In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

We know the kind of suffering, injury, or even death that can be brought on by things that hit each other head on: cars … trains … plains … not pleasant stuff. In today’s Gospel, however, we hear about Christ’s head-on collision with death … which instead resulted in the end of suffering and death.

Christ’s disciples and a great multitude were following Him as they came upon the little town of Nain. Jesus had been doing a variety of miraculous things by His divine power and the multitude had heard and seen the reality of His miraculous works first-hand … no doubt filling them with wonder and joyful excitement.

But as they approached Nain they met another multitude: one that was not feeling joyful or excited. This group of people was a funeral procession, and they were walking towards a cemetery that was outside the city. The body of a young man was being carried on a bier and the young man’s widowed mother … now grieving the death of her son … was close behind. Jesus could have easily led His disciples and the crowd that was with Him around the funeral procession and into the city. But instead, He walked directly up to the young man’s lifeless body and spoke life into Him by the power of His divine Word. Jesus Hit death head-on.

God didn’t intend death for us. “He is not a God of the dead, but of the living” (Mark 12:27), as Scripture says. Death was not a part of how He created us. It was God’s intention that we live with Him in perfect communion for eternity. Our bodies weren’t supposed to suffer with pain, sickness, and death. But our first parents succumbed to temptation … brought sin into the world … corrupting God’s perfect creation and breaking that perfect communion between God and man. Now, faced with the consequences of sin, we spend our lives trying to avoid death because we inherently know that it’s not how we were created to be and that it isn’t really the natural thing we often pretend it is.

We avoid death because it’s contrary to our very being. We try to avoid it by exercise, healthy eating, and supplements. We even try and cover up the reality of aging and death with makeup and plastic surgery.

While we try to deny it … and desensitize ourselves to it … we’re actually quite afraid of death. What makes terrifying movies terrifying to us? It’s the pain, and suffering, and death that deep down we know is the horrible result of our sinful rebellion against our Creator. And we are terrified by it … and fight against it … because we know that death eventually comes for all of us, and we really have no control over when that will be.

The reality of death also has a tendency to encourage the sins of anger and doubt to fester within us. It causes us to question God’s wisdom and to blame Him for our troubles. And Satan is thrilled when he sees you filled with anger and doubt toward God because it’s at those times when you’re most vulnerable to his destructive assaults on your faith.

But we don’t face suffering and death alone. Jesus – who has power over life and death – collided with death head-on for us. As He said in His Good Shepherd Discourse, “I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 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.” (Jn 10:17-18). Christ doesn’t fear death like we do … because He has power over it.

So, Jesus approached the lifeless young man without any fear. He stretched out His almighty hand, and said “young man I say to you arise” and the young man was restored to life by Christ’s authoritative Word. Jesus confronted death head-on and brought an end to the mourners’ sadness and despair.

We have all experienced grief over the death of a loved one. So, know that Jesus has compassion on you like He had compassion on that widow. Jesus knew how much pain and suffering she had endured … the death of her husband … and now the death of her only son. Jesus not only knows our grief and suffering, but it also makes Him ache with compassion in His innermost parts as the Greek text conveys. That’s why He comforted the widow saying, “Do not weep.” And it wasn’t an idle attempt at comfort because Jesus – the incarnate Word of God – has authority over life and death.

Friends and family will often try to comfort us when we’ve experienced a significant loss or tragedy. And although they mean well, we know that their words don’t have any real power behind them to change things and put them right. But that’s not how Christ works. When Christ says, “do not weep” He actually gives you a reason not to weep.

When you’re confronted by the reality of your sin and the reality that death is the wages of sin, then know that Christ has already given you a reason not to weep. He has already conquered death for you by His own resurrection from the dead. Christ bore the cross for you and by His innocent and willing suffering and death He has redeemed you from all your sins – including those of doubt and anger – and reconciled you to the Father.

Jesus knows the pain and sorrow in your life – all of which is the result of sin – and He has compassion on you. By taking on our human flesh He experienced every pain and sorrow that we do in this broken world. And though Himself sinless, He bore the weight of your sin in His own body with each lash and each nail.

He went to the cross and paid the full redemption price for your sins by dying for them as the perfect sacrifice since, as Scripture says, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb 9:22).

Christ hit death head-on in order to conquer death for you: even descending into hell to proclaim His victory over sin death and the devil. And rising again to prove that His holy life and sacrificial death was a sufficient payment to God the Father for the sins of the world … for your sins.

And Christ is still with us, speaking His life into us by His divine Word as He spoke life into the young man of Nain.

In this historical account from St. Luke’s Gospel, the young man’s temporal life was restored. Because sin and death entered and remain a part of this world, though, he eventually died again. But the life that’s been created in you by the power of Christ’s Word is eternal. All those whose deaths we grieve but who died in the faith are not dead but are alive in the presence of Christ their Savior, as will you … by His grace and mercy.

St. Paul writes, “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” (Rom 6:4). This newness of life is ours even now by baptism and faith. And it continues on for the faithful … even after our bodies of sin are long-since committed to the earth. In Christ you are a new creation and have the assurance that because Christ lives you also will live … eternally.

In baptism you died to sin and have risen from death to life with Christ. Jesus has performed a life-giving miracle in all of you who are baptized into His death and resurrection. Christ spoke His life-giving Word into you and your spiritually dead heart was awakened to a new life of faith. This washing of regeneration, as St. Titus calls baptism, has created and new heart in you and renewed a right Spirit within you.

And these Words of forgiveness and restoration to communion with God continue to come to you daily when you repent of your sins and receive His holy absolution. In Christ’s Word and Sacraments, He has given you the means to believe in Him … and the means to have your faith strengthened as you confront the reality of death.

We will all have to face death until Christ returns on the Last Day, but we need not fear it. In Christ your temporal death is but an entrance to eternal life. Jesus 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” (Jn 11:25–26).

Christ confronted death head-on and destroyed it for you. And when He comes again, He’ll speak His almighty Word and your already glorified soul will be reunited with your mortal body … so that you’ll become glorified in both body and soul. And until that time, I say to you along with St. Paul: “[God] grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Pr. Jon Holst

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

What great readings from the Word of God today. The widow of Zarephath was about to bake her last amount of flour so herself and her son could eat it and die. Imagine having no hope. That all was spent. No resources left no other place to turn that her only choice was to use what was left and then her and her son would perish. She has thrown in the towel. Then Elijah tells her to bring him something to drink and bake him some bread. What does the widow do? She tells Elijah everything and He tells her
“Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.'”

Then you hear what Jesus has to say in Matt. about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. The birds do not feed themselves, they do not store up food, nor do they plant it waiting for their harvest. The lilies do not toil or work to make their beauty, but it is given to them by God. What is Christ telling you? Do not be anxious. O you of little faith?
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
Do not be anxious about how much money you are bringing in, how many members you have, how long you will stay open. This is my last time with you for a while and it’s good that God gives you this gospel on this day. He tells you “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Do not misinterpret this as to wantonly spend your time and money on selfish things, because everything is futile. That is not at all what God is saying here. If the focus is on “Well I only live once so I better get mine as much as I can while I am here. Then you are serving mammon verses serving God because you cannot serve two masters. Nor does it mean that you can sit back and do nothing treating God as your butler to only serve you and your needs. This is definitely not what God is saying.

What do the birds and lilies do? What did the widow do? They trusted in God. The widow hopeless hears the Word of God through Elijah and does as commanded. She who thought she was about to die is given hope through God and what does she do takes what she has left and uses it for God. This faith this widow had is similar to that of Abraham. It is similar to the birds of the air. The birds have faith that they will be fed tomorrow and the next. This is why they do not store up. They have faith that their meal will come.

Good Shepherd Yucaipa. Do not worry about tomorrow. Focus on today. How can you serve your neighbor today? How can you show love to those around you today? How can you avoid sin and do His will today? Restore each other in gentleness, keep watch over yourself and bare each others burdens. Care for each other, forgive each other, love each other. Keep in the Spirit. Seek first the kingdom of God!

Focus on His Word today, focus on what Christ has done for you, focus on the sacrifice He made in your stead so that you can be free. Focus on your baptism, the washing you have received, the forgiveness you have been given, the grace and the love that has been poured out upon you. Focus on Christ. Just as the birds trust in their food today. Just as the lilies are dressed. Just as the widow trusted her remaining flour to Elijah. Trust in the Lord.

Why do you not need to worry about tomorrow? You don’t have to worry about tomorrow because God values you! He sent His only Son to this world so that the sin of the world would be placed on Him so that He could pay for it through His sacrifice of dying on the cross. His victory is in the resurrection solidifying the defeat over sin, death and the devil. This is why you do not need to worry about tomorrow because you have His grace today. You have it right now. Yes Good Shepherd you do have your worries about the future, but remember who has you and who’s you are. You are God’s people. You have been brought into His family by Him. He put His name upon you and you are His child.
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Good Shepherd Yucaipa remember your name. He, Christ, is your Good Shepherd and you are His flock. He is the one that will lead you to lie down in green pastures and beside still waters. Even when you are in the valley of the shadow of death you do not have to fear evil because He is with you. He prepares a table before you here at the altar you get His very body and blood and this happens in the presence of your enemies this includes your fear your doubts, satan and this world; He anoints your head with oil you are pronounced holy and chosen because He has mad you His people; your cup overflows. Do you not have a super abundance of grace that comes from His nail pierced hands. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life because He is with you He has given you His Spirit to be your advocate, and you shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever because you have already died in your baptism and made a new creation in Christ.

You are not the birds of the air and you are not the lilies of the field. You are God’s children. Yes He gives you everything you have: your life, your health, your wealth, your home, your family, your clothing. This is important, but also know that He feeds you with His very body and blood. He gives you the bread of life. The food that takes away all hunger and thirst. He gives you His Word, the precious Gospel that gives you hope and peace. He clothes you. He robes you in His righteousness. He has cleansed you and purged you with hyssop so that you are whiter than snow. His blood has washed your sins away and His righteousness through His all availing sacrifice has put upon you and your raiment is more beautiful than any field of flowers. It is more lovelier than the rainbow because it pronounces you saved eternally.

Good Shepherd no matter what the future holds here on this side of heaven, here at this physical location. Do not be anxious! You are the sheep of the Good Shepherd, you are the children of God. He will never leave you nor forsake you. His Word is the promise that you can cling to today and hope in tomorrow because you know that you are His. He cares for you, He loves you. He died for you so that you can be with Him forever.
Just like the widow of Zarephath. The Word of God gave her hope where she had none. She had faith to do what needed to be done today because God would take care of her tomorrow, the next day, the day after that unto eternity. You too Good Shepherd have that same guarantee. You have the peace that surpasses all understanding. You have the hope that this world does not have. You have Christ, He is pronounced here in the Word and He comes to you in the Sacraments. He is with you today, tomorrow and forever. You are a blessed people. He has done this for you so that you can rejoice in Him today and look forward to tomorrow.

It truly has been a blessing to be here with you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

SDG

Pr. Daniel Holm

Matt 6
24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

1 Kings 17
8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.'” And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

Galatians 5
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Ch. 6
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.
Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Have you ever stained your clothes? I have a notorious habit of spilling food on myself. It doesn’t matter how careful I am I somehow get something on my clothes. Usually it is food sometimes it is paint, sometimes oil from cooking, but it is all attracted to my clothes. Now if I don’t see that stain or choose to ignore it, the stain might come out a little bit or fade over time, but it never goes away. The only way to remove a stain is by bringing something to it that can remove it. Apparently, I am not the only one because there are advertisements for tide pens, spray and wash, and detergents that get out even the toughest stains.

Sin is mankind’s stain. You were born with it Psalm 51:5 and the longer you live the more you keep making it worse. The problem is that there is nothing you can do to remove it. There is no amount of washing, no amount of good deeds that will remove sin from you. You are unclean, you are stained, you are a sinner.

These 10 lepers in the gospel reading had the physical effects of sin showing for everyone to see. They were cast out away from the town not able to mix in with society because of their uncleanness. Those of us who show wrinkles, have graying hair, have scars, and have no hair also show the visible signs of sin. These are signs of death, that mankind is no longer immortal because of sin. Some of you may not have the outward signs of sin, but are just as much infected. You too are in the same boat as these lepers. In sin, you are outcast from the presence of God.

Then Jesus comes, the man who is born without sin, heading toward Jerusalem. What is the significance of going to Jerusalem? Is this just some regular trip? No, Jesus heads to Jerusalem for these very 10 lepers. He heads to Jerusalem for all mankind. He heads to Jerusalem to finally remove the stain of sin that has plagued mankind since Adam. This for you, the catechumen, the one who is receiving training in doctrine and discipline. It is for you to understand the miracle in light of Christ’s sacrifice.

In the Gospel, the 10 lepers shout “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” The unclean are asking for mercy. They see their plight and know that they cannot enter back into civilization or life without being clean. They call on Jesus to have mercy on their situation. Hopefully, this too reminds you of our liturgy. What is it that we ask for before we start the divine service? There is confession and absolution. Here you ask for mercy. You cry out to Christ just as these 10 lepers did. You confess your uncleanness to Him. These 10 lepers see Christ and see a way to be healed. They have hope, they have hope in Christ that He will be able to do something for them that they cannot do for themselves. You also as you came this week burdened down by your sin look to Christ because He is the one, the only one who can remove that burden from you.

Jesus sees the lepers. He sees them in their state. He sees them as the unclean outcasts, but He also sees them as they were meant to be. He too sees you with your sin. He sees you and has compassion on you. He sees you for what you are meant to be and wants to make it right. This is why Christ was going to Jerusalem, this was why Christ was going to the cross. He sees you and He knows you.

So what does Jesus do? Jesus responds to the lepers. He responds with a command. He tells them to go. He tells them to show themselves to the priests. This command accomplishes a couple of things. First, it shows that Christ is in complete agreement with the OT law. He, Christ fulfills it perfectly.
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. So telling the lepers to go see the priests and offer a sacrifice was pointing to how you would be clean. That Christ as He heads to Jerusalem is going to be that sacrifice. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Lastly, the lepers going to the priests is also to announce the One who does make the unclean clean is here. The Messiah has come. The Savior of the world is here.

A parallel for you is after you come to church to make your confessoin and receive absolution what do you start. The divine service. Before, confession and absolution was done before Sunday so that as you go to His divine service, you go clean, you go forgiven. Just as the lepers are told to go to the priests you go to His divine service. They went to hear God’s Word and to make the sacrifice for what Christ had done for them. Here you hear His Word and you are reminded of the sacrifice that Christ made for you so that you know you are clean.

Now in the Gospel reading this is very important. One of the lepers sees that they are clean, and instead of continuing on to see the priests he turns back praising God and fell at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks. This man falling at Christ’s feet is a sign of worship. This now cleaned leper recognizes Who is there. He recognizes that Christ is Lord. For thanks was to be given to God, and this man recognized that God was no longer in the temple but here in the man Jesus Christ. He understands that Jesus Christ, God, Emmanuel, is with us. This is where true worship happens. Where do you run to when you are healed? Where do you run to when you are forgiven? The divine service! This is where Jesus is! Here He is in His flesh and blood in the Lord’s Supper. What do you do when He comes to you in His flesh and blood? You give thanks! The nunc dimittis! You give thanks because you know this is where Christ is and He has made you the unclean clean with His blood.

The Gospel is amazing because not only does one leper come back, but the man who comes back is a Samaritan. The significance of this man being a Samaritan and being made clean is very important. Remember where Christ is going? He is heading to Jerusalem. Is He heading their just for the jews? No, Christ is heading to Jerusalem for the Samaritan. He is heading there for the gentile and He is heading there for you. He goes to Jerusalem just like the Gospel shows to heal not just the Jews, but everyone. His healing is for the whole world. His sacrifice covers all people and all nations. Here letting the hearer know that the one who turns back is a Samaritan shows that the Gospel, the Good News is for all men. It is for those that think they are not good enough to receive grace. It is for those who think they can never be loved. Christ loves them, Christ died for them too. Christ is the only one who can make the unclean into the clean. He takes the foreigner, He takes the leper, He takes the sinner and through His death and resurrection makes them children of the Most High God.

The Gospel isn’t over because Christ after the man comes to give thanks to Christ asks the man three questions. “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except the foreigner?” These questions show what is to happen to the Jews. The chosen people reject Christ not seeing Him for who He is and it is the foreigners that benefit from it. It is you and me the Gentiles who now praise Him because His sacrifice was for all. Also, here in Christ’s questioning of the Samaritan He states that He is God. Jesus says “give praise to God” This is to show that Christ is the 2nd person of the Godhead. That He is declaring His divinity while taking on humanity.

Lastly, God tells the healed Samaritan leper “Rise and go your way, your faith has made you well.” Rise and go… you too after the Lord’s Supper pray that as you leave this place that you go with faith in Him and fervent love toward one another. You can leave here in hope and peace. You can continue on your trek through the wilderness knowing that God is with you, that God abides with you. You can go in faith that God has made you clean and in turn can share that with your neighbor knowing with full confidence that He is with you and He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Christ also says “Your faith has made you well.” The Samaritan’s faith was in Christ, the God/man, that He the Messiah, the Savior is here. His faith was in the fact that he could not save Himself, but only Christ was the one who could do it. This is what you have faith in. This is why you are here today because you know that is He and He alone that can take your burden, that can take your sin and separate it from you as far as the east is from the west. He alone is the Way in which you can be cleaned. He alone is the how you can receive new life. He alone is the truth that by His sacrifice you have been healed. Your faith is in Christ, He alone is what your faith is built upon and it cannot be shaken.

SDG

Pr. Daniel Holm

Luke 17
11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Prov 4
10 Hear, my son, and accept my words,
that the years of your life may be many.
I have taught you the way of wisdom;
I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
When you walk, your step will not be hampered,
and if you run, you will not stumble.
Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
guard her, for she is your life.
Do not enter the path of the wicked,
and do not walk in the way of the evil.
Avoid it; do not go on it;
turn away from it and pass on.
For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;
they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know over what they stumble.

My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.

Gal 5
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Gospel for this 13th Sunday after Trinity begins with Jesus’ statement about how everything the disciples had seen was what the prophets and kings of old wanted to see, but didn’t get to – that is, they didn’t get to see the ultimate fulfillment of God’s saving work for fallen humanity. Then comes Christ’s account of a lawyer – a teacher of God’s Law – who was trying to catch Jesus in a theological error: putting Him “to the test”. The lawyer realized that he’d just walked into his own trap and tried to free himself by asking Jesus to tell him just who his neighbor is, and Christ’s response was the parable of the Good Samaritan.

One aspect of this conversation is that of our responsibility. All of us are responsible before God. Jesus sums up the entirety of God’s Law for us in two simple commands – “Love God” and “Love your neighbor.”

Jesus then goes on to give us a crystal-clear definition of who our neighbor is and what it means to be a neighbor, so that none of us have any excuse or means of hiding from our responsibility under God’s Law.

We can’t escape God’s Law. It’s true for eternity, and it’s the duty of all people: even us Christians. The Law is God’s will and it’s His will that we should live according to it. And the Law demands love: love for God from the depths of our inmost being, and love for our neighbors that equals our love for ourselves. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind” (Lk 10:27).

It’s God’s will that we love Him. We should love God with our emotions: regulating our feelings in accord with a sincere love for Him. We should love God with our wills: regulating all our desires in accord with our love for Him. We should love God with all our strength, that is, our actions and deeds: doing the things that God calls us to do, and not doing anything that is contrary to God’s will. And we should love God with our minds, that is to say, we are to use our reason and intellect to grow in the knowledge and wisdom of God and to turn from all that is evil: regulating the use of our minds toward loving God in thought, word, and deed more and more throughout our earthly days.

But all that we should do, we repeatedly fail to do. The specifics of that are unique for each of us, but it’s true for us all that unholy thoughts enter our minds, unholy words come from our mouths, and unholy actions are done with our bodies. We are sinful and naturally love our selves, our comforts, our desires, and our personal feelings much more than we love God and our neighbors. This is the hard truth of who we are. And it should cause each and every one of us to reflect on how we have not loved God and our neighbor – and to repent: acknowledging our wrongdoings and laying our sins at the foot of the cross where Christ’s blood was shed to atone for them all.

Jesus spoke clearly about loving God and loving one’s neighbor to the lawyer and the lawyer knew his sin – he knew his failings – just as each of us does. Yet he still tried a last ditch effort to justify himself by some crafty word-play, asking “who is my neighbor?”

It’s to this question that Christ teaches the lawyer and us with the parable of the Good Samaritan.
A priest and a Levite – brothers in the faith and in the household of Israel with the wounded man – leave that wounded man to die. These are good, religious men, but they take care of themselves and avoid their brother-in-need on the side of the road.

The only one who is decent to the man is a Samaritan. Now, the Samaritan’s were non-Jews, living in Jewish lands and worshiping God, but not in the temple in Jerusalem and not according to the ceremonial laws of Judah. So, the Samaritans were hated by the Jews for who they were and where they lived.

So, it’s a striking feature of Christ’s parable that one of these hated Samaritans stopped to help a Jew, when none of the good, religious Jews would. And not only did he help, but he went out of his way and spent his own hard-earned money on the man. The Samaritan showed the kind of decency that we’d hope to find in someone if we were in such a desperate situation.

Then Jesus asked, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” (Lk 10:36). When the Lawyer was forced to admit that this Samaritan was the sort of fellow that we should all be, Jesus told him to “go and do likewise.” In saying that, Jesus gave us a comprehensive definition to the word ‘neighbor’ and what it means in God’s eyes to be a neighbor to someone.

There is no getting out of it. We’re commanded to love God to such a degree and in such ways as are beyond our ability as selfish, sinful people. And then we’re told to love our neighbor, that is, anyone who has need of us or whom God gives us the opportunity to serve.

How can we bear all of that with what we know about ourselves … about how selfish and unloving we really are?
The answer is this: we, like the disciples, have seen things no one else has seen and we have heard things that no one else has heard, namely, we have heard the fullness of the Gospel. The saving truth that God loves us to such a degree that He’s given us His Son. Christ died for us, precisely because we cannot love God the way that we should … because we are selfish to the core and don’t love our neighbors nearly as well as we should. But Christ does love God and neighbor perfectly, and because He died to pay the penalty for our sins, we are forgiven in Him.

Of course, the Law of God still applies to us. God’s ‘yes’ is still God’s ‘yes’ and God’s ‘no’ is still God’s ‘no’. Right is still right and wrong is still wrong, and as the people of God – who’ve been given the gift of the Holy Spirit by baptism and faith – we now want to do what is right and good and holy. You are baptized into Christ, you’re the adopted children of God. When sin beats you down and causes you to stumble, Christ – the Good Samaritan – is there to bind our wounds, forgive our sins, and strengthen us with His means of grace in the inn of His Holy Church. Our salvation and our love for God and neighbor depends entirely on Christ, and what He has done: His holiness – for us. Healed and strengthened by His saving gifts we are freed to pursue loving God as He ought to be loved, and loving our neighbors the way they ought to be loved.
And pursue these we must. There is no doing away with the command and will of God. But there’s also no doing away with the love of God which is ours in Christ.

Are we always the sort of people that God want’s us to be? Not even close. Is that a good excuse? Should that prevent us from striving for godly lives – with the help of the Holy Spirit – in order to be more of what we should be? St. Paul says something about this in our Epistle Reading: “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law” (Gal 3:21).

So the Law – those 10 Commandments we all learned – is God’s will, it’s just that we cannot make ourselves righteous before God by keeping them. We’re not justified by works of the Law.

But there’s more to God’s will – the Gospel (what St. Paul calls God’s promise) – for God also wills to forgive us and save us from our repeated breaking of His commands. We, who fall so far short of loving God and neighbor as we should, are rescued, saved, forgiven, and welcomed into the very household of God, on account of Christ and His innocent suffering and death: the fulfillment and perfection of all of God’s saving work that the Old Testament promised and pointed forward to as St. Paul says: “But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (Gal 3:22): a promise that is given to you, even now, as Christ the Good Samaritan restores you and gives you new life – eternal life – by the saving medicine of His Word and Sacraments.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Pr. Jon Holst

Have you ever said to or thought about a person “Are you deaf?” to someone who can hear? What was the point of saying that? Is it because they could not hear you? Is it because they would not hear you? I have also heard the phrase “You hear what you want to hear.” or “You never listen.” I have even heard the phrase “You have selective hearing.” In these cases these people are hearing what’s being said, but are choosing not to listen either because they don’t want to hear what is being said or they don’t like what is being said. Many people hear the Word of God and it seems like it goes in one ear and out the other. Or they hear the Word of God and it makes them angry. These people still have their ears blocked from knowing the truth. They do not have a choice. Just like you once were, they are dead in sin so they cannot hear anything, say anything, see anything when it comes to confessing and believing in Christ.

The Word of God convicts the sinner, but at the same time gives relief and forgiveness through the message of Christ’s death and resurrection. The conviction of sin and the message of forgiveness is only understood by the Holy Spirit. Scripture says
None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

Those that do not understand, those that are angry, their ears are closed to the truth. They don’t get to decide what they hear, they don’t have a choice, but are spiritually deaf to what the truth is. It is only until Christ through the Holy Spirit opens the ears of the hearer do they now hear what scripture says.

In the Gospel the man they brought to Jesus was deaf both physically and spiritually. This is an in your face reminder of sin. Your wrinkles, your aches, your pains, your flaws even death all are physical reminders of your sin. Even the weather is a reminder of sin. The seasons show death. This hot weather that burns your skin and gives you cancer a reminder of sin. With this man the effects of sin show what happens to mankind. You are deaf to the Word of God, you cannot speak clearly because sin has blocked your tongue. What you hear in sin is only your own desires, the temptations of the world and the temptations of satan and the demons. Just the same with your tongue, you only speak in half truths. “Love is love” and “My body my choice” and “Coexist” all sound good, to the fallen world but when the truth is known you know that these are far from it, but are rooted in human selfishness.

To those who have their eyes opened, their ears opened, their mouth opened. Seeing and hearing the effects of sin becomes in your face. You see what sin has wrought. You see the effects it has had on people, it has had on society, it has on the world, it has had on the environment. When you see all of the effects of sin, you cry out for God to save you from it because it is overwhelming. However, do not look to others and their impairments or faults and and ask who sinned, this man or his parents? What all the fallen state of this world and mankind does is point to Christ. That a savior is needed! That the works of God might be displayed in it.
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

The men brought this deaf and speech impaired man to Christ because they knew that this man could do nothing for himself. He could not relieve himself of his deafness and could not work out his speech. He needed someone outside of himself to relieve him of his condition. The men had heard what Christ had done. They heard the miracles Christ could do. The men believed and the man that Christ was the man that could do this. Christ did indeed do that very thing. Christ could have just said a word and healed this man, but Christ took this man aside and made it very personal. He took this deaf, speech impaired man and put his fingers in his ears, and touched his tongue. Looked up to heaven and said “Ephphatha” “Be opened”. This man who knew no sound, who heard no words now could hear. He could speak plainly.

The imagery of this this man’s healing reminds me of the opened tomb. Christ came down and touched humanity. He became man, born of a virgin. He made his salvation for the world personal. He took on the world’s sin and went to the cross. He saw that you were deaf and that you were blind and He came to open your ears, open your eyes so that you could speak plainly. His words “It is finished” are what opened heaven up to us. The opened tomb lets you know that sin, death, and the devil no longer rule over you, but you have been freed from them.

What did the man do after he was healed? He spoke plainly. What is your response when you are forgiven? What is your response to hearing the Word of God? You do it in the liturgy all the time. It is to confess Christ as Lord and give thanks! This is speaking plainly. This is the language of the Christian. Your speech is a response to your healing. It is a response to you being made alive in Christ. He has healed you. You are made pure and perfect in His blood! Knowing this joy this grace your response is plain. It is gratefulness for having a God that you can call Father, a God that loves you unconditionally.

Yes, this deaf man was healed. Hopefully this reminds you of the OT reading and also of Isaiah 35
the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
This miracle also fulfills scripture that Christ is the true Messiah. That He is the Savior of the World. But, Christ did not just heal the physically blind, deaf, lame and mute. He healed the spiritually blind, deaf, lame and mute in the crucifixion. His death and resurrection opened up salvation and redemption for all mankind. His death and resurrection has given you the ability to see clearly, hear clearly, speak plainly that Christ is Lord. What now can you the former deaf hear? You can hear the words of a book. You can hear the Good Work from the Book of Life. You can hear the very Gospel Christ has given you. He has given you His Spirit so that you can see, you can hear, you can speak.

Through this you do have confidence like the epistle says, the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.
Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

He has given you life. Your sufficiency is in His sacrifice. You hear the Word, the Good News, not by what you have done, but because He has come to you and pronounced Ephphatha that heaven is opened to you by His death and resurrection. Heaven is opened to you, God is opened to you, the Word is opened to you and through Christ you have the confidence and can declare plainly that You are healed, you are forgiven, you are His.

SDG

Pr. Daniel Holm

Mark 7
31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

2 Cor 3
4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

Isaiah 29
17 Is it not yet a very little while
until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
In that day the deaf shall hear
the words of a book,
and out of their gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind shall see.
The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,
and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
For the ruthless shall come to nothing
and the scoffer cease,
and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,
who by a word make a man out to be an offender,
and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.

Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,
no more shall his face grow pale.
For when he sees his children,
the work of my hands, in his midst,
they will sanctify my name;
they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who murmur will accept instruction.”

Here are two men. A tax collector and a Pharisee. Here are two wildly different people. The Pharisee is a man of the people. He is respected. Regarded as a leader and some that many people look up to. He knows His scripture and helps others understand God’s Word. Most likely lives off the donations or payments the people make. He is upstanding the husband of one wife. Treats others with respect. That’s what the Pharisee looks like. On the other hand, there is a tax collector, a traitor to his people. A man who works for the Gentiles. He lives off of taking money from others. He probably is viewed as a thief or a cheat. He steals from others and lives what appears to be a lavish lifestyle while the people he takes money from are just scraping by. Someone that preys on other people and is not upstanding at all. He is most likely hated and despised, but tolerated.

In our society today who are the Pharisees and who are the tax collectors? Who do you see as upstanding citizens and who are the dregs of society? All of you have some ideas. Pastors tend to more likely have the reputation of the Pharisee. Probably teachers, counselors and social workers. Whoever in your mind’s eye has an “honorable” profession. Now what about the tax collectors, who are they? Drug dealers, sex workers, maybe politicians. Again, anyone who you think makes society worse off or takes advantage of people.

It is amazing that Christ uses these two examples because He accomplishes three things here. He corrects those who see righteousness in actions. He gives hope to those who are seen as unrighteous, and most importantly He lets them know that through Christ forgiveness and righteousness are given.

Christ in this parable paints a picture of the Pharisee as someone who sees himself as righteous. He is happy he is not other men. He is not extortioner, unjust, an adulterer. Then this Pharisee lists off what he does that makes himself so great. This Pharisee is full of Himself. Instead of looking to what God has done for him. He looks at his deeds as what he has done for God. However, in Matt 23 you hear what Christ thinks about that. He gives the scribes and pharisees seven woes. For their mentality blocks others from receiving grace. Jesus says
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Do you compare yourself to others. Do you whisper in the back of your mind “Thank God I am not them!”
You are them! Your actions do nothing for your salvation. You cannot add to what God has done. Repent if you have done this, do not be like this Pharisee. Do not look to your works to justify you. It is only God that can save you! Do not be legalistic! Do not think that you can perfectly follow the law nor impress that upon others. This is what the Pharisees did! So in pointing out the Pharisee praying this way and saying “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled” Jesus is calling the Pharisees and scribes to repent. He is calling for all those who think they are better than others to repent. For no one, not one man is perfect. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Christ alongside the Pharisee includes a tax collector. He purposely uses a tax collector because it most likely will offend the Pharisees and scribes who hear this. Again, Jesus is using the tax collector to prove a point and show who God really is. He uses a tax collector because a tax collector is so despised. He uses a tax collector because all who hear think of utmost corruption. When he describes that the tax collector not even lifting up his eyes to heaven, but beating his breast saying ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ He shows everyone what a contrite heart looks like. He shows them that the grace of God knows no bounds. He shows everyone who is listening that, yes, even a tax collector can be forgiven and be justified by God. This is huge! For all who hear this are given hope. They are given hope because if the lowest of the low can be forgiven that includes them. It includes you. Jesus did not come for the righteous, but He came to die for the unrighteous. In this parable it shows that God has come for all people and not just a few. Jesus shows this by eating with the tax collectors and sinners. Here in this parable He basically is saying that anyone who is truly repentant will be forgiven. It is very interesting that in the next chapter of Luke Jesus runs into Zaccheus, a tax collector, and he repents. How about you? Know and have confidence that no sin is too big for God. No sinner is too far gone, but Jesus’ sacrifice covers all sin. He has covered your sin.

Lastly, as Christ is the teller of the parable His statement that the tax collector went to his house justified, and those that humble themselves will be exalted. He is pronouncing forgiveness and righteousness on the tax collector. Here Christ is speaking with the authority to forgive sins. This is crucial because it shows the boundlessness of God’s grace, but it also shows that this grace comes only through Him. It is only through Christ that grace can be pronounced. He is telling all who hear that He, Jesus Christ, both God and man, is able to pronounce forgiveness. How does that happen? A payment must be made. These hearers of this parable will see this come to fruition on Good Friday. They will see Christ shunned by all mounted on a cross to pay for the sins of the world. Both for Pharisees and tax collectors. He died for pastors, teachers, counselors, drug dealers, sex workers, gangsters. He died for everyone. There is no man or woman left untouched by the sacrifice Christ made. All have this beautiful gift of grace through what He has done. This is why when He pronounces that you are forgiven, that you are justified, you know you are.

Today, leave here knowing that Jesus humbled Himself before all so that He would be at the right hand of God. That He knew you could not be like Him and so took your place and was perfect. He was the spotless lamb that was sacrificed so you could be washed clean in His blood and robed with His righteousness. Leave knowing that you can add nothing to this and that is your greatest confidence that He did it. He accomplished it for you and that is your benefit. You oh sinner are forgiven! You today will go down to your house justified. For Christ has pronounced it.

This parable of the pharisee and tax collector is meant to turn the hearts of those who think they are better than others, to see that salvation in following the law is futile and hopeless and help them see that they are in the same boat as all mankind. It is to point out to everyone that they are sinners no matter how righteous they look or seem. This parable is to give hope to those who think there is no hope. It is for the prodigal son, the lost sheep and lost coin. It is to let those who despise themselves know that they are loved and cherished by their God. That His death on the cross was meant for them as much as it was for everyone else. Most importantly of all, forgiveness and righteousness are found only in Christ Jesus. It is only through His death and resurrection that you are saved. This is the cornerstone and foundation of your faith.

SDG

Pr. Daniel Holm

Luke 18
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Genesis 4
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.

Ephesians 2
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Psalm 50
7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.
I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds.
For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.

If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and its fullness are mine.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,[b]
and perform your vows to the Most High,
and call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

But to the wicked God says:
“What right have you to recite my statutes
or take my covenant on your lips?
For you hate discipline,
and you cast my words behind you.
If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
and you keep company with adulterers.

You give your mouth free rein for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.
You sit and speak against your brother;
you slander your own mother’s son.
These things you have done, and I have been silent;
you thought that I was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

Mark this, then, you who forget God,
lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
to one who orders his way rightly
I will show the salvation of God!

Why did Jesus weep over Jerusalem? He wept over it because of everything it says in the Jeremiah passage. Take a look at that passage again. In the Jeremiah passage it describes the human condition under sin. The Jeremiah passage pulls no punches but calls you out for all the sin you do. This is why Jesus wept. He wept because this chosen people turned their back on God and they had no idea how to make it right. He wept because this people that said they loved him would shout the words “Crucify Him!” the next. He saw the condition of mankind, He saw the sin that corrupted His people and wept. Jerusalem the city of peace was corrupt to its very core and contained no peace at all.

Remember that this reading takes place right after the triumphal entry. As Jesus is entering Jerusalem as their Savior He weeps as He sees the city. For you the hearer as Jesus goes toward Jerusalem riding on a donkey Jesus says, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!”.

This reading helps you understand the parallel between what Christ did for the world and what Christ does for you. Before a person is a Christian their life very much mirrors what you hear in Jeremiah. Mankind rejoices in their sin and shuns God. What happens to change that? The Word enters in. Now, remember that mankind used to be one with God. Man could be in God’s presence, but it was man who broke that because of sin. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. But you used to have peace with God. However, sin has corrupted that. In Jeremiah you also get that there is nothing that you do or can do that can repair that peace. You only seem to make the situation worse. Your Jerusalem, your peace has been blocked by sin, death and the devil. God seeing this condition wept. Yet, He came to you. What did Jesus do after He wept? He went and cleansed the temple. He drove out all those who block the path to salvation, who block the way to peace. The Word came to you and what did the Word do? Jesus, the Word drove out sin, death and the devil as He enters your temple, your heart. The Word comes to you and cleanses your heart.

Jesus says, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!” You know that this peace Jesus speaks of comes at a high price. This peace Jesus speaks of as He enters Jerusalem is to sacrifice His life for the world. This peace comes at the cost of feeling God’s cup of wrath poured out on Him for all the sins of the world. This peace comes from Christ being nailed to the cross and dying in our place.

Jesus wept because He saw your condition and had compassion on you. He knew and saw that the relationship between God and man was broken and He went willingly for you so that you could have peace. That you who could not save yourself could be saved through Him.

Just as Jesus went to Jerusalem to die for the sins of the world. He takes you into His death and resurrection so the peace you were originally meant to have could be restored. He not only clears your temple, but tears it down and builds a new one. He takes you into death and brings you into life with baptism, the washing of water and the Word. He creates a new temple within you upon which He is the chief cornerstone. Now you have the forgiveness of your sins, your relationship with God is restored so much that you can call Him Father and you are given the Holy Spirit to reside with you. You have eternal life and Christ’s robe of righteousness placed upon you.

Jesus continually has compassion on you. You are forgiven your sins in your absolution. You are fed with His body and blood to strengthen you in both body and soul. You are given the Word so that you could be reminded of what Christ has done for you. Just as He taught in the temple at Jerusalem He continues to teach you with His Word and Sacraments.

What does Christ want you to know? He wants you to know that you do have peace with Him. That He has restored you. That your sin is as far away from you as the east is from the west. He wants you to know that your perpetual backsliding, your deceit, your relentlessness in evil, your greed, your false dealings all that is said in Jeremiah has been forgiven in Christ. You who had no peace now have Peace in Him. He wants you to have faith in this fact. In the fact that He did clear the temple, but He destroyed it and built a new one in three days. He, Christ died and rose again so death, sin and the devil could be defeated once and for all. That you are more than conquerors because He has given you the spoils of war without you having to fight. He won! He is Christ the Victor. You have peace that He has bridged the divide between God and man with the cross.

How do you know all of this? Through the Word, the life saving Word, that is not a stumbling block for you. For you know this peace that Christ gives you is not by your works. It is nothing you can do, but it is what He, Jesus Christ, has done for you. It is faith in the fact that when He rose that easter morning everything that Christ said and did came to fruition. It is faith in knowing that Jerusalem finally received peace when Jesus died on Golgotha. It is faith in knowing that sinners have been forgiven with the blood of the Lamb. That this righteousness you are given is attained by faith. This is what the Word teaches you. It is through this Word that you are given life and peace.

Yes, Jesus did weep. He wept for your condition. He wept for the condition of all mankind. He saw it in it’s depravity and went to Calvary because He knew He was the only one that could change it. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. However, even though He wept for the state of man He did not wallow in that state. His love for you was so much that He wanted to remove the curse you and mankind were under and He did. He gave you righteousness and eternal life for you will never weep.

His entrance was truly triumphal. He came lowly riding on a donkey not to rule over and lord over mankind, but to serve it, to be the sacrifice for it. This triumphal entry in which He had compassion upon the whole world, in which He saw the need of all peoples gave Himself up and laid Himself bare so that a new creation could be ushered in. That mankind could be washed clean and be part of this new creation. You have the guarantee that through Him you are granted this. That through Him you are saved.

These are the Words you hang on to. These are the Words Christ spoke that the people were hanging on to. That through Him peace will be given to you and where you will never be put to shame.

SDG

Pr. Daniel Holm

Luke 19
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

Jeremiah
You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
When men fall, do they not rise again?
If one turns away, does he not return?
Why then has this people turned away
in perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast to deceit;
they refuse to return.
I have paid attention and listened,
but they have not spoken rightly;
no man relents of his evil,
saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turns to his own course,
like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
Even the stork in the heavens
knows her times,
and the turtledove, swallow, and crane[a]
keep the time of their coming,
but my people know not
the rules of the Lord.

How can you say, ‘We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
The wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
so what wisdom is in them?
Therefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.

Romans 9
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Have you ever heard the phrase “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission”? Have you ever done this to another person? This is not always true. There are some people you know that you would never try to pull this on. Being a math teacher there are independent variables and dependent variables and dependent variables always rely on the independent variable. What does this phrase really depend on? The saying “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission” is completely dependent on who you are trying to pass this off on. The “who” in this saying is your independent variable and whether you get forgiveness or wrath depends on that “who”.

In the Gospel reading you hear about the unrighteous manager who loses his position because he was wasteful of the master’s possessions. Who else was wasteful with the possessions they were given? Hopefully, this reminds you of the prodigal son. Here both the manager and the son squander what their master and father have given them. Both of these men realize their position now that they no longer have what they used to. Both of these men realize the same thing.

This unrighteous manager sees his position and knows that he cannot work hard nor can he beg. The son eating the pods of the pigs just to survive realizes that his situation is hopeless. Both of these men realize that the only way out of their situation is from something outside of themselves.

You baptized have been given the keys to the kingdom. You have the inheritance of heaven. You have God’s riches and God’s grace. Are you like this manager and do you waste it? Do you take your inheritance and squander it on selfish things? When you walk out of these doors do you leave your inheritance here? Do your neighbors, the people you interact with know how rich you are?

Christ right before this gospel reading gave the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep and the prodigal son. In these parables He was talking both to the Pharisees and scribes and also to the disciples and “sinners”. Those parables were both to comfort and call for repentance. Here in this gospel reading He is just speaking with His disciples and the Pharisees are eavesdropping on the conversation. He doesn’t want His disciples to squander what they have been given. For the Pharisees and scribes who were given the possessions of God instead of using them wisely and spreading the Good News about the Messiah they made it harder to get into heaven by setting up more rules and making sure they profited from it. They forgot who the Master/Father was and where all good things come from.

What both men, manager and son, realize and know for a fact is the mercy and graciousness of the master and the father. This is what they count on and bank their lives on. They know that the master/father will not change. His character is constant and He is known for His grace and mercy.

Christ wants His disciples to know the character of the Father. That they can trust in Him more than the master and father in the story. That they can have the confidence to go forth and share this good news about how good and loving the Father is.

The focus of the Gospel is not on the unrighteous manager, but on the good master. The manager had complete confidence in the master that even though he was changing what the people owed, he would get away with it and save his life on the fact that the master was gracious.

The manager changed the amounts quickly so it looked like it came from the master because it was something the master would do. The people were not surprised when their accounts were changed, but totally could see this as something the master would do. The manager being the hands in which the master worked so also being credited for doing good work even though it is all from the master. The master even approved what the unrighteous man did because it solidified the character of the master to the debtors.

Here I am as a pastor a sinful man, and even though I have squandered His riches He has allowed me to show you the vast amounts of mercy to you His debtors. Here in His Word He allows me to pronounce you forgiven of your debts, forgiven of your sins. In the story these are no small amounts that are forgiven, but huge amounts that most others would not do. However, for the Father this is not a problem. He sent His Son to pay for our debts. Debts that no other man can forgive, are forgiven in Him. He can poor out this grace over and over and these debts don’t make a dent because He is God and His riches are vast beyond any human measures.

You too can hear these words of forgiveness that are pronounced here in this church with confidence. For your Master/Father is better far beyond the story that Christ tells His disciples. You can have peace that surpasses all understanding because if God says your sins are forgiven. Then they are. You by hearing this Word can know with complete certainty that you are His. That Christ’s death and resurrection is more than sufficient for you. That the Father through His Son has shown His goodness, He has shown His mercy, He has shown His grace.

This is what Christ is talking about commending the shrewdness of the manager. The manager banked his life on who the master is and did it without a doubt. You who are righteous, who are baptized, can trust your life completely and without reserve in the Father because Jesus pronounced “It is finished!”

Through Christ even though you are not perfect you know that He will work through you. For you too are connected to the Good Master. Through you others will see the graciousness and mercy of the Lord. This is most certainly true because He resides with you. You have His Spirit. Your neighbors will see God’s mercy and riches because He has rescued you from your predicament. He has released you of your debts. He has made you free through the blood of Christ and given you the kingdom of God.

When you say “It is better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” you are trusting in the person who this will affect. Christ in what He has done for you by going to the cross and dying upon calvary allows you to go confidently and with joy knowing that you already have His forgiveness. That you do have His riches and He will never change. He will never leave you nor forsake you.

God is not a variable, but He is a constant, in math, that means it never changes. If a dependent variable is based on a constant it no longer is a variable but becomes a constant too. God is good, God is love, God is merciful, God is gracious. Therefore, you know because you have been united in a death like His you most certainly will be united in a resurrection like His. You have good, you have love, you have mercy, and you have grace.

SDG

Pastor Daniel Holm

Luke 16
1 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

2 Samuel 22
“With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
27 with the purified you deal purely,
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
28 You save a humble people,
but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.
29 For you are my lamp, O Lord,
and my God lightens my darkness.
30 For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
31 This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the Lord proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

32 “For who is God, but the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God?
33 This God is my strong refuge
and has made my way blameless.
34 He made my feet like the feet of a deer
and set me secure on the heights.

1 Cor 10
6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

As a parent I want my sons’ lives to be good. I want them to feel minimal pain, minimal strife, minimal sadness. I want them to be well off, happy, find love and have a family that loves them. Do you all feel the same way towards your loved ones? But, can you guarantee this? Can you state for a fact that their life will be good? We all know the answer is not in this lifetime.

Ever since the fall of man, the expulsion from the garden of Eden, sin entered the world. Everything is now corrupt and corruption breeds corruption. This world, life here is not getting better, but it continues to get worse. This is the making of man, this is the making of sin, you inherit it and pass it on from generation to generation. To ask for good in this life is an oxymoron.

To be honest, this life holds only pain, sadness, suffering, and death. It is full of greed, envy, sloth, adultery, murder, gluttony and humanity thinks it can make it better. It’s like spilling a drip of paint on a priceless painting and saying ‘I can fix it’ in which you just smear it over more parts of the painting in trying to wipe it off spreading the destruction and messing the painting up even more.

You are known by your fruits. Look at what mankind has done. Our sin has led to massive waste, our sin has caused the extinction of species, our sin has led to massive pollution, our sin has led to disease after disease. Humanity apart from God is a diseased tree bearing only deadly fruit. You see this in the selfishness and vanity of people, you see this in the distrust of neighbors, you see this in the apathetic way people ignore others in need. What good can come from man. The answer is none. Dead in sin, rotten literally to your core there is nothing you can do to make your situation any better. Have you not heard the phrase the road to hell is paved with ‘good intentions.’

The Gospel tells you to beware of false prophets. Those people out in the world that will tell you that you are good the way you are. You do you. Do what you feel. Love yourself. Find your happiness. Love is love.
“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.'”
These are the fierce wolves who say twisted things to turn you away from God.

Yes, you are a sinner, but your comfort is not in yourself. Do not listen to those who tell you otherwise, but trust only in the Word of God. For this is your comfort. Yes, you are wicked, yes you are a sinner, but this is why Christ came down from heaven. He took corrupted mankind and was born of a virgin. He was born without sin. He who knew no sin took on sin in our place and went to the cross to die for you. Yes, you are a sinner, but you are saved. Your hope is in Christ Jesus. You know that this world is fallen, but you have real good, pure good with you because you have Christ. You have been washed clean by water and His Word.

Yet, even though you are made brand new in Christ. He does not say that it’s going to be roses and unicorns. He tells you that life as a Christian is going to be rough because you are foreigner in a land that is no longer meant for you. You are a citizen of heaven and that makes you an enemy of this world and satan. This world and satan will do whatever it can to corrupt you, to choke you out so that you turn away from that saving Word, that you turn away from the fact that Christ has forgiven you, and covered you in His righteousness. Not by what you have done, but by what He has done for you. Therefore, because you have this you will be attacked all the more. Look at Job, look at the prophets, look at the apostles, it did not end well for them in this world. Do not think it will end well for you either.

People may think that this is a bleak outlook that I am telling you that you only have troubles and tribulations ahead, but I would be lying if I said otherwise. But, but this world is not where your home is. This world is not where your treasures lie. You can leave this place in joy, you can wake up tomorrow in joy because this is not your home because this is not where your treasures lie. You have joy because of what Christ has done, you have joy in the bleakest of situations because you have been paid for by the blood of the only begotten son of God born of the virgin Mary Jesus Christ. His blood has set you free from the slavery of sin, His blood has set you free from the dominion of death, His blood has set you free from the chains of satan. You are His child! He is with you! He cares for you and in Him you have grace and mercy that knows no bounds.

Through Christ you do bear fruit, you will be recognized by your fruit in this fallen world. You will be recognized by the way you show love to your neighbor, the way you sacrifice for others, the way you have joy in terrible circumstances. These fruits are because God has given you a heart of flesh. He has sent His Spirit to dwell with you. It is He that works in you to do these good works. You are a light shining on a hill that others will see because He has made you clean and it is He that shines through you. You have been attached to the one true vine and He will prune you and make sure you bear love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. It is because of Christ’s sacrifice that God does know you and will never leave you nor forsake you. It is through Him that good has entered back into this fallen world. It is by Him that you are blessed.

In this life, life in Christ, you see God’s work, you see it by what He does in you and what He does in others. You see it in His word, you see it in His Church. Here in this life you see relief with the absolution of your sins, you see joy for God guarantees His forgiveness and grace, you are given strength by His very body and blood. You see life in His Word and Sacraments. Look at baptism, look at the font back there. That font is where life begins. You are reminded of this every time you enter this church. In Christ you see the stain of sin not smeared but removed completely. The masterpiece now fully restored. That masterpiece being you.

As a parent who is saved by grace my son’s lives are good for it is Christ’s life that lives in them. My sons will not have pain, strife or sadness because in heaven Jesus will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. They will be well off for their Father, their Father in heaven has put a ring on their finger and put a robe on them and has celebrated their homecoming. They do have love, they have a love that is pure and good and unending for it flows from the sacrifice of Christ. In this sacrifice they are given a new name and a family that will care for them forever. I can guarantee this. I can guarantee this because God has told me this in His Word. A Word that has always been kept, never unbroken. My sons have this and so do you. You have this guarantee in Christ and what joy that is.

SDG

Pr. Daniel Holm

Matt 7
15 ‘”Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
‘”Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Jeremiah 23
16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’

For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord
to see and to hear his word,
or who has paid attention to his word and listened?
Behold, the storm of the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth,
a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished
the intents of his heart.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly.

I did not send the prophets,
yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.
But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their deeds.

Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

Acts 20
27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.

Paul presents the Christian life perfectly in our Epistle reading:
“Just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.” (Rom 6:19)
Instead of presenting yourselves to impurity, you present yourselves to righteousness. This is nothing other than repentance. In repentance you turn away from sin and present yourself to Christ. Repentance is the life of the Christian.

You know this doesn’t make for an easy life.

The Old Testament and Gospel readings are a perfect example of why this life is hard.

The Old Testament reading reminds us that God made fruit for us to eat and it was indeed “very good.” But He restricted Adam and Eve from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God made us as physical creatures. We need the sustenance of food to survive. The gift of food is a wonderful gift of God that He still provides for believer and unbeliever alike. In the Gospel reading, we see that even though the crowd following Jesus around was full of believers and unbelievers, Jesus had compassion on them and fed them to the full from seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. The testimony of this incredible miracle tells us that “they ate and were satisfied.” (v. 8) We know that some of the listeners were unbelievers because we’re told in John that they were looking for a bread king.

God has established a regular order for providing daily bread. Farmers farm. Ranchers ranch. Butchers butcher. Grocers grocer. Doctors doctor. Dentists dentist. Mechanics build and fix stuff. Cobblers make and fix shoes. In this normal way, God provides for the daily bread of all people; believers and unbelievers alike. Jesus didn’t come to establish the family or government which provide the framework for all vocations. He established those in Genesis 1 and 2. Some families are more pious than others and hence work better. Some governments are more just than others and hence protect people’s daily bread better. Sin has impacted both family and the government so that they don’t work as they ought to. But Jesus reminds us that He is in control and injustice and family failings won’t last forever. He will make everything right when He comes again in glory.

But Jesus came in the flesh for the same reason He fed the 4,000. He had compassion on us. If there’s one Greek word to remember it’s to have compassion. Σπλαγχνίζομαι (splagchnidzomai) means to have compassion. It literally means that your guts twist on themselves. It’s very graphic which is probably why I remember it so easily and like it so much. Jesus’ guts were twisted with compassion over our pain and suffering. The daily bread required to fix our pain and suffering is not bread and fish, but the heavenly bread that comes down from heaven.

He had to come and put the yoke of humanity upon Himself. Unlike the first Adam who succumbed to temptation, the second Adam lived a perfect life. He kept the Law of God perfectly in the midst of temptation and suffering. Unlike the first Israel who was unfaithful, the second Israel was faithful to death, even death on the cursèd tree. He was the spotless Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. He doesn’t distribute the forgiveness of sins through the farmer or rancher or doctor, but has established His bride, the church, where He distributes this much needed daily bread of the forgiveness of sins. Bread gets moldy and fish rot, but the forgiveness of sins lasts forever and never perishes. Just as much as bread and fish are part of daily bread, so is the forgiveness of sins.

God did not make us mere physical creatures. We are spiritual creatures as well. Bread and fish feed your bodies and the forgiveness of sins feeds your souls. And there is a beautiful symmetry to this.

Satan deceived Adam and Eve through daily bread. Daily bread is a wonderful creation of God for our use, yet how often does it prove as an idol or stumbling block for us? Consider alcohol. It has ensnared so many to a destructive sin filled life that has left so many ashamed of what they have done. Consider food. It has ensnared so many to a destructive, gluttonous life that has left so many ashamed of their body. Consider sex. It has ensnared so many with promiscuity and pornography to a life of debauchery that has left so many ashamed of what they have caught or what they have done. Satan still uses daily bread to tempt Christians into a life of debauchery and shame. If he doesn’t get you with alcohol, he’ll try to get you with food. If he doesn’t get you with food or alcohol, he’ll try to get you with sex. Satan takes the good gifts of God and perverts them to entice you to become a slave to sin.

And if you’ve been caught up in any kind of pet sin, then you know you do become a slave to it. When all you can think about is food or alcohol or sex, you become enslaved to a life of misery and shame. What’s the answer to this problem?

The world would have you change the Word of God so that you can excuse your slavery to sin. Why do you think the LGBTQ community works so hard to normalize perversity and debauchery? And make no mistake, that’s what it is: perversity and debauchery. And it wants to suck you down into its cesspit of sin.

Yet so many so-called Christians have sex outside of marriage, that it’s easy for them to point a finger at the LGBTQ community and ignore their own sin. It’s shameful that the divorce rate among Christians is as high as it is. It’s right over 25% and varies slightly depending on your denomination.

How can so many Christians, a full quarter, knowingly sin against God through divorce. Christians rightly preach against the evil of abortion, but many blindly take birth control. The church, including the LCMS, used to be strongly against birth control. It is shameful that we have bowed to cultural pressures and relented in calling birth control what it is… sin. If Onan were alive, he would whole heartedly agree that birth control is sin. Read Genesis 38 today if you don’t remember who Onan is. When you separate the sexual act from marriage and the possibility of having kids, you are sinning. It is shameful that so many Christians use birth control and refuse to have kids. So many of our young Christians aren’t even seeking marriage. Paul warns that celibacy is a gift only for very few people (1 Cor 7:1-16), but so many of our young people act as if anyone can have this gift. And then they are surprised and ashamed when they fall into sexual sin. This is shameful too.

Sexual sins are especially pernicious, but how many fall into the slavery of alcohol or food addiction? And the world would like to normalize these sinful activities too.

But the answer to the problem of sexual sins and any other sin is not to remain silent or only rail against one sin. The answer is to examine and hear the Word of God and know it better and better. So that you can warn the unrepentant including yourself. So that you can comfort troubled consciences including yours. And so that you can live a chaste life.

And this is the first step of repentance: examining and hearing the Word of God. God teaches us through the author of Hebrews that:
“The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” (Heb 4:12-13)

You also know this as the second function of the law, or the mirror. It convicts you of sin. The Word of God doesn’t sugar coat sin. It doesn’t turn a blind eye to your sin. It points it out for what it is: a terrible act in thought, word, or deed against God who created you, redeemed you, and sanctifies you.

There’s only one answer for sin and that is the forgiveness of sins. But you are beloved children of God. You know that God is extravagant with the forgiveness of sins. He provides it through so many ways and it is always available to you.

Paul says to present yourselves as slaves to righteousness. But what if you look at your life and do not see that you are a slave to righteousness? What’s the answer to this problem?

Is it try harder?

Is it try smarter?

Paul’s answer to this is quite surprising. At first blush, it sounds like Paul is saying you need to do something or act in a certain way. Doesn’t “present yourselves” sound like you need to do something. And when Paul talks about the wages of sin, he’s saying you’ve earned eternal death. But when he talks about the other side of the coin, that is the righteous life, he says “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

He’s saying the motivation for good works or fruit of salvation or sanctification, whatever you want to call it, is to look to Jesus, “the founder and perfector of our faith.” (Heb 12:2)

Do you remember the WWJD bracelets? They got it so wrong but not completely wrong. The idea behind the WWJD bracelets is that you would ask yourself the question “What would Jesus do?” when faced with a moral dilemma.

The first problem with this approach is that we aren’t Jesus. Jesus acted from pure motives from a pure heart and acted perfectly. He did this to save sinners from sin, death, and the devil. We cannot do what Jesus did. We cannot even save ourselves from sin, death, and the devil.

The second problem with this approach is that it asks the wrong question. When I am presented with my neighbor in need, my question is not what would Jesus do, or what do I want to do, but what does my neighbor need. And this gets at the little part that the WWJD bracelet had right.

We are to follow the example of Jesus in regard to humility and service. When I ask the question, what does my neighbor need, I am acting from a place of humility. The neighbor in front of me and their need is more important than my own. And God has placed them in my life so that I may serve them. I saw this well meaning, but ultimately stupid, meme on Facebook that you have to take care of yourself before taking care of others. That’s not what God says. He says, “so you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what is our duty.'” (Luke 17:10) Your life in Christ is a life very much like His in the fact that it is a life of humility and service. And just as Christ was exalted during His resurrection and ascension, you will be exalted and raised again in the new heavens and earth. You have the promise of the Almighty Creator and Redeemer that He will vindicate you on that great day.

And when you fail to act from humility and service, the answer to that is to look to Christ on the cross and receive the fruit of His sacrifice. The only answer to sin is the forgiveness of sins. The only answer to failure, a sneaky word for sin, is the forgiveness of sins. The only answer to shortcomings, a euphemism for sin, is the forgiveness of sins.

This is the life of the Christian, also know as living daily in your baptism, daily repentance and the reception of forgiveness of sins. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, “Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” (14: 20)

This only happens with the examination and hearing of Scripture and the lavish application of forgiveness of sins. But some of you have sinned grievously in the past. What about you?

Remember two things. First God remembers your sin no more once it is forgiven. “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgression from us.” (Ps 103:12) Do you remember the purity rings? They are a bad idea because they look at things legalistically, but there is a gem of a great idea in there. People who had fallen into the sin of sexual impurity would repent and wear a purity ring. They were made fun of by the world, but they understood this wonderful verse from the Psalter. God remembers your sin no more and you are pure in His eyes in Christ.

Second, remember what makes you worthy to kneel before your God and receive His true body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. It’s not that you have cleaned yourself up or that you have done some rituals or physical practices. No, “that person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: ‘Given and shed for you’ for the forgiveness of sins.”

You are a child of God. As our Hymn of the Day puts it, “You are His chosen generation.” You are truly worthy to kneel before Him and receive the bread that surpasses the bread 2,000 years ago that He fed to 4,000 people in a desolate place. Come and receive the daily bread that is above all daily bread. It is the healing balm for your souls.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Pr. Wm. Maggard