All this truth is packed into just three verses! Incredible. God bestows salvation through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament, specifically through your Baptism into Christ. Through the washing of water and the Word, you are given escape from destruction and saved with the promise of the resurrection on the last day. And having been baptized, you are given to participate in the divine nature: the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with the Father, and the promise of resurrection through the risen Christ. And then you are sustained and strengthened in these gifts by the Lord’s Supper. “When Christ’s Body and Blood become the tissue of our members, we become Christ-bearers and […] ‘partakers of the divine nature’” (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 4.3).

“God has no time for your practitioners of self-reformation, for they are hypocrites […] Now that we have actually come, not just to the doctrines of scripture . . . but to the awful secret of God’s Majesty — that is, as was said, the question why does He work as He does — here you break down the barriers and burst in all but blaspheming! What indignation against God do you not display because you may not see the reason and design of his counsel!”

Jesus opens your blind eyes to see Him not according to your perception of Him or your selfish, self-serving judgments, but according to His heart of mercy and compassion for you. Therefore, you see Him in this way, through the eyes of faith that He gives to you, so that you may walk with Him to the cross, through death, and into new life eternal.  

Every parish member, young and old, is to be nurtured in the faith, to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to be saturated with God’s Word, to live lives according to Christ’s commands, to be equipped for Christian service, and to reach out with Christ’s Word of Law and Gospel to those unbelieving, lapsed, or weak in the faith.

The human will is placed between the two like a beast of burden. If God rides it, it wills and goes where God wills, as the psalm says: “I am become as a beast [before thee] and I am always with thee” [Ps. 73:22 f.]. If Satan rides it, it wills and goes where Satan wills; nor can it choose to run to either of the two riders or to seek him out, but the riders themselves contend for the possession and control of it. (AE33:64–66)

God is bending heaven and earth by His Word for your good. He’s taking from you the cares, riches, and pleasures that have choked His Word. He’s tearing down, uprooting, and tilling your hearts to receive His Word, Jesus. God is putting the old world to death, along with Satan and his servants, so that a new creation may emerge and thrive forever with Jesus Christ.

There are many ways to resist Jesus as we sin against one another, causing these “sad divisions.” We gossip about each other instead of holding our tongues. We act with arrogance rather than serving with meekness. We are quick to speak but slow to listen, failing to understand one another. We avoid opportunities to serve others helpfully. We judge and refuse to forgive instead of bearing each other’s burdens. We neglect to listen to Jesus or speak His Word to our children and friends. We take advantage of the authority God has granted us in our homes, churches, and communities, abusing our neighbors rather than loving them. We live as if God did not matter and as if we matter most.

Jesus doesn’t run away from our sins or from the sins of anyone. He meets us in sin with His Word that takes hold of us, invades every pore of our being, and reawakens trust in him. We don’t have to feel guilty about sin. We don’t even have to overcome sin. It’s more than we could ever do anyway. Instead, we admit that, yes, we are sinners, and we need God’s amazing grace to cancel our debts. And Jesus pouring out his blood on the cross proves that He does just that. 

On the surface of it, the problem can be stated quite simply and logically. If God rules all things by absolute necessity, what ability or freedom does the creature possess to do anything at all on its own either to gain rewards or make to just retribution for misdeeds?

The only solution to this kind of necessity is the proclamation. That is, if God rules all things by absolute necessity, then our only recourse is to attend to what he does do. The solution to the problem of the absolute is absolution! There, the immutable God does “what is necessary”! God is “determined” to have us back! But we can see that only in Christ Jesus.  Apart from Jesus, we are on our own.

In the Bible, there are two aspects of God's glory: a light side and a dark side. These are the two aspects of God’s glory. There is a lightness to God, a tender touch, and a weighty, dense side to God, which is a heavier hand. These two aspects of course come from looking at how glory — the kabod of God — appears in the Old Testament, especially how it is sometimes presented as light, while it is other times (and maybe even most of the time) presented as a dark cloud, a heaviness, a shadow that covers.

When we come to Sinai and the giving of the Law, there’s blood shed everywhere. Anything that makes unclean before God has its appointed sacrifice for blood atonement. But the doing of the thing isn’t what atones, but rather faith in the word of promise attached to blood. They were a “shadow of the good things to come” (Heb 10:1), namely Jesus. For God’s people, everything and everyone needs to be atoned for, covered with blood. And no one is without sin but One alone. Jesus needs no atonement but sheds His blood to atone for my sins, your sins, and the sins of the whole world. He covers everything in His blood, forgiving all.

Permit us to be assertors, to be devoted to assertions and delight in them, while you stick to your Skeptics and Academics till Christ calls you too. The Holy Spirit is no Skeptic, and it is not doubts or mere opinions that he has written on our hearts, but assertions more sure and certain than life itself and all experience. (LW33:24)

Jesus told His disciples as He commissioned them to be His apostles, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” St. Stephen sees Jesus “sitting at the right hand of God.” St. Paul to Timothy and St. John confesses in his Apocalypse that Jesus is Kings of kings and Lord of lords. Every authority, from the angels in heaven to the demons below, from rulers on top and peasants at the bottom, is under Christ’s authority. As the Apostle confesses, “At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

Today, then, you are given to each other by Jesus: husband and wife, parent and child. That's enough. Christ honored and supported marriage at Cana. Christ will care for your tomorrows. Today, Christ lives at the center of your life. He focuses your heart and mind on the law of love. He creates godly order out of social and cultural chaos for you. He gives you clarity amid confusion. He provides your marriage and family life in a world that eagerly hopes for their demise.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.

You might even be surprised that God’s Word can do what no other instruction can. He makes you like children again. Jesus softens the ossification of behavior and breaks the bad habits down one by one. Jesus reverses the normal course of aging, opening your hearts to a new life and innocence. He makes you curious and imaginative, delighting in things you’ve heard a thousand times before, giving you insight into yourselves, your neighbor, and the world that you’ve never seen before. In Jesus, you have child-like faith, hope, and love again.

Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

We have heard the Word of promise and know and see the signs. They may not be what the world expects, but they are precisely what it needs. Look around and see! We are like the Magi in heeding our Lord’s call and remaining where our Lord is to be found. We feast upon His saving Word. We receive his body and blood in the most humble means: bread and wine. We receive the forgiveness of sins, the crown of life, and the exceedingly rich joys of eternity.