Living the Life of Christ in a Death-Ridden World

Texts: Deuteronomy 30:11-20; Colossians 3:1-17

TWO WEEKS AGO we celebrated Easter Sunday. We affirmed with joy that Jesus Christ our crucified Savior really is alive, that He has conquered death, and that we have new life in Him. And in the glow of Easter morning, we believed it.

But lately the world, the flesh, and the devil seem to be throwing everything at us to make us stop believing it. We keep hearing about death, death, and more death. There was the massacre in Binghamton, New York. We had three policemen murdered the day before Palm Sunday right here in Pittsburgh. Across the country, there have been other infamous murders and suicides we've recently heard about. The appalling thing is that in many of these cases, the accused perpetrators were those who should have been protecting their victims, not ending their lives.

What makes it worse is when the evil has a church connection. We claim that we've been born again to new life in Christ and that life is holy and transformed and nothing like the old corrupt life we were born into on this earth. But Death and the devil sneer back at us, "Oh yeah? So why does so much evil come out of the very bosom of the church?" We claim that sort of person couldn't be a real, converted Christian, but the world laughs in our face. Seriously. Read Christopher Hitchin's book God Is Not Great. Or check out the comments left under news articles on the Internet. The world says that if a priest or minister or Sunday School teacher commits a terrible crime, it just proves that Christians are no better than anyone else. And even if Jesus was actually raised from the dead, it doesn't make any difference, because we who believe in Him aren't changed. And Death and the devil laugh at us, saying, "You poor deluded Christians. You say your Jesus conquered Death. Well, we doubt it, since there's still so much of it around!"

So how do we prove that it makes a real difference that Christ was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures? How do we stand firm against all the assaults of this world that try to make us doubt what God has done to defeat Death?

And how can we become living demonstrations of God's victory, when our culture of death is telling us what Jesus did is no use?

The answer may surprise you. According to the Apostle Paul writing in the Letter to the Colossians, we do it by using the Enemy's own weapon against him. The devil comes against us in the power of Death; we take Death in our hands and turn around and destroy him with it.

Or rather, Jesus Christ the Son of God did that for us, and we do it in Him.

Let's back up into chapter 2. In verse 13, the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul writes that we all started out dead in our sins and in the uncircumcision of our sinful natures. Circumcision was the sign and seal of Israel's covenant with God, but we were outside of that covenant, without life and without hope. But, Paul says in verse 11, in Christ we have now been circumcised. We've been brought into the covenant of His life. How? As it says in verse 12, God buried us dead people with Christ in baptism and He has now raised us with Him through faith in the power of God to bring life out of death.

Jesus worked that miracle for us on the cross. He experienced the ultimate death, the death of the beloved Son of God who'd never known a moment of sin or been separated from His heavenly Father from all eternity. Jesus Christ snatched the Enemy's weapon out of his hand and, as it says in Chapter 2, verse 15, by the cross He disarmed the powers and authorities-- that is, Death and the devil-- and made a laughingstock out of them.

Do you trust in Jesus Christ? Then His death is your death and His life is your life! Yes, senseless, vicious, vile death still runs rampant in this world. We mourn it, we deplore it; when appropriate, we seek justice against it. But it does not nullify the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. As it is written in Romans 6:9 and 10,

"For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God."

Death and this sinful world tries to convince us that because death still is at large in the world these 2,000 years since Jesus' resurrection, His resurrection went for nothing. How wrong that is! In 1 Corinthians 15 it is written that at the end of this age, when Christ will destroy all dominion, authority, and power-- all the power of the devil and his demons-- He will hand the kingdom over to God the Father. Then all his enemies will be put under His feet, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

But why does God put off His final victory so long? Why must we suffer and die from disease and old age, let alone cold-blooded murder?

God waits for the sake of His chosen, covenant people. It's God's eternal plan to bring in every last one of His elect children into the glorious life of His Son. Some of our brothers and sisters in the faith have not even been born yet. So our merciful, wise God holds back His ultimate victory until our number is complete.
Meanwhile, death is still our vicious foe, but Christ through His death has overcome it. So if you believe in Him-- if you have been buried with Jesus in His baptism and raised with Him in His resurrection-- death has no more power over you! As it says in Colossians 3, verses 3 and 4, "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears"-- at the end of the age-- "then you will also appear with him in glory."

This isn't just a figure of speech, or a way of saying you've become more spiritual or you have some kind of higher moral awareness! No. These verses truly describe where Jesus Christ is safeguarding your true self through what He did for you in His cross and resurrection.

So then, the Scripture says, "Since you have been raised with Christ"-- since this is now the truth about who you are and whose you are-- "set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God."

Should Christians be better than nonChristians? If that means pretending we're not sinners saved by pure grace or that somehow in ourselves we're morally superior, no. But if it means we should live the holy life of Christ in a death-ridden world, absolutely. Yes.

It isn't automatic and it isn't easy, but that is His call on our lives. It begins with keeping in mind Whom we belong to and where He is keeping us.

So, "Set your hearts on things above." So should we Christians should just think Beautiful Thoughts all the time and totally ignore the trouble and warfare and evil that rages through this death-ridden world?. We know better than that. Setting our hearts on things above means taking up the weapon that is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and opposing Death daily with everything Christ has in us. We don't need to command angelic armies to be effective in this combat: Every last one of us is engaged in an epic struggle against sin and death-- right in the arena of our ordinary lives.

We begin with our own bodies and hearts. The Apostle says, "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed . . . " These sins are all about satisfying our desires, lusts, and cravings in a way that leaves God and His gift of life out of the picture. The Scripture equates greed with idolatry, and that sums up this whole list. Whether we're perverting sex, or food, or property, or any other good thing, these sinful urges and impulses look to something other than God to satisfy our physical and emotional needs. We may as well say, "God, I don't believe You can be trusted to fill my needs or make me happy, so I'm turning to something else." In our reading from Deuteronomy Moses charged the children of Israel to choose life over death before they entered the Promised Land. He told them if they chose death it'd show itself in their turning to other gods, to worship and depend on them. And for their choice of death, the Lord God would bring death on them. Paul says the same: Because of sins like these, the wrath of God is coming. God must judge them and those who commit them, for they're part of the death that Jesus Christ will totally defeat.
But that is not God's plan for you. You have been raised with Christ, and His plan for you is life! So live according to that truth about yourself. The minute the idolatrous desire arises, kill it! The minute you realize you are misusing any good gift of God and making it a god instead of Him, call on the Holy Spirit to come to your aid. Raise up the sword of the Word of God and put that perversion to death.

In the same way, purge out the sins of the heart, the mind and the tongue. It's easy to think that sexual immorality is the worst of sins. But God just as much hates anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language, and lying. How many church members wouldn't even consider going to a prostitute or looking at pornography online, but they justify gossiping from one end of the day to the other? It's especially vicious when it's that sneaky, pretended-holy kind of slander that too often goes on in the church against those whom God has charged with leading the church. You know how it goes. The slanderer goes to the pastor, or the choir director, or the head of the Christian Ed. department, and says, "By the way, A Lot of People are complaining about you." And the leader says, "Who's complaining? What are they complaining about?" And the slanderer says, "I can't tell you. It was confidential! But they're really complaining!" You do that to a church leader, you may as well stick a dagger in his heart. Talk like that does not model the life of Christ; it jumps on the bandwagon with Death.

Truly, sins of the mind and mouth are symptoms of that same idolatrous, God-denying attitude. Think about the times you've given way to these sins. You likely felt threatened or fearful. You'd been dealt a real blow to your property or a relationship or to your self-esteem.

But it is not for us to flee to the idols of sin when we're in danger or afraid! No, we flee to the throne of God, where Jesus Christ is seated in glory. We appeal to His life; we don't seek our help from the minions of Death! We have taken off the clothing of our old sinful self like the filthy T-shirt you mowed the lawn in yesterday and put on the beautiful clean new garment of the new self, which is being renewed to look more and more like Jesus Christ.

This will show itself in how we treat one another in the Church. No double standards. No treating some members better or worse because of their skin color or national origin or age or sex ir whether they're rich or poor or went to college or didn't. Christ is all, He is in all of us, and in Him we treat every Christian brother or sister just as if he or she were Christ Himself.

The last few years, it's become fashionable for congregations to publicize their "casual" worship services, where people can "come as they are" and don't have to dress up to come to church. That may apply to the unconverted. But as believers in Jesus Christ and participants in His heavenly life, we are commanded to dress up to meet with Almighty God. In fact, we are to dress in our best wherever and whenever we may be. Our clothing is to be compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Our well-tailored shirt and slacks or our well-designed dress is to be patience with one another and forgiveness when another Christian has done us a hurt. And our coat and tie or our Sunday hat is love; not the self-centered, self-gratifying love of this world, but the deep, sacrificial, life-giving love we find in Jesus Christ.

This is how we live His resurrection life in a death-ridden world. We model His life as Christian individuals; but far beyond that, we demonstrate His life as His body, the Church. The peace of Christ promised here is the peace that should shine through this congregation and through all the congregations of Christ's church, for it is the peace with God that Jesus our Saviour won for us by His blood.

We started with the hard reality of death in the world, and with the world's doubt that we as Christians have any answer to that. And I wouldn't be surprised if an unbeliever should look at the words of verses 15b and 16 and say, "Huh. It says you Christians are to be thankful, and let the word of Christ dwell in you, and teach and admonish one another in it. And singing. You're supposed to sing-- in your hearts, yet. And here's this thing about ‘gratitude' again. What good will that do in a world where whole families are being killed and policemen are murdered just doing their jobs?"

By the Holy Spirit working in us, we know it will do all the good in the world. The word of Christ we are to lodge in our hearts and teach and admonish and sing is the blessed good news of the death-defying life He has won for us and all the world by His death on the cross. And the One to whom we are to be thankful, the One to whom we are to bear everlasting gratitude, is none other than the Almighty Creator God, Lord of the Universe and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who judges sin; He is the One before Whom death and the devil flee; He is the One Who has raised us up to heaven where Christ is, seated at the right hand of His power. And that power is not confined to heaven; it fills the whole world.

How do we live the life of Christ in a death-ridden world? We remember Whose and what and where we truly are. By the power of the Holy Spirit we put to death whatever in us doesn't match up with that glorious reality, and we walk in the life that is Jesus Christ Himself.

Thankfulness and gratitude keeps us remembering. Thankfulness and gratitude to God is the 180° opposite of idolatry. Death is still at large in this fallen world, and sometimes its face is overwhelmingly hideous. But more overwhelmingly beautiful and strong is the face of Jesus Christ, our crucified and risen Lord. We have been raised with Him, we are seated with Him, our true lives are safeguarded with Him, and so on this earth we live His resurrection life in the power of His name, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Our Perception, God's Reality

Texts: Psalm 46; Luke 24:13-35

THERE’S AN EXPRESSION OUT THERE in the world: "Perception Is Reality." I’m sure you’ve heard it. You may even have had it aimed at you. The idea is, it doesn’t matter if something is true or not, if people think it’s true, it may as well be true.

"Perception Is Reality": We see this idea work in the world in economics. The economy may actually be in pretty good shape, but if enough people think it’s bad, they’ll act like it’s bad. We see it in politics. A politician may be a very wise man, but if the Press catches him in a momentary error, the public can perceive him as stupid and treat him as stupid, and never listen to him again.

We see it operating in the world in our jobs. I once served a church in a tiny village in the Midwest, where the executive presbyter told me I should always drive wherever I went, even if only for a block or two, because if anyone saw my car parked at the manse, he said they’d think I wasn’t working. That would jeopardize my ministry, he said, because after all, "Perception Is Reality." And I’m sure you can supply examples of this from your own job.

We see "Perception Is Reality" at work in the world in our relationships. How many couples get married, how many get divorced, how many parents and children become estranged and alienated from one another, due to perceptions each had of the other that might or might not have been true? But when they were in the middle of the situation, it didn’t matter whether their impressions were true, because, after all, "Perception Is Reality."

I hope you noticed: we’re not talking about true perception at all. True perception has to do with really getting to the bottom of things, truly discerning what’s going on. But this kind of "perception" is all about making up our minds by what appears on the surface.

That’s the way we naturally operate in the world. Our whole human-based world system says we should trust the testimony of our senses and feelings, whether we have the facts straight about the matter or if our conclusions are based on a lie. It’s the way of this world to make lies into the truth, or rather, to make decisions about people and things and act on them as if lies were the truth.

But it’s not the way of the Lord our God. And it shouldn’t be our way as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. As followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, we should look to God’s truth, to God’s reality, regardless of what our senses and feelings tell us. For His reality is the only firm ground we have to stand on in this shifting and shaking world.

This is especially true in times of disaster, difficulty, and grief. If Perception is truly Reality, when things go wrong we’d have every right to question God and His goodness and power. "Where is God? Why doesn’t He help me? How can these things happen and a loving, all-powerful God still be in control?" But our human perception is not God’s reality; and if we act as if it is, we’ll miss the comfort and benefits that our Lord would give us in distressing times.

Psalm 46, verses 2 and 3 describe a situation where we might well be tempted to let our human perception influence our view of God. The earth caving in under us! Whole mountains sliding into the sea! Tidal waves in the ocean, undermining and toppling more mountains! Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, nothing trustworthy we can see.

When I read these verses, I can’t help but think of events in our recent history.

Like seven years ago, when the mountains of the World Trade Center towers came peeling down like monstrous gray mouldy bananas. And three years ago, when New Orleans and the whole Gulf Coast were inundated, washed away by the wind and water of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Whether we want to or not, we haven’t forgotten and we do remember. We remember loved ones lost, injuries suffered, property and livelihoods wrecked and ruined. Such disasters happen; they happen to us, they happen to people we love, and to people we come to love, when we go to help them pick up the pieces.

When things like this happen the follower of Christ does not rely on his human perceptions. No, he says with the psalmist, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." God is our help, even while we’re trapped in the burning tower. He’s our comfort even as the waters are rising and we’re trying to break a hole through our attic roof. He’s there with His hand holding ours even when we learn our teenaged son or daughter has a drug problem, even as the doctor tells us our cancer is terminal. Even at the moment of our death, right there in the midst of trouble, God’s reality is that He is our refuge and strength. Despite what seems like every reason to fear, His truth is that we need not fear at all. He is wholly trustworthy and will never fail us at all.

Some people might say, "What’s the use of that? I’m still in pain, I’m still going through agony, I’m still in distress." Is trust in God just wishful thinking? No, because the trustworthiness of God depends on His eternal character, on who and what He is. He is the Most High, the creator of heaven and earth. He made us to love and worship Him, not just in the time of our earthly lives, but all through eternity. God is He who calls us into covenant with Him and brings us to dwell with Him in His holy city. These verses 4 and 5 are partially talking about the earthly city of Jerusalem, as it was known in the days of the Sons of Korah. But they look beyond that to the eternal Jerusalem that will never be shaken and can never fall. Nations may be in an uproar, kingdoms will fall, but the Lord protects His city and His citizens day after day and forever. He is not controlled by the evil forces of this world: He is Lord over them and He can even use them as He wills to bring us safe through fire and flood and disaster to the holy place where we will dwell always with Him.

We can rely on God’s trustworthy reality despite our human perceptions because He is not a tame god. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not a nice god.

Does that shock you? But think about it. If by "nice" we mean being a pushover, God is not nice. If by "nice" we mean overlooking things that are wrong because He doesn’t want to offend anyone, God is not nice. If by "nice’ we mean He just wants everyone to be happy and satisfied, no matter what we do to each other or to Him, no, God is not nice.

The Lord God is not nice, but He is good. He is good with the purifying goodness that sees sin as a parasite on His creation and judges our sin for our own good. As it says in verse 8, He is good with the overwhelming goodness that will allow hardship and even desolation to come into our lives, if that’s what it takes to get our attention. He is good with the fear-inspiring goodness that commands our foolish warfare to cease, that makes us stop babbling about our shallow perceptions and start facing up to His awesome reality.

These verses 9 and 10 remind me of a fight going on among a group of squabbling children, and dad or the principal walks in and everything just goes quiet. Suddenly whatever it was they were fighting over is no longer important; the important thing is that they have incurred the righteous wrath of their father. His presence straightens out their perceptions. What’s odd thing is how some people misquote verse 10, and show how sinful and human their perception is still. They quote it, "Be still and know," period, the end. Do they believe we can magically gain wisdom simply by quieting ourselves, maybe by practicing some form of meditation? Be still and know what?

But the verse actually reads "Be still, and know that I [the Lord] am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

This Scripture has nothing to do with anything we can do for ourselves or perceive for ourselves; it has everything to do with God breaking in from outside of Creation and replacing our misperceptions with His rock-solid reality. Do we think God is somehow low and ordinary until we exalt Him, as if human praises were the gas burner in a hot air balloon? Oh, no, friends, God will be exalted because He is the Exalted One. Exaltation is simply the response His reality commands and deserves. In these days, it is given to us His people to truly perceive something of His praiseworthy power and glory. But there will come a day when all peoples of the earth, all nations will perceive and recognize that He is high and lifted up, and give Him the honor and praise that He deserves.

In the meantime, we who belong to Him, we who bear His name can be confident that no matter what happens, no matter what our perceptions might be, "The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress." He is called the "God of Jacob," for by that name we are reminded of the covenant He made with His chosen people Israel. We are the heirs of Jacob and Isaac and Abraham, and the promises God made to them He also makes with and keeps to us.

We inherit those promises through the new covenant sealed in the blood of His Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Whenever your perception tempts you to doubt God’s faithful reality, remember what happened on the Road to Emmaus. Cleopas and the other disciple thought their perception was reality. Once, they’d perceived that Jesus might be the Messiah, but that’d been destroyed by His crucifixion. So they replaced it with another human perception, that their hope in Jesus was over and done and they may as well give up and go home.

But our Lord comes alongside them and replaces their faulty human perceptions with God’s perfect reality: "Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?" Yes, He did. It was ordained for our Lord to die for our sins and to be raised for our life. The death of Jesus Christ calls us truly to perceive God’s view of our situation. For whatever sorrow or trouble we might experience in this world, our worst trouble is our own rebellion and warfare against God. It was always planned by God that the sacrifice of Jesus the Lamb of God would propitiate the wrath that God justifiably felt against our sin. God had willed from the beginning that the heinous murder of the incarnate Son of God, the worst disaster in human history, should result in the greatest and most lasting and most glorious blessing for the children of Man, eternal life and unity with God.

The crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord call us to recognise how God brought life out of death, strength out of weakness, and joy out of sorrow. The world’s perception could never discern that divine reality, not in a million years. We could never perceive it, if the Holy Spirit did not invade our lives and turn us from our own lying perceptions to God’s holy reality. We need to be still and know how Jesus willingly allowed Himself to be judged for our sins that we might become citizens of God’s holy city. Our perception must be divinely cleared and corrected, that we might recognize the risen Christ and enter His presence and have fellowship with Him.

The beautiful thing is, Jesus Himself makes sure this happens. He will not appear physically and walk with us along the road. But He gives us His Scriptures, that tell of Him from Genesis to Revelation. And He gives us His Holy Sacraments, where we can truly perceive Him in the living waters of Baptism and the bread and cup of Holy Communion. He is here with us, guarding us, guiding us, redeeming us. Our human perception does not create that divine reality. Rather, the Lord Himself has promised that He will be present in the witness of His Word and in the breaking of the Bread. The Holy Spirit blesses our hearing of Christ’s Word and the receiving of His Body and Blood, sanctifying our perception, that we may lay hold of the truth that is our crucified and risen Lord.

Human perception is not necessarily reality, and believing a lie does not make it the truth. But beyond all our limited perceptions lies the reality of God: Who He is, What He is, and what He has done for us in Jesus Christ. Be still, and know that the Lord is God. He will be exalted among the nations, He will be exalted in the earth. And may His holy Church say amen, and praise and glorify Him with confidence and joy, now and forever.

Who Can Accept It?

Texts: Acts 1:1-14; John 6:53-69

HOW DID YOU CELEBRATE this past Thursday, May 1st?

Oh! Do I mean May Day, when labor unions in other countries and people of a certain political persuasion like to march in parades and celebrate their power and ideology?

Noooo . . . !

Maybe I’m talking about the old-fashioned May Day, when young men and maidens dance around the Maypole and you leave baskets of flowers secretly at your neighbors’ doors?

Noooo . . . !

Well, last Thursday was the National Day of Prayer. Am I asking how you celebrated that?

Closer, but still, no.

I’d like to know how you celebrated this past Thursday, which was Ascension Day.

Or did you miss it altogether? If you did, you’re not alone. A lot of Christians, maybe most of us, especially we Protestants, tend to overlook celebrating the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s not just that Ascension Day always comes on a Thursday. It’s also that the Ascension of our Lord itself is a hard idea to grab hold of, hard to get our minds around. We’re like the disciples out there on the Mount of Olives, gaping up into heaven where our Lord has gone, totally unable to understand what has happened and what it all means.

But it’s not God’s will that we should be left wondering what the Ascension of Christ means, or what it means for us. He has given us His Word that it means more for us than we can ever know.

Here again is what the Scripture says in the Acts of the Apostles:

‘So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

‘He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.’

Some skeptics claim the Ascension was just a plot device made up by the early Christians to get Jesus "off the stage," so to speak. I’d like to boldly assert to you today that "getting Jesus off the stage" of this earth in such a manner was entirely necessary. And that it was according to God's plan for our salvation.

For the physical Ascension of Christ shows that Jesus was a real Human Being with real flesh. He wasn’t a ghost, He wasn’t a phantom, He wasn’t an idealized figment of the disciples’ imagination. Even after He rose again, Jesus was a Man you could see and touch and sit down and enjoy a meal of bread and fish with. He wasn’t going to fade away, or peter out, or dematerialize, He physically had to leave.

His ascension also assures us that Jesus remains a human being, and He remains so for us.

A few years ago I was sitting in a college dining hall eating lunch, and we got to talking about theology. A younger student asked me, "What did Jesus do with His human body when He went back to heaven?"

And by the Holy Spirit-- it had to be the Holy Spirit--it hit me like a ton of bricks: He took it with Him! Our Lord Jesus Christ was taken up to His Father the way the disciples saw it happen, because the human body He took on when He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the body that hung on the cross, the body that was raised and glorified on the third day, Jesus keeps forever! What’s more, He keeps that body for our sake, so that He can always be our Mediator with God. Right now there is a glorious Being of human flesh and blood, a deathless Man sitting on the throne of the universe!

What's more, Jesus taking His physical glorified body into heaven means that human flesh is acceptable in the sight, in the presence of almighty God! One day we, too, will be raised with bodies like the glorified body Jesus now has. And we will be able to stand in the presence of God in those resurrected physical bodies, acceptable to Him!

How Jesus took His human body with Him is something we cannot know. But God allowed the disciples to witness enough to know that it was true. God sent His angels, the two men dressed in white Luke speaks of, to confirm to them that just as Jesus went bodily into heaven, He will return bodily as well.

The Ascension of our Lord is a fitting close to His earthly ministry. But it isn’t merely that. It’s also the final sign and miracle of that ministry. It puts the seal on Who He is and His love and grace towards us all.

A man who’d merely been reanimated, like in some TV show, would have to remain on this earth. The Son of God who has been raised from the dead, He has the right and ability to return in the flesh to heaven.

In John’s gospel, we read part of a sermon Jesus preached in the synagogue in Capernaum, shortly after He’d fed the 5,000 on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The true bread of life, He tells the people, was not the loaves he’d broken for them on the hillside. It wasn’t the manna that God gave the people of Israel in the wilderness centuries before. The true bread of life is Jesus’ own flesh.

"Very truly I tell you," Jesus says to us, "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day."

St. John records that many of the disciples were offended by this. They said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" They knew Jesus wasn’t advocating cannibalism-- heaven forbid! What bothered them was His claim that His human flesh was the means, the conduit of eternal life. They rebelled at the idea that this ordinary-looking Man claimed, as He said in verse 57, to have been sent by the Father in heaven. Jesus asserted that He participated in the eternal, undying life of God, and He promised to give that eternal life to anyone who participated in His flesh.

These disciples, the ones who turned back from following Him, couldn’t believe it. They refused to believe it. The Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth? Sent directly from heaven by Almighty God? Preposterous! Him? The Giver and channel of eternal life? Unthinkable!

Jesus didn’t back down. He brought their grumbling into the open and said, "Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before!"

Jesus promises the sign of His Ascension as proof that He is who He says He is. It’s a guarantee that He can do what He says He can do, when He claims that His flesh will give us eternal life.

Who is He?

He is the eternally-begotten Son of the Father, co-creator of all that is, eternal Wisdom from on high, almighty God. Jesus came from heaven and had every right to go back there.

Jesus Christ the Son of Man returned bodily to His Father in heaven, and by doing that, He proved that all He did was done in the power of God, the power He shared with the Father before anything was made.

What has He promised He can do?

He’s promised to give us eternal life through His flesh, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We might think Jesus is speaking of Holy Communion in this sixth chapter of John. Not quite. Actually, Holy Communion and Jesus’ words here in John 6 are both speaking about the same reality: the life-giving power of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken on the cross for our sins and risen for our restoration. Jesus says that if we want eternal life, we have to feast on Him, even-- as the Greek words say-- munch on Him, chew on Him, take Him into us totally. There’s no other way to have eternal life.

But how can we feed on Christ? Well, St. Augustine was one of the great Church fathers. Centuries and centuries ago he came up with a phrase that’s hard to improve upon. He said, "Believe, and you have eaten."

"Believe, and you have eaten." Believe that Christ’s body was broken for you, to turn aside the wrath of God that you deserved. Believe that His blood was poured out like wine to refresh your soul and make you new and clean in the sight of God. Believe, and feast upon the gift of Himself that He gives.

Jesus ascended into heaven to make these great and precious gifts available to you, right now. On earth, even as a resurrected Man, Jesus could only be local. He could only be with one group of his disciples at a time. But as He tells us later on in John’s gospel, "It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go, the Counselor [that is, the Holy Spirit] will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you."

As long as Jesus remained physically on this earth, the power and presence of the Holy Spirit remained focussed in Him. But we need His Spirit in us, working in our bodies, our minds, our souls! As Jesus says in verse 63 of our text, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh [that is, mere human effort on our part] counts for nothing." Jesus had to ascend to where He was before to make the life-giving power of His crucified and glorified flesh available to all people everywhere.

This is the will of God the Father in heaven. For as Jesus says in verse 65, no one can come to [Him] unless the Father has enabled him. When the Holy Spirit brings us to feast on our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father is glorified in His Son.

Which for you and me means that God wants you to receive the food that is His Son’s crucified body. He wants you to drink your fill of the wine that is Jesus’ blood. He is eager for you to receive the eternal life that comes from the God-Man Jesus Christ, alone. God wants to lift you up to the throne of grace, where Jesus sits even now interceding for you. God wants you to participate in the community of joy and fulfilment that is the one holy, blessed, and undivided Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God gives you all these gifts and brings you into His love by Jesus Christ, His ascended Son, true God and true Man forever more.

Your ascended Lord is your food and drink, and He will never be taken away from you. Whatever happens in your life, whatever hardship or suffering you may go through; even if you should experience physical hunger, you will never lack what you truly need; you will never be famished or forsaken. Jesus says to you, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day."

The sad thing is, even today people reject Jesus, the Bread of heaven. They say, "This teaching about Jesus being the only way to eternal life, it’s too hard. It’s narrow and intolerant. Who can accept it?"

The truth is, unless the Father changes our hearts and draws us to Himself, none of us can accept it. In our own sinfulness, acting from our own corrupt flesh, we turn our backs on the Lord who would save us. But Jesus Christ Himself nourishes and revives us by the death and resurrection of His human body. He raises us to heaven by His glorious ascension. He enables us to accept His word and feed on Him in Spirit and truth.

Accept His word of life now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, working in you, giving you life. Accept it by the mercy of God the Father, who calls you to Himself. Accept it in the strength of your Lord Jesus Christ who died, rose, and ascended into heaven for you. Feed on Him with thanksgiving, for He offers you His flesh as real food and His blood as real drink.

Simon Peter said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life! We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God!"

No other Lord. No other Bread. No other Life. Christ alone is the Son of God and Son of Man who has ascended where He was before! Believe in Him and eat. Be raised up with Him and live. And give Him praise and glory, with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

__________________________
Preached for Ascension Sunday, 2008

Why It Matters What Happened

Texts: 1 Corinthians 1-8, 12-20; Luke 19:28-44

IT NEVER FAILS. It just never fails. We just CAN’T get to Easter without some so-called expert coming up with some amazing new so-called evidence that Jesus really wasn’t who the Bible says He is and that He didn’t really rise from the dead.

This year it came early. This year, we got the TV program alleging that archaeologists had actually found the dusty bones of our Savior-- and the bones of His family as well. That’s the truth, according to film makers Simcha Jacobovici and James Cameron: Jesus’ bones are going down to dust in a rock-cut tomb outside Jerusalem, along with the bones of His wife (Mary Magdalene, of course!) and His mother and His brothers and His cousins and His aunts.

Yeah, right. And I’m the Easter Bunny.

True, legitimate scholars wasted no time proving Cameron and Jacobovici wrong. It’s true there’s a tomb they found back in 1980 with common names like "Yeshua" and "Mariam" and "Yose" on them. But the evidence doesn’t fit what archaeologists know about how burials were done with various classes of people back in Jesus’ day. And it contradicts what we know about Jesus and His earthly family from the Gospels. And the Gospels are the earliest eye-witness accounts. They’re what scholars call "primary sources," and if an historian or other scholar won’t pay attention to primary sources, he’s no historian or true scholar at all.

James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici aren’t historians or scholars. They don’t even claim to be. They’re film makers. But they still wanted people around the world to believe their story about Jesus never being raised from the dead, about Jesus’ body still being in the tomb.
Does that shock you? It shouldn’t. It’s just unbelievers acting like unbelievers.

We could have a real good time this morning going over all the reasons why Cameron and Jacobovici are wrong. If you want to know about that, I can put you in touch with some resources that prove their conclusions are in error. But today, on this glorious Feast of the Resurrection, let’s look instead at why anyone would want to prove Jesus never rose from the dead, and then why it matters so much to us that He really did.

In our reading from 1 Corinthians 15, St. Paul tells us that Christ’s death and resurrection are of first importance to us and our Christian faith. If Jesus is not risen from the dead, we’re telling lies about God to say He was, and God’s wrath will be upon us. If Jesus is not risen, our faith is futile and we are still in our sins.

. . . . Oh, yes. There it is. That annoying four-letter word: "Sins." Jesus didn’t die and rise to prove He could, He died to pay the terrible price for our sins and He rose to give us changed, new, godly lives. His death was a thunderous judgement upon the selfishness, the greed, the lust, the unrighteous anger, the idolatry of every last one of us. And His resurrection life given to us is proof that we all need to change. The lives we got when our mothers birthed us aren’t good enough for God. We have to have the risen life of Jesus Christ in us, or be forever condemned.

But it’s not just obvious unbelievers like Cameron and Jacobovici. Before the Holy Spirit brings us to Christ, we all resent being told we’re sinners. We all reject the idea that we have to be given a new life, or else die. It’s of first importance to all the unbelieving world to reject the truth and power of the resurrection and try to prove the New Testament wrong. It would allow them to go on thinking they’re okay just the way they are. It allows them to hang onto their self-image as wonderful people.

But wishing won’t make it so. As St. Paul says, "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." Our sins could only be covered by the blood of God’s own innocent Son. And, "He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." Eternal life for us could only come from Him. The world may not choose to believe it, but, as the Holy Spirit says, "Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."

In St. Luke’s account of that first Resurrection morning, we read that Peter and the rest of the disciples didn’t believe the Good News the women brought. Peter went to the tomb anyway, just in case. But when he saw it was empty, he still didn’t believe. He just went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

It hits me that if that’s all the Gospels had to record, it would make sense for us to try to find the tomb of Jesus Christ-- though if Christ is not risen, nobody today would even care or know about Him any more. Why believe the women? In Jesus’ day, their testimony women would have counted for nothing in a court of law. Maybe they were just deluded! And an empty tomb and folded graveclothes are not conclusive proof that a very dead Man has been raised bodily from the grave.

But we know the story does not end there. When we read this history in St. Luke, we have that delicious sensation of knowing more than the people in that long-ago garden did. We want to say, "Peter! Peter! We can tell you what happened! Jesus really is risen! Just wait! In a few minutes you’ll meet Him face to face, yourself! In a few hours, He’ll come and greet you and all the disciples in person! Rejoice in what has happened, Peter! Christ is risen indeed!"

An empty tomb that morning can be argued against. But Jesus appeared alive among them, time after time. He appeared to Peter, then to the Twelve, then later at one time to over five hundred reliable witnesses, most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in AD 55. You can believe them and the accounts they left behind. If you don’t believe them, you may as well not believe anything that history tells us.

I know there are people cannot yet believe that Jesus has been raised. They don’t want to be cheated or fall for something that might not be true. They want reliable proof, and they’re willing to be shown it.

But if you positively will not believe the word of Scripture, very likely it matters to you that what happened that day was not the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Your self-esteem; your whole sense of self depend on it not being true.

But even more it matters to us Christians that He rose that day.

If Christ were not raised, what are we doing here? You want to do nice things for your fellow humans? Go join the Kiwanas Club! You want to embark on a campaign of personal moral improvement or strengthen your marriage? Read any book by Dr. Laura Schlesinger! The Church-- all of us gathered here today and all of us gathered in the Spirit throughout the world-- the Church isn’t about making us nice, helpful, prosperous, fulfilled people! It’s about proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ risen from the dead. It’s about bringing new birth to others and together living lives that will prepare us to live with Him forever in Eternity. If the Christ you worship is not risen, He can’t help you after you die. For as Paul says, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied beyond all men." If Jesus is not risen, give it up! Quit the church! Why knock yourself out to be helpful and good? You’ll just moulder in the grave anyway!

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Jesus’ physical resurrection gives us a free sample of what we’re going to get when we rise from the dead and get our new bodies, too. More than that, Christ’s physical resurrection is the first portion of a glorious offering He’s going to make to His God and our God, His Father and our Father. He offered those firstfruits going on two thousand years ago. The rest of the offering will be lifted up to God when we-- all we who believe in His name-- are raised up bodily at the Last Day, when we will be just like Him and God will accept us as worthy in His sight.

Our hope is not just for this world, it is also for the world to come. It matters deeply that we can trust with our minds as well as with our hearts that Jesus Christ is risen, indeed.

And if it matters to us, it matters more to Almighty God. For that is really why it matters what happened that April morning around 30 AD. The resurrection of Christ glorifies His Father in heaven. Our resurrection with Christ displays God’s love, honor, and grace. It brings Him eternal praise. It vindicates His righteousness and utterly defeats Death and the Devil, our enemy and His.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is for us. But ultimately, it’s about God. And so we give our Father glory, honor, and praise for what He has done for us in our Savior Jesus Christ. We renounce all sinful ways that contradict the new life He has given us through His Son. We pray diligently for lost souls like James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, and especially for unbelievers who may be our co-workers, our neighbors, or members of our own families, that Christ’s resurrection light will dawn upon them, and they, too, will be saved. And we look forward to the great Day when our own bodies will be transformed to be like the resurrection body of Jesus Christ; to whom with the Holy Spirit and God the Father be all power, riches, wisdom, and strength, glory, honor, and blessing. Alleluia, amen!

[Preached at the main service, the Feast of the Resurrection, A.D. 2007]

"Remember What He Told You"

Text: Luke 19:28-44

AT MY WEEKDAY JOB AT THE architecture firm, there’s a guy named Steve who’s the computer drawing expert. He’s considered to be the best CAD (that stands for "computer aided drafting) operator in the firm, and he holds classes from time to time for the rest of us.

Last fall, it was my turn, along with a couple of guys who like me only draw by hand. We had maybe three sessions, then I went back to doing my usual hand drafting the next few months.

Until late February, that is. That’s when I got pulled onto a job that was all being done on the computer. I got thrown into computer drafting headfirst, and didn’t do too badly for what I had to get done. But I kept running up against difficulties where I couldn’t make the program do what I needed it to. And I’d go round to Steve’s desk and say, "Steve, how do I get all my lines to show up when I print?" Or, "Steve, how do I make my drawing the right scale?"

And more often than not, Steve the CAD expert would say, "Don’t you remember what I told you? It’s in your notes!"

When he says that, there’s no point arguing that he’s lived with computer drafting programs every day for the past ten-fifteen years, but this is the first time I’ve had to use one. No, I didn’t remember what he told me! How was I supposed to remember? Last October it didn’t mean anything to me!

That’s how our hearts and minds work. If you enjoy a certain body of knowledge or skill, it’s constantly real to you and you keep it in mind. But if an idea confronts you that’s disconnected to your everyday reality, you won’t remember it or grasp it, no matter how many times it’s repeated to you.

That’s what it was like for the two Marys, Joanna, and the other holy women and for Peter and the other disciples that first Resurrection Sunday morning. During His ministry Jesus had kept on telling His disciples that after He was put to death, He would assuredly rise again. But that statement meant nothing to the disciples. It didn’t compute. Jesus might as well have been banging a pot, for all the sense His words had made to them.

So it’s daybreak, and the women approach the tomb. They fully expect Jesus’ dead body to be there. And when it isn’t, it makes no sense! Then two young men in dazzling white appear-- One more thing they couldn’t take in!

But as the women hide their faces in terror, the angel voices penetrate their confusion. The angels say, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, he is risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again."

St. Luke records that now, the women did remember. By the power of the Holy Spirit the truth of the resurrection broke into their reality and made itself at home. Now they remembered what Jesus had said about rising again! Now Jesus’ words about rising again were rich and full of meaning. They were exactly what those grief-stricken, downcast women could use.

Thank God, the angels at the empty tomb were not like my colleague Steve. When Steve says, "Don’t you remember how I told you?" he’s exasperated, because I’m wasting his time. But the angels say, "Remember how He told you?" and the phrase holds out comfort, compassion, and new hope.

Of course the women hurry and tell the rest of the disciples. Jesus has risen again, just like He said He would! But the good news of Christ’s resurrection is still gibberish to the others. Luke says, "They did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense."

We’d be the same in their place. Think how shocked and frightened they were. What a pall of despair must’ve oppressed them in that room! Think-- no, feel the misery those men and women had! Their Lord had been crucified. Their hope and the hope of Israel and all the world had been lacerated and hung on a Tree! If you’d felt like that, the Good News that first Resurrection Day wouldn’t have been good news, it would’ve been meaningless noise.

And I’d say Peter felt most desperate and miserable of them all. Not only was Jesus dead, but the last time Peter saw Him, he’d sworn up and down that Jesus wasn’t even somebody he knew!

Peter’s very desperation drives him to the tomb to see for himself. But he comes, he looks, and he goes away. All Peter can do is wonder to himself what has happened.

And there our reading ends.

But we know what had happened! Jesus was raised from the dead, and we give testimony to that this Easter Sunday and every Sunday of the week! The very fact that we are gathered here to worship Him is proof of the fact that the tomb of Jesus was empty and stays that way to all eternity.

But you and I, like the women, like the other disciples, like Peter, we all go through times when the resurrection of Christ seems to have no meaning for us. Times of trouble and grief, when our feelings overwhelm us and the words of preachers like me seem like empty sounds.

That’s why it’s dangerous to try to prove Christ is risen by what we feel in our hearts. Our hearts are fickle and tell us all sorts of lies. No, believe His word, for it is constant and true.

Believe His Holy Spirit, who helps you understand what the Bible says. Read it, hear it, and, remember how He said-- He would be raised again. We know Jesus lives because the Holy Spirit speaking through the Scriptures tell us so, and from start to finish the Scriptures give glory to Him.

Jesus is risen, whether we feel He is or not. Jesus is risen, despite the claims of false religion and false science. Jesus’ word is faithful and true, He is alive even now, and we never need to give in to confusion and despair again.

So rejoice on this morning and every morning! Remember always what Jesus your Lord told you: He died for you, He is risen for you, and that is the plain, meaningful, and wonderful truth.
All praise to you, Lord Christ! Alleluia, amen!

[Preached at the sunrise service, the Feast of the Resurrection, A. D. 2007]