Physical touch [Easter 2]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Ezekiel 37:1-14

• 1 John 5:4-10

• St. John 20:19-31

 

To you all, my true children in the common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:4)

 

Who speaks to you today, saying:

“Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’”

 

You may be wondering why the baptismal font is front and center along with the Paschal Candle. They are there because I want you to run into them. I want you to trip over them and spill the water upon yourself. I want them to be in your view and in your way to remind you of how you got into your pew in the first place.

 

So I’d like to keep them there, at least for Easter, because if you ever pleaded to God to touch your life, there is where your answer from Him lies. For, in baptism God laid His hands on you and made you His and you should be reminded of this when you are at church, when you are not at church, and every other time. The font was your entrance into the faith, into the Church, and into the Body of Christ. Heaven touches earth, here.

 

On that note, you may be wondering why we have a church building at all with all this other churchy stuff around. I’ll tell you that its for the same reason St. Thomas wanted Jesus’s hands and side displayed in front of his face. Both Jesus and St. Thomas knew that physical contact is not only extremely important, but necessary for faith and life.

 

In fact, one of the blessings of coronu-19 is this newfound appreciation for and thankfulness to God for His blessing of physical touch. We need physical contact, especially with those we love. It is necessary to live, to be human. Isolation is an abomination, hence its use in prisons. Ask any child. Worse than that, every animal shelter or place where animals are raised in captivity never allow infant animals to be without contact. We take better care of animals than our own people.

 

So it is that the Resurrected Jesus comes into physical contact with St. Thomas, because touch has always been a part of Salvation.

 

From the beginning, even the Serpent and Eve knew that touch was important, when Eve misquoted God by telling the serpent don’t eat of the tree or “touch” it (Gen 3:3). Of course God never gave the command to not touch, but it is implied. Why would you want to touch something that is death if eaten?

 

Similarly, when God brought Israel out of Egypt and presented Himself to them upon mount Sinai, He warned them, “Touch the mountain and you die” (Ex. 19:12). When God presents Himself in front of people, there is the real possibility of dying. Again, in Numbers 17:13, touching the Tabernacle would cause death. Even Job had to suffer under the devil’s touch, when God allowed him to bring calamity upon Job (1:11).

 

So it is, that God, in His majesty, is untouchable solely because of sin. In sin, Eve made the declaration about not touching the tree, but it came true anyway. Sin had separated her from the Lord’s touch and that means death.

 

Now, returning to our Gospel reading today, we are in a quandary. Probably the same scenario was running through the mind of St. Thomas. Do I touch Jesus and die or do I remain separated and die? Do I touch this Man, Who is obviously God, raised from the dead and die from touching Him, or do I double-down on my unbelief and be condemned to hell, to die forever?

 

Repent. Is God’s blessing of physical contact to you so little that you cast it aside? Is it something so beneath you that you do not seek the same contact with God as you do with others? Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary God also? (Isa 7:13)

 

Hear, then O House of Israel. God Himself shall give you a sign and He shall make it as deep as Sheol and as high as heaven. And this shall be the sign, not when you finally touch God, but when He touches you in His own body and His own soul. When He touches you and you rise from your graves. When He breathes on you and gives you His Spirit that you may live, says our OT reading (Ez. 37:13-14), then you will know He is God.

 

Reaching out to God to touch Him was never the plan. Doing so, in sin, results in everlasting death, as we heard today. You reaching out is not the plan. God reaching out, is.

 

God reaching out from heaven to touch earth is the plan. Not to make the mountains smoke (Ps. 144:5), but to water the earth and make it spring forth a Savior, the God-man, Jesus Christ (Isa 61:11). In a step beyond forming man from the dust of the ground and breathing life into him (Gen 2:7), the Lord takes dust upon Himself and breath for Himself, that He might save all humanity by coming into contact with us, Himself.

 

Yes, in prophesies and lessons taught alongside those of “not touching” are those of “touching”, but in these cases its God touching man. Though touching the mountain and Tabernacle was forbidden, touching the things God already made holy in the Tabernacle gave holiness. Touch God’s Altar and its holiness was transferred to you by touch (Ex. 29:37).

 

Touch the other holy things in the holy place and they also transmit God’s holiness (Ex 30:29), which included the Bread and the wine in there. Which should have been obvious to all of Israel, for that bread was called the Bread of the Presence (Ex 35:13), as in God is present to commune with and to physically contact His people. Eat it and be made holy (Lev. 10:12).

 

All this is because God made it this way. God said this is the way we are to come into contact with Him and not any other way. Not through the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, not through His majesty, and not through a deep-thinking, penetrating mind. It will be touch by His own hands, saith the Lord.

 

“Touch Me” Jesus says to St. Thomas. Not just in your metaphors, but touch my hands with your hands. Touch my side with your side. Breath my air with your breathing. Eat what I offer you, touch it with your lips, and you will be saved, just as happened to Isaiah and Jeremiah in 6:7 and 1:9 of their books, respectively.

 

In Christ, the touch of God is eternally necessary, for it is His crucified hands that must baptize you, comfort you, and feed you His forgiveness. It is His crucified body that must make payment for all your sins, and it is His touch that brings St. Thomas and you back from the brink of death in your sins.

 

Now that you are touched by God by His Word and Sacraments, the evil one can not touch you, says St. John in his first letter (5:18). We may go through hardships as Job did, but we will no longer be touched with eternal death. We will live with the Lord and God will hand out vengeance to those who touch His people.

 

For the new command is to “touch not”. As in: “Touch not my [Christians], do my prophets no harm”, says Psalm 105:15, if you do, “…[if] all my evil neighbors…touch the heritage that I have given my people Israel to inherit: ‘Behold, I will pluck them up from their land, …I will utterly pluck [them]up and destroy [them]” (Jer 12:14).

 

Those who are touched by the crucified and risen Body and Blood of Jesus are defended from all danger and guarded and protected from all evil, such that even if they die they will live.

 

Just as Jesus came to the 3 young men in the burning, fiery furnace such that the flames couldn’t touch them, so does He come today to touch you on your forehead, on your heart, and on your lips. “For you have not come to what may be touched:”, says Hebrews 12, “a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them” (v.18). 

 

No you have been brought to what can be touched, and it is something to be touched for your eternal salvation. You have been brought to the Spirit, the water, and the blood that may be touched and handled. You have been brought to the one true God Who hides Himself in sacraments that you may live in front of Him forever.

 

You have been brought to a merciful Savior Who takes on flesh and blood in order to touch you, breathe on you, and give you His clean Spirit that you might believe that Jesus is the Crucified Christ, the only Son of God, and have life in His Name having been touched by His true Body and true Blood.

 

So we keep these physical reminders in front of us, the Font, the Supper, the Gospel, the Fire in order to never forget where exactly God intervenes in this world and intervenes in our life. All this in order that with all 5 of our senses we may interact with God and, in front of Jesus’s Body and Blood, fall down on our knees with St. Thomas and declare: “My Lord and my God!”

 

 For the point is not the hands and fingers of St. Thomas, but the hands, side, and Body of God, in Christ.

 

Welcome back [The Resurrection of our Lord]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Job 19:23-27

• 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

• St. Mark 16:1-8

To you all, my true children in the common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

 

Who speaks to you today, saying:

“But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you…”

Maybe you are not feeling as I am right now, and I ask you to indulge me for just a second. Normally I hate personal things in sermons, but well…

Last year, the heart of the church stopped beating. Rather, it had been stopped by an outside force. It was forcibly put into a coma, forcibly flat-lined, forcibly silenced. And the silence that ensued was deafening and heart breaking, for what followed was a devilish charge of demonic deployments.

As soon as the doors closed, satan licked his lips, rubbed his hands together, and sounded the trumpet to advance. For now that the sacraments had been locked up, there was no more fear. Since it appeared as if God’s sacramental connection to His Church was severed, what need was there for the devil’s armies to hold back?

And hold back he did not. The temptations were heard and believed far and wide: “Jesus shows up at your house, just as well as at church”, “You don’t need a mediator, you just need Jesus”, and “at least I still believe in my heart” are just some examples.

While, these are not new temptations, those who succumbed to them increased like false positive PCR numbers, and attendance, even a year later, has dropped. We did not need that push, that show of weakness, because we were already sliding that direction. 

Yes, Jesus shows up at your house, but He shows up to say why aren’t you at my Church (Mt 22:8)? 

Yes, you don’t need a mere mediator, but you forget that I AM is the Mediator between you and God (Heb 12:24) and God works through men (Lk 10:16). 

Yes, you can believe with your heart, but how can you believe if you don’t hear and how can you hear if someone isn’t preaching (Rom 10:14) and remember, your heart is deceitful above all things (Jer 17:9), so why trust it now?

But thanks be to God that our glass and metal and wooden doors do not equate to the hidden Church’s doors. Though by faith we see them as the same when we come to church, our doors can be locked, and the gate of heaven remain unbarred. Our doors can be darkened, and the Light of the World shines on. Our doors can be shut or destroyed, and death continues to have no dominion over the Temple of God: Christ’s Body.

Thus this Easter for me holds even more joy and I am experiencing grace upon grace upon grace, even more so because you all are here with me, filling this place. But this is every Easter. Every Easter this placed is filled, regardless of what it looks like to the outside observer. Every day Service is offered, for that matter.

For every Sunday of the Church Year is a little Easter and every Easter is a reminder of the sin-filled, rebellious road we walked on to get to this day. And a reminder of our heavenly Father expectantly awaiting our return. For, God wants us removed from that shadow-filled, valley road, so He makes us walk it year after year, to remind us of our sin and to drive us to His true Church where we eat and drink forgiveness.

Because, guess what? You may not have been here last year, but the Lord was. You may not have held the risen Body and Blood of our Lord in your faithful hands then, but you get to today. And the same words and the same ceremony and the same hymns drive the point home as if you had never left. Thanks be to God.

This is the sting of sin and the comfort of the Gospel. First the sting: we are not needed. Others will hear and believe if we don’t want to. God’s Word will move on because it remains true, when we do not. Second the comfort: that the Word is true when we are not. He is faithful when we are not. He remains the same, so that when we return from our sin, we may find Him again.

The comfort and peace that the Divine Service gives us is that of having left home forever and returning to find it exactly as it was, full of grace and truth and my newly cleansed heart is full. 

In fact, Psalm 45 expresses Job’s faith saying, “My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.” The ready scribe of Job’s pen which writes with lead and iron, the words: “I know that my redeemer lives and in my flesh I will see Him.”

The kingdom and will of God certainly come without our prayers. The Church of God comes and stays without our prayers, but we do our utmost to make sure those doors are open so that we can say it comes among us also. And it always does and it always will.

Of Easter, St. John Chrysostom from the 4th century, preaches:

 

If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast.

If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord.

If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense.

If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward.

If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast.

If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in nowise be deprived therefore.

If any have delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near, fearing nothing.

If any have tarried even until the eleventh hour, let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness; for the Lord, who is jealous of his honor, will accept the last even as the first; he gives rest unto him who comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has wrought from the first hour.

And he shows mercy upon the last, and cares for the first; and to the one he gives, and upon the other he bestows gifts.

And he both accepts the deeds, and welcomes the intention, and honors the acts and praises the offering.

Wherefore, enter you all into the joy of your Lord; and receive your reward, both the first, and likewise the second.

You rich and poor together, hold high festival. You sober and you heedless, honor the day.

Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast.

The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously. The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.

Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness.

 

Let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed.

Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave.

Let no one fear death, for the Savior's death has set us free.

He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it.

By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive.

He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions.

It was embittered, for it was abolished.

It was embittered, for it was mocked.

It was embittered, for it was slain.

It was embittered, for it was overthrown.

It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains.

It took a body, and met God face to face.

It took earth, and encountered Heaven.

It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory?

Christ is risen, and you are overthrown.

Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen.

Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice.

Christ is risen, and life reigns.

Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.

For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages.

Forever and ever.

Amen.

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

 

 

 

But if not [Easter Sunrise]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE. 

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Daniel 3:1-30

• St. John 20:1-18

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

 

Jesus speaks to you today, saying:

“But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

 

I want you to note and memorize the words spoken by the 3 children thrown into the fiery furnace. They say, “But if not” in our English translation. And that’s in response to their own statement about how the Lord has the ability to rescue them, quite bodily, out of the hand of the evil king who wants to broil them. 

“But if not”, they confess. Even if God does not save them from the king’s hand, they will not give up the faith that has been so graciously bestowed upon them and the forgiveness of sins that has been completely purchased and won for them.

For as you heard in the reading from Daniel 3, king Nebuchadnezzar is posing as god, as all good political leaders do, and he is seeking to maintain his membership roles. He does this by purging them of any dissent. He does not care that people can fake worshipping his idols, because in the end the fakers comply and do exactly as he wanted in the first place.

I argue this morning, that Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t want a religion, in the truest sense of the word, he wants sheep to fleece. And the sheep comply in the face of a little threat of violence, because who wants to die? Nebuchadnezzar wants cash cows…er sheep. He wants his wallet to grow and his name and kingdom to be the greatest. You can’t murder everyone because what kind of cash-sheep system has no sheeple??

Conveniently enough, the culture group that he needs to make an example of, has already proven itself more exemplary than Nebuchadnezzar’s own culture. Daniel and the three young men have already been promoted to pretty high offices within the kingdom, after having been dragged from their homes into exile. But they are true believers and that part of the people are the problem for the king.

So Nebuchadnezzar must solve this problem, because for earthly kings, there is no “But if not”. The king cannot say “Bow down and worship or I will kill you” “But if not”, “but if you don’t”… because then there would be no teeth in the mandate and the kingdom would rebel against such ridiculous law-making.

In Nebuchadnezzar’s false religion, the religion of the world, if you apostatize, you are put to death. Death is the punishment for leaving. This is one of the ways to spot a false religion in general: if death is the penalty for leaving the “faith”. 

Now death is the penalty for leaving the Christian faith as well, because Jesus does say things like, “You will die in your sins” (Jn 8:24). But He never commands His followers to pull the trigger. Sin is rebellion, as in, sin causes you to leave the faith. If you love your sin, you can keep it, but you will die by those self-inflicted wounds, being seperated from Life Himself.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do not believe Christianity is a false religion and put their lives on the line to prove it. They proclaim life after death. They proclaim that God rewards those who leave the worlds’ religions with life. “…our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Dan 3:17-18).

The world’s religion promises death. The one, true religion promises life. The 3 young men were alive during the exile, they would be alive if the king rescinded, and they would be alive after death. That is what “But if not” means there.

For as we ponder this early morning at the tomb, it is the close and completion of that “But if not”. For Jesus is the one young man that stood before the king, defying mandate and order, and was sentenced to death by the burning fiery furnace of God’s wrath, crucified as a king. 

His words to Pilate and the priests were “But if not”. If you put me to death, you will see the Son of Man coming in glory, seating at the Right Hand of God. If you put me to death, my kingdom is not of this world and the Father will glorify Me.

“but if not”…but if the Cup does not pass from me, if my friends all betray me, if my world rejects me and puts me to death, even so, the will of God is always best. And just like the 3 young men, Jesus was rescued out of that furnace, but He was rescued in the best way. The way that puts an end to death and will allow all of us to be dumped into a furnace, die, and still come out alive.

God gives us “But if not” faith. God gives us the faith to stare down death, even when we don’t want to. The women that went to the tomb early this morning and did not have “but if not” faith, for they were looking for a dead man. But, you can be sure they left with it.

Because God has raised Jesus from the dead, we have faith to face death and say, “Even though you do your worst, all you do is put me out of your jurisdiction”. For Nebuchadnezzar’s authority only extends as far as he can reach and he cannot reach into the grave. 

And that is the point and object of faith. Men can only kill the body. The world can only kill your body. It can not destroy you. It cannot destroy what and whom you love. It cannot remove joy from your life without your say-so. And it cannot remove life from your grasp.

For your life is hidden in Christ and is found in His grasp. His grasp which did not let go of spear and nail until He had paid for your redemption completely. Now in Christ, you live and the furnace you are thrown into is but a font of water. The poison the world force-feeds you is but bread and wine to you. Christ is arisen, man and the world can do nothing to you.

The Crucifix [Good Friday]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Hosea 6:1-6

• Exodus 12:1-11

• St. John 18-19

 

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love. (2 Jn. 1)

 

Who speaks to us through Hosea today, saying,

“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

If God desires steadfast love and not sacrifice, then what is Jesus doing? If God desires knowledge and not burnt offerings, then why is Jesus on the cross? If we can reach all truth by simply imagining it so, then all we need is good feelings, not a body on a cross.

Because of this sinful confusion which we war against every day of our lives, it almost becomes an imperative to have a corpus, or body of Jesus, upon our crosses in church and at home. For Jesus on the cross is God desiring steadfast love, knowledge, truth AND sacrifice, burnt offerings, and good feelings.

That body there, keeps us in line and keeps us in the faith in dire circumstances. Really, why wouldn’t you want to treasure an image of Jesus? The Lord’s steadfast love and knowledge are found in Christ Crucified and is the center of His work and the Christian message even after His resurrection.

Consider these verses from St. Paul’s sermons:

“we preach Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23)

“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2)

“For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).

“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

And,

“Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame” (Hebrews 12:2).

All the cross, but all with Jesus on the cross. Does this mean we hate Easter? No, but Easter already has its best symbol, that of the empty tomb. A picture is worth a thousand words and the crucifix is a beautiful proclamation of exactly what Christ did for us and exactly what He is doing now.

He is not continuously crucified, but He is continuously known as The Crucified, as the angels name Him on Easter in Matthew 28:5. Since He is known even in heaven by that, we then best keep that image in front of us knowing and believing that He was only crucified once for all and that we do not worship the image, but the One whom the image represents.

Dr. Luther puts it this way:

“Of this I am certain, that God desires to have his works heard and read, especially the passion of our Lord. But it is impossible for me to hear and bear it in mind without fanning mental images

of it in my heart. For whether I will or not, when I hear of Christ, an image of a man hanging on a cross takes form in my heart, just as the reflection of my face naturally appears in the water when I look into it. If it is not a sin but good to have the image of Christ in my heart, why should it be a sin to have it in my eyes? This is especially true since the heart is more important than the eyes, and should be less stained by sin because it is the true abode and dwelling place of God.” (AE 40:99-100)

Since Genesis 3:15, in which the Christ is first proclaimed as crucified with a bruised heel, the image of Christ has been treasured as the God-given image of the invisible God (Col 1:15). the crucifix shows exactly what Christ did for us. without it, there would be no forgiveness of sins. 

With it, we properly understand God’s Law and Gospel. That God hates sin and will punish it, and that God loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son to be a sacrifice, instead of us. “If for me He slays His Son, God must have compassion” (LSB 440:5).

The crucifix doesn’t proclaim Christ as still dead any more than your nativity scene proclaims Him as still an infant. In fact, the crucifix emphasizes even more the truth that Jesus is alive. That He went through that and still came out alive. All for little ole you.

Feet in the game [Maundy Thursday]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 12:1-14

• 1 Corinthians 11:23-32

• St. John 13:1-15

 

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Who speaks to us in His Epistle saying:

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”

Jesus very rarely says what we want Him to. So it is that today on this Day of Fools, St. Paul is telling us to proclaim the Lord’s death and how we do that is by the Lord’s Supper. Communing with Him. However, during the Last Supper there was a little more going on and the Gospel according to St. John fills in those details.

 There are some that take some of these details of Jesus very literally and believe that some of His words, such as, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” indicate an ordinance that must be repeated and followed, if you are to be a true believer.

Of course, these ordinances then take total priority over every other word of Christ and are stripped of all their eternal benefits and in doing devalue them completely, but I digress.

 For now, in order to understand foot washing and if there are any eternal benefits, we must understand what the Bible says about feet or at least how they are used, besides for walking. Our first stop is Eden, where Adam is created without socks and shoes. But so what? Well remember Adam is created from the dust, so him walking in the dust or the dirt is simply him being in a natural connection with his constitution and by proxy, his Creator.

 However, after the Fall, its, “for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19). Death has entered the game and so we hear these words at the Ash Wednesday Divine Service. Abraham confirms this, hundreds of years later, as he begs the Lord for the lives of the righteous men who may or may not be in Sodom and Gomorrah, confessing: “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes” (Gen 18:27), for our dustiness is always before the Lord (Psa 103:14). 

 From Adam and Abraham we go to Moses who, when confronted by the Lord in the Burning Bush, is commanded to take off his sandals: “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Ex 3:5). 

 Now, you would think it would be the opposite. You would think that Moses would have to cover up his dusty feet with holy slippers or something, since Adam cursed the ground in his sin. Instead, its “put your feet on the ground” in order to confess your sinfulness and confess the God you have sinned against. The first man was a man of dust and we have his image and in him all die (1 Cor 15:47, 49, 22).

 At this point, we can begin to get the connection between feet and sin and how our “dust” is a problem, not just for our feet, but our head and hands as well. That it is our sinfulness and it must be washed off. For we are from the corrupted earth and it is corrupt, beyond healing. So much so that St. Peter asks for more than just a foot washing, because he knows that his dusty feet have infected his entire body.

 And Jesus agrees. He even changes His language when He responds to St. Peter, in that He is no longer talking about dipping feet in a water basin, but immersing the entire person. “The one who has been immersed does not need to wash”, He says literally, meaning of course that now we enter into Temple language, Church language, ceremony language. The washing that Jesus is really talking about is a washing for purification, that is, to be made holy in front of God.

 The first man was a man of dust, but the Second Man was from heaven (1 Cor 15:47). When the Lord told Moses to take off his sandals, He was immersing Moses in a holy washing of His Word, cleaning his feet of the dust of sin at His Word, in order that Moses stand in front of God’s face and listen and live in the Gospel of that forgiveness. 

 Just as Moses had borne the image of Adam, now at God’s Word, in Christ, he bears the image of God. Saved by grace, Moses’ feet now become free of dust, not because of water alone, but because of a promise from the Lord. In Adam, Moses would have died in front of the bush. In Christ, he is made alive.

There may be a command to wash feet, but there is no promise attached to it. There is a command to do what Jesus has done, but no sign of receiving favor, or forgiveness, or eternal life, if done properly. Because that promise of grace is absent, there is no sacrament here and washing feet becomes a metaphor for “forgiving sins” or proclaiming the dust of Adam washed away.

 It is just as Jesus says, we don’t know what He is doing. We can try to imitate Him and copy Him in reverent mimicry, but there is no guarantee we’ll get it right. Do we need brass bowls or will plastic do? Do we need linen or cotton, for a towel? What kind of water? What kind of room? What kind of participation? 12 Apostles? 11?

 All these details Jesus inconveniently leaves out. But He leaves them out on purpose. For feet don’t need washing, hearts do. Scrub those feet as long as you want. Scrub them into oblivion, and the dust of sin will simply stick to your heart. This is how we read the foot washing event: within the context of the rest of Scripture, not in a vacuum.

 Foot washing ceremonies are awkward because no one listens to Jesus and no one knows when one begins or ends. Baptism has a beginning and an end. That is the Word, Who is the beginning and the end. For the Word says with His own mouth, “Believe and be baptized and you will be saved” (Mk 16:16).

 There you do have the element and the promise, which makes a sacrament. Likewise, His Holy Supper: “Eat…and drink…for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:26-28), “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes”, from our Epistle this evening.

 Your feet must be washed, dear Christian, but they must be washed by Christ, as He said. So you must find Him and make Him or ask Him to wash your feet. Good luck.

 Thanks be to God, in faith we don’t have to, for we are given new feet; a new body and a new life that is wholly Christ’s. 

 This new, Resurrected Body has no dust or stain from the first man, and is entirely the Second Man Who suffered, died, and rose from the dead with feet. Beautiful feet that preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of salvation (Isa 52:7) with nail holes in them.

 Yes. Your feet must not only be washed, but they must be crucified, in order that our “body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin” (Rom 6:6-7). Either our own crucifixion or Christ’s which He gladly gives us full credit for in Faith and in Baptism.

In the washing of rebirth and regeneration that is Baptism, you are crucified with Christ.

In the washing of rebirth and regeneration that is Baptism, you are resurrected with Christ.