Category: Uncategorized

²⁵ At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; ²⁶ yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷ All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ²⁸ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

This morning our gospel reading is short.  Just 6 verses, and only two main ideas- that the truth of God’s kingdom is hidden from the wise in this world and only revealed by those who the Father chooses- and that Jesus gives not more work and challenge to his people, but a lighter yoke and rest.  The simplicity of the reading is appropriate to help reinforce the simplicity of the message. Following Jesus is not an exhausting enterprise, but a nurturing and a life giving process.

To the wise and understanding of this world following Jesus is not desired or understood.  Those who are so high on themselves and their wisdom cannot see Jesus and the way he offers. They can only see the way they set for themselves, and they have little desire to repent of their chosen way.

For those of us who are able and willing to repent of our sins, we can see Jesus, we can know the path he sets out for those who desire life and salvation from him.  And with this right understanding in our hearts of what it means to follow Jesus we can see that it is an easy burden to carry.

Of course, we try and make things harder, we try and make things in our life more difficult than they really are. We want to prove ourselves and make a name for ourselves with hard work. We want to earn our salvation.  And we know this is not quite what the scripture teaches us, but it is just so hard to resist earning your place in life, that we move forward. And soon we are exhausted by our efforts.

One way this plays out is in trying to avoid sinning and covering up our sin. We hide our sins from one another, so that when we come to church on Sunday morning, we do not confess our sins to one another. We lie and cover up our sin- we believe that if people knew about our sins they would no longer want to talk to us.  Soon our Christian life can become just as much about keeping up with appearances and concealing our sinful nature as it is about abiding in the Word and abiding in Jesus.

This hard work of keeping up appearances has a cost. It perpetuates the lie that being Christian is all about being a good person- it obscures the gospel that Jesus died for us and calls us as his own regardless of how good or bad we are.

When Jesus talks about how his yoke is easy you can’t help but think about the opposite heavy yoke that Jesus describes of the Pharisees. The Yoke of the Pharisees is to add extra laws and regulations to God’s law, to essentially prove that you really mean it in following God’s law.  Because this takes so much work and effort to keep up extra regulations, it keeps a person from living according to God’s design and brings a person instead to become preoccupied with man made regulations. These man made regulations are a heavy yoke because they do not point to Jesus, they do not point to the gift of salvation to us in Jesus. Rather they point to man’s works and a self righteousness that professes that we can stop sinning and that tries to show off to the world that we are more devoted to God than others.

Our Epistle reading for today Romans chapter 7 shares about the futility of trying to be without sin: For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 

This is an amazing section of scripture because St. Paul is sharing the complete truth about our fallen human nature and how we will fail to live without sin. If the scripture was selectively edited like some cynical unbelievers would wishfully believe, this is the type of passage that would be worth editing out. Why tell people that they will fail?

What if a high school English teacher told students on the first day of class- you are just high school students, you know so little about literature and Shakespeare and the other classics, that whatever you think you know about literature is probably wrong or at best partially wrong. How hard would the students work? Would some just give up and let artificial intelligence write their papers for them?

The scripture shares this failure of our human nature to keep God’s law not to discourage us from trying to follow God’s law- but to point us to Jesus as the only way we can keep God’s law.

God’s law is good and there is certainly good in following the teaching in scripture in how we are to live our lives. We are not to just throw out what the scripture teaches in how to live a righteous life.  Even though we cannot live up to the full extent of God’s laws. Instead we are to keep the law through the power of Christ and the power of Christ alone.

²⁸ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

When we see that Jesus is the one who can bring us to keep God’s law, then we experience the rest for our souls that Jesus promises.

The rest for our souls is in recognizing what we cannot do for ourselves. When you stop trying to hold everything together with your own effort, life can get much easier. This is the freedom Jesus brings, that you can be who you are as God’s child, you can confess your sins and your failures and you can look to Jesus for your strength and your belonging.

Instead of looking to prove yourself, you just look to Jesus as the one who is pulling the ox yoke and taking you along for the ride.

And what does this look like for your life? What does this look like for Christ Lutheran Church if we see that Jesus carries the weight of the yoke? How can we truly learn from Jesus and stop trying to carry ourselves?

It starts with our understanding the full gift of forgiveness we have in Jesus.  Since he has carried all of our sorrows and sins on the cross we know that we have a very light load in life indeed.  If we find we are carrying too heavy of a load we have to ask if we are carrying a load more for issues of pride than for the joy of God’s kingdom

Knowing the gift we have in Jesus is the light load that we are called to carry. If we have a heavier load to carry in our participation in the church, we can only carry it with Jesus as our help.   On our own we will fall exhausted.

Our hymn of the day put it well: “I heard the voice of Jesus say “Come unto me and rest; lay down thou weary one, lay down my head upon my breast.” I came to Jesus as I was, so weary worn and sad; I found in him a resting place, And he has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold I freely give the living water thirsty one, Stoop down and drink and live.” I came to Jesus and I drank of that life giving stream; my thirst was quenched my soul revived, and now I live in Him.

I heard the voice of Jesus say: “I am this dark world’s light. Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise And all thy day be bright.”  I looked to Jesus and I found In Him my star my sun; And in the light of life I’ll walk Till traveling days are done.

This time of the year in Indiana is strawberry season. The strawberries all become ripe at the same time and you have to be able to pick the strawberries and use them while they are ripe, eat them quickly or can them or they will not keep. Without enough labor and effort, the window of time passes quickly and the proceeds of the land are not captured.

This urgency of timing is what Jesus is referencing when he says: “The harvest is great but the laborers are few.” In the ancient world a harvest of wheat or other crops came once a year and there were not combine harvester machines back then to gather all that the earth produced.

Since a crop like wheat provides a significant part of diet and economic livelihood, the timing of collecting the harvest is of great urgency. Receiving the returns of much work requires everything to come together with enough laborers to harvest. You can picture the excitement of a great harvest, with the right amount of energy expenditure a high percentage of the crop can be preserved, and with a poor effort much could be lost.

So it is with the harvest in God’s kingdom. The riches of God’s word are vast and limitless, we treasure the word in our life as the church as we learn more and more about the meaning of God’s Word.  We know the Word of God has the power for the great gains and the timing is very sensitive as Jesus is coming soon and the time to labor and harvest will at that time be past. The conditions are ripe, all that is needed is enough laborers in the harvest field.

Sometimes we convince ourselves that the unbelieving world that walks in darkness are having all of the fun, that they are living it up while we as Christians make sacrifice and settle for simple lives following God’s law.  There are always those times when the wicked seem to prosper because they are of the world and love the world.

But we should not forget that those who walk in darkness are without the light of Christ, although they may fit in with the world, they are fitting in with the emptiness of the world, their need is great, and the power God’s Word has to bring life and hope to those in darkness is great. The emptiness of our society provides conditions that are ripe for the work of God’s Word.

Certainly today we can see that our nation, is drowning in an epidemic of selfishness and rejection of God’s order in daily life. People do what is right in their own eyes. People are lost in their sin walking in darkness, and do not understand or know the light of Christ.  We heard in our gospel lesson how Jesus saw that the people are clearly lost, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus has compassion on those who walk in darkness, Jesus knows how empty their lives are without his fullness.

The Collect of the Day asks for faith to believe God’s promises that we may receive eternal salvation.  This is language about how the harvest works. We take on the role of harvesters because we believe God’s promises.  Our faith in Jesus is what allows us to collect any harvest. Without this trust in Jesus, we can do no harvesting for God’s kingdom.  The work all revolves around our trust in our Savior, our faith in God’s Word. 

The workers are few because there are many without faith or with a stunted faith.  Many are called, few are chosen.  Those who are indifferent in their faith or doubting are not qualified for the job. The influences of the world lead many away from a mature faith. Some love the world more than they love God’s Word.

Because the workers are few we continue to pray for more laborers. And even as we pray for more workers there is much harvest for us.  There is a big percentage of the pie our role of service in the kingdom left for us to dig into.  We do not have to fight off others for the cultivation of the harvest. There is plenty of fruitful work for us to pursue. Our leader and guide in doing this work is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen again to Jesus’ reaction to the needs of the people: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”  In the New Testament this Greek word for compassion is only used of God. Only Jesus who is without sin can fully understand how lost and helpless we are without Him.  Only with Christ as our Shepherd can we extend this compassion to others.

A shepherd leads and guides. Think of the great commission from Matthew chapter 28, the 11 disciples at that time, were called to make disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching.  The answer to the helpless condition of our world is the new life in Christ, and the teaching of God’s Word that comes with this new life.  We tackle the unbelief and darkness of the world with one baptism at a time, one lesson of instruction at a time.

As we work in the harvest field and pray for laborers, we should always see that it is the LORD who brings the harvest.  No matter how discouraged we may feel of the overall demographic decline of the church in America, we should never lose sight of how the Lord brings results with His Word.  

A few weeks ago a heating and air conditioning serviceman came to my house to fix a part that was covered over warranty. Since I was returning from a funeral that day around the time he arrived, he asked me about what work I was doing that appeared to have worked up a sweat.

I told him how I was the officiant for the funeral and how I had the opportunity to share about the comfort in sorrow and the hope of the resurrection our Lord brings to those who mourn. Soon he told me that he had lost two close family members in the last year and how important support and compassion from the Lord’s church was to him in his time of grief.  He commented on how God’s Word really works because he was never raised in the church, had little exposure to God’s Word and did not believe and now he is listening to a Bible app every morning. Through hearing the Word he has faith and he described how he is now experiencing that everything in the scripture holds true.  The harvest in his life is just beginning.  The Lord brings the harvest.

Our reading from Exodus chapter 19 helps us see how the harvest is all produced by the LORD. “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.”  Faith for the people of Israel was clear as sight, the LORD’s deliverance of them.

Israel was carried to salvation from Egypt as on wings of an eagle. Because they were carried in this way, they were put in a position to be God’s treasured possession among all the peoples. “and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” 

The harvest is so great at the time of the book of Exodus that a whole nation stands before the world as a kingdom of priests. So plentiful the harvest is today that the church which is present in every country in the world shares the good news of the kingdom.  

With verse 10 in our gospel reading we see a distinction between all of the disciples that followed Jesus and the particular 12 he sent out.  We can easily overlook the importance of Jesus establishing twelve disciples.  It is not just a symbolic honor to the twelve tribes of Israel that Jesus called 12 disciples. It is much more. Jesus is using the 12 disciples as a new creation for the world, a renewed faithfulness to the Lord which the twelve tribes of Israel failed to faithfully fulfill.

The twelve disciples were established by Jesus to show what it looks like when the twelve tribes of Israel are united and not at war with one another, when Israel is a people for God’s own possession.  And when Jesus talks about praying for laborers in the mission field, he is praying for laborers who are converts of the 12 disciples for a common purpose in ministry, and the establishment of the pastoral office.

We as the church are the priesthood of all believers who are built on the foundation of Christ and the 12 Apostles.  We are chosen for this calling. It is the Lord’s doing, He is the master gardener designer the beautiful and awe inspiring results.  Amen.   

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, there is something satisfying about completion. The end of a school career is celebrated with graduation. A wedding celebrates the completion of the joining together of a man and a woman to be a family united in Christ. Retirement celebrates the completion of a working career. Life always brings new chapters and new events that eventually reach a fulfillment or completion.

Today we are at the close of the Easter season. The risen Lord Jesus has led us through these almost 50 days now, with many high points in rejoicing in the joy of the Kingdom.  Today we think about the completion and the fulfillment that our Lord’s Passion on the cross, resurrection and Ascension into heaven brings to our lives.

 We prayed in the Collect prayer this morning: “O King of glory, Lord of Hosts, uplifted in triumph far above all heavens, leave us not without consolation, but send us the Spirit of truth whom You promised from the Father.”

First comes the Ascension of Jesus and the glory and triumph far above the heavens, and then comes that which brings the glory down to us, the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

 The gospel of Luke ends with these words: “Then he led them out as far as Bethany and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.”

In older churches that have painting of Jesus behind the altar, a common theme of these paintings is the Ascension. These altar backdrops show Jesus holding his two hands up in blessing. Jesus gesturing in blessing to them is what the disciples last saw as He was lifted up and a cloud took him from out of their sight.

We easily remember the last words of Jesus on the cross: “It is finished”  Less familiar to our memories are the last words the resurrected Jesus said to his disciples before he ascended to heaven “You are witnesses of these things , and behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Jesus gave the disciples this single purpose to witness to his death and resurrection and to teach that the scripture is fulfilled through him. And as the scripture was fulfilled there was nothing more that needed to be said.  They saw him holding his hands up in blessing and they worshiped him.

As we come to the altar of God in worship we still see Jesus holding his hands in blessing. Just as Jesus blessed the disciples, so also he is blessing us as we hear his words and receive his gifts. When Jesus returns we will see him again with hands out in blessing, we will see him blessing us and blessing all of creation as he makes the New Heaven and Earth and brings things to this blessed completion.

With his Ascension Jesus is lifted up and reigns in the highest of glories. And as he reigns at the throne of heaven, at the right hand of the Father he raises us up with him.

The closing verse of See, the Lord Ascends in Triumph LSB 494 summarizes what Jesus has done for us in his Ascension. “He has raised our human nature On the clouds to God’s right hand; There we sit in heavenly places, There with Him in glory stand. Jesus reigns, adored by angels; Man with God is on the throne. By our mighty Lord’s ascension We by faith behold our own.”

Jesus is fully man and fully God, which means our human nature is there at the throne of Heaven. And in sending the Holy Spirit to us, we may have this same completion as Jesus, we too will one day be glorified with the perfect righteousness of Jesus. At the new heaven and earth we too will be raised up with Jesus. 

There is a reason it feels special to be in this space.  And as we live our lives as Christians, already today we partake of God’s glories, already now we receive his very body and blood, already now we receive the gifts of heaven on earth.  Here in this church the Lord brings the joys of heaven to us.

We stand with Jesus in glory. This is the completion of what Jesus came to us for. He assumed our human nature, he joined in our suffering, and he obeyed the Father in perfect righteousness where we failed. He resisted Satan’s temptations and reversed the curse of sin. He restored our human nature back to the image of God, he completed the course of our salvation so that we are now in a degree of glory far far greater than Adam and Eve were before the fall into sin.

Such lofty themes of the completion of God’s design puts things in perspective. How many things do we waste our time with that have little importance? Colossians chapter 3 says it well: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

We can attach great importance to different things that may or may not go our way.  But these things that seem so important in the moment mean little in light of the big picture that Jesus has ascended into heaven and we now wait his return.  We heard in our gospel reading today that Jesus prayed for the well being of the church as he knew he was returning to the Father. “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world.”

Jesus in this speech is showing that he is very concerned about how the church will fare living in the world that he is leaving. Jesus knows that until his return the church will need watching over and protection. That is why he prays: “Holy Father, keep them in your name.” He says, Keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” 

To keep them in the Father’s name is to keep the disciples faithful to the revelation of who the Father is.  Jesus told Phillip, if you have seen me you have seen the Father.  Seeing Jesus rightly and worshipping Jesus rightly is the way to see and worship the Father rightly.

We see Jesus rightly through seeing the scripture rightly, this is the fulfillment that was brought to us by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, that if we have God’s Word and listen and obey, then we are close to Jesus. This is the completion and fulfillment the Father planned for us. That we would recognize Jesus as the king of all, and that we would live our lives in a way that rejoice at confessing that Jesus is king.

No matter the uncertain future we face in life, let us confess in how we live our lives that Jesus is Lord of everything, and that he will return, he will bring you to the completion the work that He began in you and continues refine until the great day of the Lord. Amen.  

Brothers and sisters in Christ, when medical problems come up for you or for loved ones, aren’t we all grateful that there are people who have devoted so much focus in their lives to medical care. I don’t often think about what things are required in the event of different medical emergencies, but EMT’s doctors and surgeons think about these things and deal with them everyday. You might even say they live in that world of emergency care for the body. And because they live in that world, it can make the difference on any given day whether someone lives or dies.

In our gospel lesson today Jesus said: “Because I live, you also will live.”  Because Jesus is the living God, we also live.  Because Jesus is risen, we also shall one day rise. His death on the cross has saved us. Because Jesus lives to do the Father’s will, we now have life.

And Jesus invites us to also live in his love of the Father. Jesus wants us to be like the grad student who does not think about anything but classes for the sake of survival in the program. Jesus wants us to live in God’s Word.

It is true that you can have too much of things in life. Coffee or wine, an apple or dark chocolate all have been found to give health benefits. But only in moderation.  If you consume too much of a food with health benefits it can become basically toxic for you and harm you considerably.

This principle of moderation is not true in regards to receiving the gifts of faith. We can never have too much of God’s love, grace and forgiveness. Jesus did not leave us as orphans, not only did he promise his presence would be with the disciples always, he also promised the presence of the Holy Spirit.

To live our lives the fullest means that we live our lives always in the love of the Lord, that we do not hold back.  Part of how we do this is that we confess our sins and recognize that we in no way deserve all of the good gifts the Lord gives us. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We live in the love of the Lord, eternally grateful that He has brought us from the death we deserve to his marvelous and abundant life.

When we practice Confession and Absolution in our worship we are brought from humility to joy by the power of God’s Word, because Jesus lives, we experience the new lease on life of our sins forgiven.  

And when we recognize that we are forgiven, we respond in thanksgiving. In the last year we have continued to learn to sing the psalms.  The Psalms are a great illustration of what it means to respond in thanksgiving for what God has done for us. Listen to the words of Psalm 100:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!  Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing! ³ Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him;           bless his name! ⁵ For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

How good it is to together with God’s people to praise God in our speech and singing and give thanks for his faithfulness to all generations.   Worship is part of what Jesus means when he says, if you love me, you will keep my Commandments. Keeping Jesus’ commandments is best explained in terms of sharing the gospel, the commandment to make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching everything he has taught the church.

To love Jesus is to gather for worship and to hand on to the next generation the teachings of our Lord. Caring for the church is to practice love for Jesus. In the summer time there are so many activities that we look forward to and perhaps treasure.  Church attendance goes down as people also travel for vacations or family visits.

Yet the summer time does not need to be a vacation from God’s Word. Instead it is an opportunity to renew daily routines of devotion to God’s Word.  Often the summer can involve more free time and more energy as longer days lighten moods that were darkened by winter. To love Jesus is to ask if not now when? We can recognize the time before us as a time to be daily transformed by the Word.

Jesus talked about keeping his commandments earlier in John 13: ³⁴ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

To live in the Lord also means to love others and Jesus loved us.  Loving others is to truly live your own life. If you only care for yourself, you are not living your life to the full, you are living in a closed off existence that makes you also by association closed off from God.

As Martin Luther began to take on more and more responsibilities for the sake of protecting the true proclamation of the gospel, he learned a life lesson about putting his priorities in order in the face of growing demands on his time. He is quoted as saying: “If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without three hours of prayer.”

To the world this does not sound like a winning formula for success in managing a busy schedule. But for Christians, it makes sense to make sure you are aligned with God’s kingdom before starting your labors. How foolish it would be to spend only a few minutes in prayer and not have the right priority to your day, and then spend hours working tirelessly toward things that are against God’s will.

In the same way, when we need to be able to follow our Lord’s teaching “just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”  God’s Word challenges you today to ask, am I living only for myself today, or is my purpose grounded in love for others?  Jesus desires that everyday you remember that you have been baptized into his kingdom, that your old sinful nature can be drowned as you remember your baptism and repent of your sins.

Mothers are known for typically having priorities straight in terms of the care of children. Maternal care passions are a gift of God and part of God’s design in creation.  The selflessness mothers so often demonstrate aligns closely with Jesus’ command to love one another.  

We began reflecting on people who live for competency in their professions and how this can save lives. When we live to serve Jesus, when we live to love others- we can become God’s instruments to save lives not just for a certain number of extra years, but for eternity.  If you were to ask a person who lived as an unbeliever for many years and now has come to know the Lord, think about how thankful this person must be to those who lived to abide in Jesus, who shared the gospel because it is the most important thing in life. Amen.

God’s Word says there are two paths in life: the way of life and the way of death. The way of life is only traveled by faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior. To believe in any other way besides Jesus is to travel the wrong way in life. Jesus is very clear as he says: I am the way  the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He is very clear: Jesus is the one and only way to the Father.

In contrast the world we live in today says there are many paths you can take in life.  Our society is full of mixed messages that say that you can have it all, you can pursue all kinds of directions in life whether they agree with God’s Word or not. Society says find what is true for you, look out for yourself and you will be fine. There is no longer a respect of the importance of following God’s designs and directions for how to live life.

You might even say that in a world where everything goes, that the world has lost its way. Brothers and sisters in Christ, how do you live your life well in a world that has lost its way? How can you stay on track and not be led astray by how so many around you are living their lives? In our gospel lesson today Jesus teaches us that we know more than we realize about going the right way.

In the setting of John chapter 14, after Jesus speaks to the disciples about the place that he will soon go to prepare for them, he promises that when he goes he will come again to take them to himself. He tells them “you know the way to where I am going.”

The disciples do not understand, they take the phrase “you know the way” literally as if it is road to follow a river to cross and a mountain to climb. The disciples are confused about what Jesus means- yet Jesus still is speaking accurately when he says they know the way to where he is going.  They know the way even though they don’t know that they know the way.

They know the way because they know Jesus.  Jesus has taught them about following him and abiding in him. He has taught them that they are the sheep and he is the Shepherd.  He has taught them that a servant is not greater than his master, if they persecute me they will persecute you.  The disciples have been shown the way that Jesus lays down.

Jesus’ way to the Father is the way of God’s will, which is the way of grace. It is not a way marked by the efforts of the human will and the way of works.  We know what our sinful nature likes to pursue: we are eager to hear about what works we can do in order to be earning a place with the Father. We like to think that we can earn our way to the Father by being pretty good in our hearts.

If you start to think that God has been blessing you for most of your life because you have been serving in the church in different ways for as long as you can remember, then you are relating the blessing you have from God through your actions and your commitments. 

But you probably don’t want to be judged based on your participation in the church, because along with those years of service you would also be judged for those times you envied another person serving at church for their apparent greater success, and all of the times you were distracted in worship, or prideful in exercising offices of leadership in the church- times when you are doing things just as much for your own glory as for God’s glory. 

If you were judged by your actions, you may feel good about yourself for a while as you remember high points of service, but once all of the votes start to come pouring in from the past, the pretty good person eventually loses by a landslide as the completely sinful person, evil in thought word and deed.

To understand this way of salvation we need to understand God the Father’s will. The will of the Father is that all be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. Jesus came to do the Father’s will, not his own.  The Father’s will is the way of salvation by grace through faith in Christ- the only way of redemption.

Luther spoke about God’s will.  “If we want to feel assured of reaching heaven, we must have a sure way and road to travel, for their can be no more than one right way and road. And such a way is indicated only in God’s Word. Christ the Lord Himself is the only Way and the right road on which our heart can and must rely and depend. Therefore Christ concludes: “He who would be safe and not meet eternal loss and ruin, let him give ear to Me alone.”, and let me impress these words deeply “I am the way.”

Jesus’ way to the Father is the way of humility, the way of suffering on the cross, not the way of pride that thinks it doesn’t need Jesus’ cross.

Our way is the way of pride. It is any way that we follow when we put ourselves forward and lose sight of Jesus. The same thinking that says we’re good enough to earn our way to heaven is the way of pride, keeping some of the credit for my salvation for myself, denying God the credit.

This is the way of the world, where God’s Word is hated and despised because it stands as a stumbling block against all who would put their trust in themselves or put their trust in the innovations of man.

Luther commented how even Christians seeking to follow Jesus can twist things in a way where trust is in man.

“Yet the world will try and rely on any method or any work suggested to it. But there is one thing it cannot do, namely remain on this one safe way with firm and steadfast faith. And though it hears and is told that Christ is the way, it adulterates this message and seeks bypaths and other ways. It does not let Him have the exclusive honor, and it usurps part of this for itself, as though it could contribute something and find the way to heaven by itself.”

The way of humility in putting our trust in Jesus is the way where death to our sinful self gives life.  Jesus led the way  for us, so that we could see that dying to ourselves is to have life in Christ.  

The disciples were troubled at Jesus going the way of death. They wanted a powerful Jesus, not a dying one.  They wanted power and glory of the Father rather than suffering and death for themselves.

We often want our faith to bring us admiration and success rather than rejection and hurt. We strive to figure out how to carve out a place in the world where we can make a name for ourselves and find a way to advance ourselves.  But Jesus tells us that he who seeks to save his life will lose it.

When we say the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed we do not recite about how Jesus turned water in to wine, fed the five thousand, stilled the storm, or even that he rose Lazarus from the dead. The miracles Jesus performed are good and important, but it is the way he traveled toward his death on the cross that saved us, that is the most important thing that we recite in the Creeds.

Jesus went the way of the cross to bring life out of death. Jesus’ showing his glory and power was not the means to save us, but instead his suffering, death and resurrection.

By his holy suffering and death we have life and all its benefits. Here and now the Father is providing for all of our needs. We are given the comfort of Christ’s presence when we suffer. Jesus has prepared the mansion that one day awaits us when he comes back.

Christ is the only way to heaven. His life, death, and resurrection have won salvation for sinners. Believing this truth brings life for eternity. Believing this truth we have the way to live- even in a world that has lost its way.   

Have you ever found yourself at the other end of finishing a milestone in life and then asking yourself- now what? I remember the weekend my family came up to visit me to celebrate my graduation from undergraduate college.  It was a unique feeling that the time had come where there were no more classes to take, no more papers to write- nothing I needed to accomplish. After the graduation ceremony was over and my family left town, I said to myself now what?

As a child I always had heard about the goal of going to college, and now it was finished. I recognized my life had changed and I needed to answer the question of ‘now what’.  My way of answering this question was to recognize that there was a lot more learning and reading I felt important to take on. Within a short time I started reading books just for pleasure, to make up for how long I was only doing school related reading.

In our readings today, a lot has changed for the disciples since the events of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection three days later.  What was consistent and predictable in their lives was now much different.  In our reading from Acts we hear from Peter as he explains what has changed since Jesus was crucified.  In our gospel lesson we have an inside account of two followers of Jesus as they are leaving Jerusalem on the road to a town named Emmaus.  In both cases the Lord answers the question of these followers of Jesus, of “Now what.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ since early in March we have been working our way through the season of the church year centered around our Lord’s Passion and the hope we have in his Resurrection. We have attended extra services and we have reflected on all of God’s promises for us. Now we are into the third Sunday of Easter- the excitement of Celebrating Easter is diminished. We have already sung some of the most beloved Easter hymns, only a few Easter Lilies remain adorning our worship space.

Like the disciples we can ask, “Now What?”  Listen to verse 37 of our reading from Acts: “Now when they had heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers what shall we do?”  In repentant faith and even in fear over their own contribution to the cross they asked of the Lord’s Apostle what they can now do.  Peter answers them with a statement of gospel, The Lord it turns out is gracious and merciful and has planned for how people can respond to what Jesus has done for us.  

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 

Indeed the promise is for you!  Jesus atonement on the cross is for all people, and in baptism the promise is available for all.  This is a clear teaching from the Apostle Peter that the Lord designed that the fruits of His resurrection should produce repentance by the work of the Holy Spirit, and that this gift of new life in Jesus should come through the waters of Holy Baptism, the sacrament that brings entrance into God’s Kingdom.

This is the “now what” response of the resurrection of Jesus, this is why we gather for worship throughout life, because the resurrection of Jesus never ceases to be important for us.

In our gospel lesson we have a front row seat of some different now what moments.  Jesus begins to walk with the two disciples who are on their way out of Jerusalem.  Without realizing they are talking to Jesus they share the events of Jesus’ crucifixion from their perspective. After sharing their experiences they lament”  “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”  

As they are walking there on the road telling their sorrows to Jesus, they are broken, deflated, and perhaps trying to transition through stages of grief.  This language the disciple uses suggests a process of letting go- we had hoped. In the disciples eyes death has won, hope has died.

In this state of grief and hopelessness the disciple then shares another unique painful feeling- And on top of that, if that were not enough:  Moreover some women of our company amazed us They were at the tomb early in the morning, ²³and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.  The feeling the disciples are sharing is the emotional pain of a false hope- something that sounds great but is probably just too good to be true.  

This is astonishing for us as the church to listen to. These two disciples walking with Jesus, yet not recognizing Jesus are sharing with Jesus that the worst part of all is not just that their hopes were crushed as the man who they thought was the Savior was forsaken to die at the hands of their own chief priests and rulers,

but that the body of Jesus turned up missing, and that the women reported a vision from angels that Jesus was in fact alive. They are saying that the worst of it all was the false hope spread by tales of his resurrection, and yet here they are, no Jesus in sight. They say to Jesus.

In mercy Jesus rebukes their skepticism and unbelief and thereby cuts down the scales from their eyes so that they can see him. O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 

 The reason these two disciples were so quick to skepticism is that they were attempting to understand the events of Holy Week only through their own eyes and through their feelings. They were lost as it were in their own depression and unbelief. They were not allowing Jesus’ own words to guide their sight. They forgot what Jesus had spoken to the disciples about how he would die and on the third day rise again. And they overlooked all of what the scripture said about the promise of a Savior who would innocently suffer for the wrongs we had committed. Isaiah had prophesied:

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;  yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

They had missed it, but Jesus opened their eyes to hear God’s Word rightly: ²⁷And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.  The church in her history has long marveled at what Jesus taught to these two disciples. Yet we do have the outline for what Jesus taught them, as the New Testament makes many references to how the Torah and the prophets pointed to Jesus. 

We only need to take the time to receive the Word and allow it to open our eyes to understanding how Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the scriptures. The more we hear God’s Word, the more our passion for knowing Jesus in the scriptures grows. It is just as the two disciples said, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road, while he opened the scriptures to us.”

The more we walk with Jesus, the more we confess our sins and know his forgiveness in the Lord’s Supper, the stronger our passion to receive His Gifts in Word and Sacrament.

When the two Emmaus disciples say, did not our hearts burn within us, they are describing a discovery of divine truth that is awakening their very hearts, a truth that is reconnecting them with the clarity and joy of purpose that is part of the image of God that Adam and Eve held before the Fall into sin.  Jesus came to give us the truth, to give us life to the full.

 Satan, the world and our sinful nature can entice us away from this passion.  So that our sin leads us away from the excitement of God’s Word and into second choices that represent settling for less and which cannot produce the same lasting joy and peace.

Here in this third Sunday of Easter, God’s Word invites us to see that the Resurrection of Jesus answers every “now what” period in our lives.  As our Psalm of the day teaches: Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. ⁶ The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. ⁸ For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; ⁹ I will walk before the Lord  in the land of the living.

Christ’s resurrection indeed means that at any time of crisis in life you can say, “I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.”  And it means that you have a specific purpose to your life in worship: What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? ¹³ I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord,
¹⁴ I will pay my vows to the Lord  in the presence of all his people.

A story is told of when King George V of Britain paid a visit to the city of Leeds, England. Elaborate preparations were made for his coming. Excited crowds filled the streets to wave and cheer. There was a large elementary school in Leeds with a playground parallel to the railway line.  His majesty agreed to wave to the boys and girls as the royal train passed by on the last day of his visit. The boys and girls crowded to the playground wall  overlooking the railway. Soon the train moving slowly , emerged from a long tunnel and gradually drew alongside the playground. Then the king himself emerged from the royal coach and stood on a small platform where all could see him.

He wore no purple crown or purple robe but was dressed in a plain suit, just like an ordinary man. From his jacket pocket he plucked a bright handkerchief with which he waived to the cheering children. All too soon the train glided by and disappeared. Then the cheers subsided into silence, except for one little girl who was crying. One of the teachers asked her why she was crying. The little girl said that she wanted to see the king and all she saw was a man.

When the crowds saw Jesus ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, they saw a man- a man who was dressed and looked as ordinary as any other man. Yet this was no cause for disappointment.  For it was no ordinary man who was riding into Jerusalem that day. It was the King of Kings, who became man to save us human beings.  His purpose entering Jerusalem was not to wow the crowds with his majesty, but instead his resolute purpose was to die. He knew that once he entered the gates of Jerusalem there was no turning back.

In our gospel lesson Andrew and Phillip talk to Jesus about some Greeks who wish to see Jesus. Jesus answers as if this request is only about curiosity of those who want to see the majesty of a king. He answers the two disciples: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Jesus also reveals his state of mind on the brink of his betrayal:

 ²⁷ “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. When Jesus entered Jerusalem he knew the hour was at hand, he knew there was no turning back now.

Brothers and sister in Christ, there is no turning back now. Today is Palm Sunday and we see that there is no turning back from the course Jesus set his face toward. Following the entrance into Jerusalem is always the sequence of events that leads to the cross. 

For Judas, once Satan had entered into him, there was no turning back from his intention to betray Jesus.  He already took the 30 pieces of silver, he already set in motion an apparent final scene for Jesus to face in Jerusalem during Passover week.

Jesus for his part knew what was in man, he knew emptiness and evil is in the heart of mankind, he knew the suffering and punishment that awaited him. There was no turning back, because he was faithful.

We hear in our Old testament lesson from Isaiah a conversation of the Son to the Father. The Lord God has given me  the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.  

Jesus became man, he took on the tongue of those who are taught by God, he became the same as us. He did this so that his words would be words we knew and understood, so they would sustain us in our weariness.

 Morning by morning the Son has his ears awakened to hear from the Father. This is a description of  the Son learning the scripture day by day. Jesus learned the scriptures and the Father’s will for Him.

Jesus is obedient to this will that he should suffer at the hands of sinful men- “The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward.” The obedience of the Son is so great that he gives his back to those who strike, and his cheek he leaves unprotected. As the disciples were taught “But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” 

But this suffering ordained by the Father is never without purpose.  All through it the Son indicates: “The Lord God helps me, therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know I shall not be put to shame.”

The Son is steadfast in his obedience and his determination because he knows that the Lord’s help is with him through it all. It is just as the gospel of Luke records about Jesus: “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”

The Son declares: “I know I shall not be put to shame, He who vindicates me is near. Behold the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty?” The Son is not afraid of the accusations of Satan the ancient foe. He says: “Let us stand together” This means let us face each other one on one, let us stand in court and let the chips fall where they may, for the Father will vindicate the Son and declare Him perfectly righteous and without fault.

There is no turning back now because we follow this Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We seek to abide in Him and grow in Him, we seek spiritual maturity. Because to go back to old ways of sin would be to disown him. Here on Palm Sunday, it is especially clear that there is no going back, Jesus has called us to follow him.  Jesus has called us to maturity in our faith.

This is the Father’s will that we achieve a maturity of faith.  That is why the Holy Spirit inspired St. Paul to write: ⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ 

Often in our Christiana faith we want only the glory of God as found in the Transfiguration, or in the Triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, and then the joy of Easter.  But if that is all we see, we miss our salvation.

Forgiveness and eternal life look also like the rest of Holy Week. A weakened body and a bloody man, his back shredded by the whip that plows out furrows of flesh with each lash.  Do we see this as part of the story of our salvation too?  

If you miss Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, you will think less often of the betrayal of Jesus, and the suffering of Jesus, you may not see how he emptied himself and humbled himself to suffer in our place.  But there is no going back for the mature Christian, you need to continue the story, you should see the road of sorrows Jesus walked, the via dolorosa.

Let us listen to the warning Jesus gave in our gospel lesson after he taught the hour had come for the Son of man to be lifted up: “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. ³⁶While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, here in this fourth Sunday of Lent we are blessed with an abundance of themes about light triumphing over darkness. From our Epistle lesson:  ⁸ for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

From our Old Testament reading:  And I will lead the blind  in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground.  These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.

And last but not least from our gospel reading: We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

In the scripture darkness does not only mean evil, but also being lost and not getting anywhere, darkness is futility. And as we will see as we dive further into our gospel reading from John chapter 9, people in darkness are often not aware that anything is even wrong. This is because darkness in the scripture means going without the light of God’s truth, it is living in a constant lie and deception.

Likewise in the scripture light means more than just goodness and freedom from the bondage of evil. Light also means knowledge of truth. To walk in light is to walk in knowledge of God’s Word, following God’s law instead of the rule of sin.

Psalm 36 describes that we see because God first gives us light as a gift of his steadfast love.  “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.”  We see because God gives us the light of his truth. When we try to find clarity and purpose in our lives outside of the purpose in God’s Word, when we try to light our own path, we are only walking in the darkness of our sin.

In our gospel lesson Jesus is asked about a man born blind from birth, if his sin or his parent’s sin led to this disabling blindness from the start in this man’s life.  But Jesus corrects their line of questioning in trying to always find someone to blame for sin. He gives them the light of God’s truth to see how foolish it is to look for reasons why others deserve afflictions and why we don’t.

The disciples are caught up in  the question of what went wrong for the man born blind, and Jesus turns their attention from the man’s blindness to his healing mercy. Jesus made mud with his saliva and anointed the man’s eyes with this healing mud. He commanded the man to cleanse himself in the nearby pool of Siloam. The result is that the man came back seeing for the first time in his life. Jesus came to take away the spiritual darkness of the world, and what better way to show that then the sight he gave to this man born blind.

Greater than the gift of restored sight, Jesus gave the blind man the gift of an amazing sign that pointed to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God.  Every time the man woke up in the morning he opened his eyes to what for so many years was darkness.  Everything he saw, was a testimony to the blessing Jesus gave to him.     

The man’s role as a living witness to the light of Christ continued as word of what he reported about Jesus spread and the Pharisees sought after him for questions.  The Pharisees wanted to use the man to somehow testify against Jesus.  But he had nothing negative to say about Jesus.   

He simply shrugged off any accusations that were made against Jesus by pointing out: ‘all I know is that I was blind and now I see.’ 

After this and other clear statements about Jesus they reject him and cast him out of their sight.  They jeer at him “You were born in utter sin.”

The Pharisees assumption in this thinking is that you get what you deserve.  Those who have blessings in life must have deserved them and those hardships likewise must deserve the punishment of misfortune.  Many in our culture believe this today as well in the form of a belief in karma- what goes around comes around. 

In fact we ourselves can fall into this blindness as well, as it is easy to adopt some of the common sense assumptions of Karma, that if we do the right things in life it will go well with us, and if not we will pay the price.  This thinking can lead us to the blind delusion that we can secure our own salvation in life through making the right choices.

But this is not how God works.  Jesus quickly denies any thinking about personal sin as the cause of inherited misfortune for the man born blind or anyone else.  God gives us gifts not according to what we have earned, not according to some universal law of karma- but instead from the foundation of his steadfast love.   

We heard in our Introit, “My eyes are ever toward the LORD, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.”  Although this man was born blind, he looked to Jesus in faith. He followed Jesus’ instructions to go and wash, and he spoke the truth of what Jesus had done for him. His eyes were now toward the LORD because Jesus had delivered him both from his blindness of his eyes and the blindness of his sins.

We all know the hymn Amazing Grace.  “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind and now I see.”  How beautiful when God’s Word lifts the darkness of our lives with the light of Jesus.  How beautiful when we repenting of our sins that weigh us down and cloud our vision, we see New Life in Jesus!   

Our Lord spoke to the disciples about how he had come to do far more than restore sight to one blind man- but instead to over take the spiritual darkness of this world with his light.

⁴ We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

In this world there are always those who reject the light. In fact we are surrounded by those who live in the darkness of this world and in spiritual blindness. People will always cast doubt and skepticism on what is good and what is of God’s design and purpose for this world.

We heard in our gospel reading the sad irony of the darkness the Pharisees lived in, where they point to their own false righteousness and point at the sins of others. They try to look at apparent circumstances such as the fact that the man was born blind, and they give their theological interpretation that this was a punishment for his sin.

The same self righteousness is at work today when someone looks at the church in pessimism and says, look at all of the hypocrisy and failed lives people have in the church.  People conclude the church has nothing godly in it, that it is not the light of the world- that they are as much a light to the world than anyone else, that their darkness should be celebrated.

The restoration of sight to the man born blind was an undeniable miracle. Nobody would pretend to be blind his whole life until adulthood. The Pharisees take the most clear and apparent sign you can imagine that Jesus is sent from God, and they try to cast doubt, they cannot believe he was really born blind so that they ask to talk with his parents.

This is the same thing those who live in darkness do. They claim the world is billions of years old because they are unwilling to see the clear evidence of creation all around us, or listen about the six days of recorded in Genesis. They cast doubt on the origins of the books of the Bible, as if other writings were rejected by the church in a conspiracy to advance one version of the truth and suppress another.   

Even within the church people trivialize God’s Word and hand pick which things they want to be true teaching of God, and which teaching in the scripture that they want to call merely past cultural practices that we have evolved past. As a result, you can find erring church bodies permitting and condoning all kinds of immorality and evil that the scripture clearly speaks against.  

Still others hold beliefs about being a Christian that separate them from the light and truth of God’s Word because they don’t believe Christian faith is meant to be manifested through a church. They see church as part of society and their own private study of the Bible as a more pure practice of the faith.

This pride leads to all kinds of walking in darkness as it means doing what is right in your own eyes without the correction or guidance of a pastor and fellow members of the body of Christ. And most importantly it means rejecting the way in which Jesus has designed to come to us in Word and Sacraments in the gifts of worship.

Jesus is the light of the world, and that which leads us away from his truth leads us into darkness. To follow in the light of Jesus is walking a road less traveled in this world. It takes courage and it takes faith to keep our eyes open to the truth of God’s Word.  Together let us walk this path, let us walk in the light. Amen.

What do you see when you look at the cross? Do you see that God loves you and that in Jesus you have your salvation? Or do you see in the cross a standard of living life that you cannot live up to? Are you like Nicodemus, seeking to find just the right direction for how to live your life?  Trying to figure out how you can control things just right to get the life you want?

Lent is a time to look to Jesus and see the beauty of the LORD. The Gradual verse for the season of Lent comes from Hebrews “Come let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of God.” 

What is the beauty of the LORD? The beauty is in Jesus’ selfless love toward us.  The beauty is seen in the bloody and gory picture of the Son of God humbled to the point of death on the cross. The beauty is not that we as the church are so twisted that we elevate images of blood and gore- but it is what Jesus’ suffering represents that allows us to see him lifted up on the cross, and gaze on the beauty of the LORD.

In our gospel lesson Jesus helps Nicodemus to see that if you want to see God’s kingdom you need to stop looking to yourself and look for what God reveals to you of His mercy.

Nicodemus came to Jesus looking for understanding of what he was seeing from Jesus- he wanted to know how Jesus performed these signs.  Jesus catches him off guard by telling him that in order to see the kingdom of God he must be born from above.

Jesus was teaching him about Baptism as a summary of what it means to receive spiritual life by the power of the Holy Spirit. Nicodemus does not get it, he is looking for much more tangible explanations, things he can see. He wants to visualize the need to be born again to where he protests that you cannot re-enter your mother’s womb.

Nicodemus is fixed on those things that humans can accomplish and he struggles to understand the work of the Spirit which you cannot see.  In his quest for understanding what Jesus is teaching, Nicodemus does not need to use human reason and logic to learn how to do what sounds impossible.

Instead, all he needs to do is listen to Jesus and let him show how the impossible is made possible.  Although Nicodemus cannot picture being born again, he can see Jesus.  He can listen as Jesus tells him about how life in the kingdom works, as Jesus proclaims to the world that he is the Son of God.

Jesus references that he must be lifted up- just as Moses was instructed to lift up the serpent in the wilderness. Jesus is talking about the deliverance the Lord offered to the people of Israel after their disobedience. The people of Israel grew impatient along the journey to the promised land. They questioned Moses why they even were there.

“Did you bring us out into the wilderness only to die? We were better off in Egypt in slavery to Pharaoh.”  They were ungrateful for the food that the LORD provided for them. After a period of time they began to say of the Manna “We loathe this worthless food.”

You can hear this account as simply part of Israel’s history and part of the background for today’s gospel lesson. But there is more. This narrative account of the history of Israel tells us something important about Nicodemus and about us.  As Nicodemus approached Jesus to talk to him at night- looking for answers, and as we approach our life each day- it is of greatest importance how we see things.

In the book of Numbers the people saw only their own complaints and did not see the deliverance that was right before them. In not seeing the promise of deliverance, in ignoring the promise of a Savior the people departed significantly from God’s favor. They were lost in their sin.

We see from the book of Numbers that the punishment for their sin was quick and severe. The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and the bites were killing the people. This is a terrifying picture of the consequences of sin. The pain and the fear the people experienced was unbearable so that they asked Moses to pray to the LORD to take away the serpents.

There in the wilderness the people could no longer pretend they could save themselves. When they complained to Moses they thought they could make things better for themselves, but now they saw fully how perilous the journey is without the LORD’s help. 

The LORD was merciful to them and provided a unique means of deliverance. Moses was commanded to make an image of the very fiery serpent that was killing the people and put it on a pole, and simply looking at this bronze serpent the one who was bit would not die but instead live.

The bronze serpent, the image of the people’s punishment for sin would by God’s grace serve as the people’s deliverance. What looked like a graven image commemorating the destruction of the people was by God’s grace a symbol of their salvation.

This is how the Lord deals with us, his love and faithfulness turns our greatest failures into instances of our salvation. 

Jesus on the cross is a visual representation of the price of the sin of the whole world. And looking at Jesus’ death on the cross in faith we live.

At that time from an uninformed earthly perspective Jesus as the Son of God could be seen as someone who has come to be the instrument of our destruction. This would be the punishment you would expect for our sin. If anyone has a reason to destroy us, it would be the Son of God.

Yet God did not come to condemn the world, but God loved the world in this way, that he gave his Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

As Jesus was raised on the cross, naked, bloodied and humiliated, his suffering was the greatest reason yet to condemn the world. But instead, just like the serpent on the pole, the symbol of man’s disobedience to God became the symbol of God’s salvation for the world.

In faith and trust we look to this symbol in faith- day in and day out, until the time at last when Jesus takes us home. Just as we sang in the hymn Lord Thee I Love with All my Heart. “That these with joy my eyes may see, O Son of God Thy glorious face, my Savior and my fount of grace.”

In the meantime we have our brothers and sisters to care for, and to encourage that they also look at Jesus not as the one who comes in terror as the King of Kings, but kind and good with healing in His wings.  

Like Nicodemus we are still prone to look at God’s Work in the world wrongly, to miss seeing Him rightly. Hearing God’s Word, receiving His gifts in worship can become an aspect of life that we undervalue. As if we are just going through the motions.

We need to pray for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters in Christ, that they do not take their eyes of Jesus, or begin to see worship as a chore in the manner in which the people of Israel began to see the manna from heaven.

If faith should become a chore, all of a sudden people are looking to themselves instead of the Lord. All of a sudden decisions in life are made that separate more and more from God.

Think of how many people have grown up and learned God’s Word in this very place, who stopped attending worship, who said no thank you to the Lord’s promises in the gospel, no thank you- I will have a go at it on my own.

What dark and empty paths has Satan led people on who allow church to just be a background part of life, and make life decisions according to what is popular in our culture- who live life as if God’s Word has not changed anything in their life. 

As the church we mourn how commonplace it is for people to take their eyes of Jesus and his life giving cross and go after the sorrows of this world.  We mourn the heartache and sorrow that comes to our brothers and sisters in Christ as a result of lives devoted to sin and a lost sight of Jesus.

May this mistake not be so common among us. Like Psalm 121 celebrates: “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth.”  Indeed as we fix our eyes on Him and he will keep us from all evil.