Temptation and the Exodus

A Sermon on Matthew 4:1-11 and Romans 5:12-19 for the First Sunday in Lent, Series A, 2023

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As John the Baptist brought Jesus down into the Jordan river, he saw a spectacular sight. The heavens were opened. The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove. The voice of the Father spoke, identifying Jesus as His beloved Son. What an amazing thing to be a part of! This will be a memory that lasts forever. This will be an event that people will be talking about until the end of this world. 

But then Jesus came up out of the water. Wait, Jesus, that’s the other side of the river. No, no, the road back up is that way. Where are You going? There’s only wilderness out that way! You don’t have any supplies! What are You doing? And off He goes, not to be seen again for forty days. Our Gospel lesson this morning starts at Matthew, chapter four. But there isn’t a transition between chapter three and four in the Bible. Chapters are only a big numbers that were added centuries later so you could find the words you’re looking for. Jesus goes straight from His baptism out to the wilderness to face temptation. 

St. Paul writes in Romans, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” Since our Old Testament lesson is the fall of humanity in the garden, this passage from Romans rightly reminds us of there. But the temptation of Jesus brings to mind another big event from the Old Testament. One of the biggest, even. And that is the Exodus from Egypt. We’ll pick that up instead of the fall from Genesis this time. And we’ll see that what Paul says in Romans does still fit there too.

If there had been anyone left alive in Pharaoh’s army to see them, they might have said the same thing to the people of Israel as the people who watched Jesus head out from His baptism into the wilderness. That’s the wrong side of the water. There’s only wilderness out that way. And indeed, it wasn’t long before the people of Israel got hungry. The people of Israel said to Moses, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” 

In their hunger, they accused the Lord of not taking care of them, of not giving them life. They did not realize what the Lord intended for them to learn. Moses told them later, “[The Lord] humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” God was not going to starve them to death. He was always going to give them what they needed. He sent the manna in the wilderness. But He also wanted them to learn to trust that it would be there. Learn that the Lord keeps His promises. Even though we may have to wait for the time that He has chosen. 

[A]s by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Jesus faced the same trial that Israel faced. Only His hunger was more extreme. Satan tempted Jesus to not trust the promises of the Father. Not trust the words from the baptism that “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” And instead take His power to serve Himself. But Jesus acts righteously. 

After accusing God of planning to kill them by hunger, the people of Israel wondered in the Lord was actually with them at all. You know, despite bread falling out of heaven six days a week for them to live on. However, just like there wasn’t enough food for a time in order to teach them, they also went without water for a time. “[T]here was no water for the people to drink.  Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” …because they tested the LORD by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” The Lord then had Moses strike a rock, out of which came water. The question again was whether or not they would trust the Lord. And again, at the first sign of discomfort, they did not. So they called the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD.

Satan’s second temptation of Jesus was to do the same thing. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” You say you trust God’s promise? You say You’re better than they who wandered the wilderness? Well, here’s one for You, Jesus. It might not be a rock and water, but a promise is a promise, right? The Father is well pleased with You? Then have Him prove it by throwing Yourself off of here. 

But Jesus again responds as the Lord spoke through Moses to the people of Israel. “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” But Jesus wants us to go and read the context. Because the whole quote from Moses is, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested Him at Massah.” Jesus acts righteously.

Despite the Lord feeding them with bread raining down from heaven. Despite the Lord delivering water for all the people out of a rock. Despite all the signs shown to them up to the foot of Mt. Sinai. When Moses left for forty days and forty nights to speak with the Lord and receive the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, the people forgot it all. 

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” …And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. 

They could not wait forty days for Moses to return. They could not wait forty days for the Lord. They brought their offerings before the idol of gold. And then rose up to “play,” which was actually sexual immorality. They worshipped the gods of the false religions. They worshipped the false god of self. They put their own desires up as idols to be bowed down to. And they gave away everything in order that they could gratify their own sinful impulses. 

Satan brings that temptation to Jesus. He knows that Jesus’ desire is to save humanity out of his clutches. So He offers Jesus a way to do that without pain, without suffering, without a cross. [T]he devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” But Jesus again responds with the command given to Moses. You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Jesus acts righteously.

Paul wraps this whole picture of the temptation up nicely in 1 Corinthians, chapter ten: “For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

“Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test.” 

It is true, Jesus does give us an example to follow when we face temptation. But remember our Epistle lesson for today. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. The sins we see in the people of Israel are our sins too. And yes, they count as ours because they did them. But we would be fools to believe that we haven’t sinned like they. We too fail to trust the Lord when we face discomfort. We too turn away from the Lord to indulge our sinful heart. We need to repent. We need to turn away from our sin, and to the Lord and His mercy. 

But there is hope in those words from Romans as well. “[O]ne act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.” “[B]y the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” By Jesus’ prefect trust in the Father, we are counted as having that perfect trust, despite our sin. And that perfect trust extended from the forty days in the wilderness all the way to the cross. His work of obedience counts as ours. And by His sacrifice and death, all our sins are paid for. Jesus’s whole life is filled with acts of righteousness. And if one done by Him counts as yours, then all His acts count as yours. The Spirit descends on you from your baptism. The voice of the Father comes to you out of heaven. He says to you, “This is my beloved [child], with whom I am well pleased.” All because of Jesus. Thanks be to God.

Images of Hope

A Sermon on Revelation 1:1-20 for Ash Wednesday, 2023

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This Ash Wednesday, we are reminded that death is always close by. Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. The Lord spoke this curse to Adam as a consequence of sin. And that sin remains in us to this very day. 

It does not take much looking out there in the world to see such sin. Lust, greed, idolatry all abound. And the Christians who stand up for Jesus have war waged against them as soldiers of the cross. But even when we look inside the Church, we see the catastrophic effects sin has upon us. How many funerals have there been lately? How many people have died? And we might wonder what our future looks like at this rate. 

And we of course look inside ourselves. This Lenten season, as with every, we focus on repentance. Seeing our own sin, and being grieved that it is there. You know the specifics of your own sin. You know what God has commanded, and that you struggle with. The practice of giving things up for Lent was originally aimed there. Put your effort into giving up the particular sin that you wrestle with, turning again to Christ for His strength and aid. 

But there is one thing that you’re not going to find by looking out there in the world. You’re not going to find it by looking at the deaths of your brothers and sisters in Christ. You’re not going to find it by looking inside and examining your own sin. And that thing is hope. We only find the things that scare us in here. The things that hurt us. The things that bring us death. But Jesus Christ does not give us hope by making us blind to all those things. He gives us hope by charging by our side right through them. 

Speaking of things that are scary, the book of Revelation is one of those parts of the Bible that puts forward some very frightening images. The things described inside have given rise to the imagination in art and literature throughout the centuries. Some of the strangest, and most bizarre things ever created by man are based in the descriptions revealed to John on the Isle of Patmos. And even some Christians have misinterpreted what is going on in the book with the result that those fears are fed and grow. And yet it is in this very book that Christ has revealed the most hope of all. Will we see it?

The first thing to know is that genre matters. What kind of book is Revelation? If you took a book of poetry off the shelf, and treated it like a cookbook, you’ve got a mess on your hands. Consider this poem: “Take four cups love, and two cups tenderness. Mix with a tablespoon of devotion, blend with kindness. Sprinkle patience and understanding sublime. Then bake with a healthy amount of sunshine. Top with laughter, carefully weighed. That is how friends are made.” Now try to actually bake that in order to create some friends out of your oven. You’ve completely misunderstood the poem, and whatever it is that you’ve mixed together probably isn’t good for anything. 

If we try to understand the book of Revelation as a historic chronicle of future events listed as a timeline, we will, in the same way, not understand anything that is in there. What we create from it will be completely unusable. Other Christians will tell you that they take the Bible literally, and you should too. Which is all fine and good when the context would have us do that. But they themselves will not take something like the book of Isaiah literally. Because to do so is to miss Jesus.

Jesus Himself at the opening of Revelation tells us exactly how we are supposed to understand all the images that are about to be shown to John. So don’t take my word for it, listen to our Lord. In response to John seeing a fantastical image of seven stars in Jesus’ hand, and seven lampstands behind him, Jesus says, “As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” The images John saw were not in fact stars and lampstands at all. They represented something completely different. The message to John is that what you see is symbolic. And there is more to be seen. 

However, Jesus does not reveal what each image symbolizes as we go through. At least not in Revelation. However, Jesus will use symbols that are found throughout the Old and New Testament, especially the Old. So if you know your Old Testament, you have a key with which to unlock the meaning behind many of these symbols. And the meaning does not leave one frightened, but hopeful.

Let’s look at the parts of John’s vision in tonight’s lesson that Jesus did not give us an explanation for. “and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.” That description is the same as the vision Daniel saw while in Babylon. From chapter seven, “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool…. and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.” And then chapter ten, “I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.” 

Daniel was given a vision of two different images. The Ancient of Days, who was the creator of all, and the Son of Man, who was sent to redeem God’s people. It looked to Daniel like one would be God, and the other would be His Christ. But as Jesus appears to John, he is both of those images at the same time. Jesus is both God and man. And the salvation that Daniel looked forward to was now completed in Him.

Our Lord did not send a created angel to come save us. God did not send someone else to get us clean enough before He would actually look at us. No, the Almighty Creator of all things did not deem our ashes too dirty to soil His hands with. Or our sin too much for Him to overcome. 

Instead, in love, He rescued us from the midst of our filthy sin, without regard to how much covered Him in the process. In fact, He took all of that sin onto Himself for our sake. He was smeared with them all the way to the cross, where He died with them, for you and for me. It is God who died, and no one else. And His life pays for ours. That’s what is revealed in the appearance of Christ in John’s vision. The divinity and humanity of Christ, and the love that made such a thing happen in order to save us. Such a picture of Christ no longer scares us. It gives us hope in His work on our behalf. 

When you look at the little details, and match them up with what the Old Testament says, you find the work of Jesus. We only looked back in one place for this image. Revelation has many more images coming up. And yet, they all tell us something about Jesus. They all point to Him saving us out of our sin. They point to the fact that our world is at war against Him, however by His death, He has already won the victory. They point to the fact that we have hope in this sin-sick world. And our hope is in Him. 

So this Lent, we turn to the One who saves us in repentance. And we hold fast to the promises that He has given to us. Because in His suffering and death, He has held fast to us. He has kept us safe as He overcomes our sin, as He charges through death, and as He wins the war against the devil. “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Thanks be to God.

Listen to Him

A Sermon on Matthew 17:1-9 for Transfiguration Sunday, 2023, Series A

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A Peter followed Jesus up the mountain with only James and John with them, he had to be feeling pretty good about himself. For the first time, Jesus had singled out His best disciples, and he was in the big three. And now they were off, just them, to see what Jesus was going to reveal to them. 

Just six days earlier, Peter wasn’t sure that he was in such standing with Jesus.  As the other disciples looked on uncomfortably as Jesus told them how it was necessary for Him to die, Peter pulled Jesus aside to tell Him that the Messiah shouldn’t say such things. And that he was not going to listen to such words any more. Jesus did not respond kindly to him, calling him Satan and telling him to get behind him. So it was good in Peter’s eyes to see that Jesus had gotten over it. Because this Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the promised Savior. Jesus is going to reestablish the Davidic kingdom, and Peter is now sure to get an important role in that.

And all the ideas that were swirling around in Peter’s head were confirmed when Jesus revealed His glory on top of that mountain. Transfigured, face shining like the sun, clothes white as light. And with that appearance, Peter’s dreams were looking very real indeed. Them Moses appeared to talk with Jesus. Elijah appeared to talk with Jesus. And somehow, Peter just knew right away who they were. He had thought that he, James, and John were the big three. No, this was the big three. Moses who wrote the Law. Elijah, the greatest of the prophets. And Jesus, the Christ of God. And they were all together for Peter, James, and John to witness. 

“Lord, it is good that we are here,” says Peter, interrupting Jesus’ conversation with Moses and Elijah. I’m not sure who Peter meant by ‘we.’ But to preserve Peter’s honor, let’s say he meant by ‘we’ himself, James, and John, who could serve them by putting up some tents. But the same problem still remains. Just as Peter didn’t listen to Jesus back when Jesus told them about His upcoming death and resurrection, so now he doesn’t listen to the Law and the Prophets. He must put his own words forth. Put his own works forth, so Jesus can hear them and see them. 

This is why the cloud overshadows the mountain. This is why the Father speaks. Peter thinks Jesus is in the big three with Moses and Elijah. But He is in an even bigger big three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the message that the Father leaves for Peter in a way so clear, so loud, so unmistakable, is that Peter needs to listen to Jesus. 

It’s sure a good thing that we’re nothing like Peter. It is good that our hearts don’t have that same inclination to be the center of our own little worlds. It’s good that we don’t tell God that His plan is terrible, and that He should listen to ours instead. Except that is exactly what our sinful hearts have been doing all along. 

We are a lot less interested in what God had to say to us, and more interested in what we have to say to God. We tell God our fears, our pains, our losses, and He says to us, “Have you considered the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus as the answer to those things?” And we respond, “Why would we do that? I need you to take care of the thing I’m afraid of. I need you to make me comfortable. I need you to restore what I’ve lost. And let me tell you how you’re going to do it. I will accept no other solutions that these.” 

But when we do not see our plan unfold, when we do not see our way play out, we wonder if God is even listening to us. We wonder if God even cares. To which the Lord says to us, “Have you considered the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus as the answer to those things, instead of your own solutions?” And we respond again with, “Why would we do that?” 

This cycle goes around and around. Our plans crumble one by one. Our strength gives out little by little. And each time it does, we shout at God a little louder. And God is getting louder as well. To the point where we are overshadowed by a cloud, and hear his voice booming like thunder. But have we yet listened? Do we hear what He says? This is what He says, to Peter and to us: “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” 

Peter, James, and John later went up on another mountain with Jesus. It was the Mount of Olives, outside Jerusalem. It was the mountain that King David ascended when he fled his son Absolom, who was staging a coup. And again, Jesus sought refuge here. Listen to Him. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” The cup was the cross. Jesus was indeed going to die. He was going to bear the sins of Peter, James, and John. He was going to bear the sins of Judas, Pilate, and the Pharisees. He was going to bear your sins and mine. 

What do we fear? That we will not be able to make ends meet. That our sins will be held against us. That we will die, and then there’s nothing that can be done. Only that’s no longer true. Jesus joins us in death, so that we will remain with Him in life. Jesus’ resurrection is our resurrection. Jesus’ blood pays for our sin. We are forgiven all things. And the world to come is promised to you. What then is there to fear? Listen to Him.

What hurts us? Physical pain and illness. Mental stress and emotions. We are worried about being given more than we can bear. We no longer want to suffer. We have never wanted to suffer. We want it to stop. But Jesus joins us in our suffering. Jesus is by our side as the pain is more than we can bear. He knows it as closely as we do, as He has had nails in his hands and feet. He has worn the crown of thorns. He has hung upon a cross. And in that pain of His, He held on to you. He did not let you go. He saved you by enduring it all for your sake. And that gives all the pain that you bear a point. You do not bear it for no reason. The reason is that Christ is with you in it, so that you may hold onto Him as tightly as He holds on to you. Listen to Him.

What about our loss? It is traumatic when we lose our things. It is even worse when we lose people we love. There are losses we cannot recover from in this life. This is exactly why Jesus goes to that cross. This is exactly why Jesus dies. This is exactly why Jesus rose from the dead. So that the dead will not stay dead. All of humanity will rise on the last day. And the faithful will go into eternal life with Him. The loss today certainly hurts. But that loss will not last forever. They will live again. That’s the hope that Christ Jesus delivers to you today. The hope of the resurrection. And while the time may seem like a long ways off right now, it is not far. And He is with you on that way. Listen to Him.

All in all, it did take Peter a long time to finally listen. Our Epistle lesson today is from Peter, writing after He finally understood what Jesus said. He writes, “[W]e were eyewitnesses of his majesty.  For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts….” 

As amazing as seeing Jesus transfigured before them was. As good as it was for them to be there and see that. It wasn’t that moment that gave Peter assurance and Hope. Nor is it ours. We have Jesus’ Word. Something more sure than our eyes. More convincing than ideas. More certain than our hearts. Jesus speaks His promises to Peter, to us all. Listen to Him. Thanks be to God.

Sin Is More Serious Than We Think

A Sermon on Matthew 5:21-37 for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, Series A, 2023

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus continues preaching His Sermon on the Mount. And it is here where we find out that those Ten Commandments are a whole lot more demanding than we thought. You see, we live in a society that wants to know the loopholes. We need to know just how close we can get to the line without it counting as us going over it. We have heard it said, ‘You shall not murder,’ But we want to know if murdering our neighbor for this reason or that is actually okay. What if the life they would have had isn’t good? What if they’re suffering? What if they want me to? Those reasons give me justification. Those reasons make it right to do. Or so we say. But really, we’re more concerned with how much we can get away with, rather than considering why our Lord commanded us not to murder in the first place. 

We do the same thing with sex and marriage. We do the same thing with our words. We want to know how to get by on just enough in order to say we kept it. But we would really rather be in those sins as much as we can get away with. We do not consider our sin to be dangerous. If we did, we wouldn’t be always testing that line to see how far it goes. We think our sin is unimportant. It has no value to have it count against us. To the point where we sin in whatever way we can dodge the consequences, and then continue to believe that we are good people. 

But by devaluing our sin, we also devalue our neighbor, our spouse, our family, our word. And what’s wrong with the world right now? The devaluation of our neighbor, our spouse, our family, our word. This starts with us! We have made our sinning more important than those things. It is up to us to repent of them. You’re not going to convince the world if you can’t even convince yourself that your sins are wrong.

Are you still not convinced? Hear the words of Jesus. “[I]f you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.” “[W]hoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away…. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” Your sin counts against you more than your offerings count for you. Your sin puts you in the dangers of hell itself. Jesus doesn’t say that your sin is no big deal. He clearly says it is the most dangerous thing you can possibly be a part of. 

This doesn’t just affect you either. Your sin is not a private moment between you and God. Anger at your neighbor drives the neighbors that the Lord has given to you away. They are hurt by your unkind words. They lose out on someone whom the Lord has given to share the Gospel with them. Your lustful glance trains your mind to indulge your sin. Which is putting your current relationships to the sword. It kills the trust your spouse has in you. And destroys a spouse’s self worth. For the younger who are not yet married, you can do this not even having met your spouse yet. For those who are widows and widowers, such actions smear the relationship you had, and disgrace the love whom you will see again. 

Divorce likewise does not just involve you and one other. Children are hurt. Parents are hurt. No one in your life comes away unscathed. And it might place the one you are divorcing in a position that is worse than losing a hand or an eye. Granted, there are times where it is the only option left. And Jesus acknowledges that here. But our society, just like society back in Jesus’ day, was more interested in how, not if.

We hurt others when we find ways not to keep our word. In Jesus’ day, there were ways to rank your oaths so as to know which ones you must keep, ones you should keep, and ones that you might keep, if you feel like it. We put everything we say into that last category, with the result that no one can trust us, or anyone else at this point. And without that trust, why would anyone believe any thing from anyone? So the Word of God is disregarded. Salvation is ignored. Forgiveness is left in the garbage. Because we want say anything we want without consequence.

We do not hand enough hands nor eyes to remove in order to keep us from our sin. However, Jesus’ point is not about cutting off hands nor plucking out eyes. It is about cutting the sin out of our lives. Keep a close watch over your tongue. Over your eyes. Over your heart. So that others might not have to suffer from our sin. Our sin matters. I affects us, it affects our neighbor. And we should not inflict it upon them any more than we already have.

But we must face the fact that we already have hurt our neighbors with it. We have already damaged our own selves with it. And for that we regret the pain and suffering we have caused. We repent of our sin. And we do not want to continue in it any longer. “Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.” Well, Jesus joins us on our way. And He has come to terms with our sin. Because He who knew no sin became sin for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We are baptized, every one of us, for the forgiveness of sins. And upon Him the Lord has laid the iniquity of us all.

Christ Jesus has let His ‘yes’ be yes. God was born in order to bear your sin. God lived in order to give you His righteousness in exchange. God has died on a cross to pay for all the hurt and harm your sin has inflicted on you, your neighbors, the world. God was buried in order that such sins would be dead with Him. God rose from the dead in order that sin can no longer hold you in the grave any more than it can hold Him. By the death and resurrection of Jesus, you are forgiven. Completely, utterly forgiven. He has taken your sin away. 

Our Gospel lesson wasn’t the first time our Lord covered all of this for us either. Everything that Jesus talks about here was all covered in those Ten Commandments back when Israel left Egypt. And yes, those Commandments tell what we should have done, and what we didn’t do. But each of those Commandments protected a gift which the Lord gives to us. Life with Fifth Commandment against murder. Contentment with the Ninth and Tenth Commandments against wanting what is not ours. Spouse and family with the Sixth Commandment against adultery. Reputation with the Eighth Commandment against false witness.. His Word with the Second and Third Commandments against misusing God’s name, and remembering who our rest is in. 

Our Lord has been looking out for us long since before we were even born. He has been joining us on our way to the judgement. And giving us terms by which our sin is taken away. We find it always in the mercy of God. A gift freely given to you, at the price of the life of God. “Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days.” Thanks be to God.