Baptized Death [Martyrdom of John the Baptist]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Revelation 6:9-11

• Jeremiah 1:17-19

• St. Mark 6:17-29

 

To you all, the Elect Exiles of the Dispersion; may Grace and Peace be multiplied to you (1 Pet)

 

Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 

“And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison”

 

Make no mistake. We live in the Last Days and you all are witnesses. More to the truth of the word “witness”, you are martyrs for Christ. Your witness includes death whether its death to sin in baptism or death in front of councils and their congregations or governors and their constituents for Christ’s sake (Matt 10:17-18).

 

So it is that when we speak of the witness of St. John the Baptist it is always in connection with his death, which we celebrate today, and it is always in connection with Christ’s death, as is all our witness.

 

Last week, we spoke of the false idols of self-worship and how our bodies are hostile to God. when we sin, we sin in our hostile bodies and when we try not to sin, we try in hostile bodies. We are baptized into the Resurrection of Christ, and the Word and Sacrament keep us from false idols in that new life of Faith.

 

We are also baptized into the death of Christ. Communing with God is a much better prospect, to us, than dying with God. Yet, if your goal in life is to be more Christ-like and be His imitator, as Ephesians 5:1 says, then you must realize that imitation of Christ does not end with being as nice as He was to the poor and the oppressed.

 

In St. John the Baptist, we truly are brought to understand that this death is not a metaphor either. We cannot get away with imagining we are “dead to sin”, it must really happen. St. John faces this very literally, because for Herod, John must die.

 

Nothin personal, John, I just have to be able to have my brother’s wife and her daughter. I am king. God chose me, so I get what I want, in God’s Name. 

 

Between John and Herod we have a tale of two men who come in the Name of the Lord and reveal to us a little of who their gods are. One man reveals a God of the hard life: camel’s hair, wild honey, and locusts and death for all your trouble. The other reveals rewards for service, pleasure, and most importantly a long life.

 

Both gods demand sacrifice. Both gods offer a reward of sorts. But one gives stability and the other only promises such on the campaign trail. Herod’s god allowed him his brother’s wife, but demanded payment of his integrity and apparent belief in what St. John was preaching to him, as is said of him, “he was greatly perplexed and yet he heard him gladly” from verse 20 of our Gospel today.

 

Herod gains an exciting life of hedonism, but its only a rental. It will fade, he and his excitement will grow old and die. All of his rewards will fade away as quickly as he got them. 

 

St. John has Jeremiah 1, which we heard this morning. In those words, God promises to make him, “a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you”.

 

Repent! St. John dies, which makes him not so much an iron pillar, as a broken reed. The Baptist could die, because he already died in faith. Not just died in the faith, dead. He was already dead when Herod’s executioner found him, because His God had already filled up that sort of death.

 

Yes, St. John will receive his reward in the Resurrection, but it is not the Resurrection that gets him to that reward, it is the dying of Jesus Christ. Jeremiah 1 was certainly on the lips of St. John as he was awaiting his temporal death. But we know for certain they were on Jesus’s lips as He faced His own suffering and death.

 

How do you completely defeat your enemy? You beat him at his strongest, you beat him at his own game, and when he has his greatest weapon. Sin, death, and the devil have no access to Resurrection, thus they have death. So where is Jesus?

 

Three times in St. Mark’s Gospel, Jesus tells us, “that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again” (8:31). That is where Jesus is. He is going to the cross. He is going into death to force it to produce life.

 

It is in the dying of Jesus Christ on the cross, that all things pertaining to salvation and eternal life are procured and secured. It is not the Resurrection. Easter is there to prove that His claims about being the Son of God were true (Rom 1:4), to prove that His doctrine is true (Jn 8:28), and to prove that He is raised and alive today (1 Cor 15:17).

 

There is also the teaching that all believers in Christ will then rise to eternal life with Him, but not before death. St. John 11:25-26 says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”

 

Through His suffering and dying, Christ has triumphed over death. 2 Timothy 1:10, “our Savior Christ Jesus…abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” “not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

 

The Christian finds comfort in death, because His ever-living God has suffered death in his place. Jesus is God’s man Who is made “a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you” in order to conquer death and remove Herod’s and the devil’s greatest weapon.

 

With that Iron Pillar, St. John can face the Executioner’s ax, because his death is swallowed up in victory. Death has a full belly. Having taken into his stomach, God Himself in the flesh, there is no more room for anything or anyone else’s death. Death’s stomach is also full of Christ-shaped ulcers that allow Christians to walk out scot-free.

 

Does Herod think he is doing The Baptist a disservice? On the contrary, there is no greater prayer that St. John has than, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20), “Thy Kingdom come” (Matt 6:10). He prays thusly, not because he expects the armies of God to swoop down and destroy Herod. Rather, he expects the armies of God to swoop down and retrieve him from this world of death.

 

In fighting your own sinful self, you must die. But your death must be sufficient. This is why we baptize in the Name of Christ. Christ’s death is sufficient, cancelling all our debts towards God, and His resurrection will be ours. 

 

Do not trust in the armies of God to back you up or get you out of deadly situations. Trust, rather, in your baptism to negate that evil, cause you to die towards your sin, and be raised to God in new life, because it was God who worked that in and with you. This is St. John’s confidence and this is your confidence.

 

In the washing of regeneration and rebirth in Baptism, God unites Himself to you. What happens to you happens to Him, but more importantly, what happens to Him now happens to you. He is immortal, you are immortal. He is pure, you are pure. He has conquered sin, death, and the devil, and in Him “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom 8:37).

 

No idols in Christ [Trinity 10]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Jeremiah 8:4-12

• 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

• St. Luke 19:41-48

 

To you all, the Elect Exiles of the Dispersion; may Grace and Peace be multiplied to you (1 Pet)

 

Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 

“And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold”

 

False idols have a nasty habit of constantly popping up in our lives, keeping us from the perfect relationship we need with God, and forcing Jesus to come “clean house”. We think they are outside forces housed in pictures or graven images, when its our hearts creating them for us especially when we try to eliminate them. 

 

As we said last week, you can’t get to Jesus unless you go through His Mother, St. Mary, so too this week you can’t get to Jesus until you get tossed by Him, heard in our Gospel today. An unsettling thought to be sure. One which has been metamorphized by “christian teachers” to mean “align yourself with God”. Whatever that means.

 

For today, Jesus is not only raising the standard and bar on holiness and what it actually is, He is throwing it at you, as you sit comfortably at your self-righteousness table. Which He also then takes, flips, and tosses at you, as well. 

 

At you, mind. For, Jesus does not just overturn tables and drive out people randomly in a fit of blind rage. He’s doing it because they deserve it and so do you, as He said. You can almost hear His words spoken through Joshua, “choose this day whom you will serve”! This from everyone’s favorite verse in Joshua 24, because it finishes with Joshua’s heroic declaration, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (v. 15).

 

Jesus is showing us that we do not choose to serve the Lord. That we have false idols in our life that must be cleansed, daily. Since our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, we allow dealers and sellers to squat on holy ground. Especially because Jesus’ Body is the true Temple, it must be free from all unrighteousness or it will not be the pure place of joy He promised it is.

 

So what is your choice today? Will you serve God? Or will you continue to serve your idols? Which idols, bars, or tables get in your way of serving God with all your heart? 

 

In our days, you can pick your poison. One idol can even be blaming others, such as social media or taking the stance of, “well my generation was never taught that”. But the path always leads to yourself. Whether you find that you are being self-righteous, in other words idolizing yourself, or you point out self-righteousness in another, the blame lies squarely on you.

 

Now, our modern day “teachers” will tell us we suffer from these false idols because we are too self-focused. We self-worship and we trust in our feelings, Luke, to determine right from wrong. Comfort can be an idol.

 

In order to counter-act this, they will tell you to focus instead on rooting yourself in the truth and then live it out so others can see. They ape Jesus’ words and teach, “die to yourself”. What they really mean is “deny yourself” because that’s what Jesus said, not “die to self”, but we’ll let it slide for now.

 

Forgiving others, is a part of that “dying to self”. You must “do” when God says “Do” and “don’t do” when God says “Don’t”. Any distraction from what the Lord is calling you to do and how He’s calling you to live needs to go. Produce change in your life. Allow the Holy Spirit to work in you. God is patient, keep trying.

 

Repent. It all sounds good doesn’t it? If a tree is in my way, while I’m driving on the road, just remove it, and I can continue my journey. Well guess what? There is not just a “tree in the road” to God, there is a whole forest. And not just a forest, but a rock slide. A rock slide from many mountains. And not just all those things, you don’t even see a path towards God anymore, in your sin.

 

While all that “putting away false idols by not being self-focused” sounds good, in order to accomplish any of that, you have to focus on yourself! You are right back where you started! In your attempt to cleanse your life of sin, you have run in circles, inviting more sin into it, because you were looking at your precious table in front of you to do so. 

 

What is missing from all these false teachings? Jesus. We haven’t heard about Jesus once. All we have heard is “I, me, my, we, mine”. I need to die to self. I need to root myself in truth. I need to live out my faith. I need to allow the Holy Spirit to transform me. I need to change. I need to align.

 

Romans 8:7, “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.”

 

To get rid of sin that is manifest in your flesh, you need to focus on your flesh. To give evidence of God’s work in your life, you need to focus on the flesh. To change, you need to focus on the flesh. To sin you need flesh, to not sin you need flesh. Our own sin, death, and the devil back us into this corner. Every. Single. Time. And still get us to think we are winning.

 

Instead, own up to your “tables”. Don’t try to dodge the things Jesus is throwing. He is not throwing them away, but throwing them to get your attention. He says, “These are the things that need to be tossed out, and yet you continue to keep them inside you.” 

 

Second of all, the devil is real. He is alive and well and lies in wait, prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). He is not lazy or careless, and our flesh is all too active and eager to sin and inclined to oppose the Holy Spirit (Tappert, 126). The devil has an inside man, so to speak, in seeking our destruction: us. “The devil is a master at finding the spot where it hurts most” (Tappert, 100).

 

But First of all, and most important, Jesus is real and He is greater than the devil and our self-worship. If the devil lies, Jesus is the Truth. If the devil is a strong man, Jesus has tied up the strong man as the stronger man. If the devil is an accuser, Jesus has taken all his accusation upon Himself, for you.

 

The Tables that Jesus tosses is His Law, which has been meet, right, and salutary since the beginning. They are the things for which we stand guilty of in front of God. Our sins, our transgressions, our debts for which we try to sell whatever we can to appease that vengeful and wrath-filled God we think we worship.

 

“But Lord”, we say, “we have set up these tables in Your Name. We are investing our talent that you gave us in Your Name. We are hustling for the wonders You do, in Your Name. Stop being so unreasonable!”

 

Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). Jesus will be the one to purchase the sinner at the price of His Body and Blood. Jesus will be the One to set up the Table, the Only Table needful, upon which His Body and Blood will be offered for free. Jesus will be the one to purify, to cleanse, and to sanctify, not you.

 

You attempting to take on that role will send Christ to the cross a second time, condemning yourself for all eternity. Trusting in your own works, you commune with the devil, “crucifying once again the Son of God to [your] own harm and holding Him up to contempt” (Heb 6:6).

 

However, the clean heart and The Holy Spirit that has been given to us, do not allow for such nonsense. The Spirit declares, “And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb… And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth’” (Rev 5:8-10).

    

And verse 12: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

 

And Psalm 115:1 “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory”

And finally, Isaiah 42:8 “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other”

 

Grace is no longer grace if we earn it. Glory is no longer glory if it is fleshy.

 

Jesus does both. He both earns grace, not for Himself, for you and makes it possible for God’s eternal Glory to show up in the flesh. And since He does that, these false men from the Gospel and false idols in your heart can no longer stand, because they do not face a whimsical spirit, but a man.

 

This God-man, Jesus Christ, then continues to cleanse His own Body, the congregation of all believers. He will not leave spot or wrinkle upon His beloved Baptized believers. He will not allow corruption to continue for eternity to plague them. Our prayers are answered in Christ Crucified and Risen again from the dead and our idols die at His feet.

 

From the Gospel, Jesus also emphasizes how important this life is. We are not to just be super-spiritual and wait for the end. We are to have a full life of faith now. We are to cleanse our own hearts and throw out our own sins.

 

And we will, but only by the grace of God. He is active, we are passive. He suddenly enters His Temple while we are busy living in sin or trying to rid ourselves of sin. He barges in, unexpected and uninvited. We resist thinking our time is up, but He passes us by, instead heading to His cross.

 

There to purchase and win salvation on our behalf, since we could not and would not do it on our own, He completes and perfects the Law Himself only to hand over all the credit to those who believe and are baptized. 

 

There is an intimate, mysterious union between Jesus’ Body and His Temple on earth. There is also the intimate union God has with us, in Christ. This is the Sacramental worldview that we hold on to and this is the Sacramental faith that saves us. For, in the Body and Blood of Christ, all idols disappear as a vapor.

 

There can be no idol where God says, “Baptism now saves you”. There can be no idol when Christ says, “Take and eat; take and drink for the forgiveness of sins.” There can be no idol when our Lord declares, “In the stead and by the command…I forgive you all your sins.”

 

Church is an idol safe-space. Checking in here marks you safe from idol worship today. How? Because it is here that God does all the work. Here is where you take your sabbath rest, set aside the work you do, and God works in you. God’s Word and God’s Promises are always God’s and never false.

 

Your idols come from your heart. You can only blame others and other things for so long, before the jig is up. In the face of this constant sin there is only one option: confess. When the devil throws our false idols up to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: 

‘I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also (Tappert, 87).

 

“you must not believe your own thoughts nor those of the devil. But believe what we preachers say… Be content and confident. Your sin is forgiven. Rely resolutely on this… for it is God himself who speaks to you through them” (Tappert, 103).

 

On top of speaking to you, He also communes with you in order to make the deal double sealed. Jesus not only talks, but acts. He declares your heart to be the source of evil, and takes your stony, unbelieving heart, and replaces it with His own. He then hooks you up to an I.V. drip of Divine Service and Body and Blood to strengthen and preserve you, as you face your world of idols, to life everlasting.

 

 

Tappert, T. G., Luther: Letters  of Spiritual counsel. Westminster Press. Philidelphia. 1960

St. Mary, flesh and blood [Dormition of the BVM]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 61:7-11

• Judith 13:22-25, 15:10

• St. Luke 1:41-50

 

To you all, the Elect Exiles of the Dispersion; may Grace and Peace be multiplied to you (1 Pet)
 
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 
“…now all generations will call me blessed, because He Who is Mighty has done great things to me.”
 
Though we are Lutheran. Though we act like protestants and run scared from everything that smells too cat’lick. Though we read our Scriptures faithfully. You cannot avoid certain things. You cannot avoid kings David and Solomon’s adultery. You cannot avoid drunk Noah. And you cannot avoid St. Mary, the Mother of God.
 
As you confessed with your mouth and believed with your heart just a moment ago, “I believe…in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God…who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary”.
 
This is brought to our attention in the Gospel read today. Even though I know you’re distracted by the Judith reading earlier, it is important to note the time of events in our Gospel reading. There we see a wonderful godly order to things. First, St. Elizabeth, pregnant herself, hears St. Mary. At that specific sound from St. Mary’s mouth, John the Baptist leaps in his mother’s womb, being in utero himself and we see God’s Word does its work.
 
All this is capped off with the Holy Spirit, again, overshadowing the situation and moving St. Elizabeth to cry out loud, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
She wasn’t blessing St. Mary’s devotion, dedication, or humility. By the Spirit, St. Elizabeth recognized the One Who blessed her, in St. Mary’s womb, and was returning the blessing to Him, the Work of the Holy Spirit.
 
St. Mary also believes this. In the small part of her song, The Magnificat, which I quoted and which we heard in the Gospel reading, she says, “…now all generations will call me blessed, because He Who is Mighty has done great things to me.”
 
Did St. Mary forget about the baby-to-come and focus on her heavenly assignment from God? Did she truly believe that her vocation was that of Evangelist, to run around and tell everyone the good news as some sort of recruiter? Its true, she had a very personal mission from God, but was it all that people try to force upon her, in these days of female empowerment?
 
St. Mary’s personal mission, her heavenly assignment, her evangelism was to be pregnant. It was to be a mother. St. Gabriel told her, you will be pregnant and give birth. This was not to make her a superwoman, but something more. This was to make her the Mother of God.
 
Jesus is God.  St. Mary is Jesus’ mother.  Therefore, St. Mary is mother of God. The Bible tells me so. 
Can’t we just read the Bible, pastor? Why do we have to deal with Mary and virginity and saints? We just need to know that Jesus loves us. Can’t we all just get along?
 
Repent! As Jesus has said, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Mt 22:29). We have sacrificed education and knowledge for tenuous peace and false security with the world and yet it was exactly that knowledge which Adam and Eve were attempting to gain by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil!
 
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”, says the Lord in Hosea 4, “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” (v. 6).
 
We have created a vacuum of theological depth to our faith which can only be and has only been filled by emotion.  And in modern, American Christianity, this is proving to be a disaster.
 
Of course, let’s read the Bible - every word of it, many times.  Let’s pore over it and study it in the original languages.  And let’s read it along with the Early Church and the Reformers.  Let’s hear the Word preached by Chrysostom and Augustine and Luther and today’s pastor’s and professors.  Let’s stand on the shoulders of our beloved fathers in the faith.  Let’s also study it through the lenses of Arius and Nestorius, lest we too fall into their heresy.
 
For all heresy is Christological, meaning it has to do with Christ. What then does that have to do with St. Mary and what we believe about her? For that we take a trip down heresy-memory lane.
 
Trigger warning: incoming fancy words. Don’t let me lose you.
Docetism (word number 1), is a heresy from the centuries before the Ecumenical Church Council that drew up the Nicene Creed. Unequivocally rejected, Docetism centered on the belief that Jesus was not human, but only appeared that way. Thus, St. Mary cannot be the mother of God, since gods don’t have mothers.
 
Therefore, confessing St. Mary to be the Mother of God is something the Docetists would never do and is a good way of removing yourself from that error. This heresy still exists today in the form of spiritualists and Unitarians. 
 
Word number 2: Arians. These people believed the other side of the coin, that Jesus was not true God. Therefore you saying that St. Mary is the Mother of God, protects you from them as well. 
 
And number 3 is the Nestorians. These were those in churches who taught that Jesus was two persons loosely tied together in one body: a god-similar person and a human-similar person. They would call St. Mary “Mother of our Lord” as our bulletin does, but not Mother of God. This heresy lives inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses of today.
 
All of these heresies center around Christ and all can be undone by confessing that Christ is true God, 100%, and true man, 100%, in simply saying that St. Mary is the Mother of God.
 
Dear Christians, today we celebrate the Feast of St. Mary, because she is a theologian of the cross, as we are. She is humbled to be the container of the humiliation of Christ. “All generations will call me blessed”, she sings, “because He Who is Mighty has done great things to me” (Lk 1:48-49). God acts first, without any merit or worthiness within me.
 
She is blessed, for she reveals to the whole world that in her womb is Mighty God and David’s Son. Her, but not her. She does not decide to birth Christ, The Almighty chose her and accomplished great things through her. 
 
This is a part of the wonderful good news of the Gospel, that when God acts, it is in and with men, not in some out of reach place. In order to understand Creation and the garden of Eden, you have to go through Adam. In order to understand the Flood, you have to go through Noah. In order to understand Jesus Christ, you have to go through St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Mary.
 
When Christ was made man, it wasn’t just so He could show off or look like us so He could talk to us on our level. It had nothing to do with Him, but everything to do with us. He came down to get us. He came down as far as He could get from heaven. He became a servant to sinners, below them, in order to save them.
 
In Christ, we see true man separate from sin. In Christ we see true God, able to overcome sin, death, and the devil. In Christ, God and man are joined together, without sin, and no one can tear that asunder. In Christ, God is born of woman and she retains her virginity and He remains unstained by Original Sin.
 
Thus we are educated on these things from God’s Word and from Church History. All of the history, none of the heresy. Sure, the Almighty is doing great things, but I am not a virgin nor can I get pregnant. I do not have St. Gabriel showing up in my house, nor do I have a cousin named Elizabeth who is older than me. 
 
The point of St. Mary is to show us where God is and what He is doing. Same with St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Polycarp, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. John of Damascus, St. Gregory, and on and on in God’s roll-call in the Book of Life. 
 
Where is St. Mary and any of the saints when we are introduced to them? They are living life in the humdrum and yet receiving God’s gifts handed out to them where they are. Where is God when we are introduced to Him? He is on earth, among His people, and in the depths. 
 
All generations call St. Mary blessed because the salvation of the world, that God was working out since the beginning, was accomplished through her being a virgin mother. The importance of St. Mary is the revelation that God is with us. And not just with us like an invisible best friend, but as the God Who has flesh and blood from His Mother and Who continues to commune with us.
 
Thus, the greatest lesson is that you can’t get to God without going through His Body and Blood. You cannot see His divinity without His humanity. You cannot reach His infiniteness, without His finiteness. You cannot achieve heaven without first leaving behind hell.
 
This, the Body and Blood of our Savior accomplishes, which came from the virgin, for you. In Christ, you share in St. Mary’s blessedness of housing the Body and Blood of Christ, by eating and drinking. In Christ, you share in St. Mary’s vocation by being pregnant with faith and birthing your own confession of Jesus, to the whole earth.
 
In Christ, all generations will call you blessed because the Mighty One has done great things to you: suffering, dying, rising again; saving, rescuing, purchasing sinners; and forgiving, communing, and enlightening His Church by His gifts. Holy is His Name.
 

Christ: Prophet and Prophesy [Trinity 8]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Jerimiah 23:16-29

• Romans 8:12-17

• St. Matthew 7:15-23

 

To you all, the Elect Exiles of the Dispersion; may Grace and Peace be multiplied to you (1 Pet)
 
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
 
As we try to figure out just what a false prophet is, maybe we can call today “false prophet day”, in the Church. No, we cannot give the demons their day. Instead, let us celebrate the not-so-well known prophet Micaiah. It was he who was called by God from obscurity and went back to obscurity only after he was made to confront 400 false prophets.
 
Though he was not given fire from heaven to use, as Elijah was, St. Micaiah was given the Word of God. We often despise the Word rightly given and spoken by God’s pastors in exchange for ambiguity and emotional rollercoasters, as they appeal to our sinful sense of self-importance more than “boring” words we have heard over and over again.
 
St. Micaiah is found towards the end of 1 Kings where the Lord recounts to us the death of Ahab. This is king Ahab of Elijah fame. King Ahab now wants to add more land and riches to his rule over Israel. He enlists the king of Judah and his 400 yes-men he calls prophets to confirm his choice of going to war again.
 
The yes-men all say yes, God has foreseen your victory! The King of Judah isn’t so sure and wants an actual prophet of the Lord to ask. Ahab responds this way: “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil” (1 Ki 22:8).
 
Repent. He was entitled long before we thought being entitled was cool. King Ahab perfectly represents us in our spoiled-childlike sin. 
 
So here maybe he teaches us a lesson about false and true prophets. That, perhaps, the first time you encounter a true prophet, you won’t like them. So, stop being so nice to me. You’re ruining my career choice.
 
But seriously, you may think you have finally gotten on God’s good side and everything is going your way, but then He places someone in front of you that just doesn’t sit right with you. You are just living your life. You love the Jesus, you earnestly repent of your sin, and seek to live in peace with everyone. Then the real Jesus barges in warning about false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing, thorn bushes, thistles, and not knowing you on the Last Day.
 
Repent. You do not want God to pay attention to you, especially when things are going well, and you only want a little attention when things are going poorly. You say, God, just give me a sign. Talk to me. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it. Anything.
 
St. Micaiah then prophesies Ahab’s death. The Lord’ speaks to Ahab through His real man and tells Ahab, go on up and have your little battle for more greed, but then fall in the midst of that battle (1 Ki 22:20). I’ll do anything You ask, if you just talk to me Lord, except that.
 
How God accomplished this is that He sent a spirit to be a deceiving spirit to all Ahab’s prophets, making them false prophets. This does not mean God is tricksy or a deceiver. It means Ahab wanted what he wanted so much, he was wiling to sacrifice the truth for it. The Truth being St. Micaiah's Word.
 
What was that Word? Verse 17, “And [Micaiah] said, ‘I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’’”
 
The lie of the false prophets, all false prophets, is go and cause strife and suffering for others to make their your life better. 
The Truth of the true prophets is that a True Shepherd will be sent to bring each person home in peace. The Truth of the true Prophets is the Christ.
 
Jesus today tells us in the Gospel to “beware” False Prophets. Beware means to be aware of who they are and what they do and teach, to pay attention. So pay attention to the false prophets in order that you know who they are. The prime example of what this is comes from Jeremiah 26, where Jesus uses the words “false prophets” as He does in only a few other places in the Bible.
 
Jeremiah 26:7-8: “The priests and the false prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the false prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, ‘You shall die!’” Very Christ-like action!
 
Notice that the works of the false prophets are death. Along with sin, the false prophets hear the Word and sinfully desire to crucify whoever is speaking it. Pay attention. Do not let your false prophets mislead you. They cry for peace, but crucify the Son of God.
 
Jesus is our true Prophet. Not only is He the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but He suffers and dies for the salvation of the whole world. He is not only able to speak the Truth, but He is also able to show the Truth in the flesh. 
 
As Prophet, Jesus preached personally. He did not send Micaiah to suffer and die in His place. He came Himself and validated that He is the Word of God with miracles, especially His own resurrection. 
 
And this Office of Prophet continues today. Through the preached Gospel by His pastors that Jesus chooses, He still proclaims Himself to be the Son of God and Redeemer of the world. The Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17)
 
St. Micaiah and his brothers in arms, could only preach what God told them, dying for their trouble, and seemingly being unsuccessful as God’s people would continue to turn away from God. Jesus was able to preach about Himself, die for the trouble, and make the true Way wherein sinners could turn from their sins and live.
 
We call this the “white devil”; false prophets of today who deceive us with a good-looking front.  The devil so disguised is more dangerous than the “black devil” of Hollywood fame.  2 Corinthians 11:13-14 centers on this thought.  We read there that these white-devil, false prophets masquerade as apostles of Christ and even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.  That means he tempts us by what on the surface may feel right and good. Remember Adam and Eve at the Tree! (Gen. 3:6)  
 
He promises pleasure and fulfillment in many ways that the world honors but that set aside God’s Word and will.  He denies the need for suffering and struggle in Christ’s church.  He casts doubt on God’s love for us. This is the true and proper work of false prophets even today.
 
These false prophets crucify Christ a second time by trusting in their works, to their own harm, and hold Him up to contempt (Heb 6:6). They teach this: If you would serve God, you must merit forgiveness of sins and everlasting life, and must also help others that they may attain to salvation : you must enter into discipleship, vow obedience, chastity, poverty, etc. 
 
“The Saved”, and the rest of that religious rabble, being puffed up with this opinion of their own holiness, brag that they alone are in the life and state of perfection, and that other Christians lead but a common life, for they do no undue works, or more than they are duty-bound to do, that is, they do not accomplish the super spiritual, they are only baptized and keep the ten commandments.
 
As for themselves, besides that which is common to them as to other Christians, they keep also the works of supererogation, and the counsels of Christ; wherefore, they hope to have merits and a place in heaven among the principal saints, far above the common sort of Christians. 
 
This is false prophesy and a horrible illusion of the devil, whereby he hath bewitched almost the whole world. And every man, the more holy he would seem to be, the more he is snared with that witchery, that is to say, with the pestilent persuasion of his own righteousness. And this was the cause that we could not now hear that Jesus Christ was our mediator and savior, but instead thought He a severe judge pacified by our works. (AE 26:200)
 
Dear Christians, you are a nation of prophets and are to pay attention. In Christ, we are given a new life and open ears to hear His Gospel of Life. “Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues” says Jesus in St. Matthew 10:17, but do “pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1)
 
And what have we heard from those preaching from God? 1 Peter 1:19, “we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention[, beware,] as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
 
Your prophetic Word more fully confirmed is Christ Crucified. Your prophesy is Word and Sacrament. You prophesy when you take communion. You prophesy the death of Jesus. You prophesy the resurrection of Jesus (living bread). And you prophesy your faith in His Word, publicly. Jesus is the only true Prophet and all true prophesy points to Him His Work and His Word.
 
False prophesy pays attention to sheep’s outward clothing. Instead, you look for the Lamb of God Who was slain. Look for the wounds of the cross, the Body and Blood given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. Find the good grapes in the Chalice and find the Door to heaven in the Gospel of salvation preached and the Sacraments administered according to it.
 
 

Insignificant Jesus [Trinity 7]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 2:7-17

• Romans 6:19-23

• St. Mark 8:1-9

 

To you all, the Elect Exiles of the Dispersion; may Grace and Peace be multiplied to you (1 Pet)
 
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 

“I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat”

 
And Jesus shows His compassion today as we ponder this very upside-down scene that is the feeding of the 4000. It is upside-down because, in the usual form of worship, devotees, being insignificant, bring gifts to the gods, who are significant. Today, God is offering His gifts to His worshippers. 
 
Baptism grants us life after death, in Christ. Along with that, it grants us space at God’s Altar where we may be reconciled to He Whom we have sinned against. This week, St. Paul concludes Romans 6 which began with baptism and ends with the free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, through baptism.
 
The significance of this baptismal gift from Christ is that it has your very own name on it. It is yours and no one else’s. You, by name, personally being offered a seat at the Lord’s Altar, blots out any insignificance anyone can feel. And this is part of the purpose of the grace of God. That you are welcomed, as an individual, to His Altar, to His font, and to His Supper. 
 
This God-given significance is one point which the devil, the world, and our sinful nature target to produce unbelief in you. I will quote 3 men as proof, with whom I hope you are familiar, but if not, know that these 3 are significant in modern Scientism. And we will hear them because a modern, relevant problem we have is this supposed James Webb telescope which they love, but is racist at the same time.
 
First is Carl Sagan, who is famous for his “pale blue dot” comment on our earth. He says, “Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.” He then applied that doctrine of insignificance to justify his sins against others in his own life.
 
You are insignificant, is the repeated dogma of this religion. In fact, it is the “truth” upon which this religion stands or falls. For if you are significant, then stardust, black holes, and trillions of years holds no meaning and the religion falls apart for the scam it is. But if you are insignificant, then you must bow to your betters.
 
This Dogma continues in the mouth of Stephen Hawking. He says, “The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies...We are just an advanced breed of monkeys…”
 
He tries to make it better by saying things like, “But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special” and “even if the universe does come to an end, it won’t be for at least twenty billion years.” How do you know you understand the universe, Stephen, with your chemical scum brain? Did the universe tell you that? The universe would never lie to you, right?
 
Our final “man”, Neil deGrasse Tyson, then peddles the true nature of Scientism and its scientites, that is that it is a religion. For all he offers you is the “science” you cannot prove, interact with, experiment on, or repeat yourself. He says don’t feel small, that’s just your ego getting in the way. Instead feel humble that you get to learn about the universe. Instead be one with the universe, for those big stars produced the atoms you are composed of and so you are linked to the big things and are therefore big yourselves.
 
And these are the men we are trusting with science textbooks and billions of tax dollars??
 
Do you hear the religion? None of them have ever seen or experienced this largeness of the universe first-hand and they have never seen, nor been able to reproduce, a star producing the proteins and chemicals needed for life. They simply make seemingly profound statements with no proof and tell you that you are included in some mystical, non-scientific, and impersonal way, that only they can figure out. These “priests” use philosophy, not science to make their claims and don’t even think about questioning them.
 
Repent. In one sense, these men are correct. You believe you are significant in your sin, in a pride filled way. Yet, even if you believe you are insignificant in your sin, you use that as a weapon against God, pretending that your insignificance is your significance, in other words, the Victim Card. There is no good ending there.
 
Dear Christians, your significance does not come from yourself. Your significance comes from God’s insignificance. Indeed, Jesus’s significance is based entirely on your significance. For He has promised to care for and save you and if He does not keep His promises, even in your utterly destructive and condemnable sin, then He would be truly insignificant.
 
God does not do that to Christians and God did not do Christmas that way. Jesus’ mother insignificantly made her way to Bethlehem among an insignificant group of wayfarers. She was not distinguished from the others in the least. When there was no room at the inn, Jesus’ mother made do in a manger. Jesus and his family, not Herod, were forced to flee for their lives to Egypt. Of all the wise men in the world, only three showed up. 
 
Jesus grew up humbly in the insignificant town of Nazareth, from which no good comes. He had no significant education, no money, no credentials, no nothing. Like His mother, He was indistinguishable from anyone in the crowd. “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa 53:2). 
 
Look at the Gospel for today, again. Jesus says to the 4000 that He is feeding, “who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves” (St. Luke 22:27). 
 
The crowd brings nothing to the table. Nothing except their lack of food and lack of strength to make it home for the day. That is debt. A wage. The wages of sin, which is death before making it back home. Yet, even in the face of that insignificance, Jesus still says, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28).
 
Jesus makes Himself insignificant, empties Himself, becomes sin Who knew no sin, in order to do His Father’s will of purchasing and winning eternal significance for sinners, justifying them. In Jesus’s insignificance, the Father promises to “chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are” (1 Cor 1:28), in that His very significant Son suffers and dies on a cross.
 
“God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27). It is Jesus’s hairs which are numbered. It is Jesus Who is more valuable than sparrows. 
 
God found Jesus in the desolate place, as our Gospel said, with no food or drink to satisfy righteous hunger, yet He encircled Him, He cared for Him, He kept Him the apple of His eye (Deut 32:10) and raised Him from the dead, never to die again, in His Glory forever.
 
In Christ, God has made the full significance of the godhead dwell bodily. Significance and insignificance are brought together to accomplish the greatest work of all: your significance. 
 
In Christ you are baptized. What is His is yours. In Christ, you are not floating in nothingness on a pale blue dot, you are seated with Him on His Sapphire throne (Eze 10:1). In Christ, you are not chemical scum or an advanced breed of monkey, you are knit together in the womb by His hands and in His Image.
 
In Christ, you are not one with an impersonal universe, but fed by a personal God Who comes to your person, redeems your person, and raises you up, as a person, to be a prince (Ps 113:7). The one, true Omnipotent Good cares for every one of you as if you were but one” (Augustine’s Confessions, 3:11:19).
 
You are insignificant. Your sin has made you like dead men, unable to even last through life without dying. In Christ, you are significant. In His gift you should find humility and significance, not any false humility in fear from nature. He shows true humility and true significance, for He is the gift. And this gift He offers only in His Body and Blood, only in the heavenly food that is found held in His nail-pierced hands for you.