Fear not, though you are a worm

Posted on February 7, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Sexagesima

Isaiah 41:14-29  +  Mark 4:26-32

Fear not! I am the One who helps you. Those were the words of the LORD to Israel and to His whole Church that we ended with last week. We begin with similar words this evening.

Fear not, you worm Jacob,
you men of Israel!
I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord;
your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

When God calls His people here, “you worm Jacob,” He doesn’t mean it as an insult. It’s a simple (though metaphorical) statement of fact. The Jews in exile in Babylon, to whom Isaiah’s words were prophetically directed, had been reduced in strength and stature to that of a worm. Tiny. Powerless. Despised. Utterly insignificant on the world stage. Not unlike the true Christian Church today. Tiny. Powerless. Despised. Utterly insignificant on the world stage. But what does God say to His powerless, insignificant Church? Fear not! I am the one who helps you! I am your Redeemer.

How would God help powerless Israel? He would turn them into His weapon of vengeance against His enemies.

Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge,
new, sharp, and having teeth;
you shall thresh the mountains and crush them,
and you shall make the hills like chaff;
you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away,
and the tempest shall scatter them.
And you shall rejoice in the Lord;
in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

God had often used His Old Testament people of Israel to make war against His enemies and theirs. They fought against and defeated the Canaanites at God’s command. They fought against the Philistines. They wouldn’t have to fight against the Babylonians, since God would send Cyrus to defeat the Babylonians for them. But, at the time of Esther, they would fight against their enemies in the Persian provinces who tried to destroy them. And God made them victorious. They would fight against the Greek invaders, and God made them victorious. He preserved them as a nation, in their homeland of Judea and in their capital of Jerusalem, all the way up until the birth of His Son. None of that seemed possible to the Jews in exile, but God would step in to help them.

He steps in to help His Church today, too, not by turning us into warriors against flesh and blood enemies, but into warriors and soldiers who are to “put on the full armor of God” and stand “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places,” as Paul writes to the Ephesians. We fight with God’s power against sin, so that it can’t have the victory over us. We fight with God’s power against the world, not with swords made of metal, but with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. And God will make us victorious. After all, He is the One who helps us.

Isaiah continues:

When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them;
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.
I will set in the desert the cypress,
the plane and the pine together,
that they may see and know,
may consider and understand together,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.

Here the Lord goes back to comfort the “worm Jacob” again. He speaks to the “poor and needy” who “seek water.” The Jews in exile didn’t have any lack of literal water. The Babylonians provided them with food and drink and decent homes to live in. What they lacked was spiritual water, the Word of God and the comfort of His forgiveness, His acceptance, His guidance. Here God promises to provide all that in abundance. He does it through Isaiah’s words, through Jeremiah’s words, through Ezekiel’s words and Daniel’s words. He would do it later through the words of the post-exile prophets. But most of all, He would provide these abundant waters of life for His people when He sent His very own Son into the world, who said, Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

Isaiah then turns toward the false gods again, to mock them:

Set forth your case, says the Lord;
bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.
Let them bring them, and tell us
what is to happen.
Tell us the former things, what they are,
that we may consider them,
that we may know their outcome;
or declare to us the things to come.
Tell us what is to come hereafter,
that we may know that you are gods;
do good, or do harm,
that we may be dismayed and terrified.
Behold, you are nothing,
and your work is less than nothing;
an abomination is he who chooses you.

The false gods, worshiped by the Gentiles and all too often by Israel before the exile, were worthless. They weren’t real, so they couldn’t offer any real help. They couldn’t even predict the future, much less cause anything to happen in the future. So God mocks them. “You are nothing, and your work is less than nothing.” But the real targets of His mockery weren’t the false gods. It was the foolish people who worshiped them. “He who chooses you” (“you” being the false gods) “is an abomination.”

The worship of false gods is just as much as problem today as it was in Old Testament times. Whether it’s seeking help from the saints or seeking help from “science,” or from “the experts,” or from their own twisted belief systems, people still end up fearing, loving, and trusting in others instead of fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things. It’s foolish, because God, the Lord, the One described in the Bible, is the One who has helped us by sending His Son to be our Savior, and God is still the One who would help us and forgive us and comfort us and guide us, but only through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Finally, Isaiah makes another reference to Cyrus the Great, though not yet by name:

I stirred up one from the north, and he has come,
from the rising of the sun, and he shall call upon my name;
he shall trample on rulers as on mortar,
as the potter treads clay.
Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know,
and beforehand, that we might say, “He is right”?
There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed,
none who heard your words.
I was the first to say to Zion, “Behold, here they are!”
and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news.
But when I look, there is no one;
among these there is no counselor
who, when I ask, gives an answer.
Behold, they are all a delusion;
their works are nothing;
their metal images are empty wind.

The false gods and idols weren’t the ones who predicted the coming of Cyrus and the deliverance of Israel from Babylon. God alone did that. He told His people Israel about it and wanted them to rejoice, because their God was the true God—the One who had promised to help them, and who then fulfilled His promise. And just as He fulfilled His word to send Israel a deliverer from Babylon, so He would fulfill His word to send them—and us—a Deliverer from sin, death, and the devil.

So, even if you’re just a worm—tiny, powerless, despised, unimportant—it’ll be all right. The Lord is the One who helps you. Even though the kingdom of heaven is like the tiniest, most insignificant-looking mustard seed, God will cause it to grow so that it fills the earth, and no one will be able to stop it. Amen.

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How you hear God’s Word matters

Posted on February 4, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Sexagesima

2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9  +  Luke 8:4-15

According to Jesus, God’s word is like seed. And your ears are the soil in which it’s planted. Since the service began, God’s word has already been falling like seed in our midst. Were you paying attention to it? Did it fall on good soil or other soil? Are you ready to receive God’s word in the sermon? I ask, because Jesus indicates in today’s Gospel that most people aren’t ready to hear God’s word, really hear it and ponder it and consider it and put it into practice after they hear it. So as you hear God’s word this morning, think not only about what you hear, but how you hear.

Most of the people who heard Jesus tell the parable of the sower and the seed probably didn’t know what He was even talking about. For the most part, Jesus’ spoke in parables that ‘Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. That’s a reference to the commission that God gave long ago to the prophet Isaiah, who was sent to speak the word of God to a people of Judah who were already almost ripe for judgment. Isaiah spoke the truth, but he spoke it in prophecies and riddles, in symbols and in visions, so that only those who really cared to hear what their God said to them would pause to ponder the meaning of what he said. So, too, with Jesus. The people of Israel were almost ripe for judgment again, so until His crucifixion and resurrection, it was still time to speak in parables, so that only those who had ears to hear, who really cared to listen, would actually learn.

Jesus’ twelve apostles were such hearers. They didn’t understand this parable, but they wanted to. So they asked! And Jesus revealed its meaning to them, and now to us and to all who have ears to hear.

The seed is the word of God. Which word of God? It’s the whole counsel of God, everything God has said and inspired to be recorded in Holy Scripture. But that “everything” centers on the Gospel of Christ Jesus, like spokes on a bicycle wheel pointing to the center, or radiating out from the center, either way you look at it. The Gospel is the heart of the seed. And, in a nutshell, the Gospel is that God loved this sinful, filthy, wicked world and didn’t want to condemn it to eternal death and punishment, but, instead, sent His eternal Son into human flesh in order to redeem all men from our sins by His righteous life and innocent death in our place. Christ Jesus then rose from the dead and now continually sends His Spirit into the world to work through the preaching of His word and the administration of His Sacraments in order to gather His Church, to bring people to faith, to sanctify us in love, and to preserve us in the faith until Christ comes again for judgment. That’s the seed that is sown, the word that is preached and that has the potential to take root and grow and produce a crop a hundred times more than what was sown.

The word is sown liberally, generously. It goes out into the world like a farmer who takes a handful of seed and simply scatters it abroad. The word that’s preached just here at Emmanuel has gone out into all the world through the internet. We’re not aiming it at anyone in particular. We’re scattering the seed far and wide. And some are guided to it and helped by it. But you’re here this morning so that I can sow the word in your ears, and so that you can hear it, and, as you hear it, you need to be aware that there are many obstacles preventing it from producing fruit in you, and you’ll need to overcome them, by God’s grace and with His help, so that you receive the word with a noble and good heart, so that it does produce the fruit God is looking for: the fruit of a living faith, a humble spirit, a heart that loves God above all things and that reflects the love of God toward our neighbors.

This is what happens, Jesus says, when the word is sown: Some of it falls like seed on a path, where two tragic things happen to that seed. It’s trampled by men, and the birds of the air devour it. These are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. How have you done so far this morning, during the whole service up to this point, with all the prayers, chants, hymns, Scripture lessons? Have you been distracted by other things, with other thoughts and other priorities? That’s how the seed gets trampled, and the devil happily snatches the word away so that it does you no good. It produces no repentance, or faith, or awe in the presence of God, or appreciation for His goodness, or thankfulness for His benefits, or learning, or growth, or anything. This is one thing that happens when the word is sown. Watch out for it, every time the word is preached!

This also happens, Jesus says, when the word is sown: Some of it falls on rocky soil. It penetrates a little, but only a little. It sprouts up quickly, but the tender shoot soon withers and dies for lack of a root system, for lack of moisture. These, Jesus says, are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. You hear the word of God. You agree with what you’ve heard. You believe it. You rejoice in it, even. For example, “God is love! God loves you!” But then you’re satisfied. No need to learn. No need to study any further, dig any deeper. Why spend time reading through the Bible, reviewing the Small Catechism, much less the rest of the Confessions of the Church? Leave the theology to the theologians! Leave the deeper doctrines to the pastors! What you’re left with is a superficial faith. Then along come the temptations, as they always do, especially the temptation to cave in in the face of persecution. When troubles strike, when faithfulness to Christ makes your life harder in your family, in your job, in society, when the world turns against you for saying the simplest of things or living according to the simplest truths: for example, the only true God is the God of the Bible, all other gods are false gods and idols; sinners are justified by faith alone in Christ Jesus; there are only two genders, and you can’t switch; marriage is between one man and one woman and is supposed to last until death; sex is supposed to be reserved for marriage, and children should be raised by a father and a mother, and certainly never killed in their mothers’ womb. Homosexuality is always sinful and wrong. Simple things. Basic Christian truth. But the world pushes back if you speak this way or live this way. So if the seed of God’s word has only sprouted shallowly in the rocky soil of your heart, the persecution and the troubles that come with confessing Christ will cause the plant to wither and die. This is another thing that happens when the word is sown. Watch out for it, every time the word is preached!

This also happens, Jesus says, when the word is sown: Some of it falls among thorns. It starts to grow, but its growth is stunted as it’s choked by the weeds, a pathetic little plant that doesn’t produce any fruit. These, Jesus says, are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. You hear the word here in church. But then “life” takes control of your thoughts and your decisions and your heart. Cares, like relationships you want to focus on, or societal issues that consume your thoughts; riches, like making money and saving money and spending money and all the things that have to do with a career; pleasures, sinful ones or innocent ones like enjoying retirement, vacations, movies, food, drink, etc. How can God’s Spirit produce His fruit in your heart and life if His word is pushed to the backburner, if earthly things take over your heart, if they’re choking His word? This is another thing that happens when the word is sown. Watch out for it, every time the word is preached!

But there is another thing that happens when the word of God is sown: Some of it falls on good soil where it springs up and yields a crop a hundred times what was sown. These, Jesus says, are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. Now, there is nothing inherently noble or good about any human heart. As Jeremiah says, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? That applies to all of our hearts. But since the Holy Spirit is always working when His word is preached, to soften hearts and to open ears, that means He’s enabling you to hear, to listen with a noble and good heart, to ponder the word that’s preached, right here, right now. The seed is just as good, just as powerful wherever it falls. So if you’re choosing to focus on other things right now, if you’re choosing to let the seed sit at the surface of your heart without any effort to deepen your faith and understanding, if you’re choosing to make the word nothing more than your Sunday morning routine so that it doesn’t affect your thoughts and words and actions throughout the week, that’s not the seed’s fault. The seed is powerful to work in you, to change you, to give you a faith that can move mountains, to make you abound in works of love, to give you comfort, to make you joyful, to give you patience and strength to face whatever comes, to keep Christ crucified always before your eyes.

Some of the seed of God’s word always falls on good ground and produces much fruit. Pray to God that that may be the case with you, and not just today. We won’t hear this parable again for another year, so let its message stay with you, grow inside you, so that every Sunday and throughout the week you’re thinking about how you hear God’s Word, so that it may have its intended growth in you. Amen.

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Fear not! The Lord is the One who helps you!

Posted on January 31, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Septuagesima

Isaiah 41:1-13

We’ve been jumping around a little bit in our study of the last 27 chapters of the book of Isaiah. Certain chapters become especially relevant during certain seasons or festivals of the Church Year. The last time we met for Vespers was for the Baptism of Our Lord, when we heard the words of Isaiah 42, Behold, My Servant whom I uphold! This evening we backtrack just a little bit and take a look at the first half of the previous chapter, Isaiah 41.

Remember the setting. Isaiah is writing a hundred years before Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were taken captive to Babylon. He’s writing primarily to the future captives, and in the first nine chapters of this section, he’s prophesying their eventual deliverance from Babylon. He writes:

Listen to me in silence, O coastlands;
      let the peoples renew their strength;
                  let them approach, then let them speak;
      let us together draw near for judgment.

The Lord calls on the coastlands, the distant Gentile nations, to gather for judgment. They have defied the Lord, they have worshiped their manmade idols, and many of them have oppressed the people of Israel. So God calls them to together to rebuke them. He wants them to consider:

      Who stirred up one from the east
      whom victory meets at every step?
                  He gives up nations before him,
      so that he tramples kings underfoot;
                  he makes them like dust with his sword,
      like driven stubble with his bow.
                  He pursues them and passes on safely,
      by paths his feet have not trod.
                  Who has performed and done this,
      calling the generations from the beginning?
                  I, the LORD, the first,
      and with the last; I am he.

First, who is this “one from the east”? It’s a champion whom the Lord is sending to bring destruction on the Gentile nations and to bring deliverance to Israel. We’ll hear more about him in the coming chapters. Figuratively, it points ahead to the Christ, but it points directly to Cyrus the Great of Persia. Isaiah will even name him a few chapters later. From 605 BC until 586 BC, the Babylonians were carrying out raids against Jerusalem. In 586 King Nebuchadnezzar took the Jews captive and held them in Babylon. But in 539 BC, Cyrus the Great took his military campaign into Babylon, conquered the Babylonians, and eventually sent out an edict, together with Darius the Mede, that the people of Israel could return to their homeland. Here in these verses, God begins to reveal His plan to the captive Jews.

But the point of these verses is not just to introduce the champion Cyrus. It’s to serve as a witness to the Gentiles that the Lord God of Israel is the One who foretold Cyrus’ coming over a hundred years before Cyrus was even born, who raised him up, and who sent him against the Babylonians in order to rescue His chosen people of Israel. God had been working to manipulate the history of the world so that all the right actors were in all the right places to carry out His will. Yes, He brought the Babylonians against Israel for Israel’s infidelity. But He would also bring the conqueror of the Babylonians along at just the right time to deliver them.

      The coastlands have seen and are afraid;
      the ends of the earth tremble;
      they have drawn near and come.
                  Everyone helps his neighbor
      and says to his brother, “Be strong!”
                  The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith,
      and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil,
                  saying of the soldering, “It is good”;
      and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.
The nations whom Cyrus will conquer along the way are afraid as they hear of his approach. They’re wringing their hands. They’re trying to give pep talks to one another. They’re getting their idol images ready to protect them from his invasion, and they strengthen those idols with nails, as if that will help. But no one can stop the Lord from sending His champion to deliver His people. While the nations are cowering in fear, the people of Israel are comforted.

      But you, Israel, my servant,
      Jacob, whom I have chosen,
      the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
                  you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
      and called from its farthest corners,
                  saying to you, “You are my servant,
      I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
                  fear not, for I am with you;
      be not dismayed, for I am your God;
                  I will strengthen you, I will help you,
      I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

See how tenderly the Lord speaks to Israel! “Israel, my servant,” He calls them. We’ll see that phrase repeated several times in these chapters of Isaiah, and it’s important we identify which servant God is referring to. In the next chapter, the Servant of the Lord is narrowed down to one person, namely, the Christ, who is the perfect Israel, the Head of the body. But sometimes in Isaiah’s prophecy, as in these verses, it’s the people of Israel as a whole referred to as the Lord’s servant, the rest of the body of which Christ is the head.

He reminds them that, some 1500 years before their captivity in Babylon, He chose them. He called Abraham His friend. He multiplied and nurtured Israel. He trained them and taught them and delivered them time and time again, only handing them over for punishment when they stubbornly turned to other gods. Now is one of those times of deliverance. God is stretching out His right hand to help and deliver His people.

      Behold, all who are incensed against you
      shall be put to shame and confounded;
                  those who strive against you
      shall be as nothing and shall perish.
                  You shall seek those who contend with you,
      but you shall not find them;
                  those who war against you
      shall be as nothing at all.
                  For I, the LORD your God,
      hold your right hand;
                  it is I who say to you, “Fear not,
      I am the one who helps you.”

God graciously promises Israel that, although He had allowed the nations to come in and fight against them, now He will fight for them. He will sweep all their enemies out of the way like they’re nothing. They are to picture God holding out His right hand to take them by their right hand, “Fear not! I am the One who helps you!”

And that’s the Lord’s message to everyone who has been brought to repentance, to everyone who has fallen into despair. To Israel as they sat in captivity, finally realizing how foolish they were to rebel against their Helper, despairing of escape from their captivity, God held out His hand, through His Word, “Fear not! I am the One who helps you!” And He did! He sent His champion, Cyrus and delivered them. And then He sent the real Champion, the Christ, to battle against their enemies of sin, death, and the devil. And He delivered them. Fear not! I am the One who helps you!, Jesus said.

And now to His New Testament Israel, to His Christians throughout the world and to those who would become Christians, God says the same thing. Fear not! I am the One who helps you! When we come to see that we’ve ruined things for ourselves, that we have foolishly put God, our Helper, on the backburner, when the world stands against us, when we’ve lost all hope of saving ourselves, God reaches out His hand, Fear not! I am the One who helps you! So don’t despair! And don’t trust in idols! Don’t trust in yourself! Don’t trust in any human savior. Put your trust in God alone, and you, too, will be helped. Amen.

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A perspective focused on God’s grace

Posted on January 28, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Septuagesima

1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5  +  Matthew 20:1-16

You know that Jesus told many parables during His earthly ministry. Each one has a context. Each one has a purpose. The parable you heard today, the parable of the workers in the vineyard, is only recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. It’s recorded in the context of Jesus’ apostles having just pointed out to Him how much they had given up, how much they had sacrificed in order to follow Him. And they asked what they would receive in return. Jesus told them, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. In other words, you will receive great rewards when Christ comes again. But be careful how you think about those rewards, and all the things you did to obtain them! Be careful that you don’t begin to think of your service to God as a matter of earning wages from Him! In other words, be careful not to start thinking that God should give you what you deserve! Because many who are first will be last.

To illustrate that point, Jesus tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard.

The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a household who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. The vineyard is God’s Holy Christian Church. No one starts out in it. Ever since Adam and Eve fell into sin, we all begin life outside of God’s holy Church, outside of His family, outside of His salvation. All people begin life as sinners who don’t know God, don’t trust in God, and don’t obey God. We start out alienated from Him and separated from Him by our sins.

But one by one, God goes out into the “marketplace” of the world and calls people out of that idleness of sin and death, out of that state of condemnation. Through the ministers of His Church He calls people to repent and to believe in Christ crucified. He calls all people to the same vineyard, to the same family of God, to the same inheritance of eternal life. And He’s always serious about that call to repent and believe in Jesus. He wants all people to be called, and He wants all the called to come into His Holy Christin Church.

But the call goes out to people at different points in their lives, some at the beginning of the day, others a little later, others a little later, and some not until the eleventh hour, close to the end. Those who are called early, like the apostles, often have to sacrifice the most, bear the heat of the day, deal with a lifetime of denying themselves and bearing the cross for Jesus’ sake. Those who are called later in life may have to sacrifice relatively little. Think of the thief on the cross next to Jesus, who was promised Paradise after suffering practically nothing for Jesus’ sake.

What happens in the parable? Those who were hired first were promised one denarius at the end of the day. And they were content with that. Those who were hired later, throughout the day, were simply told they would receive what was right at the end. And the landowner, in His goodness, chose to give one denarius to those who worked only one hour, and the same to those who worked three hours and six hours and nine hours. So when those who had worked twelve hours came along, they thought they deserved to receive more and were sorely disappointed and even angry when they were each given one denarius, although it was exactly what they were promised at the beginning of the day.

And the landowner approached one of them in the midst of their grumbling, Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I give you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I want with what is mine? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?

You see, Jesus was warning His apostles here. Because they had a sinful flesh just like everyone’s sinful flesh that ultimately wants to make everything about me, what I deserve, what I’ve suffered, what I’ve given up. And we like to compare ourselves with others and point out where we’ve done more, given up more, sacrificed more, suffered more. And the devil whispers, “That means you deserve more from God!”

But, friends, that is not how God works—not when it comes to eternal life, not when it comes to the basis on which He hands out eternal life. Our sinful flesh spends all day staring in the mirror, so that we focus on ourselves. The Gospel of Christ says, turn away from yourself, you sinner, and look at God! Look at His mercy! His goodness! His generosity! Look at His sacrifice of His own beloved Son, on the cross, for you! And, you fool, stop demanding from God what you deserve! Because if He were to analyze your works and your heart according to the strictness of His holy Law, what you deserve—what all people deserve—is His wrath and punishment. But instead, God, in His grace, wishes to count to you what Christ deserves, and to overlook all your sins and failures and guilt. If you keep focusing on yourself, you will eventually put your faith in yourself, lose faith in God, and slip away from His grace. And, although you were one of the first to be called, you’ll end up last in God’s estimation.

You see, it’s a matter of perspective. But perspective matters! So, instead of viewing your place in God’s Church as a burden you must bear, instead of viewing your service to God and your obedience to His commandments as something for which He should pat you on the back, as something for which He should pay you back, view your place in God’s Church as the most wonderful, generous gift anyone could ever receive! View your place in God’s family, as a baptized believer in Christ, as a gift you could never possibly deserve, but which God in His goodness has been pleased to give you for free. View the good works, and the suffering, and the sacrifices you are called on to make for Christ’s sake as opportunities to live in freedom from sin, as time spent pursuing what is good and right and beautiful, and as opportunities to give thanks to God and to be made into the image of Christ, your Redeemer!

Then, if you’ve suffered more than others or sacrificed more than others during your time in Christ’s Church, you won’t see it as something you’ve lost, or as something God needs to compensate you for, but as something you’ve gained, as a blessing you’ve been given already this side of heaven! Because, which, really, is the greater blessing from God? To be like an apostle who spent years or decades living a hard life of service and sacrifice within the Church, or to be like the thief on the cross who led his whole life as an enemy of God, as a slave of sin, and only got to spend an hour of his earthly life as a child of God in Christ’s kingdom? They all received the same kingdom of heaven in the end, by God’s goodness and grace, through faith in Christ Jesus. But the ones who got to serve longer and harder within Christ’s kingdom actually had the greater benefit than the one who only got to spend an hour there before he died. Instead of expecting more from God for their longer time in His service, they should be praising and thanking God for showing them that kind of grace!

Have that perspective of your time and service in Christ’s kingdom, with your eyes fixed on God’s grace. Then, whether you were called early or late, first or last, you will still be counted among the first in the kingdom of heaven. May God grant it for Christ’s sake. Amen.

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In the face of death, a light shines

Posted on January 21, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Transfiguration of Our Lord

2 Peter 1:16-21  +  Matthew 17:1-9

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and St. Peter in his second Epistle all describe Jesus’ Transfiguration, this brief moment up on a mountain in Galilee where Jesus’ hidden glory was actually revealed to the eyes of Peter, James, and John. Not many events in Jesus’ life get that kind of coverage. Only the accounts of His death, His resurrection, and the institution of the Lord’s Supper are referenced that many times. It must have great meaning for the Church of Christ, if the Holy Spirit chose to dwell on it so often. It does have great meaning, because it served to prepare Jesus’ disciples for the thing they would soon have to face—for the thing we all have to face. It prepared them to face death, teaching them, and us, that, in the face of death, a light shines!

All three Gospels tie the Transfiguration to what happened about one week earlier. “After six days,” Matthew says. What happened six days earlier? Well, six days earlier Jesus had asked His twelve disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They gave Him all sorts of strange answers: John the Baptist returned from the dead! Elijah! Jeremiah! Or another Old Testament prophet! Jesus put the question to them: “Who do you say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” And Jesus said, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-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 then He began to explain to them that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. That was the very first time Jesus told His disciples plainly that He, their Lord and Christ, was going to die. And Peter said, No! No! That won’t happen to you! And Jesus said, “Get behind Me Satan!” And then He said the words that really help explain the purpose of the Transfiguration: If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. In other words, in order to follow Me, you, too, have to die. Willingly.

After six days, with those words still ringing in their ears, Peter, James, and John accompanied Jesus up the mountain. Those three were often the three disciples whom Jesus took along without the rest. Why those three? Maybe because Peter, who had objected so strongly to Jesus’ prediction of His death, needed to see that it would be okay. Maybe because James would be the first apostle to face death after Jesus’ resurrection. Maybe because John would have to face the next sixty years watching his fellow servants die, one after the other. In any case, I think it’s important that it wasn’t all twelve disciples. It didn’t need to be all twelve. Not everyone needs to see the Transfiguration of Jesus with their eyes in order to be helped by it. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every matter be established.”

And He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. Jesus’ disciples beheld His glory in many ways during His life—in His miracles, in His knowledge, in His teaching. This was the only time they got to see the glory of God with their eyes, the glory of God and the glory of eternal life. There, for a moment, they could see with their eyes what they had come to believe with hearts and confess with their mouths: that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Also glorious was the appearance of two Old Testament prophets, Moses and Elijah, Old Testament saints who had lived a hard life of service to God, who had been at times loved, but more often hated, not only by the world, but also by those who were supposed to be God’s people. Each of them had learned ahead of time what it meant to die to himself so that he might live for God and with God. Each of them was an example of those who had “lost” their earthly lives for God’s sake, only to find a life that’s even better. And this vision showed Jesus’ disciples that death had no power over them. Moses had died, but here he was alive and glorious. Elijah hadn’t died, but here he was, alive and glorious 800 years after being taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. The disciples—all disciples of Jesus—have this to look forward to on the other side of death.

What were Moses and Elijah doing there with Jesus on the mountain? Mark tells us they were talking with Jesus. Luke tells us what they were talking about. About His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Literally, about His “exodus,” the Greek word for departure, here referring to His own departure from this life. How fitting! Who better to talk with about your impending death than people who had already made an exodus from this life and had lived to tell about it? Now, Jesus knew very well that the deceased are not truly dead. But it would be good for Peter, James, and John to see with their eyes what they believed in their hearts. It would be good for them to hear someone besides Jesus talking about how He would soon suffer and die and live again in glorious light.

The glory and peace and safety of that life on the mountain were so compelling, so attractive to Peter that he wanted it to last forever. Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Mark tells us, Peter didn’t know what to say; all three disciples were so afraid. But you can relate to Peter, I think. We always want the peace and safety and comfort to last. It always seems good to us, and we’re thankful for the moments of peace and safety and comfort that God gives. But you’re not supposed to hold onto it yet. You’re not supposed to cling to it now. You’re supposed to give thanks to God for it while it lasts, and then be ready to let it go.

Before Peter could latch onto the vision too tightly, God the Father interrupted him. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!

This is the second time we’ve heard God the Father speak these words about Jesus. The first time was at His Baptism. That means nothing Jesus has said or done since His Baptism has been sinful. Nothing has been misguided or wrong. Including all His preaching against sin. Including His predictions of His own imminent suffering for the sins of mankind on the cross. Including His prediction of rising on the third day. Including the forgiveness of sins which Jesus has pronounced on everyone who believes in Him. Including His insistence that all who follow Him must also deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him, even to death.

Hear Him!, is the Father’s prescription for us. The Word of Christ is that light shining in a dark place, the light we all need to focus on in the face of death. We all have a lot of distractions in our lives. We all have things we’d like to hold onto, to keep at all costs, along with a sinful nature that will not die willingly. And we have a world around us that’s filled with the devil’s lies and the devil’s hatred of all good things. Hear Him!, the Father says. Hear Jesus! Don’t deny Him. Hear Him! Don’t ignore Him. Hear Him! Don’t live for yourself and for an earthly paradise. Hear Him! He is the beloved Son of God. In Him the Father is well pleased. And if you are found hearing Him now, if you are found in Him by faith at the end of your earthly life, then you, too, have the assurance that God the Father is well pleased with you, too.

After the vision of the Transfiguration was over, Jesus warned His three disciples not to reveal it to anyone until after He was raised from the dead. That means that this vision was meant to be told, meant to be celebrated. It’s a vision meant for the Church to ponder, and to use. We can only imagine how this vision, together with the rest of the Word of Christ, helped the countless Christians who faced torture and imprisonment and death in the coming years, as they were forced to choose between holding onto their earthly lives or holding onto Jesus.

Let this vision bring you comfort, too, and strengthen your resolve to bear the cross, to face death bravely, and to face life bravely, too. This is what awaits you, if you would follow Christ: Shame and death and then glory and life. But if you trust in Him then you have God’s favor covering you through it all. If you use it, this vision will help you to face death. But more importantly, it will help you to live as a cross-bearer, following in the steps of Christ crucified, until you reach the glory He has promised at the end of the road. Amen.

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