Month: April 2025

Dear sons and daughters of Christ, our risen King,

Christ is risen! He is Risen Indeed! As sons and daughters of the King, we continue to celebrate the amazing events which are the reason why we gather to worship on the first day of the week — the Resurrection of Jesus — the Son of God and the Son of Man. Think about the varieties of culture, nationalities, personalities, interests, economic status, and languages of the people who assemble to worship the Triune God throughout the world! What a diversity of peoples!

Yet, they are the children of God — not based upon anything other than the solidarity of the great confession — Christ is Risen!

On any given Sunday the sons and daughters of the King come to hear of the Good News of God in Jesus Christ — the Gospel which transcends culture, economic status, geographic boundaries, personality, and educational level. And you, too, have come to hear that Christ is risen and to sing praises to God that the grave has lost its sting.

The Hymn of the Day today is #470. Please open your hymnal to this hymn #470. This hymn is based on the Gospel lesson that we just heard and will serve as the outline for the sermon and we will be singing stanzas of it throughout the sermon. A short look at this page in your hymnal reinforces what has been said about the Gospel spanning not only culture and nation, but also time. Look to the very bottom of the page you see that the hymn is based on the very chapter from which our Gospel reading comes, John chapter 20 as well as Mark, chapter 16. The hymn was originally written in Latin with the beginning stanza being, O filii et filiae — “O sons and daughters.” The author of this medieval hymn, is unknown. Some of the stanzas have been attributed to a Franciscan friar named Jean Tisserand who died in Paris in 1494. It was translated by an Englishman named John Neale. The hymn’s tune was written by a German, Melchior Vulpius in 1609. A French author, an English translator, a German musician – multicultural indeed!

The first stanza of the hymn is in the form of an announcement made to the One, Holy, Christian, Apostolic Church — to you, the sons and daughters of Christ, the King. The content of this pronouncement is that “Christ is Risen.” The LORD Jesus, Who was dead, is alive. Death has been defeated by Him and because He lives you sons and daughters of the King will live also. The grave could not hold Him and it will not hold those who are His. Let’s sing that first stanza:

1 O Sons and daughters of the King, Whom heav’nly hosts in glory sing, Today the grave hath lost its sting: Alleluia!

One of the first things we notice about this hymn is that it is filled with Alleluias! Alleluia means “praise Yahweh, the LORD” — a shout or song of praise to the LORD Who reigns above heaven and earth.

It is the tradition of the church, during the Lenten season, to omit the singing of the alleluias as we focus on the suffering and the death of Jesus. Easter morning breaks in on us with the pronouncement of “Christ is Risen.” The Church responds with shouts of “alleluias” to our King.

The second and the third stanzas give us the context for our sermon text. Very early, while it was yet dark, several women had gone to the tomb. They were on the sad mission of finishing those things necessary for a proper burial of the body of Jesus. Their hearts were filled with sorrow. In the short time span of that walk from where they spent the night to the garden where the tomb was located, they survived an earthquake, were devastated at the thought that someone had stolen the body of Jesus, were visited by an angel with the best news that they could hear, Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, Who was crucified. He has risen, He is not here; see the place where they laid Him. Let’s sing stanzas 2 & 3:
2 That Easter morn, at break of day, The faithful women went their way To seek the tomb where Jesus lay: Alleluia!

3 An angel clad in white they see, Who sits and speaks unto the three, “Your Lord will go to Galilee:” Alleluia!

We now pick up with today’s Gospel reading. It is the evening of that first Easter. Ten of the remaining eleven disciples were together with some other disciples. Thomas is not with them and we do not know where he was. Maybe he was gone on an errand, possibly buying supplies for the group. Or maybe he just needed some time alone to ponder the message that the women had brought earlier. The women who had met the angels and then had seen and heard Jesus early in the morning had brought this news. Peter and John had seen the tomb — empty except for the burial cloths. Mary Magdalene said that she had seen the risen LORD and had brought a message from Him. While this occurred in the morning of this wonderful day this news did not produce faith among the disciples. Earlier, at a time and a place not recorded in the Bible, Jesus appeared to Peter. Two followers of Christ, who had gone to Emmaus, had returned to be with the disciples. No doubt they told them about their encounter with Jesus whom they recognized when he broke bread with them. The doors are locked and the disciples are afraid to venture forth because of their fellow countrymen who were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.

Suddenly, in another miracle of His Resurrection, Jesus appears. Just as the tomb could not hold Him, neither are locked doors able to keep Him out. What does He say to those who had abandoned Him as He went to the cross and as He died the most horrible death ever died? What does He say to these fearful, weak, hiding ones who doubted the Word of Jesus given to them through the women?

What would He say? Let’s sing the next stanza and find out — stanza #4 ….
4 That night the Apostles met in fear,
Amidst them came their Master dear
And said: “Peace be unto you here”: Alleluia!

No wonder Christians sing “Alleluia”. When the LORD Who was abandoned (except by a handful of people) on Good Friday and when those who were supposedly His followers could not be with Him for one hour and He had every right to demand a pound of flesh and to punish those who had deserted Him — I mean how many times has He forgiven them and still they messed up their lives and gone their separate ways — they treated Him and His Word as if they were nothing. But instead of anger and recrimination against them, Jesus said to them, “Peace be unto you!” Then He showed them His hands and His side — He showed them the marks of His crucifixion.

That, dear people, is the purest Gospel — the sweetest Good News. Peace be unto you — look at these nail prints in My hands and feet — look at My side where the spear pierced Me. The wounds of Christ shout out the Good News: “I Am Jesus and I Am Risen — death has been defeated, your salvation is completed, forgiveness and peace with God is yours.” Is it any wonder that the Apostle John writes that the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be
with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”

We sing stanza #5 ….
5 When Thomas first the tidings heard, That they had seen the risen Lord, He doubted the disciples’ word: Alleluia!

Thomas had not been there when Jesus appeared to the disciples. And when they told him of Jesus’ appearance to them, Thomas had doubted and said that “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe”. It is now a week later. The disciples, Thomas included, were in the house and the doors were locked. Jesus appears to them once more and says to Thomas: Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing. Or, in the words of the 6th stanza of the hymn we sing:

6 “My pierced side, O Thomas, see, And look upon My hans, My feet; Not faithless, but believing be.”: Alleluia!

Again, pure Gospel. Thomas, these wounds were inflicted for you. Do you see these marks of the nails? You are not excluded because of them — in fact, you are included because of them. Do you believe My Word of Promise? Do you believe Me? We sing Thomas’s answer in Stanza # 7:

7 No longer Thomas then denied; He saw the feet, the hands, the side: “You are my LORD and God,” he cried: Alleluia!

One of the Spirit-inspired actions of the Christian who has been restored or reassured of God’s forgiveness and acceptance is to make confession. It is to say, “this I believe”. Peter confessed: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. The wise woman at the Samarian well made her confession by asking, not a question of doubt but one of an emerging faith: “Can this be the Christ?” The centurion who crucified Jesus confessed: Truly this Man was the Son of God.” Thomas’ confession? My LORD and my God! There are many ways in which to make a confession of the faith. This morning, we will make our confession of faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed. Not only is Jesus Thomas’ LORD and God, He is yours and mine.

When all those who confess “my LORD and my God” gather we celebrate the confession of OUR LORD – of Who He is, of what He has done, and of what He will do. The LORD is not merely THE Redeemer, not only MY Redeemer, not only YOUR Redeemer — He is OUR Redeemer! For the Word of hope and promise is not restricted to those who saw Jesus with their own eyes, but also for those, like you and me, who have not yet seen Him. Let us sing of that truth in the 8th stanza:

8 How blessed are they who have not seen,
And yet whose faith has constant been,
For they eternal life shall win. Alleluia!

Whether your journey to worship has been near or far — whether your journey in life has been one which has been marked by a God-pleasing life within His Church; or, been marked by God-disappointing steps which have caused you to stray — Jesus not only lived that you may have eternal life — He not only took your sins upon Himself as He died in your place; but He also rose for you on that most holy day of all days — the day of His Resurrection. Through His Word you also have been shown the Holy wounds of Christ. Sing stanza #9:

9 On this most holy day of days, be laud and jubilee and praise; To God your hearts and voices raise: Alleluia!

St. John tells us that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name. A 10th stanza was originally added to this hymn. It is not included in our hymnal, but it is a fitting doxology:
10 And we with holy Church unite, As evermore is just and right, In glory to the King of light: Alleluia! In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

■

I. The Importance of the Resurrection
“Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some say among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?”

That is how our text begins. Oddly enough, along with all the other troubles among the Corinthian Christians, St. Paul had to go on to remind them that Jesus had actually risen from the dead. How could it be? How could it be possible that Christians would deny the Resurrection?

How could it be possible? We can answer that in two ways. On the one hand, it is all too easily possible for Christians to deny the resurrection. On the other hand, it’s completely impossible for Christians do so. Here is what I mean.

On the one hand, it is all too easily possible for “Christians” to deny the Resurrection. Many churches today which claim to be Christian also question—or deny outright—that Jesus rose from the dead. This, they say, is simply a fairy tale ending that early Christians tacked on in order to make Jesus look more heroic and their religion more attractive. In that case, Christianity isn’t about eternal life anymore. It’s about doing good things for other people in this world, since this world is all there is. Such a church has left the Gospel way behind, and the message changes radically. It may be reduce Christianity to be only about helping the poor and downtrodden with needs for this life, but nothing more because there is nothing more. It often morphs into all sorts of bizarre, ungodly causes, with claims the true Christianity is about gender inclusiveness, social justice, encouraging illegal immigration and alternative lifestyles. Thus you’ll find that many people who claim to be Christian actually deny that Christ is risen, and then go on to promote activities which Christ condemned. In truth, such people are not Christians. To be fair, they don’t think you’re particularly Christian, either, since you can be rather unloving by insisting that God’s Law still applies…and because you buy into that “fanciful notion” that Christ is risen indeed.

Thus we reach our second answer: it’s impossible for Christians to deny the resurrection. They may doubt it at times, when beaten down by trouble and grief—but a persistent denial of the Resurrection removes one from the true faith. Why? Because if there is no resurrection of the dead, then there is no Christian faith. It is not an isolated teaching on the outskirts of doctrine. Rather, it is central. The damage to Christian doctrine is extensive if one denies the Resurrection. Consider a few of the consequences.

If Christ is not raised from the dead, then He remains dead. To believe this is to believe that one person of the Trinity is died and that God is no longer eternal. If the Son is no longer alive, does it not follow that the Father and Spirit can perish, too? It is either this or else the Son was never really fully God, and that is why He died; in that case, no one has died for your sins, and you are lost. Just for starters, denial of the Resurrection does harm the doctrines of the Holy Trinity, the two natures of Jesus and the doctrine of justification. At the very least, it makes Jesus a liar for saying He would rise again.

If Christ is not raised from the dead, then His Word is not living and powerful, because the Word made flesh is not alive to make it so. It’s just information, nothing more. In that case, Holy Baptism is just a splash of water, because Christ isn’t there to join you to His resurrection, since He wasn’t raised. Nor is He present in Holy Communion with His body and blood, to strengthen and preserve you in the one true faith unto life everlasting. After all, if Christ is not raised from the dead, there is no life everlasting.

Furthermore, He’s not coming back to judge the living and the dead, so there is no judgment coming: sin doesn’t really matter anymore.

If Christ is not raised from the dead, you have no hope—for yourself or anyone else. This life is all there is. Go ahead, then: eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die. We might as well add that, if Christ is not raised from the dead, then everything that we believe, teach and confess here is a bunch of nonsense. We’re a group of well-intentioned people who have placed our faith in a man who died 2000 years ago, and who thus are wasting Sunday mornings when we could be fishing. After all, the Christian faith is built upon Jesus Christ, His death and His resurrection. Thus St. Paul declares: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”

That would be a terrible end to a sermon. That would be a terrible End, period. But the text doesn’t stop there.

II. But…

“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

You are not of all men most pitiable, for Christ is risen from the dead. The Son of God, begotten of the Father from eternity and born of the Virgin Mary, is risen. Let the rejoicing begin.

For starters, the fact that Jesus is risen from the dead declares that He did, in fact, die. He has paid the price for your sins by His suffering and death—and He has been raised from the dead for your justification (Ro. 4:25). You need not ever wonder if God the Father has accepted the sacrifice of Jesus for you. You know that the Father is well-pleased with His Son, for He has raised Jesus from the dead. And if the Father is well-pleased with His Son’s Passion and death, then you can be certain that forgiveness is yours—because Jesus is risen from the dead.

He is risen from the dead: therefore, there is no silly idea here that the Second Person of the Trinity has ceased to be alive. God the Son rules at the Father’s right hand for eternity. God— Father, Son and Holy Ghost—reigns forever. There will never be a time, then, when God the Father no longer provides daily bread for you. There will never be a time when God the Son does not intercede on your behalf as your High Priest. There will never be a time when God the Holy Spirit ceases to bring Jesus and His forgiveness to you in the means of grace. Your triune God will always be faithful—and you can be sure because Christ is risen from the dead.

Christ is risen from the dead: the Son of God who became flesh and dwelt among us died indeed. But He was also raised from the dead, body and all. This is an important point: there is a subtle false teaching, even it seems among Christians, who believe that Jesus rose from the dead in soul and spirit, but not in body. Thus, when we die our soul and spirit rises, many believe, but the body is gone for good. Why this is attractive, I don’t know, but beware the danger. To say that there is no resurrection of the body is to say that Jesus didn’t fully conquer sin; rather, He conquered it enough to free our souls, but didn’t have the power to restore our bodies. This is to say that Jesus failed in His work to redeem us, that sin and death and devil still have some power. But Christ is risen from the dead, body and all. His victory over sin, death and devil is complete.

Christ is risen from the dead. Because He is risen, He will return to judge the living and the dead. Therefore, the Law of God matters. We are not left to what we think is best, which always plunges the world into chaos and violence; rather, we give thanks that the living Lord still preserves His Law, and we seek to live according to it.

Christ is risen from the dead: therefore He is present with you in His means of grace. His Word here is not just information, but living: because Christ—the living Word made flesh—is present in His Word. Holy Baptism is not just a splash of water and a nice thought. Rather, Christ is present there, to join you to His death—and to His resurrection. Likewise, the Lord’s Supper is not just an inadequate meal in memory of one who died. Rather, it is the Lord’s Supper because the risen Lord is there, to give you His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. Thus the Lord walks with you. Risen, He thus fulfills His promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Christ is risen from the dead, and rejoice that He is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. He has walked through the valley of the shadow of death so that He might guide you through to the gates of heaven. For now, you and I will witness and suffer grief and separation and mourning, eventually our own death. But you do not mourn as those without hope—Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits. He has not risen for Himself, but for you. He is the beginning of the harvest—and you can be sure that He will raise you—and all who die in Christ—on the Last Day.

Christ is risen from the dead: were it not so, you and I would be the most pitiable of all on earth. But it is so. Therefore, we will not cease to proclaim both His death and His resurrection, for these are at the very core of the hope that we have in Jesus. Rejoice, dear brothers and sisters: your faith is not in vain. Christ is risen from the dead. And if Christ is risen from the dead, then you are forgiven for all of your sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

■

Dear Friends in Christ,

“Save Yourself!” The challenge is hurled at Jesus again and again while He’s dying. To the cries of the rulers, the soldiers and the robber in Luke, we add the priests from Matthew 27:42: “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him.”

Dead kings are no good: kings need life and strength, strong will and vitality if they’re going to win any victories. That only makes sense. It doesn’t make sense to put your trust in king who is helpless and bleeding to death on a cross.

So the cries make sense: “If You are the Son of God, the Christ, the King, then prove it. Show us! Save Yourself! Come down from the cross. Once You’ve done that, save us too. After all, once You’ve come down from the cross, do You think we won’t believe in You?” Think about that. Seriously, it makes perfect sense. It’s perfectly reasonable.

Ah, it may be perfectly reasonable, but reason isn’t perfect. Reason says, “You get what you pay for.” Reason says, “People with power produce results.” That’s because this is how the world works, and reason is based on observing the world. But the wisdom of God makes the world look foolish. The wisdom of God says this: “You’re far more sinful than you can reasonably imagine, and you’re going to die for that sin. At least you would die for your sin, but My Son became flesh and died for your sin on the cross. Furthermore, He is risen from the dead. You don’t have to die for your sin, because Jesus gives you grace and life freely.”

That’s the Gospel: in our text, Jesus is dying on the cross to save mankind. That’s what makes those reasonable shouts of the people to be so terribly wrong, so terribly perverse. “Save Yourself and save us, and then we will believe in You”? But if Jesus saves Himself, He doesn’t save them. They have to die eternally for their sin. If He comes down from the cross, they’ll believe in Him all right. Well, kind of. They’ll have the same faith that demons do: they’ll know that He’s the holy Son of God, but they won’t trust in Him for salvation. Instead, they’ll want the mountains to fall on them because of their sin and because there’s no forgiveness to be found—because the sacrifice hasn’t been made.

Jesus has to stay on the cross and die in order to save them. He has to stay on the cross and die so that they might believe in Him for salvation. Jesus has tons of power—He’s healed the sick, calmed storms and raised the dead. But ultimately, He redeems the world as the helpless Savior on the cross. He doesn’t save the world by growing in power. He saves the world by becoming a nothing before God, forsaken by His Father because He bears the sins of the world. He is the greatest Victor by being the biggest Loser.

That’s not reasonable. But that’s the Gospel. That is your salvation. So Jesus saves you by not saving Himself. You’ve got that down. You trust that Jesus is your Savior. But you’re still probably trying to save yourself anyway. I don’t mean that you reject Him—I don’t mean that you’re saying, “I don’t need this Jesus because I can work enough to save myself!” If that was your faith, you probably wouldn’t be here. But there is a popular misconception among Christians and it goes like this: now that you’re a Christian, you think that becoming a better Christian and overcoming sin is something that’s up to you. Now that you’ve been saved, you think it’s up to you to keep saving yourself.

Here’s a quick analogy. A lot of Christians treat sin like doctors would treat, oh, let’s say obesity. While sometimes it’s more complex, the treatment for many boils down to proper diet, proper exercise and changing behaviors. It’s about self-discipline, really: just watch an episode or two of “The Biggest Loser,” where there’s a trainer showing the contestants what the contestants have to do for themselves. That’s how many Christians approach sin: you’ve got Jesus or the pastor as your trainer, and it’s up to you to discipline yourself to do the right thing, avoid the wrong and change your behavior. That, many think, is how you overcome sin and become a better Christian.

Sin isn’t like obesity, though: it’s a lot more like a cancer. Cancers work and grow to corrupt and kill; and if you’re the victim, no matter how carefully you eat or how well you exercise, you’ve still got something inside that is working death. You have something corrupting you that has to be removed. It has to be killed if you’re going to live. Sin is the same way: if you’re sinful, you can discipline yourself and better your behavior all you want—but then you’re just a well-disciplined, better-behaved sinner who is still dying. If you’re to have life—if you’re to be saved, that sin has to be removed. It has to be killed.

But the problem is, you can’t kill sin. It has to be killed for you. That’s why Jesus went to the cross: He snatched your sin away from you at your baptism, held it to Himself and hurled Himself into the hell of God’s wrath to destroy it. How does He kill sin in you now? He forgives you. He washes your sin away in baptism. He speaks to destroy its power by His Word of absolution. He gives you His body and blood—body and blood that’s already broken back out of the grave and lives forever.

Now that you’re a Christian, you don’t save yourself by your better behavior and self-discipline. The answer to getting rid of sin isn’t your self-improvement: it’s repentance. It’s confessing to the Lord, “I’ve got this sin that’s working to corrupt and kill me, and I trust in you alone, O Lord, to take it away.”

You become strong by confessing your weakness, because Jesus makes His power perfect there. That’s unreasonable. But that’s how the Gospel works.

A couple of quick thoughts, then, before we wrap up. The first thought is this: the common objection at this point is that many will say I’ve just said that you don’t have to worry about doing the right thing, avoiding the wrong thing or living a life of good works or self-discipline. Many will misconstrue this message of Gospel to say, “Since you can always be forgiven, go ahead and sin as much as you want because what you do doesn’t really matter.” That’s foolish. Let me ask this: if you’re a lung cancer patient who’s just been saved from death by a lung transplant, do you step outside the hospital and light up another cigarette? Of course not. Some do, actually, but that’s foolish. Why would you invite death back in when you’ve just been rescued?

It’s the same with sin. Do good works and better behaviors destroy sin? No. But if Christ destroys that sin with forgiveness, why would you go right back to death and corruption? That will only, inexorably harden your heart and eventually kill you. That’s why you discipline yourself as a Christian to avoid sin. If you don’t, you’re poisoning the life Christ gives you at the cost of His own blood.

Here’s the second thought: it’s no coincidence that both doctors and pastors speak of remission: remission of cancer and remission of sins. In both cases, it means that the affliction is gone—but that it could always come back and start to kill again. For cancer victims, that means ongoing checkups and perhaps more treatment if the cancer returns. For Christians, it means a life of ongoing repentance, ongoing confession, and ongoing reception of the means of grace because sin always returns. That is where Christ is for you, and Christ is your life.

Christ is there for you, and Christ remains your life. The Gospel is not that Jesus died, rose and then said, “I am the good Life-coach.” He doesn’t’ say, “I’ve done My part and given you the tools you need to work out your own salvation from here. I won, so you can win too if you just put in the effort.”

No. The Gospel is that Jesus didn’t save Himself so that He might save you—that at the cross, He was the biggest Loser so that He might win the victory over sin death and devil. And the Good News continues that He remains present in His means of grace even now to take your sin away. If you “lose” your sin—if it’s taken away, then you’re righteous before God. That loss is certainly gain, the kingdom of heaven forever. It’s yours: not because of your efforts, but because the risen, victorious Son of God says to you, “I forgive you all of your sins.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

■

Dear Friends in Christ,

According to Exodus, chapter 12, the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed on the fourteenth day of the month. It had to be because God commanded it. The people were to select the blemish-free lamb for their household on the tenth day of the month, and it would presumably be the center of attention for the next four days. But at twilight on the fourteenth day, the people had to sacrifice the lamb according to God’s command.

The Lord’s command came with good reason, though. That night at midnight, He would come through the land of Egypt and take the life of every firstborn in the country, man and beast. He wouldn’t miss a one. But He would pass over the houses whose doors were marked with the blood of the lamb.

The people were to take the blood and paint it on the door, up and down the doorposts and across the lintel; and when the Lord saw the blood on the doors, He would pass over the house and spare the lives of the firstborn inside.

That wasn’t the end of the ceremony, though. The people were to get dressed, ready for travel, because Pharaoh would soon send them out of Egypt. Once dressed for the journey, they were to eat the lamb—but not break any of its bones—until none of the meat was left.

The people thus celebrated the Passover and the Lord kept His Word. He visited Egypt and took the lives of the firstborn, man and beast; but He spared the lives of those whose homes were marked with the blood of the lamb. Then He led His people out of Egypt, in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Pharaoh pursued them, you’ll remember: the hard-hearted ruler brought his chariots out to capture and kill. So the Lord stayed between the Egyptians and His people. He parted the Red Sea so that Israel walked across it on dry land. And when Pharaoh and his army followed, the Lord closed the Red Sea and washed them all away.

That was how the people of God were delivered from Egypt. To make sure the people wouldn’t forget, the Lord commanded that they celebrate the Passover once a year, every year. They’d remember the death of the firstborn. They’d remember crossing the Red Sea. And they’d remember that the Exodus started with the little Passover lamb—the lamb that had to be sacrificed.

Centuries later, in our Gospel lesson, Jesus tells His disciples to prepare the Passover dinner. He tells them how to find the place and who to talk to. When the meal is ready, He says to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

This is a Passover like no other. This, the Last Supper, is in some ways the Last Passover, for the Passover is about to be fulfilled. The following day, Jesus—our Passover Lamb—is going to be sacrificed for the sins of the world. He has to be sacrificed, because this is His plan for salvation.

Where the firstborn sons of Egypt died for rebellion against the Lord, the Lord Himself—the firstborn of Mary and the only-begotten Son of God—is going to die to redeem rebellious man. Where the blood marked the vertical posts and horizontal beams of the doors in Egypt to save, Christ’s blood will mark the post and beam of the cross for the salvation of the world. He will be both the Priest and the Sacrifice as the offering is made for the sins of the world.

Where Pharaoh was drowned in the abyss of the sea as Moses led the people toward the Promised Land, Jesus is both Pharaoh and Moses on Calvary. In the place of the hard-hearted ruler, He suffers God’s judgment of death and abyss of hell on behalf of sinful man; in the place of Moses, He is doing so to lead the people out of the bondage of sin and into the kingdom of God.

All of that is going to happen the following day, when “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” takes away the sins of the world by His death on the cross. And like the Passover lamb, not one of His bones will be broken, just a spear in the side from which blood and water will flow. That is how the Passover meal is fulfilled in the kingdom of God; for not only was it given by God in Exodus 12 to point back to deliverance from Egypt, but it was also given by God to point forward to your deliverance of sin by the death of Christ.

So at this Last Supper, Jesus takes over the Passover and declares a new meal. He takes the bread, breaks it and says to His disciples, “This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” He takes the cup of wine and says, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” From 1 Corinthians, He also says, “Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:25).

The meal continues. Where the sacrificed lamb was to be eaten by the household in Egypt, so Jesus gives us His body and blood to eat and to drink, for the forgiveness of sins. Not once a year, but often: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).

As Christians, we don’t celebrate the Passover every year. Some churches do, and that’s not necessarily wrong as they acquaint themselves with an Old Testament custom. But we are not required to celebrate it, because the Passover has been fulfilled in Christ. There, at the Last Supper, He ended the Passover as an annual required feast—and instead, He gave us a better Supper to eat.

The Small Catechism asks, “What is the benefit of this eating and drinking?”, and the response is:

“That is shown us by these words, ‘Given and shed for you for the remission of sins’; namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.”

This Supper gives you the forgiveness of sins—the forgiveness of sins won by Christ on the cross for you. You were once a slave—not a slave to Pharaoh, but a slave to sin, death and devil. You could not escape, and all that was left for you was slavery and death. But as the Passover lamb was sacrificed in Egypt to set the people free from slavery, so Christ—your Passover Lamb—was sacrificed to deliver you from slavery to sin and slavery to death. In his great Easter hymn, Martin Luther writes this:
Here our true Paschal Lamb we see,

Whom God so freely gave us;
He died on the accursed tree—
So strong His love—to save us.
See, His blood now marks our door;
Faith points to it; death passes o’er,
And Satan cannot harm us. Alleluia! (LSB # 458 v.5)

Your freedom from slavery did not come cheap. It was not at the cost of a knock-kneed cute little lamb, but rather the suffering and death of the Son of God. That is how strong God’s love is to save you.

He gives you that forgiveness of sins freely as He bids you, “Take and eat, this is My body, take and drink, this is My blood…for the forgiveness of sins.” And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

There is more: born in sin, you were born with a heart as hard and dead as Pharaoh’s. You could not believe, would not believe in the gracious promises of God. That old sinful nature had to be put to death—you needed to be raised up again as a new creation. On Calvary, remember, Christ took the role of Pharaoh—He was “drowned” on the cross, suffering the abyss of hell in your place as Pharaoh was drowned in the depths of the Red Sea. He has joined you to His death and resurrection in your baptism: there, by water and the Word, you died with Him and rose again with Him. So says St. Paul in Romans 6:3-4: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” In Holy Baptism, the old sinful you has been drowned, sure as Pharaoh was in the Red Sea; and in Holy Baptism, you’ve walked out of the Red Sea alive, sure as Moses did—for by that washing of water and the Word you are now among God’s chosen people. You’re free from slavery, free from sin. You’re making your way through the wilderness of this world, led by God. You’re on your way to the Promised Land of heaven.

There is still more: following the Red Sea, the people of God were not left alone to make their way to the Promised Land. The Lord was present with them, leading them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He spoke His Word to them, repeating His Law and His Gospel, warning them of the sins that would lead them to forsake Him and repeating His promise that the Savior would come. He gave them bread from heaven every day to sustain them as manna fell from the sky. So the Lord is also present with you—not in a cloud, but in His means of grace. At your Baptism, when you passed through your Red Sea from death to life, He said to you, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

By His Word, He repeats to you His Law and His Gospel, warning you of the sins that would lead you to forsake Him, and reminding you that your Savior has come. He feeds you bread from heaven: the body and blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, the “bread of life.”

That is what this Supper is about. It is not some institution that God gives only so that we remember, and it is certainly not an ordinance by which He tests our obedience to Him. It is the Father calling His children to dinner so that they might be fed. It is the Passover fulfilled: it is Christ present with us, leading us through the wilderness and feeding us with the forgiveness that keeps us alive in Him.

Do not be deceived. Many fell in the wilderness. They rejected God’s Law, disobeyed His commands and lost the life He’d given them. They complained that His gifts of Word and manna were not enough; but without these gifts and His mercy, they died. They wanted to go back to Egypt, choosing slavery with some benefits over the promise of eternal life.

The temptations will be the same for you. As long as you’re in this wilderness, you will be tempted to forsake the Lord. You’ll be tempted to return to the slavery of sin because of the benefits of pleasure, ease and security it seems to offer: but such benefits are mirages, and sin still kills. You’ll be tempted to complain that God’s gifts of Word and Supper are not enough to sustain you, and you’ll want Him to promise life in other ways, but He does not. You’ll be tempted to neglect His means of grace while you deal with the dangers of this desert; but then you will go hungry as you starve your faith.

Beware of these sins, repent of them daily, and make your way back to His Word and His Supper. This Supper is not a pale remembrance of the Passover: it is the Passover fulfilled. It is the greater meal that to which the Passover pointed. Deliverance from Egypt was a might act of God: but in this meal, the mighty act is greater. For the Lord, who has already delivered you from sin and death by Holy Baptism, strengthens and preserves you in the one true faith unto life everlasting. That’s why Martin Luther continued in his Easter hymn to bid:

Then let us feast this Easter Day
On Christ, the bread of heaven;
The Word of grace has purged away
The old and evil leaven.
Christ alone our souls will feed;
He is our meat and drink indeed;
Faith lives upon no other! Alleluia! (LSB # 458 v.7)

Christ, your Passover Lamb, gives you the remission of sins in this Supper, for He is present with you in, with and under bread and wine. Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. And so life and salvation are yours: because you are forgiven for all of your sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

■

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,

As I mentioned earlier, today’s service has a two-fold emphasis – Palm Sunday when Jesus begins the week with His triumphal entry, and Sunday of the Passion as He suffers great agony on the cross and dies for our sins.

If the people of the city of Jerusalem had known scripture, they would have known what was happening when Jesus entered the city riding on a donkey. The Prophet Zechariah, in today’s Old Testament lesson prophesied that when the coming Messiah would come to Jerusalem he would be both righteous and humble – riding on a donkey. In other words, not coming against the people as a war lord to enslave them, but for the people, to redeem and save them. Indeed, Jesus comes into the city as a great king, with the acclamations of a king. The people with great joy shout “Ωσαννα” – “Save us!” – to the Son of David, the true heir to the throne.

And this is where today’s emphasis shifts from the joy of Palm Sunday to the Sunday of the Passion. That’s because Jesus will not be led to a throne in a king’s palace. All the city is stirred up by his entrance, but not necessarily for good. The topic of conversation becomes “who is this Jesus?” Some will say, “it’s the great prophet from Galilee!” Others will say, “he’s a blasphemer we must destroy.” Very few will say, “the Son of God.” Jesus will then not be led to his throne by a cheering multitude, but by soldiers with swords and clubs. He will be beaten and mocked by soldiers rather than guarded. He will be led to a hill so weakened that another man will carry his cross. For Jesus will be crucified and his king’s throne is a cross of wood, with the words written above: “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

A throne is a place of judgment. From the cross, Jesus declares the true judgment to those before him. Who are there before him? The artist James Tissot created a very striking painting of Christ’s crucifixion called “Crucifixion, seen from the cross.” It appears on the front cover of today’s bulletin. It is much different from other paintings of the crucifixion because the only part of Jesus which is seen is his feet at the very bottom of the painting. You might even miss them if you don’t look closely. The perspective is Christ’s. Ιt is a Jesus-eye view. So the majority of the painting is not Jesus, but instead the different people gathered around his cross. There is a greatly mixed group of people – some mourning, some sneering, some just looking on – different reactions to the King of the Jews upon the cross.

So you see sitting on a low circle of stones around the cross are several soldiers, some sneering, some looking away, some bored with the situation. They don’t even feel the need to stand before the king. These are the ones who mocked him, putting a crown of thorns on his head, a scarlet robe on him, and a reed in his right hand, kneeling and saying “Hail King of the Jews!” Then they struck him and spit upon him. These Roman soldiers show the world’s view of the kingship of Jesus. What kind of a king would be so weak to allow himself to be mocked and spit upon? Jesus is no great Caesar. They do not see him as worthy of any respect.

Do not be like these soldiers. They only see physical might and appearances. Their god is their earthly desires, they are the fools who say in their heart there is no God. They put their trust in rulers and in chariots, in might and brutality. All these things which they see as important will pass away. For everything on earth will die and decay. This world is destined for destruction. Caesar will not save in the final judgment. Politics, wealth, status will do nothing in the final judgment. So do not look at the things which seem impressive now, for they do not last. Even Rome’s great empire fell. It is God who raises and lowers kings, but his Son will be on the throne forever.

Before Jesus’ cross there are others mocking. Prominently on the right side of the painting, there is a group of sneering chief priests, scribes, and elders, well-dressed upon their own donkeys. These are the ones who said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” The elders and priests, unlike the soldiers, don’t just despise Jesus for his weakness. They have heard his words and reject them. They don’t want Jesus as king. They are pictured sitting on their own donkeys, richly dressed. In a mockery of Jesus’ entrance into the city, they are the ones who will be seated as kings. They will be the leaders of the people, not Jesus, and they think they have finally put down the one who threatened their power.

Their mockery is similar yet different than the soldiers. The soldiers at least do not need to have a comprehension of who Jesus is or what he claims. The chief priests, scribes, and elders know exactly what Jesus has said and who he claims to be, and they reject him. Even though they recognize the miracles he has done – he saved others – they do not believe what he says. These men have been soundly defeated by Jesus in every confrontation, and now like cowards and bullies mock him in his weakness. So it is with those who claim to be followers of God, but when the opportunity arises will attack others in hate. They do not love their enemies, and thus the reject the very love of God for them. It is impossible to love God and hate your brother, for in so doing you hate the very sacrifice of Jesus, as the chief priests and elders do.

The chief priests are pictured in the painting as standing a ways off, as if they are worried Jesus may actually come down from the cross. But standing right in front of Jesus are the women, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee, along with John, the only disciple who did not abandon Jesus. And, of course, there is Jesus’ mother, Mary, standing immediately at the foot of the cross. They are all looking up to Jesus, mourning at his feet. All their hope as they followed Jesus these last years was put onto Jesus, but now he is being put to death. He has loved them, forgiven them, healed them, saved them. They kneel before him as their king, but their king is dying.

These are the blessed ones, generations yet unborn will be following in their steps. They cling to Jesus even when their eyes see that he has failed. They hold to him at the cross in faith, because they cannot put their faith in anything else. Others, even most of the disciples, would say, “it’s over, Jesus is done. We must have been wrong. There is no saving us now.” Yet these dedicated Christians before the cross of Jesus hold to him even though they do not know how the promise will come true. Maybe they remember his words that on the third day he would rise. But the hope of resurrection is hard to see in times of suffering.

Jesus cries out before them at the ninth hour, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” The bystanders look on, not knowing what he is saying. In the painting there are many dozens of bystanders, not mourning, not mocking, just watching the spectacle. They think that Jesus is calling Elijah. Yet if they knew Christ, they would know that Jesus is not calling Elijah. These words of Jesus are truly their salvation.

Jesus cries out because he has taken on the sins of the whole world on the cross. Though he committed no sin, the sins of the world have been laid on him as a sacrifice. Every mockery of the soldiers, the sneers of the chief priests, the despair of the women, the ignorance and apathy of the bystanders, the sins of all, even yours, were laid on him on that cross. Jesus Christ, the king of the Jews, lays out a judgment, but it is not a judgment on anyone being viewed from the cross. The judgment is upon him. Jesus is being judged for our offences, for our sins. And the Father, seeing Jesus take upon himself all our sins, gives Jesus the just punishment that we deserved. All the wrath of God is put upon Jesus. He suffers the ultimate suffering and is abandoned by the Father.

So he cries out the words of Psalm 22, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” This is not just a Psalm of despair. It is a royal psalm. It is the words of the king. Jesus shows that what he must suffer is the way of the true king. See, all this was the Father’s plan from the beginning. The psalm says:

But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me. They sneer. They shake their heads. They say, “Trust in the Lord.” “Let the Lord deliver him. Let him rescue him, if he delights in him.” (Psalm 22:6-8)

The sneers and mocking were already known. It is the true king who is mocked. It is the true king who is crucified.

“For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evil men has encircled me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me.” (Psalm 22:16-17)

The people think this is the end of a man who would be king. They are wrong. This is the way in which Jesus takes his throne. He is not conquering Caesar, looking for a kingdom of this world. He is not just another wise rabbi. He is the Messiah, the Son of David, the one who saves not only in spite of his death, but by his death. For, as the psalm says:

“…he has not despised nor detested the affliction of the afflicted. He has not hidden his face from him, but when he cried out to him, he heard.” (Psalm 22:24)

The Father heard Jesus’ cry. His sacrifice was accepted. Jesus gave up his spirit and died, but at that moment everything changed. The temple curtain was torn, there was no more need for sacrifices, for Jesus made the final sacrifice for our sins. The tombs were opened and people were raised. Resurrections were happening everywhere. In Jesus’ death, death had already been beaten and was failing. The whole earth shook, rocks split, the earth could not bear to see its creator die.

There in the painting to the left is a centurion, standing nobly before Jesus. At the sight of all these things, that centurion in awe said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” Already at his death, all the ends of the earth are turning to the Lord. This pagan Roman soldier is the first to say what all Christians will say before cross – truly this is the Son of God.

Yes, Jesus is truly the Son of God and our king. He shows this no better place than his cross, where he gives a judgment that is both just and merciful. Sin is punished by taking it on himself. So in him, all are forgiven. Even though you are not before his cross with the women and John, you do receive his forgiveness and his righteousness. For Psalm 22 ends:
Descendants will serve him. For generations people will be told about the Lord. They will come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet to be born that he has done it. (Psalm 22:30-31)

My friends, this Jesus is your king, he has died for your sins, even when you were not yet born. Though you have done as badly as the mockers and sneerer and bystanders and worse, he offers full pardon. For the punishment for the guilt of your sins was taken by your King. Now your King, buried, resurrected, and ascended, gives the gifts of his death to you, his body and blood. Receive him, trust him, knowing that this is a trust that will never fail. Firmly cast all your hopes, your cares, your sins, onto the crucified King, who has come to give His life for you. Join the crowd and say, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who has come to save us!” In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

■

The basis for God’s Word to us today is our Gospel reading.

Let us pray…Speak O Lord your words of life to us and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to You, our Rock and our Redeemer. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Like perhaps many of you, Beth and I have granite kitchen countertops and if you drop anything breakable on it, it will not be the granite that breaks. It is an unforgiving surface.

There is an ancient Hebrew proverb that goes something like this, “Should the stone fall on the jar, woe to the jar! Should the jar fall on the stone, woe to the jar! In either case, woe to the jar!”

We might again say that the stone in the proverb is unforgiving in either case.
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus quotes Psalm 118, when He says,

“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’?

18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day would most likely have known that Psalm well and they would have been able to continue what Psalm 118 says…

“This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Now from our perspective its obvious in quoting this Psalm that Jesus is referring to himself as that cornerstone and so the implicit question he is asking of his listeners is this, “Will you reject that stone, or will you stand on it and rejoice and be glad in it?

As listeners to God’s Word today that is also a question to us because Jesus speaks to each of us whenever His Word is proclaimed. Of course, if what Jesus says is easy to hear, we will say, “Amen!” but if what Jesus says today hits one of those raw sinful nerves in your life, what will you do then? What will be your response?

Pastor Fritsche will be back next Sunday, Palm Sunday, the day we will celebrate, not only Pastor’s return, but more importantly, Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Next Sunday will be the beginning of Holy Week. Sometimes that Sunday is also called Passion Sunday.

Now today’s parable of the vineyard and the wicked tenants is one Jesus taught after His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. And this parable ends rather tensely.

19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. 20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

These people did not like what they heard. The truth is not always easy to hear, even for us. It’s quite common for people to dismiss the truth by saying things like, “Well, that’s your truth!” or even worse, getting angry at the bearer of truth.
The issue with the Truth here proclaimed by Jesus, is that it is the capital “T” Truth that doesn’t belong to me or you. It is during Holy Week, the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, that Jesus prays…

Father…17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. – John 17:17
John would begin his Gospel by referring to Jesus in these terms (John 1:1)…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Jesus is the Word of God.

And as the Word, while He is with His disciples that Thursday night, Holy Thursday, Jesus says of Himself…(John 14:6)

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

Not “a” way, “a” truth, and “a” life, but the way, and the truth, and the life.
So, when faced with the Word of God, faced with Jesus the Word, the only begotten Son of God, how will people respond to the Truth? How will you or I respond to the Truth, especially the truth about us?

The parable Jesus tells is not one of those parables where you have to ask, “What is Jesus talking about here?” No, this is one of those parables, perhaps like a sermon you may have heard at one time, where you’re left wondering whether the pastor had been listening into your life and is now preaching about you.

This particular parable had an Old Testament parallel in Isaiah 5…

Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?
And so that those who are listening know exactly who the Lord is talking about and who he is talking to, Isaiah (5:7) writes a few verses later…
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
but behold, an outcry!

Now Jesus’ parable parallels what God had said about these Israelites, and they don’t have to ask, “Is he preaching about us?” because they know he is.

The wild grapes of Isaiah are the wicked tenants who over the years have beaten and sent away empty-handed all the prophets God had sent to them. They have refused to give to God what is His, what belongs to Him from His vineyard, they have refused to give their very lives. Instead, they keep themselves for themselves, and disrespect all who are sent to them, who remind them that they were bought with price, and they are not their own.

Jesus, who had just entered the city of Jerusalem to the cheers of Hosanna! “Please, Save us!,” is the very one of whom the owner of the vineyard in this parable says,
“I will send My beloved Son; perhaps they will respect Him.”

When Holy Week arrives, I invite you to listen to whether these men will respect their Messiah or whether they will disrespect Him. How will they react when face to face with God in the flesh.

Unfortunately, today’s parable is a spoiler because it tells us of what that reaction will be; it speaks of the wicked tenant’s response to the owner of the vineyard’s Son…

14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ 15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Now at this point, these religious leaders may be trying to hide their cards up their sleeves, but before the assembled crowds gathered around them, Jesus openly tells these leaders and everyone listening what will happen; what they will do.

This parable and its aftermath carry the same kind of drama that one of those western movies at high noon often display, with good and the bad guy facing off. Wicked tenants against the beloved son of the owner of the vineyard.

These tenants are the ones whom Isaiah says (5:20-21)…

20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!

In Jesus’ day, they are the ones who would rather kill Jesus than consider the truth he was proclaiming. They believed themselves to be the corner stone and Jesus to be the jar, but in reality, it is the other way around.

Now do we have the same situation today? Do we have “scribes” and “high priests” who would rather see this Jesus as dead than alive, who would rather silence Him than allow Him to continue to speak, who would prefer God’s Word to vanish in a puff of smoke than glow as the fire of Truth? I think we have those people in our society, those who work against the faith that we confess.

But on a personal level we must ask, “Do we also become like those scribes and high priests when we claim to be wiser or more clever than God’s Word?” I’ve heard it from time to time even in our LCC. For example, people expressing that they didn’t like what St. Paul had to say as if it was his opinion and not the inspired Word of God. I think there have been times when each of us perhaps silently or maybe even openly questioned the Word of Truth and in so doing, all of us who fail to listen to God’s Word are as guilty as these scribes and Pharisees of setting ourselves above God, and above Jesus.

The Word of God and everything that comes with it, including the Ten Commandments, levels the playing field for all of us because it applies to all people. God isn’t just speaking to “them” out there, but God’s Law and Gospel equally applies to the rich and the poor, to the old and the young, to male and female, to those who are here and to those who are not, to all.

For all of us Jesus is both the cornerstone that can crush us and the cornerstone that can hold us up to eternal life.

Now when I drop a plate or wine glass on my granite countertop and it smashes into a million pieces, I may grieve over it if it were something special, but in the end, I’ll toss it in the garbage. This is not the case with Jesus though.
When we fall upon Jesus as sinners. When we fall on our knees to confess our sin and acknowledge our sorrow over it, we are broken apart. This is what the Lord desires as David wrote in Psalm 51…

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

However, when we break before our Lord and Saviour, Christ the cornerstone does not sweep us up and toss us in the garbage. Instead, our Cornerstone pours his sacrificial blood upon us and binds up all our pieces, forgiving us and making us whole again. Christ the cornerstone is not unforgiving but forgiving.

Psalm 147 (2-3) promises this…

The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.

Today you may have come as one of those broken people. Your sin may have crushed you this week. Your guilt may be weighing you down. To you who are repentant and sorrowful, I speak Jesus own words (Matthew 11:28-30)…

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

You see, at the cross all your sins were cast on Jesus and Jesus is far greater than your sin, no matter how bad that may be. At the cross it is your sin that is broken into a million little pieces along with the rest of you, but when Jesus puts you back together through His forgiveness He doesn’t add that sin back in. Instead of you being placed into the garbage can, it is your sin that is swept up and tossed as far as the east is from the west.

Your sin is thrown out but you dear ones are not.

Of course, those who reject the forgiveness of God in Christ will suffer what Jesus warns in the parable, they will be brought to ruin, destroyed, and be put out of the vineyard. But as John says in his Gospel (1:12-13)…

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Dear children of God, God the Father in Christ Jesus His beloved Son has given the vineyard to you and it is here, within the household of God, that you can praise, thank and obey Him, your Saviour.

In the name of Jesus+. Amen.

■

Psalm 32

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (1 Timothy 1:2)

During the Sundays in Lent, you’ve received an insert offering some great insights into the Psalms we read responsively each Sunday. I thought that today I’d like us to reflect on what God’s Word has for us in today’s Psalm reading – Psalm 32.

Let us pray…Speak O Lord your words of life to us and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to You, our Rock and our Redeemer. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

If you’d like to follow along as I move through this Psalm, simply go to your bulletin and there you will find Psalm 32 nestled between the Old Testament and the Epistle readings. It’s also in the front of your service books. You might also want to have the Psalm insert in hand. That inserts begins with verse 2.

2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Now for me that sounded a bit like one of those beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel (5), where the first beatitude Jesus mentions is this one…

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

I find that it’s very easy for us to turn those “blessings” into curses kind of like this: “Okay, if I want God’s blessing, I better learn how to be poor in spirit.” Or in the case of today’s Psalm, “If I want God’s blessing, I had better get rid of all that iniquity and deceit within me.”

Now it’s true, the Bible does tell us a lot about God’s will for us, what we should and shouldn’t be doing. This is often expressed in “law-like” statements. However, the thing about God’s Law is that trying to fulfill it either leads us to pride or despair. These are the two ditches that we often fall into.

Pride happens when I hear those words, “Get rid of all that iniquity and deceit” and then imagine that I can or even have somehow accomplished it or at least gotten pretty close. I then look to God for the blessing sticker, proud of my accomplishments. I’m a good person. This is pride in its worst sense.

On the other hand, you might hear that verse…

2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

and it becomes like a high jump bar, set at 8 feet, or for some of us now, at 2 feet, but in any case, too high for us to achieve and this then leads us to despair. There is no hope for me. I’ll never be able to do that. I am lost. Woe is me. That’s the ditch of despair.

So, if we are to stay on the narrow road of blessing between those two ditches of pride and despair, God’s Word going to have to turns us to another Psalm (130:3) where the writer says:

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?

In other words, I can’t stand on this road of blessing on my own because my life is indeed filled with iniquity, with sin. And my sinful self, with the support of the devil and the world, constantly wants to deceive me into believing that I am a good person, that somehow my goodness outweighs my iniquities or on the other hand, that I am without hope of ever being what God or I would have me be.

One of the reasons we come to worship every week is to correct these deceptions of the devil; to get reoriented toward God’s true north. That occurs every Sunday as we begin with our confession and absolution which reminds us that neither of these views are true; that neither am I as good or as hopeless as I think.

God uses the entire Divine Service to help us walk on that narrow road of blessing so that we do not fall into pride or despair.

Now that could never happen apart from Christ. When we read the Psalms, we need to read them with Christ in mind, with Christ as the center. In this case…

2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

The only man whom God counted no iniquity, in and of himself, and in whose spirit there was no deceit was Jesus, God’s only Son. And yet Jesus doesn’t run the race on that road of life so that he can stand by himself on some gold medal platform while look down on us losers. Instead, Jesus enters into the muck race of our lives, takes our iniquity and deceit upon himself and dies for us on that cross so that we can be winners too. It is only as we stand by faith within the shadow of His cross, within the blood of Christ poured out upon us for our cleansing that there is forgiveness, the remission of our iniquity, and our deceit; that there victory over sin, death and the devil, only because of Christ and what He has done for you and for me.

This is the blessing the psalmist speaks of in those first two verses:

1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.

2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

We cannot stand on that road of blessing one day, one hour, one minute, one second without first realizing who we are apart from Christ as sinners and secondly, who we are by faith in Christ Jesus, as His forgiven saints. To forget either of those realities, our sinful nature and our Redeemer, is to do damage to our soul. The Psalmist reminds us of this in verses 3 and 4:

3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.

4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

When we fall into pride, thinking we are good enough on our own or even as we despair of our inability to be good enough without the hope of Christ, sin corrodes our lives much like the unwashed dirt and salt of winter roads on our vehicles. Unconfessed, known sin weighs heavily upon us – oppresses us, but even the general road salt of sin unconfessed, builds ups and will eventually eat into the very essence of our lives.

King David knew this very well – David, the murderer and adulterer, and it is why he writes…

5 I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Perhaps more famously David, after his sinful encounter with Bethsheba and the murder of her husband had been revealed by Nathan the prophet, David writes in Psalm 51 which was part of our Introit today:

3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Did you hear that…sin comes into us from the very beginning. Those cute little babies are not innocent until proven guilty. They are infected with the same monster disease that resides in each one of us, every day, even if you’re sitting at home alone. It’s still there.

Repentance, which I’ve talked a lot about these last couple of weeks, and the verbal expression of our repentance in confession is best summed up in these verses we often read from 1 John…

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

However, confession of sin is not natural to us. By nature, we are more like Adam and Eve who after falling for the devil’s temptation went and hid themselves. Or as St. John records Jesus saying (John 3:19-20),

19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

And yet, as the Word and Holy Spirit convert the heart to faith, the believer no longer fears the light, but rather sees God’s light in Christ, as a refuge for healing. Again, listen to what the Psalm reading records…

6 Therefore let everyone who is godly
offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;

surely in the rush of great waters,
they shall not reach him.

7 You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance.

Amidst what can be the overwhelming and destructive nature of sin, the believer can pray, calling upon the very God, who as we heard on Ash Wednesday is (Joel 2:13)…
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

What a comfort it is to know this God in the face of Christ who would rather die for our sins than condemn us in our sin.

In Christ God freely offers forgiveness to all, but to those who come in faith, repenting of their sins, there is not only forgiveness but life transformation. To us Christ promises the Holy Spirit who comes to instruct us in the way, the truth and the life of Christ. This is what David wrote of…

8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

We are never left alone to fend for ourselves or to return to the battlefield of life on our own. Our Champion always goes before us and the Holy Spirit equips us to do battle against sin, death and the devil, alongside our Champion. This is what St. Paul reminds us of in his letter to the Ephesians 6…

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

Even when we are armored up, the devil does not leave the redeemed alone. In fact, it sometimes appears that as soon God has done His good work in Christ, baptizing us into His family, and equipping us for the work of ministry, the devil quickly works to try and strip us of that godly armor, convincing us that we do not need the very things God has commanded and gifted us with.

David warns us not to ignore God’s instruction or as Luther would explain in the Third Commandment:

We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
Perhaps David’s words in this Psalm today are a little more in your face:

9 Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.

Do you need the Law to whip you into place? The Law may do that, but it can never motivate you to follow Jesus, to trust in him. Only one who has heard and believed the good news of God’s love and grace in Christ Jesus will respond in faith by listening to God’s Word and obeying His will with joy.

It is to such a person that God’s blessing comes, not to one who is perfect, but to one who is perfectly forgiven in Christ. The Psalmist comes full circle and ends his prayer:

10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.

11 Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Apart from Christ all is sorrow and yet that doesn’t mean that we who are in Christ are without sorrows and do not experience the wickedness of this world. Even so, in Christ we are surrounded by His steadfast love which by faith enables us to be glad in the Lord, to rejoice amidst whatever may come our way because we are covered in Christ’s righteousness and therefore, we can shout for joy as we await the Day of the Lord.

In the name of Jesus +. Amen.

■