Jesus

There are 136 posts tagged Jesus (this is page 2 of 46).

“Your Sorrow Will Be Turned to Joy” – Jubilate – John 16:16-22

21. April 2013
Jubilate
John 16:16-22

The Scriptures describe our reality as an exodus, a journey between two worlds. The old world is one of bondage to sin under the tyrannical rule of the Law. This world is marked by suffering, grief, anguish, and death. And roaming about the world is its ruler the Devil. We were born into this world, born of the flesh, to suffer and die as all have since Adam.

Your loving and merciful God wants all to be saved from this body of death. Thus, He sent His Son Jesus in the flesh, to redeem those of flesh. His Son gave himself into your bondage, lived under the law, suffered in your sorrow, and died for you. By His death, He destroyed death’s stranglehold, released you from your sin, and tore you from the Devil’s grasp.

This became yours in Holy Baptism. Satan’s demon was exorcised, all your sin forgiven, your flesh crucified, the old Adam drowned. Each day, by Baptism, your sin is forgiven, your death gotten over with, and Christ’s righteousness given to you. A new Adam rises from the ashes of the old. Being done. God’s work-in-progress. And on the last day God will raise you and all the dead and give to you and all believers in Christ eternal life. Done. Complete. Here in time and there in eternity.

Thus, your life is an exodus, passing from death to life. St. Paul describes it as running a race, a marathon. All along the course of this life, you are still haunted by sin, devil, and death. They nip at your heels, trying to drag you back to Sheol. Your mortal enemies want nothing better than for you to lose faith, lose sight of the goal, to lose Jesus. These defeated enemies are relentless. They have lost but have not given up.

But you are not without hope. You see with faith’s eyes the finish line. You see and know full forgiveness, the resurrected body, and unending life with Christ and all the saints. Christ Jesus blazed the trail of salvation. He entered into the holy city as king, then to be crucified, and die at the behest of the Jews and the hands of the Romans. All cried out to crucify Him. God died your death with weight of the world’s sin upon Him. He was buried but on the third day rose from the grave.

Jesus has shown you the way of salvation. It is to die with Him and then to rise with Him. By Baptism, you were buried. And by Baptism, you also rose. This good work of God is begun in you and will see its completion in the day of Jesus Christ. Thus we are pilgrims, exodus-ing with Christ Jesus on the way He trod. Yes, we will die but so will the old Man finally be laid to rest. And with Christ’s command, with the voice of a trumpet, He will call us out of the grave, resurrected and living in His holiness and righteousness forever.

Jesus describes this reality in today’s Holy Gospel. “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” This became real for the disciples twice. First, Jesus “departed” into the grave but after “a little while,” some three days, He appeared to them again. He rose from the dead and appeared before them as proof. they saw Him and believed. St. Thomas put his hands in the resurrected Savior’s wounds. They have seen and testify this is the truth. Then, after fifty days, they saw Him no longer for Jesus rose into the heavens and is seated at the Father’s right hand. They will not see Him in the flesh again until another “little while,” when He comes on the Last Day. Their faith rested on His promise of return.

Today, we stand with the disciples in the midst of the second “little while.” We cannot see our Lord apart from faith in the Evangelists’ testimony. Indeed, over these recent weeks we have witnessed events that would lead us to believe our Lord is gone and absent from creation. The trial of serial murderer-by-abortion Kermit Gosnell began. Witness after witness described the brutal killing of children born alive. We heard of the explosion of a chemical factory in Texas with a dozen killed and many more injured.  There was the earthquake in China, killing 157 and injuring thousands. Storms blew through the country with many floodwaters still rising and destroying property and possessions. And there was the bombing this week in Boston, killing three and injuring many.

If we look for God in these things, we despair. During this “little while,” Jesus’ words ring true. “You will weep and lament…” Our weeping and lamenting begins for the lives lost, homes and possessions destroyed, and the gruesome murders in that Philadelphia clinic. We weep and lament because we see how corrupt our world is. We witness tragedy after tragedy. We see how nature itself is at odds with us, seeking to destroy us. We observe the corruption of mankind as we struggle to understand the bombers and their motives. As we look to these things we see only the terrifying old world of sin and death.

Our weeping and lamenting won’t end when the sting of this week’s tragedy and deaths fade. Our sorrow continues even when things seem better. When the sun shines, the flower blooms, and even when life comes into the world, we Christians still cry tears. Why? We know the reality of our fallen flesh and corrupt world. We don’t hope for a better life now. We confess our sinfulness in sorrow and contrition. Dear Lord, we want to do better!

The world rejoices while Christians cry over sin. The world thinks disobedience before God a figment of our imagination. The world cheers in mockery when you drag yourself to church. They think it hilarious that we would acknowledge your nature before your God.  And not just sin but forgiveness, too! They laugh at your faith, thinking it absurd that God the Father for the sake of Jesus forgives you. Salvation in Jesus alone is too good to be true. Life eternal is a joke for late-night TV.

For the world and it’s errors, we also are in sorrow. That so many, even those closest to us, would find the true faith to be a joke—that also grieves us. We mourn that so few listen to the Holy Spirit speaking through the Word. We weep that too many ignore the truth and follow after error.

Jesus has a special word for us. “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” For now, while we are on this journey, our lives are full of grief and sorrow. We lament that state of the world and our flesh. We grieve that so few believe that forgiveness in Jesus’ blood is the only lasting remedy for this sorrow. But do not grieve without hope. We know that Christ is raised and that we, too, will be raised with Him. On that day, all fear and sorrow will be banished. Only life and joy will remain. Our sin will be forgotten. No trace of death will remain. The evil one gone.

Like the woman giving birth, Jesus says, the sorrow only lasts for a time. Yes, all creation cries out in the pangs of childbirth. Daily dying to sin and rising in Christ comes in those difficult words of contrition. It’s difficult business. The journey is hard, the warfare long. But through this difficulty, your lives are being transformed. God’s image and likeness is being restored in you through repentance and forgiveness.

Just like the mother whose baby is delivered, so also for the children of God. You grieve for now but in the end you will no longer remember our anguish. Each day, through Christ’s forgiveness your sorrow is turned to joy. And when the work of your rebirth by the Holy Spirit is complete, you will have forgotten this present darkness. The way of salvation is known. Christ Jesus has crossed the finish line already. You get to ride in on His coattails as a free gift. On that day you will see the “man born into this world,” Jesus Christ, the only-begotten of God, born of St. Mary. Now in the Lord’s Supper you see Him as in a mirror dimly but then you will see Him face to face. And when we see Him, your hearts will rejoice, and “no one will take your joy from you.”

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

“On Flock, One Shepherd” Misericordia Domini 2013 – John 10:11-16

14. April 2013
Misericordia Domini
John 10:11-16

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! In the name + of Jesus.

“There will be one flock, one shepherd.” There are not many churches but one, holy, catholic, and Apostolic church. There are not many shepherds but One Shepherd. Our confession of the church is bound to our confession of Jesus. Today’s religious landscape is marked by many different Lords and as many or more church bodies to match. This is not the Lord’s doing. For Jesus says, “There will be one flock, one shepherd.”

Such religious chaos is not of the Lord but of the lord of chaos. Only the devil would want to see churches rent apart by schism and division. Only the deceiver would lead mankind to think it acceptable to tolerate error and false teaching. Satan rejoices when Christian congregations fight within and amongst each other.

His task is easy. First, we are a fickle people, easily distracted and enticed by our own imaginations and hopes of what the God, church, and faith should be. As the prophet Isaiah said, “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way” (Is 53:6). The deceiver tempts us to look within. He would have us devise our own ideas of God, creation, sin, and salvation. Like wayward sheep, all we need is a little shove off the path, a little lie whispered in the ear, a little encouragement to follow our own passions. Thus we put a God of our own devising onto the throne of our heart. We substitute His righteous decrees for our own laws and commands. We reject salvation in God the Son, Jesus, and look for salvation in ourselves. We wander all the while thinking ourselves faithful members of Christ’s flock.

Second, the Great Liar is a copycat. He knows that sheep need a shepherd. Lost sheep are anxious to be found. They desire to hear the voice of a shepherd and to be led again to cool waters and fertile pastures. Thus, he appoints himself shepherd (not good). Unwittingly, they hear a Shepherd but do not distinguish his voice from the truth. Indeed, Jesus calls him a wolf who snatches them away from the truth and scatters them apart from Jesus and His church.

Therefore, Satan’s great deceit is to draw you away from Jesus, the good shepherd, and away from His flock, the holy church. “Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered” (Zech 13:7). The devil loves to see little flocks guided by hired hands. He cannot abide by one flock with Jesus as its one shepherd. He loves to hear sheep bleet: “I’m a Christian” all the while going their own way or following false shepherds. he loves to see churches confess their love of Christ while rejecting the very voice of Jesus in the Holy Scriptures.

No one born of flesh has escaped this wandering. Even after being found by Jesus, washed white in the cool waters in Holy Baptism, we, like sheep, wander. We bathe ourselves in the filthy muck of this world. We are so covered in it that our restored radiance is tarnished or even unknown. After idling munching of the rich grass of God’s green pastures, we wander out of the fold to see what sort of other delectables we might find. We discover the poisonous food of the world, devil, and flesh is quite enjoyable and learn to crave it. We wander from the Shepherd’s care willfully, even if it would lead to our death.

Jesus knows our nature. He knows our flesh, having been born of flesh himself. Thus, He knows our weaknesses and still provides for us. “I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” He calls to you and brings you into His fold. Not just you but all those who believe in Him. Jesus promises, “There will be one flock, one shepherd.” How does He keep this promise? How does He gather us into one flock under one shepherd? First, Jesus goes after the lost sheep and brings them home. “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” He is the Good Shepherd who relentlessly pursues the wayward sheep until all whom He has chosen are gathered into his fold. The history of this world and the saving work of Jesus are not complete until the all the elect of God have been gathered into the Shepherd’s embrace.

Notice how Jesus goes about this gathering. “I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” Where the Good Shepherd speaks, there is the true church. You can be confident that you are in Christ’s fold when you hear His voice. The voice of the Good Shepherd is the Word of the Scriptures. Where the Holy Word is preached and taught in truth and purity, there Jesus is speaking.

The opposite must also be said. Where the Word of God is distorted, confused, sidelined, or hidden, there Jesus is no longer speaking. Simply proclaiming, “the Bible says” does not mean you are hearing the truth of Jesus. If the Word spoken does not give you Jesus Christ crucified, then it is not of the Good Shepherd. If the church speaks in error, then it is not within the Good Shepherd’s fold.

Those who follow after false Words and gather with flocks in error are in serious danger. Among them is the Deceiver with his hired hands, seeking to snatch them, devour their faith, and bind them forever in their sin. Therefore, when someone says to you, “I’m a Christian” do not assume they follow the voice of Jesus and are in His flock. So they same for the multiplicity of other Christian branding, including “I’m a Lutheran!”

As family, friends, neighbors, or even fellow Christians, we are duty bound to follow only one voice and to speak this voice truthfully. We boldly proclaim that there is salvation in no one by Jesus only. This salvation is received by faith only, through His grace only, a it can be heard only in His living voice, the Scriptures. Set the branding aside and speak this truth. Therein only do we have confidence of our salvation and the salvation of our neighbor.

Jesus says it this way, “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” This is how you know your Shepherd. He is the one who took on your flesh and all its weaknesses. He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the paschal lamb who sets us free. He knows us because He became like us. He is both the lamb of the sacrifice and the Shepherd of our souls. He did not run or flee when Satan sought Him. He willingly went to death like a lamb to the slaughter. Upon the cross, the Shepherd died for His sheep, so that sheep would never die. And He rose victorious from the grave and thereby leads all His sheep from death unto life.

Jesus must gather His flock. Even one who has wandered is still His. He rescues the scattered and calls them by His voice. Indeed, there is no way to become part of the one holy church apart from the one Shepherd. Jesus also says, “I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:7-10).

The Good Shepherd is not speaking in empty words. The church is His sheepfold, where His voice speaks and His hands work. He has placed in His stead undershepherds—pastors—to continue His work. They speak in His name. They proclaim His Word. They forgive sins on His behalf. St. Paul instructs us to consider the church in this way. He told the pastors of the church in Ephesus, “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” There can be no lone Christians. Salvation in Christ’s blood comes by the church who continually holds to the Word of the Good Shepherd.

The answer to the religious chaos of this world and Christianity is Jesus alone. He promises, “There will be one flock, one shepherd.” There is only one, holy, catholic, and Apostolic church. There is only one Good Shepherd. Our confession of the church is bound to our confession of Jesus. Where you hear Jesus’ voice in truth and purity, there you are hearing the Good Shepherd. Where the Good Shepherd is laying down His life that you would have life in Him, there is His true sheepfold. Where sheep are gathered to receive their crucified Shepherd for their forgiveness, there is the true church.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

The Breath of Forgiveness – Quasimodogeneti – John 20:19-31

07. April 2013
Quasimodogeneti
John 20:19-31

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

In the beginning God breathed. His ruach hovered over over the face of the deep. And then God said. Breathing and speaking. What hovered over the elements of Creation? God’s Spirit which is His breath speaking. Since God’s Spirit is truth, His speaking is truth. When He breathes, His Spirit is sent. When God speaks, truth is uttered. Therefore, when God said, “let there be,” there was and is. Without God’s Spirit speaking, nothing would be that is. Without His divine breath, all die.

Breathing is essential to life. Without breath, all creatures die. Plants must breathe in carbon dioxide or their life is strangled. Even fish inhale through gills, breathing oxygen from rich waters. If those waters become polluted or lack oxygen, the fish cannot breathe and die. No different for mankind. Without the breath of life, we are lifeless lumps of clay. Without breathing, we die and decay.

At the cross, the final words Jesus spoke were “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. For God, Word, Spirit, and life go together. When God speaks, there He breathes. Where God breathes, there is life. Thus, at the cross, the Word was silenced. The Spirit departed. And the breath of life ceased. This was shown by the earthquake, the darkness, and the lifeless corpse of the Son of God. The breath of God left the World.

This is why the disciples hid themselves on Easter evening behind locked doors. The Life had died and so their hope with Him. His exhale would no longer be heard. They feared their death at the hands of the Jews as their Lord and master was just crucified at their hands. The breath of life had departed. Without this voice, their hope for life was gone. The hope for humanity was dead. All creation was doomed to destruction.

We don’t always think about our condition this way. Violation God’s holy commands eternally separates us from God and His life-giving breath. Apart from the breath of God, His Spirit, His Word, we are dead in trespasses, condemned to become inanimate dust and food for worms. As we keep our sin to ourselves, refuse to acknowledge sin as wrong, or even downplay the seriousness of this corruption, we are doomed to death. As a matter of fact, we’re dead already. Anyone, innocent though he may seem, is dead to God in trespasses even though he may breathe now.

What can dead people do about their condition? Nothing. They are like the bones Ezekiel saw. Dry, dead bones. There is no hope, no future, and no possibility of self improvement. We might as well bury ourselves like the disciples in the tomb with locked doors—scared of our enemies—terrified of our sin—fearful of death—mortified by God’s Holy Law. God doesn’t soft pedal our condition. We are Lazarus buried and rotting.

But Good Friday could not remain but continued in the a breathless sleep of Holy Saturday. Then the Holy Week of death ceased. The old passed away and the new has come. After Jesus rested from His Holy Week labors, he breathed in again and rose. And with His breathing in also came His breathing out. He breathed out upon Mary Magdalene, comforting her with her own name. He breathed out the Scriptures, opening them to the two disciples on the way to Emmaeus. He breathed, He revealed Himself in the breaking of the bread, and they believed.

The Psalmist said: “When you hide your face, [all creatures] are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground” (Psalm 104:29-30).

There is nothing more terrifying than to think that God has stopped speaking. Without His breath, we die and return to dust. But with the Spirit of God, we are recreated and renewed. This is why the first thing Jesus did when appearing to His disciples is speak to them. But He did not speak any Word but the particular: “Peace be with you.” God breathes upon you the same peace by saying “your sins are forgiven.”

How does life and hope come from such simple words: “you are forgiven”? Christ took all your sin into Himself at the cross. He buried it forever in the new tomb of the garden. But because Christ is risen, death is defeated. Therefore you who are in Christ will not die. Your sins are removed and sin’s wage is removed forever. This Word takes away your sin which is the cause of death. Where this forgiveness is proclaimed, there is the Holy Spirit breathing life into dead things.This Word is His breath and therefore gives life. Where there is forgiveness there is peace in the promise of life everlasting.

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63-64). Therefore, Jesus breathed on His disciples—His pastors—His church and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” God wants you to hear the preaching of His Word, thereby also receiving His Holy Spirit and the breath of life in the forgiveness of sins. The call to repentance and the proclamation of forgiveness of sins are the means that the Holy Spirit, through the Word, uses to bring people from death to life. God wants you to know your condition not for to despair but to receive His salvation.

This breathy Word is not merely a generic announcement of forgiveness. It does what it says. When you hear those words, “I forgive your sins” they actually deliver Christ’s forgiveness to you. And where there is forgiveness of sin, there is life and salvation. Where the forgiveness is spoken, the Holy Spirit is given. The Holy Spirit is breathed out upon you when your pastor says, “I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

St. Thomas wanted more than words spoken. He did not believe that the speaking of His fellow disciples “We have seen the Lord” was the breath of God the Holy Spirit. He resisted the Word of testimony. And so he made demands to touch and see the risen body of Christ. On the octave of the first Easter, they were gathered together again and Jesus entered their locked tomb and said to them, “Peace be with you.” Despite Thomas’s unbelief, the Lord came to him to give him the very same life-giving breath.

“Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and thrust it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Seeing, though, is not believing. To believe to to know without seeing. Believing only comes from the voice of God, the Holy Spirit, breathing His Holy Word into your ears. You cannot feel forgiven. You do not see Christ’s wounded hands and side. You believe you are forgiven, because the Spirit of Jesus has given you faith, hope, and life through His Word. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Yet, like Thomas, Jesus helps your unbelief by combining His Word with earthly, tangible means. When you hear that your sins are forgiven, you are plunged again into your baptismal waters where sin was washed away and death drowned. There the Lord touched you with his holy name, placing it on your forehead and heart, thereby naming you as sons of God though faith in Christ. As coheirs with Him, you were declared righteous, all sin cleansed, and given the Holy Spirit for faith.

So also in the Holy Communion: “Peace be with you” comes after the words “given and shed for the forgiveness of sins.” After you eat and drink the body and blood and are thereby forgiven, Christ’s Spirit proclaims “The peace of God which passes all understanding… [and] Depart in + peace.” Christ thrusts His own body into your mouth with the words: “given for you!” Forgiveness and peace flows from the chalice into your mouth, just as it flowed from his pierced side at the cross.

When you hear the pastor speak, Christ himself is forgiving sin and breathing forth His Spirit upon you to revive your faith and renew you in Christ’s righteousness that covers all your sin. Receiving forgiveness is the reason we gather. “The Spirit of God has made [you], and the breath of the Almighty gives [you] life” (Job 33:4). Your faith desires to have sin exposed by the Law and forgiven by the Gospel. Your faith desires the breath of God, the ruach, the Holy Spirit to bring you to life again as a redeemed saint and child of God. “Peace be with you.” Your sin is forgiven.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana