The Sacrament of the Altar

Posted on April 18, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Maundy Thursday

+  1 Corinthians 11:23-32  +  John 13:1-15  +

Holy Thursday affords us a wonderful opportunity to reflect on just what it is we’re supposed to remember when our Lord first commanded us on that Thursday of Holy Week, “This do in remembrance of Me.” What is this meal that we celebrate here at Emmanuel so often and that awaits us again on this Holy Thursday? What is the Sacrament of the Altar? We answer that in our Small Catechism with these words: It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself, for us Christians to eat and to drink.

You take and eat bread. But at the same time, whether you believe it or not, you are really and truly also taking and eating the very body of Jesus: the same body once broken on the cross, the same body that was laid in a tomb, the same body that rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. That’s the body that also graces our altar and enters our mouths.

You take and drink wine. But at the same time, whether you believe it or not, you are really and truly also taking and drinking the very blood of Jesus: the blood of the new testament Passover Lamb, the same blood once shed by floggings and by beatings, by a crown of thorns, by nails and by spear. That’s the blood that also graces our altars and enters our mouths.

The bread isn’t a symbol of a body that is located elsewhere, nor is the wine a symbol of the blood that poured out of Jesus’ wounds long ago. The bread is His body; the wine is His blood; really present but hidden from our senses under the bread and wine.

For what purpose does He give us His body with the bread and His blood with the wine? What is the benefit of this eating and drinking? That is shown us by these words: “Given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins,” namely, that in the Sacrament, forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there are also life and salvation.

It’s true, Holy Communion serves other purposes, too. We proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. We share a blessed communion with one another, bound together by a common Baptism, by a common confession of faith, and by a bond of love that seeks to mimic the love of Christ for us. Indeed, we share a blessed communion with the saints and angels in heaven, and with all true Christians around the world who likewise partake of the Sacrament of the Altar, even if we can’t commune together with them because of time or distance or because of the false doctrines that are taught in their churches. And finally, Holy Communion is our Eucharist, our sacrifice of thanksgiving to God as we celebrate the sacrifice of atonement made by Jesus.

But the chief benefit of the Sacrament of the Altar has always been the forgiveness of sins, because it’s from the continual offer of the forgiveness of sins that faith in Christ is strengthened and the bond of love for one another increased. It’s from the forgiveness of sins that thanksgiving flows to God. It’s the forgiveness of sins, won by Christ through the giving of His body and the shedding of His blood, that is the heart of our proclamation until Christ comes again.

Now, if you have no sins that need forgiving, then by all means, stay away from the Supper. If you have no fear, no doubt, no weaknesses common to man, then by all means, stay away from the Supper. If you have a faith that can never be moved or shaken or disturbed, if your “love for one another” is already perfect, if you are “fed up” with Jesus, as it were, and feel no need for this communion with Him, then by all means stay away from the Supper. It isn’t for you. It’s only for sinners who yearn to be close to Christ, who long to be touched again by His sacrifice, who desire to receive from His hand the forgiveness of sins, who need His help in order to fulfill His command to love one another.

But, weren’t we already offered and given forgiveness of sins, life and salvation in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism? Do we somehow lose that forgiveness and die again so that we need to be re-forgiven at every Communion, re-saved, resurrected to life again every week? Or do we somehow rack up a whole host of sins during the week that make God angry with us again and that need to be erased again by the body and blood of Christ? No, no, we shouldn’t think of forgiveness that way.

The forgiveness of sins – a right standing before God, an open door to heaven is what Jesus won for you by His death on the cross as the Substitute of all men. Where Christ is found, there is complete forgiveness – there and only there. What joins you to Christ is faith in Him for the forgiveness of sins, faith that comes from hearing His promise. You were brought into Him by Baptism, through faith in His blood, and in Him, your sins were counted – are counted – as forgiven – not once, not piecemeal, but always and completely.

But your faith-connection to Christ is like a slender thread, and you are literally surrounded by enemies who have targeted that thread, who seek to cut it and sever your connection to Jesus, to pull you away from Him, and so to pull you away from God’s forgiveness and life. You know who those enemies are, I think. The devil, the world and your sinful flesh. As long as you live on earth, you live in enemy territory and your faith-connection to Jesus is vulnerable, which is why Jesus wasn’t content to give you only a once-in-a-lifetime Baptism, wasn’t satisfied to give you only a spoken word of absolution or the general preaching of the Gospel. Those things tie you to Jesus, too, and to the forgiveness that is yours in Him. No, Jesus knew that the slender thread of your faith would need to be nourished by something tangible, would need to be fed and fortified on an ongoing basis by a powerful food in the face of so many and so ruthless enemies.

And so God has given a remedy against them, a medicine to save you from them, to protect and to strengthen the precious faith that He once created in you. That remedy, that medicine of immortality, that divine food for the soul is the Sacrament of the Altar.

Who receives this Sacrament worthily? Fasting and bodily preparation is certainly a fine outward discipline, but he is truly worthy and well-prepared who has faith in these words: “Given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.” But whoever does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared. For the words “for you” require nothing but believing hearts.

If you know your need for Christ, your need to receive Him and, with Him, all His forgiveness and all His strength in the Sacrament, if you believe in your Savior’s invitation, then come, take and eat – now, and whenever you feel your sin pressing hard and the world pulling you away and the devil shooting his flaming arrows at the slender thread of your faith. Come and receive the God-given medicine against sin, death and condemnation. The Sacrament of the Altar is most definitely “for you.” Amen.

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Four kinds of sinners

Posted on April 16, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Holy Tuesday

+  Luke 22:1-23:56  +

We’re presented with four kinds of sinners in the Passion History.

We have Peter, the devout disciple of Jesus, who fell away for a time, but then repented. Peter denied his Lord three times, and that, after Jesus warned him that he would and after Peter himself swore to Jesus, Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death. Even if all the rest deny You, I never will. No doubt Peter was sincere when he spoke those words. But he spoke them out of pride—pride in his own ability to sustain his own faith—and pride went before the fall. When the moment of truth came, when the three moments of truth came, each time Peter turned away from Christ to save his own neck.

But then the rooster crowed and the Lord Jesus turned and looked right at Peter, and the words Jesus had spoken came back and pierced his soul like a knife. Confronted with the terrible reality of what he had done, Peter acknowledged his sin; he repented. Repentance includes both sorrow over sin and faith in Christ, who bore that sin on the cross. Peter went and wept bitterly over his sin. “What have I done?!?” But to that godly sorrow, faith was added, so that Peter turned again to Christ in his heart—to Christ who doesn’t save the deserving, but the undeserving. And so Peter was restored and forgiven.

Then we have Judas, the hypocrite who died in impenitence. Even before his betrayal, even before he chose to sell his Lord for thirty pieces of silver, Judas had become an impenitent thief, helping himself to the treasury of offerings people had given to Jesus. He was so angry at Jesus’ kindness, like His kindness shown to Mary when she anointed Him with that costly perfume, so angry and so greedy, that he sold Jesus to the highest bidder and betrayed the Son of Man with a kiss of phony friendship.

Luke doesn’t mention it, but the other Evangelists do: Judas was driven to remorse after he saw that his actions had led to Jesus’ death sentence. Apparently he thought it wouldn’t come to that. He was sorrowful over having betrayed innocent blood. But that wasn’t yet repentance, because he put no faith in that blood to cover his sins. He despaired of God’s mercy and imagined his sins to be more powerful, more important, more valuable than the blood of Christ. So he hanged himself and was condemned to hell.

Then we have the thieves on the cross, impenitent unbelievers at first, one of whom remained impenitent until he died, the other of whom repented on his “death bed,” as it were. They were both criminals. One of them, now facing imminent death for his trespasses, still wanted nothing to do with Jesus. He would rather go to hell than rely on the blood of Christ. But the other—the other sees the guiltless Lamb of God, or as the sign above His head read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,” and he believes and seeks pity and pardon from that King. And he receives it! He finally enters into Christ’s kingdom, even there on the cross, and has Paradise promised to him before the day’s end.

Four men, all sinners from birth. Four men, none of whom deserved anything from God but condemnation. One, a devout believer who stumbled severely, but repented and was received back again. One, a hypocrite who finally recognized his sin of betrayal but still didn’t look to Christ for forgiveness. One, a thief who never acknowledged his sin nor believed in Jesus. One, a thief who finally did acknowledge his sin and believed in Jesus.

Two of these men—Peter and the one thief—were eternally saved. The other two were eternally condemned. What was the difference? Was it the desire of God that two of the four be damned? No, for God says, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. What was the difference? Was it that Christ didn’t do enough to make up for the sins of the two men? No, He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. What, then, was the difference? The difference was that Peter and the one thief were brought by the Holy Spirit to repentance, while Judas and the other thief resisted the working of the Holy Spirit, pointing them to Christ as their Savior. Two were saved by faith. Two were condemned in unbelief.

Who in the world isn’t like one of those four men? The believer who stumbles, the hypocrite who pretends to be a Christian but doesn’t believe, the heathen who is never converted and the heathen who finally is. Notice what we don’t have in the whole Passion History: the believer who never stumbles, the disciple who commits no sin. There is a lesson for us in this, and St. John summarizes it well in his first epistle: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Always know that God earnestly desires your repentance, not your death. And see in the Passion History how Jesus never, ever turned away the one who looked to Him for mercy, but, for the sake of His own suffering and death, always forgave and always restored. And He always will. Amen.

 

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Father, Thy will be done

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Holy Monday

+  Mark 14:1-15:47  +

Let’s focus for a moment this evening on Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. As Jesus told His disciples there in the Garden, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. All alone the Son of God would bear the sins of the world. Before He does it, before He can do it, there’s something He must do: He has to pray. He prays: Abba, Father. “Abba” is just “Father” in Aramaic, the first language spoken by Jews at that time. St. Mark otherwise wrote in Greek, but here is this little Aramaic word thrown in to give us a vivid glimpse of Gethsemane, the first word that poured from Jesus’ lips, straight from the heart, in the agony of His soul. “Abba.” Father. No matter how painful the cross, no matter how difficult was the task before Him, Jesus knew that nothing could happen that was outside of the will and permission of His Father, who had declared twice that He was well-pleased with His beloved Son. So Jesus knows His prayer will be heard and will be pleasing to His Father, because it is uttered in faith. Abba, Father.

St. Paul writes to the Roman Christians, You received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit of Jesus who lives in you enables you to pray just like Jesus, because you have been clothed with Him in Holy Baptism. So turn to your Father! Don’t neglect this beautiful gift called prayer! Jesus, the very Son of God, couldn’t go on, couldn’t face the cross without it. Don’t imagine for a moment that you can.

All things are possible for You, Jesus prayed. That’s at the heart of every prayer, or it should be: that God has the power to do anything, from small to big, from simple to miraculous. It’s possible for God to make the sun stand still in the sky. Or to cause the storm to be stilled, or to make the dead rise. Surely it was possible for God the Father to thwart the betrayal of Judas and the plans of the murderous Jews. Surely He could save His Son from condemnation and from crucifixion and from death.

Take this cup away from Me. This cup, this course upon which Jesus had been placed by His Father, was, of course, the very reason why Jesus had taken on human flesh in the first place. This course of betrayal, condemnation, crucifixion and death had been laid out for the Son of God since before the foundations of the world were laid. The Scriptures had to be fulfilled, and Jesus knew it. Indeed, Jesus had just a short time ago blessed the cup of the New Testament in His blood, which He had already given to His disciples to drink. He knew this cup was already poured out for Him. And yet still He prays, “Take it away from Me.”

Jesus earnestly prayed, “Take this cup away from Me.” But He just as earnestly added: Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will. Jesus wouldn’t put the cup down without His Father’s permission. See, there are levels of willing or wanting. You may want, on some level, to be at home right now resting or getting housework done. But more than that, you wanted to come here to hear the Word of Christ. So, too, Jesus wanted to avoid the cross. But more than that, He wanted to do His Father’s will, to obey His Father, to serve His Father, and in the process, to serve us.

In the same way, the Father didn’t want His Son to suffer. But even more than that, He didn’t want us sinners to suffer eternally for our sins. He preferred our eternal salvation to saving Jesus from the cross. And so St. Paul can write: He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? Because Jesus yielded to His Father’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane, the answer to that question is, No one! Amen.

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Consider the King and rejoice

Posted on April 14, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Palm Sunday

Matthew 21:1-9  +  Philippians 2:5-11  +  Matthew 26:1-27:66

You’ve already heard a better sermon this morning than any pastor could ever preach, so instead of a sermon, let me simply encourage you: Consider the Passover that brought Jesus to Jerusalem one last time in humility. Consider Jesus, the true Passover Lamb, who went uncomplaining forth, in obedience to His Father’s will, to bear the sins of all, that His blood might mark the door of our hearts and keep us safe from everlasting death. Consider the upper room and the Garden of Gethsemane. Consider the denials, the desertion, and the betrayals of Jesus’ closest friends—men whom we still revere as men of God and apostles, except for Judas, who didn’t repent. Consider the trials of Jesus before the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman court. Consider His floggings, the purple robe, the crown of thorns, the mockery and abuse He endured. Consider the hatred He received at the hands of those He came to save. Consider Jesus’ crucifixion, death and burial.

And then, then go back again and consider how we began our service today. Consider the palm branches, and the donkey, and the King who sat upon it. Consider how great was His love for sinners, on display in His determination to ride into Jerusalem with the foreknowledge of all that would happen during that Holy Week. Consider the words of the prophet Zechariah, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey.

Let the world hate Jesus, if they want to. Let the world hate Christians. But you, Rejoice, O daughter of Zion! Rejoice, O Church of God! This is your King! This is your Shepherd and how desperately He seeks the lost! His suffering and death were not in vain, because here we are, still singing our Hosannas to the One who has rescued us from sin and from the power of death. Rejoice in Him, and pray that His Holy Spirit will build and fortify your faith this week as you hear His Word and receive the Sacrament by which you proclaim His death until He comes. Amen.

 

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Vindication for Jesus and His people

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Judica – Lent 5

Genesis 12:1-3  +  Hebrews 9:11-15  +  John 8:46-59

If a sinless man were to walk the earth, helping everyone who came to him for help, doing everything right, showing perfect love at all times, toward God and man…If that sinless man were to speak nothing but the truth, according to God’s holy word, always with the best of intentions and motives…If that sinless man were the wisest man who had ever lived and freely shared his wisdom, his knowledge, and all his gifts…If that sinless man were God Himself, come in the flesh…How do you think the world would receive such a man? That’s not a hard question to answer, is it?, because that Man did walk the earth about 2,000 years ago. And the world hated Him, call Him evil, and crucified Him. Because the world, as Jesus reveals in the Gospel and in the verses leading up to it, does not love God, does not fear God, does not hear God. The world is not on God’s side. It’s on the devil’s side.

Jesus drives home that point with His question to the Jews in the Gospel. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? No one could convict Jesus of sin. No one could show from Scripture where He had made a single mistake, in word or deed. He was the sinless One. He was the truth-Teller. But they couldn’t handle the truth.

He told the truth about the requirements of God’s Law, centering on love and mercy. But it wasn’t the world’s kind of “love” where you encourage people in their bad behavior. It was the kind of love that loved God first, that acknowledged God’s creation, God’s design, and God’s commandments to be the perfection of love. It was the kind of love that told people who didn’t already acknowledge it that they were sinners who deserved death. But when people acknowledged their sin, He loved them by showing them mercy, by telling them how He, the eternal Son of God, had been sent by His Father into the world to save sinners. He offered them salvation for free, through faith in Him, and forgiveness to all who believed.

But most didn’t believe. They had dug in their heels in the devil’s kingdom and preferred to remain there.

He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God. This is what we heard St. John repeat in his Epistle on Wednesday evening. How can people be so twisted? How can they reject plain truth and common sense and all the miracles Jesus did on top of it? Because they were not of God. They were of the devil. And the devil lies. The devil deceives. The devil convinces his children that up is down and down is up, that good is evil and evil good.

But the devil’s children are famous for pretending to be God’s children, even as they pretend that God’s children are the devil’s children. Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon? We’re the good people, and You disagree with us. Therefore, you must be a Samaritan—a heretic, basically. You must be a monster. You must be evil. We’re the real “Christ-like” people, Jesus. Not you. Ironic, isn’t it?

I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death. Jesus isn’t the One working with the demons. It was those who rejected Him. And He warns them of the coming judgment. You won’t always be allowed to get away with mocking Jesus and dishonoring Jesus and opposing Jesus. For now, God doesn’t strike anyone down with lightning for such blasphemy. For now, the world is allowed to hate Jesus and His followers, because the world’s hatred of Jesus means He dies. And because He dies, He pays for the world’s sins and stands as the world’s Redeemer. And because He postpones His day of judgment—which means His people will be mistreated for a while longer—the Gospel is able to continue to be preached in the world, and more people will be rescued by it out of the devil’s kingdom. But the day will come when all who have opposed Jesus and His people will be struck down, not with lightning, but with everlasting fire, if they will not repent.

At the same time, even death can’t harm the one who keeps Jesus’ word. “He shall never see death.” The world’s opposition and the devil’s rage can’t do any permanent harm to believers in Jesus. Because the devil and the world may kill, but they can’t drag anyone to hell against the will of Jesus. And He wills that the one who believes in Him should be taken safely through death into His heavenly kingdom.

The Jews couldn’t stand that Jesus was saying such things, promising to keep people’s souls safe from death and to give eternal life. The greatest men who had ever lived—Abraham and the prophets—couldn’t escape death. So, to them, it was ridiculous that Jesus should promise such a thing. But at the end of our Gospel, He reveals why He has the power to make such promises: Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM. Jesus wasn’t just the greatest man to ever live. He was and is and ever shall be the eternal God who called Abraham, who created the world, who will judge the world on the Last Day, who holds the power of life and death, who condemns to hell and who justifies to eternal life.

This claim on Jesus’ part made the world hate Him all the more. But it’s the very reason why we dare to put our faith in Him, because His word has convinced us that He’s telling the truth. And so we know that, no matter how much the world may hate us or how much we may yet suffer in the world, Jesus, the eternal God, will be there on the other side of death, to “vindicate” us.

That’s the name for this Sunday before Palm Sunday: Judica, “Judge me! Vindicate me, O God!” Prove me right and grant me justice against those who oppose me unjustly. That was the Messiah’ own prayer in Psalm 43. And just as God the Father vindicated His Son on Easter Sunday, so He will vindicate all those who trust in Christ Jesus on the day of His appearing. Amen.

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