Have you ever been so focused on something, so distracted, perhaps in worry about a problem, that you missed what other people were saying to you, even if they were telling you the solution? Have you ever been looking for something that you thought you had lost, but you were so panicked that you didn’t even see it, even though it was in the open? Then, someone else points it out to you and finds it for you? What a joy, what a relief, but then you may also think, how did I not see it when it was just there and why couldn’t I listen and hear the solution in the midst of my worry?

This morning’s Gospel lesson also speaks of some travelers who were so focused on their worries and problems that they too could not see or hear the solution to their trouble even though He was right there with them before their very eyes and ears.

The Gospel account for this morning took place on the 1st day of the week after the death of Jesus: IOW: Resurrection Day. Two of Jesus’ disciples were on their way to Emmaus. Now these disciples were not among the 12 closest disciples but were likely part of the 72 who had been temporarily sent out to the lost sheep of Israel by Jesus in Luke 10. During that time, they witnessed the power of God’s Christ as God worked through them His power to preach, perform miracles, and cast out demons. But now… to them, that experience was a forgotten and old history as they left Jerusalem downcast and defeated thinking their teacher was dead. As they were speaking to each other about the recent events, suddenly another traveler joined them. We are told by St. Luke who this was, but we are told that the disciples’ eyes were kept from recognizing Him. The reason they could not see Jesus is because they were too overwhelmed by their own feelings, their own doubts, their own despair to see straight, but they also were kept from seeing Him until the perfect and most meaningful time.

In verse 17, when Jesus asked them about their conversation, our translation says that they stood still looking sad… The Greek uses a word that is more meaningful than “sad”. The word is skuthropos which means to be gloomy, sullen, beat back, overtaken, wretched, destroyed, having lost all. This is how they felt, as gloomy wretched beaten ones who had lost it all. Amazed that this stranger hadn’t heard of the events in Jerusalem, they recounted it briefly. Referring to Jesus, they described Him as a “prophet mighty in word and deed”. “We had hoped that He was the One to redeem Israel.” they say in past tense.

Notice they do not say He is the Son of God, nor that He was the Savior, but that they had hoped at one time that He would have been. They reveal that there were women who had seen a vision, who had said that this Jesus was alive, but when other disciples went to the tomb, they saw the tomb but did not see Him. So they did not believe. Like Thomas from last week’s Gospel, They thought it would be wonderful if Jesus were alive, but it sounded too good to be true. Jesus let them talk, Jesus was using this moment to show them what they didn’t know so that they might learn what they must know.

Then Jesus says “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer and enter His glory?” Jesus did not say this to insult them, but rather he said it with pity, to get their attention as He then expounded to them the scriptures, proving that all of Scripture, Old and New Testaments are to be interpreted through Christ who has fulfilled them all.

There was something about these words that held the disciples attention, yet they still did not perceive. So, as they reached Emmaus, they were going to stop, but Jesus appeared to be ready to continue on. The disciples said what turns out to be a beautiful prayer, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent.” He stayed and as they were about to eat, when He was at “table with them” He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Immediately their eyes were opened; opened by Jesus who chose this moment to open their eyes and reveal Himself in this breaking of the bread. Therefore there is something special, some significance in this act of blessing and breaking bread. Jesus did for these disciples the same thing He had done with them on the night when He was betrayed as in Luke 19, taking the bread, blessing it, breaking it and telling them, “This is my body given for you.” Jesus revealed His body and person in this Sacrament of His Holy Eucharist.

As they recognized Him, Jesus vanished from their sight, to meet them again later. In the same way that He can appear and vanish in these resurrection accounts, Christ is not limited to time and space. As the Son of God according to His glory His body can be present when and where He wills and promises even in His Holy Supper. In the text, the revelation of the resurrected Christ brought them to faith and in their joy and excitement they ran 7 miles back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples the good news. How is this message described? “Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them (specifically)in the breaking of the bread.”

Dear friends in Christ, this is not a story, this is not a fairy tale, but has really happened, and may our own eyes be opened to His appearance in His Word and in the bread and wine. The whole thrust of this passage and all the accounts of Jesus appearing after He rose is to open our hearts and minds to the fact that Jesus was and is the Christ, the Messiah, the perfect paschal/passover lamb of God who through His death on the cross has paid the price of sin. He has in fact redeemed all believing Israel made up of all peoples, Jews and Gentiles who perceive that Jesus is their Savior from their sins.

He is the solution to the problems of death, of sin, sickness, sorrow, anxiety, hatred, greed, and falsehood. Yet so often the world cannot and will not see or hear the voice of Jesus. They will search anywhere else closing themselves off from the Gospel of Jesus Christ because the cross of Jesus Christ and the love of God doesn’t make sense to sinful nature. We want to see proof, we would like to get some kind of credit for our actions, or we want something that will excuse us in our sin. People reject the word of God and the voice of our Savior because they get caught up in themselves, their perceived needs, wants, and desires and the distractions of this world. In so doing they become slaves to sin and death even though the solution is preached and taught in God’s Word, in His Church: offered freely by grace for the sake of Jesus who has died for all sin, and reveals Himself in His Word and sacrament. All too often we take the Gospel of Christ for granted in the midst of our earthly woes and worries and become enslaved again to our sin and selfishness. Repent, and have hope. Jesus reveals His love and forgiveness for you as He comes to you and speaks through the Absolution, you are forgiven in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Even as He first came and redeemed you in Christ’s blood through baptism, He takes away your sin again. He then comes to you to confirm His love and forgiveness won for you at the cross in His Word preached and in His Word made flesh offered here in the blessing and breaking of bread. Here in the bread and wine which is His body and blood, He continues to open your ears and eyes to witness His salvation as it is prepared and given to you. As we sing in the nunc dimitis, “My eyes have now seen the salvation…” Yes He reveals His salvation solution to you in the breaking of bread. He reveals the mystery and wonder of His resurrection through His resurrected body given for you, which prepares your body for its perfect resurrection at the last. He prepares you for His final and triumphant return. He is risen and the problems that harass you during this coming week and the weeks to come are already defeated in Christ’s victory. He will give you the strength for each day and each obstacle, remember Jesus Christ is the solution for all those problems and He will lead and guide you through them. He has already lead us from death to life in baptism. He has already defeated sin, death, and the power of the devil through His death and resurrection. How much more will also help you through any other trouble? For this, let us pray, praise, and give thanks.

That is why He continues to gather us and His Church around His Word and Sacraments, because this is where He is and where He reveals Himself. Only in Him and His revealing can we grow in faith and knowledge of the Jesus who is the Way, the truth, and the Life. Only by His power can our fears, doubts, sins, and self-focused-ness be overcome. He continues to manifest and reveal Himself, each and every time He gathers us together. He has given us the solution of salvation through faith in Him. Through His Word and in His Holy Supper Jesus Christ strengthens us as He prepares us until He calls us home. There He shall stay with us and we with Him where there is no evening or darkness, only joy and life in His light forevermore. Amen

Pr. Aaron Kangas

The second Sunday of Easter is annual “Pick on Thomas Day.” There are people in this world who have never even picked up a Bible, but they have heard about “Doubting Thomas.” This label is somewhat inaccurate and, in many ways, unfair: unfair that he is singled out as if nobody else doubted.

In the resurrection account from St. Luke, chapter 24, the women had told the disciples about the angels and Jesus’ appearance, “but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” (Luke 24:11) They … meaning the 11 disciples … did not believe their witness. The disciples were not just doubtful; … they did not believe. They were unbelievers.

Thomas was not among the disciples during that first appearance of Jesus in our text today from John’s Gospel. After Jesus’ first appearance to the disciples, when confronted with the others’ witness he did say, “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.” See how inaccurate the phrase doubting Thomas is, Thomas was not a doubter, but an unbelieving sceptic as well. They had all been unbelievers. So … how come Thomas is the one who got singled out with the label “Doubting Thomas”? We don’t speak of Pagan Peter, Unbelieving James, Matthew the Infidel? The fact is: not a single one of the disciples believed the report of Christ’s resurrection until they saw Jesus in the flesh. The entire crew failed miserably: they fled, when Jesus was arrested, they didn’t believe the eye witnesses of Christ’s resurrection, and that first night after the tomb was found empty, where were the 10? Afraid for their lives, in a locked room, not remembering anything Jesus said.

In the midst of their fear and unbelief, into the locked room, Jesus comes and stands among them. He who was crucified and dead is no longer so. He is alive. The witness of the women and the Emmaus disciples (about whom we will hear next week) were proven true!

He had every right to scold them vigorously. “Why did you not believe?” Jesus had every right to condemn them but He did not. Jesus came and stood among them in the midst of their failings, their grief, fear and unbelief and brought them peace and forgiveness, comfort, and mercy, and the first words from His mouth to their ears was His loving message “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Jesus not only gave them His peace, but He even invited them to check out the wounds of the crucifixion in His hands and side which was pierced to make peace. Peace with Jesus and Peace with the Father.

Now as if that were not amazing enough, Jesus showed the profound working of God’s grace in the fact that He chooses to use humble and fallible instruments to deliver this word of forgiveness in the office of the Ministry. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” Jesus Himself is “an apostle” because an apostle is a “sent one.” He was the appointed Apostle from God the Father. He was sent from the Father specifically to save the spiritually dead, hopeless, and helpless people as a mission of mercy. To establish peace and reconciliation between God and mankind by His earning forgiveness in His perfect sacrificial death and resurrection and then giving this forgiveness to those who have sinned and failed but repent and believe.

So He who was sent by the Father appoints this group of weak men as apostles … as “sent ones.” These men who just a split second before were unbelievers, or at least misbelievers. They are appointed and sent from God the Son with His authority: as Jesus gave them the special authority to admonish and call sinners to repentance and announce forgiveness and peace to those who do repent. He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Jesus had just endured the cross, and the wrath of His Father for all sin so that forgiveness of that sin could be given. Now, He has taken that dearly won forgiveness of sins and placed it in the hands of this group of sinners and appointed them to the ministry of reconciliation, to the Office of the Keys and distribution and announcement of that forgiveness.

Jesus has given His forgiveness to the Church, and the Small Catechism covers the way in which this authority to forgive sins is lived out in the Church when it discusses the Office of the Keys.

What is the Office of the Keys? The answer: The Office of the Keys is that special authority which Christ has given to His church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent.

The catechism then cites this passage from today’s Gospel lesson: The Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven’ (John 20:22-23).

What do you believe according to these words? I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.

We exercised this authority and have received the Words of Christ earlier in the service when you confessed your sin, your failings, your weakness, and the fact that you don’t deserve forgiveness, but for the sake of Jesus Christ God’s people plead mercy. And so you heard me say, “Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

These words of forgiveness and peace are so precious and so valuable that even if the rest of the service is a total bust … the sermon dull … the hymns hard to sing …no matter what goes wrong in the rest of the service, it is worth it to come and confess and hear those words of forgiveness and peace in Jesus Christ and receive what those words promise. For in those words of forgiveness, Jesus comes and stands among us, and we receive the very forgiveness that Jesus gave to those underachieving disciples on the very day that He rose from the dead.

There is great comfort for us in today’s Gospel reading. All of us mess up. We all fail regularly in love for our neighbor, in faithfulness to God in thought word and deed. We have doubted and disbelieved. Just as Jesus came to those disciples with His peace and forgiveness, He also comes to you today. Be no more disbelieving but believe. Your crucified and risen Jesus comes to you this day, comes and stands among you to announce His victory over your sin, over your past failings, conquering your doubt and your fear including the last and greatest enemy of death. As Jesus said to John in the book of Revelation He says to you and me. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, fear not, I am the first and the last, the living one, I died and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

The keys of death and Hades is the forgiveness that Jesus earned on the cross for you. Today’s Gospel teaches that heaven is opened to you when the office of the keys is proclaimed, when you hear the words of absolution from me, your pastor. Whenever you hear the preaching of the Gospel of Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you remember the promise of God to you in waters of Holy Baptism. Whenever you receive the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar there Jesus is among us. Whenever and wherever God is using these humble instruments: pastors, preaching, water, spirit, absoluting, bread and body, wine and blood, people confessing, there Jesus brings His love and forgiveness delivering the peace which He has won for us. There He shows the instruments of our salvation. There we behold the wounds in His hands and his side, from which poured His blood and water, the instruments of Your salvation, your forgiveness. Water and blood. The Water fills the fount, the blood fills the cup. Both poured out for you, covering you, and filling you with His grace and mercy. The speaking of the Absolution and preaching of His Word is Christ’s breathing out His Spirit. Do not disbelieve, but believe that Jesus comes and stands among us in all these ways to bring peace and forgiveness to you to open the kingdom of heaven to you. This is the way that His peace, comes to you. Peace between you and God, peace with your brothers and sisters, Peace in your mind and heart, peace which the world cannot give. Peace which comes from the joy of His crucified and resurrected presence to you that you may no longer fear, but believe. You haven’t seen Jesus in the same way as the disciples, you haven’t touched His wounds with your fingers in the same way, but you have and do in a sacramental and mysterious way. Jesus still comes and stands among us when He His Word is preached and His sacraments celebrated in truth and purity. You have seen Him, you will see Him, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and by believing you may have life eternal in His name. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Christ is Risen! He is Risen, indeed, Alleluia!

On that first Easter, through the dark streets and paths in and around Jerusalem, even before the light of dawn, the faithful Holy women proceeded. How weary and sad their footsteps must have been as they made their way to the tomb. As so many before them and since have done for loved ones who have died, they were going to see the grave of their loved one, their beloved teacher and master who not only died, but was killed so quickly and violently. We know from other Gospels that they had brought spices and oils with the hope that they could anoint the body and so with grief and mourning say their final farewells.

They were on their way to the grave that morning, the same road we all must travel. Death comes to all mortal flesh. It is a direct result and punishment because of sin. The wages of sin is death. Ever since Adam and Eve paid heed to the false teaching and preaching of Satan to eat the fruit that would give them the knowledge of good and evil in direct disobedience to God, there has been the curse of death. Every generation born must also die, so it has been, and so it will be until the end of time. The unnatural cleaving of the soul from the body in death is not what God had intended when He created Adam and Eve, for He created them for life.

Yet because of that original sin, all must die. Death itself points to an even greater punishment, that being an eternal death. Yes, Death brings fear. The threat of death should turn every heart of every man and every woman to fear the Lord and beg for mercy, yet many do not. They fight against it; they fight against man, against God. Fear is ultimately the source of all wickedness and cruelty. The hope that in destroying or controlling others, they may gain some mastery, some reassurance of their own power and security within themselves in the present, but it cannot last. For others, they may seek to escape the thought of death by living as though each day were their last; living carelessly in drunken or doped dissipation wasting their lives and time in numbness. Others may seek to find hope for life now and in the hereafter by works of their own righteousness, through works of the Law. This too is will come to nothing, for St. Paul and St. James note: “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.”

There was only One who was completely righteous, only One without sin. It was Jesus of Nazareth, He who lightened the darkness, who forgave sins, and healed diseases. He lived as One who was not a slave to fear or sin, yet He was betrayed into the hands of evil men. He was crucified, scorned, and mocked, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.'” The reality is that He had come to save others by not saving Himself. He allowed Himself to be sacrificed upon the cross to pay for the price of every sin. Jesus was sent by His Father to restore creation, to remove the curse of sin, to remove the power and sting of death. He came to remove fear and its allies, hatred, selfishness, and sorrow.

Therefore, Jesus became a curse on Good Friday. He went and did battle against sin, death, and the devil even as He took the full wrath of His Father upon Himself. This was the only way, and He was the only One who could ever reconcile God and Man again. Therefore, He died upon the cross in bitter agony an innocent Passover Lamb, the crucified King so that your sins and the sins of the world might be forgiven. His Words from the cross, “It is Finished” mark that the work of redemption and atonement was completed in Jesus’ perfect life and perfect death on that Good Friday.

What then of the resurrection? What is its point? The crucifixion of Jesus and His resurrection cannot be separated and neither should be diminished. Through the crucifixion, the work of atonement took place. The wonder and beauty of the resurrection is that it confirms that Jesus’ death was an acceptable sacrifice for sin. It confirms that the Father approved the sin and blood offering for sin and because the power of sin is undone, so too is the power of death undone. In the Father’s justice, He would not let the innocent One remain in death but raised Him up.

The women who came to the tomb did not yet understand what Jesus had done on the cross, the disciples were still hiding in fear, the body of Jesus was still in the tomb or so they thought. In the same way that the Trinity used an earthquake as a drumroll to announce the atonement at Jesus’ crucifixion, so now He uses another earthquake. He sends another great earthquake to underscore the great miracle of salvation that is taking place in the resurrection. An angel descends and removes the stone that had been sealed over the grave announcing life’s triumph over death, yet the guards, in fear, become like dead men. But listen to the words of the angel to the women, but because of Christ it is spoken to all Christian folk: “Do not be afraid!” Do not fear control you. Do not be afraid of death any longer. Do not be afraid of God’s judgment upon sin, for it is fulfilled in Christ. Behold, the angel did not roll the stone back so that Jesus could get out, He was already out. Jesus had already risen. “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.” Death could not hold Him. Death and its threat is now as empty as the Tomb of Jesus Christ. Then as they departed quickly, Jesus Himself, appeared to them and said, “All Hail” not greetings as our poor translation has it. He literally said “Be Glad, Rejoice!” Then He also repeated the theme, “Do not be afraid.”

On this day of Resurrection and remembrance, know that this message is also yours by faith in Jesus Christ. We too come to seek His presence to worship Him, to hear His Words of Absolution and to grasp by faith to His feet which brings this good news of salvation. Here is where He comes to us and greets us again this happy morning. He greets us with triumph over death, because this resurrection of Jesus is Christ is also yours. In the Epistle reading for Colossians, St. Paul says to you and all believers that you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. “When did this happen you ask?” Well in your Baptism, of course. That is when your creator recreated you to prepare you for the final recreation at the last day. You passed through the water and the blood of Jesus poured from His side at the cross when you were brought to His font of baptism. Believe the power of Baptism as said in God’s Word. It is His pledge to you sealed with His own blood. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like His.” (Romans 6:3,5)

This day we may rejoice, His resurrection has already become your resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus is not just an historic event. It is for you. Received by faith in Jesus Christ, you have the promise of the resurrection of both body and soul that is yet to come this is your sure pledge from God by His blood. Let us praise the Lord, for Jesus has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Death is now no more than a slumber. We no longer need fear death or condemnation for we have been reconciled through Christ. Now He comes to us in His feast of triumphant celebration here in His crucified and raised body and blood in the bread and the wine. Here He gives us the strength to go and tell others of this joyous truth of Jesus Christ crucified and raised for the for the forgiveness of sins.

We are able to march forward into the future safely in God’s care in Jesus Christ. Already now and at the last day, our song of triumph is “I know that my redeemer lives. What comfort this sweet sentence gives. He lives to silence all my fears, He lives to wipe away all my tears, He lives to calm my troubled heart, He lives all blessings to impart. He lives and grants me daily breath. He lives, and I shall conquer death. He lives my mansion to prepare; He lives to bring me safely there.” In Jesus Christ’s name, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

They crown thy head with thorns, they smite, they scourge Thee with cruel mockings to the cross they urge Thee…O mighty King, no time can dim Thy glory! How shall I spread abroad Thy wondrous story.

The king is dead. He who was called “king of the Jews” by the Gentiles, by Pilate, both in the sign above His head, but in mockery by the soldiers both as they beat him, but also as it says in Luke 23:36–37. “The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine  and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself’!”

He was hailed as the “King of Israel” by Jewish followers when He triumphantly rode upon a donkey only a few days before, only to hear this same phrase used against Him according to Matthew’s passion (Mt. 27:41-42) which states: “So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him’.”

In the Passion according to St. John which we just heard, in these two chapters, the word “king is used 12 times. Used in questioning, accusation, the word “King” is even used when the crowd denies Jesus and declares: “We have no king but Caesar”. But Jesus is a king. He is crowned with thorns as a form of mockery, but this ring of thorns about His brow describes the nature and purpose of His kingdom. The thorns came up from the ground only after Adam and Eve sinned. The thorns were part of the curse. Now Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, wears the thorns as the one who bears the curse of sin, in order to conquer it.

There is another usage of the term “king” in John 18 which usually is not given much thought, but it has depth. The slave whose ear was cut off. His name was “Malchus” Malchus is the Greek version of the Hebrew word Malek, which means “king”. Oh the Irony. The high priest’s slave has the name “King”. Not only that but that slave king is struck and His ear is cut off. “He who has ears to hear, let Him hear” as Jesus would say. Though this slave king was struck, though His ear was cut off, like the Messiah king would be struck and cut off from the land of the living. He was restored. He was healed by the King of Israel, the King whose kingdom is not a kingdom of this world and its glory, but the King who comes as a slave, to free those in bondage and slavery to sin by becoming as sin for them, betrayed, forsaken, and crucified in great humility and rejection, the wrath of God upon sin taken upon Himself, so that you, me, and all believers would not be rejected, forsaken, or cut off by death, by the curse of sin, surrounded by thorns, separated forever from the loving living God. No but that we and all believers would be gathered with believing members of the True Israel forever in His kingdom now and forever in Paradise. Ruled by His Word, His Spirit, His life by the forgiveness of sins. This is the reign of this king, this is how He conquers: by service, by love, by His death. As the hymn we have been studying says: “For us by wickedness betrayed, For us in crown of thorns arrayed He bore the shameful cross and death, For us He gave His dying breath.”

He did it all “For us”. He is dead. God is dead on Good Friday, but as The Messiah king healed the ear which was “cut off”. Let us remember the Words of Jesus is John 10:17-18  For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.”

All is completed. The war, the battle, the redemption. The price of sin is paid. Now death will be overcome to show that the price was paid in full. This is the joy of the resurrection, the promise of ours, that we are indeed freed from the slavery of sin in Jesus Christ. The devil no longer has control over us. Our High Priest who is true has paid our ransom. For us He rose from death again. For us He went on high to reign, For us He sent His Spirit here To guide, to strengthen, and to cheer. The King lives. Let us watch and wait in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Imagine the events of our Gospel text. Today is a day of great celebration. Godly Pilgrims from all over the world have made their way to Jerusalem to celebrate. The population of the city grows larger every day. The number of people in Jerusalem is so great that many must leave every evening to camp out on the hills that surround the city. Soon the people will celebrate the Passover, the great victory of God when He rescued His people from the slavery of Egypt in the days of Moses.

Among all the Passover Pilgrims who enter Jerusalem this day, one has a different reason for fulfilling the ancient law that requires all the men of Israel to present themselves before the Lord, for He is the fulfillment of the “Passover”. This pilgrim came into Jerusalem riding upon a donkey, a colt that has never been ridden before. His disciples and many of the Passover Pilgrims honor Him with praise as He enters Jerusalem.

Yet, our Gospels for this day tell us that there was a lot of confusion concerning this particular man who rode into Jerusalem that day. Those who praised Him gave Him Messianic titles such as Son of David, King of Israel, and so forth. These titles were accurate, ah but if only the people would have truly understood their true meaning. Sadly, many thought that Jesus was coming to use His miracle working power to give them earthly wealth or health, or to drive out the Romans, or to restore the empire of Solomon or to make Jerusalem the most important city in the world. These Passover pilgrims were doing exactly the right thing in praising Jesus. Sadly, they were doing it for the wrong reasons.

The Pharisees were also confused. We miss out on the symbolism because the symbol of the Palm Branch is different for us than it was for Israel. We are used to seeing the six pointed Star of David as the national and religious symbol of Israel, but down through the years, the palm branch has also been a symbol of Israeli pride. The Pharisees seemed to be afraid the Roman soldiers would see the Palm Branches and think “Israeli resistance”. They were terrified that the Romans would interpret the noise as some sort of uprising and send troops to shut it down and take away the temple.

Then there were the Greeks who came to see Jesus. We focus so much on Israel that we sometimes forget that God has His people in other nations as well. These Greeks were godly men, but they had not entered into the formalities of full Jewish fellowship. Even though they were not formal members of the Jewish religion, they looked for the coming of the Messiah. They had heard the talk. Could this Jesus of Nazareth be the Messiah? They wanted to meet Jesus, but as Gentiles, they were not free to move about the temple grounds. They asked Philip to relay their request to Jesus to come out to them. Philip found Andrew and the two of them went to Jesus.

They would see Him but not as expected. For Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” No doubt there were some who heard these words who said, “Well, it’s about time. Now we’ll see something really spectacular.” No doubt there were a few among the disciples who were enticed by the palms and the hosannas of the crowds. Now Jesus will reveal His true royal nature. Now Jesus will drive out the Romans and establish His kingdom on earth.

And as quickly as these temptations arose, they were dashed. Jesus continued, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” What did the preacher say? Did He just say that His glory is to die and be buried like a seed?

For years, Jesus kept saying, “My hour has not yet come. My Hour has not yet come.” Now here in Jerusalem after this glorious parade up into the temple, Jesus finally states, “The hour has come,” and the hour refers to His death. How can death be glorious?

It is interesting that Jesus spoke of Himself as a seed. Thousands of years earlier, before He took on humanity in the womb of the Virgin, He with the Father and Holy Spirit came to seek out and visit Adam and Eve in the Garden. It was a sad journey. Adam and Eve had just eaten the forbidden fruit. As He laid out the consequences of sin, He promised that that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head, but at a price. The serpent would bite the heel of the woman’s seed. This past Wednesday was also the Annunciation, the observance of when Gabriel came to Virgin Mary and told her that she would bear that Messianic seed and give birth to the One who would fulfill salvation prophecy.

Now in Messianic fulfillment, Jesus was in Jerusalem to take the poison of the serpent’s bite while He crushed the serpent’s head. The poison would kill Him and He would rest like a seed in the earth. Then, just as a seed germinates, so also would the Son of Man leave the ground and bear much fruit.

Jesus regularly, consistently, and clearly proclaimed His suffering, death, and resurrection. He clearly proclaimed this as His glory. He clearly proclaimed this as our salvation. Nevertheless, His disciples, the crowds who sang His praise, the Greeks, and the Pharisees were consistently confused. They were unable to understand that the greatest expression of the glory of God lies in Christ on the Cross where He suffered all in order to forgive the sins of the world. The glory is that of God’s mercy, love, and sacrifice.

Jesus wants you to have a share in this glory, but in order to share in this glory, you must die. Jesus said, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Jesus used the word “life” in two ways, life here on this earth and eternal life with Him. Those who love the life of this world will lose their eternal life. Those who die to the life of this world already have eternal life. That is what Holy Baptism is about as the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write: [Romans 6:3–5] Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

There was a lot of confusion on that First Palm Sunday. Few if any people understood the reason Jesus came to Jerusalem on that day. We have no excuse for such confusion. The Bible plainly states that Jesus came to Jerusalem on that day because He had an appointment with a cross on the next Friday.

This coming Thursday evening and Friday afternoon, we will meet here to focus on the gifts Jesus gave us with His passion. We will focus on the sacrament in which Jesus gives His body and blood to us for the forgiveness of sins. We will focus on His death on the cross in which Jesus earned forgiveness for all our sins. As we meditate on that death, let us also remember that Christ’s death means death for our sin, so that life may spring forth from that death.

Next Sunday we will focus in a special way on Christ rising from death to life, but let us also remember that that is also your resurrection to life and mine. Let us remember what the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write: [Galatians 2:20] “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

This is the life of the baptized believer travelling through this life and time: continually dying to sin and rising again to new life in Christ. Christ continues to come to you and bring you that new life by the forgiveness of sins in His Word, His Divine Service, and the Lord’s Supper where we see Him already, bringing us the antidote for the poison of sin: in Himself, crucified and raised for us to taste His glory, all so that we may be encouraged in faith and understanding as we live lives dying to sin and being made alive again and again in repentance and faith in Christ. This is the way it is for the believer until our Lord takes them to Himself in heaven. There we shall wait for the final day when our bodies which have been grafted into Christ will bear forth the fruit of Christ’s resurrection in full. We shall live forever on the new earth where there will be no need for death because there will be no sin. Until then as we pilgrimage through this life, though you grow weary, be encouraged by the Word of God in Jesus Christ. Stand firm and say in boldness what was written in Isaiah:
“the Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.”,
for God has and will give us the victory and the eternal kingdom of His glory in Jesus Christ our Savior, Amen.
Amen

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Our experience as human beings deals in a world of measurement. A house has so many square feet of living space … it has so many rooms. A refrigerator has so many cubic feet of storage. A person is a certain height … has a certain eye color … hair color … weight. We even measure time. The house was built in 1945. The refrigerator was manufactured in 2015. The person was born in 1987. We are used to the idea that we can measure both things and people.

Measurements mean limits. In fact, measurements tell us where the limits are. If we say a box is 24″ x 12″ x 12″ we cannot put something that is 36″ long into that box. 36″ is beyond the limits of that box. We know the limits of the box because we have measured them.

We live in a world where we can measure everything … everything has limits or so we think. That is one of the challenges we have when God reveals Himself as one who has no limits … One who cannot be measured. It is very difficult to understand that when we say God is eternal, we mean that from God’s perspective, all time is “now.” And that He existed before there was time. When we say that God is omnipresent, we mean that, from God’s perspective, all places are “within Him”. God has no limits and that is very hard for our limited, human minds to understand.
Then, as though that weren’t enough, that limitless God decided to save us by taking on humanity into Himself. Now we have the one person, Jesus Christ, who is both 100% God and 100% man. I am very thankful that God does not ask me to understand by my reason how this all works. Instead He asks me to believe that it is so, and He sends the Holy Spirit to give that belief to me.

Today’s Gospel is about people who had placed limits on Jesus. Martha placed limits on Jesus. She said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Mary fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Some of the visitors who came to comfort Mary and Martha also said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” Every one of these people put a limit on Jesus. They all believed that Jesus could have cured Lazarus when Lazarus was still alive, but, now that Lazarus was dead, they felt there was no hope. They all believed that death was the limit. They all believed that death was the line where the power of Jesus came to an end. In a world of measurements … in a world of limits, they believed that Jesus could not overcome death.

Death is a universal experience. Different cultures have different ways of coping with death, but all cultures must deal with death in some way. Human experience teaches us that dead is dead. Once you are dead, there is nothing that can be done to undo it.

There can be any number of reasons that death comes. The immediate cause of death can be anything from accidental trauma to the failures of old age. In spite of the many different causes of death that could be listed on a death certificates, there is only one ultimate cause of death. The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write, (Romans 5:12) Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. 

Death spreads through sin. Do you want to know if someone is a sinner? Then wait around to see if they die. If they die, then they were a sinner. “But pastor,” you say, “Everyone dies!” Exactly! That is what the Holy Spirit teaches us through the words of the Apostle Paul.

Faithful pastors don’t have to proclaim a lot of law at a funeral. There is the dead body in the casket proclaiming, “I am dead. The wages of sin is death. In fact because I am a sinner, I deserve to be in hell.” With a sermon like that pouring out of the casket, the faithful pastor proclaims the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins, and the hope and promise of the resurrection of the body through Jesus Christ, the crucified and resurrected One.

There is no one who is master over death except the One who created life and has redeemed life. Jesus Christ, who to conquer sin which rules through death, took on mortal flesh to fulfill the measurements and requirements of the Law and then allowed Himself to be put to death in the flesh at the cross to atone for sin AND to give hope by the immeasurable gift of grace and love which God has for sinners. As St. Paul wrote: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) It is only the voice of the One who came to overcome sin, death and the devil who can break through the deafening stillness of death to speak life. This is the message of Jesus who stepped up to the tomb of the man who was definitely dead and cried: “Lazarus, come out.” He has the power to call out to the dead and bring the dead back to life. This is the proclamation of the man who is also God and who has no limits. He is as He said: “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.” (John 11:25) These are the only words that can overcome the proclamation of a dead body in a casket. These are words that give comfort in the face of death.

Sadly, not everyone trusts the proclamation of the one who raised Lazarus from the dead. We saw it in the text for today as the Pharisees and Chief priests conspired against Jesus. We see it in the rejection of this message of hope in Jesus Christ by those who refuse to heed His voice calling them from spiritual death to life. People often put limits on God according to what they want or feel or think. They may think that they would rather trust in their works or they feel that their sins are too wicked to be forgiven. The reality is that spiritually we are all as dry bones and dead already. If you have believed, but have gone on sinning, when you sin you are adding the stink and rot of death to what had been clean and alive. When you allow fear to control you, you are enslaving yourself again to sin and its rule which binds you up in its power and leads to spiritual and eternal death.

Into the valley of your dry bones, God calls with the voice of His Son prophesying and preaching the Good News that hope is not lost. Hope is regained in Jesus Christ. He has died for your sins. Come forth from the tomb of sin and spiritual death that your sin may be put to death and you may live in Christ’s resurrection. He has washed you in the blood of Jesus Christ in baptism and has now taken again your sin as you confessed them and are now absolved and forgiven in Jesus Christ’s name. Now as with the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel or at the tomb of Lazarus, God in Jesus Christ has called you by name, and by His Holy Spirit has called you to believe and to have life by that faith in He who has taken your sin in His death and now gives life by that forgiveness and His own resurrection. He has unbound you and loosed you from sin, so that you may live in hope and joy. By His blood and His body given for you in His Word and here in the Sacrament of the Altar, He has caused His flesh to come upon you giving you the flesh, bone, and sinew of one redeemed in Jesus Christ and given the breath of life. Now with each breath in this lifetime, you may pray, rejoice, and give thanks for the immeasurable love which He has shown you. In the midst of sorrow, suffering and trouble, you have a place of solace and comfort. Jesus has been there, He too has grieved and knows the bitterness of death, therefore we can pray for strength. He will hear you for you have heard His voice and continue to be strengthened by His voice here in His Word where He serves you food and drink for your spiritual good which sustains you even in your physical body. He is already preparing you for the resurrection of all flesh. “The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:10-11)

Should you or I or any loved one who had faith in Jesus Christ die according to the body before Jesus Christ returns, know that He will keep the promise of His own resurrection, for He is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Whether we are dead for four days, four years, or four thousand years, Jesus will return and raise us from the dead from the tombs, graves, ashes, and dust, and He will bring us into the true promise land of Holy Israel. There we and all believers shall dwell forever soul and body never to die again. We shall live in limitless joy without measure of time, in the abundance of the glories of our Lord and God who has given us the victory through Jesus Christ who is the resurrection and the life. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

A theological word that seems have entered into the vocabulary of many armchair theologians in this country is the word and concept of “karma”. People talk about instant karma, bad karma, good karma, karma is a blank, et cetera. When most people talk about karma in this way, they are not even talking about the concept of karma as the Eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddhism teach it, as it pertains to reincarnation which, by the way, is also false. Very often they are using karma to describe the thought that there is a causal relationship between what you do or have done and what happens or will happen to you and what you receive as a result in the here and now. In other words, you get what you deserve based on your actions. If you have been bad then some kind of cosmic energy will end up punishing you, if you have done something good, then something good will come back around and help you at some point in time. This karma concept is a false teaching; a false teaching which is not Scriptural and therefore not Christian. The idea behind it, however, is nothing new. In fact, we see the effects of this cruel and false teaching in today’s Gospel text.

“Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” the disciples asked Jesus. There is no question as to why bad things happen to some people in the minds of the disciples or the Pharisees in our text. They had it all figured it out. Bad things happened to people because they deserved it. They believed that God specifically judges people or persons in this life as a result of their specific sin. There may be some truth to the statement that sometimes bad things happen in this life as a direct result of their bad decisions, but it is not consistent and cannot be applied in all cases.

What is true is that ultimately all evil in this world finds its origin in the result of the bad decision of Adam and Eve. By their disobedience, all creation has been subjected to futility and the curse of death brought about by sin. Because of God’s righteous judgment upon sin now there are weeds, earthquakes, floods, droughts, mosquito bites, dog bites, blood, sweat, and tears. There are illnesses, weaknesses, blindness, deafness, birth defects, old age and even death. Much of this cannot be blamed on anyone’s willful sin or decision but is part of this fallen world. However, the evil actions here in life that ought to be restrained and condemned are a direct result of the cruelties of the sinful wicked human heart: unrighteous anger, hate, gossip, hypocrisy, slavery, usury, violence of any kind, war and corruption. Many of the people guilty of such crimes go unpunished in this life, yet many in their wake received much more suffering than their sins would have seemed to deserve. Where is karma in that? I wonder.

The reality is that this life does not show itself to be fair. Whether people want to call it karma or not. The reality is that God will judge and He will avenge, in some cases, here in time, but for sure at the last day. Know that at the last, He will punish evil doers, He will lay waste mountains and hills, even though God allows evil to happen in this world, He restrains it in ways that we do not see. God withholds His righteous wrath more than you, me, and the entire world deserves. It could, in fact, be much worse even as we might think that it could be much better. The fallenness of creation and its futility is used by God as part of His alien work. I am not talking about spaceships and little green men, but the alien work of God is the working of His Law. The Law is at work in creation showing the wrath of God upon sin. This work of the Law has a purpose, it is for people to remember that they are not in charge but should appeal to God for justice and mercy.

You are not God. I am not God. The government is certainly not God. As much as our society wants to live as though they are gods themselves making their own rules and living as they see fit, the fact remains, they are not God, and every so often we are reminded of that when there is an earthquake, a flood, a mudslide, an illness, or a death. The purpose of these works of the Law in creation is to turn people to repentance, to seek out the truth of God’s Word and admit that they are not in control, that they are sinners. It is a wakeup call to realize one’s spiritual condition in light of God’s Law. This leads to repentance and mourning over sin, admitting that one has been spiritually blind as diagnosed by the Law. Only then can the healing of the Gospel take place. That was the lesson within the Gospel lesson for today. The blindness of the man was not a result of his specific sin, nor because he deserved it more than any other man, but “that the works of God might be displayed in him” as Jesus said. These “works of God” are the proper workings of God which Jesus came to reveal and to perform: namely to perform mercy, to show love, to give healing and forgiveness through His Word and in His actions. The healing of the blind man using mud and saliva with the washing of the water at the pool of Siloam pointed to the reality that the greater shame is not physical blindness but spiritual blindness. This blind man was made to see physically, but more importantly, he was made to see Jesus as the Son of Man and Son of God. The Jewish leaders and Pharisees were blinded by their unbelief and in their hypocrisy and cruelty could not see Jesus as anything but a sinner and false teacher because He healed someone on the Sabbath. They did not understand and could not fathom that mercy and not punishment is the proper work of God. To them this mercy was foolishness. Behold the irony that they, the learned teachers of the Law, were shown to be spiritually blind and ignorant and in need of instruction by the witness of the one who had been born physically blind, the one whom they believed was more a sinner than they. What the formerly blind man said to the Pharisees that made them so angry and respond, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” is this: He had said, “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. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

The wonderful reality is that Jesus was from God and was and is God. He came to reveal that there is no such thing as Karma which does not explain evil or mercy. Jesus came to end the blindness of unbelief, to show the true and proper workings of God’s love and mercy despite what humanity deserves. We deserve far worse than blindness, because of sin and rebellion all mankind deserves to be laid waste and sent to hell forever. This alien work of God’s judgment and righteous anger is not His desire for humanity; therefore He sent Jesus to suffer His Father’s wrath as the Son of Man upon the cross of crucifixion. Jesus took what you deserved. He became sin so that you and I might be born again through the washing of water and the Word, that our sins might be crucified through His blood. Now through repentance and faith we have been remade children of the light no more subject to the darkness, no longer blind and scraping about for answers. We have been brought to salvation and to the hope that is in Jesus Christ. We will not receive the full suffering which our sins have deserved. Now through faith, as here in Absolution for Jesus Christ’s sake the Father has declared you guiltless and has declared Himself blind to your past sins and deaf to your former blasphemies. Those sins are now in the past, and in the present, He gives you the power of His Holy Spirit to put to death again your old sinful self as it has been drowned in baptism. You are a new creation in Jesus Christ. You may rejoice in doing good works and by serving Him in your vocation, by being His instrument of witness mercy and love to all around you. When you witness to the love which He has shown you as your speak Law and Gospel to the world, they may indeed persecute you and reject you, you may be tempted to hypocrisy, and you may fall again into sin, but if you lose sight of that which saves, return here. Return to the cross, repent, call out to the master and creator and He will come to your aid. He will restore your spiritual sight and your strength here in the message that again you are forgiven for Jesus Christ’s sake. Come here and receive the body given for you and the blood shed for you. Here He will restore you bodily and spiritually and prepare you for the eternal life which is granted you for Jesus Christ’s sake. You have been blessed with more than you deserve in this life for the sake of Jesus Christ, but the best is yet to come in His resurrection which is also your resurrection in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

In our Gospel text for today, the first words spoken are spoken by Jesus, and He says to a Samaritan woman who came to Jacob’s well, “Give me a drink”. This request is not the same as a child waking up in the night, who is thirsty and wants their parent to bring them something to drink. In fact, nowhere in this chapter are we told that actually Jesus drinks anything, but that is not the point of the text, nor the point of Jesus’ request. Jesus was using this request “Give Me a drink” to begin a dialogue with this woman in order to end up revealing to her and to the rest of the people in town and all the readers in the book or John, that Jesus is the Messiah, the savior of the world.

This account of Jesus and the woman at the well in many ways parallels the text from last week where Nicodemus came to Jesus in chapter 3. Whereas Nicodemus came alone and in secret at night, here the woman comes to the well in public in the daytime. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and member of the temple Sanhedrin or court, he was the most Jewish of Jews with the most perfect understanding of worship at least in Old Testament fulfillment. The woman at the well was a member of a population of mixed Jewish and non-Jewish blood, but more importantly, their worship practice was not proper or correct. The Samaritans denied the necessity of worshipping in Jerusalem and they mingled worship of Yahweh with worship of other gods and idols. Nicodemus approached Jesus, yet Jesus here approached the woman. Nicodemus left Jesus while still confused and told no one, but the woman left Jesus and told the people of the town firm in the belief that Jesus was the Christ. Both texts speak of the working of the Holy Spirit, and both texts reference water, a specific kind of water that does more than regular water because it is has the power of God’s Spirit and God’s Word working through it. So both are teachings on Baptism.

When Jesus first speaks to the woman, she was confused because He was even speaking to her, for indeed that was not the custom for strange men and women to speak to each other, nor especially a Jew to speak to a Samaritan. Immediately, Jesus says to her, “if you had the gift of God which is faith, you would know who was asking you for water, and you would ask Him in turn and He, meaning Jesus, would give unto her living water. She responded much like Nicodemus did last week when Jesus said unto him that he had to be born again or literally from above. He had asked “how can a man go back into his mother be birthed again when he is old?” Even as he knew that Jesus meant something else and this was his way of inquiring, so too the woman asked “how can you give living water, when you don’t have a pail to draw water from this deep well, unless you are saying that you are greater than our father, Jacob.” The answer is of course, yes He is greater than Jacob, in fact He was Jacob’s God and Lord, but she does not understand that yet.

Jesus, referring to the well of Jacob, says “anyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but anyone who drinks of the water that I will give never be thirsty, forever.” In fact, to paraphrase Jesus, this “water of life” once partaken of will well up inside the person and they themselves will become a spring bubbling up to eternal life. The woman says, give me this water/give me a drink so that I will not be thirsty and have to come here to this well. You see, she doesn’t quite understand that He is speaking in Baptismal, spiritual, salvation terms yet.

Jesus invites her to get her husband, she says she has none, and that is because she is living with a man outside of marriage and has been married five times before. Without discussing it further, the woman says I perceive that you are a prophet, and then asks Jesus a question about true worship and location. This was one of the major disputes between the Jews and the Samaritans, going all the way back to just after King Solomon when the northern and Southern kingdoms of Israel were divided as to where to worship. There is a connection between this question about true worship and her husbands and the man she was living with who was not her husband. This kind of living was a sin of a sexual nature, but it also symbolizes the unfaithfulness of all people in their false worship. The Samaritans in their pride in refusing to worship as God mandated which was in Jerusalem, and the people of Israel like Nicodemus who tried to merit salvation by their works. People because of their sinful nature are constantly looking for something to fill the void in their lives caused by their sin. So often, instead of acknowledging their sin, they feed those sinful desires and try to find gods and religions that excuse them in their sin or build up their pride through man made rules and regulations. Maybe some choose worship and music styles that will excite their emotions or in turn only worship those things that appeal to their reason. False religion and false worship of all kinds are unified by this main goal: Justifying and worshipping the self. On the one hand, you have that worship of the desires of the flesh as represented by the woman at the well, or the worship and glorifying of self through the deeds of the law as represented by Nicodemus and the Pharisees.

This is the key to understanding today’s text, proper worship which had been appointed in Jerusalem in the Old Testament is now to be done in spirit and in truth. This has nothing to do with being able to worship God in a general way wherever or however you want. Jesus is saying that to worship the Father properly you must worship by the Spirit and faith through Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life: Jesus Christ.

You and I are not worthy of coming into the Holy presence of the Lord in proper worship. We cannot justify ourselves, nor can we understand His great love, but repenting we are turned by the Holy Spirit to Jesus and what He has done for us. True worship is only done by the Holy Spirit through faith in the Truth of Jesus Christ and the right confession of the truth of who Jesus is. This faith can only be received; it can only be given from above as poured out by the living waters of Baptism and God’s Word. As we partake and receive God gives us His righteousness by the forgiveness of sins. This flows from the rock, Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment of the Rock from which water flowed in our Old testament lesson. Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the world to the rocky hill of Golgotha. He was struck by the power of Moses’ Law on your behalf taking the full force of God’s wrath not only in the striking of the nails through His hands and sides but in the rejection and humiliation from His Father which your sin and mine deserved. But from this rock of our salvation, from His side, flows the instruments of our salvation that paid the price. His precious blood, and the living water which washes away sin and purifies believers. Only by the power of God: the Holy Sprit working through His Word of Truth and the living Waters of Holy Baptism can a person begin to comprehend the love of God in Jesus Christ by faith.

Jesus Christ is the only source of the living waters that save and quench the spiritual thirst caused by our own sin and unbelief. All else is false and temporary. The Holy Spirit opens our hearts and minds to believe and gives us the wisdom to confess Him who is the Way, the truth and the Life. We are able to rely on Him. When we are unfaithful to our bridegroom, Jesus, we become thirsty again for life eternal, thirsty to be restored, in repentance of that sin, coming to Jesus, we say and pray, “Father in heaven, Daddy, give me a drink!” and He does give us a drink. A most perfect drink. He gives us the pure water of His Word. True worship is receiving His gifts as we gather and are served. We are refreshed through His Word in Absolution, in this liturgy, and in the very blood poured out for us the Lord’s supper. This is where we are gathered as baptized children around the cross of Jesus Christ in His Spirit in His Truth. This is where He promises to come and pour His mercies upon us richly. This is where He serves you to save you by the forgiveness of all your sin.

Through these gifts, the waters of life well up in us by God’s power so that we may become springs responding to His truth by confessing and witnessing this truth and Word of Life to those in darkness and unbelief or doubt and heresy. [Point to the cross]. To Jesus who is the source of that true saving, living water. Know that by His Word and sacraments, the Holy Spirit shall refresh you, strengthen you, and bring you through the wilderness of this life safely through faith in Jesus Christ crucified, who has poured out for you the living waters of His own blood, and has risen from the dead that you may have eternal life and come into His presence with thanksgiving. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Have you ever found yourself having a conversation with someone and it seems like the two of you are speaking two different languages? You say one thing, but they think you mean something else. This can lead to all sorts of problems in communication and understanding one another. This may be because you are coming from two different world views. It is the same thing in Spiritual matters and Biblical interpretation. When arguing with a Biblicist or an Atheist there are some things that they will never understand, because there are some things that can only be understood by the power of Holy Spirit revealing it by faith in conjunction with God’s Word.

In our Gospel lesson for today, Nicodemus had a problem understanding what Jesus was talking about when Jesus said, “You must be born again if you want to enter into the kingdom of heaven.” When Nicodemus responded to Jesus, you wonder, did Nicodemus really think that Jesus was saying that a person must truly enter and exit from a women’s womb a second time? Probably not! Nicodemus was one of the highest and most esteemed leaders in all of Jerusalem. This guy was a Pharisee; a group of men whom we know made a life out of keeping—”perfectly”—all 613 rabbinic laws of Torah in addition to the 10 commandments. Not only that, but Nicodemus was an elite member of the Sanhedrin; a group of seventy of the brightest and best within the Jewish system of church and government. On top of that, he was the scribe within this group of 70 very wise men; a position that marked him as master interpreter and scholar of Scripture. In this way, it must be understood that he fully knew what the Scriptures had said about God’s Messiah. He also was well aware of the preaching, teaching, and baptizing of John the Baptist as well as the other miraculous signs that Jesus already had performed in His ministry. Nicodemus was trying to put it all together. However, Jesus didn’t seem to fit what these men had in mind regarding God’s Messiah and Israel’s savior. So what was the problem? The different world view as to salvation. On the one side, the idea that salvation can be earned by pious attempts at fulfilling the works of the Law, or on the other hand: salvation by God’s grace through faith for those who repent knowing that they have fallen short of the Law’s demands.

Recall, Nicodemus was of a group that firmly believed that they were already on the “strait and narrow” in regards to earning salvation. This was a group that was convinced that their bloodline going back to Abraham, coupled with their perfectly keeping of all 613 laws the way they did, was a guarantee to salvation and glory. However, what was John the Baptist’s message? What was Jesus’ message? “Repent and be baptized, for the kingdom of Heaven draws near!” Repentance and baptism; that is, you can’t fulfill the Law. To be saved one must admit that they are a sinner, then confessing one’s sins to God and trusting in the fact that God says He is washing away all sinful filth in the waters of baptism, is what is needed for one to see and recognize the Kingdom of God.

This was a real problem for a man whose whole world view was based on the belief of salvation through genealogy and saving oneself by the keeping of the law. Repentance was not in their vocabulary. Sadly, this continues to be our problem well into the 21st century.

Repentance, baptism, and trusting in the gifts and promises given in baptism are what it means to be truly “born again” by water and the Spirit. This repentance and belief cannot be begun from ourselves because of our sin and our sinful natural pride and desire to do our own thing. Therefore, a person must be “born again”. This being born again must come from above and by God’s power opening our hearts and minds by His Word, water and spirit. You see, the Greek word for “again” (anōthen) also means “from above.” We see this word when we’re told that the temple curtain was torn at the moment of Jesus’ death, torn from top to bottom, from anōthen to bottom. Same exact word that’s used here to speak of birth by water and Spirit. It must come from God.

What Jesus is saying to Nicodemus is that unless you are born from above, you will not see or recognize the reign and rule of God. Jesus is telling him that as smart and respected and revered as he is among his fellow man, he doesn’t get the things of God because he hasn’t been borne from above. His world view must be changed by the Power of the Holy Spirit through water and the Word. True wisdom does not come from man, but from God. That is why Nicodemus didn’t understand the idea of being born from above by Water and the Sprit, he had not yet repented and surrendered all hope of works righteousness. Jesus uses this opportunity to explain the hope that one doesn’t have to rely on themselves; God is the one who gives birth to His people by means of water and the Holy Spirit, by means of Holy Baptism.

It seems pretty clear, Baptism is a gift of God, but many people today often take Baptism and turn it into something that we do to show God how much we’re ready and committed to being a Christian. Have you ever heard someone say that they decided to be conceived and born by their particular parents so they could prove to those nice folks that they were ready and committed to being their child? Of course not! You can’t choose your parents. You can’t choose the state, country, or even a particular time in history in which you will be born.

This is the exact same reality with God and the new birth He gives us from above in our baptisms. Notice: God is the acting agent here. He is the one giving birth to us. He is the one bringing us into His kingdom through the means He has set aside for this spiritual birth; namely, the water and His Spirit working through His Word of promise in Baptism. He is the one who uses the simple means of water and His Word to communicate to us His salvation set forth in Jesus Christ. It is here where our old self is put to death and we are recreated by being baptized into Christ’s death and raised with Him in His resurrection. This is the power of the Holy Spirit that He descends from Heaven and creates the gift of saving faith in the person being baptized by His Word and promise, turning hearts and minds of stubborn ignorance to hearts of repentant faith, no matter how old or young they may be.

Baptism communicates and speaks the cross of Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God, for He was the only one who could keep the law perfectly for an ignorant and dying creation. Why did He do it? “For God so loved the world that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in Him will not perish. Believers will not perish eternally because Jesus could earn salvation through His own suffering and death paying the price for sin. All so that by His Spirit you might be born again from above, so that we, by faith, are able to understand the love of God, so that we can recognize when we have failed and come and confess our sins and receive absolution and forgiveness and be born from above again and our baptismal grace renewed in Christ. Yes, you were and are a sinner, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Justified and made heirs of eternal life by faith, not by works.

Though in our flesh we only recognize selfishness, laws, threats, war, and terror, the Lord speaks to us another language in Jesus Christ. He changes our “world view” and speaks His vocabulary of love, peace, and hope, of your rebirth from above by His power and strength, by pointing you to that cross of Christ, in the hearing of God’s Word, in the gathering together of His people to receive His gifts. Here through the very presence of Jesus Christ, He speaks comfort and forgiveness to our bodies and minds. In the feast of simple bread and wine, we have the reality of Christ’s body and blood given into death, shed for our sin, but raised from the dead victorious for our salvation. In this miracle we are given a foretaste of the victory feast that is yet to come and is already taking place.

Many times we, like Abraham must walk by faith and not by sight. Know that by His Holy Spirit working through His Word, His Water, His Church, He shall bring us to that land and inheritance which Christ has earned for us.

This is also why we observe the Lenten season. We take this special time to be built up by God. To become immersed in the language of repentance, baptism, and the cross of Jesus Christ. So that we do not lose heart, so that we are so steeped in His language, we can recognize the lies of the devil, the world, and our own flesh, and not be separated from God by them

By virtue of your baptism, and being brought to the cross you are constantly being made and remade in His image by His Spirit. Though you may live through sorrows, trials, and triumphs in this life, you have been born from above by the Holy Spirit and are more than conquerors in Jesus Christ. Today He speaks to you that victory by the forgiveness of your sins, by His grace through faith. Believe and be comforted and filled with His joy as His child. And on the last day, Jesus Christ shall descend a last time. Then all believers shall be raised and born again from above in all understanding, forever to live with Him in God’s Land of promise, in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

The Gospel text for today begins even as Jesus had just stepped from the waters of the Jordan. His hair still wet from the baptism He had received from John the Baptizer and His ears ringing with the words of His Father, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased”. Immediately the same Spirit of God who had descended upon Him, led Jesus away out further into the wilderness to do battle. This battle pitted Jesus against the devil. The same devil who in the guise of the serpent tempted the first Adam and His wife in the garden. He won that battle, therefore, he thought he had a pretty fair chance against this “new Adam”.

The Father had said, “This is My beloved Son, whom I love, with Him I am well pleased.” But after 40 days and 40 nights leaving Jesus hungry and His body very weak, then the devil came to tempt Him and say, “Well, if your Father loves you and is well pleased with you, why has He not given you something to fill your empty belly? Has He abandoned you? Why not help yourself? If you are the Son of God, would it be so wrong to make for yourself some bread from these stones?” But Jesus answered this vile tempter trying to plant seeds of doubt not with any argument but with the Word of God. Jesus said, “It is written, ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God,'”. And the word that had proceeded from the mouth of God was this: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” The temptation was not simply to turn rocks into food; Satan lured Jesus to turn from the trustworthy words of His Father to the fickle feelings of the human heart. Instead of turning stones into bread, Christ stuffed the stone of His Father’s Word into the devil’s open, tempting mouth.

That same satanic mouth has whispered such doubting thoughts into your heart while you were weak and suffering. At your baptism, the Father had also said to you, “You are my son or daughter, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” But according to the flesh, it doesn’t always seem so, does it? When the bills pile up, have you wondered what use is the Father’s rich grace if you haven’t money to pay what you owe? If you are so loved by Him, why did He allow you to be injured, to become ill, to be widowed or divorced, to spend hour upon hour in pain or misery or heartache or loneliness, failure or persecution? If God is good, why is my life so bad? Beware, this is the devil using your flesh to tempt you to despair and unbelief.

As it was with Jesus, so it is with you. Satan is luring you to turn from the trustworthy solid words of your Father to the fickle feelings of your human heart. Do not trust yourself; trust your Father. The crosses, sufferings, and pains in this life are the result of sin in this world and no less than we deserve because of our sin. But know that your beloved Father has not and will not forsake you. In fact, He is using these troubles for your good. In love, He is bringing you, cross by cross, suffering by suffering, beyond the tempter’s power into conformity with His beloved Son, and finally, to the glory of the resurrection.

In the next temptation, the Devil attacked the assurance of God’s Word by misusing Scripture. “If you really are the precious Son of God, surely He will save you and do anything to protect you. Does it not say, He will command his angels concerning you?” But the devil omitted the words “in all your ways” as it says in the Psalms. The Father had not commanded Jesus to throw Himself down, so to do so would have been to “walk in a way outside God’s Word and command.” This really was a temptation to abandon the Lord’s clear Word. With this same temptation to abandon God’s clear Word the devil has shattered the outward unity of the Church into thousands of sectarian fragments. Men and women, walking not in the clear way of God’s Word but in their own muddled emotions and opinions, have jumped from the pinnacle of truth and struck their feet upon the stone of heresy. The only solution is as Jesus said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” instead inscribe the Word of God to your hearts and minds, that the words of the tempter, the world and our flesh might be deflected by the power of that Word of truth.

The last recorded temptation has the devil holding earthly prosperity and delight before Jesus. The devil knew that Jesus also knew that greater sufferings awaited Him if He followed His Father’s will. Therefore, the devil tempted Him with the easy way out. “Jesus, you who claim to be God’s Son are not worthy of this miserable life; see the riches, view the honor, covet the glory I would bestow upon you! All, yes, all this and more I will give if only you will get on your knees before me.” But our Lord came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many, as a ransom for you. And if He came not to be served, certainly He came not to pursue wealth, fame, and glory. He came to fear, love, and trust in God above all things, and in His obedience fulfills the law for you. So He said, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”

In this battle in the wilderness, Jesus was showing that He came to reverse the results of that first battle between Satan and Adam. The first battle took place in the lush garden of paradise where the first and well fed Adam was defeated by slick words of the tempter and forced to leave. But in the wasteland of the Judean wilderness, Jesus, as the new Adam in place of Adam and all his descendants, He who was bodily weakened by fasting, defeated the temptations of the devil by resisting temptation: living instead by the Word of God. Jesus kept the whole Law, served His Father, and served His neighbor even to the point of taking the punishment which all sinful descendants of Adam deserved. Jesus was anointed to bear the sin of the world, and then be crucified taking also the curse of that sin upon Himself. All to grant forgiveness to those who repent and believe, to destroy the power of Satan to accuse those who have been redeemed and have been recreated through faith. Therefore, as you have been baptized into Christ, you too have been baptized into His death and His resurrection. You are a new creation created in Christ Jesus to walk in newness of His life. He fought Satan and won so that paradise might be restored for you and for all believers in Him.  

When you fall prey to the whispering temptations of Satan and sin again, when you are tempted to doubt and not believe, flee to the One who has already defeated Satan for you. Repent and return to Him. Leave the old Adam with his death and come to the new Adam with all His life. He will again receive and embrace you as His very own. He who was tempted for you is never tempted to turn you away. As you confess your sins, He points you again to His cross, to His empty tomb, and to your baptism even as I in the stead of Christ say; “I forgive you your sins in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Through this Word of truth you are restored to the promise of sonship in your baptism when the Father declared, “you are my beloved son, my daughter.”

By faith, Jesus Christ the Word made flesh now lives in you. You are led by His Holy Spirit to live by every Word that comes from the mouth of God in the hearing of His Word and in the receiving of His sacraments. By His grace and power, you can remain in His ways, walking in His path able to rebuke the devil, the world, and even your own flesh. He gives you courage and strength even when the wilderness suffering of this life seems to be pressing you from all sides. Do not despair or give up hope. Whatever you do, do not take a fast from God’s Word, for there is the bread of life that sustains you during such times. Satan wants you to take the easy way of the world to pry you from the Father’s grasp, but rebuke Him, “Begone, Satan!” Pray and fast from the things that this world prioritizes. Instead, fill yourself with God’s Word. Come to Bible Class, come to the extra opportunities to hear His Word during this Lenten season during the Midweek services. Come and be served by the One who came to this earth not to be served but to serve. Jesus will continue to inscribe His name and His Word upon you so that nothing can separate you from His love. He promises to feed you with the true bread of His body and quench your thirst with His blood in the wine. Here you are able to see a glimpse into the future, to see paradise regained. You do not need to go spiritually hungry ever again.

As St. Paul says: “those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:17) Therefore, you are able to live this life as victors in Christ. By His Spirit you are able to love and serve your neighbor and deliver this message of Christ to others so that they too may be rescued from falsehood and damnation. We have been freed from the tyranny of the tempter, but lest we fall back into the habits of our old Adam let us pray to our Father in heaven: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil One. Instead, lead us unto the One who has conquered the tempter for us: Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas