Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed Alleluia!
The faithful women of Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, also called Joanna, desired to pay proper respect for their beloved teacher. Grieved as they were by the sudden betrayal, trial, and crucifixion and burial, they thought to buy the spices and resins to anoint the body of Jesus. They were right to give the body of Jesus such respect and dignity, but in their grief and their intentions, they did not think until on their way about the tomb itself. Then they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large.”

Now before we talk about the fact that they found it rolled back, let’s think of the stone and the way in the Jews buried their dead and sealed the tombs as compared to our way of burial today.

When we think of grave stones, we think generally of grave markers which stand above ground. These are often very heavy by themselves. But many of the tombs of our loved ones have burial vaults lowered into the ground before the casket with a lid to cover the casket after committal. These are usually very heavy concrete or steel structures that must be lowered and installed with machinery.

The burial custom of the Jews was similar in a way, but remember they had no machinery to assist! The graves were often dug or carved in a depression, and they were sealed with a stone. Usually one stone, with some smaller stones around it. The main stone was rolled down an incline to cover the mouth of the tomb. For a small grave, about twenty men were required to roll such a stone downhill to cover the door of the tomb. The Bible tells us that the stone covering the door of the tomb of Jesus was a “large” stone. So it was much larger than an average stone. The women would have needed more than 20 men and many animals to work with levers to pull and roll away the stone. This was a major task, that they must have suddenly realized was beyond their ability.

As it turned out. They did not have to worry. Behold the stone was rolled away! They could go in and anoint the body… but there was no body! Instead an angel, in an alb much like mine but much whiter and more pure. He pointed like a tour guide to the place where a body should be, where the body of Christ had been lain, and he said: “Do not be alarmed. 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.”

Yes, the women went from worry to alarm to fright even in the middle of good news. But why did the angel say: tell the disciples AND Peter, that Jesus would go before them? Why was Peter singled out. Perhaps you know? Even if it has been a long long time since you have attended a midweek service, or a Maundy Thursday, or Good Friday service, perhaps in the recesses of your mind you recall that Simon Peter had denied Jesus. The irony is that Peter means..what? rock. The rock.

You and I we have great stones rolled before our hearts. Yes we do. We have fears. We have sins that we fear to let the fumes of its deathly stank release, we know that behind the stone boulders we have all sorts of rotting and decomposing wretchedness. That is why people would rather ignore their sin and the stench of fear, for that stench of fear, the stench of sin, is the putrid smell of death. Death even within the hearts of those bodies that breathe. That is the curse of sin: death. That is the result of denying God and Jesus Christ: eternal judgment.

Who will roll the stone away from the grave door of our hearts? We little hard hearted rocks have denied the stone which the builders rejected. We cannot roll the stone cold, rock hard, slabs of unbelief back from our hearts ourselves. The weight is too great, the stench too overwhelming, and we cannot bear to face the shame and humiliation. As St. Paul Said: “Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

That is why Jesus has come into the world. That is why the Father has sent Him. That is why Jesus faced the agony of death upon the cross with the weight of all the sacks and tons upon tons of every stone and pebble of sin. He took all the weight of sin, the pebbles and rocks amounting to weight greater than a miller’s stone hanging from around your neck choking you to eternal death, and placed it around His own. And He who was perfect and innocent died in your place so that you might be freed. Does this sacrifice move you to tears of sadness and joy? Do you appreciate it?

If you do not. If you do not feel something. Repent. Pray to the Lord to remove that blockage keeping you from breathing free from death and numbness of unbelief.

The answer to your cry from the Lord: who will roll away the stone?: He is Risen! Jesus Christ is risen from the dead! He died upon the cross for your sin, and now death is shown to be defeated. The rolling back of the stone in the garden was not to release the body of Jesus, but to show that the tomb, the grave could not hold Jesus. Jesus, the innocent, Lamb of God, took your sin upon the cross, buried it with His body, and destroyed it by His power along with death. Proving that your sin, your hard heartedness and mine. The tombstones, burial chambers, rocks, seals, surrounding bodies breathing or at rest are nothing to Jesus. God’s power. The power of Jesus, God’s Son, the power to condemn the world replaced with the power to forgive by His blood and body, scoff at all other barriers upon those who do not deny Him. By the Holy Spirit, He comes and removes the stones blocking you, taking away your unbelief, your stench of sin and death, and replacing it the breath of life, by the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus died for your sins, taking them into the tomb, now in His resurrection, He leaves them there. You are baptized into His death, burial, and resurrection. You are absolved. You are now an heir of life eternal in Christ Jesus.

So we sing and say today: Alleluia! Praise the Lord. The Lord has come. Jesus is raised. He has shown that His crucifixion paid for sin. Now Jesus is the first born of all those who have and will triumph over the great stone barrier of death. We no longer need to fear death. We no longer need to try to hide from it, ignore it or our sin. By confessing our sin and our need for life, Christ comes to us by His Spirit and as in our Baptism rolls back the stones of our heart, erodes it away and washes the chambers within so that we are clean and no longer filled with filth and decomposition.

So we return every week to sweep anew. To be cleaned anew. To be filled anew. To be built up anew. Not upon the pebbles of this world which shift and shudder and mean eternal doom. No to be built upon the greatest of all stones who has crushed the stone of Satan, sin, and death, Jesus Christ. He is the greatest stone upon which we are built. It sounds like mixed metaphors, but it is not. Jesus rolls away other stones, but He is THEE stone upon which nothing built upon it can move.

So pray to the Lord. Allow Him to move those pebbles and the weight of your sin by His Spirit working in His Word and Sacrament which is the power of the cross and empty tomb. Be freed to breathe the freedom from sin and an heir of eternal life as a son or daughter of God by faith. Be filled by the victorious crucified and raised body and blood of Jesus Christ, and be built upon Jesus Christ. Be not afraid! Rejoice! He is risen from the dead. He is victorious for you, and you will see Him again in His glory forevermore, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

What sort of king are we getting? What will this mean for our lives? How will this king change us? Will we be better off? Or will there be no noticeable difference in our lives due to this king’s arrival? These may have been the questions asked by the people as Jesus came in procession on that Sunday before the Passover, before His death. At that time large numbers of people were coming into Jerusalem to celebrate that Passover feast. A city of 50,000 inhabitants suddenly swelled to larger than 250,000. It was such a large event in Jerusalem that Pontius Pilate had to leave his cozy quarters on the Mediterranean seashore and move his post into Jerusalem to maintain order.

Just before this procession of Jesus on the young donkey, He had stunned the people with a miracle. His friend Lazarus had died, having been in the tomb for four days. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Dead Four days! and this man walks out of the tomb at Jesus’ command. All were abuzz! The news was spreading. Could it be? Is He the promised king? And what sort king are we getting? Popular Jewish Messianic thought believed that an earthly king would come and set the people free from the oppressive leadership of Rome with the use of military force.

The crowds then gather. They all take hold of palm branches. They shout “Hosanna,” meaning, “Lord save, I beg!” The palm branches were praises, signifying victory. The people were ready to rally and win a military victory and have Israel be restored by God on earth. Knowing the misunderstanding of the crowd and to fulfill prophecy, Jesus sent the disciples to get Him a colt, the foal of a donkey to ride into Jerusalem. This sent a message. This king was no military and earthly ruler. Riding in on the young donkey sent the message of peace. This posture seems like a sort of protest by Jesus. Yet, it is not a protest so much as it is a rebuke of false earth based notions. It was a fulfilling of Scripture as to the nature of this Messianic King. This King would come bearing peace, and He would not shed others blood to obtain it; He would shed His own.

The Pharisees watch Jesus ride in and they say to one another: “You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the whole world has gone after Him.” Their rejection grows more bitter, more venomous, and more desperate. Yet, the very next verse not in our reading for today tells us that some Greeks (Gentiles) who heard of Jesus come with a request: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” What irony. Jesus raises the dead (Lazarus), then the marveling crowd wants an earthly king. This king comes bringing peace and His own people reject this peace, while some no good Gentiles seek His face.

What sort of king should we expect for us today? Does this king bring anything to the table in the midst of your life that is full of the “hustle and bustle” of tasks and requirements? Can this king impact a pagan world that is obsessed with their own self-indulgences and is overrun with pressing schedules that demand constant movement? Does this king ride in to Jerusalem in order to shape, direct, and give meaning to you, or is it just an isolated event in history with no real purpose? Many see nothing in this king. As with the Pharisees, it has been a problem throughout history. What did those Greeks who came searching for Jesus think they were going to do or see if they saw Jesus?

This is the same question we must ask today. How does Jesus change your life? Where do we see Jesus? We are surprised at Jesus’ response to the Greeks who sought Him. Jesus did not go to see them. What a disappointment it must have been. Jesus’ answer to the Greeks’ request relayed by Andrew and Philip is the parable of the grain of wheat that falls and dies. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”

Jesus’ words are simple. If the Greeks wish to see the face of Jesus in any meaningful way that will benefit them, then they must see Jesus as the grain of wheat that dies to give life to others. The only meaningful way to receive this king is to behold the King of the Jews who is raised up on the cross for all to see. This is the King of peace. The king who defies expectations. As His own blood is spilt onto the dusty and parched ground called Golgotha, the world is washed and the price of sin is paid.

It is the isolated obedience and death of Jesus that will bring forth the New Testament of forgiveness given in the Lord’s Supper and the Gospels. Here is where the Greeks’ request will be answered. If those Greeks who came to the Passover feast in Jerusalem want to the see the face of God they will have to find it in the fruitfulness of His death on the cross. “Sir, we wish to see Jesus” will be answered in their viewing the crucified Jesus as He hangs there. The request will be answered in the Eucharist that He would institute on Maundy Thursday. The face of Jesus will be seen on the day of the resurrection. The request would be fulfilled in their baptisms where they would be joined organically to His death, burial, and resurrection.

Those Greeks sound like us. There are many things swirling around us, especially thoughts and opinions on truth, life after death, heaven and hell. Straining in the midst of cell phones, technology, mixed messages, and harrowing schedules, we try to focus our eyes on the face of Jesus. What sort of King are we getting? Is this King different from the rest? Do the palm branches, the shouts of “hosanna”, and the young donkey give us a clue into something that cuts through everything else in our lives?

Yes. Something very significant is at work. Carefully set in your midst is your redemption. Your weaknesses, your life of sin, your continual cycle of struggle and sadness and all of your battles in this world are dealt with by the face of Jesus that you behold in the Holy Scriptures. Likewise, you behold Him here when you come and drink from the cup. There in the cup of Eucharist is Jesus, His blood given and shed for you. Carefully placed among us is not just a one time snapshot of Jesus’ face that we hope memory will remember. We have something better.

Jesus comes to His church continually. He didn’t ascend into heaven leaving behind an orphaned church. He continues to descend to us in the Bible and at the Lord’s table with His real sin and death conquering presence so that we may find His favor for us and for our lives—that we may see His face and receive His forgiveness and be changed. No matter what the next week of your life will require of you, you have your King who comes to you lowly and glorious, with a word of peace and forgiveness because He has dealt death and Satan a final and punishing blow. The palm branches of victory on Palm Sunday prefigure the victory won through Jesus bitter suffering and death so that you might be forgiven. Your life is defined by this victory. Your king won the battle for you and believers throughout the world and time. So we look forward to what is written in the Book of Revelation chapter 7: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” This is the victory throng which Palm Sunday points to. The great triumphal procession at the last Day when Christ gathers all His Church in resurrection splendor to live in peace forever.

May we be kept and gathered in this body of believers by Christ’s continual visitation. Let us follow Christ into Jerusalem this Holy week, giving thanks that He does save us now, and promises to give us resurrection victory not only on Easter Sunday, but forevermore. Because of His work, we shall live eternally with our Savior King, Jesus Christ, who is always coming to us. Behold Him, Christ crucified for the forgiveness of your sins. Be comforted to know the loving forgiving face of Him who conquers sin, death and the power of the devil so that you may be His own. Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel! Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

I don’t know if you have noticed it yet, but in the one year liturgical readings, the pattern for lessons throughout the Lenten season share similar subject and thematic content. All the scenarios involve and/or include a reference to: The Devil or demon possession, bread/crumbs/food, and/or the Word of God versus another kind of Word. Truth vs. Lies. Are the physical and spiritual elements in opposition to one another or is it a demonic lie to try to set them up as opposed to one another? The things of the flesh and the things of the Spirit are not separate entities; they are, in fact, united.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I spoke of demon possession? Not all demon possession manifests itself in wild, strange, and uncontrolled actions. But demon possession is the natural state of humanity without being delivered from its bondage to sin and Satan by the Word of God and by His Spirit.

That is what is at the heart of the matter in the discussion in this morning’s Gospel. That is why so many reject and act hostile towards the Word of God, toward morality, towards truth of any kind. But the truth matters. Only the Truth can save. Only the truth of God in Jesus Christ can satisfy and give peace and clarity for us body and soul.

In the Gospel lesson for the 2nd last Sunday in Lent, Jesus says it very clearly. There is truth and there are lies. There is no in between. Lies are the tool of the Father of lies: the Devil. What is the product and end result of lies? Death and murder. Jesus said, the devil was a manslaying murderer from the beginning. Why? Because the Devil himself did not abide in the Truth. Now, he only lies and twists the Truth so that all may become like him.

The result of NOT abiding in Truth is death. It is destruction. It is the way of selfish sin which is slavery. There is only one way to be set free. There is only one way to have life. Jesus said earlier in this same chapter of John chapter 8: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free… everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin… if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Then in today’s Gospel text: “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” It is the Word of Jesus Christ alone where there is Truth, life, and hope.

Yet what do we see and hear today? An obscuring and hiding of this Word of Truth, life, and hope in Jesus Christ. The devil causing confusion through the words and whispers of the media and modern psychology and sociology which celebrates carnal desires and identity confusion. He uses politics to unsettle hearts and minds for worry and trouble. One media outlet says this, another says that.

We find ourselves asking again: What is truth? What are we to believe? These can’t all be true reports: they contradict each other. So, which are the lies? You cannot declare yourself to be something that disagrees with your biology, can you?

What is very tricky is that even if a report, a teaching, an opinion is 99 percent correct but contains 1 percent falsehood, the whole is tainted and is no longer objective Truth. The Devil often takes truth and adds lies to it claiming that it is still the truth. This is his nature since his fall. He cannot abide the truth. He also sees how easily he can twist the Truth to appeal to and enslave humans, to take their eyes and ears away from the source of Truth. When the devil convinces humans to define their own concept of truth for themselves according their needs or their whims, he has succeeded. This kind of “truth” is a combination of opinion and perceived fact: a mix of fact and fiction: truth and lie and is therefore a lie.

Lies lead to destruction because it leads us back to ourselves, to the world, to sin, and back to the captivity and possession of Satan. Our human nature is sinful and easily enslaved again to those lies of fear, hypocrisy, and pride while standing outside the Truth: nay, fleeing from the Truth of God.

If you do not abide in the Word and Truth of God, whose child are you, are we?

So, are we children of the heavenly Father, who confidently abide in His Word come what may? Who search out the Truth and measure all reports, thoughts, opinions, by the Word of God? Do we take all world events, political happenings, medical reports, or anything else that may happen, do we take it in stride, by commending them unto the Lord? Do we gladly hear the Word of God as often as possible, do we yearn to be fed that bread of life by His hand as often as we should?

No, none of us have been such good and faithful sons and daughters of God. Let us repent of how we have succumbed to the lies of Satan who uses our flesh to tear us from God our Father back again to the Father of lies. To fall by seeking our truth, to a controlling fear that God is not actually in control, that we must help ourselves and live only for ourselves or if we do a good work it ought to be to our glory along with or separate from the glory of God our redeemer.

So, you have two sides. Jesus said, either: You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires…” or “Whoever is of God hears the words of God.” 

The heritage of those who abide in lies, who do not abide in Truth, who can take God’s Word or leave it, who don’t care what is truth except their own selfish truth, which is but another lie, stand to inherit mortal death, eternal judgement, fear in this life, and sorrow and regret in the next.

Repent. Recognize the confusion of pride and unbelief caused by sin. In your weakness and need, with a contrite heart plead for forgiveness, and your Father in heaven answers in Jesus Christ for you. In Jesus Christ you receive His Word of forgiveness, His Word of Truth, His Word of life everlasting.

The heritage for those who abide in the Truth is life. Jesus promises that “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

God is merciful, and has given His Son, Jesus Christ, to beat back the lies of Satan. In times of uncertainty of partial truths, of talking heads, and contradiction, behold the Truth which is always steadfast: Jesus Christ, crucified for your sins. Jesus Christ as True God and True Man, fulfilled the demands of the Law, becoming the obedient Son of Man that we could not be. He did not do this as an example of the piety and perfection that humans can accomplish. No. He did this so that He could be the sacrifice. To stand and abide in the place of punishment for all men and women. That is why He allowed Himself to be sacrificed, so that by His blood all the trespasses of the Old Covenant and Law could be covered over. Jesus poured for me and you His life blood and for our pardon died. Now in that blood and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, we see the grace of God and the truth of God’s Love. By the death of His body and His rising again to life, believers in Him will never truly see death.

God knows that our flesh is still weak and heavy laden. He knows the burden of the devil’s constant lies and the culture of death, that is constantly attacking you, me, and every believer trying to drown out God’s Word, attempting to distract, mislead, confuse, and frighten at every turn.

That is why Jesus has appointed a place for gathering and strength where He brings His in-the flesh reality: a place outside our hearts and minds with all its warring voices: a place to hear His Voice, to abide in His Word, and receive in the visible and sacramental substance His true body and blood in the bread and the wine.

Here our bodies and our souls are refreshed together in the temporal and eternal, the physical and spiritual in Jesus Christ.

Be gathered to Him and to each other, to confess our sins and receive the power of His crucified and raised body and blood. The churchly body of Jesus Christ is visible in the gathering of His saints as we are built up, abiding and drinking from the fountain of Truth in Christ Jesus.

We meet here in the flesh, to receive the benefits of our Saviour in His flesh, so that this frail flesh may no longer be afraid or confused, but freed to live in peace. Freed to give thanks for forgiveness of sin, newness of life, boldness to confess the faith that is given in Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life. And joined through Christ with countless other believers the world over, from times past, and yet to come. Put your burdens upon the Lord and be delivered, vindicated, and freed in His truth and teaching from any attempts of the deceitful devil, the world or the flesh.

Rejoice, and glorify the Lord. You are baptized into Jesus, called to abide and believe in the Truth of God’s love in His Word as His sons and daughters, called and appointed for life eternal for our souls and these bodies as He keeps and defends us from the harm of the evil one. Rejoice and be glad in the light and the truth of Jesus Christ your Savior, Amen.

Pastor Aaron Kangas

3 weeks ago for the first Sunday in Lent, the Devil proposed that in His hunger, Jesus should make bread for Himself; the next week, the Caananite woman whose daughter was oppressed by demons said that even a crumb from the bread of the master’s table is all she asked for in order to be satisfied. Today in both the Old and the New Testament reading we hear about bread yet again. Jesus feeds the crowds with bread and fish in the wilderness, and in the Old Testament God feeds the exodus pilgrims in the wilderness with bread from heaven.

“What is this?” This is the question the Israelites asked when they first encountered the bread that God had so graciously given them from heaven; bread that literally covered the ground in amounts large enough to satisfy every single person with the dew of the morning. Yet they asked, “What is this?” “Ma ana?” From which we get the word: Manna.

Set within the immediate context of this lesson, it’s very easy to hear a “snotty voice” accompanying these words. “What is this?” You call this bread?! Are you serious?! Is this a joke!” The text tells us very plainly that the Israelites had been grumbling and complaining about how bad they had it as freed children of God, and how much “better” they had it as slaves when they were living under Pharaoh. 

Keep in mind, this is only about forty-five days after leaving the bondage in Egypt. They had just witnessed ten plagues; they were being led by pillars of cloud by day and fire by night; they probably still had dirt from the bottom of the Red Sea in the treads of their sandals after that miraculous crossing just a few weeks earlier. As fresh as it all was, none of that was registering. “That’s all great, but where’s the food?”

But what if the Israelites were actually asking their question out of genuine ignorance? What if they were genuinely hungry? I’m trying to put the best construction on all this. What if as they beheld the flaky stuff on the ground, they really, truly didn’t know what they were looking at? After all, it’s not like manna had ever appeared before. This was an entirely new and strange gift from God.

Now, these are the same people who will go on to grumble that they “have no bread, and they hate the bread they have.” They quickly come to hate the manna God so graciously gave them. How can you not look on these people with pitiful, angry disgust? But this is precisely why I want you to give honest thought to the fact that maybe, just maybe, at this moment they were asking ‘what is this?’ out of genuine ignorance and lack of understanding. 

Look in the mirror. Are you really any different in your entitled ingratitude and ignorance and forgetfulness of His gifts? Are we always contemplating the goodness of God? Sadly, I know that I’m not any different. I do not appreciate fully what it is that gives in all the plenteous ways He provides. I can confess this. Am I so snotty, bratty, entitled, and unbelieving so as to take such an arrogant stance against God and grumble and complain that I deserve so much better? Well, I wish I could say ‘no,’ but that’s not the truth. I have had my share of crosses that I was convinced I didn’t deserve, and just like the Israelites, I did grumble and complain to God about it…just like all of you have done too. It’s an ugly, sinful truth that nobody wants to admit to. 

How many times have you struggled and despaired and not recognized God’s gracious abundance in your midst? How many times have you missed or overlooked or just plain ignored the fingers of God at work in your midst, in your life, simply because you were looking for or expecting something very different; something more grand, more powerful, more showy? How many times does God show Himself in very real and tangible ways, and you just don’t get it? You don’t see it. You don’t recognize it. 

Sadly, if we’re honest, it happens. It happens to all of us, and there’s nothing snotty or bratty about it. Maybe we miss it because we’ve been blinded by grief or worry. It happens. Maybe it is because we are distracted by something else in our selfishness. In the end we don’t see what’s right in front of us. We don’t recognize Immanuel: God with us in all His bountiful goodness. 

What’s truly sad and regrettable is the fact that we do this with things that we’re already well-acquainted with. It’s one thing for the Israelites to ask ‘what is this?’ with the manna. As I said, it was an entirely new and strange gift from God. But what about us? God provides us with food and drink, house and home, family, friends, all that we need to satisfy us, but it’s not enough. We don’t see it as a gift. We want more. We all too often do not appreciate what we have been given. Then suddenly, things happen. Then, we struggle and despair; life gets tough; things get a bit sideways; things don’t shake out the way we want or expect, and we turn to God looking for some sort of miraculous sign or proof of His love or His presence as though it was never there. “God, where are you? Help! Why me? Why now? Don’t you care? Give me a sign and let me know that it’ll be alright.” You know, it’s easy to forget all the good that He has given us when things aren’t good or calm if we never had thought to appreciate it before. But even in the trouble, turmoil, pain, that may befall us in this sin plagued world, in those times when the devil is near to whisper doubts in our hearts, the Lord is still providing for our bodies and our souls.

God gives us proof of His love in the midst of our troubles by pointing us to the cross where the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, died on that cross reminding us of the weight of our sin and that by that sin we have never deserved anything but death and destruction… but we look at this gift, and we say, that’s great, but how does that help me now?
May God have mercy on us!

And the Lord does have mercy upon you and me even in our ingratitude even as He did to those wilderness pilgrims both in the Old Testament and New Testament lessons. Many of those people who followed Jesus did not understand who Jesus was but God had pity on them and fed them nonetheless.

But dear friends, we are not so ignorant. We are not called to remain in ignorance and unbelief. We are called, gathered, and enlightened to repent and receive from God His grace and forgiveness, to grow in wonder at His mercy and grow in appreciation, and not just for those things that keep our bodies living and breathing in its mortal frame. No, Jesus came, and Jesus died so that these bodies, our souls, may live forever. He gives us bread, meat, and life giving gifts to you and me far greater than the feeding of the Israelites at the time of Moses or in the feeding of the 5000.

Here and now God is raining down the dew of His gifts. The true manna from heaven is here in Jesus Christ. In the Word proclaimed in the liturgy, the hymns, the preaching, in the baptismal font as you entered the sanctuary reminding you when you entered into Christ’s Church. He is speaking to you the message of life. He is here, right where He tells you to look and listen; right where He has promised to be until the very end of the age. 

‘What is this?’ In the words of Moses, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.” In the words of Jesus (words which He will speak just a few verses later in chapter 6), “I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” It doesn’t get any clearer than that. Here is Christ. Here is the Bread of Life in the bread and the wine, with His body and blood, the rich meat, bread and drink which help us in our body and blood. It is He who opens our eyes of faith so that we can be truly satisfied body and soul, mind and heart.

God opens your eyes and ears of faith to not only recognize, but to hunger and thirst for this righteousness; the righteousness of Christ that avails to everlasting life. Jesus Christ has been crucified and raised for the forgiveness of your sins, for your eternal life and salvation. This Christ-centered peace—this Bread of Life—will completely fill and satisfy your soul so that no matter what life may bring, richer/poorer, sickness/health, feast or famine, you will always be satisfied in the over-flowing abundance of God’s mercy, grace, peace, and love in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

What is this Kingdom of God like? We see the Kingdom already in the ministry of Christ. He did not say, “The Kingdom will come eventually.” Instead, He said, “The Kingdom has come among you.”

The same Kingdom that Christ brought is ongoing. It is also here with us. It is the same kingdom that we pray would come to us in the Lord’s Prayer. So let us see what He revealed about the Kingdom.

First of all, the Kingdom is where God’s Word is preached and by that Word demons are cast out. Christ said, “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” This is the same as to say that the Kingdom of God is where Satan and his power is broken. Where Satan’s power is broken, there is forgiveness and life. Because Satan’s power is in accusing, taunting, binding people in their sin, and increasing the bondage by pride and apathy, therefore, when sin is called out and repentance is worked by the Word of God, in hope for salvation in Jesus Christ, Satan’s power is undone. The chains are broken and remission of sins is granted by faith in Jesus Christ crucified and raised.

Therefore, all those who have not received the remission of sins purchased by the death of Christ are still under the devil’s power. Those who are still spiritually dead are still at the mercy of demons.

This is not to say that every unbeliever is possessed in the strict sense or in that wild possession that we read about in the Bible, though some are. But every unbeliever is a possession of Satan, that is, he owns them and holds sway over them.

You are either in the Light, or you are in the darkness. There is no in-between. You are either in God’s Kingdom, or the kingdom of beelzebub. There are only two sides to this coin. As Jesus said, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

We could not get out of that kingdom of Satan that “Prince of this world”, by our power. No one was clever enough to trick Satan into releasing them. No one could beat him at a game to win their freedom. No one could play a musical instrument well enough that the prince of darkness would be forced to let them go. That is simply a fantasy.

The devil may very well let a person think that they have beaten him. Nothing makes him happier than convincing a person that they have successfully fought for their freedom by their own skill or will or good works. Then he will leave them alone for a time, allowing them the illusion that their life is free of the influence of evil for now. 

It may happen something like this: A person struggles with a horribly sinful lifestyle, perhaps a drug addiction. In a moment of clarity, they realize how low they have sunk. They fight and they battle against the chains that hold them. And indeed, they may by effort and self disciple defeat whatever harmful thing it was. Then they may think that they have won in their struggle against evil.

But without Christ, they never won anything. It is a short term victory. They may clean up their life a little, make it more presentable, so to speak. That just fattens up the prize, in Satan’s mind. Anyone who thinks that they can overcome evil by their strength is held even more firmly in the grip of the devil, whatever their experience may tell them.

Christ describes just such a situation. When a person has been released from demonic influence, they are like a house that has been swept clean and put in order. But as long as Christ is not in that house, or they have not actually kept and held onto God’s Word, it may sit empty but it still belongs to beelzebub, no matter how shiny the floors may appear. Then the demons may return whenever they want, and the person will end up worse than they were before.

We would be no better off, unless the stronger Man prevails. The stronger Man is Jesus Christ. He must overcome the prince of darkness for us. For all Satan’s strength, he is a weakling next to Christ. There is no contest there.

This is where the kingdom of God goes to work. And a contest took place in order to ransom the souls of men and women from the condemnation and misery that they rightly deserved by their sin. Jesus came to purchase, to overcome, to be victorious for us over Satan’s claim to torment us and chuckle and our doom.

The contest happened at the Cross, when Christ attacked the forces of darkness and won by His own body punctured and His blood shed as a Holy offering.

The contest happens whenever God’s name is laid upon a new baptized person in the waters of Holy Baptism. There God claims them as Beelzebub is cast out and replaced with the Holy Spirit.

The contest happens whenever God gathers His people from wherever they were to a local congregation to where the Word of God is preached, read, and sung rightly according to God’s promise.

The devil cannot win against the Word, for it is the Finger of God, mightier than earthly kingdoms, mightier than the forces of nature, mightier than the strongest demon from hell. The unclean spirits flee from that Word.

This Word in this place will keep you safe from the worst of Satan’s attacks. But if you decide that it is by your strength and your goodness that you are free of Beelzebub, then beware. If you think that you do not need this Word much, and you are just fine without it, then watch out. The return of evil to a person’s life causes a worse state than before, even if a person does not realize it. The devil numbs them to the destruction falling upon them. All the while they think that they are moving upwards in morality and enlightenment, from good to better to best. But they are actually sinking down under the claws of evil.

So stay close to the Word. You cannot get too much of the Word, as long as it is purely taught. As Christ said, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.” Do not think that the Word is a casual, light matter. It is a matter of grave concern. It is your life, the light that holds back the darkness.

Another thing about the Kingdom of God is this. There will always be some people who will speak against Christ and the Gospel. They will also speak against you. It does not matter how good you are. If you were even as good as Christ (which is obviously not possible), they would still say terrible things about you.

That is what happened in our Gospel today. They said that Christ was in league with Satan, and that is how He was casting out demons. This is a terrible insult and blasphemy against the pure and innocent Son of God.

But if they speak that way about Him, how much more will they speak against us! We are of ourselves, worthy of being put down. We were born in the kingdom of darkness, conceived in sin. So often in our lives, even after we have been rescued from beelzebub, we have acted as if we are in league with him. Our actions so often have followed his lead instead of the Commandments of God.

Yet we have been called out of the world. We are no longer citizens of the devil’s domain, but children of Light. We are the holy Church, and members of the Body of Christ.

That is why those who reject the Word will reject you, sooner or later. They must despise anything that has to do with the true Christ. I say “true Christ” because many of these people will claim to be Christians, but they have a false Christ that they worship. Many will think that they are the true believers, even though they trust in a religion of works and reject God’s grace as revealed in the Word of truth.

Because they despise Him, they must despise His Word, and they must despise you, who are His Body.

Do not be surprised when it happens. Do not be surprised, either, when the devil attacks you. He hates you more than you can imagine, because once he had you in his grasp, but now you are free. He wants to get you back.

But you are safe, because the Word keeps you safe. The prince of darkness may trick you into sin, but here in this house you have forgiveness. The devil may try to wear you out with the troubles of life and drive you to despair. But here you have the Food of God with His body and blood in the bread and wine to lift up your soul for the journey. The devil may trick you into following false paths of deceptive teaching. But here you have the pure teaching of God’s Word.

Do not exchange these things for a lie. Do not exchange these things for a feeling. Do not exchange these things for friendship, or signs from heaven, or an easy path. All these are lures from Satan. Instead, stay close to the Word, in which Christ keeps you as His own.

Here, you lift up your voice to the God of heaven, for He has opened your lips for praise. The devil tried to keep you mute and deaf, but Christ opened both ears and mouth. Now you are able to speak and sing forth the glories of the One who has brought you out of darkness into His wonderful light in Jesus Christ, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

In His Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus says, “Don’t give anything holy to the dogs or throw your pearls to the pigs, or they will trample them under their feet and then turn and tear you to pieces. (Matt 7:6)” It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. It isn’t right to turn God’s Word into a commodity to be marketed and sold to the world, as if you can make it more appealing. Those who hate God’s Word won’t appreciate it just because you spice it up and make it more exciting. Nor will they embrace His holy truth because you make it easier for them to swallow. Only those who are humbled and broken in their hearts over their sins will appreciate what God’s Word has to offer. Only those who thirst for His righteousness and mercy will find the Word of His Cross refreshing.

One way in which the dogs and pigs of the world trample down on God’s Word is when they accuse God of being unjust. They ask, “why would God destroy all the people of the earth in a flood? Why would he destroy all the Canaanites?” The answer is simple. They were evil. They were filled with violence. God told Israel why He was wiping out the Canaanites. He said that they committed every abomination, even burning their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their false gods (Deut 12:31). God also warned the people of Israel not to think that God was giving them this land because of they were so righteous. No, God was driving out the Canaanites because they were wicked (Deut 9:5). God destroyed almost all of mankind because they were wicked. They were dogs and pigs, trampling on His Holy Word, refusing to repent after many years of warning. Noah was building the ark and preaching repentance for a hundred years before God finally sent the flood. God gave the Canaanites four hundred years from the time of Abraham until He finally sent Joshua to conquer the land. God was patient, not wanting anyone to be condemned but that they would turn from their sin and live before Him in faith.

Those who accuse God of evil for wiping out godless nations will never be convinced by us softening God’s judgment. And we will not be convinced unless we see that we deserve the same sentence. Right before Jesus says not to give what is holy to the dogs, He tells you to take the plank out of your own eye before you point out the speck in your brother’s eye. Don’t think that you don’t also deserve God’s judgment. Otherwise, you will be blind to what God’s Word offers you.

When we consider how evil the Canaanites were, this should warn us against the same kind of idol worship. When the Canaanites worshipped statues made with hands, they were in fact worshipping demons. This is obvious by the fact that they burned their children in fire. After all, demons hate children, because God told the devil that his head would be crushed by the Child descended from the Woman (Gen 3:15). There is no coincidence that Satanists are pro-abortion. Any woman who struggles over the temptation to terminate her pregnancy is struggling with an attack of a demon. She needs to know this.

We also should beware not to follow the other demons of our age. Resist mind-altering drugs. They are sorcery, which the devil uses to deceive you and turn your heart away from God. They make you self-absorbed and dishonest, unable to listen to God’s Word, treating it as a joke like stoners and drunkards at a trashy party. We are not any stronger to resist these things than they are on own. When we think we already know enough, then we begin to look at God’s Word as old news, irrelevant, or a joke. This causes us to imagine that we know better than God. This make us no better than the Canaanites, becoming dogs and pigs trampling on what is holy. Only when we see our continual need for God’s word of mercy do we begin to see how dark the ways of the devil truly are.

Not all the Canaanites were destroyed by God. When He sent Joshua into Canaan to wipe out the people of the land, some of the Canaanites escaped and settled in Tyre and Sidon on the coast of the Mediterranean. There they continued to worship their false demon gods. From that region of Tyre and Sidon, the infamously wicked queen Jezebel brought the worship of Baal into Israel by her marriage to Ahab. Their daughter Athaliah tried to wipe out David’s family from which God promised to send the Savior. But God didn’t allow these wicked Canaanites to have their way. He preserved the line of David. He kept His promise that the Messiah would come to crush the devil’s head. And when the Messiah finally came, born of the family line of David, the devil and his demons went nuts. First, they tried to get the baby Jesus killed through the wicked plots of king Herod. Then they started possessing people all over the land, furious that the Son of God had come in the flesh to bring salvation. These demons didn’t want anyone to listen to Jesus. They wanted to turn everyone into a dog and a pig, trampling the words of Christ under their feet.

This again was why Jesus warned His disciples not to throw what is holy to the dogs. Our Lord didn’t waste His time arguing with the devil and his demons. He simply rebuked them, telling them to be quiet, ordering them to go away. Then one day Jesus and His disciples were passing through that demonic region of Tyre and Sidon, and a Canaanite woman came to Him. She cried out to Him. “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David,” she said, “A demon is severely tormenting my daughter.”

Here is no ordinary Canaanite! She knows who Jesus is. Unlike Jezebel and Athaliah who tried to kill the house of David, this woman trusted in the promised Son of David. She didn’t burn her daughter in the fire like her demonic ancestors. She loved her daughter. She knew her daughter needed help, and she knew that Jesus, the Lord, the Son of David was the only one who could help her. She wasn’t like the wicked Canaanites who went before her. Instead, she was like righteous Rahab who protected the spies from Israel, asking them to have mercy on her and her house when the LORD destroyed Jericho. She was like the widow who trusted God’s Word spoken by Elijah that her flour wouldn’t run out and her oil wouldn’t run dry. She was a Christian, a believer, a faithful child of Abraham by faith.

And yet, Jesus initially ignored her cry. How can He do this? He seems to be proving the point of the dogs and swine who say that God is unjust and unmerciful. Here this woman calls out to Him for mercy, confessing Him to be the promised King, the Son of David. And He acts as if He didn’t hear her. His disciples tell Him to send her away, perhaps wanting Him to give her what she wants just so she will leave them alone. Then Jesus responds to them, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

But the woman doesn’t give up. She comes to Jesus, bows down to Him, and worships Him. She says, “Lord, help me!” He can’t pretend to ignore her anymore. Surely, he must say something to her. He does answer her, but He says what sounds even more cruel. “It isn’t good,” He said, “to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” These words bring to mind what He had said in His Sermon on Mount. Don’t give what is holy to the dogs. Anyone who heard His sermon might recognize what He was doing. But perhaps this Canaanite woman also heard His Sermon on the Mount. Perhaps she was there listening to Him, or someone else told her what Jesus had said. Because even this harsh word from her Lord didn’t stop her.

You see, immediately after Jesus said not to give what is holy to the dogs, He continued His Sermon on the Mount by saying the following:
Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. Anyone who continues to ask receives; anyone who keeps searching finds; and anyone who continues to knock, the door will be opened for him. (Matt 7:7-8)

The woman doesn’t stop asking. She doesn’t stop seeking mercy and pity from her Lord. She doesn’t stop knocking. She keeps at it, waiting for Him to open the door to her. This is what faith does. No human power, whether Israelite, Canaanite, or any noble gene pool, is capable of this. Only faith, created by the Holy Spirit, can keep asking and seeking and knocking the way this woman did. Only faith can pray like this.

This teaches us that prayer is the greatest skill God gives to Christians. It’s truly amazing. She’s focused on her Lord. She repeats her petition. But this is no vain repetition, thinking that she will be heard for her many words. No, she is exact in her requests. She says, “Lord.” She says, “Son of David.” She says, “Have mercy on me.” She repeats and repeats and repeats, hanging onto every word Jesus says. Her prayer is like a net pulling in whatever words her Lord has to say to her until she finally catches Him in His words. “You’re right, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

This is the great skill of prayer. It’s a litany resting on God’s Word, repeatedly asking, seeking, and knocking, clinging to the Lord’s promise. She holds onto Jesus’ words for what they are. I’m a dog? Good! If that’s the position you are giving me, then I’ll take it! It’s better than sitting at the highest spot at Jezebel’s table, who ended up getting eaten by dogs. No, I’ll take the status you give me, Lord! Because even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from your table. And if I have only a crumb of your mercy, then I have everything. She caught Jesus in His words, because faith clings to the words of Jesus. Yet you are not the dogs and swine of the world, but children of the King, the very Son of David and David’s Lord and Savior.

In this life, Jesus tests your faith to prove what your faith is in and to strengthen you and as a witness for others. Your faith is in His cries from the cross, which seemed at the time as if they went unheard. But He kept on speaking and praying to His Father, obeying and trusting that He would answer. By this, He destroyed the power of the devil by taking away the sin of the world. When the Lord declared that this woman’s faith was great, He was declaring His great victory over Satan and his demons. Therefore, when He puts you through trials, when He makes you ask, seek, and knock, then remember this. He is simply teaching you to look to His cross and passion by faith. There He remembers His mercy and He will give you faith for what you need for now and eternal life in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

In today’s Gospel text for the first Sunday in Lent we have an epic showdown. A match between God’s hero, “His chosen One” and the Lord of Lies. One is perfect and innocent, the other is evil personified. In many ways it is a rematch of the contest between the serpent and Adam in the garden. Except this new Adam was God even as He had real human flesh. But this human flesh of Jesus was continually assaulted by the devil for 40 days in the wilderness during which time, He ate nothing to nourish His flesh. The first Adam had a full belly and yet was tempted to eat that which was forbidden. In eating the forbidden fruit he discarded God’s Word and discarded His responsibility to His bride and He fell, thinking only of Himself. This New Adam, Jesus, survived for the 40 days of temptation with an empty belly but physically and spiritually sustained by the power of the Word of God as He thought not of Himself, but of His bride, the Church whom He had come to redeem.

For this reason, Jesus had been led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. In these three temptations which Satan tried on Jesus, we see the methods that the devil uses in dealing with all people, even today. He uses variations of lies: causing doubt, twisting truth, and claiming power and authority which is not his. We also see in this text how the Devil’s lies are to be countered.

The devil first appeals to the easiest target, that of the human flesh and its biological and fleshly desires. Our bodies need food and drink to live, and that necessity and hunger is not in itself a sin. But Satan made hunger into a challenge to Jesus in the weakness of His hungry human flesh to abuse His Divine power and thus fall into sin. The devil said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread”. He challenged the reality of Jesus’ identity and purpose. He was really asking Jesus, “Are you really the Christ, the Son of God? Prove it. While you are at it, do something for yourself, just this once. It will be ok. and then reap the benefits of making your own bread.” The temptation to sin was that the devil didn’t just tempt Jesus to eat, but he tempted Him to take the easy way out, to stop trusting His Father and to abuse His power by using that Divine power not in service of others but in service of Himself. Had He turned the stone into bread, the very first miracle Jesus performed would have been for Himself. This was contrary to the purpose of His incarnation as He said to His disciples later: “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28

Jesus answered by quoting the Scriptural truth which is at the very heart of living by faith, even in the midst of difficulty. “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”

The next two temptations are in some ways variations on the first temptation. The devil next tempts Jesus again to question the care of His Father by saying “test Him, test Him Jesus. See if He really will come through.” Since Jesus answered with Scripture to the first temptation, the Devil (also an expert in Scripture) misuses Scripture. He quotes Psalm 91, a psalm of comfort and assurance of God’s care and love. Just as He did in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, He twists the Words of God forcing His own evil interpretation upon it in an attempt to make God’s Holy Word profane, to create doubt, to challenge God as though we should challenge and test God. To this Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16 that we are not to put God to the test. To put God to the test is the same as unbelief.

Finally, The devil showed in a moment of time all the glories of the kingdoms of this world, and just straight up lied, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, worship me and it will be yours.”

This authority had not been given to the devil to give to anyone else, but the devil once again was challenging Jesus to take the easy way out. See how the devil emphasizes and confuses how one receives authority and glory. The Devil assumes authority by trickery and assertion as though by declaring something to be true, that it becomes true. Thus, the Devil promises to give Jesus authority by submitting to the Devil, this would have made Jesus a slave to escape His current and future suffering. The devil was really pointing ahead to the suffering of the cross and saying, “Jesus you don’t have to go through all that rejection and pain and anguish to redeem the world and become king through death and resurrection. I can give it to you now.” Jesus in answer rightfully pointed to the fact that authority and glory belongs only to God.

The devil, the world, and our flesh use these same methods in tempting and seducing us to evil. When we are suffering poverty, anxiety, or any hardship or we witness it in the world, they whisper “Why would a loving God do this? Are you sure you belong to God? Does God still love you? What good is the message of Christ in all this suffering? Why don’t you just let yourself go and do what you want for a change? You feel an urge, go ahead and act on it, feed yourself, look out for yourself, because God won’t. Seize power, grab authority, test God”.

In this way, the devil continues to lead people away from the truth of God’s love and salvation in Jesus Christ to his false gospel of self service and unbelief. He isn’t as worried about those who already are in unbelief and have rejected God. He confirms them in their unbelief and sinful practice to be more resistant to God’s Word: to be effective apostles of his lies that lead to damnation. His main joy is to debase that which has been redeemed, to cause Christians to lose face in the court of the world’s opinion, and lose faith, and cause disunity within the Church.

We so often willingly and willfully fall into his snares and seductions. When temptation comes how often do we just give in? How often does the devil tempt us to doubt God and His Word and we do? “Did God really say?” Satan asks and our itching ears respond to his voice. We end up not believing that God’s Word is powerful and effective to do what God says it will. We think the church cannot grow unless we alter God’s Word to dress it up, dumb it down, to make exceptions so as to not offend the world or our own flesh. We test God and His Word in unbelief and skepticism.

Opportunities for doing the right thing come and go with our inaction or our muddling the situation because we think only of ourselves. When we don’t use God’s Word to stand up to Satan and His lies it is because we don’t believe God’s Word and His promises. This unbelief and rebellion is sin. We deserve all the penalty for our sin. Truly we are pathetic, we are sinners who deserve nothing but wrath.

Dear Friends, this is why Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted. He was not tempted in order to understand our weakness, but He was tempted so that Satan’s power could be met and bested. He was tempted in the wilderness for us so we might know that we have a Savior who understands what we are up against. He met temptation without falling into sin, but He does not reject us because we are filled with sin. Instead it is for that reason that He came to earth, to place Himself under the Law, to endure all our temptations to sin which we could not, but without failure. He came so that His perfect flesh would be made a curse for us, to suffer His father’s wrath on the cross to pay for our sins and to redeem His bride, the Church.

Man and woman do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. God calls us today by His Word even as He did at our baptisms, calling us to be comforted in the redemption and forgiveness won for us at His cross and empty tomb in His name. He speaks to us His absolution through the mouth that He has appointed. He gives us faith to hear and believe the words “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins” to receive the blessings of His sacrament of the altar, where in the wilderness of our sinful lives He feeds us the bread of life, His own sacrificed and glorified flesh so that we may be filled and not hunger for the things of the world.

God knows that the devil flees at the Word of God, His lies are no match for His truth. The devil will return and try to tempt us again, but we can rebuke him by the power of the Holy Spirit and the name of Jesus and the Triune God. We have a mighty fortress in our God, and when the devil comes attacking us, we can rebuke him because God’s Word is powerful. Because Jesus Christ has saved you and You are His own. He has called you by name, you have His sign of the cross of victory upon you. You can tell Satan to go back to Hell, He has no more power over you by the power of God’s Word. This is why it is so good, right, and proper to be studying God’s Word, to be here receiving God’s Word, to be steeped in the living breathing doctrine of Scripture so that we may not be left powerless. This time of Lent is a good time to pray, study, and allow God to strengthen you in the faith and confession of His name so that you may stand up and refute Satan and His lies: by the good news of Jesus Christ God’s chosen one who has conquered Satan, death, and sin for you and for your salvation. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Is it easy to explain a work or hobby project to someone who has never done it or experienced it before? Quite often, unless people have done the same thing and have used the same terminology, there is a good chance that it will be hard for them to understand whatever it is that you are trying to describe. Have you ever experienced this? They might respond by saying “OK, I got it. I understand”, when they don’t. Or their eyes just glaze over in boredom. Some may genuinely be interested in wanting to know more.

In this morning’s Gospel text Jesus shared with the disciples what He had to do in order to accomplish and bring to completion the project and plan of God as He had spoken through the prophets. Jesus said: “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

“They did not grasp what was said”. But then again, how could they? They did not have a clue because what Jesus was saying was far beyond what the disciples’ expectations, experiences, and eyes and ears could take in.

What Jesus was about to accomplish was and is the momentous event to which all creation looked forward to before it was accomplished and that to which all of creation now looks back upon since it has been accomplished. The suffering, the crucifixion, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. These actions in the life of Jesus Christ are what had to be accomplished in order for our salvation to be accomplished, in order for God’s Word to be fulfilled, in order for sin to be removed from the guilt of mankind, in order for life to conquer death.

This was and is a big deal! A large project that God had been planning and devising which nobody could have fully understood or expected. It was and is something that is difficult to grasp, to understand based on reason alone. The magnitude of God’s sacrificial love for a creation that disobeyed Him: to even offer up from Himself His only begotten Son to suffer and die knowing that we could not fully appreciate it, is beyond our understanding. Yet, we receive it by faith, and we desire to learn more. Let us never be tempted to dismiss the details written in the Old and New Testament as it points to Jesus Christ crucified and raised, and say: “OK, I got it, or it’s no big deal. I don’t need to learn anymore”. We cannot and should not allow our eyes of faith to glaze over, or even give up and say, “this is too deep for me” and then not ponder it in joyful wonder.

If our attitude is dismissive and does not desire to learn and appreciate more God’s Love and the profound truths that God has given and continues to give, we should repent. We should try to appreciate all the more what God through Jesus Christ has done for us. We cannot ever learn enough or appreciate it enough. That is why we take extra time for Bible Study or during Lent and Advent to meet together and ponder God’s Word. Beginning this Wednesday, we will follow a series for Lent which gives us an opportunity to ponder the Love of God and the mystery of the Christ is who is True God and yet also True man who came to accomplish God’s great project for you and me and all believers: our salvation from our sins.

Notice how Jesus spoke of these plans of God in in the Gospel text today… Jesus said: “everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.” The word for “accomplish” is the same Greek root word that Jesus used at the Cross when He said, “It is finished” or “It is completed” “The work is at an end”. This is great news for you and me because we could not accomplish this salvation ourselves. We could not accomplish and complete the demands of the Law, we could not bear the righteous wrath of God, but Jesus has. This is what true love looks like.

1 Corinthians 13 is often used by people to describe romantic love or love that we could somehow hope to accomplish by our own effort and will. We cannot because we are not that unselfish. We are born naturally selfish and sinful; spiritually blind and ignorant, hateful and unworthy of salvation; worthy only of damnation. But God is love. Jesus Christ has accomplished in the fullness of time, that sacrificial and true love. God’s love bears all things, and so Jesus bore the grief and suffering and weight of your sin and the sin of the world taking it to the cross for the sake of His love for you.

So even as we like the blind beggar in the Gospel finally come to the realization how much we need Jesus and cry out “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”, know this: He does and He has had mercy and will continue to do so. Love hopes all things and rejoices in the truth. The Lord has a hope and a truth for you. A hope for salvation and forgiveness in Jesus Christ who has died on the cross and risen again for you! He was scorned, spat upon, and crucified for you, for me, and all people.

But that is not the only work that He has done or completed. As the writer of the letter to the Hebrews says: Jesus is the founder and the completer of our faith.” He is the One who has planted that faith in You by His Word, and by Holy Baptism…Laying your faith on the sure founder and foundation of Jesus Christ crucified and raised. And He will accomplish and bring to completion the faith that He has begun in you as you remain in Him and His Word unto eternity. That same “Accomplishment and ending word” of Jesus is used both regarding the work of salvation at the cross, and also here regarding your faith and salvation. He has called you in this place and time to faith, to be a shining light of His saving work in this dying world as He prepares for you eternal life.

Meanwhile, if you grow weary in this life. If you grow frustrated or anxious in your calling as a Christian by the worldly cares and troubles which surround us and would try to steal or choke that faith. Look to the ending and the completion which God has established for you in Christ Jesus. Come and be fed in your ears and in your mouth, where Jesus Christ promises to be for you. Here in His Word, and in the Sacrament of the Altar where His crucified, raised and glorified body and blood, the very presence of Jesus Christ works for you to get you to the goal and accomplishment of your salvation by the forgiveness of your sins by faith in Jesus Christ. This He does because His love is truly active and alive for you and all His people who repent and now see the cross of Jesus as a place of refuge and strength. Be eager to hear, and pray for understanding. He has accomplished this salvation for countless others who have gone before us, surely He will also bring us into His heavenly glory.

As Hebrews chapter 12 puts it: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and completer of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”

Isaiah wrote: “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
 Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God
will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
Dear Friends in Christ, you are a project of His love. Be of good courage. Receive the Good News of Jesus Christ and the tools He uses to strengthen our weak hands and feeble knees of these mortal bodies and this timid faith.

We may not ever fully comprehend or understand the concept of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and God’s great love for us…Nor grasp His mind and all the detailed work that He has done for us, but we can be interested in learning and growing more; in appreciating what He has done for us. And in this learning and growing as His children we may be encouraged in all seasons of this life, giving thanks and praise to Him all our days here on earth and be blessed in it as we look forward to that completion of our salvation in eternity to live forever with Christ Jesus our Lord God and Savior. Be assured He will accomplish this: to His glory and for our good by His gracious will in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

If a person has ever pulled weeds in a garden, tried to pull out a tree stump from the ground, or seen the frustration of a potted plant that has outgrown its pot and is beginning to suffer and die, you know what the “root” of the problem is: roots.

As I am sure you know, roots are the part of the plant that dig down deep into the earth, growing with the plant and for the sake of the rest of the plant, to absorb water, nutrients, and help with all the chemical reactions that take place within the cells of all the plants around us.

If you are trying to grow a specific crop of grain, or a forest of trees, you want to help encourage the seeds to take root or the saplings to establish their roots. You would not plant them on ground that is compact already or upon rocks, not because things cannot get planted there, but because they will not do very well, and will most likely end up sickly and dead.

Roots must be healthy in order for a plant to withstand wind, short droughts, or small floods, to live, grow, and produce grain or fruit. Good roots are needed to be established to fight off the competition of weeds that implant themselves nearby, which would try to choke out the plant. Disease may strike, but the plant may yet survive if the roots hang on. But if the roots of a plant die, the plant or the tree is dead. If a seed is not able to put down roots, it may germinate but it will not survive.

Good roots, strong and healthy roots, take time to grow. The great oak trees on our lawn in front of the church took years to become so tall, so grand, with such beautiful branches, yet even these great oaks started as acorns in ordinary soil. But it took time, for those trees to get to their size today. Through countless Santa Anna winds, they have stood firm with their roots.

In the parable that Jesus tells today, we are not the plants, we are not the seed, we are not the roots. Spiritually speaking we are the soil, the earth, movable pots of soil it seems, maybe we are pots made of clay. But we are the soil in which true life must be planted.

Spiritually speaking all people have something planted in them. As I tell my confirmands, all people have faith in something. Maybe what they have planted in them are rocks, so little to nothing grows, or they are beaten down and compacted soil which grows nothing but the imprint of the world and their outlook in life is controlled completely by whatever the world is doing and believing at any moment and yet weeds emerge.

Then there are those wild weeds which come up in soil that has been prepared to receive the good seed, but the weeds are those selfish cares, worries, anxieties, pride, and bad things which naturally occur in our sinful flesh and minds. Those thorns have no good use but to waste our time and our soil and choke out anything good that may have been planted.

And then there is the seed of God’s Word which is the news of God’s Law and demands, but also the Gospel that Jesus Christ has fulfilled the demands and taken upon Himself the punishment of our sin. This is the seed of true life often planted with water in Holy Baptism to germinate and give birth to the root of faith. Faith when fed then reaches out to grasp the cross of Jesus Christ and with it, eternal life. It is faith when fed and nourished that grows strong roots and digs deep in hearts that are made good, roots which would keep the soil of our hearts from being wasted, from being eroded and destroyed forever in eternal damnation.

My questions for you this morning then are these: What do you have planted in you? And how does your garden grow? That is, what is it that is important to you and what are you doing to nourish it and encourage its roots in you?

This is an important question. Your attendance here indicates that the Word of God has been planted in you because faith desires to be fed. What does it desire to be fed with? The rain of forgiveness which comes down to wash away the polluted air of sin, the sunlight of God’s blessing and wisdom in His Word preached and in the Sacrament of the Altar which fertilizes the soil and makes hearty the roots of faith within the hearts and minds of men and women.

These must be applied in regular intervals so that in the life of the plant which is faith its roots may become more established and the plant grow. If at any point in the life of this plant, these sources of life and nourishment are taken away what do you think will happen?

We Lutherans do not believe in the doctrine of “once saved always saved.” There is constant danger to faith because of the weeds within our hearts and the disease and trampling of the world and all its cares which would try to destroy this faith. Just because you believe today or believed last year or when you were a kid does not mean that the roots of that plant of faith are still alive with saving faith. Many Lutherans and Christians do not appreciate this reality. Faith needs to be constantly fed to withstand the assaults of the devil, the world, and the flesh. The soil needs constant tending and care which only the Lord can bring about where He promises to be.

It reminds me of a few years ago at our previous parish, we tried planting a garden where a garden hadn’t grown for a long time. We planted, we weeded, we watered, but left for a two week vacation, when we came back the weeds were everywhere. Because of our sin, and our sinful flesh all people have the weeds of our flesh pollinated by the cares of this world springing up among us quickly and constantly. These weeds spring up, trying to crowd out, climb up, choke out any faith planted within us. How are those weeds kept in check? How are they tended? By continually and often returning here to confess our sins, which mows down and uproots the weeds of our sin, then resettles the plant of faith within our hearts by the forgiveness of sins. If this is not tended to, faith will be choked out by the cares of the world over time.

We must remember that our baptism saves, but Holy Baptism saves because of the Work of the Holy Spirit that causes the plant of faith to begin to grow out from the seed, and enter the flesh. It is the root to which we return because it first connected us to Christ crucified, but what if it isn’t nourished? What plant survives if it is watered and placed in the sun initially, but then is put in a closet only to see the sun or only to be watered once a month or twice a year at most?

Baptism cannot save if faith begun has not and is not fed and returned to church to be nourished by the truth of God’s Word which tends and strengthens faith. This Word does the uprooting of sin and chasing away the crows and vermin of the devil and His demons. Without this Word, faith is choked away by the cares of life, and in essence rejected.

So how are those roots of faith within you? Have you allowed them to be starved? What roots of sin have been implanted in you this week or even this day? Repent, and be saved. Be here as often as you can to be weeded, healed, and fed. Are your faith roots weak? Be made strong in Christ, but do not be impatient, strong roots take time, they need the care and direction of God’s Word. Come to Bible Class, ask your pastor questions, let him counsel you through troubles so that He may deliver God’s care and guide so that you may stand firm.

Do not stay away for any reason, pride, shame, anything in between. Confess it, come out of the dark and into His light, because even dead roots can be made to live again in Jesus Christ who has died for your sins and He has risen again for you. Let Him pull out from your heart your pet weeds which would kill that faith which gives you life. And you will grow stronger, day by day, week by week, so that no storms, no waves of panic, no weeds of the flesh will be able to uproot you from the Love of God in Christ Jesus.

Rejoice. Sing, spread your branches and bask in His light, receive His life giving body and blood in the bread and the wine, and then in Him bear fruit of gladness, strength, and assurance unto eternal life. Let them who has ears to hear: hear and believe in Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

In September of 2023, California had passed AB 1228, a new law in California, which did two main things. First, it increased the minimum wage for “fast food restaurant employees.” Second, it establishes a “Fast Food Council”, which is empowered both to make future increases to the minimum wage and to adopt other minimum employment standards for fast food restaurants. They established $20/hr. as the starting point which went into effect April 1, 2024. The purpose was to make wages “more fair and equitable” for fast food employees. Why the government targeted fast food employees for the increase but other laborers remain at a $16.50/hr. minimum wage, and undocumented field laborers are only given $6 an hour and get $2.15 per box when picking strawberries is a matter beyond the scope of this sermon.

Regardless of what you think about this law and legislation, the idea of a fair wage seems reasonable, and it would seem especially reasonable if you are one of the workers.
But how does this translate to spiritual matters? How does it relate to the kingdom of God and those who are called to work in God’s vineyard?

That is the theme in the parable in this morning’s Gospel lesson. What is a fair wage? What does the master owe His workers? The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. The master went out to the market place 4 more times: at the third, sixth, ninth, and finally the eleventh hours, each time finding and hiring more laborers saying: “whatever is right I will give you.” At the end of the day, the master had the foreman pay out the wages starting with those who started working at the 11th hour. Work days at this time were 12-hour work days, so that means this last group of laborers worked only an hour in the vineyard. What were they paid? A denarius. And so likewise all the laborers who had been hired at the various times were given a denarius. When it got to those who were hired first, who had worked in the vineyard the longest amount of time, they thought it would only be fair if they were paid more than those who worked a shorter time. They expected more. They reasoned that it would only be fair. They worked longer than the others. So, when the master through the foreman gave them only a denarius, they grumbled and complained. In fact, the text says, they grumbled AT the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’

Were they wrong? It is true that they had worked longer, they had worked the longer hours, working and contributing more even during the hottest parts of the day. Where did they go wrong? Well, they judged and begrudged the master for His generosity to the other laborers. It wasn’t their wage to give, and as the master points out, they had agreed to the one denarius. They received exactly what was agreed upon no more, no less. The master asked them: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” He gave them the denarius and dismissed them. And Jesus said: “So, the last will be first, and the first last.”

Quite often we are like those laborers hired at the beginning of the day. In fact, this is how people are in general. People generally think too highly of themselves. They believe that God owes them more than whatever it is they are given. People in the church and people outside the church have this same notion with respect to God. “He owes me”. When the heat of the day in this sin-filled life strikes people and troubles come upon us, it is tempting to say: “I can’t believe this is happening to me: it’s not fair.” People in the world will even use that as an excuse for rejecting the Word of God in Jesus Christ. They will ask: “How can a ‘loving’ God allow such evil or this event or that tragedy?” They do not look to the cause of the trouble in this world: the wickedness of the hearts of mankind, including their own, and the curse of sin in general. They do not focus upon but instead reject the generosity that is offered by God, not only in a Savior, but in acknowledging His constant caretaking of the world. Indeed, God is constantly creating and continuing His creation providing life for billions of people, most of whom do not believe in Him, who actively sneer at God, and often even persecute His laborers in the field of the Church. Then within the Church, people will often judge God and inwardly begrudge Him giving the promise of Grace to those who were hired/called at various times of their life from the idleness and wickedness of this world and their own behavior. Despite their wickedness, they were called and repented later in their life, but a long time or lifelong Christian may be tempted to think “they enjoyed their idleness, their wickedness in the flesh in this life, but then they repented, and now they also receive the same eternal life? It isn’t fair!”

Yes, the whole thing isn’t fair. None of it is fair. The real question regarding fairness is this: Does God owe humanity anything? Does God owe you and me anything? What are fair wages, especially with regard to sin? What are the wages of sin? Death! Not just death of the bodies, but eternal torment forever in hell. That is the wages of sin. The wages of missing the mark of God’s Law of not doing the established labor properly. The Law established by the master and creator of the universe. It is His right as the One who created all people and things to demand obedience and labor in return for His caretaking and giving of life.

So, what does God owe sinful, lazy, jealous, people the world over? What does He owe you and me? Nothing. We, on the other hand, owe Him everything. Everything that is ours in this world and life, great or small, we owe to Him.

If we are honest, what would be fair: because we have sinned against Him and against our neighbor? Because we have even judged God in various ways at differing times, because we owe Him so much? What would be fair would be for God to leave us in the marketplace of a dying sin filled corrupt world to inherit and receive the wages due our sin: death and judgement.

But God has called you by the Gospel, yes, to repent of your sin, but also to enter into His vineyard and His special presence and bask in His grace and hope. We have not been the laborers that we should have been, but in His generosity and love, He provides even more than what we need for our daily needs and life. Knowing that we are incapable of keeping the Law perfectly, He sent another laborer to do and complete the work that we could not do. He sent Jesus, His own Son into the work fields, to suffer the true heat of the day. He kept the Law perfectly and then received in His Holy and perfect flesh the wages which you and I deserve: God’s wrath, hell, and suffering upon the cross. He even received scorn and hate from those whom He came to redeem. Was this fair? No, but it was gracious. It was and is the great testament to the Love and generosity of God.

He gives us more than we deserve. Giving us the free gift of redemption and salvation and payment for our sins in Jesus Christ. He has called by His Word, redeemed us by the blood of His Son in Baptism, and called us already in this life to the joy, safety, and comfort of His presence. So, we believe, and we receive from Him here, refreshment, life, comfort by the forgiveness of sin and strengthening of faith as we hear His Word. His grace is proclaimed in Jesus Christ, but then He feeds us and gives us His water of life in the Sacrament of the Altar as we rest in the shade of God Almighty, as Psalm 121 says: The Lord is Your keeper, the Lord is the shade at your right hand”. As we work in the “heat of the day” of this life and become exhausted, frustrated, hurt and anguished, He comes to us here and He takes our anger, our frustrations, our hurts, our pain unto Himself. He gives us rest from our labors here. Then He sends us out, led by the good news of Jesus Christ, by His cross as soldiers, to speak and do battle against the devil, the world, and our flesh. To run the race that He has given us to run and overcome it all and finish by His Holy Spirit and receive the wage that Christ has earned for us.

We do this in joy. We have been redeemed. We do not beat the air meaninglessly in our labor. We know that the victory for us is already won in Jesus Christ. The harvest is His, and He shares generously with us the fruit of His labor: even eternal life.

He knows your earthly pain and suffering. He gives you all that you need for comfort and strength in Himself, in Jesus Christ. He gives you all the instruments of His gracious presence and love in His Word and Sacraments. Pray and be comforted. He hears you, He answers you in grace, love, and mercy in Jesus Christ. His generosity is never ending. He is more than fair, He is gracious because He views you as more than a laborer and servant, but as His child whom He loves. And at the last day, He will give you the crown of life everlasting, the promised redemption for the sake of Jesus Christ, to you and all who have believed and in faith have served, witnessed, confessed, and hoped in Him. Then all believers will rest from their labors in the eternal joy and perfect presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Lord keep you in that hope and faith through the generosity and love of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas