GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY 2020

"Following the Good Shepherd" is the summary phrase of the little gallery at the bottom of the page: Pic #1 portrays Jesus wearing the crown of thorns as He, as the Good Shepherd, lays His life down to rescue the sheep; Pic #2 is Pope Pius XII wearing another crown (the Triregnum last worn in public by Pope Pius VI) symbolic of power and not sacrifice; Pic #3 is the Papal flag showing the Triregnum and the binding and losing keys of Peter's successor regarding sins (although these keys were given to all in the church and the pastor who acts on behalf of the church); and Pic #4 is the irenic scene that gives all Christians comfort who, knowing the voice of The Good Shepherd, gladly follow Him. This brings me to my address for this Good Shepherd Sunday:

“Contrasts in the ‘Good’ Shepherds”

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them. 7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” John 10:1-11 NKJV

My Christian friends: Jehovah-ra’ah means the Lord is shepherd. King David, in the very first verse of the Twenty-Third Psalm was expressing the deepest assurance of the personal care he himself had come to know in having the Lord God as his shepherd. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” In other words, Jehovah-ra’ah is truly Jesus, the second person of the Triune God, who tends to all the needs of His sheep so that they will not be in want of any good thing.

All people, without exception, need a personal shepherd. Isaiah 53:6 explains, “All we like sheep have strayed; we have turned everyone to his own way.” And when we stray you can be sure of one thing: there will be many false shepherds, who are for hire, that will be trying to bring you into their sheep pens.

Pope Francis, whom many appropriately identify with Pope John XXIII the Congenial Pope, needs also to understand that Jesus is the only head of the Christian Church (being Lord of all) and how Jesus is The Shepherd and the very Door of the sheep, which alone is your comforter and who alone is the literal Door or Gate that opens heaven to you. The world may lay accolades before a kindly Pope Francis, or a personable John Paul II who was declared to be a saint along with John XXIII, whom the older generation knew as the “Congenial Pope.” It was Pope John XXIII who began to walk instead of being carried about in the sedan chair above the crowds, hailed as a god, and it was Pope John XXIII who met with his people on a personal basis and was greatly loved by Catholics as well as others.

Here lies a problem: The problem contrasts crowns of gold with the Good Shepherd’s crown of thorns which only Jesus could wear as He lays down His life for the sheep. Here is the information about the Papal crown taken from the Holy See Press Office of 2001: “The Triregnum, the Papal Tiara formed by three crowns symbolizing the triple power of the Pope: Father of kings, governor of the world and Vicar of Christ is from the 18th Century, with which the bronze statue of Saint Peter is crowned every June 29th, the feast day of Saint Peter. Use of the Tiara, a ritual during solemn ceremonies, was completely abandoned during the Papacy of Paul VI.” Don’t be deceived by the name Vicar of Christ, for vicarius, in Latin, is commonly defined as simply a “substitute.”

History recalls that it was Pope Paul VI that continued the Second Vatican Council, which had been convened by John XXIII, until it ended in 1965. It was in the fourth session of the Council where faith was thrown out the very windows that the Council was to open up and God’s Mercy in Christ was, by canon law, deemed to be insufficient for man’s salvation.

But even renowned protestant ministers like Rick Warren who dresses casually and makes bundles on his “purpose-driven church” stuff, has great universal appeal simply because he sincerely cares about people; but, as Jesus once told His disciples: “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own.” The Rev. Franklin Graham of Samaritan Purse, the son of Billy Graham, is to be commended since he knows Whom he is serving and is mostly despised by the world because of his reliance in the Bible in a changing world. (cf. John 15:18 19)

The LCMS pastor, who became a famous Roman priest and news commentator, the late Father John Richard Neuhaus, stated on EWTN during the funeral of John Paul II: “This Pope came to the world and the world came to him.” This quote, by the way, was repeated on the cover of Time magazine. This also describes the way in which the world has embraced other popular popes, especially John XXIII as he convened the Ecumenical Council of Vatican II that would make sweeping reforms and was welcomed by the world as well as all the major religions of the world.

Contrast this with what St. John testified about Jesus, saying in John 1:10 13, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Let it be clear, however, that in my criticisms regarding certain ecumenical shepherds that I am not condemning those who choose to follow such shepherds. I , on the other hand, and according to Luther there is always “the other hand”, have no objections if you choose to have a Roman Pontiff as your bishop. But beware not to demand that all people need to fall in line with the Pope. My criticism would have reason to change if any Roman pope were to publicly denounce the teachings of the Council of Trent that damns me and all other believers to hell because of our trust in divine mercy alone without the works of the Law. This was the reason the Council of Trent was convened, namely, to condemn (make anathema) Martin Luther and his followers, as it still does to this very day.

Contrast Jesus the Good Shepherd as ruler over the Kingdom of heaven and how the present Pope is seen as both a head of State and the “First among Equals” as he rules over the Church, exercising what is known as the two swords theory. This is important because, as Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world!” This is very important because the world, which exalts Pope Francis for his humility, had also exalted Pope Boniface VIII. The United States first established the office of ambassador in 1984, when Ronald Reagan appointed William Wilson to the post officially acknowledging the Pope as a head of State and head of Christendom. But being that as it may, who really has the right to be the head of Christendom?

It was Boniface VIII (1294-1303) who first gave the shape of the crown to the papal miter. Pope Boniface appeared his first day in pontifical garb similar to those worn by emperors in celebrating the feasts of Jupiter and Ceres the 5th Century Roman goddess of agriculture. Seated upon the throne of Constantine, Pope Boniface shouted, “I am Caesar, I am emperor!” Then on November 18, 1302, he issued the Bull Unam Sanctam (One Holy Church), which became canon law and summarized the claims of the Papacy to be supreme over both Church and State.

The Papal Bull Unam Sanctam teaches that the Church cannot have two heads otherwise she would be a “monster” and that it was Pope Peter who was told to “feed My lambs.” The Bull also stated that Jeremiah witnessed, “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over kingdoms.” The Bull states furthermore that Paul testifies, “He that is spiritual judges all things; yet he himself is judged by no man.” Hence, the two swords theory is concluded with this quote of Thomas Aquinas: “We declare, say, and define, and pronounce it to be necessary to salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” The Bull Unam Sanctam is only defended by a few today in the Roman Catholic Church, and yet one is hard pressed to find anyone who will deny that it is the actual teaching of the Roman Church.

And yet it is our Lord Jesus Christ who alone is the only true Good Shepherd, the One sent of God to tend, feed, and lead His sheep by the ministry of the holy office of Word and Sacrament. All others are false shepherds/teachers whom Jesus Himself calls thieves and robbers of the sheep's soul and body. JESUS Himself calls these people thieves and robbers and this includes especially those that might pontificate contrary to the written Word of God. Harsh words, indeed, but nevertheless true in Jesus’ day, as it was in Luther’s day, and just as true today as we see many Christian leaders teaching contrary to the plain words of Scripture.

The true shepherds today are those men who are under the only Good Shepherd. These shepherds enter the public ministry focusing their eyes on Jesus only, as did Peter, James and John, desiring to glorify God both in the pure teachings of Law and Gospel and not desiring to be loved by the world. These shepherds do all their works in the strength of Christ, the Good Shepherd, preaching only Christ’s doctrines, walking only in His footsteps, and laboring and praying for the souls of mankind to bring them to the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of their souls, Jesus Christ.

Sheep of a congregation who fail to hear the Good Shepherd’s voice through their pastors start to wander from His teachings and begin to listen to teachings of men. They fail to see how that old, old story of salvation is relevant today. They start to doubt that Jesus is alive to help them in times of need. For example, today, with the pandemic Coronavirus, people doubt that Jesus is relevant when they see grandma or a loved one die without being allowed to be at the bedside to kiss and hold her and pray together. Theodicy again rears its ugly head in order to seemingly defend the truth that Jesus comforts and heals the sick and broken-hearted.

We, as Christians are never to lie, under any circumstances, and we are taught by our Lord to obey our government unless it demands go contrary to God’s rule; then, as Peter said in Acts 5:29, “We ought to obey God rather than men”. But let me tell you what Jesus says to do when difficulties present themselves: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock and it will be opened to you” (Luke11:9). And again, in Mark 11:24, Jesus says, “Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Jesus invites His brothers and sisters to pray and seek all goodness and relief through Him. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Prov.3:5-6).

The 23rd Psalm reads, “He leads me beside the still waters.” That is, Jesus knows we need the calming of our souls, away from the turbulence and dangers of the rapids which can carry us all away. Jesus is that calm, Living Waters. It isn’t unusual at all that sheep, outside the flock, will feel as Jonah inside the great fish when he exclaimed, “The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; weeds were wrapped around my head!” (Jonah 2:5) And yet the 23rd Psalm reminds us of what John 4:14 records Jesus to have 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.”

All these things, Word and Sacrament, being fed in the pastures of our Savior, and taking drink from His springs of water, have the promised result, without failure, namely, “He restores my soul.” As Luther commented on this Sunday’s text: “Pastors can never become any more than the mouth of our Lord, Jesus Christ and the instruments whereby He continues to proclaim His Word visibly here on earth. He permits His Word to go out into the public so that all may hear it; but the inward acceptance of the Word in the heart is a spiritual experience that takes place through faith.” Luther speaks of your life being hidden in God in which you place your faith until it shows itself to be a reality. Commenting on Colossians 3:4, “Christ who is our life”, Luther says: “In this verse Paul comforts them, showing where to seek and surely apprehend their life…Through Christ’s death you are now redeemed from sin and from death eternal and are made imperishable…But this risen life you cannot perceive in yourselves; you have it in Christ through faith.”

Congregations may have member sheep that aren’t around to be fed, nourished and restored by Jesus. And because they are absent from the flock, they seem to be fair game for secular humanist “shepherds” and, after they are disenchanted with human theories of philosophy and psychology, they may turn to others who may relieve their pains and anxieties and guilt from sins. As Scripture records, “For in much wisdom is much grief.” Too many hirelings lead their flocks the way of politico-economic and the man-made philosophies of too many main-line denominations, and even in the way of mysticism of the Vatican that now embraces all religions.

Lastly, the sheep pen consisted of four high walls with sharp objects along the top to keep robbers out. In one of the walls, there was a space a little wider than a man’s body. The shepherd stood in this gap facing outward. As the sheep moved toward the pen, the shepherd turned his body so that the sheep could move past him safely into the pen. 

The shepherd, in this instance, became the door of the sheep. Jesus used the figure of the shepherd in His speech, but the Bible records that His hearers still did not understand what He was telling them. So, Jesus went further and said, “I am the Door of the sheep.” Saint Augustine once exclaimed: “Whoso would enter the fold, let him enter in by the Gate; let him preach very Christ. Let him not only preach very Christ, but seek Christ’s glory, not his own.” And again, desiring to create faith in his hearer’s hearts, Augustine proclaimed, “I, seeking to enter into your hearts, preach Christ; if I preach other than that, I shall be striving to climb in some other way. Christ is my Door; through Christ I win your hearts.” Amen.

Sermon for Quasimodogeniti Sunday 2020

"A Faith Grammar Lesson: Not Seeing Yet Believing”
Text - JOHN 20:24-31 NKJV
24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” 26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

My friends in Christ: Luther says quite a bit on the events of the Easter season and whom it is that are truly Christ’s brethren. Regarding Hebrews 2:11, Luther comments, “The fact that Christ receives such abandoned wretches as you and me, and calls us brethren, is a fact full of all consolation for us…In Christ we also share common possessions and have one Father and one inheritance. But this inheritance never becomes less by being shared like an earthly inheritance. It becomes ever greater and greater, otherwise they would not be brothers.” Doesn’t that remind you of the feeding of the 5,000 when so little becomes a superabundance?

Luther continues with an obvious question: “What is this inheritance which makes us Christ’s brothers?” Then Luther later gives such a remarkable answer that it only can be received by faith. He says: “The title that we are Christ’s brethren is so exalted that no human heart can really comprehend it. Unless the Holy Spirit confers this grace, no one can say, ‘Christ is my brother’…To be sure, face to face with the magnitude of this blessing you may even have doubts and uncertainties whether it is really true or not. Those who are always crying out, ‘Christ is my brother, Christ is my brother!’ are not necessarily Christ’s true brethren.”

Eastertide is the time when doubts may become reality by faith alone! The name of this Sunday, Quasimodogeniti, comes from the first three words in the Introit of the Day for the liturgical church: “As Newborn babes (desire the sincere milk of the Word.)” The Gospel lesson also gives this Sunday the moniker “Doubting Thomas.” The expression was coined after that disciple who was absent when Jesus made His initial appearance to the other disciples as they were hiding behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. Thomas, called Didymus (i.e. the twin), wasn’t present with the others on that first day of the resurrection wen Jesus appeared to the other disciples. Thus, this Sunday begins the narrative.

The “seeing is believing” phrase, believe it or not, didn’t originate with the “Show Me State” of Missouri. The phrase “Show me” was attributed to Missouri’s U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver at the turn of the 20th Century. While a member of the U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, Vandiver attended an 1899 naval banquet in Philadelphia. In a speech there, he declared, “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.” The “seeing is believing” or the “show me” response was first attributed to “Doubting Thomas” a disciple of Jesus.

Remember when the Roman soldiers were dispatched to watch the tomb of Christ when they themselves became aware of the physical resurrection. St. Matthew recorded that “some of the guards came into the city and reported unto the chief priests all the things that were done.” (Matt.28:11). But in the case of these Roman soldiers and the physical resurrection, empirical knowledge of the truth did not lead to faith. Why? Simply the powerful god of this world, money, caused the soldiers to falsify their witness to the truth, It is written in Matthew 28:12, “And when they (the chief priests) were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave a large sum of money unto the soldiers, saying, ‘Tell them , His disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept,’ and if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” Here the soldiers were convinced to lie by seeing the large amount of money in the earthly realm; they just couldn’t perceive what they saw with their eyes regarding the heavenly realm.

The phrase, “Doubting Thomas”, doesn’t just apply to unbelievers and the original disciple Thomas; but to all people who hear of the bloody, agonizing, suffering and death and resurrection of the Lord of Life...including you, whenever it is when you do not desire the sincere milk of the Word but seek only empirical evidence or signs that might satisfy your reason.

Doubt and unbelief, displays itself in two noted ways: First off, when curiosity isn’t involved, doubt shows itself in the inactivity of one’s physical body; the other manifestation of doubt involves the mouth, causing it to speak words like “unless”; “but”; “if”; and a number of other conjunctions, interrogatives, adverbs, prepositions, and a combination of such that always place a condition on the subject in discussion. Thomas therefore spoke: “Unless I see...I will not believe!” These are the words that come from mistrust, even the denial of the efficacy of the written Word of God in both the Old and New Testaments.

Note first of all that the disciples huddled together behind locked doors “for fear of the Jews.” Early that first Easter morning the women had already come to the disciples with the resurrection news, and yet the very next evening the disciples were cowering behind locked doors. Doubt has its way of effecting your very actions and even make you inactive altogether. Take the great prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 18 and 19, who, after being so bold in the Lord as to slay all the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, ran and hid himself in a cave because he feared Queen Jezebel’s wrath.

This was the very way in which the disciples had shown themselves to be before God: doubtful and showing the symptom of inactivity of the body; shameful and afraid. Doubt, coupled with fear, can paralyze the body just as the Romans soldiers who had been posted by Pilate to secure the tomb of Jesus.

Secondly, this doubting is what you should be most concerned about. This effect sometimes appears very quickly. This effect clearly identifies what it is you doubt. Ordinary little words then become mighty qualifiers and affects your vocabulary. For instance, conjunctions and prepositions become very powerful when dealing with matters of faith. Thomas used a famous phrase, “UNLESS I see!” which gives credence to yet another phrase which begins with what grammatically is called a gerund, a verbal noun, “Seeing is believing.” St. Thomas, here, would have been a fine resident of the State of Missouri, the “Show Me State”. But don’t we often use words expressing conditions? Such as, “Lord, I feel so lonely that unless you send someone into my life to help me I won’t feel like even you care for me.” Or this classic prayer of doubt, “Lord, IF you really exist, show yourself to me and help me now!”

How often do we insist on placing conditions upon God, that very same God who has given us all things, through faith, in His Son Jesus Christ, who had physically arisen from the dead for our justification. The vocabulary of doubt drives away that very faith which is of greater worth than gold because it gives us access to the graces of God. As it is written in 1 Peter 1:7 “…that the trying of your faith (being more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tested with fire) might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, you love.” Not that the Bible witnesses to the fact that we do not have to “see” Jesus in order that we believe He is and that He physically rose from the dead. It is just as important that we love Him even though we can’t see Him physically.

It is the Bible, the living voice of God, that directs your thoughts and affections outside self to fix them upon Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2).

Do you ever think of what hope of joy should continually be yours, and how often joy is passed by simply because of those little articles of speech that place a condition upon faith; those little words that so negatively affect your goals of peace and joy and makes them doubtful?! But note how Jesus is able to break that barrier of doubt and fear by coming into the midst of His disciples, interjecting the vocabulary of faith, saying, “Peace be to you.”

The incipient peace was given by Jesus to restore His disciples’ confidence; and, again, “Peace be to you” was given the second time in order to prepare His disciples for ministry. Without the assurance of the peace of God, Peter would had never been able to deliver such a terrific sermon on that Day of Pentecost. And without that same peace given to you, you would never be able to overcome your fears and doubts concerning the dreaded pandemic of our time yet alone witness the name of Jesus to friends and neighbors.

Whenever you go into God’s house of worship with cluttered attics for minds, and refuse to hand over our life’s anxieties to the Lord, how can you expect to receive that peace which passes all understanding through the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ? That is why God, the Holy Spirit, saw fit to have John record the challenge Jesus gave to Thomas to live by faith, not by sight!

Seeing is not always believing, Thomas…so stop doubting and believe! The actual words of Jesus are these: “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.” To walk by faith and not by sight is to live daily with the reality of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ and it is the Good News of that reality which does away with those little conditional words of doubt. You shouldn’t listen to preachers who tell you, “If you say this prayer after me” or “Unless you speak the ‘sinners’ prayer from your heart”. For all of these is what constituted Thomas in today’s text, “Unless I see!” So away with all these conditions! Away with the Doubting Thomas excuses! The Gospel of Jesus Christ has no unlesses!

St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi: “Brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just; whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things...and the God of peace shall be with you.” Friends, anything that does not have the quality of virtue attacks your faith and will undoubtedly replace your faith with doubt. You even find the pressures of society so overwhelming that we allow society to shape the church instead of the church shaping society. But even though we are not of the world but in the world, when we use the right vocabulary and meditate upon the Law of the Lord, our responses to trying situations will always show its source as faith.

Thomas said, “My Lord and my God!” But Jesus’ response to Thomas was directed toward the simplicity of faith for generations yet to come: Jesus responded, “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.” Jesus was speaking to you, especially whenever you gather together as His church to hear His Word and to partake of His precious, true, and essential body and blood
along with the elements of bread and wine.

In the Lord’s Supper we find that old certainty, which I addressed on Easter Sunday, and the very source of faith in Jesus and, even though we do not see Him, He is physically there nevertheless hidden with the bread and wine that are distributed. Jesus also offers Himself in this His Supper to assure you that your sins are indeed forgiven. His real and essential body and blood, which communes with the bread and the wine, gives that blessed assurance of the forgiveness of sins as it also strengthens your faith.

Friends, it is easy to be a Doubting Thomas; it is harder to be in a state of faith when you are presented with the truth. Yet your confidence is not in saying some “sinner’s prayer” but in God’s own testimony, His Living Voice, the Bible, which forever remains efficacious and creates faith. Why wait any longer when our Lord has prepared everything you need in faith for this life and the one to come? Listen as the glorified Christ speaks, “Peace be to you! I have overcome the world and you are Mine!” And may your response be… “My Lord and my God!” Amen.

Proclaiming a living Redeemer is thematic of the little gallery below. Pic #1 tells us that the Living Word of God heralds (note the Lily) a living Christ; as well as Pic #2 of Gustave Doré shows Job explaining to his friends that he knows his Redeemer lives; and, Pic #3 is Karl H. Bloch's famous painting heralding Jesus' resurrection (note the lilies); and, lastly, Pic #4 portrays the first Lutheran Mass was celebrated in in Brandenburg, 1539, St. Nikolai-Kirche where Paul Gerhardt ministered and Johann Crüger was the director of music. One of the Easter hymns sung in our churches by Gerhardt (words) and Crüger (tune) is Auf, auf, meine Herz, mit Freuden, translated, "Awake, My Heart, with Gladness.”

This brings me to my Easter Day resurrection address:

“The Physical Resurrection: that Old Certainty”
Job 19: (23-24) 25-27 25) For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; 26) And after my skin is destroyed, this know, That in my flesh I shall see God, 27) Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me.

Halleluiah! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed, Halleluiah!

My Christian friends: In the Bible, Jōb expressed great patience regardless of his outbursts against his Creator: That God would grant his request and crush him (6:9); that God is a tyrant that crushes him and increases his wounds without cause and also fills him with bitterness (9:16-18); that God is a vicious beast who gnashes him with His teeth (16:9); that God is a ruffian who takes him by the neck and shakes him to pieces (16:12). Job is a very submissive man who, despite all the tragedies that came upon him, still would not “curse God with his lips.” What good does it do for a pious man to believe in his Redeemer knowing that God has His hand in all of the horrible misfortune? Many even today in the midst of this new tormenting virus would ask the same question, namely, “What good does it do to believe in Jesus Christ and worship Him this Easter?”

Yes, that same question presents itself to all of us during this coronavirus pandemic. It seems to be in the thoughts of some Christians, who claim that God is not just, even though they might confess that Jesus died on the cross for their sins and on the third day rose again. It seems that no matter what you might say to edify these types of Christians in the faith, they still insist on ignoring the One who has not only comforted them in times past but also has redeemed them. It is written that if you indeed love God you will keep His commandments and first commandment, as Luther explained, is to fear, love and trust in God above all things.

Too often weak Christians acknowledge Christ’s resurrection and come to worship services on Easter but don’t care enough about their Savior to worship, thank, and praise Him on any other day. And it is truly amazing because, as generations come and go, the liberal thinking Christians deny a physical resurrection because that is the way they are brought up to believe. The Bible to them is not a testimony to the truth neither is it seen as the very Word of God but a book merely “containing the word of God” written by men, which is to be researched and critiqued just as they do any other book. But the Bible is a tool, yes even the living Voice of God today that reveals your Redeemer that He may live in your heart by faith! For if you can remember only one thing from today’s sermon, let it be this, namely, that Christ’s resurrection from the dead assures you of God’s love and of your own promised physical resurrection to life.

Much too often, many weak Christians come under the spell of these deniers of the faith so that they no longer trust in what God promises them in Scripture. Jesus becomes just another redeemer; the liberator of the socially oppressed without regard to the fact that it is really sin that holds them in bondage.

Whenever Jesus is viewed by the secular news media, the question usually asked is what would Jesus do if He walked the streets of our cities today or what kind of car would He drive? This Jesus is portrayed by today’s preachers and teachers as the great professor of sociology. You could swear by their portrayal of the Savior that He is merely a political leader of this world who believed in a Marxist view of governing. And if perchance the notion should slip out that Jesus’ mission on earth was to atone for the sins of the world in order to save mankind from the curse of God’s Law, and that His concern wasn’t for the social needs of the people but the spiritual needs of salvation from their own bondage to sin – well – then the ridiculing of faithful Christians begins.

But this is nothing new. There was a pagan philosopher of the second century named Celsus whose claim to fame was that he was the first to put in writing how ridiculous this religion of Christianity was. He wrote how our faith was utter nonsense and how the Christian teaching that there is a God who takes an interest in His creation, was absurd. Celsus’ pen was to have its believers in every generation. And the atheist, American, writer and lecturer of the 19th Century, Robert Ingersoll was one of them. He himself spoke of one of the “great liberators” of the human soul as he wrote: “On Sunday, November 21, 1694, a babe was born – Voltaire! a name that excites the admiration of men, the malignity of priests. Voltaire was the greatest man of his century and did more to free the human race than any other of the sons of men.”

But what is it that made Job so different, a man who was terribly afflicted, that he could confess: “I know that my Redeemer lives” while other men remain the doubters and despisers of the Savior of the world? What made Job boldly state, “Though He slays me, yet will I trust Him”? (Job 13:15) Others of lesser pain and anguish would opt to take their own life, thinking that it is theirs to dispose of as they wish. But it is God that gives man his life and God who takes that life away. I believe the contrasts can be attributed to the secular counseling a person receives.

For example, Job had many counselors who tried to probe his psyche and isolate his problem. But the counsel from Scripture far surpasses human wisdom. For what St. Paul (himself a highly educated man) wrote to the Roman Christians is a certainty: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

People who don’t fear and love God might even take their own life rather than live as a so-called vegetable, or face a terminal illness, or even consider death to the mental anguish of losing a girl friend or boyfriend, or long-time spouse.

At least Job’s friends saw God as a major factor in Job’s problems. Yet Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, weren’t much better in crisis counseling. Eliphaz , in Job chapter 4, isolated the problem to say that Job’s suffering was caused by guilt and urged his friend to repent. Bildad’s first speech emphasized the premise of Eliphaz, namely, that Job lost his children, and servants, and was suffering his own torments because of some previous sin. Zophar gave his counsel on the premise of God’s inscrutable wisdom and urged Job to repent of something anyway! (I like to think of this third friend of Job as being this way: Zophar…zo good.) So, the maxim is proven: “With friends like these, who needs enemies?”

It is correct that daily repentance is necessary, but repentance was not the problem here. Job remained right before the Lord who was ever more strengthening his faith from the trials with which God permitted Satan to try him. So, I find it a remarkable thing that even with all the terrible advice he had to endure, the fact remained that Job’s faith in his living Redeemer brought forth this great trust and faith in the midst of extreme suffering.

As an undergraduate at The Ohio State University, one of the courses required in the college of education was the Philosophy of Education. The textbook for the course was Authority and Freedom in Education by Paul Nash. Speaking on the perils of commitment, Nash said that “Carl Jung pointed out that creeds and dogmas may be substitutes for, indeed protection against immediate experience of God. Commitment to a firm dogma…may constitute a screen between the individual and direct experience” (p.298). Somehow, I don’t think Job’s trust in God and the firm belief that his Redeemer lives came between him and what he was directly experiencing. Nash wrote that Christianity was, indeed, responsible for much of the world’s problems.

Nash persisted in saying that the “genuine person” is “an autonomous person.” Nash himself firmly believes his own instruction, and I quote: “Young people need to be shown how to grow into a state of intellectual and emotional self-reliance that will enable them to face life without depending on old certainties that are no longer valid.” But it is these “old certainties” that sustain a person’s life and brings that same life through death into eternal life in a glorified, physical body.

Luther comments, in his time, about these “old certainties” (that Paul Nash so derides) and what would become of people who live contrary to the faith in the resurrection from the dead. Commenting on 1 Corinthians 15:16ff, Dr. Luther says:
“Therefore, if we knew of no other life, we should also hold our peace and let the people live like cows and pigs, which probably also know very well what is good for them. We should let it rest at that and neglect pulpit and all. We should not devote so much attention to it as to create such a stir over it in the world, if it were but effort lost and if it would serve and help neither this nor that life.
“Therefore, if you desire no other life nor believe in it, just disregard preaching. If you do not care to have a God, you also do not need to hear us, nor need we preach to you. For, God be praised, we are not so stupid that we should wish to propagate this doctrine in vain, or only to regulate this body and this life with it. No, we find that ordered very well already by the heathen and by reason. Our only concern is to teach how—after our Baptism—we may get from this to yonder life. To that end we have to preach and to admonish daily. But if there were nothing to the resurrection, all of that would be entirely in vain and futile.”

It is amazing that Job confessed a belief in the physical resurrection to a glorified body, and stated that after his fleshly destruction, he will, in his own flesh, see God, and will behold Him with his own eyes! But yet today, many cannot see this Redeemer because they cannot reconcile, by their reason, the horrible things that happen in their lives and in the world if there were a God.

Therefore, they fall prey to the 19th Century “God is Dead” philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche who wrote: “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”

For me, earlier in my liberal theological training, my Redeemer was not pictured as being alive for there were no certainties: No real heaven, no real hell, no physical resurrection, essentially no real hope for eternal life. As it is written, “For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” And just before that, Paul told the Corinthians (1 Cor.15:12-14): Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection from the dead?” (Well here you could say as several Lutheran pastors and teachers would have to say if they are truthful, that the resurrection of Christ is only symbolic for some greater truth, and that what is certain is that it was not a physical resurrection). But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.

Job didn’t come to trust in God because of the earthly knowledge of his wife and friends. No sir! The teacher that brought him such great trust in his Redeemer was the Holy Spirit of God. And each one of us has such a tutor, a teacher and adviser to our families. This Tutor is the Bible: It never takes a vacation; it has no bad habits. This Tutor won’t borrow money from you or raid your refrigerator; this Tutor will be up as early in the morning as you are; it will stay up all night; it will help to solve problems your children may have; it answers questions from “how did I get here” to “where am I going.” This Tutor will comfort you in your worst hours and cure your worst fears. This Tutor will keep you on the right pathway through life and will see you safely through all trials. This Tutor is your Bible, where all the “old certainties” are found and are proven time and again to be true. It is through the Written Word of God that you know that your Redeemer lives.

See how the angels that first Easter morning addressed the women at the empty tomb, using the very words of Jesus as recorded in Luke 24:5-7, They said to the women, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but is risen! 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.’” And these words still speak to you in the Bible, the Living Voice of God.

Just look again this morning as we sing of those old certainties as our sure hope; look to verses four and five of that great Easter hymn, I Know that My Redeemer Lives, to see how much your living Redeemer loves you and still works for you: He lives so that you can receive your heavenly mansions when you die; He lives to guide you with His eye, He lives to comfort you when faint, He lives to hear your soul’s complaint. And that was what our friend Job was counting upon.

Yes, your Redeemer lives and is working in you and through you this hour. He also lives so that you can feed on Him by taking His physical, precious, body and blood again today, in a miraculous, sacramental way with the elements of bread and wine. Through these means He strengthens your faith and increases your love toward God and neighbor.

Oh, friends, you can still trust in that saying of Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives!” For Jesus lives to give to you all His blessings, yes even that old certainty of your own physical resurrection from the dead. Amen.

MAUNDY THURSDAY

Below is Duccio di Buoninsegna's beautiful artwork (c.1310); and next to it is also a photograph reminding us what we celebrate today.

This brings me to my devotion for tonight: Maundy Thursday 2020             “Having a Traitor in the Midst” 
Scriptural Texts: John 13:1-30 and Matthew 26:17-30                                         My Christian friends: Your worst enemy may be one in your inner most circle of friends. And this shouldn’t be surprising since no one is able to betray you who first was not seen to be loyal. This was the tragic discovery on that first Maundy Thursday (Mandatum, Latin meaning a command). It was on that first Thursday night in Christ’s passion that He exemplified servant-hood and gave the holy command to his disciples to love one another as He loved them. He also instituted Holy Communion in which He also commanded His disciples to eat and drink for the remission of sins. But it was also on that first Maundy Thursday that one of the twelve was to betray Him.

Jesus had abruptly interrupted the irenic atmosphere of the Passover meal, by plainly stating that one of His most inner-sanctum of friends, whom He had chosen to be apostles, would betray Him. And Scripture records the anger and sorrowful inquisition among the disciples. Matthew 26:20 25, says, “When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. Now as they were eating, He said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.’ And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, ‘Lord, is it I?’ He answered and said, ‘He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.’ Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, ‘Rabbi, is it I?’ He said to him, ‘You have said it.’”

Christians also may have traitors around them and even within them. We also betray Christ when we are indifferent to sin; when we have pride in our own goodness; when we lack love for our fellow man, especially our fellow Christians; or, when we lack the desire to partake of the Lord’s Body and Blood in the Holy Supper. When these forces are allowed to pull us away from what Christ had accomplished for you and me, our faith gradually will fade away to be lost to this world. Oh, you might moan and bewail the fact that Jesus suffered so much, was tortured and nailed to the cross, but do you not find any comfort and joy in what he gladly and willingly did for you? We may all eventually lose what it means to be a Christian and deny the cross of Christ altogether unless we, like Paul, can come to the profession of the faith and state: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”

The desire also to glory in the cross of Christ has been dissimulated, in particular, by the Second Vatican Council when it had written, “...the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place among these are the Moslems, who, professing to hold to the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind.” (The Documents of Vatican II, ed. Walter M. Abbot, S.J., p.34.) This, friends, shows an indifference to the sacrifice of God’s only Son for the sins of the world. This shows that the truth of God takes a casual backseat to all ecumenical endeavors. As it was written against the Laodician Church of Revelation, “These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: ‘I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.’”

These traitors within Christendom must also be named so that faith may be strengthened as it was on the night Christ had instituted His Last Will and Testament in this His Holy Supper. The details of this Will are familiar (or should be familiar) to any Christian. Through communion with the natural, true and essential Body and Blood of Christ; therefore, we do show forth His death until He comes again to judge the living and the dead. And we can rejoice in this thought, namely, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14). And, as Jesus Himself tells us in John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say to you, He that hears My word, and believes in Him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but has passed from death into life.”

This Maundy Thursday, let us end with the words of the Swedish hymn-writer, Haquin Spegel, in his hymn “The Death of Jesus Christ, Our Lord”:
The death of Jesus Christ, our Lord, We celebrate with one accord; It is our comfort in distress, Our heart’s sweet joy and happiness.

Let us also have a closing prayer from the words of the hymn-writer, Isaac Watts, in his hymn “’Twas on That Dark, That Doleful Night”: 
Jesus, Thy feast we celebrate; We show Thy death, we sing Thy name, Till Thou return and we shall eat The marriage supper of the Lamb. Amen.