Today, Jesus teaches us how to wait for the coming of His final kingdom. He says, “A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me.” At this time, Jesus was going to be taken away from his disciples, condemned, crucified, and buried. But on the third day He would rise from the dead, and they would see Him again. A little while they would not see Him, and again a little while they would see Him. His death and resurrection remain the very foundation for the Christian life. We continue to live by this teaching of Jesus: His teaching of “a little while”. Our life on this earth is only a little while. To God the span of our life is like a breath. But our true and everlasting life is hidden in Him with our crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t live for ourselves. Instead, we live for Him who died and rose as we look forward to His glorious return.

The death and resurrection of Jesus are the foundation for our life as Christians. Since we have been baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, it follows that our entire life here on earth is one of dying and rising. Repenting of our sins with faith in God’s promise, the old sinful nature in us is crucified every day and our new man comes forth, alive in Christ Jesus. This is a daily dying and rising.

This “dying and rising” shapes the way we see life here on earth. It shapes the way we see our earthly duties. In our stations in life. Your job as a father or a mother is only for a little while. Your children are a gift of God, whom he entrusts to you for a little while. Any kind of authority you carry out in this life is for a little while. Any kind of authority you submit to in this life is for a little while. Any afflictions you must bear, any temptations you must fight against, any sadness or happiness, honor or praise, enjoyment or disappointment – this is all for a little while. You look to something much greater. You look to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. He is coming soon.

Any duty you carry out in this life is a duty you know will only last for a little while. Of course, this doesn’t mean that your work is unimportant. No, in fact, this means that it is much more precious and meaningful than you could know. When you raise your children, you are not just feeding them, clothing them, and helping them to succeed in this life. Much more, you are commending them to Him who died and rose to give them life. You are teaching them that nothing lasts forever except for the Word of their Savior. And when they are going through temptations, when they are being bullied, when they are suffering from a guilty conscience or a heavy sickness, you teach them that these things are only for a little while. You teach them to bear these pains for Christ’s sake, looking eagerly for His return.

When you put in your hours are work, you learn from Jesus that when He returns all the works of this world will burn up. But again, this doesn’t take value away from your work. Jesus isn’t teaching you that you shouldn’t even try because it’s going to break anyway. No, Jesus is teaching you to value the work he has given you while it is day before the night comes when no one can work. And He is teaching you that the value of your work is not in how long you can make it last. The value isn’t found in how much bacon it puts on the table. Instead, the value of your work is found in love for God and your neighbor. Such love flows from faith and a good conscience. God is pleased with your work because it is done by faith in Christ.

Even if you were to spend hours a day working on a building project, making sure that everything is sustainable and up to standard. The day after the construction is finished, Jesus returns. No one will live or work in your building. Was your labor in vain? To the world, this would seem to be the case. But a Christian doesn’t see it this way. A Christian knows the whole time that his labors are for a little while to His glory regardless of the labor’s outcome.

When the children of Israel were traveling through the wilderness God had them set up the tabernacle. It was a huge project involving many workers. When God’s glory cloud moved, they would tear down the tabernacle and follow God’s glory until it rested in another location. Then they would build up the tabernacle again. Sometimes the tabernacle would stand for many days. Sometimes it would stand only a few days. But every time the glory of God moved, they would tear it down again, and when the glory of God rested they would build it up again. This is how God was teaching them to wait for his Salvation. It is through dying and rising, tearing down and building up, being humbled and being exalted. And so are we.

God gives you your work to do in this life, because he loves you. He wants you to serve your neighbor and the living God. And as much as He Himself has prepared these works for you to walk in, He also teaches you through these works that you cannot rely on them. Things break. Dreams shatter. Goals are often not met. Your body fails. Your kids get sick. Your sins get the better of you. These are all things you learn while you work. God is teaching you to die to yourself and to find your life in Christ. When He returns He will prove that your works done in faith were not in vain. As Isaiah says in chapter 65, you will build houses and live in them; you will plant vineyards and enjoy their fruit (Is 65:21). St. Paul gives these encouraging words in 1 Corinthians: “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labors are not in vain. (1 Cor 15:58)”

In today’s epistle, St. Peter tells us to be subject, for the Lord’s sake, to every human authority. He tells us to honor everyone. Honor everyone in the station God has given him. Honor the emperor, the policeman, your employer, your teacher, your father and mother. This honor comes from knowing that all authority is given by God. Notice that Peter does not tell us to fear the earthly rulers. No, we are only to fear God. God has the authority to kill and make alive. He has the authority to condemn or free the soul, not just the body. He has given honor to various human authorities to serve a purpose for a little while here on earth. But only for a little while. So, honor them. Pay your taxes. If you vote, think about protecting your neighbor. Think about the unborn and the dignity of marriage and the family. Think about the poor and your neighbor’s livelihood. They will always be with you in the little while of this life. Your true inheritance is not in this world. So whatever duty God has given you, do it in fear and faith toward Him, trusting that He will preserve you in the faith until you die.

And love your fellow believers. Peter literally says, “Love the brotherhood.” This is what the church is. It’s a brotherhood, brothers and sisters bearing one another’s burdens, forgiving each other, covering up a multitude of sins. This is the life of the Christian church as we receive forgiveness, life, and salvation from the Lord Jesus himself. Such love, which flows from faith and a good conscience, is not only for a little while. To love your fellow Christians, to share with them the compassion your Lord has shown you, will last forever. This isn’t because of how valuable or enduring your work is. It is because it flows from faith in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. Your best efforts will ultimately fail. But the love, which God has poured into your heart, which compels you to serve your neighbor, will prove on the last day that your faith in Jesus was true and genuine.

The world doesn’t mourn over what Christians mourn over. Jesus tells his disciples that when they weep and lament the world will rejoice. While the disciples were weeping over their Lord, the Roman soldiers tortured and mocked him, and the Jewish leaders accused and taunted him. Christians are sad when God’s Word is denied and attacked. Christians mourn when love for Jesus from His sheep grows cold. The world can’t mourn over these things. The world will mourn over natural disasters, death, injustices, and other outward evils. But this is not a sadness that leads to repentance and life. Instead of seeking comfort and joy in the eternal Lord, they seek it in things that last for only a little while. They rejoice over the election of a new politician, the passage of a new law, the victory of their preferred party, or the rise of a new hero. And while we should certainly thank God when he gives us just and competent leaders, we know that these are only for a little while.

It doesn’t always seem like a “little while”. The pain a mother goes through when she’s giving birth seems like it will never end. The battle against your sinful desires, which wage war against your soul, rages on in this life. Your sadness over death or your pains of body and soul make your time slow. But Jesus calls it only a little while. It is by faith in Christ who has conquered death that you can call your afflictions light and momentary. As a new mother forgets her pain for the joy of her newborn child, the joy of the gospel overwhelms the sadness of this life.

Jesus says that no one can take this joy from you. It is joy in knowing that your Savior is risen from the dead and that you will see him face to face. And it is the joy in knowing that whatever work you have to do in this life was given to you by God. So even if it seems to be in vain, it can’t be. God gave it to you. He counts every tear. He hears every prayer in Jesus’ name.

We do our duties while it is day. And sometimes the darkness comes before we expect it. But whether our life span is a “long” day or a “short” day, we are always blessed when we look to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come which will be forever in Jesus Christ’s name, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

This Sunday in Easter is oftentimes called “Good Shepherd Sunday”. Therefore, today we sang Psalm 23 and a portion of John 10, along with the Shepherd references in the Old Testament and Epistle readings. John 10 and the 23rd Psalm contain passages that many consider their favorite. Our readings used that beautiful imagery of Jesus and God as the Good Shepherd who searches for and guides the sheep, meaning members of the church, His flock. We often use these texts to comfort ourselves when we are suffering, hurting, near death, and at funerals. Many of you I am sure even have the 23rd Psalm committed to memory. If you do, that is wonderful; if you don’t have it memorized, it might be helpful to do so. Why would it be helpful? Because when the time comes that you will be in need, you may not have access to a Bible. It will then be good to have this psalm with you in your memory to comfort you, to remember that the Lord is your Good Shepherd whom we need especially during difficult times.

Very often we have thought of shepherds during Bible times as these peaceful, caring, good, hard working types. Perhaps at Christmas Eve we might hear in a sermon that shepherds were smelly and were considered by the rest of society as being rather low in social status, but in many ways, it was actually worse. In fact, shepherds actually had a nasty reputation as being untrustworthy. In a Rabbinical list of thieving and cheating occupations, we find “shepherd” to be included. A Jewish Midrash/sermon on Psalm 23, the good shepherd psalm, comments: “No position is so despised as that of shepherd.”

Often, when the hired shepherds (the hirelings) would be sent to sell sheep to interested buyers, they would return to their master and tell them that some of the sheep had died, therefore the sale was less than expected but what they had really done was pocket the extra money. Since the hired shepherds had no real stake in the flock, if a wild predator would come and seize one of the sheep, that hired shepherd would not risk his life to save the sheep from the jaws of death.

These hired hands, these unfaithful traveling shepherds, remind us all too well of the world and its trickery, cruelty, and self-interest. By the way, the word: “Pastor” means “Shepherd”. Perhaps you have been the victim of such wily and worldly unfaithful religious “shepherds” who have seized every opportunity to take advantage of you or who have not been faithful in protecting your spiritual needs, but only look for popularity and prosperity for themselves from the backs of the sheep.

Sadly, this is the state of the world. There are many people, in business, politics, education, or even in “so called religious professions”, in any position of trust, who do not fulfill their obligation to be faithful. Many who are in the position where they are called upon to protect, yet, instead of protecting the weak, take advantage of and abuse the weak, and when trouble comes, they seek only to protect themselves.

But let us be honest here, though we can think of examples of those pastors or people who have taken advantage of us, let us not forget how often have we taken advantage of others. How often have we pushed our advantage over others to get our way? How often have we lapsed in our faithfulness to do our duty as an employee or employer, as a citizen, as a student, as a parent, as a child, as a member of the church: a pastor or as a lay person?

There are all these problems in the world because there is something wrong with each human: an illness, a disease which is the source of all sorrow, all sickness, all betrayal, all selfishness, greed, lust, laziness, gossip, narcissism, abuse, and danger. This condition which all humanity shares is, of course, sin. It is a condition which we have inherited from our fathers and mothers. Sin is a rebellion against God. Yet God is a good shepherd, the best. He is the one who created each and every one of us and each and every person in this world and loves them. Yet all we like sheep have gone astray each one to his or her own way. That selfish way that we have pursued is a way of death, of destruction, of faithlessness and pain. We feel this pain in our weak bodies, in our broken relationships, in our fears and doubts, in our toil and failures, and in the pain we have given to others when we have taken advantage of them and when others have taken advantage of us. It is our adversary, the devil, who takes advantage of this rebellion and the resulted vulnerability to consume whomever he can, to bring them not only death, fear, and misery here on earth, but to an eternal destruction.

But, our Lord is indeed a good shepherd, a shepherd: faithful, loving, caring, and self-sacrificing. Jesus the Christ is the fulfillment of Psalm 23. Jesus said that He is the good shepherd, but Jesus did not claim this as a means to take advantage, but because He is. It is to our advantage that He is the Faithful and Good Shepherd. He took this job, this responsibility of loving care seriously, yes, all the way to the cross.

The Good Shepherd, the Word of God made flesh, came down from heaven and used His sinless incarnate body as the tool of salvation. Jesus, the Son of God, humbled Himself to be born among the sheep, to become as a sheep, Himself. To seek and to save His sheep by being the perfect sheep that the sheep could not be. He came to be the Good Shepherd who actually lays down His life so that the sheep who loved to roam and rebel would be redeemed and rescued from the wild beasts of the devil, the world, and their own flesh. 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. Jesus the Good Shepherd laid down His life, destroying the choke hold of sin upon the sheep. Jesus contended with Satan in His crucifixion and by it defeated the devil’s power to accuse people of their sin. At the same time that He did this in His death, He also destroyed the final enemy which is death itself. Death could not defeat the perfect sacrifice which took away the power of death which that disease of sin. Therefore, Jesus was raised triumphant over death. The Good Shepherd has redeemed His sheep!

The image of the Good Shepherd is powerful. He overcomes the enemies which would destroy us, having sought us, and then gathers us into the sheepfold of the Church. There we behold Him crucified upon the cross, we hear His Voice by His Word and in His powerful absolution and see Him feed us in His body and blood given for us for the forgiveness of sin. His heroic actions for us testify by His Spirit that we sheep can trust Him: A truly loving and Faithful Shepherd. Yes, He will rebuke and exhort us when we do wrong, but for our good. He will forgive, He will pick the nettles out of our wool, bind up the wounds that we incurred by our own wanderings, forgive us, and then heal us, and make us right. Not just right, but righteous and holy in thought, word, and deed by His Holy Spirit. In the green pastures of His Word and sacrament He nurses you, me, and all His sheep back to health. He whispers assurances to us: that in Him and His cross, the devil and death cannot harm us any longer. In the daily battles that we have against sins, accusations, and our temptations He says, “stay by me, this is my battle, I am the answer for you.”

In the midst of suffering, we are tempted to ask, “Why has this happened?” Know that it is because of our sin. Instead of asking, “Where are you, God?” See Him sharing your suffering at the hands of the world, the devil, the flesh. Behold Him coming to you triumphant over your sin in His Word and Sacrament. He has won for you your final deliverance. Find comfort in His promise: ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5 and Deut. 31:6).

From Holy Baptism where we were first washed as His little lambs He leads us forth to the place of eternal rest in heaven. We follow Him who is the “Good Shepherd”, “the Great Pastor”, “the Faithful Overseer and Bishop” of our souls: He who has laid down His life for His sheep and took it up again so that you and I can have forgiveness of sins, and victory over sin, death, and the devil.

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 true want. He allows us to be restored and refreshed in the green pastures and still waters given in this Divine Service of His Word and in His Holy Supper as we receive forgiveness of sins, life and salvation from His hand. When you are tempted to hear and listen to voices of unfaithful shepherds and the world, resist them. Listen faithfully and learn the voice of the One who has defeated your enemies and given you the victory so that you fear no evil even in the valley of death.

As He prepares a table for His sheep 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. We see that truly God’s mercy and goodness shall follow us as we dwell in the house of the Lord now on earth and forever in eternity. All this through Faith in our Faithful Good Shepherd Jesus Christ, Christ is Risen….Alleluia! Amen.

Pastor Aaron Kangas

The last 40 years have seen a great increase of persecution of Christianity in the middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, Canada, even here in the United States. Although we see and hear the growing threat to Christians confessing the truths of Christianity here, we still have not experienced persecution to the point of having to deny Christ or be put to death. This kind of persecution is also on the rise around the world by Islamic terrorists, atheists, or corrupt governments.

How are they able to have such a strong and vibrant faith to confess their Lord and Savior even under the threat of extreme torture and death? Could you or I stand up to it? Might we or our children have to experience the ultimate persecution? The flesh is weak, but the power of God is greater.

Take the Apostle Thomas, as an example of God’s power overcoming weakness and unbelief. While the Bible doesn’t tell us much about what happened to Thomas after Pentecost, extra-Biblical histories indicate that Thomas did missionary work to the East.
In fact, historical artifacts place Thomas in the area of Mylapore, India at the time of his death. Thomas died when four soldiers pinned him to the ground with four spears. Before he died, he preached the Word and the Holy Spirit converted many through that Word, so that when the Portuguese arrived in the 15th century they were surprised to find a small Christian community that had survived and spoke of Thomas and even had biblical artwork in their churches. Though it was otherwise unknown by the rest of Christendom, it was not forgotten by the Lord and the power of His Word kept them in the faith during that time.

In spite of all the wonderful work God did through the Apostle Thomas, the world will always remember Thomas as Doubting Thomas. As we heard in today’s text, Thomas had missed the appearance of Jesus on that first Easter evening, and he refused to consider the eye witness account of his fellow disciples. 

“Doubting” is not the right word to describe Thomas. He actually said, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Thomas did not say that he wasn’t sure. He said: “I will never believe.” Thomas did not merely doubt. He did not believe. 

But let us remember the state of all the followers of Jesus. Grief, fear, sadness, doubt and despair was all their food. Even when the two Marys and Joanna/Salome saw the empty tomb, heard the voice of the angel, and Mary Magdalene saw Jesus and reported these things to the disciples, “these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” So, all the disciples were unbelievers lost in their grief and fear until Jesus revealed Himself to them. Therefore, the first time Jesus showed Himself to the disciples, He was showing Himself to despairing unbelievers. 

Jesus would have had the right to show up and scold the disciples. “Hey, I told you over and over and over again that I was going to rise on the third day. You are not my disciples! I am done with you!” Jesus had the right to say that, but He did not. Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They deserved judgement, He gave them peace. Peace to calm their troubled hearts. Peace which is far greater than the peace promised in the politics and materials of this world. It was peace in Jesus Christ. Peace in His presence. Peace in His wounds. Peace from God by the forgiveness of sins. This is the peace of God which can still heavy and burdened consciences. His victorious sacrifice and His love can break through the most hardened unbeliever.

That is why Jesus showed them the wounds of the cross in His hands and side: they were the source of the peace He was bringing. The Law fulfilled. God’s righteous wrath received in Him so that peace could be given to the disciples. So that those disciples, you, me, and all people who have doubted, denied, or disbelieved Jesus could be saved. Though we have deserved judgement, Hell and all misery that could be experienced here and for an eternity, Jesus stands among us here and speaks peace by the forgiveness of sins. Freeing and loosing us from the chains of sin, by His voice of forgiveness; the voice of the crucified and raised conquering son of God and Son of Man. Now despair, unbelief, grief, sadness, ignorance, wrath, and any other anxiety or trouble could be and would be defeated in Him.

Jesus has come to bring you peace between you and God by the forgiveness of your sins, to bring to you eternal life in the midst of death, hope in the midst of despair. This is the most important news of all times and places. This is news that everyone needs to hear. It is this news that can make believers out of unbelievers apologists out of skeptics.
How did Jesus plan to spread this good news throughout the world? Right after He showed Himself to His disciples, Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” To send someone is to make them an apostle. Jesus basically told the disciples, “Up until now, I have been the apostle of the Father.  Now, you are to be my apostles.”

Wait! These same men who argued over who was the greatest? The cowards who fled when Jesus was arrested? The ones who refused to be comforted or believe that Jesus had been raised until a moment before? Yes.

Then, as if sending these guys out as His Apostles wasn’t strange enough, He gave them even more authority. He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” That forgiveness which Jesus just finished earning by His suffering and death a few days ago is now to be administered in Jesus’ name by these men who had lost their faith in Jesus’ promises.

God regularly works in these strange ways … ways that make no sense from a worldly point of view. When Moses was forty years old and was all fired up to be the great liberator of Israel, and killed the Egyptian, God could have called Him to deliver the Israelites then, but Moses showed that His faith was in doing it himself, not letting God do it. God instead sent him out into the wilderness.  When Moses was 80 years old and did not want to go, that is when God sent him to Pharaoh. A Pharisee named Saul was arresting Christians for trial and consenting to their executions. Then Jesus knocked him to the ground on the road to Damascus and called him to proclaim the Gospel.

It seems as though God goes out of His way to scrape the bottom of the barrel of humanity in order to find His servants. In every case, God took away any chance of boasting of “worthiness” on the part of the human being. In every case, the odds of human success were so low, that it was absolutely necessary that a miracle of God would have to provide success. The absolute helplessness of God’s servant shows the power of God’s Word of salvation.

God could have set aside a few legions of angels to do His preaching. Yet, that is not what God does. He places foolish, sinful men into the office of preacher. He puts the administration of the forgiveness of sins into the mouths of those same foolish, sinful men. When He needs to proclaim salvation, He sends sinners to proclaim it.

The comfort for Christians in all ages is that no matter how odd or weird or boring or whatever their pastor is, their faith should not be in the man, but in the message from God when it is preached in truth and purity. The effectiveness of the Word does not depend on the pastor. It is God Himself who deserves all the credit for our salvation. Jesus Christ earned it on the cross. The Holy Spirit delivers it in Word and Sacrament. I, as your pastor am merely the servant who administers the gifts God gives to you from the cross of Jesus Christ. In this way, Jesus comes among us here in Baptism, Absolution, Divine Service, the Lord’s Supper, and wherever His Holy Word is proclaimed and taught in its truth and purity. He comes to His people wearied by the world, their sins, their doubts, unbelief, disbelief, and anxieties and says, “Peace to you!” Do not disbelieve anymore but believe! He doesn’t just wish you peace, He actually gives you peace by giving you faith even as He gives you the forgiveness of your sins. God confirms you in that Word of peace as He uses the physical instruments working with the Word to deliver this Grace, this gift of love and mercy to you and me from Himself by His Holy Spirit. As Christ comes to us here in His Word and Sacraments He proclaims His peace and in Christ we freed from the troubles and fears which would overwhelm us.

Then having received from Him mercy and forgiveness in the absolution, having witnessed the crucified body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the altar, we too can be witnesses to the world of Him wherever we are. This is the message of Easter, the message of God’s Passover in Jesus Christ. Forgiveness and hope in Jesus Christ. This message of Christ crucified and raised to pay for our sins in the defeat of sin, death, and Satan turns cowards and unbelievers into believers, martyrs, and apostles. Some witnesses He makes into pastors, but others He calls into lay vocations to reach the world serving the Lord, abiding in Jesus Christ and receiving His gifts and then speaking to people where you are called. You are called by God into His forgiveness, to bear the joyous message of life, the message of forgiveness in Jesus Christ wherever you go. You do not realize how much God can and will work through you as you are strengthened and centered by His peace here given. Do not be afraid. Believe and Rejoice! No persecution can defeat this message of Jesus Christ crucified and risen. He has given you His victory to live in His peace and forgiveness in this world until we live eternally His perfect peace in His heavenly kingdom in Jesus Christ’s name, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia!

“We do not know where they have laid him!” This is the lament of Mary Magdalene in our Gospel text from St. John. Her concern for where Jesus was laid is repeated three times!! She had gone with the other women to the tomb of Jesus while it was still dark. With sad and heavy hearts they made their way through the dark. On their way to the tomb of their beloved teacher. On their way to pay their last respects and anoint the body in their own way. In the Gospel of St. Mark we are told that the women wondered how they would move the large stone in front of the tomb, they heard an earthquake, the stone was rolled back and there was no body. Mary wasted no time. She went from grief to alarm, to panic. She ran to Simon Peter and John and cried out “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him!” The Jewish leaders had been afraid someone would come and take the body of Jesus and then lie that He had been raised, but here Mary is upset because those same people had treated Jesus so shamefully in life, perhaps they had taken his body to destroy it as one last mockery, as one last trick to abuse and malign Jesus one last time. Perhaps that was what she was afraid of. Maybe she was upset because she merely wanted to say good bye one last time and now she couldn’t.

Mary returned to the garden, looked into the tomb, again no body, but now she saw two angels. They asked her a question, “Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”

This is the equivalent of asking a relative or great friend of the deceased at a funeral, why are you here? Why are you weeping? Almost nobody ever asks that. The reasons are obvious. Death is grief worthy. Death is unnatural. Death is the tearing and separation from body and life in the person who dies, and it is also the tearing of the bond from person to person: from the person who died from those who are called survivors. Death is tragic and it is because of sin, which is not obeying God’s Law, that Death came into the world as a penalty for disobedience and unbelief. That is why you and I and all humanity will go through the Death of the body, because of our sin.

But that is also why Jesus came as true God and true Man. That is why He obeyed the Law, because no human born of natural means could. That is also why He was crucified. To take the penalty that we deserved, the penalty of eternal damnation. Jesus became the Passover Lamb, the perfect sacrifice to pay for the sins of the world. That is what Good Friday was all about: Jesus the perfect Lamb of God allowing Himself to be punished, to receive in Himself the chastisement of God’s righteous wrath that we deserved. That is why He was treated shamefully, rejected, humiliated, scorned, mocked, beaten, and crucified, not because there were a lot of bad, unjust, cruel people in Jerusalem, but for the sake of all the bad people who have been born throughout time, meaning all people. So that by His stripes, through His death, death and sin would lose its power. So that all of God’s promises of mercies would be fulfilled in Himself in His own death on the cross.

So where was Jesus that morning? The stone had been rolled back, not so that Jesus could escape or that He could be taken, but to show that He was already gone, the tomb was already empty. Jesus had already risen, He had already descended to Hell to preach the News of His triumph at the cross. The cross is the place of triumph. The empty tomb proclaims that what Jesus accomplished on the cross was acceptable. That Jesus took with Himself the sins of the world, but because He was innocent of those sins, He was now raised. Nobody had taken Jesus’ body, that morning. After His Sabbath rest on Saturday, He who laid down His own life, took that same life up again after 3 days.

Mary in her grief sought the Lord frantically searching the tomb and the garden in hopeless frustration. In that hopeless frustration and grief, she even overlooked Him, she had forgotten His words of promise and prophecy, of what He came to do. Only when Jesus called her name, did she recognize Him, that He had found her. He brought her the Good News of victorious death and resurrection. That He had laid down His own life for her life, for her forgiveness. That death is now swallowed up in Victory.

Where is Jesus now? He who was crucified and risen has ascended to the Father, this is true. He has promised to return at the Last Day to judge the living and the dead. Do we need to search Him out and find Him in ourselves, in our emotions, in our deeds of obedience, in cryptic prophecies? No the Lord continues to be where He has promised to be. He comes and sound the trumpet of His victorious death and resurrection in His Word proclaimed in His preaching, in the witness of His people, in the true teaching of His Word. In Baptism He continues to snatch victory from the jaws of death by taking those dead in their sins and unbelief and washing them through water and His Word, old sinful selves drowned in the sea like pharaoh and his armies, crucifying them and their sins, burying them in the tomb so that we exit the fount of baptism with the same resurrection victory of Jesus Christ. This gift is yours and saves you through faith as Jesus calls you by name and you respond by confessing the truth of His name in the creeds, the liturgy, in your life, and in holding fast to all His teachings in His Scriptures.

Now to strengthen you and prepare you for your eternity, behold, the gifts of Jesus laying before you, where Jesus the triumphant and victorious chooses to appear to His people gathered in His name. He comes again in bread and wine, to give the blessings of His victory, under the linen cloths. He who was slain, now lives and reigns in the simple means of bread and wine. Here He gives eternal life in His crucified and risen body and blood to sustain His people in this life, to give us joy in the midst of grief, sin, and sorrow. Where is He? Where is His body? It is Here. It is here where He said it would be. In the Lord’s supper, and in Him as the head we are joined as one body with the communion of saints. We know that He is here, because He said He would be there.

Jesus Christ is risen! The night of sin is ended! His light of salvation, His plan of mercy bursts through the darkness so we may believe! Now through Him, death is but temporary, our enemies silenced. We no longer grieve like those without hope. Why do you weep? Our Jesus is alive! We have seen Him, here! He gives you forgiveness, life, and salvation. And on the last day, He shall find you and all believers wherever they are laid and rest. He shall call them forth and this mortal shall put on immortality. Because our Redeemer Lives, we too shall live! Christ Is Risen (He is risen indeed) Alleluia!

Pr. Aaron Kangas

A blessed Palm Sunday to you!

When Jesus came into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, He came as the Lord and King who brings salvation. He didn’t ride horses and chariots with earthly pomp and circumstance. Instead, He came on a beast of burden, meek and gentle, ready to bear our burden of sin and guilt. He didn’t have any sword on His side. He had no armor bearers next to Him. He only had His lowly disciples whose weapons in this world would be nothing other than the Word of their Master. And this is precisely the point of Jesus coming into Jerusalem in this way. It happened according to His Word. His Word, which does not return empty, is what brought all of this about. “Go into the village ahead of you,” He told two of his disciples, “and right away you’ll find a donkey tied up and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me.” It all happened just as He said. This Word of our Lord Jesus is His shield and His sword. It is His mighty weapon, which He has been wielding His entire earthly ministry up to this point. And everything during Holy Week happened just as He has spoken.

Even what the people do. They spread their clothes and palm branches on the ground where Jesus was riding. This was just as our Lord recorded in Psalm 118, several hundred years before this: “March in the festive procession with branches.” They shouted “Hosanna,” which means “Save now” or “Please save.” Again, this was recorded in this same Psalm, “O LORD, please save! Lord, please give us success!” And they also chanted these words from the Psalm, “Blessed is He who comes in the LORD’s name. We bless you in the LORD’s temple.” Everything was happening according to the Word of the Lord. From the donkey and its colt to the clothes and branches on the ground, even to the words of praise coming out of the lips of the people, it all took place because God said it would.

Psalm 118 from which our Introit was taken is a song of praise. The people of Israel would have sung it during the feasts, especially the Passover. It’s a wonderful song about God’s mercy, which He has promised to keep for His people. It calls on all Israel to sing of God’s eternal mercy. It calls on the priests to sing of this mercy. And it calls on all people who fear God to sing of this mercy. It tells of the great salvation the Lord has won by His right arm, and it tells of the certain hope in the resurrection and eternal life. In verse 17 of Psalm 118 it is written: “I will not die, but I will live and tell what the LORD has done!”

Only a short time before Jesus came into Jerusalem, He had raised Lazarus from the dead. As they approached the Passover Feast this Psalm, along with others, would have been ringing in people’s ears. And now these words, written so many years before, were finally being fulfilled.

Just as the Psalm begins by thanking the Lord for His mercy lasting forever, the Psalm wraps up by identifying what this mercy is. “I thank You, for You have answered me and have become my Deliverer.” In other words, “You have become my Salvation.” God said to Moses, “I am what I am,” and here the Psalm reveals who He is. He is “Salvation”. He delivers us from sin and death by being the Stone, the Chief Cornerstone. But how has He become this? How is He our Deliverer, our Salvation, and then become our Chief Cornerstone? It says, “The Stone the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone.”

The builders of the temple, the leaders of the people who watched over the affairs of the temple of God, would reject this one Stone. As Moses struck the Stone in the wilderness causing water to come out of it, so the Scribes, Priests, and Pharisees would strike Christ with their hands and in their demand that Jesus be crucified. And in that crucifixion, this Stone, rejected by the builders, would become the Cornerstone and from Him flow the blood and water of life and salvation. His sacrificial death is the foundation for the true temple made up of believers from all time worshipping the true God in cries of “Hosanna”: “Lord save!” We aren’t singing about a temple made with hands. No, Jesus is the Head of His Church: His own Body. He has become the Rock on which our Salvation rests forever.

He was despised and rejected by men. And yet, the Psalm says that this is marvelous in our eyes. Why? Because this is the work of the LORD Himself. While it looked like the enemies of Christ won the day as Jesus hung on a cross, this was all a part of God’s own plan. This was all what His Word said would happen. In fact, His Word brought it all about. As the Psalm sings, “The LORD had done this, and we think it is wonderful.”

These are words that can only come from faith in God’s promise. To look at an image of Christ hanging on the cross and see it as beautiful – to think it is wonderful – defies our human reason. In the same way, what is beautiful about eating Jesus’ body and blood? How can water do such wonderful things? It is because it is what the LORD has done. It is His work. He has spoken it, and He has fulfilled it so that sinners would be saved from hell and given eternal life.

But why do we come to church? We come to receive what the LORD has done. He has done it. It is finished. All sin has been paid for. Death has been defeated. And though we have to suffer crosses and afflictions and temptations and sorrows in this life, the Lord here places us, our sin, our sorrows, and anxieties upon Jesus Christ, and we are built up upon the rock that cannot be moved. This is the day that the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in Him!

Again, this statement can only come from faith. It’s so easy for your body and your heart to lose its joy. But faith clings to the Word and work of the LORD. No matter how things are going in your life, no matter how much sin and shame and guilt burden your conscience, faith clings to Jesus, the LORD who saves. Faith cries out Hosanna to the Son and Lord of David, to the God Most High, to the great I AM who has done it all.

In the days when the temple was being rebuilt, when Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, was leading the building project, the prophet Zechariah taught the people what this temple was all about. This temple was to be a sign of God’s promise that He would come to dwell among His people. He Himself would come in His own name to make atonement for their sins with a covenant made with blood. He Himself would come as the King. He would come on a donkey, meek and mild, righteous, and having salvation (Zech 9:9 ff.). In the fourth chapter of Zechariah the prophet writes:
And the Word of the LORD came to me saying, “Zerubbabel’s hands laid the foundation of this temple, and his hands will finish it, and so you will know the LORD of armies sent Me to you.” (Zech 4:8)

Who is the one being sent? And who is the one sending? It is the LORD. The LORD is being sent, and the LORD is the one doing the sending. The LORD Himself says, “and so you will know the LORD of armies sent Me to you.” Jesus is the LORD, sent by the LORD. He is the eternal Son of God, God in the highest, sent by His eternal Father. So all believers can now sing the praises of the Psalm, “Blessed is He Who comes in the LORD’s name. We bless You in the LORD’s temple, even as the temple is in Jesus Christ”

The Word of the LORD endures forever. His mercy endures forever. Jesus endures, with great patience, the sins of all people. He is the only true God who comes to us in the darkness of our guilt and shame to give us His light. So just as the people did on that first Palm Sunday, just as the Word of God said in the Psalm nearly three thousand years ago, “March in festive procession with branches up to the horns of the altar.”

So today and every Lord’s Day and whenever we celebrate the Sacrament of the Altar, we confess our faith in Jesus and from the opening hymn we join the Christian procession to the horns of this altar clinging to our Savior’s promise, eating His body and drinking His blood, which was sacrificed once on the altar of the cross and continually given to all of us here where He promises to be with His victory. We confess the Savior, because we have been given faith by the same Word of God who has fulfilled all things for our redemption. What a wonderful day! It’s the Lord’s doing. It’s wonderful in our eyes, and we will rejoice and be glad in Him who purchased us for Himself.

It is because of God’s Word and promise, fulfilled in Christ, that God’s saints can march in festive procession with branches up to the horns of the altar. The people of Israel sang this as they brought their lambs to be sacrificed for the Passover. Jesus has come as the true Passover Lamb, going uncomplaining forth, the guilt of sinners bearing, laden with the sins of earth, none else the burden sharing. So as in Psalm 118 we sing to Him with all the saints before us and who are yet to come: united in Christ our Passover Lamb, “You are my God, and I thank You; my God, I honor You highly. Give thanks to the LORD! For He is good, and His mercy endures forever!” In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas