- Apr 20, 2025
- 5 min read
[John 20:1-18] “…Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead.” (verses 8-9)
This Will Be My Confidence
On the morning of the resurrection of our Lord, it all seemed so regular. It was the most unusual, un-regular thing to happen. A man had died, but was alive again.
Yet the events, as recorded, and as they happened, were so very regular and matter of fact, even with rather mundane details being recorded.
Mary Magdelene was bringing spices to the tomb [Mark 16:1], that early Sunday morning, to further anoint the body of Jesus, as was their burial custom. She arrived at the tomb expecting a deceased body, as is usual. But He was not there. [John 20:1-2]
She goes and tells Peter and John, that “disciple whom Jesus loved” – as in, “He loved even me” – and reported to them what she assumed, that someone had taken Jesus’ body away.
Peter and John run to the tomb. It’s noted that John outruns Peter, looks in first, but without entering. Peter arrives, lagging behind, but enters the empty tomb first. They observe where the burial cloths are lying and how they are folded. Finally believe it. But go home. [John 20:3-10]
Mary Magdalene stays, weeping. But even when the two angels appear to her, the conversation is as natural as day. “Woman, why are you weeping?” “They have taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they have laid Him.” [John 20:11-13]
And then Mary Magdalene turns around and sees, outside the tomb, the resurrected, living Lord Jesus – the one who was dead but is alive again – And this is so regular, so normal, that she assumes Him to be the gardener, one of the groundskeepers. [John 20:14-15]
It’s as if it’s as normal as day for this man, our Lord, to be living again. And it is. As normal as encountering a gardener in the garden, a groundskeeper in the cemetery.
Jesus asks Mary the same question the angles did, “Woman, why are you weeping?” And then, “Whom are you seeking?” Thinking she’s speaking to the gardener, she says, “Sir, if you’ve carried Him away, tell me where to, and I’ll come get His body.” [John 20:15]
But now it does happen. When Jesus calls her by name, “Mary”, she finally sees what she’s looking at: “Rabboni! Teacher!” [John 20:16]. It’s Him! He is risen!
Her Savior – her Redeemer – the one whom she loved most, because He so loved her – loved her, and you, to death, to death on a cross – He’s alive! She did not lose Him! He did not let her be lost.
He is bodily risen. She clings to Him. But He tells her, “Do not cling to Me yet – I still have one more thing to do to finish My course. Go, and tell My brothers – His disciples – ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God’” [John 20:17].
Mary then went on this sent mission and became the first to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus to His disciples, saying, “‘I have seen the Lord’ – and that He had said these things to her.” [John 20:18]
On Good Friday, He died for our offenses. On Holy Saturday, His body rested in the tomb. On Easter Sunday, He rose from the dead never to die again.
Friday through Sunday, in the Passion narratives and in the resurrection accounts in the four gospels – we get the regular details – and a lot of details. Not all of which even seem necessary. But all of which make it a surprisingly regular accounting of things. Because, in fact, it is all very regular.
What I mean is this: That there is nothing more regular than you being a creature created by God. Because this is a creation created by a Creator. And, being more than animals, it is normal that we are, morally, held to account for our lives. And, it’s true that we are sinners.
So, if God, who created you, loves you – and He does – what would be more normal, more regular, than for Him to have sympathy, to come down and join you, so that He can be of greatest help to you. To give His life for you, when you’ve gotten yourself into trouble.
You see, moms and dads know we should do the same for our children, to give ourselves for them. So, how much more would God, who is fully and purely good, do the same?
And, having given His life for us, in our flesh, how would He not also overcome all those things which assaulted us – sin, death, and hell – which He, the Parent, took on Himself – and rise again from them, alive, to share with us and give us life. His life to our bodies?
What God in Christ Jesus has done for you – by His incarnation, suffering and death – by His resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, and His pending return — by His presence for you now, here, in His means of grace, His Word and Sacraments – it would, in fact, be abnormal, irregular, for God, who is good, to not do all this for you.
We know forgiveness and mercy, healing and protecting life, are good. Because we know that we’re suppose to do it. So, how much more would He forgive and give life? And He has.
All that our crucified and risen Savior Jesus has done for us is spectacular and most amazing – and very normal for God. And, undervalued by us.
He is available to all. Is He valued by you? Will you cling to Him where He has made Himself available to you? In prayer, calling on His name. In the ways He comes to you – in Baptism, in His Word learned, in His Sacrament received? In His blessing on your head?
This is regular life. It is also regular and normal to not know it all for sure yet, one-hundred percent. To still have questions. To still have blank areas in our knowledge. To still say, “I don’t feel sure about some things yet.” And, “I don’t know it all yet.”
You are as regular and normal as Peter and John, that disciple whom Jesus loved. It says, when they were at the tomb, that John, “also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead” [Jn 20:8-9] – though they had heard it many times [throughout the Gospels].
I guess we are very regular. Stick with Jesus, regularly, and He will increasingly become your confidence and your strength. That is the regular way.
I urge you, therefore, brothers and sisters, to value your time with your risen Savior Jesus. To be with Him regularly, here and at home. And to live the most normal life that there is for us to live – a life with God, who is our Creator and our risen Redeemer. Amen.
- Apr 18, 2025
- 4 min read
[John 19:30] So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
Ye Who Think of Sin but Lightly
“Ye who think of sin but lightly Nor suppose the evil great Here may view its nature rightly, Here its guilt may estimate…” [Lutheran Service Book, Hymn #451, Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted]
It is not a light matter. “Sin is lawlessness” [1 John 3:4]. More cataclysmic than defying the laws of nature, lawless hearts, lawless tongues, and lawless deeds defy God Himself, violate the blueprint of our creation, and bring death where there was life.
In this world and life, crimes come in varying degrees, and most wrongs are not even illegal. But God’s justice reaches through our whole body – and to the soul, to the desires, the heart, mind, and thought - and to the tongue, our words. To every part of us that God has created.
As the law says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” – “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself” [Matthew 22:37-40]. But God finds lawlessness.
In the crucifixion of Jesus, Jesus bears your lawlessness. Jesus is afflicted by your sin. The sin and lawlessness of the world, of all man, reaches His heart, soul, mind, and flesh. It is not a light matter, but is very great.
In the crucifixion of Jesus, the Son of God bears the sin of the world in more than one way:
(1) First, Jesus, the Innocent One, suffered with those innocently accused and abused. He suffered, unjustly, with those who suffer the lawlessness of this world unjustly. He became joined with those who are wronged, abused, or lied about – publicly, or personally.
Jesus was falsely accused of wrongs He did not do. He was denied due process and given a sham trial. The law-men acted lawlessly to put Him to death.
He was struck in the face. He was denied and betrayed, personally, by close friends – disciples – who should’ve loved Him, and whom He still loved.
Jesus bears the sin of the world by suffering what it is to be wronged, to be sinned against, or abused. He suffered with all who are wronged – known or unknown – to become their Savior, and is with them always, everywhere.
(2) Secondly, Jesus suffered the world’s rejection of God. Man’s rejection of God, rejection of goodness, rejection of truth, rejection of purity, and hatred for God’s righteousness – this fell upon Jesus on the cross.
“The reproaches of those who reproached You fell upon Me” [Romans 15:3; Psalm 69:9]. He is the Lord. The world’s hatred for their God found opportunity to strike Him because He had become flesh and dwelled among them.
In so far as God’s name and righteousness, and the proclamation of the truth, still dwell in Jesus’ body on earth, His church, this is the part of the cross that we still bear – where Jesus says, “Deny yourselves and take up your cross and follow Me.” [Luke 9:23]
(3) And third, Jesus suffered my sin and your sin – and the sin of all mankind – by making it His sin and suffering as the Sinner, though He had no sin. “For our sake, God made Him who knew no sin to be sin.” [2 Corinthians 5:21]
“Ye who think of sin but lightly, Here its guilt may estimate” – here on the cross.
On the cross Jesus carried sin. The sin I justify as not so bad. The sin I give my reasons for. The sin I say is not sin. The sin of my deeds, of my unheard words, of my heart, is turned inside out and displayed in the open upon the cross. There it is!
In the flesh of the brutalized Jesus. “As one from whom men hide their faces” – “His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the children of mankind” [Isaiah 52:14; 53:3]
In the horror of the spectacle of what He became on that cross – in His blood-soaked face – so beaten, abused, and marred, beyond recognizable as human – there, in that terrible appearance, we see the visual of our own sins.
What my sin is was finally seen when Jesus carried it on His cross.
But then, in His flesh – not in mine – but in His body on that cross, my sin died [Romans 8:3]. In Him. All that is sin in me and you, in Him it was condemned and put to death by the justice of God. In His flesh.
Jesus carried it to set you free from it. And then He said, “It is finished” [John 19:30], and bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” [Romans 5:8]. “He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the punishment that brought us peace, and by His wounds we are healed… the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” [Isaiah 53:5-6].
Sin is not a light matter. Which makes Jesus a weighty Savior. Thanks be to God! (1) He suffered with those who suffer unjustly – and is with them always. (2) He suffered man’s rejection of God – and prayed, “Father, forgive them” [Luke 23:34]. (3) He suffered for your sin and died for you – you are forgiven.
All by a payment worth far more than your sins and all the world’s wrongs. It is finished. He is sufficient. And all of this ends with the resurrection of His body unto eternal life – life which He shares with you for free.
Knowing this, let us love Jesus even more. And let’s love the neighbor and the stranger for whom He also died, not in word or talk only, but in deed and in truth, as He has loved us [1 John 3:18]. Amen.
- Apr 17, 2025
- 6 min read
[1 Corinthians 11:24-26] “…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.”
[John 13:34-35] “…A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
“Do This in Remembrance of Me”
“Do this in remembrance of Me.” Jesus instituted Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, on a Thursday night – the night He and His disciples celebrated and ate the Jewish Passover meal together.
Passover was a meal of roasted lamb eaten in remembrance of God’s work of saving the Israelites, the Hebrews, from slavery in Egypt and from the death of their firstborn – many centuries before, as recorded in the book of Exodus.
And Passover, as God intended it, was a teaching moment from parents to their children. Moses gave the people God’s instructions regarding the Passover, then told them, “And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” [Exodus 12:26-27]
In other words, as the dads prepared that meal year-after-year, eventually, as the children got older, they would start to pay attention, and wonder, and ask, “Why do dad and mom do this?”
Why? To remember. To remember God’s work of salvation. “In remembrance of that day when death passed over our houses because the blood of the lamb was on or doorposts. And then God did more! He brought us through the parted Red Sea and delivered us from our slavery.” They remembered, gave thanks, and believed when they ate that meal.
On the night when Jesus ate the Passover with His disciples, He taught them about the greater salvation which He was about to accomplish by giving His own Body and Blood on the cross – to die, to offer Himself up, as the true Passover Lamb – to die for the sins of His people – to become “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” [John 1:29] – to save us from eternal death.
Jesus, therefore, instituted that night this new and true Supper to replace the old Passover. This new Supper in which we receive the true Lamb, Jesus Himself, as our food and drink – for our soul and faith – to sustain us on the way – Him making Himself the true and present remembrance of what He has done for us.
“Do this in remembrance of Me.” If your sons and daughters, young or old, ask you, “Dad, Mom, why do you do this?” What would your answer be? What are you remembering in this meal?
This Supper is not just an occasion for past memories – nor are the bread and wine mere symbols of what Jesus did for us – but Jesus is truly present, living, His body and blood, in and with this bread and wine. As we truly receive Him, we remember Him.
We remember that the Son of God has become our Bread of Life [John 6:35]. We remember that we are sinners who need the Lamb who is slain for our offenses – that we were enslaved by sin and darkness, until our Savior Jesus set us free – that we were held captive by death, but our Savior Jesus has conquered death.
We remember – “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
And, brothers and sisters, Jesus made it clear on that night in which He instituted this Supper, in His long conversation with His disciples that night [John 13-17], that, in this meal, you have one more thing to remember: To love one another as He has loved you. With this Supper of His New Covenant comes also the life of His New Commandment.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
Remember how He has loved – in His agony and bloody sweat – in giving His back to the whips – in giving His beard to be pulled out – in giving His face to be spit upon – in the beatings, the mocking, and in the piercing of the nails through His hands and feet – in the crown of thorns on His head —
— in His prayer for the forgiveness of those who did these things to Him – in suffering this for His disciple who denied Him – and in giving His life for all, for you and I, who have truly sinned against Him, by sinful thoughts, sinful words, and sinful deeds.
Remember how He gave everything for you – and forgive each other from the heart. Forgive – not just friends, but people who have really wronged you. Take up that cross and forgive as He has forgiven. Love each other from the heart.
This love, lived, teaches: “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Remember that this night in which Jesus instituted this Supper is the same night in which He took up a towel and a basin like a servant and washed His disciples’ feet: “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example.” [John 13:13-15]. Remember His example.
Feet are gross. So is sin, and that’s what Jesus was talking about. “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean…” [John 13:10]
You are all clean because you are bathed in baptism – But we all still come here with dirt, with sin, clinging on our feet. Remember Jesus who stayed, who stooped down, plunged His hands in that water, and washed His disciples’ dirty, unpleasant feet.
Remember, and therefore bear with one another. Wash their dirt from your vision – because this same body and blood was given into death for their sins.
As you gather around one body and one blood, remember that you are all called the body of Christ. “Anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”
That means recognizing this bread as the body of Jesus and treating it as such, with all the respect owed to His body. And it means recognizing these imperfect people as the body of Jesus and treating each other as such, with the respect owed to Jesus’ body – not because of each other’s works or merit, but because of Jesus.
“Let us recall” – let us remember – “that in our midst Dwells Christ, His only Son; As members of His body joined We are in Him made one.”
“Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup” [1 Corinthians 11:28]. There is a lot that goes into teaching and training the young people to prepare them for this very serious Supper.
There’s the doctrine of this Supper, that it is Christ’s body and blood, which must be believed. There’s instruction in the faith to come together in unity of belief. Instruction in the Ten Commandments, to examine ourselves to come in purposeful repentance. Instruction in the knowledge of the Gospel, to come for forgiveness.
There’s the development and maturing of the heart and mind to be able to “discern”, and to “do this”, thoughtfully and purposefully.
And there’s the instilling of this new commandment in them, to love and forgive as they are loved and forgiven by Jesus. What we teach others, let us remember to do ourselves.
Finally, let’s remember that the Lord alone is perfect. He forgives the imperfect, me and you. So, let’s set the example of coming to Him for our forgiveness in this Supper. Amen.
