How Can It Be?

“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, ‘This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

One of the themes we have been discussing in some of these Lenten devotions is stewardship of the mysteries of God. Communion is one such mystery. You may ask—and I know I have—how simple pieces of bread and a small sip of wine can do anything.  How can just a short sentence or two spoken over them, change them? How can this seemingly small thing do anything?

That’s part of the mystery to us. We can’t fully understand how it works. If we look at the wafer that is placed into our hands or the wine that is in the cup, they don’t look like Jesus’ body and blood.  They don’t taste like flesh or blood. But they are.  How?

The answer is a simple one. Jesus’ words are what makes the Sacrament what it is. As with His institution of Baptism, it is the words of Jesus that cause it to be the saving and forgiving gift to us. If it weren’t for His words, we would be eating only bread and drinking only wine. But because of His words, we are receiving His body and blood. We can’t fully wrap our mortal minds around this mystery, but that’s the truth about it. And this is the truth that Paul is reminding the floundering church in Corinth about.

In this section of 1 Corinthians, Paul is admonishing the Corinthian church (which had loads of problems) specifically for their failure to observe the Lord’s Supper with the care they should. And as he reminds them of what this Supper is about, he tells them that this is not something he just came up with. He is delivering to them what he “received from the Lord” (v. 23).  He is acting as a steward of the mystery. The Apostles had the wonderful blessing of being with Jesus during His earthly ministry and directly receiving the charges He made to the Church. They did not keep these great mysteries a secret but, instead, went into the whole world to share the news of Jesus and His teachings.

So, we also receive the great gifts of Christ and spread the good news of what He has done and what He does daily in our lives as He forgives us and renews us. We don’t always understand everything. But that’s ok because our words aren’t the ones that make the difference. It’s Jesus’ words that matter. And we share with others what we have received, what Jesus has taught and done, and the great gifts those things offer.

Dead to Sin but Alive in Him

“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new live. If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” (Romans 6:3-7)

The language in this passage could be described as a more violent side of rhetoric’s spectrum. Our death, Christ’s death, being dead, buried, and crucified are all used as descriptions. And the wild part is, it’s a positive description.

In these days of Lent, we especially look at the cross and what Christ did there. Crucifixion was not a pleasant death. The Romans, like some previous Empires of that area, perfected the art of causing suffering and carried it out regularly. After all, Christ was hung next to two common criminals, and historians like Josephus talk about the thousands upon thousands of crucifixions carried out over the years. It was not a pleasant death. It was intended to cause maximum pain and humiliation to its victims for as long as possible.

And that’s the word Paul uses to describe what happens to us in baptism. Our baptism unites us with Christ in His death and resurrection. Our old self is crucified with Him. That’s an important note to focus on. Our sinful nature is crucified with Christ. He took the sin of us all on His shoulders. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that Jesus became sin for our sakes. That’s a mysterious truth, and we’re thankful for it!  

So, we die with Christ. We are dead to sin and alive in Him. Through baptism, we are united with Him and receive these great benefits. The old Adam is drowned in the waters of baptism, and we are made a new creation in Christ. But none of this would have happened if it were not for the brutal suffering and death of Jesus on our account. He took the sin of the whole world on His shoulders and suffered the ultimate punishment for us all, and now offers the benefits He won for us freely, graciously, and mercifully in the waters of Baptism. As believers, we are free from sin because we are His.  

Prayer with Patience

“But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of Your steadfast love answer me in Your saving faithfulness.…Answer me, O Lord, for Your steadfast love is good; according to Your abundant mercy, turn to me. Hide not Your face from Your servant; for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.”  (Psalm 69:13, 16-17 )

Much of this Psalm of David is about the danger and hardships he is facing, often a result of his zeal for and faithfulness to God. It additionally contains verses quoted in the New Testament about Christ, such as the “zeal for Your house consumed me” (v. 9) and “more in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause” (v. 4).

Even with this torment that David had experienced before he wrote this Psalm, the torment Jesus experienced in the pain from the persecution and rebellion of His own people, and the calls for God’s judgment upon them toward the end of the Psalm, there is a noteworthy trend. The verses I selected for the center of this devotion place everything in God’s hands and in His mercy and love. Even though David wanted the suffering and persecution to end, he trusted in God’s steadfast love while he awaited the answer. And while he asks for a speedy answer, he asks for it in accordance with God’s love, even if that means the answer is “not yet” or “no.”

We see the same request from Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus has the weight of the world’s sin on His shoulders and prays that God would get Him out of that situation (Luke 22:42). Yet, as He prays this, He trusts in His Father, praying that “not my will, but yours, be done.” The difficult reality of that prayer and so many of our prayers is God saying, “not yet” or “no.”  Jesus still went to the cross and drank the cup of God’s wrath. David might not have gotten out of that situation entirely or quickly. Our loved ones still get sick or injured and die. But even as these trials surround us, we are always surrounded by the abundant steadfast love of God as He provides all things we need in every situation. So, we should keep praying and trusting in His mercy, even when it looks like He is not answering the prayers the way we want them answered.

I’ll end with one last note. The last seven verses of the Psalm end by praising God. Even as your world feels like it’s falling in, God still is in control. He is still Lord of all and cares for you. So we rejoice in the confidence we have in Him and in His gifts to us no matter the circumstances. As Luther writes in the meaning for the Second Commandment, we are to call upon God’s name “in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.” 

Forgiven Stewards

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” (Psalm 24:1-2)

We might not think much of verses like this. After all, we all know the Creation account in Genesis. We confess that God the Father is “Maker of Heaven and Earth” in the Creeds. Seems like a relatively straight-forward thing.                

Yet when we read this passage, especially the end of verse 1, it is another reminder of our insignificance and God’s majesty. The Lord owns all that He made, and that includes you and me. There is no exception for those who do not believe or those who do believe in Him. We don’t get a free pass because we are His children, and the unbelieving world doesn’t get a free pass for not being His children. We are all a part of His creation. 

Yes, God told Adam to have dominion over all creation (Genesis 1:28) and told His people to possess the Holy Land. So, in that regard, we have lordship over creation. But this is not a lordship where we do whatever we want. It is a stewardship over God’s creation. He did not shirk His responsibilities, but He rather gave us a part to play in ruling and caring for His creation.

There are many times we abuse this authority and make ourselves gods over nature and our fellow man. This is just one of the many ways we put ourselves first and fall short of God’s Law.

The reality of our failure can make the next few verses terrifying instead of comforting. “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” (Psalm 24:3-5). Without the Gospel, the answer to the question the Psalmist asks is “no one.” None of us have clean hands or a pure heart. We daily sin and fail grievously.

But thanks be to God that we do not make it on our own!   This Lent season, we look especially toward the Cross, but also to the empty tomb. No matter the times we fail at keeping God’s Law or acting as His children or as His stewards, the sacrifice of Christ for our sake covers all that.