Author: Higher Things

Rev. Mark Buetow

“Location, location, location!” That, they say, is what’s most important for a business to do well. Well, our Easter Gospel is about, location, location, location. All too often, when we get into a discussion about God, we leave location behind. God is just “out there” or “up there” somewhere. You can’t see Him. You just assume He’s there and doing something or other. That’s how the world thinks of God and the devil loves to trap Christians into thinking that way too. But through all that abstract, “out there” God talk and clutter, the Easter Gospel shines brightly, reminding us that God is really a location, location, location God. He tells us where He is and what He’s doing. And Easter is really all about that.

Location: Nazareth. The angel says to the women, “You’re looking for Jesus of Nazareth.” That’s a location. A specific person from a specific place. It’s a reminder to us that God became man. He was in Mary’s womb and born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth. Our Lord isn’t just “out there somewhere.” He was in Nazareth. He lived there. Grew up there. Played there. Ate there. Worked there. And when He began His work of salvation in earnest, He preached there too. The point is this: God is located in the flesh. He went places and did stuff. When we speak about God, especially to unbelievers, we don’t need to get caught in their trap of “abstract God somewhere.” Talk to them about Jesus, the God who grew up in and was from Nazareth. You can still go there today. It’s a real place. And He’s a real person that was there.

Location: The cross and tomb. The angel goes on: “Jesus…who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him!” Now Jesus went lots of places but the most important place He was, was the cross and tomb. On that cross, God died. On that cross, God took away our sins. On that cross, Jesus, the Lamb of God, gave Himself as the sacrifice for sins. It happened there on a hill called Calvary. And that hill is still there today. And then there is a garden tomb. He was there too, resting in the tomb until He rose on Easter. The women knew where that tomb was and they and the disciples saw clearly that it was empty. But there in a particular place, our Lord hung on the tree. There, God was. He didn’t look like God, all bloody and dead, but you can’t get a more specific location than that. It’s where, in the midst of all our suffering and asking that question, “Where’s God?” we can point to Calvary and the cross and say, “Right there, pierced for you!”

Location: Galilee. “Tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going to Galilee. There you will see Him just as He told you.” Because He’s risen! He’s alive! He WAS on the cross. And He WAS in the tomb but now He is alive. And He is where His Word said He would be: In Galilee. Eventually He would appear to all His disciples, where they were, in His Body. He is no ghost or spirit. No vision or dream or delusion. He’s alive and He can prove it by showing His disciples the LOCATION of those nail and spear holes. The God who walked around Galilee and Judea before He died is the same God who walked around Galilee and Judea when He was alive again. Once more, God is not an “out there” kind of God, but the God who is in the flesh, who suffered for our sins, rose again and was seen by all of those eyewitnesses.

Location: Christ’s church today. Just as our risen Lord had told His disciples where He would be (in Galilee), so He tells us where He will be. After He had conquered sin and death, died and risen, before His Ascension, Jesus told His disciples to go and preach and baptize and that He would be with them always to the end of the age. So now, today, where is the Lord? Where do we find Him? Sure, He’s everywhere because He’s God, but remember: Location, location, location. He tells us where He is going to be located for our salvation. For our comfort and strength. And where is that? Right here in His church. Where water is put upon you at the location of the font. Where your pastor is located to preach and teach Christ’s Word to you and absolve you of your sins. Where Christ Himself is located in His Body and Blood on the altar in the meal of salvation. In these locations, these specific, concrete, actual places, we don’t get caught up in the “somewhere out there” God but the God-with-us in the flesh who is still with us in His church. If you want to know who God is, He is there in Christ. And if you want to know where Christ is, He’s right here in His church. Therefore we are rescued from useless arguments about a God “out there somewhere” because we have a God who has come in the flesh and still comes in His flesh through His Word and Sacraments in His church.

So Easter is about location, location, location! God has a location! He’s not just everywhere and anywhere. He’s somewhere. And He’s somewhere FOR YOU. That location, that somewhere is His holy Christian church on earth where His gifts are given for forgiveness, life and salvation. His church where by the forgiveness of sins He won by His death and resurrection, sin and death and the devil and hell are all defeated. His church in which we are nourished in the faith and kept in that faith til the day our Lord comes back and raises US from the dead, just as He rose from the dead on Easter. Therefore don’t seek Him in there, in your feelings, “out there,” in nature, our “up there” in the sky somewhere, or anywhere else. He is right HERE for you. For to say that Christ is risen is to confess that He is right here in this location for you. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Rev. George Borghardt

Happy Lent! In the Name of Jesus. Amen. Holy Week. It’s here. And with it, comes repentance. Even sinners like me, get serious about their faith in Holy Week. Time to at least try – how could we not? Jesus has come to Jerusalem.

David’s Son has returned to David’s Throne. He rides in humble majesty. He is the fulfillment of every Old Testament promise – He’s even on the royal donkey – just like Zechariah promised.

Rejoice, daughter of Zion. Shout, daughter of Jerusalem. See your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation. Humble and riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

The King has returned to save His people. To bring about salvation, peace, and to fill their songs with joy.

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Hosanna is the Hebrew, “Save us, Lord.” And to the highest? “Save us, Lord, to the highest!” That’s a prayer that only He can answer.

“Son of David” is King David’s Son. King David, so King Jesus. The One who would rescue the people of Israel from Rome, from their conquerers, from all that would harm them.

We hungered for righteousness. We thirst for salvation. Some sign – a healing, a miracle, some fish poboy to quench our appetites.

And Christ has achieved all those things for you. He rescued you, fed you, redeemed you, saved you – from your hunger, from your thirsting, from your sicknesses, from your pain, even from your death.

For Jesus did not consider His being God Himself something to grasped, something to be understood by the people in Jerusalem that day. No, He takes upon the form of the servant. He humbled Himself and was obedient even unto death – even death on the Cross.

And this is the week. It happened here, beginning with His ride into Jerusalem today. He will cleanse the temple. He will preach the Gospel. And He will be rejected by the chief priests and teachers of the Law.

Judas, one of His twelve, will betray Him at Gethsemane. And when the Shepherd is struck, the sheep will scatter.

He will be beaten before the high priest. He will be mocked. Denied by Peter. Judged as anything but God by the chief priests and teachers of the Law. Carted off to Pontius Pilate. Crowned with thorns. Robed with purple as the guards scornfully bow before Him and then they will beat Him with a reed.

“Behold, the king of the Jews.” His own people reject Him. They’ll have no king but Caesar. Lots will be cast for His clothes.

Nakedness. Nails in His hands and feet. Bleeding. Lifted up in shame for all the world to see. “Cursed is anyone,” says the Scripture, “who hangs on a tree.”

Hangs on a tree – He’ll do that for you. He’ll be cursed for you. They wag their tongues at Him. They ridicule Him and shake their heads at Him. “He trusted the Lord, let Him rescue Him. Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him.” If you are the Son of God, come down from the Cross. He saved others, surely He can save Himself.

But He doesn’t. No one saves Him. My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me? Why are you so far from helping Me?

“Hosanna in the Highest! Save us Lord, in the Highest!” Jesus answers our Palm Sunday prayer on Good Friday, from the Cross where He suffers and dies as the sacrifice for all your sins. So that the people of Jerusalem would be saved, so that you and me would be saved solely by His death on the Cross.

Today, Jesus rides into Jerusalem to the sound of children singing and to the prayers of all the people of Jerusalem. The city is stirred, shaken, by His arrival.

Today, He comes to you in His Word and Supper. Delivering into your mouth the forgiveness sins, rescuing from your failures and mess ups, and giving you eternal life in Him.

What you have and haven’t done cannot harm you. Where you have failed – in your life, in your work, in your family, in your marriages, is forgiven.

Not forgiven because you do this or that or because you adapt your life or change things for the better, but solely because Jesus heads into Jerusalem and then to the Cross to suffer and die for the failures in your life, your work, your family, and your marriages.

You see, if they were just mess-ups or oopses, we could fix them. We could make them right. We could have our good stuff out weigh our not good stuff with God and those around us.

But, they aren’t failures. They aren’t mess-ups. The things that we do to one another are sins – sins rooted in the simple fact that we love ourselves more than we love those around us. We put ourselves first.

You do. I do too. And when we deal with those around us, we expect them to love us more than they love themselves. We expect them to be Christian, even when we won’t, can’t, refuse to be.

We recognize how selfish our sins are, how destructive they can be, but like a rubber ball, we bounce back and forth between trying to love those around us and the selfish, evil, self-centered, turned-inward stuff we do. And there’s no breaking this cycle of sin, failure, guilt, and shame.

And during Holy Week, we try even harder to pull ourselves up, we recommit, re-focus, and do what we must do to get that holiness from that we long for, that we know that He requires.

But, you’ll never find that holiness, dear friends. Never. Not inside you – not even in Holy Week. Inside you, you will never put the holy in Holy Week.

I know you know the Scriptures say that you won’t find holiness inside yourselves… but I know you’ve tried. I have tried too to find within myself some glimmer of goodness toward God and those around me.

But, you won’t ever find it. Not inside you. Ever. I won’t either. Inside us is only failure, sin, guilt, and shame.

Today, Jesus rides into Jerusalem to save you, even you, from your failures, from your sins, from your guilt, and from your shame. He rides into Jerusalem today, in lowly pomp, headed for the Cross to die.

To make you holy – even you. To deliver holiness to you – in water, in words, in bread and wine. To give you the holiness that you will never find inside of you that will make you holy before God in heaven.

Holy Week is here. Jesus is on His way into Jerusalem. David’s Son is riding into David’s Throne – the Cross for you and me.

Watch. Listen. Hear. Take every opportunity – try as hard as you can this week to be at all the services – in order to receive from Him this week. Watch Jesus on His way to Calvary. Listen to what He says. Hear what He does. And Receive …. Receive His holiness.

Happy Holy Week! Jesus has come into His city to put the holy into “Holy Week.” For clueless Jerusalem, for you in all our sins, even for me in mine.

Jesus – it’s His holiness that we are watching this week, His holiness that we hear about, His holiness that we receive. He alone makes us holy.

Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna to the highest! INI. Amen.