Good Friday [Hebrews 10:19-20] (30-Mar-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In the Old Testament in Leviticus chapter 16, we read about the Day of Atonement. In Hebrew, the Jewish people even today call it “Yom Kippur.”

And on this Good Friday, I want you to picture in your minds the Jewish ritual of this occasion. In the second half of the book of Exodus, God commanded Moses to build a tabernacle. The tabernacle was a tent, which the people of Israel—the Jewish people—carried around with them from Mt Sinai and into the land of Canaan. The tabernacle was the place of worship for the people of Israel, and God commanded them to make all kinds of offerings and sacrifices there at different times. Later on, when King Solomon ruled Israel, the tabernacle was replaced by a temple. During the time of Jesus, this first temple had been destroyed and had been replaced by a second temple. The second temple was destroyed 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, and to this day has never been rebuilt.

Now picture the tabernacle (the tent) in your mind: the whole thing is a rectangle shape. It is about 45 metres by 22.5 metres. If you draw an imaginary line through the middle of the rectangle you would have 2 squares, 22.5 metres by 22.5 metres. In Hebrew, they would have said 50 cubits by 50 cubits.

If you were to walk in the front, in the middle of the first square area, there was a large altar: the altar of burnt offering. This is the place where they burnt the various animals that had to be offered there.

In the other square area, there was the tabernacle itself, the tent of meeting. This was a small narrow rectangle tent. Inside it had two parts, the first part was called the Holy Place, where there was the Altar of Incense.

You might remember at Christmas time, when John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, was on duty in the temple and saw the Angel Gabriel he was standing at the Altar of Incense. The Altar of Incense was inside the Holy Place.

But then, if you imagine walking into the tent, where the Holy Place is, at the back you would see a curtain, and behind this curtain was a place called the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place. Inside the Most Holy Place was the Ark of Covenant, which is the box that the Jewish people carried with them from the wilderness into the promised land. On top of the Ark of the Covenant there was carved cherubim—that is, angels with their wings outstretched and touching, one cherub on either side of the Ark of the Covenant. On top of the Ark of Covenant, between the two cherubim was the area which was called the mercy seat.

Can you picture all this? Let’s walk outside and come back in again. You come through the front of the tent, and in the middle of the open courtyard is the Altar of Burnt Offering. In front of you, is the Tabernacle itself. If you went through into the Tabernacle you would see the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place. Behind the Altar of Incense was a curtain, and behind the curtain was the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place. In the middle of the Most Holy Place was the Ark of the Covenant, which had the carved cherubim with their touching wings, and on top of the Ark of the Covenant was the mercy seat.

Of course, as any old Israelite, you would never have been allowed to have a pleasant stroll around the Tabernacle, a guided tour just as I’m trying to get you to imagine. Only the priests were allowed to enter the Holy Place.

But now I want to describe for you the Day of Atonement, or “Yom Kippur”, in Hebrew.

The Day of Atonement was a particularly special day and a particularly special Jewish festival. The High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place. This was the only day of the year, when anyone was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place, and the only person who was allowed to go in was the High Priest.

The first thing he would do would be to take two animals, a bull and a ram. Then he would have to put on special clothes, which he would only wear on this one day of the year. He would put on a linen robe, and linen underwear, with a linen sash, and a linen turban on his head. He had to wash his body with water and put them on.

Now, after he had the bull and the ram, and put on the special clothes, he would also take two goats.

Now he was all prepared for the next part.

He would then bring forward the bull—it was going to be offered for himself and his family.  Then he would take the two goats and put them at the entrance of the tent. Now one goat would be chosen for the Lord, and one goat would be chosen for Azazel. Azazel means a demon, for the devil, for Satan.

Now, he would kill the bull as an offering for the sin of himself and his family. He would then have to take a pan full of hot coals from the altar and put incense on it and take them behind the curtain into the Most Holy Place. The Most Holy Place would be covered in thick smoke so that the Ark, the priest –and also God – was hidden from anyone’s sight. Then he had to take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on top of the mercy seat once, and then he would sprinkle it seven times with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the floor.

So after he had done this with the bull’s blood, he would then go and do the same thing with the goat that was set apart for the Lord. The goat was for the Israelites, and for their sins. The priest would kill the goat, and then take the blood and sprinkle it on top of the mercy seat and then in front of the mercy seat seven times. The reason for doing this was the cleanse the people from their sins.

Now, when the High Priest does all this, he would come out into the Holy Place to the Altar of Incense. Here he would put the bulls blood on the four horns (the four corners) of the altar, and seven times on the floor. Then he would do the same with the goats blood: on the four horns of the altar and seven times on the floor.

Now after this, the priest would then come out of the Holy Place and mix the bull’s blood and the goat’s blood together and put it on the horns of the Altar of Burnt Offering. Then he would also have to sprinkle the blood on it seven times. The reason for doing this was to clean the altar and make the altar clean from the sin of the people. So you can see that the priest goes into the Holy of Holies to make atonement, then he goes to the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place, and then he brings the blood out to clean the Altar of Burnt Offering. The holiness of God comes out and then makes everything clean.

Altogether there was 49 sprinklings of blood, which is very significant, because 49 is 7 times 7, which is a special number.

Then after this, he would take the live goat and he would put his hands on the goat’s head and he would confess all the sins of the people over it. The High Priest would confess the sins of the people as if their sins were his own sins, and he was place these sins on the goat. Then a man would take the goat away into a remote place in the wilderness somewhere.

Now, after the goat had been sent away, then the High Priest would have to go into the tent of meeting and take off his linen vestments and leave them there. Then he would have to wash his whole body with water somewhere in there and put on his regular vestments that he would normally wear. Then he would make the normal burnt offering on the altar of burnt offering and sacrifice the ram.

You see how the Altar had to be cleaned first through the blood, and then the High Priest would offer the burnt offering. Also, after this, the bodies of the bull and the goat which were killed for the atonement in the Holy of Holies had to be carried out and burnt outside the camp.

You can see how the atonement is made in the Holy of Holies, and then the priest goes out to the Holy Place, and then to the Altar of Burnt Offering and everything becomes clean. The altar is made clean through the blood, and the dead animals are taken outside to a faraway place outside the camp.

Now, it’s taken me a long time to describe all this, and you might be scratching your head wondering what all this has to do with Good Friday.

On the day that Jesus died, as soon as he had breathed out his last breath on the cross, we read that the curtain of the temple was torn in two. In the past, the High Priest could only enter into God’s presence once a year and with very strict conditions. Now the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, is presented before the Holy of Holies, and Jesus opens up the curtain for us to enter into God’s presence. You can see in our churches today, there is no curtain in front of the altar. We all come and enter into the sanctuary and receive Christ’s body and blood.

Jesus’ blood has been sprinkled on the mercy seat, not on earth in the temple, or in the tabernacle, but before God’s own throne in heaven. Jesus’ blood makes atonement for all our sins and gives us full access into God’s presence. We don’t come into God’s presence because we are pure, but we enter into God’s presence because of the blood of Jesus Christ, which he shed for us on Good Friday.

The High Priest only entered in once a year, but now we are all made priests through the blood of Christ, and we enter into God’s presence with the blood of Christ shed for our sins, and we offer our prayers to God. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he brought his holy and precious body and blood with him and stands there as the one perfect sacrifice for all sin. There is no need to atone for our sins once a year, but on Good Friday atonement was made for every day to come.

And just as Jesus goes into the Father’s presence, so he is always coming out of the Father’s presence to make everything clean, offering us his gifts of baptism, washing us pure from all condemnation, and giving us the gifts of his body and blood to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper. And he gives these things and applies them to us.

Jesus death tore the curtain in two. His atonement, his death, his sacrifice, ripped through the curtain and cleanses us of all sin. Jesus is true God and true man. Because he is a man he has blood, and because he is true God that blood has divine power to make us clean not just outside but inside of us: our hearts, our minds, our souls, our consciences. And we go and we enter through a new and living way through the curtain. We enter into a new and living way into the Father’s presence through the holy and precious blood of Jesus.

All our sin and condemnation is laid on Jesus. Jesus absorbs it just like the goat. He went out into the wilderness with Satan, and he won the victory over the devil. All the sins of the world are placed on Jesus just as if they were his own sins and he dies for them. And just like the bull and the other goat, Jesus was carried out of the city and burnt on the cross. He endured all the fire of God’s anger against sin and all the fire of his love for the world, and was made a perfect burnt offering for us. And when he had done it all and when he had made his atonement, he said, “It is finished.”

So Good Friday brings an end to the Jewish Day of Atonement. We have been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus.

Hebrews 13 says: The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.

So on this Good Friday, let’s praise our Lord Jesus Christ for his perfect sacrifice made once and for all. Let’s praise him for the atonement for our sins which he made with his own blood. Let’s continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, because on this day, on this Good Friday, the perfect blood of Jesus—true God and true man—was shed for you, so that you can enter into the Holy Places of heaven, and walk into the heavenly Jerusalem with him. Just as he said to the thief next to him, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we praise you for your sacrifice, for your offering, for your atonement which you made for us with your blood and with your own body and life. Forgive us and purify our hearts with this same blood, and give us the confidence to enter into the Holy Place of heaven. Send us your Holy Spirit from the Father’s throne, and make us holy together with you. Amen.

Maundy Thursday [1 Corinthians 11:23-26] (29-Mar-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 7.30pm, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, on Wed 28 March, 7pm.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

At the end of the book of Genesis, we read about where the old man, Jacob, goes down to Egypt. He has been reunited with his long-lost son, Joseph, who was sold by his brothers as a slave, and now became a prince in Egypt. But then comes to time for Jacob to die—and in Genesis 49, we read about how he gathers all his sons together, and blesses them one by one. And not long after this wonderful blessing, we read: When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

And as we come to celebrate Maundy Thursday tonight, we also see a similar thing – Jesus knows he’s about to die, and so just like Jacob gathering his twelve sons, he gathers his twelve disciples and he blesses them. But Jesus’ blessing is quite a different kind of blessing—Jacob gives all his sons individual blessings which are suitable to each one, but Jesus gives them the same blessing. Jesus blesses each of the disciples with the words: Take and eat, this is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me. And instead of resting his hands on each of the disciples, like we might imagine Jacob doing with each of his sons, Jesus by means of simple bread puts his body in their mouths, and by means of simple wine puts his blood upon their lips. What a wonderful blessing Jesus gives them! This reminds me of those wonderful words of John, who often called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved, who was actually there at the Last Supper: Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

We come to church to hear the words of Jesus, and each word he speaks to us is such a wonderful, loving word. And what Jesus says is not just talk, but it does things: Jesus loves us in deed and in truth. And at the Last Supper, he says: This is my body, and he actually gives the disciples his body to eat. He says: This is my blood, and he actually gives the disciples his blood to drink. It’s just like when Jesus, together with his Father and the Holy Spirit, said at the beginning of creation: Let there be light, and there was light. And just as we still have light in the world today because of those words, so also in the church, we still have Christ’s body and blood to eat and drink, because his words and still powerful. And so Jesus fulfils those words: Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Let us love. At the beginning of our Gospel reading tonight we read the words: Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of the world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Do you see how Maundy Thursday is a night that is stamped with love? Not just some lovey-dovey soppy love, like in some Hollywood movie. This is pure love, divine love, love which we can’t begin to comprehend, and we will never completely understand in our lifetime. But Jesus shows us this love, and demonstrates it to us in his words and actions. This is what Maundy Thursday is about. And so Jesus washes his disciples’ feet to show them what sort of a love he has for them.

Peter doesn’t fully understand. He says: You will never wash my feet. Jesus says: What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. We can never fully understand the depth and the power of the love which Jesus is showing to us at any given time. So often we look back on our lives and realise that Jesus was with us powerfully in times when we thought he might have given up on us. But what a wonderful love it is that Jesus shows us! We read in Romans: I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, not height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And so Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. And he says: For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Jesus is not giving his disciples a sacrament of foot-washing. We will have a foot-washing ceremony later in our service, but this is a re-enactment, not a sacrament. But through this foot-washing, Jesus wants to teach the disciples: I’m going to send you out into the world to bring the gospel to all nations. And you need to know that you are not to go out and get people to serve and wait on you, and to rub oil on your bunions, and pour you refreshments. You are to go and wait on those I have called out of the world, you are to serve them, to wash their feet just like a household slave. This is the kind of love that Jesus teaches the disciples on Maundy Thursday night.

And so he says to them: 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.

Jesus says: I am going to be with you always until the end of the age. I’m going to walk with you, and work with you, and I’m going to breathe my Holy Spirit on you to comfort you. But that’s not to say that Jesus will work through us whatever we do. I read recently where someone said that Jesus does his mission in us and sends the Holy Spirit through us wherever we go and whatever we do. That’s not true – when we sin, when we hurt people, when we hate people, when we let our temper get the better of us, when we curse them instead of blessing them, no—Jesus is not working through us in whatever we do. It’s not in doing whatever we like that people will know that we are his disciples, but it’s by this[that] people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

And then we go to Jesus, and we say: Look, Jesus, I’m just not as loving as I know I should be. I’m always giving you a bad name. I get frustrated with people, and I don’t love them. I get to that crazy intersection of Gawler Street and Hutchinson Street, and some nincompoop turns right in front of me when he shouldn’t have, so I honk my horn and give him the finger. And to top it off I’ve got this fish sticker on the back of my car advertising that I’m a Christian. Well, so much for the line: By this all people will know that you are my disciples.

So, Jesus, what do I do? How do I learn this love? How do I get this love?

Jesus knows very well that you need this love, that you need to study it, that you need to receive it constantly from him.

In the Small Catechism, Martin Luther, in his Questions and Answers for those who intend to go to the Sacrament, writes this question:

Finally, why do you wish to go to the sacrament, [the Lord’s Supper]?

Answer: That I may learn to believe that Christ, out of great love, (did you hear that word?) died for my sin, and also learn from Him to love (there it is again!) God and my neighbour.

The Lord’s Supper is a Supper of Christian love. Even the apostle Jude, in his letter, the second last book in the bible, calls the Lord’s Supper, a love feast. A feast of love. (Actually, the love feast probably also included not just the Lord’s Supper but also a further meal together.)

But when St Paul writes to the Corinthians, the Lord’s Supper is not one of love at all. He says: When you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. He even says: When you come together it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not!

Those are very strong words from the apostle Paul. And we can see that even the early churches didn’t get everything right, as if this was some kind of golden era, where all these happy smiling Christians were all sitting around in a circle, holding hands and singing, Kumbaya.

No – they also, just like us, had to learn how to love.

And so St Paul says: Let me teach you how to love. I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

So Jesus loves his disciples by speaking his word. He says: This is my body, given for you. This is my blood of the new covenant, the new testament in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.Jesus through the power of his clear and pure word, makes the bread and wine something that it wasn’t before. Jesus had done this kind of miracle before, where he took a sick person, spoke his word, and made them well. So, it’s no ordinary bread and wine anymore: it’s the body and blood of Christ. It’s still bread and it’s still wine—but the bread is united to the body of Christ and the wine to this blood. This is what we call the consecration. So that if someone were to ask us: what is that food on the table there? We would say: It’s the body and blood of Christ. And Jesus doesn’t tell lies. Every word of God proves true. St Paul says: The blessing cup that we bless, is it not a participation of the blood of Christ?

But it’s not enough for Jesus simply to consecrate his body and blood. He loves his disciples by giving his body and blood to them. We read in Mark: After blessing it, he broke it and gave it to them. He broke the bread so that they could all have a piece. This is what we call the distribution. Even in the New Testament, the Lord’s Supper is called the breaking of the bread. This means, not that Jesus broke it as some great symbolic ritual, but he broke it so that they could have some.

But it’s not enough for Jesus simply to give it to them to do whatever they like with it. He doesn’t want them to put his body in their pockets and take it home. Jesus loves his disciples by telling them to eat it and drink it. This is what we call the reception of the Lord’s Supper. He wants to put his body in their mouths, and he wants to put his blood on their lips.

And all of this, Jesus says: Do this in remembrance of me. Remembrance doesn’t mean that it’s not his body, and that the Lord’s Supper is a memorial meal of bread and wine without his body. Otherwise, Jesus didn’t mean what he said, when he said: This is my body. No – the Lord’s Supper is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself for us Christians to eat and to drink. He says: I want you to eat my body and drink my blood in remembrance of me. That’s what I want you to do, when I say: do this.

What wonderful love Jesus shows to us! Not only does he die on the cross, and rise again from the dead, but he stays with his church and feeds his own church himself, with himself, with his body and blood, all throughout Christian history!

So this Supper that we are going to share together, is the supper where Jesus teaches us his great divine love. It is here, on our knees, around the altar of God, where Jesus shapes and forms us in his character, in his mind, in his heart and works in us that pure love, the love which he shows completely undeserved to us. It’s especially here in the Lord’s Supper where these words are taught and begin to come true and take shape: By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. All this he does by giving us such a precious gift: His body and his blood.

May God bless you with his Holy Spirit as we come to receive this gift tonight, and to be comforted and strengthened with his precious words!

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we can’t begin to imagine how you bring about this great miracle in the Lord’s Supper. But we trust in your words in all their truth and purity: This is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for your for the forgiveness of sins. Amen, amen, it shall be so!

Palm Sunday [Matthew 21:1-11] (25-Mar-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Today in the church year, we’re celebrating Palm Sunday, which is a particularly special day in the church calendar, where we remember the event where Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.

If we follow the events in the Gospels carefully from Palm Sunday to Easter, particularly in Mark, it gives us the timing that Jesus entered into Jerusalem exactly one week before Easter Sunday. After Palm Sunday, it says: On the following day [which is Monday], they came to Bethany and Jesus cursed the fig tree, and drove out the traders from the temple. Then Mark writes: As they passed by in the morning [which is Tuesday morning], they saw that the fig tree that Jesus had cursed the day before was now withered. And we read that Jesus went into the temple and was teaching. After he was finished talking, we read that it was two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Passover was held on Thursday, which was the day when Jesus was arrested and betrayed, and then follows Good Friday, when Jesus died, the Saturday when he was in the tomb, and then Easter Sunday when they found Jesus’ empty tomb. So altogether it is exactly a week, which is why we celebrate this event today. It is the beginning of a particularly holy week, when Jesus made atonement and sacrificed his life for the sin of the world.

We read in Matthew: Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once. All throughout the Gospels, we see many different glimpses that Jesus is not just any normal person. We see his supernatural power on every page, showing us that he is not just a man, but also true God.

Today we see Jesus’ special foresight, and his divine insight into the future. Jesus knows exactly what is going to happen, and how everything will work out. He tells his disciples exactly how things will be: where the donkey will be, what kind of donkey, that there will be a colt too, and what to say if someone asks them about it. Earlier this year, we read some other examples of this divine knowledge of Jesus. Remember when Jesus said that he saw Nathanael under the fig tree, even though Nathanael hadn’t seen him. From this Nathanael praises Jesus as the King of Israel. Also, a few weeks ago we read where Jesus says that in three days he would raise his body up again.

In Mark and Luke, we read this is a donkey, on which no one has ever sat. Isn’t this amazing, that Jesus didn’t only know that a donkey was there, but he even knew the life-history of this particular donkey. Jesus said: Not one [sparrow] will fall to the ground apart from your Father. Jesus, together with his Father, knows the life of each animal in the world, and who has sat on them. Just think that if Jesus cares so much for a donkey, how much more then for you? Also, Jesus will ride this donkey, without anyone having broken it in for him and trained it. This donkey knows that this Jesus is his Master and Creator.

Matthew writes: This took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” It is amazing how this wonderful prophecy from the book of Zechariah is fulfilled in this reading today. But also, Jesus fulfils it with such a minimum of fuss. He goes about everything very quietly. The crowd makes the noise, not him. The prophecy says that your king is coming to you, humble. Jesus is coming in a humble way, with no pomp and flair and white horses and elephants. No – he just has a donkey.

Jesus is humble and gentle. Many times in history, people have put their trust in a revolution where all the good guys win and all the bad guys are crushed. People have wanted things to happen by force, and with dynamic leadership. Many year ago, Hitler entered Austria, and the people celebrated it. They welcomed the German army and Hitler as the passionate dynamic leader, who could give rousing speeches. But we know how that story ended. Jesus here does nothing of the sort. He doesn’t come with violence, with an army, with force, with tanks, with bombs, with machine guns, to sort Jerusalem’s problems out once and for all. No—he comes on a donkey, humble and gentle.

Jesus has nothing to prove here, and so there’s no need for a show. Often God does things in the humblest way. Think about Mary. When she was pregnant, she travelled to visit her relative Elizabeth, maybe for afternoon tea and a friendly holiday. And Elizabeth’s baby did a little backflip in honour of the unborn Jesus. Mary then said that God has look on the humble estate of his servant. The humble estate. What a humble affair it was! Think of the Roman Caesar and his legions and armies, and all the world’s kings and rulers. Yet the most important thing in the world at that moment was two pregnant women having afternoon tea. And with all the world’s gold and wealth, all the mighty stallions, all the elephants and the lions, the most important animal in the world on Palm Sunday was a humble donkey on which no one had ever sat.

In Mark and Luke, we also read in great detail how the disciples did exactly what Jesus said. Those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” There is no argument, no fight, no stealing. Jesus promises that the owners will give permission, and it happens exactly as he says.

Then we read: They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. John says: They took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him. When Jesus comes to a place, he is the one who makes the occasion wonderful. There is nothing special about the donkey, there is nothing special about these ordinary people, and their ordinary clothes, and their ordinary palm branches. Even in our church today, there is nothing particularly special about us, with all our sins and problems and worries. And yet, we come to meet Jesus, and he transforms everything.

And so we read in Luke: As he was drawing near—already on the way down from the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began the rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” We read in Matthew: The crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Today we remember this wonderful occasion where the people join together in praising Jesus. It is a regular part of our church services to sing praise and thanks to Jesus, and to welcome him with singing and with our voices. Every Sunday is a kind of Palm Sunday. In Ephesians, Paul encourages Christians to be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. We see a wonderful example of that in today’s reading. What a joy and a privilege it is to praise Jesus, and what a mighty weapon against the evil one, who can’t stand to hear our songs and our praises!

The word, “Hosanna” is a Hebrew word meaning “Please save us” This word comes from Psalm 118, where it says: Save us, O Lord! Give us success! Actually, the name Jesus is related to this word. The name of Jesus means: Saviour, or he saves. The angel says to Joseph in his dream: You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. So singing Hosanna to Jesus is a way of acknowledging our own sin and our weaknesses and failures, and welcoming him as our Saviour and our Redeemer.

The people call on Jesus in the reading as the Son of David. Right at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, it says: The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Then it gives Jesus’ family tree, tracing his descendants from Abraham and through David. Many times in the Gospels Jesus is called the Son of David, not just because he was descended from David, but because he is the rightful king. Even Pontius Pilate recognised this when he wrote above the cross: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Jesus is a king, and people had been waiting for him to come right back from the time of King David.

The people also sing: Hosanna in the highest. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Our songs of praise don’t simply remain on earth, but they rise and stretch all the way to the heights of heaven, so that we join in with the angels. These words are just like the songs of the angels at Christmas time who sang: Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth! Here on Palm Sunday, the people sing: Hosanna in the highest! Peace in heaven!

The people also shout out the words: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Jesus comes into Jerusalem in complete agreement with his Father’s will. God the Father allowed it, and sent him. Jesus comes in the name of the Lord, and he is the source of all blessing, and so the people say: Blessed is he.

These words of praise are the basis of our praise that we sing together today. The people sing, Hosanna in the highest! meaning that in singing Hosanna they are joining in with the angels. Every Sunday, when we celebrate the communion service, we often sing the words: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. With these words, we acknowledge that we are joining in with the angels. When we prepare to enter into the sanctuary to taste Jesus’ own body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins, we sing just like the crowd did on Palm Sunday: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! We even make a special point of this by saying: Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we adore and magnify your glorious name. In our church service, we join in with the angels and the angels join in with us. Heaven and earth overlap and Jesus comes right into our midst and speaks to us and feeds us.

Now there’s a couple of little warnings in the Gospels about this event on Palm Sunday. First, we read in Luke: And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” The Pharisees recognise the weight and the depth of what the crowd are saying to Jesus. But they think: Jesus is not a Saviour, or a Messiah, or a King. They think that the crowd are completely wrong. But Jesus says: If these were silent, the very stones would cry out. The whole of creation recognises Jesus—it’s the whole reason for your existence—it’s a real shame if you don’t join in!

In John it says that even his disciples did not understand these things at first. Isn’t this strange? The disciples praised Jesus, and yet they didn’t understand what was fully going on. Sometimes this is the same for us. We can come to church Sunday after Sunday and we sometimes don’t know entirely what’s going on. People can get bored and fall away. Sometimes Christians start to think if we want more people in church we have to entertain them. But the real problem is that people often think they know everything there is to know. And they refuse to learn anything new. As we learn more and more about Jesus, and who he is, and just what it means to come into his presence and hear his word and receive his gifts, the more we begin to realise how much before we didn’t understand. And then there will be so much more to praise Jesus for!

Today there are some churches that put a great emphasis on praise. And sometimes there are songs that say very little, and just repeat and repeat praise to God. But this by itself is not enough. Many churches like this can have very large numbers, but also large numbers of people who fall away. Today we see a very large crowd. On Good Friday, we also see a very large crowd, but this time they are calling for Jesus’ blood and his crucifixion.

John tells us that many of the people who were there on Palm Sunday had heard about how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. They were impressed with Jesus. But on Good Friday, there were many people who hated him and despised him. We must also be careful that we are not simply impressed with Jesus, but that we also stay with him and remain with him when we don’t understand what’s going on. Otherwise, we can so easily fall away. At one time, many disciples walked away from Jesus, and there were only a few remaining. And Jesus said to them, Do you want to go away as well?” Peter answered: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.

So, let’s welcome our Jesus also today. He has the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that he is the Holy One of God. He comes to Jerusalem at the beginning of this week to suffer and die for the sin of the world and to rise again from the dead. Even today, and every time we join together with our fellow Christians, he comes to meet us as our gentle and humble king. We welcome him as sinners, with all our weaknesses and troubles and problems. Many times we don’t even fully understand why we are coming to him and what a wonderful Saviour he is! But he comes to us, not to punish us, but comes gently and humbly, with words of forgiveness and grace and rest and refreshment. And so we sing to him: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Amen.

Dear Lord Jesus, we welcome you today as our king and our Saviour. Save us and forgive us and bless us with your Holy Spirit, and lead us as citizens of your kingdom. Amen.

Mid-week Lent Service V [Luke 23:26-31] (21-Mar-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 5.30pm.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, bless all of us with your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

Tonight in our last midweek Lent sermon for this year, we reflect on the event where Jesus was led to place of his death. In our sermon tonight we are going to reflect on three things.

I.                   The fact that Jesus was led out to be crucified, carrying his cross.

II.                 The fact that Simon of Cyrene was called upon to help him.

III.              Jesus addresses a group of women who were following him.

So let’s look at the first part, where:

I.                   Jesus was led out to be crucified, carrying his own cross.

In Matthew and Mark, we are told: When they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him.

Throughout the events of the last day, Jesus had been clothed three times: once by Herod, once by the soldiers when they mocked him, and then before he was led away. Herod clothed him in “splendid clothing”, possibly a white garment, or something brightly coloured. The soldiers clothed him in a purple robe, and now they clothe him with his own clothes.

In some sense, these three different clothes remind us of different things: the white garment from Herod reminds us of the white clothing that priests would wear in the temple, and their splendid clothing, with jewels and gold thread. This reminds us that Jesus is our priest, in fact our high priest, who constantly prays for us before God the Father. He is a priest who is able to sympathise with us in our weakness, and was tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin. The purple robe reminds us that Jesus is a king, since purple is the colour that kings wear. He is the King of glory; the King of kings and Lord of lords. But then lastly, before he is led out, they put his own clothes back on him. These are his simply humble clothes that he normally wore. This reminds us of the fact that Jesus is a prophet, and just like all the prophets, he wore no fancy clothes, but was poor and lowly. Remember the encouragement that Jesus gives to his disciples about their persecution. He says: So they did to the prophets who were before you.

These three things, that Jesus is priest, king and prophet, is what it means that he is the Messiah, or the Christ. Messiah (in Hebrew) or Christ (in Greek) mean that he is anointed. The people who were anointed with oil in the Old Testament were prophets, priests or kings. Jesus is all three, and he is not simply anointed with oil, but with the Holy Spirit at his baptism, and declared by God to be his beloved Son, with whom he is well pleased. This is the same Jesus who is going to the cross.

In John’s Gospel we are told that Jesus carried his own cross. This was to add to the shaming of Jesus as he walked to place of his execution. This was a piece of wood that was going to sustain the weight of a grown man: it was no twig.

And we are reminded in this picture of Jesus carrying his own cross that he is the Lamb of God who carries the sins of the world. He is carrying a heavy load, and he carries it for us. In Isaiah 53 we read that the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

On one hand, we see the fact that it is us and our sin that has laid this on him. On the other hand, we also see that we have a wonderful Saviour, Jesus, who carries it, and takes it off our shoulders and takes it upon his own.

In Deuteronomy, we also read that the wood of the cross was a curse from God. It says: Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. St Paul says about this in Galatians: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”. Jesus removes all curses from us, by taking this curse upon his own shoulders, which we see here as he carries his own cross. He takes the curse, but he gives us all the blessings of his kingdom.

This brings us now to the second part of our reading, where:

II.                 Simon of Cyrene was called upon to help Jesus carry the cross.

In John’s Gospel we are told that Jesus carries his own cross. In Matthew, Mark and Luke we are told that Simon carried it. Of course, there’s no reason to believe that both didn’t happen. Also, it is also quite likely that Jesus began to carry his own cross, but because he had been so weakened by his scourging, he needed some help.

Now, we don’t know much about this man Simon, except that he was Cyrene, and Mark tells us that he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. In Romans 16, we read at the end of the letter where Paul is passing on various greetings to various people. He says: Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. If Mark mentioned Alexander and Rufus, it is probably likely that many people knew who these people were, and it seems that in Romans here, there was a man called Rufus and his mother who were particularly close to Paul, and had looked after him. Simon of Cyrene probably became a Christian himself and raised his family as Christians too.

We read that he was from Cyrene. Cyrene was a city, founded by the Ancient Greeks, on the North African coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Today, this region is part of modern day Libya. Simon is a long way from his home. On the day of Pentecost, we read that there were people from Cyrene there, amongst all kinds of other people. We read where the people say: Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappodocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Romes, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our tongues the mighty works of God.

Simon was not the only person from this part of the world who was in Jerusalem, and yet he was most certainly a foreigner. We read in Luke: And as they led [Jesus] away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.

We have here a wonderful picture here of the words which Jesus had said to his disciples earlier: Take up your cross and follow me. It’s strange: on one hand, Simon doesn’t have any choice about the matter. He is forced to carry it. And also, it is not his cross—it belongs to Jesus, and Jesus is the one who is going to die on it.

This gives us a wonderful picture of our own Christian lives. Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow me. He lets us carry his cross for a little while, so that something sinful in us can be put to death. But Jesus doesn’t make us pay for our sins, and atone for them—that is his job. Sometimes we feel in our lives that we have been carrying an incredible burden, which has been laid on us for a time. Often we carry things around with us that are actually not for us to carry—we have decided to carry them, whereas Jesus is the one who carries them. For example, sometimes people that we love might not act and behave in a way that we would like. And we take upon ourselves the task of changing them, or even converting them to the faith. Now, we can talk to people, encourage them, warn them, teach them, but we can’t change their hearts—that is Jesus’ job, and the Holy Spirit’s job. What a wonderful thing it is when we realise this, and we can say to Jesus: “Jesus, I realise now that I cannot carry this burden. I ask that you would take this burden away from me, and take it upon yourself.”

In 1 Corinthians 10, we read something about bearing temptations. St Paul writes: No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. It’s strange—even Jesus is given the help that he needs to bear the weight of the cross. Simon only carries the cross for a time, and then it is no longer his any more. But Paul writes that God provides the way of escape. When we are burdened by some sin or troubles, we should be encouraged by the fact that God will provide the way of escape. But we often think that escaping means that we don’t have to bear it any more. Actually, it says: He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. He provided the way of escape, not so that we don’t need to endure it, but so that we can endure it. He provides the way of escape through the temptation. He leads us through it, not around it. And the wonderful thing about this is that God lays these things on us as long as they are of some benefit to our soul. And when we realise this, there is then a great joy in being able to bear the cross for as long as God would have us bear it. We know that in just a little while that Jesus will demonstrate his power and glory by showing us how he died on that same cross. St Peter writes: Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. But now listen to what he says: And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Also, there is that wonderful passage in Matthew where Jesus says: Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He doesn’t say that he will remove the load immediately, or straight-away, or when we think that we need it. But he does promise us rest. And he promises us rest in a very strange way. He says: Take my yoke upon you. You have carried your burden for long enough. Now carry mine for a while, follow me, and I will show you where this road ends up. It ends at Golgotha, at Calvary, where I die for your sins, and make full payment for them, and where I win you for myself. He says: Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. We find rest for our souls, knowing that the cross we bear belongs to him, and he is just lending it to us for a while for our training and our blessing. The loads we carry are heavy and burdensome, but to follow Jesus and carry his cross is a much easier weight. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. What a wonderful privilege it is to walk with Jesus and carry his cross!

The other important thing about Simon carrying Jesus’ cross, is that he was forced to carry his cross. Sometimes in our Christian lives, the people outside of the church force Christians to suffer for some part of the Christian faith that we would rather not have to. At first, it is painful. We might have preferred to suffer for some other reason, but Jesus chooses the issues for us that we have to wrestle with. And as he trains us, and as we endure with him, we realise that Jesus was even more gracious and merciful than we could have ever have imagined. He draws us further away from the corrupt and sinful world, and closer to him and his way of thinking. He trains us to think like him, as St Paul writes to the Philippians: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. This is what is says in Hebrews 13: Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. A chapter earlier we also read: For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

The last part of our sermon has to do with where:

III.              Jesus addresses a group of women who were following him.

This is what we read: And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

We read that there was a large group of people, mostly women—and Jesus addresses the women—who were mourning and grieving over Jesus. They felt sorry for him for what was about to happen to him.

But Jesus says to them: Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. Jesus is saying: Don’t feel sorry for me, because I am going to do a wonderful thing now that is going to change everything as we know it. I am going to go and win the forgiveness of sins.

Previously, the Jewish people had divided the world up into two categories: themselves, and the Gentiles. But they had seen it all as an external kingdom. They were looking forward for a Messiah who was going to be a political figure, a great world leader who was going to suppress all their enemies. But now, Jesus is telling them: No—my kingdom is not of this world. The true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth. I am going to establish a new kingdom now, I am going to be enthroned. The old older of things is finished, now there will be a new kingdom with a new kind of worship. This will be a kingdom of word and sacrament—of preaching, baptism and the Lord’s Supper—it will be a kingdom of the forgiveness of sins.

The world will now be divided into the sheep and the goats. There are those who trust and follow Jesus, and there are those who reject him. Anyone can weep for Jesus, but Jesus tells these women to weep for themselves and their own children. Weep over your own sins. And weep over the fact that your children will be sinners with you. But rejoice in what I am now accomplishing.

Jesus says: For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ What Jesus is saying here is that there is going to be a judgment over the world, and even in Jerusalem. Jerusalem will end, and the world will end. And it will be preferable to wish that their children had not been brought into the world than to see them have to endure it. It will be preferable to want to be swallowed up by hills and mountains than to be face to face with that judgment of God.

Jesus says: For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? What does this mean? Jesus has been walking around and teaching and healing, and it has been a wonderful time, where many people have been called to follow him. It has been a day of salvation. It is a time when the wood is green, and leaves and fruits can grow. When Jesus calls us to repentance and faith, we should not put it off until later. We should take his hand when he reaches it out to us. But Jesus speaks of a time later when it will be too late, when the wood is dry. It is like the parable of the 10 virgins, where the five foolish virgins have missed their chance, and the doors are shut, and the bridegroom says: Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.

And if Jesus, the Saviour of the world, who has no sin, receives this kind of treatment, what kind of treatment do you think people deserve, like us who do have sin? Jesus turns the women’s eyes away from the glory of the city, away from the glory of Jerusalem, and towards him, who is the light of the world. It is not the world and people and politics and society and culture that saves us, but Christ alone. He is the green wood, everything else is dry. And when nations fall, cities are overthrown, cultures are eaten away, societies crumble, Jesus shows to us his victory over all of it—his cross, his death, his blood, his sacrifice.

Hebrews 13 says: Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world – grant us your peace. Amen.

Lent V B [John 12:20-33] (18-Mar-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Next Sunday we celebrate Palm Sunday, which marks the occasion exactly one week before Easter Sunday, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and was welcomed by large crowds waving palm branches, and shouting out words of praise. Our reading today tells about a conversation that Jesus had with his disciples immediately after this happened. And Jesus tells us about why he is coming to Jerusalem. He is coming to be glorified—but not in the way that people think, but through his suffering and death. And he has come to Jerusalem to kick the devil, who he calls the ruler of this world and to draw all people to himself.

So let’s look at the first part of our reading which says: Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus”. I remember these words very clearly from when I was a child, when I used to attend the Lutheran Church in Magill in Adelaide. There were some very artistic people in that church, and some who did calligraphy. Sometimes after church we might have found ourselves playing hide and seek, and if we hid inside the pulpit, we would read these words written in calligraphy as a bold message to the pastor: Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

These people coming to Jesus were Greeks. This gives us a little foretaste of the fact that the Gospel was going to go out to all nations. Already at Jesus’ birth the exotic and mysterious foreigners had arrived to present Jesus with strange gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Already Jesus had healed the children of a Roman centurion and a Canaanite woman. And Jesus says: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Jesus knows that there is a time coming when not just a handful of individual foreigners will come to Jesus, but a whole host of foreigners. And it happens because Jesus is about to die not only for Jews, but also for foreigners, and the whole world.

Jesus says: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. The gospels often show us very clearly that Jesus is both true God and true man. Here we see that Jesus knew exactly who he was and what was going to happen to him. He knew he was the Son of Man. And he knew he was going to be glorified. Peter once said that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus praised Peter. Jesus knew Peter was telling the truth. Even when Jesus was a 12-year-old boy, he knew who he was, and said to Mary and Joseph: Why were looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?

But how is Jesus going to be glorified? Jesus gives a little picture: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Jesus talks about a grain of wheat dying. Now the funny thing is that a grain of wheat doesn’t die. You can’t murder a grain of wheat. We don’t hold funerals for grain and say: “Here’s lies the late Mr Spelt.” But Jesus compares planting a seed to burying a person. When people die, we bury them in the ground, much like a seed. Jesus says that a seed only produces fruit, if it dies, meaning when it is buried in the ground.

Jesus shows here that he is going to die and be buried. We read about two wealthy men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, giving Jesus his funeral, with the traditional customs and the traditional spices: myrrh and aloes. And they gently lay this dead Jesus in a tomb. And now that Jesus has died and has been planted like a seed in this tomb, now see what’s going to happen. The hour has not come for the Son of Man to fail, but to be glorified. This death is no failure, but the payment for our sin, our ransom, our atonement. It is a glorious thing! And Jesus rises from the dead, and the wonderful fruit of the gospel goes out to all the world.

This picture first of all refers to Jesus himself, but Jesus also gives this picture as a kind of general rule for everyone. The same thing applies to us—like a seed being buried in the ground, our sinful self, our old ways, must be put to death. Jesus then says in our reading: Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Jesus says: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Just think what would have happened if Abraham had wanted to keep his old life in Mesopotamia, and had rejected God’s call upon him to go to the promised land?

Jesus often calls us as Christians to go through difficult times, and leads us into uncertainty, where the future seems dark. He wants to sharpen us and tempt us and entice us to good. Often if we are going to bear fruit, some part of us needs to die, and be buried in the ground. We experience hardships and trials as Christians also because that old sinful person we carry around with us needs lots of killing off. But also, when God creates something, he always creates it out of nothing. And so sometimes he has to make us nothing. And also Jesus said to St Paul: My power is made perfect in weakness. And so of course, sometimes God has to make us weak.

There are many passages in the Scripture that speak about this. In the book of Acts, we read about Paul and Barnabas preaching from town to town in cities called Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Also, the apostle James begins his letter by saying: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Peter also writes in his letter: Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

The picture of the wheat dying also shows that our trials and hardships won’t last. They will be short, just as the time of Jesus’ suffering was also short. A seed won’t stay hidden and dead in the ground for long, before it bursts forth into an amazing work of God’s creation, with leaves, flowers and fruits. St Paul writes: God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. He promises to lead you through the trial and out to the other side of it. Psalm 30 says: Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Think about the example of Joseph in the Old Testament. He experienced so many trials and hardships. He was sold to slave-traders by his own brothers, he was falsely accused of raping his master’s wife, he spent a number of years in prison, and when he had the opportunity to get out—when one of his fellow prisoners was going to put in a good word for him to Pharaoh—he forgot about Joseph. But then when Pharaoh had troubling dreams, Pharaoh’s cup-bearer who had been with Joseph in prison, remembered him, and Joseph became the second-in-charge over the whole of Egypt, and organised a rationing program that saved the whole country, and even his own family back in Canaan from starvation during a famine.

Looking back on his hard life, Joseph then says to his brothers: You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive. The same goes for us in difficult times. We don’t understand what’s going on at the time, but later we realise that Jesus was with us all along. At the time, we feel like a very small seed under a pile of mud and manure. But later, when we see the fruit, we understand.

In our reading from a few weeks ago, we read: When [Jesus] was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. At the Last Supper, when Peter didn’t want Jesus to wash his feet, Jesus said to him: What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. Jesus tells Peter to wait, be patient, and then you will understand. In the Book of Job, he describes his experience of feeling cut off from God in his suffering. Job says: Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.

So it’s a wonderful comfort that Jesus gives in our reading: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Then Jesus says: Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. One of the most difficult things to break is our sinful pride. We don’t want to change our lives, but because of Jesus’ great love for us, he sometimes pushes and pushes on us until it feels like we’re breaking. His call upon us feels too great for us. We want to keep our life, but Jesus wants us to lose it and to give us a completely new one.

There are many wonderful examples of this in the bible too. Think about King Josiah. For many years, the bible was hidden, and then when Josiah hears it read out, he begins to hate his own life, as Jesus says, and tears his clothes. But God says to Josiah: I also have heard you, declares the LORD, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place. Or when the prophet Jonah after running from God, got vomited up by a fish, and went to Nineveh, and the king commands all his people to turn back to God. And we read: When God saw what he did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster.

Remember the tax collector who was praying in the temple: God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus says: This man went down to his house justified. Jesus says in our reading: Whoever hates his life in this world will what? He will keep it for eternal life. If the Holy Spirit could create faith in us through the word, then the Holy Spirit also will protect us in [our] great weakness against the devil, the world, and [our] flesh. [The Holy Spirit] will rule and lead [us] in His ways, raise [us] again when [we] stumble, comfort [us] under the cross and in temptation, and [also] preserve [us] and keep our life for life eternal. What a wonderful promise of Jesus in our reading.

Jesus then goes on in our reading: If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him. Maybe someone wants to serve Jesus, but not go where Jesus wants us to go. When I was a child, I might have been happy to help my parents, but not necessarily to wash the dishes or clean my bedroom or take out the bin. So also Jesus says: If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am there will my servant be also. Jesus sometimes moves, and when he does, we must go to meet him. Jesus also promises: If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him.

Jesus continues and says: Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. If Jesus’ disciples should follow him, where is Jesus going? He is going to the cross. And then he will rise, and then he will send his apostles out into the whole world, and they build up the church in preaching the word of forgiveness and baptising people and giving them Christ’s body and blood to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus soul is troubled because of the great suffering that he is about to go through, but he says: For this purpose I have come to this hour.

Then an amazing thing happens. Jesus prays a little prayer to his Father. Father, glorify your name. This is much like the Lord’s Prayer, where we say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. We read: Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him”. This thundering voice of God speaks a wonderful message. God’s name has already been glorified. Jesus had already existed from eternity with his Father. And now Jesus has taken on human flesh and he will make atonement for our sins. And in doing this, God’s name will be glorified again.

This is exactly what we read about earlier in our reading where Jesus says: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. To the unbeliever, the naked Jesus, bleeding and wounded on the cross on Good Friday, will look like one of the greatest tragedies and failures of history. But it is nothing of the sort. That terrible place, Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, where Jesus will be nailed to a cross with two criminals is the place where the Son of Man will be glorified. This is the place where God will glorify his name again. It is for this purpose that Jesus has come to this hour. This is the glory of our Christian faith: Christ crucified.

And so Jesus shows the wonderful victory and the wonderful glory that occurs as he sets his face to the cross. He says: This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself. We also read: He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. Here the devil is called the ruler of this world. Jesus says that his death on the cross is the place where the devil will be cast out. He will be kicked in the guts, and his time will soon come to an end.

On one hand, Jesus judges and casts out the devil. On the other hand, he draws all people to himself. The whole history of the world will now rotate around Jesus, and whether we believe in him, or whether we reject him and are offended by him. If we side with the ruler of this world, we will come under judgment. But when we look to Jesus lifted up from the earth, dying on the cross, then Jesus draws us to himself, and into his loving arms. This is the wonderful promise of our reading. We know that everything that Jesus has done for us is not in vain, but is his wonderful and amazing victory. And anything we endure—whether it is hardship or temptation or troubles—is also not in vain, because Jesus is with us through the valley of the shadow of death to forgive us and strengthen us and lead us through it. He is not a failure, and neither are his Christians. Now is the time for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen.

Heavenly Father, glorify your name. We thank you for glorifying your name in the death of your Son on the cross. Make your power perfect in our weakness and in our weak lives, and keep and preserve us for eternal life. Amen.