Immanuel LCMS

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for our sermon this morning comes from the epistle, and also the Gospel reading that was just read, and in particular these verses; in the epistle reading, we hear from Hebrews chapter five, verse eight, “although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” And also in the Gospel reading, “When James and John, the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus, they said, ‘teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.'” And then also keeping in mind the disciples response to this verse 41, “When the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.”

A little brotherly scuffle, James and John and the other ten. Family matters. Life in the family. Now, don’t tell my brother or my sister, or my mom, I guess, for that matter–but moms kind of know everything. Don’t tell my brother and sister, but I wasn’t always honest with them when we were growing up. I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. I would try to trick my siblings. When my parents would offer us three things–here you three, we have three toys, we have three pieces of candy, whatever it might have been. I would always, of course, evaluate the three things of choice, and I would figure out which thing I didn’t want. And then what would I do? Well, I would tell my brother, “that’s the best thing.” I think it’s called reverse psychology. “You don’t want that candy bar, dear brother. Doesn’t that black licorice looks so much tastier? Don’t you know black licorice makes you stronger and faster. I’ll take the butter finger. You can have the licorice.” No offense if you like black licorice. But the devil so often tries to do the same thing. And we see it kind of taking place in our readings today. The devil tempts our sinful flesh to desire the kingdom of this world by enticing us with that which is actually bad for us. By telling us that the kingdom of God, it’s really not that great. That serving others is bad because you can’t have what you want. That our pride is king. For you notice how Jesus ended our Gospel reading. He says, if you want to be great, you must be a slave to all.

Today, Jesus corrects us and the disciples. Jesus is the good brother. He tries to teach us that even though the devil appeals to our sinful flesh and promising us greatness when we give into the temptation to love and serve ourselves, Jesus guides us to see himself as taking all of our bad. Jesus takes all of our sin and he gives us blessedness. So, we should learn to pray for greatness in the kingdom of God. And we should learn to be indignant at our own sin. Right before our reading today. I mean, it’s a strange question. It almost feels like it comes out of left field. James and John say, “Jesus, we want to sit at your rights and your left hand and your kingdom.” Well, before our reading today, earlier in the Gospel, Jesus told his disciples that when he sits on his glorious throne in the new world, he said, “you disciples, you will also sit with me on thrones, and you will judge Israel.” So now that we hear a little bit of background as to why James and John would ask this question, it makes a little bit more sense. This question isn’t just from out in left field, Jesus had already told them this would happen.

So, James and John, they’re asking a question from faith. They actually believe what Jesus had just told them; that they will be ruling on thrones and in glory. So, it’s not such a strange question. But perhaps this is why Jesus doesn’t rebuke James and John when they ask this question, but Jesus is patient with them. He’s willing to teach them. He doesn’t just respond, “you fools. Why would you care about such things? Why are you worried about thrones and glory?” Like the other disciples–how does Mark put it? That they were indignant. Perhaps probably snickering a little bit at their brothers. Jesus, though, is not indignant toward the Sons

Grace, mercy and peace you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sometimes in life, it can actually look like God has become our enemy. Maybe that sounds a little shocking to hear a pastor say that, right? But sometimes I think it’s actually true. Our Old Testament lesson for today certainly reminds us of this fact. The Israelites, as they’re wandering out on their journey through the wilderness, began to grumble against the Lord and against Moses, because things don’t really seem to be working out like they sort of wanted them to. They have the manna and quail–that’s about all. Okay. Sometimes there’s not water that’s plentiful. And we, some of us perhaps, know what that’s like recently with the winter storms.

But, their hearts turn cold. And honestly, it must have been rather difficult for them out in the wilderness that whole time. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I would want to wander in the wilderness for a week, let alone 40 years. And it’s at this point when the people really begin to see God as their enemy, as the one who has brought these hardships upon them. And they get kind of angry at him for it. Now, we might not want to admit it, but I suspect many of us would probably be given to the same kind of frustrations, or at least the temptation to blame God when things don’t wind up going very well at all. Sure, that might not happen all the time. But when things look bleak, it’s hard not to ask the Lord, ‘why is this happening? What did we do to deserve this?’ Have you ever felt that way before? Maybe when a loved one dies suddenly? Or there’s some unforeseen tragedy that strikes in your life? What about if you’ve unexpectedly lost a job? Maybe you have to end up selling your home, moving somewhere else to find work? Maybe you know somebody who’s come down with a serious illness, like cancer. And at such times, we can be left wondering, ‘why, Lord, why is this happening to me?’ If it goes on long enough, we might just find ourselves accusing God of the suffering at hand. That’s what the Israelites do. But it doesn’t have the effect that they think it will. The Lord heard their cries, but instead of giving them exactly what they wanted, he answered them in a different way.

He sent fiery serpents among them. Now the Israelites situation probably seemed worse than it was before. As if their discontentment with the manna and quail were not enough, now they must contend with venomous snakes. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like snakes. And those people, they’re bitten by them. And many of them, the Word of God says, died in the wilderness. Their situation’s gone from difficult to deadly. And perhaps that old sinful Adam would once again like to blame God for their suffering. Why does he not help them? Why doesn’t he stop the death of his people in the wilderness? Well, the Lord does not see things like we do. He does not act in ways that always conform to our expectations, because his ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts. His goal is not to make the lives of his people easy and comfortable. That is a kind of earthly thinking. The Lord knows that if we got all the desires of our heart all the time, it would only lead to an evil action, because the hearts of sinners are set on evil all the time. It wouldn’t be any different for us. Do we really think that if we had everything we wanted right now and all the time, right, as soon as our hearts desired it, that that would really be better for us?

I don’t think it’s likely that would be the case at all. And it certainly wasn’t for the Israelites in the wilderness. It’s not until they start to die in the wilderness that the people of God recognize that they’ve actually sinned. Their hearts were not content with what God had given them. They always wanted more and then grumbled when they didn’t get it. When the Lord had taken away the good that he had given them and replaced it with venomous snakes–

The text for our sermon this morning is the Gospel reading just read, and also the Epistle–keeping these words in mind–from the Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:21, “For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greek seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ’s the power of God and the wisdom of God.” And also in the Gospel, verse 15, “and making a whip of cords, Jesus drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep, and oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers and over chain overturned their tables.” God’s grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Last week, Jesus rebuked Peter, because Peter stood in front of Jesus when Jesus preached the gospel, when Jesus preached the truth. He said, The Son of Man was going to be handed over beaten and crucified. Jesus was to be treated as the worst villain in the history of all mankind. And Peter said, “No way, Lord.” Jesus is going to give His life for His enemies to be spared. Peter said, “No.” Today we hear of a Jesus who sounds a little more like a villain. Last week, we contemplated on who the true villain is and how we as the enemies of God, are turned into his friends by the death of Christ given to us through faith. Today, Jesus sounds a bit more villainous. In fact, Jesus sounds like a big meanie! Mean guy! He isn’t that nice, fun loving hippie who wears sandals and socks, that so many people picture in our day. Today, when He comes to the temple, Jesus flips over tables. And He makes a whip. And mind you, He doesn’t just use the whip on the animals. He uses it on the people. This is not a Jesus most people think of when they consider, “who do I think Jesus is?” Usually, when we picture Jesus, it’s more along the lines of a friend who’s there when you need him, and he kind of never disagrees with all your great ideas. He’s always just there telling you, “Yeah. As long as you do a good job, it’s okay.” But not today. Today, Jesus, He seems rather different.

Well, not really different. Jesus is loving. He’s just showing it in a strange way today. He’s showing it in a way we would probably rather not think about. Today, flipping over tables, making a whip, take these things away, He said. Do not make my father’s house, a house of trade. That same voice that thundered on Sinai from our Exodus reading today, the voice that the psalmist says strips the forest bare. Today, Jesus doesn’t really fit with what we may think of when someone asks us, “who do you think Jesus is?” It’s not exactly good news for us that Jesus takes sin seriously.

What about the neighbors? What about all the people walking by the temple that day? What if they see Him yelling and raising His voice? What if they hear the crack of the whip? What are all the people and witnesses going to think of our Jesus? Maybe He’s like a certain politician and we need to hide Him away. We don’t want Him to embarrass Himself. But when the truth is at stake, Jesus doesn’t really care about what others think. When it’s our lives at stake, Jesus doesn’t care–He will do whatever it takes to cleanse.

It’s worthy to note that Jesus is in the temple and what time of year it is. It is the Passover, and Jesus is wanting to correct false teaching. Jesus is wanting to teach the people who are gathered in the temple. The people outside the temple, well, they don’t really care. And Jesus isn’t too worried about His public image. Jesus isn’t too worried about His reputation. Jesus is worried about the truth. Those outside the temple–I don’t want to say they’re not really His concern, but their opinion doesn’t really matter to Him. They are lost. They’re the blind. Jesus is among the religious people. And what does He find them doing

The text for our sermon this morning comes from the Gospel reading, particularly verse thirty-four, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” And also from the epistle, St. Paul writes in Romans five, verse six, “for while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us, and that we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God’s grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This morning, the second Sunday in Lent, we consider our enemy. Yes, of course, the devil himself. St. Paul also calls death, the last enemy to be defeated. Today, we move our eyes from just the enemies out there, and we confess that we are our own worst enemy. But we also hear and remember that Christ has died for us, to make us no longer his enemies but friends, brothers and sisters, children of God.

One criteria that makes for a good movie is that it has a really good, bad guy. A really good enemy. A good bad guy makes for a good movie. The worse the bad guy is, the better the hero is for stopping him. You remember classic villains; Darth Vader, Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, Lex Luthor, whoever it is that’s in charge of the Texas energy grid. Take your pick. There’s no shortage of good enemies. Today, our readings teach us who it is that is the enemy of God, and what he does about it. First, our Gospel reading. Here we have someone who he might not really consider to be an enemy–Peter. At first, Peter is seen as a hero. Jesus asks the disciples, “who do you all say I am?” Peter steps up and speaks on behalf of all the apostles. He’s not afraid to stand up. Peter says, “you are the Christ.” This is true, of course, even the devil confesses Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed One. It’s an accurate answer. But Jesus takes it even a step further. Jesus begins to teach us and His disciples what it means to be the Christ. He begins to answer the question that I drill into the confirmand’s head and–hopefully you had drilled into your head as well–we ask, “what does this mean?” The disciples knew who Jesus was. But what does this mean?

Jesus begins to teach them he says, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again.” There he is. There’s the enemy. The chief priests, the scribes, the elders, they must be the enemy. Peter speaks up again. Matthew has a few more details in this conversation. And Matthew tells us that after this Peter stands up and objects he says, “No, Lord, this shall not happen to you. The enemy will not get the upper hands.” Peter rebukes Jesus. The enemy cannot win. “Jesus. You are the hero, not the villain! You are the Christ, the chosen one! We saw it at the Transfiguration. We just heard a couple weeks ago. We know we saw it, you’re baptized by John. Not possible. Jesus. You don’t know what you are saying. Death and loss is for the villain. Not for you. You’re supposed to be the good guy.” In Peters opinion, Jesus makes for a pretty poor villain.

And no one would cast Jesus for such a role. Yet this is what Jesus has come to do before his father in heaven. Jesus becomes our sin. Jesus, the one who is no villain, in fact, he’s perfect. He tells us in the whole world what it is that he’s come to do. Jesus has come to be the worst villain before God, to have our sins placed upon him, even though he committed no sins of his own, to take all the sins of the world on himself, to claim them as his own. And then to die. Jesus then, it seems, changes the direction of the conversation. Yes, he does mention the villain, he turns to Peter rebukes him and says, “