Jesus, the Actor [Trinity 26]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Daniel 7:9-14

• 2 Peter 3:3-14

• St. Matthew 25:31-46

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

 

So, Jesus speaks to us today in His Penultimate Gospel and says,

“Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

 

Though there is righteousness and holiness and goodness abounding in our Gospel reading for today, our primary thought is how to be a sheep and not a goat. We see the King seated in judgement and we think that He graciously reveals beforehand what’s on the test so that we can pass it. 

 

Giving food to those who are hungry. Giving drink to those who are thirsty. Giving welcome to those who are strangers. Giving clothes to those having none. Giving comfort to those suffering in sickness and peace to those suffering in prison.

 

And these follow quite nicely on the coattails of Jesus words: “Sell everything you have and give it to the poor” (Mt 19:21). For, if you sell all you have then you will have money for extra food. In fact, you don’t need the extravagant lifestyle you are living right now anyways. 

 

You can learn to be happy and live with less. Your grandmother and great-grandmother did it. They survived the “Great Depression” with just a garden and some chickens. No big screen TVs, no game days, no cell phones. Just people living in the moment and being decent. What a nicely laid out plan. Thank you God.

 

But this holy compassion of yours dies miserably when someone cries out, “Black lives matter” or some other social justice chant. Then your charity stops, your heart closes, and your mind turns antagonistic. “All lives matter”, or something else “clever”, is the response. But that is not what Jesus says to you today. 

 

He says the “least of these lives” matter. And if someone is suffering and in pain, wouldn’t they fall under this category? Yes, social movements can get out of hand and violence should be opposed, but don’t you think they started because someone was hurting?

 

Jesus says today that hungry lives matter, thirsty lives matter, hospitality matters, sick lives matter, and imprisoned lives matter. Jesus intentionally goes out of His way to help  specific groups of people — the alienated, mistreated, and those facing injustice. It is of course, the Christian thing to do, is it not?

 

And the trap has sprung. Your mind and heart have been ensnared and you are caught in a loop of self-doubt and self-loathing. You know you need to love your neighbor as yourself, but you just can’t bring yourself to help the “other side”. You have heard God’s demands and you reject them

 

Repent. There is nothing satan loves more than being able to toy with your moral sensibilities, especially when he can throw God’s Word into the mix. You see the hungry and you pass them by. You see the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned and you cast the responsibility upon someone else, for a few pieces of silver.

 

The hard truth of the world is that No Lives matter. Not yours, not “theirs”, and not even the alienated, mistreated, and those facing injustice. Why? Because all lives are sinful lives caught up in the never ending loop of self-importance and self-justification. You and the demons seem to think that simply by completing this little list from our Gospel reading, that you will have attained righteousness.

 

In other words, you have heard the Gospel all wrong. 

 

In the first place, what verbs in the Gospel could you possibly even conceive of being in your hands to mold to your own actions? Where in the reading is God commanding anything of you, in order that you earn an inheritance or even become sheep?

 

Jesus is the Son of Man, coming in His Glory, not you. He is sitting, He is gathering, separating, placing, and speaking. Jesus is the only one Who is doing the actions here and by thinking there was morality and justice to be gained, you lost it.

 

The morality and justice to be gained here is by hearing and believing that Jesus is the Son of God. It is not receiving wages for some goodness you think you created, but a handing out of inheritance. The Christian is not a hired hand doing good and seeking justice in the world. The Christian is an heir, by rights. That is by the rights of Christ. And anyway, you don’t earn an inheritance.

 

Look to our Introit, Gradual, and Alleluia Verse. God saves me. God hears my prayer. God helps. God upholds and He delivers. In the Gradual, God calls to heaven and earth, that He may judge. And finally in the Alleluia, the Lord ransoms. Jesus is doing all the actions.

 

In the second place, Jesus is not describing a plan of human action, but a plan of His divine action. Do you not remember our Lord’s words from the cross, “I thirst” (Jn 19:28)? Do you not remember that Jesus ate with sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes (Mt 9:11)? That He was the Stranger that came to His own and His own received Him not (Jn 1:11)? Or that they stripped Him before His crucifixion (Jn 19:23), or that He was sick unto death, the death of the cross (Phil 2:8), or that He was locked up in the prison of the Tomb and death?

 

It is Jesus’ life that matters. He is the One without sin and the only one to receive an inheritance from God. He is the Beloved Son Who does all His Father commands. He stays pure among every sin and even remains God in death.

 

What this means is that no matter how hard someone tries, unless Jesus choses him, he will remain in his sin. Unless Jesus turns someone into a sheep, he will never be a sheep. Unless Jesus gives faith, mercy, and life there will be none. Jesus alone has everything.

 

What our Gospel reveals to us today is the Gospel that Jesus will sit in Glory giving gifts. That is Christ’s glory. He is a Giver of gifts to men. In the glory of His death and resurrection for sinners, He purchases and wins an eternal inheritance for you, for free, for His Name’s sake.

 

Truly His Judgment seat is a Seat of Mercy. Though sin forces Him to judge, His true purpose is to suffer and die that He might hand out the benefits of His life and His actions. He comes to forgive, to seek, and to save. This is why He describes Himself in this way today. Not so that we simply ape Him, but so that we find Him!

 

The one True God will be serving. That is how we find Him. We find the seat of mercy where the kingdom of heaven is being handed out to forgiven sinners. We find the inheritance where the Son of God is truly given in Word, Baptism, and His Supper. We find the camp of sheep when we believe that Christ has given us faith to do so.

 

We do not make ourselves “sheep”. Jesus makes sheep. He gives faith to goats and turns them into sheep. He baptizes sinners and turns them into sons. He communes with rebels and renames them “blessed by my Father”. 

 

Jesus says, “For you have the poor with you always” and the hungry and the thirsty, the unclothed, the sick, the imprisoned, and also social problems. There will always be those things around you, not just to show a sinful, corrupt world to you, but to give you a neighbor. So do good to him.

 

“But Me you do not have always”, Jesus continues in St. Matthew 26:11. You will always have opportunity to do good to those who hate you, but churches come and go. Who’s to say Jesus will be in Accident forever? 

 

The difference is, in God’s presence He is the One doing Good. He is the Servant in Divine Service and His inheritance He hands out, even this day, in water and Word, Bread and Wine, Body and Blood. For He is not just “everywhere”. He is seated in Glory handing out the Kingdom of God in Word and Sacrament.

 

So Jesus’ Life matters and now, with His death and resurrection for all flesh, all lives do matter, for His sake. Not because some politician says so, but because God dies for all and all are deserving and made worthy to receive forgiveness in Christ. All lives matter because Jesus’s life matters, you have been baptized into that Life, and now, as sheep, get to lay down your own lives.

 

Jesus creates worth and gives worth to everyone. Even to you.

 

 

Abominable Liturgy [Trinity 25]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 32:1-20

• 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

• St. Matthew 24:15-28

 

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

 

On this antepenultimate Sunday, our Lord speaks directly to us saying,

“So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”

 

 Antepenultimate meaning the third last, of course. Third last Sunday, ever, is where our minds should be. As in after this Sunday, there will only be two more. If only. If only our Lord would come quickly. Come quickly, Lord Jesus and tarry not, for we have had more than enough.

 

 More than enough of abominations, which we think we see day in and day out, yet they never seem to be the right Abomination. The one that triggers The End. Unfortunate.

 

 But what is this abomination we are to look out for? We have the joke “Obama-nation”, but that has passed its prime. None of those over-the-top prophesies came true at all. So that’s not it. 

 

If we start with Genesis, there are two spots that mention “abomination” and both fall within the Joseph storyline. And both give away just about everything we need to know about this “abomination”, but in the reverse, as in Joseph is going to show us what the world, the devil, and our sinful nature find abominable. 

 

 When his brother’s come back for food a second time during the famine, they were told to bring Joseph’s younger brother Benjamin. At the sight of him, Joseph was overcome with emotion, it being so long since they last saw each other. He had to leave the room and weep. Regaining control over himself, he orders Supper to be set, but he and the Egyptians do not eat with Joseph’s brothers, because it is an abomination to the Egyptians (Gen 43:32).

 

This is what the devil thinks is an abomination: eating supper, breaking bread with God’s Chosen. The second mention of abomination in Genesis comes in chapter 46, when Joseph tells his brothers what to say in front of Pharaoh, in order that they may move their lives into Goshen, the richest of Egyptian land.

 

 Joseph tells them to say that they have kept livestock, they and their fathers before them, all their lives. For to say that they are shepherds would be an abomination to Egypt. Genesis 46:34 says, “…for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”

 

Shepherds and their breaking of the bread are abominations to the devil and his angels. Shepherds and the breaking of the bread. You got that, right?

 

So as we continue through Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the things that are abominations to God have to do with Temple life. The uncleanness of man, unclean animals, crustaceans (no more crab feasts!), abominable birds same as mentioned in v. 28 of today’s Gospel, and creepy crawlies (so much for impossible burgers!). 

 

In Deuteronomy, its adultery, divorce, homosexuality, perversion of marriage, perversion of male and female, and idols. However, it is not the things themselves that are abominable, rather it is what they do to the people: to you. That is, they make you unclean and therefore unable to go to Church to stand in God’s presence.

 

As you would expect then, Holy Scripture reveals one more abomination to sin, death, and the devil, that is Temple worship. Worship of the one true God is also an abomination, as we hear in Exodus 8:26. There, Pharaoh does one of his fake “giving in” moments, after the 4th plague: flies. He tells Moses to hold church within the land of Egypt. Moses, knowing better, replies: “It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? We must go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he tells us” (Ex 8:26-27).

 

So now we draw closer as we piece all this together and finally understand the Abomination and its desolation. Part of it has to do with the Temple and its life lived in faith. Part of it has to do with a Shepherd and His Supper. Part of it has to do with cleansing and purifying. ANd as Jesus comes on the scene, He finds that all these abominations have been neatly gathered in His house by men.

 

Ezekiel 8:10-12 says, “So I went in [the Temple] and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. ¹¹ And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel…Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up...they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’”

 

 So Jesus cleanses that Temple on Palm Sunday, but only in a pre-game way. He pulls off the covers and reveals the filth. He bores holes into the walls and exposes the darkness that sin has put there. I said pre-game, because it turns out the abominations are inside men, not just walls, says Zechariah 9:7, they are that which we make for ourselves to worship (Isa 2:20).

 

 Jesus is the rival that shows up. He is not like the abominations you worship, which you have carved upon your walls and upon your flesh. He does not look like those things in which you fear, love, and trust. The Shepherd becomes the abomination, in a world full of abominations.

 

 He proclaims that He will gather His sheep, as the Good Shepherd, and give them life everlasting. He claims He has a Supper to give, in order to break the bread of heaven for you that you may be forgiven. He proclaims that He has a Temple to be destroyed and raised three days later, to never be destroyed again, that you may live in for all eternity.

 

 He has a clean life, free from all sin, to offer. He bears the stripes, the wounds, the lies, the mockery, and yet replies, “All this I gladly suffer”. And He is lifted up, that He draw all men to Himself and He is made into a corpse, dying and being buried. The ultimate Abomination: the death of God, is the Abomination of desolation.

 

 So you missed the sign some 2000 years ago. You missed the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place that was your signal to flee from the world, its false Christ’s, and its Beast System. You are looking into the heavens, as the Apostles did on Ascension day. You are looking up for answers and signs, but Christ goes ahead of you to Galilee of the gentiles, down on earth.

 

For though the Abomination of Desolation has passed in history, its spirit lives on inside you. What are abominable to God are a delight to the eyes of sinners, good for food, and seemingly desirable to make one wise, like God, knowing good from evil (Gen 3).

 

 Jesus knocks the temple of abomination down to the ground with the “greatest” abomination: His suffering and death. However, this abomination that the Lord creates instead cleanses perfectly and knocks down the high places in your heart. Remember, the real abomination is that of your sinful nature, the world, and the devil’s reaction to God.

 

Thus what the Lord creates in His crucifixion is an anti-abomination, in that it dispels and destroys that which creates abomination: sin, death, and the power of the devil. This is what the Lord meant when He said that our abominations are in our teeth, in Zechariah 9:7. They are our original, corrupted selves in need of salvation.

 

For even though the death of God truly is the abomination of desolation, from that desolation of God on your behalf, comes life eternal. God does not stay dead. Instead He forces death to create life. He forces abomination to produce holiness. 

 

You see, even though the Temple, God’s Church, was full of abominations, He did not forsake her. As He promised, she would be a house where He and His Name would dwell forever (Deut 12:11; 1 Ki. 9:3). And it would be such a place come hell or high water. And both did come. Jesus made His bed in the lower places of the earth (Ps 139:8) and before that had cried out in the Psalms how the waters of His enemies came above His head, on the cross (Ps 69:2).

 

So now God’s Name is on the cross as well, “This is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”. Now God’s Name is beneath the earth, having been buried and descended into hell. Now God’s Name is upon the Resurrection, as He is the First-born of the dead. He surrounds His enemies and their abominations on all sides, ensuring His victory.

 

And grace upon Grace, He takes His Name and places it upon the cause and source of all abominations: your forehead and your heart. He baptizes you, a poor miserable sinner, into His holy, resurrected Body that you be cleansed fully, unlike the Temple, and share in God’s own holiness for all eternity.

 

And to continue to make His holiness known upon earth and to continue to lead you away from any and all abominations, He sets up His anti-abomination shop in plain sight, in all places, and in all times. The Good Shepherd sets up and call His shepherds to shepherd His people. Through them, He calls believers to break bread with Him, in Word and Sacrament, and commands that they eat and drink His Supper to proclaim His death until He comes.

 

In this way, Church and liturgy encapsulate and live in all that the world considers an abomination, which is a good thing. Because what God calls good, the world calls evil. Thus, our key to surviving this time of the “abomination of desolation” is Christ Crucified and the bunker, the safe house, the fallout shelter is His Word and Sacrament given and shed for you, handed out in His Divine Service.

 

 

Liturgy fights [Reformation 2021]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Revelation 14:6-7

• Romans 3:19-28

• St. John 8:31-36

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 1)
 
Who speaks to you from His own Gospel, saying:

“From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.”

 
If there is anything we can be sure about the Reformation, is that the real battle took place within the congregations not in the courtrooms, emperor’s chambers, or papal palaces. Luther and the Reformers’ emphasis was on getting information to the people that could be easily consumed by them, usually read. And where most everyone was, each day, was in Church, in Service.
 
But the information they were handing over wasn’t bibliographies, master’s theses, or how-to’s, it was doctrine and Liturgy. We have been talking about Liturgy and its importance, the last few weeks, but Liturgy, how we worship, is a fruit of Doctrine and we would go so far as to say, “Doctrine is life”. For without doctrine, we have no liturgy, and without liturgy we have no church life, and with no church life, we have no faith, and with no faith we have no Savior.
 
The fancy Latin phrase is: lex credendi, lex orandi. How we believe is how we pray, or practice. Our own Augsburg Confession states in Article 24: “Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence. Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved, save that the parts sung in Latin are interspersed here and there with German hymns, which have been added to teach the people. For ceremonies are needed to this end alone that the unlearned be taught [what they need to know of Christ].”
 
Though the Mass was historically retained, it was different because of the Reformation, and the pope knew it. The difference was that a true Mass, or Divine Service, can only be celebrated with correct doctrine. In other words, if you are teaching Christ incorrectly, then you are doing church incorrectly.
 
Thus we can say “doctrine is life” because without correct doctrine we cannot get to Church. But, you say, that’s not what Jesus would say. He wouldn’t let something as petty as church doctrine get in the way of accepting people.
 
And you would be right, but not in the way you think. Sin turns everything God does for you backwards and this is no different. Doctrine is not Jesus being intolerant, its you in your sin being intolerant towards God and His work of accepting people, as opposed to yours.  
 
We hear this in St. Matthew 11. Jesus doesn’t say “you suffer violence”, He says the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, but in what way? How can someone assault heaven? Jesus here mentions John the Baptist and all the prophets and even all the Law. John was beheaded for his preaching. The prophets were all killed by their parishioners, as Jesus teaches in Acts 7:52, “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered.”
 
Violence to heaven is done by assaulting her priests and her congregants, and as we explained last week, the Church is the object of demonic violence. In this backwards, upside-down world of sin and corruption, we project upon our Lord our own violence. We play the victim card when we sin and make poor choices, blaming God for our misfortunes and taking credit for our prosperity.
 
It turns out that when God speaks to us, He is telling us all about the upside-down. He is teaching. He is in-doctrine-ating us back to how it should be. You see, Doctrine is there for you, not for God. It is so you don’t lose your way and end up at the wrong Altar, Hell’s Altar.
 
So we sit at the feet of our Teacher. We hear His Law. We hear His Righteousness. We hear His Propitiation and we hear His Faith, as our Epistle reading taught us. Doctrine is not what you think it is either. Though you may find it scribbled on paper and in classrooms and lecture halls, true Doctrine is the Word of God: Jesus Christ. In this way:
 
Another word we can use for “doctrine” is “teaching”, as it goes in the Greek language. When we read our Bibles, we come across the word “teaching” more, but what that word is translating is “doctrine”. We hear it in St. Matthew’s Gospel, 7:28-29, “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”
 
Jesus taught all the time (Mt 4:23) and He even told the Apostles to baptize and teach (Mt 28:20). But what was so astonishing about His teaching? Why were the crowds amazed and what could He have possibly been teaching to invoke such a dramatic response from the crowd either calling Him God or calling for His death?
 
Since you can not grab the answer, you have confessed your sin of seeing Jesus as just another moral teacher of antiquity. That He says nice things like: play nice, be nice, and think nice. It never entered your sinful mind as to what could possibly have set apart Jesus’ teachings and doctrines from the rest of the priests and teachers of Israel.
 
Well, what were the teachers of Israel teaching? “Peace, peace, when there is no peace” (Jer 6:15), the doctrines of men as the commandments of God (Mt 15:9). And really that one is key, because Jesus prefaces that statement with “in vain do they worship me”. Really, its about worship.
 
So what were the teachers teaching? False worship. Worship of prosperity, instead of worship under the cross. Worship of self, instead of worship of God made man. Worship of personal preference, instead of worship in the Divine Service.
 
This is Jesus’s teachings that were so different and amazing: the simple fact that God’s Law, God’s Commands, God’s teachings, God’s doctrines, God’s Word had become flesh and dwells among us. It wasn’t enough for men to “play nice” together, they needed to be together, joined together in union with God for Christ’s sake.
 
So Jesus went about teaching this Personal Union. As He said at the end of St. Luke, “…that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations” (24:47).
He was preaching the Gospel (Lk 20:1), gathering together the faithful in order that He rise from the dead, create His Church, and commune with them in forgiveness and life.
 
Our doctrine, then, is the Logos of God, the teaching, the Word made flesh. This Doctrine comes down from heaven to proclaim the eternal Gospel to those who dwell on earth (Rev. 14:6) with His own lips. This Doctrine teaches and preaches the forgiveness of sins in His own flesh. This Doctrine suffers, dies, and rises to new life as the Resurrected doctrine. This Way, He does not just teach, but gives, Body and Blood.
 
With this Faith freely given and the resulting belief, the baptized faithful gather around this doctrine, this living flesh of God, and worship God in His light. “Doctrine is life” because in doctrine we find belief, and in belief we find faith, and in faith we find Christ Crucified for us.
 
The violence in putting God to death on a cross, which we confess to in our Creed, now sets you free. Not free to sin however and wherever and whenever, but free to find God while He may be found. Free to respond to the Lord’s invitation to forgiveness and life. Free to worship in a way that reflects the Lord’s Doctrine and how you believe.
 
The devil, the world, and your sinful nature couldn’t care less about your philosophy of truth or who your master is. They care where you worship, how you worship, and Who you worship. The front lines of your struggle against your own sin is right in this room, where God is in charge.
 
The world’s rubber hits the road of the Church, in this spot, and explodes. The Liturgy here proclaims correct doctrine and correct faith, being centered on Christ. Thus, the Reformation fight continues with us, in the liturgy, as we publicly proclaim to the world: this is God ordained Faith and worship and I have come to receive what Christ gives.
 
The battle is engaged, our Captain takes the field, victory is won and handed out freely to all who believe.
 
 

Liturgical laughter [Trinity 21]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 1:1-2:3

• Ephesians 6:10-17

• St. John 4:46-54

 

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

 

Who speaks you this morning saying,

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

Liturgy demarked [Trinity 20]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 55:1-9

• Ephesians 5:15-21

• St. Matthew 22:1-14

 

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

 

Who speaks you this morning saying,

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

Liturgy moves [Trinity 19]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

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

• St. Matthew 9:1-8

 

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

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

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

Law and Gospel [Trinity 18]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Deuteronomy 10:10-21

• 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

• St. Matthew 22:34-46

 

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