READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 1:1-2:3
Ephesians 6:10-17
St. John 4:46-54
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father
and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love.
Who speaks to you today, only through His Gospel, saying,
“‘Go; your son
lives.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.”
The blood of the martyrs fights against error, if only
because those who murdered them must wear Abel’s blood on their foreheads, as
Cain did. How does their blood fight against error? Because their blood is not
their blood. Their life is Christ’s life and they are saturated in His Body and
Blood from communion with Him.
As Jesus said to St. Paul, “’Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus,
whom you are persecuting’” (Acts 9:4-5). But Jesus was already at the Right
Hand of God, resurrected beyond all humiliation. How was Jesus being persecuted
by St. Paul?
Paul was persecuting Christians, those a part of Christ’s
Body by faith. Meaning, now that the Christian has been united with Christ,
just as God and man are one Christ, what happens to His Church, His Body,
happens to Him. He makes no distinction.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave
nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”
(Gal 3:28). Jesus eliminates these man-made divisions, embodies unity
itself, and even prays for our unity, which can only be found in His Word and
Sacrament.
Sounds easy enough. So why are we divided? Why are we, at
least in the U.S., as divided as we have ever been? Part of the reason is
spell-craft. Yes even the witch and druid stuff that your catechism warned you
about, but that is not the whole story.
To create a spell, you only need two things: the truth of a
word and belief, ironically. By truth of a word, I simply mean using a regular word
and the truth of it, meaning what it stands for usually. If you use the word “curse”,
it has a definition, and if you believe that definition, it means something to
you. Therefore if someone says they curse you, as a spell or something, then
you already believe half of it, simply because of the word.
The other half is you believing someone can make the word do
something, like hurt you. Or as Operation Mocking Bird puts it, “a lie repeated
often enough becomes truth.” So, some LARP-er claiming to be a witch, dressing
all scary, and screaming at you, repeatedly, the spell they believe in over and
over, doing actual psychological damage, and you begin to believe.
“Spell” just means words. Like spelling words or spelling
bee. It is just words used in a lie to get you to believe what someone else
wants you to believe. Like your TV. Like your “betters”. Like the oligarchy. Especially
in an election year, I’m sure you could all list the “spelling words” that have
been used in your hearing, against you.
Thus the strength of a spell relies on God’s creation,
evilly enough. If words don’t mean anything, then the spell misfires. If we
were not made for belief, then the spell would fail. But since the Lord has
created for us a wonderful, ordered, and meaning-filled realm, these things can
be lied about. A witch’s spell is a lie, but the word or words used are God’s
own.
Satan works through spells. Our third Lutheran martyr for
this month is Henry van Zutphen. He was from the same Netherland monastery as
our brothers John and Hendrick from last week. He was one that fled, was
arrested, broken out of prison, and attempted to run to Wittenberg, to where
Luther was.
On his way, he was stopped by locals who begged him to
preach. Bremen historians mark November 9, 1522 as the date of the first
Evangelical sermon ever in Bremen. He stayed for 2 years, preaching and
teaching, when finally the “law” caught up to him. A mob, blinded by a “spell” issuing
from local Franciscan and Dominican friars and Hamburg beer, kidnapped Zutphen
from his home in the dead of night.
Marched barefoot and naked, they led him to the city of
Heide, about a two day walk, for his trial. It took less than a day for him to
find a pyre waiting for him, once they arrived, and his sentence of death. The
spell was: “Today we shall gain favor with God and man. The longer we let him
live the more people he will pervert with his heresy. Got to it, my lads. This
is God’s own work!”
Except the fire didn’t light, so they had to dirty their
hands, beating him to death December 10, 1524. Dr. Luther wrote more than a
song this time. It was a martyr’s account, on par with the ancient accounts.
Though he did not write it to create a Lutheran cult of the saints, but to make
sure of 4 things:
- First, to establish publicly that Zutphen was a true martyr, dying for the faith while fending off the temptation to renounce his faith.
- Second, to place his
martyrdom in theological and biblical contexts. Dr. Luther uses Psalm 9 to
show that persecution of the faithful is part of the divine plan of
salvation and to give comfort and hope in the midst of that. Verses 13 and
14 say, “O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that
I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may rejoice in your salvation.”
- Third, to offer consolation and encouragement to Henry’s congregation in Bremen. That he was not a heretic, that what he taught and preached was God’s own Word, was true doctrine, and brought the Right Spirit with it.
- And finally, to pray for the murderers. They need to be wept over, more than sainted Henry. They have now offended God with innocent blood and need the Gospel to convert them and bring them to the truth.
The magical words used were “heretic”, “anathema”, and “if
you don’t do, you’ll suffer too”. The authority used was God’s own Name, to
commit murder. The spell cast on the mob was fear and blackmail.
For Jesus, in our Gospel, also encounters spells, those of
“signs” and “wonders”. Can your god make the sun rise? Mine can. Can your god
turn the Nile red? Mine can. Can your god give me my heart’s desire, make me
his girlfriend, and keep the inquisitors away? Mine can.
Jesus confronts the spell that God has to be an Almighty
tyrant, in order to be God. That He must give in to every demand His
“followers” make of Him, or they will not believe in Him. That He must come and
go at their beck and call or they will find other gods.
To all this Jesus says, “Thy will be done”.
Jesus can’t help but be Almighty, it is what He is. He
demonstrates this every single time He interacts with Creation. “Because of
Your Promise”, King David teaches, “according to Your own Heart You have
brought about all this greatness, to make Your servant know it” (2 Sam 7:21).
Who He is, is The Giver, The God of Mercy Who visits His people with
compassion, in Christ.
He is Almighty in His Love and forgiveness and therefore
cannot help but give in as a Father would. He comes down to face His followers
and discuss with them, reason with them, what is to be done about things. He
desires mercy, they desire sacrifice. He gives it.
He healed, raised the dead, and did many good works. His
final good work was to be that sacrifice to purchase Life for dead sinners.
Yes, as our Gospel taught, the Son lives. The son of God lives, never to die
again. He has broken the spell of sin, death, and the devil by rightly using
the words He made.
Sin is not just bad choices, but active rebellion against
God. Redemption by blood is the only cure, found only in Jesus Who is both God
and man. Death is not part of life, but separation from the God of Life.
Reconciliation by sacrifice is the only remedy. The power of the devil is
nothing but to twist and mangle the truth, thus the Word of God is sent, in the
flesh, to dispel all darkness in our hearts, transferring us to His Kingdom of
Light (Acts 26:18, Col 1:13).
The spell-breaker for this world and its lies is the Blood
of Christ, now found to be circulating in His saints, whom He has counted
worthy to suffer as He suffered. In Christ, His Word is Truth and continues to
speak truth to this world. Spells aren’t real. It is simply our sinful nature
agreeing with them and complying when they demand we side with the mob.
Jesus does not need death to transfer His people out of this
sinful world or to accomplish His work. He uses His death to show the lack of
power sin, death, and the devil have. If the world loved you, they would not
kill you. God does not kill you, therefore His Word is the stronger and to be
trusted.
The Lord is our Martyr and we are allowed to participate in
His martyrdom, such that what happens to Him happens to us. Did He suffer and
die? So will we. Was He buried in death? So will we. Did He rise again, alive
from that grave, free from all humiliation, suffering, and murder forever more?
So will we.
The Word of life stands in stark contrast to the word of
death.
“It was a strange and dreadful strife when life and death
contended;
the victory remained with life, the reign of death was
ended.
Holy Scripture plainly saith that death is swallowed up by
death;
his sting is lost forever. Hallelujah!”, we sing on Easter
morning (LSB 458).
“Christians to the Paschal Victim, offer your thankful
praises…Death and life have contended, in that combat stupendous: the Prince of
Life Who died, reigns immortal” (LSB 460)
The Church is Christ’s own Body. In the Blood of the martyrs
is the Blood of Christ, crying out from the ground, as Abel’s did of old.
Blessed in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints for that reason.
Not only are they God’s own, Body and Blood, but they will continue to be His
own, even when suffering and death have done its worst.
The error of spell-craft is fought against by the Truth. The
Truth of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus and His saints. No
evil will overcome that. No hell can break down the gates of His Church. And no
spell can snatch you out of the hands of God. They simply have no authority
over you, since Christ has laid claim on you.
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