Liturgical laughter [Trinity 21]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 1:1-2:3

• Ephesians 6:10-17

• St. John 4:46-54

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 1)

 

Who speaks you this morning saying,

“Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son lives.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.”

 

In a related event, that St. John does not write down, but Sts. Matthew, Mark, and Luke do, Jesus heals a certain man’s daughter, not a son. It is a similar ceremony, however. Both accounts tell of a man that comes to beg for Jesus’ action and presence. Both tell of Jesus speaking the Word of resurrection, because in both accounts the Son and the Daughter die before Jesus comes. And both tell of a crowd that had gathered.

 

One glaring difference, which we will focus on today, is that when the Son is raised, there is belief. The father hears the Word of God and believes, and the Word accomplishes exactly what the father believes. St. John tells us this is the Second Sign Jesus created in Galilee and we know these signs give faith.

 

However, when the daughter is presented to Jesus, instead of belief Jesus is presented with laughter. They laugh. Part of this could be attributed to the subject being a girl and of less value than a son, in that time, but that is baloney, in my opinion. Male and female are alike to God.

 

No, something else is going on with this demonic laughter. Understanding it is as easy as this: belief comes when the Son of God is raised from the dead, but laughter and derision come when the world figures out that the Son of God does His Resurrection work through the Daughter, through His Church.

 

“So God created man in His own image”, Genesis 1 tells us, “in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27), from our Old Testament reading. The Sun and the moon. The earth and the heavens. A perfect pair joined into one flesh, not just in marriage, but at the marriage of God and man in one Christ. The Head and the Body, the Husband and the Wife, the Son and the Daughter.

 

This Daughter is dear to our heavenly Father and will never be forgotten. She is placed on earth, though, and the Lord Christ prays for Her saying, “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” and “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (Jn 17:14-16, 18).

 

She is the object of demonic laughter because she is weak in sin. They dare not laugh at the Son, they know better, as they have already said, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us (before the appointed time)? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” (Mk. 1:24, Mt. 8:29).

 

Regardless, She is still the object of her Bridegroom’s full affection and therefore the object of full derision from the devil and his angels. I made this point last week, that our Divine Liturgy marks the Church of God as “she who bears the cross”, if only because She is the weaker target.

 

Repent. You only care what others think about you. You think that everyone thinks you’re crazy for following Jesus. You think that everyone thinks you are an extremist in your belief of Jesus’ Word and because of that you take their laughter and derision as proof that God loves you. But you are not worthy of such praise as to be laughed to scorn as Jesus’ was. For they do not laugh at your personal choices but because you go to the Liturgy.

 

It is all of God’s work that is met with laughter and scorn. He promised a Son to Abraham and Sarah and they both laughed at Him (Gen 17:17, 18:12). This has been God’s plight ever since He decided to place His Name alongside His people and pledge His honor with theirs. 

 

Thus, the Church has cried out since the beginning of time, “O my God, I trust in You; Let me not be ashamed; Let not my enemies [laugh] over me” (Ps 25:2). And yet, the story repeats itself again and again. In advertising the Temple’s Divine Service, king Hezekiah sent messengers with invitations all over Israel but they were laughed at and mocked (2 Chr. 30:10).

 

It is divinely ordained for us to weep now. As Jesus said, we will weep when we see God die on the cross and we will weep when we do not see Jesus for a little while (Jn 16:20, 16). So it is that each time we go through our Lord’s Passion in the Church Year, we pray fervently that God’s enemies would not triumph and that God would have the last laugh. 

 

Our Lord does indeed have the last laugh, and not just in the end either. He even has the last laugh now in our time. For though we are weeping, Jesus laughs. Is He cold-hearted? No. He laughs in the face of danger and in the face of His enemies. 

 

He laughs at destruction and famine (Job 5:22), not because He hates us and neither because He has gone mad. He laughs, because He has already faced destruction in His suffering and death and has ended it. He laughs at famine, because He was starved to death on a cross and has come back to life bearing the Bread of Heaven which satisfies to eternity.

 

Our Resurrected Christ also laughs at the rattling of the enemy’s javelin (Job 41:29). His opposition arrays himself for war, but neither has the power nor the cunning to even approach the battlefield. As we have already said, satan contents himself with attacking the Church in the shadows as a coward.

 

Finally, our Lord laughs at fear itself. He does not fear, fear, but laughs it to scorn. As Psalm 2 says, “He who dwells in heaven shall laugh them to scorn; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, ‘As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.’ I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you’” (v. 4-7)

 

Though the world will laugh at His Church, the Lord terrifies everyone when He sets His King on Zion. Meaning, fear and dread come upon all God’s enemies when they figure out that God’s kingdom comes when He gives us His Holy Spirit so that by grace we believe and live godly lives here in time and there with Him to all eternity. In other word, when He works through His Divine Service.

 

Our Divine Liturgy may be the cause of worldly derision aimed at us, but they only do so in fear. How can water do such great things? How can bodily eating and drinking do such things? That Jesus is master of both the spiritual and the physical world is a nightmare for those who are perishing “…but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18).

 

The preaching of the cross, which is this power of God, is nothing but the Divine Service, for it is both Trinitarian and Christocentric. This is to say that it is purposely and fully Father-Son-and Holy Spirit-centered. The focus is on who God is and what He has done through Christ and the Holy Spirit in real human history. From the invocation in God’s Name to the Trinitarian benediction, the liturgy is focused on the activity of the Triune God centered in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, but also the Spirit. The emphasis of the liturgy, therefore, does not fall on “me” or “we” but on God in Christ reconciling us to Himself.

 

In this way, the Liturgy is also didactic. That is, it teaches the whole counsel of God – creation, redemption, sanctification, Christ’s incarnation, passion, resurrection, and reign, the Spirit’s outpouring and the new life of faith. And it teaches the great works of God and His presence with us through word, song, rites, ceremonies, art, colors, clothing, architecture, iconography, and many other things, including the liturgical calendar.

 

“Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea” (Ps 46:2), because we do not have to wait for Jesus to show up and raise us from the dead. He has come even before we die that we may have life and have it more abundantly in Him.

 

He fills us with Himself, Body and Blood, and the result of attending the Divine Service is that now we are righteous for His sake and laugh with the righteous of Psalm 52:6, “The righteous shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him, saying, ‘See the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction!”

 

The whole armor of God is here offered in His Liturgy, for He has made it Himself. A perfect fit for each and every sinner. Righteousness and eternal life to all who believe that Jesus came from God, has descended to His people, and will never forsake them in His holy Supper. 

 

“O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him” (Ps 34:8) and makes Him his refuge and strength in the Divine Service (Ps. 40:4).

 

 

Liturgy demarked [Trinity 20]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 55:1-9

• Ephesians 5:15-21

• St. Matthew 22:1-14

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 1)

 

Who speaks you this morning saying,

“See, I have prepared my supper, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”

 

Especially when speaking about the Liturgy, you may think you have today’s sermon all figured out. For, God has set the table, no pun intended, quite nicely in our Lectionary readings heard today. We have His gracious invitation in Isaiah, His encouragement to singing and giving thanks in Ephesians, and of course the Wedding Feast described in St. Matthew. All parts of our Divine Service which we commune in today!

 

God always speaks this way to you in His Word, in order that you place your communion today in and with their actions of the past. This is one of the functions of our Divine Liturgy: that it connects us with thousands of years of Christians in history, which includes the entire Bible. 

 

Another important service the Divine Service provides is that of demarcation. However, it is not a border like we think of borders; armed and requiring papers. It is a border to determine whether or not faith is present. This is the lesson of the “friend” that is found not wearing a wedding garment in today’s Gospel.

 

Thinking about this distinction that our Liturgy gives us, what should reverberate in our noggins today are the words from the Epistle, make the best use of the time, because the days are evil (5:16). When coupled with verse 2 from Isaiah, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy”, we get a pretty grim picture of life in this realm.

 

First is that Jesus tells us that the days are evil. But, you say, Jesus things aren’t that bad. Regardless, the Lord’s words do not change no matter how many proofs we hold up to Him. So we must regard the evil as something that is not readily apparent or, even worse, something that we have grown accustom to.

 

And that is exactly what sin and the devil have done to us. For in the second place, we do spend our money on that which is not bread and that which does not satisfy. But this is not just referring to what we put in our pantries or with what we entertain ourselves. They refer to such things that the world produces with which we replace God.

 

The devil, the world, and our own sinful nature have so saturated us with a disgust for all and any thing related to God, that we are simply blind to it. Not only are we blind, but our aversion to it has become such that “doing church” has become a chore and a bore, so that now instead of spending wisely, we spend foolishly.

 

Repent. The motions and actions that God takes in this world are hidden, but only to those of no faith. Note those whom the Lord invited to His wedding feast. They would not come. They paid no attention, they prioritized their own business, some even went so far as murder. No act was beneath them so long as they did not have to go to where the Lord is.

 

Go back to our Old Testament reading and you tend to read it backwards, in sin. In this blindness, we start off with verses 9 and 8, when we attempt to understand. And with that statement of God being far away from us in thought, word, and deed we simply jump off the train. We close our minds to Him and completely miss the rest of His divine action.

 

In sin we understand and read God’s Word backwards every time. We only hear His condemnations and “the best use of our time in these evil days” become ignoring God because of them. He becomes a God of such meticulous scruples, that we even dare to attempt a work-around of His Law and turn out just as the “friend” without a wedding garment did.

 

Dear Christians, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid that God’s thoughts are not your thoughts and that His ways are not your ways. Do not be afraid, because He places His thoughts and His ways inside of man. The God-man Jesus Christ.

 

Yes in the coming of God in the flesh, so also come all His thoughts and all His ways. Jesus, in His body, draws out the lines of God’s saving actions and they form a Church. For He is the Body, the Temple that comes down from heaven (Rev. 21:22) and the Light (v. 23). By the light of this Church, the nations will walk (v. 24) and “there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (v. 27).

 

And Jesus has brought this purity with Him as He communes with you today. In order to turn frontwards what sin has turned backwards, the Word was made flesh, the God-man, came to do the work. You’d think we would be forced to repair what we destroyed. Any other god would demand such penance. 

 

But the one true God works backwards and He starts with an invitation. The very first verse our Lord speaks says, “Come”, from Isaiah 55. The King, at the Wedding for His Son, says, “Come” (Mt 22:4). “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17).

 

The Lord is not slow to act out His immutable and unfathomable will through His only begotten Son, such that His thoughts and His ways can now be encountered and communed with in His Divine Service. Each time we utter His Word and each time we encounter and remember His Sacraments, God’s Will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

 

This makes His Church stand out, just as Jesus makes His own Body distinctive. There can be no mistake about who He is, as the Apostles show us on Easter. There Jesus displays the proof imprinted on His Body. He demarcates Himself from every other false Jesus, false messiah, and false lord by continuing to bear the marks of His crucifixion in His Body.

 

Thus it becomes His Body, the Church, to also be distinctive. Not distinguished through worldly honors and fame, and not a part of this world that hands out deals with strings attached. Instead, the holy, Christian Church is distinguished in that she suffers in this age, all the while handing out peace and joy for free.

 

This demarcation is the 7th mark, in a list of seven marks of the Church, taught by Dr. Luther. It is the plain and simple fact that people who have faith suffer rejection from the world, and therefore, like Jesus, bear the cross. It is the free handouts that stand in utter contrast with the world of corrosion and coercion. 

 

Free peace in the Gospel. Free water of life in Baptism. Free heavenly nourishment in the Lord’s Supper. All of this adds up to where your Divine Service came from and all of it came from the holy Scriptures, as you all guessed in the beginning. 

 

Thus, at a Word from Jesus, we are the ones invited. And it is at this feast that we find food and drink without cost. Though we buy the materials, the blessings they contain through faith are priceless. It is also in this Feast that we finally spend our money on true, heavenly bread and our labor on eternal satisfaction. 

 

It is in this Ceremony and Celebration that we make best use of our time. And though we are given many godly things to do in this life, the one thing needful is the Lord’s Treasure, offered to us by His Spirit, in the form of His Body and Blood in and with the bread and wine.

 

 

Liturgy moves [Trinity 19]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 28:10-17
• Ephesians 4:22-28

• St. Matthew 9:1-8

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
 
Who speaks you this morning saying,

“And behold, some people brought to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.’”

 
In an act of Liturgy, these men from the Gospel reading act out their new life of Faith in procession and ceremony in their act of bearing their neighbor on a bed and bringing him to Jesus, the center and focus of all Church life and rightly the end of the work of these men.
 
And that is literally what “liturgy” means: “work for the people” or “public service”. You can almost hear the word “litigate” in there, as it was mainly used as courtroom language. Still, it is a service done for the public, thus you already can hear the Christian usage of the word to define “God’s work for the people”, in other words, the Divine Service.
 
In ancient Greece, it signified the often expensive, mandatory offerings that wealthy Greeks made in service to the people, and thus to the city and the state. Through the leitourgia, or liturgy, the rich carried a financial burden in society and were correspondingly rewarded with honors and prestige. The leitourgia were assigned by the State and the Roman Empire, and became obligatory in the course of the 3rd century A.D. Most of these “offerings” went to the required religious festivals, which were numerous for the numerous gods. 
 
Eventually, under the Roman Empire, those obligations devolved into a competitive and ruinously expensive burden that was avoided when possible, as taxation usually goes. 
 
Regardless, this “leitourgia”, or liturgy, was then employed by the Church to teach eternal truths about God. As we have said, the wealthiest man is God and it is His liturgy in which we live and breathe. For God’s liturgy is not simply a charitable donation, but a charitable self-donation.
 
In the beginning was God and only God. Nothing that is made was not made without Him. All things are from Him and of Him and through Him. He is not a God Who makes deals, neither is He a God Who can be repaid. No gift you can give will be accepted by Him. So it is that we say and believe that God is the Absolute Giver; He always gives.
 
James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
 
[Even our church building confesses this. You think the ceiling going up to one point are all your works and prayers ascending to one God? No.]
It is the one, true God descending to you, to bring gifts to you. Therefore He says, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man” (Jn 3:13).
 
Repent. Liturgy, worship, praise, thanksgiving. These words have been given to you and their definitions are far from you, in your sin. For you use these words to define what Church is and yet the way you use these words leaves Christ completely out of the picture. 
 
Liturgy, if you even use that word anymore, has simply become another word for worship and of course, what we do for God. When in fact, the liturgy is God’s movement towards us. 
 
Liturgy is simply the fancy word we give to describe God’s movement towards and among us and our response to God’s movement among us. And what is God’s movement among us? Look at your Gospel again. Jesus had to do three things before the friends of the paralytic even thought of bringing their needy compatriot to Him.
 
First, He had to make Himself known. The Gospel says, “came to His own city”. By this we know two things, not only that God has a home town, but also that He became a part of the human family in order to do so. In other words, God was made man on Earth.
 
Second, Jesus had to move around to those people who could not be everywhere that He is. He did not just set up one shop in one place and expect people to flock to Him. He went to where the people were. He travelled to tell them the Good News that God was living with the people. 
 
And third, when He did set up shop, He did not require a cover charge or a passport to enter into His presence. Instead of requiring, He offered forgiveness and salvation to all who came to Him. It was exactly the reverse of what our sin expected. With the true God, He gives and you receive and that’s that.
 
God’s work, or liturgy, is what Christ does for us upon the cross. Out of His abundance, He makes Himself poor. Out of His eternal vitality, He suffers and dies. Out of His works, He creates rest. Out of His movements, His Liturgy, He creates His Church on earth in order to house the means of salvation for all.
 
He speaks and the heavens are created (Ps. 33:6). He moves and the mountains quake and the seas shake (Nahum 1:5). He descends, and the Spirit of His Glory overshadows His people and they are forgiven. 
 
And so that you know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins and create His divine Service, He raises the dead and forgives sins.  The Liturgy, His Divine Service which you follow every Sunday, may not have dropped down from heaven in a golden book, but it sure is followed by heaven, all of creation, and the Church catholic.
 
When God moves, He can’t help but cause everything he has created, including you to move. so it is that when He sets up shop to offer eternal life, salvation, and the forgiveness of sins in your town, you can’t help but hear, believe, and move yourself.
 
And what does this movement look like? Exactly like our Gospel. You are the paralytic who is dragged towards God’s Body Shop, the Church, by angels, messengers, and those who believe. You are tossed in front of Jesus, Who has moved from heaven to earth. You are then looked upon with favor, by the God Who created the universe and elevated to an heir of heaven.
 
As the paralytic was reminded of his sins that condemn him in his body, you too are reminded of your sins each time you enter His Church when you stumble over the Baptismal Font and when you stumble through the Confession of your sins. In this, you are led by the Holy Spirit to believe that you are dead in your sins (Eph 2:1), which is worse than being paralyzed.
 
The Kyrie and Gloria in Excelsis then lead you to recognize the Lord of all, crucified upon the cross, Who has heard your confession, and through His man the pastor, announces what He is going to do about it, by Absolving you, just as He did for the paralytic.
 
And what happens then? Not a miracle of paralyzed to unparalyzed, but a perfected work of unsaved to saved. A transfer from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His dear Son (Col. 1:13). In the Divine Service, the Divine Liturgy, God is creating faith and saving you.
 
Here now is the importance to which we hold the Sunday Service. That it is a dance, a communion with the God who moves among His people and the Son Who communes to forgive sins. Every movement, every sentence, every utterance in the Divine Service is done with the explicit purpose of revealing this reality to you.
 
The Liturgy becomes that medium by which we come to believe the plain fact that God sent His only begotten Son, not to condemn the world, but through Him, redeem the world. If you ever wonder “what Good is the stuff I do on Sunday morning”, this is it. This is the day that the Lord has made, to rejoice and be glad in the day that He comes to commune with you in Word and Sacrament.
 
So when we contemplate the meaning of God’s movement and our movement in response, there are two levels of consideration concerning the Liturgy: 
 
First, the liturgy is the means by which God speaks and does His saving and sanctifying, being present and accounted for, for His people. In other words, the liturgy is God’s specific means of presence and operation within the Church. The liturgy itself was instituted and ordained by Christ Himself as the means by which God gives Himself for the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. 
 
Namely, it is God’s gospel doing and being among us. Of course, it is the sum and substance of Word and Sacrament, ministered by God Himself. And because it is so specific, it is so readily identifiable. Meaning, we know who the Lord is, where He is, and what He is doing. There’s no guess work: God makes Himself known only through the means of the Spirit. 
 
The second level of consideration is the expression of the liturgy, in other words our response. These are the rites by which the Lord delivers Himself and, consequently, all the benefits of receiving Him to His people.
 
This includes all that has been handed down by way of the Lutheran Reformation consisting of the five fixed canticles or Ordinaires, the Kyrie, Gloria in Excelsis, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. Also the Propers, the assigned Scripture texts or lectionary readings of the Bible for the Sundays, feast days, and seasons, and the sermon. And, of course, the Sacraments of Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion. These rites are the forms by which the Word and Sacraments are administered and applied to the people of God. They are the liturgy and are thoroughly laden with biblical meaning, promise, symbolism and efficacy.
 
Liturgy: God moves, then we move, as St. John Chrysostom reminds us:
“Following His Ascension, the Lord sits with his Heavenly Father in the heavens and at the same time, He is present with the faithful Christians in the Divine Liturgy… His Presence fills the earth… and the heavens! Thus, together with Christ, the Christian who is in the Church and communes is at the same time on earth and in heaven.”
 
 

Law and Gospel [Trinity 18]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Deuteronomy 10:10-21

• 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

• St. Matthew 22:34-46

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
 
Who speaks you this morning saying,
“On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
 
To get this out of the way: loving your neighbor does not mean forcing him to do something he doesn’t want to do. Loving your neighbor is not just loving those that agree with you or look like you or move in the same way that you do or believe like you. It's loving those who don't. Your neighbor does not need coercion at gunpoint, he needs persuasion in love, if you want him to change. But again, if you don’t want to change, then love your neighbor as you love yourself.
 
But you just can’t bring yourself to that point. There just is never a time when your neighbor becomes as important as you, much less more important than you. You become a Pharisee among pharisees, looking for loopholes in God’s Law asking Jesus things like, “what is truth” or “who is my neighbor” and “what is the greatest commandment” all in order for you to ignore all the rest of what God is doing.
 
And it is a Scribe in the Gospels that will teach us just that. In St. Mark 12, it is a Scribe who asks Jesus not “which commandment is greatest”, but “which commandment is first”. The difference, I think, is that the Pharisees today want Jesus to pick one and throw out the rest so they can call Him a traitor and arrest Him. The Scribe is actually looking for an answer that pleases God. His question implies respect to all the commands, but realizing there may be One that is primary.
 
He is right and he is wrong. He is right in that all God’s commands are holy, including more than just the 10 Commandments. He is wrong in that he misses the point of the primary, One Thing needful. Yet he is struggling with God’s Word, as is the Christian Way. He approaches the answer in his own response to Jesus in St. Mark 12:
 
“So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (v.32-33).
 
To this Jesus replies with a “You are not far from the kingdom of God” in verse 34. 
How did that scribe get close to the kingdom with that answer? His step in the right direction makes him place the Commands above the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. In that, the sacrifices actually, physically being made is simply moot at that point in the believer’s life of Faith, because he already trusts God enough to make those sacrifices.
 
But, many steps had to come into play before that, such as loving God and loving your neighbor, in other words: belief. Belief has to come before action. There has to be a revelation in the mind and heart that starts internal debate, ends with truth, creates faith, and incurs action. First comes the planning, then comes the action.
 
Before the planning, however, must come revelation. Some new insight not previously thought of. A new way of understanding things that would not have been reached. This is where the, “there is only one God and none other but He” comes in. This is the ancient Creed of Israel. It is the creed and confession that reveals Who is ordering sacrifices and Who is demanding love for God and neighbor.
 
So what is God doing? To the Pharisees and everyone who does not believe, God has sat down in iron judgement. These whole burnt offerings and sacrifices were supposed to be an unceasing thing, never stopping, just as your prayer life is supposed to be (1 Thess 5:17). Not sacrificing is punishable by death (Ex 22:20) and is seen as sacrificing to other gods.
 
This is your God Christians and you live in fear as the Pahrisees did, willing to fudge God’s Law with Men’s traditions to make yourself look good to Him all because of His impossible demands. 
 
Repent. God’s Law does not stop there. The Scribe goes on to confess that even though there was sacrificing going on, no love was in it. 1 Samuel 15:22 says, “Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”
 
Do you think it is enough to fear God and to obey in that fear? Is that all God is doing, running around handing out laws to induce fear? Do you not know that there is no fear in love (1 Jn 4:18)? Not only is obedience demanded, but to listen and to love; to offer sacrifices and obey God’s commands, loving Him and loving your neighbor. 
 
Repent. Better than sacrifices, is love. Better than love is having the One, true God present and accounted for, giving the Word of Law. Thus says the Word of the Lord, I have had enough of your sacrifices (Isa 1:11) and will not accept them (Amos 5:22). 
What shall you go in front of the Lord with now?
 
Why is the Scribe not far from the kingdom? It’s because he’s beginning to see a pattern emerge. He was raised on God’s laws: do them, or else. He has been living the Temple life of constant sacrificing and praying, loving God and his neighbor as best he can. But Psalm 51:16 has told him, “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering” and Hosea 6:6, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
 
He is but one step away from concluding that God will no longer accept sacrifices and obedience, because He is going to sacrifice Himself.
 
A perfect, unreachable God, immutable iron-clad Law, and a vote of “no confidence” against the people set the stage for Divine Redemption. This, now, is what God is doing. He is not instilling fear or creating robots, He is redeeming people by His Gospel.
 
His commands even point to this, not only by the impossible weight of their demands, but also God’s own refusal to accept those sacrifices made. So He reveals to us the true purpose of the Law and the sacrifices: it is to sanctify you completely in order that your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless (1 Thes 5:23).
 
Before offerings, before loving God and neighbor, even before God is present, we must be sanctified and made righteous. And “faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness” (Rom. 4:9). Faith must be given by God in order for Him to be present in front of us. Faith must be given in order to obey the Law. Faith must be given in order for us to see the Savior Who purchases it for us.
 
The Law is not a command or an ordinance, but a man. The Law of God, the Torah, the Word is Christ incarnate. The Law was always meant to be succeeded by the Gospel. The Law was meant as only a teacher until Christ appeared (Gal 3:24). A teacher who specialized in showing just how futile our sinful actions were.
 
Of course God was angry. Of course there wasn’t enough beasts’ blood on earth to atone for our sins. Of course even that would not be enough, for our love for God fails to our love for sin. 
 
This was our lesson, such that when God would come Himself, we would recognize Him as coming to tie up all those loose ends and finally make one sacrifice to rule them all. A pleasing sacrifice. A worthy sacrifice. A godly sacrifice.
 
Something more than the whole burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and commands is here. Jesus makes His way through His own laws, explaining them, teaching them, and completing them. The confession that is more than loving God and neighbor is Christ Crucified. 
 
This is because, Jesus is the one thing needful to start the Gospel ball rolling. At His Name, faith is given. In His Body and Blood, the one true God is present. The Gospel that Jesus suffered, died, and rose again is what produces faith.
 
And faith gives all godly righteousness. It is the Gospel that opens eyes to see the one, true God. It is the Gospel that opens ears to hear the commands and sacrifices demanded. It is the Gospel that turns stony hearts into hearts of flesh to love the way God intended, because the Gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16).
 
The ministry of God is the Gospel, the ministry of righteousness that exceeds the ministry of the Law and far surpasses it in glory. What once was demanded over and over again, is now a permanent state, in Christ (2 Cor 3). The demands of the Law have been met. Christ rules once again.
 
The Law shows us our sin, which takes the form of not loving God, not loving our neighbor, not sacrificing enough, and failing to confess God even though the Law demands the opposite. 
 
The Gospel shows us our Savior fulfilling that Law in Word and Sacrament. God now presents Himself in Word, water, bread and wine. He is the culmination of all sacrifices and more. He is Love and outside of His works you do not find love. 
 
The Scribe needed only to stick around long enough to witness the resurrection, and the One Thing needful, Jesus, would have taken him into the kingdom directly. For confessing God is confessing the death and resurrection of Christ. Loving God is attending His Divine Service offered for you. Sacrificing to God is eating and drinking His Body and His Blood, given and shed for you.
 
You want to follow God’s commands? Believe that God has already done it. You want to Love God? Believe that He comes to serve you forgiveness. You want to make yourself right with God? Then believe that He has given you a clean heart and a right Spirit in baptism, fed you True Righteousness in His Supper, and speaks you wholly sanctified in His Gospel.
 
Believe and you have exactly what God’s Word promises, that His steadfastness has had its full effect on you and so you are perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, in Christ. (Jas 1:4).