Jesus will draw all men to Himself

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Holy Monday

John 12:20-33

The world has gone after Jesus!, the Pharisees and chief priests of Israel lamented as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Obviously they were exaggerating. But in a sense, it was true. Many in Israel were going after Jesus, though that number would be greatly reduced by the end of the week. But Gentiles from other parts of the world were also starting to go after Jesus, and many, many more would follow.

We heard about some Greeks who went after Jesus in this evening’s reading. They were there for Passover, which indicates that these were people of Greek ancestry but who had converted to the Jewish religion. These men were going after Jesus to see Him and to investigate these claims they had been hearing about Him being the Messiah. They may not have believed in Jesus yet as the Christ, but they were interested. They cared. They knew that their adopted Jewish religion was pointing somewhere, not to the earthly kingdom of Israel, but to a Savior and King who would bring the Gentiles into His kingdom, too, together with the Jews who would believe in Him. So they asked Philip, Sir, we would see Jesus.

I remember having a seminary professor who reminded us of these words in our preaching class. Sir, we would see Jesus. He reminded us, rightly, that this is really the chief request, the only request that all of Jesus’ sheep make of their pastor, if they’re in church for the right reasons. Hypocrites and unbelievers may come to hear a sermon with some cute story, some life lesson, some inspirational speech. But true Christians—true Christians come to sit at the feet of the shepherd whom Jesus has placed among them to see Jesus through the pastor’s preaching, just as the Greeks approached Philip, not to hear all about Philip’s life or Philip’s ideas, but that Philip might lead them to see Jesus.

Whether or not Jesus ended up meeting with these Greeks, we’re not told. But what Jesus said to His disciples certainly had ramifications for the Greeks. He answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, 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.” Several times in John’s Gospel, it looked like the end for Jesus. But each time He said, “My hour has not yet come.” Now, during the Passover of Holy Week, it had. His hour “to be glorified.” He compares Himself to a grain of wheat, a seed that’s planted in the ground. It “dies” and is buried, never to be seen again in that same form. But what comes up from that seed is a new stalk of wheat that produces many grains. So it would be when Jesus was “glorified.”

He would be glorified, first, in His Passion itself, in His innocent-but-willing suffering and death. If you’ve ever listened to St. John’s Passion by Bach, you may know that the opening song goes like this (in English): O Lord, our Lord, whose name is majestic in all the earth, show us, by Your Passion, that You, the true Son of God, have been glorified at all times, even in the greatest lowliness. The Son of God didn’t appear glorious during His Passion, but for those who know why He went through it, and that He did it all willingly and with full knowledge of what He would suffer, we see through the shame to the true glory of Christ, so that we call out with all the heavenly throng, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!” Yes, Jesus would also be glorified outwardly in His resurrection. In other passages, John refers to the resurrection and ascension of Jesus as His glorification. But for now, during Holy Week, the glory is hidden behind suffering for Jesus.

As it must also be for those who would follow Him. He goes on in John’s Gospel with words He had spoken on several occasions and would repeat again: 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. What does it look like to love one’s life in this world? It looks like Judas, betraying his Lord for thirty pieces of silver. It looks like Peter, denying the Lord three times to keep himself out of danger. It looks like all the disciples running away from Him in the Garden. It looks like many of the rulers of the Jews believing in Jesus but not daring to say so out loud for fear of persecution. It looks like the crowds on Good Friday, who gave in to the Jewish leaders and joined in with the cries to crucify Him. It looks like all unbelievers, pursuing nothing but an earthly life, or seeking after false gods. It looks like Christians who are more concerned with comfort than they are with bearing the cross. He who loves his life in this world will lose it, Jesus says.

But what does it look like to hate one’s life in this world? There really are no examples of it during Holy Week except for Jesus Himself. Safety? He hated it. Comfort? He hated it. The praise and acceptance of the church leaders? He hated it. His own life? He hated it. Meaning, He gave it all up in order to obey His Father’s will, before everything else. That’s where Jesus went, toward faithfulness and obedience that led to the cross. And that’s where He calls on all who would follow Him to go, too. And just as He received honor from the Father after His earthly life was given up, so we, too, will receive honor from the Father, if we continue to serve, and to follow, and to hate our life in this world for His sake.

“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven,

Jesus wasn’t “giddy” about what He was about to suffer, not “eager” to endure it. He dreaded it. His soul was deeply troubled by it. And in the Garden of Gethsemane, He did pray, “Father save Me from this hour! Take this cup from me!” But He added the most important thing of all to that petition, “Not My will, but Yours be done!” Jesus knew already in the early part of Holy Week what His Father’s will would be, so already then He submitted His will to His Father’s will, and, instead of asking to be saved from His Passion, He put Himself in His Father’s hands and, above all else, prayed, “Father, glorify Your name!”

Let that be your prayer, too, when you’re faced with bearing your cross or dropping it on the floor, when you have to decide whether to suffer with Jesus or enjoy peace and comfort with the world. For the Christian, in the end, there is no choice. For the Christian, it’s faithfulness to Jesus, whatever the cost may be. And if that’s not your choice, as it wasn’t Peter’s choice in the courtyard of the high priest on Maundy Thursday night, then realize that you stop being a Christian when you choose peace and comfort over Jesus, and you can only be brought back through genuine sorrow and repentance, as Peter, thankfully, was. As for you, don’t follow Peter in falling away. Instead, follow Jesus when facing the cross, and say, “Father, glorify Your name through whatever happens to me as I bear the cross for Jesus’ sake.”

As He had done at Jesus’ Baptism, as He had done again at Jesus’ transfiguration, the Father spoke from heaven, saying, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Jesus didn’t need to hear the Father’s approval of Him, or of His plan for Jesus’ Passion. The people there needed to hear it, and Jesus came right out and told them what it was all about.

Now is the judgment of this world. Now its ruler will be cast out. But how was the world judged then, during Holy Week? The judgment that the world deserved fell upon the Lord Jesus. So the devil, the ruler of this world, is cast out in the sense that he can no longer accuse or hold onto any who believe in Jesus, who are buried with Him through Baptism into death, because He suffered the judgment that the world was legally bound to suffer, and now all who seek God’s approval through Him are delivered out of the devil’s kingdom and into His own.

That’s what He means when He says, And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die. Again the Lord prophesies how He would die, that He would be lifted up, on a cross. And even the image of Him hanging on a cross with outstretched arms really is a picture of Jesus drawing, inviting, welcoming all peoples to Himself, Jews and Greeks, men and women, rich and poor—all who acknowledge their wretchedness before God and who wish to be reconciled to God through Christ crucified. He draws the world to Himself, He invites the world—all men—to be saved through Him from the ruler of this world and from the judgment that will come upon the world, upon all those who wish to be judged apart from Him. “Be reconciled to God through Me,” His image cries out from the cross. For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that, in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. Amen.

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The world has gone after the King

Posted on April 13, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Palm Sunday

Philippians 2:5-11  +  John 12:1-19

All four Gospel writers describe Holy Week. Many of their accounts overlap, but each one also includes certain details that the others leave out. Some years, we hear a combined account, a harmony of the four Evangelists. Other years we focus on just one. This year, we’re going to turn to St. John, every day this week (except for Wednesday, our one day off), to view the events of Holy Week and the Passion, that is, the Suffering of the Lord Jesus, from the inspired perspective of the apostle who often referred to himself simply as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” May the Lord grant us His Holy Spirit to guide and to bless our meditation.

John, like the other three Evangelists, includes an account of Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, sitting on a donkey. We’ll get to that in a moment. But first, John records what happened the day before, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, in the little town of Bethany, at the house of a man named Simon the Leper.

Matthew and Mark include this account, too, but it’s John who tells us when it happened, the day before Palm Sunday. It’s also John who names Martha as a servant at the dinner, and Martha’s sister Mary as the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with that expensive perfume, and who wiped His feet with her hair. Their brother Lazarus was also there—an important detail added by John, because Lazarus is the one who had recently been raised from the dead by Jesus after he had spent three days in the tomb. That’s where we get that beautiful discourse between Jesus and Martha, where Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.

Well, some who were in attendance at that supper were there especially to see the resurrected Lazarus, and the Jesus who had raised him up. Word was spreading quickly that this Jesus was truly the Son of God, the promised Christ, and it was the resurrection of Lazarus that sealed the deal for many of them—which added to the Palm Sunday multitude, and which also convinced the chief priests that they not only had to kill Jesus, but Lazarus, too, to regain their iron grip on the people of Israel and to keep them from following Jesus any longer.

We learn from this encounter that Judas was a thief even before he was a traitor. That’s why, John says, he was upset with the “waste” of this expensive perfume that Mary poured out on Jesus’ feet. But we also learn that Jesus accepts the humble service of His saints, both men and women, as well as the costly gifts they give to honor Him, because they love Him, and because they’ve been listening to His word, as Mary had been listening to Jesus talk about the crucifixion He would soon endure—something that had gone right over the heads of all the apostles. Leave her alone, Jesus said. She has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not always have.

And with that, the tone is set for Palm Sunday.

The next day, Jesus came with His disciples to the Mount of Olives, just up the road from Bethany, to the east of Jerusalem, with the Kidron Valley running in between. Jesus sent two of His disciples to go fetch a donkey and her colt, knowing exactly where they would be, and that the owner would gladly send them in the Lord’s service for this special day. He needed the donkeys, because He had a prophecy to fulfill, from the book of prophet Zechariah: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The donkey was there to identify Jesus as the Christ, the promised King of the Jews, riding into Jerusalem as foretold, without Him having to say a word. And, it was also there to remind the people what the Christ would be like, and what He was coming to do: Lowly, humble, righteous, He was coming to bring them salvation—to bring it in a lowly way, not by destroying sinners, not by making war with their earthly enemies, not by raising Israel up to rule over the other nations. How, then? How would He bring them salvation? For that, they needed to turn to the prophet Isaiah (as we’ll do again on Friday): 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 King would bring salvation by suffering and dying for the sins of His people, so that, by His blood, He might make peace between God and sinners, so that all who believe might be saved.

No one there that day understood what Jesus was coming to do during that Passover week. No one knew on Sunday that He would be dead by Friday evening. No one could have imagined the turmoil and the drama of the coming week. No one, except for Jesus, who faced it willingly, who faced it “gladly,” in the sense that He knew the salvation His suffering would accomplish for millions of people, past, present, and future. And so He kept going, all the way into the city, all the way to the cross.

But the crowds, in spite of their ignorance, were glad to welcome their King that day. “Hosanna!, they cried. ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ They weren’t just making up their own song of praise. The whole thing, including the Hebrew word “Hosanna” is a quotation from Psalm 118, a song of praise and thanks to the LORD, the God of Israel, who brings salvation to His people, who acts on His people’s behalf—a Messianic Psalm that speaks of the suffering of the Christ and of His eventual deliverance from His suffering. That part they didn’t connect to Jesus.

But we do! And when they acclaimed Him as the The King of Israel, not really knowing what kind of King He was, we acclaim Him as King in the fullest sense, because we know Him as the King who suffered and died for us, as the righteous King who shares His righteousness with all who believe in Him, as the King who now sits at the right hand of God the Father, reigning over all for the good of His holy Church.

Still, not everyone acclaimed Him as King that day. The Pharisees were livid at this “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem, appalled that their fellow Jews were welcoming Jesus with their palm branches and their praises, and with these Messianic verses. They said to one another, “See? You are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!”

It must have felt like that to them, at that moment, as it seemed like their power was slipping away through their fingers. The world has gone after Jesus. Everyone’s following Jesus, listening to Jesus, believing in Jesus, talking about Jesus! They couldn’t stand it. So they made plans to kill Him, so that no one else could go after Him ever again.

It would have worked, except that He rose from the dead after they killed Him, and He has kept on calling out to the world, through the ministers whom He has sent, “Repent and believe the good news! Your King has come to save you!” And ever since the Day of Pentecost, the world has been “going after Him”—many going after Him to kill His religion, to persecute His Church, or, even worse, to corrupt it, and to persuade Christians to abandon Him, to abandon His word, to fit in with the world, to focus on an earthly life where Jesus is little more than an afterthought. Such enemies of Jesus have been around as long as the Pharisees have, and they’ve had far too much success in the world.

But some, a few, a remnant have gone after Jesus, and go after Him still, to seek Him, to worship Him, and to receive the salvation He came to bring. A few still believe in Jesus as their Lord, their Savior, and their King. A few still gather together in His name, every Sunday if possible, and then every year for Holy Week, to spend the week hearing the word of their King and meditating on His teaching and on His Passion. For this we, too, have gathered, by the grace of God, having been chosen by God to hear His Gospel and to believe in His Son, and to receive life in His name. May His Holy Spirit accompany us in our worship and in our devotion as our King comes to us again this week in Word and Sacrament. And let us always be found among those who go after Him! Amen.

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6th Chief Part: The Sacrament of the Altar

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermons on the Small Catechism: The Lord’s Supper

Jeremiah 31:31-34  +  1 Corinthians 11:23-32

The Sixth and final Chief Part of the Small Catechism is the Sacrament of the Altar. As you know, Lutherans have a unique position on this teaching, neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant. But it’s the only position that agrees with Holy Scripture, and so we hold to it gladly and give thanks to God for the precious gift of this Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ.

There are two main questions concerning the Sacrament of the Altar. What is it? And, What is it for?

First, what is it? 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. The Roman Catholic Church agrees with us about the Real Presence of the body and blood of Christ, but they reject the part about bread and wine still being present. Instead, they believe in Transubstantiation, that the substance of the bread and wine is converted into something else, so that the bread and wine are gone, replaced by Christ’s body and blood that now just look like bread and wine. Meanwhile, the Protestants (modern Evangelicals, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, etc.) agree with us about bread and wine being present but reject the part about the Real Presence of the body and blood of Christ. Instead, they believe in Representationism, that the bread and wine (or grape juice in many cases) merely symbolize or represent the absent body and blood of Christ.

But we believe, according to Holy Scripture, that bread and wine, and Christ’s body and blood, are truly present in the Sacrament, received, eaten, and drunk by everyone who participates in the Sacrament. Jesus is not using figurative language here, as He institutes this Sacrament. He isn’t speaking in riddles or using any symbols. “This is My body. This is My blood,” He said. Or in some passages, “This is the New Testament in My blood” or “This is My blood of the New Covenant.” As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread. You see? We partake of the bread that is the communion of the body of Christ. If we just stick with Scripture and with the plain words of Jesus, it isn’t that hard.

It’s also what the Christian Church has always taught and believed. It wasn’t until the year 1215, at the Fourth Lateran Council, when the doctrine of transubstantiation became official. And it wasn’t until the 16th century that anyone in the Church started denying the Real Presence of Jesus body and blood in the Sacrament, as the Reformed theologians broke away from Rome and felt free to change whichever teachings didn’t mesh with their human reason.

And so we stick with the plain and simple words of Jesus about what the Sacrament of the Altar is. Because to play around with the words of Jesus is to dishonor Him greatly. But to take Him at His Word, to believe this unbelievable thing that He said, is the highest form of worship. It gives Him all the glory for us to submit our fallen reason to His Word, and to cling to His Word above all things.

The second main question concerning the Sacrament is, What is it for? What is the benefit of this eating and drinking?

The Roman Catholic Church says it’s for offering up to God a sacrifice of atonement for the living and the dead. Every time the Eucharist is celebrated, the priest is said to be offering the body and blood of Jesus to God the Father as a sacrifice for sin, as if the sacrifice Jesus made once on the cross needed to be re-offered over and over again. Even if no one else eats or drinks except for the priest, they say that the mere act of the priest offering up this sacrifice to God benefits all those for whom the Mass is being celebrated, whether they’re alive or dead.

Meanwhile, the Protestants say that the benefit of observing the Lord’s Supper is that Christians are obeying the command of Christ to “do this,” making a public testimony that they believe Jesus suffered and died for our sins. It’s their act of obedience toward God.

The Romanists are dead wrong about it being a repeated sacrifice offered up to the Father, because Christ gave Himself once on the cross for all sin. He was the one and only High Priest who offered up that sacrifice to God the Father. No human being dare try to offer it up again. And the Protestants get this part wrong, too, as they entirely miss the main purpose of the Sacrament.

So, 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 is also life and salvation. In other words, by eating and drinking the very body and blood of Christ that were once given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins, we are made partakers of Christ’s sacrifice, and we are given the gifts that He earned by His sacrifice, even the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. So the main purpose of the meal isn’t to give something to God, but to receive from God the best gifts He has to give.

How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things? Just as in Baptism, it isn’t the water that does such great things, but the word of God that’s spoken in connection with the water, so in this Sacrament it isn’t the eating and drinking that does it, but the words that are there: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” These words accompany the bodily eating and drinking as the chief part in the Sacrament, and whoever believes these words has what they say and as they declare, namely, forgiveness of sins. Faith doesn’t have to be there to receive Christ’s body and blood. Even an unbeliever would receive that, if he were to somehow participate with us in the Sacrament, because what the Sacrament is doesn’t depend on faith, but solely on the Word of Christ. So an unbeliever would receive the body and blood of Christ, but he would receive it for his judgment, as something harmful to him, whereas the believer receives it for the forgiveness of sins. Because the forgiveness of sins is a promise, and faith is always required to receive a promise.

What else is required for a person to receive the Sacrament worthily? The Roman Church used to teach that you had to be fasting, or that you had to go to confession in order to be worthy to receive the Lord’s Supper. But we say in the Catechism, 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.

So, faith. Believing hearts. That’s what makes a person “worthy,” that is, “well-prepared” to receive the Sacrament. Some people get the idea that they have to be practically sinless to go to the Sacrament. But that’s not true at all. Not sinless, but penitent. Sorry for your sins. Trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. And believing what He says about the Sacrament, both that it is His true body and blood, and that He’s giving it to you, once again, for the forgiveness of your sins, so that when you eat His body and drink His blood, you can be certain that He is including you in His sacrifice, that He still accepts you as a member of His body, and that He still includes you in the eternal inheritance of all who have been redeemed and reconciled to God through His body and blood, given and shed on the cross, and now given to Christians to eat and to drink in the Sacrament of the Altar.

How often should you use the Sacrament? As often as you realize you still live in the sinful and unbelieving world, which seeks to drag you away from faith in Christ Jesus. As often as you realize the devil is targeting you for destruction. As often as you realize that one of your most deadly enemies is the very sinful flesh you carry around with you all the time, which will gain the upper hand over you, unless the Lord Himself helps you. So, how often should you use the Sacrament? As often as possible! May God lead you to see it as an indispensable treasure. And may the true body and blood of Jesus strengthen you and preserve you in the true faith unto life everlasting. Depart in peace. Amen.

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The royal, priestly Prophet goes into battle

Posted on April 6, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Judica – Lent 5

Hebrews 9:11-15  +  John 8:46-59

We often speak of the threefold office of God’s Anointed One, the Christ, the Son of David: the office of Prophet, Priest, and King. All three offices were prominent in the Old Testament, usually occupied by different people, although sometimes they overlapped, as with David, for example, who, in addition to being king, was an inspired, prophetic writer of many of the Psalms, earning him the title “royal Prophet.” At the beginning of the Lenten season we saw how Jesus, the Son of David, defeated the devil’s temptations and so became qualified to serve as our great High Priest, who was without sin and, therefore, able to offer His own blood as the perfect sacrifice for all sin, being the Mediator and Priest of a New Testament to fulfill and replace the Old. Today’s epistle spoke of that same thing, and it’s the main theme of Holy Week.

On this last Sunday before Holy Week, we heard a Gospel that highlights Jesus’ role especially as Prophet and King, like His forefather David. Prophet, in that He was sent by God to speak the very words of God to the Jews, and to reveal God to them, although most refused to acknowledge Him as a true Prophet; and King, in that Jesus confronts the enemies of His people to put them in their place. Modern kings, where they still exist, usually sit in safety and luxury, giving orders from afar, from the comfort of their palaces. Ancient kings sat on thrones when they were making decisions, but they also led the charge in battle. Throughout this whole chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus does battle, not with earthly weapons, but with the sword of His almighty word. He takes on His enemies, the Jews who were becoming more and more motivated to kill Him. And He takes them on, not for His own sake—on the contrary, these confrontations would eventually get Him killed. No, He confronts them for our sake. He bears their insults and accusations, refutes them, and makes the bold statements that form the foundation of our faith and provide pure comfort to all who believe. So watch as the true royal, priestly Prophet goes into battle for His beloved Church.

The Jews had been challenging Jesus all day. So He challenged them back: “Which one of you convicts me of sin?” And no one could, for as much as they hated Him and were eager to find sins to convict Him of. The fact that they couldn’t proves yet again that Jesus was indeed qualified to serve both as the great High Priest and as the perfect Sacrifice, to heal the breech between God and sinful mankind, to reconcile God and man through His blood and mediation.

And if I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears God’s words. That is why you do not hear, because you are not of God. Jesus was “of God” from the start, making Him both the perfect Prophet, who spoke God’s words faithfully and was supposed to be believed, and the perfect Priest, who, as the God-Man, can perfectly represent God to man and man to God. Believers become “of God” when they are born again, when they are brought to faith. But the Jews who didn’t believe in Jesus proved that they were not “of God.” They didn’t have Him for a Father. They weren’t His children. They weren’t on His side. Instead, as Jesus had pointed out earlier in this dialogue, they were of their father, the devil, who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Yes, Jesus dared to declare these powerful, well-respected religious leaders to be sons of Satan, to be working for the devil, to be enemies of God, because they refused to use Jesus, the Mediator, to be reconciled to God. That’s true for everyone who fails to hear and believe the word of God that Jesus speaks, the word of God that’s recorded in Holy Scripture. There is no fellowship with God for those who do not believe the things that Jesus says. And, tragically, it’s often people inside the Church, people who claim to be God’s children, who reveal themselves not to be God’s children by their rejection of Christ’s teaching—a sobering warning for all of us.

The Jews answered and said to him, “Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and that you have a demon?” They were dripping with hatred and condescension toward Jesus. Who did He think He was? They were the famous Pharisees! They were the experts! They were the leaders of the Church! How dare He declare them to be outside the kingdom of God! He must be the one who’s a half-breed and in league with the devil!

Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and who judges.” There He is as Prophet and as King. As Prophet, Jesus honors His Father by speaking His Father’s words faithfully. He honors His Father by doing His will in the world, always, without fail. As Prophet and as King, Jesus stands against these unbelievers and warns them that the One who is heaven seeks glory and honor for His beloved Son, and who sits in judgment against everyone who fails to give it. This is the same Jesus whom John saw in his vision in the Book of Revelation, with a sharp two-edged sword coming out of His mouth. Here He slashes the Jews with it and speaks condemnation against them.

Meanwhile, the same sword of His mouth works great comfort for those who believe, even as it continues to destroy those who disbelieve. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. That’s a defiant assertion against His enemies, who would surely see death, and even eternal death, because they wouldn’t keep His word. But for all who do, it’s a proclamation of pure comfort, for all who keep His word, for all who believe in Him and in the words He speaks. Here is Christ the King, stepping forward to take on death itself on behalf of His beloved Christians.

“Death” has various meanings. The most literal meaning is the separation of body and soul that takes place when the lungs stop breathing and the heart stops beating and the brain stops sending signals to the rest of the body. That physical death awaits us all, by the ancient command of God that cursed our race after the first man and woman chose death over life. But the death that believers in Jesus will never see is far worse. That death is called eternal death, the death of pain and torment that comes after physical death—torment for the soul, and then torment for body and soul at the end of this age, when Jesus returns and raises all the dead, when the righteous will go away to eternal life while the unrighteous will go away to everlasting punishment. That death is truly dreadful. That death is permanent. But we have the assurance of the Christ, our Prophet and our King, that those who keep His word will never see that death, not at all, not any part of it, not hell, not purgatory, not any sort of torment after our physical death occurs, but only life, joy, peace, and rest.

Of course, the unbelieving Jews were oblivious, as usual, to Jesus’ true meaning. Then the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets. And you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?”

Yes, the prophets and patriarchs experienced physical death. The Jews claimed Jesus was demon-possessed because, as they saw it, He was promising to keep people from dying physically, when, in fact, He was talking about eternal death in hell. They thought He was making Himself out to be greater than Abraham and greater than the prophets. In that, however, they weren’t wrong. Our royal priestly Prophet Jesus, the Son of David, was and is greater than Abraham or any of the Old Testament prophets, greater than the greatest men who had ever lived, greater than Elijah and Elisha, who did raise a couple of people from the dead. But those people just got a few more years added to their earthly lives before they died again. Jesus could do far more!

But first, before the big reveal, before revealing who He truly was, our King tossed another grenade at them: Jesus answered, “If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. You do not know him; but I know him. If I were to say, ‘I do not know him,’ I would be a liar, like you. But I do know him and keep his word.” The royal priestly Prophet from heaven knows the Father perfectly, because He is the only-begotten Son of the Father, begotten of His Father before all ages. He knows God and He reveals God to mankind. Meanwhile, those who reject Jesus and don’t listen to His word, but who still call themselves children of God or worshipers of God—they’re nothing but liars. And Jesus isn’t afraid to say so.

Finally, the King is ready to set them on fire with His words about Himself. Your father Abraham was glad that he would see my day, and he saw it and rejoiced. Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old! And you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Abraham saw the coming of His promised Seed by faith, and he laughed. He rejoiced, not only in the birth of his promised son Isaac, but in the coming Seed, the promised Christ, in whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. But more than that, Abraham literally saw the person of Christ every time he interacted with God, because Jesus is the exact representation of the Father, the eternal God Himself, Yahweh, Jehovah, the great I AM, as He revealed Himself to Moses.

That’s what the Prophet Jesus declares about Himself. So don’t even think about claiming to be a religious person, much less a Christian, if you don’t believe it, and if you don’t believe in Him. He is the only true God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is the true Prophet, Priest, and King, anointed by God the Father to speak for Him as Prophet, to offer His blood and to mediate for sinners as Priest, and to reign over the house of God as King, doing battle against every enemy as a mighty Champion, until death itself is thoroughly defeated. Believe in Him! Take refuge in Him! And He will share with you His victory over sin, death, and the devil. Amen.

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Small Catechism: The Ministry of the Keys

Posted on April 2, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon on the Chief Parts of the Catechism, Part 5

2 Samuel 12:1-15 +  Matthew 16:13-19

The Fifth Chief Part of the original Small Catechism was simply entitled, “How the simple should be taught to confess,” providing Christians with a basic outline of what private confession should look like. It assumes that Christians are going regularly to confession, as had been the practice in the Church for centuries by Luther’s time. It also assumes that Christians already know about the authority of a minister to pronounce absolution in God’s name. Later generations added a preface to that, dealing specifically with that authority that God has given to His ministers, which we call “the ministry of the Keys.”

Let’s start with that. We’re talking here about the Keys of the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus spoke of in Matthew 16, which you heard this evening. Jesus had asked His apostles, Who do you say that I am? Peter answered for them, saying, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. That’s when Jesus said to him, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Jesus describes here what the “keys” are that He promised He would give to Peter. They’re the authority to “loose” a person from his sins, or “bind” a person to his sins. Now, He’s not talking here about sins people commit against one another. Each person has the right to forgive sins committed against himself. When someone sins against you, you have the “right” to give forgiveness to the person or to withhold it, the right to stop holding that sin against them or to keep holding that sin against them, as far as you’re concerned. Now, if the person comes to you in repentance and you choose to withhold forgiveness, then that’s how God will treat you when you come to Him in repentance, so you’d better be very careful if you want to refuse your forgiveness to the penitent. But you still have the authority to refuse it.

No, what Jesus is talking about here is the authority to forgive sins committed against God, the authority to speak for God in either absolving (or loosing) a person from his sins, or to refuse forgiveness, with the assurance that God in heaven is acting through these keys, either forgiving or retaining sins, unlocking or locking heaven to a person.

To whom has God given this authority? In every case where Jesus speaks of it, He’s speaking to His twelve (or eleven, or ten) apostles. Here in Matthew 16, He’s addressing Peter, who has just answered for the other disciples. But He repeats it to all of them in Matthew 18, and again in John 20, after Jesus rose from the dead, where Jesus breathed on His ten disciples (the eleven minus Thomas) and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive the sins of any, to them they are forgiven, and if you retain the sins of any, to them they are retained. The “power” or “authority” of the keys was given to the ministers of the Church at that time, just as the command to baptize was given to the eleven apostles. In fact, baptism itself is one of the uses of the Keys to forgive sins, as is the Lord’s Supper, as is the preaching of the Gospel in general. This is what the office of the ministry is primarily for, for men on earth to forgive sins in the name of God, with the full authority and approval of God. That’s why we call the ministry of the Word the Means of Grace, because the God attaches His promises of grace to Word and Sacrament, persuading us to believe what He promises and so to receive the promised gifts. The Lord Christ authorized the original ministers to act in His name, and then, through the call of the Church, He authorizes more and more ministers to go forth and act in His name and by His authority.

But God’s authority also comes with God’s instructions. God doesn’t authorize ministers to forgive whomever they please or to refuse forgiveness to whomever they please. He has instructed them to forgive those who repent and look to Christ for forgiveness, just as He has instructed them to refuse forgiveness to the impenitent and unbelieving. When ministers act according to God’s command, then we should believe with the certainty of faith what we confess in the catechism section on the ministry: I believe in what the called ministers of Christ do among us, by His divine command—especially when they exclude public, impenitent sinners from the Christian congregation, and when they absolve1 those who repent of their sins and are willing to mend their ways—that it is all as valid and certain in heaven also, as if our dear Lord Christ did it Himself.

So a minister first uses the key of forgiveness on a person in Holy Baptism as the personal application of the forgiveness of sins. He uses them in the Lord’s Supper. He uses them in a general way, by preaching the Gospel. And he may also use them in the private setting of confession and absolution.

Going regularly to private confession was never commanded by God. It wasn’t even practiced in a widespread way for the first few hundred years of the Church’s existence. It became more common, but still optional, in the 5th through 9th centuries. It grew in use until the year 1215 when, at the Fourth Lateran Council, it was first required to be practiced by Christians in the Roman Catholic Church at least once a year, where people had to list every sin for which they wanted forgiveness. Then, in the centuries leading up to the Reformation, it became more common for priests to require it as a condition anytime someone wanted to receive Communion.

That was the practice Luther inherited. And he didn’t entirely reject it. Instead, Lutherans confessed in the Augsburg Confession: We also retain (private) confession, especially on account of the absolution, as being the word of God which, by divine authority, the power of the keys pronounces upon individuals. Therefore it would be wicked to remove private absolution from the Church.

So, as Lutherans, we retain private confession, but not as a requirement. One could argue that requiring private confession, at least occasionally, made more sense in the large churches they had 500 years ago, where the pastors had much less individual interaction with most of their members. But even now, in our small congregations, our members should know that they can sit down with the pastor anytime they want and confess, in confidence, the sins that are weighing on their hearts, so that they can receive, one on one, both the word of absolution and personal encouragement and guidance from God’s Word. At the same time, that one-on-one setting allows the pastor to tend his sheep better, to find out about the struggles his sheep are facing, and to make sure that they aren’t going astray in any direction but are staying on the narrow path toward the heavenly pasture.

In any case, the Fifth Chief Part of the catechism provides us with a simple format for private confession, similar to what we use on Sundays in our general confession, where confession consists of two parts: First, that a person confesses his sins. Second, that a person receives the absolution or forgiveness from the minister, as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that his sins are thereby forgiven before God in heaven. Because, as we said, the forgiveness that the minister gives is not his personal forgiveness, but God’s own forgiveness, given by God’s command, given through means, given through a humble servant of God, so that his words carry the full weight of God’s own words: And I, by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive you your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! Amen.

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