- Mar 11, 2025
- 6 min read
[Luke 6:20-26] And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.”
24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
Up When You’re Down
We’ll start today with a short test, a quiz. I won’t make it too hard. I won’t ask you all 10 Commandments, but only the first. What is the First Commandment? You shall have no other… gods.
But here’s the next question: What does it mean to have a god? That question takes a little more thinking. What does it mean for a someone, a something, or a god to be my God? Whether a false god or the true God.
We have, in our churches, the Small Catechism, which you probably used for confirmation. We also have what’s called the Large Catechism. In our Large Catechism, we ask this question, “What does it mean to have a god?” And here’s the answer given:
“What does ‘to have a god’ mean, or what is God? Answer: A ‘god’ is the term for that to which we are to look for all good and in which we are to find refuge in all need. Therefore, to have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your whole heart… Anything on which your heart relies and depends, I say, that is really your God.”
“There are some who think that they have God and everything they need when they have money and property… So too those who boast of great learning, wisdom, power, prestige, family, and honor and who trust in them have a god also, but not the one, true God.” [Martin Luther’s Large Catechism, the First Commandment]
The good things in life can be blessings from God, for which we give God the credit, or, so often, those good things can become false gods, false idols, that rule our hearts. And “no one can serve two masters” [Matthew 6:24].
In our Gospel today, our Lord Jesus speaks blessings and woes which seem contrary to our natural experiences in life – yet they make perfect sense when we understand what a blessing it is to have the true God as our God.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” – “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”
With God as my God, I am rich even when I have nothing else. I have God and His kingdom, which are more than all else. But if earthly riches become the love and trust of my heart, I am all the poorer for having them.
And it’s not only the wealthy who cling to riches. “Riches” can be any cheap thing – or a dream of riches – whatever has strings pulling at my heart. But the more God is my God, the more I can say, “Blessed am I” in all circumstances.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied” – “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.”
With the Lord as my God, I have the One who is the “Bread of Life” who alone satisfies – “The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven… Whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst” [John 6:33-35]
Only when Jesus is our Bread of Life will we ever be satisfied. We are never satisfied by an abundance of food – we still eat like we’re starving, more and more. In this life, we either suffer the hunger of want or the bad health of abundance. Our food lets us down.
Jesus is heaven’s Bread. A little satisfies us, yet the more we have the more we can eat. The more we overeat the Bread of Life, the better our health of soul and heart. A little crumb of the Word of God leaves us full, yet no great amount is ever too much.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh” – “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.”
Jesus says, about His final coming on the Last Day, that all the world will be “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” and that day will come upon them suddenly, unaware and unprepared [Matthew 24:37-39].
Eating and drinking, laughing and enjoying each other, getting married and celebrating – these are all good things, blessings from God who made them. But these good things can also become our reason for forgetting God. When all is well and life is joyful, our sin-fallen nature forgets that there even is a God.
But our times of weeping send us more deeply into that One who is our only Consolation. If our weeping, grief, and trouble sends us closer to God, then these truly are our greatest blessings. Blessed are we when heartache and troubles direct us to our Savior.
“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day… for so their fathers did to the prophets” – “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
The favor or good opinion of others – especially that of my coworkers or family or friends or neighbors – can become the false god of my heart. We do not like to be isolated or excluded.
But it’s far better to be isolated from man, for what may seem like strange beliefs to them – like our belief in the physical resurrection of the body [1 Corinthians 15:1-20] – than to be isolated from God by being ashamed of Him and His Word [Mark 8:38].
Speaking the truth in love, as fits the occasion – and being faithful to God’s Word in our speech and conduct among other – if we suffer bad opinions for this, this is pleasing to God and an undeserved honor for us sinners to be counted worthy to suffer for Jesus’ name [Acts 5:41].
“Blessed are you.” “Woe to you.” The truth is, we do sin against the First Commandment. We do find ourselves on the “woe” side of these statements. We do cling to riches. We do forget God. We do sometimes value our neighbor’s good opinion of us over God’s.
Who alone is the Blessed One who fully held God His Father as the only God of His heart? It’s Jesus Himself, God’s own Son. He is the blessed one.
Jesus was poor, with no place to lay His head – Jesus was hungry for forty days in the wilderness [Matthew 4:1-4] – Jesus wept [John 11:35], bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows [Isaiah 53:4].
“And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” [Philippians 2:8]. Jesus alone lived by unwavering faith, trusting even on the cross and committing His spirit into His Father’s hands [Luke 23:46].
Jesus alone lived perfectly, and Jesus alone died perfectly for us – giving His perfect life into death as the redemption price to forgive our sins [Colossians 1:14].
Jesus alone was perfectly blessed, and we are blessed in Him.
“You shall have no other gods.” As a commandment, we fall short of the test. But as a promise of God – as a promise of His work of salvation in Jesus – you do have God as your God and as your Savior. Thanks be to God. Amen.
- Feb 15, 2025
- 5 min read
[John 11:17-27] … Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
“One Whom God Has Helped”
In our Gospel reading today, we hear a piece of the conversation between Jesus and Martha, the sister of Lazarus. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were siblings. The Lord was a friend to their family.
He had visited them before in the Gospels – it’s that Mary and Martha [Luke 10:38-42] – this Mary would later anoint Jesus with the expensive ointment [John 12:1-8] while He ate in their home – and Jesus was a personal friend of Lazarus.
Now, Lazarus is dead. Jesus wasn’t there when His friend fell ill nor when He died, but now He is there with Mary and Martha. Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days at this point.
When Jesus arrived, Martha approached Him and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died – Jesus had healed many sick – But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” “I know that even now, you can still help.”
In the time of Christ’s earthly ministry – when He walked and talked, physically present – many were blessed to be healed of their diseases, cleansed of their leprosies, blindness was restored to sight, the crippled walked.
But our time is a time more like the illness and death of Lazarus. The Lord is with us, but He’s not physically, visibly present. And our illnesses often remain - that sudden miracle doesn’t always show up before death. Nevertheless, we know that, even now, He can still help.
Jesus’ victory of life is at work in a way even greater than our death. In the death of His friend Lazarus, the grave is not avoided, but Jesus ends up proving His victory over the grave. And in our earthly troubles and death, Jesus proves His victory for us.
The Lord says to Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha responds correctly, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus then tells (and will show) Martha that He Himself is the resurrected life which conquers our death even though we die: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Our brother, Francesco, has died. But death does not have the victory. On the day that Francesco was baptized, his whole self – his life and death; his sicknesses and health; his soul and his body – every bit of him, was baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
And you also, when you were baptized in the water, you were baptized into Jesus and everything he has done.
By baptism, every part of us – in soul and body – is buried into Jesus’ death and will be raised in Jesus’ resurrected life. Meanwhile, Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross covers all our sins – so that we live and walk forgiven.
In the life of His friend Lazarus, Jesus proves His power – not by causing Lazarus to avoid sickness and the grave – but by raising Lazarus from sickness and the grave on the other side of it all.
Likewise, Jesus proves His power to us not always by shielding us from the hardest parts of life but by being our strength throughout them.
Shortly after where we stopped reading, Jesus goes to the tomb and calls out to Lazarus, “Lazarus, come out!”[John 11:43]. Lazarus comes out. Death is healed, life is restored, he comes out on his feet, and, in the next chapter, he and his sisters are feasting with Jesus in their home.
“An hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out…” [John 5:28-29]. He will shout, “Come out!” to all our dust and ashes. All our bodies will be raised.
Nevertheless, death is not an unserious thing. It is very serious. “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” [Hebrews 9:27].
All our bodies will be raised, “…those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” [John 5:29].
Yet, we are all sinners. “None is good; no, not one” – “all have sinned” [Romans 3:9-10,23]. The good or evil we can do is the good or evil of receiving and believing in this Savior, Jesus, or of ignoring and neglecting such an important thing – and such a good and undeserved gift God has given us.
Jesus died for the sins of the world – your sins – on the cross, paid the eternal price for our wrongs in His death, and overcame death to give life to those who trust in Him.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life.” Whoever believes “does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” [John 5:24] “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16]
We therefore give thanks above all things that our brother – and friend, and husband, and acquaintance – Francesco is one who has believed in his Savior, Jesus, who is the Savior of us all.
The name “Lazarus” means “One Whom God Has Helped.” Through faith in his Savior Jesus Christ, throughout his life, Francesco has been a “Lazarus” – one whom God has helped.
Francesco is still one whom God helps. His soul is with the Lord in heaven since the moment he died – “Today you will be with Me in paradise”, Jesus said to the thief on the cross [Luke 23:42].
Francesco’s body, these remains of dust and ashes, await the resurrection of the body – when what is mortal and perishable here will put on immortality and become imperishable – when what was lowly in this life will become glorified like the body of our risen Lord Jesus Christ. Victory over death and the grave.
Through your baptism and faith which trusts in Jesus [Mark 16:16], you are also “One Whom God Has Helped”. You are a friend and family of the Lord.
May God continue to help you in grief, in sickness, and in your final parting – for He is with you always [Matthew 28:20]. Amen.
- Feb 9, 2025
- 5 min read
[Read Luke 5:1-11 & Isaiah 6:1-8]
Calling the Unqualified
You can, perhaps, see a master’s priorities in the quality of servants he calls to serve him. There was one master who employed only the best of the best – the most talented, the most capable, with unblemished records – servants who would bring the most profit to his household.
And there was another Master. His servants varied in talent – some with some abilities and others with practically none. Some looking pretty good. Some looking shabby. But servants who all looked more in need of this Master’s household than they were of profit to this Master’s household.
This Master needs nothing. He calls servants not to be profited by them but to be of profit to them by calling them into service in His abundant household.
Jesus is the Master who has come not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many [Matthew 20:28].
Because He has heaven’s riches and desires to share them, He calls – not the best of the best – but the unworthy and unqualified. He needs nothing from us – not even our holiness – He has it all. Instead, it’s for our benefit that He calls each of us to be servants in His household.
In today’s Old Testament reading [Isaiah 6:1-8] and in today’s Gospel [Luke 5:1-11], the Lord calls men to service who were well aware of their own unworthiness and unfitness.
In Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah, as a priest serving at the altar of incense, enters the temple – enters the church – but instead ends up standing before heaven itself. God sitting on His throne up where the altar is supposed to be. Angels, called seraphim, flying around Him calling out, “Holy, holy, holy…”
Isaiah sees this and says about himself, “I’m done for!” ““Surely I stand condemned.” “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
“Like the rest of my people, I have lived a life of sin in the words that I say – in how I speak – in how I curse – in how I gossip – in how I complain – in how I grumble under my breath – in my unclean jokes or words – and in the praise and thanksgiving I fail to speak about God – I am a person of unclean lips.”
And now Isaiah is standing before the Lord. He thinks he is judged and done for. But then an angel flies to Isaiah with a coal picked up from the altar with tongs. The angel touches it to Isaiah’s lips and says, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Instead of burning him, the coal from God’s altar cleanses him from his guilt. His lawless deeds are forgiven, his sin is covered [Romans 4:6-8].
An then, what happens? Isaiah, whose sin was in his speech, is called to speak for the Lord. To be God’s spokesman as a prophet. After that coal was applied, God then said, “Whom shall I send?”, Isaiah said, “Here am I! Send me!” Isaiah believed that his unclean lips really were forgiven. He could now even speak for the Lord from those forgiven lips.
And then, in our Gospel reading today, the Lord – which is the Lord Jesus Christ – calls and comforts another man, a fisherman, named Simon Peter.
The Lord had employed Simon’s boat to get out from the shore a little bit, onto the water, to have room to speak to all the people gathered on the beach to hear the Word of God.
Jesus, after teaching the crowd, says to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
Simon responds, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”
Simon, and his brother Andrew, do this and catch an enormous number of fish so that their nets begin to break. Their partners, in a second boat, James and John, help them bring in the load which filled both boats.
It’s a miracle. This man in Simon Peter’s boat is holy Lord. And Simon Peter is a sinner. Afraid, Peter exclaims, “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
And what happens? Jesus does not depart from Peter but instead calls him: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” They bring their boats to land, leave everything, and follow Him. Not because they were holier than other men but because they had found the Savior of sinners.
You are called, brothers and sisters. Not because you are holier than other people but because you have found the Savior of sinners.
There is one Spirit, but various kinds of service [1 Corinthians 12:4]. There is service in the church. There is service for charity. There is service in your home to family or spouse. There is service to your neighbor. There is service in your vocation and hobbies. And there is service to each other. The many ways we toil all night for the Lord.
Because He has forgiven the guilt of your lips, you can even serve Him by what you say. Speaking to each other the admonitions, encouragements, and forgiveness of the Lord.
God has put people in your life, in many places, whom you serve. Wherever and whoever you serve, you serve as servants of the household of God, the Lord of heaven and earth. You are His servants. Not to benefit God but because He calls into His household those who need Him.
We are – each of us – like street beggars who, to our surprise, have been called to serve in the palace of the King. There are many ways to serve, and He even makes you His spokesmen – fishers of men – to many people, when you show, by your words and conduct, that you have found the Savior.
When we look in the mirror, we can see our Master’s priorities. He didn’t call the best of the best. He called us to be His servants – and is even willing to use each of us to bring in His great catch. Amen.
