on board, he told them it was an enchanted island “where dreams come true.” At first, the sailors thought this sounded appealing—who wouldn’t want their dreams to come true? Then it hit them that not all dreams are good dreams, and they rowed away as fast as they could.
This illustrates how something that seems to offer ultimate freedom might actually deliver the opposite. The same goes for the choices we make in our life. We might like to think that we are perfectly free to do whatever we feel like doing. But what if the choices we make result in our having less freedom? So I might think that pursuing my desires is freedom, but if those desires are sinful, then I am being drawn away from holy and noble things, and I become bound up in sin.
And the more bound up in sin I am, the more difficult it is not to sin. Those who are addicted to alcohol and drugs, to pornography, to gambling, or to certain kinds of foods know this well. The more they need their “fix,” even though it is harming them spiritually, mentally, and physically, the harder it is to stop. In fact, all of us are drawn to our particular sins, whatever they may be. We might think we can stay in control and not let our sinful desires control us. But then we fall and keep falling. One theologian put it this way: “[W]e cannot take sin or leave it [as though we are always in control]. Once we take sin, sin has taken us” (Martin Franzmann, Romans: A Commentary, p. 116).
As much as we should resist sin, and as much harm as it does us, we still find ourselves “taking” it. This is because we have a sinful nature, a part of us that is inclined to do the opposite of what God wants. In today’s reading, Paul describes our natural state as a sort of slavery. Slaves of sin pursue “impurity” and “lawlessness leading to more lawlessness.”
This is a slavery we were born into because the perfectly free and righteous Adam and Eve chose to give up this freedom. They disobeyed the command of God and chose lawlessness. We inherited their sin, but we have chosen it too. The apostle John wrote that “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness” (1Jo. 3:4). And Jesus taught, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (Joh. 8:34).
This is very different than what we hear from the world. The world says that freedom is found in “following our heart,” and doing whatever makes us feel happy. We are told to prioritize our own choices and desires without really considering how those choices affect others. And if our plans contradict what God says in the Bible, we are urged to “stay true to ourselves.”
But a life of sin is no free life. It may deliver temporary happiness. You may have pleasure for a time or power or possessions. But all of it will slip through your fingers like a handful of sand. Paul writes, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?” What do the works of sin add up to? What have we actually accomplished by going our own way? Paul states the stark reality: “For the end of those things is death.”
That is what our life of sinful choices results in: death. “For the wages of sin—what we earn by our sin—is death.” A person may think he is free apart from Christ, but he is actually enslaved, and he cannot free himself. Being a slave of sin is like being stuck without water in a boat on the ocean. You can drink the salt water, you can keep sinning, but it will only make you more and more parched until it kills you.
This view of human beings as slaves of sin rather than naturally free is completely rejected by the unbelieving world. Its response is like the Jews who said to Jesus, “[We] have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” (Joh. 8:33). If you don’t know you are separated from God, you won’t know how desperate your situation is. If you don’t know you are a slave of sin and death, you won’t know you need to be freed.
We have compassion for the people around us who are in this state. They don’t know what they don’t know. They need to be awakened spiritually just as we have been through the power of God’s Word. They need to hear—just as we need to keep hearing—what Jesus has done for us, how He entered the prison house of our slavery and removed our chains of sin.
He did this by letting Himself be bound. Even though He never sinned, He accepted the wages of our sin. He took our place and paid that price. He was beaten and flogged for our disobedience. “He was wounded for our transgressions” (Isa. 53:5). We can’t see how deep our sin runs and how much damage it has done. But Jesus knows, because He paid for every last sin of every single person. The price He paid for our freedom was tremendous.
This is what God the Father sent Him to do. The Son of God speaking through the prophet Isaiah said, “the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (Isa. 61:1). Jesus came to proclaim and win our liberty and freedom—not liberty and freedom for sin, but liberty and freedom from sin.
Paul emphasizes this point in today’s reading. He says that as you once willingly participated in sin, now through faith dedicate yourself to pursuing righteousness. In fact, he says that it can only be one or the other. Either you are a slave of sin, or you are a slave of righteousness (Rom. 6:18). Slavery to righteousness is not an oppressive slavery; it is not unpleasant. If slavery to sin is like drinking salt water that makes you thirstier, slavery to righteousness is like drinking pure, cold water on a hot day.
God did not create us and redeem us to sin; He created and redeemed us to do good. When we pursue righteousness, we are not acting against God’s purpose for us. We are doing what He called us to do and living according to His will. This is the sanctified life that He works in us through His Word. He brings us more and more in line with His will as He brings us the forgiveness and righteousness of Jesus. This is why we can produce good fruit in our life; it is because we are joined to Jesus.
So we give Him the glory for the good we do. He is the one who works blessings for others through our small efforts. He multiplies our little words and works of righteousness, so they have a great impact. Taking credit for all the good we are able to be part of would be like the disciples taking credit for the food that fed four thousand, because they provided the seven loaves and a few fish (Mar. 8:1-9). That would be obnoxious and prideful.
All that we have and all that we are able to do are gifts from God. We do not deserve the freedom we have in Him—freedom from having to answer for our sins, freedom from the eternal punishment we deserve, freedom to bear good fruit in His name and to enter heaven by His grace. We do not deserve it, but this freedom is most certainly ours. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This is what we receive as the “slaves of God.” We receive the inheritance of sons. We receive eternal life. Slavery to God is not oppressive, except to our sinful nature. God guards and keeps us, so that we do not become lost in the darkness where even our worst dreams come true. Through His Word and Sacraments, He leads us out of the darkness of sin, He feeds us so we eat and are satisfied (Mar. 8:8), and He prepares us to inherit His kingdom in the life to come.
The slaves of sin in this world may appear to have everything, but without Christ they have nothing. The slaves of God may appear to have nothing in this life, but in Christ they have everything.
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 “Crucifixion, Seen from the Cross,” by James Tissot, c. 1890)
(No audio recording is available for this sermon.)
The Second Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 1 John 3:13-18
In Christ Jesus, Love incarnate, who demonstrated God’s love for the world through His sinless life and sacrificial death, and who calls His people to follow His example of love, dear fellow redeemed:
There are different ways we express the fact that we are alive: “I’m breathing.”—“I’m upright.”—“I have a pulse.”—“I’m still above ground.”—“The ol’ ticker is still working.” Our reading for today gives another proof of our being alive, but it is talking about something more than physical life. The apostle John writes, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.”
The “brothers” that John is referring to are fellow believers. Although it sounds like John is saying that it is our love for the brothers that has brought us “out of death into life,” this is not the case. John makes this clear a couple verses later when he writes, “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us.” We “know love,” because we have seen the love of Jesus.
The love of Jesus was completely sacrificial. He came, as He said, “not to be served but to serve” (Mar. 10:45). Of all the people who could have demanded the love of others, it was Him. “For by him all things were created” (Col. 1:16), and “he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3). He is the only-begotten Son of God the Father from all eternity. We would not exist apart from Him. When He took on human flesh and revealed Himself through His gracious words and works, He should have received nothing but love, honor, and respect.
At the same time, His love was not contingent on receiving what He deserved. Whether or not His words were listened to, whether or not His works were praised, whether or not He was thanked for His miracles and blessings, He still loved, like the love we see from the master of the house who invited “the poor and crippled and blind and lame” to his banquet (Luk. 14:16-24). Jesus loved the sinners around Him all the way to the cross, where He lovingly carried all their sins to make payment for them. He came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mar. 10:45).
What He has done, that is what we are called to do. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples and told them, “I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (Joh. 13:15). Then He added that it is love that would set His disciples apart from the world. He said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (v. 35).
Jesus is not referring to a love that will come from deep down in our heart, as though all we need to do is look inside to find it or try harder. He is referring to a love that comes from God Himself. As John wrote later in his epistle, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1Jo. 4:7). That tells us there is a difference between the love of the world and the love of God.
In fact, we learn from the Bible that those “loves”—worldly love and godly love—are opposed to each other. The world has a warped understanding of love. “Love” might be defined as “the acting out of my passions.” It is “doing the things I find fulfilling.” The “love” that the world embraces hardly ever has a sacrificial component. It is about what is good for me more than it is what is good for you.
It is no wonder, then, that the world chafes under the Bible’s definition of love. God says that nothing can be loving if it goes against His Ten Commandments. The Commandments show us the shape of love and the focus of love. They do not direct us inward toward a love of self. They direct us outward toward love for God and neighbor.
Therefore, we say, it can’t be love when we dishonor or disrespect parents or the governing authorities (4th). It can’t be love when we do harm to others or wish harm on them in our hearts (5th). It can’t be love when we act on our sexual passions and desires outside of marriage (6th). It can’t be love when we have the world’s goods and see a brother in need, yet close our heart against him, as our reading says. Anything that does not agree with God’s holy law cannot be loving, since “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10).
The world, of course, disagrees, and it doesn’t disagree mildly. It says that you should indulge your sinful passions, do whatever you want to do, put yourself first. The world doesn’t take kindly to these things being questioned or challenged by we who hold to the true Word of God. The effect is as John says, “the world hates you.” He is saying nothing different than the Lord Jesus who said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (Joh. 15:18-19).
Love for God means hatred from the world. You cannot have it both ways. Jesus says you cannot enjoy the love of the world and the love of God. The unbelievers of the world walk around dead in their sins, like the people in the Holy Gospel who thought their worldly pursuits were more important than the banquet of salvation. They do not know the love of God. They are unable to love as He loves. So it is no surprise when we are the recipients of their hatred. Hatred comes naturally to the unbelievers of the world, just as it once came naturally to us.
But now we are alive in Christ. We have been buried and raised with Him through Baptism. We have been grafted into Him, which means that life and love flow from Him to us like nourishment from a vine to its branches. Through these branches—through us—God produces fruits of love for the benefit of others. John describes what that love looks like. Just as Jesus laid down His life for us, “we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” If any brother has a need, we should do our best to help and supply him. Believers in Jesus should never be accused of being “all talk.” We show our love by our words and our actions.
But what if we don’t? What if we fall into the same snares and sins of the unbelievers? And of course we have. We have played the part of murderers by hating a brother or sister in Christ. Perhaps it was hatred toward a parent, a sibling, a spouse, or a member of the congregation. We wanted them to be hurt like we hurt. We wanted them to suffer like we suffered. And there have been times when we saw a fellow Christian in need, but we didn’t want to trouble ourselves to help. Or we told ourselves that surely someone else would step up who had more resources and more time.
When these behaviors have described us, then we were no better than the unbelievers of the world. Then this indictment is true for us: “Whoever does not love abides in death.” It is death—lifelessness—when we fail to love. Christians who do not love are like lungs that don’t breathe or hearts that don’t beat. We do not represent the God of all love when we are selfish or judgmental or too proud to lift a finger to help those we think are below us.
If the wheels in your brain are turning right now, remembering when you did not love, but then trying to justify those times, that is death in you. But if you recall those times of weakness and sin, and you are sorry for them, that is life in you. St. Paul writes, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8:13).
“Putting to death the deeds of the body,” means repenting of your sins and trying to avoid them in the future. Every one of us here has sins to repent of, sins of hatred and selfishness. The Holy Spirit leads us to recognize these sins and hand them over to the Father. This remorsefulness and repentance is a clear sign of life. It is a sign that you are not dying along with the loveless world. You are alive in Him who loved perfectly.
His love for you does not change, even though you have sinned, even though you have not always loved like you should. The Son of God accepted the punishment for all those sins in your place, so that they are not charged against you anymore. His love for you from cradle to cross covers the multitude of your sins. He gave Himself to save you.
The Holy Spirit gives you the faith to believe this. And He continues working through the Word and Sacraments to strengthen your faith and renew your love toward others. You come here bringing your sin and guilt, but you leave holding His grace and forgiveness, with plenty to share with everyone around you.
That is what we do. We pass on what we have received. We Living Ones Love. We do not lose anything by loving. We only gain, like honeybees transferring pollen from flower to flower, or like a flame being passed from one candle to another. Just as the love of God has come to us from others, so we share this love, not just “in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
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 of the poor, the blind, and the lame being invited to the banquet from the 1880 edition of The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation)
(No audio recording is available for this sermon.)
The Festival of All Saints (observed) – Vicar Lehne sermon
Text: St. Matthew 9:18-26
In Christ Jesus, who conquered death so that we may live, dear fellow redeemed:
Death can be a scary thing. This is especially true for those who have no hope. To them, death is the end. So, to make death seem less scary, they try to “soften it” by describing it in nice sounding terms, such as “he is playing eighteen holes on the golf course in the sky,” or, “he lived a good life, and now his legacy lives on,” or, “he will continue to be with you forever, so long as you keep thinking about him.”
The New Testament describes death as a peaceful sleep for those who die in Christ. To the world, describing death as a peaceful sleep is another one of those ways to try to “soften it” and make death seem less scary, but the world does not expect a waking up from that sleep. We can even think this way too, especially when we have just experienced the death of a loved one. However, while (1) death seems like the end to us, in reality, (2) death is only a sleep that Jesus will wake us from. Jesus gives us hope.
Our reading for today begins with a ruler kneeling before Jesus and asking him to lay his hand on his daughter so that she will live. We find out from the Gospels of Mark and Luke that this ruler was named Jairus. We also find out from these two Gospels that Jairus’ daughter wasn’t dead yet, but she was near death. This doesn’t mean that the Gospel of Matthew is giving an inaccurate report of what happened. The account was simply condensed.
Even though Jarius’ daughter wasn’t dead yet, she was so close to death that Jairus had little to no hope that she would be able to recover. The only hope he had was that Jesus could heal her. Jairus wasn’t basing his hope on nothing. Jesus had already healed many people who were sick. He healed an official’s son who was at the point of death (John 4:46–54). He healed a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years (John 5:1–17). He healed Peter’s mother-in-law, who was sick with a high fever (Luke 4:38–39). He healed a paralytic (Mark 2:1–12). And he healed many others besides these (Matthew 8:16–17; 4:23–24).
Jairus had more than enough proof that Jesus had the power to heal his daughter. And then he watched Jesus heal a sick woman who touched the fringe of his garment on the way to his house. Seeing Jesus heal someone right in front of him no doubt gave him even more hope than he already had that Jesus had could save his daughter’s life. He had no reason to fear that his daughter would die so long as Jesus made it to his daughter in time.
Then the bad news came. According to Mark and Luke, after Jesus healed and reassured the sick woman, some men arrived to tell Jairus that his daughter had died. Jesus didn’t make it to Jairus’ daughter in time after all. Hearing this news could cause anyone to lose hope, but Jesus reassured Jairus by saying, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well” (Luke 8:50).
What Jesus said to reassure Jairus he also says to reassure us. Jesus entered this world to save us from death by his own death and resurrection. As Jesus said to Martha when her brother Lazarus died, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25–26).
Despite knowing this, death can still be a scary thing. We can fear the deaths of our loved ones, not wanting to experience the loneliness caused by them no longer being by our sides, or worrying how we will provide for ourselves and our families without their help. We can also fear our own deaths, worrying that it will be painful or that we will leave our families without the help that they need.
But it’s not just physical death that we can fear, but also eternal death. We know that we are by nature sinful and that we rightfully deserve eternal punishment in the fires of hell because of our many sins, a fact that can become clearer to us the closer to death that we get. As a result, we can wonder whether we lived a good enough life or whether we have a strong enough faith to get to heaven.
When any of these fears enter our minds, Jesus offers us reassurance and hope by telling us, “Do not be afraid; only believe” (Mark 5:36). Jesus gives us the faith we need through his Word and Sacraments. Because of this, we believe that Jesus experienced all our sufferings and took all our sins on himself on the cross. We believe that he paid the price for all our sins by his innocent suffering and death. We believe that he did everything necessary to save us. And we believe that he will remain with us through all our struggles, giving us the strength to persevere until the day we enter the peaceful sleep of death and enter eternal life in heaven.
Jairus believed and put his hope in Jesus, even after he received the terrible news that his daughter had died. His friends did not have the same confidence. In fact, the men who came to deliver Jairus the bad news also told him not to bother Jesus anymore since his daughter was now dead (Mark 5:35). In addition, the people who had gathered at Jairus’ house to mourn his daughter’s death laughed at Jesus when he told them that “the girl [was] not dead but sleeping” (verse 24).
Like those who didn’t believe that Jesus could raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead, we are tempted to doubt Jesus’ power over death. We know that God has revealed through his Word that we will rise again on the Last Day and that our bodies will be reunited with our souls. However, despite knowing what the Bible says, it can be difficult for us to have hope that we will rise from the dead. After all, Jesus’ power over death doesn’t change the fact that our loved ones are, for the moment, gone. We might even wonder why Jesus didn’t prevent the death of our loved ones if he has so much power.
Additionally, when our loved ones die and we are faced with the immediate reality of death, we might think that death is the end. Since we have only ever experienced life on earth, we tend not to give much thought at all to life in heaven. So, knowing that we will not see our loved ones again in this life might cause us to think that we will never see them again, despite knowing that the Bible says that we will see them again in heaven.
When we are tempted to doubt Jesus’ power over death and think that death is the end, Jesus gives us reassurance and hope. Jesus simply saying that he has power over death is one thing, but he also backed up his words with his actions. One of the ways he did this was by raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead.
Even though no one besides Jairus seemed to believe that Jesus could raise his daughter from the dead, Jesus proved them wrong. He entered Jairus’ house, took his daughter by the hand, and said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise” (Mark 5:41). And she arose.
This is not the only time that Jesus raised someone from the dead. He later raised the widow of Nain’s son from the dead (Luke 7:11–17). He raised Mary and Martha’s brother, and his friend Lazarus from the dead not long before his own death (John 11:1–41). And, in the greatest raising of all, Jesus raised himself from the dead on the third day after his death.
If Jesus had not risen from the dead, we would have no hope. If death had kept its hold on Jesus and kept him in the ground, then that would mean he isn’t God. And if Jesus wasn’t God, then he would not have paid the price for our sins. But Jesus did rise from dead, and by his resurrection, he proved he is God and defeated death, giving us hope.
But it was not just physical death that Jesus saved us from. He also saved us from two other kinds of death: spiritual death and eternal death. We are all by nature sinful, meaning that we were spiritually dead from the moment we were conceived and could only sin all the time. Even our good deeds were like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:4). Because of the sins we committed, we rightfully deserved to suffer for all eternity in the fires of hell. We couldn’t escape this fate on our own, because we couldn’t choose to do good, let alone choose to believe in Jesus. However, on the cross, Jesus paid the price for all of our sins so that we will not enter eternal death in hell when we physically die, but eternal life in heaven. Additionally, he applied his perfect life to us so that God the Father no longer sees us as his enemies who deserve eternal death in hell, but as his own dear children who deserve eternal life in heaven. So that this reality can be ours, Jesus brought us to faith through his Word and Sacraments. In the waters of Holy Baptism, our sinful natures were drowned, and our new selves rose up.
Through Baptism, Jesus has already raised us from the dead, making us a part of the saints triumphant, even though we have yet to physically die. Jesus has made us members of his holy body, as he does with all believers. Therefore, our believing loved ones who are already sleeping are not so very far away from us because we are all united in Jesus. Now, whenever we pray to God, join together in praising him, or receive his body and blood at his holy table in his Supper, we are joining in praying, praising, and feasting with the saints triumphant who are already sleeping.
Since Jesus defeated death in all of its forms, the death of the body is no longer the end for those who believe in him, but a peaceful sleep. Death is no different than falling to sleep peacefully in our beds. When our bodies enter the peaceful sleep of death, our souls will be with Jesus in heaven. Then, on the Last Day, the sure hope that we have in Christ will come to pass. When Jesus returns, he will wake all those who believe in him from their peaceful sleep, which include us and our loved ones who are already sleeping, and will reunite our bodies with our souls. But our bodies will not be the imperfect bodies we died in. They will be perfected, and we will never experience the sufferings of this world ever again. Then, Jesus will take all believers in him to heaven—all the saints—to live with him for all eternity.
Those who have no hope do not believe that this could possibly be true. To them, the sure hope that we will live again is a misguided and empty attempt to make death seem less scary. However, this sure hope is a reality for those who die in Christ. Jesus has conquered death by his innocent death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. Because Jesus has conquered death, we will not die, but live. Because Jesus has conquered death, we have hope.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from painting by Gabriel von Max, 1878)
The Resurrection of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad exordium & sermon
Festival exordium:
The miracle-worker died, but his followers refused to accept it. “He will rise again!” they said. So they waited. They waited one day. Then two. On the third day, nothing happened. Weeks passed, then months. Then more than a year and a half had gone by. Finally the funeral home obtained a court order and buried the man’s body.
This actually happened in South Africa. A pastor who claimed to be able to heal the sick, and who reportedly predicted his own resurrection, stayed dead. He did not have the power he thought he had or said he had.
There is only one Man who predicted His own resurrection and then did it. We are gathered here today to hear His Word and sing His praises. Even though He had done countless miracles and even raised several people from the dead, His closest disciples did not believe He would rise. The eleven disciples went into hiding after He was crucified and buried. The women made plans to return to His tomb after the Sabbath to anoint His dead body with more spices.
The only ones who seemed to take Jesus’ prediction seriously were the chief priests and Pharisees. They went to Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’” Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away” (Mat. 27:63-64). All this accomplished was putting witnesses at the tomb—the soldiers—who watched an angel descend from heaven and roll away the stone revealing an empty tomb. They reported what they saw to the chief priests, who, instead of hearing what they said, paid them to tell a lie (28:11-15).
But the resurrection of Jesus is no lie. It happened just as Jesus said it would, on the third day after His death. He did break the chains of death. He did emerge victorious. He did end the terrible reign of death brought into the world by Adam’s sin. He did it for the doubters, for the weak, for the faithless, for sinners—for you and me.
In thankfulness and joy, let us rise to sing hymn #348, “He Is Arisen! Glorious Word!”
He is arisen! Glorious Word!
Now reconciled is God, my Lord;
The gates of heaven are open.
My Jesus died triumphantly,
And Satan’s arrows broken lie,
Destroyed hell’s direst weapon.
O hear
What cheer!
Christ victorious
Riseth glorious,
Life He giveth—
He was dead, but see, He liveth!
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Sermon text: St. Mark 16:1-8
In Christ Jesus, who was not in the tomb on Easter morning, but who is here with us to bless us, dear fellow redeemed:
Many people claim to have seen angels. Some of them say angels appeared when they were in great distress or sorrow and brought them comfort. Others report messages spoken to them by the angels, special messages from God. The problem is, sometimes those messages do not agree with what the Bible says. So which is more reliable: a special visit from an angel or the Word of God?
If someone is given a message by a holy angel, it will not contradict the Word of God. The angels who serve God are without sin; they only tell the truth. So if an angel speaks a message that conflicts with the Word of God, it is not a holy angel. St. Paul writes that “even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2Co. 11:14). Many prominent false teachers in history claim to have been visited by angels who gave them their new teachings. But these were not holy angels. They were the devil or demons coming in disguise.
So how can we know that the angel who spoke to the women at Jesus’ tomb was really sent by God? How can we be sure that it wasn’t just something they imagined in their state of emotional turmoil and sorrow? When the women went to Jesus’ tomb early Sunday morning, they went there expecting to find a dead man—if they could roll away the stone from the entrance to get to Him.
Instead, they looked up and saw that the stone had already been rolled away. That was strange. And when they cautiously peaked inside, they did not see the body of Jesus. They saw a young man wearing a long, white robe—an angel. Seeing their distress and alarm, the angel told them there was no need to fear. Why? There was no need to fear because Jesus had done everything He said He would do.
The angel didn’t tell them anything new. Jesus had told His disciples multiple times that He would go to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and on the third day rise again. And when they were in Jerusalem the night of His arrest, He told His disciples that they would all desert Him, but after He was raised up, He would go before them to Galilee (Mar. 14:27-28). Now the angel was saying the same thing: Jesus “was crucified. He is risen!… He is going before you into Galilee… as He said to you.”
That is the message the women took back to the disciples. The appearance of the angel was surprising, but the words he spoke should not have been surprising. He simply reminded them what they had already heard. That’s what the holy angels do. They proclaim the promises of God. Isn’t that what the angels did the night of Jesus’ birth? They proclaimed the fulfillment of God’s promise: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luk. 2:11).
You can be sure that if an angel appears to you and speaks a message that does not agree with the Bible’s teaching, it is not an angel of God. St. Paul said that there are some who “want to distort the gospel of Christ.” Then he adds, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:7-8). But how can we know that the Gospel is true? Or how can we be sure we have the right Gospel?
That topic came up in a conversation I had with a Mormon man. Before I knew his religious background, he asked me a question that every Lutheran pastor loves to hear, “What is the Gospel?” But I could tell as I explained the Gospel to him that he wasn’t convinced. It was a “gotcha question.” He wanted to make the point that if all of the different denominations of Christians had different understandings of the Gospel, none of us could be certain we had the right one. That’s why we needed a modern-day prophet to give the correct interpretation—a prophet like Joseph Smith (who, incidentally, claimed to get his special revelations from an “angel”).
But we can know the Gospel from the Bible and be certain that we have the true Gospel. The angel sitting in that tomb couldn’t have said it more plainly: Jesus “was crucified. He is risen!” That is the good news. That is the Gospel. A dead man rose from the dead! But it wasn’t just any dead man. It was a dead man who claimed to be the Son of God. It was a dead man who predicted that everything would happen just as it happened. It was a dead man who said that His victory over death would be your victory, that His life would be your life.
Jesus’ resurrection verified everything He ever said. He could have said what He did, died on the cross, and never been seen or heard from again. That would have proven that He was nothing more than a big talker, or that He was delusional. But that is not what happened. He did rise from the dead. We believe it not just because an angel said it happened. We believe it because Jesus showed Himself alive to the women later that morning, to His disciples on numerous occasions, and at one time to more than five hundred of His followers (1Co. 15:6). He talked with them, ate with them, and definitively proved that He is who He said—the Son of God in the flesh.
The disciples wrote down what they saw and heard, so that everyone could learn about Jesus and what He had done. Jesus hadn’t just accomplished something for His time. He had done something for all time. His apostle John wrote near the end of His Gospel account: “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (Joh. 20:31).
Our faith in Jesus is not a special feeling we have about Him. It is not a decision we made when considering various faith systems. Our faith in Jesus is a confidence worked in us by God the Holy Spirit through the message of His Gospel. It is a confidence that because Jesus rose from the dead, we will rise. Because He lives forever, we will live forever. We know how ridiculous and impossible it sounds that a severely beaten and crucified man should rise from the dead a couple days later, alive and well, walking around and visiting with people all over the place.
But this was not just any man. This was God-in-the-flesh who won the victory for you. He went to the cross and crushed the devil’s head by paying for your sins. And He conquered death by coming alive on the very day He said He would. Sin, devil, and death could not stop Him. They met an Enemy who had them shaking in their boots.
This is the Lord and Savior who joined Himself to your flesh, so that He could do everything for you that you couldn’t do. And He has joined Himself to you in an even more personal way. He made you a member of His holy body through your Baptism into Him, cleansing you of your sins and covering you in His righteousness. And He feeds you and fills you with His life by giving you His immortal body and blood in His holy Supper. He graciously comes to you and me through His Word and Sacraments, so that even though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly He renews us day by day (2Co. 4:16).
The Bible says that the angels are amazed by the gracious care God has for us. The gifts the Holy Spirit gives us through the Gospel are “things into which angels long to look” (1Pe. 1:12). So we do not need to wait for a special visit from an angel to know that God loves us. We do not need to seek comfort in our grief from strange coincidences, appearances of certain animals, or from other signs that seem to convey messages from those who are now dead.
We need the Gospel. We need to hear the message again and again that our sins are forgiven, that eternal life is ours through faith in Jesus, and that He will raise our bodies and the bodies of all our loved ones from the dead when He comes again in glory. That is the message God sent His holy angels to proclaim when His Son entered this world and when He rose in triumph out of the dark tomb.
And that is the message we still proclaim today and every day. We want our family, our friends, and even our enemies to hear the saving truth that Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
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)