God's Finger Brings Us His Kingdom

Third Sunday in Lent

February 28, 2016

Luke 11:20

God's Finger Brings Us His Kingdom

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

There are lots of fingers in Sacred Scripture. When God rescued the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt through a series of overwhelming disasters, for example, a plague of gnats, He used His finger.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become gnats through all the land of Egypt.’” They did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats through all the land of Egypt.

The magicians tried with their secret arts to bring forth gnats, but they could not; so there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said. (Exodus 8:16-19)

Even the devil-worshiping magicians of Egypt could see the writing on the wall: God was going to war against them and they were going to lose.

Another loser who refused to see the writing on the wall was Belshazzar, a king of Babylon, the nation that God sent to destroy the Hebrew homeland. Belshazzar thought he was an amazing man of history, powerful and fun. He held a huge party with his fellow Babylonians to celebrate their greatness and mock the God of Israel.

When Belshazzar tasted the wine, he gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God which was in Jerusalem; and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing. Then the king’s face grew pale and his thoughts alarmed him, and his hip joints went slack and his knees began knocking together. (Daniel 5:2-6)

This wall-writing finger was the finger of God and He famously wrote: MENE, MENE TEKEL PARSIN. God had judged Belshazzar and he was found wanting. He lacked trust in the true God. So he was going to die and his kingdom would be given to another.

There are more fingers of God in the Bible. The Lord God wrote the Ten Commandments with His holy finger (Exodus 31), the sky and the heavens were created with His finger (Psalm 8), and in the Gospels Jesus used His fingers to heal the ears of a deaf man (Mark 7) and Jesus spoke of using God's finger to cast out demons.

But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. (Luke 11:20)

What is the Finger of God? There are two things worth mentioning. First of all, God is spirit and has no body, so His finger creating the heavens is a picture. We make things with our fingers and hands, so God speaks to us in word pictures to which we can relate. Secondly, God's Son took on human flesh and fingers, too. And so God does have fingers and used them as He did at the beginning—to create good things for His people and to repair what we have damaged.

So what is God's finger? It is His divine power that He uses in mercy to help us. From creating the sky to driving out demons, His finger establishes His kingdom into this world and in our hearts. The Catechism explains:

God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.

In order to bring us His Holy Spirit, God sends away evil spirits. He does this when the fingers of His pastors put water onto evil heads and speak His promise to make them good. And from the day of our Baptism, God's fingers keeps coming to us through His Scripture and Sacrament. He tells us that we are forgiven; He gives us His body and blood for our forgiveness. Through His promise, we live in a united house and kingdom.

On the other hand, the kingdoms and houses of the world are falling apart. Homes are divided; husbands and wives are divided; families are broken. Nations are divided and tearing themselves to pieces, fighting over the scraps of this world. It is heartbreaking to see their division, subtly urged on by the crazy, yet popular, logic of the Devil and his minions.

But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” Others, to test Him, were demanding of Him a sign from heaven. (Luke 11:15-16)

The world hated Jesus and lied about Him and tried to attack His motives and His authority. But Jesus simply pointed out how foolish their lies were. Others, who had just seen a miracle, wanted another one. They would never be satisfied. They belong to the kingdom of Beelzebul, the lord of the flies, the Devil.

But our kingdom is ruled by Christ, the One who has destroyed the Devil's reign. We ask for no outward sign or miracle as unbelievers demand, because our King and Judge has pointed His finger at us, and instead of condemning us to hell, He says, “That one! Yes, that one! I have paid her guilt. She is forgiven. She is mine!”

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God! Amen!

2 Corinthians 5:21

Jesus Stepped In for Us and Dueled with the Devil

First Sunday in Lent

February 14, 2016

Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus Stepped In for Us and Dueled with the Devil

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

Duels are no longer fashionable in polite society, so what we know about duels comes from books or movies. And they tell us that duels were fights to the death. That wasn't always the case.

The purpose of a duel wasn't to kill your enemy; it was to achieve satisfaction for your honor by showing that you weren't afraid to put your life on the line. A duel was a chance to put skin in the game, your skin in the game. (We think of duels as being obsolete and foolish, but imagine if the trolls on the Internet who can only insult the honor of others had to back up their wagging tongues with pistols at sunrise. I'd like to think that the threat of dueling would force most people to carefully consider their words and deeds.)

There were specific dueling rules that both sides were to observe. You could choose to fight to the death or you could agree to take one shot a piece at your enemy. If you missed, that was the end of the duel and satisfaction was achieved. If you were dueling with swords, you could agree that the duel was over when first blood was drawn. Another important rule was that each man would choose a second. A “second” was your wing man, your backup guy, and these two seconds would select a field of honor, which meant the place where you'd duel.

Christ dueled the Devil on a field of honor out in the wilderness. But as opposed to a traditional duel, Jesus didn't fight the Devil at sunrise, but after 40 days of not eating. Jesus was weak and hungry and tired. And now He had to duel the most vicious and cunning Enemy the world has ever known.

And it's a duel that Jesus didn't even have to fight. He could have stayed home and stayed at His Father's right hand. Out of His mercy and care, He chose to step in and fight for us as our Second.

Without Christ stepping in for us, a duel between the Devil and us alone is a rout. But with Jesus, He wins and so do we.

For us, Jesus dueled with the Devil for satisfaction. This wasn't a fight to the death; that would come later on the cross. No, this was a duel for satisfaction. Traditional duels were fought when one man offended another; here Christ is fighting to put right what we offended. In a way, Christ is fighting both the Devil and us. The Devil and we want to get our own way. We both want the easy way. Think about the temptations that the Devil laid before Jesus.

You're hungry. Make some bread.

You're lonely. Make Your Father prove His love by catching You.

You're facing the cross. Bow down to me, and I'll let You have the world without suffering and without death.

When we pray, “And lead us not into temptation,” we are asking our dear Father to lead us away from the Devil's easy lies and even from ourselves. We tempt ourselves with the easy way.

Politics is too confusing. And there all crooks anyway. So I haven't voted since 1984. (But I'll still complain about politicians, though.)

My marriage is too stressful. I'm not going to engage my spouse anymore. I'm just going to go along with whatever they say.

My job doesn't pay enough. I'm not going to do my best work until they pay me what I'm worth.

My pastor is too demanding. He asks me to stay for Bible study, but he's never talks about the stuff that I want to know about and besides I already know the Bible anyway. After all, I came to church, right? And if I wait until 11:30 all the restaurants will be very crowded.

Maybe this isn't you. But you do want to take the easy way out. This is just us being sinful. It's not surprising. But this is why Christ stepped in and dueled the Devil and continues to duel with the Devil for you.

In Christ's victory, He gained satisfaction for our honor. No, the Devil cannot go around gossiping about you and telling God that you are an offensive human being. Christ will not stand for it. He has won the duel. The Devil must be silent and go away. But he'll be back.

So Christ put His skin in the game and put His life on the line out in the wilderness. What usually happens to someone who doesn't eat for 40 days?

And then in the end, He did put His life on the cross, so that now when the Devil duels with us and tells us to take the easy way, we call upon our Second, our Savior, and He fights back with our voices using, not swords or pistols, but the Sword of the Spirit, His very Word.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:10-17)

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God! Amen!

2 Corinthians 5:21

Jesus Saves the Blind with His Words

Quinquagesima

February 7, 2016

Luke 18:31-34

Jesus Saves the Blind with His Words

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

For three years Jesus chose to have twelve men follow Him around. One of the best ways to describe these followers is that they were blind. Their eyes worked fine, but they struggled to see what Jesus came to do. So near the end of their time together, Jesus took these men aside, which is what you do when you have something big to say. Then He told them, point-blank, that He had to die very soon. And He reminded them that He would not stay dead.

And then the very next thing that happened is that Jesus healed a man who was actually blind. Irony? Not really. An interesting coincidence? Definitely yes.

As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”

He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

“Lord, I want to see,” he replied. Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.”

Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God. (Luke 18:35-43)

This blind man was desperate. He had no where else to go. Nobody was in his corner; when he cried out for help, the noisy crowd told him to be quiet.

His only hope was Jesus. And Jesus saved this man from the darkness that had covered his eyes with His words.

Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” (Luke 18:42)

And immediately the man's blindness was taken away.

Why did Jesus help this desperate man? When Jesus said, “Your faith has healed you,” it might seem as though there was something good or innocent about this man. We might imagine that his blindness was inflicted on him through a disease or that someone intentionally harmed his eyes. But if we follow our imagination here, we may end up in despair or anger when something evil isn't taken away from us and when someone we love is taken away by death.

The truth is that the gifts that Jesus gives us, such as eyes that see and faith that trusts in Him, are all gifts. And any true gift, in the purest sense of the word, is given based on the goodness of the giver. It never rests or relies on the goodness of the one who gets the gift. The blind man was healed not because of his goodness, but purely because of the goodness of Jesus Christ, the Giver of all good things, who loves to give the opposite of what is deserved.

Our Lutheran Confessions correctly point out:

Christ did not mean that the [blind man] had merited forgiveness of sins . . . That is why He added, “Your faith [has healed you].” But faith is that which freely obtains God's mercy because of God's Word. (Apology or Defense of the Augustana, Article 5, Paragraphs 31-32)

Blindness healed is based not on the merit of how good we are, but it is healed by Christ's mercy and kindness. And His healing of broken eyes shows us how He has healed our broken hearts.

Like the blind man we are desperate beggars. We have nobody on our side. Even our own mind and thoughts betray us, so this is why much of modern self-help techniques are not very helpful. For the most part they suggest turning inward and exploring your thoughts and mind in order to find value within yourself—to discover that you are valuable. But we aren't. When we explore our thoughts and our hearts, we find nothing of value. Instead we find short-tempers, hurtful words, anger over perceived slights from others, an ever-grasping effort to make our lives fair and even with others, and frustration when others get in the way of what we feel we need or deserve.

As believers who examine ourselves, we are honest. We are blind, we are sinful, we are dying. We have no inherent value to Christ. Yet He promised in the psalms,

[I] the Lord [give] sight to the blind,

[I] the Lord [lift] up those who are bowed down,

[I] the Lord [love] the righteous. (Psalm 146:8)

So indeed we have great value to Jesus because He makes us valuable. Through His blood He washes away the guilt of your temper, your cruel words, your envy, and all other sins that you may do. This washing makes you righteous and He loves you.

Consider how He loved a man who hunted down Christians in the Holy Land. On this man's way to attack more Christians in a new city, Jesus appeared to this man and told him to stop his persecution. And immediately Christ blinded this man for three days. He did this not to drive this man deeper into his own thoughts and somehow find himself. No, what did this man ponder for three days? The Words of God who spoke to him on the highway.

And then Jesus sent a pastor to this man who spoke God's Word to him again. Then this man could see and became the greatest pastor the world has ever seen. He traveled the world in his mission work and brought Christ to his fellow blind women and men. He took away their blindness through the washing of Baptism and the receiving of Communion. In a word, Christ took away their blindness. This man was the Apostle Paul.

His fellow apostles, before Christ's death, were more or less, blind.

Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him, insult Him and spit on Him; they will flog Him and kill Him. On the third day He will rise again.” The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what He was talking about. (Luke 18:31-34)

But through the Word of God, they would soon see the wonderful truth of Jesus' promise. They were soon to begin their Lenten journey as they witnessed the suffering and death of Christ. This is the journey that also begins for us this Wednesday. As you see the Lamb of God, Jesus, who goes forward to the cross without complaining, consider how once you were lost, but now Christ had found you. You were blind, and now He has made you to see.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him

we might become the righteousness of God! Amen!

2 Corinthians 5:21