Monthly Archives: January 2021

The Evil Eye – Sermon on Matthew 20:1-16 for Septuagesima Sunday

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Matthew 20:1-16

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Follow the eyes of those who worked all twelve hours of the day. These laborers woke up before the sun rose. They crawled out of bed, rubbed their eyes, had breakfast, and made their way to the marketplace hoping to be hired so they could put food on the family table. As the morning light begins to illumine the city, they see the vineyard owner coming toward them. He calls them to work in his vineyard offering an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work – one denarius. Off they go into the vineyard. When they get there, they see their tasks and get busy. They dig, and they till, and they prune, and they water, and they pull weeds, and they harvest. Whatever needs to be done in the vineyard, they get at it.

Then, as the morning sun continues to rise, these twelve-hour workers see their friends who hadn’t been hired at first, but now they are arriving in the vineyard. They had been hired just before Price is Right comes on. At this point, the guys who got to the vineyard first had been working for three hours, so they know what tasks could use a few extra hands. They all get to working as productively and efficiently as possible. A few more hours go by, and at the sixth hour during their lunch break, they see more of their buddies arriving to work in the vineyard. So, again, they reorganize and reprioritize where each of them will be laboring, and it’s back off to work.

As the day goes on and the temperature rises, they grab some water, and see more of their pals coming to work in the vineyard. It’s the ninth hour – about three o’clock. Those twelve-hour workers see that the vineyard is getting pretty full, but they welcome their friends and get back to the grind.

Then, as the sun is setting and the temperature begins to dip, they see even more workers arriving. The day is basically over, so it’s strange that more workers are arriving. But whatever. The twelve-hour workers know that they’ll soon be getting their wages, their denarius. They look forward to returning to their homes and proudly show the fruits of their labor. They anticipate the hugs from their kids and kisses from their wives. They’re ready to sit down to a nice dinner, get cleaned up, and contentedly lie down in their beds after an honest, fulfilling day’s work. They are pleased with themselves because they have done what was needed to provide for their families.

Finally, the sun begins to set, and the evening light clings to the sky. The workers put all the tools away and line up to receive their wages. But the full-day workers see that they are going to have to wait for their pay. Their buddies who came just in time for cleanup are going to get paid first. But then, they see the oddest thing. The guys who basically arrived just in time to get paid are getting a full denarius. These twelve-hour workers see that shiny denarius, a full day’s wage, landing in the clean hands of the one-hour workers. Their eyes get wide. They are so busy giving each other high fives and imagining what they are going to do with their extra windfall that they don’t even notice that those hired at the ninth hour get a denarius, same with those who came in at the sixth and those at the third.

So, there they are, standing in front of the foreman. They hold out their hand expecting to see lots of shiny coins. But they feel the weight of a single, solitary denarius in their palms. They look at that currency and despise it. What had sounded good, right, and reasonable in the morning is now detestable, despicable, and revolting in their eyes. So, they angrily look toward the vineyard owner, and the same is true of him. In the morning, he had appeared as a fair and honest man who would provide work and pay for them and their families, but now he looks like an unfair, unjust, inequitable scoundrel. And they complain.

The vineyard owner patiently listens to their protests, but they haven’t been shorted. It’s no skin off their backs. They didn’t get any less. So, the vineyard owner looks square into the eyes of those sour-faced workers and asks, “Where’s the foul? Didn’t we agree for a denarius? All those coins belong to me, so why do you think you get to decide what I do with them? Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” And our translation says, “Do you begrudge my generosity?” But literally, the Greek there says, “Is your eye evil because I am good?”

And there it is. The vineyard owner was good – good and generous. He provided jobs and income for the people of his community. In fact, he was better than good. He was gracious. He freely gave more than the vast majority of his workers deserved. The evil eyes only pop up in those who think they deserve more than they are given. And those eyes are evil because they look more at themselves and their work instead of at the mercy and generosity of the vineyard owner.

None of these workers decided on their own to work for the master. Every one of them was called and sent only by the initiative of the vineyard owner. No one went to knock at his door to ask for a job, and no one volunteered to work for him when he came into the marketplace. Each of them was called, and each of them was called at the precise time the owner called them. He went and retrieved them.

Here’s the point, Christian: You were called by God. Period. He came. He called you into His service. He gave you work to do. You didn’t seek to work for Him. God called you into His kingdom when it pleased Him. If it had pleased God to hire everyone at dawn and have them work an entire day, he would have.

If you think God owes you better than He has given, if you think you have earned what He gives for free, you too have an ugly, evil eye. In fact, you have lifted yourself above God and put yourself on His throne. But it won’t work, you aren’t above God. When Jesus comes again on the Last Day, the first will be last, and Jesus Himself declares what that means. The last are told to take what is theirs and leave the vineyard. If this parable rubs you the wrong way, that’s the sentence you need to look at.

The true gift in the parable is hidden in that sentence. It isn’t just about the denarii that the vineyard owner graciously doles out. A permanent place in the vineyard is at stake. For those who have the evil eye of pride, there is nowhere else to go and they are sent away empty-handed. If we are really honest, we cannot claim anything as our own. Everything we have is gift. By grace we are saved, not as a result of works. No one can boast (Eph. 2:8-9).

But that sentence of judgment – when the vineyard owner says, “Take what belongs to you and go” – is a gracious statement for you, believer. You just have to open your eyes to see the benevolence, generosity, and mercy of God.

To those who don’t invoke their rights or complain about the generosity of God, they remain in the vineyard. You don’t just get a day’s wage for little work. In His mercy, God gives you the whole vineyard! Your generous God doesn’t treat you as workers, but as sons. Dear saints, God doesn’t pay you wages. He gives you an inheritance. The vineyard is yours.

Rejoice. The kingdom of heaven is the opposite of the kingdoms of men. You don’t earn. You don’t pay. The goods are given for free. It would drive any man-made business into the ground, but God doesn’t care. God isn’t out to make a living. He is out to give away His kingdom.

In the kingdom of God, there is no room for pride or arrogance or boasting in what we do because there is no doing on our part. Everything has already been done by Christ. We simply benefit because of His full and complete work. We who were dead in our sins, enemies of God, and children of wrath are raised, pardoned, adopted, and transferred into God’s kingdom. As we heard in our call to worship, God saves a humble people, but the haughty eyes He brings down (Ps. 18:27).

And look! Jesus now invites you to come have a seat at His table and taste of the joys of His finished work for you. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Just a Glimpse – Sermon on Matthew 17:1-9 for the Transfiguration of our Lord

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Matthew 17:1-9

1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” 

6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” 8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. 9 And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

In the Transfiguration of our Lord, we see a glimpse of Jesus’ divinity. His face shines like the sun, and His clothes become white as light. At no other moment during His time on earth, does Jesus become as gloriously dazzling and bright as at the Transfiguration. In the Transfiguration, we absolutely see that Jesus is divine. God the Father declares so from heaven, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” But all that being said, we do need to be a careful with equating Jesus’ brightness with His divinity. Just because Jesus is shiny doesn’t mean that He is God.

Here’s why we need to be careful. Jesus isn’t the only one shining at the Transfiguration. Luke’s gospel tells us that Moses and Elijah were both shiny as they stood with Jesus on the mountain (Lk. 9:30-31). Also, in our Old Testament lesson (Ex. 34:29-35), we heard how Moses’ face would shine after he talked with God. Moses’ shining appearance made the people afraid to come near him. We don’t say that Moses and Elijah are divine because they were shiny too. They are normal, human men. They are Christians, but they aren’t divine. Yet, both of them also radiate a splendid light.

There are other examples of this too. In the book of Acts, we are told about Stephen (Act. 6:8-7:60). He had been chosen to be one of the first deacons. Acts tells us that he was full of faith and the Holy Spirit and would constantly point people to Christ. The Jewish council didn’t like this, so they had some false witnesses accuse Stephen of blasphemy. When Stephen was on trial, we are told that the council saw that Stephen’s face was like the face of an angel (Act. 6:15).

Now, this makes us wonder: how did they know what an angel looked like? Would they regularly see angles? Probably not. It’s likely that they thought Stephen looked like an angel because of how the Scriptures regularly describe angles. In Is. 6:1-8, the angels are called seraphim which means ‘burning ones.’ Or in Ezk. 1:13-14, Ezekiel sees angels and describes them as “burning coals of fire” that had “the appearance of torches.” So, the book of Acts doesn’t say this for sure, but it is likely that Stephen had a bright, shiny appearance as well. Many suggest that the glory that Stephen was about to receive when he was martyred in a few verses began to shine through Stephen’s face a little early.

All of this is to say that it is possible for ordinary humans to have the that bright, shiny countenance that Jesus has in His Transfiguration. Maybe it isn’t the same number of Kelvins, but you get the point. In short, when Jesus undergoes this beautiful, majestic, bright metamorphosis (that’s the Greek word that gets translated as ‘transfigured’ in our text), that’s not just because He is God, but it is also because He is a perfect, sinless, holy Man. Jesus was Man as God intended all mankind to be. In other words, at the Transfiguration, Jesus gives us just a glimpse of how all humanity is supposed to look. Here, Christ bears the unstained, true image of God. And one day, dear Christian, you will have this glory as well.

Try this picture: Imagine that your whole life, you had the flu. Every day of your life you have had body aches, fever, vomiting, diarrhea. Your hair is always disheveled, and you can hardly walk straight because you are so weak and miserable. But, again, this is all you have ever known, all you’ve ever experienced. So, if someone came up to you to you on any given day and said, “You look horrible. You should go get some rest.” You would probably respond, “What do you mean, I look horrible? I feel totally normal.”

Now, expand that out. Let’s say everyone in the entire world is sick every day of their lives. Everyone is in misery, and all everyone experiences is pain and sickness. But no one would complain that much because nobody knows anything different.

But then imagine that one day, you woke up, and your fever and flu were gone. You aren’t running to the toilet every twenty minutes to explode out one end or the other. You have a new appetite and a new strength and vitality that you never knew was possible. You are filled with so much energy, vigor, and liveliness that you don’t know what to do with yourself. You’d feel like Superman, and everyone who saw you would be amazed at how strong and alive you are because they are still sick and miserable.

What Peter saw in the Transfiguration was glorious, but what he saw is what it is to be normal human being. Peter saw in Jesus how God created us to be. The only reason it was so foreign and different was because of how sick we sinners have become and how deeply we have fallen into sin. And this vision was so wonderful that Peter doesn’t want to leave. Just to behold Jesus in that glorious state was enough for Peter, so he wants to make some tents and gaze upon Christ.

I hadn’t thought of the Transfiguration and how it reveals what humanity is supposed to look like before writing this sermon, but it’s important for us to do that because the testimony of Scripture bears all this out. Romans 8[:19-23] talks about how creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. And the creation will be set free from its bondage to corruption (think of the sickness) and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Don’t miss that. Creation itself is watching and waiting for the full glory of you children of God to be revealed.

But as wonderful as that text from Romans is, there is another one that is even more fitting as we consider the Transfiguration of our Lord. It’s 2 Cor. 3:18, which I included in your Scripture insert. To briefly put it in its context, Paul there is talking about what our Old Testament lesson (Ex. 34:29-35) considered about Moses’ face shining and the veil he had to wear because of the glory that made his face bright. Remember that when Moses went to speak with God, he would remove the veil, and when he would speak to the people, Moses would put a veil over his face. Then, 2 Cor. 3:18 says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transfigured (same word used for Jesus’ transfiguration lit. the Greek word is ‘metamorphosized’ though the ESV translates it as ‘transformed’) we are being transfigured into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”

So, did you catch that? Already in this life, Christian, you are being transfigured into the same glory that Jesus had on the mountain. God brings about that transfiguration through His Word, through Him continually working on you through His Sacraments, and through Christian fellowship. Through these things, God is working on you to mold, shape, and metamorphosize you. We aren’t perfect like Jesus, not by a long shot. But we are, by the grace of God which we behold when we gather together in Jesus’ presence (Mt. 18:20), we are slowly being transfigured and metamorphosized into His glory.

Dear Christian, all you know is this life of sin, and so you think what you now are and how you see others is normal. But it isn’t. When we confess our sins, it is right – absolutely right – to call ourselves “a poor, miserable sinner.” And here’s the sad part, because we are so sin-sick, we set our hopes much too low. For, what, ten months now, we’ve been thinking how wonderful it will be to get past this pandemic and be able to spend time with family and friends, shake hands, give each other hugs, go on a trip, or walk into a store without having to wear a stinky mask. Sure, that will be nice, but you will still be in this fallen, broken world. A world full of sin and death, where you are still surrounded selfish, self-centered, narcissistic people just like yourself and myself.

Or we think, life will be so much better when my kids are older and can take care of themselves, when my preferred political party is back in positions of power, or when I retire and get to do what I want. Dear saints, that’s setting your hopes far, far, far too low. That’s like a person with the flu saying, “Won’t it be great when I only have to run to the toilet every 30 minutes instead of every 20 minutes.” No matter how good things get in this life, it’s not normal. Because of your sin, this life is not what God intended you to experience.

But there is a higher hope because God has promised in His eternal, abiding Word that you are being transfigured. And the picture of Jesus on the mountain today is what you are heading toward by the grace of God. That glimpse of Jesus’ glory is a preview of what lies ahead for you, believer. In Mt. 13[:42-43], Jesus says that the righteous – and that’s you, baptized Christian – the righteous will shine like the sun. And even now, Jesus declares you to be the light of the world (Mt. 5:14-16). May that light shine from you and radiate into this dark, fallen world.

This brief glimpse of Jesus’ glory is small taste of what is to come, and it made Peter want to remain there in tents. But Jesus wanted more for Peter, and He wanted more for you. It’s almost though Peter’s enjoyment of and desire to stay in this moment is what drives Jesus to set His face towards Jerusalem so that you with Peter can share in that glory without having to go through the trouble making a tent.

So, Christ went down from that mountain. He descended from that peak of glory. Jesus did it to ascend another mountain, Mt. Calvary, where He laid down His life for Peter, for Moses and Elijah, for me, for you, and for the whole poor, fallen, miserable, sin-sick world. He did this because He loves you and wants you to be fully transfigured to share in this glory. 

Jesus did all of this so that you wouldn’t have just a glimpse, but the fullness of the glory and splendor that God created you for. May He come soon and bring us to that glory. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Manifest Glory – Sermon on John 2:1-11 for the Second Sunday after Epiphany

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John 2:1-11

1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have become drunk, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

If you ask a woman about a wedding, you are going to hear about the colors of the bridesmaids’ dresses. You’ll hear the flowers described as only a botanist or florist could. She’ll tell you about the style of the bride’s dress – A-line, mermaid, trumpet, column, bell gown. (Yes, I had to look those up.) Then, she’ll go on to describe the more specific details of the gown. She’ll tell you about the décor of the reception and the menu of the meal. You’ll probably even get a lot of details about the wedding cake. Finally, you’ll hear about the dance and the DJ. If you ask a man about a wedding, he’s likely to say, “It was good.” Or, if you ask me, I’ll probably say, “It was successful.” I have yet to attend an unsuccessful wedding.

The Apostle John tells us about a wedding, and he does it as a man would. He mainly tells us about these six stone water jars that are there for the Jewish rites of purification. To our ears, that detail is brief and mundane. But these stone jars tell us more about the wedding and the miracle than we might expect.

Stone jars were especially desirable for the purification rites because they did not become unclean when they came into contact with things that were unclean. When clay jars, which were more common, when clay jars were used for purification, they became unclean and, according to God’s command, had to be broken afterward (Lev. 11:33). But stone jars didn’t become unclean, which meant they were great for the purification rites, but it also meant they were expensive. The fact that this wedding had stone jars indicates that either the couple or their relatives were somewhat wealthy. But even with their wealth, this couple has a problem because they run out of wine during the feast.

Mary lets Jesus know about the lack of wine. And based on Jesus’ response, it doesn’t sound like He’s going to do anything about it. Of course, He does. He provides 120-180 gallons of the finest wine to people who have already had enough wine that they cannot appreciate the goodness of the wine Jesus provides. In fact, the master of the feast figures it’s a mistake. When he tastes it, He assumes someone messed up. You’re supposed to serve the top-shelf stuff first, only later do you break out the boxes of wine. Our English translations soften the master’s words, but he literally says, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have become drunk” (same word that is repeatedly condemned in the New Testament [Ro 13:13; 1 Co. 5:11, 6:10; Gal. 5:21; Rev. 17:2, 6, etc.]), “when people have become drunk, then the poor wine.” In short, Jesus is giving people what they do not deserve and cannot fully appreciate.

Dear saints, this Is the definition and nature of grace and mercy.

Can you imagine John the disciple, who was there at that wedding, later in life? John, by the way, was the only disciple to die of old age. He became the bishop of Ephesus. Pastor John would have been the guest at many dinners in many houses. But at every meal, he would taste the wine, remember this wedding in Cana, and smile and say, “Not as good.”

The amazing thing is how few people at the feast actually know the Source of this fine vintage. The bride and the groom didn’t know. The master of the feast didn’t know. The guests didn’t know. Only the disciples and the servants know. The humble and the lowly see the work of Jesus.

Yet John tells us that this is how Jesus manifested (lit. “epiphanied”) His glory. That is the main point John wants us to take from this text. He wants us to see Christ’s glory, but we have a problem with that. We don’t see the big deal. Turning water into wine seems like a nice party trick, but nothing compared to walking on water, feeding the hungry, cleansing lepers, making the lame walk, causing the blind to see the deaf to hear, or raising the dead. In our minds, those are the “real” miracles. What’s the big deal about turning water into wine? That is something God does all the time. Every drop of wine across the world in all of history was once water inside a grape. All Jesus does here is speed things up a bit.

Dear saints, this is a call for us to open our eyes to the everyday, manifest glory of your God. Every moment, you are surrounded by the glory of our God. We notice it, at times, when we see a beautiful sunset, a pristine meadow covered in fresh snow, beautiful sun dogs, etc. But don’t miss the more regular manifestations of the glory of God. Don’t let the regularity of glorious things you see every day cause you to think they are mundane. See the glory of God in how a mom feeds her infant, how our food comes up from the ground, and how a child learns to read. If we would just open our eyes we would see the wonders of God all around us, and we would be surprised at every turn.

Especially, don’t let the manifest glory of God pass by you when you are here in church. When you hear the Scriptures read, the Holy Spirit is working on you in a miraculous way. When you hear the absolution, God is actually removing your sins from you. When you come to the altar today, Jesus is actually feeding you with His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of your sins. Every week throughout the entire service, God is visiting you with His mercy and grace to give you what you could not earn or deserve. He is purifying you, cleansing you, and strengthening you to live holy lives because no amount of your own efforts to cleanse yourself will ever work.

Which brings us back to those stone water jars. The sad thing with the stone water jars is that we see how far from the Gospel God’s people had fallen. Their religion had declined to a cold set of laws and rituals. When God had given the purification laws in Leviticus, it was to remind His people of their uncleanness and that true purity and holiness comes only from God. But the rabbis had added to God’s laws all sorts of unnecessary ceremonies and rituals. You remember when the Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of eating with unwashed hands (Mk. 7:1-8). They had certain ritual washings that you had to do in order to interact with others socially. You had to pour the water a certain number of times over each hand. And each of pouring had to be in a prescribed direction. These were invented regulations from the Pharisees to be spiritually clean. All of these things were works to make yourself right.

But now what happens once those jars are no longer filled with water and instead are filled with wine? That ritual washing is no longer possible. We are invited to imagine another woman go to the stone jars and find that they aren’t filled with water, so she goes to her Pharisee son and says, “They have no water.”

These jars had been set apart for self-purification, and Jesus uses them to bring the joy of wine (Ps. 104:15) to a wedding feast. Jesus overtakes the works and efforts of man and brings them into submission to Him. Whenever Jesus comes, all human efforts to become righteous and holy are taken away and only joy is left in its place.

When Jesus comes to forgive your sins, He takes away all your works and efforts to make yourself holy or righteous. In their place, Jesus brings His eternal joy. This sign is not just pointing to Jesus’ power, this sign is pointing to what Christ has come to do. He has come to bring the best, to overflow your cup, and to bring you to His eternal kingdom.

Dear saints, our Lord manifests His glory with His first sign at a wedding in Cana because Jesus has come to end the divorce. Jesus came to end the divorce between men and women, between Jews and Gentiles (Gal. 3:28), and most importantly between God and man. Because of what Christ has done, we will be reunited with God just as we were meant to be. And this same God now welcomes you to His altar to have a foretaste of the great wedding feast to come. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Guilt, Anger, and Forgiveness – Sermon on Luke 2:41-52 for the First Sunday after Epiphany

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Luke 2:41-52

41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. 43 And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, 44 but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, 45and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” 49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. 51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I will be making some comments about what has gone on and what is going on in our country, but to do so, I’m going to lay some groundwork from this text first.

One of the most remarkable things we see in this text is the fact that God the Father put His own dear Son into the care of very fallible parents. Now, God didn’t have a choice in that. Anyone God would choose to be the parents of the Savior of the world would be fallen, sinful, people. But here we see what is probably the worst case of child neglect in all of the Scriptures.

Imagine taking your family on a long road trip – let’s say you’ve driven to Houston, Texas (I don’t know why Houston, but it’s my analogy, and I get to pick). It’s time to return home. You get everything packed up and start driving. As you travel down the road, you pray for safety and begin to have a conversation with your spouse. Your kids are in the back quietly reading, staring out the window, watching a movie, or playing on their devices. After a couple of hours, you ask your twelve-year-old a question, but there is no answer. So, you ask one of the other kids, and get a response. You don’t think it’s really a big deal that your twelve-year-old didn’t answer, so you don’t turn around to see why he is silent. Eventually, you stop for gas and snacks. The kids go to the bathroom, and you get back on the road. You try to engage with your twelve-year-old again, and still no answer. Finally, you get to the hotel in Kansas where you are planning on staying and check in. As everyone gets settled in the room, you realize your twelve-year-old isn’t there. So, you go check the lobby, the pool, and the car. Still no twelve-year-old. You ask the other kids, and they inform you that the twelve-year-old never got in the car before you left Houston.

You finally get back to Houston and find your kid in the church you attended. He’s sitting and politely listening to a Bible study. Are you going to get after your twelve-year-old for treating you badly? The whole drive back to Texas, are you going to yell at your other kids for not telling you one of their siblings wasn’t in the car? If I’m being totally honest, I might.

Well, that’s the modern equivalent of what happened in this text. Joseph and Mary completely dropped the ball, failed as parents, and are guilty of serious neglect. We can’t go soft on Joseph and Mary here. They had a serious lapse in judgment. They left the big city with their friends and family while their twelve-year-old Son stayed. They didn’t think much of it at first. They figured He must be with the group, but He wasn’t. So, back they travel to Jerusalem, search for two more days, and finally, on the third day, they find Jesus listening to the teachers and learning from them.

And hear again what Mary does. She speaks to her perfect, sinless Son in a stern tone, “Son, why have you treated us this way? Your dad and I have been worried sick about you and searching for you.” Don’t skip over that. I have little doubt that Mary felt her guilt and sin. She should have known better. She knew that Jesus was God’s miraculous Son, born to set people free from sin. He was the Messiah and Savior of the world. She was chosen by God to protect and raise the long-awaited Messiah, and she had failed. She knew her guilt. But notice what that guilt and shame does to her. Instead of owning up to it, confessing it, and repenting, she projects her guilt on to Jesus.

We all have this fight or flight instinct when our guilt is hunting us down. Unfortunately, we most often chose to fight, but it’s never a fight we can win. The best we can do is drag others down with us, but we do it anyway. The best option would be to simply say, “I’m sorry; I was wrong.” But we don’t. We attack and we try to circle the wagons around us. Repent.

All of this brings me to the events in our nation’s capitol this past week.

First of all, it was wrong. It is a shameful thing that the world was watching that happen in the greatest, most blessed nation in the history of the world. It should not have been and we are already seeing the impact on our culture. And there are a lot of questions. Who were the people who did this, and why were they doing it? But I’m not going to get into that because it doesn’t matter for the purposes of this sermon. I will simply say that we need to let the process work. As information is gathered, that will all be sorted out and those who have broken the law should be prosecuted and punished.

As Christians, we should be united in saying that what happened was wrong and we should have similar feelings about it as we did when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11.

There has been a lot of rhetoric surrounding the storming of the Capitol. Some will say that the right is to blame, and others will point the finger back at the left and how they cheered on the various protestors over the last six months. Both sides have valid points. But here’s the deal. All of that needs to stop because it doesn’t help the situation. And as followers of Jesus, we need to be the first to shut our mouths when it comes to blaming “them” – whoever “them” is.

Jesus is clear about this. In Luke 13[:1-5], Jesus gets asked about a time when Pontius Pilate killed some Galileans while they were offering their sacrifices. The people bringing this question to Jesus are looking for Jesus to speak out against the evil of Pilate. But Jesus doesn’t have it. He responds, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners… because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Then, Jesus even goes further and adds, “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

In other words, whenever there is injustice and tragedy, your Savior calls you as an individual to repent. Whether the injustice comes from the authorities whom God has placed in those positions to keep and promote peace, or whether it is some natural disaster, whatever the case may be, the problems you see in this world should cause you and I to individually repent.

Back to Mary. In light of her pain, grief, and guilt, she blames Jesus for all of her feelings of distress. She says, “Why have You treated us so?” In other words, Mary is saying, “Jesus, you’ve made us feel bad.” And we all fall into the same trap of projecting our guilt away from ourselves. Repent.

We don’t get a free pass for our sinful feelings. We chose to feel the way we feel. We are not animals. We chose our reactions. Yes, we can be provoked and prodded, but that does not excuse us from our sinful actions and reactions. We indulge ourselves in our anger and choose to take vengeance for ourselves, while God says, “Vengeance is Mine. I will repay” (Dt. 32:35; Ro. 12:19; Heb. 10:30). But we aren’t content to wait for God’s action, so we take it up ourselves. And this is pride which is in violation of God’s Commands.

But now watch how Jesus responds. Jesus has to address this accusation from His mother. Mary has accused Jesus of breaking the 4th Commandment by not honoring His father and mother, so He cannot be silent. But watch what Jesus does. He does rebuke Mary and her anger toward Him, but He does it in the kindest way. He doesn’t say, “Hold on there, mom. Back up. You’re the one who is supposed to be watching out for Me.” Instead, He says, “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” 

In this rebuke, Jesus isn’t defending His honor; instead, He’s defending His work. He has to be sinless to be the Savior and die for the sins of the world.

So, Mary stands rebuked by God in the flesh, and thanks be to God she accepts it – to her absolute credit. She might have been tempted to snap back at Jesus, “Listen you tween, what do you mean by that?” But she doesn’t. She submits to the rebuke in humility. And notice that even though neither Mary nor Joseph fully understand what Jesus is saying (see v. 50), yet still, she submits to His correction.

Here’s the point. Jesus is your Savior, and He will rebuke you when you do wrong and have guilt, but He does it kindly and gently so that you repent and return to Him for His mercy and forgiveness. May we, when we are rebuked by Christ also accept that rebuke, repent, and receive His forgiveness and delight in His presence. And when we are wrongly accused of sin, may we follow in Jesus’ steps and not put up our fists to defend our honor. Instead, let us be calm, measured, and offer correction and forgiveness.

After this, Jesus returned to Galilee with His fallible parents and lived in submission to them. Dear saints, this shows us that God works in and through families by shedding His light of mercy and forgiveness in and through them. Parents, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that your failures and shortcomings disqualify you from being a good parent. One of the best things you can do for your kids is confess your failures, receive forgiveness from them and from Christ, and teach them that God’s grace and mercy is the most important thing in the world. And as you do that, love your spouse, hug your kids, share with them the forgiveness of Christ. That will do more for this country and the world than anything else you can do. 

Dear saints, there appears to be difficult days ahead of us. If you want to start changing the world, pour yourself into your family and those that God puts into your life. Because it isn’t great power that holds evil in check. Don’t be conformed to this world in thinking that way. Instead, be transformed by God’s Word which renews your mind (Ro. 12:2) recognizing that it is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay.

And above all, live in the free gift of forgiveness that Christ has given you. In the midst of this fallen world, keep singing the songs of Zion. May our Savior return quickly and deliver us from our exile and captivity. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Flight to Fight – Sermon on Matthew 2:13-23 for the Second Sunday of Christmas

Listen here.

Matthew 2:13-23

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 

16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: 

18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, 
weeping and loud lamentation, 

     Rachel weeping for her children; 
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” 

19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 23 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

We don’t always understand God’s ways. That’s the understatement of the year – young though it is. God’s ways and thoughts are too high and too wonderful for us to understand (Is. 55:8-9).

For example, take the Old Testament promises of the Messiah. When the wise men first came seeking Jesus because of the star, Herod asked the chief priests and scribes where the Christ was to be born (Mt. 2:1-6). The scholars told Herod that the Scriptures taught that Christ would be born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2). We also just heard that the Messiah would come out of Egypt (Hos. 11:1), and He would be called a Nazarene. Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazarene – no wonder people had a hard time recognizing that Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Messiah. You can see how it would be hard to wrap your mind around all this without the Gospel of Matthew mapping out the fulfillment point by point.

While all of that fulfillment of Scripture could be its own sermon, that isn’t what we are going to focus on today. Instead, we are going to focus on how God’s ways and actions are so different from ours – especially when it comes to how God deals with evil.

The slaughter of the boys of Bethlehem who were two years old and under is one of the most horrific events in all of Scripture. Jesus is protected while those boys are killed. Their only “crime” is that they resemble Jesus in gender and age. We hear this and our minds are often filled with questions. “Couldn’t God have intervened?” “Why didn’t God warn all the fathers of Bethlehem in dreams?” “Why does Jesus get spared while the rest of the boys aren’t?” “Why couldn’t God just kill Herod and spare the baby boys?”

Whenever we stand face to face with evil, we ask the “why” questions. Many people use the presence of evil to argue that God is weak or doesn’t even exist. They will say that if there is a God, He certainly wouldn’t let things like this happen. If God is merciful and loving, if He is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (everywhere present), and omnipotent (all-powerful), why doesn’t God use all those “omnis” to do something about evil?

These questions have been something that humanity has wrestled with ever since the Fall into sin. Part of the reason we ask those questions is because we aren’t those “omnis” and could only deal with one evil at a time. And because we could only deal with one evil at a time, we would handle it only with punishment. But because God is all of those “omnis,” He can address evil with grace and forgiveness.

Also notice that those questions only focus on the evil of this world and spend no time considering if God has done something about evil – which He has. It’s like when a kid is having a rotten day and emphatically states, “Nothing good ever happens to me.” (I’ve been that kid.) You can try to point out the good things that have happened, but the kid dismisses all of those. And sure, if you don’t count anything good that happens in your life, it will be filled with badness and evil.

The whole book of Job deals the problem of evil and God’s goodness. I highly recommend you read Job, but when you do, know that Job’s three friends are all off base – they give wrong answers. And even Job can go a bit too far at times. But make sure listen to Job’s fourth friend, Elihu (Job 32-37). And especially listen to how God answers Job at the end of the book. Hopefully, this sermon will be a help to understand both the book Job and the goodness of God in the presence of evil. And to get to an answer to how there can be a good God when there is so much evil, you have to go back to the fact that God’s ways and thoughts are higher and more wonderful than ours.

First of all, when we consider evil in the light of God’s goodness, we have to remember that we cannot blame God for the evil in the world because God is not to blame. Secondly, and more importantly, God has addressed, overcome, and defeated evil, but not in the way we would expect. In fact, the infant Jesus being whisked away to Egypt was part of how God addressed the evil of this fallen world.

Jesus ran to Egypt to be God’s answer to all evil. One of the key verses to understanding all of this is Romans 12:21 which says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Hear that again, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” This is how the Gospel always works and how it has to work because you cannot force good into evil.

In His omnipotence, God had the power to wipe out sin right away when Adam and Eve fell. But He is not that kind of god. That kind of god would not be the God of the Bible. The God who created you is a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Ex. 34:6-7). So, to overcome the evil in this fallen, sinful world, God did something unimaginably good. And in His goodness, He came to earth to deal an eternal blow to all evil.

Jesus fled from Herod, not because He was allowing Herod to continue being an evil, bloodthirsty, power monger. Instead, Jesus came to save even wicked King Herod from his evil.

On His journey to and from Egypt, Jesus passed by Mt. Sinai where He gave the Law which condemned the sins of Herod and your sins. And Christ came to keep and fulfill that Law because you and the Herods of this world couldn’t keep it. Because of His love for you, Jesus fled from His homeland so that you and all sinners could return to yours. Jesus made Himself a sojourner and refugee so that you and all humanity could have an eternal home.

The flight to Egypt looks like weakness, but it is not. It shows Christ’s almighty power. Don’t forget that the humble, helpless Infant traveling through the wilderness is the Creator of heaven and earth. In His extreme humility, God came down to earth, to stand in your place, to fulfill the Law on your behalf, and to suffer and die with your evil and sin laid upon Himself. Without His humility, everyone would be eternally bound to our sin and evil. In other words, Jesus’ flight to Egypt is how God fights evil. He flees this evil in order to fight and defeat all evil for all time. Again, His ways are not our ways.

Whenever you see and experience evil, resist the temptation to focus and dwell on the evil. Instead, focus on Jesus. And in the context of this text, focus on that Child who is the object of God’s attention. Jesus is whisked off to Egypt to escape the sword of Herod. Christ couldn’t die by Herod’s sword; He had to die on the cross. Jesus is God’s Child, the promised Seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent and deal decisively with sin, death, and evil once for all.

Saving those baby boys of Bethlehem would have spared them and their mothers’ tears, but it would not have saved them or the world from sin and damnation. If we can discern anything at all about God’s plan and agenda, it’s that He’s committed to saving the entire world – not just bits and pieces of it. God isn’t content with saving just a handful of people here and there – He’s after the world, the entire cosmos. He created everything by His Word, He intends to redeem and save all people from their sins by Jesus, the Word made flesh.

Seeing how God delivers the world from evil by overcoming it with the good of Jesus dying and rising again, that stands as a call for us to follow His example. We are so quick to want to get back at those who have wronged us, but that is precisely why we are in the mess we are in today.

So, what do we do with the baby killing Herods who appear to become more and more emboldened? How do we defeat their evil designs? How do we join with God to overcome the evil of our day?

We do it with good. We love who persecute and slander us (Mt. 5:44; 1 Pet. 3:9). We love the sinners for whom Jesus died (Ro. 12:20; 1 Tim. 2:1-4). We pray for their conversion to the truth while we confess the saving truth to them. And as our Epistle text (1 Pet. 4:12-19) said when we suffer according to God’s will we entrust our souls to our faithful Creator while we do good (v. 19).

Just as the almighty God hid His power under the appearance of weakness while Jesus fled from Herod’s anger, God still today hides His almighty power under the humble forms that the Gospel takes among us. God’s Word is still powerful to save sinners and to usher them into Christ’s kingdom of grace.

And here and now, God brings the power of the Gospel to us sinners. Here, Christ feeds you with His Body and Blood to deliver to you the forgiveness He has won for you. And with this holy Sacrament, He strengthens you to go and do good to your neighbor even when it is difficult. So, come. Be fed, be forgiven, and be strengthened to overcome evil with the goodness that Christ pours into you. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.