The events of Holy Monday

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Holy Monday

Harmony of the Events of Holy Week for Monday

Not much is recorded in Scripture for the Monday of Holy Week. Just two events: The cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple. These are the things the Holy Spirit has revealed to us about the Lord Jesus four days before His crucifixion. Let’s consider them both.

As Jesus was making His way toward Jerusalem on that Monday morning, He noticed a fig tree. And He went up to it to inspect it, to see if it had fruit. It had leaves, but no figs at all. So He cursed it. Not the kind of curse where you use foul language, but the kind of curse where you express a wish for harm to come upon someone, or, in this case, something. May no one eat fruit from you ever again! And, as we heard in our reading this evening, by the next morning, that fig tree had withered and died.

Peter was amazed that the tree could wither like that so quickly. And we wonder how he could possibly be amazed after Jesus had calmed the storms and walked on the water and changed water into wine. Maybe his amazement had something to do with the fact that he had never seen Jesus destroy anything before. Every other miracle Jesus had done was to help people. This is the first and only time in His life, as far as we know, that Jesus wished harm upon anything. So we have to ask, why? It seems like such an unimportant thing, to find a fig tree without fruit, especially when it wasn’t even the season for figs.

To understand this event, we have to look back to a parable Jesus had told earlier in His ministry: He spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, good. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ”

The fig tree in the parable represents the people of Israel. God had given them time to produce fruit in keeping with repentance, as John the Baptist had begun calling on them to do some four years before Holy Week. For three years, although God certainly found some within the nation who repented, He found no repentance in the nation as a whole. The vast majority worshiped Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. Jesus is like the keeper of the vineyard who pleaded for a time of grace, for one more year before God should cut the nation down. And He worked tirelessly to turn people’s hearts to God. But now, as of Holy Week, that year had come to an end. And still the nation of Israel, as a whole, stood in rebellion against God. They had produced no fruit. They were about to put God’s own Son to death, and Jesus knew it. And so, as Jesus speaks a curse upon the fig tree, He is essentially indicating that the time of grace for Israel has ended. During Old Testament times, Israel often fell away and then repented and returned to the Lord. That pattern had repeated many times. Not anymore. From then on, Israel, as a nation, as a people, would never come to repentance. They would never be allowed to produce fruit again.

That curse didn’t prevent individual Jews from coming to repentance and faith in Jesus as the Christ, as we see from the Day of Pentecost onward. Some did, and some still do today! But never again would the whole nation return to the Lord. Never again would God consider Israel to be His “chosen people.” Israel would be expelled from God’s Holy Church.

This event is a stern reminder that, while God’s patience is long, it is not unlimited. The same Jesus whom we know to be the Savior of the world, whose chief purpose in coming into the world was not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him—that same Jesus will also be the Judge of mankind. The same Jesus who allowed unbelievers to torture and kill Him will one day sentence those who remain unbelieving to eternal torture and death. If you would know Jesus rightly, then you must know Him both as Savior and as Judge. But know also that His fervent desire is to save men, not to judge them. So don’t despise this time of grace that you’ve been given to turn from sin and to find full and free forgiveness and salvation in the Lord Jesus!

After cursing the fig tree, Jesus and His disciples made their way to the temple in Jerusalem, where we’re told that Jesus taught daily. But before He could do that teaching, He had to take care of something first.

The temple area was littered with tables and chairs and people using them to buy and sell and change money. But that was never God’s purpose for the temple. This was to be the one place on earth where people could come to find God, to pray and to know that their prayers would be heard favorably, to hear the Word of God, as Jesus was able to hear it in the temple when He was twelve years old. This is where God commanded sacrifices to be offered, and where mankind could find atonement for sins and forgiveness through that atonement. It was supposed to symbolize Christ Himself, in whom alone God is pleased and through whom alone people can find a reconciled God. It was to be a house of prayer for all nations. But they had made it into a noisy den of thieves.

So Jesus, the Temple’s true Owner, used His authority to cleanse it. Zeal for God’s house consumed Him. Zeal for God’s honor, and even more, zeal for God’s people consumed Him. God’s people needed this temple, needed this place of prayer, and sacrifice, and the preaching of the Word of God. So, for their sake, Jesus cleansed the temple of all the distractions, even as He had done on another occasion, at His first Passover after beginning His ministry. That’s when He had made that cryptic statement to the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it,” referring to the temple of His body. In fact, that was the very charge that the false witnesses brought up at Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin (although they misquoted Him even then), and it may well be that this cleansing of the temple caused them to remember what He had said when He cleansed it the first time a few years earlier.

Yes, in these early days of Holy Week, we find Jesus putting on full display God’s anger against the unbelieving Jews—which is what makes it all the more striking that, on Good Friday, not a drop of that anger would be poured out on the wicked. Instead, it would all be poured out on the innocent Son of God, which is the ultimate testimony that God does not desire the death of the wicked, but has given the wicked every possible opportunity to turn from their wickedness and be saved.

That’s why Jesus kept teaching daily in the Temple during Holy Week. And notice, it was not without effect. The people hung on Jesus’ words, and the children sang to Him the very praises they had heard the day before, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Because it’s only by the word of Christ that sinners, both Jews and Gentiles, both children and adults, will be brought to repentance and faith, will be cleansed and made into pure temples of God the Holy Spirit, and will be enabled to produce the fruits of faith that God seeks from all the fig trees in His Holy Christian Church. Amen.

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The events of Palm Sunday (and the day before)

Posted on March 24, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Palm Sunday

Philippians 2:5-11  + Harmony of the Gospels for Palm Sunday

And so it begins, our annual walk with Jesus through this Holy Week. We don’t pretend that the events are happening all over again. Jesus didn’t ride in on a donkey today, nor will He be crucified again on Good Friday, nor will His body return to the tomb for the great Sabbath rest. So there’s no need for us to be overly somber or mournful this week. Holy Week isn’t for reenacting these events from Jesus’ life. It’s for remembering—or, if necessary, learning for the first time—what that special week was all about, the lessons Jesus taught, the things Jesus suffered, and the reason why He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. As Martin Luther wrote in his order for the German Mass, “Lent, Palm Sunday, and Holy Week shall be retained, not to force anyone to fast, but to preserve the Passion history and the Gospels appointed for that season…Holy Week shall be like any other week save that the Passion history be explained every day for an hour throughout the week or on as many days as may be desirable, and that the sacrament be given to everyone who desires it. For among Christians the whole service should center in the Word and sacrament.” And so it shall.

Just about everything that took place during that first Holy Week took everyone by surprise, except for Mary, the sister of Martha and of Lazarus. Mary knew, at least in a general way, how that week would end. That’s why she poured out all that expensive oil on Jesus’ head and feet, to anoint Him for His burial, which would take place within a week’s time.

Mary knew. And, of course, Jesus knew. He knew everything, even where His disciples would find a pair of donkeys tied up, a mother and her colt. And still, knowing how the week would end, He sent for the donkeys. And He got up on that young colt on which no one had ever sat. It had been reserved in God’s master design for this sacred use by the Son of God. Not that He needed it to get to Jerusalem. He had always walked to the city before. No, He needed it to send the intended message—a message which even His own disciples didn’t fully understand until after the fact. It was the message God had sent to Israel hundreds of years ahead of time, through the prophet Zechariah: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The message was that Jesus was the promised Christ, that He was the true, eternal King of the Jews, that He had come to bring salvation to His people, and that He had come to do it first in a spiritual way, not as a glorious champion, but as a humble one, not as a commander of armies riding in on a horse, but as the Commander of angel hosts riding in on a donkey, not as a king sitting on a throne, but as a King hanging from a cross. He would bring salvation to His people, not by seizing power, but by allowing Himself to be seized. He would bring salvation, not by punishing the guilty, but by bearing the guilt of all men, not by ushering in an age of justice among men, but by suffering the most terrible injustice at the hands of men. The One who occupied the highest place of power and glory, together with God the Father, would humble Himself down to the lowest place of shame, disgrace, and death.

And yet, for all His humility, He welcomed the praises of the people that day. They weren’t the empty praises of flatterers. They were the genuine praises of people who knew they needed saving somehow, and who believed that Jesus was coming to save them somehow, although they didn’t know what kind of saving they actually needed or how Jesus would accomplish their salvation. They didn’t realize that the devil was their greatest enemy—a far greater enemy than poverty or than social injustice or than political oppressors—the one who had approached the first human beings in a garden and overcame them by convincing them to rebel against God by eating from a forbidden tree, whence death arose. They didn’t grasp how big God’s plans were, that He had ordained the salvation of mankind to come from another tree, from the tree (or the wood) of the cross (listen for a reference to this later on in the Proper Preface before Communion), so that people might “eat” from that tree and live forever. How? By believing in the crucified Christ, who was delivered up to death for our sins and raised again to life for our justification, that we might be justified by faith in the One who willingly made His way to the cross for us, through all the opposition that He faced during Holy Week, through all the suffering He endured from the Garden of Gethsemane up to the great “It is finished!”

The people of Jerusalem couldn’t fathom all that Jesus, their true Passover Lamb, would endure on their behalf during that Holy Week. And yet they still went out to meet Him and sang His praises with joy in their hearts. God the Father had ordained that Jesus must receive this well-deserved praise as the One who comes in the name of the Lord. Yes, the Father insisted on it, so much so that, if the people had remained silent, then the stones themselves would have had to cry out in praise of Jesus, the King of the Jews, as Jesus told the angry Pharisees.

But the joy wouldn’t last, at least, not for most of Jerusalem. Jesus foresaw that and wept for the city, for the people whom God the Father had invited ahead of time to His Son’s banquet of salvation. He wasn’t weeping for what the Jews would do to Him on Good Friday. Yes, their behavior would be wicked and appalling, but they could have been forgiven for that. Jesus was about to give His life to make atonement for all the wickedness of men, even the wickedness of crucifying the Son of God. But there is no forgiveness, only condemnation, both temporal and eternal, for those who refuse to repent of their wickedness, who go on living in it, who are proud of their sins, or who try to make up for them in some other way than by trusting in Jesus Christ, whose blood alone can reconcile sinners to God.

But you are here today as those who have repented of your wickedness, who do repent of it, and who recognize the Lord Jesus as your King and your Savior. You know that He came to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to spend the week there fighting for you, suffering for you, and teaching you the things you need to know for your salvation. So may the Lord bless our meditations this week as we hear large portions of His inspired Word. May God bless our learning and our remembering, and may He grant us the spirit to hear and to listen, to thank and to praise, to love and to appreciate Jesus, our Savior and King, and to rejoice in Him and in the peace of His kingdom. Amen.

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The gift of being able to say, I am the LORD’s.

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Lent 5

Isaiah 44:1-20

Before we walk briefly through the first 20 verses of Isaiah 44, I want to explain now something that I won’t have time to explain next week, with the long readings we’ll be hearing.

As we’ve discussed before, the last 27 chapters of Isaiah (chapters 40-66) form a literary unit which is neatly divided into three 9-chapter units, which, in turn, are each neatly divided into three 3-chapter units. As it turns out, Isaiah 52, 53, and 54 form such a unit, with Isaiah 53 being the central chapter, not only of that unit, but of the last 27 chapters. In Hebrew literature, and especially in Hebrew poetry, there’s a technique called “centering,” where the main idea of a section is placed right in the center, right in the middle. When I say, “Isaiah 53,” I hope that you immediately think of Good Friday, because that’s always the Old Testament reading for Good Friday, as it describes so accurately Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection. So next week, since we’re focusing on Isaiah during this whole Church Year, we’ll hear Isaiah 52 on Maundy Thursday, Isaiah 53 on Good Friday, and Isaiah 54 at the Easter Vigil, and we’ll spend a little time unpacking each chapter on those days.

For now, we turn back to the 20 verses before us from Isaiah 44. 20 verses is a lot, but most of this section doesn’t require much commentary. Most of it is simply God’s justifiable mockery of those who worship idols.

Before we get to that part, though, God has some very encouraging words for Israel—words which apply directly to you and me.

“Yet hear me now, O Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus says the LORD who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

God calls His people by three different names here: Jacob, Israel, and Jeshurun. That third name, Jeshurun, is only used a few times in the Old Testament, mostly in the book of Deuteronomy. It means “Upright One.” It was a name that was sometimes applied to Israel in a sarcastic way. They were meant to be upright among the nations. But very often they weren’t. Here it’s used sincerely as God is talking to the invisible Church, to the true believers in Israel. He also calls them “My servant,” and He says to them, “I have made, I have formed you from the womb, I have chosen you.” And to all that He adds the comforting command, “Fear not!” And to that He adds the promise, “I will help you.” What a beautiful way for God to talk to His children, to His chosen ones, to His elect.

How will He help His children?

For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground;

God has been using this analogy in Isaiah for a while about putting water in dry places. Here He explains what that picture is referring to:

I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring; they will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses.’ One will say, ‘I am the LORD’s’; Another will call himself by the name of Jacob; Another will write with his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ And name himself by the name of Israel.

Pouring water on the thirsty one is a promise to pour out His Holy Spirit, with His all His blessings on the descendants of Israel. But these aren’t necessarily physical descendants of Israel, because many of them end up renaming themselves after Jacob or Israel, and they do that because they come to trust in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. So this is a promise to the believers in Old Testament Israel, to the Church of God at that time, that God would expand His Church, that it wouldn’t be a nation defined any longer by a national flag or a piece of land or a specific strain of DNA, but by true faith in the LORD God—faith worked by His Holy Spirit. It’s a promise fulfilled in large part on the Day of Pentecost, and in the following years when the Gospel went out and bore fruit in the world. It’s a promise that has come to include you and me, as we happily and readily say about ourselves as Christians, “I am the LORD’s. I belong to the LORD, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I am part of the true people of Israel, because the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, has persuaded me that Jesus is the Christ, my Savior and King.”

“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God. And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me, Since I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come, Let them show these to them. Do not fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.’ ”

The LORD God is the King and Redeemer of His Church. There is no other. He says here what Jesus says of Himself in the Book of Revelation: I am the First and the Last. There is no other God, no other Judge, no other Determiner of history, no other Savior, no other Rock in whom we can take refuge, no other King. Which is why it’s so foolish to pretend that there are other gods who deserve our worship, our praise, our prayers, our obedience, our affection, or our love. .

But that’s exactly what the idolaters do—they pretend, they play make-believe. And so God lays into them in the rest of the verses of our text that are just dripping with mockery. It’s absolute stupidity to do what idolaters do. Taking a chunk of wood, using half of it to make a fire, bake bread, and keep himself warm, while taking the other half and crafting it into the shape of something or someone, ascribing a name to it, and then bowing down to it, praying to it, and expecting help from it. And they’re so given over in their minds to this foolishness that they don’t even see the problem with it!

There are still some people who bow down to a piece of carved wood—or stone or marble or clay, or to animals or to inanimate objects in the natural world. But the truth is, that’s not the only form of idolatry that’s ridiculous and worthy of being mocked by God. Is it really any less foolish to idolize science, or scientists, or mother nature, or space aliens? What about actors and celebrities and TV personalities? Or philosophers, theologians, or church fathers? Founding fathers, politicians, political parties, the American flag? Money, family, your own heart?

No, it’s foolish and ridiculous to worship any of these things, to serve them or to set your heart on them. Set your heart on the LORD God of Israel, who has given His Son into death for your sins. Set your heart on the LORD God of Israel, who has given You His word and His Spirit, who has brought you to faith in Christ Jesus, and who makes you able to say, “I am the LORD’s. I am His servant. He is my God and my Help, by King and my Rock. And there is no other.” Amen.

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The claims that required vindication

Posted on March 17, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Judica – Lent 5

Hebrews 9:11-15  +  John 8:46-59

Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation! That was the opening verse of today’s Introit, from Psalm 43. Vindicate me, O God! That’s the cry of a righteous man who has been unjustly accused of unrighteousness, of a truthful man who has wrongly been called a liar, of an innocent man who has been unjustly accused and judged and condemned as a criminal. It’s a plea to God, who sees the truth, to stand up for the one who is being falsely accused, to rescue him, to make him victorious over his accusers. Men may get it wrong. They may treat the just man unjustly. But in the end, God will sort it all out and see to it that the righteous are vindicated and that the unrighteous are condemned.

Now, if Christians who have been falsely accused can pray this Psalm—and we can!—how much more the Son of God when He is falsely accused! And that’s exactly what we see happening in today’s Gospel. This Gospel is a fitting preparation for Holy Week as Jesus’ bitter enemies, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, spoke to Him with utter hatred and contempt, falsely accusing Him of all sorts of things. Next week, we’ll watch Jesus being falsely accused before the Jewish Council and before Pontius Pilate on Good Friday, and we’ll marvel at His silence. But in today’s Gospel, which takes place several months before Holy Week, Jesus does not remain silent at all. In fact, He doubles down and makes even bolder claims before the unbelieving Jews—claims that would, eventually, get Him killed, claims that would, eventually, require vindication from God.

“Which one of you convicts me of sin? And if I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me?

The Pharisees and other unbelieving Jewish leaders had been scolding Jesus on this day for His teaching. They had been boasting about their lineage from Abraham. “How dare you claim that you are some kind of savior, that we need you, that you were sent from God? We’re Abraham’s children. We’re the chosen people of God, Jesus! You’re a nobody!” And yet not one of them could prove anything Jesus said to be untrue. No one could point to any sin He had committed. Everything He did proved that He was telling the truth, and yet they still refused to believe Him. Here He tells them why that’s the case: He who is from God hears God’s words. This is why you do not hear, because you are not from God.

In other words, God’s children listen to God’s Word. The fact that people refuse to listen to Jesus, refuse to believe in Him, proves that they are not God’s children. That’s an accusation from Jesus, and how much of our society, of our world, would be on the receiving end of such an accusation! “You won’t listen to God’s Word. You insist on making up your own truth, your own right and wrong, your own doctrines and beliefs, your own way of salvation. You who do this—you are not God’s children.” That’s the accusation Jesus made against the unbelieving Jews. It’s the same accusation He continues to make against the unbelievers of the world. And people today mostly react the same way the Jews did to that accusation:

The Jews answered and said to him, “Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and that you have a demon?”

They mocked Jesus as a Samaritan, a half-breed, an outsider, a worshiper of a false god, and even possessed by the devil. The world does the same thing today. They hold up their own false version of God—sometimes, even their own version of Jesus!—as the true God and label Bible-believing Christians as the mean ones, as the intolerant ones, as the ones on the wrong side of history.

Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it and who judges.”

Notice, Jesus doesn’t launch into a grand defense of His words or His ministry. He doesn’t dabble in philosophy or apologetics. He simply denies having a demon, and claims that He is honoring His Father. He even claims that God seeks honor for Him, for Jesus, and He threatens the unbelieving Jews, that God will judge the one who does not honor Jesus. Then He adds an astounding promise:

Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.

Death comes for us all. Everyone knows that. Imagine hearing someone claim that their words were the key to avoiding death. Now, what does it mean to keep Jesus’ word? It means, first, to believe He is telling the truth about God, about Himself, about us, about right and wrong, and about the way of salvation from death, which is through faith in Him as the Conqueror of death, sent by God to save sinful human beings who are otherwise destined to die, and to suffer death forever. But it means more than believing it to be true. Keeping His word also means actually acknowledging and repenting of our sins, trusting in Him for the forgiveness of sins, and seeking to put His word into practice in how we think and speak and behave in this world. Those who keep His word will never see death, will never taste death. That’s not a promise that our bodies won’t give out. It’s a promise that, when they do, our souls will not experience even a moment of hell or of separation from God, but will go on living with the life that we have in Him even now, and that, one day, our bodies will be raised and perfected and joined back together with our souls.

But all that was too much for the Jewish leaders. Then the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets. And you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?”

They just can’t believe. They can’t believe anyone would be so bold, to claim that He can keep people from dying. That’s even crazier than claiming that God created the universe in six natural day—which those Jews likely believed. But to them, Jesus’ words couldn’t possibly be true, because if they were, that would mean that He was greater than Abraham, greater than the prophets. It fact, it would mean that Jesus was truly sent by God, was the Lord of life and the Ruler over death. And they were not going to accept that.

Jesus answered, “If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God.

The Father had been honoring Jesus throughout His ministry, in every miracle Jesus performed, in every perfect outcome of everything Jesus said and did. That’s why we really need to take note during Holy Week next week, because during that Holy Week, some 2,000 years ago, for about three days, the Father would not publicly honor Jesus. Instead, He would allow Him to be utterly dishonored by men. Why? And would the Christ ever be vindicated? That will be our focus next week.

For now, Jesus just keeps doubling down on His claims. You do not know him; but I know him. If I were to say, ‘I do not know him,’ I would be a liar, like you. But I do know him and keep his word.” Not only does Jesus call His detractors, “liars” for claiming to know God when, in fact, they didn’t know Him, but He adds another claim, almost as a taunt. Your father Abraham was glad that he would see my day, and he saw it and rejoiced. Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old! And you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

You know, there are many, many so-called Christians today who claim that Abraham never believed in Jesus, and, therefore, modern Jews will also be saved without believing in Jesus. But in this text Jesus proves them all to be liars. Abraham did believe in Jesus. He saw Jesus from afar and put his faith in Him and rejoiced in Him, the distant Seed of Abraham who would come and be a blessing to all nations. In fact, when Abraham encountered the LORD God, even back in Abraham’s day, the truth is, he encountered the person of Jesus, though not the Man Jesus, because, unlike the rest of us, Jesus existed before He was born. In fact, He existed before the universe was born, from the beginning, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Jesus is. Or as He puts it, “I AM.”

This is the One whom you worship, dear Christians. The LORD, the great I AM, the Seed of Abraham, the Son of God and the Son of Man. This is the One who confronted the unbelievers in Israel, who spoke the truth to them but was called a liar, who was righteous but who was branded as unrighteous, who was innocent, and yet who was, eventually, put to death. They couldn’t do it on that day, because, as John says, His hour had not yet come. But it would, and we’ll spend next week hearing about it in detail. The accusers and enemies and murderers of Christ would have their day. And Jesus cries out through the Psalmist, Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation! For a few days, it would appear that the Father didn’t hear Jesus’ plea. But all that would change on the third day, when Christ’s vindication would come.

You, too, will be vindicated, eventually, against all the false accusations people make against you, against all the mistreatment of the world, against all the apparent victories of the devil, who has been pummeling and pummeling the true Christian Church on earth for a long time now. When you suffer unjustly, when you’re unjustly accused, when the world condemns you, when the devil comes for you, when death itself comes for you, don’t lose heart. Say, Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation, against unjust persecution, against sin, death, and the power of the devil. And you’ll see. God will vindicate you, just as He vindicated His perfectly innocent Son, to whom you belong, because, unlike the unbelievers in our Gospel, you are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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The Giver of earthly and heavenly bread

Posted on March 10, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

No video is available for today’s service due to technical difficulties. Audio of the sermon (as preached in Silver City) is available here:

Sermon for Laetare – Lent 4

Galatians 4:21-31  +  John 6:1-15

At the beginning of this Lenten season, we saw how Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness at the beginning of His ministry, deprived of bread by His heavenly Father. You remember what the devil came and suggested at the end of those 40 days? If You are the Son of God, then turn these stones into bread. Jesus didn’t do it, of course. Could He have done it? Well, we see in our Gospel today that He certainly had the power to do it. But He chose not to do it, because even if, on some level, He, as a man, had wanted to provide bread for Himself, He knew that His Father didn’t want that, and Jesus wanted, above all else, to do His Father’s will.

As we see in today’s Gospel, Jesus had the power and the willingness to provide bread for more than 5,000 people at once. But He wanted to provide them with a different kind of bread, too, not just once, but continually and forever. Unfortunately, that’s not what most of the people that day wanted. Do you?

All four Evangelists record the feeding of the five thousand. But John records a few details that the others omit, so we should take special note of those. One of those details is that this miracle took place near the time of the Passover, when the people’s thoughts should have been turning toward God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt through the blood of the Passover Lamb. This would be, not Jesus’ final Passover, but His second-to-last one. His popularity had been growing and growing for the first two years of His ministry, but this event would actually mark the beginning of a year of declining support and growing opposition, and we see the main reason why at the end of today’s Gospel.

At the beginning, all was well. The crowds had followed Jesus around the Sea of Galilee and had spent the day with Him, hearing Him teach and having their sicknesses healed. Toward the end of the day, Jesus decided to provide a meal for them, not only as a kindness, but also as another teaching opportunity. He started that teaching with His own disciples, testing them to see if what they had seen and learned from Him over the last two years would provide a good answer to the question, Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?

Now poor Philip had seen Jesus do all sorts of miracles over the past two years. He was one of those first disciples who was there to see Jesus’ first miracle of changing water into wine. But in the moment, when all he sees are thousands of hungry people, he forgets Jesus’ power to help. He thinks only of what man can do. How can we come up with enough money to buy bread for so many? It’s impossible.

Andrew didn’t do much better. He, too, was one of those very first disciples who accompanied Jesus to the wedding at Cana. But all he could focus on was what man can do. What are five loaves of bread and two small fish among so many? Still, a question is better than an outright denial, because it left it up to Jesus to answer the question.

He would empower the disciples to do what they thought they couldn’t do. He would have them provide food for the people, after He provided it first to them. They had the people sit down, as He told them to. They brought the five loaves and two fish to Jesus. Jesus blessed them and broke them, and miraculously multiplied them, but then He gave them to the disciples to distribute them to the crowds, as much as anyone wanted.

Jesus’ divine power is obvious. So is His compassion for the crowds that day and for all who trust in Him. There are also some obvious connections made in the text. The way John puts it, Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were sitting down, sounds very much like another meal Jesus would be instituting in one year’s time. A meal of bread and wine where Jesus would take bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And from then on, He would not personally distribute His body, but His disciples would stand in for Him, just as they did here with the bread and the fish. He’s the one providing His body with the bread and His blood with the wine. But He has His ministers handing it out to the communicants.

So the bread makes us think of the bread of Holy Communion, and the combination here of eating bread together with the flesh of the fish is another picture of how Jesus gives His flesh together with the bread. That’s true in a special, sacramental way in Holy Communion. But it’s also true in a spiritual way when we “eat the flesh” and “drink the blood” of Jesus by believing in Him, as He says later in John 6, Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. He’s not talking about Holy Communion there. He’s talking about receiving Him by faith and about the life-giving benefit of believing in Him. And the contrast is striking. Adam and Eve physically ate the flesh of a fruit and brought death on themselves. But Jesus offers Himself to us to eat in a spiritual way as the true Tree of Life who feeds us for eternal life.

That’s the real gift Jesus wanted to provide to the 5,000. He showed them that He had the power to provide earthly bread, just as God had done for Israel through Moses in the Old Testament, so that they would recognize Him as their God and Savior, the true Bread that had come down from heaven to give life to all who seek it from Him, to save them from sin, death, and the devil, and to earn for them the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

But that isn’t what they wanted.

After the crowds filled their bellies, we’re told that they recognized Jesus as the Prophet who was to come into the world, as the promised Christ. But they didn’t worship Christ as their God. They didn’t bow down before Him in humility or in repentance. They didn’t ask Him what He wanted for them or from them. What did they do?

Again, John is the only Evangelist to reveal the motives of the people that day. He tells us that Jesus knew that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, so he departed again to the mountain by himself, alone. Those people wanted a Christ for this earth, a Christ who would lead them in battle against their political enemies, who would make Israel into a glorious earthly kingdom, who would give them peace and prosperity and safety in this world. And they were ready to force Him to do it—as if they could.

The arrogance of it, the folly of it, is astounding! But not uncommon. Many people who seek God seek Him as if He were a vending machine that existed for the sole purpose of giving them what they want, when they want it. They’re interested in how He can make life better for them here on earth. They aren’t interested in His will, or in His Word, or in His honor. We all have to be careful not to view God that way, but to seek His will, in His Word, for His honor.

And what is God’s will for you? What does He want for you? He wants to provide you with daily bread (though usually not in a miraculous way), to provide you with all you need to sustain this body and life. But He wants to do much more than that. He wants to bring you to repentance for your sins and to faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for the forgiveness of sins. He wants to lead you safely through this earthly life into a better life after this life. He doesn’t want to give you Paradise here on earth, or immediate deliverance from all sorrow or suffering. If that’s what you seek from Him—earthly pleasures and earthly fulfillment—then you’ll be disappointed in the end, as most of the 5,000 were, who began to turn away from Jesus shortly after He fed their bodies, because He began to make it very clear that He had come to be their Savior from sin and their King whose kingdom is not of this world, when all they really wanted was a vending machine.

But you, you who call Jesus your King for the right reasons, with the right expectations, you have every reason to rejoice and be glad, because His will for you remains unchanged. Trust in His power to provide just what you need, no matter how impossible it seems. And trust in His good and gracious will to give you something far, far better than a mini-Paradise on earth, to give you peace with God here, and victory over this world and a place in the true Paradise above hereafter. Amen.

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