Passover Turned Lord’s Supper - April 13, 2017 - Maundy Thursday - Text: Matt. 26:17-30; Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:7-24; 1 Cor. 11:17-32

On this Maundy Thursday evening, the night in which Jesus, celebrating the Passover Seder, His last earthly celebration with His disciples, we come to be given His gift of the Means of Grace of the Lord’s Supper. We do this, we celebrate by listening to the four accounts we have of Jesus giving us His Holy Supper. Indeed, just as many witnesses are called forth to testify in a court of law, so here we call forth four witnesses to testify what we believe concerning the Lord’s Supper.
 

In His Gospel account Matthew tells us that, “on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ He replied, ‘Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, “The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.”’ So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.’ They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, ‘Surely not I, Lord?’ Jesus replied, ‘The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.’ Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, ‘Surely not I, Rabbi?’ Jesus answered, ‘Yes, it is you’” (Matthew 26:17-25). There continues to be some debate as to whether or not Judas stayed or left at this time. Matthew continues by writing, “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.’ When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 26:26-30). It was after this that Jesus was arrested, tried, convicted and put to death.
 

In his Gospel account Mark tells us, “on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, “The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover. When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.’ They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, ‘Surely not I?’ ‘It is one of the Twelve,’ he replied, ‘one who dips bread into the bowl with me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born’” (Mark 14:12-21). Here again, Mark does not necessarily tell us whether Judas stayed for the evening meal or not. Mark continues by writing, “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take it; this is my body.’ Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,’ he said to them. ‘I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.’ When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” (Mark 14:22-26). Again, it was after this that Jesus was arrested, tried, convicted and put to death.
 

In his Gospel account Luke begins by talking about the day of Unleavened Bread. “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.’ ‘Where do you want us to prepare for it?’ they asked. He replied, ‘As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there.’ They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover” (Luke 22:7-13). Up until this point, Luke makes no mention of the accusation against the one disciple who was to betray Jesus, instead he simply makes note of the meal. Luke continues by writing, “When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.’ After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, ‘Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table” (Luke 22:14-21). Here, Luke finally mentions the one who was to betray Jesus, thus indicating that Judas was there during the meal. And Luke concludes, “The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.’ They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this. Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest” (Luke 22:22-24). This is where we will leave off with Luke’s Gospel. Later, Luke tells us, Jesus went out to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives to prayer. There He was arrested. He was taken to trial, where He was tried, convicted and sentenced to die.
 

The Gospel writer John does not give us specifics of the meal itself, but he does give us some indication of who was at the meal. “After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.’ His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ‘Ask him which one he means.’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. ‘What you are about to do, do quickly,’ Jesus told him, but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night” (John 13:21-30). Here again, we have no indication whether this was before or after Jesus had eaten the Passover Seder meal with His disciples.
 

Finally we have Paul’s account of the Last Supper. Paul’s account was not an eyewitness account however Paul assures us of the accuracy of his word because it is not his own words but God’s Word. Paul says, “in the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!” (1 Corinthians 11:17-22). Here Paul is outlining the problem of this particular Christian congregation. To help us to better understand what was going on, Paul continues, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Here Paul connects the problems this church is facing with the giving of the Lord’s Supper.
 

Finally Paul helps us to clarify what was happening, “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:27-32). The problem that the people were having is that they were not recognizing the Body and Blood of Christ in this meal, that this meal was the Lord’s Supper, that is what brought about all the other problems, the eating without each other, the drunkenness, and so forth. If they had recognized the Body and Blood of Christ, that this was His supper, then these other problems would have been corrected.
 

What we celebrate in the Lord’s Supper is something different, something special, something extraordinary given to us by Jesus. This Supper given to us by Jesus is not simply a meal of eating bread and drinking wine, rather it is more, it is actually eating and drinking of the body and blood of Jesus, the one sacrificed for our sins, thus participating in His sacrifice, making Him a part of us and His sacrifice a part of us. Remember, Jesus was celebrating the Passover meal, the meal in which the people actually ate the sacrificed lamb so that it became a part of them. In the same way, as Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, so we actually eat His body and drink His blood so that it becomes a part of us. This Supper is not something which was a symbolic act, because none of the writers spoke in these terms and besides, how can one symbolically eat and drink a sacrifice or how is a sacrifice symbolically a part of someone? These are the words of Jesus in His Holy Word, thus, we are compelled to believe Jesus’ words that He took bread and said “this is my body.” He took the wine and said, “this is my blood.” These are Jesus’ own words and what He is giving and so we are given as He gives, thus He becomes a part of us so that His perfect life, suffering, death and resurrection become our perfect life, suffering death and resurrection. Finally we are left to rejoice and say, to Him be the glory, for His name’s sake. Amen.

Learning to Point to Jesus - April 9, 2017 - Palm Sunday/Sunday of Passion/Confirm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday. Today is the Sunday we traditionally celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem for the last time. Today is the beginning of Holy Week and the beginning of Jesus concluding His time on earth, His giving us the Lord’s Supper from the Passover, His betrayal, trials, suffering, death and resurrection. You may have noticed however that our Gospel reading is now the Passion reading instead of the Palm Sunday reading. This fact is because too many people skip Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, thus missing the passion readings and going straight to Easter, but you cannot have Easter without Jesus’ suffering and death, thus the passion readings for today.
 

For some, for seven young people, and their parents, family and friends, today is also a special day. These seven young people here in the front row, were brought into the Church (capital “C”) through the waters of Holy Baptism, or as they like to hear brought in, “in the water.” Now, after a time of instruction, as Jesus says, “Baptize and teach” they have reached a milestone in their faith. Personally for me, I am excited for these young people because after serving here in this congregation for almost 15 years, I had the privilege of being God’s instrument in putting water and His name on more than half of them.
 

For our guests, first and foremost thank you for being here to bear witness of this special occasion. To those uncertain as to the ceremony and rite that is taking place this morning let me briefly define for you what we will be doing. “Confirmation is a public rite of the church preceded by a period of instruction designed to help baptized Christians identify with the life and mission of the Christian community.” “Prior to admission to the Lord’s Supper, it is necessary to be instructed in the Christian faith (1 Cor. 11:28). The rite of confirmation provides an opportunity for the individual Christian, relying on God’s promise given in Holy Baptism, to make a personal public confession of the faith and a lifelong pledge of fidelity to Christ.”
 

So, what have these young people learned, that is into what confession of faith are they now making? And for those in the pew who have been confirmed not so long ago and perhaps many years ago, what did you learn? Do you remember? Let us review. First and foremost, I pray, they have learned to always point to Jesus. They have learned that we get it right, we get our faith right when we point to Jesus. It is important to point to Jesus because they have learned that they are sinners, conceived and born in sin and that the Law, in particular, the Ten Commandments shows them their sins. The Law points them to the fact that they cannot save themselves and they truly have no part in their salvation. Just as a drowning person cannot save themself or they would not be drowning and indeed just as a lifeguard will push off a drowning person attempting to help save themself, lest they drown also, they know that they cannot even help in their salvation. No amount of good that they do, no amount of what they might perceive as obedience will save them. Only Jesus will and only Jesus has saved them.
 

These young people have learned the faith of the Christian Church through the words of the Apostles’ Creed. They have learned of the work of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They have learned how God created all things our of nothing and how He continues to preserve and care for this world. They have learned how Jesus is true God and true man, how He had to be both; how He lived perfectly for us in our place because God’s demands are perfection and we cannot be perfect so Jesus is perfect for us in our place. They learned how Jesus took our sins, suffered, died and rose for us for our forgiveness. And they learned how the Holy Spirit works through the very Word of God, through Holy Baptism, through confession and absolution and through the Lord’s Supper to give, strengthen and keep us in faith.
 

They have learned the greatest and best prayer, the one Jesus gave us to pray and the one He loves to hear us pray, the Lord’s Prayer. They have learned how this prayer is the greatest prayer and how it covers all our needs.
 

They have learned how God comes to give us His good gifts and blessings, through the means of Grace beginning with Holy Baptism, which actually corresponds to the Old Testament Sacrament of Circumcision, which happened when a child was eight days old and is what identified one as being a child of God. They learned how at their Baptism God did all the work. Indeed, God, using the hands of the pastor and the mouth of the pastor put water on their head and spoke His name on them and in them, “in the water.” They heard Peter’s words reminding them that “baptism now saves you.” Being born a citizen of this nation and following the ways of the Church since Jesus, all but one were brought to the waters of baptism by their parents as infants and given faith since birth.
 

They learned how important, gift giving and efficacious is the very Word of God which we constantly need to study. Indeed, as we eat every day so we need to feed on God’s Divine Word every day. With that in mind, they learned how and why our Divine Service liturgy is permeated, filled with the Word of God and how we worship best when we say back to God the very word He has given us to say. They have seen how our Divine Service has its root in the early church as well as in the fulfillment of the ceremonial laws of Leviticus.
 

They learned how they are given forgiveness of sins through Confession and Absolution. Indeed, as they confess either publicly as we do in the Divine Service, or as they confess privately those sins which are extremely worrisome, that as the pastor speaks God’s Words of forgiveness, it is just as if God Himself has spoken. And as they have been forgiven they indeed forgive others.
 

And they learned how Jesus as He was celebrating the Passover with His disciples, the Passover first instituted in Egypt, gave us His Holy Supper wherein, as He says, He gives us His real body and real blood to eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins. Just as the children of Israel actually ate the sacrificed lamb so that it became a physical part of them, so we eat and drink Jesus actual body and blood so that it becomes a physical part of us so that we are given the benefits of such eating and drinking. They learned how this actually eating and drinking of Jesus’ body and blood is no symbolic act for indeed how can one symbolically participate or be a part of Jesus symbolically? This participation in Jesus means that His perfect life becomes their perfect life. His perfect suffering and death become their perfect suffering and death. And His perfect resurrection becomes their perfect resurrection.
 

Now for our confirmands, I would remind them of what confirmation is not. It is not graduation as one never graduates from being a disciple, a learner of Jesus. It is true that the more one learns about God the more one realizes there is so much more to learn. It is also true that the more one grows in their faith it is not that one becomes more and more holy, which would mean that one would need Jesus less and less and thus would be pointing to self more and more, rather the more one grows in faith the more one realize how lost and condemned they are, the more they realize how truly sinful they are and how they need to cling more and more to Jesus, just Jesus.
 

One final note to the confirmands, let me remind them and reiterate that they have learned that we get it right when we point to Jesus. We can never be certain when we point to ourselves, but we can always be sure when we point to Jesus. We point to Jesus when we rejoice in His work in giving us faith through the waters of Holy Baptism. We point to Jesus when we rejoice in the forgiveness He gives us in Absolution. We point to Jesus when we rejoice in the fact that all of Holy Scripture, indeed even all of History points to Jesus. We point to Jesus when we rejoice in the gifts that He gives in His Holy Supper are the gifts of His very body and blood, given into death, for the forgiveness of sins. We point to Jesus when He is running the show, when He is running the verbs in all our life, our thoughts, our words and our actions.
 

Now to wrap this up. Today is Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week. For the past six weeks we have been spending our time recognizing our part in Jesus’ life, suffering, death and resurrection and that it is because of His great love for us that He was born, lived, suffered, died and rose. This week we have more opportunities to be given the gifts the Lord has to give, through our Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter morning Divine Services, wherein we will celebrate the Lord’s giving us His Holy Supper, the Lord’s suffering and death and most importantly, next Sunday, the Lord’s resurrection.
 

God loves you so much and He has so many gifts and blessings He desires to pour out on you. My prayer for each one of you and especially for our young confirmands is that the Lord will continue to give to you. As you grow in your faith know that the devil will work even harder on you. Why would he bother working on those he already has? So rejoice in your suffering. I want to leave you with the words of Paul in our Epistle lesson for this morning, words which were thought to be a part of an early Christian creed, or statement of faith as some might call it. Paul says, “5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, 8he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11). To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Jesus - April 5, 2017 - Sixth Mid-Week of Lent - Text: (various verses from the Gospels)

We begin this week as we have begun every week with the reminder that we call the Word of God the “Good News” and rightly so, for it is the good news of salvation for all who believe. This year during the season of Lent through Easter Sunday we have been hearing of the events surrounding the suffering and death of Jesus through the different characters of those involved in the events. Prayerfully we are getting a better understanding of the personalities and thus the reasons for the specific actions of the characters through actual Biblical statements and “quotes” of each person.
 

Last week we got to know the person who sentenced Jesus to death, Pontius Pilate. We listened to the court transcripts as it were; we listened as Pilate attempted to set Jesus free; we listened to Pilate ultimately decide his own fate by giving in to the demands of the Jewish leaders and having Jesus sentenced to crucifixion; all the while reminding ourselves that it was not Pilate who brought these events about but it was we and our sins who brought this judgement on Jesus.
 

This evening we will look at the main character of the Passion history, Jesus Himself. Now, before you think we are jumping the gun, so to speak and as it were, because we are not yet ready to go to the Upper Room, go to Gethsemane, go to Golgatha, or get to the resurrection, let me say that it is important that we look at Jesus’ own part in His Passion account. This evening we are looking at what we might call the highlights of the teachings of Jesus, those teachings that are at the heart of the Passion, those teaching which were so misunderstood by so many, and those teachings which brought about our salvation.  From early on Jesus spoke quite clearly of the reason for His life and how He came to earth to fulfill all of Holy Scripture. “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’”(Mark 1:14-15). Jesus preached a message much like that of His predecessor, John the Baptist, that is, “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” And if you listen carefully to Jesus teachings you know He came to usher in the kingdom of God. He came into this world to usher in the last days, indeed we are now and have been living in the last days since Jesus birth.
 

One of Jesus’ most memorable sermons was the one in His own home town. It happened this way, it was the Sabbath day, that is the day of worship. The synagogue was crowded. The people of the town, his own relatives, or seeming relatives, had come to hear Jesus preach. When Jesus stood up, “the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him,  and he began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing’” (Luke 4:17-20). Here we see quite clearly that Jesus was the one promised by God. He was the one who was born to save the people from their sins. He was the one who came to heal, cast out demons, and to preach and teach the good news of salvation. As the account goes, however, there were those who refused to believe and who were intent on stoning Him.
 

Jesus did a lot of teaching and preaching. He also did many miracles. Please notice, Jesus did not do miracles the way too many of the purported miracle healers of today do their healing. Very often today you will hear the healers say something along the lines that if you are not healed by them (which most of them will not admit) it is because you did not believe or have enough faith. Listen to what Jesus says in comparison; “when Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.’ And he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I will; be clean.’ And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to the people’” (Matthew 8:1-4). Did you notice that the healing of this man was not based on his faith, but on Jesus’ Word and also that Jesus healing was to be confirmed by the doctors of the day, who were the priest.
 

The main theme in Jesus’ teaching, preaching and life was His offering the gift of forgiveness of sins. Because it was believed that only God could forgive sins and to claim to be God was blasphemous, for Jesus to offer forgiveness was seen as blaspheme. So, what does Jesus do? He uses His healing to authenticate His forgiveness and the fact that He is God, according to the logic of the Pharisees. In other words, He is using the logic of His enemies against them. “Getting into a boat [Jesus] crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.’ And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’ But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Rise and walk”? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he then said to the paralytic—‘Rise, take up your bed and go home.’ And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men” (Matthew 9:1-8).
 

Jesus came to bring life, eternal life. We are told that “at daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, ‘I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.’  And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea” (Luke 4:42-44). Indeed, Jesus came to forgive sins and to preach the good news of the kingdom of God.
 

“What is this good news Jesus came to proclaim?” We call it the Gospel in a nutshell. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Jesus’ message of good news is that we worship a God who loves us and loves us so much so that He gave His one and only Son to come to earth in order to live for us, that is in order to be perfect, as God demands, for us in our place because we cannot. He came to take our sins and to suffer and die to pay the price for our sins, so that we will not perish and here we mean suffer everlasting death, but that we might have eternal, everlasting life in heaven.
 

Unfortunately, just as quickly as Jesus came to fame so to speak, just as quickly as He became popular with the people in a couple short years, so just as easily He came to opposition. His presence drew respect and at times awe from those around Him. His words of preaching and teaching were unlike others within the organized temple in that when He spoke, He spoke with authority. He spoke, but He also demonstrated what He spoke. He lived by His own Word. He cared for others. He came not to be served but to serve. And He showed this very often to those closest to Him. During His last Passover with His disciples Jesus “got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him” (John 13:4-5). When He was done Jesus told His disciples, “‘You call me “Teacher” and “Lord,” and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them’” (John 13:13-17).
 

In the end, when it came to His trails, the verdict and His execution, Jesus freely, or we might better say, passively allowed Himself to be arrested, mocked, beaten, smitten, stricken and afflicted. He allowed for Himself to be put to death because that was the reason for His coming to earth. As the writer of the Gospel of John says of the sayings of Jesus “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). Jesus was not simply an example to us, as some would have you to believe for to be simply and example would only lead us to despair because we cannot be like Him. We was an example but even more, He fulfilled the very example He set. He was the One who came to live for us. We cannot fulfill God’s demand to “be perfect.” Jesus was perfect. He lived a perfect life. He fulfilled all Holy Scripture perfectly and then freely He took our sins, suffered and paid the price for our sins, and died for us. Yet, we know the rest of the story, He did not stay dead but rose victorious over sin, death and the devil and now He sends the Holy Spirit to give, strengthen and keep us in faith through the very means He has given to us, His Word and Sacraments. Thus our desire is to be where His gifts are given out and to rejoice in response with thanks and praise. To Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

“Dem” Bones - April 2, 2017 - Fifth Sunday in Lent - Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14

For many people, death is something that is to be feared. Another thing that is often feared by some is the book of Revelation. Whenever I am asked questions concerning the book of Revelation I like to remind people that for us Christians, the book of Revelation is a wonderful book of Gospel, giving us a glimpse of what heaven is like. For the unChristian and for those who do not understand the book it is often a book of terror. For the unbeliever in general, death is certainly something to be feared, but for us Christians, death is merely a being born out of this world into heaven. More often than not, I believe it is not that we, as Christians, fear death in general, rather we are more afraid of the way in which we might die. Anyway, our three lessons for this morning give us a glimpse of the power of God as we see Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead in the Gospel lesson, showing Jesus is God with power over life and death. Paul reminds us that by faith in Jesus we do not need to fear death, because, although we may suffer physical death, although we may pass on from this world, because of Jesus and faith in Him we never need to be afraid of eternal spiritual death, that price has been paid in full. And our text, our Old Testament lesson is the account of Ezekiel and the dry bones and God’s power to bring even dry bones back to life. Yes, our God is a powerful God with power even over death and the grave.
 

I do not want to get gory this morning, but this text reminds me somewhat of the story of Frankenstein. Although I have never read the book I have heard the story and I have seen one version of the story as well as the Mel Brooks parody in Young Frankenstein. Anyway, the gist of this story is the reanimation of human tissue, that is the bringing of dead tissue back to life. In our text for this morning, Ezekiel is shown a valley filled with bones, and to make sure we understand that these are dead and dead we are told they are dry bones, bones that have been there for a while and he is asked, “can these bones live?” Keeping this story in its proper context I will remind you that he was asked this question by God Himself.
 

Our text is the experience of Ezekiel (v. 1-10) and its interpretation (v. 11-14). In the next few minutes I want to try to describe Ezekiel’s experience to you. I want to say that I use the term experience rather than say that this was a vision because Ezekiel does not call it a vision. He says that “the hand of the Lord was upon [him], and he brought [him] out by the Spirit of the Lord.” The Lord showed him a valley full of bones. He was carried back and forth among these bones in order to be shown the great number of bones there were in the valley. And about these bones he says that they were very dry, again, these bones had been here for a very long time. They were the bones of a great army of people who had died a long time ago, their outer bodies had already decayed and all that was left was these dry, bleached, dead bones.
 

After being shown these bones the Lord asks Ezekiel, “can these bones live?” Ezekiel’s answer shows much wisdom. Never answer a question you cannot answer. And remember, when you are in a conversation with God, definitely never answer a question you know you cannot answer. Ezekiel answers by turning the question back to the Lord, “O Yahweh God, you alone know.” Ezekiel knows that only God can know the answer and the answer is that only God can do what He wants to do, when and where He please. He knows that with God all things are possible.
 

God knows the answer. God can do anything. God tells Ezekiel to prophecy. He is to prophecy to the bones. The first thing he is to tell the bones is to come back together and they are to do this not because Ezekiel said so, but because the Lord says so. “Hear the word of the Lord!” he says. So, we see Ezekiel speak and we see his words come to be. His words do not do what they say because they are his words, but his words do what they say because they are the Lord’s Words. Here we see, as in all of Holy Scripture, the power of the very Words of the Lord. The Lord’s Word is such that it does what it says. When God speaks, it happens. When Ezekiel speaks the Word of the Lord, the bones come together, tendons and flesh appear on the bones, and skin covers them.
 

So, now Ezekiel is looking at a valley of lifeless bodies. I have never watched or been drawn to watch horror movies, but this experience sounds like it would look pretty horrifying if you ask me. Perhaps this scene might be akin to a modern day zombie movie. But Ezekiel is not yet done. Next, the Lord tells him to “prophecy to the breath.” The breath is the spirit, the wind. The breath is the spirit of God. In Genesis, at the creation of the world we are told that God formed the man out of the dust of the ground, out of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. This is the same breath. This is the breath of life. This is the life giving breath of God. And, again, not because Ezekiel said so, but because he was speaking the Word of the Lord, this happened. The breath, the spirit of the Lord entered the bodies and they came to life and stood up on their feet. And what Ezekiel saw was a vast army of people, living people. Where there was previously dry bones, now there were living people. Ezekiel witnessed the reanimation of human tissue. And that is where Ezekiel’s experience ends, more or less. What happened to the people we are not told. The next thing we are told is an explanation of this experience.
 

God tells Ezekiel what this experience means (v. 11-14). He says that the bones are the lost children of Israel. They are lost because they are dead in their sin and unbelief. They have strayed from their faith in the Lord and now they are literally dead in their trespasses, sin, and unbelief. Left on their own, theirs is a condition of hopelessness.
 

But with the Lord there is hope. There is good news. The good news is that the Lord will call them back to faith. The calling back to faith of the children of Israel is the Lord’s promise of true restoration. True restoration came about through Jesus. Jesus came to earth, true God in human flesh and blood. Jesus was born perfect. He came as the embodiment of Israel. What the whole nation of Israel could not do, keep the Laws and word of God, Jesus did perfectly. Jesus came to pay the penalty for the sins of Israel in order to restore them to a right relationship with the Lord.
 

The true restoration of Israel is this, that the Lord also calls all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, to faith in Himself. The true Israel is all who believe in Jesus as their Savior. The final restoration for all believers is heaven. The Lord will open the graves of all people and will bring all those who are His, by His grace, through faith in Jesus, to their home, heaven, with Him. The Lord will bring all believers into His Kingdom.
 

How might we tell this story today? We might start with taking a look at the world in which we live and especially at the lives that we live. We are reminded that we are all by nature sinful and unclean, deserving of death, eternal spiritual death. We daily show our nature through our words and our actions. Turn on the television, watch the news, read a news paper, listen to the radio. The things that are happening in our world, drug abuse, child abuse, rape, abortion, murder, violence of all kinds, these are not the things of a people who are in a close relationship with the Lord. Even in our own churches and congregations we are people who come and look like we are trying to be a part of God’s kingdom, and I would say, we actually want to try to be good Christians, yet we too find ourselves daily sinning against one another and the Lord, in word and in action. We compete against one another, we struggle for what we perceive to be positions of power, we nit-pick and gossip against one another, we tear each other down, and for what reason? Mostly because we are simply falling into the temptation of the devil. Yes, the church is full of hypocrites, those people who have faith in Jesus and yet, on a daily basis live otherwise. We all stand guilty!
 

In Catechetical Helps, a type of workbook for the catechism, we are reminded that we do not keep the commandments simply by not doing something we should not be doing. We break the commandments, more often by not doing something we should be doing. The statements of the third commandment stick out in reminding us that we do not keep the third commandment just by going to church. We keep the third commandment “by going to church, listening, believing, and doing; by praying and reading the Bible daily; by supporting the work of the church; and by sharing the Gospel with others.” The children of Israel became a valley of dry bones because they gave up their relationship with the Lord. Are we to become a valley of dry bones because we too are slowly giving up our relationship with the Lord?
 

Thanks be to God that He does not leave us without hope. In His infinite grace and mercy God continually calls us to faith through His Means of Grace, His Word and Sacrament. From the time of our birth, until the time of our death, the Lord continues to put before us, His Word and Sacraments. Through these means He would call us to faith, strengthen us in faith, and keep us in faith until He comes again.
 

Thanks be to God that He sent His Son to give His life for ours. Jesus did not come just to save the children of Israel. He did not come to show us the way to save ourselves. He came to live for us, that is to be perfect for us because we cannot be perfect. He came to obey all of God’s Laws and commands perfectly for us as well because we cannot, because we are imperfect. He came to take our sins upon Himself. He came to give His life as a ransom for us all. He came to give His life for ours. He came to bring us back into a right relationship with the Father in heaven, to restore us.
 

Thanks be to God that He came to give us heaven. Heaven is not something we will have or something that is a future possibility. Heaven is a present reality. It is ours now. We may have to wait to move in, but we are on the member list.
 

Ezekiel’s experience brings us the sobering thought that, but by the grace of God, there go I. Ezekiel’s experience reminds us of God’s grace in bringing us back into a right relationship with Himself through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and then God through Ezekiel calls us to and works in us the ability to live in a right relationship with Himself. And to that we say, to God be the glory. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.