Prophecies fulfilled, Holy Saturday

Posted on April 16, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Vigil of Easter

Christ is arisen! We begin our celebration of His resurrection already tonight, which is already the beginning of the third day, according to Jewish reckoning. But there is one more prophecy about the Christ that we should consider before jumping all the way into the joy of the resurrection tomorrow morning. It’s that somewhat obscure prophecy that’s referenced so briefly in our Apostles’ Creed. He descended into hell.

The Old Testament prophecies about this are few. Only two, as far as I can tell. First, from Psalm 16: For You will not leave my soul in hell, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. The apostles cite that verse several times with regard to the Christ’s resurrection, the fact that His body would not see decay, because He would rise from the dead. But if His soul—that is, His whole self, according to Hebrew meaning—was not left in hell, then He must have descended there first. So the Christ would descend to hell before rising from hell and death.

Then there’s a verse from Hosea 13: I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Hell, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes.

Tonight, let’s let Martin Luther guide us briefly through this wondrous prophecy and article of faith. We hear portions of his sermon on Christ’s descent into hell:

Before Christ rose and ascended into heaven, while He still lay in the grave, He also descended to hell, in order that He might also deliver us out from there who should have lain captive therein. It was for this same reason that He also had gone into death and was laid in the grave, that He might bring His own out from there. But I do not want to treat this article in a lofty or detailed manner—how it was done, or what it means to go to hell. No, I want to stay with the simplest understanding, as one would describe it to children.

This is also how one finds it often depicted in murals, how He descended with a choir cape and with a banner in His hand. He comes before hell and strikes down and slays the devil with the banner. He storms hell and brings out His own (not as if the souls of the believers were in hell, waiting to be brought out, but in that hell before had a claim on all people, and now it no longer has any claim on those who believe in Jesus).

For such a picture demonstrates well the power and the benefit of this article. This is why the article exists and is preached and believed, to show how Christ has destroyed the power of hell and has taken away from the devil all his might. If I grasp that, I have the proper knowledge and understanding of it and shouldn’t investigate or speculate further how it happened or is possible.

We should very simply bind our hearts and thoughts to the word of the Creed, which says: “I believe in the Lord Christ, the Son of God, who…descended to hell.” That is, I believe that Christ, who is God and man in one person, went to hell, but did not remain there. As Psalm 16 says of Him: “You will not abandon My soul to hell nor allow Your Holy One to see decay.”

Christ went as a conquering hero and personally broke into hell and bound the devil. Whether the banners, gates, door, and chains are made of wood, iron, or of nothing at all, it doesn’t matter at all, as long as I grasp that which is demonstrated through this picture, what I should believe about Christ, that neither hell nor devil can take me or harm me or any who believe in Him…For although hell remains hell, per se, and holds the unbelievers prisoner—as also death, sin, and all misfortune hold them, too—so that they must remain and perish therein; and although it still terrifies and threatens us, too, according to the flesh and the outer man, nevertheless, all of that is, by faith, destroyed and torn apart, so that it can no longer harm us at all. Now all the devils must run away and flee, even as death and its venom and the whole of hell with its fire must be put out before Him, so that no Christian has to be afraid of it anymore.

But our Lord Christ has not left it at that, that He died and descended to hell, (for that would not yet have helped us in the end), but He also left death and hell again, brought life back again and opened heaven wide and thus publicly demonstrated His victory and triumph over death, the devil, and hell, that He, according to this article, rose again from the dead on the third day. For by rising from the dead, He has become a mighty Lord over death and everything that has the power of death or that serves death, so that it can no longer consume or hold Him. Sin can no longer fall upon Him or drive Him to death. The devil can no longer bring a complaint against Him, nor can the world or any creature trouble Him or harm Him.

This boast now belongs to the Lord Christ alone. But He did not do it for Himself; He did it for us poor, miserable people who otherwise would have had to be eternal captives of death and the devil. For prior to this, He, for His own part, certainly did not have to die or go to hell. But since He clothed Himself in our flesh and blood and took up all our sin, punishment, and misfortune, He also had to help us out of these things by coming back to life and becoming a Lord of death, in order that we, too, might also finally come out of death and all misfortune in Him and through Him.

Here a strong faith is needed, which holds this article up powerfully and writes this saying upon the heart in large letters, “Christ is arisen,” making this phrase as large as heaven and earth, so that faith sees, hears, thinks, and knows nothing else but this article, as if nothing else were written in the whole creation. As St. Paul writes to the Romans: “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who will condemn? It is Christ who has died, yes, much more, who has risen from the dead.”

Let us hold to this truth and dwell upon it daily, for all our wisdom, salvation, and blessedness depend on it. To that end, may God help us through His own beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is blessed forever. Amen.

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Prophecies fulfilled, Good Friday

Posted on April 15, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Good Friday

Today is like no other day in history. On this one day, not quite 2,000 years ago, an innocent Man—the only truly innocent, sinless Man in history, a Man, who was also God our Creator—suffered, died, and was buried. That makes this day unique. But it’s unique also in another way. No other day in history has been described ahead of time with as much detail and with as much accuracy as Good Friday, as, one by one, the prophecies about the coming Christ were fulfilled in the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus. Let’s take a moment to consider just a few of them.

Isaiah 53:8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away, but he did not open his mouth. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, makes this verse’s meaning a little clearer: “In His humiliation, justice was removed from Him.” We saw that last night before the Sanhedrin. We saw it today before Pontius Pilate. No justice for Jesus, only humiliation and unjust condemnation. As Peter wrote, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. You and I were the unjust. But the Just One allowed Himself to be condemned so that sinners like Barabbas, sinners like you and I, could go free.

Meanwhile, we’re told about Judas’ remorse and his returning of the 30 pieces of silver, which he threw into the house of the Lord, and with which the priests then purchased the potter’s field. Zechariah 11: So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD for the potter. “That princely price they set on Me.” It’s all the life of Jesus was worth to Judas. It’s worth even less than that to many. How much is His life worth to you? What would your words and actions reveal? I’ll tell you. They would reveal that many things in this life have been worth more to you than Jesus, worth more to you than your God. So repent and, unlike Judas, turn to the Lord Jesus for forgiveness. And then mean the words of the last stanza of the hymn you just sang: Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a tribute far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Psalm 22: For dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots. An incredibly vivid depiction of a crucifixion before crucifixion even existed. Even the soldiers’ dividing Jesus’ garments among themselves was prophesied 1,000 years before it happened as the Holy Spirit painted the picture for us through the words of the Prophet-King David. The cross was always in God’s view, and now He wants it always to be in view for us, too, that we may know the price of our redemption and the love of God who willingly paid that price for us.

Also Psalm 22: All those who see Me ridicule Me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, “He  trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!” Even the mockery the Christ would receive at the foot of the cross was prophesied by King David. The sentiment of the religious leaders then is like the sentiment of so many still today. If you trust in God, nothing bad is supposed to happen to you. If God truly delights in you, then He will save you from all earthly harm, and from shame and disgrace. If He doesn’t, then He must not delight in you, or He must not be a good God, or He must not exist. But looks can be so deceiving. It often looks like God has abandoned His own. But in truth, Jesus was never so pleasing to His Father as when He bore the sins of the world and received the punishment for them. Doing the will of God often comes with great pain. But in the end, it will always be worth it.

Also Psalm 22: My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue clings to My jaws…And they gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. The final moments of the cross are depicted in the Psalm. He’s almost done, and He knows it. But He has to complete the picture drawn by the Holy Spirit through King David, so He asks for a drink, because He has a loud shout yet to make, declaring the great “It is finished!” that declares His atoning work complete. All the suffering needed to earn mankind’s salvation had been suffered. No further payment for sins can possibly be made.

Also Psalm 22: For He was cut off from the land of the living. The Scriptures prophesied ahead of time the death of the Christ. It shouldn’t have surprised anyone, and yet it surprised nearly everyone, except for old Simeon who held that same Jesus in his arms some 33 years earlier and warned Mary about this day: Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul, too. And so our Savior died, having fulfilled every last prophecy. But there were still prophecies to be fulfilled. Even though the soldiers had been ordered to break the legs of the three men being crucified to help them die faster, before the sun set, they came to Jesus and found Him already dead. So, not having the faintest idea they were fulfilling the Scriptures, they chose not to break His legs, but to pierce His side instead, fulfilling the words of Moses in Exodus 12: None of his bones shall be broken, making the connection between the Christ and the Passover Lamb; and also the words of Zechariah in chapter 12, They will look on the One whom they have pierced.

Then Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus acquired Jesus’ body, and Joseph, a rich man, laid Jesus in his own, newly hewn tomb, so that Isaiah’s prophecy could be fulfilled: And they made His grave with the wicked—but with the rich at His death.

The reason for it all, for all the suffering and for the death of the Christ, was also prophesied in Holy Scripture. Isaiah spelled in out for us in chapter 53: But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. The wounds we had earned for our transgressions were all endured by Jesus during those six hours He spent on the cross. The peace with God that He earned is now offered to us freely, through faith. The healing we all needed was earned for us by Jesus, who gave up His own health and comfort and offered His body to the stripes and scourges and blows that we deserved for our sins.

Now, through faith and Holy Baptism, you have been united with the death of Christ, buried with Him through Baptism into death, that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, you, too, should walk in a new life. And if a person has never been baptized and has never learned the great significance of this day, then now is the time, time to repent, time to trust, so that each and every one of you can say with the Apostle Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Yes, all of history was leading up to this Good Friday, as shown by the Old Testament prophecies. And now the Lord God has led you here to hear this Gospel again, the Gospel of Christ crucified, to call you again to repentance and faith in Him, and to assure you that, if the Father did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Jesus, graciously give us all the things we need, both for this life and for the next? Amen.

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Prophecies Fulfilled, Maundy Thursday

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Maundy Thursday

You heard again this evening the events of Maundy Thursday. This evening, and over the next two days, I’d like you to focus on the many Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. One by one, they point us to Jesus as the Christ, and to the great works He accomplished for us and for our salvation.

We already saw a great prophecy from Zechariah fulfilled on Palm Sunday: the King’s arrival in Jerusalem, righteous and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey. On Maundy Thursday, we see at least four prophecies being fulfilled.

The first is the prophecy of the betrayal of the Christ. I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.

That’s a prophecy from Psalm 41, a Psalm of David, whose life was, in many ways, a type or a foreshadowing of the life of the Christ, the Son of David. Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. And a similar prophecy in Psalm 55: For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; Then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, My companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, And walked to the house of God in the throng. It hurts to be attacked by an enemy. But it hurts far more to be betrayed by someone close, someone who was supposed to be on your side, someone you thought of as a friend, a friend who turns out to be your bitterest enemy. That’s the kind of betrayal Jesus, the Christ, suffered for us, betrayal by one of His twelve chosen apostles, who worshiped with Jesus and who literally shared bread with Jesus, not only over the previous three years, but on that very Maundy Thursday night, betrayed by a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane. Don’t feel bad for Judas. He did what he did by his own will and choice. Instead, think of the pain it caused our Savior. He walked knowingly into a trap laid for Him by His friend so that He might save us from the devil’s trap, who was created to be a friend of God and of the human race, and yet betrayed both God and man and made himself into our bitterest enemy. Only by suffering betrayal from the hand of Judas could the Christ save us from the great betrayal perpetrated by the devil.

Then there’s the prophecy of the New Covenant or the New Testament that Jesus instituted on that very Maundy Thursday night, the New Testament in His blood. It was Jeremiah who foretold it: 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—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” And so we have in the Sacrament of the Altar a covenant or a testament, not of blessings in return for obedience, but of forgiveness for disobedience, that we might now walk according to God’s commandments, not in order to win heaven for ourselves, but gladly, willingly, as those who rely on Christ Jesus, who won heaven for us by giving His body and shedding His blood on the cross, and who gives the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who believe in Him, whether Jew or Gentile, right here in this Sacrament of His true body and His true blood.

Third, there’s the prophecy from Zechariah of the attack against the Christ and the scattering of the sheep that would happen as a result. All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. And so we see Jesus, the Good Shepherd, doing exactly what He said a good shepherd does, standing between the wolf and the sheep, so that the wolf strikes the shepherd instead of the sheep. The sheep, the disciples, are allowed to scatter while the wolf is busy attacking the shepherd. That was cowardly on the disciples’ part. It was a “stumbling,” as Jesus called it. But the Good Shepherd didn’t come to be rescued by His sheep. He came to rescue us from sin, death, and the power of the devil, from our own shameful weakness and cowardice. So learn to overcome cowardice and to embrace courage in your walk as Christians as you see Jesus standing up courageously in the face of His enemies, and ours.

And finally, Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me? How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be thus? Now, which Scriptures have Christ being led away violently, and yet quietly? Well, I think of the verse from Isaiah 53, He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. In fact it was that very verse from Isaiah where the Evangelist Philip began to explain to the Ethiopian eunuch how Jesus had come in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, how He was the promised Christ, and how He had earned salvation for all by His atoning sacrifice on the cross. And which Scriptures have God the Father giving the Christ this bitter cup to drink? Again from Isaiah 53: The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

See how all these miraculous, divine prophecies come together, one by one, to point to Jesus as the Christ who would suffer by God’s own design, not for His sins, but for ours, to earn us a place by His side in His glorious kingdom. Let these prophecies and their fulfillment serve to prove God’s love for our fallen race and His desire that all people, including you, should repent and believe in His Son. Amen.

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The world has gone after Jesus. Will you?

Posted on April 10, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Palm Sunday

John 12:12-26

Once again we’ve commemorated Jesus’ Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem with a procession and with palm branches. I think you all know the significance of this day, why we celebrate it. I think you know where Jesus was going on Friday of that Holy Week, and why, and what it means to follow Him. But no one in that first Palm Sunday crowd knew any of that.

As for Jesus’ disciples, they fetched the donkey, as Jesus instructed them, and they watched the ride, but John tells us they didn’t put it together with Zechariah’s prophecy until later. They didn’t know where Jesus was really going, or why. Still, they went after Him, because they had come to know Him and believe in Him as the Christ who had come from God to save them—whatever that meant.

Then there were the multitudes who waved their palm branches and sang their Hosannas with joy as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. But they didn’t know where Jesus was really going, or why. Still they went after Jesus, because, as John tells us, they had heard of this great resurrection miracle Jesus had recently performed on Lazarus, who lived just outside the city of Jerusalem, whose raising was especially astonishing, because, unlike the other two people whom Jesus had raised—the daughter of Jairus and the young man of Nain—this miracle was witnessed by many, and Lazarus had been, if you’ll permit the phrase, “good and dead.” The other two had died the same day, or, at most, the day before. But Lazarus had already been dead and buried for three days when Jesus called him out of the tomb. They wanted to see Jesus for the miracles that He had done, and might do.

We’re told in John’s Gospel that certain Greeks were also there in Jerusalem, Greeks who had converted to the Jewish faith and who wanted to see Jesus. They didn’t know where Jesus was really going, or why. Still they went after Him, hoping that, even though they weren’t Abraham’s children according to the flesh, He might be the promised Christ who would remove the barrier between Jew and Gentile and make a single Holy Christian Church out of all the nations.

So many people had gone after Jesus that it infuriated His enemies, the Pharisees, who wanted nothing to do with Him, who wished He would just go away. “You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!” Well, they were about to go after Him, too, not to praise Him, not to worship Him, not to seek instruction from Him, but to kill Him.

For this reason, or for that reason, and usually for the wrong reason, we might say that the world has gone after Jesus. The question for today is, Will you? And if so, why? And for what? And what does it even mean to go after Him? These are pressing questions that need answering, and they’re especially appropriate for the day on which our two young confirmands will give their own answers to those questions.

Where was Jesus going? He was going to the cross. Zechariah’s prophecy about Christ the King riding into Jerusalem on a donkey was one of the most notable and obvious fulfillments of Old Testament prophecy pointing directly at Jesus as the Christ. That prophecy from Zechariah made the Christ look like a victorious conqueror, and yet also a humble one, a lowly one who would bring salvation to His people. But many prophecies, including prophecies from the same prophet Zechariah, also pointed to the Christ as a suffering Servant who would be rejected by the people of Israel and who would be put to death by them. We’ll be reviewing some of those prophecies later this week.

Jesus had already revealed to His disciples many times where He was going, that He was going to the cross. He reveals it to them yet again in today’s Gospel. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.

That brings us to the reason why Jesus was going where He was going. Why was Jesus the Christ going to “fall into the ground and die” like a grain of wheat? Why was He going to the cross? He was doing it, so that by His death, He might rise out of the ground again and grow into a stalk that produces much grain. Or, using a different analogy, that He might be a vine that would produce many branches.

You see, there is no life apart from Christ. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All have earned death and eternal condemnation for their sins. All begin life already dead, already trapped in the devil’s kingdom. But Jesus, who is not only true man, but also true God, would suffer the full penalty for the sins of the world and would give His life on the cross, to make atonement for every wicked thing we’ve ever done and for the evil people we are by nature. He is the righteous One who gave His life for the unrighteous. And now God the Father offers the life of His Son to all people. Repent of your sins! Be grafted into Christ by faith! And so receive the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life. That’s how Christ produces much grain as a result of His death, by bringing many people into His body through faith, so that He shares His righteousness, His sonship, His life with all who are joined to Him.

So what does it mean to go after Him—to go after Him in the right way, in the way that leads to life? To go after Him means, first and foremost, to repent and to believe in Him and to be baptized in His name. Most of you, maybe all of you here, have been baptized. Our two young confirmands were both baptized by me, right here at this baptismal font, Aiden 12 years ago, Lucas 13 years ago. You have begun to go after Jesus.

But going after Him is not a one-time thing, or a one-part-of-your-life thing. Being born to Christian parents, being baptized with a Christian baptism, spending your childhood going to Church and hearing God’s Word is a good beginning. But it’s only a beginning.

To go after Jesus also means continuing to hear His Word and study His Word, not because your parents tell you you have to, but because you know it’s God’s will, and that His words are your source of life. Lucas and Aiden, you’ve spent extra time over these last three years reading and studying the Word of Christ at home and in catechism class. But that’s still only a beginning.

To go after Jesus also means to “do this in remembrance of Him,” to regularly receive His true body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar as your special connection of the branch to the Vine or to the stalk of wheat that has sprung up from the earth in His glorious resurrection. Lucas and Aiden, you’ll begin to receive the Lord’s body and blood today. But that’s still only a beginning.

To go after Jesus also means to imitate Him in His kindness and compassion, to be like Him in showing love to others and in obeying God’s commandments. It means a life devoted to prayer and to sanctification, struggling against your sinful flesh and walking according to the Spirit, as the Spirit of God lives in you and strengthens you through Word and Sacrament.

To go after Jesus is a lifelong following. It has to be. Because if you follow Him for a time and then wander away, you’ll share the tragic end of Judas the betrayer. No, following Jesus means losing yourself, losing your earthly life, putting your friends after Jesus, putting your career after Jesus, putting Jesus ahead of your family, your comfort, your earthly happiness, your safety, even your very life. It means following Him all the way to the cross and bearing your cross with patience, even as Jesus did. As He said in today’s Gospel, He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

The way of Jesus leads to the cross, not only for Him, but for you. It means being hated by the world, if you dare to confess Him before the world. But after the cross comes the resurrection. After death comes life. After dishonor comes the greatest honor of all, being honored by God the Father Himself, because you went after Jesus and stayed with Him for life.

The world has gone after Jesus. Will you? May God the Holy Spirit inspire all of you here today to do just that, to go after Jesus, in the right way and for the right reasons, all the way to the cross, and to the grave, and to the endless life that follows. Watch Him this week. Watch Him take on our enemies of sin, death, and the devil. Watch Him love you to His final breath, and then watch as He rises again and brings life and immortality to light. Amen.

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The Table of Duties: Young and Old and All in Common

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Judica – Lent 5

Small Catechism Review: The Table of Duties

We’ve made it to the final midweek service before Holy Week. And we’ve also made it to the end of the end of the Small Catechism, to the end of the Table of Duties. Our final three Bible passages are addressed to young and old, and to all Christians at once.

First Luther cites a passage for the young, from 1 Peter 5:

You younger people, submit yourselves to your elders, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time (1 Pet. 5[:5-6]).

Now, “younger people” certainly includes children. But it refers more specifically to people in their teens and early twenties. We have some of those people here. And what are the two duties Peter emphasizes for the young Christians? Submission to those who are older, and humility. The young tend to find both of those things particularly challenging, don’t they? The young often think they know better than their elders. They probably do know more about some things. But there is no substitute for life experience and maturity and the wisdom that comes with it. Regardless, Christian young people are instructed by God to show deference to those who are older. Submitting includes agreeing to listen, agreeing to learn. And humility includes setting aside your notions that you know more, that you know better. It includes showing reverence and respect at all times, and setting aside your pride. Remember that God resists the proud. He hates pride, when people think highly of themselves and think lowly of other people. But He gives grace to the humble. Think about that around your friends, and around those who aren’t your friends. Think about that around your elders. And remember God’s promise to lift you up if you humble yourself.

We can add Paul’s words to St. Titus about the young: Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded. Sober-minded. That’s a big concept. It includes self-control or “temperance,” that means, never going too far, not letting yourself get carried away, either with excitement or adventure, or with sadness or with focusing on how bad things are. Sober-minded. It includes focusing on the things that are most important in this life. Stopping to think before you speak or before you act. Making wise, well-reasoned, God-centered choices. Those things don’t come naturally to any of us, but especially when we’re young. But here God sets forth these duties to Christian young people. And the same God will give you the strength to carry them out, if you take your duties seriously and apply yourselves to them. The devil, the world, and your flesh will tug at you and pull at you to just forget about God and the duties He’s given you, and enjoy being young while you’re young. You mustn’t let them succeed.

Now, for the duties of the “older people.” How do we define that? Well, I suppose it’s when you’re no longer a “youth.” No matter how young you may feel, you reach a state of maturity and full-blown adulthood at some point, and from then until you reach what we call “old age,” you qualify as an older person. Here’s what St. Paul writes to Titus about the duties of older people: Exhort the older men to be sober, dignified, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be properly holy in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

It is the duty of older Christian men to be sober, as in, literally not drunk (or “high” on drugs, either). Dignified (which the NKJV translates “reverent,” which is not a great translation). Dignified, that is, honorable, well-behaved, worthy of respect. Temperate, which is the same word used for the youth “sober-minded,” level-headed, not being carried away to extremes. They are to be sound in faith, that is, healthy in their faith. And as you know, the only way to be healthy is to eat right and exercise, right? So it is with your faith, too. It requires the regular eating of the pure Word of God and of His Sacrament, and the regular exercise of relying on God in times of trouble. Sound in love. That requires regularly eating (that is, dwelling on) the love of Christ and regularly exercising that same love toward others. Sound in patience. That requires regularly eating (that is, dwelling on) the patience Christ Himself showed when He suffered, and the patience of so many saints who have gone before us, and regularly exercising that patience in times of trouble, by bearing the cross and putting up with afflictions, because you know your God will not abandon you.

It is the duty of older Christian women to be properly holy in their behavior, behaving as holy daughters of God. Not slanderers, that is not women who talk badly about others or gossip about them. Not given to much wine. Wine is fine, but it’s a Christian woman’s duty to know when to say when. Teachers of good things. Sure, that can be for teachers in a classroom. But it’s much more than that. Older Christian women ought to teach younger Christian women, but they must do it with kindness and gentleness and humility. Teaching them, as Paul says, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. You may have heard of “church ladies” over the years who haven’t acted this way, and have given a bad name to the Church. But you older women know it’s your duty not to be like that.

Those words from Paul to Titus aren’t the words of our Table of Duties, though. Luther simply includes this passage about widows from 1 Tim. 5: Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives (1 Tim. 5[:5-6]). When a Christian woman loses her husband, she hasn’t lost all purpose in life. It’s now her duty to trust in God, and to devote herself to prayer and to the kingdom of God. And it’s the duty of other Christians to see that such a woman is cared for, or that elderly Christians in general are cared for, if they truly need care.

Finally, Luther includes two verses that speak to all Christians. From Romans 13: All the commandments are summed up in this saying: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Rom. 13[:9]). And from 1 Tim. 2: Persevere in prayer for all men (1 Tim. 2[:1]).

Love. It’s the duty of all Christians to love. But to love according to the Christian definition of love, love as it’s described in the Ten Commandments. Love that is consistent with God’s Word. Love that is genuine, sincere, from the heart, seeking the best of our neighbor, and especially of our fellow Christians. Love as it’s modeled for us by the Lord Jesus. And prayer. That’s also modeled for us by Him, prayer as a form of love, because we’re praying to God the Father on behalf of others. These are the constant duties of all Christians.

With that, we conclude our study of the Table of Duties, and, of course, more could be said about all our duties as Christians. But I leave it to you now to think about your duties every day and to carry them out diligently, as those who have been purchased with the blood of Christ, washed clean of all your sins, and brought into the kingdom of Christ, not to lounge around, but to serve Him in His kingdom in the ways He Himself has outlined for you in His Word. Where you have failed to do your duties, where I have failed to do mine, let us repent and look to Christ, who fulfilled His duties perfectly and gladly, including His duty to His Father to suffer and die for our sins. As we conclude this Lenten season and move into Holy Week, let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus as He fulfills all His blessed duties for us, so that we have all the motivation we need to fulfill our duties to Him. Amen.

 

 

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