Monday, March 31, 2025

Foolish and Wise Christ [Lent 4]


READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
  • Exodus 16:2-21

  • Galatians 4:21-31

  • St. John 6:1-15



May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (2 Pet 1)
 
Who speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
“He said this to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do”
 
We are to hear today’s Gospel to learn of the foolishness of God. How He died for sinners who hate Him and yet it is the wisdom hidden from before the ages. We do not need to make fools of ourselves, believing that is how God acts. We simply believe and receive His wisdom in the folly of broken Body, given for you, and His sainting of sinners.
 
They call it April Fools Day, this coming Tuesday, as if it is something fun and silly, which is what we usually do with important history. We foolishly forget details, but remember it only during partying. St. Patrick’s Day and Valentine’s Day fall under this abuse. 
 
The very first April fools were allegedly pranked in the 16th century, by Pope Gregory XIII when he decided the world needed a new calendar. And since he was pope, he was in charge of the world. For foolish reasons we won’t get into today, part of the change was moving the new year from Easter (around April 1), to January 1. Those who weren’t in the know about the time change, were called April fools, as they still hadn't adopted the new New Year. Losers.
 
Thus, it used to be, even in our own lifetimes, that fools were bad things. One did not want to be foolish or be called a fool. In fact, many Christian families banned the word “fool” from their household because of Jesus’s warning in St. Matthew 5:22, “But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.”
 
Today, pop-intelligence has changed all that and it is cool to be called a fool. In literature and media, the foolish are to be coddled and praised, for they are victims. In satanic arts, there is a Fool card and it allegedly foretells of new adventure. That in purity and innocence, we all start out a new chapter in life to learn its lessons. We may face mountains or cliffs, but our optimism will get us through. A leap of faith, if you will!
 
Worse than all that, there are so-called Christians who also want to be fools. Fools for Jesus, as if that makes it better. This is all because of one fraction of one verse in 1 Corinthians 4:10 saying, “We are fools for Christ's sake”. From this, they not only throw away intelligence and debate of important topics in American Christianity, but also they have sanctioned foolishness as sainthood in both the East and the West churches; Orthodox and Rome.
 
And it is as ridiculous as you imagine, as canonized sainthood usually gets. With foolish actions ranging from being homeless on purpose, to sleeping naked on church-porches, to acting the lunatic. Of course, the holy fool is not a real fool, he’s just pretending in order to make a point or to shock people. Sounds like demon possession and hypocrisy to me.
 
“Fool” in the Bible is 99% a bad thing. From, “The fool says in his heart there is no God”, in Psalm 14:1, to Jesus on Easter Day rebuking the disciples saying, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Lk 24:25)
 
So what’s different about that 1 Corinthians verse? St. Paul is being sarcastic! Sarcasm in the Bible?! Nooooo. 
 
Context will give us the truth. St. Paul begins these thoughts with the dogma that Christ is the only foundation (1 Cor 3:11) and that believers are God’s Temple, already built on that Foundation (3:16). All things are already yours (3:21) and you are Christ’s (3:23). This means that no one should be able to trick you into seeking and finding a righteousness that is apart from Christ, such as a foolish righteousness.
 
As examples, St. Paul talks of the slaves of that Temple, the pastors, of which he is one. He wants them to be known as stewards, not fools. “Stewards of the mysteries of God”. Not mysteries as in “the unknown” or “unintelligible”, but mysteries as in “how did God do that?”
 
How has God justified me by His Son when I do not fear, love, and trust Him completely? How did God take on human flesh? How can water do such great things? How can a man forgive my sins? How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things??
 
Repent! There is no mystery in God’s will, as we said last week, and there is no mystery in His plan and purpose for all things. And yet, this is exactly where you assign mystery to God’s Work. Why? Because you don’t want handouts. You don’t want regular old moldy bread from the hands of God, you want adventure in the great wide somewhere. You don’t want fish. You don’t want water. 
 
And if you must take those things from God, you better be able to conjure them up all the time to impress your friends, in His Name, of course. God better make it so that His bread is super bread, so that His water is super water, and so that His words are super words. You know propelling us to heaven and making the sun stand still and stuff. Because you loathe this worthless food, these worthless gifts God is handing out.
 
And there is the danger that St. Paul goes on to warn about. When we involve ourselves in thinking bad is good or that being foolish is some sort of super-holy-living, we go beyond what we have been taught and what has been written. 
 
“I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers,” he says back to 1 Corinthians, “that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (4:6-7). Foolish.
 
For, “That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church” (4:17). 
 
And what is it that St. Paul teaches? “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me…For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:23-26).
 
Meaning, true Christian foolishness for Christ is found in us foolishly adhering to and clinging to the Word and Sacrament. When the world says, that’s stupid, we say forgiveness. When the world says “thou fool!”, we say “Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord”. When our sinful nature says, “grumble grumble”, Christ says “eat to the full”.
 
For let us not forget the biggest fool of all: God. Forgive me! In the beginning He created all things and just hands them over to newborns! What did He expect to happen? Then, the descendants of those newborns need rescue, so He floods the whole earth. Later on, He finds the most stiff-necked (Ex 32:9), lying (Amos 2:4), harlotrous (Ez 16:25), and unreliable (Hos 5:11) people on earth to make His own people.
 
Upon those people stumbling, sinning, and rejecting God to His face, He then chooses to destroy them. But His choice of destruction, as He promised, did not come in the usual way of the foolish world; drones and stuff. It came first in the destruction of His own self. God’s wrath against sin mobilized all His might to strike one man: Jesus Christ.
 
Yes, the Fool Who feeds the masses, Who heals the sick, Who raises the dead, Who gets caught, suffers, and will not remove Himself from the cross of shame. That Fool Who believes that His Body and Blood can pay for the sin of the world. That fool Who dies for those Who hate Him. That Fool Who creates His Church and leaves it to men.
 
The Holy One of God, that Famous-est Preacher and healer, hides Himself in His Word and Sacrament. It is impossible to redeem such people with Blood, but Christ does it. It is impossible to feed such ingrates with bread, but Christ does it. It is impossible says the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, for an almighty God to become flesh and accomplish His work, in the flesh.
 
To be a true fool for Christ is to believe and receive His work, accomplished for you, no matter what the world and our sinful senses scream at us. To be a fool for Christ is to cling to His Holy Church throughout the ages, when the devil wants us to progress and move beyond it. To be a fool for Christ, is to not rant and rave as the world does, but to pray and receive as the Church does.
 
And will always do! This is not the new way of doing Church, neither was it new to the Apostles or the Prophets. The Lord has always chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. There is no special reason Israel was chosen, except to show God’s glory in His own work, not theirs.
 
There is no special reason Jesus became flesh and cares for His Church today by Word and Sacrament alone, except to show us up. Where we perceive ourselves to be the great movers and shakers of the Church, inventing this new program or that new way of worship, Christ shows up with a splash of water and says, “wait till you see what I can do with this”.
 
There just is no boasting in the Church with the world’s foolishness of hypocrisy, for the fool believes there is no God Who would stoop so low as to become the Servant of man. Jesus does not allow our works to eclipse His works. His works may seem like foolishness, but they are foolishness with power. 
 
Man’s foolishness divides, believing that we receive more favor from God by going beyond what He has taught and handed out Himself. God’s foolishness is the power to save, for it is the word of the cross. It is the Word of Christ Crucified, foolishness to the world, but the power and wisdom of God, to those who are being saved (1 Cor 1:18, 23-24).
 
And since our Apostles, prophets, and pastors have determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him Crucified (1 Cor 2:2), through the folly of that preaching (1:21) the Spirit’s power comes among us and our faith rests not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God (2:5).
 
The secret and hidden wisdom of God (2:7), hidden only from the “wise” (2:14), is discerned only by the mind of Christ (2:16). And the mind of Christ is, as stated, Christ’s alone. He has it. Just as you have your own mind, words, and deeds, so Christ. 
 
And part of that secret is revealed to us today as Jesus hands out bread and fish of His own self. That His wisdom and secret are not to remain secret, but to be known. For in His greatest, fool act, He unites Himself to us, sharing His Body, sharing His Blood, and sharing His mind. We do not progress into the mind of Christ, but are baptized into it. 
 
In the feeding of the 5000, Jesus begins to reveal the joy of being fed by Christ, not just externally, but now as a part of His Body. Fed as He is fed. Nourished as He is nourished. Resurrected as He is resurrected. 
 
This union is important, because while we have to play the fool in this life, being overly optimistic, throwing caution to the wind, and beginning, ending and beginning things again in our lives, Christ does not change, for us. Though we think we need to move the goalposts to continue to please Him, He is not moved.
 
He continues to sit in the same spot, day after day, that right hand of God to which He ascended, distributing handouts. And unlike earthly handouts, His produce life and are Life. He calls out daily, hourly, secondly; as at the first hour, so at the second, the third, and even the 11:59th, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here! As for him who lacks understanding, [HE] says to him,
‘Come, eat of my bread And drink of the wine I have mixed. Forsake foolishness and live,
And go in the way of understanding’” (Proverbs 9:4-6).
 
“Rejoice with Jerusalem,” with the Church, our Lord proclaims in our Introit for today. Rejoice with the Church “and be glad with her, all you who love her; Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her;” 
 
And Isaiah goes on to say why: “That you may feed and be satisfied with the consolation of her bosom (Christ), that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory (Christ again). For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, And the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. Then you shall feed; On her sides shall you be carried, and be dandled on her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, So I will comfort you;
And you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” (66:10-13)
 


God's Son, your Servant [Wednesday in Lent 3]

- - NO AUDIO - - TEXT ONLY - -

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
  • Romans 5:1-21

  • St. John 13:1-20
 


May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (2 Pet 1)
 
Who speaks to you this evening, from His letter to the Romans, saying:
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”
 
The main idea in the next two stanzas of our hymn, Dear Christians One And All Rejoice, is “God’s Son, your Servant”. The important thing here, is, not that we make God our servant or fabricate a groveling God, pining for our attention and command. Instead that we realize righteousness is received, not achieved.
 
Jesus presents Himself as the Servant of servant and the Gospel reading reminded us of this, in the washing of feet, and as we hear Him say in St. Matthew 20:28:“the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
 
The 5th and 6th stanza, for our contemplation:
5 God said to His beloved Son:                      6 The Son obeyed His Father's will,
   "It's time to have compassion.                             Was born of virgin mother;
   Then go, bright jewel of My crown,                    And God's good pleasure to fulfill,
   And bring to all salvation.                                    He came to be my brother.
   From sin and sorrow set them free;                   His royal pow'r disguised He bore;
   Slay bitter death for them that they                   A servant's form, like mine, He wore
   May live with You forever."                                  To lead the devil captive.
 
Now regarding the Gospel reading, we have talked about this before and how we don’t have a sacrament of foot washing. Not just because feet are gross, but because Jesus makes this sweeping statement about what He is doing, saying, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” (Jn 13:8)
 
That is, you can scrub all the feet you want, in your lifetime, yet those actions will not clean you. Contrarywise, you can have your feet scrubbed as many times as you want in your lifetime, the sinful dirt is still not going to wash off. Like Lady MacBeth, the spot won’t get out.
 
Jesus must wash, because He alone knows how to wash. Who better to know than God? Do you know what water washes to get that “heavenly clean”? Does God use soap? Animal fat or soy? God is the only One Who knows what kind of clean He demands, so best let Him sort it out.
 
Second, when we get to our Epistle we find that we heard the “faith alone” chapter of Romans. For there, we hear that it is a necessity that faith alone saves, because it is only the work of one man that accomplishes anything. Righteousness is received, not achieved.
 
We have justification through Jesus only. We have peace, access to faith, and are saved by Jesus alone. “Therefore,” Romans says, “just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned… so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” (Rom 5:12, 19) 
 
The first 4 stanzas of our hymn have confessed our human plight: fast bound in Satan’s chains. The freedom of the will is worse than powerless, because it is in bondage. It fights against God’s judgment. Free will even yielded to sin, in Eden. Christ is the bright jewel of God’s crown, from heaven to earth He comes.
 
The religious imagine they build ladders to God: moralism, rationalism, mysticism. However, God gives us His Son on the cross, not on ladders. Jacob’s ladder, I would argue, was cross shaped. God comes to us when we could not climb to Him. In fact, if we could bore our way into heaven with our heads and look around, we would find no one, because Christ lies in a crib and in a woman’s lap. So let us fall back down again, says Dr. Luther. (Luther, quoted by Bayer, 46).
 
The real wonderful part of this hymn is right here in stanza 6, the very first line: the Son obeyed the Father’s Will. That means that what follows next is what the Father Wills. What He wants done, how He wants it done, and by Whom He wants it done. 
 
This is amazing, because it is just laid out there, for everyone to see. No secrets. No pay walls. No pyramid schemes. Born of a virgin, clothed in flesh. More than that, a true man, with a rational body and soul. No fakes. No substitutions. All man. All God. All to be humiliated for you.
 
All in order to die a sinner’s death. He became sin, Who knew no sin, to make you sinless. Conception, birth, growth, Baptism, Temptation, cross, and precious death and burial. His glorious resurrection and ascension and the coming of the Holy Ghost the Comforter. All part of the plan.
 
He is God’s Beloved with the Father’s own delight and Spirit. In weakness, He accomplishes the Almighty feat of redeeming sinners, while they yet actively rebelled. From sin and sorrow we are set free and the devil is captive. For as his jaws closed around Jesus in death, he broke his teeth on heaven’s Creator. 
 
Jesus’s orders are to bring to all salvation. His earthly purpose, in the flesh, is to set us free from sin and sorrow. He is sent with explicit instructions to slay bitter death, that we may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.
 
As we sing this hymn during Lent, pray it, we are made to focus where we should. In the midst of our sufferings, hope is being able to look out and ponder the wounds of Christ, that hide our shame and the stripes of Christ that bring us healing.
 
Jesus came not to be served but to serve us His Word and Sacraments, giving His life as a ransom (st Mark 10:45). The old Adam is ever the activist, always devising some scheme for serving God and making it look holy and righteous. Jesus puts an end to it all as He comes to give what we could never achieve.
Righteousness is received not achieved. Behold God’s and your Servant; He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
 
 

Monday, March 24, 2025

Opposite Day and Concupiscence [Lent 3]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE


READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

  • Jeremiah 26:1-15

  • Ephesians 5:1-9

  • St. Luke 11:14-28
 


May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (2 Pet 1)
 
Who speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
 
Thus far from God’s Word, caused to be written and heard so that we more firmly believe in Jesus and the hope He gives. For we do not look for proof of that hope in temporary things, but permanent things. While God gives good to us, the greatest good is His resurrection into which He baptizes us. This is the comfort we give out to our neighbor.
 
We do not give out the comfort of combat, that if we just play Opposite Day with the devil, we will automatically gather with God. That is a satanic trick, for the devil does not care for fair play, logic, or honor. His only concern is gaining his own goal, as evidenced today.
 
For, he tempts the Jews to think that they are godly by destroying the reputation of, what they think, is a false prophet. By doing do, in God’s Name, they are doing God’s Work. However, since there is such a thing as exorcism, their same proofs turn into accusations. They live as if exorcism is real, but then say its false when someone they don’t like does it.
 
This cognitive dissonance is the devil’s work. He can take two positions at the same time. First is we believe that we have the ability to love God above all things, which is why say we can enjoy blessings and kick out the devil, if we have to. Second, we believe all men are sinners and cannot do those things. “At the same time”, our Confessions state, “we attribute to mankind a concupiscence (wicked desire) that is not entirely destroyed by the Holy Spirit and also the ability to love God above all things.” (AP II(I):23-25)
 
Maybe your new “shock of the week” is who shot JFK. And although we have been shocked by that question for well over half a century, we still don’t want to know. We don’t want to know, because the real question is not who shot him, but can we trust our government. And if we can’t trust our government, who are elected officials allegedly, then we can’t trust the people who elected them.
 
This is what gave rise to social media and all the back-biting and hate spewed on the “other party”. It is ok when we do it, though, because we were right. How often we forget that we are voters, as well. Maybe we should give up voting for Lent and forever?
 
Yet, even if we know, we know that nothing will change. Nothing can shock us into changing our minds or our lives anymore. And that scares us, because we know we know and we don’t do anything about it. That depresses us and deflates us, because we like to present ourselves as right and virtuous. When that doesn’t turn out, we point at someone else.
 
When the Jews declare, or maybe ask, that Jesus is doing the devil’s work, they only want to know if they are right or wrong. They don’t want to understand Jesus. Since they can’t be wrong, by default, they simply take the position that Jesus is wrong, no matter what. No matter if it means consigning their own sons to hell with Him.
 
So now who cast out the demon? Who can you trust? Can you trust the Word of God working in and through your sons? Can you trust the same Word of God doing the same work, but through Jesus? Can you trust your super-spiritual discernment as God’s own?
 
Our Confessions state:
Furthermore, remember that God punishes sin with sins. This means that because of their self-confidence, lack of repentance, and willful sins, He later punishes with hard-heartedness and blindness those who had been converted, [as He says in Hebrews 6:4-6]. 
This punishment should not be interpreted to mean that it never had been God's good pleasure that such persons should come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. For both these facts are God's revealed will:
1) God will receive into grace all who repent and believe in Christ.
2) He also will punish those who willfully turn away from the holy commandment and again entangle themselves in the world's filth, decorate their hearts for Satan, and despise God's Spirit. They will be hardened, blinded, and eternally condemned if they persist in such things. Even Pharaoh perished in this way. (SD XI:83-84)
 
Repent. Blame never ends with each other. Remember Adam and Eve passed the blame, not onto the serpent, but onto God. “It was the woman You gave me,” said Adam. “It was the serpent You made here,” said Eve. “Its Jesus’s fault I can’t make sense in my arguments against God” or for God, or…I don’t know!
 
With this, we begin to understand Original Sin. Our blame always ends with fingers pointed at God, thus, Original Sin denies obedience to God in our bodies, denies knowing God, and denies placing confidence in God. Moreover the gifts and abilities needed to produce these acts are also completely corrupted in us.
 
Of equal importance is understanding the word concupiscence, which means wicked desire. That when righteousness has been lost, concupiscence takes its place. Since diseased nature cannot fear and love God and believe God, it seeks and loves carnal things. By nature, when we are secure, we hold God's judgment in contempt [and] When we are terrified, we hate God's judgment. 
 
Concupiscence is not only a corruption of physical qualities, but also, in the higher powers, a vicious turning to fleshly things. Thus the Jews, and we, do not realize the devilish contradiction in what we are saying. At the same time, we attribute to mankind a concupiscence that is not entirely destroyed by the Holy Spirit [yet] also the ability to love God above all things. (AP II(I):23-25)
 
According to Jesus, it will take armed robbery in order to remedy this upside-down belief, it will take something stronger than the nurture of the Mother of God, it will take an exorcism. However, as the Jews pointed out, the exorcism will need to be done by someone who is not possessed, otherwise, how would you know it was done?
 
The gift Jesus gives to His Church is faith. Faith is the sinless work of God done in us. Faith is the light shining in the darkness. Faith is the outside work of God overcoming our inward concupiscence and cleansing in such a way to create that belief. And that begins at the Resurrection of Jesus.
 
God will raise up the righteous and Jesus is raised on the Third Day. After the resurrection, there is no question as to Who was right in this Gospel reading. Because it wasn’t about the exorcism, or the Jews authority, or St. Mary, but the Resurrection.
 
That is, the only reason Jesus cast out this demon was to show that His suffering and death would cast out all demons, forever, for those who believe. The only reason St. Mary was highly favored was to prove just how much power is in the faith that the Crucified and Resurrected Lord gives to you. And in His Word and Sacrament, that is always available to you.
 
From the Confessions again:
“…the sense is not that faith, only in the beginning, lays hold of righteousness and salvation, and then resigns its office to the works as though thereafter they had to sustain faith, the righteousness and salvation being already received, but in order that the promise, not only of receiving, but also of retaining righteousness and salvation, may be firm and sure to us. 
St. Paul in Romans 5:2, ascribes to faith not only the entrance to grace, but also that we stand in grace and boast of the future glory, that is, the beginning, middle, and end he ascribes all to faith alone” (SD iv:34).
 
What this means is that receiving faith is promised, as we have by His grace alone. But also retaining faith is promised. If we feel weak, we can ask for strength. If we feel led astray we can ask for guidance. If we are unsure of whether or not Jesus or the devil is casting out demons, we can ask for faith and assurance and it will be given.
 
The devil can lie, cheat, steal, and do fake miracles all he wants. What he cannot do is be crucified and rise again. That is the difference between an exorcism of beelzebub and an exorcism of Christ. In one, faith is taken and in the other, faith is given. In one, wealth, riches, and prosperity is hoarded and locked up, for one. In the other, the very kingdom of heaven itself is given away to all through faith alone.
 
The Word and Sacraments of God cannot be copied. You can be the foremost expert in exorcism in the world, but if you have not the saving power of Christ’s Church, you are scattering God’s people. 
 
But if the Word is gathering us together with the risen Christ and His Church to receive His gifts of forgiveness and life, all the while giving thanks for blessings, exorcisms, and any other spiritual act we experience, then that is Truth. 
 
For experience tells you that you do not have the reason or strength to come to Jesus or believe in Him. You couldn’t even answer the Jews accusation today! But the Holy Spirit has Called you by the Gospel, enlightened you with His Gifts, sanctified and keeps you to this day, in the one, true faith. Not in exorcisms, but in the Resurrection of Jesus and the hope of our resurrection in the body, promised.
 
 

God's Will for you [Wednesday in Lent 2]

- - NO AUDIO - - TEXT ONLY - -

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
  • Romans 3:21-28

  • St. John 12:27-36

 


May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (2 Pet 1)
 
Who speaks to you this evening, from His letter to the Romans, saying:
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law…through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
 
From the Father’s heart appears to be the theme for the 4th stanza of our Lenten hymn we are studying. Our first three stanzas pointed out our slavery to sin. What prompts a liberation? Only God’s own mercy and the sacrifice of Jesus, for you. From the Father’s heart comes the Father’s Will.
 
The 4th stanza, one more time:
     But God had seen my wretched state
        Before the world's foundation,
        And mindful of His mercies great,
        He planned for my salvation.
        He turned to me a father's heart;
        He did not choose the easy part
        But gave His dearest treasure.
 
If there is one thing that unites both believers and non-believers alike, it is the future. Whether we talk about it in terms of “what does God want for my life” or “what does the universe have in store for me”, there is ever the anxiety of the coming future. This is because the future is closed to us, just as the past is. We are present creatures only, knowing only the now.
 
But God knows everything, so it makes sense that we either ask Him about it, or if He remains silent, attempt to eke out His inscrutable will for us on our own. Unfortunately for us, inscrutable means impossible to understand and in our sin, this is how the Bible presents God’s Will to us.
 
Yes, God created all things, but was it in seven literal days or were they days that spanned millions of years? Though we would take “evening and morning” as 24 hour days, you can make an argument for something called “creative evolution”. That God used evolution to get us to where we are. Very uncertain.
 
Or why was there so much violence and degeneracy in the Old Testament? Didn’t God have a conscience back then? We are expected to hear it as God’s Word, but how to understand it? We feel we must excuse God for His oversights and explain away His actions.
 
The big one is heard in Psalm 73, where King David prays, “I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked”…”Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish”. Truly, in light of this, “I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency” (Ps 73:3, 7, 13)
 
There just is no telling what God’s will is. He appears flighty and temperamental. He appears as a hypocrite. In our experience, God just does what He wants, when He wants. “He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens” (Rom 9:18). And all we can say to that is “the Lord works in mysterious ways”. 
 
What is even more unbelievable is this mystery appears to be a comfort for us. If God is so mysterious that we can’t figure Him out, then we can excuse unfairness in life as not God’s doing. If His will is a mystery, then His Will can be whatever our will is. If His ways are hidden, then we can fleece thousands of dollars by sounding smart, “God will reveal it to you in time, my child”.
 
In sin, we do not want to know God’s Will, if only because then we lose control over it. If God’s Will is known publicly, then we can’t make it up anymore. More than that, we cannot excuse His actions, because now we know the true motives behind them. 
 
Thus, when Jesus comes to do just that, reveal God’s Will, He is hated without cause. He comes to preach and teach “God thinks this” and “God says that” and “God wills this”, revealing what had been hidden from the ages. This offends the sinner. When God was silent, we could pull the strings. Now that God is His own man, with His own thoughts, words, and deeds, we are in trouble and have lost our grift.
 
What is God’s disposition towards me, we ask? God’s Law accuses us, our sins accuse us, and our heart condemns us. In our experience, as in the Psalm, God is against us and must be our enemy.
 
That is, if our heart is the only judge. Fortunately, Christ is the only Judge and it is His Office to make God certain. Meaning, it is the Son’s job to reveal the Will of the Father. One of my favorite verses is the opening of the letter to the Hebrews: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (1:1-2).
 
No man is now a gatekeeper to God’s favor. We do not have to find Moses, or Joshua, or even St. Peter. As in, we put no trust in their flesh, or ours for that matter, to reveal the things of God to us. God has come down directly Himself, with His own fleshy mouth, to declare Himself to us and reveal His Will outside of us.
 
What is that will? Yes, it may seem confusing when we go through this messy life, but the Truth is God keeps it very simple. His Will is our sanctification, as we heard from the Epistle this past Sunday. He wills our salvation. 
 
His will is done, says our Small Catechism, when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s Name or let His kingdom come; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die. This is most certainly true.
 
That’s it. That’s what our hymn sings and teaches, such that, whenever you are in doubt about God’s plans and Will for your life, just sing it and you will be reminded. That, from before creation, your heavenly Father had seen your wretched state and fatal plight and did not sit on His thumbs. He planned, He schemed, He thought heavily about His History of Salvation, for you.
 
And because of His merciful goodness and because of the sacrifice of His Greatest Tresure, the Son of God Jesus Christ, He acted. He did not wait for me to be born and make the right decision or choose the right path. He did not even wait for the prophets and the Apostles to prepare the way for Him. He prepped His own path, paved His own Way, and came to do His own work.
 
The Father’s heart is laid open in the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. That is the plan. That is the will. Literally, when Jesus is scourged, crucified, and poked with a spear He is opened to all. His saving Blood is poured out for all. That is as open as one can get and He dies because of it.
 
And this is “not choosing the easy part” we sang of. Because He cannot just die, as God, and leave everything behind. He somehow has to live after the work is done. And He does. He rises again, confirming and completing His greatest work for you. 
 
God has come down Himself, with no middle man. He has revealed and opened to us the most profound depths of His fatherly heart and His pure, unutterable love. For this very purpose He created us, so that He might redeem us and make us holy. Moreover, having granted and bestowed upon us everything in heaven and on earth, He has also given us His Son and His Holy Spirit, through whom He brings us to Himself. 
 
Because, we could never come to recognize the Father’s favor and grace were it not for the Lord Christ, Who is a mirror of the Father’s heart. Apart from Him we see nothing but an angry and terrible judge”, teaches our Large Catechism. 
(LC II:64-66).
 
God “did not choose the easy part but gave His dearest treasure.” That treasure was and is His own Son, “begotten of the Father from all eternity and born of the virgin Mary.” When God turned to you a Father’s heart, He gave you Jesus. He gave you His Son to be your Brother. When our hearts condemn us, we indeed have One who is greater than our hearts. We have God’s own heart. We have His Son crucified and raised.
 

Monday, March 17, 2025

Shame [Lent 2]


READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
  • Genesis 32:22-32

  • 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7

  • St. Matthew 15:21-28
 


May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (2 Pet 1)
 
Who speaks today, saying:
“Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.”
 
Christ is king and we hear this Word from Him in order that we see shame. Shame is a powerful teacher God uses to reveal our sin to us and to show us our Savior. For though we are ashamed in our sin, our Lord Christ was not ashamed to even mount His fatal cross on behalf of His shame-filled creatures. We should be thankful for God’s shame and for His raising us out of our shame, in Christ.
 
As we encounter the difficult scene of Jesus, apparently, calling a woman a dog, I want us to ponder these words from Dr. Luther:
“Hence let us be warned by the example before us and learn this: the longer God puts up with idolatry and other sins, and the longer He pays no attention to them, the more intolerable will His wrath reveal itself to be later on. Therefore, we ought to consider it a great kindness if He does not permit our sins to go unpunished for a long time. 
Ps. 30:5 exhorts the church to give thanks because the wrath of the Lord is "for a moment" and because He loves life. It says: "Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning"; and Ps. 89:30, 32: "If his children forsake My Law and do not walk according to My ordinances, I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with scourges." 
This is a wrath of grace, when the punishment comes quickly and calls us back from sin.” (AE 2:222-223)
 
The wrath of grace. What a funny word, but there you have it. Better to be ashamed for a short while, in this life, than for eternity in the next. Better to know right now that we are in the wrong, headed in the wrong direction, and are in doubt and unbelief.
 
Is this Canaanite woman sinless? Is she the victim of hate speech? Does Jesus not know what’s in her heart? Canaan has been cursed since the book of Genesis, not because they look, act, and speak differently, but because they hate the things of God and worship other gods. This woman was raised in this shame. Isn’t it more loving to tell her this so that she might repent and live?
 
In our 6th petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “lead us not into temptation”, we pray that God would guard and keep us from the great shame of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature. But shame is hard for us to understand, because we live in a shameless world. Without shame, we do not feel the need to adhere to cultural norms, follow laws, or behave in a way that allows us to exist as social beings. Heck, there’s even a TV series named “Shameless”.
 
It is as you would think. A modern, inner-city family in poverty, having to deal with every gross, human sin from divorce, to sexual deviancy, to drug abuse. The overall point is, they may be shameless, but they are just trying to live. Since they cannot avoid shame, they will embrace it as their lifestyle and this will see them through. So we should feel sorry and let them continue, as is.
 
This may be fiction, but it is a reflection of our world. Those who are judgmental of such deviancy, don’t understand the hardships of life and therefore are wrong. I may be shameless, but I am who I am and that is what made me who I am today. And there is no shame in that.
 
And yet there is. Especially since shame is uncomfortable and labelled as a harmful psychosis. Therefore we need to just play nice. When someone parades their immorality in front of us, we better be sure not to make them feel bad or uncomfortable. When someone challenges our values, we better not offend them in our response. When our children just want to be “who they are”, we better let them make difficult and mature decisions without our input.
 
Without shame, we believe we are in the right. God has not yet struck me down, so He must favor me. Jeremiah 6:15 says, “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.”
 
“I'm alright; Nobody worry 'bout me”. If God didn’t want me to do this, He would stop me. Thus, we continue headlong in our sin, until…God “comes down”.
“then God”, continues Dr. Luther, “Who previously [appeared to be] nowhere, is everywhere. Then He Who earlier appeared to be asleep hears and sees everything; and His wrath burns, rages, and kills like fire.
These are expressions of Holy Scripture to which one must become accustomed. God "comes down,"…[and] He ceases to take no notice, He ceases to be long-suffering, and begins to reveal, punish, and convict sin. Therefore the smug people who used to think that He was far away now see that He is present, and they begin to tremble.
All this is intended to frighten us, that we may learn to beware of sin. For God will not ignore it forever; but just as by His arrival He finally frightened and killed Adam, Cain, and the entire world in the Flood, so at some time He will destroy us also if we do not forestall Him through repentance.” (AE 2:222-223)
 
Repent. We live in the midst of shame that we have become desensitized to. We don’t know how to blush. We don’t know how to remain honorable, moral, or proper. If we were ashamed or shamed, then we would learn. Then we would not be shocked, but thankful to be called dogs, in our sin, in order to amend ourselves.
 
How can one hope in such a thing? We look to 2 Samuel for this answer. In it we find that Saul has died and David is king. Saul’s son, Jonathan has also died. He was David’s best friend and David wished to show the Lord’s kindness to Jonathan’s family and household.
 
The last person David encounters is one of Jonathan’s sons who is crippled in both feet. The son says to David, “What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?” (2 Sam. 9:8). And David commences to restore all the lands of his grandfather to this boy and commands that he regularly eat at the king’s table.
 
And another place which says, “But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.” (Eccl. 9:4)
 
In the suffering and death of the Lion of Judah, Jesus claims mastery. He does this by assigning Himself the position beneath the dog, that of worm (Psalm 22). Are we bowed down to the dust? Christ is down in the dust, eating it. Are we severely oppressed by demons? Christ has taken them all upon Himself and judged them. Are we beggars in front of God? Christ was judged and found guilty by God, all having forsaken Him.
 
In Christ Crucified, now we see quite clearly, that the first is last and the last is first.
The woman is not the dog. Jesus is talking about Himself. Jesus is the man Who would rather be a doorkeeper in the House of His God than dwell in the tents of the wicked (Ps. 84:10) and Who will give His Body and Blood to redeem the wicked.
 
Jesus has come down to exalt the sinners bowed down in the dust. Sinners that have been killed beneath the weight of their shame are now lifted up to the status of sons. Jesus returns to the vomit that is shame-filled creation and produces a lavish banquet at the King’s table, baptizing us into His invitation to eat and drink our fill.
 
Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross, being made a dog on your behalf, purifies all shame. When He wrestled with Jacob, He did not beat him down to prove a point, but lifted him out of his sins. In dealing with the crippled prince and the Canaanite woman, Jesus elevates them to union with His Body.
 
Now we can answer that boy’s cry, from 2 Samuel: What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I? In the Resurrection of Jesus, The Lord has revealed to you that you shall be king, my son. In the Blood of Christ you shall inherit a kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world (Matt. 25:32). In the sacrifice of the only begotten Son of God, you will be high and lifted up (Isa. 57:15) discarding dust, ashes, and shame for flesh, blood, and a crown.
 
In the Kingdom of Christ the Crucified, the dogs never had it so good, because their Lord became like them in every way except without sin (Heb. 2:17, 4:15). There is no High Priest or Friend greater or more sympathetic, because He has been there and done what you have been through. He has suffered, He has been betrayed, and He has died.
 
But even the dog that takes on the sins of the whole world, eats at the master’s table. Even the Lamb Who was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8), lives and reigns to all eternity. And because of His suffering and death on the cross, this woman need not be ashamed that she is called a dog, for she is a child of God.
 
“Don’t be afraid;” says Isaiah 54:4, “for you shall not be ashamed: neither be confounded; for you shall not be disappointed: for you shall forget the shame of your youth;” “For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, ‘I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.’” (Heb 2:11-12). 
 
Do not be afraid of shame, it is the Lord’s discipline to keep you and teach you. If you are wrong and remain in sin, you should gladly accept instruction to better yourself. Shame prevents us from being dishonorable, immoral, or improper, because these things matter.
 
Do not be afraid of the shame of your Savior. He is the Servant God Who takes the Last Seat as well as the First, for you. In the cross of Jesus’s shame, you now find life eternal in His Name. Your nakedness is only revealed for a moment, in order that you be clothed with Christ the King, to Whom no shame shall ever come again.
 
 

Freed [Wednesday in Lent 1]

- - NO AUDIO - - TEXT ONLY - -

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
  • Romans 3:9-20

  • St. John 8:31-38
 


May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (2 Pet 1)
 
Who speaks to you this evening, from His Gospel heard, saying:
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
 
We rejoiced last week, in our true Gospel hymn Dear Christians One And All Rejoice, but this week we get back to Lent stuff: slavery, hell, and death. But, living in ‘Murica, we also think that we have never been enslaved to anyone, slavery is a sore subject, and therefore we have no idea what slavery actually is, because we’re not allowed to discuss it.
 
Then, Jesus comes along and starts waving that word around and forces us to deal with it.
 
One thing that proves I am just a man-child is I still giggle when I get to say “hell” in Church. It is the upbringing that teaches, “you shall not curse or swear”, often referring to the 2nd Command of the Lord, but not really going far enough. Thus, for the young child, cursing in church, such as saying “hell”, was something I couldn’t do and therefore couldn’t confess the Creed completely.
 
I was convicted by the Law and was therefore proving our hymn true: I was in chains. Even if I were to believe that hell was reserved for satan and his angels, I could not say it with my mouth. Maybe if I just kept it inside, maybe if I never spoke God’s Name, I would at least not be guilty of breaking the 2nd Command, the Name, by the way, which is supposed to be called upon...
 
Do you think you are free? After all, you live in the land of the free and the home of the brave. You sing it before every sports event, so it must be true. And it seems that way. Anything you want, you are free to do. Anything you want, you can find it. Instant gratification. Instant pleasure. We are a country high on dope all the time. Dopamine.
 
This is the euphoric lure of Autonomy, which literally means “a law to oneself”. That it can be applied to every situation, because relativity. I am free. And because I am free, I can apply it to all areas of my life. Thus, I free myself to be a sexual deviant, murder infants and elderly, and steal other people’s money, for the greater good, of course. Its all relative.
 
You can say you’re free, but you have no proof. The Jews tried to offer proof to Jesus, this evening, but it was debunked. If Abraham were their father, they would love Jesus Who has told them the Truth. Instead, they are doing what their actual father did: murder. That is the business of the father of lies, the father of murder, who has no truth in him: the devil.
 
Blood relations are not enough to prove one’s righteousness before God. It is enough to prove your own slavery, especially if you start with the assumption that you are free. There any number of everyday things that prove your bondage. 
 
You are free to awake from sleep, but you are not free to wake up in someone else’s home without permission. You are free to dress as you please, but you are not free to wear your birthday suit. You are free to do as you please, until you run into someone else, who wants the opposite. 
 
It should be of no surprise then, that we are slaves to sin. Even the smallest, harmless sin we can think of binds us to it. Why? Because we are sinners, thus saith the Lord. We are not sinners because we sin. We start off wrong. We begin each and every work, thought, and word as children of the wrong father.
 
To the Jews, the Lord says, “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite” in Ezekiel 16:2-3.
 
At the outset, He places them in the category that is not Abraham. But even if they were to claim Abraham, the Lord already spoke to that as well in Joshua 24:2, “Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.”
 
We are not free. Freedom, as we see it, is an illusion. In fact, a famous philosopher once said, “Even if the biblical God did exist, we would have to deny His existence in order to be free in the way we think we want to be free.” 
 
It is not that we shouldn’t seek liberty and justice for all, but that also is slavery, for now that is all we are doing for 7 billion+ people. But we should seek true freedom outside our own works. Our works attempt to break boundaries that God has set in place. We do not break boundaries, His boundaries break us.
 
Our bodies lie to us. Our dopamine hits deceive us into thinking “what feels good is good” and that happiness is the truth. 
 
Possessed by sin and bound to death, we go through life. Not that God is petty and vindictive, enjoying our torment, instead of releasing us immediately, but that He is patient and merciful. Tearing us away from our favorite sins would destroy us and destroy faith. Like a spoiled toddler, we would throw a tantrum until we got it back. 
 
In Christ we see this truth. Divorce from sin is death, so wedded are we to our corruption. A “living hell” is an apt description of that and of the cross. And to face our living hell, we have a living God, Who has divorced us from our sin, taken the punishment upon Himself and taken death upon Himself, in the flesh. 
 
There is only One Who is free, because He is the Almighty. But He chooses to be a slave and take our place. He chooses to remain in the house of sin and death, getting us out of that contract, and becoming the signatory of a heavenly mansion: His Body, for us.
 
The freedom of Christ is freedom from guilt and condemnation. No longer will our false piety, body chemicals, or evil intentions be held against us. Though we are attacked by these things, victory has been secured before we even thought of fighting against them.
 
Our good works, our free will, and our fears fight against God, believing He would bring nothing but more slavery to His Way, His Will, and His thoughts. In the Crucified Christ, the slave becomes the Master. In Christ, God does not demand, but serves us His salvation on a silver platter. His only requirement is that we give Him our sins.
 
You are free, because the Son of God Himself has freed you from the curse of the law, the darkness of death, and condemnation of Satan. You are free, therefore you need no longer live in enslavement to self. An old hymn has us sing “Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free.”
 
And that is the wonder of our freedom in Christ. Freedom is not to be found in living as though God did not exist so that we can be who and what we will to be. Freedom is found only in Christ, outside us. “We are beggars. It is true.”
 
Before God, we can stand only as beggars, but beggars set free to live by faith in the gracious promises of a merciful God. Freedom is found only in Jesus’ words. “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
 
 

Meaningful humility [Lent 1]


READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
  • Genesis 3:1-21

  • 2 Corinthians 6:1-10

  • St. Matthew 4:1-11
 

Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
 
Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil”
 
Thus far from God’s Word, written for us to believe that Jesus is both God and man. That God has come down from the heights, to us, like us in every way. This points us to ponder the higher things of heaven, which are the Word and Sacraments of Christ, in His Church. In order that, we and our neighbors find heaven on earth, inviting us to receive Him.
 
One word you could use to describe Satan’s temptation to Jesus would be “meaningless”. It is meaningless, Jesus, to say You are the Son, if’n You can’t poof these stones, bread, to fill Your belly. It is meaningless, Jesus, to say You are the Almighty if’n you can’t command all the hosts of the Lord. It is meaningless, Jesus, to claim dominion and authority if’n you can’t subdue all nations under Your feet, right now.
 
Meaningless. Vanity, as the book of Ecclesiastes is famous for saying. Of bread, Ecclesiastes 9 says, I returned and saw under the sun that—
The race is not to the swift,
Nor the battle to the strong,
Nor bread to the wise,
Nor riches to men of understanding,
Nor favor to men of skill;
But time and chance happen to them all.
For man also does not know his time:
Like fish taken in a cruel net,
Like birds caught in a snare,
So the sons of men are snared in an evil time,
When it falls suddenly upon them” (Ecc 9:11-12).
 
I’m sure this was in Jesus’s head as He was hungry and tempted. These words of God that it “is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all…what happens to the righteous, happens to the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath” (Ecc 9:3, 2).
 
Whether Jesus feeds Himself or not, nothing will change in this sinful world. He will get hungry again and will have to magic up more bread. Whether Jesus feeds 4000, 5000, or millions, same thing and they will all end up in the grave anyways, so what’s the point of bread in the first place. Meaningless.
 
And if He claims to be the Almighty, then it is still meaningless, for the Almighty is One. He is alone. Ecclesiastes says, “Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, ‘For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?’ This also is vanity and an unhappy business” (4:7-8).
 
Whether Jesus calls upon the armies of God, no one will remember Him. You call upon armies to fight a war. In war, there is death. And in death, there is no remembrance of God (Ps 6:5). Meaningless.
 
And who would ever want to be king? Revolutionaries wait for a head on a silver plate, “Long live the king!” Just a political puppet on a lonely string with a castle that stands upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand. Ecclesiastes 6:2, “a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.”
 
What we are devilishly searching for is higher meaning, a higher purpose. The devil, next to Jesus, knows that he is close to it, but he can never reach it. That is his torment. Thus, he shares his torment with everyone and we, in our sin, agree with him. Why doesn’t Jesus just feed Himself? Why doesn’t Jesus just reveal Himself in majesty? Why won’t He just bring Himself down from the cross?
 
Funny enough, the undoing of all temptation is found on earth, not in heaven. What I mean is this: when Jesus was tempted to yeet Himself from the Temple, the devil uses God’s own Word against Him. Jesus responds saying, I already know the angels and the Scriptures, for they are mine. What you forget is that better than a fall are ladders and stairs. “He who loves danger will perish in it” (Sir 3:26).
 
God has made the heights. Yes indeed. But He has not made them as powers themselves. There is no glory in gluttony, no glory in vanity, and no glory in pride. Meaningfulness to God is faith and faith seeks the stairway to earth, because the angels ministered to Jesus on earth.
 
You may seek a higher state of being, but you will only find the devil if you look at any height above Christ being tempted. In this is the Love of God, that He is tempted as we are with belly, worldly glory, and power. Does God have a belly that He can relate to us? Is God subject to worldly glory and power that these would be bargaining chips against Him?
 
No and no. So what? He needs to learn those things and that’s why He appears as Jesus? 
 
By this we know love, that He not only laid down His life for us on the cross, in the tomb, but also laid it down on earth. That in Jesus, God and man are united such that He humbles Himself to be susceptible to temptation.
 
Jesus is both God and man and has no need for learning anything about our humanity. He created it! He knows the most about it. Hebrews 2:17-18 says, “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
 
Not for His own sake, but for your sake. That, in His suffering and temptation, you would find faith. Faith to trust in a faithful God Who does not stay far off, but comes to you in your own personal and private temptations.
 
Sure, you may be tempted by the big ones: to blaspheme God or take His Name in vain, to covet your neighbor’s ox or donkey, or even to murder. But, just because you don’t do those things, does not fool God into thinking you are holy and righteous. True temptation comes at the more vulnerable level, for us. That is, the normal everyday humdrum.
 
Really. Who’s belly is not their master when they have just skipped one meal, of one day? Or pass by their favorite thing to eat? Who’s ambitions are not for a better life, more control, and praise from those around us? Better yet, if we could take over the world in God’s Name?!
 
Meaningless. Meaningless because it is unfruitful. It produces no good. So maybe our cure for meaninglessness is fruitfulness and our fruit comes from the Vine. And the Vine is planted on earth, in St. Mary, and continues to work and grow in you, in the Church. 
 
What has meaning in this world full of vanity? The work of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, able to be tempted perfectly and able to resist perfectly, in order to purchase and win you from your temptations to sin and death, with His fruit from the Tree of Life. 
 
Remember your catechism! We pray, “lead us not into temptation”, not “give us power over the devil” in hubris. It is endurance we need, because we daily sin much and daily need forgiveness. Daily we are attacked by these things and daily we will face them, until we die. In prayer, we beg for a savior.
 
And our Savior’s most fruitful work is uniting us to Him. For, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb 2:14-15).
 
We are not promised victory in this world, but we are promised peace and comfort. 
Our comfort in the cross and tribulation is this: just as the angels ministered to Christ after His temptation, they also minister to all those who believe in Him. For it is written, "They are all ministering spirits sent out for service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation" (Heb. 1:14); and "The angel of the LORD camps round about those who fear Him, and delivers them" (Ps. 34 [:7])
So if the devil attacks us, and we fight valiantly, and stand and attend to our vocation, and do our duty to Word and Sacrament, many angels must minister to us, defend us, and protect us. And if we continue and remain steadfast in the faith, we shall lack nothing. 
 
Just as they ministered to Christ, as our Head, they must in the end also watch over us, Christ's members, and bring our soul to Abraham's bosom in eternal life! (Spangenberg, 109)
 
The true meaning to Jesus’s Temptation is you. He could have saved you any number of other ways, but chose what is meaningless to accomplish His meaningful work. He chose what is fruitless to the world, in order to cause fruit to blossom where there is no fruit. He refused the world’s vanity for humility. The humility of Word and Sacrament, for you.