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.

Lent II B [Mark 8:31-38] (25-Feb-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.

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow 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.

Our Gospel reading today is a particularly wonderful passage where Jesus teaches us what it means to be one of his disciples. The conversation in our reading today between Jesus and the disciples comes between two very important events, both of which we have read in church recently. Just before this reading, we have the passage where Jesus asks his disciples: Who do people say that the Son of Man is? And also he says: Who do you say that I am? And Peter says: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. We learn from this passage that Jesus, the Son of Man, is the Son of God. Jesus praises and commends Peter, and says to him that the church will be built on this rock, this confession of faith that he has made. He also says to Peter: Flesh and blood have not revealed this you but my Father who is in heaven. What Peter had said to Jesus was not something that was the product of his own thinking and his own heart, but was shaped and formed and inspired by God the Father himself.

Now immediately after our reading today comes the Transfiguration, where Jesus stood on the top of the mountain with Moses and Elijah, and his face and clothes shone with wonderful, brilliant light. So our reading today is sandwiched between these two amazing conversations: a conversation between Jesus and Peter about who Jesus is, and a conversation between Jesus and Moses and Elijah on the mountain.

Today’s reading begins where it says: [Jesus] began to teach [his disciples] that the Son of God must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. In an amazing way, Jesus shows us here that he is both true man and true God. Jesus demonstrates that he is a real human being, by telling his disciples how he will truly suffer, and truly be killed. Jesus will actually feel these things and endure them and go through it all. However, Jesus is also true God, and he knows exactly what is going to happen to him in advance, and that he will miraculously rise from the dead with all of his divine power.

So what is it that Jesus prophesies here and predicts and foretells is going to happen to him? He says: he will suffer, be rejected, be killed, and rise again. This almost sounds like the Apostles’ Creed where we say that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. On the third day, he rose again from the dead. We recite these things and learn them and speak about them regularly in the creed because they are of the utmost importance. So Jesus predicts and prophesies his sacrifice, his atonement and payment for your sins, his death and resurrection for your salvation, and puts these things right at the front of his and his disciples’ minds. It is of the utmost importance, and this is why he came.

Jesus also prophesies which people will reject him:  the elders and the chief priests and the scribes. These three groups of people are significant: the elders are Jewish leaders, known and chosen for their wisdom. The priests were appointed to make sacrifices in the temple. The scribes were the scholars, the bible-experts. And yet, Jesus prophesies that despite all of their learning, righteousness and wisdom, they will not tolerate Jesus, but will reject him and kill him. You see, Jesus is our Wisdom, he is our sacrifice and our high priest, and he is the Word of God who speaks living words from God, and he brings all the wisdom of the elders, all the sacrifices of the priests and all the learning and scholarship of the scribes to nothing.

But then Peter jumps in and we read: Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. He says: Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you. Even Peter doesn’t understand. He thinks: If Jesus is the Son of God, he can’t be rejected! He can’t suffer, and be killed, and die, and be buried! It seems like a contradiction to him, and so he goes and tells Jesus off about it.

Now sometimes we carry on in much the same way. In our church, we believe that the Scripture doesn’t have any mistakes in it. In our congregation and our parish constitution, and at a pastor’s ordination, we confess that the bible is “inerrant”, meaning “without errors”.  If the church makes a faithful confession and follows the Scripture and confesses the truth, then the church also will teach no errors. Paul wrote to Titus that God never lies. It should be our primary goal and our greatest desire to learn the truth, because when we go against the truth of God’s Word, we go against God himself. Jesus said to his Father: Sanctify them in the truth, Lord; your word is truth. St Paul tells us to: speak the truth in love. And he also says: Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Now when we find something in the Scripture that we don’t like or understand or agree with, we often go to Jesus and tell him off. We say: Don’t be so silly, Jesus. Don’t talk such rubbish!

So when Peter tells Jesus off, what does Jesus say? Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Amazing! Peter thinks that if Jesus is the Son of God, he can’t suffer and die. But this is just empty human logic. Jesus had just commended Peter when he had spoke the truth and said: You are the Son of the living God. Now Jesus tells his disciples why he has come: to suffer and die for your sins, and to rise and destroy death. And Peter rejects this. Jesus says: Get behind me, Satan! Jesus says: Before when you spoke the truth, God spoke through you. Now you speak lies, and it is Satan who is speaking.

Sometimes Satan leads people into wrong. Satan knows that when Jesus suffers, dies and rises, Jesus will destroy all of Satan’s power. Not long before he was arrested, Jesus had said: Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And so Satan leads Peter into speaking error, and he doesn’t want Peter to understand the great power of what Jesus says. And yet, as soon as Peter says this, Jesus does him a great favour, and tells him exactly where his sinful, human thinking came from. It was from Satan. Satan has a friend and an ally in our sinful hearts, and can easily mislead us into error. Martin Luther said it very sharply: Every one of us by himself is a devil, but in Christ we are holy. Jesus speaks truth, Satan speaks lies.

Now sometimes people say that the devil made them do something. And it’s true that the devil does lead us into temptation. But sometimes people mean it in such a way that their sin wasn’t really their fault. Sometimes we laugh at Adam and Eve, and say that they didn’t take responsibility for their actions. “The woman made me do it!” “The snake made me do it!” But this is not what Adam and Eve said. Eve said: The serpent deceived me, and I ate. Satan did something, but also I did wrong, it was completely my fault. So, in Genesis chapter 3, when God deals with Adam and Eve, he kicks the devil first, and promises that his head will be crushed. Then he deals with Eve and with Adam.

And so, let’s remember here Jesus’ wonderful prayer for his disciples and also for us: Sanctify them in the truth, Lord; your word is truth. The truth actually makes us holy. Today many people will say that there’s no such thing as truth, and that it’s arrogant to say that what we speak is truth. People say: “What’s true for you isn’t true for me!” Remember what Pontius Pilate said to Jesus when he put him on trial. He scoffed and said, “What is truth?” It’s not arrogant, but it’s a precious and humble thing when you find the truth that you believe it! What if the merchant who found the pearl of great price would have looked at the pearls and said: “These pearls don’t exist!” Or if the someone found hidden treasure and said, “There’s no such thing as gold!” Truth exists, Jesus speaks it, it is a precious thing.

Jesus says: Sanctify them in the truth, Lord; your word is truth. Jesus says: I am the way, the truth, and the life; no-one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is the truth, the words he speaks are truth, and he will make us holy and sanctify us with the truth. St Paul wrote to Timothy that the church is a pillar and buttress of the truth. A church with no truth is no church. A church that cares nothing for God’s word and for the truth, stands on sinking sand. And we need to be willing to fight for the truth, so that people who are looking for the truth can find it.

Now, we come to the next part of our reading: And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, [Jesus] said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  Jesus teaches us many wonderful things, especially the gospel, which is the good news that Jesus has won salvation for us. But before we can hear the Gospel, Jesus teaches God’s law, his commandments, his expectations, his standard, his word of judgment against sin. The bible teaches that people don’t just do bad things every now and then, but, we read in Genesis 6, that every intention of the thoughts of [our] heart [is] only evil continually. This means that sin taints everything completely. Only God can see the difference between you and your sin, and when you die, he will remove your sin from you. But before that, sin taints everything and we need the word of God for us even to recognise it.

And so, Jesus teaches us: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself. Jesus teaches us to deny ourselves not because this denial earns our salvation. Jesus already won our salvation for us by denying himself. He prayed to his Father: If it be possible, take this cup away from me. Yet not my will, but your will be done.

However, the Christian life is marked by self-denial. The way to heaven is not through the wide gate, the easy way. Jesus says: For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Jesus doesn’t teach us this to scare us off, but to warn us. Many times, we will read in the word and hear in the bible something that we then only learn later in our day to day life. And Jesus teaches us here, that “this obstacle along the way does not mean that you should run away from me, but it is an invitation for you to trust me”. And Jesus knows the way, and he will not let you go. As we learn Jesus’ word more and more, we learn to say like John the Baptist: He must increase, but I must decrease.

Jesus says: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Our Christian life is a life of self-sacrifice. Just as Jesus prophesied that he would suffer, be rejected, be killed, and rise again, so also Christians in this life many times will be called to suffer, and be rejected by people, even be killed. But then like Jesus, we will rise with him. We will not be abandoned. But Jesus doesn’t call us to carry his cross, but our own cross. The cross Jesus calls us to bear is just a little one in comparison. We are not dying for the sin of the world. We are just walking with Jesus, and learning from him the depth of the world’s sin and the even greater depth of his victory over it.

Many Christians today don’t like this kind of talk. Often we just want glitz and glamour. There are plenty of preachers and tele-evangelists who will tell you that your best life is now, and that God’s desire for you is to be healthy, wealthy, rich and influential. Some Christians tell sick people that if they’re not healthy, or if they’re about to die, it’s because their faith isn’t strong enough. Or sometimes people think that because Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus’ death doesn’t matter, and that it’s just nothing. They make Christianity into a little cabaret show, or a bit of light entertainment. All of this is just people doing everything they can to avoid denying themselves and taking up their cross. They think they’re following Jesus, but they delude themselves.

Instead, Jesus says: Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. The gospel, and everything that is true and good, must be protected and secured at all costs. Even if it costs us everything, the glory of the world is nothing by comparison. Better to have nothing and have Jesus, because when we have Jesus we have everything in heaven and earth. And we also learn here that whatever we give will not be in vain. Jesus will repay everything. If only we trusted him not to let us be lacking in anything. If we want to keep our life and compromise our faith, we will lose everything. Jesus will never let us down!

Jesus says in our reading: What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? Jesus puts our soul on one side of the balance, and the world on the other. Jesus has bought you with the price of his blood. Your soul was purchased with such great a price, and it was purchased by such a faithful Saviour. St Paul writes: Jesus died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. He also teaches: Love does not insist on its own way. Why would we want our own way, if Jesus has given us his way?

In the last part of our reading, Jesus says: For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. On one hand, we have Jesus and his words. On the other hand, we have this adulterous and sinful generation. Where would you rather be? On which side of the fence do you want to stand? Would you tell Jesus off, to stop talking such things, just so that you can appear more palatable to people around you? Are you afraid of being rejected by people, even though you know that Jesus’ words are holy, and they are an adulterous and sinful generation?

And yet, on the other hand, we learn a wonderful, amazing thing from this passage. In the end, Jesus will return. Just as Peter and James and John saw Jesus on the top of the mountain with his face glowing with bright, white light, and his clothes shining through the night, Jesus will return one day, and bring this troubled world to an end. Jesus says: They shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and majesty and great glory. When Stephen the martyr was being stoned to death, we read that he looked into heaven and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He will come again, and rescue you, and save you, who in all your weakness and all your sin have clung to him and his word, the word that speaks to you a promise from heaven itself: Your sins are forgiven. Today you will be with me in Paradise. And he will repay you for every loss that you have suffered, every hardship you have endured, and every cross that you have had to carry. This is the wonderful thing that we have to look forward to.

We know that in this life, we are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing, but we have a Saviour, who is everything, who has everything, and can do everything. And no matter what valley of the shadow of death we walk through, no matter what cross we have to carry, Jesus will never let us down. He is our faithful Saviour: and just as he prophesied, he has suffered, he has been rejected by the elders, the priests and the scribes, he has been killed, and on the third day he rose again.

Amen.

Heavenly Father, sanctify us in the truth; your word is truth. Lead us by your Holy Spirit wherever you will, since we know that your Son Jesus is with us. In his name we pray. Amen.

Advent IV B [Luke 1:26-38] (24-Dec-2017)

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

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

Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

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.

In our reading today, we read about the events which are spoken about in the Apostle’s Creed, where it says: He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The reading today begins by talking about an angel, and not just any particular angel, but the angel Gabriel. In the bible, there are only two angels who are named: Gabriel and Michael. And strangely enough, both of these angels are mentioned in the book of Daniel. Michael’s name means “one who is like God” and is called the great prince who has charge of your people. Gabriel’s name means “strength of God”, and brings to Daniel an answer to his prayer in the temple. Gabriel also was the angel who brought a message to Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, when he was in the temple, while he was performing his duties as a priest. Here in our reading, Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary.

In our reading today, we read that the angel Gabriel goes to a virgin betrothed to a man. On one hand, the text calls Mary a virgin. And on the other hand, she is betrothed to a man. “Betrothed” is basically what we would call “engaged”. It’s important first of all that when a man and a woman want to live together and share a home and raise a family that they get married. And it’s important when people want to get married, that they enter into a period of engagement. This is a time for preparation, and also for testing. Sometimes an engagement doesn’t lead to a marriage, and it’s much better to call of an engagement than to get married and divorce later. This was the situation that Mary and Joseph were in: they were engaged, or betrothed, and preparing to get married—it was a time of preparation, and testing. It was not the time for sexual relations yet. In those days, particularly, one of the things for testing was to make sure that the woman wasn’t getting married as a show to cover up for the fact that she had become pregnant with someone else’s baby. It would be as if she said, “Oh no! What am I going to do? I know—I’ll marry the first man I can find.”

Now, to stop this from happening—which would have been pretty rough for the men involved—engagements usually lasted around nine months. Nine months was the length of a pregnancy, so if there was any funny business going on, it would give enough time to demonstrate whether she was an honest woman.

So this was the situation that Mary and Joseph were in. She was a virgin betrothed to a man, whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. Now all these details are extremely important. If Mary had become pregnant outside of marriage, she would have been in very serious trouble. But the fact that she is betrothed means that Joseph would be able to care for her as her future husband, but also he would be able to testify that the child was not his.

Now in the wider church today, there are many people who simply deny what we call “the virgin birth”. However, as you will see in our text today, the fact that Jesus’ mother was a virgin is a central teaching of Christianity. In the Creeds we say every Sunday that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. It is not a side issue, or something that we can laugh off as if it’s not important. The “virgin birth” is not some conspiracy of men in the church to put down real women and mothers. This teaching is not really about Mary at all—it is about who Jesus is. It is about who Jesus’ mother is, and who his Father is. The Virgin Mary is his true human mother, and God the Father is his true Father. This is what we read about in our reading today.

So the angel says to Mary: Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you! We read: But [Mary] was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. Just imagine—Mary has just seen an angel appear to her, and yet she is not troubled by what she sees, but by what he says. She is greatly troubled at the saying. You see, it is important that Mary discerns. Who is this angel? Why is he coming to me? Is he telling me a lie? Is this the devil in disguise? And so, it says that she tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. If this is a greeting from God, then all well and good. But if not, then she wouldn’t want some angel flattering her, or deceiving her, or leading her down the garden path, away from God.

So what did the angel actually say to her? He said: Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you! The word there “greetings” is a standard greeting, like “hello”, or “Good morning”. But literally, the word is Rejoice. The angel is wanting to give her encouragement, joy. He is giving her a blessing. And he calls her: O favoured one. This could also mean: a woman who has been shown grace, or a woman who has received God’s favour. These words are also where the Catholic prayer comes from: Hail, Mary, full of grace. The expression “favoured one” is translated “full of grace”. However, in John 1, it is said that Jesus is full of grace and truth. Here in this passage, it is more correct to say that Mary has been shown grace or shown favour, rather than being full of grace. It is a wonderful gift of God that He chose Mary to be the mother of his Son. It is not as if she earnt it by being full of grace. The angel also says to her: The Lord is with you! This is very similar to the greeting we say in church every Sunday before we say a prayer, where the pastor says: The Lord be with you, and the people respond: And also with you, or in older times, the response was: And with your spirit. The Lord is already with Mary, and the Lord now sends Mary an angel to tell her. The angel then reveals to Mary the presence of the Lord. In Mary’s situation, the Lord is with her in a special way—she is about to be the mother of the Son of God. Nobody has been greeted like this before, and nobody will ever be greeted like this again. And so, it’s no wonder that Mary was troubled, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

And so the angel says to Mary: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Listen to those wonderful words from the angel: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. We human beings are all sinners. We are all members of one sinful human race, and we have received and inherited sin from our parents. Just as we get all kinds of blessings from our parents, so also we have inherited the family debt. We know that even right from childhood, we don’t need to teach children to be naughty; they do it all by themselves! And God has every right to completely wipe out every single one of us with one wave of his hand. He is a righteous judge, and loves what is right, and good, and pure, and holy. And we know that we are not righteous, right, good, pure and holy in and of ourselves. And yet, because of Jesus, and his sacrifice for our sin on the cross, because of his atonement, and payment for our sin, justice was paid for us, and our debt was cancelled. And so, because of this, if we ever find ourselves standing before God, knowing our sin and fearing his presence, then we can be comforted in the fact that we have a Saviour, who has paid for our sin, and has earnt on our behalf the favour of God. It is a wonderful thing to believe that when God looks at us, he doesn’t look at our sin, but he looks at Jesus. And because of Jesus, he shows us his favour. He doesn’t blaze his anger at us, but he shines the light of his face, and forgives us every single one of our sins. And when we have this forgiveness, we have God’s favour, his good pleasure, and there is nothing of which to be afraid. This is the same wonderful gift here that was given to Mary, when the angel said: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. She found favour not because of anything that she was, and not because she was sinless, or because of anything that she had done or not done, but purely as a gracious, loving gift of God.

The angel says: And behold—in other words, listen to me, I’m going to tell you something very important—you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. Mary is going to be this child’s mother—the Son of God will take his human nature from her womb, from her flesh. She is going to be his mother. She will conceive in her womb, she will bear a son, and she will call his name Jesus. In this sense, Mary is going to have a normal child, in the normal way, and like every other mother, she will give this child a name.

But there is some things that about this conception and birth and this child that are not normal, but are special, supernatural, wonderful. The angel says: He will be great. We can talk all day about all the wonderful ways in which Jesus is great! The angel says: And [he] will be called the Son of the Most High. This is very important: this child will be Son of Mary, but he is also going to be the Son of the Most High. The “Most High” is another way of speaking about God. This child is not going to be a child of God, in the sense that all people are created by God, and are God’s children. But this child will be the only begotten Son of God. He is the Son of the Most High, in the sense that has always existed as true God together with the Father before the beginning of time. This Son of the Most High is one with the Father, and equal to his Father. The angel says: And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. This means that Jesus is going to be a king in the line of King David. He is going to rule over the house of Jacob, or the house of Israel. He will be a king, and he will rule over all of God’s people. And unlike the kings of the Old Testament, and the kings and politicians of our time, who only reign for a set number of years, Jesus will reign over the house of Jacob forever. Even today, Jesus is alive, he is seated on the throne as a king descended from David at the right hand of the Father, ruling over the whole of creation, and ruling his church, his kingdom here on earth through his powerful word, and there will never be a time when he will not be ruling. The text says that he will reign…forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. This is no ordinary boy who is to be born—this is not just Mary’s son, but the Son of the Most High. This is just as when Jesus says to Peter: Who do people say that the Son of Man is? And Peter says: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Son of Man is the Son of the living God. The Son of Mary is the Son of the Most High.

Mary asks the angel: How will this be, since I am a virgin? Literally, in the Greek, the question Mary asks is: How will this be, since I do not know a man? In the bible, “know” often refers to sexual relations, just as at the beginning of the bible where it says: Adam knew his wife and she conceived. Mary realises that there is something being promised to her that is not normal, and not the ordinary way things are done. And so the angel says: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. It says: The Holy Spirit will come upon you. These words are the basis of what we say in the Creed that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The angel says that this will take place by a special act of God, by an overshadowing of the power of God. We can also see here a wonderful picture of all three persons of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Who will come upon Mary? The Holy Spirit. Whose power will overshadow her? The power of the Most High, the power of God the Father. And who is this holy child who is to be born? The Son of God.

The angel also wants to strengthen and encourage Mary and increase her faith so that she doesn’t worry and doubt what is going to happen. The angel says: And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. Elizabeth is John the Baptist’s mother. And the angel shows to Mary that another miracle has taken place: Elizabeth is old and she was also barren, and yet she also has a child. In a similar way, the angel says: you are young, and a virgin, and you will also have a child. And Elizabeth’s baby was conceived six months ago, so that you will be able to see her round tummy with your own eyes. And the angel says: For nothing will be impossible with God. The angel says that this is a miraculous event. It will happen in a way that no human being, no inventor, no scientist, can come up with. It is purely a miracle and an act of God. This is an important word to all those who ridicule the virgin birth. If we don’t believe that there is a God who can work outside what we think are the normal laws of nature, then of course we won’t believe in a virgin birth. But there is a God, and nothing will be impossible with God. This is a wonderful word for us to encourage us in our prayers too. When we think things are impossible, we should remember that we have a God with whom nothing is impossible.

And so right at the end of our reading, we read where Mary says: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. This is a very encouraging word, and shows the wonderful power of God at work in Mary, and the great faith that he had worked in her. On one hand, she agrees with the word of the angel. God does not force her to comply, but she agrees with the whole plan. She says: I am the servant of the Lord. And also she says: Let it be to me according to your word. This word that the angel has said from a human point of view seems impossible, and yet she says: Let it be to me. The angel has spoken a word, and she has become impregnated through her hearing. In a similar way, when we hear the word of God, and read it, and think about it, it takes root in us, and grows in our hearts and begins to shape us from within. Let’s also pray that the Holy Spirit may work that humble attitude in us that we seek to submit to God’s gracious will for us in our lives in every day of our lives, every day and every minute.

Sometimes we have some bad news or something bitter in our life we need to contend with. There is an old Russian prayer that says: Whatever news I may receive during the day, teach me to accept it tranquilly, in the firm conviction that all eventualities fulfil your holy will. I know from my own experience that sometimes I don’t have the strength of faith to think like that. And yet, the alternative is always to be putting our will above God’s will. God is a very gracious Father to us, and sometimes we don’t understand why he gives our deepest sorrows to us. But he also promises to show you his loving face again. Jesus says: A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me. This life is not the only existence that God has made for us—this is a valley of the shadow of death. There is a better country to come yet, a kingdom that will have no end, as our reading says. The king is Jesus, and the future is bright with him. And so, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and not in our own strength, we can look to him and say with Mary: I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. Amen.

Lord God, our heavenly Father, we thank you for the conception of your Son, and we pray that you would lead us to trust in your word, knowing that nothing is impossible with you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.