“When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

Jesus speaks these words to the disciples shortly before His betrayal, crucifixion, burial and resurrection. He compares this time of trial and sorrow to the pain, anguish, and worrisome time of expectation that happens at the time of childbirth. From the perspective of a woman giving natural birth, there is sorrow, perhaps fear, and certainly pain even with various medications to numb it, but once the child is born, the excitement and uncertainty is passed, the mother worn but joyful, embraces her newborn. That, is of course, the ideal outcome. But the reason for the fear and worry before the birth is that much could go wrong during the actual childbirth: internal breeding and hemorrhaging, heart troubles, strokes, blood clots for the mother, umbilical cords wrapping around where it shouldn’t, breeches, and so on. Will both the mother and child be healthy? How long will the labor last?

No doubt some of the same emotions of doubt, fear, sorrow, pain, anguish and uncertainty went through the hearts and minds of the disciples after the arrest, crucifixion, and burial of Jesus. “Oh no! What is happening? What will happen? How much longer will this trial last? Surely, they will find Him innocent. Wait, now He is dying, will He be rescued? Now He is dead. What now? What will happen to us?” Yet after and through all those labors of Jesus, Jesus had given the answer to these questions. God had not abandoned them: He had not abandoned His servant, His Christ, His Son. No, Jesus now having broken through the bonds of death and the grave, has become the first born of the dead in the glorious resurrection of body and soul for eternity. Jesus is the first born of the resurrection victory triumph. He kept the Law, took our sin, our sorrows, and the punishment that we deserved at the cross in His suffering and sorrow of His crucifixion so that we might be born from above as His people now by faith, but ultimately to be brought forth into the resurrection of our flesh and soul at the last Day. But what about in the meantime? How do exist and survive in a world that seems so often hostile to God, His Word, and His Church?

You know, it is very interesting. Today is the first time that I can recall that this particular text has fallen upon our secular holiday and remembrance known as “Mother’s Day”. This is a day in which we give thanks for the gift that God has given called motherhood through which God brings forth life. Sadly, not all mothers are good at raising their children once they have come out of the womb. Some try hard and make mistakes, some don’t try to be good mothers at all which is among the worst mistakes, and some women do not understand that to conceive a child is a great gift and make the mistake and sin of aborting the life of their child.
Furthermore, we know that taking care of the child is not just about what you do after the child is out of the womb, but how to take care of the child while it is yet, unborn, within the womb is very important. What foods should a mother eat to feed its child through her body: supplements, exercise, taking care of the body, making sure that bad substances are not taken in, lest it affect the child being formed. Now they say, avoid recreational drugs, smoking, low nutrient foods and both mother and child will fare better.

This is where Jesus’ words to the disciples apply to us, as we exist in our current life and situation as members of that body of the church militant. We speak of ourselves as Sons and daughters of God and indeed we are. As St. John says in the epistle this morning: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” 

The life that we live now in our relation to God is kind of like the relation of an unborn child in relation to his mother and father. We were conceived by the Holy Spirit by the Word of God into belief and faith, attached to the womb of the Church by Holy Baptism in Christ’s blood, and we receive ongoing sustenance from the umbilical cord of the liturgy and the Sacrament of the Altar, and through the Word of God spoken in and through our mother of the church, we also hear the voice of our Father. We have not yet seen Him face to face. We are still being formed for what is yet to come. We are yet, weak and unable to breathe the pure air of holiness with perfectly constructed body and soul that we shall receive after the labor and birth pangs of the judgement of this world.

As we live in this world and this life and we look to the world to come and ponder its mysteries, it really is like a child in the womb who lives and if possible could ponder what life outside the womb may be. But ponder as it may, it cannot fully conceive the idea of sunshine, breathing air through lungs, eating food though the mouth, or any of the other things that we on this side of our earthly mother’s womb know. So the joys of heaven remain somewhat a mystery.

As we remain in the womb of the Church, Christ’s bride, we receive a foretaste of that joy as our knowledge of God in Jesus Christ is ever growing and maturing. What we are right now as people of sinful flesh and bone is different than what we will be. Though differently from what exactly happens in the womb of our earthly mothers, God is forming us and fashioning us. We are now weak, and we cannot take care of ourselves as we ought. We sin, we see the labor pangs of the devil and the world pressing about us and we fail. We think upon death and the different life that we are being trained for and we fear and tremble and sorrow. We wriggle and fight. We momentarily despair that our heavenly Father will not bring us safely through the trials and travails of this world. We wonder if truly He sees us. Again as a child in the womb has no knowledge of the ultrasound images that its parents sees, we are ignorant of how much better God sees us and has mercy upon us and is taking care of us even now.
From Psalm 139 we declare:
For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.

Dear Brothers and sisters in Christ, God has created, formed and named us with His name. He sent Jesus Christ to die for you to forgive you of your sins and to give you eternal life. Look at the miracle that is your physical body, despite its taint of sin, it is a miracle and wonder and He has redeemed it for the sake of Christ crucified for something even better. It is already being made more perfect as you receive from Him grace, mercy, forgiveness of sins, here in His Word, here with His body and blood. God is ever faithful and bountiful in goodness to you and for you in Christ.

Rejoice, be of good cheer, though there may be times when the Church Militant cries out in pain, the labor of this life and these trials are very short compared to the eternity that is yet to come. Remember death is swallowed up in Christ’s Victorious Resurrection. You are by faith in Jesus Christ appointed to eternal life, soul and body. As Jesus said, “so also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
In the meantime, look to the cross and the empty tomb. As it is written “they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not grow faint. God’s understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.”
Grow in Him and be formed by Him in His strength, abiding in the womb of His church. Hear His voice and have peace and joy now until we are delivered to heavenly birth in eternal life. There we shall see Him face to face and live with Him in an everlasting innocence, righteousness, and blessedness in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Vocal impressions and imitations can be funny. You know, when comedians and actors do vocal imitations of famous people. It can be entertaining because it can be fun to hear a particular voice come out of somebody else. But, even though these impressions can be pretty good, a trained ear or a computer can detect the differences between the imitator and the voice of the original person. That’s because every person has a unique vocal pattern, a different shaped mouth, throat, teeth, neck all which make for a voice that cannot be perfectly duplicated by another person. Your voice is almost like a fingerprint. Our unique vocal pattern not only includes our accents, and rhythms of speech, but the actual physical waves of sound that comes from our uniquely structured bodies. Our voice is part of what makes us, us. Our ears recognize this. That is how we are able to recognize the voice of each other, the voice of a celebrity, or the treasured voice of a loved one.

Today’s text talks about the voice of another, often imitated voice, a voice which is not funny to imitate or mock: and that is the voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Jesus referred to Himself as a shepherd and His followers as sheep. Jesus had gone into greater detail of that sheep/shepherd relationship in John chapter 10. But in the section appointed for the Gospel today Jesus highlighted the vocal aspect of the sheep/ Shepherd dynamic. He said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

At the time Jesus said these things in chapter 10, He had been speaking with some Pharisees along with the man who had been born blind but Jesus had healed on the sabbath in the previous chapter. The Pharisees had twice questioned the healed man as to who healed him. The second time, the conversation went like this: They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.”
And they cast him out of the temple.

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”

Jesus is speaking the Good Shepherd texts of John 10 in this context. The sheep of God’s fold hear His voice. They recognize that Jesus and His preaching are not nothing. He calls to them, and by the Holy Spirit, they respond by sound and not by sight. The Shepherd Jesus knew and knows them, that is why He seeks them out to call them, to protect them, because they are His own and He will protect them, yes, even to the point of laying down His life for His sheep.

How did the Pharisees respond to Jesus’ voice? At the end of John 10, they picked up stones to stone Jesus. But it was not yet His time to die.

The one who has been crucified and raised continues to be the Great and good shepherd. He continues to watch out for the flock. Gathering even as He continues to call to them. His sheep find refuge and strength in His presence as He feeds and defends them.

Yet He must gather them. Why in Scripture does the Shepherd have to go hunting for the sheep calling to them except that the sheep are prone to wander away?
Among the many dangers lurking are the enemies who imitate the Good Shepherd in act or voice. Who creep into the sheep fold of the Church acting as under shepherds but are false shepherds. Whether they creep in by television, radio, or as pastors in congregations. They try to ape the message of the Good Shepherd. They add to it, subtract from it, all with an attempt to fool the sheep, to woo them away from the Good Shepherd, so that separated from the Good Shepherd and the safety of the sheep pen, they can be all the more easily eaten and devoured by the enemy. They are wolves in shepherds clothing. If only the enemies were as clumsy and silly as Wile E. Coyote in the old Warner Brothers cartoons when he plotted to steal sheep, but the sheepdog would always save the day.

Sadly, these spiritual enemies are truly wiley and clever, they know our weaknesses. They know how susceptible we are to laziness, or coveting: the grass always seems greener elsewhere, or even to fear. The competing voice of the devil or our flesh may cause us to question the love of our Shepherd sometimes. When trouble arises, when the valley of the shadow of death looms large, we may be tempted to panic and lose faith that we will be defended, that Christ’s promises are true and that we need not fear. And so we fail and fall, sinning in our unbelief.

We are powerless on our own to defend against such trickery. There is a reason that sheep get a bad reputation in terms of intelligence, they are easily distracted, they cannot defend themselves well, they get their wool messed up and fouled, and do go astray and get devoured and ignore the voice of the Shepherd they should listen to.
When it comes to us, how we behave, how we think and feel, how we trust or don’t trust the voice of the Shepherd, sometimes going after other voices or teachings out of curiosity or dissatisfaction with the truth. Are we any different than sheep that go astray and get what they deserve?

Yet the shepherd Jesus Christ came for this reason. As a shepherd pities his silly but beloved sheep so God pities us. Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” He spoke about the coming of wolves and thieves who would seek to steal, kill, consume, destroy, while scattering the flock. Jesus declared in verse 10, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it abundantly.”

The Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ intends to do all that He can to rescue all the sheep of His sheepfold. Because He loves us. He loves you. He came and dwelled in the muck and mire of the sheep, getting dirty even as He led the perfect life that we could not. He laid down His life and was crucified for your sin, defeating all your enemies and has risen triumphant from death to life.

The Good Shepherd continues to call out to us and to the world. He continues to come to us in our valleys and wherever we may be, to do the acts that His Father has given Him to do. Now His voice is the voice of His Word in Holy Scripture, and in the proclamation of His Word by faithful under shepherds and sheepdogs.

Yes, all we like sheep have gone astray, but today and every day, the Good Shepherd calls to you and me by His Word to come to His Divine Service, to be gathered around Himself. To confess our sins and hear again His voice of triumphant forgiveness, “I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

That is why you are here today. By faith, you recognize His voice. You desire to be where the voice of Your beloved Shepherd is heard. The Holy Spirit has led you here again today because He worked this faith into your heart. He did it by that voice of His Word as it has been taught and preached and given in His Sacraments. In Baptism, He called you by your name and marked you with His name. He abides with you His sheep and hears you when you call to Him. He comes with His staff to rescue and His rod to defend you in your life.

In order to better spot the imitator wolves, to hear and recognize the comforting voice of our loving Shepherd, let us continually come to where He is. The more familiar we are with His voice, His teaching, His forgiveness, the less likely we can be led astray. But if and when we do, know that the Good Shepherd calls and gathers us again to Himself, crucifying our sins upon Himself, washing us clean, and comforting us in all our trials. Feeding us His body and blood to nourish us and strengthen us soul and body as His cup of mercy runs over.

So now rest in His arms, listen to His voice and receive His love, forgiveness, and mercy. Jesus says to you: that for His sake, through faith in Him, you will never truly perish, but you shall receive eternal life. Your enemies cannot ultimately harm you, for they are defeated already through Jesus Christ, your Good and loving Shepherd, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Christ is Risen, He is Risen indeed Alleluia!

This is such good news that to our Christian ears, but to the disciples it seemed perhaps too good to be true. They had heard from the women and Mary Magdalene that earlier that same day, they gone to the tomb of Jesus, but He wasn’t there, it was empty, they had seen at least one angel and then Jesus himself appeared to them. It was especially difficult for Thomas to believe even after the other 10 disciples bore witness to the fact that they too saw Jesus. He had come to them in that room that had been locked, He had spoken Peace to them, showed His wounds to them, and commissioned them with the Office of the Keys to forgive and retain sins.

Sadly, Thomas was not with them when this took place, so He doubted that good word of Christ’s appearance. Perhaps, He doubted, not because He didn’t want the news of Jesus being resurrected to be true, but because He was afraid of being disappointed. Thomas appears to have been a pessimist: the kind who expected the worst to happen. Even back in John 11 when Jesus announced that He was going to go to Bethany to raise Lazarus, going right into the territory and hands of His keenest enemies, Thomas somewhat bravely but matter of factly, shrugged his shoulders and said to the other disciples, “Let us also go, so that we might die with Him.”

There is a type of worldly wisdom in this way of looking at things. Expect the worst, and you won’t be disappointed when it happens and feel better prepared emotionally. And if it doesn’t happen, you will be pleasantly surprised. This pessimistic thinking is behind that kind of comfort that points out that something could have been much worse. Your leg is broken, and the Thomases stand beside your bed and observe, “you should be thankful you only broke your leg and not your neck driving the way you do.” The attitude “be grateful it could be worse” is small comfort.

The other extreme attitude isn’t a more healthy or sensible alternative. I am referring to someone who expects that everything will be sugar, roses, and sunshine every day of their life. They will be in for a rude awakening and some shocks in their life.

Most people have gone through some kind of hardship, unfairness, or cruelty. At some level, no matter how bitter our experiences have been, we cannot accept that that is the way it ought to be. So, we react to those experiences. We feel that we have been wronged, that we haven’t had a fair opportunity. We resent and rebel against our misfortunes. We feel that our lives ought to mean something and be filled with happiness. When it doesn’t go that way, we know that something has gone wrong. We cannot surrender this hope, and one of the ways in which we try to protect it is by expecting the worst. Then it is possible that things may turn out better than we expected. Hoping for what is good but expecting the worst are two sides of the same basic attitude. This tells us a lot about ourselves. When people say it most likely going to rain their whole vacation, they aren’t saying that they want it to rain the whole time. They really want the sun to shine, but they seek to protect themselves from disappointment by expecting the worst.

When Thomas set off with Jesus and the disciples he didn’t want to get killed, but he expected the worst so that if the worst happened, he could say, “I told you so” but if it didn’t happen, he could be pleasantly surprised.

When the other disciples told Thomas that they had seen the risen Jesus, it wasn’t that he didn’t want this to be true. Thomas wanted to protect himself against the disappointment that it might not be true. Thus he 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.” That is what he said, but deep down, he was hoping he was wrong. How do we know this? Because when the disciples were gathered again in the same place as the previous week where Jesus had appeared to them, Thomas was sure to be there. If hope had truly died in him, if he were absolutely sure of disappointment, he would not have been there. He could not give up hoping, not yet. Even though the measure of proof for Thomas had been on the level of what his eyes could see and his hands could touch, he hoped he was wrong. Therefore Jesus came and met Thomas on that level. He appeared again among them and said to them all: “Peace be with you!” Jesus called Thomas by name and invited him to not only see with his eyes the wounds, but to touch them, to handle them and in so doing touch the mystery of the resurrected Christ.

Then the astonishing thing happened. There burst from Thomas an acknowledgment far deeper than what eyes could tell him. “My Lord and my God!” Thomas was finally there, he got it, he believed, even as Jesus said to him, “Do not disbelieve, but believe.” This miracle of faith and confession was of and by the Spirit of God as Jesus pulled Thomas through his pessimism, his doubt, his grief, his sin and his unbelief all to fasten him to the central point and certainty of hope: Jesus Christ crucified and raised. God, in Jesus, had connected Thomas to Himself, and this connection is what is called faith. Faith does not need to delude itself in false hope, faith is not captive to what meets the eye, faith does not need to protect itself against disappointment and despair by the pessimism of expecting the worst.

Faith is a new realism, a new way of living and thinking that is far more wonderful than the worldly wisdom of pessimism which cannot fully trust but expects the worst. Faith also replaces unrealistic thoughts of perpetual roses, sunshine, and sugar. The problem with both pessimism and this attitude of unbridled optimism is that they are expectations that center in “me”. Their ultimate concern is me. But faith has its center outside of yourself or myself. Faith has as its center something much more true and solid than our frail flesh and emotion which is so easily swayed and betrayed by our sin. No, faith clings to God through Jesus Christ to a hope that is sure. Jesus Christ died on the cross so that you don’t have to depend on yourself or any unsure thing for salvation. Things may not always go well in this life because of sin in this world. According to our sins, we deserve the worst of God’s wrath, but Jesus has taken the worst upon Himself, making Himself accounted as the worst of the worst sinners as He took the weight and punishment for all sin upon Himself at the cross. He died for your sins, He was buried, but He was raised again showing that His accomplished His goal and His payment for sin was accepted. So that you, are gathered here and now forgiven all your sins for the sake of Christ, so that you may have faith and life and salvation.

By the Word of the Gospel Christ is here with you and His people. He comes to you to touch and to see the fruit of His wounds made for you even as you recline here at His Table with Him receiving His very body and blood to confirm you in that faith. Repent of your unbelief and believe. Jesus is here truly to save you, in body, soul, and spirit, for the resurrection and the life everlasting with Him. He gives the glad tidings of Peace by the forgiveness of sins. He would have you believe these glad tidings of salvation. Therefore, He both grants faith to you and His strength to believe in His Gospel so that you need never fear disappointment. So that you would be comforted in your weakness, doubt, and fear; and, that you would not despair and die in your sin, but live in peace and rest in Christ, your Savior.

Sin, death, the devil, and hell do not get to have you; nor are they permitted to have the last word concerning you. The Lord Jesus, by His Cross and Resurrection, has shut that lion’s mouth which preys upon doubt and pessimism, who would otherwise devour you with lies and bitter condemnation. Instead He opens the mouth of me your pastor to speak forgiveness for you to hear and receive peace. He has opened your mouth even as you receive Christ upon your lips so that you might also speak of the grace and mercy that you have received here, to others outside the Church. He can and will use you to speak His Word to give hope to those who also have experienced bitter disappointments because of sin. So that they too may hope in Jesus, the sinless one who saves from sin and the insecurity of this world.

Be at peace, and live now in His peace. You are baptized into Christ. In Him, by faith, you are saved. For He has died your death, so that you are now raised up in His Resurrection.

Sickness, suffering, and death are all finally powerless against you, because Christ is with you, who has risen from the dead and lives and reigns forever for you and His Church. There is no poison in the Cup that He pours out for you. He shall neither hurt nor harm you. He is your Champion, who has crushed your enemies under His feet. How sweet is this Word in your ear and in your heart, upon your lips and tongue, and in your body! Christ is Risen He is risen indeed for you and for your salvation in Jesus’ name. Alleluia. Amen.

Pastor Aaron Kangas

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