Today is Rogate Sunday. It comes from the Latin verb rogare, which means “to ask” or “to pray.” Whereas the other Sundays in Easter get their Latin names from the introit, this Sunday gets its name from the theme of prayer that runs throughout today’s readings.

Look at the Old Testament reading. The Israelites had complained against the LORD and Moses that there was no food and water; they whined that they loathed the food He provided for them. This complaint was actually a type of prayer. A prayer of complaint and rebellion, of mockery and ungrateful hate, like a child having a terrible tantrum and purposefully dumping and destroying the food given to them. As a result, the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people and many died.

Recognizing their sin and who they had sinned against, they asked Moses to pray to the LORD on their behalf, that He would take away the serpents from them. Moses did and the LORD God answered his prayer and had him make a bronze serpent raised upon a pole to direct the eyes of the people to this symbol of their sin and the punishment that they deserved. This symbol also pointed them to their ultimate hope for salvation in the crucifixion of the Christ yet to come.

St. Paul in today’s Epistle writes to Timothy, “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way”. Notice what St. Paul doesn’t say. He doesn’t say pray only for your friends. He doesn’t say pray only for the rulers you agree with and like. He says to pray for all people. Pray for your enemies. Pray for those rulers who make life difficult for you. Pray for all people.

In our Gospel lesson on the night when He was to be betrayed, Jesus told His disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full”. Receive! Ask! Pray! Receive!

As Christians, we talk a lot about prayer, but what is it? Prayer, broadly stated is: communication between mankind and God. It is a speaking and replying to God in response to what God says first to us. There is a holy response to God by faith. It can be thanksgiving, praise, and asking for things physical and spiritual including repentance. It can be expressed in the form of music and song as we talked about last week or it can be spoken by our mouths or by our actions. Sometimes prayer is speaking to God about thoughts and feelings of one’s own heart and mind: asking for physical and spiritual needs and wants. But prayer as we heard from the epistle should include intercessions, that is prayers on behalf of others.

When it comes to praying: there is that good speaking to God, a righteous and God pleasing type of prayer which we often speak about. This is prayer which is the response of faith. But there is a bad kind of prayer which is not done in faith. This is the communication which unbelievers speak unto God even if they are not aware that they are doing it. The world essentially prays unto God by their words and actions of unbelief that “they don’t want or need Him”. By thumbing their nose at God and following the gods of their own making, they are communicating their mockery of their creator. This bad kind of prayer is the prayer that the children of Israel in their rebellion and complaining prayed unto God. When Christians fall into temptation and sin, they are praying this same kind of evil prayer unto the Lord.

What is the content of that prayer action or voice? The content of that unbelieving and sinful communication back unto the Lord in response to all He does? This evil prayer is a cursing of God. It is not a blessing of His name but cursing His name. In this prayer of unbelief, the world, the flesh, and you and I when we sin are saying to God: “Forget you! I don’t need you. I reject you and hate you and I hate your gifts that you have given, they aren’t enough for me…”

We are like bratty rebellious spoiled children cursing their parents for giving them life. But in doing this, we bring upon ourselves the curse which we deserve. Because of our sin, we have asked for the fiery serpents to come bite us, and the fiery sting of sin is death. And since all humanity has sinned all must die.

But we also deserve eternal damnation and death. Because of our great sin and unworthiness we need someone to pray to God on our behalf, even as we repent and cry out in prayer Lord have mercy!
God Himself anticipated that need, and established His Son, Jesus, the Christ, begotten before all worlds for this task of interceding for us. More perfect than Moses or Paul or any naturally begotten human, He came into human flesh in response and anticipation of our prayerful cry of repentance. He responded to His Father in the prayer of perfect obedience in fulfillment of the demands of the Law but also in the receiving of our punishment. God Himself lifted up Jesus upon the pole of the cross in the wilderness of our sinful world. He died in our stead and took our punishment so that anyone who has been bitten by sin and recognizes with sorrow, fear, and contrition that they should die, may look to the cross by faith and hope and be saved.

Saved because Jesus crucified and raised intercedes and prays for us even as He has already paid the price of our sin. The Father hears and He gives forgiveness, life, and peace for the sake of His Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

God now has spoken to us by His Son, Jesus Christ. He speaks by His Word to warn and call people back from their sin and the suffering brought about by their own sin but also when the world just hates Christians. He spoke to us in Holy Baptism when He took us “sin bitten heathen” and poured upon us the balm of Christ’s pure blood and righteousness removing the sign and mark of the curse and replacing it with the sign of the cross and His promise of life everlasting. His Holy Spirit opens our hearts and minds, so that we have the ability to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved. We are now declared His children and are given the privilege to speak to our heavenly Father in that right and proper and God pleasing way, by faith. In gratitude and thanksgiving, in need and suffering with the hope that we have in Him that we can pray in faith in His promises and knowing that He will hear this righteous prayer for the sake of Christ.

So proper prayer is the voice of faith. It’s the voice of faith that rests upon the promises of God’s Word. This prayer is the natural extension of the work of the Holy Spirit, who through the Word of God creates faith, a faith that asks God to make His will our own. And so we ask. We pray.

We pray, not because God must first be told of our needs and wishes. We pray as a response to His voice. He desires for us to pray to hear our voice in song and prayer and tells us: “Ask, and you will receive” and “…Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me”.

And so, God commands us to pray, because it is good for us. It confirms us in the faith which He has given. It empties our hearts and minds and directs us to Him to see His grace and mercy in action. “…this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us” (1 John 5:14). He hears us not because of our goodness, our godliness, or our merit and worthiness, but for the sake of Jesus Christ.

That doesn’t mean that we cannot nor should not try to be godly, good, and charitable in thought, word, and deed. In fact, that should be our prayer in gratitude for His grace: “Lord conform me to your image. Make me more like you in grace and love.” And by His Spirit working through His Word, His sacraments, He gives us that power to pray in righteousness to the glory of God in the loud speaking of our actions as Christians living out in our communities in this world by faith.

Fellow redeemed, right prayer is the voice of faith that rests upon the promises of God’s Word. It is the response of faith to His loving voice. Without receiving His voice by hearing His Word and receiving His presence in the sacraments, we cannot know pray rightly by voice or by action because it is only by His voice that our faith is built. Keep coming to where He is for you. Receive! Ask! Pray! And receive again! Remember we don’t pray in order to appease or manipulate God. We pray because, as His baptized children, He’s “Our Father,” the Father of Heaven and Earth. We are invited to call upon God, invoking His name, to His glory and praise as a witness for ourselves and this world, knowing that He will give us much more than we could ever ask for; that He will provide for us in a better way than we could ever know. So, “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” in Jesus Christ. Amen!

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Two weeks ago, the Gospel text had Jesus talking about His voice and how His sheep would know Him and follow Him. This Sunday’s theme as you can see on the top of our worship insert is “Cantate”. It comes from the Latin translation of our Introit which tells us “sing” in fact it says “sing y’all”. Sing a new song! What do we have to sing about? Why do we sing? We sing in response to the voice of our Good Shepherd. We sing in response to the Holy Spirit which He sends speaking through the voice of His Word which convicts and leads us into all truth: away from error, away from temptation, away from the voice of the devil, the flesh, the world, and death.

Many of you do not think that you can sing. I have observed that some of you do not always open your mouths to sing the words of the hymns. Perhaps you are shy or you have been told that you have a weak voice, a poor voice, or a terrible voice. Maybe you don’t have a “great voice”. Maybe you can’t sing the notes right on, or very loudly, maybe your voice is growly or airy or wheezy. Do you think God cares? Do you think He will hold the quality of your voice against you when you respond to His voice with faith and gratitude? No way! He loves your voice even as much as you love His! No In fact He loves your voice even more.

There is a deep psychological, physical, and spiritual dimension to singing. Singing is actually very good for you. The very act of singing releases chemicals called endorphins which help you to relax and cope with stress, fear, anguish, “the blues” if you will. Singing helps your body become better at breathing and the more you do it, the better your body responds to it. The physical act of singing can also help the body to become less rigid even as it works the breath and muscles of the body together for the action of making music.

The problem arises if a person is afraid of singing, afraid of being ridiculed, afraid that they won’t hit the right notes, that they don’t know that song, or won’t be able to follow the rhythm or melody. This attitude has been recognized by the medical community as a “road block” to singing and can actually make a person feel more lonely when others around them are singing when they believe that they cannot.

Do you know who also doesn’t want you singing? You guessed it. The devil. He knows that singing is a gift from the Lord, that it is something that God has given to His creation to add variety for the ears, and for the health of those who sing. The devil knows that the singing of music along with words of truth based in Scripture will keep people from feeling as miserable as the Devil wants them to feel. So, he as the father of lies and father of misery, will lie to people, he will distort the truth. This is what he does with everything. The devil will lie about your voice and about singing and the gift of music and song. He will disparage it as unimportant, as something to take for granted, or as something for someone else. He will try to limit you, make you feel silly, embarrassed, self conscious, and reluctant to sing in the same way, that he will encourage negativity, sadness, anger, depression, self-hatred, or conversely, self-centered pride, and the pursuit of things that not healthy for the mind, body, or spirit.

Any gift of God that He has given, Satan will try to cause people to abuse it and misuse it toward sin, degradation, and spiritual slavery. Whether it is the gifts of food, drink, family, friendship, house, home, health, sexual relations which are to be for a man and woman in marriage, music, or any other 1st article created gift, Satan will by virtue of the world and our flesh, adulterate it with his malice and the fallenness of our flesh and try to ruin it.

What is even worse is that he does this also with the Word of God. He will take people who read the Word of God and whisper in their ears to interpret it in ways that God did not say. They will emphasize the Law of God in an effort to earn salvation instead of understanding that we can only be saved by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. He will whisper in our ears to err on the side of the Gospel and not address sin with the Law when pride in sin needs to be rebuked. He will make God’s Word seem to contradict itself by confusing people by emphasizing their reason, instead of starting from the place of faith. He will try to convince those who have been humbled by the Law that they cannot ever do enough, and he will try to convince those in need of repentance that they don’t need to repent.

It seems very bleak when we look at how effective Satan seems to be in the world and even in our own hearts and minds. When we realize that we have allowed him to lead us astray into sin, away from joy, away from God’s Word, away from faith, away from Christ into our own self; into our own sin, misery, and self justification.

But what does our Gospel text say from the mouth of Jesus? The Helper will come to His church. Jesus sends the Spirit to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgement. The Spirit of God sent from Jesus and the Father speaks through the Word of God the truth of how to understand the work of Jesus, the plan for our salvation. He speaks to convict the world of sin where it is needed, but then to point the repentant to the righteousness won by Jesus, the Son of God, who as perfect man fulfilled the Law in our stead, died upon the cross, and risen again, so that by faith, people who would receive His grace and live under His righteousness; to live in joy in the midst of a fallen world. To see in the midst of a world that seems to be under the devil’s influence, that that ruler of this world, Satan is judged. He is defeated in Christ’s death.

As you have been baptized into Christ. As you have repented and been forgiven, you a new creation in Him, set free from the threat of eternal death, set free from the lies of the devil who is constantly trying to magnify and enlarge your shortcomings when you are humbled, and enlarge your pride when you need to repent. But the Holy Spirit bursts through those lies, by His Word, by the faith that He created in you and continues to nurture in you. He uses, the pastor, your fellow Christians in this fellowship, He uses the hymns as you sing them, hear them, and learn them, to heal you and strengthen you. As St. Paul advised the church in Ephesus chapter 5: “be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

Singing and making melody to the Lord. That is what we do here. And it is a song that you can sing daily.
Our old song without Christ is one of sadness, a blues melody, a deep wailing and dirge of grief. But now as our Introit sang out: “Sing to the Lord, Alleluia, for He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. Alleluia! His right hand and His Holy arm has worked salvation!”

He has worked your salvation through Jesus Christ who has been crucified for you and your sins, who has been raised to show the victory of the cross and to show your new life and resurrection by faith in Him and His power.

He gives you the gift of song and singing. He joins us with our various voices, abilities, and callings into the body of Christ as we sing together making a beautiful noise and melody.

Straining together in joy, hastening on the day of Jesus triumphant return. But even now we see a foretaste of the joy and unity that shall be fulfilled as we listen to His Word, and respond to it together, as we confess Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to each other in our creeds and songs, and then as we approach the Altar…. Guess what? We can through the ears of faith hear the singing of the rest of the body of Christ on the other side of the veil. The song of the Church triumphant. They sing with us. The angels sing with us. Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Indeed, the earth shows forth the glory of the Lord. How can we not sing? But there at the altar is the glory that truly fills the world with true joy. The glory of Christ’s body and blood crucified in victory in the bread and the wine, for us to eat and to drink. Lord have mercy! Thanks be to God!

As we eat and drink, the Lord makes the minds of His people of one will; to love what He has commanded and desire what He promised so that in the changes and chances of this world, our hearts may be fixed upon Christ where true joys are found! The Lord is our strength and our song. Cantate, my brothers and sisters! Sing to the Lord a new song! Alleluia! Amen!

Pr. Aaron Kangas

“A little while”.

That term is used 7 times in today’s Gospel. It’s pretty hard to miss it. Obviously, we are meant to pay attention.
“A little while”. What is a little while? It seems like a pretty subjective term. Your “little while” may be different than my definition of a “little while”. It is an indefinite term. Is it 10 minutes, 2 hours, weeks, many years? How does it compare to a “long while”? And what amount of our own perception affects our understanding and expectation when we hear someone say: “a little while”?

Have you ever noticed how our perception of time changes based on what we are doing or what we are expecting or what we are experiencing? If you are enjoying something, having fun, time seems to fly by. For example, if you like sports, a game can take 2-3 hours, but you don’t care. It feels like no time at all. How often have we given an answer like “in a little while” to our family, our chores or obligations, while watching television, playing video games, or something else like that and suddenly that “little while” has become a “long while”?

But then, if you are working on something that you don’t like, or with something repetitive, or are in a meeting that has no relevance to your work, time can feel like it drags. A “little while” feels like a “long while” An hour can seem like 3 hours, or longer. If we are experiencing pain or stress, if we are sick, each moment can seem like an eternity.

What also can seem like a long, long time, is if we are looking forward to something. Waiting is so difficult. We learned that even as a child. When a child asks their parent when they are going to eat, play, or do something fun, if the parent answers: “in a little while”… Even if the delay is only 10 minutes or half an hour, to that child it might as well be 3 hours or a lifetime. How often did you as a child ask or have you been asked as a parent after “a little while” now? Now? How much longer? Then finally “Come on!”

How often are you and I still like a little child when it comes to our perspective and relationship with God? When we want something from God, we want it now! We get impatient, even angry at God! Yet, how often, are we reluctant to give an answer to God when he tells us to repent, to stop doing what is wrong, to stop doing what is harmful to our bodies or to our spiritual well being. “Come back to church” God says, “Not now, in a little while” we answer. “Stop living in this or that sin”. “Not now, in a little while.”

What about when we are hurting or in pain? When we are bearing a physical burden or a worry? Have you ever prayed, “Lord, deliver me from this.” But it doesn’t seem like the Lord is answering? The answer is: “in a little while”, He will deliver. To our flesh, that seems like a “no” answer, an off handed, non-committed answer. A “Does God really care?” answer. The flesh knows that that’s what it would do. We don’t want to be bothered with the problems of others, maybe God feels the same way about us when we are being tormented by guilt, anxiety, worry, sadness, or suffering of any kind. That is certainly what the Devil and the world would try to tell you. God has forgotten you. God doesn’t care. Or maybe even God isn’t real.

But the problem is our perspective. Our perspective which is tainted by our sin, by the world, by our misunderstanding of God, His Will, His Word, and so caught up in our own selfish, self-centered feelings, self-justifications, and self-pleasures, that you and I often close our hearts and minds to what is a good and joyful use of our time here on earth. This entire life that we are given here on earth is “but a little while” in the grand scope and scheme of eternity.

Eternity is the “long while” a time where there is no time. There is no end to it. We cannot even fathom it. That is even why Jesus uses the example of a woman in labor. Even if labor was many hours, what is that compared to a lifetime for that child or the lifetime for the mother. Once that little while of labor is over, once the child is born there is joy and the labor and pain fades into memory.
Our times here on earth are filled with times of pleasure, pain, sorrow, crosses and joys aplenty, but they are all such short moments, that we pass through without even fully being aware. When we are sick, we feel it greatly, and then when we are well, we are over it and can scarcely remember being ill. That is how we are, and so we guage time accordingly. How often have you and I sinfully perceived church to be like a boring meeting? Like something we have to suffer through unless it could be thrilling and pointed directly to whatever our definition of “fun” is. “Oh my Goodness, when will this service end? We went for over an hour!? This is such a “long while” Ugh!

Quite often the problem is us. If we are bored in church, it’s because God has blessed us, things are going well in our lives, but we don’t credit Him for it, and we are not thinking about how even when things seem to be going well, we still need what is here for us. We still need to confess our sin, receive His grace, and be re-centered upon Jesus Christ. Perhaps, there have been times we have just made up our minds that church is a chore, but is that God’s fault? No, this is the result of our sinful selfish flesh. Lord have mercy and turn us from our folly!

So often, the people who are really glad to be here at the Divine Service, who no longer see it as a chore or a boring waste of time, have that perspective because of suffering. Because they have suffered in the flesh and the spirit. They have seen the pain and suffering caused by sin in this world, and sin within themselves, and they understand that they deserve it, as do we all! No, sinners deserve even worse, not just death, but also eternal death. But in the midst of this suffering, the injustices, and sorrows, there will be an end to those troubles, and already there is an end to them in Christ! So now they already have joy as their Savior comes to them in this fast fleeting hour too give them relief and hope! For them an hour is not long enough. May God grant us all the same perspective!

Dear brothers and sisters: “Jesus said:
‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’  Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.  When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
Jesus was speaking of His crucifixion and resurrection to His disciples. He is speaking the same to you all, and believers of every age and location. “A little while” and we will be there. “Hang in there!” “Courage”. The world and our flesh may war against faith using our flesh. It may seem that we can bear no more, that God is not hearing our cry. Many may seem to be giving up the faith, and the world and government may persecute the Church, but have no fear in Jesus Christ! A little while and He will come again to you in His body and blood and the bread and wine. This He does so that all His people may rejoice in the forgiveness of sins. In the healing of our spirits, and the comfort of our minds and hearts. So that any trouble, sorrow, or hardship may be turned to joy, and the “long whiles” of our spiritual suffering may become as “little whiles”. While we wait for the little while of this life to be transferred to the “great and long while” of eternal life which Christ has sacrificed and labored for you and me on the cross.

Scripture is filled with this encouragement:
2 Cor. 4:16-18  So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 5:10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
Hebrews 10:37-38 “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith.”

Already, the Lord comes to you here. Be refreshed. Be encouraged as you live by faith in Jesus Christ, who for your sake labored and died on the cross. He was dead but for only “a little while”, so that when He comes to the world at the last: you, and I, and all believers, may live “a great long, while” with Him in His glory which shall have no end. And our joy shall never be taken away for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

A few years ago in the Portals of Prayer, there was a devotion on today’s Gospel text which began this way: “Good shepherds know their sheep – and sheep know their shepherd, whose voice assures provision and security. A young pastor of the suburban church wanted to host a living nativity. A donkey and four sheep were found. Inexperienced members built a stable and a crude fence inside with which to keep the sheep. But the fence was not high enough. Suddenly, one sheep jumped the fence and then another and another and finally the last one. The pastor ran after the first sheep. Three others chased wayward sheep through snowy drifts alongside a busy highway, shouting, “Stop! Stop!” The sheep were eventually retrieved and returned to the fold, where a higher fence was already under construction. “They wouldn’t listen!” the pastor exclaimed. “They just kept running!” An old saint, who knew something about both sheep and people, smiled and said, “They didn’t know you, Pastor. They didn’t know your voice. We do, though, and we love you.” A cute little story.

In today’s Gospel from St. John, Jesus was talking to the Pharisees, the Jews, and His disciples about Himself and His voice: about His purpose and ministry and why some followed Him and others did not. He described Himself as the Good Shepherd who knows His sheep and His sheep know Him: they would know Him by His voice and respond accordingly. They would be gathered to Him.

The “Good Shepherd” is one of our favorite images of Jesus describing His relationship to His people in the Church. Why is Jesus as the good shepherd a favorite image? What makes it so comforting? Why do His sheep know Him and know His voice? What makes Jesus the Good shepherd? Well in this chapter of John, which is a favorite for many, Jesus explains. As He explains the hearer begins to understand the purpose of Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry, but it also explains why He has done what He has done in His life, death, and resurrection.

Jesus is the good shepherd because that is who He is. He is faithful, merciful, and loving. He is the opposite of a hireling, a mere hired hand who has no stock in the well being of the sheep. The hireling doesn’t care what happens to the sheep. He just wants to be paid. The hireling cares nothing for the sheep. He will abuse them, feed them poorly or abandon them if it’s convenient for himself. This comparison highlights what makes Jesus the good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd cares everything for the sheep. He cares and loves them so much that He fights for them against their enemies who would come and devour, scatter, and torture the sheep. The Good Shepherd sees the wolf coming and stands His ground and fights hand to hand. He will not abandon them.

Yet the way that Jesus, the Good shepherd accomplished this, the weapons that He used, and the enemies that He slew, were different than conventional fights in the sheep fields.

David before he was King David, we are told In 1 Samuel, protected His father’s flocks by slaying lions, and bears when they attacked the sheep. He killed the beast with a knife or sword as he would also pluck the sheep still alive from the lions’ mouth. In his selfless heroism and bravery, David was a type of Christ.

God the Father had appointed His Son to go and protect the sheep in the greatest battle for their souls, so Christ saw the enemies of His Father’s sheep and came to rescue the sheep while destroying the enemies. Not with a sword or slingshot did Jesus slay and defeat the enemy, but Jesus the Son of God came to earth using His own flesh and blood body of a true man as His weapon and shield. His weapon was also the truth of God’s Love for the world, the truth of God’s mercy and redeeming forgiveness.

The first attacking wolf which Christ came to defeat was Satan, that accuser who whispered doubts into those first human sheep, Adam and Eve causing them in their confusion and doubt to disobey the safety of the voice of their Lord and scatter. Satan, who ever since attacks again and again every generation in various ways, with a staggering amount of success. Satan then wielded the power of the second enemy who Jesus came to destroy which was sin. Satan with his false and slick voice held men and women captive by accusing them of their sin; using the Law to destroy people and remove hope. Or he would cleverly warp minds into thinking they could defend themselves and save themselves by somehow doing enough works for salvation which do not give success.

But the Lord would continue to call and speak by His voice in His faithful prophets and people throughout the Old Testament. As we heard in Ezekiel today, the Lord reminded the people that He would gather all His sheep who were scattered. He would seek them, gather them, feed them, and bind up their wounds, while punishing the wicked and the enemies who had oppressed them. He would Himself shepherd His people.

In the fullness of time, He sent Jesus to be that Good Shepherd born of a virgin but still true God. By Christ’s preaching and teaching in His earthly ministry, He was planting the Word by His voice. Then He allowed the forces of darkness to take Him as they thought they could silence His voice by putting Him to death on the cross. Satan must have thought that somehow this would break Jesus in His humanity or that in His death it would be the end of the Christ threat. That wasn’t the case. As Jesus was crucified it was as the Good Shepherd standing between the sheep and the blood thirsty enemy. As Jesus the Good Shepherd laid down His life, He was actually destroying the choke hold of sin upon the sheep that they may not have even known was there. He became sin for His sheep, He took the punishment for sin so the sheep would not have to receive an eternal punishment for their sin. So that they would not have to be swallowed by Satan and by death that final enemy. He snatched the sheep from the snapping drooling mouth of Satan. Breaking his jaw by crushing his lies regarding God’s mercy and where salvation truly comes. It is there in Christ alone.
Death could not defeat Jesus. He was raised again triumphant over death as a sign that the three enemies (Satan, sin, and death) who would consume the sheep are weaker than the power of the Good Shepherd and have been judged.

Yet many battles continue as Satan, the world, and our flesh tainted by sin continue to wage war against people, against us. So many voices crying out to distract from the one voice whom we can trust, the voice that can and will save us. Repent and hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, who calls you using His Word as it is preached, calling wandering sin-filled sheep to Himself. He Himself has searched for you. He even today picks you up and wraps you in His grace and restores you to His flock. Be gathered, fed, and healed. He binds your wounds and heals your sins. Though you were dead and weak, by faith in Christ, you are given life and hope again. The Good Shepherd calls out, “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden by your sin and earthly cares, and I will give you rest.” The Good Shepherd did not just do His job and then leave His sheep to fend for themselves and He will not leave you now. His is a voice worth knowing. Follow His voice and your will find comfort, protection, hope, and peace at His cross, and the places where the benefits of the cross are given.

This is why the image of the Good Shepherd is so powerful and comforting. It is what Jesus the Good Shepherd continues to do. He calls out with His voice giving His Grace to people by the power of the Holy Spirit working through His Word and His sacraments. He leads us forth from Holy Baptism where we first hear His voice as faith is created in us throughout our earthly lives to the place of eternal rest in heaven which He has prepared for all believers from different times and nations. He prepares a feast table for us in the presence of those enemies of the Gospel, and fills our cup of grace to overflowing with the wine and blood of Christ with His body, bread, and triumphant presence.

In the midst of joy, sorrow, whatever we experience, the Good Shepherd speaks to us giving us hope because He has laid down His life for His sheep. In Him you and I have forgiveness of sins, and victory over the devil and hope beyond death. Jesus Christ makes all the hopes and promises of the beloved 23rd Psalm come true throughout our lives. He shall always provide for us so that we have no want. As He prepares a table for us here, He anoints us with joy and mercy and heals us of our sin as we drink the overflowing cup of blessing in Jesus blood for the forgiveness of sins. As we dwell in the house of the Lord the Church, we learn to know and love His voice. In that voice of the Good Shepherd, truly God’s mercy and goodness shall follow us for the sake of that Good Shepherd Jesus Christ. Amen

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Back when you were younger, did you ever hear the phrase, “Just wait until your father gets home!”? Or maybe, “Wait till your mother gets home”; maybe one was worse than the other. But what did that mean? We would have heard these words only if we had done something wrong, something deserving punishment. How did it make you feel? Worried, afraid, wondering, “What kind of punishment will I get?” Right?

In the Gospel text for today, the disciples may have experienced a similar fear. The text from John begins by telling the account of Easter Sunday evening. As the text begins, there were only 10 disciples gathered in a room, most likely the same room where only a few days before Jesus had eaten the Passover supper with them. The same place where He instituted the Sacrament of the Altar; the same place where He spoke to them all about what would have to happen to Him in order to fulfill all Scripture. He told that that He would be betrayed, He would have to leave them to a place where they could not follow. He told them that they would be scattered, and desert Him. When they had heard these words originally, their hearts had been filled with sorrow and confusion.

That Sunday evening, they were no doubt filled with more confusion, for everything Jesus said would happen did; They had scattered in fear for themselves, deserting Jesus. Jesus was betrayed, He was tried unjustly, crucified, and killed, and buried. But then, on Sunday, they had heard from the women that the tomb was empty, and there were two angels who asked them why they were looking for the living among the dead. Peter and John went to the tomb and behold, it was empty. Mary Magdalene reported to all the disciples how Jesus appeared to her and gave her the mysterious message for the disciples “…I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” He had said in the upper room, a few days earlier, “I came from the Father and came into the world, and I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” The two disciples who had been on the road to Emmaus had delivered their report of Christ’s appearance to them and how He revealed Himself in the breaking of the bread. This reminded them of Christ instituting the Sacrament of the Altar that same Thursday night. Then as it was just the 10 disciples, minus Thomas discussing these mysteries, their hearts likely still filled with fear that they too might be arrested and put to death. They were afraid of the Jews, but as to the news of Jesus, they probably didn’t know whether to be happy or upset. Afraid it might have been a trap. Also, If Jesus did arise from the grave would He possibly be angry at them for deserting Him in His hour of need? Is that why He had had not yet appeared to any of the 11, because he was angry at them? If He did appear, maybe He would yell at them, or smite them. Peter might have been thinking, “I did deny Him three times before the rooster crowed, just as He said I would, even though I told Him that I would even die with Him.” “Just wait till your Master gets here!…”

Jesus knew this would happen and He had told them Thursday “not to fear”. That “He had overcome the world”. That night the disciples probably weren’t recalling those words of reassurance that Jesus had spoken as they were seized with fear. It is human nature to focus on the grim and the bad news and to cling to fear rather than to trust God in any difficult time… but especially when you know that you are guilty, that you have failed. So, there they were, with hearts in turmoil, fear and angst, mourning their Lord’s death and wondering what was next?

Then Jesus appeared to them suddenly, and while their minds and hearts had no idea how to react, He knew their troubled and guilt-ridden hearts and minds. So, He spoke… “Peace be with you”. Fear may still have had power over them. They may have thought: “Was it Him, a ghost, a demon?” Therefore, He showed them the wounds of His crucifixion, the holes in His hands and His side. He did not yell at them. They had nothing to fear. Then they were glad, and once they were calmed down, He said to them once again, “Peace be with you.” In those words He said “All is forgiven, all is accomplished. You are now free from fear, because I have indeed overcome the world.”

Jesus had not come to judge them, but to absolve them. He knew that they had repented.

Now He would give them the strengthening of faith and office to give the same pronouncement of forgiveness for the Church. He breathed on them the Holy Spirit and the authority which Jesus had to forgive and retain sins was given to them as His apostles and ministers. Their spirit of fear, of darkness, of guilt, had been replaced by the Holy Spirit, who by the forgiveness of sins won by Jesus at the cross, gives a spirit of faith, joy, and gladness.

Jesus had prayed for the disciples on that Thursday night, and He had also prayed for future believers, those who would believe on the name of Jesus through the disciples’ testimony. Now He gave the authority to forgive and retain sins as a tool to establish repentance and forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ for all believers in the future. To give them the spirit of love and peace, not fear.

Even though you and I should expect that when Jesus comes to us in the Divine Service, He would judge us, spite and shame us for our sins, our fears, our abandoning Him and His Words, He comes to us in within this building, as we have come here seeking help and sanctuary from the troubles, sorrows, fears, and failings of this world. He does not speak condemnation, but to those repentant, Jesus says “Peace be unto you”. Through this spoken Word of confession and absolution, the Holy Spirit continues today to free repentant believers from their sin, guilt, fear and shame in Jesus Christ.

The last part of the text spoke of Thomas, who had not yet seen the risen Christ. He doubted unless He saw Jesus with his own eyes and touched His wounds with his own hands. Therefore, the next Sunday night, Jesus appeared to them again, this time with Thomas present. Jesus spoke immediately to Thomas, and showed him His hands and His side, and then Thomas said, “My Lord and my God”, and he believed. Jesus said, “Blessed are they who will believe, though they have not seen.”

Dear friends, Jesus was talking about you and me and the majority of believers throughout time. Though we have not had the same proofs worked to us as to the disciples, the Holy Spirit has worked faith and hope into our hearts and minds by the signs and proofs that He has given. In the hearing of His Word, in Holy Baptism, Absolution, and yes, the Lord’s Supper we have given proofs and signs of His crucifixion and resurrection and that His peace and forgiveness is for us too.

Jesus does indeed come among us and His church with His presence to calm our fears, to remove them, to tell us in the midst of our repentant shame, “you are forgiven”. To tell us in the midst of our troubles and trials, that He has overcome the world and that in Him by faith we will too. Though we could not and cannot keep the Law and we be guilt ridden and worthy of punishment, He comes to us and says, “Peace be with you. Here are my hands, and my side, that were pierced for you. I fulfilled the Law, for you could not. I took the punishment of suffering and death, so that you would not have to experience eternal death. Believe on Me and your sins will be forgiven you and you will be made anew through faith.” In Holy Baptism, God took us and washed us in the blood of Jesus Christ, and in Absolution we are granted again that washing so that our spirit of fear would be replaced with a spirit of peace, and a spirit of faith.

When we have other things happen in this life, when we become afraid for the future, the future of this world or our future, our health, our jobs, our children or grandchildren, or our parents. Fear not. Take heart, dear Christian friends. God has you in His hand. He is here for you to receive His goodness and rest in His reassuring presence, the presence of Your crucified and raised Savior. In His supper we behold our God and Lord, receiving with our mouths salvation which He has won for you to be victorious over sin, death, and the devil in His name.

Now, begone all fear, Ye sons and daughters of the King, He has overcome the world, sin, and even death for you. Our future is one of hope and joy, through faith in Jesus Christ; He gives us the hope of eternal life in the future, but even now, we have joy. Joy in the simple things of this life and more, because we have Peace in Him and reconciliation with the Father. He has given us His forgiveness. He has died on the cross and risen again for you and me. Be made strong for any hardships in life, by His power here given. Be lifted by Him and by your brothers and sisters. Hear His Word, receive His gifts, and be comforted, for He loves you and has eternity established for His people. Yes, just wait until your Lord and Master, Jesus Christ comes a final time… It will be wonderful! He comes to take us to home to Himself to live in joy forever. This is our sure future, through our crucified and risen Jesus Christ, AMEN.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Christ is Risen…He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Our beautiful reading from the Gospel according to St. Mark announces that very fact. The fact that drives our hymns today and the celebrations that we have every time we gather on Sundays for Divine Service every week as every Sunday becomes an Easter celebration. Let us also hasten to the tomb of Jesus Christ and meditate on this reality of Christ’s resurrection as it happened outside Jerusalem so many years ago.

The sun had just risen on that first day of the week, the same day we call Sunday. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome had seen where the body of Jesus had been laid. They knew that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had taken and wrapped the body already anointing it with myrrh and aloes and laid him in a tomb. The death of Jesus was a shock to them, and the burial to them done, had been done in haste and grief, and so they had not been able to wish their Lord and teacher farewell. They were not able to grieve over Him as they wished for the sake of the sun setting on the Sabbath, and so they wanted to take one last look at His body, give one last token of love and respect as they said goodbye. Therefore the faithful women had brought spices to anoint Jesus the Christ and hastened to the tomb. But as they travelled they remembered that “wait! a great stone had been rolled in front of the entrance, how would we three women move such a heavy and large object? Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”

A great obstacle between them and their beloved master remained, an obstacle that represented the great divide between life and death, between this world and the afterlife. An obstacle that might keep them from fulfilling their last task of grief and love.

But as they drew near, they looked up to where the tomb was and saw… the very large stone had already been rolled back. Could it be that someone had already arrived to do the same labor that they had planned? They entered the tomb and there was an unfamiliar young man dressed in white. This young man was an angel, a messenger from God, sent to deliver His message. Imagine their shock, alarm, and fright. Their nerves were no doubt already thin as rice paper with all the terrible shocking events of the last 3 days, but now what could the rolled away stone, the young man in white by the entrance mean?

The angel as angels often have to do, immediately offered comfort and reassurance. “Do not be alarmed!” without further words he delivered to them the message that had been given to him. “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as He told you.”

They came to anoint the Christ with burial ointments, but the Christ which you may recall means anointed one, the Christ had already been anointed, anointed to defeat death by His own death, and to show that trampling under His foot of death by rising again from it, thereby showing that death is not the victor, that the cross of Jesus Christ and His death paid the blood price of ransom for sin which is the strength of death. That the wrath of God upon sin had been satisfied upon the flesh of Jesus Christ and now faithful people young and old do not have to be afraid.

Who will roll away the stone for us? For those of us who have had to say good bye to loved ones who have died according to the flesh, for those for whom death draws near, for those who live in fear of the reality of death of the flesh, we feel this separation between death and life that remains. The stone of death may still feel like a major obstacle as we feel the unnatural rending of life and spirit from body and blood. Recall that God did not create Adam and Eve for death but for life. Who will roll that great stone of death away?

Dear Friends, Christ has rolled away that great stone of death away not yet in completion but already in part. He has overcome death and the grave. The stone of the tomb was nothing to Him. The rolling back of the stone was not so that Jesus and His body could escape or be released from the tomb, it was rolled back to show that Jesus had already arisen, He had already left. His body was showing the power that it had had all along as Jesus was true God as well as true man, but no longer was it subject to suffering, to humility, to death. Jesus Christ was subject to those things to endure in His flesh the things which we endure in part and deserve in full. Now Jesus who was crucified has risen. He has destroyed the barrier between death and life. He has become the greater stone which crushed the lesser stone. He has become the death of death our foe in His resurrection from death.

He has already anointed us for eternal life as He has called us forth from our living tomb of sinful unbelieving lives when He called us by His name into His name in baptism. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

In this way Jesus has already removed the barrier, He has removed the barrier between you and God by taking your sin upon Himself and washing you in His blood. He has reconciled you to the Father, He has given you His Holy Spirit to repent and believe. He has anointed you with the oil of gladness, hope, and joy in Jesus Christ’s name. Death will now pass you over, that is why in the Greek language this festival is still called the Pascha, the Passover. Through Christ’s death and resurrection death will pass us by. Does this mean that we will not die according to the body? No, but it means that Death no longer holds any permanent power. Our bodies have been redeemed. It is not just our spirit or our souls that have been redeemed. It is our bodies, these flesh and blood temples God saw value in their creation, in their redemption through faith and baptism, He sustains them throughout this life, prepares them for the life that is to come in His Word and In His Sacrament of the Altar where we already see Jesus with our own eyes as He comes with His true presence of body and blood in the bread and the wine.

As the faithful women were told that they would see Jesus with their own eyes, so will we in fullness at the last day. Death will be swallowed up once and for all, and tears will be wiped away. As Job said around 4000 years ago, we also have this sure promise today:
“For I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I shall see God,
 whom I shall see for myself,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”
At the last day in the twinkling of an eye at the cry of the angels and the trumpet blast, Jesus shall return and all eyes shall see Him as He is, the perfect true Son of God, the redeemer of the world and especially of those who believe. Then all the tombs shall be opened and He shall call forth His people and they shall rise with their bodies which will be then given life and transformed according to Jesus Christ’s Glorious body and we shall live with Him forever. Christ is Risen…He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Amen!

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Each moment. Each phrase of this day in the recording of Christ’s passion has significance. Significance deeper than we can even express in words. We should meditate upon each moment, and yet there are not enough moments in time in this life to wonder and ponder upon each item, each event, each person, each spoken and unspoken word: all which have meaning and are worthy of meditation as they point to the reality which all of time looked forward to and now looks back upon. The life and hope of each and every generation of mankind is carried in these moments. Even our own.

In the passion according to St. John, Jesus is spoken of as “king” many times. What should a king wear to show his royalty and his domain, but a crown? So, Jesus, our king, is crowned…with thorns. Why thorns? Was this just to mock Jesus or did God move the mockers to reveal greater truth? The first time we hear of thorns in the Bible is in Genesis after Adam and Eve fell into sin. God spoke a curse on the ground saying, “thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.” In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” The very ground out from which man was created will itself turn against him because of the curse of sin. No longer would food come easily as it did in Paradise. Now it will come only with thorny and sweaty labor.

Behold the kind of kings we have then in Jesus. He is one who is willing to bear sin’s curse, literally wearing the thorns of sin on His head in order to break the curse and release us from it. Here is your king, He who is the king of the world, the king of an everlasting kingdom. A king, who doesn’t parade His wealth with gold and jewels in His crown, but who manifests His love by bearing the symbol of sin’s curse upon his head with blood stained thorns. There is no fault in Him, as Pilate said. But this Man who fulfills what the first man could not be, bears all of your faults in order to redeem His kingdom. By the work of His sweat and bloody brow, through the crown of your thorns, He bears the righteous wrath and heat of God against sin in His body bringing forth a bread of life, that as Jesus said in John 6:58 “he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever” as He here conquers death by His own death.

There also is an important fact, which we must understand. Every betrayal, false accusation against Jesus, every scourge, humiliation and depravation, every pain and pierce is received by Jesus Christ for sinners upon His bodily flesh. Clever church signs may say things that seem profound like “Math problem: “3 nails+1 cross= 4 given”. It is nice that they are trying to preach the cross, but without the body of Jesus Christ as the one bearing sin, the cross and the nails are nothing but symbols of torture. They sadly missed the most important part of the equation: the body of Jesus. Our sins were not placed upon the cross, but upon the body of Jesus charged to Him while He died upon the cross. The true profound reality is that God Himself takes on the flesh of His created humanity to take sin upon Himself; upon His perfect flesh and bone body, to fulfill the Law and take upon His body and soul the curse of sin, to conquer and reign over a sin and thorn infested world which by nature rejects God’s love. How profound is God’s love? How profound the sacrifice? Jesus crucified has been damned upon the cross for sin, so that His own body acts as “a dam” holding back the full rush and destructive flood of God’s wrath and the fires of hell from destroying us. This is profound. Our sin upon the body and person of Jesus Christ. Then He dies so that with Him our sin and the ultimate curse is judged and dies with Him. We have been baptized into this death drowned by His blood by His Holy Spirit breathed from the cross to be given new life. New life because death is absorbed in the one who died and is buried, but is now here upon the bare slab of the grave bed altar with His crucified and resurrected body for you to eat and drink and live forever.

All creation grieves as Jesus breathes His last from the cross… but only for a moment. Soon the dark chill of the night gives way to the joy and light of the 3rd day, which gives proof, that the work of God, the work of salvation and substitution in Jesus Christ has been accomplished. There will be an end to death and sin for all under the curse who believe and hold fast to Christ crucified and raised as their King, their redeemer Lamb and Lord, and by Him give eternal thanks to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Hosanna is such a powerful word. Hosanna was part of the cry of the disciples and the crowds as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. “Hosanna” or literally “Hoshi ‘ah ‘na” was a cry used in many of the Psalms, most specifically 113-118. It means: Lord save us! “Hoshi ah na” sounds like very much like “ya-shu-a” which means “God saves”! It is the answer to the prayer! Ya-shu-a is actually the Hebrew name for Jesus. “God saves.” Here in Jesus, He does.

Our first hymn was “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna, the Little children sang”. The children in the temple cried this prayer as Jesus cleansed the temple of the sellers and money changers. Jesus was answering the prayer: God save us! He was cleansing the temple and pointing to the fact that its purpose had been abused but now its time was at an end. Now the true temple had come among them. The true presence of God among His people now abides in the person and bodily temple of Jesus, Yeshua, the Christ.

The sellers and traders whom Jesus upset had set up shop in the area of the temple that was supposed to be designated for Gentile catechumens. Yes, the Hebrews had catechumens: a bit different from what our catechumens are today, but these were converts to Judaism. Gentiles that had been converted by the Word of God and the promise of the Messiah but had not yet taken part of the full rituals to become quote “Jewish”. They had not been ritually baptized, purified, and circumcised. Yet, they were considered believers and were allowed to come to outer courts of the temple, but they were not yet allowed full celebration and participation with the whole company and fellowship, it is somewhat comparable to our closed communion practices for children and those Christians outside our confession. They are Christians but they are not yet ready for full participation. Yet we do not say, to those who are not Lutheran do not come here, or go wait out there, nor do we dismiss the children during the sermon or the rest of service, but we believe that the full fellowship of the Lord’s temple come to earth in the Sacrament of the Altar can be for them too, when they are fully prepared.

These sellers in the temple whom Jesus chased, by their presence, had effectively pushed out and prevented the Gentile believers from their rightful place of worship and the participation allowed them. These sellers had become a stumbling block to the Gentiles. Much as the disciples had been who had wanted to chase the children from Jesus as a stumbling block to them. Hosanna to the Son of David who comes to fight for the Jews and the Gentiles and the children!

When Jesus was entering Jerusalem, the people cried out “Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest”. They saw in Jesus the Messiah of some kind, a deliverer of some sort, but what kind? They were not just saying a meaningless word.

It is possible that some had an idea that Jesus was sent from God, that soon He was going to accomplish something for God’s people. But it is highly unlikely that any of them understood that He was truly God’s son, and that as God’s son, He was also the appointed innocent Lamb to be led to the slaughter, to be sacrificed for the sins of the world so that the righteous wrath of God upon sin would be satisfied. Few of His followers could have suspected what would soon transpire. Some may have thought He was coming to renew the physical kingdom of David by fighting and leading a rebellion against Rome or Herod. Maybe an overthrow of the spiritual authorities in Jerusalem and a renewal of the old covenants.

These were the thoughts also of many of the Scribes, Pharisees, priests, and others who then transpired and plotted against Jesus to have Him betrayed, arrested, publicly punished, and killed. To them in their thinking, He was a threat. Jesus came not as a threat to their person, but He came to fulfill. He was the answer to those cries of “Hoshee ah nah”, “Lord Save us” the cries both current and ancient. He came to fulfill God’s ancient will and promise to save people and crush their enemies. He came to do battle, He came into Jerusalem with shouts proclaiming Him as Messiah, as a victorious king sent from God, and so He would be. This was God in human flesh lowering Himself in deep humility to do what you and I could not. To contend with temptation, to crush the power of the Devil over this creation, to redeem the world and sinners by bearing their sin. Jesus knew what was coming. He knew what lay before Him, yet He processed into Jerusalem to make that supposed “Holy City” truly Holy by His presence. To redeem the Old Testament sacrifices by the fulfillment of His own. So He was betrayed, arrested, punished and crucified. So that you, me, all people, even those who conspired against Him in life could be saved from their sin and delivered unto salvation by faith in Him.

We now sing the word “Hosanna” in our Divine Service. Just about every Sunday in fact. We repeat it often as we sing “Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He, Blessed is He, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.”

We may not even notice it or think about it, but we should. As I said earlier, Hosanna is a powerful word. It is a powerful word because it is a word of prayer which comes from faith. As defined earlier, Hosanna has rich meaning. For this prayer “Hosanna” means “Lord save” or “Lord help now”. It is a plea for Divine deliverance.

It is a confession of sin, a confession of our weakness, our frailty, the fact that we need help. In our song and prayer, “Hosanna”, we admit that whatever we are going through, we have nothing if we don’t have salvation and God’s help. We admit that we cannot save ourselves. We are confessing Jesus is our Messiah. And we are saying, Lord, help, Lord save us now.

God does contend for, strengthen and protect His people even today. He does hear our simple prayer of Hosanna. Even before we were born or knew Him, while we were yet dead in our trespasses and sin, He sent Jesus to be our Savior. Now, when we who have been baptized, given faith, and redeemed by the Word of God and the blood of Jesus Christ, find ourselves in temptation, stress, fear, anguish, uncertainty spiritually, physically, emotionally, let us not forget where God points us: to the cross, to Yeshua/Jesus and His victory over death and the devil for us. He points to His Word, to the place where He promises to come to His people in His Sacraments. To Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper where God delivers His grace to you and me. This is where He shows in a very real way that He is with you, that you needn’t fear in life. This is where He comes to sustain, strengthen, and uplift you with His righteous right hand. So we gather together to confess our sin, Hear His Word, confess the creed, and sing the Hosannas.

When we sing those Hosannas in the Divine Service, we are admitting that God is coming to us, and we are in His Divine Presence as Jesus comes processing into our midst, by the power of His Word of promise present with His body and blood in the bread and the wine. He comes with His healing presence, with His forgiveness. He comes to contend for and defend and protect His people once again. He is not crucified once more but He brings once again the power, might, and benefits of His triumphant grace and mercy accomplished once and for all at the cross. He brings it to serve the weak, weary, repentant believers in His true presence. So that by His crucified and risen sacramental presence, the believer here on earth would be encouraged, transformed by the forgiveness of sins, strengthened and upheld by God’s righteousness given here.

Then we can know that in the battles of this sin weary world, we have already been given Christ’s victory. That He will give us the strength to carry on. That He hears our every prayer asked in Jesus’ name. He knows your every need and well provides you. He will carry you through this life through faith in Christ. You needn’t fear, Christ is here for you. He does help, He does save. He will keep you steadfast soul and body giving you forgiveness of sins and all that you need. Then He promises to come once and for all triumphantly with a shout! To deliver and gather all His faithful. To raise up all the dead and bring all the faithful to life everlasting through Jesus Christ who is the ultimate answer to our prayer, Hosanna, God save us. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

“Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps My Word, he will never see death.” With these words of our Lord, the Jews scoffed at Jesus, believing Him to be a crazy liar. “Now we know You have a demon!  Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet You say, ‘If anyone keeps My Word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? All those great prophets died too? Who do think you are?!” While we certainly understand how wicked and wrong those folks were, are we really any different? You have to admit: What they say rings true in our ears, doesn’t it? We want the words of Jesus to be true, and yet death happens to everyone, not just unbelievers. 

Death happens, and it hurts. If only Christ’s words were true! If only we wouldn’t have to experience death. If only we wouldn’t have to taste the bitter taste of death and separation. We may not want to admit it, but we sometimes struggle with the same unbelief that held these wicked Jews captive when death rears its ugly head in our lives.

But did you catch the problem here? Jesus never said that we wouldn’t taste of death. He said we would never see death. There is a difference—an eternal difference. The Jews, doing exactly what Satan did in the Garden so long ago, twist and corrupt the Word of God. Everyone dies. That’s part of the curse after the fall into sin. “From dust you were made, and to dust you shall return.” That’s the consequence of sin, and it’s right out of God’s mouth. As soon as conception takes place, the clock starts ticking. No one lives here forever. Everyone’s body dies. The stats don’t lie One out of every one person dies. 

So…does this mean that Jesus is wrong? Well…how are you looking at this—through man’s sinful eyes, or through God’s eyes? Remember: When Lazarus died, Jesus referred to it as simply “sleeping.” The same goes for Jairus’ daughter. “Why all the commotion? She’s not dead. She’s sleeping.” And how did both stories end up? They had most certainly fallen asleep in death, and Your Lord spoke His life-giving Word and awakened them from their deathly slumber. They tasted death, but they didn’t see death. They tasted physical death, the temporary separation of the soul from the body (which all men taste), but they didn’t see/experience eternal death; the death that is total and eternal separation from the Lord of Life. There is a difference—an eternal difference.

Sadly, this is where those biological children of Abraham just didn’t get it. The fruit of faith had fallen so far from the tree! Just consider the events of today’s OT. God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac; the very son that had been promised to him for all those years. From this son that God was going to bring the promised Messiah into the world. But here is God commanding Abraham to put this same son to death! The craziest thing of all? Abraham heard and obeyed. He believed God. He trusted God. But what exactly did he believe? What did he trust?

As we have been studying in our Sunday Bible class, the writer to the Hebrews tells us in 11:17-19 that Abraham fully believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead. We even hear Abraham proclaim this faith when he tells his servants to “wait here, and we [the boy and I] will go and worship and then we will return.”

Abraham wasn’t lying in order to not raise suspicions. He believed that God would take care of it. He had a very specific, focused faith on God’s promise regarding Isaac. God said it…many time over the course of twenty-five years, and Abraham trusted God. If God told him to kill his son, Abraham fully believed that God would raise him from the dead. God’s promise could not and would not die with Isaac on that mountaintop.  Abraham believed it…and so did Isaac.

The faithful son of this faithful father trusted his father, and more importantly trusted the Word and promise of God that his father had handed down to him and taught him and raised him to believe. At some point Isaac realized that God did indeed provide the sacrifice, and he was the sacrifice. That is why Isaac didn’t object or put up a fight or try to flee in order to save his life. Isaac didn’t go to that altar kicking and screaming and fighting for his life. Isaac went willingly. He carried the wood up that mountain on his own back and helped his father construct the altar and then allowed his father to bind his hands and feet. He was confident in the faith of his father that even though he would momentarily taste of death, God would resurrect him.  

This is why this Old Testament lesson is appointed for this particular Sunday in Lent, just a few short days before Good Friday. Jesus—the promised Son in the flesh—willingly went to the cross to offer Himself as a sacrifice—the all-atoning sacrifice for the sins of all children of Adam. His Father commanded, and Jesus obeyed. “Not My will, but Thy will be done.” This obedient Son carried the wood of His own sacrifice on His own back to that mountaintop. He allowed Himself to be beaten, scourged, and bound to that sacrificial altar of the cross, the nails piercing His flesh and blood as they buried into the wood beneath. It is on this cross—this bloody altar—that the Son of God momentarily experienced/saw true hellish death, for the just and fiery wrath of God was poured out upon Him in full: forsaken by God because of the sin placed on Him. Yet He never lost faith. When that sacrifice was complete; when the wage was paid in full for all time, He victoriously cried out, “It is finished.” He then peacefully and confidently commended His Spirit to His Father, and then fell asleep in death. 

But Jesus from the cross also said “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” Those words of promise, spoken to that lowly, undeserving thief, were absolutely true. Though they both tasted death, neither saw death—eternal death—for they both reclined at the heavenly feast in paradise that very afternoon. And three days later, as you well-know, the Lord of Life arose from His Sabbath rest—His deathly slumber—and proved to the world that He is the Lord of Life. Death has no dominion over Him!  “All who believe in Me shall never die.”

My fellow baptized believers: This is our comfort, our peace, our reason to rejoice, even as we sorrow and grieve and taste of the sinful death that pervades our bodies and the fallen world in which we now reside.  “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into His death and resurrection? For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” Death no longer has dominion over us! Though we may taste of death in this fallen and sinful world, we have His baptismal promise that we will never die! God poured out His wrath and death upon Christ so that we will not have to see with our own eyes true death in Hell. Instead as Job proclaims: with these same eyes now perfected and raised we shall see our Redeemer. For Christ’s sake we will see life, not death. We will never truly die but pass from death to life, forever alive in Christ and because of Christ. The resurrection that awaits us will be a resurrection unto eternal life, our bodies awakened from the slumber of physical death and made perfect, reunited with our souls, living body and soul complete, just as our Creator had always intended. 

Our Lord knows our weakness of faith right now; our tendency to doubt when things get tough or seem dark. This is why He continually holds out to us His proof and assurance. Look no further than right here at the altar/communion rail.  “I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Take and eat. Take and drink. This is My body and My blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sin.” Only the Living One can give us this gift of Life. This isn’t a memorial meal. It’s a feast of Life; a foretaste of the feast to come! Sin is death—eternal death—but where there is forgiveness of sin, there is life—eternal life. Though we may suffer and even taste the bitter taste of death and dying in this world/age, yet we live and we will never die, because our death has already been swallowed up and put to death in the blood of Christ; the very lifeblood He nourishes us with here at His holy altar. 

Come what may, you belong to Christ. Come what may, the Lord of Life reigns victorious, and here is where He Himself nourishes you and your faith with the fruits of His victory, which is made your victory by virtue of your baptism into Him; by virtue of your faith in Him. 

This is the Truth that has come to set you free. Jesus Christ crucified to pay for your sin and swallow up your death. The event which Abraham Himself has seen and now lives in, rejoicing with all the other saints who are now at rest with Christ. This day of salvation you have seen and do experience in His Word and Sacraments.

Be free in Christ from all doubt and worry, despair and anger. Like your father Abraham, may you ever hold fast to the Word and Promise of your God and Lord. May you see your Lord providing and reigning and ruling in your midst; and may you rejoice, now and into all eternity. In Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Today we heard the miracle of the feeding of the 5000. Five loaves and two fish in the hands of Jesus feed 5000 men, not counting women and children, with twelve baskets full of leftovers at the end.

Back when Jesus began His earthly ministry, the devil in the wilderness had tempted Jesus to perform a similar miracle. Remember the temptation by Satan was for Jesus to turn stones into bread in order to feed His own empty stomach. But Jesus would not do it, for as He said “man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” You see, it was not the way of Jesus to use His power to serve Himself. He came to be the servant of all and to lay His own life down for others.

Jesus’ way is to multiply, to take one thing and add to it, to create from nothing, or almost nothing and from it make great abundance at blessing. At Cana He turned water into wine overflowing; A few weeks ago, we heard of the Canaanite woman who said that she would be grateful for crumbs of grace and then Jesus gave her the “whole loaf” of healing for her daughter and an affirmation of her great faith. This woman, broken off from the whole, was now gathered into the faithful.
Today He takes five little loaves and two fish and turned them into an abundant feast for five thousand plus with many leftovers, twelve baskets full of leftovers, which Jesus makes sure is gathered together.

According to the gospel of Mark, Jesus and His disciples had actually been trying to get to a place of rest away from the crowds. The disciples had just returned from their mission trip, and Jesus had said, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” He knew that they needed a rest, but these people also needed a rest, and so they followed Him. Jesus could have said, “not now, go away, give us a break”. But He had pity on them and taught them and fed them His Word.

Then He asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 

Jesus had been testing the disciples, but they do not seem to understand what Jesus was saying. Philip mentions 200 denarii, that’s the equivalent of two hundred days’ wages, which is pretty large sum, and now they find only five loaves of bread and two fish…sigh, “so little”. It doesn’t seem like the disciples were too confident despite what they had seen Jesus do in the past. But Jesus shows that God feeds and provides physical as well as spiritual needs to support peoples’ body and life.

Taking the meager offering of five little loaves and two fish, Jesus looked up to heaven to His Father, from whom all blessings flow, blessed the bread and fish and began breaking them up, handing the pieces to the Twelve who then fed the people.

Jesus was teaching His Twelve to minister. They would be the church’s first pastors, the foundation of apostolic ministry. He was teaching them how it would go in the future. He would be the source, they would do the feeding. He would work the kitchen, they would be the runners and the waiters, bringing His food to the people. If you are hearing a hint of the Lord’s Supper going on here, you are quite correct. Jesus is the chef as well as the food; His pastors are the waiters and runners. He takes our humble offering of bread and wine and multiplies it, not in quantity but in nutritional value. Making something seemingly insignificant into something more and greater: His own Body and Blood given and shed for your salvation.

There were twelve baskets full of leftovers, one for each of the Twelve. What was Jesus teaching there? Among other things, He was saying to His pastors, that they could trust that there would be leftovers for themselves. That as they preached and fed others, they too would hear and be fed. That His Word preached would find its way into their own ears and have the same killing and making alive effect that it does in their hearers. That His Body and Blood would also be given to them as food and drink to sustain them, even if it was at their own hand.

That’s what is unique about being a pastor. We preach to ourselves. We feed ourselves. And yet we must hear our preaching as God speaking to us through His office. And we often receive the Supper of Christ from our own hand. We even talk to ourselves at the altar and say, “The Body of Christ given for you,” “the Blood of Christ shed for you.” But it’s why I enjoy sitting in the pew now and then. Going to conferences and so on, I get to go away and be fed by another pastor. To be a hearer and receiver and be served.

Receiving is actually a good thing. I think sometimes we take this business of receiving far too lightly. We want to be busy doing. It’s all the rage these days to talk about participation in worship as though receiving was not the most important thing going on, that everyone has to be doing something. Even in receiving there is plenty to do as we are being fed and taught. In response to this feeding and teaching there are hymns to sing and creeds to confess and Amens to end prayers with. We have a liturgy that calls for full participation. Worship is not a spectator sport by any means. But the most important thing is not what comes out of you but what goes into you.

The most important thing that happens is that we sinners are being fed by our Good Shepherd Jesus with His Word and with His Supper for the forgiveness of those sins. Receiving the words and the body and blood of the bread of life. Without receiving there will be no giving.

There are pastors and churches around today who would view church as a marketing scheme and worship as a pep rally for the sales force, to get the sales force pumped up to hit the streets and sell the product. In such a place you’d be challenged to bring in the numbers. How many people did you bring to church this morning? How many people did you evangelize this week? How many lives have you transformed lately? You’d be challenged, and perhaps we like challenges. At least some of us do, until we’re burned out being challenged. You’d be organized and mobilized and put to work building the kingdom. Except it wouldn’t be the kingdom of God you would be building, because man doesn’t build God’s kingdom. Jesus builds, He uses simple means by the power of His incarnation, dying and rising to build the church. He uses Water, Word, bread and wine given for you for the forgiveness of sins, to give life to you and build you and believers individually and together into Himself as you rest and receive.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t all sorts of stuff to do, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be witnessing to your neighbors or inviting people to hear God’s Word of truth in this church, but it is Jesus who multiplies, Jesus who feeds, Jesus who takes what little we have to offer, and gives us back what we could not supply for ourselves. Here we rest, and He takes our sin and gives back His righteousness.

By the way, bread and fish were a messianic sign, the bread recalls manna from heaven given to the children of Israel during their wilderness wanderings. Fish represented Leviathan, the great sea monster, the image of the devil himself, and the feeding upon the fish meant victory over this great enemy. This feeding in the wilderness, as every feeding at the hands of Jesus, is a foretaste of a coming feast, the feast of salvation and life that awaits us at the resurrection.

Did the crowds understand this? Of course not. We heard that the people were going to seize Jesus to make Him a “bread king”. What better king than one who could multiply bread and keep one’s stomach full for free! But Jesus is not that sort of king, nor is His kingdom built on signs and wonders. No, Jesus had pity on the people, even as He had pity on you and you me. He had something greater to do. He had a death to die and a resurrection to rise to take away sins, defeat the great beast, the devil and destroy the power of death. He had a greater food to give, a greater meal to prepare. The one that you receive here in this place.

So, come away from the world and rest awhile. Here is where the Good Shepherd gathers you in the “basket of this congregation” with your fellow crumbs. Here He feeds us with His forgiveness, His Truth and Words of life which come from Himself, the bread from heaven, the bread of life, broken for you and me at the cross. He gives of Himself to knit us together to wholeness each time that we are gathered and reassembled in unity of confession and life to receive from Jesus. A precious commodity is Christ’s Word, His body and blood, His forgiveness and life. Worth far more than 200 denarii, yet He gives it to you freely by grace. Rejoice! The forgiveness of your sins, and the meal of His victory which He delivers to you gives you strength, rest and peace unto eternal life.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas