Do NOT imagine [Trinity 22; St. Matthew 18:23-35]

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Jesus speaks to us in today’s Gospel saying:

“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.”

We do not have to imagine or explore the meanings God gives us in parables as to what the Kingdom of heaven may or may not be like. It is sunarai, a bearing together with God, the cross. When Jesus tells us “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to”, what He is actually saying is that this is how the kingdom is on earth. And when He wishes to “settle accounts”, it is not a one-sided debt repayment, but a bearing together of the cross of payment.

Parables give teachers and preachers of the Word so much trouble, because we do not sit and ponder what words actually mean. To say, “may be compared to” is only inviting us to think about ourselves and not Jesus, when in every parable Jesus is declaring that this is about Him, not you.

Therefore, we must say that the kingdom of heaven “is the same as”, not just a soft “may be compared to”. We re-translate this way, because in other parts of the Bible this same word is the difference between life and death.

In Psalm 28, king David laments that if God were to forget to save him, that he would “be the same as” those who go down to the pit. In other words, he would be sent to hell and everlasting death, if God did not have a plan to bear David’s sins away.

In Ezekiel 31, the Lord is deriding Pharaoh saying that he is a king unlike any other king on earth in his earthly glory. Yet other kingdoms were “the same as you” in that they were cut off from the face of the earth, just like you will be.

In these two instances and others, being “the same as” something quite literally means that what happens to them, happens to you. Thus, when we apply that to our parable, we have to concretely say that what happens in the parable is going to happen in the kingdom.

There is no room for imaginative exploration or sloughing it off as an “earthly story with heavenly meaning”. This is real. You are in debt up to your ears and either you have that debt covered by Christ or you are cut off as Pharaoh is and must repay it on your own. Jesus paints a stark picture for us so we get it. He is not ambiguous or metaphoric.

You do not get to make the Bible say what you want it to say. Jesus gives you His Word and that’s that. It is concrete and it is black and white, because otherwise you wouldn’t get it, you would never figure it out on your own, and you’d always read the Bible wrong.

God does not create burdens, but He lifts them. Don’t lean on your own understanding and especially do not lean on the understanding of those who only see Jesus as an invitation to imagine something greater, instead of the Savior He is. For you need to repent of sin, not change your mind on God.

Which brings us to how the kingdom will “settle accounts” with you. Again, Jesus is talking about more than just financial stewardship towards our neighbor. You are to forgive debts, but you don’t. You are to show mercy, but you don’t, but when you want forgiveness and mercy, it better be there in spades.

In this second word we are looking at, Jesus is doing more than just “settling accounts”, He is “bearing together”. God has come to settle as equals, even fulfilling His own law of “bearing one another’s burdens”. Meaning, God will repay.

So we should read this verse in this way: “Therefore the kingdom of heaven is the same as a king who wished to bear with his servants.” God is wanting to extract repayment from His servants, but He does so in a way in which He is the One repaying. He does this by coming so close to us, that He takes our place and pays our debts for us.

We can read it this way in the Bible, because this word “to bear” is used almost exclusively by Jesus to refer to His cross. In fact, His command to take up your cross, or bear your cross, and follow Him, uses this word. You are also to bear Christ’s yoke upon you, because it is easy.

Jesus is also the God-man Who bears away the sin of the world, as we sing each Sunday. And Jesus makes sure we know He is repaying in our place by saying that no one bears His life away, but He lays it down of His own authority.

Jesus has come to settle accounts, but in a backwards, Kingdom of heaven way. In other words, together with you in mercy and forgiveness. He has come that He might show you that your life-crushing debt is too much for you. That your sin and death kill and destroy. There is no room for self-righteousness, much less for self-improvement or imagination. You are dead in your debts.

As in our parable, the Lord takes the debt upon Himself, it doesn’t just go away, He is the one who owns it after all. Whether or not it is paid back, the Lord is in debt. He is in debt because He is a severe man bearing up a cross that He did not put down and reaping the sin and death that He did not sow. Debts do not go away, they cling to the Lamb of God.

Thus, the cry from the Good Friday crowd: “Bear Him away! Bear Him away! Crucify Him!” “Bear Him away and release to us Barabbas.” Not just that crowd, but your sin also cries out in this way and yet this is the will of God: that the guilty go free and the Innocent man is condemned.

Jesus bears the cross alone in order that He might bear together with you your own cross in this life. Jesus is sacrificed and dies in order that your debts be paid in full and whatever else you rack up in the future be paid for as well. (Good Samaritan)

Now, through the cross of Christ you become like Him Who became like you in every way except without His own sin and death. You are made the same as Jesus. You are baptized into the same baptism as Jesus. You bear the cross the same as Simon of Cyrene: you carry it in this life, but its end punishment is taken by another in your place.

The Kingdom of heaven is the same as the Lord coming to settle debts on earth: in the forgiveness and mercy of the Crucified Jesus. This is how the kingdom will act here. This is what is going to happen to you once you enter the kingdom of heaven. No guess work. No speculation. You bring debts that are forgiven in the blood of Christ.

You are not left alone to repay your debts. Your Lord comes down all glorious not to extract, but to forgive. He extracts payment from Himself. His sacrifice is the one, true currency of heaven, the same as it is on earth. Therefore, the Lord bears our earthly burdens together, with us, and opens His treasuries to spill out His sacraments upon His Church, in an overpayment for our debts.

Death despised [Trinity 21; St. John 4:46-54]

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Jesus speaks to you in His Word, saying,

“So Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’”

While this sons lives, there may be hope. Hope for a cure. Hope for a miracle. Hope for betterment. Once the son dies, however, there is no longer any hope. Thus, the official somewhat misspeaks when he cries for Jesus to hurry to his house, before his son dies.

Yet, we cannot blame this father, for in his young son’s draining life, he sees the abyss and in the abyss he sees nothing. What he can not see frightens him as it does you, yet this is exactly what Jesus is asking us to do in today’s Gospel: trust even though we can not see.

Jesus is demanding the impossible and the people around Him get it, because what they do is laugh at Him and we laugh with them. But I would never, you say. There is more to laughing at Jesus than being there at that time and more to laughing at Jesus than actually laughing out loud.

When we laugh at something in derision, it means we think little of it and wish to demean and diminish it until it becomes unimportant. In our diets, in our exercise, in our pharmaceuticals we laugh at death as if it is such a small matter. Indeed we fool ourselves into thinking that, because I am alive, death is a friend waiting for me or something I don’t have to worry about.

But death can not be laughed off. We can not just shrug off its fear for fear of losing our lives to its fear, because everywhere we look we see death. Life is a constant journey towards death. All around us works are ended because of death, efforts are halted, and dreams snuffed out. One after another dies and the living must merely engage in the miserable business of carrying one another to the grave.

Even the saints feel the fear of death. They were afraid of death. Jesus prophesies to St. Peter saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (Jn. 21:18)

The place we do not wish to go is into the grave. Therefore we should fear and tremble at death, even though we must pass through it, for the fear of death is natural. It’s a penalty, therefore it is something sad. According to the flesh, we fear this invisible thing called death, but trust that it will come for us.

Jesus says, “Do not fear, only believe.” (Mk. 5:36) Do not fear the unknown. Do not fear the invisible. Just believe. What does belief allow you to do? Ask the father in today’s Gospel.

He journeys from depths of woe and cries out to God. From his home where his son is destined to die, he traverses an arduous road, in melancholy and despair, to where Jesus is. He travels the dark road of God’s absence alone, finding neither help nor comfort in his son’s fatal ailment.

When he finally reaches Jesus, he is tested even further. Jesus does not give him a potion, or a pill, and neither does Jesus go to his house. Jesus simply sends him away with a word: “Go”

If that was not disappointing enough, now the Official must make the return trip. It is a trip just as dark and solitary as the first, for now he must return to his son, who by this time is probably dead, but he doesn’t make it that far.

Dear Christians, this journey the official undertakes is a liturgical journey. He begins in death, both his own and his son’s. Jesus is preaching and teaching throughout the land, calling out His doctrine with a loud voice, awakening the official to new life, a life filled with the hope of life for himself and his son.

He follows the voice, finds its speaker, and receives a Word. A Word that is every bit as potent as the Word that said, “Let there be light”. But he is sent away. He is sent back on his death-filled journey, but he is not sent to death, but to servants. Servants who have now been conscripted to God’s service for they bring good news: Your son lives.

The man is interrupted on his way to death, by the Word of Life and he is not even home yet. Christians are on this same road. We walk through this valley of the shadow of woe and death only to receive a word from Jesus, sent back through only to end up at His Church where the Good News is preached, then finally on to the Resurrection at the end.

That Good News? “You live”. Jesus has disrupted the cycle of death forever by dying Himself. He stands at the peak of our journey only because He has also stood at the bottom. Jesus has not only gone down before this son had died, but He went into the very heart of death, first, tore it out, that all who believe may live forever.

On the cross, God and man hanged and bled death to death. There was nothing fear or death could do to stop it. In fear, death closed its jaws around Jesus and in despair it bit into God, the Ever Living. As Jesus’ life blood flowed from Him, death’s own blood flowed out of it, for death could not contain the Almighty.

Jesus tells all of us to not fear, but believe. Don’t fear the invisible, because now that Christ as stepped up and stepped down from the cross, He gives you an invisible weapon to fight an invisible foe: faith.

Faith is the glove that gets a grip on death. Faith is the sword that pierces death. Faith is the trust to walk the long, dark road in death’s shadow and make it to the Servants of the Lord in the Divine Service, hearing the Word of the Gospel, and believing that it is yours.

Thus, we should fault no one for being full of despair about this life, that they wage war against foe and friend alike. For, without faith in Christ there is only this temporal existence and they must be unwilling to lose it. There is no hope for them afterwards only eternal wrath and an unwillingness to accept even that.

The Christian, however, knows death. We who have been redeemed by the physical blood of Jesus should practice the art of despising death and look upon it as a deep, sound, sweet sleep and consider the coffin nothing less than our Lord’s bosom or Paradise and the grave but a soft bed of ease and rest.

In our sin, we stray to the right in security where we should have been fearful and to the left in fear, when we should have felt secure. We find ourselves wholly inadequate to deal with death. But we do not curl up and die because of this, but in the true Light of Christ, find that His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

Therefore we enter His Church as well, to hear, to receive, and to believe His Word of forgiveness of our own sins and His powerful word of redemption against our own death. So that, when others who despair of life enter, they find the promise waiting for them as well.

Those who know death best, must fight him the most. Jesus fought and conquered. We are given that victory in order that we go out proclaiming the good news to everyone we meet on the road to Capernaum: “Death is dead. You, and your sons, shall live.” And that we might taste that good news on our lips and on our tongues.

Gratz on your nuptials [Trinity 20; St. Matthew 22:1-14]

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Jesus speaks to you today, from His own Gospel, saying,

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son:”

Jesus is everywhere, because He is God, but He doesn’t want you to see Him as everywhere and neither do I. In fact, He took the trouble to be born of a virgin in order to prove that fact to you. What we see in the Gospel today is this king, who acts just as the kingdom of heaven does, destroying and setting fire to people and cities.

If Jesus is everywhere, we start to get a bit uncomfortable when He does these sorts of not-so-popular things. Because then, He is there, in, with, and under the destruction and the inferno. Not exactly a Jesus that appeals to the crowds.

Now, we don’t want you to ignore that part or brush it off as “incomprehensible-god-stuff”, but we want you to see Christ fighting for you. You need to not side with the world when it accuses God of wrath and vengeance, in a social justice sort of way. Instead see that the true enemies of God are sin death and the devil and whenever God “goes to war” it is always against these things even though people are usually causes and casualties.

In this light, we want you to see this as righteous, unfortunate violence, because the real event is this wedding and the violence is only done in response to this wedding. And we understand weddings.

The main event centers around a man and a woman who love each other and are prepared to go in front of God to declare it. All the traditions associated, then, flow from that fact. The engagement party where the bride-to-be is congratulated on how big her ring is. The bridal shower where dreams of sparkles and beauty fill the bride-to-be’s head and where other brides reminisce as to their own fantasies and dreams come true.

Minds are filled with dazzling whites, long-flowing trains and robes, and flowers. Not one thing goes wrong. Everything is perfect and so planning becomes a breeze. Catering, venues, seating. Favorite foods are imagined and ordered. Scenes that have filled the dreams of young girls are sought out and reserved. Family and friends that have been at odds or far off come near and get along.

The invitations are sent out, crafty and full of glitter. None are any different than another. They all say, please come. Come to celebrate my dreams coming true. Do not hesitate. Do not worry about food or transportation or clothing. Just come and be with us.

All things put in order, the last celebration before the wedding takes place. Regardless of how out-of-hand some of these get, there comes the Bachelor and Bachelorette parties. The final times that these two people will be living life as boy and girl and finally make the jump to man and wife. And then, the big day.

Ushers stand in waiting. Attendants are occupied with anything having to do with bride and groom. Anticipation mounts. The hymn sounds on the pipes. The crowd rises. The Bride is here.

This is the celebration set up for you, dear Christians. In your own baptized life, you are being prepared to receive this honor. Your Savior has made the preparations. He has sent out His invitation, inviting not just some, but any and everybody. He is so excited and in love that He makes it so that anyone can come to the wedding.

No expense is too grand. All are pampered, washed and clothed. Earth is too small a venue for this event, thus heaven and eternity will have to do. Cows, pigs, or lambs? Not good enough. The very bread of heaven: the flesh and blood of God will only do for this feast of eternal happiness.

Thus you, the Church, comes and the whole universe rises in reverence. You dazzle in your baptismal garments, shining as brightly as your Lord. The whiteness and size of your train is enormous and practically fills the whole space. You are adorned. You are beautiful. You are loved.

This is the moment Jesus has prepared for. Though all the honor and glory and wisdom and power and blessing are His, He has given it all to you to show you off. He has showered you with all His kingdom has to offer. You are crowned with the sun and the stars, with the moon at your feet.

It is the sinner that has come through great tribulation and has washed his robes in the blood of the Lamb. It is the Beloved. The Called. The well-cared-for. The Church. The Bride of Christ. The trumpets blare. The organ on full. Heavenly choirs soar in anthems which never on earth were recorded.

And this is what incites violence? This is the cause of neglect and hatred? How can that possibly be? How in the world could this perfect scene be ruined?

Only sin and death could be so crass and so coarse. It is only sin that sees such a wonderful gift and hates it. In our own Jesus-Derangement-Syndrome, we run from so wonderful a wedding, even though it is all for us.

But worthy is the Lamb that makes us worthy. Praise be to God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, that this resplendent, perfect wedding is not dependent upon our acceptance and neither is it dependent on our reaction to it. It all depends on Christ and His Holy Spirit.

For it is His Spirit Who calls us, baptizes us, and dwells with us in order that, when the time comes, we will go to the wedding, because it is Faith that leads us. We trust not in ourselves, but in the Invitation and Calling Jesus sends. We look not inside of ourselves to find if we are well enough, or good enough, or free enough. Jesus calls. The Spirit obeys.

But as we have unfolded the heavenly scene, it is not obedience in drudgery and begrudgery, but love. Pure, unconditional love moves us, because that is what Jesus has given to us in His flesh and blood. His wonderful sacrifice which paid for us and redeemed us has ensured not only our participation, but the place of honor.

Unbelief is the only thing to prevent entrance and reception of so wonderful a wedding. What Jesus wants you to see is not unbelief, but belief, so that each wedding you attend, you not only see others being honored and loved, but you see yourself.

You see yourself at the time when Jesus comes for you. That you will be the Bride and He will be the proud and loving Groom Who has speared no expense, even His own life, in order to create this very perfect state of affairs for you.

This is not imaginary. This is reality. You do not have to pretend and be disappointed later. This is what your reception into heaven will be like. This is what your arrival will set off. This is what your Savior has planned for you and He has been so kind that He has left out all sin, all death, and the devil. Nothing will ruin your moment. Nothing will stand in your way. Nothing could be more perfect than you, the spotless bride of Christ.

And Jesus wants you to see and to know that He will be there, at this feast, for you.

Ladder [Trinity 19; St. Matthew 9:1-8]

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Jesus is speaking to you, from His own Gospel, saying,

“And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’”

Now, if I’m going to talk about Jacob’s Ladder today, we are going to have to throw away some chaff first. One such piece, is the idea of a corporate ladder, that we start at the bottom rung with low salary, low expectations, but high potential. I mean, at the bottom the only direction you can go is up, right?

The sad part is, this image is what most Christian teachers give us of Jacob’s Ladder. That it is set up for us to ascend on it, like the angels did. But we are no angels. Worse yet, they will smash Jesus in there and say that He is the Ladder by which we ascend, essentially making Jesus into nothing more than a stepping stone to our success.

The third interesting ladder image is the electronic version of Jacob’s Ladder. It is a device that sets off an electric current between two parallel, bare wires from bottom to top in a never ending ascent. We can also see the corporate ladder as never ending and the “Jesus ladder” the same way. Rung, after rung, after rung…

All of these are never ending ladders because all of them continually demand something from you even if you have just given that same thing or even if you are close to the top. You may step up one rung, but there will always be another, with no end in sight. This is not the type of ladder that Jacob sees.

In the Bible this is the only place something like this is mentioned with this particular Hebrew word. The verb form of this word usually is meant to be exalted or to build up. The Lord says to Pharaoh, “You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go.” ( Ex 9:17) Very much a negative use, but can be positive as well as King David shows us: “Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him Who rides through the deserts; his name is the Lord; exult before him!” (Ps 68:4)

So it is something that is built up to enable ascent and as the Lord pointed out, for descent as well. That part most teachers leave out. Yes ladders are good for going up, but they are equally as good for going down. But going up is the popular message, not coming down.

Yet, we don’t want the popular message. We want the truth. The truth lies in what the Lord is doing with this ladder, because so far Jacob is sleeping, inactive and only angels are using it and as we well know, we are not angels, nor will we ever be.

The truth lies in the little preposition: “above”. The Lord is not above the ladder, as most people suggest, but He is on the ladder. More to the point He is being supported by the ladder. And if we are to take Jesus at His word when He tells Nathaniel that “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man”, then we must conclude that Jesus is on the cross.

This is what He meant when He spoke to Nathaniel. This is what He meant when He revealed Himself to Jacob and Jacob is sleeping the sleep of sin and death, while Jesus is doing the work.

Repent. You lean on your own understanding and as the pillars of the Philistines palace rested upon the support beams Samson was chained to, the Lord’s Prophet and Judge knocks it over, sending you to be imprisoned by your sin.

You have leaned on oppression and guile and not trusted in God’s Word (isa. 30:12) that He is consistent and relentless in His preaching of Jesus. Because you would rather the Bible give you delusions of grandeur, “…this iniquity shall be to you

    like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,

    whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;

and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel

    that is smashed so ruthlessly

that among its fragments not a shard is found

    with which to take fire from the hearth,

    or to dip up water out of the cistern.” (Is. 30:13-14) Or like a ladder that is knocked down.

In returning and rest you shall be saved, says the Lord (Is. 30:15). It is exactly in the paralytic in today’s Gospel that we see this returning and rest. He returns, but involuntarily so. Friends must force him to get out, must force him through the crowds, and must force him to Jesus.

And what does Jesus do? Does He boost him up to the top rung of the ladder? Does He give the paralytic the energy and motivation to make it to the top? Or does He tell him to go home?

Jesus speaks to this man the Word, the word of forgiveness and mercy from God. The same God that sets up this impossible ladder. Impossible because we are not on it, we can not use it, and we can’t see it. Even Jacob misses his opportunity and he was right there.

The ladder and the vision were only there for one reason and it is the same reason that this paralytic heard Jesus and was forgiven. In the gospel of St. Mark, he also describes this scene, but the friends have to work a little harder. They need to go to the roof of the house Jesus is in and lower their friend down from the roof to where Jesus is.

Did you get that? The vision and the Word are here because Jesus is not at the top of the ladder, but at the bottom. The angels may be moving up and down this ladder, but it is only in service to the one upon it. The One Who is being crucified upon it.

Jesus descends from heaven to give Jacob the vision and stays there. Jacob gets it, because he immediately wakes up and builds a mini Temple right where it happened, signifying the permanent residence of God with man.

This is shown in the same way to Jacob’s descendants in Jesus’ time. God descends into the virgin’s womb and ascends the cross. When that wooden structure is set up on earth, the Lord is placed upon it to suffer and die for the sins of the world.

You may climb Jacob’s ladder if you wish, but you will only find death there, death by crucifixion. For it is the never-ending demand of the Law that commands perfection ,but doesn’t give it. That demands ascent, but only paralyzes. That demands mercy, but only gets sacrifices.

Jesus has climbed the ladder and paralyzed Himself upon it, for you. He has clung to the cross in order that not only angels may come and go from heaven, but also His Holy Spirit so that all the gifts He purchase and won there would be freely distributed to you.

“In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return…” (Isa. 10:20-21)

In the rest that the cross provides, and the return that baptism gives, we find salvation. Not because we looked for it, but because it was brought down to us from heaven and the preachers of this forgiveness lowered us down in the paralysis of our sins, into the Divine Service so that the Lord could serve us His salvation.

The Church that Jesus has suffered and died for is at the bottom of the ladder. The Holy Spirit, Who is handing out the gifts of Jesus, to the Church, is at the bottom of the ladder and we all sit, praising the One Who is supported by the ladder, because He died upon it to give such great gifts of forgiveness to men, through His crucifixion and resurrection.

Who is like God? [St. Michael and all angels; St. Matthew 18:1-11]

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Who speaks to you today, in your hearing, saying:

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’”

Michael’s name literally means, “Who is like God?” and it can be taken as a question rather than a statement referring to Michael as being “like God”. This question, then, is asked throughout holy Scripture and it gives us a little better picture of St. Michael and all angels than our department stores and tattoos do.

We will start off with the answer to this question first, then move on to where and how the question is asked. The answer is, of course, “no one”. No one is like God.

When Israel saw the dead Egyptians on the shore of the Red Sea, they sang,

“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?

    Who is like you, majestic in holiness,

    awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

You stretched out your right hand;

    the earth swallowed them.” (Ex. 15:11-12)

Not too many people have those accomplishments under their belt, other than the unreachable, infinite God.

In Psalms, King David asks “who is like God who is seated on high, doing great things, and rescuing the poor?” (Psalm 113:5, 71:19, 35:10) “Rescuing the poor” is a funny thing to just throw in among the almighty things God does, but as we see in Jesus’ answer to St. John the Baptist, it is precisely in the rescue of the poor that announces the Messiah. Yet, for King David, that time had not happened yet. So God was still infinitely unique.

Isaiah and Jeremiah both record the Lord being aggressive against His wayward people as He demands to know who is like Him, who can predict the future, and what shepherd can stand before Him? Again, adding a shepherd in there is only awkward if we don’t know that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. No one is like God.

So at this point, St. Michael’s name becomes a conundrum as a question. Since there is no one like God Who rescues the poor and Shepherds His own people, then it has almost nothing to do with Michael. More importantly, it seems to have nothing to do with us. God is far away, doing those things for other people, in an invisible way and still we have no idea who is like Him.

Even so, as our reading from Revelation pointed out to us, “Michael” is the angels’ war-cry during the clash of good and evil angels. “Who is like God”, they would shout. And the enemy would shout back, “Who is like the beast”. The closest I can come to what that name sounds like is from one of Daniel’s friends, Mishael, who had his name changed to Meshach. Meshach would mean “who is like Aku” or the beast, who was believed to be the lord of the world, the father of the gods, and the creator.

You can see what kind of religious mess we are getting into in this war. Worse, everyone looks the same. There is no distinction between the good and the bad angels, they look alike, and the others fighting are humans. How to tell the good from the bad? “Michael”! “Meshach”!

Michael is the war cry and the question. You tell the good from the bad by seeing who looks like God and who doesn’t. It is only those who look like God who will escape this war, but God is spirit so can physical beings look like that? Or is it only angels that get this promise, since they are also spirit??

Dear Christians, the dragon is waiting for the day God screws up, leaves an opening in His defenses. Christmas is that day. It is the day that God traps Himself in time and confines Himself to a body. A body that can hunger, a body that can thirst, and a body that can die.

It is in this act of God that instigates and decides this battle, because God did not become an angel! He did not give that honor even to St. Michael or St. Gabriel, and especially not to Lucifer. He did not say to any angel, “You are my Son, this day have I begotten thee”.

God was born of a virgin and made man. He was a human infant in every way, indistinguishable from any other infant. He grew and matured as a toddler, as a teenager, as a young man with nothing that would make Him stick out of the crowd. Completely ordinary, completely human, completely vulnerable.

Yet, this God-man is Whom all God’s angels worship. This is Whom all angels derive their being and to Whom all swear their fealty. Why? Just because He is God? No, because He is the crucified God. Because He did not just become a man to prance around, have a good time, and show off. He became a man in order to die.

Deep within the dragon’s victory plan lies the diamond he chomped on and broke his teeth. The dragon tried to chew the Son of Man and cracked down on God Himself. Defanged, he retreats to the Church and attacks us instead. Shattered, death holds no more dominion over Jesus or those who are baptized into Him.

And with this baptism, we will not only see His face, but we will look like Him. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6)

In Christ we receive a new life, a clean heart, and a fresh face. We no longer look like an odious, miserable sinner in front of God, but we look like His Son. By virtue of the Word and the Sacraments we are changed. And it should be no surprise, because it is by the same Word and Sacrament that the devil is overcome and conquered, not by the angels, but by the brethren; by the baptized.

St. Stephen gives us a picture of this great, free gift from Jesus as he is brought before the council. “And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people… and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council… And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” (Acts 6:8, 12, 15)

So we must ask the question again: who is like God? Because, now we have a dilemma, rather we would call it a great and wonderful gift given to us. That now we look like Christ. Right now. At this moment. Not because we work hard at it, but because His Name was placed on our foreheads in baptism. His robe of righteousness is draped around us. His life-blood courses through our veins.

Who is like God? No one is like God, because no one suffers, dies, rises again all in order to make everyone look like Him. For not only do we do the works God does, i.e. rescue the poor, shepherding people to Church, among other things, but we commune with Him. He comes to our house, to our table, and declares this His house and His table as His own.

We must not fail to notice verses 10 and 11, in our reading from Revelation this morning, because it tells us exactly what to do. It gives us the exact prescription and strategy to fight in this war and to win this war against sin, death, and the devil. The strategy is the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony. In other words, Sacrament and Word.

We do not fight like angels. We do not live like angels. We are not angels. We are human and God came as a human, so in faith we fight like Jesus, live like Jesus, and will be made to be like Jesus. In sin, we are like the beast and train for war in his camp. In baptism, we are like God: forgiven, saved, and sanctified completely. Who is like God? We are like God.