Love One Another

Love One Another 

John 13:31-35

     What do you suppose the answer would be if we ask the general public the question, “What is unique about Christians?”  You would probably get a variety of answers, depending on people’s experiences with Christians.  Some who really understand the Christian faith may say that the most unique thing about Christians is their trust in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven.  That’s the answer I would hope to hear from all who call themselves Christians.  In reality, I would probably be disappointed with the answers that many who call themselves Christians would give.  Too often today the understanding of the Christian faith has become tainted by the influence of the world.  It’s been watered down and dumbed down so much that Jesus and His first disciples would hardly recognize much of what is being taught by many of today’s Christian Churches.  Human logic has become the guiding principle in determining what is taught.   If it doesn’t match up with human experience, it must not be true. 

     Perhaps that is what Jesus was anticipating when He spoke to His disciples on the night when they gathered for that final Passover meal together, the night when He would be betrayed, arrested, and put on trial before He would be crucified.  That is when Jesus spoke about many things to His disciples to prepare them for what would be ahead.   He was going away from them.  It was going to be difficult for Him and it would be difficult for the disciples as well.  He told them that He would only be with them for a little while.  Imagine the concern in their hearts as they thought about life without their teacher, their Lord.  What were they to do?  Who would they follow when He was gone?  Why couldn’t they go with Him?  Some of the words of Peter in our Gospel lesson show us what they were thinking.  Jesus’ words to them on that night are important words for us as Christians in our world today.  We are facing increasing opposition to our Christian principles from the world around us and we need reminders like the words that Jesus spoke to His disciples on that night.  As we think about what He said, may we be strengthened for the struggles that we will have as we seek to become an influence in the world around us for Christ.

     When you look at what Jesus had to say in these verses, His main message comes through loud and clear, “Love one another.”  That seems like a rather simple thing to do.  Love one another and everything will be great.  Let love be your guide in everything you do and you will be successful and the Word of the Lord will be passed on from one generation to the next and the church will grow and you will be able to carry out the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations.  Just love one another.

     Actually what Jesus said was, “A new commandment I give to you, love one another as I have loved you.”  For those who know the Scriptures, you have to ask, “Is that really a new commandment?”  After all in the Old Testament the people of God were told to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  In His teaching in Matthew 22, Jesus called this the first great commandment.  The second great commandment was love your neighbor as yourself.  Now Jesus was saying that He was giving them a new commandment.  “Love one another as I have loved you.”  Did you notice the difference between the old commandments and the new commandment?  Jesus added the words, “as I have loved you.”  That makes all the difference.  Now the standard has changed.  Before it was love your neighbor as yourself.  That is fairly easy to understand.  How do you want people to treat you?  That’s how you should treat one another.  In the new commandment, Jesus urges His disciples, “Love one another as I have loved you.” 

     This gets a bit more complicated.  This is not going to be easy.  Following any command of God is difficult because your sinful nature always seems to get in the way.  In our sinfulness, even the command to love your neighbor as yourself can be taken in a very selfish way.  I’ll be nice to them so that they will be nice to me.  That’s not what God intended by that but it is the way that we put a spin on it. In fact, the temptations of the devil, the world and our sinful nature make it difficult for you even to go that far in keeping that command. 

     When we look at Jesus’ new commandment, as He called it, there is more than just a command there.  He reminds us of His love.  We are to love as He has loved us.  When we think of how He has loved us, that is the essence of the Gospel message.  That Gospel message has power, the power of the Holy Spirit who makes things happen in our lives.  Jesus demonstrated His love for us when he left His throne in heaven to come down to earth to become a human being.  We can think of the words of the Creeds that tell us that He came down from heaven and was incarnate, in other words, took on human flesh and blood by the power of the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary  and was made man.  He knew why He came to earth.  He knew why He had to become a human being.  He knew that He would have to suffer and die.  He gave up His life so that we could be brought back into a restored relationship with God, a relationship that was shattered by sin.  Through His resurrection He brought new life for those who believe.  You have new life now that is empowered by the Holy Spirit so that you can love others as Jesus has loved you.  You also have the promise of life forever with Him in heaven because you have been rescued from the sin that separates you from God.  His love for you has a purpose.  That purpose was to bring you back to the loving arms of your heavenly Father.  That action was motivated by love. It is a love that is undeserved. You didn’t earn it by your good deeds or good intentions.  He loved you in spite of your sin.  That is what grace is all about.  It is undeserved love.  It is a love that never ends. 

     That is the Good News.  The Holy Spirit works through that Good News to strengthen you to do what might seem to be the impossible, to love others as Jesus loves you.  His love is a giving love.  He gave Himself for you.  His love is a never ending love.  His love is undeserved.  His love has a purpose: that you would be reconciled, brought back, to God. Now He says to us, “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” 

     Just as His love has a purpose, so your love for others also has a similar purpose.  Although you are not being asked to suffer and die in order to bring others back to God, you are being asked to love them so that they can be brought to faith and be built up in their faith through the power of the Holy Spirit that comes through the Means of Grace, which includes the message of God’s love demonstrated through Jesus Christ.  You are called to love as Jesus loved you, love that is undeserved, unquestioning, purposeful, and enduring. 

     He also added another statement that touches on this purposeful love.  In the last verse of our reading, Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” By living out His love in your life, you are identifying yourself as His follower.  You will not only be touching certain individuals with His love directly but you will have an influence on all who observe the kind of unique demonstrations of love that are part of the life of a follower of Jesus.  That can have an impact on people you didn’t even know about.  Can you imagine the blessings that can overflow when you follow the new command that Jesus gave His disciples on that night when He was anticipating His death?  He knew what was going to happen soon but He also knew what would happen when His future disciples would follow His new commandment, “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”   Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

April 28, 2013

A Chosen Instrument

A Chosen Instrument

Acts 9:1-22

     The Bible is full of great heroes of the faith, people who trusted in God and were able to do great things.  You can think of Joseph as one example.  He was the favored son of Jacob and because of that his brothers hated him so much that they sold him to slave traders on their way to Egypt.  Joseph trusted in the Lord and through a series of events that seemed to drag him down even further, he eventually became an important government official in Egypt and was reunited with his family.  God used him as an instrument to save the lives of many people. 

     David was another example of someone who was taken from being a shepherd of his father’s flock to become a hero who defeated Goliath, became a military leader and eventually became king.  He trusted in the Lord and the Lord used him as His instrument to help his people grow in their faith.  Even yet today, the Psalms of David are cherished by God’s people as expressions of our trust, our prayers and our praise of the Lord as we use them in worship and in our own devotional lives.

     In our first lesson for today we hear about another person whom God used as His instrument to spread the Gospel of Jesus to people of all times and all places.  That man was Saul, who would later be known as Paul.  His letters to the churches in the New Testament and the stories of his missionary journeys in the book of Acts have served the church for centuries as motivation and direction for our own outreach activities for the church at large, our congregations and our personal lives as believers in Jesus.  His inspired insights into the will of God and our faith in Jesus and our lives as followers of Christ make him a true hero of the faith. 

     When we first hear about Saul in the book of Acts, he is the farthest thing from a hero of the faith though.  In fact he is just the opposite.  He is presented as a persecutor of the faith.  We first hear his name in Acts 7 as he watched the outer garments of those who stoned Stephen, the first martyr.  In the next chapter we are told that he was active in going from house to house and dragging off men and women who  acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah and put them into prison.  As a well-educated Pharisee, he was convinced that he was doing God’s will by protecting the integrity of the faith handed down by rabbis and teachers of the Law.  He was dedicated to putting an end to this new and dangerous movement that followed the trouble-maker Jesus of Nazareth.  Even though Jesus had been put to death, His followers still proclaimed Him as the Messiah and even claimed that He had risen from the dead.  To Saul that was a preposterous claim.  Those who believed that and were spreading the Word needed to be stopped. 

     At this point it doesn’t seem that he would ever be considered as a hero of the faith.  He was doing everything he could to put out the fire of faith that had been started on Pentecost.  He even had authorization to travel to Damascus and round up people there who were professing faith in Jesus and bring them back to prison in Jerusalem.  He was fired up to do a job that he thought was serving God until he was confronted by Jesus Himself on the road to Damascus.  That changed everything for Saul.  He saw Jesus, the one he believed to be a false Messiah, and he was struck blind and given instructions to continue to Damascus where he would be told what to do. 

     Imagine being so convinced that your path in life was the right one until you were confronted with the truth from an irrefutable source, Jesus Himself.  Even those who saw and heard Saul at first didn’t know what to make of his transformation.  The first person who had to deal with this was Ananias, a believer in Damascus.  He was directed by the Lord to go to Saul.  His first response was essentially, “Are you sure, Lord?  I’ve heard about this man and what he is up to and this just doesn’t sound like a good thing to do.”  The Lord’s answer to Ananias is very important for us to consider as we look at our own lives.  Listen again to the Lord’s response to the fears of Ananias, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.”  Wow!  That certainly puts things into a different perspective.  Ananias couldn’t argue with that.  He went to Saul, laid his hands on him so that he could regain his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Saul received his sight, was baptized and his life was truly changed.  He went from being a persecutor of the church to being one of its greatest builders and defenders.  He immediately began to speak about Jesus to the believers in Damascus.  They didn’t quite know what to think about him at first.  They knew his reputation and why he had come to Damascus but now he was proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God.  As you read on, beyond our text you find out that when the Jews found out about what Saul was now doing, they were angry with him and made plans to kill him.  He had to escape at night by being lowered out of an opening in the wall in a basket. 

     At this point we have to look again at the Lord’s answer to Ananias.  When Ananias was understandably reluctant to go to Saul, the Lord told him, “Go, he my chosen instrument to bring my name to the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.”  The Lord had very definite plans for Saul of Tarsus in spite of the fact that Saul had been a violent persecutor of believers in Jesus.  It should cause you to stop and think, “If God could use someone like Saul to carry out His work, then do you suppose that God has some plan for me to do His work?”  There are many people in the church who have discovered what it means to be God’s chosen instrument.  They are the people who are using their special gifts and talents to carry the Good News of Jesus to people.  Some teach, some show hospitality, some show mercy, some lead, some sing, some care for the physical facilities, but all are being used by God as His chosen instrument to carry out His purposes. 

      Studies done in churches all over show that only about twenty percent of the people in a congregation recognize that they are being used as God’s chosen instrument.  For many others, an opportunity to carry out God’s plan presents itself and the resistance begins.  “Oh, I could never do something like that.  I’m not a good enough person to do that kind of thing.”  Oh really?  Did you ever hear about Saul?  Did he earn the privilege of being God’s chosen instrument?  Hardly!  Or you might say, “I’m really not gifted for that kind of task.  I wouldn’t know what to do.”  Do you think that God would ask you to do something that you couldn’t do?  He knows better than that. 

     Look back again at the reading.  Saul received power to be God’s chosen instrument in the same way that you receive power to be his chosen instrument.  He first heard the Word of God.  Jesus, Himself, the Word made flesh, spoke to Him.  Through Ananias, Saul also received the blessing of Holy Baptism.  Just like you, in Holy Baptism  Saul received the forgiveness of His sins and the power of the Holy Spirit to believe and trust in Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior.  Not only did Saul believe but His also proclaimed that Jesus is the Son of God wherever He went.  You have that same power of the Holy Spirit through your Baptism and through the hearing of the Word.  Your faith is strengthened and you are given the power to carry out your role as a chosen instrument of God.  If you still think that God could not use you, you only need to be reminded of the miracle of Easter when Jesus was raised to life.  He won the victory for you over sin, death and the power of the devil.  You are raised with Him to new life.  God’s purpose for you is made clear in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in the second chapter, verses 8-10,  “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  That sums it up.  We are saved by God’s grace and we are His workmanship, created to serve Him as we do the work that he has planned for us.  May the Holy Spirit touch your heart in such a way that you recognize and take up your calling as His chosen instrument.   Amen.  

Rev. Gerald Matzke

3rd Sunday of Easter

April 14, 2013 

I Have Seen the Lord

“I Have Seen the Lord”  

John 20:18

  

   Imagine the excitement in the voice of Mary Magdalene when she went back to the disciples with those words.  The way that the passage is written, I don’t think the emotion of the moment comes through in the words, “she went and announced to the disciples.”  For a second time she probably ran all the way back to where the disciples were and with a real excitement in her voice, maybe a little out of breath, let them know what she had seen and heard.  If you put yourself in her position, you probably would have done the same thing.  This was big news.  They had seen Jesus’ dead body late Friday afternoon.  It was placed in the tomb before sundown.  The purpose of going to the tomb now on Sunday morning was to anoint the body according to the custom of the day.  The women who went to the tomb were not expecting the body to be gone.  They certainly didn’t expect to see Jesus alive.  Mary got to see Him face to face.  The account that you heard in the Easter Gospel describes a mixture of sadness and confusion and finally overwhelming joy when she realized that the man speaking to her was truly her Teacher, Jesus.  She was filled with joy when she was able to report to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.”

     To be able to see the Lord was a great privilege.  Until Jesus came down to earth there were only a few people who could say that they had seen the Lord.  When the Lord did appear to someone, it marked a very significant time in the history of God’s relationship to His people.  As we think back into the Old Testament, we can think of Adam and Eve as not only the first people but as the first ones to see the Lord.  Sadly, the time that is recorded for us in detail is after they had disobeyed God and brought sin and judgment on all mankind.  In addition to the judgment of death, the Lord also promised that the seed of the woman would defeat the seed of Satan.  That was the first promise of a Savior.  I would say that this was a very significant event in the history of God’s relationship with His special creation. 

     Moses saw the Lord on Mt. Sinai.  When he received from the Lord the two tablets of stone which contained the Law, the Lord established with His people a Covenant based on obedience and sacrifice.  This pointed the people ahead to the time when the Savior would come to fulfill the Old Covenant and establish the New Covenant that was by faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  That too was certainly an important event in the history of God’s people.

     Mary and Joseph were the first people then to see the Lord as that New Covenant was unfolding.  The little baby that was born to Mary was the Promised One.  They saw the Lord in His human form.  Others, of course would see Him but they wouldn’t fully understand who He was or His purpose in coming until much later, but His coming into the world was definitely an important moment in our relationship with the Lord.

     While others saw a man named Jesus, it was John the Baptist who saw Him at the Jordan River and identified Him as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  That description connected Jesus to the Old Covenant Passover Lamb and the New Covenant sealed with Jesus’ own blood.  That appearance brought attention to Jesus as He was about to begin His earthly ministry.  The disciples who followed Him got to see glimpses of His glory as Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead and taught with divine wisdom about the Kingdom of God.  Even though those disciples got to see Jesus everyday for the better part of three years, some of them were not sure what to make of Him and what His teaching and His life were all about. 

     There was one man who saw Jesus close up if only for a short time who made a remarkable statement at the foot of the cross.  It was the Roman centurion after he witnessed all that took place as Jesus was dying on the cross that moved him to say, “Surely this man was the Son of God.”  He understood what many of His day did not.  The religious leaders of the people didn’t get it.  Many of the people were looking for a revolutionary leader to free them from the Romans.  Jesus didn’t fit their idea of a Messiah.  Even some of the disciples didn’t understand the bigger purpose of His coming to earth. 

     When people started seeing Him alive after his very public death on the cross, then they began to understand that His words were true.  When Mary told the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” they certainly started thinking back to some of the things that He had told them about dying and rising again on the third day.  “Oh, so that is what He meant.”  “He really meant it when He said that He would be alive again.”  But then those old fears and doubts started to creep back into their heads.  Do you suppose she really saw Jesus or was she just making that up?  They should have known that what Jesus said was the truth.  He told them that too.  Remember His words, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”  His resurrection affirmed that all of His teaching was the truth.  He said that He would be raised from the dead and sure enough, that is what happened.  If that was the truth then you could be sure that everything else that He taught was also the truth.  He is the Christ, the Anointed One.  He is the Son of God.  He and the Father are one.  Whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.  He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who would give us the power to believe and the power to serve the Lord.  He will come again.  All His teaching is the truth.  His resurrection affirms that for His disciples then and for all who would believe in Him through the power of the Holy Spirit in the years to come.  That includes all of us.

     By the power of the Holy Spirit, working in you through the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments, you can believe His teaching, you can believe that He lived a perfect life for you and He died on the cross for you.  You can believe that He rose from the grave and that He lives and reigns over all things now and forever.  In a real sense, you can say, “I have seen the Lord.”  You have seen Him through eyes of faith.  In the Word, in the water of Holy Baptism, in the Bread and wine, the Body and Blood of Holy Communion, you have seen the living Lord.  He died and rose again for you.  He won the victory over sin, death and the power of the devil for you.  Your sins of doubt and fear, your sins of disobedience and rebellion against God, your sins of selfishness and greed are forgiven because Jesus took those sins to the cross and paid the price that was required.  He gave up His life.  To show that His sacrifice was accepted by the Father, He rose again to life. 

     Like Mary Magdalene and the others who saw Jesus alive on that first Easter day, our hearts are filled with joy.  Like Mary, you can go and tell others that you have seen the Lord.  You know Him and the blessings that He has for you, the blessings of the forgiveness of your sins and the promise of life forever with Him in the glory of heaven.  Your joy can express itself in words as you tell the Good News as well as in your actions as you respond to God’s blessings with a life of worship and service.  You have seen the Lord.  You have the privilege of joining the countless others down through the ages who have seen the Lord through eyes of faith and have responded with shouts of joy and a never-ending songs of “Alleluia.”    Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke
Easter 2013
Zion Lutheran Church
Painesville, Ohio

Easter Vigil "Thanks Be To God, He Gives Us The Victory"

“Thanks Be To God, He Gives Us the Victory”  

 I Corinthians 15:57

     To really appreciate the meaning of this Easter vigil, you have to use your imagination a bit.  You have to take yourself back to that day after Jesus was crucified and placed in the tomb.  You have to put yourself in the place of those followers of Jesus who were mourning the death of their teacher and friend.  They were men and women who had followed Jesus from Nazareth to Jerusalem, thinking that they were simply going to celebrate the Passover.  Some of them remembered some things that Jesus had said along the way that they didn’t really understand fully.  He talked about going to Jerusalem, being arrested, beaten and crucified but on the third day being raised from the dead.  What could that mean?  Peter had told Him to stop talking like that.  Nothing like that would happen to Him, not if they had anything to say about it.  But then in the last twenty-four hours it happened just as He said it would.  He was arrested.  They all ran away.  He was beaten by the Romans.  He was crucified and he died.  They laid His life-less body in the tomb that Joseph of Arimathea provided.  Now what was going to happen to them?  Where would they go?  Would they be safe showing their faces in Jerusalem?  Would the temple guard hunt them down too?  Could they make it back to the relative safety of Galilee?  What would happen to the many people who looked to Jesus, who cried out to Him, “Hosanna, save us now?” 

    If you are like most people, you are the most nervous and fearful when you don’t know that is going to happen to you next.  That may have been the overriding emotion of the disciples of Jesus on that Saturday.  By this hour of the night the Sabbath had passed and they were probably lying awake wondering and worrying about what they would do on the next day.  The women had prepared ointments and spices that would be used to anoint the body of their Lord the next morning.  Worry, fear mixed with sadness must have filled their hearts as they prepared for the grim tasks ahead of them. 

     Perhaps in the back of their minds there was that statement that Jesus made that on the third day He would be raised from the dead.  But that sort of thing just doesn’t happen.  Yet He did raise Lazarus in Bethany just before they arrived in Jerusalem.  But that was someone else.  Could He raise Himself?  That just doesn’t seem possible.  Add to the other emotions the confusion over things that Jesus said about being raised from the dead and you probably would find yourself with a very restless night. 

     That may have been the way it was for the disciples of Jesus on that night, but things are different for you.  You journeyed with them to Jerusalem last Sunday.  You sat with them in the upper room on Thursday and received the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Sacrament that He instituted that night.  You observed the Crucifixion in all it’s horror on Friday and now you look forward to the great news that “He is risen!”  You know that He rose on the third day.  You know that He is alive.  You rejoice with all Christians everywhere that Jesus conquered death and rose from the grave.  An evening like this gives you an opportunity to experience the range of emotions from sorrow over your sins that caused Jesus to have to come into the world to be your substitute under the Law and on the cross to the joy of knowing that because He lives you shall live also.  His victory over the sin, death and power of the devil is your victory as well. 

     When you stop and think about everything that took place over those days, you have to be moved to love and worship the Lord for His great love for you.  What Jesus did for you is something that you could never do for yourself.  It truly is a victory.   His victory is your victory.  St. Paul wrote, “When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?’  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Victory!  When there is a victory it is time for us to celebrate.  You can celebrate with your heart, your voice and your whole being.  The victory over sin, death and the power of the devil has been won for you.  Christ’s victory is truly your victory. 

     This is a victory that the church celebrates all year long.  Each week as you confess your sins, as the pastor announces the forgiveness of sins, as you remember your baptism, as you receive the Lord’s Supper, as you hear the Law and the Gospel proclaimed, you are celebrating that victory. With Paul we can say everyday, “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

And the peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Easter Vigil

March 30, 2013                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

With His Stripes We Are Healed

With His Stripes We Are Healed                                         

Isaiah 53:5

     When you think about the suffering and death of Jesus, there are probably some images that come to mind of the things that impress you the most about everything that took place.  Most of the images come from our childhood days.  When you first became aware of all that took place, either hearing the passion story read in church or in Sunday School or from a Bible story book at home, you probably had some kind of picture etched in your mind that remains with you today.  As you think about it now, what stands out for you?

     Was it the anger of the crowd?  I sometimes can picture myself standing up with Jesus and Pontius Pilate looking down on the angry crowd that is shouting, “Crucify Him!”  I can see the hatred in their eyes.  I think to myself, “How can they hate Jesus so much?”  Nothing seems to satisfy them but the death of Jesus.

     Perhaps it is the brutality of the crucifixion that sticks in your mind.  While the Romans are not credited with inventing crucifixion as a way of executing someone, they did perfect it, so to speak, to the point where it was the most painful and humiliating form of punishment.  The nailing of outstretched arms to the wooden beams must have been unbearable.  The nailing of the feet caused more pain and especially when the cross was upright and the weight of the body began to pull on those pressure points, the victim must have been in agony.  It is said that sometimes it took a couple of days before the person would die.  In the case of Jesus and the other two who were crucified with Him, the bodies had to be removed form the crosses by sundown because of the Sabbath laws.  Was it the agony of the crucifixion that impressed you the most?

     Perhaps it was the sorrow of the women who saw Jesus pass by on the way to Golgotha.  Perhaps you put yourself in the place of Mary, the mother of Jesus who saw her son die on the cross.  A mother’s sorrow at the loss of her son is only something that another mother could feel.  Perhaps you could identify with the disciples of Jesus who saw their teacher, their master, their friend, suffer and die.  Was it the sorrow of those who witnessed the crucifixion the thing that impressed you the most?

     All of these visual images that you have had had since your childhood are certainly a part of your faith life.  They are part of what you think of when you hear the words, “the suffering and death of Jesus.”  If all that you think of is the facts of the event, the fact that it took place, the fact that it was brutal, the fact that it was a miscarriage of justice, the fact that it caused great sorrow, then you have missed something.  You have not really caught the significance of the whole event.  You also need to look at why this happened.  It was not just because the leaders of the Jews were jealous of Jesus’ popularity.  It was not just because Pontius Pilate was pressured into giving in to the crowd’s demands. 

     The crucifixion of Jesus was part of God’s plan for the salvation of the world.  We know that it was part of God’s plan, not just from the comments of Jesus following the resurrection, not just from the explanations by the Apostle Paul as he proclaimed the Gospel to the world, but also from the Old Testament.  That may sound surprising but our Old Testament lesson from the prophecy of Isaiah makes it very clear to us that this was God’s plan.  All that Jesus did was for us. 

     In hearing the text that I read before you can’t help but be impressed by the number of times that Isaiah makes a reference to the fact that the Suffering Servant gave Himself for us.  In chapter 53:4-5 we hear, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities ; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his stripes we are healed.”  That is an impressive passage.  That is really one of the most impressive things about the suffering and death of Jesus.  It was for you and me!  Jesus came into the world to suffer and die on the cross so that your sins could be forgiven.  Your rebellion, your stubbornness, your selfishness, your pride, your transgressions, your iniquities were punished on the cross by Jesus.  He took what you deserved.  By His wounds you are healed.

     When you think about that, you have to step back for a moment and try to take it all in.  God in His great love, sent His own Son to do all that for you and for the sins for the whole world. The blessings of that crucifixion are yours through faith, which itself is a gift from God through the power of the Holy Spirit.  You have to stand in humble awe at that great gift of love.  You have to ask yourself if there is some way that you can respond to that great love.  You would be a foolish, ungrateful person if you did not respond in some way.  You have been given the greatest gift that you could ever need.

     Martin Luther put it very well in the meaning of the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed.  “For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.”  With your heart and voice you can respond to God’s great love by thanking and praising Him.   You can live with an attitude of thankfulness every day of your life.  You have been given the greatest gift.  The forgiveness of your sins is something that you could never work out for yourself.  It had to be something that was done for you and now it is given to you as a gift.  A thankful heart that expresses thanks in the things that you say and in the ways in which you respond to the blessings that God gives shows your praise and love to God.      

     You also show your thanks and praise to God with a life of service and obedience.  You serve your Lord as you serve others.  You can have that attitude of humble service that was demonstrated by your Lord Jesus Christ.  You obey the Lord’s will in your life.  You make the Lord’s will your will.  You make obedience to His will your first priority.  That is not an easy thing to do.  You still have to deal with your sinful nature but like the power to believe, the Holy Spirit also gives you the power to overcome your sinful nature.  He gives you the power to thank and praise, to serve and obey.

     As we conclude our worship with the traditional readings, the singing of the hymns, the prayers, the extinguishing of the candles, and the closing of the book, how will you respond.  Will you walk out in silence and only think of what an impressive service this was?  I pray that you will think also about the great love of God, the great sacrifice of Jesus, and the way that you will respond to that great love and sacrifice.  I pray that you will say once again with Martin Luther, “For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey my Lord.”  O Holy Spirit, strengthen the hearts of your people through the Word and the Sacraments so that this may be our response now and forever.  Amen.

And the peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Good Friday 

A Loser For Christ

A Loser For Christ
Philippians 3:8-14

     It’s no secret that I enjoy golf.  I like to play golf.  I like to watch golf.  I like to read about golf.  Those who follow professional golf even casually know that there are certain pros who are easily identified by just their first name.  There is Tiger and Phil that most people know.  Then the real fan knows about Sergio and Bubba.  Sports play a big role in our society today.  But ours is not the only time in history when sports were an important part of life.  The media helps by bringing all the major sports into our homes on TV but competitions of one kind or another have been around for centuries.  From the writings of St. Paul, we get the impression that he had some interest in sports.  Our Epistle lesson for today is one example of how he used the idea of running a race and winning and losing to speak about the Christian life.  As we move closer now in this Lenten season to the cross and the open tomb, may we be encouraged by Paul’s message to count everything as loss, in a sense, to be a loser for Christ as we press on toward the goal the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
     In these verses Paul talks about winning and losing.  In fact he actually makes the point that by our losing we become winners.  In the verse just before our text begins, Paul was speaking about the spiritual dangers of putting too much emphasis on your own accomplishments.  He uses himself as a good example of what he means.  If you want to talk about accomplishments particularly in your religious life there wouldn’t be many people who could match Paul.  In verse four he writes, “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.”  He then lists things that he formerly saw as valuable in his spiritual journey.  He was circumcised on the eighth day; of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”
     Then he adds, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”  All of what he mentioned before that gave him status and recognition in the eyes of his fellow Pharisees and in the temple he considered it a loss.  It made him a loser.  It makes anyone who seeks worldly acceptance a loser.  If your only concern is for the opinions of others in the world, you have lost the real focus of your life.
     The religious lives of the Jews had become a show of accomplishments.  This shouldn’t be surprise to anyone because that is the way your human nature operates.  You like to receive recognition.  You like to know that you can at least count on yourself.  You like to think that you can be responsible for earning your place in God’s kingdom.  The reality of all this is that if you think you can earn the approval of God through your works, you are the real loser.  You are a loser because God has made it clear to you that all have sinned and come short of His glory.  No one can achieve the perfection that God demands because you are sinful from the beginning.  To think that you can satisfy God’s righteous demands though your own merits is a sad deception.
     This was not just a problem for the Jews of Paul’s day.  This is still a problem that touches human beings of all time and the temptation to base your salvation on your righteous accomplishments is still around.
Just ask someone the old evangelism question, “ If you died tonight and were at the gates of heaven, on what basis would you hope to get in?”  Often the answer to that question starts out with something to do with earthly accomplishments.  You will hear things like, “I went the church often.  I helped take care of people.  I was confirmed.  I prayed a lot.  I tried to live by the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule. I was a Christian among Christians.  I’ve earned my place.”  Paul would say, “I count all of that as loss.  Those things don’t make you a winner.  In the opening verse of the text we hear the words, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord.  For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.”  What you have then is a case of winning through losing.  Earthly things lose their importance in your life, compared with the greatness of knowing Christ.
     A college chaplain told of a young Japanese student who had been a Christian for only a few years.  He encountered another foreign student who said to him, “You must have a very wealthy father back home.  You are always smiling and seem so very happy.”  The young Christian student told the chaplain, “He did not know that when I became a Christian, I lost my family and friends; my father cut me off from our family because I had left the religion of my ancestors.”  He thought a minute and then went on, “I told him that the only wealthy father I have was my Father who is in heaven, and the riches of His grace alone have made it possible for me to be a Christian in spite of all the loneliness I have suffered since being cut off from my relatives.”
     He was someone who really understood what it means to win through losing.  Too often you are tempted to think that you can be a winner in the sense that you are Christian without having to leave behind any of your earthly ideas about salvation.  The history of the Christian Church has been littered with false teachers who wanted to look to Jesus Christ for salvation but could not let go of the ideas that you somehow have to earn your salvation by your works, that you have to cooperate with God through your decision, or that you must abide by certain human restrictions.  The plain truth the Scripture teaches is that you are saved from the eternal punishment that you deserve because of sin by faith in Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior.  Paul writes in our text, “I count them (referring to his earthly accomplishments) as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.”  When you are found in Him, then you become one with Him.  You share all the blessings that He has prepared for you.  Through His suffering and death, your debt was paid.  The price required to set you free from sin, death and the power of the devil was paid.  Through His death, you become like Him in His death.  That is, you are dead to sin and made alive to righteousness. Through His resurrection, you too have the hope of the resurrection to eternal life.  By faith, you win.  You are assured of victory through His suffering, death and resurrection.
     That makes a difference in the way you live your life.  You are still going to have to face the temptations and trials of life but you can continue on because you know the final outcome.  Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ has made me His own.”  Christ has made you His own!  Therefore you live your life with that confidence.  You are not struggling against the devil, the world and your sinful nature alone.  Jesus already has you by the hand and is leading you to your heavenly home.  With Him by your side, you can press on.  “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  God had called you to be a winner.  He has the prize ready for you. Jesus has assured that it will be yours.  With that in mind, you can press on toward the goal.  You press on only through the power that He gives you.
     All your earthly accomplishments, while they may gain you status and recognition among your co-workers and friends, don’t really mean very much when it come to the race that has been set before you which leads to your heavenly goal.  It is only through Christ that you win the prize.  Now that you know that you have that prize you can live with new confidence and joy.  There is no need to worry about whether you
have done enough to receive the prize.  It is yours by faith.  There is no reason to suffer guilt because of past sins because they have been washed away.  You have been set free from all that would drag you down and hold you back from that upward call.  You are set free to serve the Lord and His church and answer the call to be His faithful and faith-filled people.
     You are a winner.  You win because the victory has been won for you.  Like Paul, you count all other accomplishments as loss in this world compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.  May this winning attitude be with you every day as you wait for the time when the final prize will be yours in heaven.  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke
Zion Lutheran Church
March 17,2013

By One Man's Obedience

By One Man’s Obedience 

Romans 5:19

     Basketball season is heating up.  College teams will soon be having their tournament.  High Schools will soon begin March Madness.   The girls’ team from Our Shepherd is playing in a state Lutheran School Tournament in Marysville this weekend.  If you are a basketball fan like me, you try to follow as much of the excitement as you can.  One of the things that can be crucial to a team’s success is the way in which the coach brings in a substitute for a player who needs a rest or for a player that fouls out of a game.  The performance of the substitute can make a big difference especially if the game is close. 

     As we continue our journey through Lent, one of the themes that stands out is the importance of Jesus as our substitute.  The Epistle lesson that we read responsively ended with a statement about how the disobedience of one man made us sinners but then in God’s great love, by the obedience of one man, namely Jesus, many were made righteous.   As we think about that for a few moments today, may we come to appreciate the blessings that we have because Jesus came into the world to be our substitute.

     We can break down that passage into three important parts.  The first is “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.”  This takes us right back to the beginning.  In Genesis chapter 3, we hear the account of Adam and Eve and the temptation to disobey God.  Adam and Eve were God’s special creation.  When God created the animals and birds and fish, He did so by His will.  No special acts were necessary in order for those creatures to be brought to life.  God said, “Let there be” and there they were.  But when it came to human beings, God took greater care to form Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.  To create Eve, God took a rib from Adam and formed Eve around that rib in such a way that she would be the ideal companion and helper for Adam.  He placed them in a wonderful garden and provided all they needed.  They were made in His image, meaning that they were without sin and perfectly dedicated to one another and to God.  Everything was wonderful until Satan deceived them into eating the fruit of the tree that God had commanded them not to eat.  Here we find the meaning of that part of our text that says, by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.  By the disobedience of Adam, sin came into the world and became part of the reality of life for God’s special creation.  All people since then who were born of a human father and mother  would have that condition of original sin, inherited from Adam and Eve.  In fact the New Testament even refers to our sinful nature as the Old Adam.  By one man’s disobedience many would be made sinners.  It really doesn’t matter much what sins you committed, you are sinful by nature.  That is the truth of God’s Law.  If you aren’t willing to admit that you are sinful by nature and that your sinful nature leads you to all kinds of sinful thoughts, words and actions, you find yourself a lost and condemned creature.  If you are not willing to acknowledge your sinful condition and the sins that follow from that condition, you see no need to for the love of God that is offered through the One Man who came to be your substitute.

     That brings us to the second part of the passage.  “So by the one man’s obedience, many will be made righteous.”  Even when God was confronting the serpent and Adam and Eve in the garden after that first sin of disobedience, He already had a plan for the salvation of His special creation.  Because of their sin they would be unable to make themselves right with God again.  They would need help. It is just like when a basketball player gets in foul trouble early in the game, a substitute has to come in and do what that player is unable to do sitting on the bench.  God spoke about the seed of the woman, a future offspring, who would crush the head of the serpent, destroying his control over God’s special creatures.  That was the first promise of a Savior who would come and rescue mankind from their fallen condition and restore them to their place in God’s eternal kingdom.  He would be your substitute.  He would do for you what you were unable to do because of that condition called original sin. 

     The Apostle Paul describes the action of that Savior by saying, “by one man’s obedience.”  Jesus was totally obedient to the Father when He took on human flesh and blood.  As the Son of God, He was true God from all eternity.  He was a spirit, just as God is a spirit.  But He became a human being, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.  Because He was still true God, He was able to live a life without sin.  As we heard a couple of weeks ago, He was subject to temptation by the devil but He had the power to resist.  His perfect life is the perfect substitute for you.  You are unable to live that perfect life because you were born with that inclination to sin, the condition that affects us all.  Jesus was called in to substitute for you under the Law. 

      But that was not all.  He wasn’t a player who just stood along the sidelines in order to avoid getting into any foul trouble Himself.  He got in the game and faced the attacks of the enemy.  He took His role as your substitute all the way to the cross.  There He suffered the pain and agony of a horrible execution for something He did not do.  He took your punishment.  He suffered and died as the price for your sins.  That is what our Lenten observance is all about: One Man’s obedience.

     The last part of that verse then explains for us why Jesus did all this as our substitute.  “By one man’s obedience, many will be made righteous.”  It’s really exciting when a sub comes into a game and is able to make a difference in the outcome.  If the sub can get some important rebounds and score some points down the stretch, the crowd will recognize that and cheer even louder.  The substitute will be recognized as the hero of the game and everyone will feel like a winner.  With Jesus as our substitute, St. Paul concludes that many will be made righteous.  Often when you hear statements that use words like righteous or justification or propitiation like we have heard in our Bible readings lately, you are tempted to just pass them by as nice religious words that don’t mean a lot.  It’s just more theological jargon that preachers use.  But this is the real heart of the message of the Gospel for you.  If you don’t appreciate the importance of a statement like this you have really missed the Good News.  Through Jesus’ obedience under the Law and on the cross, allowing Himself to be nailed to the wood, you have been made righteous before God.  Your sin has been covered over by the robes of Christ’s righteousness.  You are no longer considered guilty because of your sinful condition and because of your many sins of omission and commission, your sins of thought, word and deed.  You are declared righteous because your punishment has been paid.  You are not righteous because of what you have done.  You are made righteous.  It’s almost as if every word of that passage has an important meaning for your eternal salvation.

      One man’s sin brought that sinful condition to you.  One man’s obedience made you righteous.  That is reason for you to praise and thank God for His mercy every day of your life.  It’s like when a team wins a close game over their rival.  More and more you see the fans storm the court and celebrate the victory.  As a child of God, you are in a wonderful position to celebrate the victory over sin, death and the devil every day of your life.  Your attitudes and behaviors, your songs and your words can give glory to God in everything that you do because you know that you have been saved by your substitute, Jesus.  In God’s great love, Jesus came into the game.  He took your place.  By His obedience, you were made righteous.  He is your hero.  To Him be the praise now and forever.  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

March 3, 2013

The Third Sunday in Lent