The Second Sunday after Michaelmas (Trinity 20) – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Kings 18:1-12
In Christ Jesus, who joined Himself to us by taking on our flesh, and who joins us to Him through Holy Baptism, so that all that is ours became His, and all that is His became ours, dear fellow redeemed:
The best way to teach people the value of marriage is to value your marriage. Valuing your marriage means treating your spouse with love and respect, being willing to forgive when you are wronged, and doing the hard work of communication when you’d rather just play the blame game. This has a powerful influence on children and others who witness what a healthy marriage looks like.
When the opposite happens, when spouses run each other down, refuse to forgive, stop communicating, and possibly even get divorced, this also has a powerful influence. You have probably heard the statistics that children of divorced parents are significantly more likely to get divorced themselves later in life. These patterns certainly can be broken, but it is more difficult to see the way forward to a healthy relationship for those who have witnessed the opposite.
The same goes for transmitting our faith. The degree that we value what we have received by the grace of God will be shown by the priority it has in our life. Do our children, our classmates, our co-workers, our neighbors hear us speak about the comfort and hope we have in Christ? Do we keep the Word in our homes through prayer and family devotions? Do we plan everything else in our schedule around the Divine Service, giving first place to God’s Word and Sacraments?
I think each of us would acknowledge that what Jesus has done has not always been first place in our lives. We have spoken and acted in ways that are not at all consistent with the Christian faith. We have made money, or popularity, or fun and games the most important thing. We have relegated our Christian faith to an hour or two each week, easily picked up and easily set aside again.
The way we approach the faith as adults has a huge influence on the way our children will approach it when they are adults. The more important it is to us, the more important it will be to them. We can carry a lot of guilt over this because we never do as much to encourage the faith in our families as we know we should. St. Paul expressed this struggle in Romans 7: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (v. 19).
Our comfort is knowing that Jesus forgives all our failures in the past and all our weaknesses in the present. Despite our faults, He still calls us each day to try again, try harder, and pray unceasingly for His help and strength. We also have the comfort of knowing that God loves our family members even more than we do, and He does not forget them. We might feel as though we have made a mess of everything in our homes, but God still works all things for good (Rom. 8:28).
Today’s reading gives us an example of the powerful grace of God. We are introduced to Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah. King Ahaz was anything but a good father. He was a spiritual man, but it was the wrong spirit. He did not worship the LORD, the true God. He worshipped the gods of the heathen nations around Judah. He set up images of the Baals, made sacrifices in the high places, and closed up the doors of the temple. He even followed the pagan practice of offering some of his sons as burnt offerings to try to appease the gods (1Chr. 28).
Because of the grievous sins of Ahaz, “the LORD humbled Judah…, for he had made Judah act sinfully and had been very unfaithful to the LORD” (28:19). When he died, he was not given an honorable burial with the previous kings of Judah since he had brought such trouble on the land and its people.
So then at age twenty-five, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz began to reign. He took a very different course than his father, possibly because of the influence of his mother who is named in today’s reading—Abi the daughter of Zechariah. Wherever the good influence came from, Hezekiah “did what was right in the eyes of the LORD” by undoing all that his father had done wrong. “He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah.” Then he did something even more extreme: “he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it.”
That bronze serpent was some 700 years old at this time, and it was made by Moses himself! When initially the people looked up to it on a pole, trusting in the LORD’s promise, they were spared from the poisonous serpents that afflicted them (Num. 21:9). This was a significant piece of Israel’s history, but it had become an object of their worship, so Hezekiah destroyed it. Can you imagine destroying a significant artifact from the 1300s because it was leading people astray? How about a precious family heirloom, or another item of great value? If you think about the most important object you possess, would you destroy it out of devotion to the LORD?
Hezekiah made it clear that nothing would get in the way of the worship of the true God. Our reading says, “He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the LORD.” The word translated, “held fast,” is the same word we find with the institution of marriage in Genesis 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
This is how Hezekiah “held fast” to the LORD: like a man and his wife “hold fast” to each other. Hezekiah did what was right by the LORD; he avoided temptations to sin; he trusted the LORD and did not depart from following Him; he did the opposite of the Israelites to the north who were conquered by the Assyrians—he listened to and obeyed the LORD.
This is how each one of us should be toward God. We hold fast to Him by respecting, honoring, and trusting Him in all things. We avoid everything that could tempt us away from Him. We look for help, healing, and salvation nowhere else than from Him. We acknowledge that there is no lasting love, no happiness, no life apart from Him.
The picture of a marriage is exactly how St. Paul describes our connection to Christ. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27). This tells us that all that we were in our wickedness and weakness, Jesus has covered in His perfect righteousness.
Imagine a highly-regarded, virtuous, successful man choosing for his bride a lady with a bad reputation, no possessions, and no prospects for a productive future. That is what Jesus did by taking on our human flesh and offering up His perfect life in payment for all our sin. The righteous One gave Himself for us unrighteous ones, the holy One for the unholy. He took all our sins on Himself and gave us His perfect record of keeping God’s Law. He did this, so we might be as He is and live forever with Him in His heavenly kingdom.
Today’s Holy Gospel speaks about our invitation to the wedding feast of the King’s Son (Mat. 22:1-14). This is the invitation to believe in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit and to receive His heavenly and eternal riches. But some respond to the invitation with disinterest—they think they have better things to do. Others react with violence and attack the servants who bring the invitation to them. Still others want to attend the feast on their own terms, wearing their own righteousness, which is a great insult to the merciful and gracious King.
But despite our sins, the invitation to join the wedding feast still comes to us. We sit down at this feast each time we hear the Word of our Lord and receive the rich food of His body and blood for the remission of our sins. His Word and Sacraments are how, like a good husband, our Savior Jesus serves us. He does not treat us as our sins against Him deserve.
Though we have often been unfaithful to Him and His Word and pursued other priorities to the detriment of our faith, our relationships, and our homes, He forgives every one of these sins. He has mercy on us in our weakness; He treats us with patience and love; He communicates clearly and regularly His commitment to us. He perfectly does His part to keep His marriage with the Church healthy and strong.
His willingness to serve and sacrifice is what makes us want to Hold Fast to the Lord. Like a faithful bride, we love Him, we submit to His authority, and we want to please Him by all that we think, say, and do. We seek no other Bridegroom, no other Savior. No one could ever love us so well and care for us as perfectly as He does.
This was Hezekiah’s confidence. “He trusted in the LORD” and “held fast” to Him, and the people of Judah were blessed by his faithfulness. When we do the same by the grace of God, our marriages, our homes, and our communities are likewise blessed. Then it is said of us as it was said of Hezekiah: “And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered.”
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 “Healing the Blind Near Jericho” by a Netherlands artist in the 1470s)
The Second Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 29:13-30
In Christ Jesus, who walked a lonely road and suffered for our griefs, sorrows, and sins, so we would be assured of His help in our trials, dear fellow redeemed:
Jacob didn’t know—he couldn’t have known—that when he traveled to Haran, he was walking right into a great web, a terrible sticky web. He would soon find himself wrapped up in such cares and troubles that he wondered if he would ever be free again. When he first made contact with his mother’s relatives, he was filled with joy. He was blissfully unaware that a spider watched his every move, a spider watching, waiting, scheming. That spider was Laban, his mother’s brother, his own uncle.
Jacob went there because his mother wanted to save him from the wrath of his brother Esau after Jacob received the family blessing instead of Esau. Jacob’s parents sent him to find a wife among his relatives. As he set off on his journey toward Haran, he stopped for the night at a place called Luz. This was in the same area where the LORD appeared to Abram when he first arrived in the land of Canaan. As Jacob slept, he dreamed about a ladder reaching to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it.
And the LORD spoke to him, promising that his offspring would be “like the dust of the earth,” and that “all the families of the earth [would] be blessed” through him (Gen. 28:14). “Behold, I am with you,” said the LORD, “and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land” (v. 15). They were wonderful promises, but at the present Jacob had nothing. He had no wife, no home, and no great possessions. When he got to Haran, he was just poor Jacob trying to find a wife.
As we heard in today’s lesson, his uncle Laban received him warmly. He “embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house.” Jacob couldn’t have been happier, and he gladly helped his uncle however he could. Laban recognized his good work ethic and thought it would be useful to keep Jacob around for a while. “Tell me, what shall your wages be?” asked Laban. Jacob had come to his uncle’s place for a very specific purpose, and of Laban’s two daughters, one of them caught his eye. He said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
Now do you suppose Rachel was flattered and excited about this, or somewhat offended? In our culture, marriages are not arranged by the parents. We expect marriages to be by the free and mutual consent of a man and a woman—with no business strings attached. The culture in Haran was different. There it seems that the father had the authority to give a daughter in marriage to whomever he wanted, and his daughter did not question that decision.
This did not automatically mean the marriage would be unhappy. Many cultures around the world still have arranged marriages. Studies have shown that these marriages may even last longer than marriages for love. While we would hardly adopt this approach in our families, it is very important for Christian parents to approve of the spouses their children decide to marry. When this does not happen, there are bumpy roads ahead!
As far as we can tell, Rachel was okay with the arrangement to marry Jacob. He certainly loved her. In a line too mushy for middle school boys, we are told that the seven years Jacob served for Rachel “seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.” The time couldn’t go fast enough for Jacob, but it went too fast for Laban.
You see, Laban saw what kind of worker he had in Jacob. And that old spider thought to himself, “If I spin a little deception, what can Jacob do about it? He came here with nothing. He has no one to stand up for him. I know how I can keep him under my thumb for a while longer….” So he put his older daughter Leah in the marriage bed instead of Rachel and arranged things so that Jacob would not know until after they had come together. “You can have Rachel, too,” said Laban, “IF you serve me for seven more years.”
That’s how we arrive at a godly man with two wives, sisters, with the younger one favored over the older one and making sure big sister knew it. And a deceitful father-in-law who treated his son-in-law like a slave. And Jacob not knowing who he could trust and wondering how and when he would ever get back home.
There is much unhappiness in this saga. This isn’t the way Jacob imagined it when he saw the angels of God going up and down the ladder from heaven and heard the LORD’s promises. This isn’t the way he imagined it when his uncle first welcomed him to Haran. This isn’t the way he imagined it when he prepared to marry the woman he loved. Nothing had gone the way he planned.
For these reasons, Jacob is a helpful example for us—because each of us here has also had to go through troubles and trials that we did not anticipate, had to adjust our plans because life did not go like we imagined. Maybe like Jacob, you fell deeply in love with someone and could only see happiness ahead, but then something happened to change the relationship, and the future you saw so clearly faded. Maybe you thought marriage would be easy, but it tested you to your very limits. Maybe you found yourself under your boss’s thumb and didn’t know how to get away or didn’t think you could afford to.
When we have been hurt, sometimes we draw inside ourselves and put up a hard shell to try to protect ourselves from the pain. Sometimes we lash out at the person who hurt us or at innocent bystanders who caught us at just the wrong time. Sometimes we let our anger build up inside and maybe even plot our revenge, hoping that the person who hurt us, someday, somehow, will learn how it feels.
This bitterness can happen in a marriage. It can happen between siblings. It can happen between a parent and a child. It can happen with friends and co-workers and neighbors. The devil wants this to happen. He wants to break up marriages and families and friendships. He wants us to think selfishly, to dwell on our hurts, to never forget a wrong, and to quickly give up on something that God intended for our good.
God gives marriage, family, and friendship for our good. The reason these things go haywire is not because He fails us but because we are sinners. Each one of us brings sin into our marriages, our families, and our friendships. The neighbors who should concern us the most, the ones who are closest to us—even in our own home—these are the ones who have often gotten the worst of our sinning. They have been on the receiving end of our prideful behavior, our hurtful words, our selfish actions. They have seen us behave less like faithful Jacob and more like deceitful Laban.
Where do we take the pain that others have caused us, the deep hurts from broken promises, failed expectations, shattered dreams? Where do we take the guilt for our own mistakes and failures, the recognition that we have not been for others what we should have been? We take all this guilt and shame and pain to the One who came to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows (Isa. 53:4).
Jacob looked to this One also, which is how he was sustained in his troubles. Jacob believed that a Savior was coming, even from his own line. And in a strange twist that only God could see, this Savior did not come as Jacob expected from his union with Rachel. The Savior came from his union with Leah! God knows how to work blessings even out of times of trial. We have another example of this in the Holy Gospel for today, where for His first public sign Jesus turned water into wine to bring joy to a marriage celebration (Joh. 2:1-11).
He still does that now. No matter what you have gone through in your marriage, your family, and your friendships—or what you are still going through—Jesus brings you His blessings. He is present here today to forgive you the sins you have committed against those He called you to care for. He is here to take the burdens of your guilt about the past, your struggles in the present, and your worries about the future. He picks you up and covers you in His mercy and grace as you listen to His promises and prepare to receive His body and blood given and shed for you. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,” He says, “and I will give you rest” (Mat. 11:28).
Your Savior Sees Your Troubles. Even before you were born, He saw you and what you would go through in your life. It was for you that He endured every sort of trouble on earth and for you that He went to the cross. No trial that you have to face is stronger than His love for you. There are more blessings ahead for you because He is with you.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from a work by a 10th century monk)
The First Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 27:1-19
In Christ Jesus, Himself a Child within an earthly home, who with heart still undefiled did to manhood come (ELH #187, v. 2), so that His righteous life would be credited to us, dear fellow redeemed:
If you are from a family of more than one child, which one of you was the favorite? The older children can say, “Mom and Dad were so happy with us that they thought they would have more kids… but it didn’t work out like they hoped.” The younger ones can say, “Dad and Mom kept hoping for something better until they got to us.” These comments are all made in good fun. As much as we might try to get our parents to name their favorites, we know this would not be helpful to anyone.
Today’s reading gives us a clear example of favoritism in a family and the difficulties it caused. We heard last week how Isaac and Rebekah were unable to have children until twenty years into their marriage when God blessed them with twin sons. Carrying twins would be challenging enough, but in Rebekah’s case, her boys struggled inside her. It caused her such discomfort and pain that “she went to inquire of the LORD” (Gen. 25:22), probably through a prophet. She received this response: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger” (v. 23).
When her sons were born, the first baby was all red and his body was like a hairy cloak. He was called “Esau,” a name like the Hebrew word for “red.” The second baby came out hanging on to his brother’s heel, so he received the name “Jacob,” a name that means “heel grabber.” As they grew older, rough-and-tumble Esau, an outdoorsman and hunter, was favored by his father, while mild-mannered Jacob who stayed close to home was favored by his mother.
It is clear that the question of who was to be the chief heir of the family was on each of their minds. Esau was in the position of inheritance as the firstborn, but Rebekah could not forget the LORD’s prophecy about how “the older shall serve the younger.” Once when Esau returned home exhausted, he demanded that Jacob give him some of the stew he had prepared. Jacob sensing an opportunity said, “Sell me your birthright now” (v. 31). In other words, give up the right of the firstborn. And Esau replied, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” (v. 32). So Esau gave up his birthright for a bowl of stew, so little did he regard the promise of inheritance and of the coming Savior.
But it seems that Isaac was not convinced that Rebekah understood the prophecy in the right way. Perhaps through the struggle in her womb, thought Isaac, the younger Esau had prevailed and passed by his brother Jacob. Even by appearance, Esau was obviously the stronger of the two, and the prophecy said, “the one shall be stronger than the other.” Rebekah remained convinced that the son born last should be regarded as the first. Today’s reading shows us that the question had not been settled between husband and wife.
Isaac made it known to Esau that he intended to give him the official family blessing. Esau would inherit the largest portion. Esau would be the leader of the clan. Esau would be the heir of the promise. Rebekah overheard that conversation and quickly made a plan. Jacob would pretend to be Esau in order to receive his father’s blessing. The reason she thought they could pull it off is because Isaac in his old age had become nearly blind. Rebekah justified these actions by holding to the Word she had heard from the LORD, that the younger should prevail.
So Jacob dressed in Esau’s clothes, he covered his hands and neck with goat skin so his skin would seem rough like Esau’s, and he brought food for his father like the food Esau often prepared. And as crazy as the plan seemed, it actually worked. Despite some suspicions, Isaac bestowed the family blessing on Jacob including these words, “Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!” (27:29). So Jacob received the blessing as the LORD intended. Everything turned out well! Except for the fact that Esau now hated his brother and made plans to kill him when their father died (v. 41).
Nobody comes out of this account looking very righteous. Isaac ignored or explained away the prophecy his wife received. Rebekah schemed to deceive her husband. Esau showed in various ways his rejection of God’s will. Jacob lied several times to his father. Does it surprise you to learn these things about Isaac and Jacob, two of the prominent fathers of the faith in Old Testament times?
What we find in the household of Isaac and Rebekah is not so different from what could be found in our own homes. Perhaps the sins of our household don’t look exactly like theirs, but sins are certainly there. In our homes, husband and wife do not always get along. They do not always willingly and humbly serve one another. Sometimes they get angry with each other and speak harshly to each other. Children do not always obey their parents. They seek to deceive them, they lie to them, and they speak disrespectfully to them. Siblings fight with one another, hurt each other, possibly even express hatred toward one another wishing that their brother or sister were dead.
You know the sins of your own household. You know the part you played in the conflicts from your youth to the present day. You know that you and your family are not as righteous as you would like people to think. We can be grateful that the details of our home life are not recorded in the pages of Scripture for everyone to read like Isaac’s and Rebekah’s were. But their family conflicts are not included to give us something interesting to read and make judgments about. Their family conflicts are included because they relate directly to God’s promise that a Savior would come through their line.
Even in this household of sinners, through these flawed and selfish individuals, God kept His promise. He chose them by grace to carry the seed that would one day take shape in the womb of a woman named Mary. God does great things even in our own sinful homes. He gives us opportunities each day for humble service to one another, opportunities to forgive each other’s wrongs, opportunities to encourage one another in the faith. We are joined to the members of our family by blood, but more importantly, we are—each of us—part of the body of Christ through the cleansing of His blood.
In all of human history, there has only been one perfect Child. We hear about Him today going to church with His parents in Jerusalem. And though we might wonder why He didn’t tell His parents where He would be as they prepared to leave the city, He did not try to deceive them. He had no bad intentions. When they located Him on the third day in the temple, He explained with some surprise, “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” (Luk. 2:49).
They did not understand what He was saying, which I’m sure happened over and over again in His conversations with them. But the perfect Jesus did not become frustrated with His sinful parents. He submitted to their earthly authority, and in so doing, He perfectly fulfilled the Fourth Commandment: “Honor your father and your mother that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.”
Jesus kept that command for you, so that the times you disobeyed or disrespected your parents, your teachers, your bosses, and every other earthly authority—so that these times are covered by His righteousness. Jesus was born under God’s Law to redeem you from your breaking of His Law (Gal. 4:4-5). He took all the sins you have done as a child, as a sibling, as a spouse, as a parent, and He paid the price in full to save you from the wrath of God.
And since God is not angry with you for our sins, neither should you be angry with anyone else. Just because Esau did not get what he wanted, does not mean he had the right to hate his brother. Even Isaac when he learned he had been deceived by Rebekah and Jacob did not disown his wife and son. He forgave them and turned these concerns over to his Savior God, who knows how to work all things—even hurtful and dishonest things—for good.
Perhaps Isaac also realized that his favoritism toward Esau had clouded his judgment. Obvious favoritism in a family is never beneficial. The Bible says multiple times that “God shows no partiality” (Act. 10:34), and the same should be said for a father and a mother. When God grants children to Christian husband and wife, He intends that each child be loved, provided for, and prayed for just the same. I remember hearing about a family with multiple children who admitted after their parents’ deaths that each one thought he or she was the favorite. Each child thought this, which shows how dearly their parents loved each one.
In every station of our life, we want to love the people around us whom God has given us to love. When we fall short in our interactions and our responsibilities, we take comfort that we are loved with a perfect love. We are loved and forgiven by our heavenly Father who holds no grudge against us for past wrongs and has no plan to punish us in the future. He sent His perfect Son, the perfect Child of Mary, to redeem all the children of the world, including imperfect ones like you and me.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Jesus Among the Doctors” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Second Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Romans 12:6-16
In Christ Jesus, from whom all blessings flow to His holy bride, the Church of all believers, dear fellow redeemed:
I was surprised to learn that there are twelve couples in our parish who will celebrate fifty or more years of marriage this year. Thanks be to God for this! It is an example and an encouragement to the rest of us, as we live in a culture that places less and less value on marriage. I wish I had compiled these anniversary lists sooner, since there would have been more couples to recognize in years past.
When married couples reach their seventieth or seventy-fifth anniversary, that seems to be high enough for an article in the local newspaper. And the question is always asked, “How did you make it work for this long?” Or, “What advice do you have for other married couples?” The advice is often something like: “Never go to bed angry.” “Communicate with one another.” “Compliment each other every day.” And that is all good advice.
The couples among us who have been married a long time would agree that marriage takes work—and sometimes very hard work. But I think they would also acknowledge that it wasn’t so much their “being good at marriage” that got them through. It was the grace of God covering over their faults and forgiving their sins that brought them to this point.
This is what we emphasize at our marriage ceremonies, an emphasis that you won’t hear in many other places. We keep the focus on Jesus, and the love He has for us. For many others, the focus is only on the love the married couple has for one another. In some cases this mutual love is treated as the foundation of the marriage, and the vows are accordingly changed from “until death parts us,” to “as long as we both love each other.” That’s a problem, because the love one might have for another is not a constant. It is changeable, and it often does change in a marriage.
The Epistle lesson before us today is not specifically a marriage reading. It is instruction and encouragement to be who we already are in Christ. The reason we need the instruction is because sin clings to us, and we continue to think, say, and do things that are not right. We need to be taught what is right before God. We need to learn how He wants us to be as His people.
Marriage and family are wonderful ways to put these teachings into practice. What marriage wouldn’t benefit from outdoing “one another in showing honor,” or being “patient in tribulation,” or never being “wise in your own sight”? And think of how peaceful a home would be where siblings “love one another with brotherly affection,” where they “live in harmony with one another,” where none are “haughty, but associate with the lowly.”
The home is the testing place to see whether we will succeed outside the home. If a child does not respect his parents, what other authority will he respect? If siblings do not learn to get along, who else will they get along with? If Mom and Dad don’t model love and sacrifice in their marriage, how likely will their children learn these things for future relationships outside the home? So much depends on the home!
But the home is not perfect—no home is. I expect there is much you are thankful for about the home you grew up in, especially if it was a Christian home. But you also remember hard times, arguments, fights, impatience, anger. And you probably weren’t an innocent bystander in all of that. You remember the part you played in that discord. You remember your sins.
The home Jesus grew up in was no different. Probably Joseph and Mary worried about money like most couples do. I’m sure their tempers got short. You can imagine how Mary fretted when they lost track of their twelve-year-old Son in Jerusalem. When they finally found Him in the temple, Mary blurted out, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress” (Luk. 2:48). We see more worrying from Mary in today’s Holy Gospel when she brought the problem of a wine shortage to Jesus at a wedding they attended.
But one thing was different about the home of Mary and Joseph that made it like no other home. Jesus was different. He actually was an innocent bystander. He did not contribute in any way to the sin of the household. He was perfect. He submitted to the authority of Mary and Joseph (Luk. 2:51). He showed perfect love toward them and the neighbors around Him, and they noticed. The evangelist Luke writes that “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (2:52).
That perfect life was for you, to cover over all your transgressions and unkindnesses toward the people God placed in your life to love. Everything in today’s reading that you fall short of time and again, Jesus fulfilled. He was genuine in His love. He held fast to what was good. He loved and honored all the people around Him. He was not slothful in zeal; He was fervent in spirit; He perfectly served the Lord God. He rejoiced in hope; He was patient in tribulation; He was constant in prayer. He was humble, kind, gracious, and helpful in the best possible ways.
This perfect life that Jesus lived, He freely hands over to you. Like a husband and wife who agree to share everything with each other, Jesus says, “Everything that is Mine is yours.” In fact, marriage is exactly the picture God uses to explain what His Son did for you. But it is not like our marriages, which we enter into by mutual consent as equals. The union between Jesus and His bride the Church was totally by His prerogative, and it was nowhere near balanced like we expect the marriage relationship to be.
Jesus, the perfect Bridegroom, chose for His bride the world of sinners. The only-begotten Son of God, God from all eternity, chose to join Himself to our human flesh and become a Man, so that He could make everything that is ours His, and everything that is His ours. He accepted our pride, our anger, our bitterness, and our self-centeredness. He accepted our unkind words, our manipulative actions, our unfaithfulness, and our lies. He let all of our sins be placed on Himself as though He were the straying spouse, as though all the stains of our wrong-doing belonged on Him.
And in return, He gave us what is His. He gave us His perfect obedience to His Father, His kind actions, His gracious words, His righteous thoughts. He gave us His eternal life, His everlasting peace, His heavenly kingdom. All that He accomplished by His holy life and His sacrificial death on the cross, He poured over us in Baptism (Eph. 5:26).
He joined His life to yours at your Baptism. There He promised to remain faithful to you at all times and in all situations—“for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish.” But not until death parts you, because death cannot part you from your Bridegroom who rose in victory over your death and lives forevermore. By faith, you cling to Him. You trust that He will not break His baptismal vow to you no matter what you have to face in your marriage, in your home, or in your life.
Jesus our Bridegroom is perfectly true. Our side of things is the side that is less certain. Like a discontent spouse, sometimes we try to blame Jesus for not doing more for us, for not addressing our wants and needs, for not making us happier. But Jesus hasn’t changed toward us. It is we who change toward Him. It is our love for Him that falters. It is our confidence and trust in Him that are lacking.
When things get bad for us it is because we get this verse backward. Instead of “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good,” we often abhor what is good and hold fast to what is evil. That’s when we have problems with Jesus. We ignore His powerful Word, while giving way to our own bitter thoughts and sinful actions. We forget His love, while wallowing in self-pity.
But if we are going to “Hold Fast to What Is Good,” there is no other way to do this than to hold fast to Jesus, because it is Jesus who is good, whose mercy endures forever. The word for “holding fast” is the same word that Jesus used when quoting from Genesis 2: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Mat. 19:5). Or if you prefer the old translation, “a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife.”
We “hold fast” to Jesus, we “cleave” to Him, by gladly hearing and learning His Word, and trusting that He is here to bless us through the means of grace He instituted for His Church. We should have no doubts about what His Word can do. If it could turn water into wine and bring gladness to a wedding at Cana long ago, it can change bitterness to love, curses into blessings, and sorrows into joys in our hearts and in our homes.
So whether you are married or single, whether you are looking forward with excitement to unknown joys and challenges, or looking back with sober reflection and contentment, remember that Jesus’ vow toward you has not changed. He joined Himself to you and will never leave you. He is your salvation, your comfort, your strength.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from Redeemer Lutheran Church stained glass)
Midweek Lent – Pr. Faugstad homily
Text: St. John 19:25-27
In Christ Jesus, who invites you to cast all your troubles, anxieties, and pains upon Him because He cares for you (1Pe. 5:7), dear fellow redeemed:
She gave birth to Him at Bethlehem in those humble circumstances. She nursed Him and tended to His needs. She saw Him crawl and take His first steps. But there were reminders that Jesus was no ordinary boy. Shepherds came to visit the night of His birth talking about a multitude of angels in the sky. Simeon and Anna spoke prophetic words about Him in the temple. Strange men from the East came and presented their gifts. Jesus unexpectedly went off on His own as a twelve-year-old explaining that He had to be in His Father’s house. All these things Mary treasured up in her heart and pondered them.
She watched Jesus grow “in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luk. 2:52). She was there in Cana when Jesus performed His first sign by turning water into wine. She saw Him heal the sick and the crippled and cast out demons. She listened to His teaching which was at the same time simple and very profound. She did not always understand what Jesus said and did, but she loved her Son. She knew He was destined for great things.
But now Mary stood weeping at the cross listening to Jesus gasp for breath and watching the droplets of His blood fall one after another to the ground. Simeon in the temple had told her long before that this day would come. As he held the infant Jesus, he said, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also)” (Luk. 2:34-35). She didn’t understand it then, but she did now.
Some have said that this means Mary had to suffer along with Jesus, so that their combined suffering would atone for all sin. But Mary’s suffering was not for our redemption. Hers was the suffering of a mother for her Son—such a Son whose goodness and love never has and never could be equaled by another. Jesus was a perfect Son, and yet there He was on the cross. How agonizing this was for Mary!
Jesus saw her suffering even as He suffered under the weight of the world’s sin. It is a remarkable thing! First He prayed to His Father that those who crucified and blasphemed Him would be forgiven. Then He turned His attention to a no-name criminal who asked to be remembered when Jesus came into His kingdom. And now He looked with compassion upon His mother. What love fills the heart of Jesus! His concern was not for Himself. It was for those around Him. Even while He suffered unjustly, His concern was for all those whose sins put Him on the cross.
Jesus now looked to His mother, but not like a child who is scared and needs his mother’s comfort. His relationship to Mary was changed. Even after His resurrection, we are told of no direct interaction or conversation between the two of them. Mary would learn to think of Jesus less as her Son and more as her Savior.
That began with Jesus’ words to her regarding John, “Woman, behold, your son!” Mary would not be left without care and comfort after Jesus’ death. Jesus gave her another “son” to care for her, John, who described himself as “the disciple whom [Jesus] loved.” And to John, Jesus said, “Behold, your mother!” John listened. He took Mary to his own home and cared for her.
This is a beautiful picture of the Church. Even if we are left alone as far as our earthly family is concerned, in the Church we are never without family. Here Jesus gives others to encourage us and help bear our burdens (Gal. 6:2). Here He provides others to rejoice with us and weep with us (Rom. 12:15). The apostle Paul describes the Church as “the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10). Here in the Church are fathers for you and mothers. Here are sisters and brothers. You are not alone.
And Jesus is behind all of it. The Church is His body. Each one of us is a member of His body by faith. We were baptized into Him. Paul writes that “as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). We are covered in Jesus’ righteousness. Through Baptism, we were joined to His death and resurrection and now walk “in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). What this means is that Jesus animates us. He sends us toward a neighbor in need and helps us see them with eyes of compassion. He gets us moving, and He works through us.
That was even the case at the cross. The Word of Jesus moved John’s heart to willingly care for Mary, and His Word moved Mary’s heart to accept this change. Jesus did not leave them alone in the depths of their grief. He comforted them. He comforts you in the same way today. You might be here as one who has been cast aside by former friends, and you don’t know quite where you belong. You might be grieving the loss of someone you loved dearly, even years after their death. You might feel lonely and wonder if you really matter to anyone else.
Jesus sees you. He knows your pain like no one else can. He went to the cross carrying all the world’s pain, the world’s trouble, the world’s heartache. “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isa. 53:4). He carried His mother Mary’s griefs and sorrows. He carried yours too. Jesus understands the pain that you don’t even know how to put into words. And He knows how to set all wrongs right again.
The very thing that caused Mary so much grief—the suffering and death of her Son—was the solution to all sorrow and pain. Jesus gathered to Himself all that is evil in the world, everything that causes guilt and regret, everything that causes distress, and He poured out His holy blood to wash it all away. He died to atone for the wrongs others have done to you and the wrongs you have done to others. His holy blood cleanses you from all sin (1Jo. 1:7).
And Mary learned this. She pondered it and treasured it in her heart as all of us do too. She came to understand why Jesus had to suffer, why He had to give her to the care of another, why He had to die. It was because the world needed saving. It was because the world needed hope. It was because the world needed her Son just as much as she did.
The death of Jesus was the ending of her family as she knew it, but it was not the end of her connection to her Son. Jesus’ words the night before His death were a comfort to her just as they are to you and me and to all the members of His holy Church: “I will not leave you as orphans,” He said; “I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (Joh. 14:18-20).
Jesus has not forsaken us. He has saved us, and He is still with us. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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(picture from Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grunewald, c. 1510)