Sixth Sunday of Easter                             Trinity Lutheran Church   

13 May 2012                                           Murdock, NE                                       

                                                      + Jesu Juva +

Honor Your Father and Your Mother (Fourth Commandment)

Have you seen a woman’s body lately?  Who doesn’t?  When Adam saw Eve’s body with his eyes for the first time on their wedding day he joyously exclaimed:  “Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!  She shall be called ‘woman,” for she was taken out of man!’” (Genesis 2:23) 

Daughters of Eve come in all different shapes and sizes.  Different hairstyles.  Blue eyes, green eyes, brown eyes.  And from the beginning the Lord created a woman’s body so that with the help of her husband a little baby is conceived and grows in her womb.  “Be fruitful and increase in number” (Genesis 1:28) is God’s Word and God’s will for husbands and wives!  A new life is created by the Lord through a mother’s body!  This is precisely why Adam called his wife “Eve” because she was “the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20). Incredible!   Pure gift!  What joy!  Being a mother, that is!    

Mom lives to serve and take care of that little life growing inside her.  She has the joy of living for some one else and not for herself.  Some things she can control.  Others things she cannot.  As the pregnancy progresses, the hormones shift and rage.  The body stretches to the breaking point.  The waddle increases.  The back breaks.  The weight gain magnifies. 

For nine months Mom shares – her warmth, nutrients, and bodily space with her child.  After the labor pains and birth Mom nurses her baby and raises the child to be an adult.  This is hard physical work.  God gives the woman a body so that she can conceive, carry, give birth, nurse, and raise her child.  As she does this difficult vocation God is doing and giving – through her!  This is why you are to “honor” your mother as the Fourth Commandment demands.    

As Mom carries and delivers the baby, life and death are both at hand.  This is why Mother’s Day for so many women is bittersweet.  The baby is extremely fragile and very vulnerable.  Miscarriages happen.  Some times after a tough nine months the baby dies in the delivery room.  And all hopes and expectations are devastatingly destroyed. 

Pregnancy is risky for Mom too.  Sometimes Mom dies while giving birth.  In such a tragedy Mom, in this ultimate act of love, literally sacrifices hers life for her baby’s.  Here Mom follows the example of Jesus Himself who laid down His life for us.  1 John 3:16 states:  “By this we know love, that He [Jesus] laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” 

Even as Mom endures the labor pains of giving birth, she, like Jesus on the cross, bears in her body the curse of the fall and the penalty of sin.  In Genesis 3:16 God stated:  “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.” 

Motherhood is a high and holy calling from God Himself.  Through mothers God Himself is at work in the world giving and sustaining life.  God gives life, protects, and prolongs life in the world through mothers!  Mothers, along with fathers, are God’s “representatives” (Large Catechism) on the earth.  Parents (a husband and a wife / a man and a woman) are God’s tools, His instruments, channels and means to give blessings to His creation. 

Notice, I said a husband and a wife.  A mother (a woman) and a father (a man) given to each other in holy marriage!  God is not pleased with the man-made arrangement called:  same sex marriage.  Spin it or try to justify it any way your want:  committed, loving, monogamous, or whatever.  The fact remains:  it is not God-pleasing for a man to marry a man or for a woman to marry a woman!

President Obama has made a grave error on this matter by giving his explicit approval to something that God clearly forbids and that is only in the way of death and total rebellion against God’s mandate and institution FROM THE BEGINNING.  The president does not have history on his side.  Historic Christianity of which we are part does! 

God’s Word is very clear regarding marriage.  God brought Eve to Adam.  This was the institution of holy marriage!  Jesus even quotes Genesis as historic fact in Matthew 19:4-6:  “‘Haven’t you read that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.  So they are no longer two, but one.  Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.’”  We must pray for the president and any one else who errs on this matter so that they will repent, believe the truth of Holy Scripture and proclaim it without reservation.      

Sometimes I hear women say this:  “Oh, I’m just a mother.”  Other times I hear women question in desperation:  “And I gave up a career for this?  I went to college to do this?”  As if being a mother is a nothing compared to making lots of money or being the CEO of a large company.  As if having a life without children is the only lifestyle to be emulated.  Nonsense! If you are ever tempted or have given in to the temptation to diminish or disparage the vocation of motherhood, it is time to repent.  Seriously! 

Why?  Because motherhood is a God-given vocation!  It is His will!  Genesis 2:24 states:  “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”   And the result of the one flesh union is a child or children.  And if your body doesn’t work right and you can’t conceive, then you can adopt.  That is precisely what God has done for all of us in Jesus.  Ephesians 1:5,7 says:  “He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will [so that] … in him [Jesus] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

Being a mother is holy work because it is hooked with the mandate and institution of the Lord Himself.  What is one of the most God-pleasing and greatest works in the world that you can do ladies?  The answer:  It is to be a mother!  God distinguishes father and mother “above all other persons on earth and places them next to himself,” (Large Catechism).    

Through the every day drudgery of sleepless nights, changing messy and leaking diapers, cleaning up the puke, the never ending feedings, tending the teething, earaches and fevers, putting the band aides on skinned up knees and elbows, baking the cookies, and sewing patches in the jeans, God is at work through you Moms!  Moms, God employs your body, hands, ears, mouth, arms, legs and heart to care for your children!

Moms, you are to use all your wits and soul to sacrificially serve your children by doing the laundry, grilling cheeseburgers, driving to endless school and sports activities, bringing them to Holy Baptism, reading the Bible stories, teaching them how to pray the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and bringing them to church to worship Jesus.

Moms, where you have failed with your children or with your family -- or children, where you have failed your Moms or your family, confess your sins to one another and then let Jesus mediate with His Good Friday forgiveness.  His blood cleanses sinners from all their sins.  Sins that you have committed against your children.  Or the sins that your children have committed against you!  With the blood of Jesus there is forgiveness for you and for everyone!  That’s right!  His forgiveness is for you!  And with His forgiveness there is life – the freedom to live as Mom for your children and family.  With Jesus’ forgiveness there is salvation.  That is for sure! 

Happy Mother’s Day!

In the holy and blessed Name of Jesus!  

Fifth Sunday of Easter                          Trinity Lutheran Church   

6 May 2012                                         Murdock, NE                                       

                                                      + Jesu Juva +

Acts 8:26-40

First Christian Church of Jerusalem is deeply devastated!  Shaken to the core!  One of her preachers Stephen is dead.  Stoned to death.  Murdered in cold blood!  Executed for his faith in Jesus as the promised Savior.  Martyred for being a Christian and taking his Christianity quite seriously.  Marked with the cross and name of Jesus in holy baptism, going to church to receive the forgiveness of sins in the preached Word and at the Sacrament of the Altar week in and week out cost Stephen his earthly life!   

And now Saul the Pharisee ramps up his persecution of Christians.  Goes from house to house.  And if you’re a Christian you are taken from your home and put into a new one:  prison!  And if you dare to audaciously proclaim your faithfulness to a so-called Jesus of Nazareth who supposedly rose from the dead and who claimed to be God in the flesh, then your mouth would be silenced as well!  Permanently!  Either by volleyball sized rocks hurled at your head, by a blade thrust in your back, by a sword lopping off your head, or by spikes pinning your body to a cross until you’re graveyard dead! 

Ruthless.  Brutal.  Callous.  Eliminate all those who are baptized in Jesus’ name!  Who claim that Jesus is the Vine and that they are the branches!  Saul will stop at nothing to destroy the early church!  He will use whatever means!   All his religious wits and wherewithal!  And most especially the raw power of the Roman state!

How will the church survive?  She has no corporate headquarters!  No lawyers or lobbyists at Rome!  No war chest with World Bank of Rome, the Royal Bank of Scotland, or with First Union Bank and Trust of Jerusalem!  No consultants!  No pomp and circumstance!  No masthead mission statement adopted at a convention!  No impact studies!  Oh sure, she has a bunch of preachers fixated with a crucified and resurrected Jesus-sermon in their mouths!  But such a sermon appears to be no match for opponents!  A word from their mouths can’t be of any help for the weary and worn down church as she struggles just to survive and is on verge of death!    

First Church of Jerusalem, to human eyes, is pathetically poor, weak, and too little to withstand her powerful enemies.  She may as well just despair.  Close her doors.  Call it quits.  And die!

But suffering, persecution, and death is the Lord’s cup of tea!  He will use it for the church’s good!  For the church’s life!  For the church’s thriving!  For the church’s growth!  Even for your good, your thriving, and your growing! 

“Really?  Suffering, persecution, and death can be for the church’s and our good?  Come on Reverend!  You can’t be serious!” 

I am!  Deadly!  I really mean it!  And I won’t back down!  Even if you decide to call the doctor, reserve a room with padded pink walls, and measure me for a jacket that they call straight.  I will keep telling you this even if you command me not to!  Or if you promise me a permanent golf vacation!  I won’t change my mind!

Hear me out.  I beg you.  Suffering, persecution, and death does the reverse of what Saul planned – what Saul diabolically had in mind.  Instead, of destroying the church Saul’s persecution DID JUST THE OPPOSITE!  Saul’s stalking and bullying helped the church spread throughout the world!  The church grew!  The church flourished! 

The Holy Spirit’s power is made manifest by converting people to faith in Jesus and their receiving Holy Baptism!  Faith is the new creation!  In other words, in times of utter calamity, darkness and death the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, continues through the Word and Sacrament to call, gather, enlighten, sanctify, and keep the whole Christian church on earth with Jesus Christ in the one true faith!  You remember the Lord Jesus made a promise:  “I will build my church … not even the gates of hell will prevail against her,” (Matthew 16:18). 

Check it out!  Preacher Philip has to high tail it out of Jerusalem.  Otherwise he’ll be as dead as Stephen if Saul gets to him.  He is directed by an angel of the Lord to go south towards Gaza.    

And on his way he is lead by the Holy Spirit?  Did you catch all that?  Directed by an angel and then led by the Holy Spirit!  Who’s in charge?  Hmm?

The Lord is.  Philip is directed to meet a man of international intrigue and fame!  A mover and a shaker in world politics!  A Secretary of the Treasury!  For her majesty and royal highness Queen Candace of the sovereign state of Ethiopia!  To be “in charge of all the treasury” of a nation means that this Ethiopian eunuch is a very powerful and influential man.

This Secretary of the Ethiopian treasury has been in Jerusalem.  To “worship!” A religious man!  But he doesn’t know God-in-the-flesh, crucified and risen Jesus!  He’s on his way back home.  Takes a pit stop.  While still in his chariot he’s reading something.  Not a map.  Not The Hunger Games or The Vampire Diaries.  But the Bible!  Yes, that’s right, the Bible.  Specifically Isaiah, chapter 53!  You know:  “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth, … ect.”    

Preacher Philip goes right up to the royal official.  “Good afternoon sir!  Do you understand what you’re reading?”

“Greetings preacher!  I sure don’t!” the Ethiopian states.  “Come and explain it to me.  I can’t figure it out.  About whom is Isaiah talking?  Himself or some other dude?”  

Philip’s answer is that the Suffering Servant, the Lamb led to the slaughter of Isaiah 53 is none other that Jesus Himself!  Philip proclaims Jesus.  He preaches the “good news” that Jesus is the Savior.  That Isaiah 53 Jesus died for sinners!  For the ungodly!  For His enemies!  For men like Philip.  Even for Ethiopian Treasury secretaries who work for Queen Candace!  He took the world’s sin in His Body on the cross!  Jesus’ blood is the only “atoning sacrifice for our sins,” (1 John 4:10).

Faith comes by hearing!  And hearing by the preaching of Christ Jesus!  Philip has preached!  The sermon bears fruit!  The Ethiopian believes.  Then he asks Philip to baptize him!  “‘Look here is water.  Why shouldn’t I be baptized?’  Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.”

As soon as the baptism is over the Spirit takes Philip away.  Has further use for him.  Puts him to work in Philistine territory, the city of Azotus, to “preach the gospel” in that area until he reached Caesarea.

The Lord has His church!  The Lord Jesus is with her.  As it went with Jesus so it goes with the church and His Christians in the church (suffering, persecution, and death).  And hidden in all that the church goes on.  She flourishes and even grows. 

We witnessed this with Philip and the Ethiopian.  Despite the raging hostility of Saul and his henchmen who murdered Stephen and hunted Christians down from house to house.  You have witnessed this here at Trinity for 120 years. Despite whatever furious and frantic antagonism from another Saul in our day or one who is yet to come the Lord will have His church!  The “good news of Jesus” for the forgiveness of sins will be preached.  People will be baptized.  Faith will be created and sustained. All this is the Lord’s way!  For the good of the church as well as yours!  No need to despair!  No need to worry!  No need to fear!

In the Name of Jesus. 

Fourth Sunday of Easter                         Trinity Lutheran Church   

29 April 2012                                         Murdock, NE                                       

                                                      + Jesu Juva +

Acts 4:1-12

Did you see the massive collision?  Or hear it?  Sure you did!  Just a few minutes ago from the lectern!  Wow!  An incredible impact!  What a pile up!  And two unschooled and ordinary men went to jail for it! 

What was the collision?  You heard it!  You felt it’s mammoth impact too! 

IT WAS A SERMON!  A sermon was preached to sinners!  By the apostles Peter and John!  The apostles preach a sermon that train wrecks into ears that will not hear and yet impacts with ears that do hear after a miraculous healing of a 40 something lame man. 

What a sermon!  It t-bones everyone within earshot!  It has such an impact that “many who heard the message believed and the number of men grew to about five thousand.” 

On the other hand the sermon really worried other people.  You know.  The usual round up of suspects!  The priests.  The captain of the temple guard.  The Sadducees.  The entire Sanhedrin, the high priest, and his family.  Worries turned to whispers.  Whispers turned into concerns.  Concerns led to secret meetings.  Meetings led to the preachers being arrested and jailed. 

That’s what you do with preachers who threaten your entire self-made and self-sustaining idolatrous way of life before the world and most especially before God!  Can’t be having preachers get in our faces and telling us that we’re not the measure of all things!  Good grief!  We won’t stand for that!

What did Peter and John preach?  Was it really that bad?  Let’s review.  Here’s the essence of the sermon:  “You crucified Jesus!  You put Him to death!  You are responsible!  You did it!  You rejected Jesus!  But God raised him from the dead!  He is risen!  Rejected, crucified, dead, buried, but raised from the grave Jesus is now the capstone, the cornerstone of everything we believe!  And because Jesus rose from the dead, He is the first fruits!  His resurrection ensures our resurrection from the dead!  The forgiveness that He won for all sinners will bear fruit for those who believe in Him:  the resurrection of the body and life everlasting!”

Are you ready to jail them too?  Are you grinding your teeth in anger?  Have you cupped your hands over your ears to protect you from such offensive preaching?

Or does such a sermon give you great joy?

Oh, Peter’s not done preaching!  He’s got a real zinger at the end of today’s text.  If you thought he and John were a bit too excessive with part one, get a load of part two!  Jail time might not be enough after Peter backs up, shoves the sermon into gear, and then puts the pedal to the metal to cause another major collision!  Another major smashup!   

Listen!  “Salvation,” Peter categorically proclaims, “is found in no one else than this Jesus whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead!  There is no other name under heaven given to men than the name of crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus by which we must be saved.”   

Now that’s a sermon that causes a huge pile up!  An enormous chain reaction!  After all, sermons with generic God-talk are fine and dandy! But never one so specific as Peter just preached!  Salvation only in Jesus?  Really? 

That’s not exercising religious diversity Peter!  Come on!  What about Buddha?  The many deities of Hinduism?  Shintoism?  Mormonism?  The Watchtower Society?  Judaism?  Masonry?  Islam?  Aren’t we stronger by being more diverse?  Doesn’t every religion have a bit of the truth?  Shouldn’t we be a religious melting pot?  Aren’t you a bit too narrow Peter?

Peter doesn’t back down!  He preaches the truth!  The truth of Jesus!  The truth of Jesus who saves!  “There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”  And that name is Jesus! 

Jesus alone is the Savior of sinners!  No one else is.  You aren’t.  And no other false idols are either!

Only the name of Jesus saves!  His name has the power to give you forgiveness, rescue you from death and damnation.  The name of Jesus protects you from God’s wrath against all your sin. 

There are loads of names in the world.  Names that can inspire you.  Names that provide you with nice role models to follow.  Name that can teach you morality.  Names that teach you how to gain and protect your wealth.  Names that help you get fit, lose weight, cut your belly fat and lower your cholesterol.  But there is only one name that saves you from sin, raises you from the dead, and gives you eternal life – the NAME OF JESUS!

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!  He is the only door for the sheep.  He is the only gate to heaven.  “No one comes to the Father except through me,”  He promised.

The name of Jesus is an inclusive name.  In other words, He died for all.  The name of Jesus is also an exclusive name.  In other words, only He died for all.

Jesus achieved and won salvation for all sinners and it is only in Him that anyone has salvation. 

Jesus kept the Ten Commandments perfectly for you and so only in Him is there perfection for you. 

In no other name than Jesus is there forgiveness.  In no other name is there life.  In no other name is there salvation.  That is because no one else ever died and rose from the dead never to die again! 

The no-other-name-for-salvation has been given to you.  In your Baptism!  You bear His name as His baptized brothers and sisters. 

Therefore, you can call upon His name in any and every trouble.  You are given to cling to Jesus’ name in whatever suffering, trial, or temptation that comes your way. 

And like Peter and John, the time may come for you to suffer for Jesus’ name.  The time may come very soon (although I pray it never does) that by bearing Jesus’ name and by proclaiming His name as a Christian when you too may be jailed or even put to death! 

Whatever happens know this: that those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus WILL BE SAVED!

In the Name of Jesus.  

St. Luke 24:36-49

How often do you hear it?  Maybe you’ve said it to yourself.  I hear it all the time.  “Pastor, the Bible is so hard to understand.  It’s too hard for me.” 

Sometimes the comments go the other way.  The total opposite!  “The Bible is easy to understand!  It’s all about what you’re supposed to do!  It tells you how to live!  The Golden Rule!  Do unto others …”

Well, what does the Lord say?  We should let Him have His say, shouldn’t we? 

Let’s ask Him!  Shall we?  All right.  Here goes.  “Lord, help us to understand the Scriptures?”

And His answer is amazing!  It will blow your mind!  So obvious!  So simple!  “This is what I told you while I was still with you,” Jesus says. 

Really?  He told us already?  Yes.  Numerous times.  On many occasions!  But we just didn’t seem to get it.  I guess we didn’t have ears to hear what He was teaching.  “This is what I told you while I was still with you:  EVERYTHING must be fulfilled that is written about ME in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”  

Whoa!  Did you catch that?  Did Jesus say what I thought He just said?  “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about ME in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”  Law of Moses = Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  Prophets = Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jonah, etc.  Psalms = the hymnal and prayer book of the Old Testament – the psalms!  Jesus categorically announces that the entire Old Testament is about HIM!  “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about ME!”  

All about Jesus!  The Old Testament – Moses, all the prophets, and the psalms -- has a Jesus fixation!  A Jesus obsession!  A Jesus addiction!  A Jesus mania!  “EVERYTHING must be fulfilled that is written about ME in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” 

Who would have ever imagined?  After all, most of the big wig preachers and Bible teachers tell us that the Old Testament is mostly about Russian and Syrian tanks invading Israel, cataclysmic battles, and an antichrist that comes from the European Common Market.  Or they read the Old Testament to find coping mechanisms for successful living, healthy eating, or leading a better life. 

But is that what Jesus said?  Don’t think so! No mention of missiles, hordes from Russia or Red China, the mother of all battles on the plains of Israel, or help to reduce cholesterol and belly fat.  Instead, Jesus flat out declares that the Old Testament is all about Him! The Old Testament gives witness – proclaims – preaches JESUS!

But what kind of Jesus?  A Jesus that we make up for ourselves?  You know – like a hard-core rules making Lord Jesus?  Example to follow Jesus?  A riding on a tank Jesus blowing away the enemies of Israel Jesus?  A late night infomercial bikini body shaping Jesus?  An investment advisor so that you can get rich Jesus?  What kind of Jesus does the Old Testament preach? 

So it’s back to Jesus!  What does He say?  He ought to know.  So let’s ask Him!  OK?  Good!  “Well Jesus, what kind of Jesus are you?  What kind of Everything Must Be Fulfilled That Is Written About Me In The Old Testament Jesus are you?”

Are you ready for His answer folks?  Better buckle up your seat belts.  Better hand on tight!  It’s stunning!  Mind-blowing!  Incredibly mind-altering!  In fact, His answer will “open up your minds” to finally “understand the Scriptures.”  If you’ve ever wondered, been wondering, confused about what the Bible is up to or what kind of Jesus this Jesus from Nazareth really is, then listen up!  Jesus gives the definitive answer!

“This is what is written:  The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.” 

There you have it!  Holy Week Jesus!  Calvary Jesus!  Good Friday Jesus!  Bloody Death Jesus!  The only sacrifice that atones for all sin and every sinner Jesus!  The Lamb of God slaughtered on the altar of the cross to take away the sin of the world Jesus.  The Lamb’s blood that cleanses or purifies from every sin Jesus!  And then the resurrection from the grave on Easter Sunday Jesus!

This is the heart and center of the Scriptures!  Jesus “opens” your “minds” today “to” finally “understand the Scriptures!”  He is the salvation Jesus!  The Savior Jesus!  Who is Gift!  For you!  His suffering and rising from the dead were for you!  For your salvation!  For your forgiveness!  The Scriptures preach and give you Jesus who suffered, died, and rose for you! 

This kind of Jesus all for your “repentance and forgiveness of sins.”  Yes, that’s right!  “Repentance!”  Repent of getting the Scriptures all wrong.  Saying that the Scriptures are just too hard and therefore ignoring them.  Repent of reading and hearing the Scriptures as if all they’re a rule book or some kind of self-help tool kit in order to reach your ultimate potential before God all on your own.

The Scriptures preach the one and only crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth!  In the first reading from Acts 3 today Peter proclaimed:  “But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold THROUGH ALL THE PROPHETS, saying that his Christ would suffer.” 

And through such witness by the Scriptures, the Scriptures amazingly interpret you!  Yes, that right, God’s Word repents you!  Repents you to believe that you are a sinner for whom Jesus came to save!  And that happens to you because the Holy Spirit is at work through the Scriptures proclaimed in your ears and to your hearts!  The Holy Spirit through the Scriptures gives witness to Jesus!  Gives glory to Jesus!  The Jesus who suffered, died, and rose for sinners.  You, me, the world!  For the forgiveness of all your sins!

That’s the core and center of the Scriptures:  delivering Jesus as gift of salvation FOR YOU!  Just as the Epistle itself declared today:  Jesus “appeared so that he might take away our sins,” (1 John 3:5)!  And He did!  Listen to His promise today at the Lord’s Supper:  “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of yours sins.”  

What joy!  How marvelous!         

In the Name of Jesus.

Second Sunday of Easter                             Trinity Lutheran Church   

15 April 2012                                                                   Murdock, NE                                       

                                                      + Jesu Juva +

Mark 10:13-16

Baptism of Kaitlyn Marie Lavington

“They brought young children to Jesus!  So that He could touch them!  Bless them!”

And that’s when the disciples step in!  They would take over.  Take charge.  They take the parents aside and get in the parents’ faces.  “Get these babies away from Jesus!  He doesn’t have time for this!  He has more important things to do than to bless children!”     

The disciples are not in charge.  Jesus is.  He’s the Savior, not them!  Jesus is the Savior of all:  adults, senior citizens, teens, tweens, in betweens, and yes, even the babies!  All are sinners.  All have need of the Savior Jesus.  Keep anyone away from Him and you’ll get Jesus fired up.  “Greatly displeased!”  I could use some other colorful words to describe just how “greatly displeased” Jesus is with His disciples, but my language wouldn’t be appropriate. 

Jesus will have the last word. “Let the little children come to Me!  Don’t ever keep them away from me!”  Why?  Here’s why!  “For of such is the kingdom of God.”  In other words Jesus categorically declares: “I’ve come for them too!  They need the reign of my forgiveness just like every other sinner!  They are very precious to me.  Don’t ever keep them away from me!” 

Then Jesus turns everything upside down.  The opposite of the way everyone thinks and operates.  Check it out:  “Whoever doesn’t not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it!”

Incredible!  Salvation received not as an adult but as a little child!  Little children are passive.  They simply receive what they are given.  They suffer it.  The kingdom of God – Jesus and all His gifts – salvation -- are given!  Given by Jesus. 

Tim and Sabrina brought Kaitlyn Marie to Jesus today!  For Holy Baptism!  I don’t think anyone here tried to pull off what the disciples did! Didn’t tell them to get lost and keep their child away from Jesus. Thankfully, we all welcomed Tim and Sabrina and said:  “Good that you’re here!  The crucified and risen Jesus reigns here.  Always ready to bestow His reign of  forgiveness on sinners no matter what their age.  Jesus died for all.  He died for you.  He died for Kaitlyn Marie.”

In Holy Baptism Jesus took her into His arms and blessed her.  Blessed her with the salvation or forgiveness that He won for her and for all on the cross.  Washed her clean.  Gave her a new birth from above with the water and the Holy Spirit.  Brought her into His reign of salvation with the Triune Name! 

Notice who was doing all the verbs!  Jesus!  Not Kaitlyn Marie.  She was simply on the receiving end of all that Jesus gives.  Kaitlyn did nothing at all!  Jesus did everything!  That’s the way of salvation’s achievement at Calvary!  That’s the way it is with salvation’s bestowal in Holy Baptism.  Jesus does it all.  Jesus gives it all.  We are only on the receiving end of what He does and gives.   

No wonder Jesus says:  “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”    

Happy Baptism Day Kaitlyn Marie!

In the Name of Jesus.     

The Resurrection of Our Lord

8 April 2012

First Commandment:  You shall have no other gods

Bible Narratives: Mark 16:1-8

He raised the widow’s on at Nain.  He raised Jairus’ daughter.  In fact, Jesus brought the house down with laughter when He said:  “She’s not dead – just taking a little nap!”  He audaciously and categorically promised Martha:  “I am the Resurrection and the Life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in m will never die,” (John 11:25).  He walked to His best friend’s grave and barked out these orders to the already decomposing remains:  “Lazarus, come on out!”  And he did!  Grave clothes and all!  But all these people eventually died again.

Now Jesus is dead!  Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome are off to the tomb.  You go to the cemetery to pay your respects to the DEAD!  The Lord who preached, “I am the Resurrection and the Life” is graveyard dead! 

Can’t get any deader!  Joseph of Arimathea wrapped up the dead body and then laid it in the tomb!  The least you can do is anoint the corpse with spices.  So it’s off to the grave “when the Sabbath was over” to pay their respects to the dead – the dead and buried Jesus!

What’s this?  Oh, my …!  The tomb … is open!  The large, heavy sealed tombstone has been moved! Oh no!  It can’t be!  But it sure looks like it!  That’s the only explanation!  A tomb invasion!  A break in!  Trespassers have violated the tomb!   No doubt, they have desecrated and profaned the Lord’s body!  He had many enemies!  Wasn’t it enough to viciously murder Him?  Can’t they leave Him alone even in death?  Do we even dare to look?

They do.  They step in to the tomb.  Someone’s there!  The trespasser is still here! 

He’s no intruder.  No desecrator of the grave!  He’s a holy angel!  Strange!  Very strange!  You don’t see angels every day.  But we did see them at the Annunciation and at Jesus’ birth, after His temptation in the wilderness, and while He prayed in the Garden!  Now here too!  You’d be alarmed too!  Angels are mighty creatures.  Every time someone in the Bible sees an angel he is scared stiff! 

“Ladies, no need to be frightened!  I won’t hurt you,” the angel proclaims.  “Looking for the corpse, ladies?  The body of Jesus?  Jesus from Nazareth?  Well, are you?  You are, aren’t you?  Well, then I’ve got great news for you!  Get a load of this, ladies!  GRAVE EMPTY!  TAKE A LOOK!  SEE WHERE JOSEPH LAID THE BODY!  IT IS GONE!  NO LONGER HERE!  HERE’S WHY!  JESUS THE CRUCIFIED, DEAD AND BURIED RIGHT HERE IN THIS TOMB HAS RISEN!  RISEN FROM THE DEAD!”

This is the game changer!  The salvation game changer!  The cross is not emptied of its power because He rose!  You are no longer in your sins because He rose!  You’re faith in Him is not in vain!   

Why?  Because He did it!  Did exactly what He said He would do!  In every detail!  Betrayed.  Condemned to death.  Mocked.  Spit on.  Flogged.  Killed.  Then the clincher:  AND THREE DAYS LATER HE PHYSICALLY ROSE FROM THE GRAVE (Mark 10:33-34; 8:31)!  Awakened from the dead!  Shed the burial clothes!  Folded them up and placed them here as He left the cemetery!  Never to return! Never to die again! No one else has ever done this!  Muhammad didn’t! Buddha didn’t!  Not Joseph Smith!  Not Brigham Young!  Not even Harry Potter! No one!  Excluding the fictional character from Hogwarts, these dead and decayed bodies still remain in their graves! But not Jesus! I will trust Him!  You can trust Jesus!  He does what He says!  Does what He promises! He rose!

Many saw Jesus!  He really did come out the grave!  When St. Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians he gives evidence of this fact with witnesses.  The resurrected Jesus, he writes, “appeared to Peter and then to the Twelve … he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to [His half-brother] James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born,” (1 Corinthians 15:5-7).  It is true!  We have witnesses!  His grave is empty!  Hundreds saw Him!   

He did what He promised!  Therefore -- JESUS IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS!  Who St. Mark and the centurion at the foot of the cross confess:  THE SON OF GOD (Mark 1:1; 15:39)!  I.E. God in the flesh!  Son of God Jesus for you!  “WHO DIED FOR YOUR SINS!”

You’d be full of awe and fear too!  In the First Commandment way, that is!  Fearing, loving, and trusting in Jesus above all things!  This is always what happens when Jesus does His salvation stuff in the Gospel according to St. Mark!  He awed and overwhelmed folks when He taught from the Word and then cast out demons on the authority of His word (Mark 1:21-22, 27).  When He calmed the storm and walked on the sea (Mark 4:41; 6:51) the disciples were “terrified,” “amazed,” and “asked each other, ‘Who is this?  Even the wind and the waves obey Him!’”  When Jesus absolved and healed a paralytic the citizens of Capernaum were “amazed” and “praised God” proclaiming, “We have never seen anything like this,”  (Mark 2:12)!  The snickers turned to absolute astonishment when Jesus raised Jairus’ dead daughter with only a command, “Talitha koum,” (Mark 5:42)!  Vociferous Peter was left completely speechless – petrified into silence -- at the sight of Mount of Transfiguration Jesus (Mark 9:6)!  As Jesus led the way to Jerusalem without hesitation for the last week of His life, the disciples were astonished and the others who followed were frightened (Mark 10:32)!

So too here at the empty tomb!  First Commandment fear and awe!  With even greater intensity!  It is absolutely incredible!  Another miracle!  He did it!  He did what He said He would do!  HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD!  These shaking in their boots women now know what every disciple of the Risen Lord Jesus comes to know – that in Jesus the Son of God all divine power and mercy is present!  For the crucified and risen Jesus is God Himself! 

HIS RESURRECTION MEANS THAT JESUS IS GOD … FOR SINNERS!  Every one of them!  Including Peter – one of the worst.  Denied Jesus.  Wouldn’t be seen with Jesus in His greatest need!  Oh, Peter!  You failed so badly.  You wouldn’t fear, love and trust in Jesus above all things!  But Jesus died and rose for Peter!  Jesus wants to tell Peter that He still loves him!  Always has!  That all is forgiven!  Reconciled! 

That’s why Peter is singled out:  “Go, tell his disciples and Peter.  He’ll meet you in Galilee as He promised.” To show them His hands and His side!  To absolve these sinners!  For all of them to confess like Thomas:  “My Lord, and my God” (John 20:28)!

You too!  In His death Jesus has redeemed you.  Purchased and won you from all sins, death, and the power of the devil.  He rose for you too!  This is the Gospel – on which we take our stand!  This is the Gospel by which you are saved:  “THAT CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, THAT HE WAS BURIED, THAT HE WAS RAISED ON THE THIRD DAY ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES!”    

However, the crucified and risen Jesus doesn’t meet you in Galilee!  He promises to meet you in the divine service through His Word and Sacrament.  To be God for you!  In order to absolve you too!  You, who are no better than Peter!  Perhaps even worse!  You too are forgiven!  Jesus shed His Blood for you!  That’s exactly His promise every Sunday in the Sacrament:  “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”

He is the Lord!  He is Lord God for you!  The only One!  The First Commandment One!    

For now!  And forever!  Death does not have the last word.  First Commandment God Jesus does!  After all, the Crucified Jesus is the Risen Jesus!  He is the Resurrection and the Life.  His promise still holds true: “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in m will never die!”

Have a happy Resurrection Day!

In the Name of Jesus. 

7 April 2012

St. Matthew 27:57-66

Can it be?  Really?  Yes, it’s true.  Ask Joseph of Arimathea.  He was there.

He went to the governor Pontius Pilate and asked for the corpse.  Carefully, he handles it.  Gently, he washes the wounds.  Tenderly, he wraps it in linen cloth.  With great care he carries it and lays it to rest in his own new tomb! 

Jesus – dead and buried.  Really.  Truly.  Incredible! 

“O darkest woe!

Ye tears forth flow!

Has earth so sad a wonder?

God the Father’s only Son

Now is buried yonder.”

O sorrow dread!

Our God is dead

Upon the cross extended.

There His love enlivens us

As His life was ended.”[1]

Yes, that’s right:  “Our God is dead.”  The Father didn’t die.  The Holy Spirit didn’t die.  BUT JESUS DID!

This is what it takes to win your salvation!  God must do it!  Only God saves!  Only God forgives!  Therefore the eternal Son of the Father takes on flesh and He gives His divine life into death on the cross!  He sheds His divine blood!  That’s Jesus!  He is true God and true man!  All for you!  The “It is finished” job of salvation is done!  By Jesus!  All sin answered for!  All sin died for! 

So now He rests from the work of salvation that He won for you and for the world.  The God-man laid and sealed in the tomb!  There He lays!

But even then – even there – graveyard dead Jesus is not a nothing!  His divine and holy Word made flesh body hallows, holies, or sanctifies what it touches!  And, yes, that includes the cemetery!  The tomb!  The grave!

His three day rest in that borrowed tomb was for you!  He was buried for you!  Now your grave is holy!  Your grave is hallowed!  Your tomb is sanctified!  All because the divine and holy body of Jesus has forever changed the cemetery and the grave! 

For you who believe in this Jesus the grave is now a place of rest and peace!  Rest in Jesus!  Peace in Jesus!

So when your day of death and burial takes place it is not the end.  Death does not have the last word.  Jesus does. 

A sealed and guarded tomb couldn’t keep God-man Jesus trapped in the grave!  The Scriptures must be fulfilled!  Jesus kept His promise.  He would be raised on the third day!  That’s the joy of tomorrow! 

To you for whom He died and was buried He promises the resurrection of your body on the Last Day.  He is the Firstfruits of those who sleep!  Of those who rest in Him! 

Today and tomorrow He teaches you to fear the grave as little as your bed.  After all, He will call you from your sleep!  He will wake you!  To a bodily resurrection and then eternal life with Him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit and all those who have gone before us in the faith! 

In the Name of Jesus.        

Good Friday

6 April 2012

Second Commandment:  You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord

     Your God

Bible Narrative:  Luke 23:46

Jesus:  bitterly betrayed. Judas and we use our mouth to cut that dastardly deal for some cash!  Jesus:  disappointingly denied.  Peter and we use our mouth to curse and swear in order to lie!  “I swear to God I don’t know this Jesus!  I’ll be damned if I’m one of His followers!”   Jesus:  appallingly abandoned.  By the rest of His disciples and all the rest of us!  “Let’s high tail it out of here!  We could be arrested too!  We can’t be seen with Him anymore!  It’s just too risky!”  With friends like that who needs … … … enemies?

Well, they show up too!  In spades!  Hurling insults!  Mocking!  Sneering!  “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”  “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”  “Aren’t you the Christ?  Save yourself and us!”[1]  All these are huge satanic temptations!  “Think about yourself for a change Jesus!  Good grief!  Go ahead!  Hop off the cross!  You don’t deserve this!  You don’t need to suffer like this!  Show these people that you really are the Christ!  That you truly are who you say you are!  Save yourself!”     

His enemies desperately looked for a way to lay their hands on Him![2]  Jesus predicted that He would be given over / betrayed / handed over to the “hands” of sinful men![3]  Well, their hands, our hands, get what we all want!  Judas’ treason!  Hands over Jesus to His enemies!  He is given into the hands of sinful men!  Our hands.  Clenched.  Tightened.  Opened.  Shaken.  Too many to count!  With their hands, with our hands, we all slap, beat, pummel, flog, and pierce Him and pin Him with hammer and spikes! 

In the midst of His enemies, the evil powers of death, Satan, and sin and horrific suffering – in the midst of bearing the sin of the world – facing death -- suffering its damnation – (and this is the finale of Luke’s passion narrative) -- Jesus PLACES HIMSELF … INTO … HIS FATHER’S … HANDS!  “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”  Incredible trust!  Faith!    

He Prays!  Calls upon not just some generic god – but to God the Father – His Father and our Father!  Calls upon Him by Name! In every trouble!  He was always going off and praying to His Father during His life.  “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”[4]   When everything heats up and He’s in Gethsemane he prays:  “Father, if you are willing take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”[5]  As He hangs on the cross between two terrorists He prays:  “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”[6]  

Now, Holy One Jesus, in the midst of utter agony and the most immense trouble – facing death and damnation as THE SINNER by bearing all sin for the sake of sinners – He prays to His Father at the placed named Skull!   “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” 

That’s Psalm 31:5.  Jesus probably prayed the entire psalm of which we are only given a snippet.

This may have been the very first prayer Jesus learned as a boy.  Taught to Him by Mary.  It was the “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Prayer” of all Hebrew families.  The prayer that flows from faith!  Prayer that relies on God the Father for all help!  For everything!  Even at the moment of death! 

Jesus dies with prayer on His lips:  “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”  Even then He uses God’s name properly.  He looks to His Father for all help in every need.  For all consolation!  For all deliverance! 

After all Jesus learned another prayer from the Psalter:  “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me,” (Psalm 50:15)!  From such a promise Jesus lives!  And dies!  His unwavering trust in His Father continues in the moment of His death for sinners.  And for you!  And for your salvation – the salvation He earned, won and accomplished in His bitter suffering and death on Good Friday.

His death for you has born fruit in your life.  You are baptized into His death – the only death that counts against all your sin, death, and hell!  Faith in Jesus leads to the proper use of your mouth:  calling upon the Father in every trouble -- praise and thanksgiving.  And that’s every day.  Every morning and evening.  In the evening, right before you go to bed, which is a rehearsal for lying down to die, you too pray like Jesus.  You pray the Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep prayer of Psalm 31:5: “into your hands, Father, I commend myself, my body and soul and all things” in the sure and certain hope that because of Jesus, death doesn’t have the final word.  Jesus does!  He defeated death!  He rose from the grave.  And He will raise your body on the Last Day. 

More on that this Sunday!  Until then, a blessed Good Friday!

In the Name of Jesus.    

Maundy Thursday

5 April 2012

Third Commandment:  Remember the Sabbath Day by Keeping It

     Holy

Bible Narrative:  Mark 14:12-26

God made the Sabbath Day holy.  That’s a given.  That’s Genesis 2!  And yet the Commandment:  Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy!

What’s up with that?  Here’s the deal!  “God wants it to be holy for you.”[1]  The Sabbath Day is holy in itself but in the Third  Commandment God wants it to be holy FOR YOU!  Incredible! 

How then is the Sabbath Day kept holy FOR YOU?  The answer is this:  “when … [you] make use of God’s Word and exercise … [yourselves] in it.”[2]  The Sabbath is about you being all ears!  Being all ears to God’s Word!  I.E. it is about hearing God’s Word!

For in, with, and under His Word God talks.  God speaks.  God speaks to you through Jesus the Word made flesh!  And He speaks to you through His written Word – the Bible.  The Bible, as God’s Word is to be preached, taught, and pondered!  God’s Word is to be HEARD WITH YOUR EARS! 

It is to be heard because God’s Word is a living, dynamic, vigorous, energetic, efficacious Holy Spirit-filled act of speech!  God’s Word is vibrant and all creative.  “Let there be light!”  “Be fruitful and multiply!”  “Lazarus, come out!”  “I baptize you in the Name …”   The Lord’s Word proclaimed does exactly what it says.  It gives precisely what it commands.  The Lord does and gives what His Word says!    

I have to go on extolling!  There’s even more!  Where the Lord’s Word is going on – being mouthed – preached – proclaimed, the Holy Spirit is going on!  I.E. where the divine Word -- there the Holy Spirit bestows and grants divine holiness – sanctifies!  Hallows! 

Did you hear that?  God’s Word hallows!  God’s Word holies!  God’s Word sanctifies!  All because His Word is most holy![3]  The Word bestows and gives the very holiness of the Triune God Himself!  TO YOU!  AND FOR YOU!  Through your ears!

Any day from the New Testament on, in which God’s Word is preached, taught, proclaimed is a holy day – a Sabbath Day for you!  For in that Word God is speaking to you!  In and through that Word the Lord deals with you!  And by His Word He hallows, holies, and sanctifies you the sinner.  The Third Commandment is about being occupied with God’s Word!  Hearing the preaching!  Holding it sacred!  Gladly hearing and learning it!  Not blowing it off!  Or treating it as a nothing!    

Tonight you are given to hear!  The Lord Jesus!  He does a Passover like none ever before!  He speaks words that were never ever spoken or heard at any Passover meal in the history of Israel! 

On the very day on which it was “customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb,” the Lamb is provided.  The Lamb is there!  The Lamb is the Lord Jesus Himself!  He is THE Lamb of God!  The Lord provides!  The perfect and without blemish Lamb!  The divine Lamb – the only One that takes away the sin of the world – that atones for all sin and for every sinner!  And Passover Lamb Jesus will be sacrificed.  That’s tomorrow.  Good Friday.

This evening is the night on which He is betrayed.  Judas!  Hands the Lamb over to sinners.  To be bound!  To be crucified on the altar of the cross!  “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me – one who is eating with me … It is one of the Twelve … one who dips bread into the bowl with me.  The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him.”  

It is according to the Word!  The Word – the prophecies – are doing what they promised!  What they predicted!  “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me,” (Psalm 41:9)!  The divine Word from that Psalm is doing what it says.  Giving what it says!  To the Word made flesh Jesus – on the night in which He was betrayed! 

In the midst of this Passover meal Jesus takes bread.  He gives thanks and breaks it.  He takes a cup.  He gives thanks for it.  Then, as He hands out the bread and the wine to His disciple there are more words!  LORD Jesus speaks!  From His mouth!  “Take this bread.  It is my body.”  “This [cup of wine] is my blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many.”

What?  Is He serious?  Yes, deadly serious!  Has He lost His mind?  No.  He is of very sound mind!  The Lord says what He says.  Means what He says.  Does what He says!  Gives what He says.  THIS IS HIS LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT. 

This is what He bequeaths!  This is the inheritance!  The gifts!  The bread IS His Body!  The wine IS His Blood! It is His Body born of the Virgin!  He doesn’t have another one!  It is His Blood that flows in His arteries!  He doesn’t have any other kind of Blood!  Both are to be received with your mouth!  Eaten.  Drunk. 

With His words Jesus makes a covenant!  Or a promise!  “This is my blood of the new covenant.”  This is the language of Exodus 24:6-8! Moses took the blood of the animal sacrifices and sprinkled it on the Israelites and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you …” 

Here, on the night He was betrayed, the LORD – the LORD Jesus takes the cup of wine and declares:  “This is my blood of the new covenant.”  Not the blood of animals!  BUT “MY BLOOD!”  BUT THE BLOOD OF THE GOD-MAN HIMSELF!    With these words Jesus suffers Himself to die!  As THE ONE AND ONLY SACRIFICE FOR SIN!  THAT IS WHAT IS “NEW” HERE!

His Blood is divine Blood that purifies from all sin!  Divine Blood for cleansing!  Divine Blood for forgiveness and salvation!  The Blood of God Himself in the very Body in that man Jesus that is given into death on the cross once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin!

With the bread He gives His Body to eat.  With the wine He gives His Blood to drink.  “This is my blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many!”    FOR MANY – AND FOR YOU!  HE IS GOD THE LORD FOR YOU!  IN THIS WAY.  THE SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR WAY! 

In the Sacrament tonight Jesus holies you, hallows you, sanctifies you!  His most holy Word hooked together with the bread and wine bestows what He promises.  Jesus Himself speaks to you tonight.  Into your ears go His Words!  Into your mouths goes what His Words say!  “Take this bread.  Eat it.  It is my Body.  Drink the cup.  It is my Blood.  It is the new covenant in which I prove that I am God for you!” 

It is a Holy Communion!  He comes.  He gathers.  He speaks.  He takes your sin!  He clothes you with His holiness!  It is holiness -- His – for you!  And with His Words that you hear tonight at the Sacrament  you have forgiveness – the forgiveness He won for you at Calvary!  With His Good Friday forgiveness bestowed with His Words “given and shed for you,” you also are given life and salvation! 

Jesus is the LORD.  He is LORD God for you!  And you are His holy, hallowed, sanctified people!  All bestowed with His Words!

Happy hearing!  Happy eating and drinking according to His Words! 

In the Name of Jesus.    

St. Mark 15:1-47

Confirmation of Kody Kupke, Danni Barkhurst and Brady Blair

“Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!”  Those are our words too!  We too wanted to get rid of Him!  We jumped for joy when Pilate set the terrorist, Barabbas, free and then sentenced Jesus to death by crucifixion.

We eagerly watched the flogging!  Serves Him right!  Who does He think He is?  “That’s right soldier!  Rip off a bigger piece of His flesh with that whip!  And if you miss I’ll take over!”

We willingly joined in the soldiers’ mocking fun!  Draping Him with the purple robe.  Smashing the ring of razor-sharp thorns on His head.  Demolishing His nose and face with our fists.  Striking Him with the back of our hand.  Coughing up all our phlegm and then showering Him with it!  Taking the staff in our hands and way-laying Him with it as hard as we can!  Time after time after time!  Taunting Him!  Bowing down as if before a king!  Then the stinging words:  “Hail, king of the Jews!”  Laughing our heads off the entire time!

We insisted that the beaten and battered Jesus carry His cross the whole way to Golgotha!  But that poor sap from Cyrene, Simon, who was just passing by, was forced to haul it for Jesus!  Too bad!  We missed out on another chance to poke fun at Him!

When the soldiers finally got around to driving the spikes through His hands and feet and then suspended Jesus on the cross, we cranked up the mockery!  It was harsh!  Cutting!  Callous!  Cruel!  We fervently shouted insult after insult with everyone standing there!  Wagging our heads!  And readily shouting:  “So!  You can destroy the Jerusalem temple and then rebuild it in three days?  All right Mr. Big Shot Preacher!  If you’re so great, come down off that cross and save yourself!  If you’re who you claim to be then pull out those spikes, climb down from there, and then we’ll believe in you!”

“Come down and then we’ll believe in you?”  “Yeah, right!  We didn’t mean that at all!  It was all said in jest!  We’d rather get rid of you!  So that we never have to deal with you again!”

He didn’t come down.  He stayed put!  Guess that means He wasn’t who He said He was!  If He truly was the Christ – if He truly was the King of the Jews, then … 

And that’s when something really strange happened.  For three hours from noon until 3 o’clock in the afternoon it got dark.  Really dark!  It scared the you know what out of us!  Then Jesus said something that sounded like He was praying to Elijah.  And then it was all over but the shouting.  After a very loud cry He was … dead! 

And we did it!  We saw to it!  We were responsible!  We did it on purpose.  No one forced us.  We murdered Him!  The King!

And He suffered it!  All of it!  All the evil!  All the wickedness!  All the rebellion!  All the sin!  Willingly!  As the Suffering Servant King! 

Incredibly, He suffered and died for those who put Him there!  We meant it all for evil but He uses it for good!  For our eternal good!  He gave His Body into death as THE sacrifice that atones for all your sin!  He sheds His Blood shed on the cross to cleanse you from all your sin.  Sin you’ve committed.  Sin that has been committed against you!  Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!  All of it!

The curtain in the temple tears in two from top to bottom when Jesus dies.  Why?  Because Jesus’ Body is the temple – the very dwelling of God on the earth!  In addition, Jesus’ Body is the curtain by which forgiven by His Blood sinners have complete and total access to heaven itself.  Hebrews 10:19-20, 22 teaches this.  Listen.  “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body … let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.” 

Brothers and sisters, hidden in the beaten, brutalized, crucified and dead Body of Jesus is God Himself.  Yes!  God Himself!  God for you there!  God for your salvation there!  The very gate/curtain of heaven standing wide open!  For you Danni!  For you Kody!  For you Brady!  For all of you Trinity!        

The most unlikely and most unexpected person at Golgotha confesses the truth!  “Surely this man was the Son of God!”  Who said this?  Who told the truth no matter what the consequences?  Mary?  John?  Peter?  No!  It was the Roman centurion!  The very man who was in charge of the crucifixion!  It was his “confirmation” day, if you will!

At the foot of the cross he confesses Jesus to be the Savior!  The very Son of God sent to justify the ungodly!  Including him!  His life was never the same again!    

This same Jesus has claimed you as His own.  Baptized you into His death!  His Golgotha death!  And so you have died with Him!  And raised with Him to live a new life!  The life of faith!  Faith that believes His promise:  “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” (Mark 16:16).  Faith that confesses:  “Surely this man was the Son of God!”  And then faith that proclaims that Jesus’ death is for you as He gives you His Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar today with His oath that all your sin is forgiven. 

And with this Jesus who dies for you -- your lives are never the same again! 

In the name of Jesus.