"Remember How He Told You"

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

On the first day of the week, after the Passover had ended, the faithful women who had ministered to Jesus throughout His earthly ministry came to do their fallen Lord one last service. They came bringing spices to do for Him according to the custom of the Jews, that they might prepare His body properly, since there had not been time to do so on Friday, before the start of the Sabbath. They came with heavy hearts and downcast spirits.

No doubt, the events of the past weekend were a shock to the system. They had, in the course of one week, seen the crowds adoring the Lord Jesus Christ as the coming king who would sit on the throne of David. They had witnessed Jesus overturning the marketplace set up in the Temple precincts. They had heard His wondrous but perplexing preaching.

The Light Is Dawned

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Break forth, O beauteous heav'nly light,

And usher in the morning.

Ye shepherds, shrink not with afright,

The day of grace is dawning.

This Child, though weak in infancy,

Our confidence and joy shall be,

The pow'r of Satan breaking,

Our peace with God now making (LSB 378.1).

Rejoice, O you faithful people! Shout for joy to the Lord! The light has broken forth. The long, dark night of sin and death and sadness has ended. The beauteous heavenly light has broken out, and the glorious dawn of eternity has risen.

The Light of the World is risen upon you, and the day has banished the night forever. The lone star which led the way through the night and gave light to but a few has now become the Morning Star which shines on us and illuminates the whole universe. Night is turned to day. Death is turned to life. Mourning is turned to dancing. Weakness is turned to triumph.

The Works of the Lord

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“The right hand of the Lord has struck with power!” With great power and might, the mighty arm of the Lord has gone forth into the deep darkness, and He has struck with all the power of heaven. The Lord of Hosts has stretched forth His hand and has triumphed gloriously!

Christ our Lord has been crucified and has died. And this is glorious in our eyes! For this is the great glory by which the Lord of heaven stretches forth His mighty right hand. He does not stretch forth His hand in warfare. He does not stretch forth His hand to smite the sinners from the earth. He does not stretch forth His hand to drub Satan into the ground before the world's eyes.

The Suffering of Jesus

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We gather again this evening to meditate on the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today, we mark how the Lamb of God offers Himself up for the sins of the world. But this is no funeral service. We are not here to mourn over the dead body of Jesus. Rather, we are here to meditate upon His passion in a more fruitful, more excellent way. We, therefore, meditate on the three-fold suffering of Christ upon the cross.

First, of course, consider the physical suffering of the cross and the events leading up to it. Our Lord has not eaten since the Passover meal He partook with the apostles the on the night when He was betrayed. He was beaten, first by the guards of the Sanhedrin, then by Herod's soldiers, and then by Pilate's men. He was whipped and scourged until His flesh hung in ribbons. A crown of thorns was fashioned and struck into His flesh. Spikes of iron were driven into His wrists and feet. He was suspended high in the air, exposed to the elements. He was fed vinegar.

All His Benefits

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Tonight we have gathered to mark the beginning of the Triduum, the last three days of our Lord's Passion. Tonight you have heard the account of the institution of the Lord's Supper, the inauguration of the new covenant in the blood of Christ. And tonight you have sung the offertory Psalm. And it is to this psalm we turn our meditations.

“What shall I render to the Lord?” you have sung. What shall you render to the Lord? What will you give back to God? How will you give anything back to God? Is there anything which you might have that God wants?

Of course, you want to. It is human nature to want to give back. In this life, nothing is free. There is always some string attached. Even if you do not see the price tag now, somewhere along the line it will cost you. Better to deal with the obligations up front than be surprised later.

Fearful Foreshadowing

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I. Fearful Foreshadowing

Already it is clear: There will be trouble.

Moses is speaking to the Israelites one last time. They are about to enter the Promised Land, while it is time for him to climb Mount Nebo and die. These are his last words to the people that he has led as a called servant of the Lord; he preaches the Word of the Lord, sings his final song.

It has been a long haul, this journey: No sooner were the Israelites safe from Egypt that they built agolden calf and elected to call it their god. The Lord mercifully spared them that day, but other apostasy would follow. The disobedience of the people has made it a very long haul, for they were rewarded with forty extra years in the desert because of their doubt.

Now they are to enter, and Moses speaks one last time.

Who Is This Man?

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

He was the most awesome dude around. He had a huge entourage. Crowds literally ran from city to city just to get a glimpse of him. He was constantly surrounded with adoring fans and celebrity-hounds. People would mob him just to touch his clothes. If you wanted to get into the most exclusive places, to be with the “in crowd”, he was the guy to follow. If he were on Twitter, he would have been trending constantly.

He was the guy that everybody loved and hated all at once. All the ladies wanted him, and all the men wanted to be him. They were jealous because they could not lay claim to his allegiance. He could steal their loved ones away in a heartbeat, with just a look or greeting. He melted hearts and altered lives.

The Son and the Stone

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In today's Gospel lesson, Jesus tells a parable to the people, neither the subject nor the interpretation of which are particularly difficult to grasp. The theme of the careful vineyard owner and his unfruitful vineyard echo throughout the Scriptures, and especially from the Song of the Vineyard in Isaiah chapter five.

In the parable, as St. Luke records it, the Lord of the vineyard planted the vineyard and then leased it to some tenant-farmers. Then he went away for a long time. At the right time, he sent a servant to collect the rent. But the tenants would not give it, and instead they beat the servant and threw him out. The landlord sent a second, and then a third servant. And each time the tenants treated the servant worse than the one before. But still no rent paid.

Jesus Died for Preaching

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Word they still shall let remain

Nor any thanks have for it;

He's by our side upon the plain

With His good gifts and spirit.

And take they our life,

Goods, fame, child, and wife,

Though these all be gone,

Our vict'ry has been won;

The Kingdom ours remaineth (LSB 656.4).

The devil and his minions in the world hate the Word of God. He would love nothing more than to see the Word extinguished, or at least hidden away in some dark, dusty corner and forgotten forever. The devil can abide the Word existing, but he cannot abide His being preached, proclaimed, or believed in any real way.

The devil would be just fine with letting the Word of God out in the world, if it were retold as some sort of neat story or historical narrative. He will let scholars use it in reconstructing the timeline of the evolution of religion and philosophy. He will sit back as self-proclaimed experts in the Bible attempt to tell the world what the Good Book says, as long as it has nothing to do with Jesus, the Gospel, or actually repentance and forgiveness of sins.

There Was A Man Who Had Two Sons

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Who doesn’t like a good story of redemption? Stories of people who have lost it all, been trod under by humanity at large; been addicts, boozers or whores; a thief, an adulterer, a publican, a tax collector, a prostitute or a prodigal and then by the grace of God have been restored. Angels sing, orchestras swell, and a tear forms in our eye as the words I once was lost but now am found echo through the canyons of our minds: Twas grace that brought me safe this far and grace will lead me home.

  The more massive the sin, the more horrendous the act, the sweeter that voyage home is – and the Prodigal Son certainly is no disappointment. He walked out of his home, walked out on his father, leaving his virtue, humility and godliness at the farm gate.

 

Hypocrites and Their Sins

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This evening, we consider two separate episodes in St. John's account of our Lord's Passion. From both the Jewish leaders and from Pontius Pilate we learn the pattern of the hypocrisy that plagues both religious and irreligious sorts.

“Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.” What irony this is! The Jews are mired deep in mayhem and murder, so deep that they cannot think of anything but bloodlust, and yet they will not enter the house of a Gentile, lest they be defiled and not be able to eat the Passover meal.

Eating Rocks

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Holy Scriptures were written for your learning, that you may come to know the things of God and His plan of salvation for you. Therefore, St. Paul writes, both to the Corinthians and to you, that he does not wish you to be ignorant.

“Our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea.” All were under the cloud; that is, they were under the presence of God. The Lord God was present with His people under the form of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. In this pillar, He led His people through the wilderness of Sinai for forty years, from the time He brought them out of Egypt until He delivered them into the Promised Land.

The children of Israel were under the cloud, which is to say that they were under God. They were under the covenant which the Lord had sworn to their fathers generations ago. He had sworn to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He had sworn to make them into a mighty and innumerable nation. He had sworn to give them a land flowing with milk and honey. And so the people traveled under the cloud. They dwelt under the hand of God. And while they did, no evil befell them, nor did their garments or provisions give out.

And they all passed through the sea. As the people traveled under the cloud, they passed through the waters of the Red Sea on dry ground, and not one of the children of Israel was lost. However, the whole host of Egypt was drowned and died. The people of God were delivered from the hands of the enemy by the same God who dwelt with them and overshadowed them.

“And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” Some allege that this is merely a metaphor, another way of speaking about the passage of the Israelites through the sea under the leadership of Moses. However, this is more than simply repetition. When St. Paul says that the Israelites were baptized into Moses, he is speaking metaphorically not about the passage through the Sea, but their entrance into the covenant.

The children of Israel were baptized into Moses, that is, they were brought into the covenant which was given through Moses. They were circumcised, redeemed before God, and kept within the confines of the Torah. The Law was binding on them, and so they were bound up in the Word of the Lord which came through Moses.

“And all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink.” In the wilderness the children of Israel ate spiritual food, because their food was provided them by God immediately out of His bounty. He provided for them manna in the mornings and quail in the evenings. Even when they grumbled against Him, the Lord never allowed His children to starve.

Nevertheless, the children of Israel grumbled. They grumbled against God. They grumbled against Moses and Aaron. They grumbled against manna – “What is it?”, they called it. They grumbled against anything they could find to grumble against. God provided for them graciously, and their answer? “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” (Numbers 21:5). They could not even see the bounty that God was giving them, because their sinful hearts wanted something else.

This is not a dysfunction peculiar to the children of Israel or confined to a time long ago. For no heart of man wants the things of God. The sinful eye is always looking over the fence, around the corner, anywhere but where God has placed His gifts for you.

This begins with the desire to be god unto yourself. You do not wish God to be Lord of the universe, or at least certainly not the boss of you. Therefore, neither do you want to accept the things He gives, because that would entail acknowledging Him as the giver of all good gifts.

Since you do not want His gifts, neither do you want to hallow His Name, or keep the Lord's Day. You would rather refresh yourself how you see fit, whether that is under the covers, in the woods, or wherever else you might find today's happiness.

And, since you are always looking around for newer and better than what God has given you, you find it very difficult, yea impossible to keep your eyes from adultery, your hands from violence, murder, and stealing, and your heart from deceit and coveting.

Even when God gives His most precious and perfect gifts – His holy Word and Sacraments – you are not pleased with those either. The Word of God says that you may not do just as you please, and so you despise preaching and His Word.

The Holy Supper of the Lord is given to you to be a blessed feast, a joyous banquet come down from heaven. But it is also given to be your daily bread. It is your spiritual food and drink which will sustain you through all your days in the wilderness of this body and life. This is the daily bread for which you pray in the Our Father.

And yet, you look elsewhere for these benefits. How often does your soul loathe “this worthless food”? You look at this measly bread and wine and think: “What is it?” You look for the forgiveness of sins not where God has promised to give it, but within the rumblings of your own heart and mind – which, by the way, are incapable of finding it.

“All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” They ate the spiritual food and drank the spiritual drink, which you also eat and drink, which is Christ.

They drank from the Rock, to which God directed them. They came to the rock, and Moses smote the rock, and from it poured life-giving water for the Israelites in the desert. By the smiting of the rock, the people lived.

The spiritual Rock from which they, and also you, drank is Christ. To Him also the Lord directs His people, that you may drink His living waters. And the smiting of Moses was laid on Him. That is, the condemnation which comes through the Law. The punishment and wrath which the Law threatens against all who break the Commandments was bound up and smote this spiritual Rock, and out poured water, blood, and Spirit – poured out for the life of all men.

The people of Israel were under the cloud, baptized into Moses, and ate and drank spiritual things, but “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” God was not pleased with them because of their sin. He was not pleased because the people were hard-hearted and stiff-necked. He was not pleased because they grumbled against His prophets and against His gifts. And so those who had come out through the sea were put to death in the desert.

With the children of men God is not well pleased. However, there is one with whom the Lord has declared Himself to be well-pleased. And that is our spiritual Rock, which is Jesus Christ. The Father is indeed well-pleased with Jesus, because He has obeyed the Father's will. He has fulfilled the demands of the Law, and has handed Himself over into death in the wilderness, that you might live to see the Promised Land. He has been struck, that from Him flows the water, blood, and Spirit which bring you forgiveness, life, and salvation.

You are baptized, not into Moses and the Law, but into Christ. Your covenant is not one of flesh, but of the Spirit. Your covenant does not end in death, but is begun in death and continues into eternal life. Because you are in Christ, therefore with you God is well pleased.

And so, being baptized into Christ, being a well-pleasing child of God, you now eat and drink of the same spiritual food as Moses and the Israelites. You eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ. But you have no need to ask “What is it?”, because you know what this food is. Our Lord Jesus Christ has told you: “This is My Body, given for you; This is My Blood, shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.”

Likewise, you join in the same worship of the same God. For the saints of old are now gone before you into the heavenly realms, where they now worship around the throne of God. There, they eat and drink of the Lord's banquet at the Lord's table. And here, in this place, on this altar, that banquet comes to you. Here, in this holy liturgy, the heavenly worship comes to earth, and you join your hearts and hands and voices with the patriarchs and prophets, with the wanderers and wise men, with the angels and archangels, and with the whole company of heaven. You partake of the same food of heaven. For you have the same Lord who serves you with the same gifts for the same forgiveness of your sins.

Praise the Father, who from heaven

To His own this food has given,

Who, to mend what we have done,

Gave into death His only Son (LSB 627.4).

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.