Clinton Circuit Service hosted at Immanuel,
Grand Mound, IA
St. Matthew 27:11–23
In the name of the Father and of the + Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
He
came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. (John 1:11) He was
despised and rejected by men. (Isaiah 53:3) The people who had waited all their lives for the Messiah, the people who had waited through the
centuries for the promise to be fulfilled, turned on the Promiser and handed
over the fulfillment to be killed. Their
high priestly forefathers were Moses, Aaron, and Levi. But here we see the
descendents of those forefathers who have sunk so low that they presume to
betray Christ and condemn Him to death! The council’s forefathers were Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, and Judah; now such noble people have fallen so low that they
betray and dispose of their God, who had been promised to them. (Luther
Sermons, V:391) They spurned the promises that had been given them to
treasure and trust in, and like their great-uncle Esau they sold their
birthright for the pottage of power and influence. They had received all of God’s blessings, but now they curse Him,
demanding the most cursed death for their Lord. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” So
they shouted, “Let Him be crucified!”
The Jews are no longer the
chosen people of God because they have rejected His Word and His Christ. They
have no claim to His promises and blessings. God will not be held accountable
to those who refuse to believe in Him. His promises are only received by faith,
just as our father Abraham received them. The true sons of Abraham are not, and
never were, his blood relatives. It has always been that the sons of Abraham
are all people who trust in his promised offspring, Jesus.
However, that also means the
Jews are not the only ones who reject the Christ. Each of us, by our sin, has
rejected Him. We are Barabbas in our rebellion against God and His
commandments. We are murderers of the Truth, with our sins and our excuses.
But even more evil than that,
any one who teaches falsely and persecutes the Gospel is serving in the office
of Caiaphas, rejecting the Christ and leading others to do the same. Barabbas
was a notorious criminal, but the priests and Jewish rulers were the ones who
let him go free and condemned an innocent man by their lies. In the end, false
teachers, be they pope or pastor, dictator or president, they will be judged
and destroyed.
So let us turn from the wicked
accusers and look to Jesus who doesn’t answer a single charge. He allows the
accusations and rejection to be heaped on Him, rather than anyone else. For as
the High Priest unwittingly said, “It is better that one man should die for the people, not
that the whole nation should perish.” He did
not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied
that Jesus would die for the nation.” (John 11:50–51) It was the eternal
plan and purpose of the Messiah to be rejected and condemned. Not only was
Jesus rejected by His people, rejected by the priests and teachers of Israel,
and even rejected by us, but He was ultimately rejected by His Father. The rejection
that Christ suffered in His soul came from His God’s Law and wrath, and that was
far worse than any rejection from men. He suffered the pains of hell and was
cursed by His Father. But He endured this so that even our sins of rejection
would be atoned for and forgiven.
Human
reason, like the Jews, reproaches and ridicules us Christians for worshiping a
God who was executed as an insurrectionist and blasphemer. But we Christians
exult in this, because Christ, true God and man, gladly suffered of His own
will. He did not defend Himself or demand their acceptance. What He did, He did
for us and for the world, so that He might break the stranglehold, which sin,
death, and the devil had on us. He
was rejected so that those who rejected Him might be accepted. The innocent One was condemned so that
the guilty could go free. He was
killed so that the murderers might be spared, and His enemies made His friends. And so to all who receive Him, who believe in His name, He gives the right to
become children of God. (John 1:12)
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
St. Matthew 27:45–56
In the name of the Father and of the + Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O
sorrow dread! Our God is dead.
Who died on the cross? Not a
mere man. It was not just a human heart that stopped beating or human lungs
that stopped breathing. Death is the tearing apart of body and soul. The death
on the cross was just that for the God who is a Man. His divinity was not
separated from His humanity. But God’s human soul was torn away from God’s
human body. God died on the cross.
Did
the Father also die for you? He did not. The Father is God only, as is the Holy
Spirit; but the Son is both true God and true man. He died for me and shed His
blood for me. (Christian Q&A 10) The
perfectly united Person who is true God and true Man died. The incarnate God, the eternal Word that became flesh, He died. How can this be? Who could have guessed that the One who created life would lose
His own? It is the deepest of mysteries
that caused the sun to veil his face and the earth to be shaken with fear.
We fear death, but our physical
death is nothing now that eternal death has been dealt with by Christ. To be
forsaken by God is much worse than death. And that is what Christ endured. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
He cried. This does not mean His deity
was separated from His humanity… but the righteous and innocent Man had to
tremble and fear like a poor, condemned sinner and in His tender, innocent
heart had to feel God’s wrath and judgment over sin, taste for us eternal death
and damnation, and suffer all that a condemned sinner has deserved and must
suffer eternally. (Luther, Pieper 2:312) He suffered all that for you. No
human death could accomplish what was needed. Only God’s death could pay the
penalty for all sinners and earn forgiveness for the world. Only God’s death
could count for an eternity in hell. How can this be? Who could have guessed
that the One who demands the wages of sin, would die for His enemies and pay
their debts? It is the deepest of mysteries that causes sinners to veil their
faces with tears and to be shaken by fear and love.
But Christ did not die in
despair. If He suffered eternal death in our place, He also showed us how to
endure physical death with patience and trust. “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit!” And having said this He
breathed His last. (Luke 23:46) Christ died commending Himself into the
Father’s hands, knowing that His Father’s love for Him does not fail and that
the Father would raise Him up to life again. The soul of Christ our God left
His body, but rested in His Father’s loving hands. So also Christians commend
their souls into their Father’s hands, with faith that His love for them in
Christ does not fail. They are pure and holy in their Father’s eyes because of
Christ’s death, so at their deaths Christians can be confident that the Father
will receive them in heaven. And they die with the certain hope of the
resurrection when the Father will bring soul and body back together. The
terrors of death are gone. For those who believe in Christ, death is but a
slumber. Who dieth thus dies well. (LSB
450:7)
O
sorrow dread!
Our
God is dead,
Upon
the cross extended.
There
His love enlivened us
As
His life was ended. (LSB 448:2)
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
St. Matthew 27:57–64
In the name of the Father and of the + Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
At the tomb faith triumphs over all evil and
darkness. Jesus is now crucified, dead, and buried, and a stone blocks the
tomb. But in spite of all this death for the eyes to see, there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting
opposite the tomb. How faithful these women were! In spite of all the grief
that this experience and sight gave them, they remained faithful to their Lord
and His Word, for He had told them to be watchful.
So there they sit – there faith
sits – keeping watch in the time of darkness. And so faith triumphs over
darkness and the grave. On whose behalf do these women sit and keep watch? On
behalf of all faithful ones – the whole Church – you and me. No darkness can
daunt them, no grief or sorrow can discourage them, for in spite of their
weeping they remain faithful, even now, to their dead Lord. Somehow they still
know that He is the Resurrection and the Life.
In a similar way Christians go
out to the cemetery and lay their brothers and sisters in the grave. We go sit
in front of the grave, in spite of the fact that the person is dead. In spite
of all our grief and sorrow we remain faithful. We don’t go there in despair. And
we don’t go there to put on a show. It’s very simple really, almost pathetic
when you look at it: a man says a few words and puts a handful of dirt on the
casket. But in spite of the sad look of it all, we remain faithful to our Lord
and His Word. For He has told us that He is the
Resurrection and the Life. He has told us that at the last trumpet we shall
be raised. He has told us that death has lost its sting. He has told us, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” And
so we remain faithful to those words, even if our sight tells us the opposite.
The faithful women went to see
the tomb because their Lord was there. And by His three-day rest in the tomb He
hallowed the graves of all believers, promising resurrection to our mortal
bodies. So the Christian sleeps in his grave, like a peaceful bed. His soul
resides in heaven with Jesus, carried to Abraham’s side by the angels. And his
body is laid to rest in the grave until his Lord awakens him to glory, when he
will see Jesus face to face and know the splendor of the eternal God. This why
we go out to the grave. Jesus has gone there before us and we follow after Him.
He is our greater Jonah, spending three days and nights in the belly of the
fish called Death, only to rise up again from the depths. He is our greater
Daniel, descending into the lion’s den, but He has shut the gaping mouth of
Death, shattering its teeth. The grave could not hold Him and so it cannot hold
you. Christ has made your death a portal From
the strife of this life to His joy immortal. We cannot see this yet, just
like those women at the sealed tomb. But
one day we will. For now we go to the
tomb in the triumph of faith – Faith that expects Easter.
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
This final sermon was adapted from Rev. Burnell
Eckardt’s meditation in Every Day Will I
Bless Thee, p.181.
