Water into wine, an epiphany of glory and of joy

Posted on January 18, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Epiphany 2

Romans 12:6-16 + John 2:1-11

I know that you Christians were glad to hear again today the Gospel account of Jesus’ first miracle, when He changed water into wine at that wedding feast in the town of Cana. You’re always glad to hear the word about Jesus, aren’t you?, no matter what it is—the things He did and the things He said during that brief time when He walked the earth, among that blessed generation that got to share this earthly life with God in the flesh for a little while. You’re glad to hear about Jesus because you already know Him and love Him, because you know how much He loved you, how much He desired your salvation, how much He did so that you could escape eternal condemnation and have eternal life. You’re glad to hear how Jesus changed water into wine at a wedding feast.

But some might wonder how relevant it really is, with all that’s going on in the world. Does it do any good for those who don’t know Jesus, to hear about this one-time miracle of changing water into wine? Does it affect how a person approaches life or faces the trials of today? It really does, if you pay attention to it. In fact, Jesus chose this as His very first miracle, as a sort of introduction of Himself to the world, to show those who were paying attention not only what He could do, but who He truly was, and the purpose of His life and ministry. Here in this unique miracle of changing water into wine, we’re given an epiphany of Jesus’ glory as the Son of God, and of the joy He came to bring.

The apostle John tells us about the very first things Jesus did as He began His ministry. First, He was baptized by John the Baptist, as we heard on Wednesday, where He was revealed as the Son of God by God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Then He went out into the wilderness to fast and be tempted for forty days. Then He came back, was revealed by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, chose His first five disciples, and then headed straight for Cana with them, to this wedding to which they had all previously been invited.

Was it a coincidence that they had all been invited to this wedding that had obviously been planned for some time? Of course not. It was all part of God’s plan to begin revealing Jesus to His disciples. At a wedding, showing that marriage is good, and that celebrating marriage is good, and that even including wine as part of that celebration is good.

Throughout the Old Testament, wine is almost always treated as a blessing from God and as something that “makes glad the heart of man,” as it says in Psalm 104. Now, we all know that wine, like any of God’s blessings, can be abused. But it can also be used well, to make glad the heart of the Christian who gives thanks to God for all His many blessings, including the fruit of the vine. Jesus’ attendance at that wedding was an endorsement of God’s good gifts to His people, including marriage, including celebration.

But the celebration was about to be diminished a little bit. They ran out of wine at the wedding reception. It wasn’t the end of the world. In fact, of all the miracles Jesus would perform over the next three years, this one would seem almost inconsequential and unnecessary. But Mary was troubled by the wine running out, so she mentioned it to Jesus, seeming to expect Him to do something about it. What she expected, we aren’t told. But His response to her was a gentle scolding: What have I to do with you, woman? Calling Mary “woman” was not at all disrespectful in that context, but it does reveal a distancing that has taken place, now that Jesus has stepped out of His home and into His role as the Teacher of Israel. Jesus would never again speak of “His mother” by that name. In fact, on a later occasion, when Jesus was told that His mother and brothers were outside looking to speaking with Him, He said, Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.

The other thing Jesus said to Mary is the most important part. My hour has not yet come. Which hour is that? On several occasions during His ministry, usually when people were trying to kill Him, it says that they were unable to harm Him, because “His hour had not yet come.” But finally, when Holy Week arrived, at the very end of His earthly ministry, Jesus said, Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, referring to His death, resurrection, and ascension. The wedding at Cana wasn’t the hour when Jesus would fully reveal His glory as the Son of God and as the Savior of mankind. He wouldn’t do anything so visibly as to reveal His divinity to everyone in Israel, or even to everyone at the wedding. But to the eyes of a few chosen people, including His first disciples, Jesus would begin to reveal His glory as the Son of God.

Mary didn’t know what He would do, but she suspected He would do something, so she ordered the servants to do whatever He told them. What He told them was to fill up six large stone pots with water, each one holding about twenty to thirty gallons. That’s a lot of water! Then He told them to draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. When he tasted it—the water that had suddenly been changed into wine—he was amazed. Not at the miracle itself—he didn’t know where the wine had come from—but at what he thought was the strange behavior of the bridegroom. He called the bridegroom over and said, “Normally people bring out the best wine first, and then the inferior wine once the guests are drunk. But you have saved the best until now!”

So what’s the point of this miracle account? John summarizes it for us at the end: This was the first of the signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. Jesus did all sorts of miracles throughout His three-year ministry, from healing the sick to casting out demons to raising the dead. But this one was one of a kind. He revealed His glory as the Son of God by taking water and, with a word, turning it into something entirely different, and not just different, but better, something that doesn’t only sustain life, but that makes glad the heart of man. It’s a miracle of creation, the supernatural manipulation of molecules, something only God can do. But it was only known to the servants and to Jesus’ disciples, and that was the point, that Jesus’ disciples should begin to see His glory, to see Him, and to believe in Him, as their God, so that they could later be eyewitnesses of His glory, so that you and I might believe in Him, too.

This miracle account does point us to Jesus as our God. It is an epiphany of His glory, of His divinity. But the miracle tells us even more than that. It tells us of Jesus’ kindness. It tells of His mercy. It tells us that He came to bring joy, not only to that wedding party, but to fallen mankind, to give gifts to sinners instead of the punishment we deserve for our sins. It tells us of His generosity, how He gives His gifts not in meager measure but in superabundance. It teaches us that He has good gifts, the best possible gifts, in store for those who believe in Him: forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation, the peace of having God committed to helping you as your God, the joy of life forever in His glorious and loving presence. The miracle at Cana is an epiphany of joy.

That joy is intended for all, it has been earned by Christ for all through His death on the cross, and it’s given freely to all, just as all that wine was given freely to the guests at the wedding. But it comes only through faith in Christ Jesus. If you’re still seeking joy in the sins that God hates, you’ll find that those things don’t actually lead to joy at all but to shame and emptiness, guilt and condemnation. If you think you can have joy in the passing things of this passing world, you’ll find that joy like that will always run out before the end, like wine at a wedding feast. But if you seek joy through Christ, in the forgiveness He offers, in the life He offers, then true joy will be yours, because it’s the very thing He came to give, that we all may have life, and have it in abundance. Trust in the One who was willing to change water into wine at a wedding feast, to show His disciples that He was God, and that those who follow Him will have joy that knows no end. Amen.

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Baptized for our salvation

Posted on January 14, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Baptism of Our Lord

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 + Matthew 3:13-17

From the age of 12 to the age of 30, nothing much is revealed about Jesus. He has grown up in the northern region of Galilee, in the city of Nazareth. He has been obedient to His parents. He has learned the carpentry trade from Joseph, who apparently died during this interval. Jesus has grown in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. He has dutifully attended the synagogue every Sabbath, and, presumably, He has made the journey to Jerusalem every year for the three required feasts. He has been a heavenly light shining in His home, and in His day-to-day contact with others in Nazareth, as a layman, not as a teacher of Israel. But now, it’s time. Time to leave His home, and His mother Mary, and His brothers and sisters in Nazareth. It’s time to step forth to be a Light for the whole nation of Israel. It’s time to begin His ministry of preaching and teaching, gathering disciples to Himself as a Rabbi, and performing the great miracles that will attract the whole nation to His light. It’s time to step forth to save all mankind from sin, death, and the power of the devil. And the first step into that saving role is to be baptized.

For the life of him, John the Baptist couldn’t understand why Jesus was coming to him to be baptized. John tried to prevent him, saying, “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” John was very clear in his own preaching that his was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. It was a baptism for sinners only. And he knew that Jesus was no sinner. John, a sinner like all men, only dared to baptize people because God had directly commanded him to do it. And so, when John baptized, he stepped into the role of God, washing away the sins of the penitent; God had given him that ministry. But Jesus—Jesus was the Son of God. How could John possibly step into the role of God to baptize his God?

Jesus replied, Allow it for now. For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Notice, Jesus didn’t claim to be a sinner in need of forgiveness like everyone else. He wasn’t. He said that it was fitting for John to baptize Him “to fulfill all righteousness.” What does that mean?

Well, it means three things. First, Jesus had come to save mankind from their sins. And God’s plan for our salvation involved the Son of God stepping forward as the Son of Man, to carry out this saving ministry, to redo rightly everything that mankind had done wrong, and to suffer all the things mankind had earned by our wrongdoing. And He was ready to step forward to begin that ministry. But no man, not even the Son of Man, could just take such a service or ministry upon Himself. As a man, He could volunteer for such a ministry, but He needed the Father’s Word, the Father’s approval, the Father’s choice made known, made public. Jesus knew that it was His Father’s will to use this baptism to make that choice public, as we’ll see in a moment. So this baptism would serve as Jesus’ ordination, by the Father, through the Holy Spirit, into the office of the holy ministry, His public anointing as the Christ. Righteousness required it.

Second, this baptism allowed Jesus to step forward and truly be numbered with the transgressors. Everyone else who was being baptized by John was a transgressor. Now Jesus steps forward to be baptized, just like them, just as He would one day be “numbered with the transgressors” on the cross, even though He hadn’t done anything wrong. His willingness to be numbered among us sinners, without being sinful Himself, was absolutely essential for our salvation. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. And so He said to John, It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

Third, this baptism allows the Lord Christ to join Himself to this Sacrament of Holy Baptism in such a way that everyone who is now baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus is united to the Lord Jesus, counted as a member of His body, clothed with Him, and with the robe of His righteousness, crucified with Him, buried with Him, and also raised from the dead with Him. And so it was fitting for Jesus to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness, as a necessary step toward our salvation.

Now we come to the awesome events connected with Jesus’ baptism. He was baptized in the same way everyone else was baptized by John. Nothing appeared any different in the baptism itself. But as soon as Jesus came up from the water, the heavens were opened to him. And John saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And behold, a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This is the first clear reference in the New Testament to the three distinct Persons of the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—all in one place. John saw the Spirit coming down from heaven upon Jesus like a dove. In John’s Gospel, it says the Spirit remained on Him. That fits with what Isaiah had prophesied about the Christ: The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. Then the Father spoke from heaven, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. There’s the public selection of Jesus for the office of Christ, Savior, Servant of the Lord, the public endorsement of Jesus as the Father’s Minister to mankind and as the Savior of the world. And from that moment on, Jesus took on that task with every fiber of His being, dedicating every moment of the next three years (and, in reality, the next 2,000 years as well) to serving His Father in the work of our salvation.

It was no coincidence that, after fulfilling His earthly ministry, Jesus commanded His apostles to go, teach, and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Just as all three Persons were present at Jesus’ Baptism, so they are present at every Christian baptism, where, as Luther says in that hymn we just sang, God Himself is the true Baptizer. The Father is there, the Son is there, and the Spirit is there. The minister, like John the Baptist, is called to act in the place of God, to baptize, to wash away sins, to join the baptized person to Christ, thus making the baptized person as acceptable to the Father as Jesus is, and to pass on the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that what was said about Jesus is now said about each and every one who is baptized in His name: This is My beloved Son, in which I am well pleased. For sinners, that means “forgiven.” It means “saved.” And it’s true, by the way, whether it’s a boy or a girl, a man or a woman being baptized. Because no matter who you are, your baptism transports you back through time (in God’s estimation) to the moment of Jesus’ Baptism and binds you to Him forever, so that what was spoken about Jesus is now spoken about you who believe and are baptized. As Paul wrote to the Galatians, You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And just as Jesus went forth from His baptism to devote His life to carrying out His Father’s will, so you and I must go forth from our baptism, every day, to carry out our Father’s will. We who have been baptized in Jesus’ name are God’s beloved sons and daughters. We bear the name of the holy Trinity in the world. We have been made kings and queens in His kingdom, and holy priests, charged with offering up not only prayers but our very selves as holy sacrifices pleasing to God. All this flows from your baptism, and your baptism flows from Jesus’ baptism, just as it flows also from His life, death, and resurrection. Return to your baptism every day. Remember it. Take comfort in it. And then step forth from it again to live for Him who was baptized for our salvation. Amen.

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Engaged in our Father’s affairs

Posted on January 11, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Epiphany 1

Romans 12:1-5 + Luke 2:41-52

On Wednesday, we mentioned a few unanswerable questions about the wise men—who they were, where they were from, what prophecy led them to recognize the meaning of that special star and to seek the newborn King of the Jews. And we concluded that the only thing that really mattered was the thing that was revealed to us, namely, that they were Gentiles who had been drawn to Israel by God to worship the King of the Jews, whom they recognized as their King, too.

There are plenty of unanswerable questions surrounding Jesus’ childhood, and foolish men have wasted countless hours inventing stories about it. But again, the only thing that really matters about His childhood are the things that have been revealed to us by God the Holy Spirit, through His inspired Evangelists. There aren’t many things that we know, but the things we do know are worth pondering. So turn your attention with me toward Jerusalem this morning, and toward the things St. Luke tells us about the time Jesus spent there as a Child, when He was thoroughly engaged in the Word of God.

After the holy family fled to Egypt to escape King Herod’s attempt to kill Jesus, at a still very young age, Jesus was called out of Egypt back to the land of Israel, to the northern city of Nazareth, where we’re told nothing of His childhood. All we’re told is that His parents went to Jerusalem every year for the feast of the Passover. God required that annual Passover visit to Jerusalem of all the Israelites, wherever they lived, even if it meant journeying for three or four days to get there. That’s what it took, if you lived in Nazareth. Mary and Joseph’s regular attendance at that required feast shows that they took God’s Word seriously. We also know that, because, years later, when Jesus preached in the synagogue in Nazareth, everyone there in the synagogue knew Him and His whole family well. In other words, He was raised in a home where the family went to church regularly. We’ll come back to that in a moment.

When He was twelve years old, Jesus went with His parents to Jerusalem and spent the Passover week with them there, engaged in the rituals and sacrifices that God had prescribed through Moses. The week went as planned, but the return didn’t. Luke tells us that When they had completed the days, as they returned, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother were unaware of it. But thinking that he was in their company, they went a day’s journey and began searching for him among their relatives and acquaintances. You may wonder how any parents could leave the big city without noticing that their son wasn’t with them. But this speaks to us about just how dependable and reliable the boy Jesus was. If He had had a reputation of being unreliable, or flighty, or disobedient, they wouldn’t have just assumed He was with their traveling caravan. They would have stayed on top of His whereabouts at all times. The fact that they had relaxed their supervision of Him shows that He didn’t normally need to be supervised.

When Mary and Joseph realized that Jesus wasn’t with them, they naturally panicked. And being already a day’s journey away from the city, they had to spend the next day traveling back. Then, finally, on the third day, they found Him, in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. In other words, they found Him in church, participating in “Bible class,” discussing the Word of God. And not just participating and discussing. Luke says that all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. There was Jesus, at twelve years old, revealing a little bit of His divinity in His genuine love for and profound understanding of God’s Word. Knowing who He is, that’s not a surprise to us. But no one knew at that time who He was. Even Mary and Joseph, who were supposed to know, didn’t fully comprehend it.

When they saw him, they were amazed, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? See, your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” After living with Jesus for twelve years, they grew accustomed to His humanness, His normalcy. He was their Son. That’s how they had come to see Him. And that He should love God’s Word was no surprise, but that He would love it so much that He would stay behind in Jerusalem to discuss it with some of the most learned teachers of the church? They could hardly believe it. And they were a little offended that He would put them through the horror of finding Him missing from their company.

Most parents don’t need to be corrected by their children, nor should they be. Most children have no higher calling than to honor their father and mother. But Jesus was no ordinary Child. He was not only their Son, but the Son of God the Father in heaven, and they needed to be reminded that His will came before theirs. Jesus said to them, “What do you mean, you were you searching for me? Did you not know that I had to be engaged in my Father’s affairs?” Jesus didn’t “become” the Son of God later in life, nor was He ignorant of who He was. He always knew who His real Father was, and what His mission on earth was. And so He had to be engaged in His Father’s affairs, particularly in His Father’s Word, hearing it, discussing it, exploring it, explaining it, not just at home with His parents, but with the very teachers of the Church in the holy city of God, in the holy temple, in the only version of “Bible class” the Jews had available to them.

Mary and Joseph still didn’t understand at the time, but they didn’t have to. They told Jesus to come along now, and He did. And it says that He was subject to them, and that He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. He carried out His callings, His vocations, as both the Son of God and the Son of Man. And He did it perfectly.

We see Jesus’ hidden identity as the Son of God in His zealous engagement with God’s Word, and in His supernatural understanding of it. But that’s not all we learn from Jesus this Gospel. We learn part of what it means to be a Christian.

There’s a key misconception people have about Christianity. Many, many people have the strange idea that you can be what I’ll call a “casual Christian,” in a casual relationship with God’s Church, and with His Word and worship, in a casual relationship with God’s commandments. I often hear people talk about their non-churchgoing-but-Christian family or friends, who don’t really care about obeying God’s commandments, including, obviously, the commandment to gather with other Christians around the ministry of His Word, to gladly hear and learn it, and to receive the Sacraments, and yet they still think of themselves as Christians. Now, as you know, there are good reasons why some people don’t go to church. They’re sick or incapacitated. Or they can’t find a right-teaching church, or they don’t live close enough to a right-teaching church to attend. But if they did, they would! As I know all of our long-distance members would gladly attend every Bible class and service, if they only lived close enough. And while they can’t attend, they look for ways to keep gathering with Christians near them to hear and learn the Word of God preached and taught by His ministers, even if it has to be through digital means. These are not “casual Christians,” but faithful ones who bear the cross of not having ready access to the pure preaching of God’s Word, and not settling for a compromised version of it.

But much more common is the “casual Christian” who isn’t really interested in gathering to hear God’s Word preached and taught. As if God never commanded anyone to gladly hear and learn His Word. But He did. It’s the moral meaning behind the Third Commandment, Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. Those who aren’t interested in keeping God’s commandments, including His commandment to gather around the ministry of His Word, cannot rightly be called Christians at all.

Now if even you, who are Christians, were to compare your level of obedience and devotion to God’s Word with Jesus’ obedience and devotion, you know that you would fall short. Everyone falls short, showing the just condemnation of all men apart from Christ. Some people think, “That level of devotion and obedience is fine for Jesus. He’s the Son of God! But surely God doesn’t expect that of me! I’ll be fine with some devotion, some obedience, when I want!” Oh, but they’re wrong. The life of Jesus reveals the moral standard that God established from the beginning, how He created men to be, how Adam and Eve were, for a brief time. It isn’t “fine” to fall short of that standard. It’s deadly.

But the Christian Gospel teaches that, because no one is righteous or good enough on his own, because we’ve all earned God’s condemnation for ourselves, God sent Jesus into the world as a Man, to redeem us men from our sins. His devotion to God’s Word and to His Father’s affairs makes up for our lack of devotion, if we seek forgiveness in Him, if we recognize that we’re not at all fine apart from Him.

Those who believe in Christ can claim His record of perfect obedience and devotion before God as their own. And now, we believers also recognize that God hasn’t called us to remain in the filth of our sins and in our natural apathy (much less animosity!) toward His Word. You Christians, as born-again people, are called to love the Word of God, to hear it gladly, to learn it, to study it, to be engaged in it. To whatever extent God has opened the door for you to be engaged in the hearing and study and discussion of His Word, make the most of every one of those opportunities.

But the Christian life includes other things, too. Lots of other things. You heard the apostle Paul’s encouragement to Christians in today’s Epistle: I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship. As those who believe in Jesus and who follow Jesus, you have also been called to imitate Him in whole-life obedience to God’s commandments, summarized with love for God and love for your neighbor, but spelled out in much greater detail throughout the Holy Scriptures. Today’s Gospel gives you just a little window into the childhood life of the One whom you call your Lord and your Savior, whose love for God’s Word was unparalleled. Watch Him through that window, and learn from Him, even at the age of twelve, to be engaged in God’s Word, and in all our Father’s affairs, to walk in faith and in love, and in obedience to God’s commands. Amen.

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The nations come to Israel by coming to Christ

Posted on January 7, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Epiphany of Our Lord

Isaiah 60:1-6 + Matthew 2:1-12

Have any of you ever gone to Israel? You have. You all have. I know you have. And today’s festival of Epiphany explains how.

On Sunday, we looked at three Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus’ infancy. The visit of the wise men, which only Matthew recounts in his Gospel, is yet another fulfillment of prophecy. Now, some will point to the prophecy pronounced by the false prophet Balaam as the children of Israel were journeying toward the land of Canaan, to conquer it. And they may be right. The Holy Spirit overcame that false prophet and spoke through him: I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; a Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons of tumult. And Edom shall be a possession; Seir also, his enemies, shall be a possession, while Israel does valiantly. Out of Jacob One shall have dominion, and destroy the remains of the city. That’s the only prophecy in the Old Testament that mentions a special star rising out of Israel, like the one the wise men followed.

But Isaiah’s prophecy from chapter 60 that you heard this evening is an even clearer prophecy of the visit of the wise men. And not only of that event, but of a much, much greater fulfillment that is still taking place. In the visit of the wise men, we see the Gentiles, the nations, coming literally and physically to Israel. But they only came to Israel because that’s where Christ was at the time. And still today, the nations come to Israel by coming to Christ, wherever He is at this time.

Matthew tells us that, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.” Who were these wise men or “Magi”? Legend says they were three kings from the region of Babylonia. They’re even given names: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. But no one really knows. And how did they know that a star would herald the birth of the King of the Jews? Again, no one knows for sure. What we do know for sure about them is what matters: They were Gentiles, non-Jews, who were drawn by God to the land of Israel, because they were convinced, not only that the King of the Jews had been born, but that this particular King of the Jews was also born for them, for those who are not Jews, and that He deserved their worship, their honor, and their very precious gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

How did Israel respond to the wise men’s news about the birth of their King? When King Herod heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. For the most part, Jerusalem and its inhabitants were not thrilled at the news. They were troubled. But we know that some in Jerusalem were thrilled. We heard a not long ago about Simeon and Anna who were there in the temple to welcome their King with open arms. In fact, Simeon was the first to announce what the birth of the Messiah would mean for Israel and for the Gentiles. You know the Nunc Dimittis, where Simeon said that Jesus is a Light for enlightening the Gentiles and for glory to God’s people. Israel has no glory apart from the light of Christ, and Gentiles have no light, only darkness without the light of Christ. But when the Gentiles come to Him, they have their darkness replaced with light.

That brings us to Isaiah’s prophecy. What did he say to the people of Israel? Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For, behold, darkness covers the earth, and deep darkness the peoples. But the LORD will rise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Israel spent hundreds of years, from the time of Solomon’s son Rehoboam through the Babylonian captivity, in constant rebellion against God, with only brief moments of humility and faith. Nothing was going to change that. They were a stubborn and rebellious people. But, honestly, not really worse than the rest of the nations. Mankind’s corruption is complete. No nation on earth could ever truly thrive in justice and righteousness. Look at the days before Noah’s flood. Look at the days following Noah’s flood. Look at the history of the whole world. Injustice, violence, war, rebellion against God have always been the norm for sinful mankind, and always will be. The only difference for the nation of Israel was that they were the only nation that had a promise from God that something wonderful would come to them, and from them. God would send a light to Israel. The LORD Himself would rise upon Israel, like the sun. His glory would appear over them (perhaps a reference to the “star” the wise men saw). In other words, the Christ, the Son of God, would be born in Israel. He would be for their glory, as Simeon said; His coming would bring great, world-wide renown to Israel. And so they should arise and shine with joy at His coming, because He was the true Light who would bring glory to that nation.

And He would bring them glory because the light of Christ that shone from Israel, starting from the birth of the King, would reach the Gentiles, would reach the ends of the earth, and would draw the Gentiles to Israel, to walk in the light that was coming from Israel. But the light wasn’t coming from Israel as a nation, or as a people, or as piece of land. It was coming from the baby in Bethlehem.

That’s where the wise men went, leaving Jerusalem behind. The light of God shining in the pages of Holy Scripture had shown them the way to Bethlehem, where the Christ was to be born, and then the light of the special star returned to show them exactly where He was. And when they had come into the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped him. And opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Why worship an infant? Why travel all that way, and present such precious gifts? Because the King of the Jews would be the Savior of the whole world. By His suffering and death, he would provide atonement for the sins of all men, and through Him men would again have access to the holy God, to their Creator, to their King.

All this was foretold by the prophet Isaiah. And Gentiles will walk in your light, and kings in the brightness that rises upon you. Lift up your eyes all around and see! They all gather together; they come to you. Your sons will come from afar, and your daughters will be nursed at your side. Then you will see and be radiant, and your heart will marvel and swell, for the abundance of the sea will be turned over to you, the might of the Gentiles will come to you. The multitude of camels will cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba will come; they will bring gold and incense, and they will declare the praises of the LORD.

This was a recurring theme and a big prophecy in the Old Testament, that the Gentiles would come to Israel—so big, in fact, that it’s one of the reasons the nation of Israel has historically rejected Jesus as the Christ, because they didn’t see Him literally drawing all nations to the physical nation of Israel. “At best He drew a few wise men from the East. So what? Big deal!” Yes, the wise men’s journey to the land of Israel was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. But it was only the beginning of the fulfillment. The whole Old Testament opens up for you when you realize that the coming of the Gentiles to Israel was always about coming to the Christ who would come to Israel. All the prophets who spoke of this were talking not about the expansion of cultural Israel or of the Jewish nation according to the flesh, but the widening of Israel to include all nations, and to include them in one way and in one way only, by shining the light of Jesus the Christ into the world from that moment, 2,000 years ago, when the Christ was born in Israel.

But He’s no longer shining from Israel, and you no longer need to go to Israel to find Him. Now the light of Christ shines wherever His Gospel is preached in the world. And wherever people hear it, and believe, and are baptized in the name of Christ, there they are coming to Israel, into the expanded version of Israel that God had planned from the beginning, which has nothing to do any longer with a piece of land, because the true Israel is found wherever He is found who was born on that piece of land, in Bethlehem: Jesus the Christ, the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe. Israel is present among us, because Christ is present here among us, where two or three are gathered together in His name. As He promised, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

And so, you see, whether or not you have ever gone to Israel, you believers in the King of the Jews have most certainly gone to Israel. You have visited Jerusalem, and Bethlehem, together with the wise men. You have seen the glory of the Lord rising upon that nation. You’ve seen it through the words of Holy Scripture and through faith in the words you have heard. You have come to Israel by coming to Christ, and, together with all believers from every nation, you have been incorporated into the expanded Israel that is called the Holy Christian Church. Epiphany marks the beginning of that expansion, but hardly the end of it. Until the end of time, the nations will be coming to Israel by coming to Christ, by coming into the Christian Church, where you, too, have fallen down before the King of the Jews, to worship Him, to praise Him, and to present to Him your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. A blessed Epiphany to all! Amen.

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Prophecies fulfilled amid the suffering

Posted on January 4, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Christmas 2

1 Peter 4:12-19 + Matthew 2:13-23

The delightful story of Christmas, followed by the awe-inspiring visit of the wise men, continues with a story of terror, fear, and uncertainty. On Wednesday we’ll backtrack to the story of the wise men’s visit to worship the newborn King. But today’s Gospel takes us to the terrifying events that followed their visit. In these events, we see the hand of God working out His plan of salvation, even behind the terrible slaughter of the little children of Bethlehem and the harrowing flight of the holy family to Egypt, and Matthew is careful to point out for us three fulfillments of prophecy in this story. Even amid the suffering endured by Jesus’ family and by the families of Bethlehem, prophecies were being fulfilled—three prophecies that should point all people to Jesus as the Christ, and as the Savior, not from earthly woes, but from the deadly consequences of sin.

If you’ve read Matthew’s Gospel, you’ve surely noticed how often he quotes from the Old Testament—about as often as the other three Gospel writers combined, always demonstrating to the Jewish audience to whom he’s primarily writing that Jesus in the promised Christ, the One to whom all the Scriptures pointed, and the true King of the Jews. Before our Gospel begins, he’s already mentioned two major Old Testament prophecies: about the virgin-birth of the Christ, and about His birthplace being the little town of Bethlehem. The next one has to do with Egypt. When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son, said the Lord through the prophet Hosea. But how does that prophecy point to Jesus? In fact, how is it a prophecy at all?

The prophet Hosea was writing about God’s history of dealing with Israel. This verse is talking about the nation of Israel in its infancy, when God adopted the nation as His son, so to speak, and then “called them out of Egypt” by rescuing them from slavery there, to bring them safely into the land of Canaan. A person could easily read that verse from Hosea and conclude that he was only talking about the nation of Israel and what happened to them in the past. But the Holy Spirit, speaking through Matthew, teaches us to view it not only as a word of history but as a word of prophecy, where Israel serves as a type or a pattern of the coming Christ. Just as God spoke to His “adopted son” Israel, calling them out of Egypt, so God speaks to His only-begotten Son Jesus as the representative of Israel and calls Him out of Egypt, back to the promised land, following the pattern of Old Testament Israel. Except that, while Israel proved to be an unfaithful son, always complaining against God his Father, always rebelling, always turning away to other gods, Jesus would prove to be the perfect Son, never complaining, never rebelling, never turning away from His beloved Father.

Now, how Jesus got down to Egypt in the first place is the terrible part of this story. When the wise men left the house where Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were, an angel warned the wise men not to tell Herod where the Child was. When they didn’t return to him, Herod issued the terrible order to kill all the baby boys of Bethlehem who were two years old and under, the act of a truly depraved, paranoid tyrant. But that, too, was the fulfillment of a prophecy from the book of Jeremiah: In Ramah a sound was heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children. And she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.

Many surely read those words as referring to the desolation that the Babylonians would bring on the land of Judea, to Ramah, that is, Bethlehem, where Jacob’s wife Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin some 2,000 years before Jesus was born, because the Babylonians would take all the Jews captive to Babylonia, including the inhabitants of Bethlehem, leaving the land empty of “Rachel’s children.” But Matthew, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, indicates that God, through Jeremiah, was also referring to another future event, to the destruction of the children of Bethlehem that King Herod would carry out in his jealous rage.

Matthew doesn’t focus on the horror of that event. He assumes the reader is able to imagine it, as the soldiers went from home to home putting the little children to death. Understand, it wasn’t God who instigated King Herod to carry out this wicked thing. In His foreknowledge He certainly knew about it ahead of time. But it was the devil who was responsible for it, and Herod’s own wickedness. The story highlights for us just how much the devil hates human beings, just how much he loves violence, and just how determined he was to wipe out the newborn Son of God, who was born to destroy the works of the devil.

Not that Herod thought of it as working with the devil; he had his own motives for wanting to wipe out the One whom the wise men had called the “King of the Jews.” Herod thought this Child had been born as a threat to his earthly kingship, and the kingship of his family. But as Jesus later confessed, “My kingdom is not of this world.” It wasn’t God’s purpose to get rid of Herod, nor was it God’s purpose for His people to get rid of Herod, or to depose any of the kings or topple any of the governments of this earth, or to prevent all the wickedness and violence that men do, or the suffering that men suffer—not until He comes again in glory, when He will make all things right. No, God had sent His Son into the world to redeem the world from sin, that sinners might be reconciled with God, forgiven their sins, and saved from spending eternity in hell with the devil and his demons. But Herod didn’t know that, and didn’t care. He had no interest in the things of God, only in protecting his earthly throne, which meant wiping out anyone whom he saw as a threat.

So those little children of Bethlehem were wiped out from this earthly life. And if a good, long, cozy, comfortable life here on earth were the goal of our existence, then those children really missed out. But if making it safely through this life into the next life with God is the goal, then those children reached their goal more quickly than their parents did. Because those Israelite children were included by God among His covenant people, even as baptized babies today are included by God among His covenant people, whom He will not abandon; they’ve already died with Christ through Baptism, and their life, like the life of all believers, is hidden with God in Christ.

Meanwhile, God shielded His Son from Herod’s plot, and from the devil, because it wasn’t yet time for Jesus to suffer and die—though that day would surely come. For the moment, God sent an angel to warn Joseph to flee quickly to Egypt, where God watched over Jesus, and Mary, and Joseph until Herod was dead. And, incidentally, God saw to it that Herod died a wretched death, by all historical accounts. Herod had his day, and then his time was up. And then it was time for yet another prophecy to be fulfilled.

Joseph was instructed by the angel to return not to Bethlehem, or to Jerusalem, but to Nazareth, which, as Luke tells us, is where he and Mary were originally from. If they thought for a time that God wanted them to raise Jesus closer to Jerusalem, where the King of the Jews would naturally live, they learned that God had a different plan. They were to take Jesus to Nazareth and raise Him there. We can imagine several reasons for that, but Matthew reveals an important one: that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazarene.”

Notice here, Matthew doesn’t cite a certain prophet, but “the prophets.” There are a few explanations out there for this, but I think the most likely is that it’s a reference to the book of Judges, and we aren’t given the name of the prophet who wrote that book. There, the angel of the Lord foretold the birth of a special child whose name would be Samson. “He will be a Nazirite to God from the womb until the day of his death,” the angel said to Samson’s mother—Nazirite, from a Hebrew word that means, “consecrated” and that sounds like Nazarene. And it’s true, Samson was a type or pattern, in some ways, of the coming Christ, just as Israel was. Like Samson, Jesus would be consecrated to the Lord from the womb until the day of His death, His whole life dedicated to fulfilling God’s plan of salvation, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of a cross. As Samson was a judge of Israel, so Jesus will be the Judge of all. As the Spirit of God came upon Samson to give him incredible physical strength, so the Spirit would come upon Jesus to perform mighty miracles. As Samson singlehandedly delivered the Israelites from the Philistines, who were their enemies at that time, so Jesus would singlehandedly deliver us from the devil, who is the ancient enemy of all mankind.

Prophecy after prophecy was fulfilled in the life of Jesus, starting from His infancy, even amid the suffering caused by those who hated Him. Nothing the devil could do, nothing anyone could do, could alter the course of God’s plan for Jesus. In fact, all their attempts to get rid of Him only furthered God’s plans. The same is true for all of His children. The devil targets you in ways you can’t even see, and the world will find a way to make you suffer for leading a righteous life, and for confessing the name of Christ without fear and without compromise. Don’t worry about it. Don’t shrink back from it. Because nothing the devil can do, nothing anyone can do, can alter the course of God’s good plan for you. If that plan involves deliverance here on earth, God be praised. If it involves suffering here, or even death, so be it. The Christian life is not about seeking earthly comfort or earthly justice. It’s about clinging in faith to the Lord Jesus, and leading a life here that brings glory to Him, so that we can safely escape this world and enter with Him into the glory of His heavenly kingdom. Therefore, Peter writes in the Epistle, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator. Because He is faithful. And just as all His prophecies about Jesus were fulfilled, so will be fulfilled all His prophecies about eternal joy and deliverance for His people after the suffering of this life is through. Amen.

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