Judica - Fifth Sunday in Lent

Introit (Psalm 43)

St. John 8:42–59

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

Whenever we read the Psalms it is generally assumed that we read them as our prayers to the Lord. That is correct, but there is another, deeper way of reading many of the Psalms. You can first read the Psalms as prayers of Jesus Himself, our God who is a true Man and who teaches us how to pray to His and our true Father. Then, once you hear Jesus praying, you can join your voice to His. Our Introit from Psalm 43 is a good example of a Psalm about Jesus, His passion and death, and even the circumstances of our Gospel reading.

In our Gospel reading Jesus is surrounded by His accusers. They are an ungodly people, deceitful and unjust men. And Jesus is quite harsh with them. In His trial before Herod and Pilate, Jesus will stay mostly silent. But not here. Here Jesus confronts His accusers who lie and so murder the truth. He says they have the devil for their father, the father of lies. And they are following in their lying father’s footsteps. They reject the Truth: the words Jesus speaks and Jesus Himself. Their hostility toward Jesus is mounting and will overflow in the lies and hatred of Good Friday. They cannot stand who Jesus is and what He says. They cannot stand that He is the one true God, the God whom they have sinned against, the God who has now come to rescue them. They hate Jesus, because He is God in the flesh to save sinners, and that means they cannot save themselves. Jesus and His words show how desperate the sinner’s situation is – it takes nothing less than the Lord Almighty to become a man and die in order for a sinner to be rescued from himself. Jesus and His words show that they are not good and there is nothing they can do. And that’s something they just cannot tolerate. This ungodly people, these deceitful and unjust men hate Jesus’ Truth. They call Him evil. They even say He has a demon. Proud and obstinate people say stupid things. They go into a rage against the Truth even when it’s staring them in the face because they cannot stand to be wrong. We hear similar insanity from people who can’t stand God’s Word today. Maybe they don’t claim that Jesus has a demon, but they say God is hateful and vindictive. They claim that His Word is unfair and unkind. So they also persecute His Church, claiming His people are irrational and intolerant. But these accusations flung at us and at God are the lies of an ungodly people and they come from the father of lies who is constantly trying to murder the Truth.

But before we become proud in ourselves and play the victim, let us also realize that Jesus confronts us. We take the devil for our father whenever we sin and reject God’s Word. We dispute with Jesus and are skeptical of the Truth because it is inconvenient for what we would like to do. We can be just as obstinate, just as reluctant to confess that we are wrong. Like Jesus’ accusers we reject the Truth because it means we cannot save ourselves, but are entirely at the mercy of God. So we have also called God evil and ourselves good, even though the Truth is so clearly the opposite. Repent. Whoever is of God hears the words of God.

Now through this whole confrontation Jesus does not defend Himself. “I do not seek My own glory,” He says. “There is One who seeks it, and He is the Judge.” He has perfect faith in His Father, that His Father is good and will defend Him and vindicate Him. His Father will prove Him right in the end and glorify Him. Jesus’ accusers can do their worst and say what they want, but the Father will raise Jesus from the dead. All of this gets echoed as a prayer in our Introit Psalm, and Jesus is the One praying it. Judge me, or vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me! For you are the God in whom I take refuge. Only Jesus can truly ask without fear for God to judge Him, because only Jesus is sinless and will be judged innocent and righteous. That means He will be vindicated, proven right by the Father’s judgment.

And that is exactly what does happen. Jesus goes the way of light and truth: the truth of the Father’s Word that Jesus preaches, the light of the Father’s Word that Jesus shows. And so He goes to God’s holy hill and altar – not the stone Temple on Mount Zion, but the wooden cross on Mount Calvary. The true altar of God is the cross where Jesus offered the sacrifice of His body and blood for the sins of the world. And though this sacrifice meant that Jesus was forsaken by His God, condemned in the place of all sinners, Jesus did it with joy – the joy that His death means our salvation.

We actually see this most clearly in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus prays, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42) Jesus was glad to obey His Father and He wanted to save us. But there was still real pain for Him; not just the pain of whips, nails, and physical death, but the pain of hell, the real pain of being forsaken by the Father because of the load of sin He bore. The firefighter doesn’t want to be hurt in the burning building but he still wants to save the child and does it for the joy of sparing the child’s life. Jesus is God, but He is also a real man. And just as Jesus can pray, “Vindicate me, O God, for you are the God in whom I take refuge,” So He can also say, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” The hope of Jesus was not disappointed. On the third day He rose from the dead. The resurrection is His vindication by the Father. He is proved to be righteous. He died but His innocent death destroyed the power of death and the grave could not hold Him. Jesus was rescued from the lies of His enemies and from the devil, that ancient man of violence. What’s more, the resurrection proves that the Father accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for sin. All debts are paid for. The Lord is righteous and so He has cut the cords of wicked death and devil.

These enemies tried to capture Jesus but have been defeated. They still try to capture us and so we take up this Psalm from Jesus as our own prayer, joining our voices to the Righteous One, our Savior. When we pray, “Judge me, vindicate me, O God,” we are not asking to be judged by our works or by our sense of justice. We want to be judged by Jesus’ work, His sacrifice in our place. Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Romans 4:25) The resurrection of Jesus not only means that Jesus is vindicated as innocent. It also means that the guilty are vindicated with Jesus’ vindication. The ungodly are declared to be righteous with Jesus’ righteousness. The sinners are forgiven. This is why Jesus can say, “If anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.” Faith in Jesus and His Word means His death and resurrection count for you. His proven-right-ness counts for you, so you will be vindicated with Jesus and you will not see death. What we call death is not death for those who have already died with Jesus in Baptism, who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb and call upon His name. For them death is a doorway to life. To say “Abraham is dead” is a lie from the father of lies. Abraham is not dead. And neither are your loved ones who have finished their course in faith. They live because Jesus lives.

Knowing this we still pray to our God for rescue. We want to be rescued from ungodliness: separated from those who persecute us and seek to murder the Truth. Separated from our own evil thoughts and lies. We pray to be led by the light and truth of God’s Word, to be brought to His holy hill, His dwelling, His altar. And the true altar of God is the cross of Jesus. And even our altar reminds us of that true altar and the sacrifice Jesus offered there. But our altar is also a table: the Lord’s own Table where we feast on the sacrificial Lamb of God. The worthy Lamb that was slain and shed His blood, meets us at His Table and gives us a taste of exceeding joy.

We are nearing the end of Lent. In the weeks to come the face of God will be darkened and Jesus Himself will be hidden, taken away and condemned with His death at the proper time. But that is not the end. Easter is coming. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Fourth Sunday in Lent

Introit (Psalm 122; Antiphon: Isaiah 66:10–11)

Galatians 4:21–31

St. John 6:1–15

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

On Transfiguration we sang farewell to the “Alleluias,” and exchanged that full-throated joyful song of praise for a more penitential, somber tune in Lent to reflect our sorrow over sin. That Sunday we sang the hymn that sets aside the “Alleluia.” But in that hymn we also sang about the Church in a way that resembles our Introit and Epistle today: Alleluia, thou resoundest, True Jerusalem and free; Alleluia, joyful mother, All thy children sing with thee (LSB 417:2). In both our Introit and Epistle today, the Church is identified as the true Jerusalem and our spiritual mother. And in both the Introit and the Epistle, the Church and her children, that’s us, are told to rejoice! Even in Lent, with no “Alleluias,” there is still rejoicing. Laetare! Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her.

In our Epistle, St. Paul makes an allegory out of the Genesis account with Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, and their sons, Ishmael and Isaac. The Lord had promised Abraham and Sarah a son, even in their old age, even though Sarah was barren. And so they waited and waited and no son came. So Sarah had the idea that Abraham could still have a son, just not with her, and so she gave her slave woman Hagar to Abraham. And Hagar gave birth to a son and he was named Ishmael. But that was not the Lord’s plan for Abraham and Sarah, and so later, just as the Lord had promised, Abraham did have a son with Sarah, and he was named Isaac.

Now what is the difference between Ishmael and Isaac? Both are sons of Abraham. But Ishmael is merely the son of a natural, earthly conception and birth. What is lacking in Ishmael? His birth lacks the promise from God. Isaac is the son of the promise. His conception and birth is not merely natural, but came from the Word that the Lord spoke to Abraham and Sarah. What’s more, Isaac’s birth from the promise points ahead to the great son of the promise, the son of Abraham: Jesus, the promised Savior. This is the difference between these two sons: One came to life from the Word and promise of God, and so became the heir of the promise for a Savior. The other did not.

St. Paul uses this account to show the difference between the Law and the Gospel – that is, those who try to be saved by the Law and their works, and those who are saved by the Gospel and the promise of salvation in Jesus. Hagar the slave woman represents Mount Sinai where the Law was given, and also the earthly city of Jerusalem where the Temple was and where the Jews put their trust in their own righteousness and works. The Law makes promises but only conditional ones: “Do this and you will live.” The Law only gives earthly blessings, because it cannot make us right and holy in the eyes of God. The Law can only demand perfection from us. It has no power to forgive and make us perfect. So this Hagar is a slave to the Law and can only give birth to slaves of the Law. What are she and her children lacking? They lack the promise of Christ’s free forgiveness.

On the other hand, Sarah, even though she herself was a sinner, represents a very different mountain and city. She is Mount Zion and the true Jerusalem. This is not referring to the physical location on the map, and certainly not the rebellious city that killed the prophets and crucified our Lord. Mother Sarah represents the Jerusalem spoken of in our Introit – the true and free and heavenly Jerusalem. She is the one holy Church and she has the Gospel. She has the unconditional promise of God’s gracious forgiveness in Christ’s blood. She has all the heavenly blessings of faith, hope, love, and everlasting peace. And so she is a free mother and she gives heavenly birth to free children of God. All who trust in Christ and His promise of forgiveness have this new birth and this holy mother.

Now as wonderful as all this sounds, and even as we believe this joyful message, we do not fully experience it, and too often it seems that things are just the opposite. The Church doesn’t usually look like a joyful mother with many children, but rather like a poor beggar woman, barren, starving, and ridiculed by the world. She doesn’t have many followers because her teaching is out of step with what’s popular, and it doesn’t seem like she has much to offer people who are trying to have a successful, fulfilling, happy life. And then there are the sons of Hagar, the people who come up with good rules to live by. They have the most up-to-date knowledge and are open-minded and tolerant of everyone’s views. They don’t worry about old-fashioned ideas like sin, so that leaves them free to enjoy life and do what feels right to them. They are numerous and successful in the eyes of the world, with their minds empty and their bellies full. Hagar, the mother of those who trust in their own works and ways, she seems to be prolific. And poor Sarah, the mother of those who trust only in the Lord, she seems to be barren. But again, what’s the real difference? The sons of Sarah have God’s promises, while the sons of Hagar do not.

Hagar may have many children, but they are all slaves to the Law and to their own sin. Sarah may be a less glorious looking mother in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of God she is blessed and fruitful because her children are free from sin and the Law. They are the sons of God. Our mother, the Church is the most holy and beautiful woman because she is blessed with the things of God – she has the Lord’s own Word and sacraments – and through these she gives birth to those who believe. On the surface the Church does not appear attractive or successful, but she is the very House of God – the place where we find God’s mercy – the place where we find the true Son of God Himself who has mercy on sinners and preaches to them His forgiving Gospel, washes them with His holy name, and feeds them with His holy body and blood. Here in the Church we find Jesus, the Son of God who makes us sons of God. Here in the Church, the Spirit and Word give us the new birth of faith, the new life of communion with our Father and His family, and the new joy of sins forgiven. Therefore, we can sing, even when we don’t feel like it: I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

Rejoice O Church of Christ! Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her. Even in Lent, even while you mourn over your sins, rejoice. For you may confess, “I am barren and desolate. I don’t see the success and blessings in my life that my neighbors have. I don’t feel the happiness or have the uplifting experiences like I think I should. I look at myself and all I see is failure and sin, apathy and worry, frustration, fear, and jealousy.” Regardless of all that, Christ is your righteousness and glory and He is all you need. His promise of forgiveness, life, and salvation is yours. Jesus is your heavenly treasure, your constant help, your never-failing joy. Jesus is the Church’s joy even in the midst of her suffering. That’s what our Hymn of the Day is all about. Even in this life of sin, sorrow, and suffering, Jesus is our reason to rejoice. Rejoice with Jerusalem! Rejoice with that poor mother, who though she was barren, is the mother of many children by the grace of God. Though she was sinful, she is made holy and pure by the blood of Jesus. Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast. Our mother, the Church is where we go for the food of heaven and are nourished by the gifts of God. Although she seems barren and desolate, the Lord gives her children. Although Jesus and the crowd were in a barren and desolate place, the Lord gave food in abundance for His people. He provides what we need for this life, and even more richly He provides for the life to come. His Word is life itself and food to enrich the soul. His body and blood are the bread and wine of heaven that forgive our sins and strengthen us for the journey through this wilderness. Our cup overflows. He turns the barren into a mother and the slave into a son. He turns the desert into a garden and the desolate place into His eternal city.

All this the Lord Jesus gives with His promise – His Word of forgiveness. For this reason alone, we rejoice with Jerusalem, the Church of God. Until that glorious day when all her children are gathered in the Father’s Home, she mourns now in this valley of sorrow, even while rejoicing in the Truth. She hungers and thirsts, while being fed on God’s Word. And she is attacked and persecuted by the enemies of God and those sons of Hagar that mock her for trusting in something so foolish as God’s promises. So rejoice, and pray. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they be secure who love you! This is the peace that Jesus achieved on the cross with His blood. Peace between God and sinful men – the peace that comes from sins forgiven. This is the peace that Jesus gives in His Word and Holy Supper. Peace that the world cannot give. Peace that the world cannot comprehend. Peace that surpasses all understanding, but peace that guards our hearts and minds in the secure and certain knowledge that we are righteous in God’s sight, we are His beloved children, and He hears us as a true Father listens to His dear children.

We are often tempted to forsake our dear mother and go back to Hagar and slavery under the Law. We are tempted to give into despair and self-pity and think that at least with the Law and with our own efforts we can be successful and happy like the rest of the world. Slaves, but happy slaves, content with our own righteousness. We doubt that Jesus can really provide what we need and we doubt that the Church is really the place to find it. But Jesus provides more than we need in impossible situations. He provides for life on earth, life in the Church, and life forever. You have His promises and He doesn’t lie. He provided food in the wilderness for thousands. He provides life, peace, and joy in this world for you. So pray for the impossible – pray for miracles. Pray for peace in the world, in the church, and in your heart. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! Be glad and go to the House of the Lord. The Church is your mother, and that means you belong with her, with your brothers and sisters in Christ. You are children of the promise, free sons of God. Rejoice!

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Third Sunday in Lent

Introit (Psalm 25)

St. Luke 11:14–28

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today's Introit Psalm is the same as last Sunday's: Psalm 25. We look at this Psalm from a different perspective this week. Last week we prayed that the Lord would remember not our sins, but remember us according to His mercies in Christ. This week we are praying especially for rescue from our enemies. "Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. Let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. Bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble. Pluck my feet out of the net."

When a Christian thinks, “Who is my enemy?” the obvious answer is the devil. But of course, he is not obvious to everyone. Our Lord said that he was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Perhaps his greatest lie is that he doesn't exist; that He is just a superstition, an old way of thinking, and he has no real power. But if our time and place will not recognize the demonic forces, or if we do not see any visible manifestations of the devil and his allies, we shouldn't assume that they do not exist. The devil easily keeps us guarded and in his own possession when we deny that he exists. He loves that, because we do not resist or fight what we don't believe and fear. The influence of the Devil is not less these days because we don't see people demon-possessed. The devil's influence is not less powerful because it is hidden. It is more powerful.

It is worse than what Hollywood has shown us of demons. The devil is a master liar. And our world loves lies. They are easier to handle than truths. The devil twists and blinds man's thinking. We see this in the reaction of the people of Judah to Jeremiah. He comes speaking the Word of God, a call to repentance, and a warning of judgment for those who refuse. But the people only hear this: "Jeremiah said something bad about our city." And they prepare to kill him. Never mind that it is the Lord's Word— not hate speech. Never mind that the Lord speaks it for the sake of repentance, with the promise that He is faithful and just to forgive their sins and cleanse them from all unrighteousness. It is very much like the ridiculous conclusion of the Pharisees, that Jesus must be casting out demons by the power of the prince of demons. Jesus easily shows the flaws in their argument. They are confronted, just as Judah was by Jeremiah. And if it is by the finger of God that Jesus casts out demons, they must acknowledge that the Kingdom of God has come upon them.

So hear this Christians: Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 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. So writes St. Paul in the chapter just after today's Epistle, where He describes in plain terms what our Lord says in His parable about the strong man. The devil, that strong man, had all of us. He ruled us and held us captive. We were darkness. We were caught in the net. We were surrounded by enemies and put to all sorts of shame. But now, Jesus, the stronger man has come, attacked the devil, taken away his arms, and divided his spoils. And here is where we see that Psalm 25 holds together. Because our enemies are not only external things. We are not wrestling against flesh and blood and not even simply against demons, as if we could pull out a sword and chop off the head of this dragon. Our enemies include our own sinful flesh. The devil has an ally in us. Paul does not write that we once were victims of darkness; he says we were darkness.

The weapons of the devil actually include our sins. We are afflicted, assaulted, and taken captive by many spiritual enemies. But we also cooperate with the enemy. When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are at peace, says Jesus; when the stronger man, who is Jesus Himself, comes, there is division. We must pray and fight against those three enemies of which the Catechism so often speaks: the Devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh. We must fight against ourselves, that we not have hearts that are empty, idle, and waiting for the unclean spirits to come back and take over.For then our last state would be even worse than the enmity with God which we all have from birth. O Lord, preserve us!

So we pray with Psalm 25: Consider my affliction and my trouble! And we might expect the Psalm to continue, "put an end to all these enemies that cause me affliction and trouble.” But instead, the verse continues, and forgive all my sins. Again with the sins? We need rescue from our enemies, not more forgiveness! Oh how weak our faith is, dear saints, and how easily we are deceived with empty words. The Stronger Man who comes to conquer Satan does it by taking away the armor in which he trusted, to divide us from the devil's keeping and separate us as a holy people for Himself. He takes away what the devil holds against us. He takes away our sins. The enemies we face are all out to keep us from having this: the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins is the devil's undoing. The world doesn’t understand this, because it neither believes in sins nor is willing to be righteous in any way but through its own efforts. But our sins—our unholy alliance with the forces of darkness, in which we once walked and toward which our hearts still incline—our sins can only be dealt with by the blood of Christ. That is how He rescues us.

Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. For the Word is the finger of God. It casts out our enemies, because it forgives our sins. And keeping it—guarding it, holding onto it, returning constantly to it in repentance and faith—that is life. The Catechism teaches us this when it speaks about that other tremendously powerful gift of God, by which he touches our tongues and opens our mouths to speak: The Lord's Supper. These Words, "given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins," show us 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. It is not that we need the forgiveness of sins plus many other things too. Rather, we need the forgiveness of sins because it is the answer to much more than we know. We think we need forgiveness only when we feel guilty; but the forgiveness of our sins is the medicine, the antidote, the weapon against all of our enemies. It is what removes shame from us. It is what gives life. It is what emboldens us to be imitators and beloved children of God, to walk in love and offer a fragrant sacrifice in every aspect of life.

Guard my soul and deliver me! we pray. And Christ does. Our strong man, Jesus, has taken away what the devil used to hold us captive. He has forgiven our sins. And He has not left us alone to await a worse fate, another enemy, or the world's shame and affliction. He has blessed us with His Word to hear and keep, so that we turn in the midst of all our distress toward Him, that He would pluck our feet at last out of the net. In Baptism He cast out the unclean Spirit from us and gave us His Holy Spirit. In His Word of Absolution and in His Holy Supper, He again opens our mouths just like the mute man in the Gospel. And we sing: Christ, Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world; have mercy upon us; grant us peace!

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

This sermon was written in collaboration with Rev. Sean Daenzer, Trinity, Great Bend, & Peace, Barney, ND. 2016