Why Are You Weeping?

Text:  John 20:1-18

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

There at the grave Mary Magdalene stood.  She stood in one spot neither pacing back and forth nor bobbing up and down.  She just stood there, gushing tears. 

Jesus had done so much for her.  She was a wreck of a woman, but Jesus cleaned her up, and made her whole again.  Indeed, Jesus had done so much for Mary and now it was all over.  They crucified her Lord.  He was bloodied, beaten, crushed, and scorned, without the smallest concern for Mary. 

The lifeless corpse of Jesus was laid in a tomb.  A rock was placed over the entrance.  Not only did the religious leaders of Israel laugh and mock Jesus as He died, but death itself seemed to laugh in victory when the stone was rolled over the tomb’s entrance.  For Mary Magdalene and the disciples though, there was no laughing.  There was no mocking, no celebration.  Just fear, tears, and doubt.

Jesus had actually conducted a valiant fight.  He faced the deep distress of the soul in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He had looked into the eyes of Pontius Pilate and professed truth.  He stood before Caiaphas and the High Priests and confessed that He was and is the Son of God.  He faced His accusers and did not flinch or back down.  “But in the end, they closed in on Him.  Jesus had defied them, and they got Him in the end.”[1]  Nails were driven; darkness came; blood and water flowed from His side; the body was placed in a tomb. 

And so, Mary stood outside the tomb and wept.  She most likely had a strange mixture of love, fear, anger, and confusion.  To complicate things even more for Mary, the stone had been rolled away and the body of Jesus was gone.  From her understanding, someone had taken the body of Jesus away and she did not know where they had laid him.  Whether this was a cruel trick or another game of the religious leaders, Mary did know.  Regardless though, she could not stop weeping, her Lord had been crucified.   

This is the way that it is for us humans.  No matter the circumstances, when death confronts us, sorrow and a sense of loss and a sense of confusion may overcome us.  Shock can set in, combined with tears.    

This morning, you may be able to empathize with Mary Magdalene.  You may have had that feeling as if your body is frozen in time and space and the only thing you can do is cry in the face of death.  Sin, pain, suffering, and death all have a way of making us feel trapped and out of control.  They can come at us without any warning, leaving us petrified.  The cold breath of death especially tends to stop us in our boots.    

There are some in our society though that would instruct us to welcome death!  Yes, some would instruct us not to cry or be sad with death, but to welcome it.  They tell us that death is the release of the soul from its bondage to the body.  They tell us that death is the end of life in this body and that once death happens the person’s soul is really free – free from the limitations of the body![2]  Therefore, we should welcome death and possibly even celebrate it.    

We all know that this way of thinking is ludicrous.  We all know that death is not our friend, even if we try our best to have it all together at the death of a loved one. 

Let us all be honest for a moment.  We are all afraid of death.  We do not like hospitals.  We do not like funerals.  We do not like to think about retirement homes and we do not consider death our friend.  Even talking about it right here in this church service makes us wiggle in our pews.    

Death, my friends, is our enemy.  It is not our friend.  Therefore, it makes sense to cry and grieve and cringe and recoil at death – just like Mary did. 

Beside the grief and tears, for Mary it did not make complete sense.  Jesus was not supposed to die.  If Jesus is God in the flesh, He is supposed to have a lot of power.  That is to say, He walked on water, He gave eyesight to the blind, He brought dead people back to life, and He made demons scurry away in fear like cockroaches in the light – Jesus is not supposed to die. 

Yet, He did.  He did die.  He did give Himself to death.   He did this to bear sin, to conquer death, and satisfy God’s wrath.  Death did not overtake Him, but rather Jesus went to death and gave up His spirit. 

Today though is not Good Friday, but Easter Sunday.  In other words, while we embrace the profound message of Good Friday – the great message of everything being finished on Christ’s cross – we also must hear the message of Easter.  We must hear the Easter message that comes to us from the Angels in the tomb.  That message to Mary was this,  

          Why are you weeping?

Yes, why is Mary weeping?  Why is she afraid?  Why does she mourn?   She has not let go of the dead Christ; therefore, she needs the message of Easter, which is, “Mary, why are you crying?  Jesus is not here, He is risen.”

The Angels' and Jesus' question to Mary of, “Why are you still crying?” is a question that embraces the obvious.  And what is so obvious that is not obvious to Mary?  The answer is that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead.  Death could not keep Him.  Jesus swallowed up death forever, He broke the jaws of sin, He tap danced on the face of the Devil, He will remove every sign of disgrace, and will wipe away tears from all faces.  Mary, He is risen, why are you crying? 

The words of the Angels and the words of Jesus picked Mary up out of her tears and sorrow and pain and set her within life.  This is true for you, as well.  The message of Easter – the Easter word that Jesus has risen – is not some myth that belongs in the midst of a pink bunny and chocolate covered eggs.  No, by no means!  The word of Easter is that Christ is risen from the dead – these words pull on you and confess to you that death does not have the final say.  The deaths of your Christian friends, Christian parents, Christian spouse, Christian children, as well as your very own death, are not the final say.  Jesus meets you under the pail of doom hanging over your heads and say, “Peace be with you.  Why are you weeping?  Do not be afraid. Be glad.  Rejoice.” 

But you may say, are we to not feel sad about losing our loved ones?   Should we not grieve them?  No, we do grieve them, we do mourn the loss of our loved ones; however, we do not carry on like pagans who have nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word.  Since Jesus died and broke loose from the grave, God will most certainly bring back to life those who died in Jesus.  Thus, we grieve with hope![3] 

Baptized Saints, because Christ is risen, there is now no more fear of living and no more fear of dying.  As Christ’s beloved, that is where you are now placed.  That is where you live.  There is now nothing in the entire world that you can be surer of than Jesus crucified for you and Jesus risen for you.  As they say, ‘Ain’t no grave gonna hold this body down.’[4]

As you leave this sanctuary today and go back into your vocations though, you will be tempted to despair.  You may even think at times that God has quit on you, that He does not care about you; that all of life is meaningless.  You may even find yourself tempted to forget Jesus and treat Him as dead.  If this is the case, well then… you are back in the prison of sin and death – you are essentially buried in your grave already. 

To combat this temptation, hear the message of Easter personally this morning.  Yes, you who hear this message right now, let the word of Easter cling to you.  Let it grab ahold of your mind and your soul.  Let it permeate you.  Let it encase you. Hear the message of Easter… That message is this: between you and your despair, stands the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for you.  Before sin, death, and the devil can destroy you, before the jaws of death and hell can take you, they have to destroy and take Jesus first, and they have already done their worst.[5]  They have done their worst to Jesus and today we hear that their worst was not good enough, for Christ is risen – Christ is alive! 

Dear Baptized Saints, sin puts you into the grave, but your baptism into Christ puts you into Jesus’ grave – a grave that is now empty today, a grave that leads to life.  You, yes each and every one of you, do not belong to sin, death, or the devil, but to Jesus.  You belong to life.    

Do not weep, do not fear; be glad and rejoice, Christ is risen this day – for you and for me.  Death has been trampled upon. 

Come awake dear Christian and confess this day,

Oh death! Where is your sting?

Oh hell! Where is your victory?

We are alive with Christ today, tomorrow, and for all eternity.

In the name of the risen and victorious Jesus Christ: Amen.

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[1] Norman Nagel, Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2004), 119.

[2] What is described in this paragraph is the ideology of Platonism.  This description is from Norman Melchert’s book, The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy – Sixth Edition (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2011), 144.

[3] Loose paraphrase of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15.

[4] Norman Nagel, Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis, 120.

[5] Ibid.

This Is The Way It Is With Christ's Cross

Text:  John 19:16-42

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

Today, our thoughts gather outside the walls of Jerusalem on a little hill called Golgotha, where we watch three men die.  These three have been judged and condemned as criminals.  They have been sentenced to hang from a cross until their strength gives way and their bodies collapse into death.  

Two of these men have pretty corrupt pasts.  In fact, one of the men even admits that they are getting what they deserve.  

The guy at the center though is different.  He is innocent; He is blameless.  He was not like the two criminals on his right and on his left.  Regardless of His innocence though, all three of them share the same execution together, they are brothers in death.  

We all know a lot more about the man on the center cross than we do about the men on the sides.  You and I have followed Jesus’ life through this first half of our church year.  We heard about His birth in Bethlehem, where He was born just like one of us.  We heard about His life and learned how Jesus shared our whole life with us.  We learned that Jesus is our brother because He did life like we do life, except without sin.  

This brings up a very interesting question for us this evening.  If Jesus was innocent and perfect and holy and just, why did He die?  If He was innocent, why did He die a criminal’s death?  

One of the reasons for His death is that Jesus had to die because the religious leaders of Jesus’ time hated Him.  He exposed them as the hypocrites that they were; He broke down their religious systems, and revealed that it was by grace – not the works of mankind – that a person was forgiven.  They obviously did not take to well to this and killed Him.  

While this is all true, there is another reason why Jesus had to die.  That reason is this, Jesus stepped towards death.  He went up to Jerusalem to die.  He rode on a donkey into the city of Jerusalem for the purpose of giving His life into the hands of sinners to be crucified.  He gave his life as a ransom for many.  In other words, death did not overtake Jesus, but rather, He went to meet it.  Death did not cut Him down, but rather His death was the fulfillment of His whole mission.  He went straight at death, commending His spirit to God.  This death was of His own choosing.  

Christ Jesus chose to go right towards death not in order to merely die a physical death, but rather, to die the big death for sin.  The death for sin is the death of the Lamb of God on behalf of mankind.  It is the death of the Servant of God on whom God lays the sins of us all.  Bearing all these sins, guilty with our sin, Jesus is nailed and bloodied for us.  He bears our sin – our hell for us.  He is damned on the cross as if He were a sinner.  He endures the separation from the Father.  He cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  He cries with a loud voice, “It is finished,” and then the job is done.  The death of the Savior; the death of our sin!

What does this mean for you and for me?  It means that sin – the thing that is wrong with us – has been answered for, and now it can no longer condemn us.  Sin has spent itself against Jesus, and with the loud triumphant cry He – Jesus – claims the victory.  Salvation is achieved.  There was a death of sin!  We need no longer die.  

Tonight we are not retelling the story of Jesus death as if it was a mythical children’s story, but we retell it because it is a historic fact.  Indeed, Jesus went through this life.  He began this human life by being born in Bethlehem and He completed this life by death on a cross.  Jesus really did die; His corpse was taken down from the cross by Joseph and Nicodemus, wrapped in a piece of linen, and put in a grave.  Jesus was buried.

Tonight we also retell this story because the life that Jesus lived is a life lived for you and for me.  Furthermore, His death that He died is shared with you and with me.  You see, whenever we put the body of a loved one into a grave, we know Jesus has been there too.  As the three men were made brothers in death, so we are also brothers and sisters with Jesus in His life and in His death.  We are baptized into His life and His death.  Jesus put Himself not only next to the two criminals on the cross, but He also puts Himself next to you and me in our lives and especially in our deaths.   

This is the way it is with Christ’s cross.  When we see the cross of Jesus we see the condemnation of our sin – the end of our sins. The cross is the condemnation of us as sinners.  It is actually our crucifixion.  Therefore, I must ask all of us this, are we in this cross or do we try and pull ourselves out of it, refusing to be joined to Jesus’ death?  If we run from the cross and the blood stained Christ, repent!  Yes, repent of running from the cross, there is no other way.  You are either joined to Jesus’ death in baptism or you are dead in your sins alone.  

You, who have ears, hear on this quiet and sober Good Friday Evening, Christ was crucified for you and for your salvation.  Stand in awe before the blood stained cross.  Hear the sound of the nails.  Hear the crying agony of the Savior.  Hear the words, “It is finished.”  And as we stand beneath the cross, we confess together, 

“As Jesus dies, I die too.  My sins are crucified.  I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”  

You my friends, have died with Jesus.  You know no life except the life that comes from dying with Christ.  The pattern of your life is constantly returning to the message of the cross of Christ, where the King of glory died for you.  Yes, being returned to the message of the cross you hear that sin’s accusation and power find their end.  Being returned to the message of the cross you hear that death has lost its sting.

Dear Baptized Saints, your hearts will stop beating some day in the future.  There is no doubt about that; however, because of that Good Friday long ago you must take comfort for your grave will not be a hopeless cold resting place for your body.  Indeed, your graves are not a place where you will be cut off, but by Christ’s mighty death and His three-day rest in the tomb, the graves of Christians have been made holy – your grave has been made holy.  Yes, in death and in your grave, you have the blessed assurance that you have been joined to Christ’s death on the cross.  You are baptized into his death, you no longer live, but you live by faith in the Son of God who has purchased you from the jaws of hell and from the grip of sin’s condemnation.  You have been joined to the glorious news of Easter Sunday; the message of Easter that will dawn upon us in a very short while.

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

This sermon has been an adapted and adjusted Norman Nagel Sermon:
Norman Nagel, Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2004), 113-118.

Communion: What Is It And Who Is It For

Text: John 13:1-15 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-32

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

A man came to a church service early one morning.  As he was visiting with the pastor, he noticed that it was a communion Sunday.  He then turned to the pastor and said,

By golly Reverend, I think I am worthy of two of those bread wafers and two shots of the wine, for I have been extra-extra good this week! 

Now, whether we like to admit it or not, a common opinion of communion in the church, and probably more so outside the church, is that communion is a holy meal for righteous people.  In other words, we can easily lead ourselves to believe that communion is only for good people, while bad people must keep their distance.  And of course, we rarely think of ourselves as bad.  We typically see the best in ourselves.  Therefore, we say to ourselves,

I went to Sunday School, I was Confirmed, I went to Midweek Services, and I have been a Lutheran my whole life… that is why I get to go to the altar for communion. 

If we were to ever be denied communion by any other Christian or another pastor, we would most definitely resort to anger saying,

I have paid my dues.  I have served the church!  Give me the wafer and give me the small glass of wine!  Who are you to judge me and not serve me?   

Even though this perception and attitude towards communion exists among those inside and outside of the church, the truth of what communion is and who it is for is quite different. 

Dear friends, just to be perfectly clear; the Lord’s Supper is not something that was dreamed up by a bunch of religious monks.  It was not invented as a marketing tactic to get people to come regularly back to church.  Furthermore, it is not a snack bar during the church service.  It is not a symbolic meal and it is not a meal for good people.  It is none of these things. 

If it is none of these things, what is it then? 

The Lord’s Supper, which was instituted by Jesus Christ on that Maundy Thursday some two-thousand years ago, is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is the true body and blood of Christ in and under the bread and the wine.  It is a meal that is for Christians to eat and to drink.[1] 

Simply stated, this is a holy meal, because Jesus is really present.  It is a holy meal because it is food of the soul; it nourishes us and strengthens our faith.  Even more specifically, it is a holy meal for sinners only, for only sinners are in need of forgiveness.

What does this all mean?  It means that when you joined this church and when you came to this Divine Service and when you will come to this altar this evening, you are not only declaring that you are in agreement with Christ’s church located here in this location, but also declaring that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness.  Yes, when you and I come forward to receive the body and blood of Christ, we are confessing that we are not a goody two-shoe, but a sinner in need of Jesus Christ.  That’s right my friends, we do not get or deserve the Lord’s body and blood for being good.  Communion is not like an eloquent country club buffet in which we are only admitted if we are dressed properly, have the right name, and have paid the proper dues.  It is not about what we can bring to the table.  But it is about the Lord preparing the table to serve us.

 

Keep in mind that in our Gospel reading from this evening that the disciples did not wash Jesus’ feet, but it was Jesus washing their feet.  In other words, communion and the mission and work of Jesus are about you and me being served by Him.  Christ did not come to be served, but to serve and give ‘His life’ as a ransom for many.  It is the same with communion.  It is a holy meal – a meal that the Lord serves to us, a meal that the Lord grants us forgiveness of sins.  We come to the Lord’s Table in faith and with open hands.  The only thing we bring to the table is the confession that we are poor miserable sinners in need of forgiveness.    

But back to who should come to the altar for communion?  It could be said that good people should not commune at the altar.  Why should they?  Those who do not want their feet washed, those who do not think that they are sinners… they have no need for Jesus and His Holy Supper.  Keep in mind that the Gospel is for sinners only.  Communion is a holy meal for those who need the forgiveness of sins.  Those who do not see themselves as sin-sick sinners really have no use for the Lord Jesus Christ and really have no business being at the Lord’s Table or in the church.  The church is a hospital for sinners, not a country club for the self-righteous.  The church is for feeding and tending to sheep, not entertaining goats.  In fact, the Scriptures go so far to say that a goody two-shoe person taking the Lord’s Supper in a flippant way without faith is actually unworthily of the body and blood of Christ and is taking communion unto judgment, not life.  In other words, if a person rejects the idea that they are a sinner or love sin more than grace or reject the real presence of Jesus in the supper, they should be warned not to take the Lord’s Supper – they should fear the table of the Lord. 

But you, yes you Baptized Saints, you should not be scared away from the Lord.  The Lord did not give His life and shed His blood to hurt you, but He gave Himself unto death, for your benefit, to your comfort and strengthening, for the redemption of your soul.  Furthermore, you should not be scared away from the Lord’s Table, for the Lord does not give you His body and blood in and under the bread and wine to hurt or destroy you, but to give you new life.[2] 

The Lord meets sinful mankind and sinful mankind receives forgiveness, life, and salvation.  The Lord is the one who sits down with sinners to eat.  He is the one who came for the sin-sick.   He is the one that forgives sinners.

 

Therefore, as Christians we approach the Lord’s Supper with joy, confidence, and comfort, saying,

I am a poor sinner, I need help, and comfort.  I wish to attend the Lord’s Supper!

And the Lord surely does help.  You, who are hungry, and you, who are thirsty, come to the Lord’s Supper, for you will be nourished and refreshed.  You, who feel the weight of sin, the guilt of your failures, and the sting of death, come to the Lord’s Supper, for here at the altar you receive forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Come and receive, the Lord does not hold back; He meets you, because He is for you. 

Come and receive the body and blood of Christ this evening in the Lord’s Supper – a holy meal instituted for you that Maundy Thursday long ago. 

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

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[1] Martin Luther, The Large Catechism: The Sacrament of the Altar.

[2] Martin Luther, The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther: Volume 5 ed. Eugene Klug (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 459.

Plunged Into Suffering And Death - For You

Text:  Matthew 21:1-9

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

Within American Christianity, many thousands upon thousands, and quite possibly millions, of Christians see Christianity as an individualized journey of trying to get to the goal of God.  To them, God is off in the distance; He is passive, unresponsive, and stagnant, which means that it is up to the Christian to somehow and someway either get God’s attention or get closer to Him.  Since God is this immovable and uncaring goal to be reached, the task of trying to get closer to Him can take all sorts of forms.  Regardless of the method or technique or strategy of getting closer to God, one thing is for sure, it demands a tremendous amount of effort and religious zeal on behalf of the individual Christian.

More specifically let me give you an example.  According to this way of thinking, all of us Christians are stranded on a deserted island – called earth.  We are surrounded by miles upon miles of deep dark water, which means that we are trapped.  The goal though is for us to escape this island.  We can escape this island – earth – by building some sort of raft and then paddling with all our might to the goal, that goal being God.  Only those who have enough faith and are strong enough for the journey, really have a chance, for one would have to paddle hard enough and long enough through the treacherous waters.  Yes, if you have enough faith and are strong enough, you may then possibly escape the deserted island and reach the goal, which is the heavenly dwelling of God.  In other words, if we Christians ever stand a chance of getting off the deserted island (earth), we must set our sights towards the goal of heaven and get their by our own strenuous efforts. 

Now, if Christianity is all about us Christians setting out on our heavenly pilgrimages by our own strength and cleverly devised plans, then the church must become a rallying place for all of us to encourage one and another in our heavenly pursuits.  Yes, church services will become large pep rallies where we can talk about the challenges set before us and try to convince each other that we can make the journey off the island.  Furthermore, the sermons of the church become simply pep talks or messages that are meant to give pointers on how to build a raft, that is to say, ways to get from earth to heaven.

Dear friends, is this why we gather here at this church today?  Are we here to encourage each other in our heavenly pursuit of working to get from this life to the next?  Should I be giving you pointers on how to build your metaphoric rafts and how to paddle off of this island towards the goal? 

You and I might be tempted to believe this way, since so many Christian Churches teach this; however, our Gospel from the Gospel of Matthew undoes all of this.  Yes, our church service this morning actually overthrows this whole notion of us having to get off of the island by our own tireless and vigorous efforts.   

Today, my friends, is Palm Sunday – it is the day our Lord Jesus Christ rode ‘into’ Jerusalem on a donkey.  It is the day that they waved palm branches and shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”  It is a day that serves as a gateway to Holy Week.  It is a day that we get to hear the story about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the same story that we heard the first Sunday of Advent.

Now, let us just pause here for a moment. 

Do you realize what is going on here?

The story of Jesus coming into Jerusalem on a donkey is the exact same story that we heard during the first Sunday in Advent, right before Christmas.  In other words, within the church’s calendar, we focus on this story of Jesus riding on the donkey, each Easter Season (at the beginning of Holy Week) and we also focus on this story at the beginning of the Advent Season (right before Christmas).  But why do we hear this story of Jesus on the donkey two times a year and why do we hear it during the Christmas and Easter seasons?  Why is it significant to hear right before Jesus birth and Jesus’ death?  Why should we Christians learn and treasure this story?  The answer is this: this story is really at the heart of the Christian faith. 

Dear friends, consider this, at Christmas time we hear about the Lord Jesus Christ, “Very God of Very God,” coming down from heaven and being born of the Virgin Mary.  In other words, Advent and Christmas are all about the Lord coming to earth – coming to this island for you and for me.  Indeed, Advent and Christmas are all about the God of the universe not being content to leave us helpless and alone in our sins, but rather about the Lord God pursuing us and coming right into our very midst.  It is about the Light coming into darkness – into the world.  And today’s Palm Sunday Service is about that same Lord coming for humanity’s sin.  The Lord came down from heaven and plunged Himself into a manger; the Lord came to Jerusalem and plunged Himself into suffering and death.  We do not have a stagnant, uncaring, and passive Lord, but quite the opposite.

Do you see what is going on here?  The Lord comes to helpless and sinful humanity.  He comes to Bethlehem.  He comes to Jerusalem.  He comes to the cross. 

Why does this matter?  It matters because there could be no life for you and for me without the Lord coming to us.  We cannot paddle hard enough and our rafts are not sturdy enough.  The water is too deep; the waves are too big.  There is no way off the island – this earth – by our own reason or strength.  We are too sinful and too spiritually sick to arise to the challenge.  Left to ourselves the only option is death on the island – on this earth.  Ashes to ashes; dust to dust.  Therefore, there is only one option; the Lord must come to us.  He must come to this earth and must come and meet our sin… which He has already done. 

Jesus, the promised Messiah came to pay that debt of sin.  He came to us in His birth and He came to us in His death.  Riding on the donkey into Jerusalem, Jesus was riding into death where the sins of the world would be strapped to Himself – your sin and mine.  In Jerusalem, Jesus would be plunged into death – death on a cross. 

There is more though. 

The Christ who came to the manger during that Christmas Season long ago and the Christ who came to the cross that Palm Sunday long ago, comes to you this day as well. 

You, who have ears, hear this!  His purpose of coming long ago was to accomplish salvation for you; His purpose of coming today to you in His Word is to deliver that very salvation to you. 

Indeed, the Christ who comes to you today and this week in the Word and Sacraments was the same Christ who came to Bethlehem and was swaddled in cloths and laid in a manger.  The Christ who comes to you today and this week in the Word and Sacraments was the same one who came on a donkey into Jerusalem, so that He could sit with a “shabby, dirty, soldier’s coat on His bleeding back and a crown of thorns set sideways on His head; with a mock scepter in His hand and the spittle of drunken soldiers running down His face.”[1]

Dear friends, do not deceived, the Divine Services here at your Zion Lutheran Church are not times for you to rally together and somehow paddle to heaven.  We do not gather here to try and plot how to get off of the island – off of earth by our own reason and strength and might and power.  But rather, these Divine Services at your Zion Lutheran Church are times where the Lord comes to you.  This service today and the services this week and the services for the upcoming months are times where the Lord comes to be in the midst of His people – to be with you. 

Oh, the goodness of this news.  We are not alone.  He comes to be in the midst of our lives, our pains, our struggles, and our deaths… He comes to give you and me faith that we might not become weary or disheartened or fearful.  The Lord promises to be with us to the very end of the age.      

Dear blessed Baptized Saints, we are not left alone in this world to fend for ourselves.  We are not detached from the Lord.  He came and comes for you and for me.

Yes, the Lord came to you and joined you to Himself in your baptisms – you are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection.  You are bound to Christ and He is bound to you. 

The Lord also comes to you in His Word to speak the powerful words of forgiveness – you are forgiven; I will neither leave you nor forsake you. 

Finally the Lord comes to you in, with, and under the bread and the wine – take and eat, take and drink, this is my body and my blood for the forgiveness of all of your sins.  You are partakers of a heavenly meal.     

Just as the Lord did not hold back in coming to us in His birth and just as the Lord did not hold back in coming to our sins in His death, He never tires of coming to you and me today.  He never tires coming. 

Today is Palm Sunday.  The Savior came to Jerusalem to save the world from sin.  He comes today to reign in our hearts and minds as well.  Let the cry of Hosanna loudly go forth.  Salvation belongs to our God, salvation that is delivered into our hearts and minds and souls.  Praise be to the Christ, the Messiah, the Promised one, who came and comes for sinners with forgiveness, life, and salvation. 

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

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[1] Fred H. Lindemann, The Sermon and The Propers: Volume II (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 99.

Amen And So It Shall Be

Text:  Luke 11:1-13 and the Conclusion to the Lord's Prayer

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

We all say the word Amen.  Some people pronounce it ah-men, while others pronounce it ay-men.  There are also phrases that are used in our popular culture in connection to the word Amen.  Phrases such as:

Amen to that!

Amen, brother!

Can I get an Amen?

Furthermore, we say the word Amen in a variety of different contexts.  We say Amen after a dinner prayer in our homes, we say it after praying the Lord’s Prayer in church, we say it after our nightly prayers, and we will even hear it spoken on television and social media when a person wants to express agreement to a particular sentiment.  Indeed, the word Amen is used at least every week in our vocabulary, if not every single day. 

  

Now, with all of that said, I do wonder if we are fully aware of what we are saying when we use the familiar word Amen.  Is the word Amen simply a word that is used to notify the end of a prayer?  Is it a religious gush that pious people say in order to look and appear holy?  Or is it something more?

The word Amen actually comes from a word that means firm, steady, trustworthy, true, and faithful.  The word Amen is a solid word; it is not flimsy.  It is not a word that is to be spoken with a hushful pious sounding whisper, but rather, a word that is to be spoken with a loud, firm, and convicting declaration.  It is a word that communicates sureness, certainty, and confidence.[1] 

Pagans will sometimes use the word Amen from time to time, which really does not mean much; however, when the word Amen comes out of the mouth of a Christian, we must take notice.  Yes, when you say the word Amen, it is not just a bold confident two syllable word, but rather, it is much more. 

Baptized Saints, to put this another way, when we say the word Amen, it is the voice of our faith.  The word Amen coming from our mouths communicates nothing else than the unquestioned faith.  Surely, when we pray and end our prayers with the word Amen, we are confessing that our prayer is not a prayer that is offered as a matter of luck or a shot in the dark, but rather a prayer that is actually heard by the God of the universe!  Indeed, when we say the word Amen, we are actually confidently asserting in faith that God has heard our cry for mercy, help, and grace.  The word Amen is a bold confession that our prayer was not cast out of our mouths into endless space, but heard by our loving Father.    

But why can we be so certain that our prayers are heard?  What gives us the right to say Amen?  Why should we be so bold to boast that God hears us Christians when we pray? 

The answer is this.  We can say Amen because Jesus invites us and teaches us to pray boldly to God as dear children talk to their dear Father.  In other words, if there was no faith and no Christ and no forgiveness of sin and no baptism, there would be no Amen and no prayer.  But there is and that is why we say Amen and that is why we pray.  Yes, Jesus extends this invitation to us because He shed His blood to break down the wall of sin that stood between us and the Father.  Jesus makes us children of God.  The Holy Spirit gives us faith that receives Jesus and His benefits.  Through the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith, we are the children of God, the heirs of His Kingdom, and He gives us the right to pray boldly and to end our prayers with the sure word of Amen.

And so we pray and we pray with an Amen at the end of our prayers.  We ask in faith of our needs, knowing that the Lord hears the cries of His children. 

But what are we to do when it seems like the Lord God does not answer our prayers? 

Lord, I don’t have a paycheck, my health is failing, and I am all alone.  Oh, and that neighbor is out to destroy me.  Help me, Lord.  Deliver me.  Preserve me.  Protect me.  Give me this day my daily bread, and forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me.  Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil.

Dear friends, even in situations like this, we still say the word Amen!  The reason why?  The Lord typically does not answer prayers the way that we think they should be answered, for the Lord’s ways are not our ways and our ways are not the Lord’s ways.  Frankly, the Lord does not respond to our prayers by saying,

Here is a winning lottery ticket.  That should solve all your problems.  Now go away and be quiet and leave me alone! 

“That’s not how God works.  That’s how we often work.  We try to solve problems—even spiritual problems—not by getting at the root cause of the problem, but by simply throwing money or goods at the problem until it goes away.  Sadly, that’s what we sometimes want from God.  That’s what we sometimes unfaithfully pray for—full bellies and full bank accounts.  Just mask the problem and make it out of sight and out of mind.  But those sorts of loveless, empty materialistic responses don’t make the problem go away, especially when the problem is a trust problem; a trust in God above all things problem.  Those false materialistic crutches and promises are the lies of the devil.”[2]

My brothers and sisters in Christ, when we end our prayers with the word Amen, it is the voice of our faith confessing that we not only know that the Lord has heard our prayers, but that He will answer our prayers in the way that is best.  You see, we must never forget that when the Lord answers yes to our specific requests, it is because He loves us.  When He answers no, it is because he loves us.  And most importantly we must not forget that the Lord always answers our prayers by strengthening our faith in His promises.  Indeed, the Lord answers our prayers by strengthening our faith so that we can hold up the Lord’s promises in the midst of whatever storm we might be going through, and say,

You oh God are enough.  You are good.  You will take care of me, you will satisfy me.  You will get me through this.  You are my treasure.  Whom have I in heaven by you?  And on earth there is nothing that I desire beside you.  My flesh and my heart and my life may fail, but you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever.[3]

The Amen to our prayers is our bold confession of our faith that the Lord is in control.  It is a bold confession of you and me saying that the Lord has heard our prayers.  It is a bold confession that the Lord will answer our prayers as is best. 

Indeed, the church’s word is Amen.  Amen to Baptism.  Amen to the Word.  Amen to the body and blood of the Lord.  Amen to our prayers.  Amen today, tomorrow, and forever, for “the throne room of heaven lies open before us.  [Yes,] God is ready to listen to whatever we have to tell Him.  The privilege of prayer is there for all who believe.  It is one of the many gifts God gives to us with His presence here in time and forever in eternity.”[4]

In the name of Jesus:  Amen.

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[1] New Bible Dictionary: Third Edition, ed. I Howard Marshall, A.R. Millard, J.I. Packer and D.J. Wiseman (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1996), 29.

[2] Jason Zirbel, “Unanswered Prayers?” LCMS Sermons, http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3375 (accessed March 15, 2016).

[3] Paraphrase of Psalm 73:25-26.

[4] James T. Batchelor, “Tenth Sunday after Pentecost,” LCMS Sermons, http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3378 (accessed March 15, 2016).