Out of Death, There Is Light

Holy Innocents

December 28, 2014

Matthew 2:1-18

Out of Death, There Is Light

†

In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

I.

Herod was a king of small little country called Judea. He ruled over the Jews. He was allowed to rule by the king of the Roman Empire, the Caesar. As long as he toed the line with the Romans, Herod could do what he wanted. It was like being prime minister of Denmark. You have power, but you try not to upset the Americans.

Herod was not a politically correct liberal European ruler. Herod was cruel, clever, and rational. He did was right for himself. So when the Magi appear from the East and ask where to find the King of the Jews, Herod is worried. Like many others Herod assumes that Jesus came to push him off the throne.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the One who has been born king of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: " 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people Israel.' "

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find Him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship Him."

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with His mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. . . . When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. (Matthew 2:1-12, 16)

King Herod did the right thing for himself. He'd get the address of what he thought was his future rival. Then he'd send in an assassin to quietly murder Jesus. This surgical strike against Jesus seems likely as we watch how sweetly and secretly he manipulates the Magi, "Please tell me where Jesus is so I can go and pay my respects, too."

II.

Note the contrast between his initial pretend concern with his later loss of control. His outburst led to the open murder of a score of babies boys and toddlers. This violence can only be described as pure evil. Let make sure we're clear on what pure evil is. Pure evil is simply the love of yourself that is out of control. Most of the time our narcissism is held in check. But when we don't get our way, look out. And the more power we have, the worse the damage will be.

King Herod had some power and he used it to murder innocent little children and brought unspeakable suffering to many families. Today we might speak of this dead boys as collateral damage, a term that doesn't pass along the horror of this dark deed.

III.

Darkness is always trying to put out the Light of the world. In doing so, it causes pain and suffering. But here's the promise: The Light has conquered the darkness and it will never be put out.

Jesus is the Light. He came into the world to save us from darkness:

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12)

I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should stay in darkness. (John 12:46)

Herod tried to put out that Light, but he failed. Whenever darkness comes to extinguish the Light, it will fail. We trust in the Light. Even though we are by nature dark, Jesus came to take us into Himself, into the Light. And by His Word that creates light out of darkness, we will remain in His Light.

Our trust in Christ doesn't take away or lessen the pain of the dark deeds that we have committed or the ones committed against us. But our faith does change how struggle with evil. For example, there are many who have murdered babies with an abortion. These parents will carry this darkness with them their whole lives. But in Christ, they flee for refuge from their sin and find mercy in Him.

For us who have never murdered, we consider our hatred of others and our grudges and our secret murders of our hearts. And in Christ, we flee from from our sin and find mercy in Him.

Light exposes sin. And our Light, the Light of the world, exposes our darkness, so that He might have mercy on us and bring us the warmth of forgiveness for all our sins.

Christ Jesus came into the world

to save sinners—

of whom I am the worst.

Alleluia! Amen.

Could Anyone Love You More?

Commentary for Christmas Eve

Could anyone love you more? God is born in a barn. The angels sing, not to their God or His mother, but to the shepherds. He comes to the lowly who have nothing to give Him, who only want to receive. Nothing must mar this lowliness that exalts the greatness of God’s love.

It’s worth noting, if only in passing, that the angels rejoice! We might have expected them to be angry or at the very least to weep. He whom they love perfectly has humbled Himself completely in order to suffer and die for fallen mankind.

We might have expected their hearts to ache, or even to ask, How come for them and not for our fallen fellow angels?

But there is none of that. So perfectly is their will in harmony with the will of God that they rejoice beyond measure that He whom they worship and adore has come down from heaven just for you, just for me! “Let us hasten to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about!”

Don’t talk about bringing Him a present—not today. Today He is the only present! Just receive! Just sing!

(From Daniel M. Deutschlander, Planning Christian Worship, Year B)

The Preacher Is Nothing

John 1:8

The Preacher Is Nothing

†

In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

When I'm in the pulpit, I must admit that I want to make you laugh. I want to make you cry. I want to rivet you. I want to make you feel. I want all these things and more because I want you to like me.

When you compliment my sermon, I let it go to my head. When you smile and nod at my preaching, I let it go to my head. When you attention wanders, I let it go to my head. When you fall asleep, I let it go to my head.

Where is Jesus in all of this wanting and let-it-going? Right, He isn't. It's all about me, me, me.

And so when fellow preachers came to this most remarkable human preacher by the River Jordan, all they wanted to know about was John. Six times they asked him, "Who are you?" And every time John basically said, "I am nothing."

This is John’s testimony when the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?” He did not refuse to answer, but he declared: “I am not the Messiah.” They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not."

“Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”

They asked, “Who are you, then? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What can you tell us about yourself?”

[John] said, “I am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord—just as Isaiah the prophet said.”

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. So they asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you aren’t the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Someone stands among you, but you don’t know Him. He is the One coming after me, whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to untie.” (John 1:19-27)

They wanted John to be something. You can hear it in their leading questions, less are you Elijah, and more you're Elijah, right? He would have made them happy and he would have felt great answering yes. He could have justified a yes to Elijah because he had a proof passage from the Bible.

See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. (Malachi 4:5)

John preached in a climate demanded that the preacher himself must be something or else his message is nothing. This is the same climate we live in today. I justify my wanting you to like me by saying to myself that if you don't like me, then you won't listen to me, and then you won't hear Jesus. With the best of goals, with the desire to grow the church, making myself into something would only accomplish making Jesus into something less than He is.

If John had said, "Yes, I am Elijah," that's all the crowd would have heard. John would made himself into an obstacle to presence of the true Light. By faith John the first Lutheran points to Christ and Him alone as the forgiveness of our sins:

Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)

Later in His own preaching Jesus would commend John and of every preacher and all the baptized who reveal not themselves, but instead reveal the Light of the world.

No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. (Luke 8:16)

And so John stands today as the witness of the Light. Think of how often John pointed the people and their Pharisees to Jesus. Yet so many wouldn't listen.

It is worth noting the parallel incident when Jesus answered the unasked question on the minds of all the people: "Who are you?" When Jesus Himself testified to His identity, and said, "Yes, I am the Light you've been waiting for," they would not have it.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

The Pharisees challenged him, “Here You are, appearing as Your own witness; Your testimony is not valid.”

Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on My own behalf, My testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, My decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent Me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for Myself; My other witness is the Father, who sent Me.”

Then they asked Him, “Where is Your father?”

Jesus replied, “You do not know Me or My Father. If you knew Me, you would know My Father also.” He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come. (John 8:12-20 NIV)

Preachers see the reaction of these influential people and are tempted to make themselves more and Jesus less, all in the hopes of saving Jesus from Himself. Jesus is so clear and final in everything He says. People don't like that. People want nuance and subtlety. People want wiggle room. And so preachers wiggle. And we wiggle out of saying clear and final things. We use current events, humorous stories, personal anecdotes as filler. That's fine as long as the preacher gets to clear and final things. And the first sermon and the last sermon that a preacher must preach must be to himself. And no one preached it better than John.

A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, "I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of Him." The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less. (John 3:27-30)

These are the first words of the newly ordained rookie pastor. These are the last words of the preacher before death. Jesus is everything; I am nothing. He must become greater; I must become less. For He came to lift up the poor and lowly, including pastors who are nothing.

Christ Jesus came into the world

to save sinners—

of whom I am the worst.

Alleluia! Amen.

Locusts and Honey

Second Sunday of Advent

December 7, 2014

Mark 1:6

Locusts and Honey

†

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

I.

In order for Jesus to be the Savior as promised, God needed to send a messenger into the world. His message was to prepare the way for the Lord. John was this promised messenger for the promised Savior Jesus. And John's preparation for Jesus was locusts and honey.

Locusts are a type of grasshopper. In the days of the Old Testament, while many insects and animals were not to be eaten by devout Jews, locusts were listed as acceptable for eating. And they were cheap, so typically the poor would eat locusts. Out in the wilderness John, who didn't have much money, if any, ate locusts.

But locusts represented judgment. When the Lord God sent Moses to deliver the Jews from Egypt, the eighth plague was billions of locust swarming into the land and eating all plant life and making the humans and animals miserable.

So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again. They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail—everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt. (Exodus 10:13-15)

This plague of locusts was the last and worst of the animal plagues. The only plagues left were the plague of darkness and the plague of the dead firstborn. Locusts represented judgment.

So the first part of John's message was the judgment of the Law.

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." (Luke 3:7-9)

John called on the crowd to confess. In the original language confess comes from the idea of admitting to the truth about yourself. So John called on the individual souls in the crowd to be honest about who they were: bad trees that produced bad fruit. Just as the Devil came as a viper to Adam and Eve in a garden full of trees, John preached that we are snakes, bad trees, dead rocks, sinners who think far much too much of ourselves and far too little of the true God. In a word, we are sinners who deserve punishment, just as that old Egyptian pharaoh brought locusts on himself.

II.

But John's preparation wasn't only locusts. His message was honey, too. To point out the obvious, honey is sweet. Even today someone who takes a spoonful of honey might wonder why they don't enjoy honey more often. It's sweet and delicious nectar.

And just as locusts were never more awful than in Egypt, honey was never so sweet as in Egypt. When describing the promised land to the Hebrews slaves in Egypt, the common phrase used is that it was a land flowing with milk and honey (first mentioned in Exodus 3:8).

III.

My beloved fellow Jews—Jews by faith, not by blood—today we are in Egypt. And we are waiting to go into the promised land. We are waiting for the Great Deliverer to come to us, to advent, and take us into the land flowing with milk and honey. In this land of honey the bitter judgment of locusts will be a distant memory.

Until He comes, heed the locusts and honey of John and prepare the way of the Lord. Prepare yourselves just as the crowds who came to John prepared: they listened to God's preacher and were baptized and repented. They confessed their sin and trusted in Jesus to wash all sin away.

Earlier I mentioned the plagues of Egypt. The final plague was the plague of the dead firstborn. This event also has another name: the Passover. The Jews as they were taught put lamb's blood on their doors and the angel of death passed over their houses.

This blood in Egypt symbolized the coming blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This holy blood of Christ takes sin away because He became our sin and allowed Himself to be devoured by the locusts of judgment. He died. And His death is the sweet honey of the Gospel. It is the forgiveness that He gives us to eat that prepares His way for us.

Every day eat locusts and honey. Receive the Law and the Gospel. Confess this trustworthy saying:

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. (1 Timothy 1:15)

Alleluia! Amen.