Seeing Christ’s Glory

 Easter Sunday

April 20

John 17:24

Christ is Risen! He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah!

On Good Friday, Jesus “…went and prepared a place for us.…” (John 14:2) But that place was not complete until He had raised Himself from the dead. Scripture tells us that the Resurrection of the Christ was a collective work of the Triune God.

Yet Jesus in His prayers before His resurrection, was giving all glory to His Father, especially in His prayer which fills up John 17.

In that prayer, He said: “Father I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (vs. 24)

Jesus, as the perfect Servant (see the latter chapters of Isaiah, especially 53), will remind us that a tremendous and crucial part of His story of serving, is found in His death.   So He alone, on the day of resurrection, will have the glorious “marks” of the serving King on His hands and feet. What an amazing thing it will be!   A breath-taking acclamation!  “Seeing His glory”!

As the “First Fruits” of the Resurrection (I Corinthians 15), Jesus allowed His faithful disciples to see those glorious marks of love. He had prayed for His disciples to be with Him.   Indeed, all who remained “faithful unto death” saw His glory, only not in a garden where they had expected to see death.

We will see Him as The Second Person of the Holy Trinity.  Christ, our Savior, will welcome us with open arms to the new creation!  At that time, we, too, will have glorified resurrected bodies.  But only His hands will have scars of deeply driven nails, clear evidence of His immeasurable love and incomprehensible sacrifice.

Christ is risen! Our glorious King!

Blessed Easter! Blessed life! Blessed death! And blessed resurrection!

Saturday Sabbath Sorrow?   No.

A Prayer for God’s Glory in the Church – Past and Present

 Holy Saturday

April 19

Ephesians 3:20-21

Holy Saturday was a Sabbath. What must have the Sabbath worship been like that day?

Jesus was suddenly dead. His burial was quick and occurred by sundown the day He was crucified. As Saturday morning dawned, the disciples and followers and friends of Jesus were most likely numb with shock. It was a high Sabbath; would they go to Sabbath worship? We know that on the following day, Easter Sunday, the disciples were behind locked doors, so it seems that out of fear of more reprisals from the Jewish religious leaders they would miss the Sabbath worship that Saturday.

What did they miss? Although we are not certain, the Sabbath reading may have been the one (actually 2) still read from Exodus 12:21-51. This reading describes the application of the blood of the Passover lambs to the top and sides of the doors of their homes.  They used a special hyssop “brush” made from a bush which had special cleaning applications. (“The blood cleans.”)

The latter portions of Exodus 12 describe the grief of the Egyptians who lost their first-born sons, and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt at night. I am thinking that Jesus’ friends were feeling more like the Egyptians than the Israelites. The Egyptians on the first Passover were lost in grief, while the Israelites were tasting the first freedom they’d had in centuries. Jesus was dead; seeing ahead seemed moot.

But like the same Sabbath service today, there may have been a second reading on the Sabbath after Jesus was crucified. It was from Joshua 5:2-6:1. It was about a new Passover in the new land of Promise. Joshua, whose name is the same as “Jesus,” celebrates the Passover for the first time in the promised land, and the celebration includes a new group of “Israelites,” those who would be newly circumcised at Gilgal.  The reading concludes with Joshua having a private meeting with the “Captain of the Lord’s hosts,” Jesus, Who is telling Joshua about how the great city of Jericho will fall to an army of trumpet wielding priests. The walls will come down.

We recall Jesus telling His disciples that “the gates of hell will not prevail” against Christ’s Church (Matthew 16). This is an astonishing couple of readings for the day after Good Friday!! God has freed His people from an oppressive enemy in Egypt by the death of an innocent lamb, and He is about to destroy another enemy with trumpet blasts of praise from priests. Past victory by miraculous vicarious death. (Good Friday. Right!) Future victory by Jesus orchestrating priestly public trumpeting. (Easter. Right!)

The Church often looks like the saints in the aftermath of Good Friday. But we have seen what happened to Jericho’s walls… and death… on Easter.  The prayer in Ephesians gives proper praise to our Captain, Christ. He has been in control all along, and after Easter it’s obvious He deserves our praise!

Ready or Not to Die

Good Friday

April 17

Luke 2: 29-30

Years ago, I was preaching at a Lutheran Home in Cabot, PA. After the service, several old saints expressed the same sentiment about the message.  Their words went something like this, “Pastor, we are not afraid to die.  It’s the process of dying we fear.”

I understood. Only later would I appreciate more fully that concern first hand. With my daughter’s acute cerebral palsy, we had seen her grow through struggle, but reach an apex of joy and engagement and relative pain-free living about the time she was 18. The 5 years that followed were a difficult process for her and us, as health complications escalated and became complex to manage. Her awareness waned, and discomfort increased. Late in the summer before she would rest in the arms of Christ, I herniated a disk in my back, and I could no longer care for her in the way necessary to maintain her respiratory status and help her breathe easier.

My anguished prayer was, “Lord, call Your child home, or heal me, or heal her.”  Watching her struggle was so very hard. I also prayed that the Lord call her quickly.

Simeon would get to hold a bouncing baby boy in his arms, the antithesis of struggling and death. But the promise of life wrapped up in that boy held a peace for that man, so he said: “Now, Lord, You are letting Your bond-servant depart in peace, according to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation…” Departing in peace is first about the assurance of salvation.  Christ gives that first in forgiveness.

Saint Augustine, despite his strong faith, had a torrid and spiritually devoid past. When he was on his deathbed, he had Psalm 32 inscribed in paper on the wall – “How blessed is he whose wrongdoing is forgiven, whose sin is covered!” Augustine was a saint, not because of being good, but by being forgiven by God. Jesus truly was “good,” but His death was filled with pain, and He suffered the abandonment of His Father, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mt. 27:46) His process of death was horrific, suffering the loneliness of hell. Jesus was covering Augustine’s sin. But Scripture also says that Jesus could not lose His faith, “He could not deny Himself.” (II Timothy 2:13) Therefore, in faith, Jesus said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When He had said this, He breathed His last. (Luke 23:46) He died in peace.

My daughter Jennifer did die quickly.  She died spiritually in peace, but it was a physical struggle. We all hope for an easy death, but, in Christ, we all have a peaceful death. Like Simeon, we hold by faith the innocent Christ in our heart. (By the way, this is Jesus’ faith, a divine gift given to us by the Lord.) It is this faith that will make a physically difficult death, a “departing in peace.” Like Augustine, we are assured by God’s Word of His mercy.

Rx for the Sick

Maundy Thursday

April 16

II Corinthians 12:9

Illness is no fun. COVID changed the world, and it changed the Church. I have been surprised that after COVID there has not been an upsurge in attendance – thankful that in-person fellowship is restored, and humbled by the virus which ravaged the world. A Pew research study in 2023 did report an increase of people joining on-line (and thank the Lord for our tech people who took the opportunity to vastly upgrade our streaming presentation, which now looks and sounds very good). But as of March 2023, worship overall was down 3-8% nationwide. (And I note that the halo effect of self-reporting has probably inflated even those worship numbers to appear larger than they are.)

Even Apostles could get inflated heads, and even Apostles could also get sick or suffer. Saint Paul explaining enigmatically that God allowed a “thorn to remain” in his flesh to keep him humble writes,

Because of the extraordinary greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!  Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me. ⁹ And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” (II Cor. 12:7-9)

So the blunt answer to Paul’s fervent prayer was “No.” That answer was qualified by an explanation: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” God many times allows illness or various “thorns in the flesh” to remain.  In our present lives, this serves God’s Kingdom by making us Christ-like: “My Power is perfected in weakness.”

Philippians 2 tells us that Christ “emptied Himself” instead of being full of Himself. God is opposed to the proud. So He gives us the gift of humility through unremovable thorns. These thorns keep us both humble and close to the Lord. And they hurt! Jesus had an entire crown of them pressed into His head.

What really matters seems to be “grace,” God’s grace to us: “My grace is sufficient for you.”

Grace in Christ gives us forgiveness of sins, in-person fellowship with the Triune God in His abiding presence in our heart and spirit by baptismal gifts, and in-person fellowship in the sacrament of the altar. And ultimately, in-person fellowship with God in a restored glorified “THORN-less” body!

Oftentimes, God’s prescription for healing is grace…and grace alone. Boast worthy!

How Does It Feel to Know that Jesus Prayed for You?

Wednesday, April 16

Luke 22:  31, 32

Peter was one of the first disciples, humble, brash, courageous at times… and flakey and weak at other times… but in the end, strong.

At the last supper, the Lord’s Supper, the meal we are commanded as His Church to participate in regularly, Jesus told Peter that He had already prayed for Peter – that “his faith would not fail!”

³¹ “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift you men like wheat; ³² but I have prayed for you, that your faith will not fail; and you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Even though Peter’s brain, behavior, and mouth failed – badly – his faith did not fail.

Jesus’ prayer apparently did not specify whether He included praying that Peter would not sin.   (He entrusted that prayer to His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane.)  Importantly, Jesus did pray that Peter’s faith would not fail. And it did not.

Do you think Peter remembered this word of our Lord when he ran sniveling from the servant girl whom he had lied to about “not knowing the man…”? At some point, it may have been the powerful words of Jesus’ which pulled him back from the brink of despair.

 Jesus prayed for Peter that night.  Who else did He pray for?  That same night He prayed for you and me:

“And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I am not asking on behalf of these [the 11 disciples] alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word,²¹ that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. (Jn. 17)

In this High Priestly Prayer, Jesus prayed for you. He asked that you and I would be sanctified by Him and His Word. [Are we “continuing in the Word”?]  He asked that we would be unified. [Are we one with each other? Do we know each other to be “one?”] He asked that our faith in Him would keep us in the mystical communion of the fellowship between Christ and His Church. [Are you and I in that communion?] He asked that people would see our faith and works and come to faith and glorify God the Father. [Are people coming to faith in God through us?]

How do you feel about these prayers Jesus said for you? Maybe like Peter felt, after he failed?  I hope so. Because all of us have failed, but Jesus has prayed for us. I am greatly encouraged by that and those prayers!

Resistance Is NOT Futile

Tuesday, April 15

I Peter 5: 8, 9 

Many people have heard the iconic phrase “resistance is futile” and know it was made famous by the Star Trek movie “First Contact.”  In that movie, the excellent actor Patrick Stewart is “assimilated” by an eclectic group of aliens known as the Borg.  A dark chorus of a Borg voice, representing the hordes of species assimilated and controlled by the Borg, speak to Captain Picard who is told “resistance is futile” as he tries to resist. We discover in the outcome of the plot that a form of “resistance” is not futile!

The apostle Peter who boasted, “even though all will fall away, I will never fall away…,” (Mark 14:29) did try to resist in the Garden of Gethsemane with a literal sword. He chose the wrong weapon. Peter would later write, after his epic spiritual failure, these words:

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. So resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brothers and sisters who are in the world. (I Pt. 5:8,9)

Some suggested elements of resistance follow.   Don’t be intoxicated by the world’s thinking or way of life.   Look for the adversary knowing that the walk of faith assumes a struggle.   Understand that the struggle is about true freedom (justification through faith in Christ).  Grasp the faith you say you believe. Know that giving in to sin and Satan’s enticement could easily lead to being devoured.  Realize that you are not alone in this struggle and that “resistance” literally means “taking a stand” against these foes.

We cannot be apathetic about evil. Evil – resistance to righteousness — is the mother of all suffering and woe: dissension, pride, sickness, war, death…. The anti-logic that “everyone does it” is simply justification to do the same, like drinking the Kool-Aid in Jonestown. 

But part of “resistance” is simply to rest and let Someone Else do the fighting. The word Peter used for “adversary” is literally “anti-justification.” Satan hates grace. He hates that Jesus stood up to him perfectly and freely gives us forgiveness. Trusting Christ and calling on Him to do the fighting for us is better than self-defense. Peter should have picked up God’s sword (the Word, Eph. 6), and by trusting the Word, he could’ve won the day and the struggle. Fleeing the adversary and running to the Justifier Jesus is the best way to resist!

Trials to Be Considered Joy

Monday, April 14

James 1: 2, 3

The Epistle of James was distinctly different from the letters from Paul. When we think of the harmony of Scripture, we don’t get any “harmony” unless different notes are sung simultaneously. James’ message emphasizes works flowing from faith.  (2:16)   Paul’s message emphasizes faith saving without works. (Eph. 2: 8, 9) But there is harmony. Both admit faith saves, and both admit that works are the necessary fruit of a genuine faith. Both men began as Jewish legalists, and both were converted by meeting the resurrected Jesus.  Importantly, both men suffered for the Gospel and wrote about the blessing that suffering and hardship play in God’s orchestration of His Kingdom.

Bach wrote a song which is very “unBachian.” It does not fit our ear when it comes to the gifted Lutheran composer. Yet it remains a favorite for many, including me. “Toccota and Fugue in D Minor” is a fascinating work. Besides the breadth, speed, range, and angst that the listener experiences, in several places Bach wrote discordant-long-whole-notes in chords and notes that don’t seem to go together.  So it lacks a kind of “harmony.” But over time, my ear has relished those passages and chords. They represent the full expression of life to me, including the beauty and pain.

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James and his brothers made early attempts in Jesus’ ministry to remove Him from the spotlight, probably fearing for His life, and the parallel concern for any fallout the larger family members would suffer from Jesus’ challenges to the traditional teaching of Jewish leaders which claimed “you are saved by being Jewish and good.” Of course, the family was right that Jesus was exposed to risk and suffering. He was beaten and nailed to a cross. That was the tragic discordant necessity of God, to bring the Good News to us. Pain and death – played in the low long notes of God in Christ – allow us to be the “Sheep That Safely Graze,” another harmonic Bach piece, in the pastures of the freedom of the Good News.

How do we reframe the trials and testing into something good and Godly? Well, first consider the Passion of Jesus. Suffering was linked to our salvation. Jesus did it for us, but He also said that His followers would be persecuted, even though it is only by grace that we are saved. One key for reframing is the word James used for “consider.” It seems to often be associated with leadership.   Here’s the idea: at first experience, trials are painful, but we should “consider” them “joy” because the faith and truth of God tells us they are to be joy.  This realization leads us to embrace problems as a manifestation of God’s will, and eventually we see and feel the joy of a “complete” life in Christ.

 “Consider” seems like a decision. If we trust James’ word, we trust that joy in Christ is woven into pain. Discordant joy. It can be, and is, a beautiful chord of God’s composition. Tears now.  Joy later.

Sin Still Matters to the Saints

Saturday, April 12

Mark 14:38

Sin is always dangerous – even if it is going to be forgiven.

Of all Christians, I believe Lutherans tend to be most flippant about sin.

Before you get your dander up about that statement, part of the reason this may be true is that we understand grace so clearly.  Jesus died.   His powerful blood, anguished vicarious suffering, and perfect sacrifice removed my sin. I rest in that grace completely, and that is why on occasion I am tempted to not be so upset about sin.   And, frankly, my rest in His grace explains why my prayers may not be so passionate. God has it all covered.  I just trust Him.

However, Jesus certainly was concerned about sin – perfect, as He was — and imperfect as His disciples were. He was still concerned about both His need to be faithful, without sin, and their fleshy natural propensity to slide into sin and their tendency to keep running after it.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, as He is literally sweating blood in His prayers…His disciples are asleep. (Now, pause for a moment to meditate on one of your most anguished moments.  Translate it into anguishing over fighting against the desire to sin.  Add the element of knowing that God wants you to be drawn to Him and the goodness and love and faithfulness He offers.  Such meditation is taking sin seriously.) Upon finding His friends asleep, He said: “Keep watching and praying, so that you will not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mk. 14:38)

I do not believe the disciples were sleeping because they knew Jesus had their sin covered. They were sleeping both literally and spiritually because they really weren’t concerned in a passionate way about God’s plan and providence. The combination of full bellies, abundant wine, the late hour, ignorance of the spiritually bigger picture, and not taking seriously Jesus’ directive to pray to avoid “coming into temptation,” all contributed to their lethargy, apathy, and fatigue.

Now please consider two things: “pray that you may not come into temptation…” and “flesh without strength.”

An alcoholic should avoid driving past liquor stores if he knows and admits that he is genuinely tempted to go in and purchase alcohol by doing so. Making the decision to turn down another street is avoiding even coming “into” temptation. As Paul says in Romans, “make no provision for the flesh.”  Why pack something on a trip that we don’t intend to use? Any provision which we take is usually connected to the plan to use what is packed in a bag. We go “into” temptation when we make plans to provide entry points into Satan’s den of iniquity.

Consequently, because the flesh is literally “without strength” as Jesus said in Mark 14:38, we take literal physical/fleshy steps to avoid coming into temptation.  How? By not even making provision for it and by avoiding the street where temptation lies.   So discipline and loving God with our mind and strength matter. But the battleground to avoid sin involves prayer. The spiritual exercise of prayer, trusting God to answer it in the best possible way spiritually, limits Lucifer’s access to the soul. Once he gets into that, sin becomes animated and is “crouching at the door ready to consume.” (Genesis 6:7) Take sin seriously and pray to avoid “coming into temptation.”

Yet despite a zero batting average in the Garden to pray, Jesus forgave them all for their sleep and apathy.

The Most Important Petition

Friday, April 11

Matthew 6: 12

These Lenten devotions are primarily about the Lord’s Prayer and the passion of Christ, especially the prayers Jesus prayed leading up to and during His suffering.

As we look at the Lord’s Prayer, we note that it is nicely laid out with an introduction, seven petitions, and a conclusion.  An argument could be made that the introduction is the most important.  It reminds us that even though everyone who is created could properly call God “Father,” only those who have a faith relationship with God through His gifted invitation washed, renewed and regenerated through the waters of baptism, have the right to call God “Father” because of their baptismal adoption.

I would grant that our adoption is the very blessing that permits us to confidently pray these words to God:  “Our Father Who art in heaven.” But as I look at the seven petitions, it seems to me that forgiveness of sins remains the primary blessing of our adoption and the essential fruit that we bear because of our intimate relationship with God our Father through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The fifth petition is “And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” (Matthew 6:12) Interestingly, Luther’s explanation of this petition does not reference what appears to be God’s forgiveness to us – linked with our forgiveness of others. Luther’s exposition admits from the outset: “We pray in this petition that our Father in Heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we asked that He would give them all to us by grace…”

Fortunately, the catechism has a question directly on this: #279: “Does our forgiveness from God depend upon our ability to forgive others?” [The first part of the answer is the shortest sentence in the catechism: “No.”] That abrupt and direct comforting answer is followed by this explanation: “It may appear that Jesus makes our being forgiven dependent upon our forgiving others when He says, “forgive us.. As we also have forgiven….” Regarding this, the Scriptures teach two complementary truths. First, God has forgiven the sins of the world solely for Christ’s sake; thus, I cannot earn forgiveness by forgiving others. Second, if we stubbornly refuse to forgive others, we reject God’s forgiveness for them and for us.”   Some verses are offered to support these two truths: Romans 5:2, 10 & Colossians 3:13, Matthew 6:15 & 18:35. [Please read all these verses].

Forgiveness of sins for others is the essential fruit of a genuine faith.  Our heart to forgive is rooted in the forgiveness which we have received, found in our heart (Eph. 3:17 & Lk. 17:21). This takes us back to the original Reformation argument: faith alone saves, but faith that is alone… is never true faith.  In Matthew 18, Jesus said we must forgive “from your heart” (vs. 35). What is in my heart is forgiveness and the Forgiver. Forgiveness is actually from God; I’m simply His conduit. If I don’t forgive, it seems that the heart is absent the Forgiver.  Jesus’ commentary on the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer (Mt. 6:14,15) is a warning that if we are not forgiving others, our soul is in jeopardy.  The parable in Matthew 18 teaches the same truth.  

Praying for Balance

Thursday, April 10

Proverbs 30: 8-9

Paul Newman created in 1982 the benevolent food company “Newman’s Own” which gives away 100% of its profit. A couple of years ago, the organization eclipsed $600 million in distributed gifts, from its inception. The gifted actor commenting some time ago about the company’s success said, “I would have kept some for myself if I had known it would make so much money.” He may have been kidding, but if not, do you think he really needed more money?

We are clueless who the author of Proverbs 30 was.  Well, we do know he was “Agur son of Jakeh.…” Other than that, we don’t know when, where, or contextually who this father and son team was. But the prayer of Agur asked for integrity and balance, and the prayer connected the dots between wealth and deception and faith.

Keep deception and lies far from me.
Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, so that I will not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?”
And that I will not become impoverished and steal, And profane the name of my God.

Agur saw the risk at the ends of the bell curve of wealth for the growth of deception. Poverty risked theft or deception to survive; excessive wealth risked the same sins for the sake of gaining more.  (Luke 12) The temptation to feel insecure when we are trusting money — not God — to provide and sustain us is ever-present because such trust is misplaced. It is not really the amount of money (God’s resources) we are entrusted with managing which becomes the risk factor; it is simply forgetting that the money is “entrusted” to us by God as His stewards. Judas did not seem to be poor, yet he coveted 30 pieces of silver, and he ignored “Who is the Lord?”

The food that “is my portion,” seems like “daily bread.” Agur was motivated by faith. In all circumstances, he wanted his faith in Yahweh to be goal of the balanced amount of money he had.  Have you and I ever prayed to have the right amount of money to bless our faith? Would it be more or less?

Jesus did not have a home. After He had retired as a carpenter, He was sustained by the faithful who provided enough for the disciples to be sustained in mission. He died penniless and naked on a tree, paying for the excesses, deception of all others who lived for themselves. As He was dying, He was looking forward to a paradise constructed and paid for by God. “Whatever is not from faith is sin.” (Rom. 14:28)