The Fourth Sunday in Lent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. John 6:1-15
In Christ Jesus, who came to give life to the world through His flesh and blood, dear fellow redeemed:
They had been free for one month. No longer were they under the harsh rule of the Egyptians. The LORD had led them out of Egypt by His servant Moses. He even opened up a path for them to walk through the Red Sea. But the people of Israel were dissatisfied. Their bellies growled with hunger, and they began to wish they were back in Egypt where at least they had something to eat. The LORD heard their cry; He had not forgotten His people. He said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not” (Exo. 16:4).
Every morning, there was dew around the camp. “And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground” (v. 14). The people were encouraged to gather as much of this as they could eat, but they were not to keep any until the next day. The exception to this was on Friday when they must gather twice as much, so that no collecting would be needed on the Sabbath day, the day of rest.
Whoever did not listen to the LORD and kept bread overnight any day but Friday, found that in the morning it had worms and stunk. This was to teach the people to rely on the LORD for food day after day. The people called the bread “manna,” which means, “what is it?” because they had never seen anything like it before. God gave them this bread for forty years until they came into the Promised Land of Canaan.
Nearly 1500 years later, the people of Israel followed Jesus into the wilderness by the Sea of Galilee. No one had ever done the signs He was doing; He healed the sick. No one had ever taught like He had; His teaching cut to the heart, but it also comforted. They were so focused on the things Jesus was doing that they had brought no provisions with them.
As the shadows lengthened, the twelve disciples came to Jesus and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves” (Mat. 14:15). Jesus had another solution. A boy shared with Him five barley loaves and two fish. He gave thanks for this gift and proceeded to distribute bread and fish to all who were gathered there—five thousand men with women and children besides.
They had never seen a miracle like this! And then the wheels started turning. This abundant food in the wilderness reminded them of something. They thought of Moses’ words: “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” (Deu. 18:15). The people said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” They wanted to make Him their king, but Jesus quietly left them and went up the mountain by Himself to pray.
The next day, the resolve of the people had not changed. Full of anticipation, they located Jesus. But their conversation with Him did not go as they had hoped. Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you” (Joh. 6:26-27).
Jesus exposed the plans of the people that they were looking not for a Savior from sin but for a savior from hunger. If they wanted a Savior from sin, they should expect to find this in the One who performed all these wonderful miracles. But the people just wanted their physical needs satisfied, and following Jesus seemed like the way to accomplish this. They focused on the gift when they should have been focusing on the Giver.
This was true of the Old Testament Israelites also, but forty years of continuous manna from heaven taught them something. Before they entered the land of Canaan, Moses recounted the people’s journey through the wilderness. He said: “And [the LORD] humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deu. 8:3).
Our bodies certainly need food. That is how the LORD designed them even before the fall into sin. But we are not to live “by bread alone.” This means that our days and our lives should be occupied with more than the pursuit of daily bread. We learn in the Catechism that “daily bread includes everything needed for this life.” We also learn that it is God who gives daily bread, and we know by experience this is true. Each of us can say that God has given us earthly blessings far beyond our basic needs, just like the large amount of leftovers gathered up after Jesus fed the multitude.
But these earthly gifts can only do so much for us. They only go so far. Their usefulness is limited to our short life on earth. Jesus pointed out to the people that “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died” (Joh. 6:49). It was bread from heaven, but it did not bring with it the promise of eternal life. In the same way, Jesus could continue to produce for the people vast amounts of food from very little or even out of nothing, but what good would this do for their souls?
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst…. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (vv. 35,51). And how did the people react to this? They “disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’” (v. 52).
Well, how could He? He had already told them: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life” (v. 40). Jesus, the Bread of Life, is consumed by all who believe the Gospel message. God’s gracious Word is the platter that serves up Jesus. His flesh and blood are the main course which satisfies the hungry soul.
But does your soul feel hunger pangs for Jesus? Are you more concerned about “the food that perishes,” or “the food that endures to eternal life”? This is a real struggle. You know very well when your stomach is empty. And you can see when your earthly goods need to be fixed or replaced. But it is not as obvious when faith is running near empty, or when your understanding about God and your perspective on life in the world needs to be fixed or replaced. If you go without food for twenty-four hours, your body lets you know; there is discomfort and pain. But you can go twenty-four or forty-eight hours, or seven days, a few weeks, or even a number of months without realizing that your faith is starving.
Faith is not some goal to reach, that once you have gotten there and know the facts—once you have faith—you don’t need to be concerned about keeping it. Faith needs to keep being fed. It hungers for the Bread of Life, for Jesus. If faith does not hear Jesus and receive Jesus and get filled up with Jesus, then it cannot last. But if faith is given a steady diet of Jesus through home devotions and the dispensing of the Word and Sacraments at church, the Lord promises that it will not expire. Your faith will be rejuvenated and strengthened just as your body is whenever you eat.
There is no better food for your soul than the food of Jesus. Your soul hungers for forgiveness and life because by nature you have sin and death. This sin is what tricks you into thinking that you have no pressing spiritual need, and that your pursuit of earthly riches is more important than anything else. But the world’s goods go the same way as the manna the Israelites sinfully tried to stockpile overnight. The world’s goods leave a bad taste in the mouth, and in the end they are worthless. The food, clothing, and home that you have are gifts from God. But they must never take the place of Jesus and His Word.
When Jesus comes to you through the Gospel, He counteracts the sin and death in you. He chokes the old Adam which is trying to choke you. He starves the death that wants to devour you. He has the power to do that because sin already did its worst against Him, and death already swallowed Him up in the grave. Neither was able to destroy Him, and He emerged victorious over sin, death, and hell. Whenever you consume Jesus by faith, whether by hearing His Word or by eating and drinking His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, you are partaking of His victory and filling yourself with His life.
For all who hunger and thirst for righteousness believing in His name, Jesus Gives the Food That Endures to Eternal Life. He gives you the food of Himself which never grows old, never spoils, and never runs out. This Bread of Life is the rich nourishment your soul needs—a holy food offered to you for this life and for the life to come.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
+ + +
(picture from “The Last Supper” by Juan de Juanes, 1503-1579)
Good Friday – Pr. Faugstad homily
Text: St. Luke 23:39-43
At first, both the criminals crucified with Jesus reviled Him (Mat. 27:44, Mar. 15:32). They joined their voices with the chief priests, scribes, elders, soldiers, and passers-by in attacking Jesus with ugly, blasphemous words. The verbal assault came from all around Him. “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Mat. 27:40). “He saved others,” they said mockingly; “he cannot save himself…. [L]et him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him” (v. 42).
These piercing, biting words had a common source. The devil was behind them. When Jesus began His public work, the devil was there tempting Him, attacking Him. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, over and over again (Mat. 4:3,6). And why shouldn’t Jesus make bread out of stones and jump down safely from the top of the temple? Why shouldn’t He come down from the cross and show all those scoffers who He really was?
Because then He would have become something He wasn’t. Then He would have chosen the world’s way instead of God’s way. If He had come down from the cross, He might have gained the world’s glory, but He would have forfeited our souls. He had to be on that cross, He had to stay on that cross, so that His blood would ransom us from our slavery to sin, so that His death would satisfy the holy wrath of God.
“Are You not the Christ?” said one of the criminals, “Save Yourself and us!” He said, “save us,” but he wasn’t talking about his soul. He just wanted to escape death. He wanted to escape the consequences for his wrongdoing without actually changing his behavior. He expressed no remorse for his sins. He probably blamed everyone else for his bad situation because that is what unbelievers do. They refuse to listen to the holy Law of God which condemns every one of us equally.
But the Law did its work on the heart of the other criminal. Hanging there on the cross, knowing death was fast approaching, he thought about his many sins. He deserved this torment, just as the other criminal did. But not Jesus. So when he heard his fellow criminal yelling at Jesus and treating Jesus as though He were like them, he had to respond. “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.”
Those are faithful and true words, “this Man has done nothing wrong.” Jesus was perfectly innocent. He was the only innocent man at the scene—the only innocent man in the whole world. He was entirely holy, not a bad bone in His body. So why was He nailed to a cross to die? The criminal next to Him knew: Jesus was suffering for him. The innocent Man had taken on the sin of the guilty. The world’s Savior was hanging next to him.
In all humility this criminal said to Him, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” But why should He? Why should Jesus remember this man whose sins He was currently suffering for? Why should He remember any of us who have broken God’s holy Law again and again? The answer is because He loves us. This is what the Son of God took on human flesh to do. He knew it would culminate in the cross. He knew what terrible torments and agonies were coming to Him. And He still went forward.
He went forward for the criminals hanging next to Him on their crosses, for the passers-by, soldiers, elders, scribes, and chief priests who mocked Him. He went forward for you and me and every sinner. He willingly accepted the wrath of God and the fires of hell for all your sins. He took your place, so you would be clothed in His righteousness and made an heir of His kingdom. The criminal, in faith, expected nothing less, and Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
The promise could not have been more at odds with the present reality. The three men gasped for breath on blood-stained crosses with smug spectators gathered around them. “Truly,” Jesus said to him, “today with Me… today in Paradise.” And even as the criminal’s suffering intensified, even as his breathing became shallower, even as he perhaps watched the soldiers break the legs of his companion and then come his way, the criminal repeated those words, “Today with Jesus… today in Paradise.”
What happened next? You, dear fellow redeemed, will experience it yourself. When your breathing becomes shallow, and your death approaches, you will cling to the same promise: “Today with Jesus… today in Paradise.” Jesus’ death in your place secured that for you. He forgives you all your selfish choices, all your unfaithfulness, all your attempts to deflect the blame for your sins. His holy blood cleanses you of all your sin (1Jo. 1:7).
One day, you will get to meet that criminal. You will get to see him pain-free and at peace. You will get to hear how his ugly words of reviling were exchanged for a beautiful song of praise, and you will join him in that song to the living Lord Jesus—in Paradise.
+ + +
(picture from “The Crucifixion” by Giambattista Tiepolo [1696-1770] at the Saint Louis Art Museum)
The Fourth Sunday in Lent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Exodus 16:1-3, 11-21
In Christ Jesus, the better Bread than manna or good health or great wealth, whom we feast on by faith for eternal salvation, dear fellow redeemed:
We have all had the experience of living day to day with regard to our health. We were dealing with an illness or a pain that forced us to take it one day at a time. Perhaps we have been day to day with a job, not knowing if we would be coming back the next day. But I’m guessing that most of us here have never had to live day to day with regard to food. We either had food in the fridge or pantry, or we had the means to be able to get more. In this way, we possibly haven’t felt the desperation that people throughout history have felt when they are hungry and have no ready source of food.
The Israelite people were hungry, and as far as they could see, there was no food available for the estimated hundreds of thousands in the assembly. Hunger makes it difficult to think clearly. This may be why the people sounded so positive about their time as slaves in Egypt, remembering when they “sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full.” Hunger also causes irritation. The hungrier the people got, the more they grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
But when we are experiencing some trial or test, it is a clear indication that God wants to teach us something. What He wanted to teach the Israelites in the wilderness is that even if they could not see a way out of the problem they faced, He would provide for them. That is exactly what He had promised to do. Hadn’t He brought them safely out of Egypt? Hadn’t He brought them through the Red Sea? Why would He forsake them now and leave them to die in the wilderness?
He told Moses to tell them, “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.” The meat came in the form of quail which essentially fell right into their hands that evening. The bread came with the morning dew. When the dew went away, “a fine, flake-like thing” was left. When the people saw it, they asked, “What is it?”—in Hebrew, “Man hu?” which became the name manna.
It was bread from the LORD, bread from heaven. And there was an abundance of it. The people were directed to gather an omer of it for each person, which was about two quarts in volume. Once the people had gotten what they needed, the manna still on the ground melted away with the sun. The people were to collect it every day—God sent it without fail. When they tried to save some from one day to the next, “it bred worms and stank.”
The message was clear: the LORD would provide their daily bread. They literally lived day to day with regard to their food. They had no other source to draw from. They had to rely on the LORD if they wanted to live. This is a lesson that Jesus emphasized to His disciples when they asked Him how to pray. Out of the seven petitions He taught them, only one of them had to do with their earthly needs: “Give us this day our daily bread” (Mat. 6:11, Luk. 11:3).
Notice the right-now focus of the petition: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Jesus does not teach us to wring our hands over how our bank accounts look or how our investments are doing, worrying about whether we will have enough for the future. He teaches us to pray for and to trust that our heavenly Father will provide each day what we need for our life.
I don’t know about you, but I like to plan a little more than that. I’m already thinking about and saving for the future—a future, I might add, that I’m not even sure I will live to see. That’s part of the reason God warns us about getting too caught up in our plans. We don’t determine our future; He does. We don’t get to choose the number of our days; He does.
That is not to say we should spend or give away everything we have today since God will take care of us tomorrow. We want to manage well what He gives us. We don’t want to be reckless or wasteful. But the Lord’s message is clear. We do not need to be anxious about what we will eat or drink or wear, because “[our] heavenly Father knows that [we] need them all,” and “all these things will be added to [us]” (Mat. 6:32,33).
God will give us daily bread; He will give us everything we need for this life. That is His promise. But what we want and what we need are not the same. You might be convinced that you need a certain amount of money stashed away, or that you need a certain job promotion, or that you need a certain level of health to enjoy life. But those are actually wants. God knows what you need. That is why you pray, “if it is Your will,” whenever you ask the Lord for something He has not specifically promised to give you. It is not that God is stingy; it’s that He loves you too much to give you everything you want.
The reality is that we would never think we had enough. We would look at our Father in heaven as little more than a perpetual ATM, and we would act like spoiled children. That’s what we see in the Holy Gospel for today from the five thousand men whom Jesus fed in a remote area (Joh. 6:1-15). They no doubt heard that Jesus started with five barley loaves and two fish. They saw how that small amount of food multiplied, and every man had as much as he wanted. They saw the fragments gathered up which filled twelve baskets.
“This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” they said (v. 14). They were thinking of the prophecy of Moses that a Prophet like him would come from among the Israelites (Deu. 18:15). They connected the manna that came when Moses was ruler to the bread Jesus now provided in a miraculous way. It all lined up. What better ruler could they hope for than Jesus? He could give them whatever and as much as they wanted!
But Jesus was not about to become their “bread king.” When the people located Him the next day, they asked if He might do for them what Moses did for the Israelites in the wilderness. Jesus replied, “my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (vv. 32-33). The people were still thinking about earthly bread, earthly riches, earthly glory.
“I am the bread of life,” said Jesus. “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die” (vv. 48-50). Jesus was teaching the people about spiritual things, holy things, eternal things. He was teaching them about faith, salvation, and everlasting life. He said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (v. 51).
The people wanted their physical needs met by Jesus. He had something better to give them—His own life. Jesus knew that we have a much more serious problem than where to get our next meal. We face a spiritual starvation that cannot be satisfied by any of our own efforts or works. On our own, we are doomed to death and eternal punishment. So God the Father sent His Son to save us.
His mission was much bigger than feeding the hungry. His mission was perfectly fulfilling the Law of God in our place, including the command to trust God for all our needs. Then He gave up His perfect life to atone for all our sins. Jesus died on the cross to pay for our grumbling, our greed, our self-gratification. All our sins—whatever they may be—are washed away by His holy blood.
After calling Himself “the living bread,” Jesus told the people they must feed on His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life (v. 54). He was talking about faith, that they must put their trust for salvation only in Him. You feast on this “bread from heaven,” this “bread of life,” by hearing the holy and life-giving Word of Jesus, by returning to your Baptism through His Word of forgiveness, by eating and drinking His body and blood in the Holy Supper He instituted.
These are the ways that your spiritual hunger is addressed. These are the ways that the Holy Spirit increases your faith, so that you worry less about the unknown tomorrows and focus more on the blessed todays. Not only will you continue to receive the daily bread that you need for this life, but you can be certain that the Bread of Heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ, will never leave you hungry, never leave you lacking in your spiritual needs.
In your deep hunger for love, your deep hunger for peace, your deep hunger for life, He comes to you still. He gives you His forgiveness, He covers you in His righteousness, and He fills you with His grace. He is the Bread you need most, the Bread you feed on for eternal life.
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.
+ + +
(picture from “The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Presentation of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 37:17-36
In Christ Jesus, who was sold for a small sum of money and returned the deposit with the payment of His holy, precious blood, dear fellow redeemed:
When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem at forty days old, He looked like any other baby. In fact, with so many coming and going from the temple, I expect that hardly anyone noticed or paid attention to this family. But what a monumental moment this was! The God who descended on the most holy place of the temple in a cloud, was now carried through the temple courtyard as a little baby in His mother’s arms. He whom the sea and wind obey had come to serve us sinners in great meekness (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, #161, v. 2).
Only those to whom this mystery was revealed could see this baby for who He was. Simeon was one of these. The Holy Spirit led him to the temple just before Mary, Joseph, and Jesus arrived. While everyone else just saw a baby, Simeon saw salvation. Praising God, he declared, here is “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luk. 2:32). Here is the Savior of the whole world!
But it would be a while before His identity as the Savior would become widely known. For the vast majority of His earthly life, Jesus toiled away in Nazareth, serving His earthly parents, living a mostly unremarkable life—at least in the view of the people around Him. This changed when He was about thirty years old. At that time, He was anointed as the Christ at His Baptism in the Jordan River and began teaching and performing miracles.
Even then, many had their doubts about Him. Jesus heard it all: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (Joh. 1:46). “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (Joh. 8:48). “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Mat. 27:40). None of it stopped Jesus from doing the work His heavenly Father gave Him to do—fulfilling all righteousness according to the Law, paying for all sin on the cross, and rising in victory over death.
Joseph, the son of Jacob, had a similar journey from obscurity and hardship to victory and glory. Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob because he was born from Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel. Jacob showed this favor by giving Joseph a special garment, “a robe of many colors” (Gen. 37:3). This caused Joseph’s brothers to be jealous of him and hateful towards him. Joseph was the twelfth child of Jacob and his eleventh son, so why should he be favored? Joseph didn’t help his cause when he tattled on his brothers and got them in trouble with their father.
They hated him still more when he told them some strange dreams he had. In the first dream, he and his brothers were binding sheaves in the field, and their sheaves bowed down to his. “Are you indeed to rule over us?” they said (Gen. 37:8). He dreamed again, and this time, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to him. When his father heard this, he rebuked Joseph, “Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” (v. 10).
This is why his brothers plotted evil against him when they saw him coming at a distance. “Here comes this dreamer,” they said. “Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” As terrible as this is, I think each one of us here can relate to wanting harm to come on someone. Maybe you were in a physical fight with a family member, and in your anger, you wanted to hurt them badly. Or you had a verbal altercation with someone, and you wanted to wound them deeply with words. Or you wished in your heart that someone you hated would die.
These are Fifth Commandment sins, “You shall not murder.” This Commandment includes all bodily harm done to others. It also includes our thoughts of anger and hatred, as the Apostle John writes, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1Jo. 3:15). For Joseph’s brothers, it was just a short step from the hatred they felt toward him to the desire to kill him, which shows how important it is to address our sinful thoughts before they turn into sinful actions. James 1:15 outlines this progression, “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
Joseph did not know what he was walking into. He had gone at the direction of his father to visit his brothers as they pastured the flocks. Maybe he hoped this could be a time to patch things up with his brothers and become friends. Instead they grabbed him and tossed him into an empty pit. Reuben, the oldest, had plans to return and set him free. But before he could do this, the others saw a caravan of traders coming by. They decided it was better to sell their brother as a slave than kill him and receive nothing.
So that’s what they did. They sold him to the Ishmaelites, who were relatives of theirs through Abraham’s son Ishmael. Today’s reading doesn’t provide the details of Joseph’s reaction to their terrible deeds. But later the brothers recounted seeing the distress of Joseph’s soul, when he begged them to have mercy, and they did not listen (Gen. 42:21). Those were some hard hearts. Can you imagine selling your sibling or your child as a slave?
Joseph’s brothers sold him for twenty shekels of silver. This was the price of their betrayal as brothers. This was how little they thought of their father and the crushing grief this would bring on him. Twenty shekels to be rid of “this dreamer.” Twenty shekels to move him out of the way and increase their own inheritance from their father. This is one example of the harm that the love of money does. St. Paul wrote in his First Letter to Timothy, “those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” (1Ti. 6:9).
Many years after Joseph’s brothers sold him for money, Judas Iscariot did the same to his Lord Jesus. The Gospel of John lets us in on a secret about Judas that “he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it” (Joh. 12:6). When Jesus’ enemies were looking for an opportunity to arrest Him, Judas saw an opportunity for more money. “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” he asked. “And they paid him thirty pieces of silver” (Mat. 26:15).
We can see many parallels between Joseph and Jesus:
- Joseph was the beloved son of his father; Jesus was the beloved Son of God.
- Joseph was faithful to God’s Law and obedient to his father; Jesus perfectly kept the Law in obedience to His Father’s will.
- Joseph was hated by his brothers; Jesus was hated by His fellow Jews.
- Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of silver; Jesus was sold for thirty.
- Joseph was handed over to Gentiles who mistreated him; Jesus was mocked, beaten, and crucified by Gentile soldiers.
- Joseph was seventeen years old when he was sold as a slave and was not elevated to the throne until he was about thirty; Jesus died on the cross and rose in victory around the same age.
The Egyptians did not know what they were getting when a young Hebrew slave was brought to their land. They did not know that this man would save them when great troubles fell on the land. So it was with Jesus. Only the faithful recognized Him for who He was as a baby and later as a man. He did not look like the Savior of the world. He did not look like the Conqueror of sin, death, and devil. Still today, many think that Jesus was nothing more than a good teacher or perhaps a social activist.
You have been taught otherwise by the Holy Spirit. You see not as the world sees. You know who Jesus is. He is the perfect Son of God who took on flesh to save you. He did not hate those who hated Him, including you and me in our unbelief. He loved us. He came to offer the full payment for all sin, not with anything perishable like silver or gold. He offered His own precious blood (1Pe. 1:18-19). His blood washes away the stain of sin that others have put on us and that we have put on others, so that we don’t need to hold on to our anger and hatred any longer. We forgive as He has forgiven us.
We also see how God works all things for good. He even used the wicked thoughts and actions of Joseph’s brothers to make it so that Joseph would be in a position later on to save them, and with them, the promise of the Savior from their line. God sent Joseph to be A Light for Gentiles and Israelites, so that Jesus would be an even greater light some 2,000 years down the road.
The light of Christ’s salvation still shines upon us now through His Word and Sacraments. That is why in our liturgy we still join Simeon in singing, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luk. 2:29-32).
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.
+ + +
(picture of the Presentation of Jesus from St. Michael Cathedral, Toronto)
The First Sunday in Advent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 3:14-4:2
In Christ Jesus, the Offspring of the virgin, who was called Immanuel, God with us, dear fellow redeemed:
“The LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you.’” What the devil had done was tempt the most special part of God’s creation—mankind—to sin. In the form of or inhabiting a serpent, the devil had approached the first woman with the express purpose of turning her against her Creator. He first tempted her to doubt the Word of God and then to deny the Word of God. She took fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—the one tree God warned Adam not to eat from—, and she ate. Then she gave some of the fruit to Adam “who was with her,” and he ate (Gen. 3:6).
They did not receive what they were looking for. They were hoping to “be like God,” as the devil had promised them. They failed to appreciate that they already were “like God,” made in His holy image (1:26-27). They did receive part of what the devil had promised, the knowledge of good and evil (3:5). They learned that they used to be good as the caretakers of God’s good creation. Now they had become evil, and they viewed God as their enemy.
This is why they went into hiding when they heard Him walking in the garden. They were afraid of Him. What was He going to do to them? Adam surely remembered what God said about that one tree, that “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (2:17). They went into hiding because they did not want to be punished for their sin. They did not want to die. In fact, they already had. They were still breathing, but spiritually, they had died. They were separated from God. They were on the devil’s side now.
But the LORD would not let the devil keep them. Their punishment would not be the same as the devil’s punishment. God extended no grace and hope to the devil, but He did to Adam and Eve. The key verse in today’s reading and perhaps in all of Scripture is verse fifteen. God said this to the devil but for mankind’s benefit: “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.”
Just as the devil had manipulated a woman into disobeying God, so it would be through the Offspring of a woman that the devil’s power would be crushed. Martin Luther called this verse the “first comfort, this source of all mercy and fountainhead of all promises” (Luther’s Works, vol. 1, p. 191). He also suggested that God made the prophecy purposely vague, so that the devil would have to fear every woman going forward since any of them might bear the One to destroy him.
God’s promise terrified the devil, but it gave great hope to mankind. God had not changed His mind about death entering the world through sin. But now He delivered the hope of salvation, that One would come to set everything right again, to overcome sin, devil, and death for all humanity. If Adam and Eve thought another path was open to them, that possibility was closed when God posted “the cherubim and a flaming sword” outside the Garden of Eden to keep them away from the tree of life.
There was no other way to be saved than God’s way. Immediately after this, we are told that “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived.” They trusted what God said, that salvation would come through the woman’s Offspring. They hoped their firstborn son was this Savior. They called him “Cain,” a name that means “acquired” or “gotten” because they had “gotten a man from the LORD.” But Cain was not the promised One. The devil poisoned his mind with anger and hatred, leading to the murder of his brother Abel.
God’s promise would not be fulfilled for many, many years. Child after child would be born, grow old, and die. Women had pain in childbearing like God said they would, while enduring the imperfect rule of men. Men toiled in pain by the sweat of their face to make a living, before returning to the ground from which they were made. Decade after decade, generation after generation, brief life to certain death. Still no Savior.
God’s people might have wondered if His promise would be fulfilled, except that He reminded them with clearer and clearer prophecies as the time approached. The Savior would come from the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah (Gen. 49:10). He would be a descendant of King David (Psa. 110). He would be born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14). He would be born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2). God waited for thousands of years after making His promise, until “the fullness of time had come” (Gal. 4:4).
Then He sent His angel Gabriel to a virgin named Mary. “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,” said Gabriel, “and you shall call his name Jesus” (Luk. 1:31). “How will this be,” asked Mary, “since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (1:34-35). The time had finally come! The woman’s Offspring was here. God had entered His creation, taking on human flesh. The devil was about to be ruined.
And all of that, the dark day when the world was plunged into sin, the beautiful, first promise of God, the history of every joy and sadness, hope and pain, life and death, all of it was in the background and in Jesus’ mind as He rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. “Hosanna to the Son of David!” shouted the people. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mat. 21:9). No one understood what had to be done. No one knew the suffering that Jesus would endure. No one knew what it would take to redeem mankind from the sin that started in Eden.
The death that was brought on the world through a tree had to be undone by death on another tree. The perfection that was lost through sin had to be regained by a perfect sacrifice. The curse of sin had to be directed against One who had never sinned. He had to pay for man’s disobedience. He had to suffer eternal punishment in every person’s place. This is what Jesus, the eternal Son of God, had to do.
He was witness to all that transpired in Eden. He walked with Adam and Eve in perfection and then found them in their sin. He saw all the wickedness that was done from that point on, all the pride, deceitfulness, abuse, unfaithfulness, violence. He was witness to everyone’s sins from Eden onward. And because He is God, He could see even the sins that stretched forward in time, including the sins done in our lifetime, the sins done by us, even our sins today.
What would you think if you had witnessed all that poisonous evil, the terrible pain and destruction, brought about because of mankind’s sins? What would you do? Would you feel compassion for sinners? Or would your anger burn hot against them? Jesus rode forward humbly to His death in every sinner’s place. We hear this Palm Sunday account at the beginning of the Church Year because it teaches us how to think about sin and salvation and Jesus, and how to prepare for His coming.
If any of us is comfortable with our sinning, then we’re not really seeing what Jesus did in Jerusalem. He was not beaten up for anything He had done. He was not driven toward Calvary for His sins. He did not cry out in agony on the cross for His wrongdoing. He was there because of Adam and Eve. He was there because of Cain. He was there because of Abraham and David and Jezebel and Nebuchadnezzar and Mary and Herod and Pontius Pilate—all the sinful people of human history, both prominent and poor, outwardly good and evil. He was there because of you and me, because of our sins.
He was there for you and me. Jesus went to the cross to make satisfaction for our sins. Adam and Eve’s selfishness, shame, and fear—“Put that on Me,” He said. Our lovelessness, our lies, our pride, our pleasure-seeking, our greediness, our despising the holy Word—“I’ll take the punishment,” He said. He paid for the sins of your past, your sins of today, and all the sins that will be done in the future.
This is what God promised right after the fall. This is what He told Adam and Eve and their descendants to look for. This is what He tells us to look to. God kept that first promise from Eden to Jerusalem. We weren’t in the crowd on Palm Sunday, but we should picture ourselves there. While we’re at it, we can picture Adam and Eve standing there in their garments of animal skin with their sons Abel and Seth; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob looking on; David and his descendants watching with joy. We see there a great “cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1), all who waited for God’s promise to be fulfilled.
And we see there all believers who have lived since that time, up to our day and beyond. We stand there, eyes fixed on Jesus, His praise on our lips. We watch Him go forward, carrying the weight of the whole world. He goes to the cross for our sins. He goes to destroy the works of the devil (1Jo. 3:8). He goes there to save us from death.
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.
+ + +
(picture from “The Procession in the Streets of Jerusalem” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
Presentation of the Augsburg Confession – Pr. Faugstad homily
On June 25, 1530, the Lutheran princes of Germany stood before Emperor Charles V in the German town of Augsburg and publicly read their confession of faith. They stated that they would rather die than compromise the truth of God’s Word.
Text: Romans 10:5-17
In Christ Jesus, whose perfect confession of the truth covers over our times of doubt, weakness, and faithlessness, dear fellow redeemed:
In the parts of the Augsburg Confession we have heard so far, there are two major themes that are brought up again and again. Those themes are righteousness and faith. In the Bible, “righteousness” is what it takes to be right with God. We don’t have to guess about the standard, because God has given us His standard for righteousness. He has given us ten statements—Commandments—which outline a life of righteousness.
Just ten commands—if you can live by them and keep them, you are right with God. But if you cannot keep them, then you cannot make yourself right with God. Already in the second article of the Augsburg Confession, the Reformers said this: We condemn those who “argue that a person can be justified before God by his own strength and reason” (ELH p. 9). In article four, they repeated the same thing, “We teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works” (ELH p. 9).
This teaching that there is nothing we can do to make ourselves right with God does not shock us, but it certainly shocked the people in Germany and beyond in 1530. Many believed that their good works, their merits, did contribute to their righteousness before God. The Roman theologians who responded to the Augsburg Confession put it like this, “All Catholics admit that our works of themselves have no merit but God’s grace makes them worthy to earn eternal life” (“The Confutation of the Augsburg Confession” in Sources and Contexts of The Book of Concord, p. 109). So is it ultimately God’s power or our power? Is it His work or our work?
St. Paul does not leave this ambiguous or unclear in today’s reading. He writes about “the righteousness that is based on the law” and “the righteousness based on faith.” The righteousness based on the law is our attempts to do what God tells us. If we kept His Commandments perfectly, He would let us into heaven because of our own good work. But if we have not kept them perfectly, we stand condemned in our sin. It’s all or nothing. Either you are perfect according to God’s standard, or you are not.
Now “the righteousness based on faith” is not a different kind of righteousness. It is still the perfect keeping of God’s Commandments, but this righteousness comes to us apart from our works. We do not earn this righteousness; we are given this righteousness. It is the righteousness of Jesus, who did perfectly keep the Commandments. He is the only human being to accomplish this. We were all conceived and born in sin, and we continued sinning. But He was conceived in the virgin Mary’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit, and therefore He entered the world without sin.
Though in every respect He was tempted as we are, He never sinned (Heb. 4:15). He perfectly feared, loved, and trusted His heavenly Father. He perfectly loved everyone around Him. And that perfect keeping of God’s law is counted to each one of you by faith, and faith alone. Again from the Augsburg Confession, article four: “We teach that men… are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who by His death has made satisfaction for our sins” (ELH p. 9).
For this faithful confession before one of the most powerful rulers in the world, the Reformers were risking their very necks! They were willing to die for this truth. They were fully convinced that what St. Paul wrote is true: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Paul says nothing about God’s grace making us worthy to earn salvation, or about faith working through love that somehow earns us heaven. He speaks of the righteousness of Jesus becoming ours by faith in Him.
But where does faith come from? Is that a work you do? Paul writes, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” The power to save you and to work faith in you is in the Gospel, the good news of Jesus’ perfect life and atoning death on behalf of sinners. That is why you can be certain of your righteousness and salvation. They are gifts from God to you, received through the faith the Holy Spirit worked in you through the Word.
God has saved you. He justifies you. He caused you to believe this soul-saving truth. You Are Righteous before God by Faith. This is what the Lutheran laymen and pastors confessed 494 years ago, and by God’s enduring grace, we still confess it today to His glory alone. Amen.
+ + +
(picture of Emperor Charles V receiving the Augsburg Confession)
The Third Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 1 Peter 5:6-11
In Christ Jesus, who promises to defend and keep His Holy Church, so that not even the gates of hell shall prevail against it (Mat. 16:18), dear fellow redeemed:
Some of the most popular movies are the ones about resistance efforts against powerful rulers. This is what Star Wars was about with the rebel alliance versus the evil empire, or more recently with the Hunger Games series. We enjoy rooting for the underdog. We enjoy watching them come up with plans to topple the bad guys.
Have you ever imagined yourself in a scenario like this? What if you were part of a resistance group? How would you try to undermine the work of wicked rulers? What risks would you be willing to take? What sacrifices would you make? Is there anything that could make you give in or give up?
Our reading for today says that as followers of Jesus, You Are Part of the Resistance. This means it is important that you know your enemy and his tactics, that you know who your allies are, and that you have a good plan for engaging and standing firm against those who stand against you.
So who is your chief enemy? Who wants to destroy you? The apostle Peter writes, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Lions are nothing to take lightly. If lions inhabited our part of the world, we would have to be ready all the time. But as powerful as they are, lions don’t just charge across an open field at their prey. They sneak up slowly and quietly, waiting for the opportunity to strike when their target is vulnerable.
That’s how the devil is with us. He waits for the right opportunity, watching for signs of weakness. He tempts us to think that we are strong, that we have nothing to be concerned about. We can make our own choices. We should do whatever feels right to us, even if it isn’t in line with what the Bible teaches. The devil wants you to believe that you can be a good Christian even if you don’t follow the Word of Christ.
But that isn’t the only weapon in his arsenal. When he is unable to coax us away from the Word, he tries to make us suffer for our faithfulness. That suffering could come when unbelievers ridicule us or even attack us for what we believe. You might get picked on at school, because you won’t go along with the crowd. You might get passed over at work, because you won’t participate in what is unethical. I recently listened to a presentation by a Christian man who was charged with various crimes, because he would not create something that went against his beliefs.
The devil wants to make life as rough on you as he possibly can. The world is his kingdom. If you will not join him, you are not welcome here. He mobilizes all his diabolical forces against you. He won’t let you pass through the world in peace. Martin Luther in his famous hymn says this about the devil: “The old evil foe / Now means deadly woe; / Deep guile and great might / Are his dread arms in fight; / On earth is not his equal” (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary 250, v. 1).
But you don’t face the devil all by yourself. If you did, you would certainly lose; he is too powerful. God has called you to stand with others, to be part of a mighty community, “the communion of saints.” Peter makes reference to this fellowship in the body of Christ when he says, “Resist [the devil], firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”
You are not the first to suffer trials and difficulties for your faith, and you won’t be the last. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mat. 16:24). Every follower of Jesus must “take up his cross.” Every follower of Jesus must expect trouble in the world. Every follower of Jesus must prepare for suffering.
But like teammates who cheer each other on, or like medics who bind up the wounds of warriors, we stand shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters in Christ, ready to give support and help. We “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as [we] see the Day drawing near” (Heb. 10:24-25). We “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2). We are “kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave [us]” (Eph. 4:32).
We do these things for one another, because this is the way of our Lord Jesus. He did all these things perfectly for us. That was His plan for victory. It wasn’t to conquer His enemies by being more brutal, more violent, or more deceptive than they were. It was to come in humility, to love, serve, and sacrifice for the sinners who did not welcome Him or honor Him, but who despised Him and conspired to kill Him.
That hardly seems like a recipe for success, and for many Christians still it does not seem like a proper strategy for battle or a plan for victory. They don’t want to hear about humility or suffering or love. They want to meet the unbelievers of the world on their own battlefield while giving no thought to working from higher ground. For some Christians, everything depends on getting certain people elected to government positions or getting certain laws passed. “Then,” they think, “then we have a chance at victory.”
But that sort of victory will always be out of reach. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (Joh. 18:36). Earthly rulers come and go, governments rise and fall. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isa. 40:8). In our resistance efforts in this world, the only weapon the Church has and the only weapon we need is the Word of God.
The powerful Word is what routes the devil and frustrates his plans. He has no answer for the Word. As Luther says again, “The world’s prince may still / Scowl fierce as he will, / He can harm us none, / He’s judged; the deed is done; / One little word can fell him” (ELH 250, v. 3). The devil is sent packing every time Jesus says to us, “I forgive you all your sins,” or when He says, “This is My body, which is given for you; this is My blood which is shed for you for the remission of sins.”
What can the devil say against you if Jesus speaks this way for you? Jesus makes it abundantly clear that He stands with you, and you stand with Him, which can only mean that the devil has to go hungry. That roaring lion can roar all he wants and “scowl fierce as he will.” He can accuse us, attack us, throw all he has at us. But he cannot overcome us, because he is overcome by Jesus.
John the apostle writes that this is “the reason the Son of God appeared.” It was “to destroy the works of the devil” (1Jo. 3:8). In the days leading up to His crucifixion, Jesus told the crowds, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (Joh. 12:31-32). The very means by which Jesus seemed to be defeated was the means He used to destroy Satan.
His suffering and His death on the cross was the payment for all sin. And since sin has been paid for, there is nothing more for the devil to say. If the devil is in your ear, tempting you away from Jesus, and you think his temptations sound reasonable, it is because of one of two things (or both)—you have forgotten you are a sinner, or you have forgotten what Jesus did to redeem you from your sin.
This is why Peter says in his epistle, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you.” You humble yourself by acknowledging your weakness, by repenting of your sin and trusting in God’s unchanging love for you. You “[cast] all your anxieties on Him,” knowing that “He cares for you.” You don’t carry out resistance work against the devil on your own. You don’t rely on your own abilities, your own strength, your own cunning. You rely on Jesus, your Savior and your King, the Conqueror of the devil and death.
You may often feel overmatched in this fallen world which does not honor Jesus. It may seem like the odds are hopelessly against His Church here on earth. It may seem like you and all believers are certain to lose and lose badly. But the Lord Jesus is on the march! He comes boldly and powerfully through His Word and Sacraments. He comes to “seek the lost,” “bring back the strayed,” “bind up the injured,” and “strengthen the weak” (Eze. 34:16). He is the Good Shepherd who comes looking for us wherever we have wandered and carries us home on His shoulders rejoicing (Luk. 15:5).
The devil has not won, and he cannot win. Even though you will suffer in the shadow of his dark kingdom for a little while, you have the promise that “the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” Because of what Jesus did for you, you are at peace with the God who rules over all things for your good. Jesus says, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (Joh. 16:33). In Jesus, you cannot lose.
To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
+ + +
(picture from “The Good Shepherd” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The First Sunday after Trinity – Vicar Lehne farewell sermon
Text: St. Luke 16:19-31
In Christ Jesus, who is our priceless treasure, dear fellow redeemed:
The rich man seemed to have everything. In his lifetime, he received good things, living in comfort, which he showed off in how he dressed and how he ate. He was clothed in purple, which was a color that was associated with royalty, and in fine linen, which was the most expensive cloth at that time. And he didn’t just have magnificent feasts some of the time, but every day, which showed that he was actively pursuing a good life on earth that was filled with worldly riches. On the other hand, there’s Lazarus. Unlike the rich man, who seemed to have everything, Lazarus seemed to have nothing. In his lifetime, he received bad things, living in anguish. He never got to feast like the rich man did. Instead, he laid at the rich man’s gate every day, hoping that he might get fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. And the only ones who attended to him were dogs who came to lick the sores on his body.
The lives of the rich man and Lazarus couldn’t have been more different. This was not only true of their lives on earth, but also of their lives after they both died. There was just one difference. Now, their situations had completely flipped. While the rich man had feasted sumptuously on earth, now it was Lazarus who was feasting sumptuously at Abraham’s side, the father of all believers, in heaven. While Lazarus was begging for the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table to satisfy his hunger even just a little bit on earth, now it was the rich man who was begging for a drop of water to cool his tongue even just a little bit in hell. While Lazarus lived in anguish on earth, he was now living in eternal comfort in heaven. And while the rich man lived in comfort on earth, he was now living in eternal anguish in hell.
What had caused the rich man and Lazarus to end up where they did when their lives on earth were over? It’s really easy for us to focus on their outward circumstances and think that had something to do with where they ended up, especially since that’s all we were told of their lives on earth, but this was not the case. It was not being rich that sent the rich man to hell. Everything that a person has is a blessing from God, and if we look through the Bible, we see that there were many people whom God blessed with earthly riches. We are told that God blessed Abraham in all things, including earthly riches. When God told Solomon to ask for whatever he wanted, and Solomon asked for wisdom instead of something like earthly riches, God not only gave him wisdom, but he also gave Solomon what he did not ask for, both riches and honor. The entire book of Job starts with the devil telling God that the only reason Job loves him so much is because he has blessed Job with so much. Then, at the end of the book, when Job has remained faithful to God despite losing everything, God blesses Job with even more riches than he had started with. Just as it wasn’t being rich that sent the rich man to hell, it also wasn’t being poor that sent Lazarus to heaven. It is just as easy for someone who is poor to sin as it is for someone who is rich. As Proverbs 30:8–9 says, “[G]ive me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”
So, if it wasn’t what was on the outside that caused the rich man and Lazarus to end up where they did when they died, then it must have been what was on the inside. While the rich man seemed to have everything during his life on earth, there was one thing that he did not have: faith. Even though the rich man had access to Moses and the Prophets, he did not see value in them or in the message that they contained. He only saw value in his earthly possessions. So, he rejected God and used his earthly possessions to give him the best life possible on earth. On the other hand, while Lazarus seemed to have nothing during his life on earth, he did have faith, the one thing that the rich man didn’t have. Through Moses and the Prophets, the Holy Spirit created faith in Lazarus’ heart, and with that faith, he saw the value in the promised Savior that Moses and the Prophets spoke about, for it was only through this promised Savior that he could be saved from his sins and given eternal comfort in heaven. This is what caused the rich man and Lazarus to end up where they did, not whether they were rich or poor, but whether or not they believed in the coming Savior, who is the most priceless treasure of all.
Of the rich man and Lazarus, who are we more like? While we would all love to say that we are like Lazarus, who held on to his faith even though he suffered in anguish every day, there are times when we are more like the rich man than we realize or care to admit. Like the rich man, who showed off his wealth in the clothes that he wore, there are times when we like to show off our own wealth to our friends and family. Getting our hands on the newest and greatest items becomes the most important thing in our lives, so much so that, instead of giving our first fruits to God, we give him our leftovers, if we give him anything at all. And like the rich man, who ate sumptuously every day, actively pursuing a good life on earth, there are times when we actively pursue a good life on earth above all else. We want to enjoy ourselves at fun and exciting events, and we want to satisfy our hunger by eating good food in nice restaurants, even if it means that we have to skip church to do it.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with owning possessions or spending our money in ways that we enjoy. After all, everything that we have is a gift from God. But if we are not careful, then we will make those things the most important things in our lives and put ourselves in danger of losing our faith and becoming even more like the rich man, who only saw value in his earthly treasures. If our earthly treasures replace our faith in Jesus as our Savior, then we will no longer see the value in God becoming a man; in the God-man, Jesus, living a perfect life; in Jesus suffering and dying on the cross. And as a result, we will no longer experience the comfort of heaven when our time on this earth is over, but we will instead experience eternal anguish in the fires of hell, like the rich man did.
Thankfully, the great treasure that is God’s Word is freely available to us, no matter how far away from God we have strayed. We don’t need to spend vast amounts of money to get it; it is freely given to us by God so that the riches that Jesus won for us may become ours. Through the faith that the Holy Spirit has created in our hearts through the preaching of the Word, we know just how valuable what Jesus has done for us truly is. The value of Jesus becoming a man is that he loved us so much that he was willing to leave his throne in heaven and humble himself to save us. The value of Jesus living a perfect life is that he fulfilled God’s law for us when we were unable to do so, and he applies his perfect life to us so that the Father only sees the holy life that his only-begotten Son lived when he looks at us. And the value of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross is that all of our sins have been paid for; we don’t need to do anything to make up for our sins and get out of hell, because Jesus has already done everything that is necessary to win us a place in heaven. The treasures of this world that God blesses us with are nice, but they are only temporary. As the prophet Isaiah says, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8). There truly is no greater or more priceless treasure than Jesus.
Like Lazarus, we have faith in our Savior. But there are times when we can be like Lazarus in another way. Like Lazarus, there are times when our lives are filled with anguish. Even though we may not be begging for crumbs from people’s tables, there are times when we can worry about how we are going to provide for ourselves and our families. We want to provide for our loved ones by giving them food or by paying for doctors to heal them when they get sick. But we see how expensive everything is getting, and our pay doesn’t seem to always go up along with the rising costs, meaning that we can’t buy what we used to be able to or what we currently need to. And even though we may not experience moments when no one is attending to us except for stray animals, like the case was with Lazarus, there are times when it can feel like no one cares about us or is there to help us when we need it. In moments like those, we can feel unloved and abandoned.
When we go through hardships in our lives and feel the anguish of those hardships, it can be hard for us to hold on to our faith. After all, if Jesus truly did love us, why would he be allowing us to go through such torment? But even when it feels like we’re all alone or that we have nothing, Jesus is always there for us to help us get through our anguish and give us comfort. Jesus, our priceless treasure, is all we need. He didn’t abandon us while we were still sinners. Instead, he laid down his own life to give us eternal life. As the apostle Paul says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And if Jesus didn’t abandon us then, he won’t abandon us now. He will remain by our side no matter what and help us endure whatever anguish and torment we have to go through until the day that he calls us home to the heaven that he won for us.
When you do enter the gates of heaven, you will never have to experience the anguish and torments of this world ever again. Never again will you hunger. Instead, you will feast sumptuously every day. Never again will you be alone or unloved. Instead, you will be surrounded by not just fellow believers who will show you love without end, but you will also be in the presence of God, who loved you so much that he sent his only-begotten Son to die for you. Any other possible anguish that you could possibly endure here on earth will be gone forever. Instead, you will only experience eternal comfort.
Through God’s Word, the Holy Spirit gives you the faith to receive all of these blessings. The rich man was unable to see the value in God’s Word. Even when he was in anguish in the fires of hell, he still couldn’t see the value in God’s Word. Instead, he thought that something else was needed, something that seemed to be more spectacular. But like Lazarus, you know the truth. You know the value of the message that God’s Word contains. You know the value of what Jesus accomplished for you. While the treasures of this world that God blesses you with are nice, they don’t hold a candle to Jesus and what he did for you. Jesus truly is your priceless treasure.
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.
+ + +
(picture from painting of the beggar Lazarus by Fyodor Bronnikov, 1886)
The Third Sunday of Easter – Vicar Lehne sermon
Text: St. John 10:11-16
In Christ Jesus, who laid down his life for us that he might take it up again, dear fellow redeemed:
The sheep were all jumbled together. Several shepherds had brought their sheep to the same pen for the night. The pen had only one gate that was guarded by a watchman, and it had walls that were tall enough to keep the sheep from wandering away during the night and to keep thieves and predators, such as wolves, out. But if all of the sheep were in the same pen, how would the shepherds know whose sheep were whose when they came back for them in the morning? It actually wasn’t a problem at all. Why? Because the sheep knew the voice of their shepherd. When they heard their shepherd’s voice, they followed him, while the other sheep, who did not recognize his voice, stayed behind. The shepherds led their sheep by their word.
In our reading for today, we are called “sheep,” and if we are sheep, then that means that we must have a shepherd whose voice we follow. Who is that shepherd? He is none other than Jesus, the Good Shepherd. When we call Jesus “the Good Shepherd,” we don’t mean that he is simply good at being a shepherd. We mean that he is the best shepherd that we could possibly have, and Jesus shows this in what he was willing to do for us.
You were once lost sheep, wandering every which way and being hunted by wolves. These wolves are your spiritual enemies: the devil, the world, and your sinful nature. Led by the devil, your spiritual enemies had completely surrounded you. You were doomed to be snatched by them and dragged away into the fires of hell. But even though you were already in the deadly clutches of your enemies, Jesus did not want to leave you to that fate. So, he left the green pastures of heaven and entered the wilderness of Earth to save you. When Jesus appeared, the wolves attacked him and killed him. In this moment, your spiritual enemies thought they had won, but it was by Jesus’ death, by the shedding of his blood, that the price that was necessary to save you was paid. By the shedding of Jesus’ blood, you were made his own. Jesus saved you from the clutches of your enemies by laying down his life of you. This is what sets Jesus apart from all other shepherds. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (verse 11). Other shepherds are willing to protect their sheep, but they wouldn’t go so far as laying down their lives for their sheep. It is through this act, through willingly laying down his own life for you, that Jesus shows just how much he loves you.
But Jesus didn’t leave you without a shepherd. As he says in the verses following our reading for today, “I lay down my life that I may take it up again” (John 10:17). Death had no power over Jesus. On the third day, he rose again from the dead, declaring his victory over your spiritual enemies. Because Jesus is risen, you remain safe from the attacks of your spiritual enemies and are led to green pastures and still waters that nourish the faith that you have been given. As the psalmist says, “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:2–3). These green pastures and still waters that your Good Shepherd nourishes you with are the means of grace, the Word and Sacraments.
Just like real sheep, who are led by the word of their shepherds, you are led by the Word of your Good Shepherd. You know Jesus’ voice because he speaks to you through his Word, and the words that he speaks to you are very comforting. When there are sins that are troubling you, Jesus says to you, “I forgive you all your sins.” When you feel like you are in danger from the wolves that surround you, Jesus says to you, “They will never snatch you out of my hand.” When you feel lost, Jesus says to you, “Follow me.” And when you feel like you are all alone, with no one to turn to, Jesus says to you, “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.” Your Good Shepherd not only leads you with these comforting words. He also nourishes you and strengthens you with them, just like he does with the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.
In the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, you are marked for eternal life, which Jesus promises to give to his sheep in the verses following our reading for today (verse 28). You are marked for eternal life when the waters of baptism wash your sins away. These waters continue to wash you to this day. For every day, your new self rises up out of the waters of your baptism and your old self is drowned in them. Through baptism, you are comforted and strengthened, knowing that you have been washed clean. For since you have been washed clean, you have been marked as Jesus’ own, meaning that the eternal life that he promises to give his sheep is yours.
While you wait for the day when you will receive your promised eternal life, you receive a foretaste of it in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. During this holy supper, you feast on the true body and blood of your Good Shepherd who laid down his life for you to win you that eternal life. Jesus willingly went to the cross and shed his blood for you, and through the shedding of his blood, you receive the forgiveness of sins. When you come to his table, along with your fellow sheep, the forgiveness of sins that he won for you on the cross is brought to you when you eat and drink Jesus’ true body and blood in the bread and the wine. Then, you leave his table strengthened and nourished in the confidence that you have been forgiven. These means of grace truly are the best green pastures and still waters that your Good Shepherd can provide you with in this life.
You are blessed to have a Good Shepherd who continues to provide for your spiritual needs and protect you from your spiritual enemies. But that doesn’t mean that you can let your guard down. Your spiritual enemies are cunning, and there are lots of tricks that they have up their sleeves that they use against you to try and lure you away from your Good Shepherd. One of their most cunning tricks is to use false teachers to leave you defenseless to their attacks. Even though Jesus is your Good Shepherd, he has left you with shepherds who he has tasked with watching over his sheep. These shepherds are your pastors. But not all pastors are true shepherds who serve the Good Shepherd. Some of them look good and sound good, but in reality, all they care about is themselves. They do not feel responsible for you. All they want is to make a living off of you. So, when the wolves attack, they show their true colors and leave the flock to fend for themselves. Jesus compares these false teachers to the hired hands who watch the sheep. He says, “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep” (verses 12–13). What a blessing it is to have a pastor who truly cares about you and is always willing to be there for you.
But that is only one of the tricks that you have to look out for. Another one of your spiritual enemies’ most cunning tricks is making their voices sound like the voice of your Good Shepherd. You look to God’s Word to hear the words of Jesus, but when you read them, the devil, the father of lies, says to you, “When Jesus said this, what he really meant was that.” As the world continues to live in sin and encourages you to join in with them, you point to what Jesus has said to you in his Word. But in response, the world says to you, “Those things only applied to the people of the Bible. We don’t have to follow those things anymore.” When your sinful nature tempts you to sin, you remember the words that Jesus spoke to you. But your sinful nature responds by saying, “You still have faith in Jesus, don’t you? It doesn’t matter what you do, because faith is all you need.” These, along with all other ways that your spiritual enemies attempt to lead you astray, can sound very convincing and can trick you into thinking that their voices are the voice of your Good Shepherd. But unfortunately, there are even times when you and I know that we are not hearing Jesus’ voice, yet we decide to listen to the false voices and follow them anyway. We must be careful, because these wolves are only trying to get us into their jaws so that they can snatch us and drag us away from our Good Shepherd, away from the green pastures and still waters of the means of grace, and into the fires of hell.
Even though we are sheep that love to wander and constantly fall for the tricks that our spiritual enemies use against us, we don’t need to fear losing our place in green pastures of heaven, because we belong to Jesus. As Jesus says in the verses following our reading for today, “No one will snatch [my sheep] out of my hand” (John 10:28). When we do wander into the clutches of our spiritual enemies, Jesus will be there to rescue us from them. No matter how far we’ve wandered away from him, Jesus is willing to go to the ends of the earth to lead us back to him. Jesus knows who his sheep are, and he will never abandon them, especially not when they need him most.
The sheep know the voice of their shepherd, but this knowing isn’t one-sided. Your Good Shepherd also knows you. But this knowing is much more than simply recognizing each other. Even the devil, the leader of the wolves, recognizes who Jesus is. This knowing is a knowledge that unites you with your Savior in love. You love Jesus, your Good Shepherd, and desire to follow him. But this love does not have its origin in you. It has its origin in Jesus and what he did for you. As the apostle John says, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Jesus loved you so much that he was willing to lay down his own life so that you may experience eternal life in the green pastures of heaven. And Jesus still shows his love for you in that, as your risen Lord, he leads you safely though the dangers of this world until you reach those green pastures of heaven. As the psalmist says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4). Jesus, your Good Shepherd is better than any other shepherd because no one has love that matches his. So, you can be confident that your Good Shepherd knows you and will lead you to the green pastures of heaven. As Jesus says, “I give [my sheep] eternal life, and they will never perish” (John 10:28).
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
+ + +
(picture from Saude Lutheran Church altar painting)
Palm Sunday – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Philippians 2:5-11
In Christ Jesus, who came to be crowned and clothed in our sin and shame in order to obtain eternal salvation for us, dear fellow redeemed:
We don’t know how many people witnessed Jesus’ coming to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The apostle John mentions “the large crowd” that had come to celebrate the Passover there (Joh. 12:12). The apostle Matthew describes “the crowds that went before [Jesus] and that followed him” (Mat. 21:9). The people made such a commotion with their scattering of cloaks and palm branches on the road and with their singing and shouting that “the whole city was stirred up, saying, ‘Who is this?’” (v. 10).
What a good question! “Who is this?” Some of His followers viewed Him as a great Teacher, one who taught the Scriptures with authority. Some viewed Him as a great worker of miracles, including many who knew He had raised Lazarus from the dead. Some, like the religious leaders, viewed Him as an imposter and blasphemer, an enemy who had to be eliminated. A great many in the crowd were convinced He was the Messiah, “the Son of David” (Mat. 21:9), “the King who comes in the name of the Lord” (Luk. 19:38), “even the King of Israel” (Joh. 12:13). But they didn’t have it quite clear what this Messiah would come to do.
Jesus’ disciples were there—Peter, James, John, and all the rest—, no doubt walking near Him as He rode forward on the donkey. Probably His good friends Lazarus, Martha, and Mary were there watching with nervous anticipation. What was going to happen next? We are not specifically told that Jesus’ mother Mary was present, but I expect that she was also in the crowd watching. What did she think?
I’m not sure that her first thought was, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” I imagine her first thought may have been, “That is my son.” Did she look upon His arrival with pride, as so many shouted His praises? Did she look on in fear, knowing that many wanted Jesus dead? Perhaps she thought back to that unexpected visit of the angel, when she was just a young woman betrothed to Joseph. “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” said the angel (Luk. 1:28). “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (v. 31).
The angel told her what this special Child would do: “[T]he Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (v. 33). For a long time, the Church has celebrated this Annunciation, this announcement, the day of our Lord’s incarnation, on March 25th, which falls on Monday of Holy Week this year.
Now as Jesus came to Jerusalem, the purpose of His incarnation would become clear. Mary may have wondered if this was the moment the angel had spoken about. Was Jesus about to sit on the throne in Jerusalem and rule over the people of Israel? But she couldn’t forget the words of Simeon when she and Joseph brought Jesus to Jerusalem for the first time forty days after His birth. Simeon said to her, “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).
Before the week of that Palm Sunday had ended, Mary would feel the sword piercing her soul. The praises of the crowds would turn to jeers. The hope of Jesus’ followers would become despair. Jesus would be nailed to the cross. Life would give way to death. What a shame! What a tremendous loss! The disciples who unknowingly talked with Jesus after His resurrection told Him with sadness, “[W]e had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luk. 24:21).
And of course that is exactly what Jesus had accomplished! Jesus had to be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes to be condemned to death. He had to be delivered over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified (Mat. 20:18-19). He told His disciples that these things would happen. They had to be so!
This was exactly God’s plan. This is how Satan’s head would be crushed and his works would be destroyed (Gen. 3:15, 1Jo. 3:8). This is how the wages of sin would be paid, and death overcome (Rom. 6:23). God the Father would send His Son to take “the form of a servant” and be “born in the likeness of men,” as today’s Epistle says. And His Son would willingly humble Himself “by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
On Palm Sunday, it looked like a king was coming to Jerusalem, a powerful prophet, a conqueror. Jesus was those things, but you can hardly tell it five days later. You will hear about this at our services on Friday, how He was beaten, thorns driven into His skull, flogged, blood dripping from too many wounds to count, nailed to a cross with criminals on either side, crying out in anguish.
The question each of us needs to ask ourselves is: Do I really want to be associated with this person? The world of our day mocks Him, just like the Jewish religious leaders and the Roman soldiers who were gathered around His cross. The way of Christ, a life lived according to His Word, is viewed as outdated, too restrictive, even by some as hateful. “What can Jesus do for you that you can’t do for yourself?” they ask. “How can Jesus guide you through present challenges, when He lived so long ago?”
“If you want to be successful,” they say, “you won’t get there by trusting in Jesus or being like Jesus.” And the world is right about that. If you want success and praise from the world, you probably won’t get it by putting the Word of God first in your life, by taking up the cross of scorn and suffering in the world and following after Jesus. Do you really want this trouble? Do you want to be mocked and pushed aside and persecuted? Do you want to be hated like He was?
And if we are answering honestly, we will say, “Not really. I don’t want that trouble. I don’t want to be left out. I don’t want to suffer.” That’s why we have compromised when we should have confessed the truth. That’s why we have hidden when we should have stood our ground. That’s why we have remained silent when people around us by their sinful words and sinful actions mocked our Lord and His holy Word. We weren’t willing to humble ourselves like Jesus did or give our lives in service to God and our neighbors like He did.
But take a good look at Him. Watch Jesus coming down the road to Jerusalem. There He goes into the city, into the lion’s den, onward to His death. What courage He showed! What strength of purpose! What love for His Father and for you! He went forward humbly in obedience to His Father’s will. The merciful God wanted to save you. He wanted your sin to be atoned for. He wanted your eternal life to be secured.
This Jesus, who went to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, is not ashamed of you. He is not angry that He had to pay for your sins. He is not bitter that He had to die your death. He knows all your weaknesses. He knows how poorly you have represented His name. And He forgives all your transgressions. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him—on Jesus Christ—the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6).
The Man riding into Jerusalem was no typical teacher, prophet, miracle worker, or king. He was all those things and so much more. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Ruler over heaven and earth, the Conqueror of sin, devil, and death. The world calls Him a “has-been” (if it acknowledges that He ever was). But what does the world have to chirp about? Greed? Lies? War? Death? Every promise made by the world fails, and must fail.
The promises of Jesus never fail. He is the Lord of life. Not only did He humbly and willingly pay for your sins, but He gladly meets you here through His Word and Sacraments. With the same purpose and love that brought Him to Jerusalem, He comes here to forgive you, encourage you, strengthen you. He comes to change your heart and mind, so that you are equipped and prepared to love as He loved and to suffer as He suffered.
We welcome Him here in the same way that the crowds welcomed Him to Jerusalem: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” We know who this is. It is Jesus, the Son of God, our Savior. We know His name that God the Father has bestowed on Him, “the name that is above every name.” The name of Jesus describes what He did for us—He saved us!
We honor His name in church by bowing our heads each week in repentance and by humbly trusting in His promise of grace and forgiveness. With cleansed and thankful hearts, we “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” And outside of church, we honor His name by speaking His Word of truth and living our lives according to it.
We do want to be associated with this person. He redeemed us from our sin and death, and He lives to bless and keep us as members of His everlasting kingdom.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
+ + +
(picture from “The Procession in the Streets of Jerusalem” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)