Your King Rules

What if, instead of polarizing politics, political parties, and a president, the United States of America had a king?  What if this king quickly earned the respect of U.S. citizens by demonstrating that his greatest concern was taking care of the people of this nation?  Would this king, having shown a genuine and generous heart in providing for you and your fellow citizens, have your support?  If so, how would you show it?  How would you show your support and give him the respect that he earned by putting you, his people, first?

We don't have a king... at least here on earth in the United States of America.  But we do have a King, and he is indeed ruling all things on your behalf from his throne in heaven.  This Sunday, Palm Sunday, we see Jesus our King as he processes into Jerusalem for his coronation, a coronation that will not end in his being adorned with a crown of gold and jewels, but a crown of thorns.  We have the benefit of knowing what he came to do, and knowing that he successfully carried out all that was expected of him, all of which was on our behalf.  We have a King, one who lived, died, and rose for us, and so is deserving of our devoted hearts and dedicated lives.  Does he have yours, and if so, how do you show it?

Dying to Forget

The fifth sunday in lent

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

Jeremiah 31:31-34

³¹ “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
³² It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. ³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴ No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (NIV)

The number of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease may be as many as 5 million.  Many more are expected to suffer from it in the next several decades.  Even though it cannot be officially diagnosed until after death with an autopsy, there are many conditions and symptoms that are so commonly associated with the disease that they allow doctors to quite accurately diagnose a person with it.  These symptoms most often involve a loss of cognitive functioning in the brain, leading to decreased abilities in the area of thinking, remembering, and reasoning.  While no symptoms of Alzheimer’s are desirable, it might be assumed that the greatest fear people often associate with the disease is the loss of memory and recognition.  We’ve all heard tear-jerking stories about loved ones who have gotten to the point of being unable to recognize family members or friends.  It’s frightening for us to consider the prospect of having to live in an isolated world in which we have no recollection of cherished childhood memories or significant events in life; one in which we cannot remember what happened in the last thirty years, let alone the last thirty minutes.  What a terrifying thing to forget everything.  Most of us would do just about anything we could if it meant avoiding a life of chronic forgetfulness, a life of not being able to remember.

But God took measures to do exactly the opposite.  He wanted to forget.  He didn’t want to remember.  Why?  Because more tragic than the onset of any disease is the reality of sin in every human being’s life, and God simply couldn’t stand an eternity of such sin on his mind and filling his every memory.  So he was willing to do whatever it took to ensure an eternity of amnesia when it comes to sin.  He revealed through the prophet Jeremiah the very steps he would take to erase iniquity from his memory, or, as Jeremiah wrote, to “remember their sins no more” (v.34).

Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry was not an easy one.  In fact, he is often referred to as “the weeping prophet,” and perhaps that characterization is best described early on in his book, in the first verse of the ninth chapter: “Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.”  Decade after decade Jeremiah faithfully preached the word of the Lord to his people, warning against backsliding and impenitence, and promising judgment and defeat at the hands of enemies.  With the exception of King Josiah early on, all the kings that followed loathed Jeremiah and his consistently depressing message.  He was persecuted by his own people for it.  Nevertheless, Jeremiah had such a heart for his fellow people that it crushed him to see them fail to heed the Lord’s warnings.  It tore him up inside to see his fellow countrymen destroy themselves by their sinful straying and refusal to take his preaching to heart.  It wasn’t unlike the family member of a person who suffers from alcohol addiction having to watch it slowly destroy a loved one’s life.  No matter how many warnings the family member gives – and all of them out of sheer love – he or she is helpless to force the alcoholic to get help.  So Jeremiah was helpless in forcing his people to repent and get the help they needed from the Lord.

So what does the Lord do?  Does he write off his people in their stubbornness?  Does he completely wipe them out and erase them from the pages of history?  No, that wouldn’t be the God we’ve come to know from Scripture, would it?  Such courses of action wouldn’t be becoming for Yahweh, the God of free and faithful love.  No, instead of completely cutting ties with his people, the Lord unveils a new plan, a new covenant, though really no different from what he had established all along back in Eden.  However, it was different from the old covenant he had established with Israel after delivering them from Egypt.  “‘The time is coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah’” (v.31).

Now normally most people don’t do well with change.  We don’t always like different or new stuff, because it’s not what we’re familiar with or used to and it can be unsettling.  Change for the sake of change is often times unwelcome change.  But it’s different when something hasn’t been working, or never worked in the first place.  When the car we’ve had for as long as we can remember stops running, as much as we’ll miss it, it’s time for a change; time to get a car that runs.  If we open the box we just brought home from the store and the newly-purchased item doesn’t work at all, it’s time for a change.

The covenant the Lord established with his people was broken from its inception, not because there was anything wrong with the covenant itself, but rather because there was something wrong with the people with whom the covenant was established.  Remember the covenant promise God had established with his people at Mr. Sinai? 

Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’  These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the LORD had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, “We will do everything the LORD has said.” So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD (Exodus 19:3-8).

The covenant failed to work because the covenant involved an obligation from Israel’s end.  They were to keep the laws God would lay out for them, and as long as they did so, they would remain treasured in God’s sight.  But God through the prophet Jeremiah was reminding his people that they hadn’t kept their side of the covenant.  Speaking of the new covenant in light of the old, God said, “‘It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,’ declares the LORD” (v.32).  So the Lord desired to establish a new covenant, because his people had broken the old one.  It was time for a change.

The people of Israel weren’t the only ones who needed a change in that established covenant; so do we.  Our daily lives serve as all the evidence necessary that we do not fare any better.  In fact, if one wishes to major in minors, it’s easier to understand how difficult it would be fore the Israelites to keep the covenant, since in addition to the Ten Commandments, they had hundreds of rules for how they were to carry out even the smallest details of daily life at home, in the community, and in worship.  What do we have?  We have Ten Commandments, and we can’t even keep those.  We fail to show perfect love to God in breaking the first three Commandments; we fail to show perfect love to others by breaking the rest.  That, dear friends, would be enough to disqualify us from the old covenant.

So God established a new one. Unlike the old covenant, the new one would be one-sided – all God’s doing.  Unlike the old, law-based covenant, the new one is grace-based.  The old was conditional; the new, unconditional.  The old covenant was for the Israelites; the new covenant is for all people.  Moses relayed the terms of the old covenant; Jesus put into effect the new covenant.  The old covenant had to be passed down to each generation by meticulously teaching every detail of every custom, practice, and ceremony; the new covenant is passed down by telling each generation about Jesus. 

Only through Jesus could God pronounce the blessed closing words from Jeremiah this morning, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (v.34).  Yet that promise could only be put into effect on one condition.  Something had to happen in order for God to forgive wickedness and remember sins no more.  Both of our other two Lessons this morning pointed it out: as our perfect high priest, Jesus had to offer himself as the ultimate one-time sacrifice and die for our sins.  In order for the old covenant to be replaced with the new, Jesus kept our side of the covenant for us.  His was the perfect obedience God demanded at Mt. Sinai.  So in Jesus the old covenant has been fully replaced with the new covenant, a covenant which allows God the Father to do what he has always wanted to do with regard to our sins: forget them.

One can’t help but notice how different God’s forgiveness is from man’s.  When we speak of forgiveness, it is so often conditional or temporary.  We forgive “if such and such happens,” or we forgive “until it serves our purpose to resurrect somebody’s past offense against us in a future argument.”  We’ve all heard it, and have probably also thought it or said it ourselves: “I can forgive, but I won’t forget.”

How different is God’s forgiveness!  His forgiveness isn’t conditional; it isn’t partial; it isn’t temporary.  It is neither given nor withheld based on who we are or what we’ve done – it is fully applied because of who he is and what Jesus has done.  How intent was God in forgiving our sins?  He forsook his own Son so that forgiveness could be ours.  Jesus suffered the anguish of hell itself for us and was willing to die a convicted criminal’s death in place of the real culprit – you and me.  How intent was God in seeing that our sins were forgiven?  You might say he was dying to forget them.  Amen. 

 

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)

Grace from Beginning to End

The fourth sunday in lent

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

Ephesians 2:4-10

⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (NIV)

It might be among the most despised words in a child’s vocabulary that a parent ever has to hear.  Fingernails scraping across a blackboard would be music to one’s ears in comparison to having to hear this one three-letter word over and over and over.  This one little word, especially when repeated in quick succession in a conversation with a parent, can magically drain mom or dad of every ounce of patience in no time flat.  If I could strike one word from my children’s vocabulary, never to be spoken again throughout their toddler and adolescent years, it would easily be the word “but.”  “Clean up your toys and get ready to go.” “But…”  “Wash your hands; it’s time to eat.” “But dad…”  “Why is your brother/sister crying?  Did you hit him/her?”  “Well yes, but…”  “Get your pajamas on and get ready for bed.”  “But mom…”  “Get your socks and shoes on and get into the van.”  “But…”  When I hear it from my children’s mouths, it makes my blood pressure rise instantly and I cringe just thinking about it. 

How very different it is when we come across that word as the very first word in verse four of our Second Lesson from Ephesians.  In fact, one could make a very strong case for it being the most beautiful “but” in all of Scripture!  In order to fully appreciate it though, one has to be familiar with the words that precede it. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath” (v.1-3).  You were dead; a pale, chalky corpse, lifeless and powerless to do a thing about it.  That’s not good news, given that such dead bodies have only one thing coming: the full measure of God’s eternal wrath. 

That picture of God’s wrath hasn’t been lost on us, has it?  Consider what horrific tortures men have come up with to cause other men to suffer: impalement, the rack, being flayed alive, fed to wild animals, burned at the stake, being sawed in half, etc.  Those are just a few of the ideas men have come up with.  Now, if man’s wisdom/ingenuity is nothing more than God’s foolishness, then what kind of unimaginable suffering and wrath must hell truly involve when God himself – who established hell for the devil and his evil angels – warns us in Scripture of its horror?  One shutters to comprehend it, and yet even the least offensive of our sins condemn us to such wrath, to say nothing of the most wretched, unspeakable sins of which we’re also guilty.  We were dead in sin and “deserving of wrath,” wrath the likes of which we cannot imagine suffering.

I. Grace Saves

“But…,” Paul writes, as if to emphasize “this is what you were; here is what you deserved, but… all of that has changed.”  You were deader than dead, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved” (v.4,5).  Just as impossible as it is to grasp the depths of the wrath we deserved, so also is it impossible to imagine the extent of God’s grace that forever changed our status; furthermore, it is impossible to imagine that grace apart from Christ, where it is shown most clearly!  Paul does his best in trying to explain that grace, and trying to underscore that such grace is completely one-sided; our being saved has everything to do with God.  He loved us with a great love.  He is the one who is filthy stinking rich in his mercy toward us.  He is the one responsible for giving us what Paul later refers to as a “gift.”  It is that great love, that rich mercy, that gift from God that saves.  It is, as Paul sums it up, grace that saves.

And to clarify that grace alone saves, Paul takes the time to rule out any human element in obtaining that grace.  Doesn’t he know the mind of man so well?  Aren’t we so inclined to take some measure of credit for ourselves whenever possible?  But Paul says there is no place for that here – none whatsoever.  Listen to how he so thoroughly rules out our taking any credit at all: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (v.8,9).  Not from yourselves, not by works, no one can boast – is there any wiggle room for us to slip in and take just a little bit of credit for our being saved?  No – nothing we do saves; only grace saves.

A drowning boy was struggling in the water. On the shore stood his mother in agony of fright and grief. By her side stood a strong man, seemingly indifferent to the boy’s fate. Again and again the suffering mother appealed to him to save her boy. But he made no move. By and by the desperate struggling began to abate. He was losing strength. Presently the boy rose to the surface, weak and helpless. At once the strong man leaped into the stream and brought the boy in safely to the shore. “Why did you not save my boy sooner?” cried the now grateful mother. “Madam, I could not save your boy as long as he struggled. He would have dragged us both to certain death. But when he grew weak and ceased to struggle, then it was easy to save him (James H. McConkey).

So it is with grace.  Struggle as we will, grace is not grace if we should attach our best efforts to it.  Only when we recognize the futility of our best efforts, our finest works, our noble intentions, only then can grace save.  Our efforts do not belong anywhere in the equation.  Once they are removed, then Christ steps in; then grace saves.

II. Grace Shows

Could you imagine God wanting to keep something so marvelous and unfathomable as grace to himself, wanting to keep it hidden so that it is never realized or discovered?  Perish the thought!  No, God wants nothing more than his grace in Christ Jesus to be known and seen in every place and every space all over the world.  “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (v.6,7).  Let there be no missing how God has made his grace shown in Christ Jesus.  Three times in these two verses Paul emphasizes Christ – there is no such thing as grace without Christ.  In fact, Christ Jesus is how God has chosen to show his grace.  So we can say not only that grace saves, but also that grace shows.  It is put on display for all to see in the life and righteousness of Jesus, revealed to all in the pages of Scripture.

Furthermore, we are also evidence of that grace, right now and in the future as well.  Grace shows itself in every Christian, having been brought from unbelief into a personal relationship with Jesus.  The product speaks for itself – grace works, and Christians are proof of it!  There is no explanation for how a person can come to the Father, but through the Son and his grace, so when we see believers, we also see God showing his grace.

And one day that grace will be even more clearly displayed.  Paul wrote, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”  Paul speaks in the past tense, as if this has already happened. Yet, how can this be if we’re still physically here on earth?  Think of it in terms of how a wedding reception is planned.  Typically, long before the day of the reception arrives, the seating arrangements have already been made.  Weeks, maybe even months beforehand, where each and every guest will sit has already been determined.  Though the day may be off in the distance, the engaged couple speaks in the present tense of this guest is sitting here, and that guest is seating over there.  The guests won’t be physically seated until the day of the reception, of course, but it’s only a matter of time before the present plans and the future reality mesh into one.  So it is with our seats at the banquet table in heaven – your seating arrangements have already been made, but only in the future when welcomed into the banquet halls of heaven will you actually be seated.  Grace shows itself right now in Christ and in each convert to Christianity, but grace will also be displayed and shown for all to see in heaven.

III. Grace Serves

Until that day comes, we recognize another purpose of grace in our lives while here on earth: it seeks to serve.  Grace goes to work in our lives as we carry out the service God has already planned for every last one of his children.  Paul explained it by writing, “For we are God’s workmanship (“handiwork” in the NIV 2011), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (v.10).  We can – and should! – be unafraid to say that one of the significant reasons God’s grace has saved us is so that his grace might also serve through us.  God already pre-determined any and all good that you and I would do; now it is simply a matter of carrying those tasks out.  And since grace has saved us, grace can now continue to go to work through us.  Let us be unafraid to do good to each other, and in the world around us, always keeping in mind the important relationship between grace and works, that is, salvation is for works, not by works.

A little boy stood mesmerized, watching a caterpillar spinning its cocoon.  The minister approached him and said, “God has given that little caterpillar a task to carry out, and so he carries it out diligently until it is finished.  In the same way, God gives each of us good works to perform throughout our lives.  Yet, imagine what would happen to that caterpillar, if after finished spinning its cocoon, it were to remain inside.  Eventually, instead of a temporary home, it would become his tomb and he would die in there.  No, he doesn’t rest in what he’s done, but eventually forces his way through it, and as a newly-winged creature will enjoy the light and sunshine.  Impressive as his work of art is, he must leave behind his cocoon so that he can enjoy true freedom.  So it is with our works.  We carry them out faithfully and with diligence, but we must always leave them behind, for true freedom comes only through Christ and by his grace.”  Grace saves, grace shows, grace serves; it’s all grace, from start to finish, from beginning to end. May we never take that grace for granted. Amen.

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)

Temple Turmoil

The third sunday in lent

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

John 2:13-22

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"

¹⁷His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."  ¹⁸Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"  ¹⁹Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."  ²⁰The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" ²¹But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²²After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. (NIV)

Please permit a few housekeeping items before we get going this morning.  I know some feel that the padding on the pews isn’t all that comfortable, so I want to make sure everyone was aware of the opportunity to rent a pew cushion for the service.  They’re only five dollars, and trust me, your backside will thank you.  Also, if you find it tedious to have to turn the pages of your worship folders and find the hymns and the psalm in your hymnals, for five dollars more, we’re happy to have one of the ushers assist you with that in order to enhance your worship experience.  Please also keep in mind that, starting this morning, coffee will be sold for $1.50 a cup, with free refills.  Refreshments are $.75 each, or two for a dollar.  Oh, and another new change being implemented pertains to your offerings.  We are slowly transitioning to electronic offerings only.  We won’t be taking cash or checks any longer, but will be accepting automatic withdrawals from an account of your choice, or you will be able to simply swipe your card in one of the card readers that will be installed in all of the pews.  While the automatic withdrawals will be free, there will be a slight fee each time you swipe your card.  I assure you, the main purpose behind all of these changes is to make worshipping as easy and convenient as possible.  We want you to be able to focus on what’s important when you’re here, and not have to concern yourself with all those other things that can be such distractions.

I. Jesus’ Frustration

We certainly don’t know this for sure, but do you think it is possibile that everything that Jesus saw that day at the temple, which made his blood boil, was actually initially begun with good intentions?  Maybe it had become a frustration for out-of-town guests to show up at the temple only to find out they didn’t have the correct currency that was required to pay the temple tax.  So they’d have to make an extra trip to the marketplace and exchange currency and then come back to the temple to pay the tax.  “Why don’t we just provide that service right here at the temple, so that people don’t have to make an extra trip to the marketplace just to exchange currency?” the priests may have wondered.  “And what of those poor folks who were told in their own hometowns that a particular animal was acceptable for sacrifice, only to arrive here and find out, upon further inspection, their animal isn’t up to the temple standards after all?  Why not just make the pre-inspected animals for sacrifice available right here for purchase?”  In many ways, what had been going on at the temple seemed very pragmatic.

Maybe the initial intentions were good, maybe they weren’t, but either way, what they had become over time was an aberration. These services that were provided had become the very distraction they may originally have been intended to avoid!  Once money came into the picture, the sinful nature quickly sprang into action and greed was on the lookout to get its foot in the door and get a piece of the pie.  History tells us that the business being conducted at the temple – all the buying and the selling – had a reputation for being mired in corruption and greed.  There was price gauging, there were exorbitant fees, and worst of all, it was all being done under the guise of religion, at the very temple of the Lord, no less.  The preeminent place of worship had become a money-making emporium.  The worshipper had been replaced by the consumer.

And it was all too much for Jesus.  It was enough for the Prince of Peace to demonstrate his uncharacteristically indignant anger.  We’re so used to seeing Jesus calm, cool, and collected in every situation.  He didn’t panic when others rushed to him with news of a friend or family member in need of urgent care.  He didn’t lose it when the wind and waves threatened to capsize his boat.  He didn’t flinch when betrayed, or when standing trial, face-to-face with his wretched accusers; he didn’t even snap when, on the cross in excruciating pain, people still derided and mocked him.

But he lost it at the temple, no doubt about it.  He was absolutely furious with what he saw.  Unsettling as it might be, Jesus had every right to be furious, for what he was seeing was inexcusable; it was a gross and sinful abuse of God’s house.  And God has never tolerated sin, of any kind.  You think it’s such a shock to see Jesus act this way as a result of sin?  Review the many examples in the Old Testament where God made it very clear how much he hates sin. If you want to see an even more shocking image of God’s fury unleashed as a result of sin, look at no further than the cross.  God won’t tolerate sin.  Jesus gave us a visible reminder of that on this day in the temple.

Furthermore, we can especially understand Jesus’ reaction in light of the personal connection he had with the temple.  As he was overturning the money changers’ tables he said, “Get these out of here! Howe dare you turn my Father’s house into a market! (v.16).  Whose temple was this?  Not man’s, but God’s.  Jesus referred to it as his Father’s house.  Indeed, the temple was God’s dwelling on earth with man.  The whole thing infuriated Jesus because it was his Father’s house.

Suppose you are watching the news at night and you see a home that is damaged extensively by vandalism.  Seeing a place trashed like that, you might feel for those who live there.  But, as the story features several more close ups of the damage done, you quickly recognize the house is familiar to you: it is your parents’ home.  How do you feel at that point?  After initial concern about their safety, you’d likely find yourself increasingly irritated and that irritation would eventually give way to sheer rage.  How could anyone do that to your parents’ house?  So it was with Jesus and his Father’s house.

You’ve also felt the same way about your Father’s house, haven’t you?  When we see pictures of the inside of churches these days that seem to be lacking any Christian identity – no symbols, no cross, no ties to the Christian church whatsoever – we wonder if that reflects an emphasis in that church other than Christ crucified.  Then we hear messages that replace Christ with Christian living as the emphasis, and our fears are confirmed: Christ is taking a back seat in his Father’s house.  So in that respect we can relate somewhat to what Jesus was experiencing as he saw the abuses going on at his Father’s house.

But we can also just as easily be the source of the same frustration Jesus was feeling that day.  We come into God’s house unprepared for worship, with extra baggage and concerns filling our cares and thoughts instead of giving our undivided attention to the Word as it comes to us.  It’s as if we’re here in body only, and our hearts and minds are busy somewhere else.  We let other distractions – a hymn I don’t care for, a particular individual who rubs me the wrong way, or whatever else it might be – deflect from the one thing that is important.  Is it really all that different than if we’d just set up tables and conduct business?

Did you happen to catch the two completely different responses to Jesus’ actions that day in the temple?  On the one hand, you had the disciples, who saw Jesus’ fervor as fulfillment of the Psalmist’s words, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (v.17).  Faith allowed them to see Jesus’ passion for his Father’s house at work.  But the Jews were agitated, wanting to know just who Jesus was and what power he had to come in and make such a scene at the temple, of all places.  “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” (v.18) they asked.  And then Jesus gave them one, but the blindness of their unbelief wouldn’t allow them to see it as a sign.

 

II. Jesus’ Foretelling

“Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days’” (v.19).  Jesus could have really laid into the Jews for daring to ask him about authority, but instead he gave them a promise, a predication as the sign for which they had asked.  Only, contrary to what they were thinking, Jesus’ statement had nothing to do with bricks and mortar, and everything to do with flesh and blood.  And though the flesh and blood of Jesus would be destroyed through scourging, punching, slapping, beating, and finally through crucifixion, it would all be restored again beautifully three days later at his resurrection.  If only they could grasp the beauty and wonder and life-changing reality of what Jesus was telling them!  If only they could fathom the implications Jesus’ words had on their eternal welfare!  But as they often do, signs have a way of hardening the hearts of unbelievers even further.

They do, however, strengthen the faith of believers.  Even if it wasn’t immediate, these words of Jesus were faith-building for the disciples, who only understood them after Jesus’ tomb had been deserted at his resurrection.  “After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said.  Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken” (v.22). 

What an encouragement for us to continue in Jesus’ words.  No, we may not always initially grab on to the meaning of a particular passage or section of Scripture.  But, over time, as we continue in the Word, the Holy Spirit works in our hearts, as if helping us with a connect-the-dots picture.  Gradually a few random dots start to take shape and become a splendid picture of salvation.  The more we start to see the picture, the more eager we are to find the next dot, and the next one, and so on, until what was once nothing but a bunch of jumbled dots becomes the work of art that is our salvation.  We see how the intricacies of the Old Testament so wonderfully tie into the realities of the New, and how all along, throughout history, God was preparing his people and the world for his greatest gift of life eternal through Jesus.  At the temple that day, people saw Jesus’ zeal, but they zeal most fully showed itself on Good Friday, when our gracious Lord willingly became the perfect sacrifice for sin, and again on Sunday three days later, when that zeal overcame the tight grip of death itself, forever releasing us from sin’s condemnation and our bondage to the devil.  What zeal our Savior has! – and it’s all for you. Amen.

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)

The Connection Between Cross and Crown

The Second sunday in lent

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

Mark 8:31-38

³¹ He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. ³² He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³ But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

³⁴ Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? ³⁷ Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (NIV 2011)

It wasn’t an election year, that’s for sure.  You wouldn’t hear a speech like this on any campaign trail anywhere in the world.  One doesn’t have to know much about the ins and outs of politics and the art of public speaking to recognize it probably isn’t in the best interest of any candidate to refer directly to a constituent as “Satan.”  Telling people “a vote for me is a sure-fire way to lose everything” is not likely to win over too many voters, either.  And, being honest is generally a good trait for a politician to have, but not when that brutal honesty openly admits, “if you don’t vote for me, you will regret it, for when the time comes, I won’t even acknowledge you.”  Oh, and one more thing: don’t start off your speeches by telling everyone you’ll be dying shortly.  No, these tactics are not to be recommended to anyone running for political office.

But Jesus wasn’t.  It was never a popularity contest for Jesus.  Jesus wanted more than votes; he wanted souls.  Jesus wanted the whole heart of a man, and catering to whims and wishes of men like some wishy-washy politician was not the way to do it.  Otherwise, those who might have been drawn to Jesus as a result of his pandering to their personal needs would have been in for a real shock when the reality of being a follower of Jesus set in.  There was only one way to speak: openly and candidly about why he had come, and about what it meant to follow him.  So we do well to take note this morning, as Jesus reveals to us His Purpose and Our Path.

I. His Purpose

This is the first time Mark’s Gospel records Jesus clearly foretelling his death.  There had been inferences and allusions to it previously, but these verses mark the first time Jesus spoke about his suffering and death with unmistakable clarity.  There simply was no other way to take his words.  Mark tells us, “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.  He spoke plainly about this…” (v.31,32a).  Not only does Jesus avoid any ambiguity, but his prediction is really quite specific.  He said he would suffer.  He pointed out directly that it would be the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law who would be responsible for his demise.  He stated clearly that three days after he died, he would come alive again. 

These were not veiled references.  This was no parable or allegorical teaching tool being used by Jesus.  No, as Mark tells us, “He spoke plainly about this…”  In fact, it was a little bit too plain for Peter’s liking, as he demonstrated by taking Jesus aside and rebuking him.  It was, in a way, like Jesus’ campaign manager was having a word with his candidate and trying to straighten him out: “Hey, you’ve got to stop with all the gloom and doom.  That kind of talk will never get you elected.  You’ll never win people over with that rhetoric.”  Peter’s understanding at this point didn’t include the spiritual, but only the physical.  He could see no good thing coming as a result of Jesus dying.  

Naturally Jesus had to respond with a stinging rebuke of his own in this very important matter, for it was essential that Peter start to truly understand Jesus’ purpose.  You’ll notice that Jesus also made use of this opportunity to enlighten not just Peter, but the other disciples as well.  “But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ he said. ‘You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men’” (v.33). What an attention grabber!  Now to be clear, this eyebrow-raising scenario was not akin to the conclusion of a Scooby-Doo episode, where the gang pulls off the villain’s mask to reveal his true identity.  Jesus was not revealing to his disciples that Peter had literally been Satan in disguise all along; rather, his point was that Peter’s rebuke showed his thinking to be more in line with Satan’s than God’s.  It also showed how hard the devil was working – even on those closest to Jesus! – to convince people that the path which led to and through the cross was no path for anyone who aspired to greatness.  Such a notion is not from God, but from the Prince of Darkness himself.

We refer to Peter’s way of thinking as the “theology of glory.”  The theology of glory is attractive, appealing to many even today.  It steers away from the Savior’s necessary suffering and death on account of our sin and focuses more on man and his reason, his ability to overcome the “speedbump” of sin.  The theology of glory is man’s “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can” instead of Christ’s, “I already did.”  It seeks a crown of everlasting life to be sure, but a crown that comes through the Christian himself instead of the Christ and his cross.

The misleading theology of glory had to be countered with something else, which is why Jesus plainly stated “the Son of Man must suffer… and be rejected…be killed and… rise again.”  This describes what we refer to as the “theology of the cross.”  In contrast to the theology of glory, the theology of the cross forces us to face the harsh reality of our sin and its consequences.  The undeniable reality, harsh as it is, is that our sin damns us to hell; if that sin is in no way accounted for, then the sentence stands and we are condemned to an eternity of God’s furious wrath and unrelenting torment in hell.  But the theology of the cross takes God the Father’s furious wrath and unrelenting torment and unleashes it all on his own Son in our place.  On the one hand, there is nothing glorious about it, for the thought of it makes us sick to our stomach: to know that such a horrific reality for my Savior was my own fault; it was because of my sin.

But on the other hand, it is the most glorious thing imaginable, for only through his suffering, his death, his resurrection, can we receive the glorious crown of everlasting life.  Through the cross, Christ answered for my sin, and he is my glory.  That was Jesus’ purpose.

II. Our Path

And it paved the way for our path.  Only beneath the shadow of the cross can the Christian see and by God’s grace embrace the path laid out for him.  Without the cross the path makes no sense; it is unappealing, absurd, and offensive.  Without the cross such a path would be avoided by all.  But through the cross, the Christian sees the most desirable path imaginable, because it is a path that follows in our Savior’s footsteps.

Listen again to Jesus’ description of our path: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? ³⁷ Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (v.34b-37).  To help summarize the path Jesus laid out for his followers, we might think of it in terms of the two kingdoms: the kingdom of this world and Christ’s kingdom.  While people generally want the best of both worlds, Jesus’ point is this: that desire is impossible to achieve.  The path of a follower of Jesus is one that seeks Christ’s kingdom and is willing to give up anything in this worldly kingdom that might ever possibly get in the way.  That is what it means to “deny self” and “lose one’s life.” 

There’s an old African proverb that says, “The man who follows two paths will only split his pants.”  Are we so attached to anything the world offers, or will we take Christ’s kingdom and that cross that comes with it?  One of the hardest things for us to realize is that we cannot choose both.  We try to, but we can’t.  It can’t be the cross and this; it can’t be the cross and that – we’ll only split our pants.  It can only be the cross.  There is no middle ground.

That means real sacrifice, doesn’t it?  Sometimes we think it only means a little inconvenience.  Inconvenience is getting up out of bed to make an appearance at church once in awhile; sacrifice is doing it week after week and saying “no” to whatever else might threaten that Sabbath rest.  Inconvenience is having to endure the discomfort of hearing others bash Christianity; sacrifice is boldly speaking up for the truth despite that discomfort and potential backlash.  Inconvenience is when certain family members neglect the means of grace; sacrifice is lovingly confronting them about it.  Inconvenience is not having enough left over at the end of the month to give God; sacrifice is not having enough for something else because of giving to God first.  Inconvenience is having to be asked to serve for something at church; sacrifice is busting your tail all day at work and then heading right over to church to spend the rest of your day painting, and not even thinking twice it.

Every day we are faced with decisions that will reflect which path we’re on: the cozy and comfortable path of this world that seeks and serves self, or the painful path of suffering and sacrifice, the path of the cross and Christ’s kingdom that comes with it.  Only with God’s grace and favor will we follow the path he’s laid out for us.  He’s revealed his purpose, we know our path, and we’ll sacrifice whatever it takes to stay on that path.  We’ll do it because we long to be adorned with the crown that awaits us at the end of this life, the crown earned for us at Calvary, the crown that comes only through Christ and the cross.  Amen.