Fellow redeemed, the ongoing truths that we find in the Catechism are drawn from the passion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It’s why our theme throughout these midweek Lent Services is, “The Passion of Christ and the Catechism.” As we consider the catechism this night, specifically, the Ten Commandments, let us confess together the words of the Ten Commandments. This can be found on page 264 in your hymnals:
1. You shall have no other gods.
2. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
3. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not murder.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
These words of Jesus to His disciples set the tone as we begin the first of our midweek Lenten series. Many events, words, and actions during the Passion of Christ during Holy Week fit the themes and truths of the 6 chief parts in Luther’s Small Catechism. So often, our “Spirits” too are willing: to study, to be faithful Christians, to think and do what we know to be right and pleasing to God which also would have blessings for us and our neighbors. Yet, we fail. We start our day, our week, or the year with grand resolutions, but we get distracted, disinterested, or otherwise detoured. Perhaps, we don’t even think about it. Maybe we don’t care to even try. What is the matter with us, what can wake and rouse us from a sleep of spiritual death?
As we recited the 10 commandments tonight, we are made aware how much we have failed, and how we as the disciples have fallen again and again into temptation, despite the words and voice of our Lord to “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” Instead of being watchful and using God’s Word as a defense, when the tempter comes whispering using the glories of the world or the desires of our flesh, we quickly follow the voice of the tempter forsaking the what is right. We rebel against and abandon God and His will for us.
Why should God keep forgiving us? Why should God love us and rescue us, if and when we are moved to realize the mess we have made in our lives. If and when we “wake up” to realize how the promises of the glories of this world and the desires of the flesh leave us empty even as it demands our attention and devotion more and more until we are enslaved to it. We deserve damnation and eternal death. We deserve to have God destroy us along with the world in the heat of His righteous wrath.
The Word of God, the begotton Son of the Father had descended from on high to do what we could not. He came to redeem the world, including you and me by keeping all the demands of the commandments according to its letter and its spirit.
Was it easy? We may poo-poo or refuse to truly think about what God went through for us. Do you ever? You should. It is not as though, Jesus, the Son of God, was just wearing a costume of human flesh, that He was just pretending to be human. He did not create a barrier between His Divinity and the humanity of His flesh as though it were only a mask and dead unfeeling flesh. He could have, but He did not. He did not cut off His nerves in order to protect Himself from the sensation of pain. He did not keep at arms length the temptations of the devil, the world, and the flesh. Jesus was truly and fully man even as He was truly Divine. Jesus knew what awaited Him as the Christ. He was going to be attacked harder with the temptation to break the commandments, to fall into sin by the devil, acting upon His very real flesh. According to His humanity, the temptation to “save Himself” rather than save others had to be strong. There are no shortages of events within the dramatic battles and strife which Jesus faced during the 48 hours before His crucifixion which show the battle of Christ against the temptation to abandon His task. And at any point, He could have, but that would have ruined all hope. It would have led to our sure condemnation, and the triumph of the Devil over God.
Yet that is precisely the struggle going on in the Garden of Gethsemane in the heart, mind, and soul of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. In addition to the words of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, Mark tells us that Jesus said: “”My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” And Luke tells us that He was “in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” This was the greatness of the strife in the Jesus.
Surely as He prayed, He thought of the pain and anguish that awaited Him upon the cross, He thought about how the world’s sin and chastisement for it would be placed upon Himself. The suffering that awaited Him was greater than any He had experienced and greater than any suffering of any man had ever yet known. Perhaps, the tempting question as asked earlier arose in His mind. Why? Why does it have to be this way? Not only might this cup be removed from me according to my Father’s will, but maybe I shouldn’t go through with it? Why should I? Why shouldn’t I, and the Father with the Spirit abandon these ingrates? Those who say that they believe in us, yet fail constantly, they don’t appreciate our love. Are they worth all that I am to offer? Look yonder at my disciples. They follow me, but they are clueless. They only care about the glory that they might get through me. They don’t see or care about my suffering. I tell them to watch and pray and they immediately fall asleep. Why not abandon all of them as they have abandoned us?
Yet, in the face of this overwhelming temptation and its overwhelming pain and agony, Jesus does not fall into sin, nor abandon His purpose. Luke tells us, that the Father also does not abandon His Son while His flesh was tormented, but “there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him.”
Dear friends, Jesus continued on, obedient to His Father, and faithful in His promise to redeem the world from its sin. So keeping the Law perfectly, He offered Himself up to the slaughter of the cross and died taking our sin and breaking of the Law upon Himself as our substitute. Risen from the dead, He testifies that what He endured upon the cross was an acceptable sacrifice for you and me.
Now as those who have been awakened from the curse of sin and death through Holy Baptism and God’s Word, you are given power from on high by the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit upholds and uplifts your spirit, so that your flesh which is fallen because of the curse of Adam and Eve is now strengthened by the flesh of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin, death, and the devil in your place. God’s love which has in the flesh and ministry of Jesus Christ kept the 10 commandments and its demands in your place comes to you. His love is made manifest in the forgiveness of sins from the cross of Christ delivered to you.
Temptation to sin in this world is sure to come as Jesus says elsewhere, but God continues to send His angels of comfort to you. Not in weird spiritual signs that you must look for in Crystals, odd prophecies or mysterious things… He sends this comfort to you in baptism, in the hearing of Christ’s absolution, and in body and blood of Jesus Christ in the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar. These are the means through which God delivers His love to you and by that love His comfort. This comfort is also given and shown through the faithful ministrations of me, your pastor, through the sanctified life and love of your faithful Christian brothers and sisters here in the congregation and community. This is also you calling and joy as you live and receive God’s love in His Divine Service growing in the wisdom of His Word, that you also share that love to your family, your fellow congregation member, neighbor, and pastor. That you are given a spirit of empathy and care as God has cared and continues to care for you. In this way, by His Spirit, living and working in you for you, you are able to follow the Law completed in Christ, for your blessing and the blessing of your neighbor. All this to the glory of God who has fulfilled the Law for you through the work of salvation and forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ.
Now you may continue to “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation” by God’s grace and Spirit through Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Pr. Aaron Kangas