Category: Lectionary Meditations

“and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations…” – Luke 27:47

That’s it? All the stuff that happens in Jesus’ life, indeed all the stuff in the scriptures leads up to Christ’s death and resurrection – and the result is just that? He ascends and leaves us with just repentance and forgiveness being preached? At first glance it doesn’t seem like much – shouldn’t all this Jesus thing mean we get more stuff or money or wealth? Shouldn’t it mean that we get to crush our enemies (and certainly not forgive them)? Is that it?

Well, yes. But the thing is we can forget how mighty and wondrous repentance and forgiveness actually is. We can become bored with them and look for other things to our own sorrow. Consider what a gift repentance actually is. Sin messes with all of us, and it grows. Little white lies start to get bigger and bigger. We start of mildly annoy, and then we get perturbed, and then we get angry, and then there’s shouting matched and things get broken. A little bit of lust starts to warp and twist entire relationships. And instead of just standing by and letting us run wild and ruin everything in our stupidity, Christ has a word of repentance spoken – He shows us our sin and checks us up. That is no small thing!

And then, when we are made aware of our sin – when we see the mess we’ve made and how we’re making it bigger, Christ speaks a word of forgiveness. The consequences of sin are horrible – and they ought to get worse. But instead of having you run into and live in the consequences of your sin, now and forever, Christ Jesus has taken them up for you, He took them to the cross and you are forgiven. You are right with God. You will not die, but you will live eternally with Him. And even the temporary and earthly problems that come about because of sin – you see them differently. You live in Christ’s love. You admit you are wrong to your neigbhor – you don’t have to double down. You forgive your neighbor – you don’t need to get vengeance or punishment.

And that’s hard on you. Living in Christ’s love is hard, especially when you are still in your sinful flesh, and when you are running into things that really are hard and painful in the world. And sometimes your flesh and the world get the best of you, and they pull your eyes off of Jesus and lead you astray. And yet, what has your ascended Lord commanded His Church to give to preach to you – the repentance and forgiveness that you need. Repentance is no small thing; it’s everything you need – and Jesus gives it to you over and over again.

“I have said these things to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world” – John 16:33

In the world you will have tribulation. Not you might, not you could, but you will. Jesus doesn’t pull any punches or sugar coat reality here at all, does He? That’s not how we tend to operate. So often people will try to downplay or minimize the lousy things that happen to us. “Oh, it’s not so bad.” “Hey, it could be worse.” As though that makes what I’m suffering right now any better! Yet that’s how we tend to think of comfort – simply telling people that it’s not that bad.

Jesus knows, though. He knows the world for what it is, He knows sin for what it is, what it can do and unleash upon people. He bears it all up upon Himself; He goes to the Cross and suffers the full weight of it – and He’s not up there whistling away or saying, “Well, at least it’s not raining, there’s a silver lining to all this darkness covering the land.” No! Jesus knows sin for what it is. He knows hardship for what it is. And Jesus is honest – He knows that you will face hardship.

But Jesus also tells you something that is even more profound than your sorrow – so profound that He has no need to minimize what you are going through in the slightest. He has overcome the world. The world did its worst to Jesus, crucified Him – yet He rose. Sin, death, and the Devil all came after Him loaded for bear, and He strode out of the tomb and proclaimed peace.

In the world, you will have troubles. And you don’t need to pretend it is otherwise, because you are also in Christ Jesus. You are baptized into Him. You are forgiven, redeemed, and life everlasting is yours. Christ Jesus has said so. So no matter how truly and honestly big and nasty the trouble of the day is – Jesus is still your Lord and Savior, and He has truly conquered all, and you do have peace and life and victory in Him. It’s not that your troubles aren’t really that’s big, it’s that your Savior is bigger than them all, and He still loves you.

“[The Spirit will convict] concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” – John 16:11

Christ Jesus has won the victory over the world, over the devil, over the powers of evil. But right now, we don’t always see that. We look around and see wickedness and vileness and evil. We see Christians persecuted, we see Christians mocked. And we may even ask ourselves – why doesn’t Jesus just hurry up and come back? The Apostles and the Early Church, they asked themselves that. Luther wanted Christ to return quickly. We do ourselves! Thy Kingdom Come. Come, Lord Jesus! That is the prayer of the Church. And why does Christ delay – I can’t answer fully. It’s good that He does – If Christ had returned in Luther’s day none of us would be here, so we know that God’s love for us had some part in His delay, that He’s waited for us to be brought to faith. How long – that’s in His hands – we trust in Him and pray as He has commanded us.

But in this meantime until His second coming, we see the world, and it can be easy to become depressed. We see dog eat dog to get ahead, and we can wonder if our suffering is worth it. And the world continually calls out to us, offers us vain, fleeting promises. And we are tempted. And at those times, the Holy Spirit comes and uses the Word of God to speak to us clearly and with conviction this truth – that the ruler of this world is judged. The Holy Spirit points us to the true victory that we have in Christ, the eternal victory. This is why Luther has us sing in A Mighty Fortress “This world’s prince may still scowl fierce as he will – he can harm us none – he’s judged, the deed is done. One little word can fell him.”

But also this – you have been judged – but judged righteous, declared, that wonderful word, declared righteous on account of Christ. This world is judged, Satan is judged and condemned – but you, dear friends, you have been declared righteous, declared forgiven, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus – the blessings that Christ has won have been given to you – and so you can stride through the trials of this life boldly knowing that your salvation rests solely upon Christ. That’s what the Spirit proclaims to us over and over again.

“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

Think for a moment how upsetting these words would have been to many of the people in Jerusalem. They were the special people – and then here comes Jesus saying that He’s going to just bring on in “other” sheep. So know – “them”. “Those people.” Samaritans and Gentiles and Tax Collectors and who knows what else. And it annoyed many folks them. Terrified them. In verse 20 some asserted that He had a demon and was insane.

Think for a moment about how upsetting these words are to us today. We are in a highly tribal and divided day. There are so many “others” that we are trained by society and our peers to fear and hate. And here comes Jesus with this daft plan not just to save me and the people like me, but all sorts of people. Not just my clique, not just the people who think the same way as I do on the issues of the day, not just the people who look like me. Nope, Jesus brings in the other.

Our words today like to separate us from the other. We say that “they” are lazy or oppressors. We will angrily yell and type how hateful “they” are. That “they” abuse the system and society – whether they are welfare queens or the one percent. “They” are bad. That’s what the voices all around us cry, that’s what we tend to cry.

Then comes the voice of Christ Jesus. The voice of the Good Shepherd, the voice of the Lamb Who Was Slain. He says that He has laid down His life for you, for all of you. Even that person whom you fear and hate. He says peace. He calls out sin and proclaims forgiveness. He batters down our divisions with His mercy. He doesn’t let us define ourselves by our quirks or individual wants – we are defined together – one flock, one Shepherd, one faith, one Lord, one baptism. His Word, His voice actually does gather us together with some of the most fascinating and wondrous people in the world. Fellow forgiven sinners. Fellow sheep who were rescued by the Good Shepherd. And that is where we actually live in peace that the world cannot give.

“Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’”

So much fear. Understandable fear. The disciples had just seen Jesus killed in a most horrific way by an angry mob, so they were hiding for their lives. Even having heard of the resurrection, they hide. Yet, the fear of man has never stopped Jesus from being a merciful and gracious Lord. He shows on up right there in the middle of that locked room and proclaims peace. Peace – you are forgiven. See, I’ve died and I have been raised. The strife is o’er, the battle done! And you will be proclaimers of that same peace!

And yet, what do we see a week later? Still locked doors. Still fear. Of course there is – the world still is a scary place. The disciples have lived a week full of that fear, full of doubt and disbelief. And so the doors get locked again – but Jesus is persistent. He shows up anyway and proclaims His peace again. He even does so to poor fearful Thomas. Yes, Jesus’ peace is really for you, even you hiding in fear.

In the meaning to the first commandment, we say that we should “fear” God above all things. With these words we are actually acknowledging that there is a lot in this world that we could (and to a certain extent should) be afraid of. And there are a lot of people who gain power and profit off of making you afraid. And our fears drive us to do crazy and strange, horrible things. Things that are destructive to ourselves and to our neighbor. Yet, in reality, rather than listening to our fears, the One that we should fear, the One we should be most worried about ticking off or annoying, is God.

And we think He’s going to just hammer us, but there comes Jesus, striding into this rat’s nest of fear, and He says, “Peace be with you.” Peace – I’m not here to smite, I’m here to establish peace and conquer sin, death, and Satan. I’m here to show that all the punishment has been taken up by Me. Fear has to do with punishment (1 Jn 4:18), but you are in My perfect love. You are mine, you are in Me, and so there is no condemnation (Rm 8:1). This is where you live. This is the truth that the world and your sinful flesh want you to forget. You are baptized into Christ – and He says Peace be with you. And He means it. And His peace is stronger than any fear you face in this world – His peace raises folks from the dead.

Of course Mary was weeping. It wasn’t just that she loved Jesus – we skirt by that idea so quickly that it almost doesn’t really mean anything. Mary knew that Jesus loved her, that her life was better because of Jesus. She had been isolated, possessed by demons, and many think trapped in prostitution. Then Jesus came to Mary, and He loved her. And suddenly, because of Jesus she was cleansed, she had friends and companions, she had good relationships. Jesus loved her. And Jesus is dead. Is this all going to fall apart, is it all going to go back to the way it was? Jesus had held everything together; now is it all going to fall apart?

It looks that way. A scattered panic. Even when she goes to Peter and John for help, they just ditch her, leaving her sobbing by the tomb. When she turns and sees the “gardener” the best Mary thinks she can hope for is to drag a dead body across a garden all by herself.

Then it all shifts for the good. Jesus, her risen Lord and Savior, calls her by name. It is only when she hears Christ Jesus, now raised from the dead, call out, “Mary” that Mary is ripped away from her fear and sorrow. Her Jesus is not gone – He is here. For her.

Jesus is not gone – He is still here and present for you in His Word. In fact, He tied that Word to water and called you by your name at your Baptism, bringing you into the joys of His resurrection, sealing you with a promise that you would always be His, that not even sin or death or anything in this world would be able to separate you from His love. And He promised you a resurrection like His. And we shall see it. Until that day when we see Jesus face to face, we whom He has called by name are still called to gather around His Word, the preaching of the Gospel, and His Supper, where we hear and receive Him again and again. In a world that tries to rip everything asunder, the Risen Christ calls us together by name.

Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, alleluia!

The rage and hatred of Satan is palpable. Satan’s hatred of God is so strong, so intense, that whenever He sees something good from God, he wants to ruin it, crush it. And then comes Jesus, and all throughout Jesus’ ministry Satan is frustrated and defeated. He tried to tempt Jesus into wickedness – that normally worked with humans – but it didn’t work with Christ Jesus, the Son of God. And Jesus leaves the wilderness, heads back into Israel – and Jesus,the Holy One of God, messes with Satan. Where illness corrupted the body, Jesus would heal. Where lack and hunger brought sorrow, Jesus would bring plenty. Where demons held people in bondage, Jesus would set free. On and on it goes, until Jesus even rides on into Jerusalem, the abode of peace.

Enraged, Satan is determined to strike at Christ. There is nothing the devil would love more than to wound the Holy one, than to get at Him somehow. And an opportunity presents itself, and Satan strikes. This loyal Jesus is betrayed. This just Jesus suffers injustice, both of a sham court as well as rulers who would not protect Him. This Jesus, the Lord of Life, is handed over to death. And there, at the Cross, Satan thought he had finally gotten the upper hand – the ultimate defilement. The Living One of Israel would die.

Satan knew the scriptures, but he did not believe them. He did not understand them. What Satan thought was his victory over Jesus and His holiness, His righteousness, His purity was in fact an invasion. The strong man thought his goods were safe, but He just dragged the stronger Man, Christ Jesus, into His palace. With His death, Jesus would wreck and destroy death. He would shatter the power and terror of Satan. Satan bruised Christ, but Christ crushed the Devil. Satan pierced Christ’s side, but Jesus deranged the old serpent. This One you foolishly killed, Satan – He will rise, and because He rises, we all do with Him.

“Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear My word.” – John 8:43

The end of John 8 has Jesus in one of the great arguments in Scripture. It is such a bad argument that by the end people are ready to stone Him. So why? What gets folks so angry? Well, Jesus notes that they cannot bear to hear His word – but what word is that? In verse 32 Jesus had said, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” This should be a good thing, right? Except their pride was pricked. They didn’t want to be helped; they wanted to do it on their own. They didn’t like being told that they were actually enslaved to sin and that they needed a real rescue from sin and death.

We can have a hard time hearing God’s word in its full, unbridled power. We don’t like the full, unabashed Law that shows us our sin and that we deserve death; we will often instead try to water it down into mere moral advice. We fight against the full, unabashed Gospel where Jesus does everything; we will instead try to water Him down into a mere teacher who gives us a gentle push in the right direction. That’s what all false teaching is – a blunting of the law and a gutting of the Gospel. That’s what our sinful flesh likes. We want to be the hero of the story, and when Jesus tells us that He is the One who does the saving (and that we really needed some real saving), our flesh gets all riled up.

Yet Jesus is persistent in His desire to save you. He has baptized you, not just to forgive your sins once, but so that daily His word would drown and beat down your sinful flesh that wants to get all proud and boisterous. He continually and repeatedly gives you His Word and Spirit, so that you would have His life. He comes to you and gives you His Body and Blood so that He does in fact rescue you from sin and death, both now and eternally. He opens your ears to hear, so that you receive from Him every good gift.

“Jesus said, ‘Have the people sit down.’ Now there was much grass in that place.” – John 6:10

What does Jesus see when He sees this crowd coming towards Him? We could say that they are people who are simply following Him because He’s being doing miracles. Or that they don’t understand yet that He’s the Savior. And even when they do figure out that He is the great and promised Prophet, they’ll only want to make Jesus king by force. Jesus will have to run away to keep this from happening. In fact, by the end of this chapter, most of the folks here will be flat out mad at Jesus – that’s the rest of the discussion in John 6.

So what does Jesus see when He looks out over that crowd? Is it people who are foolish and troublesome? Is it the failure of generations worth of teaching? Is it a bunch of greedy and needy people who view Him not for who He is but just for the stuff He might give them? While those might be the things we’d be most inclined to see, Jesus sees something else. He sees people to love. The Good Shepherd sees His (often wayward) sheep, and He makes them to lie down in green pasture. And He will care for them now. And He will care for them upon the Cross. Jesus sees people to love.

So often the way that we view the world, life, ourselves, and certainly other people is dominated by sin. We see, we assess, we judge and categorize people on the basis of their sin and how annoying their particular sins are to us. These folks are just mildly annoying, but these over here are too much trouble. And we easily and readily write of people and discard them (especially in these days of rising tribalism).

That person you disdain; that’s just another person Jesus actually and truly loves. That’s another person Jesus loves and died for. And you know what? Those times when the person you disdain is the one you see in the mirror, those times when you are disgusted with yourself – well, guess what? You still are a person Jesus loves. Still a person Jesus died for. Still a person whom Jesus washed in the waters of Holy Baptism and made holy and blameless without spot or blemish.

Jesus sees you truly as His own beloved. That’s the truth, that’s the highest reality. He went to the cross to make it real. God grant us more and more to see this truth!