Misericordia: A Life laid down [Easter 3]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Ezekiel 34:11-16

• 1 Peter 2:21-25

• St. John 10:11-16

 

Grace to you and peace from Him Who Is and Who Was and Who Is To Come: Jesus Christ. (Rev 1)

 

Who speaks to you through His Introit in His Divine Service saying:

“The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord: Alleluia!”

 

Each and every Sunday, we are saturated with the voice of our Good Shepherd. Every chant, every prayer, every hymn from the Bible, as you can see for yourself in your hymnal. God has ordained it this way so that you are familiar with His voice your entire life. So familiar that it is like family. We repeat the sounding joy over and over so that, by God’s Grace, we may hear our Shepherd when the Last Invitation goes out.

 

With these words from our Introit, you are connected to the early medieval Church. Over a thousand years ago, this part of Psalm 33 was employed to express and proclaim this Third Sunday of Easter. On top of that, the chant tone we used for it, while having some modern modifications, dates back at least 1500 years. And the Psalm itself, was composed about 3,000 years ago, which then connects us to the rest of God’s revealed Word to us.

 

You are loved by God, O little Flock. You are remembered. You are treasured and not an orphan. This is part of the goodness of the Lord, chanted of in the Introit. Ironic, too, because Psalm 33 is termed an orphan psalm. It is one of 50 in the book of Psalms that do not have a clear author. That is ok because they do not disagree with the rest of the book or the entirety of Scripture.

 

And another thing that gives great comfort in trusting these psalms is that they can be explained ceremonially. As in, a large, biblical character may not have written them, though they probably did, but instead the Old Testament Church may have. As in, these Psalms were written for the Divine Service done in the Temple. Very likely, the Book of Psalms is a hymnal.

 

As in, now by chanting this psalm at this time and in this place, you are now in communion with the Old Testament Temple worship, chanting at the appropriate, set-aside-time to pray, praise, and give thanks, along with all the other believers in Christ. 

 

So nice. But also, how bloodless, as in we have never met those people and praying, praising, or giving thanks is no real sacrifice on our side. Time has a way of drying out our bones, so to speak, and we lose that familiar, blood connection. The goodness of the Lord may extend to us from the beginning of all things, but what good does that do me today since I cannot interact with those people? 

 

The word used in the Introit psalm for “goodness” is actually a little deeper than simply being good. The Lord’s goodness is His mercy; thus, the word is just that. Better to understand the psalm as saying, “The earth is full of the acts of mercy of the Lord: Alleluia”. 

 

Acts of mercy come in two ways: spiritual and physical. From today’s Gospel, Jesus explains it as the Voice and His Life. In the Voice, Jesus teaches that the Gospel far exceeds monetary and physical aid. We see this in Jesus’s encounter with the paralytic. On the 19th Sunday after Trinity, men of His own city, bring to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed (Mt 9).

 

Instead of healing him, Jesus forgave his sins and would have left it at that, had the scribes present not accused Him of blasphemy, “only God can forgive sins”. At that, Jesus did heal to prove the fact that He was God. Nevertheless, we see the emphasis on forgiveness. The Gospel is more important than healing.

 

In Acts 3, a lame man was brought to the city gate daily to beg for money. Sts. Peter and John looked directly at him, said they didn’t have money, but healed him instead. The point being, physical restoration expands the meaning of mercy. Forgiveness is first, but Christ’s name meets the deepest need. This act of Apostolic charity became an evangelical platform that gained thousands of converts (Acts 4:4).

 

When thinking about the life of Jesus, we must think on His death. This is the meat of “acts of mercy”, or in the Latin “misericordia”. Literally, “miserable heart”. It is the miserable heart of the world that demands our death, with no mercy. In fact, there is a medieval weapon named the Misericorde and it was used for mercy killing mortally wounded knights after a battle.

 

No real mercy, however. No life. Just misery. No “thank you”. No “well done good and faithful soldier”. Just, “you’ve outlived your usefulness”. This is the extent of the world’s mercy and what our old Adam extends to his neighbor.

 

It is the miserable heart of Jesus that combats the world and our sinful nature, for His voice and His life have come into this world. The Word of God is made flesh and has compassion upon His creation.

 

His voice goes out, with His Voice, all under the banner of His Gospel, that Gospel of the free forgiveness of sins. And He lays down His life for the sheep. Not a miserable heart, but the ultimate act of mercy. A joyful heart, joyfully giving His own life, that we may live. A merciful heart, desiring mercy and not sacrifice.

 

God’s misery is not like our misery. He is only miserable until there is His compassion. Jesus does not give in to despair, but He does weep, He does anguish, He does get anxious. This all, however, is only for His suffering and death. He weeps for His friends Lazarus, whom He must rescue from the dead. He bows down in aguish and anxiety when He nears His cross. Not because He doesn’t know, but because He is true man.

 

But the kind of power to forgive sins and rise from the dead does not come from man. St. Peter proclaims, back in Acts 3, “Men of Israel, why are you surprised by this? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?” 

 

The miserable heart of God is the joyful heart of God. Not miserable, but joyful and merciful. For the dagger that pierces the haze of time and history for us is the cross of Christ. To bring life to us who are here, thousands of years disconnected from those people, places, and events. It is the Blood of Jesus that centers all of history and all of His Church.

 

St. Peter explains, again in Acts 3:

“By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know has been made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through Him that has given [this man] this complete healing in your presence” (Acts 3:16)

 

The Blood of Jesus comes to us by faith alone. The Good Shepherd’s voice leads us to His Body and Blood, His blessing, and His history. The Word of God is living, because the Word is Jesus. Therefore history is alive as well, in Christ. 

 

Do you want to be a part of the Third Sunday of Easter, in the true Church? Faith alone has granted you this seat. Do you want to be in the choirs of the true Church spanning thousands of years? Faith alone. Do you want to worship the Lord with the Temple, with David, Moses, and Adam? 

 

Jesus is the key. The Good Shepherd calls, gathers, and enlightens all to Himself. He alone fulfills God’s promise, made to Israel, to gather all those exiles into their own land, their own green pasture, which is the Body of Jesus. 

 

The Body of Jesus Who was crucified. The Body of Jesus Who bids us follow Him. The Body of Jesus into Whom we are baptized. The Body of Jesus Who gives us our cross to bear, our own misericorde dagger. 

 

Indeed, we are mortally wounded by sin. By faith in the Name of Jesus, we are killed and raised to new life. In Holy Baptism’s dagger, we are united to Christ’s death and resurrection. Why? Because the Old Adam in us must daily die. Bury him, and do not visit his grave again. Rather, let Christ crucify him and bury him.

 

When we fall into temptation, the Old Adam rises again, to dry us out, to cut us off from family, from our Church family. He promises fulfillment but delivers only suffering. Christ promises suffering, but delivers only eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and faith in Him. All this He accomplishes through His Word and sacrament.

 

So where do you belong? Which line is the line following the Good Shepherd? Where have your fathers gone before you in the faith? Will there be mercy when you get there?

 

In Christ alone there is mercy in death, for the grave is open and death has lost its sting. The Shepherd has laid down His life for the sheep. There is no other history and there can be no other song.

 

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

 

 

Word and good bones [Easter 2]

  * * T E X T  O N L Y ~ A U D I O  O N L Y * * 

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Ezekiel 37:1-14

• 1 John 5:4-10

• St. John 20:19-31

Grace to you and peace from Him Who Is and Who Was and Who Is To Come: Jesus Christ. (Rev 1)

 
Who speaks to you through His Apostles saying:

“These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God”

 
Thus far from God’s Word, written and spoken to us, because God wants us to always hear His Word. And what better way to accomplish that than to create His Church and place all of those words in Service, prayer, and song? You are to hear Jesus connecting you to His Church today, His Body, and giving you the words to praise Him with. These Church words you are to memorize, treasure, and teach, as He commands.
 
Cremation is cheaper than a regular funeral, because bones are not included in the cost. Oh you get the bones of your loved one back, but they have been ground to dust, not burned with the rest. You see, most of what chemically makes up your bone is non-flammable and actually melts at high temperatures, not burns. 
 
The bones are always left behind.
 
The bones are always left behind to tell a story. In this case, it was that our loved one lived a life and we loved them. In Divine Service today, our Lord gives us two instances of bones. First in our Old Testament, where the Lord says of the valley of very dry bones, “these bones are the whole house of Israel” (37:11). Now, this may be a metaphor, but who’s bones were those and why were they in that valley?
 
The second instance is this Easter appearance to His Apostles. It is St. Luke who records Jesus saying this: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” (Luke 24:39)
 
Now, because of our Epistle reading, we would expect Jesus to say Body and Blood, not “flesh and bone”. This is the only place Jesus speaks this way about Himself. This, too, tells a story, or Jesus is meaning to connect us to the story. That is the story of Adma an Eve, when Jesus presented Eve to Adam and he said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen 2:22).
 
Brought into easter, then, that old bones story is Jesus teaching that His will is to be united with us. That we be a part of His Body in order to grant us eternal life with Him. It is an important part of the complete story of Jesus the Crucified that He renew us and take us into Himself: water, spirit, flesh, blood, and bones.
 
We use this same metaphor today, when we see an old building that is still doing its job of standing up. We say it has good bones. After our admiration, then its “who built it”, “why is it here”, “what stories could these walls tell”? And they tell nothing, of course, because they are walls and walls don’t speak. 
 
However, the Lord’s Church is different. During the Reformation there was a fight over bones. When fighting for a proper understand of the Mass, what we term the Divine Service today, the Lutherans found 6 things that violate the rule: “The Word of God shall establish articles of faith, and no one else, not even an angel”, from our Confessions (SA II:II:15).
 
First was the invention of purgatory, next was appearances of souls of the dead demanding vigils, pilgrimages, and alms. Third was those pilgrimages, fourth the monasteries, sixth the infamous indulgences, and fifth, because we’re talking about it, relics. These relics were mostly the bones of saints, when in reality they were animal bones. But, they were sold as bones so blessed that you don’t even need Jesus for faith.
 
Bones that outlasted the bodies of the saints. Bones that contain a history. Bones that connect us to our history and patristic wisdom. And that’s the religious pull. If only we had something more than a book. If only we had something more than spirituality. If only we had something to sink our teeth into, then our faith would be genuine and we could know that it came from God.
 
Repent! As your Introit stated we are indeed newborn infants in the faith. We love to misunderstand God, because it makes more sense to us. We would rather be connected to God in our own way, since we know ourselves best and can feel the results.
 
Except we don’t. The famous line “know yourself”, is a lie of this world. Instead, Jesus says, “deny yourself”. Deny, deny, deny ourselves to death maybe, until all that’s left of us are some dry bones. Yes, dry, dead, and forgotten in our sin. That’s our belief. That’s the apostles’ belief, too, on Easter Sunday. 
 
So we seek another way, the way of better men than us. But all the biblical men are dead. Long dead. That is probably what the Lord wanted to teach us in the valley of dry bones. So we imagine that if we just have a bone from them, no matter how small, we believe we can be connected to them and their holiness. Even though we believe that better men than us lived, we are it today. Dead, dry, forgotten.
 
That all changes when Jesus passes through the locked doors. You see, when you died and were buried with your fathers, as the Bible says elsewhere, it was your bones that were kept. For example, Joseph, of the coat of many colors fame, made his people swear an oath to take his bones with them if they ever left Egypt. Thus, Moses took Joseph with the people, just before crossing the Red Sea (Ex 13:19).
 
What that means for us today is that bones are locked inside the bone box. They cannot get themselves out. Though a living person may open the box, the bones are trapped in death. Same with the bones of saints, apostles, and prophets. All dead. All trapped.
 
Imagine a bone box opening on its own and the person coming out! That is the debilitating fear that held the apostles in that upper room. Why didn’t Jesus knock on the Upper Room door on Easter? “Behold I stand at the door and knock”, right? 
 
They wouldn’t have let Him in. There would have been furniture piled up against the door. There would have been a laundry bill. Was it Jesus? Was it the Jews? Was it Elijah? The Apostles were overwhelmed and sick with fear. They could feel it in their bones.
 
Jesus, in a suit of flesh and bones, came in anyways. He came in out of His tomb that was supposed to be locked and sealed. His bones are not supposed to move around, much less speak “Peace be with you”! His bones are not supposed to tell the story. His bones are not supposed to connect us to God. His bones were not supposed to do anything but lie still until the end of days.
 
Jesus was not supposed to, but Jesus is alive, never to die again. Death has no more dominion over Him. So while Jospeh’s story must be told for him, Jesus comes to tell His own story, which includes Joseph. There Jesus stands in His flesh and bones to bring peace to His wayward Apostles and to bring a message: Go.
 
Go into all the world with the flesh and bones of Jesus. That is, His Body, the Church. What are the bones of the Church? Are they dead saints? 
They are the words of the Living Savior. The Church has the Word. It is the Word that carries the stories to us and faith to our ears. We have been baptized into His Body. And what is Baptism? Water and the Word. What is a worthy reception of the Lord’s Body and Blood? He who has faith in these words, “given and shed for the forgiveness of sins”.
 
Water, blood, Spirit, and belief. All these come wrapped in one package for us. This is why the Epistle speaks of overcoming the world by believing that Jesus is the Son of God and why the same author, said in the gospel today, “These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God.”
 
This is why the Church has her own language and uses words and phrases you don’t find in the outside world. We use these words because they connect us to our faith, the Bible, the Apostles, our God, all of it. Every Sunday we sing the word “Hosanna” and it is Palm Sunday when we hear why. When we sing it, we sing along with the crowd around Jesus, on that first Palm Sunday.
 
Every Sunday, we sing, Gloria in Excelsis, or “Glory to God in the highest”. It is Christmas that let’s us hear just what those words make us a part of. Where Palm Sunday was on earth, the Gloria in Excelsis is the song of angels. Our history and memories in those words now tie us to heaven.
 
And the list of these words, these bones, goes on. By hearing, singing, and praying these words, you prove the survival, longevity, and endurance of God’s Word. Thus, the Church has accumulated these words and kept them around, teaching them to the next generation. 
 
Here our Psalms preach to us: “Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name” (Psalm 86:11). And from Deuteronomy 11:18-20, “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
 
Hosanna, Gloria, Amen, Sanctus, Nunc Dimittis, and Justification all are strange words and yet all are used by Jesus to join us to Him. “Truly, truly, I say to you”, Jesus says in John 5:24, “whoever hears my Word and believes Him Who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” 
 
At the Word of Jesus, in His Church, spoken to us in this valley of dry bones, we then are brought together. We are gathered, bone to bone, sinews and flesh, as Jesus knits us into one communion in the mystical Body of Christ, as we pray at funerals. He gives us breath through His Gospel preached in its purity and we are stood up again, back from the death of our sins, a great army for the Lord.
 
We are gathered in Jesus. We have hope in Jesus, because His bones came back. Risen from the grave, Jesus proves His words true and shows His intentions. Not to leave us as orphans, but to be as He is, Body and Blood. And to have His breath, His Holy Spirit, to remember, to witness, to confess these same words, “Peace be with you”. 
 
No one’s bones have come back, except Jesus’s. No one’s words hold power except Jesus’s. No one’s wounds heal except Jesus’s. We do not fill Church with our own words. Though it is our language, our Lord’s words still carry their full strength and we hear and believe, ever to confess the One Who comes by water and blood. Water to baptize and Blood to feed, unto life everlasting. Amen.
 
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
 
 

Joseph's tomb [The Resurrection of our Lord]

* * * T E X T  O N L Y ~~ N O  A U D I O * * *

 READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Job 19:23-27

• 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

• St. Mark 16:1-8

Grace, Mercy, and Peace are secure for you from God our Father, through our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus the Crucified of God!
 
Who speaks to us, even today, and we have been given ears to hear:

“Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen”

 
Thus far from our Gospel reading this morning, included by God in His Word for us to know and believe in the tomb of Jesus. And that belief and knowledge should point us to the very true and historical fact that Jesus died and was buried, and that the tomb was and is today, very very empty. 
 
This applies to two areas for us. First that we can be certain that the Bible is true, historically and religiously, and second that it is also true for the rest of the world, to which we are to go out into and share the Truth.
 
Joseph of Arimathea is a very important figure in history, for he was given charge of the Holy Grail. In his last words, carved within the Cave of Caerbannog, he writes, “He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle of aaaaggghhh”.
But that is a silly story and not ours today.
 
Our story is that is man is a very crucial reason we know there was a tomb of Jesus. All 4 Gospels say that Joseph of Arimathea was the one who owned the tomb and had the body of Jesus put there. So who was St. Joseph of Arimathea?
 
St. Joseph of Arimathea was a Biblical figure who assumed responsibility for the burial of Jesus after his crucifixion. Three of the four canonical Gospels identify him as a member of the Sanhedrin, calling him a “member of the council” (Mk 15:43) while the Gospel of Matthew identifies him as a rich disciple of Jesus. 
 
St. Matthew 27 describes him simply as a rich man and a disciple of Jesus (v.57), but according to St. Mark 15, Joseph of Arimathea was "a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God" (v.43). St. Luke 23:51 adds that he "had not consented to their decision and action".
 
According to John 19, upon hearing of Jesus' death, this secret disciple of Jesus "asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission." Joseph immediately purchased a linen shroud and proceeded to Golgotha to take the body of Jesus down from the cross. There, Joseph and Nicodemus took the body and bound it in linen cloths with the spices (myrrh and aloes) that Nicodemus had brought. Luke 23:55-56 states that the women "who had come with him from Galilee" prepared the spices and ointments.
 
These courageous disciples then moved the Body of Jesus to a man-made tomb, hewn from rock in a garden nearby. The Gospel of Matthew alone suggests that this was Joseph's own tomb (27:60). The burial was undertaken speedily, "for the Sabbath was drawing on" and “the tomb was near” (Jn 19:42).
 
Joseph answers the question of whether or not Jesus was really buried in the tomb. Not just because he had a tomb ready and close by, but because he is a very unlikely candidate for burying Jesus. For one thing, he as a member of the Sanhedrin, the very council that voted, voted mind you!, to condemn Jesus.
 
 This is probably why St. Luke made sure to mention that Joseph did not consent, probably wasn’t even there for the vote, as Jesus said, “this is your hour and the power of darkness” (Lk 22:53). I’m willing to say that even Nicodemus was not there as well or any other faithful, real Jew at that time. 
 
In fact, given the early Christian anger and bitterness towards the Jewish leaders who crucified Jesus, its highly unlikely that the Christians writing the gospels would choose Joseph to give Jesus an honorable burial or make him up as a character in their fake religion, according to the world. Especially when all the disciples deserted Him!
 
Not only that, but no one else tried to write a competing story of Jesus’s burial to try and remove Joseph. thus, by trusting the Joseph of Arimathea was a real, historical figure, we can trust the gospel accounts that Jesus was buried and rested in the tomb, just as our creeds tech us.
 
 Which brings us to another interesting fact. Though older than the copies of the gospels we have physically, 1 Corinthians is not older in time, and it records a very early creed which also teaches of Jesus’s burial. This we hear on the 11th Sunday after Trinity and says:
“For l delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to The Twelve. Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles.” (15:3-7)
 
And even though St. Paul does not say “empty tomb”, it is there. The resurrection has to do with bones, just as we will hear in Ezekiel 37, next Sunday, the valley of dry bones. And then, Jesus will say to His Apostles, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” (Lk 24:39).
 
Implicitly but quite clearly then, by St. Joseph of Arimathea and our own, historical creeds, an empty tomb was left behind. Thus was fulfilled as was written by the Prophet, “And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth” (Isaiah 53:9).
 
Thanks be to God for the Lord’s servant Joseph of Arimathea, who with reverence and godly fear prepared the body of our Lord and Savior for burial, and laid it in his own tomb: Grant, to us, O Lord, Your faithful people grace and courage to love and serve Jesus with sincere devotion all the days of our life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end:
 
Of Whom, St. John Chrysostom from the 4th century, preaches:
 
If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast.
If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord.
If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense.
If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward.
If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast.
If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in nowise be deprived therefore.
If any have delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near, fearing nothing.
If any have tarried even until the eleventh hour, let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness; for the Lord, who is jealous of his honor, will accept the last even as the first; he gives rest unto him who comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has wrought from the first hour.
And he shows mercy upon the last, and cares for the first; and to the one he gives, and upon the other he bestows gifts.
And he both accepts the deeds, and welcomes the intention, and honors the acts and praises the offering.
Wherefore, enter you all into the joy of your Lord; and receive your reward, both the first, and likewise the second.
You rich and poor together, hold high festival. You sober and you heedless, honor the day.
Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast.
The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously. The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.
Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness.
 
Let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Savior's death has set us free.
He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it.
By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive.
He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions.
It was embittered, for it was abolished.
It was embittered, for it was mocked.
It was embittered, for it was slain.
It was embittered, for it was overthrown.
It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains.
It took a body, and met God face to face.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.
O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory?
Christ is risen, and you are overthrown.
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen.
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice.
Christ is risen, and life reigns.
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages.
Forever and ever.
Amen.
 
Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!
 
 

What a Christian is [Easter Sunrise]

* * * T E X T  O N L Y ~~ N O  A U D I O * * *

 READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 25:6-9

• 1 Corinthians 15:1-25

• St. John 20:1-18

To my true children in the common faith: Grace and Peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior (Titus 1)
 
Who speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:

“Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

 
All of His work being finished, Jesus now gives this strange warning and command to St. Mary. This is included by God, in His Word in order for us to ponder why we are here on this particular Sunday and what it means that we call ourselves Christian. Jesus wants to point us to certainty in Him not ourselves, that we are Christian because of Christ. Therefore we should love our name’s sake and love His Church.
 
What makes a Christian? Can you just say “I am a Christian and it be true”?
The world and our sinful nature fight for supremacy on this point. The world wants Christianity to be just another religion, able to be relegated to a mental disability corner, but dangerous enough to be persecuted and eliminated. And our sinful nature wants nothing more than for Christianity to be of that same world.
 
It is a strange relationship, to be sure. On one hand, the world is trying to absorb Christianity into its nothingness and on the other, so-called Christians are doing their best to be doing the things of the world. And I’m not just talking about sinful behavior, “of the world”, stuff. I’m talking about changing doctrine and sacrificing truth.
 
For example, we know the reason that unbelievers don’t want Christians involved with politics. What we don’t always think about is why self-professed believers don’t want the Church involved with the government, because its the same reason. They both want to be able to do whatever they want, that’s the bottom line. They both want to interpret the Bible however they want, with no repercussions or discussions. “Imagine”, they say, “if the law of the land were ‘baptism is for babies’”. I don’t believe that. How unbiblical! What a horrible world that would be.
 
Not all who claim the title of Christian or even Lutheran are what they say they are.
 
So what makes a Christian?
Better yet, we should start again by asking “What is Christianity?”
“Christianity is the life and salvation God has given us in and through Jesus Christ.”, says our Small Catechism (LSCE, 47). This definition is primarily dependent on God’s service to us in Jesus Christ, because without Him giving us Jesus, there would be no life or salvation.
 
Christianity, then, is not merely knowing certain facts, doing certain things, or pledging allegiance to certain groups.  It is, rather, receiving the Lord of Life who is among us as One Who Serves.  The faith He gives us, then, will have its own effect on what we say and do and how we live.
 
What is this service God supplies?
For one thing, He provides new clothes. A Christian is one who has been covered and clothed by the sweet exchange. 2 Corinthians 5:21 is the foundational verse: "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the Righteousness of God in Him".
 
What else could cover our sin, but His righteousness? To be a Christian is to be the recipient of a divine substitution. A Christian is someone whose guilt is overwhelmed by the Holy One’s merit. It is not our pious decisions that makes us Christians, but that "holy and wonderful" moment where our iniquity is hidden in His righteousness. This hiddenness is what we term Justification.
 
Therefore, what makes a true Christian is being unable to do any of that. This is the meaning of Galatians 4:4, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son”.  You see, God was waiting for 2 things, first, that our wickedness reach its peak and second, that our inability be clearly shown, in order that there be no reason to boast.
 
Some argue that we must do what is in ourselves in order to prepare for Grace. Titus 3:5, however, speaks of no preparation whatsoever saying, “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own Mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit”.
 
A Christian is not found in nature, nor is he born by nature. He must be reborn by Grace. A Christian’s righteousness in external to himself, received by faith alone. His internal renewal are the good works that follow, but never earn salvation.
 
God does not reward any of our efforts with grace. Instead, He surprises us with benefits surpassing all our expectation. Grace is not the "capstone" of a human process; it is a "sudden" and "unsearchable operation" done to us. It is not that we sought God, but that "He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities" when we were "unworthy". All in order to make us worthy.
 
For Jesus, even Easter morning is not yet time to cling to Him and become a part of Him, as He says to St. Mary, “Do not cling to me”. Not, “don’t ever cling to me”, but don’t cling to me yet. After Jesus has ascended, then we may cling to Him. And His ascended Self is this: that His Word be preached through His Apostles and that we be devoted to the fellowship, the breaking of the bread, and the prayers (Acts 2:42).
 
We do not find Jesus in nature. He came down, as He said, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh” (John 6:51).
He does not wait for an invitation, but interrupts our fatal rebellion.
 
St. Augustine says, "Man, when he was created, used his free will badly and lost both himself and it." (Enchiridion IX:30). St. Bernard of Clairvaux comments that, “God is the Author of salvation; the free will is only capable of being saved” (On Grace and Free Will, p4-5). Grace does not find a prepared heart, rather it creates a new heart.
 
All this is why our Lutheran Confessions state that the chief worship of God in the Gospel is the desire to receive forgiveness of sins, grace, and righteousness (Ap IV(II): 49).
And Faith is that worship which receives God’s offered blessings (Ap IV(b):189).  These blessings God has located in His Word and Sacrament as witnessed to by Acts 2:42.
 
So a true Christian worships, in this way. A true Christian doesn’t just “go to church”, but gathers together with the risen Christ and His church to receive His gifts of forgiveness and life.
 
A Christian, therefore, is a "miracle of grace" who lives as a stranger on earth because he has been wrapped in the righteousness of Heaven. A Christian is "made" not by an upward climb of the soul, but by the downward descent of the Son into our helplessness. A Christian is "passive" in his justification. To suggest we must "prepare" for grace is to say that the sick man must heal himself before he can visit the Physician.
 
“For by a single offering”, says Hebrews 10:14, “He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Heb 10:14).
He Who? Jesus. Who is in charge? Jesus. Who’s religion and Church is it? Christ’s. Its right there in the name, “Christ-ianity”.