Stay close to Christ, who is the Life

Posted on October 5, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 16

1 Kings 17:17-24  +  1 Corinthians 15:21-28  +  John 11:19-45

Our theme this week, established, as always, by Sunday’s Gospel, is Jesus’ power over death and the certainty of our resurrection through Him at the Last Day. In the first lesson this evening, you heard one of the two Old Testament accounts of a resurrection miracle. Between Sunday School and Sunday’s Gospel and the third lesson you heard this evening, you’ve now heard all three Gospel accounts of Jesus raising people from the dead: the young man of Nain, the daughter of Jairus (which both took place in northern Israel, relatively far away from Jerusalem, the center of Jewish society), and then the third, the raising of Lazarus, which took place just outside of Jerusalem, where all the “important people” among the Jews either witnessed it or heard about it from eyewitnesses. There could be no denying it: Jesus had the power to give life to the dead.

We can all relate to the sadness that Mary and Martha felt at the death of their brother Lazarus. We can probably even relate to their disappointment in Jesus for allowing it to happen, for taking His time in getting there so that He arrived “too late.” It’s natural for our flesh to blame God for letting all kinds of bad things happen, to think that my loved ones and I should be the great exceptions to the rule of history, that, if God really cared about us, He would keep death away from us until we reach a ripe old age. But then we remind our flesh, as we did on Sunday morning, that death isn’t God’s fault. It’s the devil’s fault, and it’s ours. Death was given the power to reign over all those born of Adam, because all those born of Adam are sinful and unclean by nature, by birth. All those who are connected to Adam die. Knowing that doesn’t make it less sad or less tragic. But it does help us to face death with understanding, and that’s important if we’re going to understand God’s solution to our death problem.

His solution is Jesus. But what does that mean? As Mary and Martha learned, Jesus didn’t come the first time to wipe out death forever. God still allowed people like Lazarus to die. And only three times did He step in to reverse death. And those reversals were only temporary. He restored three mortals to their mortal lives for a while longer. And then they died, like everyone else. Nothing had changed.

But! When Jesus Himself rose from the dead, that was when everything began to change. That’s when His words, “I am the resurrection and the life” truly took on their intended meaning. Christ was the firstfruits, the first body harvested from the earth that would never die again. But also the proof that the rest of the harvest is coming, and the reason for its coming. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. All who are connected to Adam, which is all of us who are born from him, die. But all who are connected to Christ, which is all of us who were born again of water and the Spirit, will be made alive again. And not just temporarily. Not just for a little while. But never to die again. Each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.

Yes, all who are in their graves will be raised when Christ comes. But not all will be raised to what the Bible refers to as “life.” Those who were not Christ’s when they died will be raised to eternal death. As it says in Daniel chapter 12, Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.

So the doctrine of the resurrection highlights for us again the importance of making sure you’re right with God now, so that, when you die, you belong to Christ, and belonging to Christ, you will rise to everlasting life.

The same goes for those around you. It’s a sad, sad thing to hear people who call themselves Christians speaking and acting as if everyone who dies will be given eternal life. Or as if everyone who called themselves Christians will rise to eternal life. How many of those same people are living in sin? How many of those same people refuse to go to church regularly to hear the Word of God and to receive His Sacraments? How many of those same people live in impenitence and willful rebellion against God’s commandments, and yet expect that God must still give them eternal life! Those who “are Christ’s,” those who “belong to Christ” will rise to life at His coming. And you are Christ’s if you are baptized in His name and continue to live in the new life God gave you in your Baptism, in daily contrition and repentance, in a living faith in Him who is the resurrection and the life.

Rejoice in Christ and take comfort in the life He promises! And stay close to Christ, that you may receive the life He promises. We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Amen.

 

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Each Day in the Word, Wednesday, October 5th

Posted on October 5, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

Hebrews 9:1–10 (NKJV)

1 Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. 2 For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary; 3 and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, 4 which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; 5 and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. 6 Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services. 7 But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; 8 the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. 9 It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience—10 concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.

The Holy Spirit was depicting a very important truth in the design of Old Testament tabernacle.

The Holy Place represented the holy assembly of Israel that had been separated from the nations and sanctified by God through the covenant He made with them on Mt. Sinai. Everything in the Holy Place represented Israel as it stood in its covenant relationship with God. Just as the seven lampstands in Revelation 1-3 stood for the churches in Asia Minor, so the lampstand in the Holy Place stood for the church of Israel, which was to burn at all times with the light of the knowledge of God. The table with the twelves cakes of showbread represented the twelve tribes of Israel, whose lives were to be a continual offering to the Lord.

But a veil separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, with its golden censer and the ark of the covenant, which symbolized God. Only the High Priest could pass behind the veil once a year, bringing with him the blood of animals to make atonement for Israel. The veil in the tabernacle was to teach Israel that, for as glorious as the first covenant was between the Lord and Israel, it was still lacking. There was still a separation between the presence of God and the people of Israel. A High Priest—a Mediator—was needed. And blood was needed to bring God and His people together.

The High Priest symbolized the coming Christ, true God and true Man, who would enter into God’s presence with His own blood which now sanctifies all who believe in Him. He is the Mediator of the new covenant, and His blood reconciles believers to God, as God revealed in a shocking way when the veil in the temple was torn in two at the moment of Jesus’ death.

Let us pray: O Lord God, we thank You for reconciling us poor sinners to You through the death of Your Son and through the ministry of reconciliation by which You have brought us into the new covenant of the forgiveness of sins. Amen.

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Each Day in the Word, Tuesday, October 4th

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

Hebrews 8:1–13 (NKJV)

1 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. 4 For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

St. Paul says in Romans 8 that Christ “is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Rom. 8:34). This same truth is emphasized in today’s reading.

The writer to the Hebrews shows us that the tabernacle described in the Law of Moses was a “copy and shadow” of how things really are in heaven, just as the ministry of the priests in the earthly tabernacle was a picture of the heavenly ministry of Christ before God the Father. The ministers who served under the covenant God made with Israel on Mt. Sinai had an important, God-given role. But that role was always meant to be temporary. The sacrifices they offered and their mediation between sinful Israel and the holy God were vivid pictures of the true sacrifice of Christ, which He, as our perfect Mediator, being both God and Man, continually holds before the eyes of the Father as He makes intercession for all who believe in Him. Through that intercession of our High Priest, His atoning sacrifice is credited to us, and we sinners are no longer counted as sinners in the eyes of the holy Father, but as holy ones, cleansed by the blood of a better sacrifice.

There are some who claim that the Old Testament is still in force, side by side with the New. But today’s reading makes it clear that the old covenant (or testament) was always meant to be replaced by the new covenant instituted by Christ Jesus. The Old Testament, with its ministers and their sacrifices, was a shadow, pointing to the better promises of the better covenant of which Christ Jesus is the Mediator.

Let us pray: Holy Father, we thank You for establishing the new covenant of the forgiveness of sins through Christ and for bringing us into it through Holy Baptism and faith. Have mercy on us and grant us our petitions for the sake of Christ, our Mediator. Amen.

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Each Day in the Word, Monday, October 3rd

Posted on October 3, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

Hebrews 7:1–28 (NKJV)

1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” 3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually. 4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. 5 And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; 6 but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better. 8 Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives. 9 Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, 10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. 11 Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? 12 For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. 13 For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. 15 And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest 16 who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. 17 For He testifies: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” 18 For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, 19 for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. 20 And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath 21 (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: “The Lord has sworn And will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek’ ”), 22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. 23 Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. 24 But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.

We know next to nothing about the Old Testament figure named Melchizedek. He was a king and a priest of the true God who had a brief encounter with Abraham as Abraham was returning from his victory over the kings who had kidnapped his nephew Lot. We are told nothing of the origin of this priest-king and nothing of his end, which is why he is called a priest “forever.” His name isn’t mentioned again in Scripture until he is mentioned in a cryptic verse in Psalm 110, speaking about the coming Christ: “The LORD has sword and will not relent, You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” The writer to the Hebrews explains this verse for us.

The priesthood that was so well-known to the Jews was tied to the tribe of Levi, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, while the kings were descended from David, from the tribe of Judah. Like Melchizedek, the Christ would be both priest and king. His kingship would come from His ancestor David, but His priesthood would not come from Levi. Instead, He would be a priest like Melchizedek, who was greater than Levi, whose priesthood came directly from God and was not defined by the Levitical Law. Yes, the priesthood of the Christ would be far greater than that of the Levites. The Levitical priests all served as priests for a finite number of years; the Christ would serve forever. The Levitical priests were weak and sinful; the Christ would be sinless and perfect. The Levitical priests had to sacrifice daily for their own sins and for the sins of the people; the Christ would offer the one perfect sacrifice of Himself to make atonement, not for His own sins, but for the sins of the rest of mankind.

Let us pray: O Lord, we thank you for foreshadowing the priesthood of Your Son in the Old Testament and for revealing it to us in the New. Hear us and help us in all things only for the sake of Christ, our great High Priest. Amen.

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Confronting the reality of death

Posted on October 2, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 16

Ephesians 3:13-21  +  Luke 7:11-17

In the Christian Church, we deal with serious things, important things, weighty things. We don’t come together to kick back and relax, or to make everyone feel comfortable, or to escape from reality for a little while. We come together to meet with our God, to ask for His help with the most serious of problems, to receive His teaching, to receive His help, and to praise Him in return for it. That’s why we worship as we do, with reverence and with reverent ceremonies. Our services are designed to focus the attention of God’s people on those serious, weighty things.

One of those things is death. We don’t avoid the topic of death, just as no one can avoid the reality of death. And so, every year, we take up this Gospel from Luke 7, where Jesus confronts death head on and teaches us to do the same.

Our Gospel deals with sorrow, tragedy, death, and bereavement. But before we step into the Gospel itself this morning, we should take a moment to address the “why” of it, because, while you may understand it, most people don’t, and some of those people may be listening. Why does God allow people to suffer tragedy and death and loss? Isn’t He supposed to make sure people lead happy and safe and comfortable lives on earth? Isn’t that what God exists for? And isn’t that the kind of life we deserve?

Not at all. No, the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve all live under a curse.

To the woman He said :“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

This is the divinely pronounced sentence for our entire existence on this earth: Pain. Toil. Trouble. Hardship. Tragedy. Loss. And, finally, death.

The world today, more than ever, blames God for it, but it’s entirely our own fault. It’s like the police officer who warns a suspect to put his hands up, or the officer will shoot. And instead of putting his hands up, the person hides his hands, or reaches behind his back. So the officer shoots. And people today want to blame the police officer, because the world today no longer has a grasp of justice, of personal responsibility, of being punished for things they’ve done wrong.

Well, God warned Adam and Eve, Don’t eat from this tree or you will die. Then the devil lied to them. He deceived Eve into thinking God was the Liar, and Adam went right along with it. And so they ate, and they brought death and misery into the world. They brought us all under the curse of sin, because we’re all sinners. So every time you see a death, every time you see a tragedy, every time you see a natural disaster, you should say, “Oh, what a ruthless enemy the devil is, who wanted this suffering to come upon mankind! Oh, what a wretched curse has fallen upon our race! Oh, how justly we are punished for our transgressions!”

In our Gospel, we’re confronted with the harsh reality of the curse of sin. A young man dies—an apparently innocent young man, by human standards, and also a Jew, of the people of God. His father had already died, leaving the boy fatherless and his mother a widow. Now she’s a widow whose only son has died. She is bereaved. She grieves. She’s now destined to a life of loneliness, and, most likely, a life of poverty and begging, until, sooner or later, she will die, too.

In none of it is God to blame. In all of it, God remains just.

At the same time, God is merciful and God is loving, and you see that mercy and love painted all over Jesus in our Gospel as He confronts death. He approaches the tragic funeral procession marching out of the city of Nain. He doesn’t avoid it. He doesn’t shrink back from it, or take this opportunity to explain God’s justice. Instead, He who pronounced the curse upon Adam and Eve and their children in the beginning now steps forward to speak a different word.

Do not weep, He says to the widow. She had every reason to weep. Jesus Himself would weep at the grave of His friend Lazarus. But her time of weeping had come to an end. Jesus would fix things, even this seemingly hopeless situation.

He touches the coffin. The pall bearers stop. He speaks to the dead man, Young man, I say to you, get up! And just like that, death is defeated—at least, for a time. The boy’s soul was immediately reunited with his body (from heaven, we assume). Whatever ended his life, whether sickness or injury, was immediately healed. The wages that sin had paid out were thrown back in sin’s face, as it were. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus then presents the boy to his mother. He doesn’t bring her husband back from the dead. Just the boy, and even then, a temporary restoration, because that boy would one day grow old and die again. But it was enough for the moment. It was all Jesus offered at that time in the way of miracles, to anyone. Temporary earthly relief.

There would be a few more temporary restorations to come. Two more before Jesus’ crucifixion (the widow’s son was the first resurrection Jesus performed), several more at the moment Jesus died, one a few years later through the Apostle Paul, and then that’s it, as far as we know. That’s it. No more temporary restorations. Because temporary restorations, for as amazing and as comforting as they are, don’t really solve anything. Temporary earthly relief from suffering and sadness makes life easier for a little while, but it doesn’t change anything. What we need—what all men need—is an end to the curse.

Most people don’t even think that’s possible. Most give up on it. That’s why they’ll take momentary pleasure or temporary relief and be satisfied with it. But an end to suffering? An end to sorrow? An end of death? That’s a fantasy.

If only they knew the God who is more fantastic than any fantasy. If only they knew the God who truly saves!

That’s why Jesus performed the miracles He did, to show people, it really can be better. That God really is able to do far, far beyond all that we ask or imagine, as St. Paul wrote in today’s Epistle. And that help comes through Jesus alone.

That help comes in two stages. First, Jesus, our Brother, received the wages of sin for us. He tasted death, received the curse. An innocent man—THE innocent man, who is also God—died. God the Father allowed Him to die—sent Him to die! God sent Him into the world to receive sin’s wages, so that, through faith in Him, we might receive His gift of eternal life. As it says in Galatians 3, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”).

But Christ rose from the dead—not temporarily, but eternally. And because Jesus took our curse, our wages, upon Himself, and because He rose from the dead, stage 1 of our restoration—of our resurrection! —happens now when we hear the voice of the risen Son of God in the Gospel and believe in Him. The result is immediate forgiveness of sins—justification by faith. The curse upon our souls—God’s wrath against our sin—is gone. As Paul says, We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. The curse of condemnation and the curse of eternal death in hell are removed. Paul writes, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And a new life begins, as Jesus said in John 5: He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.

Stage 2 of our restoration waits eagerly—desperately, almost—for Jesus to return. When He does, All who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth. On that day the curse that remains over our flesh will be lifted. This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?

Until then—that’s always the hard part, isn’t it? Until then, rest in peace, in the image of the loving and compassionate Lord Jesus walking up to the sorrowing widow and restoring life to her son as easily as speaking a word. Rest in peace, in the lifting of the curse upon your soul that already took place when you heard the word of Christ in the Gospel and when you were buried with Christ through Baptism into death. Rest in peace, in the lifting of the curse upon our bodies that will take place soon enough. And, as you’re able, help your neighbor to understand the reason why suffering and death still afflict us in this world: as a wake-up call to the impenitent and unbelieving, that they might obey the Gospel before the curse overtakes them forever, body and soul; and to the believer in Christ, as the final stages of birth pangs, and as the empty threats of a death that has already been defeated by our Lord Jesus Christ, a death that will soon be swallowed up forever in victory. Amen.

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