The Cup He Drank; The Cup We Drink

Fourth Sunday in Lent

March 30, 2014

Matthew 20

The Cup He Drank; The Cup We Drink

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Why so mad?

Why were the other disciples so angry with James and John? We could try and take their indignation in the best way and think that they were upset that James and John would be thinking about seating charts when Jesus was talking about His own death.

However, the truth is much more likely that they were angry because James and John and their mom had cut ahead of them in line. Jesus had just told them that they would be seated around Him.

Matthew 19:28

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

So they were not angry at the question itself; they were mad that they hadn't asked Jesus the exact same question first!

Strangely the only person who wasn't upset was the one person who should have been: Jesus. They had missed the point completely (again), yet Jesus is mercifully still teaching them why He had come. He had come and the time was near at hand to drink His cup.

II.

The Cup He Drank

Jesus' cup was a bitter one. The all-powerful ever-active Ruler of the universe, the One who keeps all galaxies and quarks and atoms spinning, is going to be passive. His enemies will act against Him and He will remain quiet.

Matthew 20:18-19

The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death. Then they will hand Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, flogged, and crucified, and He will be resurrected on the third day.

All the verbs reveal how Jesus took His cup: He will be handed over, He will be condemned, He will be handed over again, He will be mocked, He will be flogged, and He will be crucified. This is how He drank His cup, passively, quietly, obediently.

III.

The Ingredients of His Cup

Where did His cup come from? What was in it? The pride of the disciples was in it, wickedly fighting over who was the best of the bunch.

Our pride is in His cup also. Like the disciples, it is always easy to point out pride in others. But isn't it pride that assumes that we aren't proud? When your wife accuses you of being too proud, do you become defensive? Do you go on the offensive and point out her sins, so that your contribution to Jesus' cup is forgotten? Children, when your dad points out your pride when you refuse to obey him, do you scream and shout? Do you run and pout? That's pride because you know better than he does. Pride is a bitter cup. And Jesus drank our sinful pride for us.

IV.

The Cup We Drink

Jesus' cup is the cross. And He drank it to the last dregs, to the last drop. And now He calls you to drink your cup. Dead men tell no tales and drink no drink. But the Spirit has called you by the Gospel and now you are alive. For the living, drinking is one of the most important things that you do.

For the living Christian, Jesus calls you to drink your cup, which is like His. He calls you to carry your cross.

Mark 8:34

If anyone wants to be My follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

Drink your cup. Take your lumps. When your wife accuses you of pride, you'd better assume that she's right. Take it like a man and ask for forgiveness. Don't rationalize. Don't make excuses. Don't bring up her contributions to Jesus' cup. So what if she's bringing up your sins to avoid her own. She's still right. And when you aren't defensive about your own pride, you may give her breathing room to be honest about her own. Bear your cross to help her bear hers.

Drink your cup, kids. When your dad punishes you for not listening, don't shout or pout. Say that you're sorry and then listen to him and do what he says. Dads don't always know what they're doing, and they do make bad calls (your brother probably was the one who started it) but your dad is trying to help you. And when your dad asks you for your forgiveness for losing his temper, don't despise him. Thank God that you have a dad who knows what it is to forgive and to be forgiven. He is drinking his cup by bearing the cross of a father. Drink yours by bearing the cross of a child.

V.

A Family Cup

Jesus and His followers are a family. And families fight. We fight about who's the best. He drank your cup of pride. He forgives us for the sake of the cup He drank. By drinking He has brought you into His family and made His Father in heaven, your Father. And You now give us food and drink, Your Body and Blood, as we gather as Your family at Your supper table to be fed. You put the food and drink in our mouths like a dear father feeding his dear little children. And that is what we will always be, seated around You now and in eternity.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

By Faith I Now See My Blindness

Third Sunday in Lent

March 23, 2014

John 9:39

By Faith I Now See My Blindness

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Worse than Blindness

Blindness is the one of the worst things ever. At least this is what people who can see think. Jesus' disciples seemed to think so. They considered being born blind such a curse that it must be an actual curse. From God.

John 9:1-2

As [Jesus] was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples questioned Him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered that no one sinned; God is not cursing anyone.

John 9:3

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him.

And then Jesus takes up a better question: what is worse than physical blindness? His answer is this: thinking that you can see when you cannot. For example, who would be more dangerous behind the wheel: a blind man who knows he's blind or a blind man who is convinced he can see?

But go deeper. What's more dangerous than a blind man who thinks he can see? Jesus said that the answer is not a sinner who knows he's a sinner, but rather a sinner who is convinced that he isn't.

John 9:39-41

Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind.” Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and asked Him, “We aren’t blind too, are we?”

“If you were blind,” Jesus told them, “you wouldn’t have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see’—your sin remains.

II.

Where are the Hypocrites?

There is a certain received “wisdom” among the blind who think they can see: the Christian Church full of hypocrites. They say that Christians claim to be better than non-Christians people, yet we do evil also. And in standing in judgment over us, unbelievers smugly gloat, “Practice what you preach, O hypocrite!”

A common, and often satisfying, retort is that there's always room in the Church for one more hypocrite. However, perhaps it's better to know that the Church is where hypocrisy stops.

The Church is the only gathering of non-hypocrites on the planet. A hypocrite is a someone who says that they can see, but are really blind. When Christians come together, we wisely confess that we are blind by birth. We say and mean that we are filled with sin from birth, from conception, when our life begins. We confess our blindness. We confess our stumbles, which are often horrible crashes. We hurt ourselves and those we're supposed to care for.

When the Holy Spirit baptizes a spiritually blind man with the hands and mouth of His pastor, a change takes place. Instead of a blind man who thinks he can see, a new creature is created in that holy water: one who now sees that he is blind.

III.

Seeing Blindness

I am blind, but now I see my blindness. By faith I now see my sinful Self as I truly am. By faith I see also Jesus, my Savior from my sinful Self. By hearing I trust more and more in Jesus' words, and less and less in what I think I can see.

John 20:29

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

When we trust our eyes for our hope of things unseen, we falter. Like the followers of Jesus and the followers of Moses, we compare ourselves to others to prop ourselves up. This is not surprising—other people and their sin and their problems are things we can see. We use our sight to make ourselves look better.

Buried in the disciples' question, “Who sinned, Jesus?” is the implication that they didn't. They could see. Thus, they were cleared of sin.

The miracle mud for this trust in sight is listening. Listen to Jesus. Make His Words your words in your daily prayer. Judge yourself the worst of sinners, according to the words of Scripture, and you will find it difficult to trust your sight. We live on every Word that comes from the mouth of Jesus and so living, we see Jesus.

Ephesians 5:14

“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Worship the Father in Spirit and Truth

Second Sunday in Lent

March 16, 2014

John 4

Worship the Father in Spirit and Truth

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Are Jesus' final words to the Devil “Worship the Lord and serve Him only” still ringing in our ears? Have they been on your mind as you've driven to work or tucked your children into bed or washed your hands?

They seemed in some way to be on the mind of the woman at the Samaritan well. This woman was outcast because of her decision to treat God's gift of marriage carelessly. But this “sinner” seemed to be keen to talk about religion. After Jesus revealed His divine knowledge of her life, she recognized a man of God before her and said,

John 4:19-20

“Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

Jesus' reply to this curious woman echoed His final response—worship the Lord!—to the Devil's temptations.

John 4:21-24

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

II.

The Samaritans worshiped the Lord with rituals on Mount Gerizim in Samaria, the middle section of the Holy Land. And their religious teachings were muddled and mixed up, as Jesus indicated, when He said that they worshiped what they did not know.

Jesus told her and later He would tell her neighbors that what's more important than a place to worship, is how you worship. Worship the Father in spirit and in truth. But how?

The answer to this follow-up question is already there. Paul told us in Romans where you are born doesn't matter; Jesus has told us that where you worship isn't the most important thing. What's most important is where your drinking water comes from.

John 4:13-14

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this [well] water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

III.

Think of Gethsemane like an old-fashioned well. Think of your pastor as the creaky man at the pump. Think of yourself as a leaky bucket or cracked vase.

You come every Sunday to be filled up. The water is free; there's no charge because the water has already been paid for. Jesus already paid for the water and He is the Water. And He fills you up through Scripture spoken and chanted and sung in the liturgy and in preaching. Perhaps you're able to stay for Sunday School and your parents for Bible study. Perhaps you give some money to shine up the pump, but what comes out of it is always free and refreshing.

And though through the days of the week we spill much of that precious water to the ground, through faith we are little pumps. In the morning, Jesus comes out of your mouths like water. Through the day as you work, Jesus bubbles up and is always there in your mind. Before you close your eyes for sleep, Jesus comes out of you, O little Pump, as you pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.“

Water in, water out. Like breathing, Jesus is our Water. We drink and live, now and forever.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Jesus at War with the Devil

First Sunday in Lent

March 9, 2014

Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus at War with the Devil

In the name of Jesus.

I.

What is it about the Devil and food? In the Garden of Eden, he used fruit to get the attention of Eve and then Adam. In the wilderness, he tempted Jesus with bread.

Even though he himself doesn't eat—he's a spirit with no body, after all—he knows how badly our stomachs can lead us astray. And so the Devil tried his food tricks with Jesus.

II.

In the wilderness for 40 days, He did not eat any food. I believe the rule of thumb is that you can survive for three minutes without air, three days with water, and three weeks without food. Jesus could have died—He was well over 21 days without food.

So the Devil came to Him with a request we would have made. If you had seen Jesus, ragged and hungry, what would you say? You would say, “Jesus, You have to eat something!” The Devil said to Jesus, “Jesus, You need to eat something! Jesus, if You want to save these people, You need to live, so You need to eat.”

But He refused because He saw through the Devil's very reasonable advice for what it was: another lie from the Liar.

John 8:44

“. . . there is no truth in [the Devil]. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

In contrast to the mouth of Christ, whatever comes from the Devil's mouth is a lie and a trick. And Jesus warred against the Devil's lies, which always have one idea in common: do it your own way. God has a plan for me, we think, and I am going to help Him do it my way.

We worry about our children being hungry, so we work hard to provide them good food and even more toys. But we make ourselves so busy earning bread, that we are too tired at the end of the day be with our children and wife and take a few moments to listen to Jesus and pray together. A Has a Sunday at church becomes a luxury because our busy bread-winning ways? Are we are working so hard and only filling our children's stomachs? What are we doing?

Luke 12:16-21

Jesus told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

III.

Jesus richly praises His Father in His combat with the old Evil Foe, even though through His time on earth, it must have seemed like His Father was the enemy! That is the way it always is, the Son talks as though the Father is the most important Person of the Trinity. (Last Sunday on the celebration of the Transfiguration, the Father talks as through the Son is the most important Person of the Trinity: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him!”)

Jesus rebuked the Devil's lie, “Humans do not live on food only, but only the revealed Word of God.” And He speaks of Himself, for He is the living Word of God in the flesh, “I AM Who I AM, Devil—I am all the Bread anyone will ever need.”

IV.

The Devil strangely doesn't give up. He tells Jesus to dazzle the crowds at the Temple by jumping and landing without a parachute. That would have would very helpful in gaining converts for His cause. We even might have come up with the glorious spectacle in short order, “Jesus, we really need to get Your name out there among the people. How about a little air show for Your enemies? That'll shut them up!”

Jesus said no: “Don't test My Father.”

Finally the Devil makes Jesus a real offer: “I'll stop terrorizing the people of the world if You bow down to me. That's the point of Your being here, right? To help people? Help them, Jesus. I'll leave them alone, You won't have to be forsaken by Your Father. It's a win-win. Bow down, and mission accomplished.”

Shortcuts to help our Father's will. Always appealing. Always attractive. Always deadly.

And Jesus said no: “Worship the Lord and serve Him only!”

We worship by listening to the Word of God. We bow to His will and receive His forgiveness. And that's what we are: receptacles of God's mercy. We are cracked empty jars, and the Word comes to us and fills us up. He is the Water that never stops pouring and good thing, too, for we spill much. But He just keeps pouring. And so we just keep coming back to Him on the Sabbath day, His day for our rest and refreshment. And we bring our children Sunday after Sunday to be filled up by Him.

V.

The Devil is always trying to get Jesus to be busy, “Jesus, do something. Don't just still there!” But Jesus says no, and at the of the fasting and temptation, He always His angels to serve Him. Everything is beautifully backwards. He came not to be served by us, but to serve us. But His angels delight to serve Him. And so Jesus rests and is passive.

His Church would do well to learn from her Bridegroom Jesus. Above all His Church is to be served, to receive, to be passive, above all to listen to every word that comes from the mouth of God.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Confession Is Good for Your Soul

Ash Wednesday

March 5, 2014

Catechism Series

Confession Is Good for Your Soul

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Confession might be the most under-employed and under-valued part of our Small Catechism.

Confession has two parts. First, that by faith we confess out loud to our pastor the sins that trouble our souls (and sometimes even the ones that don't). Second, that by faith we receive forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself.

We don't often say aloud the sins that trouble us. We think about them, but not often do we name our troubling sins to another person, let alone to our pastor. When you curse or blaspheme, you might silently chide yourself. When you lose your tempter, you might later berate yourself in private. But we almost always deal with our sin on a do-it-yourself basis. And so we keep our sins to ourselves. This is a mistake based on a clever thought from the Devil: that forgiveness is between me and God. Like all of the Devil's lies, there's truth to it.

When I kept silent, my bones became brittle

from my groaning all day long.

For day and night Your hand was heavy on me;

my strength was drained

as in the summer’s heat.

Selah

Then I acknowledged my sin to You

and did not conceal my iniquity.

I said,

“I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”

and You took away the guilt of my sin.

(Psalm 32:3-5)

Christ is near to us and no man stands between you and Him. But the Scriptures also confess the joyful truth that Jesus works through means. He doesn't beam mashed potatoes into your stomach; instead He gives life to men who become farmers who plant potato seeds and sends rain to make them into potatoes. But that's small potatoes compared to the spiritual food of forgiveness. The forgiveness of sins is where life begins. And here too, Jesus uses means to get His forgiveness distributed to His people.

Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. . . . He should call for the [pastors] of the church . . . if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. (James 5)

All Christians forgive those who trespass against us. And in particular Jesus has sent His shepherds, pastors, to His flocks to forgive sins. David confessed his sin to the preacher Nathan. Nathan absolved David and David received forgiveness as from God Himself. In the same way, your pastor is under orders from our King to forgive your sin.

At times the Devil will try to convince you that the forgiveness given to the whole congregation on Sunday morning is not for you. At these times and more and more, come to your pastor for the Word. No one else will be hear of it; it's between your pastor, you, and Christ. The key to the joy of confession is that it is Jesus speaking to you—you receive forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself.

So come and hear Christ's promise for you and only you as from Christ Himself.

“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

The Prophet Even Moses and Elijah Worship

Transfiguration Sunday

March 2, 2014

Matthew 17:1-9

& Luke 9:31

The Prophet Even Moses and Elijah Worship

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Who is Jesus?

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Matthew 16:13)

And then about a week later, Jesus went up a mountain and answered His own question.

Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. He was transformed in front of them, and His face shone like the sun. Even His clothes became as white as the light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. (Matthew 17:1-3)

Why Moses and Elijah? What did their presence on the mountain say about Jesus? First, let's note what they were saying. Luke tells us,

[Moses and Elijah] appeared in glory and were speaking of His death, which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. (Luke 9:31)

II.

Moses' Way Out

The translation here says death, but the original reading is exodus. Exodus is a way out. The Hebrew slaves in Egypt were “exodused” by Jesus through Moses. They left slavery on the way out that the Lord provided. He took them through the Red Sea and to Mt. Sinai.

When Moses went up the mountain, the cloud covered it. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day He called to Moses from the cloud. The appearance of the Lord’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop. Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. (Exodus 24:15-18)

When Moses came down from the mountain, carrying two sheets of rock on which God Himself had written down His very sensible laws for loving Him and others, Moses saw people who had no way out from themselves.

They were at the foot of the terrifying mountain of God—it was the burning bush times 100—yet they still grew numb to their awesome God, and lived it up. They didn't think about God; they made up a new one, who wouldn't mind whatever they choose to get away with. They made a golden cow, which was blind and deaf. It wouldn't mind if they fooled around and got drunk. It wouldn't say no.

So when Moses finally did come down from Mt. Sinai, he saw the real idol: the people themselves. The cow was a convenient dodge, “Uh, the golden cow said it was okay.” But they weren't able to dodge the divine laws Moses held in his hands. They left no way out.

Like Moses, we look and see our lives filled with people who live for themselves. They treat Jesus as an afterthought, if they even think about Him at all. When they get into their cars, they can't remember the Jesus preached to them minutes earlier. They try to get away with as much as they can, when no one's looking. And then we look away from the mirror and see everyone else.

On Moses' mountain we confess that being good isn't a way out.

III.

Elijah's Way Out

The prophet Elijah would seem to give us a better way. We live in a world where seeing is believing. Many say that they would believe in God if He would just show Himself to us. Christians often sympathize with this wish. We wish Jesus would appear and show us a way out.

Elijah got to see God show up in a big way on Mt. Carmel. There Elijah had a contest with the prophets of Baal.

Elijah said to the people, “I am the only remaining prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men. Let two bulls be given to us. They are to choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and place it on the wood but not light the fire. I will prepare the other bull and place it on the wood but not light the fire. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The God who answers with fire, He is God.” All the people answered, “That sounds good.” (1 Kings 18:22-24)

Baal was very popular with the people; this idol allowed them to indulge in a religious life that fed their appetites. If your taste was for messing around, you were encouraged to pursue them. If your taste was for violence, you were encouraged to harm others and yourself. If your taste was to sit quietly in a corner and meditate, you were encouraged to pray.

The people loved the life under Baal. Baal never said no. There was only one problem—Baal was a lie and his prophets were liars. The 450 liars spent the whole day screaming and cutting themselves with knives to get their god's attention. But nothing happened. Then in a short prayer Elijah asked the Lord to act.

“Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that at Your word I have done all these things. Answer me, Lord! Answer me so that this people will know that You, Lord, are God and that You have turned their hearts back.” (1 Kings 18:36-37)

And so God obliterated the sacrifice with fire from heaven. But the rest of the story doesn't go as we would have it. Here's the proof of the true God that everyone then and now claims to want, so that they'll believe. But that didn't happen.

The people gladly seized and put the 450 lying priests to death, but in the end they stuck with Baal. The people were happy to attack the very real and evil sins of their priests, but they refused to take the log out of their own eyes and kill the Liar that lived within themselves.

And instead of the people turning to the Lord, Queen Jezebel tries to kill Elijah and forces him to run for his life. He ended up running all the way to Mt. Sinai, the mountain where God came to Moses. It was his only way out. He ran to the Lord.

IV.

Jesus Is the Way Out

Moses and Elijah worship Jesus for the same reason we do—He is our only way out. He is the Prophet who speaks Truth and is Truth. Our way out, our exodus, is His life and death.

He lived the way of Moses and Sinai—He perfectly loved His Father.

He lived the way of Elijah and Carmel—He perfectly listened to His Father.

He lived the way of Calvary—He went to the cross and His death in full righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

And He gives that righteousness, innocence, and blessedness to you. His ways of pouring out His perfectness on you are several and specific. He forgives you through the mouth of His pastor, “I forgive you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” He forgives you through the hand of His pastor, “Take and eat, the body of Christ, given for you.” He forgives you through the hand of His pastor that pours water, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

These are all His way out, His Word, Himself. Who is Jesus? The Christ, the Son of the living God. And this living God said of His Son,

This is My beloved Son,

with Him I am well pleased.

Listen to Him!

(Matthew 17:5)

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.