Everything went according to plan

Posted on March 31, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Easter Sunday

1 Corinthians 5:6-8  +  Mark 16:1-8

Every year, on Easter Sunday, we have two main tasks before us: to review the story (the true story!) of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, and to consider the significance of it—what it means for the world, and what it means for the Church, including what it means for you and me as individual members of the Holy Christian Church.

We begin with the familiar story. The women who had so faithfully followed Jesus around throughout His ministry, who had served Him and listened to Him and believed in Him, were there on Good Friday, too, when the disciples hurriedly wrapped up Jesus’ body and placed it in the newly carved-out tomb. They watched as the large stone was rolled into place to block the entrance. They rested in their homes on the Sabbath, even as Jesus’ body rested in the tomb. And then, after the sun set on Saturday, they went out and purchased more burial supplies.

At the soonest opportunity, before dawn on Sunday morning, they set out on their way, sad, confused, afraid, but committed to doing a better job of caring for Jesus’ corpse than the disciples had been able to do on Friday. Among their worries was the question, How will we move that large stone out of the way? As it turned out, they wouldn’t have to. An angel had come down from heaven and moved it for them, so that all could see that the body that once rested there was gone.

As we put the four Gospel accounts together, it appears that Mary Magdalene arrived before the other women. She saw the stone rolled out of the way, and assumed that someone had stolen Jesus’ body, so she immediately ran to find Peter and John. Meanwhile, the other women arrived and saw exactly what Mary had seen, except that they saw two angels there who told them, Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you. Luke adds something else that the angel said: Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.

The women were still afraid, we’re told, but they hurried away to seek out Jesus’ disciples.

Meanwhile, Peter and John arrived at the tomb. Mary Magdalene came back with them. Peter ran right inside, and found nothing except for the grave clothes neatly folded up and sitting where Jesus’ body had been. John looked inside, saw the empty tomb, and believed that Jesus’ had risen. Then those two left, while Mary lingered, weeping. She went into the tomb, and suddenly there were two angels there asking her why she was crying. They’ve taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him. Clearly she didn’t recognize them as angels. That’s when Jesus confronted her in the garden outside the tomb and asked her the same question: Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She thought He was the gardener. She gave him the same answer. And then, as she wept, she heard Him say her name. “Mary.” Then she recognized Him and was overjoyed. And Jesus told her to go back and tell His brothers the good news, which she did.

Then, as the other women were still making their way back to the city, Jesus appeared to them also and said, Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me. And the women went and did as Jesus had told them, with joy, and with great relief in their hearts. They had all assumed that things had gone so wrong, and they didn’t see any path forward. Now that they had seen Jesus alive and well, they finally began to understand: Everything had gone according to plan.

And that’s the significance of Jesus’ resurrection, or at least, the part we’re going to focus on today. Over the past three days we heard the prophet Isaiah unveil God’s plan before our eyes. No one in Israel understood it all before it happened, but after Jesus suffered and died and rose again, the plan becomes obvious.

No, His betrayal by Judas, His abandonment by the disciples, His arrest in the garden were not unexpected. It went according to plan.

No, the torture and condemnation Jesus received from Jews and Gentiles alike, the coordination of Pilate with Herod on Good Friday, were not mistakes. It went according to plan.

No, the form of Jesus’ death, being lifted up on a cross, having His hands and feet and side pierced, the soldiers casting lots for His clothing, His thirst, His prayers for His enemies, His death and burial were not accidents. It went according to plan.

The resurrection demonstrates that. God was not thwarted or defeated in Jesus’ suffering and death. His plan for the salvation of mankind was being accomplished through it. That’s why we celebrate the death of our God on Good Friday, because it was part of our God’s plan, part of His victory. And now Jesus’ disciples can look back and see the truth: Jesus was in control the whole time. That doesn’t in any way excuse any of the bad actors along the way. It just means that God is so great, so powerful, so wise that He was able to steer everything where it needed to go so that mankind could have a graphic picture of God’s commitment to mankind, and a valid sacrifice of atonement in which to take refuge, so that sinners could be saved.

For the world, this means that Jesus Christ is the King of the Jews, and the King of all, which means that all need to repent, urgently. And while Jesus died for everyone’s sins and wishes to reconcile all people to God through faith in His blood, if they remain enemies of Christ the King, the only Mediator between God and men, then they will remain enemies of God for eternity.

For the Church, including each of you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this means, you can either shout for joy, or, at least, breathe a sigh of relief. Because Jesus’ resurrection means that, no matter how great your sins have been, no matter how much you’ve suffered, no matter how difficult life in this world has become, for however out-of-control things seem to be, it’s going to be okay now. Christ is risen! That means that everything has gone according to plan, just as Jesus said it would. Everything is going according to plan. Everything will go according to plan—God’s good plan to gather His Church and to preserve those whom He has gathered, His dearly loved sons and daughters, whose Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, has already risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and is now preparing a place in glory for each one of His brothers and sisters, that we, too, may rise from the dead one day and join Him in the life that is truly life. Amen.

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You are part of your Savior’s victory

Posted on March 30, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for the Vigil of Easter

Isaiah 54:1-17

We can’t do justice tonight to the 54th chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy, which you heard earlier among the Old Testament readings. You’ve heard so much from the Holy Spirit this evening and this week, so many Scriptures so full of meaning. So I offer you this brief summary and encouragement from the prophet Isaiah for our Vigil of Easter.

The theme of Isaiah 52 was, Rejoice, O Church of God! Your Savior is coming! Isaiah 53: Behold! Here is your Savior, who will bear your sins, suffer and die for them, and rise again in victory. Isaiah 54: Rejoice, O Church of God! You are part of your Savior’s victory!

Now, what is the victory of your Savior? He made it all the way through His life, and especially through His sufferings, sinlessly. He died innocently, providing the atoning sacrifice for all mankind. He rose from the dead victoriously. But His victory goes on! As Isaiah had put it in chapter 53, He lives to justify many. Or as the Lord says at the end of chapter 54, This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me. The Christian’s righteousness before God doesn’t come from ourselves at all. It comes from the Lord Jesus. Christ’s victory over the grave enables Him to apply His perfect righteousness to all who believe, to clothe us with it as a garment, a garment we’ve all put on—or are about to put on!—in Holy Baptism.

And when He justifies people, when He forgives them their sins, the Lord doesn’t leave them out in the cold. He brings them into His Father’s family, into His Holy Christian Church, and cares for them there. I will build My Church, Jesus had told His disciples months before His death and resurrection. I will bring My sheep into this fold.

And so God comforts His Old Testament Church, Sing, O barren woman, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations.

You, dear Christians, are those descendants of barren Jerusalem. You are part of the vast expansion of God’s holy Church. The true Church of the Old Testament has given birth to the children of the New Testament. Look! Here you are, the children of desolate Jerusalem, listening patiently, with joy in your hearts, to the story of God’s works for the good of mankind! Look, here you are celebrating your Savior’s victory over sin, death, and the devil. Look! Here they are, two more who will be added to the number of baptized believers tonight. You are Christ’s victory! You are His prize! And you won’t be the last! Amen.

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The Servant’s suffering and triumph

Posted on March 29, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Good Friday

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Behold! My Servant! God says through the prophet Isaiah about the coming Christ. Nowhere do we behold the Lord’s servant like we do on Good Friday. Isaiah 53, and the final verses of chapter 52, unfold the events of Good Friday for us, both the “what” and the “why.” They talk about the suffering of the Christ, but their theme is His triumph over suffering and His exaltation after His humiliation. We begin with the last few verses of Isaiah 52.

Behold, My Servant shall prosper; He shall rise and be lifted up and be highly exalted. One could also translate that last word as “glorified.” “He shall rise and be lifted up and glorified.” Maybe that reminds you of what Jesus said about Himself just three days earlier on busy Tuesday: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified…But if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to Myself.” St. John tells us that this was a reference to the kind of death He would die, by being “lifted up” on a cross. So, you see, even this verse from Isaiah’s prophecy points, in a cryptic way, to the crucifixion of the Lord’s Servant. That understanding goes well with the next verse: Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.

Isaiah continues, So shall He sprinkle many nations. Moses, the Mediator of the Old Covenant, sprinkled the blood of the Old Testament on the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai. So the Christ will sprinkle the blood of His New Testament beyond Israel, on many nations. In other words, after shedding His own blood on the cross and providing atonement for sins, He will apply that atonement throughout the world through preaching, through the sprinkling of Holy Baptism, and through the meal of the New Testament which is His holy Supper.

But if He’s going to do that, He can’t remain dead, and we can see that here in Isaiah’s prophecy, too. My Servant shall prosper; He shall rise and be lifted up and be highly exalted. Those words can also point to Christ’s glory in His resurrection and exaltation following His death. It’s all there underneath Isaiah’s prophecy. And it’s there for you and me, so that we can see that this was God’s will all along, for His Son to suffer, die, and rise again, and then prosper in bringing people from every nation into the New Covenant in His blood.

Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; for what had not been told them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider. The word will go out of what He has done, and even kings will be amazed. They will be made speechless by this astonishing plan of salvation that no mind of man could have imagined. Many will believe!

But many will not believe, especially in Israel, as St. Paul explains the next words of Isaiah’s prophecy: Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? Even after all the prophecies fulfilled on Good Friday, even after the Lord’s resurrection, most in Israel would not believe. That unbelief is what led to Israel despising Christ in the first place. And that’s what we hear about in the next verses.

…He has no form or majesty; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Jesus never appeared regal, never looked like a king, much less like God Himself. But how much worse that became on Good Friday, after He had been abused and tortured. When Pilate brought Him out before the crowd in that purple robe, with the crown of thorns on His head and with all the blood and bruises from the blows He had received—truly He was despised.

Why? Was God really so angry with Him? Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Oh. That’s why He suffered. That’s why He died. Not because God was angry with Him. But because God was angry with us—with all sinners. We all have iniquities, we all have transgressions recorded in the books that will be opened at the Last Judgment. We have, every one of us, gone our own way, done things our way in this life. We all should have paid for those sins with our lives, with our eternal souls. But God’s anger against us for our sins was not as great as His love for us, not as great as His desire that we should be saved. So He caused His beloved Son to suffer the things we all should have suffered, to pay the price we couldn’t pay, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And the Son willingly obeyed.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. Jesus didn’t defend Himself before the Sanhedrin or before Pontius Pilate. Because His goal wasn’t to be released or to prove Himself right before men. His goal, all along, was to suffer and die for our sins.

By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. The death of the Christ is clearly prophesied here, and in the following words. And they made His grave with the wicked— but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. The innocent Christ had to die. And He had to be buried in the tomb of the rich Joseph of Arimathea. That small, small benefit had to be granted to Him, to be buried in an elegant, rich man’s tomb, because, although He was treated like a wicked man in His death, He was the only “unwicked” man who has ever lived.

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By knowledge of Him My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.

What an amazing sentence! It pleased the LORD to bruise Him—to bruise His own beloved Son, and to put Him to grief, because it pleased Him to save us from our sins. And, because Jesus was innocent, because Jesus suffered not for His own sins but for ours, His resurrection from the dead is clearly prophesied here, too, as well as the success He would have in bringing many to faith in Him, by which He would justify them, save them, and make them children of God.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

In the coming days, we’ll talk about that “portion with the great” that God the Father would bestow on His Son. For now, take comfort in the Son’s willingness to pour out His life unto death, so that you and I, who deserved death, might share in His life. Yes, stand in awe of the Lord Jesus Christ, for His willingness to be numbered with the transgressors, so that you and I, who are transgressors, might be numbered with the saints, through faith in His blood. Amen.

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Rejoice! Your Savior is coming!

Posted on March 28, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Maundy Thursday

Isaiah 52:1-12

After hearing the whole story of the events of Holy Thursday, what can we say? The Scriptures lay it all out so plainly, all that Christ did and all that He endured, from the upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane to the court of the high priest. Of course, all that was still leading up to Good Friday, when the Author of our salvation would finish the offering of Himself as the once-for-all sacrifice of atonement. We’ll spend just a few moments yet this evening applying the words of the prophet Isaiah to these events, selected verses from chapter 52, which has chapter 53 directly in view, the chapter for Good Friday. As Maundy Thursday leads into Good Friday, as Isaiah 52 leads into Isaiah 53, the message of Isaiah for Maundy Thursday rings out loud and clear: O Church of God, rejoice! Your Savior is coming!

Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! Isaiah isn’t talking to unbelieving Jerusalem now—the Jerusalem that was about to put Jesus to death, but to believing Jerusalem, the “holy city,” to the believers in God’s Church who were yearning for God’s deliverance from their captivity, not only from Babylon, but from sin, death, and the devil. To the captives longing for their salvation to appear, Isaiah writes, Put on strength and put on your beautiful garments, because, through the suffering of Christ that Isaiah was about to reveal in chapter 53, through the suffering of Christ that would take place between Maundy Thursday evening and Good Friday afternoon, your Savior is coming!

For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you. Never in history has this promise been fulfilled in a literal way for Jerusalem. Clearly it’s a spiritual promise, that, through the work of Christ, the suffering Servant described in chapter 53, God’s people would be protected, would be kept safe from the devil and his allies, even as Jesus protected His fickle disciples in the Garden and promises that He will give His sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

Shake yourself from the dust, arise and take your seat, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion! For thus says the LORD: “You have sold yourselves for nothing…

Sold yourselves for nothing—what did Adam and Eve get from eating from that forbidden tree and selling themselves and their children into the slavery of sin? Nothing. What did Israel get for trying to make alliances with Gentile nations and foreign gods? Nothing. What did Jesus’ disciples get for forsaking Him in the garden? What did Peter get for denying Him three times? What do any of us get for giving in to sin and temptation? Nothing.

But, by God’s grace, we also don’t have to pay anything toward our redemption. and you shall be redeemed without money. For thus says the Lord GOD: “What have I here,” says the LORD, “That My people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them make them wail,” says the LORD, “And My name is blasphemed continually every day. Therefore My people shall know My name; Therefore they shall know in that day that I am He who speaks: ‘Behold, it is I.’ ”

Redeemed without money, but not for free. Redeemed with the humble service of Christ Jesus, with His child-like obedience to His heavenly Father. Redeemed with the bloody sweat of the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Redeemed with the betrayal, abandonment, and denials He willingly suffered, with the blows He received in the high priest’s presence, with the condemnation that was pronounced upon Him by the traitorous leaders of the Church, along with the blood He shed on Good Friday. My people shall know My name, God says. And many in Israel did come to know it as they saw what the Lord Jesus willingly endured for them. We have come to know it, too, by watching (through the preaching of it) what Jesus did, said, and suffered on the night of Maundy Thursday, pointing ahead to the culmination of it all on Good Friday.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” … Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem! For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Isaiah is looking ahead to Maundy Thursday, and to Good Friday. And beyond! He foresees the Gospel going out, proclaiming the events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and, of course, also Easter Sunday. The going out of the good news is essential. Because Jesus didn’t actually save you when He suffered and when He died on the cross. That was the cause of your salvation, but not the timing of it. The timing of it is tied to the bringing of the good news to your ears, the good news of God’s promise to deliver you, through faith, from sin, death, and the devil, on account of the suffering and death of His Servant, the Christ. Your salvation is tied, not only to Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection, but also to hearing the good news, and to having water poured on you in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to eating and drinking the body and blood that were the price of your salvation in that Sacrament first instituted on Maundy Thursday evening.

Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch no unclean thing…For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight; for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

Depart! A command, a gracious invitation for the Church of God to leave behind its captivity, not only in Babylon, where Jerusalem was held captive for 70 years, but in the devil’s kingdom and in the grasp of sin and death. Because Christ, your Champion, is coming (from Isaiah’s perspective)! Has come, from ours. He went out into battle on that Thursday night, leading the way for His Church, defeating our enemies as He went. And then He became our rear guard also, making sure that we are kept safe from sin and from the devil all the way through this life, until, by faith in Him, we reach the heavenly Promised Land. Amen.

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The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified

Posted on March 26, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Holy Tuesday

Harmony of the Gospels for Holy Tuesday

Holy Tuesday is often referred to as “busy Tuesday,” and I think we can all appreciate why, after hearing the extended reading this evening. For the most part, “busy Tuesday” was a final opportunity for Jesus to accomplish a few different goals: to teach the people who were willing to listen, to expose the lies, hypocrisy, and unbelief of the Jewish leaders, and to give His own disciples—and future generations—the instructions they and we would need to make it, not just through Holy Week, but through the coming years, all the way up until His second coming.

First, let’s run through the list of Tuesday’s events: (1) Jesus defended His authority before the Jewish leaders. (2) He spoke three parables against them: The parable of the two sons sent into the vineyard, of the wicked vinedressers, and the great wedding banquet for the king’s son. (3) He was tested by the Herodians about paying taxes to Caesar, by the Sadducees concerning the resurrection, and by the Pharisees concerning the Great Commandment. (4) Jesus then questioned them about the Christ as both David’s Son and David’s Lord, which put an end to all their testing. (5) Jesus gave a fire-and-brimstone-type sermon against the scribes and Pharisees, “Woe to you, you hypocrites!” (6) He was shown a ray of hope in the widow’s humble faith as she dropped her two little coins into the treasury, and in the desire of the Greeks to come and see Him. (7) He instructed His disciples about the destruction of Jerusalem, the end times, and His return for judgment, and then told them the parables of the Ten Virgins and of the sheep and the goats. (8) Finally, He prophesied His arrest in two days, which would be followed by His suffering, death, and resurrection. (9) And then Judas went to the Jewish leaders and agreed to sell His Lord for thirty pieces of silver.

What shall we say about all this? What shall we focus on in the brief time we have left together this evening?

Let’s focus on Jesus’ statement, 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… Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die.

Since the very beginning of His ministry, Jesus had been telling His disciples that His hour had not yet come. Several times people had tried to kill Jesus, even in His hometown of Nazareth. But no one could touch Him, because His hour had not yet come. Several times people had wanted Jesus to reveal Himself to the world as the Messiah, to draw all people to Himself. But He couldn’t. He wouldn’t, because His hour had not yet come. Finally now, on busy Tuesday of Holy Week, Jesus knows that His hour has come, that it’s only two days away until the devil, the “ruler of this world,” will manipulate the minds of the men who belong to the unbelieving world to have Jesus seized and put on trial, that it’s only three days away until He is “lifted up from the earth.”

Will He shrink back from it? Of course not! This is why the Father sent Him. This is what He “signed up for.” And while He does not look forward to dying (as we see most acutely in His prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane), He is able to see what His death will accomplish. It will “produce much grain.” It will make it possible for sinful men—for you and me—to be accepted by a holy God, who designed this sacrifice of atonement to be the sufficient payment for the sins of the world. The preaching of His death will change the hearts of millions as we are shown the extent to which God was willing to go to save us from the ruler of this world, by handing His beloved Son, His obedient Son, His innocent Son over to the devil and His allies among men, so that they might do to Him whatever they wanted.

And by giving His life into death for our sins, the Lord Jesus would cast out the devil, the ruler of the world. The strong man would be bound by the Stronger Man. The devil’s ability to accuse believers would be nullified. His ability to drag us to hell would be removed. And one day the devil himself will be taken completely out of the picture because of the victory of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus sees what will happen when He is lifted up from the earth onto a cross. He sees the countless numbers of men from all over the world who will be drawn to Him, drawn to know God through His sacrifice and to trust in Him as their Savior and King. It’s what kept Him going through that Holy Week, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.

And you are part of that, part of the reason why Jesus allowed Himself to be lifted up on the cross, part of the joy that sustained Him through the agony and the pain, part of the purpose of all His busy-ness on busy Tuesday, that you might know everything you need to know and believe everything you need to believe in order to be saved. Take that knowledge, take that faith and let it determine how you live from now on, that the life you live in the body you no longer live for yourself, but for Him who loved you and gave Himself for you. Amen.

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